Nintendo 3DS handheld will arrive in Japan on February 26, 2011

At the press conference where it announced the official launch date of February 26, 2011 for the Japanese market for the Nintendo 3DS handheld and the price of around $300 Nintendo has also offered some more information about the new device and confirmed that both Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid will be launched at the same time as the hardware. Unlike 3-D games for the PlayStation 3 or those utilizing NVIDIA's 3-D Vision technology, which adds three-dimensional special effects to PC titles, software for the Nintendo 3DS doesn't require the use of cumbersome stereoscopic glasses.

Everyday expectations also play to the 3DS' advantage, because players naturally anticipate smaller and/or less complex gaming experiences on handheld devices. This makes supporting games easier and more affordable to build for the unit, giving designers a leg up on 3-D game development. Instead of forcing manufacturers to push the technical bar to justify pricey living room upgrades, the Nintendo 3DS offers creators a platform to experiment. In this way, it offers simpler, more natural transitions between 2-D and 3-D adventures. Early feedback from gaming critics is promising. Nintendo's knack for making new technology engaging and user-friendly is evidenced by the success of systems like the motion-sensing Wii.

The Nintendo 3DS will also have a new tag functionality, which allows video games installed on the device to communicate with others while the console is in sleep mode. The device will even have a special light that will attention the user if the console passes another one which has data that can be shared.

The new BlackBerry PlayBook has the power to beat the iPad

As iPhones continue to impinge on traditional BlackBerry territory, Research in Motion (RIM) is countering with a competitor to Apple’s famed iPad – a tablet known as the PlayBook will be released in early 2011.

Internet access is available via WiFi or by sharing the wireless data service plan of a BlackBerry. Unlike the iPad, the PlayBook will offer full support for Flash, which means users won’t have to jump through hoops to view YouTube. At nine-tenths of a pound, the PlayBook is smaller and lighter than an iPad. Current iPads don’t offer built-in cameras, but the PlayBook will have dual high-definition cameras facing front and rear to allow video recording or video conferencing. The PlayBook is compatible with BlackBerry Enterprise Server, and offers secure corporate data access. Video playback will be available at 1080p, along with support for MPEG, DivX, and WMV formats.

The PlayBook will use the new BlackBerry Tablet operating system, which includes full multi-touch and gesture support. The PlayBook will ship with a 1 GHz dual-core processor, and will have four times the onboard memory of an iPad (1 GB RAM in a PlayBook versus 256 MB in an iPad). The operating system allows for full multitasking, meaning users won’t have to pause or shut down one another. The PlayBook will have a standard application to launch microUSB and micro HDMI ports, and the 7-inch screen will offer a screen resolution of 1024 x 600.

Some other Features :

MEDIA HANDLING:
The media engine in the PlayBook OS The PlayBook specs say it can handle 1080p video, and the screen has 1024 by 600 widescreen resolution; the media engine treats the screen as having both RGB and YUV layers and the hardware rendering can drive the RGB layer directly, whether it's going out to the HDMI port at 1080p or doing hardware blitting to scale video down to fit on screen.

ALPHA BLENDING:
The PlayBook treats the display as if it was two layers – and it can handle two displays. The YUV layer is 'on top' of the RGB layer so video controls can be alpha-blended on top of the video you're playing rather than being around it.

ALL LIVE APPS:
Each of the app windows you can see is a live, running app, not just a graphical preview. Apps can certainly have multiple windows and the composition engine that handles all the different windows is particularly sophisticated; Dodge calls it one of the key capabilities in the system. All these applications they all have their own renderers. So if it's an OpenGL game, it's rendered as OpenGL. WebKit is a software rasteriser, Adobe AIR apps rasterise on OpenGL.

Different rendering engines :
These programs all have different rendering engines that are rendering content to surfaces and the surface are controlled by the composition manager and handed out to the apps." And those multiple windows can actually be using more than one of the different application platforms that the PlayBook will run.

COMPOSITION:
You can have multiple apps, with multiple windows arranged on top of each other, each using a different renderer; the composition engine puts everything in the right place Unlike most smartphone apps (but like desktop OSs), not everything in a window has to fit on screen at once; a concept Dodge calls a viewport. "We can render something bigger than the screen and pan over it with smooth hardware scrolling; browsers do that a lot."

Though RIM has not yet announced pricing, but some analysts expect the PlayBook will be offered through the cell phone carriers that sell lackBerry smart phones. Others expect that the PlayBook will retail for approximately $499, which is the same as an entry level iPad.
Expectations like that are why Dodge says; "This isn't just another tablet;this is a killer tablet."
If RIM can deliver what he's promising the PlayBook will do (and developers pick up the ideas and create apps that match his grand vision), it's going to be truly impressive.

Charge your Cell phone with a beach towel

Scientists are improving on technology that would make it possible to generate energy by simply painting a liquid onto a surface, beach towel. Conventional solar cells are expensive to make. One type, for example, is made using a technique called vapour deposition, in which a photovoltaic material is laid down on a surface at very high temperatures, and often in a vacuum.

With a view to bringing costs down, Brian Korgel and colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a light-harvesting ink containing nanocrystals of copper indium diselenide. This can be sprayed onto a range of surfaces at room temperature using an airbrush. "It's essentially how you might paint your wall, except the pigment has a purpose," says Korgel.

The obstacle that Korgel and his team are currently trying to overcome is the rate of conversion; light into electricity: “Our best efficiency in the lab is just over 3 per cent,” he said. Photovoltaic liquids are only commercially viable if they convert at least 7 per cent, said Harry Atwater at the California Institute of Technology. To achieve a higher conversion rate the spray-on cells can be stacked on top of each other. This increases the rate to about 4.5 per cent.