Safe Gadgets

The FM's budget speech has just concluded though as of the time of posting this article the speech has not yet been made available at http://indiabudget.nic.in/

Mr. Chidambaram mentioned "Wireless Data Cards" in the list of products on which Excise Duty has been slashed from 16% to nil. That's great news considering all the telecom operators who offer such products import them from the likes of Huawei, Sierra Wireless etc. The catch though is that we hope the term "Wireless Data Cards" includes the new USB dongles as well since data "cards" as such have become defunct as laptop makers have phased out the PCIMCIA slot into which these cards were inserted.

Assuming that the entire duty cut benefit is passed on to consumers, a USB data dongle which typically costs around Rs. 3,000 will be cheaper by nearly Rs. 500. We contacted the major telecom players and we'll update you with their reactions on this matter.

UPDATE 1: The budget speech is now available Here is the relevant part:

146. There are a number of products which are goods of mass consumption. There is also the need to have tax parity on similar goods. Taking into account requests from a number of industries, I propose to reduce the excise duty from 16 per cent to nil on a few items including composting machines, wireless data cards, packaged coconut water, tea and coffee mixes, and puffed rice.

UPDATE 2: EXCLUSIVE: Spokespersons for both Airtel and Tata Indicom have confirmed that they will pass on the ENTIRE benefit to consumers.

Source- http://www.tech2.com/india/news/budget-2008-general/budget-08-cheaper-data-cards/30211/0

Windows XP is faster than the new Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) in completing common consumer and business tasks on PCs coming out of sleep mode, but the differences are slight.

The performance tests, conducted by Principled Technologies Inc. on Microsoft's behalf, showed that the older XP operating system remained faster than Vista SP1 in 61% of the operations grouped in a consumer test suite, and faster than Vista SP1 in 46% of the operations in the business-oriented head-to-head.

The results were from time trials held on identical PCs after they'd come out of standby, a power-saving feature in Windows. Vista, like other operating systems, including Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X, calls the same mode "sleep."

However, when the same tests were run after a cold boot -- with the PC's power turned on, the OS booted and the scripts run after two minutes -- Vista SP1 came out on top in 74% of the tested consumer functions, and 66% of the business operations.

Differences Were Small
But no matter which operating system came out on top, the differences were small in virtually every case, said Principled Technologies. The total difference between XP and Vista SP1 in the 31 consumer tasks, for instance, was less than 5 seconds; of the 64 chores in the business scenario, 60 sported a difference of under half a second.

"Overall, Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP performed comparably on most test operations," Principled Technologies concluded in its report.

The tests were run on four systems -- two notebooks, two desktops -- from Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Toshiba Corp.

A fifth system, another HP desktop, was omitted from the aggregate results because it, "produced unacceptably high variability in its test results," according to Principled. Interestingly, that system showed XP was faster than Vista SP1 in more chores than any of the other test machines. In the consumer test set, for example, XP was faster than Vista SP1 in 74% of the operations immediately after a reboot of the discarded HP.

Windows XP performed much poorer on the dropped HP in the business tests; it was faster than Vista SP1 only 31% of the time, lower than the average of the other four PCs. But when it came out of standby, XP beat Vista SP1 in 53% of the business-oriented jobs, a higher percentage than the other machines.

That, among other things, touched some nerves. Several users commenting on Microsoft's official Vista blog -- where mention was made of the tests -- took exception to Principled's conclusion that Vista SP1 and XP produced comparable results.

"Hard to believe when every other review site on the planet shows pretty much hands down [Vista] is slower on similar hardware," said a user identified as Ceinach. "I didn't even think this was a point of argument anymore. This statement is fairly stunning.... It's like Microsoft is claiming the earth is still flat."

Computerworld's own tests, for instance, showed that file copying -- a function Microsoft has said it spent considerable effort improving in SP1 -- remained much slower on Vista than on Windows XP.

SP1 Doesn't Give Much of a Boost
Principled Technologies also put Vista SP1 up against the pre-service pack version of the operating system. When armed with SP1, PCs finished 87% of the consumer chores faster than plain Vista, and wrapped up more of the business operations faster as well. But the speed improvements were meager, said Principled. Most of the business tests were completed just fractions of a second faster by Vista SP1 than by Vista.

"Overall, Windows Vista SP1 was more responsive than Windows Vista on most comparisons," the report stated. "Performance differences between the two operating systems were typically less than a quarter second."

Source- http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,142952-c,windows/article.html

Over the past week or so, we've been hearing reports from retailers across the US that the current 40GB PS3/Spider-Man 3 deal was about to wind up. They'd stopped receiving them, and had instead been told to expect new 40GB units without a movie. Seemed odd.

Might be a very good reason, though: we've since heard from Circuit City employees that they've begun receiving shipments of these "new" PlayStation 3s. On the shipping box? The model number CECHH01. Which the more observant amongst you will recognise as the model # for the White PlayStation 3. Seems these will be held in stock until the current Spider-Man 3 bundles are gone, and will then be offered for the standard price of $399.

