Protect your spine and your vision!

If you’re a member of the “terrible posture group”, you might like this next gadget, the Visomate USB Vision and Posture Reminder. It might not fix your posture instantaneously, but it’s probably worth a try. Or you could just stay hunched over the computer your entire life and end up with 20/1,000 vision. It’s your choice.

The little pod-ish device sits on top of your monitor. It will gently remind you to keep your distance, you know, monitors need their personal space just like you. Don’t worry, it won’t beep obnoxiously, spray you with unremovable ink, or turn off your computer. Instead, a simple LED will start flashing. Once you’ve leaned to close, you’ll notice a red LED flashing and sit back. Once back in the “safe zone” a solid blue LED will go on. I just hope you can actually read the text when you realize you’ve been to close to the screen for the past few years. If you’ve got USB ports to spare, why not get this? I mean there’s a possibility it’ll end up helping you. Admittedly, I’d like this a lot more if it had a few more features, namely have a USB hub built in. I thought everything had one of those these days.

$26 will get you the Visomate USB Vision and Posture Reminder. Sure, it’s a tad pricey for something you could do yourself, but unlike yourself, the Visomate won’t forget to remind you unless you unplug it.

Product Page

Mousetrapper Advance

This is an interesting extension to your keyboard, a way to physically use your mouse without physically touching it, the Mousetrapper Advance. The aim of the Mousetrapper is to help prevent (or at least relieve the pain of) RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury).

The Mousetracker attaches to your keyboard and your mouse slots into a special cradle at the side. Now to move the mouse you use special scroll bars that are located below the keyboard, this should in theory reduce the amount of movement between keyboard and mouse (I know when I’m blogging my right hand is forever moving between the two).

To me it looks like an interesting idea but does have the drawback of only working with a Microsoft Mouse. The MouseTrapper website looked professional enough however the order form (which strangely accepted credit card numbers without disclosing the price) had no security at all.

Fancy a Cellular Book?

Telecom Italia and Polymer Vision have finally come to an agreement to develop the Cellular Book together. This unique device might look like some form of cellphone at the first glance, but it is actually a mobile device that comes with a rollable display which enables you to read various personal information, newspapers, and even electronic books. Dubbed the Cellular Book, it comes with a special Polymer Vision rollable display technology which offers readability that rivals that of printed paper under bright light.

This terminal will first be presented to the world at the 3GSM World Congress that will be held in Barcelona, Spain, next week so drop by if you’re in the vicinity. Unfortunately, the technology might be able to expand a display which is larger than the handset itself, but the lack of a backlight greatly diminishes its usability. Hopefully future iterations will see a change for the better. I like the idea of having a personal reader device that has a decent amount of reading space, unlike most of the other e-book readers that are available on the market.

It is also revealed that later versions will incorporate color and a moving image capable display. In the meantime, those who pick up the Cellular Book will be able to receive books and entire newspapers delivered via TIM’s mobile network. These information are stored inside the Cellular Book’s internal memory itself, with capacities that start from 4GB upwards. Additional capabilities include the ability to download and play music, audiobooks, and podcasts. There is no word on pricing or availability at press time.

Source: Ubergizmo

World’s Fastest Harddisk By Seagate

Harddisk drives just keep getting faster and faster. Seagate just announced what it claims to be the world’s fastest hard drive: a 15,000RPM 2.5-incher. Until its crown gets taken off by a competitor, this baby accesses data faster than the fastest out there right now by 2.9ms.

The drives will begin shipping soon in HP ProLiant servers, in capacities of 36GB and 73GB.

Special Report: Optimal PC Sound System Setup

The Setup: Speakers

You probably already know that good speakers are essential to putting together a high-quality stereo or multichannel music system or home theater. You can invest several months' mortgage payments in first-rate audio/video components, but without good speakers you're simply not going to hear your system's full potential.

Happily, there's nothing mysterious about setting up speakers. It does require a little bit of care and patience, but the principles are straightforward enough and they apply to virtually all systems and rooms — whether you spend most of your time listening to stereo music or enjoying movies in surround sound. Best of all, our recommended steps to proper speaker setup don't have to cost you a thing, just some time and effort.

