::Technology News::Reviews of Mobile Phones::PC Hardware::

India Schedules 3G License Auction for December

2009-09-13T22:38:00.000-07:00

India's auction of 3G and WiMax licenses is now scheduled to be held in December, according to a notice on the Web site of the country's Department of Telecommunications.

The auction was originally scheduled for January of this year, but was postponed after disagreement within the government on the minimum cost of the licenses.

Bidding for 3G licenses will start Dec 7, with the WiMax auction scheduled to start two days after the 3G auction is complete, according to the notice.

Both Indian and foreign companies are allowed to bid for the licenses, but foreign companies will have to set up joint ventures with Indian investors to run services in the country.

A group of ministers, set up to resolve the dispute over pricing the licenses, has named Indian rupees 250 billion (US$5 billion) as the minimum revenue from the auction of the 3G and WiMax licenses in the country, India's Minister of Communications, A. Raja said last month.

The Ministry of Communications will license four slots for 3G in each of India's 22 service areas, with a fifth slot reserved for two government-run telecommunications companies.

A telecommunications company bidding for 3G licenses in all 22 circles will have to pay at least Indian rupees 35 billion, according to the new minimum pricing proposed by the Indian government. By the pricing announced last year, they would have to pay about rupees 20 billion.

Two companies, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd., were allotted 3G spectrum ahead of the auction, and have started offering services. The government said last year that these companies would have to pay license fees equal to the highest bid in each service area.

The final date for applications from bidders is Nov 13

50% price cut for Nokia’s N96

2009-09-13T22:35:00.000-07:00

Price-cuts like this don’t happen often, and that’s why Univercell’s decision to shave off 50% from the Nokia N96’s price-tag is certainly an eye-catching proposition. The N96, which was priced at Rs. 35,000 is now available at Univercell at Rs. 19,231.

We stumbled across the new price while browsing through Univercell’s website. When we contacted the store, we were informed that the price is a result of a 50% off deal that the store was offering on the phone. It seems like a great deal, which leaves us wondering why Univercell hasn’t publicized it at all.

The N96, if you remember from our review (read it here), was launched February last year and sports a 2.8 inch TFT screen, a 5MP camera with LED flash, GPS and Wi-Fi and powered by a 264MHz processor. Also, before the N97, it was Nokia’s flagship model. All in all, for Rs. 19,231, this looks like a steal alright. Check it out at Univercell’s site here.

Samsung YP-S2 MP3 Player

2009-04-10T03:35:00.000-07:00

Samsung YP-S2 MP3 Player

Product Price : Rs. 2,750

You won’t find a more petite portable music player than the Samsung yPS2, also christened the ‘Pebble.’ The body is glossy black and curved like a stone with an LED display. The underside has a simple control wheel with play, pause, skip, volume and equalizer controls. The player’s sole 3.5mm port is not only meant for plugging in earphones but, thanks to a USB to 3.5mm connector, also for charging the player and transferring data.

The S2 comes with 2GB of flash memory and supports drag and drop. Samsung also bundles the Emodio software which serves as a media player and gives access to certain online features. These include firmware updates, downloadable equalizers for Samsung’s DNSE (Digital natural Sound engine) and themes. The player’s interface mirror’s other ‘shuffle’ class players by giving very simple controls. This means that the player has left out a number of control options including the important Folder Skip. another button is meant for skipping between three DNSE equalizer settings.

After listening to music, we came to the conclusion that the S2 is decent for listening to bassfriendly tracks, although it does not sound tight. Also, the player reproduced simple instrumentation or sparsely arranged tracks well but music that involved a lot of instrumentation in the mix became indistinct. Further the S2 could not reproduce stereo separation well and the mids and highs were either lost thanks to an overpowering low end, or sounded too airy and muddled overall, the S2 is okay especially for listening to songs with more bass. The Samsung VPS2 at Rs. 2,750 is a barebones player that knows what its strengths are. Its size and looks combined with its sound performance make it a good buy.

Acer's AspireRevo Nettop Taps Ion Platform

2009-04-10T03:31:00.001-07:00

Along with more than 20 new netbooks, notebooks, all-in-one PCs, Acer on Tuesday launched what it called the first small form factor PC to offer Nvidia's Ion platform, combining Intel's Atom chip and the Ion graphics processor.

