A ruginit frunza din vii
Şi rândunelele-au plecat,
Pustii sunt lanuri şi câmpii
Pustii sunt horele din sat.

Când viorica va-nflori
Şi rândunica va sosi,
Atunci va creşte iar, în bolţi,
Frunza butucilor din vii.

Iar când cu flori şi fân cosit
Va trece vara pe câmpii,
În aur lanurile-or fi
Şi hora-n sat ne-o-nveseli.

• Samsung i7110 mobile phone
• MID: BenQ S6 official?
• Asus Eee PC S101 - High end NetBook
• Music Phone: Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
• Nokia Tube 5800 XpressMusic is here
• Netbook / UMPC: Lenovo IdeaPad S10
• LG X110 Momo - Netbook / UMPC
• Samsung PIXON M8800 - 8 megapixel camera phone
• Palm Treo Pro is available
• Nokia Tube October 2nd
• All the latest about T-Mobile G1
• T-Mobile G1 with Google – Smartphone / MID
• Sony VAIO TT - Ultra Portable Laptop
• T-Mobile G1 - The world's first Android phone
• Mobile Phone: Samsung Armani Night Effect
• DSLR: Pentax K-m / K2000
• LG KC910 Renoir - Hot Handset
• Pictures: Nokia E75 in the wild
• New Video Clip: HTC Dream (G1)
• Apple iPhone 32GB?
• Netbook / UMPC: Samsung NC10
• Nokia E72 and E75 leaked
• Nikon Coolpix P6000 - Camera with GPS
• Digital Camera: Canon Powershot SX1 IS
• Casio Exilim EX-FH20 - 9.1 megapixels digital camera
• HTC Touch HD officially launched
• HTC Touch HD was official…. for a while
• Asus Galxy7 Zest - Windows Mobile Smartphone
• Will the BlackBerry Storm be launched the September 15th?
• UMPC: BenQ Joybook Lite U101 Netbook
• HTC Touch HD has some impressive specs
• Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 is available 30 September
• New Apple iPod nano will have a new interface?
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• Everun Note Unboxing
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You will get to see a piece of technology that is in my opinion will prove to be very significant.

If you haven't seen this nifty little computer as of yet, then see my first ever youtube:

The unboxing of our demo unit for our free and affordable computer project: The Belco Alpha 400

at this url: http://minilini.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/unboxing-of-belco-alpha-400-demo-unit-for-free-and-affordable-computer-project/. Its the top post on http://minilini.wordpress.com.

The new era of Heat basketball - with Erik Spoelstra the coach - opened with the start of training camp Saturday, and Riley insists he couldn't be happier.

A Hall of Fame coach with 1,210 wins, seven championship rings and an iconic legacy in the league, Riley decided five months ago that the time was right to turn the keys over to Spoelstra, who worked his way from the video room to the coach's chair in 13 years.

Riley is still around, but will lead from the front office, not the front lines.

"My role is that I'm the president of basketball operations and my job is to try to build this team back to where we want to become a championship contender again,'' Riley said. "I want to do that as quickly as I can. But I'll do it from behind my desk. I'm not going to be out there in front. I think it'll be a lot like it was the last time. ... I know where my place is.''

Almost to a man, everyone in the Heat locker room, even those who never played for him, still call him "Coach Riley.''

The fact that he isn't coaching anymore won't change that.

His office is a short walk from the practice floor, he'll almost be a fixture at most games - whether he's visible or not - and still has a powerful voice in every Heat personnel decision. Plus, Spoelstra isn't shy about saying he's a product of the Heat culture, the one Riley installed when he arrived in South Florida in the mid-90s.

"All I've experienced in my two years prior to this is coach Riley running everything,'' third-year point guard Chris Quinn said. "But coach Spo was my summer league coach for two years, so I kind of have a little taste of it. It's exciting, kind of a new beginning, especially after last year. It's exciting to have another year and to get things going.''

Riley met with Spoelstra constantly during the offseason, talking about how to revamp the roster while keeping salaries below the luxury tax threshold; the Heat did that with a mere $415,000 to spare.

But their chats were about players, not plays.

On that point, Riley is clear: It's Spoelstra's call.

"I know he's an X-and-O coach. I know that part of the game, from that standpoint, he's very knowledgeable,'' Riley said. "He's going to be organized. He's going to be disciplined. And I think he'll bring it out on the court, every single night.''

Riley will be watching closely, of course. His role is still, in many ways, patriarchal within the Heat, having spent years grooming Spoelstra for this opportunity.

