IT-Code-News

IT News Head Lines (Yahoo News) 26/01/2012

2012-01-26T20:00:00.000+02:00

SAP sets sights on fresh profit record
(Reuters)
Reuters - SAP, the world's biggest maker of business software, aims to set a fresh profit record this year as it banks on robust corporate spending on technology.

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Playtech in talks with possible U.S. partners
(Reuters)
Reuters - Playtech, the world's biggest provider of online gaming software, is holding talks with a number of potential partners in the United States as it gears up for the possible re-opening of the potentially lucrative market, CEO Mor Weizer said.

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Sage mindful of European woes on customers
(Reuters)
Reuters - British accountancy software maker Sage said it was watching the economic situation in Europe and the impact a downturn would have on its small and medium customers, although it said trading was still on track.

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Available Tags:SAP , , , ,

IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 26/01/2012

2012-01-26T19:30:00.001+02:00

Tim Cook congratulates employees over e-mail, tells them to attend Town Hall tomorrow to discuss "some exciting new things going on at Apple"
Apple have had an amazing Q1, with some uber-strong numbers blowing even analysts expectations. You'd have to be happy being the CEO right now, and Tim Cook seems to be over the moon. Cook sent a short e-mail to Apple employees not only congratulating them on both a record setting holiday quarter, but starting 2012 with the launch of a ground-breaking initiative for education with iBooks textbooks.

Cook has told all employees to report to Town Hall tomorrow, either in person or through AppleWeb at 10AM PT to discuss "some exciting new things going on at Apple." His full e-mail is below:

Team,

Thanks to everyone's hard work, we're off to a great start in 2012. Last week in New York we launched a groundbreaking initiative for education with iBooks textbooks, and today we reported the strongest quarter in Apple's history.Please join me tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. in Town Hall. We'll review our record-setting results and discuss some exciting new things going on at Apple.The meeting will be broadcast live to many sites in Cupertino and other Apple locations. Please check AppleWeb for details.

Tim

WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange set to... host a TV show
This is definitely something that I did not expect, but WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange is set to host his own new television show that will have him featuring interviews with key political players from around the world.

The theme of the interview show is "the world tomorrow" and is scheduled to hit in mid-March. Assange is said to be planning 10 weekly half-hour episodes where he will explode what he says is the future of our world with political players, thinkers and revolutionaries. He hopes to examine his guests' philosophies and struggles in a deeper way than what has been done before.

The program is set to be shown to over 600 million viewers across cable, satellite and terrestrial broadcast networks based on initial licensing commitments, but no specific networks or providers have been listed.

At the moment, there has also been no mention of planned guests.

YouTube streams more than 4 billion videos every day
Google's video website, YouTube, is streaming an absolutely mind-boggling 4 billion videos each and every day. This is a 25-percent increase over the last eight months, according to the company.

Why the sudden jump in viewing numbers? Google have pushed YouTube beyond the PC, with YouTube having its own app on smartphones, tablets and televisions, as Google step up efforts to offer more professional-grade content on the site. According to Google, roughly 60 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every 60 seconds, this is compared to the 48 hours of video uploaded per minute back in May of 2011.

Google acquired YouTube in 2006 for a nice $1.65 billion, and now represents one of Google's key opportunities to generate new sources of revenue outside of its traditional Internet search advertising business.

Most of the 4 billion videos that YouTube stream each day don't even make money. Google have said that just 3 billion YouTube videos are monetized per week.

Diablo III's senior producer leaves Blizzard
Senior producer for Diablo III, Steve Parker, announced through Twitter that he no longer works for Blizzard or on the game itself. As usual, many have speculated on whether Diablo III will get delayed or not.

Parker did not state a reason for him leaving the company, but some believe that despite an announcement just a few days ago about multiple system changes from within the game, Diablo III is virtually ready to go and Parker's work on the game is finished.

Others have speculated that Parker was fed up with the seemingly endless delays and threw the towel in. This, I personally do not believe, as he works for Blizzard. How do you work for Blizzard and not expect their games to not come out in twelve month cycles like Call of Duty games.

Could Parker have left because of the changes? Could he not have been happy with the force of Diablo III on consoles? Maybe he didn't like the path the game was taking and butted heads with upper-management. That's what I'm thinking. What do you think could be Parker's reasoning for quitting Blizzard?

RumorTT: Xbox 720/Next to be six times as powerful as current-gen consoles
It seems rumors of the next-gen Microsoft console is getting the most talk lately, with more news of the Xbox 720/Next console from "sources close to the project" that told IGN.

There were initial reports that the next-gen console from Microsoft would sport the new GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture that is found in the newly-released AMD Radeon HD 7900-Series, but it seems that the console might tap some of the 6000-Series of GPUs.

IGN's sources claim it will use a Radeon HD 6670-like GPU, which offers support for DirectX 11, multi-display output, 3D and 1080p HD output. In "real terms", this would allow the next-gen Xbox's graphics processing power to be nearly six times as powerful as the Xbox 360, and just "20-percent greater performance than Nintendo's forthcoming console, the Wii U."

Seriously? Just six times faster? It will have been 8 years since the Xbox 360 launched when the next-gen Xbox arrives, and all we get is six times? Mid-range PC's will be faster than that, before it is even here. Heck, my current GTX 570 SLI setup is faster.

Considering most rumors have led us to believe that the Wii U will only be a little faster than the current-gen Xbox 360, how can the next-gen Xbox be "six times as powerful as the current-gen Xbox 360", yet only 20-percent faster than the Wii U. If the Wii U is only a little faster than the Xbox 360, it doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

Heavy amount of salt required with this rumor.

I'll be sorely disappointed if all we get is a 6 times improvement, we need 1080p @ 60fps minimum.

NZXT HALE82 850-watt Power Supply Review

Introduction

A little over a year ago, NZXT come to market with their first power supply. We happily took a thorough look at the NZXT HALE90 850W power supply and were very pleased with it.

It was squarely aimed at enthusiasts with high efficiency and great performance with several options not normally seen in a mainstream product. All of this came with a little bit of a price premium and as such, there were many that passed on the power supply simply because it was a little bit out of their budget. Enter the NZXT HALE82.

The new NZXT HALE82 series of power supplies aren't meant for enthusiast, but are more geared towards mainstream gamers. One of the main differences that most will notice is that the new HALE82 series is only rated for 80Plus Bronze efficiency.

The price drop will certainly be noticed too as the new units are at least $40 cheaper and offered in lower wattages to boot. Will the HALE82 be able to hold the reputation that NZXT built with the HALE90 series? We will find out shortly as we throw the HALE82 850W on the bench for testing.

Specifications, Availability and Pricing

NZXT beefed up the outputs of the HALE82 850W as it now is rated for 25A on both the 3.3V and 5V rails with a combined total output of 150W. This is certainly a welcome step up from before. 70A of power is served up on the single 12V rail which should provide plenty of power for the six PCI-E connectors available with the unit.

NZXT expanded the features just a little bit on the HALE82 power supplies. This time around we get a full range of protections with the addition of over temperature protection. Usually when this is added they also rate the unit for 100% continuous output at 50C, but oddly enough, we couldn't find any documentation that the unit had the rating. The power supply still sports both native and modular cabling.

NZXT has made the HALE82 power supplies readily available through all of your normal online merchants. The cheapest we were able to find the unit online at the Directon for a total of $139.99 with free shipping. NZXT gladly backs the HALE90 with a 5-year warranty. If you keep your receipt or register the unit online, NZXT promises to have your unit replaced in 3 days should it die AND they will pay for shipping both ways. Major props to NZXT for stepping the warranty game up a bit.
... Read the rest in your browser!

WD® Announces Q2 Results and Operations Update, Reflecting Continued Progress in Flood Recovery
Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC) today reported revenue of $2.0 billion, hard-drive unit shipments of 28.5 million and net income of $145 million, or $0.61 per share, for its second fiscal quarter ended Dec. 30, 2011. Excluding charges and expenses related to the Thailand flooding and the planned acquisition of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST), non-GAAP net income was $358 million, or $1.51 per share.(1) During the quarter, the company incurred charges and expenses of $199 million related to the flooding and expenses of $14 million associated with the planned acquisition of HGST.

In the year-ago quarter, the company reported revenue of $2.5 billion, net income of $225 million, or $0.96 per share, and shipped 52.2 million hard drives.

The company generated $378 million in cash from operations during the December quarter, ending with total cash and cash equivalents of $3.9 billion.

Operations Update

The company also announced it has made significant additional progress to restore its manufacturing capacity following the recent flooding in Thailand. It has continued to ramp HDD production in Thailand and yesterday resumed slider production which had been suspended since October 10. The company now believes its manufacturing capacity will be back to pre-flood capabilities in the quarter ending September 2012.

"We have made substantial progress in restoring WD's manufacturing capabilities in the aftermath of the historic flooding in Thailand, and this is reflected in our second quarter financial results and in the resumption of our operations there," said John Coyne, president and chief executive officer. "While much work remains to be done over the next several quarters to reach our pre-flood manufacturing capabilities, the progress thus far is significantly ahead of our original expectations and is a tribute to the dedicated and effective actions of our employees, contractors and Thai government agencies, the efforts of our supply partners and the support of our customers. We are grateful to all involved in this extraordinary effort."

HGST Acquisition

The company's plan to complete the acquisition of HGST is on track to close by March 2012. The company continues to work on obtaining the regulatory approval of the transaction from the remaining government agencies.

Latest Firmware Update Offers Added Value to New and Existing Customers by Doubling Random Write IOPS Performance
OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:OCZ), a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, today announced the release of new enhanced IOPS firmware (v1.13) for the Octane SATA 3.0 Series SSDs. The random write performance has been significantly improved, in some capacities over double that of the previous specifications, for users looking to push their SSD performance to new heights.

For all Octane SATA 6Gb/s models, the improved IOPS made possible by this new firmware allow for greater transactional performance, especially during small file and random access speeds in everyday computing applications. When compared to the previous revision, random write IOPS performance doubles across nearly all capacities when tested in Iometer 2008:

OCZ strives to offer the fastest, highest performing solutions on the market and continues to support customers by offering firmware innovations to their storage investments. The new enhanced IOPS firmware will begin shipping in the next batch of drives to resellers, and the upgrade file will be made available to existing customers via the company's website.

For complete performance update information, please visit the Octane SATA III product page here

Intel Takes Key Step in Accelerating High-Performance Computing with InfiniBand Acquisition
Intel Corporation today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with QLogic to acquire the product lines of and certain assets related to its InfiniBand business. A significant number of the employees associated with this business are expected to accept offers to join Intel.

This acquisition is designed to enhance Intel's networking portfolio and provide scalable high- performance computing (HPC) fabric technology as well as support the company's vision of innovating on fabric architectures to achieve ExaFLOP/s performance by 2018. An ExaFLOP/s is a quintillion computer operations per second, a hundred times more than today's fastest supercomputers.

The deal is expected to close by the end of the current quarter pending customary closing conditions being met.

"At the International Supercomputing Conference 2011, Intel unveiled a bold vision to redefine HPC performance and break the Exascale barrier by 2018," said Kirk Skaugen, vice president and general manager of Intel's Data Center and Connected System Group. "The technology and expertise from QLogic provide important assets to provide the scalable system fabric needed to execute on this vision. Adding QLogic's InfiniBand product line to our networking portfolio will bring increased options and exceptional value to our datacenter customers."

Antec Unveils the Three Hundred Two Enclosure
Antec Inc., the global leader in high-performance computer components, announces the Three Hundred Two enclosure, the latest addition to their Gaming Series. This sleek, black chassis is designed to handle today's and tomorrow's high-performance systems that are custom built for gamers from the inside-out.

The Three Hundred Two enclosure is perfect for gamers, system integrators and casual builders alike because of its extensive cooling advantages and expandability.

High Performance Cooling Advantages - The Three Hundred Two is built for maximum cooling thanks to its perforated front bezel, included dual TwoCool fans, and four optional fans, including a 120 mm CPU exhaust fan behind the motherboard, to ensure gamers can play beyond the long hours of the night

Extensive Compatibility and Expandability - The Three Hundred Two utilizes eight expansion slots for up to three 12.5" (318 mm) graphics cards for compatibility with the largest GPUs.

Intelligent Design - This enclosure has removable, washable PSU and front intake air filters, along with a cable management system that features four strategically placed holes and 3 cm of space behind the motherboard tray. It's even easier for builders to start using their new PC right away thanks to the Three Hundred Two's three 5.25" and five 3.5" tool-less drive bays.

"The Three Hundred Two is an excellent enclosure for those who want to build a reliable, long-lasting PC," said Mafalda Cogliani, Global Marketing Director for Antec. "The enclosure has great cooling and expandability options, making it the perfect choice for anyone looking to build a new and affordable gaming PC with high functionality and design."

Availability

The Three Hundred Two is available now through our distributors and resellers such as ASI, D&h, INGRAM, TECH DATA, MA LABS, CANADA COMPUTERS, NEWEGG, SUPERCOM, NCIX, FRY'Swith a MSRP of $79.95.

Detailed Specifications:

- 11 drive bays:
o 3 x 5.25" tool-less drive bays
o 2 x 2.5" drive bays (dedicated)
o 6 x 3.5" tool-less drive bays
- Motherboards: Standard ATX, microATX, Mini-ITX
- 8 expansion slots
- Maximum graphics card size: 12.5" (318 mm)
- Maximum CPU cooler height: 6.7" (170 mm)
- Cooling System:
o 1 x 120 mm rear TwoCool fan
o 1 x 140 mm top TwoCool fan
o 2 x 120 mm front intake fans (optional)
o 1 x 120 mm side intake fan (optional)
o 1 x 120 mm side exhaust fan behind motherboard (optional)
- Perforated front bezel for maximum air intake
- Water cooling support: top water cooling grommets
- Enlarged CPU cutout
- Front I/O ports:
o 2 x USB 3.0 with internal motherboard connector
o Audio In/Out
- No power supply included
- Unit Dimensions
o 513 mm (H) x 229 mm (W) x 471 mm (D)
o 20.2" (H) x 9" (W) x 18.5" (D)
- Package Dimensions
o 565 mm (H) x 290 mm (W) x 525 mm (D)
o 22.2" (H) x 11.4" (W) x 20.7" (D)
- Net Weight: 15.3 lb (6.9 kg)

AMD Opteron™ 6200 Series Processor Family Wins the Linley Group Analysts' Choice Award for Best Server Processor
AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that its AMD Opteron 6200 Series processor family, based on the new "Bulldozer" architecture, was chosen as the winner of The Linley Group's first annual Analysts' Choice Awards. The awards recognize the top processor products of 2011 in several major categories including embedded, mobile, PC, server, design IP and related technology. To choose each winner, the Linley Group's team of technology analysts focused on merits of the leading products that began shipping between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2011.

"Our analysts are deeply familiar with processor products and technology, having conducted extensive research in order to deliver the firm's popular publications and reports," said Linley Gwennap, founder and principal analyst at The Linley Group. "We chose the winners on the basis of their performance, power, features and cost as appropriate for their target applications."