With the AspireRevo, Acer wants to make a splash in the category of nettops -- low-cost, small-dimension PCs. Officials at an evening launch event at a science museum outside New York City played up the graphics processing power of the Ion combined with the Atom 230/330 chip, positioning it as a multimedia home PC that can be used as a gaming device.

The AspireRevo lets users watch 1080p HD video, play DirectX 10 games at high frame rates and tap the 3D capabilities of Windows Vista Premium. It will also be available in a package with a game controller with 3D motion sensors.

Though exact dimensions weren't immediately available from Acer, the company said the device takes up less than a liter of space, or about the form of a hardcover book.

The new nettop comes with either a Serial ATA hard drive or Solid State Drive (SSD) and up to 4GB of DDR2 memory. Memory can be expanded with a Mini PC Express slot.

Acer officials made much of the company's use of SSD.

"Using SSD and not HDD saves power," said Acer CEO Gianfranco Lanci.

"There were several things holding back the wider use of SSD and the main one was cost," he said. "SSD used to cost about 50 times what HDD cost for the same capacity, but now it's down to about 10 times the cost, so we're getting there. Over the next two years we expect to see much greater use of SSD."

The AspireRevo is designed to be attached to the back of any TV display or LCD with a VESA attachment.

The device also incorporates 802.11 b/g WiFi and Gigabyte Ethernet connection.

Pricing and availability were not announced though one official said the device is expect to ship in the back-to-school time frame in the U.S., with a staggered release around the world.

Apple to Increase iPhone Storage, Says Report

2009-04-10T03:26:00.000-07:00

Apple has ordered large amounts of Flash memory to be used in a new iPhone expected in June, according to reports. What makes this report interesting is that Apple is allegedly ordering twice as much Flash as it did last year, according to reports from DigiTimes. A large request for Flash from Apple backs the rumor of a larger capacity iPhone model, slated for early this summer.

The DigiTimes report continues claiming Apple ordered 100 million 1GB NAND Flash chips, mainly from Samsung Electronics. Apple could recombine these chips in the manufacturing process, creating 16GB and 32GB (Gigabyte) storing capabilities for new iPhone models. One hundred million 8Gb chips would be enough for 12.5 million 8GB iPhones or around 3 million 32GB devices.

Speculation around Apple's massive Flash memory order could mean that the long-rumored 32GB iPhone might be on its way and possibly a larger capacity 64GB iPod Touch. In the case of the iPod Touch, 64GB could mean a much higher price, somewhere around $500. A 32GB iPhone is feasible, especially as video-recording capabilities are expected in the new model (requiring more storage).

However, Apple uses this kind of NAND Flash chips in other of its products as well, like the iPod nano and Shuffle, so at the moment it is not very clear how the Cupertino company will use the 100 million chips. As previously reported, the new iPhone model is expected to feature a better camera (with video recording) and higher storage capacities, besides the 3.0 software improvements announced last month.

Sparkle Launches Geforce GTX285 Graphics Card

2009-04-10T03:25:00.000-07:00

Based on the GeForce 200 Series’ second generation unified architecture, the Sparkle GTX285 is clocked at 648MHz (core) and 1476 (shader clock). It has 240 stream processors and enables DirectX 10 gaming in ‘extreme HD’ (2560x1600) resolutions. The press release claimed that the 2GB version is the first batch of GTX285’s with that much memory.

The GTX285 can work in 3-way SLI mode that allows three similar / equivalent cards to work together to deliver high frame rates even at high quality settings. The Sparkle Geforce GTX285 cards are launched by Abacus Peripherals who claimed that the high performance thermal compound used in the cards ensures optimal thermal dissipation even after years of use.

Nokia Launches N-Gage Mobile Gaming Service in India

2009-04-10T03:20:00.002-07:00

Nokia India announced the availability of its gaming service, ‘N-Gage’ in India with additional games and an expanded online offering. Nokia N-Gage is a part of Nokia’s internet services brand Ovi and brings a made-for-mobile gaming service to consumers. N-Gage initially brings a catalogue of 30 titles developed by global as well as Indian publishers such as EA Mobile, Gameloft, Glu Mobile and India Games, in addition to Nokia Games Publishing.

