RACEDRIVER GRID

Here comes yet another racing simulation for the PC but is it like others,let's watch.
Recentlu launched NFS:Pro Street has not got a warm welcome from the gamers and this game is worth a welcome.
The game engine is sames as used in DIRT and so the vehicles are wonderfully detailed. Tje gameplay is excellent and it respects the laws of physics.Under default circumstances the cars in Grid do not over steer under any circumstances, if the handbrake isn’t pressed. If traction control is removed, this changes completely, to an extent where the cars go anything but straight if you do the slightest control adjustment, or you just breathe a little heavier towards the monitor. It’s annoying, to say the least. The same driving parameters suddenly disappear without a trace if you choose to play “freestyle drift”, where the aim of the race is to…well, drift, and the car which only a race before was stuck to the ground now floats around the scenery like boat on a windy day, the user having absolutely no chance of keeping it straight. It’s just a design choice to help the player drift better, but I feel that, if you need to radically change the handling mechanics for another game type…you’re doing it wrong.
The AI is annoyuing and they will not let sit you free.Overall this is a great game and till the next NFS it's syrely worth playing.

Brother MFC-685CW

This Mfd is an all round multi function device. It performs printing, scanning, and copying. It also has a card reader which supports most popular formats and it also has support for usb flash drives. The printer has both wireless and wired network connectivity and so it becomes an amazing network printer. The photo quality is quite impressive but the red colour turns out little pink. It is pretty fast but in the fine mode it slows down a bit and there is a clear difference in the normal and fine mode. At the rate of Rs 13,600 it is a good buy and it does every job you’ll want an mfd to do.

Alienware Area-51 m15x notebook

This notebook from Alienware is a good performance machine mainly for the bussiness users. The machine consist of a core 2 exteeme x 9000 processor rnning at a clock speed of 2.8GHz,a 7200rpm 200 GB hard disk,2 GB of DDR2 RAm at 800Mhz and a 8800M GTX graphics card.

The screen has a top-notch 1,920x1,200 resolution and the brightest backlight we’ve seen, coming in at 156.6cd/m2. It has a similar black level to the Acer Aspire 8920G, but because it lacks a glossy finish, contrast feels subjectively poorer. On the upside, you don’t see your reflection in its screen.
Intel’s Core 2 Extreme X9000 graces the m15x with its 2.8GHz clock speed and 44W thermal design point (TDP) - 9W higher than regular Core 2 Duos, so energy efficiency isn’t its strong point. In fact, the m15x lasted just one hour and 30 minutes in our DVD playback test, despite a capable 5,200mAh battery being fitted.

In the flesh, the m15x is special. Alienware’s new AlienFX customised lighting pumps out a selection of 11 colours from the three Alienware logos, the blue-lit bezel, touch-sensitive controls, the touchpad and through the keyboard. You can set the lighting to transition from one colour to the next, or simply set colours to strobe.

The speakers placed below the screen are tiny for a gaming laptop and ypu have to use headphones if you have to play games.

Overall this is a good laptop for a bussiness user but if you are a enthusiast look anywhere else.

BioShock

BioShock is a game which has been in much hype because of several things and yes it was revealed in 2004 but it took such a long time for the game to see the morning light.But the wait has been well justified as it is one of the best game ever released by the developer 2KGames.

The storyline for BioShock is full of twists so we won't go into many details here. Basically you start the game as an unknown male who is on a plane over the Atlantic Ocean in 1960. The game quickly gets you into the thick of things by crashing that plane. Your character finds himself in the middle of the ocean...except that he sees a massive tall structure nearby that shouldn't be there. The entrance of the structure is sculpted in an odd art-deco designed interior with a bathysphere waiting at the bottom. Entering the sphere, we get the intro to the underwater city of Rapture. Created by the game's central character Andrew Ryan, he tells you via a taped message that he has created this city as a place where scientists can create their greatest work unfettered by the pressures of the outside world.

