TheTech24.blogspot.com : Updaing you Daily | Technology | Gadgets | Information Technology

India’s first urban mobile WiMAX service arrives by BSNL

2010-03-01T18:05:00.000-08:00

BSNL on Saturday launched India’s first mobile 4G broadband Internet access network, the Mobile WiMAX in Kerala. The state has become the first in the country to have the facility and BSNL is now the first operator to launch the service in India.

The technology has been provided by AVIAT, formerly Harris Stratex. WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) technology can provide very high speeds (up to 37 mbps). 900 BTS (Base Transmitting Stations) have been deployed in the state and the entire project is expected to cost about Rs 100 crore. 450 BTS are being set up to cover major cities, district headquarters and important towns. 25 BTS will cover Ernakulam, Tripunithura, Kalamassery, Aluva and Angamally muncipalities. According to E M Abraham, Principal General Manager of BSNL, “The new technology will provide access to broadband at a cost performance ratio that is far better than any other technology.”

According to a recent study, India will be the largest WiMAX market in Asia Pacific by 2013. There would be as many as 14 million WiMAX users by the year 2013 and the annual growth rate would be nearly 130%. “Eventually, we expect WiMAX growth to be much faster in smaller cities and rural towns. The investment on WiMAX will then go up substantially. WiMAX will not be an alternative to 3G but will be used for overall broadband diffusion in India,” said Rahul Gupta, Strategy Analytics manager for emerging market communication service. “WiMAX, unlike 3G, will find the bulk of its consumer applications in providing fixed and nomadic broadband access in India. Purely mobile usage of WiMAX is expected to be a fairly small component of the total usage. But technological competition will come in the near term from 3G which is being marketed in many emerging markets as an alternative for fixed broadband access,” said Mr Gupta.

“Consumer subscriptions in the developing Asian countries are forecast to grow at a compound rate of 132% through 2013, with the subscriber base reaching almost 27 million in that year. Most emerging markets WiMAX providers will launch their initial services in major urban areas, to take advantage of concentrations of existing Internet users with purchasing power. However, over the longer term the most rapid growth is expected to be in second-tier cities and in rural areas, where there is substantially less competition from incumbent broadband suppliers. China and India will be critical markets while the speed of HSPA deployment will be the most significant competitive factor in most markets.” he added.

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Microsoft and Google join forces against Terrorism

2010-03-01T18:03:00.001-08:00

Arch rivals software giant Microsoft and search giant Google have teamed up for a good cause – to fight against terrorism and other criminal activities. The companies are jamming to stop terror organisations from using the internet for their nefarious activities including recruiting terrorists.

Microsoft and Google attended a two day meeting in in Seattle along with software giants Cisco and Symantec to figure out ways to curb terrorist activities on the world wide web; the meeting was led by the UN Working Group. Richard Barrett, the co-chair of the group said that there has been a “high level of crime on the internet”.

According to Barett, “It is essential that you bring in the private sector, which is an essential partner in moving forward”. However it was also deduced that more UN departments and governments should be involved in discussions regarding fighting terrorism on the internet. The European Union and the Council of Europe may join forces with Microsoft, Google, Symantec and Cisco to tackle the terrorism via the internet.

In an unrelated news, Microsoft finally managed to overtake Google on Wednesday in the brand recognition category, and only in the UK. As per an annual survey that lists 500 of the top business brands in the UK, Microsoft came much ahead of Google. The survey, carried out by Superbrands placed Microsoft at the top in the list to be followed by Google and Blackberry.

Microsoft’s Natal costs less than $80

2010-03-01T18:02:00.001-08:00

The biggest question at the moment for die hard gamers is ‘how much will the Natal cost’? There has been no confirmation by Microsoft as to how much the add on will sell for and when it would release, though some suspect it is Q2 2010. The rumoured price was about $80.

According to insiders each unit of the Natal costs about $50. Microsoft and many of the developers would like to see the company get that price down from $80 to $60. In any case it will not cost more than $100, which is the ‘impulse buy’ amount. The pre-orders and demand will be huge. But you don’t need to worry about availability, since Microsoft is shipping as many as 5 million units, which is about one Natal for every seven of the nearly 34 million Xbox 360s that have been sold to date.

Some of the units will be sold in an Xbox 360 console bundle, while the others will be simply sold as an add-on unit. Now those are huge numbers, we can safely say that Microsoft is banking that Natal will get a lot of attention and be successful. The other biggie is that as many as 14 titles will be available or support the use of Natal at launch. Software support will be a major factor for the Natal to be successful, and 12 major game publishers have confirmed that they will support it. As to which titles will be released remains shrouded in secrecy, only Fable III has been confirmed that it will offer Natal support.

Microsoft will surely make some tasty announcements in this year’s E3, and we can expect the names of the titles to be revealed, something that is very important in building up a colossal buzz before the Natal launches. On the other hand Sony has stated earlier that it will launch its rival LED-controller-based system in December 2010 or early 2011. It’s going to be an epic battle.

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HP’s Slate is cheaper than the iPad

2010-03-01T18:00:00.000-08:00

It was revealed today that the iPad killer from the flogger of expensive printer cartridge ink HP will be cheaper and better than the Apple product.

According to a report by ‘The Wall Street Journal’, HP honchos intend to “tweak prices and features” on the Slate, the gadget was originally priced at about $50 cheaper than the $630 price for the 16GB 3G iPad. However after HP got wind of Microsoft’s dual screen tablet ‘Courier’ (yes, they’re developing a Tablet as well) HP decided to chop off the price of Slate even further to completely annihilate the iPad’s stranglehold or its sales.

During the last six months there has been quite a bit of hype surrounding Tablets and even the iPad but there is no indication that the Apple gadget would sell like hot cakes. It was reported today that the iPad will be up for pre order in the last week of February and will ship sometime in March and the 3G models would arrive in April. But by the time the iPad comes on the market there will certainly be cheaper and better machines announced that would do everything that the iPad cannot. Apple is not taking it too well, insiders have said that the company is thinking of reducing the price of the iPad or develop one with better specs.
Whatever the case, mid 2010 will be a battleground for tablets as HP’s Slate, Microsoft’s Courier, Apple’s iPad would try and outdo the Indian mega machine that is the ‘Adam’. As we reported earlier, the ‘Adam’ has been developed by ‘Notion Ink’ which comprises of seven young IIT and IIM grads, and is expected to cost at least $100 less than the iPad.

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First Look: The Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

2009-04-22T19:00:00.000-07:00

Try playing hide-and-go-seek with a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti and you're bound to lose.

At over sixteen feet in length, the two-door GT is longer than a Hummer H3 and nearly as long as a Mercedes S-Class. But one owner may have found the key. This desert-camo Prancing Horse was spotted by Ferrari Chat board member "elipinsk" in the wilds of Germany.

Speculation was that it was yet another creation of Bathing Ape founder Nigo, along the same lines as his camouflaged Rolls-Royce Phantom, Bugatti Veyron and classic Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing.

We might have placed it among Saddam Hussein's corral of high-end automobiles, but indications are that it actually belongs to a local real estate developer. And not in the Persian Gulf, either, but in Wiesbaden, Germany. The "intriguing" treatment appears to have been done with a vinyl wrap, so at least it can be reversed fairly painlessly, which is more than we can say for its application.

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Google unveils two swanky new Search Tools

2009-04-22T18:58:00.000-07:00

Similar Images and Timeline

Google has launched two experimental products it hopes will change the way users search for pictures and news.

A feature known as Similar Images uses a picture rather than text to find other matching images. 'Similar Images' allows users to sort through the results of an image search more easily by clicking on a link.

Timeline presents information already available in Google News but organised and displayed chronologically. Using Timeline, users searching for cricket scores or Shahrukh Khan will be shown a history of articles, photographs and videos arranged by date, week, month or year. Users can also refine the search to specific magazines, newspapers or blogs. Other search possibilities include Wikipedia, movies, music or even video games.

Alongside these features is a new version of Google Labs, in which users can take a peek at what its thousands of engineers are working on.

Amid past criticism that Google has wasted too much time and effort on projects that have little impact, the aim of the Labs upgrade is to make prototypes available earlier.

Google is the leader in search with nearly 64% of the American market compared with Yahoo, which has just over 20% and Microsoft with 8.3%

By adding new features to enrich the experience, it is undoubtedly hoping to increase its grip on the world of search.

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Kodak Zi6 Pocket Camcorder Announced

2009-04-16T01:41:00.000-07:00

Kodak Zi6 Pocket Video Camera Unveiled, Boasting HD Video Capture and Instant Uploading to YouTube™

Eastman Kodak Company NYSE: EK today announced its entry into the fast-growing pocket digital video camera market with the KODAK Zi6 Pocket Video Camera. This stylish HD video camera makes it fun and simple to shoot and share high-quality videos in moments, thanks to 720p HD video capture, a large 2.4-inch LCD screen, and easy-to-use software.

"Today's connected consumers increasingly turn to video to express themselves and connect with others. The KODAK Zi6 Pocket Video Camera satisfies their thirst for an HD video camera that is simple to use and can go anywhere life takes them," said John Blake, General Manager Digital Capture and Devices, Vice President, Eastman Kodak Company. "With the launch of the Zi6 Pocket Video Camera, consumers now have a high-quality solution from the trusted brand in digital imaging."

With the exploding popularity of video sharing sites such as YouTube, the demand for easy to use video devices is also growing rapidly. At the same time, the expanding penetration of HDTVs is driving consumer demand for HD quality personal content.

The KODAK Zi6 Pocket Video Camera is designed to meet these needs at the touch of a button -- no lens cap, dials to turn or settings to adjust.

A range of advanced features enables consumers to:

Capture video in HD quality on this fun and super simple pocket video camera (720p at 60 fps with 16:9 aspect ratio).
Upload your videos to YouTube quickly and easily using the built-in USB and software.
Record hours of video with the expandable SD/SDHC card slot that can hold up to 32 GB.
Experience your videos on HDTV in stunning HD quality with included cables.
Edit videos, add pictures and music, and share your creation anywhere with the included video software CD.
Go green with included pre-charged AA Ni-MH rechargeable batteries and battery charger.
Watch videos on the vibrant 2.4" LCD screen.
Catch the highlights with slow motion playback right in the palm of your hand.

Uploading to YouTube
YouTube is the world's most popular online video community. The Kodak and YouTube relationship will enable consumers to quickly and easily upload videos to YouTube directly from the Zi6 Pocket Video Camera, or from the included simple and powerful video editing software (ARCSOFT MEDIAIMPRESSIONS for Kodak).

Accessories
A range of accessories will be available for the KODAK Zi6 Pocket Video Camera:

KODAK 2GB and 4GB High Performance memory cards
1-hour battery charger with 4 AA pre-charged Ni-MH batteries
KODAK tripods
KODAK camera bags

Pricing and Availability
The KODAK Zi6 Pocket Video Camera will be available from late September 2008, retailing for US$179.95 MSRP.

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Evolution of tech logos...

2009-04-15T19:36:00.000-07:00

These is an interesting researched post about how the present day logos evoved from old days....

Mozilla firefox logo

Google logo

Microsoft logo

Apple logo

Intel logo

Adobe logo

Nokia logo

IBM logo

Xerox logo

Palm one logo

Nortel logo

Motorola logo

Canon logo

Cbs logo

Logos hav their on story to tell.............

watch video

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Welcome to GOOGLE GLOBAL UNIVERSITY...!!!!

2009-04-15T19:08:00.000-07:00

>> ADMISSIONS TO STANFORD, HARVARD, MIT, PURDUE, IIT, UCLA, VIRGINIATECH, BERKELEY.....FREE OF COST

>> COST OF LIVING : ZERO dollars

>> TRAVEL EXPENSE : ZERO dollars

>> TUTION EXPENSES/FEES: ZERO dollars

>> REQUIREMENTS: A PC AND INTERNET CONNECTION!!!!

Can't believe your eyes.......?

It was impossible before one year....

now it's possible...

GOOGLE HAS MADE IT POSSIBLE..........

Google has created another milestone by hosting a educational platform on youtube named asYoutubeEDU . This will help 100's of universties around the world to share educational videos on differnt topics ranging from basic physics to highly advanced nanotechnology....from basic programming to highly advanced computational fluid dynamics....and lot and lot more....

Under this programme Google has patnered with 200 higher education institutions including Stanford, Harvard, Berkely, IIT, MIT, Purdue, virginia tech....etc and has uploaded over 20000 videos helping students from all over the world to attend the classes taken by world renowned professors at the easiness of their home...all they need is a pc and an internet connection....

It's now easier than ever on YouTube for anyone in the world to find academic subjects of interest, tour campuses, and freely audit classes.

MOST ACTIVE THREE UNIVERSITIES PARTNERED WITH YOUTUBE ARE

IIT

This channel provides technical lectures from all seven Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

The Video Courses are organised as PLAYLISTS under the following Categories:

1. Core Sciences

2. Civil Engineering

3. Computer Science and Engineering

4. Electrical Engineering

5. Electronics and

Communication Engineering
6. Mechanical Engineering

This channel has got three HONOURS

>> This is the most watched EDU channel of Youtube.....with over 715000 views...

>> This is the most active

channel having an upload of more than 3603 videos most of them are of near 1 hr durations...

>> 2nd Most subscribed youtube edu channel with over 15,312 subs

cribers

STANFORD

Youtube's most subscribed edu channel has uploaded about 583 videos under differnt topics many of them taken by world renowned professors

Videos are on variety topics like

1. Human-Computer Interaction

2. Chemical Engineering

3. Robotics

4. Machine learning

5. Modern physics

6. Programming

7. Entepreneurship

8. Human health

9. chemical enngineering

watch video on what

stanford dean say....

UCTA

UCTV is a 24-hour, non-

commercial television channel that broadcasts the best in educational and enrichment programming from the campuses, national laboratories, and affiliated institutions of the University of California. UCTV delivers

1.science

2. health and medicine

3. public affairs

4.humanities

5. arts to a general audienceas well as specialize programming for health care professionals and teachers.

Videos uploaded:3196

Subscribers: 11,814

Channel Views: 213,251

Whether you are a prospective student interested in learning more about a campus, or you're an avid learner that can't get enough of the classroom experience -- turn to YouTube EDU and keep learning.....

GOOGLE ROCKS any way...

Official Google Blog: Mosaic: bringing diverse perspectives together Official Google Blog: Will it lens?

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Microsoft Makes Bid for Entry-Level Mouse Market with Sidewinder X3

2009-04-14T11:06:00.000-07:00

Keeping the likes of Razer and OCZ on their respective toes, Microsoft today added to its gaming mouse lineup with the addition of the Sidewinder X3, an entry-level rodent that won’t chew through your wallet. Sporting an ambidextrous design, Microsoft’s latest Sidewinder looks to sway budget gamers with a respectable feature-set, including a 2,000 DPI laser with on-the-fly sensitivity switching.

"Our research shows that in-game comfort continues to be the main consideration for PC gamers," said Bill Jukes, product marketing manager for Microsoft Hardware. "We designed this mouse to be ambidextrous and small in size, providing comfort to a wider variety of people and making it ideal for gaming as well as everyday use."

The Sidewinder X3 also comes with five programmable buttons (eight buttons in all), a wide, detented scroll wheel, and wide-glide feet "for smooth handling and a light, balanced feel."

Microsoft says the Sidewinder X3 will ship in May for about $40.

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Webhostingchoice.com Site Review

2009-04-14T10:53:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that I haven’t needed to search for hosting providers in quite some time. I have a good solution and I am very happy with what they offer and I am very pleased with the fantastic tech support I get. I did want to give you a place to go to though, so you could browse through all the different hosting options out there in one easy to use location so I decided to do a review of web hosting. This will hopefull help you out in your hosting quest which can be quite daunting to say the least, with all of the offers out there.

This site is very easy to navigate. You have many options to choose from when it comes to hosting choices and the services available at each company. Just go to the site and start exploring. You will find companies by price, options, etc.

The one thing I didn’t like about the site was the design. In Firefox browser the table that lists the top 10 hosting choices “The web hosting sites, which were rated highest in the industry, are listed below and are rated based on affordability, reliability, uptime and tech support”, was too big and extended way beyond the edge of the site. Simple fix that shouldn’t be ignored when you are trying to present a professional web site.

Overall if you are looking for hosting and need a quick referance point where you can go to choose from many different options, then this site is an ok place to go.

Wish you luck in your search for a good hosting provider.

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Micron validates DDR3 memory for Intel Nehalem Xeon processors

2009-04-14T10:52:00.001-07:00

Intel's highly anticipated launch of next-generation Nehalem-based Xeon 5500-series processors, a system supplier for the delivery of its latest offerings, powered by Intel's latest data. But the benefits of a high-performance server systems, users need the best and most reliable hardware solutions, including storage and warehousing. On the server's memory, Micron is a trademark as recognizable as the company continues to develop new solutions that enable higher performance. In this sense, Micron has recently announced that its collection of DDR3 memory, the server has been validated for the latest Intel Xeon processors.

"The industry has already adopted the deposition of DDR3 adoption, and we are the target for the transition to take place this year, says Michael Sporer, Director of Marketing for Micron Enterprise segment." An important catalyst in this transition is the introduction of the Intel Xeon processor platform, our server OEM customers with the ability to design an integrated, high-performance storage architecture. "

The company can now Nehalem Xeon-validated DDR3 memory modules come in 1, 2, 4 and 8-gigabyte at a rate of 1066 Mbit / s and 1333 Mbit / s. In addition, Micron also announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Lexar Media also has validated its decision mark DDR3 modules are now ready for use within Xeon powered server.

