Archive for the ‘Tech News’ Category

2011 Mercedes-Benz E-Class


21 Jan

Tags:
Posted in Tech News | Comments Off

When money is no option and comfort and style is everything, there is no other car to consider other than an E-Class Mercedes. Sure you could go for a Rolls Royce or Bentley, but when it comes to class, style, elegance and accessibility, Mercedes has it all. The silver star is the paragon of luxury, and the 2011 Mercedes-Benz E-Class is no different.

Visually, the class has changed little. The coupe now has a new grille and sits lower, and the AMG has larger wheels, but apart from that, it’s much the same as last year. New to the 2011 range is the E-class diesel sedan, station wagon and convertible.

Mercedes is following many other European manufacturers by supplying different vehicle for every conceivable lifestyle. Rather than making us adapt to our car, they build a car around our needs. It’s neat, but it’s a bit over the top. However, it does mean there is now more choice than ever before.

The new additions means the 2011 Mercedes-Benz E-Class range now has nine models to choose from. They are the 3.5-liter V6 E350 Coupe, and E350 Sedan, both with 268 bhp. The 3.0-liter turbo diesel V6 E350 BlueTEC Sedan producing 210 bhp. The awesome 5.5-liter V8 E550 Coupe with 382 bhp, the sensible E350 4MATIC Wagon, E350 Cabriolet, E550 Sedan, E550 Cabriolet and the range topping 6.2-liter V8 E63 AMG Sedan with produces an enviable 518 bhp.

The E-class is at the luxury end of the Mercedes range, which means they come well equipped. Standard on the 2011 Mercedes-Benz E-Class are, traction control, ABS with brake assist, keyless entry, power locks, auto climate control air conditioning, leather steering wheel with audio controls, CD player with radio and MP3, leather seats, heated mirrors, power driver and passenger seats. All cars are rear wheel drives, except the 4MATICs, with 7-speed automatic transmissions.

There are a whole raft of options including packages that can give you more buttons to play with than you could possibly want. Everything from night vision, panoramic sunroof, automatic parking to seats that massage you when you drive.

To drive in an E-class is to almost travel in your armchair. The cabin is so well-made that wind noise is almost non-existent. The seats are the right combination of comfortable and supportive and the driving position can be adjusted minutely to fit any driver of any size.

The materials are all high quality and every knob and switch feels solid and dependable. The navigation is logical and easy to use, It’s also quite visible in bright daylight, a couple of other manufacturers could learn from that!

On the road, each engine performs well. Even the diesel is quiet, and has enough torque to get you where you need to go without any fuss. Air suspension is standard and is tuned to absorb all but the bumpiest terrain. You don’t drive in an E-class, you waft. Breezing along in an effortless cocoon of luxury that is well worth the $50k plus investment.

Online generation gap dwindling!


21 Dec

Posted in Tech News | Comments Off

While internet users in the 15 to 35 age range still dominate most online activity, their older counterparts are quickly catching pace with a shot at social networking, online video, and Internet classifieds sites, according to a Phew Internet and American Life project study released on Thursday, December 16.

However, the younger folks, known as millennials, are more likely than older internet users to engage in social networking, instant messaging, online games, online music streaming, online classifieds, online virtual worlds, and reading blogs, while older users are not so far behind, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Some online activities are evenly popular across all age groups, such as e-mail, search engine use, searching for health information online, e-commerce, downloading podcasts, making donations, and getting news.

The 34 to 45 age range, also dubbed Generation X, are more likely than millennials to do things like visit government Web sites and get financial information online.

But while millennials are in charge of social-networking activity, the fastest growth on these sites has come from those 74 and older; from 4 percent in 2008 to 16 percent in 2010.

Very few activities have declined except blogging. The number of teenagers who write on a blog has dropped by half since 2006, which Pew linked to the growing popularity of social-networking sites.

“At the same time, however, the popularity of blogging has risen among most older generations, and as a result the rate of blogging for all online adults rose slightly in overall from 11 percent in late 2008 to 14 percent in 2010,” Pew said. “Yet while the act formally known as blogging seems to have peaked, Internet users are doing blog-like things in other online spaces as they post updates about their lives, musings about the world, jokes, and links on social networking sites and micro-blogging sites such as Twitter.”

Dell Location Pro Fingers On


12 Nov

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Tech News | Comments Off

Dell Venue Professional Fingers On

dell-venue-pro-wm7-phone1

 

The Location Pro could be the new Dell mobile phone that uses Windows 7, and is coming to a retailer close you. It has had a lot of media protection through the past week or so as it is Dell’s new flagship telephone. Regardless of that, it actually appears to be quite good. Taking into consideration the state of the prior Dell Aero and the Android phone they created for AT&T, it is going to have to become.

The Venue Pro smacks of being primarily a mobile phone for business users. It is solid, weighty and has a reassuring bulk about it that hints at longevity. It has a raised area on the back, and tough, scratch resistant glass on for the screen. It is the same material Dell uses on the Streak, so we know it works fairly effectively.

The Venue Professional just feels more like a corporate cellular than a sleek, shiny consumer unit. There isn’t anything in there especially for businesses users, not as far as we could see, but much like the Blackberry, even though consumers can still use them, they lack the appeal of your iPhone or others.

That said, the brand new Dell cell phone packs fairly a punch, whoever makes use of it. There’s a large 4.1” screen, which is ideal for the Windows 7 interface. While the screen size does make the cell phone a little bulky, it is much easier to see what’s going on, and to use the applications effectively. It’s a little larger than an HTC or LG Optimus, but not so much that it becomes unwieldy.

The phone comes with a QWERTY keyboard, with rounded raised buttons. Even pudgy fingers like mine could tap out a text message in a few seconds, and had no problem navigation my way round. Dell phones are relatively new, so we don’t know how hardy these guys are, but the solid construction gives us a feeling of confidence. Let’s just hope the electronics are up to the job.

The Venue Professional is a slider cell phone, which keeps the orientation vertical, which neatly circumvents the Windows 7 screen issue where it prefers portrait mode to landscape.
Hardware wise, it has a 1-GHz Qualcomm QSD8250 processor, a 5-megapixel camera, and 16GB of storage. This seems pretty standard for Windows phones right now, and so far has been more than capable of running the OS and applications.

With all the telephone comes some Dell telephone goodies, such as a year’s subscription to Pageonce Personal Finance. If you get it through T-Mobile you also get Netflix, T-Mobile TV, Slacker, Telenav and other apps. To get the cellphone through T-Mobile you’re going to have to order direct from Dell, as these aren’t going retail. No T-Mobile keep will have these in stock, so it is mail order only I’m afraid.

From our brief test, the Location Professional looks like a significant step forward for Dell phones. It is slick, quick, and appears perfectly capable of handling anything you can throw at it.