Nokia N8 Smart Phone

If you want a smart phone loaded with features, this might be the one for you.  The Nokia N8 has a 12-megapixel camera with xenon flash that also captures HD video at 720p.  It also has a 3.5 inch OLED screen, 16GB memory with micro SD card slot supporting up to 32GB memory cards, FM radio, FM transmitter, GPS, micro USB2.0, and an HDMI connection.  What?  A phone with an HDMI connection.  Well if you can record in 720p, you may want to just hook it up straight to your HDTV or home theater system and see the quality.  Nokia didn't skimp on audio either.  The N8 supports Dolby Digital Plus, one of Dolby's high definition audio formats.  That means surround sound from your phone when you connect it to your home theater with an HDMI cable.

Apple is expected to release its 4th generation iPhone soon after WWDC, which starts on June 7, but I'm not sure the new iPhone will measure up to these hardware specs.

Multitasking iPhones

It's been almost three years since the release of the first iPhone.  Users have been asking for the ability to multitask for that entire time.  Well, Apple has heard it, I'm sure, but is now ready to do something about it.  Apple announced today that multitasking will be part of iPhone OS 4.0, which will be released this summer and available on 3GS models.  Multitasking will also be available for the iPad in the fall.

An iPhone not with AT&T?

This could be good news for New Yorkers and fellow San Franciscans.  The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple's exclusive carrier deal with AT&T may be ending this summer with the release of it's next iPhone.  If that is the case, AT&T may see a massive exodus of customers.  Read more here.

Want 4G on your iPhone?

Sprint has released a new 4G mobile hotspot that can be used with your cell phone or laptop.  They even created an ad using the iPhone, as noted by ZDNet here, to reach those millions of unsatisfied AT&T customers.

What should be in the next iPhone release?

Check out CNet's post of the top 25 features.  Some are clearly not going to happen, like integrating Flash, but others will very likely happen.  Upgrades like increased memory and battery life along with a decrease in price for existing models have always been the core of Apple product updates.  I personally would like to see at least a 5MP camera to compete with other phones (likely) and support for Dolby Mobile (not likely).

Get Paid for Old Electronics

Getting paid for your old electronics and gadgets just got easier. Forget the hassle of trying to sell them on eBay or wondering how much you can get for it, just go to gazelle.com and they will pay you to take if off your hands. It's quick and easy and they even send you the box and pay for shipping.

4 Great iPhone Apps

Money Magazine shared a few iPhone apps that you may already be aware of. Redlaser is probably one of the best, especially when it results in an instant price match at a retailer. Read more here.

Apple's iPad

You can't have a tech blog and not mention Apple's new iPad. The Wi-Fi version starting at $499 will be out around the end of March 2010, and the Wi-Fi with 3G version will be available one month after that for about $130 more. The good news about the 3G wireless access is that there is no service contract to sign for a specific period with AT&T; you only pay per month. The two plans will be either $15/month for 250MB of data usage or $30/month for unlimited data usage. Very exciting.

For additional details that you may not find on Apple's website, Engadget has laid out all that you may need or want to know.

OLED Laptops

This may be the future, but I wonder how far off it really is. Would you buy one?
Rollup Laptop Concept

USB 3.0 Coming Soon

It's time for an upgrade. USB 2.0 was a nice upgrade to increase data transfer rates, but USB 3.0 increases that data transfer by ten times. The other great thing about this upgrade is that it will be backwards compatible with other cables. Of course, to get the fastest speeds, you'll need the upgraded USB 3.0 port as well as the cable. More here.

The Future of Batteries

Popular Science Magazine has an interesting post on its site regarding a project to harness radio waves and convert them into enough power to keep handheld devices powered without having to plug them in.

Details here and below.

Nokia Working On Infinite Cellphone Battery
Nokia looks to device that harvests energy from ambient radiation
By Stuart Fox Posted 06.11.2009 at 4:02 pm 7 Comments

Infinite Power:

Who hasn't missed an important call or woke up at the wrong time because you forgot to charge your cellphone over night? Well, Nokia hopes to make that a thing of the past by developing a technology that would use ambient radio radiation to perpetually charge a phone's battery.

