Ecogadgets Gifts for Christmas

Wanna hit a bargain for the great gift for the geek this Christmas? Not for the money this time. With all the attention given to eco-friendly lifestyle, the technologically inclined have been hard at work making this easier to achieve – with gadgets. There is quite a long line of supply out there that will help you trim down your effect on the environment, so a pick over them all can be a challenge (for one who’s not tech savvy like myself). Found below is a short list of of the most useful, eco-friendly or utterly remarkable modest innovations that have freshly snatched my attention.

Hymini - a device that collects solar and wind power, so you can charge your portable electronics anytime, anywhere. Just leave it someplace sunny, or strap it on the front of your bike, and your Hymini will power up and be good to go. Plus, for those times when you're traveling all day -- in and out of airports, without any access to the bountiful power-generating resources of Mother Nature -- you can still plug it into the wall.



SolarRoll - a green gadget that allows you to finally have a truly "mobile" laptop. There has been lots of talk flying around recently about how much energy computers consume and waste, so if you feel like opting out of the "computer drain," this might be the ticket. It's obvious that this thing is a turn-on for the backpacker who has to have it all, but I get way more excited when I think about its practical applications: using my laptop at the park or in remote locations, not needing to sit in a coffee shop to work. If you don't own a laptop, the SolarRoll comes in other sizes and outputs, so it can support devices like your cellphones, 2-way radios, digital cameras, or even your car battery.

Water powered alarm clock - Need more juice? Simply add more water right from the tap. Features include the time, an alarm, a countdown timer, the temperature, and a gravity sensor that lets you switch from function to function just by changing the clock's position. Plus the whole thing is recyclable and you'll never have to buy batteries again.

Wattson - this gadget could save you plenty of money on your electric bill while using only a little bit of juice itself. All you do is plug a transmitter into your electric meter or fuse box, and it will send information wirelessly to your Wattson unit, which will display the amount of electricity you're currently using. It sounds simple, but having an ever-present color-coded reminder in the house could really change the way you use electricity. The Wattson also has a ton of other useful features. It can store 4 weeks of energy data, which you can download to your computer for analysis. It can display your energy use in Europs, Dollars, Pounds, Stirling, and Yen. If you're not using much electricity, the Wattson will glow a calming blue color. If you're using the microwave oven, vacuum cleaner, blasting the stereo, and typing away on the computer at the same time, it will glow an angry red color.

Wind-up phone charger: This incredibly clever gadget does just what you'd think -- charges your phone with nothing more than elbow grease. Just spend a minute or two rotating the crank (which, as you can see in the photo, works more or less like a fishing reel), and presto! -- your phone has juice. Now you can rotate between your solar charger, your wind-powered charger, and your Wind Up charger (for real emergencies), and power your phone from now until eternity without ever plugging it in.

Solar Bluetooth headset: The Iqua BHS-603 SUN offers complete freedom from chargers, wires and delays allowing for 9 straight hours of talk time and up to 200 hours of standby. Plus, it's compatible with everything from the iPhone to LG to Motorola and more! The perfect holiday gift for those who are on the go and wanting to take a small green step for 2008 -- plus if you are like me and traveling for the holidays this will easily fit in your carry-on.

Further Readings

• Denmark to power electric cars by wind in vehicle-to-grid experiment (guardian.co.uk)

HOT SERVICES FROM COOL GADGETS

I have come across some amazingly cool gadgets that could make life imaginatively easier. The modern lifetrend has somehow plugged our affairs with optional necessities. These objects would remain elective until one takes a closer look at the exceptional hot services they provide for our current lifestyle. A second look at their individual features draws you away from the naïve temptation towards languid contentment. Let us see what they have to offer.

USB Beverage Chiller and Warmer

Like your soda cold or coffee hot and close to you? Look no further! This USB pad will chill any drink. Just plug it into the USB slot on your laptop or desktop computer, put a glass on the pad, and choose if you want to keep your drink cold or warm. Never drink warm soda or cold coffee again!. Temperature of the drink will go as low as 45 degrees Fareinheit.Only thing to watch out for (trust us, we know), try not to spill on your keyboard. The price is around $24.95

Light Bulb Candles

I don’t think anyone has ever glanced at a light bulb and thought it was such an exquisite and shapely object. Therefore I can’t really see that many will quite understand the need to design something in the same shape as a light bulb. Well either way, someone did indeed create a candle in the image of a light bulb. Sit around by candlelight with these odd candles. They come in the shape of your average bulb, as well as one in the shape of an incandescent bulb. For once these two bulbs are equally energy efficient. You can pick up the pair in either gray or white for $25 on Design Public.

