Sony Ericsson’s 8.1megapixel Camera Phone Is Poised To Appeal To The Amateur Photographers Inside Everyone Of Us

The C905 is Sony Ericsson’s first Cyber-shot slider with an 8.1 megapixel camera and Xenon flash. It comes packed with the standard features such as face detection auto-focus, smart contrast, red-eye reduction, digital zoom – up to 16x and image stabilizer.

However when it comes to memory which is vital to store all the photographs one is going to take, Sony disappoints by offering just 2GB of external memory in the form of a memory stick. The phone memory is a measly 160MB.

The phone also features a 2.4” scratch-resistant mineral glass display (240 x 320 pixels, TFT), support for Wi-Fi and connectivity to the television through a TV-Out Cable ITC-60. Another plus feature is that the C905 is GPS-enabled for geo-tagging of photos and navigation support.

It also has FM radio, internet can be accessed using the WAP protocol, a protective case, tripod and belt clip. It boasts of a talk time of up to 9 hours with standby time of 380 hours.

Sporting dimensions of 104 x 49 x 18 mm, weighing at 136 grams it nicely fits within one’s palm.

Sony C905 is available only in Night Black, Ice Silver and Copper Gold liveries in selected markets from early Q4 2008.

MOTOZINE ZN5: The Knight In Flashing Armor Comes To The Rescue Of Motorola

Motorola and Kodak have come up with MOTOZINE ZN5 which is a 5 megapixel camera phone. It was unveiled on June 23, 2008 in Beijing at a gallery-inspired event, innovatively titled “ZINE ZN5.”

ZN5 combines Motorola’s ModeShift Technology and KODAK Imaging Technology giving its users the best of both worlds. The phone also packs KODAK EASYSHARE Software and a 3.5 mm headset jack as goodies. The ZN5 also features multi-shot and panorama for a panoramic shot.

The camera boasts of auto-focus, a Xenon flash, Digital viewfinder, and optimized settings for low-light environments. The camera is protected by a sliding lens cover.

Coming to other phone(ly) features, the ZN5 features Motorola’s patented CrystalTalkTM technology for voice clarity and support for WLAN (802.11 b/g/i)for high speed broadband. Weighing at 114g the ZN5 has the dimensions of 50.5mm (W) x 118mm (L) x 12mm (T) (16mm at bump). It has 350 MB onboard memory, expandable up to 4 GB capable of holding up to 3,000 images. It also has FM Radio. With a 950 mAh battery, the ZN5 offers 349 to 574 minutes of talk time and 310 to 579 minutes of standby time. It offers support for the following bands: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 with EDGE Class 12 and GPRS Class 12.

The ZN5 is the first phone from Motorola’s ZINE portfolio which according to the company exclusively caters to the pop culture that is more focused on content consumption and creation.

MOTOZINE ZN5 will be first available in China in July 2008 and is expected to roll out around the globe throughout the remainder of the year.

With Motorola’s stock plummeting to an all time low, it is desperately looking for a silver lining. Will it be the ZN5? Only time will tell.

The Numbers Are Still Ringing In For Firefox

Though I have downloaded Firefox 3, I am yet to install it as some of my favorite add-ons are still not compatible. They are Snap Links and Diigo. I just cannot do without these.

At the time of writing this post, the number of downloads for Firefox 3.0 was at 17,649,216. Firefox had broken through the 5 million download ceiling some 14 hours after it had released its new version and ended up clocking around 8.3 million downloads for 24 hours.

Overwhelmed by the number of downloads and the oodles of support for its open source browser, Firefox has thanked all its users at its Spread Firefox site and has asked the users to be patient while their judges and Guinness validate the record attempt.

However, the release was in a way marred by the reports of an vulnerability surfacing just hours after the download day had begun. Of course, a certain section of the media also pointed out the timing of the announcement (of the vulnerability) which coincided with the record attempt by Mozilla, was to derive mileage from the buzz created around the record attempt. Although Mozilla was tight-lipped about the vulnerability, there were reports abound in the electronic media that “user interaction is necessary for the vulnerability to be exploited.”

With this release, Firefox has again reignited the browser wars with reports already trying to compare its features with that of latest iterations of Opera and Safari, and of course the inevitable comparison with of IE 8 beta.

For a full review of Firefox 3, check out the article at Information Week.

I also did come across another tidbit which stated that a portable version of Firefox 3.0 is available at Portable Apps.

That’s the news roundup for Firefox so far. If you haven’t downloaded it yet, you can do so here:

A Chair That Follows You Around!

Now isn’t this a boon for those who badly need to sit down and browse through the pages of their favorite book and are too lazy to find themselves a chair? After walking through the isles of a big library, searching frantically for the book; I guess I can afford to be a little lazy.

That’s exatly what I can be if I am walking through the aisles of the public library in Amsterdam. Openbare Bibliotheek Endhoven has commissioned an special couch / chair that follows the person around the library offering him a seat if he/she needs to sit down. This chair designed by a Dutch designer Jelte van Geest uses RFID technology to follow the user around the library. All a user has to do is to swipe an RFID card against the scanner located in the chair and the chair follows the card which of course is with the user. Once the user walks past a designated “RedLine” at the checkout counter the chair stops following and returns to its docking station and powers up. Cool! Wish I had one at my office too.

Checkout the video for an eye-popping demonstration of what technology can do for you.

Does The Fox Have Enough Fire In Its Belly To Set A World Record?

I have dutifully pledged to do my part in helping Firefox set a world record. So far 1,360,151 people around the globe have pledged their support. Firefox 3 promises one-click bookmarking, the smart location bar and lightning fast performance. Firefox 3 also includes phishing and malware protection, plus their new instant site ID info. Features like built-in spell checking, session restore and full zoom, makes it possible to work faster and more efficiently on the Web. Of course, with Firefox 3 you can choose from over 5,000 add-ons that help you customize your browsing experience. Its been a long journey for Firefox 3 which boasts of more than 15,000 improvements over its older version.

