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Sony has launched the “world’s lightest” notebooks with the VAIO X Series.

The VPCX113KG model weighs 655 gms with 3.5 hours battery life and 14 Hrs Optional LL battery.

It also features:
• 64 GB SSD
• Intel Atom Processor Z540 (1.86 GHz, HT Technology supported)
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (32-bit)
• 11.1 (28.2 cm) wide (WXGA: 1366 x 768) ; VAIO Display Premium, LED backlight
• Integrated Wireless LAN IEEE 802.11b/g/Draft n

The VPCX117LG model weighs 760 gms with 6.5 hours battery life and 16 Hrs Optional LL Battery.

It also features:
•128 GB SSD
• Intel Atom Processor Z550 (2 GHz, HT Technology supported)
• Genuine Windows 7 Professional (32-bit)
• 11.1 (28.2 cm) wide (WXGA: 1366 x 768) ; VAIO Display Premium, LED backlight
• Integrated Wireless LAN IEEE 802.11b/g/Draft n

The X Series touch pad uses multi-touch functionality allowing users to zoom in and out, flip through pictures, rotate items and scroll vertically and horizontally without touching a mouse.

The VAIO X VPCX113KG and VPCX117LG costs Rs. 64,990 and Rs. 84,990 respectively.

Sony Computer Entertainment has announced the launch of Desi Adda: Games of India – specially developed by an Indian Game Development Studio – GameShastra Solutions Pvt Ltd, for the PS2 and PSP.

Desi Adda: Games of India are the first console games to be playable in 3 Indian languages – Hindi, Punjabi and Tamil. It features 6 traditional Indian games – Pachisi, Goat & the tiger, Kite Fight, Kabaddi, Gilli Danda and a dance game.

Developed for both PS2 and PSP, ‘Desi Adda: Games of India’ will be available in the Indian market at a suggested retail price of Rs. 499, for PS2 and Rs. 999 for the PSP.

Atindriya Bose, Country Manager – PlayStation, Sony Computer Entertainment said, “We are very proud to launch the first Indian game on PSP with localized content, in 3 Indian languages completely developed in India These are the long-established, traditional games of India that are now inspiring games on the very modern interactive platform of PlayStation. On PS2 and PSP platform, people will, for the first time, get to play these time-honored games and carry forward the flavors of traditional India to the newer generations”.

Prakash Ahuja, CEO, Gameshastra, said, “When we presented the concept of Desi Adda to SCEE , we were pleasantly surprised with the enthusiasm and the support that we got from SCEE to build India based thematic content for theIndian market and the Diaspora globally. We are very excited with the way the game has evolved and are thankful to SCEE for all their belief in launching this title across their major platforms. Currently, we are also working on a new genre of game based on Indian Martial Arts, along with multiple titles for thePSP Minis platform for the global market.”

The game is the story of Avinash, son of an NRI businessman, who comes to visit his ancestral village. Since Avinash has lived all his life abroad, and this is his first visit to an Indian village, he is fascinated by what he sees. The story unfolds as he roams around the village, plays the different villagegames , and meets Gowri and Gopal, a couple who are in love, but cannot get married as the village head, Garjan Singh, is opposed to their match. Avinash must now seek different people in the village, who play a part in this story one way or the other, and try to find a way to get Gowri and Gopal married and also save the village from the evil plans of Garjan Singh.

The 6 traditional Indian games include:

• Pachisi – Pachisi is a turn based board game played using the cross shaped board and two rectangular dice. It’s a game of change and strategy. Pachisi game played between the Pandavas and Kauravas is the significant event in the great epic of Mahabharata
• Aadu Puli Aatam (Goat & the Tiger) – This is a hunting game between the extravagant Tigers and the deceitful goats. The general rule of this interesting strategy game is the number of tigers varies from 1 to 4, and the number of goats from 11 to 12 to 23 or 24. The general aim is to hem in the tigers so that they cannot move, but the arrangement of pieces, the method of play and the rules of capture vary from game to game.
• Kite fight – In India people fly kites to cut other kites. Specially made threads, mostly coated with fine powdered glass, are used for the kite fight. Kites are made from colored paper and are available in various shapes. Two bamboo sticks called “tuddah” (which is straight) and “Kaamp” which is arched, hold the paper together. The string attached determines the performance of the kite
• Kabaddi – Two teams compete with each other for higher scores, by touching or capturing the players of the opponent team. Each team consists of 12 players, of which seven are on court at a time, and five in reserve. The two teams fight for higher scores, alternating defence and offense.
• Gilli Danda is a game like cricket or baseball but without a ball and with a different set of rules. The ball is replaced by a small stick called Gilli. The Gilli 3 to 4 inches long and both the ends are tapered. Danda is a 24 inch long cylindrical stick used like a bat. Player can enjoy batting the Gilli or fielding among the free cattle.
• Dance game is a beat matching game, in which the user has to match the beats of a song playing in the background, by pressing a combination of buttons at the right time as they scroll on the bottom of the screen. The aim is to try and successfully press the right combination of buttons at the right time in order to win the game.

