Through Foreign Eyes: July 2010 Blog Archives

Droid X New Commercial Video

0 comments | Saturday, July 31, 2010

Motorola released a new commercial ad for their new Droid X smart phone. In the ad, average Joe Schmo is sitting at his desk after work hours trying to get that last report done, when his Motorola Droid X decides to distract him. And distract him it does. Joe soon goes into the Blockbuster application, where he starts watching the Bourne Ultimatum, saying, “be damned with the Johnson report, Matt Damon just jumped through a window!”

Watch the video below:

posted by talk

at 7/31/2010 08:37:00 PM Permalink

| 0 comments

How to Increase Battery Life of Droid X

0 comments | Thursday, July 29, 2010

Motorola is giving tips on how to increase or extend the battery life of the Droid X phone. There is what they call training the new battery to improve its life! How?

* Turn off Motorola Droid X and fully charge the battery until the LED stops flashing and remains on.
* Charge the battery for an additional TWO hours.
* Completely drain the battery
* Repeat the process once again

Other ways to help increase the life of the battery is to turn off or kill unused apps. There are free apps killer available in the Droid "market" (use the "market" button to find them.) One killer app you may want to check out is the "Taskiller". Use this to reduce the number of apps running in the background.

Switch off Bluetooth, Wi-Fi connectivity, and GPS when not in use. All these application consume battery power.

Next, reduce the display brightness of the screen. Like any other phone, the brighter the display, the more power is consumed. How to access the brightness menu? Touch and hold a blank part of the Home Screen, then tap Droid Widgets. Look for the Power Control. Then adjust the brightness of the screen.

If you have questions, leave me a comment.

Also see: How to Edit Contacts on Droid X Phone.

Labels: Droid, Motorola

posted by talk

at 7/29/2010 08:19:00 PM Permalink

| 0 comments

BlackBerry 9800 Release Date

0 comments | Wednesday, July 28, 2010

BlackBerry 9800 will compete for the iPhone 4, the Droid X and all the other smartphones out there today. The new touchscreen BlackBerry will use Google's Android operating system.

The new BlackBerry 9800 is expected to be launched at an event in New York City on Tuesday, August 2, next week.

The new BlackBerry 9800 is expected to go on sale in mid-August in the U.S., but the price is not known yet.

Again, BlackBerry 9800 release date in mid August.

Labels: Blackberry

posted by talk

at 7/28/2010 07:50:00 PM Permalink

| 0 comments

Apple Magic Trackpad Unveiled

0 comments | Tuesday, July 27, 2010

The rumor is true - Apple Magic Trackpad is here. The new Magic Trackpad is the first Multi-Touch trackpad designed to work with your Mac desktop computer. It uses the same Multi-Touch technology you love on the MacBook Pro. And it supports a full set of gestures, giving you a whole new way to control and interact with what’s on your screen.

Swiping through pages online feels just like flipping through pages in a book or magazine. And inertial scrolling makes moving up and down a page more natural than ever. Magic Trackpad connects to your Mac via Bluetooth wireless technology. Use it in place of a mouse or in conjunction with one on any Mac computer — even a notebook.

Check it out on Apple's website.

Labels: Apple

posted by talk

at 7/27/2010 11:59:00 AM Permalink

| 0 comments

How to Edit Contacts on Droid X Phone

0 comments | Saturday, July 24, 2010

I have been tinkering on my new Motorola Droid X. So far I have been overwhelmed by its features that there are times I get lost on its basic functions -- like for instance, editing the list of contacts. The buttons are hidden on the touch screen, and most of the time, you need to know where you have to press correctly.

Verizon Wireless has the details on how to edit the contacts of the Motorola Droid X.

1. Touch a contact.
Note: To change contact groups, press the Menu button, touch Display group then touch the appropriate group (e.g. All contacts, Facebook, Google, etc.).

2. Press the Menu button.

3. Touch Edit.

4. Edit any of the following information then touch Save.
Note: To view additional options or to add an entry, touch the triangle or plus (+) symbol located to the right of the option.

* Given name
* Family name
* Phone
* Emails
* IM
* Addresses
* Organizations
* Additional info

That's it. Please leave comments if you still have problems.

Labels: Droid, Motorola

posted by talk

at 7/24/2010 03:47:00 PM Permalink

| 0 comments

Viliv N5 Mini Computer

0 comments | Wednesday, July 21, 2010

The Viliv N5 looks like a big smartphone. Or is it a small netbook? The price at $649 is quite expensive in comparison with the regular netbook prices.

