Author: jitheshb

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Sony Ericsson Unveils Windows Mobile Handset XPERIA™ X1

sony_ericsson logo   X1

Sony Ericsson has created phones around the Symbian operating system, jumped quietly onto the Windows Mobile bandwagon with the announcement here today of its Xperian X1 smartphone.

Today marked the launch of XPERIA™  and a new era in mobile communications with the announcement of the XPERIA™ X1, a stand-out, arc slider phone from Sony Ericsson designed to address the growing need for a premium, converged mobile experience.

In fact, the handset has a custom user interface–consisting of 9 square icons that Sony Ericsson calls panels–which sits on top of the usual Windows Mobile 6 interface. The company also said the Xperia brand was not tied to Windows Mobile, so that future Xperia models could support other mobile phone platforms.

However Rikko Sakaguchi, head of Portfolios and Propositions for Sony Ericsson, said using Windows Mobile would allow the company to broaden its customer base, and also said it was the best platform in terms of PC integration.

The handset itself has a resistive 3-inch VGA touchscreen atop an optical navigation pad; the display slides sideways in a gently curved arc (and changes screen orientation to landscape mode) to reveal a roomy QWERTY keyboard. It supports assisted GPS and Wi-Fi as well as HSDPA, and has a built-in 3.2-megapixel camera.

Sony Ericsson also announced a slew of other phones, including new Walkman and Cyber-shot handsets, plus a couple of high-speed HSPA XpressCards.

Sony Ericsson XPERIATM X1 – energised communication, the premium experience.

  • Convergence of multimedia entertainment and mobile Web communication
  • Unique arc slider with wide pitch easy-to-use QWERTY keyboard
  • XPERIA™ panels  – arrange as you want for easy access
  • Enjoy multimedia entertainment on bright wide VGA display
  • Windows Mobile® capabilities

The X1 won’t appear until the second half of this year, but most of the others should begin shipping worldwide by mid year. Most of the phones support either HSDPA or its slightly slower (but still considered broadband) sibling, UMTS–although some only support the latter in Europe (and are therefore unlikely to ship in the U.S.).

source:sonyericsson 

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Microsoft,Google, IBM, Yahoo, VeriSign all in OpenID board

openID

At the beginning of 2006, there were less than 500 websites where OpenID could be used. Today there are well over 10,000, according to the Foundation.”OpenID has grown to be implemented by major open source projects such as Drupal, cornerstone Web 2.0 services such as those by 37signals and Six Apart, as well as a mix of large companies including as Apple, Google, and Yahoo!,” it said.

The move follows Yahoo! last month announcing that its accountholders would be able to use any web site supporting OpenID without creating a separate username and password. A year ago, Microsoft pledged to integrate OpenID 2.0 with the CardSpace identity management systems developed in conjunction with Windows Vista.

According to Technology Business Research, these heavies joining the board will accelerate the secure us of the Internet for commerce, communication, and social networking and go well beyond a one-size-fits-all user ID.  “TBR believes the major corporations that joined the OpenID Foundation board today will help OpenID address problems of security, provider trustworthiness, and user education. Eventually, there will develop a somewhat more complex identity environment than the single sign-on that the creators of OpenID first envisioned, one in which uses have several IDs, tailored to their business and social needs.”

While the OpenID Foundation serves a stewardship role around the community’s intellectual property, the Foundation’s board itself does not make any decisions about the specifications the community is collaboratively building. However the Foundation claimed that “By bringing on these companies and their resources, the OpenID Foundation will now be able to better serve the needs of  the entire OpenID community. In 2008, we can expect to see a larger focus on making OpenID even more accessible to a mainstream audience, the development of a World-wide trademark usage policy (much like the Jabber Foundation and Mozilla have done), and a larger international focus on working with the OpenID communities in Asia and Europe.”

