Vizio ventures into the PC market with new “Thin and Lights” and “All-in-ones”

Vizio, known for its HDTVs and LCD displays, has decided to manufacture some computers. And from the looks of it, it does not take a seasoned computer brand to make a beautiful machine.

The company had the chance to tease us at CES this year with a look at some of its creations and true to their word, they are going on sale. In America at least. Up for grabs are two “Thin and Lights” 14 and 15 inch versions packed with Ivy Bridge, USB 3.0 probably a lot of battery life.

Brings back memories of the old Vaios

The company do have a 15″ “regular” laptop too. It is packing some sort of nvidia Kepler graphics, although it is unknown which particular one but one can make a guess and say it is likely going to be the same GT 650m seen in the new MacBook Pros.

Vizio is also releasing some all-in-one PCs and the design is truly one to behold.

Clean...so clean.

With sleek metallic finishes and what looks like edge-to-edge glass displays, I think we have just witnessed just how much thought America’s #1 LCD HDTV Company has put into these products. The question remains, how soon can folk this side of the Atlantic expect to even just admire one in person let alone own one? Oh, and how much will any of them cost?

Bank Cards a Thing of the Past?

Yes, I know that we can just use phone banking or internet banking to get things done, but you can’t withdraw cash into your hand like that. The only way to do that is to go to an ATM/branch and use a bank card. But now banks are attempting to move away from plastic and on to something more electronic. The answer? Smartphones.

Smartphone

New technology has been unveiled that will allow people to use a banking app to withdraw cash from their smartphones. At the moment this service is only available to those who bank with NatWest or Royal Bank of Scotland, but if it all goes well then expect more banks to take the initiative and implement these banking apps for all of their customers.

This is simple to use as all it requires is a password and a withdrawal code. In an attempt to prevent thieves looking over somebody’s shoulder the withdrawal code will remain hidden until the user taps the screen. The inspiration for this is from an emergency cash service. This emergency cash service enables users to withdraw a certain amount of cash from an ATM without using their bank cards.

As we can all see, the number of new initiatives designed to cut down on plastic and paper are all working to turn money into a digital commodity. Is this a bad thing though? Probably not. If we take a look at physical money then it can easily be lost. All it takes is a stumble and some coins can fly down a drain. For the banks it’s even better as they don’t have to deal with getting lots of plastic to their customers. It also means that it’s not an issue if the card isn’t brought in as the phone can be used instead. And people always seem to remember their phones as they are eternally texting or making pointless calls on it.

On the other hand, it could be argued that it will increase the chances of theft and fraud. It takes a lot of bravery to go out and hold up someone for their wallet, and that’s exactly why most people won’t do it. But if it can be done through a bit of watching or from computers then more people are going to do it. Furthermore, if this can be done from a computer, which online transactions are already at risk of, then how can we stop fraudsters if they are abroad? Simply put, we can’t. It might be more convenient but the risk of fraud does increase slightly.

Do I think it makes any difference though?

Not at all. Digital money is the future and it’s something that people have predicted many times before. If I had to make a prediction then I would estimate that it should take about 20 years for us to see the complete elimination of plastic bank cards, and that’s a generous amount of time.

Money

FURY MMA 5 LONDON JUNE 10th

FURY MMA – 10th June 2012

FURY MMA was held on Sunday June 10th at The Coronet Theatre at The Elephant & Castle, London. The capital city could not have been a better place to host this night of action-packed fights including two battles for the FURY MMA Lightweight Belt and The FURY MMA Heavyweight Belt. Heavyweight stuff? Damn right. Promoters Steve and Dan had obviously put a lot of thought into this fight card which showed as the night of great action unfolded.

Thanks to Sponsors Uncaged and Cage Hire UK, without the sponsors these events would be few and far between.
Cage Girls Carmela, Jazz and Jessica added the glamour for the evening but were not just pretty faces and were a credit to LSA. Thanks to Judges Huseyin Garabet and Sam Amidi, Ring announcer Jim Greenan and Officials Dan Movahedi and last but certainly not least Garth Harriman. On the scene was London Ambulance Service who attended to any injured fighters.

