Lets start with the basics, but first i need to point out that this is the Samsung Galaxy S2 Epic 4G touch version of the phone, found on the Sprint network.  You may find that some other models of this phone vary slightly.

Samsung Galaxy S2

The Samsung Galaxy S2 is a big phone.  Despite being big, it still manages to be surprisingly thin, and incredibly lightweight. The Samsung Galaxy S2 is in fact so lightweight, that the ‘flimsy’ feel to it is one of the largest complaints of this phone.  Don’t be deterred by this though, the Galaxy S2 is far from flimsy, it has  a high quality plastic case, and the tough Gorilla Glass. In drop tests the Galaxy S2 actually protects the phone much more effectively than the iPhone 4S. The overall size of the phone is 5.11 x 2.74 x 0.38 inches wighing in at 4.6 ounces.

What really makes the Samsung Galaxy S2 is it’s large clear super AMOLED plus 4.52 inch screen that is bright, clear and low power consumption. it has an 800×480 resolution, which is a little low compared to the competition, but not noticeably so. From personal use, the screen of the Galaxy S2 is very clear, sharp and bright, it stays visible even during daylight and quite easily blows past smart phone screens out of the water.

Inside the Galaxy S2 things get even better. A 1.2 ghz dual core, 1 gig of ram, and 16GB of built in internal storage make this phone a powerful device by itself, but compare it to the competition (including the iPhone 4S) and you can see just how far ahead of its class the Samsung Galaxy S2 really is!

The battery can last well over eight hours talk time and 10.5 days standby, and is a lithium ion 1899mAh beast that will help power this phone.  From personal usage, which includes heavy data use, I tend to need to charge this phone on a daily basis, but this does include everything from watching movies on the go via 4G, to checking my emails and playing games.

Feature wise the Samsung Galaxy S2 comes with everything you would expect, including Siri like voice usage, apps, flash compatibility, web browser, GPS navigation and all the applications you can download.  One thing worth mentioning is that although the Samsung Galaxy S2 has 16GB of internal memory, only 2GB is available for your ‘system’.  The system file is also where many app files are stored, this means that if you install a large number of apps, you may find yourself limited when it comes to installs.

The Samsung Galaxy S2 uses Gingerbread 2.3 (maybe upgraded to ice cream sandwich)  which is a beautifully crafted OS.  My favorite feature of this operating system is the ability to add ‘widgets’ straight on to my dashboard screens. This means for the information I need on a regular basis, I don’t even have to load apps anymore, the information is right there where I need it.

One thing that will capture any budding photographers attention is the 8 Megapixel camera, any budding YouTuber will also fall in love with the front facing camera, which while not high-res, is great for taking videos of yourself talking.  You can also use this camera to do live video chat, and with the 4G network this works incredibly well.

Yes, one of the big benefits of the Samsung Galaxy S2 is it’s true 4G connectivity.  You need to have a 4G network for this to really work, some carriers have what amounts to “3G plus”, which is actually quite a bit slower.

This smart phone has more than just a 4G connection. It also works with 3G, WiFi, WiMax, Bluetooth and of course GPS. This wide range of connectivity means that it is actually pretty hard not to get a data connection.

All in all the Samsung Galaxy S2 is absolutely everything you could want in a phone, it is large but thin, tough but light, fast and powerful.  If you are looking for an iPhone 4S alternative, this is it.

Don’t forget to buy a Samsung Galaxy S2 case though!

Logitech Solar Keyboard

I have to admit I had kind of figured that the arms race on keyboards was over.  We already had wireless, we had functionality, and we had streamlined.  Therefore I was a little bit surprised when I saw the Logitech K750, the Logitech Solar Keyboard land in my tips e-mail address.

When I first saw this keyboard I have to admit, I did think it was a little bit of a gimmick, after all, is it really that much trouble to change batteries out every few weeks?

After digging a little further though, I began to discover that this simple idea has been built in to a truly fantastic Logitech wireless keyboard.

The first instant my opinion changed on this keyboard arrived when I thought about the number of times that I had been ‘caught short’ with my keyboard running out of juice before some major deadline. A late night trip to Walmart for a $2 pack of batteries is much more expensive than a cost of the batteries in terms of fuel, time, and of course mental stability.

