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Saturday, July 23, 2011

Chimo NgeBlog : Hands on: Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 review


If you can't wait until next year for Windows 8 tablets, the Atom Oak Trail Windows 7 slates promised at CES are starting to hit the market now (and you'll be able to upgrade to Windows 8 when it comes along).

Fujitsu's Q550 is a 10-inch tablet with the same dual-digitiser N-trig screen as the HTC Flyer – and a copy of Windows 7 Professional to take advantage of the active pen. It also has a slew of security features that clearly mark it out as a business system (fingerprint reader, smartcard reader, TPM, whole disk encryption and theft-tracking).

N-trig

The price is definitely aimed at businesses too; £749 for the Wi-Fi model with 30GB SSD, £799 for the 3G 30GB version and £859 for the 62GB system (those odd capacities are explained by the 2GB recovery partition).

You can add more storage with the SD card slot and USB port (or plug in a 3G dongle); there's an HDMI port as well as a docking port that you can use for a cradle or a promised clip-on keyboard.

Fujitsu stylistic q550

The front-facing camera is at the top of the device in portrait mode but works just as well in landscape.

Fujitsu stylistic q550

It has the usual low VGA resolution and the image was a little on the dark side in a dim room, but in bright light the video was clear with plenty of crisp detail; there's a 1.3 megapixel camera on the back, which is at the top when you hold it in landscape view.

Fujitsu stylistic q550

The fingerprint reader is on the back so you can use it with your thumb without having to juggle the slate, and there's a row of handy buttons on the side, between the power and the Wi-Fi slider.

These take some of the pain out of using Windows without a keyboard; you can press Enter or Ctrl-Alt-Delete with a single button press, open the on-screen keyboard without fumbling to tap in a text field first or rotate the screen if you've turned off auto rotation.

Fujitsu stylistic q550

What there isn't space for is the pen; you can hang it from the lanyard hole or keep it in the case, which also doubles as a stand (secure on a table slightly precarious on your lap). Unlike a Wacom pen the N-trig pen has a tiny battery in but otherwise it's very similar; there's a right mouse button on the side and writing with the pen is smooth and fluid.

Fujitsu stylistic q550

That means you can take advantage of the excellent handwriting recognition in Windows (although it's a shame you don't get a copy of OneNote, just Office Starter) and you don't need to worry about resting your hand on screen while you write.

Touch the screen without the pen and you get four-point multitouch; pinch zoom, swipe photos, scroll in Internet Explorer 9 or tap in slight frustration at the tiny Windows icons. Selecting programs from the Start menu with a finger was easy, maximising a window by pressing the button in the corner was more hit and miss. This isn't quite as sensitive a touch screen as the Acer Iconia W500 or the HP EliteBook 2740, but it's immeasurably better than the Dell Inspiron Duo.

The N-trig sensor does give the otherwise bright and vivid 1280 x 800screen a slightly grainy look. The viewing angle is impressive though; you have to turn the screen a long way away from you before you can no longer read it, and the anti-glare coating makes it readable in quite strong sunlight.

Performance is a little less impressive. The 1.5GHz Atom Z670 in the Q550 feels sluggish when you switch between applications – more sluggish than you'd expect from an Atom of this speed. We suspect that's because the default power setting throttles the processor speed down significantly to get the promised 8-9 hours of battery life.

Fujitsu stylistic q550

Let the processor run faster and you get a standard Atom system; nothing like the Core i5 processors in larger tablets from Asus and HP (or Fujitsu's own convertible models), but far more usable, especially for the kind of work you'll want to do with a tablet when you're out and about. (We're also looking forward to testing the performance without some of the pre-installed software, including Norton antivirus.) The battery also pops out easily if you want to carry a second to make sure you have all-day battery life.

Fujitsu stylistic q550

We weren't at all impressed with the Infinity Lounge interface Fujitsu has come up with for viewing widgets and launching shortcuts; there's no SDK yet and it was unimpressively slow (although Fujitsu said a new version would be faster). If it does speed up, it would be a finger-friendly combination of icons and information, but with a very corporate look.

The case is sturdy without being chunky; there's a definite angle to the bezel and back but comfortably rounded corners. The ports don't make it uncomfortable to hold and the plastic chassis has enough grip. At around 800g (890g with the 3G module) and 16mm it's heavier and thicker than an iPad or Android tablet but it doesn't have a fan blowing hot air at you, and even though you can see exactly where the battery is, it doesn't make it feel unbalanced in your hand.

Fujitsu stylistic q550

So what will you want to do with the Q550? Web browsing and catching up on email, especially with the 3G model coming next week.It's ideal for watching video and looking at photos, because there's no problem with any codec; after all, this is Windows. Looking up a map as you walk down the street? Any tablet is a bit big for that. Running your standard Windows apps; definitely, although you might have to pull out the pen for some icons and menus.

Filling out forms and taking handwritten notes in meetings? That's exactly what Fujitsu has designed it for and once you strip the extraneous background apps off it should do that extremely well. It's far more portable than the previous generation of convertible Windows tablets. That fact that it runs Windows is its strength – as a business machine – but it has the usual drawbacks of size, weight and the compromise of using a mouse interface without a mouse.

READ MORE - Chimo NgeBlog : Hands on: Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 review

Chimo NgeBlog : Top 10 features missing from Google+

There's a lot to like about Google+ and it has the potential to make a major impact on the future of the internet. After just two weeks in closed beta, it already has 10 million users. Still, it's far from perfect. I've put together my list of the top 10 things Google needs to fix or add in Google+. Take a look at the list and then jump into the discussion and argue with me by adding the fixes that you think deserve more attention in Google+.

1. Let us mute someone from the Stream

On Google+ it is a lot easier to find friends and people to follow than any social network that has been built so far. And, with Circles, you can divide them into groups and then easily jump between the various streams of your Circles. However, there is also the big "Stream", which aggregates all of the people you have in Circles and this is the default view you see on Google+. The one feature missing here is the ability to mute a person from the Stream (while still being able to see their updates in their Circle). You can mute individual posts from the Stream, but you can't currently mute a person. This is badly needed so that you can stay connected to interesting people but not have the overly chatty people monopolise your Stream.

2. Show list of my +1 items from Google+

The +1 button allows you to give the thumbs up to really good Google+ posts and updates. However, this should also work like a list of favourites or bookmarks. Right now, there's no way to see a list of the things where I have clicked +1. If I go to my profile there is a +1 tab, but that's the list of external items (from websites or Google search results) where I've clicked +1. The items from Google+ itself need to be added to this list.

