How can i Transfer Contacts from one Cell Phone to another

This article describes how you can easily transfer contacts and phone numbers from the old cell phone to your new phone’s address book for free.

Did you just buy a new mobile phone? The first thing that you’ll probably is copy all the phone numbers and other contact information from the old phone to your new cell.

How to Transfer Contacts another Mobile Phone

The process may vary depending upon the phone support cloud but broadly, there are three options. I will discuss the most popular mobile platforms like BlackBerry, iPhone, HTC, Nokia, Windows Phone, Samsung and Android.

1. SIM based transfer

If the address book of your old phone is relatively small and you only want to copy the phone numbers to your new cell phone, simply use the SIM card.

Just copy the phone numbers from the old phone’s memory to your SIM card, insert this SIM card into your new phone and then copy the phone numbers in your new phone’s memory. Here’s a detailed guide on how to transfer contacts from the Nokia to an iPhone using the SIM.

2. Transfer Contacts via your Computer

The SIM card based approach is good only for transferring basic phone numbers but if your phone’s address book includes long names, email addresses, and other details of your contacts, you need some sort of software to help you with the transfer process.

For instance, if you have a Nokia phone but are shifting to a BlackBerry or an iPhone, you may use Nokia’s Ovi Suite application to copy your phone’s address book to Microsoft Outlook on your desktop computer. You can then use BlackBerry’s Desktop Manager software, or iTunes in the case of iPhone, or Kies for Samsung Galaxy, to transfer contacts from the PC (Outlook) to your new phone’s address book.

Windows Mobile users, like Samsung Omnia or HTC HD2, may again use Microsoft’s Device Center (or ActiveSync for XP) to copy their phone address book to the desktop via Outlook. If you are simply switching from one Windows Phone to another, you can transfer contacts via the cloud itself using Microsoft’s My Phone service.

If you have an old CDMA based mobile phone from, say Samsung or LG, you can use the free BitPim utility to copy the phone book to your computer. BitPim is available for Windows, Mac and Linux machines and it can export address books in standard vCard format (.vcf) that you can easily import into Outlook and other contact managers.

3. Transfer Phone book “Over the Air”

If you have an Internet enabled phone, you can easily copy contacts from your old phone to the new phone over-the-air without even requiring a computer.

An online service called Mobical is free and it works with most mobile phones from Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and so on. You first need to setup Mobical on the old phone and it will create a backup of your phone contacts in the cloud. Now setup Mobical on the new phone using the same credentials and it will automatically download all the contacts from the cloud to your new phone.

Then there’s Google Sync, a cloud based service that works with BlackBerry, iPhone, Nokia   and most other mobile phones that are SyncML capable. Google Sync keeps your phone’s address book in sync with your Google Contacts. Therefore, if you now install Google Sync on both your old and new phone, they’ll have the same phone book entries automatically.

Android based phones can sync with Google Contacts out of the box – you can then export Google Contacts out as a CSV file and copy it to any other phone manually via the desktop tools.  HTC even offers a desktop utility called HTC Sync that you may use to synchronize Outlook contacts with your Android phone. This will be handy when you want to copy your HTC’s phone book to another phone that is not web-enabled.

PS: Previously mentioned Zyb is now part of Vodafone and is no longer accepting new users.

Sources: www.labnol.org

How Google Glass Works

According to string-theory advocates, our universe has at least 10 dimensions. But we humans can only directly perceive three spatial dimensions. We also experience the passage of time, a fourth dimension. Beyond that, we only know other dimensions are even possible through theoretical mathematics. Our universe may hold secrets that we will never be able to observe directly.

Even if you discount string theory and the idea of dimensions beyond our perception, our world contains a wealth of information that most of us aren't aware of in our daily lives. When visiting a city for the first time, for example, we may only have our senses to rely on when gathering information. A smartphone or computer can help out, pulling in more data about the city's geography, history, economics, cuisine and other cultural features.

Augmented-reality applications overlay a level of digital information on top of the physical world around us. With an one of these apps on your smartphone, you might be able to hold your phone's camera up to capture the image of a city street and then receive on-screen information about your surroundings.

While these augmented reality apps can be informative and entertaining, the form factor is still a little clunky. We have to hold up the smartphone and look at the screen -- it's like you're on a "Star Trek" away team, and you're the one with your eyes glued to a tricorder instead of drinking in the sights.

Google is one of several companies creating a solution to the problem comes in the form of a wearable device. It looks like a pair of glasses with one side of the frames thicker than the other. It's called Google Glass, and it might open your eyes to a new digital world -- or make you look like the nerdy Terminator who's always picked last for robo-dodgeball.

The Birth of Google Glass

One of Google's many divisions is called Google X. Descriptions from visitors make it sound like it's equal parts computer lab and mad scientist's lair. Projects at Google X tackle big problems in engineering. Everything from networked homes to space elevators gets a shot within the lab. One of the many projects the division worked on is Project Glass.

Back in April 2012, a Project Glass account appeared on Google's social networking platform Google Plus. The account's first post revealed the purpose of the project -- to build a wearable computer that helps you "explore and share your world". The post included a concept video of what the project -- a pair of glasses -- might be able to do in the future.

