Sony Ericsson’s Aspen to be launched in July 2010 in India

Sony Ericsson had announced the launch of its latest business phone based on WinMo 6.5.3 Operating system in the market by July, 2010. Aspen belongs to the GreenHeart banner of eco-friendly phones by Sony Ericsson.




Sony Ericsson Aspen is bar-shaped QWERTY keyboard mobile phone with similar User Interface as X1 and X2 mobiles. Aspen will have a 2.4inch TFT touch screen, with QVGA resolution. Aspen also has quad-band connectivity in two versions, 900/2100 MHz and 850/900/2100 MHz.Aspen will have it all, it is endowed with unique and awesome features like the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, mini USB, 3.5mm microSD slot and a 4 GB card.The camera will be a 3.2 MP resolution camera with Fixed-Focus and will be available in Iconic Black and White Silver.

Sony Ericsson Aspen price has not been revealed as yet.

Microsoft demonstrates inexpensive wall based multi touch interface

As early as June 2007 i had written a small article on "Microsoft Surface" the real magic. Well it now seems that the 'Surface' table wasn't big enough.

Microsoft envisions your walls as computers. At the CEO Summit 2008 Bill Gates demonstrated the "TouchWall", a new hardware technology from Microsoft that creates a touch based white board interface that lets users interact more naturally with data and applications on their computer. However as per Microsoft the two products (Microsoft Surface and TouchWall) are completely different.

Surface is a multi-touch and vision system that uses cameras to sense what is on the table, where it is and what it is doing. Whereas TouchWall consists of three infrared lasers that scan a surface. A camera notes when something breaks through the laser line and feeds that information back to the Plex software. While Surface retails at around $10,000, for TouchWall is just "hundreds of dollars".

Heres a quick video demonstration of "TouchWall"

Posible options for Yahoo to avoid Microsoft

In midst of the $45 billion (£23 billion) hostile bid from Microsoft, Yahoo is looking for all possible options. Yahoo is most likely to turn down the Microsoft Corp’s 44.6 billion takeover offer as reported by San Francisco Chronicle. So what are the options for Yahoo?

Well, one option being explored is to restart merger talks with AOL - the online business owned by Time Warner group. Although Yahoo! and AOL previously failed to join forces because of differences over price, but with Microsoft eying Yahoo this could be the right time to look for an AOL alliance. On the other hand tie-ups with groups such as Google or Disney are also being considered by the yahoo board.

A partnership with Google may allow Yahoo to outsource its search service, shedding the costs of running its own search engine and sharing ad revenue with its larger rival.

In my opinion, the Microsoft-Yahoo deal has its pros and cons.
Google doesn’t want this Microsoft-Yahoo alliance to go through for sure as Microsoft and Yahoo together equals the majority of instant messaging and email accounts – so coming together they will have like a monopoly over the email, IM and web services. But on the other hand Google does carry an unhealthy dominance in online advertising and web searching – so we need a competition there for sure which this alliance will bring about.

One thing is clear: Yahoo is running out of time, and will need to decide whether it will accept Microsoft’s bid or try to partner with Google or AOL soon. Yahoo’s annual shareholders meeting is in May 2008 and a decision needs to be made before that.

Friends do post in your view/ comments on this deal and its impact.

Bill Gates last day at Microsoft - a video depiction

Have you ever wondered what Bill Gates’ last day at Microsoft might look like? No.. well think about it...
If you have a few minutes, you might want to check out this short video depicting just that. Enjoy this video and get a few laughs out of it.

Yahoo to die soon in Microsofts hand ??

Recently Terry S. Semel the former chairman of Yahoo had handed over his role to Roy J. Bostock as a new chairman of the company when on the very first day Roy had to confront a big new development: Microsoft’s $44.6 billion offer to buy the ailing Yahoo.

The intense competition between Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo has arguably been one of the main reason why Microsoft would have placed this bid to Yahoo's shareholders. Also this proposed acquisition of Yahoo signals that Microsoft’s glory days over and it is finding it very tough to compete Google. And its very clear that the only major reason Microsoft is running behind Yahoo is to put up a fight with Google.

This deal if goes ahead has far more ramifications then just competing Google. There is considerable amount of overlaps between the services provided by Microsoft and Yahoo, so going ahead to streamline various services lot of people would be loosing their jobs at Yahoo. This sentiment is also echoed by others bloggers.. infact there is a petition, to protect Yahoo from the dirty hands of Microsoft.

Go ahead and voice out your opinion, comments below...

Microsoft's software to tell your boss if you are productive

Microsoft is in the process of developing a controversial software that may help employers to monitor the productivity, competence and physical well-being of employees while sitting at a distance.

The system would allow managers to monitor employees' performance by measuring their heart rate, body temperature, movement, facial expression and blood pressure. Microsoft has already submitted a patent application in the US for this “unique monitoring system”.

To be precise on the patent.."This particular patent application, in general, describes an innovation aimed at improving activity-monitoring systems and uses the monitoring of user heart rate as an example of the kind of physical state that could be monitored to detect when users need assistance with their activities, and to offer assistance by putting them in touch with other users who may be able to help" said Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's vice president of intellectual property and licensing.

Source : Timesonline UK