3. Fix the share and re-share issue

One of the stickiest issues Google needs to figure out is the Share functionality. If you're familiar with Twitter, this is like a Retweet (RT). However, when you share a post on Google+, it removes all of the comments and +1s, allows you to add your own comments above the post, and then your followers can add their own pluses and comments. That can be pretty cool, except when a bunch of the people you follow all share and re-share the same post. With the approach Google has taken to sharing, there may not be an easy answer, but something will need to be done to sort this out, at least for stuff that gets shared more than two to three times in your stream.

4. Let us sort the stream by raw timeline

By default, the big Stream (and the Circle streams as well) are sorted by relevance and popularity, based on the number of +1 votes and shares, so that the most interesting stuff rises to the top of the Stream. However, Google should also give us the option to sort the stream based solely on timestamp, so that we can see the stuff from people who post interesting things but don't have as many followers to buoy their posts.

5. Allow comments to be threaded

This is an issue of intense debate, but I think Google should allow threaded commenting on Google+ so that people can comment on and respond to comments, and not just the original post. That would make the threads a lot easier to follow when they get a lot of comments. And, comments on comments could be collapsed by default and users could simply click a plus sign to expand and view them. However, the threading would only need to go three layers deep to allow a response and a counterpoint.

6. Add more functionality to mobile

It's impressive that Google had its Android app for Google+ ready to download the moment that it launched the "Field Trial" of the new service, and shortly thereafter it submitted an iPhone/iPad app to Apple for approval in the App Store. Even better, the Android app for Google+ is very well done. However, it's not perfect and it could make the mobile Google+ experience a lot better by adding key functionality — eg, the ability to +1 a comment, the ability to join a hangout, the ability to easily flip between the big stream and circle streams, etc. While they're at it, Google should add more core functionality to its HTML app as well. That would be a great way to drive more participation and get a jump on Facebook, which still doesn't have a great mobile experience.

7. Open it up to Google Apps users

In order to get into the Google+ beta you need a Gmail address (or a Google Account). It does not currently work for the Google Apps domains, which are business accounts where the company is using a corporate version of Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and other Google web apps. Google has stated that Google+ pages for businesses and brands are coming soon. Hopefully, Google+ for Google Apps users won't be far behind. Since some people may end up having separate Google+ accounts for personal (Gmail) and business (Google Apps) use, Google should also consider options for letting those users log in to both accounts from different tabs in the Chrome web browser.

8. Integrate private messaging

One of the biggest things Google+ is missing compared to rivals Facebook and Twitter is the ability to send a private message to a mutual contact. Sure, there are a few workarounds and hacks that let you do it, but Google needs to make this part of the product's primary functionality. It also wouldn't hurt to integrate GoogleTalk (instant messaging) as well.

9. Set up verified accounts

Since there are already celebrities showing up on Google+ — and a lot of people who are impersonating celebrities — Google needs to set up something similar to Twitter's Verified Accounts. Just do a search for "Mark Zuckerberg" or "Lady Gaga" on Google+ and take a look at how many accounts there are. There are also plenty of sneaky imposters, like the person who pretended to be Apple's Jony Ive (the account has been deleted).

10. Show list of interactions with each user

Another useful feature that Google should add is the ability to go to a user's profile page and see all of that person's interactions with you — their +1s and comments on your posts, as well as your +1s and comments on their posts. This would help figure out if you should add a person to your Circles, and if so, which Circles you should put them in or add them to.

READ MORE - Chimo NgeBlog : Top 10 features missing from Google+

Friday, July 22, 2011

Chimo NgeBlog : Mozilla's BrowserID Aims to Eliminate Password Fuss


About three weeks after releasing Firefox 5, Mozilla has rolled out a decentralized identity system called BrowserID that utilizes email addresses instead of usernames and passwords for identity authentication to grant access to secure Web sites and online services.

The system is based on a variant of the Verified Email Protocol, which is "a way for a user to prove to a website that they control an email address, through the web browser," according to VEP developer Mike Hanson.

Once a user has set up a BrowserID (a demo experience of this process is provided by Mozilla at Myfavoritebeer.org and a video tutorial is posted below), there's no more need to verify one's identify with per-site passwords when visiting Web sites or signing in to services that support the identification protocol.

The process is secure, according to Mozilla, because "sites get proof of ownership using public key cryptography." And Mozilla has its own verification service, "so you can get started without writing a single line of crypto code."

BrowserID is also browser-neutral, meaning it works not just with Firefox, but "on all modern browsers." Mozilla specifically identifies "recent versions" of Microsoft's Internet Explorer as compatible with BrowserID, as well as unnamed "mobile browsers."

So how does it work and how secure is it really?

Lloyd Hilaiel has written a technical primer on BrowserID, in which he identifies key design features that make it easy for users to grasp, more secure for users because it doesn't allow for weak passwords or easily socially engineerable ones, and better at protecting users' privacy than other authentication systems.

The first nice thing about BrowserID is that it makes a user's email address their identity, which is a natural fit because "[u]sers identify with emails quite naturally, and no new infrastructure is needed to reliably verify ownership of them."

Another benefit for users of BrowserID is that logging-in to secure sites has a one-click, streamlined feel to it that's consistent across all the sites utilizing the protocol.

Next, by design, BrowserID doesn't involve identify providers in the login transaction. That means third parties don't need to be made aware of a BrowserID owner's outside Web activity, "a significant privacy advantage," according to Hilaiel.

Finally, BrowserID utilizes ownership-based authentication, meaning that the browser manages authentication material in such a way that is less reliant than other systems on "knowledge factors"—like a user's birthday or other typical personal information people use for passwords, which can be sniffed out by potential identity thieves.

So what's not to like about BrowserID? Probably the fact that it pretty much only works on Myfavoritebeer.org and a few early adopting Web sites so far. Until the protocol gains a bigger footprint across lots of popular Web destinations, it's just another identity verification process to go through without a lot of return for your time.

Mozilla, unsurprisingly, is strongly encouraging developers to add BrowserID functionality to their sites.

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Chimo NgeBlog : Top 10 Ways to Speed Up Your Computer’s Boot Time

If there's one thing everyone dreads, it's rebooting their computer. It may only take a minute or two, but it can seem like forever. Here are our top 10 tweaks that'll make your computer boot a little faster.

This is a pretty controversial topic, as there are a lot of startup-tweaking myths out there. So, we took to the streets (of the internet) and searched for as many easy, well-supported tips as we could find. There may be others, some of which are controversial, but these 10 things are almost sure to get you a faster-booting machine.

10. Tweak Your BIOS

Top 10 Ways to Speed Up Your Computer's Boot TimeWhen you first set up your computer, your BIOS is set up to make things a bit more convenient for you, but once you're all set up, those things can be disabled. If you hold the DEL key when you start up your computer (or whatever key your BIOS tells you to enter setup), you can turn on the "Quick Boot" option and move your hard disk to the top of the boot priority list. The Quick Boot setting will turn off the tests your computer runs when it first turns on, and the boot priority tweak will tell your computer not to look for CDs, thumb drives, or other media when it first starts, which will get you booted into your OS quicker. If you ever need to boot from CD though, you'll have to go back into the BIOS and change this again before you do.

