Author: jitheshb

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Sneak Peek at Windows Mobile 6.1

winmob 6.1

You might have heard about Windows Mobile 7; and even seen some screenshots that were leaked a while ago. But let’s face it, it may well be a long time coming. In the meantime let’s look at something a little more realistic – such as Windows 6.1. And Gizmodo, through the Portuguese tech forum PocketPT, seems to have some new information on what the next step might look like.

One new feature is a Zoom function that will allow users to view an entire web page on the display screen. This could be useful for navigation to specific articles or portions on the page that may interest a user. Another feature will indicate how much space is consumed by applications. The latest version is expected to be able to load DOCX and SLSX formats. A new advanced ‘Note’ feature should allow users to draw and add voice recordings to each note.

source:tech2 

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Garmin Announces GPS-Ready Handset

Garmin

Garmin Ltd., the leading maker of satellite-powered navigational devices, is getting into the wireless phone business with the launch of the nüvifone, a handset that incorporates GPS.

“This is the breakthrough product that cellphone and GPS users around the world have been longing for – a single device that does it all,” said Cliff Pemble, the company’s president and COO. “We believe nüvifone will change the way people view converged devices in future.”

The all-touchscreen device is claimed to be the first of its kind to integrate premium 3.5G mobile phone capability with an Internet browser, data connectivity, personal messaging, and personal navigation functions in one device.

Personal messaging functions include email, text, and instant messaging. Also available is access to Garmin Online, which offers constantly-updating information such as real-time traffic, fuel prices, stock prices, news reports, and weather forecasts.

The nüvifone is Garmin’s first device to include Google local search capability, which harnesses the vast point of interest information available from the Internet.

The built-in camera will allow individuals to take a picture that will automatically be tagged with the exact latitude and longitude of where the image was taken. The device also provides direct access to millions of geo-located landmark and sightseeing photographs available via Google’s Panoramio picture sharing site.

Garmin anticipates that the nüvifone will be available in the third quarter of 2008. Specific details about pricing and sales partners haven’t been announced yet. For more information, please visit the official website.

source:tech2

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WD Launches 320GB Passport Essential Drive

wd

WD has introduced its new My Passport Essential Portable USB Drives. These new drives are redesigned to complement WD’s popular My Book family of external drives and seek to introduce a sleek new form that feels good in hand and fits neatly in a pocket or purse.

The drives feature a glossy black finish and come with 320GB of space. Apart from just looking good, they have been equipped with WD’s Sync software, which allows consumers to take desktop content with them by simplifying the synchronization of essential personal files and Microsoft Outlook data on a PC.

“The newly designed My Passport Essential drives are the perfect travel-friendly storage device to hold the rich media content generated by higher resolution photos and HD videos and music,” said Jim Welsh, vice president and general manager of WD’s branded products group. “The desire to carry and keep digital files close at hand continues to grow, and this new drive offers a sleek and stylish solution with plenty of storage capacity for consumers on the move.”

WD’s My Passport Essential USB Drives are available now at select retail stores and from WD’s online store. The price of the WD Passport Essential USB Drive 320GB is $199.99 (MSRP).

source:tech2 

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Automatic Office 2003 SP3 in Feb

ofc2003

Those customers who haven’t already installed SP3 and have chosen to receive updates automatically will start receiving the service pack from February 27; although they will receive the update progressively, with not everyone receiving it on the same date, Microsoft said.

Microsoft made an announcement to this effect on Monday following several user complaints regarding security settings in Office 2003 SP3 that was released in September 2007. The settings blocked access to some of the older file formats.

The upcoming Windows Update contains numerous security- and stability- enhancements. Service Pack 3 for Office 2003 in particular has improvements to make Office 2003 work well with Windows Vista and other new Microsoft products.

It promises to give users greater control over which macros can run in Excel, as also patch identified security holes. It offers IT administrators new tools to protect against social engineering attacks.

Meanwhile, for those of you who don’t particularly fancy Office 2003 SP3 automatically installed on your computers, make sure not to set Microsoft Update to ‘Automatic’.

source:techtree 

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High Speed NAND Flash Introduced

NAND

Yesterday, Intel Corp and Micron Technology unveiled a new high-speed NAND flash memory technology that can greatly enhance data access and transfer in devices that use Silicon for storage.

The technology is jointly developed by Intel and Micron, and manufactured by the companies’ NAND flash joint venture (JV), IM Flash Technologies (IMFT). It promises five times the speed of conventional NAND, allowing data to be transferred in a fraction of time for computing, video, photography, and other consumer applications.

he new high-speed NAND promises speeds up to 200 megabytes per second (MB/s) for reading data, and 100 megabytes per second for writing data — thanks to the new ONFI 2.0 specification and a four-plane architecture with higher clock speeds.

In comparison, conventional single level cell NAND is limited to speeds of just 40 megabytes per second for reading data and less than 20 megabytes per second for writing data.

Speaking at the occasion, Frankie Roohparvar, vice president (NAND Development) of Micron said the company looks forward to unlocking newer possibilities with high-speed NAND. That they are working with an ecosystem of key enablers and partners to build and optimize corresponding system technologies that take advantage of its improved performance capabilities.

Pete Hazen, director (Marketing) of Intel NAND Products Group, said the computing market is embracing NAND-based solutions to accelerate system performance through the use of caching and solid-state drives. At up to five times the performance over conventional NAND, the high speed NAND from Intel and Micron will enable new embedded solutions and removable solutions that take advantage of high-performance system interfaces, including PCIe and upcoming standards such as USB 3.0.

source:techtree 

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Lost Odyssey Comes to Xbox 360

Lost Odyssey

Microsoft in partnership with Hironobu Sakaguchi, the famed producer of Mistwalker game studio and feelplus, has brought to the Xbox 360 a new exclusive game called “Lost Odyssey”.

