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Ten fun facts about RIM and the Blackberry
“The Blackberry ‘sandbox’ keeps you from getting into the operating system level. It’s effective for that,” says Tyler Shields, senior researcher at Veracode Research Lab and author of the Blackberry spyware. “BlackBerry is one of the better operating systems in regards to security,” he says, “but in the sandbox you can steal data.”
Shields says the point in releasing the spyware source code, which he calls TXSBBspy, is to “show how easy it is to write this code.” He calls the source code a blueprint for malware on the BlackBerry, showing how it’s possible to remotely dump all the contents, send the contents via e-mail, and conduct real-time monitoring of phone messages.
Shields says his purpose is to inspire a “call to action” to encourage development of BlackBerry applications to make it clear what these apps do before releasing them.
NPITHUB,
Lenovo recently announced an aggressive business strategy to pursue the significant growth opportunity in the SMB segment in India’s PC market.
The PC vendor has extended the ThinkPad brand promise to SMB users through its ThinkPad Edge series laptops. It also declared its go-to-market strategy for the SMB segment in India, focusing on value added resellers (VARs), system integrators (SIs) and retail, covering 150 cities initially.
“With our renewed strategy for the SMB segment, we are now expanding the scope of growth in our India business,” said Amar Babu, Managing Director, Lenovo India. “As a recognized leader in business computing, the ThinkPad brand gives us the leverage to reach out to the premium SMB customers. Now, with the new ThinkPad Edge Series and the ThinkPad X100e, we are targeting the mainstream segment in SMB as well.”
The SMB segment offers one of the most significant opportunities in India’s PC market. According to IDC, the SMB PC spending in India was estimated to be Rs 5,275 crore in 2009 and is expected to touch Rs 5,515 crore in 2010. As per IDC, PC spends accounted for 30.74 percent of the total spends on IT by SMBs in India in 2009, with total SMB IT spending estimated to be Rs 17,160 crore.
“We aim to close the gap between the ThinkPad and the SMB users. We understand that SMB customers want PCs with bold, sleek, professional designs, simplistic experience and reliable tools, yet fitting within their budgets. The ThinkPad Edge Series is designed keeping all these needs in mind. We see a hyper growth opportunity in this space”, said Alex Li, Vice President, Transaction Sales, Lenovo.
Seagate Debuts World's Thinnest Laptop Hard Drive
Seagate unveiled plans to soon bring to market what it terms the world's thinnest 2.5-inch mobile PC hard drives.
The new Momentus Thin drive is a mere 7mm high, which is considerably smaller than the typical 9.5mm height of more than 90 percent of the 2.5-inch hard drives currently being used in mobile PCs, Seagate said.
The drives are slated to come to market as mobile PCs are getting thinner, forcing PC manufacturers to look for thinner and lighter components including storage devices such as hard drives and SSDs.
The Dell Adamo XPS, for instance, which Dell has shown without discussing a release date, is only 10mm thick.
Other vendors are piling in to the ultrathin mobile PC market, which seems to be increasingly characterized by notebook PCs less than 25mm thick, which is just less than 1 inch.
“Seagate is committed to helping its OEM and system integrator partners meet market demand for thinner laptop PCs and plans to expand storage capabilities for thin laptops as demand for these slimmer models continues to grow,” said Dave Mosley, Executive Vice President, Sales, Marketing and Product Line Management at Seagate.
Seagate's Momentus Thin drive is expected to be released in January to mobile PC OEM and integrator partners. It is slated to be available with capacity points of 250GB and 160GB, and include an 8MB cache, a 3Gbps SATA interface and a spin speed of 5,400 rpm.
After being disappointed with Windows Vista for a while, channel partners finally have a reason to cheer. The launch of Microsoft’s new Operating System-Windows 7 marks a new phase of opportunities for all. Unlike Vista, Windows 7 gets rid of many complexities for the end user as well as the enterprises. The biggest reason to rejoice with the OS launch is that it doesn’t require additional hardware upgrades.
Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman - Microsoft India, while speaking at the product launch, said, “Proactive engagement and feedback thereof with partners and consumers was fundamental to the development of Windows 7. It has helped deliver what is the highest quality OS in the history of Windows. It enhances the user experience by its sheer simplicity and caters to their connected lives across work and play. We are delighted by the initial reviews from partners and the technology community. Over 90% of testers from around the world have rated it as “good” or “extremely good” and consider Windows 7 to be responsive, simple to use and stable.”
“The compatibility mode and XP mode in the new OS smoothly solve the issue of compatibility, a critical feature that allows Windows 7 to win hands down over Windows Vista,” according to a Frost & Sullivan analyst note. “Backward compatibility with the earlier versions of applications is one the boons of migrating to new OS. Moreover, the new OS is also hassle free from issues such as lack of drivers for configuring external peripherals,” the note added.
According to W S Mukund, MD, Acer India, Windows 7 has a smaller OS footprint, improved user interface, quicker response time and improved power management for enhanced battery life. “Windows 7 promises to be on the frontier of a new wave of technological advancements,” added Mukund.
With additional support for touch interfaces, Windows 7 would enable the existing touch PCs to have better interface and usability according to Ravi Swaminathan, President, PSG, HP India. “The Windows 7 enabled HP PC has great potential to enhance the computing ecosystem, encompassing new and exciting interfaces like the multi-touch technology thereby enabling customers to interact with their computers like never before,” said Swaminathan.
Apart from a host of features that Win7 offers to improve the graphical
Source : CRN Network, Oct 23, 2009, 1300hrs
Microsoft has decided to forgo glitz and glamour and go all business with a decidedly low-key Windows 7 launch on October 22.
All indications are that the event, which will be hosted by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, will be a buttoned-down business affair with a "new efficiency" operating system theme.
Call it a sign of the economic times or simply part of a calculated plan to under-promise and over-deliver.
It's clear that Microsoft's first-ever layoffs this year and the beating that Windows 7's predecessor, Vista, took in the marketplace has taken some of the wind out of Microsoft's once-blustery Windows sail.
Ballmer, known for his boisterous rallying of the Microsoft troops, has repeatedly downplayed the impact of Windows 7.
It's a far cry from Microsoft's in-your-face, rock 'n' roll marketing assault of Windows launches in years past.
The Windows 95 launch 14 years ago featured Jay Leno, costumed jugglers and jesters on a sports field at the Microsoft campus all set to the pounding pulse of the Rolling Stones' "Start Me Up"—a theme song for the operating system. At that time, Microsoft spent $200 million on an advertising blitz over roughly a year for the Windows 95 launch.
The Windows XP launch in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001 featured then-New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani, New York Governor George Pataki, the theme song "Yes You Can" and a free Sting concert in Bryant Park. Microsoft spent $200 million on advertising for XP in just the first four months.
The Vista launch in January 2007 featured a $500 million advertising blitz and an appearance by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates on the The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.
There is no word yet on how much Microsoft will spend to rekindle that old Windows magic. But at least right now it seems Microsoft is going to let the product do its talking rather than use its pocket book.
Source :
By Steve Burke, ChannelWeb, October 20, 2009, 1400 hrs
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Microsoft is banking on Windows 7 to breathe new life into a PC world where most computer users are running XP -- an operating system that was released in the early days of the Bush administration.
Experts expect that PC users will change their operating system for the first time in about eight years when Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) launches Windows 7 on Oct. 22.
Microsoft's last operating system, Windows Vista, was a disaster when it was released in 2007. Vista was plagued by bugs, software incompatibilities, sluggishness and annoying security alerts. The episode nearly destroyed the tech giant's reputation with consumers.
Source: CNN; Google News
Sources had reported in March the DoT’s order, asking telecom companies to vacate the 95 level from landline use. The impact of this move is that 10 Crore new numbers come into play, around half of which are expected to be allotted to companies. DoT will keep the balance as spare capacity.
A U.S. company will seek legal action against Lenovo, Acer and Sony next week over their shipment in China of controversial software that the company says stole its programming code.
Solid Oak Software may also take action against other PC makers that have started shipping the software, a company spokeswoman said in an e-mail late Thursday. She declined to give details of the action, but the company previously said it might seek a U.S. court injunction to stop PC vendors from shipping the program.