Windows 7 laptops

Microsoft's latest operating system Windows 7 to lift hardware sales. From Sony to Lenovo, Acer to HP, PC makers are ready with a slew of Windows 7 laptops. PC manufacturers are hoping that the new OS will give a new lease of life to the struggling laptop and PC market


Sony Vaio X

Taking cue from Apple's lightest laptop MacBook Air, Sony has launched an ultra-slim Sony Vaio X laptop in India. The laptop weighs mere 655 grams and is about half an inch thin. The laptop sports a 11.1-inch LED Backlit display offering 1366x768 pixel resolution.

Equipped with Intel Atom processor, the laptop comes pre-loaded with Windows 7 Professional (32-bit). Vaio X comes in two models VPCX113KG for Rs 64,990 and VPCX117LG for Rs 84,990.

The base model, VPC113KG will pack 45nm process 1.86GHz Intel Atom Z540 'Silverthorne' processor. Vaio VPC117LG model includes 2GHz Intel Atom Z550 processor. Sony packs 2GB DDR2 RAM and 64GB SSD in VPCX113KG while the other model has 128GB SSD storage.


Lenovo ThinkPad laptops

Lenovo too has refreshed its PC and laptop line-up with new Windows 7 OS. The company has launched a series of Think and Idea brands of PC which will pack the latest OS.

Targetted at business users, the 14-inch ThinkPad SL410 and 15.6-inch SL510, both pack Windows 7. Designed for small-to-medium businesses, the laptops offer higher-resolution webcams, clearer microphones, and a microphone mute button for voice and video conferencing.

Both models pack Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Among other features, the laptops come with DVD drives, six-cell batteries, multi-touch trackpad, option for 3G connectivity, Wi-Fi, Ethernet and Bluetooth connectivity.

Samsung N140 Netbook

Korean giant Samsung has launched an ultra-sleek Netbook N140 powered by newly launched Windows 7 OS in the Indian market.

Targetting both home and enterprise users, Samsung N140 comes with a 10.1-inch LED Backlit display and a spillproof keyboard. The Netbook supports 11 hours with a 6 cell battery and has 250GB hard disc drive.

In addition, the Netbook promises high multimedia experience and SRS effects that produce clear High Definition 3D sound. Weighing 1.27 kg, N140 packs an array of wireless communication technology and data-sharing capabilities. Other key features include three USB 2.0 ports, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and a 3-in-1 memory card reader.

Priced at Rs 24,990, Samsung N140 comes with a 1 year warranty

Toshiba Notebook

Toshiba has rolled out a series of laptop PCs -- Satellite, Portege, Tecra, NB200 -- pre-loaded with Microsoft's latest Windows 7 OS.

Among key features, Toshiba's latest notebook PCs sport new designs, high definition (HD) CSV screens, LED display, multi-touch control panel, 3D HDD protection, Fingerprint recognition and face recognition using HD auto macro integrated wide angle web-camera.

Sporting 13.3-inch wide HD screen, Portege M900-D3212 packs Nvidia graphics controller with 512MB video memory. The device comes pre-loaded with Windows 7 Home Basic OS.

Satellite M500-D4311 comes in 14-inch wide LED backlit screen with backlit keyboard. The notebook PC packs Nvidia graphics controller, 512MB dedicated video memory and 1366x768 resolution in 16:9 aspect ratio. This one also packs Windows 7 Home Premium version.

BenQ Joybooks

 BenQ too has launched two new light-weight Netbooks, Joybook S35 and Joybook S43, bundled with Windows 7 OS. The 13.3-inch BenQ Joybook S35 and the 14-inch Joybook S43 runs on Intel's ULV Pentium Dual Core SU4100 ULV processors

Among key multimedia features, both Netbooks pack webcam, microphone, integrated speakers, a 2-channel TruSurround HD sound system with SRS Headphone 360, and a large-capacity HDD. BenQ S43 comes with an 8X DVD Super-Multi optical disc drive.

As for battery, Joybooks S35 uses an 8-cell battery and provides up to 11 hours runtime. Joybook S43 uses a 6-cell battery supporting upto five hours. Available in blue and black colour with glossy finish, BenQ S35 comes for Rs 37,199, while S43 is priced at Rs 40,399.