According to a report by Technology Review, the Nokia Research Center (NRC) has already developed a prototype that converts radio waves into electrical energy. RFID tags and crystal radios work on a similar principle, but the Nokia team hopes to develop a wave catcher 10 times more power than the current technology.

The NRC team aims to develop a power harvester that could store up 50 milliwatts of energy, up from the prototype's five milliwatt capacity. The article mentions that 50 milliwatts opens up a range of electronic devices to a life without a plug, as most MP3 players only use 100 milliwatts to operate.

Of course, the technology faces serious technical challenges relating to the efficiency of the harvester, but one of the NRC researchers says that this technology could be ready in three or four years. That lead should give us all plenty of time to come up with new excuses for not answering our phone, as "it was out of juice" clearly won't cut it anymore.

iPhone vs. LG Arena

We all know that the iPhone is the best smart phone out there, especially if you are into portable media. LG has announced it's new iPhone killer smart phone with a pretty slick touch-screen user interface. LG's new operating system is surprising similar to the OS used by the iPhone, but what is most impressive is in a couple of features that put the iPhone to shame.

First is the still camera. With a 5MP camera it dwarfs the iPhone's, wait, how many mega-pixels is the iPhone's camera resolution?

Second is sound quality. The LG integrates Dolby Mobile technology into the handset, improving sound altogether for video and music. Sure, music on an iPhone or iPod sounds good, but not this good.

The main question I have for LG is when will this be available in the US? I'm not sure why, but other than the iPhone, all the cool phones seem to be available outside of the US. Can anyone tell me why that is? So for the time being, I'll just have to wait and watch for the Arena to break into the US market. From there, it will be interesting to see if this really becomes the first true competition for the iPhone.

Free Up Some Hard Drive Space

If you are hurting for a little extra hard drive space, first of all, I'd be a little surprised due to the large size of hard drives these days. This may be more of an issue on a laptop. On a Windows machine, a nice little file called "hiberfil.sys" allows you to put your computer into "hibernation" when it's not being used. Supposedly this is to allow for a quicker restart from what you were previously working on without having to wait for a complete boot. It also saves the state of your computer so you don't have to re-open everything you were working on. There may be advantages to this, but that file can take up significant space. My laptop was using around 4GB simply to allow me that convenience. By going into the power settings and un-checking the "Enable hibernation" box, that file will be removed and will no longer be taking up space, no matter how precious that space may be.

Computer Back-up

There are several options for backing up your data. Some cost more with less involvement and some cost less with more involvement. These are the main routes:

• External hard drive: You can buy an external hard drive that connects to your computer usually by USB. They often come with backup software that will make a copy of everything or anything you specifiy at regular intervals (daily, weekly, etc.). Hard drive storage prices have dropped so dramatically that you may be able to find a 1 terabyte (1TB=1,000GB) drive for around $100.
• DVDs: You can burn your pictures and anything else you want onto DVDs and store them somewhere. This requires a bit more work and diligence in doing it often enough that you're comfortable with the backups. One advantage is that you can store the DVDs away from the computer, or even offsite at a family member's house, which is much safer in the case of fire or other types of natural disasters.
  
• Online: There are also online services that you can subscribe to such as Carbonite.com or MobileMe iDisk with Apple. A quick Google search for "online backup services" will result in additional providers. These can range in cost from free for 2GB to around $50/year for unlimited storage. It does it all automatically over your Internet connection so you don't have to do much (as with the external hard drive).

A combination of the above is probably the safest route to take. Having an external hard drive puts a backup right at your fingertips, while DVDs or an online service can take your data offsite in the case of fire or other natural disasters.

Welcome to the New Tech Advisor

Welcome to the new Tech Advisor! Tech tips to keep you up to date with the digital age. I'll cover almost anything digital or technology related from computers to gadgets to home theater systems. Send in any questions you may have and we'll respond with our recommendations and advice, whether it's regarding your next technology purchase or how to get around that bug on your computer. Browse the site for additional information regarding digital movie editing and audio resources.
Enjoy!