With N-Gage, Nokia device owners in India can access mobile games using the N-Gage mobile application on their N-Gage compatible devices or on the online N-Gage showrooms (www.n-gage.com), accessed directly from their mobile devices. With the N-Gage application on their devices, people can connect with other e-players through the N-Gage Arena community, discuss topics via live chats and message boards, and participate in tournaments and hosted events. They can create a Friends List and send and receive private messages among other things. N-Gage Points can be earned for playing games and participating in community activities. Moreover, the experience can also take place via the N-Gage web portal on the PC, where players can interact with the N-Gage community or purchase new games and download them to their N-Gage compatible devices.

Nokia is also offering special pre-paid Oxigen e-vouchers which will be initially available at Nokia Priority Dealers (NPDs) in 9 cities across the country, including New Delhi and the National Captial Region (NCR), Chandigarh, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. N-Gage game vouchers are also available for purchase via Oxicash (www.oxicash.in/nokia) Oxigen's e-commerce portal, accessible from mobile phones and PCs alike, using the Oxicash pre-paid card.

N-Gage also allows consumers to try games before they decide to purchase them. N-Gage games in India are priced between Rs. 49 – 299 (inclusive of taxes) depending on the type of the game and the validity. Nokia N-Gage is today compatible with Nokia Nseries and other Nokia S60 3rd edition devices including N81, N81 8GB, N82, N79, N85, N95, N95 8GB, Nokia 5320 XpressMusic and 6210 Navigator.

Microsoft Releasing First SQL Server '08 Service Pack

2009-04-10T03:20:00.001-07:00

The anticipated initial service pack for Microsoft's SQL Server 2008 database will be available imminently, Microsoft said Tuesday.

Many SQL Server 2000 and 2005 shops have been waiting for the pack before upgrading to the 2008 edition, as it contains all the cumulative updates and fixes issued since SQL Server 2008 was released to manufacturing in August, resulting in an overall more stable application.

Service Pack 1 (SP1) also makes it easier to deploy SQL Server 2008. A feature called Slipstream allows users to install the database and service pack at once, easing the process of loading the software onto hundreds or thousands of servers, said Fausto Ibarra, director of product management.

There isn't much in the way of new features in SP1, but that is a deliberate reflection of Microsoft's strategy to put out initial releases that are feature-complete, with packs only used for fixes, he said. "We got feedback from customers that they wanted more predictability, service packs that they could deploy without worrying about application compatibility."

Should there be a compatibility problem, users have the ability to uninstall the service pack, he said.

While Microsoft is hoping the service pack's release will entice more SQL 2000 and 2005 users to upgrade, the company claims SQL 2008 has been downloaded more than 3 million times already.

Some Microsoft customers, such as the financial services company Raymond James, haven't bothered to wait for SP1.

Raymond James is using SQL Server 2008 to power its BI (business intelligence) platform, said Todd Daniell, manager of the company's BI group.

The platform is being used by about 7,000 workers, from back-office employees to financial advisors at Raymond James' many locations around the country, he said.

Daniell is looking forward to the service pack's fixes, but said the initial release "was pretty solid."

SQL 2008 has improved scalability, performance and security, and also has "fantastic" data-compression capabilities, he said.

"I can't tell you how much that is going to save us over the long run," he said.

Raymond James was able to compress one of its largest tables by more than 70 percent, and went from a total data warehouse size of 2TB to less than 600GB, according to Daniell.

The company was also able to move its BI systems from an HP Superdome computer to commodity hardware, saving more than $100,000 per year in maintenance payments to HP, he said.

While Raymond James may buy other tools for "light, ad-hoc type of reporting," the company plans to stick with Microsoft products for its BI needs because the platform allows workers to interact with familiar front-end environments, such as Excel, he said.

Another reason the company isn't interested in other BI platforms, such as Oracle, is because Daniell's team doesn't have Oracle expertise, and the cost to buy Oracle products plus train his workers would be too high, he said.

But as enthusiastic as Daniell is about Microsoft tools, that does not extend to the prospect of running his BI operation on cloud services like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft's Azure platform, given the type of regulations the financial services industry must follow.

"I'm sure their security is a lot better than others," he said. "But man, you don't know until you know, and with something like this it's better not to know."

BlackBerry Storm Gets WiFi, Other Extras, Say Sources

2009-04-10T03:14:00.000-07:00

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) is prepping a new version of its only touchscreen phone, the BlackBerry Storm, as soon as this September, according to reports. The new phone is set to bring improvements over the current offering, especially with the addition of WiFi.

