Nokia Lumia 920 gets 2.5 million pre-orders, sold out in US

 

Nokia has been banking on its latest flagship smartphone Nokia Lumia 920 to make a comeback in the smartphone market. And if report published in Yahoo! China is to be believed then Nokia seems to be on the right track as this smartphone has already garnered 2.5 million pre-orders.

Nokia had first showcased its Lumia 920 and 820 smartphones at a gala event in September 2012.

Nokia Lumia 920 comes with 4.5-inch PureMotion HD+ display, Wireless charging support and 2000 mAh battery. Nokia Lumia 820 on the other hand is a mid-range Windows Phone 8 smartphone. It has a 1.5GHz Qualcomm S4 dual-core processor, 4.3-inch Clearblack display, 8GB of internal storage and an 8-megapixel rear camera.

Both Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 had started shipping in key markets in US, France and UK, followed by Russia and Germany by the fag end of October.

According to reports in Ubergizmo.com, by the mid of Novemeber, Nokia Lumia 920 was sold out Amazon’s mobile store, and even at AT&T’s website. This momentum is said to have continued all through the Black Friday weekend, with most stores and websites claiming to be out of stock or offering only one or two colour options for Nokia Lumia 920.

One of the major reasons for a good initial response to this smartphone could be the aggressive pricing strategy adopted by Nokia.

Nokia has been offering Lumia 920 in US for $450 without any contract, which is $100 less than Samsung’s flagship device Samsung Galaxy S III and $200 less than Apple’s iPhone 5. It was earlier rumoured that Nokia will be launching its Lumia 920 in India sometime in November, but later pushed back the same to December. As of now, there is no confirmation about the India pricing of this smartphone

Intel India launches new Itanium 9500 series

Computer chip maker Intel on Tuesday launched a new series of processors, Itanium 9500, which the company claimed is over two-times faster than its previous generation processors.

The new Intel Itanium processor 9500 series is more than twice as powerful as the previous generation, making it ideal for today’s most demanding workloads, including business analytics, database, and large-scale ERP applications, Intel said in a statement.

Systems based on Intel’s Itanium processors run in more than three-quarters of the world’s global 100 companies across industries such as aerospace, energy, life sciences and telecommunications, the company said.

With the Intel Itanium processor 9500 series, these industries will benefit from a leap in performance and increase in reliability, availability and serviceability capabilities, it said.

“Built on a new microarchitecture and providing breakthrough performance, the Intel Itanium 9500 processor family signals Intel’s ongoing commitment to deliver unparallelled reliability to meet the critical application demands across all industries,” Srinivasan Ramaprasad, Country Business Manager, MNC Accounts, Intel South Asia, claimed at a press conference here on Tuesday.

According to HP, based on HP enhancements and the Intel Itanium processor 9500 series, transactions are processed up to three times faster than previous generations, while using 21 percent less energy.

“Today’s announcement demonstrates HP’s continued commitment to transform the server landscape with innovations to the Integrity portfolio offered with a mission-critical converged infrastructure that will endure into the future,”

Santanu Ghose, Director, Business Critical Systems, HP India, said.

Airtel launches US roaming plans, offers Rs. 20/min outgoing call

 

Airtel has launched international roaming plans for post-paid customers who are visiting the United States, offering up to five hours of free incoming calls and back home calls at a discount of up to 87 percent.

“… the launch of three new international roaming packs for post-paid mobile customers travelling to United States of America. Customers can get up to 5 hours of free incoming calls while travelling in the US and also make outgoing calls to local USA numbers as well as outgoing calls back to India at just Rs. 20/min,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

With a tariff pack of Rs. 8,500, users will get 300 free incoming minutes, while the outgoing charges for local calls and calls to India stand at Rs. 20 per minute.

There are also tariff packs of Rs. 3,500 and Rs. 1,000, where customers will get 60 and 10 free incoming minutes, while outgoing calls can be made with Rs. 35/minute and Rs. 60/minute. All the three tariff packs have a validity of 30 days, the statement said.

Airtel’s standard rate for incoming calls in US range between Rs. 61 per minute to Rs. 77 per minute, while calls back to India can be charged between Rs. 120 per minute to Rs. 160 per minute.

