Acer Introduces Predator Gaming Desktops

Acer has introduced its new Aspire Predator line of desktop computers for PC gaming enthusiasts. promising to offer an outstanding gaming experience for gamers.

Featuring an original chassis design the new machines sport a deep metallic copper colored housing. The front of the body can be raised, accompanied by a world-first optical bay mechanism to reveal a rewritable DVD and Blu-ray Disk reader. The USB and audio ports on top are complemented with a front-mounted multi-card reader.

One of the Predator’s most striking features is the fact that you can also have easy access to the Hard Disks via a special door on the front of the lower part of the chassis: the standard Acer Easy-swap Hard Drive solution makes the 4 serial ATA 3 Gb/s high capacity hard disks removable even when the PC is turned on and in use. It supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 1+0 modes with NVIDIA MediaShield Storage technology. The optional high speed Raptor 10.000 rpm hard drives offer exceptional performance especially when configured in its RAID 0 striping configuration.

The Aspire PREDATOR incorporates the Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core prossor with 1333MHz FSB. The nTune overclocking utility offers simple control over the traditional complex process of overclocking the CPU, RAM and graphic cards without the need to constantly reboot after adjustments. In addition the NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI MCP, 3-way SLI capable motherboard offers 2 x G9600GT, 2 x G9800GTZ or even 2 x G9800GX2 (4 x GPU) extreme graphic cards depending on the configuration.The PREDATOR desktops also come with essential accessories such as a multimedia gaming keyboard with illuminated keys that light up to play in the dark, a gaming mouse, Dolby Home Theater audio enhancement as well as EAX 4.0 support.

Though this product is available in US and other markets, it will be a while before we see this product on Indian shores.

ISRO to Launch Satellite Mapping Service

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Taking the global geo-mapping service Google Earth head-on, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) says it plans to launch its own satellite imaging system on its website within six months.

“We are going to launch our own satellite images on the web within six months from now. Our images are quite good and even better than Google,” ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair dislosed on Thursday.

He said certain locations with security risks have been prohibited by law from being imaged. “These locations will not be there, but the remaining places would definitely be on the Net,” he said.

ISRO launched the PSLV C-9 with two satellites CARTOSAT-2A and IMS-1 last month.

“With the lunch of eight nano-satellites, India has become the world’s second country, after Russia, to launch multi-satellites with Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLV),” he said.

Nair said the Remote Sensing Satellites (RSS) provide imagery of the earth in a variety of spectral bands and with a resolution better than one metre.

“Data from our RSS are received at about 20 different stations across various parts of the world, including the US and Europe,” he said

For more details:>>IndiaDefence.com

Dell Launches XPS M1730 Gaming Laptop

Dell has announced the XPS M1730 notebook – the world’s first notebook to incorporate AGEIA PhysX Mobile Technology and Logitech’s GamePanel LCD – in India.The PhysX processor helps deliver realistic movement and environmental interaction at incredible speeds without affecting the overall performance. The GamePanel LCD allows gamers to view game stats, create new macros and track important system information without leaving the game.

Dell maintains that the XPS M1730 supports the overclocking of Intel Core 2 Extreme processor X9000 to Bin +2 (up to 3.2GHz) and features NVIDIA SLI technology with support for DirectX 10 graphics.

The notebook features an aggressive, brawny design that can be personalized with three color accent choices – Crimson Red, Sapphire Blue, and Smoke Grey. Other features include a backlit keyboard with separate 10-key number pad, a high-definition display with a lightning fast response time of 7 milliseconds and support for Dell’s LightFX application, allowing users and developers to manipulate the system’s multi-colored perimeter lighting LEDs.

“Dell is committed to the creation of PCs that will take hard-core gamers to new frontiers,” said Girish Mehta, Director of Consumer Marketing, Dell India. “The XPS M1730 engineering team worked with developers on leading titles such as such as The Orange Box from Valve’s Half Life 2 and 2K Games’ BioShock to help ensure this notebook can deliver the full-throttle power required for the most anticipated PC games.”

