Imation Unveils Defender H200 Biometric Drive

While data integrity forms the most basic requirement for data storage. The more portable forms of storage also require better security in the form of data encryption. Imation has launched the Defender H200 Biometric external hard drive that provides stringent security for businesses and professionals seeking uncompromising approach at data encryption.

The Defender H200 has a two stage authentication system that requires anyone accessing the hard drive to input a password as well as pass fingerprint verification using the inbuilt biometric scanner on the drive. The USB 2.0 portable hard drive delivers FIPS 140-2, level 3 hardware-based 256-bit AES encryption through a dedicated cryptographic processor, which supports up to 10 secure user accounts.

In simple English, that means it will take a very powerful number cruncher and a long, long time to crack the authentication system with a brute force attack. Hackers trying to employ the hardware route are claimed to be thwarted by the tamper proof metal chassis that houses the drive. The 500GB hard drive is priced at Rs. 19,500.

Transcend Launches Class 10 MicroSDHC Cards

Transcend has launched a range of Class 10 microSDHC cards in 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacities. The cards retail at a suggested price of Rs. 800 for the 4GB model, Rs. 1,300 for the 8GB model and Rs. 3,800 for the 16GB model. Measuring 11mm x 15mm x 1mm, Transcend's Class 10 microSDHC memory cards are only one tenth the size of an SDHC card. Being Class 10, the diminutive SD 3.0 specification complaint microSDHC cards offer transfer speeds up to a maximum of 20 MB/s. That comes handy in smartphones, most of which now support HD recording and that can be a bandwidth hog.

The microSDHC card is also backward compatible with SDHC slots when you slot them inside provided SDHC card adapter. While variables like encoding standards, file formats, bit-rates and image quality settings will dictate the size of the media, The 16GB microSDHC cards can typically store up to 6552 pictures (based on 5 megapixel JPEG compression format), over 88 hours of standard quality video (MPEG-4 video at 384 Kbps), or 240 minutes of HD video (AVCHD at 9 Mbps), just so you get an idea.

All Transcend's SDHC and microSDHC cards are supplied with a limited lifetime warranty, which has never made sense to us, because in our heads limited lifetime warranty essentially means that the product is covered as long as it works. Doesn't that translate into no warranty at all? Jokes aside, lifetime warranty essentially means that the product is covered for the time the product exists in the market, although that is still subject to terms and conditions dictated in the warranty documentation, which ironically isn't available till you buy the product.

Best Android Phones: March 2011

Continuing with our monthly tradition of listing the best Android phones in the Indian market, here is the list for March. Unfortunately, this month has been rather disappointing as only a few new Android phones were launched. All the good ones we expected after the Mobile World Congress seem to be taking their own sweet time. We expect April to be little less disappointing in this respect.

Phones under Rs. 10,000
While our last month's suggestions still stand true, we would like to make a new addition and that is the LG Optimus One P500. Now technically, the phone is still above Rs. 10,000, but with a price of just Rs. 10,299, we would not want to miss out on recommending this phone based on technicality alone. The Optimus One is a genuinely good Android phone and if you have any qualms about LG, we would suggest you to keep them aside and go for this phone. It would require stretching your budget a little, especially if you were considering one of the Samsung Android phones in this range but we feel it is definitely worth it.

Phones under Rs. 15,000
No changes here. The Samsung S5830 Galaxy Ace is still the best Android phone under Rs. 15,000. Compared to the Optimus One, it has a bigger display, better camera and more powerful hardware, which justifies the extra you pay for it.

Another Android phone worth recommending in this price range is the Dell XCD35. It has a 3.5-inch, 480 x 800 resolution display that is highly rare for a phone in this price range. It runs on a 600MHz processor, which is not as slow as one might think, 3 megapixel camera with auto focus, 3G, W-Fi, A-GPS and runs on Android 2.2 Froyo. This phone costs Rs. 12,990.

Phones under Rs. 20,000 The newest entrant, the Samsung I9003 Galaxy S LCD wastes no time in winning the title of the best Android phone under Rs. 20,000. It has a huge 4.0-inch Super LCD that is almost as good as the Super AMOLED, which is saying a lot. Rest of the features remain identical, save for a weaker GPU, bigger battery and a slight increase in thickness. It is a powerful smartphone with excellent multimedia capabilities. In fact, that large display makes anything on it look good. For that price, it is an absolute steal.  

Phones under Rs. 25,000

Samsung has brought the I9000 Galaxy S back from the dead and has done so at a killer price. The phone is now a good four thousand rupees less and manages to just fall under the Rs. 25,000 price barrier. It was the best Android phone in the market before and although it may not be the best now, it still kicks far too much ass to be ignored. All the things that we mentioned were missing in the I9003, they are all here. While some may argue the point of spending Rs. 5,000 extra for those things but for some the Super AMOLED display itself would be a good enough reason and wouldn't really disagree with them. Good as Super LCD may be, Samsung's Super AMOLED is in a class of its own.

We would also like to recommend the HTC Desire Z here. It may not be as good as the Galaxy S but it has a full QWERTY keypad and that for some may be the deciding factor rather than CPU clock speeds and display technology. It also has HTC's Sense UI, which is possibly the best custom skin that you will find on any Android device. In fact, the integration and customization is so deep, it can hardly be called a skin anymore. Google itself could learn a thing or two from HTC's implementation.  

CoolerMaster Launches Cabinet CMP-350 in India

CoolerMaster has made its presence felt across our country by offering good quality cabinets at wallet friendly prices especially in the entry-level segments. Today, with the help of Abacus Peripherals Ltd., they have launched the CMP-350, a mid-tower chassis that comes with a power supply for an MRP of Rs. 2,950 and a two year warranty for the PSU and one for the chassis.

