In February 2008, Polymer Vision’s Readius, the world’s first pocket e-reader, rolled onto the scene to rave reviews. Its compact form, roller display, and high-speed connectivity fueled the public’s desire for this one-of-a-kind innovative technology. The electronic reading device, Readius, presented e-reader users with a virtual library, unlimited news sources, Micro SD High Capacity storage, and audio capabilities. Its storage could accommodate a user’s emails, pdf files, and other reading material such as favorite e books. Its audio functions, such as MP3, featured music, podcasts, and audio books.

Readius offered the greatest coverage of global wireless connectivity. With its 3.5G HSDPA tri-band connectivity as well as USB and DVB-H, users could access a world of information and connect with online networks. Through the 3-G mobile phone network, individuals could receive updates on subscriptions to blogs, podcasts, or email. A virtual world was always in reach – and with a device which could easily fit in your pocket!

Its rollable display was comprised of organic thin film transistor backplane with electrophoretic front plane. This 127 mm E Ink was folded into a compact form factor which measured 56 mm wide, 100 mm tall, and 21 mm in depth. When switching pages and changing between data, the eInk offered amazing speed. The black and white screen made the text appear as if it was actual print from a newspaper or book.

Even though Readius was ultra-light (weighing just 115 grams, 1/3 the weight of the average device), this e-reader had a large 5″ diagonal display in 16 greyscales and a user interface with 8 Simple Touch buttons. The eInk Readius mobile device featured communication with accessories and other devices through Bluetooth 2.0 radio.with A2DP support. In addition, Readius had the advantage of an impressive processing engine – ARM111 400 MHz processor.

Offering 30 hours (10 page turns per second, 10,800 page turns) of continuous reading, Radius eliminated the annoyance of short battery life. Page turning was a breeze with Readius; just slide your fingers down the strip next to the navigation/operation buttons. It was even possible to read an entire book without changing the battery. Yet Readius remained just a prototype and the e-reader was never released to the public.

Readius had been the brainchild of Polymer Vision. This Dutch company originated from a 2006 Phillips research project. In July 2009, however, Polymer Vision declared bankruptcy and ended any hope for the release of Readius. When funding was discovered to be part of a third-party pyramid scheme, Polymer Vision ran into serious problems. The business made a final unsuccessful attempt to secure additional funding.

The release of the smartphone/MID device, Readius, had originally been scheduled for release in autumn 2008. Lacking additional options, during the summer of 2009, Polymer Vision was forced to call in the receivers. When planning production of the foldable screens (developed by Stanford University), Polymer Vision had invested £3m ($4.9m) in manufacturing facilities.

Yet the dream of a similar device still lives on and its launch is planned for 2010. The bendable e-paper display will become a reality in the coming year. With the sale of Polymer Vision, the new owner, Wistron, has confirmed the scheduled release of a similar 5-6″ hand-held device.

The company director, Mark McGoldrick, promises a bendable solution for e-reader users. It is believed though that the Asian company, Wistron, will concentrate on e-readers rather than focusing on the mobile phone aspect. Wistron may leave behind the competitive world of smart phones and instead concentrate on e books.

With its change in emphasis, it remains possible that Wistron will introduce a different positioning. The modem might be used for downloading content wirelessly rather than using a side-loaded approach. Fans of Readius hope that Wistron will keep the best features of this unique pocket e-reader.

With the current contract of sale, Polymer Vision will be able to keep approximately 80% of its staff. The Polymer Vision team makes up part of the Wistron’s Mobile Business Group. This gives Readius-lovers hope for a similar degree of excellence in Wistron’s 2010 device.

When the Readius prototype was introduced in 2008, the e-page device was given a welcoming reception. Time will tell if Wistron’s 2010 device can live up to Readius. One certainty remains for the e-reader user. Through research and development, as well as using innovative technology, similar to Readius, reading will continue to improve for us.

