Windows Mobile 7 to launch in 2010

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Posted by Snehsan

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said the U.S. software giant would release the next generation of Windows Mobile in 2010.
Ballmer also said the company wouldn't ship the next generation of Microsoft Office until 2010, PC Magazine reported Thursday.
The release of Windows Mobile 7, however, is "somewhat of a surprise," PC Magazine said. The company released its Windows Mobile 6.5 earlier this month.
"We've made a nice release announcement last week of Windows Mobile 6.5," Ballmer said in a transcript of a company meeting released by Microsoft. "We're getting more and more synergy with Windows, so the browser
improvements, et cetera., should be quite rapid," he said.
Ballmer also said Microsoft had no plans to move into the mobile phone hardware business.
"People ask me, will you build your own phone? (That is) not our strategy," Ballmer said.
"It's our strategy to sell software that we can use and support across a wide range of device manufacturers to encourage choice, choice in devices, choice in the operators," he said.

Gigabyte launches GA-EGA5M-UD2H Motherboard with Ultra Durable 3 Technology in India

Posted by Snehsan

Experience the true HD entertainment in remarkable energy efficient form with the latest Gigabyte motherboard called the GA-EG45M-UD2H. Available in the Indian market, the motherboard is powered by the Intel G45 Express chipset and features the Ultra Durable 3 Technology with 2 ounces of copper for both the power and ground layers. Boasting to offer lower system temperatures, the peripheral ensures an incomparable high-definition video and audio performance for the latest high-definition digital multimedia systems. In addition to Intel multi-core processors up to FSB 1600MHz, the GA-EG45M-UD2H motherboard is compatible with high speed DDR2 1066 memory, claiming to be the valuable product for Microsoft Windows Vista Premium. It also features an array of connectivity options such as D-sub and DVI along with HDMI support.

The GA-EG45M-UD2H offers unprecedented picture clarity and smooth video playback through the supported Intel Clear Video technology. It is complaint with up to 1080p HD content playback and HDCP for Blu-Ray HD content.

Additionally, it works effectively with a host of audio technologies from the powerful Dolby Home Theater for an exceptional surround sound performance. It includes Dolby Pro Logic IIx, Dolby Headphone and Sound Space Expander along with Natural Bass enhancement for the richest sound quality.

Based on a 4 phase power design, it comes bundled with Japanese Solid Capacitors for maximum upgradeability and durability.

It also packs in an integrated High-Definition 7.1 + 2 channel Realtek ALC889A sound chip with 106dB Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) that considerably lessens noise while signal transmission. Compliant with Dynamic Energy Saver Advanced (DES), the latest motherboard from Gigabyte boasts of better energy saving capabilities and enhanced system performance. It supports hardware-based Dynamic 4-Gear switching and VRD 11.1.

Lastly, the GA-EG45M-UD2H incorporates two physical BIOS ROMs to automatically recover BIOS data when main BIOS has crashed or failed. Priced at Rs. 9,900, the Gigabyte GA-EG45M-UD2H motherboard can be purchased from Avnet (India), Ingram Micro and Redington across India.

Google: You Can See Paradise By The Dashboard Light

Posted by Snehsan

Green for go, yellow for slow down, red for stop: Google's new Dashboard feature lets users check the status of a range of Google Apps services. The new Dashboard service comes on the heels of Google's recent Gmail outage , and is part of Google's Premier Apps service. The Apps Status Dashboard is in a table format and features a green check mark for no reported issues, a yellow wrench icon for a service disruption, a red "x" mark that indicates a service outage and a blue icon that provides available information. In addition to Gmail, the Dashboard indicates the status of other Google Apps services such as Google Calendar, Talk, Docs List, Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations, and Google Video for Business. Administrators for organizations such as schools can check Google Apps performance from the administrative control panel as well. Google's mea culpa fix follows Tuesday's two-and-a-half hour outage that primarily affected subscribers of Google's Premier Edition, which is aimed at businesses and provides Google Apps, including Gmail, for $50 per user account annually. The glitch was traced to a problem with routine maintenance performed in one of the company's European data centers. A Google spokesperson said the problem was out of the ordinary, since there is usually no disruption to the service because accounts are served out of another data center. To smooth ruffled feathers, Google offered affected customers its apologies and a 15-day credit.

