Lenovo Offers Workstations With Intel's Nehalem Chips

Lenovo has became the second major PC maker to announce workstations based on Intel's upcoming quad-core Nehalem chips, which are due for release next week.

The high-end ThinkStation D20 and low-end ThinkStation S20 workstations will run on Intel's upcoming Xeon 3500 and 5500 series dual-core and quad-core chips, the company said. The processors belong to the Nehalem-EP line of server and workstation processors that Intel plans to officially launch next week.

The announcement comes a few weeks after Apple became the first major PC vendor to announce Xeon-based workstations. Apple earlier this month started taking orders for new Mac Pro workstations also powered by Xeon 3500 and 5500 quad-core chips. The Mac Pro workstations will run Apple's Mac OS X operating system.

The PCs are targeted at users who need powerful systems to render high-end graphics, like digital content creators, game developers and engineers, said Kristy Fair, a Lenovo spokeswoman.

The D20 workstation is a dual-socket system, which allows up to two processors to work together, and it supports 96GB of memory. The S20 has a single-processor slot and supports up to 12GB of memory. The systems offer hard drive storage of up to 1TB.

The processors should enable faster application performance on the workstations compared to older Xeon chips. Nehalem cuts the bottlenecks of Intel's earlier Core microarchitecture to improve system speed and performance-per-watt. The microarchitecture integrates a memory controller and provides a faster pipe for the CPU to communicate with system components like a graphics card and other chips.

Each core can execute two software threads simultaneously, so a workstation with four processor cores could simultaneously run eight threads for faster application performance.

The workstations will run Xeon E5500 series chips, which will come with dual- and quad-core flavors, and the quad-core W3500, X5500 series chips that run between 1.86GHz and 3.2GHz. The systems will also run the quad-core W5580 chip that runs at 3.2GHz. The CPUs draw between 80 watts and 130 watts of power.

The workstations will include the OS options of Windows Vista Business and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Graphics cards options include the Nvidia Quadro or ATI FirePro, where certain computational tasks can be offloaded from a CPU to the additional cores on a graphics processing unit for faster data processing.

The S20 model will start at US$1,070(Rs. 53,700) and dual-socket D20 starts at $1,550(Rs. 77,800). The workstations are scheduled to be available worldwide by the end of this month. From http://pcworld.in/india/news/5931504/Hardware/Lenovo_Offers_Workstations_With_Intel

Sennheiser launches three new series of headsets

Sennheiser has introduced three new families of headphones, the CX II, IE and MM series.

According to a press release, the CX II range includes products like the CX 300 II, CX 350 II, CX 400 II, CX 550 II and CX 6 among others. The new Sennheiser CX II earphone series are available in Street, Sport, Gaming, Travel and Style variants and sport different designs & colors. All of these are noise-isolating, in–ear canal headphones. The IE series' flagship model, IE 8, enables the user to fine-tune the bass response according to preference. Also included in this family are the IE 6 and IE 7 headsets which are powered by neodymium drivers. The MM series is specially designed for the iPhone and Nokia cell phones respectively. The MM 50 and MM 60 headsets are foldable and make for easy portability. 

Dual-Screen Laptop has Touchcreen Keyboard

Asus plans to demonstrate at CeBIT a dual-screen laptop which replaces the keyboard with an additional touchscreen display.    

The Taiwanese manufacturer said the prototype could be used as a conventional laptop, a multimedia hub or an an e-book reader.

The dual-screen laptop, which may not become a commercial product, is the result of the ideas contributed from users from around the world as part of Asus and Intel's Community Designed PC project.

"The dual panel offers a flexible working space in which users can adapt to suit their prevailing usage scenarios, for example adjusting the size of the virtual touchpad and keyboard," said Asus.

The use of the touchcreen provides an input mechanism that's both flexible and intuitive, according to Asus. The company said the system could be controlled using hand gestures, handwriting recognition and multi-touch.

However, by disabling the software-based keyboard, the laptop can also be turned into an e-book, which can be held like a conventional book in which pages can be moved through touch or gestures.

Also, the two panels could be combined to form a larger display for watching widescreen movies.

Nokia May Drop DRM from its Music Service

Nokia has revealed it may consider following in the footsteps of Apple by removing digital right management (DRM) from the music available through its Comes with Music service.

Nokia Comes with Music -- which is currently only available on a handful of mobile phones, including Nokia's XpressMusic 5310 handset -- allows users to download as many songs as they want from the Nokia Music Store for 12 months after they have purchased a compatible Nokia handset. Nokia says that users can then keep the music after the year is up.

The Nokia Music Store features tracks from four major record labels. However, the DRM prevents the tracks from being transferred to another digital music player or from being burned to CD.

A handful of Nokia phones feature the Comes with Music service.

