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Friday, August 31, 2012

Google Play Store gift cards leaked

Google has been readying the Play Store for gift cards for a while now, and pleasingly to say, AndroidCentral received an image which show two Play Store gift cards- one $10 version, and the other $25. They’re clearly branded for the Google Play Store, since they have the store’s logo and name printed onto the its packaging. The cards also have “Music Movies Books Apps & More” listed at the bottom of them, so they’re clearly going to be used for purchasing content from the Play Store. There’s no release date, but Google should announce them pretty soon, so we could be seeing them next to other gift cards pretty soon, ready for the holiday buying season.

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Tata air-power car looks like robot ladybird, may save world

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Indian car maker Tata has constructed a prototype air-powered car, that as well as looking like a massive robot ladybird might just be the next big thing in clean energy.

The company, which built the 'world's cheapest car' and then covered it in gems and also makes terrifying war vehicles completed testing on two vehicles that are powered by compressed air back in May. A joint-venture with MDI, the prototype-stage 'AirPod' cars apparently cost just €1 per 200km, or £0.00631899077 per mile.

Despite looking like the worm car from the Busy World of Richard Scarry, the experimental automobiles are no slouch in the speed department, clocking a speed in the vicinity of 70km/h. I wouldn't attempt a speedy corner in one if I were you, though.

The cars seat three people, which is rather impressive for its small size, but won't win you any style points if you try cruising around town in it. Unfortunately, despite being surrounded by the substance that powers its motors, you'll still need to pull into an air-pumping station to fill it up.

Compressed-air power is still relatively unproven, and not without disadvantages (thanks Wikipedia). For example the compressed air must be completely dehydrated, and the energy conversion involved can be an inefficient process.

Still, I can't fault progress on any tech that could reduce our dependence on non-renewable fuels. Motor-makers are slowly moving toward more environmentally friendly vehicles, with VW mocking up a concept electric Beetle and the Nissan Leaf proving a fabulous -- if pricey -- electric motor.

Meanwhile the Tesla Roadster is doing its best to prove that non-petrol-guzzling motors can still look a bit like the Batmobile.

Fingers crossed Tata can make progress on its air-powered car, but in the meantime DMC is beavering away on the electric DeLorean, which boasts 35kW of power and doesn't even require a Flux capacitor to make it go. Check out the video below.

Would you drive Tata's mecha-ladybird air-powered car? Is air-power the future or should we focus on the electric variety? Let me know in the comments or on our Facebook wall.

Image credit: Discovery News

Additional reporting by Rory Smith

Thursday, August 30, 2012

For Gamers, a Headset That Helps Pinpoint Opponents

The A50 wireless headset from Astro Gaming features Dolby 7.1 surround sound 5.8 GHz KleerNet technology. The A50 wireless headset from Astro Gaming features Dolby 7.1 surround sound and 5.8 GHz KleerNet technology.

Astro Gaming has long designed premium headsets for video game aficionados, and its latest, the A50 wireless headset, updates it for fans.

Designed with comfort and functionality in mind, the headset appears bulky but is actually light and flexible. And the Dolby 7.1 surround sound is crystal clear. You can hear the direction of every footstep of your enemy combatants, every shell casing dropped from a fired gun, all delivered wirelessly at 5.8 GHz via KleerNet technology.

The headset has three sound modes: Astro’s preset for gameplay, a flatter mode for undistorted audio and a third intended for music and movies. The sound and volume controls are tucked out of the way behind the right ear cup. It may take a bit of practice of fiddling blindly with the tiny controls to set them right.

The smartest update in this model is the integration of Astro’s MixAmp technology into the ear cup. Previously, the MixAmp had a separate control box. Now, a quick touch on the outside of the cup allows you to balance the sounds of the video game with the voices of other players. This adds a bit more weight to the headset, but it’s hardly noticeable.

Astro added a few other features specifically for gamers, like the noise-canceling microphone that mutes when it’s flipped up. And the comfortable cups are large enough to fit over the ears, allowing gamers to play longer without having red, sore ears when they’re done.

The headset, which Astro sells on its Web site for $300, is compatible with PCs and Xbox and PS3 gaming consoles. The life of its integrated lithium-ion battery is 10 to 12 hours, depending on your gameplay, and the headset comes with a stand for recharging (because you have to sleep sometime).


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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Samsung Galaxy Note 2 leaked in realistic shot

The mobile blog Know Your Mobile recently received an image of what’s claimed to be the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, and it looks pretty realistic. The handset displayed in the image looks pretty similar to the current Galaxy Note, but its edges are more rounded, plus the screen looks larger, possibly around 5.5 inches. Well, anyway, Samsung should announce the Galaxy Note 2 during their pre- IFA event on August the 29th. Rumoured specs include a Super AMOLED screen, a quad-core Exynos 4 processor, 2GB of RAM and S Pen technology.

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Monday, August 27, 2012

Windows 8 free trial promises 90 days of touchable fun

More » Latest from Crave » Car Tech News » Digital Camera News » Gadget News » Laptop News » Mobile phone News » Software News » Television News » CNET UK Podcast » Latest Reviews » Camera and Camcorder Reviews » Car Tech Reviews » Computer Reviews » Gadget and Gaming Reviews » Mobile Phone Reviews » MP3 and Audio Reviews » TV and Home Cinema Reviews » Site map Read Full Review

Fancy giving Windows 8 a go, for free? Then grab the new 90-day trial edition of Windows 8 Enterprise and spend the next three months making up your own mind about the colourful new look Microsoft is gambling on.

You can download the trial version now, and get cracking with the colourful square live tiles of Windows 8's bold new interface.