Source- http://kotaku.com/362127/white-ps3-due-in-march

Looks like the iPhone is launching in Ireland with O2 on March 14th, according to Pocket-lint. It's supposed to go for the low, low price of €399 (including VAT) on the 8GB and €499 for the 16GB; we haven't heard anything solid either way, but we'll let you know if we do....

Source- http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/28/iphone-launching-in-ireland-on-march-14th/

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello has been dropping some none-too-subtle hints that the company is interested in another Road Rash. He name-checked the bloody motorcycle racing classic at DICE during his talk and recently in a GameDaily interview in an attempt to, we assume, get gamers misty-eyed with nostalgia for the franchise.

He let slip in a recent interview with the Classic Metal Show that he had just recently licensed one of his tracks to the game. Well, he comes close enough for us to get a bit excited, saying of the tune "You Don't Understand" from his recent album "It's a super heavy song. That just got picked up for some video game, Road Rage or Road Rash, or something like that." Obviously, Bach is not a die hard gamer.

It wouldn't be the first time an aging musical outfit had peeped when they maybe shouldn't have. Queens of the Stone Age and Aerosmith both pre-announced some news last year about Rock Band and a pair of Guitar Hero games. We're just guessing that Bach doesn't know that publishers like to keep these things under wraps until the very last second.

We've contacted sources at EA for clarification on the rumor, but they have yet to get back to us.

Thanks for the heads up, Dave.

Update: EA got back to us with the following statement: "Though CEO John Riccitiello has recently mentioned it as a classic, beloved EA franchise, Road Rash is not currently in development." Is Sebastian Bach just confused or a dirty, dirty liar?

Source- http://kotaku.com/361476/road-rash-returns-sounds-like-it-%5Bupdate%5D

Number 1. Apple PowerBook Laptop was miraculously engineered. Mega wide display - the largest ever in a notebook -, brilliant screen, 100 GB hard drive, built-in Bluetooth - these are the features of this laptop.
Then, Apple is a very reliable brand. Don't care about its size and weight; it's not a problem to carry the laptop with you. With its help you can do everything you need: have fun, distract and, of course, work. You will be definitely pleased with it - your laptop will guess beforehand your desires. Great gadget, extraordinary features - you will love it.


Number 2. HP Pavilion DV6745US 15.4" Entertainment Laptop is an entertainment-centric notebook with 15.4-inch LCD widescreen. It has stylish high-gloss finish with wave imprint, so it looks outstanding and gorgeous. This laptop has all the features you need.
Actually, it was designed for entertainment. For example, it guarantees you fast access to your entire entertainment library. Then, you will also find a lot of functions and built-in devices that will make your work on the laptop really pleasant and productive.


Number 3. Toshiba Satellite A215-S5802 15.4" Laptop takes the third place. This is a nice qualitative notebook. It is perfect both for work and games. It has a gorgeous, wide, bright and clear screen. 120 GB of internal memory allow you to keep all the necessary information there.
Thanks to newest TruBrite technology you will be impressed with the vividness of the images. This laptop is more solid that the previous, it also has a lot of nice features that will help you either to work on it or enjoy yourself.


Number 4. Bratz Cyber Style Laptop will be your daughter's most desirable gadget. It looks really cute and attractive. It is perfect for a girl: starting with its design and continuing with its features.
The biggest advantage of the laptop is that your girl enjoys herself and learns at the same time. 11 game categories including spelling, grammar, vocabulary, math, mind benders, study break games, art, science, geography, music, Spanish, writing, and touch typing will help her to develop her mind and succeed at school.

75 different games will help her to distract and have fun. You will be able to open new features every time you turn the laptop on.


Number 5. I think we'd better start with the Darth Vader Learning Laptop. This will be an outstanding educational toy for your kids. This is an exclusive gadget for children at ages 4 and up.

The laptop has 80 different games that will help your child to develop. The good point is that this device doesn't include any cruel games. Games are aimed at hand-eye coordination, music, memory, reading, typing, logic and math.
I think this must be the best set of games for a child. Laptop features a QWERTY keyboard and a large, easy-to-read LCD screen with backlight. But please, don't expect extraordinary quality of the screen.

This is not a professional laptop for work. The laptop seems to be reliable and well-built. So, this gadget can become your child's first personal laptop.


Source- http://gadgets.infoniac.com/top5-laptops.html

In addition to revealing that Justin Timberlake would present her to the public at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Madonna let slip the title of her forthcoming album, which comes out on April 29: It's going to be called Hard Candy, just like that nail polish line and that old Ellen Page movie, and it'll also have a track called "Candy Store."

According to Madonna's long-suffering publicist Liz Rosenberg, Madge "loves candy ... [The title is] about the juxtaposition of tough and sweetness, or as Madonna so eloquently expressed 'I'm gonna kick your ass, but it's going to make you feel good.'" That's the type of personal-trainer-derived talk that almost makes you pine for the days of Licorice! Maybe Madonna figures that she's being transgressive in this lollipop-girl era by admitting that she actually eats junk food in her new album's title?

