A Porsche That Runs On A Battery: The P'9521

Luxury mobile phones.
A growing category in the market of mobile communications.

We have the Prada cell phone by LG, the Armani-Samsung Phone, the Goldvish diamond encrusted Vertu cell phone, the Bang & Olufsen Samsung cell phone, diamond studded cell phones, gold plated cell phones, even Ferrari and Lambourghini additions to the luxury mobile market.

So, what's next to enter this market of luxury communication devices? The Porsche of cell phones. Or rather, the Porsche Cell phone. Below are pics and an in-depth is a review of this newly released collaboration between the Porsche Design Studio and Sagem Communication.




Reviewed by JULIAN PEH
Photography AHMED ZULKAMAL

An instrument wrought out of aluminum and glass, the Porsche Design P'9521 phone is an intriguing new entrant to the burgeoning luxury mobile phone market.

A collaboration between Porsche Design and Sagem Communication, the phone’s features include a fingerprint scanner and accelerometer, a music player (with a 2GB memory card) and a 3.2-megapixel camera.

However, as we have observed in the past, companies attempting to break into this market often emphasize on build quality, materials and design, rather than engage in the more-features-is-better specifications war.

It is within this context that we shall review the Porsche Design P'9521.

The P'9521 is undoubtedly a striking phone. With its glossy mineral glass cover and brushed metal skin, it is instantly distinguishable from other clamshells.

As befits an established design house, Porsche Design did not choose to integrate cues from Porsche sports car design into their phones but adopted a futuristic yet minimalist design theme, consistent with its other products.

The phone is made rather thick and heavy for a clamshell, but these traits are a forgiveable trade-off, considering the company's innovative use of materials in the design of the phone.

The phone's casing is milled out of a solid aluminum block. The use of aluminum gives a unique sensation of quality to the phone – the hinges turn with satisfying mechanical resistance and the brushed aluminum has a texture that delights the fingers. The mineral glass used on the cover is simply gorgeous and possesses a sheen that plastic simply cannot replicate.

The only letdown in the phone's construction is the battery cover, which is a simple piece of rubber-coated plastic. For a phone that exhibits excellent build quality everywhere else, the design of the battery cover is somewhat incongruous and puzzling.

Start the phone, and an animation simulating the view from the cockpit of a speeding Porsche rolls on the phone's screen. The display utilizes AM-OLED technology and the colors are extremely vivid and the images sharp from all but the most extreme viewing angles.

The menu interface is beautifully designed, and its use of a light-on-dark color scheme and Porsche Design's trademark typography exudes functional elegance.

A unique feature of this phone is the fingerprint scanner located just under the display. The scanner can also be used to scroll through the menu like a vertical touchpad if one does not wish to use the keypad. The keypad itself is almost totally flat and the keys do not have much travel. However, this is something we got used to easily after a few hours of use.

The P'9521 boasts excellent sound quality for both voice calls and music.

Save for the fingerprint scanner, the Porsche Design P'9521 does not really contain any groundbreaking technical features. However, its elegant design and high build quality enables it to stand out in a sea of clamshell phones. A guaranteed conversation piece.

P´9521
The new P’9521 cell phone from Porsche Design blends purist style with the latest in communication technology from Sagem.
Available from spring 2008 in North America. Not available in Korea and Japan.
Specs below:

General functions
- Photo/video camera: 3.2 Mpix, autofocus camera with flash and digital zoom
- Screen rotates through 180 degrees
- Sensitive touch/fingerprint reader [phone security, direct calls, menu navigation]
- Dimensions: 91 x 48 x 18.4 mm
- Weight: 139 g
- Charging time: 3 hours
- Communication time: 3 hours 30 minutes talk time/240 hours standby
- MP3 playback: 7 hours
- Phone materials: Mineral glass and aluminum
Interface
- Screen: AM-OLED 262,000 colors QVGA 320x240 pixels, 2.2"
- Second screen: AM-OLED 65,000 colors 128x96 pixels, 1.15"
Data transmission
- Bluetooth: v1.2 with AADP, AVRCP & FTP profiles
- USB: USB2.0, USB Data Cable
Network standards
- GSM: GSM-GPRS/EDGE: 900 – 1800 – 1900 MHz
- Automatic frequency transfer
Multimedia
Messages: SMS / EMS / MMS
- Email: e-mail on internet
- Internet: Mini-Opera[tm] / browser WAP2.0
Video & photos
- Camera: 3.2 megapixels
-
Autofocus
Image formats: BMP, GIF, PNG, JPEG
- Zoom: digital [photo & video]
- Flash
- Video recording: MPEG4
- Video player: H264, 3GP, MPEG4
- Video streaming
Music
- Recording
- Playback: MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, stereohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
- Formats: iMelody 1.2, Midi, Wave, AMR NB [recorder and player] and WB [player]
Background mode
- Playlists: automatic, by theme/interpreter/most played/download date
- Fast forward/rewind/play/pause
- Visual effects: bar display, equalizer
- Special FX sounds : 3D, reverb, chorus, flanger


