Top 5 Best Tablet PC features, specs, review and price in India

Tablets are overflowing in the market. Yes, they are. And to distinguish between themselves, I decided that a Top 5 Best Tablet PC features, specs, review and price in India mention was necessary. In the  Top 5 Best Tablet PC features, specs, review and price in India, some are actual products and some of them are concept product which might materialise in the near future. But it is solely interesting to see the way all these top 5 tablets perform.

The Top 5 Best Tablet PC features, specs, review and price in India are given below and do not represent any sort of ranking or preference from their order-

• Apple iPad
• Dell Inspiron Duo
• Samsung Galaxy Tab - Features, specs, review and price in India
• Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid/ Lenovo LePad
• HP Slate/ Hurricane

If you want to get more info on this review, check out my Top 5 Best Tablet PC features, specs, review and price in India article to know more.

Recover or Track lost or stolen cell phone (mobile phone) using Tracker software and IMEI number

Hey Folks,
At some point of time, we may have realised that probably a cell phone or mobile phone theft is the worst thing to happen to a person. After all, it has taken over our everyday life and literally controls our life and sometimes, they are also prized possessions. Thus, it is pretty important that you protect your mobile phone or cell phone from such cases. "You can recover your mobile or cell phone using IMEI number", a pretty hotly searched topic on the internet but unfortunately, not many people do get their mobile phones back using this method. In short, it is very hard to recover your mobile or cell phone using IMEI number because they can be traced only when the police goes to the network provider and asks them for the whereabouts of the cell phone and a process I have hardly seen ever completed unless you are a celebrity or an eminent personality. But there are always precautions such as the Tracker softwares which play an important part to protect your mobile. If your mobile has GPS, you can get your tracker to even pin-point the thief's location making his day a bad hair day and day to forget. Such is the power.


So, if you wanna know more on how on the facts of recover your mobile or cell phone using IMEI number and how to Track your lost or stolen cell phone using Tracker software, click on the links above to safeguard your ultimate prized possession today itself.

nVIDIA CUDA experience - HD Movie Playback - CoreAVC

Another CUDA Day coming up for me and now, it is business as usual for me. Got hold of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen in full HD (High Definition) from a friend of mine for testing purposes only. Already seen it in the movie theatres and no wonder the action scenes make it my family’s favourite. Now High Definition content is encoded in the H.264 format and the format extension is .mkv. What a disaster! Windows Media Player cannot play .mkv files and I don’t wanna install hoggers like VLC Media Player. Eat too much of RAM and memory. I like to leave anti-viruses on while watching a movie as part of my periodic PC maintenance. Sadly, it seems it isn’t possible when playing HD with VLC. So what will I do? No VLC and WMP, what are my options left?

So, I start searching the net to play HD content which can also use the new found CUDA prowess I got all thanks to Digit and nVIDIA. So what do I come up with? A software name CoreAVC. Now what it basically does is add support for the .mkv format in Windows Media Player and not only that but also, utilises the nVIDIA CUDA power reducing load from the main CPU and taken over completely by the GPU, a process also called offloading tasks to the GPU (which is the nVIDIA GT 240). Now, it doesn’t have a trial and I need to buy one to use it. Now my Dad being so supportive of me quickly gave his credit card and I made a transaction worth $9.95 (or roughly Rs. 456) for this software but is it worth paying for? Let’s find out.

Before I planned to try CoreAVC, I decided to give VLC one last shot at. Installed it and started it up. That’s it; VLC consumes CPU around the range of 30-50%. BAD! And memory usage was also 105 MB. Worthless. Screenshot below will tell you the ugly story-

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/887/trans1.png

So uninstalled it and decided to give the new CoreAVC a try. Greeted with a nice “Designed for nVIDIA CUDA” logo during setup and my heart felt happier. Program setup screenshot in the link below-

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/6579/coreavc.png

But it still needs to be tested. So installed it. Setup finished pretty quickly. Now, decided to fire up Windows Media Player to see what it does. And voila! It does the nVIDIA CUDA magic. The CPU usage was only around 3-10%. Cool. Lots of room left for other tasks. And memory usage was similar to VLC’s. A screenshot to demonstrate the CUDA power-

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/1044/transz.png

So at the end of the day, it is simply more than obvious at which software emerges triumphant here. Windows Media Player has always been the underdog in performance but CoreAVC changes the complete outlook of Windows Media Player and makes it a much desired high performance HD player. So the next time, you get HD content in your home, just fire up Windows Media Player with CoreAVC and simply sit down to enjoy the magic. Oh yes, and some finer details regarding the video if you wanted to know more about the test video.

Movie Name - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Format - .mkv

Resolution - 1920x800

Frame Rate - 23.98/second

Bitrate - 1536 kb/second

CoreAVC verison - 2.0

Edition - Professional

My Experience with nVIDIA CUDA

Wednesday has been declared the CUDA Day and due to this very occasion, it is a privilege for me to write about all CUDA supported applications can do in the real world. I will go through all the details pretty briefly.

LoiLoScope - A video editor using nVIDIA's CUDA technology gave me lots of reason to try this baby at an ideal time. And the timing is right because I have a brand new Sony Handycam in my hand and a very recent Manipur trip videos of my family. So I fire it up and the first thing anyone will notice is it's GUI. Easy, user-friendly and eyecandy stuff, gives you all the reason to make better video edits than the rest of the editors around. Made a very small video editing of my failed football talents, but guess what, I was able to do all the basic video edits within a matter of 15 minutes and that is the first time. Impressive. But that's probably not the best for me. The best was it's ability to upload the video to YouTube directly. All I had to provide was Login, Password, Title and Description and I was done. Made my task so simple and CUDA encoding was lightning fast. Also format support AVHCD is pretty good which my Handycam uses. So thumbs up to this brilliant software. Look at the images and especially my so called failed football talent in the video below.