In other posts and articles, Google released more details about the glasses. Some versions had no lenses. What all versions did have was a thick area of the frame over the right eye. This is where Google put the screen for the glasses. To look at the screen, you have to glance up with your eyes. The placement was important -- putting the screen in your direct line of vision could result in some serious safety problems.

It wasn't long after Google released the concept video that people got a chance to see a pair of the glasses in real life. Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page wore the high-tech specs to events in late spring of 2012. And at the Google I/O event on June 27, 2012, Google gave attendees a thrilling demonstration of the technology.

The Google I/O took place inside the Moscone Center in San Francisco, but the first part of the demonstration was outside the building. To be more specific, it was a few thousand feet above the building. Google had outfitted a skydiving team riding in a blimp with Google Glass, and had set up a Hangout -- a video chat on the Google Plus platform -- with the team. Footage from the Glass cameras caught all the action. The team jumped from the blimp and maneuvered so that they landed on the roof of the Moscone Center.

The demonstration didn't end there. Expert bicyclists, also wearing Glass, did tricks on top of the Moscone Center's roof until they reached the edge of the building. Then, a man wearing Glass rappelled down the side of the building and handed off a package to another biker. That biker weaved through the conference center to get to the stage and hand the package off to Sergey Brin.

The audience watched the whole thing happen on a giant screen as footage from the various glasses played out in front of them. Afterward, members from the Google X team in charge of the project talked about the philosophy behind the eyewear. Brin then returned to the stage to announce that Google planned to ship a developer pair of the glasses called the Explorer Edition in early 2013 for $1,500. That's still the cost of the Explorer glasses, but it may not be the final price for Google Glass once it hits the general consumer market.

What Google Glass Does

Upon launch of the Explorers beta program, Google Glass owners could use their specs' specs to:

• Remind the wearer of appointments and calendar events.
• Alert the wearer to social networking activity or text messages.
• Give turn-by-turn directions.
• Alert the wearer to travel options like public transportation.
• Give updates on local weather and traffic.
• Take and share photos and video.
• Send messages or activate apps via voice command.
• Perform Google searches.
• Participate in video chats on Google Plus.

As of the publication of this article in early 2014, Glass can't overlay digital information on top of physical locations. But imagine looking at a building and seeing the names of the businesses inside it or glancing at a restaurant and being able to take a peek at the menu. With the right application, you could apply dozens of filters to provide different types of information.

For example, let's say you're in London, sporting your snazzy Glass glasses. You take a look at the new Globe Theatre and ask for more information. You're given choices -- do you want to learn about the history of the original Globe Theatre? Would you like to learn about the new version that opened in the 1990s? Or maybe you just want to see what productions are currently running on the stage this season. Google Glass could potentially provide you all of that information.

Looking even further into the future, you might be able to use Google Glass to help you keep track of the people in your life or learn more about the people you meet. With facial recognition software and social networking, it's possible you could take a look at someone you've just met and see their public profiles on any number of social platforms. (If that sounds potentially creepy to you, you're not alone – we'll talk about the criticisms of this feature in a bit.)

Google Glass is tightly packed with chips, sensors and feedback devices. Let's take a look under the hood -- or, rather, behind the lens.

What makes Google Glass work?

If you were to take apart a Glass, two things would likely happen: You'd discover the components that make the glasses work and you'd feel a deep sense of regret for ripping apart a $1,500 gadget. Fortunately, other people have already done this on your behalf.

There are a few different ways to control Google Glass. One is by using the capacitive touch pad along the right side of the glasses. The touchpad responds to changes in capacitance, which is essentially a weak electrostatic field generated across the screen. When your finger makes contact with the panel, a controller chip detects the resulting change in electric capacitance and registers it as a touch. Swiping your finger horizontally allows you to navigate menus on the device. Swiping downward on the touchpad backs you out of a choice or, if you're at a top-level menu, puts the glasses in sleep mode.

Another way to control Google Glass is through voice commands. A microphone on the glasses picks up your voice and the microprocessor interprets the commands. You can't just say anything and expect Google Glass to respond -- there's a set list of commands that you can use, and nearly all of them start with "OK, Glass," which alerts your glasses that a command will soon follow. For example, "OK, Glass, take a picture" will send a command to the microprocessor to snap a photo of whatever you're looking at.

As of early 2014, the processor in the Explorer version of Google Glass is from Texas Instruments. It's an Open Multimedia Applications Platform chip (OMAP). These chips belong to a larger classification of microchips called systems on chip. That means there are multiple components working together -- in this case, an ARM-based microprocessor, video processors and a memory interface. According to Texas Instruments' specifications, the chip is capable of playing video at 1080p resolution and 30 frames per second.

The main circuit board also houses a SanDisk flash drive for memory -- 16 gigabytes' worth of storage, though only 12 gigabytes are available to the user. A company called Micron Memory (formerly known as Elpida) supplied the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip. These chips provide not only storage for media and apps, but also the memory that the microchip requires to run programs on the Glass.

