Nexus 7 checks off Spain, Germany and France on availability chart, sells for a premium

Google Play quietly updated its device availability page over the weekend, making the Nexus 7 available to Germany, France and Spain. Patient Europeans can now pick up Mountain View's seven-inch wonderkind's 8GB and 16GB models for €199 and €249, respectively. Conversion rates comparatively price the slate at about $248 and $311, meaning the new markets will have to suffer a small premium for the slate. Worse still, is that not all of Google Play's services are available worldwide, with both Play Music and Magazines retaining US exclusivity. If you can bear with the inconveniences, however, onefine little tablet awaits.

To know more : engadget

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How would you change the Pantech Burst?

While ZTE and Huawei commence an assault on the high end of the market, companies like Pantech are nipping in behind to hoover up the budget space. When we reviewed the Pantech Burst, it was $50 on contract, but now can be picked up for $0.99. What do you get for less than a dollar? Stellar battery life (for an LTE phone), performance that easily matched a Samsung Skyrocket and LG Nitro HD more than compensate for its flaky capacitive buttons and weak camera. But, does the price justify turning a blind eye to its flaws? For a handset that costs less than a decent cup of coffee, what would you really change?

To know more : engadget

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Scientists investigating AI-based traffic control, so we can only blame the jams on ourselves

Ever found yourself stuck at the lights convinced that whatever is controlling these things is just trying to test your patience, and that you could do a better job? Well, turns out you might -- at least partly -- be right. Researchers at the University of Southampton have just revealed that they are investigating the use of artificial intelligence-based traffic lights, with the hope that it could be used in next-generation road signals. The research uses video games and simulations to asses different traffic control systems, and apparently us humans do a pretty good job. The team at Southampton hope that they will be to emulate this human-like approach with new "machine learning" software. With cars already being tested out with WiFi, mobile connectivity and GPS on board for accident prevention, a system such as this could certainly have a lot of data to tap into. There's no indication as to when we might see a real world trial, but at least we're reminded, for once, that as a race we're not quite able to be replaced by robotic overlords entirely.

To know more : engadget 

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WiFi alliance begins Tunneled Direct Link Setup certification, hopes to improve media streaming

You can thank the WiFi alliance for a number of things, and soon you can add TDLS to that list. That's Tunneled Direct Link Setup, if you were wondering, and it's a standard for creating direct links between devices. If this sounds familiar, that's understandable, but TDLS has its own tricks, like working in the background of a network to optimize performance, and it can even work over a WiFi Direct connection. For example two compliant devices can measure the signal strength on the network, and determine if a direct link would be better or not. TDLS also allows devices to communicate at the fastest standard available (802.11b / g / n etc.) even if this is superior to that available on the rest of your hardware. As this is a client-based protocol, you won't need to upgrade your access point either. If this hasn't got implications for better media streaming written all over it, we don't know what has. Especially as the certification is available to TVs, tablets, phones, cameras and gaming devices. There's only a handful of test products sporting the official approval at this time, but with names such as Broadcom, Marvell andRealtek in the mix, it shouldn't be long before it starts finding its way into front rooms and pockets proper.

To know more : engadget

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Switched On: Trading places

If widespread rumors hold true, the coming weeks will see two of the most successful tablet vendors invade each other's screen size turf. Apple, which once rebuked the 7-inch tablet as unfit for normally proportioned human hands, appears ready to try its own hand at an iPad rumored to be on the larger side of the 7- to 8-inch range. Amazon, which lagged its bookselling rival Barnes & Noble in bringing out a color tablet, stands ready to introduce an infernal successor to the Kindle Fire that may include a display that is close to 9-inches or larger.

It's not quite the first ride along the screen size escalator for either company. For Apple, a smaller iPad would fill in the iOS screen size gap between the iPhone and iPad. For Amazon, also rumored to beworking on a phone, a larger color tablet would revisit the ground it explored to lackluster results with the Kindle DX. That product hasn't kept up with even e-paper-based e-readers with advances such as touchscreens and side-lighting, both of which are found in the latest Nook Simple Nook.

To know more: engadget

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Blue Microphones Tiki USB microphone review: a thumbdrive-sized mic for mobile recording

In recent years, mobile and compact recording gear has, like so many other gadget types, become smaller and smaller in stature. We've seenadd-ons for smartphones and tablets that aren't much larger than a quarter, along with mobile mics that boast USB compatibility. TheBlue Microphones Tiki continues the trend, offering the same premium aesthetics we've come to expect from the company, along with top-notch audio quality. The Tiki is said to perform at its best with Skype-style video chats and voice recording, thanks in part to an intelligent mute and noise isolation features.

Let's be honest, though. Purchasing a USB microphone for the sole purpose of video chatting will be a tough sell for most folks. People like podcasters will expect a bit more functionality from a peripheral like this. Luckily, the unit boasts a "Natural Recording Mode" that promises instrument-tracking capabilities as well. But does the Tiki handle online banter, voice recording and guitar sounds well enough to warrant a $60 purchase? And exactly how smart is the intelligent mute? Read on to see what we discovered when we gave this flash drive-sized microphone the full-on review treatment.