Sonic UV Screwdriver

This Sonic Screwdriver is a gadget for all those Doctor Who fans that weren’t satisfied with just the Tardis USB hub. Remember that saying, “if it’s made like a screwdriver and it looks like a screwdriver, it must be a screwdriver”? Oh, and you are so very wrong! It actually has a pen on one head and a beam of UV light at the other. So now you you can write anything you want with UV ink and not worry about other people reading it. Just imagine handing your boss an amazingly favorable report and between the lines your real thoughts. Ha, ha, ha what a subtle revenge. And the revenge costs only 12.99$ and 3 AG 13 batteries. Small price to pay!

Pillete Bluetooth

Pillete, the new concept of Bluetooth headset is so tiny, it’s almost invisible to the untrained eye when you are wearing it. So you don’t have to worry anymore about looking like Robocop when walking down the street with it, but you have to consider the possibility of people starting to think you’ve lost your marbles and you’re talking to yourself. The downside is the fact that people have different sized ears and the device might be to small and slip out or to big and not fit. People who often use earphones will tell you I’m right. But once they’ll figure out a way to make the Pillete adjustable, this design will be the future of all headsets.

Further Readings

• Crapgadget: 'Gee... thanks?' edition (engadget.com)
• Just a Stylish 'Wall Socket' USB Hub [Peripherals] (gizmodo.com)
• Shadowy modder gives Eee PC a risky back alley trackball implant (engadget.com)

Adobe CS4 Webcasts: Just About What You Need to Know...

Design Across Media with ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE 4

Just when you thought you just bought Adobe Creative Suite 3, get ready to take out another credit for Adobe CS4, which WAS publicly unveiled on September 23, officially released on October 15, and its Master Collection suite available on Mid November, including free-trials. Improvements to Photoshop and Flash are expected to headline the events.

Adobe Creative Suite (CS) is a collection of graphic design, video editing, and web development applications made by Adobe Systems. The collection consists of cutting-edge applications (e.g., Photoshop, Acrobat, InDesign) and technologies (e.g., PostScript, PDF, Flash). The latest version is now Adobe® Creative Suite® 4 (CS4) delivers tightly integrated software and services that measurably improve productivity and enable you to produce richly expressive work in print, web, interactive, video, audio, and mobile. All applications in CS4 feature the same user interface, with a new tabbed interface for working with concurrently running Adobe CS4 programs where multiple applications can be opened inside multiple tabs contained in a single window. It was announced that nVidia CUDA technology is now supported to allow for the accelerated encoding of video. Adobe CS4 is also developed to perform better under 64-bit and multi-core processors. Adobe Photoshop CS4, Adobe After Effects CS4, Adobe Premiere Pro CS4, and Adobe Soundbooth CS4 will officially support 64-bit. However, Adobe CS4 64-bit will not be available for Mac OS X. In early testing of 64-bit support in Adobe Photoshop CS4, overall performance gains ranged from 8% to 12%. Those who work with extremely large files may realize noticeably greater gains in performance, in some cases as dramatic as ten times the previous speed. This is because 64-bit applications can address larger amounts of memory and thus result in less file swapping — one of the biggest factors that can affect data processing speed.

Different Editions of Adobe CS4 come in bundles of your choice and, of course, financial preference.

Which one is hot? The Gadget or the Girl?

A new show on Playboy TV is based on the notion that "boys love their toys" will pit girls against gadgets in an attempt to answer that age-old question: hottie or hot HDTV? In a twist on the reality TV staple For Love or Money, Playboy TV's Gadget or the Girl reality "program" will compel contestants to select between a weekend vacation with a girl of their choice or a surprise random high-tech gadget. What kind of gadget? The gear will range from a 60-inch plasma TV to an arcade game machine, but the guy won't know what his prize is until he opts for either the gadget or the girl. Remember, boys: there's always the chance you'll just be landing a deodorant-emitting suit. So tough??!! For each episode, a bachelor will be introduced to three women--presumably with some Playboy connection--and must immediately pick two to continue the game.

The threesome will go on a date, and at the end, the guy will choose one girl to be his solo companion for the evening. After a few hours together, he must decide if he is going to enjoy an exciting weekend getaway with the stranger, or give her up and leave with some potentially cool gear. The contestant will have no idea what’s in the box until they are willing to bet all.

If the girl successfully lures the guy to pick her over the mystery gadget, she'll score a prize, which we hope will be higher-end than a cell phone hair dryer headset or a floppy-diskette bracelet. Iliza Shlesinger, spunky winner from NBC’s reality TV series Last Comic Standing, will host the show. Hopefully, she'll bring some irony to the proceedings.

I doubt what the purpose of this show is, to show whether a man will choose the temporary comfort of a warm lady or the permanent pleasure of a cold gadget? If you’re given the choice between an awesome gadget and a weekend getaway with a hot girl, sometimes it’s best to go for the sure thing. But I'm old fashioned, so I take the bane over the gadget any day of the week.

