The New Look New Combat 
In the last week of November in 2003, a friend of mine called me up to check out an amazing game. He was the more popular guy in the gang as he owned an ATI 9800 Pro (the most amazing graphic card at that time). So, I went over to his place and found him playing the Prince of Persia: The Sands of time. The first thing I remember seeing was the "Save Game" action wherein you see the challenges up ahead in the form of a small cut-scene; I was barely able to breathe again and he showed me the time-bending abilities. In a word, I was mesmerized. The game took the first major PC gaming franchise and created something so unique that you would need a few minutes to absorb its originality and splendid artwork. The game was a humongous hit -- both commercially and critically, spawning two more sequels and an upcoming movie. A new POP is on its way, and although the Prince has changed by leaps and bounds, it still retains a quality to make you take notice. Read on.
Now, everybody loved Sands of Time, so it's not hard to imagine that people will start comparing the new POP with SOT. Ubisoft has retained some of the qualities from the previous POP games and added new elements to the new game, including a totally new storyline and a new AI partner -- so no Farah. The new AI partner called Elika will not only help you overcome obstacles but also lend a hand in combat.
She is like Alyx from Half Life 2 but hotter and more acrobatic. She can jump and reach high places like the Prince. I came across little bits and pieces of news from various forums and according to them the Prince isn't a Prince at all in the game. He is a lonely street dweller, who happens to come across some sort of magical being, and as fate would have it, is entrusted to save the world. The Prince has a totally new look and abilities. The dagger of time from the previous games will not be present in the game and a totally new artifact will accompany him. As you can see in the screenshots, he is wearing a gauntlet in his hand; this powerful artifact will assist him in combat and help me in his acrobatics as well. The main plot follows the escape of a powerful evil deity called Ahriman, who was imprisoned by his brother. Elika is a member of a former clan who were tasked with keeping him in prison, but they failed and she is the only remaining member of her clan. Although Arhiman hasn't escaped his prison completely, his evil is leaking out of the cracked prison and corrupting the land. The Prince is an adventurer and takes on the task of ridding the world of the evil that is flowing out of Ahriman's prison. The corruption that is engulfing the world will act as the challenge to the Prince. The game does not include any spikes or trap doors; instead, the corruption will take on various forms to challenge the Prince.
The game is set to release by the end of the year for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360, making it accessible to a larger audience. There are many details still remaining and as the days pass by, I am sure Ubisoft will keep teasing us with bits of information. We'll cover more about the game very soon, until then keep watching this space.
May 27, 2008
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Capcom claims that Resident Evil 5 will revolutionize the series by delivering an unbelievable level of detail, realism, and control. The company believes that the game is certain to bring new fans to the series while expanding the world of video game entertainment to new heights.
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At this point of time, there are a lot of rumors doing rounds and we could only hope that Capcom officially announces a release date very soon. Meanwhile, RE5's new trailer will be out coming May 31.
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Now those with a Vodafone prepaid connection need not worry about this problem. As a solution to this issue, the company has launched a new product called "Chhota Credit". Through this facility, an amount of Rs.10 gets credited to the subscriber's account by just sending an SMS to a toll free number.
Subscribers who have a balance of less than Rs. 5 can use this service by sending 'CREDIT' as an SMS to 144 to get Rs. 10 credited to their prepaid account. However, subscribers will be charged Re. 1 per transaction as service charge. This credit will have a validity of 7 days and will be adjusted against the next recharge.
The Chhota Credit service is available only to those prepaid subscribers who have completed over 3 months on the Vodafone network.
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Housed in a 11.6-mm thick credit-card sized design, Touchwiz comes with a drag and drop feature allowing users instant access to functions at one touch. The widgets menu displays functions such as clock, radio player, music player, photos, and reminders that can be dragged and dropped onto the home screen. Additionally, tactile technology gives users a tangible feedback sensation on a selection of items.
