ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGE

THE ECONOMIC SITUATION is the most concerned topics in the present context. President Obama on Saturday in his first video address outlined the details of his $825 billion economic stimulus package that includes provisions to help many U.S. residents retain their health insurance, the New York Times reports. According to Obama, the stimulus package would help about 8.5 million residents retain their health insurance through federal subsidies for COBRA and an expansion of Medicaid He said, "This is not just a short-term program to boost employment," adding, "It's one that will invest in our most important priorities," such as health care, "that are necessary to keep us strong and competitive in the 21st century. After his address, the Obama administration issued a four-page report that includes details on the provisions in the stimulus package. Obama also announced the launch of a new Web site, www.recovery.gov, that will track all government spending under the stimulus package.
Senate Democrats Release Stimulus Package Senate Democrats on Friday released details of their economic stimulus package, which includes about $148 billion in funds for health care, CQ Today reports. Many of the health care provisions included in the Senate version of the stimulus package differ from those in the House version.The Senate version of the stimulus package includes a provision that would extend Medicaid to families who become ineligible for the program because their incomes increase at a cost of $1.3 billion over 10 years; the House version would allow states to expand their Medicaid programs to low-income, recently unemployed workers through 2010 at a cost of almost $9 billion. In addition, the Senate version of the stimulus package includes federal subsidies for 65% of the health insurance premiums under COBRA for nine months, compared with one year under the House version. The Senate version of the stimulus package also does not include a provision in the House version that would allow recently unemployed workers ages 55 and older or those with at least 10 years of tenure at their jobs to continue to receive health insurance through COBRA until they find a new job that offers coverage or reach age 65, when they can enroll in Medicare.The Senate version of the stimulus package includes about $3 billion more for health care information technology than the House version, which includes $20 billion (Yoest, Wall Street Journal, 1/24). Under the Senate version of the stimulus package, the Department of Veterans Affairs would receive at least $3.4 billion for long-term care facilities, construction of new hospitals, and modernization of treatment centers; the House version would provide VA with at least $1 billion. The Senate version of the stimulus package also includes $3.5 billion for research and facility renovations at NIH and $1.1 billion for research on the comparative effectiveness of medical treatments by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The House version of the stimulus package includes similar funds.

BlackBerry Curve 8900

Available Features
Camera (3.2 MP)
Wi-Fi® Support
Built-in GPS
Enhanced Media Player
Video Recording
BlackBerry® Maps
Wireless Email
Organizer
Browser
Phone
Corporate Data Access
SMS/MMS

Size and Weight
Height:4.29 inches (109 mm)
Width:2.36 inches (60 mm)
Depth:0.53 inches (13.5 mm)
Weight:3.87 ounces (109.9 grams)

Battery & Battery Life
Battery: 1400 mAHr removable/rechargeable cryptographic lithium cell
Talk Time: 5.5 hours
Standby Time: 356 hours

Display
High resolution 480x360 pixel color display
Transmissive TFT LCD
Supports over 65,000 colors
Screen Size: 2.44 inches (diagonally measured)

Ringtones & Notifications
Ringtones: .3gp, WAV, MIDI, AMR-NB, G711u/A, GSM610, PCM, MP3, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+, WMA9/10 Standard/Pro
Notifications: Tone, vibrate, on-screen or LED indicator; notification options are user

Wireless Networks
North America: 850 MHz GSM®/GPRS networks
North America: 1900MHz GSM/GPRS networks
Europe/Asia Pacific: 1800MHz GSM/GPRS networks
Europe/Asia Pacific: 900MHz GSM/GPRS networks
EDGE networks

Bluetooth
Bluetooth v2.0 + EDR,Headset, Handsfree, Serial Port Profile, Stereo Audio (A2DP/AVCRP), SIM Access Profile and Dial-up Networking supporte

Data Input & Navigation
35 key backlit QWERTY keyboard
Trackball located on front face of device, ESC key to the right, Menu to the left
Dedicated Keys: Send, End, Mute, Lock, VAD (user customizable), 2-stage camera (user customizable), 2x volume/zoom

MobiBLU T50 PMP

The T50 is equipped with a 2.6-inch touchscreen with a display resolution of 400 x 240 pixels and that’s really something for a player that’s this small. It’s an extremely sleek and light weight player that’s smaller than most mobile phones so it’s easily portable and will cause no bulges in your pockets.

the T50 has no buttons for volume or otherwise. The 3.5mm earphone socket is located at the bottom with a mini USB port and a slider for turning the device on and off as well as locking the screen. The T50 lacks any other buttons and is purely driven by its touchscreen UI. I just don’t understand why it has a colorful light that tends to blink a lot when it’s on just under the screen in the empty space. It serves no purpose except to indicate that the player is on or active. It does tend to be a little distracting at times though, especially when you’re watching a video.

Features and Peformance

interface

The User Interface that the T50 employs is an amalgamation of various UI’s that I’ve come across in the past. The desktop bears a resemblance to Samsung’s P series of touchscreen media devices and the audio and video players are in most ways very much like those of the iPod Touch’s. It’s very fluid but can be annoyingly erratic and unresponsive most of the time. While it looks really well laid out it can get very irritating trying to slide down to the next page. The reason is that there’s no designated scrolling area so every time you touch the display to scroll down or up you end up activating or accessing some application or folder. Other than that navigation is easy and clearly laid out.

