The Fate of Chromebooks in 2012
The Chromebook is an ultra-slim portable unit which runs programs in the Cloud. Chrome is the brainchild of Google and was first manufactured by Samsung and Acer. During the first year of its appearance, the device has not been a huge success.
In Analysts opinion the slow sales of Chromebook can be attributed to the consumer’s lack of knowledge with the concepts of Cloud computing. However, Retail chain Dixon is optimistic about Chromebook’s future. To show off the capabilities of Chromebook, Dixons has introduced a committed division in PC World on Tottenham Court road. One of the executives of Dixons’ told the Telegraph that the sales of Chromebook would go high the next year.
Director of computing, Mark Slater told the news paper that by this time next year about 10% of the company’s computing business would be from the sale of Chromebook. With the correct combination of hardware partners and consumer awareness this target could be achieved. Even though Chromebook has not become a huge success, 1 in 10 computers sold is a Chromebook.
It is expected that more big companies are coming to the market with Chromebooks next year. Anyway, if Dixons is able to impress the consumers by explaining the concept behind Google’s shiny portables in the right perspective, definitely the sales of Chromebook could be increased.
At present the consumers are showing great interest in tablets.
Some major companies are going to enter the market with Intel Ultrabooks. Finally Windows 8 tablet is expected to be released in 2012. When these factors are taken in to consideration, how can Slater make his aim come true?
Of course it is admitted that Chromebook has its own merits – instantaneous booting and security of operating in the Cloud – coupled with this. If the price of the device comes a little low, the chance of materializing Slater’s prediction would be high.
‘Windows 8’ to have excellent features and easy ‘set up’
The improved set up of ‘Windows 8’ will result in saving installation time.
The set up was truly reliable in ‘Windows 7’. But in Windows 8 speed and performance were given importance apart from reliability, says Microsoft.
Measures have been taken to ensure that the operating system does not consume too many resources and that it does not require large computers to operate on.
This will mean that Windows 7 users and even XP and Vista users will be able to upgrade to Windows 8 with little difficulty.
During the research and development of W8, Microsoft engineers wondered why the users were reluctant to upgrade to Windows 8. They realized that it was mainly due to the difficulty in doing the set up.
Some users wanted installation to be quick and easy, but the technically savvy persons want to have knowledge about more complicated installations like installing from networks, multi-boot installation etc. as necessary for the different needs.
The Microsoft engineers knew that these options are necessary. However they could not imagine the requirements of the technically sound personnel.
In view of this, Microsoft was not in favour of a super advanced set up option. Instead they added more tools to the Windows 7 installation kit. Even more tools are included in the ‘Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit’. The kit can be downloaded from relevant websites by Microsoft Developer Networks subscribers.
In the case of those who are not technically sound, the engineers decided to have two groups – one with those who want to install using Graphical user Interface (GUI) and the other group consisting of those who want to install through command line.
Microsoft has also noted that nowadays a very few want an installation through a DVD with the software. Most users favour online iinstallation.
W8 online installation ensures compatibility. If at all there is any break during the installation due to any external fault, the installation can be restarted from the point of interruption.
There is facility for scanning as well before installation. That will give an idea as to which of the devices or hardware are compatible with the operating system.
On the whole, W8 will suit all, weather technically advanced or not. It also provides better set up experience for all.
More Tegra 3 Tablets
After the launch of Asus Transformer Prime, more number of tablets powered with Quad-core Tegra 3 chips is expected to be launched very soon. The market will soon see such tablets from HTC, Lenovo and Acer.
HTC is preparing itself to announce the new Tegra 3 tablet for 2012. The tablet will be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona taking place next year. Along with launch of Tablet, two new mobile phones will be announced. Soon after the MWC next year, the tablet could be available for purchase.
Tablet lovers can also expect another similar launch from Lenovo. The tablet integrated with Nvidia new chip uses 2GB 1.6GHz DDR3 RAM. For easy connectivity choices, a full-sized USB port is also available. Other features supported in this tablet are Fingerprint scanner.
The tablet running on Android Ice Cream Sandwich will be made available by this year end. Acer A510 is another model that is powered with Tegra 3 chip. However, the company has not yet announced the model. Android Ice Cream Sandwich is the platform on which the tablet will run. It could boast a 10.1” large screen of 1280×800 resolutions. Customers are very excited about the Tegra 3 Ice Cream Sandwich powered tablets. All these models are sure to revolutionize the tablet market.
Asus reveals its ultra thin the Eee Pad Transformer Prime
Asus the renowned manufacturer of notebooks has been offering innovative and advanced products to its customers. By unveiling, their latest Eee Pad Transformer Prime, Asus further strengthens its presence in the laptop market. The development of this ultra thin and powerful tablet epitomizes the company’s creativity and engineering skills. The product was first launched at AllThingsD’s AsiaD conference by Jonney Shih Asus CEO. However, Asus is revealing the full product specification now.
