» Hardware

One of my tech savvy and hardcore networking friend was talking to me about how expensive it is to purchase all these brand name equipments like Cisco routers and switches, can cost a fortune, for personal use that is. My friend, or more suitably the businesses, can reduce their networking costs by purchasing these refurbished and used networking equipment from MULTI-LINK Communications Products or MLCP. Take one of the used Cisco Equipment , Cisco Catalyst 6513, for example, a brand new one cost approximately USD 13k, but you can get it for less than half of the full price for a used one.

You might be asking the question “well are these MLCP networking equipment reliable since they are refurbished and used?”. MLCP offers 1 year warranty on refurbished equipment which is 4 times longer than the industry-leader Cisco.

If you are a business owner or a networking fanatic like my friend, you should check out what MLCP has to offer and watch how much you can save with its jaw-dropping prices for refurbished and used networking equipment.

We have heard of keyless entry for cars for a long time. But have you heard of keyless entry for your home? A company called Axxis Biometrics provides advanced fingerprint identification locking mechanism generally available for Biometric firms. Each fingerprint lock can store up to 100 different users, or finger prints. Some locks also have a built-in LCD screens that display who has requested for access. And if for some reason there is a power failure, the lock can be opened with a traditional key or with an emergency PIN code.

I actually like this idea of not having to worry about what to do when you forget to bring your keys. I know you would ask, well if you forgot to bring your keys then you could have gone back in without unlocking your house door because it was never locked in the first place. True, but that also meant some one could have entered without a sweat. Or in my case, my parents would have locked it when they went out without knowing that I forgot my keys in my room. So when I got home I would have no way to get back in until they return.

Axxis Biometrics offers three different types of fingerprint locks – deadlock, latch and mortise. Beside fingerprint locks, the company also offers the more traditional PIN code door locks and complete fingerprint access control systems that support fingerprint entry, PIN Code access and access card.

I know this technology isn’t the newest of the newest but this is the first time hearing keyless entry for both residential and commercial buildings, and quite affordable too.

Which has a better chance of actually happening – forgetting your house keys and having your fingers chopped off?

 

 

Tech-On! has posted something that caught my eyes this early working morning. Panasonic has introduced 2 models of its High-security Electronic Whiteboards.

The only difference between the two models is one being “a film-board type that can be hung on a wall and a steel board-type on which documents can be posted by using magnets”, based on the article. Each model is further divided into more trims with film-board type having the “UB-5838C” color wide model and “UB-5338C” color standard model and the steel-board type having the “UB-2828C” color wide model, “UB-2328C” color standard model, “UB-2828″ monochrome wide model and “UB-2328″ monochrome standard model

What interests me the most is the fact that it can be plugged into a PC through USB where you can transfer whatever is on the board onto the connected computer so you can save whatever you have drawn on the board and bring it with you (to your PC or USB key). It doesn’t say if the reverse is true whether its possible to transfer data from a computer onto the boards unfortunately.

I’m not sure about its security feature though. Although its great to have password feature that will restrict from being printed or stored. If the person really wants what’s drawn on the board, he/she can still either hand-draw or take a picture of the content.

Unfortunately, these fancy Whiteboards are quite expensive which range from “approx US$2,020-3,123, including tax” while the printer is approx US$289.58 (I did this calculation based on the current exchange rate, the article didn’t have the US price for the printer for some reason).

Image source: Tech-On!

Evil Controllers brings you the best possible rapid fire gaming controllers for many of the most popular first person shooters for your Xbox 360. There are many advantages you can gain when playing with these evil controllers. Pretty evil I would say.

Evil controllers claim to have “THE ONLY UNDETECTABLE XBOX 360 RAPID FIRE COD5 CONTROLLER ON THE MARKET” as some of you may have already heard about the recent patch that was released to eliminate the rapid fire until EC here came out with the all new Call OF Duty 5 Rapid Fire Controller for all you COD 5 fans. The site also claims this newly developed COD 5 controller “is 100% undetectable and it does NOT slow down automatic weapons!”. There are three versions of the controller, basically the cheapest one has a button that toggles the rapid fire on and off at the lower back side of the controller (its harder to use relatively, and thus the cheapest), the second one having the button at the back side as well but at an easier to reach area. The last and the most expensive of all does not have the button at all where you can toggle the rapid fire feature on and off by the secret two button combination.

For Halo 3 fans, the Halo 3 Rapid Fire Controllers are perfect for all your evil doings. There are also five different versions similar to the COD 5 controllers depending on how much you can afford.

If you want ridiculous advantage over everyone else, you have to get these sick controllers!

I found this on Tech-On! and they had tear down a fake iPhone made from, you guessed right, China! I’m Chinese and I feel really embarrased for all these copy cat electronics and not just electronics, practically anything China can and will copy if there’s a market for it.

As explained in the said story, it is a lot easier to break the fake iPhone, or the ciPhone as they called it and the internal parts are all simplified as to cut down the manufacturing cost obviously. Based on looking at the image from the article, even the size is different with the fake one slightly longer but then again it won’t be noticeable unless you put it side by side with the real iPhone. Looking closely you can also see the text at the back of the phones are different as well.

