How to Turn Off Windows Sounds Easily

Often you must have seen notifications popping up at wrong times, like during a presentation, and the beep sound is quite annoying.

Similarly, I’m sure none of you like those clicking, warnings and notification sounds in Windows when listening to your favorite music or a podcast.

SoundOff is a free application that lets you quickly and easily turn off Windows sounds with the right-click of a mouse button.

Unlock iPhone 3GS with Firmware 3.1 on Windows

The iPhone Dev team has no plans to release and PwnageTool for Windows users and since there also isn't any ETA on the release of Redsnow, so we have created a Custom/Hacktivated IPSW for iPhone 3GS users who want to update to Firmware 3.1 while preserving the baseband.

Only users with a previously Jailbroken iPhone 3GS (on an old firmware) should attempt to follow this tutorial as it does not work for those who have an iPhone 3GS with Firmware 3.1 out-of-the-box. The tutorial will help to Jailbreak and Unlock your iPhone 3GS on Firmware 3.1.

O2 Worried About Newly Bought iPhones

The iPhone is available in a number of countries but since its international conquest following the 3G’s launch, only one carrier per country (or countries) had full exclusivity of the iPhone like AT&T does in the US. While competition amongst various carriers is a good things, it may be bad for British carrier O2, the first to carry the iPhone in the UK.
Up until last week, O2 was the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in England but Orange and Vodafone have stepped in to the arena and are offering iPhones to their customers starting November and sometime next year respectively. This new competition naturally would have any carrier worried but O2 faces losing up to 30,000 subscribers as they cancel their contracts within the allotted 2 weeks they have after buying their iPhone, a sort of test run on the network for customers. While it’s not expected O2 will lose that many subscribers, it seems possible that at least a few will jump ship to wait for the deals Orange and Vodafone will offer for the iPhone.

First waterproof hard drive

Drawing heavily from the world of 007, this waterproof hard drive was definitely much awaited. While Bond is always crashing cars, dodging bullets and saving the world, you never know when he’s ready at ladies’ service in the bathtub. SH93, as quoted by A-DATA, is the industry’s first waterproof and shock resistant portable hard drive. Carrying the US military’s MIL-810F standards for drop resistance and resistance, this hard drive can withstand 30 minutes under 3.3 feet of water. Comes with two built-in USB 2.0 cables along with a standard size connector and a mini USB link, the 2.5-inch drive is available in yellow or red and in 250GB, 320GB, 500GB and 640GB capacities. There’s no info as to what the pricing will be like, but given the Bond qualities of the drive including the HDDtoGO software that lets the user work remotely from the drive without leaving any data behind on the host PC, this gadgetry might find its way to the next Bond movie.

Sony Ericsson Lunches XPERIA X2 Handset with 8.1Mp Camera

Sony Ericsson recently unveiled its new XPERIA X2 model that boasts a 3.2-inch touchscreen and an incredible 8.1 megapixel camera.

The dimensions of this model are about the same as its predecessor X1, but the current smartphone is lighter and its developers decided to redesign the keypad so it would look like a netbook one. You can reveal the keyboard by simply sliding out the phone's upper portion.

The 8.1 megapixel camera is probably one of its most interesting features. XPERIA X2 from Sony Ericsson has 14 preloaded and 16 more downloadable custom panel interfaces. The gadget is also meant to present for the first time the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system.

 

What Surgery will Look Like in the Future

Over the past 20 years, robotics have revolutionized surgery, and new innovations are continuing to push the boundaries of medicine.

The "da Vinci" system revolutionized keyhole surgery.

Mike Rustic, senior lecturer at the mechanical engineering department at Imperial College, London, says machines such as the "da Vinci" system have had a huge impact on surgery.

The "da Vinci" first appeared in 1991 and lets surgeons carry out keyhole surgery remotely, allowing them to control robot arms from a console that also provides a three-dimensional image of the proceedings.

While the "da Vinci" system is the most widespread robotic surgery tool, Rustic says the "Sensei Robotic Catheter System" is also starting to be used for electrophysiology procedures on the heart.

