Transcend launches portable CD/DVD writer

The need for an external CD/DVD writer is more than ever. Transcend, a global leader in storage and multimedia products, introduced its first portable CD/DVD writer, offering customers a slim and stylish choice to go with these laptops.

No external power adapter is needed for the gadget, as the CD/DVD writer is entirely USB powered, drawing its electric power directly from the computer’s USB ports.

“As notebook computers become increasingly smaller and lighter, built-in CD or DVD drives and writers are often not included. Transcend’s new 8X slim portable CD/DVD writer was created specifically for use with compact notebooks, and features an ultra-thin and sleek design, making it stylish, compact and easy to carry around. Whether relaxing at home or traveling abroad, notebook users now have the freedom to enjoy DVD movies, install essential software or create data backup discs anytime, anywhere.

The CD/DVD writer comes bundled with a full-featured copy of the powerful media writing software CyberLink Power2Go, and also includes a bonus 30-day trial version of CyberLink’s MediaShow. With these easy-to-use software tools, users can burn music, data, video and even bootable discs in a variety of CD and DVD formats, including CD-R/RW, DVD±R, DVD±RW, DVD±R DL, and DVD-RAM. The device also allows one to compile, arrange, and produce media files with a simple and straightforward software interface.

Users planning to upgrade to Microsoft’s newest operating system, Windows 7, can also rest assured that Transcend’s all-new CD/DVD writer is fully prepared. Having completely passed Windows 7 compatibility testing, the drive is guaranteed to work with both current and future systems.

With up to 8X DVD and 24X CD write speeds, plus support for the latest dual layer recordable DVD media formats, Transcend’s CD/DVD writer is now available for Rs. 4,300.

Dell launches world’s thinnest laptop, Adamo XPS

The world’s thinnest laptop at 9.9mm, the Adamo XPS is an absolute stunner!

There’s a unique mechanism to start up your Adamo XPS. The device has a capacitive latch release, so when you swipe your finger over it, the keyboard appears from under the display and blue LED lights indicate you are good to go. Adamo engineers refined the traditional laptop design by cleverly relocating key components and fitting the keyboard inside the reinforced display when closed.

The body is slightly raised, giving the keyboard a comfortable angle to type on. Above the keyboard, you will be greeted by a 13.4-inch widescreen HD (720p) display, encased in the aluminium body.

Running on Windows 7 (64-bit), the machine is powered by a 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo ULV processor, 4GB DDR3 RAM and a 128GB Solid State Drive (SSD). As with all such ultra-thin laptops, there is no optical drive included.

Other features of the Dell Adamo XPS include Wi-Fi, built-in location awareness to provide real time local maps to show people where they are, and dongles for Ethernet, VGA and HDMI connections. The built-in battery claims to last for up to 5 hours and 17 minutes of usage on a single charge.

The Dell Adamo XPS is now available in India for Rs. 1,50,000. That’s a really steep price tag, even outpricing the MacBook Air.

Nokia E72, Dell Mini 3i

The Nokia E72 was released internationally a week ago, and its now hitting Indian shores, at Rs. 22,989. The specs are vastly improved, and it promises better battery life too. The E72 now runs on a 600 Mhz ARM 11 processor, a 5-megapixel camera in place of a 3.2-megapixel camera, a 3.5mm audio jack in place of a 2mm audio jack, an optical joystick for easier scrolling, and a full version of Quick Office. It’s a good phone if you aren’t into the whole apps ecosystem, it also has active noise cancellation which makes conversations clearer.

Dell Mini 3i, It runs on the OPhone-OS (a customized version of the Android OS) and has a 3.5-inch 640x360 resolution touch screen. While it packs GPS and Bluetooth, it only supports Quadband GSM/EDGE, (no 3G) and does not support Wi-Fi browsing.

LG launches GD900 Crystal phone with transparent touchpad

A prototype handset with a transparent keypad! Dubbed the ‘Crystal’. The phone has finally been launched in India, and the GD900 Crystal packs a lot of oomph in its 13.5-mm-thin frame. As you can see in the picture, the transparent touch-sensitive keypad is absolutely gorgeous and utterly unique, making this phone the default standard for anyone looking to make a fashion statement. Illuminated with a soft glow, it boasts of a scratch-resistant design made from tempered glass and reinforced by a band of liquid metal.