To be honest I began to think having a solar powered keyboard might actually be a surprisingly good idea. Of course once I had decided this I also began to wonder whether it was worth the cost, since this is far from a $5 keyboard.

The truth of the matter is though that this keyboard delivers much more than solar power to the table.  To start with the looks of the Logitech K750 alone make this worth a few extra bucks. It’s ultra thin design combined with some beautiful curves make this one beautiful wireless keyboard.  It also comes in four colors, so you can quickly find a color that suits your style.  While I have to admit I prefer the black Logitech K750, the white Logitech K750 is perfect for those who want a keyboard to match their Mac.

All in all the Logitech K750 Logitech solar keyboard is a fantastic wireless keyboard which combines functionality with performance.  In true Logitech style the K750 looks good, has fantastic design, and will perform reliably for years to come.

But what struck me when I saw this email is that how many companies are not even targeting potential buyers anymore, which actually makes spam a rather expensive marketing technique.  Even though technology has advanced a lot over the decades, sending an e-mail still costs money, and sending out thousands of e-mails daily can actually cost a fairly large amount of money.

Without delving too deeply in to the fluff of this subject, I think the most surprising thing is that these companies are nto spending more resources to garner potential leads, rather than spam every inbox and gain a poor reputation.

While A little extra research could save these marketing companies thousands of dollars in wasted advertising, I have to be honest. I don’t think any amound of client targeting will fix things fora  company offering Christmas Deals in June.

So when I visited SXSWi last weekend I was amazed to find a game which not only showed a huge amount of promise by itself, but also brought some fantastic new features to the table for iphone gamers.

The Traveller-AR iPhone MMORPG is set in a vast universe, by vast we are talking over 40,000 systems and 350,000 explorable objects, pretty vast right? This huge number of star systems is not some random creation, it has been well thought out, and each object that appears comes from the old Traveller pen and paper role playing game from which Traveller-AR is based. That’s right, Traveller is an established brand which has had thousands of roleplayers dilligently fine tuning it for going on 40 years.

Continuing on the same vein as a true roleplaying game, Traveller-AR gives you a huge amount of customization and flexiibility to your game.  Different ship types and customizations, different player types and more will help you craft your game in to the kind of game that you want it to be. Do you love to trade? do you love to explore, do you love to invade? or do you love to fight? Traveller-AR has got you covered in it’s immersive iPhone MMORPG environment.

Traveller-AR is one of the first mobile games I have seen released that I can honestly say compare to true MMORPG games such as World of Warcraft. It combines the same community feeling, with an expansive world to explore, and a character to advance.

One unique feature of Traveller-AR has to be the Augmented Reality feature.  This immersing style of game-play actually overlays the game world over the real world as seen through the iPhone camera. This means that you can see planets and space ships orbiting over your own home, and with a simple click you can engage these objects in trade or battle.

All in all I am really looking forward to the release of Traveller-AR (set for Summer 2011), and definitely want to get started building up my character on this unique iPhone MMORPG!

The lack of CSS3 in Internet explorer has created a huge amount of work for web developers who try their best to make a website look good in any browser.  While Chrome, Safari, and Firefox all have curved borders, gradient backgrounds and varying levels of transparency, IE9 remains blocky. Creating a design which does not look completely out of place on Internet Explorer is a huge amount of work if you want to use CSS3.

This is causing problems for Micrsoft as several websites have now blocked IE users from their website, stating that people must download a more current browser.

Maybe it is this kick in the teeth to the out of date Microsoft browser which spawned IE9, a faster, more reliable, HTML5 and CSS3 compliant browser.

And yes, it seems Microsoft have finally got their act together for now, IE9 is CSS3 compliant, and it also has had a massive overhaul to improve it’s speed, performance and compatibility. The bad news is that IE9 with CSS3 is still only available for people with Windows Vista SP2 and up, meaning that many Webmasters are still left with a conundrum on whether to only support IE9, or try and keep the website looking good for legacy browser users.

If you know what Google Wave is you will undoubtedly be wanting one of these precious invites, and now is your chance to get them!