Source- http://idolator.com/361101/madonna-officially-out-of-ideas

Superman used to be just strong and sort of invulnerable, but now his powers are officially out of control. According to Superman II, he can erase your mind just by kissing you, not to mention his super-breath, super-hearing and super-ventriloquism. But Superman's out-of-control power really started with his super-peepers, which have a whole arsenal of eye-related powers. Check out our list of Superman's overcharged eyeball abilities.

It's no secret that Superman was so overpowered in the comic books that he used to move planets around, was extremely super-smart, traveled through time (without flying around the Earth backwards) on a regular basis, and had powers ranging from super-smell to super-mimicry. He outmatched nearly everyone in the universe, except God, so they had to retcon his ass a few times.

Chief among Superman's powers was his vision, which started out of just the ability to see things fairly sharply, but over the years he must have had laser-eye surgery, because things got a whole lot better for him:

• Probably the most-wanted usage of Supey's eyes was his 'x-ray' vision. What teenage boy (and possibly some girls) wouldn't have wanted to see through clothes? You could even order x-ray spex (that sadly did not work) from the back of comic books. He couldn't see through lead, and according to Kingdom Come he couldn't give you cancer either. No 'melanoma vision' for our hero.
• His 'heat vision' (which was originally a by-product of the x-ray vision) is portrayed as either lasers shooting from his eyes, fiery optic blasts, or the literal balls of fire which they seem fond of on Smallville. The comics later explain that he's able to shoot his stored-up solar energy out through his eyes.
• His 'telescopic vision' grew over the comics to eventually let him see not just distant planets, but what was happening on those planets. We wonder if he could flip that vision around so things just appeared very, very tiny.
• Superman used his 'microscopic vision' on many occasions in the 1970s, analyzing fingerprints, checking out atomic structures, electrons, and protons. In fact, he could have made a fortune alone just by checking houses for fleas.
• Superman could also see into the electromagnetic spectrum, which allowed him to do dorky things like follow broadcast signals back to their origins. You know, for when crooks go on TV to brag about their plans.
• Supey also sported 'radar vision,' which was apparently just low-powered infravision, allowing him to see in the dark.
• He could also combine these vision powers, like using x-ray vision and telescopic vision at the same time, so he could see those distant planets without an asteroid blocking his view.
• Ultra Boy from The Legion of Super-Heroes had abilities similar to Superman's, although his 'penetra-vision' could see through everything, including lead, and his 'flash-vision' burns twice as hot as Superman's heat vision. Oh, and it's blue.
• Speaking of blue vision, Superman developed a new 'electrical vision' power in Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman as an homage to the electric blue Superman from the 90s. Why you'd want to send a shout-out to that particular version of Superman, we'll never know.
• When Superman "died" and his "Superboy" clone appeared, he didn't have any vision powers. However, he later was given a pair of goggles that simulated most of Superman's vision abilities. Why doesn't Superman just give a pair of those to every cop on the planet?

Source- http://io9.com/360939/everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about-supermans-eyeballs

We've been trying to understand the new Apple Macbook Pro battery life ratings compared to the old models. It's been hard to quantify generational differences because Apple is now testing using a more challenging battery benchmark, while improving the efficiency of the new machines via Penryn chips and LED backlights.

We just got comparative numbers between the previous and current generation notebooks from Apple. They read as follows:

Macbooks and Macbook Pros have 30-45 minutes more life than the previous generation using the same Wireless Web test. With LED backlighting, the numbers jump to an hour. Note that the 17-inch notebook is not standard with an LED backlit LCD, so those are not the estimates given. Lastly, while Apple's test is harder than it used to be, as we saw in the Air, the battery life you or I will get on these machines will likely be even less. (The battery claims in the previous generations were much higher because the old test was basically typing on a text editor with Wi-Fi off, which obviously inflated previous battery life estimates beyond reason.)

Source- http://gizmodo.com/361001/apple-says-macbook-and-macbook-pro-battery-life-has-improved-slightly

We've always heard that Apple deliberately sends out misinformation to distract the rumor sites, and it looks like that may actually be true -- check out these shots of the Future Shop inventory system, listing the upcoming MB402LL/A and MB403LL/A SKUs from Apple as being priced at CA$1149 and CA$1349, respectively. That's MacBook pricing, if we had to make a guess -- but remember that earlier Best Buy shot that showed a box size of 17 inches square, which is way bigger than any non-Pro MacBook.

So, to recap: there are definitely new Apple laptops coming soon, but we have almost no idea what kind -- based on product cycles, we'd say it's the MacBook Pro, but signs point to the MacBook as well.

Source- http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/25/more-apple-macbook-macbook-pro-models-numbers-pop-up/

You may only be vaguely aware of DivX's Stage 6 video site (which probably explains why it wasn't successful) but it's going to be shut down entirely at the end of February. Stage 6 was DivX's YouTube-like video site meant to provide a bunch of streamable content for living room and mobile DivX players. The fact that it's being canned speaks to how successful the effort was. Most of you won't miss it, but we'll have a special place in our hearts for the handful of nudie clips we found on it that one time.