Acer Aspire AS8940G-6865

PC maker Acer unveiled a 18.4-inch full HD widescreen LED backlit notebook PC called Acer Aspire AS8940G-6865 with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. The CineCrystal backlit display offers a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9 with 1920 X 1080 resolutions.

Powered by Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6GHz processor, the laptop packs 4GB RAM, a 500GB HDD, 1GB Nvidia GeForce GTS 250M GPU, Blu-ray drive and 5 integrated speakers for surround sound.

Among other features, the notebook packs multi-in-1 digital media card reader, WiFi, Acer Crystal Eye Integrated Webcam, touch-capacitive media control interface, 5 USB 2.0 ports, 1 HDMI port, 1 eSATA port and 8-cell battery. Though the notebook is not yet launched in India, it is likely to hit the Indian market soon at a price tag of around Rs 63,000.

Source : infotech.indiatimes

Google buys mobile ad firm for $750 million

Google Inc said on Monday that it was acquiring of AdMob, one of the largest mobile advertising networks, for $750 million, widening its bet that cell phone advertising could become the Internet's next-big money maker.

Google's agreement to buy AdMob in an all-stock deal would give it a key asset as it seeks to extend the reach of its online advertising business from the tethered world of PCs to the smartphones that consumers increasingly use to access the Web while on-the-go.

Google's free Android operating system already provides the basic software that powers many of the newer phones, including the recently released Motorola Inc Droid, and which compete with Apple's popular iPhone.

Privately-held AdMob makes technology for serving graphical, display ads on mobile phones and maintains a network that allows advertisers to place display ads on mobile Web sites and directly within specialized smartphone applications.

The current revenue opportunity is still modest by Google's standards - J.P. Morgan analyst Imran Khan pegged AdMob's annual revenue at $45 million to $60 million - but analysts said the deal underscores Google's belief that the market is set to grow.

"They've made it pretty clear that mobile is one of the biggest opportunities they see," said UBS analyst Brian Pitz.

The deal appears to represent the third largest acquisition in Google's history, behind the 2008 acquisition of DoubleClick for $3.1 billion and the Google's 2006 acquisition of YouTube for $1.65 billion.

In an interview with Reuters, Google executives declined to say whether the deal would have a positive or negative impact on Google's profitability, or provide details about revenue expectations.

"We expect this will accelerate our growth in this space," said Google Vice President of Corporate Development David Lawee.

Google, the world's No.1 Internet search engine, does not disclose how much of its revenue, which totaled nearly $22 billion in 2008, comes from mobile ads.

Last month, Google said its mobile searches increased 30 percent quarter-over-quarter in the third quarter.

Google executives said they expected the acquisition to be subject to regulatory review, though they said they don't foresee any concerns blocking the deal, which the company said it expects to close in the next several months.

Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt recently said that the company was interested in resuming its acquisition efforts, after taking a breather during the worst of the economic downturn. Schmidt said Google would acquire on average one company a month.

AdMob, which counts more than 15,000 mobile websites and applications in its network, is among the top two or three mobile ad networks measured by the volume of ads served, said Mike Wehrs, CEO of the Mobile Marketing Association.

The company competes with Quattro Wireless and Velti and analysts said that Microsoft Corp, Yahoo Inc and Time Warner Inc's AOL had all acquired companies with mobile advertising technology in recent years.

Wehrs said his group expects the overall mobile ad market to increase 28 percent to 33 percent next year to between $2.3 billion and $2.4 billion. He said his figures included revenue for all forms of mobile advertising including text message ads.

While search is an important component of mobile ads, Wehrs said that ads that run inside smartphone apps are particularly popular at the moment.

"The first thing a company asks for when they go to an ad agency is how fast can you get me on an iPhone app," said Wehrs.

Google's shares finished Monday's regular trading session up 2 percent at $562.51.

Source : reuters

Nokia CEO says starts deliveries of top-model N900

Nokia has started deliveries of its new top-of-the-range model N900, a key product for the world's top phone maker in its battle against rivals iPhone and Blackberry.

Nokia Chief Executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said in a speech the company started deliveries of the phone on Tuesday.

The N900 model is Nokia's first phone running Linux Maemo operating system, which analysts see as a key for Nokia to gain back ground in the coming years.

Nokia has kept its overall market share stable, close to 40 percent, but it has lost share among more expensive models to the likes of Apple and RIM.

