Generation Next, Express Money

It's the day after christmas, and gifts have been given, and a lot of affections changed. I like Christmas, I am not a christian, but I like Christmas.

The New year is still around and gifts for your loved ones, can still be given, here are 5 Gadgets, i think that make a lot of sense this year, and in the year to come, check out my article Tech 2.0 in Express money, this week with 5 new gadgets. To view it online, click here, or Alternatively grab a copy of the Indian Express on Monday 26th of December 2005, India Wide.

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Whisper from e-traction

I think the biggest benefit of technology today is to work out methods to save fossil fuels, the Hybrid car, the electric car and the others have all been a great example of it. I was watching a TV program the other day and saw a brief on the Whisper, and found it worthwhile to share. It uses four wheels, yes all bussess do, but here the wheel is active, it has an engine (electric on it's own), and the bus is one of the most energy efficient busses around.

The debut of this bus was done on March 30th 2005 and it has been in tests. I think India shoudl get a couple of these, as it makes an attractive option to reduce polution in india. Just to share some figures, it can do 6.3 Kilometers per liter of diesel, that means it is 2.5 times more efficient than other energy efficient busses, and and compare this to an average 1 to 2 kilometers per liter of diesel that regular busses do, this is going to be a boon.

For those of you who want to read more about it, click here.

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Single or Bundled, Express Money

MFP's yes, the same old devices which came out at the dawn of convergence, everyone, had written them off, well why would you need a device that was 3 in one, and still costed the same, why not have 3 devices.. Anyway, times have changed and so has technology, and MFP's have evolved. To read my take on it, make sure you grab a copy of the Indian Express on Monday 12th of December 2005, or click here to read the online Edition.

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Look Closely, it's a Tape Dispenser

You must be wondering what is a Tape dispenser doing on a site dedicated to technology and gadgets, well this is something that the fairer sex may like, and since we cant' live without em, well we have to cover something for them. But anyway, it's cute.

This is called Mr. P and is available at Wrapables an online gift store. It's 3"x6" in size and is made of Stainless Stell and Plastic.

Though it makes me feel like someone is pulling out Mr. P's tounge, but well It's kind a cute.

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Paint of my dreams !

About 2 or 3 years back Jeremy Clarkson of the famous Top Gear show on BBC did a special episode on India, and I remember his words clearly, "You can't find a car in India, that is not scratched or bumped or nicked", well the Jeremy Clarkson, here is something that will hopefully prove that Indian's will finally have a car that is scratch proof.

Nissan has come out with a paint that can remove the scratches and heal itself, so your car is shiny new. As per nissan's press release

The coating, which Tokyo-based Nissan Motor Co. says is the first of its kind in the world, contains elastic resin, similar to a rubbery surface, and can repair itself of slight scratches caused by car-washing, off-road driving and fingernails.

Now.. you buy an X-Trail, that is approximately Rs. 20 Lacs that supposedly has unbreakable bumpers and you Pay about Rs. 5000 (I am guessing they will charge approximately US$ 100 additional for it), and you can go out and prove it to Mr. Clarkson, that India does have cars, that are not scratched and bumpers are not broken.

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Demistifying the GPS!

GPS's have been around for a long time, and everyone who sees me using one, comes up with a question on whether they should buy one or not. From a few select friends who are very similar to me in nature, in not stopping to ask someone for directions, to geek friends who love technology. This week in the Indian Express, I cover the basics of GPS and what to buy.

To read "A Pathfinder in your pocket", my article in Express Money on 5th December 2005, with Indian Express, Click Here.

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The All New Sony Playstation3

 
Sony's launch of their playstation gave the gamers all around the world a new experience of gaming.Sony is now all set to launch their latest version of the playstation THE SONY PS3.

The playstation3 is expected to be released in March2006 and the cost of which would be about $300.(may exceed due to some new features such as the 2HDMI outputs and 3 Gigabit RJ45 LAN connections) But i think it is a fair amount for all the gamers world wide.

These are some of the technical specifications of the Sony Playstation3 taken directly from Sony :-


CPU:-
Cell Processor
PowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz
1 VMX vector unit per core
512KB L2 cache
7 x SPE @3.2GHz
7 x 128b 128 SIMD GPRs
7 x 256KB SRAM for SPE
* 1 of 8 SPEs reserved for redundancy
total floating point performance: 218 GFLOPS

GPU:-
RSX @550MHz
1.8 TFLOPS floating point performance
Full HD (up to 1080p) x 2 channels
Multi-way programmable parallel floating point shader pipelines

Sound:-
Dolby 5.1ch, DTS, LPCM, etc. (Cell- base processing)
Memory
256MB XDR Main RAM @3.2GHz 256MB GDDR3 VRAM @700MHz

System Bandwidth:-
Main RAM 25.6GB/s
VRAM 22.4GB/s
RSX 20GB/s (write) + 15GB/s (read)
SB< 2.5GB/s (write) + 2.5GB/s (read)

System Floating Point Performance :-
2 TFLOPS

Storage :-
Detachable 2.5" HDD slot x 1

I/O:-
USB Front x 4, Rear x 2 (USB2.0)
Memory Stick standard/Duo, PRO x 1
SD standard/mini x 1
CompactFlash (Type I, II) x 1

Communication :-
Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T) x 3 (input x 1 + output x 2)
Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR)

Controller :-
Bluetooth (up to 7)
USB 2.0 (wired)
Wi-Fi (PSP)
Network (over IP)

AV Output :-
Screen size: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
HDMI: HDMI out x 2
Analog: AV MULTI OUT x 1
Digital audio: DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL) x 1

Disc Media :-
CD PlayStation CD-ROM, PlayStation 2 CD-ROM, CD-DA, CD-DA (ROM), CD-R, CD-RW, SACD, SACD Hybrid (CD layer), SACD HD, DualDisc, DualDisc (audio side), DualDisc (DVD side)
DVD: PlayStation 2 DVD-ROM, PlayStation 3 DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW
Blu-ray Disc: PlayStation 3 BD-ROM, BD-Video, BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE

Although the PS3 is coming out much later than the xbox360(already launched) which has presently about 200 game titles,i would not mind waiting a little more for the PS3 which will have more titles than the xbox360.