The free trial is for Windows 8 Enterprise and is aimed at developers and the good folks in your IT department, but there's no reason you can't download it to try out the radically different new interface. Enterprise includes all the features found in the highest tier of Windows for individuals, Windows 8 Pro.

All you need is a 1GHz processor and 1GB of RAM for a 32-bit machine or 2GB for 64-bit, as well as 20GB of hard disk space and a graphics card with a WDDM driver that can handle DirectX 9 graphics.

Before you go installing the trial version, it's worth noting that in three months you'll have to install either the full Windows 8 or reinstall your current version of Windows. Something to bear in mind if you've lost the disk or -- ahem -- acquired it from a less-than-legal source. Install it in a partition or separate hard drive and you should be fine.

If you decide to install, make sure you register it within 10 days -- or your screen will turn black, a pop-up will start heckling you, and your computer will shut down every hour.

Windows 8 goes public on 26 October, along with the Microsoft Surface tablet -- heralding a wave of new Windows tablets, ultrabooks, laptops and PCs.

Excited about Windows 8? Have you tried it yet? Open a window into your soul down in the comments or on our transparent Facebook page.

For $330, an Extension Cord With a Brain

How smart does an extension cord need to be? Well, if it’s in a garage full of exotic cars or in an antiques restoration shop, you might want it to be pretty smart.
To address that presumably small audience — along with all-out gadget freaks — Great Stuff manufactures RoboReel, a $330 robotic extension cord reel that uses a motor to carefully rewind a 50-foot three-outlet extension back into the spherical housing.

Why does that matter? Garages and shops commonly use wall-mounted retractable power cords that are spring-driven. Those cords zip back into a housing quickly, but the end can whip around, potentially scarring paint and wiping out delicate items in its path.
RoboReel uses a motor to retract the 12-gauge cable at a controlled pace, and the computer inside will slow the last bit to a crawl, so that it doesn’t slam into the housing. You can even set the distance at which the cable slows down.
The smarts don’t end at winding the cord, though. The reel can’t retract when in use; it stops trying to retract if the cord is obstructed. If you cut through the cord, the power shuts down to avoid shock. There is also a 15-amp circuit breaker mounted in the wall plug.
If you are going to charge this kind of money for a winder, it had better look pretty sharp, and it does. The cleverly designed power plug has an on/off switch with orange LEDs that tell you the sockets are active. The LEDs match the high-impact plastic safety-orange housing and cradle.
The reel comes with a 4-year or 4,000-retraction warranty. The retractions are tallied by the computer inside.
Of course there are less expensive solutions. You can make a skein for free if you know how to properly wrap cable, or you can use a device like the hand winder from Griot’s Garage and retract the cord at the speed you choose. Of course, then you can’t brag that you have a robot in your garage.

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Sunday, August 26, 2012

Review- Huawei Honor

Rating: ?????

Price when reviewed- £200.

The Huawei Honor is an affordable Android Gingerbread smartphone which offers an array of impressive features, including an 8 megapixel camera, a 1.4GHz Scorpion processor and a meaty 1930mAh battery. You’d think the Honor would cost quite a lot of money for its features, but actually it’s quite cheap costing around £200. The Honor comes in white, purple and black.

Design

Holding the handset is not problem, it feels quite solid, although, it felt quite slippery and the buttons felt a bit cheap, reflecting upon it’s £200 price-tag. As we’ve already said, the handset comes in three different colour options – white, purple and black – we got our hands on the black version, and to be honest it’s quite boring. The handset measures 122 x 61 x 77mm, so it’s pretty thick, still, it’s actually quite lightweight at 140g. The Honor is pretty basic, there’s nothing unique about it compared to other Android smartphones.

Display

The Huawei Honor offers a large 4- inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels, which is pretty basic compared to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy SII. The handset has a pixel density of 245 which is pretty decent, plus there’s multi-touch technology which can be used to zoom into images and webpages. Overall, the screen quality was okay. Colours look quite washed out whilst in direct sunlight, but blacks and whites were are quite crisp.

Internals

Powering the Huawei Honor is a 1.4GHz single-core processor with 512MB of RAM. It would’ve been nicer to have seen a dual core processor considering the £200 price-tag. The processor is capable of some decent speeds, however, we had different feelings whilst opening and closing applications - they would often freeze, and sometimes we’d have to soft reset the handset.

The lack of internal memory was quite disappointing, 1GB just isn’t enough for storing multiple applications and files, but there is an option to expand it up to 32GB via the MicroSD card slot which can be found underneath the battery cover.

Software

The Huawei Honor comes with Android Gingerbread out of its box, but Huawei has promised an update to Ice Cream Sandwich, but they never confirmed any dates. The OS is pretty basic, and the homescreen has been heavily customized by Huawei, to be honest we’re not really fussed on it. Animations lookboring, though, we were quite fond on the lockscreen. It offers multiple shortcuts, just like HTC Sense 3.5. The homescreen was quite sleek, and there is a good selection of helpful widgets.

Camera

The camera found on the Huawei Honor is pretty decent, it offers an 8- megapixel sensor with an LED flash. The images we took were excellent considering the price-tag. They looked crisp and the detail was amazing. The Honor also offers 720p video recording, but sadly videos werent the best, in fact the quality looked washed out. The LED flash didn’t do the phone any justice, it just over powers darker shots, something which we found quite disappointing.

Conclusion

The Huawei Honor is a decent Android smartphone with an array of features which you wouldn’t expect to see on a £200 handset. The camera wasnt the best, and the lack of memory was disappointing, though, there is an option of expanding up to 32GB via the MicroSD card slot. The Huawei Honoe is perfect for those who want a decent smartphone, but don’t want to spend a lot of money on one, and we think £200 is quite a bargain for this type of device.


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