High-end products are important for Nokia because the company has not only lost market share there, but its average selling prices have declined faster than the industry average.

Goldman Sachs has said it expects Nokia's value share -- a measure reflecting average prices and underlying market share -- for phones costing more than $350 to decline to 13 percent this year from 33 percent just two years before.

Noctua announced NH-U9B Special Edition

Noctua announced a new special edition of its popular NH-U9B premium cooler for HTPCs or smaller cases.

The new NH-U9B SE2 now comes with two of Noctua's NF-B9 92mm fans and adds support for LGA1156 as well as LGA1366 via the latest SecuFirm2 multi-socket mounting system.

Thanks to the addition of the latest SecuFirm2 multi-socket mounting system, the new NH-U9B SE2 supports LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA775, AM2, AM2+ and AM3, making it compatible with Intel's latest Core i7 and Core i5 processors.

Now including two of Noctua's NF-B9 92mm fans, the new SE2 version further improves its predecessor's quiet cooling performance. The supplied Low-Noise and Ultra-Low-Noise-Adaptors allow for full flexibility in fine-tuning the cooler for supreme quietness or maximum performance in push-pull mode. Topped off with Noctua's NT-H1 thermal compound, the NH-U9B SE2 forms a complete package for environments that can't fit the larger NH-U

The NH-U9B SE2 will be available shortly at a recommended retail price of EUR 46.90 / USD 54.90.

First iPhone Worm Found

Security firms have located the first iPhone worm, dubbed as Ikee, has been discovered spreading "in the wild" in Australia.

Affected owners of the popular iPhone mobile phone will find that their iPhone wallpaper has been altered to a picture of Rick Astley (of Rickroll fame) and the message "ikee is never going to give you up".

However, the worm is only able to infect devices that have been "jailbroken" by their owners. Jailbreaking removes iPhone's protection mechanisms, allowing users to run any software they want, according to F-Secure firm.

The worm targets users who have jailbroken their phone but have not changed their default root login password. It will search for vulnerable iPhones by scanning a handful of IP ranges ? most of which are in Australia. At the moment, F-sekure has no confirmed reports of Ikee outside of Australia.

After Ikee infects a phone, it disables the SSH service, preventing reinfection.

To protect your jailbroken iPhone, users should change their root password.

"The creator of the worm has also released full source code of the four existing variants of this worm. This means that there will quickly be more variants, and they might have nastier payload than just changing users' wallpaper or might try password cracking to gain access to devices where the default password has been changed," Mikko Hypponen of security firm F-secure.

The author of the ikee iPhone worm is Ashley Towns. He has been speaking to the media who have contacted him via his Twitter account

In an interview with ABC News, the 21-year-old student was asked if he knew how many iPhones had been affected:

"Due to the nature of it, it's kind of hard to tell, I know my phone hit about 100 alone but from there I have no idea," he said.

Towns has said on his Twitter page that he is receiving requests from people for the source code to his worm. Security firsm Sophos has contacted him requesting that he does not share it with any further people - as it could lead to more malicious iPhone malware being written in the future.

It remains to be seen whether the author of the first iPhone worm will recognise the seriousness of what he has done, and take appropriate steps to minimise the damage.

Sony Offers Free Movie Bravia HDTVs, Blu-ray Players

Sony announced that owners of Sony networked BRAVI? HDTVs and Blu-ray Disc players will be able to enjoy an exclusive in-home opportunity to rent the Sony Pictures animated hit, "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," four weeks before it is available at retail.

Starting today, consumers who purchase a networked BRAVIA HDTV or Blu-ray Disc player and register the device between Nov. 9, 2009 and Jan. 4, 2010, will receive a free 24-hour rental of the movie in high definition (a value of $24.95), Sony said.

From Dec. 8, 2009 through Jan. 4, 2010, the movie will be offered for rent at a cost of $24.95 on all current networked BRAVIA HDTVs, including the W5100, Z5100, XBR9 and XBR10 series as well as the company?s new BDP-N460 Network Blu-ray Disc player.

Consumers who already own networked BRAVIA HDTVs or have earlier BRAVIA models equipped with the BRAVIA Internet Video Link can rent the movie during this exclusive time period. Televisions and Blu-ray Disc players must be connected to the internet to receive the movie.

