MIND CONTROL...YES IT'S POSSIBLE!

MIND CONTROL

The phrase mind control tends to conjure scenes of brainwashing and coercion from movies, the likes of Manchurian Candidate and Clockwork Orange but we are not talking about the dysfunctional tools of fictional dystopiasis. Simple affordable headsets from the likes of NeuroSky can read brain waves and a generation of developers are creating everything from mind-controlled video games to interactive movies. Mind control is here, and it’s about to revolutionise your tech world. But how does it work, and is it any good? Let us visit two mind control labs and find out.

Non invasive headsets such as NeuroSky’s MindWave work by detecting brain waves. Each of the 70,000 thoughts you have every day creates a tiny electrical discharge. While it remains impossible to measure these individually from outside the skull, patterns of collective neuron activity (created by thousands of simultaneous discharges) can be interpreted to determine your emotional state.

Sensing: Your brain’s neurons emit tiny electrical signals during thought. These are detected by the headset’s main sensor, which sits on your prefrontal cortex where most ‘higher’ thinking takes place.

Filtering: A second sensor clips onto your ear. This detects electrical signals generated by muscle movement so the ones created by brain waves can be isolated.

Interpretation: The brain’s electrical signals are correlated with data algorithms. NeuroSky’s headset does this on-board, enabling it to almost instantaneously identify the subject’s emotional state.

Commands: Emotional states are translated into raw data signals, which are shared with the attached computer/device to allow software applications to react in real time.

Touch screens are so 2010. Strap on a headset and take a journey with us into the world of mind control.

NOKIA'S NEW WIZ KID

Nokia E7

 The E7 is an evolution of Nokia’s long-running Communicator, as evidenced by it’s slide-out QWERTY keyboard. But its AMOLED screen and 8MP camera mean serious business of a different order.

If ‘mobile phone’ was an element, this is what an ingot of it would like: the E7 is one tough block of weighty satisfaction. Given a decent shove the screen pops up with improbable liveliness, revealing a spacious backlit rubber keyboard that’s easy to thumb out messages on.

Edge on, there’s a dedicated shutter button a zoom slider, USB, mini HDMI and 3.5mm jack. A large home key glows or blips with notifications, and there’s a sprung slider to toggle wake/sleep. Stir the E7 from its doze via the home button and there are bubbly shortcuts to contracts, messages and sound modes.

The 4 inches AMOLED screen is retina-burningly bright, with blacks that’d make Satan’s soul shudder. Prodding it is rewarded with reassuring haptics, but it takes time for word to reach the relatively weedy 680MHz processor, which acts with disarming sloth in an age of dual-core 1GHz smartphones.

The impressive lensmanship of Nokia’s N8 came at the price of an unsightly bulge; the E7’s *MP snapper is flush to the casing, but it doesn’t compare to the N8’s for quality. It’s a serviceable bit of dual-LED flashkit, let down by poor low-light performance. And where’s our pinch-to-zoom and touch-to-focus.

Tech Specs

Operating System:  Symbian 3

Display: 4 inch 640x360 AMOLED ClearBlack capacitative touch screen

Storage: 16GB internal

Processor: 680MHz ARM 11

Connectivity: 3G, 3.5mm socket Bluetooth 3.0, miniHDMI USB 2.0, Wi-Fi (b/g/n)

Cameras: 8MP with dual-LED flash, VGA front-facing

Video: 720p @ 25fps

Battery: 9hrs talk

Techy Gadgetz says… A thoroughbred screen and keyboard, but held back by a sluggish OS and weedy processor, rating 3 stars.

IPAD VS THE WORLD

Now Techy Gadgetz came up with a tablet compare O-Metre to solve all the questions of preferences when it comes to having a tablet that can suit your needs. Well, we have compiled all the features of the so called hot stuff out there. All you need to do now is just scroll through, but I assure you, it is not that easy to choose as you think!

