Lets have a quick look back and see what this year had to offer for all the tech addicts.

In 2008, Nintendo surprised us by presenting Wii Fit. This is a highly interactive training programme through which weight loss becomes almost effortless.

This device is built-in with different kinds of hardcore and gruelling exercises. Does that scare you? Well, I guess it shouldn’t, since all of the activities have been designed in such a manner that you will definitely enjoy working out with Wii Fit.

Its sleek and elegant balance board peripheral measures the distribution of your weight and pressure. It allows you to shed a tonnes of kilos and pounds and that too at only $90 approximately without even going to the gym.

Up next we have peek, which has been referred as this year’s “Gotta-have gadget!” It’s been designed for everyone, literally, especially people who have a constant job of sitting upright and sending and replying to e-mails 24/7.

Peek is only a mobile phone dedicated solely to e-mail. By spending only $100 on the phone itself along with a low monthly fee of $20, you can have access to your e-mail day and night through peek.

Each year Apple Macintosh has something up it’s sleeves. And this year it was no different.

This year Apple brought you the new, amazingly thin and stylish Macbook Air. It’s regarded as the tinniest notebook (12.8 x 0.16-0.76 inch) that exists in the world. This notebook has got immense storage capacity and the graphics are simply breathtaking.

The gadget is built-in with a bigger and better multi-touch technology and built-in with an iSight camera that is hardly noticeable making your life simpler, ensuring a completely wireless lifestyle.

This device is simply beyond imagination. It has almost everything that you desire. And it can be all yours from $1,799 to $2,499.

Following the Macbook Air notebook we have got the Livescibe Pulse Smartpen, a device developed to help everyone especially students not miss a single thing while taking notes.

The Livescribe Pulse smartpen uses an integrated microphone and a radical method to record and retrieve audio. All you do is write down your notes on a custom microdot notebook and simply tap on the handwritten notes to get the pen to play the appropriate audio. It’s that simple.

This device is different and it will change the way of taking notes and will definitely make a difference in everyone’s life at only $149 approx.

If you have a flair for taking pictures and traveling all around, then the next device will definitely grab your attention. We are talking about the Eye-Fi Explore SD Card.

This is a 2GB card with a built Wi-Fi allowing you to upload pictures you take using your camera to any of your preferred online photo service, anytime and anyplace. Also this allows you to transfer pictures to your personal computer without the hassle of any wires.

One special attribute about the Eye-Fi card is that it allows you to geographically tag the snap clicked by you so that you can go back over the time when you actually had taken the picture. Doesn’t retracing your memories sound really exciting?

So if you are a kind of person who just takes picture and forgets to share, then you better get the Eye-Fi Explore SD card for only $130 now, before people start haunting you for making lame excuses.

Intel is always trying something different so that they can take the entire computer system to another level. And this year they have come up with the Intel Atom Processor.

The Intel Atom processor is the smallest chip built using the world’s smallest transistor (47 million transistors on a single 26 x 26 mm chip).

Tech addicts were amazed at the processor, which was based on an entirely new design, built for low power (ranging from below 1 watt to 2.5 watts) and designed specifically for a new wave of Mobile Internet Devices and simple, low-cost personal computers.

Regardless of its size, the Intel Atom Processor has the capacity of reducing the power levels of computers to highly portable devices creating wonders.

The past few years has been partially dedicated to smart phones. And how could this year not follow the same trend.

T-Mobile brings you T-Mobile G1- the first smart phone using Google’s Android operating system.

The specialty of the phone is it allows you to experience the web at its best, wherever you go, in conjunction with all the different kinds of applications and features of the phone.

The features of the “Google Phone” are endless and it can be yours to enjoy at only $180 approx with the additional monthly service fees.

Next in line is a solid state drive.

This is a data storage device that stores data and information using a solid state memory. Because this gadget follows the interface of typical hard disk drives, replacing them is a piece of cake for a solid state drive.

Solid state drive has the ability to change the entire computing frontier as the possibilities revolving around this device are endless.

Passionate drivers will no longer need to have an eagle’s eye to drive. And I guarantee you, without a doubt they will love what Nissan has brought to them this year. It’s the world’s ever first Around View Monitor.

The gadget offers a bird’s eye view of the vehicle and its surroundings in real time. The system has been designed in such a way that it is easy to see, use and understand.

Using 4 separate cameras, the monitor displays an image of the vehicle from above. This gadget will come handy for people who struggle while parking as using the monitor you can precisely and easily park the car making driving enjoyable and less stressful.

Another latest gadget, which is being the talk of the town, is the Amazon Kindle launched by Amazon.com. This is a compact electronic book with instant wireless access to 115,000 books sold by Amazon, an audiobook player, and a wireless Web browser.

Amazon Kindle is all about reading and if you are a person who adores reading then what are you waiting for. Own a Kindle at $395 and have a pocket full of books and enjoy to the max.

2008 has been a rocking and superb year for the world’s technological advancement. The tech of 2008 was catered for all genres of people- both tech addicts and tech amateurs. Time has come to bid adieu to 2008 with a big smile on our face and hope that 2009 is no less.