Further readings

• Iliza Shlesinger, 'Last Comic Standing,' Gets Personal with Howard Stern (inquisitr.com)
• ABC goes fast and funny (tvsquad.com)
• Rob Cohen: I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! Episode 11 Recap: Losers and Winners (huffingtonpost.com)

Cool Digital Shooting Gadget - Sony A900

Gigantic billboards displaying incredibly lucid pictures really amaze me. Not because of the artistry and advertizing genius behind it, but because of the minute details that are clearly flaunted in the pictures.

I’ve tried my hand on digital photography and photo-editing too. But the digital cameras I worked with couldn’t provide adequate pixel resolution as desired. I envy the professional photographers who use state-of-the-art digicams in 10 or more megapixels. They must be the ones who took those pictures on giant billboards.

Well, whatever digital shooting gadgets those camera guys had. I would say the Sony Alpha A900 - the world’s first full-frame 24.6 Megapixel DSLR camera catches them gasping except for a few loyalists. What’s in this latest digital gadget?

The Sony A900 features the world’s first ever 24.6 effective megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor, which is equivalent to a 35mm film frame, making it able to deliver extraordinary image detail and wide dynamic range. The full frame feature is definitely great for serious photo shooters, now you’re able to capture all the previously lost detail by capturing 100% of the coverage of photos visible in the viewfinder. One look at the camera’s distinctive pentaprism and nostalgic body design will evoke its full-frame optical performance. It features a bright, clear optical viewfinder with 100% field of view coverage that would impress even film photography loyalists. It represents the best in sensor and image processing technologies and offers enhanced functions, performance and reliability so photographers can push their creativity to the limit

The Sony A900 is also the first full-frame shooter that features SteadyShot INSIDE™, which is a feature that enhances in-body optical stabilization system, offers up to 4.0 steps anti-shake performance. Some other goodies are a 100k shutter cycle, a 3-inch 921,000-dot LCD screen (so it should look gorgeous), , and a 5FPS burst, up to 12 shots in RAW.

There is a new Intelligent Preview function which simulates the effect of White Balance, D-Range Optimizer and exposure level on the LCD screen without actually taking a picture. Even though you mess up with the previously preset settings, just a confirmation on the camera, the new setting will be used for taking your next picture.

The latest A900 digital SLR camera from Sony sets a new benchmark for photo enthusiasts who demand the unrivalled quality and creative possibilities of full-frame imaging. Also, it's got in-camera RAW editing—light stuff, naturally. Weirdly, unlike most high-profile DSLRs released in the last year, it doesn't have Live View, but has an "Intelligent Preview," that takes like a pre-shot so you can mess around with settings like ISO and exposure before you shoot

Ultra-Fine Images As The Human Eye Perceives Them
The camera’s Exmor™ CMOS sensor delivers the photographic expressive power of wide angles and perspective that only a 35 mm full-frame sensor can offer, and is designed to take advantage of the resolving power of high-precision α (alpha) lenses. Its high pixel count and large size provide enhanced image detail and a wider dynamic range for natural color reproduction and subtle tonal gradations.
The sensor is produced using proprietary Sony planarization technologies to ensure an ultra-flat surface across the entire imaging area. Instead of a single analog/digital convertor, the sensor uses over 6,000 on-chip, column-parallel A/D converters to convert analog signals to noise-resistant digital signals at the earliest possible stage. The result is reduced noise and high-speed transfer of data.
Image processing gets a boost in speed and power from the application of two BIONZ image processing engines. Large amounts of data captured by the 24.6-megapixel sensor can be quickly processed to achieve a fast shooting response. Additionally, this dual BIONZ processing system applies advanced noise reduction algorithms producing images of exceptional quality and detail, especially at high ISO sensitivities.

World’s First Anti-Shake System for a Full-Frame Sensor
The camera’s newly-developed, body-integrated SteadyShot Inside unit achieves an anti-shake effect equivalent to shutter speeds faster by 2.5 to 4 stops. This new unit provides stabilization for Sony, Minolta and Konica-Minolta wide angle, large-aperture lenses, which is difficult for lens-integrated systems.

State-of-the Art Optical Performance and Responsiveness
The ultra-bright viewfinder with 100% field of view coverage and 0.74x magnification enables accurate framing and preview. It features a high-power condenser lens, an eyepiece with high reflective-index glass, and a multi-layer, anti-reflective coating on every optical surface to deliver its extraordinarily bright and accurate view.

Additionally, the focusing screen is user-replaceable, with additional L-type (grid pattern) and M-type (super spherical acute matte) screens sold separately.

The camera’s newly-developed autofocus system consists of nine wide-area sensors with 10 assist points for improved tracking of moving subjects. A center dual cross sensor comprised of two horizontal and two vertical line sensors as well as a dedicated f/2.8 sensor are included to achieve greater precision, especially when using fast-aperture lenses.

