High Tech Review

Although doctors do not usually recommend adult toys to their patients, they know perfectly well that adult toys combine both – elements of sex therapy and sexual pleasure of a new, more advanced, level.

First adult sex toys were created mostly for women and were designed to resemble a man’s penis. Although, the similarity wasn’t that accurate as we would expect it to be, women used to use them rather often back in the days, as their men were always busy with wars for conquering new lands and tribes. Nowadays situation differs from those medieval times. Industry of adult toys had advance a lot since then and modern sex toys can be attached to the same level of interest as presentation of the new model of a sport car, a new fashion collection or a piquant perfume aroma from a celebrity production line.

Industry of adult sex toys can boast itself with plenty of achievements, products, discoveries and developments. Read the rest of this entry »

Nowadays we can’t imagine our life without several bags from famous brands in our wardrobe. We need those smart creatures to refresh a suit, to carry our sweet little secrets (like lipstick or some cash), to show our unique personality and a high status. That little friend from a famous modern designer has become so habitual for us that it seemed it had always existed. And how interesting it would be to know that noble ladies of 13-14th centuries had no bags. They used their husbands’ leather pocket.
The pocket was made of a noble material but it had nothing in common with modern Prada handbag or a bag from any other brand. No decorations, no clasps, no zippers and prints - just a small container for coins and women necessary things - combs, a mirror etc. The leather pocket was not precious at all and could be thrown immediately after the usage.
The bag from our point of view has appeared in 1790. Men started to wear clothes with pockets and forgot about bags for a long period of history. And women started to create. Oh no, their bags were not so luxurious as modern models created by famous designers, they had nothing in common with Prada handbag or some other famous bag. But their shapes resembled the forms of modern models and the materials were also alike - soft fabric or eternal leather. Women of course couldn’t resist of decorating their bags. They used beads, pastes, golden threads and other tricks to make their bags the most beautiful.
Soon to that race of elegant handbags joined famous designers. They created really godlike masterpieces. The bags became not only prestigious, but also very expensive. The price couldn’t prevent women of fashion from getting really beautiful things of the highest quality, so smart and interesting.
Nowadays the bags remain the favorite women accessories and they are bought all over the world by those who care about their image.

Opera Software on Wednesday released its Opera Mini 5.1 browser for the Android mobile platform, concluding a beta period that began in March.

Opera Mini 5.1 offers improved page layout on high-end Android handsets with large screens, its Norwegian maker says. Among the software’s features are tabbed browsing, a password manager, bookmarks and speed dial, all built in to deliver easy Web access while on the go.

Opera Mini can also now be set as the default browser on Android phones.

The new release can be downloaded for free from the Android Market or from m.opera.com.

Faster Page Loads

With more than 61 million users worldwide, Opera Mini is the world’s most popular browser for mobile phones, and it delivers the best Internet experience on more than 3,000 mobile phone models, Opera Software says.

One of its primary advantages over other mobile browsers is that Opera Mini compresses data by up to 90 percent before sending content to the phone, resulting in significantly improved page-loading speeds and reduced data costs for the user. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the most noteworthy sets of improvments made on the iPhone 4 focuses on the device’s camera system. The megapixels get bumped up to 5, video recording happens at 720p, and Apple even threw in an extra camera in front as well as a flash in the back. None of this will replace anyone’s big DSLR camera, but you just might decide you don’t need to carry that pocket digicam around as often.

If there’s one set of features about iPhone 4 that I found most worthy of upgrading, it’s the camera system — and it turns out, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) delivered. Where the older cameras in the iPhone were slow and megapixel-challenged, the new lenses and the hidden software that uses them turn the iPhone 4 into a useful snapshot and video-recording tool.

Because I pack my iPhone 4 most everywhere I go, I now have a decent camera and video recorder with me at all times. Sure, it won’t replace my big digital SLR, but at least I now have the hope of capturing some workable images when I’m out and about. Let’s take a closer look. Read the rest of this entry »

Firefox 4.0 has made its public debut with the release of the Web browser’s first beta version. Perhaps most notably, the Windows 7/Vista version of the new browser features a new interface with a rearranged menu bar and tabs. Will the new version provide Firefox the overhaul it needs to remain a player in the browser market?