Image Gallery-

Image 1- http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/2851/loilo1t.png

Image 2- http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/4586/loilo2x.png

Image 3- http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/2993/loilo3.png

Video Gallery- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRtv6GbwCPw

Badaboom - Badaboom is probably the tool I was waiting for. Have a Sony PSP so video watching on it while on the move to college too is a pretty regular. Dad uses it quite often too to watch Bengali movies. Thus the importance of Badaboom. And it does it's job just as it says, upto 20x faster. Superb speed. Used to use PSPVC before but it is a complete flop compared to this. Badaboom also provided me quite a lot of options before video encoding for PSP. Used the latest Prince of Persia movie trailer to show it's prowess. Images and video below showing the lightning fast encoding process and the final quality of the video viewed in PSP.

Image Gallery-

Image 1- http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/5664/dscn2752.jpg

Image 2- http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/5876/badaboomc.png

Video Gallery- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqLR5P8dLQ4

vReveal - Now, before trying vReveal, I was quite speculative of things it said it could do. Something like working wonders with videos that are dark, shaky, noisy, pixelated or blurry. So an interesting piece of software. But could it deliver? Curious to know. The answer is Yes. In fact, it delivered even better than I thought of before trying it. It might be always like you want but with the right settings and tweaks, could do a gem to your blurry and bad videos. Trying it is pretty simple. A very simple editing interface reminds me more of a la Picasa style. Options were right in front of the eyes and if you still don't believe that your blurry and pixelated videos are not worth a look at, think again because they can be brought right back from the dead. And using it is probably the easiest thing for even a computer illiterate let alone a geek. And a most point, it is very fast. Saved 39 minutes of my time using nVIDIA CUDA. Pretty cool. Check the comparisons below the believe what I am saying. Test video was a clipping from the game Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2.

Image Gallery-

Image 1- http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/7871/vreveal1.png

Comparison 1- http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/7585/vreveal2.png

Comparison 2- http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/8302/vreveal3.png

And last but not the least,

3D Vision - Now, that is interesting. Very interesting indeed. Watching 2D was well, umm, did you even notice it? So many games and softwares used the name 3D on writing but were they really? Nah. But nVIDIA is what's bringing it now. Seeing stuff in 3D is like actually seeing the real deal, you notice the depths and the distance of objects from screen is easily noticeable. So you can now tell which object is closer and which is farther away from the screen very easily. Now 3D cannot be explained with images, so may I suggest you that head out there, buy a new Zotac GeForce GT240 and you will know how good seeing the real deal is on the virtual world. I didn't really like the Red and Blue glasses because they were pretty strenuous for extended uses but am planning to buy a new one from nVIDIA website which is better than this and retails for $149. Probably worth the buy. I can't say much now because I am searching for a 3D movie now, so, Shhh..., please do not disturb anymore and have a look at a screenshot of the Stereoscopic Player to view 3D movies.

Image Gallery-

Image- http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/5453/13659980.png

I hope this thing shows why nVIDIA CUDA is the best. Are you still reading this? Come on, start moving and get yourself a Zotac GeForce GT240 right now before stocks last. So shoo. Move it fast.

TechKnow: Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) for F1 cars

Yesterday during the Australian Grand Prix, many would say history was made as the Brawn GP team finished 1-2 on the podium. Yes, what a moment and everyone knows that. But there were some F1 cars which were using something people were calling the KERS. So, let us know on what this KERS thing is exactly.

KERS, when expanded known as the Kinetic Energy Recovery System is a very unique and a debated addition to F1 racing. As most people watching F1 have already known that it's sort of a speed boost and gives a increase in the speed for a few moments. It gives a speed boost of exactly 6.6 seconds giving a total of 82hp during that period. So where is the energy to give the boost coming from?

 

 A flywheel KERS

It is coming from the Kinetic Energy lost during the braking of an F1 car. The wasted Kinetic Energy is transferred from the rear end of the wheel to a battery or supercapacitor and when fully charged, can be used for that speed boost.

The KERS is exemplified in complex high end systems such as the Zytek, Flybrid, Torotrak and Xtrac used in F1. The concept of transferring the vehicle’s kinetic energy using Flywheel energy storage was postulated by physicist Richard Feynman in the 1950s. The Xtrac & Flybrid are both licensees of Torotrak's technologies, which employ a small and sophisticated ancillary gearbox incorporating a continuously variable transmission (CVT). The FIA has defined the amount of energy recovery for the 2009 season as 400kJ per lap which translates to 6.6 seconds of 82hp speed boost. The transfer of power to a battery is the electronic KERS system. There is a mechanical KERS system also which uses a flywheel to store the wasted kinetic energy instead of a battery.

The KERS system was tested for the first time during yesterday's Australian Grand Prix in Albert Park, Melbourne. The KERS system is quite heavy and expensive as a result of which many teams have opted out of it. Among the ones which are using are Ferrari, McLaren, Renault and BMW Sauber. The KERS system does not have much impact in the qualifying times as demonstrated by the poor qualifying times by the above teams but during yesterday's race, overtaking and stopping another from overtaking proved to be quite useful with the KERS and the extra boost was helping quite a lot. This is only the beginning for this new technology but some experts suggest that this might be a safety hazard for drivers using it. It remains to be seen on how the KERS works as the season progresses but whatever it is, it makes the current season of F1 a little bit more interesting after the Rear Diffuser controversy which I will also discuss right here in this blog very soon.

