Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 Notebook With 17-inch Display

Lenovo has announced the launch of new Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 Notebook PC which is powered by 1.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5450 and it features, 17-inch WXGA TFT display, 6-in-1 media card reader, integrated 1.3 megapixel camera, integrated Bluetooth with EDR connection, Built-in TV Tuner, DVD Writer or Blu-ray DVD reader, two hard drives with RAID controller, face recognition, and integrated Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g LAN connection

Powered by 1.66 GHz, Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5450, the thin-and-light weight Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 notebook PC weighs about 2.71 kgs with battery pack and it features, 2-MB L2 Cache, 667 Mhz FSB, Intel Mobile 945GM Express chipset mainboard, 2-GB DDDR2 PC2-5300 667 MHz SDRAM (max 4GB), 2 x 160-GB Serial-ATA 5400 rpm hot swapable hard disks with RAID function, and Slot-in 24x DVD Super Multi Dual Layer (8.5 GB) DVD writer or Blu-ray DVD reader.

The second hard drive in Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 notebook offers hot swap feature allowing removing and adding second HDD without having to switch off the system.

Twin Hard Drive Setup: Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 is the Lenovo’s first notebook to feature a new RAID function as hard disk controler. Twin hard drives setup with RAID function simultaneously allows using both the hard disk drives to achieve increased levels of input and output performance and enhanced data reliability. The RAID function also allows maintaining mirror copies of the data on each drives to ensure complete data security in case of one hard disk crash.

The body of Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 notebook PC is made up of a light shade of metallic silver color material and has the Lenovo tag emblazoned across the top.

Silver colored Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 notebook is equipped with a massive 17-inch (43.1 cm) WXGA TFT Display with VibrantView technology, powered by ATI Radeon Mobility HD 2600 Graphics Chipset with 512-MB of dedicated memory, features DirectX 10 Shader Model 3.0 Graphics Processing Unit, offering 1440 x 900 pixels maximum screen resolution in 16 million colors.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 notebook offers integrated 10/100 Ethernet LAN Connection, integrated 56kbps v.92 Modem/Fax card, integrated Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG - 802.11 a/b/g Wireless LAN Connection and Bluetooth Version 2.0 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) wireless connection which offers upto three times the bandwidth of conventional Bluetooth protocols.

Embedded in the frame of Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 notebook PC is a 1.3 Megapixel digital camera, just above the LCD panel, which functions both as the biometric face scanner for face recognition and a standard webcam. In addition, the laptop also features integrated TV tuner with remote.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 notebook PC also features built-in microphone, built-in 6-in-1 digital card reader supporting SD, MMC, MS, MS Pro, and MS Pro Duo memory cards, 4 USB v2.0 ports, and IEEE 1394 Interface for high speed communication between two devices like trandferring images without any quality degradation from a stand alone camera or camcorder to a PC.

Biometric Face Recognition : The unique face recognition feature available in Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 notebook PC is a specialize software (from Veriface software) which takes a digital snapshot of the user’s face to create a unique password by digital mapping of key features of the user’s face.

The face recognition technology recognizes multiple users and logs on to the Windows operating system and other applications without requiring users to remember and type a single password. In the event of an unauthorized attempt, the notebook photographs the user and stores the image in a log for verification.

Lenovo-one-touch-recoveryOne Touch Recovery : The Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 notebook also offers Lenovo’s One-Touch-System-Recovery feature and it comes with various software preinstalled such as Shuttle Centre, Power 2 GO, Veriface, Easy Capture 2.5, IGRS Anywhere and Norton antivirus software.

Shuttle Center : The Shuttle Center system in this Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 notebooks - resembling the Windows Media Center interface - is an audio and video entertainment platform which allows easy navigation between menus without a mouse. It allows easy access to music and video files, with discrete playback controls makes it as easy to listen to your tunes as well as peek at your movies.

Other features of Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 notebook includes integrated microphone, integrated 1.3 Megapixel Webcam with VeriFace face recognition software which allows user’s face recognization at system log-in and helps eliminate the need to remember passwords.

In addition, the Lenovo Y710 notebook offers Realtek High Definition Audio with Dolby home theatre surround sound system with a 2.5W sub-woofer and four 2W speakers offering Dolby Home Theater quality sound.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 notebooks comes with Windows Vista Home Premium operating system preinstalled and are equipped with Lenovo’s high touch full-sized keyboard. The notebook also sports Lenovo’s unique ‘One Key Recovery’ system that allows users easily recover data in the event of a crash.

I/O Ports

• 4 USB v2.0 ports
• Infrared port
• Audio/S-video in
• External Microphone/Line-In
• Headphone/Line out
• IEEE 1394 Fire wire port
• RJ-11 (modem)
• RJ-45 (Ethernet)
• VGA, 15 pin External CRT port
• TV/S-Video out port
• PCMCIA Type II Slot
• ExpressCard/54 Slot
• 6-in-1 Memory Card Slot

Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 notebook comes with 6-cell Li-Ion Battery providing up to 4 hours backup and are equipped with pre-loaded Energy Cut 2.1 software for effective power management.