The D-Day is tomorrow.

The party continues at Mozilla which recently had celebrated its 10^th birthday on March 31^st. It also achieved the milestone of 50 Million Downloads.

There is also a special form will be available on the Download Day Headquarters as soon as Firefox 3 launches and Download Day kicks off. Simply enter your name and select print for your very own Official Participant Certificate, to show off that you have participated in the record attempt.

Also note that only downloads from the Download Day Headquarters count. Mozilla will only count downloads that are fully and completely transmitted, not partial or complete updates. A "download" is the transmission of the entire, fully functioning Firefox 3 -- not an update.

I will be goading everyone at my workplace tomorrow to download the latest version of Firefox. Will you?

Bio-Fuels. The War Within.

I could not resist digging deeper into the issue of bio-fuels; partly because of the guilt gnawing away deep inside me. Everyday when I take out my motor bike for my work, a small voice somewhere appeals to my better conscience to use alternative modes of transport. Save our environment. But ultimately materialistic vices always manage to drown out the feeble voice of my better conscience and I look for comfort, flexibility and the machoistic pleasures of riding a bike. The bottom line is at the end of the day I don’t care. What a beauty this conscience is? The constant gnawing has prompted me to come with a series of articles on the environment. Here’s another effort (read as a feeble attempt to listen to my conscience) as a follow-up to the Green Fuels: An Ongoing Debate article.

The discovery of fossil fuel has left an un-erasable impact on our history, economic development and lifestyles. An astronomical amount of money is being spent on importing oil every year. The insatiable demand, imminent threat of global warming and finally pricking of consciences has led mankind to search for other alternatives. Let me give a perspective on the options available.

First up are the bio-fuels such as bio-diesel, ethanol produced from fuel crops and sugar based refining processes. A certain section of the intellectually enlightened people have pointed out that the process of cultivating slow-growing fuel crops; only to deconstruct them to produce ethanol, is inherently inefficient and emits more carbon dioxide than it consumes. Environmentally conscious people have pointed out environmental and human cost of depleting agricultural lands and rainforests. Rainforests around the globe are revered as an incomparable storehouse of biodiversity. An explosion in demand for farm-grown fuels has raised global crop prices to record highs, which is spurring a dramatic expansion of agriculture, which is invading the rainforests at an increasingly alarming rate. Several new studies show the biofuel boom is doing exactly the opposite of what its proponents intended: it's dramatically accelerating global warming, imperiling the planet in the name of saving it. Using land to grow fuel leads to the destruction of forests, wetlands and grasslands that store enormous amounts of carbon.

And now comes, the hunger pangs which are now being felt all over the world. By diverting grain and oilseed crops from dinner plates to fuel tanks, biofuels are jacking up world food prices. It’s being said that the grain it takes to fill an SUV tank with ethanol could feed a person for a year. Certain countries have converted forests into palm oil farms so rapidly that they are running out of uncultivated land.

Proponents of alternative fuels such as Sapphire have taken great pains on their websites to point out that biofuels are only part of the solution to global warming. The world is fighting an uphill battle until it realizes that right now, biofuels aren’t part of the solution at all. They're part of the problem. More on the alternative fuel proposed by Sapphire later. Watch this space.

Handmade Designer Keyboard To Satisfy Your Geek Cravings

Here’s a fine masterpiece, from Nishi-Ki. Sporting a QWERTY layout, its got 86 keys, can be plugged in via an USB port. It’s compatible with Windows XP, Vista and 2000. It’s got a price tag at around $155.

Image Source: geeksugar

Green Fuels: An Ongoing Debate

A Press Release screaming “Pioneering effort alters 'food vs. fuel' debate, supports American energy independence with revolutionary platform that harnesses microorganisms, sunlight, CO2” caught my undivided attention. Here are my candid views on it.

Sapphire Energy have proclaimed that they have produced renewable 91 octane gasoline that conforms to ASTM certification, made from a breakthrough process that produces crude oil directly from sunlight, CO2 and photosynthetic microorganisms, beginning with algae. CEO and co-founder Jason Pyle says: "Our goal is to produce a renewable fuel without the downsides of current biofuel approaches. Sapphire Energy was founded on the belief that the only way to cure our dependence on foreign oil and end our flirtation with ethanol and biodiesel is through radical new thinking and a commitment to new technologies."

The company highlights the potential of algae as a source of renewable gasoline and more importantly it avoids the food vs. fuel debate by touting CO2, sun, water and non – arable land as its requirement. The resulting yield of oil per acre is higher than any other food / fuel crop. The company also highlights that its process is highly scalable.

The company’s website describes the revolutionary process where photosynthetic microorganisms are used to produce a renewable, high-value replacement for fossil fuel petroleum. The requirements are sunlight, CO2 and non-potable water – and can be produced at massive scale on non-arable land. Final products will have the same chemical composition as gasoline and will be completely compatible with the existing refining, distribution and fleet infrastructure.

Source: Sapphire Energy

Apple Goes Solar

An article on CRN.com with a tag line of Apple: Solar-Powered iPhone? really got me digging for more.

MacRumors.com has let loose another rumor. Apple has filed a patent regarding its intent to integrate solar powered cells into its mobile products including MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook computers, the iPhone and the iPod line.

The patent reveals that Apple is looking at putting those solar powered cells at the back of the LCD panel wherein it would absorb the power through the screen. However issues such as space constraints for the solar cells, their durability are still issues yet to be addressed.