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I am trying to think of a really fantastic gift for someone. I bought them a Taiyo Yuden DVD fr their last birthday and they were thrilled with it and I am wondering how to top that gift. They have not hinted about anything they want, like they did with that, so it makes it far harder to choose something that I know they will really like. I know that they like clothes but I never too good at guessing peoples sizes and so that can be very offensive if you buy them something too big and annoying for them if it is too small. I think I will steer clear of that idea.

I could go for something technical again but I do not want to make a mistake and get the wrong thing. I think perhaps I am just going to have to phone him up and ask him directly if there is something tat he wants. Better I think to have a present that is not a surprise than to get something that is disappointing because it is not what you want. I know that by not being a surprise it will not be able to top the DVD Yuden but at least it will not be a complete disappointment.

Garmin 396 is a global position system designed for the aircrafts. This multi feature device is an ideal match for aircraft’s cockpit and also serves as a good navigator for the pilot. Ranked under the category of most reliable GPS systems, it is packed with XM Weather mapping technology, besides, METARs, TFRs, TAFs, satellite imagery and much more. The GPS comes in sunlight-viewable, 256 color TFT screen and incorporated with ultra modern TAWS-style audio terrain alerts. Garmin 396 is full of potential capabilities that give the pilots a wonderful adventure in air through its full Jeppesen aviation database and more than 150 XM Radio stations.

Another GPS model from Garmin is slightly less advanced than the 396 GPS model. The garmin 296 GPS model is featured with “Terrain” mode that gives the pilots with almost TAWS-like warnings, just like advanced 396 GPS model, but truly lacks whopping 150 XM radio stations. Garmin 296 is packed with automotive facility mode that allows the pilot to give accurate directions after landing. The automatic-routing feature similar to the one as seen in the car navigation system also allows the pilot to make the inspection of the land for any crevices or holes. What’s more, the GPS has high-speed 200-Mhz processor that helps in making fast map redraws.

Trail cameras are now very popular among hunters and wild life photographers. Most of them have understood the importance of using trail cameras and the quality of pictures that they get in these cameras. Trail cameras were once only 35mm film cameras but they are available in 6 mega pixel cameras with digital infrared units. The clarity of the photos is really amazing and welcomed by the users. Reaching animals close enough and taking pictures may not be possible in all the cases or other options would be cameras with telescopic lens which can super-zoom the objects at very far distance, but this camera is going to be bulky and heavy to carry and walk around in a forest. Earlier, non coupled rangefinder cameras can display the distance of the object or the focus but requires the photographer to modify the value to the lens focus ring.

Some Cameras might have built in digital rangefinders and some may not. If the camera doesn’t have a range finder then it usually fitted t the accessory shoe of the camera. Predator calls is usually available on stores or you can just records some noises on the first visits and use them in the following visits.

The Nokia E63 is a new proposition for Eseries. It is a messaging device where people will be just as involved in their social network as they are in their business network.

The Nokia E63 can switch modes with a single key press, switching from a view of corporate mail, appointments and intranet data, to a personal mode with a picture of friends, personal email

The Nokia E63 consists of Files on Ovi, a service where people can get remote access to their PC files even when their computer is offline. Anyone buying the handset will have access to 1GB of online file storage for free.

The Nokia E63 will be in ultramarine blue or ruby red colors. Users can record and view images and videos with the digital camera and bright landscape display, listen to music downloaded from the Nokia Music Store, through the standard 3,5 mm audio jack or customize the device through the thousands of applications available for download.

Soren Petersen, senior vice president of Nokia says, “The amazing response we have seen to the Nokia E71, which has very quickly become the best selling model in its category, let us know that we are heading in the right direction. People want a rich experience when using messaging, social networks and the Internet. With the Nokia E63 you can enjoy the web, update your status and work meaningfully with multiple email accounts.”

The Nokia E63 is expected to carry a price of EUR 199, before taxes and subsidies.

An Indian origin physics professor at Clemson has made a major breakthrough in nanotechnology which may lead to nano-scale electromechanical sensors that can read and alert us to toxic chemicals or gases in the air.

In the research, Apparao Rao found that nano-scale cantilevers hold the potential to detect the toxic chemicals or gases in the air.

He claimed that, when put into a small handheld device, the cantilevers can pave the way for real-time chemical alerts in battle, in industry, in health care and even at home.

“The ability to build extremely small devices to do this work has been something we’ve only seen so far in science-fiction movies,” said Rao.

