Microsoft has tried to cut down redundant information stored in the memory. Another change being made is to the way services are initialized when Windows boots. Services will be started when needed, left on an idle mode for a while after the task is completed and then terminate. Some non-critical services will not be loaded during startup. While using the Metro interface, only essential components of the OS will be loaded. There will also be better prioritization of resources for applications, which means less important programs will not idle in the memory for too long. Visit us at Pulse360 or FastFind
Two Linux software groups have joined forces, they said on Wednesday, to develop a new operating system for cellphones and other devices in an effort led by Intel and Samsung Electronics. Under the deal, the LiMo Foundation and Linux Foundation are effectively merging their LiMo and Meego mobile operating systems and hope to gain wider industry and consumer support, but analysts said the new Tizen platform is likely to struggle. It would have to attract wide support from developers and manufacturers to compete with the dozen or so other mobile operating systems available in a smartphone market currently dominated by Apple's in-house software and Google's Linux-based Android. "The best hope for them is that big operators get worried by Android and decide to consciously switch their allegiances to rival platforms to restrict Google's huge influence over the mobile market," said analyst Neil Mawston from Strategy Analytics. Earlier this year Nokia, the biggest phone maker by volume, ditched its own Symbian operating system this year in favour of Microsoft's Windows Phone software. Currently Windows Phone has a smartphone market share of 2-3 percent, according to industry analysts, and LiMo and Meego have less than 1 percent apiece, while Android's share is almost 50 percent and still growing. "This (Tizen) is driven by necessity. Linux rivals to Android have failed to gain traction and Samsung needs to reduce its dependence on Google," said Geoff Blaber, an analyst at London-based telecoms industry consultancy CCS Insight. The world's second-biggest cellphone maker behind Nokia, Samsung is the leading user of the Android platform, which has been one of the reasons for its escalating court-room fight over patents with Apple. Also, some other makers of Android-opera 
The suspense is over and India's low cost access device (LCAD), christened Aakash, was finally unveiled today by the Union Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal. Costing Rs. 2,276 (about USD 46), it is about USD10 more than the USD 35 envisaged earlier. This tablet, unlike the one Kapil Sibal unveiled last year, is an Android 2.2 tablet which runs on a 366 MHz processor with special support for HD Video co-processor and a separate graphic accelerator. It also has 256MB RAM and 2GB of internal memory which is expandable up to 32GB via the provided memory card slot. It also has two USB ports for connecting external/portable hardware. The tablet is being manufactured by a Canada-based company Datawind in a plant in India. "The USD 35 price is achievable at higher volume levels. When we supply the product to the government at USD 35, then too it will allow us a margin, albeit at higher volumes," said the Suneet Singh Tuli, CEO of Datawind. Aakash will also be available for a subsidised rate of Rs. 1,200 for students. However, the commercial version of the tablet will be available for Rs. 2,999 (USD 60). It is not the cheapest tablet in the world. However, a quick search on the Internet shows that there are cheaper and better tablets available for as low as USD 39. 
A year after it pulled the plug on silent updates in Firefox 4, Mozilla said it will debut most of the behind-the-scenes feature by early next year. Assuming Mozilla pulls off silent upgrading this time around, it would make Firefox only the second browser to take that route. Google's Chrome has been the poster boy for automatic updates that remove the user from the equation and can't be switched off. Mozilla did not say it was copying Chrome -- it's denied doing so with other features -- but the chairman of the Mozilla Foundation, Mitchell Baker, acknowledged what she called "update fatigue." "In the past we have been very careful to make sure people know something is changing with their Web browser before it changes," said Baker, who heads the non-profit organization that oversees the Firefox-making Mozilla Corp. "Today people are telling us -- loudly -- that the notifications are irritating and that a silent update process is important." The difference between then and now, a Mozilla developer explained, is the rapid release schedule that upgrades Firefox every six weeks. "Most users don't want to think about software updates nor version numbers and now they are being forced to do so every six weeks," said Brian Bondy, a Mozilla developer working on one component of silent updating, in a blog post last Friday. According to Bondy and other information published on the Mozilla website, the current goal for most of the multi-part project is Firefox 10, slated to ship Jan. 31, 2012. Some pieces will appear in earlier and later editions, however. When Firefox receives the feature, the browser will download the upgrade in the background, then install it the next time Firefox is restarted. Users will be reminded to install the upgrade 12 hours later if they haven't restart 
When Google first launched Chrome, there was a feeling that it was too basic and had almost no features. In comparison, Firefox had no dearth of features and plugins. Three years have passed since Chrome's launch and it's about to overtake Firefox as the second most used browser, according to a Computerworld report. The only browser to be used more is Internet Explorer, but that number is gradually dropping. At this pace, Internet Explorer won't be able to hold its lead for too long. Firefox, too hasn't seen a healthy growth. It's userbase has been declining since a while, despite several new releases and added features. While Firefox users have a whole bunch of browser add-ons at its disposal, Google Chrome's extension database is rapidly improving, as popularity continues to rise. Other browsers such as Apple's Safari, Opera, among others account for less than 5 percent of the browsers. They haven't seen a massive rise or drop in the adoption rates. At the rate at which Google Chrome is rising, it's likely to take the number one browser spot by the end of next year, maybe even earlier. The last stable build of Chrome was version 14, and was launched two weeks back. 
