Maruti has launched its seventh small car. You have to wait for the June issue of BSM for a detailed drive story to know about the Suzuki Ritz.

Microsoft Windows 7 Release candidate is available for download for the public and it is valid for one year without any need for illegal methods. yes MS is giving you a almost full copy of Windows 7 for one full year.

The Windows 7 was made public few days back and here is the dowload links for Windows 7 (32 bit and 64 bit) directly from Microsoft Technet. Usually Microsoft doesnt release its RC for public download and even if it does it wont allow you to preview for a year. With Windows 7 hailed as the best ever MS OS by many its yours for taking.

Download Page for Windows 7

As reported by PC Magazine, the latest revision to the Bluetooth Core Specification was officially unveiled earlier this week – and it brings some nice new features to the party.

Building on the existing Bluetooth technology, Bluetooth 3.0 increases the speed of data transfer dramatically by piggybacking on available 802.11 wireless network connections – borrowing a small chunk of their bandwidth in order to shuffle data faster. While this functionality requires a second radio – either 802.11g or 802.11n – it does boost throughput to a not unimpressive 24Mb/s.

With Broadcom, Atheros, Nordic Semiconductor, Texas Instruments, and Cambridge Silicon Radio all having finalised chip designs for the new standard it’s thought that consumer devices featuring Bluetooth 3.0 support could hit the market before the end of the year. Even better is the news from special interest group chairman Mike Foley who announced that “any phone or computer that has Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and a 802.11g card may be able to be updated to Bluetooth 3.0 via driver, firmware, or software update.” There’s a clear “may” in that statement, but it at least holds the promise that some existing devices will be able to enjoy the speed boost brought by Bluetooth 3.0.

Sadly for anyone who uses Bluetooth to stream audio, while data transfer speeds were a clear selling point of the 3.0 specification revision, audio quality wasn’t. With many existing Bluetooth audio implementations proving disappointing – including the newer A2DP technology – hopes that Bluetooth 3.0 would resolve the issues appear dashed.

HP has announced the new ultra-thin dv2 notebook in India. Less than one inch in thickness, it weighs 1.64 kg. HP would be selling the dv2 notebook starting at a price of Rs. 37,490, exclusive of taxes.

The HP dv2 notebook has a 12.1-inch, 1280 x 800 pixel, BrightView LED backlit widescreen display. The dv2 is equipped with a 1.6GHz AMD Athlon Neo processor with ATI Radeon X1250 integrated graphics and optional ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3410 discrete graphics. AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 is the single-core processor for the platform announced back in January. Clocked at 1.6GHz, Athlon Neo has a 512K cache and supports 32-bit as well as 64-bit operating systems with a TDP rating of about 15 watts.

This ultra-thin notebook can support a 4GB RAM and has 320GB HDD 5400 RPM storage. The notebook has a glossy finish and runs the Windows Vista Home Premium.

High-definition junkies can opt for the Blu-ray optical drive for watching high-definition movies. For wireless connectivity, the dv2 also supports an optional built-in WWAN; but to be noted, there is no 802.11n support. Also, dv2 includes an integrated HP webcam and microphone.

Bookings for Tata Motors’ much-waited car, ‘Nano’ started across the country on Thursday and will continue till April 25.

“Bookings (for the Nano) began today morning and we hope the response will be encouraging,” a Tata Motors spokesperson said.

The sale of application forms for the Nano started on April 1 and the response has been “very encouraging”, the company said in a statement.

The Tata Nano website has recorded over five crore hits, including over two crore hits in the fortnight since the Nano’s launch on March 23, the statement said.

The application forms were sold through over 30,000 locations in about 1,000 cities pan-India through Tata Motors’ passenger-car dealerships, State Bank of India branches as also through those of its subsidiaries and associates and other preferred financiers.

The forms were also sold through Tata group companies such as Westside, Croma, World of Titan and Tata Indicom.

Within 60 days of closure of bookings on April 25, Tata Motors will process and announce the allotment of 1,00,000 cars in the first phase of deliveries, through a computerised random selection procedure.

Hewlett-Packard confirmed on Tuesday that it is considering using Google’s Android Operating System in its netbooks, a move that could potentially cut netbook costs as well as challenge the dominant position of Microsoft’s Windows operating system.

“We are indeed studying it,” said Marlene Somsak, director, worldwide media relations for Hewlett-Packard’s Personal System Group. “As the world’s leading computer company, we want to understand all the OS choices in the marketplace that may be used by competitors or potentially even deployed by us to meet customer needs. So we’re looking into Android’s capabilities for potential use in the computer and communications industries.