While it looks like a normal keypad, its touch-sensitive nature actually lets it double up as a touchpad for the phone, behaving like a laptop’s trackpad, recognising handwriting, responding to multi-touch commands and enabling a new way of navigation called Gesture Command.

With Gesture Command, a user can simply press the phone’s multitasking button and draw one of 12 customisable symbols on the keypad. For example, if the symbol resembling a capital M is assigned to the MP3 player or a capital C is assigned to camera, launching any of these features is as easy as writing M or C on the Crystal Touchpad.

Speaking of the camera, the 8-megapixel shutter on this gizmo comes with autofocus and LED flash, and can also record video at 720x480 pixels resolution. The accelerometer on the 3-inch capacitive touchscreen (16 million colours, 480x800 pixels) helps auto-rotate the screen when taking pictures, and even comes with a proximity sensor to turn it off when talking on the phone. The proprietary S-Class user interface only adds to the charm of the GD900 Crystal.

And there’s ample room to store all of your songs on the 1.5GB of internal memory, with a microSD memory card slot to boost it up to 32GB. Obviously, there is no lack of connectivity options here, with the phone supporting 3G, Wi-Fi, EDGE, Bluetooth, etc.

Boasting of a talk-time of up to 6 hours and a standby time of up to 300 hours, it’s a bit surprising that such a high-end phone with a focus on fashion and design is retailing at a comparatively low price of Rs. 26,000.

Nokia N97 Mini launch

The Nokia N97 mini is a smaller mobile computer with stylish stainless steel cues, featuring a tilting 3.2-inch touch display (16 million colours, 360x640 pixels), QWERTY keyboard and fully customisable homescreen running on the Symbian S60 5th edition operating system.

In terms of features, the N97 Mini is quite similar to the N97 itself. Apart from the smaller screen, the biggest difference is that the new device does not feature a 5-way navigation pad like its predecessor. The N97 Mini also has reduced its memory capacity, carrying 8GB of onboard storage space that can be expanded by a further 16GB via a microSD card.

The camera remains the same, impressive 5-megapixel affair, complete with Carl Zeiss optics, dual LED flash, autofocus, video light, geo-tagging and VGA video recording at 30 frames per second. There’s also a secondary VGA camera on the front, which allows for video conferencing via the various connectivity options such as 3G, Wi-Fi, EDGE and Bluetooth.The N97 Mini packs a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and supports stereo FM radio.Other features include a digital compass, TV-out, document viewer, Flash Lite 3, video and photo editor, push email and multimedia player.

Boasting of over 7 hours of talk-time on a single charge of its battery, the N97 Mini will be available in three colours: cherry black, garnet and white. Set to start retailing from the end of November for Rs. 30,939.

Now, Windows 7 on a phone!

XP Phone to allow customised hardware, can run Windows 7

User can select three screen sizes: 4.3-inch, 4.7-inch and 7-inch (resolutions: 800x480 or 1024x600 pixels); a choice of their operating system: MS Dos, Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Home, Windows XP Embedded, or Windows 7; and the speed of the AMD Super Mobile CPU: over 1GHz or under 1GHz.

The storage capacity will be customizable as well, with options of SSD (8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB) and HDD (30GB, 60GB, 80GB, 120GB). The RAM is similarly customizable: 512MB, 1GB or 2GB. And users can also pick out a camera from 0.3-megapixel up to 5-megapixel. The phone will come with single SIM card option, and dual-SIM as well.

Acer Aspire One D250, world’s first Android dual-OS netbook

The Android operating system empowers the Aspire One netbook to boot up and shut down quickly with an ‘instant on’ 18 second boot-up and 3-second shutdown, making it a “quick-in, quick-out OS”.

The home screen has four gadgets (Google Talk, FireFox, Webmail, and Calendar), while a further 20 are housed in a slide-out tab on the far right (including system settings, multimedia, Webcam, Gmail).

The device is equipped with a 10-inch LED-backlit screen, 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 160GB HDD, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Bluetooth and Webcam. The press release for the U.S. version states that it is powered by a 6-cell battery, although the Indian press release does not point that out.

