Windows 7 can be downgrade to XP

Microsoft hopes that this coming new version will ease the mind of Windows’ users. Also, the software giant gives users more choice as well.

The possibility for downgrading has appeared for business packages long ago; however, users have only noticed about this option since the release of Windows Vista in which many computer manufactures decide to allow user to downgrade to XP for its Vista models.

Microsoft has expanding the downgrade options for Windows 7, especially the Ulimate and Professional versions, in which users may choice to remain to stay with Windows Vista or Windows XP.

And in fact, Windows 7 may be available in this year instead of October 2010 as planned by Microsoft.

Office 2003 and Windows XP will “retire” after April 14

After next week, users of the most successful packaged developed will no longer receive free support as well as updates from Microsoft.

As usual, each product from Microsoft wil receive supports in about 5 years before “make way” for others. And this time, it is not an exception for Office 2003 and Windows XP. In addition, Microsoft will remain its support for Office & Windows XP with fees until April 2014.

Even though it is understandable about this decision from Microsoft, experts are afraid that this decision may cause a financial problem for Microsoft because users tend not to favor the Office 2007 which operates on Windows Vista – a failure from Microsoft.

Vertu Constellation Pure

Vertu, the luxury line of mobile phone owned by Nokia, just presents the first of its 3 collections in 2009 . This model known as the Vertu Constellation Pure is made by porcelain with the choice in 4 colors: black, white, silver and chocolate.

The Constellation Pure is famous for its keys and headset covers made by porcelain which has the same color with the stainless stell phone body’s trim. The body is painted with the PVD technology which is exclusive for Vertu.

This phone model aslo has all features similar to Vertu’s Constellation series such as weather forecast, currency exchange, fly and airport updates, and the exclusive Vertu Conceirge service.

According to the manufacture, it took Vertu 2 year to finish the design process of colorized porcelain for this model. And this is the first time this technique is used on mobile phone. All porcelain part on the phone were create seperately, and they were tested with different measurement tools in order to get to its ideal precision. Vertu also revealed that the surface was 100% leveled.

In addition, each key on the phone was coated with a special paint in order to avoid the flare from natural light; however, the light underneath each key could pass through without any problem. And according to Vertu, this process occupied most of the time during the desgin phase for this phone model.

There are 2,500 units per color except the chocolate color which has 300 unit. The price for each phone is about $8,500, according to Vertu.

5 Samsung phones at the CTIA

The Korean-based manufacture has had a habit of displaying a lot of new models in the conventions. And this time, at the CTIA Wireless, it is not an exception.

Samsung Impression – with a 3.2-inch AMOLED WQVGA touchscreen, 3 megapixel camera, HSPDA connectivity, GPS, TouchWIZ interface, and display rotation on the screen.

Samsung Modi – operates on Windows Mobile 6.1. The phone has most features of a netbook. WiMax, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS connectivities. 4GB memory, and a 3 megapixel camera.

Samsung Magnet – is a low-end phone with all features for a standard phones by Samsung. The Magnet is attractive with its orange color.

Samsung Propel Pro – operates on Windows Mobile 6.1 with a full QWERTY keyboard. It supports Wi-Fi connection. And a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto-focus.

Samsung Instinct S30 – with a 2 megapixel camera, 3.2-inch touchscreen with virtual keyboard on the touchscreen.

Water-proof cell phone

NTT DoCoMo just presents some of its latest models at the CTIA Wireless in Las Vegas. And the most expressive phone is the clamshell F-01A, and a specialty phone with a removable screen.

F-01A is developed by Fujitsu which can work in about 30 minutes under water at 1 meter deep without any technical malfunction. This phone has a 3.5-inch touchscreen and a 5.2 megapixel camera. The phone operates on GSM and W-CDMA networks.

Another model is the phone with a removable screen. With this phone, users can seperate the keypad and the screen to watch video or play game. The keypad may be no longer in need when listening the music because users can insert the headphone directly to the screen.

Both models are already available in Japan. DoCoMo does not mention about prices for both models.

RIM is still doing good in the economic recession

Despite the current recession of the economy, RIM (Research in Motion) has increased its profits as its stock value is still increasing. Also, the company reveals that there have been 500 million units of Blackberry sold.

The financial report for the 4th quarter of 2008 shows that Research in Motion makes huge profits. In addition, the report will gain the confidence for investors who tend to refuse investing in the current economy.

The report for the last quarter of 2008 states that RIM earned 3.46 billions an increasing of 84% in comparison to the same period in 2007. This yields a net profit of 518.3 millions while it was 412.5 in last quarter of 2007. In addition, RIM released 7.8 millions of Blackberry units in 2008 alone. This is an impressive number for a company which focuses only to business users.

Due to the recent success from RIM, experts believe that the recession is the key for RIM to gain its profit because smartphone is the hottest seller for the year of 2008. In addition, experts explain that the success of smartphone is due to the current recession in which people refuse to buy luxury car or to have a luxury tour. In contrast, consumers tend to buy things for the home more often such as LCD TV and smartphone. And this is the reason why RIM has had an remarkable year.