Update: A reader points out that DivX was saying Stage 6 is successful, but consumed too much of their attention and resources, so the only options they had were to spin it off, sell it, or shut it down. We're not one to argue about varying levels of being "successful", but if it really were as "successful" in terms of being "profitable", we're not sure why DivX couldn't hire some more employees to man the site. Having a dedicated site to provide content in the correct format would have been a good asset to have as the DivX "platform" is growing.

Source- http://gizmodo.com/360612/divxs-stage-6-streaming-video-site-shutting-down

Remember that rumor from EGM that pointed to a Dead Rising sequel coming from a Western developer? We heard a similar but slightly different rumor from a source that also says development duties are being shifted stateside, specifically at Vancouver-area third-party Blue Castle Games. If you're not familiar with the name, you may remember Blue Castle from its work on The Bigs for 2K Sports. While the relatively young, 100-person strong development studio is known for its multi-platform sports work, it is currently listing an unnamed "action game" for the Xbox 360 as one of three secret projects on its plate.

Recently added videos on the Blue Castle web site feature interviews with team employees who call one of their upcoming games "probably the most sought after projects in Vancouver" amid bleeps that might give some indication about what they're working on. Another interview with the art staff talks of working on "far more interesting things than stadium artwork" including "city streets, weapons and vehicles." While that in no way comes close to confirming that they're working on Dead Rising 2 for Capcom, the chatter we heard at last week's GDC makes it sound like the rumor has some basis in truth.

It wouldn't come as much of a surprise, as Capcom has shown that projects managed by its Japanese HQ and farmed out to Western talent is something the publisher is actively pursuing. Capcom has moved development on Bionic Commando, Dark Void and Okami for Wii to external teams, something it seems happy to continue doing.

When we contacted Capcom about Blue Castle's involvement, they opted to neither confirm nor deny the rumor. Likewise, our e-mails to Blue Castle went unanswered, so consider this rumor for now.

Source- http://kotaku.com/360639/dead-rising-2-coming-from-the-bigs-team

Apparently, video is all the rage these days. Just ask the folks who received a survey from Microsoft about services which may or may not be coming to the Zune.

It's possible your heart might skip a beat when you read questions like, "I would rather download a movies from an online service than buy a DVD," or, "My friends and I regularly send each other links to online videos." Though the question, "I'm willing to carry a larger MP3 player if it improves the quality of the display," could just be suggesting a new Zune-XXXL is on the way. Regardless of what it you take away from these cryptic messages.


Source- http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/25/zune-survey-points-to-video-downloads/

A B-2 Bomber, probably the coolest aircraft ever created after the Lockheed A-12, has crashed for the first time ever. Its name was the Spirit of Kansas and it was one of the 21 $1.2 billion Northrop Grumman stealth plane ever manufactured. It fell to the ground right after take-off for "unknown reasons" at the Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. Both pilots ejected to safety and video footage of the aftermath shows a big mess on the ground:

The B-2 Spirit follows the same ideas pioneered by John Knudsen Northrop, who founded Northrop to pursue his flying wing designs, and the Nazi Horten Ho-IX, one of the most advanced planes at its time, designed by the Horten brothers.

The Ho-IX, also called Gotha Go 229 or Ho 229, took of for the first time in 1944 and was the only plane to meet Luftwaffe's chief, frustrated transvestite and absolute nutter Hermann Göring 1000-1000-1000 performance standards: the Horten was capable of transporting 1,000 kilograms of bombs (2,200 lb) over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) at 1,000 kilometers an hour.

Fortunately, it never reached production and most airframes were destroyed by US forces to avoid the Soviets getting their paws all over them. The U.S. VIII Corps of General Patton's Third Army captured one, however, and its low-drag, no-unnecessary surfaces live now in the B-2.

Horten Ho-IX

Northrop Early Flying Wings

Unlike the experimental Horten and the flying wing designs that Northrop designed in the 40s (like 1948's Northrop YB-49, a jet-based variation of the 1946's YB-35 strategic bomber) the Spirit became fully operational.

The B-2 bombers are amazingly efficient: like its 20 sister vessels still in service, the Air Vehicle-12 Spirit of Kansas was capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear bombs to any target around the world in a few hours, with just one refueling. Powered by four General Electric F118-GE-100 turbofans capable of 17,300 pounds of thrust each, the aircraft can reach 410 knots (470mph) at a maximum altitude of 50,000 feet.

Another advantage of its simple design —coupled with its radar-absorbing coating, called Alternate High-Frequency Material—is that their radar profile is extremely low. Coupled with its operational altitude, this make them extremely hard to detect and shot down. That's the reason why this crash, which no known reasons yet, is so exceptional. That and the effect of watching $1.2 billion dollars disappearing in an crater in a concrete runway.

B2 Spirit
According to the Air Force, an investigation is currently under way about why the Spirit of Kansas went to Oz at Guam. But don't worry, taxpayers, I'm sure you will get a cool 3D simulation of how it all happened from the Wizard in Chief, General Dorothy and Commander Toto, at the Pentagon.

Source- http://gizmodo.com/360090/b+2-stealth-bomber-crashes-12-billion-dollars-turn-to-smoke

With the increasing amount of online services available for your perusal, many workers are going mobile more and more—or they're at least taking the opportunity to travel while not feeling too detached from work life.

