A less poisonous and more non-smoker friendly cigarette?.. the eCigarette

Being of the ‘aware’ and ‘caring’ sort, I know how harmful tar is and how non-smokers feel when surrounded by the smelly thing. More than that, we all know the specific smell of a smoker’s car or house, and it isn’t nice. No. Not even for smokers.

This is where this comes in: the eCigarette. Why the E? Well, it’s electronic. In fact, it’s a small nicotine inhaler, cleverly disguised as a working cigarette. It delivers the needed amounts of nicotine, but without the real poison, the tarry smoke. Its realism is also an excellent thing. It’s actually the only thing that made me consider this.

Nicotine and the activity of smoking are in a close race for the addictive and relieving effects: many people smoke a cigarette when they need to calm down, or are bored, or depressed. Compare this with chewing some nicotine gum or sticking a plaster onto your skin. Even people who are trying to give up smoking and are treating their addiction with gum or plasters feel the need to smoke, because they’ve become addicted to this activity and its effects.

In order to improve the realism, the eCigarette delivers the nicotine mixed with thick steam, so one has something ‘tangible’ to inhale and to exhale. It even has a LED on its tip, for that little glint.The cigarette has already achieved a high level of success in China and the other markets it has entered. In Hong Kong it costs about $210, a sum I’d be oh so happy to fork out if it could really replace my smokes.
via UberReview

Sony Ericsson C510 Cybershot mobile phone with Smile Shutter technology

Sony brings its renowned camera features to the new Sony Ericsson Cybershot phone. Well, the Sony Ericsson C510 Cybershot phone now incorporates the Smile Shutter technology. With the Smile Shutter technology, the phone captures images as soon as you show those pearly whites (or Yellow), thus it captures all the smiling faces.

The Sony Ericsson C510 Cybershot phone claims to be the first ever to incorporate this technology. Well, we wonder if such innovative phones will eventually replace the digital cameras.

Mr. Sudhin Mathur, General Manager, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications India said, “We have been leaders and innovators in the camera phone segment since the inception of the company. The camera phone category has witnessed increased momentum in India with Sony Ericsson leading the wave. Today’s announcement is yet another initiative from our end to offer a breakthrough proposition to our consumers and inspire them to capture precious and spontaneous moments.”

Sony Ericsson has also announced the global Smile Hunter competition for all the photography enthusiasts in India as an extension to the launch of its new phone. With the unique feature, you can capture some spontaneous smiles, the phone’s camera also features remarkable photography tools such as auto focus, face-detection, 3.2 megapixel camera, active lens cover, photo light and illuminated imaging shortcut keys. It also bundles up landscape and portrait view and YouTube app.

The Cyber-shot C510 carries an attractive price tag worthy Rs.12,195 and will be available across all Sony Ericsson retail outlets.

Asus EAH4890 series graphic cards

A few days back Asus unveiled the world’s first graphic cards that equip the powerful Voltage Tweak technology. Called as the Asus EAH4890, the new graphic cards series should excite gamers in particular as it is designed to boost GPU voltages along with nearly 15% improved performance.

Offering astounding graphical performances, the new Asus graphic cards series is incorporated with the SmartDoctor application. Delivering up to 15% in performance improvement, the application also offers the most powerful overclockability. The overclocking utility allows the series to provide high voltage boots http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boot along with performance upgrades.
With few simple clicks the utility eliminates the need of a separate overclocking button. It also removes the trouble of re-flashing the BIOS which could damage the cards. Another unique feature of this series is the inclusion of the ATI Stream technology that delivers enhanced balanced platforms that have the ability to run demanding computing tasks. Based on the AMD graphics processors, the series comes with a huge parallel processing power.

“Gaming has been the segment which has made the graphics card industry more challenging and has helped to raise the performance bar for graphics cards. At Asus we take pleasure in providing state of art technology that evolves with every new chipset.” explained Mr. Vinay Shetty – Country Head – Component Product, Asus (India) on the launch of this latest graphics card from Asus.

He further mentioned, “By launching the EAH 4890, Asus offers a unique Voltage Tweak technology which raises GPU voltages from 1.312V to 1.4V in Asus EAH4890/HTDI/1GD5, allowing GPU and memory clock performances to be boosted from 850MHz to 950MHz and 3900MHz to 4600MHz respectively

Offering gamers an adrenaline rush, the series provides real-life graphics performance. The Asus EAH4890 Top in particular enables a thrilling gaming experience as it is enabled to boost performance by nearly 8% while the EAH4890 Top with Voltage Tweak technology delivers 15% boost in performance. Allowing a sure-shot increase in GPU and memory clock performances, the series also boasts of raised 3D Mark Vantage Extreme Preset scores.

Some other features of the Asus EAH4890 series includes 1GB GDDR5 video memory, 256 bit memory interface, support for max resolution of 2560 x 1600, PCI Express 2.0 slot, DVI-I dual-link, HDCP compliant and support for outputs like HDTV, HDMI and D-Sub. The graphic card series is also packed with Asus utilities and drivers.

There is no word on the price or availability of the Asus EAH4890 graphic cards series.

Facebook keep in touch

Mumbai: A recent study in the US has shown that people with 500 online friends on Facebook keep in touch with only 10-16 of them while people with 120 friends on the site keep in regular contact with four-six of them. Our question to the celebs was what does making so many diverse friends on social networking sites do for you?
Milind Soman, Actor
I'm not on any social networking site. I don't think it's possible to have the mental or emotional state to deal with more than four-five close friends in one's life.

Rakshanda Khan, Actor
I have 600 friends on my social networking site. Realistically it's impossible to be in close touch with so many of them. But that's precisely the function of a social networking site. I've connected to my school teachers from way back, one of whom is in Australia and with whom I would never have been able to keep in touch otherwise. So it's wonderful.
Arti Surendranath, line producer
I have over 700 friends online. It's a method of genuine connection with people from another era, whom one wouldn't have been in touch with otherwise. Also it's a super way of promoting a cause far and wide among one's circle of friends. However, what I don't like is that some networking sites can get away with using the confidential information you put on them, for their own purposes.

Shenaz Treasurywala, Actor
Facebook is a great way of being in touch with almost everyone I've ever met. While sometimes, after the initial 'hi', 'hello', 'how's life treating you', you realise you don't have much to say to each other, it's still nice to have the option of dropping a line to them anytime I feel like and to be able to share thoughts on films and books.

Tanuja Chandra, Director
While I'm quite into the internet and into e-mail, I'm not on any social networking site. They are addictive and can become an obsession. Since it's a virtual friendship and you're sitting alone with your computer I believe they isolate more than they connect.