This latest award for the AMD Opteron processor comes on the heels of the recent Technology of the Year honors from InfoWorld. AMD Opteron 6200 Series processors along with the Dell PowerEdge R715, which is based on the latest AMD Opteron processors, have both received 2012 Technology of Year awards from the publication.

"The AMD Opteron 6200 Series processor rose to the top of our list of nominees due to its leading performance for high-volume, dual-socket servers," said Bob Wheeler, senior analyst at The Linley Group. "Reported SPEC_rate2006 baseline scores show the AMD Opteron processor Model 6282 SE delivers about 20 percent greater integer performance1 and nearly 40 percent greater floating-point performance2 than comparable processors from the competition and costs about 40 percent less.3"

"We are honored to receive this prestigious award from The Linley Group," said Pat Patla, corporate vice president for AMD's Server Business. "Since we launched the new AMD Opteron processor a little more than 2 months ago, the industry has rallied around the combination of innovation and price-performance advantage AMD is delivering to Cloud, HPC and enterprise customers. It is clear the new AMD Opteron processor with our "Bulldozer" technology is a winner."

Other recent Awards and Top Performance ratings for the AMD Opteron 6200 Series processor-based servers include:

IT PRO Editor's Choice for the Dell PowerEdge R815
Top TPC-C 2-Socket score on the HP ProLiant DL385 G7
Top 2-node blade VMmark 2.1 on the HP ProLiant BL685c G7; largest ever published result on a blade server

Available Tags:WikiLeaks , TV , YouTube , Xbox , Intel , AMD , Server ,

IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 26/01/2012

2012-01-26T19:30:00.000+02:00

Cook has told all employees to report to Town Hall tomorrow, either in person or through AppleWeb at 10AM PT to discuss "some exciting new things going on at Apple." His full e-mail is below:

Team,

Tim

NZXT HALE82 850-watt Power Supply Review

Introduction

Specifications, Availability and Pricing

Available Tags:WikiLeaks , TV , YouTube , Xbox , Intel , AMD , Server ,

IT News Head Lines (ComputerWorld) 26/01/2012

2012-01-26T19:00:00.000+02:00

Google to combine users' data across its services
Google will be able to combine data from several Google services when a Google Accounts user is signed in, as part of a rewritten set of privacy policies that the company announced on Tuesday.

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Yahoo continued to struggle with online ad sales in Q4
Yahoo struggled selling both display and search advertising in the fourth quarter, as its revenue and net income both dropped year-on-year.

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Apple crushes sales records, hits revenue 'home run'
Apple on Tuesday announced it had smashed sales records of the iPhone, iPad and Mac in the final quarter of 2011, the first reporting period after the death of former CEO Steve Jobs.

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AMD reports Q4 loss on weak graphics sales
Advanced Micro Devices reported a fourth-quarter net loss Tuesday on weak sales of graphics chips and charges related to a restructuring.

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Get Online or In-Person Help With Your To-Do List
Can't fit in a trip to the grocery store this week? Completely boneheaded when it comes to assembling Ikea furniture? Falling behind on the real work you need to complete because you're busy answering email? TaskRabbit offers help with the minutiae of daily life, without your having to hire long-term employees or take a risk on a complete stranger. The website inAAvites you to post a task such as "deliver groceries" or "help me with heavy lifting," and TaskRabbits--task runners who've been screened for hire by the site--will bid on your task by specifying the lowest price they'll accept as payment.

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Turn a PC Into a DVR, Install Software Without a DVD Drive
Recently I've heard from a number of users who are looking for a way to cut that pricey cable-TV cord, but don't want to give up on watching and recording their favorite network shows. Turns out there's an easy and very affordable solution, one that eliminates cable (cable-TV, anyway) service entirely and frees you from monthly fees. It's called Windows 7.

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Apple shines in first full quarter under CEO Tim Cook
Apple more than doubled its profits last quarter thanks to brisk sales of its iPad and iPhones over the holiday season. The company reported a profit of $13.06 billion for the quarter ending Dec. 31.

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How to Prepare Your Business for Pinterest
Pinterest is a site your business should have on its radar. It's like a virtual bulletin board, allowing users to curate a collection of things they like from around the Internet into various layouts, or boards. And its popularity is booming, with 11 million reported page visits during one busy week last December--a 40-fold traffic increase over six months.

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Sh*t end users say to IT
The folks here at IDG Enterprise (Computerworld, Network World, ITworld, CIO, etc.) decided to join this meme and offer our take on what different things end users say to IT staffers. Broad generalizations sprinkled with some truth, of course!

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Available Tags:Google , Yahoo , Apple , AMD , CEO ,

IT News Head Lines (Bigbruin.com) 26/01/2012

2012-01-26T18:30:00.000+02:00

ASUS Sabertooth 990FX AMD AM3+ Motherboard

The ASUS Sabertooth 990FX AMD AM3+ motherboard is a solid board that provides a variety of high end features, including a very simple and well done overclocking interface. This board is said to be TUF, which stands for The Ultimate Force. It means that they have utilized the highest quality components, which allows ASUS to offer a 5 year warranty.

ASUS Xonar U3 USB Sound Card

ASUS may be best known for their motherboards, video cards, and laptops; but more and more though they are making a name for themselves with computer accessories. We have covered a handful of their sound cards and other computer audio devices over the years, and in this review we will take a look at one of their newer audio products - the Xonar U3 USB sound card.

ASUS Maximus IV Extreme P67 ROG Motherboard

If you're a hard core overclocker, the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme will provide you with all of the tools you could ever need to squeeze every last drop of performance out of your hardware. If you are simply a beginner, it is simple enough to configure to give you the performance boost you crave with all of the tools you'll need as your overclocking skills mature.

ASUS USB-N10 and USB-N13 Wireless N Network Adapters

One area where people might not necessarily think of ASUS is networking hardware. Whether you need a router, switch, or adapter - and whether you want to go wired, wireless, or over power lines - they have a few choices for you to consider. In this review we're going to take a look at two of their compact wireless N network adapters; the USB-N10 and the USB-N13.

Ineo I-NA309D Pro USB 3.0 to SATA Dual Bay RAID Enclosure

I ran a couple of runs of Crystal Disk Mark on a 300GB Raptor, and the Ineo Technology I-NA309 D Pro Super Speed USB 3.0 enclosure on the fast setting was roughly 10 Mbps faster on the read and write than the Raptor. I was blown away by this, and I am now going to use this drive enclosure and the two drives as my main storage for all of my games and music.

Synology DiskStation DS411 4-Bay NAS Server

Summer has wound down yet again, and just like the last two years we have a new Synology product to review. Synology has also just finished up beta testing of a new DiskStation firmware (DS 3.2), and there are some solid new features and tons of updates worth checking out while we cover their new DiskStation DS411 4-bay NAS server.

Thermaltake Armor A30 MicroATX Computer Case

If you are looking for a small form factor case to take to LAN parties or just to save space, the Thermaltake Armor A30 is a great option. It has the features that are needed in an enthusiast level case, including a USB 3.0 port, SSD support, room for multiple hard drives, a removable motherboard tray, and even support for long video cards.

Seagate GoFlex Turbo 750GB USB 3.0 Hard Drive

Just when you thought there was nothing new when it comes to external hard drives, Seagate has found a new angle with their GoFlex Turbo 750GB USB 3.0 hard drive - something extra special that most folks don't even consider until it's too late - disaster recovery protection. It all stems from Seagate's philosophy that it's not the hardware that is important - it's your data.

ASUS GeForce GTX 560Ti 1GB Graphics Card

The ASUS GTX 560Ti comes with a factory overclock from 822MHz to 830MHz, and while this seems to be a key marketing point from ASUS, it is a minor increase. However, ASUS includes an application to overclock the card more on your own, and my efforts resulted in almost a 120MHz increase in GPU speed. This simple overclock provided a nice boost in performance.

Available Tags:ASUS , AMD , USB , Wireless , USB 3.0 , SATA , Server , Thermaltake , USB 3.0 , Seagate , GeForce , GTX ,

IT News Head Lines (InfoWorld) 26/01/2012

2012-01-26T18:00:00.000+02:00

EMC lays out product roadmap, warns of disk shortages
EMC CEO Joe Tucci today offered a high-level overview of the company's product roadmap, which includes a refresh of its VMAX Symmetrix array, its VNXe hybrid array, and the general availability of its embedded flash storage product for servers. EMC subsidiary VMware will also detail new functions in all of its major product families, including the vSphere private cloud infrastructure suite and the vFabric application cloud platform.

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2011: The year Mac malware got interesting
For years, security professionals have argued that Mac OS X is just as prone to digital attack as the latest Windows system. Yet, Mac users have felt safer because, let's face it, few attackers focus on Macs.

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Google patches several serious Chrome bugs
Google yesterday patched four vulnerabilities in Chrome, and disclosed that it had patched a fifth two weeks ago. The refresh of Chrome 16 was the second security-related update for the browser this month.

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Ubuntu to feature command-line shortcuts
Canonical will outfit the next release of its Ubuntu Linux OS with a new type of interface that will allows desktop users to execute functions for any program through a command-line interface or by voice command. The new interface, called the HUD (Head-Up Display), "will ultimately replace menus in Unity applications," said Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth, in a blog post announcing the technology. The first version of HUD will be part of the Ubuntu 12.04 Long Term release, due in April.

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AT&T to launch unified communication services
AT&T will launch new cloud-based unified communications services on Thursday, giving businesses the ability to integrate chat, email, voice over IP calls, audio and video conferencing, and more over desktops and many mobile devices.

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Linux vendors rush to patch privilege escalation flaw after root exploits emerge
Linux vendors are rushing to patch a privilege escalation vulnerability in the Linux kernel that can be exploited by local attackers to gain root access on the system. The vulnerability, which is identified as CVE-2012-0056, was discovered by Jüri Aedla and is caused by a failure of the Linux kernel to properly restrict access to the "/proc//mem" file.

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Samsung wins against Apple in the Netherlands on tablet design
The Court of Appeal in The Hague has ruled that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is sufficiently different from Apple's European design patent that the tablet can remain on sale in the Netherlands. Samsung welcomed Tuesday's ruling, which affirmed an August 2011 ruling that the design of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is distinctive and does not infringe Apple's intellectual property rights, a spokesman said via email. The ruling again demonstrates that Apple's products simply do not warrant the intellectual property protections that it believes they should have, he added.

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Microsoft reveals launch date for SQL Server 2012
Microsoft has announced a March 7 online event for the launch of SQL Server 2012, the next generation of its database product. The event will feature keynote addresses from Microsoft corporate vice presidents Ted Kummert and Quentin Clark, who will respectively give attendees a look at Microsoft's "data evolution vision" and a general overview of SQL Server 2012's features.

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Verizon reports $2B Q4 loss; blames pension costs, iPhone subsidy
Verizon Communications on Tuesday reported a $2.02 billion fourth-quarter loss, mostly due to one-time charges of $3.4 billion for severance, pension, and benefits, as well as increased subsidy costs for iPhone sales. The quarterly loss, which was 71 cents per share, compared to $2.64 billion in profit in the same quarter a year ago. Not counting one-time charges, Verizon posted earnings per share of 52 cents, just missing analyst estimates of 53 cents.

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Windows Phone 7 sales numbers confound -- again
It's like deja vu all over again.

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Joomla content management gets multi-database support
The newly released edition of the Joomla open source content management system now comes with a new search engine, and can use Microsoft SQL Server or PostGreSQL, in addition to MySQL. Joomla 2.5, released Tuesday, also can now alert administrators when a new version of the software is ready to be installed directly from the administrator's home page.

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Apple is biggest buyer of semiconductors, Gartner says
Apple became the biggest buyer of semiconductors last year, ahead of Samsung Electronics and Hewlett-Packard, Gartner said on Tuesday. Apple's increased semiconductor spending is the result of a number of factors. The company sold more smartphones, and its tablet business was also highly successful in 2011, according to Gartner. The success of the MacBook Air also increased Apple's semiconductor demand, it said.

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Available Tags:Mac , Google , Chrome , Ubuntu , Linux , Samsung , Apple , tablet , Microsoft , SQL , Server , iPhone , Windows Phone , Windows ,

IT News Head Lines (Hardware Secrets) 26/01/2012

2012-01-26T17:30:00.000+02:00

Antec Launches Three Hundred Two PC Case
Antec is launching their new Three Hundred Two computer case, a product that comes with three 5.25” external bays, six 3.5” internal bays, two 2.5” internal bays, and eight...

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Available Tags:

IT News Head Lines (IT World Canada) 26/01/2012

2012-01-26T17:00:00.000+02:00

Google looks to speed up the Internet
The search giant proposes enhancements for the Web's TCP transport layer to reduce latency. An industry analyst says the ideas are good

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IBM, NEC team to push OpenFlow solution
Equipment makers say they can deliver the industry’s first complete high-performance commercial OpenFlow solution

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Ontario company touts Internet investigative tool
JADsoftware is about to release a new version of its Internet Evidenc Finder, which it says is used by investigators around the world

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Technology News Gallery: Week of January 23, 2012
Our weekly roundup of worldwide technology news in pictures. This week: Apple's textbook-friendly iBooks 2, Wikipedia goes dark, former Nortel execs go on trial, and more.Click here to view the slide show.

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Old-schooling your smart phone, Nortel execs on trial
ITWC THIS WEEK VIDEO PLAYLIST Turn your smart phone into a retro rotary dial phone, opening statements in the Nortel fraud trial, and an app that gets faster CPR to heart attack victims

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Alberta city leverages surplus IT for mobile HQ
To save money, the city of Airdrie outfitted a former ambulance as a rolling emergency command centre from existing equipment, complete with a Wi-Fi hotspot

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Dutch MP: Ban surveillance tech to despotic regimes
Call in the Netherlands echoed by Europe's digital agenda commissioner, who says this is both a legal and moral issue

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Samsung wins in the Netherlands on tablet design
Apple's products do not warrant the intellectual property protections that it claims, Samsung said

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Consumer group urges EU to block Motorola takeover
Allowing the deal would provide Google with 'unprecedented dominance in virtually all aspects of the mobile world,' group claims

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Alleged Kelihos botnet creator named by Microsoft
Microsoft says the man lives in St. Petersburg and used for work for a computer security software company

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SOPA and PIPA: What went wrong?
Why a Web campaign derailed three powerful and well-funded trade groups that pushed hard for laws that could have cut U.S. access to suspect foreign Web sites

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4 tough challenges for RIM's new team
For the first time since its founding, Research in Motion has changed its top leadership, with a new president/CEO, a new board chairwoman and a new major investor who specializes in turnarounds. But can they save RIM?

