Ok, so there's no doubt in my mind that most of you must have dreamt about owning a private jet sometime in your life! Whether you need a quick spin in the air, wish to take a surprise trip to Puerto Rico or the Carribean, or just propose to your girlfriend "in air", owning a private jet or helicopter has been an expensive dream for quite a lot of us. But looks like technology and luck is on our side! With this smallest private helicopter that you can actually buy, here's your chance to turn your fantasies into realities!

Leonardo da Vinci, the famous painter, was also a great & controversial scientist, whose thoughts and ideas were way ahead of his time, and hence could not be materialized. But his famous notebook drawings from 1493 show an "ornithopter" design with a screw-like rotor, which was actually similar to a helicopter that could actually fly! inspired by Da Vinci's design, Yanagisawa's GEN H-4 was created. It has no tail, and instead works on twin counter-rotating propellers that cancel out the torque that requires single-rotor helicopters to have a perpendicular tail rotor, and can fly at a maximum speed of 50 kilometres (31 miles) per hour.

The GEN H-4 from Gene corporation comes with a seat and landing gear so all you have to do is strap on and you are ready to go. The rotors have a length of only 4 meters (118 inches) so they don't cause any parking problems. It is powered by 4 lightweight 125 cc 2 cylinder engines which use standard gasoline. The GEN H-4 can fly to a maximum altitude of 1000 meters at a top speed of 90 km/hr (59 mph) for upto 30 minutes. And the best part, you dont require a license to fly the GEN H-4 in Japan and the inventors claim it is easy as riding a bicycle and with just 2 hours of practice you can master it. I wish they would get the "no-license" rule in US too!

Yanagisawa(the inventor)runs a company in Matsumoto, north of Tokyo, where he designed and built this first smallest single-person helicopter that weighs 75 kilos(165 lbs). The 75-year old inventor will make a demonstration flight in the city of Vinci, near Florence, on May 25; and only after a trial run in the dessert, he has already sold five units in Japan and two to US customers. The cost for one is a reasonable $58,250; with an average flight speed of 31 mph, its still better than most cars! I'd love to fly everyday to work, but that would cause even more problems with flight and aviation department, not to mention the tonnes of helipads that companies would need to build!! Well, maybe our grand-kids would see that aspect of the world, but for now, I'm just happy with this single-person private helicopter that can fly me to places catering to my whims!

AceCraft is the licensed distributor in the US for this single-person helicopter and their website can answer most of questions and queries, with loads of information and photos.

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Ok, so there's no doubt in my mind that most of you must have dreamt about owning a private jet sometime in your life! Whether you need a quick spin in the air, wish to take a surprise trip to Puerto Rico or the Carribean, or just propose to your girlfriend "in air", owning a private jet or helicopter has been an expensive dream for quite a lot of us. But looks like technology and luck is on our side! With this smallest private helicopter that you can actually buy, here's your chance to turn your fantasies into realities!

Leonardo da Vinci, the famous painter, was also a great & controversial scientist, whose thoughts and ideas were way ahead of his time, and hence could not be materialized. But his famous notebook drawings from 1493 show an "ornithopter" design with a screw-like rotor, which was actually similar to a helicopter that could actually fly! inspired by Da Vinci's design, Yanagisawa's GEN H-4 was created. It has no tail, and instead works on twin counter-rotating propellers that cancel out the torque that requires single-rotor helicopters to have a perpendicular tail rotor, and can fly at a maximum speed of 50 kilometres (31 miles) per hour.

The GEN H-4 from Gene corporation comes with a seat and landing gear so all you have to do is strap on and you are ready to go. The rotors have a length of only 4 meters (118 inches) so they don't cause any parking problems. It is powered by 4 lightweight 125 cc 2 cylinder engines which use standard gasoline. The GEN H-4 can fly to a maximum altitude of 1000 meters at a top speed of 90 km/hr (59 mph) for upto 30 minutes. And the best part, you dont require a license to fly the GEN H-4 in Japan and the inventors claim it is easy as riding a bicycle and with just 2 hours of practice you can master it. I wish they would get the "no-license" rule in US too!