The Acer Aspire One D250 is available at all leading LFRs, Acer Malls & Acer Points, throughout the country, at an introductory price of Rs. 16,999, excluding taxes.

Motorola's Droid

The general consensus on the Motorola Droid is that while it's a very strong device, it still doesn't match the iPhone.

The Droid has a nifty open source operating system and processing power on par with the iPhone 3GS, but it doesn't have the remarkable ease of use that has made the iPhone the most popular smartphone in the consumer market. All that said, however, users have found a lot to like in the Droid and have declared it a solid alternative for smartphone fans who don't want to subscribe to AT&T.

Hands On With The HTC HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5

The HD2 is a gigantic, but slim, slab of a phone at 4.74 by 2.64 by .43 inches and 5.54 ounces, with a 4.3-inch, 480x800 capacitive touchscreen. That is a whopper of a screen. It's not any higher resolution than the HTC Touch Pro2 or the Motorola Droid, but it's bigger; you don't get more real estate, you get more punch.

The HD2 is the first Windows Mobile phone with a capacitive touchscreen, and the first with a Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 processor. The 1 Ghz Snapdragon uses a similar architecture to the ARM Cortex-A8 found in the iPhone 3GS, and includes a new graphics processor with OpenGL ES 2.0 support. This may be the fastest processor available on any U.S. device.

The phone runs Windows Mobile 6.5, sure, but you'd hardly know it because HTC's TouchFlo 3D skin replaces many of the features you'd usually use. On the Touch Pro2 for T-Mobile, you can skim your finger along the bottom of the screen to pick out common functions like contacts, messaging, or Web. But the HD2 feels faster than the Touch Pro2, and it has even more home-screen widgets, including one that brings Twitter to a home screen panel.

HTC replaced Microsoft's address book with its own. Ditto the calendar and photo gallery apps. Did I mention multi-touch? The HD2 uses the familiar pinch-to-zoom gesture in its photo app, Microsoft Office viewer, and Opera Web browser, which will thrill multi-touch fans.

Transcend launches new MP330 portable music player

“The MP330 is a versatile digital music player with support for newer file formats such as FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) as well as MP3, WMA, WAV, and even WMA-DRM10 protected music files. Besides featuring a high signal-to-noise ratio of over 90dB to deliver superior audio output quality, the MP330 provides seven advanced equaliser effects to choose from, including a special user-customisable option that allows music playback to be tailored to match specific music tastes and styles”.

Physically, the MP330 has a carefully crafted smooth shape that is compact (83mm x 25.5mm x 11.5mm) and lightweight (just 25gms). Additionally, the MP330 is equipped with a unique removable sport clip that gives users more flexibility to match their listening habits.

The player features a bright OLED display that can easily be viewed at any angle, even in broad daylight.

Aside from its sleek looks and digital music playback capabilities, the player doubles as a portable storage device. Thanks to its built-in USB connector, the MP330 operates just like a USB flash drive, allowing users to transfer files without the hassle of carrying around bulky cables.

The gadget also boasts of an impressive collection of value-added functions. The player's line-in feature can be used to record music from an external source such as a CD player, while its A-B repeat, variable track playback speeds, and advanced voice recorder serve as excellent tools whether at work, at school or anywhere. The device also includes an FM radio and sing-along synchronised lyrics display with support for 14 different languages.

The feature-packed MP330 is currently available in three capacities, and in two colours (black or white), with a 2-year warranty:

2GB – Rs. 2,500

4GB – Rs. 3,000

8GB – Rs. 4,000

Tune Up Utilities 2010 is now available in market

The latest version of TuneUp Utilities is here! This version is bound to usher in a new era in Windows optimization because TuneUp Utilities – Version 2010 is not just a box full of tuning tools – it’s your PC expert at home!
Discover the easiest way to tune Windows so that you can work faster and get a better gaming experience with your computer! From PC beginner to savvy user, TuneUp Utilities guarantees you will have more fun and no more hassles with your PC.

Highlights of the new version:

• Easier to use: new Start Center
• Concentrated performance: Turbo
• ModeAutomatic and in real time: new Live Optimization
• Even more effective and intelligent: Automatic Maintenance
• Up-to-date as always: now supports Windows 7™

(32-bit and 64-bit)