While you can use Google Glass to take photos and videos without having it connect to the outside world, to get the most from the product you'll need to connect to the Internet. The two ways to do that are over Bluetooth (connecting to some other device, such as a smartphone) or WiFi. A single chip inside Google Glass provides support for either type of connection. Another chip, the SirFstarIV, is a global positioning system (GPS) microchip that allows Google Glass to determine its location via satellite signals.

Cameras, Speakers and Sensors, Oh My!

While the guts of Google Glass are interesting, the most eye-catching component is the prism-like screen. When turned off, it appears to be a clear prism. Viewed from the top, you can just make out a diagonal line that bisects the prism's width. This diagonal line is where the prism has an angled layer that acts as a reflective surface.

Images from Google Glass project onto the reflective surface in the prism, which redirects the light toward your eye. The images are semi-transparent -- you can see through them to the real world on the other side. As of early 2014, the resolution for the display is 640 by 360. It's not exactly high definition, but at such a close distance to your eye it doesn't appear to be low resolution.

If you look just to the side of the display toward the outer edge of the glasses, you'll see a camera lens. According to Google, the camera can take photos with a resolution of 5 megapixels. It can also capture video at 720p resolution.

The speaker on Google Glass is a bone conduction speaker. That means the speaker sends vibrations that travel through your skull to your inner ear -- there's no need to plug in ear buds or wear headphones. Using the camera and speaker together allows you to make video conferencing calls. Just know that the person on the other end of the line will be seeing what you're seeing since there's only a forward-facing camera on the glasses.

Also on board the glasses are a proximity sensor and an ambient light sensor. These sensors help the glasses figure out if they are being worn or removed. You can choose to have your Google Glass go into sleep mode automatically if you take them off and wake up again when you put them on. These sensors can also detect if you take an action such as winking, which opens up the option to send commands such as "take a picture" just by giving a big wink. (Yep, there's absolutely nothing creepy about that.)

One last sensor inside Google Glass is the InvenSense MPU-9150. This chip is an inertial sensor, which means it detects motion. This comes in handy in several applications, including one that allows you to wake up Google Glass from sleep mode just by tilting your head back to a predetermined angle.

All of these chips and features need power to work. That power is provided by a battery housed in a wide section of the stem. It fits behind your right ear. It's a lithium polymer battery with a capacity of 2.1 watt-hours. Google says that charging the battery takes just 45 minutes when using the charging cable and plug that come with the glasses.

Short-sighted glasses?

Not everyone has greeted the news of Google Glass with enthusiasm. Some, like Internet security expert David Asprey, have voiced concerns about the product and its implications

Part of Asprey's apprehension stems from the wording of Google's terms of service for Google Drive, a cloud-storage service. Included in those terms of service is this passage:

"When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content. The rights you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing you have added to Google Maps)."

At first glance, this makes it sound like any data you store in Google Drive effectively becomes Google's property. Google representatives say this is to allow Google to display your data in different ways. Let's say you've uploaded a file to Google Drive and you choose to make it publicly available. When people search for terms related to your file, that file should show up in search results. This part of the terms of service gives Google permission to display part of that file within the search results themselves.

Asprey's point is that the wording of terms like this one seems to give Google more control over user data than it should have. He also points out that with facial recognition software, the glasses could raise privacy issues.

Another concern is that Google could use the eyewear as a platform for collecting personal data and serving ads. As you go about your day wearing these glasses, Google could create a virtual profile. Based on your behaviors and location, Google could potentially serve up what it considers to be relevant advertisements to the screen on your glasses.

And then there are concerns that receiving social networking updates in your field of vision could impair your ability to do other tasks, such as driving. Google's response to this reaction was to point out that the screen in Google Glass eyewear is positioned at the top of the frame, requiring you to look up with your eyes to see it. You shouldn't have to worry about text messages or pop-up ads obscuring your view as you wear the glasses.

Even with the Explorer program in full gear, it's too early to say whether these concerns are warranted. It may be that the glasses never make it to consumer shelves. But privacy advocates warn that we should think about the possible consequences now, before they become real problems later.

Google representatives have already addressed some concerns and say they welcome feedback. It's likely that the consumer version of the glasses -- assuming the project gets that far -- will be different from the prototype versions. Perhaps by then, Google will have found a way to let people dive into a data-rich environment while still protecting their privacy.

Author's Note

I wanted a pair of these glasses as soon as I first heard rumor of them. I'm an information junkie. I love the idea of exploring the world with a pair of glasses that can give me data about every aspect of my surroundings. In the summer of 2013, I got the opportunity to become a member of the Explorers program and jumped at the chance. When I wear them around conventions, other people spend about as much time taking pictures of me wearing Glass as I spend taking pictures with my Glass. It's obvious that I'm not the only person fascinated with this technology!

