Zenith Computers offers Laptops for Rs 14,999

Zenith Computers has announced the release of a laptop for as low as Rs 14, 999. This is the first time that a hardware manufacturer has been able to break the psychological barrier of Rs 20,000 with a Windows based Laptop.

Thus far the cheapest Laptop in this category was the Asus Eee PC that was being sold for Rs 18,000. But the Asus laptop was linux based. Industry experts believe that the price reduction has been possible as the company expects to drive up the volume of sales substantially. The company expects to sell laptops worth 8 million this year and hopes to drive the sales to a figure of 18.3 millions next year. The company is also releasing a desktop for Rs 11,999.

Microsoft is also a partner in the initiative. They have scaled down the Windows XP to run it on low cost laptops. Ravi Venkatesan, chairman, Microsoft India said “Under the Microsoft Unlimited Potential initiative, our effort is to bring sustained social and economic opportunity to people who currently don’t enjoy the benefits of technology. Our aim is to propel a wider acceptance for IT amongst the masses by extending an opportunity to learn, connect, create, and succeed by combining advanced technologies and relevant partnerships.”

Internet PC to cost Rs 5000

There is good news for those who want to use computer only for checking emails or such low end tasks. Internet PC will soon be a reality for such low-end tasks and will come at much lower costs without including high-profile advanced features of PC world.

Intel has recently announced launching of a new processor namely “Atom” in their just now concluded Intel Channel Conference (ICC). Atom is being designed by Intel, keeping in view of manufacturing only email enabled high power Internet PC. According to Intel, Atom is likely to be available in the market before end of September 2008. ICC is a platform for Intel to share it’s business findings and future business plans with it’s channel partners, which is presently figuring around 2000 in India. It is held twice a year across different centers in the country.

Once Atom is unveiled, making low-end Internet PC will no more take much time. Atom will take least power to operate and these will be highly efficient to look after email requirements. Owing to the low-power requirement and limited functionality, costs of the PC’s developed using Atom will be much lower, said one analyst. The chip will also find applications in mobile Internet devices, making mobile Internet more powerful and efficient. The new innovative technology of Intel will lead the way for making more powerful low-power processors in near future, market observers feel.

Indian Institute of Science have been working on a low cost computing device. After the participation of Intel in the connected Indian movement, internet access through broadband seems affordable for a common man.

The Minister of Communications and IT, Mr A Raja has announced that the low cost computing device will be based on Intel’s Atom and will be priced at about Rs. 5000.

Microsoft threatens Google ad model

Software giant Microsoft has unveiled its Internet Explorer 8 browser equipped with a privacy feature that could threaten the advertising model of web search rivals such as Google.

The new browser has a new feature called “InPrivate”. Using this feature of the browser, users can access websites in private, hiding their personal details from search engines that use the information to target advertising at individuals.

The feature, called InPrivate, has been dubbed in some blog postings as "porn mode", because it also hides the browsing history from other people using the same computer.

Google has faced an outcry over the amount of information it collects from users of its services. David Mitchell, an information technology analyst at Ovum, said: "If the hype around privacy gains more credibility, more people will hit the private button. There is a potential threat here to click-through advertising."

IE8 will be available for public download as a "beta" version, but Microsoft would not commit to a date for the software to be bundled into the Windows operating system.

Several features in IE8 are reminiscent of Firefox, the open source rival browser , including the use of customised and site-specific searches in a feature called Visual Search. However, Microsoft has denied it had copied features from rivals.

According to Net Applications, a web consultancy and applications provider, Microsoft’s worldwide share of browser usage is 73 per cent with Firefox on 19 per cent.

HTC to launch S740 in September

HTC is all set to launch a smartphone named S740 in the European market. It’s a candybar phone with Quad-band GSM and 900/2100 MHz WCDMA/HSDPA network. The sleek phone features a 3.2 megapixel camera for photos and it runs Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard edition. The design of the phone is hugely influenced by the HTC Touch Diamond.

The smartphone also features Assisted Global Positioning System, and several email alternatives including Post Office Protocol, Internet Message Access Protocol or IMAP and Exchange push email, a radio and built-in support for Google Maps.

Dr. Florian Seiche, Vice President of HTC Europe, stated, “Demand for high-performance, smart, mobile devices continues to see strong growth globally and HTC is well positioned to meet the varying needs of our diverse customer base.” Reportedly, the users can access the Internet via a Wi-Fi connection. The phone sports a normal keypad on the top which slides out to reveal a full scale QWERTY keypad.

