On February this year, GSMA has announced that together with other 17 mobile operators, they plan to develop a universal charging solution where a standard Micro-USB socket will be commonly compatible. The other companies involved in this planning are AT&T, Motorola, LG, Nokia, Orange, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, T-Mibile, and GSMA declared that this development would improve the phone users’ life in that of using the same charger for all other available units. BBC has declared that this plan was possibly a reaction to the pressure that European Commission made since it was noticed that more than 30 different kinds of chargers are in use across Europe.
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The plan was to develop a charger to be three times more energy-efficient and to consume 50% stand-by energy.

At that time Apple was missing from the list of supporters, but yesterday they have announced their adherence to the list of top handset producers that control 90% of the European market. According to EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen, people would be able to keep their old charger while purchasing a new one, in this way the unwanted accessories will not make the object of thousand of tones of waste in Europe any more. The agreement will set for the developing of charges usable for data-enabled phones (reported to account for half of all 2010 purchased mobiles), which can deliver more capabilities than simple standard calls and SMS texting. In a period of three to four years from now all data-enabled phones will consider using the same standard chargers.

Mr. Verheugen said that this initiative would have a global impact, hoping that these chargers would also be usable in other countries beside the European ones. Next to the environmental benefits the initiative should mean less cost for companies, since the phone producers would stop delivering chargers together with their new items, so long as the micro-USB chargers will be all compatible.

Producing this micro-USB socket has a major impact on Apple’s iPhone current hardware, since the iPod and iPhone dock-connector port would be altered, the port in question not only supplying iPhone with power, but it also enables the transmittal and receiving of data, both audio and video. The question is: what will further the Apple producers do? Will they consider replacing the dock port entirely or produce a second port for power only? The closest to the given situation solution possible would be a dock-connector to mini-USB adapter, but how would the unique image of iPhone model will be kept unspoiled since this initiative will affect the iPhones produced for US and other non-European countries?

The release of Apple’s iPhone 3 GS has made a big sensation among the users of iPhones, the lines at the stores have already proved it! Now with the wave of enthusiasm cooled down, we can cast a closer look at Apple’s upgrades and define better what are the performances introduced by these upgrades.
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To begin with the outside - “design changes”, we can say that the only relevant change, the one that makes it different form its predecessor iPhone 3G, though not so noticeable, is the oil resistance display which prevents the smudge to stay stuck to the screen, since after several days of using the touchscreen it still looks fresh as in the first day you’ve purchased the unit. Not to mention that touching on a specific area of the screen the objects are revealed into a clearer relief adjusting at the same time the exposure and other settings.

The processor ARM Cortex A8 introduced for the speed reactions, does its job brilliantly: you can use its applications in a matter of seconds, the games are loading with the speed that worth being envied even by a desktop version. Leaving the CPU and GPU aside, we turn our attention toward the benefits of an upgraded camera sensor, which even if it offers a 3.2 megapixel resolution, compared to some competitors that offer 5 megapixels or even higher, it can still be more useful than the ones mentioned above. Images are displayed more defined in the low light with vibrant colors, though taking photos in a dark environment is not such a good idea, since Apple hasn’t included a flash yet, yet the image is not as grainy as it looks with the previous iPhone types. The fact is that without the need of SLR or advanced point-and-shoot features, the quality of the images is great.

Video recording is a new feature that is well-executed, recording scales up to VGA 640x480 at a speed of 30 frames per second preserving much of the visual and audio quality. The post-shoot software offers the possibility of editing clips in a simple way to handle, the same goes for uploading where you can rename, tag and use other features bor both MobileMe and YouTube.

The voice commands are also new on iPhone 3GS and they depend on the tasks and on the surrounding noise, but they do their job in a good way, recognizing names or some parts of the names, they can enable you to narrow down the calling to a particular contact without prompting twice. Some flaws are present however in the music department while identifying the correct artists or tracks. But in this case it is recommendable to use physical headset controls.

The 3GS model presents a device-wide search with speedier searches, more storing place for voice memos and a quicker way to leap between apps in order to copy and paste texts. All in one, Apple’s new iPhone 3GS is a device that pleases most of the iPhones’ users since it proves to be more capable and more improved than its previous model reflecting the further steps that Apple took in the upgrading area.

The best thing to say about this model would be that iPhone 3GS eliminates many reasons for selecting other phone instead.

The pricing of Apple’s desktop computer Mac Mini is determined by its higher component costs, as these parts are designed for mobile PCs, as such inside this Mac Mini lays a virtual laptop. This new generation has come up with improved Nvidia graphics, , a new processor type 2 GHz Intel Core, and a larger hard drive. These changes increase Mac Mini’s power efficiency, and its capability to deal with multiple programs at once. As to its design, there aren’t notable changes, the case being made of the same aluminum material and white plastic top, yet the additional USB port, a single FireWire 800 port, a Mini DVD input, and Mini DisplayPort input are the elements that make the difference. Compared, for instance to Acer X1700 slimline PC, its power efficiency is much higher (when Apple’s system is powered on but idle, the Mac Mini uses only 15.4 watts compared with Acer’s 70.9), and it can save a relative amount of energy under load (28.3 watts compared to the Acer’s 95.6).
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The Apple Web site ensures a portal extra support that includes rebate information and online service assistance, whereas the e-mail support is available only for iTunes store and Apple photo services. The Mini’s gaming performance is rendered by the ability to provide a 3D image, due to Nvidia graphics chip that enables to run Quake 4 at 1,600x900 at a good image quality with minimum lag.

