a3e-tech

Some recently leaked information suggests that we'll be seeing the next generation of Windows Mobile called version 6.5 by Microsoft at MWC 2009 in Barcelona next month
Despite running on some of the most capable mobile hardware solutions, the WinMo 6.1 platform can easily be described as "old-school". Beside the clumsy user experience, Microsoft mobile OS also seriously lacks in terms of online presence
Where Apple have MobileMe and their AppStore and Google have a whole suite of online application services, and even Blackberry are pushing an online Application center, Windows Mobile has nothing to show. That seems kinda outdated in modern times where everything is synced wirelessly to the cloud and you are always online.

According to the leaked info the three brand new Azure services will be SkyBox, SkyLine and SkyMarket and they wil be launched in February at the MWC 2009.
SkyMarket, as you can guess, is the answer to Apple AppStore. The Microsoft's mobile marketplace will gather the hundreds of Windows Mobile applications in one place for the first time, so users can buy and download them with one click.
SkyBox provides wireless sync capabilities to WinMo users. Contacts, messages, organizer events, files, backup and restore functions will be some of the upcoming features of this service.
SkyLine is aimed at the business clients. It offers the same features as SkyBox, but allows corporate clients to host their Exchange servers with Microsoft and use the wireless synchronization on all the corporate phones.
As of now no one knows what improvements will be introduced with version 6.5 of Windows Mobile. Multi-touch support, UI reorganization and better thumb optimization are some of the things that come to mind as logical upgrades. One thing is for sure - we'll get our answers first-hand in February when we visit the MWC 2009.

The VoodooPC inspired HP Firebird system announced today at CES highlights two design themes that HP believes will be prominent in 2009: power efficiency and affordability. VoodooDNA based PCs haven't been described as affordable or power efficient in the past--the flagship Blackbird system is known for its powerful hardware and equally intimidating price, but the coming year is going to be challenging for consumers and industry trends in component design have opened the door for power-efficient gaming systems.

The new HP Firebird system shares the same floating-wedge shape as the Blackbird 002, but in a much smaller package, roughly one third of the size of the Blackbird chassis. Designers achieved the space savings by switching to smaller, power-saving components and by moving the power supply to an external 350W power brick. You won't find an Intel Core i7 CPU or dual GeForce GTX 280 cards in this system, but the Firebird will have plenty of gaming performance with its Intel Core 2 Quad processor and Nvidia GeForce 9800S GPUs. Power-efficient components don't generate a lot of noise because they don't need as much active cooling and the Firebird will be quieter than most PCs thanks to its liquid cooling system.The GeForce GPUs come in laptop MXM modules which are great for power and heat, but will make upgrading difficult if not impossible later on because aftermarket GPU upgrades generally aren't available in MXM format.

In an effort to make self-conscious PC gamers feel even more insecure about their systems, Nvidia has revealed plans to launch a new dual-GPU GeForce GTX 295 at CES on January 8, 2008. The GeForce GTX 295 will be the first card to use an updated GT200 GPU built using a 55nm manufacturing process. The card will have two GT200 GPUs for a total of 480 processing cores, twice as many cores as Nvidia's flagship single-GPU card, the GeForce GTX 280. The new GPUs will have a 576 MHz core clock and a 1242 MHz shader clock. That's slightly slower than the GTX 280's 602 MHz core and 1296 MHz shader clocks, but the GTX 295 still wins in the GPU quantity column. The card will also have 1,792 MB of onboard GDDR3 memory clocked at 1,998 MHz. The dual-slot cards will come with HDMI and two dual-link DVI outputs. The new chips are more power efficient, but two of them will still draw up to 289W according to Nvidia. Plan on picking up a 1kW+ if you plan on putting two of these together for Quad SLI.

No word yet on whether or not the card will be able to run Grand Theft Auto IV at max settings

                                                                            VS

According to anElectronista report, Shaw Wu of Kaufman Bros. is predicting that Dell is getting closer to launching its first smart phone, although no date has been set for the roll out. While Dell has played down the rumors, industry watchers have noted that the PC maker recently hired a former Motorola mobile phone exec to helm its global consumer products group.