IPAD 

Screen: 9.7 inches 1024 x 768

Storage: 16/32/64 GB

Processor: 1 GHz Apple A4

RAM: 256MB

Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 dock connector, 3.5 mm socket, HSDPA (optional), GPS  (optional)

OS: iOS 4.3

Battery (Video): 10 hrs

Rear Camera: None

Front Camera: None

Extras: Accelerometer, compass

APPS: 350,000+

Size/Weight: 243x190x13.4mm, 680g (Wi-Fi)/730g (3G)

Price/Due Date: from US$435 (Wi-Fi)

  BLACKBERRY PLAYBOOK

Screen: 7inches 1024x600

Storage: 16GB

Processor: 1GHz dual core

RAM: 1GB

Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, 3.5mm socket, micro USB, micro HDMI, GPS

OS: QNX OS

Battery (Video): tba

Rear Camera: 5MP, 1080p video

Front Camera: 3MP

Extras: Accelerometer, secure email w/ BB handset

APPS: tba

Size/Weight: 194x130x9.7mm, 425g

Price/Due Date: tba

SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB 10.1

Screen: 10.1inches 1280x800

Storage: 16/32GB

Processor: 1GHz dual core

RAM: tba

Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, 3.5mm socket, micro USB, micro HDMI, HDSPA,GPS

OS: Android 3.0

Battery Video: tba

Rear Camera: 8MP, 1080p video

Front Camera: 2MP

Extras: Accelerometer, gyroscope, compass

APPS: 270,000+

Size/Weight: 246x170x10.9mm, 599g

Price/Due Date: due spring.

LG OPTIMUS PAD

Screen: 8.9inches, 1280X768

Storage: 32GB

Processor: tba

Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, 3.5mm socket, micro USB, micro HDMI, HSDPA,GPS

OS: Android 3.0

Battery (Video): 8-10hrs

Rear Camera: 2x5MP, 720p 3D videos

Front Camera: 2MP

Extras: Accelerometer, Gyroscope, compass

APPS: 270,000+

Size/Weight: 243x149x12.8mm, 630g

Price/Due date: due spring

HP TOUCHPAD

Screen: 9.7inches, 1024x768

Storage: 16/32GB

Processor: 1.2GHz, dual-core

RAM: 1GB

Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, 3.5mm socket, micro USB, HSDPA (optional), GPS (optional)

OS: HP webOS 3.0

Battery(Video) : 8hrs

Rear Camera: None

Front Camera: 1.3MP

Extras: Accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, wireless charger

APPS: 6,000
Size, Weight: 240x190x13.7mm, 740g

Price/ Due date: due summer

MOTOROLA XOOM

Screen: 10.1inches, 1280x800

Storage: 32GB + microSD

Processor: 1GHz, dual-core

RAM: 1GB

Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, 3.5mm socket, micro USB, HSDPA (optional), GPS

OS: Android 3.0

Battery(Video) : 10hrs

Rear Camera: 5MP, 720p video

Front Camera: 2MP

Extras: Accelerometer, gyroscope, compass

APPS: 270,000

Size, Weight: 249x168x12.9mm, 730g

Price/ Due date: from US $800 (Wi-Fi)

ASUS EEE SLATE EP121

Screen: 12.1inches, 1280x800

Storage: 32/64GB

Processor: 1.3 GHz, intel-core i5

RAM: 2GB/4GB

Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, micro HDMI 1.4, USB 2.0 (x2) with hosting

OS: Windows 7

Battery(Video) : 3 hrs

Rear Camera: None

Front Camera: 2MP

Extras: Accelerometer, pressure sensitive screen, stylus

APPS: n/a

Size, Weight: 312x217x17mm, 1.12kg

Price/ Due date: US $1,600

HTC FLYER

Screen: 7inches, 1024x600

Storage: 32GB + micro SD

Processor: 1.5 GHz

RAM: 1GB

Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, micro USB, 3.5mm socket, HSDPA, GPS