TBR said that such a multi-tiered ID scheme would “make it easy for the website provider to screen users without the burden of verification. In addition, an easy way to implement a user identification system makes it easier for providers to monetise their websites by blocking – or removing – content for anonymous users. Many providers have been unable to monetise their content due to the low willingness of users to register for every little website. With an easy-to-use and open system, every website could require a login.”

source:itwire

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Vista SP1: Is It mean Slow Pack 1?

vista sp1

Some in the media have received the final SP1 code too, as evidenced by reviews online, with an article at PC World showing mixed performance results with SP1, with ‘file copy performance notably improved’, yet with some tests showing Vista pre-SP1 actually faster than SP1 itself.

The Vista SP1 debacle continues, with TechNet and MSDN subscribers unable to download the final RTM code of SP1, despite around 15,000 SP1 beta testers having been confirmed by Computerworld as having received the final SP1 code, weeks before the general public.

Another article at Computerworld shows Vista SP1 to be 20% slower at copying files than pre-SP1, while the ‘old’ Windows XP beats both Vista pre-SP1 and SP1 at copying files by a wide margin.

This has forced Microsoft to delay SP1’s release to the general public to give themselves and hardware manufacturers some additional time to iron out the driver bugs, something that, ironically, was Vista’s original problem, something that was meant to be fixed with the release of SP1 itself.

What is clear is that SP1, despite having reached ‘release to manufacturing’ or RTM status, still isn’t 100% finished. What’s holding things up is Microsoft’s discovery, thanks to the beta testers, that some PC manufacturers have loaded drivers onto their machines which SP1 just doesn’t like.

Microsoft will actually delay some users getting Vista SP1 until April, as it uses the Windows Update software built into Vista to determine which machines might be affected by the SP1 driver issues.

Microsoft should never have told the world SP1 was ready when it plainly wasn’t, but as they have, the bad PR onslaught has been massive, with some TechNet and MSDN subscribers wondering if they will be re-subscribing to the services when they next come up for renewal. All in all, it’s a big mess

Read more                                       source: itwire

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Portable Speakers for iPhone

dol

Compact yet powerful, the DLO Portable Speakers for iPhone let you enjoy your music and videos in stereo sound without any threat of TDMA interference. Featuring an extra-wide sound stage and bass vents for delivering powerful sound, these small speakers pack a powerful punch.

Small enough for home, office or dormitory desktops, the speakers also feature a unique compact design that makes them ideal for travel. Each speaker snaps neatly into the base to create a “ball” approximately 6 inches in diameter. The base features a recessed area for keeping cords securely wrapped and out of the way when not in use. Powered by either AAA batteries or the included AC adapter, the DLO Portable Speakers for iPhone are versatile enough to be used at home or on the go. Although our Portable Speakers were created with the iPhone in mind, they will also work with any audio device that has a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The removable, rotating stand holds the iPhone upright or horizontally for the ideal portable movie-viewing experience. Plus, you don’t have to disconnect your iPhone if a call comes in – the Portable Speakers simply turn into your iPhone into a speaker phone! So while iPhone is connected, you can take and place calls as usual, without any disruption.

source:dlo 

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Palm Centro in Europe

Centro

The Centro, launched in the States late last year, has email, web, Palm’s organiser, contact and calendar capabilities, a full colour touchscreen and full keyboard.

The phone has proved popular in the States, and has been credited for attracting a younger audience to Palm’s devices.

At launch, the phone was said to be aimed at students, young professionals and “CEOs of households”.

Palm has announced that the Palm Centro, the smallest and lightest Palm smartphone to date, will be coming to Europe at the end of February.