For more information, click here.

To see seriously luxed up cell phones; gold-plated, gem-encrusted etc, visit the following sites:
Goldvish,
Goldstriker
Gresso
Amosu
Mobiado

Gentlemen, Start Your Laptops: The Asus-Lamborghini VX2 has arrived

Unprecedented Power and Style

Click on images to enlarge

Total Lamborgnihi Experience
The Asus VX2 is designed to give users not only the impression of the Lamborghini spirit but innovative materials and details are incorporated to make the notebook look, feel and run like a supercar. The sensational design starts with the signature colors of Lamborghini yellow and black with each one cast with aluminum-magnesium alloy and carbon fiber, respectively.

Lacquer-Finished Hood
The notebooks with gleaming piano painting surface of Lamborghini yellow and carbon fiber black not only stands out with breath-catching beauty but is also tough for enhanced LCD screen protection.

Exquisite Craftsmanship
The VX2's design is all Lamborghini. Its gleaming yellow or black piano painting surface and genuine leather palm rest communicate premium quality at one touch.

Top-end Horsepower
Powered by an Intel ® Core ™ 2 Duo T7500 processor, and an NVIDIA 8600GT 512MB dedicated graphics engine, the VX2 will run Windows ® Vista ® Ultimate (included) like a spin around the track.

The Convenience of a Docking Station
The VX2S-A1B comes with a docking station that makes synchronizing your data a breeze. No disconnecting a tangle of wires.

Solid Privacy Protection
Data security is uncompromised with built-in fingerprint scanner that reads from the live layer of skin, preventing common skin surface conditions from impairing scanner accuracy.

Ride in Style
Wheel-rimmed fan lid for cooling ventilation is one of the underlying surprises that makes the VX2 computing experience full-scale.

Wireless Live Communication
The built-in 240° swivel webcam leads the way as the car’s headlight, bringing the vision anywhere it wishes to go.

The New Transporting Movement
Based on the latest Intel® Centrino® Duo Mobile Technology and Windows® VistaTM operating system, the VX2 offers a dynamic computing experience with blistering speed.

Visual Feast
The 15.4-inch high resolution glare-type and high brightness widescreen displays vivid colors and sharp details with zero bright dot guaranteed. Exclusive Splendid Color Enhancement Engine provides optimum image performance for the most enjoyable viewing experience.

Long Lasting Battery Life
Mobility is further fueled with extended battery life that empowers better productivity. ASUS Power4 Gear eXtreme power management extends battery life up to 20-25%, providing a reliable and continuous operation power.

Ultra Connectivity
The VX2 accommodates the need for a quick connection of peripherals, power and communication devices. Whether at home or in the office, it offers advanced practicality and time saved when leaving and returning to the desk.

List price VX2S-A1Y (Yellow): US$2,999
VX2S-A1B (Black): US$2,999
The BEST Choice - VX2S-A2
Blu Ray + Docking Station
VX2S-A2Y (Yellow): US$3,399
VX2S-A2B (Black): US$3,399

Find one here.

Test Your Broadband Speed

I found this convenenient and free utility today.
An online test of your broadband speed, uploading and downloading.
It's still in Beta, so the results may not be totally accurate.

Just go here and take the test!

