hardware

There are a lot of distros available online thatprovide you ease of installation, usage and more importantly supportfor a variety of hardware, such as digital cameras, cards readers, USBdrives and more.

Microsoft Hardware, the computer gaming and peripheral arm of technology major Microsoft, announced the launch of a campaign ‘Microsoft Lao, Haath Bachao’, across 12 cities in the country.

The message was to create awareness and drive home the importance of using ergonomically designed products and to take care.

As a part of their campaign, Microsoft Hardware is staging plays in key commercial places to educate people about the importance of ergonomically designed products.

Coinciding with the campaign, the company is launching a trade in offer for comfort curve keyboard and optical mouse, wired desktop keyboard and mouse, wireless optical desktop among others. These come with hefty discounts.

We use embedded computers everyday - we don’t see most of them because, as their name implies, they’re buried deep inside almost everything that effects our daily lives - from industrial equipment to domestic appliances. Although they don’t receive anything like as much attention from the media as does the ignoble PC, the sheer number of embedded computers and their economic importance is considerable. In fact, around ninety percent of all microprocessors manufactured in any one year are destined to be embedded inside electronic products.

Asian computer makers including Lenovo Group Ltd and Asustek Computer are finding growth prospects in an unlikely place: the United States, a mature, slowing market compared to other regions.

By planning to offer pocket-sized, full-featured notebooks or stylish high-end machines with advanced features, the Asians will target high-growth niches, while steering clear of the broader market dominated U.S. heavyweights Hewlett-Packard Co (HP), Dell Inc and Apple Inc.

"You can't afford not to be in the U.S.," said David Daoud, a PC industry analyst at market researcher IDC. "The best way to get into the U.S. is to have something unique, something different."

Taiwanese computer makers Asustek and Acer Inc are aggressively courting consumers in the United States through retail outlets such as Best Buy Co and online stores including newegg.com and TigerDirect.com.

The push comes as the U.S. lags the rest of the world in PC shipment growth. While Asian companies may have a tough time competing broadly in a saturated market, the laptop segment is still growing.

PC shipments increased 5.2 percent in the United States in the third quarter but were up 15.5 percent worldwide, with some of the fastest growth in the Asia-Pacific region.

Lenovo, the Chinese computer maker that bought International Business Machines Corp's PC business in 2005 will announce its entry into the U.S. consumer PC market at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the industry's largest U.S. trade show, in Las Vegas, during the second week of January.

In the U.S., Lenovo sells IBM's ThinkPad laptops to business customers but has not targeted U.S. consumers until now.

Meanwhile, Japan's Toshiba Corp, long a laptop leader in the U.S., continues to post healthy growth of nearly 17 percent, according to IDC's third-quarter report.

Toshiba ranks No. 4 in the U.S. behind Dell, HP and Apple. It plans to refresh its own line of high-end multimedia, tablet and ultra-thin notebook products at CES.

Asustek and Acer also plan to showcase new products at the event. Acer, the world's fourth-largest PC maker, sells through Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Office Depot Inc (ODP.N: Quote, Profile, Research), among various major U.S. retailers, and in October it bought Irvine, California-based Gateway Inc to expand in the United States.

LAPTOPS EVERYWHERE
Even with advanced features and hip styling, Asian PC makers face tough competition from HP, Dell and Apple, who are marketing more innovative laptop computers. These machines include built-in gaming or video cameras as well as longer battery life and lighter-weight materials.

"They have to showcase their products as being some of the best, as opposed to being entry level," IDC's Daoud said. "The best way to do it is through niche and innovation and new products. Otherwise, forget it. The mass PC market is very tough."

Lenovo, Acer, and Asustek are pushing into the U.S. consumer market amid surging popularity of laptops, an area in which they have innovated more than some U.S. competitors such as Dell, which for years has focused more on selling desktop machines and business server computers to companies.

Lenovo, Asustek and others have declined to give details of the products to be unveiled at the Las Vegas show.

Asian companies already make most of the world's laptop computers on a contract basis, so expanding in the U.S. may be logical and cost effective, Daoud said. Taiwan's Quanta Computer Inc, for example, makes laptops for Dell, HP and Apple.

Asian PC makers also need to boost their brands in the U.S. to be considered global players.

"It's still the biggest market for technology," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at market researcher Enderle Group. "While China is the fastest-growing market, there's something to be said for being in the biggest."

Computer makers sold 37 percent more laptops in the third quarter, helping fuel projected 2007 worldwide PC shipment growth of 14.6 percent, according to IDC.

In the U.S., desktop PC shipments fell an estimated 3 percent in 2007, while notebooks surged an estimated 21 percent.

There is all the reason to feel bad, if your hard drive has crashed, but the good news is that there is life after death for your hard drive and your data can be recovered.

Stellar Information systems help you recover your hard drive, and they are, a phone call away. The recovery agent or the technician checks for vitals that are now non-existent and he then takes it straight to the class 100 clean room.

Dell Inc. said it delivered its first “Made in India ” computer , with hopes that production here will lift domestic sales in a market that is growing 30 percent a year. The desktop computer from Dell’s new plant near the southern Indian … Maybe this might help dell Reports 2Q Earnings Jump 46 Percent (San Francisco Chronicle) Dell Inc. said Thursday that preliminary second-quarter earnings jumped 46 percent on stronger sales of enterprise products and services, improved average selling prices and favorable component costs.

Imagine a lightweight laptop for just Rs15,000! An entrepreneur here is working on a project to develop just such a computer that is expected to hit the showrooms by the end of this financial year.

"I want to make the laptop available to the common man," says Hirji Patel, the managing director of Mumbai-headquartered Allied Computers International (Asia) Ltd (ACi).

"The new laptop will be priced at Rs15,000 a piece. It will weigh less than a kilogram and will be much smaller than the conventional laptop currently available in India," says Patel, an expert in software and hardware development.

IT Expo 07 at Nagpur from 23 to 26 feb 07

http://www.occdan.org/index.html

http://www.occdan.org/event07.htm

http://www.occdan.org/events.htm

Regards,
Mohit Manke.