"Given our breadth of content and strength in networked products, Sony is the first company to utilize its internet enabled TVs and other networked devices to stream feature films directly to consumers? televisions prior to availability on DVD or Blu-ray," said Hiro Kawano, senior vice president for Sony Electronics? Home Division business. "We hope that consumers who own networked Sony BRAVIA and Blu-ray Disc players take the opportunity to bring family and friends together during the holiday season to enjoy this warmhearted movie."

Inspired by the beloved children?s book by the same name, Columbia Pictures' and Sony Pictures Animation's "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" is a family film that focuses on a town where food falls from the sky like rain. It has earned more than $170 million in box office receipts to date worldwide and will be available on DVD and Blu-ray Disc at retail beginning Jan. 5, 2010.

Last year, Sony streamed "Hancock" to Bravia TV owners for two weeks before its home video release.

Amazon.com and Blockbuster also offer movies for rental or purchase on certain Internet-connected TVs.

Microsoft Announces Exchange Server 2010 availability

Today at the Microsoft Tech?Ed Europe 2009 conference in Germany, Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop announced that Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 is now available worldwide.

Elop also announced the release of Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange Server, which helps Exchange Server customers further safeguard business information.

"Exchange Server 2010 customers are already reporting cost savings of up to 70 percent thanks to a simplified high-availability model and support for lower-cost storage. Customers are also seeing productivity gains of more than 20 percent with a universal inbox that delivers e-mail, voice mail, instant messaging and text messaging consistently across virtually any device," Elop said.

According to a commissioned study of technology early adopters conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Microsoft, a customer can see a payback period of less than six months when upgrading to either Exchange Server 2010 or Windows Server 2008 R2.

Businesses are seeing equally significant results from Windows Server 2008 R2, with customers including Continental Airlines Inc. (U.S.), Chester Zoo (U.K.), Combell Group NV (Belgium), FinPro (Finland), Wacom Europe GmbH (Germany) and Wortell (Netherlands) noting cost savings through server consolidation, reduced power consumption and improved service levels.

Elop said more than 45,000 partners are trained on Windows Server 2008 R2 and Exchange Server 2010, with several partners announcing new services and solutions today, including AMD, Avanade, Dell, EMC, Kaspersky Lab, Symantec and Unisys.

Exchange Server 2010 and Forefront Protection 2010 for Exchange are available now for trial at http://www.thenewefficiency.com, along with more information about Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2.

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 available

Microsoft is currently in Berlin, not the anniversary of the fall of the wall, but at the Tech Ed Conference Europe 2009. As expected, after the Release To Manufacturing version announced a month ago, Microsoft has announced the worldwide availability of Exchange Server 2010, and so complete his architecture in the area of servers.

Exchange Server 2010 is for construction only offered in 64-bit version, as its host Windows Server 2008 R2

• Revised version of Outlook Web Access with support Firefox and Safari
• New method of sorting by conversation
• Fashion conversation on a particular theme to compile all e-mails
• Mail Tips: advice posted by Outlook and to ensure that the user is sure what it does (eg sending a response at all while contacts are hidden copy)
• Preview the text of the voicemail (which allows further research into voice mail)
• Voice server functions
• Federation external timetables
• Universal access to e-mails, SMS, Instant Messaging

According to Microsoft Exchange occupies 65% of the market for electronic business messaging. In his speech in Berlin, Stephen Elop, president of the Business Division at Microsoft, also announced the release of the security solution Forefront protection for Exchange Server 2010.

Microsoft dominates the web with Windows Live Messenger

According to a recent study, Microsoft enjoys 14% of the Web audience, largely thanks to its instant messaging client Windows Live Messenger.

The firm comScore, which specializes in observation of the Internet audience, comes to an online survey for the month of September, during which he noted the activity of 1.2 billion Internet users around the world . Aged 15 and over, these Internet users spent about 27 billion hours on their computer screen, an average of 22 hours and 30 minutes per head.

The hearing mainly benefits to Microsoft, whose online services represent 14% of the time. This market share is mainly due to its instant messaging program Windows Live Messenger which represents by itself 70%.

Then comes the Internet giant Google with 9.3% of the audience through its search engine and video platform YouTube, his challenger Yahoo! With 6.3% and the community network Facebook with 5.1 % and number of users is growing at over 300 million.

