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Nokia N97

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on December 2, 2008

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Nokia N97 was just announced and we have all the specs and features for you. Expect to see N97 mid next year and pay about 550 € for it.

OK, let’s get started with the features - a huge 3.5″ touch screen with 16:9 ratio, full kick-out QWERTY keyboard, 32GB of space for your files plus the ability take up to another 16GB via microSD, and of course location awareness! Nokia N97 has an A-GPS receiver and software to keep you close to your friends. We still do not know about dynamic navigation but we can’t imagine they’d leave out such an old technology

Even more features of the Nokia N97 include a 5MP with Carl Zeiss Tessar lens and dual LED flash, HSDPA, Wi-Fi, USB 2.0, stereo Bluetooth connectivity.

Here are some specs for you:

Technical Profile
System: WCDMA 900/1900/2100 (HSDPA), EGSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
User Interface: S60 5th Edition
Dimensions: 117.2×55.3×15.9 mm
Weight: Approx. 150 g
Display: 3.5 inch TFT with up to 16 million colors
nHD 16:9 widescreen (640×360 pixels)
Battery: Nokia Battery BP-4L, 1500 mAh
Memory: Up to 48GB (32 GB on-board memory,plus 16GB expansion via microSD memory card slot)
Video playback: MPEG-4 / SP and MPEG-4 AVC/H.264,up to 30 fps, up to VGA resolution
RealVideo up to QCIF @ 30 fps
Windows Media (WMV9) up to CIF @ 30 fps
Flash Lite 3.0 / Flash Video in internet browser
Music playback: MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, WMA
Camera Lens: Carl Zeiss Tessar
Image capture: Up to 5 megapixels (2584 x 1938)
JPEG/EXIF (16.7 million/24-bit color)
Video capture: MPEG-4 VGA (640 x 480) at up to 30 fps
Aperture: F2.8
Focal length: 5.4 mm
Flash: Dual LED camera flash and video light
Talk time: Up to 320 min (3G), 400 min (GSM)
Standby time: Up to 400 hrs (3G), 430 hrs (GSM)
Video playback: Up to 4,5 hours (offline mode)
Music playback: Up to 37 hours (offline mode)
WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g with UPnP support
Micro-USB connector, Hi-Speed USB 2.0
3.5mm stereo headphone plug and TV-out support (PAL/NTSC)
Bluetooth wireless technology 2.0 with A2DP stereo audio, enhanced data rates (EDR)
GPS receiver with support for assisted GPS (A-GPS)

via

Trend: Seniors Using Webcams For Remote Babysitting

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on December 2, 2008

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Technology is often blamed for the degradation of the traditional family unit (See: gory video games and internet addiction.) So it’s good to hear of a gadget that’s actually bringing families together instead of separating them.

But I didn’t expect that gadget to be the pedestrian, jittery webcam.

According to a story in the New York Times, one of the growing trends in parenting is the use of webcam babysitting by, of all people, previously technophobe grandparents.

If you think about it, this trend makes a lot of sense. Those who use webcams best use its video feed for constant surveillance or consistent live reports of their lives. The more you use it to span distances with a relatively accurate visual rendering, the better it works. And Grandparents have a lot of time on their hands and are willing to spend hours at a time staring at a screen to keep up with their grandkids. They don’t have to miss that first step, for instance, even if it’s not the same as being there.

And more and more overworked and undermanned parents are using their own far-off parents to check up on their own sons and daughters. Grandparents naturally like to maintain a close relationship with their grandkids, but more often than not, they live too far to make consistent trips to see them. But the growth of webcam tech has given them a candid, viable communication tool.

Skype and iChat programs have become more dependable, less prone to cut off connections. Webcams have improved their resolution feed, and some have even added silly features that can appeal to children. And speech recognition accuracy and improved noise canceling features have toned down the previously ubiquitous problem that was ambient background noise.

Webcam babysitting inevitably brings up fuzzy psychological questions. The camera might make grandparents feel like they need to visit less often and the kids might not recognize the meat version of the talking pixilated heads that talk to them between visits. However, it seems likely that the kids will be alright and will figure out the difference eventually, and that it’s the parents who grew up differently and have yet to use this technology in this way, that will have a slightly harder time getting used to it.