It also offers high-speed continuous shooting of 24.6 megapixel images at five frames per second. A newly-designed mirror box features a unique parallel-link mirror mechanism that moves on two horizontal axes to accommodate both 100% viewfinder coverage and the body-integrated image stabilization system without increasing the camera’s size. The mirror box also has a new moving magnet actuator, a high-powered coreless motor for a faster shutter charge, and a magnet catcher to minimize mirror bounce and light refraction within the box.

Versatility to Unleash Creative Possibilities
The model’s innovative intelligent preview function takes the guesswork out of setting up a shot and the hassle of taking multiple shots to achieve a desired effect.
After pressing the depth of field preview button, the camera “grabs” a RAW preview image which is processed and displayed on the LCD screen. You can then fine tune white balance, determine the best level and effect of dynamic range optimization, adjust exposure compensation and check histogram data, all before you actually take the picture. Preview images are not recorded on the camera’s memory card, thus saving capacity.

Other key features aimed to expand creative options include the Dynamic Range Optimizer (DRO) with five levels of user-selectable correction as well as DRO bracketing for enhanced scene analysis and graduation optimization. EV bracketing with ±2EV range makes it easy to create high dynamic range composite images.

Thirteen creative styles can be selected to enhance images and then fine-tuned by customizing contrast, sharpness, zone matching and other parameters, while 3 user-programmable memories provide instant access to as many as 26 different mode settings.

Powerful RAW file processing control is put in the photographer’s hands with the included Image Data Converter SR3 software that delivers faster file processing speeds, easy adjustment of image parameters, Dynamic Range Optimization and a new Peripheral Illumination function that compensates for corner light fall off.

With the camera’s HDMI output and Photo TV HD mode, your creative output can be enjoyed on a compatible HD television. This mode brings the look of actual printed photography to the television, by fine-tuning such image parameters as sharpness, gradation and color.

Comfort in Your Hands
Its construction features rugged, lightweight magnesium alloy with moisture-resistant, rubber seals for buttons and dials, an anti-static coating to prevent dust adherence to the imager, and a high-endurance shutter rated for more than 100,000 release cycles.
It has a 3-inch, Xtra Fine LCD screen (921K) makes it possible to check focus and image quality with accuracy. It incorporates an easy-to-see display with a quick navigation menu to easily access common functions without interrupting your creative flow. A backlit LCD panel sits on top of the camera and displays key settings.

System Expansion with New Accessories
The A900 camera will be accompanied with an array of accessories like the recently-announced Sony HVL-F58AM flash unit with its innovative Quick Shift Bounce system, powerful performance with a guide number of 58, and wireless auto flash ratio control.

The Sony® VG-C90AM vertical grip offers the same ease of operation when shooting vertically as horizontally, with its button layout and low-position shutter-release button. It also houses two InfoLITHIUM® batteries (sold separately) for longer shooting and playback.

The DSLR-A900 body will be available in November for about $3,000 along with related accessories.

Intel® Remote Wake Keeps Snoozing Home PCs Ready

Intel Corp. has created a new line of motherboards that would allow a computer to be awakened from sleep mode to perform such tasks as receiving a phone call over the Internet or downloading a digital television show.

Now the world's largest microprocessor-maker hopes to convince computer-makers that consumers will want desktop PCs built around its Remote Wake motherboards, which should be available soon. Without this wake-up feature, PCs have to be left on in order to take calls or perform downloads, which burns energy and costs money.

"This is certainly something we're taking seriously," said Intel spokesman George Alfs.

Alfs said the genesis of the wake-up feature came from business customers. The technology was originally designed into business PCs that are part of corporate networks and was developed so that network managers could awaken PCs during the night to update their software.
Now, Intel's consumer division is trying to build the remote-wake capability into ordinary desktop PCs, and to demonstrate its potential uses has teamed with software firms like Jajah of Mountain View, which would be the first Internet telephone company to use Remote Wake to rouse a sleeping PC for an incoming call.

Intel also tapped Orb Networks in Emeryville to demonstrate how its software - which allows users to remotely download songs, photos, videos or other data - could be used in conjunction with the feature. Orb spokesman Ron Perrotta said the technology provides the ability to leave the PC in a low energy-consumption sleep mode and awaken it from afar in order to do something like download music files from home to an Internet-enabled mobile phone.

"Your computer can be asleep when you're asleep, and you can download without it being left on," said Robert Levitan, chief executive of peer-to-peer site Pando of New York, another Intel partner.

Please watch a demo of Intel® Remote Wake Technology.

PEER-TO-PEER OPTIONS – Backdoor Access to Olympic Footage

If you want to move beyond bite-sized recaps and highlight reels, P2P sites are your best obtions for backdoor access to unedited blocks of 2008 Olympics footage. Additionally, content is likely to be available sooner than the 12-hour delays expected with some of NBC's coverage. Try these web workarounds for full access to the Olympics (Just enter them in your Google or Yahoo search).

