New cars

Nissan Qazana concept

Nissan unveiled the Qazana concept at the Geneva Motor Show last week. One of the stars of the show, the car was created at Nissan's European Design Center (NDE) by lead designer Matt Weaver under the direction of Alfonso Albaisa, Vice President of Nissan Design Europe.

"Qazana is a concept car and was created specifically for the Geneva Motor Show," Albaisa said. "But it should not be dismissed as a just a design study. It gives a clear direction of how a future small car from Nissan could look."

Inspired by motorbikes and beach buggies, the Qazana was designed to be a more youthful, urban version of the successful Qashqai crossover. Measuring 4060mm long, 1570mm tall, 1780mm wide and with a wheelbase of 2530mm, the show car features interesting design details that blend elements of a sports car and an SUV.

Dacia Duster concept

The Duster is Dacia's first concept crossover, blending the design characteristics of a sporting coupé with an MPV. Measuring 4.25m long, 1.64m wide and 1.49m high, the compact multifunctional vehicle includes many innovative design details.

Featuring characteristic Dacia design cues, the front end is adorned with headlamps that wrap over the front fenders, forming a tapering line of light that stretches rearward towards the doors. In profile, the wheelarches and tall doors combine with short front and rear overhangs to lend a powerful stance the bodyside. The wing-like forms of the roof-mounted indicators channel airflow towards the rear, which also features an engraved Dacia logo, emphasizing its robust aesthetic.

Powered by a 105hp 1.5dCi diesel engine, the Duster has an drag coefficient of just 0.30Cd, boosting its efficiency and environmental credentials. Read more about the car in our Geneva Motor Show Highlights and click the link below for an extensive photo gallery.

Protoscar Lampo

Swiss-based automotive design company Protoscar SA unveiled its all-electric Lampo vehicle concept at the Geneva Motor Show last week. Called the Lampo (the Italian word for 'lightning'), the two-seat convertible is claimed to be synonymous with the natural phenomenon in that it stands for power, particularly the electric energy that propels the vehicle.

The Lampo's design embodies a philosophy that combines two apparently opposite characteristics: ultimate performance and maximum energy efficiency. The lines of the car are smooth and minimalistic, with a sporty look completed by some efficiency-orientated elements, like the rear wheel covers. The body of the vehicle is finished in contrasting ecological water-based colors developed by BASF coating, underlining the opposing facets of the car.

Steadfast in its aim to develop alternatively powered vehicles through its CleanCar initiative, Protoscar has worked with Daimler for the conception and realization of the BlueZero concept unveiled at the 2009 NAIAS, and also collaborated with Rinspeed and its partners in the creation of the eXasis unveiled at the 2007 Geneva Motor Show. Check out the new car and its development story in the two videos to the left.

Aston Martin Lagonda

Aston Martin revived the Lagonda nameplate at the Geneva Motor Show, just in time to celebrate the brand's 100 year anniversary. The new car aims to increase Aston's global presence, particularly in emerging markets such as South America, India and China.

The four-seat Lagonda concept is a functional luxury car for the near future. Dubbed an 'international tourer' and an 'avant-garde' luxury car, it is claimed to draw inspiration from the brand's past as well as from the visual language of speedboat design, the spacious individualist environment of an upper-class cabin and the bespoke feel of contemporary modern furniture.

According to Aston Martin Design Director Marek Reichman, the Lagonda's design language is a fusion of fluid shapes mixed with hard, constructed lines – an organic, emotional approach that eschews upright surfaces in favor of broad, flowing bodywork.

Ford Iosis MAX

The Iosis MAX is the third in a series of Iosis concept vehicles unveiled by the automaker. The first Iosis concept, built for the 2005 Frankfurt Motor Show, revealed Ford's 'kinetic design' form language and hinted at the styling of future offerings from its European arm. The second, the five-door Iosis X, pointed at the Kuga crossover SUV unveiled a year later in Frankfurt. And now, with the new Iosis MAX, Ford is providing us a glimpse of its next-generation C-segment vehicle. Dubbed a multi-activity vehicle (MAV), the concept hints at both the new C-Max and Focus due from 2010.

"Our designers have stretched themselves beyond the two previous iosis concepts," says Martin Smith, Ford of Europe's Executive Design Director. "The Iosis MAX proves that cars in the compact MAV class can have emotive, dynamic styling without sacrificing their traditional virtues of practicality or efficiency."

Magna Steyr Mila EV

Magna Steyr, a supplier of technologically advanced automotive systems, components and modules, revealed an all-new four-seater electric vehicle called the Mila EV at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show.

Designed to showcase a new fully integrated electric vehicle platform, the forward-looking automotive concept is a five-door, 4m-long vehicle with a 2.5m wheelbase. Created around a design theme coined 'the flow of electricity', the concept features clean, simple surfacing complemented by key design features such as the graphic link from headlamps to side glass and a ‘sensor strip' just below the beltline. The lateral running sensor strip is a functional design element, doubling as a door opener and fuel gauge, which displays the current battery charge.