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Borrowed spectrum needed for London Olympics
Britain's regulator says it needs to find unused wireless frequencies to meet demand for this summer's sporting event

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Dumb luck: Zeus Trojan leaves US$13 million untouched
Thieves made off with only US$19,000 instead of millions from a U.S. county. Learning the hard way, now it will isolate a PC from the Internet for online transactions

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Android will be developers' favourite this year: Report
iOS about to to be overtaken as the development environment of choice, says Ovum, which also sees interest in Windows Mobile

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HP pays US$425,000 in hazardous laptop batteries case
HP learned of about 22 incidents involving the batteries in 2007 but it failed to report until 10 months later, says U.S. agency

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Prepping the network for VDI
A vendor-written tech primer

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Avaya has Flare for Apple's iPad
Want to run Avaya's Flare interface on an iPad? There's now an app for that. However, unlike its big brother, Flare Communicator can't do video conferencing

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Android market could be RIM security 'death knell'
Research in Motion could find itself entangled in Android's security problems, experts say

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Interview: What CIOs should know for 2012
RADIO ITWC Executive advisor for IDC, David McNally, joined us to talk about IDC’s CIO predictions for 2012

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Available Tags:Google , NEC , Samsung , tablet , Motorola , Microsoft , Android , HP , iPad , security ,

IT News Head Lines (Ninjalane) 26/01/2012

2012-01-26T16:30:00.000+02:00

Reviews: Gigabyte X79 UD3 Motherboard Review
In this review we will be looking at the Gigabyte X79 UD3 motherboard based on the Intel X79 chipset and supporting the new LGA2011 Sandy Bridge E processor. Gigabyte is offering three X79 motherboards in the Ultra Durable lineup starting with the UD3.

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Available Tags:Gigabyte ,

IT News Head Lines (ComputerWeekly) 26/01/2012

2012-01-26T16:00:00.000+02:00

Key trends for public sector IT in 2012
As more spending constraints are introduced, Computer Weekly examines the landscape for public sector IT in 2012.

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Accenture predicts the rise of the data guru
Accenture predicts CIOs who understand the power of data will make great strategic partners for business

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European IT outsourcing activity hits record high
The total value of IT and BPO outsourcing contracts in Europe last year was the highest ever for a 12-month period and 27% higher than in 2010

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Big changes expected as EC publishes data protection review
The European Commission is to publish a draft update to the Data Protection Directive with big changes for organisations that process personal data.

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Megaupload founder awaiting extradition
Megaupload.com founder Kim Dotcom is awaiting extradition to the US after the country requested New Zealand authorities to detain him, pending a formal extradition request.

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Anti-ACTA hacktivists attack Polish government sites
Hactivists have attacked Polish government websites in protest against its plans to sign the international anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA)

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Video: Portsmouth Fire and Rescue pilot wireless rescue dog
Wireless firm Wood & DouglasÂ has debuted wireless comms technology for rescue dogs at the Mobile World Congress preview

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Wireless internet on the Tube by 2012 Olympics
Platforms at London Underground stations will have wireless internet access by the time the London Olympics starts in the summer this year.

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Available Tags:wireless ,

IT News Head Lines (Techradar) 26/01/2012

2012-01-26T15:30:00.000+02:00

SNK Neo Geo portable leaks

Details of a new pocket version of the 90s Neo Geo console have leaked.
The new hardware is branded with original Neo Geo maker SNK's logo and its 2GB storage comes preloaded with 20 classic arcade games including the likes of Metal Slug and Fatal Fury.
Games are played on a 4.3-inch screen surrounded by a full complement of gaming controls.
In addition to the obligatory start and select buttons, there's a thumb stick and four game control buttons on the front. There are also four shoulder buttons on the top edge, as well as volume and brightness controls on the bottom edge.
It appears to be well specified on the connections front too, with a 3.5mm headphone socket, AV out socket, MiniUSB and an SD card slot.

iPhone aping

Disappointingly, a metal band around its edge means it bears more than a passing resemblance to the iPhone 4/4S and highlights some fairly unoriginal styling.
Many of the games included are available on the PSP title SNK Arcade Classics Vol.1 and as downloads from the PlayStation Store, but 90s nostalgics will surely be keen to get their hands on some "official" hardware to play them.
There's no price or release date from Famicom Plaza – the Japanese gaming blog that released the information – but we wait hopefully for confirmation of the new Neo Geo pocket console from SNK itself.
In the meantime we'll leave you with the full list of included games:

World Heroes
Ultimate 11
Top Player's Golf
Sengoku
Nam-1975
Mutation Nation
Last Resort
King of Monsters
Frenzy
Cyber Lip
Fatal Fury Special
Art of Fighting
Super Sidekicks
League Bowling
Metal Slug
Magical Lord
Baseball Stars Professional
Samurai Shodown
King of Fighters '94
Fatal Fury

From Famicom Plaza via The Verge

LG Optimus LTE hits one million sales mark

LG has announced that its Optimus LTE smartphone has hit the million sales mark, despite a limited release in just four countries.
LTE is the next generation network which allows high speed data transfer on the go for mobile devices, but many countries, including the UK, are yet to see the technology arrive.
However, the LG Optimus LTE has proven to be hugely popular in the four markets that it was released in, with sales in its home market of Korea surpassing 600,000.
Canada, Japan and the hugely competitive US market also have the Optimus LTE and LG insists that the sales landmark proves its growing power in what it describes as the 'emerging LTE era'.

Brisk sales

"With brisk sales for a high-end smartphone, the Optimus LTE reaffirms LG's leadership in mobile LTE technology," said Dr. Jong-seok Park, President and CEO of LG Mobile.
"The combination of LTE connectivity with LG's True HD IPS display has resonated with the public regarding the potential of LTE technology."
The Optimus LTS offers up a 1.5GHz dual core-processor, 8MP camera and DNLA, but it is the IPS screen and the LTE connectivity that inevitably headline for the handset.
Interestingly, a report cited by the Korean manufacturer has suggested that LG holds 23 per cent of the 1,400 LTE patents filed worldwide after first demonstrating the technology in 2007.

iTunes Store grossed £77m on Christmas Day

iTunes users spent an incredible $120m (£77m) on music and apps on December 25th.
The company revealed the figure during Tuesday's first fiscal quarter earnings call for 2012 where it announced all-time record iPhone and iPad sales.
The whopping Christmas Day iTunes splurge is probably attributable to the masses of iOS devices and iTunes gift cards handed-out as presents over the festive season.
Apple said that the iTunes Store brought the company $1.7 billion (£1.09bn) in revenue for the quarter and also announced there are now 20 million songs to download.

More good news for Apple

Other noteworthy figures from the record-smashing earnings include news of 85m registered iCloud users, while there have already been 600,000 downloads of the iBooks Author app since last week's announcement.
Also, despite iPod sales falling 21 per cent year-on-year, the company still possesses more than 70 per cent of the MP3 player market.
All-in-all, everything remains spectacularly rosy in the Apple garden in the post-Steve Jobs era.

Apple smashes iPad, iPhone sales records

Apple's earnings juggernaut has shown no signs of slowing in the post-Steve Jobs era, with the company posting record iPhone and iPad sales.
Cupertino says Q1 2012 was its best quarter ever in terms of revenue, bringing in $46.33 billion (£29.7bn) with profits of $13.06 billion (£8.37bn).
Apple also announced earnings of $13.87 per share, smashing Wall Street estimates of $10.06 out of the park.
However, the biggest story of Tim Cook's first quarter in charge of the company is the all-time record iPhone sales of 37.04 million - up 128 per cent on the corresponding period last year.

iLicense to print money

iPad sales followed suit, up 111 per cent to 15.43 million, while Mac sales were up 26 per cent on last year and totalled 5.2 million.
The only blot on the landscape was another fall for iPod sales as they slipped 21 per cent year-on-year, but still added up to an enviable 15.4 million.
An understandably delighted CEO Tim Cook said: "We're thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs.
"Apple's momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline."
The company announced that it now has $97 billion stockpiled in cash as it closes in on Exxon Mobil as the most valuable company in the world once again.

Audiobooks.com brings unlimited listening for $25 a month

The first all-you-can-eat streaming service for audiobooks has arrived, bringing unlimited access to 11,000 titles for a monthly fee of $24.95.
Audiobooks.com allows members to stream as many books as their ears can muster via the web-browser or through forthcoming smartphone apps.
The service promises seamless listening between all devices and new users can sign up for a free 7-day trial now.
Audiobooks.com will rival the Amazon-owned Audible service which starts at $7.95 a month, but only allows access to one or two books per month.

Full streaming

Whereas Audible forces users to download files to their device, Audiobooks will allow full streaming over the web.
The apps for iOS and Android are in the works, but those users with iOS 5 and Android Gingerbread will be able to stream directly from the Audiobooks.com browser site.
Support for BlackBerry and Windows Phone devices is also planned for the near future.
Audiobooks' offering will be seen as the Spotify of the book world, but with a selection of thousands, compared to the millions on offer from the music streaming giant, at more than double the price of a premium subscription, that's where the similarities end.

Star Wars fans' remake passes 1m YouTube views

The Star Wars Uncut project, which is compiled from fan-submitted interpretations of every scene in the first movie, passed one million hits on YouTube in three days.
The new version of George Lucas' 1977 film Episode IV: A New Hope is made up entirely of 15 second clips send in by Force loyalists since the project was conceived in 2009.
Star Wars Uncut showcases the entire movie with 400+ animation, stop-motion, puppetry and live action scenes.
Although the clips have been available on the Star Wars Uncut website for a while, the entire film was uploaded to YouTube for the first time last week.

Streaming pleasure

"Finally, the crowdsourced project has been stitched together and put online for your streaming pleasure," said project curator Casey Pugh.
"The director's cut is a feature-length film that contains hand-picked scenes from the entire starwarsuncut.com collection."
The video is also available to watch on Vimeo, where it has garnered 300,000 views.
Lucasfilm has apparently, and somewhat surprisingly, been supportive of the project which appears in its entirety in the video below.
YouTube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ezeYJUz-84&feature=player_detailpage

Motorola Droid Razr Maxx coming January 26

Motorola's Droid Razr Maxx handset will go on sale on the Verizon network on January 26.
The device, which is essentially the Droid Razr with a much larger battery and another fashionably-incorrect piece of spelling added to the end, will cost $299 on a two-year contract.
That's an extra $100 premium for some Maxx action.
The battery, however, is exceptionally large without adding to the svelte 8.9mm-thick body. The 3300mAh cell is almost double the size of the 1780mAh pack contained within the original.

No Android 4.0 yet

Aside from that, the device keeps the same super-slim dimensions, 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display, 1.2GHz dual-core processor as well 16GB of internal storage and a 16GB microSD card pre-installed
In terms of the snapper, there's an 8-megapixel sensor that's also capable of shooting video at 1080p, while a HD front-facing camera adorns the front of the device.
Naturally, there's 4G connectivity on-board, hence the need for the much larger battery.
Unfortunately the device won't come loaded with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, but an upgrade is in the works.

Mandatory Facebook Timeline rolling out to all

Brace yourself for a glut of complaints invading your newsfeed over the next few weeks: Facebook is rolling out Timeline to all users.
While Facebook offered the option to update your profile to the timeline layout before Christmas, it will be forcing upgrades to all accounts in the coming weeks.
Like the early adopters, new Timlineers (that name may need work) will have seven days to get used to the timeline and remove anything embarrassing before friends can see the new layout.

The thin blue line

Announced at last year's f8 conference, Timeline is Facebook's attempt at collating literally everything you ever do, from watching TV to climbing Mount Everest.
All your Facebook activity is listed chronologically, taking in status updates, songs you've listened to, photos, events you've attended, notes you've written and what friends you've made along the way.
But what's really excellent about Timeline is that it makes it look like you did nothing of note between being born and joining Facebook. Sure, Zuck. Sure.

iPhone subsidies drag down Verizon profits

Verizon has reported a Q4 2011 loss of over $2 billion, partly due to the higher subsidies the company is forced to pay to sell the Apple iPhone.
The wireless carrier, which revealed a profit of $2.64 billion for the corresponding quarter last year, began selling the iPhone 4 in February 2011, ending years of AT&T exclusivity.
Verizon is forced to sell each iPhone at a big loss in order to tie users into expensive two-year contracts.

Very cash-flow positive

According to Bloomberg, subsidising handsets has allowed the company to add 1.2 million new subscribers, which is expected to pay-off in monthly fees further down the line.
"The average smartphone customer will spend about $2,000 over the two-year contract, if the subsidy is $400, you're still getting $1,600, and that's very cash-flow positive," said BarCap analyst James Radcliffe.
Verizon sold 4.3 million iPhone's in the period leading up to Christmas, which doubled the figure from the previous quarter.
However, a large part of the $4.5 billion negative swing in profits can be attributed to a pension charge which cost the company $3.4 billion last quarter.

Review: Corsair Vengeance M60 gaming mouse

Overview

This Corsair Vengeance M60 mouse represents the next step for Corsair – peripherals.
Specifically, high-end peripherals designed for the gamer who's prepared to pay a little more for a rugged build and enhanced usability.
The Vengeance M60 FPS gaming mouse is a prime example of that – premium components, eight-button functionality, and all the extras like adjustable DPI buttons and a mega-low DPI 'sniper' button that's rapidly becoming the standard for a gaming rodent.
Corsair has a pretty impressive pedigree across a number of fields. The Californian company started out producing L2 cache modules, and today it's still go-to guy for performance RAM like the Vengeance and Dominator DDR3 ranges.
In recent times we've seen speaker systems, power supplies, PC chassis and USB flash drives all bearing the Corsair name, and by and large it signals a mark of the highest quality.
The specs for this new mouse are impressive, but can Corsair really pull off a flawless debut into the mouse market with the Corsair Vengeance M60?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the answer's yes.

Verdict

There are two mice in Corsair's fledgling range – the M90 caters for the MMO gamer's needs, and as such sports fifteen programmable buttons.
This M60 sets its sights square and true on the first-person shooter afficionado, for whom split seconds and DPI figures are everything.
With that said, even the grouchiest CS:S gamer will be happy with the Corsair Vengeance M60's performance.

The jury's still out on whether DPI really makes a huge difference, but the M60's adjustable polling rate, high tracking speed and low-friction PTFE pads make for a noticeably smooth experience.
And if you're still hung up on that DPI comment, it's 100 dots higher than our previous darling of the rodent world, Mad Catz's Cyborg R.A.T. 7.
This is a mouse that lots of clever people have sat and thought about for a long time – that much is evident in its ergonomic design.
The sniper button feels well-placed enough that you'd actually use it, and the thumb rest blends perfectly into your mouse mat.
Having experimented with the M60 it turns out to be comfortable in all but the most improbable hand position, which is worth thinking about if you're such a pro gamer that you've analysed your own grip.
Show off.
You don't have to be Fatal1ty to expect more adjustable weighting though, and that's sadly off the menu with this mouse. All you get are three removable weights in the base, so you can make it lighter but not heavier is that is your bag.
Take an eyeful of the price tag and you'll understand why the Corsair Vengeance M60 doesn't offer this – it's clear that most of the money has been spent on its remarkable build quality – but it does lose ground to the similarly-priced R.A.T. 5 from Mad Catz here, which is far more adjustable by weight.

We liked

For a debut effort, the Corsair Vengeance M60 mouse is incredible.
It's hard to pick a fault with it if you're a FPS gamer. Primarily, you want a comfortable mouse that doesn't have a ton of buttons you'll keep accidentally pressing at a fair price, and Corsair's rodent ticks all those boxes with confidence.
The adjustable DPI and sniper button are useful additions in a layout that otherwise shows restraint, and it feels like it could survive a nuclear blast.

We disliked

It is missing out on more fully-adjustable weights and a free-rolling wheel, but the low price eases those concerns considerably.