That doesn't mean that if Riley disagrees with something Spoelstra does, he'll necessarily chime in with his opinion.

"I'm not going to be up and down with him on anything that I see, that I might not agree with,'' Riley said. "Everybody does it differently. I trust that he's going to do it in the nature that he feels comfortable in doing it in, so I'm going to give him a free rein here.''

Riley retired once before, tapping former top assistant Stan Van Gundy to be his replacement in a stunning move days before the start of the 2003-04 season, Dwyane Wade's rookie campaign.

Van Gundy eventually stepped down as well, citing family reasons 21 games into the 2005-06 season. Riley returned, led the Heat to that season's NBA title, and stayed for the last two injury-plagued years.

He insists that this time, his coaching days are done for good.

"One day I was driving to work and then all of a sudden my mind went there, and I just said, 'Thank God I'm not in there doing film and doing playbooks and doing all these things that would overwhelm your mind,''' Riley said. "Even though I'm a little bit overwhelmed with my desk duties now, that's behind me. And I love watching Erik work.''

Alice Mobile MID S6 è il primo prodotto del nuovo concept di Mobile Internet Device con processore Intel Atom, connettività HSDPA 7.2 Mega e Wi-fi integrati. Ampio schermo da 4.8” per usufruire in modo facile e veloce di internet, mail, musica e video...Un potente PC in Palmo di Mano :-)

clicca qui per maggiori informazioni

clicca qui per comunicato stampa

Fonte:press BenQ TIM

Ubuntu MID es open source se puede adquirir en internet sin ningún compromiso. Tiene la opción de personalizar los codec y aplicaciones third-party.

Con Ubuntu MID puede tener la experiencia de usar aplicaciones de: Navegadores, correo electronico, media, camara, VoIP, mensajeria instantane, GPS, Bloggin,  TV Digital, juegos, agenda de contactos/calendario, actualización de software y mucho más.

Una de las principales ventajas de Ubuntu MID es la flexibilidad y la personalización haciendo que pueda ser usando para varios propositos y poder usar varios tipo de productos como por ejemplo

-Interfaces HTML, Flash, Clutter, Python con GTK, C/C++ con GTK y Java.
-Diferentes conjuntos de aplicaciones para diferentes productos o configuraciones.
-Integración con sitios que cuenten con Web 2.0
-Internacionalización y soporte de traducción para conocer los requerimientos del mercado.
-Personalización de conjuntos de media codecs y programas third-party.
-Personalización de ingenieria.

Ubuntu Mid esta preparado para las caracteristicas tipicas de los dispositivos MID, por ejemplo:
-Tamaño pequeño.
-Pantallas de 4" hasta 7".
-Teclado fisico y/o virtual.
-Wifi, 3G, Bluetooth, GPS y Wimax.
-Memoria flash y/o discos de almacenamiento de 2Gb hasta 88Gb, 256Mb+ memoria (se recomienda 512Mb)
-OpenGl 3D
-USB, Camara, Auriculares, microfono, bocinas.

Para más información pueden consulta la web oficial de Ubuntu MID Edition

Fuente: Ubuntu

 Given that netbooks are all about always-on connectivity, 3G in addition to WiFi is a must for this product category. This leads to the question - does it have to be built-in? I feel that the answer is yes. I am aware of the arguments against embedding 3G functionality in laptops. However, if you recall, PCMCIA cards were the initial enablers for WiFi connectivity - I still have one of those lying around somewhere. But convenience coupled with declines in module costs drove OEMs to deliver laptops with integrated WiFi functionality. The same trend is likely to be repeated with integrated 3G as well. To begin with, USB dongles hanging out of netbooks will look pretty awkward - in addition, embedded antennas down the side of a screen will deliver a better signal that translates into higher speeds. Instant 3G connectivity when the netbook is turned on, similar to WiFi, will also be a key selling point. Finally, mobile operators may end up driving this product category and the OEMs will have little choice other than partnering with the operators.  Recent events seem to bear this out. Vodafone announced that it will start selling Dell’s Inspiron Mini 9 ultra-mobile device with built-in mobile broadband, exclusively through Vodafone stores and online, and directly from Dell, in key European markets. More mobile operators are launching netbooks with integrated 3G modem functionality in partnership with OEMs.  T-Mobile Germany announced that it will be selling the Asus Eee PC 901 Go with integrated mobile broadband. The announcement also states that the 3G connection will be up and running when the netbook is switched on similar to WiFi. Acer, the world's third largest PC vendor, is reportedly in talks with several 3G (third-mobile operators such as Chunghwa Telecom and Taiwan Mobile in Taiwan, as well as T-Mobile International, Vodafone Group and Orange in Europe to supply netbooks with built-in 3G.