Powered by a 67hp electric motor and lithium-ion batteries developed by Magna Steyr, the Mila EV has a 150km range and an average charging time of 2.5 hours. Solar cells integrated in the glass roof provide additional energy generation.

Via: http://www.cardesignnews.com

Roundup: Turning Your Mac into a Virtual PC

Platform virtualization (the process of running a second operating system inside a virtual environment on your computer) has been on my mind a lot lately, has it been on yours? If you have made a shift recently from Windows to Mac you may have wondered at one point if you could find a way to use any of your old Windows software.

This article is focuses on the experience of running Windows Vista as a guest operating system on a Mac OS X host. The host system is a Unibody MacBook with the following specifications:

• Core 2 Duo P7350 2GHz
• 2GB DDR3 1066 RAM
• 256MB Nvidia Geforce 9400m (Shared Memory)
• 500GB 5400 RPM HDD

When talking about virtualization I'll be referring to the Virtual Machine (VM) a lot. This is the virtual PC that will be running the guest OS. The default setup uses about half of your host computer's CPU and RAM. That is how we will be configuring our VMs for this test.

Virtualization loves powerful hardware, and a 2009 MacBook or base iMac is hardly that. But virtualization is being pitched at normal folk like you and I so it's important to test on hardware indicative of the target audience. If you have a 3.06GHz iMac with 4GB of RAM and a Geforce 8800 GS, or a Mac Pro with eight CPU cores, enough RAM to choke a horse and a powerful video card just go ahead and buy one of the tools below and don't give it a second thought -- you will be quite happy.

Apple includes Boot Camp with the latest version of its operating system and that is another option, but what if you don't want to have to reboot every time you need a Windows application? That's where virtualization comes in. For many years virtualization was the domain of developers and IT departments, using it to test software on many different platforms or building disaster-resilient data centers. Now, several solutions have popped up aiming to help average people setup a virtual machine.

When investigating virtualization solutions quite a few questions popped up, and from viewing various forums I can see that other people formulated similar questions:

What is performance like? Is it close to native speed?
How do games run? Are modern titles playable?
Can the virtual machine play Windows media files and DVDs?

Rather than writing responses such as "it runs good" in virtualization forums, I thought I would assemble a little test and see what happens. The test regimen consists of the following (some of which are part of the NBR standard test suite):

Synthetic Tests:

wPrime
PCMark05
3DMark03
3DMark06
Quake III 1.32 (800*600 full screen mac settings)
Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion (800*600 lowest possible settings)
Fallout 3 (800*600 lowest possible settings)

Parallels Desktop 4.0
This was the first consumer virtualization solution for the Mac. Now on its 4th version, key features that were added since the first release include 3D video acceleration (for games), 64-bit guest OS support and coherence mode. In coherence mode PC applications launch and run just like native Mac applications.

The version tested here was build 4.0.3810 released in December 2008 ($79.99). Requirements for Parallels to run: Intel Core CPU, 1GB of RAM (2GB for Vista), and as much HDD space as you would like the virtual machine to use. Parallels supports a large assortment of 32-bit and 64-bit guest operating systems from Windows 3.1 to Windows 7. Unix- and Linux-based operating systems are supported too. See the full list here.

VMWare Fusion 2.0
Released a couple of years after Parallels, Fusion is the consumer friendly virtualization solution from VMWare. As you can tell from their name, VMWare is all about virtualization and their software is a staple of the modern data centre. Although later to the consumer market than Parallels, this solution is made by the number one innovator in the virtual machine market. They claim to have the most advanced and proven VM engine on the market. In terms of features, Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion seem to be pretty close.

On test is the latest version, 2.02 ($79.99). Requirements are an Intel Mac and 1GB of RAM (2GB Recommended). VMWare's list of supported operating systems is just as long as Parallel's and includes 32-bit and 64-bit editions. A noticeable absence here compared to Parallels is Mac OS X Server 10.4 and 10.5. See the full list here.

Fusion is bundled with a couple of value adding extras; 12 months of McAfee Virus Scan and MacFuse. Interesting that a $69 virtualization solution includes a full year of virus scan but the majority of $1,000.00 notebooks only include a trial.

Sun xVM VirtualBox
At the top end of the virtualization market, many VM solutions run on expensive Sun servers. Perhaps that is why Sun purchased Innotek last year. This product is aimed at the developer community, but it will get a bit of attention from adventurous consumers who like the product's price tag: free for personal use. VirtualBox is geared towards the enterprise business so there is a risk that it may not be as friendly for consumers. It also does not officially support DX 3D acceleration (it does however support OpenGL).