The Computerworld Blog suggests Lifehacker favorites to create your mobile office, including Flickr for photo storage, Skype for phone calls, Zoho for office software, and I Want Sandy as your to do list. What are the others tools for you, let us know....

Source- http://lifehacker.com/359471/what-tools-do-you-use-in-your-mobile-office

Firefox has just hit 500 million downloads worldwide, it is an impressive statistic and we think everyone who works on the project should get a pat on the back. As if their contribution in creating a kick-ass browser was not enough to the world, the Mozilla team is celebrating by raising funds for 500 million grains of rice, which they will give away to poverty stricken nations.

Source- http://www.spreadfirefox.com/500million

iPod Touch Tube- The iStick is the size of lipstick tube. But it has four touchscreens for four times the Coverflow. I don't really get the white cube eating up a quarter of the stick though—why not just make the whole thing a solid tube of touchscreen, with the bottom and top holding the single button and earphone jack?

It also has Wi-Fi, for browsing the iTunes Store.

Source- http://gizmodo.com/359901/istick-the-ipod-touch-tube

It's not the first time we've seen diesel touted as a solution for more efficient vehicles, but Loremo AG's new eponymously-titled vehicle may just have all of 'em beat. According to the vehicle's designers, in addition to diesel, they relied on engine efficiency, low weight, and minimal drag to boost the fuel-efficiency, which they say could top out at lofty 150 miles per gallon.

With numbers like those, it should come as no surprise that Loremo's also entered the car in the Automotive X-Prize competition but, unlike most of the other entrants, this one will apparently actually be available to the general public relatively soon. That'll supposedly come sometime next year, with Europeans the first in line to get their hands on the vehicle for the relative bargain price of €15,000 (or $22,000) -- a redesigned North American version is then set to follow a year later. As if that wasn't enough Loremo's also promising a spiffier 3-cylinder GT version that'll run you $30,000, and both hybrid and fully electric versions, although those are only described as "in the works."

Source- http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/21/diesel-powered-loremo-promises-to-hit-150-miles-per-gallon/

Upload and share up to 5GB of data to Windows Live SkyDrive, an online storage solution from Microsoft that's just graduated from beta. With your SkyDrive account (which requires a Windows Live ID), you get that 5GB of storage (which bests Box.net's 1GB free plan) for personal folders accessible only to you, shared folders accessible to your friends, and public folders open to everyone (which can be subscribed to via RSS).

Details on SkyDrive limitations and usage are sketchy, but it looks like individual file sizes may be limited to 50MB. Share your comments what you feel about Skydrive and we'll answer your queries...

Source- http://lifehacker.com/359271/get-5gb-of-free-online-storage-from-skydrive

It's an old adage that no security measure is worth anything if an attacker has physical access to the machine, but things like heavy-duty disk encryption are supposed to at least slow things down. Sadly, that may not actually be the case, as a group of Princeton researchers has just published a paper detailing an exploit that requires little more than a spray duster and a screwdriver. Since the encryption key for systems like BitLocker and FileVault lives in RAM, all an attacker has to do to get it is cool the RAM modules with the air duster held upside down, yank the DIMM, and insert it into another machine, where it can then be read to access the key. Of course, this assumes that you've already typed in your password, but check the video after the break to see how long bits in RAM stay written -- even if you've turned off your computer, there's a chance the key can still be read.

Source- http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/21/diesel-powered-loremo-promises-to-hit-150-miles-per-gallon/

Not much has gotten better since the nineties. The radio, for one, has gotten much worse. Magazines and newspapers totally suck now. In real terms the minimum wage has barely increased. Why, in my adult life I might say there hasn't been much to be very proud of in this country -- except, of course, clothes shopping. Over the past five years or so the way we shop has transformed in parts of this country, largely on the backs of the hallowed triumvirate of "fast fashion" retailers, H&M, Forever 21 and the Spanish retailer Zara and if you'd allow me to geek out for a minute, a story in today's Wall Street Journal lays out the reasons for that: Zara and H&M have become wizards of logistics, the scintillating business of figuring out how much stuff to get from which factories to which warehouses to which stores how fast. In the process, they've brought clothing manufacturing back into higher-wage countries and made cuter clothes available cheaper and faster. How did these companies manage to kick the asses of the Gap, Abercrombie etc. so quickly? I have a (socialist) theory as to how this all happened.

In Europe, retailers traditionally weren't supposed to hold sales. This has changed recently in some countries, but like, for years and years the government didn't let them mark down clothing. So while American retailers would over-order inventory from China by the shipping containerful, figuring that if something -- boyfriend jeans? Editor pants? pleather -- happened to take off, they could sell more of them at a retardedly inflated full price and get a better Christmas bonus. European retailers, meanwhile, were barred from law by generating this sort of waste. They were forced to simply become more efficient about monitoring what exactly was going to sell. This forced them to become more attuned to fashion while keeping prices at an "everyday low" level.

Then they came over to the U.S. and kicked the asses of all the bloated boring retail giants by offering cute clothes at reasonable prices. The thing is, do you end up buying more crap than you need now vs. the era of The Gap? Or less?