"Intel Xeon processor 5500 series is the most important architectural leap second since the Pentium Pro processor has almost 15 years," said Ali Sarabi, director, industry initiatives and path finding, Intel Corporation. "Micron and major suppliers are the key to memory and ecosystems, their products approved on Intel Xeon Processor 5500-series will be an important contribution for the DDR3 ramp on the market. "

Unlike Intel's latest generation of Xeon processors, the new solutions that have been developed to the memory controller on board, a feature that allows the system to improve performance through better communication between the processor and memory. These server systems are used in the growing market for cloud computing, including multiple operating systems on a computer that is sharing all resources.

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Dell's XPS 625 and 630 now provide a liquid-cooling option

2009-04-14T10:50:00.000-07:00

Round Rock, Texas-based Dell is known for its wide range of computer systems, the user a choice for a mainstream, gambling or entering your computer. What game is the XPS line of computers is on a high performance, but in a package that not necessarily all that expensive. This applies Dell XPS 625 and 630 desktop gaming platforms for gaming enthusiasts with high performance at a price tag starting at around $1000 in this sense; the PC manufacturer has recently decided to offer its customers a new option, especially for those who like playing with the performance of the system.

Dell released this year, XPS 625 and 630 desktop platforms, primarily to the performance requirements of computer gaming enthusiasts. The cheaper XPS 625 is based on an AMD platform and offers support for the latest 45nm Phenom X4-II processors, 8 GB of DDR memory and ATI Radeon graphics. The XPS 630 is more expensive, with Intel technology and supports Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad processors, up to 8GB of DDR2 and NVIDIA or ATI graphics card.

According to the product page on the website of Dell, the XPS 625 and higher performance XPS 630 is a Featured liquid cooling system, designed by Asetek. The alternative would be easy for overclocking fans but also by those who like the owner of a very cool computer. This is because Liquid cooling solution, users can take advantage of a quiet computing experience.

But as with most voluntary to a Dell system, Asetek, chilling is not exactly cheap. When you are finished, and want to add an additional $120 because the price of $899 and $1099, the XPS 625 and XPS 630 with liquid cooling can really thank you.

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Intel makes room for new Nehalem Xeon CPUs by phasing out old models

2009-04-14T10:49:00.000-07:00

Santa Clara, California-based Intel, the world's leading processor manufacturer, has officially announced that the highly anticipated Nehalem-EP-Xeon processors and deliver a new level of performance for servers and workstations market. After the official introduction of the new Xeon 5500-series Xeon processors, Intel has recently released a Product Change Notification to their partners, informing them that the intention is to expand its product portfolio by phasing out some of their older models, including some York Field and Conroe areas.

According to the company Product Change Notification, customers should send their orders for the latest 45nm York-based Field X3350 and X3320 and 65nm Conroe-based Xeon 3085, 3075 and the 3065th All these Xeon processors with a Front Side Bus of 1333MHz, and is based on Intel's latest generation of Core 2 Xeon processors. But, the world's leading supplier of course processing company plans to make room for the new processor architecture and its forthcoming Xeon server CPU.

As part of the technical specifications, it is York Field on Intel's 45nm chip technology and is equipped with a TDP level Featured 95Watts. The X3350 model has 12 MB of L2 cache and 2.66GHz clock frequency, while the X3320 with a speed of 2.5 GHz core and 6MB of L2 cache. The second 65nm Conroe-based Offered is in line with a TDP of 65 watts and 4 MB L2 cache. What affects the speed, the Xeon 3085, 3075 and 3065 the clock at 3 GHz is 2.66 to 2.33 GHz, respectively.

Intel's customers have been notified of their final orders for these chips before October 9, while the last day of the ship is not provided Xeon to January 9, 2010. Until then, Intel will probably be some new Xeon processors that use the computing power of Nehalem micro-architecture.

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AMD partners can make HD 4890X2 graphics cards

2009-04-14T10:48:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month, the Sunnyvale, California based Advanced Micro Devices would clarify the current rumors that computer enthusiasts will face another high-end graphics accelerator, coming in the person of Radeon HD 4890 X2. In accordance with the chip Maker, the need for such a card is not immediately justified, especially given the current market opportunities of HD 4870 X2. However, at present it seems that you can actually see the new X2 card sooner rather than later. New maps will be based on the AMD GPU last year, RV790 and will be commercially available as the Radeon HD 4890 X2.

In a recent video interview with Sasha Marinkovic, AMD product manager for consumer platforms, the fellows over at PC Games equipment to learn that AMD in AIB partners will have the opportunity to make their own Radeon HD 4890X2. In support of such a card is an already available, thanks to 8 +6 configuration of power that differs from the current reference boards. But this does not mean that AMD will begin reference card version says only that its AIB partners have the opportunity to distinguish themselves in the issuance of a new elitist card.

Currently, the biggest competitor for a possible HD 4890 X2 is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 and a double GT200b a card that was issued earlier this year. Nevertheless, the card could soon see hefty competition with Radeon HD 4890X2 part, especially since the message is that the partners could release a dual 1 GHz maps, in combination with the 2GB and 4 GB of memory GDDR5. According to a recent article about brightsideofnews.com, these cards can be the hungriest of power in the market.

Despite the large number of rumors about the HD 4890X2, we cannot say exactly where and when this card will be released. However, if rumors are anything close to reality, NVIDIA, perhaps, just something to worry about again.

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Free download ATI Catalyst Software Suite 9.1 XP

2009-04-14T10:45:00.000-07:00

Why I recommend this driver? here is the important change log:

Changelog:

This release of ATI Catalyst™ provides full OpenGL™ 3.0 extension support.
The following is a list of OpenGL™ 3.0 extensions added in Catalyst 9.1:
• ARB_framebuffer_object
• ARB_half_float_vertex
• ARB_texture_rg
• EXT_texture_array
• EXT_texture_integer
• EXT_transform_feedback
• NV_conditional_render
• WGL/GLX_create_context (for new 3.0 contexts)
• GLSL 1.3
• ARB_color_buffer_float
• ARB_vertex_array_object
• EXT_draw_buffers2

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Downlaod link: Download ATI Catalyst Software Suite 9.1 XP
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Developer: ATI
Size / OS: 37.4 MB / Windows XP
Last Updated: January 29th, 2009
Category: GRAPHICS BOARD \ ATI

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Bajaj's Nano-killer Car on roads in 2011

2009-03-14T19:52:00.001-07:00

Bajaj Auto Ltd on Saturday said its small car, being developed in partnership with Renault SA and Nissan Motor, will be rolled out in 2011 as per schedule.

Bajaj managing director Rajiv Bajaj said: "The project remains largely on schedule, though in the course of development some specifications have been reviewed, leading to adjustments in the overall schedule."

It had been reported in a section of the media that the ultra low-cost (ULC) project would be delayed by more than a year as Rajiv Bajaj was not happy with the work done so far, and he demanded major modification in the design.

"Bajaj categorically denies that the project is delayed by any significant period such as a year, as has been erroneously reported," he added in a statement.

The report also cited insufficient and slow investment infusion into the project by Nissan and Renault as another reason for the delay.

"Bajaj has primary responsibility for the design, development, manufacturing, and supply chain activities of this project. Bajaj is proceeding as before to implement this project and any financial or other constraints that Renault-Nissan may have, have no bearing on the ability of Bajaj to implement this project," Rajiv Bajaj said.

Announced last year, the ULC is pegged as a direct competitor to Tata's small car Nano, priced at Rs 1,00,000.

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Indian Scientist develops Car Coat that 'heals' scratches!

2009-03-14T19:49:00.000-07:00

The next time your car is keyed, park it under a ray of sunshine. If your car is coated in a new polyurethane film developed by scientists from the University of Southern Mississippi, the scratch will be gone in an hour.

The research is detailed in the current issue of the journal Science.

"We have developed a new macromolecule," said Marek Urban, who, along with Biswajit Ghosh, wrote the paper. "When the polymer is damaged and exposed to sunlight, it is capable of repairing itself, and could be applied to many systems."

The new coating is 99.99 percent standard polyurethane, a material found in a wide range of products, including hard plastic and soft foams. The remaining 0.01 percent is either a four-molecule oxetane ring or a long rod of chitosan. Chitosan is closely related to chitin, the tough material found in the shells of lobsters and crabs.

When the polyurethane is damaged, a ring of oxetane is also ripped open. Breaking the surface of the polyurethane also allows ultraviolet light to enter the scratch, which breaks apart a rod of chitosan.

The broken chitosan rods and oxetane rings then bond with each other across the damaged area, dragging the two sides together to eliminate the scratch. If the polyurethane coating is left in the sun, a scratch heals itself in an hour.

Scientists say that the reaction only takes place when the surface is damaged, and that it should be should be able to repair most scratches indefinitely. But since the material is so new, they haven't been able to conduct long-term tests.

Long-term testing will be necessary before the coating makes it into any commercial products. If approved, however, the coating could be used for a wide range of materials.

"You can make it whatever color you want, just add pigments" said Urban. Car paint is "the first applications that comes to mind, but you can think of electronics, phones, iPods, etc."

The beauty of the new coating, according to Craig Hawker at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is that since it is made from a derivative of chitin, it is environmentally friendly.

"The use of renewable materials is a centrally important selling point," said Hawker. "And the novel use of UV as a trigger for healing is extremely versatile."

"There could be some issues, especially when you scale production up," said Urban. "But it shouldn't be a long time before you see this material in commercial production.

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Buying a Toyota? Costs Rs 50,000 more Now

2009-03-14T19:48:00.000-07:00

Car maker Toyota Kirloskar Motor has increased the prices of its sedan 'Corolla Altis' and multi-utility vehicle 'Innova' by up to Rs50,000 from April 1, 2009, due to depreciation of rupee and yen against the US currency and rising input costs.

"So far, we have tried to absorb price increases (input costs) as much as possible, in order to limit the increase passed on to the customers.

"However, due to unavoidable reasons such as recent changes in the rupee/dollar and yen/dollar exchange rate, we are now required to make necessary revisions in pricing," Toyota Kirloskar Motor Deputy Managing Director (Marketing) Sandeep Singh.

The company was also affected by rising operational costs, he said in a statement today.

After this price increase, Innova would be costlier by Rs 10,000-Rs 25,000, while consumers would have to pay Rs 10,000-Rs 50,000 more for Corolla Altis.

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Acer Aspire 8930 Windows XP Drivers

2009-01-25T10:58:00.000-08:00

(request acer drivers...)

Hi everyone...
Acer Aspire 8930 - 8930G XP Drivers for you...

Audio Realtek ALC268_ALC885_ALC889
(Download)

Bluetooth Foxconn BT2.0
(Download)

CIR ITE IT8512E
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Webcam Bison Utility 0.3M
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Webcam Suyin 0.3M
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Webcam Suyin 1.0M
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CardReader Silicon JMB385 vR1.00.12.07
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Chipset Intel GM975
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Fingerprint ABIG Utility
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Nokia N96 Mobile Reviews

2009-01-25T10:49:00.000-08:00

Nokia N96 General Specification

Status: Coming soon. Exp. release 2008, Q3
Rating: 4.3 out of 5 (30 votes cast)
Network: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
Announced: 2008, February

Nokia N96 Size

Dimension: 103 x 55 x 18 mm, 92 cc
Weight: 125 g

Nokia N96 Display

Type: TFT, 16M colors
Size: 240 x 320 pixels, 2.8 inches

Nokia N96 Ringtones

Type: Polyphonic (64 channels), Monophonic, True Tones, MP3
Customization: Download
Vibration: Yes

Nokia N96 Memory

Phonebook: Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocal
Call records: Detailed, max 30 days
Card slot: microSD (TransFlash)
- 16 GB internal memory
- 128MB RAM, 256MB system memory

Nokia N96 Data Specification

GPRS: Class 32, 107 / 64.2 kbps
Edge: Class 32, 296 kbps; DTM Class 11, 177 kbps
3G: HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps
WLan: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP technology
Bluetooth: Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
Infrared port: Yes

Nokia N96 Mobile Features

Messaging: SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging
Browser: WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS reader
OS: Symbian OS, S60 rel. 3.2
Games: Downloadable
Colors: Black
Other Features
- 3G Network: HSDPA 850 / 2100
- Built-in GPS receiver
- A-GPS function
- DVB-H TV broadcast receiver
- Dual slide design
- Java MIDP 2.0
- MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+/WMA player
- 3.5 mm audio output jack
- TV out
- Stereo FM Radio with RDS
- Organizer
- Office document viewer
- T9
- Push to talk
- Voice dial/memo
- Built-in handsfree

Nokia N96 Battery

Battery: Standard battery, Li-Ion 950 mAh (BL-5F)
Standby: Up to 220 hr

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Nokia E75 gets Leaked in Pictures looks Great

2009-01-25T10:47:00.000-08:00

Nokia E75 might be the latest QWERTY Touchscreen phone from Nokia

The pictures were leaked today by DailyMobile

The phone has the metal / steel back cover like the E71 with a 2.4 inch screen, 3.2 megapixel camera, QWERTY Keyboard, Dual keypads, HDSPA, and WiFi

If you are currently using a Nokia E71 and E51 separately then these pictures might seem interesting to you

It seems like a E51 with a QWERTY keypad ..

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New hybrid nanostructures detect nanoscale magnetism

2009-01-20T08:09:00.000-08:00

A key challenge of nanotechnology research is investigating how different materials behave at lengths of merely one-billionth of a meter. When shrunk to such tiny sizes, many everyday materials exhibit interesting and potentially beneficial new properties.

Pictured is a rendering depicting cobalt nanoclusters embedded in multi-walled carbon nanotubes. - Image credit: Saikat Talapatra/Caterina Soldano

Magnetic behavior is one such phenomenon that can change significantly depending on the size of the material. However, the sheer challenge of observing the magnetic properties of nanoscale material has impeded further study of the topic.

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed and demonstrated a new method for detecting the magnetic behaviors of nanomaterials. They created a new process for growing a single multi-walled carbon nanotube that is embedded with cobalt nanostructures. The cobalt clusters measure from 1 nanometer to 10 nanometers.

After a series of experiments, the research team has concluded that the electrical conductance of carbon nanotubes is sensitive enough to detect and be affected by trace amounts of magnetic activity, such as those present in the embedded cobalt nanostructures. It is believed to be the first instance of demonstrating the detection of magnetic fields of such small magnets using an individual carbon nanotube.

Results of the study were reported in the paper "Detection of Nanoscale Magnetic Activity Using a Single Carbon Nanotube" recently published by Nano Letters.

"Since the cobalt clusters in our system are embedded inside the nanotube rather than on the surface, they do not cause electron scattering and thus do not seem to impact the attractive conductive properties of the host carbon nanotube," said Swastik Kar, research assistant professor in Rensselaer's Department of Physics, Applied Physics, & Astronomy, who led the project. "From a fundamental point of view, these hybrid nanostructures belong to a new class of magnetic materials."

"These novel hybrid nanostructures open up new avenues of research in fundamental and applied physics, and pave the way for increased functionality in carbon nanotube electronics utilizing the magnetic degree of freedom that could give rise to important spintronics applications," said Saroj Nayak, an associate professor in Rensselaer's Department of Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy, who also contributed to the project.

Potential applications for such a material include new generations of nanoscale conductance sensors, along with new advances in digital storage devices, spintronics, and selective drug delivery components.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

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'Stress tests' probe nanoscale strains in materials

2009-01-19T08:07:00.000-08:00

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated their ability to measure relatively low levels of stress or strain in regions of a semiconductor device as small as 10 nanometers across. Their recent results* not only will impact the design of future generations of integrated circuits but also lay to rest a long-standing disagreement in results between two different methods for measuring stress in semiconductors.

Confocal Raman microscopy image of stress in a silicon crystal caused by indentation with a 20-micrometer-long wedge. The image does not show the silicon but rather the magnitude of stress in the crystal, with compressive stress around the wedge going up from the base line. Vampiric red 'fangs' reveal tensile stress associated with cracking at the ends of the indentation. - Stranick, NIST

Mechanical stress and strain in semiconductors and other devices is caused by atoms in the crystal lattice being compressed or stretched out of their preferred positions, a complex-and not always harmful-phenomenon. Stress in the underlying structure of light-emitting diodes and lasers can shift output colors and lower the device's lifetime. Stress in microelectromechanical systems can lead to fracture and buckling that also truncates their lifespan. On the other hand, stress is deliberately built into state-of-the-art microcircuits because properly applied it can increase the speed of transistors without making any other changes to the design. "Stress engineering has allowed the semiconductor industry to increase the performance of devices well beyond what was expected with the current materials set," said NIST research physicist Robert Cook, "thus avoiding the significant engineering problems and expense associated with changing materials."

Both the good and the bad stresses need to be measured, however, if they're to be controlled by device designers. As the component size of microcircuits has become smaller and smaller, this has become more difficult-particularly since two different and widely used methods of stress measurement have been returning disparate results. One, electron back scattered diffraction (EBSD), deduces underlying stress by observing the patterns of electrons scattered back from the crystal planes. The other, confocal Raman microscopy (CRM), measures minute shifts in the frequency of photons that interact with the atomic bonds in the crystal-shifts that change depending on the amount of stress on the bond. The NIST team used customized, highly sensitive versions of both instruments in a series of comparison measurements to resolve the discrepancies.

