Peek Tech Blog

Once upon a time, a PlayStation Portable Slim owner bought some rubber caps for his console’s analog stick, much like the current offerings of Caps4stix. However, during the excitement of gaming, they slipped off. The owner would dutifully put them back on, with some effort, but they would slip off again.

Eventually though, he saw no point in putting them back on. It’s easy to see the use of rubber joystick covers; they preserve the most used parts of a gadget from wear and tear, keeping them in pristine condition for a high resale value. But do you really buy a gaming console to keep it mint? No, you buy it to play games! Besides, by the time you want to sell it, value won’t matter as much, especially when everyone’s paying attention to the next-gen consoles.
So again, why would you buy joystick covers?

The American summer’s about to end, but you’re still probably planning that long roadtrip right? Highway driving is obviously much more efficient than urban journeys, as your automotive gadget gets to stretch its legs out a bit, without stopping and slowing down every so often.

But there are also some things to keep in mind if you really want to maximize your fuel for roadtrips. Like did you know cruise control isn’t always ideal for certain kinds of roads, no matter how clear of traffic they are? Eco Friendly Driver features the full story at Saving Gas on Long Trips.

It’s not on the market yet, but everyone’s buzzing about this concept “Costume” Samsung hard disk by Joongoo Lee:


A 2.5″ hard disk that’s more at home among women’s cosmetics than in a gadget guy’s bag (Especially since it was apparently inspired by those makeup compacts).

Nowadays, it is popular among car companies to announce one or two models that are fueled not with gas, but with electricity. It is unknown, why they mystically disappear after being announced, maybe because of low distance they can drive without battery recharging, maybe because of their ultra high cost. However, it is clear that this kind of engines will prevail above internal combustion ones in some time. It is a wise idea to combine these two engines, produce a hybrid that will be more versatile in nowadays conditions. This is exactly the idea behind this futuristic concept car that combines advantages of both engine types to obtain unique capabilities.

This car is named Antro Solo, and is engineered in Hungary. Apart from having a very futuristic design (it resembles a soapbox a little), it does have very futuristic parameters. While it requires gas to run, it uses only 0.01 liter of gas per kilometer! This was made possible by using electric engine, which accompanies combustion one. Power is gained through many solar batteries on the roof of this car, but even if you are driving in tunnel or rain, there is nothing to worry about - gas powered generator will charge car's batteries if there is no sunlight.

However, the most amazing and interesting innovation is that if you run out of gas, you can power up your car yourself! There are two pair of pedals in front of passenger seats, so if you run out of fuel during rain, you can always ask your passengers to help you out.

The body of this car is made of carbon fiber, which was made to reduce its weight. It weighs only 272 kg! More than that, carbon-fibered body will increase its durability. Unfortunately, there were no crash-tests yet, because only one car was produced, and it is shown today at the Budapest transport museum. Apart from many other concepts which exist only on paper, engineers of this one hope to begin mass-producing them starting from 2012, which is not so far. One of the most interesting parts is its price, which they claim will start from 18,000 USD. Let's wait and see, will it gain popularity or it will be forgotten as many other interesting car concepts.

Smartphone owners can now sleep easy at night as we are recently ensured by Kaspersky Lab. If you have your smartphone and you want to keep it protected, give a chance to Kaspersky Mobile Security to do this job for you, but remember about probable losses in the work of your beloved gadget. I mean losses same we face on PCs - deceleration of all processes, etc. And make sure you have Symbian OS 9.1 9.2 Series 60 (only for Nokia products) or Windows Mobile 5.0, 6.0 working properly.

Kaspersky Mobile Security is latest solution for smartphone protection, and due to Lab's recent success in developing next generation of their antivirus and internet security software for PC (I have it installed and confirm its advantages), offered protection is most likely the best one. But let us not be addled by a well-known name and come to know all the particulars.

Available for 29.95 USD security system will control all modified and/or received data to smartphone's memory. It includes all incoming email, SMS and MMS. Its substance will also be checked for spam. Infected items are blocked, deleted or isolated in the quarantine section. Same as with KIS and KAV daily updating database will be uploaded via WAP/HTTP (GPRS, EDGE, WiFi, etc) as long as your license is valid (for 29.95 USD license validity is one year long). Another way to update database or to contact with Kaspersky Lab – to synchronize your smartphone with PC. Of necessity, Kaspersky Internet Security can be programmed to execute the entire scanning in any suitable time automatically. Also user can choose appropriate Firewall alertness level.

Once in a while smartphones are lost or stolen. In such cases you can pin your hopes on the Anti-theft assist. By sending a hidden SMS message to lost or stolen phone, owner can block it. When found, Mobile Security will inquire about a pre-set password to gain access. This function is called SMS-Block. Another function, SMS-Clean, I find contradicting. Related with blocking function, it cleans all the data stored on the lost/stolen smartphone without backup, if the certain message is received. Anyway both of those functions work only with original SIM card enabled. If it was removed and the other has been placed instead, security system will secretly inform you about its number via email.