technizzel

Let’s not deny the obvious- that the iPhone is a conglomeration of the supreme features of all phones that have come to pass in the up and coming telecommunications age. It’s the best of all the phones out there. We’ll ignore how they chose one of the slowest networks as their internet provider, but other than that, what is there not to love?

As iPhone is Apple’s newest and biggest venture, we have to assume that the notorious iPod is a natural feature. Already we start with a feature that exceeds the practicality of SMS and completely destroys the cute alphabetized contact list attached to every phone released to the world public. You can only activate this very phone through iTunes as well as equip the phone with the same play lists on your Ipod. Using a program that incorporates the same features as iTunes, Cover Flow can help you store songs in the 4 GB or 8 GB memory. As iPods and iTunes, alike, have swept the nation, their hottest member has just joined the team.

A few of the simple features include the primitive call, text, voicemail, and pictures. A person may wonder why they are a paying a star price of 500 dollars for a phone that does what any other phone can do, but the iPhone has revolutionized each feature with a bit of style. For calling anyone, for example, all you need to do is press the number that shows on the screen. If the person is in your contacts, on a website, or on a map with local restaurants, there is no need to physically press the seven digits- just once will do! In the teenage land of texting, where idk, lol, and btw say more than what may appear as random letters strung together, the iPhone aids this language with the famous QWERTY keyboard. You can text with a full keyboard of letters at your fingertips, assisted by a program that spell checks your texts as well. The best part, is the voicemail: you don’t have to listen to all of them again and again and again; you just choose the ones you want to hear, save, or delete. And for the finale, Apple will not suffice with a simple showing of pictures- No, they allow you to drag your fingers along the pictures, mimicking movements to enlarge them or shrink them. With its 2.0 megapixel camera, taking and viewing pictures have never been more fun. Simple just came with a new sense of style!

One of the few aspects that has drawn people out of their beds at 2 AM was the Internet accessibility. Just as your laptop can acquire a Wi-Fi signal, this phone will deliver you Google, the New York Times, YouTube, and more through your own wireless network. Equipped with Safari and an HTML email client, it can synchronize bookmarked pages with that of your own computer as well as instantly connect to search engine to fit your desire. Instant magnifying is always at the touch of a fingertip, making any reading piece far from a hassle. Naturally, of course, like any lost road-runner, the use of satellite road navigation systems accessed via the phone’s internet, is more like a God’s gift of solace and why anyone would want Internet in the first place. The last bit rests in widgets- a term referencing the many small applications that keep a person on his or her own toes, including stock market updates and weather reports.

Now that we know this phone a little better, it’s time we understand some of the secrets behind the glassy screen. With a 3.5 inch display and weighing about 4.8 ounces, the phone is quite optimal to hold for a long conversation or surf the internet. Actually according to Apple, “iPhone will feature up to 8 hours of talk time, 6 hours of Internet use, 7 hours of video playback or 24 hours of audio playback…and 250 hours of standby time”. The extra time provided by this smart phone, as most others in its league offer on average 6 hours of talk time, is credited by the technologies of its operating system, OS X, and the sensors.

There are four major programs that were implemented into the phone to encourage the success that it is now experiencing. The first of which includes Multi-touch, an interface that specializes in allowing a person to touch the screen to access different parts of the phone. Working with three layers in the glass field, the TFT LCD display, the capacitive touch layer, and the protective shield all comprise to create this Multi-touch surface that dominates that phone’s unique appeal. Complementing the Multi-touch feature, is its operating system, OS X- “the world’s most advanced operating system”. It allows for a person to view rich HTML email, internet, and Safari, which includes calendar, text messaging, Address Book, weather, and more. Focusing on using Web 2.0 applications in the OS X operating system, Apple comments, “Web 2.0-based applications are being embraced by leading developers because they are far more interactive and responsive than traditional web applications, and can be easily distributed over the Internet and painlessly updated by simply changing the code on the developers’ own servers.” Another essential facet to the iPhone, is of course, the wireless component. Governed by quadband GSM, a global standard or wireless for all phones, the iPhone is also supported by AT&T’s EDGE network, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR. And granted, that in this day and age when speed is what matters most, the iPhone is capable of switching between EDGE and Wi-Fi to provide the customer with optimal speeds at all time. Lastly, are the built-in sensors, arranged in three types, and which further ensure the prolonged nature of this product. The accelerometer, for example, allows for you to rotate the device but yet still keep the object in focus and upright at all times. The proximity sensor detects how close it is to certain objects, as if to know its too near or too far from a proper viewing distance, and turns off the display to save power. And for the cherry on top, the ambient light sensor adjusts the amount of light needed to see the screen in order to save power and provide for the quintessential viewing experience.