Final word

Corsair's debut mouse hits the ground running – right to the front of the pack.

Lomography: film sales increasing

Lomography, the popular analogue photography brand, has revealed some interesting statistics for its film-sales in the UK, and across the globe.
Heidi Mace, Online Manager for Lomography UK, told us, "Film sales are growing month on month, film for us is our biggest selling category by quantity, in every country."
Looking at sales figures, Lomography sold 10,793 rolls of film in the UK in December 2011, an increase from 9, 576 in the same month of 2010. "On average we sold 348 rolls of film per day - there's plenty of call for it and we don't see that easing off at all right now."
Mace also said that Lomography worldwide sales across all departments grew 15% in the last year. Lomography introduced its own processing lab in March 2010, and has since processed 10,748 rolls of film across its 3 UK stores and online.
To celebrate, Lomo has released some interesting stats about its lab. It uses a Fuji Frontier 375 printer, Fuji FP363SC film processor and Fuji SP300 scanner. It also uses an Epson V700 flatbed to scan films that are shot on a Spinner 360 camera.

Stats

It gets through 1,116 metres of photographic paper each month, along with 300/400 litres of photographic chemistry a month.
Lomography has also revealed that people like to, er, reveal a little too much. "People seem to enjoy taking their Diana F+ into the shower with them, not recommended!" said one of the Lomo lab workers.
Meanwhile, the company is keen to point out, despite the resurgence in film popularity of late, it is not trying to compete with digital.
Speaking to TechRadar, Mark Appleton, Key Accounts Manager for Lomography UK, said "We're not trying to say digital is bad, so you should throw away your digital cameras, they work hand in hand."
Lomo has produced several adapters and products that work in conjunction with digital cameras and smartphones, such as the Diana lens for DSLR, and the recently announced iPhone holder for the Lomokino which allows (moving) films to be digitised.
Appleton continued, "We're really not trying to compete with them, and there's no denying it's very useful having the images straightaway [from digital], but we're trying to bring the roots of analogue photography back."

Hardcore

With three standalone stores in the UK alone, and a series of planned pop-up shops planned for 2012, Lomo as a brand is increasing is seemingly ever increasing in popularity, with Appleton saying that some users do become "hardcore Lomographers" and go completely analogue.
Film is currently enjoying a resurgence, with Fujifilm telling us that the decline in film sales had slowed down in the past six months, while Kodak, who announced it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week still maintained that its film business was one of the only areas of the company that was still turning a profit.
Lomo has a wide variety of cameras, which accept 35mm or 120mm film, with each characterised by unpredictable effects such as light-leaks, strange colours and blurry images. Appleton also told us that he believe that people were "bored" by digital photography and its reliable nature.

Review: Corsair Vengeance K60 gaming keyboard

Overview

Say hello to the Corsair Vengeance K60 keyboard.
To some, a keyboard is just a place to collect all your biscuit crumbs and errant Golden Virginia while you look at the latest funny cat video, but for the serious gamer it's a vital piece of kit.
These people are prepared to spend a bit extra cash for a keyboard that's comfortable, responsive and maybe even boasts a few extra controls – and Corsair wants in on that action.
Like the Vengeance M60 mouse, this K60 is designed with the FPS gamer in mind.

Corsair's keyboard is built on a brushed metal chassis and features fantastically clicky Cherry MX red switches for (steady now) fast, smooth action.
The WSAD and 1-5 keys are also rubberized and contoured to maximise your gaming comfort and performance, but you can swap these out for normal black keys with a handy tool stowed away, with the spare keys, in the wrist rest if you like.

Verdict

What an impression the K60 makes when you first clickety-clack its keys.
It's as if every key input you make is part of some crucially important bomb-decoding procedure or something.
Satisfying doesn't even cover it – this is the keyboard equivalent of popping bubble-wrap.

We're not sure if it makes a huge difference to your response times in game, but it certainly makes for a more tactile and comfortable gaming session.
Likewise, the contoured A and D keys keep your fingers from straying beyond the movement controls and setting off torches or dropping all your weapons in a moment of spasmodic panic.
The fact the rubberized versions of the WSAD keys are red is nullified by the fact that once your fingers have initially located them, that problem's pretty much sorted and you can't see the keys anymore, but the 1-5 keys are all the handier for their scarlet livery.
The wrist rest-cum-secret key repository can't be faulted for comfort, and switching the keys in and out is a painless manoeuvre.
Outside of a purely gaming application, we love the K60's scrolling volume control, placed just above the caps/num/scroll lock lights (which are a suitably sophisticated white).
It's handy to have such quick and precise volume control without having to fiddle around on your headset. The extra multimedia controls are also welcome, and all this functionality is fitted on a board that meets the rock-solid build quality you'd expect from both the brand and the price tag.
There are a couple of chinks in the brushed steel armour of this Vengeance K60 though.
Firstly – and it's not a biggie – it isn't backlit like the more expensive K90 MMO-focussed keyboard.
FPS gamers play with the lights off sometimes too, and it's a feature you might expect in a £90 keyboard, so be warned before you go trying to search for those funny cat videos with the lights off.
It could also benefit from a few more USB and headset minijacks in its pass-through, but both of those issues are dwarfed by our concerns about the price – it's so nearly as expensive as the K90, which has backlighting and macro keys galore – in fact at time of writing you can pick up a K90 for less money if you shop around.

We liked

Mechanical switches are where it's at in gaming keyboards at the moment, and this Vengeance K60 is a fantastic keyboard for serious gamers.
The Cherry Red MX switches are mega-responsive, and though the red rubberized switchable keys are more for show than anything meaningful gaming advantage, they offer more comfort than most keyboards, especially coupled with the attachable rest.
The incredible build quality and scrolling volume control cover the Vengeance K60 in glory.

We disliked

Only a lack of backlighting and an oddly close pricing between this and the higher-functionality K90 board can dampen our enthusiasm for Corsair's first move in the keyboard game.

Final word

We haven't seen a keyboard that caters for the needs of the FPS gamer this well before – a fantastic setup.

Review: Corsair Vengeance 1300 gaming headset

Overview

Corsair is claiming audiophile-quality from its new Vengeance 1300 Analog Gaming Headset. Can it deliver?
The keen-eyed amongst you will have noticed that this isn't the only new line of peripherals from Corsair lately – we've also got our hands on the Vengeance M60 mouse and Vengeance K60 keyboard.
While that kind of desk-furniture is completely new to Corsair, this gaming headset's less of a stretch from its comfort zone – our ears are still recovering from the divine racket that the SP2500 2.1 speaker system can wail out.
It's first crack at the headset cherry, the Corsair HS1, was a decent effort for a first go.
To make it's subsequent headset worth buying though, Corsair needs to take the SP2500's sound quality and add comfort, mic clarity, 3D positioning and intuitive controls.
No mean feat, and by promising 'audiophile quality' from a relatively cheap headset Corsair is aiming high.
50 mm drivers have been fitted to avoid distortion and cope with rumbling low-end frequencies, and both the earpieces and headband are generously foam padded to save your head in marathon sessions.
So can the Vengeance 1300 really deliver on all of its promises?

Verdict

Firstly, let's start by saying that using the phrase 'audiophile quality' is a mistake.
When you appeal to the most finicky members of a community, you'll always find a few snot-nosed know-it-alls determined to prove you wrong.
It's like saying 'hey, internet! This new thing is as good as The Empire Strikes Back!'
So, no, the Vengeance 1300 headset doesn't offer audiophile quality.

The low-end's too exaggerated for that, and it'll never offer better clarity and true frequency response than Audio-Technica's ATH-M50, even with those slightly bigger 50 mm drivers.
But a gaming headset doesn't need to offer that kind of quality – most gamers would rather spend their pennies on a GPU than a sound card, and since a headset can only blast our what the sound chip produces the chances are that this and most headsets are wildly overqualified for the job.
What we can say is that our ears heard no distortion even at frankly dangerous volume levels; it appears no dubstep bassline or BF3 tank fight is too much for the Vengeance 1300.
Background noise is deftly cut out as soon as you don the cans too, which is great for maxing out immersion levels or gaming near a construction site.
If you have a 3D soundcard, the Vengeance 1300 will give Creative's SoundBlaster Omega cans a run for their money in the positional audio stakes. Considering Creative's headset is pricier, that's impressive.
A-word aside, it turns out that SP2500 sound quality has been captured and crammed into these cans after all.
We're assured by anyone that would talk to us on Ventrilo that the mic sounds 'fine,' and we like the simple and effective volume and mute controls, but as much as we love the Vengeance 1300 for its sound quality, rugged build and clean aesthetic, it isn't the most comfortable set on the market.
The heavy foam-padding cuts out background noise brilliantly but after 30 minutes of continuous wearing the Vengeance 1300 starts to get uncomfortable.

We liked

In the sub-£60 price range, Corsair's sophomore headset is pretty much the cream of the crop.
Those looking to save even more pennies will find their basic needs sated by Sony's DR-GA100 set, but they'll miss out on the Vengeance 1300's great noise-cancelling ability and top-drawer sound quality.

We disliked

Comfort does become a bit of an issue even prior to the hour mark, and that's enough of a problem to prompt some shopping around, but headsets that find the balance between sound quality and comfort are rare, and headsets that do that for below £60 are even rarer.
The Vengeance 1300 strikes a good balance that the price sweetens further still.

Final word

If you're on a budget this is a no brainer, but if you can spend more you'll find more comfort to match the Vengeance 1300's sound quality.

Opinion: An Android-aping iPad 3 would be utter rubbish

An Android-aping iPad 3 would be utter rubbish

Indulging jailbreakers' lust for customisation by making iOS more 'open source' is the worst thing Apple could possibly do to the iPad 3.
Some people, cough cough, think Apple should embrace the open source ethos and make iOS 6 more flexible. Much as it pains me to disagree with my esteemed colleague, he's wrong. All wrong.
I'm one of those people that finds Android incredibly messy. That's one of the reasons why I favour an iPhone over any Android handset – I've used Android phones before and the interface of each and every one has consistently annoyed me by either looking awful or sucking up masses of my time trying to make it look good. Ice Cream Sandwich will make this a lot less painful, I'm sure, but as easy as iOS? Nope.

Eazy-E

Absolutely the best thing about iOS being controlled and insular is that it makes everything very easy: easy to use, easy on the eye, easy to get what you want and easy to put it where you want it. Easy.
This wealth of simplicity makes Apple's OS incredibly inclusive. I don't just mean that my tech-phobic great aunt can get to grips with a simple row of apps; I'm talking more specifically about my tech-loving brother, Michael, who has Down's syndrome.
Michael has an iPad and an iPod touch. He uses them non-stop – downloading apps, FaceTiming, watching videos, creating playlists (full of awful pop music but what can you do) – and he's only ever called me for tech support twice.
Do you think he'd have as much success with an Android tablet or phone? I don't. I think I'd have to block his number because he'd be on the phone to me every three minutes – or his expensive gadgets would sit in a drawer gathering dust. Adding new and inevitably more complicated options will only make this already-advanced tech seem even more intimidating to the tech-illiterate.

Jailbreakers anonymous

Fine, you may say, but those people aren't the masses. Fine, I counter, but neither are the jailbreakers: one million iPad 2 and iPhone 4S devices have been jailbroken in three days, thus proving, Gareth argues, that added customisation and access to non-Apple approved apps is what the people want.
But that's one million out of how many? Apple sold one million iPad 2s in the first weekend they were available and over four million iPhone 4S handsets in its first weekend. One million jailbroken devices is a drop in the ocean.
"Apple wants to preserve the iconic look of its iOS," reckons Gareth. "But it will need to let go of that idea if it hopes to keep users hooked in the future as rivals offer more customisation."
Wrong again, Beavis. I don't know if you've noticed, but Apple can do whatever the hell it likes and people will love it. Take voice control – nobody needed that, people barely even wanted it and yet Siri is the headline feature of arguably the most successful iPhone yet. Apple sets the bar, Apple doesn't follow suit.
And seriously, what options do you need that you don't already have? Changing the background, rearranging icons, filing apps in folders that you can rename… what more do you want? Widgets?
The only time widgets have ever be vaguely useful in day-to-day life is when you want to check the weather at a glance. And, to be honest, that's only useful in the mornings before I open my curtains because otherwise I can just look out the window.
That's not to say I'm going to faff about asking Siri if I need an umbrella or not either though - like many people, I am cool with the two-second process of tapping a button before receiving information that I consume with my eyes.
If Apple takes a leaf out of the Android book of customisation for the iPhone 5 and iPad 3, as Gareth suggests it should, it would put iOS on a rocky road to exclusion and annoyance.
Jailbreakers are a fearless lot: fair play to them for being the masters of their own destinies and taking matters into their own hands. But they're the exception, not the majority. Leave them to their fun and keep things simple for the rest of us.

Eye-Fi criticises SD Association

Eye-Fi, the company behind the wireless SD cards, which established the product in the marketplace, has criticised the SD Association, stating that several of its key patents will be infringed upon if users create their own wireless cards.
Last week, the SD Association announced that it had devised a new Wireless LAN SD standard which meant that users could add wireless capabilities to SD cards.

Intellectual property

The company's chief executive, Yuval Koren, writing on the Eye-Fi blog, stated that the SD Association had deviated from its own rules by adopting Wireless LAN SD as a standard.
This is because, the SD Association (which Eye-Fi is a member of), rules say that all member companies must be allotted a minimum of 60 days to present the intellectual property associated with a draft standard. According to Koren, the SD Association has been a bit hasty with its announcement as this period has not yet passed.
Also on the blog, he said "We invested tens of millions of dollars and several years to create unique technology that lets people wirelessly transfer photos and videos directly from their camera and mobile devices."
Koren claims that after the company made protests to the SDA, its executive director replied, "the SD Association has often made announcements during the IP Review Period because once this phase of the process has been achieved the only thing that could possibly change is the licensing and not the technical details."
Eye-Fi says that 10 top camera manufacturers work with the company, along with "dozens" of leading photo-related sites to connect to the service. It claims that essential Eye-Fi patented technology would be violated by anyone implementing the draft specification.
As of now, the Executive Members have still to vote on the adoption of the new standard, so it remains to be seen whether the objections from Eye-Fi will cause the Association to do a U-turn. Watch this space.

Canon 5D "X" being announced at CP+?

Rumours are circulating that Canon is poised to announce a new 5D just before the CP+ photography trade show in Japan.
It seems more and more likely as the days go on that CP+ is going to be a bigger deal than it has been in previous years, with several camera manufacturers said to be announcing big things at the annual show, and the Japanese keen to give their own show precedence over the likes of CES and Photokina.
The latest from the rumour mill is that Canon will be announcing a successor to its 5D full-frame camera, with some suggestion it could be a replacement for both the 5D Mark II and the APS-C sensored 7D.
Several rumoured specs of the new camera have been doing the rounds for months now, but those include a 21 or 22 million pixel sensor, a "pro level" autofocus system and a new button layout.
Rumours have usually suggested that the camera could be called the 5D Mark III, or 6D, but lately, the idea that it will be called the 5D X has been mentioned, this would make sense if Canon wanted to follow the same naming convention of its recently announced 1DX and G1 X cameras.