Sources: www.howstuffworks.com

How Project Morpheus Works

Virtual reality (VR) headsets have been around since the 1960s, and as you would expect, they have evolved and gotten better over the years. But they really haven't caught on as viable consumer products. You may have seen the occasional VR headset in an arcade, and home models have popped up now and again to be snatched up by enthusiasts and then fizzle out, but at the moment, they're more at home in research labs or military training facilities. Despite their continued existence and the obvious cool factor, they haven't become as common as our speculative fiction led us to believe they would have been by now. There are lots of possible reasons, including their low resolution, tendency to cause simulation sickness and the prohibitive cost of the better models.

But conditions have changed. Graphics processing, motion tracking and display technologies, among other things, have all improved vastly since the inception of VR, and everything has gotten smaller and cheaper. We now have far more powerful processors, a myriad of sensors and small high-resolution displays that are bringing consumer VR into the realm of possibility. The release, to much fanfare, of the Oculus Rift VR headset development kit in 2013 has made relatively inexpensive home models seem likely in the near future.

Now a major company is jumping into the VR arena. Sony Computer Entertainment has developed a working VR headset, codenamed Project Morpheus, specifically for the PlayStation 4 gaming system. It's in prototype phase as of this writing, so the specifications, functionality and the name may change once the consumer model is finally out, but it will be no less cool.

History of Project Morpheus

Although we're just now getting details on Project Morpheus, it's been in the works for more than three years, so the device isn't just Sony's response to the Oculus Rift. Sony was already making virtual theater headsets like the HMZ personal 3D viewing device. In 2010, the company released the PlayStation Move motion controllers for PlayStation 3, which enabled sophisticated motion tracking. At that point, various internal groups began delving into the possibility of virtual reality for the PlayStation gaming system. The groups began batting ideas back and forth and sharing their work with each other. Higher ups in Sony took note and it developed into an official project.

A team called Grover was formed from members of the Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) Hardware group, Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) R&D and Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios to work on a prototype, and it has gone through several iterations. First, they duct taped PS Move controllers to a HEADPLAY Personal Cinema System, a third-party headset for viewing movies, games and other media. Then in 2011, they attached PS Move components to a higher-resolution Sony HMZ viewer. In 2012, they produced a demo video of a VR prototype that consisted of an HMZ headset with one attached Move and another Move controller in the user's hand for more control. It had a much narrower field of view than their ultimate goal, but it worked for demonstration purposes.

More than three years of experimentation have finally yielded Project Morpheus, a prototype that was unveiled at the March 2014 Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco by Shuhei Yoshida (President - SCE Worldwide Studios), Richard Marks (Senior Director of Magic Labs - SCEA R&D) and Anton Mikhailov (Senior Software Engineer - SCEA R&D).

The device's current name comes from Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams, for the dreamlike experience the headset is supposed to evoke. Despite not being ready for market, Project Morpheus has a lot of cool components and capabilities. Read on to find out what technical details we know as of mid-2014.

Technical Specs

The current Project Morpheus prototype is a sleek black and white wearable VR headset. It has a 5-inch (12.7-centimeter) LCD display with 1920 by 1080 pixel (960 by 1080 per eye) resolution, which users will view through special lenses. In order to mimic 3D binocular vision, each eye will see a slightly different rendering of an image at a different angle.

The device provides a 90-degree horizontal field of view for people wearing glasses -- possibly more for others. They have built 15mm to 25mm of eye relief into the headset. It also allows for a wide range of interpupillary distance (IPD).

Several components and peripherals will work together to handle positional tracking and motion control for Project Morpheus. The headset incorporates inertial sensors (gyroscopes and accelerometers) to track head motion and orientation. An external PlayStation Camera (an optional peripheral for PS4 that will be required to use Project Morpheus) will track LEDs all around the device, even on the back of the headset, to keep tabs on the user's position. The device will also work with existing PS Dualshock 4 and PS Move controllers so that PlayStation 4 can track your hands as well as your head. The system allows for six degrees of freedom, has a 3-meter working volume and tracks the position and orientation of the headset with a refresh rate of 1000 Hz.

Project Morpheus also incorporates 3D audio technology that delivers omnidirectional sound by simulating up to 60 virtual speakers so that sounds seem like they're coming from very specific directions all around you. The audio will change accordingly as you move to deliver the most realistically immersive experience possible. The sound is delivered through headphones plugged into an audio jack on the headset. Wireless headphones will also work.

Aside from the headphone jack, the device has HDMI and USB ports and is currently wired with a 5-meter (16.4-foot) cable, although the team will look into making the consumer model wireless. The prototype connects via the wire to a small breakout box, which in turn connects to the PlayStation 4 (and optionally your television). The box includes a USB port, three HDMI ports and a power connector.

The prototype was made with comfort in mind. It was designed so that your head would bear the load without putting weight on your nose, cheeks or other parts of your face. An open-air design allows for airflow to help prevent lens fogging or overheating, but still manages to block light to your eyes to decrease potential distractions. There are various adjustment points on the prototype to make room for different head shapes.

All of the technical specs are tentative and could change in the next version or versions. For the consumer model, they are considering a higher quality OLED display, and they plan to work out any kinks and make it as plug-and-play as possible so that anyone will feel comfortable using it. No firm details for future versions have been released at the time of this writing.