After the free minutes are over, users will be charged Rs. 60 per minute for Rs. 1,000 pack, Rs. 35 per min for Rs. 3,500 pack and Rs. 20/min for Rs. 8,500 pack for incoming calls, it added.

However, standard roaming rates would apply for all other outgoing international calls, messaging and data usage, the statement said.

Samsung India launches Windows-8 based ATIV Smart PC, ATIV Smart PC Pro

 

Samsung has introduced its ATIV Smart PC and ATIV Smart PC Pro devices in India. Both these ‘hybrid’ devices feature a 10-finger multi-touch screen and are powered by Microsoft’s latest Windows 8 operating system.

The Samsung ATIV Smart PC features a 11.6-inch touchscreen full-HD LCD, S-Pen, Intel Atom Z2760 processor, and USB 2.0. It is 9.9mm thick and will be available in the market for Rs. 53,990.

On the other hand, ATIV Smart PC Pro, is powered by an Intel Core i5 processor. Other features of Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro include USB 3.0, S-Pen, and an 11.6-inch touchscreen full-HD LCD. This device is 11.9mm thick and will retail for Rs. 75, 490.

Samsung ATIV Smart PC and Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro will be available in Indian along with a detachable keyboard docking system (included with both devices), which allows users to switch between a tablet and traditional laptop mode.

According to Samsung, though Smart PC and Smart PC Pro come with Windows 8 on-board, they are also fully compatible with Windows 7. Samsung’s applications such as S Note and SPlayer come pre-installed in both devices.

Announcing these products, Jin Park, Vice President of IT Solutions Business at Samsung Electronics said, “Our smart devices like ATIV Smart PC and ATIV Smart PC Pro and Samsung Notebooks deliver seamless user experience through convergence technologies across multiple devices. With our leadership in design and technology and Microsoft’s leadership in operating systems, we are able to provide customers with smart devices that have the most beautiful design, powerful performance and ease of use.”

Uday Bhatt, Director, Samsung IT business said, “Samsung has had a great year so far with its products being accepted in the market. We have established a strong foundation and we will continue to bring in innovative products and new user experiences to delight our Indian consumers”.

Samsung had first unveiled ATIV Smart PC and ATIV Smart PC Pro at IFA 2012.

Samsung at IFA 2012
Samsung ATIV Smart PC key specs

• Display Size: 11.6″ (PLS type) with 1366 x 768p resolution
• 31Wh battery
• 304.0 x 189.4 x 9.9mm(without keyboard) | 304.0 x 189.4 x 19.9mm(with keyboard)
• Weight: 750g(without keyboard) / 1.48kg(with keyboard)
• Operating System: Windows 8
• Processor: Next generation Intel Atom Processor
• System Memory: LPDDR 2GB
• Integrated Camera: Front 2M, Rear 8M(w/ flash)
• Storage Hard Disk Drive: 128GB eMMC
• Wi-Fi, 4G/LTE, 3G, Bluetooth 4.0
• USB2.0x1, USB2.0x2(KBD), mHDMI, microSD

Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro key specs

• Display Size: 11.6″ (PLS type) with 1920 x 1080p resolution
• 47Wh battery
• 304.0 x 189.4 x 11.89mm(without keyboard) | 304.0 x 189.4 x 21.89mm(with keyboard)
• Weight: 884g(without keyboard) / 1.6kg(with keyboard)
• Operating System: Windows 8
• Processor: Intel Core i5
• System Memory: DDR 4GB
• Integrated Camera: Front 2M, Rear 5M
• Storage Hard Disk Drive: Up to 256GB SSD
• Wi-Fi, 4G/LTE, 3G, Bluetooth 4.0
• USB3.0x1, USB2.0x2(KBD), mHDMI, microSD

AMD CEO encouraged by Black Friday PC sales

 

Results from the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend look encouraging for PC sales although it’s too early to made predictions about the entire holiday shopping season, and the PC industry still faces long-term problems, the CEO of chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices said.

The growing popularity of Apple’s iPad and other tablets have sapped demand for PCs, and with economic growth slowing in China and struggling in Europe and the United States, global shipments are expected to decline slightly this year, the first annual drop since 2001.