A new exhibition at London's Royal College of Surgeons called "Sci-Fi Surgery: Medical Robots" has displays ranging from the "da Vinci" system to prototype microbots designed to be swallowed and self-assembled in the human body.

Rustic says there is much ongoing research into micro machines -- miniaturized robots that could be placed in a patient's body to gather information or carry out medical procedures.

But he says that although pill cameras -- cameras that are swallowed by a patient to provide images of their digestive system -- are already in common use, micro machines remain some way off.

"Micro machines are basically one of the holy grails, but it will take a while before we see something."The difficulty is that even if you can make little motors you need to power them up and you have to be able to communicate with them and direct them."

Rustic says one innovation on the horizon is a device being developed by Imperial College that would allow a surgeon to remotely control an endoscope while a patient is inside a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine, which would give real-time image feedback during gastric procedures and prostate biopsies.

But he adds that currently, robotic surgery devices are often prohibitively expensive and tend to be used for a narrow range of procedures."There is currently a gap. We are trying to produce complex machines to replace surgical tools, which are hand tools. It's like when industry moved from a chisel and hammer to machine tools."

Pier Cristoforo Giulianotti is a professor at the University of Illinois department of surgery. He told CNN that as more manufacturers join the medical robotics marketplace, innovation will speed up and prices will come down.

Giulianotti cannot foresee a time when robots replace surgeons, but he has no doubts over the importance of robotics. "Robot surgery is the future of medicine," he said.He sees the future as bringing extreme miniaturization of tools, as well as developments in augmented reality, where visual displays show computer-generated images and information overlaid onto images of the real world.

New Via NetNote to support 1080p HD video

Via is introducing the VIA NetNote Turnkey Systems, which combine the portability and affordability of a netbook with the functionality and HD entertainment capabilities of a notebook in a light, high performance clamshell mobile device with long battery life, and support for flawless playback of high bit-rate 1080p HD video.

VIA NetNote Turnkey Systems offer customers a quick, low cost approach to entering the mobile computing market or expanding their current product portfolio and feature a choice of VIA C7-M ULV or VIA Nano processors supporting an 800MHz FSB, combined with the VIA VX855 media system processor with its support for a wide range of digital media technologies and I/O.

NetNote devices not only boast the full functionality and larger keyboard and screen sizes more commonly found on standard notebook devices, but also incorporate innovative features such as an integrated, externally controlled MP3 player that doesn’t require the user to boot the OS, an extendable aerial used to receive digital video broadcast from both satellite and terrestrial transmitters, and the ability to act as an FM transmitter allowing users to tune in car radios or cell phones to pick up NetNote broadcasts.

Thrustmaster Ferrari Gamepads

If you are a hardcore gamer, that you should try the Thrustmaster Ferrari Wireless Gamepads for the Sony PlayStation 3 and PC. The wireless pads is currently available in four models: the Ferrari Wireless Gamepad 430 Scuderia Limited Edition, the F1 Wireless Gamepad Ferrari F60 Limited Edition, the Ferrari Motors Gamepad F430 Challenge Limited Edition, the F1 Dual Analog Ferrari F60 Exclusive Edition. All controllers are also fully programmable, equipped with internal memories and provide Sony PS3 and PC compatibility. Prices start at $49.99 each for the wireless version, while the wired version will retail for $39.99 a pop. The Thrustmaster Ferrari Wireless Gamepads will go on sale in October 2009

Nokia 3G Booklet

Earlier this week Nokia announced its entry into the netbook space with the Booklet 3G. The company hyped the device's titular 3G connectivity, an estimated 12 hours of battery life, and a weight of 2.8 pounds. Also on the list were Wi-Fi connectivity, a built-in camera, an HDMI port, a 10-inch display, integrated A-GPS, an SD card reader, and Bluetooth.
The company shed some more light on the device at this week's Nokia World in Stuttgart, Germany. The netbook is set to run Windows 7 on an Intel Atom processor. There's a built-in SIM card slot and, not surprisingly, easy calendar, contacts, and media sync with Nokia handsets via Ovi Suite.
The Booklet has 1GB of RAM, and a 120GB 4200 RPM hard drive. There are three USB ports and an HDMI out.

