Saturday, May 30, 2009

Battle of the Bluetooth headsets

New cell phone headsets promise to reduce background noise and improve clarity -- but not always both.

Forget the smartphone wars. The Bluetooth market is heating up with a showdown between cell phone headsets that reduce background noise and those that pledge to make inbound calls sound clearer than ever.

Aliph, maker of the popular Jawbone, and Plantronics unveiled new high-end headsets in April. Aliph's latest entry, Jawbone Prime, incorporates new sensor technology to filter noise from honking cars, barking dogs and howling winds. Plantronics' new Voyager Pro also packs noise-canceling and wind noise reduction features, but it is particularly focused on improving what the company calls inbound audio, i.e., the person on the other end of the line.

Thanks in part to the increasing ubiquity of cell phones, the Bluetooth accessories market is holding up despite the economic slowdown. ABI Research analyst Jonathan Collins estimates that 1.5 billion Bluetooth radios will ship this year. Most of those units (more than 60 percent) are built into cell phones themselves. Headsets make up the next largest group, at just under 20 percent.

Plantronics says it will draw consumers' attention to the differences between the two headsets in a marketing campaign. It has already recorded audio files that represent conversations made on the Voyager Pro and competing Jawbone products. Aliph, in turn, says the Prime trumped devices from Plantronics, Motorola and BlueAnt in recent tests.

Plantronics is the country's No. 2 wireless cellular headset maker after Motorola, according to the NPD Group, whose data don't include sales from carrier stores. Aliph ranks No. 4, after Jabra.

Better headsets are on the way. A faster type of Bluetooth, commonly referred to as Bluetooth 3.0, is expected to crop up in gadgets by the end of the year or early 2010. Though primarily geared toward data applications, 3.0 should improve headset use by improving power management and reducing dropped connections, says Collins. Like Wi-Fi and mobile broadband, Bluetooth is also making its way into other devices and applications, including notebooks and cars.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Blog or website -- what's the difference?

Here’s the skinny on the exploding world of blogs: First, the word ‘blog’ is a confluence of two words – ‘web’ and ‘log,’ as in, a ‘log’ or journal that sits on the web. Think “Captain’s Log, Star Date 50 jillion.”

Here’s the image you should keep in mind: I went to London once when I was a kid, and I was stunned to come upon a bunch of people standing on milk crates, all over a public park, talking loudly. Some of the people shouting their opinions from the top of their crates were surrounded by huge crowds. Others were surrounded by pigeons. The quality of the talk varied widely. Either way, everybody had something to say.

That’s a blog, only, your milk crate is online. It’s a personal space created by someone to voice his or her opinions or update people on his or her goings-on. Like a web site, it can be found by people using a browser, it uses regular URL addresses, and it may have advertising attached to it.

So to answer your question, a blog really is a website, but it’s often updated more often (something the search engines of the world notice, meaning you can get on their radar faster) and is designed to make it easy for people to post their comments, videos, pictures, and so on.

Finally, a blog is better designed than a web site for two-way communication, meaning visitors can easily leave feedback in the form of notes, pictures or video. If you want to set a blog up yourself and talk to the world (or the pigeons) about whatever you want, you can do it in minutes, for free. One easy site is at blogspot.com, but I’d welcome any other suggestions.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

How to get started on Twitter (part2)

How do I start?

It's easy to install on twitter. Visit the web site, and click Start, click Join. Sign up is quick, but two things to consider:

If you have a web-mail, twitter can go and get the names from your contact list so you can see if any of your contacts on twitter. You may be uncomfortable with this, so read the safety message.
You must decide whether you want to be determined by your real name or user name, the latter makes it difficult for friends to find you, but reduces your visibility.
Once your account is created, you can log in and go to "Settings" to customize your profile, add pictures and so on. You'll have your own twitter page where you can send and receive tweets. It will address: http://twitter.com/your-username

Following and followers

Assuming that you are using twitter to connect with friends and family, you want them to follow you and receive tweets. One way to achieve this is to follow them. You can search by name or e-mail, and add them to the list of people go. Once you have that they will receive email notification that you have for them and, ideally, would choose to follow you. Thus, their tweets may appear on your twitter page and / or phone, and you will appear to them.

You can also follow the famous (and infamous) people - from President Barack Obama with Jimmy Eat World. Just do not expect them to follow you!

Also worth mentioning: You can lock followers - a convenient, given the public nature of twitter.

Posting tweet
Now you have followers, and prepared for shipment the first chirp. You'll see a box that you enter in your email address at the top of the chirp on the question: "What are you doing?" How do you know that some are taking the question literally and chatter about what they actually do, from watching "The Simpsons", to run the marathon. Others use it to broadcast everything that is of their kind.