Mozilla announced Tuesday that the first beta version of Firefox 4, the latest iteration of its browser, is ready for downloading and testing.

The beta has several new features, including privacy and speed enhancements.

Mozilla plans to issue new beta versions every two to three weeks, modifying the browser in response to beta users’ comments.

Firefoxy, Baby

Firefox 4 Beta 1 has a new add-on manager, supports Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) WebM format and fixes flaws in some Web standards that could expose users’ browser history, Mozilla said.

Google launched WebM, an open standard for compressed video content, in May. Read the rest of this entry »

Should Linux do more for programmers? “Absolutely! Linux should go and make me a coffee! Then it should automagically translate my ideas into perfect code,” quipped Barbara Hudson, a blogger on Slashdot. “And how about walking my dogs for me? Or put away the laundry? Linux is certainly not doing enough for *this* programmer!”

This story was originally published on May 27, 2010, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series.

It seems fair to say that the relationship between programmer and platform is in many ways like a romantic one, characterized by mutual respect and a balanced exchange of give and take on both sides.

Just as so many of us love and respect Linux, for instance, so it surely loves us back with all its many virtues — no strings or price tags attached!

So happy are many in the Linux community with their favorite OS, in fact, that it was difficult not to feel mortally wounded by a recent accusation — one that not only charged Linux with doing too little for programmers, but then went on to say Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) does more.

Talk about sprinkling salt on the wound!

As the famous poet once said, “Ah, Love, but a day, and the world has changed!” Read the rest of this entry »

YouTube fired off another shot in the battle for the future of online video this week by underscoring its support of Adobe Flash over HTML5. John Harding, a YouTube software engineer, said that currently Flash offers many useful features not found in HTML5. “There’s a lot more to it than just retrieving and displaying a video.” HTML5 proponents still have high hopes for the standard, which is still “a work in progress.”

Despite predictions to the contrary, Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) Flash won’t be supplanted any time soon as a major video distribution vehicle on the World Wide Web, according to a software engineer at the Net’s largest video sharing site, YouTube.

“[W]hile the

Doing what a service such as YouTube does requires more than what HTML can do, Harding maintained. “We need to do more than just point the browser at a video file like the image tag does — there’s a lot more to it than just retrieving and displaying a video,” he noted.
Content Protection Not in Cards

One limitation of HTML5 cited by Harding is its lack of support for a standard video format. YouTube converts its videos to the H.264 codec which can be viewed in Flash, a technology that works in most browsers. “Concerns about patents and licensing have prevented some browsers from supporting H.264,” he explained. “[T]his in turn has prevented the HTML5 spec from requiring support for a standard format.” Read the rest of this entry »

Handling an iPhone 4 for the first time may inspire some almost contradictory feelings. On one hand, its metal frame, glass face and surprising heft suggest a solid toughness that you don’t quite get from handling plastic-bodied phones. At the same time, though, you may also feel a strong urge to protect it from the cruel, pavement-filled world, even if it means wrapping its finely crafted body in a sturdy case.

I tried to preorder an iPhone 4 online, but of course, I was one of the hundreds of thousands of potential buyers who could not get through the clogged Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and AT&T (NYSE: T) servers on June 15, the first day the companies began accepting early orders. By the time the servers and system recovered enough to let me in, I was facing a “Ships by July 2″ notice. Ouch.

My buddy has it worse. His won’t ship until July 14.

However, AT&T did get their shipments in on June 28, and they opened their doors to iPhone 4 sales the next day at 7 in the morning. I showed up in line at 4:30 a.m. I wanted to arrive earlier, but I was transferring a movie to my iPhone 3G, and iTunes made me sync and back up the entire old iPhone. Ultimately, I was 22nd in line. Not bad.

