Sunday, April 25, 2010

Most Popular Games : Grand Theft Auto San Andreas




Carl Johnson’s back on the set after five years in Liberty City, returning to his old haunts in San Andreas to mourn for his mother, dead after an act of senseless violence. An already unpleasant homecoming gets worse, though, as crooked cops set him up for the murder of a policeman, he discovers that his neighborhood is falling apart under an influx of drugs, and that his old gang is barely capable of holding their territory. Needless to say, the solution to all of these problems involves a whole lot of violence, as befits the latest and greatest entry in the extraordinarily popular GTA series of games.

Given that Rockstar created a massive game world in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, with only a year’s worth of development time between that game and Grand Theft Auto III, it should come as no surprise that the world of GTA: San Andreas, with two years of development soaked into it, is one of the biggest worlds ever modeled in an action game. Instead of focus on a mere state, Rockstar has enlarged their focus, this time choosing to model an entire state, with three separate cities and a huge amount of countryside to explore. Everything is bigger and better in San Andreas, so get exploring!

In this guide, we’ll provide you with a rundown of the game’s weapons, a complete walk-through of the game’s many missions, locations for all of the hidden oysters, photo ops, graffiti tags, a listing of weapons, and the proverbial much, much more. Big thanks to the guys from gta-junkies.com for supplying the location maps for this guide.

Most Downloaded Software : AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 9.0.730 : CNET Review






AVG Free provides the bare necessities when it comes to security, but that should be enough for savvy Windows users. You'll get a combined antivirus and antimalware engine, LinkScanner, and e-mail scanning. AVG Free 9 introduces a few new features, with improvements focused on performance, including claims of faster scan and boot times. One new feature is the Identity Theft Recovery Unit. Only for users in the United States, ITRU is a business partnership with Identity Guard which provides "consumer identity theft solutions," accessible only from the AVG toolbar in Firefox and Internet Explorer.

The interface is nearly unchanged from the last version, and generally it's easy to use. From the main window, though, you must double-click to get further information on any feature, whether virus scanning, LinkScanner settings, or updating. Streamlining this to one click would be helpful. A scheduling utility automates both scans and updates, while the upgrade ad at the screen's bottom can be easily hidden using the Hide Notification button. When starting a scan, a slider makes it easy to jump between Slow, Automatic, and Fast scans: the faster the scan, the less comprehensive it is, so users should take advantage of the scan optimization that is recommended during installation to speed up that first scan. A progress meter for regular scans would've been useful, though. Should a virus create serious problems, AVG creates a rescue disk to scan your computer in MS-DOS mode.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

One Step Ahead : Dual Touch Screen Laptop created by V12 Design




V12
Design, an Italian industrial design agency, developed a similar concept four years ago. Valerio Cometti, the founder and managing director of the firm, came up with a dual LCD laptop called the Canova.

The first-generation Canova had a dual-touchscreen form and Cometti told us, “it was developed for creative types, such as artists.” The first-generation model, of which we have a whole slew of images below, actually existed and was made of stainless steel and carbon fiber, but it didn’t run an operating system or software. It was envisioned to transform from a sketch pad, to a writing pad with an electronic pen, to a newspaper.

Cometti pitched the idea around to laptop manufacturers, who took interest. Which is where the Canova Generation 2 comes in. Cometti said that V12 Designs has been working on a second-gen version of the dual-screen laptop along with a U.S. manufacturer. He believes the laptop, if you can call it that, will be complete in as soon as 16 months and will come to the U.S. market. He could not reveal the name of the U.S.-based company with which V12 is co-developing and designing the system.

“We developed a brand-new style for the second generation. We did stretch the potential of the Canova noticeably, making it able to do things no notebook has been able to do so far,” Cometti told us over the phone. Unfortunately, he could not provide images of the new version.

He did tell us that it will be a portable personal computer that will support multi-touch input. As he designed in the first version, a software keyboard would appear on the screen. He recommends that the keyboard use haptic feedback since typing on this sort of keyboard is less comfortable than using a traditional one.

Cometti also stressed that a microphone would be built into the design because “voice recognition will become a more popular and widespread feature in these dual-screen notebooks.” The Canova 2 will also have the ability to transform into an e-book, letting users swipe a finger to turn the page.

Revo on Notebook : Acer TimelineX in Malaysia



Acer Malaysia has just released the new Aspire TimelineX, a slim notebook that features the latest Intel Core i5 processor.

The 14in Aspire TimelineX 4820TG-432G50 offers up to twelve hours of battery life (with the extended battery), Intel Core i5-430M 2.26GHz processor, 1,366 x 768-pixel LED backlit LCD screen, ATI Mobility Radeon HD5470, 2GB RAM, 500GB hard disk and Windows 7 Home Premium.

At just 1in thick, the TimelineX nevertheless offers eight hours of battery life with the slim six-cell battery, while the nine-cell battery will bring the notebook up to twelve hours.

TimelineX features a number of innovations through its PowerSmart Technology that works in combination with the power-saving features of the Core i5 processor.

For example, the hard disk is a new low-power version that goes into a deeper hibernation state when idle, while the LCD screen is LED backlit — both contribute to a power consumption 66% less than the standard required by Energy Star (the international standard for energy efficient products).

On top of that, when plugged in to a wall socket, the AC adapter automatically cuts off when the battery is fully charged, thus saving energy and increasing the useful lifespan of the battery by eliminating overcharging.

While the 14in Aspire TimelineX is the only model in the series presently, Acer is due to introduce a 13in and 15in model some time next month.

The TimelineX 4820TG has a recommended retail price of RM2,999.

iPhone 4G will be released




The new iPhone 4G was leaked by Gizmodo but was missing the iPhone 4.0 software because Apple had performed a remote wipe to prevent anyone from using it. We had no proof as to whether or not the photo gallery posted on Gizmodo was legit but now it’s been confirmed. Apple has sent Gizmodo a legal notice and asked for them to return the iPhone 4G prototype unit that they acquired from someone who stole it from an Apple employee for $5,000.

iPhone 4G Specs that were leaked:

* Front-facing camera – Used for Video Chat
* Back camera – They’re saying it’s improved
* Micro-SIM – , as opposed to the standard SIM in the current iPhone
* Improved display
* Power, mute, and volume buttons are metallic

iPhone OS 4.0 software will be released in June along with the iPhone 4G. I’m not really excited about the iPhone 4G hardware since it still looks like a brick. If iPhone on Verizon becomes a reality, I’m getting it.