Today we release our first advertisement to promote Tech Conclave and evaluate what people think about our show so far. Our Geeks of the Week in the past episodes have something to say about that.

Watch our video and embed it to all your social networks and help spread the word about Tech Conclave.

It’s good to be a geek.

No related posts.

Hi, Tom Maxwell here for Tech Conclave. Earlier this week, Samsung launched their new Smartphone called the Samsung S8000 Jet. But, is it an iPhone beater?

The phone boasts a fast 800 MHz processor leaving all other smart phones for dust as the average high end smart phone, until now was 600 MHz.

The phone boasts many new features including, Microsoft’s ActiveSync push email for business users, one finger zoom, which is the ability to zoom in and out using only one finger and one hand, 3.1 inch ultra bright display, with a resolution of four times higher than the WQVGA standard. It has a 5 megapixel camera with auto focus and an LED flash, auto focus, face detection and geo tagging. It can record video at 30 frames per second at MPEG4 and of course a music player that can just about play any format.

The memory on the Jet is either 2GB or 8GB integrated. You have the option of expanding this up to 16GB via a micro SD card. The Battery life expectancy is about 300 minutes of talk time for 3G and for 2G your going to get around 419 and the standby time is around 400 hours. The phone also comes with a new web browser called "dolphin" which promises to make mobile browsing easier with new features like, multi window browsing, advanced bookmaking and a sophisticated add blocker.

But, is the Samsung Jet an iPhone Beater? Well, in my opinion, despite the advanced specifications, sadly no, because of the Apple App Store allowing iPhone users to make the most of their iPhone.

But as with most things, only time will tell.

SAFARI 4 HYPE DWARFED BY FIREFOX 3 DOWNLOADS
Reported by Gerardo Velasco

Apple’s Safari 4 Web Browser just hit the download area, creating much hype and talk online after it was recently released from its beta version. Safari’s new capabilities include a wide rage of user interactivity in style, with its new cover flow, support for native look and feel for Windows Vista and XP, and its HTML web page load speed four times faster than Firefox according to apple. While many of its looks and speed have increased, its security features have stayed the same, a downside to Apple’s Safari 4.

Safari 4 has in fact, already topped 11 million downloads in its first three days of its release. A download mark very impressive considering that more than 6 million of its downloads were from Windows-based users. Although this is a very high number, it didn’t get anywhere near Firefox’s number of downloads for 3.0.11, pulling 150 million downloads in 24 hours, as Mozilla’s Asa Dotzler reported. With more than 300 million active users of Firefox, Mozilla is still miles ahead of Safari and Internet Explorer in terms of its users and community.

With so much competition between these major browsers, there is still a decision to make in choosing one, while Microsoft resorts to charitable donations to make its Internet Explorer browser downloads increase, and Apple claims misleading Safari download numbers, Firefox wins because it’s simply better. .

WORDCAMP DALLAS AT 2009  UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS
Reported by John Raul Joven II

A WordCamp is going to be held on June 27 and 28 at University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, Texas.

Entry to the said conference will cost only $30 and lets you meet prominent Internet bloggers, marketers, and geeks such as Tony Cecala, Cali Lewis, Liz Strauss, Lorelle VanFossen, the founder of WordPress himself, Matt Mullenweg and may more.

WordCamp is an informal, community-organized conference that focuses on everything WordPress.
Everyone from casual users to core developers participate, share ideas, and socialize in the said event.

WordCamp Dallas 2009 website: http://dallas.wordcamp.org

MAX PAYNE 3 COMING IN WINTER 2009
Reported by Jordan Haleakala

Rockstar Games’ is bringing back its fallen hero from their third-person shooter franchise Max Payne.  Max Payne 3 is to be released Winter of 2009.  Max Payne has returned many years later after the murder of his family to bring justice and "pain" to those who made his life a nightmare. 

Moving away from the familiar Noir York City scene, Max travels to a foreign place in South America to finish off what he started.  Remedy Games no longer working on Max Payne 3, Rockstar games has taken over the franchise from this point.  Rockstar games is trying to build to the new game but also keep it familiar and favorable features so new comers and old fans to the franchise will enjoy this game.  Max Payne 3 looks to be a game pleasing to all gamers.