Solar-powered Bluetooth car kit

If you consider yourself to be a careful driver you might know about possible risk of cell phone driving. But high technology keeps on moving and moving and we do have some intelligent ways making our driving safer. Called the Bluetooth car kit seems to be a smart way to drive both carefully and economically friendly.

Being powered by solar energy, this sustainable solution might come handy whenever there is an incoming call. So even if you are in a hurry and are used to run your business on the go, this might be a nice option for you as this handfree gadget makes it possible for a driver to maintain safety while speaking on the phone. 

This comfortable device is easily attached to the sun shade above the windshield of your car to harness the solar power on the move. The power accumulated is then stored in a fitted battery. The solar powered Bluetooth car kit comes packed with LCD caller ID screen designed to let you know about incoming calls without any distractions and a speakerphone to be conveniently used while still keeping the driver concentrated on the road. 

The solar powered Bluetooth car kit can attach the solar power but what to do if it is an overcast day or it is about to rain? Still no problems for this clever car kit as you can power it using USB or a cigarette lighter.

Samsung Offers OLED laptop in Q3 '10

About a year ago, we had a fortune to become witness of the first OLED panel going into mass production. Back then it was a hi-tech exhibition, and, well, the story has repeated, almost. Today at the first day of IFA Berlin Samsung’s Head of Worldwide Sales and Marketing, who is Kyu Uhm of course, has given us a deem view of what will be a show stopper in a year – a (first) OLED notebook.

I am not going to speak all about his speech at IFA. Instead, let’s just have a walk through what an OLED display on a notebook can offer and take. One glance back though: Kyu Uhm has mentioned an expected growth of netbook market. In short, what he effectively said was: "We are making an OLED netbook". How good is that? If we think of power consumption, then it makes even more sense than putting an OLED display in a standard-sized laptop. What are main juice lovers in a PC? – screen, hard drive and processor. Same thing with size and weight. Organic diodes are really thin and light. Besides being overly magnificent to behold. So the future of personal computing, which is coming from Samsung in late Q3 of 2010, is a netbook with an OLED panel, SSD and low voltage processor. I like that. If only they give it out for netbook money, which I’m afraid they won’t.

You might have though the picture above is familiar to you. Yes, it is not new and not true. It’s a last year concept.

Nokia X3 a new sensational Phone

If you have been waiting for a new eye catcher phone, it seems to be your day as new Nokia slide phone is announced. Dubbed the Nokia X3, this innovative gadget features a slender and trendy design that offers some exquisite music capacities. This magnificent gadget makes it possible for its users to download or find a favorite tune from the millions pre-loaded songs.

This cool looking slider features the 16 GB of storage so you can easily play whatever music you like on the go. The Nokia X3 offers 3, 2 mega pixel camera that seems to be good enough to take high quality images along with some memorable video clips. The 2, 2 inches screen of the Nokia X3 sports home screen feature for you to keep track of data you might be in need of.

The Nokia X3 has stereo speakers while the 16 GB is accessible via its hot-swappable micro SD card (not included). This hands-free looker also offers Bluetooth 2,1 connectivity and USB 2, 0. It seems to be good for those who are fond of socializing as you can use features like e-mailing and instant messages, Nokia Chat and other trendy clients.

In order to listen to your preferable music you might use the traditional 3, 5 mm jack or follow FM radio via stereo speakers. There are also some games pre-loaded including Guitar Rock Tour, Rally Stars, Snake 3 and other amazing games. Nokia Maps include A-GPS navigation while thanks to OVi Store you might download applications, videos or games of your choice.

The Nokia X3 boasts up to 26 hours of high quality music playback, 7, 5 hours of talk time or up to 380 hours of standby time. It measures 96 x 49, 3 x 14, 1 mm and weighs 103 grams. This marvelous slider sports 262 colors and takes pictures with 4x zoom while video is recorded at QVGA quality offering 30 frames per second. The Nokia X3 is expected to hit the market with a sticker price tag of 163 USD.

Trasferable CD box for iPod

Share your digital music on the go, with Coby’s portable CD boombox for iPod. Snap any iPod into the CSMP140’s universal dock for high-quality playback of your music library, or slip a disc into the built-in, top-loading CD player.