What can Project Morpheus do?

Project Morpheus has been designed to work with the powerful PlayStation 4 to provide an immersive VR gaming experience where you put on the headset and lose yourself in a virtual world. Sony is calling the anticipated experience "presence," which is the feeling that you are actually physically present in the game world.

According to the developers of Project Morpheus, some of the key elements to creating presence are low latency, high frame rate, good calibration, believable or consistent scale of game objects, clean image rendering and realistic 3D audio. Low latency and high frame rate are also keys to avoiding motion sickness. It also helps if there are contact points within the game that match the position of your actual hands, say on a steering wheel or other specialized controller or attachment like the PlayStation Move. With the right game and right implement, you could feel like you are actually swinging a sword or steering a car.

The breakout box can be connected to your television to display the image that the headset user's left eye is seeing so that others can watch the gameplay. There's even the possibility of non-headset users playing against the person with the headset, although at present only the headset-wearer's view is possible on the TV screen. Players may also be able to interact with the headset wearer through the PlayStation phone app or the PlayStation Vita portable device.

Even though Project Morpheus is a gaming console peripheral, the company hopes that it will be used for other things like shopping or visiting museums or other parts of the world -- even beyond. They have already worked with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on a Mars demo using real footage captured by the Curiosity rover.

Sony is working on game engines, development tools and a VR distribution channel. They are partnering with lots of third-party companies for developing content and other necessary software. Some partners include Unity, Havok, Gigantic, Autodesk Gameware Scaleform, DDD, Epic Games, Silicon Studio, CRI Middleware, Bitsquid, Crytek and FMOD. The Project Morpheus team is also particularly keen to work with indie game developers because they can create new and innovative experiences without having to wait for approval from a corporate entity.

Even though the device isn't out yet, a few games or partial game experiences have been demonstrated with the headset, including the following:

• "The Deep" -- a partial demo game created by Sony's London Studio where the player is lowered into the ocean in a diving cage to view, and sometimes battle, sea life.
• "Thief" -- a non-game build of the sections of the game "Thief" that allows the player to explore the "Thief" universe.
• "The Castle" -- a medieval game where the player uses two Move controllers to grab various weapons to beat, mangle or otherwise manipulate a dummy.
• "EVE: Valkyrie" -- a spaceship dog-fighting game made specifically for VR by CCP, creators of the popular online game "EVE."

Does Project Morpheus have competition?

The most likely competitor of Project Morpheus is the Oculus Rift VR headset, which was released in the form of a development kit in April 2013. The Rift initially received funding through a Kickstarter campaign in 2012, to the tune of nearly 10 times its initial goal. Facebook recently purchased the company for around $2 billion. The initial development kit had a 720p display and was missing positional tracking, but the new Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 (DK2) has specs more in line with Morpheus. The updated Rift includes a low-persistence 1080p resolution OLED display (slightly better than the Morpheus LCD display) and allows for a 100-degree field of view (down from the previous dev kit's 110-degree fov). For tracking, it comes with a camera and integrates a near infrared CMOS sensor, gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer. Its refresh rate is similar to that of Project Morpheus. Oculus Rift also includes a built in latency tester to help developers monitor and lower latency.

The Oculus Rift DK2 is $350 and is available for pre-order as of this writing, which puts it way ahead of Project Morpheus as far as availability goes. There isn't currently a projected release date for the consumer model, but tens of thousands of dev kits have already been shipped and several games are already available for the Rift, with many more in the works. Incidentally, "EVE: Valkyrie," which has been used to demonstrate Project Morpheus, was initially created for Oculus Rift. Right now there are only a few Project Morpheus prototypes, but more will reportedly be produced and made available to hundreds of developers as a dev kit, along with a software development kit (SDK) that's in the works.

Other Rift advantages are that it's somewhat platform independent (although right now it only works on Windows, Mac and Linux machines, no game consoles) and has open source software and hardware. Rift's software development kit (SDK) is available for free.

Valve, the software company famous for creating the games "Half-Life" and "Portal," created its own prototype VR headset and demonstrated it to a handful of developers at their Steam Dev Days conference in January 2014. The prototype was reportedly more impressive than the first Oculus Rift dev model. However, the company has no plans to release a consumer VR headset. They've even worked with Oculus to improve its product.

Two other VR headsets debuted at GDC 2014: the Sulon Cortex and the Seebright. However, both use your own cell phone as the display and content delivery system, so they aren't quite in the same league as Oculus and Morpheus.

So Oculus and PlayStation may be the only games in town for a while for fully immersive 3D VR unless other major players jump in. Project Morpheus has the advantage of being developed by a major company for a mainstream gaming console that as of this writing has already sold over 6 million units in the short time it has been out. The existence of PlayStation Move also gives them a readymade VR controller. But Oculus VR's purchase by Facebook puts a lot of weight behind the Rift, too. Both companies, however, seem to be viewing the other's fortunes as validation of VR as a viable technology rather than worrisome competition.