Key features (in Palm’s phrasing):

• All-in-one phone and messaging device
• Small and light, weighing just over 4oz.
• Full keyboard and a colour touchscreen
• Text messaging with a chat-style view
• Ability to store names, numbers, appointments, notes and to-dos
• Access to wireless email accounts, such as Gmail and Yahoo
• Web browsing capabilities
• Google Maps for maps and directions
• 1.3-megapixel digital camera with video capture
• Easy-to-use Palm OS software
• Ability to play music with PocketTunes
• Ability to create, edit and view native Word and Excel compatible files
• Ability to view native PowerPoint and PDF documents
• Microsoft Direct Push Technology for delivery of Outlook email, as well as personal email, such as Gmail and Yahoo
• Bluetooth 1.2 for connecting wirelessly with compatible headsets and car kits
• 64MB dedicated user storage with support for up to 4GB microSD cards
• Thousands of add-on applications available
• Ability to use Centro as a modem for connecting a laptop to the Internet via Bluetooth, so users can stay connected anywhere within wireless coverage

source:sky 

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Nokia’s 6110 Navigator

Nokia

Nokia has just launched its GPS-enabled 6110 Navigator. Did the company hold a boring old press event with handouts to announce the fact? No sirree – what Nokia did was to arrange a kind of treasure hunt through the southern extremity of the great, yet terribly crowded, city of Mumbai!

The 6110 Navigator is an easy-to-use GPS-enabled handset. GPS may be its USP, but it’s also equipped with some pretty decent features. These include a 2 megapixel camera, microSD support, USB v2.0 (mini USB), Bluetooth with A2DP profile, music player, and stereo FM radio.

This 3G-, HSDPA-enabled slider also supports EDGE. A secondary camera located above its 2.2 inch TFT display (240 x 320 pixels, 16M colors) comes in handy for video calls. As for the GPS, maps of eight Indian cities are included, and are really quite detailed.

The device is available off the shelf for around Rs 14,250 with bill and warranty. Expect a detailed review from us soon!

source:tech2

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VIC’s New Navisurfer II Vehicle PC

 VIC

NAVISURFER II is the first indash 1-DIN computer with a combination of 7″ touch screen monitor. Monitor able to move as vertically as well horizontally. NAVISURFER II allows to run any normal Windows or Linux compatible applications also serves as Audio / Video Player, Vehicle GPS Navigator & Tracker, Rear View Camera, In-Car wireless Internet, In-Car TV, In-Car Game Console and In-Car Mobile Office and real-time OBD-II vehicle diagnostics.

The PC is powered by 1GHz processor and backed up by 512MB RAM, which makes it more than sufficient for processing simple tasks with media playback capability. Additional 80GB storage is spacious enough to store applications and multimedia files. Just imagine you can store few copies of HD DVD movies to be played back without the need to have another DVD optical drive connected to the car PC. Besides, it is equipped with 7-inch touch panel that is able to display 800 X 480 resolutions with scaling capability up to 1024 X 768 pixies. Some of the functions included multimedia playback, rear view camera, gaming, office applications and more importantly the GPS navigator function.

Models

NavisurferII 40GB
Processor: 1.3 Mhz
Hard drive: 40GB
RAM: 256MB

NavisurferII 80GB
Processor: 1.3 Mhz
Hard drive: 80GB
RAM: 256MB

NavisurferII 120GB
Processor: 1,0 Mhz
Hard drive: 120 GB
RAM: 512MB

Priced at around $600, it is a good deal to get one in case you are looking to replace old DIN cassette player in the car.

 Source:VIC

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COSMOS – A New Open Source OS Available

cosmos

Cosmos (C# Open Source Managed Operating System) is an operating system project implemented completely in CIL compliant languages. The team is committed to using C#, however any .NET language is usable.

Cosmos runs in QEMU, VMWare, and VirtualPC. QEMU is best for debugging as it has extra debugging support which we use to integrate with GDB.

Cosmos includes a compiler (IL2CPU, which is part of Cosmos) that reads the input file (usually the shell) and Cosmos libraries and compiles the resulting IL to x86 code. IL2CPU has a layer for cross platform and we plan to support other processors and platforms, including x64. IL2CPU also supports certain extension methods which allow C# code to interact directly with the CPU, registers, and ports in the kernel. IL2CPU contains some inline assembler, but there are no ASM files that need to be linked in.