Source- http://jezebel.com/358875/the-gap-is-dead-long-live-hm-so-do-you-buy-more-or-less-regrettable-clothing-now

If you leave the office most nights feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, and behind on everything you've got to get done at work—even though you just spent 10 hours there—you're letting your workday get away from you. It's too easy to let the hours you spend at the office get stolen by meetings, email, interruptions, and impromptu co-worker chats that leave you saddled with busywork and too distracted to get the important stuff done. But with a little thought, you can leave work feeling accomplished and complete instead. When it's time to take back your workday, there are a few dead easy strategies that can help you focus on your tasks, firewall your attention, and reduce your workload so you can get out the door feeling light, free, and done.

10. Make a lunch or dinner date (to create a deadline).
Ever wonder why your co-workers who are parents get out of the door on time every day like clockwork? It's because they've got to pick up the kids at daycare by a certain time. If you feel like you've got all day to get things done, you're more likely to get sucked into stuff that's not that important. But a deadline will light a fire under your butt and keep your eye on the clock. If you know you've got a spouse at home expecting to see you by 6:30, or a buddy waiting for you at the gym, you're more likely to stay focused, get your stuff done, and get out of your chair on time.

If you can take lunch on your own schedule, this same strategy works midday, too: make a date with your co-worker or friend to have lunch at a set time, and use it as a deadline for getting your morning tasks done.

9. Write down the first thing you have to do tomorrow morning and put it on your keyboard before you leave the office.
The sad reality is that if you let it, your workday will get away from you without one single task getting checked off your to-do list: unless you make it your personal mission. The best time of the day to GTD is first thing in the morning, so make it easy on yourself. Every evening, before you leave the office, write down the single most important task you've got to get done the next day. Leave it on your desk, with any support material you need to work on it, so you can get rolling first thing. The best way to start your day is accomplishing something instead of fiddling around with email.

8. Don't check email for the first hour of the day.
Author of Never Check Email in the Morning Julie Morgenstern suggests waiting for one hour before you open up your email inbox in the morning. Instead of thoughtlessly reading email first thing, work on that task you laid out for yourself in #9. Accomplishing something out of the gate sets the tone for the rest of your day, Morgenstern says, and once you've launched your email client, you're "open for business" and paying attention to incoming requests.

Note: If you do business with folks in different time zones, this guideline can be very difficult to follow, especially if you know you've got new messages over night. But let's be realistic: a one hour email delay won't kill anyone.

7. Decide NOT to do one task on your to-do list and cross it off.
It's not always the boss who's putting pressure on us to get things done and assigning us tasks: sometimes we take on little projects and to-do's because they seem like a good idea for one reason or another. If you've got a to-do list a mile long with items that have been sitting there for weeks? Chances are there are a few you can cross off right this moment because they're not worth doing after all. A "good idea at the time" isn't always a good idea. If you've assigned yourself busywork that isn't that important, simply opt not to do it—that's the fastest and lowest-effort way to get it off your plate.

6. Edit that email you're writing down to less than five sentences.
No one likes to get long-winded email, and email's not the appropriate place to have extended conversations. The shorter your email is, the more likely you are to get a response. Designer Mike Davidson instituted a personal email policy that no message he sends is more than five sentences, which saves himself and the recipient time. Give it a try. If your message has to be longer, pick up the phone and call instead.

5. Cut someone off.
When chatty Cathy's yapping your head off, or that passive meeting leader is letting things go off the rails in the conference room for too long, speak up. Don't be rude, of course. A polite but business-like, "Can we get back to the agenda?" or "I hate to cut this short, but I've got an appointment" or "This seems off-topic for this meeting--can we move on?" can save you hours of wasted time at the office.

4. Book a meeting with yourself.
If your head is spinning with all the stuff you've got to get done and the interruptions keep coming, you need some alone time. If the hours of your day keep getting stolen by meeting requests and drive-by interruptions, box out an hour or so every few days specifically to regroup and get organized. Literally enter the meeting with yourself on your calendar, and if you need to get away from your desk, book a conference room as well. Take your project list, to-do list, and calendar with you to the room and spend that time deciding what, when, and how you're going to tackle all the stuff in your work life, as if you're a boss meeting with your assistant. (GTD'ers know this technique as the weekly review.)

3. Master the art of the qualified yes.
Don't be a yes-man or woman by default. When you have a choice (and most times you do), instead of automatically saying yes unconditionally to incoming requests, qualify it. Ask for more information like the deadline or requirements. See if it's something that can be put off till a later date or done by someone more available or better-suited. Merlin Mann's recent talk at Macworld, Time Sinks and Attention Burglars, has a fabulous section on negotiating incoming requests and qualifying your yes'es so you don't give away your time so easily.

2. Block out distractions and set a timer.
When your brain is frozen in a solid block of paralyzed procrastination around a task and you're letting yourself get carried away by distractions like email and instant messenger, it's time to take out the big guns. Turn off your email and IM client, grab a kitchen timer, set it for 10 minutes, and work until the beep. Then, take a break. Wash, rinse, and repeat. I swear by this technique, which got me through writing 400 pages of the Lifehacker book when all I wanted to do was crawl under the bed and hide. If you give yourself an easy deadline (it's only 10 minutes!) and make it a race with the clock, you'll unfreeze your brain and break through your blocks.