SlashGear is citing an unnamed source (claiming it's the bee's knees), as giving them "their assurances that the BlackBerry Storm 2 would have WiFi, and would be an even better pro-consumer device than the first Storm." There's no wonder the biggest drawback of the BlackBerry Storm was the lack of WiFi, of course, after the clickable touch screen and the sluggish software.

Besides the September launch date and extra WiFi (which was quite obvious) not much detail was passed on. But if RIM does launch a new BlackBerry Storm this September, that will leave the current devices (10 months old in September) obsolete. That's not even a year since the original product launch in November 2008 (even Apple leaves one year between product cycles).

The addition of WiFi is in no way a surprise, as technically its lack made the BlackBerry Storm inferior to its main rival, Apple's iPhone 3G. Meanwhile, there's still a debate whether Verizon deliberately pulled WiFi to make BlackBerry Storm users dependent on the paid carrier services, but nevertheless the (yet again obvious) wireless connectivity addition is welcome.

Also, The Boy Genius site reports that two of its "independent sources" say a new type of screen will come with the BlackBerry Storm 2, improving the screen "enormously" and making typing "really pleasurable". The screen technology they say, won't be called SurePress anymore but TruePress. Just to add to the rumors, Boy Genius also dropped in a 5-megapixel camera on the BlackBerry Storm 2.

At the beginning of this month, RIM also launched the BlackBerry AppWorld -- in response to the growing popularity of Apple's App Store for iPhone (and something that the BlackBerry Storm et all were short of). However, the BlackBerry AppWorld pricing scheme is more expensive than Apple or Google's counterparts.

LG Electronics plans to debut a wristwatch-style 3G phone

2008-12-30T05:06:00.001-08:00

LG Electronics plans to debut a wristwatch-style 3G phone at the Consumer Electronics Show next month, it said Sunday.

The LG-GD910 phone will go on sale first in Europe and builds on a prototype shown at CES 2008.

In the center of the watch face is a 1.4-inch touchscreen display that is used for most interaction. It is used as the keypad when making a call, for example. There are also buttons down the side of the phone's body.

The WCDMA (wideband code division multiple access) phone supports the latest 7.2Mbps (megabits per second) HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) data system, so downloads should be fast. It can also make video calls via a small camera above the top right corner of the screen.

Other features include Bluetooth, an MP3 player, a speakerphone and a text-to-speech function. The handset is also waterproof.

LG has yet to disclose timing for the launch. More details can be expected during CES in January 2009.

Acer Launches Laptop With Intel's Quad-Core Chip

2008-12-30T05:02:00.000-08:00

Acer on Monday launched a powerful quad-core laptop at a price that may appeal to buyers on a budget.

The company's Aspire 8930G-7665 laptop is designed as a gaming laptop or desktop replacement. The laptop is powered by Intel's Core 2 Quad mobile processor with four cores that runs at up to 2.53GHz and includes 12MB of cache, according to Acer.

With a starting price of US$1,799, Acer's laptop could be a bargain compared to expensive quad-core laptops from the world's top PC vendors. Hewlett-Packard and Dell both offer quad-core laptops as either gaming laptops or mobile workstations with prices starting at over $2,000. Acer is the world's third-largest PC vendor behind HP and Dell, according to analyst firm IDC.

Specification:

The laptop includes an 18.4-inch screen that can display high-definition images and video. It also includes 4GB of RAM, Nvidia's GeForce 9700M GT graphics card with 512MB of video memory, a 500GB hard drive, a Blu-ray Disc drive and Wi-Fi wireless networking. It comes preloaded with the 64-bit version of Windows Vista Premium OS.

The laptop is now available in the U.S. through retailers, the company said. Acer could not be immediately reached for comment on worldwide availability.

Transcend introduce fancy 8 GB Flash Drives

2008-12-30T04:58:00.000-08:00

Transcend introduces two new 8 GB ultra-compact USB flash drives, namely JetFlash V90C and JetFlash V90P, in India. The latest versions of the JetFlash V90P and V90C combine distinctive faceplate designs and ultra-portable convenience for people who need an elegant way to carry data while on the move.

Transcend's V90C flash drive features distinctive spectral lines that appear to move when light catches it at different angles, with rotating high-strength USB connectors for long-term reliability. The V90P flash drive boasts an extremely slim and stylish metal body with a genuine black mother-of-pearl faceplate. As is the property of the the material, each mother of pearl piece has a unique pattern on it.