The CMP-350 isn't much of a looker from the outside but it's utilitarian for an entry-level cabinet. The outside sports an all black matt design with a small strip of blue LED which gives it a nice touch. The chassis supports motherboards up to ATX form factor and can accommodate up to six hard drives and four optical drives. For cooling, there's a rear 120mm fan that comes pre-installed and there's provision for a front 120mm fan and a side 80mm fan. There are additional ventilation holes in the bottom for cool air for the graphics card. The CMP-350 will also ship with a power supply from 300W to 500W depending on the SKU. There's no mention on what power supply is being used or what kind of efficiency is expected but we guess it would be from their 'Extreme Series' line-up. The pricing is not bad for the overall bundle and that's just the MRP so expect the street price to be still lower. Now there's certainly no excuse to buy a non-branded cabinet or PSU even if it is just for basic computing.

Google finally introduces its social feature +1

Google has finally announced its previously rumored social feature called +1 that will show up in search results to let users recommend links and stories.

The new feature can be used to bring content from Google News and other sources into a real-time personalized news feed. Google says by clicking +1 on a webpage or ad you find useful, these +1's will then start appearing in Google's search results.
Google explained that these recommendations will come from people you know, linking the feature to the long-described layered approach Google is taking with social. If you do not have a significant amount of Google contacts, you can see "how many people across the web have +1'd" something.

Explaining the new feature in its blog, the company said it will use many signals to identify the most useful recommendations, including things like the people you are already connected to through Google.

Google said it will soon incorporate other signals, such as your connections on sites like Twitter, to ensure your recommendations are as relevant as possible. You can also get to know who you're connected to and how by visiting the "Social Circle and Content" section of the Google Dashboard.

Yahoo! to launch new search engine in India this year

Leading internet company Yahoo! is all set to unveil its latest search offering 'Search Direct' in India by the second half of this calendar, said a top official of Yahoo! here today.

Prabhakar Raghavan , Yahoo!'s chief scientist, senior vice-president and head (Yahoo! Labs) said the Nasdaq-listed digital media company has already rolled out the public beta version of Search Direct in the U.S. last week.

"The new search engine predicts search results as fast as a person types - character by character, and presents those results dynamically, generating a fast, simple search experience that goes beyond mere blue links," Raghavan told media persons here.

He said it (Search Direct) follows a theme ... a theme that the company has been e pursuing ever since they forged a search alliance with Microsoft.

"The idea is to provide the user not with links but with answers. We expect Search Direct, a combination of completing what you were trying to type and fulfill your vertical-search intents including entertainment and shopping, which we launching in the US recently. We will be doing that in India in a few months from now," he said.

Yahoo!, which currently employs around 2,000 professional at its Bangalore Lab has a massive reach of 30 million unique users per month in India and reaches to 74 percent of the Indian Internet audience.

According to Raghavan, the company has been growing in double-digit numbers in India in terms of employees and was looking at continuing that growth this year as well.

He said over the last four years, the Bangalore centre has yielded a 50 percent average year-on-year increase in idea submissions for patent consideration.

Mozilla launches Firefox 4 on Android

A week after it launched Firefox 4 for the desktop, Mozilla today shipped the final version of Firefox 4 for Android.

But some users quickly complained about slow performance and the browser's lack of Flash support.

Mozilla first pitched Firefox 4 to users last August, when it issued an alpha build of what it called "Fennec." Later, Mozilla renamed the program to keep it in sync with its better-known desktop browser.

Today, Mozilla touted Firefox 4's new streamlined interface, faster performance and its integrated Sync feature, which lets users running the browser keep bookmarks, passwords and open tabs synchronized across multiple desktop computers and mobile devices.

According to Mozilla, Firefox 4 is three times faster than the native Android browser, in part because of the former's new JaegerMonkey JavaScript engine, the same engine that drives JavaScript on the desktop editions of Firefox 4.

Some people begged to differ.

"They say it's faster than the stock browser....but it takes twice as long to open," said a user identified as "Andy" in a Tuesday review on the Android Market, Google's official app store.

"Has to be the slowest browser in the history of Android," reported "Oliver" in another review.

Firefox 4 doesn't currently support Flash, but instead relies on HTML5, CSS and other Web standards to render video and animated content.

Users also bashed the browser for the Flash omission. "No Flash support. Uninstalled," said "Rabbi Eli."

The browser offers a multi-tab interface, uses the same "Awesome bar" found on the desktop version that automatically retrieves URLs viewed earlier when a partial address or phrase is typed in, and can be customized with a raft of add-ons, another long-time Firefox feature.

Firefox 4 doesn't work on iOS devices like the iPhone or iPad, as Apple has made it clear it will not approve the browser for the App Store. The best that Mozilla offers for iOS is an app dubbed "Firefox Home" that synchronizes bookmarks, browsing history and open tabs in the iPhone's browser with other copies of Firefox 4.

Unlike last week, when Mozilla touted Firefox 4 downloads for Windows, Mac and Linux, the company has not posted a download scoreboard to track the number of copies Android users grabbed.

Firefox 4 is a free 14MB download from the Android Market, and requires Android 2.0 or later.

The First Plastic Computer Processor

Two recent developments—a plastic processor and printed memory—show that computing doesn't have to rely on inflexible silicon.

Silicon may underpin the computers that surround us, but the rigid inflexibility of the semiconductor means it cannot reach everywhere. The first computer processor and memory chips made out of plastic semiconductors suggest that, someday, nowhere will be out of bounds for computer power.