However, once you enter into the city of Rapture it appears that Ryan didn't count on the pressures inside the city to be a problem. The levels are trashed, blood is everywhere and it's clear that something has gone horribly wrong. Of course your task is to get the heck out of there. But that's not easy as Ryan and two other Rapture citizens, Atlas and Tannenbaum, communicate to you via radio intercoms to ask you to join either of their opposing sides. BioShock is all about you dealing with these different choices as you fight your way to get out of this massive bottle city. As we said, there are lots of plot twists and red herrings in this story, so what you think you are involved in at first may not be the one you deal with at the end.

Samsung Sgh-i780

Thus new moile from samsung is it's knock in Windows mobile plateform .This is a big smartphone and at 116mm tall, 61mm wide and 13mm thick it is not the kind of phone that will slip into your jeans pocket easily,but it's not made for that.

As a keyboard-equipped smartphone you can do your mobile e-mail on it, and it has all the diary, to-do list, mobile mail and Web browsing features you'd expect from Windows Mobile.

The mobile is a 3G compatible with support foe HSDPA and it has both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth inbuilt.There is a camera in front for calls and a 2 Megapixel camera at the back for still and videos. There is a microSD card slot and thankfully it's hot swappable.

The mobile comes loaded with several softwares and many of them are really useful.There is a RSS reader a podcast manager data converter and a photo, video viewer. Best of the lot is a Opera web browser which is far better than the normal Internet Explorer which comes with Windows mobile.

Under the screen where there is normally a D-pad for navigation you will find a small trackpad which does it's job well,and if you didn't feel like using it then you can switch it off and use it as a D-pad. The mobile comes with two batteries and a charging unit for the second.

Dell XPS M1730

Recently dell released the M1730 notebook for the gamers.The notebook looks amazing as you can see and there is no other notebook like this in the market.This will surely make you a geek just by it's looks among the people.

The visible exterior has a deep glossy black surface with a 'hydrographic' design pattern. The intricacy of the design can best be seen in a well-lit room. The back of the lid deserves special attention – two clear plastic windowed areas on the sides have a color background that is illuminated by the LED lights; the notebook is available in smoke grey,sapphire blue,crimson blue and bone white patterns. The build quality of the notebook is excellent.It's solid and can handle shocks,it might look big but it's sleek also and one look will tell you that it was aerodynamically designed.The keyboard is backlit and is quite impressive.

The notebook doesn't even disappointed on the performance front.Look at it's specifications-

Windows Vista Home Premium
Intel Core 2 Extreme X7900 (2.8GHz/4MB L2/ 800MHz FSB)
17-inch WUXGA display
Dual Nvidia GeForce 8700M-GT in SLI (256MB each)
Dual 200GB 7200RPM Hitachi drives in RAID 0 (striped data)
2GB DDR2-667 RAM in dual-channel
Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN wireless
Integrated Verizon Wireless Mobile Broadband
8X DVD Burner
9-cell battery
The processor included is rare to find and is capable of handling all types of applications.The processor is a core2 Extreme and so it is easily overclockable.The RAM and Hard Disks are sufficient to take care of every needs of the user and this SLIed monster crunches all the games.

The speakers are also very good for a notebook and deliver decent voice quality,The keyboard has a good tactile feed back.The touchpad is also very good and has a high end feel.

The 17-inch glossy 1920 x 1200 pixel widescreen display that came on our test unit is the only option for the M1730. WUXGA is the highest resolution available on a notebook. This display is fantastic; for starters, it is the brightest single-lamp 17-inch display I have seen on a notebook. The high contrast makes colors pop off the screen; blacks are deep and whites are bright and pure. Viewing angles are excellent; the side-to-side angles are near perfect and there is minimal distortion from above and below. The picture is crystal clear and there is no distortion or graininess. Light leakage is minimal, with only a small amount coming from the bottom of the display.

Logitech rcently announced the V 470 Laser cordless mouse for notebooks enabled with bluetooth.The mouse works on bluetooth 1.2 technology and uses frequency hopping to avoid interference with other devices like Wi-Fi routers.it boasts a range of 30 feet.