Adam Mirabella, director of Global Digital Music Retail at Nokia, told Channel News Asia: "We have dialogues going with all of our partners and DRM-free is also on the roadmap for the future integration of Comes With Music.

"We always knew digital was the answer, but for all this time, we've never been able to figure out a model that actually makes money, given the fact that music is so available on the net or so freely available that people were getting the music they wanted, but not actually paying for it," he added.

Apple announced at the start of the year it would be offering music tracks in its iTunes store that were DRM-free.

Samsung’s New Mobile Phone Comes With an 8MP Camera

Samsung Mobile today announced the introduction of what they claim is India's first 8-megapixel touch screen camera phone, the SAMSUNG Pixon (M8800). The Pixon features the latest camera functions found in Digital Cameras, like Advanced Shake Reduction, Blink detection, Smile detection, Face detection , Panoramic shot etc. The photographs taken on the phone can be edited and users can even make a photo memo by scribbling on the photos.

The phone facilitates easy mobile blogging and makes it fun to see and share pictures - just by tilting the phone, pictures will scroll through for a great viewing experience.  It has video recording capability and TV output for both PAL and NTSC systems.The other touch screen phones in the Samsung product portfolio include Samsung OMNIA(i900), Samsung TouchWiz (F480) , both having 5 mega pixel camera resolutions as well as Samsung i780 ,which is a sleek smart device featuring a full QWERTY keyboard and full touch screen.

The 8.1cm WQVGA large full touch screen has Samsung TouchWiz user interface for intuitive tap, sweep, drag and drop operations  as well as live Home Screen Widgets like weather info , Google search etc. This 3G phone comes with an onscreen QWERTY keyboard and on screen handwriting recognition for emailing, messaging and other inputs. Samsung Pixon supports a wide range of video player formats including DivX, Xvid and mp4. It also sports an advanced Music Player with SRS 3D surround sound.

The SAMSUNG Pixon is priced at an MRP of Rs.28,750/-

Windows 7 to ditch Internet Explorer?

Microsoft may give Windows 7 users the option to remove its Internet Explorer (IE) 8 web browser from the operating system.

The Aero Experience blog says build 7048 of the operating system benefits from the new 'Windows Features On or Off' function, which could potentially let users get rid of the browser.

Internet Explorer has been bundled with Windows for many years, a move which has created controversy. In January this year, the EU Competition Commission charged Microsoft with distorting competition in the market for web browsers by bundling IE with the Windows operating system.

"Given that this change doesn't exist in Beta 1, the odds that this change will persist through to RC are quite high," says the blog.

"There is a catch: for now, this only seems to wipe the actual executable running Internet Explorer 8. In addition, this actually takes two reboots and a configuration step to complete, so there's definitely something going on behind the scenes (likely a remapping of where IE-related functions can be found for other elements in Windows so that Windows doesn't complain about IE's nonexistence)."

Source: PCWorld.in

iPhone-Controlled Car to Demo at Geneva Motor Show

It can send e-mails, play video, access the Web and snap pictures, but
control a car? Swiss automobile design house Rinspeed will unveil a
concept electric car controlled by an iPhone at next week's Geneva
Motor Show.

The iChange ditches car keys in favor of an iPhone, which clips into a
holder on the dashboard to the right or left of the steering wheel.
Once connected a green "start" button appears on the iPhone's display
and one push brings the iChange automobile to life. When you're
driving the car the iPhone can also be used for other control
functions, such as switching on and off the headlights.

But the car is about much more than just an iPhone. With it, Rinspeed
is trying to revolutionize the way people think of cars.

Most cars are designed to carry a fixed number of passengers in a
fixed number of seats and the entire vehicle is based around this.
Even if you usually travel alone, the vehicle's space never changes.
The aerodynamics of the vehicle, and therefore its fuel consumption,
are constantly tied to this fixed number of passengers.

But not the iChange. In its basic configuration the pod-shaped sports
car is a single seater but at the push of a button the rear of the
roof pops up to provide room for an extra two passengers.

The adaptive body concept is perhaps the biggest innovation in the car
but there are others. It's an all-electric car powered by Lithium Ion
batteries and there are two configurations: one with fewer batteries
for less weight and shorter driving and another heavier configuration
for longer distances. The 150 kilowatt Siemens-built electric motor
provides enough power to take the car from zero to 100 kph (kilometers
per hour) in 4.2 seconds, said Rinspeed.

The Harman/Kardon audio system is based on a low-power Intel processor
so it uses less energy and weighs less than standard systems and the
car navigation won't just calculate the quickest way to get to your
destination but the most eco-friendly route to get there in the car.

Designer Frank Rinderknecht, who came up with the iChange, is
well-known in his native Switzerland for creating interesting concept
cars. Last year it was the "sQuba," a sports car that can drive
underwater, that he unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show. The cars he
designs typically never make it to market so don't go looking for the
iChange at a car dealership anytime soon.