Researchers in Europe used 4,000 plastic, or organic, transistors to create the plastic microprocessor, which measures roughly two centimeters square and is built on top of flexible plastic foil. “Compared to using silicon, this has the advantage of lower price and that it can be flexible,” says Jan Genoe at the IMEC nanotechnology center in Leuven, Belgium. Genoe and IMEC colleagues worked with researchers at the TNO research organization and display company Polymer Vision, both in the Netherlands.
The processor can so far run only one simple program of 16 instructions. The commands are hardcoded into a second foil etched with plastic circuits that can be connected to the processor to “load” the program. This allows the processor to calculate a running average of an incoming signal, something that a chip involved in processing the signal from a sensor might do, says Genoe. The chip runs at a speed of six hertz-on the order of a million times slower than a modern desktop machine-and can only process information in eight-bit chunks at most, compared to 128 bits for modern computer processors.

HCL Info launches tablet PC with local content

HCL Infosystems Ltd said on Tuesday it has launched tablet personal computers "with localised content," with Google's Android operating system.
The HCL ME Tablet range will be priced between Rs 14,990 and Rs 32,990, the company said in a statement

Mercury unveils Perfect View LED TFT monitor in India

Kobian, one the leading manufacturer of IT components & peripherals, launched a new series of Mercury Perfect View LED TFT monitors in the Indian market. The new Perfect View 2060 TWG monitors are a collection of elegant features and high technology, which provides the ultimate visual delight. The slim design of TFT monitor series is said to offer life-like visuals on 20” (508 mm) screen with mega dynamic contrast ratio of 1000000:1 in scenes while watching movies and video content. It is equipped with in-built speakers to give you crystal clear sound and quality multi-media support.
Apart from that the Perfect View, 2060 TWG monitor has got a fabulous design and hosts excellent features like super fast 2 millisecond response time, mega contrast, easy to use control features which makes it a premium monitor line for customers. LED monitors are known for its eco-friendly features which save almost 40 percent energy than other monitors and gives a soothing experience to your eyes while long working hours
According to Sushmita Das, Country Head, Kobian, “We have been serving IT industry more than two decades and we have been trying to bring quality products to our valuable customers. The series of Perfect View monitors will prove to become a treat for the TFT monitor lovers as the monitors are carefully designed keeping in consideration all their requirements. In the near future we will be launching yet another series of TFT monitors with even more attractive features.”

Today various brands are available in the market in TFT monitor segment. Earlier this segment was under the few known brands but today you can get low budget TFT monitors with superior quality and Kobians new product is a bright example of that. It will equip the customers with the freedom to choose their desired product at the pocket-friendly costs. 

INTEX gives new high to its projector phones series V.SHOW

Spearheading the latest in mobile technology, this new model also has a 3.5 mm jack external converter cable to connect it to speakers.

Pocket-Projectors aka Mobile Phones with in-built Projectors are certainly in vogue! Offering ‘anytime and anywhere entertainment’, they are now set to evolve into an ideal ‘mobile projection tool’ with facilities of projecting office files.

Inspired by the thought and building on the success of the launch of INTEX V.SHOW (India’s first mobile phone with in-built projector), INTEX presents the second variant in its projection phone line-up- INTEX V.SHOW Mini Theatre (IN 8809). Feted as one of the most affordable phones in its genre , the phone is a Dual SIM (GSM +GSM) handset with an in-built projector delivering a brilliant display of not only films, videos, photographs, web portals but also Office Files – Power Point, Excel, Text and PDF.  

Spearheading the latest in mobile technology, this new model also has a 3.5 mm jack external converter cable to connect it to speakers. The whole arrangement makes a perfect compact home-theater solution with phone’ tagged at a street price of INR 6300 only! Topping the list of other eminent features is video playability in multiple formats, (3GP/MP4/AVI up to 25FPS), video recording (AVI up to 10FPS), audio player (MP3, AMR or WAVE) and an INTEX ZONE comprising of Facebook, Google, Mobile Tracker, Auto Call Record, Answering Machine and Games.

According to Mr. Rajendra Gupta, GM-Sales-Telecom, "INTEX V.SHOW Mini Theatre IN 8809 – our second offering in the market with in-built projector- presents an ideal combination of entertainment and utility. Catering to a wider range of audience, the phone is capable and highly affordable to strike a chord with the masses for their communication, entertainment, training and information sharing needs.”

The GPRS and WAP enabled phone also has a FM radio and Bluetooth with A2DP facility. An internal memory of 87 MB expandable to 16GB ensures non-stop entertainment, even when one does not have access to the luxury of home. 

Samsung Galaxy Tablet Not Thinner Than iPad 2

Samsung took a big shot at Apple at CTIA this week, boasting that its 10-inch Galaxy Tab Android tablet is thinner and lighter than the iPad 2. Our photos say otherwise. Regardless, the tablet competition just got hotter.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs set the bar on March 2, when he unveiled the stunningly thin (8.8 mm) iPad 2. Not to be outdone, Samsung re-crafted its Galaxy Tab 10.1, which it had just launched a month earlier at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Samsung's original 10-inch Android tablet, with its grippable frame, is now only 8.6 mm thin. Or so says Samsung.

The latest one-upmanship centers on size. While I don't care whether the iPad 2 or the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a couple of sheets of paper thinner than the other, that Samsung would go through such a redesign so quickly shows what's at stake here. Samsung's spokesman said the company doesn't enter a market where it doesn't intend to be No. 1. In response to the pictures directly below (the iPad 2 is the device on the left), there was really no official Samsung response other than to say that the specifications are 8.6 mm. He was at a loss for words. I'll bring my calipers on June 8; meantime, these pictures will have to suffice, at least for those who care about these quibbles.


