Bill Gates and LinkedIn link up...!!!!

Microsoft Corp.'s big bet on Facebook's online social network isn't stopping Chairman Bill Gates from promoting other popular Internet hangouts.
Gates is helping out LinkedIn Corp.'s online professional network by setting up a profile on the service and posing a question to help draw more attention to a makeover of the Web site's front page.
The question, scheduled to be posted Thursday, will solicit suggestions on the best way to encourage more young people to pursue careers in science and technology.
Meanwhile, LinkedIn will encourage its 19 million members to try out a new tool that will let them broadcast their daily activities to their connections. The ''status'' feature copies one of the top applications on Facebook's site, which revolves around a more playful premise than LinkedIn's buttoned-down atmosphere.
Gates plans to use LinkedIn's status feature, although he decided against listing ''trying to buy Yahoo'' as his current activity. He instead will start off by letting everyone know ''Bill is checking out LinkedIn.''
The decision to take a closer look at LinkedIn might please a few industry analysts who have argued Microsoft would be better off buying several up-and-coming Internet startups like LinkedIn instead of pursuing its current bid to acquire slumping Yahoo Inc. for more than $40 billion.
Although LinkedIn is frequently mentioned as an attractive takeover candidate, the Mountain View-based company so far has indicated it is more likely to make an initial public offering of stock during the next year or two. LinkedIn spokeswoman Kay Luo declined to comment on Microsoft's possible interest.
Microsoft late last year invested $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in Palo Alto-based Facebook Inc., whose 66 million members make it the Internet's second largest social network behind News Corp.'s MySpace.
Gates is among Facebook members, although he reportedly stopped using the site recently because he was tired of sifting through the thousands of requests from requests from strangers who wanted to befriend him. Microsoft declined to comment Wednesday about Gates' status on Facebook.
LinkedIn offers privacy controls that will enable Gates to block requests to connect with him on the network.
Gates probably will want to use that tool because LinkedIn members have a keen interest in the billionaire. Even before he set up his LinkedIn profile, Gates was the most searched person on the site, edging out Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.Source

MacBook Pro upgraded to Penryn

Apple today updated its popular MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook lines with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo "Penryn" processors, larger hard drives and 2GB of memory standard in most models. In addition, MacBook Pro includes NVIDIA graphics processors, now with up to 512MB of video memory, and Apple’s Multi-Touch trackpad, first introduced in MacBook Air.The new MacBook Pro features an Intel C2D 2.6 GHz processor with 6MB of shared L2 cache; up to 4GB of 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory and up to a 300GB hard drive, plus NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics with up to 512MB of video memory. Every MacBook Pro now includes a trackpad with Multi-Touch gesture support for pinch, rotate and swipe, which allows users to zoom and rotate photos in iPhoto or Aperture 2 or browse web pages in Safari. The laptop also sports an illuminated keyboard that makes it ideal for dimly lit environments such as airplanes, studios or conference halls and a built-in ambient light sensor, which automatically adjusts the brightness of the keys as well as the brightness of the display for optimal visibility.
The new Macbooks now come in three models and include faster processors and larger hard drives across the line; sleek white 2.1 GHz and 2.4 GHz models with 120GB or 160GB 5400 rpm hard drives and a black 2.4 GHz model with a 250GB 5400 rpm hard drive, previously only available as an option. The 2.4 GHz MacBook models ship with 2GB of memory standard, expandable up to 4GB across the line. The LCD panel common to all these 3 laptops is a 13-inch glossy widescreen display,
Apart from these changes, Every MacBook and MacBook Pro includes a built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing on-the-go; Apple’s MagSafe Power Adapter that magnetically connects the power cord and safely disconnects when under strain; the latest generation of 802.11n wireless networking for up to five times the performance and twice the range of 802.11g; built-in 10/100/1000 BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet for high-speed networking; Bluetooth; analog and digital audio inputs and outputs; USB 2.0; FireWire and a built-in Super Drive. Source

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