“If you ask if, how or when HP might introduce any Android-enabled platforms, you can anticipate our answer: We don’t speculate on products that may or may not be under way,” Somsak added.

The adoption of Android, a free, open source operating system, would promise to bring down netbook costs at a time when IT departments are coming under pressure to reduce spending because of difficult economic conditions.

The story was first reported on Tuesday when The Wall Street Journal quoted Satjiv Chahil, a vice president of HP’s PC division, as saying the company was studying the Google software. “We want to assess the capability Android may have for the computer and communications industries, and so we are studying it,” Chahil said.

Verizon Wireless has confirmed reports that it is ready to enter the Netbook market. Spokeswoman Brenda Raney has quoted that the plan is for the company to start selling 3G-enabled Netbooks by the end of the second quarter, or by June.

Unfortunately, Raney could offer little else in the way of details regarding pricing or potential PC partners. Crave’s Erica Ogg suggested Dell would be an obvious partnering candidate. Dell already has a relationship with Verizon parent company Vodafone, which has sold Dell Netbooks in Europe since September 2008. However, a similar rumor floated around the Web last week regarding HP hooking up with Verizon.

Verizon’s chief rival, AT&T, already sells Acer Netbooks for $99 with service through RadioShack, and also sells Dell Mini Inspirons through the wireless provider’s Web site.

After wowing the auto press with the sleek design of Tesla Motors’ all-electric Model S, company CEO Elon Musk is now making an economic argument to consumers–and, perhaps, the U.S. government–for buying the luxury sedan.

After months of anticipation, Tesla on Thursday took the covers off the Model S, an electric sedan priced at $56,400 but that qualifies for a $7,500 federal tax credit.

In a newsletter to customers on Friday, Musk, who is also product architect at Tesla, touted the many benefits of electric vehicles over gasoline cars, including price.

“The ownership cost of Model S, if you were to lease and then account for the much lower cost of electricity versus gasoline at a likely future cost of $4 per gallon, is similar to a gasoline car with a sticker price of about $35,000,” he wrote.

This month has a great story on the history of Netbooks and the reasons they’ve become so popular. Price is definitely a chief one, and here’s a perfect example: Buy.com has a refurbished Asus Eee PC 900 Netbook for $179.99 shipped.

As you might expect given that impulse-buy price, this model is pretty bare-bones: 512MB of RAM, a 4GB solid-state drive, and a Linux operating system.

Of course, for tasks like e-mail, Web browsing, and other online stuff, that’s more than enough horsepower. If you routinely work “in the cloud,” you should find this a nice little gateway.

And speaking of size, the Eee PC measures just 8.9 inches by 6.7 inches by 1.3 inches and weighs only 2.2. pounds. Definitely an easy system to travel with. But there’s no mention of the warranty, but most likely it’s 90 days

28-year-old Pranav Mistry, a MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) based researcher hailing from Gujarat has created  a digital prototype of a “sixth sense” device that is being currently evaluated by corporations including Google, Microsoft, HP and Samsung.

To briefly describe what this sixth sense is all about, we need to understand how the current dissemination of information from current electronic devices takes place. Most of the information from computers, mobile phones and other devices are confined to screen or paper – if we decide to take a print. However, the sixth sense, according to Mistry, bridges this gap “bringing intangible digital information out into the tangible world, and allowing us to interact with this information via natural hand gestures”. The concept falls under “wearable computing” — the same category under which the ubiquitous mobile phone falls as well.

The equipment list for the sixth sense might seem a tad crude, but it does its job quite well. It comprises a pocket projector; mirror and web camera bundled in a wearable pendant-like mobile. With the help of the projector, you can turn any material surface into a touchscreen. The camera is used to “see” the hand gestures. The user will however need to wear color-coded gloves on the index finger and the thumb so that the hand movements can be recorded and decrypted.

Some of the interesting hand gestures include drawing a square frame which will trigger a command to take a picture, drawing the @ sign will let the user access his email. You can even write e-mails with the help of the projector, which projects an image of a virtual keyboard so that you can type. All this costs around $350 (Rs. 17,000) to build – which is not a bad for something as futuristic as this!

Mistry has been approached by a couple of Indian companies who seem to be interested in his project. However, he wants the technology to be a little cheaper before it comes to India.

HP has unveiled a new range of products and solutions that enable organisations to address the short-term cost reductions required by today’s challenging economy.

