The Zone

Wireless N (IEEE 802.11n) is the latest WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) technology in the world today, but it only works at a maximum of 500Mbps.  With all the advent of HD (High-Definition), it would seem it won't be long before we'll be yearning for Gigabit Wireless to match our Gigabit (1Gbps) wired physical network, which will become a norm with the proliferation of Wireless N. So what's next?

Scientists in the U.S. have come up with the idea that it may be possible to get Gigabit Wireless by the end of this decade via the unused 60GHz radio frequency.

They have already achieved 15Gbps at one meter, 10Gbps at two meters and 5Gbps at five meters - so this isn't just hot air.  This is good stuff - it can lead to wireless hard drives (which will be faster than Wireless USB), Wireless Servers, and even Wireless DVD players!  Imagine being able to wirelessly send DVD to a TV screen!

They also plan to make it backward-compatible so it'll work with current WiFi, and there's no health risks even at 60GHz because that frequency is stopped by human skin and cannot penetrate the body.

The name for this Gigabit Wireless? IEEE 802.15.3C, but we prefer Wireless X no?

Source : Press Esc 

If Vista (Windows 6) was codenamed Longhorn, guess what Windows 7 is codenamed as?

Vienna?

Wrong!

We thought it would be Vienna too, back when Vista was being developed. However it would seem that Redmond decided to call Windows 7 as...Seven.  That's right, the number 7, or Seven if you want to be reminded of that movie based on the 7 deadly sins - that's right, start your Windows Seven jokes now.

We have no idea what the final retail name will be like, but for now, dump Vienna as the codename for Windows 7, and just stick to...7 (or Seven - sorry, can't resist it).

Source : C-Net News 

Want an iPhone? Here's how you can get one...

Liquid cooling used to be the stuff supercomputers were cooled by.  Desktop computers started with no heat sink, just the processor.  Then the heat sink arrived, followed by the fan.  These days we have liquid-cooled processors. So the question is, what's next?

Ion.

The stuff that powers the TIE (Twin Ion Engine) Fighter in the Star Wars universe, and can be found in some homes to purify the air. These days you can also find it powering some hair dryers, as Ions are cooling and won't harm the hair like hot air.

Heck even NASA has a spacecraft powered by an Ion engine, called Deep Space One.

Isn't it about time computers were cooled by Ion as well? 

Well, Intel-funded researchers managed to achieve 250-percent heat-transfer efficiency by using Ionic wind on processors, opening a possibility for future processor cooling.  Here's to better computer cooling via Ion than messy liquids!

Source : Physics Organisation

Definitly on a roll since they also launched a new F8 LCD TV which is 1080p capable, the Korean electronics giant Samsung plans to release this:

Definitely looking sleek, the YP-P2 as we know it can act as a Bluetooth headset which allows you to listen to 10000 MP3 files and recieve calls at the same time! No word on release dates over here though, but it is definitely stunning to behold and does remind us of a black iPhone with blue highlights.

Before we can even reach Wireless X (Gigabit), there are talks about a future wireless optical solution. That's right, you're talking about broadband by light.

In the age of LEDs replacing lamps, you could soon have LEDs in a room beaming Internet to your notebook with an optical wireless adapter.  The advantage is that unlike radio waves used in today's wireless, data can't leak out the room.  The down side is that you'll need LEDs in every room to form a wireless cloud.

Optical wireless also offers Gigabit-class speeds, compared to radio waves which have to be limited to not harm people by too much radio waves.

If you think about how Powerline (wired network over electricity) is taking up, having optical wireless is merely the extension of Powerline. Think about it - the same LED that lights your room can provide you with Internet!

Source : Scientific American July 2007

In a somewhat thumping blow for the Blu-ray camp in the current nex-gen format wars, Paramount Pictures just announced that they're going to throw their support solely behind HD-DVD. All Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Nickelodeon Movies, MTV Films and DreamWorks Animation movies will only exclusively be available on HD-DVD (or DVDs of course). Note that Steven Spielberg's films do not apply as his films are not exclusive to either format.

According to Paramount, one of their main reasons to do so is because they believed that standalone HD-DVD players are more prevalent in homes today in the US. Of course, what Paramount didn't say is that it's also easier on Paramount's pockets too as HD-DVD is cheaper to manufacture than Blu-ray discs. So much for the PlayStation 3 being a so-called trojan horse for Blu-ray adoption eh?

The first movie to be released from Paramount exclusively on HD-DVD will be Blades of Glory on August 24th. Yes, Transformers and Shrek The Third will follow soon after that. And yes, exclusively on HD-DVD only.  

Source here.