9. Clean Out Programs that Launch at Startup

Top 10 Ways to Speed Up Your Computer's Boot TimeOne of the most tried and true ways to speed up your boot process is to keep unnecessary programs from starting up with your computer. You can do this by running msconfig from the Start Menu's search box, and going to the Startup tab. This applications list will tell you what each of those applications does, so you know which ones you can disable and which ones you don't want to. Previously mentioned Soluto is also a fantastic way to clean up these programs, and these days it's got a bunch of other handy features that make it worth a download.

8. Delay Windows Services That Run at Startup

Many people argue that disabling Services from msconfig will also speed up your boot time, but we've found that this is more problematic than anything. However, you can delay certain startup services so that your computer boots quickly and then worries about them later—after all, you don't need all those services the minute you start up your machine.

7. Change Your Boot Menu's Timeout Values

If you're dual-booting your machine, then your boot menu probably has a "timeout value", meaning the amount of time it waits for you to make a selection before it just boots into the default OS. On Windows, this timeout value is often 30 seconds, which is a long time to wait if you aren't looking directly at your screen. To change this timeout value, head to msconfig and click on the BOOT.INI tab, and change the number in the timeout box to something lower. If you're dual-booting with Linux, you're probably running the GRUB boot menu, and you can change the timeout on that too.

6. Disable Unused Hardware

Your computer loads a lot of drivers when it first starts up, some of which you might not even use. Head into the Device Manager from the Start Menu's search box, and look for anything you aren't using—Bluetooth controllers, modems, and virtual Wi-Fi adapters are common culprits. Right-click on the entry you want to disable and hit "Disable". Remember to only do this with things you don't actually use—if you use Wireless Hosted Networks, you'll need to keep those virtual Wi-Fi adapters enabled. It's also worth mentioning here that keeping all your drivers up to date will help this portion of the startup time, too (which you can do with the help of a program like previously mentioned Device Doctor).

5. Keep Your Antivirus Running and Up to Date

Top 10 Ways to Speed Up Your Computer's Boot TimeThis should go without saying, but we'll say it anyway: install some antivirus software, keep it up to date, and run a regular scan. This is more of a preventative measure than an actual boot-speeding tip, but if you ever do get malware, it's sure to slow your computer's boot time. With a good antivirus around like Microsoft Security Essentials, you'll be more protected against that happening. Don't like MSE? There are some great ones out there too, so there's no reason not to have one around.

4. Remove Unnecessary Fonts

Top 10 Ways to Speed Up Your Computer's Boot TimeSince the dawn of time, Windows has loaded fonts at startup and slowed down the boot time. This is less of a problem than it used to be, but it can still slow you down a bit. Windows 7 loads over 200 fonts at startup; even more if you've installed Microsoft Office. Chances are, you use very few of those fonts, so you can hide them to speed up that process. In Windows 7, open up the Fonts folder from the Start Menu's search box, and check off all the fonts you don't need. Then click the "Hide" button in the toolbar. This way, if you ever want them, you can bring them back, but Windows won't load them at startup. Note that just removing a few fonts probably isn't going to make a noticeable difference—you'll probably need to get rid of a few hundred. That said, you might have hundreds more fonts installed than you realized, so that isn't as ridiculous as it sounds.

3. Upgrade Your RAM

Top 10 Ways to Speed Up Your Computer's Boot TimeInstalling more RAM has always been an effective way of speeding up your computer, and that hasn't changed. RAM is pretty cheap these days, so if you're running low, there's no reason not to stock up and make your computer run a little smoother. We've gone over how to replace it in both a desktop and a laptop, and even for the inexperienced, it's a pretty simple procedure.

2. Give Your Computer a Static IP

When you first start up your computer, it spends a significant amount of time asking the network for an IP address. You can get rid of this process altogether by giving your computer a static IP address that never changes. Not only does this make your network easier to manage (since each computer will always have the same IP address), but it can shave a bit more time off your startup. Here's how to do it in different versions of Windows.

1. Install a Solid State Drive

These days, your hard drive is probably the biggest bottleneck in your machine. One of the best upgrades you can make to your computer is to install a solid state drive, which has super-fast read times that can speed up your startup considerably. They're certainly not a cheap upgrade, nor are they without their own maintenance requirements, but if you want to speed up your computer and its boot time, you can't go wrong by installing an SSD. The difference will be shocking.

Again, these aren't the only ways to shorten your computer's boot time, but they are some of the most well-known, trusted methods that we've found. If you have any of your own favorite tweaks, share them with us in the comments, but beware of myths and snake oil—there are a lot of tweaks out there that do more harm than good.


READ MORE - Chimo NgeBlog : Top 10 Ways to Speed Up Your Computer’s Boot Time

Chimo ngeBlog : Gandhi To Hitler Movie Preview

Amrapali Media Vision Pvt Ltd presents GANDHI TO HITLER is all set to hit the screens on 29th July 2011.

Produced by Dr. Anil Kumar Sharma and Directed by Rakesh Ranjan Kumar, the movie stars Neha Dhupia, Raghuveer Yadav, Aman Verma, Lucky Vakharia, Nassar Abdulla, Avijit Dutt, Nikita Anand and nalin Singh in lead roles.

The Music od the movie is given by Arvind and Lyton and lyrics is penned by Dr. Pallavi Mishra


view GANDHI TO HITLER stills

view GANDHI TO HITLER stills
Synopsis:

1939 - A world plagued with unrest and upheaval. Adolf Hitler's ruthless ambition for German expansion in Eastern Europe is becoming increasingly violent and inhuman. Whereas another nation, India, struggles in its fight for freedom against the British as the idealistic Mahatama Gandhi continues to appeal to his countrymen to adopt a stand of non-violence. A stark contrast in ideologies even with an eventual common opponent, Gandhi one day decides to pen a letter to the German dictator... a letter he hoped would persuade Hitler to change his path and avoid the Second World War, avoid the massive calamity that it would bring on.

Gandhi then wrote a second letter to Hitler, this time closer to Hitler's own downfall, at a time when Hitler was plagued with betrayal all around him while confined to an underground bunker. We witness a contrast in the ideologies of these two leaders and the eminent result of Hitler's brutal and catastrophic methods.

Gandhi To Hitler looks at Hitler's downfall, his last days when only his love Eva Braun and his trusted aide Joseph Goebbels stood by him, as the Germany around him crumbled and his trusted comrades deserted him; and through the central young couple Balbir and Amrita we see that the fate of many was determined by the ideology that they chose to adopt.