Version 2.1.2 of VirtualBox is the one I tried. This software runs on a wide number of hosts, almost everything I could think of was covered. Likewise, it supports a very wide range of guests. System requirements are very modest, x86 CPU at 1.5GHz or faster, 512MB of RAM. See the requirements here.

Installation
In terms of Guest OS installation, Fusion and Parallels have an edge here. Both offer almost complete automation of the virtual machine setup – simply set the virtual HDD size, enter your name and Windows activation code and rest is all automatic. VirtualBox is a bit more hands-on, but by no means is it difficult. VitualBox requires that you set the HDD size and then the Windows installation proceeds just as it does on a PC, you will have to answer a few simple setup questions.

None of these virtualization solutions make any changes to your HDD partition table. Instead they create "containers." These containers can be moved from machine to machine, or deleted.

In this segment of the evaluation I would rank Fusion and Parallels first and VirtualBox a close second. I’ll point out that VirtualBox setup is almost exactly like Boot Camp’s, except that the later makes changes to your Mac’s HDD partition table.

Features
Coherence mode in Parallels works nice. As you can see from the screen shot below, Windows apps open up like a native Mac app -- no windows taskbar, desktop or start menu. Taskbar tray items appear in the Mac menu bar. It was kind of neat to see FRAPs running in the Mac menu bar as I was testing games.

Parallels includes some neat management options. First, you can run a "Transporter" utility that will import virtual machines from other solutions such as VMWare or Boot Camp. It can even create a virtual machine from an existing computer. It would be great to virtualize your clunky old work notebook into a VM that you could run on your Mac, but make sure you run this by the powers that be as there may be legal/license implications. Initially I felt that I should have installed Parallels last because you can simply set up a VM in VirtualBox or Fusion and then import it (install all the test apps once, wee!). But we will see in a minute why that would have been a bad idea.

The second cool management feature in Parallels is the ability to download virtual appliances (currently there are 61 to choose from). These are pre-configured virtual machines covering a wide range of uses (Ubuntu, BSD, Solaris, OpenSUSE and many more). This is a thoughtful time saving idea for folks that have to experiment on a number of systems, or geeks like me that like to tinker with everything.

Modality mode (shown above) allows you to keep your VM running in a tiny little window. Its almost like having a VM widget, you can keep an eye on whatever you have going on in your VM while doing other things.

In Parallels, your guest OS and host OS desktop folders can be mirrored. In my testing this was very helpful as patches and utilities I downloaded in Parallels immediately appeared on my Mac desktop. It made juggling files a lot easier. I also like that Parallels includes a 'Reset' button in the menu, so you can hard reset a locked up VM.

VMWare Fusion 2.0 features many similar features. It's Unity mode (below) is like Coherence. A migration tool allows you to create a VM from an existing PC, but it does not seem to allow converting Parallels images.

VMWare also offers Virtual Appliances for download with a massive selection on their website (VMWare's library consists of over 1,000 appliances). There are a ton of specialized builds of Linux for example.

An advantage for VMWare is bundled software, in this case McAffee Virus Scan (12 months).

VirtualBox is a lot more Spartan than its commercial rivals. It does not have as many cool integration features.

Of the three VM solutions I like Parallel's feature set the best, but not everything functions properly. Fusion's features work.

Compatibility
When pushed hard either in benchmarks or demanding games I found Parallels to be a little bit unreliable. I managed to produce a blue screen when resuming a VM on one occasion. In general I found myself hard resetting that VM more often with issues such as lag and lack of cursor focus. I even had to reset my Mac a couple of times.

Simple apps run great though, for example I used Flickr Export in Parallels to download 1,912 photos from Flickr. YouTube HD ran great, but I could not play a DVD (probably a signed driver or DRM issue).

The Fusion VM that I "Transported" to Parallels performed worse. It booted, but most of the device drivers needed to be reinstalled. In these VMs are generic drivers for abstracted hardware such as the Parallels network interface and "Standard VGA Adapter." At this time, the transporting function is probably only relevant if you have a very simple machine -- a Vista machine is probably not a good candidate.

The list of Parallels supported/tested games is short and modest. Even though Fallout 3 and 3DMark06 are not supported, I tried them and they both failed. A few newer titles like Portal grace the compatibility list, but as we will see in a bit Parallels is a poor choice for modern games.

Fusion stability was better than Parallels, but not perfect. I found myself "Force Quitting" Fusion several times while trying to get a 3DMark03 score (it took a few attempts but I got my score). Fallout 3 failed to run, getting tantalizingly close but no cigar.

VirtualBox is a bit rough around the edges. It is targeted at developers who write enterprise apps so as you can imagine multimedia takes a back seat. This means that audio did not work (it is off by default, turning it on makes no difference) on my MacBook and the wide screen aspect ratios were not available in the display manager. The only test I was able to successfully run was wPrime. DVD playback did not work, all I got was snow. Even the venerable Quake III failed to run, despite VirtualBox's support of OpenGL (and 3D acceleration turn on in the preferences). Any more than 17MB of video RAM allocated caused my VirtualBox VM to crash during boot.