We can probably think of a few juvenile captions to go with this screenshot but we'd rather let you do the honors instead to warm up your creative juices for the YouGamers Screenshot Caption contest; YouGamers, Futuremark's Gaming community website, is having a Screenshot Caption contest where the funniest caption will nab himself 4 PC or console games of his choice! 

To participate, just choose a screenshot from any article, review, or preview from YouGamers.com, join their forums, and simply PM the caption along with the URL to the image to the username YG_Competitions, with the subject "YouGamers Caption Competition". By the looks of it the competition is opened to all gamers worldwide so get cracking and start checking out their site! Your entry must be received by 31st August 2007 so you only have 2 more days to go! 

Read 

Charming. That's one of the words that can describe this Air Ray from Festo. A remote-controlled robot that floats through the means of helium indigestion, the Air Ray spookily reminds us of one of those Metal Gears in MGS. Scary? it does cross the uncanny valley for me. Hit the link to catch a video of it in action!

 Video here

[via Gizmodo] 

All will be revealed today... 

By golly! two new gadgets to drool about today! First off, like what hoobs mentioned yesterday, Apple has launched three new iPods that mostly have the same functions, only in different skins.

On the left, you have your lonely shuffle, followed by the new Video nano, 'classic' iPod and iPod Touch. In comparision to the iPod Touch, the iPhone sits placidly beside it. We still want the phone instead as the Touch only touts 16GB of flash-based memory and WiFi. 

In other news, HP, in conjunction with Voodoo has launched its (or rather, their) astoundingly beatiful sclupture, the Blackbird 002. Check out the pics after the jump!

The first real working commercial hack for the iPhone? Hmmm....

Today was pretty hectic as I kept running between the Game Developer Conference on the 2nd floor of the convention centre and the 6th floor, which housed the main showroom floor. Now that the Game Developer Conferences are over, I can now mainly concentrate on the showroom floor though I already have a fairly good impression of most of the games so far.

I managed to talk to the producers of EA's upcoming titles Burnout paradise and Battlefield: Bad Company earlier today, and was walked through the titles. Being a big fan of the Burnout series, I was a little concerned when I heard the news that they were planning to make it an 'open world' map and that most of the standard user interfaces and menu bar were gone.

After the demo, I'm happy to report that Burnout Paradise is shaping up to be a solid Burnout title in the series. The producer demonstrated how seamless it was to connect wirelessly to multiplayer without having to go out of the game, and how even when both players are at different locations in the city, they're still able to compete with each other through other performing a series of mini achievements (longest drift, racing traffic, etc). The graphics look sharp and crisp on the PS3 and the game runs at a smooth 60fps. Definitely a title to look out for when it comes out sometime later this year.  

The other EA title that I got to watch in action was Battlefield: Bad Company. Built on an entirely new engine called Frostbite, I wasn't so much impressed with Bad Company's graphics (looks amazing by the way) but more by its physics engine, especially with explosions and blast. In the demo, we were able to blast a hole in the wall of a house and enter through there and use it as cover. It's unscripted and totally dynamic, so it's quite possible to destroy an entire house if you have the ammo and weaponry. The same goes for the trees in the game, and anything that looks destructible. 

Bad Company also takes a cue from the Battlefield games in that how you want to complete a mission or map is entirely up to you as you may start off with your basic kit of weapons or enemy soldiers may carry useful weaponry that can aid you in your task. Speaking of enemy soldiers, while the demo didn't show that they had capable AI (the build is still very early in the works), they are able to destroy buildings as well, so if you're taking cover in a house and the enemy is using a tank, then your cover can easily be blown to bits in a matter of seconds.

Our demo tester willingly acknowledged the weaknesses of the previous Battlefield games on consoles since they were direct ports from PCs, which is why they decided to go with an entirely new engine from the ground up with Bad Company. With the game optimized for console controls, this should hopefully address the previous qualms that Battlefield fans had. He also didn't rule out a PC port of Bad Company in the future.

I don't normally pay much attention to the Battlefield series but now that Bad Company appears to have a decent single-player storyline, I'm willing to check it out. Plus I want to blow some stuff up too. 

A special prize to the first person to answer correctly. The answer after the jump.

I just recently came back from the MSI Media Tour 2007 in Shanghai, China so I apologise for the lack of updates on my side. While it isn't my first time visiting an assembly factory, it was for me for a notebook and motherboard assembly plant so watching its production unfolds was a terribly interesting endeavour. It's a pity we couldn't take any shots of our own, so all of the factory production shots that you'll see in the upcoming report for this trip are basically stock photos approved by MSI.

What I was surpised most of all was how much of the assembly work is still done manually by hand instead of by machine, judging by the hundreds of assembly workers at the factory. I had always thought that notebooks were always churned out by the dime by machines.