Reviews and Availability

Word from people who have been able to try the device is that it's pretty impressive as far as delivering virtual reality experiences, but, being a prototype, it still needs a little work. It inevitably draws comparisons with the Oculus Rift, especially their new Dev Kit 2 version. In fact, both were demonstrated at GDC 2014.

Early reviews based on demos say that Project Morpheus reportedly has better lenses and doesn't have as much of the effect of looking through a screen door as Oculus Rift. But Project Morpheus has a little more black space in the peripheral vision area due to the narrower field of view, slightly lower display quality and a little more of an issue with image persistence and motion blurring. Project Morpheus also reportedly has a little room for improvement in the comfort arena, and there were a couple of reports of the lenses fogging after a few minutes of use. Although it blocks light, you can apparently see out the bottom of the device when you look down.

As far as the game demos went, "EVE: Valkyrie" reportedly delivered the most immersive experience, although "The Castle" got props for using the Move controllers to give the game character two hands with more realistic motion than the other demos.

Project Morpheus is still in the prototype phase, so a lot can change between this model and subsequent models. And regarding any competing devices, if you're a PlayStation 4 owner, Project Morpheus will likely be the one for you, if you want VR on that platform.

As of mid-2014 release date had not been announced for Project Morpheus. A consumer model was not expected in 2014, so 2015 is the earliest possibility. As mentioned in the previous section, the current prototype will be the first developer's kit, and an SDK is expected in the near future.

Time will tell how the final product will look and function, but it's bound to be a fun peripheral. And with so many competing dev kits in the wild, a lot of VR games are already in development. We are living on the cusp of realistic, in-home virtual reality. Let the immersive gaming begin.

Lots More Information

Author's Note: How Project Morpheus Works

This is an exciting time for virtual reality. I've played VR games in the past, and they were unsatisfying and nausea inducing. But that was the 90s, when high latency and low definition were the rule (at least by today's standards). Project Morpheus and Oculus Rift are both making at-home high-def VR seem like a near-future possibility. Honestly, I will probably want both devices when they are out in consumer form. It's not like I don't have more than one gaming system, each with its own peripherals. And maybe a little competition will make them both strive for even higher quality than they've already achieved. Holodeck, here we come.

Sources: www.howstuffworks.com

How can i Choose a Digital Camera

There are so many kinds of digital cameras out there that when you're ready to buy a new one, it's hard to know where to start. Here are some things to look at when choosing a digital camera.

• Number of megapixels An image on a digital camera is made of thousands of tiny dots. A megapixel is a million pixels. The more megapixels your camera has, the better the resolution of your photographs will be. Most people don't need a camera with more than 6 megapixels.
• Type of camera There are different types of cameras on the market, from basic point-and-shoot cameras for taking pictures of family and friends to advanced cameras with lots of features for real photography buffs. A basic camera may cost between $70 and $500. An advanced camera will run you anywhere from $350 to $2000.

• Features Consider what features you want in a camera. These may include manual exposure settings and focus, zoom lens range, shooting, focus and flash modes, video and even 3-dimensional capability. Look at the lens quality, battery power and type of memory cards the different cameras use. Some "smart cameras" can set the exposure, focus and color balance, and can even detect smiles or warn you when a photo subject blinked in the shot. 
• Brand Do some research to find out what brands and models consumers recommend. Different brands are known for selling cameras with different characteristics, so keep this in mind if you already know what type of camera you're looking for.
• Where to shop Consider shopping online, where you can find both a wide selection and low prices. Most stores only have one or the other. You may want to go into a store and try the cameras out before purchasing it over the Internet, though. Cameras have different idiosyncrasies that you wouldn't necessarily notice by just looking at a picture on a Web site. 
• Price Of course you don't want to pay a small fortune for your camera, but beware of prices that seem extraordinarily low. This may be because the camera is refurbished or being sold on the gray market.

Sources : www.howstuffworks.com

How can i Edit Files That Require Admin Privileges

There are certain files and folders (like the hosts file in Windows System32  folder) that you can only open /edit if you are logged in as the administrator of that computer.

There are certain files and folders in Windows that you can only access when you are logged in as the administrator of that computer.

For instance, if you ever need to block a website on your home computer through the hosts file, your would require administrative privileges. Similarly, you may not be able to execute all the commands at the command prompt if you not logged in as the admin.

Sometimes Administrators Cannot Edit Files

There’s another related problem that mostly concerns the home consumers of Windows 7 and Vista.

Sometimes you are the admin (and the only user) of your home computer and yet, when you try to open some protected file, it says “access denied”. This is confusing because you are logged in as the super-user and if you don’t have access to all parts of the system, who else will?

The fix is simple though. I will illustrate this with Windows hosts file but you can apply the workaround to virtually all files that you are unable to read / edit in Windows because of permission problems.

Step 1. Open your Windows start menu, search for the notepad application and then right click the notepad icon.

Step 2. Choose “Run as administrator” and then, while inside notepad, browse to folder (/windows/system32/drivers/etc) that contains the hosts file.

You can now edit and save that file in the same folder without any issues. To recap, the trick is that instead of directly opening a protected file in the associated application, you run the application first as an administrator and then open the file inside it.