To read the full detailed report visit:

http://pcparadiso.tripod.com/ss.htm

Hope you like it!

Microsoft focuses on Immortal Computing Concept

If the thought of sending e-mail from beyond the grave sounds a little too sci-fi, think again. Microsoft is working on a new technology that'll let you send e-mails long after you've kicked the bucket. The project is being referred to as "immortal computing" and it's a way of storing and sending data to future generations, be it through e-mail or interactive holograms.

Microsoft has even admitted to working on a new form of storage device that would involve no movable parts and use alternate means of energy. They wouldn't say how far into the project they were, though hopefully these holograms won't crash mid-message!

Source: E-mail from the Grave?

VAIO VGN-UX17GP - A Class Apart

Ask yourself this: Should computing products suit your lifestyle, or should you alter your lifestyle to suit your computing products? More often than not, the blasted machine forces the latter. Wouldn’t you rather have the Windows you’re used to and its myriad connectivity options, instead of some stunted operating system when you’re traveling? Or be able to carry your complete mailbox or your movies with you, without having to compress or decide what you’ll carry with you every trip.

A computing impracticality, eh? Not any more, with the first truly pocketable device to run a full install of Microsoft Windows XP – the Sony VAIO VGN-UX17GP. No scrimping here – you get a fully working Windows XP Professional installation, with full support for all Windows XP compatible applications (not Table Edition, so handwriting recognition is missing). Expect a few gasps as you whip out this machine in public – the diminutive size misleads most people to mistake it for a handheld gaming console. When you boot it up, the 4.5 inch (diagonal) widescreen display springs to life as you take in (with awe) that Windows can be starting up on something this tiny.

The screen’s fine – 1,024 x 600 pixels resolution does mean most users will be in for a lot of squinting – icons and text are tiny, though Sony has provided a zoom button to zoom into parts of the screen as required. The display isn’t really meant for hours of poring over spreadsheets, though you can, if necessary. It suits the occasional e-mail/web surfing.

Video however, rocks on this display, which redeems it in part. Plus, the display is touch sensitive, letting you use your finger or the stylus to navigate around like you would with a mouse.

Inside, the UX includes a 1.2 GHz Intel Core Solo processor, 512MB of DDR2 memory, a 30GB hard drive and Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics, which are adequate to run almost anything you throw at it, including the odd game. If you’re not doing anything intensive, you get two and a half odd hours of battery life – and as little as one and a half hours if you’re giving it a serious stick.

The VAIO UX is equipped with two MOTION EYE cameras, making it easy to communicate through images instead of just words. Wherever you take your VAIO UX, if there’s a scene you like, you can take snapshots or shoot movie clips and store them on the hard disk drive. It’s literally a huge album of pictures and videos that you can always carry around with you. And if you have an Internet connection you can email those images to friends and family, or upload them to your blog for the whole world to see. Naturally, you’d have a story to tell for each image, and VAIO UX makes it easy to input text with its built-in keyboard. When the need to communicate is immediate, you can count on its Bluetoo

th® technology for real-time mobile communication like VoIP for video chatting. As they say, “wish you were here”, and if go-anywhere communication is what you want, the VAIO UX is where you can find your solution.

Is this the famed laptop killer then? Not yet – while the UX is great for web browsing and viewing movies, or storing/editing pictures on the move – it has its share of quirks – including a mildly prohibitive cost of just under $2200 (Rs. 1 Lakh). Good things have always come in small packages, and this certainly is the shape of things to come.

Rating: 7/10

URL: http://vaio-online.sony.com/prod_info/vgn-ux17gp

$100-125 Laptop 2B1

The children's machine is a proposed low cost laptop designed by the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) trade association for educating children in developing nations. Previously called the $100 laptop, the 2B1 will initially be priced at $135-140. Its enclosure will be both dirt and moisture resistant and it will consume roughly 2 watts of power as compared to 25-45 watts used by conventional laptops. In the e-book mode, its power consumption will be around 0.3-0.8 watts. A hand or foot crank generator built in to a separate power unit is optional. The Linux based machine will have a colour display that can be switched to monochrome to enable reading in bright sunlight. They will also be Wi-Fi enabled.