Yanagisawa(the inventor)runs a company in Matsumoto, north of Tokyo, where he designed and built this first smallest single-person helicopter that weighs 75 kilos(165 lbs). The 75-year old inventor will make a demonstration flight in the city of Vinci, near Florence, on May 25; and only after a trial run in the dessert, he has already sold five units in Japan and two to US customers. The cost for one is a reasonable $58,250; with an average flight speed of 31 mph, its still better than most cars! I'd love to fly everyday to work, but that would cause even more problems with flight and aviation department, not to mention the tonnes of helipads that companies would need to build!! Well, maybe our grand-kids would see that aspect of the world, but for now, I'm just happy with this single-person private helicopter that can fly me to places catering to my whims!

AceCraft is the licensed distributor in the US for this single-person helicopter and their website can answer most of questions and queries, with loads of information and photos.

Category: articles

Read More...

Everyone has been talking about multitouch technology since some time now. Its like the techie in us can never be satisfied! First we needed voice-activated, then we needed everything touch-screen-capable, and now, we need Multi-touch capable! As the tech world scrambles to keep the consumers happy, HP answers your requests with their latest TouchSmart tx2, the first consumer laptop to feature multi-touch functionality. If you haven't seen the cool promos on TV, you've really missed something! The new TouchSmart is not only sleek and cool, it indeed comes with a lot of functionality to satisfy your geeky-techie side! [image credit - Gizmodo]

HP's Touchsmart tx2 is a 12.1-inch convertible tablet that provides iPhone-like ability to scroll, zoom, flick, and drag and drop by using your fingers on the screen. For example, you can scroll up and down by using two fingers on the screen or zoom in and out by using a pinching motion.

Aside from its multitouchness, the tx2 looks like a standard convertible tablet with a center hinge that lets you twist the display to switch between notebook mode and slate tablet mode. Pricing starts at a reasonable $1,149. For that price, the TouchSmart tx2 features a 2.1GHz AMD Turion X2 CPU, 3GB of memory, a 250GB hard drive, integrated ATI HD3200 graphics, and 32-bit Vista Home Premium. Unfortunately, Core 2 Duo processors and discrete graphics are not offered. The Mediasmart 2.0 software lets you watch movies, look at photos, play music, listen to radio and watch TV on demand. HP is also partnering with MTV networks to bring IPTV content in from MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.

HP accomplished this feat, right in time for the holiday season, by partnering with an Israeli company called N-trig. Yes, you don't always have to wait for Microsoft to come and lend you a hand! I think its great that HP announced this new laptop, as it gives a nice option to those trying to choose between a Macbook and a PC.

It might not be able to lure away hard-core Mac followers, but the new Multi-touch TouchSmart tx2 surely has potential to attract a few consumers, especially those in their 20's or 30's, who want to look cool with their laptops! Efficiently designed, stylish, and affordably priced, HP might just see some sales this coming Holiday season!

To learn more about the features, functionality and configuration, visit HP's store and check out the buzz on TouchSmart tx2!

Category: articles

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Everyone has been talking about multitouch technology since some time now. Its like the techie in us can never be satisfied! First we needed voice-activated, then we needed everything touch-screen-capable, and now, we need Multi-touch capable! As the tech world scrambles to keep the consumers happy, HP answers your requests with their latest TouchSmart tx2, the first consumer laptop to feature multi-touch functionality. If you haven't seen the cool promos on TV, you've really missed something! The new TouchSmart is not only sleek and cool, it indeed comes with a lot of functionality to satisfy your geeky-techie side! [image credit - Gizmodo]

HP's Touchsmart tx2 is a 12.1-inch convertible tablet that provides iPhone-like ability to scroll, zoom, flick, and drag and drop by using your fingers on the screen. For example, you can scroll up and down by using two fingers on the screen or zoom in and out by using a pinching motion.

Aside from its multitouchness, the tx2 looks like a standard convertible tablet with a center hinge that lets you twist the display to switch between notebook mode and slate tablet mode. Pricing starts at a reasonable $1,149. For that price, the TouchSmart tx2 features a 2.1GHz AMD Turion X2 CPU, 3GB of memory, a 250GB hard drive, integrated ATI HD3200 graphics, and 32-bit Vista Home Premium. Unfortunately, Core 2 Duo processors and discrete graphics are not offered. The Mediasmart 2.0 software lets you watch movies, look at photos, play music, listen to radio and watch TV on demand. HP is also partnering with MTV networks to bring IPTV content in from MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon.

HP accomplished this feat, right in time for the holiday season, by partnering with an Israeli company called N-trig. Yes, you don't always have to wait for Microsoft to come and lend you a hand! I think its great that HP announced this new laptop, as it gives a nice option to those trying to choose between a Macbook and a PC.

