These days, notebook PCs are becoming so commonplace that they hardly turn heads anymore; coffee joints are crowded with folks staring intently at their screens. Once in a while you’ll get to see a head-turner (I’m talking about notebooks!) and more often than not, it’s white in colour. ASUS F8P is available in two shades: Galaxy Black and Amazing White. While the black variant looks all fine and dandy, it’s the white one that will probably attract attention. However, I wouldn’t exactly label it ‘amazing’; sounds a bit too much like a tagline for toothpaste!
Jokes aside, ASUS F8P isn’t to be laughed at. The Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 shows that it means business. With the core running at 2.2GHz, it will chew through the most demanding applications (otherwise known as games). ASUS is also nice enough to bundle 2 Gigabytes of DDR2-667MHz memory with the ASUS F8P. But as usual, we’d highly recommend 4GB, especially if you have Vista Ultimate installed. Although users will only be able to use around 3GB of their memory on a 32-bit OS, it will still speed things up slightly. Microsoft won’t ship 64-bit version CDs to OEM customers so unless you buy Vista Ultimate in retail packaging, getting a 64-bit version of Vista can be a pain in the neck.
ASUS has opted to go down the ATI path for the graphics chipset. The Mobility Radeon HD 2400 has 256Mb of on-board memory and while it’s not exactly a screamer, it is better than any integrated solution. The Intel 965PM chipset in the ASUS F8P is paired with the 4965AGN Wi-Fi chipset, giving the whole bundle full Santa Rosa platform compliancy. To speed things up further, there’s also a 512MB Intel Turbo Memory module inside. It’s pretty obvious that ASUS intended for the F8P to be a performance machine and we’ll see about that later. In the meantime, storage is provided by a Seagate 160GB 5400RPM hard disk while the optical drive is a Lightscribe-capable LG DVD writer.
The LCD screen measures 14.1 inches and it has a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:10 (1,280 by 800 pixels). There’s a 1.3 Megapixel webcam perched on top of the screen which can be tilted up/down or turned 180 degrees around; come to think of it, this notebook might be handy for police interrogations. While it is clearly targeted at retail consumers (can you imagine engineers or accountants using all-white notebooks?), ASUS has decided to integrate a fingerprint reader anyway. This sits in between the touchpad buttons and while we’re on that subject matter, I have to mention that the touchpad is rather large. Not a bad thing actually, but it does stand out. The keyboard isn’t very well spaced out and the arrow keys in particular will cause problems amongst users with stubby fingers. There are also five easy access buttons but no multimedia control buttons to be found.
As far as expansion ports are concerned, ASUS F8P has a fair share. There are five USB 2.0 ports and an i.LINK (Sony’s fancy name for FireWire) port. For video connectivity, you’ll get a DVI port, as well as 15-pin D-sub and S-Video Out connectors. There are also a multi-format flash card reader and an Express Card/54 expansion slot. And not forgetting the Gigabit Ethernet and analogue modem ports, of course. The power switch is located on the side of the right hinge, which isn’t usual for ASUS, and to make sure you don’t call up tech support looking for it, there’s a “Power ->” label on the hinge!
Now, let’s see how this machine performs; the CPU coughed up a healthy 5,654 points which soundly thrashes other T7500-equipped machines by around 2-4%. Next up, the memory benchmark gave it 4,594 points which is again above average. The Mobility Radeon HD 2400 chipset managed 2,607 points which is hardly impressive, considering that NVIDIA’s 8400M GS has been known to produce scores above 3,100. We were expecting the ASUS F8P to perform slightly better (in these three departments) seeing how ASUS hasn’t scrimped on the components. Anyway, the final score of 4,907 from the hard disk drive saved the F8P’s hide as it basically trounced every other score in our table. I’d take this with a pinch of salt, as the Robson module (Intel Turbo Memory) might have something to do with it. But everything considered, the ASUS F8P is still a very capable machine, except if you’re planning to play lots of games on it. If that’s the case, take a look at the company’s G series gaming notebooks instead.
For those who want something (just a tiny) bit flashy, take a closer look at the “Amazing White” ASUS F8P. It is a fine machine with good specifications, and a head-turner too!
Hymini is one of those “green” devices that harnesses the Earth’s free renewable energy source – wind – as an alternative method to recharge portable devices.
Suitable to be used when riding a bike or even when jogging, all you need to do is attach it to the vehicle or your arm to work.
The device’s wind turbines will trickle charge your 5 volt-based devices – from cellphones, MP3 players to digital cameras – once you move at a speed of at least 8km/h.
The maximum charging wind speed is 80km/h and no extra power will be converted above that speed. Peak power output for the turbine is one watt.
Generated electricity will be stored in the internal lithium-ion polymer rechargeable battery.
Its manufacturers, Miniwiz Sustainable Energy Dev Ltd claims that if the device is used continuously for one hour, enough electricity will be generated to provide 15 minutes of mobile phone talktime or enable a digital camera to take at least 50 more shots.
Users can also recharge the battery using the included AC charger, which effectively transforms the HyMini into a power backup unit.
The HyMini costs US$49.99, excluding shipping costs.
