Sunday, May 5, 2013

How to choose a Microwave Oven?


Microwave Oven has become a "must have" appliance for every kitchen from a simple job of

It is very important to know basic things about the Microwave Ovens before you jump for buying a new one, as it could save you lot of money by choosing right type of Oven depending on your need.
warming frozen food, reheat packed food, bake cakes to even cook complicated dishes.
Microwave ovens are not just capable of warming or defrosting your frozen food items but it is more than that. Microwaves can cook the foods much quicker than a Gas stove or regular ovens and prepare your meals in a healthy way without loosing the nutrients.

Range of Microwaves:

They save your money by consuming less electricity, consume less time and prepare your food in a healthy way. Before buying a new Microwave Oven you should know what size suits you. Compact ovens are usually 500-800 watts powered while mid sized ovens 800-1000 watts. Full sized microwaves are powered by more than 1000 watts and can cook much faster.

Type of Microwave Ovens:

Microwave ovens are categorized into three types based on the cooking technology they use.
  • Solo
  • Grill
  • Convection

Solo:

These microwave ovens are called basic Microwave ovens as they can perform some basic
Solo Microwave
functions such as warming your food, defreeze the frozen items or even prepare the popcorn. These ovens can't cook whole meals. Only Plastic, glass and non metallic utensils are allowed to be used with this type of ovens. These ovens cost lower compared to other types of Microwave ovens.

Grill:

These microwave ovens have grill coils besides the microwave to cook the food, thus adding the grilling function to your microwave oven. The grilling function creates the roasting process thus helps in browning of the food. You can easily cook the chicken, make toasts etc in this type of ovens.
Grill Microwave

Convection:

These Microwave combine the cooking functions of micro waves, grills and a blower which blows hot air evenly inside the microwave oven. This type of Microwave oven is a complete cooking solution and can perform complex and multi-stage cooking.

You can bake things, make biscuits, cook full meals etc.
Convection Microwave

Based on Usage:

Home (Singles or Couple): A single home user or a couple needs a small sized Microwave with 20 litres capacity. It should perform some basic functions like reheating the pizza for dinner, cook instant noodles, make pop corn. Thus a Solo Microwave oven fulfills all these needs.

Mid-Sized Family: For a mid-sized family of 4-5 members a 25-30 litre grill or convection fulfill all the cooking needs. It can cook breakfast, reheat the already cooked food, instant cooking or prepare some delicious recipes.

Big Family or Small Bakery Shop: The convection microwave ovens bigger than 30 litres with flexible power level settings can perform the complex functions like baking, make patties, prepare biscuits and cakes which fulfill the needs of a small bakery shop or a huge family.

Google Glass? Now you can wear a Computer


   Sergey Brin Wearing Google Glass

Google Glass, recently launched by Google is a wearable computer with a head mounted display (HMD). A controversial Gadget which works like a Smartphone in a hands-free mode. Glass interacts with the internet by means of voice commands via natural language.

Replacing Eyeglasses Soon

Google glass does not have currently any lenses fitted to the frames, although the gadget resembles closely to the sunglasses. Google is actively searching for the partners and considering famous brands like Ray-Ban or Warby Parker for enabling Glass to match the prescription lenses of the wearer.
Google is even considering for offering the Glass through retail shops to allow customers try on this device. The explorer edition which has been launched by Google is available for $1500 for testers in United States.

Development

Glass has been developed by the Google X Labs, which worked on the driverless cars project. Babak Parviz is the project lead of Glass. The demo Glass resembles to a normal sunglasses and just weighs 8 pounds which is lighter than average eyeglasses. Future development will make it possible to allow integration of Glass in normal eyeglasses.

Explorer Edition

The explorer version of Glass is available for the consumers and developers and was made public on 20th February 2013. The explorer edition connects to the internet through wi-fi or to an Android, iPhone via Bluetooth.
Google Glass connects to iPhone and Android Phone by MyGlass companion app which was released on the same day.