Steve Jobs returns, introduces new iPods

 Apple's own rock star -- is back.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs hosted the company's music-themed event in San Francisco Wednesday.

Jobs, Apple's CEO, delivered the keynote address at the company's invitation-only event in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, making his first appearance at an Apple event in nearly a year.

He received a standing ovation that lasted 45 seconds.

Jobs last appeared at an Apple event on October 14, 2008, when he unveiled a new lineup of Macintosh computers including the ultra-thin MacBook Air. He was on a sabbatical for the first six months of 2009 because of health-related issues, which included a liver transplant.

"I'd like to thank everyone in the Apple community for the heartfelt support," Jobs said in a soft voice. "I'm vertical, back at Apple and loving every day of it."

Wearing his trademark jeans and black mock turtleneck, Jobs told the crowd he has the liver of an organ donor in his or her mid-20s who died in a car crash. He also asked everyone in the audience to consider organ donation. 

Jobs looked "quite gaunt -- much like he did before he took his leave," wrote Fortune magazine senior writer Jon Fortt, who attended the event.

Although Jobs introduced several new products, including iTunes 9 and upgraded iPods, his mere presence was the biggest news of the event, said Dylan Tweney, senior editor for Wired.com.

"It's huge, obviously. He is the mastermind of the new Apple and it's really good to see him back," Tweney said. "He's looking well -- thin, and some people were saying he sounds a little quieter and scratchier than before. But he's clearly doing well."

Jobs said the new iTunes store features easier navigation with a cleaner layout and bigger image display. iTunes 9 will have have a new look and a handful of new features, including "LP mode," in which users can download song lyrics, art and band and song information.

Users also will be able to download bonus features for movies, move files from one computer to up to five others and post information about songs and albums directly to Facebook.

For iPhone and iPod Touch users, Apple unveiled iPhone OS 3.1, which will allow users to download ringtones for iPhones for $1.29 each. These are premade ringtones, unlike the ones users can currently make for themselves in iTunes. Apple will make 30,000 of the ringtones available on Wednesday.

The App Store also will begin to make recommendations for applications using the same "Genius" recommendation technology that works on songs in iTunes.

The new iTunes will be available for download sometime Wednesday. The world's most popular online music site has sold more than 8.5 billion songs to more than 100 million account holders.

As expected, Apple also unveiled a new iPod lineup Wednesday, including new Nanos with video cameras, and slashed most of the music players' prices by $20 to as much as $120.

The iPod Touch will be available in 8GB, 32GB and 64GB for $199, $299 and $399. The two higher-end versions will be 50 percent faster, Apple announced.

Despite rumors to the contrary, Apple decided to keep the iPod Classic, bumping up capacity to 160GB from 120GB and cutting the price by $20 to $229.

And the iPod shuffle will be offered in five different colors and will come with an adapter so it will work with any headphones. It got a price cut to $59 for the 2GB model and $79 for the 4GB version.

Many also anticipated Apple to announce that it had signed a deal with The Beatles to make the band's music available on iTunes. No such news came Wednesday.

The Apple event coincided with the legendary band's release of its new "The Beatles: Rock Band" video game and digitally remastered CDs. The Beatles are one of the few bands whose music has never been approved for sale as downloads on iTunes.

Wednesday's event closed with a live performance by singer-songwriter Norah Jones instead, which disappointed some observers who were expecting Beatles-related news.

"Clearly it's a loss for Apple that they don't have that," said Tweney of Wired.com.

Reaction to Apple's product announcements was mixed.

"It's very good to see Steve Jobs back, but the expectations were blown out of proportion," said Trip Chowdry, an analyst with Global Equities Research. "The products are very good, but a camera on an MP3 player? That's innovation? Apple will have to come out with a category killer like the iPod or iPhone to continue to drive revenues higher."

Brian Tong, an editor at CNET, thought the event was "lukewarm" as far as introducing new technology. Rumors abound that Apple is developing a touch-screen tablet device, "but people who have been following it didn't really expect it to show up [Wednesday]," he said.