Many people out there attempt to know what iPv6 is. Not many people that access the internet know what it is nor do they attempt to know what it is. However, if that person is a computer science major or something along the lines of that, they would most assuredly need to know what it is or at least have an idea of what it is.

The ipv6 is an improvement over the late ipv4. Both of them deal with internet ip addresses. Back in the day, when the internet was not run on broadband, it was very hard to gain access through the internet. It was virtually impossible to use the internet and the home phone at the same time. However, the internet did expand and now broadband exists as a result. Through this many people are able to access internet through their mobile devices and wi fi internet exists which means that people can use their iPod touches , Microsoft Zunes and similar items in order to link up to the internet. As a result, there is a shortage in the number of ip addresses and many people had begun to fear that the current ipv4 of old would not be able to hold on to and have all the addresses intact and in order.

The main fear was that there would not be enough ip addresses to go around so that everyone can have one. As a result, the ipv6 came out and it has a higher broadband rate so that people can go and use their internet without worry that they are occupying an ip address. The ipv6 can do many things. It can coexist with the old ipv4 so that there would be so many more addresses in the world, so therefore, the issue with how much of the addresses will exist and the shortage in essence has been addressed. The ipv6 also comes with enhanced security. This means that certain people can go online without the fear of identity theft, which had grown to be one of the most common crimes today. The inclusion of the ipv6 in the internet truly has been immense.

Do you miss your laptop’s shiny new look? Wish you could give your laptop a thorough cleaning? Laptops, especially the smaller models can be tricky to clean. There are hard to reach places where dirt can easily build up. However, cleaning may seem daunting, but it is not impossible.
Consult the user’s manual for the manufacturer’s instructions on how to clean your laptop. There are certain cleaning agents that are not recommended such as alcohol, ammonia or other solvents. Some household items such as distilled water, white vinegar, cotton swab, empty atomizer and a cotton cloth can be used to clean your laptop.
For the exterior, use a damp cotton cloth to wipe the surface. Avoid using abrasive materials such as napkins, paper towels or tissues. Paper products tend to tear and may leave flakes and wooden fibers. You may use an old cotton t-shirt, eye glass cleaner or camera lens cleaner.
The keyboards are harder to clean. Consult the user’s manual if the keys can be removed from cleaning. If it can be removed, remember where each key goes. Use cotton swab to clean in and around each key. If the keys cannot be removed, use compressed air to spray away the accumulated dirt. You can purchase a bottle of compressed air at any hardware store.
For the screen, you may use distilled water. If heavy cleaning is required, use a 50/50 solution of distilled water and white vinegar. Put the solution in an atomizer. Spray it on a cotton cloth then wipe the screen in a circular motion. Avoid spraying directly to the screen. Do not use tap water as this may leave mineral residues.
The key in how to clean your laptop is in maintaining a clean habit.

Flash games are increasing in popularity and the quality of graphics has tremendously increased from the early days. Some of them are even more popular than PC, Xbox or Playstation games. These games have the advantage of being free and extremely playable at the same time. They are suitable for almost all ages. Here are some cool games you can try out.

Stick Figure Badminton
Here you play badminton with stickfigures. The levels get harder as you keep beating your opponents.

Double Wires
This is a simple but very addictive game. All you have to do is swing your way as far as possible.

Stabika 3
The game tests your hand eye coordination. Can get frustrating at times but once you are hooked, you won’t be able to stop playing.

The Helicopter Game
A classic game. Extremely addictive. No doubt, you will play the game twice and even more. Just be careful not to strain your eyes playing the game.

Stree Sesh
Flash game with very good graphics. Arguably the most popular flash based skateboarding out there today.

Pic Pie Puzzler
This is a jigsaw game with a nice twist. Play it to find out how it’s different from the other jigsaw games.







Bubble Spinner

This is one of those games that can be played again and again. It is a bubble shooter puzzle game and you can get millions of combinations while trying to get the bubbles off the board. Good for some great fun and also food for your grey cells!