Windows 7 Release Candidate coming in May

OOPS! Microsoft spills it all over again. Now another premature download page for the Windows 7 RC just like what happened for Windows 7 Beta and it confirms that Microsoft are going to release the RC on May rather than April as previously rumored. Seems like not everything is going pretty quiet for Microsoft during the whole development of Windows 7. With a series of leaks even before and after the Beta was released and still continuing, Microsoft should look to take a cue from Apple on keeping things a big secret, even within their own departments. So, the page comes up and people see it. Where is it? See the screenshot below. The page appeared on TechNet.

 

Screenshot of the future Windows 7 RC download page

Well, I can see Microsoft banging their heads against their tables. After all, they had worked very hard to keep this is a complete rumor. All busted. Never mind. Good for us that we know when it's coming.

Meanwhile, here's what you need to know from the above image regarding the RC-

This is pre-release software, so please read the following to get an idea of the risks and key things you need to know before you try the RC.

• You don't need to rush to get Windows 7 RC. The RC release will be available at least through June 2009 and we're not limiting the number of product keys, so you have plenty of time.
• Watch the calendar. Windows 7 RC will expire on June 1, 2010. So if you install the RC release you'll either need to upgrade to the final version of Windows 7 before that date, or install a prior version of Windows. (For more about installing Windows, see installation instructions.
• Protect your PC and data. Be sure to back up your data and please don’t test Windows 7 RC on your primary home or business PC.
• Technical details/updates: before installing the RC please read the Release Notes, and Things to Know for important information about the release.
• Keep up with the news. You can keep up with general technical information and news by following the Springboard Series blog or Windows team blog. Want technical guidance, tips, and tools? Visit the Springboard Series on TechNet. And, you can get non-technical news, tips, and offers on the Springboard Series on TechNet
• Keep your PC updated: Be sure turn on automatic updates in Windows Update in case we publish updates for the RC.
• Microsoft Partners: Learn more about Windows 7 on the Microsoft Partner Portal. 

Here's what you need to have:

• Internet access (to download Windows 7 RC and get updates)
• A PC with these minimum recommended specifications:
• 1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor or higher
• 1 GB of system memory or more
• 16 GB of available disk space
• Support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128 MB memory (to enable the Aero theme)
• DVD-R/W Drive 

This part is the same as the Beta. The rest is what you should get. Download links and general information. Surely, interesting stuff from Microsoft to let us know. The TechNet page now takes you to the beta site again. So, users eagerly awaiting for the next release of Windows 7 will have to wait till May while testers might get a new build next month.

Windows 7 RC download page goes up early
Discuss on what you expect next in Windows 7 RC

Do you have the 'cool' tag to own Microsoft?

This is it folks, the moment we've been waiting for. PC users have suffered the taunting and teasing of Apple's "Get a Mac" ads for years now and it seems Microsoft has finally decided to fight fire with fire, valiantly.

Microsoft's latest addition to their "Life Without Walls" campaign is a new series of videos entitled "Laptop Hunters". In the premier video, we find Lauren who is in search for a brand new 17" laptop for under $1000. Lo and behold; Lauren's first stop - The Apple Store. Can you see where this is going? I think you can.

Oh, but after everything Apple has pulled over the years, do you think Microsoft would stop there? Nuh-uh. Head on over to The Wall Street Journal to be greeted with yet another surprise. Yes, it's a Mac vs. PC slot machine banner! (pictured above) Give it a spin to compare your affordable PC choice with a hilariously weak Mac offering.

Well done Microsoft, we knew you could do it. Superb twist to what you call a classic payback.

Laptop Hunters - Lauren
Laptop Hunters Home

Steve Clayton's Geek in Disguise

iPhone OS 3.0 released to developers

After the arrival of iPhone, things in the world of technology have been completely reshaped and modified. What was thought difficult was made easy by the man, Steve Jobs. The iPhone came and it was no less a wonder boasting of features like a Multi-touch screen, a complete multimedia device akin to the iPods, full Mac OS ported to the iPhone. But then with all the goodies comes all the drawbacks. So, Apple soon went to the drawing board once again and came up with the new Apple iPhone 3G. With more features and functionalities, people were getting increasingly happy. But again basic features like Copy/Paste functions and Forwading SMSes were omitted and Apple received huge criticisms for it.

Scott Forstall, senior vice president for iPhone software discussing the new cut, copy and paste feature

This time they have made sure we don't get much to crib out. Apple have released the iPhone OS 3.0 officially to developers and will be available to general public in June when Steve Jobs will be making his heroic comeback from his medical leave. Rather than talking too much garbage, let us delve into what the iPhone OS 3.0 has new to offer us. Here are some the key benefits out of 100-

• Cut, Copy and Paste across all applications. This announcement was greeted with thunderous applause prompting cynics to ask why people were clapping for a feature which every mobile phone already has.
• Forwading SMSes and the ability to delete multiple messages at one go.
• MMS. Not necessary but with QR codes, it can be used to sell tickets.
• Spotlight, OS X Leopard's search function will now be available making task work to be finished in a jiffy. Earlier, a lot of scrolling used to be the only thing.
• Turn by turn GPS navigation. If your city isn't mapped properly by Google Maps, you can use third-party maps to guide you.
• Support for Bluetooth stereo headphones.
• Exchange files and contacts over Bluetooth. Songs will be excluded.
• Instantly hook up with another Bluetooth phone and start playing games. No pairing is required.
• Typing e-mails in Landscape mode. You can type faster and gives you more space between keys.
• Parental Controls so that they can ban the sites and videos that they do not their children to watch.
• Better streaming of videos. iPhone will adjust playback depending on the Internet speed.
• Tethering. You can use your iPhone as a modem to get onto the Internet.
• Voice Memo. You can record your letters and mail them and even attach Contacts.
• Sending Contacts to others.
• Attach multiple photos in an e-mail. Currently you can attach only one picture.
• Search your e-mails. If it is not found on the phone, it will search the server too.
• Subscriptions. This will allow you to buy new levels of games and magazines, newspapers through the Kindle 2 app.
• Push. Instead of running applications simultaneously, draining battery life, audio and text alerts will be pushed into the closed app.
• Medical Apps will allow you to measure your blood sugar levels through an adaptor and even track your blood pressure.

