Microsoft Windows 8 coming on October 26

Microsoft announced that its next-generation operating system tailored for a world shifting from personal computers to smartphones and tablets will be available on October 26. 

Windows unit boss Steven Sinofsky revealed theWindows 8 debut date at a sales meeting, Microsoft communications manager Brandon LeBlanc said in a blog post yesterday. 

Windows 8 will be available in 109 languages across 231 markets worldwide, according to LeBlanc. 

Microsoft has promised to make the new operating system available in August for computer, tablet or smartphone makers to build into hardware. It "is simply the biggest deal for this company in at least 17 years," Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer said last week, referring to the time since the launch of the game-changing Windows 95 operating system. 

"It's the glue; it's the foundation of everything Microsoft is built on." 

Microsoft reported that it has sold more than 630 million licenses of Windows 7, and that the software powers the majority of business desktop computers. 

Windows 7 went public in October 2009. The latest version of the operating system that is the norm for personal computers will also be used on many smartphones and tablet computers, including Microsoft's own Surface tablet to be launched this year. 

The Redmond, Washington-based firm has gone on record stating that Surface tablets would hit the market when the Windows 8 operating system became publicly available. Windows 8 allows users readily to store and share personal data among various devices under the "SkyDrive" cloud computing service. 

Rivals Apple and Google offer such services, which let people store digital data on servers in the Internet "cloud" and access files from devices of their choosing. 

The new Microsoft system will support a wider range of devices, including touch and stylus-based smartphones and tablet PCs as well as desktop and laptop machines. Versions of Windows 8 have been tailored for chips used to power various mobile devices. 

The software giant has been trying to expand its presence in the booming market for smartphones and tablets, which is currently dominated by Apple and Google.

XOLO X900, First Smartphone with Intel Inside Launches in India Market

 Intel Corporation and Lava International Ltd., one of India’s fastest-growing mobile handset companies, announced the general availability of the XOLO X900, the first smartphone with Intel inside. The device is already available to customers for purchase at a best-buy street price of approximately INR 22000.

Lava also announced its long-term partnership with Croma, a national chain of mega stores of consumer electronics and durables, for promotion and sale of the XOLO X900.

The partnership between Intel and Lava was announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February. The XOLO X900 is based on Intel’s smartphone reference design featuring the Intel® Atom™ processor Z2460 with Intel® Hyper Threading Technology and supporting HSPA+ 3G connectivity.

The high-performance 1.6 GHz Atom™ processor with Hyper Threading Technology brings speed and multi-tasking performance to consumers’ fingertips. The leading-edge 400 MHz graphics clock and the full 1080p HD video encoding and playback make this phone a perfect entertainment device, providing users with an immersive gaming and video experience. It also features an 8-megapixel camera delivering advanced imaging capabilities including burst mode that allows 10 pictures to be captured in under a second.

The XOLO X900 is housed in a sleek design with a 4.03-inch high-resolution LCD touch screen for crisp text and vibrant images. At launch, the X900 will run on Android Gingerbread*, with a planned over-the -air software upgrade to Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich* platform shortly thereafter. Intel’s technology enables a high-performance user experience, all while maintaining great battery life – up to 5 hours of 3G browsing, 45 hours of audio and 8 hours of talk time¹.

“Through XOLO X900, we are happy to bring to the Indian market a device that addresses the needs of those for whom speed and performance matters. After our success in feature phones with over 10 million happy customers in under 3 years, XOLO will be a differentiated player in the fast-growing smartphone segment. The initial reviews of XOLO X900 have been very positive and independent benchmarks clearly point to the fact that when it comes to speed and performance, XOLO X900 is the gold standard,” said Vishal Sehgal, co-founder and director, Lava International.

“The first smartphone with Intel inside is now available to Indian consumers,” said Mike Bell, Intel corporate vice president and general manager of the Mobile and Communications Group. “The boundaries of personal computing are expanding. As we enter the India market with our first smartphone from Lava, the device not only showcases the rich capabilities and user benefits of Intel computing, but also highlights the exciting possibilities of what’s still to come.”

Commenting on the long-term strategic partnership with Lava, Ajit Joshi, MD and CEO, Infiniti Retail Limited, said “We at Croma are extremely pleased to collaborate with Intel and Lava to get this exciting new product into the market. We always endeavor to get the latest and best products first to our consumers and this is a step in that direction. We are very optimistic about the prospects of this exciting new product.”

