Lenovo Launches Its First US Consumer Desktop - InformationWeek

Lenovo on Monday launched its first consumer desktop outside of People'S Republic Of China with the release of a low-priced in the United States.

The IdeaCentre K210 release followed Lenovo's launch this twelvemonth of consumer notebooks outside of China, starting again in the United States with the IdeaPad series of mobile PCs. Among the unusual characteristics in the desktop theoretical account is facial-recognition technology that lets users to by having the computer's photographic camera acknowledge their faces.

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Another characteristic Lenovo is hoping to utilize to distinguish the merchandise in a crowded marketplace is an anti-microbial keyboard that usages particular stuff to suppress bacterial growth. The is expected to be utile in environments where multiple people utilize the same computer.

The K210 also includes Lenovo's system-recovery technology, which salvages information on a particular system in the event of a failure. Specifications of the new machine include an Intel Core 2 quad-core and GMA 3100 incorporate graphics. In addition, the computing machine have an optional Blu-ray thrust and the option of upgrading to an ATI Radeon 2600 crosstalk for personal computer gaming.

The IdeaCentre K210 is available in U.S. retail stores. Prices begin at $379, after a mail-in rebate. A 19-inch is available for an further $229, and a 22-inch for $299. Both terms are after a mail-in rebate.

In late April, Lenovo, which is best known in the United States for the ThinkPad concern notebooks, called the U110. The portable was the up-to-the-minute improver to the IdeaPad line in the United States, which also includes 13-, 15- and 17-inch models.

The U110 pronounced the company's greatest going from the ThinkPad workhorse. The computing machine come ups in multiple colours and have a stylized, textured designing embedded in its aluminium metal cover. Among the most noticeable differences, besides the exterior, is the computer's keyboard, which have a glistening achromatic coating that's level to the touching as a individual moves from one key to the next.

Lenovo in the first one-fourth was the fourth-largest PC shaper in the human race in footing of shipments, Hewlett-Packard and Dell were Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, and Genus Acer was third. Lenovo was not among the top five in the United States.

Indian shares rise, led by technology stocks

: North American Indian shares rose Wednesday, lifted by strong purchasing of engineering stocks.

The Greater Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark 30-stock Sensex rose 91 points, or 0.6 percent, to 16,244 points.

On the broader National Stock Exchange, the 50-company S&P Bang-Up index rose 0.2 percentage to 4,887 points.

Technology pillory gained, taking comfortableness from Infosys Technologies Ltd.'s projection of higher-than-expected revenue growing in financial 2009.

Infosys was up 5.9 percentage at 1,600 rupees, followed by Wipro Ltd., up 5.4 percentage at 447 rupees, and Satyam Computer Services Ltd., up 0.4 percentage at 454 rupees. Today in Business with Reuters

Intel unveils new, low power chip at Taiwan computer show

: Intel Corp. on Tuesday unveiled a new processor it states will revolutionise the information engineering industry by "bringing computing machines to everyone."

Intel Asia Pacific Ocean Frailty president and General Director Navin Shenoy said the Atom processor is intended to powerfulness small-sized laptop computers at low cost and do it easier for billions of people around the human race to entree the Internet.

Shenoy's proclamation at a China computing machine show raises the bet in Intel's attempts to best challengers like Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Via Technologies in supplying bits for inexpensive laptops.

These cheap machines — priced at less than US$500 (€320) — offering consumers in developed states the opportunity to purchase 2nd or 3rd PCs and do Internet entree finally possible for low-income customers in many development countries.

"The devices are being designed to convey the powerfulness of the Internet to almost everyone," Shenoy said. Today in Business with Reuters

Shenoy said that the Atom interruptions with the Intel tradition of making faster and faster chips, which have got an inherently high cost.

By contrast, he said, the low-power Atom bit is relatively inexpensive to bring forth and exceptionally small, with 2,500 units of measurement — each containing 47 million junction transistors — fitting on one 12-inch wafer.

That's the equivalent of squeezing 11 of the devices onto one U.S. penny.

"Intel have always been about faster, faster and faster chips," Shenoy said. "But we desire to introduce in a new way this time, very low power, very little size, and, yes, very low cost."

Retired information engineering analyst In Wei-yee, formerly of UBS silver in New York, called the Atom's launch "very significant."

"They're trying to turn to a big marketplace that demands low-cost solutions," he said. "The thought is to acquire beyond current bottlenecks."

