Intel lists new Sandy Bridge mobile chips

Intel has updated its price list with new dual-core Sandy Bridge chips--some likely bound for Apple MacBooks and just about every PC vendor on the planet.

The chipmaker yesterday added i3, mobile i5, and mobile Core i7 dual-core chips to the Sandy Bridge family. Many of the initial Sandy Bridge processors listed--and shipped--back in January were quad-core only. 

A low-power i5-2537M (1.4GHz) and standard-power i5-2540M and i5-2520M mobile chips have been added to the current crop of i5 processors. They are priced at $250, $266, and $225, respectively, in thousand unit quantities. 

A sizable cluster of new dual-core i7 mobile processors includes the i7-2620M (2.7GHz), i7-2649M (2.3GHz) and i7-2657M (1.6GHz). Those are priced at $346, $346 (also) and $317, respectively.
The new i3 processors include the i3-2120 (3.3GHz) and i3-2100 (3.1GHz). They are set at $138 and $117, respectively. 

Apple is expected to announce new MacBook Pros soon that will gorge on the fresh smorgasbord of dual-core Sandy Bridge delicacies. Pros--introduced in April last year--have been using last-generation Core i5 and i7 processors. 

Launched at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, Sandy Bridge--or "Second Generation Intel Core Processor"--is the first mainstream Intel chip to integrate graphics silicon directly onto the processor. It is also the first chip line based fully on Intel's leading-edge 32-nanometer manufacturing process. These two features allow Intel to offer a power-efficient processor with improved multimedia and gaming capabilities. 

Intel has resumed shipments of Sandy Bridge chipsets as it seeks to put a minor issue with the chipset behind it. "There was a slight delay. We have changed some of our ship schedules," Ross Compton, a market manager at Lenovo's ThinkPad laptop group, told CNET today. He said the delay was measured in "weeks." 

See the updated Intel price here (PDF). Note that Sandy Bridge processors can be identified by the 2XXX numbering scheme--seen as a suffix to the i3, i5, and i7 identifiers. 

Intel has also listed other new desktop processors in addition to the Core i3s cited above. 

Upcoming MacBook Pros will include dual-core Sandy Bridge processors. Most of the Sandy Bridge chips shipped to date have been quad-core.

(Credit: Apple)

Lenovo to Launch LePad Tablet Worldwide in June

Chinese PC maker Lenovo plans on selling its LePad tablet worldwide in June, but will first launch the device in China at the end of March, a company spokesman said on Friday.

The LePad, Lenovo's first tablet computer, was unveiled in January during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The device is built with 10.1-inch screen that runs the Android 2.2 OS on a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. (See a video report on LePad's CES unveiling on YouTube.)

Lenovo said the device would be priced between $399 and $449. But at the time, the company was still unsure whether it would sell the product outside of China.

While Lenovo now plans on selling the tablet overseas, company spokesman Jay Chen couldn't say which markets will be targeted.

Lenovo is the world's fourth largest PC maker, and dominates the Chinese market. Recently, it has began developing products in the emerging areas of tablets and smartphones. Last month, the company established a new business unit focused on developing such gadgets.

Tablet shipments are expected to reach 54.8 million units in 2011, up 181 percent from the previous year, according to research firm Gartner. Other PC makers like Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Acer are also shifting their focus toward developing more tablets.

Hands on: Norton Mobile Utilities for Android beta

Computerworld - The Norton Mobile Utilities beta for Android is a useful but somewhat buggy suite of free tools that any self-respecting Android geek will want to download and test. To a certain extent, it's a proof of concept, because Symantec has not yet decided whether the app will ever become a full-blown product and, if it does, whether it will be free or for pay. Still, it's well worth the download.

Norton Mobile Utilities,  as currently constructed, has four modules: Apps, Usage, Device and Installer. The Apps module shows all of the apps you've installed, indicates which are running and offers details about each app, such as the version number, location on your Android device, total installed size, permissions that you've granted it and what percentage of battery power it's currently using. 

Norton also lets you close currently running apps that you'd like to shut down. You can shut down an entire group of apps at once, or close them individually by clicking the X that appears to the right of each. Doing this may be somewhat controversial, because some people believe that Android does a good job itself closing apps that it believes no longer need to remain opened. However, closing them certainly does no harm. In my case, this feature didn't work perfectly; for example, it was unable to shut down the Fring call/chat app I have on my device.

Many of the features in the Apps module are already available on Android's built-in "Manage applications" applet if you dig deeply enough. (From the main screen or pane, press the Menu button, then choose Settings --> Applications --> Manage applications.) The notable exceptions are closing groups of apps and showing the battery use for each app, which I found very useful. Android's "Manage applications" applet also includes some features that Norton doesn't, such as the ability to move apps from your phone storage to its SD card and back.

The next module, Usage, may well be the most useful of the four. It gives you information on current phone use, SMS use, data use and available storage on your SD card, all nicely laid out in easy-to-read graphs. It will be especially welcomed by anyone whose data plan or SMS plan includes limits, because you can see how much data or how many text messages you've already used during the current month and how much you've used in past months. Also helpful is a feature that will issue alerts when you're approaching your monthly limit.