ASUS sets up its 4th Exclusive Store in UP

ASUS Technology, a leading international brand embodying the strength, mastering technological innovation and design perfection for the ultimate life-enhancing and computing experience is further escalating its presence in Uttar Pradesh with opening of its retail outlet in Bareilly. Akin to all the accessible outlets, this outlet will also feature the entire range of fully working Notebooks and Netbooks that have been launched in India till date. The retail outlet Digi Enterprise is located at D–28, Butler plaza, Bareilly.

 With sophisticated craftsmanship and technology, Asus has persistently strive to be the No. 1 in terms of quality, speed, service, innovation, and cost-efficiency and retains the purpose of making life better through innovation. The retail expansion approach has been extensively focused by the company in order to provide access to all the imminent and latest technology to the customers in the Indian market including various small cities and towns. The company already has set up stores in New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Calicut, Goa, Thane, Raipur, Bhillai, Gurgaon, Durgapur, Kanpur, Cochin, Siliguri, Kolhapur, Noida, Pune, Amravati, Kottayam, Lucknow, Jaipur, Mysore and Guwahati earlier. With its retail expansion, ASUS is aspiring at providing the opportunity to the customers to have unswerving information on its superior technology and product range.

 “It has been our constant undertaking to deliver innovative products with excellent quality, reliability and performance to enhance the overall computing experience. Venturing in the educational hub of western Uttar Pradesh, we anticipate an instant constructive response by the masses and further spiraling of our base in order to proficiently serve our existing and prospective customers with best of offerings and unequaled assistance,” commented Mr. Unaez Quraishi – Sales & Distribution Director – System Business Group, Asus (India).

 The new outlet features the company’s entire range of Notebooks/Netbooks and intends to cease customer’s search for the best available option. The store will have the company's entire range of Entertainment, Classic, Versatile and Elite series Notebooks/Netbooks. End users can look forward to the latest Gaming notebook G74SX and experience the thrill of 3D vision. Product range also includes the Eee Pad Transformer, which is the best tablet choice for users looking for both media consumption and mobile productivity with an expandable keyboard docking station. The New U Series Bamboo Collection (a follow-up to the first Bamboo Series launched in 2008) blends the wonders of natural design with cutting edge notebook computing and stylish mobility.

iPhone 5 coming on August 7

Apple's next-generation iPhone popularly being referred to as iPhone 5 is launching on August 7, claims a blog on Know Your Mobile website. The website makes this claim citing "a reliable industry source" who, it says, has stated that the Cupertino-based tech giant will launch the device during a keynote speech.

Earlier, the same website had reported that the launch date of iPhone 5 has been pushed ahead to August in order to compete better againstSamsung Galaxy S III.

There have been many rumours and leaks about the device. The latest post by Know Your Mobile has pegged the launch date for the much anticipated smartphone at least 3 months ahead of the day when iPhone 4S was unveiled.

Moreover, this launch date will be ahead of the scheduled roll out of iOS 6, which is said to be launched this September. It is anticipated that the upcoming iPhone will be shipped with the latest version of Apple's operating system.

Google Nexus 7 tablet goes on sale in US

Google Nexus 7 tablet is off to an encouraging start, with major retailers running out of the gadgets as the internet company's first entry in an increasingly crowded market showed up in US stores on Friday. 

GameStop said on Friday it had already run through its first two allocations of the tablet, co-developed by Google and Taiwan's Asustek that starts at $199 and has drawn glowing reviews from major gadget reviewers. 

Sam's Club, the warehouse chain owned by Wal-Mart Stores, and Staples listed the device as being out of stock on their websites as of Friday. Office Depot's website continued to offer the device for sale as of the afternoon. 

Google unveiled the 7-inch tablet, which the company hopes will allow it to better compete against Apple and Amazon.com and funnel more people into its trove of online content, at its annual developer conference in San Francisco at the end of June. 

Consumers have been able to pre-order the tablet from Google and several retailers in past weeks, and Google said it began shipping devices to consumers on Friday. 

"We blew through the first two allotments," a GameStop spokesperson said. 

A third allotment of preorders will be available in August. The game retailer declined to share exact number of preorders. 

The Nexus 7 uses Google's Android mobile software, which has become the most prevalent operating system for smartphones globally, but has so far failed to make a big splash in the tablet market. 

By taking a greater role in the tablet arena, Google hopes to ensure that its online services remain front-and-center to consumers, as tablets by Apple and Amazon are increasingly becoming gateways to the Web and Web-based content such as movies and music. 