Rival

But now, we also have a rumoured announcement date, with February 7th falling into the frame. This is the same day as the Nikon D800 is rumoured to be announced, while Olympus is also said to have something big planned for the 8th. Nikon waited until January to announce its Canon 1DX rival in the form of the Nikon D4, but will make the camera available on the market earlier.
At the time of the 1DX announcement, back in October, Canon confirmed it was working on a new full-frame model, but kept tight-lipped about the details and its name.
CP+ takes place from the 9th-12th of February, so it would make sense for the big names at the show to have something new and exciting to show off at the event.

In pictures: Sony Xperia S NFC SmartTags

When the Sony Xperia S was announced at CES 2012, Sony revealed that this would be the first of its smartphones to be NFC compatible.
This wasn't the biggest surprise given that many manufacturers have already jumped on the NFC bandwagon but Sony is at least trying something different and will be selling the Sony Xperia S with four NFC SmartTags which can be customised for a number of jobs.
TechRadar managed to get some hands on time with the new NFC technology and learned a little bit more about how you can use it to smarten up your smartphone use.

The SmartTags are all programmed through a widget on the device. From here you choose whichever tag you want – they are colour co-ordinated – then give this tag a series of instructions.
In the demo we were shown, we saw how you can change the Xperia S for a number of scenarios. These were: in the car, in the living room and in the bedroom.

The car scenario was perhaps the most impressive. Essentially, you can stick a SmartTag to your car dock and once it make contact with your smartphone you can programme it to go directly to the sat nav application on your device and synched with a Bluetooth headset.

For the living room scenario, once the phone made contact with the tag then it started up the music app and began streaming music through a Sony speaker.

The final one was the bedroom, here the phone's light dimmed, the clock was shown and the alarm was automatically set.

We only had a quick look at the app, but it looked simple enough to toggle what each NFC chip would do.
The idea that you can have a preset for different uses is an exciting one and one which shows a real-life use for NFC outside of businesses using the technology.
There will be four NFC SmartTags bundled with the Sony Xperia S device, which we can't wait to try out properly in our full-fat Sony Xperia review.

Sony Tablet S and Tablet P Android 4.0 update 'this spring'

Sony has told TechRadar that it will be bringing Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to its tablet portfolio this spring – which is the first time the company has actually named a time frame for the update.
Before, Sony would only confirm a 'coming soon' but at an event in London, a spokesperson for the company said that ICS would be hitting both the Sony Tablet S and Sony Tablet P in the spring and at the same time.
This means that the tablets will be getting Ice Cream Sandwich around the same time as Sony's phone portfolio.

Cream of the tablet crop

Sony also said that both tablets would be getting a new update in the near future which would bring Microsoft Office functionality but the company didn't actually dwell on what this update would entail.
Sony also showed off its PlayStation Certified gaming platform on the Tablet S and announced that it has now made it compatible with a PlayStation controller.
This means that you don't have to use the on-screen controls for the games on the PlayStation Store.
This is something that OnLive has been trialling as well and by all accounts using a physical controller with your tablet makes the gaming experience a whole lot better – as long as you have a stand for your tablet that is.
At the event, Sony was upbeat about its rather late assault on the tablet market. It reckoned that it had the biggest selling Android tablet over this period but was reticent to give out any numbers.

Vimeo's drastic new redesign revealed

Vimeo, the thinking man's YouTube, has just undergone its biggest ever redesign and its first since 2007. It's been a year's worth of work and a mammoth undertaking that's seen the site rebuilt from the ground up, and today it enters a closed beta.
That means that some of you will be lucky enough to try the swish new site out, but most of us will be languishing on the old version for a couple more months.
But never fear - Vimeo let TechRadar peek behind the curtain so we can show you all the design delights you've got to look forward to.

Clean and clear

The inbox is much cleaner and makes it much clearer to see what videos are listed and why – Vimeo has taken a blog-like approach and it works really well.

By far our favourite new feature is the video ticker that is sneakily hidden away at the top of each page. The cute kaleidoscopic header slides out when you click 'more videos' and offers you a bunch of video recommendations, a playlist of videos you've liked, as well as quick access to your feed and your 'watch later' list.

It's smooth, clean and convenient. When you're sick of it, just hit 'hide videos' and it'll be as though it was never there.

Vimeo is all about the videos, though. So when you go to a clip page to watch a video (like the utterly excellent Star Wars Uncut), all the extra clutter has been swept away. You get the video, the synopsis and not much else at first glance.

Options and navigation are hidden in drop-down menus across the header and under the player. Very clean and very tidy. Stoppit and Tidyup would be proud.
Other handy new features include improved search, which will allow you to use voice recognition in Chrome as well as advanced search functions that allow you to filter by license types, video length etc - it's going to be really handy for videographers.
Finding new videos has always been a bit of a pain, so while the search improvements are welcome, we'd like to see a more sentient recommendations service. At present, Vimeo uses similar tags and relevant channels to make suggestions; something more algorithmic like Last.fm's recommendation service would be amazing.
New Vimeo will also allow you to upload multiple files in the redesign, which means you can set it to work uploading your trilogy of Tarantino homages, go out and shoot the fourth part, and come back to find them all online.

A redesigned website might not seem like groundbreaking news, but Vimeo's 65 million users are going to love it. (Interesting fact: London is its largest city in terms of users.)
The comparisons with YouTube are inevitable, but the two sites have grown into very different beasts. Where YouTube scrambles to make money from adverts, premium content by jamming as much content on to a page as possible, Vimeo aims to let the video shine. And the redesign, which manages to retain all of the site's quirky coolness, does just that.
The closed beta will run until all the bugs are caught and quashed, with a projected launch date of the end of Q1/early Q2 (March/April).

LG ready to unveil quad core powerhouse at MWC

LG is lining up two big feature handsets for launch at MWC 2012, as it tries to make in-roads early on in the smartphone market this year.
The LG X3 is first up, storming in with its quad-core processor and huge 4.7-inch screen and the LG CX2, which will attempt to win us over to life in the third dimension.
The LG X3 will be taking on the next generation of mobile phones to be released this year, such as the HTC Edge, Samsung Galaxy S3 and iPhone 5.
We reckon quad-core is going to be the big thing this year, with HTC and LG leading the way early doors. It's thought that the X3 will pack the latest Tegra 3 chipset from nVidia, but this has not been confirmed.

Where's the beef?

Rumoured to house a 4.7-inch HD display (1280x720), 16GB of internal memory, rear 8MP and front-facing 1.3MP cameras in a body less than 9mm in depth, the LG XE certainly has the making of a great phone on paper.
It will ship with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and a 2000mAh battery, which should keep you going go hours.
In a bid to convert the masses to 3D, LG are having another bash at glasses free displays, with a replacement to its Optimus 3D, currently code named the LG CX2.
It's rumoured to have a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 8GB of internal memory and the same screen size and resolution (4.3-inch WVGA display) as its predecessor.
However it's been reported the screen will be brighter, thanks to the inclusion of a NOVA display in the CX2. Dual 5MP cameras will feature on the back and it will house the same WiFi, Bluetooth and NFC gubbins as the XE, but sadly it will only be running Android Gingerbread out of the box.
We will be keeping an eye on both of these handsets at MWC in Barcelona and will bring you the latest news on them when it breaks.

In Depth: 5 best game download services

Best game download services

Ten years ago, the mere suggestion of downloading a game digitally would have left most PC gamers aghast.
"What of my phone bill!?" "Won't the Boutique of Electronics close down as a result!?" "Who is this Horatio chap, and what does he want with my daughter?"
Fortunately, we soon got out of the early-millennial way of thinking and accepted digital downloads as the way forwards. As with all other shifts in the games industry, the PC led where others will surely follow. Digital distribution platforms, such as Steam, basically nabbed the iTunes model and applied it to gaming. Very successfully.
We've actually reached a point where physical media is becoming less and less relevant. Physical copies of recent games such as Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Modern Warfare: Black Ops have merely been containers for a Steam code and a bit of data, the rest of which is downloaded online.

The opinion seems to be that the majority of PC gamers don't care about boxed goods, and would rather be able to play their games on the day they're released than have to wait around with a Gregg's pasty waiting for their local branch of GAME to open.
In turn, every other platform is getting in on the digital download malarkey. It seems that neither the PlayStation Network or the Xbox Live Arcade were quite ready for just how massive digital downloads would be, and the tiny file size limit (350MB on Xbox Live, last time we checked) has stopped console downloads being as big as the PC.
In the meantime, the PC is still the best platform for digital downloads, and there are a fair few contenders to Valve's crown. The most important is likely to be EA's Origin, which is playing host to the company's upcoming uber-blockbuster, Battlefield 3. In fact, the war game won't be enjoying a Steam release at all, although it will be available on a few other digital distribution platforms.
We've rounded up five of the biggest and most interesting platforms, and given them a run for their money in terms of download speeds, design, and content. We've left out more specialist services such as Good Old Games and Blizzard's Battle.net as the titles on these sites often aren't available anywhere else, which would hardly make for a fair comparison.

1. Steam

The original game download service, launched by Valve in 2004. The decision to release Half-Life 2 on the service in 2005 saw PC gamers downloading Steam en masse, and subsequent releases saw it expand in popularity. Forbes estimates that 50-70 per cent of PC gaming's $4billion income comes through Steam.
It's not without its problems, though. If you haven't set Steam to offline mode, and find yourself without an internet connection, you won't be able to access any of your games. Plus it occupies a shady area of UK distance selling regulations, which state that you're allowed seven days to try out products bought online - Steam doesn't offer refunds.
With an apparent 70 percent cut for big publishers who get their games on Steam, it's an attractive option. DRM for Valve and some third-party titles is supplied via Steamworks, with publishers able to stick other forms of protection on top of their games. The latter can prove to be a bit of a nightmare, especially if it's Fallout 3's Games for Windows Live or GTA IV's Social Club.

Valve has absolutely nailed the user experience. Everyone who plays PC games has Steam, and its chat and social features are second-to-none. However, surprisingly, we found our download speeds lagged a little. There's also no incentive program to keep you coming back, and Steam keys can now be sold by third-party sites.
Steam has set the high water mark for PC game download services, and it has also sneaked onto the PlayStation 3 and Mac. It's also got a humongous catalogue of 3,710 games - but it's going to face some tough competition as other publishers cash in on digital revenue.

2. Origin

EA's brand-spanking-new web store is rather like its old one, only with an original name. It's aiming to match its "leading competitor [read: Steam] by 2012", and it - somewhat unsurprisingly - only stocks EA titles. Even though it's still in its nascent stages, Origin is fairly fully formed.
But Origin has stirred controversy recently - particularly when it comes to its relationship with Steam.
The decision to make Battlefield 3 an Origin-exclusive seemingly didn't go down too well with Valve, and Crysis 2 has been pulled from Steam - although EA believes this to be a mere coincidence.
The plot thickens when you realise that Valve and EA have a mutually beneficial relationship - the manufacture and distribution of Valve's boxed products is silently handled by EA.

As a client, Origin is nicely laid-out and easy to use. The games seem generally cheaper than on Steam, too with Dead Space 2 costing £19.99 on Steam and £14.99 on Origin. Download speeds are solidly impressive, and the fact that you don't have to go through the Origin layer to access your games is a boon to anyone who likes gaming on the move.
EA has big plans for Origin, such as an iPhone version and potential cross-compatibility across upcoming consoles. It's still got a long way to go before it can compete with Steam, but it's slick and smooth enough to be a serious contender.
Battlefield 3 will either define or sink it, and our money's firmly on the former - at the end of the day, most gamers aren't going to worry too much about where their game comes from, as long as they can play it.

3. Direct2Drive

Started originally by IGN, Direct2Drive has recently been purchased by US game rental service Gamefly. Gamefly itself is launching an online rental service soon, so Direct2Drive has been slightly neglected, but it's still an interesting online game shop.
Direct2Drive doesn't have a client as such, instead it installs a basic "shop" which redirects to the website, as well as GameSpy Comrade for online matchmaking and chats.
It's a slightly hotchpotch system, but it just about works. With over 1,500 titles, its catalogue isn't lacking, although we had problems getting a decent download speed.
Some titles - such as Deus Ex: Human Revolution - simply consist of a Steam key to get the game, which is a tad annoying.
Unlike Steam, most games simply require a one-time activation to get them working, so there's no fretting about being offline. The downside is that many titles use the infamously Draconian Securom DRM, but apparently the support team will send out more access codes if you run out.
There's some other goodness, too. Direct2Drive promises to price-match any game you've bought if you find it on a competitor's site for cheaper. It will also refund your game if you request your money back within a reasonable amount of time, and haven't activated the title.
Direct2Drive is definitely due an overhaul, though, and hopefully Gamefly's ownership will give it the lick of paint it so desperately needs. If Gamefly can also bring its rental program - which gives you unlimited games for a monthly fee - to the UK, it could be the unique selling point it needs to muscle in on Steam, Gaikai and Onlive.

4. Green Man Gaming

Probably the most interesting and innovative service in our round-up, Green Man Gaming is a British start-up. On the surface, it looks like any other download service, and to some extent it pretty much is. Where the Green Man stands out is in its trade-in policy.
Although a trade-in system may seem a tad odd on digital products, it does actually work. If a game gets the go-ahead from publishers, it's listed and sold through Green Man Gaming's site. You can download and play the game to your heart's content, but if you get bored, or just don't like it, you can trade it in for a certain value - usually about 25% of the price you paid for it. Bigger games don't feature the trade-in system, but you can still put your credits towards them.
Prices on Green Man Gaming fluctuate, and getting good prices is almost a game in itself - one user invested just 4p at the site's start, and now has £30 of credit for the site. Green Man Gaming reckons that, in essence, you're spending less money to get more games.

Although the range is currently a little sparse, it's an interesting paradigm for online gaming, especially in these days of wallet-watching credit crunches. Its Capsule software is a little clunky, and its slightly esoteric shopping system may go over the heads of some users.
The site's success lies on people using it, and more trade-ins make it better for everyone. If it takes off, it could well prove to be an underdog challenger to Steam's throne - unless Steam decides to nab the trade-in system for itself.

5. Games for Windows Marketplace

Microsoft has beaten around the bush with its Games for Windows Live platform for ages now, and seems to have finally decided to integrate it with its Xbox portal. This could be part of some grand plan for the next Xbox console, but at the moment it's in a no-man's land of games services.
Like it or not, you've probably already got Games for Windows installed if you've got Dirt 3 or Dead Rising 2 - even if you bought them via Steam. It feels a tad sneaky, and the sheer number of hoops you've got to go through to get games running makes for some major ball-aches. DLC is similarly ineffective, and we still have nightmares about getting the add-ons for Fallout 3 working.
The Games for Windows Marketplace catalogue currently stands at a pitiful 166 titles. Among these you'll find the triple-AAA likes of Dirt 3 and Bioshock 2, but recent releases have been thin on the ground. It obviously works well enough for some publishers: Codemasters has released F1 2011 via Games for Windows Marketplace. It makes sense for Microsoft's own games: Fable 3 and Age of Empires are there too.
Microsoft clearly still has a vested interest in PC gaming, what with it owning that whole Windows thing. Games for Windows Live does look rather spiffing; the MSN-style messenger and wholly-cribbed-from-Xbox achievements system work well. However, right now it seems to be more of a promotion for the Xbox as a gaming platform than a fully-fledged service.