With a 3 year warranty, the drives are priced at Rs.1,600 each.

LG Reavels new Girly Clamshell Mobile

2008-12-30T04:54:00.000-08:00

LG has recently revealed a new mobile handset designed for the ladies. The handset – the SH490, is a clamshell and is being dubbed the 'make-up' phone, though in my opinion that title should rightfully belong to the Nokia 7610 Supernova.

The SH490 has a reflective/shiny outer shell that bears stylish and girly patterns and colors - “Smoky Red,” “Deep Blue” and “Pearl White”. It sports a 2.4-inch QVGA main display and also features an external 1.1-inch screen. It comes with a 3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, a media player for video and audio, with 512MB of internal memory with external support via microSD cards.

There's no word on pricing or availability yet so stay tuned.

Read Comics on Your iPhone

2008-12-30T04:52:00.000-08:00

In my opinion this is probably the very best app to have on the iPhone

– My comics.

This application allows comic book fans who own iPhones to view and read comics loaded in PDF, CBR, CBZ, ZIP files as well as the upcoming ZAVE format. A specific application called Comics Optimizer that’s available for Mac OS and Windows is designed to transfer your files onto the handset. It can’t get better than this. The application is going to sold on Apple’s iTunes AppStore for an introductory price of Rs. 190.75 ($3.99). For more information on other apps like this click here.

For Lucky Luke fans the Poor Lonesome Cowboy has wandered his way onto the iPhone with L’Homme De Washington in French – The Man From Washington. With intuitive navigation the entire digital comic should make comic book and Apple fans jump for joy. I need to seriously rethink my choices on a personal mobile now.

RockridgeSound Release Tube Amp iPod Dock

2008-12-30T04:48:00.000-08:00

I knew this was going to happen. This iconic marriage of sorts, of the modern compressed digital sound format, with the ultimate symbol of audiophilia- the tube amp. if you ask me, tube amps sound the best, so why not put an ipod through it?

RockridgeSound has recently released the ISR-VT02 iPod dock that boasts an integrated AM/FM tuner, vacuum tube amplifier, two-stage 12AX7 (ECC83) amplifier, two 3.15 inch speakers, 12W of power, S-Video out, mini stereo input and RCA analog inputs. The RockridgeSound ISR-VT02 iPod Dock is compatible with all iPods and iPod touch. You can buy this docking station in Japan on Xmas for around Rs.18480 each.

ATI Introduces Catalyst 8.12

2008-12-13T21:01:00.000-08:00

Driver releases are not something we cover as a routine matter, but this time around ATI has thrown in enough freebies into its latest driver update, Catalyst 8.12, to make it worth talking about. The first and foremost change that has taken place is that ATI has enabled its new driver suite with stream support which allows their existing GPUs to function as GPGPUs. This simply means that now it is possible to utilize your GPUs for specialized functions such as converting video from DVDs to compressed video for handheld media devices such as iPods. This change is available for the Radeon 4600 and 4800 series of cards with the noticeable exception of the flagship 4870 X2. This card will get this functionality in March 09.

The process of using the GPUs allows you to dramatically cut down the encoding time by as much 75 percent in some cases. A standard 700 MB file which could take 30-35 minutes can be encoded in under a minute and a half to an iPod ready format. While this is nothing new as rival Nvidia has had its CUDA program out for a while now, the program that utilizes it, is a paid product. In comparison ATI has chosen to bundle a new convertor tool “Avivo Video Converter”, which is available along with the driver for free and can be accessed in the general settings of the driver under basic mode. We have been playing around with this tool for the past week and have seen some encouraging results. We will be comparing it to Nvidia’s product and will be posting the results here pretty soon.

This is not the only change that has been made available due to the availability of stream. Expensive consumer product such as Adobe Photoshop CS4, Flash 10 Player and other related software are now able to use the GPU for many of their rendering functions. This functionality was earlier an Nvidia exclusive and is now available to ATI card users. The other set of changes are fairly standard. There is the standard of performance improvements for top games, including Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, Far Cry 2, Call of Duty: World at War and benchmarking applications such as 3DMark Vantage. ATI claims an increase of about 10-15%, and crossfire gains are there as well, including up to 57% on Far Cry 2. These figures are of course indicative as initial tests showed gains more in line with a 5-7 percent increase.