Currently IL2CPU first outputs raw asm files (with IL comments) and then processes them through nasm (a free assembler). Later they are  planning to emit directly to binary.

If you just want to play with Cosmos:

Other resources:

If you are interested in kernel development:

  • Get source from CodePlex
  • Read the full requirements. They are pretty basic though, and everything you need except for Windows (For development) is free.
  • Read Getting Started

 source:cosmos

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Cool iPDA ‘A iPod with PDA features’

ipod-Pda

ZappTek has released iPDA 4.1, the latest version of its personal information management software for the iPod.

The latest version adds full Entourage 2008 support and allows for having both Gmail and local mail messages on your iPod at the same time. Gmail messages now appear in their own Gmail folder on your iPod.

iPDA lets users transfer Word, PDF, Apple Pages, RTF or text documents for reading on the iPod. The software also lets users download RSS feeds, weather forecasts, driving directions and news headlines directly to the iPod.

Additionally, iPDA supports the transfer of information from Entourage, Stickies, Gmail, Mail, Address Book and iCal to the iPod.

Advanced filtering controls what information gets transferred to the iPod; by date ranges for events, flagged contacts, unread messages and tasks based on whether or not they have been completed.

iPDA 4.1 costs US$19.95. A trial version is available.

source:pcworld 

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MacBook Air Poor Battery Life

 Macair

The PC World Test Center has seen some problems with respect to battery life. Unfortunately, you’ll still be making major compromises with the Apple MacBook Air. In The PC World Tests, the Air produced respectable system performance, but mediocre battery life.

The Performance Numbers By PC-World

When the PC World Test Center ran its tests using Apple’s Boot Camp utility–which enables a Mac system to run Windows, too–the Air’s WorldBench 6 score was 57. That score is just below the average WorldBench score of 59 for the field of 17 ultraportable notebooks we’ve tested recently for our Top 10 Ultraportables chart.

The MacBook Air’s performance is more impressive, however, when you consider it against the nine ultraportable models we’ve tested with a minimum weight of four pounds or less (I selected this subset of data for comparison as these are the most likely competitive choices of someone considering a MacBook Air against its PC competition): There, the average WorldBench score is just 50.

The Sony VAIO VGN-TZ510N/B, the slimline PC notebook Steve Jobs compared MacBook Air to in his keynote, scored just 38 on WorldBench 6 tests.

Only two models, the Asus W5Fe-2P025E and the Lenovo ThinkPad X61 bested the MacBook Air’s final, post-Boot Camp WorldBench 6 score of 57. And, both the Asus and the Lenovo were running a faster processor than the MacBook Air: a 2-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7200. f

The MacBook Air runs a 1.6-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor (a 1.8-GHz processor is an option), and includes 2GB of memory, an 80GB 4200rpm hard drive, and a 13.3-inch display.

The only other model in tested with a 1.6-GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB of memory is the 4.5-pound Lenovo ThinkPad X61t; this model received a 64 on our WorldBench 6 tests compared with the Air’s 61.

The Lenovo X61t has other specs that may have helped its performance,  the MacBook Air: the X61t’s 100GB hard drive spins at 5400rpm and its comparatively smaller display measures 12.1-inches on the diagonal.

Subpar Battery Life(Pc-World)

The Air’s battery life averaged 2 hours, 31 minutes, which isn’t even enough juice to cover the flight time from San Francisco to Dallas, let alone get a road warrior clear across the continent with a powered laptop.

The battery life performance of the Air also is quite dismal when we compared to the other nine laptops  in the four-pounds-and-under category. The MacBook Air’s battery life was the third worst among those nine models. The average battery life score among these models was 4 hours, 37 minutes, and five models exceeded five hours in battery life.

source:pcworld