Warp

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Tas-Mania

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Northern Quolls

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Top Gadgets

WARP SCIENCE.

Are we all slowly going deaf?

Should cell phone jammers be allowed?

A look at signature courses in LASA

Background Art By Shreyan Bhansali

Is technology destroying culture?

Table of Contents

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The

Top 6

Awesome Gadgets

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Pg. 2 Staff

Biographies Pg. 3 Is Ezine for Everyone? Sam S. Pg. 6 Scitech Shmitech Peter H. Pg. 7 Exploring the Unknown Laeeq B. Pg. 9 Deaf Nation Peter H. Pg. 10 The Northern Quoll Sam S. Pg. 11 Lemur Species Rediscovered Sam S. 1 | WARP

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Pg. 15

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Jam or Not to Jam? Laeeq B. Pg. 13 Tas-Mania Peter H. Pg. 14 How Do Speakers Work? Peter H, Pg. 15 Techno: Oh No? Sam S. Pg. 17 iPod Evolution Laeeq B. Pg. 18 Top 6 Gadgets Laeeq B.

Contributors Peter H. Peter Hunt is a guy of monstrous vertical proportions.

At only 14 years of age, many people are shocked by his phenomenal height, often being forced to crane their necks to look up at him. However, he is a pretty cool bro to be around, if you don’t get sick of damaging your spine. He likes eating food and sleeping, which are hobbies that many of his friends share. In his spare time he likes to play video games and stab people with swords (fencing).

Laeeq B. Laeeq Bhatti is 15 years old and a freshman at LASA high school. He is usually pretty quiet. He enjoys reading Harry Potter and playing video games. The one thing he enjoys the most is sleeping. When sitting in a moving vehicle, it is pretty much useless to talk to him because he will be lost in thought while looking out the window. Laeeq very rarely listens to music. Laeeq is pretty adept at using technology.

Sam S. Sam Shook is a freshman at LASA, age 15. He is pretty tall, though not as tall as Peter Hunt (above). He enjoys doing math, science, writing, playing violin, reading, and studying history. As far as his personality, he’s actually pretty uninteresting, overall. He also enjoys playing Dungeons and Dragons, and the Chinese board game Go. He also plays video games. A lot. Like seriously, its almost constant playing of video games. It kind of creepy, to be honest.

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Is

E

zine for veryone?

At the Language Arts and Science Academy, there are many different classes to take, with something to appeal to people of every bent and view point.

There are, of course, courses that everyone has to take, same as every other school. A few of those classes are very different from what they offer at other high schools, namely E-zine and Sci-tech for freshmen.

Opinions on these classes are varied and diverse, from people who wish that they could take the class more than once, to people who wish they didn’t have to take it at all. There are many different feelings particularly on the topic of Ezine. For instance, William P, a freshman at LASA, found it difficult to get interested in the material, whereas Abdulkarim B thought that writing magazine articles and designing layouts was a fun, engaging and interesting idea, as long as the students learn what the teacher wants, when it comes to their writing. Many

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By Sam S.

people compare their experiences with the class in their own social group or circle of friends, but very few find out the opinions of those beyond them,or even that of their own teacher.

Ms. Young, one of the two Ezine teachers at LASA, likes and dislikes many things about the class she helped create. One of her main frustrations with the class is the simple vastness of the teaching material. She says that the programs are like a language.

“There are so many things you can do with them, that there is no way we could teach you every single thing about all the programs in one semester.” Young

“There are so many things you can do with them, that there is no way we could teach you every single thing about all the programs in one semester.” says there is simply no way to take every trick and nuance of Indesign and Photoshop, and cram it all in. She took several semesters of classes that taught using Indesign, and she still doesn’t

know all that there is to know about the magazine design program. In fact, during her time in this class, she has had to become the student just as much as any ninth grader.

As the students continue on in the class, it gets easier and easier to keep up with the inspiration layouts, according to Abdulkarim Bora, who finished the class only last semester.