The new storage virtualisation solutions – StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array 6400 and 8400 (EVA6400/8400) and the enhanced SAN Virtualisation Services Platform 2.1 (SVSP 2.1) – will change the economics of customers’ infrastructures by reducing costs and better leveraging existing technology investments.

Technology plays a major role in determining an organisation’s success before, during and after a downturn. In a 2007 survey, 99 per cent of chief executive officers said technology is integral to the success of their companies. Additionally, in a new study conducted across Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe and Middle East, 48 per cent of respondents from Asia Pacific indicated they see the current economic climate as an opportunity to restructure their technology environments for the future.

“Winning CIOs are focused on both strategic cost reductions and supporting long-term business growth,” said Hemant Tiwari, Director, Enterprise Servers and Storage, Technology Solutions Group, HP India. “It’s not about spending more: best-in-class IT organizations spend about half as much as the average company on technology as a percentage of revenue. Instead, they strategically spend and prioritise technology investments. HP offers an unprecedented range of solutions to help organizations emerge stronger when the economy recovers”, he added.

The new StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array 6400 and 8400 (EVA6400 and EVA8400) is easy-to-use and cost-effective storage solution designed for enterprise customers. This virtualised storage system is optimised for performance as well as capacity, and automatically grows or shrinks as applications demand.

“The current economic environment is dramatically changing how businesses operate. While difficult, these times do create opportunities for agile businesses to seize a stronger market position,” says Prakash Krishnamoorthy, Country Manager, HP StorageWorks Division, HP India. “With virtualisation innovations surrounding storage devices, networks and applications.”

Coming April, India’s student community will get a big morale booster when the country’s first student-made satellite will ride into space on the PSLV, (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) along with ISRO’s (Indian Space Research Organization) Risat Satellite.

The “Anusat” has been designed by 37 aerospace engineering students with the help of 10 teachers from the Madras Institute of Technology. ISRO, which has been promoting the development of satellites (microsatellites), is finally seeing its efforts bearing fruit with the imminent launch of the Anusat. The idea behind the promotion was to make the students aware of the various factors involved in the design and launch of a satellite. These involved taking in to consideration the thermal management of the satellite, controls, the guidance system, power delivery, and not to mention, the communications part wherein the two-way communication between the satellite and the command centre will be managed.

The satellite will orbit the earth in a low altitude orbit between 600 and 800km. Data from the satellite will be received at the Chennai Tech University and the Pune University.

Anusat has been designed to cater the basic communication purposes. However, the main purpose behind the initiative, apart from the obvious scientific intent, was to give the students a “hands-on” experience in handling complex projects like the design, development and execution of a project of this nature. The program was initiated in 2002 and was ideated by R. Vasagam, the former vice chancellor of Anna University.

Other universities and educational institutions are already in the midst of developing micro satellites. These include the IIT Mumbai and IIT Kanpur and not to mention, Anna University to which the Madras Institute of Technology is affiliated with.

The launch of the satellite is expected to happen on April 5 or 6.

Belkin has launched a new vertical design for its line of wireless routers. This includes the G, N, and N+, and N+ wireless USB adapter. By standing vertically, the router takes up less desk space, giving you more room to work and maximizes ventilation.

The new design includes Wi-Fi protected set-up situated at the front for easy one-push security set-up. The six LEDs for power, wired, wireless, modem, security, and Internet let you know the status of your network at a glance, making it easy to troubleshoot any problems.

The router is empowered with a USB storage port for connecting USB storage devices—such as an external hard drive or thumb drive to the network.

It also features Download Speedometer. The bar of LEDs at the front displays a graphic representation of the download speed being transferred.

The chief executive of Dell Inc  said on Tuesday that talk of IBM possibly buying Sun Microsystems was providing an “enormous opportunity” to the world’s No. 2 PC maker in the corporate server market.

Michael Dell said such talk created uncertainty over the future of Sun’s Solaris-based servers and accelerated a customer migration to the servers based on standard industry components, known as x86 servers, which are Dell’s mainstay product.

Apart from the potential IBM-Sun union, Dell is also facing an uphill battle with network equipment maker Cisco Systems with and Hewlett-Packard. Cisco has announced a foray into the server market and HP has started to offer a more complete package of technology services to its corporate clients after its purchase of EDS.

“Just the rumour of IBM potentially purchasing Sun creates an enormous opportunity because all of the Sun accounts are very concerned what will happen to the Solaris platform and Sparc microprocessor,” Dell told a briefing in Tokyo.

Sources with knowledge of the matter have said International Business Machines Corp is in talks to buy Sun Microsystems.