Google executives have been quoted saying that the company will not generate a profit margin when the Nexus 7 is sold in retail stores. A report by research firm IHS iSuppli on Wednesday estimated that the bill of materials for the $199 version of the device, which features 8GB of flash memory and a high-end Tegra 3 processor by Nvidia, is $152. 

Apple still dominates the market for touch-screen tablet computers with its two-year old iPad. Amazon.com's $199 Kindle Fire tablet is based on open-source Android computer code, but the device features a customized interface that does not use many Google services. 

The Nexus 7 has drawn accolades from reviewers like the Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg. Pundits reckon the $199 Nexus 7 may seriously threaten the same-priced Kindle Fire, especially since Google's offering has a camera and a higher-resolution screen. 

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, speaking to reporters on Thursday at the Allen & Co conference in Sun Valley, said there was "immense demand" for the Nexus 7 in the first week after it was introduced. 

Zebronics Opens Branch In Jammu

Top Notch Infotronix, the brand owners of India's Leading IT brand 'ZEBRONICS', who have the largest range and variety in computer peripherals, has announced opening of a new branch at Jammu in order to offer its customers greatly increased levels of sales, technical support and faster service.

With this branch, Zebronics now has 28 branches across India. This branch has been added to provide better support to its partners in Jammu and Srinagar district. Apart from sales, Zebronics will also provide after sales service and support at the new branch. The plan is to go aggressive on the complete range of products and concentrate more on the end consumer devices and after sales service. This will help retaining the old customer along with gaining new customers. Zebronics is well renowned for its vast varieties of computer accessories which include chassis, power supply, keyboard/mouse and UPS. Response from the end consumer segments has always been better than the expectation. Many publications and review houses have awarded Zebronics for its products range like speakers, headphones, LCD, portable media players, laptop accessories, wireless mouse/keyboard, power grip, TV tuners and many more.

Commenting on branch opening Mr. Pradeep Doshi said, “Jammu branch has been added after a lot of public demand. Many partners from Jammu and Srinagar have requested for the branch and to help and support them in terms of service and products availability. We are glad to expand our reach by opening the Jammu branch just after the inauguration of new office in Trivandrum. Earlier our partners used to buy the products from other northern states and availability of complete range of Zebronics products was a concern. We now have our presence from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and hope to bring many more opportunities to the partners to help them grow further with a win-win motto.

Contact details for Zebbronics Jammu branch is Mr. Tranajit Singh – 9316499996 and Mr. Narinder Sharma - 9419173570. The branch is located at Top Notch Infotronix India Pvt Ltd, 54 A/D,Gandhi Nagar, Jammu , J&K -180004.  

Google’s Nexus tablet to be launch in India in October 2012

Nexus 7, the tablet made by Google in partnership with Asus, will launch in India in October this year. The 7-inch tablet is first Nexus branded tablet and hence runs Google's unmodifiedAndroid operating software. It was announced at Google I/O on June 27.

The model with 8GB internal storage is priced at $199. It will be available in the US and three other countries in the coming weeks. The one with 16GB has been priced at $249.

The Nexus 7 announced by Google is powered by a quad-core 1.3Ghz processor. It has 1GB RAM and a 1.2MP front camera. The device runs on Jelly Bean, the latest version of Android that was also announced at Google I/O.

Many companies, including Samsung and Asus, are selling Android tablets since the beginning of 2011 but they have not made much headway against iPad, which continues to be wildly popular with consumers. Google hopes that with its own tablet, it will be able to entice consumers better. Also, the company believes that the Nexus tablet in the market will prompt app developers to write more tablet-specific apps for Android.

Nexus devices are Google branded products. Unlike a customized users interface that Samsung and HTC put in their Android devices, Nexus devices are powered by 'pure' Android and receive updates as soon as Google pushes them out. This makes these devices particularly attractive to power users, who don't want to wait to get latest software updates.

Even though Nexus products are considered to be Google's own devices, their launch is handled by the hardware partner. This means that Google has little say in whether a Nexus product will get launched in India or not. For example, Galaxy Nexus, which is Google's flagship phone, has not been launched in India by Samsung even though it went on sale in several countries last year.

With Nexus 7, Google is not only attempting to take on the iPad but also aiming for Kindle Fire, a 7-inch tablet made by Amazon. In India, Kindle Fire is not sold officially. But there are other 7-inch tablets that may feel the heat once Google's tablet hits the market here.