So lets welcome 2009 and look forward to a year with the hope that technological development and enhancement will be creating a lot of buzz taking the world a few steps closer to an era of digitalisation.

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There are many gadgets or music players in the market. Besides, there is a wide range of variety for music players but most of those do not able to fulfill all types of demand of music lovers. There are very few amount of devices those have the actual quality that can satisfy their consumer. Among the best qualities music players’ iPod Nano is one of them. Most of the music lovers now trust on it because of its quality services, incredible features, latest technologies and so on give the users a complete satisfactions.

There are different types of iPod now available in the market. There are different in prices and designs. But all of those are fashionable and stylish. You can choose one of them as your personality but to know more about it and get a better iPod you may read   Latest iPod Reviews or iPod Touch Reviews from the internet.

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Digital signal processors those practically ubiquitous (available everywhere) circuits that make cellphone conversations understandable and MP3 players possible come in a great many varieties, but until recently, there was one variety no one had even thought to make! Called continuous-time digital signal processing (CT DSP), it has the ability, unique among such circuits, to consume dynamic power in proportion to the intensity of the signal it processes.

When there’s no signal, such as during the silent spots of a cellphone conversation, the processor is practically inactive. But when the signal appears, it kicks into gear. Its inventor, Yannis Tsividis, Professor of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University, says the device’s miserly management of power could make it attractive for small systemssuch as biomedical implants and remote sensorsthat deal with “bursty” signals in need of real-time processing. Industrial firms are also interested in using the technology for telecommunications and power conversion.

“It’s a different way of looking at a problem that people have looked at for a long time,” says Rajit Manohar, an expert on clockless circuits and professor of electrical engineering at Cornell University. “There are a lot of benefits to the approach.”

A signal can be either analog or digital, and the system that processes it can do so either continuously or in discrete time. But digital signal processing has always been practically synonymous with discrete time. “This has been bothering me for many years,” says Tsividis.

In conventional discrete-time DSPs, the clock signal that triggers the sampling must have a frequency of at least twice the highest frequency of interest in a signal. But the clock has to go on nonstop at that frequency whether or not there’s a signal and whether or not that signal has any high-frequency component to it at a given time, which is a waste of power.

The new CT DSP, by contrast, has no clock. Instead, when the signal changes by a set amount, the CT DSP produces a digital pulse. If it changes by that amount again, a second pulse occurs, and so on. A separate digital signal marks whether the input is increasing or decreasing. Those digital pulses are put through a programmable circuit that digitally filters the signal in continuous time and then converts it back to analog.

Aside from the potential power advantage of a CT DSP, it just might make things sound better. Conventional DSPs suffer from two types of spurious signals: one, called aliasing, happens because the input signal mixes with the clock frequency. With no clock, CT DSPs are free of aliasing. The other, quantization error, is produced by the inexactness of turning the analog input into a digitized signal. In a conventional DSP, quantization error is spread over all frequencies, but for a CT DSP, it occurs only at multiples of the frequencies in the signal, so it’s easier to filter out and there’s less of it to begin with. Also, such “harmonic error” is less objectionable to the ear!

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Keyboards almost all share the common layout shown. Musical instruments with keyboards of this type include the piano, harpsichord, virginals, clavichord, organ, electric piano, digital piano, synthesizer, “arranger keyboard” or “home keyboard” (also called “electronic keyboard”), celesta, dulcitone, accordion, melodica, glasschord, and carillon. Since the most commonly encountered keyboard instrument is the piano, the keyboard layout is often called the piano keyboard.

The twelve notes of the Western musical scale are laid out with the lowest note on the left; the larger keys (for the seven “natural” notes of the C major scale: C, D, E, F, G, A, B) jut forward. Because these keys are often coloured white on a keyboard, these are often called the white notes or white keys. The keys for the remaining five notes which are not part of the C major scale (namely C#/D#, D#/E#, F#/G#, G#/A#, A#/B#) are set back. Because these keys are often coloured black, these notes are often called the black notes or black keys.

The pattern repeats at the interval of an octave. The arrangement of longer keys for C major with intervening, shorter keys for the intermediate semitones dates to the 15th century. Many keyboard instruments dating from before the nineteenth century have a keyboard with the colours of the keys reversed – darker coloured keys for the white notes and white keys for the black notes.

A few electric and electronic instruments have had this feature. It should be noted that the reverse-colored keys on Hammond organs such as the B3, C3 and A100 are not playable keys; they physically latch when pressed like radio buttons, and serve as selector switches for preset sounds. There are 21 white keys on the keyboard and 15 black.

How to make a MIDI Keyboard
MIDI keyboard connects to computer sound card or synthesizer module to create MIDI code.

This Project is built around the 8031 microcontroller. Once keyboard circuit diagram is drawn out, one can construct scanning circuitry that continuously loops through a test of each key to see if it is open or closed.