“The seamless integration of PhysX into this innovative new product clearly raises the bar in mobile PC gaming,” said Manju Hegde, CEO of AGEIA. “Exciting new PhysX-powered games such as Tom Clancy’s GRAW2 from Ubisoft, NetDevil’s Warmonger and Midway and Epic Games’ upcoming Unreal Tournament 3 are a perfect match for the XPS 1730.”

Other features of the XPS M1730 include, 4 GB dual channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz; NVIDIA SLI technology with dual NVIDIA GeForce Go 8700M GT GPUs with 256MB; Optional AGEIA PhysX 100M processor; 200GB 7,200 RPM hard disc drive; 8x DVD+/-RW; Intel Pro/Wireless 3945 802.11 a/b/g Wireless with WiFi Catcher and Bluetooth version 2.0+.

It also features a 2.0 MP built-in webcam with dual digital array microphones; Logitech GamePanel LCD panel embedded above the keyboard; 4 USB 2.0, Dual-link DVI-I (support for 30-inch displays); 8-in-1 card reader; HDMI via DVI adapter; Consumer IR; dual headphones; microphone (stereo line-in) and support for 5.1 audio out.

Users can choose between Microsoft Windows Vista Premium or Windows XP Professional.

The laptop comes with a one year XPS Premium Service and one-year complete cover at a starting price of Rs. 1,00,800 (including tax and delivery).

‘$100 Laptop’ Nonprofit Teams With Microsoft

The One Laptop Per Child project is about to find out whether Microsoft Corp., a rival the nonprofit group once derided, is the solution to its problems in spreading inexpensive portable computers to schoolchildren.

Microsoft and the laptop organization announced Thursday that the nonprofit’s green-and-white ”XO” computers now can run Windows in addition to their homegrown interface, which is built on the open Linux operating system. That had been anticipated for months, but it amounts to a major shift.

Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the laptop project – which aims to produce $100 computers but now sells them at $188 – acknowledged that having Windows as an option could reassure education ministers who have hesitated to buy XOs with its new interface, called Sugar. Negroponte had hoped to sell several million laptops by now; instead he has gotten about 600,000 orders.

Beginning in limited runs next month, XO buyers will have the option of computers loaded with or without Windows. Versions with Windows will cost $18 to $20 more; $3 of that is for Windows, and the rest covers hardware adjustments, like an additional memory-card slot, needed to make Windows run.

Soon Negroponte hopes to sell just one kind of machine with a ”dual-boot” mode, meaning users would have Windows and Linux and choose which to run each time. Because that will take advantage of a broader hardware redesign, the dual-boot XOs will cost about $10 more than today’s versions, Negroponte said.

Despite the higher price – and Windows’ inability to take advantage of some key features of the XO – Negroponte said his project would benefit from Microsoft’s strengths in selling and deploying technology.

”I think our goals are dramatically enhanced with Microsoft’s decision and this partnership because we will reach many more children,” he said. ”There are now many more countries prepared to look at the XO and collaborative learning and some of the things we stand for.’

Transcend JetFlash V20 Now in 16 and 32 GB

Transcend has made available 16 GB and 32 GB versions of its popular JetFlash V20 flash drive in India.

The V20 features an attractively shaped pearlescent chassis with a semi-transparent color-band that lights up during use.

Transcend’s JetFlash elite software suite can be installed to run directly from the JetFlash drive when you plug it in. The V20 works with Windows Vista and also supports Windows 98SE/Me/2000/XP, Mac and Linux, providing seamless data exchange between different operating systems.

Transcend’s JetFlash V20 flash drive is now available in 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB and 32GB capacities in India.

Google Translate Now in 23 Languages

Google has added translation capabilities for 10 new languages to Google Translate, bringing the total to 23. The newly featured languages include Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hindi, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian and Swedish.

Users can now translate text and web pages as well as perform cross-language searches between any two languages that Google offers. For example, Chinese to/from French.

Google has also also added a “Detect Language” option to help users automatically identify the language of the text they’re trying to translate. The longer the text, the more accurate it will be. For those who have embedded the Google Translate My Page gadget in their website to give it global reach, these new languages will automatically appear.