Best Gadgets World

Well, it was a long time coming, but YouTube has finally made its localized Indian version go live. Now, YouTube users from India are given access to a highly personalized version of the site, featuring content that’s filtered through a so-called “Indian lens.” The live video charts show what videos are being watched by users in India, and the featured videos are now targeted towards an Indian audience. Literally dozens of local partners have also been signed-up by YouTube to provide home-grown content to the users. And they even launched an official Indian YouTube Blog. So if you’re looking for some original South Asian video goodness, head on over to http://in.youtube.com.

Read [YouTube India Blog]

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Sharp and Amimon, an emerging leader in semiconductor technology for wireless high-definition video, have combined their technology to bring wireless HDTV experience to users of Sharp’s LCD display units. Slated for a release in Japan soon, Sharp’s super-thin X-series LCD displays will be equipped with Amimon’s Wireless High Definition Interface (HDMI) 1080p wireless technology. For us users, this simply means that we would no longer have to connect any cables to our TVs since all the necessary wires and cables of the Sharp LCD displays will be tucked in a separate set-top box.

The LCD setup can support up to 100 feet of distance between the display and the set-top box, and could even pass through four or five walls. So, you can practically place your display anywhere within the 100 foot distance limit. Would the HDMI signal get affected by the distance? Sharp says no, the new X-series LCDs connected wirelessly on a set-top box will still give a high-quality signal.

The new Sharp X-series LCD models will come in 37-, 42- and 46-inch screen sizes. These LCDs are robustly designed and measure 3.44cm in thickness. And how much would you have to spend to snag of these LCD setups? They are prices at around $4,000 for the Sharp X-series LCD and an additional $800 for the set-top box.

Via [DVICE]

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While rumors about buyouts, mergers and partnerships continue to swirl around them, the number one and number two social network websites are announcing new features and services. MySpace, the top social site, is taking the wraps off of “data availability,” which allows members to easily share public profile information and user-generated content with Yahoo!, Ebay, Flickr and Photobucket.
And Facebook, after hearing complaints from state attorneys general about the threat from child predators and cyberbullies on its website, has agreed to tighten up security to protect its under-18 users. The social network will work with a task force to make sure identities and ages of members can be verified while trying harder to keep inappropriate content - including alcohol and tobacco advertising - from underage eyes.

The MySpace press release touts data availability as one more step toward a more social Web, a part of the trend to make open standards for more applications the norm on the Internet. The attorneys general keeping an eye on Facebook would no doubt argue that a more social Web is the problem; more dark alleys and dangerous types for them to worry about. It helps that at first glance, the MySpace data availability features seem to require lots of user permission and guarantees from the other websites that they won’t keep the data or use it to spam those doing the sharing.
Yahoo! benefits from the MySpace data availability move; working and playing well with other websites is part of its new Yahoo! Open Strategy, and if more application developers and third party websites sign on, it may help bring back some Web cred after the collapse of the Microsoft deal.

Read [Business Wire] Read [Yahoo! News]

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Customers in Florida will now have access to information about traffic incidents, traffic updates and detours as Verizon Wireless has made its VZ Navigator Version 4 service available. The VZ Navigator is a location-based service (LBS) application utilizing GPS technology and real-time information feeds from government traffic monitoring groups.

With VZ Navigator, customers will have access to traffic integration information which updates them of traffic routes based on the analysis of both historical and real-time traffic information. This allows customers to know which traffic routes are affected by traffic lights, heavy traffic situation and activities in school zones. VZ Navigator also gives out information on location of gas stations closest to customers location and even includes gas pricing. So customers can plan in advance whether to stop by the nearest one or skip it and stop by the next station. Of course, like some GPS navigation services, VZ Navigator also provides turn-by-turn directions on how to get to the nearest identified gas station.

Aside from navigation information, VZ Navigator also allows customers to search for local information on local movies and other events in specific locations. This includes information on ratings for movies, concerts, plays, sporting events and other social events. And to provide customers with enhanced navigation, VZ Navigator also displays maps in a 3D view. Customers will find it easy to visualize locations with the 3D maps which are displayed in an angle that simulates how a driver normally sees the direction through a car windshield. Finally, VZ Navigator also provides weather conditions and forecasts based on the location of a customer’s phone without the need to manually input your location.

VZ Navigator is available now for a monthly subscription fee of $9.99, and is available in 75 cities nationwide, in addition to Florida.

Read [Business Wire] Product [Verizon]

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The FCC is one good source of phones that have yet to be made public. Such in the case of this Motorola phone, rumored as the Motorola A1600 MING 2, the phone is a Linux smartphone that looks simply like an upgrade of the original MING. Only, a 3.2-megapixel camera and a few other goodies have been added.

Other rumored features of this leaked phone include Wi-Fi and quadband EDGE. While this report may excite fans of Motorola in the US, it looks like the A1600 will only be available in the Asian market, what with the “Asia/EMEA” mark written on the page. However, don’t lose hope since anything is possible now.

Read [FCC] Via [Engadget]

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by Donald Melanson, posted May 9th 2008 at 3:39PM Toshiba has been touting its Cell-based SpursEngine graphics chip for some time now, but it looks like its finally starting to get a bit more specific about when we can expect to see it in actual products. According to Register Hardware, Toshiba will begin offering the chip in some of its multimedia-oriented notebooks sometime this year, with TVs and DVD players set to get it by the fall of 2009. The chip itself, for those not up to speed, uses its Cell-based technology (specifically, four of the Cell’s Synergistic Processing Element cores) to handle some heavy-duty graphics processing, including upscaling standard definition content to high-def levels, something Toshiba has apparently taken to calling “super-resolution.” Now word on what sort of premium (if any) we can expect to pay for such wonders, but Toshiba is apparently betting pretty heavily on the technology as part of its post hd dvd strategy.

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Laptops

We were pleasantly surprised to learn that you can now get PC Magazine for free. Yup, that’s a full year of PC Mag (normally somewhere around $25/yr) courtesy of Netline Corp. Netline runs Tradepub and if you check out our GfG-branded Tradepub, you’ll find hundreds of other magazines that you can get for free.

What’s the catch? No catch for you, except you do have to fill out a little survey type info up front. The magazines make money because they get advertising, and advertisers are happy because folks (like you) are reading the zines and seeing their ads. Works out. After all, no one charges you to watch the ads you see in places like on TV, prior to movies, billboards, or sides of buses!

Subscribe to a freebie mag.

Posted in Miscellaneous

Fast food started as the great American tradition, but has evolved into a worldwide phenomenon. The food might be absolutely terrible for you, but what it lacks in nutritional facts, it makes up for in yumminess and price. Some people say they don’t like the taste of fast food, and they’d be lying. The food is greasy, caloric, but delicious.

The invention of the drive-thru led to even faster ways to obtaining a meal on-the go and companies are starting to ride the meal train all the way to the bank. Available through the Improvements Catalog, this cupholder-mounted French Fry Holder is living proof that fast food is here to stay, despite the surge of health-conscious eaters.

When you’re on a lunch break from work and stop for a quick bite at your local Burger King, since there is no time to sit down for a luxurious meal, many of you wind up fumbling with your food as you drive, which is not only an intake health hazard, but also quite a distraction. The French Fry Holder keeps your fries at a easy-to-reach spot so you don’t have to go searching for a fried slice of potato blindly.

While it might not be the healthiest way to go about things, fast food is certainly a time saver, and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. It seems that Improvements is currently out-of-stock of the holders, but when they file back in stock, they’ll be sure to sell out again. If you want to get your hands on one, you better move quick.

Product Page via Autoblog

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