TECH CONCLAVE NOW ON ITUNES
Reported by Jonatan Escobar

Good news to avid Tech Conclave viewers, geeks and computer enthusiasts: Tech Conclave, the Global Geek News Patrol, is now on iTunes.

GEEK OF THE WEEK: STEPHEN HEYWOOD
Reported by Beau Sinclair

Beau: Our geek of the week is Stephen Heywood. Who is Stephen Heywood in the Geekosphere?
Stephen: I’m a tech show host. I’m also a youth pastor and media specialist at my church. I got into technology in college despite working on people’s computers and read a lot of books, did a lot of different things that a helped me gain knowledge and experience in technology. And currently I own TheTechBuzz.net and run a live show there at uStream.tv and I have a great community of people and geeks out there in the Geekosphere.

Beau: What are your other fields of interests beside computers?
Stephen: It’s gotta be the church and my youth group. Like I said, I’m a youth pastor there. And, I have a great time working with the kids and working with the teens and helping them grow and mature and did a lot of things – teach them a lot of things. I like to involve technology in that. It’s good be a geek.

If you have questions, suggestions or comments about this episode, email me at techconclave (at) gmail (dot) com.or you can visit our website at  www.techconclave.com.

I want to thank Brad again for this wonderful microphone that he sponsored. He is my co-host at TechWebcast.info and I can’t overstate how much it improved Tech Conclave’s audio quality.

Always remember, it’s good to be a geek.

No related posts.

In Episode 3 we reported that Microsoft released three ads dubbed as "Laptop Hunters" advocating PC laptops over Apple’s Mac. Just a week after that Microsoft released another ad featuring a woman named Shiela who finds her perfect laptop for moviemaking. She got a widescreen HP HDX 16t from her $2000 budget.

Realizing the power to persuade of those Microsoft ads, Apple counterattacked by releasing their own ads on Apple website called "Get a Mac." The Get a Mac ads mocked all the ads from Microsoft. Here’s one of the most interesting ads from Apple with the title "Elimination."

On related note, Apple released an update to Mac OSX 10.5.7. The update brought a handful of improvements and security fixes as well as criticisms from Mac community after a significant number of Mac users had problems before and after installing the update.

AMAZON’S KINDLE DX TO REKINDLE PRINT MEDIA
Reported by Gerardo Velasco

Amazon’s upcoming Kindle DX already have some users pre-ordering for the new version.

Compared to its predecessor, the new Kindle DX boasts increased storage to hold approximately 3,500 books digitally. It also features a wider 9.7 inch screen compared to the 6 inch screen of Kindle 2, and 3G wireless network. Most importantly, Kindle DX now fully supports PDF format which should resolve the problem the earlier Kindle version that users need to convert the file before you could use read the PDF.

According to Jess Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, PDF documents will definitely look beautiful on Kindle DX and users will never have to pan, to zoom, or to scroll when they read the documents. If users want to go to widescreen mode, they just rotate the device.

While Kindle DX is a very impressive product and has had many upgrades since the last version, Kindle 2, many users are upset with the fact that Amazon would not exchange their product for the new improved version of Kindle. Some who have been lucky and ordered it within the 30-day return policy from Amazon, have been returning the old version, Kindle 2, and pre-ordering for the new enhanced version, Kindle DX, while others who have bought the Kindle 2 months ago, have had no luck but to stay with their Kindle 2 system.

Kindle DX will in fact, change the way we work and learn, since its main focus is in the education section. Newspaper companies are also hopeful that the Kindle DX will "rekindle" and save the dying world of print media, save paper and also help out the environment.

Kindle DX is priced at $489 and will be available this summer.

MICROSOFT CONFIRMS RELEASE OF WINDOWS 7, VISTA SP2 IN 2009
Reported by John Raul Joven II

After the successful release of Windows 7 Release Candidate version, Microsoft finally confirmed that Windows 7 is scheduled to be available on the shelves later this year.

Microsoft confirmed that during the TechEd North America 2009. However, the tech community is rather bit worried about this announcement as Microsoft have consistently said that Windows 7 would be a 2010 product and that a release this year could be a premature move.

However, despite rumblings, Microsoft said that it’s confident that the Windows 7 ecosystem is already good to go. It also promised over 10,000 Windows-friendly products making the new operating system free from glitches that were experienced in Vista.