Today's results for my Mac G5 2.25gHz below:

Create Your Own Radio StationBased On Artists or Songs

I just discovered Pandora by The Music Genome Project. Create your own radio stations based on an artist or a single song!
Such a wonderful idea and fun discovery! Super easy, good sound, I can't believe I didn't know about this before.

Okay, one bummer, I love The Flaming Lips and I tried to create a station based on their music and got a pop-up window explaining why they weren't playing their songs. Like everything else, legal clearance, rights to music, etc are involved so you may not find absolutely everything you want.

I just registered free in about 30 seconds and in minutes created my own radio stations based on my liking the music and voices of Aimee Mann and the late Jeff Buckley. You can also search for other people's stations.

You cannot rewind or replay these songs, but I'm not using them for anything other than my listening pleasure. Hee hee.

Very cool! Below is a screen grab of what the interface looks like.



Above: It took me two seconds to create an Aimee Mann based (or inspired) radio station



Above: And another i second to add a Jeff Buckley inspired radio station

Below is how they describe it on their site:

When was the last time you fell in love with a new artist or song?

At Pandora Media™, we have a single mission: To help you discover new music you'll love.

To understand just how we do this, and why we think we do it really, really well, you need to know about the Music Genome Project™.

For almost seven years now, we have been hard at work on the Music Genome Project. It's the most comprehensive analysis of music ever undertaken. Together our team of fifty musician-analysts have been listening to music, one song at a time, studying and collecting literally hundreds of musical details on every song. It takes 20-30 minutes per song to capture all of the little details that give each recording its magical sound - melody, harmony, instrumentation, rhythm, vocals, lyrics ... and more - close to 400 attributes! We continue this work every day to keep up with the incredible flow of great new music coming from studios, stadiums and garages around the country.

We've now created an interface to make this available to music lovers so they could use this musical 'connective-tissue' to discover new music based on songs or artists they already know.

Pandora™ is the doorway to this vast trove of musical information. With Pandora you can explore to your heart's content. Just drop the name of one of your favorite songs or artists into Pandora and let the Genome Project go. It will quickly scan its entire world of analyzed music, almost a century of popular recordings - new and old, well known and completely obscure - to find songs with interesting musical similarities to your choice. Then sit back and enjoy as it creates a listening experience full of current and soon-to-be favorite songs for you.

You can create as many "stations" as you want. And you can even refine them. If it's not quite right you can tell it more and it will get better for you.


Above: what I created in about 2 minutes

The Music Genome Project was founded by musicians and music-lovers. We believe in the value of music and have a profound respect for those who create it. We like all kinds of music, from the most obtuse bebop, to the most tripped-out drum n bass, to the simplest catchy pop tune. Our mission is to help YOU connect with the music YOU like.

We hope you enjoy the experience!

How Exactly Does It work?

About The Music Genome Project™

We believe every individual has unique musical tastes, and that music discovery tools need to have a rich understanding of music to account for this diversity. That's why Pandora's music discovery services are based on The Music Genome Project™, the most sophisticated taxonomy of musical information ever collected. It represents years of analysis by our trained team of musicologists, and spans sixty years of music.

Each song in the Music Genome Project is analyzed using up to 400 distinct musical characteristics by a trained music analyst. These attributes capture not only the musical identity of a song, but also the many significant qualities that are relevant to understanding the musical preferences of listeners. The typical music analyst working on the Music Genome Project has a four-year degree in music theory, composition or performance, has passed through a selective screening process and has completed intensive training in the Music Genome's rigorous and precise methodology and procedures. To qualify for the work, analysts must have a firm grounding in music theory, including familiarity with a wide range of styles and sounds. All analysis is done on location.

The Music Genome Project's database is built using a methodology that includes the use of precisely defined terminology, a consistent frame of reference, redundant analysis, and ongoing quality control to ensure that data integrity remains reliably high. Pandora does not use machine-listening or other forms of automated data extraction.

The Music Genome Project is updated on a continual basis with the latest releases, emerging artists, and an ever-deepening collection of catalogue titles.

By building products that utilize the wealth of musicological information stored in the Music Genome Project™, our technology can be highly responsive to each individual, and make it easy for music lovers to find new songs and artists they will like.