• isoHunt, Mininova and EZTV. These are top BitTorrent sites. Miss the opening ceremonies? Or the four-hour finale of table tennis? Try downloading torrents of popular Olympic events.
• Veetle. Stanford University's experimental web TV platform requires a downloadable player, but offers live broadcasts of soccer games, basketball and more.
• Sopcast. This free P2P internet TV player requires a download, but offers a wide lineup of channels broadcasting the Olympic games.
• TVants. This is a P2P Internet TV, which requires a free download. TVants can run on Windows or on Linux's WINE.
• PPMate. A Chinese P2P Internet TV network download. PPMate only run under Windows.
• TVU Networks. This P2P internet TV player requires a free download and only works with Windows, but is a good resource for watching global sporting events online.

Now here are other options that you can explore:

• Truveo and Blinkx . Catch Olympics videos from all different news channels in one place. Some sites like blip.tv also allow you download videos.
• Beijing2008.cn - This is the official portal for Olympic Games that hosts a large collection of videos, photographs, interviews with players from different countries, Olympic Game logos, history of the game, and other interesting material. You may want to visit for regular news about the games.
• CNN , New York Times, BBC UK and Yahoo! Sports. Other than video sites, most media websites have dedicated section for Olympics Games which also feature medal counts and breaking news from the Olympics.

ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF WATCHING THE OLYMPICS ONLINE

Countless sports fans will look for video coverage of the Olympic games online while trapped in their cubicles this week, and chances are at least some of them won’t head to NBC’s official web site but will try their luck elsewhere. In fact, NBC’s decision to delay the online video coverage of popular events for three hours is almost an invitation to waste a few hours of time on pirate sites and P2P TV forums.

The IOC is aware of this problem and is trying to address it by posting authorized videos on YouTube. Too bad these clips won’t be accessible to folks in the United States. So where will you and the U.S. Olympians go?

Here are alternative ways people will use to get their Olympics fix:

P2P Streaming. China is the motherland of P2P streaming, with almost a dozen vendors offering live TV transmissions. The leading Chinese P2P TV platform PPLive is officially licensed to show the games — but only to an audience within China. PPLive will restrict the transmissions to IP addresses from within the country. Hardcore fans might want to try to access the transmissions through a Chinese proxy server, but the chances this will work for a bigger audience are rather slim. After all, people usually tend to use proxy servers to access web sites outside of the PRC. Of course, there are other companies that seem to care less about filters and licenses. Both soccer and NBA fans have previously reported success with PPStream, PPMate, Sopcast, TVUPlayer and TVKoo.

Live video sites. Streaming video hosters like Ustream, Stickam and Justin.tv will see a bunch of people trying to relay TV coverage of the games. The sites will probably try to shut down some of these efforts, but there’s a good chance that some will fall through the cracks. Who knows, maybe we’ll even see new kinds of spot coverage coming right out of someone’s living room, Mystery Science Theater-style?

YouTube. Granted, the official Olympics coverage will not be available to visitors with States-based IP addresses. But that won’t stop users that access YouTube through a proxy server based in India or any of the other 76 countries that have access to the IOC channel. Users will also upload excerpts and highlights from the competitions on their own. Google will try to filter these submissions, but those filters won’t catch everything.

Torrent sites. BitTorrent has long been a good option for time-shifting TV, with some shows even finding their way online between the East Coast and the West Coast premiere, so we’ll likely see quite a few Olympic TV moments on torrent sites as well. Torrents should pop up on major sites like ISO Hunt, Mininova and The Pirate Bay as well as specialized, invite-only communities like Sportbit.org within hours of the major competitions.

Foreign TV. The BBC is broadcasting the Olympics online — with up to seven live streams, no less — and broadcasters in other countries will offer their own coverage on the web as well, oftentimes using fewer technical hurdles than NBC. Granted, most of these streams will be protected by IP filters, but once again, proxy servers should be able to solve this problem. And I wouldn’t be too surprised if someone figures out a way to access a stream of some obscure Russian TV station without any proxy.

ADOBE FLASH POWERS CCTV.COM'S BEIJING OLYMPICS’ INTERNET COVERAGE

In China, CCTV International Networks Co, Ltd. has teamed up with Adobe to bring Olympics online video to mainland China. CCTV.com owns the online video rights to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games for mainland China and Macau.

Choosing Adobe as a partner is a indication that Chinese Internet viewers and sports fans can expect a rich, immersive interactive Web experience. CCTV.com's Olympic Network TV Station, through Adobe technologies, including Adobe Flash and Adobe Flex, will bring the drama and excitement of the games to the Web.