Open source software has long been a staple for geeks, but its coming into the mainstream and providing a valuable alternative for people who no longer want to pay for certain functionality. Here we explore the top five open source alternatives to popular Windows programs, showing you how you can live without them.

1. Microsoft Office – The alternative to this has been Open Office for years, but with support that has been less than stellar, Open Office hasn’t gained much ground. However, after it was purchased by Sun Microsystems in 2006, Open Office began seeing regular updates and has since become a valid alternative to people who want a great office suite without forking over tons of money.

2. Photoshop – The Gimp can do just about everything Photoshop can and better, and it does it all for free. While the interface of The Gimp is just a bit different from that of Photoshop, learning to use it doesn’t take ages and once you discover the brushes and editing tools, you have a powerful image editor on your hands.

3. Windows Media Player – Windows Media Player is free, sure, but its very limited in what it can do. This is where Miro comes in, as it’s a full fledged media player with tons of functionality and the ability to download torrents as well.

4. Outlook Express - Thunderbird is a robust email client which is made by the same people who brought us Firefox. In fact, it offers many features Outlook Express doesn’t, and those that it does, it often does tons better. Thunderbird is one of the first programs you should use on your computer if you’re an avid email user.

5. WinZip – For people who archive files regularly, PeaZip is a great alternative to both WinZip and WinRAR, as it supports all of those formats and more, including 7Zip.

Out of the thousands of web applications which have been released this year, picking the top three has been a hard task. Judging these applications on what they offer the community as a whole is a must, which is why we’ve picked these three as our top three web applications of 2009.

1. Dropbox – Dropbox has gotten a lot of attention over this past year, and rightly so. Up until now, most people who have offered backup space on the web haven’t coupled it with synchronization. With the average American household having around three computers in it, keeping files and things up to date between sessions has never become more important. That’s why Dropbox is our number one app of the year, as allowing users to keep up to 2GBs of files synchronized between two computers is as useful as sliced bread.
2. Google Voice – What used to be Grand Station has turned into Google Voice, and those that have experienced it have been raving about it. With selective calling and call screening, Google Voice is a great application which gives you your own free number. When people call your free number, you can choose which phone of yours rings, eliminating the need to stay hinged to one particular phone when waiting for a call. Google Voice is the future in call technology.
3. Wufoo – Until now, there’s not been a great way to keep track of forms which you have on your website. This is where Wufoo has stepped up to the plate, offering beautiful forms which can fill a multitude of functions, while allowing you to track just how often your form is used and when. Best of all, Wufoo offers free accounts for those who only need up to three forms, with decently priced plans for those who need more.

In order to be successful on Twitter, you’ll need to gain a legitimate following. Without followers, it’s less likely that your tweets will reach a wide audience, which could severely impact how effective a Twitter campaign in your business is. The most common way of getting followers is using tools like Tweet Karma to determine who is following you and who is not. If you do a trend search on Twitter for your niche, you’ll find people who are discussing your niche. These are the people you want to follow.

If you have been making quality tweets on your account for some time, people will see this and follow you, once you’ve followed them. Following everyone you can find in your niche is effective, especially if you get return follows. You should wait for two to three days to see if any of the people you’ve followed have followed you back. If they haven’t, use Tweet Karma to dump them and restart the entire process. You have to do this because of the follower limit Twitter places on you. There is a certain ratio which prevents you from following millions of people if they are not following you back, which is why Tweet Karma is handy in balancing out this ratio.

Aside from this, you should make sure all of you tweets have been quality tweets. If you’re targeting a certain niche, only tweet about that niche. As an example, if your niche is Texas Hold ‘Em poker, and you want to reach out to people who are interested in poker, tweeting about the nice Gucci purse you just bought your wife probably isn’t going to net you any people who are interested in Texas Hold ‘Em. In addition, you should make sure you’re not spamming with your tweets, as if you’re tweeting too frequently, people will unfollow you.