The Vita FAQ: Things You May Not Know About The Vita

The Vita FAQ: Things You May Not Know About The Vita

With so much information and hype out there about the Vita, sometimes you don’t always get the whole story and you often find that some things get “lost in translation” when it comes to accurate information about any kind of new product. Here’s some info on the Vita about its unique features and some features you may not have known about:

How much will it cost?

As far as total costs, you can expect to pay 0 for the Wi-Fi only Vita and 0 for the 3G/Wi-Fi model. Average costs of games are going to run around apiece new. In addition, the 3G model will have an optional monthly recurring cost through AT&T which will be around for 250MB of data and up to for 5GB. Additionally if you didn’t purchase a bundle, you will need a memory card, coming in 4, 8, 16, and 32GB sizes and ranging in cost from about to0.

What kind of networking features will it have?

The Vita, no matter which model you have, will work with a number of networking features, ranging from game features to apps. Near, LiveArea, and Party are great for meeting and keeping in touch with new friends as well as commenting on each other’s achievements and seeing what people nearby are playing. As far as non-gaming, the Vita will support multiple social networking apps like Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare, just to name a few.

What kind of battery life can I expect?

On average, the Vita will last about 3-5 hours, depending on your settings. Taking precautions like dimming the OLED screen and turning off Wi-Fi will increase the life, but more feature and graphically intensive games will use up more juice than those less graphics-focused.

Do I get anything for my Vita from having a PSP?

Well, this is a yes and no situation. Just having owned a PSP doesn’t count for much, but if you downloaded any digital titles for it that are compatible with the Vita, you’re entitled to download them again to play on your Vita at your leisure (assuming you use the same PSN account for your Vita).

What exactly does Remote Play do?

Well, Remote play does a lot of things, but at its core it allows you to use your PS3 with your Vita from anywhere you have an internet connection. There are only a few PS3 titles out that support Remote Play with the Vita, but more and more games will be soon supporting it. You can also stream any media your PS3 has access to (either on its HD or on a PC on the same network) for viewing/listening on your Vita. Finally, with the PS3’s PS1 backwards compatibility, you can Remote Play PS1 titles through your Vita from anywhere you can connect to the internet.

What kind of hardware does it have?

Well, the Vita has a stunningly detailed 5 inch OLED screen that displays a 960×544 resolution (16:9) with a whopping 16,770,000 colors which gives you unprecedented depth for a handheld gaming system. As far as the technical side of the Vita, it runs on a 4-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore processor, while the graphics are powered by a 4-core SGX543MP4+ chipset. Both the front and rear camera are 0.3MP and support 480p video recording.

Is there anything it doesn’t do?

Well, as much as I want to answer this with a no, there are things beyond the Vita’s (current) reach. As of now, the Vita doesn’t support Flash and, by extension, YouTube or any other online media requiring it to run. It also doesn’t support the use of UMDs from the previous PSP, though as mentioned above you can still download and play compatible digital PSP titles.

All in all, the Vita is a great handheld with almost limitless possibilities for expansion in the future. If you’re on the fence or don’t have one already, you’re missing out on an amazing gaming experience.

Replace Your Desktop With A Laptop

Replace Your Desktop With A Laptop

Gone are the days when a businessperson needed a desktop at work, a desktop at home, and a large, cumbersome laptop for travel. With the steady march of technology come lighter, more portable laptops with higher performance than ever before. Processors are advanced enough on almost any laptop to consider completely doing away with your desktop PC altogether.

For the gamers out there, laptops have always been too slow and too far behind the technological bandwagon to consider replacing your gaming computer with one. Now, however, laptops are being designed with the gamer in mind with faster processors, bigger screens, and high end graphics.

For the student going off to school, a small, lightweight laptop means that you can take your laptop to class with you to take notes as fast as you can type (which is often a lot faster than you can write), and be sure that they will always be legible. Additionally, laptops can have planner features to help you remember when that next assignment is due, and you will never lose your notes or keep them in a disorganized pile. Even if the rest of your life is a little hectic, keeping a laptop as your new PC can help your grades considerably.

If you decide that it is worth the investment to be able to bring your laptop to work and home with you, technology is allowing for easy set-up of your laptop with a docking station that makes time-consuming plugs a thing of the past.

There are so many benefits to consider to using a laptop as your new desktop computer. These include:

1) having your work with you at all times
2) creating far more desk and floor space now that your huge tower and monitor are gone
3) the ability to work from any location with a wireless network set up

With the only negative aspects being: if you feel the need to have the most modern technology available, you will find it difficult to upgrade many laptops, and laptops are more expensive than a desktop because of the size and convenience.

Laptops for the Businessperson:
• Dell Latitude D820
• Acer TravelMate 4650
• HP Compaq nx9420 (2.16GHz, 1GB RAM)
• Apple PowerBook G4 (17-inch)

The Dell laptop is an excellent business portable, and is priced around fifteen hundred dollars. It is one of the highest rated laptops for replacement of a PC, and the reviews call it perfect for the modern businessperson.

The Acer TravelMate is a great value for the price. It has a good battery life and nice processing power with all the features a home-office user will need. The Acer costs around twelve hundred dollars, making it the least expensive laptop on this list.

The third laptop, the HP Compaq, offers corporate caliber security according to the reviews, and has a nicely sized seventeen-inch screen for ease of use for those of us who stare at computer screens all day. This model is a lot more expensive, though, running between two thousand and twenty-two hundred dollars.

Last on our list, the Apple PowerBook delivers the features and power that most users require, but at two thousand dollars is more expensive than comparable Windows laptop. Still, it is a good option for replacing your bulky desktop PC.

