Nokia 6555 3G-enabled handset:Review

The two quality displays and great keypad provide for comfortable handling, while 3G support adds to the excitement with this elegantly tall and sleek clamshell.

Key features
. Stylish slender clamshell
. High-quality 2-inch QVGA 16M color TFT display
. Comfortable keyboard
. UMTS and EDGE support
. microSD memory card support up to 4 GB
. Good music player
. Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP profile
. microUSB connector and 2.5mm jack
Main disadvantages
. Shiny surfaces suffer fingertips
. Loose hinge and the "cracking" back cover
. Only 1.3 megapixel camera with rather basic interface
. Memory card slot under the battery
. No FM radio
. No video calls support
. microUSB port is still not widely popular
. No headphones and memory card in the retail package

Nokia 6555 is a midrange 3G-enabled handset, joining the clamshell ranks of the Finnish company. The form factor inevitably brings back memories of the likeable push-to-open Nokia 6131. Nokia 6555 lacks the auto-open functionality but the 3G support is one of the strong points of this stylish clamshell.

Slender black

The first thing about Nokia 6555 to sure make an impression is its elongated silhouette. Compared to 6131, Nokia 6555 is 8 mm taller and 4 mm narrower, keeping the same thickness. The actual dimensions are 99.6 x 44.3 x 19.6 mm, at a weight of 97 g. We are testing the black variety, but Nokia 6555 is also available in sliver, red and beige. The colors only vary on both the front and rear framing; the middle glossy sections on the face and the back of the handset are always black. Enclosed in handsome chrome-colored accents, they do contribute to the stylish looks and feel of the device, but are critically prone to fingerprints.

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Microsoft’s acquisition of Yahoo mean?

If You’ve got a Yahoo e-mail account, and your best friend uses MSN.You use Yahoo Messenger and she uses MSN Messenger for instant messaging.When it comes to search, you both use both Google, and sometimes Yahoo and MSN.
So, what could Microsoft’s acquisition of Yahoo mean in all these areas if the software giant acquires the Internet company?

Keeping an e-mail address is probably the biggest issue for most consumers, and one that is likely to be left as is for awhile, with each brand staying in place, said Allen Weiner, research director for Gartner, Inc. market research.

“The issue is, particularly as Microsoft has moved people in their e-mail business around, from Hotmail (which Microsoft bought in 1998) to Live Mail, and created some confusion around that, they certainly don’t want to basically say, ‘We’re all going to move you now to Yahoo mail,’ ” he said.

“The question is, how do they keep those brands in place, where appropriate, and then, where appropriate, do they bring those brands together?”

David Smith, lead Microsoft analyst for Gartner, said if Microsoft acquires Yahoo, there likely “would be ways to provide interoperability, to provide support, so that people don’t have to change” their e-mail addresses.

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Intel's MacBook Air Chip will be available to PC laptop Makers Also

Intel is allegedly starting to ship its miniaturized 65-nanometer Core 2 Duo processor which is used in Apple's MacBook Air laptop to other manufacturers. This means we will start to see soon similar offerings from PC makers. The first customers are apparently Lenovo and Fujitsu.

The chip, miniaturized 65-nanometer Core 2 Duo which is 60 percent smaller than the typical Merom chip and uses less power at comparable speeds, was designed by Intel at Apple's request. The Mac maker asked Intel last year to provide a chip which is smaller yet it doesn't overheat when fit into a tight spot.

The MacBook Air laptop is less than 1 inch thick, features a backlit 13-inch screen, a full-size keyboard and a pad responsive to Apple's multi-touch control gestures. The MacBook Air has the following measurements: Height - 0.16-0.76 inch, Width - 12.8 inches, Depth: 8.94 inches. Selling in the US for $1,799, the laptop is powered by Intel's miniaturized 65-nanometer 1.6 GHZ Core 2 Duo processor, with an available 1.8GHZ upgrade. It has 2 GB of RAM, battery life of 5 hours and an 80 GB hard drive.

