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Maxian, that Korean maker of portable media players and the like, has a new model PMP dubbed the D900. The D900 has a good set of specifications such as a 4.3 inch WVGA screen and support for many if not most popular audio, video and pic formats.

Maxian D900 – Maxian Press Release, Oct 28, 2006

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The Times had a look at 6 newish smartphones, and thought most highly of the HTC Hermes. They compared the Hermes to the Nokia N73 , BlackBerry 8700 , Palm Treo 750v , HTC MTeoR and the Sony Ericsson P990i, and decided that the Hermes had the best overall blend/compromise of features including design, keyboard, screen and speed ( ie HSDPA). The authors said it can even substitute for your laptop computer, during short out-of-the-office stints anyway.

The HTC Hermes is also known by a number of different names such as HTC TyTn, hTc Z and the MDS Vario II.

Test bench: Smartphones – London Times, October 29, 2006

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Windows XP, released on October 25, 2001, turned 5 years old a couple of days ago. Despite a spate of bad publicity a while back, and numerous naysayers, we’ve not had many significant problems with the operating system and its been relatively stable for us here at GadgetManiac HQ. And so, happy 5th birthday to Windows XP!

Windows XP – website

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A lot of talk lately about Microsoft Exchange. Some of it only makes sense to people who are intimate with the product. I’ve heard people say, “if you’re serious about your business you’ll get Exchange”. But what does that mean? Why do I need to get an Exchange server? What is an Exchange server? Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in mail2web.com ~ 6 Comments

The ray gun, or directed energy weapon as they like to call it these days, continues its remarkable ex-migration from the pages of science fiction…we mentioned the Airborne Laser (ABL) a while ago – it’s designed to shoot down ballistic missles during the launch phase. Boeing’s new Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) achieved first light this month – the ATL is intended for use by aircraft against ground targets.

And looking ahead to about 2025, the aptly-named FotoFighter should make its appearance. According to the military, the FotoFighter will have “embedded arrays of semi-conductor lasers as sensors and weapons” for both defensive & offensive purposes. It will also likely be pilotless and/or autonomous, have invisibility, and be able to fry the countryside with megajoule bursts of energy, but only, one supposes, after ‘de-cloaking’.

And looking still further afield, we should see the start of efforts to weaponize quantum mechanics. Some future defense appropriations bill may well include line items associated with development of a retrocausality weapon, timeline modification via the entanglement of time, extra-dimensional warfare, or delivery systems based on quantum teleportation, or the expedient of simply re-programming reality, assuming the universe is indeed a quantum computer. We’ve no idea what we’re talking about here…speculative pseudo science at best.

Posted in Aerospace ~ 4 Comments

If you buy a Nokia N93 cell phone over the next little while, Nokia will throw in a 512 MB miniSD card, that’s preloaded with the movie Mission: Impossible III, for free. This seems to be an effort by Nokia to show off the multimedia capabilities of their Nseries of phones.

Now, you too can watch a 126 minute long movie play out at 25 fps on a 2.4 in QVGA screen – perhaps not for everyone, but, hey, its free, and you get to keep the card afterwards.

The best Mission yet – now on Nokia Nseries – Nokia Press Release, October 26, 2006

Nokia MI3 – promotional website

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We’ve become so accustomed to spam cluttering up our mailboxes, that it’s hard to remember that there was ever a time without it. In fact, the origins of spam go back so far that it is unlikely that any of us were fortunate enough to ever enjoy a spam-free mailbox. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in mail2web.com ~ 7 Comments

Here’s another view of the “World’s Most Beautiful Sports Car” for 2005 this one in Verde Faunus…

Posted in Automotive ~ No Comments

Microsoft Flight Simulator X has just been reviewed by Eurogamer, and they gave the game, er, past time, a lame 7/10. While they liked the new features and the much improved resolution, they felt the game itself was boring but playability could be improved by equipping each plane with nuclear-tipped missiles.

For a more upbeat review, have a look at GameSpot – they give FSX a rating of 8.4 out of ten and an eval of “great”.

Our take on Flight Simulator…yeah it’s boring, but not in a bad way.

FSX Review – Eurogamer, 23/10/06

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The Everingham Rotating House in Australia is sort of like the Suite Vollard, which is a rotating apartment building located in Brazil, only smaller.

The ERH can pull a full 360 degrees in half an hour — faster than Suite Vollard’s sluggish time of one hour.

Everingham Rotating House – website

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