“We’ve seen some positive news out of Black Friday over the past several days,” AMD Chief Executive Rory Read told investors at a conference in Scottsdale, Arizona on Tuesday. “Our performance over that period looked reasonably well but I think it’s a little early to call the holiday season.”

Read reiterated that he does not expect the PC market, which accounts for about 85 percent of AMD’s business, to recover for several quarters.

Manufacturers have been betting Microsoft’s long-awaited launch of its Windows 8 platform in October will help drive PC sales this holiday season. But Read said the operating system’s release came at an awkward time and held up inventories going into September, when manufacturers are normally busy building PCs for the holiday season.

One of Silicon Valley’s oldest chipmakers, AMD has been laying off engineers while looking for new markets for its chips as it faces depleting cash reserves.

It has hired JPMorgan Chase & Co to explore its options, although an outright sale of the company is not the main option, according to sources.

Sales over the Thanksgiving weekend and the holidays in general are closely watched by investors. U.S. retailers can generate a third of their sales and up to half of their annual profit in November and December.

Like its larger rival Intel, Sunnyvale, California-based AMD was caught flat-footed in recent years with the emergence and fast growth of mobile devices.

Shares of AMD were up 0.53 percent at $1.88.

Apple has top US smartphone, passes Google: Research firm

 

Early success for the iPhone 5 smartphone has helped Apple to overtake Google’s Android software in the United States, research firm Kantar WorldPanel said on Tuesday.

Apple’s U.S. share of smartphone sales in the 12 weeks to October 31 more than doubled from a year ago to 48.1 percent, putting it within reach of the record 49.3 percent it managed in early 2012.

Android’s share dropped to 46.7 percent from 63.3 percent, Kantar WorldPanel’s data showed, but it continues to dominate in key European markets. The platform claimed 74 percent market share in Germany and 82 percent in Spain.

Android’s combined share of the top five European markets rose to 64 percent, from 51 percent a year earlier, while Apple’s share edged up by one percentage point to 21 percent.

Research In Motion Ltd saw its share fall in all but one of the surveyed markets, sliding to 1.6 percent from 8.5 percent in the United States, and to 2.7 percent from 8.7 percent in Brazil. In Germany, the BlackBerry maker’s share rose 0.9 percentage points to 2.5 percent.

RIM’s stock fell 5.9 percent to C$11.20 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. But the shares, which soared last week on rising optimism around RIM’s soon-to-be-launched BlackBerry 10 devices, were still up more than 15 percent from last Monday’s close.

Facebook gifts urges users to shop while they share

 

Facebook is already privy to its users’ e-mail addresses, wedding pictures and political beliefs. Now the company is nudging them to share a bit more: credit card numbers and offline addresses.

The nudge comes from a new Facebook service called Gifts. It allows Facebook users only in the United States for now to buy presents for their friends on the social network. On offer are items as varied as spices from Dean & DeLuca, pajamas from BabyGap and subscriptions to Hulu Plus, the video service. This week Facebook added iTunes gift cards.

The gift service is part of an aggressive moneymaking push aimed at pleasing Facebook’s investors after the company’s dismal stock market debut. Facebook has stepped up mobile advertising and is starting to customize the marketing messages it shows to users based on their Web browsing outside Facebook.

Those efforts seem to have brought some relief to Wall Street. Analysts issued more bullish projections for the company in recent days, and the stock was up 49 percent from its lowest point, closing Tuesday at $26.15, although that is still well below the initial offering price of $38. The share price has been buoyed in part by the fact that a wave of insider lockup periods expired without a flood of shares hitting the market.

To power the Gifts service, Facebook rented a warehouse in South Dakota and created its own software to track inventory and shipping. It will not say how much it earns from each purchase made through Gifts, though merchants that have a similar arrangement with Amazon.com give it a roughly 15 percent cut of sales.

If it catches on, the service would give Facebook a toehold in the more than $200 billion e-commerce market. Much more important, it would let the company accumulate a new stream of valuable personal data and use it to refine targeted advertisements, its bread and butter. The company said it did not now use data collected through Gifts for advertising purposes, but could not rule it out in the future.

“The hard part for Facebook was aggregating a billion users. Now it’s more about how to monetize those users without scaring them away,” said Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Robert W. Baird.