With over 200 patents attributed to the creation of this phone, the iPhone is a story waiting for a heroic ending. We have not yet reached a climax, but the beginning has been, as always, a bit shaky for the newcomer. As small flaws, such as not being able to send texts to multiple people at once, exist, there are a plethora of features that any phone company would love to adapt to their machines. The technologies engineered to render a phone easy to use and fun to have are what attract the average customer to this piece of eye-candy. We have only to wait and see what is in store for this pioneering phone- a benchmark for the phones to come!

Video Links:

http://www.apple.com/iPhone/usingiPhone/guidedtour_medium.html

http://www.apple.com/iPhone/ads/ad1/

http://www.apple.com/iPhone/usingiPhone/keyboard_large.html

I know we have all been in that situation, either in a bus, train, or classroom, when that one miscellaneous cell phone starts to buzz. Quickly a sea of heads looks right, left, behind, and in front if not having sought down into their own bags or pockets, trying to find this vibrating mobile. Now that everyone in the civilized world has acquired this device, unless your ring tone resembles Buy U A Drank or Summer Love, it might be a little embarrassing to put one of those pre-recorded tunes that Verizon downloaded into your phone. Sometimes you just have to vibrate like everyone else in the room. So what makes a phone vibrate that perfect pitch?

The process is very simple, as Howstuffworks.com performed an autopsy on a Tickle-Me-Elmo to discover this exact answer. The doll’s shaking is comparable to a phone’s vibration, which can be explained through the interaction between a quaint flywheel motor and a weight. The weight, approximately that of five nickels, is attached off-center on a gear. As soon as the motor instigates the gear-weight system to turn at speeds of 100 to 150 RPM, a vibration action is immediately caused. This system would be replicated in a smaller version to fit inside your cell phone, but the principles and setup remains virtually the same.

In the end, you always are forced to silence or vibrate your phone when you enter a movie theater or a lecture. And despite your impassioned desire to listen to T-Paine and JT, social etiquette demands otherwise. At least now, you know what happens as you search for your vibrating phone, gears, weight and all!

It’s a wild craze, the Wii console, in which friends group together in front of the television batting balls, climbing walls, or racing cars. Perhaps, one of the most popular games for Wii is tennis. People have become completely engrossed in this virtual sport, striking aces like Roddick and angling shots like Federer. I was watching two of my friends play each other in the game, and in doing so, one of them hit the other when going for a forehand. Besides trying to stop myself from laughing, I realized how involved everyone gets into this game, just as they had done during the Nintendo 64 or the PS2/PS3 phases.

Waving the remote around is fun, yet being engineers we have to wonder what happens behind the scenes. The main parts to this system include a console, a sensor bar, a remote, a nunchuk, a sports disc, a console stand, an AC adaptor, and an AV cable. Additional parts, such as extra controllers, remotes, or Nunchuks, are sold separately, but are probably necessary if you wish to play with friends.

The console is a sleek white design that is about the size of three DVD cases stacked together. It’s compatible with any of the games offered to the Gamecube and can connect to the Internet on a wireless provider or through a LAN adaptor. Like most game console devices, the Wii allows for four controllers to be attached. The PowerPC CPU is the soul to this fun-filled masterpiece of design, made with a 90nm SOI CMOS and jointly produced with IBM.

Assisting the console, is the famous controller, a shape uncommon to the avid video-gamer but still possessing many of the same features. The remote is your tennis racket, your weapon, or your steering wheel because unlike past remotes, this one is equipped with motion- sensing technology. It also serves as a speaker and a rumble feature as well as outfitted with ports for expansion devices such as the Nunchuk. Within the Nunchuk is an analog stick that allows for gamers to control character movement while still handling the remote with the other hand to hit a ball or dodge an enemy.

All such motion-sensing processes are carried through the sensor bar that operates via Bluetooth technology. It can register actions from up to thirty feet away and as for specific pointing actions, it will acknowledge them from up to fifteen feet away. These revolutionary parts enlist gamers to reach their potential as the best pilots, athletes, or adventure-seeking-soldiers in a manner quite different from the past sit-down games.

Now inside the innovative CPU are newly reformed semi-conductors that are manufactured into a smaller chip and enforces less power consumption. The new ideal of this game console is thus, “high performance with lower power consumption”- the way it should be! This allows for the console to be on for 24 hours a day, and simultaneously can be connected to the Internet for just as long. Another attribute was the improved ICs (integrated circuits) of this system. Normally, creating such an involved device would produce more heat than a regular console. To compensate for the difference, the design of these ICs is key to allowing such a product make its way into many households across the country. The sensor technology inside the controller is what makes this console one of the most desired, as it is built with a sensor system that detects 200 signal changes per second.