With the integration of Nvidia’s new Tegra 3 processor, the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime becomes the first model to receive such an upgrade. New Tegra 3 processor from Nvidia was also released recently. When compared to Tegra 2, the new Tegra 3 processor offers five times better performance. Transformer Prime is expected to be available for sales by next month.
The device supports 1GB of RAM and 32GB or 64GB of internal space. The ultra thin tablet of 8.3mm size is very stylish. It offers excellent battery life of 12 hours. When it adds battery in the new dock, the tablet offers up to 18 hours battery life. It is equipped with a 8MP camera with f2.4 lens and features a flash. It has back illuminated CMOS sensor and can record 1080p video. In addition to the main camera, a 1.4MP front camera is featured.
With support for Super IPS+ technology screen, the device ensures better view and improved brightness. The 10.1” large screen supports 1280×800 pixels. Sound quality offered by this unit is also impressive. It uses SonicMaster sound technology. The tablet when unopened looks somewhat similar to UX21 or UX31. Zenbook-like tablet/keyboard design is used in it.
Hydro-oleophobic coating of the tablet makes it resistant to oil and water. Available in two colour choices, gray and champagne gold, the tablet expresses individual personality. Honeycomb (3.2) version of Android is made available and the company has assured to offer Android upgrade quickly after the launch.
Transformer Prime 32GB edition is priced at $499 while the 64GB model costs $599. On the other hand, the keyboard dock is priced $149. The pricing for the UK markets is not yet confirmed.
WebOS-based TouchPad offered at a discounted price by HP
HP, the brand offering innovative tablets and laptops have introduced webOS-based TouchPad to its developers. Tablets running on webOS platform have been discontinued by HP but now it is reselling the products at discounted price to developers. Offering the tablets for developers who work on coding apps for the already dead operating system may sound strange. With this move, HP hopes to motivate the developers to create apps for webOS. HP has already issued updates for the platform but there aren’t enough apps.
Priced, at £130 the cheap tablet can be benefited by registered developers in the Europe, US and Canada. However, the offer is not intended for HP employees.
Each developer could purchase just two TouchPads. Before 18 November, the company will send out coupon to the developers who are interested. The validated coupons should be used before 27 November or while supplies end. No returns are accepted by HP and the sales are made final.
A loan programme which allows the developers to test applications before its launch was offered by the company. Nevertheless, this loan program will be withdrawn by the company. Now the developers will have to buy a TouchPad if they want to perform tests. The company is also looking for people who develop apps for the tablet. It also revealed its intentions to continue its support for the device for tablet longer.
This is the second exclusive sale offer for TouchPad. Before this, the company has unveiled a sale on September that recorded huge response. On auctioning sites, the prices requested for the Touch pads was higher than the original costs.
HP has discontinued production of TouchPad and smart phones that operates on webOS platform. 32GB TouchPad is now available for £130 in the UK and $149 in the US and to benefit from the deal developers will have to apply for the coupon. In the September sales, the tablet was available for £115.
Full HD gaming laptop launched by MSI
MSI has unveiled, new HD gaming laptop the GT780DX. This introduction comes as good news to gaming enthusiasts. Powered with 2GHz Intel Core i7 processor and 16GB of DDR3 RAM, this gaming laptop offers excellent gaming performance.
It is embedded with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 570M graphics card of 1.5GB and GDDR5 graphics memory. This hefty gaming laptop weighs 3.9Kg. Large capacity and high speed is guaranteed with the use of hard drive storage and SSD.
To offer better viewing, a large17.3” display is featured. To enhance your everyday gaming and to provide better sound performance, 2.1-channel Dynaudio sound system and 7.1 outputs are supported. It uses a SteelSeries backlit keyboard for effortless typing and better use of gaming functions.
An upgradeable DVD writer is part of this gaming laptop. A card reader, gigabit Ethernet port, Bluetooth, 720p webcam and Wi-Fi are other distinctive attributes of this gaming laptop. As for connectivity, it features two USB 3.0 ports and HDMI 1.4 output. This gaming laptop is powered with nine-cell battery.
The laptop will be available for sale in the UK markets from next month onwards. It is expected to cost around £1500.
Chip Vendor Intel’s revenue up in the previous quarter
The chip manufacturer Intel has outstanding records in the previous quarter. The net income was $ 3.5 billion which is 17% more than that in the previous year for the same period. The revenue exceeded $ 14 billion for the first time ever. This is mainly because of the abnormal sale of notebook PCs.
Paul Otellini of Intel is overwhelmed at the good show of the company. He said that apart from notebook PCs, mobile and cloud computing also contributed for the high income.