With the freedom available to developers, the iPhone can be used as a control panel for practically any electronics available. You can pair iPhone with a set of speakers and use it as a digital equaliser or shake your phone to just shuffle your songs. The possibilities are endless.

iPhone 3.0 Feature list
Discuss about the iPhone OS 3.0

Microsoft officially releases Internet Explorer 8

Microsoft has announced the availability of Windows Internet Explorer 8, the new Web browser that offers the "best solution for how people use the Web today". It can be downloaded in 25 languages at the link given below starting at noon EDT on March 19. Internet Explorer 8 is easier to use, faster and offers leading-edge security features in direct response to people's increasing concerns about online safety. With this, Microsoft has moved a step further after IE7 was introduced to officially take on the likes of the giant Firefox and Opera.

"Customers have made clear what they want in a Web browser - safety, speed and greater ease of use," said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. "With Internet Explorer 8, we are delivering a browser that gets people to the information they need, fast, and provides protection that no other browser can match."

In response to extensive customer research and input from tens of millions of customer sessions, Microsoft developed Internet Explorer 8 to focus on what matters most to people. The security enhancements offer protection against existing and emerging security threats online. It blocks two to four times more malware attacks than other browsers; cuts down on the time it takes to complete common tasks on the Web such as searching, mapping and sharing, including navigating 15 of the 20 top worldwide sites; and blurs the lines between the services they use daily and the browser used to access the Internet.

With IE8, the browser market now becomes more competitive and enjoyable with Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Apple Safari and Google Chrome still battling it out. This competition has now become even more enjoyable. I will be publishing a review in a few days from now on.

Internet Explorer 8 Download Location
Discuss about Internet Explorer 8
News Source

ASUS P320 - The ideal business phone

ASUS, the brand well known for its EEE PC, motherboards and graphics cards which have won accolades all around the world have now come up with another stunning winner - The ASUS P320. ASUS have earlier launched quite a few number of PDAs but none of them didn't really work out and most notable among them is the M930 which tries to mimic the Nokia Communicator series but fails badly at that. But with the P320, ASUS has made no mistakes whatsoever.

The PDA is powered by a 2.6 inch screen with a resolution of 240x320 pixels, which is quite low a screen size for a business phone and that too with a touchscreen. It doesn't have a QWERTY keypad thus making typing on the touchscreen a bit difficult but it is fine once it is used a few times. It has got dimensions of 95x55x13 mm and has a weight of 105 g which makes it both light and sleek for a business PDA.Although there is no 3G in this device but lack of 3G wont really affect the Indian users of this product. This might be an issue in countries where 3G has arrived. It has GPRS, EDGE, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity thus making it a powerhouse in the connectivity department. The PDA sports a 2-megapixel camera with autofocus and video recording. It also has the standard USB 2.0 port. It has SMS, MMS, Email, Push Email and MSN connectivity services thus making it a powerful all round device. GPS is a very nifty add-on for this phone which makes it even more functional.

The phone is powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional making it a heavyweight in terms of applications features and usability. Document editing is supported in the P320 and Excel, Word, PowerPoint, OneNote and other documents can be edited with ease. The performance is a bit on the slower side due to a slow processor but that doesn't deter it from testing it's limits.

The battery provides a standard talktime of up to 4 hours and a standby time of up to 400 hours. The battery is a Li-ion 1100 mAh which can provide enough juice to a feature rich phone as this one.

The price? Only Rs. 12,800 Indian Rupee and that is just the MRP. At such a price, this is simply a bargain. So why wait? You can't get such a full featured PDA at a price like this and with features like GPS and full office productivity suites, this baby is hard to miss. Excellent investment for anyone looking for the best value for money.


Final Verdict: Excellent phone. Deserves 4.5 stars out of 5. Great work by ASUS and let us hope they keep 'em coming.

Sound Reception:
Ease of Use:
Features:
Reliability & Durability:
Style & Design:
Value for Money :

Contact Us

If you need any help, want to share some suggestions, make a complaint or have an interesting post to share with us in this blog, contact administrator Ankush Das at-

 

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Gaming using Microsoft Silverlight

With the advent of latest technology, new new updates coming which are dynamic and totally unseen. And with days going by, each and every department of the technology is seeing heated up competition whether you call it software or the hardware arena. And, since Microsoft has a habit of leading from the front, why would they choose to stay behind when it comes to one of the world's most popular format - Flash. Introduced quite recently and unheard of for many, Silverlight has been introduced to the mainstream market and has already generated a huge fan following already. Many sites have already adopted it and quite a lot of online games have already arrived. Let's see what Silverlight has for us to offer.

A direct competitor of Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Flash, Silverlight provides a retained mode graphics system similar to Windows Presentation Foundation, and integrates multimedia, graphics, animations and interactivity into a single runtime environment. It has been designed in such a way that it will work in conjunction with XAML which can be used for marking up the vector graphics and animations and will be scriptable with Javascript.

Silverlight supports the playback of WMV, WMA and MP3 media content across all supported browsers which include Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Opera and Seamonkey without requiring Windows Media Player, the Windows Media Player ActiveX control or Windows Media browser plugins. Silverlight makes it possible to dynamically load XML content that can be manipulated through a DOM interface, a technique that is consistent with conventional Ajax techniques. These properties help it to make dynamic websites and for online Silverlight games.