On the frantic drive there, though, I pulled up to a stoplight behind a Subaru wagon, and the light wouldn’t change. So I jumped lanes, and there was no traffic Planning for the next peak season? Ensure your website is fast, secure and available 24/7. Click here to learn how., but still the light was red. I looked over to the wagon, wondering if maybe it might be heading to the AT&T store. Nah. A retired couple, looked like. As I was trying to figure out if there were cameras at the intersection that would snap a shot of me running a red light and trigger a ticket, it turned green. As I pulled into the AT&T parking lot, the Subaru did too. A woman of about 60 jumped out to get in line. She introduced herself, and she was bubbling with excitement. Her husband showed up with their chairs. Turned out they were getting a pair of 32GB iPhones — they’re grandparents, and they’re willing to wait in line at 4:30 in the morning to get their hands on the new iPhone 4!

Wow. Talk about market penetration. Read the rest of this entry »

VoIP service Skype has had an application interface available for some time, but that API needed the company’s desktop software to function. With the new SDK Skype has released, a Skype client can be used with no visible user interface, allowing app and device makers to embed the service more deeply in a wide variety of Internet-connected gadgets.

The top dog in Internet telephony is set to expand its reach with the release of new development software. SkypeKit is aimed at allowing software writers to integrate the Net phone service into a variety of consumer electronics devices and computer software programs.

“For nearly seven years, Skype has revolutionized communications through software that offers not only free voice and video calling, but also low-cost calls to phone numbers anywhere in the world,” Skype’s General Manager for Platform Business Jonathan Christensen wrote in the company’s Developer Zone blog.

“Now,” he continued, “we are taking Skype into new directions by empowering consumer electronic and desktop software innovators to embed Skype into their products through the availability of our new software development kit (SDK) called ‘SkypeKit.’” Read the rest of this entry »

Google CEO Eric Schmidt made a guest appearance at a press conference here Wednesday where Google, Motorola, and Verizon Wireless unveiled the new version of the popular Android Droid smartphone.

Schmidt took the stage first and touted the importance of the smartphone category.

“This is not a toy or app engine,” he said. “It is a powerful kind of operating system. What is happening now is that people are thinking mobile first instead of desktop first.”

He cited the importance of a robust wireless network, as well as hardware with fast processors and big screens. But Schmidt said Wednesday’s event is notable not just for the announcement of the new Droid, but for the emergence of the entire category of device.

Indeed, the new Droid X epitomizes this. The newest version of the Google Android phone made by Motorola offers an HDMI output, a 4.3-inch display, and 720p video capture. The device also comes with faster processors that will offer faster Web browsing. And it has an 8-megapixel high-definition camera.

John Stratton, executive vice president of Verizon Wireless, said the device is made for video. And there will be new apps designed to take advantage of these features, including a deal with Blockbuster to provide movies for purchase or rent.

The Droid X will cost $199.99 after a $100 rebate and will go on sale starting July 15. Unlike AT&T, which has switched to tiered pricing for its iPhone, Verizon said it will keep its unlimited mobile data plan for smartphones, which costs $30 a month. Read the rest of this entry »

The technology icon stands before a crowd, holding in his hands a prototype that embodies his vision for the future of computing. It’s a touch-screen tablet that is thinner than a magazine, has all-day battery life, and sells for less than $800.

But the icon wasn’t Steve Jobs and the tablet wasn’t the iPad. It was Bill Gates, speaking in 2005 to a crowd of Windows hardware makers in Seattle. The technology enabling such a device was still a few years off, Gates said, but it was time to start working toward that vision.

A year later, Microsoft detailed Project Origami, an effort to commercialize Gates’ vision by adding a touch interface on top of Windows XP. Yet, the technology still hadn’t caught up with the vision.

A few devices, like Samsung’s Q1 eventually found their way to the market, but they were a bust, offering terrible battery life and costing more than $1,000. Within a year, Microsoft and the partners had largely abandoned the effort.

Fast forward four years and the Gates tablet vision is a reality, thanks to Apple. Despite a decade spent trying to sell Windows-based tablets and the prescience to see the hardware trends that would make it possible for a device like the iPad to exist, Microsoft has thus far missed the boat. Read the rest of this entry »