The key issue, they found, was depth of penetration of the two techniques. Electron beams sample only the top 20 or 30 nanometers of the material, Cook explained, while the laser-generated photons used in CRM might penetrate as deep as a micrometer or more. The NIST researchers found that by varying the wavelength of the Raman photons and positioning the focus of the microscope they could select the depth of the features measured by the Raman technique-and when the CRM was tuned for the topmost layers of the crystal, the results were in close agreement with EBSD measurements.

The NIST instruments also demonstrate the potential for using the two techniques in combination to make reliable, nanoscale measurements of stress in silicon, which enables device developers to optimize materials and processes. EBSD, although confined to near-surface stress, can make measurements with resolutions as small as 10 nanometers. CRM resolution is about 10 times coarser, but it can return depth profiles of stress.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

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'The photon force is with us': Harnessing light to drive nanomachines

2009-01-18T08:04:00.000-08:00

Science fiction writers have long envisioned sailing a spacecraft by the optical force of the sun's light. But, the forces of sunlight are too weak to fill even the oversized sails that have been tried. Now a team led by researchers at the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science has shown that the force of light indeed can be harnessed to drive machines - when the process is scaled to nano-proportions.
Photonic circuit in which optical force is harnessed to drive nanomechanics (inset) - Tang/Yale

Their work opens the door to a new class of semiconductor devices that are operated by the force of light. They envision a future where this process powers quantum information processing and sensing devices, as well as telecommunications that run at ultra-high speed and consume little power.

The research, appearing in the November 27 issue of Nature, demonstrates a marriage of two emerging fields of research - nanophotonics and nanomechanics. - which makes possible the extreme miniaturization of optics and mechanics on a silicon chip.

The energy of light has been harnessed and used in many ways. The "force" of light is different - it is a push or a pull action that causes something to move.

"While the force of light is far too weak for us to feel in everyday life, we have found that it can be harnessed and used at the nanoscale," said team leader Hong Tang, assistant professor at Yale. "Our work demonstrates the advantage of using nano-objects as "targets" for the force of light - using devices that are a billion-billion times smaller than a space sail, and that match the size of today's typical transistors."

Until now light has only been used to maneuver single tiny objects with a focused laser beam - a technique called "optical tweezers." Postdoctoral scientist and lead author, Mo Li noted, "Instead of moving particles with light, now we integrate everything on a chip and move a semiconductor device."

"When researchers talk about optical forces, they are generally referring to the radiation pressure light applies in the direction of the flow of light," said Tang. "The new force we have investigated actually kicks out to the side of that light flow."

While this new optical force was predicted by several theories, the proof required state-of-the-art nanophotonics to confine light with ultra-high intensity within nanoscale photonic wires. The researchers showed that when the concentrated light was guided through a nanoscale mechanical device, significant light force could be generated - enough, in fact, to operate nanoscale machinery on a silicon chip.

The light force was routed in much the same way electronic wires are laid out on today's large scale integrated circuits. Because light intensity is much higher when it is guided at the nanoscale, they were able to exploit the force. "We calculate that the illumination we harness is a million times stronger than direct sunlight," adds Wolfram Pernice, a Humboldt postdoctoral fellow with Tang.

"We create hundreds of devices on a single chip, and all of them work," says Tang, who attributes this success to a great optical I/O device design provided by their collaborators at the University of Washington.

It took more than 60 years to progress from the first transistors to the speed and power of today's computers. Creating devices that run solely on light rather than electronics will now begin a similar process of development, according to the authors.

"While this development has brought us a new device concept and a giant step forward in speed, the next developments will be in improving the mechanical aspects of the system. But," says Tang, "the photon force is with us."

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by the Yale University

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Nanocoatings boost industrial energy efficiency

2009-01-17T07:57:00.000-08:00

Friction is the bane of any machine. When moving parts are subject to friction, it takes more energy to move them, the machine doesn't operate as efficiently, and the parts have a tendency to wear out over time.

A photograph of an AlMgB14 coating on a steel substrate. The substrate is the mottled structure on the left-hand side of the photo and the coating is the thin, darker strip running along the edge of the steel. (The blemishes on the steel are carbide inclusions) The coating has a thickness of approximately 2 to 3 microns (about one ten thousandths of an inch). - Credit: US Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory

But if you could manufacture parts that had tough, "slippery" surfaces, there'd be less friction, requiring less input energy and the parts would last longer. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Ames Laboratory are collaborating with other research labs, universities, and industrial partners to develop just such a coating.

"If you consider a pump, like a water pump or a hydraulic pump, it has a turbine that moves the fluid," said Bruce Cook, an Ames Laboratory scientist and co-principal investigator on the four-year, $3 million project. "When the rotor spins, there's friction generated at the contacting surface between the vanes and the housing, or stator. This friction translates into additional torque needed to operate the pump, particularly at start-up. In addition, the friction results in a degradation of the surfaces, which reduces efficiency and the life of the pump. It takes extra energy to get the pump started, and you can't run it at its optimum (higher speed) efficiency because it would wear out more quickly."

Applying a coating to the blades that would reduce friction and increase wear resistance could have a significant effect in boosting the efficiency of pumps, which are used in all kinds of industrial and commercial applications. According to Cook, government calculations show that a modest increase in pump efficiency resulting from use of these nanocoatings could reduce U.S. industrial energy usage by 31 trillion BTUs annually by 2030, or a savings of $179 million a year.

The coating Cook is investigating is a boron-aluminum-magnesium ceramic alloy he discovered with fellow Ames Laboratory researcher and Iowa State University professor of Materials Science and Engineering Alan Russell about eight years ago. Nicknamed BAM, the material exhibited exceptional hardness, and the research has expanded to include titanium-diboride alloys as well.

In many applications it is far more cost effective to apply the wear-resistant materials as a coating than to manufacture an entire part out of the ceramic. Fortunately, the BAM material is amenable to application as a hard, wear-resistant coating. Working with ISU materials scientist Alan Constant, the team is using a technique called pulsed laser deposition to deposit a thin layer of the alloy on hydraulic pump vanes and tungsten carbide cutting tools. Cook is working with Eaton Corporation, a leading manufacturer of fluid power equipment, using another, more commercial-scale technique known as magnetron sputtering to lay down a wear-resistant coating.

Pumps aren't the only applications for the boride nanocoatings. The group is also working with Greenleaf Corporation, a leading industrial cutting tool maker, to put a longer lasting coating on cutting tools. If a tool cuts with reduced friction, less applied force is needed, which directly translates to a reduction in the energy required for the machining operation.

To test the coatings, the project team includes Peter J. Blau and Jun Qu at one of the nation's leading friction and wear research facilities at DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, or ORNL, in Tennessee. Initial tests show a decrease in friction relative to an uncoated surface of at least an order of magnitude with the AlMgB14-based coating. In preliminary tests, the coating also appears to outperform other coatings such as diamond-like carbon and TiB2.

In a separate, but somewhat related project, Cook is working with researchers from ORNL, Missouri University of Science and Technology, the University of Alberta, and private companies to develop coatings in high-pressure water jet cutting tools and severe service valves where parts are subject to abrasives and other extreme conditions.

"This is a great example of developing advanced materials with a direct correlation to saving energy," Cook said. "Though the original discovery wasn't by design, we've done a great deal of basic research in trying to figure out the molecular structure of these materials, what gives them these properties and how we can use this information to develop other, similar materials."

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by the DOE/Ames Laboratory

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Sony Unveils New X Series Touchscreen Music Player

2009-01-17T07:52:00.000-08:00

Sony has unveiled a new addition to their Walkman series of Audio and Video players. The new X Series Walkman player comes with a lot of nice features like Touchscreen, WiFi and Noise Cancellation. With these features it might well become a worthy competitor against iPod Touch.

The new music player has a 3 inch 432 X 240 pixel OLED display. It claims to provide a better color and contrast than iPod Touch. The player supports MP3, WMA, AAC, WMV, MPEG-4, and AVC for video. The music player has comes with Digital Noise Cancellation which allows the headphone to block out any ambient noise. It has a Digital Sound Enhancement Engine which provides a better sound quality. WiFi is also present so you can also use it to access the web, download youtube videos and podcasts with the inbuilt Web Browser.

It sure looks like an impressive gadget. The pricing and availability is not yet announced.

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Obama inauguration to stream online in Microsoft Silverlight

2009-01-17T07:48:00.000-08:00

Microsoft's Silverlight will be used for online streaming of Barack Obama's swearing-in ceremony on the inaugural committee's official site, the company announced this morning. It's a high-profile win for Microsoft. Given the intense interest in the inauguration, it's likely to result in greater adoption of the company's interactive technology.

Of course, the real coup would have been getting Obama's Zune incorporated into the ceremony somehow.

Microsoft executives including Steve Ballmer made personal contributions to the inaugural committee, as we've noted in the past. Silverlight will also be used to stream the online video of a Baltimore event on Saturday, leading up to the inauguration.

As noted in the Microsoft news release, it's not the first time Silverlight has shown up on the political scene. The technology, which competes with Adobe Flash, also was used to stream events from the Democratic National Convention in August.

But it hasn't been all about victories lately for the Microsoft technology. Major League Baseball announced in November that it will be dumping Silverlight in favor of Flash for online streaming of the upcoming baseball season.

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Microsoft faces long slog against Google -- despite latest deals

2009-01-17T07:46:00.000-08:00

Recent deals struck by Microsoft Corp. seem to strengthen the company’s position against Google in the internet search market, but the full effect may not be evident for months or even years.

Microsoft's challenge was highlighted again today by the latest U.S. search data from comScore Networks, which showed the company's overall share of the market remaining stagnant at around 8 percent.

Under the agreements, consumer PCs from Dell and Hewlett-Packard will soon start shipping with Microsoft’s Live Search engine as the default setting. People who make queries from built-in browser toolbars and search fields on those computers will go through Microsoft’s search site — unless they change the default or navigate to another engine.

Microsoft announced its Live Search deal with Dell at the Consumer Electronics Show Jan. 7, following up on a similar agreement with HP last year. The two companies are the largest PC makers, by far. Combined, HP and Dell represent more than half of U.S. personal computer shipments and a third of worldwide shipments, according to data from the IDC research firm.

Those are big numbers when compared with Microsoft’s relatively small slice of the search market. The numbers released by comScore today show the company holding steady at 8.3 percent of the market, compared with 63.5 percent for Google and 23.5 percent for Yahoo.

Microsoft last week also announced a new search deal with Verizon on cell phones. Previously it made search agreements with Sun Microsystems and Facebook.

Microsoft’s HP and Dell deals are “a pretty good coup,” said analyst Roger Kay, president of the Endpoint Technologies Associates consulting firm in Wayland, Mass. “If you look at it, they captured the top U.S. vendors, by a lot.”

However, it will take time for the effects to filter into the market.

That’s because the number of PCs sold each quarter pales in comparison to the number already in use. About 80 million PCs were shipped worldwide in the third quarter, according to IDC, but analysts estimate 1 billion PCs are in use globally.

The terms of Microsoft’s HP and Dell deals also leave out a large chunk of the market, corporate PC users, focusing instead on new computers for consumers.

The HP deal, which took effect this month, makes Live Search the default on all HP consumer PCs shipped in the United States and Canada. Microsoft’s Dell agreement calls for the PC maker to install Live Search on “a majority” of its new consumer and small-business personal computers starting next month.

All told, the Dell and HP deals could help Microsoft boost market share slightly in the United States after a year, perhaps by 2 or 3 percentage points, analyst Kay estimated.

The key issue is whether people will be content to use Live Search after it’s pre-installed. Such deals with PC makers are based on the theory that many PC users won’t change the default settings, or don’t know how. But it’s also easy for users to just type Google’s address into the browser if they don’t like what they get.

Many people will try the pre-installed Live Search at least once, especially if they’re accustomed to searching from the field built into the browser, said Matt Rosoff, industry analyst at the Kirkland-based Directions on Microsoft research firm. However, even under that default scenario, Microsoft will have limited time to persuade those people to make the switch permanently.

“The results have to be as good as Google,” Rosoff said.

Microsoft says the relevance of its search results now matches Google, citing studies to back its assertion. But in the end, it’s a subjective issue, and Google’s rising share of the market means that people are still using its engine far more than others.

In the end, the quickest way for Microsoft to boost its market share would be to partner with or acquire Yahoo’s search business. Microsoft is no longer seeking to acquire Yahoo, but the Sunnyvale, Calif., company’s selection of former Autodesk CEO Carol Bartz as its new chief executive this week could set the stage for a search deal.

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10 Reasons why Far Cry 2 is the worst game ever

2009-01-15T22:27:00.000-08:00

Have you played it yet?

Far Cry 2 was set to be the epic game of the year, competing against the likes of Fallout 3, Dead Space and GTA 4.

The developers promised an open diverse 50km big world filled with beautiful scenery, open landscapes, African wildlife. Right!

1) Now how does one map that's 50km in size have jungles, a freaking desert and a mud terrain? And its not as if they are joined seamlessly, but rather you jump suddenly into a jungle from a sun baked desert.

2)Wheres the wildlife? There's only a couple of zebras every 10 hours, and if you even hit one at 1 kmph they instantly fall dead on the floor.

3) The game textures are not pleasing to the eye, far from it! The characters look pathetic and likewise for their voices. Every single AI will do the same stuff - you walk into somebody in town they will push you. The voices of the characters are horrendously bland, I gritted my teeth in anger everytime someone said ' meeeeew take out that convoy'.

4) Now the graphics - every outpost looks almost identical, the grass looks smashed and all the safehouses have the same interior. Copy paste job is what it looks like. The jungles, well lets not go there, the sun baked terrain has no atmosphere whatsoever. The lighting at night makes the game look awful, like the was game made 4 years ago.

5) Ok lets discuss fire - yes it spreads, yes it looks stunning, and the developer said it grows over time. Well when did grass grow back after half a game day? Is that realistic? NO!

6) The story is a bag of turd. The gameplay is irritating and frustratingly tedious - lets do a mission destroy that convoy unlock these guns ok? Allright nice new guns new mission destroy convoy new guns ok? Getting a bit repetitive? Yay new guns do this mission unlock more ok? Then destroy convoy ok? But this is getting lame, so lets do some story missions - assassinate him ok? Oh 'phone call' go meet with 'Bob' for alternative. Ah nice alternatives mission objective, ok assassinate retard. Done that let Bob die be done with mission. Next mission - assassinate blah bleh!!!

And then every mission you get phone call with alternative to meet some retard half way across the map which you have to drive to in a car which sounds like a lawn mower and goes about 1 mile an hour even though the speedo says it going 100km an hour. Why should there be the same alternative in every mission?

7) Dont even get me started on vehicles - one has to drive this a bad looking mobile for several miles that sounds like a hair dryer. At least give us some nice muscle roaring car sounds and decent damage to the car, instead of the hood flying 20ft in the air and smoke coming out the bonnet. Why the heck would a car blow up unless you shot the gas tank? How does using a wrench repair bullet shots to an engine?

8) 'Kill the jackal the bastard that armed both sides' - who thought up this pre school idea? It is NOT good enough to base an entire game on! A two year could come up with a better idea that that.

9) Why are both fractions in the same town if they are at war? And surely if you were doing a mission for both the factions, they would be pissed with you and would try and kill you. Even if you do missions for one faction they would still shoot at you.

10) You cant even go prone? Were they too lazy to do the animations of the guns when prone? And why does the guy's arm look like a freaking baguette when holding a gun? Also while swimming since when do you bend your wrist back that far? The worst animation of swimming i have ever seen in a game.

Bonus) FC2 has the worst A.I. ever - you hide in a bush, fire one round, boom, they instantly know where you are even from miles away. But you can stand in front of someone for 2 minutes, and they will never know. After 5 whole minutes suddenly they see you and start shooting at you. Also hows does someone in a T shirt withstand an entire clip from the AK 47 at close range to the chest?

Just ten points seem too less for such a bad game, but you can add your own reasons in the comments.

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Virtual Sex becomes a Reality

2009-01-15T08:36:00.000-08:00

Doesn't get more perverted than this

Geeks and those without a girlfriend can rejoice that the latest NASA technology might mean you never have to try.

Next door to the CES show there is the annual Adult Entertainment Expo, famous mostly for porn stars and hacks trying to get a sex angle on the flaccid CES next door.

But at this show Brett Drysdale was showing off a rocket-shaped RealTouch device which he says was "developed and tested by a former NASA engineer". He must have had fun.

The gear contains belts, lubrication jets, heating elements and other gadgetry programmed to give men, who probably have never had the pleasure before the feeling of sex.

Apparently you can slip anything you like into it and it feels like a woman except for the fact that it connects to your computer with a USB cable and synchronises with a porn movie.

Drysdale said that you watch the action on a screen and a signal is sent to the box to simulate what is happening. Of course there is an online RealTouch theatre you can plug into which costs a buck a minute.

That will be your biggest cost as the RealTouch gear only sets you back $150. Still it is cheaper and less embarrassing than hiring an escort, unless it is found by your mum of course.

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Carol Bartz is the new CEO of Yahoo!

2009-01-15T08:24:00.000-08:00

Will rescue company from certain Doom

Yahoo has named Silicon Valley veteran Carol Bartz as its new chief executive - Ms Bartz, 60, is a well-respected industry figure who led business software maker Autodesk for 14 years before becoming its chairman in 2006.