The Dan and Stephen Interview with Fury Co-Owners Dan and Stephen

FURY MMA INTERVIEW

C.A.U.K. would like to thank our friend Adam Parrot of Katana Clothing for helping us out by letting us use his review. Big up the Adam check out our favourite T shirts at www.katana-clothing.com

Heavyweight Title Fight


Paul Saunders vs. Tomasz Czerwinski
Neither fighter was in the mood for the feeling-out-process, engaging in a frantic brawl right from the off. Czerwinski backed Saunders up against the fence, but Saunders was able to reverse the position. From the clinch Czerwinski fired off a series of knees to his opponent’s abdomen and escaped off the cage, before uncorking a thunderous straight-right that had Saunders staggered and on the back foot. A few more shots from the Polish giant were all that was needed to separate the Brit from his senses and leave him crumpled on the mat.
Tomasz Czerwinski defeats Paul Saunders by KO – Rnd 1 1:09 – to become the Fury MMA heavyweight champion.

To watch the fight follow the link below

Cageamateursuk.com

 

Co Main Event

Vitor Silva vs. Nigel Whitear
Despite a tentative start from both fighters, this lightweight title clash between Silva and Whitear was a gruelling back and forth battle with plenty of excitement. Whitear came close with a looping overhand-right late in the first, then slipped the jab and followed up with a series of leg kicks. Silva managed to catch one kick and drove his opponent to the floor, where he unleashed a barrage of vicious shots. Whitear looked to secure an arm bar just as the first round came to a close.
A spinning back fist from Silva got the second round off to a flying start. Whitear responded with a leg kick, which Silva was able to catch and slam his opponent to the mat and fire off several quick shots before Whitear was able to scramble back to his feet. This time it was Whitear’s turn to catch his opponent’s kick and he managed to connect with a straight-right to the chin that had the Brazilian reeling back against the cage. Silva shot in for the takedown, but Whitear managed to wind up in top position, where he went to work with a brutal display of ground and pound that soon had Silva bloodied up. Despite visibly looking rocked, Silva was able to latch onto his opponent’s leg and ride out the remainder of the round.
Whitear opened the third stanza by landing a crisp 1-2 combo, Silva looked for the takedown, but Whitear just shrugged him off. Using his jab to pepper the face of his opponent, Whitear seemed to step up a gear and began to take the fight to Silva. A spinning back fist from Whitear was partially blocked by Silva, who then shot in for the takedown. Whitear was able to out-power the tired Brazilian and worked his way into top-position just as the buzzer signalled the end of the fight.
Nigel Whitear defeats Vitor Silva via unanimous decision and is crowned the new Fury MMA lightweight champion.

 

Mak Mwanza vs. Gary Duffy
Duffy landed a leg kick early on, but Mwanza clinched and backed his opponent up against the fence. A slam from Duffy took the action to the ground and despite landing in his opponent’s guard, Mwanza was able to escape off the bottom and look for a darce choke. Duffy did a good job of scrambling back to his feet, but found himself locked in a standing guillotine just as the first round drew out.
Both fighters came out swinging in the second round. Duffy was able to trip his opponent to the mat, but Mwanza managed to roll free and take Duffy’s back and lock in a rear-naked choke. Duffy worked valiantly to roll over as he tried desperately to work himself free by kicking off the side of the cage, but with no options left he had no choice but to tap.
Mak Mwanza defeats Gary Duffy by tap out due to a rear-naked choke – Rnd 2 0:29
Paula Donnelly vs. Khadija Nathaniel
In the solo female MMA bout of the evening, Donnelly and Nathaniel set pulses racing with a relentless back and forth battle that took place over every square inch of the cage. As the fighters touched gloves, Nathaniel wasted no time in launching her assault and trading punches with Donnelly. From the clinch, Donnelly was able to back her opponent up against the fence, where Nathaniel found herself having a point deducted for repeatedly grabbing the cage. Nathaniel was able to finish the round strong by taking her opponent to the ground, where she worked her way into full mount, but just as time ran out in the first.
Again, Nathaniel came out all guns blazing and throwing an overhand-right. Donnelly was able to press her opponent back against the cage where, after repeated warning, she was docked a second point for continuously grabbing hold of the fence. As the action resumed, Donnelly took her opponent down and quickly transitioned into the crucifix position and began raining down blows to her opponent’s head. Nathaniel managed to power out and work her way back to the feet as the second round came to a close.
In the third and final round, neither fighter eased off the pace. Nathaniel came out with her trademark overhand-right, but Donnelly was able to tie her up and wrestle Nathaniel back against the cage. From the clinch, Nathaniel fired off a few quick knees to the body and Donnelly responded by taking the fight to the ground. Nathaniel was able to latch onto her opponent’s neck and looked to work for a guillotine choke, but Donnelly successfully worked her way into full mount and unleashed with some heavy hammer-fists. Nathaniel was able to wriggle free and scramble back to her feet. Both fighters finished the round, swinging furiously until the final buzzer.
Paula Donnelly defeats Khadija Nathaniel by unanimous decision

