cheaplappy

HCl launches cheapest laptop @ RS 13,990

HCl Infosystemslaunched MiLeap - a range fully functional, portable notebook that sports a starting price of £ 13,990.

Scheduled to be the world's cheapest ultra-portable laptops (Allied Computers announced laptops cost of R 14,999 for a couple of days back), the MiLeap is available in two series, X and Y, to a starting price of RS 13,990 and 29,990, RS respectively.

The X series would have both flash-based storage options and disk-based, with a Linux-based operating system. The most expensive model in the series will be available in RS 16,990.

The high-end Y series (from £ 29,990-39,990) would have multiple navigational features such as touch screen, track stick, stylus, keyboard and buttons sensitive tariffs, Windows Vista (Home), as the operating system.

Both models have network ports, are Wi-Fi, has an option for a data card and are available with GUI enabled, the User Friendly Linux operating system.

Weighing under a kilogram, the MiLeap laptop has a 7-inch screen and are equipped with an Intel processor.

The company will start shipping the units on January 26 and these will be available in all retail outlets HCl and distribution centers.

"We will manufacture these PCs at our two factories in India. Initially, we will use our Pondicherry plant, beyond which we will use our plant in Uttaranchal," said George Paul, vice president - Marketing, HCL Infosystems.

"If the demand for laptops increases, we are open to expansion, through a new center," he added.

"With a legacy of having pioneered India's first micro-computer, desktop PC the country and the first home PC in the first place, this revolutionary range of ultra portable 'MiLeap' laptops will announce a new category of computing devices , opening a wide range of usage scenarios and new application areas, "said Ajai Chowdhry, chairman and CEO, HCL Infosystems.

Acer debuts green and biodegradable notebooks

Acer is getting greener, at least according to Greenpeace.The computer maker introduced two new notebook on Friday that they have already received the honor from the international environmental group. Acer Aspire Aspire 3811TZ and 3811TZG are designed to be energy efficient, recyclable and biodegradable, so winning high marks from Greenpeace, which rates computers and other electronics for their environmental friendliness.

As part of its green initiatives, Acer said it was built two new tends to be without PVCs (polyvinyl chloride) and BFRs (brominated flame retardants).

PVC is cheap, but durable plastic which has been criticized by Greenpeace for not biodegradable and broadcasting toxic substances into the environment. BFRs are chemicals added to plastics to make them flame resistance, but they were also accused of leaching into the environment. Their use in products for babies and children, especially the issue of many groups. With the exception of power cables, all the components for both aims without the toxins.

"Chemical characteristics of PVC and BFRs May create toxic substances such as dioxins and furans in the products' end-of-life, thus reducing PVC and BFRs in Acer products will help protect our environment from being poisoned by electronics goods," Acer said in a statement .

New aims are also designed to reduce energy use - both models can save up to 40 percent of energy consumption than traditional portable computers, providing more than 8 hours of battery life, Acer said. Furthermore, the company designed units that are easily recycled. With more than modular parts in traditional notebooks, users can extend the life Apires replacing certain components.

Part of Acer Chronology series, two notebooks are targeted as CULVs (consumers ultra-low voltage). These laptops are typically as small and light as Netbooks, but deliver more power and performance with more memory and use Intel's Core 2 Duo processors. (We're still working on getting the specs and photos.)

Acer first promised in 2005 to eliminate PVCs and BFRs in all its products by 2009, the goal that the company still achieved. Although Greenpeace hailed the new Aspire models, the group still gave Acer only score 4.5 for a scale of 10 environmental friendliness in a report published on January 7 The company received a strong effort in trying to reduce the toxic substances from their computers and monitors. But it scored poorly by Greenpeace because of its limited recycling and disposal initiatives.

NTT DoCoMo to expose 4G handset

Japanese company NTT DoCoMo is set to show prototype handsets based on high-speed wireless data technology LTE later this month, according to its handset partner, NEC.

NEC said on Monday that NTT will demonstrate the receiver receiving the high-resolution video over LTE network in the Mobile World Congress, which kicks off February 15 in Barcelona. According to NEC, the handset uses the LTE chipset which was developed by Fujitsu, NEC, NTT DoCoMo and Panasonic, and first collected in October.

LTE, is "long-term development" of 3G, is the successor to HSDPA and is approximately 10 times faster, providing theoretical speed down link at least 100Mbps Uplink and theoretically at least 50Mbps.

Microsost's Windows Azure finally ready for customers

Microsoft Windows Azure Cloud computing service was generally available on Monday with very little flourish. And it could be because this first wave gifts Azure is frankly a bit odd.

I'm sure Microsoft will finally figure out how to give users the options that are clearly attractive (perhaps using Amazon Web Services and models), but in the near term the options are not as clear as they could be.

It is however positive for enthusiasts Azure cloud that has finally reached the point where Microsoft is comfortable offering it commercially. And if you are part of the Azure team, you'll be glad to have any solid magnifica tion only what auctions are.

In many ways, Microsoft is to apply the same enterprise architecture principles to the cloud - with price parameters for consumption, storage, and even integration with other applications. This may not really be wrong with time, but it forces developers and users think about the use of cloud things they have no experience.

I suspect that this method is because the operating system-centric view that Microsoft takes of pretty much all technology. After all, do they call it cloud operating system, and it looks like up above image stacks, leaving users not to think about the OS. Again, not necessarily wrong, but the foundation has not yet been explained or marketed well enough to see results.

This approach is in contrast to the AWS EC2 or Rack Space, as Om Malik notes, suggests that in comparison with "infrastructure-as-a-service providers such as Amazon and Ec2 or Rack Space Cloud Servers with their products, Azure attempts to work better in the actual management and provisioning of virtual machines for users.

I doubt highly that Azure will have a significant impact on near term Microsoft or even medium term earnings (either positive or negative). It is important to Azure has set a stake in the ground for Microsoft to be part of enterprise cloud discussions and access Azure to developers masses that provide invaluable testing and feedback.

Cloud computing generally requires Microsoft to be part of the ecosystem. And while I'm not convinced Azure is anywhere near right yet, Microsoft has enough resources to put to the effort. Let's hope it does.