Her appointment follows a search for a replacement for the internet portal's co-founder Jerry Yang. His departure followed lengthy criticism of his stewardship of the company, which has coincided with its share price collapsing to about $12.

He angered investors by turning down a $47.5bn takeover offer from Microsoft last May - worth $33 a share. Microsoft did however come back and offer to buy the search part of Yahoo, but a deal was never struck. Many observers expect that this deal will eventually go through, with a new chief executive at the Yahoo helm.

Before joining Autodesk, Ms Bartz spent nine years at Sun Microsystems, rising to become the second most senior executive behind the then-CEO, Scott McNealy. She has been named in Fortune magazine's list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business and featured on Barron's list of the World's 30 Most Respected CEOs.

And observers say that her track record suggest that she was likely to build on Yahoo's strengths.

"She is able to see the essence of things because she doesn't spend a lot of time worrying about how people are going to feel," said Nilofer Merchant, a former Autodesk manager, now chief executive of technology consultant Rubicon.

"She is driven by doing the best thing for the business."

During Bartz's leadership, Autodesk's share price rose by an annual average of nearly 20% - something which analysts say will hearten Yahoo investors who have seen the value of shares slide dramatically.

In November last year, Mr Yang surprised the industry when he said that Microsoft should still buy Yahoo. "I don't think it's a bad idea at all, at the right price whatever that price is. We're willing to sell the company," he told the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco.

The declaration came hours after Google had pulled out of an internet advertising deal with Yahoo amid increasing scrutiny from the US Department of Justice.

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Nokia 5800 XpressMusic in Pics

2009-01-14T23:02:00.001-08:00

The stunning new Nokia touchscreen 5800 XpressMusic phone has arrived in India!

And here's the barnburning news - Nokia 5800 is priced at Rs 21,800 (almost Rs 9,000 less than 8GB iPhone and Rs 14,000 less than 16 GB iPhone).

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Sony loses $1 Billion, PS3 price drops

2009-01-14T22:49:00.001-08:00

Gamers Rejoice

Reuters reports that Sony Corp "will likely" have an operating loss of approximately $1.1 billion this year, its first in 14 years.

According to the wire service, some global economic slump that's going on right now has caused inventory for the company to stack up in all its divisions and prices to fall.

It was already expected that Sony would be cutting thousands of jobs and closing manufacturing plants, but an analyst quoted in the report believes the company will now "further accelerate its restructuring."

There's no word on how the PS3 and PSP divisions of the company will be affected. The silver lining in this for consumers is that the PS3 is rumored to receive another price drop in the next few months.

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The 2TB Hard Disk Arrives

2009-01-14T22:40:00.000-08:00

Enough room for you?

We all know the hard drives will always get larger and larger, but even then, it takes hitting a new milestone for the progress that has been made in data storage to really sink in.

One such milestone will be made later week, as Western Digital releases a massive-humongous, two terabyte hard drive. That's right, 2TB -- which should be enough to satisfy anyone's storage demands for at least a little while.

The drive is the Caviar Green 2000GB WD20EADS, with 32MB of cache, a 8.9ms seek time, and ability to run either at 7200, or 5400, RPM.

According to Fudzilla, the hard drive might sell around $225-$250, and should be in stores fairly quickly. This beast should arrive in India by March and would cost about Rs 14,000. That's rather expensive, but 2TB won't come for cheap...at least for the first six months.

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Hottest touchscreen phones of 2008

2008-12-15T22:00:00.000-08:00

The year 2008 was surely the year of Touch. The touch magic which caught consumer attention with the unveiling of iPhone in 2007, continued to dazzle in 2008.

Phone manufacturers across hue, from elitist BlackBerry to affordable HTC, launched a slew of touchscreen models. The two Google phones unveiled so far also sport a touchscreen.

The world's biggest phone manufacturer Nokia too made a long-awaited entry into the touchscreen market in October with Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. The company recently announced adding a touchscreen model to its NSeries also.

While many of these launches pose tough competition to iPhone with their better specs, others fall pale. Here we bring you a wrap up on some of hottest touchscreen phones unveiled during the year.

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Coming soon: BlackBerry Storm

2008-12-15T21:55:00.000-08:00

The enterprise smartphone maker RIM too made its entry in the touchscreen space this year with the Blackberry Storm.

Measuring 4.43 X 2.45 X 0.55 inches, the new BlackBerry weighs 1.55 kgs. The phone's look is quite similar in size to larger BlackBerry models but trades a standard QWERTY keyboard for a high-resolution 3.25-inch touchscreen. The phone's display supports 480x360 pixel resolution and 65,000 colours.

BlackBerry Storm packs a ClickThrough feature, which means its touchscreen is not just touchable but clickable. To select a specific area of a web page, users can press down, so the entire screen clicks down.

The phone packs a host of multimedia capabilities including Bluetooth 2.0 with support for stereo Bluetooth headsets, dial-up networking and GPS. The phone comes with Media Player with support for music and video formats including MP3, AAC, WMA, WMV, MPEG4 and H.264.

Storm is equipped with a 3.2 megapixel camera with video recording, auto focus and flash. The phone comes with 128MB of flash memory and 1GB of onboard memory. The phone offers support for microSD/SDHC expansion slot up to 16GB cards.

BlackBerry Storm will run on the latest BlackBerry operating system (version 4.7). The phone will support multiple email accounts: BlackBerry Enterprise, Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes, POP3, IMAP4 and more. BlackBerry Storm, however, lacks WiFi.

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Coming soon: Google G1

2008-12-15T21:50:00.000-08:00

This year Internet search giant Google pulled curtains off its touchscreen smartphone, a slick HTC device that combines a touchscreen and a keyboard. Termed G1, the phone was first launched in the United States in October on TMobile network. G1 is the first phone boasting Android software created by a Google-led consortium. In India G1 is expected to hit stores early 2009.

G1 has a large 3.2-inch colour touchscreen display with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels. Weighing 158 grams, the phone is similar in size to 3G iPhone, just slightly heavier, and narrower at sides. G1 comes in three colours, black, white and brown. The phone's large colour touchscreen slides out to expose a full keyboard. Google's G1 offers a host of multimedia features similar to that of Apple's iPhone and RIM's BlackBerry.

The phone has a trackball for navigation, high-speed Internet browsing, WiFi, email, instant messaging and SMS texting. The phone functions on 3G network and is specially designed to offer high-speed Internet surfing.

It also has a GPS, a 3 megapixel camera with photo-sharing capability and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a feature lacking on the iPhone. Like iPhone, in G1 users cannot shoot video. There's also a feature by which Gmail users will get instant notification whenever they receive a new message in their inbox.

TMobile G1 will be the first smartphone powered by the search engine company's software, called Android. Google has made Android software available for free to carriers and handset makers who want to use it to power their own devices. The search giant hopes that the open source software will eventually become the dominant operating system for mobile phones.

G1 is priced at $179, $20 less than the 3G iPhone. The data plans are also far less than those available for the iPhone in the US, with an unlimited text and Internet plan costing just $35, in addition to regular voice plans.

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Coming soon: Nokia N97

2008-12-15T21:45:00.000-08:00

Even before Nokia 5800 XpressMusic could make its presence in the touchscreen market, Nokia showed the world its second iPhone rival. Finnish cellphone maker recently added a touchscreen model to its Nseries range with N97, which it hopes will bolster its smartphone offering. Other than iPhone, N97 is a direct rival to Sony Ericsson's X1 and HTC's Touch Pro -- which both use Microsoft's Windows software.

Nokia is calling the new smartphone `the world's most advanced personal computer.' The sleek handset pairs a 3.5 inch touchscreen with a full QWERTY keyboard. There's a tilting touchscreen display and a customisable home screen that can be personalised with widgets. The wide touchscreen has a 16:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 640 x 360 pixels.

N97 offers 32GB memory with microSD for adding 16GB more (making it a staggering 48GB), 5 megapixel camera (with Carl Zeiss optics and dual LED flash), support for Nokia's N-Gage gaming system and handwriting recognition.

Other features include, a 3.5mm headset jack, microUSB port used for syncing and charging, Haptic feedback and 1500 mAh battery. The smartphone runs on S60, the latest version of Nokia’s Symbian operating system.

N97 has 3G wireless network connectivity, a built-in compass and GPS. The smartphone is expected to go on sale in the first half of 2009 for around $699.

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Coming soon: Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

2008-12-15T21:40:00.001-08:00

World's top cellphone maker Nokia finally made its long-awaited (and speculated) entry into the touchscreen phone market with Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

Touted as the company's answer to Apple iPhone, Nokia 5800 can handle as many as 60 different languages, has 81MB internal memory and 8GB microSD memory card and is capable of storing approximately 6,000 songs. The memory can be further expanded upto 16GB. Nokia 5800 is equipped with the Symbian S60 interface.

On the looks front, Nokia 5800 has same rounded corners and similar screen like iPhone. The screen size is 81mm (3.2-inch) diagonally, with 640x480-pixel touchscreen display that can play multiple types of video at a high resolution. Measuring 111 x 51.7 x 15.5 mm, the Nokia 5800 weighs 109 grams.

The phone comes with 3.2 megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens and a dual-LED flash. Nokia 5800 has built-in surround stereo speakers, Nokia Maps, GPS, WiFi, stereo Bluetooth and a top-mounted 3.5mm headphone socket.

Reportedly priced around Rs 21,839, Nokia's touchscreen phone will be available in India in early 2009.

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Coming soon: Samsung Instinct

2008-12-15T21:40:00.000-08:00


Another touchscreen challenger from the Samsung's stable is Samsung Instinct. Termed as one of the closest iPhone rival, Sprint Nextel Corp launched the smartphone in the month of June. With 3.1-inch touchscreen display and 320 X 240 resolution, the phone has 2 megapixel camera, video recording, picture messaging, haptic feedback and three hard navigation keys. Measuring 2.2 x 4.6 x 0.5, the Instinct packs 2GB memory storage, microSD memory card slot, GPS and FM radio. Like the iPhone, Sprint also includes a second battery and an external charger. The company claims that with each charge it supports 5.8 hours of talk time. The phone is open to third-party software developers, and its software is based on Java. The Instinct's price matches that of the 8GB iPhone model: $199 with a two-year contract.

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LG 1000

2008-12-15T21:35:00.000-08:00

LG too refreshed its touchscreen line-up in the country with LG 1000. The touchscreen option for CDMA users, LG 1000 is available on Reliance network. The Nokia Communicator look-alike features a 2.8-inch external touch sensitive LCD and an internal display of the same size along with a full QWERTY keyboard.

LG 1000's key features include a media player (playback for MPEG 4 formats), a 2 megapixel camera with video recorder, expandable memory up to 8GB and Office mail applications for corporate users access (Push mail through Microsoft Server, Pull mail - IMAP and POP3).

The phone also features a full HTML browser, voice recorder, dual stereo speakers. It also supports Bluetooth and external memory via microSD cards. The phone has battery life of up to 240 minutes (talktime) and up to 480 hours stand-by time. It is priced between Rs 22,000-25,000.

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HTC P3000

2008-12-15T21:30:00.001-08:00

Here's another option for CDMA users, HTC P3000. Available on Reliance network, HTC P3000 is a sleek, stylish phone weighing 130 gram, in a slim 18-mm body.

HTC P3000 is powered by Reliance's CDMA 1X technology which provides high-speed mobile internet access up to 144 kbps.

The Windows Mobile 6.0 phone includes complete suite of business applications with Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, PowerPoint Mobile, Outlook Mobile, PDF viewer and more. It has a 2 megapixel camera that includes a preview mirror to ensure quality imagery.

The phone comes with 64MB RAM, 128 MB ROM and also features a SDIO/MMC card slot for extensible storage. It has a 2.8 inch TFT touchscreen and supports Bluetooth.

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Samsung TouchWIZ F480

2008-12-15T21:30:00.000-08:00

After Omnia, another touchscreen contender came this year from Samsung's stable in India -- TouchWIZ F480.

The phone has a 2.8-inch TFT LCD (240x320) touchscreen, integrated FM radio, multi-format video playback (MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV, Real), MPEG4 video recording and editing functions.

The phone also comes with face detection technology, image stabiliser, CMOS video lens and Wide Dynamic Range (WDR) features. There are also a few customisable features like Drag `n' Drop and Auto Smile Shot coupled with full touch navigation.

TouchWIZ F480 has a 5 megapixel auto-focus-LED Flash camera, equipped with 240MB of internal memory, which can be expanded up to 8GB. Positioned in the lifestyle segment, the phone come with a host of entertainment features and is compatible with GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSDPA (7.2mbps) networks and functions on GSM 900/1800/1900, and WCDMA 2100 bands.

Priced at approximately Rs 20,990, Samsung TouchWIZ F480 comes in a metallic body casing.

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Asus P320

2008-12-15T21:25:00.000-08:00

This year Taiwan-based Asus launched a touchscreen PDA in the Indian market in shades of pink and pearlescent white. With rounded corners and curved edges, the Asus P320 has a circular navigational key.

Based on the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional platform, the P320 features GPS navigation, EDGE/GPRS, WiFi for Internet access, Bluetooth and USB connectivity. It comes pre-loaded with Asus Today suite that includes applications such as Time, Mail Box, Calendar, News, Weather and Music Player available to users via a single window.

Some other key features are a 2.6 inch TFT touchscreen with 65K color, 240 x 320 pixels resolution, OMAP 850 (Texas Instrument's Open Multimedia Application Platform) 200 MHz processor, 128MB Flash ROM + 64 MB DDR RAM and business applications. The phone boasts of 2 megapixel camera and microSD support. The phone is priced at approximately Rs 12,900.

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Sony Xperia X1

2008-12-15T21:15:00.001-08:00

2008 saw Sony Ericsson too jumping on the touchscreen bandwagon with the launch of full QWERTY 3-inch touchscreen phone, Xperia X1.

The phone has a black or silver metal-and-plastic body with a 3-inch touchscreen. There is assortment of 11 buttons on the X1's face, including a center button that can select items or work as an optical joystick, which scrolls with a finger swipe. Users can navigate the X1 by tapping its screen with finger or with a stylus.

The X1 uses Windows Mobile 6.1 as its operating system, but Sony Ericsson has developed a variety of customised enhancements that run on top of it. Most notable is the stylish panel interface, which consists of up to nine small rectangles that users can customise and use to view different applications or media on the device in different ways.

X1 packs a 3.2 megapixel camera with face recognition feature that focuses on a spot when taking photos. The phone also has a video calling option.

First business phone from Sony Ericsson, X1 has HSDPA and HSUPA, both 3.5G (wireless broadband) connections that allow for fast Internet access. Xperia can play Flash videos from Youtube or other sites that use it by opening a different video application.

Business users can synchronise the phone with their PCs and get email from their Microsoft Outlook account pushed straight to the phone -- something that can make it difficult to switch to a more consumer-friendly phone like the iPhone or the G1, which uses Google Inc's Android operating system.

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HTC Touch Diamond

2008-12-15T21:15:00.000-08:00

Taiwan-based HTC was the first company in India to launch a touchscreen phone. With Touch, HTC officially debuted touchscreen phones in India.

Touch Diamond, launched in May 2008, is the company's fourth touchscreen launch in India (for GSM), after HTC Touch, HTC Dual and HTC Cruise.

This iPhone wannabe offers the new 3D touch interface called TouchFLO 3D, which provides animated access to messaging, email, photos, music, weather and other features. Measuring 102 x 51 x 11.33mm, Touch Diamond operates on WCDMA/HSPA (900/2100MHz) networks, capable of boosting mobile Internet speed up to 7.3 Mbps using HSDPA and HSUPA.

Key features include, a 2.8 inch VGA touchscreen display, 3.2 megapixel camera with an optical auto-focus lens, video calling capability and auto sensor screen pivoting.

It runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, comes with 4GB of internal storage with 256MB flash and 192MB RAM. Other features include Bluetooth with EDR, minUSB, integrated GPS and Wi-Fi.

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Samsung Omnia i900

2008-12-15T21:10:00.000-08:00

To dampen the iPhone-effect, Korean giant Samsung launched its iPhone look-alike, Samsung Omnia i900, days ahead of 3G iPhone debut in India. The touchscreen smartphone comes with a 5 megapixel camera, 7.2Mbps HSDPA connectivity, built-in GPS and Wi-Fi.

Measuring 112 millimeters by 57mm by 12.5mm, the phone has a 3.2-inch display that has 240 pixel by 400 pixel resolution (Wide QVGA). Like iPhone, Samsung's Omnia aims to make Internet browsing easy, and also has a wide screen for viewing video.

The smartphone runs on Microsoft Windows Mobile software and comes with choice of 8GB or 16GB models. In looks, Omnia resembles the earlier version of iPhone in its dark, shiny finish, curved edges and slim form.

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Apple 3G iPhone

2008-12-15T21:00:00.001-08:00

July 2008 saw the launch of second-generation Apple iPhone. Called 3G iPhone, the gadget got rave reviews for its unique design, touchscreen interface and other features, though many lamented lack of common features like higher megapixel camera, flash support, message forwarding and MMS capability.

In looks, the phone's black plastic skin back has been replaced by silver-aluminum back. While the 8GB model comes in black only, the 16GB version is available in both black and white. Weighing 4.8 ounces, the 3G iPhone measures 0.48 inches.