While PC businesses grew by 22% to $ 9.4 billion, there was 15% rise in data centre operations, amounting to $ 2.5 billion. The growth in architecture group was 68%.
However there was drop in the revenues of chipset and Atom microprocessor by 32% or $ 269 million. This is mainly due to the tremendous growth of tablet computers, mainly that of Apple’s iPads and also the low sale of devices with Atom microprocessor.
Lenovo takes second place in PC sales after HP
According to ‘Gartner research’ sale was lower worldwide in the third quarter of the year. As against the projected growth of 5.1%, the actual was only 3.2%. Almost 92 million units were sold.
The poor sales can be attributed to tight budget and the emergence of tablets etc, according to another research firm, IDC.
The inventory build up of the previous year was cleared up during the previous quarter, but still the sale was lower than expected.
Non-PC devices like smartphones and iPads were more in demand for the customers than the PCs.
But it is to the credit of Lenovo that it has attained considerable growth in sales – about 10% during the last two years compared to global growth of just 3.6%
Lenovo took the second place in the number of units sold with only HP just ahead of it.
Lenovo’s share in the world market is 13.7% whereas that of HP is 18.1% The share of Dell, Acer and Asus were 12%, 10% and 6.5% respectively.
The number of units sold by Lenovo is about 12.5 million in the third quarter, showing a growth of 36%. It made good advantages of the confusion among the topmost companies
Lenovo’s association with NEC helped it to gain access to the Japanese market. Taking over of the German company ‘Medion’ enabled it to strengthen its hold in the Western European market.
Yuanqing Yang of Lenovo expects even better results in future because the customers are pleased with the quality of the product and so they have faith in the company.
Lenovo’s interest will not be limited to PC. Technologically advanced Smart TV, smartphone and tablets are also being produced by the company.
Will Intel’s Ultrabook capture 40% market share
It was in May that Intel launched its innovative Ultrabook model of laptops. The company optimistically proclaimed that this new model would certainly capture 40% of the market share in 2012. Deron Kershaw, analyst of Gap Intelligence feels that this dream may not materialize as Intel is keeping its hopes too high.
There is no doubt about the fact that Intel has big ideas for Ultrabook as they hope this laptop is going to capture 40% of the market within one year that is not easily going to materialize. Acer and Asus who are Intel’s major supporters are beginning to pull out which means they cannot expect anything greater than twenty percent. Kershaw is of the opinion that production may not be as speedy as desired in the initial stages. This implies that price of the ultra thin and ultra light model of this laptop may be quite higher than estimated which can be a major put off for buyers.
All the important components that comprise of the chassis made of metal, processor, batteries and the slim frame make it a bit costly and tough to hike up production. However when they begin production on a large scale basis with the launch of Intel’s Ivy Bridge, prices will come down considerably.
This is Kershaw’s opinion since the Taiwan based Asus is alleged to be launching four innovative Ultrabook versions within a week’s time in the US. They are going to range between GBP 642.78 and GBP 964.50. The cheaper version will have an 11.6 inch screen, a 128 GB solid-state drive and Core i5 Intel Sandy Bridge Processor. The costlier version comes with a 13.3 inch screen, a 256 GB solid-state drive and a Core i7chip.
Acer which is yet another Taiwan based company is also rumoured to be launching a variety of Ultrabooks with prices beginning from GBP 578.44.
Many other companies like Dell and Sony have decided to wait for one more year before they begin to launch their Ultrabooks into the market. They are supposed to be holding back for the launch of the innovative Ivy Bridge Chip that is claimed to set forth a better performance compared to the Sandy Bridge chip that is presently in use. Their grounds for delaying hold water, although this decision will only lower the chances of Intel capturing forty percent of the market share.
Significant breakthrough in ‘cloud’ security achieved in North Carolina
A new technique for storing and processing information more securely in the ‘cloud’ has been devised by researchers at North Carolina State University.
Cloud computing is a growing sector. However, any flaw in the hypervisor software which produces virtual machines will result in the visibility of sensitive data to other users of the same ‘cloud’.
With the introduction of a software actuated framework, the hardware and firmware tools isolate various functions running on cloud servers and separate workflows the moment they turn up to be processed.
This has resulted in the reduction of the area subject to attack by malicious software.
In cloud computing the attackers can easily steel confidential data from other users.
The technique known as ‘Strongly Isolated Computing Environment’ (SICE) makes use of a different layer of protection which has little impact on performance. A stripped down code enables easy security.
‘Trusted Computing Base’ is a software foundation with 300 lines of code. It means that only these lines need to be trusted for ensuring isolation. On the other hand earlier techniques had thousands of lines of code, liable for attack. Now there are only fewer lines to be protected.
With this technique, sensitive workload is confined to one or two or a few cores of strong isolation. In the meantime other functions can be in operation on other cores.
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