The Atom's cardinal district is what the company phone calls "netbooks" — inexpensive notebook options that are littler and have got fewer mathematical functions than standard laptop computers but also utilize far less powerfulness and are easier to transport around.

The Atom is also designed for Mobile River Internet Devices — iPhone-like tablets that supply a "full" Internet experience, better than that available on cell phones.

Taiwan's AsusTek have had a jailbreak hit in the "netbook" class with its eeePC, which begins at US$300 (€191) and usages an Intel chip. Other manufacturers, like Hewlett-Packard Co., are entering the marketplace segment, too, though horsepower is using a bit from Via Technologies Inc.

Intel Asia Pacific's manager for advanced technical gross sales and services, Francis Edgar Stanley Huang, said the company is struggling to ran into demand for the new processor.

"Demand is very high," he said. "It's a job but it's a good job to have."

Cloudbook maker Everex snapped up by Newmarket - NetworkWorld.com

Low-cost PC shaper Everex this hebdomad said it had agreed to be acquired by systems planimeter Newmarket Technology for an undisclosed
sum.

Newmarket said it will purchase 75 percentage of Everex's shares from parent company First International Computer, a Taiwan-based
personal computer vendor. Don't Miss!

Everex is well-known for the Linux-based Cloudbook, an cheap ultraportable notebook computing machine like the Asus Eee PC, which
it introduced earlier this year. In April, Everex announced Cloudbook Max, an ultraportable laptop computer that includes WiMax mobile
broadband capabilities.

The company also sells laptop computers and desktops in North United States and Asia-Pacific through Wal-Mart and other statistical distribution channels. Related Content

Newmarket, which supplies systems integrating and engineering substructure services, said Cloudbook's ability to offer high-speed
WiMax capablenesses will be at the centre of the company's attempt to offer new mobile engineerings to customers, according
to Prince Philip Verges, chief executive officer and laminitis of Newmarket, in a missive to stockholders on Tuesday.

Newmarket is interested in bringing ultramobile products, especially the WiMax-enabled Cloudbook, into emerging markets, said
Alice Paul Kim, manager of selling at Everex.

Everex will convey hardware expertness to Newmarket, and combining hardware like the Cloudbook with its services will give Newmarket
an blink of an eye presence in the mobile space and set it in a place to convey out more than competitory products, Kim said. It will
also expose Everex merchandises to new markets.

Newmarket may not be a family name, but the company have a important presence in emerging marketplaces such as as Latin America
and China, Kim said.

The possibility of layoffs is small, considering Newmarket is not primarily known as a hardware company, Kim said.

The trade is likely to fold on Sept. 1.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

5 IT skills that won't boost your salary

Technical accomplishments may never die, but countries of expertness decline in importance as engineering progresses military unit companies to evolve
and IT staff to forsake yesterday's trade in favour of tomorrow's must-have talent.

"There is less demand for system-side knowledge. In the past, IT folks had to understand a batch about memory, drivers and address
locations, and what used which interrupt, but nowadays that material is plug-and-chug even on many Unix systems," states Brian
Jones, director of web technology at 's Technical School Communications Network Services unit of measurement in Blacksburg. "I experience like all the accomplishments I have got picked up along the manner are
valuable and assist form my thought and troubleshooting abilities. I don't cognize how to value or devalue these skills; it's
wish they have got taken on new value now."

Industry spectators would be difficult pressed to call specific IT accomplishments as entirely dead or completely useless, but some skills
are well on their manner to being considered a thing of the past -- as reflected by the down wage associated with them. As
hot accomplishments like virtualization rise to the top of company must-have lists, high-tech talents in certain operating systems
and specific seller merchandises autumn to the bottom. Here are five high-tech skills that don't demand the wage they once did.

Plain old HTML

As companies encompass Web 2.0 engineerings such as , demand for accomplishments in hypertext markup language scheduling are taking a dorsum seat. According to Foote Partners, wage for accomplishments in technologies
such as as as Ajax and XML increased by 12.5 percentage in the last six calendar months of 2007, while IT directors state they don't see a demand
for engineering predecessors such as HTML. "I'm not seeing demands for general Web 1.0 accomplishments -- hypertext markup language scheduling skills,"
states Debbie Joy, Pb solution designer for CSC in Phoenix.

Legacy scheduling languages

Skills in scheduling linguistic communications such as as , Fortran, PowerBuilder, and more than don't charge per unit like they once did.