He added “Gifts should also contribute more to Facebook’s treasure trove of user data, which has the benefit of a virtuous cycle, driving more personalization of the site, leading to better and more targeted ads, which improves overall monetization.”

Facebook already collects credit card information from users who play social games on its site. But they are a limited constituency, and a wider audience may be persuaded to buy a gift when Facebook reminds them that a friend is expecting a baby or a cousin is approaching her 40th birthday.

The Gifts service, which grew out of Facebook’s acquisition of a mobile application called Karma, was introduced in September and expanded earlier this month on the eve of the holiday shopping season.

Magnolia Bakery, based in New York, was among Facebook’s early partners for Gifts. Its vice president for public relations, Sara Gramling, said the company had sold roughly 200 packages of treats since then. She counted it as a marketing success. The bakery, which gained fame thanks to “Sex and the City,” had only recently begun shipping its goods. “It was a great opportunity to expand our network,” she said.

Magnolia Bakery isn’t exactly catering to the masses. A half-dozen cupcakes cost $35, plus about $12 for shipping. Facebook, Ms. Gramling said, takes care of the billing. The bakery is eyeing Facebook’s global reach, too, as it opens outlets internationally, especially in the Middle East.

One of the appeals of Facebook Gifts is the ease of making a purchase. Facebook users are nudged to buy a gift (a gift-box icon pops up) for Facebook friends on their birthdays. They are offered a vast menu to choose from beer glasses, cake pops, quilts, marshmallows, magazine subscriptions and donations to charity. They are asked to choose a greeting card. Then they are asked for credit card details. Facebook says it stores that credit card information, unless users remove it after making a purchase.

Facebook has declined to say how many users have bought gifts, only that among those who have, the average purchase is $25.

Apple's new iMacs coming to India early December

Apple says the smaller version of its new, slimmed-down iMac desktop computers will go on sale in the US Friday. It will also start taking orders for the larger model, but the units won’t ship until next month.

If you’ve been waiting to get your hands on the new iMac in India there’s good news for you as well. According to our sources, the new 21.5-inch iMac will be available in the country in the next 7-10 days.

Apple has already announced the India prices for the new iMacs. The 21.5-inch iMac is expected to retail at Rs. 85,900 and upwards, while the 27-inch version will start at Rs. 122,900.

The iMac tacks the computer components to the back of a large LCD screen. The new models, revealed a month ago, have no optical disk drive, helping make the edges one-fifth the thickness of the old model. They bulge considerably toward the middle of the back, however.

Earlier there were rumours that Apple’s new iMacs may be delayed until early 2013 due to complications in the manufacturing process, but Apple has just about managed to stick to its originally promised November date.

Technical Specifications (Base model, Rs. 85,900) 21.5-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology; 1920-by-1080 resolution 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz) with 6MB L3 cache 8GB (two 4GB) of 1600MHz DDR3 memory 1TB (5400-rpm) hard drive NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR5 memory FaceTime HD camera Stereo speakers Dual microphones Headphone port SDXC card slot Four USB 3 ports Two Thunderbolt ports Mini DisplayPort output with support for DVI, VGA, and dual-link DVI (adapters sold separately) 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45 connector) Apple Wireless Keyboard/ Magic Mouse 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless networking Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology OS X Mountain Lion

• Height: 17.7 inches (45.0 cm)
• Width: 20.8 inches (52.8 cm)
• Stand depth: 6.9 inches (17.5 cm)
• Weight: 12.5 pounds (5.68 kg)

Windows 8 sales hit 40 million in a month: Microsoft

Microsoft Corp has sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses in the month since the launch, according to one of the new co-heads of the Windows unit, setting a faster pace than Windows 7 three years ago.

The sales number represents a solid but unspectacular start for the touch-friendly operating system designed to combat Apple Inc’s and Google Inc’s domination of mobile computing, which has shunted aside PCs in favor of iPads and smartphones.

Tami Reller, finance and marketing head of the Windows business, did not give a precise comparison, but sales of 40 million licenses for Windows 8, launched on October 26, appear to be ahead of Windows 7, which sold just over 60 million units in the first 10 weeks on sale at the end of 2009.

Reller did not break down the Windows 8 license sales between relatively cheap upgrades and purchases of new machines running the new software, but suggested much of the growth was coming from upgrades.