The much-awaited and debated "$35 tablet" will be launched on October 5th. The tablet was supposed to launch in the month of June, but the project was delayed as HCL tender was cancelled, owing to bank guarantee related issues. India Government will subsidize the cost by 50%, so a student would have to pay only Rs. 1,100/ for the device, though it is not sure whether this holds true during the launch phase or not. Features 
Bharti Airtel may reportedly well be on its way to coughing up a whopping 50 crore, as a fine for having allegedly violated CLI norms. According to a report in The Times of India, Bharti Airtel attempted to conceal its CLI, or calling-line identification mechanism, and made promotional calls to non-Airtel consumers. If found guilty, Airtel may have to shell out a hefty fine. DoT, as per the report, stated that deceiving the CLI mechanism was a breach of the license conditions. The calling-line identification mechanism, is the one most of us are familiar with, and also refer to as Caller ID. Therefore, with the tampering of the CLI norms, Airtel may be charged with the violation of Clause 41.19 (iv) of universal service access licence norms. According to this clause, the CLI mechanism cannot be tampered with, by any mobile operator, since CLI translates to security. Additionally, it is being learnt that in the Madhya Pradesh circle alone, several instances of the CLI mechanism being tampered with have come forward, by the way of complaints to the DoT. The report however also adds that Airtel denies having received any statement as such from the DoT, and would hence, not comment. 
The Skin is also pretty well-equipped. The screen measures 4.0 inches with a resolution of 480x800. It's 3G ready with full HSDPA and HSUPA bandwidth support. Powered by a 1GHz processor, the Skin uses a different variant of Android called 'Flexy', since the conventional OS wouldn't really work on this type of screen layout. Other features include an 8MP camera plus a front-facing VGA camera, 720p video recording with MKV and AVI support out-of-the-box. According to various sources, Samsung has confirmed that they will be putting this into production as the large scale manufacturing of these flexible AMOLED displays will begin in Q2 of 2012. If all goes as planned, we can expect the phone to hit the shelves by the end of 2012. The final product may not look exactly like the one in the picture, but at least it will be the next step in mobile evolution. 
Full HD or 1080p resolution was a thing of wonder back in the day, but now it has become common and therefore not really exciting, anymore. Panasonic showed off their 4K-ready plasma TVs, last year, but powering so many pixels does require some intense processing power. While today's discrete graphics cards can easily go beyond that resolution, Intel is aiming at achieving this with their onboard GPU, which will ship inside Ivy Bridge processors, sometime next year. Intel is very confident about their new technology and say that the Multi-Format Codec or MFX engine is capable of playing multiple 4K videos at the same time. Now, before you get too excited, remember we are talking about simply powering a display with that resolution or decoding such movies, you won't be able to game at that resolution using just the IGP. We'd like to see them try, but highly doubt that would happen. In a way, this is more of an evolution, rather than a revolution, since 3 years back, AMD and Nvidia already had IGPs (Integrated Graphics Processors) that could easily do 1080p, so this is not very surprising. Let's hope they launch it by 2012.