No 3D Glasses required is something both Toshiba and Nintendo have in mind.

Toshiba announced that they will be producing 12″ and 20″ screens by December 2010, and Nintendo announced their new Nintendo 3DS console, both of which can display 3D imagery with no need for the 3D glasses.

In current 3D TVs, images for each eye are displayed rapidly one after the other. Filters in the glasses flash on and off in sync with the TV picture so the right eye sees one image and the left eye sees the next.

Toshiba’s technology uses an integral imaging system called a “light field” display to create 3D without glasses over a thirty degree viewing angle. 3D TVs can simulate depth because they deliver a slightly different image to each eye. Toshiba’s custom developed LCD (over 8 Million pixels) which sits behind a thin sheet of small lenses allow multiple imagery to be sent to each eye and broadcast to 9 “sweetspots” in 720P. This will render the 3D illusion to multiple viewers.

Nintendo uses the same or possibly similar technology in their upcoming console release debuted as Nintendo 3DS on a 3.53-inch widescreen LCD display; with 800×240 pixel resolution (400 pixels are allocated for each eye to enable 3D viewing).

What I am interested in seeing the average mobility for the “sweetspot”. If you, like me, are an avid gamer or are interested in 3D, I’m sure you have played with Nvidia’s 3D Stereoscopic drivers. This allows you with the use of 3D glasses to play games in 3D, however that being said it takes some tweaking of the 3D settings in the drivers or game (if supported) to make this effect really have an impact. Now without the need for glasses it means that the “sweetspot” for viewing the toshiba’s 12″ and 20″ will be limited but how limited remains to be seen.

As for the 3DS console I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on one of those as you will have complete control over the “sweetspot” as its small enough to fit in your hands, allowing you the mobility to control the position of the console in your hands and not of your body/furniture as required by a TV in your house.

The topic of browser preference appears to only be debated between computing professionals or high end users. What is it that makes the average person in the workplace use Internet Explorer over any other browser. The usage statistics from Wikipedia speak for themselves.

I, as a computing professional, find this very interesting. Why does the browser with the worst performance receive the most adoration, is it pure blindness from the end users part or cleverly integrated marketing from Microsoft through including IE as the default browser in their Operating system. I’ll let you decide, but if you are one of those typical end users you may want to take a look at a post made by six revisions with regard to the overall browser performance.

For those of you wanting the summary here it is. Four browsers were tested:

Google Chrome – http://www.google.com/chrome

Firefox – http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/firefox.html

Safari – http://www.apple.com/safari/download/

Internet Explorer

The results are in, first place goes to Google Chrome, second place to FireFox, third place to Safari and the final contender Internet explorer pulling in last position. Why not ease your browsing experience lessen your frustration, try something other than IE. There will be no looking back.

I recently became one of the lucky Telkom customers to be able to upgrade thier 4MB ADSL line to the 10MB trial. The process was fairly simple, I went to Telkoms Availability checker, checked my telephone number, and to my suprise I got the message “Your exchange supports up to 10Mbps fastest ADSL. The provision of such a service is subject to port availability, distance, copper quality and line sync speed limitations.”. I phoned telkom on 10215 and spoke to someone in technical who said they would double check the availaibily of the upgrade. He then confirmed I could upgrade the line, however it would only be upgradeable to 8mb until the upgrade on the exchange is completed.

Needless to say it took a total of 10 minutes to get it all sorted which is great. So now the predicament I sit with is whom can I get an uncapped 8mb account with thats not going to tear a hole in the pocket. After some searching around I found that Axxess actually have a pretty decent package, go check it out here.

For option 1 select 384 Kbps or for option 2 select Uncapped Express+ Unshaped; both cost R899. There are a couple of things to bear in mind; this account is limited to 384 Kbps during business hours but is completely unlimited in the evenings and on the weekends. Axxess even goes so far as claiming thier number one downloader managed to get 1117GB for the month of August, sounds too good to be true ? Well this was taken from their site “These accounts allow speeds up to 10 Mbps (After Hours + Weekends) if your Telkom ADSL line supports it. Eg: If you have a 384Kbps Account and have a 10Mbps Telkom ADSL Line, you will get speeds up to 10Mbps (After Hours + Weekends)”

All I can say is next month i’m definitely gonna take this account for a spin. I’ll let you know the results.

In the previous article I posted, I wrote about the benefits of AMD fusion technology and how it seems to be the way of the future. Unbeknown to me that on 27th August, Google chrome made a blog post regarding how it plans to incorporate the use of the GPU to improve its entire drawing model.

