Acer Launches Aspire V5 Starting At Rs 34,550

Notebooks with touch, a feature that adds much value to the new Windows 8 operating system, are finally becoming cheaper. Acer's new Aspire V5, with prices starting from Rs 34,550, which is the cheapest windows 8 touch laptop available in the market. 

Till now Asus had the cheapest touch laptop in the Vivobook F202E, which costs Rs 39,990. However, this is a 11.6-inch device in comparison to the Aspire V5 which is available in 14- and 15.6-inch sizes. At the entry level, the V5 series will have Pentium Dual Core processors. There will also be models with the newer Intel Core i3 and i5 processors. At less than 20mm thin and weighing slightly over 2 kg, the elegant V5 series is 30 percent slimmer and 10 percent lighter than a traditional notebook, said a release. 

Chief Marketing Officer S Rajendran said touch technology will allow users to integrate with both the virtual and physical environment. "With consumers on the lookout for products that offer ease of use and enhanced user experience, we are confident that consumers will seamlessly adapt to touch technology in their day to day use as touch is a natural instinct to mankind. To address this emerging demand we have launched a series of notebooks on the latest Windows OS."

The devices will come with a 16:9 aspect ratio ideal for movies and games on a power-saving LED backlit screen. They will also feature Dolby Advanced Audio technology.

The Acer Aspire V5 series touch enabled devices are priced between Rs 34,550 and Rs 47,500 according to their specifications. 

Google Maps Never Supported Internet Explorer On Windows Phone 8

Microsoft’s complaint that Google is hoarding its YouTube metadata has fueled a new conspiracy theory: The search giant has pulled levers to prevent Windows Phones from accessing Google Maps. In reality, this phenomenon likely has little if anything to do with chicanery on Google’s part and everything to do with Microsoft’s reluctance to support the WebKit browser framework.

While Google Maps was never officially built for or supported by the Windows Phone platform, prior to this complaint, the service was accessible to a certain degree. Users of Windows Phone 7 and 8 both seem to be facing this issue.

Google released an explanation for the issue, saying that Google Maps rely on WebKit on mobile devices and Internet Explorer for Windows Phone does not utilise the rendering engine.

Microsoft, over the past few months, has publicly sparred with Google over its shutting down of Exchange Activesync support at the end of January. Microsoft expressed “disappointment” in the action and implored any affected users to transition to Outlook.com, its new (and excellent) mail offering. By turning off Activesync access (which applies to all platforms, not just Microsoft’s), Windows Phone users will not be able to sync Google contacts or calendars. Because Microsoft has yet to implement CalDAV and CardDAV support in its mobile OS, users will be out of luck by the end of the month.

Apple, on the other hand, will be unaffected by the change as it implemented the new calendar and contact sync standards in its latest version and has push support for mail via a native app. Android users, of course, will suffer no such issues with sync as their phones tie directly into Google’s activation servers.

While it’s currently assumed that the redirect is a bug and not the status quo going forward, we’ve yet to hear from Google on the issue.

U.S. Department Of Defense Signs New Deal With Microsoft To Bring Windows 8 To 75% of Employees

For the most part, the news about Windows 8 hasn’t been very positive for Microsoft, but the company today announced a major win. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) just signeda new three-year 

licensing agreement with Microsoft reseller Insight Public Sector to bring Windows 8, Office 2013, and SharePoint 2013 Enterprise to 75 percent of all DoD personnel. The DoD, Microsoft says, will “use Windows 8 to empower productivity from any location, and any supported device, while taking advantage of enhanced security.” It’s worth noting, of course, that the DoD was already a Microsoft customer.

Today’s announcement, says Microsoft, means the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, and Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) will now have access to “the latest Microsoft technologies in support of top IT priorities around datacenter consolidation, collaboration, cybersecurity, mobility, cloud computing and big data.” Microsoft also says that this is “the most comprehensive” agreement it has ever established with the DoD. The total worth of the deal is about $617 million, and the Army expects to save more than $70 million per year because of it.

“There’s a move afoot throughout the department to bring about efficiencies in the [information technology] world,” David L. DeVries, DOD deputy chief information officer, told American Forces Press Service. “We took a long, hard look at it … realizing that the Department of Defense relies upon the network and upon information technology to do its business.”

Microsoft will work closely with the U.S. Army’s Network Enterprise Technology Command and the Air Force Program Executive Office for Business and Enterprise Systems to achieve “Army Golden Master and Air Force Standard Desktop Configuration compliance for Windows 8.”