Core hardware is another tablet battleground, though raw compute and graphics performance may matter most to gamers, and possibly to those obsessed with things like 3D content. Nearly every tablet comes with dual-core processors.An exception is the just announced HTC EVO View, which has only a single core, even though HTC also introduced a phone with dual-core processors. (That's the sound of me scratching my head.) Apple uses, ironically, Samsung processors in its iPad 2; Samsung uses the NVidia Tegra 2. The new HTC tablet runs on Qualcomm's Snapdragon. Motorola also uses the Tegra 2, as does LG's G-Slate. (LG is also using TI's OMAP 4 dual core in its Optimus 3D, a full 3D, stereoscopic display phone--no glasses needed.)
All of the chip companies make their own performance boasts. The Sprint-HTC phone and tablet announcement this week featured talk of how Qualcomm's Snapdragon uses asynchronous scaling, meaning as processor needs grow, only one CPU has to kick into action until the other one is needed, extending battery life and reducing heat dissipation, according to one Qualcomm executive I talked to.
NVidia told me that Qualcomm's claims are specious. Because the system caches must be synchronized to ensure data coherency, one fast-moving CPU could have to wait for the caches to synchronize. Dizzy yet? NVidia says it boosts performance while preserving battery life by using DVFS -- dynamic voltage frequency scaling. Dizzy now?

Kingston microSDHC Class 10 Cards Now Available in India

Kingston has announced at the launch of 4GB and 8GB Class 10 microSDHC card in India. This card is addition to recently released 16GB Class 10 card. The company has also announced that it’ll add 32GB microSDHC card soon to its product portfolio. This Kingston microSDHC card was announced at CTIA Wireless 2011.

“Kingston’s Class 10 microSDHC cards are compatible with many of the latest mobile phones including Android™ smartphones and BlackBerry® devices, hi-def cameras and the increasingly popular tablet PCs,” says Mike Kuppinger, Flash card business manager, Kingston. “The Class 10 speed provides faster data transfer rates and the various capacities help satisfy storage needs for users with both light and heavy memory needs.”

The Kingston Class 10 microSD cards delivers 10MB/s data transfer speeds, and soon will be available in 32GB storage capacity. Kingston also offering SD adapter and a USB Card reader (Purchase separately), The SD cards helps users to capture images or videos in digital camera and card reader allow users to transfer data to PC at faster speeds. Kingston shipping the microSDHC card in a Class 4 specification currently as both standalone and part of the mobility in upto 32GB storage capacities. The cardds are fully compatible with all microSDHC host devices and works on FAT32 format. These cards operates at -13°F to 185°F (-25°C to 85°C temperatures and while the Storage Temperatures are -40°F to 185° (-40°C to 85°C). The card weighs 2.7g and backed by a lifetime warranty. Kingston Class 10 microSD cards will by the end of March.

GIGABYTE Announces 3TB+ Unlock Utility

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co., Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards and computing hardware solutions today officially announced the availability of the 3TB+ Unlock Utility that allows GIGABYTE motherboards without Hybrid EFI Technology to recognize and use unallocated space on new 3TB and larger hard disc drives (HDDs).

The utility is freely available from the utilities page of the official GIGABYTE website: http://www.gigabyte.com/support-downloads/Utility.aspx.

GIGABYTE 3TB+ Unlock optimizes HDD storage space by allowing the user to create a virtual drive with space that exceeds 2048GB, the maximum amount of storage recognized by 32bit versions of operating systems such as Windows XP. The virtual drives are limited to 2048GB, and the user can create up to 128 partitions, as long as there is additional unallocated space on the HDD. 3TB+ Unlock supports both GPT (GUID Partition Table) and MBR (Master Boot Record) partition styles, however with MBR the number of partitions are limited to 8.

3TB+ Unlock currently supports new high-end motherboard models based on the Intel® X58, Intel® 6 series and AMD 8 series chipsets, and is in the process of being ported to older chipset models so that it will support all motherboards that are currently shipping.

YouTube Becomes 2nd Largest Search Engine

Soon www could stand for world wide watching. Unknown to most, YouTube—the six-year-old video-sharing website—has become the second-largest search engine in the world after Google. It gets two billion views a day, up 50% since 2009.
A startup set up by three PayPal employees in 2005, YouTube was bought by Google in 2006 for $1.65 billion. Now it is gearing up to compete with TV.
"We believe that the distinction between internet and TV viewing will fast disappear as on-demand video takes centre stage," says Gautam Anand, director, Google (Asia-Pacific Japan). YouTube is adding new streams of content and figuring new ways to make money. In the US it has signed up with MGM and CBS to let them upload films and TV serials with advertisements. Last year, it launched an online film rental service in the US. But online video services like Netflix, Hulu—and even Facebook—present formidable competition.

Simmtronics First One To Launch H-61 Motherboard Globally

Simmtronics Semiconductors Ltd. has become the first company to launch the latest Intel Chipset based H61 motherboards SIMM- INT H61 (V1) globally . This Motherboard is manufactured at Simmtronics Roorkee Plant in India which is a state of the art manufacturing facility.
The motherboard uses all high quality components and is tested indepth at Simmtronics quality standards.

Salient Features:The Motherboard INT H61 (V1) is based on Intel LGA1155 CPU i3/i5/i7 CPU Series, consisting of Intel H61 Chipset , with memory support of DDR3 memory expandable up to 8 Gb . This motherboard is having 6 Channel Audio features .
Price & Availability: SIMM-INT H61 (V1) is available across the world through company 11 offices and through its authorized channel partners. Company provides after sales support through its authorized service providers across the world. It is available globally at a price of $ 58. The SIMM –INT H61 comes with 3 yrs Global Warranty .