About 50,000 pirated DVDs of Microsoft Windows 7 are estimated to have been sold here since the official launch on Oct 22, generating unaccounted business of around Rs.50 lakh (nearly $100,000).

The reason for the allure of the pirated versions: These cost Rs.40-Rs.250 in Naza Market in Hazratganj here, drawing buyers from not only the rest of Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring states like Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttarakhand but also Nepal and Bangladesh.

“This is the biggest market in the region,” said a shopkeeper in Hazratganj, claiming at least 50,000 DVDs of the pirated Windows 7 have been sold since hitting the local markets within 24 hours of the official launch, fetching sellers about Rs.50 lakh so far.

The legal version of the new operating system launched by Microsoft Corp costs between $150-$300 (Rs. 7,500-Rs. 15,000) in the international markets. The company, however, tagged its prices 20 percent below international rates in India, where it is available in the Rs. 6,000 – Rs. 11,000 range through official channels.

Despite the discounted company rates, buyers are opting for the pirated version.

“Why invest Rs. 10,000 when it is available for Rs. 250?” asked Pramod Yadav, a student pursuing a Master of Computer Applications (MCA) course.

Added Mohit Singh, who runs a computer hardware and software maintenance company: “We pay for only the DVD as we are regular customers. A DVD hardly costs Rs. 20-40.”

Most computer service providers or “regular customers” in Lucknow and elsewhere in India use pirated software, contended Nishant Kumar, a software engineer with HCL Technologies in Greater Noida.

According to him, what makes the pirated operating systems more attractive is that cheap pirated anti-virus software is also freely available.

“A lot of anti-virus software, for example Awast, is available on the Internet,” Kumar said, adding that it was equally effective and has the same service life.

Those selling pirated Windows 7 deny doing anything illegal.

“There are over 200 shops in Naza Market. All have everything you want. We are not doing anything illegal as everything is availableon the Internet,” said a shopkeeper not willing to be named.

“We are only transferring and supplying to buyers who include students, professionals and even big business houses.”

Those selling authentic software are unhappy.

“Be it software or encyclopaedia, everything is available in pirated form within 24 hours. We do not get the expected business,” Amit Mishra of Newgen Technologies, the authorised distributor of Compaq, HP, Microsoft and Lenovo in Hazratganj, told IANS.

The police express helplessness in combating piracy. “We know what is going on for the past couple of decades. But we cannot act on our own. We need a formal complaint to act or else you (the media) will come down on us,” police spokesperson A.K. Pathak told IANS.

Besides software, the Naza Market and the Naka Market in the Naka area are also famous for producing CDs and DVDs of newly released Bollywood movies within 24 hours.

“You name the movie and you will have the CD, DVD the next day,” boasted Harnam Singh, a Naka shopowner.

With Opera’s mobile browsers, things are quite simple: if you’re not happy with whatever browser came with your smartphone, you’d probably do well to try either Opera Mini or Opera Mobile. The difference between the two often confuses users: Opera Mini is Java-based and works on almost all phones, while Opera Mobile is aimed at specific smartphone platforms, namely Symbian and Windows Mobile.

Now, Opera Mobile 10 Beta is available for owners of Nokia’s smartphones and other Symbian S60 smartphones, and it’s essentially a more polished version of the recently released Opera Mini 5 Beta.

The slick interface includes the revamped speed dial, touch-friendly keyboard, and tabbed browsing. On the performance side – as always – the new version promises to be much speedier than the last one, with speedier zoom, 50% faster page downloading, and full support for Opera’s Turbo mode, which compresses web pages on Opera’s servers, making your browsing faster and monthly mobile data bill lower.

Check out a video introduction to Opera Mobile 10 beta below.

This image is of a USB flash drive. Look at its size. 4 gig? 8? Max 15, huh? That’s what we imagined too. But this tiny gizmo-the Transcend JetFlash V20 can house a whopping 64 gigs of data! Pull your jaw back up now! Yes, that’s the capacity. And unlike other plain looking flash drives, it comes housed in a pretty neat casing too!