It might not be able to lure away hard-core Mac followers, but the new Multi-touch TouchSmart tx2 surely has potential to attract a few consumers, especially those in their 20's or 30's, who want to look cool with their laptops! Efficiently designed, stylish, and affordably priced, HP might just see some sales this coming Holiday season!

To learn more about the features, functionality and configuration, visit HP's store and check out the buzz on TouchSmart tx2!

Category: articles

Read More...

The imminent rise of 3G technology in the UK over the last few years has been a sudden burst of fresh energy, but has also generated quite a flurry of activity! Unlike US, the 3G hype was merely seen as another mobile voice calling technology. However, looks like the people have become more adaptive about the 3G based mobile internet technology as it promises to become a viable alternative to traditional broadband for UK users. The rapid rise in 3G followers is nevertheless intriguing, and definitely worth a second look at the technology in question!

As Rory Cellan-Jones of BBC puts it "Mobile Broadband has really taken off!", supporting his statement with a graph showing how the amount of data crossing the 3G network has increased 14 fold in just six months! This massive increase in traffic is attributed e to what is referred as dongle - a plug-and-play USB modem that use High-Speed Downlink Packet Access or HSDPA technology (sometimes referred to as 3.5G) to enable laptops to use mobile broadband, which simply means "fast computer internet access without a land-line", in layman's terms.

The dongles are being offered with a fixed price plan (for example 3GB of data for £15 a month) which has triggered a price war in the UK market with other operators such as T-Mobile and Vodafone competing with similarly aggressive deals. It is estimated that as many as half a million new users have signed up to 3's dongle and now use mobile broadband with their laptops!

This means this is certainly the preferred choice for users in the UK, who are letting go of traditional wireless LAN or fixed broadband services, which often incur significant installation fees for new users andmay not be as cost-effective as the dongles. This also poses a serious threat to WiMax (or 802.16e), as the success of 3.5G/HSDPA based services may impact it's roll-out over the next few years.

Like anything new, people take time to warm up to an idea or concept, and same was the case for 3G. But now, after comparing their options, 3G technology and Mobile Broadband seems to have gained a significant foothold in the UK market. Whether it can maintain its winning streak, or lose to competing technologies like WiMax, only time will tell. Till then, I'm happy that we have found something that at the end of the day, is more beneficial to everyday users like you and me!

Category: articles

Read More...

The imminent rise of 3G technology in the UK over the last few years has been a sudden burst of fresh energy, but has also generated quite a flurry of activity! Unlike US, the 3G hype was merely seen as another mobile voice calling technology. However, looks like the people have become more adaptive about the 3G based mobile internet technology as it promises to become a viable alternative to traditional broadband for UK users. The rapid rise in 3G followers is nevertheless intriguing, and definitely worth a second look at the technology in question!

As Rory Cellan-Jones of BBC puts it "Mobile Broadband has really taken off!", supporting his statement with a graph showing how the amount of data crossing the 3G network has increased 14 fold in just six months! This massive increase in traffic is attributed e to what is referred as dongle - a plug-and-play USB modem that use High-Speed Downlink Packet Access or HSDPA technology (sometimes referred to as 3.5G) to enable laptops to use mobile broadband, which simply means "fast computer internet access without a land-line", in layman's terms.

The dongles are being offered with a fixed price plan (for example 3GB of data for £15 a month) which has triggered a price war in the UK market with other operators such as T-Mobile and Vodafone competing with similarly aggressive deals. It is estimated that as many as half a million new users have signed up to 3's dongle and now use mobile broadband with their laptops!

This means this is certainly the preferred choice for users in the UK, who are letting go of traditional wireless LAN or fixed broadband services, which often incur significant installation fees for new users andmay not be as cost-effective as the dongles. This also poses a serious threat to WiMax (or 802.16e), as the success of 3.5G/HSDPA based services may impact it's roll-out over the next few years.

Like anything new, people take time to warm up to an idea or concept, and same was the case for 3G. But now, after comparing their options, 3G technology and Mobile Broadband seems to have gained a significant foothold in the UK market. Whether it can maintain its winning streak, or lose to competing technologies like WiMax, only time will tell. Till then, I'm happy that we have found something that at the end of the day, is more beneficial to everyday users like you and me!

Category: articles

Read More...