OS: Android 2.4

Battery(Video) : 4 hrs

Rear Camera: 5MP, 720p video

Front Camera: 1.3MP

Extras: Accelerometer, compass, stylus

APPS: 270,000+

Size, Weight: 195x122x13.2mm

Price/ Due date: US $900

iPAD 2

Screen: 9.7inches, 1024x768

Storage: 16GB/32GB/64GB

Processor: 1.0 GHz dual-core A5

RAM: tba

Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, dock connector, 3.5mm socket, HSDPA(optional), GPS(optional)

OS: iOS 4.3

Battery(Video) : 10 hrs

Rear Camera: 1MP, 720p video

Front Camera: 0.3MP, VGA video

Extras: Accelerometer, compass, gyroscope

APPS: 350,000+

Size, Weight: 241x186x8.8mm, 601g (Wi-Fi)/613g (3G)

Price/ Due date: US $750 (Wi-Fi)

APPLE IPAD 2 VS MOTOROLA XOOM

Apple Ipad 2 – US $750 (approx) – Wi-FI, 16GB

A year after it’s birth apple’s tablet has been slimmed down and pumped up to cope with a horde of imitators. But are two cameras and a faster processor enough to keep ahead of the pack? Lets put some notes down shall we;

·         The 9.7in screen has the same gorgeous edge to edge glass and 1024x768 resolution. Colours are punchier, but web pages can still look a little grainy before you zoom in. The contrast has been boosted to wash whites whiter, so while the kindle still beats its’ outdoors, it is more e-book friendly than it was. Widescreen videos are sadly, still cropped.

·         Losing 79g makes more of a difference than you might expect. The slim new iPad sits much more comfortably in your hand, and has less of a tendency to slip while gaming. A skin is still a good idea for taking the iPad out and about, as the shinier metallic back can pick up scratches.

·         The new A5 chip shaves the odd second from surfing, but you’ll notice it more when app hoping; transitions are shorter and smoother. Apple claims up to nine times the graphics performance, but other than a mite less stutter during really intensive games, we can’t see why. Perhaps the upgrade will be more clearer when more demanding apps emerge.

·         Apple has leap frogged voice calls and headed straight for our video-phoning future. A tiny front-facing camera lets you make free Face Time calls to Mac and iPhone 4-owning friends although as yet there is no iPad optimized app for skype or google talk. All of which makes it handy for chatting about each other’s iPads, but a long way from being essential.

·         Holding the iPad 2 like a camera looks weird, feels weird and produces weird results. The terrible 0.7 MP still photos would shame a budget camera phone and the HD videos, while a lot better, aren’t as rich or natural as those from the iPhone 4. There’s no LED flash and no features to pimp your snaps either.

·         There is no sign of the 4G revolution in the region leaving us with a choice between Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi plus 3G. There is no Thunderbolt (nor USB) either, although you can mirror whatever is on your iPad’s screen on a TV via HDMI with an optional adaptor.

Apple also comes with some additional stuff like these:-

1.        Smart cover from US $40. An ingenious magnetic screen protector that wakes and sleeps your tablet and doubles as a stand.

2.       Jorno folding keyboard at US $100. Bluetooth keyboard and built-in dock that folds down to just 9 centimetres squared. Lasts a month on a single charge.

3.       iSkin Summit from US $95. Treat your iPad to a cosy impact and water resistant sleeve with heavy-gauge zippers and strap.

4.       Digital AV-adapter at US $40. Is 9.7in just too small for you? Mirror your iPAd 2 on any HDMI equipped telly, while it charges

During your first hour this was the experience we had with the apple Ipad 2.

·         Minute 1 – Awesome origami style unwrapping experience.

·         Minute 2 – Light lusciously tactile and fully charged.

·         Minute 5 – Love the eye popping photo booth app

·         Minute 7 – Hate the terrible sub megapixel still photos.

·         Minute 10 – iTunes crashes mid install. Impatient!

·         Minute 15 – iTunes crashes for the third time. Aaargghh!

·         Minute 27 – All apps up and running in super quick time.

·         Minute 42 – The apps grid interface is starting to look tired.

·         Minute 49 – First Face Time call. Great sound great vision.