The V470's laser tracking technology promises smooth cursor control on nearly any surface. With its side-to-side scrolling plus zoom, users can zoom in and out or scroll horizontally or vertically with ease. The mouse enjoys a battery life of up to 4 months and has a battery-life indicator light as well.

The mouse is sleek and ergonomically designed and comes in blue and white.The price is around Rs 2700,

Because of plenty of media attention and CEO Ken Kutaragi's obnoxious jingoism,the PS3 has gained VIP status,and yes it's a formidable force,
The PS3 is powered by the Sony-Toshiba-IBM Cell Broadband Engine,popularly known as cell processor.It sports a single Power PC core helped along by a team of eight Synergistic Processing Elements,one of which has been reserved for redundancy.The graphics are taken care by Nvidia's RSX GPU and the hole system is capable of nearly two teraflops i.e. the double of overall capacity of Xbox 360. The biggest challenge against the game developers is to make a game that truly exploits the capabilities of this console.
The another thing is the change of controller.When you first pick up the PS3's SIXAXIS controller it feels very light as the vibration is gone but it only sounds good not feels good.The controller is wireless and also motion sensitive,which means you can control the game by tilting the controller in right directions.The lightness of the controller make it over-tilt even when you are not over-excited. The L2 and R2 buttons have been replaced by analogue triggers and they are awful.The fingers slip off when you apply too much force as they are convex,they are placed awkwardly and holding the was very uncomfortable.
The users will be able to access the playstation network free of cost and they will have acess to all the contents-game demos,HD movies,etc. and they can also play multiplayer games.PlayStation home will also be accessible.
The cost of PlayStation is Around Rs 35000 and that is too much,and you will also have to pay for a HDTV to take full advantage of it.Titles will also be around Rs 2500 and that is also too much for an average home user.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-Shadow of Chernobyl.

The first play of the game tells that it is something different,disturbing and yes it' frightening.The game is unimaginably realistic and every sound will make you think that was it an enemy,and suddenly a creature jumps at you from a bush which will most probably make you fall from your chair.The game is one of the most atmospheric immersive shooters I've played.
You play as the marked one and is given a mission from a trader in a bunker and you start with just a pea shooter in your hand. The zone is huge and you can spend hours travelling and there are no boundations to choose the root. But you'll come across many mutants of various kinds,heavily armed stalkers and various nasty things.
The game is a first of it's kind as it combines the FPS and RPG genre. The storyline revolves around main missions but there are side missions also to give around 40+hours of gameplay.There is no feeling of being forced into a mission nor any limitation of achieving your objective.The graphics are awesome and the zone is beautiful-Gnarled trees,thunderstorms with intermittent lightning bolts and you will have no friend except your gear,and an empty magazine can lead you to death.
If you have the proper system S.T.A.L.K.E.R looks brilliant and the soundtrack is very immersive and fully suites the game.The AI is extremely nasty,enemies use cover as intelligently as you and the mutants have much raw speed and agility.
The game has seven different ending which makes the replay value awesome and with absolutely realistic weaponry and damages it's a must play but after a system upgrade.....

3 Way SLI

SLI is still one of the major dreams of gamers and enthusiasts and to make them drool nvidia has launched the 3 way SLI technology.The plateform will be 680,710 or 750 chipset and don't think that you will happilly hook up your 7600 GS or 8600 GT,the three way SLI is only for the 8800 GTX and/or 8800 Ultra.So if your daddy has a multi crore bussiness and he loves to spoil you by fulfilling your needs (actually greeds) then rush and buy three graphics card,a motherboard,a quad core processor,a 30 inch monitor to support the huge resolution and of course one extra terrestrial cooling kit.
Now let's talk about the functionalty,think it this way- A Core 2 Quad processor from Intel is comprised of some 800+ million transistors. A GeForce 8800 Ultra is made up of 640 million transistors or so. Now, multiply that GeForce 8800 Ultra number by three and you're looking at 1.92 BILLION transistors just for graphics processing. Hello? Thought I lost you there for a minute.No more explaination is needed I think as nothing now can bring this system on it's knees.