A few notes about the sending of messages to specific people:

If you put "@" followed by the individual user name at the beginning of the message, it indicates that the tweet is designed for a specific person. But all of your followers can still see it.
To send a personal tweet, put "D", followed by individual user name in front of the message. ( "D" is intended to direct.)
Based

As you explore the chirp on the site do not forget to check:

The state deadline - a snapshot of what the random people around the world doing it. From your twitter page, click on "All" in the sidebar.
Celebrity users - some make it a popularity contest for the most followers. You can join the Fray, clicking on "Find people" and then "the user" tab.
Third-party applications - there is money from the fund, aimed at improving your twitter experience.

Monday, May 18, 2009

How to get started on Twitter (part1)

So the heck it is about Internet route Twitter.com saw that the number of visitors to the site more than doubled, to 9.3 million people in just one month earlier this year?

In response to this, you better see for yourself. On many levels, that escape the social networking phenomenon that has attracted celebrities, politicians, grandparents and their grandkids call explanation. Is it for you? Read this short primer on some indexes, and then try to send a "tweet," or two. There are no costs, not an obligation - and many feel strangely addictive.

So, that is exactly?

Chirp is part of the social networks of micro-blogging and instant messaging of all rolled into one free service. When he started in 2006, was touted as a way to friends to stay connected through short text messages, which you can send and receive at Twitter.com or to your mobile phone. In the messages you send are called tweets.

Why would I use it?

This is a legitimate question, considering all the messages in this most of us already have - from e-mails and instant messages on Facebook, and mobile phones has been said before. But here are a couple things to set chirrup, except:

Tweets are short and sweet. A tweet can not exceed 140 characters. The proposal, which you're reading now exactly 140 characters, so you can see this is not the place for the Pack, many details in the tweet.
What can you giggle greet and meet. Not only you can quickly send a tweet to all your friends - or twitter-speak, "followers" - but you can also put it to the total consumption. For example, if you are tweeting in support of a political issue, you can attract followers who share your feelings.
Here are some examples of how twitter can fit into your daily life:

Your child-Sitter canceled at the last minute, and you suddenly got a pair of concert tickets may not be used. Send a chirp that if any friends want them to (or willing to baby-sitting).
Writing is not your thing, but you want to keep abreast with my friends and family. With twitter, you can not write much in the same tweet - and no one expects eloquence.
You are looking at a strange city and suddenly hungry Indian food. Send a request to chirp recommendations.
Are you a hairdresser, and someone just canceled the appointment later in the day. Send a chirp that if someone of your standing wish.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

'Star Trek' game veers away from movie

LOS ANGELES - The players will not be able to survive JJ Abrams' highly anticipated "Star Trek" reboot on consoles and PCs.

The only video game released in conjunction with the film premiering May 8 - "Star Trek: CORPS" - This is a simple downloadable arcade-style space shooter that allows players to join either the Federation or the Romulan force and take part in the battles of galactic online.

"We made a conscious choice, with a game that we're not going to retell the story of the film," said lead designer Tarek Soliman. "The movie is Awesome. This is a new take on` Trek ". This is fresh. This is exciting, and he appealed to a much wider audience, I think, than any other `Trek 'movie may have in the past. We wanted to capture that sensibility in this game. "

In the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC game does take a few signals from his big screen counterpart. "Star Trek: D.A.C." Features film composer Michael Giacchino initial assessment. Three Federation and Romulan starships, which players can captain in Deathmatch, assault and conquest of scuffles were inspired by the film structures, including businesses.

"There is a great sense of responsibility, especially in the name of the type of` Star Trek ", said Solimon. "You want to stay loyal to the brand. You do not want to go too far there.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Popular game is a huge flop for Nintendo

Is there a market for mature-rated games on the platform of Nintendo? Judging by the sales performance of the latest in a Grand Theft Auto series, perhaps not.

GTA: China Wars, the first Grand Theft Auto game will be released on the DS, sold only 89,000 copies in a few weeks after his release in March. This is part of the projections of industry analysts who had expected to see a total of 200000 to 400000 range.

This is despite the ravings of critics, who have already led to the game in the aggregate review score 94% on metacritic.com - making it the highest rated Nintendo DS games are released.

"We believe that the name of the effectiveness of ... not because of any misexecution Take-two parts," analyst Doug Creutz told Gamasutra. "Either the demography is more complicated than we thought, or the main players did not consider the title as the most important purchase because of the nature of the platform," he said.

GTA: China Wars' disappointing performance reflected Mature-rated Wii release MadWorld, which boasts hard-edged, over-on-top graphical style, and sold a modest 66,000 copies last month. M-rating games are rare on the Nintendo platforms, as compared to the PSP, PS3 and Xbox 360, and the performance of this pair of perfect games is an indicator of the market as a whole, it is not difficult to understand why.