A very close friend of mine had finally decided to buy a laptop. He used to visit cyber cafes often and spend a lot of money for surfing websites. There he wasted both his time and money because the computers were slow, net speed was low and since the computer was not his own, he cannot save any private data on it. Due to this he always had to carry blank CD’s and pen drives etc borrowed from friends. To put an end to all this, I took him to computer store where his eyes twinkled seeing flashy laptops. Hearing the price he said lets go home back and he’s fine with cyber café’s only. To make him calm down, I first asked the computer dealer to get us a glass of cold water and then I asked him what type of work he does on a computer. He said the usual things like browsing websites, sending emails, listening music, typing something on word processor, sometimes watching movie etc. At this point I asked him a simple question, “Suppose you own two vehicles, one is a V8 engine SUV and other is a nice small hatchback car with all the luxury features and if you have to go to buy an ice cream from market which is very near to your home then which vehicle would you use?” Answer is a no-brainer and its obvious one would take the small hatchback car because its fuel efficient, it’s easy to park and does the job well without any problem. Then I said why would you buy an expensive laptop with fastest processor when you are not going to use it at its full potential ever?

I asked the dealer to show us Samsung Laptop NC10 which is Intel Atom based laptop and it’s priced much lower than other laptops. Intel Atom is a decent processor for mobile computing, it consumes less power and it can do all the daily work a normal laptop user does. The best part about NC 10 is that it gives as much as 10 hours of battery backup while others will just shut down after 2 or 3 hours or usage. Adding to the good battery backup, NC 10 is very portable with its 10.2 inches screen. Though this screen may look small but it can display at quite decent resolution of 1024 x 600-pixel. Hard disk size is 160GB which is enough for most laptop users. I had a documentary movie with me in my pen drive and upon playing I found that sound output is quite impressive, no doubt the built 2.1 channel speakers with SRS are doing their job well here. This is something we don’t find in many premium laptops as well. NC 10 built quality is excellent and you can get the feel of it from its keyboard which is very nice to use and its very typing friendly. Review at cnet says that it has the best keyboard in netbook category. With a price tag of Rs. 28,477 (or USD 499), it may be a bit higher from other Atom based laptops available in market but the quality it offers justifies its slightly higher price. If you have used this laptop or happen to own one, then please do share your experience or just anything you want to comment about this laptop.

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SEOUL, Korea — VIBEBS (www.vibeworld.co.kr) is drawing the attention of world buyers with its in-ear vibration earphone, codenamed ‘80dB’ during 2009 Singapore Expo, June 16 to 18.

Featuring vibration functionality for bodily sensation, the 80db adopts the company’s exclusive vibe-sound function and offers unique excitement of games or music with vibration.

A company officials said that it is different from existing bone conduction headphone in that the former allows you to actually feel music or game while the latter transmits only sound.

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Samsung Electronics unveiled ‘LD220′, the world’s first USB monitor dedicated to notebook pc during World IT Show 2009 in Korea market. It supports 300cd/m2 of brightness, 30,000:1 contrast ratio and 5ms response speed. As you can see from the image itself that this LCD is not the brightest LCD yet it will be a cool gadget to have in your room. The design is a typical Samsung (which is quite good) and with just one USB cable connection, its almost a clutter free device on the desk!

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Samsung Electronics announced its first solar powered mobile phone ‘Crest Solar(model: E1107)’ in Korea market. The new handset enables its users to charge the battery anywhere the sun is shining when electricity is unavailable.

With an extended solar powered battery, the Samsung Crest Solar solves the problem of unavailable or unstable electrical outlets, particularly in rural areas. The phone has the capacity to provide around 5~10 minutes of talk time with one hour of solar charging. Moreover, the solar panel charging allows its users to save money and energy consumption on traditional electrical charging.

The Crest Solar comes in a compact design with essential mobile phone features such as FM radio, MP3 ring tones, embedded games and a powerful torch light. For consumer safety, the phone offers Mobile Tracker, which automatically alerts when the SIM card is changed or sends out an SOS message in an emergency. The Crest Solar also has a fake call feature, so users can pretend they have an incoming call to escape unsafe situations.

The Crest Solar will be available in numerous markets including India, Europe, Southeast Asia, Southwest Asia, and Latin America from June 2009. The Crest Solar also provides specialized features for different religions, such as alerts for prayer time.