How can Parents Prevent Certain Unwanted Websites from kids

How safe is Orkut  for my children? Are my kids sharing personal contact information with strangers whom they meet on the Internet? Can I block orkut and other websites like Facebook and Myspace on the home computer.

[For non-techie parents who have a computer at home and are worried about their kids safety online.]

A mother recently wrote saying she is very concerned that her young children are spending too much time on websites like Orkut, MySpace and Facebook.

Her worries are not just about children wasting time on the Internet – it’s more about the activities that children are doing on these sites. She is concerned that children could be interacting with complete strangers (or online predators) and even sharing personal information.

And with some news reports saying that criminal activities could have been planned on Orkut, the mother has finally made up her mind to restrict access to Orkut and some other websites on the home computer.

The only problem is that she has absolutely no clue about how to block websites – parental control software like Net Nanny or Norton Internet Security are pretty good but they cost money.

Now before you take this extreme step of blocking website (that is very likely to be opposed by children), try a few things:

1. Educate your children about the dangers of sharing information online with strangers. Family members should talk in detail about privacy and the web.
2. Place the computer in the living area of your home from where you can easily see the screen so you’ll have some idea about activities that children are doing on the computer including the websites they are visiting frequently.
3. Orkut is an open social network – that means you can easily see who’s in the friends’ list of your children and what kind of text notes (or scraps) are they exchanging with each.

Finally, to block websites on your home computer without investing in expensive software, here’s the trick (for Windows PCs):

Step 1: Click the Start button and select Run. Now type the following text in that Run box:

notepad c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Related: Edit Files as Administrator

Step 2: You will see a new notepad window on your screen containing some cryptic information. Don’t panic. Just goto the last line of the file, hit the enter key and type the following:

127.0.0.1 orkut.com
127.0.0.1 facebook.com
127.0.0.1 myspace.com

Save the file and exit. That’s it. None of the above sites will now open on your computer.

You can block as many websites as you like with the above technique. If you want to remove the ban later, open the same file as mentioned in Step 1 and delete the above lines.

how can i Find the Person Behind an Email Address

If you only know the email address of a person, here are some tricks that will help you know the name, location and and other details of the email sender.

You have received an email from a person with whom you have never interacted earlier and thus, before you take the conversation forward, you would like to do a bit of research for that person on the Internet. How do you do this without directly asking the other person?

Google is the most obvious place for performing reverse email lookups but if the person you’re trying to find doesn’t have a website or if they have never used  that email address on public forums, Google will be of little help.

No worries. If you only know the email address of a person and nothing extra, here are some ways that may help you uncover the identity of that unknown email sender.

Tips for Reverse Email Search

#1. Find the sender’s location

Open the header of the email message and look for lines that say “Received: from” and are followed by an IP address in square brackets. If there are multiple entries, use the IP address mentioned in the last entry.

Now paste the IP address in this trace route tool and you should get a fairly good idea about the approximate location of the email sender.

#2. Reverse email search with Facebook

Facebook has a billion users and the likelihood is therefore high that the sender may also have a profile on Facebook.

Unlike LinkedIn and most other social networks, Facebook lets you search users by email address so that should make your job simpler. Just paste the email address of the person into the search box and  Facebook will instantly tell you if a profile exists with that email address or not.

If you are able to locate that person on Facebook, download the profile picture and then upload it to Google Images (click the camera icon in the search box). This acts as a reverse image search engine so you can locate his other social profiles where he may have used the same picture.

#3. Check all the other Social Networks

You can use a service like Knowem to quickly determine if a profile with a particular username exists in any of the social networks.

If the email address of the sender is something like green_peas@hotmail.com, there’s a probability that he or she may have created accounts of some other social network using the same alias “green_peas” – put that in knowem.com to confirm.

Gmail users can install the Rapportive add-on and find the Twitter and LinkedIn profiles associated with an email address, if any of them exist. 

#4. People Search

Finally, if none of the above tricks work, you should try a people search service like Pipl and Spokeo – both services let you perform reverse email lookups but Spokeo has a more comprehensive database than Pipl.

Other than regular web documents, Spoke also scans social networks and even the whois information of domain names to find any bit of information associated with an email address. However, some of the results returned by Spokeo are only available to subscribers.

How can i Upgrade my DVR's Hard Drive

The digital video recorder (DVR) has changed the way millions of people watch television. Instead of scheduling an entire evening around a favorite show, DVR owners have their machines automatically record them for later viewing. Most DVRs have a feature that lets you subscribe to shows; you set your DVR once and you never have to worry about missing another episode again, even if it changes times or days of the week.

At its most basic level, a DVR is really just a computer designed for a specific task. And just like any other computer, with the right knowledge and tools, you can switch out components for new hardware.

That's great news for DVR owners. Video files are very large. High-definition video takes up even more space. While 80 or even 180 hours of standard programming -- or up to 20 hours of high-definition television-- may sound like a lot of TV, some DVR owners manage to fill their device's hard drive to capacity. Many DVRs will overwrite old programs in order to make room for new recordings, which means you'll eventually lose the shows you record, or you'll have to stop saving new shows.