“The third six weeks was the most fun, that’s the one where you work individually the most, there’s not a lot of Ms. Richey talking,” Abdulkarim says. He didn’t think the class was perfect, of course. His main problem was with the first article he had to write, the opinion piece.

“We wrote a rough draft, they gave us a pretend grade, and we had to correct it, and that’s how you improved it,” he says. He thought that the article was too rushed, that the class should have gone more stepby-step. He thinks the class does much better on the feature article.

First the students write their leads multiple times, in order to make sure Continued on page 5

Ezine Teacher Ms. Young, helping a student with the program InDesign. Ms. Young is one of the two teachers, along with Ms. Richey.

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that the lead will have the perfect hook. Then they write their nut graphs, detailing why their article will interest the reader. Finally, after everything else has been prepared, they write their body and conclusion paragraphs. He says that it is all very measured, and more drawn out.

Issues with article writing aside, one of his favorite aspects of the class was Indesign.

“Its kind of like a puzzle, trying to figure out how to duplicate the layout,” which he says helped make designing more fun and engaging.

Overall, he seems to have had a positive experience with the class, with some engaging and interesting projects and working together with his friends. He was even able

to use many of the writing skills he learned while taking the class other places, especially when writing essays in English class. William Phillips, another student at LASA, wasn’t quite as enamored with the class.

His first, and biggest, problem with the class, was that it was simply too easy for him.

“I worked around 30 percent of the time in that class, and I did fine, as far as grades,” he said. He wishes that the material could have been more indepth, more interesting. He also had some issues with the programs involved.

He didn’t think that any of them were user-friendly enough, or customisable at all. He never used Photoshop unless absolutely necessary, largely preferring MS Paint for the photos he put in his articles.

“Its just an awful program.” he said.

He said that the programs were unwieldy, the work unengaging, and the class too easy.

There are classes which are mandatory, much like all other centers of learning. A portion of these courses are quite dissimilar from those offered at other secondary institutions, particularly Sci Tech and Ezine for 9th graders. Views concerning these educational opportunities are divergent and interesting, with some people desiring the opportunity to enroll in the course multiple times, to some people who wish they were not required to participate in the course in the first place. For more information on Ezine, look at the website on lasaezine.blogspot. com. 8

Ms. Young’s Ezine classroom. Ms. Young teaches half of the Ezine classes, while Ms. Richey teaches the other half.

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Sci Tech

There is a wide variety of courses to enroll in at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy (LASA), each with angles to attract various personalities and interests. Quite logically, there are classes that each person is required to take, much like the other advanced educational programs in the community. Some of these learning experiences are quite dissimilar from those at other schools, specifically Sci Tech and Ezine. Thoughts about these courses are different and, at times, obscure. Some people want to enroll multiple times, while others dread even taking the class the first time.

In order to get as much as you can, educationally, out of LASA, it is important to have the best knowledge possible before going in, in order to be best equipped to handle the challenges you will face. This applies, in particular, to Sci Tech, which will test just about everything you have been taught prior to your entrance into LASA. Sci Tech is a mandatory class for LASA freshmen, designed to simu-

late real world engineering, and the challenges that this can pose. The class isn’t all theoretical engineering and physics, those enrolled actually go into the “shop”, where they construct the device that they have designed, and test it out, to see if it accomplishes what ever task was required of it.

The class has some very aspects to it and is, for the most part, well received. “I’m lovin’ it,” says Martin Hass, who is thoroughly enjoying the class. Being able to build things was a big part of Martin’s satisfaction with the class, saying “It gives you a chance to come up with an idea and actually create it.”

There wasn’t anything Martin disliked about the class, but he gave a warning to future students: “I wouldn’t like it if I had a bad partner, because you do so much group work. Everybody has to pull their weight. I have heard stories from my brother and my friends about groups with really bad partners, and they never get anything done.”

Unfortunately, everyone does

By Peter H.

not share this positive opinion.