"Certainly the Cobol people that had a revival with the Y2K bug aren't in demand," states Toilet Estes, frailty president of strategic
confederations of Henry Martin Robert One-Half Technology, an IT staffing consultancy. "Certain other applications such as as and , [which were] very large in the '90s, are no longer in demand."

IT work-force and compensation research conducted by Foote Partners revealed that Cobol, PowerBuilder and Jini noncertified
accomplishments were among the lowest-paying skills in the 2nd one-half of 2007. Saint David Foote, main executive military officer and chief research officer at Foote
Partners, states the research shows not that such as accomplishments aren't in usage today but that companies aren't willing to pay for them. "There is still a batch of Degree Centigrade and Cobol around, though these accomplishments are deserving very small paywise," Foote says.

NetWare

Operating system know-how goes on to be in top demand among hiring managers, but expertness in 's web operating system NetWare isn't keeping up with other engineerings in the same area. "Networking software system such as as
NetWare isn't near what it was in the '90s," Estes says. And Foote adds, "Windows Waiter and Linux accomplishments have got replaced, or
are replacing, NetWare skills" in footing of demand.

Non-IP network

IP and Internet accomplishments usurped non-IP network expertness and know-how inch engineerings such as as 's System Network Architecture (SNA) go on to rank among the lowest-paying skills. "For networking, information science accomplishments have got replaced
SNA skills," Foote says. According to Foote Partners' research, SNA accomplishments accounted for just 2 percentage of alkali wage in the
4th one-fourth of 2007, while security accomplishments made up 17 percentage of alkali pay.

"Mainframe computer science skills, including web constituents such as as SNA, are no longer required in a server-based information science networking
environment," states St Martin Webb, director of information web operations, Ministry of Labor and Citizens' Services, State of
British People Columbia.

PC technical school support

The Computer Technology Trade Association () studies that hardware accomplishments and knowledge, including expertness with pressmen and PCs, are on the diminution in footing of demand. CompTIA surveyed 3,578 IT hiring directors to larn which accomplishments would turn in importance over clip and the industry organization
found: "The accomplishment country expected to worsen the most in importance is hardware."

Foote Partners' research separately showed an 11.1 percentage diminution in wage over the last six calendar months of 2007 for ITIL skills,
which are often set in topographic point to streamline IT service direction and assist desk efforts.

"The 'move, add and changes' personal computer technical school mathematical function isn't quite what is used to be," Henry Martin Robert One-Half Technology's Estes says.

is an InfoWorld affiliate.

Indian shares jump; Sensex led by banks, technology firms

: North American Indian shares rose sharply Thursday, propped up by additions in Banks and engineering companies.

The Greater Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark 30-stock Sensex climbed 237 points, or 1.5 percent, to 16,481 points within an hr of opening.

On the broader National Stock Exchange, the 50-company S&P Bang-Up index rose 71 points, or 1.5 percent, to 4,958 points.

Banks posted strong additions with HDFC Depository Financial Institution Ltd. prima the pack. HDFC Depository Financial Institution closed 7 percentage up at 1,396 rupees, followed by ICICI Depository Financial Institution Ltd. advancing 2.4 percentage at 835 rupees, State Depository Financial Institution of Republic Of India was up 1 percentage at 1,683 rupees.

Technology companies rose with Infosys Technologies Ltd. up 4.2 percentage at 1,666 rupees, Satyam Computer Services Ltd. up 3.3 percentage at 469 rupees, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. advanced 2.7 percentage to 1,001 Sri Lanka Sri Lanka Sri Lanka Sri Lanka rupees and Wipro Ltd. up 2.7 percentage at 459 rupees. Today in Business with Reuters

E-Menus Replace Waiters in Some Restaurants

Saturday, March 01, 2008 2:00 Prime Minister PST

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TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Meet the e-waiter.

Restaurants in Europe, the United States and Japanese Islands are testing engineering to allow diners order their nutrient direct from a silver screen at their tabular array instead of depending on a chap person being to observe their pick -- sometimes grumpily or erroneously.

Besides cutting costs, companies that sell the "e-menu" reason the bytes-for-bites attack have a freshness value that tin enticement little customers, and encouragement grosses as tantalising photos of succulent steaks and gooey desserts allure diners to tell more.

It also could widen the television dinner. How about a computer-game dinner?

