26 Feb 2011

Motorola Xoom released and gets taken apart

The Motorola Xoom was released this week without much fun fare and apart from a handful of technophiles, I didn't see the level of excitement we got when the iPad was released. As far as I know there were no queues in the stores selling the Xoom.

So far the reviews have been quite positive. What makes the Xoom  unique is the fact that it is equipped to handle the next generation 4G mobile broadband - something that the iPad or even the iPhone has.


Anyway, the Xoom has been hacked into and taken apart a few hours after it was released.

The real question is whether the Xoom can be a credible challenge to the iPad and even though it has a lot going for it technically, the answer seems to be a big "No!" One of the biggest issues I have against it is the price - $600 with a two-year Verizon contract and almost $800 without contract. I expect the prices to be higher when it is released in the UK. BTW, it was recently announced that the Xoom will be sold by The Carphone Warehouse, Best Buy and Dixons Retail Plc. (Currys and PC World) in the UK.

I am not sure how many people would be willing to spend that kind of money for a tablet considering the brand image of it's biggest competitor - the iPad and the soon to be released, iPad 2.

Are you annoying your followers with too many tweets? Buffer helps

By Leon Widrich


If you are using twitter heavily like I am, you like to keep your followers posted about every great article or piece of news you just came across. Have you ever discovered though, that this might annoy some of your followers, if they receive lots of updates in a short period of time? If you feel there might be some truth here and you don’t want to overwhelm your followers with all that information at once, let me introduce you to Buffer. It is a new Twitter App, that will spread those tweets out for you over the course of the day. All you do is hit the Buffer icon, instead of the Twitterbutton.

How do I get started?

Once you created your account you can choose fixed tweeting times, your added tweets go out. You can add additional timeslots and spread them out evenly over the day. Each day your buffered tweets will go out to your followers at these times.


The best way to add tweets

The first thing is to install the right browser extension for you. You can then add tweets to your Buffer right there from any page you are on. Whenever you like an article, click the Buffer icon and add one more tweet to your Buffer.

You can choose to either edit the tweet like I did with Adam’s post below or add to Buffer right away. Buffer by default suggests you the headline and the shortened URL of the article. That really makes the experience very intuitive.


You have lots of tweets in your Buffer, what now?

Once your Buffer is full with tweets, you can always go back to your Buffer account and edit the tweets. The interface is very intuitive and lets you just drag tweets from one place to the next, to move them around.


Why is Buffer useful to you?

If you are a person like me, reading many great blog posts every day and trying to fully capitalise on traffic from Twitter, Buffer is a must have for your toolkit.

What makes Buffer a “killer” tool, is that it means no extra effort to add a tweet whilst reading, yet you share great articles with your followers consistently.

The fact that your tweets are now evenly spread out, will also be much appreciated by your followers, so they can catch up with your news in a timely manner.

Sign up with Buffer and I would love to hear your views.

About Leo:

I love to talk Tech and Startups. I blog twitter tips at blog.bufferapp.com
Say Hi! anytime. 

21 Feb 2011

New Blackberry Storm 3 leaked video

Here is a video of what is claimed to be the new Blackberry Storm 3 codenamed Monaco.



Frankly I don't see anything special about it.

The Acer X110 or the NEC NP115 DLP projectors

Following my call for help on Twitter, facebook and this blog, I received a number of suggestions for a good projector. It was quite tough considering the fact that I didn't have much of a budget to work with - only £300.

Ultimately I finally narrowed down the choice to two models, namely the Acer X110
and the NEC NP115 DLP Projector.
NEC NP115 DLP

Acer X110

Both machines had almost identical specs: They were both DLP projectors with image brightness of 2500 ANSI lumens, native aspect ratio of 4:3 and resolution of SVGA 800 x 600. Both projectors are 3D compatible as well.

The Acer was slightly lighter at 2.2 Kgs as compared to 2.5 Kg for the NEC. The dimensions of the two were (WxDxH) 26.8 x 19.2 x 8 cm and 31.0 x 24.7 x 9.5 cm respectively. However the Acer had an image contrast ratio of 4000:1 for the Acer and 2000:1 for the NEC.

After discussing with some of the guys, we finally decided on the Acer.

The Acer X110 costs on Amazon.co.uk for £234.98 including VAT and FREE Super Saver Delivery. The Acer costs £239.99 on the Projector Shop site and with original retail price of £279.99.

What swung in favour of the Acer despite the fact that it does not have speakers and has a warranty of only 2 years as compared to 3 years pan-European service + Lamp: 6 months, max. 1000 hrs for the NEC, was that it received 4.5 stars (out of 5) on Amazon as reviewed by 21 customer and based on the recommendation of one of my friends who has had one for more than a year, without any problems. It is also cheaper than the NEC which costs £286.92 on Amazon.co.uk and £255.31 on the Projector Shop site.The decision was also based on the higher contrast ratio which means sharper images.

14 Feb 2011

Search for a projector

I have recently been given the task of surveying and buying a projector for a society I am in. The budget is not much - just £300 and I would be really happy if anyone could give me some suggestions.

I was really keen on the new breed of small and highly portable pico projectors. However, I discovered that their biggest disadvantage is their brightness which are only about 10-100 Lumens. According to one of my Twitter friends, I should go for a minimum of 2000 Ansi Lumens as below that the image may not be clear.

Would really appreciate any suggestions and tips.

Thanks.