Verdict

Green Man Gaming comes a close second to Steam. On paper, Steam ticks all the right boxes, with decent download speeds, a huge catalogue of games, and a straightforward user interface. There's also the fact that just about every PC gamer on the planet uses it, and it's established itself in the very bedrock of gaming.
But Steam is only our number one for the moment. In the coming months, especially with the release of Battlefield 3, there could be some rather huge shifts in gaming clients, and the way we use them.
Each service we looked at has its own unique selling point, from Origin's cross-platform mechanics to Games for Windows Live's apparent integration with the upcoming Windows 8.
Steam might never be toppled, but it could see a sizable share of its user base migrate to other platforms.

Opinion: Apple needs to learn from Android for iPad 3

Apple might be one of the biggest hitters in the smartphone and tablet space, but it needs a big re-think of its strategy if it's going to stay at the sharp end.
Sure, iOS 5 has been a big hit, with record numbers of iPhone 4S and iPad 2 sales plus the conversion of older devices to the new platform, but unless something changes soon the Cupertino brand could begin slipping backwards quickly.
The news that record numbers of iPhone and iPad jailbreaks are now happening (one million in three days) should tell Cook's crew all they need to know about user trends: iConsumers want more freedom with their Apple gadgets and are starting to look longingly at their Android counterparts more frequently.
That's not to say that Apple's got it all wrong up to now; far from it, its success in mobile devices has been predicated on creating a controlled, simple and, above all, usable system, and that should never change.
But smartphone users are moving from buying the iPhone as the de facto gadget to purchase if you're looking to move into the world of apps to more discerning handset owners - the rise and rise of Android sales is testament to that, and searches for ways to customise the experience on a new smartphone is hitting an all time high.

Inviting the devil to tea

So what Apple needs to do is finally embrace the jailbreak ethos and begin to give users the choice - we're not talking letting any old title through the App Store or handing over development to hacker forums, but a greater degree of customisation should be number one on the list for iOS 6 features.
There's no reason why Apple shouldn't allow users to have alternative homescreens - widget-filled paradises compared to the current rows and rows of icons, or simply just tweaking the way the notifications bar looks to suit a user's preference.
But Apple wants to preserve the iconic look of its iOS - it's a pivotal part of the brand presence created by that 'large screen, home button' look it's worked on for so long - but it will need to let go of that idea if it hopes to keep users hooked in the future as rivals offer more customisation.
Installing non-validated apps is a bit more treacherous though; while we'd love to be able to install all and sundry on our iPad, users that don't understand the dangers and battery-sucking capabilities of apps from the internet will quickly blame Apple for 'letting' them ruin their device in some way.

Jailbreaking - not a dirty word

But Apple has to be aware that the jailbreak community has moved from the hacker in a bedroom spending hours and hours working a way to open up their iPhone to a simple process that many users are willing to use in order to exercise a level of control over their Apple product.
That's not to say it should dispense with simplicity altogether - there are reams of users that can't be bothered with 'all that messy Android stuff' - but customisation should be an option.
Total control over the user experience has absolutely been the right idea up until now - but that's not going to last forever. The brand has shown its open to popular ideas from other operating systems (pull-down notifications bar sound familiar?) so let's hope that it can repeat the trick and make iOS 6 just a touch more open source.

Sony to help make iPhone 5 even thinner

Sony has developed new back-illuminated stacked CMOS image sensors which are smaller in size, allowing them to be used in thinner handsets, while delivering higher quality images.
Sony claims the new sensors provide higher pixel numbers, superior image quality, faster speeds and more highly-advanced functionalities, while being squeezed into a more compact size.
The new cameras have been optimised for bright and low light conditions, featuring Sony's unique 'RGBW Coding' and 'HDR (High Dynamic Range) Movie' functions to deliver improved snaps.

Coming to an iPhone 5 near you?

The iPhone 4S currently uses a Sony 8MP camera, so we could well see this new tech in the iPhone 5, slated for release later this year.
This may put a nail in the coffin of rumours which suggest the iPhone 5 will sport a slightly thicker chassis, with Sony's announcement suggesting the opposite could now be true.
Sony's new camera has set us up for some super-slim phones in 2012, but will they topple the Huawei Ascend P1 S, which clocks in at just 6.68mm thick?
Samples of this new technology from Sony will start shipping in March 2012, quite possibly in their range of new mobile handsets and tablets.

Review: Zalman SSD-F1 Series 240GB

Overview

No you haven't woken up in a strange parallel universe where everybody's making everybody else's products. And yes, the Zalman SSD-F1 Series 240GB is made by the same Zalman that makes all those fancy-looking CPU coolers, among other things.
In fact this actually isn't Zalman's first go at a solid state drive (SSD) range - it had two drive ranges out previously, the Zalman N series using a first generation SandForce controller and the S series using a JMicron chip.
Now it has a new family of 2.5-inch SSDs - the F1 Series - to enable it to play with the big boys without sand being kicked in its face. This new drive uses the SandForce SF2281 controller and SATA 6Gb/s interface, and should make for some interesting comparisons with drives that have been around since the launch of the latest range of SandForce controllers.
This 240GB drive is the current flagship of the range, quoting IOPS (4K random) read and write speeds of 45,000, sequential reads of up to 560MB/s and sequential writes of up to 530MB/s. There are also 60GB and 120GB capacities available, both with quoted IOPS (4K random) read/writes of 30,000.

Benchmarks

To test SSDs in as close to a real life scenario as possible, the drive was installed as a boot drive and a full operating system was installed and motherboard drivers loaded. We tested in this state, then filled it up with data, then deleted it, running through this cycle a few times before testing the drive again to see if there was much difference in the results after subjecting the drive to this usage cycle.
Sequential read/write performance (compressible data)

Sequential read/write performance (incompressible data)

4K random read/write performance

Verdict

With everyone and their dog seemingly using the second generation of SandForce controllers as a basis for an SSD or three, there is always a tendency to yawn a little and offer a terse "go on then, show us what you've got."
Well, in the case of the Zalman SSD-F1 Series 240GB, that happens to be quite a lot. The drive is blessed with stunning performance and is more than a match for some of its SandForce competition.

While distracting the outside world with pretty-looking and highly efficient coolers, some people deep inside Korea were keeping a watchful eye on what was happening with the SSD market and biding their time before launching this second generation drive.
It appears that Zalman has taken full advantage of this time by the way the drive can keep up with the OCZ Vertex 3 MAX IOPS in our benchmarks.
And it also shows it has access to the latest firmware tweaks that were applied to the MAX IOPS, despite the Zalman SSD-F1 Series 240GB drive using the Intel's 25nm MLC flash memory of the original Vertex 3, not the 32nm Toggle NAND that the MAX IOPS version uses.
Benchmark figures are all well and good, but what about in the real world, what does the F1 240GB drive bring to the table?
Well, installing Windows 7 from scratch took a mere 16 minutes from start to the password entry screen, while the operating system itself takes just 36 seconds from a cold boot to be ready for use. Loading a full copy of Windows Office 2010 Pro took a very rapid 4 minutes 41 seconds.

We liked

The Zalman SSD-F1 Series 240GB is a real shot from left field; no one really saw it coming, but performance-wise it really is hard to fault. It's not that badly priced either. Yes it's a bit more expensive than some of the competition but, perhaps more importantly, it's cheaper than the Vertex 3 MAX IOPS, which it practically matches for performance.

We disliked

Having to download the migration software that comes in the shape of Acronis True Image HD is a bit of a pain, and there's no real excuse for it not being part of the box bundle. But no doubt Zalman would say it's to keep the cost down. But hey, that's a teeny logistical issue, not an actual SSD problem.

Final verdict

From nowhere to be among the leaders of the pack of SSDs is an impressive achievement from Zalman, to say the least.

Available Tags:LG , Apple , iPhone , YouTube , Motorola , Facebook , profits , gaming , keyboard , iPad 3 , iPad , Canon , Sony , Tablet , Tablet , Android , download , iPad 3 , iPhone 5 , Zalman ,

IT News Head Lines (CNET) 26/01/2012

2012-01-26T15:00:00.000+02:00

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AT&T asks FCC for spectrum transfer to T-Mobile
Following their failed merger, AT&T and T-Mobile formally asked the Federal Communications Commission to approve the transfer of $1 billion in wireless spectrum.

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Remembering the other Razr Maxx
Before Motorola and Verizon Wireless introduced the Droid Razr Maxx, the companies rolled out the much simpler Razr Maxx Ve.

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Here's why Obama is visiting Intel
Simply put, the chipmaker is a U.S. based manufacturing colossus, as this quick overview of its operations should make clear.

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Mozy blends file sync into its backup service
You can back up your files or sync them. Or, with Mozy, you can do both. It's a flexible but confusing service.

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Hacked PS3 gives Vita stunning remote play functionality
While the PlayStation Vita has an impressive set of features, there is little doubt this could be the coolest.

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Cook on Apple TV: The 'hobby' is selling well
With people itching to see an actual TV set from Apple, the company's CEO today took an opportunity to point out that sales are strong for its set-top box for TVs.

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Rumor Has It, Ep. 17: Instagram helps us care about Windows Phone
On today's show, iBooks 2 code points to possible Retina Display iPad; Casio does something other than make keyboards; our favorite people, analysts, comment on the upcoming year for Netflix; and we have a couple guesses about who Anonymous will attack next.

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Magnetic soap could lift oil spill woes
Researchers at the United Kingdom's University of Bristol have created a magnetic soap that could help revolutionize oil spill cleanups.

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Crave 73: Let's not turn this into a Warcraft thing (podcast)
The creepiest robot baby yet, a turntable that plays trees, and an uncut "Star Wars" paired with a cut-worthy Stormtrooper cake.

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Nvidia cuts revenue outlook, citing hard disk shortage
Nvidia cuts revenue expectations for the fourth quarter ending January 29. A shortage of hard disk drives is the main culprit.

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Google's biggest AdWords customers might surprise you
Insurance and finance companies spend big on AdWords campaigns, according to new estimates from Internet marketing software firm Wordstream. And so do home improvement chains.

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Smash Cops for iOS: A law-enforcement demolition derby
In this unique top-down racer, it's your job to chase down the criminals and ram them into oblivion. And no paperwork to file after!

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More than half of Verizon smartphone sales in Q4 were iPhones
Holiday earnings reports are being posted, and Verizon's indicates that more than half of its smartphone sales were iPhones.

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Available Tags:PS3 , Facebook , Twitter , Xbox , other , Intel , Apple TV , Apple , Windows Phone , Windows , Nvidia , smartphone ,

IT News Head Lines (VR-Zone) 26/01/2012

2012-01-26T14:30:00.000+02:00

Details out on Alienware's 2012 notebook range
vr-zone.com -

A reputable source tied closely with Dell has provided a bunch of details ahead of any official announcements on several upcoming laptops entering Alienware's lineup, rumoured to be launched sometime during Q2 2012.

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Philips introduces new Fidelio docking speakers for Android devices
vr-zone.com -

With the growing number of Android adopters, it is no wonder Philips has come up with their new docking speakers for this group of users. The electronics manufacturer has announced four Fidelio docking speakers - AS851, AS351, AS141 and AS111.

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Sony refreshes VAIO laptops for spring 2012
vr-zone.com -

Sony has unveiled a new color for their popular VAIO Z series laptop as well as having an optional built-in LTE mobile broadband, for the support of 4G data service. On top of that, selected models have also been refreshed for this quarter.

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Large LED TVs price drop, drop, drop: 55-inch LED TV for just S$1,000?
vr-zone.com -

Like the idea of 55-inch LED TV at close to S$1K? Or 42-inch 3D LED TV for less than S$500? Well, it is coming...

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Korean actress Han Chae-young criticized on Twitter for luxurious car
vr-zone.com -

Korean actress Han Chae-young was recently criticized on Twitter for flaunting her wealth when she posted a New Year greeting to her fans, with a picture of her driving a luxurious car, even though that was not her intention.

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AMD reports Q4 and 2011 results
vr-zone.com -

AMD has announced financial results for Q4 2011 and full year 2011. Revenue for Q4 2011 stayed flat over Q3 2011 at $1.69 billion, while revenues were slightly up in 2011 to $6.57 billion over 2010.

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Sony new E-series Walkman to launch on 11 February
vr-zone.com -

Sony Japan has announced their new Walkman E-series, which is scheduled to launch on 11 February next month. Available in 2GB and 4GB models, the NW-E060 and NW-E060K series come in four trendy colors with a 1.4-inch LCD display.

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Research in Motion plans a variety of new BlackBerry products in 2012/2013
vr-zone.com -

With the recent announcement of Research in Motion's newly appointed CEO, the question in everyone's minds is what will the company's future direction?

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Twitter acquires web security firm Dasient
vr-zone.com -

Twitter has acquired web security firm Dasient, which could result in a more secure micro-blogging service with fewer malware messages.

Apple loses Dutch appeal for Samsung Galaxy Tab ban
vr-zone.com -

Apple has lost its appeal in the Netherlands over its attempt to get the Samsung Galaxy Tab, the primary rival to its iPad tablet computer, banned in the country.

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Microsoft names former anti-virus employee as Kelihos botnet suspect
vr-zone.com -

Microsoft named Andrey Sabelnikov, a former employee of an anti-virus software firm, as a suspect behind the Kelihos botnet, which was responsible for a large proportion of the world's spam emails.

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Revenge is Sweet: PowerVR Discrete GPGPU PCIe Card Coming Later in 2012
vr-zone.com -

Imagination Technologies is not resting on its laurels after becoming a leader in the handheld and tablet business. The company is preparing its return to the world of discrete GPU cards, this time around with a GPGPU product.

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Intel graphics to challenge NVIDIA, AMD in CAD pro space?
vr-zone.com -

Intel graphics integrated in their CPUs isn't a big deal for serious 3-D gamers. What about CAD professionals?

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Available Tags:notebook , Philips , Android , Sony , VAIO , TV , Twitter , AMD , Motion , BlackBerry , security , Galaxy Tab , Apple , Samsung , Galaxy , Microsoft , Intel ,

IT News Head Lines (CNR) 26/01/2012

2012-01-26T14:00:00.000+02:00

Eset Appoints KK Software As RD For North
The move is a part of the companys strategy to strengthen its presence in North India

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Kaspersky Signs MOU With Tech Mahindra, Mahindra Satyam
The companies would develop end-point, mobility and cloud security solutions for customers in the enterprise and the SMB segments

Read More ...

Trend Micro Launches OfficeScan 10.6
It can be deployed and managed across physical, virtual and cloud architectures

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Symantec To Sell Stake In Huawei Symantec JV To Huawei
Symantec to sell its 49 percent stake in Huawei Symantec for $530 million in a deal expected to close in early 2012

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Bitdefender Aligns With RS Computer
The antivirus maker has recently updated its latest desktop solutions—Antivirus Plus, Internet Security and Total Security

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ESET Launches 5th Generation Of Security Solutions
The technology is now named ESET Live Grid and offers optimized scanning based on the whitelisting of safe files, and the upgrade from all previous to the fifth version is free for current users

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Symantec Appoints RD For North And East
The company has appointed Rajnish Gupta as Regional Director for North and East India to drive the companys sales in these regions, with strategic focus on the government vertical

Read More ...