The gaming market is slowly moving towards Silverlight and fast. On the right is a screenshot of a Silverlight game, Zombomatic. Silverlight games of these sorts are coming up very fast on the internet. And one of the sites which will soon be offering a huge number of Silverlight games in one place is the Silverlight Club. The site is working with various Silverlight game developers to bring the netizens 100s of Silverlight games to this one platform. Online gaming sure has a bright future and with sites like these coming up, you are made sure that you ain't going to have a boring experience sitting on the net. So if you are the one who is getting bored and sitting idle in front of your computer, then go and play Silverlight games online and make sure that your time doesn't go pulling your hair. Have fun gaming till then!

The Windows 7 Review

The new Windows 7 Beta is a total image makeover from Microsoft after their disastrous Vista. Even though it is Beta, it seems more or less pretty stable without much bugs and people can even think of using it as their everyday OS (well that is surely not recommended). Well my system specifications are pretty unimpressive and Vista had clearly put my system down to it's knees but 7 seems to be pretty impressive at the performance with system specs that read-

Intel Pentium 4 1.73 GHz
Intel 915GM Graphics Chipset (XPDM)
512 MB RAM (Although Microsoft recommended 1 GB minimum RAM)
80 GD HDD (20GB dedicated for Windows 7)

Now, let's get into the inards of the OS. The startup is cool with four animated flashing lights making up the Windows logo and progress bar has been removed. Logs in pretty quickly and starts up preparing the desktop in a jiffy. Let's look at all the standout features of the New Windows 7.

Important Features

Superbar
The first thing you will notice on the desktop is the change of the taskbar. Not only by looks, but also by functionality. Larger icons with no text take up less space and look beautiful. The Vista Start Orb is now replaced with a glowing new Orb. The rest of the start menu is the same as Vista but with faster and efficient searches. Looks like 7 has been made to be an intelligent OS that understands and processes the User's demands fast.

Jump Lists
Jump Lists is an exciting new feature and does not remain the same boring right-click any more. It is way more better. Right clicking each active application or folder presents you with the related options. For example, for right click on Windows Media Player running in the backgorund, you get different playing options. Right clicking on an open folder gives you a list of frequently used files and folders making navigation a whole lot more easier.

Aero Peek
Unluckily due to my very modest hardware of my Laptop, I was not able to experiment this particular feature but from what I read on the Internet was that this is another feature pretty impressive and much more functional than the WinFlip in Vista which most people never ever used. You can literally peak through open windows to see the window below or the desktop below. Clearly a very nice and useful concept.

Less Obtrusive UAC
Well this had to be a feature becuase of the problems UAC had created with Vista. Now the UAC is pretty much less obstrusive and you can also configure it in 4 levels to control how much it disturbs or nags you.

Search different sites right from Explorer
Yes and that's a very very new and cool feature. Just add a .osdx file of that respective site and then all you need to do is select the site in Windows Explorer and start searching through the Search Bar. New and innovative feature. No need to open any browsers. You can try it by seeing the template available in the site below-

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/742-windows-7-search-federation-providers.html

Seems faster than Vista and XP
Yes, I said it, XP too. Although not in all places, but 7 does manage enough punch to beat Vista hands down and XP with a fierce competition. Even on my system, Windows 7 works very snappily and is a whole lot of fun to use. Loads applications pretty fast and the startup times are simply mind boggling. It just takes around 15 seconds for everything to set up and get up and running. Impressive! It seems pretty stable too. Even though it's a Beta, my Laptop hasn't hanged even a single time nor it has seen a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). This is good work from Microsoft as Beta versions are known to be quite unstable but this one manages to cling on to the exception list. The final version seems to be interesting as the final version is generally better than Beta and a lot changes during that transition.

Looks pretty good till now without breaking a sweat. Windows 7 is here to salvage something of what Windows Vista made of mess off. Not only features and designs but a whole lot of performance improvements. Windows 7 seems quite ready for Netbooks. Interesting how Microsoft redesigned the kernel to use lesser memory and resources and then built the whole Vista code on it with new things too. Haven't got a chance to review the Touch features of 7 but will surely cover it up sometime later with a review. Ubuntu, the Linux OS which had been hailed as the Windows killer is now facing the heat from Windows 7, the Linux killer. It will be a good competition in the days to come and hoping Microsoft would not disappoint us at all. Since we have good things so much, why not talk about the bad part. So here it goes for the small group of XP users.

Some Reasons why a group of XP users won't like 7

• Since 7 is based on the same driver model as Vista, it is deemed to suffer from driver incompatibilities although users upgrading from Vista will have no issues with this problem.
• Vista was known to be bloated because it had Aero and since 7 hasn't changed much there, XP users with low system specs are in for a huge disappointment but the Basic theme works fine on low end PCs.
• Since XP users with low system specs won't get the benefit of all the features and top-notch performance, they would rather stay put with XP instead of upgrading.
• Upgrade from Vista to 7 is allowed but not from XP to 7 which is in my view a huge omission. That means an XP user wanting Windows 7 will either have to be ready to get the Hard Drive wiped clean or perform a Dual-boot which an average guy with little computer knowledge is not expected to know.

Well here's my Windows 7 review. Many points are important for Microsoft to consider while getting ready to prepare the final package. Windows 7 is surely a step forward in reviving the image of Microsoft among Corporates and Tech critics. But a lot still needs to be done. Whatever they have come up with till now is pretty good and hope that this just gets better. Good Luck to Microsoft for coming up with a neat final package. Till then, I will enjoy using the Beta and take loads of opportunities to toy around with it.