The retail price of the handset is estimated to be $550 without carrier subsidy.

R300 Radio from Sony Ericsson hits the Indian market

Sony Ericsson R300 Radio mobile phone got launched in India. R300 is designed to deliver a credible radio-listening experience to a global audience, and ideally suited to emerging markets such as India. The new phone supports AM/FM frequency channels aiming to target the entry level buyers as its potential customer. The phone is designed to make live entertainment shows on FM channels as well as live cricket commentary on AM channels accessible to its users.

Preset buttons on the front of R300 let you switch easily between your favourite stations. It takes just one click to boost the volume when you want to share music on the radio or the live action from the sports ground.

The phone features a voice recording as well as radio recording function along with volume boosters for clarity of sound. The other features that the phone boasts of include an integrated camera, loud speaker, alarm clock with radio, MP3 ringtones, bluetooth experience, and predictive text input.

The R300 Radio is available in two colours: Antique Copper and Steel Black. It is a GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900 phone that will be available in selected markets from Q2 2008. The R300a Radio is a GSM/GPRS 850/1800/1900 phone, available in the same timeframe.

The device is priced approximately Rs. 4,395.

Spice launches S 820 in the music phone series

Spice Mobile has launched the S 820 music phone to target music lovers in India. Its USP being music and most of the features are incorporated to enhance multimedia experience.

The device is a slim handset with a Yamaha Amplifier that delivers rich 3 D sound. It has a memory of 1 GB. The phone comes with a Bluetooth stereo headset that provides you wireless environment.

S 820 sports a 1.3megapixel camera and supports WAP and GPRS. It has a capability to protect your personal SMS and other data to ensure your privacy. This could well become an important feature for those who desire to keep their data confidential. A blacklist feature also enables blocking of unwanted calls.

The phone has been priced at Rs 6,599.

Nokia Tube- just another competitor for iPhone

The recent launch of Apple iPhone has just compelled the market players in mobile industry to go for a different strategy. Nokia is all set to take on competition. It had released a touch screen phone in 2003 but it was discontinued later. Now Nokia is all set to launch a touch screen hand set by the end of the year.

There is also a stiff competition between the operating system of Apple, the OS X, and Symbian for the top spot. Mr Devinder Kishore, Nokia India’s marketing director, says, “We have been working on the Series 60 platform for touch screen user interface and a mobile device is expected to be launched by the year-end. With the acquisition of Symbian, we will be able to offer our customers more innovative products and the latest technology.”

The touch screen handset nicknamed Tube and may make its appearance by the end of this year. Such a device has been used in the latest version of Batman movie “The Dark Knight”.

LG launches CDMA LG 10000 with Reliance India Mobile to take on iPhone

The competition for the Apple iPhone seems to be going hotter and hotter day by day. After a few releases by GSM band competitors now LG Electronics has announced the launch of LG 10000 CDMA mobile phone in association with Reliance India Mobile. The handset has a stylish finish, and offers a customised bend of multimedia and business applications.

The phone has been in the US markets for some time now and is being sold as Voyager. It has been one of the main competitors to iPhone. The war for market share has shifted to India with this launch. LG 10000 is targetted exclusively at the premium segment CDMA users.

LG 10000 has a full touch screen as well as a QWERTY keypad, dual applications which is the first of its kind, in its segment of phones, including the iPhone. Office mail for corporate mail access, HTML enabled browser and high speed internet connectivity- these are other features of the handset.

The phone also has a 2.0 mega pixel camera with video recorder. With a latest full touch screen, the CDMA handset can play MPEG 4 videos and has dual stereo speakers. The phone also features an external memory card of 1GB, which can be extended up to 8 GB.

The device has a battery life of up to 240 minutes talk time and up to 480 hours stand-by time, the handset also has a call memory of up to 270 calls and phonebook memory of up to 1000 entries with 4 phone numbers, fax number, 2 email ids, picture id and also a ringer id.

LG 10000 is cheaper than iPhone. It is likely to be priced between Rs 22,000 and Rs 25,000. The handset is being launched across India and will be available in all reliance exclusive and retail outlets.

Nokia to release N96 to compete with iPhone

Nokia has announced the release of N96, its latest convergence device to take on the iPhone. N96 is designed to be the ultimate convergence device and has been optimized to provide seamless internet access.

The device has a memory of 24GB that permits storage of 18000 songs and almost 20000 images and video content equivalent to 20 movies. A security application called Wave permits the tracking of the phone if it is lost and all the data is backed up on the internet.