The Device module will be geek heaven for Android owners. Want to see your CPU use or how much RAM is currently being used by your device? It's there, in a very nice graphical format. You'll also see your network use, broken down by uploads and downloads. This is also the place to turn if you absolutely, positively must know your current battery temperature.

At first, I found the final module, Installer, to be baffling, because on my device at least, it simply didn't work. There's a Sort arrow that you can tap so that you can sort by name, date modified or size. And there's a Search box so that you can search. But what are you sorting and searching for? On my device, there was no way to know, because no matter how much sorting and searching I did, no results ever showed.

I had to contact Symantec to find out that the module is meant to help you install apps (in the form of .APK files) from outside the Android Market -- either transferred from your computer or downloaded directly to your smartphone. Once the .APK file has been saved to your device's SD card, the Installer will list the app and let you install it by tapping on the name. The Installer will also delete the .APK file if you tell it to, leaving the app itself installed. 

This can be handy -- using .APK files to install apps is normally a very awkward process -- but Symantec should have been clearer about the purpose of the module.

Conclusions 

Overall, the Norton Mobile Utilities beta is a nifty tool for those who live to know exactly what's going on inside their Android device. However, as it stands, I can't imagine that it will have nearly the same sales or industry impact as the original Norton Utilities for DOS, which launched nearly three decades ago, in 1982. 

The original Norton Utilities had a slew of useful utilities such as FileFix, which could repair damaged files. But the real reason for its phenomenal success was Undelete, which resurrected deleted files from the dead, something that could not be done using DOS alone.

In Android, if you drag anything into the trash, it's lost forever, in the same way that deleting something in DOS apparently made it vanish. If Symantec could develop Undelete for Android, it could well have a winner on its hands.

I have no idea if such a thing is possible ... but an Android fan can dream, can't he?

 

Norton Mobile Utilities for Android beta

Report: Next iPhone might be cheaper, but not smaller

Is the next iPhone going to be smaller? Bigger? Or maybe cheaper?

"Cheaper" is the latest in a series of confusing and seemingly contradictory rumors about the nature of the next iPhone Apple has in store. Today the New York Times chimed in to say that contrary to a previous report in The Wall Street Journal, the next iPhone is not going to be smaller, but Apple is working on ways to make it cheaper and more accessible for buyers.

Apple is focused on making the iPhone attractive to a larger audience, according to the report. That includes offering a phone more easily controlled by voice commands for those who have no interest in or can't use a virtual keyboard.

As for how the company is considering bringing down the cost of the phone, it wouldn't be by downsizing the screen. Rather, using cheaper internal components, less memory, or a lower-quality camera are options Apple is considering, according to the Times source who has apparently worked on several iPhone prototypes.

Another source says it wouldn't make sense to make a smaller iPhone (we agree) because of how it would affect developers who make their apps formatted to a particular screen size. A "senior Apple executive" also tells the Times that Apple isn't interested in having a lineup of multiple models of iPhones.

It doesn't sound like a cheaper iPhone is a sure thing yet, just something Apple is thinking about. One thing's for sure: the next iPhone isn't expected until this summer. So anticipate many more months of rumors to come.

Apple is reportedly looking at ways to make the iPhone cheaper than the current $199 subsidized starting price.

(Credit: CBS Interactive)

Use Screen Prototypes For Clear Software Requirements

I'm in software development for 15 years and I can tell you one thing for sure: misunderstandings are costly in software development. If you are not careful, you could find yourself aiming at the moving target or even end up building the application nobody needs or wants. I'll show you how to properly apply screen prototypes and avoid this trap, while having fun in the process.

There are many tools commonly used for software prototypes and GUI prototyping. Over time I have used most of them and what I have found is that they all lack in two things: speed and ease of use of paper sketches (which you can't maintain, so they are not really a solution either). Now with Mockup Screens I'm satisfied with both, and I can focus on the real problem: to quickly engineer clear requirements for a software application.

Note that Mockup Screens is very capable of solving whole category of tasks quickly and efficiently. You can use it (and many do) quite differently than I'll explain here, just experiment with screen prototypes and find what works for you. 

1. Recognize Scenarios To Build A Wireframe for Requirements

Think what the users want from your application. Choose and create scenarios that people will use most often. Don't aim for perfection, right now prototypes are more important things to do. Try to work together with your customer. If this works out fine, continue teamed up this way: it's very effective. More probable though, you'll have difficulties so don't push further - involve the customer where it counts the most, with screen prototypes you'll propose later.

2. Sketch Screen Prototypes For Important Scenarios

Decide which is the most important scenario and sketch screens for it. Imagine these are paper sketches and focus on speed, not on design or perfection. Populate screens with data that will provoke reaction. Remember what Wikipedia says on software prototyping: "[Prototyping] is not a tool to prove that we are right. It is a tool to show us where we are wrong." 