1. Do a free jot brain dump.
When you're so stuck in a rut that your brain can't even grok the concept of a to-do list and you have no idea where you are or where you should be, it's time to do a serious regroup (while going easy on yourself). Take a piece of paper and a pen, go to a quiet place, and free jot for 10 minutes. Make lists. Mind map. Free associate ideas. Rant. Write down whatever comes to mind to get your juices flowing. When we get hung up on busywork and crushed by overwhelm, our brains can't take it any more. A last-resort, free-jot brain dump can re-focus the big picture: what's important to you, what your biggest problem is right now, and what your next step is.

Regular brain dumps and mind maps are a great way to boost creativity and get started on projects, but they're also an effective last resort strategy for those really bad days that have reduced you to a twitching mess of dysfunctional information anxiety.

Source- http://lifehacker.com/358472/top-10-smart-and-lazy-ways-to-save-your-workday

If you're an early adopter who got burned by Blu-Ray's victory over HD DVD, Wired's How-To Wiki details how to convert your old-and-busted HD DVDs to the victorious Blu-Ray format.

The catch is that the process, from start to finish, is a major pain, and you'll need both an HD DVD drive and a Blu-Ray burner on your PC. In all the conversion is probably more of a hassle and just as expensive as re-purchasing your HD DVDs in Blu-Ray or buying a dual-format player, so if you're really considering going through this process, you may want to take that into account that before diving in. Hope to hear from you through your comments.

Source- http://lifehacker.com/358675/convert-your-hd-dvds-to-blu+ray

As of today, the analog cellphone is no more. Here's the complete timeline of its development, since Greece in 490BC to February 18, 2008, the day in which networks are no longer obligated to provide with analog cellphone coverage.

Click image in order to see more details.

490 BC
Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens to transmit the news of the victory over the Persians.
Signal was really bad back then: he died on the spot after delivering the message, according to Plutarch.

1876
First successful telephone transmission. Graham Bell says "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you" and Watson understands each word clearly. A century later, people would be "What? Say that again? Watson? Watson?" over cellphone lines.

1895
Marconi puts Tesla wireless communications discoveries to practice, developes commercial radio.

1906
Reginald Aubrey Fessenden demonstrates first wireless radio telephone.

1908
First US Patent on a wireless phone awarded to Nathan B. Stubblefield.

1926
Radio telephony starts to be used in the First Class of the Hamburg-Berlin train line.

1939
World War II starts. Germans start using radio phones in tanks on a large scale.

1945
Germany surrenders. Hitler kills himself, he never used a Windows Mobile Phone, (or a Playstation 3 or a HD DVD player.)

1947
Bell Labs proposes hexagonal cells for mobile phones, with the three sided antenna we know today. It sucked, because it was all theoretical.

1954
Linus Larrabee (Humphrey Bogart) uses a real mobile phone from his car in Billy Wilder's Sabrina (played by Audrey Hepburn.)

1956
First fully automatic mobile phone (Mobiltelefonisystem A or MTA) system launched in Sweden by Ericsson. Each handset, pictured above, was 90 pounds (40 kg.)

1965
Ericsson's MTB is launched. This time, the headset is just 20 pounds (9 kg.) thanks to the use of transistors.

1970
Automatic "call handoff" system is invented, allowing mobile phones to move through several cell areas during a single conversation without loss of conversation.

1971
ARP, the first successful commercial cellphone network, is launched in Finland. You couldn't move from cell to cell seamlessly.
It was 0G (Zero G.)

1973
April 3, 1973: Motorola's Dr. Martin Cooper calls Joel Engel, head of research at AT&T's Bell Labs, while walking in New York City using the first Motorola DynaTAC prototype. The beginning of 1G networks.

1978
Bell launches first trial commercial cellular network in Chicago.

1982
Nokia introduces their first cellphone, the analog Mobira Senator. FCC approves the analog-based Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) and assigns frequencies in the 824-894 MHz band.

1983
Motorola DynaTAC 8000X is the first commercial cellphone available in the US.MTB shuts down, still with 600 clients.

1990
FCC approves the Digital AMPS, the beginning of the end for analog networks.

1991
First commercial GSM call in the world. Done using Nokia hardware. 2G and digital begins.

1993
txt msgng apprs 4 1st time LOL.

1996
Motorola StarTAC debuts.

2000
3G appears.

2002
FCC decides to shut down the analog network

2003
GPRS and EDGE, technologies for faster (but not too fast) data transfers, launch. It's 2.5G. 3G networks are not available yet.

2007
iPhone launches. Still runs on 2.5G technology, but adds Wi-Fi for data transfer. 3G cellphones start to become ubiquitous.