1. Yang pasti dari makalah yang kalian bikin, tolong diinget-inget lagi dan di baca-baca lagi.

2. Beda dari TCP dan Model OSI

3. Fungsi dari Layer-layer TCP ataupun OSI

4. Modem

5. How Choose The Best ISP

6. Sedikit mengenai masalah Konfigurasi / setting telkomnet install, ato juga telkomspeedy.... [pasti tahu kan]

7. Kelebihan / Kelemahan dari pada Topologi jaringan.

8. Jenis-jenis kabel / dan transfer ratenya

ya mungkin hanya itu yang dapat digambarkan, dan sedikit mengenai database, ataupun pascal... karena di kelas X kalian dah dapet pascal jadi buat iseng-isengan dan merefresh sedikit. Untuk waktu dan pelaksanaan MID akan diberitahukan lebih lanjut, bisa jadi waktu ngasih tahu langsung MID :D xixixixi

I've neglected Dogpatch Dispatch for good reason. I've been busy putting together an emerging media practice at McGrath Power Public Relations in San Jose. And the standard disclaimer follows...I'm not related to the founding McGrath.

That said, I'm sorry to see my blog fall into a state of disrepair. There are forces at work that are increasing my will to blog. Without making excuses, here's what's on my radar.

The Android announcement was kind of a non-announcment, wasn't it? This story may play out like the old OS battles in the mid '80s and '90s. It took MSFT 3 versions to make a commercially successful version of Windows. I think the iPhone has a headstart and that Google has the tenacity to go the distance. Too soon to call, except for one thing. Larry and Sergey positioned the phone as the ultimate in geek chic. After all, you can write your own programs...

Aside from being too geeky, who does this product offend? It offends carriers who don't embrace the vision of phone as computer. They want control, not the user. It also misses the point that a phone is less a phone and more of a mass market user interface game. it's all about web services and the differentiation is in software, not hardware. Carriers need to compete on user experience as well as coverage area and industrial design. Making user experience a differentiating factor is Apple's strength.

Apple's role as gatekeeper of user experience will always put it ahead of the mass market curve in mobile internet devices.

Oh iya, minggu kemarin aku di kejutkan dengan kabar yang sulit di percaya. Memory stick M2 2GB untuk handphone tersayangku, w910i... RUSAK!! huwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!! Tapi karena waktu itu sedang puasa aku beruaha untuk tidak menangis.Ini semua gara-gara theme Tegoshi - Hoshi wo Mezashite yang aku buat. Karena front display-nya yang GIF itu sangat memberatkan RAM sonyericsson, kata kakakku. Sekarang aku sudah beli memory stick lagi, tapi kali ini 1GB. Yasudahlah, aku janji tidak akan bikin theme aneh-aneh lagi... Kalaupun nanti kangen sama theme Tegoshi akan kubuat formatnya tidak GIF dan tanpa ringtone juga tentunya.

W przeglądaniu Internetu w urządzeniach przenośnych dokona się niebawem znaczny postęp, jak wynika z dzisiejszej informacji o współpracy firm NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA) oraz Opera Software (OSE: OPERA), mającej na celu zaimplementowanie w smartfonach i mobilnych urządzeniach internetowych typu MID (mobile internet devices) funkcji przeglądania Sieci znanych z komputerów typu desktop, łącznie z obsługą JavaScriptu czy akcelerowanej grafiki wektorowej i wideo. W efekcie współpracy NVIDIA zaoferuje zoptymalizowaną przeglądarkę internetową Opera 9.5 w pakiecie zintegrowanego oprogramowania dla rodziny komputerów zawartych w jednym układzie scalonym NVIDIA® Tegra™, przeznaczonej dla rozwiązań Windows Mobile i Windows CE.

„Łatwy dostęp do Internetu jest niezbędnym elementem nowoczesnych urządzeń przenośnych, zaś kombinacja przeglądarki Opera 9.5 oraz układów NVIDIA Tegra pozwoli zaoferować pełne możliwości Sieci w dowolnym miejscu”, powiedział Neil Trevett, wiceprezes działu technologii mobilnych w firmie NVIDIA. „Opera i NVIDIA wspólnie opracowują takie rozwiązanie do przeglądania Sieci, które sprawi, że Internet stanie się integralną częścią zaawansowanych funkcji graficznych rozwiązań Tegra”.