The film establishes the superiority of Gandhism over Nazism, thereby giving the message of world peace, a message still relevant in today's context where the world continues to grapple with the dark clouds of terrorism.




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Chimo NgeBlog : Movie Preview : Captain America


Thor has his hammer, Green Lantern has his power ring and Wonder Woman has her lariat. But Captain America's shield came first — and it's still one of the coolest superhero accessories in the comics.

There were other distinctions for the star-and-stripes-clad avenger created by writer-artists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby in 1940, prior to America entering World War II.

"Cap" was the first superhero to debut in an eponymously titled book, "Captain America Comics." (Superman and Batman, for instance, debuted in "Action Comics" and "Detective Comics" respectively.) And "Captain America Comics" No. 1 made what was, for its time, a bold editorial statement: Right on the cover, Cap is seen socking Adolf Hitler in the jaw, forcefully established the patriotic intentions of this character.

Cap has gone through many incarnations since debuting 70 years ago. The latest is on the big screen: Marvel Entertainment's "Captain America: The First Avenger," which was directed by Joe Johnston and stars Chris Evans as the titular hero. It opens on Friday.

'GOLDEN AGE' ICON

Captain America co-creator Simon is an icon of the so-called "golden age" of comics along with Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Bill Everett. The difference is that, unlike those revered artists and writers, Simon is still very much with us.

"I've always considered myself very patriotic," Simon said in an interview last week.

(The artist, 97, spoke with The Star-Ledger via e-mail. His replies were transcribed by Steve Saffel, an editor for Titan Books, publisher of Simon's new memoir, "Joe Simon: My Life in Comics.")

captain-america-joe-simon.jpg"Joe Simon: My Life in Comics" (Titan Books)

Simon explained that he and Kirby created Captain America as a response to Hitler's rise to power.

"We both read the newspapers," Simon said. "We knew what was going on over in Europe. World events gave us the perfect comic-book villain, Adolf Hitler, with his ranting, goose-stepping and ridiculous moustache. So we decided to create the perfect hero who would be his foil. I did that first sketch of Captain America, and Jack and I did the entire first issue before showing it to (publisher) Martin Goodman at Timely Comics. He loved it immediately.

"But when Captain America came out, America wasn't yet in the war, so the American Nazis weren't happy with what we did to their beloved Führer. ... We had a couple of personal encounters with the Bund (an American Nazi group). But that didn't stop us. If anything, it added fuel to the fire."

Beneath his hooded mask and chain-mail union suit, Captain America's secret identity was Steve Rogers, a citizen deemed too sickly to be accepted by the Army, who instead agreed to undergo a government experiment developed in the hopes of creating a race of super-soldiers.

As Batman did with Robin the previous year, Cap took on a young sidekick, Bucky. He also acquired a unique and scary nemesis: the Red Skull, a Hitler cohort.

Cap's shield was initially triangular in shape, but rival publisher MLJ (later Archie Comics) complained that it looked too similar to a costume design worn by their character, the Shield. With the second issue of "Captain America Comics," Simon and Kirby modified the shield into the circular model that Cap has lobbed at America's enemies ever since.


Simon and Kirby both served during World War II — in fact, Simon guarded New Jersey's coastline during the war.

Recalled the artist: "I joined the Coast Guard rather than wait to be drafted. My first posting was at Long Beach Island, north of Atlantic City, where the Barnegat Lighthouse is located. I've always loved horses, and was assigned to the mounted beach patrol, scanning the shores for enemy ships and submarines.

"We had one fellow who claimed he saw a submarine, and before you knew it, we had soldiers parachuting onto the beach in the middle of the night. They didn't find anything, so they threw him into the brig. Later, we figured out that there really might have been a Nazi sub.

"In the Coast Guard, I met some amazing people — guys like Sid Caesar and Jack Dempsey. I loved it, and even considered making the military my career."

BUSY CHARACTER

In the meantime, Captain America stayed busy. Timely assigned other artists to "Captain America Comics," and the company featured Cap in more comic books in its line, such as "All Winners Comics" and "Marvel Mystery Comics."

captain-america-serial.jpgDick Purcell as Cap in the 15-chapter serial of 1944.

In 1944, Cap made the transition to the big screen with the 15-episode serial "Captain America" starring Dick Purcell as the hero and Lionel Atwill (a specialist in horror movies) as the hissable Scarab. A likeable actor, Purcell died of a heart attack that same year at age 35.

Captain America's popularity petered out in the 1950s, a time that saw the cancellation of many superhero comic books. In 1964, the character was revived by Timely's descendant, Marvel Comics, in "The Avengers" No. 4. In the story, which was written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Kirby, it was explained that Cap had been frozen within an iceberg in a state of suspended animation. Thawed by the Avengers, Cap was back in action.

Suddenly popular with a new generation of readers, Cap co-headlined Marvel's "Tales of Suspense" with fellow Avenger Iron Man before taking over the title in 1968.

In 1966, Cap landed on television in the animated series "The Marvel Superheroes," alongside fellow Marvel offspring Iron Man, Sub-Mariner, Thor and the Hulk. The cartoon provided the character with a memorable theme song: "When Captain America throws his mighty shield ... all those who chose to oppose his shield must yield ..."

In 1990, Matt Salinger played Cap in a straight-to-video American-Yugoslavian co-production named for the character. In 2007, Marvel Comics "killed" Captain America in a storyline that garnered much media attention — an old trick comic publishers use to attract media interest. Predictably, the company revived the character two years later in "Captain America: Reborn."

Simon believes one reason Captain America has lasted for 70 years is that he was rooted in reality — a hero created at a time when heroes were needed.

"My first encounter with a great American hero came when my grade-school class was visited by a Union veteran from the Civil War," Simon recalled.

"That had a profound effect on me that has lasted to this day. I still consider the United States to be the greatest place to live."

READ MORE - Chimo NgeBlog : Movie Preview : Captain America

Chimo Ngeblog : Top 30 Online Earning Websites of 2011

Coming back to our main topic about top websites that earns highest than any other, in this list Google was at top last year but in year 2011 Amazon takes No.1 place of Google.

Many websites ranked higher in this year like yahoo, facebook, youtube compared to last year. View complete list of top 30 online earning websites below:

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Chimo NgeBlog : Casio Presents A New Cheap Digital Camera With A Touchscreen In Europe

Casio EXILIM EX-ZS15 Silver frontJust the other day I introduced you all to the affordable Kodak EasyShare C1505 digital camera, that model was only being offered in the US. So today European readers get to learn about a point-and-shoot camera that is coming down the pike from Casio Europe.

Casio EXILIM EX-ZS15 Silver backThe compact Casio EXILIM EX-ZS15 looks like your typical modern EXILIM camera but upon rotating the camera to it’s back you’ll see the camera has a large 3-inch touchscreen LCD. The touchscreen has become a big feature for digital cameras in 2011, you’ll find the feature in high-end cameras and not-so high-end cameras just the same in today’s market.