Features

Glass has the ability to record videos and take pictures based on voice commands. When a recording starts a light flashes above the eye which is not noticed by the wearer. Glass is also capable to run many Google applications including the Google Maps, Gmail, Google Now, Google Translate, Google Plus etc.
Google Glass

For supporting third party extensions Google has already released the Mirror API which can be used by the Developers to create Glass apps. Using ads and charging fees for the Glass apps is not allowed by Google.

Voice Commands


Glass accepts the voice commands and performs the tasks based on these commands which are natural language commands.
Every command starts with "ok, glass, ....." For recording a video the command would be "ok, glass, record a video". For taking picture command is "ok, glass, take a picture"
For translation "ok, glass, say [text] in [any language]."

Specifications


The explorer edition of Glass uses Android 4.0.4 and there has been no word about the display resolution of the gadget yet. A 5 megapixel camera which is included can record HD video at 720p.
For connectivity there is Wi-fi 802.11 b/g and bluetooth. It has a storage of 16 GB and the RAM is 682MB.
The explorer edition of Glass can send the text message by pairing the device with a Android Phone or iPhone using Glass companion app on the phones. Glass also has its own compass but lacks the GPS receiver. To get location data it depends on the smartphone.

Glass is in controversy as this smart Gadget would violate the 4th Amendment Rights.


Saturday, May 4, 2013

Looking for a reason to ditch your iPhone? Here comes the Samsung Galaxy S4

Samsung Galaxy S4 is the Hot topic almost every where and is considered as one of the best Smartphone ever released by the Korean brand. Although the size of the phone has not changed from its predecessor and it still measures 69.8 x 7.9 mm but the size of the screen has been increased to 5 inch with Full HD resolution.


Galaxy S4 Hardware

The new Samsung Galaxy S4 compared to Apple iPhone 5 leads way ahead with its innovative
features and high resolution screen, better camera. iPhone 5 impresses though with aesthetic design and user friendly interface with a 4 inch Retina display and fast wi-fi connectivity.
Galaxy S4 has an impressive 1.6GHZ eight core Exynos 5 Octa processor and is also available with a Quadcomm Snapdragon 600 processor. There is a 2GB RAM installed. Besides the rear powerful 13 megapixel with 1080p HD video there is a 2 megapixel front camera. The internal storage of S4 ranges from 16GB to 64GB.
The memory can be extended further 64GB with an external SD card. The body is made of polycarbonate. The 5 inch 1920 x 1080 Full HD supporting AMOLED display can display at 441 ppi.


On the other hand, Apple iPhone has an attractive thin design with a faster chip compared to the iPhone 4 and improvements in wireless connections with its latest ultra fast wireless technology make this smartphone stand ahead among others The camera included is an 8 MP iSight Camera. Compared to Samsung Galaxy S4, the device is only 7.6 mm thin and weighs only 112 grams.
Apple iPhone 5 features a 1.3GHz dual core Apple A6 Plus processor. It has a 4 inch 1136 x 640 Retina display at 325 ppi. On the rear you will find a 8 megapixel camera with 1080p HD video and a front 1.2 megapixel camera. iPhone 5 has an internal memory of upto 64GB. The smartphone runs on Apple iOS 6.1.3 operating system.
LTE wireless technology has been introduced to speed up the data connections which provide an ultra fast connectivity. The supported networks included are HSPA, HSPA+, DC-HSDPA. The dual band 802.11n wireless connectivity boosts the speed upto 150 Mbps.

Conclusion

Talking about the software, Google has been pushing regular software upgrades which have reached many Samsung smartphones including Galaxy S4. There are no drastic hardware or Software changes expected from the Apple in near future as the iPhone 5 does not have the fastest processors nor does it match to Samsung's 5 inch HD display and 13 MP Camera. Apple is considering major hardware and feature upgrades in its new iPhone release to match and surpass the Samsung Galaxy S series.