Tech Nukem

LG Mobile Phones and Verizon Wireless have announced the upcoming launch of the new LG Fathom VS750 smartphone, which combines the notable smart global capabilities with stylish design and full QWERTY keyboard, based on Windows Mobile 6.5.3 platform.

Main features of LG Fathom (Verizon Wireless):

Speedy 1GHz processor and sliding full QWERTY keyboard
Clear 3.2-inch WVGA touchscreen with tactile feedback and enhanced touch experience
3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus
Bluetooth 2.1 and Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n) connectivity
Voice-activated dialing and text to speech capability
VZ Navigator Global offers worldwide turn-by-turn directions
Windows Mobile 6.5.3 operating system
Windows Media Player 10 Mobile and video player
microSD memory expansion slot supports up to 16GB
The new LG Fathom smartphone which measures 115.5 x 56.5 x 17 mm and weights just 5.4 ounces is slated to hit Verizon Wireless stores on June 3 for $149.99, after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new 2-year service contract.

Apple’s iPad has been getting good traction with more than million units being sold within the first month after its official release. While most of the users are attracted with its great graphics performance (thanks to its A4 processor) with bunch of free games and apps support, some are planning to get one just to enjoy reading e-book on its large screen size. Good news now, Barnes & Noble, the world’s largest online bookstore has just released a new free app to iTune store targeted mainly for iPad users.

In order to utilize its large screen for much pleasurable reading experience, some features have been added as an extra bonus when comparing to other existing e-book reader like iBooks for iPad. For instances, users can easily access and browse to the desired e-book with list view in landscape mode before deciding to go further to read it. Besides, users can tap on any words or sentences to highlight, add notes or even put them into lookup search using Google or Wikipedia (with WiFi or 3G connected), making it much useful than plain e-book reader. However, don’t expect the multi-touch features to be working and there is no way to zoom in/out on the fly with two fingers moving on the screen. Also, there is no way to change the brightness of the screen while in the middle of reading without leaving the app. But anyway, this is just a free app and users can still rely on its internal menu (top right corner) to change the font size, types with margin depending on own preference.

The app is already available for free download at iTune store and good news for new account sign-ups, they will able to get few public domain book besides some bestsellers’ samplers for free without the need to really spend extra buck for online purchase.

Graphics capability is one of the most important elements besides the processor core power in both PC and mobile market. And in order to continuously stay competitively in this market segment, some ARM licensees and even X86 architecture chip maker has actually licensed the latest graphics technology solution from Imagination Technologies, which is famous for its advanced Powervr SGX GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) to be integrated into its processor core for sophisticated graphics processing. Just recently, TI (Texas Instruments) has taken an initiative to license the latest SGX Series5XT from Imagination Technologies for its next generation OMAP SoC (System on Chip).

The new SGX Series5XT is claimed to be able to boost from 100MHz to 400MHz, and is capable to deliver impressive performance with up to 35 million polygons per second. Besides, it will be available in multi-core (up to 16-core) and is compatible to almost every OS like Android, Symbian, WinCE, windows XP and even Vista with OpenGL 2.0, OpenVG 1.1 and the new OpenCL 1.0 support. If you remember, both Intel and Apple are eying on its advanced graphics solution and has already invested additional share into this company with the hope to get some influencing power in their future directions. Some of the famous ARM based processors that had been integrated with Powervr graphics IP include the recently announced Apple iPad’s A4 processor, TI’s OMAP series, Marvell’s PXA310/312, Freescale’s i.MX31, Samsung’s S3C2460/S5PC510, Renesas’s SH Mobile series and many more. From X86 architecture core perspective, Intel’s Pentium based CE3100/4100/4130 and 4150 were also having earlier version of Powervr, besides the US15W chipset that used to be paired with first generation Intel Atom Z5XX (codenamed as Silverthorne). Not to be surprise, there are already more than 250 millions of mobile devices in the market that being powered by Powervr graphics technology.

No official availability yet, but we should expect more and more ARM licensees as well as Intel to continue acquire its latest graphics technology ready for their next generation SoC suitable for multimedia centric applications.

Intel Corp is famous for its thermally efficient Atom processor especially in the netbook market. And in order to eliminate the possibility of cannibalization into notebook segment utilizing its other processor and chipset families, the giant chipmaker has set the boundary of maximum panel resolution capped at 10.1-inch since day one. And good news now, if the rumor is true, it may have plan to remove such restriction in conjunction with the release of dual-core N550 Atom processor by Q3 this year.

The move could be due to few reasons. First, with more and more powerful Intel Atom processor (or its companion chipset) that could handle 1080p full HD (High Definition), it requires larger screen that can showcase its capability without limited by 10.1-inch resolution that stays merely at 1024 x 768 pixels. And even before N550 availability, Pine Trail and Broadcom CrystalHD combo is believed to be able to scale up the display panel size and resolutions, unlike its first generation Z5xx (codenamed Silverthorne) or N270 (codenamed Navy Pier) that being blamed for their inferior graphics and video decode performance. Secondly, its strong opponent, ARM based architecture are believed to have next generation smartbook that could potentially feature with relatively larger (more than 10.1-inch diagonal size) and so there is a need to prepare itself to stay competitively in this market space.