The 3G technology gives iPhone fast access to the Internet and email over cellular networks around the world. The new version also makes it possible to surf the Web, download email, get directions, and watch video -- even while users are on a call.

The touchscreen phone promises 5 hours of 3G talktime, 10 hours of 2G talktime, 5 hours of 3G Internet time, 6 hours of Wi-Fi Internet time, 7 hours of video playback, 24 hours of audio playback, and 12.5 days standby time.

In India, the phone is offered by Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, who sell the 8GB model for Rs 31,000 and 16GB for Rs 36,100.

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Hands-on with the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900

2008-12-14T21:21:00.000-08:00

T-Mobile currently has the UK exclusive on the new RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900 and everyone else (well, O2 customers, at least) will have to wait until 5th January to get their hands on it (not technically correct, as it turns out ...). It’s available from today, but seeing as it’s a bit nippy out, we thought you’d appreciate some hands-on video action from the comfort of your computer screen.

As you can see, the 8900 (or ‘Javelin’) is a bit of a visual departure from previous Curves and RIM has pinched bits of both the BlackBerry Bold and Storm for its design. The result is far from a Frankenstein hotchpotch though, and the Curve 8900 is both stylish and substantial. It’s also RIM’s slimmest BlackBerry to date and although it’s smaller than the BlackBerry Bold, it hasn’t sacrificed usability.

The keyboard ahs the familiar RIM curve and although the keys are comparatively small, they’re widely spaced with a tall profile that makes them easy to press with a thumb.

The BlackBerry Curve 8900’s most notable feature is its screen and although it only has a 2.4in diagonal, it has a whopping 480 x 360 resolution – the same as on the BlackBerry Storm. The small size and high pixel density make images look razor sharp, but although videos look particularly crisp and vibrant, they’re a bit too small to watch comfortably.

Still, the Curve 8900 does turn in a strong multimedia performance – it has a 3.5mm headphone socket and the music playback application, while not on a par with the iPhone, is handled with the usual simple but effective BlackBerry aplomb.

Alas, this being a BlackBerry, it’s not all good news and while the Curve 8900 has Wi-Fi and dual-band GPRS/EDGE support, there’s no 3G. For T-Mobile customers, this means all non-hotspot internet access must be done at GPRS speeds (T-Mobile has no UK EDGE network), which means you might as well not bother. It also means that the Curve 8900 is useless as a laptop modem, but this would breach T-Mobile’s T&Cs anyway.

Unfortunately, even over Wi-Fi, the Curve 8900’s web browser performance is lacking. Like early models of the BlackBerry Bold, JavaScript-heavy we pages take a long time to process, as our hands-on video shows. You can disable JavaScript in the browser settings, but deliberately crippling the web browser’s ability to display pages properly just to speed it up seems self-defeating to us. RIM did fix the Bold’s browser performance with a firmware update though, so we hope something similar will happen for the Curve 8900.

Otherwise, the Curve 8900 is business as usual for a BlackBerry and the v4.6 firmware is much the same as that on the Bold (at least in terms of look and feel). Both the Bold and Curve 8900 lack one increasingly important feature, though – the ability to install third-party applications over-the-air. The Storm could do it, but for some reason, the Bold and Curve 8900 cannot, which means you need to install applications via their web page or with the BlackBerry Desktop application – not a huge problem, but an extra step that neither the iPhone nor the T-Mobile G1 require.

The BlackBerry Curve 8900 is available for free on T-Mobile’s £35/month Flext 30 tariff, and the “unlimited” (the usual yada yada) data deal compares favourably with that of the iPhone and T-Mobile G1. So, the Curve 8900 should still be a strong contender for anyone looking for a capable multimedia smartphone. Yes, there are some silly omissions, but these won’t deter everyone and the straightforward, consistent BlackBerry experience does offset them to some degree – particularly compared to the curious mish-mash of Android 1.0.

Footnote

Despite its exclusive deal supposedly starting today, at the time of writing (6.35pm on Friday), T-Mobile has yet to post any information about the BlackBerry Curve 8900 on its site, but guess what! Carphone Warehouse is listing the smartphone as being available for free from both O2 and Orange on £35/£40 (respectively) 18-month contracts. Since O2 has an EDGE network in the UK (for iPhone 2G users), this makes the Curve 8900 a slightly more sensible choice for anyone who needs speedier mobile internet access.

RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900

Price : Free on T-Mobile Flext 30 tariff (£35/month). Also available from O2 & Orange.
Rating :5 out of 6
Good : Looks great; fabulous screen; strong multimedia features
Bad :No 3G; needs OTA application install support
Verdict :The Curve 8900 is a great BlackBerry and an excellent multimedia smartphone, but RIM is silly for thinking we don't need 3G
Manufacturer: RIM
Buy from: T-Mobile | O2 | Orange

Specifications

Operating system: BlackBerry OS 4.6
Processor: TBC (512MHz)
System memory: TBC
User memory: 256Mb
Memory expansion: microSDHC
Screen: 2.4in transmissive LCD (480 x 360)
Bands: Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
Camera: 3.2 megapixel with flash
Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, microUSB
Other: GPS
Media support: DivX, XviD (MPEG4 Advanced Simple Profile), H.263, WMV3; , MIDI, MP3, AAC / AAC+ / eAAC+
Quoted battery life: 6 hours talk-time; 19 days standby time
Size: 109 x 60 x 13.5mm
Weight: 110g

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Apple triBook Tri-Screen MacBook Concept [The MacBook of the Future?]

2008-12-14T21:19:00.000-08:00

The Internet is abuzz with the latest supposed offering from Apple; however a search for the product on the Apple website did not yield any results. The product in question is the Apple triBook. The Apple triBook aims to resolve the issue of screen space that traditionally is a bugbear for most users of notebooks. The triBook comes with two additional side screens in additional to the main screen; thus increasing the total screen space to 21″.

The two folding screens are intended to offer users more options to multi-task. However prima facie evidence, as gathered from reading other reports online, suggests that it is gamers who have responded most cheerfully to this news. The Apple triBook is set to hit the markets in 2009 though there is no concrete word on its pricing from Apple.

The triBook is about 6.75 inches tall, 10 inches wide, and about an inch deep. It is easily portable. When closed the two side screens fold in and rest between the main screen and the keyboard. When open, the two side screens need not be pushed back to be in a straight line with the main screen, they can stay opened at an angle and protect your content’s privacy. The three screens enhance the functionality of this notebook and you can achieve a lot more on this than you would on a single-screen notebook.

The triBook is fitted with a high caliber CPU, an 8x SuperDrive and a number of I/O connectors. If the concept takes off, the 3 screens could well become a standard for laptops.
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Sony Ericsson to Debut Google Android Phones in 2009

2008-12-14T21:16:00.000-08:00

Sony Ericsson has announced that it will develop its first Android phone and put it in the market in the summer of 2009. The company joined the Open Handset Alliance this week and immediately made it known that it would be focusing its efforts on introducing a high end Android handset in the US market. The SE strategy is to make an entry into the market by introducing high end Google-powered phones and then broaden their base by introducing other models.

SE is already developing phones on the Symbian / Windows Mobile platform and its entry into the Android sphere will help it broaden its reach with the segment that is drawn to all things open source. SE let go of a chance to join Android in 2007 but thought fit to do so now perhaps perhaps because its own UIQ platform did not quite work out.

Speculatively, the Xperia1 is the most likely SE model to be presented in the Android version since its earlier avatar on a Windows mobile did not go down too well with users. Samsung, LG, Motorola and HTC are some of the other players who could come out with an Android handset in 2009. Looks like the iPhone and Blackberry vs the rest competition will get interesting next year.

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Intel and ericsson will find stolen laptops

2008-12-12T16:54:00.000-08:00

Top chip maker Intel and Ericsson have announced today their joint plans for making mobile broadband notebooks harder to steal. This is a new one after we told you about Adeona.

The two companies have been working together to make Ericsson's Mobile Broadband Modules compatible with Intel Anti-Theft PC Protection Technology.

Both companies share the goal of reducing the damage caused by having a notebook stolen and believe this collaboration is the key to prevent data loss and intrusion whilst on the go.

The need for protecting notebooks has risen as they have become more popular and are easier to steal because they are made for those on the move. While notebooks' popularity has increased so has the importance of security, since the loss of a notebook can be both financially damaging and detrimental in other ways to enterprise users.

The main idea that has come out of this collaboration is an SMS service that sends a message to the mobile broadband module inside the notebook, causing the system to shut down, making it inoperable.

Once the notebook has been re-located, possibly by using GPS technology that is becoming more common in mobile devices, another SMS can be sent to the machine to unlock it and make the data accessible again.

Mats Norin of Ericsson said, "We share a common vision with Intel about offering consumers and enterprise users a secure mobile broadband experience for their notebooks."

Intel's George Thangadurai said, "We have entered a new era for security for the on-the-go businessperson in which losing a notebook or having it stolen can have disastrous implications."

Intel says that the whole point of this is to make notebook theft for profit a futile act. By teaming up with Ericsson to mitigate the threats of data loss and intrusion, it is also hoping to deter theft as well.

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Samsung Omnia vs iPhone 3G

2008-12-12T16:51:00.000-08:00

The Samung i900 Omnia is a valiant attempt at a touchscreen phone. Take a look at the adverts for the handset -- it's all about the touch. How does it stack up against the iPhone 3G? Read on to find out.

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Look & Feel:

The dimensions of Samsung's i900 Omnia are very similar to that of the iPhone 3G -- 112 x 56.9 x 12.5mm versus 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3mm -- and is slightly lighter at 125g versus 133g. With most of the front of the handset given over to the touchscreen, it looks fairly similar to the iPhone, too. There's a passing resemblance to the LG-KC910, too.

Screen:

Just a third of an inch separates the screen sizes, with the Omnia's 3.2-inch display being the smaller. Samsung states the screen resolution as WQVGA, which could be 480×272 but is a rather vague description. At that resolution, it doesn't beat the 480x320 of the iPhone. C'mon Samsung, give us the pixel count.

Camera:

It's not difficult to trump the iPhone's camera, and the Omnia does so with a five megapixel camera boasting 4x digital zoom, auto focus, LED flash, various shot modes, photo effects and quality settings. The iPhone 3G, by comparison, is still stuck with a bog standard two megapixel camera without any fancy features.

Multimedia:

The Omnia can play back most music formats including MP3, AAC, WMA and MIDI, can play MPEG4, WMV, DivX, and other format videos, and record video in the MPEG4 format.

The iPhone handles just MP3 and AAC formats, and can play back MPEG4 video. It won't shoot video out of the box.

The Samsung Omnia boasts "3D sound technology", whatever that is. The iPhone does what a Video iPod does.

Navigation:

The Omnia features A-GPS which can be used for navigation. The iPhone also has A-GPS which links in with Google Maps.

As the software currently stands, the Omnia may be more usable as a dedicated sat-nav system, whereas the iPhone can't offer automated turn-by-turn directions at present.
Communications

Both phones are 3G-enabled, able to run on the fastest HSDPA networks where available. Both feature Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

Operating System:

The Samsung Omnia uses Windows Mobile Professional 6.1. There's no mention of additional software on top of that.
The iPhone 3G uses a version of OS X.

Storage:

Both the Omnia and the iPhone 3G come with either 8GB or 16GB of user memory, but the Omnia has the advantage of microSD expansion.

Applications:

The Omnia will have access to third-party applications developed for the Windows Mobile operating system, generally without restriction.

The iPhone 3G officially has access to Apple-approved applications from the iTunes App Store. Additional apps can be added to individual iPhones on an ad-hoc basis, and of course the handset can be jailbroken.

Pricing:

Samsung Omnia i900 is priced at Rs. 33,500 while the iPhone 3G (8/16GB) comes at Rs.30,000/35,000

Conclusion:

Samsung's Omnia handset offers many of the same features as the iPhone, at least superficially. It has similar look and feel, better camera functionality, and wider multimedia support.

However, in the end it still comes down to usability. If you can get on with a Windows Mobile handset, go for it, but I reckon the iPhone's user interface, built on OS X, still wins by a nudge.

Nokia N97

2008-12-07T02:33:00.000-08:00

Nokia has just announced its Nokia N97 at Nokia World 2008 convention at Barcelona, Spain. It is claimed as the world’s most advanced mobile computer, designed for the needs of Internet-savvy consumers. The whole thing looks shiny and it has both touchscreen and QWERTY as some of us are sucks at touchscreen.

Nokia’s flagship Nseries device introduces leading technology - including multiple sensors, memory, processing power and connection speeds - for people to create a personal Internet and share their ’social location.’
It has 5.0-megapixel camera with high-quality Carl Zeiss optics, 16:9 and DVD quality video capture, and support for services like Share on Ovi for immediate sharing over HSDPA and WLAN. Well, 5.0-megapixel is kinda common now. The craziest part will be its memory storage, the Nokia N97 can support up to 48GB storage, including its 32GB onboard memory.
The Nokia N97 will be available in the first half of 2009 with an estimated retail price of EUR 550 before tax and subsidies.
More pictures after the break.

The Nokia N97 introduces the concept of ’social location’ also known as the So-Lo. With integrated A-GPS sensors and an electronic compass, the Nokia N97 intuitively understands where it is. The Nokia N97 makes it easy to update social networks automatically with real-time information, giving approved friends the ability to update their ’status’ and share their ’social location’ as well as related pictures or videos.

As you can see there are four callers icon at the desktop, those are shortcuts to call them, set to those who you called regularly

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Spam and Earn Money

2008-11-15T22:37:00.000-08:00

Now, e-mail spamming is a common everyday event. Almost every major e-mail provider has that dedicated folder where all these pesky messages usually end up (mostly). As for the others, which might escape the clutches of a spam killer and end up in your Inbox, they are quickly relegated to the position of spam if the user happens to be well versed with the intentions of the sender.

That however is not the subject of discussion here. We're here to talk about something different. With the amount of impact this spam folder is having on our daily lives, researchers at the University of Berkeley and the University of San Diego decided to dig deep in to the people behind the propagation of these vast amount of unsolicited messages doing the rounds of the internet - often clogging vital supply lines. The researchers were interested in determining the revenue model on which these usually secretive organizations function. Yes, they do function like an organized group with some even having dedicated staff members on a payroll!

So what do the researchers do? Replicate what the spammers do. Their spam campaign included about 470 million messages - 350 million advertising pharmaceutical a product, 84 million in a postcard campaign and 40 million in a April Fools campaign. The researchers wanted to know how these spammers actually make any profit. In addition, they wanted to know if the "business" really is profitable. This was a main concern considering the fact that most of us now are capable of differentiating spam from traditional e-mails and it is rare that some one actually follows a spam link. However, the researchers did find out the following.

At the end of the study, they revealed how many of their 470 million emails actually resulted in a click and related follow through. The 350 million emails promoting a pharmaceutical venture only gave them 10,522 clicks through to the advertised website. A dismal 28 of them tried to purchase the product. Interestingly, all these 10,522 people came from different places around the world. As for the other campaigns involving the postcards and the April Fool related spam, the conversion rates were much higher. The Postcard campaign received 3827 click-throughs and 316 conversions, while the April Fools campaign delivered a click-through rate of 2721 and 225 direct conversions.

The estimated income from the pharmaceutical e-mails were estimated to be about $2731.88, which sounds hardly impressive considering you had to spend 350 million e-mails to earn that much! However, with as much as 120 billion spam messages being sent each day, the income potential does rise to $7000 to $9000 a day, which is impressive. Its sheer numbers and that is why spammers are still in "business"!
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AMD Unveils Processor Roadmap

2008-11-15T22:33:00.000-08:00

AMD laid out its product roadmap plans at the Financial Analyst Day. As part of it, AMD has announced seven new processors and five new platforms right from high-end PC segment to ultra portable netbooks.

AMD's new manufacturing spin-off temporarily known as 'The Foundary Company' is expected to start manufacturing operations in early 2010. AMD expects to finish testing 32nm process chips by the end of the year 2009. While on the other hand Intel has already promised introducing 32nm process made Westmere, Nehalem s successor.

Be ready for some platform and processor 'code-name' confusions.

Notebook/Mobile platform

AMD has announced Yukon platform answer to Intel Atom low-processor alternative for netbooks. Yukon will be out next year in first quarter along with "slim" processor code-named Bobcat with a chipset having power consumption of less than 25 watts meant for low-powered mobile devices.

Brazos platform, low-cost and low-power platform for mobile computers, will used DDR3 memory and have dual core chip Ontario, a refreshed Bobcat version, with 1MB cache, on-die GPU and DDR3 memory controller by 2011. Also in 2011, a desktop and notebook platform code-named Sabine which will be built on an APU code-named Llano with four cores, 4MB cache, DDR3 memory controllers and GPU packed on-die. AMD terms Accelerated Processing Unit as combination of CPU with GPU on same silicon wafer, basically a System-on-Chip. AMD bets Sabine bring 'significant' battery-life improvements to notebooks.

In 2011, AMD will bring products based on new architecture currently named as Bulldozer and will have 32nm process built chip codenamed Ontario, Llano and Orochi. Out of the three, Orochi will be high-end enthusiast desktop chip featuring quad cores with 8MB cache and integrated DDR3 memory controller.

The mainstream notebook market will get a new platform code named Tigris, successor to Puma and will accommodate 45nm process mobile CPU with 780M chipset, in second half of 2009. Tigris will have 45nm process built single and dual core processors code-named Caspian with 2MB cache. Also RS880M and SB710 chipsets will be released. The Tigris processors with new chipsets are expected to enhance high-def video playback, better performance and longer battery life for the notebooks.