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Some other Touchwiz features include: video recording, editing and playback, video telephony, mobile blogging, mobile printing, Google Map or email or search, and RSS reader. For Internet connectivity, the new smart phone features high-speed Internet access (HSDPA) and USB 2.0 connectivity for file transfer and downloads.
Samsung Touchwiz SGH-F480 is scheduled to launch in Europe in June followed by other GSM regions. We don't still know about its India availability.
More than 300 million people worldwide are rejoicing as their Red Devils are crowned kings of Europe. It's good times for all football lovers, and with the Euro 2008 beginning in June, it will soon get better. Sadly and ironically, England won't be taking part this year, the reason being as I like to call it "they-messed-it-up-big-time-in-November." A team with some of the best players in the world fails to qualify for one of the most important events in football, leaving fans disgruntled. To rub it in, I received a copy of the Euro 2008 game from EA. But fanboy-ism aside, this turned out to be quite an interesting game, with a lot of content and enough game modes to keep you busy for weeks. Let's get some more details on Euro 2008 for the PSP.
Summary 
I played most of the game with France, on medium to high difficulty settings. As mentioned before, the game feels generally similar to Fifa, including the interface and presentation. But Fifa 08 was an absolute gem of a game and any similarity is fine in my opinion. The game is quite challenging at higher difficulties, which definitely is a good thing. The controls are fairly simple; the player control with the single analog is also smooth. The game feels a bit faster in terms of gameplay than Fifa 08 -- again, not a major change but the slight difference in game speed feels great. Character animations are very well done, which is EA's forte. Something really innovative in the game is the Critical Moment feature. If the scores are tied or there is a difference of just one goal, all the key players in the team are highlighted with a red sphere. These players have a boost in performance for the remaining 10 mins, so you have a better chance to score if you pass the ball to them. The ball mechanics and control are superb. I enjoyed scoring multiple goals against Italy with the impeccable and invincible Henry (yeah, I am a big fan).
While playing the game, I realized that a faster gameplay leads to a more aggressive style of playing. In Fifa 08, you generally wait for a nice build-up that includes loads of passes. In Euro 2008, I found myself relying on passes and solo-runs. This is a good change that leads to some really exciting matches. The mini-games are nice, one of which includes holding the PSP vertically and scoring points while a player juggles the ball. The commentary is a little weak, though. The commentators are always a few seconds behind you in real time, so don't be surprised if he is still talking about a previous goal while you ready yourself for the second half.
Visuals and Sound
Final Verdict
This is a good title to pick up for your PSP. It's a fast-paced football game with many game modes and loads of extras. The gameplay is entertaining and contains an impressive audio-visual presentation. You can always pick this up and help England qualify for the cup, or just choose your favorite team and play a quick match. This is definitely a must for your PSP.
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Fujifilm has announced the launch of their new entry-level FinePix A850 digital camera, with availability to be declared sometime in July this year.
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The FinePix A850 features a Fujinon 3x optical zoom lens, an 8 mega pixels CCD sensor, and ISO 800 sensitivity at full resolution. The digital camera also features a 2.5-inches LCD monitor, 24Mb internal memory, power source 2x AA-size alkaline (included), 2x AA-size Ni-MH (optional), and AC Power Adapter AC-3V (optional).
The reason for featuring a 3x optical zoom lens is difficult to comprehend when the existing A820 comes with a 4x optical zoom lens, along with the A900 that also comes with a 4x optical zoom.
From the information released by the company, the only significant addition in the A850 seems to be the increased internal memory space, which again doesn't count for much when you have cheap memory cards available everywhere. But yes, this camera looks much better than other cameras in Fuji's A Series.
The A850 employs Image Intelligence processing, which is claimed to produce sharp images. Along with that, the camera features Image Stabilization, which was only found in high-end models till sometime ago.
The camera also has a movie mode, 30fps (frames per second) with mono-aural sound, and 14 selectable scene positions.