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TAIPEI, Taiwan Penpower Technology displayed its business card scanner ‘WorldCard ultra WCU01A’ during Computex 2009.

Able to recognize multiple languages, the WorldCard scans or captures a business card and automatically inputs all card information into the proper database fields, including the person’s name, company name, title, address, and telephone number. If using Windows, WorldCard can be integrated or synchronized with Outlook, Outlook Express, Palm, Pocket PC, Lotus Notes and many other types of PIM software. WorldCard is the only product of its kind that allows voice search queries. A special Mac version has also been released for Mac users so that everyone can create personal contact databases with the WorldCard Series.

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Nikon Imaging Korea announced the launch of its new DSLR ‘D5000′ equipped with its 2.7-inch vari-angle LCD monitor that allows you to shoot easily from any angle you can imagine.

The D5000 has inherited the D90’s groundbreaking HD movie capability, Nikon’s proprietary D-Movie function. Coupled with extensive in-camera editing features, a wide choice of scene modes, 12.3MP sensor and high-sensitivity between ISO 200 and 3200 (which can be extended to ISO 100 and ISO 6400 equivalent) for shooting in a wide range of lighting conditions, this camera makes it easier than ever to take great quality pictures.

The D5000 will be available on May 4 in Korea market. No words on pricing yet.

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LG Electronics rolls out its touch-screen mobile phone ‘Versa(model: VX9600)’ via Verizon on March 1st, which features the ability to detach a qwerty keypad.

In addition to the detachable keypad, the LG Versa incorporates an accelerometer now popular in many smartphones to rotate images on the touch screen from portrait to landscape. The Web browser supports Flash video and allows customers to keep up to three windows open at once. A virtual keypad on the touch screen is also available.

Other features included a 2.0 megapixel camera with video capabilities, a music/video player, mobile e-mail service, a microsSD slot supporting up to 16GB, Bluetooth 2.1 EDR and Wi-Fi support.

Offering the battery life up to 290 minutes of use and 430 hours of standby time, the phone will sell for $200 at Verizon Wireless stores with a two-year wireless subscription.

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Averatec Star notebooks from TG Sambo will be powered by Intel Centrino 2 processor and will have decent memory of 3GB RAM and 320GB HDD. Designed with aluminum finish with silver color, it enhanced mobility with 1.7kg weight and 1cm thickness. Further technical details are as follows:

LCD: 33.8cm(13.3-inch)
CPU: Intel Core2 Duo Processor P8600 2.4GHz
Chipset: Intel GM45 + Intel ICH9M Chipset
Memory: 3072MB DDR II 667 MHz
HDD: 320GB(S-ATA)
ODD: Option
Graphic: GMA(Graphic Media Accelerator) X4500MHD
Network: 10/100 Base-TX / Modem
W-LAN: Intel Wireless Wi-Fi Link 5100 (802.11 a/g/n)
Bluetooth Support
Interface Wireless LAN On-Off Switch / MIC / Headphone / Express Card Slot
I/O Port USB2.0×3, SPDIF, VGA
Web CAM: 1.3M Web CAM
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium
Dimensions: 327×227.5×10~25mm (W×D×H), 1.73kg
Price: 1,648,000 (KRW)

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Nothing fancy or unique about this phone, its normal low cost slider phone for people who want a bit of everything. Pantech announced the launch of C320 in Mexico via Telcel, a Mexico’s largest mobile phone carrier. Coming in two different colors; white and black & silver, the Pantech C320 features mp3 playback, Micro SD memory support and a 1.3M built-in camera.

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Klipsch plans to enhance their entertainment experience with dynamic audio from three new, reasonably priced HD home theater systems. The HD Theater 1000 (priced at $900) is shipping now, while the HD Theater 500 and HD Theater 300 will launch in March and April respectively. These three products are among the lowest priced 5.1 home theater packages in the company’s history.

With its new, compact and easy to set up HD Theater 1000, HD Theater 500 and HD Theater 300 packages, Klipsch plans to give its listeners the premium high-output, low-distortion sound reproduction the brand is known for. HD Theater 500 and HD Theater 300 are priced at $600 and $400 respectively.

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