The new EX-ZS15 offers up a touchscreen that gives users touch shutter control, meaning you can just tap on the LCD to capture an image. The touch shutter feature is one of the very few benefits that a touchscreen on a digital camera offers truthe be told.

Also included in this new camera is a 14.1 megapixel CCD sensor (1/2.3-inch), a 5x optical zoom wide-angle lens, plenty of built-in functions (BEST SHOT, Face Detection, Anti Shake, and more), up to 29 min. of 720p HD video recording (1280 x 720 pixels), and SD card and Eye-Fi Wireless Card support.

Casio EXILIM EX-ZS15 colorsCasio plans to start offering the new EX-ZS15 in September for RRP €159 with color options Black, Red and Silver. You can check out the full specifications for the camera on Casio Europe’s webpage for the EX-ZS15 here.

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Thursday, July 21, 2011

Chimo NgeBlog : Review : Now Boarding


You might recall my utter disappointment that Flight Control did not make a successful conversion from iOS to Symbian and I was still looking for a good strategy/action game. I think I've found it in Now Boarding.

Two things first of all, this title is available on iOS (but I hadn't come across it before this review), and the second is that it's not a line drawing game, but the fact that it has planes and you have to move things around without getting into a horrible pickle means I'm going to call it a spiritual cousin to Flight Control.

The goal here is less to micro-manage the flight path of the planes (a simple tap to "go to that airport" will suffice), but more to move passengers from their departure airport onto their destination as quickly as possible. Naturally, you don't have enough planes at your disposal to do direct routing - you can build up a fleet but it costs a lot of money - so you'll need to do some route planning to get passengers at Airport A to Airport D by flying through Airports B and C, while picking up passengers for airports C and D at Airport B.

Now Boarding Now Boarding

Do this with three aircraft, passengers at each airport wanting to go to different destinations, and you'll need to keep calm and sort through everything, giving priority to those who have been waiting the longest. Wait too long though and they'll get angry and you'll loose custom and risk failing that level.

Rather than go for an "infinite" game where you keep playing, Now Boarding goes for a level based approach, although the goal in each level is simply "fly more passengers to their destination". As you do, you earn money to buy improvements to your fleet (bigger fuel tanks, cabin crew to earn more money, bigger planes with more seats), and to open up new airports in the level. Starting with four or five open on a level, you'll quickly reach eleven or twelve destinations, filling up with angry passengers.

This makes Now Boarding very much a bite sized game (each level takes around five minutes) but you need to keep playing, to open up other maps of the world (East and West of America, Europe and Asia). If you can finish a level with a certain amount of cash and all the airports purchased, then the next map will be unlocked.

But the great thing about Now Boarding, in the same way as Flight Control and other classic smartphone games, is that you can always play it again, because of the random nature of the game. It's an easy matter to restart a map with the two-aircraft fleet and build up the empire again (the other maps stay unlocked) so you can keep coming back again and again to the same game, with a new and different challenge.

Now Boarding Now Boarding

So we have a game that has variety in each level, with different maps, and changing game play. You have the chance to build up your own mental rules in how to handle passengers, you can improve the equipment you have, and it's a slick UI that you just need to tap to steer everything around the screen. The options screen takes care of auto-zooming of the maps (I turned it off after the first game), and everything stays clear and understandable, even when you're panicking.

Now Boarding has grown on me, and has become a better game over the last few days. It's addictive, it looks good, it's suited to a smaller gaming device and is wonderful on the move. Not only would I recommend it, I need to decide whether it's a "90" (mega-game) score or not. The problem is that there's going to be a lot of people who just don't 'get' the game, it's lacking a tiny final step to become something that has universal reach. But it's very close. So "89" it is then, and everyone should consider this title.

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Chimo Ngeblog : The Best Android Tablets


Ever since Google released its tablet-specific operating system, Android 3.1 (Honeycomb) earlier this year, we’ve finally seen a steady flow of high-quality Android tablets. (Pre-Honeycomb Android tablets were another story.) This is a good thing, since they provide viable alternatives to the Apple iPad, which has dominated the tablet market since its first release in early 2010. One of the major benefits of Android over the iPad, the HP TouchPad, or the BlackBerry PlayBook, is that instead of a single hardware choice, you can access the OS on a number of different tablets.

Overall, the Android 3.1 tablet experience is a very good one. But not all is perfect in the land of Honeycomb: The biggest problem with the platform is a serious lack of third-party apps. Several months out of the gate, there are still less than 250 tablet-specific Android apps. To compare, the Apple App Store offers more than 90,000 apps designed specifically for the iPad. Even the HP TouchPad, which was released earlier this month has more apps than Honeycomb tablets do. Still, the OS itself is very solid. Given its Google roots, it’s the most configurable tablet operating system you’ll find. It's a master multitasker with an excellent notification system, and top-notch integration with Google services like Gmail, Google Chat, and Google Maps. Plus, you get Flash video support.

In tablet time, it’s still very early. If you can, it might make sense to hold out for a couple of months to see how things shape up on the Android apps front, and to find out what Amazon has up its sleeve. But if you’re not willing to wait, and you want an Android tablet now, you have some choices to make. We’ve tested and rated each Honeycomb tablet that’s been released thus far. They all offer similar hardware specs and perform similarly, but each of the six tablets here has a feature that sets it apart from the others. Check out the slideshow for a look at the top-rated Honeycomb tablets or compare tablets side by side.

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Chimo NgeBlog : Casio unveils new touchscreen compact


Casio has announced a new touchscreen compact camera to slot into its Exilim range.

The EX-ZS15 is the first compact from Casio to feature a touchscreen, and with a low European retail price of €159, it is also one of the most affordable currently available on the market.

The Casio Exilim EX-SZ15 features a 7.6cm (3 inch) touch screen that can be activated via a symbol on the screen itself. Recording and playback functions are operated almost exclusively using the screen, with scrolling menus and colour coded symbols. Touch shutter is also possible.

Other specifications on board the camera include a 14.1 million effective pixels CCD sensor and 5x optical zoom and 4x digital zoom.

Fitted with a 26mm wide-angle lens, it is also capable of video recording in 720p HD quality.

Face-detection functionality has also been included, which has the capability of both recording individual faces or entire groups, and then automatically applying the best possible setting.

A rechargeable battery comes with the camera, which has been tested to reach 170 shots from one charge.

Casio manufactures a range of compact cameras, including the rugged G series range, the hi-zoom H range and the high-speed ZR range.

The camera is available in three colours: silver, red and black. We are yet to receive any UK information about the new camera, so pricing information is unavailable at present - we will update when we find out more.