What can a DVR owner do to store more programming? One option is to transfer the digital recordings to another format like a DVD. But for many people, one of the big selling points of the DVR is that it doesn't require lots of discs or tapes -- you just need one set-top box. Another option is to upgrade to a new DVR. But new DVRs can be expensive. There's another option: upgrading the DVR's hard drive.

There are many different types of DVRs and not all of them have the same kind of hard drive. Some can only hold a single hard drive, which means you'll have to exchange the old one for a new one. Others can hold more than one hard drive. With these models, you may be able to add a second hard drive without much trouble. And there are a few that make it even simpler to add storage capacity. We'll look at general approaches for all three.

Let's start with the easiest options and work our way to the more challenging projects.

Using Kits or External Hard Drives

Some DVR systems have special ports that allow you to connect an external hard drive to the system. Depending on your DVR, this port may only support certain brands or models of external hard drives. For example, TiVo produces DVR units that are only compatible with external drives that are TiVo-certified. For example, one brand of drive that's compatible with TiVo includes the Western Digital My DVR Expander drives, the largest of which provides a full terabyte (1,000 gigabytes) of storage space. By comparison, the TiVo Series 3 unit has a 250 gigabyte hard drive.

With an external device, you aren't replacing your DVR's native hard drive. You're supplementing the storage space on the device. It's the easiest way to boost your storage capacity.

If your DVR doesn't have a port for external hard drives, you'll have to put forth a little more effort. It's at this point that we should warn you that adding or replacing the hard drive on your DVR could void your warranty. Even more important, you should remember that even if your DVR is unplugged, it's capable of discharging a dangerous amount of electricity if you short out the machine's power supply. Proceed with caution.

Before buying a new hard drive, you should find out what sort of interface your DVR uses to connect the hard drive to the DVR. The different types of hard drive interfaces include:

• Integrated drive electronics (IDE)
• Serialized attachment packet (SATA)
• Parallel attachment packet (PATA)
• Ultra attachment packet (UATA)

If the interface on your new hard drive and your DVR doesn't match, you can't connect the two components. There are several resources online that will tell you which DVRs use each type of hard drive interface.

Several vendors offer special hard drive kits for DVRs. To swap out a DVR, you'll need to transfer some data to the new unit. This can be intimidating for someone with a limited technical background. For a price, however, you can purchase a hard drive that has all the necessary components pre-installed for you. These kits often come with step-by-step directions on how to swap out (or add) hard drives for that particular DVR.

Depending upon the model of DVR you own, you may also need a few special tools to access the guts of the machine. Check to see if you'll require tools like a TORX screwdriver -- TiVo sets have TORX screws.

Installing a New Hard Drive in Your DVR

First, make sure the hard drive's interface and your DVR match. For instance, if you try to use a SATA hard drive with a PATA interface, you'll find that the plug and ports are incompatible. Second, you should make sure your DVR doesn't have a cap on how much storage you can add. The TiVo Series 1 set has a maximum single hard drive size of 137 gigabytes, though it has the capacity to hold two hard drives so you can double that. Third, you'll want a hard drive that spins at 7,200 revolutions per minute (RPM) or faster.

When you're ready, you'll need to unplug the device and remove the screws that hold the casing of your DVR together. Remember to avoid touching the power supply or you could receive a nasty shock. The hard drive should be easy to spot -- most look like a rectangular case. You may need to remove the hard drive from a special mounting bracket inside the DVR. Next, unscrew the hard drive from the DVR and disconnect the cables connecting the drive to the DVR's circuit board.First, make sure the hard drive's interface and your DVR match. For instance, if you try to use a SATA hard drive with a PATA interface, you'll find that the plug and ports are incompatible. Second, you should make sure your DVR doesn't have a cap on how much storage you can add. The TiVo Series 1 set has a maximum single hard drive size of 137 gigabytes, though it has the capacity to hold two hard drives so you can double that. Third, you'll want a hard drive that spins at 7,200 revolutions per minute (RPM) or faster.

With some DVRs, the next step is easy. All you have to do is put your new drive right where the old drive was. You'll need to connect the cables to the drive and replace the screws to hold it in place. Once everything is back where it should be, you can plug in your DVR. It may take several minutes for your DVR to respond as it downloads the software it needs to run. But some DVRs require special software on the hard drive before they'll work. That requires making an image of the old drive.

Making an image of a drive is tricky. You need some experience with the Linux operating system. You'll also need some special cards and cables for your PC so that you can hook up your old and new DVR hard drives to your computer at the same time. You'll need to copy the contents of the old drive to the new drive. This process can vary from one brand of DVR to another and it can take a few hours or even longer. That's why many people opt for an upgrade kit -- it might mean losing your settings and programs, but you can plug the drive into your DVR and it should work just fine.

There are many resources on the Web that can guide you if you really want to tackle the upgrade as a do-it-yourself job. Remember to search for information about your particular DVR -- not every set of instructions will work with your equipment. Good luck!

source: www.howstuffworks.com