·         Minute 55 – Browsing and multi-tasking with no speed drop

Motorola Xoom 3G US $975 (approx)

Motorola has dipped honey comb in all manner of high-tech tastiness to create the first full-fat android tablet. But is the Xoom sweet enough to tempt you away from Aple? Lets count the honey combs, shall we;

·         The 10.1 in screen is a shade larger, wider and sharper than the iPad’s, but also a bit slower to respond. Colours look great and HD Video is smooth and solid. Somehow though, Motorola has managed to find a screen that is even more of a magnet for greasy fingerprints than Apple’s.

·         Thanks to its’ dual-core processor, the Xoom has power to spare and can easily juggle five apps at once – even games. Prepare, then, for multitasking surprises such as navigation voice directions cutting through the angry birds soundtrack. Not that you’ll ever be driving and flinging fowl at the same time, obviously…..

·         The customizable cluttered craziness of Honeycomb’s five home screen is a welcome antidote to Apple’s sterile grid. Widgets work especially well, letting you scan emails, check who is on facebook and browse YouTube with ease. This could be the future of tablet computing – if Google gets the occasional freezes under control.

·         It’s very early for honeycomb apps and it shows. The best-selling apps on adroid market are an incredibly buggy CNN app, an Angry Birds port that judders and a pulse news reader that adds nothing to the Apple version. But the potential is there – 3D platformer Cordy shows that beautiful, responsive, flicker-free apps are possible. Watch this space.

·         We’re not certain there’s much point to back-facing scams on tablets – will people really use them? Still the Xoom’s main 5MP camera is pretty good, with better detail and exposure than most mobiles and sharp colorful 720p video. The camera app is ungainly with terrible shutter lag, but you won’t use that too much; more importantly, the 2MP front facing webcam is fine for video chat.

·         Although plastic backed, the Xoom is easy to hold and feels as if it’ll handle a few knocks. Connectivity includes mini HDMI, USB sockets and a SIM card slot (a Wi-Fi only model will soon be available for US $800). One niggle is that the headphone socket is placed midway along the top edge -  perfectly placed to dangle a lead over the screen.

It also has some additional goodies like:-

1.       Speaker HD Dock US $145. Boosts the Xoom sound quality a bit, charge it up and enjoy a hands free video chat.

2.       Motorola Wireless Keyboard US $120. Connect the Xoom to a TV via mini HDMI, pair this Bluetooth keyboard and voila: Google TV

3.       Motorola Folio Case US $50. Protection that will not look out of place on the boardroom table, and which doubles up as a stand.

4.       Car Charger US $30. Small, functional and almost guaranteed not to fit in any other portable device you own.

Here is our first hour with the Xoom:-

·         Minute 01: Reach around for the rear mounted power button.

·         Minute 03: Honeycomb is like android crossed with windows

·         Minute 04: First app crashes – Facebook is down.

·         Minute 13: Google widgets and apps look fantastic.

·         Minute 23: Wi-Fi connection hassles back to 3G.

·         Minute 31: Chrome browser rocks, but where’s my flash?

·         Minute 39: Google maps navigation could be a world beater.

·         Minute 45: If it wasn’t for that glary smeary screen.

·         Minute 50: Browsing music is a real joy thanks to the display.

·         Minute 60: Ten apps multi-tasking without a hiccup.

Review

There you have it, but what does techy gadgetz think about these two? Well we are not pros – as such – but for the Apple ipad we say……..Leaner, meaner and for a while longer atleast, still the smoothest tablet experience.

The Xoom…..Brilliant, beautiful, but buggy, the Xoom shows there is a viable alternative to iOS

If you want it in rating, we give the Apple iPad 2 (drums) 5 stars and the Motorola Xoom (bottles crashing) 4 stars, but hey that is what Techy Gadgetz guys say. What do you think…mmhhh?

Acer Iconia Smart

With it’s stretched body, ultra wide touchscreen and super sharp resolution the iconia smart,er,smartphone is eye catching in more ways than one and is due May and price is tba.