Fallout 3 has been voted as the best game of the year at top gaming awards ‘Golden Joysticks’. Action game series ‘Call of Duty’ bagged three awards including multiplayer game of the year and Nintendo game of the year for World At War, while Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was given ‘one to watch’ award. Also, musical game ‘Guitar Hero: World Tour’ was recognized for best soundtrack of the year.

The results were based on the voting done by U.K gamers. However only games released between May 2008 and May 2009 were listed for the awards. “The games industry remains innovative and vibrant despite economic pressures,” the BBC News quoted organizer of the awards Emma Parkinson as saying. She added: “Many of the winners at the Golden Joystick’s demonstrate that UK talent remains crucial to the success of this industry across the globe and must be nurtured at all cost.” Golden Joysticks is named in the Guinness Record Books as the World’s Most Popular Video Game Awards and is already in its 27th ear. (ANI)

On October 7th, 2003, Nokia made a splash as it attempted to challenge Nintendo’s dominance of the handheld gaming market. Its entry was the N-Gage, a dual mobile phone and gaming system. However, the funny look it had when you used it as a phone (”taco phone” was a popular comparison), as well a weaker game library doomed it from the start.

Today, Nokia announced that it is ending the N-Gage line of phones and games, instead opting to push forward its gaming agenda via the Ovi app store.

The move was inevitable, especially as Apple has turned the iPhone into a gaming powerhouse, but we’re still going to miss making fun of Nokia’s Taco Phone. This is our farewell to the N-Gage, which had the right idea but the wrong execution.

In this day and age it seems like anything you see on your PC MUST be transported to a mobile device for it to reach everyone. That isn’t restricted to just applications etc. but we’re talking full operating systems that have been ported toa mobile device. Take this, the Chinese Company ITG’s xPhone that was showcased a while back at Computex.

The seemingly rather large device with a full blown QWERTY slide out keypad could, as reports say, give the N900 or perhaps even the DROID from Motorola a run for their money. Designed to incorporate a phone into an internet tablet or the other way around depending on your personal preference the xpPhone (yes quite the literal name isn’t it, keeps things in perspective) runs ona mobile version of Windows XP.

Along with AMD Mobile CPU and 512Mb/1GB memory it also features -

• 4.8-inch touchscreen display with a 800×480 pixel resolution
• Quad band – GSM and CDMA, TD-SCDMA, WiMAX (optional)
• Slide out QWERTY keyboard
• 3G (HSDPA), GPRS/EDGE
• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB
• GPS
• Camera
• Dual hard drives: SSD (8/16/32/64GB) and HDD (30/60/80/120GB)

The company also claims up to 7 hours of continuous use with standard battery, 12 hours with extended battery. According to a schematic image showcased in one report , the device will feature a navigation pad as well as a touch pad for the same for use as an optical mouse pad. All of this is packed into a rather heavy package of about 400 grams. Not something you can typically carry around in your pocket without someone springing that old clinker – is that your phone or are you just happy to see me. The device will also naturally be able to sync with services that offer the function like Google’s Gmail, MSExchange etc.

Even though there seems to be other reports saying that the handset is up for preorder for specific carriers the website itself seems quite elusive. Pricing or availability are therefore unknown.

Mobile handsets without the unique identification number, which helps authorities track users, will face disconnections by December 1, Indian Cellular Association (ICA) said on Wednesday.

The International Mobile Equipment Identification (IMEI) is a 15-digit code that identifies a handset and enables security agencies to track down users.

The department of telecom had recently asked the mobile operators not to allow calls to be completed on handsets without IMEI number.

Though there are no official statistics on the number of handsets without IMEI number, an industry guess was around 25 million, Pankaj Mohindroo, President, ICA said.

The Indian Cellular Association had begun a nationwide campaign to create awareness and prevent sale and purchase of such devices.

Proliferation of unbranded phone devices, without IMEI number or with invalid or cloned numbers posed a serious threat to national security as they could not be tracked, he said.

These devices are mainly sourced from China and are adversely impacting the organized mobile devices market apart from causing huge loss in revenue to the government, he said.

Most of you already know the mindblowingly awesome price GTA IV was bought in for the PC at (Rs. 499). Now it seems prices of the console versions have been slashed as well and you can now enjoy living in Liberty City on either the PS3 or the Xbox360 for Rs. 1499.

And in case you own the Xbox360 version of the game, you’ll be glad to know that both DLC packs – The Lost and The Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony will be available in stores on disc by the end of the month for Rs. 1999.

Oh and before I forget PSP owners should keep an eye out for the PSP port of Chinatown Wars that should hit stores this week as well for Rs. 1499.