Head on over here for the drivers.

Lenovo Mobile Could Run on Android Platform

2008-12-13T20:58:00.001-08:00

This is the month of announcements and rumors, and here’s one more to get you in an anticipatory mood for more Android-powered handsets. It seems like Lenovo’s new touch screen handset being called the OPhone (hmm... that sounds familiar, a touch screen handset with a vowel and ‘Phone’ attached) will probably be running on the Android platform.

Word has it that it won’t be available for quite a while at least to the US customers but there could be a possibility it’ll be available a lot sooner on our continent with neighbors. It could be China Mobile’s offering of an Android handset but there’s not too much information on the specs this handset is empowered with. But not to deviate from what I’m presuming a lot of mobile maniacs are wondering – a Lenovo mobile phone? Sound’s interesting.

Pricing or availability is also anyone’s guess just now.

Palit Radeon HD 4850 Sonic Edition

2008-12-13T20:52:00.000-08:00

Palit Radeon HD 4850 Sonic Edition

Product Price : 12,000

The Palit Radeon HD 4850 Sonic edition addresses heat issues also seen in the Radeon HD 4850 cards but at the same time provides an incremental performance boost. It employs two heat pipes and a large aluminum heat sink in combination with a rather silent 65mm fan to dissipate the heat that this capable graphics processing unit produces.

Palit has overclocked the core from 625MHz to 685MHz (almost 10 percent higher) but the memory clocked sees only a tiny hike – from 1,986MHz to 2,000MHz. The result of the higher core clock translates itself into higher performance in many games and benchmarks. This Palit scored 7851 3DMark Vantage (Performance) points, over 11 percent higher than the figured attained by the Asus card using the same Radeon HD 4850 chip, but at stock speeds – 6960 points. Performance benefit in actual gaming is a mixed bag – it varies from next to no gain, to an improvement of about 5 percent.

In Company of Heroes, for instance, the overclocked Palit card managed 105 fps at 1680 x 1050 resolution andhighest quality settings. The Asus was marginally slower at 97 fps. F.E.A.R. saw an improvement of 3 percent. Other games like Crysis, World in Conflict and Unreal Tournament III did not see any improvement when tested at similar settings.

Palit’s Sonic edition of the Radeon HD 4850 ensures that heat is well taken care of without a noisy fan. The Palit card idles at under 50ºC while the usual single slot cards based on the same chipset run as hot as 75ºC at idle. What’s more, you get a minor performance boost as well with this Palit, but that comes at an additional cost of Rs 1,000.

Lenovo Introduces ThinkCentre A62 PC to India

2008-12-13T20:49:00.000-08:00

Recent months have seen a number of desktops launched for the enterprise segment. Lenovo’s ThinkCentre A62 PC is the newest addition to the market and it boasts of consuming 40 watts less power than previous ThinkCentre PCs. Lenovo claims that the low power consumption is due to the new 15w AMD Athlon 2650e processor, which is available in select models.

Additionally, the A62 also has GreenGuard and EPEAT Gold certifications along with a 4.0 Energy Star rating which means that it is suited for an environment friendly office space. Among its other features, the A62 has an ATI Radeon HD3470 card with Hybrid CrossFireX technology and a ThinkVision TFT monitor. For remote management, the A62 includes the Dash 1.1 tool, Express Repair for repairing system errors and ThinkVantage suite which has tools to optimize productivity and manageability.

The ThinkCentre A62 PC is priced at Rs.18,900 but users will have to pay more for getting additional features such as green fingerprint keyboard, DisplayPort and Dash 1.1 among others.

Bluetooth 2.2 Specifications to Be Revealed Next Year

2008-12-13T20:47:00.000-08:00

The specifications for the new version of Bluetooth technology- Bluetooth 2.2 will be revealed sometime in mid-2009. This was announced by the consortium of companies that form the technology’s Special Interest Group.

According to the SIG, Bluetooth 2.2 will enable wireless video streaming, printing and other Wi-Fi related tasks. It will also meant that faster speeds than that under v1.1 can be achieved. It is expected that Bluetooth 10x devices will be released first followed by Bluetooth 100x, which if used along with Ultra Wide Broadband radio, may be able to give 480mbps of data transfer speed. Bluetooth 10x is expected to give better performance in Wi-Fi devices and this will be pretty useful especially in portable media players.