Nathan Shark vs. Jason Black
Shark came out quick with a leg kick, but Black checked the kick and shot in for a takedown. Fighting off of his back, Shark locked in an arm-in guillotine, but Black was able to wriggle free, and as he did, Shark latched onto his opponent’s arm and secured the arm bar for a quick submission finish.
Nathan Shark defeats Jason Black by arm bar submission – Rnd 1 0:52

Roger Griffin vs. Jarvis Gray
Gray come flying out of the gate with a left hook that just whizzed past Griffin’s temple. Griffin attempted a single leg take down, but Gray was able to keep his balance. Gray scored a takedown attempt of his own and quickly transitioned into full mount with his opponent pinned against the fence. Griffin does well to scramble free and get back to his feet, but again the fight spills to the floor with Griffin now in full-mount. Gray escapes from off the bottom and as he tries to scramble back to his feet Griffin is able to take his back and sink in a rear-naked choke for the submission finish.
Roger Griffin defeats Jarvis Gray by rear-naked choke submission – Rnd 1 1:47

Bill Beaumont vs. George Chase
Chase took the centre of the cage, but Beaumont landed first with a crisp 1-2 combination. After a brief exchange of leg kicks, Beaumont pushed the fight against the cage and begun to pour it on with shots to the body and head. Chase looked to be visibly stunned and a cut had opened up on his face. Chase pulled guard and attempted a guillotine choke, but Beaumont was able to work his way into half-guard and set about to attacking the ribs and the head of his opponent. The referee called for a break in the action for a doctor to inspect the cut on Chase’s brow, and after a brief discussion with the referee the fight is stopped.
Bill Beaumont defeats George Chase via doctor stoppage due to a cut – Rnd 1 2:47

Jamie Ings vs. Stephen Black
Black immediately backed Ings up against the cage and shoots for the takedown. Ings was able to reverse the position and wind up in top-position before transitioning to full mount, where he opened up with a brutal display of ground and pound, landing with precision perfect shots and forcing the referee to step in and save Black from any further damage.
Jamie Ings defeats Stephen Black by referee stoppage due to ground and pound – Rnd 1 1:07

George Grainger vs. Lewis Butterworth
Grainger got the action underway with a low kick, before tripping Butterworth to the canvas, where he was able to move into side control and sink in an arm-triangle. Butterworth fought desperately to twist out, but was eventually forced to tap.
George Grainger defeats Lewis Butterworth by arm-triangle submission – Rnd 1 0:30
Full Card Results
• Tomasz Czerwinski defeats Paul Saunders by KO – Rnd 1 1:09 – to become the Fury MMA heavyweight champion.
• Nigel Whitear defeats Vitor Silva via unanimous decision and is crowned the new Fury MMA lightweight champion.
• Mak Mwanza defeats Gary Duffy by tap out due to a rear-naked choke – Rnd 2 0:29
• Paula Donnelly defeats Khadija Nathaniel by unanimous decision
• Nathan Shark defeats Jason Black by arm bar submission – Rnd 1 0:52
• Roger Griffin defeats Jarvis Gray by rear-naked choke submission – Rnd 1 1:47
• Bill Beaumont defeats George Chase via doctor stoppage due to a cut – Rnd 1 2:47
• Jamie Ings defeats Stephen Black by referee stoppage due to ground and pound – Rnd 1 1:07
• George Grainger defeats Lewis Butterworth by arm-triangle submission – Rnd 1 0:30