McAfee Cautions Channel On Deep Defender Rollout
The concern stems from the change DeepSafe makes in the way security software defends against malware

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IBM Division To Meld Analytics, Security
The future security work at IBM would work toward helping companies lockdown hybrid cloud environments, a mixture of cloud services with behind-the-firewall networks and applications

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Burgeoning Security Surveillance Opportunities
With governments using it to fight terrorism, enterprises deploying it as a productivity tool, and parents using it to monitor kids, IP surveillance is expected to be a Rs 20,000 crore opportunity over the next five years

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Iomega Is Compatible With Symantec Backup Exec
Iomega has announced compatibility for the Iomega StorCenter ix and px series of network storage products with Symantec Backup Exec 2010 as well as Hardware Compatibility Listing (HCL) status for compatible products

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Intel Execs Bullish On McAfee Technology, Channel Expertise
Intels decision to pony up $7.68 billion to acquire McAfee last year was seen as a shrewd yet daring attempt to reinvent the traditional IT security model through a combination of hardware and software

Read More ...

WatchGuard India Grows 22 Percent For Q32011
Globally, the company broke all time record for Q3 billings, exceeds 15 percent year-on-year growth

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Mcafee To Launch Two New Products This Quarter
It plans to launch its first product based on the DeepSafe technology by end of October, and the Mcafee SMB Endpoint Protection Essential Suite in this quarter

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Eset To Expand Business In East India
At present, Eset retail boxes are distributed in the Eastern region through Odyssey Computer and Galaxy Computech, Kolkata

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New IT Trends Enabling Enterprises To Revisit Strategies
According to the survey, 80 percent of the respondents from India have conducted a full reappraisal of their information security strategy in the last 12 months, and 96 percent Indian enterprises have a mobile security strategy in place

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Cisco Security GM: Embracing Consumerization Is Smarter Than Fighting It
Organizations should accept that people are going to bring and use mobile devices of their choice, and get to work on the security challenges, says Cisco's security GM

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HP Expands Enterprise Security Solutions
HP has expanded its enterprise security solutions portfolio by introducing HP ArcSight Express 3.0, HP Reputation Security Monitor, HP Fortify Software Security Center suite, and HP TippingPoint Web Application Digital Vaccine 2.0 service

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Vasco Announces Sales Training And Certification Program
Vasco Data Security International has launched a free sales training and certification program for the channel partners worldwide

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RSA Appoints Inflow Technologies As ND
To widen reach in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives apart from India

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Trend Micro Bolsters Enterprise Data Protection
Trend Micro has launched new software versions for its enterprise data protection software portfolio to offer an integrated data protection for messaging and collaboration systems

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Norton To Deliver Personalized Security Service
To be launched in the first half of 2012, Norton One is a personalized service that will protect consumers across multiple devices including desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and mobile phones

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Cyberoams NetGenie For Home And SOHO
The product is priced at Rs 7,999 for home and the SOHO version at Rs 10,999. The product comes with 1-year warranty and 3-years subscription for anti virus, IPS, and firewall

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Check Point Experience 2011 To Partners: 'Earn More'
The event provided an opportunity for partners to meet Check Point security experts, and to preview innovative solutions and product demonstrations

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29.9 M People In India Are Cyber Crime Victims: Norton
According to Norton estimates, the incidents result in direct financial losses of $4 billion, and an additional $3.6 billion in time spent on resolving those

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Symantec And VMware Associate for Desktop-as-a-Service
Companies are beginning to consider virtual desktop environments to serve mobile employees and to allow employees to access corporate applications on devices other than the PC

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K7 To Target The Indian Enterprise
K7 presently sells three versions of its antivirus products all targeted at single PC users-- K7 VirusSecurity Premium, K7 TotalSecurity and K7 UltimateSecurity that are priced on the street between Rs 300 and Rs 1000 per user license

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eScan Launches Dhinka Chika Offer For Channel Partners
The scheme is valid on purchase of eScans products for Soho and SMB segments

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Indian Enterprises Reports More Insecurities Than Global Average
A global cloud security survey conducted by Trend Micro has concluded that 55 percent of enterprise IT decision makers in India reported a security lapse or issue with their cloud provider within the last 12 months

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Seclore Seeks Partners For IRM
Seclore, an information rights management (IRM) company, aims to tap the growing $500 million IRM opportunity in India through an aggressive channel approach

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Fortinet Announces WAF Upgrades
Fortinet has announced upgrades to its FortiWeb Web application firewall (WAF) family for enterprises, application service, software as a service (SaaS) and managed security service providers (MSSPs)

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Norton Launches 1 Two Ka 4 Offer
The scheme is applicable to Norton partners investing Rs 10,000-550,000 on Norton products between July 16, 2011 and August 15, 2011

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Symantec Adds Social Media Archiving To Enterprise Vault
Companies worry that lose lips sink ships, and want ways to identify their Facebook or Twitter or YouTube feeds

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Trend Micro Introduces Reward Program For Sales Staff
Valid upto September 23, 2011, sales persons can earn up to Rs 12,000 in a single deal of 100 users

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eScan Launches Roadshow In Gujarat
The customer will be rewarded with free eScan antivirus license for a year if there is no virus found during the scan

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ISODA To Organize TechSummit 2012
Themed as The Next Big Idea, the summit will witness sessions on mergers and acquisition, change management and leadership as well aspresentation of ISODA-MP Kini National Award for Business Excellence

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Gigabyte Rolls Out Value Partner Program
The quarterly program aims to reward maximum number of partners by bringing every Gigabyte motherboard model under its ambit and offers prizes like gold coins, Gigabyte motherboards, laptop bags, 8 GB and 4 GB pen drives

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Oracle-HP Lawsuits: Intel Declines To Provide Itanium Documents To Oracle
Intel is concerned that Oracle and Daley would be able to use many of the requested documents, which include product roadmaps for its Itanium processor, for Oracle's competitive advantage in developing its UltraSPARC processors

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HP PSG Finding Its Way Back
HPs decision to cancel the proposed sale or spin-off of its $40 billion PSG business has brought joy to its partners

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Belkin Targets 10 Percent Market Share In Mice And Keyboards
The company has expanded its product portfolio and introduced wired and wireless keyboards and mice at price points starting from Rs 429 to Rs 1,199 for the mice and Rs 569 for a key board

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PCs Not Yet Calling Quit
Will the PCs perish or evolve? Following debates in the market, and increasing confusion among the partner community, CRN indulged in some introspection, spoke with vendors and partners, and learnt that the PC era is far from over

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AMD Doubles Share In Notebooks
CRN Exclusive
While AMD's market share is still less than eight percent at around 90,000 units during the quarter, AMD India management are pleased with the results, and are hoping for a better show during Q4 2011 and Q1 2012

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Opportunities For Partners In The Projectors' Space
With prices of entry-level projectors falling to as low as Rs 15,000, total sales are expected to grow at a CAGR of 19 percent in the next three years

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TN Laptop Deliveries Delayed
CRN Exclusive
Fluctuating rupee, shortage of HDD is forcing vendors to delay deliveries of the laptops

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Asus Sets Up New Retail Store In Bhillai
The new store will feature the companys entire range of notebooks and netbooks including its Entertainment, Classic, Versatile and Elite series notebooks and netbooks, gaming notebook G74SW, the Eee Pad Transformer tablet as well as the new U Series Bamboo collection

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Sony Looks At Record Notebook Sales
Sony is on its way to exceeding its target of selling five lakh notebooks in the current fiscal, more than double the number the company sold in FY2010-11

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Epson Launches New LED Printers
The new printer range to replace its entry-level lasers

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Nokia Unveils Windows-Based Smartphones
The Nokia Lumia 800 and Nokia Lumia 710 will be available in select retail stores from mid-December

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Mobile Printing High On HPs Agenda
Plans to aggressively push for the adoption of mobile printing and scanning devices as the trend for mobility grows in enterprises

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Acer Bullish About Acer Outreach Program
Plans to reach out to 2,000 cities by 2013 and increase Acer Galleries from the present 4,500 to 6,000

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Quarterly PC Market Touches Three Million
Multinational brands contributed more than half of the total PC shipments in the third quarter of 2011 with shipments from Acer, Dell, HP and Lenovo, the top 4 vendors, representing 51.1 percent of the market

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Mark Hurd: The Oracle Of The Channel
Mark Hurd, President, Oracle lays the foundation for Oracle's channel charge, which in part involves a Hurd-designed sales plan that has focused Oracle's partners on the hard-to-reach midmarket and SMB accounts

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IBM Goes Soft On Partners
The group has streamlined its initiatives, both tactical and strategic, and wants to enable all its 250 partners

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CAs cloud push
CA Technologies is leveraging the technologies and solutions it bagged from its acquired companies to pump-up its cloud story

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Microsoft Strengthening Consumer Channels
The software major has appointed Chakrapani GK as Head, Consumer Channels Group; the group will operationally consolidate all of Microsofts consumer products and channels across retail, operator channels and OEMs

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VCE Teams With SAP For Cloud
VCE and SAP will work closely to provide customers with solutions, services and support for their SAP applications running on Vblock infrastructure platforms, which integrate technology from Cisco, EMC and VMware into an automated and standardized IT infrastructure

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Infor Tests The Cloud
The company has released a new product named Syteline that is targeted toward the mid-market, the auto, furniture manufacturers and the component markets

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IBMs IOC For Smarter Cities
The IOC software is sold on a per user basis and can be used by concurrent users; it can scale to support the enterprise

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Google, Microsoft Keen To Acquire Yahoo: Report
Google and Microsoft are likely helping finance rival bids to acquire Yahoo, with mountains of cash as likely a motive as competitive reasons, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday

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Karnataka High Court Bowls A Googly
CRN Exclusive
The judgement gives the Income Tax department a blanket cover to go after all importers of software in the state and recover dues on TDS amounts which they are supposed to deduct

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Zenith Infotech Partners Concerned About Company's Financial Status
The companys default for as much as $85 million in convertible bonds is leading MSPs to look at competitive solutions out of fear the company is not healthy

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IBM Raises 2011 Expectations On Software, Power Hardware
IBM's software revenue was up 13 percent over last year to reach $5.8 billion, led by a 17-percent increase in IBM's middleware, including its WebSphere, Information Management, Tivoli, Lotus and Rational products

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IBM Arms Channel With New Cloud Services, Tool
The cloud push comes after the company launched its IBM Cloud Specialty Program, the partner initiative that puts several cloud marketing and sales resources into a single program to help channel partners build, market and sell the cloud

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Microsoft Targets $400 Million From India
The company has restructured its partner organization, and has created dedicated account management teams to drive its cloud business

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NEC Aligns With Trimax For SaaS
NEC would utilize Trimaxs data center capabilities to provide business applications such as CRM, ERP, Human Resource Management, inventory, security etc to the enterprise and SMB customers

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Citrix Optimizes XenServer For The Cloud Era
XenServer 6 Delivers innovations for cloud computing, desktop virtualization and networking

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Aspect Scouts Partners for Geo-Expansion In Tier-2 Cities
CRNExclusive
Contact center solution provider Aspect is scouting channel partners in tier-2 cities as a part of its geo-expansion plans

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CDC Forays Into The T-2 Community
CRN Exclusive
CDC Software— that has so far worked with tier-1 partners, is now scouting tier-2 partners to expand base in the tier-2 cities across India

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CA Appoints Tarun Singhal, Director of Communications Service Providers, India SAARC
As a member of the India leadership team, he will also be responsible for developing solutions with systems integrators, telco managed service (MSPs), enterprise solutions providers (ESPs) and network equipment providers (NEPs)

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Cloud Email Showdown: Gartner Says Google Gmail Ready To Rival Microsoft Exchange
The enterprise version of Gmail, which has been in the market for roughly five years, is gathering steam within larger organizations, many with more than 5,000 seats

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AWS To Expand Footprint In India
It recently announced three more services namely Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC), AWS Direct Connect and AWS Identity and Access Management (AWS IAM) for APAC customers

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Persistent KLISMA For The Retail Segment
The company says that more than 20 national retailers, 200 local retailers, and 100,000 consumers are now on the KLISMA platform

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Customers Are Avoiding Capital Expenses: Hemant Nerurkar, Chairman, MindCraft Software
The service model has changed from insourcing of people to SLA-driven, well-defined outsourcing and fixed-cost projects

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We Have Moved Away From Being Hardware Centric: Benley Noronha, MD Nortech Infotech
We have tied-up with SAP and have signed contracts with some universities in Kerala and Tamil Nadu to train staff and students on the SAP platform. This would provide us with a captive revenue base for the next few years

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IBM Commits $1 Billion To SMB Financing
The packages, more than 30 altogether, are built around IBM's Cognos and SPSS business analytics software, Netezza data warehouse appliance, Cast Iron cloud integration software, and BigFix security management tools

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Canon Showcases Document Solutions
Canon highlighted two of its software solutions, eCopy PDF Pro and therefore, in its technology solution workshop

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What Do Partners Expect From MPS?
Partners want Microsoft to discuss strategies chiefly around cloud and MPN during the three day event

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HP Enhances Cloud Platform With VirtualSystem
VirtualSystem helps partners to sell and speed time to value, revenue via streamlined solution sales, and delivery of HP-optimized VMware solutions

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VMware Shows The Light
Under its Lighthouse Partner Program, VMware is developing competencies around server virtualization, cloud computing and desktop virtualization to tap emerging market opportunities

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Ingram Micro To Distribute Wincor Products
The key objective of the association is to provide innovation, reality and operational benefits to the small and medium-sized retailers across India

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CA Announces 10 Products For Cloud Connectivity
The new offerings help enterprises make the right cloud choice and realize faster time-to-value from hybrid cloud deployments

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Center Of Opportunity
Partners may have missed out on big data center deals, but theres growing demand for server room and modular data center solutions in the mid market

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IBM Grabs Q3 Server Sales Lead As HP, Oracle Stumble
IBM was the big winner for the quarter by taking over the number one spot in terms of server revenue from HP, thanks to HP's dispute with arch-rival Oracle over software support for its Itanium-based servers

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India DC Co-location Market To Reach $609.1 Million in 2012
According to Gartner analysts, the data center managers are concerned about facilities (power, cooling and space) and disaster recovery because of cost optimization and business continuity

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CA Technologies Offers Tools, Programs To Cut Mainframe Management Costs
The company has added new security and storage management capabilities, and launched several new programs to help mainframe customers reduce operational costs by consolidating software from multiple vendors

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Fujitsu Wants A Bigger Pie In UNIX Server Space
Fujitsu which launched Primequest servers in the country last week, plans to break into territories which have been dominated so far by the non-x86 UNIX servers

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HDS Unveils Cloud Roadmap
HDS will enable information cloud by leveraging the ParaScale technology with Virtual Storage Platform , high-performance network attached storage (NAS) from BlueArc

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Thecus Unviels NAS N4200
The N4200 offers Intel Atom dual-core processor D510 with 1.66GHz speed in combination with 1GB of DDR2 memory

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HP Intros Low-Energy Data Center Platform Based On ARM Servers
Hewlett Packard in a new plan to develop technology customers can use to build a new generation of energy-efficient data center architectures, is turning to startup server vendor and ARM partner, Calxeda, instead of its old partner, Intel, for its initial development platform

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Opportunities For Partners In NAS
The thumb rule is that in the SMB segment, the ratio of server box to storage box is 5:1. With the server market expected to be 165,000 units, this could mean sales of nearly 30,000 storage units

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Boston India Targets $100 Million Sales
The company recently refreshed its entire server portfolio by upgrading to the Intel Sandy Bridge platform, introduced Microcloud solution and liquid-cooled blades

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Rajesh Janey Replaces Manoj Chugh As President, India Saarc, EMC
Chugh, who has been promoted as Regional President, Global Accounts, APJ would drive greater investment in EMCs Global Accounts Program across Asia Pacific Japan

Read More ...