The new chip is a much better compromise between speed and power consumption (~heat). Intel already has special versions of Core 2 Duo processors designed for ultraportable notebooks, usually defined as notebooks weighing 3 pounds or less. They are the LV (low-voltage) and ULV (ulta-low-voltage) versions, but their performance is pretty flimsy compared with their larger brothers. The new design is almost as good as a full-size, full-power chip when it comes to performance.

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Apple has postponed the release of the Apple TV software update

Apple has postponed the release of the Apple TV software update by a week or two, saying it needed more time to finish the upgrade that would let people rent movies directly from their televisions.
The company also said on Wednesday it had started shipping the MacBook Air, the ultra-thin notebook introduced at Macworld in San Francisco this month. The Air, which costs $1,799, weighs about 3 pounds, has a 13.3-inch display, and is 0.16 of an inch thick at its thinnest point.

In delaying the Apple TV upgrade, the company said the software wasn't quite finished. "Apple now plans to make the free software download available to existing Apple TV customers in another week or two," the company said in a statement. Apple chief executive Steve Jobs had said during his Macworld keynote that the software would be ready by the end of January.

The software update will allow people to rent movies from Apple's iTunes online music store directly from their TVs. Apple expects to have more than 1,000 movie titles available by the end of February, including more than 100 high-definition titles.

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1.4 million missing iPhones not Really Missing, Says Analyst

Calculations that claim Apple Inc. is "missing" 1.4 million iPhones may be missing the point, according to an analyst, who said Monday that talk of uncounted phones overlooks the fact that the mobile market is only a small part of Apple's overall business.

"Stock analysts have been paying lots of attention to the iPhone numbers," said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst at Technology Business Research Inc., "and clearly the revenue [mobile service] providers give back to Apple affect profitability. But if you look at Apple, it's solidly profitable without the iPhone. The iPhone just takes it up to another level."

Gottheil was responding to calculations by Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Bernstein Research, that were widely reported last week. Sacconaghi used the 3.7 million iPhones reported sold by Apple and the 2 million activations cited by AT&T Inc. to conclude that about 1.4 million of the devices are either in inventory or have been unlocked.

"Some unknown number of iPhones are being unlocked by purchasers and some, probably a larger number, are being unlocked for resale," said Gottheil. "Some are in inventory. Some will be returned. And some are being used for the non-phone features, as iPhone Touches, until the owners can change their wireless contracts.

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Sony announced its forthcoming "flagship" Alpha branded SLR

Its chief defining feature so far is its use of a 24.8-megapixel sensor that's unusually large--the size of a full frame of 35mm film. That move makes Sony only the third digital SLR (single-lens reflex) maker, along with Canon and more recently Nikon, to aim for that part of the market. Sony's flagship is geared toward advanced amateurs, but Sony hopes professional photographers will like it, too. The camera is scheduled to go on sale later this year.
The back of the SLR features a large LCD and controls on the attached, but optional, vertical grip.

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Microsoft has made a bid of $44.6 billion to buy Yahoo

Seeking to reshape the online landscape andwith a single bold stroke, Microsoft has made a US$44.6 billion unsolicited bid to buy struggling portal Yahoo create a serious challenger to Google.
The offer -- shareholders can choose either cash or the equivalent amount of Microsoft stock -- valued Yahoo at $31 per share, a 62 percent premium over the stock's closing price on Thursday. Yahoo shares surged 44 percent higher in Friday morning action to $27.75. Microsoft shares were down more than 6 percent to $30.52.



The surprise bid may be a sign of how eager Microsoft is to match up with Google. If it lands Yahoo, Microsoft would instantly gain a sprawling Web empire that draws hundreds of millions of users from around the world as well as partnerships with advertisers. There would also be significant overlap: Both Microsoft and Yahoo offer Web mail, instant messaging, search engines and other Web services.

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