GENIUS NAVIGATOR 900 MINI OPTICAL MOUSE

This is the new mouse which has been recently released and it is the new discovery that has made all the people facilitated.Talkine about this,Navigator 900 is the latest Bluetooth optical mouse from Genius that features Bluetooth 2.0 technology in a stylish design. No receiver is needed as we can instantly connect the Navigator 900 Bluetooth mini optical mouse to our Bluetooth enabled notebook.This device eliminates cord tangles and gives ultimate freedom. The Genius Navigator 900 utilizes a powerful 800dpi optical sensor, so it is more efficient than ever when pointing, clicking, and navigating. Together with the smart power management and indicator, it can extend battery life and it’s easy to know when the batteries are low. With Navigator900, no matter for business or travel, it will be more productive and have more convenience.

The basic featurs are as follows:

->Distance up to 10 meters
->Power saving switch extends battery life
->No dongle! Works perfectly with Bluetooth systems
->Power management with low battery indicator light
->Bluetooth 2.0 EDR technology with fully integrated Human Input Device(HID) profile

Talking about the product, it is of the following characteristics:
Genius Navigator 900 Mini Optical Mouse
Product Type
Mouse
Interface
USB
RF Frequency
Bluetooth 2.0
System Support
Windows X64/2003/XP/Me/2000/98SEMac OS X 10.2.8 or above
System Requirements
IIBM PC Pentium 233 compatible or higherWindows X64/2003/XP/Me/2000/98SEl Mac OS X 10.2.8 or above Available USB port
Number of Buttons
3 buttons
Resolution (dpi)
800 dpi optical mouse
Scrolling wheel
3D scroll
Batteries
AA * 2

Altec Lansing Expressionist Bass Speakers

Altec Lansing's motto for its Expressionist Bass FX3022 PC multimedia speakers is, "All the bass in half the space." The concept is a good one. You take the subwoofer that normally sits on the floor, shrink it down, and integrate one into the bottom of each speaker. That way the user gets an ample amount of bass without having to deal the extra gear and wiring.

Before we get to the sound test, let's start with the superficial stuff. The $130 Expressionist Bass FX3022 makes for a striking set of speakers. They've got that sort of retro futuristic look that's reminiscent of something you might see in the video game BioShock. The flattened-cone enclosures are just a little over 10 inches tall with a diameter of about 5 inches at their base. The speakers are finished in a glossy, piano black, with some silver trim around the top-speaker port, which covers a 1.5-inch driver (the built-in downward-firing subs are 4 inchers). Altec's new logo is tastefully printed on the front in bronze lettering and stamped into the plastic on top of the left speaker.

As for the volume controls and power, they're on top of the right speaker. The buttons are rubberized and easy to access if you're sitting at your computer. That said, some PC speakers these days come with a remote, and it would have been nice if the FX3022's did, too. Perhaps a future model will.

The two speakers are actually hard-wired to each other. That's unusual, but, arguably a good thing because you don't have to worry about the cord falling out or connecting properly. The cord that joins them is about 6 feet long, so you do have some degree of flexibility in terms of placement and separation (most people will probably space them about 3 feet apart, on either side of a PC monitor). Around the back of the right speaker, there's a port for connecting the speaker to your computer with the included 3.5mm minijack cable. You also get an auxiliary input for connecting any device that has an audio output or headphone jack (a second 3.5mm cable isn't provided, however).

In terms of sound, the first thing you notice about the Expressionist Bass FX3022s is that they indeed deliver a good amount of bass. The treble, however, is another matter. It's pretty brash and at higher volumes comes across as being very aggressive, which will irritate some people. With music, the sound just isn't as tight and clear as we'd have liked it to be. When it came to gaming and movies, however, we felt the speakers hit their stride. The big bass was a big plus for action sequences, and explosions in first-person shooters were delivered with gusto. These guys performed better than your typical multimedia speakers in this price range.
So, the long and short of it is these are impressive-looking speakers that play loud and perform well when it comes to gaming and movies, though they just aren't all that great for music. In other words, they're a solid B.

Tech-com SSD-HPW-210Wireless Headset

We plugged the headset in, and started basic test audio tracks to see how low and high the speakers can output, frequencywise. The bass goes down to about 40 Hz, and highs are there up to 18 kHz, but not too smooth a response. The mids are a bit too much, they are on the verge of jarring due to its sharpness.The volume is not the loudest, as expected from the specs, though at max levels on Foobar/Winamp we get a powerful enough sound, with the added advantage of the acoustic isolation this unit provides. When using the headset, we could satisfactorily eliminate outside sounds. There is no real distortion, and that is a plus point, as cheaper systems by more reputed brands distort badly at high volume levels.The wireless audio sound is not bad; it works well as there was not much audio drop outs in our room. At least about 15 m away we could still hear clearly. The main thing to see was high frequency response, which in our case was not too shrill much to my relief, as I was fearing it. The bass does not boom, that’s good, though again here mid frequencies are a fallback, they’re too forward for my taste.
ConclusionThe unit comes at MRP Rs. 899 and MOP of Rs. 500, so we have a nice 'below 1000 rupee' product for the budget conscious. Frequency response is not conducive to music listening, due to very forward mids, though the product performs wirelessly pretty well. The build quality is not the greatest though, so one must get accustomed to the fact that the headset might falter couple of years later, otherwise it’s a good product for basic wireless usage, especially if budget is a concern.

CREATIVE EP-430 NOISE CANCELLING IN-EARPHONES

Creative has introduced a new in-earphones model - EP-430 - that comes with color options. These noise-isolating in-earphones are ergonomically designed to minimize external surrounding noise and provide long hours of pure music listening experience. The Creative EP-430 In-Ear Earphones are available in six bubble gum type colors of red, pink, blue, yellow, grey and black to "suit the vibrant everyday lifestyle of users."The Creative EP-430 In-Earphones claims to feature powerful bass effect, delivering a fuller and richer range of sounds. We will have to see that in the review. The in-ear design isolates noise in the background, allowing users to fully immerse themselves. It comes bundled with 3 pairs of interchangeable soft silicone tips in different sizes.