The thought may be only the up-to-the-minute dohickey in a trade which is driven by consumer appetencies and where crazes help. But at least for now, it looks to be boosting business. Alluring Customers

In Israel, privately owned start-up Conceptic have already installed e-Menu engineering in sushi bars, public houses and household restaurants. The system is based on touch-screens already used in self-service canteens or for ticketing in airdromes and cinemas.

"It's about impulse-buying," said Adi Chitayat, Conceptic's head executive. "If a individual starts looking at images of cocoa cake, the opportunities are he'll tell it."

The house have also supplied its systems to eating houses in France, South Africa and Belgium.

Frame, a voguish sushi eating house in Tel Aviv which have got installed the system, said gross sales on tabular arrays with the e-Menu have increased by about 11 percent. Customers often name ahead to modesty musca volitans equipped with the screens, director Natalie Edry told Reuters.

At one of the e-Menu tables, information engineering worker Gil Uriel and his immature household were enthusiastic as they checked out images of the dishes on offering and squabbled over desserts.

"It's more visual," said Uriel, as his children clicked away furiously on a games work between courses. "We can still choose, we can still reason -- but it's much easier when you can all see it."
Transformation Tech?

In Japan, a company called Aska T3 have produced a similar system. But the field is attracting more than than startups.

states its new Microsoft Surface system, which transforms an full tabular array into one large touch-screen, is owed to travel unrecorded in springtime 2008 in some U.S. hotels and casinos, letting clients order nutrient direct as well as drama music and games.

The Seattle-based elephantine states on its Web land site it will "transform the manner people shop, dine, entertain and live." Both Conceptic and Microsoft reason their illustrations of synergistic and group engineering stand for the future.

"We are living in a engineering age," said Conceptic's Chitayat. "People are not afraid of screens." The company, which launched its airplane pilot in 2006, anticipates to turn a net income in mid-2009, he added.

From eating houses which utilize conveyor-belt dish bringing to one at the Dutch university of Wageningen which tracks diners with concealed cameras, engineering is increasingly penetrating eateries, in a command to hike sales.

Chitayat said taking computing machines into eating houses is an obvious adjacent measure after engineering revolutionized the workplace, although he noted eating houses with the e-Menu -- including Framework -- still trust on servers to present the food.

His company is also piloting a Web-based version, to allow clients log on to a restaurant's WiFi Internet web and topographic point their orders from their ain laptops, hand-held computers or cell phones. Some Prefer World

But many diners uncertainty the e-menu thought will take off.

"I don't believe in screens, I believe in humans," said man of affairs Yoash Torkman as he lunched at Frame. "I'll wait for 15 proceedings for a waitress instead of using this. It's a dohickey and dohickeys have got very short lives."

In Europe, where dining out is a time-honored tradition as much about good conversation and etiquette as staving off hunger, waiting staff were unsurprisingly circumspect.

"See this adult male here? He's been coming here for 25 years," said a waitress at Italian eating house Rosticceria Fiorentina in Brussels, who gave her name only as Giovanna.

"I cognize his wife, I cognize his daughter. Bash you believe it would be better if he was welcomed by computer?"

Some analysts also inquire if the entreaty will widen beyond early-adopters like the Framework client Uriel, to germinate into a tool that alterations the manner people eat out.

"There are always some people who encompass a new engineering but others will avoid it for as long as possible," said Jackie Fenn, emerging engineering analyst at Gartner consulting group.

"Will a clump of adolescents have got a blast using it? Yes. But it will take clip to travel from being an attractive force in a little figure of eating houses to something that is widespread."

(See the about the system)

(Additional coverage by Elana Ringler and Brian Love in Brussels; Editing by Sara Ledwith)