“It seems like they hyped it up to much and caused undue stress,” says freshman Daniel House, who felt the class was too rigorous, and overly stressful at times. “I really feel that they could make it have a more chill attitude.” These comments should be taken with a grain of salt, however. Daniel also commented on what he would rather do, wanting to “pretend to work” rather than actually participate.

Sci Tech is a class that is very work intensive, but one that can be rewarding nonetheless.

Students get to do a lot of work in the shop, which most people believe is the best part of the class. Unfortunately for the students, however, there are several large projects that they have to complete in a single semester. For information, email us at jesusfishsticks@gmail. com. 8

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PLANET EARTH

Preparing for the Unknown

By Laeeq B.

How do the physical properties of the Earth affect the living world or the relationship between the beginning of time and now? This is what the class Planet Earth is based around. Planet Earth is a signature course at LASA and all sophomores are required to take it. However, if you ask any freshman about it, they probably won’t be able to tell you a thing about the course or what it’s about yet they should know since they’re going to take it next year.

To get as much as education as you can from the courses at LASA, you must get as much knowledge as you can about the course before going in. This also applies for Planet Earth, a mandatory class taught at LASA during sophomore year.

“Planet Earth looks at the planet and life and traces the relationship between the beginning of life and now,” says Tim Fennell, one of the teachers of the course who also helped to design it. “We look at the most plausible and testable theories of the beginning of life.” Claire Barrett, another teacher of the course, says, “The class looks at how the physical world affects the living world and also looks at geology and ecology”.

Planet Earth (like SciTech) starts out with a month of lectures and small group activities. Afterwards, students are mostly left on their own to do their research and work by themselves. Students are not left without the aid of the teachers, though.

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“There is a conference system setup for students to ask teachers questions they may have while the others continue to work,” Mr. Fennell says.

One of the theories studied during the course includes something called the K-T Extinction, which states that dinosaurs became extinct when an asteroid collided with Earth, making living conditions unbearable for many species. The class then conducts research for a project and chooses a side on whether or not a defense system should be made in order to defend Earth from another collision.

Another project conducted during Planet Earth is the Biodiversity project, which consists of students designing and completing a real field study in which the relationship between the physical environment of any chosen organism and the biodiversity of the Austin area is analyzed. The students get to choose only one organism and one city park to study in and the students usually work in small groups.

Planet Earth is a course that contains much work but can easily be conquered with a little preparation. According to various students, the good thing about this course is that there are three field trips. There is still a lot of work, though, as two huge projects are squeezed into one semester and Ms. Barrett says, “The class is effort and willingnessbased and requires a bit of the students’ own time in order to do well.”

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This is Ms. Barrett’s classroom where Planet Earth is taught. It is located behind Ms. RuchFlynn’s room. Planet Earth requires the students to work rigorously in order to do well but they are usually put into groups to split the work.

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Deaf Nation

By Peter Hunt

Every day, millions of Americans put on their headphones and crank up the volume. Sure, everyone is doing it. But then, thats what they said about smoking. And then they found out smoking was killing you. Go figure.

While it is perhaps not as relevant as the War in Afghanistan or Global Warming, hearing damage won’t be statistically noticeable until it is too late to prevent. Thus, it seems it would be wise to preempt this problem.

85 decibels (dB) is the threshold of potential hearing damage. At 85 dB, the sound can cause hearing damage after nine hours. At 88 dB, the time is cut to about five hours. At 115 dB, the average dB level of a loud concert, it takes less than 30 seconds. iPods can get up to about 106 dB, which can cause permanent ear damage after only four minutes a day. That’s four minutes of music for a lifetime of silence.

Since the dawn of rock in the 1940s, people have loved loud music. And, since the dawn of rock, the percentage of people affected by Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) in the US has been steadily rising. according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the Center for Disease Control. The chances of this being pure coincidence are minute. And the volume keeps going up. The American Family

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Physician reports that loud headphones can reach 110 dB, and rock concerts 120.