Touted as a next generation role-playing game (RPG), “Lost Odyssey” blends massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) elements with the game’s traditional RPG system, enabling players to make strategic decisions for a more immersive game play experience.

“Lost Odyssey” is the story of ‘Kaim’, an immortal character, who has lived more than 1,000 years and doesn’t remember his past and doesn’t know where his future lies. Players will witness Kaim’s life as he lives through many generations, becomes part of numerous families, falls in and out of love, and confronts all of the conflicts that arise.

The struggles are set in a world that is on the brink of a mystical industrial revolution, where mankind has attained dark powers.

Through Kaim’s journey, a handful of characters join him on an odyssey to discover their intricate past and their destiny — all leading players in a drama of massive proportions.

According to Microsoft, the massively scoped worlds, the memorable characters, and the epic story line of the game — all play out like an intense and unsettling blockbuster action film.

The game is powered by Unreal Engine 3 technology that brings out the smallest details in the largest battles, including facial expressions of emotionally distressed characters in the world of the “Lost Odyssey”.

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Fujitsu Unveils the LifeBook U1010

Fujitsu

Fujitsu has introduced in India a 3.5G-enabled mobile companion — the LifeBook U1010.

Touted as the world’s smallest tablet-convertible ultra mobile PC (UMPC), the LifeBook U1010 is based on the Intel Ultra Mobile Platform and powered by Intel processor A110 with 800MHz of processing power.

The U1010 exhibits versatility with its multi-functional design. Users can twist the screen to make it a Tablet PC with pen input, or use it like a notebook with a QWERTY keyboard.

Weighing just half a kilogram, the U1010 has dimensions of 171mm(w) x 133mm(d) x 26.5-32.0mm(h). It sports a 5.6-inches WSVGS display with resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels, and a passive touch panel. In addition, it has a palm resistance touch screen that allows the fingers to do the work, in the absence of a stylus.

According to the company, the new LifeBook can handle multiple operational possibilities like watching movies, listening to music, viewing and editing documents, video-conferencing, as well as surfing the Internet.

The U1010 integrates both 3.5G and HSDPA, and promises superior Broadband Internet connectivity with a bandwidth of up to 3.6Mbps. It packs 1GB DDR2 400MHz memory, and 40 GB hard disk for storage.

Additionally, the U1010 is packed with a suite of security features, including trusted platform module support and 2-level BIOS lock for documents. It is equipped with a fingerprint sensor that allows users to encrypt sensitive files with a swipe of the finger.

Other features include: integrated Intel Graphics with 3D accelerator, RealTek ALC262 HD audio codec with built-in digital microphone, integrated 0.3 mega pixels camera, Bluetooth, and digital card reader.

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Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Leaked

Sp1

As Microsoft is working on the latest update for Windows Vista, also known as Service Pack 1 or SP1, news has it that it has been leaked on to the internet. Vista SP1 is supposed to be released in Feb and it seems just the right time for Microsoft to label the latest builds as RTM or Release to Manufacturing.
Microsoft is just about to release it to the partners and may be someone from the developers was naughty to release it. Or may it was someone from the partners. Anyway, the leak is some kind of a standalone executable and has the build 6001.18000.080126-2040. Another leak has it as 080118_1840, but its a pretty early timestamp (18-01-2008) which suggests that its a fake. These builds are probably escrow and candidate for the final RTM.
If you don’t have patience to wait till release then go ahead!! But it may screw up your OS also I am not sure about this package nay way try it with your own risk

–Visat SP1–

source:winvista

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HTC TouchFLO 2 “Manila” leaks out, are you brave enough to install it?

HTC

I have zero information if these screenshots are legit or just a simple PhotoShop result but according to Swiss Windows Mobile fan-site “Mobile-Devices.ch”, bellow you see some screenshots of HTC’s upcoming/next TouchFLO GUI which is code-named “Manila”.
No further information given so it’s not clear if it is real (really from HTC), an HTC development environment or really HTC “TouchFLO 2.0”; also Mobile-Devices.ch hasn’t mentioned where they got the information from but from what you can see from the screenshots, it could be real

UPDATE: Original source seems to be “The HTC Insider” Blog. But also no word here if it is legit and where it comes from.
UPDATE 2: Okay, as I’ve heard from several anonymous sources (thanks for the E-Mails), this is indeed a new user interface, HTC might release later this year – most likely with its upcoming devices (but it might also replace the current TouchFLO as available on the HTC Touch, HTC Touch Dual and HTC Touch Cruise). Nevertheless, it’s intend for internal testing and usage only and the files, floating around the Internet aren’t intend to be installed on current production devices. If you are not a developer, better don’t install anything yet.

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Ipods will not kill you

ipod

THE US Food and Drug Administration has decided that running an Ipod is unlikely to interfere with heart pacemakers.

Apparently this had been a great fear amongst those who had pacemakers. It could be a bit of an inconvenience if you are sitting next to someone playing Coldplay on their iPod on the train and suddenly keel over.

Last year heart experts ran an Ipod during a patient’s examination and claimed they had seen interference with the pacemaker.

At issue was was whether or not an iPod produced enough of a magnetic field to tigger a pacemaker.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, FDA researcher Howard Bassen set up a complex experiment involving a bag full of salt water to simulate the human body and a coil sensor designed to pick up electromagnetic emissions.

They tested four different Ipod models and measured the voltages delivered to the inside of the pacemaker by the magnetic fields from the devices.

All their measurements indicated the Ipods could not affect cardiac pacemakers. Particularly if you are made of salt water.

One thing that is odd is that the FDA only tested Apple gear. It was almost as if it had been lobbied to give Ipods the all clear.