Tong was surprised to see Apple devote a chunk of Wednesday's event to promoting the iPod Touch as a handheld gaming device. The event featured demos by several game developers, including EA, which is bringing its popular "Madden NFL 10" to the App Store for the first time.

AT&T Announced MMS Support on iPhone 3G & 3GS

iPhone 3.0 brings us the ability to send and receive multimedia message (MMS). Like me, you’re probably enjoying this new feature and sending photos, videos or sharing contacts with your friends. However, there is a large group of user in United States awaiting the service. If you’re using AT&T, the exclusive carrier of iPhone in United States, MMS is not yet available on your iPhone.

Here is the big news! Congratulation to AT&T iPhone user in U.S. Finally, AT&T announced that the long-awaited multimedia messaging feature will come to iPhone on September 25. Starting from that magic day, in additional to email, you can use MMS to send photos to your friends. The service will be available to both iPhone 3G and 3GS customers. For those using the 1st generation of iPhone, you’ll not be able to enjoy the service (probably you need to consider an upgrade).

In the announcement, AT&T also explained why such basic feature, which is available to most low-grade cellphones, was delayed. They said it’s mainly to network capacity:

We know that iPhone users will embrace MMS. The unique capabilities and high usage of the iPhone’s multimedia capabilities required us to work on our network MMS architecture to carry the expected record volumes of MMS traffic and ensure an excellent experience from Day One.

So, what do you need to do before using the MMS service on AT&T?

On September 25, remember to connect your iPhone to your computer and download a carrier update via iTunes before you send out your 1st multimedia message. The update procedures should be very straightforward. Just plugin your iPhone and launch iTunes. You should be prompted with the carrier update (if it’s available).

Change iPhone SMS Background with Winterboard

Are you bored with the default SMS background and balloon color? For jailbroken iPhone user, you can actually use Winterboard to apply different themes to skin the Message application.

In Cydia, you can go to “Search” and then search for “sms”. You’ll locate ample cydia packages that allow you to change SMS background or bubbles. For most of the packages, they offer a preview of the change. You can tap “More Information” or “Screenshots” option in the installation page to check out the preview. If it’s the one you love, just install the package. When complete, quit cydia and launch Winterboard to enable the SMS theme (e.g. Tweetie SMS Balloons in below figure).

Here are a few SMS themes you can find in cydia. There are more on cydia. Go ahead and search “sms” in cydia to find out more.

Nokia announces N900

Nokia announced its first Maemo based phone- N900. It is not a "normal" N series phone, but a monster in itself. The device boasts an ARM Cortex A8 that provides 1GB of application memory and Open GL ES 2.0 Graphics acceleration support, which means that it is one powerful phone. 
The OS is Linux based Maemo 5 that gives the device comprehensive multitasking support. The UI is much better than the traditional nokia interface and might even challenge iPhone UI.
Nokia N900 has WVGA touchscreen and a full, slide out QWERTY keyboard. It has a 5 MP camera with 32 GB of internal memory expandable upto 48 GB.

Also, Nokia N900 will have the mozilla based browser named fennec, which will further enhance the browsing experience. It will support Adobe Flash 9.2.It also has HSPA Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity.

Nokia N900 will be available in October 2009 with a price tag of EUR 500

A Slim Emergency Charger for iPhone and iPod

If you tend to run the battery out on your iPhone at really difficutl times when you aren’t around a charger, you might want to consider an emergency charger.  Actually this will also work with many other iPod as well.  So when you’re in serious need of some battery life, you can just pull out this 1cm thick charger and charge it up again.  Since it is so small you could easily keep it in your pocket or a purse.

The charger will work with the iPhone (all versions), iPod Touch (1st and 2nd gen), iPod Classic, iPod with video and finally the iPod Nano (4th and 3rd gen).  Although you can’t think of many times when you was in an emergency situation where I absolutely had to have my iPod up and running.  However, iPhone users will probably get plenty of use out of something like this.  It has a built-in LED indicator to let you know it’s charging.  To recharge the emergency charger, you can either plug it into your computer or into the wall with the included AC adaptor.  You can get it from USB Fever.