„Przeglądanie Sieci w sposób znany z komputerów typu desktop jest kluczową funkcją we współczesnych telefonach komórkowych i przenośnych urządzeniach internetowych. Klienci wymagają takich możliwości, jakie mają w domu i w pracy”, powiedział Jon von Tetzchner, prezes Opera Software. „Opera 9.5 w połączeniu z NVIDIA Tegra zapewni możliwości graficznego przeglądania Sieci w następnej generacji smartfonów oraz mobilnych urządzeń internetowych”.

W układach z rodziny komputerów zawartych w jednym układzie scalonym Tegra zintegrowano procesory ARM, jednostki akcelerowania odtwarzania mediów oraz zintegrowane procesory graficzne GeForce®, pozwalające uzyskanie w przeglądarce Opera 9.5 takich funkcji jak:

•    Obsługa pełnej zawartości stron zaprojektowanych dla komputerów typu desktop ze sprzętową akceleracją multimediów i odtwarzania wideo;
•    Akceleracja uzyskiwana dzięki procesorowi graficznemu, oferująca płynne, interaktywne przesuwanie i powiększanie stron internetowych przy znacząco niższym zużyciu energii;
•    Sprzętowo akcelerowana obsługa służących do przeglądania stron interfejsów 3D, realizowana dzięki integracji Opery i opartego na OpenKODE oprogramowania firmy NVIDIA wykorzystującego moc OpenGL ES 2.0.

Urządzenia wyposażone w przeglądarkę Opera obsługiwaną przez układy NVIDIA Tegra powinny pojawić się na rynku w 2009 roku.

Więcej informacji na temat rozwiązań NVIDIA Tegra znaleźć można na stronie www.nvidia.pl/tegra, zaś dodatkowe informacje o rozwiązaniach z rodziny Opera dla urządzeń przenośnych dostępne są na stronie www.opera.com/products/devices.

Galeria:

O firmie NVIDIA
NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) jest światowym liderem technologii obliczeń wizualnych i twórcą GPU (procesora graficznego), układu o wysokiej wydajności oferującego nowoczesną, interaktywną grafikę w stacjach roboczych, komputerach osobistych, konsolach do gier i urządzeniach przenośnych. NVIDIA oferuje produkty z serii GeForce dla zastosowań rozrywkowych i domowych, Quadro® na rynku profesjonalnego projektowania i wizualizacji oraz Tesla™ dla rynku obliczeń o wysokiej wydajności. Siedziba firmy NVIDIA mieści się w Santa Clara w Kalifornii, z biurami w Azji, Europie i w obu Amerykach. Więcej informacji można znaleźć w internetowej witrynie firmy pod adresem www.nvidia.pl.

O firmie Opera Software ASA
Firma Opera Software ASA opracowuje nowe metody przeglądania Internetu w komputerach, telefonach komórkowych oraz innych urządzeniach połączonych z Siecią. Wieloplatformowa technologia przeglądarki Opera znana jest ze swojej wydajności, zgodności ze standardami oraz niewielkiego rozmiaru, zapewniającym użytkownikom szybsze, bezpieczniejsze i bardziej dynamiczne wrażenia podczas przeglądania Internetu. Siedziba główna firmy znajduje się w Oslo w Norwegii, a oddziały znaleźć można na całym świecie. Firma notowana jest na giełdzie w Oslo pod symbolem OPERA. Więcej informacji dostępnych jest na stronie www.opera.com.

# # #

Pewne oświadczenia przedstawione w tej informacji prasowej, w tym, ale nie ograniczając się do: korzyści, funkcji, wpływu i możliwości rozwiązań NVIDIA Tegra oraz połączenia NVIDIA Tegra i Opera 9.5; współpracy pomiędzy firmami NVIDIA i Opera; przeglądania Internetu na urządzeniach przenośnych oraz dostępności urządzeń wykorzystujących NVIDIA Tegra z przeglądarką Opera są oświadczeniami wybiegającymi w przyszłość i jako takie są obciążone ryzykiem i niepewnością, przez co stan faktyczny może znacząco różnić się od oczekiwań. Ryzyko to i niepewność dotyczą, ale nie są do nich ograniczone, możliwości produkcyjnych firm trzecich w zakresie produkcji, montażu i testowania naszych produktów; problemów projektowych, produkcyjnych lub programowych; opracowania szybszych lub bardziej wydajnych procesoró1) graficznych; opóźnień w publikacji gier; wykorzystania GPU w grafice komputerowej; wpływu postępu technologicznego i konkurencji; zmian w preferencjach i wymaganiach klientów oraz innych czynników ryzyka wyszczególnianych w pewnych okresach czasu w raportach firmy NVIDIA przesyłanych do Securities and Exchange Commission (Komisja Papierów Wartościowych i Giełd), w tym w dokumencie Form 10-K za okres finansowy zakończony 27 lipca 2008 roku. Kopie dokumentów dostarczonych Komisji są dostępne bezpłatnie na stronie internetowej firmy NVIDIA. Te wybiegające w przyszłość oświadczenia obowiązują tylko w chwili ich opublikowania i, z wyjątkiem przypadków przewidzianych przez prawo, firma NVIDIA nie podejmuje żadnych zobowiązań dotyczących aktualizacji tych wybiegających w przyszłość oświadczeń.