Meanwhile, Windows Vista Service Pack 2 has recently gone gold and it is expected to be released within the next few weeks.

The key benefits of Windows Vista SP2 include:

• Windows Search 4.0 for faster and improved search results
• Bluetooth 2.1 Feature Pack
• Native support of Blu-ray media in Windows Vista
• Windows Connect Now to simplify Wi-Fi configuration and
• an update for exFAT file system to support UTC timestamps

REDISCOVER MINORU: WORLD’S FIRST 3D CAMERA
Reported by Tom Maxwell

Hi, everyone. Tom Maxwell here from Tech Conclave. And today, I’m gonna tell you about the Minoru 3D webcam.

What the Minoru webcam is a normal webcam is that there are with two cameras, instead of the one, and they are separated as about the same distance as the human eye to enable 3D effect. What this enables you to do is to have fun, 3D chats with your friends. And in theory, you’ll be coming out from the computer screen.

There are few downsides with the MInoru 3D webcam. One of which is this rather dorky 3D glasses. It is unfortunate you have to wear to see the other person in 3D.

Reports also said it does take a long time to correctly calibrate the two cameras to work well in the 3D effect. And to be honest, I think the look is just a bit childish with this thought that it’s a serious consumer product.

But on the other side, the Minoru 3D webcam is much cheaper than professional 3D cameras out there. So if you just want to have a slightly more realistic webcam experience, I’d recommend you get it.

TECH CONCLAVE FIRST CONTEST: HIGH FIVE AT EPISODE 5
Reported by John Raul Joven II

I’m pleased to announce to you that Tech Conclave will run our very first contest called "HIGH FIVE AT EPISODE 5." The contest is co-organized by the nice folks at Top Hosting Center who gave us a chance to select five lucky winners to enjoy their Speedy hosting plan for 12 months as well as a free domain name for 12 months.

So let’s inspect the prizes:

THC’s Speedy hosting plan is a professional shared web hosting plan that features:1000 mbps connection speed, 250 GB disk space storage, an unlimited monthly bandwidth, lets you host unlimited number of domain names, and  comes with lots of lots of professional features.

Here are the few things what you need to do to get a chance to win:

1. Register at Tech Conclave Community Forum.
2. Make a post about yourself at Introduce Yourself section in the forum.
3. Follow Tech Conclave’s official Twitter account: @techconclave

You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube.com/techconclave

If you plan to start a website or a blog or anything web-related, you’ve got a better chance on winning this one. Plus, we at Tech Conclave will help you setup your site like if you want to install WordPress or anything.

On May 25th I will pick using a random number generator five winners of the  contest and the chosen winners will have 5 days to validate their winnings after I contact them. I will be announcing the winners next episode.

If you have questions, suggestions or comments let me know by sending an email to techconclave (at) gmail (dot) com.

Do you like Tech Conclave?

Well if you do, support Tech Conclave by visiting our website at www.techconclave.com. You can donate at least $1 if you want to support this show and there are many other options to help Tech Conclave. Just visit the Support page in our website.

Thank you for watching this episode, signup as a Tech Conclave member and get a chance to win
a web hosting plan with domain name, and always remember, it’s good to be a geek.

No related posts.

Twitter! Its an everyday social networking site we use, or at least some of us do. While many of us thought that twitter was a hit on the Internet, allowing users to share every little detail of themselves or an event, twitter hasn’t been best at keeping its users online.

With so many competitions such as MySpace and Facebook, will twitter really survive with its only feature being broadcasting status updates and messaging back and forth?

Twitter’s user loyalty problem will have a great impact in its feature success… or failure. With 60% of Twitter’s users not returning until the following month to use Twitter’s service, Twitter is lagging behind Facebook and MySpace.

Now with Facebook also opening its stream to API developers, it now allows any developer to create new applications incorporating the real-time stream of Facebook. With so many Twitter applications using Twitter API stream created for desktop and mobile applications, Facebook has fired back allowing its API stream to be used by any developer, this means new competition for Twitter.

What do you say about Twitter’s future? Does it stand against today’s social networking giants Facebook or MySpace? We will have to wait and see who takes advantage of Facebook’s new API stream and how Twitter will respond back. Until then, Twitter remains head to head with Facebook.

