Simmtronics Launches India’s First Solar-powered Desktop

How’s this for green computing? Simmtronics Semiconductors have launched a new range of desktop PCs that are powered completely by solar energy. This new line-up is best suited for areas that encounter frequent power cuts or villages that don’t have the luxury of electricity. The solar PC is available for a price of Rs 28,990 that includes the solar setup, as well and a year's worth of on-site warranty.

Perfect for areas with frequent load shedding

Simmtronics claim the PC can run for more than 10hrs without solar energy, which is good enough for a day's worth of work. Now don’t expect a high end rig here, obviously the PC is designed for basic computing tasks like a few Office applications, light multimedia usage and internet surfing. The specifications include a Via C7 1.6GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, keyboard and mouse and a 15.6-inch LED monitor. The operating system used is Linux (exact distro is unknown) and the kit includes a 74W solar panel with charge controller, SMF battery and AC inverter. Powering it in the monsoons will be a bit of a challenge though, perhaps you'll need multiple batteries for a few days worth of power.

Pictarine Acts as Aggregator for All Your Online Pictures

Pictarine is a new service that allows you to aggregate all your pictures across various sites like Twitter (photo services like Twitpic, Yfrog and Lockerz), Facebook, Instagram, Picasa and Flickr. This way, your friends can see all your pictures without having to hop across various services. Other services include discovering your friends' photos (especially if they're on Instagram and you don't follow them). Mobile and DSLR photos can be added too, allowing all your pictures to be in one place. This however, doesn't mean that Pictarine is hosting your pictures. The other websites continue to host your pictures.

Put it all in one place

The website seems simple enough. You sign up for a Pictarine account, then add your Facebook, Twitter and whichever other accounts you wish to add. When you add Pictarine for Facebook, it asks you the same questions for authorization as any other third party Facebook app would. You then have what Pictarine calls 'zests'. A zest is a virtual album created of aggregations of photos from your various sites. The service has boost mode, which allows you to upload pictures to the various websites, as well as download from them with a single click. To sign up for Pictarine, click here.

Paid Version of uTorrent Coming Soon

The infamous files sharing application, uTorrent, is likely to be releasing with a paid variant. Less than a month after the release of uTorrent 3.0, BitTorrent, the program’s parent company revealed plans to introduce a paid upgrade for users called uTorrent Plus. With close to 100 million active users a month, uTorrent is without a doubt the most-used BitTorrent client. However, this new version is still in development and unavailable for the public. This paid program, uTorrent plus, will eliminate codec problems, convert file formats and move content between devices.

Premium for a bunch of new features

uTorrent Plus will be available as an invite-only beta before it will be made public. Jordan Berson, Director of Product Management for uTorrent told TorrentFreak that no price has been set for the program as of now, but it will include new features. Berson said that uTorrent is designed for users who are looking to find, get and play content anywhere on their device. The download will probably be free on uTorrent sites, but file sharing will come with a price. However, no plans include any anti-piracy features in it. You can visit the sign-up page for any additional information about uTorrent Plus.

PopCap Acquired by Electronic Arts for $1.3 Billion

In a bid to gave its gaming portfolio, comprising of social and casual gaming a major facelift, popular video game publisher, Electronic Arts has locked up a $1.3 billion deal with PopCap games, yet another popular player in this space. As per a post on their official page, PopCap stated that it was being acquired by Electronic Arts. PopCap will be paid $650 million in cash, and the remaining would come to it in the form of common stock. This latest move by Electronic Arts comes at a time when the video game industry in particular is undergoing several behavioral changes. Users are no longer buying games on CDs, it is observed.  Instead, it’s more of a digital domain now. Makers like Electronic Arts are increasingly looking out for ways to get their content on different, innovative platforms, the most formidable ones being the mobile, PC, and social networking platforms like Facebook among others. Pop goes PopCap all the way to EA In addition to the $1.3 billion that EA will pay PopCap during its purchase time, there is an amount of $550 million reserved, if PopCap helps EA see better days. In contrast to EA’s image in the market, PopCap has an easy to get along with kind of an image in the market. It has authored games on Facebook, RenRen, Google Android, Apple iPhone and iPad, and thus observers believe that their union should do wonders. Also, since a long time, EA has been struggling in the same space as that of Zynga, and believes that the buyout should give it some breathing space, and who knows an upper hand, too.

Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Lock Pan-India 3G Service Agreement

It’s official now. According to the reports, India’s premier mobile service providers – Vodafone Essar, Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular have gone full throttle with their plans of rolling out revolutionary 3G Roaming services in the country, on a massive scale. Interestingly, the 3G Roaming services are being planned not only on a massive scale as far as the reach is concerned, but also in a manner that is not too heavy on the pockets of the average Indian.

Let's hope the prices drop

Signing on the dotted line of the ICRA (Intra – circle roaming arrangements) agreement, the leading telecom trio has agreed to roll-out the 3G services by using each other’s networks. Vodafone Essar has got into what it calls a bilateral agreement with Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular to bring forth to the customers 3G services, across major demographics. For example, Bharti Airtel that has a considerably widespread presence in the country doesn’t possess a 3G presence in Gujarat. A void, it hopes to wipe out with its agreement with Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular.

Each of these 3 telecom giants have bagged 3G licenses in various parts of the country. Bharti Airtel owns 3G licenses for Delhi, Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (west region), West Bengal, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, the North East, and Jammu and Kashmir. Vodafone Essar, on the other hand has 3G licenses for Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (east region) and West Bengal and Idea Cellular has 3G licenses for Maharashtra & Goa, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, UP (East) UP (West), Punjab, Haryana and Kerala.

It was only recently that these mobile service providers brought this service down to India.

Cisco Possibly Still Planning on Downsizing Global Workforce

Although still unconfirmed, reports on Bloomberg suggest that networking equipment manufacturing leader, Cisco Systems Inc. may soon be on its way to slicing off a considerable chunk of its workforce. We had already reported back in May of this year that this was in the works and although the company hasn't yet made it official, the situation seems to say that it's quite possible. In a bid to boost profits, and bring back some lost glory, Cisco may reportedly cut as many as 10,000 jobs from its total global workforce, comprising of 14 per cent of the entire strength.

Downsized?

As many as 7,000 employees will be let go by the end of next month, and some 3,000 employees who agreed to the buyouts are being presented with early-retirement packages. Apparently, the market share of Cisco, along with the reputation that the brand had built over the years, has been slowly slipping. Newer names like Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR) and Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) have been usurping the switches, router market with lower-priced products. These changing trends have been giving Cisco officials sleepless nights and this cut-off seems to be the only logical option they have. 

The company plans to have substantial boosts in its profit margins post the cut-off. It may seem worthy to note that Cisco Systems had acquired Flipcam and Linksys, sometime back. Of which, Flipcam died a silent death as we reported a couple of months go.

Toshiba Aims at Beating Samsung's Flash Business

Flash and memory is everywhere you go. Be it mobile phones, tablets, notebooks and even desktops in the form of solid state drives. Sandisk has joined hands with Toshiba to build a NAND fabrication plant. Toshiba hopes that this plant along with any similar plants will make them leaders in the flash manufacturing space. Currently, Samsung is the world’s largest Flash manufacturer. The new plant by Toshiba uses a 24nm fabrication process for their chips. The first batch of wafers will be ready in August. Eventually, the plan is to upgrade to the 19nm fabrication process. Norio Sasaki, President, Toshiba, said that they wanted to beat Samsung’s Flash business in the future. 

An ambitious project

The fabrication plant built isn’t small scale. The plant located in Mie Prefecture, Japan is a 5-storey building spread over an area of 187 thousand square feet. The new Fab 5 is designed to be earthquake resistant and also more energy efficient. Looking at current demands, it makes good sense to have collaborations and investments in the Flash space. The investments are sure to pay off. Whether or not a Flash business the size that Samsung owns can be defeated easily is only to be seen.