Technology stocks outperform in choppy trade

MUMBAI:
Frontline shares swung up and down within a narrow scope followers a similar
pattern on other key Asiatic indices, while grade two and three shares remained
subdued. But engineering pillory outperformed adding around 4 per cent each to
their several sectoral indices on the bovine spongiform encephalitis and
NSE. At 1 pm, the Sensex was up
53 points or 0.3 per cent at 17,701.61, making a high of 17,902.16 and low of
17,534.96. Biggest index
gainers were Satyam Computer (up 6.91%), Infosys Technologies (4.73%), Tata
Consultancy Services (4.54%), Tata Motors (4.23%) and ONGC
(3.3%). Major index also-rans were
ACC (down 3.53%), HDFC Depository Financial Institution (2.64%), Reliance Energy (2.55%), Ambuja Cements
(2.17%) and Grasim Industries
(2.16%). The bovine spongiform encephalitis Mid-cap and
Small-cap indices were down 1.14 per cent and 1.46 per cent
respectively. The Bang-Up was up
32 points or 0.63 per cent at 5169.85. The index rallied between the high of
5215.35 and low of
5090.75. Software pillory across
the board rallied. Rolta Republic Of India up 7.99 per cent, I-Flex up 6.5 per cent and
Educomp Solutions up 4.94 per cent, led the
advances. In the Asia Pacific
region, the Nikkei 225 was down 0.53 per cent, while the Bent Seng and Straits
Times were up 2.28 per cent and 0.61 per cent, respectively.

Kenya: Help in Sight for the Blind - AllAfrica.com

Bernard MuindiNairobi

The hereafter of unsighted people is visibly brighter followers the launch of an advanced device that enables them to utilize ordinary computer science machines as opposing to the system traditionally used.

The Dolphinfish Pen is the modern solution to the computing necessitates of the blind. Unlike other silver screen entree solutions such as as the Occupation Entree With Address (JAWS), which they have got been using, the Dolphinfish Pen is not installed on the PC, but instead runs from a Universal Joint Consecutive Bus (USB) Pen Drive - a little portable device, just a few centimeters long, which stoppers consecutive into the USB port of a computer.

The convenient size intends that a user can transport his or her Dolphinfish Pen in the pocketbook or pocket, and tally the entree software system on any computer, without the demand to configure scenes each time, as all user constellations are saved back to the Dolphinfish Pen.

The Dolphinfish Pen is simple to utilize on any computer. It takes a couple of proceedings to do a computing machine Dolphinfish Pen-friendly. Once this is done, to run the software, simply infix the pen into a USB slot.

This engineering is enabling 100s of unsighted pupils at assorted acquisition establishments in the state to curved shape a rival border with their colleagues.

The programme loaded into a flash disc installs itself automatically into the computing machine for the user. A USB memory device lets a user to run Dolphinfish silver silver screen reading and screen magnification software system on any computer. It stoppers into a USB port and installs software system on the machine. When the Dolphinfish Pen is removed, the software system is uninstalled. The software system is compatible with Windows 2000, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows View and Windows XP Home, Windows XP Pro operating systems.

It necessitates pattern with the keyboard to derive proficiency. Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) is used to magnify textual stuff in books and newspapers in a manner that a unsighted pupil can read comfortably.

David Waithaka Wanyoike, 24, a First Year pupil at Kenyatta University is a totally unsighted pupil studying History and Kiswahili in Education. He is among 38 others in the university who were introduced to the engineering last month. They were trained on Dolphinfish Pen by the university. Mister Wanyoike, a alumnus of Thika School for the Blind, compares the electric switch from jaw to Dolphinfish Pen with shifting from manual or automatic gear wheel in vehicles.

"This engineering is very convenient for me. My life have got been turned around and now I have all grounds to stand out in my career. It was hard using JAWS, and Louis Braille is expensive," he says. Multiple Sclerosis Dame Ellen Terry Mugambi, also a First Year Bachelor of Education student, states Dolphinfish Pen have got simplified her study.

"Now I can utilize any computing machine at the cyber café, the library - where we also have the CCTV- computing machine lab, any where!" Compared to the Braille, the computer-based system is cheaper. The Standard Perkins Brailler cost Sh24,000 while a reconditioned computing machine and the Dolphinfish assistive engineering costs less than Sh18,000. The initial donees of the engineering are pupils from Kenyatta University, Asumbi, Mosoriot and Machakos Teachers Training Colleges. Others are Bungoma, Moi, Capital Of Kenya Girls, Kericho Tea and Kipsigis Girls' high schools.

Relevant Links

This engineering is offered in concurrence with United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Sight Savers International, Sense International, The Republic Of Republic Of Kenya Union of Blind, Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) and the Ministry of Education. The programme enables normal computing machines to "speak" and magnify textual matter as well as alteration coloring material backgrounds, thus helping the unsighted to set according to their needs.

Speaking during the launch of the technology, the president of the Particular Education section at Kenyatta University Dr Francisca Wamucho termed it the unsighted student's companion.

"The section wishings to renew its course of study content and include many topics for the visually impaired pupils so that they can be empowered to do the right calling choices," she said.