CCTVOlympics.com, will deliver viewers with:

• An unprecedented Web experience created with Adobe Flex and delivered via Adobe Flash technology, which includes Olympic results, statistics, comprehensive bios, rules and expert analysis from CCTV's Olympic media team. Unlike NBC though, CCTV is not eschewing commentators and replacing them with bloggers, although, it also will be diving into the social web via "social networking features that will enable fans to share aspects of their Olympic experience with friends."
• 5,000 hours of on-demand protected streamed video content (3,800 hours of worldwide broadcast Olympic Games video and 1,200 hours of CCTV’s own video) including full event replays, highlights, features, interviews and encore packages.

Over the past year, CCTV International Networks Co, Ltd. has developed new media platforms based on the most advanced Internet technologies. By teaming up with Adobe, CCTV.com can provide sports fans and consumers an engaging online experience for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and beyond. Adobe was chosen as the partner because Adobe technologies enable the TV network to deliver a compelling Web 2.0 experience consistently to people across platforms.

Besides the Olympic Games, CCTV.com and Adobe will pursue other initiatives to develop new media based applications leveraging CCTV.com's brand and content and Adobe's advanced technology platform.

Online Olympics Streaming Videos via YouTube

YouTube is receiving a slice of the Olympic pie. The Google Inc. unit is providing about three hours a day of exclusive content from the IOC's Olympic Broadcasting Services on a dedicated channel during the Games. The content, including highlight reels and daily wrap-ups but not live coverage, now extends to 77 territories -- South Korea, India and Nigeria among them -- that aren't officially covered by Olympic sponsors.

Users in the U.S. and other markets where the IOC has vended digital video-on-demand rights on an exclusive basis are barred from watching the footage.

This is the first time in Olympic history that a comprehensive global online coverage is made available. The scheme provides Olympic footage to the "young generations of sports fans" who are already going online for entertainment. IOC supplies and uploads the content -- an estimated 500 to 800 segments over the course of the Games.

YouTube, on the other hand, will be able to sell ads around its Olympics channel, but only to Olympic sponsors. The tight timing and the exclusion of the U.S., where the online-ad market is far more mature than most other countries, means the financial advantage will be marginal. The arrangement is really more about the accessibility. YouTube anticipates snatching more sponsorship opportunities by extending the partnership with the IOC in the future.

The content is expected to reach only about 200 million people, because the territories covered have relatively small numbers of online-video viewers. By comparison, China -- which isn't allowing the YouTube broadcast -- has an estimated 180 million people who watch online video; they will be able to watch Olympics content from CCTV.com, the online arm of China Central Television, and its partners.

The growing number of people watching video online has been a challenge for Olympics organizers. While new media conduits, from blogging to online video sharing, could swell viewership of the Games, they also make it more intricate for organizers to control exclusive content, for which sponsors pay millions of dollars.

ONLINE VIDEO COVERAGE: Viewing Olympic games as never before!

The Beijing Olympics 2008, the world's largest sports event, has begun placing on litmus test currently available Web technologies with online video coverage. The cyber-pipeline infrastructure has been effectively set up to allow viewers to download any event to watch on their personal computers for free. That’s any event on their personal computers . . . for free. Wow!

The sole U.S. broadcaster for the 2008 Summer Olympics Games in Beijing, NBC has teamed up with Microsoft for 3,600 hours (17 days) of live streaming coverage on NBCOlympics.com. With USA Network, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC, and Telemundo to the mix, as well as high-definition coverage on USA HD and Universal HD, the prospect of quality viewing entertainment has become clear. NBC will make use of the Internet to "send out mass quantities of video in high resolution". NBC's online coverage will be powered by Microsoft Silverlight and Windows Media Player. Limelight Networks is being used to route the video streams to Internet service providers.

The only down-pull is that the coverage will only be accessible to users in the US, since that's where the Web technologies are installed to support such extensive online video coverage, and it’s where NBC has rights to broadcast the Olympics. Despite the geographical restrictions, NBC is promising loads of 'new media' features in its Web coverage. These include:

• The ability of users to watch whatever sport they want and when they want to, unlike on TV where they get what the broadcaster dishes up. They can choose from the all the available live and background footage, and watch whenever it's convenient with the enhanced Silverlight Player.
• Getting the best and brightest Web video experience around with amazing, clear, crisp video no matter what the bandwidth is. Silverlight makes the most of your internet connection without the exasperating wait for what you want.
• 3,600 hours of "on-demand encores of full events and highlights". That means NBC will be covering 28 sports, 302 events, and will be broadcasting seemingly 24/7.
• · Switching between up to 4 live streams. Yes, sports fans can view 4 events simultaneously with picture-in-picture controls. They can customize the media player to capture their favorite events!
• Seeing the standard world feed that is sent to all broadcasters, so there will be no network TV commentators. Instead, the NBC expects to see bloggers "serve as play-by-play voices and analysts".
• Access to statistics, biographies and other information. Viewers can get expert commentary, dynamic statistics, play-by-play captioning and athlete profiles...all at their fingertips.