In 2010, AMD will release Tigris successor platform code-named Danube which will feature Champlain, code-name for AMD s first quad-core mobile processor.

Desktops

In first half of 2009, AMD will bring a new platform code-named Dragon for high-end desktop market and will feature 42nm process Phenom II X4 quad-core processor code-named as Deneb with 8MB of L3 cache and the Propos version will have 2MB of L3 cache. Dragon will also include ATI Radeon HD 4800 series GPU and 790 series chipset.

In the second half of 2009, 45nm process built Kodiak processors will be included for the business class desktops. Also for the mainstream desktops, a new platform code-named Pisces will be introduced. Pisces will feature 45nm process Phenom II triple and quad-core processors that will used DDR3 memory and upcoming RS880 chipset.

In the later half of 2009, a home-theater platform code-named Maui which will make AMD's hardware work with AMD's Live Media Center software used over Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate based computers. This entertainment platform will also include options for AVR class 7.1, 5.1 and 3.1 audio as well as HDTV tuning.

In mid 2009, AMD will introduce new server platform named Fiorano which will feature support for 45nm process built Shanghai and its successor code-named Istanbul, a six-core processor scheduled to ship in second half of 2009. Also SR5690 chipset is expected along with Fiorano.

A next-generation platform code-named Maranello will be introduced with a new socket and will support DDR3 instead of DDR2. Maranello will bring AMD's first ever 12-core processor code-named Magny-Cours and six core processor code-named Sao Paolo in 2010.
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GMail Now With Voice And Video Chat!

2008-11-15T22:30:00.000-08:00

The speed of Google rolling out a new product or a new version of existing product is just unimaginable. They really put up a lot of effort by keeping their promise to “Release Early, Release Often” in application development.

Yes, as the title of this post says, GMail now allows you to make phone calls over the Internet or to speak in person via video directly from your Gmail account! All you need is a computer, a broadband internet

connection, a GMail account and, for video calls, a web camera.

This new feature is not enabled by default and you need to install Gmail voice and video
chat plugin developed by Google, which also means it’s not a 3rd party plugin. Just follow the following steps to activate this awesome feature and start using it :-

1. Go to mail.google.com/videochat and download the Gmail voice and video chat plugin (a quick 2MB download)
2. Be sure to restart your browser when asked, after that sign in to Gmail.
3. In the Chat section of your Gmail, select the contact you want to call. Click on “Video & more” in the lower-left part of the chat window.
4. Click either “Start voice chat” or “Start video chat“. If your contact doesn’t have a web camera, you can still have a voice call or a one-way video call.
5. If you’d like to make the video area full screen, just move your cursor over the video chat and click the icon in the upper-left corner.
6. When you’re done chatting, just click the “Hang up” button.

The system requirement for Gmail Voice & Video Chat is the following :-

PC with Windows XP or Windows Vista, or
Intel-Based Mac with Mac OS X v10.4 or later
Any browsers that support the latest version of Gmail (Google Chrome, Firefox 2.0+, Internet Explorer 7.0, and Safari 3.0)
Flash is enabled on your web browser.

Check out the introduction video.

I suppose Gmail is the first free webmail service to include video chat, so kudos to them, again!

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Bharti Airtel...new ad ...very inspiring

2008-11-15T18:07:00.000-08:00

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FREE VIETNAMESE RICE NOODLE CUP

2008-11-13T08:49:00.000-08:00

Rush and avail this nice offer from Original Pho. Submit your details to get yourself a free cup of Original Pho rice noodle soup at absolutely no cost. You can choose from 4 flavors, savory chicken, traditional beef, garden vegetable and succulent seafood. The names are so mouthwatery that I ordered one for myself before even starting to write this post here. The best part is this is for all people world wide. So rush in and get yourself one. Click here .

33000 + buyers in line for GM 's rechargeable electric car

2008-11-07T05:31:00.000-08:00

The upcoming all-electric Chevrolet Volt, a proponent of the car has released details of an unofficial waiting list for the vehicle with over 33,000 prospective buyers.

Lyle Dennis, a New York neurologist who has emerged as a prominent enthusiast for the battery-powered car from General Motors Corp, has been assembling a list of prospective Volt buyers for over a year through his Web site GM-Volt.com. On Tuesday, Dennis released details gleaned from the list showing that 33,411 people had signed up to show their intent to buy a Volt when the rechargeable car is released in 2010.

The list shows the highest number of potential Volt buyers in California, Texas, Florida and Michigan. It also includes potential buyers from 46 countries outside the United States. The average price buyers were willing to pay for the car was $31,261 -- substantially less than the $40,000 GM has said it will cost to build the first-generation of the car equipped with a massive lithium-ion battery pack.

GM has been racing to finish development of the Volt in time for the planned launch as the centerpiece of its effort to break a costly association with gas-guzzling vehicles at a time when truck sales are tumbling and gas prices remain high. Like most automakers, GM typically keeps its vehicle development programs under tight wraps and shuns publicity.

But with the Volt, GM has taken the opposite approach, actively consulting enthusiasts like Dennis and featuring the concept version of the Volt in high-profile advertising, including a television spot broadcast during the Olympics. Dennis, who organized a meeting between enthusiasts called the "Volt Nation" and GM executives at the New York Auto Show earlier this year, said he was motivated by a desire to show the Detroit-based automaker that the Volt would have a wide base of buyers from the start.

This is a photo of the Chevrolet Volt.

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Engineering students develop car that covers 180 km in 1 litre petrol

2008-11-07T05:28:00.000-08:00

A group of students has developed a car which can cov
er an amazing 180 km in just one litre of petrol.Its called the Garuda RVCE Supermileage Car.

A team of mechanical engineering students of RV College of Engineering, Bangalore, has designed and developed an aero-dynamic extremely light weight prototype with a low power 97 cc generator engine of two horse power (HP).

The car has an air-cooled engine with molten sized recumbent rear and two front wheels weighing 600 gms each, leader of the eight-member team, Nishant Sarawgi said in Guwahati on Monday.

At a power-point presentation of the prototype vehicle 'Project Garuda - RVCE Supermileage Car', Sarawgi, who hails from Guwahati, said the carburetor has better-burning efficiency and higher control over air and fuel mixture.

The fuel efficiency of the car under test conditions on the NICE corridor in Bangalore demonstrated a mileage of 180 km per litre.

The 55 kg single-person car is ten feet long, 2.5 feet wide and high and has to be driven in a reclining position, he said, adding that the Project Garuda was made at a cost of Rs 5.5 lakh.

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Picture of the Month: Chrome’s hidden Windows connection!

2008-11-07T04:30:00.001-08:00

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Sony Ericsson tries to show off the C905 8.1MP Camera

2008-11-07T04:28:00.000-08:00

“your ad uses a professional model, a fashion photographer, professional lighting, and makeup, not to mention all that retouching, and we’re supposed to be impressed with the camera?

Sony Ericsson is banking big on the C905! And here is what they have to promote it. An entire AD Campaign shot by the C905. The same would be in December’s issue of FHM. SE is eying for a Christmas release of the C905 featuring the much hyped 8.1 megapixel camera. While the debate is still how if Camera-phones would replace your basic digital cameras, this particular SE promotion doesn’t amuse many.

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Nokia E63 the affordable E71 spotted!

2008-11-07T04:26:00.000-08:00

The E63 might be launched in 3 versions the E63-1 for Europe, the E63-2 will be camera-free for the corporate users, and E63-3 version for the American market.

While the Nokia E71 is not too expensively priced (@ Rs 20000 in India); a cheaper version E63 has leaked out during a Symbian Software Show. The E63 is similar in design but features a plastic body instead of the metal used in E71, and runs on Symbian v9.2 OS with S60 v3.1 UI.

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Samsung presents worlds first QWXGA LCD

2008-11-07T04:24:00.000-08:00

Samsung has unveiled its 2342BWX 23″ 2048×1152 monitor. Which might well be the worlds first QWXGA Screen. This ons will surely put even the best GPU to test!

The 2342BWX is expected to cost ?399,000 in South Korea thats approx $315 (230 Euros).

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Videocon D2h DTH - Direct Hai Correct Hai First Look

2008-11-07T04:19:00.000-08:00

Direct To Home industry is showing good growth in last few months and two new records set by Dishtv added 4, 31,253 new customers in Oct’ 08 and newly launched Reliance BIG TV added 5, 00,000 in first 50 days of operation and industry experts now waiting results of Bharti Airtel’s Direct To Home venture Digital TV and upcoming service provider Videocon who is coming with D2H.

Videocon is coming with their Direct To Home venture D2H with tag line of “Direct hai Correct Hai”. So far hardly few information available on internet about this product but at Amitbhawani.com, we found some key information about this DTH player and I hope this information will be useful for you. Before you read the information, I want to say that all information which we collected from our source might not be right so readers co-operation will needed.

First thing which we get idea that they are making their Set Top Box in India which will help to offer cheap entry price and due to this Videocon is coming with an attractive offer at launching time. Our source suggests us that you will get your DTH connection of D2H in 1,000 Rs including installation charges and 1 or 2 month free viewing. Their base price will be around 100 Rs which have over 60 channels including some pay channels and news channels in the pack and their biggest pack will be near 350 Rs which will have 130 around channels including sports channels and pay channels. They might not give all channels which you want due to limited space but you will get leading channels.

Also one of their advantages is their Television sets will be best option if you not going to take Set Top Box and it will help you to save some money when you are buying new connection. Their Set-Top Box will be MPEG-4 digital satellite receiver and they are using IRDETO CAS system as encryption system. They will also use service of ARION Technology a Korean world-leading digital set-top box manufacture. ARION will be able to secure stable incomes from royalty on Videocon set-top box sales in India market.

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The Club Game Review

2008-11-07T04:15:00.000-08:00

Bizarre Creations have come up with anew game called The Club that is slated to be an action game and involves a great deal of running and shooting people. The game can also be described as being a racing game in which you need to shoot people who come up your way while you race through the different locations.

The Club involves several locations like abandoned mills and prisons and deserted alleys where the players need to race and does have some occasional shortcuts that they can use to win the races. The game requires you to kill enemies while you race and there is a given time within which you must kill the people if you desire to win the game.

While playing The Club players will find that although each level is broken down to several short races it is possible to complete entire levels at a go without needing to have a break. The more people one kills the more they increase their popularity in The Club. There are also special bonuses if the players do some good action in course of a race.

For every good kill the players make in The Club they are rewarded with bonuses that tend to keep players wanting for more. The game however is of a very violent nature as it is necessary to kill as many people as one can to increase their popularity in The Club.

With each level the players will find they will get obsessed with the game and would find it relatively easy to play. The Club promises to make players addicted to the game as they would try to get higher rewards with each of the level they play. If players off late were looking for games with a difference The Club is surely one of them.

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Too Human Game Review

2008-11-07T04:10:00.000-08:00

Microsoft has come up with a new game called Too Human, but the game has nothing to impress computer gamers across the world as the graphics and quality are not as a product from Microsoft should be. The game is mainly an adventure game of a sci-fi genre.

In Too Human the plot is about a war between men and the Norse gods. Players who will be playing the game will be playing the character of Baldur. Baldur is a warrior who fights with the humans against the gods. While playing the game, players will find moving through different locations and fighting the evil machines that are thrown in through out the game.

While playing Too Human players will find on killing the enemies they will get bonus prizes in the form of money, weaponry and armor. Players will have to constantly upgrade their weaponry while playing the game.

Regular players will have trouble in getting to terms with the control settings in Too Human. For attacking the enemies players need to use the button that is there on the right side of the analog stick. There are several excellent combo attacks that players can unleash while fighting enemies by moving the analog stick accordingly. Players can improve the weapons and armor at their disposal by discovering many new features in the different levels.

With gradual time as players proceed with the game they will find that Too Human is not interesting. The story line tends to become boring and also the dialogue that is there in the game is not too good. The game is not that good as one would have expected but there are certain elements in the game that are good but they are shadowed by the less than ordinary features. The different levels of the game too tend to be too large and hence boring.

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Get English Fluency Thru Self-Study Handbook for Free

2008-11-06T08:43:00.000-08:00

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Fluentzy which is one of the oldest and famous English language teaching guide has been giving away a free handbook on “How to pick up fluency in English through self-study”. This is from the house of Adult Faculties which is headquartered in Kerala. They have been in this field of teaching English since 1971 and have a great experience and knowledge on teaching English fluency.

Fluentzy is claimed to be the English fluency encyclopedia and the world’s first system for fluency building. Their main aim in this course material that they sell is to improve your fluency through self-study materials which they will send it across to you as soon as you pay for them. These study materials have been prepared by Prof. Kev Nair who I guess has been around for a while teaching fluency and other English skills among a whole lot of people. It seems this English fluency course of Fluentzy has been brought from even other countries other than India, around 66 of them, which even includes U.S., U.K, Australia, etc. They also claim that you could have a great English fluency within three months if you read their course.

Apart from selling their Fleuntzy course to improve fluency they also sell various dictionaries to improve your vocabulary, like dictionary on complete fluency words, fluency phrases, thesaurus, etc.

Now, they are giving away a free handbook of around 40 pages “How to pick up fluency in English through self-study” just for free, no questions asked. All you need to do is to send them your name and full address through various means like phone, email, SMS, fax, etc and you could get them delivered to your address for free (but along with the promotional material for the Fluentzy course though!).

To get this free handbook on fluency, you need to send your name address through any of the modes given here, send an email to info@fluentzy.com. You can also call Adult Faculties at 0484-2538449, 2408361 to give your details to get the handbook for free. You can also SMS your name and address to 98471-73284 to claim it. Or you can fax your details to 2408361.

You can visit their site and order an ebook of the same handbook to be delivered to your email ID as well as gift the same ebook to your friends or relatives for free here.

You can also know more about this handbook and how to get it and their course materials on English Fluency and other details here.

India Is Number One Spamming Country In Asia

2008-11-05T18:21:00.000-08:00

It seems like Spammers in India are working overtime and very hard to bring a bad name to the web world of our country. I am part of many forums, where numerous times its been discussed that how Indian Spammers and hackers or Black Hat marketers are involved in Internet scams and Click fruads And being a Indian I always fight them back saying that, Scammer doesn’t belong to a race they are just Scammers who are roaming wild in the Internet world to get hold of someone not careful enough.

But Accoding to Trend Micro, one of the world leader in Internet content security came out with a report which claims that India is the top contributor in the Spam mails gettign generated from the Asian Region topping China,Korea and Thailand. And moreover its stand 7th on the World’s most Spam generating countries.

According to Trend Micro, the top 10 spam relaying countries are as follows:

% of worldwide spam

1. Russian Federation 11.92

2. United States 9.36

3. Brazil7.48

4. Turkey 5.43

5. Columbia5.34

6. Argentina4.96

7. India4.26

8. China 3.39

9. Spain2.69

10. Republic of Korea2.57

Well it puts a black spot on the growing web development in India, but again I still believe that Spammers and Scammers doesn’t belong to any race or nationality.

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Journey Through Emerging India - Video

2008-11-05T18:20:00.001-08:00

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Solar Powered Rickshaw Launched In India

2008-11-05T18:09:00.000-08:00

This one goes for the Save Environment campaign in which India is pretty behind, but catching up very quickly. Rickshaws are small 3 tier human driven engine less vehicles which are used as taxi by people for small distance travel. Rickshaws mainly operate in North Indian states like Delhi, UP etc and a ride of about 2 kms will cost you around 10-15 rupees. Well thats about Rickshaw, now lets talk about Soleckshaw a solar powered rickshaw variant, which is designed and created by state-run Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research in conjunction with Crompton Greaves, an Indian company that designed its electric engine.

Soleckshaw can be either pedalled or run off a 36-volt battery which need recharging after every six to seven hours, or 45 miles, from a solar-powered charging station.The prototype seats three and has electric lights, a maximum speed of 12½mph, and extras including an FM radio and four different mobile phone chargers. It can also drive uphill.

It is currently being tested in Delhi, and if successful, it will be launched all over India and will even be exported to other countries. Well thumbs up for the government for this sincere effort.
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Sony PSP 2 with Flexible OLED Display

2008-11-02T16:08:00.000-08:00

Dreamy Design Sony PSP 2 with flexible OLED Display Concept -- Designer Tai Chiem mixed the potential of flexible OLED displays with the Sony PSP gaming console. The result is a stunning design of a roll-up Sony PSP 2. Roll-up displays are nothing new for gadgets though. Polymere Vision developed the Readius pocket eReader that is also supposed to be available as a mobile phone. Roll-up or folding displays are going to be the next big thing for portable devices in the years to come. At some point in the future we will hopefully get to the point that we do not have to kill trees anymore for newspapers and magazines. For that to happen ePaper gadgets need to become as convinient to use as paper magazines are today.

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Butterfly Inspired Car - The Nissan Teana Birdwing Concept

2008-11-02T16:05:00.000-08:00

Butterfly Inspired Car - The Nissan Teana Birdwing Concept -
This Nissan Teana concept is freakishly cool. Everything about the car is supposed to remind you of a butterfly. Why the butterfly was used to model a car, I have no idea, but I can’t argue with the results.