But how the hell do we fix the problem, eh? Are we going to tell Picasso that he can’t listen to his hard rock? I don’t think so. I love me some loud music just as much as the next guy, but I don’t want to end up deaf at 30, and I doubt anyone else does.

The real problem is why people are turning it up in the first place. Many people use music as a way to blank out the rest of the world, a way to shut out the other people when they are on a bus or a train. Part of the reason they make the music as loud as they do is because their headphones don’t block out much of the other sound, which means they have to turn it up even higher to hear only the music.

What we really need are to standardize ear buds that block out extra sound.

But, some may ask, what about concerts? Those can blast your ears out in just a few seconds. The answer is, just don’t go to them every single day of our life. Your ears, while easily damaged, do heal.

Most people can take 130 dB for about one hour every two months or so without too much of a lasting effect.

Loud music is sweeping through our lives. We know it’s there, heck, we want it to be there. But it’s making us deaf, and only you can stop it.

The Northern Quoll

Sam S.

A new type of training could save a rare species.

Art by Shuttergirl3 and Michael Barritt, at Flickr Nezumi Dumousseau at Wikimedia Commons.

This creature is called a quoll. A native species in Australia, many varieties of this group are beginning to die out due to human influence and the introduction of alien species. One such species is the cane toad, an animal that quolls like to attack and eat. The problem is, the toads are highly toxic, and a large enough one will kill a quoll. This has almost completely wiped out the northern quoll, and they are moving towards their last stronghold. Luckily, a group of scientists in Australia have potentially found a solution. In an experiment, these scientists have managed to get certain quolls to associate the eating of a cane toad with feeling sick and nauseous. When tested with a live cane toad, albeit too small to kill a quoll, the ones who associate getting sick with the toads were much less likely to attack it. This smell training could potentially the savior of the northern quolls. However, this solution can only be temporary. As it is, smell trained quolls do live much longer

than those quolls that haven’t been, and are less likely to attack a cane toad. Still, just because its less like doesn’t rule it out. As it is, its up to the people of Australia to save this nearly extinct creature. The quoll has lost 75 percent of its popula-

A quoll in its native habitat, Australia

tion to humans and invasive species such as the cane toad over the last centrury, and they are projected to continue this trend in the years to come, unless conservation is successful.

As it is, there isn’t much hope left for the northern quoll.

A stuffed specimen of a related species, the western quoll

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Lemur Species Rediscovered

Sam S. Sam S.

A rare kind of dwarf lemur refound.

in London. Further looks into this kind of lemur has shown that, genetically, it is much more different from the other species than the other species are from each

other. Potentially, the Sibree’s dwarf lemur could be the closest living relative to the original dwarf lemur species, and thusly would be immensely useful for study of the lemurs as a whole.

Unfortunately, there are esti-

mated to be only about a thousand of these lemurs still alive, though conservation efforts will hopefully step up with the rediscovery. 8

This March the Hottest on Record, study shows.

It appears that, taking in land and ocean temperatures from all over the world, the march of 2010 was officially the hottest on record. The recorded average temperature for the entire planet over the course of the month was 56.3 degrees fahrenheit. While that doesn’t sound like a very warm month, keep in mind that’s factoring in the temperature from all over the world, from Siberia to the Sahara. When you factor that it, in seems like a much higher temperature. 8

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Art by Adam Britt at Wikimedia Commons, and Phault at Flickr

Sibree’s dwarf lemur is one of the rarest species of lemur around. Originally discovered in 1896 in eastern Madagascar, the lemur’s only known habitat was destroyed. Until just recently, the species was thought to have gone extinct, until now. Just recently in Tsinjoarivo Madagascar, a man observing the dwarf lemurs present noticed that, instead of a single species, there were in fact more than one species of dwarf lemur present in the area.