In the boxing section of the card
• Jerome Daley defeated Roger Griffin by TKO – Rnd 1 1:57
• Luke Robinson defeated David Zotolofski by unanimous decision
• Luke Robinson defeated Cliff Meeks by TKO – Rnd 1 0:32
• Ryan Edinburgh defeated Tommy Scully by verbal retirement – Rnd 2 1:59
The evening was a great success and we now had two new FURY champions. All the staff at FURY and everyone involved made it a night not too miss.
To hire the cage girls call Leo Alderman on 07989394709
To fight on the show call Dan or Steve via FURY MMA or contact them via face book.
There are plenty more events coming up so keep in touc on the FURY MMA web site

Fury MMA
Katana Clothing
Cageamateursuk.com

For tickets for next show go to Fury MMA website above.
For the best MMA clothing hit Katana

Another Year and Another WWDC

Every year at the beginning of the summer, Apple shows off to the world what it has been working on. This year has been no different with hardware refreshes, software updates and product launches.

iOS 6

WWDC kicked off with an introduction to an update to the iOS mobile operating system. iOS 6 promises a host of new features for iDevice users such as Guided Access. Like Parental Control, Guided Access allows the users to lock down some of the UI elements on their devices such as Mail or Contacts to prevent accidental deletion in the hands of children, babies or cats (maybe). A new feature that improves organisation is “Passbook”. We are in the second decade of the 21st century and all tickets, cards and passes have gone digital, it is hard to keep track of all of them and this is where Passbook comes to play. It is essentially your all-in-one breast pocket; an app where you can store and retrieve digital e-tickets for movies, football games and also reminds you of your flight time. It seems an incredibly simple solution and it is amazing that no one thought of it earlier. However, like Newsstand, it is targeted towards a specific group of people and for those that won’t use such features, it is just another useless icon.

In terms of the cloud and social networking, iOS 6 allows users to utilise the iCloud service and synchronise their photos across all their Apple devices. Photos Streams can be shared with friends and also be commented on. Beyond that, one of the most common reasons why iPhone users would “jailbreak” their devices was to install a third party plugin allowing FaceTime over 3G and not be limited to WiFi; with iOS 6, FaceTime is now fully supported over 3G. iOS 5 brought Twitter integration and iOS 6 brings…you guessed it, Facebook integration. This time Apple has gone all out with extremely deep integration linking Facebook to all aspects of your iPhone from the simple Notification Centre to Maps, Photos and even the App Store. Users and Friends now can see, share and “like” apps with each other.

Siri has now also been updated to support new languages as well as being pushed to the third generation iPad (the retina one). Apple has stated that it will be getting other features such as sports updates in the coming months. With the included Facebook integration, Siri now also has support for Facebook allowing voice commands for status updates etc.

Finally, probably the biggest iOS news this year is Apple’s decision to drop Google Maps in favour of its own Maps APIs. Apple claims its new Maps app is its own creation however some of the data is provided by third party sources. Apple recently acquired C3, the company behind Nokia’s 3D maps and it is likely that they help provide Flyover mode – which allows users to view buildings and landscapes in 3D similar to what we saw when Google demonstrated its own 3D maps just prior to WWDC. Over 100 million business listings are already included should a user wish to search for one. The most prominent feature of Apple Maps is turn-by-turn navigation with traffic and accident updates also present. This data is being supplied by partnering with TomTom. Naturally, the app will intelligently calculate the best route depending on traffic. And of course there is Siri integration including the ability to ask Siri “Are we there yet?” to which it will reply with a fairly witty comment plus an estimate of how long your journey will take. Google recently also released similar services on its own mobile operating system however it pales in comparison to Nokia Maps which offered the first turn-by-turn navigation of any kind on a phone and also has offline support, something that Google Maps is severely lacking. How will Apple Maps stack up against the competition? Time will tell.

