Archive for December, 2010

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Dell To Buy Medical Technology Services Company InSite One By Ian Sherr

December 22nd, 2010
Share

Dell Inc. (DELL) said Wednesday it will purchase privately held medical data technology company InSite One Inc., an acquisition that will help the computer maker’s growing services business.

InSite One, Wallingford, Conn., helps healthcare organizations store data. The company’s technology has been used to manage clinical studies, medical images and patient records in the cloud.
Terms of the deal were not released.

The acquisition comes as Round Rock, Texas, Dell builds its services arm, which specializes in healthcare information technology. Dell owns Perot Systems, a leader in healthcare tech services.
InSite One’s 50 employees will become a part of Dell’s medical services unit.
Dell shares were trading flat at $13.84 on Wednesday.

Dell’s emphasis on services is part of a broader effort to boost sales of its hardware. For example, Dell wants its healthcare services clients to consider buying the company’s tablet and advanced handset devices, such as its 5-inch “Streak” smartphone.

Source:-http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2010/12/22/dell-buy-medical-technology-services-company-insite/

Comments Off »

Posted in Hardware News

Tags:

Asus grabs some gamer attention with G53Jw and G73Jw notebooks

December 22nd, 2010
Share

In keeping with every appropriate cliche that accompanies the festive season, Asus has a couple of pricey present ideas for those intending to gift gaming fiends. We’re not saying that the Nvidia 3D Vision-enabled G53Jw and G73Jw notebooks aren’t worth the price tag or ‘ultimate domination’ which is apparently being offered to gamers by Asus India. The notebooks’ 120fps 3D capabilities are also supported by Fermi graphics, 1.5GB GDDR5 Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M graphics, LCD panels with embedded sensors and high fidelity active shutter glasses.
The G53Jw is fitted with a 15.6” HD glare 3D display, while the G73Jw features the same kind of screen though it’s wider by 1.7”. Each notebook is powered by an Intel Quad Core i7-740QM processor, a Mobile Intel HM55 Express chipset and runs the Windows 7 Home Premium OS. Other specs that run common in both devices are listed out as Bluetooth 2.0 and WLAN 802.11b/g/n connectivity, an 8-cell battery, a Blu-ray 4x combo optical drive and a 2MP camera. The G53Jw incorporates 6G DDR3 1033MHz main memory and a 500GB HDD. The G73Jw notebook uses 8G DDR3 1333MHz main memory and a pair of 500G HDDs.

Notebooks from the Asus Republic of Gamers (ROG) series are venerated worldwide for their top notch gaming technology,” trilled Country Manager for Asus System Business, Alex Huang. “With dedicated 3-D usability features that include Full-HD 3D support and 3D Output for any 3D compatible large screen television, the G53 and G73 notebooks provide high resolution 3D graphics leading to almost true-to-life gaming and multimedia experience. With the festive season in India at its peak, we felt it was the right time for these high quality notebooks to make their official debut in India. Enthusiastic gamers will be absolutely stunned with the extremely vivid and detailed graphic performance and we believe that these notebooks will be the ultimate gifts for gamers this festive season.”
These G series laptops utilize Nvidia’s GTX 460M graphics engine for 3D acceleration on the Blu-ray disc format courtesy of special hardware. EAX Advance HD 5.0 software allows for around 128 additional sound effects borne out of its capability to deliver 3D audio in sync with in-game environments and actions. What’s more, the notebooks’ graphics attributes leverage DirectX 11 features like tessellation and real-time ray tracing. Lengthy gaming sessions should get more comfortable on the 5° inclined keyboard surface and the rear vent cooling exhaust keeps heat as well as noise from distracting users.
The G53JW-IX157V sells for Rs. 1,12,499, while the G73JW-91051V is pricier by Rs. 9,000 or costs Rs. 1,21,499, to be precise. Backed by three-year warranties, each comes bundled with a bag, a mouse, a 3D receiver and glasses.

Source:-http://www.techshout.com/laptops/2010/21/asus-grabs-some-gamer-attention-with-g53jw-and-g73jw-notebooks/

Comments Off »

Posted in Hardware News

Tags:

What If All the World Ran Linux?

December 22nd, 2010
Share

There’s a cartoon that made the rounds in the Linux community a few years back that I often think of at this time of year.

In essence, it depicts a Linux aficionado refusing to help convince someone to switch to Linux, explaining, “If everyone’s using it, I’m not cool anymore.”

It’s a joke, of course, made funny by the fact there may just be the tiniest hint of truth underlying it, at least among some people. The reason I think of it at year’s end, though, is that mainstream adoption of Linux is generally considered a goal by many in the free software community, and it’s an oft-cited hope for every new year.

There are, of course, numerous critics who say it will never happen, at least on the desktop. I disagree. Either way, however, it’s fun to think it through, in both a serious and a not-so-serious way: What if everyone ran Linux?

Source:http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/214596/what_if_all_the_world_ran_linux.html

Comments Off »

Posted in Hardware News

Tags:

Collected: Apple’s busy diary for 2011

December 22nd, 2010
Share

Apple’s [AAPL] gearing up for a busy, busy year in 2011. We’re already expecting the iPhone 5 and iPad 2.0, we’re looking forward to the Mac App Store and more. So what events and product releases might feature in Apple’s 2011 schedule?

