Logitech Unveils Webcam C500

Logitech recently introduced Webcam C500. The 5-megapixel webcam comes with a built-in video-calling application and 1.3-megapixel sensor.

Webcam C500 includes a built-in microphone, and a universal clip that can be attached to LCD monitors and ultra-thin notebooks as well. The camera has a manual lens cover.

"Through our research we realized that apart from the hardware, there lies great opportunity in the way people connect using these webcams. Hence we have launched Logitech Vid to make video calling easier for the user," said Subrotah Biswas, Country Manager, India and South-West Asia, Logitech.
The C500 is distributed by Rashi Peripherals and Savex Computers at an MRP of Rs 2,995 with a 2-year limited hardware warranty.

Acer, Lenovo Launch Exclusive Stores in Bengaluru

Acer and Lenovo reinforced their focus on retail by launching exclusive stores at Mantri Square, Bengaluru, which is regarded as India's largest shopping mall. While Lenovo launched what is described as its flagship store, Acer inaugurated Planet Acer, where all three brands—Acer, eMachines and Gateway—are displayed.

While inaugurating the store Amar Babu, Managing Director, Lenovo India, said, "The store embodies Lenovo's commitment towards customers, and provides an opportunity to experience our entire range of products and technology under one roof. This reflects our changing focus towards retail as a key business tool and integrates with our overall business strategy for India.”

The new flagship store indicates a key change in Lenovo’s retail strategy as it will have a significant focus on the SMB segment. “We will focus on enhancing the retail penetration through exclusive stores by as much as 30 percent, especially in tier-2 and 3 markets. Lenovo is taking a cue from the success of key emerging markets like China and hence keen to capitalise on this trend, and use retail as an effective strategic tool," informed Babu.

At the opening of Planet Acer, WS Mukund, Managing Director, Acer India said, “Retail has been one of the biggest success stories for us in the last one year and has, to a great extent, fueled the growth of our various product categories. The retail industry is flourishing in India and we strongly believe in the ability of the IT retail channel and its viability as a long term vehicle of growth for the company."

Both the Lenovo and Acer stores are managed by partners. Lenovo will continue its consumer focus through Lenovo Exclusive Stores (LES) and its smaller stores called LESlite. Acer meanwhile claims to have 300 plus Acer Points and Acer malls, which focuses only on Acer brand.

Microsoft to update communications server

Microsoft plans to release a new version of its Office Communications Server (OCS) by the latter half of 2010, according to Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Unified Communications Group.

The new version of the software will include new features such as Enhanced 911 (e911), deeper integration with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and Microsoft Exchange 2010, as well as enhanced voice recognition capabilities.

The new software hasn't been officially given a name, though Microsoft's official working name is Communications Server "14." Pall did not say what the 14 stands for.

OCS is software that provides instant messaging, Internet telephony, video conferencing, presence notification and other communications capabilities to large organizations. When connected to a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) trunk or a PSTN (public switched telephone network), OCS can replace an office's PBX (private branch exchange) equipment. That can cut the costs of long-distance calls and telephony in general
This is a complete VoIP [voice over Internet Protocol] solution.

 New Motherboard of Simmtronics Unveils
latest motherboard is introdused by Simmtronics Semiconductors, the Intel G41 chipset-based SIMM INT G-41E(J).

Powered by Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500, the new offering delivers 3D graphics and support for Microsoft DirectX 10, Shader Model 4.0 and OpenGL 2.0. SIMM INT G-41E(J) also includes built-in support for high-def video playback without the need for add-in video cards or decoders.

 “By launching Motherboard SIMM INT G-41E(J), we are fulfilling our commitment to provide the latest main stream motherboards,” said Indrajit Sabharwal, Managing Director, Simmtronics Semiconductors. “With the local manufacturing we are able to control the quality of the motherboards. We have stringent quality checks before we send out these motherboards for sale.”

