Amazon Kindle Fire HD

Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9-inch ships early

Agence France Press, November 16, 2012

Amazon on Thursday began shipping a large-screen, high-definition version of its popular Kindle Fire tablet computers ahead of schedule in a holiday season challenge to Apple iPads.Kindle Fire HD tablets ordered online were on their way to buyers and more would be available at US consumer electronics shops beginning Friday, according to Amazon.
"Kindle Fire HD has been Amazon's best-selling product worldwide since launch, and that was before we even started shipping the best tablet we've ever built," said Kindle vice president Dave Limp.
"We think customers are going to love web browsing, email, gaming, watching TV shows, reading magazines, and more on the large, stunning HD screen, with fast Wi-Fi and exceptional audio."
Amazon in September unveiled the new Kindle Fire HD priced at $299 in what analysts saw as a clear challenge to the market-leading iPad.
The new Kindle Fire HD has an 8.9-inch (22.6-centimeter) display and was described by Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos as "the best high-end tablet anywhere, at any price" when combined with Amazon content and services.
The tablet is only 0.3 inches thick, and weighs 20 ounces (567 grams). The Kindle Fire HD has dual-band Wi-Fi and two antennas.
A seven-inch Kindle Fire HD priced at $199 became available in September.
In an even more direct challenge to the iPad, a 4G version of the larger Kindle Fire HD will sell at $499 - the same price as a basic iPad.
Amazon said that 4G Kindle Fire HD tablets will begin shipping next week.
Offering the Kindle Fire outside the US for the first time, all except the new bigger-screen version went on sale in Europe in October.
Apple early this month released a smaller version of its iPad to take on Amazon and Android tablets having success in that segment of the market.

Microsoft sued

Microsoft sued over Surface tablet's storage capacity

Associated Press, November 15, 2012

 A California lawyer is suing Microsoft Corp., claiming the Surface tablet he bought doesn't have all the storage space the company advertised.Andrew Sokolowski, a lawyer in Los Angeles, claims that he bought a Surface with 32 gigabytes of storage last week. But he quickly ran out of space after loading it with music and Microsoft Word documents.
He discovered that a significant portion of the 32 GB storage space was being used by the operating system and pre-installed apps such as Word and Excel. Only 16 GB was available for him to use.
Sokolowski's lawyers filed the suit alleging false advertising and unfair business practices on Tuesday at the Superior Court in Los Angeles. They are seeking class action status.
The suit aims to change how Microsoft advertises its device and hopes to force the company to give back revenue and profits that resulted from its alleged wrongful conduct.
Microsoft said in a statement that it believes the suit is without merit.
"Customers understand the operating system and pre-installed applications reside on the device's internal storage thereby reducing the total free space," the company said. It noted that people can add storage via the microSD slot and USB port.
Microsoft confirmed on Nov. 5 exactly how much usable storage space its Surface tablets come with out of the box. It says on its website that the 32 GB Surface has 16 GB of free space while the 64 GB version has 45 GB free. The Surface started selling Oct. 26 and Sokolowski bought his device on Nov. 7.
Sokolowski's lawyer, Rhett Francisco, said Wednesday that his client never saw Microsoft's responses and said the details on its website are "buried."
"They make you search and dig for it specifically, or you would never find it," he said.
It's common for mobile devices to have less usable storage space than advertised.
Flash drives and regular hard drives provide less usable memory than their labels say, mainly because there are two definitions of the word "gigabyte." That means that, right off the bat, consumers get about 7 percent less space than advertised. A 16 GB drive, for example, has about 15 GB available for use.
On flash drives, the kind used in tablets, another factor reduces the available storage further. A portion of the memory space is set aside to replace "cells" that wear out over time. For this reason, Apple's 16 GB iPad has an actual storage capacity that's 11 percent lower than the one advertised: 14.3 GB. The 64 GB model stores 57.2 GB.
On the iPad, all the storage space after the 11 percent "discount" is available for the user's photos, movies and apps. The operating system and Apple's pre-installed apps have their own, separate memory space. Microsoft's operating system and apps, in contrast, share memory space with the user.
Michael Gartenberg, research director for technology research firm Gartner Inc., said Microsoft has consistently said there would be less memory available than is advertised. He said it is "unsurprising" that its new operating system and near full-blown version of Office take up a big chunk of the memory.
"I think they made it pretty clear to consumers what they're getting," he said.
And even if Microsoft's base-model Surface only has 16 GB of memory available, that's still slightly more than the 14.3 GB you'll get from the latest Wi-Fi only iPad for the same price of $499

Nokia with Microsoft

Nokia sees no change in relationship with Microsoft

Reuters, November 15, 2012

Nokia's chief executive said there would be no change in the relationship with its software partner Microsoft, despite the software giant's entry into tablets and partnerships with rival phone makers.Stephen Elop said Nokia retained a "special" relationship with Microsoft, even though others such as HTC have also launched phones with Windows Phone software.
"They're not sitting in the priority meetings that we're sitting in," he said at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecoms conference in Barcelona on Wednesday.
Analysts have said Microsoft could one day become a rival to Nokia if it launches its own smartphones, while there is also speculation that the U.S. company could one day acquire the Finnish phone manufacturer.

Aakash 2 tablet Rs. 1,130

President Pranab Mukherjee unveils Rs. 1,130 Aakash 2 tablet

Press Trust of India, November 12, 2012

The second version of low cost tablet Aakash was launched in Delhi on Sunday by President Pranab Mukherjee.

Coming at a price tag of Rs. 1,130 for students, the new version 'Aakash 2', which will be made available to students of engineering colleges and universities to begin with, is now powered by a processor running at 1GHz, has a 512 MB, a 7-inch capacitative touch screen and a battery working for three hours of normal operations.

It has been developed under the aegis of IIT Bombay with the active support of C-DAC. Datawind is rolling out the device.

"The price is Rs. 2,263 at which the government purchases the device from us. The government subsidises it by 50 percent and it will be distributed to students at Rs.  1,130," said Datawind CEO Suneet Tuli.

He said the government is also trying to encourage the state governments to chip in by subsidising it further so that the device can eventually be available to students free of cost.

The first one lakh devices will be provided to students of engineering colleges and universities and subsequently these will be distributed to others.

About 22 crore students will get the device across the country in the next five to six years. By coming Monday alone, 20,000 devices are expected to reach out to the students.

The device can also run on Linux operating system, do Aadhar authentication and control a robot from a distant place, said HRD Ministry officials.


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