Rumors of Dell's smart phone intentions have been swirling for many months, in fact. Reports from early last year had Dell working with Foxconn Group to develop handsets based on the Windows Mobile OS, and Dell vowed to roll out an iPod competitor. However, those projects may have hit the pause button, as Dell announced last fall that it wouldn't have an MP3 player ready for the holiday season.

Given the stunning success of the Apple's iPhone, the positive buzz generated by Palm's Pre and its clever webOS at last week's Consumer Electronics Show, and a growing number of Google Android devices Dell knows it had better act-and fast.

But whose mobile OS should Dell use? Apple and RIM have designed their own in-house software-and done an excellent job of it-but building operating systems isn't exactly Dell's forte. Windows Mobile is the odds-on favorite, or Dell may have to go out and purchase a software maker. Whatever it does, Dell will have to launch one impressive handset to stand out in a very competitive market. Whether it can remains to be seen.

 As anticipated, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer last week announced the first public beta version of Windows 7 at the International CES trade show.

The beta was scheduled to become available for download on Friday afternoon, although Microsoft at least temporarily postponed the release in order to add more "infrastructure support" to its Web site. That was driven by heavy traffic that overloaded the site hours before the beta code was even due to be posted. Microsoft said the beta will be capped after the first 2.5 million downloads. But users who aren't able to obtain an activation key can still download the code and run it on a 30-day trial basis.

The beta, which Microsoft called "feature complete," requires a PC with a 1-GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of available hard-disk space and support for DX9 graphics with 128MB of memory. The company noted that the recommended configuration may change for the final release.

In an interview at CES, Bill Veghte, Microsoft's senior vice president in charge of Windows, said the new operating system should be less of a resource hog than its predecessor, Vista.

"I don't want to make commitments on where we'll be at the [release to manufacturing date]," he said. "But at beta right now, we look very comparable to the hardware requirements that Windows Vista had when it came out, and the hardware has moved on. I am very optimistic."

Ballmer didn't disclose a final launch date for the operating system. Microsoft to date has said that it would deliver Windows 7 by about this time next year.

Some analysts, however, expect Microsoft to ship Windows 7 in time for this year's back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons. Vista shipped in early 2007, missing those crucial sales periods in 2006.

The XPERIA X1 is surely the most eagerly anticipated device in the world of Windows Mobile.The XPERIA X1 is one of the best-equipped Windows Mobile devices to ever set foot on the market. But hey, is it not the most elaborate and charismatic PocketPC too? As to skills, the high-res 3" screen and the full QWERTY keyboard seem the most important parts of its magnificent ammo though its processing power is not to be neglected either.

The Sony Ericsson C510 features a 3.2-megapixel, auto focus camera hidden behind a retractable lens cover on the back of the phone. Sony Ericsson's most recent Cyber-shot designs all find cool ways to hide the lens, then spring to life with camera features when the lens is opened. The Sony Ericsson C510 doesn't use the touch icons of the Sony Ericsson C902, and it lacks some of the features of that high-end shooter, but it still retains some Sony Ericsson classics, like smile shutter technology to snap pics as soon as the subject flashes those pearly white. The phone will also be able to upload pics directly to Snapfish, and videos can be sent directly to YouTube.

AMD will ship two new quad-core Phenom II X4 processors,  940 Black Edition and the 920, clocked at 3.0GHz and 2.8GHz, respectively. Black Edition processors come with an unlocked multiplier setting to make overclocking easier for PC enthusiasts. The processors differ only in clock speed, and have same specifications otherwise. The Phenom II X4 processors will come with 64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache per core (512KB total L1 per processor), and 512KB of L2 data cache per core (2MB total L2 per processor). The processors will also have a shared 6MB L3 cache and will feature an onboard DDR2 memory controller with 17.1 GB/s of memory bandwidth.