Figures without surprise, when we look at what is happening around you. They are representative uses today, Windows Live Messenger for instant messaging, Google search on the Internet, YouTube for videos and Facebook for social networking.

Setup and configure the firewall in Windows 7

Windows 7 has a personal firewall integrated relatively powerful that it is more advisable to use if you do not use third party software.

In this issue dedicated to the integrated firewall in Windows 7, we present the features of this firewall can not exploit for both neophytes in automatic mode for advanced users in advanced mode. Attention in the first mode the firewall only filters incoming connections while in the second mode it filters both the inbound and outbound duplex mode, to improve significantly the security of your PC

The integrated firewall is just as well as proprietary software if the user takes the time to properly configure it. It automatically creates the filter rules for known applications and also allows you to edit, create, modify or delete rules in each case for any control on the fingertips. A security software so powerful, but it must be configured to operate at its full potential.

Here the parties discussed in this presentation:

• Enable the firewall of Windows 7 in classic mode
• Advanced mode and create a rule for traffic program
• Creating a rule of traffic for a particular port
• Editing a Filter Rule
• Other points on the firewall in Windows Seven

Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness

The model has a transparent, scratch-resistant 1.8-inch monochrome display, FM-radio, Bluetooth module and 88 MB of internal memory. The memory card slot on the case have been reported, there is a slot for a SIM-card. In the parts supply is a headset and memory card to 2GB - under the battery cover.

In addition to the unusual appearance, the device interesting features. Service personal assistant is ready to give the owner any services 24 hours a day. You can book a seat at the best restaurants, tickets to sports centers, concerts, exhibitions, night clubs .

Work in 3G networks and support for major mail protocols will not only stay in touch, but also provide an opportunity to use Internet services at a comfortable speed.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness Specifications

• Network: GSM / GPRS / EDGE 850/900/1800/1900, UMTS / HSPA 2100
• Display: 1.8-inch transparent monochrome, with resolution of 240x320 pixels
• Memory: built-in 88 MB, memory card slot for Memory Stick Micro
• Connectivity: Bluetooth with A2DP
• Music Player
• FM-radio
• Hours: talk mode up to 8.5 hours, standby up to 350 hours
• Dimensions: 102x43x13 mm
• Weight: 70 g

Buying Xperia Pureness, the subscriber can take advantage of personalized services package, the official site. With the panel support on the phone can contact the technical support Xperia phones or go to a specialized web-site. If the subscriber unit fails still fails, the company provides a replacement within two days.

It is expected that the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Pureness will be available later this month and costs about € 600 ($ 895).

Dangerous Nokia chargers changes free

The company found that the battery compartment lid is made of poor quality plastics, which can break, thus opening up access to the components. To avoid injuries, Nokia is ready to be replaced free of charge chargers AC-3U, AC-3E, published in the period from 15 June to 9 August, and model AC-4U, which appeared in the period from 13 April to 25 October 2009.

At present, there have been no injuries from these models. The exchange program will be organized in all markets where these devices are implemented.

No Windows 7 for ARM processors

The idea runs from the advent of smartphones and netbooks, ultraportables these machines at low prices: Microsoft could he not one day exception to the rule that the desktop versions of Windows only runs on x86 processors for s to adapt to the growing power of chips based on ARM architecture? Asked many times, the world number one publisher has always said no, this was not his intention, and just confirmed again through Mike Nash, vice president in charge of strategy Windows platform at Microsoft, interviewed by the magazine Taiwanese Digitimes.

For now, the ARM chips are mainly used in the music players and mobile phones like smartphones, but tomorrow they could make their entry into the world of PC, implemented in machine type or netbook SmartBook. The latter would adopt such Snapdragon, Qualcomm's platform (photo), or Tegra, chip all-in-One Mobile NVIDIA. Today, manufacturers wishing to make use of ARM processors have no choice but to turn to systems like Linux, Android or Windows CE, since it is impossible to run Windows XP or Windows 7 on such platforms.

For now, it is not expected to give change, assured Mike Nash. Why? Today, he believes it is important that as different devices technically a netbook equipped with an Atom and SmartBook based on ARM provides features and capabilities different techniques. It remains to be seen how long the equation will remain balanced and if Microsoft does not like the bed of competing solutions, chief among which the Google Android.