The Wall Street Journal reported that IBM was offering to pay at least $6.5 billion in cash, with the total deal value at about $8 billion, including $1.4 billion of cash on Sun’s balance sheet.

Dell lags both IBM and HP in the server market, with a 2008 market share of around 12 percent, according to research group IDC. Its focus has been on low- to mid-range x86 servers, and Dell ranks second in that market after HP.

Dell also said that the company was exploring the business of smaller screen devices, while its consumer business is growing faster than the industry in the first quarter.

The company is considering making and selling smartphones based on Google’s Android operating system and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile software, the Wall Street Journal reported in January.

PC sales make up around 60 percent of Dell’s revenue, and the global recession and popularity of cheaper personal computers caused the company’s quarterly revenue to fall more than expected in the three months to the end of January.

Microsoft Internet Explorer users aren’t rushing to embrace IE 8, the new release of the Web browser that debuted Thursday.

IE 8 has received mixed reviews from testers and early users. There have been published reports that the browser has caused system crashes and some Web sites don’t display properly using the software. The browser also has compatibility issues with Web standards, such as CSS, HTML4 and XHTML when tested with The Web Standards Project’s Acid Test 3.

Microsoft is counting on IE 8 to help reverse erosion of its share of the Web browser market. Microsoft IE has been losing ground to competitors, such as Apple’s Safari, Google’s Chrome and the open-source Firefox from Mozilla.

It turns the much awaited 10$ laptop is nothin more than a ebook reader with a low quality screen.

The hype surrounding the $10 laptop “prototype” with two GB RAM turned out to be a joke when the department of Human Resources
Development announced — during its inauguration in the temple town of Tirupati — that it wasn’t a laptop at all but a computing device.

While the world eagerly waited for the launch of the $10 laptop — designed by students of Vellore Institute of Technology, scientists in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, IIT-Madras, UGC and MHRD — it wasn’t a patch on the $100 laptop made by MIT.

The MHRD officials said the price was working out to be $20 but with mass production it was bound to come down to $10 (Rs 500) and thus become affordable for every student in India.

But netizens were disappointed when the “laptop” turned out to be nothing more than a computing device along with a hard disk with e-books, e-journals and relevant educative material through the state-art-of-the-art “Sakshat” portal.

As the device appeared smaller than the normal laptop with 10-inch length and five-inch width, buzz got around that it was a “Nano-top” and not a laptop. But MHRD official brought the curtains down on all the hungama, saying it was just a computing device with 2GB memory.

Joint Secretary, MHRD, N K Sinha said that the device still needs to be fine tuned. But he had no answer to the million dollar question: where was the $10 laptop?

The talk of the “invention” had raised expectations of bridging the technological divide between rural and urban India. Talking to TOI, a Professor from Sri Venkateswara University said (on the condition of anonymity), “How can just a computing device bridge the digital divide and make access to computer literacy affordable to the masses? Where will poor students get computers to jack this gizmo with? Will MHRD provide computers and internet connectivity in rural and remote areas? There is no clarity among the officials themselves,” he said.

A research scholar from Mahila University said, “How many students in Tirupati have access to computers? Then, MHRD hasn’t given details of the size of the screen, storage, processor, etc. MHRD should first think about the feasibility of such projects before they are launched. The entire world was watching. This act of MHRD has shamed the nation,” she said.

A model targeted by negative commentary by an anonymous blogger is seeking a court order that would force Google to reveal who the person or people responsible are.

Liskula Cohen, in her filing in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, said the commentary on her hygiene and sexual habits on the site was defamatory, malicious and false.

The posts were on a blog hosted by Google’s Blogger.com. Google did not immediately return a call and email seeking comment.

UK Home office has given more powers to cops to search PCs using trojans, and they call it remote search.

The move, which is in line with the decision of European Union’s ministers in Brussels, has sparked resentment among several civil rights groups and opposition MPs.

According to EU’s recent proclamation, police across different member states of EU have been permitted to extend the scope of ‘intrusive surveillance of private property’ without a court warrant, and it will allow police forces from Germany, France, and other EU members to ask UK police to hack computers of users in UK.

Remote searching is usually carried out by sending an email consisting of a bug to suspect’s PC, which eventually passes on the required information, such as internet-browsing habits and email contents, to a distant surveillance squad.

In addition, this can also be achieved by inserting ‘key-logging’ applications into a computer that transmits details about every key hit by the user. Expressing anger over the new law, Liberty’s director Shami Chakrabarti said in a statement, “This is no different from breaking down someone’s door, rifling through their paperwork and seizing their computer hard drive”.