Fuji is one brand that has been overshadowed by the likes of Canon and Nikon in India. Blame it on weak promotion, the company claims. But owners of Fuji cameras tend to vouch for the brand in terms of price to performance ratio.
We couldn't get in touch with Fuji India's Sales Manager Harmeet at their Head Office in Gurgaon for the product's pricing and availability in India. Nevertheless, the company has announced that the FinePix A850 will be available through retailers this July onwards.
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A bar-type phone, the IN3333 features a 2-inches TFT screen with 260k colors, and a 1.3 mega pixels camera along with video-recording option. It has an integrated Web cam that doubles as a USB PC Web cam. The USB port can also be used as a pen drive. Intex claims the IN3333 can store up to 1,000 contacts and 300 messages.
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The bar phone is immediately available for Rs 5,000.
Brother MFDs and printers have traditionally had a no-nonsense office look with dull colors that may only suit the office environment. But things have started to look different for the past few months -- in a bid to make them more presentable, Brother has redesigned its products. The Brother DCP-350C is one such inkjet MFD in this new lineup. Let's find out if it's just the looks that have changed or if it performs as good. Design Performance Final Verdict 
Bundle
4 cartridges (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black)
4" x 6" photo paper pack
Two power cables with different plugs
Software and driver CD
User manual
Quick setup guide
Brother provides two power cables with different plug types so that you are not in a fix if you are stuck up with plug-holes of any one of these types. Also, they provide a pack of 4" x 6" photo paper for you to get started with printing photographs.
The input and output trays consist of a single cassette-like structure with the cassette holding the input papers with face down, while the output paper gets accumulated on top, which is the output tray. The output tray has a special bypass tray section to hold up to 20 sheets of 4" x 6" paper.
Like all Brother products, in the DCP-350C, too, the USB cable has to be weaved into the interior of the device through a canal. This has to be done by opening the MFD like the bonnet of a car.
On the right, you can see a flap that opens to expose the cartridge bay. This is very convenient, as you do not have to stick your hand inside the device to install the cartridges. As you can see, there are four separate cartridges; thus, you save a lot of money because you only have to replace the cartridge which gets empty, which is not the case when using tri-color cartridges.
The control panel is situated on the right of the swivel LCD and consists of multiple keys. This is very easy to use and lets you access different functions such as Photo Capture, Scanning, Mono and Color Copy, as well as different MFD settings by means of the Menu button. The Ink Management button shows the ink-level in each cartridge.
In addition to the PictBridge Direct Printing support, the MFD can read a number of memory card formats such as CF, SD, MS, xD, etc. 
There is a swivel color 2" LCD at the center of the device at the front. You can adjust its angle to suit your viewing. The LCD shows you various functions and settings available in the MFD. It also shows the contents of the memory card when you use the MFD to print in the PC-less mode. You can view and edit images present on memory cards before printing. Scanning to e-mail, image, OCR, file, card or USB memory stick is supported in this mode too.
A panel situated at the back of the MFD comes off and lets you clear paper jams.
The scanner is of flat-bed type and is situated at the top as usual. The lid seems sturdy and is adjustable, letting you scan thicker objects like books. Overall, the build quality is good, including that of the trays.
This printer supports a color print resolution of up to 6000 x 1200 dpi and can print borderless prints. The claimed droplet size of 1.5 picoliters should help it produce nice photo prints. The scanner resolution is 19,200 dpi (interpolated) and WIA interface is supported along with the older TWAIN.
Bundled along with this MFD is the ScanSoft PaperPort -- a good document management and OCR software, which is a definite bonus because it saves you the cost of having to buy another such software. The ControlCenter3 is a control panel that puts all the functions of this MFD at a single point at your disposal.
We put the MFD through a variety of tests, to test its printer as well as scanner components.
Font size printing test: We printed a page containing all the letters in font sizes ranging from large to very small. The printer had no problem in printing all the font sizes and they looked crisp.