GOD OF WAR-Chains Of Olympus

While we all are waiting for God Of War 3 ,we must content our greeds by Gos of War:Chains of Olympus for PSP...
CoO takes us to a time that predates first GoW to establish Kratos is so ticked off with God of Olympus.The madness begins when Morpheus the dream God kidnaps Helios the sun god and sets the world into darkness. As he goes on his way to bring the light back ,once again he has to face many obstacles.
The action begins just five second after you select new game and ends just before the last cutscene.The controls will take some time to get used to as there is no L2 and R2 button on PSP.
The game has huge beautiful environments,insane action,lots of blood,a sex minigame,a story befitting a movie and puzzles that give sense of accomplishment.The only minus point of the game is that it is short.You will get only upto seven hours of gameplay.So,apart from that it is the best game ever made for that PSP.

Burnout Paradise

The burnout dominator was an incremental update on Revenge this time Criterion has taken the original concept,thrown away everything but the essentials,and added a lot more to spend our time.
Paradise's heart is still in lot of racing,and lots of crashing.The power of X360 shows even the minute crashes and they are so beautiful that everyone will want to crash again.Racing speed starts from high and goes to eye popping status,sure that everyone will secrete adrenaline.A new game mode called marked man is introduced where you have to survive from point A to point B,while the other racers try to crash you.In races you are told the destination and the route decision is all yours,this is nice but it also means that you can take wrong short-cuts and end up,losing the race.
Criterion has removed the aftertouch takedowns from the game, but you can't get everything.
Burnout Paradise can be said the best-implemented game ever.The surroundings are vast and you are free to explore.The online multiplayer mode is loaded with different sets of challenge for two.


For more images and details follow the link-
http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/850/850816/imgs_1.html

Nokia N810 WiMax

Here comes a phone that supports WiFi but will also support WiMax. Yes that's right,the N810 released by Nokia is not your daily multimedia phone.The device has a 4.1 inch screen with a resolution of 800x480 and doubles as a touch screen. There's an inbuilt keyboard as well,and the total weight is around 225 gms. It has 640x480 VGA camera ,so photos can be posted on net.
The internet connectivity will be through WiMax and the price will be around Rs 20000.

Kaspersky is one of the major security software manufacturer and now it has gone the complete Internet security way.

The suite takes care of all the security measures including files,mail system network,etc. All the basic controls for the components can be accessed from the two pane layout window. An another window includes all the settings for the components. The settings are plenty and can be confusing for a new user.

The core anti-virus is standard and allows to scan files,registry,boot sectors,memory,startup programs,etc. The Anti-spam has a nifty Training feature that looks into mails and learns to provide better security against spam. Any attacks at your machine can be set to to have the attackers machine blocked and it also blocks the pop-ups and ad banners from websites. The parental control is useful in stopping the access to inappropriate sites and as well as limiting the time spent on computer. User accounts can be set as parent,teenager or child.

A slider can be used to adjust the strictness of every feature and manual changes can also be made. Heuristic scanning is available in most of the modules.

The help file is easy to understand but doesn't carry any screenshots.

The suite is a powerful choice as a complete security solution and there are no missing features and every thing is implemented very well.

The W910i is another phone in the Walkman series from sony ericsson. It comes with a new media browsing interface and inbuilt sensor for music and games.

It's a slider and the sliding mechanism is very good and smooth. The front is captured by a huge 2.4 inch LCD screen very beautiful and perfectly visible in direct sunlight.

The navigational keys include a five way rocker made of steel which is also used as the playback control when playing music. There are two soft menu keys and two additional keys near the top which are configured for the photo album by default and can also be used in gaming. The fiat keypad is not good if you type a lot. The power on and Walkman buttons at the top are also difficult to operate.