If you are interested in all the facts take a look here. Let me give you a summary for all those people not interested in the techno mambo jumbo. In order for a website to render, google chrome or any other browser takes what is on that page and divides it into a number of layers. These multiple layers contain, video, styled text from css, images etc. The browser then hands off these layers to the CPU for processing, where it “merges” the layers into a single element which is then displayed to the user visiting the site. In short web browsers rely totally on the CPU.

Now it seems that Google (and I’m sure other players) will begin utilizing the GPU to help the end user experience better performance (faster rendering) and power savings while browsing. I really cannot wait to see what will happen when the AMD APU chips hit the market, expect changes everywhere.

No one can deny the fact that Intel has dominated the market with their latest series of CPUs, they have literally left AMD in the dust(go here for benchmarks). I remember at LAN games or online chats with friends, someone just had to mention AMD or Intel and it would spark an entire debate into which one you should buy or which chip will give me the best performance; since then the support for AMD has dropped significantly. I am hoping this article will change that and spark new debate.

AMD purchased ATI in the past, since then has been producing CPUs(under the AMD brand) and graphics cards (under the ATI Radeon brand). A recent announcement by AMD includes that of dropping the ATI Radeon name, from hence forth all CPU’s and Graphics cards manufactred by AMD will be branded as such.

This is very interesting to me as it seems that AMD has got some wind in its sails again and is preparing to tackle the leader, Intel. Intel has always branded their CPUs and Graphics cards under their brand giving them a somewhat broader footing in the minds of the consumer, maybe AMD is looking to do the same. A more important announcement is one which AMD claims will change computing forever they are calling it Fusion.

“AMD Fusion is a new approach to processor design and software development, delivering powerful CPU and GPU capabilities for HD, 3D and data-intensive workloads in a single-die processor called an APU”. If you think about it, it makes the most sense to build the two together. The reasoning behind it is that the computing environment we all work in today is vastly different from what it has been. Customers and Developers expect far more from their computing experience then they ever have in the past. I am not only talking about gaming here but rather a need for desktop applications to set themselves apart from others in a visual way. APUs not only have a place in personal computing (Notebooks and Desktops) but what about APUs in mobile devices PDAs etc. Imagine what that Apple iPhone or BlackBerry would be capable of  with an APU from AMD.

I personally cannot wait for AMD to break free from Intel’s shadow and it seems to me they making all the right moves!

This video is a focus on the recent enhancement made to the guitar changing it from a keytar to a fully fledged six string guitar controller which you can use in an amp ! Check it out.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5De9eCH1EU

In terms of splashing out on the new laptop you been planning on buying, there are a few things you need to take into account:

What is your budget?

Budget is the most easy to cliassify; come up with a range you are willing to spend and simply look for the best bang for buck. Whether it be at various shopping malls or online.

What type of user are you?

Once the budget is decided you need to assess the type of user you are, this will help you in determining the specs you are looking for based on your budget. Use this list below to determine what type of user you are.

• Home
  • The tasks this user focuses on is Emailing, Browsing (generally paying bills or internet banking), Ripping Mp3′s, Listening to music, Microsoft word (Openoffice Write)
• Student
  • With the new range of Netbooks allowing students to afford a portable computer this user only cares about three things, Battery life (longer the better), Price, Durability.
• Business
  • As a business user myself I can tell you the main factors that affect my purchase consideration. Coming in at first place is weight, you are going to be carrying this laptop around for a good majority of its lifetime (the lighter the better), Connectivity (you need to do something and you need to do it fast, make sure you have at least four usb ports, wireless g/b/n, ethernet, 3g, sd card slots), and my next consideration is Battery life.
• Gamer
  • There is only one focus for a gamer pure complete binary crunching graphical bliss. The number one factors here to look out for are Processor speed, Dedicated graphics performance (no shared memory) and a decent amount of Ram (4gb+). Seeing this Notebook is intended to replace your home desktop, you are not going to be to fussed about weight, or battery life. It is worth mentioning that there are notebooks out there that can help improve the battery life of your gaming notebook like that of (Nvidia Optimus technology).

What screen type do you need, Matte / Glossy?