Text print speed: We printed a page of black text in draft and normal quality to find the speed as well as quality of the print. The page took 14.1 seconds in fast mode and 27 seconds in normal, which is not so fast. The continuous printing speed in the fast mode in the first minute was 13.3 ppm and reached a maximum of 15.8 later; in the normal mode, the ppm in the first minute and subsequently were 2.7 and 3.1, respectively. The speeds in normal mode were average, while the normal mode speeds were slow. While the normal mode print quality was fine, the fast mode quality had a lot of fringing and the edges were not well-defined.
Presentation document print speed: The presentation document consisted of a page of multi-colored graphs, text, charts, patterns, and photos. The document took just 15.6 seconds in the fast mode, while it took 40.4 seconds for best quality -- again slow speeds. The continuous printing speed in the fast mode was 7.53 ppm in the first minute, and it reached a little over 8.8 thereafter, while these speeds in the normal mode were 1.5 and 2 minutes, respectively. The quality was decent in the normal mode, but the same cannot be said about the fast mode because the colors were washed out and there was a fair amount of fringing. Thus, the fast mode was pretty much useless.
Photo print: Since this MFD has photo printing features, we printed a test photograph collage as well. It finished the job in 6 minutes 15 seconds, which leans on the slower side. The color reproduction was good, with the intricate details neatly produced; however, some amount of graininess was evident all over.
The scanner test: The scanner exhibited good performance. It could capture all the details; the color and grey shades were faithfully captured as well. It took 17.8 seconds for a preview scan -- a decent performance. Mono scans at 200 dpi for A4-size paper took just 14.2 seconds which is fast. The color scanning at 600 dpi which took just 48.6 seconds is one of the fastest we have seen so far.
The copier test: To find how well the printer and scanner components worked in tandem, we ran the printer through our copier test. A black copy took 30.2 seconds, while a color copy took 43.3. The ppm for mono copies was 2.9, while that for color was 2.3. Therefore, this is one of the faster copiers we have tested thus far in color copying, though it is comparatively slower in mono. The copy quality is good in the normal mode.
However, we had a few problems with photo paper handling -- such as the MFD was not able to lift a photo paper of 150 gsm, and we had to use a lower gsm paper for the photo print.
The various color cartridges each cost Rs. 520 and can print 400 pages; thus, their cost per page is Rs. 1.3. The black cartridge, on the other hand, is unreasonably high priced (Rs. 900) and can print 500 pages, thereby yielding a cost per page of Rs.1.8. This is quite an economical cost of printing for an inkjet printer. The Brother DCP-350C costs Rs. 6,990 and comes with 1 year onsite warranty. With 83 service centers around the country, you should not have problems getting this MFD serviced. Because of its rather lackluster performance and a bit high price, we do not recommend this MFD.
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A week ago it looked like the government was nearer a solution than ever before, with the imminent possibility of RIM allowing the Indian government to intercept non-corporate emails sent through Blackberry smart phones. In a top-level meeting reported to have taken place May 7 between the Canadian High Commissioner David Malone, RIM officials, and Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura, the Canadian side was said to have conveyed that RIM is considering giving access to individual users' emails to the Indian government.
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With the additional security capabilities that Blackberry devices typically afford, Blackberry customers tend to use their smart phones even for things like bank transactions and other money-related matters.
RIM officials are believed to have now asked the DoT to take responsibility as 'custodian of the Private Keys' and bear the consequences -- in the event of any loss of essential data of Blackberry customers.
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The Touch Diamond sports a 3D touch interface called "TouchFLO 3D" that promises animated access to people, messaging, email, photos, music, weather, and more. The device comes with a 2.8-inches VGA touch screen, 3.2 mega pixels auto-focus camera, 4GB internal storage, and integrated GPS for turn-by-turn satellite navigation, and operates on Windows Mobile 6.1.
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Specifications include:
The HTC Touch Diamond will be available through Airtel for Rs 27,500 at all authorized HTC resellers.