Music is the forte of the W910i.Playback quality is awesome ,the bundled earphones do a great job and their is a 3.5 mm jack so you can hook up your favourite headphone. Two features called Shake control and SenseMe. Shake control implies the use of motion sensors(gyroscopes)to control music playback. You can change the song just by shaking the phone. The feature is good but it needs some refinement. SenseMe is a technology which sort the songs according to the mood and tempo. The song should be uploaded media manager otherwise it will be hidden from the SenseMe.

The camera is decent but not as good as I expected from SE. It is 2Megapixel and like others it performs better outdoors and the quality decreases with decrease in quality.

The phone has a simple user interface,a 2 GB card is there to take care of your media needs and you also get a card reader.

I think the phone is best of Walkman series. The price of around Rs 17000 is well justified for a slim,sexy phone with great music playback.

FIFA 2008

It has been quite a time to the release of Fifa 08 and now we will look what it provides.
The games like crysis the witcher stalker etc. have set a high standard so fifa should be special to be good.
Graphics are bad,there is no detail and players don't look like the original one.There is no detail but they have tried to insert things like depth of field and HDR.The depth of field works horribly and everything be it in focus or not is blurred.The crowd makes sound at the right times but the commentators still say the same words.The songs are good and their is a good variety.Fifa's strong point is the coverage of leagues and players and it remains.
The gameplay has become a little more difficult which is a nice thing.The controls react faster than before and a new gameplay mode has been added 'be a pro' in which you control a single player.
The PES series is a little more technical one an a preffered choice for a hardcore football fan but for usual people Fifa will still be the favourite.

for more images click on the given link
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sports/fifasoccer08/images.html

Intel QX9650

Intel has just released another salvo the QX9650 a top rung,quad core processor based on the 45nm fabrication. It runs at 3Ghz,with1333MHz FSB and has 6 MB cache per die i.e. a total of 12MB.Intel has also introduced 47 new instruction sets in the form of SSE4-this should improve performance in multimedia applications. In science mark it shows 10% increase in performance over the QX6850 in all the subtests,except cryptography.In game sch as Far Cry and Doom 3 it shows an icrease in performance about 10-15%. Price will be around rs 50000 so don't think you can go and purchase it as a candy.

THE 9800 MONSTER

Hey don't run away it's not a real monster I'm talking about the Nvidia GeForce9800 GX2.

DualGPU systems are very trendy in recent time and whole story begun with ATi “Gemini” project. Idea was born long time ago, when two graphics processors were integrated into one graphics card, but that idea didn’t get much popularity until now. On the other hand, ATi Radeon HD 3870X2 turned out as accessible to most users and at the same time very powerful solution. So all doubts in making investment in such card can be shattered in pieces.

As usual after these (un)expected success, competition “returned fire”. GeForce 9800GX2 is not, to be honest, a true rival to ATi’s “two-headed beast” neither by price nor by performances and it is obvious that nVIDIA won’t produce only “singleGPU” models after HD 3870X2.

The 9800GX2 comes with a good bundle .There is Company of Heroes with Dx10 patch disk, besides there is usual stuff like VGA-DVI converter disc with drivers and manuals. The graphic card is very heavy,it's black except the XFX logo and there are small openings for better cooling. The fan inside produces no noise until 60% of it's rpm.Voltage connectors are 8-pin and 6-pin and they require 200W of power.

The card is undoubtedly a powerful product but now its meant only for the Richie rich kind of people.It gives performance but at a rate around rs 45000 it is not a good buy.

A Beginning

Today here on this (blog) spot I'm starting a talk about the technology. Technology today is a necessity and I will bring you all the latest news about the release of hardware and software.Don't bother whether it is PS3 or XBOX360 ,it's a photo editing software or a game you will find it here. I know that world is vast and everyday there are many new releases and I can't cover them all but I'll try that nothing good skips away from your knowledge.Expecting for your support

Your tech friend