Specs:

CPU type - Intel Atom Z520
CPU speed - 1300 Mhz
Graphics - Intel GMA 500
OS - Windows XP Home
Display Size - 4.8" 1024 X 600
Screen Type - LED-Backlit LCD
RAM - 1024 MB
Flash - 32 GB
Keyboard - YES
Mouse Pointer - YES
Battery capacity - 16 (Wh)
Weight - 399gm / 14.1 oz.
Size (w/h/d mm) - 172/86/25 mm
Size (w/h/d inches) - 6.8/3.4/1

You can buy the Viliv N5 Mini computer on dynamism.com.

Labels: Ultraportable laptops

posted by talk

at 7/21/2010 08:40:00 PM Permalink

| 0 comments

New MacBook Air - 11.6 Inch

0 comments | Thursday, July 15, 2010

The buzz that the new MacBook Air will sport a smaller screen size is getting louder. Digitimes reported that Apple is ready to launch its new generation MacBook Air featuring an 11.6-inch display and Intel Core i-series ultra-low voltage processor in the second half of 2010 (that means any day from now).

I hope that the price of this new MacBook Air will not be more than what the current 13.3" model has, which is $1499.

There will be an Apple press conference tomorrow, maybe Steve Jobs will tell us more about this.

Labels: Apple

posted by talk

at 7/15/2010 05:21:00 PM Permalink

| 0 comments

Mouseless - an invisible computer mouse

0 comments | Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Mouseless is an invisible computer mouse. It provides the familiarity of interaction of a physical mouse without actually needing a real hardware mouse.

As the computer mouse has remained largely unchanged over the last decades, we have become increasingly proficient at operating the two-button mouse. Recently, various multitouch and gestural interaction technologies have been explored as means to implement alternative methods to interact with a computer. Despite these advances in computing hardware technologies, the two-button computer mouse has remained the predominant means to interact with a computer. The Mouseless invention removes the requirement of having a physical mouse altogether but still provides the intuitive interaction of a physical mouse that we are familiar with.

Mouseless consists of an Infrared (IR) laser beam and an Infrared camera. Both IR laser and IR camera are embedded in the computer. The laser beam module is modified with a line cap and placed such that it creates a plane of IR laser just above the surface the computer sits on. The user cups their hand, as if a physical mouse was present underneath, and the laser beam lights up the hand which is in contact with the surface. The IR camera detects those bright IR blobs using computer vision. The change in the position and arrangements of these blobs are interpreted as mouse cursor movement and mouse clicks. As the user moves their hand the cursor on screen moves accordingly. When the user taps their index finger, the size of the blob changes and the camera recognizes the intended mouse click.

Video:

Via: www.pranavmistry.com

Labels: Mouse

posted by talk

at 7/13/2010 09:37:00 PM Permalink

| 0 comments

Pandigital Novel - The Cheapest eBook Reader?

0 comments

The Pandigital Novel eBook reader may be the device for you. At $179, it is the cheapest eBook reader around.

The 7-inch color touchscreen display runs Google Android.

Video:

source: The Digital Reader

Labels: eBook Reader

posted by talk

at 7/13/2010 03:58:00 PM Permalink

| 0 comments

Pioneer DreamBook ePad

0 comments | Saturday, July 03, 2010

Pioneer DreamBook ePad is now available in Australia. The 11.6 inch tablet has a 1366 x 768 resolution. Other specifications include:

Processor - Intel Pineview-M N450 1.66GHz , 667MHz
WIFI - Integrated 802.11b/g/n
Memory - 1 SO-DIMM slot , Up to 2GB DDR2 667/800MHz
Hard Disk - SSD 16GB / 32GB / 64GB by Mini PCI-E
Screen - 11.6" HD LCD TFT GLARE Screen (1366 x 768, 16:9)
Touch Panel - Capacity Multi Touch (Real Two points)
Camera - 1.3Mpixel (fix focus)
Support OS - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium or above
Audio - Built-in Speaker (1.5W) x2, Mic x1
BT - Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
3G Module (Option) - WCDMA / HSPA 7.2Mbps (A-GPS)
GPS (Option) - Mini PCI interface GPS card
Size - 295mm x 195mm x 14mm
Weight - 940g (with 3G)

Where to buy the Pioneer DreamBook ePad.

Labels: Tablet

posted by talk

at 7/03/2010 08:13:00 PM Permalink

| 0 comments

Starbucks Free WiFi

0 comments | Thursday, July 01, 2010

Starbucks now offers free WiFi in all of its coffee shops across the US. No need for any log-in account. All you need to do is turn on your device, connect to the Starbucks WiFi network and agree to the terms of service.