Now for the most debated topic and most users are unaware of this until they have either puchased a new notebook, or have spend hours looking at various screens out there. The easiest way to demonstrate this is with images here they are:

You can clearly see that the Gloss screen provides a much better brightness or contrast than the Matte screen, however that being said you are required to be in optimal lighting to not see the reflective downside that the Gloss screen comes with. So I guess its down to your oppinion and where you will be working on the notebook. I lean more towards a Matte finish (seing that I work predominantly in an office environment) due to the florecent lights at my workplace which the Gloss screen mirrors with great effect. The one thing that ammuses me somewhat is how few Matte screens there are in the market, it seems like manufacturers decided what was best for the customers, and they are not listening to the general consensus out there that we actually prefer Matte screens. Maybe in the future we will be given options of screens on the same model.

Lastly once you have assessed your budget, user type and screen preference head over to PriceCheck Notebooks and use the filter facility on the left to narrow your results. Good luck on buying that new Notebook.

The one thing all these logo’s have in common is the support for a broadband framework. What is a broadband framework and why do we need it? If these are the questions running through your mind let me take a moment to enlighten you.

Currently broadband in South Africa has no framework to guide its development or measure milestones. In September 2008 the High court ruled in favor of Altech Autopage which paved the way for value-added network service (VANS) licensees to roll out their own telecoms networks. You may be asking yourself what does this have to do with broadband in SA? Well what it means is that anyone can build and operate a high-speed broadband network.

South africa being on the brink of major broadband boom, a framework (a structure for supporting or enclosing something else, especially a skeletal support used as the basis for something being constructed) would help facilitate the process in providing affordable Internet across the country.

I am not saying that the framework should regulate broadband infrastructure and services; thats ICASA job. I am saying that if government took the time to implement a framework it would aid in the setting of goals, milestones and deliverables.

Take the time to visit www.broadband4africa.org.za; read the framework and understand its objectives. Then do what is right and sign it, lets make the difference. I have done my part, now do yours.

I’m sure you are wondering, now that SEACOM and ESSAy cables are complete what’s next on the cards for broadband in the future. After doing some research I have gathered information that might get you a little excited as to the possibilities and opportunities in the future, lets take a look from a South African perspective.

There are three new cables planned to be live by the end of 2012 these are WACS, Main One, ACE.

• WACS (3rd quarter of 2011, providing a capacity of 5.12 Tbps)
• Main One (4th quarter of 2011, providing a capacity of 1.92 Tbps)
• ACE (2nd quarter of 2012, providing 5.12 Tbps)

To see the ones that are already here view this post.

Lets put these cables into perspective, taking into account the combined totals of all current cables available in South Africa (SAT-3/WASC/SAFE, SEACOM and EASSy) we get a total capacity of approximately 3 Tbps. That means that if all goes according to plan by the year 2012 we will see a capacity increase of nearly 400%.

These new cable systems will undoubtedly boost capacity and redundancy of bandwidth throughout South Africa. I for one just cant wait. Just imagine how quickly everything will load on Techdaily and how low your pings will be on Star Craft 2.

Friday the 16th July 2010 (only 1 year after SEACOM was launched) marked yet another historical broadband moment, through the linking of our very own Mtunzini (“Place in the Shade” – South Africa)  to Port Sudan (Sudan). This new cable called the EASSy Cable (http://www.eassy.org), is now live, spanning a distance of over 10,500 km. It has connected 21 countries located in eastern/southern Africa to the rest of the world. This new cable with a capacity of 1.4 Tbps, will (like SEACOM) provide a rapid expansion in infrastructure,  decline in cost of facilities, prices for services and offer redundancy to SEACOM users. A bit of history after the break.

A chronological look into the past cables is as follows:

• SAT-1 – Constructed in the 1960′s
• SAT-2 – Brought into service in the early 1990′s, to replace SAT-1
• SAT-3/WASC/SAFE (http://www.safe-sat3.co.za/ – 340 gigabits) began operation in 2001. SAT-3 (The western cable linked South Africa to various other west African countries and finally landing in Portugal and Spain) took up service from SAT-2 which was nearing maximum capacity along the western coast of Africa.SAFE, the eastern cable linked South Africa to Mauritius, India and finally Malaysia, extended along the east coast of Africa.
• SEACOM (http://www.seacom.mu – 1.2 Tbps)  began operations in July 2009 (over 8 years later than SAT-3/WASC/SAFE), with nearly four times the capacity of the SAT-3/WASC/SAFE cables. The introduction of this new cable provided a mechanism for ISP’s (Internet service providers) to offer services as a much cheaper rate, it was then that uncapped internet became viable for the majority of end users throughout South Africa.

I like one of many internet users in Africa just cant wait to see the benefits and /or rewards it may bring. Only time will tell.