The new iPod Touch 2G has a Bluetooth chip embedded in it but it has not yet been activated. Once the final specifications are released, we can expect Apple to release the update to enable Bluetooth 2.2 services.

Microsoft to Offer web-Based Word and Excel

2008-12-13T20:46:00.001-08:00

Microsoft plans to make most of its Office software - including Word and Excel - available online.

Web-hosted apps, also known as 'Software-as-a-Service' (SaaS), allow users to benefit from lower initial prices for the programs, as the apps are hosted online and don't need to be downloaded to computers.

Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft's business division, told Reuters: "What we think is in five years, 50 percent of the use of Exchange and Sharepoint could be serviced from the cloud."

"Between now and then, a year or two or whatever, if it's going to be tough economic times, that means we expect quite a lot of movement in that direction, a lot of people taking advantage of that," he added.

"I think the economy will help it."

Microsoft's online offerings will directly compete with Google's web-services such as Google Docs, as well as Google Calendar, Gmailemail and instant messaging.

Microsoft wouldn't confirm exactly which services would be made available on the web but revealed they would be rolled out as early as 2009.

Hackers Attack New IE7 Flaw

2008-12-13T20:44:00.000-08:00

Hackers are targeting a vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) running on Windows XP Service Pack 2.

Malicious JavaScript code, which exploits a bug in the way IE handles Extensible Markup Language (XML), is served to those surfing the web. The code drops a malicious program onto the victim's PC, which then goes on to download malicious software from various locations.

It works on the browser about "one in three times" said Wayne Huang, CEO of security vendor Armorize Technologies.

Security researcher Knownsec made the flaw public in a Chinese forum earlier this week. Huang said now that the bug has been publicly disclosed, he expects attacks based on the flaw to become much more widespread.

Google Chrome Exits Beta Officially

2008-12-13T20:43:00.000-08:00

Google has officially announced that its Chrome browser is no longer a beta version and made a full version of the product available for download.

An update completed Thursday -- the program's 15th since its inception in early September -- is now available without a beta label attached. The news follows speculation started by an interview with a company executive just one day ago.

"We have removed the beta label as our goals for stability and performance have been met, but our work is far from done," an announcement by Product Management VP Sundar Pichai and Engineering Director Linus Upson states.

The update will be automatically installed within the next few days for current Chrome users.

Chrome Changes

Chrome programmers say they have fixed a multitude of bugs that plagued the browser's early days, including video and audio glitches and other plug-in performance-related issues. Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine is also said to have grown 1.5 times faster since the software's first beta release. Recent speed tests by PC World sister publication Computerworld did, in fact, find Chrome's performance to be faster than the recently released Firefox 3.1 beta 2's TraceMonkey JavaScript alternative, even before Thursday's updated version.

Other improvements in the first full Chrome release include improved bookmarking options that make importing and exporting saved sites simpler, as well as a retooled privacy control panel within the program for more user-friendly access.

Atypical Timing

An independent analysis released Wednesday did find Chrome to be the buggiest browser when compared to recent Firefox and IE betas. That study, however, focused on Chrome's latest beta -- not the new full release -- so some of the issues identified may have now been fixed.

Still, taking a product out of beta this quickly is anything but ordinary for Google. Gmail, which launched in 2004, is still listed as a beta. Google Finance, Google Health, Google Docs, and Google Blog Search all debuted long before Chrome and are still in beta. Yet Chrome, just 100 days after its birth, is now a full-fledged release.

The fierce competition among the big browsers in beta may be one reason for the rush. After the initial excitement surrounding Chrome's introduction, its market share quickly plummeted. Even with recent fluctuations, most statistics suggest Chrome still holds less than a single percentage of overall browser usage.

What's Next

Google has previously indicated it was waiting to start its major marketing push until after the completion of Chrome's beta phase. The company has been planning to "throw [its] weight behind" the product as soon as a full release was ready, executives have said. Rumors have even swirled of possible deals that would offer Chrome as preinstalled software on new PCs in the near future.

Other progress expected for Chrome includes the addition of Mac and Linux support, as well as expanded features such as autofill form support and RSS integration. Google also says it plans to work on its extensions platform for developers in the coming months.