And for the remarkable results in the last year, RIM strongly believes that its success will not stop there. In 2009, RIM expect with the gross sale approximately 3.3 – 3.5 billions. And there will be about 3.9 millions Blackkbery subscribers.

Google plans to take over Twitter

Recent rumors on the Internet reveals that Google is interested in Twitter. And the Internet-giant is on its negotiating step to take over Twitter.

Recently, there are 2 rumors about the Google’s take over. The first is that Twitter has denied the $250 millions offer from Google. Another rumor mentions that both Google and Twitter are in the first steps of the plan, and there is no price offered yet.

Recall that Twitter denied a $500 million offer by Facebook a few month ago. Thus, if Google is really interested in purchasing Twitter, the Internet-giant has to pay more than what Facebook offered before.

And by the way, Twitter has just upgraded its search algorithm which causes the attention of many other investors. New features in Twitter has proven to be effective, especially for marketing purposes.

Dell adds 3 more laptop models for business

Dell just adds 3 more laptops in its Vostro which are served for business needs. They are Vostro 1320 (13.3-inch), Vostro 1520 (15.4-inch), and Vostro 1720 (17-inch)

Dell adds more security features for the 3 models such as a SDD anti-shocking hard drive with encrypted feature using Wave Systems, and a finger-print reader. All 3 models have a 80 GB hard drive, Pentium Core 2 Duo at 2.66 GHz, 6-cell battery, and Wi-Fi connection.

vostro 1320

The 3 models also have a 4500 MHD graphic card, 8x DVD ROM, and RAM up to 4GB. Users can choose between Windows Vista Basic, Business, or Ulimate 64-bit.

Vostro 1520

As its primary customers are business people, Dell allows users to upgrade additional hardware for video-conference. Price for Vostro 1320 is $629, Vostro 1520 is $569, and Vostro 1720 is $649. The 3 models will available in April for North American and European markets. And it will be available for Asian market in May.

Point & Find – Nokia’s response to its competitors

Nokia just presents a new software for its smartphone models, known as Point & Find, in which the software will give detail information about a picture taken by Nokia’s smartphone.

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Point & Find is a new technology using the recognition technology in pictures in order to display results from books, magazines, DVD, and even cars. Even though Nokia mentioned about this feature in the Web 2.0 convention in Sanfrancisco last January, this feature was officially public yesterday at the CTIA Wireless Covention in Las Vegas.

A representative at Nokia pointed the Nokia N95 to a poster of the movie “Ice Age 3″, and took a picture for the poster. In just a few second, a trailer about the movie was displayed on the Nokia N95 screen. And another interesting thing was that the movie would be shown in theater in May, but users could see a description about the movie, showtime in each theaters, and many more information about the movie.

view a description and trailer for Ice Age 3 just by capture the poster

Besides, Point & Find has many other features such as barcode reading, and GPS supports, and search by document contents. Right now, this fabulous software only supports personal users; however, Nokia announces that other target customers will be soon supported, include business users.

... and Point & Find does barcode too

In the demonstration, Point & Find operated fast and effective. Nokia mentioned that the software supported only Nokia N95 series at this time. Other models should be soon supported.

WikiSearch has reached its end

Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, just officially announced the “death sentence” for Google’s potential competitor, WikiSearch – an Internet search which operates on the community response like Wikipedia.

In the announcement for the closure of WikiSearch, the Jimmy Wales states, “Even though I believe the online application has been succesful in the search on the Internet, the WikiSearch project is clearly has not met its expected goal. If the economy was  not in its recession, we would fund the WikiSearch way better.”

WikiSearch was found by Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley in 2004. It was first known as Wikicities; then, it was changed to Wikia (or WikiSearch) in 2006. WikiSearch has received a large sponsor from organizations and individuals who prefer a different way for search on the Internet. Unfortunately, WikiSearch has only about 10,000 visitors a month which is number way below the expected goal.

Unlike the traditional search engine such as Google and Yahoo in which results will be based on algorithm, WikiSearch’s results are based on users who are able to add, edit, or even delete contents of the search results.

WikiSearch has been expected to sucessfully surpass its competitors just like the Wikipedia. On the day of presenting WikiSearch, Jimmy Wales hoped that WikiSearch would change the faith of search engines in which only a few companies cotrol the face of the entire business. However, experts believe that Jimmy Wales underestimated its competitors. Last year, Google introduced added its Search Wiki feature which allowed users to perform the same thing as the WikiSearch. And with its leading position in search engine, Google easily defeated WikiSearch.

Despite the fact the WikiSearch will be closed, Jimmy Wales belives the search results based on community works is the right way as he expresses, “I will come back with this idea in the future as an investor, a volunteer, a consultan, or simply – a fan”.