Circuit Components
Microcontroller, memory, keyboard/switch interface, MIDI/RS232 interface and power supply

Software Algorithm

• The software loops through a check of each 1st switch for every key.
• If it finds that switch 1 is open it checks to see if it was open the last time it looked. If this is the case it continues scanning.
• If it finds that it is open but was closed the last time it looked then it stores info that it is now open and then sends the “note off value” for that key out the midi port.
• If it finds that switch 1 is closed then it checks to see if switch 2 for that key is open.
• If it is open then it increments the velocity register value and continues the scan. If it finds that switch 2 is closed then it checks a register to see if that note is already on. If so then it continues the scan.
• If not then it sends the “note on value for that key out the midi port and also sends a velocity value from the velocity table that is incremented for each key check loop. Therefore, the more times that the software loops the lower the velocity value sent.

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Imagine all the television remotes we could power just from flushing!

Yael Miller’s “Kineticel” concept proposes to put small piezoelectric chargers inside common household furniture and appliances, trading a little extra effort in your endeavor for freeish power. Kineticel chargers in a set of dumbbells could make electricity while you’re just doing your daily works!

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Photo: AFP 

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Lets try to find out what 2009 promises us and the following is a sneak peek of the year ahead of us:

The International Year of Astronomy 2009
The International Year of Astronomy 2009 is a global effort initiated by the International Astronomical Union and UNESCO to help the citizens of the world rediscover their place in the Universe through the day- and night-time sky, and thereby engage a personal sense of wonder and discovery.

The vision of such a declaration is to ensure everyone realizes the impact of astronomy and other fundamental sciences on our daily lives, and understand how scientific knowledge can contribute to a more equitable and peaceful society. IYA2009 activities will take place locally, nationally, regionally and internationally. National Nodes have been formed in each country to prepare activities for 2009. These nodes will establish collaborations between professional and amateur astronomers, science centres and science communicators to prepare activities for 2009. Already now, 135 countries are involved and well over 140 are expected to participate eventually.

To help coordinate this huge global programme and to provide an important resource for the participating countries, the IAU has established a central Secretariat and an IYA2009 website (www.astronomy2009.org) as the principal IYA2009 resource for all interested.

Cell Phone as Credit Card!
Behold! If you happen to live in Canada, by Mid-2009, you can wave your mobile phone for the ultimate freedom to purchase all you need at supermarkets, restaurants and anywhere else for that matter. Visa (International Credit Card Company) and Rogers Wireless (Canada) have come together for the next phase of the mobile phone payment pilot, which will ultimately allow Canadians the flexibility to make purchases securely at the point of sale with a wave of their mobile phone. The customer phase of the mobile phone payment pilot is expected to launch in mid-2009, following a brief employee pilot.

Designed to be a fast and convenient way for customers to pay for small purchases, pilot participants will be issued specially-equipped mobile phones that can simply be waved at Visa payWave-enabled checkout readers at select retail stores and quick-service restaurants in Toronto’s downtown core.

As part of the pilot, Motorola mobile phones outfitted with Near Field Communication (NFC) contactless chips will enable customers to make purchases using the Visa payWave feature just as they would with a contactless RBC Visa card. The functions tested in the pilot will include the secure delivery and storage of account information to the mobile phone and the security of mobile payments at retailers.

African Industry Boom
Africa is by definition an outlier. It’s a whole continent that, for the most part, is completely decoupled from the world economy and subsequently peoples expectations of what it can contribute. People here are looked at as offering very little, if anything, to the world community especially when it comes to technological innovation. 25 of the poorest nations on the planet are all in Africa and the world economic crisis is only compounding that fact. What this means is the world isn’t paying attention to Africa…at all. It’s up to Africans to capitalize on this underestimation. Malcolm Gladwell, in his most recent book OUTLIERS, writes about jewish lawyers who were the industry outcasts of the early twentieth century in New York. Fast forward a few years and the entire landscape changed, making those who were marginalized early on were subsequently placed in the perfect position to dominate an entire industry. Could the same thing happen to Africa? Definitely, the mobile phone market here is proving to be successful beyond most expectations just five years ago. Other industries are also predicting growth in 2009.

Cumulus Solutions for Developing Countries
‘The cloud’ is an elusive technological beast that happily thrives in the world of billion dollar data centers in the west. But there are currently about three billion people untouched by the internet across Asia, South America and Africa. Look for a number of CDN(Content delivery network)’s to try to penetrate these emerging markets by offering mobile services, alternative energy powered data centers and hyper-local hosting solutions.

Innovations in Water Technology
The one resource that the world needs more than anything else on the planet is being strained by over population, pollution, and global warming. Researchers speculate that in 2009, we’ll see a tipping point of innovations in water technologies. Whether it’s simple solutions like the Water Cone or more advanced things like Max Wate.

Predictions On Google
ZDNet’s Garett Rogers: Google’s Chrome browser will grab as much as 15 percent of the browser market as it begins being preinstalled on new PCs. Google will also see solid financial gains as its share market value is likely to soar high.

- Psychic Celia: Google’s going to grow three times bigger. “There’s a company that’ll get involved with Google that will make it go that much higher this year. It will be a company that advertises.”

- Psychic Shaun: Google’s growth is going to slow — unless it finds the right new idea. “They need to come up and do something that’s going to knock it out of the ballpark.”

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