Geekywood is giving you the chance to win one of three Google Wave invites, to win all you have to do is comment saying why you should win! The three best answers will be given a Google Wave invite!

If you do not know about Google Wave check out http://wave.google.com today!

The Sony PSP Go has a brand new look, and while it may have plenty of upgrades there are a few downsides too, first and foremost the loss of the UMD slot means that your old games will not work on this, though it has made the device smaller, and increased it’s battery life.

The next main downside in my view is the smaller screen, the original PSP was just about bearable for watching the odd movie.  Now the screen has been downsized 4.3 to 3.8 inches widescreen you may just find it simply too small.

Infact a lot of the improvements to the Sony PSP Go make it feel more like an attempt to rival the iPod touch, but without the touch.  This comparisson has also sparked questions on why Sony have not integrated cell phone features in to this device, something which truely could put it up against the iPhone and similair portable multi function devices.

Despite this however the Sony PSP Go has plenty of features to keep it going.  Since UMD is no longer supported the PSP Go works soley on direct downloads.  To help support this it comes with a huge 16GB internal flash memory stick, with a slot for another flash card, if required!

The controls for the Sony PSP Go follow the usual playstation layout, it does take a little getting used to, since the controls are pushed together in to the small pop out layer.  This can feel a little bit more cramped, but since the control panel has it’s own section it there are less accidental button presses, which many people found a problem on the original PSP Go.

On top of the original PSP WiFi integration the PSP Go also includes bluetooth compatability.  This allows bluetooth headset integrateion, connection to a cellphone for 3G connectivity, and the possibility of connecting a PS3 on the horizon. Although with the new smaller screen I am not sure just how well that would work out.

The PSP Go allows for much easier integration with TV show, movie and music downloading. Unlike Apple, Sony did not create their own store for this.  Instead they partnered with eMusic, to allow users DRM-free digital media downloading over a WiFi connection. This will supply the top digital media at competitive prices to the PSP Go customers with none of the numerous restrictions placed on iPod users.

We expect to hear more details from Sony in the near future regarding the PSP Go, the world is waiting with baited breath for the technical specs behind teh latest version of the PSP!

So lets get down to basics, how can you speed up your PC?

First things first, the easiest, cheapest and quickest way to speed up a computer is by formatting and re-installing the OS, this does however bring in a few probelms, especially if you have hundreds of programs installed (Like me).

The second, more advisable way is to start uninstalling programs you do not use.  Many of these will have background processes, some which start on boot and then close back down, others will constantly run. Either way they all will slow down your computers boot time by a small but significant amount.

You can uninstall programs from the control panel, however this often leaves things on your computer which can still slow it down, for this reason I suggest using something like Perfect Uninstaller

Once you have uninstalled the useless unused programs off your PC the next step in speeding up your computers boot time is to clean up the registry. Registry cleaning is often considered insignificant, however a single registry clean up can cut your computers boot time in half! Registry cleaning is as simple as a single click with products like Registry Easy!

Once you have removed all these excess programs then your next step is to keep your computer clean, An Antivirus such as McAfee and some anti-spyware tools such as Adaware are pretty much essential here!

Once you have the basics out of the way you can look at more interior ways to speed up boot time on your computer. These small tweaks can massively increase your computers Boot time

Change your Bios to speed up boot time on your PC, make your Hard drive the primary boot device (Ususally CD drive as default) and reduce the time the boot program pauses to let you press the safe mood and system set up keys.

Remove the boot up splash screen to speed up Windows boot time, this can be done in MSCONFIG by checking the /noguiboot option.

If you are using windows vista you can massively speed up vista boot time by using the fantastic ReadyBoost system. This actualy turns a USB flash drive in to extra memory for your computer, and gives a huge boost to your computers boot speed in Vista!

And there you have it, some cheap easy ways to speed up computer boot time!

The smoking ban in the UK has touched many, so it’s not surprising that alternatives are being sought the country over.  Fortunately for thoseof you who have the nicotine dependancy I Want One of Those has just brought out the Electronic Cigar, a disposabledevice which evaporates a mist of a concoction containing nicotine and flavorings to make it similar to smoking the real thing!