Everything from the exterior sheet metal to the heavily overworked interior is supposed to invoke one of nature’s most beautiful insects. The sensibility isn’t for everyone but there’s something original about all the detailing. It’s ornate but in a modern way. Get past the design quirks and you’ll find a car full of tech wizardry like a heads up HUD display and auto-driver mode. So how about it, would you drive one?

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Sony Vaio Z series in India!

2008-11-01T07:59:00.000-07:00

Sony has launched two new Vaio Z series laptops in India!

They are - VGN-Z13GN/B and VGN-Z12GN/B that have recently made their way in the crowded notebook segment of the Indian market! The models are specially designed, keeping the upwardly mobile business executives in mind.

Technical specifications:

13.1-inch Clear Tough LCD (Rich Color) display
Microsoft Windows Vista Business pre-installed
Intel Centrino 2 Processor
Sony’s Dynamic Hybrid Graphics
NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS GPU
Mobile Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
SPEED and STAMINA mode.
Biometric fingerprint sensor and TPM (Trusted Platform Module) security chip.
Proprietary hard disk drive password protection software
Built-in 802.11n wireless LAN capabilities
Optional Blu-ray Disc (BD) optical drive

HDMI port, three USB ports, Memory Stick media/SD card slot and microphone and headphone jack and a PC Card (type-II) slot.

As far as the price is concerned, the VGN-Z13GN/B and VGN-Z12GN/B are priced at Rs. 124,900 and Rs. 99,990 respectively.

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Motorola Launches The New ROKR EM30 in India!

2008-11-01T07:54:00.001-07:00

The lower end version of the MOTOROKR E8 is now available in the Indian market. It is called ROKR EM30 and is geared up with a touch sensitive feature and Navigation Scroll wheel.

This is the only feature that diverses this handset from the original ROKR E8!

The headset is equipped with the following features:

A 2-inch TFT display
Centric keys that automatically gets activated depending on the application that’s being used.
A 2MP camera

Media player along with FM radio
Comes with a RDS and microSD card support (up to 8GB).
The device is also geared up with a Bluetooth with A2DP, supports EDGE/GPRS and USB 2.0.
The handset has a standard 3.5mm earphone socket.
CrystalTalk is always there in MOTOROLA headsets
One can easily download songs and ringtones from Motorola’s online MOTOMUSIC site.

The handset is priced at Rs. 8,959!

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How to easily Remove the Virus / Spyware - Anti-virus XP 2008 from your system without using any Anti-Virus Softwares

2008-11-01T07:30:00.000-07:00

Recently, one of our systems got attacked by a rather nasty Virus / Spyware called by a rather unusual name "Anti-virus XP 2008" sometimes also comes with the other names as XP Antivirus 2009 and variations of those names like WinFixer, WinIFixer, and Zlob. Below are simple steps on how you can remove this without installing an Anti-Virus.

First you need to stop the program from loading on startup. This is how you can stop it:

Goto Start > run
Then Type msconfig and hit enter
In the resulting screen, goto Startup tab
Uncheck lphc35dj0e1an

Uncheck rhc75dj0e1an

Click apply, then ok
Finally, Restart the computer

Then you need to delete the main files that this Malware program uses.

So, go ahead and Delete the following files:

C:\windows\system32\lphc35dj0e1an.exe

Also, Delete the following folder and all contents:

C:\program files\rhc75dj0e1an

This should remove the program from your system but you probably still have a warning message displayed as your wallpaper in Windows and the virus removed the ability to change the wallpaper or your desktop settings.

To restore the ability to change your desktop settings and select a different wallpaper and screen saver do the following:

Click Start then run
Then type Gpedit.msc
Now navigate to User configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Display
Finally, Right click on Remove Display in Control Panel
Click on Properties and then select as Disabled

Do the same steps to change the following attributes to disabled too:

Hide Desktop Tab
Prevent changing wallpaper
Hide Apperance and Themes tab
Hide Settings tab
Hide Screen Saver tab

You should now be able to use your computer normally and change the wallpaper to something other than the warning message Antivirus XP 2008 had actually set it to.

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Samsung Pixon – 8MP & Touch – Lethal!

2008-10-30T23:43:00.000-07:00

Touch phones are becoming the order of the day.

When until a few months ago, the touch technology was touted as the ‘next best thing’ with HTC leading the way, other Mobile manufacturers are following the trend with enhanced capabilities to make these handsets a “must want” on several lists.

After the high profile launch of the Samsung Omnia in India a few days ago, Samsung Pixon has now been launched officially. Although there is no word on the official India launch yet, one can be sure it will make its way to us, “the fastest growing Mobile market of the world.”

An 8 megapixel camera and the FULL touch technology on the World’s Slimmest handset are the first claims to fame. Others include:

• 3.2-inch WQVGA touch screen display

• x16 digital zoom, auto-focus, fast-shutter, face detection

• Geo-tagging

• Internal GPS

• Media player with DNSe

• FM radio

• Bluetooth with A2DP

• microSD card

The handset has a dedicated website called - The Photographic Adventures of Nick Turpin.

“Now everyone will be able to ‘get their pics on’ so much more quickly and easily. For the first time you will have a camera on your phone capable of delivering the quality of image of a regular camera. The big benefit is not just the ease with which people will now be able to capture and share camera-phone shots, but the quality of those shots when taken,” said Geesung Choi, President of the Samsung Telecommunications Business.

Availability:

France in mid-October and in most European and Asian countries after that.

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Free Tshirt from Sun microsystems

2008-10-30T08:39:00.000-07:00

Just takes a couple of minutes of your time to fill out a 4 questioned survey which is sent directly to Sun microsystems and they use your comment to improve their products. And as a token of gratitude, they ‘ll send a T shirt for you . This is available worldwide…
For Claiming free T-shirt Click Here .

Touch Screen GPS MOTOMING 1600 COmes To India for Rs. 15,847

2008-10-30T02:04:00.000-07:00

Motorola has launched its first GPS-enabled touch screen mobile phone in India. The GPS enabled MOTOMING A1600 will have navigation maps and landmarks of 30 cities. The phone is priced at Rs. 15,847 during this festive season.

The phone has satellite based GPS which offers consumers lifetime free GPS navigation maps and landmarks of 30 cities. So basically you don't have to have a SIM card to use the MOTOMING GPS features. MOTOMING A1600 is independent of mobile networks and can be used without SIM card.

The touchscreen phone offers 1 GB MicroSD card and an expandable memory capacity of up to 4 GB and a 3.2 megapixel camera. MOTOMING A1600 Maps are powered by MapMyIndia. It comes with a business card reader, allowing it to read and upload the information of new business contacts. Its Bluetooth features allow its users to share files with other Bluetooth enabled cell phones.

The Motorola MOTOMING-A1600 features a talking dictionary that translates a word into the native language and pronounces the word in its native tongue.

Check out the video review of MOTOMING A1600

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Windows 7 A Good Fit For Netbooks

2008-10-30T02:02:00.000-07:00

Windows 7 to have a version that will support ultraportable netbooks.

After a misstep in foreseeing that the market for notebooks would move towards the ultraportable internet connectivity-oriented netbooks that can't run its huge Vista, Microsoft is looking come up with a version of its forthcoming Windows 7 operating system that would be able to work on netbook PCs.

Netbooks are low-power consumption systems that have caught like wildfire specially in educational use and emerging markets. They are also eating into a significant chunk of the home computer or desktop market, which is traditionally where Microsoft's last operating system, the widely disdained Vista, was to work. Since the high power PCs have made way for low power, light systems, Microsoft will have no option but to follow suit.

At Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles earlier in the week on Tuesday, the company provided a demonstration of Windows 7 running on a Lenovo netbook that had only 1 GB of RAM memory and a low-end Intel Atom processor.

Steven Sinofsky, Microsoft's senior vice president of Windows and Windows Live engineering carried out the demonstration, which he said used only half the RAM.

Though a number of netbooks were capable of running Vista, reports suggested that Sinofsky agreed to the fact that it was impossible to install the system on models based around flash storage, which in some cases is limited to around 8GB. Microsoft had earlier attributed the disappointing sales by Vista during recent months on fact that there has been a comparative increase in netbook sales against traditional laptops and desktops. It now says a number of netbook manufacturers evaded Vista thinking it would not work on their products.

Microsoft is also reported to be mulling ways to allow more control over the installation to users. It is looking at methods that will allow users to choose exactly what components of Windows 7 are installed on their machines, without making the installation process time-consuming or confusing.

Windows 7 could be Microsoft's ticket to dominating a niche of the computer market where its arch rival Apple is not present. Apple had made it amply clear that it would not cut prices to a level where it would compete against netbooks, and chose instead to push its iPhone as an alternative to a computer.

The flip side for Microsoft could be that it may have to mark down the price of Windows 7, or come up with a truncated version that costs less to make it a financially viable proposition for the customers of netbooks. Netbooks are typically low cost, and users would not like to install an operating system that costs as much as the computer itself. That move is also almost sure to shave off a large portion of Microsoft's margins on Windows 7 for Netbooks, though it may be able to make up the gap through volume sales in case the product takes off.

Microsoft is optimistic of releasing a beta version of Windows 7 sometime eaerly 2009, while Sinofsky reportedly said that ''three years from the general availability of Windows Vista is the right time to release Windows 7''. That would put the commercial launch date in January 2010.

Windows 7 also features multi-touch controls, though using these would need a touch-sensing PC such as the HP's TouchSmart. Apparently there is 25 per cent more space between items on a "jump list" of recently accessed items, in order to make them easier to "click" with a finger. Touch will also work with applications that were designed for it, including Internet Explorer, and with those that were not, since Microsoft has rewired all mouse commands in Windows 7 to understand touch. That would mean the ability to scroll up and down word documents by dragging your finger across the screen, and zoom in by pinching your fingers together.

In terms of networking, Windows 7 will automatically create a "Home Group" of networked PCs, printers, wireless photo frames and other devices. Files, documents, music, photos and all other media stored in "libraries" on any of the networked PCs or devices would be able to be searched and accessed from another Windows 7 PC on the network. A new computer, for example a laptop from work, would be automatically be added when it's brought within range of the network. However, Windows 7 will also allow setting of limited access to work files and respect other corporate security rules. Windows 7 will also automatically switch the default printer to the one on the home network when at home, instead of having to do it manually.

Windows 7 would also have updates to Calculator, Paint, and WordPad, which will also support open document formats including Open XML and ODF.

Business sense
Microsoft, with its Windows 7, is looking to create an operating system that is suitable for a broad range of computing devices, not just the high-end systems used by businesses, gamers, and enthusiasts that Vista was designed for. That would make business sense, in light of the fact that the company's revenue from its all-important Windows franchise grew just two per cent in the most recent quarter as more PC buyers opted to purchase netbook-style PCs.

Most netbooks feature either Windows XP, or the free Linux operating system to perform routine computing tasks such as accessing email, surfing the web, and using IMs (instant messaging). Lenovo, for example, on its IdeaPad S10e netbook that it is pitching to the education market, allows buyers to choose between Windows XP or Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop as the operating system.

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can u beat this resume of Dr Manmohan Singh

2008-10-26T19:16:00.000-07:00

RESUME

EDUCATION /Qualification:

1950: Stood first in BA (Hons), Economics, Punjab University, Chandigarh ,
1952; Stood first in MA (Economics), Punjab University , Chandigarh ,
1954; Wright's Prize for distinguished performance at St John's College, Cambridge,
1955 and 1957; Wrenbury scholar, University of Cambridge ,
1957; DPhil ( Oxford ), DLitt (Honoris Causa); PhD thesis on India 's export competitiveness

OCCUPATION /Teaching Experience :

Professor (Senior lecturer, Economics, 1957-59;
Reader, Economics, 1959-63;
Professor, Economics, Punjab University , Chandigarh , 1963-65;
Professor,International Trade, Delhi School of Economics,University of Delhi,1969-71 ;
Honorary professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University ,New Delhi,1976 and Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi ,1996 and Civil Servant

Working Experience/ POSITIONS :

1971-72: Economic advisor, ministry of foreign trade
1972-76: Chief economic advisor, ministry of finance

1976-80: Director, Reserve Bank of India ;
Director, Industrial Development Bank of India;
Alternate governor for India, Board of governors, Asian Development Bank;
Alternate governor for India, Board of governors, IBRD

November 1976 - April 1980: Secretary, ministry of finance (Department of economic affairs);
Member, finance, Atomic Energy Commission; Member,finance, Space Commission

April 1980 - September 15, 1982 : Member-secretary, Planning Commission

1980-83: Chairman , India Committee of the Indo-Japan joint study committee

September 16, 1982 - January 14, 1985 : Governor, Reserve Bank of India .

1982-85: Alternate Governor for India , Board of governors, International Monetary Fund

1983-84: Member, economic advisory council to the Prime Minister

1985: President, Indian Economic Association

January 15, 1985 - July 31, 1987 : Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission

August 1, 1987 - November 10, 19! 90: Secretary-general and commissioner,
south commission, Geneva

December 10, 1990 - March 14, 1991 : Advisor to the Prime Minister on economic affairs

March 15, 1991 - June 20, 1991 : Chairman, UGC

June 21, 1991 - May 15, 1996 : Union finance minister

October 1991: Elected to Rajya Sabha from Assam on Congress ticket

June 1995: Re-elected to Rajya Sabha

1996 onwards: Member, Consultative Committee for the ministry of finance

August 1, 1996 - December 4, 1997: Chairman, Parliamentary standing committee on commerce

March 21, 1998 onwards: Leader of the Opposition, Rajya Sabha

June 5, 1998 onwards: Member, committee on finance

August 13, 1998 onwards: Member, committee on rules

Aug 1998-2001: Member, committee of privileges 2000 onwards: Member, executive committee, Indian parliamentary group

June 2001: Re-elected to Rajya Sabha

Aug 2001 onwards: Member, general purposes committee

BOOKS:

India 's Export Trends and Prospects for Self-Sustained Growth -
Clarendon Press, Oxford University , 1964; also published a large number of articles in various economic journals.

OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

Adam Smith Prize, University of Cambridge , 1956

Padma Vibhushan, 1987

Euro money Award, Finance Minister of the Year, 1993;

Asia money Award, Finance Minister of the Year for Asia, 1993 and 1994

INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENTS:

1966: Economic Affairs Officer

1966-69: Chief, financing for trade section, UNCTAD

1972-74: Deputy for India in IMF Committee of Twenty on
International Monetary Reform

1977-79: Indian delegation to Aid-India Consortium Meetings

1980-82: Indo-Soviet joint planning group meeting

1982: Indo-Soviet monitoring group meeting

1993: Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting Cyprus 1993: Human Rights World Conference, Vienna

RECREATION :

Gymkhana Club, New Delhi; Life Member, India International Centre,
New Delhi

PERSONAL DETAIL:

Name: Dr Manmohan Singh

DOB: September 26, 1932

Place of Birth: Gah ( West Punjab )

Father: S. Gurmukh Singh

Mother: Mrs Amrit Kaur

Married on: September 14, 1958

Wife: Mrs Gursharan Kaur

Children: Three daughters

Our Prime Minister seems to be the most qualified PM all over the world.

Pass this to every INDIAN.... and be PROUD to be an INDIAN

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Reliance free laptop offer on internet connection of Rs 1500

2008-10-25T06:53:00.000-07:00

This Diwali - No offer can be bigger than this ! Reliance Communication has come up with a very attractive scheme in which a customer will get a free laptop.

What is this scheme ?

You need to pay only for a Reliance Broadband connection for a period of 2 years. The connection would cost around Rs. 1500 per month. (unlimited download, upload). After the period of 2 years, the laptop becomes your own property. You will have to spend Rs. 36,000 for 2 years, with no hidden cost according to the company.

Reliance is collaborating with 5 major personal computer manufacturers to offer these free laptops. Their partners include HCL, Intel, Acer, Asus and Lenovo.Reliance Communication is India's biggest wireless internet service provider with over 10 lakh customers base and access to 20,000 towns and 4.5 lakh villages in the country.

Mahesh Prasad, President, RCOM spoke about this new offer: "The growth of internet services in India is one of the key visions of Reliance Communications. The next phase of growth of internet penetration in the country is linked to the growth in PC and laptop penetration."

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Mail2Web - Login to any email account from anywhere

2008-10-23T16:34:00.000-07:00

Mail2web is a web service which let you to login to your own email account through their website. You can login to your Yahoo! Mail,MSN mail, Gmail,Rediff mail or even your own domain email account using their service. Simply provide your email address and password to login.

There are 3 types of login: Intellilogin, Advanced Login, and Secure Login. With Intellilogin, you just provide your email address and password, the system will then login for you. The Advanced Login allow you to configure your server name and protocol to access. Finally, the Secure Login will use HTTPS to make sure you are using a secure connection.

You can use this service without registering yourself. But, if you want to control more than 1 email accounts which you would probably have you will have to register.

Mail2Web

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Wooden Wall-E looks So Real!

2008-10-23T15:06:00.000-07:00

Most of as have already been mesmerized by the movie Wall-E and also that robot named Wall-E. UK design firm Morpheus share some same memories just like us. Crafted straight out of wood, Wall-E looks kickass similar to the movie thing.

Actually this one is kinda thank you gift or memorabilia by Disney as a thank you gift for PIXAR’s Executive Producer for Wall-E, John Lasseter on the success of the movie. Damn! Only if I had enough money or talent to make a multi-million dollar blockbuster!

