Ayman Elkhidir

This video was a shock to most of Dubai people when it was aired on Dubai TV a couple of weeks ago. These are pictures captured by the traffic surveillance cameras of Dubai Police, installed inside the Airport Tunnel.

A strict message to all of Dubai’s reckless drivers.

So finally GITEX is over. Although I thought that the exhibition is losing its glamor, but I felt surprised to see how it has become a launching point of new products and technologies and a battle field where not only companies but even technologies collide.

I had a few observations on this year’s show, as I have been closely involved with GITEX in the past few years:

1. A big change in trends has happened this year and it’s obvious where this is all going. I’m talking about consumer electronics, as this is my point of interest. Technologies are changing and changing the people people feel about their requirements. For example, you’d feel you’re certainly outdated if you don’t have a flat panel TV yet (Plasma or LCD).

2. I feel the major new technology to be announced this year was the Blu-Ray Disk (BD). Blu-Ray Disks are the natural step-up of the DVD technology. We all remember when we switched from CD to DVD. We were amazed by the 4.7GB of data a DVD can store. Well, hold you breath. Blu-Ray Disks have a capacity of 25GB for single layer disks and 50GB for dual layer ones and a smashing 100GB for the double sided disks. It looks like a normal optical disk, similar to a CD or a DVD. With this capacity, BD will be the ultimate storage disk for High-Definition videos. Major Hollywood companies such as Warner Brothers and Universal are already producing movies on Blu-Ray Disks in High Definition. Some of the older movies are even being re-produced, such as Independence Day.

3. That brings us to High-Definition (HD), which was also one of the attractions of the exhibition. High-Definition TV is a television system that has twice the standard number of scanning lines per frame and therefore produces pictures with greater detail. Actually, the conventional TV signal consists of 525 TV lines, while the HD TV consists of 1080 TV lines. Technically, the resolution of a Full HD TV is 1920×1080 pixels. You can imagine the quality of video of such revolution. This is the near future of TV. Even though HDTV is getting popular in Japan, USA and Europe. The Middle East is still to see this technology, as switching to HD means a TV channel would have to dump most of the equipment they have and get new HD cameras, mixers, etc.But this is actually happening. Al-Jazeera International is already being aired in High-Definition world-wide and they would soon start that in the Middle East and rumors has it that (ART) are preparing to switch to HD.

4. Flat-Panel war is on its peak. Years back, Plasma and LCD technologies had drawbacks that prevented consumers from making the switch to flat panel. But now, it has all been fixed. Plasma TV’s main drawback were their short life time, but now Plasma TV’s life time is as long as 60,000 hours, similar to LCD. On the other hand, LCD had a major drawback of viewing angle. I’m sure you noticed when you look at a PC monitor from the side, contrast will reduce drastically. Now, recent models of LCD TV have overcome this issue, making it acceptable.The drawback LCD screens are now suffering from is mainly the response time. Have you ever tried to watch football on an LCD screen. You have my word you would get a headache before half time. LCDs also have another problem as when its size gets large (over 30 inches), the price would go exponentially higher.

On the other hand, Plasma screen have a great picture quality and they are very comfortable to the eye. I believe the only drawback of Plasma is that it doesn’t come in small sizes. The smallest plasma TV is 32 inches. But large-size TVs are getting popular with the increasing demand on High-Definition and Blu-Ray technologies which will give perfect picture, even with large screens. Besides, Plasma TVs are cheaper comparing to LCD screens of the same size. Recent Plasma manufacturers managed to make plasma screens as large as 103″.

I bet you won’t be able to hold your laugh.

Watch this…

Everyone of us has his own list of websites which he sees as interesting and/or informative. I feel it’s time I start talking about some of the most interesting sites I visit/use regularly.

First of all, I’m a big fan of Firefox, as I’m very much anti-Internet Explorer. Firefox goes easy on your PC’s resources, it was the first to introduce tabbed-browsing, it has a built-in spelling checker, and more features.

The new Firefox, for example, will restore all the tabs you were browsing in case Firefox had to restart or close.

Firefox also introduced the term (Add-ons) to the browser industry.

Add-ons extend Firefox, letting you personalize your browsing experience. They can make a tiny tweak, or bring a whole new range of features to your favorite browser. Take a look around and make Firefox your own.

Being an open-source application, programmers from all over the world race each other to design the add-ons that would make Firefox the perfect browser, based on the users need. There are hundreds of add-ons. I found add-ons that work as download accelerators, some that connect you to different radio stations while you’re browsing, some that helps you change your proxy settings quickly if you’re using your laptop in different places, and much more.