And since there is no smoke, this is not affected by the smoking ban!

Good for 600 puffs of carciogen free heaven you will love this disposable electronic cigar!

While it is interesting to see Sky pick up this service it may be too little too late, with only one major record label supporting it many users may be upset that they cannot find all the songs they want!

On the plus side thought the tracks sony release wil be 100% DRM fre, meaning you can swap and change the MP3s between your devices without any worries of incompatability.

There is no news as of yet as to how much this will cost, how many songs you will get or even if they will be downloadable straight onto your set top box, watch this space for more information!

The Xbox 360 is set to have its price dropped in America to $299 (A saving of $50) making one of the leading consoles just that little bit cheaper. You can now get the xbox 360 for less than a mobile phone after Microsoft cut the Xbox 360 price.

This seems like one more nail in the coffin for the Playstation 3 which has struggled repeatedly to gain a footing after its overpriced release with few games. It seems Microsoft has learnt from its defeat against Sony’s Playstation 2 several years ago.

In the meantime however Microsoft have everything to gain as the latest Price cut before the E3 Game conference this year is set to rapidly increase the rate of sale of XBox 360s now they are so much cheaper.

The XBox 360 Price Cut is expected to happen within the next two weeks.

By making the printer inkless they have ensured that it is Robust, small enough to fit in your pocket and has fantastic quality even while on the move.

The other great thing about the Pogo Pocket Printer is its Cellphone compatability, it can print directly from your cell phone via Bluetooth or USB, making it the ultimate mobile portable printer.

The pocket printer works by heating special crystals found on the paper that comes with it, this gives pictures created by the pogo a fantastic non pixelized look that is prevailent in todays printed world.

The Pogo portable pocket printer will cost around $149 on release and uses a special stickybacked paper which will cost around $0.35 each, this is fairly cheap for on the move portable printing, but the pictures do only come out wallet sized!

The fact that the Pogo Pocket Printer can print fast pictures directly from your cell phone is a great idea, i cant see it taking long before colleagues begin to take advantage of this to pat you on the back leaving a picture or two stuck there!

It seems as if the future is here today as Telstra demonstrated a working Hologram displaying a person giving a speech from 460 miles away in Australia.

The life sized 3D image was projected onto the stage where CEO Hugh Bradlow interacted with the audience (who he could see via webcam feeds)

This has been one of the few real examples of hologram technology put into use for communcations, although it is still too expensive for any real business or personal use.

The hologram technology is a fantastic step forward, and proof that it can be done with todays tehnology. It seems that the star trek future is not quite as far away as previously expected.

The holographic future is something that has always seemed a far and distant future, idolised in sci fi series and films the likes of Minority Report. The ability to place a complete image of someone infront of an audience is an immense achievement, demonstrating the possibilities of the future, something only hampered by its current incompatability with mass production and the price hike that goes with that.

Either way it leaves the possibility that Hologram techinology, home videos and phones could see the light of day within my lifetime!

The Flash SSD Series from Samsung is used in most recent notebooks today, since Solidstate Hard Drives are smaller, more resilient and reliable there is no surprise in this. The 256GB version of Samsungs Solid State hard Drives is Due to be Released at the end of 2008.

Icetech, a leading Energy Technology Specialist have released the Solar i9005, a reliable hard wearing Portable Solar Charger. The Solar i9005 is not quite as portable as many would like, but measuring in at less than 6 inces long and around 3 inches wide you do not see many people complaining.

The charger comes with a massive array of attachments, not to mention USB charging capability. This means it is possible to charge anything that requires upto 9v of power, so its got your phone, MP3 Player, iPod or even many portable DVD players covered.

While most people wouldn’t use this it costs as little as $70, making it a great utensil for anyone on the move. I know when I am doing a two week road trip around Europe this year, one of these babies will be on the car dashboard all the way!

We wanted to introduce you to our favorite candidates in the running for the ’08 election: Mario and Luigi Giordano. They own a local pizza joint where everything’s homemade, just like in momma Italy. Face it. Almost all America’s problems can be solved with a generous application of mozzarella. And pepperoni. And especially mushrooms.

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It’s only $29.99 and you can purchase it at ThinkGeek.com.