Well, does these sound too good to be true? Oddly, “NBC Olympics on the Go” is considered to be only available for the Microsoft Vista operating system and then in just two editions — Home Premium and Ultimate. This somehow implies that millions of XP users, not to mention Mac and Linux folks, might be left on the sideline. Maybe the Vista thing has something to do with Wavexpress, an Internet video distributor whose media platform, TVTonic, will be used to distribute the Olympics video online. TVTonic already provides 350 media channels through Vista.

You could check this out for yourself.

Where to Get Olympics 2008 Live Streams and On-Demand Highlights

Sports aficionados can now watch and/or download online videos and event highlights of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The following sites could provide just what you desire to watch based on your location and web-tech capabilities:

• NBC Olympics. Media giant NBC has exclusive rights to broadcast the Olympics in the United States, and will serve up four live streams and 3,600 hours of on-demand video online.
• TV Tonic. NBC paired with Wavexpress to offer event highlights on demand via a download service similar to iTunes. For Windows Vista users only.
• YouTube. Starting Wednesday, Google will provide approximately three hours of content each day from the Olympics Broadcasting Service on a channel dedicated to the games. The content will include highlight reels and daily wrap-ups, but no live coverage. The footage will be available in 77 territories, including South Korea, India and Nigeria, that aren't officially covered by Olympic sponsors.
• CCTVOlympics.com. CCTV will be supplying more than 5,000 hours of Olympic Games coverage for mainland China and Macau.
• BBC Sports. The U.K.'s official Olympics broadcaster will offer six streaming channels showing coverage from BBC TV and BBC News Interactive. Channels will focus on on-demand daily highlights and athlete interviews.
• Yahoo7. Australia's official Olympics online portal offers live streams, video coverage on-demand and behind-the-scenes interviews, specials and features.
• CBC Olympics. Canadians can tune into the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation online for supplemental live streams, video coverage on-demand and behind-the-scenes interviews, specials and features.

GUIDE TO STARTING AN ONLINE GAMING CLAN (TEAM)

Computers or PC’s are definitely the best online gaming platform, but a good number people don’t use these gaming machines to their full potential. It could be quite thrilling to drop into a random server all by yourself, but that way really doesn’t lead to the best gaming experience. The secret to both enjoying and gaining superiority at online play is joining a contingent of like-minded individuals – in other words, a clan. Many people are repulsed by the notion of forming or joining a geek circle, but this is essentially a well-coordinated group of friends, having quality entertainment. Online reputation or notoriety may come with time, but what’s more important is that you’re playing strategically with people you know and trust, rather than being at the caprice of whatever vagabonds are lynching around a public server.

Starting a gaming clan requires the setting up of both a website and a forum. These are the key elements for both promoting the name of your clan in the online gaming neighborhood and improving your game. Manage your forum so certain matters are off limits to non-clan members and newbies whose performance you’re evaluating. The public area is good for chatting about clan activities as this will generate interest from potential recruits and rivals, but you’ll need someplace to scheme the defeat of your rivals. Make sure you’ve got a calendar there too, so everyone can see when forthcoming matches will come about.

A gamers’ clan should be run like a business. Do not impose roles to members or slag people off before the team – manage them considerately. Discuss with them their strengths and weaknesses and what classes, weapons and positions they’re best suited to. Hopefully you can agree mutually on roles, or work together to perk up someone’s abilities. Select players to look after the design and maintenance of your clan website and forum, get others to look after recruitment or managing existing players, allowing the clan leader to arrange matches and promote the clan. Here are some easily identifiable pitfalls that a lot of clans fall into:

• Too many leaders – Just have you and a Co-leader.
• Inactivity – Ensure you have regular practices and matches.
• In fighting between members – Remove members who cause problems immediately.
• Members not feeling part of the team – Share around responsibility and listen to your team or clan.
• Bad reputation in matches – Remove members who don’t listen or constantly cheat.
• Poor sportsmanship – Ensure your members do not bad mouth other teams, even if your clan or team is being abused.
• Immaturity of members – Avoid younger players who tend to not work as a team.
• Lazy Co –leader – install another member if you feel you are not being supported.
• No Practices – All clans or teams need practice. Practice can be as simple as making time to just play friendlies a few times a week.

Primarily, the need for practice and getting organized should be well decided. A fuzzy YM conversation about possibly working out something next week really doesn’t score. You need a strict routine, getting together to play specific maps on repeat at set times every week. If someone in your clan customarily doesn’t turn up for practice, you’ll have to consider replacing them with someone more committed. The key to success is playing together as a team, not just being good with the sniper rifle.

Your clan should get away with turning up on a public server and trying to play on the same team. Auto balance will make getting all your pals on the same side a headache, though, and you’ll be at the mercy of the server settings. Soon, you’ll need to rent a private clan server from somewhere.