Further study confirmed that there were two species in the area. One, was a fairly common type of dwarf lemur, known as Crossley’s dwarf lemur. The other, however, was more of a mystery. It was eventually confirmed to be extremely similar if not the same as the only known specimen of Sibree’s dwarf lemur, which is currently owned by The Natural History Museum

JAMMIN’: IS IT ALL THAT? QUESTIONING THE LEGALITY OF CELL PHONE JAMMING DEVICES

By Laeeq Bhatti

Photo by Mike Licht

It is a nice day while walking down the sidewalk and talking on a cell phone with a friend. All of a sudden, the call is dropped and the cell phone has no signal. Why is this happening? It’s because someone is using a cell phone-jamming device to block the calls! This is all happening because it is legal for the public to own cell phonejamming devices. For some reason, people think cell phone users can become obnoxious and will not turn their cell phones off even when they are supposed to turn them off. Despite this, I believe that cell phone-jamming devices should not be made available for the public because the vast majority of the population would be against this law, there can be emergencies in which cell phones are necessary, and people have the right to use cell phone wherever and whenever they please.

When the population hears about a ludicrous law that allows anyone to own and use a cell phone-jamming device, most if not all of it will

be against this. The only people that would try to defend this are those who find cell phone users annoying and extremely talkative especially where cell phones should be turned off or at least silenced. Besides, the FCC doesn’t have the power to declare cell phone jamming devices legal because it would be going against the statute 47 U.S.C. 333: No person shall willfully or maliciously interfere with or cause interference to any radio communications of any station licensed or authorized by or under this chapter or operated by the United States Government. If the FCC went against this and the people knew about it, they’d probably be thrown out of office which is why they probably wouldn’t dare to make these devices available for the public.

While you’re in a restaurant, the person right in front of you starts choking on his steak and you proceed to call 911. You then notice that your cell phone has no signal because it is being jammed. Because you couldn’t call 911, the

man has gone into a critical condition. Imagine if it was you jamming the cell phone. Emergencies like these could occur anywhere at any time and if a cell phone is being jammed, the situation could easily worsen. Others may argue that there is a small chance of there actually being an emergency and that this is the worst-case scenario.

However, even though it may be the “worst-case scenario”, there’s still the possibility of this happening and it should not be ignored.

Don’t you think you should have the right to use a phone wherever and whenever you want? No one has the right to meddle in my life and tell me where and when I can talk on my cell phone. As long as no one tells me what to do, I’m happy.

In return, I will gladly agree to turn off my cell phone or at least silence it if I’m expecting an important phone call and will take the call outside if necessary. Approaching those with talking problems by asking them to turn off their cell phone or even confiscating it if they refuse to stop helps.

(Top) A portable cell phone jammer with a small radius of 5 ft. (Bottom) Example of a “No cell phones allowed” sign, (Right) Example of a cell phone being jammed by a portable cell phone jammer.

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How Do Speakers Work?

By Peter H. Basket

Magnet

Voice Coil

Diaphragm

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art by mightyohm at flickr.com

art by Roadisde Guitars at Flickr.com

Speakers are an ingenious invention, capable of turning something as simple as a binary signal into a series of intricate sounds.

The first thing to understand when learning how speakers work is how humans perceive sound. “Sound� is heard when movement causes the gases around the object to shift, making a sort of ripple through the air. This ripple is then picked up by your ear, which sends the series of compressions and decompressions to your brain.

Speakers have several parts that they use in order to make sound. There is a voice coil, a diaphragm, a basket, a magnet, and generally some sort of suspension. The voice coil is one of the most important parts, and is a simple wire, set up as an electromagnet. The voice coil is connected to the diaphragm, and is situated above the main magnet. The diaphragm is suspended in the basket by the suspension. This is the basis of a speaker that is making no noise. When this speaker is then hooked up to an electrical wire carrying a signal, the voice coil will change in polarity, causing it to either shift away from or move towards the magnet.

This happens repeatedly, each movement in quick succession, depending on what sort of signal is coming from the wire.