The micro- and nano-scale cantilevers, with the width of a human hair or smaller, look like tiny diving boards under an electron microscope.

The researchers have advanced the method of oscillating cantilevers that vibrate much like a guitar string and measure amplitude and frequency under different conditions, creating highly reliable sensors that can relay a message that there’s trouble in the air.

“The current way of sensing involves an optical method that uses a relatively bulky and expensive laser beam that doesn’t translate well to use in nano-scale cantilevers. Our method is fully electrical and uses a small AC voltage to vibrate the cantilever and simple electronics to detect any changes in the vibration caused by gaseous chemical or biological agents. This method enables the development of handheld devices that would beep or flash as they read gas and chemical levels on site,” said Rao.

He said that the electromechanical sensors have varied applications— besides simultaneously reading multiple kinds of toxins in the environment, they can measure changes in humidity and temperature.

On the basis of preliminary results, it was found that the fully electrical sensing scheme is so sensitive that it can differentiate between hydrogen and deuterium gas, very similar isotopes of the same element.

And as the process is fully electrical, the size limitations that plague competing detection methods are not a problem here.

It is possible to make the cantilevers shrink down to the nano-scale and the operating electronics can be contained on a single tiny chip. Rao’s research has shown that a single carbon nanotube can be used as a vibrating cantilever.

Rao applauded Clemson Professor Emeritus of Physics Malcolm Skove, of discovering that measuring the resonant frequency of a cantilever at the second or higher harmonies would get rid of the so-called parasitic capacitance, an unwanted background that obscures the signal and has been a major stumbling block to the advancement of similar technology.

“When we operate at these higher harmonics of the resonant frequency, we get extremely clean signals. It makes a tremendous difference, and the National Institute for Standards and Technology is interested in promoting the Clemson method as one of the standard methods for measuring the stiffness of cantilevered beams,” said Rao.

Sony, Pioneer and other manufacturers are expected to announce new Blu-ray DVD players for the U.S. market over the next few weeks. Sony, announcing new players and recorders in Japan this week, is expected to make a $2,000 Blu-ray player available for the upcoming holiday season in the U.S. Pioneer is expected to ship a similar model as well — but many believe the price tags will doom their sales.

Sony Models

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Sony’s $2,000 Blu-ray player will include a special chip designed to give viewers an even clearer high-definition picture. Sony’s next-cheapest model will cost $499 and includes High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) as well as DVD and CD support. Whether a chip to enhance high definition is worth $1,500, the market will soon determine.

Sony also released new Blu-ray recorders in Japan, where the recordable format is highly popular. Sony could not be reached for comment on its new players.

Blu-ray Player Market Uncertainties

Since Toshiba surrendered the high-definition format war last spring and buried HD DVD, Sony and its Blu-ray technology licensees have had an open field with the winning Blu-ray format. But sales, as tracked by market analysts, appear to be totally stagnant. A recent search of Blu-ray sites reveals that more than 50 models have shipped this year, with prices in the $300-$2,000 price range. Most players offering HDMI 1.3 interfaces are going at a premium — usually more than $1,000.

The HDMI 1.3 specification gives customers greater speed, eliminating many lip-sync problems found in earlier implementations, as well as deep color and broad color space. Deep color, with increased pixel depth, supposedly supports billions of colors, eliminates color banding, and provides a nearly infinite array of shades, according to the HDMI standards organization. Broad color space enables HDMI-compliant devices to more accurately display such colors.

But is it worth the price? HDMI 1.1 Blu-ray devices sell for far less — in the $300-$500 price range. Some HDMI 1.3 models by Korean manufacturers are attempting to break the barrier, offering models in the $500-$600 price range. And many consumers are perfectly happy with DVD upconverters that deliver near 1080p performance to flat-screen TVs for $100 or less. Regular reviewers of upconverting DVD players note little difference between full-fledged Blu-ray and upconverted images.

Add the Internet to the mix. HD video delivery via download is expected to be a huge market, and sites such as Netflix are poised to take advantage. Network broadcasters with Internet sites can easily convert to 1080p formats for download as well. Multimedia PCs equipped with Blu-ray drives give consumers yet another option.

Regardless, analysts don’t foresee a cheery holiday sales season for Blu-ray manufacturers unless features settle and prices come way down. Just as with the adoption of vanilla DVD players replacing old VCR players, the sub-$300 price point seems to be the ticket for widespread adoption. And according to a report on Blu-ray.com, an undisclosed manufacturer is about to deliver a player for less than $200 this fall.