Acer Smartphone Coming in Mid February

Posted by Snehsan

Acer is announcing its smartphone on February 16, 2009, at the Mobile World Congress, Barcelona. It's officially confirmed now. The company has sent out invites to journalists attending the upcoming Mobile World Congress at Barcelona, and the invite contains this sweet little tag at the end which says "Smartphones Launch!"While the rumour of a possible smartphone from the Taiwanese giant was making the rounds since last year, it is only now that the same has been substantiated. With archrival ASUS being an established player in the mobile phones segment, Acer does have a huge task up front. However, if the phone turns out to be something very revolutionary, there is no reason why it cannot go on to become an established player in this segment.As usual, for details we will need to wait, till the 16th, and there seems to be no signs of any spyshots or leaked images with this one - unfortunately!

Virgin Mobile launched Slider vGlide

Posted by Snehsan

Virgin Mobile has launched its slider handset, vGlide targeted at the Indian youth. This new handset comes with a 65k color, 1.8-inch large screen and includes FM radio, speaker phone and games among other features. The vGlide comes in a paprika red color and boasts of a soft-touch finish. The phone also comes with lifetime validity and a starter user kit worth Rs. 499. It offers prepaid connection, lifetime incoming validity, 499 free local minutes and 499 free local SMSes valid for 60 days. The phone's other features include access to Vbytes - Virgin Mobile's data portal- from where one can download wallpapers, ringtones, games, Tring Tunes (Virgin Mobile's ringback tones) at a daily access charge of just Rs. 5. A travel charger and stereo headset also accompany the phone. This stylish handset can be yours for Rs. 2,399.

Nano to burn roads before April-end

Posted by Snehsan

In select markets Nano can be expected to be seen on the road before the end of April but for the larger part of the country it will be towards mid-May or the second-half of May. Finally the much anticipated launch is going to happen on 23rd of March but over and above it is understood that the Nano will get consumers only by the end of April or maybe May. Vendors gave a sense that they have been supplying components to Tata Motors in small chunks, in fact they been gradually scaling it up and now from the month of April they will be supplying components for about 4,000-5,000 Nano per month. The initial numbers as Tata Motors said that the first chunk or some Nano will be based at the dealership level from the first week of April and the bookings will start from the second week of April which essentially means that people will have to wait for to get their hands on Nano. So the initial numbers are going to grow because the vendors are gradually supplying them the components because there is not enough manufacturing scaling up that has been done. There are certain dealerships who have some good relationships with the existing customers, those customers may get some preference over the totally new customers and that set of customers may be able to book the car earlier than the rest. This is been manufactured at Pune and Pantnagar. Sanand of course will take time at least by the end of this year or early next year only will they start manufacturing there. So till then there will be small amount of manufacturing that will be done out of these two plant. However it has to be seen what sort of response will be getting from consumers and how big will be the craze for Nano and how much will actually start selling. In select markets the car can be expected to be seen on the road before end of April but for the larger part of the country it will be towards mid-May or second-half of May. That is when one can expect to see the Nano in almost every corner of the country. Dealers say the booking amount initially could be anywhere between Rs 50,000-75,000.

Google says Gmail crash a self-mistake

Posted by Snehsan

Even as the world moaned Gmail’s failure on Tuesday, Internet giant Google admitted it had crashed its own data centres causing unavailability of the email service for close to four hours in India alone. But industry experts are not buying this excuse. Google said that during a routine maintenance of one of its European data centres, they had directed the traffic to other servers. However, they were simultaneously trying a new code that “tries to keep data geographically close to its owner causing another data centre in Europe to become overloaded. This caused cascading problems from one data centre to another”, said Gmail site reliability manager Acacio Cruz on early Wednesday morning. In short, Google crashed its own servers, unintentionally of course. However, analysts say Google may be covering up its failure by terming it a “self-mistake”. One indication of this is that since Google had put in place the ‘Captcha’ system, distorted letters that can only be recognised by humans to rectify the error, this would have been done only in the case of a botneck attack. An attack where thousands of zombie PCs controlled by group of mischief-makers were asked to access Gmail simultaneously, resulting in a crash of Gmail’s data centres. “If it was a maintenance issue, they would know where the traffic load came from causing the crash. Why would they put in place Captcha if the problem was at their end,” said a Delhi-based analyst who did not want to be quoted. If it was really a code testing failure, they should have had the same side effects during their lab tests. Also, the response time to the problem should not have been four hours if it was an in-house cause, said the analyst.