This rapid movement of the voice coil causes the diaphragm to move forward and back very quickly, causing the same sort of rippling affect than any other kind of sound will cause. Once the signal is terminated, the polarity changes stop, and the diaphragm stops moving,

Lower right: BotherByBees, Flickr..com Lower left: Jgritz, commons.wikimedia.org Top: Lemon Sunrise, tolweb.org

Ta s - M a n i a Tasmanian Devils are one of the most adorable things you will ever see. It is a pity, then, that they are becoming endangered. Tasmanian devils have been suffering from serious mouth tumors since about 1996, which has been the main source of their massive population decline, which some estimates put at as much as 50%. The disease mostly effects high density populations of Tasmanian devils, and after 18 months has a virtually guarantied mortality rate. Originally, the devils were a low concern population, but were classified in 2009 as endangered, almost entirely due to the ravaging tumors. The tumors seem to be a transmissible cancer, meaning that they are contagious and can be spread by proximity. This disease is particularly devastating because of the very small band of genetic diversity in the population, particu-

larly in the genes for various parts of the immune system. Mutations are rare, allowing diseases adapted to the populations, such as devil facial tumor disease, to take hold and remain active for long periods of time.

Estimates of the total population at this time don’t go any higher than 100,000 individuals, at the most liberal. Action is being taken by manygovernmental branches in Tasmania, including the Tasmanian Department of Primary Indus-

By Peter H.

tries and Water, which has done culling experiments on devil populations with some success.

Despite scientists best efforts, however, it is predicted that, the species will become extinct by 2035. 8

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A look into technology, and how it effects different cultures. Or, its lack of effect.

By Sam Shook

Technology is killing culture. At least, that’s what Andrew Keen said in his book, The Cult of the Amateur: How the Internet is Killing our Culture. All of these tweets, facebooks, and myspaceses are slowly sucking all of the different cultures into a technological singularity, with no thought or originality!!!111!!!1!!!one!! …at least, that’s what they say. The truth, however, is more complicated.

Logically, the idea seems sound. As all of these different cultures, with people from Asia to the

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Art by StockVault.net

Techno: Oh no?

Americas, meet together and mesh with one another, smaller ones might get absorbed into larger ones, as they are flooded with ideas and culture from other places in the world. In the process, they may well lose their own identity as a culture, and join the mainstream world. However, there is a problem there.

Many people are proud of their own, unique culture.

When they see all of these other myriad cultures, so different from their own, they may be able to see how unique their own really is. Not only that, but as more mainstream cultures meet the smaller ones, they see the value of that culture, and how interesting some of its practices can be. The other people outside of this small culture might adopt its practices, and the culture would become well known in the global community.

When it comes down to it, the idea of destroying culture and removing it from existence is ridiculous. Cultures aren’t destroyed, just mixed and recombined with others, to create all new ones, while the old ones still remain whole where they originated. This doesn’t destroy any cultures, and in fact creates all new ones. By this idea, there really is no way to destroy a culture, technology or no. When you look at it that way, the entire argument relating to the destruction of culture becomes invalid.

Even then, many people like Mr. Keen would complain that the mixing is a horrible thing, and nothing good could come from it, in the end. Well, for a good real world example of what happens when culture mix, just look at America! The United States has long been called the great Mixing Pot. Asian

foods meet European Architecture, as various fashion styles from the world over mix together to create new trends and styles. That certainly makes for a positive example of what happens when various cultures are brought together to create something new. Many people in America participate in this mixing, while still observing their culture’s original traditions, or religious practices. While this mix might not be so much physical as digital on the Internet, like it is in America, the basic principle of the matter still stands strong.

Even that argument becomes irrelevant when you consider the basic definition of culture. Culture is, according to Dictionary.com, the common practices of a group of people. Well then, there could be a technology user’s culture. An Internet culture. That way, those people who spend a lot of time on the internet become a part of the Internet user’s culture, while their time away from the computer or iphone is spent as part of the culture they grew up with. The different cultures can coexist peacefully, without having to compete for existence with each other.