Windows 7 Beta is now officially available!

After months and months of pure speculation, Windows 7 is finally out and with a bang. It was originally slated for release on January 9th but due to the overwhelming response of the masses, Microsoft delayed it by one day to add more servers for a better download experience. It is finally out and if you want to lay your hands on it immediately, then head to the link below-

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-download.aspx

 A Windows 7 Desktop

For download instructions and other Windows 7 info, head to the official Windows 7 site to get everything you need to know. But do remember that the Beta will expire on August 1st, 2009 and is available only for the first 2.5 million downloaders. To get the keys for the 32 and 64-bit builds, head over to the link below-

   32-bit: https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/productkeys/win7-32/enus/default.aspx

64-bit: https://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/productkeys/win7-64/enus/default.aspx

The keys need to be used to activate the Beta build so that they can be used for the full Beta period.

This is a very much anticipated release from Windows and I will be publishing a short review of the OS right here in this blog so do stay tuned to the blog for the latest updates of Windows 7 and more info on it.

Installation is pretty simple, all you need to do is burn the ISO downloaded to a blank DVD using a DVD Burner software and then run the setup. Starting up Windows 7 is as easy as it gets and once you start up the setup, all you need to do is sit down in front of the computer with a cup of coffee.

Till the next post, Happy Experimenting Windows 7.

Windows 7 Beta leaked!

Windows 7 Beta (build 7000) has been leaked on to the internet. This was done yesterday and is being downloaded in huge quantities through torrent networks. The download available is a 32-bit ISO image and proposedly a Beta download. It has been leaked on major torrent networks now although initially, the download was available from a Chinese File Hosting server Namipan. The download was originally leaked on a Chinese forum PCBeta. To download the Beta, please go through the links available below-

Demonoid Link: Windows_7_Beta_1_7000_0_081212_1400_iso_o-Demonoid.com-o.torrent
Mininova Link: 7000 [mininova].torrent

There are approximately a 1000 seeders and 5000 peers for the Mininova torrent. Since registrations at Demonoid are closed right now, you should download it from Mininova right now. If you want to download through the Namipan file server, you need to download first NamiRobot from the links below-

http://202.111.173.105:8011/NamiRobotSetup.exe
http://218.93.248.125:8011/NamiRobotSetup.exe

Then go to the link

http://www.namipan.com/d/7000.0.081212-1400_client_en-us_Ultimate-GB1CULFRE_EN_DVD.iso/3cde3c2bb03773c82ce8eb766c459fd9a91f6e4d00a0179c

and there click the blue text besides the ">" sign to download through NamiRobot.

File Properties

File: 7000.0.081212-1400_client_en-us_Ultimate-GB1CULFRE_EN_DVD.iso
Size: 2618793984 bytes
MD5: f9dce6ebd0a63930b44d8ae802b63825
SHA1: 6071184282B2156FF61CDC5260545C078CCA31EE
CRC32: AABA5A48

Please verify all the above properties before downloading so that you make sure that you are downloading the original copy. The Beta will expire on July 1, 2009.

So enjoy your download and have fun experimenting with the new Windows 7!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!

 

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May the next year be as beautiful as ever before for everyone.

Windows 7 Beta : Coming on January 13th?

 

After months and months of speculation, it seems that the wait is almost over. Microsoft may officially release the Windows 7 Beta at the next month's Microsoft Developer Network Conference (MDC) slated for January 13th, 2009. Also, attendees at next month's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) could get the first public look at Windows 7 which is scheduled for 8-11 January. Although there has been no official confirmation on this specific report, Microsoft wrote on a Web site for its MDCs that attendees of those conferences, some of which are scheduled for mid-January, can expect a Windows 7 beta DVD. Some reports have suggested that Windows 7 Beta has already been made available to specific testers through invitation from ZDNet. If that is true, we can expect it anytime soon. Microsoft has expressed a desire to launch Windows 7 by the early 2010 but some reports suggest that Microsoft may even release it by mid-2009 and that too after Vista has performed very poorly on the front line market with a lot of disappointment.

Whatever it is, we stand to benefit from it and this is surely an interesting thing and we might be in for something huge. Right now, one can have a sneak peek at the Windows 7 by downloading a pre-beta from different torrent sites ILLEGALLY but surely there's no stopping the party. Let us hope for the earliest possible dates!

For more details and the absolute latest updates on when Windows 7 Beta is coming to your PCs, keep a close tabs on the Official Windows 7 site. To go there, click here.

Is iPhone a Boon or Bane for India

We are back. That's the loud and clear message from Cupertino. Apple earlier shaking the world with it's iPod now clearly is shaking the world with the new Apple iPhone. And in it's newest 3G avatar, has it got the potential to do the difference or make an impact in India? Let us see what it really has to offer to the Indians.

The Hype

Essentially, the key element to a products success and failure. More the justification of a hype, more is the appreciation and thus profits of the product. Apple had created a lot of excitement in India before it's latest launch in India and the new price reductions in the US really meant a whole lot more fun for the Indians. But it was a short lived joy. Estimates had predicted a sale of nearly 10,000 iPhones in the first month after the launch. But the excitement soon fizzled out due to exorbitant prices charged by the providers Airtel and Vodafone (Wish BSNL was there too) and iPhone hardly sold a 1,000 units in India. Too bad for such a dream gadget. Partly because of the greed of the Indian government to make higher tax money from it and partly from the service providers so that they could benefit from the good margin. Thus all the great anticipation and excitement went down hard enough for Apple to take a beating from it. Although the iPod Touch really became a huge hit in India.