Free Online Games

Games are a very addictive form of entertainment, especially electronic games. They offer hours of playability and can be enjoyed by the majority of gamers, regardless of gender and maturity. Games developers have gone a stride further in making electronic games a lot more enjoyable. By utilizing the Internet, game developers have launched a new genre of games, online games. Here is some information on how to play online games for free.

Simply type the phrase “Free online games” into popular search engines and you’ll be able to come across a selection online games for your preference. Due to the gush in popularity of online games, a lot of new online gaming services suddenly emerged. Gaming trends have undoubtedly had a very observable effect on the online gaming industry, as more and more gamers favor playing and going online to enjoy their games. Playing games on the internet was once an imaginary expression. But because of thousands of user-friendly and easy-to-operate games on the Internet (dubbed as massive multiplayer online games), gamers have seen their dreams come true.

The most obvious reason why people have turned to playing free online games is to free themselves, even for just a couple of hours, from their droning or hectic daily routines. With the availability of online games, almost anyone can take a little breather by experiencing the excitement that these games bring. Many people may choose to play these games for the thrill, while others just want to relax and have some fun at the end of each day. All gamers will agree that there are so many online games to play that you will never get bored playing.

Casinos, Are They Right for You?

Casinos definitely serve as great venues of excitement and enjoyment. These public edifices can be effective alternatives for spending leisure time or for achieving relaxation from the daily pressures of life by aiding gambling activities to customers. All major hotels, restaurants and shopping centers often provide arrangement for casinos in order to propose amusement to entice more consumers. They offer gorgeous packages which are appealing to most players. During the festive season or special occasions, hotels, eateries and retail shops flood their consumers with remarkable opportunities to earn handsome amount by gambling in their casinos. Such special offers also enable the players to earn at times more money than the amount invested. One of the reasons behind offering such grand bids is to make sure that these consumers visit these locations again which would prove to be profitable for the restaurants and hotels.

As a prevalent means of increasing income on the part of the casino owners, casino operation can contribute immensely in the economic prosperity of a region as most locations in the world have their own gaming authorities which preside over casinos and gambling activities. This is particularly true for the various hotels, restaurants and even retail outlets which offer facilities for gambling in their casinos. In case of the retail shops, the existence of casinos allows them to provide recreational opportunities which are like add-ons to the shopping experience. This factor thus aids in increasing the final profit revenue of the outlet. Most restaurants provide facilities for gambling in casinos and its economic impact can be manifold. Restaurants are traditionally eateries and are joints where individuals from all walks of life assemble. Often times, many revelers prefer to indulge into a bit of harmless gambling in casinos aside from the eating experience. The primary purpose of hotels who offer casino gambling is to attract more tourists by providing them not only the opportunity to gamble in the casinos but at the same time they often offer attractive offers or packages to lure their residents into indulging in casino gambling which on their part will provide magnificent revenues and income.

Technological development and the introduction of the internet have greatly revolutionized communication thus allowing casinos to spread their activity online as well. The online casinos are also often referred to as internet casinos or virtual casinos. Online casino gambling is at present a very lucrative source of making money. It allows the gamblers to play casino games via the internet and indulge in gambling while at home making such arrangement extremely favorable for many. While it is true that some of these casinos require software downloads for gambling, most of the websites offer minimum signup bonuses to new players against their first deposits.

On the basis of their interface, online casinos can be of three major kinds by means of which gambling activities can be carried out. These are download-based online casinos, web-based online casinos and live-based online casinos.

For download-based online casinos, as the very name suggests, online gambling becomes possible after having downloaded the required software formats in order to gain access to the multitudes of casino games offered online. In this case, the casino service provider and the online casino software work in cooperation with each other and while the initial download is a time consuming process, the download-based online casinos function faster than the web-based online casinos. Some of the prominent casino software manufacturing companies include Gaming, Microgaming etc.

In case of web-based online casinos, users are required to log in to the websites in order to indulge in gambling but here no software tools are necessary to be downloaded. The various plug-ins like Java, Macromedia Flash and Macromedia Shockwave are responsible for signifying the different casino games with suitable assistance from the browsers.

Live casinos are the latest innovations with reference to online casino gambling by means of which the users are able to freely interact with casino dealers online in an authentic casino environment. This recently introduced facility of live casinos is also quite fascinating.

One of the primary reasons behind the success of online casino gambling is the fact that similar to traditional casinos, they also offer similar payback amounts in case of online gambling. Moreover, signup bonuses are also prevalently offered by most online casinos for gambling. Baccarat, online slot games and poker are some of the famous online casino games.

With the technological innovations advancing with the progress of time and the inception of online casinos, it also provides great prospects of increasing economic growth as a certain amount of money has to be deposited in case of participating in the initial gaming procedure online apart from the internet usage charges.

However while it is true that proper marketing can greatly upsurge economic growth of a region, a note of caution should always be borne in mind that overindulgence can spell disaster.