Sandisk Extends Storage Solutions
SanDisk has unveiled plans to a sell 700 million units of its memory vault, SSDs and other storage solutions

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NetApp Partners With Sai InfoSystem
Through this association, NetApp would provide storage solutions to Sai InfoSystem-BSNL data centres for cloud services including co-location, managed hosting, and enterprise cloud services targeted toward government segment and large and medium enterprises

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Now Partners Are Choosing The Vendors: Saishav Singh, CEO, DotCad
The cloud does represent a big opportunity the enterprise Unix server business is booming, and so is the storage market. The SMB market is seeing deeper IT penetration, and theres no shortage of opportunities

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We Are Focusing On Digital Infrastructure Projects: Ashtech
Channel partners share their business outlook amid growing fears of a double-dip recession in the global economy and detail how they are readying their companies in a rapidly changing marketplace. Saurin Shah, MD, Ashtech Infotech highlights the trends

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We Have Recorded 2X Growth For HP ESSN
CRN Exclusive
Som Satsangi, VP, ESSN, HP India, in an exclusive interview with Dhaval Valia and Amit Singh speaks about HP ESSNs India plans

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"HPHas Not Seen Or Received Any Evidence Of Partners Being Billed At Above-MRP Prices"
CRN Exclusive
Neeraj Sharma, Vice President, IPG, HP India says that the organization is working to sustain double-digit growth and gain market share in each of the categories it is present in

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I Want To Align HP Toward Our Partners And Customers
Neelam Dhawan, MD, HP India discusses channel issues and lays out the agenda for the company, its partner ecosystem

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HP Strengthens ITaaS Offerings
HP says that the peer-based storage federation in HP Converged Storage solutions can handle the inherent unpredictability of always-on, multitenant environments while reducing expense, management overhead and risk to service levels

Read More ...

NetApp To Increase Focus On SMBs
NetApp is formulating strategies with an increased focus on Indian SMBs. The company defines SMBs as organizations which spend more than $50,000 per year on storage, or which have 250-1,000 employees

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EMC Gives VNXe Storage Appliance A 'Channel Only' Boost
EMC channel leaders said the 'channel only' status will provide a sales kick for the VNXe storage appliance in enterprise accounts where solution providers will be working with EMC direct sales reps on closing deals

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IBM Powers Ahead
IBM is eyeing SMBs for its Power 7 series of Unix servers and workstations, and has launched specific models and channel programs to grow the market

Read More ...

QNAP Extends Warranty For NAS Product Range
QNAP Systems has extended the warranty across its entire NAS product line to two years

Read More ...

Netgear Excels In NAS
Gartner has ranked Netgear as number one in global vendor revenue share during 2010 for NAS/unified storage systems

Read More ...

Survey: Unix Users Embrace Private Clouds, Avoid Public Clouds
Going forward, commercial Unix users would focus on developing heterogeneous private clouds, or clouds which can work with their Unix, Windows, Linux, and even mainframe servers

Read More ...

VCE President: Vblock Private Cloud Means 3-4 Times Faster Time To Deployment
Frank Hauck said that the average time to deployment for a Vblock private cloud converged infrastructure solution is 30 days compared to 90-120 days for private cloud reference architectures

Read More ...

Hitachi Bets On Hybrid Storage
It is pushing its virtual storage platform to enterprise resellers, and is planning to help partners deliver hybrid storage solutions

Read More ...

Sanovi Planning New Pricing Models
With an eye on the mid-market and private cloud market, disaster recovery management (DRM) solutions provider Sanovi Technologies is planning to announce pricing models exclusive to this segment

Read More ...

Oracle Unveils Storage Strategy In Wake Of Pillar Data Acquisition
Oracle's acquisition of Pillar Data fills in the last gap in Oracle's storage strategy, but the purchase came at a high price relative to its installed base

Read More ...

Netgear Focuses On Consumer And SOHO Segments
The company has reduced $150-250 in its ReadyNAS Ultra and ReadyNas Ultra Plus product family, effective immediately

Read More ...

HP's Massive Executive Reorg: Three Out, Three Up
HP is streamlining its executive team, with three top executives leaving and three others to report directly to Leo Apotheker, HP's president and CEO

Read More ...

Intel To Revitalize White-Box Servers
Intel India will re-ignite the white-box server market with the launch of its next generation Xeon platforms—E3 and E7

Read More ...

HP To Reorganize Its Technology Services
Leo Apotheker, HP president and CEO recently unveiled the plan to place Technology Services under ESSN, calling it part of a plan to transform the company with a better focus on higher-margin services

Read More ...

HP Names Naresh Shah VP, Engineering
The company has created a new position to drive engineering collaboration across ESSN

Read More ...

Global Infonet To Distribute WD External Range
Existing relationship expanded to Include WDs range of external storage and home entertainment devices

Read More ...

EMC Revamps Product Line
The storage maker announced VNX range of products which essentially integrates the Celerra range of NAS products and Clarion range of SAN products to create a new brand of unified storage solution

Read More ...

NSN Deploys Unified Billing Solution For Vodafone
The data-charging solution implemented by Nokia Siemens Networks provides mobile users with greater transparency of their data usage and spending patterns with real-time notifications to their handsets

Read More ...

Digisol Launches 4 Port Combo KVM Switch
The switch is launched under its Breton KVM Switching Solutions series and is available for Rs 8750 and comes with one-year warranty

Read More ...

Brocade Announces Enterprise Solutions
The Brocade ICX 6610 will be available this month directly through Brocade and its channel partners with a starting price of $5,595

Read More ...

Brocade Signs 50 Customers For VDX
It is extremely bullish about the potential of the VDX range, and have been running aggressive marketing strategies which include educating customers through physical workshops, Webinars and events about the benefits of our products in the data centers

Read More ...

Chambers: Cisco Is Beating Competitors Even When They Offer "Free" Products
The Cisco CEO said the networking leader is posting strong results even as it battles competitors offering "networks for free" to customers

Read More ...

Cisco Consumer Product To Include Mom Pop Stores In India
CRN Exclusive
The successful international channel program will help Cisco Consumer product to increase volumes in India as well

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TechProcess Scales Bill Payments
With Array Networks APV series application delivery controllers, TechProcess servers can now handle up to 1000 requests per minute, 33x improvement - 60-75 percent faster response times, and 99.999 percent service availability

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Ciscos Advantage Now! For SBs
Cisco is working with partners to create bundles with a focused technology direction that can be effectively targeted at the most receptive customer prospects

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Cisco Launches Race to Rio Program For Partners
The products under the program include Cisco UCS C series, small business products and specific switching and routing products

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No, Really: Cisco, HP Partner For Data Center Integration
Cisco and HP collaborated on a "Fabric Extender" that will make it easier for customers to use Cisco Nexus products with their HP BladeSystem C-series infrastructure

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AGC Aiming For Rs 100 Crore Revenues From SME Business
CRN Exclusive
The SME segment would contribute Rs 100 crore toward the companys overall revenues, and AGC wants to add more partners to its portfolio

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Juniper Unveils Junosphere Lab
The on-demand service allows service providers and enterprises to rent networks for $50/day, reducing TCO by 90 percent and speeding service delivery by 30 percent

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Juniper Confirms Layoffs, Stays Mum On Size, Scope
There have been several weeks of rumors around Juniper planning to lay off employees following a disappointing Q2 earnings report, and analysts have predicted that the layoffs could be sizable

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Juniper Debuts First New WLAN Product Following Trapeze Acquisition
The new products are grouped under a Juniper portfolio called "Simply Connected," designed to address simpler wired networks and the management of mobile devices in the enterprise

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D-Link Offers Professional Networking Courses
D-Link has launched a global training program, D-Link Academy, to offer professional networking courses to channel partners, employees, customers, and students

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Netgear Launches Switch With 10-Gigabit Connectivity
Available at a list price of Rs 1.19 lakh, the switch provides a backbone for data replication and back-up, virtualization, video on demand and high- volume transaction processing

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Digisol Launches 24 Port Giga Ethernet Web Managed Switch
It is available at an approximate street price of Rs 14,999 and comes with lifetime warranty

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Rise In Interest Rates Hurting The Bottomline: AL Srinath, CEO, Shell Networks
Customers want to convert their IT capex to opex, and this requires providing even on-premise IT as a service and billing on a monthly basis as per usage

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D-Link Indias Renewed Focus
D-Link India is counting on various product vertical technologies such as IP security, surveillance, Internet security (firewalls and UTM), 3G and networking for India

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Gartner Names Avaya In Magic Quadrant
The company was named as a unified communications leader based on its ability to execute and completeness of vision

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Brocade Announces Virtual Compute Blocks
Besides partnerships with Dell, EMC, Fujitsu and Hitachi Data Systems, the company has partnered with Avnet and is jointly developing marketing and enablement support for a new set of multi-vendor, pre-tested and configured virtualization solutions

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So Whats Happening In Servers?
Virtualization has altered overall server numbers. Micro servers are popular in smaller cities. Racks and blades are replacing towers. Here are some of the most visible trends in the Indian server market

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Avaya Bets On The S In SMB
In India, the addressable market for Avaya is $75 million, and the company is eyeing doubledigit growth in the country

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Juniper Networks: Marketing Makeover, New Partner Events On Tap
The events include virtual training and seminars, invite-only conferences specifically for female channel executives and Juniper's top regional VARs, and, for Juniper's worldwide partner base, the company's first-ever global partner summit

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HP Starts Poaching Networking Customers
The company has launched A Catalyst for Change Trade-in Promotion, and is targeting networking equipment market share across brands

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Array Launches Remote Desktop Access Application for Android Tablets and Smartphones
The DesktopDirect enterprise edition is priced in between Rs 700 and Rs 1,000, and is available with Array distributors

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Suns Nayar Replaces Anthony As Director Channels At Avaya
Avaya is now moving into a verticalized structure and is promoting executives from within the organization and appointing people from outside to drive the change

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F5 Gets Fast And Furious
Application Delivery Network (ADN) vendor F5 Networks plans to increase its customer base 10-fold by 2013

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VMware CEO Maritz Tries To Clear Air On vSphere Licensing
From calculations most customers will see no change and won't be required to pay more money said VMware CEO

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Extreme Networks To Cut 16 Percent Of Workforce
It will cut about 110 jobs and looks to remove $20 million in operating costs during its new fiscal year

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Belkin Targets Rs 1,000 Crore
Belkin India plans to introduce new product lines, augment distribution and expand market coverage in order to meet its ambitious turnover target of Rs 1,000 crore by 2015

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McAfee To Focus On White Listing Technology In India
McAfee, one of the providers of Internet security solutions is planning to leverage on the Application White Listing technology, besides its traditional security offerings in India

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Fluke Networks Launches OptiView XG Tablet
Fluke Networks has introduced OptiView XG, a tablet for automated root cause analysis and troubleshooting of network and application problems

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Rhino Appoints Micro Village
Leading IP telephony manufacturer Rhino has appointed Micro Village Communications as distributor for the South Asia markets of India, Srilanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Maldives, and Mauritius

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Tushar Sighat To Join D-Link India As CEO
CRN Exclusive
Rajesh Sahore, Head of Sales, D-Link India, has exited the company and is expected to be replaced by Kerman Rana

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Available Tags:Eset , Trend Micro , Symantec , Symantec , Bitdefender , Security , McAfee , IBM , Intel , India , Cisco , HP , Trend Micro , Norton , VMware , Trend Micro , Gigabyte , Oracle , Market Share , Belkin , AMD , Asus , Sony , Notebook , Epson , Nokia , Acer , Acer , Microsoft , SAP , Microsoft , Hardware , Microsoft , NEC , Google , Gmail , Microsoft , Hardware , Canon , Server , Fujitsu , Server , Android , CEO , Belkin , Tablet , CEO ,

IT News Head Lines (bit-tech.net) 26/01/2012

2012-01-26T13:30:00.000+02:00

Zyxel NSA310 Review
Zyxel focusses on the media streaming market with the NSA310, which sports some interesting features.

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Intel splashes out on QLogic InfiniBand purchase
Intel has thrown $125 million at networking specialist QLogic, gaining its InfiniBand know-how.

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Desura goes open source as Desurium
Digital distribution platform Desura is now - partially - open source, as Desurium.

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Western Digital warns of continued HDD shortages
Western Digital claims its hard drive production won't be back to normal until September.

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Bit-tech Case Mod Index
The Case Mod Index is a list of case mods that you can use for inspiration for your particular case

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Available Tags:Intel , Western Digital , HDD ,

IT News Head Lines (AustralianIT) 26/01/2012

2012-01-26T13:00:00.001+02:00

Study examines ICT course dropouts
FEMALE ICT students who left their degree before completion more likely believed they did not have enough “background knowledge’’.

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iPhone, iPad push Apple to record
APPLE reported its best quarter ever for revenue on strong iPhone and iPad sales, in its first full quarter without Steve Jobs.

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Ultrabook growth to outpace tablets
GLOBAL shipments of Ultrabooks will grow at three times the rate of tablets over the next five years, a new report says.

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New RIM CEO says no 'seismic changes'
THORSTEN Heins, the new chief of Research In Motion, didn't win an endorsement from shareholders on his first day on the job.

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Google+ to allow nicknames and aliases
GOOGLE will allow users to nominate nicknames and aliases for its social networking site Google+, in a major policy shift.

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Megaupload's Kim Dotcom denied bail
INTERNET multi-millionaire Kim Dotcom has been denied bail in New Zealand.

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Pope says internet is too noisy
The POPE wants the cyber world to quieten down a little so that people retain time for spiritual reflection.

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Samsung wins Dutch tablet appeal
DUTCH appeals judges have ruled that Samsung's Galaxy Tab tablet is not a copy of Apple's popular iPad.

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Rivals offer Google search workaround
GOOGLE'S social-networking rivals are offering users a tool that lets them avoid the integration of Google's core search business and Google+.

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Pols protest against copyright pact
HUNDREDS of people waged a street protest in Warsaw yesterday to protest the government's plan to sign an international copyright treaty.

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Available Tags:iPad , Apple , CEO , Google+ , Samsung , tablet , Google ,

IT News Head Lines (AustralianIT) 26/01/2012

2012-01-26T13:00:00.000+02:00