The Inside Power

An iPhone right now in India is more like a BMW on the Indian streets; full of style, class and pride! The Apple iPhone offered Multi-touch support on a 3.5 inch high resolution screen which the new one also offers. The new Apple iPhone 3G other than the obvious introduction of 3G has a lot more. But since India is yet to see 3G auctions, this feature more or less goes right into the drain. The other new introductions are the new Firmwares and the inclusion of the new App Store. Designated to make your life easily, there are many Apps to choose from and range from free to highly priced piece of creations. Although the restriction limits a lot more applications but still it's a novel concept. Performance is top class due to the inbuilt Mac OSX operating system which is quite snappy and cool. The 2MP camera is quite disappointing for a novelty like this. Other than that it features the fully loaded Safari browser and other built in Mac applications to add to your ease. Although you still cannot edit your Office documents in this one as of yet. Music and Video quality is typical Apple and great. But rather than all this, what does it really have for the Indians?

The Desi Impact

• First of all, one's biggest deterrent will have to be the locking of the SIM card to the specific provider. We Indians usually love to interchange between different providers whichever is the best but this beauty surely keeps you at bay from this.
• Next, you have the lack of SMS Forwarding, Copying options and FM radio which means most Indians will have to give this a miss. The first and the last are almost essential features in every phone for every Indian.
• The next problem is the lack of 3G support in India till now which means the new tag of Apple iPhone 3G is more or less useless.
• Lack of high Google Maps support as in the US in India also adds to Indian woes.
• When the battery goes down, it means you need to go to Apple and surrender your phone to them till the time they don't finish work and that means you are without your life support (at least for Indians).
• High price means that after seeing all the drawbacks, it makes sure that you don't buy this device at all.

So eventually, what matters is how much the drawbacks are going to affect the person's life. Right now, the Apple iPhone is more like a fashion statement than anything else in India. If you are a college goer or a young dynamic youth, then the iPhone is for you but if you are a tech freak and want only the best, then you are in for a huge disappointment. So the Doctor has advised some CAUTION pills at the moment.

Which one you prefer and why? Is it PlayStation or Xbox or Wii

Which one you prefer and why?

Is it PlayStation or Xbox or Wii

Well, in this new era of technology, new gadgets are coming up to help people relax and make their lives much more easier. And the three companies here have taken the

initiative to do just that - Helping us relax. And thus, they each come up with their own gaming consoles. Their names being the Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 3 and the Microsoft XBOX 360.

The game console was first introduced by Nintendo in 1977 and it grew up into a fad. Almost every household had a Nintendo Gaming Consoles during the 1990s. But then came up Microsoft and Sony and changed the way we play games. All of them are a part of the seventh generation of consoles. If you want to play some serious games, buy any one of the gaming consoles and get going. OK, enough peek in the history books and let me start reviewing all the consoles one by one.

Sony PlayStation 3

Specifications

The Sony PlayStation is all about class, precision, quality and performance. The PLAYSTATION 3 is convex on its left side when vertical (the top side is convex when horizontal), and has a glossy black finish with the PlayStation logo on the left side. In it's third installment, it has completely gone High Definiton and every output can be viewed in full HD output(1080p). It also has a slot loading Blu-Ray Drive which has been patented by Sony and on which, one disc can hold upto a whopping 50GB of data. Imagine the number of games one can stuff into one Blu-Ray Disc. It also supports 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi and is integrated with Gigabit Ethernet which makes it a very fast contender in the network category. It is bundled with Bluetooth 2.0 and also sports a media card reader with support for SD, Memory Stick, XD, SM and Compact Flash compatibility. The space varies from 80GB to 160GB on the PS3's SATA Drive. It is intergrated with the NVIDIA RSX 'Reality Synthesizer', the first of it's kind in all the gaming consoles. It is bundled with the trademark SixAxis controller.

Performance

Talking about performance, this beauty smokes out the rest of the competition in this department by a pretty big margin. The NVIDIA RSX 'Reality Synthesizer' really make the games feel as if you are right in the middle of the game. The PS3 in based on a IBM-designed Cell microprocessor as its CPU, utilizing seven of the eight "synergistic processing elements" thus improving performance drastically. The HD output makes it even better with playing these games in large screens and that too with great detail. The SixAxis controller has now gone wireless and that means complete full action on it. The controller has been always my favourite since the PS2 days and I still love them. Playing games on the controllers is as easy as 1, 2, 3. Watching High quality Blu-Ray movies in it's full glory is a charm on this beast which can handle almost anything. And considering the prices of HD Plasma and LCD TVs and Projectors falling fast, this will only be some time before the PS3 becomes the global No. 1 in the console market. The System Software installed as the primary OS offers a clear and easy interface to scroll in.

 
Game Titles
The gaming titles released on the PS3 is very few compared to the ones on Wii and XBOX. Also, they are very costly even if they are available. Among the top PS3 gaming titles, there is Assasin's Creed, BioShock, Burnout Paradise, Call of Duty 4, Grand Turismo and Metal Gear Solid 4 are some of the top games but these are the only handful of them.


Conclusion
If you are patient and can wait for a few months, then the PS3 is one's best bet. With full HD and NVIDIA Graphics, this console just takes you one more big step closer to reality and will amaze with it's high quality and performance. Although the lack of gaming titles and the high console price might not help it right now, but in the long run this is one superb investment. Also, backward compatibility means that right now you can play your PS2 games and have full fun. The PlayStation network offers free games online to play and is a very good network.