VHP wants India to ban American products over H1B visa issue

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Posted by Snehsan

The VHP on Wednesday asked the Indian Government to ban all American products unless the Barack Obama administration amends its decision on H1B visa curbs. He said the decision meant that lakhs of Indian students studying in various US universities would not get employment there. ''About one million Indians will be made jobless by a single decision of Obama,'' he told reporters here. Replying to a query, Togadia accused the Indian government of having failed to ''handle'' Pakistan on the Mumbai terror strikes. ''We should have at least snapped all ties with Pakistan,'' he said. On the Ram temple issue, he said VHP expected that the BJP would probably include it in its manifesto. ''But they have not declared their manifesto. So let us wait.'' He said no madrassas should be allowed to function in the country ''if they did not stop preaching jihad.''

Gmail is back after One Hour Server Collapse

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Posted by Snehsan

Breaking News! The Gmail is back. Don't be surprised if you don't know what happened this afternoon (IST). The Gmail service went down for over an hour at around 4 PM (IST) today, causing panic among millions of Gmail users across the globe, mostly in Europe, Asia and India.
Very few people in the United States may have witnessed the outage, as they were still at sleep. The Gmail service resumed after an hour or so. People against started accessing their emails at 5.15 PM.
The Google did not confirm anything. There could be an outage or a simple mail server breakdown, which should be highly unlikely. Internet users confirmed that there was no prior notice from Google regarding the mail outage or serve breakdown. Other services such as Orkut, Blogger etc. were working perfect when the Gmail was down. Interesting tho!
Internet users across the world went berserk after the collapse of Gmail and they flooded the Twitter with messages and complaints. They even vowed to switch over the email service permanently.

BSNL launches 'India Golden Fifty' Plan

Posted by Snehsan

After launching the 3G services in Chennai and planning extend it to 700 cities in India, the BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd) has introduced a new scheme called 'India Golden Fifty' to bring more cheer to its customers and at the same time, giving sleepless nights to the private operators.
The 'India Golden Fifty' plan offers STD calls across India at just 50 paisa per minute. The scheme will available from March 1 onwards. While all local and STD calls will have a flat rate of 50 paisa per minute, calls to BSNL networks will be charged at 20 paisa per minute (for local) and 30 paisa per minute (for STD).
The monthly rental of 'India Golden Fifty' plan will be Rs 375 inclusive of taxes. The new scheme is expected to receive overwhelming response from the customers across the country.

Planning Commission Approves Rs. 15,900 crore Plan for Bihar

Monday, February 23, 2009

Posted by Snehsan

Much to the satisfaction of the Bihar government and the people of Bihar, the Planning Commission on Monday okayed an annual plan of Rs. 15,900 crore for the fiscal year 2009-10, an increase of Rs. 2,400 crore over last year's plan.The announcement came soon after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi met with the Planning Commission Deputy Chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia at Vikas Bhawan in New Delhi on Monday and presented their case demanding more money for developing infrastructure in the state and help in improving power situation in Bihar."We have laid out many plans to attract investment but have not attained the desired result in the lack of adequate power in the state. Bihar is in dire need of more electricity which has led us to initiate a number of thermal power projects but this alone cannot extricate the state from its current anemic state. We must get some real help from the Center in terms of developing infrastructure if we wish to see some real change in Bihar," Kumar said at the meeting as reported by government officials.Kumar also took a dig at the previous Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) regime blaming it for pushing Bihar into the dark age by its anti-development agenda."Lalu Prasad Yadav's election symbol is lantern and that's exactly where he drove the state to during his 15 years of rule in Bihar – the lantern age. There is a serious power crisis in the state because the RJD leaders did not wish to see Bihar develop like other states. After all, how long we have to live in the dark age?" the Chief Minister asked. Montek by and large agreed with Kumar and praised him for doing extremely well during his three-year rule in Bihar.

Force India's new car to debut on Sunday

Posted by Snehsan

Force India will give their new Mercedes-powered Formula One car its track debut at Jerez in southern Spain on Sunday, the team said in a statement.

The VJM02, to be driven by Italian Giancarlo Fisichella and Germany's Adrian Sutil, is one of the last of the new cars to emerge and will get only limited testing with the season starting in Australia on March 29.

Force India failed to score a point last season but have since agreed a five-year deal with McLaren and Mercedes to use their engines and gearbox as well as the new KERS energy recovery system.

The team used Ferrari engines last year.