“Windows 8 upgrade momentum is outpacing that of Windows 7,” said Reller, speaking at an investor conference held by Credit Suisse. Upgrading to Windows 8 costs $40, compared to $70 for the full software package or hundreds of dollars for a new PC.

The latest figure does not mean that 40 million users have adopted Windows 8. Many of the sales are to PC manufacturers, who in turn sell a large number of machines to companies, very few of which are using Windows 8 yet.

According to tech research firm StatCounter, about 1 percent of the world’s 1.5 billion or so personal computers making a total of around 15 million are actually running Windows 8.

Reller did not disclose sales of Microsoft’s new Surface tablet, its first-ever own-brand PC, designed to challenge the iPad head on.

The first Surface, based on a chip designed by ARM Holdings Plc, does not run old versions of Microsoft programs. A slightly bigger version based on an Intel Corp chip that will run the full Windows 8 Pro operating system and be fully compatible with the Office suite of applications will be available in January, Reller said.

The investor conference was the first public appearance for Reller since she was named as one of two executives to run the Windows unit after president Steven Sinofsky unexpectedly left two weeks ago. Julie Larson-Green heads the engineering side of Windows.

Reller said the Windows unit had survived Sinofsky’s surprise departure.

“The team holistically is in great, great shape. And the product is in great shape,” she said, responding to a question from a Credit Suisse analyst. “I think transitions are always somewhat of a challenge, but I think that timing-wise it is a reasonable time, and the team is busy.”

Earlier in the day, Microsoft said it had sold more than 750,000 Xbox game consoles in the United States last week, including the day after Thanksgiving, one of the country’s biggest shopping days.

That is down from 960,000 sales in the same week a year ago, in line with reduced computer game spending across the board this year, as gamers hold off on purchases in the tight economy and move toward free online games.

Samsung launches Series 5 ultrabook with touchscreen for Rs. 64,990

Samsung has launched two new ultrabooks and a notebook for the Indian market – Samsung Series 5 ULTRA Touch, Samsung Notebook Series 9 (15-inch) and Samsung Series 5 ultrabook (Series 5 535U4C).

Samsung Series 5 ULTRA touch is the first touch-enabled ultrabook by Samsung. It sports a 13.3-inch HD SuperBright 10-finger multi-touchscreen with a resolution of 1366X768 pixels and 3rd generation Intel Core i7-3517U processor. It runs on Windows 8 operating system. Other features of this ultraboook includes up to 12 GB RAM, 500 GB of hard drive and 24GB ExpressCache (SSD). There is one full HDMI port, an USB 3.0 port and two USB 2.0 ports on this ultrabook. It comes with 4-cell battery that Samsung claims will give up to 6.7 hours of backup. Samsung Series 5 ULTRA Touch is available in India for Rs. 64,990.

Samsung had launched a 13-inch notebook in its Series 9 in August 2012, and this notebook had “the world’s thinnest and most compact notebook chassis”. Now, Samsung has added another notebook in this series, which has a 15-inch screen. The new Series 9 notebook too is light and thin like its predecessor as it measures 14.9mm in thickness and weighs 1.65 kg. Sasmung 15-inch Series 9 notebook carries a price tag of Rs. 1,07,990.

Lastly, Samsung has also launched a Series 5 ultrabook (Series 5 535U4C).This ultrabook is powered by AMD quad-core A8 processor and will retail for Rs. 43,990.

Commenting on the launch, Jin Park, Vice President of the IT Solutions Business at Samsung Electronics says, “Our new Series 5 ULTRA Touch is designed to meet all the demands of our customers for a more intuitive use along with powerful performance and plenty of storage. With the arrival of Windows 8, use of notebook PCs is about to change, leading to a different demand from customers such as touch functionality but still maintaining the traditional common input methods such as keyboard and mouse”.

“Ultrabooks as a category will continue to evolve in 2013. We are looking at ultrabooks and tablet PCs as being major growth drivers for our Notebook business which is expected to grow by over 50% next year”, states Uday Bhat, Director, Samsung IT Business.

Apart from the notebooks and ultrabooks, Samsung also introduced two new hybrid devices ATIV Smart PC and ATIV Smart PC Pro devices in India. Both these devices run on Windows 8 operating system.