Based on the tests I ran, I would have to rate Fusion first. Clearly there is still room for improvement.

Performance
I don't have a lot of exotic peripherals -- what I have works fine in either OS X or Windows. So that means this section will be focused on software. If you have some tricky hardware that you need Windows to run, my suggestion would be to download a trial of these virtualization tools and test compatibility prior to buying.

Test	VMWare Fusion 2	Parallels Desktop 4	VirtualBox	Boot Camp
wPrime (seconds to calc 32m)	82.28	82.87	85.03	N/A
PCMark05	2068	2121	fail	3965
3DMark03	2385	2835	fail	5795
3DMark06	350	fail	fail	2088
Quake III 1.32 (frames/sec)	24	57	fail	205
Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion (frames/sec)	30	19	fail	51
Fallout 3 (frames/sec)	fail	fail	fail	32

Everything has been pretty even so far. This is where we see the separation occur. The tests that worked on all three virtualization solutions showed similar performance and about what you would expect from a single core Windows PC with 1GB of RAM running Vista. It is a pretty modest virtual machine.

Virtual HDD performance was brutal. The I/O performance is nowhere near native speed. With a paltry 1GB of RAM, disk caching was prevalent and the poor HDD performance made this even more unbearable. The slow virtual drive reared its head in other ways too, like a 30 minute installation time for Fallout 3.

Gaming was more of a mixed bag. As you can see from the results, only Fusion was able to complete a 3DMark06 run, both Parallels and VirtualBox threw DX.9 errors when launching the benchmark. Fallout 3 was not able to run on any of the three solutions, although it did get to the loading screen on Fusion. In my mind, this effectively ends discussion of virtualization solutions as solutions to the dearth of Mac games. Emulation solutions like Crossover or Transgaming are better suited for this.

In terms of media support, as I mentioned before, Parallels threw an error when I tried watching a DVD in WMP. Some HD content I downloaded from Microsoft played, but at a slide show frame rate. Lack of GPU acceleration effectively makes HD playback impossible in a VM. That's probably not a big surprise to anyone, but it should put an end to some speculation.

Parallels is faster in benchmarks and Quake III, meanwhile Fusion is able to marginally run Oblivion. Obviously, with no audio or wide screen support VirtualBox finishes last here. But I don't consider the other two solutions all that much better.

Conclusion
Realistically, if you are going to run demanding applications that require advanced graphics or fast input/output you will be better served running Boot Camp. I consider appropriate minimum specs for these solutions to be 4GB of RAM and a Quad Core CPU (evenly split between Host and Guest operating systems). Otherwise you simply won’t be able to get any work done as Host and Guest struggle to manage memory and threads. The typical Mac with stock memory is not a good Host environment for virtual machines.

To summarize my findings:

• Virtualization needs a host PC with plenty of RAM and a minimum of two cores if you plan to switch back and forth between the Host and the Guest.
• If you want to multi-task and need to run Vista, make sure you have 2GB of RAM just for that OS. If you are not going to switch back and forth between Windows and OS X, stick to Boot Camp.
• Modern 3D games (two years old or newer) are not really playable in VMs. They may run in Boot Camp though.

In addition to the cost of the virtualization software, you need to factor in the cost of upgrades. If you don’t already have the requisite ingredients the cost may be prohibitive:

• $100-$150 OEM Windows License
• $20 Annual subscription to an AV (free with Fusion)
• $40-$100 RAM upgrade to 4GB

Your old Windows software had better be extremely valuable to you.

After everything is said and done, I think these VM solutions are still better suited to developers who need to test applications in a variety of systems than ordinary folks. Despite efforts to put a cool paint job on virtualization and make it appealing to consumers, this is still just a utility van. These tools are all work and not much play.

My pick for a winner from the three tools tested is VMWare Fusion. It was a pretty reliable performer and its inclusion of anti virus provides better value than Parallels. VirtualBox is my second choice, although know that any money you save in purchase price will be paid for later in terms of sweat equity.

Nevertheless, on a MacBook or iMac I don't know that I would be able to live with the performance of any of these three solutions for anything but basic Windows applications.

Canon PowerShot A1100 IS Review

The Canon PowerShot A1100 IS is a brand new member of the popular PowerShot A-series range of compact digital cameras, which has traditionally offered a compelling combination of features and affordable price. The A1100 IS replaces the PowerShot A1000 IS model, offering a new 12.1 megapixel sensor, 4x optical zoom lens with a focal length of 35-140mm and optical image stabilizer to help prevent blurred photos. The Canon A1100 also features a 2.5-inch LCD screen with wide viewing angle and true optical viewfinder, new DIGIC 4 image processing engine, 18 shooting modes including the new Smart Auto and improved Easy modes with Scene Detection Technology for point-and-shoot operation, plus Face Detection, Face Select & Track, i-Contrast, Motion Detection and Auto Red-Eye Correction technologies. Available in silver, grey, blue, pink and green for $199.99 / £219.00 / €259.00, we find out if the Canon PowerShot A1100 IS is a worthy addition to the Canon A-series range.

Ease of Use

From the outside the Canon Powershot A1100 IS is virtually identical to the A1000 model that it replaces. This is still a well-made, compact digital camera, with an understated but stylish blue plastic body plastic body and excellent overall finish. It's easily small enough to fit into the palm of your hand, quite an achievement considering the 4x optical zoom lens that's equivalent to a 35-140mm focal length. The A1100 IS has also been considerably slimmed down, measuring 3cms thick when turned off, making it suited to either a trouser pocket or small camera bag. It weighs 155g without the battery or memory card fitted.

As with most Canon cameras that we've reviewed before, the Powershot A1100 IS is one of the better models around in terms of build quality. Every aspect has a quality feel with nothing feeling flimsy or ill-thought out. The main criticism that we leveled at previous PowerShots, namely that the tripod mount was plastic instead of metal and positioned in the extreme left corner of the bottom of the camera, has now been partly rectified by the A1000's central, but still plastic mount. The battery compartment still houses the memory card slot though, which means that the AA batteries sometimes fall out when changing the memory card as they don't have a catch to keep them in place. Still, this is a fairly minor criticism of a quality product.

A less welcome change is the lack of any kind of hand-grip. Older models were comfortable to hold thanks to the chunky, rubberised hand-grip, but this has been completely removed on the A1100 (and the previous A1000), inexplicably replaced by a smooth, flat finish, embossed with the Canon logo. Thankfully, and unlike the more expensive A2100 model, the A1000 does have a noticeable, rounded bulge on its right-hand side, which goes some way to helping with grip. The various buttons are well-made and easy to operate, and the action of the mode dial is positive enough to prevent if from being inadvertently turned to the wrong mode when stored in a pocket/bag. There are no real innovative features here, but everything that the Canon Powershot A1100 IS does, it does extremely well. Overall the Canon Powershot A1100 IS is well constructed and designed with no obvious signs of corners being cut.

Front	Rear

The Canon Powershot A1100 IS has relatively few external controls, just 11 in total, which reflects the fact that this is quite a simple camera in functionality terms, with only limited photographic control on offer. Located on top of the A1100 IS are the Power button, Mode Dial, Zoom Lever and Shutter button, and on the bottom are the tripod mount and battery compartment, which also houses the SD memory card slot. On the rear of the A1100 is the 2.5 inch LCD screen, with a number of controls to the right. You can directly access the various focus and flash options by clicking left and right on the navigation pad, whilst up and down are respectively used to set the exposure compensation and timer options. There is sadly no longer a dedicated button for ISO speed, which is a commonly used feature, although you can work around this by optionally setting the Print Transfer button to one of 7 available options (which include ISO speed).

The Function/Set button in the middle of the navigation pad opens a sub-menu, which allows you to set ISO speed, white balance, colours, metering, continuous shooting and image size/quality settings. This system is a good compromise given the size of the camera's LCD screen and therefore the limited space for external controls. All 11 external controls are clearly labeled using industry-standard symbols and terminology. Overall the camera body feels very well-designed and not at all cluttered. The 2.5inch LCD screen has a wide viewing angle from left to right, and is visible in all but the brightest of sunlit conditions, although the low pixel count of 115,000 dots is disappointing by today's standards. A small optical viewfinder is also included, which is welcome for moments when it is difficult to use the LCD screen. I found it to be a little on the small side, however, so you will probably find yourself using the LCD screen most of the time.

If you have never used a digital camera before, or you're upgrading from a more basic model, reading the comprehensive and fairly easy-to-follow manual before you start is a good idea. Unfortunately Canon have chosen to cut costs and only supply the full manual as a PDF on a CD, rather than in printed format (there's just a short printed guide to the camera's basic features). Not much use if you're taking pictures and need to find out what a particular option does.

Front	Top

The menu system on the Canon Powershot A1100 IS is extremely straight-forward to use and is accessed by a dedicated button underneath the navigation pad. Quite a lot of the camera's main settings, such as white balance, exposure compensation and ISO speed, are accessed elsewhere, so the main menu system isn't actually that complicated. A row of 2 icons along the top of the LCD screen represents the Camera and Setup sub-menus, with most of the options being the kind that you set once and then forget about. The various options are easy to access and use, especially as only 6 are shown onscreen at one time.

The Canon Powershot A1100 IS offers Program and a comprehensive range of different scene modes aimed at the user who just wants to point and shoot, making this camera particularly well-suited to the beginner. The A1100 IS also offers Smart Auto Mode for the first time on a Canon compact. Similar to Panasonic's Intelligent Auto, Smart Auto Mode automatically determines the subject's brightness, contrast, distance and overall hue, then selects the best scene setting from 18 possible modes, which is more than most competitors. The A1100 uncannily selected the right kind of scene mode for almost every environment that I tried it in. There's also the improved Easy Mode, where the camera automatically sets every shooting setting, preventing the inexperienced user from changing anything at all, apart from turning the flash on and off. In addition Easy Mode works in the same way as Smart Auto Mode - it really does turn the A1100 into a true point and shoot camera, perfect for use by children for example.

The Canon Powershot A1100 IS has an anti-shake system, dubbed IS Mode - turn it on in the menu system and the A1100 IS automatically compensates for camera shake, which is a slight blurring of the image that typically occurs at slow shutter speeds. There are three different modes. Continuous is on all the time including image composition, Shooting is only on when you press the shutter button, and Panning as the name suggests is best when using the camera to track a moving subject. In practice I found that it does make a noticeable difference, as shown in the examples on the Image Quality page. You don't notice that the camera is actually doing anything different when anti-shake is turned on, just that you can use slower shutter speeds than normal and still take sharp photos. Leaving the anti-shake system on all the time does seem to affect the battery-life, however, with the camera only managing just over 125 shots before the supplied LR6-AA Alkaline batteries ran out of power. As part of a belt and braces approach, the anti-shake system is also newly backed up by motion detection technology that assesses camera or subject movement. The latter is effectively what rivals would refer to as digital anti-shake, as, activated in high ISO auto mode, it boosts ISO to a level (between ISO 80-800) it considers will compensate without hopefully introducing too much noise. Still, you do get both in the same camera.

Memory Card Slot	Battery Compartment

The start-up time from turning the Canon Powershot A1100 IS on to being ready to take a photo is quite quick at around 1.5 seconds, and it takes about 3 seconds to zoom from the widest focal length to the longest. Focusing is very quick in good light and the camera happily achieves focus indoors or in low-light situations, helped by a powerful focus-assist lamp. The visibility and refresh rate of the 2.5 inch LCD screen are perfectly acceptable, although the low resolution of 115,000 pixels does produce a noticeably grainy image display. It takes about 0.5 second to store an image, allowing you to keep shooting as they are being recorded onto the memory card - there is a very quick LCD blackout between each image. In Continuous mode the camera takes 1.1 frames per second at the highest image quality, which is slow for this class of camera (and slower than the 1.3 fps offered by the A1000), although the shooting rate is maintained until your memory card is full. The flash recycle time is a reasonable 3 seconds to recharge between shots.

Once you have captured a photo, the Canon Powershot A1100 IS has a pretty good range of options when it comes to playing, reviewing and managing your images. You can instantly scroll through the images that you have taken, view up to 9 thumbnails, zoom in and out up to 10x magnification, view slideshows, delete, protect, resize and rotate an image. You can also add a sound clip to an image, set the print order and the transfer order. The Red-eye Correction options fixes red eye after you have taken a photo (useful if you forgot to activate it before) and i-Contrast improves the shadow/brightness areas, with Auto and Low, Medium and High settings (if you select i-Contrast before taking a photo, only Auto and Off settings are available). The Display button toggles detailed settings information about each picture on and off, such as the ISO rating and white balance, and there is a small histogram available during playback which is helpful in evaluating the exposure. A third press of the Display button shows the image alongside a small, magnified section, useful for quickly checking the sharpness.

In summary the Canon Powershot A1100 IS is a stylish, compact and well-built digital camera that is simple to use and even more well-suited to the beginner than the previous A1000 model.

Via: http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/canon_powershot_a1100_is_review/

Dell Adamo Live Images, Details, Pricing

We can finally share all the details of the Dell Adamo. It is a 4lbs, 0.65" thick aluminum laptop. We've played with it briefly and we can say that the construction quality is very high. The keyboard also has slightly curved (backlit) keys. The power supply is smaller than the ones found on most laptop, and that's quite a nice surprise. There's not much point in having a super-thin laptop if you have to carry a big power supply with it. Finally, it has a 13.4" 1280x720 display. So far, the only unimpressive point is the Core 2 Duo 1.2Ghz CPU. We have not played with it long enough to provide an educated opinion about its usability, but that might come later. Prices go from $2000 to $2700. The official site should update soon

The Adamo could have been the child of a Macbook Pro and a Voodoo Envy 133. I used an Envy 133 for some time, and I can tell right off the bat that the keyboard is much better. The Envy 133 has small keys that are slippery. The brushed aluminum seems "better" than the Macbook Pro's and by "better" I mean that it looks more expensive. The aluminum body is not a fingerprint magnet - which is nice.