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Chimo NgeBlog : How much faster is the Symbian Anna (Web 7.3) browser?


Nokia's Symbian devices ship with the Web application for browsing the Internet. Up until recently, all Symbian^3 devices, most S60 5th Edition (Symbian^1) devices and some S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 devices shipped with version 7.2 of the Web application.

Symbian Anna, announced in April of this year, introduced version 7.3 of the Web browser. Hence it is commonly referred to as the Symbian Anna browser. It is currently shipping on the Nokia E6 and X7, is now available for a number of S60 5th Edition and S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 devices through firmware updates, and will be available in August for all other Symbian^3 devices (N8, C7, C6-01, E7).

Thanks to an update to the underlying WebKit engine in Web 7.3, web standard support is improved, with initial (basic) support for HTML 5, expanded support for CSS 3, and JavaScript 1.8. Support for International Domain Names (IDNs) and also support for non-ASCII characters such as Arabic or Chinese is also added. Nokia Developer provides a technical overview of Web 7.3 here, which contains additional information about the changes from Web 7.2.

Web 7.3 also comes with a new UI. An address/search bar sits at the top of every page, but is also available, at any time, by tapping or swiping down from the top of the screen, and makes it faster and easier to enter URLs. At the bottom of the screen there are two floating buttons, which give access to navigation ('back') and additional browser functions respectively, making it quicker to navigate between pages and maximising the use of available screen space.

Both the WebKit engine update and the new UI contribute towards an improvement in browser speed in day to day use. Other changes, most notably an improvement in the use of caching, also make a difference. Anyone who has used Web 7.3 will tell you there is a performance improvement, but is it possible to put a figure on this? To find out, I ran some tests to compare page loading times between Web 7.2 and Web 7.3. I used a Nokia C7 and Nokia X7 respectively; although these are different devices, they share the same underlying hardware, so any substantial performance differences will be down to the software, rather than the hardware.


How I tested

The Nokia C7 and X7 were tested over the same WiFi connection (4 Mbps ADSL) from the same location (router about 1 metre away). Each website was loaded in turn by typing the URL into the address bar. This was repeated five times with the highest and lowest times discarded and the remaining times averaged to give the results below. The testing methodology was designed to replicate real world usage conditions, rather than aiming for the fastest possible results, while still maintaining a valid comparison.

The methodology used did allow for the use of caching. This does give Web 7.3 an advantage, as it makes better use of caching than Web 7.2, but the updated WebKit engine also makes a significant contribution. The use of caching does reflect the reality of mobile browsing, where both multiple visits to the same site (e.g. news, search) and multiple pages (with common header and footer elements) on the same site are common.

Browser comparison results

Web comparison chart

From these results, it is possible to draw out a number of conclusions:

  • Web 7.3 loaded pages an average of 23.5% faster than Web 7.2 across the pages tested.
  • There's a significant variation in performance improvements across different websites, ranging from 30% slower to 44% faster.
  • In general, larger web pages (1MB+) show a greater performance improvement than smaller pages (<100kb).

Here are the tabulated results:

Site Nokia C7 Nokia X7 Difference Percentage
google.co.uk 1.6 1.2 -0.4 -26%
news.bbc.co.uk 22.9 13.1 -9.8 -42%
youtube.com5.4 10.9 7.2 -3.7 -33%
en.wikipedia.org 6.5 8.5 +2.0 +30%
allaboutsymbian.com 20.6 14.9 -5.7 -27%
mobile.allaboutsymbian.com 5.4 4.9 -0.6 -10%
global.nytimes.com 33.7 18.7 -14.9 -44%
theregister.co.uk 13.6 9 -4.6 -33%


You should bear in mind that these results should been taken as indicative only. It's not really possible to carry out a fully valid comparison on the live web, giving the dynamic nature of most pages and the constantly changing network and connectivity conditions. Moreover, it is increasingly common to serve up different versions of web pages to different devices and different browser capabilities may dictate whether some resources (e.g. JavaScript) are loaded or not. This may explain the en.wikipedia.org result.

One of the things that the raw numbers do not show is the time when it is possible to start moving (dragging) around a half loaded web page. For both Web 7.2 and Web 7.3, this is usually about two thirds of the way through the page load, but this does vary. Web 7.3 seems to handle this better than Web 7.2, but is hard to measure this effectively, as at least part of this is due to improved page scrolling performance in 7.3 over 7.2.

Conclusion

The results clearly show that Web 7.3 offers faster page loading and rendering times than Web 7.2. Although the testing was done on the X7 and C7, the same should apply on other devices. A small testing sample comparing the N97 mini (upgraded to firmware v30 and Web 7.3) against the Nokia 5230 (using Web 7.2) showed a similar improvement (around 30%).

It is worth pointing out that it would be possible to use a different testing methodology and get a different set of specific results. However, the overall result - a 25% improvement in load times - does feel about right after using Web 7.3 in day to day usage over the last month or so.

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Chimo NgeBlog : 10 Fantasy Book Series That Could Replace Harry Potter at the Movies

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 had the biggest opening weekend of any movie in box office history. Which means that Hollywood is going to be twice as desperate to find a new Potter-style addictive fantasy series.

Fantasy books are full of long, immersive series — it's one of the things fantasy does best. But where are the series that could occupy the Hollywood throne that King Harry just vacated? Here are 10 possibilities.

We asked io9's Facebook followers to suggest some fantasy book series that could live up to the awesome artistic and commercial success of the Potter films, and here's what you suggested. Including one project that's already in the pipeline...

10 Fantasy Book Series That Could Replace Harry Potter at the Movies1) Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. Fritz Leiber's mismatched sword-and-sorcery heroes and their crazy-pants adventures in the land of Nehwon have thrilled fantasy fans since 1936! They're the two greatest swordsmen in any universe. Fafhrd is a great barbarian who has turned his back on his people, and the Grey Mouser is the former apprentice to a dead wizard. There's a pretty great rundown of the series here. (Thanks Scott and Marcus!)

10 Fantasy Book Series That Could Replace Harry Potter at the Movies2) Earthsea. "You know, done properly — not whitewashed and sucky," says Sofia, referring to the disastrous Syfy adaptation among other failed versions. But if someone ever manages to do the Earthsea books right, then you could have a classic — and super-popular — movie series on your hands. Like the Harry Potter series, the books start with a young wizard learning his trade — and like the Potter stories, they get a lot more adult and complicated as they go along. But even the first book is full of darkness and strangeness, as Ged copes with the consequences of his own arrogance. By the time you get to the last book, and we're dealing with the consequences of tampering with the afterlife itself, you've got one of the most compelling sagas of all time. Maybe Bill Condon could adapt these books as a palate-cleanser after adapting Twilight: Breaking Dawn. I bet a Bill Condon Earthsea series would actually rule.