2008
February 19
Cellphone analog networks can shut down.

Source- http://gizmodo.com/357895/the-analog-cellphone-timeline

Make no mistake, we've seen curious job postings lead to changes in our favorite gizmos before, and hopefully, a recent ad on Microsoft's website is no different. A listing seeking a Program Manager explicitly states that it's looking for someone to "be involved in the next release of Xbox," and wants that very individual to be "part of the Xbox Live team that's responsible for creating a completely new way for mainstream audiences to enjoy the Xbox and Live."

Better still, the description suggests that the team would be "building the games, the console interface and logic, and the server support for a totally new Live experience." Granted, there's nothing more to go on than this at the moment, but we can't help but be a teensy bit excited about the notion of an overhauled Xbox Live.
Source- http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/18/microsoft-job-posting-hints-at-totally-new-xbox-live-experience/

Best-selling author Tim Ferriss offers digital minimalism tips to reduce the amount of time you spend in your email inbox.

Here are eight concrete tips and services for digital minimalism that can help eliminate—as a start—compulsive inboxing during the evenings and weekends.

Treat all of them as short experiments and customize.

1. "Batch" email at set times.

Have an email-checking schedule and do not deviate. There is an inevitable task-switching cost otherwise—U.S. office workers spend 28% of their time switching between tasks due to interruption, and 40% of the time, an interrupted task is not resumed within 24 hours. Use template autoresponders to alert people of your email schedule and encourage them to call if something needs faster attention. The "urgent" email-to-call conversion is usually less than 10%.

This gives you breathing room to focus on predefined to-do's instead of responding to manufactured emergencies and ending the day with nothing to show for it.

Alternative approaches include appending your signature with your email schedule, having only email from certain contacts forwarded to your Crackberry/PDA, and—if a manager of a small group—setting an inbox checking schedule for internally-generated email. Ensure that your first batch is around 10 or 11 a.m. and never first thing in the morning, as you want a meaningful volume (1/4-1/3rd of the daily total), and you should accomplish at least one critical to-do before going into reactive mode.

2. Send and read email at different times.

Go offline and respond to all email from a local program such as Outlook or Mail to avoid having the outgoing flow interrupted by immediate responses.

Ever noticed how effective it is to respond to your email while on an airplane? Manufacture that environment by going offline to batch send.

3. Don't scan email if you can't immediately fix problems encountered.



One simple example: don't scan the inbox on Friday evening or over the weekend if you might encounter work problems that can't be addressed until Monday. This is the perfect way to ruin a weekend with preoccupation. Remember that just as income has no value without time, time has no value without attention.

4. Don't BIF people during off-hours.

"BIF" stands for "before I forget" and refers to emails sent on evenings or weekends out of fear of forgetting a to-do or follow-up. This sets a mutual expectation of 24/7 work hours and causes a plethora of problems. There are a number of better alternatives. First, use a service like Jott.com instead that allows you to send voice reminders via cell, which are transcribed and sent to your inbox or someone else's. If to someone else's, be sure to add "no need to respond until [next work hours]." Second, if you prefer low-tech, externalize follow-ups and to-do's in a small notebook like a Moleskine instead of entering the "bet you can't eat just one" inbox.

5. Don't use the inbox for reminders or as a to-do list.

Related to 4 above. Don't mark items as "unread," star them, or otherwise leave them in the inbox as a constant reminder of required actions. This just creates visual distraction while leading you to evaluate the same items over and over. Put them into a calendar (or Moleskine or other capturing system) for follow-up and archive the email, even if that calendar item is just "Respond to 2/10 email from Suzie." (Editor: See Lifehacker's "Trusted Trio" system for moving email messages out of your inbox and into one of three places: Archive, Hold (calendar item for a later date), or Follow-Up (your to-do list.))

6. Set rules for email-to-phone escalation.

One Senior VP in a Fortune 500 company recently told me that he's established a simple policy with his direct reports that has cut email volume by almost 40%: once a decision generates more than four emails total in a thread, someone needs to pick up the phone to resolve the issue.

7. Before writing an email, ask yourself: "what problem am I trying to solve?" or "what is my ideal outcome?"

Unclear purpose, usually a symptom of striving to be busy instead of productive, just requires later clarification from all parties and multiplies back-and-forth volume. Be clear in desired results or don't hit that Send button.

8. Learn to make suggestions instead of asking questions.

Stop asking for suggestions or solutions and start proposing them. Begin with the small things. Rather than asking when someone would like to meet next week, propose your ideal times and second choices. If someone asks, "Where should we eat?", "What movie should we watch?", "What should we do tonight?", or anything similar, do not reflect it back with "Well, what/when/where do you want to...?" Offer a solution. Stop the back and forth and make a decision. Practice this in both personal and professional environments. Here are a few lines that help (my favorites are the first and last):

"Can I make a suggestion?"
"I propose..."
"I'd like to propose..."
"I suggest that... what do you think?"
"Let's try... and then try something else if that doesn't work."

Remember: In email, the small things are the big things. If you can cut an exchange from six to three email messages, that's a 50% reduction in your inbox volume over time. This can make the difference between working all the time and leaving the office (both physically and mentally) at 5 p.m.

Source- http://lifehacker.com/357666/how-to-stop-checking-email-on-the-evenings-and-weekends