MICROSOFT INTEGRATES WINDOWS XP ON WINDOWS 7
Reported by John Raul Joven II

Good news to all Windows XP advocates and all Windows users who refused to jump into Vista, Microsoft just announced one of the secret technologies embedded with its Windows 7: the next major Microsoft operating system will integrate Windows XP.

Windows XP remained popular up to these days because of its notable speed and compatibility — factors both worldwide businesses and consumers want that Microsoft failed to deliver when it launched Windows Vista.

Dubbed as XPM or XP Mode, Microsoft claims that the feature provides near-perfect compatibility of Windows XP applications in Windows 7. Considering that Windows 7’s system requirements are on par with Windows Vista, enabling the XPM however will require a more powerful machine with at least 2 GB of RAM.

Having built on same platform as Microsoft’s Virtual PC 7 product, XPM will take advantage of virtualization
technologies in-built from CPUs such as the Intel VT-x for recent Intel CPUs and AMD-V for AMD processors.

Through XPM, users will be able to install and launch Windows XP applications on Windows 7 desktop, and can even run alongside the same application of Windows 7 version, without affecting the core operating system. This means the inclusion of the XPM feature on Windows 7 will not undermine its speed, stability and security. Microsoft will include a full Windows XP SP3 license with every legal copy of Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate for use with XPM.

A release candidate version of Windows 7 is expected to be available to the general public for download
on May 5th. The RC version means that Microsoft is now on the final stages of completing the operating system which will succeed the unpopular Window Vista.

NETBOOKS DON’T DESERVE APPLE LOGO
Reported by Richard Crake

I’m here today to talk about the Apple netbook – or at least the Apple netbook rumor. I reckon any speculations on the Internet for Apple will come out with a netbook laptop.

Many people speculates this as the market for netbooks as definitely there as there have been reports stating that netbooks have outsold iPhones.

Last time I checked over 10 million iPhones sold has a definite market for this device.

However, when interviewed Tim Cook, one of the main people of Apple, said quote, "All I see wrong with these product is cramped keyboards, cramped displays. Until we are ready to bring innovation to this industry we can offer nothing as of yet."

So, will they be making a netbook? There have been reports that Apple had been ordering lots and lots of flash memory and 10-inch touch screens, so if they’re gonna bring out something that match the cost of video players or bring out a good touch tablet device or something along those lines, we just have to wait and see. All I’m saying is watch this space.

FIND BARGAIN NETBOOKS AT EBAY
Reported by Tom Maxwell

Hi, everyone. Tom Maxwell here from Tech Conclave giving you a top tip. What I have here is an Asus Eee PC. This is the very first edition, the 701.

Although it’s a small size, this computer can still do, you know, deal a lot of tasks. For example, it can do word processing, Internet browsing, you can play games on it, you can watch TV, you can even use it as a security camera with its built-in webcam. I got my Eee PC for just 75 pounds – it’s a bargain compared to the 225 pounds they were a year ago.

Now, the easiest way to do this is by keeping a close eye on eBay.  Let me show you how to do this the easy way.

Okay, so now we have eBay loaded up, let’s type in "Eee PC." On the left hand side, you want to click on the Laptop section. This will get rid of all other categories that will come up with the search. Click the Buy It Now only tab. Now that’s loaded,  on the Sort By Selection, select Newly Listed only, this will show up the newly listed items.

Now you can see the bargains before the majority of other users allowing you to grab those bargains.

GEEK OF THE WEEK: NEIL PERRIN OF GEEKWITHGLASSES.NET
Reported by Beau Sinclair

Hello this is Beau here for Tech Conclave Geek of the Week.

This week’s geek is Neil Perrin. I believe that’s right. GeekwithGlasses.net, go and check him out.

Beau: Neil, what do you do and what skills that you have as a geek?

Neil: I am a long-time technical gadget user. I’ve been working  with computers since I was about ten years old so we are looking at about 24 to 25 years that I have been involved with the computer industry and technology and gadgets in general.

I work professionally in the DC area as a contractor and do computer work for the government, government and such. And I have a passion to all things computer-related, technical-related and gadget-related. I’m a gadget guy. I decided I wanted to go ahead and share my knowledge with the masses.

