Tech Nukem

The leading provider of high-quality audio peripherals for PC and video game platforms, Turtle Beach has announced the launch of its 3rd-generation wireless gaming headset, dubbed as Ear Force X41, which features digital RF wireless technology, 7.1 channel Dolby surround sound, XBOX LIVE Chat and tactical advantage of 3-D positional audio while playing popular XBOX 360 game titles including Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare, HALO 3, Left 4 Dead, Grand Theft Auto IV and Guitar Hero.



“We listened to suggestions from XBOX gamers who own our second generation wireless headset, the Ear Force X4, and decided to take the X41 to a whole new level by improving nearly every aspect of the original design.” said Peter Ronick, Director of Marketing. “The X41 includes a dedicated Digital Signal Processor for creating an accurate 360 degree sound field with the latest Dolby Headphone HRTF algorithms. It provides an unprecedented sense of immersion that’s further enhanced by CD-quality, uncompressed, digital RF wireless technology.”

Features Of Turtle Beach Ear Force X41:

* Dolby 7.1 channel surround sound aimed for improved surround sound accuracy
* Digital 2.4 GHz RF wireless technology delivers CD-quality game sound and crystal-clear reception
* Dolby Pro Logic IIx reproduces full-range special effects in the surround channels and enhances stereo sound
* Chat Boost dynamic talkback expander automatically increases incoming chat volume during loud game sequences
* Eliminates game sounds picked up by chat mic
* Independent controls for game audio and chat volumes
* Mic Monitor mixes your voice into the headphones so you can hear what you’re saying
* New “battery booster” circuit in the headset extends battery life for up to 25 hours
* Heart-thumping bass boost adds sonic realism
* Soft, fabric mesh cushions let users’ ears breathe, adding comfort during long gaming sessions

Turtle Beach’s Ear Force X41 Wireless Digital RF XBOX 360 gaming headset that incorporates oversized 50mm speakers is slated to be available at Best Buy and other major US retailers in coming September for approximately $200.

The global market leader in high-performance computer memory, power supplies and flash memory products, Corsair has announced its new 128GB Flash Voyager GT, which the company claims as the world’s fastest 128GB USB flash drive, supporting up to 32MB/sec of read speeds and up to 25.6MB/sec of write speeds.



“High performance is a key requirement for super-high capacity flash drives, such as the 128GB Voyager GT, simply because it is able to store such a large volume of data,” said John Beekley, the VP of Applications for Corsair. “The 128GB Voyager GT is nearly twice as fast as other high-capacity flash drives, which means less time waiting for your music, video or office files to copy to and from the drive.”

According to Corsair, the latest Flash Voyager GT USB drive utilizes an unique dual-controller architecture to achieve SLC-levels of performance using MLC NAND flash memory.

“The 128GB Flash Voyager GT is ideal for those who need access to a huge volume of data in a format that’s convenient, durable and extremely fast,” commented Jim Carlton, VP of Marketing at Corsair. “The 128GB Flash Voyager GT can store massive video, photo and music libraries, yet it’s less than half the size of a solid-state drive, effectively obsoleting less-reliable, portable mechanical hard disk drives.”

The new Corsair 128GB Flash Voyager GT that sports a durable, water-resistant rubber housing for protecting purpose is now available through its authorized distributors and resellers worldwide.

Download enthusiasts who always do a lot of downloading from the Internet, e.g. photos, videos, files, software, etc, might be of the opinion the current browsers available can do a little bit more to make them more download-friendly. If you are looking for a browser which is customized with more tools for downloading, the free and so called media browser (instead of web browser), Wyzo, might be something you can consider.

Powered by the famous Mozilla Firefox, the free Wyzo browser in fact doesn’t offer advanced features that you can’t find from other browsers. The strength of this browser is it integrates the BitTorrent capabilities and a set of tools that smoothen and accelerate the download tasks. With Wyzo, users will find it is easier and more manageable to handle their torrent of downloads particularly inexperienced torrent users. Users do not need to source for extra or standalone Bit Torrent program and spend time to learn how to use Bit Torrent. Users can use Wyzo to browse the internet and download torrents from the same browsing environment.



Besides facilitating Torrent download, Wyzo also offers other extras such as Mouse Gestures, Coollris and Quick Switch Tab. Mouse Gestures allow users to execute various commands and user scripts with five types of gestures; Coollris will transform the browser into a lightning fast and cinematic way to look for video media contents; and Quick Switch Tab improve active tabs switching. Wyzo also supports a more secure browsing environment for safer web surfing.

Wyzo has rolled out the latest Wyzo 3.0.3 which can be downloaded via the link here. The browser works in both Windows and Mac OS X. The Linux support is coming soon.

A team of researchers in Purdue University have reached a technology breakthrough with the new invention of band-pass filter as resonator utilizing MEMS, or better known as Microelectromechanical system. The new band-pass filter unique structure and design is believed to be able to filter off unwanted noise for much more effective radio frequency transmission in daily life.


The new resonator is fabricated using silicon-on-insulator technology and it can be used to filter off unnecessary radio frequencies, by passing only the designated incoming signal for more effective transmission to as compared to existing filtering technology. More importantly, the design is tiny enough that can be used to drive for much smaller form factor, low power mobile devices while able to scale up its performance with sharp and accurate filtering characteristics especially useful in mobile communication. Besides being used in mobile phones or 2-ways radios, the usage model can be extended into both medical and military segments as a mechanical memory element that can store data pattern based on different vibration modes.

More details will be published in research paper during an American society of Mechanical Engineers’ Third International Conference held on September 2nd. Meanwhile, prototypes are in progress with simulation data to prove the concept feasibility before actual implementation in end products.