Repeat this for the next most important scenario and the next one. Copy screens from existing templates or finished scenarios wherever you can. Choose two or three scenarios you want to discuss with the customer. Don't decide on too many or you'll get poor feedback. 

Before the workshop, skim through scenarios yourself, they are your prototype. Put marks and comments where you have questions or want to emphasize something. If you want to make changes interactively and experiment together with the customer, present the prototypes with the “slideshow” option on your notebook (just remember to save the file under different name first). Otherwise just export scenarios and discuss them in your web browser or over a printed hard-copy

Of course, the same process applies to web pages and web application prototypes. Liberate use of predefined dummy pictures really speeds things up here.

3. Discuss The Requirements Implied By Screen Prototypes

On the workshop with customer, present your ideas for each screen: what particular elements mean and why they are there, what happens when user clicks a button, etc. Determine for each piece of data where does it come from. For example if the table has a “Date” column, which date is it: the creation date, date of the last update or something entirely different. These are real software requirements, nail them. Pay special attention to data which has to be calculated or comes from other systems. 

Be prepared to listen, and get the customer do the talking. Your goal is to get feedback, just moderate a bit to stay on the topic and always get back to screen prototypes.

4. Improve Screen Prototypes With New Requirements

When you get the feedback, improve your screen prototypes and requirements accordingly, and always send them to customer for confirmation. If you got through to the customer, her mind could still be processing those screen prototypes and could come up with quite a few surprises. 

5. Specify Requirements To Complement The GUI Prototype

When a scenario is finished, invest five more minutes and "empty your head", go through screen prototypes and document screens one by one. Focus on getting everything on paper as it comes to mind. Don't analyze or structure anything, let the associations flow and take quick notes. Then apply some minimal structure, but don't do anything that doesn't improve the information. In this two-stage manner, you will be able to do this extremely fast. One particular way is to export the scenario, print it (web page will open automatically) and write notes on the paper copy. Then copy screens to Microsoft Word and structure these notes while typing.

When you are finished, you will have a large part of both software requirements and user interface specifications. For smaller applications that might even be all you'll ever need.

This article doesn't cover everything about GUI prototyping, and I had to avoid many important aspects of software requirements discipline. But it is effective and you'll find this particular approach very rewarding: I surely enjoy my work better this way.

In short, experiment, find what works for you and have fun!  

Passing Your MCSE Exams On The Road To Microsoft Certification

To earn the Microsoft certified systems engineer certification and to prove expertise in designing and implementation of the infrastructure for business solutions based on the Microsoft Windows 2003 platform and Microsoft Windows Server system, MCSE exam is the best medium. 

MCSE exam is held to improve the expertise in designing and implementing Windows Server 2003 and other issues related to it. In order to take an MCSE exam one needs to go through a fourteen-day MCSE training boot camp that helps in successfully becoming an MCSE. They use custom developed curriculum that is designed to provide both exam preparation and practical technology skills, ensuring that the examinee shall be ready for the performance based testing Microsoft has introduced in their certification programs. Experience instructors have been arranged who posses many years of experience of working wit Microsoft operating system and technologies both in the field and in the classroom. 

Computer labs are designed using genuine PC technology, which provides each student having the ability to access various Microsoft operating systems simultaneously on their desktop. Due to this facility provided for MCSE exam, students can access any time to practice for the exam throughout in order to maintain their progress and determine the areas that require further study of those Microsoft operating systems. 

Different kinds of resources are provided to both students and instructors under this boot camp while preparing for MCSE exam. These resources are based on web and also distribute them after and before the classroom session so that both of them can share information. The online forum assists them to analyze different methods of programming. These centers are available for obtaining the certification goals. Pre-class preparation is essential to ensure complete success in an MCSE exam.

In the beginning materials and instructions are handed out which define as to how to prepare for the exam. In addition to this, as earlier mentioned one gets to access online resources, which provide detailed course information, and additional preparation resources. These resources related to the discussion forums and private questions posed to the instructors also help in preparing for the MCSE exam as they help in clearing doubts and difficulties. 

The boot camp for MCSE exam is set up to ensure the success rate for the examinees as well to prepare them before beginning of the classes. One testing voucher per MCSE exam is included with the course material. It ensures that the examinee is not misled. The limitation for the MCSE exam is provided during the class. Cost of retaking is borne by the examinee in case if he is unable to appear on the scheduled date. Also, if one feels that he would not be ready to take one or more exam during the boot camp then vouchers are handed out to enable the examinee to take the exam at a later date. This course can be retaken at free of cost but the testing fee and the courseware fee is not included. The validity for retaking the exams stands for six months. 

The candidates should have at least one year of experience in using Windows NT, Windows 2000 Server or Windows 2003 server in a networking environment to be eligible to attend the boot camp for the MCSE exam. Along with this there are several other pre-requisites for taking the exam. The candidate should have the knowledge of general networking concepts, IP addressing and sub-netting Active Directory Networking services. This gives the opportunity to brush up on technology skills and fill in any gaps in the knowledge base.