It is thin, in the photo gallery, you'll see a shot of the Adamo body next to my Blackberry 8900 and you'll see that it is just a little thinner there. In fact people might expect it to weigh less than 4lbs, which is a "normal" weight for a 13.3" laptop.

Unlike many laptops, this one doesn't come with a bunch of idiotic stickers on it, which is quite nice. Also, the speakers are right behind the screen (see the photo gallery) - this is something that Voodoo should have done with its Envy 133.

Specs

• Intel Core 2 Duo 1.2Ghz
• Intel 965 Express, Intel GMX4500 GPU
• 2GB DDR3 (4GB max)
• 13.4", 16:9 display, 1280x720
• 128GB SSD
• Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi-N, Bluetooth
• Vista Home Premium 64 (SP1)
• 331x242x16.39mm, 4Lbs
• 5 hours of battery life

Via:http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2009/03/dell_adamo_live_images_details_pricing.html

Sharp rise in deposits for NS&I

by Gill Montia

Story link: Sharp rise in deposits for NS&I

National Savings & Investments (NS&I) has reported a 65% rise in new deposits during the final quarter of last year.

Savers seeking a safe haven for their cash invested £9.55 billion with the government-backed provider, in the certainty that 100% of their money is guaranteed.

Inflows for October to the end of December compared with a total of £5.67 billion during the previous three month period and £3.99 billion in the April to June quarter.

On an annual basis, the growth in popularity of NS&I savings products can be tracked back to 2007/08 when deposits rose to £15.54 billion, compared with £14.17 billion a year earlier.

NS&I now has 27 million customers and for the 2008/09 financial year so far, has taken new deposits of £19.22 billion.

According to the Treasury-backed institution, the record inflow of funds is the result of the turbulence in the financial markets.

This observation is supported by its interest rates, which are not necessarily the best in the market.

Last month NS&I followed up a 0.5% cut in the base rate by reducing rates on its variable savings accounts by up to 0.75%.

Meanwhile, new customers opting for its Government-backed fixed-rate offerings lost out by up to 1.35%.

The cuts came two weeks after rates on NS&I variable accounts fell by up to 1% and returns on income bonds by up to 0.5%.

VIA: http://www.bankingtimes.co.uk/05032009-sharp-rise-in-deposits-for-nsi/

2009 Suzuki SX4 - Review

Being a large offering for a compact car, at a compact price, is what the 2009 Suzuki SX4 is all about. There are 2 versions available: a 4-door sedan and a 4-door hatchback. You can choose between the standard front wheel drive train and the optional AWD. Regardless of the model you choose, it will come to you fitted with a 2.0L 143hp 4-cylinder engine that delivers ready and quick power. And at MSRPs ranging from only $13,299 up to $18,539, you don't have to fear ordering some of the many available option packages to dress yours up. You will still beat the Toyota Matrix on price.

Purchasers from northern climates and others who just like the security should definitely opt for the all wheel drive setup SX4. It features a lockable system that sends between 30 and 50 percent of the engine's power to the rear wheels for enhanced traction and control in snowy, muddy, wet or other wild driving scenarios.

The 2009 SX4 hatchback is called the Crossover and is noted for its versatile and large cargo area that many claim makes it appear a lot like a small-scale SUV. Of course, the sedan model is noted for its superior handling responsiveness and bettered fuel efficiency. The SX4 sedan delivers 31/23 mpg highway/city with the available automatic transmission and 30/22 mpg highway/city with the manual.

The 2009 SX4 by Suzuki is blowing the minds of many with the inclusion of a state-of-the-art navigational system as a standard feature. Especially at the price point presented, this is almost unheard of in any other vehicle. And that's not all either. Electronic stability control, traction control and split-folding rear seating is also standard on all models. Quite excellent indeed.

Interestingly, the Crossover SX4 was initially released in 2007 with the sedan version being released in 2008. For 2009, the Suzuki SX4 is continuing to perk a lot of ears and turn a lot of heads as well. In fact, it looks surprisingly like the Mercedes-Benz ML-Class SUV (the Crossover hatchback version). And Suzuki obviously had intention with the name Crossover as a crossover is usually automobile lingo reserved for a cross between a pickup truck and a SUV vehicle.

6 standard airbags are included for the safety of you and your passengers as well as LATCH child seat anchors, tire pressure monitoring and the aforementioned stability and traction control systems. If you want the maximum safety, opt for the AWD system as well.

Both the sedan and hatchback models of the Suzuki SX4 have big, sloping windshields and a curvaceous hood line that sweeps down to meet the oversized headlamps and turn signals. Distinctive bodily lines make the SX4 stand out in a crowd. The look between the 2 types of SX4 are similar, but feature unique front fascias. Both versions also feature an eye-catching and very practical 1/4-sized vent window that flips down from front to back on each of the frontal side windows.