Take a group of scientists and a video game designer and what do you get? Spore, a game that can help teach players some evolutionary biology. The game is latest from Will Wright, the man behind The Sims which has become the most successful video game ever and best seller for Electronic Arts Enc

That franchise lets players build the homes and lives of virtual characters and is also a rare PC-born franchise that appeals to women with over half of The Sims players women.

But with Spore, which was four years in the making, Wright has made a life creation simulator where players can conjure up creatures from DNA and then guide their evolution with the ability to create unique aliens, spacecraft and planets. “Spore was very much inspired by many different types of sciences,” Wright told Reuters, listing physics, chemistry, biology, sociology, and astronomy. “We spent a lot of time meeting a lot of scientists very early on in developing this game to find out what areas would be interesting to bring into the game.”

Wright said that Spore was designed as a cross-media franchise and, like The Sims which continues to spawn new console, handheld and mobile offspring, will be heading to consoles in the future.

With its Sept. 7 launch comes an iPhone game and also a National Geographic HD documentary on the science behind the game.

Wright said he spoke to a lot of scientists about evolutionary biology as he created the game. “We’re using Spore as a nexus for explaining these theories on evolutionary biology,” he said.

As part of the development of this game, Wright worked with the SETI Program (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence).

Wright said the goal is to use Spore as part of SETI’s educational outreach to introduce astrobiology to students at the high school level although it also hase a “fun factor.”

Just two weeks after a $10 “Spore Creature Creator” editor was released to the public in June, over 2 million creatures had been uploaded to the Spore universe. Wright said it would take his team 50 years to make that much content. “Millions of people contribute content like planets, buildings and creatures to your game, but it’s not real-time,” said Wright. “You’re seeing copies of people’s stuff, so you can go up and blow up a planet and you haven’t ruined their experience.”

The virtual universe of Spore will constantly be updated with new user-generated content, which is woven into the single-player game experience. Wright calls this new type of game a “massively single-player online experience,” since it allows players to communicate online, while playing out unique evolutionary adventures.

When it comes to all of the user-generated creativity, Wright’s already looking into new ways to utilize this content. “We’re exploring using these databases to populate other games, where we might have all of the vehicles from the vehicle editor used in a different game under the Spore umbrella that’s a very different experience than Spore,” said Wright.

doubt it. I work for O2 and I live and work on the isle of wight and we sold out in the first half hour. Call you nearest O2 store and ask them to call you when they get some in. They cannot reserve them though as their strictly on a first come first serve basis.

im a making a DVD 2 play on my portable DVD and i .AVI and .MP4 and they dont work

what format should i convert my vids 2 next for it 2 work on my player?

i have the model polaroid dvd player pdv-0713B

All DVD players play the DVD-Video format, which is a DVD-specific format which uses MPEG, but is far different than simply dropping an MPEG file onto a DVD-R.

Others play DivX or XViD AVIs, but probably no others.. AVI is really a computer format, since it’s just a container.. there can be any kind of video or audio inside. A computer can see something it doesn’t know, ask you to download it, etc. A DVD player doesn’t have room for downloads, even if it did have the internet connection.

You need to create a DVD-Video disc in order to play this on you Polaroid. It does suppoort DVD-R/RW… but it still needs to be a DVD-Video disc. This requires some kind of DVD creation or authoring program.

If you’re technically inclined, you can find some free tools to help with this on http://www.videohelp.com. but they can be a bit complex to use. They also have a list of commerical and shareware apps on VideoHelp.

Marine GPS systems are a necessity to all sea voyagers. They make use of satellites that is located around the earth that sends the exact time and position of a sea vessel. There are several kinds of GPS devices that you may choose from depending on your purpose:

* Mapping- this is practical for businesses which need mapping system to gather information on the field. It can also be useful for travelers who need GPS to provide direction
* Surveying- this kind of GPS system is often used on the professional aspect of collecting land and terrain data. Operation can be a bit challenging. The maintenance of the device also entails technical expertise
* Tracking- this is designed to locate a ship or a vessel in real time which may carry cargo or passengers along commercial routes
* Navigating- this aids seafarers to go from one specific point to another point of destination. They may come with several features like voice prompting or personal data storage.

GPS systems are also vital as a military tactical gear. A combination of the variants above help the Marines locate ships or individuals during offensive, defensive, or rescue operations in the sea.

Before sailing off, it is a must for the crew to check their boating and marine electronics to guarantee the safety of everyone aboard and ensure the full functional capacity of the vessel in case of emergencies.