The Apple’s 24” LED Cinema Display is the monitor to be connected without an adapter to Mini’s DisplayPort input. The value of Mac Mini’s hardware is rendered by iLife ’09 application suite, but on the other hand there isn’t any keyboard or mouse present. An Apple Keyboard and mouse kit can be added at a price of $98.00, and a Remote for other $20.00.

The initial price of the new generation version is of $376.20 that reaches to $387.14 when added the manufacturing costs. Andrew Rassweiler, director and principal analyst fro iSuppli said that Apple uses components for notebook computers, in order to produce better, smaller and more appealing computers, but this happens at a certain price. The CNET Reviews of the Mac Mini declared that although Apple manages to pack in a tiny space the many abilities of Mac Mini it still doesn’t cut the PC competitors regarding the price.

Also mobile components are present with a 2.26 GHz version of processor available for $150 premium price. The mobile chip that belongs to Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics is estimated at $65.16; other mobile components that include 2.5” hard disk drive and optical disk drive are priced at $32.00.

Whenever you come across to some information that in the future you might want to use or refer to, and you are too busy on other things to do, you just wished you had a safe place where to throw all that information in order to access it later. Of course, there are ways to do this, but do not offer an organized manner of storing. Well, this is what “Caboodle” enables you to do: to structure under a free-format all this information. It’s a simple and organized way to store random data, paragraphs, pictures, web links, tables, lists and so on. Every entry you make is defined by an icon (which can be altered if you desire so) and subject (that represents the name of the entry). Once you introduced the entry it is automatically saved the moment you turn to another one.
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Caboodle has a simple interface that from its first launch is easy to grasp at. On the left of the window a navigation bar is displaying in order to let you create lists of custom categories. The moment you open the program several examples of entry are given to you to allow you to get familiar with the program and decide where you want to incorporate the information. Each entry is a category that has in its turn several subcategories. The entry starts as a TextEdit – type window with options to format, buttons on the tool bar that open useful menus to create tables and simple lists.

The program allows you to make different moves, such as : drag and drop, no matter what that might be, displaying photos and play video with a plan for future versions (speaking of which, resizing huge images or oversized clips into viewable dimensions, seems to be too much for its potency) . There are files it can not read; in this case it creates automatically links to a program that is able to read those files.

Caboodle starts indeed a new entry the moment you need to introduce another type of information, but this doesn’t work when it comes to dragging and dropping a photo, PDF, or other file into the category list. In this case you see yourself forced to create a new entry by yourself than drag the desired file, which by the way can lead to a great deal of work and lost time. If you need to export a text file to HTML format, this action results in bad formatting, with subsequent table cells and bullet-pointed list. The solution that works is to export the file under a Web Archive option.

The program has the tendency of slowing down if the volume of entries increases, and this thing can be seen even when you need to display simple text entries. It seems that through new version 1.3 created, Caboodle’s current version has to re-evaluate every entry whenever a new one is created. But even if this new version is designed as a useful concept, one still has the feeling that looks like an unfinished project. The price is not as high as it is for many of its competitors, and the programmer Davis Sinclair is striving to get the best out of his creation, in a constant concern for his customers, an attitude which is worth admiring. But yet, the question remains: Caboodle’s 1.3 version, a step forward?

From time to time Apple comes with new software updates, in an attempt to give their customers the best of satisfaction they can get from Apple’s products. These days a 1.3 update of the Remote app was released with the new possibility to control Apple TV by tapping and flicking the screen of the iPhone or iPod touch. The previously released 2.4 software update enables to control audio and video playback by flicking gestures over iPhone or iPod touch, Flickr search option, new ways to view modes, updated chapter modes and so on.
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But the novelty is this new feature translated into new control scheme for the device in strict relation to iPhone or iPod touch (that run the latest 3.0 firmaware and version 2.3 of Apple’s free Remote app). With the new update it seems that the on-TV interface, which, by the way is still there, is useless, and this because the feature of controlling the Apple TV happens to navigate through the media collection existing on your iPhone or iPod touch.

How does it work? The touch option allows you to tap the list in order to navigate the Apple’s TV interface. By selecting a command you just need to drag your finger down the screen till you reach the desired command which meantime gets highlighted. The activation of this command is made very simple: tap the screen and here it is! Next if you wish to move through a number of items, for instance to look for movies that are listed in a series of thumbnails in the iTunes store, you flick the finger to the left in order to move forward through those items. For a reverse move you flick your finger to the right.

Other features are available such as, the existence of a Menu at the bottom of the screen that allows you (through tapping, of course) to move back up a level or holding it is taking you back to the main menu. This option is quite all right whenever you don’t feel like wandering through a couple of layers of the command ranking. For playing and pausing videos, again the tapping touch of the screen enables you to do this, while the option of FF and RW is possible by holding on the right or left side of the screen. In case you want to navigate through chapters, you have to flick down and a timeline of the chapters appears on the TV screen, then you need to flick to the right to move forward or to the left move backward.

As to the music he functionality follows the same pattern: with a tap you start playback or similarly pause a playing track. Dragging and holding work for FF and RW, swiping to the right you hear the next track or left for the previous. At the right bottom of the screen an Options button is displayed which by tapping you can view a particular kind of media on the Apple TV. The Options button allows you to watch a video while by swiping you can navigate through thumbnail images of the video’s chapters.

As a conclusion tapping controls Apple TV through the new Remote app better than Apple’s hardware remote, so in case you own an iPod touch or iPhone, this update is something that you surely approve.