OTB Gadget Blog

Archive for June, 2010

Pda Reviews

PDA Reviews

The Personal Digital Assistants better known as the PDA’s are new age electronic devices that store all your personal information and data and process it whenever you need it. These devices are not only about storing and retrieving data but they come with a variety of options for added functionality and convenience. PDA’s are equipped to give you more functionality than processing data and these new functionalities include handwriting recognition, networking, wireless communications, MP3 players, phone etc. Read the rest of this entry »

Sony Alpha A230Y 10.2 MP DSLR Camera with Super SteadyShot INSIDE Image Stabilization and 18-55mm and 55-200mm Lenses

• 10.2-megapixel APS-size CCD image sensor for ultra-fine detail
• Included SAL1855 18-55mm and 55-200mm standard zoom lenses
• SteadyShot INSIDE in-camera image stabilization; Eye-Start Autofocus
• 2.7-inch Clear Photo LCD Plus display
• Compatible with high-capacity Memory Stick PRO Duo, Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo and SD/SDHC media (sold separately)

Two-Lens Outfit – Includes 18-55mm & 55-200mm Lenses! Read the rest of this entry »

Nvidia hire in the help from the Mythbusters team to show the differences between a CPU and a GPU for graphical output. Not as boring as it may seem – they’ve got robots, loud noises, paintballing, and paintballing-on-a-massive-scale.
Video Rating: 4 / 5 Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever tried of getting your laptop serviced? If not, did it ever occur to you that the time would eventually come for your beloved machines to get its well deserved pampering if not a complete laptop repair? If your situation is the latter, I am pretty sure you are up for a big surprise. For those who are new to this, I bet you are itching to relate.

Some people use  freelance technicians on eBay. I know. Even I have not imagined that a Laptop Repair Service could be sold on eBay. Regardless of what you or I think, freelance laptop technicians do exist on the popular site. Many of them might even offer a tempting and affordable package for a laptop overhaul. The catch? Technical skills aside, such freelancers just do not have the resources (human or hardware) to be able to give you a good turn around time. So please feel free to try some of the laptop service providers on eBay IF you are in no hurry to get your rig back in top shape.

After having had excruciating experiences on getting my Alienware workhorse serviced from the manufacturer and eBay technicians, I almost gave up. Luckily, I decided to try to get this baby fix one last time so I tried searching again for someone that might be able to do a better job. Then I found out that there are indeed some third-party companies that specialize in providing laptop service.

I wish I could say I have tried and tested all of them, but I can not since the place I use has done a good job bringing my rig back to its prime.   The best part? I did not just have my laptop overhauled inside out, I am also better off with the knowledge that I can still use my laptop for years to come. And if I will ever need to get a more powerful machine, I need not throw this since I do have a number of upgrade options to make it run at par with any other notebook on the market. So now, all smiles I sure am.

PNY NVIDIA Quadro NVS 420 – Graphics adapter – 2 GPUs – Quadro NVS 420 – PCI Express x1 – 512 MB GDDR3 – DVI

• Form Factor – SFF (Small Form Factor) profile, 2.731 H x 6.6 L
• Memory Size – 512MB GDDR3 (256MB per GPU)
• Memory Interface – 128-bit (64-bit per GPU)
• Memory Bandwidth 22.4GB/sec (11.2GB/Sec per GPU)
• Max Power Consumption – 40W

NVIDIA QUADRO NVS 420 PCIE Read the rest of this entry »

Get the most out of your high-def experience with our comprehensive guide.

Art Lebedev Studio’s Optimus Popularis keyboard is a slightly scaled-down version of the company’s Optimus Maximus keyboard, known for having tiny OLED displays on each key, letting you change character sets at will.

The Popularis uses keys that are 43% smaller than those on the Maximus, but despite their smaller size, the actual screen component of each key is both larger and higher resolution than before. The 15mm x 15mm key faces will each sport a 12.4mm x 13.4mm LCD screen capable of displaying a 64 x 64 pixel image.

Art Lebedev Studio hasn’t revealed pricing info on the Popularis just yet, but the smaller size and switch from OLED to LCD technology should mean a much more affordable product. The Optimus Popularis will be available in 2011.

Microsoft Xbox 360 Arcade replaced the Xbox 360 Core system as the entry level model of the Xbox 360 in October of 2007. This console comes with a 256MB memory card for storage, a regular standard definition cable, one wireless controller, 5 Xbox Live Arcade games included (PAC-MAN Championship Edition™, UNO®, Luxor 2, Boom Boom Rocket, Feeding Frenzy™), and Xbox Live Silver Membership.

The Xbox 360 Arcade lacks a headset, a HD cable, a network cable, and an included hard drive and as a result is not backward-compatible with the over 300 original Xbox games that still work on the regular Xbox 360.

To coincide with the slim 360 redesign, as introduced by Microsoft in June 2010, a version of the 360 Arcade edition featuring the newly-sleek console is in the works. The system will maintain the same basic design as the $300 slim 360, but will lose a few hardware features to bring costs down to the $200 level.

Though Microsoft hasn’t clarified exactly what will be on the chopping block, likely candidates are the newly-integrated WiFi connection and the internal hard drive, either becoming a smaller drive or being replaced with flash-only storage. The slim Arcade should be available by fall 2010.

It has been a cliche about the future of mobile advertising for years: some day you’ll walk past a Starbucks, and a Starbucks offer will pop-up on your phone to entice you inside.

Apple’s latest mobile operating system, iOS 4, gives developers everything they need to make this a reality. The only thing holding them back at this point is fear of user backlash against a new, intrusive form of advertising. (Does anyone actually want this?)

But that won’t hold them off for long. A handful of developers are moving very close to these proximity-triggered ads, and we’re confident one of them will pull the trigger soon.

• The newest version of location-based social network Loopt allows users to continuously update their friends on where they are. There is also an opt-in alerts feature that sends users if they come within a given distance of a friend, provided both are continuously updating their locations. Adding a similar feature to Loopt Star, the company’s deals app, is a natural next step.

• Where, a local search and coupons service, introduced a service that sends users periodic text messages with deals around their current location. It’s a very small jump from there to the walk-past-a-Starbucks concept, so we wouldn’t be surprised if this made it in to the next version of Where’s iPhone app.

• Coupon app Yowza already lets users opt-in to receiving push notifications when their favorite merchants add new deals. The company will release a new version of its iPhone app later this summer, and we’d be surprised if it didn’t include location-triggered push notifications.

Mobile services are wise to move slowly on this, and to make everything they do in this area fully opt-in, for now. But we expect within the next few months, there will be multiple mobile apps pushing out ads to people who walk near particular merchants. After that, it’s just a matter of time before that becomes a standard form of mobile advertising.

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See Also:

• TV Star Greg Grunberg Doubles As A Savvy Entrepreneur With A Local Deals Startup
• Apple’s iOS 4 Now Available: Here’s Everything You Need To Know
• Loopt Can Now Update Your Location As You Move

Our time waiting six hours in line in New York for an iPhone 4 would have been a lot more amusing if there were people dressed up as iPhone 4s, as there were in Tokyo.

“iPhone 4 man” is wearing a full-body iPhone 4 suit

Image: Associated Press

Read the rest of this entry »