Laptops for the Gamer:
• Dell XPS M1710
• Toshiba Satellite P105-S921
• Toshiba Qosmio G25-AV513
• HP Pavilion zd8000

Hard core gamers will appreciate the Dell XPS, which will play the newest games at the highest settings. Running at thirty-four hundred dollars, though, this laptop does not come cheap. With all the technology packed into this case, it will at least be a long time before you need an upgrade.

The Toshiba Satellite offers lots of features for an affordable price, but will not play the most intensive games at their highest performance levels. This is still a wonderful machine, and will cost about two thousand dollars.

The Toshiba Qosmio is designed to deliver the most high-quality multimedia experience available in a laptop. The Qosmio combines TV, DVR, stereo, DVD player, and high-performance PC in one big laptop. Replace your entire entertainment system (except maybe the speakers) for anywhere from fourteen hundred to twenty-four hundred. It seems like shopping around for this model might be well in your best interests.

The HP Pavilion’s price is a relief at only twelve hundred dollars, is powerful and can play many of the newer games, if not quite the newest according to reviews.

Accessories to Consider

These laptops are all wonderful replacements for the bulky desktop computer sitting in your home office right now. There are just a few more things you need to make your laptop absolutely perfect for your office or game room.

When you go on the road all you need is your laptop and power cable, but when you bring your computer back home, you might feel more comfortable using an external keyboard, mouse, and monitor. The hook-ups for these can be painful if you have to do it frequently, but a docking port takes away the stress by mirroring all the ports, plugs, and slots on your laptop.

The first accessory that everyone should consider is a docking port. Especially wonderful for business users, these ports hook up to your printer, scanner, keyboard, monitor, mouse, network cables, power source, and any other gadgets you need them to. Instead of connecting a dozen or more wires and cables every time you move your laptop, push the laptop into the docking port and one little connection brings you back online with everything you need.

The rest of the accessories suggested here are just options, so we’ll be brief. An external mouse, keyboard, and monitor might make you more comfortable at your desk, and a joystick or controller of another sort might be essential to the hardcore gamers.

No matter what you are considering your new laptop for, replacing your space-eating desktop PC is a move that you will never regret. Your new laptop will be portable, powerful, and just more fun because of all the things you can do with it. Save yourself some time and effort and consider replacing your PC with a laptop.

If Touch Screen Kiosks Can Help My Business Than Please Tell Me What They Are

If Touch Screen Kiosks Can Help My Business Than Please Tell Me What They Are

Kiosks are basically a one stop information tool, let’s first define the word kiosk to see the history of where they’ve come from so we’ll be better able to understand what exactly what they are: ki·osk noun
1. A small open gazebo or pavilion.
2. A small structure, often open on one or more sides, used as a newsstand or booth.
3. A cylindrical structure on which advertisements are posted. The first recorded instance of the word “kiosk” was back in 1865 with reference to a newspaper stand. Kiosks are still known today as traditional freestanding retail booths. With the recent advent of low-cost pc’s and the internet kiosks are taking on a whole new shape and definition.

Computer Or touch screen kiosks have forged their way into main stream.

The technology used in interactive kiosks is basically the same as that used in computers. Touch screen kiosks are mainly operated with the help of a control unit and a touch screen sensitive LCD monitor. To operate a kiosk the user simply needs to touch the area of the screen to navigates the custom built show. The touch screen operation of the kiosk make the functioning very simple and user-friendly. Considering that computer kiosks are run via PC computers, the utilization of video, images and text with sound all combine to offer a truly interactive experience.

When the Kiosks are not in use they can act as a screen saver to serve up advertising or upsell in store items to increase revenue.

The Benefits of Using Kiosks

Now a days kiosks have a wide range of applications and can be seen in department stores, airports or in government offices. The different services provided by a kiosk are accessing of live news from the newsroom with the very latest news and information, accessing of popular galleries with stills and video clips, information on number of job vacancies, etc.

The popularity of kiosks are stated below:
1) The long lasting steel construction of the kiosk helps it to be rugged and secure and is suitable for placing it at any environment.
2) A kiosk helps a lot in saving the valuable floor space. Just by plugging them in they are ready to go as the hardware and software comes within a single unit.
3) Kiosks are very easy to maintain as all the components of the kiosks are easily repairable and replaceable.
4) With the help of remote administration options the tracking of kiosks can be done via the internet or via e-mail or phone alerts for low paper or power failure.

Kiosks can be used for an infinite number of applications, including: Gaming, bill payment, eCommerce, human resource, customer service, location and mapping, credit application, vending machines, sales and marketing, internet access and adverting just to point out a few.

A kiosk project typically has 3 main components: Hardware, Software and Post Production.
Hardware:
Any tangible portion of the kiosk project will fall into the hardware category. Depending on the type you require, this can simply be a metal enclosure with a touch screen monitor attached to it with a PC inside. More complex kiosks have hardware components inside such as card readers, printers, telephone handsets, ruggedized keyboards, ruggedized pointing devices and other specialized peripherals.
Software:
Depending on what your kiosk is supposed to do, there may or may not be off-the-shelf kiosk software available for it. Kiosk software typically does the following: displays the content you want to display, prevents users from making changes to the PC’s operating system, allows the owner to make changes remotely, make sure everything is working properly, and interfaces with peripherals inside the kiosk such as printers, card readers, scanners, etc..
Postproduction:
Depending on the size of your kiosk project, there are services such as kiosk site acquisition, kiosk installation, and on-site maintenance. For a small kiosk project, typically the owner of the kiosk does these things on their own. For larger deployments, a kiosk implementation company will be your best bet.

For business owners a kiosk can be used in a wide array of applications as seen above – the one point to consider is that a kiosk can deliver the right message at the right time, consistently every time. There’s no doubt kiosks are here to stay – watch for them next time you go out into your community!