Copyright © 2008 NVIDIA Corporation. Wszelkie prawa zastrzeżone. NVIDIA, logo NVIDIA, Tegra, GeForce, Quadro i Tesla są znakami towarowymi i/lub zarejestrowanymi znakami towarowymi NVIDIA Corporation w Stanach Zjednoczonych i pozostałych krajach. Wszystkie nazwy firm i/lub produktów mogą być nazwami handlowymi, znakami towarowymi i/lub zastrzeżonymi znakami towarowymi ich prawnych właścicieli. Funkcjonalność, ceny, dostępność i specyfikacje mogą ulec zmianie bez powiadomienia.

Un UMPC no es mas que un pc normal y corriente, pero de un tamaño mucho mas reducido, (7 o menos pulgadas) normalmente con una pantalla táctil, y a veces sin teclado, y con procesador adecuado para este tipo de dispositivo, lo que suele ir en contra de la velocidad de proceso. Los UMPC no dejan de ser PCs por lo que soportan los sistemas operativos habituales como son Windows o Linux, siempre que estén disponibles los drivers (como en cualquier pc vamos)

Un MID por su parte suele ser algo mas pequeño que los UMPC, menos de 5", y a diferencia de los anteriores un dispositivo dedicado, es decir, pensado para navegar por internet ,ver videos, escuchar musica,etc.. y viene con un Sistema Operativo especifico para el dispositivo o al menos un OS adaptado especificamente a este (muchos MID llevaran una version concreta de Linux).

Ambas descripciones son un poco vagas, pero suficientes para explicar a continuacion el titulo de la noticia, y es que al principio solo existian los UMPC, eso los hacia ideales para navegar por internet sin ir con un ordenador a cuestas, de hecho soy un feliz poseedor de unos de los primeros, el Q1 de Samsung y la pantalla lo hace ideal para estas labores. Lo malo es que en mi caso, y en el de la mayoria de las personas, solo necesitan esta clase de dispositivos para navegar por internet, ver alguna peli o escuchar musica, es decir, no aprovechamos ni el 30% de las posibilidades de estos dispositivos. Practicamente nadie se pone a editar un archivo de Word aunque se pueda, simplemente porque para eso existen los PCs normales, y aunque haya casos de personas que usan un UMPC com ordenador principal no son una mayoria. Por no hablar de la gran lacra de los UMPC, su SO, la mayoria viene con Windows Vista lo que los hace lentos, y la verdad, quien los usamos para navegar buscamos algo rapido, no que tarden 2 minutos o mas desde que quieres hacer algo hasta que puedes hacerlo.

Y es en ese punto donde entran en juego los MID, dispositivos especificamente dedicados a unas labores para la que fueron diseñados, eso hace que los tiempos de carga sean minimos (un iPhone por ejemplo es desde cierto punto de vista un Mid, aunque mas versatil) pudiendo encenderlos, mirar algo por internet , y apagarlo en escasos segundos. Tienen como desventajas la imposibilidad de hacer otras cosas que un ordenador si puede, no contar con la misma compatibilidad,etc... en ocasiones no se podran ver algunas web por no contar con un navegador adecuado,pero para el gran publico es suficiente, no necesitan mucho mas, y es mucho mas practico.

En las empresas el caso es diferente, mucha gente realmente necesita dispositivos que permitan hacer lo que sea y donde sea, y para ellos un UMPC es perfecto, la unica pena es el Vista, que no esta optimizado para ellos por lo que los hace moverse lentamente, pero hoy por hoy es la unica solucion, no hay alternativas, como mucho algun Linux, pero en ese caso ya entrariamos de nuevo en el juego de las incompatibilidades.