The removal of Google Maps means that the only Google features left in Cupertino’s mobile operating systems are the YouTube app and Google Search in Safari; the latter can also be changed to something like Bing, not that anyone would, would they? However bold the move is, the question still remains whether it was the right decision to make. Is the new iOS that innovative or is it wrapping other company’s ideas into its own shell? Several features of Windows Phone 7 are mirrored in iOS such as lock screen camera and Facebook integration. Apple Maps is in its infancy and how will it compare to Nokia Maps with features such as offline use and fairly robust turn-by-turn navigation? It can be argued that the smartphone market is headed in the same direction hence innovations are converging and the only way to stand out is to take the same idea and execute it your own way. Will Apple’s new Maps app be able to rival Google’s? Maybe. Will the turn-by-turn navigation cause untold misery? Probably not, but it is still too early to tell.

The MacBooks

Apple presented some refreshes to its MacBook line the same evening. With Intel’s third generation Ivy Bridge CPUs having been released a month ago, it makes sense that Apple would refresh its line-up with these. The MacBook Air range can now be configured with i5 or i7 Ivy Bridge processors. The new models now come with USB 3.0, up from 2.0 (and still backwards compatible), a better FaceTime camera capable of HD 720p, 8GB of RAM and 512GB of flash storage. The MacBook Pro models have also been refreshed with Intel’s newest silicon. Apple has also decided to move back to Nvidia to provide its notebook graphics. The graphics have been changed to Nvidia’s GT 650m Kepler GPU. Despite being Kepler, this GPU is a mid-range performer and cannot rival some of the other notebook graphics cards on the market. More capable GPUs such as the GTX 660m come as standard on machines from Alienware and MSI, both of which are cheaper than a similarly configured MacBook Pro. One consideration though, is that the laptops from the aforementioned companies are also much thicker and bulkier than any current notebook from Apple.

Along with the hardware refreshes on existing notebooks, Apple was proud to present its flagship MacBook – the MacBook Pro with Retina Display. This new model, although having only a 15 inch screen, will replace the 17 inch MacBook Pro of yester-gen and sit on Apple’s notebook throne. The laptop is much slimmer than the other MacBook Pros, being only a few millimetres thicker than the thickest end of the MacBook Air. The 15 inch display is made up of 2880 x 1800 pixels – more than in Apple’s 27 inch Cinema Display and 27 inch iMac, both of which have 2560 x 1440 displays. The highest HDTV resolution is “only” 1920 x 1080. The internals of the MacBook Pro with Retina Display are similar to the other MacBook Pros such as Ivy Bridge CPUs and the same GT 650m Kepler graphics. On the outside, things are very different – like the Airs and iPads, most of this new MacBook Pro is made up of battery and to achieve this, Apple has done away with the optical drive. That’s right, no DVD or Blu-Ray on this machine, all data now comes from external drives or plucked from the sky. There are now two thunderbolt connections, USB 3.0 on either side, HDMI out, SD card reader, headphone jack and a redesigned MagSafe jack (because the older one was too thick to fit). The main question is whether there is enough horsepower under the hood to be able to drive that super high definition screen (disclaimer: super high definition is not an official term) especially in games where many high-end desktop graphics cards struggle to cope with similar resolutions. One thing is for sure: there is no other laptop out there like it at the moment, but can users looking for a larger screen as opposed to higher resolution forgive Apple for axing the 17 incher?

OS X Mountain Lion

The folks at Cupertino have also been extremely busy with their newest operating system. Now at version 10.8, Mountain Lion follows the same trend of Apple naming every operating system iteration after a very large feline. Recently, it seemed that Apple has decided that when the name is a change in feline species, it highlights a very large operating system overhaul; this was seen in the move from “Tiger” to “Leopard” and “Snow Leopard” to “Lion”. However, if there is no change in species but more of a change in habitat such as “Leopard” to “Snow Leopard” and, as of WWDC, “Lion” has now become “Mountain Lion”, it means more subtle changes and more optimisations. This new version of OS X contains some updated features such as iCloud integration and a brand new Safari which is not only faster but also has some interesting features such as iCloud Tabs, allowing users to synchronise their web usage across all their iDevices, and Tab View, which allows the exact same tabs a user was browsing through on their laptops, to be transferred to their iPad so they can carry on immediately, smells a bit like Sync for Firefox, oh wait this is Apple so it is innovative and original. The address bar is now also the search bar similar to the Chrome browser. Like Windows 8 with Xbox Live integration, Apple has also taken its Game Centre system found in iOS and stuck it into the new OS in an attempt to promote cross platform game development as users can now compete across a range of iDevices. Seeing a trend here?