10 Fantasy Book Series That Could Replace Harry Potter at the Movies3) Dragonriders of Pern "Dragonriders of Pern would make an awesome movie series, if done right," says Leah. You'd definitely need a deft touch to handle the whole "dragonriders mate when their dragons do" scenario. Arguably this series is science fiction, not fantasy — but it does have dragons, and thus could appeal to people who loved Avatar. Anyway, this series takes place on a planet where people have a quasi-Medieval culture alongsider genetically engineered dragons, and even though there's no word for "war" in Pernese, there are still some pernicious (sorry!) problems. Anyway, the idea of people being bonded with their dragons for life is a brilliantly escapist fantasy, that could burn up the movie screen. (Thanks Leah, Jim, Daeve, Alan, Ruth, Josh and Joe!)

10 Fantasy Book Series That Could Replace Harry Potter at the Movies4) The Dark Tower Series Sadly, Universal just decided to pull the plug on this series of movies (and accompanying television miniseries) based on Stephen King's novels. But that doesn't change the fact that a run of Dark Tower movies would be absolute gold. Drawing on a set of influences as wide as Robert Browning's poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," Westerns and post-apocalyptic science fiction, this series tells a sweeping story of a world that seems to be falling apart around Roland, who searches for the Dark Tower that bridges realities. It could be the movie epic that makes Harry Potter look like a drawing-room farce. (Thanks Amanda, Holly, Hege, Daeve, Jon, Erik, Joseph, Heather and Anjana!)

10 Fantasy Book Series That Could Replace Harry Potter at the Movies5) Artemis Fowl "Better than Potter, and [endowed] with a brilliant sense of humor," says Grace. "Fowl is about a 12 year old criminal mastermind exploting kick-ass fairies. The series is almost complete, and actually tackles science pretty well, with pretty smart ideas on time travel." Artemis, the criminal mastermind, has a rivalry with the fairy hot-shot Holly Sharp, which slowly morphs, over the course of six books, into a unique friendship. There are ludicrously awesome plots and ridiculous humor. These books have drawn a huge global audience, an important prerequisite for a film series nowadays. (Thanks Grace, Nikolaus, Frédéric and Mary!)

6) Jeff Smith's BONE series As Jim points out, this series "has quietly sold hundreds of thousands of copies in schools and comic shops." This is one of the most unique comic series of the past couple decades, and it's become something of an institution. Smith has already gotten a documentary (see trailer at left) but an actual movie adaptation is overdue. The saga of the Bone cousins traveling to the valley, braving the terrible rat creatures, and then questing to save the valley from the Lord of the Locusts would make a terrific set of movies.

10 Fantasy Book Series That Could Replace Harry Potter at the Movies7) The Dresden Files Opinions seem to differ pretty widely about whether the television of Jim Butcher's popular book series did it justice or not — but it scarcely matters. Lots of people seem to be eager for a faithful movie adaptation, which actually uses the plots from the books instead of just using them as a jumping-off point. There are lots of books about magical detectives and supernatural tough guys, but Harry Dresden might well be the most popular wizard P.I. being published currently. And there's tons of material in the dozen Dresden books to support a movie series, including some horrifying monsters, dark magic, and "women who kick ass." (Thanks Jeremy, Elaine, Travis, Dave, Bill, John, Janet, Hayley and Crystal!)

10 Fantasy Book Series That Could Replace Harry Potter at the Movies8) Discworld Yes, there have been various adaptations, mostly for television, and an Unseen Academicals film is reportedly in the pipeline along with a new police procedural show. But a lot of people believe that Discworld could also support a lavish film series — and having recently read the Tiffany Aching books, I'd be a strong supporter of an Aching film series. At one point, Sam Raimi was reportedly in line to adapt The Wee Free Men as a movie, but sadly he moved on to a much less interesting Wizard of Oz prequel. I actually think the story of Tiffany learning to be a witch, and confronting the lack of glamor in a witch's existence, would be a fantastic movie, and then sequels could expand outwards into the rest of Discworld. (Thanks Alan, Angel and Gordon!)

10 Fantasy Book Series That Could Replace Harry Potter at the Movies9) Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber As Rajan Khanna writes at Tor.com, this ten-book series has everything:

Witty, charming, and delightfully unreliable first person narrator? Check. Near-immortal beings? Check. Travel between worlds? Check. Dysfunctional families and the resulting politics of such? Check. And yet it was so much more than this laundry list of items.

In this series, Amber is the true world, and everything else, including Earth, is just a shadow of it. When Corwin finds himself on the shadow Earth, with amnesia, he must figure out the rules of the deadly game before it's too late. There are huge twists and turns, machiavellian plotting, and complex storylines, especially in the first five books. (Thanks Alan, Vic, Doug, Bill, Sharon, Nathaniel, Darius, Mike and David!)

10) Dragonlance. "Do Chronicles, then follow it with Legends," Christopher advises. "Six movies right there." This shared-world setting has spawned tons of novels, but the main ones are the work of Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, for TSR and Random House. The Chronicles follow a group of friends who quest to become Heroes of the Lance, freeing slaves and fighting dragons along the way. The Legends trilogy follows a pair of twins, Caramon Majere and Raistlin Majere, and their troubled relationship, spanning over a hundred years including a world-shaking Cataclysm. It would take a ton of ambition to turn these six books into a movie series, but if someone could pull it off, it could be amazing. (Thanks Christopher, Lee, Justin, Faheem, and Callie!)

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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Chimo NgeBlog : Sony Launches ''World's Lightest'' 13-Inch Laptop


Wednesday Sony finally brought its VAIO Z series to the States, touted as the "world's lightest 13-inch standard voltage PC" thanks to an aluminum/carbon-fiber chassis. The portable rig measures just 0.66-inches thick and weighs just 2.5-pounds, making it slightly thinner than Apple's coveted MacBook Air but one fifth of a pound heavier.

Originally announced at the end of June, the VAIO Z series features a cool Power Media Dock: a "monolithic" expansion module that links to the laptop via a Thunderbolt connection. This external device boosts the laptop's graphical prowess with an integrated AMD Radeon HD 6650M card combined with 1 GB of dedicated DDR3 VRAM. The dock also provides a Blu-ray or DVD SuperMulti optical drive (depending on the model), three USB ports, and support for up to four HD displays (including the notebook screen) via HDMI and/or VGA output ports.

On its own though, the Sony VAIO Z isn't too shabby. As an example, the VAIO VPCZ21V9E sports an Intel Core i7-2620M CPU clocked at 2.70 GHz (with Turbo Boost up to 3.40 GHz), 8 GB of DDR3 1333 Mhz SDRAM, 256 GB of SSD storage (in Raid 0), and an Intel HD Graphics 3000 GPU. Other features include 802.11a/b/g/n, 3G WWAN; Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR; USB 2.0 x1, the docking station/USB port (supports USB 2.0/3.0 compatible devices), HDMI out (3D supported), an HD web camera powered by ‘Exmor’ (1.3 effective megapixels) and more.