Si solo necesitas un aparato para navegar, ver tus fotos , pelis y musica, comprate un MID, el mas conocido es el Ipod Touch, si por contra requieres de un ordenador, un UMPC, lo malo para los UMPC en este caso es que mucho de su publico con un MID tiene suficiente por lo que no renovara su UMPC en el futuro.

Si a esto le añades que los UMPC no acaban de despegar, ¿seran los MID el fin para los UMPC? esperemos que no, los MID no son utiles a ciertos niveles, y es ahi donde entran los UMPC, solo falta que las empresas se den cuenta de las ventajas de estos pequeñines, porque hay mercado de sobra para ambos.

Blazer Highs and Lows, Zoom P-Rod 2s, Dunk Mids and Lows.

HTC comes up with some great names for its cellphones. Diamond, Kaiser and Wizard have all figured in their recent line-up. The Excalibur looks a bit different from King Arthur's mythical sword, but can it slay the competition in the same way?

Taking the smartphone out of the box it's immediately obvious that this is one device which looks way better in real life than on the web. The Excalibur screams quality with a brushed aluminum and soft-feel black finish encasing a flush fitting screen. It's light too at 130 grams. The battery cover hides the SIM and Micro SD card slots. Other specs include a 200MHz processor, WiFi b/g, EDGE (no HSPA unfortunately), Windows Mobile and of course the music loving stereo bluetooth.

The Excalibur's Blackberry/Palm style keyboard has tightly packed raised keys which illuminate blue when the phone's backlight is on. The keys on these devices are always a matter of taste, personally I find the Excalibur's okay with plenty of tactile feedback but inferior to HTC's own TyTN and Kaiser (AT&T Tilt) with their wider and larger keys. The Excalibur could also do with a couple more assignable keys. There are ones for email, internet and the camera but I'd also like ones to assign to Windows Media Player, the connections manager and the task manager for easy application switching.

Which leads me to the JOGGR slidy-thing on the right side of the screen is a curious surface, which offers up/down controls as well as two assignable buttons. Some carriers choose to disable this control surface, which to be honest I can understand. It's a great idea but too easy to brush it accidentally which can be annoying. Once I got the hang of the JOGGR it did become useful, but might be too fiddly to win fans during a five minute in-store test drive. I would have preferred a hardware wheel and buttons.

Powering up the Excalibur illuminates the stunning 2.4 inch screen, which is a joy to use indoors and out.

Whilst not readable in direct sunlight, it is possible to use this phone outdoors on a bright day. The flush fitting screen gives a paper flat image, but is also very exposed if the cellphone in jiggling about in a pocket next to some keys. There was a protective belt holster in my box, which is a useful screen preserving accessory.

The version I'm using has Ricky Wyatt's Windows Mobile 6 ROM with a few added extras taking it to 6.1 spec, such as the newer Windows Live client which does a great job of pushing mails to the device for certain web-based non-POP3 email clients. Another sweet tool on the ROM is an over/underclocking tool for the the 200MHz processor, which allows manually forced power saving and power enhancement.  This is a great addition as most usage only needs 150MHz or so, which helps to extend battery life nicely.  Running the Excalibur at this speed I was able to listen to music over stereo bluetooth and read the newspapers on AvantGo.

Other tasty morsels in this ROM include Opera Mini which works great on the Excalibur and Resco Explorer which is a good replacement for File Explorer. I also added Google Maps, which renders extremely quickly on the Excalibur compared to my TyTN and scarily pinpointed my location to within one city block.

The sound performance of the Excalibur is up to HTC's usual high standards overall. Sound quality from the earpiece and microphone both seem fine, although the speaker was a bit tinny and unlikely to break any cellphone records for bass response. The stereo bluetooth paired to my Logitech Freepulse easily and sound quality was exceptionally clear, so you can give those wired adphones back to the twentieth century where they belong.  The USB charging port doubles up as a headphone/hands-free port.  Whilst there are adaptors available to let you use wired 3.5mm phones, you'll probably prefer to stick with the stereo bluetooth to avoid dangling wires...after all with a micro sd slot to play with, the Excalibur could store your entire music collection so you might as well look the business while you're listening.

Battery life was good, and as always was influenced by the amount of wireless connectivity and data usage. Forcing the screen to dim quickly after periods of inactivity also helped. With mixed usage including some WiFi and EDGE data action, voice calls and listening to music over stereo bluetooth I got just over one day before the Excalibur asked to be returned to the lake for some juice.

