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The Week That Was: Samsung Omnia HD is Here!
Techtree News Staff, Aug 16, 2009 0800 hrs ISTTechtree takes a look at the tech news that hogged headlines last week!
Phew! It's time yet again for the Techtree News roundup where we take a look at the stories that hogged headlines over the course of the previous week!
Dell Mini 12 Retires
Dell is reportedly removing its not too old Mini 12 netbook from its product line up. The company seems to be focusing on the 9-inch and the now netbook "standard" 10-inch version of its netbooks. In the future, however, the company seems to see market only for the 10 inch netbooks and might just phase out the 9-inch version too. Dell, on its corporate blog, outlined reasons for its decision to kill the 12-inch Mini. What this essentially means is that Dell seems to have realized its consumers expect a larger sized laptop to perform like a large laptop, instead of just a netbook.
Sony Laptops Devoid of Windows XP Mode
It was just last week that Microsoft announced the availability of Windows XP Mode Release Candidate and the Windows 7 RTM had already reached to PC Makers. While most PC makers would be including Windows XP Mode support in the PC hardware, Sony has surprisingly decided to disable hardware virtualization in the Sony VAIO Laptops. Xavier Lauwert, senior manager product marketing for Sony, stated in a blogpost comment that the step was taken since very less number of requests for enabling virtualization were received and they were concerned about exposing the system to malicious code if virtualization technology (VT) was enabled. At this moment, all Sony VAIO laptops are sold carrying BIOS with VT disabled.
Google Earth Admits Goof-up on Arunachal
Google has admitted that it committed a mistake by wrongly depicting certain parts of north-east India's Arunachal Pradesh as Chinese territory, and promised to correct the maps soon. According to a statement by a Google spokesperson, "Earlier this week, as part of routine update to Google Earth, we published new data for the Arunachal Pradesh region that changed the depiction of certain place names in the product. The change was a result of a mistake in our processing of new map data."
More Screenshots of WinMo 6.5 Emerge
We have seen in the past that while Windows Mobile 6.5 seems to be more pleasant visually, it still wasn't that finger friendly. That's because of its 6.1 based origins which belonged to the era of the styli. However, we have some latest screenshots of what might just be the "latest" version of the 6.5 and guess what? There seems to be quite a few buttons that seem to be finger friendly afterall! So, looks like whenever Winmo 6.5 is released, you might enjoy the experience, er with your fingers!
Zune HD 16GB, 32GB Price Hits Amazon
The much awaited media player - Zune HD's price has been finally revealed! Amazon, the online retailer, is taking pre-orders for Microsoft Zune HD media player. The player will be available in 16GB and 32GB capacity but no further information is available on the individual models. On comparing prices with respective capacities, the 16GB Zune HD costs $220 (Rs. 10,560 approx.) while second generation 16GB iPod Touch costs $299 (Rs. 14,400 approx.). On the other hand, 32GB Zune HD costs $290 which is way cheaper than the 32GB iPod Touch (second generation) which costs $399 (Rs. 19,200 approx.). Hence the price difference between both brands is fairly visible here.
Intel Core i5 750 CPU Spotted
Intel may launch Nehalem architecture based Intel Core i7 750 and 850 processors on Sept. 6, according to rumors doing the rounds. Codenamed Lynnfield, the images of upcoming Intel Core i5 750 were spotted on the web.
Intel Core i5 750 is quad-core processor with clock speed of 2.66GHz and 8MB L3 cache. This Core i5 CPU is actually based on Nehalem Core i7 design but the third memory channel has been removed and QuickPath Interconnect will be replaced by Direct Media Interface.
Samsung's First Android Phone Launched
Looks like Samsung wants to take the battle to HTC's home turf. Yesterday, Taiwanese operator Taiwan Mobile launched Samsung's Android-powered i7500 smartphone in Taiwan. This also means that the device is headed for other markets in the near future. In fact, according to some sources, the device might just land in India by the end of this month. We do not have any information regarding the price at which the phone will retail in India though. However, it would be a nice competition to the HTC Magic which is currently the only Android based handset "officially" available in India.