Microsoft XBOX 360

 

Specifications

The XBOX 360 was the first of the seveth generation gaming consoles to be introduced in the market. The XBOX 360 doesn't really look as drooling as the PLAYSTATION 3 but it surely impresses with the big power button almost at the center of the console. It looks very well designed and placed. It is HD capable(1080i) but not full HD as it's Sony counterpart but the new XBOX Elite is full HD. But the games still look very enriching and beautiful. The console runs on an ATI based GPU unlike the Sony PlayStation which uses an NVIDIA based GPU. There is Ethernet and USB connectivity but sadly it misses out on Wi-Fi and Media Card readers which makes for important and necessary connectivity options in today's generation. The hard drive spaces vary from 20GB to 120GB in the XBOX Elite, enough to store all your games and movies. The processor is based on the IBM Power PC with 3 cores.

Performance

Well, the XBOX 360 is pretty much everyone's favourite offering some great eye candy visuals. It is pretty fast too. The OS installed on it provides a great and easy menu for navigation. The ATI graphics does a pretty good job in rendering the games in high quality. But it is quite disturbing in the games to hear a noisy fan and DVD drive which is very much annoying. Again, even the XBOX's gamepad is wireless which offers good response. Another problem here is that the DVD playback offers a substandard quality which is absolutely not good considering a console which is HD capable. Moreover, it is good in performance except some minor niggles.

Game Titles 
This is one department where the XBOX rules supreme. No other console can boast of as many games it has. It has a huge number of games including quite a large number of bestsellers which have sold more than a million copies worldwide. Among the most popular and hyped releases is the Halo 3 which released amid quite a lot of anticipation from it's fans. Some studies suggested that the release of Halo 3 boosted the sales of the consoles by as much as 50%. Some of the other most popular titles on the XBOX is Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia, Grand Theft Auto and Project Gotham Racing. There are many more which are rated as the gaming world's best. So if you are the gaming buffs who only want a dose of a number of new games and nothing else, then you have just stumbled upon the perfect console for it. And the best part is that the game titles aren't really costly and thus make the deal even more sweeter.

  
Conclusion
So, if you want a plethora of game titles and are not finding it in many places, then the XBOX gaming console is just for you. With the perfect combination of good graphics, features and a huge collection of games, the XBOX is very easily at the top and scores in almost every department. Even the XBOX Live is superb and is a service hard to beat. So, overall this one literally beats the dust.... but no, wait. The Wii is also on the line too. Let us review it too and then take the final roll call of the winner.

Nintendo Wii

Well, so this is the final console and one which shies away from the limelight and does a lot more in the background. So let's go into the depth of this shy console. Let's see what does it really have to offer.

Specifications

This has been touted as the XBOX and PS3 killer. Why? Let us keep the surprise and it during the performance tests. But the Wii doesn't really sport some drooling specs unlike the XBOX and PS3. It has a native resolution of 480p which is nowhere even close to the High Definition mark. But the Wii is something totally different. Well it's main controller is something like a remote also known as the Wiimote and another controller which can be attached to it known as the Nunchuk. It has got Wi-Fi connectivity and a media card reader but strangely no Ethernet. It has a pretty much compact form and the white colour on it looks pretty good and stands very impressive. Other than that, not much to boast off in the specs. It bundles Wii Sports as part of it's package and is really good. Why? Here's why!

Performance

On this front, it both impresses and also goes down a bit. First of all the impressive part. How is the Wiimote exactly used? When using the Wario Ware Smooth Moves game, at times you need to turn it horizontally and grip it like handlebars, whereas in the tennis segment of Wii Sports you turn side on and swing it like a tennis racquet. It is a whole lot of fun than what the PS3 and XBOX have to offer. The tanks game within Wii Play and the boxing segments of Wii Sports require you to plug an extra controller into this remote, and the result is staggeringly intuitive. Picture a ten pin bowling minigame where you literally do a bowling motion. Or an air hockey-type game where you wave your controller around, with the movements replicated on-screen by your paddle. It's delightfully simple and yet adds a genuinely fresh perspective to what otherwise would be fairly unspectacular software. It is just too much fun. Well here's the bad part for the hardcore gamer. Games like Call of Duty and such such won't run absolutely on the Wii. So for the gamers who want the best of these games won't get the fun on Wii. But in terms of gameplay, this one is much much better than all XBOXes and PS3s. Playing multiplayer on this makes it double the fun.

Game Titles

Well, there aren't many game titles for the Wii. But the bundled Wii Sports and Play are just more than enough to compromise for the lack of titles. The Wii Sports offers Tennis, Golf, Bowling, Boxing and Baseball. All of them are just so interactive. It will seem as if you are just playing the game yourself. Nowadays, even doctors prescribe playing on Wii to obese people who do not do any exercises. It is just so absorbing in the gameplay.

Conclusion

So the conclusion for this. Well for gameplay - 10/10. And at the end of the day, what one really wants is some relaxation and fun and that's the basic motto of all the consoles and Nintendo seems to have struck the right chord by following the basics. Very addictive gameplay, superb and great ideas conceived by Nintendo. It is also the cheapest console available in the market which just makes it even more attracted too. Nintendo can now proudly say that 'Wii rule'.

The Final Winner

Well it has been tough to differentiate all of them. Eventually, the console which has to be crowned the winner has to be the XBOX 360. With great performance, gameplay and a plethora of new game titles, this console impresses everyone and leaves the competition far behind. This is ideal choice of a person wanting the ultimate from their console.

But The PS3 and Wii weren't far behind.

If you want performance and quality at the highest level, have the money to spare and have the patience to wait, then the PLAYSTATION 3 is your ideal partner for relaxation.

If you want sheer gameplay and fun at the highest level closer to reality, then the Wii is just the ideal candidate for your home's special place. It is one special console and Nintendo surely deserves a whole lot of appreciation for the effort gone behind it.

So with this, we can safely call it the end but with more and more advanced technology coming up, the console war can only heat up at this moment and just make it even more interesting for us. Till then, happy playing on your consoles.