Can the Excalibur slay the competition? It's certainly a strong Windows Mobile cellphone, nay very strong when paired with some useful added software. At 130 grams it competes directly with RIM's Blackberry Curve, which ends in a tie for me with RIM's solid messaging experience battling the huge Windows Mobile application development community. If you do go for the Excalibur though, it's a worthy sword to have in the armory.

Neil Berman

www.theonbutton.com

Ricky Wyatt's Excalibur ROM is available at XDA Developers.  I do not recommend flashing a ROM onto your cellphone.  Flashing a ROM onto your cellphone is done entirely at your own risk, can brick your phone, will most likely invalidate your warranty and might lead to a total freak-out if it goes horribly wrong!!

Thanks to Joan & Alan for this one.

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The Wind is one of the larger netbooks, not quite as 'notebook looking' as the Asus EEE 1000 but sizeable nonetheless. Sitting under the Acer Aspire One the Wind shows a centimeter of clearance all round, which is not bad considering it boasts a full inch of extra screen space due to the Wind's narrower bezel.

As for overall appearance, the Wind looks OK. In the Advent's silver plastic guise it misses out on the eye catching looks of the EEE 1000 and Aspire One which are definitely a step ahead in the fashion stakes with their design details.

Opening the lid reveals a good size keyboard with a smallish trackpad. The keys themselves sit up high and seem initially stodgy to press. Due to their angled sides they actually have a smaller contact area than the Aspire One's, which sit almost flat giving a sleeker look and for me a more reliable typing experience. The Wind's keyboard is perfectly functional however and would be easy to adapt to. I wasn't a fan of the right Shift key's position and there is some empty space where MSI haven't fully utilized all the available real estate.

The trackpad is responsive enough, but might ideally have been wider. It's reminiscent of the first EEE PC, which had an even smaller square. The EEE 1000 definitely leads the netbooks in this regard with its lurvely multitouch pad.

The Advent ships with Intel's Atom N270, 1GB RAM, an 80GB hard drive and Windows XP Home, which took just under sixty seconds to boot and turn the egg timer into a full arrow. That's passable, but this is a bare machine. I expect that once you install a firewall, antivirus, Skype and other apps which load at boot-up you're probably looking at nearer ninety seconds plus another ten to lock on to a wireless router. By contrast the Linux Aspire One boots in eighteen seconds plus wireless lock-on time.

Once the Wnd is up and running the Atom hustles along speedily enough for general uses with applications loading in acceptable if not lightning time. Again performance on the Aspire One Linux feels snappier with faster application load times. Music sounds reasonable through the built in speakers and the webcam puts in a good performance compared to some of the other current netbooks.

The screen is also nice enough too. I was expecting to be dazzled given early claims about its quality but it's actually very similar to the Aspire One and EEE 1000 in terms of brightness and clarity, which is still a good thing. I was unable to test DVD playback as I did not have an external drive to hand.

The Wind is well connected with three USB ports, ethernet, VGA, audio in/out and an SD card slot, although it lacks the Aspire One's second SD slot.

So was I blown off my feet? Not quite. The Wind is a nice netbook, it does everything well but just looks and feels a bit ordinary at $499 for the 3-cell version or a whopping $599 for the 6-cell. By contrast the Aspire One XP is $349 and $449 for the 3 & 6-cell versions respectively and the longer lasting EEE 1000 is yours for $549. Last time I looked the Wind had fallen out of Amazon's top 100 computing bestsellers, whilst the Aspire One and EEE 1000 were both in the top 5. Until MSI revises their pricing I have a feeling it might stay that way.

Neil Berman

www.thonbutton.com

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Pickup is a device to re-pro the string vibration and turn it into audio signal. Famous pickup makers such as Dimarzio, Seymour Duncan, and EMG, create different kinds of pickup variants that almost reach hundreds in total. Some of those variant offer different kinds of sound. That's the uniqueness of electric gitar. Unfortunately, with a lots of types and variants we can only read the spesifications before we decided to buy. We often not trying it and hear the pickup mumbling. This is because many music store in Indonesia usually would not give any pickup samples which are attached on their guitar samples. This is very common because once the pickup seals is opened and the wires are plugged, it will be a secondhand pickup (poor huh..well that's the real condition, dude). Then how if we want to replace our guitar pickup that match to our music character, or just to have a try? Before I answer this, there are several things to be considered:

a. Size

Generally, pickup size is divided into Singlecoil, Humbucker, Soapbar, and 7 String pickup. First, we have to know what kind of "pickup house" our guitar has. If - for example - we bought a Singlecoil pickup to be attached on Humbucker pickup house, we have to modifiy our guitar. Below I will explain about Single Coil, Humbucker, Soapbar, and 7 String pickup.