MIT develops foldable car for busy cities

BANGALORE, INDIA: Kent Larson is quite confident that the new foldable CityCar that he and his team developed at the MIT Media Lab would become a hit one day.

Larson, the principal research scientist and director at Changing Places Research Group, MIT Department of Architecture, developed the design based on the concept of changing the form of a vehicle in accordance with the
situation. It means the car can compress its shape during peak hours without disturbing the passengers inside.

The CityCar, a foldable, electric, sharable, two-passenger vehicle meant for crowded cities, runs on wheel robots, a fully modular in-wheel electric motors, which integrate drive motors, suspension, braking, and steering inside the hub-space of the wheel.

“This drive-by-wire system requires only data, power, and mechanical connection to the chassis. With over 80 degrees of steering freedom, wheel robots enable a zero-turn radius. They also enable the CityCar to fold by eliminating the gasoline-powered engine and drive-train,” he says

Amazon may soon launch film, music locker services

Amazon has spoken with some of the major record companies and Hollywood film studios about creating a digital locker service for their film and music libraries and could announce the plans as early as next week, sources told CNET.

Sources from both the film and music industries said Amazon is working on creating a cloud locker service that would enable users to store their existing music, film, and book collections, even content not purchased at Amazon, on the company's servers.
The online merchant has yet to obtain all the necessary licenses, but Amazon managers told counterparts at the studios and labels that it could announce the service before all the negotiations are complete, the sources said.
An Amazon spokesperson wasn't immediately available for comment.
Amazon is in a hurry to win the race to the cloud, according to the sources. It has been widely reported that both Apple and Google are busy preparing their own media locker services.

Tablet PCs are enabling cloud based solutions

Small and mid-sized businesses (firms with less than 999 employees) continue to strive to regain their place in a troubled economy. Recent AMI research indicates that SMBs who have embraced mobility generated 40 percent higher revenue growth over the last 12 months compared to those who did not. As the mobile workforce trend continues, mobile devices, including tablet PCs, will play an integral part in supporting these employees.

Until recently, smartphones and notebooks have been the primary tools to process information wirelessly. Tablets are quickly stepping in as a complementary and capable device. But worldwide SMB tablet penetration remains low, about 3 percent, and still has a long way to go before becoming a mainstream IT asset.

"SMB tablet adoption has been highly fragmented across industries," says Michael McDonald, Sr. Associate of Worldwide SMB Sizing for AMI-Partners. "We see the strongest interest in professional services, healthcare, hospitality, and the media businesses. The early adopters realize the intrinsic value in having a highly mobile device that enables users to immediately access data, process information, and respond accordingly. Firms that have embraced tablets are also increasingly moving additional resources to the Cloud, increasing the utility of the tablet."

A recent AMI study has shown that firms with tablets use SaaS applications 20 percent more compared to those without. As a content consumption device the use of productivity suites and document collaboration tools is especially high in tablet firms. Hosted document collaboration usage amongst tablet users is more than double that of non-tablet SMBs, while hosted productivity suite use is nearly 50 percent higher. This steady move and reliance on Cloud infrastructure and applications have put pressure on IT networking resources, namely bandwidth. The increased load on networks has led, in part, to tablet firms increasing their bandwidth speeds, which are now over 10 percent higher than firms without tablets.

"SMB adoption is expected to accelerate as broadband speeds increase and heightened competition drives prices down. We expect average prices to drop nearly 50 percent by 2013," says McDonald. "The tablet PC has almost limitless potential in the SMB space where the device can entrench itself as a valuable resource essential to the on-the-go businessman. The ability of manufacturers, software providers and service providers to adapt to the changing demands of business users will be critical to future success."

Android set to dominate as smartphone market doubles by 2016

Android will take up 38% of the global smartphone market by 2016 as the industry doubles in size, according to an analyst report.

The latest report by researcher Ovum predicts smartphones running on Google's Android operating system (OS) will become the dominant platform within five years, accounting for 38% of the market - 21% more than Apple.

"The success of the Android platform is being driven by the sheer number of hardware vendors supporting it at both the high and low ends of the market," said Adam Leach, principal analyst at Ovum.

Ovum's forecast also suggests Microsoft's Windows Phone will overtake Blackberry, with 17.2% and 16.5% of market share respectively.

Leach believes the partnership between Nokia and Microsoft has "redrawn the smartphone market", resulting in a significant reduction in shipments of Symbian-based handsets.

Leach said, "For Microsoft, the deal provides a committed handset partner that has the potential to make Windows Phone a mainstream smartphone platform. The risk to Microsoft is that other handset makers may choose not to compete with Nokia and may turn their backs on Windows Phone."

Leach adds that a new platform, such as Samsung's Bada, HP's WebOS or Nokia's MeeGo could become a dominant platform by 2016.

The World's 10 Richest Men

1. Carlos Slim Helu (& family) - Mexico

Education: BA/BS, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.
Fortune: $ 74 billion (up $20.5 billion)
Recent Headlines: Merged his fixed-line telecom company into America Movil, Latin America's largest wireless carrier; Opened a new museum which houses his vast art collection, named after his wife Soumaya.

2. William (Bill Gates) – United States

Education: Dropout from Harvard University.
Fortune: $ 56 billion (up $3 billion)
Recent Headlines: Donated $30 billion of his wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which is working tirelessly towards eradication of tuberculosis and polio and poverty/hunger; Campaigning for "a higher sense of urgency" in AIDS vaccine development and also pushing for improved technology tools to rate teacher performance.