The makers of this pioneering technology concur on the idea that this will welcome a new era of gaming in the industry. The motion-sensing and unique designs of the console and controller allow for everyone to get completely involved, almost losing sense of the real world. Without the ingenious ideas from these inventors, we would still be moving characters with our fingers instead of our minds and bodies. The Wii system is encouraging modifications in standard technologies and focusing this generation toward a finer art of playing video games.

Read More: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/nintendo-revolution.htm

Video Link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=p5cPVP_llfo

According to the 2006 Nielson study, cited in USA Today, an average American family watches about 8 hours and 14 minutes of television a day. Clearly, since the days of turning knobs for volume and channels have vanished, the hours spent in front of this tube have only increased. It’s almost sad to say that the days of referring to the television set as a tube are also numbered because let’s face it- a flat screen is just beautiful.

Yes, beautiful, because now unlike the regular CRTs (Cathode Ray Tube) that we have grown up with, we have our HDTVs- sleek, shiny models that mock the bulky sets of black boxes sitting on tables about to fall due to accruing layers of dust. It’s not as if we can even walk into Circuit City, and say, “Yes, I would like that 30 inch TV over there.” There are Direct View TVs, projection sets, LCDs, and Plasmas…but if they’re all TVs, what’s better? What’s the best? What’s the difference?

The two most popular types of televisions in the up and coming market are LCDs (Liquid Crystal Display) and Plasma. To the naked eye, each shares physical similarities; however, what lies beneath the surface is what characterizes these two displays. The plasma monitor, for example, functions by the help of tiny gas plasma cells that are charged by exact electrical voltages to create a picture. While also being able to show blacks better, providing better contrasts when demonstrating other colors, the plasma screen offers a higher resolution than either the CRT or the LCD monitor. At the moment, plasma also offers wider viewing angles than either TV. Its characterizing mark, though, is how it can be molded into a lightweight mode of style, perhaps only three inches wide able to hang on your wall like a picture frame- it’s too bad that they’re just a smidgen beyond a college student’s budget!

LCDs, on the other hand, offer a compromise that is seemingly ideal. Unlike plasmas, the LCD operates with the use of a liquid crystal solution that wavers between a solid and liquid state and rests between two polarizing transparent panels. Innately are lightweight by design, which makes them perfect for laptop and desktop monitors or any screen less than forty inches. The most enticing aspect of the LCD screen is that the burn-in settles in at a much slower rate than the plasma, allowing for a longer lifespan.

Sadly, each screen has a few drawbacks that prove difficult when having to make the choice for yourself. With the LCDs, for example, they have lesser quality in black levels which mean that colors are not as vibrant. The viewing angle is narrower as well, and instead of looking uniform throughout the screen, certain areas appear lighter or darker which take away from the overall viewing appeal.

Not to take away from the pleasure of watching an LCD screen because they do offer quality that rivals any plasma monitor; it’s just that the plasma screen has very few faults. Such perfection, though, comes at a steep price- the prime fault. Plasma screens also provide a lesser native resolution- the resolution at which a TV or monitor is designed to display images. And the worst facet is its susceptibility to a quick burn-in, which attributes to its shorter life-span.

However, to the viewer sitting in front of the television set for eight hours a day, I doubt he or she would notice the narrow viewing angles of the LCD or the lesser native resolution of the plasma. Each screen offers a myriad of positives, but naturally is coupled with negatives that force the consumer to be wary of choice. If you are interested for a long-lasting TV but willing to sacrifice quality, shoot for the LCD, but if you want to show off a sleek design, go with a plasma. Just don’t forget what it was like watching saved by the bell on ye old cathode ray tube!

Video Link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=3DAr8Udu-vU

All throughout the country, gas prices are still climbing to numbers that seem to unhinge wallets, yet jaws even wider. Car advertisements now highlight gas mileage efficiency rather than the quality of steering and handling. Thus, the era of the Hybrid has begun, and with it, revolutions in saving power and energy have become the forefront innovations in recent cars. As hybrids rely primarily on the battery, recharging this mechanism to exhume the maximum power is vital to prolonging the existence of this car. One such way is via the braking system.