I’ve looked into my tea leaves, done some educated guessing and mulled over typical Apple release patterns to create an almost completely fictitious diary for Apple’s 2011. Don’t bet your investments on this work of fiction (I’m not claiming any inside view here, it is all based on open speculation), with these caveats in mind I’d like to invite you to sit back and enjoy the ride:

Source:http://blogs.computerworld.com/17565/collected_apples_busy_diary_for_2011?source=rss_blogs

Comments Off »

Posted in Hardware News

Tags:

Apple iPad Leads Online Computer Sales

December 22nd, 2010
Share

Sales of computer hardware in the US retail market jumped by a quarter year on year between the 1st of November and the 17th of December and Apple’s iPad was one of the big winners.
Comscore highlighted the role played by the Apple iPad and other handheld devices like e-readers in the 25 per cent growth which allowed computer hardware to head the list of top growing online retail product categories.
The research company said that around $27.46 billion were spent over these 47 days, a 12 per cent increase compared to 2009, with consumer electronics growing by 22 per cent year on year and computer software excluding PC games jumping by a notable 16 per cent.
The “Free Shipping Day” held on the 17th December, allowed retailers to rake in sales of $942 million and ended a week where US consumers spent more than $5.5 billion online.
The UK is likely to follow the US and lead the rest of Europe when it comes to online sales. The Apple iPad 3G edition emerged as the winner against the non 3G version as mobile phone operators subsidised the tablet heavily.

Source:http://www.itproportal.com/2010/12/21/apple-ipad-leads-online-computer-sales/

Comments Off »

Posted in Hardware News

Tags:

Galaxy Tab making inroads in India

December 22nd, 2010
Share

Samsung’s Galaxy Tablet has entered the Indian market with the tagline ‘Start Tabbing’. Some call it a multimedia device; others think it is a gaming console; still others see it as a mobile phone with high speed broadband; while another bunch compares it to the Amazon Kindle – an e book reader. No matter what is being said about it though, Samsung Galaxy Tablet is here in India, and from the looks of it, is here to stay.
Galaxy Tablet is powered by Android operating system 2.2. It combines mobile telephony with a whole host of applications, and offers consumers PC-like web browsing capabilities as well as multimedia content on a seven inch display.
Thus, users can e mail, make voice or video calls, send SMS or MMS messages, use social networking sites, and maps for navigation, play games, and access a vast library of books and publications through the tablet’s e reader application.
Users can wirelessly sync their Galaxy Tab to their DLNA compatible TV or computers to stream movies, share photos and music files or view documents on a large monitor.
The Samsung Tab is priced at Rs 38,000, and was launched in India on November 10. It has tied up with various leading telecom operators including Airtel, Aircel, Reliance Mobile, Tata Docomo and Vodafone for data services.

Source:-http://telecomyatra.afaqs.com/news/?sid=2621_Galaxy+Tab+making+inroads+in+India

Comments Off »

Posted in Hardware News

Tags:

USB audio: the startech icusbaudio adapter

December 21st, 2010
Share

Once in a while I find a product which meets all my expectations. Such is the case with StarTech’s ICUSBAUDIO adapter.

I recently upgraded my Dell Latitude D630 to Windows 7 64bit. Dell is not officially supporting Windows 7 on the D630, so I was forced to seek the drivers myself. Fortunately I was able to find drivers for most of the on board peripherals including what I thought was the correct audio driver. It installed, but still no audio. The internal microphone was working, but not the speakers nor the headphone jack. Dell offers no audio drivers that will work with Windows 7 64bit.My only option was to find some alternative to the on-board sound circuitry.

My first thoughts were to find a PC-Card sound card, however PC-Cards appear to be disappearing and when they do exist they are expensive. That’s when I began looking for a USB solution.

Years ago, I experimented with USB sound devices. At the time, all the devices I tried left something to be desired. Either the sound quality was poor, they suffered from dropouts or both. I was jaded from this experience and really didn’t expect that I could find a suitable device.

I first turned to my old faithful service, eBay. An eBay search turned up hundreds of USB sound “cards”. The problem with eBay is that you can’t read reviews on products and even though most of the eBay items were cheap, I really didn’t want to spend any money on something I wouldn’t be happy with, no matter how inexpensive. So I turned to my other online vendor of choice, Amazon. A quick search on Amazon returned dozens of USB sound cards, many of which were identical to what my eBay search returned. The best part is that many of them had reviews!

The reviews in Amazon led me to the StarTech ICUSBAUDIO Adapter. The ICUSBAUDIO Adapter is a plug-and-play USB 2.0 Audio Adapter which supports a single microphone and stereo output. The device itself is a little bulky and if plugged directly into a dual USB port on most laptops, it would render one of the ports unusable. Fortunately Startech saw fit to include a short USB extension cable eliminating this as a problem.

Included with the package is a CD containing drivers and software. If you take the time to load them (about 30 seconds and a restart), you are rewarded with a tray application which allows you to take full advantage of the device, including SPDIF output, Dolby 5.1, Dolby 7.1, environment selection, a customizable equalizer, karaoke control, etc. If you don’t load the drivers, you’ll do yourself a disservice.

Once I had everything installed, I plugged in my headphones and launched my mp3 player. The default sound is quite adequate. I imagine this would be equivalent to what you would hear if you didn’t use the included software. The driver and control panel application work together to allow you to tailor the output in a plethora of ways. After a bit of tweaking, I had the sound just where I like it.

Bottom line: If you can’t find drivers for your sound card, your sound card in your laptop has failed or you just need and additional sound input/output, you can’t go wrong with the StarTech ICSUBAUDIO Adapter. The average price is $12.00 to $15.00.

Source:http://www.booshnews.com/2010/12/20/usb-audio-the-startech-icusbaudio-adapter/

Comments Off »

Posted in Hardware News

Tags:

Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes