Sony Ericsson introduces Xperia arc S

Press release:
Sony Ericsson today announced the Middle East launch of Xperia arc S, the fastest and the most entertaining smartphone from the Xperia family. The award-winning Xperia arc S comes with a 1.4GHz processor, delivering 25 per cent faster camera start up and media conversion, as well as 20 per cent quicker web page rendering compared to Xperia arc.

Ruediger Odenbach, General Manager, Sony Ericsson Middle East, said: “Xperia arc S is the fastest and most entertaining Xperia™ to date. It clearly demonstrates the premier range of smartphones in the Xperia family that are embedded with features and offer a great entertainment experience.”

Xperia arc S includes best-in-class Sony technology such as 3D sweep panorama that enables images to be captured in 3D and then viewed by connecting the phone using the HDMI output to a 3D TV. Xperia arc S has a visually brilliant 4.2” Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine, an 8.1mp camera with HD video capability and Sony’s award winning Exmor R for mobile image sensor that enhances still images and videos even in low light conditions.

Consumers also have access to a unique social entertainment experience of sharing through Facebook inside Xperia, in addition to the extensive world of Android with over 250,000 applications.
Xperia arc S at a glance:
• Super-fast 1.4 GHz processor
• 3D and 2D sweep panorama photography
• 8.1 MP camera with Exmor R for mobile image sensor
• 4.2” Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine
• Latest Android platform Gingerbread 2.3

Priced at AED2,099 in UAE, Sony Ericsson Xperia arc S will be available across leading electronic stores from 28 September, 2011.

Zotac expands its GeForce 520 to PCI and PCIe x1

Press release:
ZOTAC International, a leading innovator and channel manufacturer, today expands the value GeForce GT 520 lineup with new PCI and PCI Express x1 form factors for users with pre-built systems that have limited expansion capabilities. The new ZOTAC GeForce GT 520 PCI and PCI Express x1 graphics cards breathe new life into older systems by delivering a performance punch and new video capabilities.

“Upgrading your graphics card is the easiest way to boost your system performance and gain new capabilities. The new ZOTAC GeForce GT 520 PCI and PCI Express x1 graphics cards shows that you can experience good graphics without upgrading the rest of your system,” said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC International.

The ZOTAC GeForce GT 520 PCI and PCI Express x1 graphics cards provide DVI, HDMI and VGA outputs with dual simultaneous independent display support for an instant dual-monitor upgrade. The low-profile form factor enables the ZOTAC GeForce GT 520 PCI and PCI express x1 graphics card to easily fit in compact pre-built systems with height limitations in addition to expansion limitations.

It’s time to play with the ZOTAC GeForce GT 520 PCI and PCI Express x1 graphics card.

Samsung Galaxy S2 HD LTE – the first true HD phone

Samsung has just gave a shocker to the world by announcing Galaxy S2 HD LTE phone. This variant of Galaxy S2 is all about the screen. It has a 4.65″ screen displaying a massive 1280×270 resolution. Yes! that is the same resolution that most of laptops display. This sets a record for both Android phones and smartphones in general. So, this phone is technically the first true HD (720p) smartphone in the world.

This screen gives it 316 ppi which is same pixel density as the much smaller iPhone 4. Moreover what samsung has above iPhone is its Super Amoled plus screen. It has not been confirmed that if this HD phone has a Super Amoled Plus or standard Super Amoled screen, but if it does carry a Plus screen then the display will be jaw dropping.

Other specs include 16GB of storage, dual-core 1.5GHz processor, 8MP camera capable of shooting 1080p HD video. Right now the smnartphone is announced only for Korea. But hopefully it will get launched in other parts of the world too.

WhatsApp now available for WP7

Blackberry messenger is one of the most beloved things for Middle East mobile users, but WhatsApp is the app that brings Blackberry messenger like instant messaging facility to other platforms. The beauty of this app is that it allows cross-platform messaging and since it is linked to your mobile number rather than a web based login / password system so SMS can go without any SMS rates being applied to you. And the good news is that WhatsApp is finally available for Windows Phone 7 users too, making it a truly cross-platform app.

Available in the Windows Phone market place now, this app works just like it would on iPhone or Android and allows you to chat with your friends without worrying which phone they are using. Although some users have reported that WhatsApp currently doesn’t work with their WP7. This is because the app is mainly designed to be used with Mango version of WP7. So, if your current WP7 handset is not working with this app, just wait for the Mango update to be released soon and you can join the WhatsApp community to fulfil your social messaging needs.

Grab the free app @ WP Market Place

Facebook Timeline: a fresh look for your past

We have seen that recently Facebook has went into a top gear with its development of new features. This maybe due to pressure from Google+ or just Mark Zukerberg’s aim to evolve Facebook into something more powerful and more engaging than before. One such plan of Facebook is to offer clips and details from your own life back to you now. This old events and statistics feature of your life will be “Facebook timeline”, revealed at the f8 facebook developer conference. The engineers at Facebook will basically make algorithms to pick important keywords from your status updates to generate data, as well use the photos you share, videos or music you like, places you check-in; to generate data about your life, and present a quick look on the front page for you to look back at where you were few years ago.

This timeline project is being helmed by Nicholas Feltron, who reached the social statistics hall of fame when he started to release infographical data of his fathers life. The amount of data collected and then compiled in infographic form was amazing. They are available online to be seen here. The same sense of personal information compilation is being targeted by Facebook for each individual. It will be a treat to watch how your life evolved over the years through this timeline.

The timeline interface is still in beta and available only for Facebook app developers to try out. For the rest of public you have to wait for a few weeks for the new interface to be finalized.

Limited functionality for Android Player on Playbook

BlackBerry PlayBook users are anxiously waiting for OS2 upgrade which, along with native email and PIM clients, bring the Android Player. Not much official information is available on the player, however there was a leak some time back that allowed enthusiasts to try out a rather incomplete build.

With RIM participating at DriodCon in Romania, we got some amount of information from their engineers explaining that BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps will support a number of Android apps on the BlackBerry OS and future QNX platform, however, some key features will be missing, as posted on The Next Web:

Android’s famed battery-sucking Live Wallpaper, SIP and SIP VoIP, anything built using the Native Development Kit, apps containing only App Widgets, and apps containing more than one activity tied to the Launcher.

In addition, any packages which rely on Google Maps, in-app billing services, Android’s text-to-speech engine, or the cloud-to-device messaging system will all be rendered unusable under the company’s runtime system.

So don’t expect applications like Skype to work which is probably a bit disappointing. Honestly, I would love to see more native apps on the PlayBook than being emulated through the Android Player.

Amazon unveils $199 Kindle Fire tablet

Amazon has officially unveiled their 7″ tablet, dubbed the Kindle Fire, which has a dual-core CPU and is only offered with WiFi. The full (16 million) color panel has a 169ppi screen covered in Gorilla glass. Comparatively the 16GB iPad 2 with a 9.7″ 132ppi screen starts at $499.Shipping of the Kindle Fire begins November 15th, with pre-orders beginning now.

The Kindle Fire will come with a free 30-day Amazon Prime trial as well, which is Amazon’s premiere service, providing free 2-day shipping for unlimited products, including unlimited streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows. Furthermore, all of your data will be backed up on their cloud servers, with movies and music using their WhisperSync cloud saving that will synchronize your movies and music playback across all Amazon devices and programs.

According to Amazon, the new Amazon Silk tech will help drastically improve the web surfing experience on the Kindle Fire because their servers monitor the browsing habits of customers, and will automatically start pre-loading pages where customers are most likely to go.

Obviously the Kindle Fire wasn’t the only star of the show, with Amazon also showing the next upgrade for their original e-book reader: the Kindle Touch. This new $99 ($139 with special offers) Wifi e-ink reader will have a complete touch based interface for moving forward and backwards while reading; the physical keyboard is completely gone. Furthermore there will be a 3G version available as well, with an all-data plan without any monthly fees, available for $149 ($189 with special offers). Don’t even think that the 3G version will be sold here. Officially, at least. The new Kindle Touch will also have a feature called X Ray which will allow the reader to get more background info on characters and other points of interest, with the info being pulled from sites like Wikipedia, amongst others. These new models will start shipping on November 21st.

Finally we have the good old Kindle will also be sold in a newer and smaller looking and faster performing model, albeit much cheaper than anyone could have anticipated: for $109 ($79 without special offers)! Oh, and the new Kindle also loses the physical keyboard, but it still has navigational keys.

Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos very aptly describes the new products and their pricing in one sentence, “We’re making premium products and selling them at non-premium prices.”

Microsoft Patents 1.4 Gigapixel camera

Late last week Microsoft applied for a patent at the US Patent & Trademark Office for a 1.4 Gigapixel camera. What makes the camera unique, apart from the ridiculous resolution, is the way it creates an image.

Basically there are 4,096 CCDs inside the camera’s body, each capable of taking 0.34 Megapixel pictures. Each one of the 4,096 pictures will have an overlapping margin over the sensor next to it, so that when the entire gallery is combined as one image, the result is a smooth image of the subject. There’s an secondary camera inside the main body which wil have a field of view larger than the main lens in order to assist the main camera controls.

Furthermore there will be a thermoelectric device inside the main camera body to keep all the CCD sensors cool. There seems to be a “light source synchronized with the one or more digital sensors” in order to reduce the exposure time of an image. This isn’t necessarily a fancy way of saying the 1.4GP camera will have a flash.

The use of such cameras may well become integral for museums and even astrology as more detail is captured in a single image. The Dead Sea Scrolls coming online was made possible through a similarly high-res (although not as high as this) camera. This is an example of a 1.4 Gigapixel picture which is a combination of over 220 images stitched together. Imagine seeing a picture like this of space, from your backyard!

Turtle Beach Ear Force X12 Gaming Headset Review

I’ve had two Turtle Beach headphones in the past and both of them broke, so when I got the Turtle Beach Ear Force X12′s to review I was thinking it would end up the same. A lot of gamers will have heard of Turtle Beach as its one of the most common gaming headphone manufactures out there, they have stereo headphones, dolby digital surround sound, wireless headphones and more for all gaming platforms.

Link:

http://tech-reviews.co.uk/reviews/turtle-beach-x12-gaming-headset-review/

Guide to IT colleges and universities in UAE

As many students enter the final year of their high school, they’re faced with the daunting task of deciding what university or college to attend for higher education. This one decision will shape the rest of your life in more ways than you can imagine. These next three or four years of your life will define your outlook on life, and will influence the way you perceive different situations in life and how you treat different people. And interesting as it to delve deeper into this train of though, I’ll bring us back on track with the topic on hand.

This being a technology website, I’ll mostly be looking at the various educational institutes around UAE that offer anything from a Bachelors in IT to different media branches of graphical design and computer animation. This article is for students who’ll be entering their university, and as such will only focus on undergraduate courses. I won’t go into detail about what each course provides, I’ve hyperlinked everything to the respective course details on the university’s website directly, so you can see what each module provides in detail.

 

Remember one thing, that no matter how good a university’s website looks, you cannot make a decision as big as choosing which university to go for until you’ve been there, seen their facilities, and ideally talked to the tutors of each module you’re planning to attend. Many universities offer open days, but at the time of writing this article those days are gone, and in fact a few universities have even started their courses. Still, these are early days, so changes can still be made. And with that, let’s go down the list of universities/colleges/institutes that provide IT and related courses here.

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