 Beau: Oh cool, awesome. This has been Beau Sinclair from Bright, Australia.

Click here to learn more about Neil and his live tech show, Geek With Glasses.

If you have questions, suggestions or comments, email us at techconclave (at) gmail (dot) com or you can also direct them, along with your tech questions, to our new community forum which can be accessed  at www.techconclave.com/forum

On episode 5 we will launch a contest with web hosting packages bundled with domain names as prizes. For more information, register and participate in our community forum. The contest rules and regulations will be first announced there.

Also, visit my website at www.johnraul.com, it is powered by Top Hosting Center and the Tech Conclave website is powered by Host Color.

Thank you for watching this episode. I’ll catch you again next time. Please subscribe and always remember, it’s good to be a geek.

No related posts.

Not once, not twice, but three times. A series of Microsoft advertisements were released in the previous weeks advocating PC laptops over Apple’s Mac. The advertisements dubbed as "Laptop Hunters" showed people challenged to find laptops with budgets that range from 1000 to 1500 dollars.

The first ad featured a lady named Lauren who was looking for a laptop with speed, comfortable keyboard and 17-inch screen and she ended getting an HP Pavilion DV7-1245DX.

The second ad featured featured a young man named Giampaolo who wanted a laptop with portability, good battery life and power, and ended getting an HP HDX 16t.

The latest ad featured Lisa and her kid, Jackson, who were looking for a laptop with speed, a good hard drive and a good gaming computer. They ended up getting up buying a Sony Vaio FW.

The most striking feature of the advertisements is that Microsoft directly attacked Mac’s pricing on same computer specifications which is quite true and factual in the real world. But for me, I’m a PC because I can’t afford a Mac yet.  

CONFICKER MOBILIZES, DROPS PAYLOAD
Reported by Gerardo Velasco

Many of you have already heard about the Conficker worm, most of us thought it was really an April Fool’s joke after the time passed, but that joke is no joke at all. On April 8, 2009, the worm was updating via peer-to-peer between infected computers, stealing sensitive data using a keystroke logger or some other program designed to steal sensitive data off the infected computer, the worm as we know it, is running in full mode and is starting to make its damage on the internet and users computers.

Wait! But that’s not all, the worm also tries to connect to MySpace.com, MSN.com, eBay.com, CNN.com and AOL.com as a way to test that the computer has Internet connectivity, deletes all traces of itself in the host machine, and is set to shut down on May 3, according to the TrendLabs Malware Blog.

If you haven’t protected yourself, this is a must because now that the worm has dropped it payload, there’s no telling on what the worm will do next. Please remember that Conficker is a threat only if your computer does not have the latest security patches from Microsoft and an up-to-date antivirus program and your passwords in your network or your computer are weak.

AMD’S ATI RADEON HD 4890: WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL GPU
Reported by John Raul Joven II

On April 6, 2009, AMD launched its most high-end graphics card to date: the ATI Radeon HD 4890. According to AMD, the said graphics card boasts 1.36 TeraFlops of computing power making it the world’s most powerful graphics processor comprising of 956 million transistors on 55 nanometer of fabrication process.

AMD’s ATI Radeon HD 4890 fully supports DirectX 10.1 games and features 800 stream processors, a superb processing strength to handle the latest and most complex 3D games to date.

It is also equipped with the most advanced GDDR5 memory technology enabling superior performance and maximum memory bandwidth. Its enhanced anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering up to 24x deliver smooth and true-to-life graphics.

It also supports ATI CrossfireX technology, which lets you support up to four GPUs for extreme graphics performance. Radeon HD 4890 also supports Unified Video Decoder 2 (UVD2) which releases stress from your CPU for other computing tasks and lets the graphics card do all graphics processing job.

Other features include:

• support for PCI Express 2
• Accelerated Video Transcoding
• full 1080p display resolution
• enhanced DVD upscaling
• Dynamic contrast
• HDMI
• dynamic power management
• energy efficiency

With all features mentioned, AMD’s Radeon HD 4890 yet proves to be the world’s most powerful GPU for desktop systems.

GEEK OF THE WEEK: CODY P. CHRISTIAN
Reported by Brad

Brad: Who is Cody P. Christian as a geek?
Cody P. Christian: I’m a software developer, a web developer and a media professional.