Overall the new series features Intel's second-generation Core i5 and i7 processors, depending on the model. Certain versions will also have dual SSDs with RAID technology for faster boot times, mobility solutions including integrated Mobile Broadband, and Sony's exclusive Share My Connection technology which turns the laptop into a mobile hotspot for up to five devices. The LED backlit displays will be available in 1920 x 1080 and 1600 x 900 resolution levels.

"The Z Series laptop is fully flat, abandoning protruding ports, unnecessary seams and bulky batteries for a slim profile that delivers up to 8 hours of battery life," the company said Wednesday. "Users looking for even more flexibility can purchase an optional large-capacity sheet battery that attaches flush to the bottom of the computer and extends the battery life to up to 16 hours."



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Chimo NgeBlog : SwiftKey Tablet X Review

Today we’re privileged to get to take a peek at the newest offering from the 3rd party on-screen keyboard developers SwiftKey in an app made specifically for Android tablets, that being SwiftKey Tablet X. This is the first time SwiftKey has offered a tablet-specific keyboard in such a form as this, excitement abound as the handset version is, without a doubt, one of the more amazing non-stock keyboards on the market. This is a keyboard that predicts your text, gives you all the options a pro user like you could want, and is out in the Android Market right this second. Let’s take a look and see what we’re rolling with here.

Because this is such an odd application (aka it’s not a game and it’s something you’re going to end up using all the time,) we’ve gotta start by explaining exactly what’s going on here. This is an app that’s going to change your whole tablet experience, your whole world! And guess what? You can change it to GLOW colors, too! You TRON fans can rest easy with SwiftKey Tablet X.

What is this app?

This app is a keyboard replacement app. Better yet it’s a full-fledged keyboard system made to take everything the team at SwiftKey has learned about keyboard mechanics and users interacting with keyboards on all devices, and apply that to this newest and most advanced system currently on the market (that SwiftKey offers, anyway.) This keyboard system acts not only with predictive text and the instant learning of your keying style based on every character you tap, in which order and how fast, but it allows you to put it in whichever of its several setups you like for optimal tapping!

Why would I want to switch from my normal keyboard?

You might ask such a question, and my answer is this: should you take a look at the app as it rests in the market right now, it and its close relative SwiftKey X (for handsets,) you’ll see that they’re only $1.99. This is an offer that’s only good the FIRST DAY these apps are out, after that they get get bumped to $3.99 and $4.99. But they’re worth it. You use your keyboard every single time you pop your tablet on. With SwiftKey Tablet X, the keyboard learns from you in order to become one with you, kind of like a creepy symbiont alien of some sort. Fun!

What else can I do with this keyboard?

Let me mention again that you’re able to switch this keyboard over to a unique design that’s all SwiftKey’s own, that being their lovely split thumb mode, a selection of keys to the left, another selection of keys to the right, and your lesser-used number pad in the center. This number pad becomes a symbol pad with a simple press of a corner button. With this mode you’ll be changing the way you type in no time at all.

Next there’s the ability to swipe your thumb across the keys to delete the last word you read. Just like you’re trying to key a piece of cookie off the screen – this flicking of your hand will delete the word you just messed up massively. With that comes the other very odd way you can type in a way you’d have never thought possible. If you type the world “I’d” followed by the word “like”, it’s very possible that, with SwiftKey’s predictive technology at work, the next word it’ll predict will be “to” followed by “go to the record store.” All of this will appear on your Prediction Bar between the keyboard and the rest of your display, lookin like nobody’s business, all cool.

You can also change the colors on your keyboard if you wish, and a few more items we’ll get to after the next section, but first, this Prediction Bar. Here is where the app will shine or fall to the ground, thusly we’ve got to section is off:

Prediction Bar

While we’ve seen other keyboards do similar things, no keyboard has such quick response time and absolutely unafraid of you push it right in your face attitude about which words it thinks you want. Turns out it’s almost always right. And when you find that you’re attempting to spell your words correctly on your own for a day, you can turn off the prediction bar altogether for some real bee action.

The Prediction Bar is simply the most visually prominent piece of the whole learning model. Where predictive text normally screws a person like your humble narrator up royally, here we find a learning model like we’ve never seen before, words correcting themselves before there’s even enough letters for a normal human to guess what they are. Snap!

FUN OFFICIAL FACT: SwiftKey X uses TouchType’s fluency 2.0 AI engine to learn from, and then think like you to help predict word (Now with even better accuracy).

What about my inside-joke misspellings?

Whether everyone realizes it or not, essentially everyone has their own special dialect that they use whilst speaking on the internet. Because of this, no keyboard can be instantly understanding of the words you’re going to want to type until it’s allowed to learn. If you want a perfect keyboard, you’ve got to work with it for a while so it can understand your oddities – then you’ll win!

In addition to this, you’ve not got to worry about your no-English situation, as this version of SwiftKey supports over 22 languages and is able to interpret up to 3 languages at a time for bilingual typers. Sounds like the diversity we love in an app, especially one so quintessentially important to the basic functions of the device like this.

FUN OFFICIAL FACT: With this app you’ll be getting next-generation technology that features cloud learning, which analyzes how you type on Gmail, Twitter, and Facebook to learn your style even faster (If you allow it). WE do, and patiently await the addition of G+.

Any improvements over previous SwiftKey versions?

Though these fixes and updates have much more to do with the handset version than they do the tablet version as SwiftKey Tablet X is the first tablet-based SwiftKey, it is important to note the following as updated and upgraded from previous SwiftKey versions:

• Fixed the fast typing problem where previous prediction is taken over current prediction.
• Fixed the disabled clear language data option bug.
• Updated neon theme candidate buttons.
• Updated summary for ‘show all foreign characters’ option.
• Fixed xlarge landscape spacebar in ‘shortmessage’ fields.
• Enabled Scandinavian layouts for tablets.
• Added split Scandinavian layouts for tablets.
• Added T-comma character to DroidSans font for Romanian.
• Added the “Share SwiftKey X on your Facebook Wall?” functionality to personalization.
• Fixed the shiftstate toggle on orientation change bug.
• Fixed the Honeycomb backspace problem and updated IEM tests.
• Fixed incorrectly aligned keys.
• Added in the new sharing URL (http://skx.me)
• Disabled the QuickPeriod checkbox when the autocomplete selection makes it irrelevant

What a ride! This is a professional grade application you’re going to want to purchase just to look at, and at $1.99 you can’t afford not to. Head over to the Android Market right this second and pick you up some SwiftKey Tablet X for the typing wins!

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