In terms of hardware, the chip used in the fake iPhone “is widely used for general no-name mobile phones in China and it costs about US$6 per set”. An engineer from Tech-On! estimated that the total manufacturing cost is “roughly ¥3,000 to 5,000″ and is sold for ¥16,000 a pop (approx US$170), that’s at least ¥11,000 in profit!

The article also reported the “slow response” from the touch panel which isn’t a surprise really given that the fake phone uses a generic low cost chip.

 

Source: Tech-On!

With ever increasing operation costs that businesses need to endure these days, every dollar saved is a still a dollar saved. For businesses that operate with a fleet of cars, trucks and vans for example, which can be very daunting tasks and the operation costs can increase as there are more vehicles to manage. With GPS Fleet Tracking solutions, which allow businesses to monitor all their vehicles and other assets from a single computer. This will greatly reduce the operating costs for them and eliminating unnecessary cost and wasted time. There are a lot of benefits of using these fleet tracking systems with with different features but the common feature is they can all monitor fleets of vehicles with ease.

Some key features are:

- location updates with option to pick update interval (2-15 minutes)
- breadcrumbs trail, trails of visited locations can be displayed on the map so the owners know where their employees have been to
- vehicle maintenance monitoring such as vehicle check up reminders
- vehicles’ idle times, engine on/off monitoring

As you can see, these GPS Fleet Tracking systems are pretty much “Big Brother” for the businesses. I think employees of a business should not feel that their privacies have been or will be violated. Although the systems track your performance of driving a truck, for example. They are not meant for tracking their personal privacies if used properly. I believe the reason why business owners with working ethics is soley for monitoring their cost of operating their fleets. If someone feels violated by driving vehicles that have one of these “Big Brother” systems installed, he or she should not agree to the job offer in the first place anyway. And besides, why should he or she have problems with being monitored by these systems for operating the owners’ assets unless that person has something to hide. Its not like someone is sitting beside the person and monitoring him or her!

What if I was the owner of a fleet of a thousand trucks? Certainly I think GPS Fleet Tracking systems will certainly reduce my operation costs. Its common sense really because, again, I can monitor my entire fleet with a single computer. Although it probably makes more sense to monitor them with a few computers because I think its more efficient for mulitple people to monitor when I have a large fleet. But either way, I don’t need to personally keep track of all of them one by one by say, calling on them? Now I can track multiple of them all at once.

These systems also work for parents tracking where and how their teenage kids drive. I mean if they don’t like being monitored, then they don’t get to drive, simple as that! Parents really just want to make sure their kids are not speeding and/or driving to somewhere their parents don’t know about. Then again to each of its own. This is going to sound contradicting but I would feel uncomfortable being monitored while driving. But then again I guess the systems are more suitable for teenage kids that HAVE to be monitored.

GPS Fleet Tracking Systems are definitely great ways to monitoring businesses’ fleet of vehicles by tracking them from a single point, a computer in this case. With the extensive features offered by these systems, businesses can no doubt benefit and greatly reduce their operation costs.

Image source: GPS Fleet Tracking Systems

I actually found out about this through Digg but the actual article is from MailOnline. This has to be one of the most touching news I have heard in the past 6 months or possibly more. How would you feel if you had a old daugther who was born brain damaged said to you “I Love You” for the first time in 6 years?

With the help of modern technology, a £17,000 MyTobii Smartbox machine from Sweden, which tracks the eye movement of the person, in this case little 6 year old Elke Wisbey’s, detects which icon she is looking at and speaks out the word or phrase for her. Her first word, or phrase rather, is “I Love You”. At first her parents thought the system was “stuck” but when her father asked her if she said “I Love You” to them, she answered “Yes”.

I’m very happy for her and her family now that their local newspaper helped raise the money to buy the machine for them. Though this girl has severe brain damage but she quickly learned to use the machine to play games and even surf the internet with it.

I hope that this technology will become more affordable for even the less fortunate people with brain damage. It makes a huge difference because this will help bridge the communication gap between these people and their relatives.

Its been a while since I found anything interesting news regarding OLED or organic light emitting diode technology which consumes less energy than traditional LCD panels. Mostly small size displays and mobile devices. Samsung blew my mind by its demostration of its 40 inch OLED panel. The panel displays in full HD of 1920×1080 (1080p) with a 1 million to 1 contrast ratio. From the two images, the quality seems really bright and sharp, that’s all I can say by just looking at the images. But what I am really impressed by it is that its only 8.9mm thick! But unfortunately this is not mass production ready yet and even if it was, you wouldn’t want to know how much it would cost for a 40 inch OLED panel based on what Sony’s 11 inch OLED display for well over $1,000 USD anyway.

Now I would like to see Sony coming up with its own 40+ inch OLED panel sometime soon.

By the way, I really love that “Please don’t touch it” sign at the bottom.

And you think that’s all Samsung has to showoff? Think again.

It is also showing of a translucent OLED panel with a transmittance of 30% and resolution of 840 ×504, though the panel is actually a combination of 4 smaller 12.1 inch panels. Although its not in full HD I can see this being applied for different places such as having a TV while you shower, or having Christmas themed pictures displaying through the “window” panels or anywhere there are translucent objects.

Sources from Tech-On!:
40 inch OLED Panel
Transparent OLED Panel