Photo: huliebaby/flickr

Yahoo Shares Rise on Reports of New Buyout Plan

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Shares in troubled web portal Yahoo rose as much as 16 percent Tuesday after a report that former AOL chief executive Jonathan Miller was trying to raise funds to buy out all or part of the company.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Miller was talking to private equity firms and sovereign wealth fund managers to raise as much as 30 billion dollars to purchase the company at between 20 dollars and 22 dollars a share.

The report followed a strongly-denied story in the Sunday Times of London that Miller was collaborating with Microsoft to fund a 20- billion-dollar purchase of the company’s search business.

The reports came weeks after Yahoo founder Jerry Yang said he would step down as CEO once a replacement had been found. Yang has been widely criticized for his handling of negotiations with Microsoft, which in May offered to buy the company for as much as 47.5 billion dollars, but withdrew after Yang demanded more.

Since then Yahoo’s shares have dived from more than 30 dollars a share to just 10 dollars a share. On Tuesday they traded as high as 12.50 a share, a 16 per cent rise on its opening price.

The newspaper reported that while there had been informal contact between Yahoo and Miller, Yahoo sources were skeptical about Miller’s success in raising enough funds, given the credit crunch and severe losses among private equity and sovereign wealth funds.

Youtube DIY - How to drvie trafic to Youtube

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on December 2, 2008

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You might be a video publisher on youtube, but you might not know how to drive traffic to your clips. Well, here’s a good set of tips for building traffic for youtube.

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Youtube DIY - How to drvie trafic to Youtube

DoItYourself!, HOWTO, traffic, video publisher, youtube, YouTube

Fishing DIY - How to select a bobber

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on December 2, 2008

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I’m going home to Oregon this Christmas, and I hope to do some cold, winter fishing. So, I thought I’d catch everyone up on some fishing tips. Here’s a quick one about bobbers:

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Fishing DIY - How to select a bobber

bobber, DoItYourself!, fishing tips, Sports

Pioneer Shows 16-layer 400GB Optical Disc

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Storage is getting bigger, better and badder. Pioneer is showing a 16-layer 400GB Blu-ray read only optical disc at an ongoing fair in Taipei.

Each layer of the disc will have a 25GB capacity. The company has already shown a 16-layer Blu-ray disc player in the past and has said these latest discs will be compatible will all existing Blu-ray players.

Pioneer plans to have these read-only discs available by 2010, rewritable discs between 2010 and 2012 and a 1 TB disc in 2013.

[via Digitimes]

Photo: (Akihabara News/Flickr)

Makeup DIY - How to make Zombie makup

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Sometimes, you just need more zombies. Check out how to make your friends look like zombies with just a little toilet paper and some makeup.

Brought to you by: Zedomax.com

Makeup DIY - How to make Zombie makup

Cool, DoItYourself!, HOWTO, makeup, toilet-paper, zombie, zombies

DIY Moving Magnet Phono Preamplifier Build

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on December 2, 2008

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If you are an audiophile this Moving Magnet Phono Preamplifier Build may be of interest to you, the schematic is provided so that you can simply build your own if you desire. The circuit board looks like it has great separation to keep the audio quality high.

"While looking through the local (Jaycar) electronics store catalogue I came across a Magnetic Cartridge Preamp Kit (Cat. No. KC5433). It uses two LM833 Operational Amplifiers (op-amps) and cost $AU39.95. Naturally, the op-amps can be upgraded with higher performance versions. While I was satisfied with the Pro-Ject Phono Box SE I wanted to build my own phono preamp. I guess being an avid DIYer draws one to anything you can build yourself even if you already have a commercial unit. "

Indesign DIY - How to feather in InDesign

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on December 2, 2008

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Sometimes I have trouble finding simple things in InDesign after I’ve been working in Photoshop. Here’s a quick how to on feathering if you use InDesign. If you don’t, you should.

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Indesign DIY - How to feather in InDesign

feather, how-to, indesign, photoshop