One of the new features in Mountain Lion is “Power Nap” – it is essentially a background scheduler that fetches email, performs software updates, iCloud syncing and Time Machine backups when you aren’t using the computer. And finally, Siri comes to the Mac in the form of Dictation where users can have their speech transcribed to text in almost any app. Although not on the same “personal assistant” level as Siri is in iOS, it is definitely a start. There are some interesting new features added to Apple’s operating system but perhaps not enough to warrant a change in feline species hence “Mountain Lion”. The whole world is wondering what Apple will chose for its last “X” operating system (10.9) with the last big cats Lynx and Ocelot having been used for other tech products. Favourite at the moment seems to be Sabertooth Tiger, although it is extinct. Maybe if Apple decides to stop Mac OS completely, it could name its very final version that as an allegory.

Wrap-up

There have been some new and exciting things on show at WWDC with some new concepts and some things that seem to have been copied but executed by Apple, which according to Apple means they came up with it. Some updates did not make it to the stage such as Apple’s new AirPort Express now with dual-band WiFi and a new form factor as well as some new processors for the Mac Pro. There has been no news on any iMac refresh and of course anyone’s guess on anything to do with the new iPhone is as good as mine.

Why Does Nom Nom Time Turn to Hospital Time?

There are many reasons why that great looking tin of sardines would be good to eat, but there are also many reasons why the emergency room is a good possibility. That’s right, the Food Standards Agency has conducted a study that has shown that more and more people are getting food poisoning due to food that was consumed when it should have gone in the bin.

Bad cheese
Yum yum...

But why did they do this? Well it’s not because they were suddenly exposed to radiation that caused mass brain damage. It’s because they decided to make food go further by utilising leftovers and the power of smell. In other words, the date on the packet was completely ignored; although the people who wrote about this seemed genuinely surprised.

Anyway, the Food Standards Agency is expecting the number of food poisoning cases to peak this summer so we don’t actually know how bad it will get yet. According to them, though, it will get much worse.

If I had to give my opinion I can tell you exactly why more and more people are now taking a risk by just smelling food instead of obeying the date on the packet.

1. People just can’t afford to buy so much food these days. Food prices are going up all the time and it’s getting to that point where lots of meals just aren’t worth creating anymore. The government always moans that we should be healthy and we should spend hours cooking these elaborate meals, and yet what they don’t seem to understand is that the bad food tends to be the cheapest food, and that’s all that many people can afford. Lower food prices and this wouldn’t happen as much.

2. The unemployment rates. Regardless of how expensive food prices are, it doesn’t matter if there’s no money coming into a household. People are still losing jobs even today and it only looks to get worse as Spain announces that it needs a bailout. So if people can’t afford good food then they are going to take a risk. We have a free healthcare system so it’s cheaper to actually get food poisoning. Start getting people back to work and the numbers will go down.

3. Travel costs. If you look at those who commute to work in this country then you will quickly discover that it’s one of the biggest expenses around. The buses and the trains are an absolute joke in this country. We have to pay some of the highest prices in Europe for trains where we might not even get a seat. Here’s an idea. I would rather have my taxes raised if the government could nationalise both of those industries and lower the prices.

Empty fridge

All of those reasons contribute to the rising number of food poisoning cases, and the Food Standards Agency will be recognising this. What people need to accept is that if you are going to implement austerity in a country then you are not only making the people depressed but you are also making them unhealthy. It just seems to be incredibly unfair that everybody else has to suffer because a few prats at the top won an election every five years and now think they can play in the Casino of Capitalism.