Color Desktop Printer by Lexmark

Lexmark's color desktop printer, the Z1320, is now available in India. This compact inkjet printer is mainly intended for home use.
The printer offers print resolutions of upto 1200 x 1200 pixels (Black) and 4800 x 1200 pixels (color). It promises print speeds of up to 22ppm Black and 16ppm color. The printer comes with an optional six-color printing feature, and claims to be capable of creating color photos and professional-quality text and graphics, as well as borderless prints up to 5-inches x 7-inches. It can print on transparencies, envelopes, and photo paper. The Z1320 comes with high-yield Black and color cartridge, and has an option for additional higher capacity ink cartridge as well, which offers users best cost-per-page among printers of its class, says the company.
The printer's package includes "Lexmark Software Suite" which includes the "Lexmark Imaging Studio" software to edit images. Through this, users can crop, rotate, and resize photos, manage colors on the photo, and enable red eye reduction as well.
Supporting Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, XP Professional x64, and Apple Mac operating systems, Lexmark Z1320 promises a duty cycle of 3000 pages per month, and comes with a one-year limited exchange warranty.
The Z1320 will be available with Cyberstar Infocom at a price of Rs 2,900 from March 2008 onwards.Source

EN9600GT Graphics Cards by ASUS

Asus has introduced over-clocked versions of the latest Nvidia GeForce 9600GT GPU; the EN9600GT series graphics cards.
There are two models; EN9600GT TOP/HTDI/512M and EN9600GT/HTDI/512M. The EN9600GT TOP version claims to offer 10 percent engine clock improvements for gaming. While the EN9600GT version claims to turn a PC into a visually-stunning multimedia system that is capable of driving DirectX 10 games and high-definition movies.
Vinay Shetty, product manager (Component Business) of Asus India, said, "The EN 9600GT TOP/HTDI/512M graphics card is designed to synchronize the strengths of the chipset and Asus innovation and technology to give users that little extra when it comes to performance and quality."
According to Asus, with the EN9600GT TOP, gamers can expect core, shader, and memory clock performance boost from 650MHz up to 720MHz, from 1625MHz up to 1800MHz, and from 1.8GHz up to 2GHz -- respectively.
The new series of graphics cards integrates the SmartDoctor feature that allows users to tweak the Shader Clock on GPUs for better graphical performance, according to Asus.
Asus plans to upgrade both graphics cards with the newest thermal solution -- the Glaciator Fansink that will dissipate heat away from the GPU to help lower temperatures -- much like real-life glacial storms.
The Asus EN9600GT TOP/HTDI/512M graphics card will be available for an approximate price of Rs 13,500, while the EN9600GT/HTDI/512M version will be available for an approximate price of Rs 12,000.Source

3 new Walkman Video MP3 Players by Sony

All three NWZ-S710F, NWZ-A720 and NWZ-A820 Walkman players come with Sony's EX series in-ear-buds with 13.5 mm drivers that passively block out ambient noise. The devices have a standard user interface and the video players have a large QVGA LCD screen that displays video at 30 frames per second.The battery life is up to 33 hours of music playback for NWZ-S710F models and up to 36 hours for NWZ-A720 and NWZ-A820 models, as claimed by the company.
The compact and lightweight NWZ-S710 players have a 1.8-inch QVGA (320 by 240 pixels) LCD screen and include an FM tuner with 30 presets that make it convenient to listen to the radio on the go.
The NWZ-A720 series has a bigger 2.4-inch QVGA (320 by 240 pixels) LCD screen. With the same look and feature set as the NWZ-A720 series, the NWZ-A820 and NWZ-A820K series adds Bluetooth technology. This will enable streaming music from the MP3 device to headphones or other devices with Bluetooth technology.
Targeted at fitness enthusiasts, the NWZ-A820K Walkman player comes bundled with both the EX-series earbuds and the DR-BT21G Bluetooth wireless technology enabled headphones. This headset has built-in remote control features that play, pause and forward tracks.
"Achieving the highest audio quality is one of our top priorities when designing our players," said Steve Haber, senior vice president of the Digital Imaging and Audio Division at Sony Electronics.These devices also support A2DP and support security-enhanced Windows Media Audio (WMA), as well as non-secure AAC, linear PCM and MP3 music formats, plus JPEG files or photos, in addition to the AVC (H.264/AVC) Baseline Profile and MPEG-4 video codecs.The NWZ-S716F comes in silver, red and black with 4GB for $150, while the NWZ-S718F player has8GB of internal storage and comes in black for $200.The 4 GB NWZ-A726 player comes in black and pink and costs $150, while the 8 GB NWZ-A728 player comes in black and pink and costs $200. The 16 GB NWZ-A729 player comes in black, and costs $300.The NWZ-A828K comes in black, has 8GB of internal storage, and costs $270, while the NWZ-A829 comes in black has 16GB of internal storage, and costs $320.Source

Delhi prepares for Mobile Asia 2008....