To know more: http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/26/blue-microphones-tiki-review/

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Veeam: Free Backup & Replication Tool For VMWare & Hyper-V

For IT professionals, Virtualization tools like VMWare and Microsoft Hyper-V hold immense importance as they allow multiple machines to function from within a host system, saving both time and resources. The significant nature of features like backup and replication are also rightfully needed for reliability and data integrity. Veeam  is a free, data recovery and integrity software that manages virtualized environments effectively while focusing on hardware or software failure prevention. For instance, if you were doing a high priority task on a virtual machine, Veeam would ensure that no technical failure takes place in the first place and if it does, it will put into effect all necessary recovery methods. With the free version of this tool, you can backup a single virtual machine using VeeamZIP files, and recover it using the same files whenever needed.

There are a few points to note before we carry on with the feature-set of the application. Firstly, it supports all operating systems supported by VMWare including Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X and all OS-specific file formats (such as JFS or XFS for Linux, ZFS for Solaris, HFS for Mac and NTFS for Windows to name a few). Secondly, the program requires installation of a new or configuration of an existing Microsoft SQL Server. Remember, if you are a novice user, it is better to read the user manual than experiment with such a specialized application. Thirdly, you must have a working knowledge of VMWare or Hyper-V to fully utilize the resources provided by Veeam.

When asked about the license key during installation, press Next without entering any key to install the free version.

After a tedious installation experience, the utility loads with a fresh splash screen. When dealing with VM backup, you must add servers (may it be VMware server or Hyper-V server) and manage them. To add a new server, simply click the Add Server button in the ribbon interface on the toolbar to begin configuration. Similarly, server upgrade, scanning and maintenance can then be performed using the neighboring buttons.

The overall interface is organized in such a way that relevant buttons appear on the ribbon depending on the task at hand. The functions are categorized in three, Virtual Machines (for management and control of the virtual environment), Files (for creating backups using VeeamZIP, file copy scheduling using FileCopyand file management using Restore). Files are organized in a tree-format in the left sidebar while detailed functionalities are displayed in the main workspace. The History tab is used to track back on activities for diagnostics and recovery reasons.

All in all, Veeam Back & Recovery tool is an great addition to the backup and recovery tool set available for Virtualization software. We tested this utility on Windows 7, 64-bit edition.

Download Veeam Free edition

Source: addictivetips   About me at: EicraSite

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How To Get iPhone Notification Center Widgets Without Jailbreak

For everyone who has used SBSettings and other similar jailbreak tweaks, it is usually difficult to imagine having a convenient life on iOS without access to the famous Cydia store. Non-jailbroken iPhone and iPod touch devices do have weather and stocks widgets in Notification Center, but these just whet the appetite of iOS users, giving a glimpse of the full potential NC has to offer. On the other hand, jailbreaking your iPhone is sure to decrease the stability of your device, while also voiding its warranty. Won’t it be nice if there was some way of getting the best of both worlds and having widgets without jailbreaking? Well, Speed U is an app that offers the closest alternatives to NC widgets for all iDevices, whether they are jailbroken or not! Thanks to Speed U, it is possible to pin shortcuts for calling or texting anyone, launching an app, turning on your device’s camera LED so that it can be used a flash light and much more.

The “widgets” offered by Speed U are actually just persistent notifications that stay in your Notification Center until you manually dismiss them, thus making them almost as good as widgets. To set everything up, launch the Speed U app, and read the instructions that come up. The app’s controls are mostly gesture-based, and that makes setting everything up a breeze. To get started, swipe downwards from the top of the screen to enter the New Speed menu. The options listed in there are as follows.
App Action: From this section of Speed U, you can create a shortcut for any app installed on your iPhone. However, stock apps are not supported by Speed U.
Speed Dial: Just select a contact, and Speed U will create a shortcut for calling them with a single tap.
Text Message: Similar to speed dial, but for sending texts.
Launch Website: Lets you define a website’s URL along with a custom title, so that you can visit the page any time you want.
Speed Email: Opens the Mail app with the chosen contact set as recipient.
Flash Light: Through this option you can use the camera LED as a flashlight.
Brightness Settings: A simple slider to adjust screen brightness.
QR Code Scanner: Launches Speed U’s own QR scanner.
Although you can choose as many shortcuts and widgets as you want, only a maximum of 5 can show up in the Notification Center. To set the limit of NC widgets, go to the Setting menu within the app, and select the Notification Center Count. If you chose more than 5 widgets, it is possible to manually select the ones you want to see in the NC. Just enter Edit Mode by swiping upwards from the bottom of the screen, and drag your 5 favorite shortcuts to top positions. Now you will see the chosen shortcuts in the Notification Center. As already discussed, Speed U pushes the widgets as notifications, so it is better if you turn off the banner alerts for the app by going to the Speed U section of Notifications menu in the stock Settings app, otherwise things can get a bit annoying.
Speed U has gone free for a very limited time, and you should give it a try if you don’t have a jailbroken device and want a convenient way of accessing lots of things in your iDevice. Take care to keep the app’s notifications in the Notification Center, and as long as you do that, you will have these really useful widgets at your disposal.
Source: http://www.addictivetips.com/ios/how-to-get-iphone-notification-center-widgets-without-jailbreak/
About me at: eicrasitehttp://eicrasite.comli.com

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