There's no doubt about it: the 2009 Suzuki SX4s are making a big scene in the compact car market. With standard features that others just do not offer and a fun, sporty look, these capable and responsive compacts are far more than just cute. It's a wise choice to consider the possibilities offered to you in terms of dependability, fuel efficiency and downright fun by the Suzuki SX4.

Via:http://www.carseek.com/reviews/suzuki/2009-sx4/

The 2009 Nissan Altima Hybrid

The 2009 Nissan Altima Hybrid is a midsize sedan based on the standard gasoline powered Altima and having the same features. This puts it in the same class with such cars as the Toyota Prius and Camry Hybrid, Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid, Saturn Aura Hybrid and Honda Civic Hybrid, as well as midsize cars generally.

First offered in the 2007 model year, it has not yet changed it basic body style. New for this year, however, are standard automatic door locks and four new colors.

The Altima uses the Prius hybrid system, having bought from Toyota the rights to sell up to 20,000 of them a year. However, the Altima is not a Prius remake and will feel quite different because it uses the standard Altima engine and not the Prius gasoline engine.

That engine, by the way, is a 2.5 liter, 158 horsepower gasoline plant matched with a continuously variable transmission. The Altima is a combined hybrid, which means it can be powered by either the gasoline engine or the electric motor or both, depending on its needs. The electric motor acts as a generator for the gasoline engine and the gasoline engine works as a charger for the electric motor.

It does this to the tune of 35 miles per gallon of gasoline in the city and 33 miles per gallon on the highway. If you're surprised to see better mileage in the city than on the highway, don't be. That's a common, though not universal, effect of the hybrid engine. The reason is that in the city the electric motor often runs the car alone, using no gas at all.

The only trim line for the Altima Hybrid is the HEV. Compared to other, similar hybrids, the Altima gets better gas mileage and has more legroom than most. It is below average on rear headroom and cargo space. As with most hybrids when compared to similar sized standard gasoline vehicles, the Altima suffers from low pulling power.

The NHTSA gives the Altima Hybrid five stars everywhere except rollover, where it garners four. It has all the basic safety features such as child safety locks, inside trunk release and antilock brakes with electronic braking assistance, traction control and a vehicle stability control system, as well as airbags all around. It also has an optional electronic parking aid.

If the strength of hybrids is fuel economy, the weakness is usually initial cost. The 2009 Nissan Altima Hybrid is no exception with a base price of $26,650, as compared to the base price of $19,900 for a standard gasoline Altima or even the base price of $22,000 for the Prius. Still, they appear to be the coming thing, and if that's the case, the price will eventually level out as the technology becomes more common.

Via: http://www.carseek.com/reviews/nissan/2009-altima-hybrid/

BARRY: THE BATTLE IS ON

BARRY: THE BATTLE IS ON

Aston Villa midfielder Gareth Barry admits Arsenal hold the upper hand in the race for fourth spot, but is refusing to concede defeat.

The England international has played an integral role in Villa's pursuit of a Champions League place this season, but has seen the club suffer a wobble recently.

Martin O'Neill's men have gone seven games without a win, with Sunday's 2-1 defeat by Tottenham prolonging their agony.

That result saw Villa remain in fifth place in the Premier League table, edged out of the top four by Arsenal on goal difference.

They now have nine games in which to overhaul the Gunners, with Barry well aware that forthcoming fixtures against title-chasing Liverpool and Manchester United have taken on added importance.

"Liverpool (on Sunday) is set up for a big game personally and for the team," said Barry, who was involved in a long-running transfer saga with the Reds over the summer.

"What happened last summer has all gone in my mind, though the fans will bring it back up.

"Losing to Spurs at the weekend was another blow. It is now advantage to Arsenal in the Champions League race.

"We have two tough fixtures coming up, Liverpool and Manchester United. But if we deliver a performance of the season against one, it could catapult us to a good finish."

Source: http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8689_5062141,00.html

Russian Wooden Cellphone

If every country had it’s own type of cellphones, Russian ones could look like this. It could be made of wood - wood is cheap and is available everywhere in Russia, it has simple functions like call and bye, it would be made in Finland cause everyone in Russia knows good phones are made in Finland (like Nokia!) and one additional option is a must - a beer bottle opener from the backside of the phone - very handy!

Source: http://englishrussia.com/?p=979

Ellipse Wings

In Belarus they use planes with ellipse wings. They say it has a few benefits comparing to the simple one or double winged planes, like the wing can be less in size, it’s more firm because the ellipse form is self sustaining, also there are now air vortexes by the sides of the wings which gives up to 30% increase in power compared to the traditional planes.

Some Russian users say this planes could suit well futurustic pictures of 60s.

Or could have a Mobius styled wings too.

Source: http://englishrussia.com/?p=2331