This is not the first phone to get a 21:9 format ultra-wide screen (that honour goes to LG’s Chocolate BL40 from 2009), but the Iconia’s 1024x480 edge-lit LED touchscreen puts its predecessor to shame. At 4.8in It’s a whopper, making this an excellent candidate for watching widescreen video and spending horizontal time with the web.

Working away in the engine room of the good chip Iconia Smart is a Qualcomm 1GHz snapdragon processor. Six months ago that would’ve been more than adequate but with LG, Motorola and others unleashing dual-core smartphones, the Iconia Smart is already looking a little underpowered.

Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) brings improved task and power management, and thanks to the hardware’s gyroscope and accelerometer, better movement gaming controls, Flash and Wi-Fi hotspot skills are present as usual. Android 2.3 adds support for multiple cameras which you can make use of with the 8MP snapper at the back and the 2MP one on the front. A mini HDMI-out also means you can hook it up to the TV to play the 720p videos it shoots, or if your telly supports DLNA, you can stream them wirelessly.

Just like the Revo RL 100 media PC, the Iconia Smart has Acer’s Clear.fi software which is supposed to make sharing stuff over your home network simpler. It lets you wirelessly access music,videos and photos stored on other Clear.fi enabled gadgets and post them to social sites such as YouTube, Flickr and Facebook.

Techy Gadgetz says, Wide bold and beautiful but the Iconia Smart may be too quirky to worry the big boys.

YOUR OWN THEATRE

Coming up with a unique, never seen, theater design takes some creative genius, and the folks at Woodbridge Stereo along with the homeowner and theater fabricator, HTL, delivered this one-off theater that is both eye-catching and surreal. Circling the theater are custom printed fabric panels of locally photographed images of the Jersey Shore, creating the effect that this home theater is sitting right in the middle of the beach. While this 3-story home is 10,000 square feet, the theater space is actually very modest (13.5’ w x 16.9’ L x 8’ h). “The smaller dimensions made it challenging to fit eight full seats and the necessary equipment,” said Tom Altobelli, President of Woodbridge Stereo. “We placed the projector behind a lighthouse photo and shot the lens through a special glass element to open up the space. It also eliminated projector noise that would have seemed extremely loud in such a small room.”

Even in this tight space they were able to install a 42” x 99” 2.35:1 cinemascope screen with 2-way motorized masking for 1.78:1 content. It was coupled with a Runco projector equipped with an anamorphic lens. Powered by a Marantz receiver, a Triad 7.2 (two subwoofers) speaker system was mounted in-wall. An AMX touchscreen was Integrated into a motorized dock in the center console between the rear seats. The final touch is the picturesque ocean view, created by the fabric panels, which makes the room appear far larger than it is in reality.
“With the collapse of new home construction, large, dedicated theaters are simply less common,” says Altobelli. “With more clients choosing to integrate theaters in smaller spaces, effective acoustical design and noise isolation techniques are more critical that ever. Moreover, improvements in broadcast, disc, and streamed content, as well as lower cost video projection hardware, allows us to create very compelling theaters in a wider range of applications and at price points not previously possible.”

In addition to the theater, Woodbridge Stereo installed a 14-zone whole-home audio system that is expandable to 20 zones, which is controlled by 12 AMX touchscreen controllers located throughout the house. Architectural and outdoor speakers from Triad, DALI and Stealth are mounted throughout every living space making it possible to listen to music from any location. There are nine independent video zones with various size NuVision flat panel TVs installed in every major room of the house including two family rooms with 5.1 Music and Cinema systems (one is located in the basement), a gym, a playroom, the master bedroom, the master bath and two other bedrooms.
Sources for the whole-home AV include a four-zone Request hard drive DVD/music server with a storage capacity of 1000 DVDs or 15,000 CDs, however, it is expandable should the homeowner exceed it’s current capacity. There are five globally-accessible HD/DVR cable receivers in addition to both satellite and FM/HD radio.

Other systems installed by Woodbridge include a Panasonic cellular phone system with 16 locations and a wireless Internet network, which included three access points. The remotely accessible AMX system is capable of controlling further upgrades for HVAC, CCTV, security, weather and Internet radio.