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India makes cheaper fuel cell part

2008-10-22T22:09:00.000-07:00

Material could help nation meet goal of having 1 million hydrogen-fueled vehicles on the road by 2020.

India’s National Chemical Laboratory has developed a polymer that could be 100 times cheaper to use than the industry-standard material for building hydrogen fuel cells.

The low-cost material could help the country meet the central government’s stated goal of having a million hydrogen-fueled vehicles on the road by 2020.

The substance is a variant of polybenzimidazole, which is used in making spacesuits.

NCL senior scientist K. Pillai Vijayamohan said that an electrolyte made from the polymer is better than the industry standard, Nafion, because it is resistant to carbon monoxide and works at 150 degrees Celsius (302 degrees Fahrenheit).

Nafion is a polymer trademarked by Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont (NYSE: DD). The material is used for the proton exchange membrane of the fuel cell, allowing ions to move from one side of the cell to the other.

The low-cost polymer could be particularly useful because it can alleviate problems scientists face with using diluted hydrogen, a less expensive product than pure hydrogen. Diluted hydrogen also contains impurities, however, that cause higher working temperatures and corrosive reactions that reduce the fuel cell’s performance.

Jamshedpur, India-based Tata Steel recently announced it had developed a method to extract hydrogen from steel slag. The company plans to test the process at a small plant before the end of the year.

Indian scientists are also working on designs for a 600-megawatt, high-temperature nuclear reactor for hydrogen production. The preliminary plans and materials are expected to be ready by 2017.

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Get free online storage upto 1 GB : from Box.net

2008-10-22T15:24:00.000-07:00

Box.net was one of the first web 2.0 online sharing services, I mean they were the amongst the first ones who had integrated the power of Ajax in the online sharing and made it a much usable application. Box.net seems good but we’ll come to know more about it when we actually look at the PROS and CONS of the service. Although, at this point of time, box has closed the registration but I’d registered for Box at the time of launch itself or may be quite near to it. Box.net, which started off as college business project but has grown into a commercial service and a service which looks good but how good is it, lets find out about it…

PROS of BOX.NET :

1. Free storage of 1 GB & 10 GB Bandwidth : Box.net is giving away free 1 GB space to attract users. In todays world, 1 GB is enough for important documents and thus I think that it is a decent move and decent space to offer. And 10 GB bandwidth is also good enough to lure any web user.

2. Nice Ajaxified Interface : Box.net has a nice and simple ajaxified interface and due to which the usage of this online application because quite easy and simple. Due to the simple interface, it loads fast and thus serves the purpose in a better way.

3. Widgets to share files : Box.net has widgets which can be used to showcase the public files in various places like websites, myspace, blogs, etc. This can be easily used to store the files and without worrying about updating any blog or any link on the websites because the widget will do it automatically.

4. Editing of Word Documents : With the integration of >Zoho Writer, Box.net allows users to view and edit the word documents. This can be certainly handy, when a user doesn’t have a word editing software installed on any computer and on top of it, without downloading the files and then reuploading the files, users will be able to edit them directly.

5. Integration with Facebook, The Files application : You can even upload your files using the Box.net application on Facebook called Files. Its got a very clean and nice interface, from where you can easily Upload, or download, or even share the file with others.

And you can make your most by inviting your friends or colleagues to collaborate in your Box.net folder.

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Some Firefox addons- You never knew of, may be

2008-10-22T15:16:00.000-07:00

GooglePedia:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2517

Googlepedia is a free software extension to the Web browser Mozilla Firefox that displays relevant articles from the free Web-based encyclopedia, along with your search results, a good tool for students.

Menu Editor:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/710
Menu Editor is an extension that allows you to customize the menus in Firefox and Thunderbird.

Personas for Firefox:
http://labs.mozilla.com/2007/12/personas-for-firefox/
Personas for Firefox is a really nice extension for Firefox which adds lightweight theming without having to restart your browser.

Search Load Options:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3544

SearchLoad Options adds a menu for tweaking the searchbar’s default behavior. Options include clearing the searchbar and resetting the search engine.

How to prevent your PEN drive from VIRUS

2008-10-21T19:28:00.000-07:00

Friends many of your PC/laptop's normally gets virus because of Pen Drives or USB devices (Even PC's who are not connected to network ). Some Virus like Ravmon Virus , Heap41a worm which are not detected by anti virus normally spreads mostly by the Pen Drives . In such a case what can you do to prevent your PC from getting infected with Virus that spreads through USB devices or Pen Drives ?

You can protect your PC by just following the simple steps below . It won't take much time.

Connect your Pen Drive or USB drive to your computer .
Now a dialogue window will popup asking you to choose among the options as shown in the figure.Don't choose any of them , Just simply click Cancel

*Now go to Start--> Run and type cmd to open the Command Prompt window.
*Now go to My Computer and Check the Drive letter of your USB drive or Pen Drive. ( E.g. If it is written Kingston (I:) , then I: will be the drive letter .)
*In the Command Window ( cmd ) , type the drive letter: and Hit Enter.
*Now type dir/w/o/a/p and Hit Enter
*You will get a list of files . In the list , search if anyone of the following do exist
1. Autorun.inf
2. New Folder.exe
3. Bha.vbs
4. Iexplore.vbs
5. Info.exe
6. New_Folder.exe
7. Ravmon.exe
8. RVHost.exe or any other files with .exe Extension.
If you find any one of the files above , Run the command attrib -h -r -s -a *.* and Hit Enter.
Now Delete each File using the following Command del filename ( E.g del autorun.inf ) .
That's it . Now just scan your USB drive with the anti virus you have to ensure that you made your Pen Drive free of Virus .
Now Unplug your Pen Drive or USB device and Plug it again to your Laptop/PC . Before removing your Pen Drive from others Computer , Don't forget to search for .exe files using the Windows search and remove them .

Reply us in the comments!

How to Make YouTube Load Faster

2008-10-21T19:25:00.000-07:00

YouTube is slow.

Once I hit the ‘play’ button on a YouTube video, I typically have to wait a pretty long time for the video to load up and play smoothly.

Here’s a quick fix for this. Using the same simultaneous download principles which we’ve seen for other browser download accelerators, Speedbit Videoaccelerator speeds up YouTube so your online video experience is a much smoother one.

The free version not only handle’s YouTube but also caters for over 100 other sites.

They also offer a premium version which speeds up acceleration of iTunes downloads, but you can always use other free options for that feature.

Note: Speedbit claims that it is 100% spyware/adware free, but Videoaccelerator will install the Ask.com searchbar (which you can remove) as part of the install set. Not the best way to package software, but it still looks to be the fastest way to load up YouTube videos.

Is your current YouTube experience a smooth one? Tell us in the comments!

Apple Launched New Range of iPods for this Diwali Season

2008-10-20T01:28:00.000-07:00

Apple admireres or iPod lovers always looks for something new from the iPods. And Apple as the most loved company do not deject their customers. So we have Apple launching new range of iPods this Diwali season. You may say this iPod Diwali dhamaka.

- All new iPod nano in 8 Vibrant colours
- iPod touch, the funnest ipod ever – perfect for music, movies and games
- Get 50% more for the same price in your iPod classic
- iPod shuffle now available in 4 exciting colours

Apple has introduced a new range of iPods this festive season. You can take your pick from a wide range of products to fit every pocket ranging from the 1GB iPod shuffle starting at Rs. 2,300 to a 32 GB iPod touch at Rs.21,100.

iPod Nano
8GB Rs. 8,200 (local taxes apply)
16GB Rs. 10,500 (local taxes apply)

With an all-new design, and an amazing set of new features, the world’s most popular music player is now available in eight vibrant colours such as silver, purple, blue, green, orange, yellow, pink, and black. The new fourth generation iPod nano sports a curved aluminum enclosure that feels great in your hand, while the large, 2-inch display makes it easy to enjoy movies, and games. With a choice of models, both 8GB and 16GB you may never want to put the iPod nano down.

The new Genius feature turns iPod nano into your own highly intelligent, personal DJ. It creates playlists by finding songs in your library that go great together. The new iPod nano also features a refined user interface, a high resolution portrait display and a built-in accelerometer which automatically switches to Cover Flow® when rotated and automatically goes into Shuffle™ mode when lightly shaken. The new iPod nano gives users up to 24 hours of music playback or four hours of video playback. It holds up to 4,000 songs, 14,000 photos and 16 hours of video.

iPod Touch
8GB Rs. 12,800 (local taxes apply)
16GB Rs. 16,100 (local taxes apply)
32GB Rs. 21,100 (local taxes apply)

With the funnest iPod ever, play games like never before, tap into your music and take the Internet with you. The second generation iPod touch is smaller and lighter, features an amazingly thin contoured metal design, a gorgeous 3.5-inch widescreen glass display, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi wireless networking, integrated volume control buttons, a built-in speaker for casual listening, a built-in accelerometer and other advanced sensors, and Apple’s revolutionary Multi-Touch™ user interface is perfect for playing music, movies and games. The new iPod touch works with the new iTunes 8 Genius feature, allowing customers to automatically create playlists while on the go.

Now with revolutionary App store with over 1,500 applications it’s even more fun. It holds up to 7,000 songs, 25,000 photos or 40 hours of video. With all this music on iPod touch not only sounds amazing, it looks amazing too.

iPod Classic
120GB Rs. 13,000 (local taxes apply)

Carry thousands of songs or hundreds of hours of video with you everywhere. With up to 36 hours of audio playback time and a 2.5-inch color display, you’ll enjoy every second of it. Available in quintessential silver or striking new black. Now with 50% more capacity at 120 GB for the same great price you can enjoy up to 30,000 songs, 150 hours of video, 25,000 photos, or any combination. Now with Genius function, you can create genius playlist on the go!

iPod Shuffle
1GB Rs. 2,300 (local taxes apply)
2GB Rs. 3,200 (local taxes apply)

The world’s most wearable music player is now available in four vibrant colours blue, green, pink and original silver. Wear up to 500 songs on your sleeve or belt or gym shorts. With the built-in clip, iPod shuffle goes with anything. So clip on to rock on.

For a change celebrate this Diwali with music not noise. Express your love the Apple way.

All products are available at Apple Authorized Resellers.
For a list of resellers please visit http://www.asia.apple.com/buy/locator/
High-res product images available on http://www.apple.com/pr/products/

Maps of India : Free Map of India ( Hard Copy Version )

2008-10-17T08:36:00.000-07:00

MOI presents you a printed map on a scale of 1:4,250,000. MOI is offering a free map of India, which represents substantial details of various physical, political, geographical, and local etc. aspects of the country in high resolution. Some of these prominent and attractive aspects featured in the free map of India include:

Clear depiction of various political subjects such as States, union territories, capitals, important cities, road network, and railway network across India.

Detailed representation of various domestic and international airports, harbors, and tourist destinations.
Additional detailed maps of major Indian metropolis to include Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Bangalore.
Additional detailed information on climatic conditions, transport facilities, tourist destinations, pilgrimage spots, festivals, culture, major shopping centers and malls, and major languages of all metro cities.
Incorporation of superior quality ink on high quality paper, which ensures high quality resolution and longevity.
Multiple color representation of various places, structures, and tourist destinations provides better overview of various cities.
Click here to request Free Map of India

Interesting Internet Facts

2008-10-16T15:45:00.000-07:00

Facebook Facts

Facebook was originally named TheFaceBook and it was developed by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg. The first use of the FaceBook was on the Harvard campus and it was limited only to Harvard students. Soon the FaceBook spread like wild fire around the other major U.S. Universities. Mark Zuckerberg dropped the Harvard and pursued his facebook dream to become one of the 4th most-trafficked websites in the world with more than 90 million active users. The FaceBook website is built on PHP-MySQL technology and it is probably the most popular PHP website ever built. Interesting fact is that the facebook.com domain was purchased for $200,000 and FaceBook has more than 24 million photos uploaded daily.

Myspace Facts

MySpace was founded by former Friendster members Chris Dewolfe and Tom Anderson in 2003. They saw opportunity to beat Friendster with more options and less restrictions for social network users. MySpace was purchased in 2005 for $580 million by Rupert Murdoch creator of a media empire that includes 20th Century Fox and the Fox television stations. MySpace has more than 40 billion page views a month. Google paid $900 million to be MySpace's search provider. MySpace runs on Microsoft .NET Framework, operating under Windows 2003 server and applications written in C# for ASP.NET.

History Of Amazon.com

Jeff Bezos coined the term Amazon.com from the earlier name Cadabra.com. It was the excellent way to present large volume online bookstore. But did he have hidden intentions? It is hard to believe but in the early Internet days, when Yahoo was dominant search engine, results on one page were listed alphabetically. Amazon would always appear above its competition for a specific keywords. This could be a breaking point for Jeff to expand and became what it is today.

What Is Google?

Google, the Internet search company founded in September 1998. by Larry Page & Sergey Brin, got it's name from the word Googol, which represents number 1 followed with hundred zeros after it.

What Is Yahoo!?

Yahoo the complex internet organism has complicated name. Word "Yahoo" is shortcut for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle". It was coined by PhD candidates at Stanford University: David Filo and Jerry Yang.

Rubber Band Metal Gun DIY

2008-10-16T15:17:00.000-07:00

Check it out: mimicking the classic wooden setup, but in the words of Boing Boing, “this one has a working safety and is far prettier. (And heavier!)”

Virtual Clothes Dressing Room Technology

2008-10-16T15:12:00.000-07:00

Some new technology down under lets users see a reflection of themselves, and manipulate virtual clothes over their body so that they can see how they look like in a snap. Pricing and availability info are displayed on top, and users can have pictures of their virtual outfits sent to their mobile phones for later perusal.

It’s understandable that retail shops want to make things easier for guys who apparently don’t like to try clothes. After all, making shopping as easy possible means more potential for profit. But the gesture-driven interface already looked clumsy in the above video, and user experience expert Jakob Nielsen once asserted that:

Many user interfaces designed for the movies feature gestural input and 3D data visualizations. Immersive environments and fly-through navigation look good, and allow for more dramatic interaction than clicking on a linear list of 10 items. But, despite being a staple of computer conference demos for decades, 3D almost never makes it into shipping products. The reason? 2D works better than 3D for the vast majority of practical things that users want to do.

To be honest, the virtual changing room seems more like novelty than convenience.

Bulletproof Casual Clothing for the Rich and Famous

2008-10-16T15:08:00.001-07:00

Got $12,000? Enemies threatening to gun you down left and right, but you don’t want to dress up like a walking tank?

Enter this bulletproof polo shirt from Colombian Miguel Caballero, made out of bulletproof fabric. Clients include a Spanish prince and a Venezuelan president. Of course, assuming this works like your typical bulletproof wear, the hurt will still be there, even if the bullet was kept from tearing through your vulnerable body. Bulletproof pants are also available, but what about headshots? Rakishly confident male model sold seperately (dvice.com)

Free Save Snow Stickers

2008-10-10T08:32:00.000-07:00

Get your self the save snow stickers for free and show your participation to the movement. The best thing is this is international and this is available for everyone around the world
Lets join hands for a noble cause !!
To Get your free save snow stickers Click here

Acer Aspire Predator desktop PC makes good

2008-10-07T20:03:00.000-07:00

Acer from Taiwan is already the third largest vendor in the PC market, and has announced its Acer Aspire Predator desktop PC as well as the Acer G24 widescreen LCD display to accompany that gaming beast. Both models will be available to customers in the US, packing in top notch gaming specifications into a case that looks way too cool to be an ordinary PC, and chances are anyone who lays their eyes on it might be forgiven if they’re fooled into thinking the case might actually transform into a robot suddenly when nobody’s looking. Gotta love the deep metallic copper color it comes in, where the top of the chassis features USB and audio ports that are easy to reach, while a multi-memory card reader is located on the front.

What lies within the belly of the Acer Aspire Predator? Well, for starters, you have the powerful Intel Core 2 Quad processor to help you out when it comes to processing crunch, while NVIDIA’s GeForce 9 Series graphics cards will be able to let you enjoy even the most demanding games without dropping enough frames to render the title unplayable. In addition, it won’t rely on regular air to keep everything inside running cool - instead, the Aspire Predator will use an advanced state-of-the-art liquid cooling system that ensures all parts run at an optimal level without overheating no matter the processor-intensive tasks thrown its way. The Acer Aspire Predator is also accompanied by the Acer G24 LCD display, a 24″ widescreen LCD display to go along with the Predator’s stunning looks. You will find a 2ms response time, a brightness of 400cd/m2, a contrast ratio of 50,000:1 and a maximum resolution of 1,920 x 1,200. You will be able to pick up the Aspire Predator from $1,649 upwards while the Acer G24 LCD display will retail for $399.99.

The USB Human Skull Drive just in time for Halloween

2008-10-06T08:10:00.000-07:00

I always go nuts over Halloween, I love all the spooky decorations and of course the candy. Now, I happen to be one of the weirdos that all year round I will leave out a small zombie on my desk. Just because it gets around to Christmastime does not mean I will put all things dark and spooky back in their box where they belong. Well it looks like USB Geek has decided to release yet another spooky item that I wouldn’t mind using all year. That or I suppose you could have a seasonal USB drive.

I imagine the USB Human Skull Drive would be better for people like me who would use it year round. It seems silly to use a USB drive for all of a month or so, then toss the USB drive into a box along with the rest of the Halloween decorations. The thumb drive I’m sure would also make a fun gift for science lovers as well. To pick one up it will cost you $19 for a 2GB drive.