Delhi Welcomes 3G

2008-12-13T20:42:00.000-08:00

Delhi has become the first Indian city to officially go 3G with MTNL’s soft-launch of its 3G services, branded ‘Jadoo,’ in the capital. However, not the entire area of Delhi is being covered and only in some areas such as Connaught Place, Sanchar Bhavan, Rajaji Marg, India Gate, Pragati Maidan, Delhi gate and Minto Road can the service be accessed.

MTNL will not be charging anything extra right now but after the commercial launch, we can expect a new tariff plan to be revealed. A similar limited launch of 3G services is also expected in two months in Mumbai which would cover the areas between Prabhadevi and the airport. January will also see the services being launched in Chennai and further down the line in Kolkata.

MTNL will be adding an additional 15 lakh 3G lines in both Delhi and Mumbai. The introduction of this technology will also help the under-fire security agencies by helping the process of public surveillance. MTNL will be integrating close-circuit camera technology with 3G for surveillance with the help of Wi-Fi devices or mobiles.

Lenovo IdeaPad S10

2008-11-11T21:41:00.001-08:00

Lenovo's slim and stylish offering ups the ante in netbook race

Product Price : Rs. 25,000

Lenovo, one of the top notebook PC manufacturers, has hit a home-run with the IdeaPad S10 – as it enters the fast exploding segment of mini-laptops. At first glance, it looks like a cross between the compact Acer Aspire One and MSI Wind, but the S10 stands its ground admirably among the flock.

The Lenovo IdeaPad S10 is sleek, eye-catching, and typifies Lenovo's tradition of thin and light designs. The S10 weighs just under 1.25 kg, and is slightly over an inch thick. It doesn’t have the conventional laptop slant and looks surprisingly compact for a 10.2-inch screen netbook. Just as small as the Acer Aspire One, the Ideapad S10 makes the Asus Eee PC 1000H look big and bulky. Also Lenovo is synonymous with sound build quality, hence it's no surprise the Ideapad S10 feels so nice and solid.

The Ideapad S10 sports a pearl-white exterior like the MSI Wind, and the 10.2-inch non-glossy screen is outlined with white plastic, as is the rest of the chassis. But the S10 doesn't just have looks in its favor. A 160GB, 5400 RPM hard disk coupled with 1GB of RAM at 667 MHz - a rare combination among netbooks today - is enough to handle storage and performance needs of most potential users. Where it is complicated to upgrade the hard disk and RAM of other netbooks, the Ideapad S10 is fairly easy to disassemble and upgrade. It is driven by the inexpensive and low-power consuming 1.6-GHz Intel Atom N270 processor and runs on Windows XP Home edition. A 1.3-megapixel webcam sits above the screen and an in-built mic is recessed on the left-hand palmrest.

Working with the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 is easy, once you tune into the small form factor. The screen doesn't disappoint outdoors, and the viewing angles are okay. Its keyboard is as good as the one on the Acer Aspire One, with well-defined keys providing good feedback and no flex. Keys are arrayed with shortcuts, though the interchanged positions of Control and Function keys was a personal peeve. A design novelty in the IdeaPad S10 is the placement of the speakers on the front edge below the touchpad. So, if you're sitting with the netbook on your lap, all the sound is directed to your waist; but it's a boon if you're in the habit of relaxing on a couch and working with a laptop on your belly. Audio from the curiously placed speakers isn't too loud, but crisp and clear. From browsing the Internet on Firefox to working on Microsoft Office, transferring files over Bluetooth and listening to music over Wi-Fi, or even watching a movie: the experience was very good.

However, multitasking while listening to music and surfing a Flash-heavy Web site provided minor hiccups on more than one occasion. Also, the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 came pre-installed with a lot of useful software like Norton Internet Security and OneKey Recovery 6.0, an easy-to-use backup and bootable recovery software that can be launched with a curved hotkey placed above the keyboard.

Despite its strong points, the IdeaPad S10 isn't without its blemishes. It runs a little hotter than normal, making it uncomfortable for extended usage on the lap, and the 3-cell battery lasted close to three hours. A multicard reader and ExpressCard expansion slot are fine, but just two USB ports is cutting it a little too short. The touchpad is very tiny and difficult to work with, too.

If you want a netbook that lasts you close to five hours, the Asus Eee PC or MSI Wind is a better bet right now. But if high-battery life isn't a priority and if you can shell out Rs. 25,000 for a slim, stylish, well-built netbook, the Ideapad S10 is a good choice.