Brad: What is your best tool as a geek and an achievement as a geek so far?
Cody P. Christian: The tool that I use best or the tool that works for me best would be my Mac. I do use Mac, PCs, Unix/Linux servers. So, please don’t call me a Mac fan boy but I will say that I love my Macs. And I look at that particular subject because or rather, I look at that particular subject in a way of "I use what works for best for me" not because I’m following a trend.

Brad: Are you happy to be a geek and why?
Cody P. Christian: Yes, I really love being a geek. And, it’s something I really passion about technology. A true geek is someone who really loves technology and really who wants to know every little really detail of technology. So thanks for watching this great podcast and if you want to know more about me, please head over to codypchristian.net or if you would like to stalk me just head over to twitter.com/codypchristian. Take care.

LAST MINUTE HEADLINES
Reported by John Raul Joven II

TGDAILY.COM: Study shows Facebook use linked to lower grades for college students
A study from Ohio State University, based on a study of 219 students, suggests that the more you use Facebook, the less you study, and the worse your grades get.

PC WORLD: Twitter now worm-free
After the blue bird Twitter caught its first worm, the popular web service now declared clean and worm free.

COMPUTER WORLD: IT professionals still prefer XP over Windows 7
A survey revealed that 72% of more than 1,100 IT professionals still prefer Windows XP than the upcoming Windows 7.

PC WORLD: Rumors about Apple iPhone 3.0 and Netbook intensify
The Apple rumor mill is once again running overtime on the topic of netbooks and iPhone 3.0 specs. 

If you have comments, suggestions, or questions regarding this episode, you can email me at techconclave (at) gmail (dot) com. And also, you can now support Tech Conclave by going through our official website which is www.techconclave.com and clicking the support link in the main menu.

You can also check discounted products and services on our Promo page. So, don’t forget to check that out.

Visit my website at www.johnraul.com. It is powered by Top Hosting Center and Tech Conclave is powered by Host Color.

This is the episode 3 of Tech Conclave. Thank you for watching. Don’t forget to subscribe. And always remember, it’s good to be a geek.

No related posts.

On March 13, 2009, the world celebrated the 20th founding anniversary of the World Wide Web. Looking back, the World Wide Web emerged from the proposal of a fellow in CERN named Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of World Wide Web. His ideas have paved the way to the development of the World Wide Web as to how we see, experience and interact with it in the present day.

Berners-Lee is looking forward of seeing the Web evolving from an entity of linked-information to linked-data form and build what he called a Semantic Web, an idea he talked about during last month’s TED conference in Long Beach, California.

Source: click here.

NEW APPLE IPOD SHUFFLE: A DISAPPOINTMENT?
Reported by Tom Maxwell

Without announcement, Apple released a new model of iPod Shuffle on March 11. Is the new model good or bad? Let’s check out the impression of our tech correspondent, Tom Maxwell, from the United Kingdom.

Visit Tom’s YouTube channel on the following address: http://www.youtube.com/maxwellmovies

FUTUREMARK RELEASES PEACEKEEPER BROWSER BENCHMARK
Reported by John Raul Joven II

Which browser is which? This question is one of the most common questions heard in the surface of geekosphere in what we call eternal war between web browsers.

In an effort to put an end to that, Futuremark released an online web browser benchmark service to wipe out all subjective opinions or variable analysis of performance. According to their statistics, Safari 4 ranks number one in the top performing browser. Google Chrome being the second, Firefox 3 as the third, followed by various versions of Internet Explorer, and other browsers.

Peacekeeper is a Java-driven benchmark and uses Acid3 web standards tests.

Peacekeeper Browser Benchmark Service: http://service.futuremark.com/peacekeeper/index.action

Source: click here.

If you have questions and suggestions about this episode, feel free to write us at techconclave (at) gmail (dot) com.

If you want to join me in my in-depth interviews and tech discussions with geeks you can have a listen to our podcast with Brad, Tech Webcast. Just visit http://www.bradsblog.org or visit my blog at http://www.johnraul.com. Both blogs are powered by Top Hosting Center.

On the other hand, the official Tech Conclave website is powered by Host Color.

That completes the today’s episode of Tech Conclave.

Join, subscribe and watch our future episodes and always remember, it’s good to be a geek

No related posts.