3. Warren Buffett – United States

Education: MS, Columbia University; BA/BS, University of Nebraska Lincoln.
Fortune: $50 billion (up $3 billion)
Recent Headlines: Investment in Chinese electric car startup BYD Co.; proposed investments in India; Partnered with Bill Gates to convince America's richest to pledge half their fortunes to charity.

4. Bernard Arnault – France

Education: BA/BS, Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne.
Fortune: $41 billion (up $13.5 billion)
Recent Headlines: Spectacular performance of his luxury goods group LVMH; Acquisition by the Luis Vuitton group of stake in Hermes and Bulgari; Firing of Christian Dior designer John Galliano over his anti-Semitic remarks.

5. Larry Ellison – United States

Education: Dropout, University of Chicago and University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.
Fortune: $39.5 billion (up 11.5 billion)
Recent Headlines: Win in the copyright infringement court battle against German software rival SAP worth $1.3 billion; Role in San Francisco’s successful bid to host the America's Cup regatta in 2013 (where Ellison is currently the defending champion); Intends to donate 95% of his wealth to charity.

6. Lakshmi Mittal - India

Education: BA/BS, St Xavier's College Calcutta, India.
Fortune: $31.1 billion (up $2.4 billion)
Recent Headlines: Spectacular rise in net profits at his steel conglomeration Arcelor Mittal; Spin off of its stainless steel unit; acquisition of Canadian miner Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation; Funding of a 377-foot sculpture called ArcelorMittal Orbit in London's Olympic Park for the 2012 Olympics; Plans to build a 30 million pound eco-mansion on the outskirts of London which designers claim will have zero carbon footprint.

7. Amancio Ortega - Spain

Education: Not Known; son of a railway worker, he is said to have started his career as a gofer in a shirt store.
Fortune: $31 billion (up $6 billion)
Recent Headlines: Announced his retirement as chairman of Inditex, the $15.8 billion (sales) fashion firm in January; Controversy over Inditex copying bloggers’ fashion designs from the Internet.

8. Eike Batista - Brazil

Education: Dropout, RWTH Aachen University.
Fortune: $30 billion (up $3 billion)
Recent Headlines: Opened office in New York and expressed plans of listing some of his companies in the London Stock exchange; Acquisition of Canadian gold outfit Ventana; Rare setback through the not-so-great reception to the IPO of his ship-building venture.

9. Mukesh Ambani - India

Education: Dropout, Stanford University; BA/BS, University of Bombay.
Fortune: $27 billion (down $2 billion)
Recent Headlines: Recent partnership with BP worth $7.2 billion, which is being touted as the biggest foreign investment in India and will see a marketing joint venture; $3.3-billion investment in three American energy firms; much-hyped inauguration of a 27-story personal mansion in the heart of Mumbai.

10. Christy Walton (& family) – United State

Education: Not Known; widow of the son of Walmart founder Sam Walton, most of her wealth is from inherited stakes in the retail giant.
Fortune: $26.5 billion (up $4 billion)
Recent Headlines: Engagement with various charities and donations, placing her among the world’s biggest woman philanthropists.

Now, your SIM card could be your ID

Ever imagined that your phone can be your identification proof? If reports are to be believed then researchers are developing an application that can let you to show your SIM card as your identity proof. The new application will integrate the electronic identification data into a mobile phone SIM card, so that your phone becomes your identification.

MWC witnessed the prototype of this new research that facilitates secure identification of the user by his eID data stored in the SIM card. According to the reports, developers displayed the working of the card. SIM functions in a rather simple way: the system obtains the personal information and allows identification and authorization of the eID stored in the SIM card inserted in the terminal. For this system to work, the mandatory requisites are an Electronic ID, a PC with a reader for the same purpose, and an Internet connection.

SIMs in our mobile devices is like mini computers that store information and implement applications. The system allows the access of Web services through authentication with the eID making it more safe and secure.

Yahoo Introduces Messenger 11 Beta

Yahoo! has released the new Beta version of the of Yahoo Messenger 11. Yahoo Messenger 11 Beta comes the social game developer’s Mafia Wars and FishVille.

You can play some of the most popular social games with your friends, starting with offerings from Zynga, Elex, and OMGPOP. Games include:

• Fishville and Mafia Wars from Zynga – Coming soon
• Balloono, Pool, Draw My Thing from OMGPOP
• Happy Harvest & Happy Manor from Elex

Yahoo Messenger 11 Beta is Facebook friendly, you can now chat with your Facebook friends right from your Yahoo Messenger.
You can share and update your status, post comments and keep up with your conversations across Facebook and Yahoo! your Messenger.

Yahoo Messenger 11 Beta Features

• Enjoy your chats on the go through your iPhone, Android or any Internet enabled phone.
• Make free video calls, and share photos and videos between PC, iPhone, and now Android.
• Easily find or invite friends from other services to come chat with you
• Now you can chat with high quality full-screen video.
• Make free PC-to-PC calls and PC-to-phone calls for as low as 1¢ a minute (plus free voicemail!)
• Send text messages (SMS) to friends’ mobile phones for free*
• Instant message with one friend, or conference in a bunch
• Show your style with emoticons, Avatars, audibles and IMVironments
• Use the built-in media player to watch web videos and view photos with friends

Yahoo Messenger 11 Beta is available for Download.

Mass Email Marketing Tips

Mass email marketing is a very common method used by website owners all over the world to increase their traffic and their number of customers. However, there are techniques that work and techniques that do not in the mass email marketing domain. Luckily, there are people who know these working techniques and that have a great edge over their competitors.