Nokia Phones To Get Microsoft Office
Long time rivals in the mobile phone arena Nokia and Microsoft have agreed on a partnership that might result in Microsoft's Office applications appearing on Nokia phones.
LiMo Foundation Adds New Members, Phones
The LiMo foundation yesterday announced the entry of two more members into their fold. The latest entrants include Japanese mobile network operator KDDI and Immersion Corp., which makes touchscreen technology. KDDI joins rival Japanese operators NTT DoCoMo and Softback who are already members of the LiMo foundation.In other LiMo related news, NEC and Panasonic have introduced new LiMo-compliant handsets for the Japanese market. The new phones, will be sold by NTT DoCoMo, bump the number of LiMo handsets in the market up to a total of 42.
Samsung Omnia HD Comes to India
Samsung has announced the launch of its first Series 60 Fifth Edition handset, the Omnia i8910 HD in India. The power packed cellphone boasts of a host of new features, most notably, its 8 megapixel camera and HD video recording (720p @ 30fps) ability.
The Omnia HD features a huge 3.7 inch AMOLED screen sporting a 360 x 640 pixel resolution. This should make your Video and image watching experience simply amazing. The Omnia HD also features an ARM Cortex A8 processor running at 600 MHz. There is currently a clarification required if the Indian version actually ships with a 1000mHz processor.
Is Your Palm Pre Spying on You?
Time for yet another "privacy policy" related story. The last time we heard of anything like this was a few months ago when Facebook had to "revert" to its original privacy clauses owing to hue and cry generated by changes to its privacy policy.
It's now the turn of Palm who is in the midst of a row that alleges that the company is tracking the usage of the device by its user. A Debian Developer Joey Hess figured out that his WebOS laden Palm Pre used to send "some data" to Palm on a daily basis. After a surgical analysis, he came to the conclusion that not only was his location and movement being tracked, but also are the kind of applications and programs installed on the phone.
Mac Mini Killer Dell Inspiron zino HD
Dell is out to compete with Apple on mini PC segment. Images of Dell Inspiron zino HD surfaced and the outer casing of the mini pc resembled to the arrangement found in Apple Mac Mini. No details about the technical specifications of zino HD were available but from the name it appears that this mini PC will join Dell's Inspiron desktops family.
The glossy black Dell Inspiron zino HD has HDMI port with an intention to push it as HD-ready mini PC. This mini PC directly competes with Apple's Mac Mini and also Acer Aspire Revo on grounds of HD capability. These three products are bound to differ on grounds of specifications. Apple Mac Mini has slot load optical drive support while zino HD has the traditional slim tray optical drive support.
AMD's 3.4GHz Phenom II X4 965 BE Chips
AMD has launched yet another 45nm Deneb core based 3.4GHz Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition processor for its 'Dragon' platform. This quad-core Phenom II 965 BE processor is slight frequency boosted version of the Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition. AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE processor runs at clock speed of 3.4GHz, speed bumped from 3.2GHz of Phenom II X4 955 BE. Apart from that, X4 965 BE processor has 8MB cache, Socket AM3, support for DDR3 memory and 2GHz Hyper Threading link. Like other Phenom II chips, the X4 965 can put the idle cores to sleep modes.
Coming Soon: Retweet From Twitter
Twitter has recently announced its API change related information on Google Groups and it seems, we're about to witness quite a few changes on Twitter, very soon. To start, users might see the sorely missed "retweet" option right on the Twitter homepage, in the near future. As of now, users depend on third party programs or even manually type out retweets (usually by adding RT, followed by the @username and the tweet).
MTNL Launches 3G Jadoo Mobile Services
After introducing its HSDPA data card service in Mumbai last month, MTNL quietly launched its 3G Jadoo Mobile services in the city Aug. 10 onwards. The service will enable the customers to make video calls from mobile phones and access the Internet on the move at a very high speed. The 3G service from MTNL is now available via both, Prepaid and Postpaid plans.
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