Introduction
Army of two is an in style video game developed by the giant ElectronicArts Corporation, Montreal. It was released in the market with the compatible version of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on 4th March, 2008 in North America. Army of Two is also popularly known as Ao2 or AoT. It is a third person shooting video game that revolves around two private military organizations who hire top level mercenaries to complete the job more efficiently and faster than the government military organizations. The time span of the story is from 1993 to 2009.
Army of Two is a collective third person shooting video game with a plan on cooperative and matched strategies. The theme of the game is somewhat similar to ‘Gears of War’. The players will start with the game’s integrated ‘Partner Artificial Intelligence’ or with the other players to fight through political commotion, war and a conspiracy so cleverly and accurately placed that it can destroy the entire world. The characters of Army of Two are popular as they work just like human beings.
The story
The story of the game starts in Somalia during 1993 once Tyson Rios and Elliot Salem were working in the 75th Ranger Regiment of US Military. They were put to a short training lesson, the course headed by their comrade Pedro. After that, they were consigned to work with Philip Clyde, who is a private military contractor. The name of his company is Security and Strategy Corporation (SSC). SSC orders the team to assassinate Abdullah Mohammed Alim. When this mission is complete, the SSC CEO Ernest Stockwell orders Philip Clyde to invite commander of the 75th Ranger Regiment Lieutenant Colonel Richard Dalton to join the private security company for a desk job, which he agrees. Afterwards, he requests Ernest Stockwell to include Salem and Rios to be included in the company as contractors. During the next year, three of them enter the private sector. The spicy conversation between these comrades is added taste of this game. You Testfreaks are to figure it out.
After that, the story revolves around almost throughout the world including Afghanistan, Iraq, USS Constellation, China and Miami.
The controls and Gameplay
The gameplay is fairly smooth. The weapon customization is the best part of AoT. The choice is intensive. The arms that are available for customization are shotguns, pistols, submachine guns, light machine guns, rocket launchers, grenade launchers, sniper rifles and assault rifles. Some equipments like under-slung grenade launchers, extra-large magazines, grip handles and new barrels can be substituted to give the armor a new look and function. The players can upgrade their armor as the game progresses by purchasing from the market. But one has to be careful while purchasing as the team who finishes the game with more amounts of cash wins the game. The face masks can also be tailored with the main characters of the play.
Earlier, a firing range for the newly obtained arms was available. But due to the lack of standards, it was removed from the later versions.
Graphics
ElectronicArts used the popular graphics formula – the UE3. The character mode is top class, even during the cut scenes (which cause problem mainly in the other games). EA did not pay attention to the textures as like other games. Sometimes, it looks like a PS1 game. The appearance of water during the 5th mission is pathetic.
Overall rating
Army of Two is good but not at par with the best programs available in the market as per my opinion. Consider to borrow it from some of your friends or from the parlor. Test is yourself and then consider for the purchasing.
Source
When DDR3 technology started entering the market, Kingston released a module from its HyperX series, called the DDR3-1375 CL7 (CAS Latency) alongside two more memory sticks. The new DDR3 broke the 1,066MHz mark and reached a clockspeed of 1,333MHz. However, Kingston has tweaked the clockspeed to reach 1,375MHz, hence the name.
The memory kit consists of a pair of 1GB memory modules, with latency timings of 7-7-7-20. Now some of the DDR3-1333 RAM out there has the same latency. What puts Kingston’s new DDR3 RAM above them is not only its clockspeed, but its voltage requirement of 1.7V compared to 1.8V that other RAM need. With an MSI X38 Diamond motherboard, we ran some benchmarks on Kingston’s memory card. Do note that the memory bus speed supported was only 1,066MHz. PCMark awarded it with a score of 6,1001. On Sandra, the memory latency recorded was 86 ns (nanoseconds), while the memory bandwidth was 5,766 MB/s. The bandwidth between the cache and the memory was 26 GB/s. As for how far it can go with overclocking, we didn’t try it because because vendors generally don’t encourage it. However, there were some references to sites that mentioned Kingston’s DDR3-1375 being able to reach 1,500MHz with CL8.
Kingston used the same heat spreaders that their DDR2 modules had, but Kingston has announced that their future DDR3 lineup will be equipped with a new design. They are still sticking to blue for their HyperX series.
With quad core CPUs and the X38 chipset out, it seems that DDR3 is starting to be considered as a mainstream product. If you needed to know what good DDR3 RAM is out there, Kingston is one of them without a doubt.
If you are a Windows Mobile user then you probably have been looking enviously at the stylishness of Apple iPhones users. Take heart – Asus recently announced the Lamborghini ZX1, a sleek Windows Mobile Pocket PC phone which pushes the style and quality of Windows Mobile devices up a couple of notches.
In keeping with the Lamborghini branding, the ZX1 is a very masculine device, with strong sharp curves and a body made of carbon fibre and high-grade stainless steel.
The device runs on the latest Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system but with a custom interface which makes the clock look like a speedometer and is supposed to be more friendly for navigating with a finger.
Details are still a bit scarce, but apparently the device is a HSDPA-capable quad-band phone that runs on a 520MHz processor.
It also has a 3-megapixel autofocus camera, 256MB ROM, 128MB RAM, a microSD expansion slot, a GPS, WiFi and a 240 x 320pixel screen.