Well, now the other part of the reality of technology and culture is revealed. Certainly, there may be a certain kernel of truth in their ideas, but the direction they take with it is flawed. So, the next time you hear or read a rant about the evils of technology, and how it is destroying our treasured culture, you’ll know both sides of the argument, and make an intelligent decision about technology and culture.8

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The iPod - What It Is and Could Become A look at the history of the iPod, its evolution, and the future The iPod - Everyone knows what it is. It is the most used music player nowadays. You’d stick out like a sore thumb if you didn’t know what it was. Let’s take a look at the history of this device, what it is now, how it could become in the future, and its possible competition.

PAST: THE BEGINNING OF THE IPOD

PRESENT: THE IPHONE AND IPOD TOUCH Now, there are several kinds of iPods available for purchase. There is the iPod Nano, iPod Touch, iPhone, and the iPod Classic (a high capacity version of the original). The iPod Touch and iPhone feature touchscreens that can be used for a variety of functions including installing various apps and playing games.

Apps, songs, and videos can be purchased from iTunes directly from the iPod. The iPod Nano now includes a small camera and comes in a variety of colors. The iPod has truly evolved from what it originally was.

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Photo by Niallkennedy

Who can remember the first iPod released in 2001? Indeed, this is the original model of the iPod. This is what made Apple’s line of products such a success. This device could be used to play MP3 files while also be used for file storage. Apple noticed that existing music players were either “large and clunky or small and useless with unbelievably horrible user interfaces” so they decided to create their own music player, the iPod.. 2 years later, the iTunes store opened and could be used to purchase music and download it directly to the iPod. iTunes became very popular and many artists uploaded their work on the program. With the first iPod and the iTunes software, Apple’s line of music players became unstoppable and competitors found themselves in a tough spot.

FUTURE: WHAT’S TO COME? Rumor has it that the next iPod Touch will be revealed during the summer.

There have already been many “leaks” of pictures but most of them feature completely different designs and do not have consistency. Another rumor also says that the next iPod Touch will also feature a small camera which is already included in the iPhone. This, however, seems unlikely as it is one of the selling points of the iPhone and will lessen the iPhone’s value if offered in the iPod Touch. The iPod Touch and iPhone are not alone in this market, though, as competition is starting to arise. This includes the Nexus One, the Motorola Droid, and others.

DVD Players of the Future Philips’ newest portable DVD player features a new twistable screen and can also catch signals to watch DTV. It does not, however, have HD resolution.

Credit: Philips

Small Cams

By now, everyone has heard of the ever so popular Flip camera which can upload directly to YouTube.

Now comes the newest addition in the line called the Flip Ultra HD. As you can probably guess, it can record videos in high definition. It is now available for purchase in stores.

The

Courtesy Louis Volant

Top 6 Some Awesome Gadgets

Typing with Ease The iType keyboard - Unveiled at CES 2010 (Consumer Electronics Show), the iType keyboard connects to either the iPhone or iPod Touch and is used a giant keyboard that is easy to use. It eases the tension on the user of having to squint at the really small screen to see all the letters and then accidentally touching the wrong letter. The iType keyboard was developed

by Ion and is yet to be released.

BY LAEEQ B.

Gaming in Style Project Natal - Microsoft’s latest effort in improving the XBOX 360. It uses a camera to sense motion and allows the user to control the XBOX without using any buttons or controllers whatsoever. It is due out in the 2010 Holiday Season.

Apple’s New Toy Ah, Google...

The Google Nexus One - Google’s phone is not exactly new anymore but it is still pretty nice. It features a touch screen and can be bought by TMobile customers.

The iPad - The Tablet PC from Apple which connects to the internet via a cell phone signal. Everyone nowadays knows what it is. It can also be used as a giant iPod. It is also available in a 3G version which connects to the provider on a 3G connection. It also varies according to capacity of the hard drive.

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