This is the official video trailer that has been released for the movie Iron Man 2, which is expected May 7th 2010. If the first movie is anything to go by, Iron Man 2 should prove to be another brilliant Marvel movie.

At the end of Hulk, I am not sure if you remember Starck asking the Hulk to join Iron Man in a team of ass-whipping Marvel legends. That’s right, Justice League is on its way )

I know that some of you will think that this is perhaps taking things too far, but this is a seriously geekishly cool outfit. This little girl is dressed up as Voltron and if that mean stare is the reason why they didn’t bother with the helmet, I’d say… “Smart choice!”

In this digital age that we are living in, almost everyone carries a digital camera around. Regardless of whether the camera is a technologically advanced SLR Camera or a simple point-and-shoot pocket camera, almost anyone is capable of taking decent (if not stunning) photographs.

In my opinion, even if you knew nothing about the technical aspects of photography (that’s me!) the quality of your photographs could be considerably improved, if you paid attention to a few visual points.  I am not a photographer and I don’t know much about photography. However, based on my experience ‘trying ‘, here are some points (mainly related to the aesthetics) that might help you improve the quality of your photos. This is only going to be helpful for people who basically know nothing about photography besides pointing and shooting.

1. Avoid getting your finger in the way of the photo.

2. Don’t use flash if there is sufficient light. In my opinion using flash usually (but not always) means, you lose the natural light and mood of the environment and the actual colours of the subject. Therefore it is better to take photos with no flash, in day light or well-lit environments.

3. Always pay attention to framing the subject. Before you take the photo, it is good to take a few seconds to frame the photo and look at the screen to see how you will actually see the photo, once taken. When you frame the photo pay attention to the following;
4. • Making the frame symmetric makes the photo visually pleasing
     

     Symmetry in this case definitely adds to the beauty

   • If the photo is of a group of people, having them lined up sideways facing the camera or standing and putting their heads together makes the framing better, rather than everyone standing around in their own buzz.
   • It helps if you avoid unwanted objects in the picture, especially halves and pieces of them captured on the side (of course you can always crop the photo later using a photo editing tool, on the computer to get rid of such objects)
   • 

     If this photo was taken without the elbow of the person, a bit of the plate and glass on the side, it would have looked much better.

   • It is important to focus on the actual subject rather than just pointing in that direction and shooting. As most digital cameras have a focus pointer that you will see when you look through the view finder or look on the LCD screen, take a moment to get the focus pointer on the subject.
   • When you are taking photos of people, don’t position yourself too close to them, especially if you use flash. If you do people in the photo will end up looking like white ghosts with no real colour and quite possibly their eyes will be closed.
   • If you are taking a photo of someone at a beautiful scene, do not frame the person in a way that he/she fills the camera and leaves nothing of the scenery to be captured in the photo.

5. When taking photos of people, if there is a light source behind the person, it is better to use flash (unless you want a silhouette). Otherwise you will not see much of the person’s face as it will be dark and shadowed. Therefore it is always better for the person to stand where they will get the light on their face. For eg. If someone’s photo is being taken in a room with a window open, the photo will look better if he/she stands facing the window rather than with his/her back towards the window.
   

   This photo would have come out nicer, with the subjects face visible, if he was facing the sun rather than with his back to it.

6. If you are taking photos of a moving object or person, it is better to use flash. More professional cameras have ways and means to catch movement without blur which is irrelevant at this point. Therefore, if you are taking photos of someone dancing or a moving object it is better to use flash (unless there is excellent lighting).This will help you avoid blurring.

7. Another way to avoid blurring is for you (the camera) to be still. Regardless of whether the subject is a moving object or not, if the person who is taking the photo (i.e. the camera) is moving, the photo will come out blurry. If will help if you lean against something or rest the camera on something).

8. Don’t hesitate to take more than one shot. Remember that even great photographers don’t get their perfect photos in just one shot. It is always good to take a few shots rather than click once and putting the camera away. If a shot is bad, you can delete it immediately or later on the computer. It costs absolutely nothing to take a few more shots.

These tips may sound useless and mostly like common sense to many of us. However, in my opinion even these small adjustments in the way you approach taking photos, it will make a huge difference to the quality of the images you will treasure for years to come.

Speculated to be 2010’s most anticipated game, Gran Turismo 5 or more commonly known as GT5 is expected to hit shelves later this year and so far has no arrival date. The game manufacturers have done a good job of leaking info about the game over the last few months and GT fans already have a good understanding of what to expect. A full list of the cars has already leaked and so has information about the “damage engine” and a few other cool things that GT5 packs like full online play.

The PSP version of the game is out already and if you have played it already, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Here are a few screen shots of the game.

This is a VERY simple trick that helps control those cables that are not plugged in from falling behind the desk. This is especially handy for people who often switch laptops, hard drives or cellphones and prevents having to fish out the plug when you need it again as they tend to slip behind the desk.

I keep a couple of these big binder clips attached to the back of my desk in order to hold cords and cables that I want to make sure don’t slide back behind my desk when they’re not attached to something. Since I’m frequently switching between laptops — disconnecting then reconnecting multiple cables — this technique has saved me a huge amount of time and frustration. No more grabbing at cables as they slip away behind the desk, then trying to fish them back up.