My opinion not good enough for you? Well then...Here's what the NY Times Had To Say About It:

The New York Times - Technology

A Radio Station Just for you
by Wilson Rothman

March 29, 2007

Now that the free ad-supported service has been operational for 15 months, it can use the behavioral data of its six million listeners to add a new layer of suggestion. For instance, even if, on paper, the musicologists think it logical to pair a song by the "American Idol" superstar Clay Aiken with one by the Canadian folk balladeer Ron Sexsmith, several hundred listeners may give the juxtaposition a vote of no confidence. Tim Westergren, a Pandora co-founder, says the database now contains half a billion useful points of "contextual feedback."

Apple TV is here. What's next? The ichannel?

State of the Art: New York Times
Apple TV Has Landed
By DAVID POGUE
March 22, 2007

In the technology world, conventional wisdom says that we’ll soon be saying R.I.P. for the DVD. Internet downloads are the future, baby. No driving, no postpaid envelopes. Any movie, any TV show, any time.

Only one problem: once you’ve downloaded the shows to your computer, how do you play them on the TV?

Now, there are people — at least 12, for sure — who actually watch movies right on their computers, or who wire their PCs directly to their TV sets.

The rest of us, however, are overwhelmed by cultural inertia. Computers are for work, TVs are for vegging out, and that’s final.

No wonder, then, that when Apple announced Apple TV, a box that can connect computers and TVs without wires, the hype meter redlined with millions of search-engine citations, a run-up in the Apple stock price and drooling analysts.

After many delays, Apple TV finally went on sale yesterday for $300, but there are plenty of companies trying to solve what you might call the “last 50 feet” problem. A couple of prominent examples: In addition to its game-playing features, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 ($400) performs a similar PC-to-TV bridging function; in fact, it even has its own online movie store. Netgear’s week-old EVA8000 ($350) also joins PC and TV, but adds an Internet connection for viewing YouTube videos and listening to Internet radio.

And so Apple TV has landed. How does it stack up?


Above: Apple's TV comes with an ipod-like remote

In looks, it sits at the top of the heap. Apple TV is a gorgeous, one-inch-tall, round-cornered square slab, 7.7 inches on a side. It slips silently and almost invisibly into your entertainment setup. (You can’t say that for the Xbox, which in comparison is huge and too noisy for a bedroom.)

The heartbreaker for millions, however, is that Apple TV requires a widescreen TV — preferably an HDTV. It doesn’t work with the squarish, traditional TVs that many people still have.

Apple defends its audience-limiting decision by saying that the future is HDTV; Apple is just “skating to where the puck is going to be,” as a product manager put it.

Apple TV doesn’t come with any cables. You’re supposed to supply the one your TV requires (HDMI, component video or HDMI-to-DVI adapter). They cost $20 at Apple’s online store.

So what is Apple TV? Basically, it’s an iPod for your TV. That is, it copies the iTunes library (music, podcasts, TV shows, movies) from one Mac or Windows PC on your wired or wireless home network to its 40-gigabyte hard drive and keeps the copy updated.



The drive holds about 50 hours’ worth of video or 9,000 songs; if your iTunes library is bigger than that, you can specify what subset you want copied — only unwatched TV episodes, for example.

At this point, you can play back videos, music and photos even if the original computer is turned off or (if it’s a laptop) carried away. (Photo playback requires iPhoto on the Mac, or Photoshop Album or Photoshop Elements on Windows.)

A tiny white remote control operates Apple TV’s stunning high-definition white-on-black menus, which are enlivened by high-resolution album covers and photos. You can see the effect at apple.com/appletv.

The integration of iPod, iTunes and Apple TV offers frequent payoffs. For example, if you paused your iPod partway through a movie, TV show or song, Apple TV remembers your place when you resume playing it on your TV. Cool.

Although only one computer’s files are actually copied to Apple TV, you can still play back the iTunes libraries of five other computers by streaming — playing them through Apple TV without copying them. Starting playback, rewinding and fast-forwarding isn’t as smooth this way, and photo playback isn’t available. But it’s a handy option when, say, you want to watch a movie on your TV from a visitor’s laptop.

All of this works elegantly and effortlessly. But there are lots of unanswered questions that make onlookers wonder if Apple has bigger plans for the humble Apple TV.

For example, it has an Internet connection and a hard drive; why can’t it record TV shows like a TiVo?