This t-shirt however is not suitable for those who do want hassle in washing their laundry.

Product Features

* Glowing animated shirt dynamically displays the current wi-fi signal strength.
* Shows signal strength for 802.11b or 802.11g
* Black 100% Cotton T-Shirt
* Animated Decal is Removable (with hook and loop fasteners) for Easy Washing
* Battery Pack is Concealed in a Small Pocket Sewn Inside the Shirt
* Runs for hours off three AAA Batteries (not included)

It can display any one of five different messages – smiling face, frowning face, “Thanks”, “Back Off” and “Idiot”. We will, of course, leave it up to you to decide which of these messages suits your particular situation – but we do think it’s nice to have a device that allows you to more clearly express yourself to other drivers.

Only $29.99

Check it out

This blog is powered by WordPress and so are many other blogs out there, one of the good things about WordPress is it’s templating system or as they called it – Themes.

Themes makes it easier for anybody out there to change the look and feel of their site in an instant.

There are tons of free themes out there, but today i’m posting about WPTP2, a2 column widget ready WordPress Theme.It has a simple and clean look and would be appropriate for all types of bloggers.The fonts and layout seemed pretty good and i must say this is one of my personal favourite theme.

Check It Out

Mashable.com has once again listed some pretty neat stuff, this time it’s 20 Icon & Graphics Generators.

Current Bid is US $580.00

Visit the auction Page

5. ISPs Who throttle BitTorrent Traffic

Some Internet providers try to slow you down when you use torrents. The Azureus wiki has list of ISPs who throttle BitTorrent traffic. It also suggests what encryption levels you should use.

6. How To Encrypt BitTorrent Traffic

More and more ISP’s are limiting and throttling BitTorrent traffic on their networks. By throttling BitTorrent traffic the speed of BitTorrent downloads decreases, and high speed downloads are out of the question. We show you some techniques that should help you evade some of these measures.

7. How To Tunnel BitTorrent over SSH

Sometimes it is impossible to use BitTorrent, if you’re at work, school, Comcast! or connected to a public hotspot for example. But there is an easy solution to overcome this problem. If you use a secure connection (SSH), you will be able to bypass almost every firewall.

Tips -Here

Looking for some cool icons for your next project? or maybe you want to beautify your blog/site with some cool icons.

No worries, SmashingMagazine has compiled a list of some pretty cool icons.
An excerpt:

Let’s take a look at over 20 free, beautiful and fresh icon sets as well as references to further free icon libraries. Some of the sets can be used for free only for private projects, however most of them can also be used in commercial projects. In both cases – before using icon sets please read the license agreement carefully; it can change from time to time.

Check It Out

Ever wanted to create an animated gif but just don’t have the knowledge on how to do it? No problem!, thanks to Gickr.com.

Gickr.com lets you instantly create Animated GIF online, free, right now! Just upload pictures or grab them from your Flickr. Create funny flashy slideshows with you and your friends, cartoons, previews, banners, etc. Post them anywhere you can post pictures: MySpace, Bebo, Facebook, HI5 etc. No need for flash. Show them to people in our Gallery.

Visit: Gickr

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The Canon PowerShot A460 is a 5-megapixel digital camera with a marginally larger LCD screen and CCD size. Its 2.0-inch LCD screen has a paltry 86,000 pixels, an in-camera flash, and a 4x optical zoom lens. It comes equipped with a full auto mode, a manual mode, eight preset scene modes and a movie mode with audio capture.The other bad news is that it has very noisy images, awkward zoom rocker and no 30fps VGA movie mode.

As a budget shooter though, the A460 fails to really stand out of the crowd. Its most notable aspect is its 38mm-to-152mm-equivalent 4x lens, slightly more powerful than the 3x lenses found on most snapshot cameras.

click here for a full review.

The new site, due to launch by the end of 2007, will combine human-assisted editing with computer-controlled searches. Earlier this year Wales’ commercial startup company, Wikia, purchased the rights to web crawler platform Grub.

Grub users download a program which makes uses of their computer’s processing power while the machine is left idle. If widely adopted, such an arrangement could reduce the need for Wikia to set up a web crawling network of its own.

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