 The motherboard is available at company’s 16 direct sales offices, leading outlets and authorized distributor, and is priced at Rs 3,400 and comes with a 3-year warranty. The company will provide after sales support through its Back to Base service centers across the country. 

Trend Micro Launches Worry-Free For SMBs(small and medium Business)
Trend Micro has launched Worry-Free, a SaaS-based security offering for small and medium businesses .

Key features of Worry-Free include USB threat protection, Web reputation services, behavior monitoring, firewall, Wi-Fi protection, content filtering for instant messaging conversations, and POP3 anti-spam. A single user license for Worry-Free SaaS will cost $32 per user per year, with a minimum purchase of two users.

 “It’s an ideal solution for SMBs which do not have in-house IT expertise, and do not want to manage or overload their own servers. From a partner perspective, it drastically reduces the cost of pre and post-sales support,” said Greg Boyle, Global Product Marketing Manager, Worry-Free Business Security Services, Trend Micro.

 According to Boyle, with Worry-Free, there’s no installation or trial cost for partners, and support cost is also reduced because onsite support is not required. “We provide resellers with a tool called Worry-Free Remote Manager, a free Web-based console which allows them to remotely manage all their Trend Micro customers; with it they can also manage Worry-Free Business Services and all other hosted security products. They can make configuration changes and troubleshoot from the console itself.”

 “We will be targeting small business partners across major metros and class B and C cities. The idea is to reach out to the large base of smaller business partners who service SMB customers. We are on a recruitment drive through our outsourcing agency that is already working on acquiring partners,” said Sanjay Singh, Head, Value and Volume, Channel Sales, India and Saarc, Trend Micro.

 The vendor is looking at enrolling value-added reseller partners in cities such as Kochi, Madurai, Chandigarh, Bhubaneshwar, Guwahati and other tier-2 and tier-3 cities, informed Singh. He also said that Trend Micro plans to triple the number of partners from the current 300 to 900 in 2010. The vendor has tied up with partner associations such as the Traders Association of Information Technology (TAIT) and Infotech Software Dealers Association (ISODA), and is conducting information sessions for its members about its SaaS offerings across major cities such as Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai.

The other good practice in data recovery is to keep the hard drive on which the data has been lost as intact. Create an image of this hard drive, copy it to another location and then run your data recovery tools on it. This way, even if something happens to the image, your original hard drive remains intact, and so do your chances of recovering data from it.

Having said that, here are some data recovery tools and how to use them.

Scrounge-ntfs
It is a data recovery utility for NTFS file systems. It reads each block on the hard drive and tries to retrieve the data from it. To use Scrounge-ntfs, you need to know start sector, end sector, cluster size (size of one block of data on a partition) and MFT ( Master File Table). If you don't know the data, just type 'scrounge-ntfs -l disk'. After getting the data, type 'scrounge-ntfs -m 6291456 -c 8 /dev/hdd 206848 566964224'.

This will start recovering data from the drive and the data will appear by default in your root directory. However if you want to store the data in a specific directory then type 'scrounge-ntfs -m 6291456 -c 8 -o /root/recover /dev/hdd 206848 566964224'.

The new product will b branded as HP StorageWorks SN6000 Stackable 8Gb FC Switches

Gigabyte technology Co. Ltd a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards and other computing hardware solutions  proudly announced their motherboard line-up for CeBIT 2010, highlighting their industry-leading USB 3.0 motherboards for both the Intel and AMD platforms.

 Delivering awesome features for power users and gaming enthusiasts including a 24 phase power design, NVIDIA 3-Way SLI/ATI CrossFireX, as well as support for USB 3.0, 3x USB Power Boost and SATA 3.0  the GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD7 is the all new performance and feature leader of its class.

The extreme bandwidth required for 3-Way SLI capability is made possible by an onboard NVIDIA NF200 chip that allows the P55A-UD7 to deliver the ultimate in graphics performance for gaming enthusiasts who demand the highest frame rates without compromising on resolution.