If you want to increase your income potential, mass email marketing is something you should take into consideration. However, there are a few tips you should keep in mind when it comes to mass email marketing. These tips are presented below in this article in order to help you in the battle with your competitors.
One of the most important things you should know is that mass email campaigns usually do not work from the first email. This is a result of some studies conducted and you should consider it.
Therefore, you will need to send at least 7 messages to the potential customer in order to see if you can convert him or not. You can change the subject, the lines and just about everything when it comes to mass email campaigns. Therefore, you should not worry if you initial emails o not get any responses.
Another important tip in the domain of mass email campaigns is to make sure that on your first emails you should definitely offer something for free or at least a discount if you want to have the receiver’s attention in the first place. From then on you can elaborate your emails and send them the offers. If you want your mass email campaign to be effective, it is very important t offer free things or great discounts in your first ever sent email.
You will have to be original in your emails. This is a key factor that can help you become successful on the market. This is because your competitors are probably sending mass emails too and the only way you can stand up from the crowd is through being original so that people remember you. Discounts and freebies are not original things because people are already aware of their existence.
The content of your emails is very important. Even if many people believe the persistence is the key to attracting new customers, you should know that the email message is the one responsible for that. Therefore, you should take your time and create great good email messages before sending them.

MTS Introduces New Scheme 1/2 Paisa Per Second

MTS has announced a new offer for the customers of Maharashtra & Goa with which they can get 1/2 Paisa Per Second for “LIFETIME’ on all local calls.

The MTS offer includes providing unconditional 1/2  paisa per second tariff plan for lifetime on all local calls along with Rs. 200 Talk Time and an MTS Handset for just Rs. 799.

How to Increase AdSense Income

If you have a few websites and you use AdSense for monetizing them, you should know that there are a few ways you can increase your earnings with no difficulty. In this article you will find the best of them which can help you earn more money with your AdSense monetized websites.

First of all, you probably know that the clicks are the ones that make you money. Therefore, you will need to increase the number of clicks for making more money. You can either increase your number of websites or you can improve your click through rate for your existent ones.
One of the oldest tricks for increasing AdSense profits through click through rate is blending the ads.
The relevancy of the ads is another important factor that can help you make more money with AdSense. This is vital for getting better click through rates. If your website is on a niche the ads should be on the same niche or a close one in order to get more clickers. One way of making sure that the ads are relevant to your website is by making sure that one page revolves around one topic instead of many unrelated ones.
The location of the ads can influence your click through rate. This is why you should make sure that they are best located and that they benefit from high visibility. You should blend the ads throughout the content and make sure that they are not concentrated at the bottom part of your pages. It is a known fact that visitors usually do not click on bottom placed ads.
If you want to make money with Google AdSense you should know a few things that can maximize your profits. You will not have to pay money for these changes and they will have their effect soon after you use them. If you want to make sure that the ads are visible you should check the AdSense tracked performances.
In conclusion, if you will follow the tips above, chances are you will make more money with your Google AdSense monetized websites.

“Dream Girls” to be Kingston’s Brand Representative for 2011

Kingston launches special edition “Dream Girls” products.
Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, recently announced that “Dream Girls” will be Kingston’s brand representative in the APAC region for 2011. Partnering with Kingston, Dorian International Entertainment Corporation presents “Dream Girls,” the new girl group in the limelight. The three dream girls, Tia Li, Puff Kuo and Emily Song, have been worked hard for realizing their dreams since childhood. How they have done and achieved shows Kingston’s spirit, such as being determined to pursue dreams and never giving up. Kingston considers Dream Girls the best brand spokesperson for 2011 to show the “Only Kingston Can” corporate spirit. A series of “Dream Girls” special edition products will be launched in the 2nd quarter of 2011. It is expected to inspire more dream holders to persist in going after their dreams as well as making their dreams come true!
Listed by Fortune Magazine as “100 Best Companies to Work For” for five consecutive years, Kingston was founded by two dreamers, John Tu and David Sun. They persisted in their beliefs even during hard times which eventually led the enterprise to become the world’s largest independent memory module manufacturer.
“Dream Girls” special edition products include “Dream Girls” Limited-Edition Album Version USB Flash drives, customized SD cards, USB drives, memory cards, and etc. It’s time to go after your dreams with Kingston and Dream Girls now!

 

D-Link India Introduces a Multi-Functional Router

D-Link DIR-632 is truly a multi-functional router as it acts as a Router + 8Port Switch + 11N Wireless AP + Print Server. This high-speed router is based on Wireless

D-Link DIR-632 is truly a multi-functional router as it acts as a Router + 8Port Switch + 11N Wireless AP + Print Server. This  high-speed router is based on Wireless N technology that gives an option of extended coverage and works with previous-generation wireless devices. Just connect the DIR-632 to cable or DSL modem to share broadband Internet connection with multiple computers, game consoles, or media players. Thus making it an ideal device for Cyber café, SOHO and SMB usage
With Shareport™ Technology, D-Link DIR-632 can connect a USB printer or multifunction-printer (MFP) and share it with computers on the network. It can also share a USB storage device among multiple computers for access to files such as video, music, photos and documents. Plus with the latest wireless security features, it prevents unauthorized access, be it from over a Wi-Fi network or from the Internet. D-Link DIR-632 supports WPA/WPA2 standards to ensure data security over Wi-Fi. Additionally it also supports dual active firewalls (SPI and NAT) to prevent possible attacks from across the Internet.