Everyone is quite familiar with the concept of friction, a force that resists the direction of motion and reduces the force causing that motion. Now the braking system of most hybrids transfers the torque from the wheels into the motor shaft through chains and gears. The electric motor inside, maintains the ability to convert electric energy into mechanical (normal) as well as mechanical energy, such as heat, a byproduct of friction, back into electric (regenerative). Located on the shaft of the motor, also known as a rotor, are magnets that move past electric coils on the stator, the stationary part of a motor. This creates electricity which is delivered to the battery in the form of electrical energy. In laymen’s terms, this process is defined as turning the electric motor backwards to convert the mechanical energy into electric energy. The regenerative nature of the braking system and the conversion of mechanical energy into electrical energy are very efficient processes and contribute to saving the car’s power.

And although the process rests on the good principle of recycling, Bradley Berman, editor of hybridcars.com, says, “Actually, the batteries are charged most of the time by the electric motor, powered by the gas engine and functioning as a generator. Only about 30% of the braking energy is regenerated. The rest is wasted as heat. Regenerating the braking energy accounts for perhaps 10% of the total used to recharge the batteries, unless one is driving downhill and braking most the time.”

In a full hybrid car, two forces work together to recharge the battery in addition to the regenerative braking system. The mighty combination of an electric motor and an internal-combustion engine power the vehicle, in which the engine keeps the battery charged. If Mr. Berman is correct, as much of the world’s driving population will not be driving downhill or braking often, then these two parts provide for a better electrical source than the transfer of kinetic energy.

Currently, the cost of replacing such a battery is an amount not yet fathomed, as most are still under warranty. Yet as the hybrid becomes a popular car of the decade, sporting styles and comforts to meet the rigid requirements of teens and save-the-world patriots alike, the fuel-efficient car is sparking ingenuity in the automotive industry today. Perhaps as years persist and the hybrids go from luxury to necessity, the technologies for recharging this battery will extend not only from the brakes but any system involving a mechanical-electrical operation.

Video link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Kogz4wedwtk

Whether you’re at a party, a wedding, a birthday, or just chilling with some friends on a Friday afternoon, a camera has always found itself at the scene as well. With our digital cameras, we forgo the limitations of the 24 film rolls and click away to albums with fifty or more photos. The onset of Facebook^® has only furthered this interest of capturing every moment at every event, as every picture is now shared with all your friends with teasing captions to highlight the emotions.

Now and then, though, there comes that arduous task of showing Grandma what you have been up to in those past months, and oddly enough she is not your Facebook^® friend and cannot see those embarrassing images of you at 2 AM in Cancun. Thus, you are left with the option of printing them out from your computer, slowly sucking the very ink that would fuel your term papers into a one-inch thick album of random innocuous pictures of you.

Imagine, now, an alternative that saves your ink, your time, and is fast and easy to use. Clearly that argument has won you over, and that is exactly what Zink^® claims with its product. Zink^® (Zero INK) is a fully-funded start-up company that grew from the Polaroid^® Company in 2005. Since then, the company has channeled its name throughout the country by sponsoring the ideals of promoting new technology, innovating ideas, and creating a future without ink. The key to Zink^®’s success, having birthed over twenty billion prints in the United States alone in 2007, is the unique paper.

This paper’s special technology enables for the images to print on surface without the messy hassle of wet ink or replacing empty ink cartridges. As zink.com explains, this paper is “an advanced composite material with dye crystals embedded inside and a protective polymer overcoat layer outside”. These crystals are colorless before printing, resembling regular white photo printing paper, however with the use of heat, Zink^®’s printer activates the crystals to render perfect digital images from your camera.

The most enticing aspect of this product is the size of the printer. In this day and age, where the smaller it is, the better it is, Zink^® printers can fit in the palm of your hand, in your pocket, become attached to your cell phone, or just mundanely sit on your desk. Anywhere, anytime you want a picture, just print!

While the paper is water-resistant, resists fading from exposure to light, heat and humidity, affordable, non-toxic and earth-friendly, as well as durable, Zink^® also provides even more incentives to buy its product. With high-resolution colors on paper not sensitive to light these pictures will never lose color with age. Regardless of the size of the picture, the speed is fast, the process is efficient, as there is nothing to throw away. No more ribbons, toner, or ink- it’s Zink^® time!

The future may be a little short of the Space Odyssey’s expectations, but that doesn’t deter Zink^® from experimenting with smaller printers, newer forms of paper, and other unfathomable printing phenomenons. At least at the moment, you can just zink Grandma images- less time, no ink. And that’s right- for the future, zink is the new print; it’s all about the future now.

Video Link: http://www.zink.com/discover/how_ZINK_works/