Furthermore, it’s a little weird that menus and photos appear in spectacular high-definition, but not TV shows and movies. All iTunes videos are in standard definition, and don’t look so hot on an HDTV.

And then there’s the mysterious unused U.S.B. port.

Still, if you stay within the Apple ecosystem — use its online store, its jukebox software and so on — you get a seamless, trouble-free experience, with a greater selection of TV shows and movies than you can find from any other online store.

But in Netgear’s opinion, that approach is dictatorial and limiting. Its new EVA8000 box plays back many more video formats, including high-def video; can play the contents of any folders on your Mac or PC, not just what’s in iTunes; offers Internet radio and YouTube videos; and works with any kind of TV. It can even play copy-protected music — remarkably, even songs from the iTunes store (Windows only).


Netgear's TV

Unfortunately, this machine (2 by 17 by 10 inches) is as ugly as Apple’s is pretty. Its menus look as if they were typed in 12-point Helvetica. The software is geeky and unpolished; for example, during the setup process, it says “Failed to detect network” if no Ethernet cable is plugged in, rather than automatically looking for a wireless network.

The Netgear model is also filled with Version 1.0 bugs, including overprinted, blotchy menu screens and incompatibility with Windows Vista. Netgear promises to fix the glitches, but concedes that it timed the EVA8000’s release to ride the wave of Apple TV hype.

The two-year-old Xbox 360 is far more polished. Like Apple TV, it can either stream photos, music and videos (Windows PCs or, with a $20 shareware program, even Macs) or play them off its hard drive.


Above: Microsoft's Xbox


What’s different, though, is that you can’t copy files to this hard drive over the network; you can download shows and movies only straight to the Xbox from Microsoft’s own fledgling online store. You can buy TV shows for $2 each ($3 in high definition), or rent movies for $4 ($6 for high def). Microsoft movies self-destruct 24 hours after you start watching them. (Apple movies cost full DVD price, but at least you can keep them forever.)

Note, too, that the Xbox’s primary mission — playing games — doesn’t always suit music and movie playback. It can’t get onto a wireless network without an add-on transmitter ($100 — yikes). You can’t control the speed of a slide show or fast-forward through a song.

And in general, the included game controller makes a lousy remote control. There are no dedicated buttons for controlling playback; instead, you have to walk through the buttons on an on-screen control bar to reach, say, the pause function.

And alas, these products can require a journey through the hell of home networking. The Xbox couldn’t get online at first, thanks to an “MTU failure.” A Microsoft techie in India named “Mike” claimed that my cable-modem company would have to make a change in my service. (He was wrong; a router setting had to be changed instead.)

When the Netgear EVA8000 couldn’t get on the network, I waited 30 minutes to speak to a technician, who announced that I’d shortly get a call back from a senior tech. Five days later, I’m still waiting. (The solution was to uninstall — not just turn off — Microsoft’s OneCare security suite.)

In the end, these early attempts to bridge the gulf between computer and TV perfectly reinforce the conventional wisdom about Apple: Apple TV offers a gracious, delightful experience — but requires fidelity to Apple’s walled garden.

Its rivals, meanwhile, offer many more features, but they’re piled into bulkier boxes with much less concern for refinement, logic or simplicity.

Put another way, these machines aren’t direct competitors at all; they’re aimed at different kinds of people. Microsoft’s young male gamers probably couldn’t care less that they can’t change the slide-show speed, and Netgear’s box “is for people who are more experienced,” according to a representative. “This is not for the random person.”

Apple, on the other hand, is going for everybody else, random people included (at least those with HDTV sets). And that, perhaps, is Apple TV’s real significance. To paraphrase the old Macintosh advertisement, it’s a computer-to-TV bridge for the rest of us.

Could you live without your computer for a day?

It is obvious that people would find life extremely difficult without computers, maybe even impossible. If they disappeared for just one day, would we be able to cope?

Be a part of one of the biggest global experiments ever to take place on the internet. The idea behind the experiment is to find out how many people can go without a computer for one whole day, and what will happen if we all participate!

Shutdown your computer on this day and find out! Can you survive for 24 hours without your computer?



See who can and who can't at www.shutdownday.org