News

TechTree: Apical Impex has launched the Vantec NexStar 3 External SATA Hard Drive Enclosure, which marries functionality to style with its mirror finish, sleek curves, and Black color.

The NST-360SU-BK measures 206 x 123 x 33mm, and is a 3.5 inch casing with SATA HDD connector and eSATA (external Serial ATA) plus USB support.

With eSATA and USB 2.0 interfaces offering speeds up to 3Gbps or 480Mbps respectively, the hard drive can be used to the fullest, while retaining the option to utilize USB.

The NST-360SU-BK features an Aluminium casing to cool down the hard drive, a Blue LED to indicate Power/HDD activity, transfer rates up to 3Gbps, transfer rates up to 480Mbps W/ USB 2.0 (12Mbps W/ USB1.1), SATA or USB for easily adding storage to any system, Hot Swappable Plug and Play without rebooting, and support for up to 500GB Hard Drives.

The 360SU supports Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP, and Mac OS 8.6 and above

TechTree: Google has released a new version of its Blogger service, adding privacy settings that restrict readership to a predetermined audience.

The company said that users could choose to have blogs accessible to anyone or just to themselves; or they could list the e-mail addresses of the people they want to let in. And those readers would need to register for a free Google account, the same used for its Gmail and other services, and would sign in with their regular Google passwords.

It is learnt that several blogging competitors already offer privacy options, and in fact, Blogger also used to offer a password option through a premium service but that is no longer available.

Google has begun offering new privacy features this week, although it is gradually converting existing Blogger users to the upgrade. The offering comes as potential employers, mates, and others increasingly try to screen people by checking out their blogs, social-networking profiles, and other Internet postings.

Additionally, Google is offering some users of its Blogger Web site access to this new version of the blog hosting service allowing user-definable templates, tagging of posts, multiple authors, and faster publication of new posts. It will also integrate use of the blogging service more closely with other services, through changes to the account log-in process.

TechTree: BBC has announced that hundreds of episodes of its popular programs will for the first time, be made available on a file sharing network.

According to BBC, the move is the fall-out of a deal between its commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, and the Java-based BitTorrent client technological firm, Azureus.

Earlier this month, Azureus launched a video sharing site similar to YouTube, codenamed ‘Zudeo’. The site enables users upload and view content. Azureus maintains that unlike most video sharing sites, ‘Zudeo’ offers high definition videos. Besides, users need to download a program to access and upload content.

Up until now, most BBC titles found on peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks have been illegal copies. With the new deal, users of ‘Zudeo’ will be able to download legally, high-quality versions of popular BBC programs.

To prevent these programs from being traded illegally on the Internet, the titles will be protected by digital rights management (DRM) software.

The move, according to BBC officials, is part of a company drive to reach the largest possible audience.

TechTree: The latest addition to social networking sites is DesiMartini.com, an SMS-based online social networking site catering to Indians residing across the globe.

Launched end November’06 by Gurgaon-based Vivek Pahwa (25), an entrepreneur and recent Graduate from the Indian School of Business, DesiMartini.com claims not only to incorporate the best from sites such as Orkut, Friendster, and MySpace, but also go a step further and enhance user experience through a rich user interface and SMS-based features.

On DesiMartini.com, users can create their own customizable homepages, send in updates via SMS wherever they might be, upload and share pictures, join groups and communities, chat with other members, and stay in touch with and make friends.

Significantly, DesiMartini.com focuses on SMS features, and enables users send free SMSs to any cell phone within the country.

And, although a late entrant in this arena, the company nurses ambitions to reach a registered user base of 1 million members in just 6 months.

TechTree: Lenovo has unveiled feature-rich notebooks that cater to home consumers and the SOHO segment in India.

The company said the new Lenovo 3000 series Y300 and Y500 notebooks incorporate the company’s pioneering biometric face recognition technology that enhances data security and allows these notebooks to be used by multiple users seamlessly.

The incorporated face recognition feature is supported by Veriface software, and takes a digital snapshot of the user, extracts key features of the user’s face, and creates a digital map that becomes the system’s “password”. The technology recognizes multiple users, and logs onto the Windows operating system and other applications without requiring users to remember a single password. In the event of an unauthorized attempt, the notebook photographs the user, and stores the image in a log for verification.

The highly portable Y300 notebooks, which are targeted at tech-savvy and security-conscious consumers, feature a 13.1-inch wide-screen, 1.3-mega pixels camera, and an integrated slot-in optical disc drive; and weigh in at 1.78 kg without battery and 2.03 kg with battery

TechTree: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), in a New Year bonanza for its customers, has decided to remove the STD barring facility from all landline phones.

The company said it would gradually replace old instruments with caller line identification (CLI) facility, and increase the broadband speed and the free download limit.

Over the next 18 months, landline phones would be equipped with the CLI facility. And since the move involved replacing a huge number of phones, the initiative would be conducted in phases. In the mobile segment, location-based service would be launched from January next year.

The broadband speed will be increased from 256 kbps (kilobits per second) to up to 2 mbps (megabits per second) at the existing tariff of Rs 250 per month, from January 1 next year, thus upgrading all its 8.2 lakh broadband users. In addition, the free download limit will be enhanced from 0.4 gigabyte to 1 gigabyte. And the rates for further downloads have been decreased from Rs 1.40 per megabyte to 90 paise.