“State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited is leaning on Soma Networks to build the broadband-speed network in response to government requirement that 20 million broadband lines be in service by 2010. Soma says it’s shipping thousands of base stations to get the network operational at full speed, and that when it’s done, 400 Indian cities will be covered, with downstream speeds of 1.5 megabits per seconds.” – Engadget
According to Gizmodo, details of ThinkPad X300 have been leaked:
“It appears that Lenovo have themselves a new ultralight X300 series Thinkpad—and outside of the price and release date, we have all of the specs that you need to know. At a glance, some of the major features include: a 13.3-inch LED backlit 1440X900 screen, an ultralight 2.5 pound form factor, and Intel Merom Santa Rosa Dual Core CPU (2.0 Ghz / 880 Mhz ), a 64 GB SSD, up to 4GB of DDR2 PC2-5300 memory, and 4 hours of battery life. Hit the gallery for the full details.” – Gizmodo
This is some competition from Lenovo for Apple’s latest offering MacBook Air (world’s thinnest laptop), and a new ray of hope for ThinkPad/Windows fans. It may not be as thin as Air (unconfirmed) but has a better screen resolution (1440×900 vs 1280×800) and is half a pound lighter.
Ultralight Lenovo X300 Series Thinkpad Leaked
Update: Also see a specwise comparison of MacBook Air with other laptops in the ultra portable category (Dell XPS M1330, Toshiba Protege R500, Fujitsu Lifebook S2210 and Sony Vaio TZ150N).
“The most-talked-about car at the Detroit auto show this year isn’t even present: Tata Motors Ltd.’s $2,500 Nano.
With the U.S. market coming off its slowest year in a decade, sales down in Japan and Western Europe stagnating, GM, Toyota Motor Corp. and other automakers are turning to emerging markets such as India and China, where sales are growing more than 10 percent a year.
For GM, Toyota and other automakers the Tata entry means “pressure to come down to that price and play in that field,” Bragman said. ” – Bloomberg
India’s $2,500 Car Stirs Detroit Show, Isn’t There
Related: Tata Nano Unveiled!
The much anticipated Tata’s $2500 car was unveiled today.
“The car will meet all current safety norms and all emission criteria. The pollution it will cause will be lower than 2-wheelers.”
Not since the launch of the Maruti 800 in 1983 has any car gripped the imagination of a nation and indeed car manufacturers the world over so intensely. If commercially successful, the Tata Nano can alter the passenger car market in India, and perhaps the world, beyond description.
Related post: Ratan Tata: The Last Rajah
“While American soldiers get in shape stateside– with a slew of aerobic exercises, a soldier of the future could soon be seen on the battlefield. It’s called an exoskeleton and by stepping inside this robotic exterior– a soldier can easily perform feats that years ago could only be seen in science fiction movies.” – Reuters
With a plethora of blogs available on the web these days, one is often left wondering which ones to read.
An algorithm developed at Carnegie Mellon University called Cascades identifies the top 100 blogs at a given time. The algorithm can be seen in action on their project website. (via EurekAlert).
Other services, that follow popular or hottest discussions /stories in the blogosphere include Techmeme and Tailrank. Google news (my favourite) essentially does the same for traditional mainstream news sources.
For more of our favourite blogs, check the links on the sides. Needless to say, the above is not a substitute for the cool stuff you find on WastedMonkeys 🙂
Today Amazon launched an electronic reader to read books, magazines, blogs etc. on the move. 3 years in production, the look and feel gives the impression that it has been in production for 30 years without any recent updates. You can buy books via Amazon’s book store from anywhere using the inbuilt wireless technology used by mobile phones. Amazon must be hoping to replicate the revolution for books as ipod did for music. I very much doubt it due to the fact that it is far from being ‘cool’ and I find it of little use to me. But then I am not an avid reader of books.
“Google, owner of the world’s most popular Internet search engine, today will announce the 30-member Open Handset Alliance, which includes Sprint, T-Mobile and phone makers Motorola Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., said the people, who asked to remain anonymous because the deal isn’t public yet.” – Bloomberg
(Google stock price has risen 2% on the news today to be at the current price of $725.)
The team from Carnegie Mellon University finished first in the DARPA Urban Challenge where robotic cars were to complete a fully autonomous 60-mile journey including turns, intersections, overtaking and flat out cruising. Stanford came in second with Victor Tango in third place. MIT finished sixth. (via Scobleizer)
WOW! Minority Report’s “futuristic” UI is now real! 🙂
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he-j1BbZf58]