I use another one of these clips with my nightstand since I have several cables secured there, as well (phone charger, Kindle charger, and laptop cord).

Original

Google is reknown for launching brilliant services, offering it free to use with little if not any monetization model at all on the service, in then move on politely to kill the next big thing. They did this with mail with the launch of their GMail service, with Picasa, the photo management software and site, GTalk, the IM and VOIP service, etc. Disruptive technologies with high impact viral marketing from the geek world with their blogs, Twitter accounts and other sharing platforms work for Google.

Their latest offering is a stab at content sharing and uses GMail as a platform to house the technology and fuses the concepts of Google Wave, Twitter and GMail into a seamless inteface that is usable, easy to understand and practical.

The biggest advantage that it has to other services, is that all Google products use the same consolidated Contacts list. Google Buzz looks to integrate Twitter, Picasa, Flickr, YouTube, etc.

Here is a video released by Google to highlight the concept of Google Buzz:

GMail has really grown up since its launch as it now hosts mail, IM, docs, and now Buzz. Best of all, it’s available for mobile too!

I have been using the Nokia N900 for a few days now as a test unit sent to me from Nokia. This has not been my first encounter with the device, as I did get my paws on one of them for a few minutes a few months ago at a Nokia event, but this has certainly been my most intimate experience with the N900 so far.

Here are my thoughts:

1. Coooool!
2. WOW!
3. Freaking A!

It has been that great for me so far, that I will go as far as saying that it is definitely the best mobile device available. In fact, I have even wowed iPhone users while showing the N900 off.

Heres a list of what I like:

• Large readable, bright screen with light sensor
• Touch screen is responsive (more than the Nokia N97) and intuitive
• Menu system is logical and practical
• Switching between applications has never been as easy and well thought out as it is on the N900
• The processor and ram handled 7 active applications without affecting responsiveness of the device. (Two games, a browser, an augmented reality app, mail, a YouTube media player and the contacts engine)
• Instant Messaging integration is unchallenged as the best on any device with full contacts integration and aggregation of both presence and status messages across multiple IM platforms.
• Contacts management is BRILLIANT! (I was able to import all my GMail and Skype contacts onto the device’s Phonebook and merge this new set of data with existing contact information. This is the kind of thing that g33k mobile wet dreams are made of!)
• The Phonebook aggregates users presence and displays Profile pics from 3rd party services.
• Multiple home screens. (A feature that is logically brilliant but illogically left out of the Nokia N97)
• It runs on Linux, so you have access to a Terminal, it’ll be cheap and its open source.
• The well built sturdiness of the device and the firm well sized QWERTY keyboard.
• The bookmarks display small thumbnail images of the site that can be stored as widgets on the home screen
• The browser is quick and runs javascript (even badly written javascript) really well.

Naturally, after using the device for a few days, I have found a few things that I don’t like:

• The phone is bulky. I was a Nokia E71 user and I think that Nokia has proven that it can built powerful yet petit devices and that’s not what the Nokia N900 is. Powerful sure, but it needs a diet and a gym contract!
• The phone is permenantly in landscape mode unless it is in call mode. This is nifty for some applications as it maximises the screen real estate, but natural tendency is to use the phone in portrait mode. It’s a bit of a paradigm shift to use it landscape mode permanently!
• The device blocks the ability to dial any numbers that include * or #. (I tried purchasing an SMS bundle and could not as the ability to dial *111# is not allowed.) I am sure that while the devices are being tested by the networks, they will pick this up and have it fixed before it hits the SA market in any case.
• Mail for Exchange doesn’t work for me yet. This is a problem that I had with my N97 for a while, but after a firmware patch, nagging the Mail Product manager and a few hard resets of the phone, I got it to work)
• Only two profiles exist, General and Silent. I know that many people only use these two profiles, but as a Nokia fan for many years, I have come to use more profiles and make use of Meeting, Silent and General almost daily.
• MSN messenger was left out as a default IM service and it currently ships with GoogleTalk, Skype and Jabber services.
• The unlock slider position works while holding the device in landscape mode, but as a natural portrait mode phone carrier, it is easy to expect the unlock slider to be on the left of the device (the top) as this is where it is on the N97, however there you will find the power button and easily switch the phone off when thinking that you are activating the screen lock.

With that said, I have to admit that being in the fortunate position of working in the mobile industry, I have used iPhones, BlackBerrys, HTC’s, etc. And while I have always advocated that the N97 was an awesome device, I still secretly wished it had the slick interface of the iPhone with the added practicality of the N97. The Nokia N900 fits that profile and goes beyond my every expectation of a mobile handset. It truly is an awesome phone and I am going to have serious trouble getting used to my now plebish Nokia N97.

I will continue using the phone for a few more weeks, but will then have to give it back unwillingly to Nokia!

UPDATE:

I have managed to get Mail for Exchange to work. A little perseverance did the trick. It is now syncing my mail, calender, tasks and contacts without any problem via wifi. )