Single Coil

This single pickup look-a-like have a more "crispy" sound with good clarity. No doubt Fender Stratocaster really got a huge success with this kind of pickup. Many of Single Coil pickup has a medium output. But it produced a noise while the guitar was played so in 2002 many guitars and pickup manufacturers create an innovation to prevent this noise by introducing stack technology such as Single Coil Size Humbucker. This technology was adopted to Fender's guitar manufactured on 2002 which are called, Noisless.

Humbucker

Physically, this pickup looks doubled, means in one pickup there are two Single Coil pickups. This pickup has a strength in its output. The main character of this pickup is its thick sound, quite long sustain, and higher attack.  The weakness is that the clarity is not as good as Single Coil. This because Humbucker has bigger output rather than Single Coil. In the sound part its really difficult to find such a crispy sound and twang in but its easier to find solid sound distortion in this pickup.

Soapbar

This pickup has a twang and bright character. It really match when played with crunch, twang and even overdrive sound. Many guitarist agree that this medium output pickup has a thick sound character.

7 Strings

Obviously this pickup only can be put on seven strings guitar. This pickup usually designed for modern rock music which mainly using low and deep sound distortion. That is why this pickup is used to re-pro "low-end" sound on 7th string. The weakness is there often trouble in its clarity, at least until these days.

b. Magnet

The second thing to consider is the magnet. There are some known magnets that can be used for pickups, Ceramic and Alnico (Aluminum Nickel Cobalt). Alnico is divided into Alnico 5 and Alnico 2. Alnico has a warmer character, less output and good clarity. On some Alnico pickups we can play sound distortion with good clarity, for example if we play sound distortion in all six strings alternately, we could respond the six strings clearly, that's what we call clarity. Ceramic has a big output character to let loose sound distortion blazingly. Many hard music guitarist addicted to this kind of pick.

c. Position

Don't forget about where the pickup will be put, neck, mid, or bridge. Every manufacturers have recommend their pickups to be put on certain position. Bridge designed pickups are better to be put on bridge. You may do some experiments, there are no fixed rules. But it's better to put higher output pickups in bridge positon because it can re-pro relatively small string vibration perfectly.

d. Sound

Recognizing sound of a pickup is not easy. But we can use sound graphic that we can find in pickups manufacturers websites. For example: a pickup has a spesification: Bass=5, Mid=6, Treble=8, Output=450. It means that the pickup has brighter sound character with higher frequency respond.

The arrival of Apple and Intel's foundation technologies are just one part of the infrastructure needed to support such a step change; as Apple's own botched launch of Mobile Me has illustrated, appropriate and highly reliable services aren't a trivial step.

The recently launched Oosah is another service that aims to provide services 'in the cloud' for the emerging class of mobile internet devices. Optimised specifically for the iPhone at http://m.oosah.com, the service pitches itself as '1TB in the palm of your hand' with its range of media storage features for photos, music and video.

A defacto 1TB iPhone is a bold claim to make - and coupled with always-on access to media stored at Oosah, is a compelling proposition. The execution of the service seems a little mundane, organised into files and folders, requiring users to upload files one at a a time to the web service for later access via the iPhone-optimised mobile interface. How about a Googley or Spotlighty search metaphor?

Living your life in the cloud requires web-based services to reach deeper into the guts of mobile internet devices; iPhones need to synchronise with services like Oosah and enable client applications to reach back into Oosah programmatically. My MacBook should sync up with Oosah as invisibly as Time Capsule continually backs up my hard drive. Conversely, iPhone applications such as 'iPod' and 'Photos' should be able to pull their data from remote sources. I won't even get into the impact on unlimited data plans on telcos, though perhaps they stand to benefit from a PC-as-a-Service, or PCaaS, model...

Ultimately, the ecosphere of technologies and services that's neccessary to make for a useful mobile internet device requires all parties to commit to a sharp degree of openness. Right now, large parts of the iPhone are off-limits to developers, cellcos are still hobbling unlimited data plans and the iPhone developer programme can appear to be quite draconian to some unfortunate third party developers.

However, I'm optimistic that as Apple evolves its developer relationships, services like Oosah might well evolve into extraordinary services, that do indeed bring 1TB to the palm of your hand.