Lenovo IdeaPad Y710 Notebook PC Features

• Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5450, 1.66 GHz
• 2-MB L2 Cache, 667 Mhz FSB
• Intel 945GM Chipset Mainboard
• 2-GB DDR2 667 MHz PC2-5300 SDRAM, Max. 4-GB in 2 Slots
• 2 x 160 GB 5400 rpm SATA hard drives, hot swap feature, RAID Function, Data Mirroring
• 24X Super Multi Dual Layer (8.5 GB) DVD Writer / Blu-ray DVD Reader
• 17-inch (43.1 cm) WXGA TFT Display with VibrantView technology, 1440 x 900 pixels maximum resolution
• ATI Radeon Mobility HD 2600 Graphics Chipset with 512-MB of dedicated memory, features DirectX 10 Shader Model 3.0 Graphics Processing Unit
• Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g Wireless LAN Connection
• Bluetooth Version 2.0 + EDR
• 10/100 Ethernet Network Connection
• 56 kbps v.92 Modem/Fax Connection
• 6-in-1 digital media reader supporting SD, MMC, MS, MS Pro, and MS Pro Duo
• 4 USB v2.0 ports
• ExpressCard/54 Slot
• HDMI Port
• IEEE 1394 FireWire for digital video camera or other peripherals
• Built-in Biometric Face Recognition Technology
• Integrated Microphone
• Integrated 1.3 Megapixel Webcam
• Integrated TV Tuner with remote
• Realtek High Definition Audio, Dolby Home Theater with a 2.5W sub-woofer and four 2 W speakers
• One key data recorvery
• Intel High Definition Audio
• Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic
• 6-cell Li-Ion Battery, up to 4 hours backup, pre-loaded Energy Cut 2.1 software for effective power management
• Dimensions (DxWxH): 275 x 264 x 38 mm
• Weight: 2.71Kgs with battery pack

Researchers close to unveiling 'invisible' man

The realm of science fiction and fantasy has moved a step closer to reality after scientists engineered a material that can bend visible light around objects - a breakthrough that can humans and objects invisible.

Researchers at the University of California at Berkeley, whose work is funded by the American military, have engineered materials that can control light's direction of travel.

The world's two leading scientific journals, Science and Nature, are expected to report the results this week.

Underlying the work is the idea that bending visible light around an object will hide it.

"In the case of invisibility cloaks or shields, the material would need to curve light waves completely around the object like a river flowing around a rock," TimesOnline quoted Xiang Zhang, the leader of the researchers, as saying.

An observer looking at the cloaked object would then see light from behind it - making it seem to disappear.

Substances capable of achieving such feats are known as "meta-materials" and have the power to "grab" electromagnetic radiation and deflect it smoothly.

The tiny scale at which such researchers must operate is astonishing in itself. Zhang's researchers had to construct a material whose elements were engineered to within about 0.00000066 of a metre.

Nasscom projects USD 9-12 bn software products revenue by 2015

Indian software product segment is set for a phenomenal growth over the next seven years to post usd .5-12 billion aggregate annual revenue by fiscal 2015 from USD 1.4 billion in fiscal 2008, according to an industry body.

"The product segment in India has the potential to grow 10 times its current size and post $9.5-12 billion over the next decade," Som Mittal, president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), said here Monday.

Releasing the findings of the 'Nasscom software product study: Outlook for Indian software product businesses', Mittal said the next decade would be crucial for disruptive growth of the product segment, as evident from market trends, which are aided by a maturing ecosystem.

"The Indian software product business is nearing an inflection point in its evolution and now is the time to bring about disruption. Enterprise application software holds huge opportunities with business intelligence, enterprise resource management (ERM) with storage and security being the priorities," Mittal told reporters at the trade forum's second annual product conclave.

The main factor that will propel the segment is India's emergence as a global hub for product research and developement activity and the presence of about 600 multinationals in the product space through their Indian subsidiaries.

"The Indian software product business has grown at an average of 44 percent over the last three years," Mittal said.

The study found that of the 371 software product start-ups in the country, two-thirds of them were set up during the last three years, including 100 firms last year.

"Top 10 firms continue to dominate, accounting for 84 percent of the segment revenue. About 200 midsize firms and start-ups are generating revenues and contributing to the growth," Mittal noted.

Nasscom chairman and Zensar managing director Ganesh Natarajan said the Indian product industry had come of age with world class IP in key domains and end-to-end design and development services to global ISVs (independent software vendors) by captive and third-party units across the country.

"With the new models such as SoA (service-oriented architecture) and SaaS (software as a service) maturing, opportunities beckon Indian product developers to pitch for the global market with access to multi-level funding," Natarajan said

Another sign of an explosive growth in the product segment is the presence of 38 incubation centres across the country for technology start-ups with funding and mentorship.

Of the total venture capital investment of $543 million in 2007, $156 million were invested in software products segment from a mere $76 million in 2005.

50-Terabytes of Data on DVDs?!

Prof. Renugopalakrishnan and his team at Harvard Medical School in Boston have discovered a unique protein that could possibly be used to store up to 50,000-gigabytes (50-terabytes) of data onto medium the size of our DVDs.

Well, I’ve covered ferroelectricity technology that promises more than a thousand times greater storage space than this. But both technologies are just as out-of-reach right now.

The light-activated protein is found in the membrane of a salt marsh microbe Halobacterium salinarum and is also known as bacteriorhodopsin (bR). It captures and stores sunlight to convert it to chemical energy. When light shines on bR, it is converted to a series of intermediate molecules each with a unique shape and colour before returning to its ‘ground state’.

As the intermediates only lasts for hours or days, the professor had to modify the DNA that produces this protein to extend it up to several years. Not quite enough I would say. After all, do you really want to re-backup that 50-terabytes every couple of years?

But ferroelectricity or proteins, we don’t really care. Just give us our next-gen uber-large storage technology before our storerooms are decked full of DVD/Blu-ray/HD-DVD backups. Blame it on BitTorrent.