Google Music To Launch Soon

Announced at the launch of FroYo, Google Music is still to become a reality. However, new reports leaking out from Silicon Valley suggest that the apparent 'dog-fooding' exercises are already underway and the service may launch very soon.
 Google Music, a cloud-based music streaming service that would also allow you to buy and store your music with the ability to stream your music from any device, would soon be available for public download.
This was discovered after CNET and Gizmodo reported that Google has started internal testing, or in Silicon Valley terms, 'dog-fooding' exercises, to test the features of the service. One of the developers at XDA also wrote that he discovered the music service when he was successful in installing Honeycomb on his Android device.
According to other sources, negotiations with top four music labels and other publishers are ongoing. It is speculated that Apple too would upgrade its popular music distribution service iTunes to a cloud-based service, especially after its acquisition of Lala, a cloud-based music service that Apple acquired and shut down.

Google adds Video Previews to it’s search result

Google’s instant previews for video sites weren’t very useful because most video sites use Flash and the software that generates thumbnails can’t handle Flash. That’s probably one of the reasons why Google replaced the standard screenshots with short clips from the videos. By default, the sound is muted, but you can change this setting. The feature is also available at Google Video next to some search results.
“When it comes to videos, people want to spend less time searching and more time watching. That’s why we added an enhancement to Instant Previews—the ability to preview videos. Click once on the magnifying glass next to the title of any video search result in universal or video mode. For some videos, you’ll now be able to play through a set of four short segments from the video to see if it’s what you’re looking for (video providers have to opt to make the previews available, so you won’t find it for every video yet),”

Baidu apologises to writers in copyright dispute

Chinese search engine giant Baidu apologised on Saturday to writers who accused it of violating their copyright and promised to delete infringing items within the next three days.

"We will now make a concerted effort and devote considerable technological and manpower resources towards getting rid of any infringing content in the next three days," Baidu spokesman Kaiser Kuo told AFP.
"We apologise to any authors or publishers whose feelings may have been hurt by the presence of infringing content on Baidu."
The dispute began last week when more than 40 writers including top-selling author Han Han signed a letter blasting Baidu for providing their works as free downloads on its online library Baidu Wenku without their permission.
State media reported on Friday that negotiations between the Internet giant and Chinese writers to resolve the dispute had broken down, and that the company now faced potential court action.
Baidu Wenku was launched in 2009 and allows users to read, share or download books for free. Some books also can be purchased at a large discount from the cover price.
All documents are uploaded by Internet users and as of November Baidu Wenku had stockpiled more than 10 million files and books, accounting for 70 percent of China's online file-sharing market, according to the company's figures.
Kuo had previously defended Baidu Wenku, saying the firm had already deleted "tens of thousands of infringing items" uploaded by web users.
He denied claims that the firm had made money from Baidu Wenku, but he added the firm intended to profit from the service in the future and share the proceeds out.
Baidu has long been criticised for flouting intellectual property rights. Its MP3 search service, which provides links to free but often pirated music downloads, has drawn particular fire from the recording industry.
The US Trade Representative's office last month named Baidu as one of the world's top marketplaces for pirated and counterfeit goods.

Facebook launches question-and-answer feature

Last July, after months of rumors and leaked screenshots, Facebook launched a Q&A product called Questions. At the time, I said it had the potential to be “massive”: with 500 million (now 600 million) users, the site had the chance to take on Q&A sites like Yahoo Answers, which can be a huge source of traffic. And it was also directly taking on Quora, the buzzed-about startup that has a contentious relationship with Facebook, in part because it was founded by former Facebook CTO Adam D’Angelo and engineer/manager Charlie Cheever.
But Questions never took off. Facebook has limited access to the product to a small percentage of users, and over the last few months we’ve gotten several tips that the product wasn’t really getting traction. Today comes news that seems to confirm those rumors: Facebook has just announced a revamped version of Questions that has very little in common with the original product. And it’s no longer any threat to Quora.
The new version of Questions is less ambitious — you’re no longer directing questions to the entire Facebook community. Instead, it’s much more in line with Facebook’s ‘social’ bread and butter: you ask a question, it shows up as a structured poll in your friends’ News Feeds, and they can vote on the various answer choices or add a new one of their own. In fact, my first reaction to the product was that it might be more appropriate to call it ‘Facebook Polls’.
So, as an example, I might ask my friends what their favorite restaurant in San Francisco is. I might pre-populate it with choices like “In-N-Out Burger” and “Tony’s Pizza” — which my friends could vote on — but if someone wanted to add a recommendation that wasn’t already listed they could. Whenever one of my friends votes in one of these questions, my question then shows up in the News Feeds of their friends. In other words, the questions you ask can go viral. The responses from your friends will always be highlighted (you’ll see their faces as small thumbnails) but if you ask a question that resonates with a lot of people, you could wind up with plenty of responses from strangers, too.
Unlike the old version of Questions, you can no longer browse by Topic — the only questions you’ll see are the ones that pop up organically in your News Feed (you can also see questions that have been asked by friends, and only friends, in a Dashboard). This is a big change, and it means that Facebook Questions is no longer setting out to become a vast database of knowledge the way Quora is. It just wants to make it easier to get recommendations from your friends.
Product Manager Adrian Graham says that the change reflects the way people were using the original version of Questions. Oftentimes people would ask things that they were mostly directly toward friends (What movie should I watch?, What’s your favorite restaurant?, and so on). But then strangers would respond with lengthy answers, which would intimidate the user’s friends to the point that they might not respond at all. The new version looks to lower this friction by emphasizing polls.
Facebook seems more confident this will take off with users. Unlike the old version of Questions, which never saw a broad rollout, Facebook will be more aggressively deploying this. It’s also letting anyone who wants immediate access opt-in now by going to Facebook.com/questions.