However, this doesn’t address the cannibalization of notebook sales and perhaps the giant chipmaker will come out with other differentiation factor to try avoiding such scenario either with different price point, form factor or others that could differentiate well from notebook category

You may have seen some notebook designs with convertible dual screen and when the top screen being flipped, a touch screen on reversed side will surface that able to transform the whole notebook into tablet PC which could be flexible and useful for those that prefers to tap or touch on screen directly as a replacement of conventional hard keyboard. However, the recent prototype disclosed by MSI may slightly change this hybrid design and instead of rotating its LCD display, the new concept focuses on its keyboard base and by simply flipping the keyboard by 180-degree, users will able to utilize its trackpad which was hidden underneath in normal configuration.

Named as SketchBook, it is still in early concept definition stage but recently its physical design was disclosed by MSI and spotted at an event in Amsterdam. While it looks not much different from conventional notebook at first glance, but when its keyboard base was flipped over, a trackpad will appear and users can input or sketch anything using its bundled stylus, just like what can be done on a paper. The targeted market segment could be either professional artists (if the screen size is not a concern) or children educational purpose (if the pricing is affordable) or for those that prefers hand writing or sketching more than keyboard typing.

Since this is still in early conceptual phase so no pricing information yet and don’t expect it to reach consumer market soon. And one inconvenience that we realized is that unlike rotatable tablets that you can change the view without lifting the whole machine from your desk, the Sketchbook concept may require some extra effort in order to lift its keyboard base before ability to turn it.

For convenience’ sake, users sometimes tend to share files and folders so that their colleagues from the same department can copy or modify some documents. When you share files or folders, the shortcoming is you do not know who is actually accessing them unless you have a utility such as ShareWatcher to help.


ShareWatcher is a free Windows utility which helps users to keep an eye and to monitor their shared files or folders. This tiny utility will monitor the shared files or folders and alert users when their shared folders are accessed as well as when files are added to others’ shared locations. Users can trace and be notified if someone is trying to access some files or data store in the shared folder. Necessary action can be taken for unauthorized access from personnel.

ShareWatcher can be downloaded free via the link here to keep track of users’ network activity.

Accidental loss of important data can be a truly painful experience especially when you realize you don’t keep a backup copy and the lost copy is the only copy you have. This might be due to many reasons such users having accidentally deleted the data, the data files are corrupted, the hard drive has been formatted, bad boot sectors, and so on. If you are unlucky and happened to be the victim, perhaps the comprehensive data recovery application, iCare Data Recovery, might give you a solution.

iCare Data Recovery is a data recovery tool that is dedicated to data recovery for formatted hard drive, corruption of MBR (Mast Boot Record), bad boot sector, drive inaccessibility, partition readability problems, partition deletion, software operation failure including data loss caused by Partition Magic, Ghost failure, virus attack, etc. This application can help users to recover deleted files such as documents, MP3, digital images, presentation slides, etc in various types of storage media such as hard disk drive, external hard drive, memory card, USB drive, pen drive, flash card, etc. This application is user-friendly and features a simple interface to get the recovery operation done.

iCare Data Recovery normally is priced at $69.95. However, the developer now is giving away this software for free from May, 21, till May, 25. Users who want a copy of this data recovery tool can download it from iCare-Recovery Free portal via the link here, or directly download the setup installer: icaredrs.exe and enter the license code “2K1XB2X964MPHOCJ8M1RYIJF0OVHFOFH”.

Meetings are meant to be productive activities with certain specific purposes to be achieved such as decision making, discussion of issues, etc. However, sometimes when they are not properly planned without specific goals or agenda, the meetings are not only boring but a waste of time. On many occasions, you may be aware you are attending an unproductive meeting but your role, say, as a consultant or service provider prevents you from excusing yourself. Perhaps a good way to indicate to your clients and alert them of the fact is to bring along a TIM clock! Alternatively, you are the paymaster and would like to highlight to your staff that they are wasting invaluable time and money in unproductive meetings.


TIM or the Time is Money clock is an interesting meeting cost calculator and clock that will do instant calculation on how much money has actually been spent in a particular meeting if it is dragging on and on. This device is pretty easy to operate. Users just need to key in the number of people in the meeting room and an estimated hourly wage of the respective attendees. Once this is done, users press the illuminated start button and the calculator cum clock will start working. This fun gadget for sure will catch everybody’s attention when people start looking at the money piling up as the clock continues ticking. It indirectly informs the chairperson or boss: “Look, how much money you are wasting for this idiot meeting!”. Besides, TIM also features an audible and visual fifteen minute reminder to remind users with a light beep sound and simple visual light flash on every fifteen minute interval. The alert indication is not really strong and will not really irritate meeting attendees. It is a good time keeper to ensure meetings are kept short and sweet.

Besides being a meeting cost calculator and clock, TIM can also be used for other purposes. For instance, general workers or some consultants are paid hourly; the device can be used to show proof to clients their actual working hours to prevent any dispute in calculation. TIM costs $24.99