Mobile Asia 2008, India’s largest consumer exhibition on mobility will be held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from February 29 to March 3, 2008. The expo will showcase innovative new products and services being offered by telcos and handset manufacturers. Among those displaying their products and services will be the likes of Airtel, ASUS, i-mate, Intex, LG, Molife, Motorola, Nokia, Nuance, Radical Software, RPG Cellucom, Samsung, SanDisk, Sony Ericsson, Vodafone, World Phone and World Space Radio. Users will also be able to avail of attractive offers on a variety of products and services, which will be available at the event.
Mobile Asia 2008 will be inaugurated by Hon’ble Chief Minister of Delhi Smt. Sheila Dikshit on February 29, 2008. The theme running through the event will be GenNext, as exhibitors will showcase products and technologies that will change lives not just today but in the coming years too. Explaining this, Pankaj Mohindroo, National President ICA (Indian Cellular Association), said, "The next wave of growth in mobile subscribers will be primarily from the younger generation. Mobile Asia 2008 therefore aims to provide a platform for the industry and trade to interact and communicate with GenNext.”Mobile Asia 2008 is the fourth in the line of mobility expos organized by ICA, which is committed to protecting the interests of the industry players as well as the consumers.
Speaking about Mobile Asia 2008, Mr. Lloyd Mathias, Chairman, Mobile Asia, said: This year, Mobile Asia will focus on GenNext to ensure consumers see the latest in mobiles - the world's largest convergent device.
Apart from newly launched and innovative handsets and mobile services, Mobile Asia 2008 will also showcase the latest innovation in various technologies related to the mobile industry.Source

Xbox 360 will have HD DVD Players no more...!!

Finally, after much dilly-dallying, Microsoft has publicly conceded to stopping making HD DVD players for its Xbox 360 gaming console.
However, the company said it will continue to provide standard warranty support for its HD DVD players. With this move, the last of the support to the dying (now dead) HD DVD format has ended. During the time the format lasted, Toshiba, Intel, NEC, and Microsoft were arguably its main proponents.
Actually, HD DVD's downfall began quite some time back when major Hollywood studios, including Sony Pictures, Walt Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, and Warner Bros Entertainment chose rival Blu-ray over HD DVD for distributing their high-definition content.
This was followed by nearly all of USA's major retail chains, the likes of Best Buy, Target, and 'last but not the least' Wal-Mart Stores, pledging support to Blu-ray over HD DVD
With Toshiba's public withdrawal of the format, the fate of HD DVD was more or less sealed, leaving Blu-ray the unchallenged victor.
Now that Microsoft has said it will stop making HD DVD players for its Xbox 360 console, Blair Westlake, a Corporate Vice President with the company's media and entertainment group, further said they will continue to give consumers the choice to enjoy digital distribution of high definition movies and TV shows directly to their living room, along with playback of DVD movies that they already own.
Just how are they planning to do this?
With HD DVD players firmly out of the way, is Microsoft now going to make attachable Blu-ray players for its Xbox 360. In any case, Sony's PS3 gaming console already has built-in Blu-ray playback capability.
Or is the company now going to increase high-definition downloads on its Xbox Live service, as it said earlier. Source

Samsung, Spice introducing Cheap Phones

Telecom companies, Samsung and Spice have come up with entry-level handsets for the Indian market.
Samsung's "Guru100" is a stylish bar-shaped handset equipped with features such as MP3 ring tones, mobile tracker, 9 hours talk time, and up to 500 phone-book entries. The handset sports a 3.86cm LCD screen and a speaker phone for hands-free comfort. It also includes a Hinglish sms feature that recognizes both English and Hindi words.
Priced at Rs 1,949, "Guru100" weighs 78 grams and measures 104 x 44 x 16.3mm.
Meanwhile, Spice's new entry-level camera phone, "S-585" features FM Radio, VGA camera, and music player.
The one-touch FM Radio and MP3 player comes along with inbuilt speaker phones. Users can also watch videos on the 65K TFT color display. The memory slot is expandable up to 1 GB.
The S-585 comes with essential accessories, including a dual-corded headset and USB cable, and is priced at Rs 2,999.Source