ARM based processors are doing quite well in dominating mobile phones market and now is on the way to capture some new market segments even in netbook or nettop market currently occupied by X86 based processors. You may have heard a lot of potential netbook designs using ARM solution, but this seems to be solid one with the news released from Always Innovating. Just recently, the company has just announced a new Touch Book that claimed to be the world’s first detachable netbook available for consumer markets.



The Touch book is featured with a revolutionary design and fresh outlook that able to differentiate from the rest of X86 based solutions. What make it so unique are its innovative design that can work as conventional netbook or a standalone tablet with a detachable keyboard further enhanced with operable touch screen interface. More importantly, it is powered with thermally efficient 600MHz OMAP3530 SoC (System-on-chip) from TI (Texas Instruments) that can prolong the battery life up to 10 hours while able to offer sufficient CPU cycles for processing. Apparently, it incorporates the advantages of smartphone design while able to add in relatively huge 8.9-inch touch screen with 1024 X 600 resolutions display for greater web browsing experience while on the move.

Regardless of all these great feature sets, the ARM based Touch book may have to stick back to Linux Operating System. Nevertheless, the final version of software stacks will include OpenOffice 3.1, Adobe Flash, Skype VOIP (Voice over IP) as well as famous 3D accelerometer based applications like those being deployed in Apple’s iPhone devices. Always Computing is ready to ship Touch Book to some early pre-order customers and at a retail price of $300 (tablet only) or $400 (full system), it is expected to capture some significant market shares that used to be dominated by Intel Atom based solutions.

Designed for taking aerial photography or video for aerial observation and recording purposes, the new Draganflyer X4 is a small, affordable and reliable unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that carry lightweight wireless video and still camera suitable for industry use. It is another UAV by Draganfly Innovations under the Draganflyer series.



Compared to Draganflyer X6 which was released end of last year, Draganflyer X4 is a trimmed version with lower specifications and of course price as well. Weighing 680gram with battery and bodied with carbon fiber, the Draganflyer X4 features 4 carbon fiber rotor blades and 4 motors. The X4 copper is equipped with advanced flight sensors and comes with 3 accelerometers, three gyroscopes, three magnetometers and a barometric pressure sensor. The flying detective allows multiple camera modules to be installed and attached to it depending on users’ needs. Users can opt for the
25/812.1 MP digital still camera with 720p video recording, low light video camera, thermal imaging video camera or micro color video camera. The flying object can be controlled remotely via an OLED touch screen. Besides remote control, the X4’s advanced autopilot feature also helps users
to get their job done.

The Draganflyer X4 will be useful for aerial monitoring purposes. Users can use it to monitor huge compounds such as a big factory, farm, campus, development site, etc. The price for this interesting flying object is estimated at about $10,000.

Windows Explorer in Windows 7 has going through a major cosmetic change to make it easier to use and navigate. One change is done to navigation pane. Windows 7 users will notice that Windows Explorer classic default tree view of folders and directories as in Windows Vista
and XP is been replaced with various sections namely Favorites, Libraries, Homegroup, Computers (but with unused or uninserted floppy and CD, DVD or Blu-ray Discs drive hidden) and Network.



In previous Windows operating system such as Windows Vista and Windows XP, Windows Explorer navigation pane usually is made up of a folders tree that starts with Desktop, with easy access to personal user folders, public folders, Computer which expands to all disk drivers, floppy disk drive, and optical CD, DVD, Blu-ray ROM or RW drive, Network, Control Panel and Recycle Bin.

With the cleanup and simplification of Windows 7 Explorer’s navigation pane, some items no longer be directly accessible in the navigation pane. For example, Control Panel, Recycle Bin and %SystemDrive%\Users\ folder, which stores personal documents and data. These folders are hidden by default in Windows Explorer of Windows 7, as shown in illustration on the left, but can be revealed and shown on navigation pane with little trick as shown below which revert Windows 7 Explorer navigation pane back to classic style.

How to Reveal and Show or Display Classic Navigation Pane in Windows Explorer of Windows 7

1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Click on Organize pull down menu.
3. Select Folder and search options.
4. In the General tab, tick the check box for Show all folders option under Navigation pane section.



The result is good old classic navigation pane with folder tree starting from Desktop in Windows 7’s Windows Explorer as shown below. Remove Libraries folders from Windows 7 Explorer to make it more classic.

The worldwide leader in personal peripherals, driving innovation in PC navigation, Internet communications, digital music, home-entertainment control, gaming and wireless devices, Logitech has announced the availability of its new rechargeable Logitech Harmony 900 remote, which features redesigned RF (Radio Frequency) technology, full-color touch screen and intuitive button layout, aiming to bring your home entertainment experience to a next level.



Features of Logitech Harmony 900:

* Completely redesigned RF system controls home entertainment devices in a range of up to 100 feet away
* Intuitive button layout divides into 4 distinct zones (numbers; traditional DVD controls; D-pad with volume and channel up/down; and on-screen menu buttons)
* Full color touch screen allows users to choose the devices they want to control
* Place the included IR blaster and two mini blasters on the cabinet shelves near the devices you want to control

“Like all Harmony remotes, the Harmony 900 simplifies home entertainment, which is particularly relevant with more and more people staying home to watch movies on their big-screen TVs and enjoying surround sound and hi-def video from the comfort of the couch,” said Ashish Arora, vice president and general manager for Logitech’s Harmony business unit. “Unfortunately, more remotes and more wires tend to be byproducts of increasingly sophisticated home-entertainment systems. With the Harmony 900 remote’s RF technology and ability to control up to 15 devices, you can say good-bye to the clutter while gaining better control of your devices.”

The new Logitech Harmony 900 remote that bundled with a recharging cradle, rechargeable battery, power supply, IR blaster and 2 mini blasters will be available in the U.S. and Europe in coming September for about $400.