Sporting a 5 megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss lens that captures DVD quality video, the device is equipped with Nokia Maps and GPS navigation. It is powered by a 264 MHz processor and has 128 MB RAM. Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity options are also available.

It is noteworthy that the International launch of N96 is being done in India. N96 will be priced at around Rs 36,000.

Axis Bank will help you to get Apple 3G iPhone

…and finally Apple 3G iPhone hit the Indian market on Thursday.The third generation Apple iPhone was introduced in India by Bharti Airtel and Vodafone.

Reportedly, Vodafone was selling its phones at 11 stores across Delhi initially, while Bharti was selling it only at the Shahara Mall. But, the phone will be available shortly through 250 Vodafone stores in 50 cities across India and Bharti Airtel will ensure the availability of the iPhone in more than 65 cities. Moreover, the Apple stores will also carry the product.

The 8 GB iPhone is priced at Rs 31,000 and the 16 GB iPhone costs Rs 36,100. It appears rather expensive when compared to the US price. In the US, it costs around $199 which amounts roughly to Rs 8400. In an attempt to defend their price, Sanjay Kapoor, president of mobile services Bharti Airtel, stated that the US price is subsidised as it comes with a two-year airtime contract. Hence, it is not fair to compare these rates.

Vodafone, however has tied up with Axis Bank and Barclays to offer the phone on 6 or 12 equated monthly installments (EMIs) with a lower interest rate in order to make the product affordable for the customers. However, the customers are obligated to buy the iPhone on the credit cards of one of these banks. Bharti Airtel has not come up with any plans for an EMI scheme as yet.

The multipurpose iPhone gadget combines the extra feature of an in-built GPS system, an iPod and a web browser.

TV on your MTNL mobile

MTNL, the major government service provider in Delhi, is making efforts to introduce Mobile TV. It is also slashing broadband rates.

MTNL has introduced the Mobile TV service in the NCR region. Users will have to pay Rs 99 per month. Dolphin and Trump users can access the service.

For the broadband users MTNL has many schemes to suit the requirements of subscribers. MTNL has gone in for an across the board slashing of rates to popularize its broadband services. For Rs 99 a 2 MBPS connection with a 150 MB free download can be obtained. With the Rs 149 package the free downloads can be increased to 400 MB.

Nikon launches Coolpix P6000 with inbuilt GPS system

Nikon has launched its new high-performance compact camera COOLPIX P6000 that can be operated on the auto as well as manual modes providing flexibility to the professional photographer.

Essential features of the Coolpix P6000 include a 13.5 megapixel resolution with an in built GPS system. It has a 2.7inch LCD with a high-resolution screen. The camera has 4x zoom, NIKKOR-angle lens with two ED glass elements and image processing system EXPEED.

It can be effectively used to compose photographs even in low light conditions. The GPS places geo tags along with the images. Thus you can browse photographs location wise.

A D-SLR dial can be used to adjust the camera for different light conditions. The camera weighs 240g and has an internal memory of 48 MB. The Lithium-ion battery is capable of delivering 260 shots after charging.

The pricing of the camera is likely to be above Rs. 20,000. It is expected to be available from September onwards.

Supreme Court issues notice to Yahoo, MSN and Google

Internet: a bane or a boom, has been a common topic for discussion. However there is no denying the fact that the Internet has brought along with it quite a few vices.

Proving the point the Supreme Court of India has issued notices to the big three in the internet business, Yahoo, MSN and Google for showing advertisements promoting or encouraging female foeticide.

Online advertisements that promote sex determination tests have invited such an action by the Supreme Court. According to Indian Preconception and Prenatal Diagnostics Techniques act - PC-PNDT the determination of the sex of unborn baby is illegal. The act also prohibits any advertisements for the same. However the internet is being blatantly used by unscrupulous operators.

However the top three companies need to take a serious note of the issue.
The catch here is that such advertisements are permitted in some foreign countries.

BlackBerry launches Bold to compete with iPhone

The proposed launch of the iPhone is creating waves in the mobile handsets market. Most mobile companies are introducing products to compete with the iPhone. The RIM is launching Blackberry Bold to take on the iPhone.

The Blackberry Bold is a 3G that sports high end features with a LCD display of 480X320 resolution. It has a full QWERT keyboard and is powered by a 624 MHz processor with 1 GB of internal memory. The device is Wi-Fi compatible and has a 2 megapixel camera. A mini SDHC media card can be used to boost the storage to 8 GB. Navigation by using BlackBerry Maps is another available feature.

The phone is likely to be available during September. The pricing of Blackberry Bold is not yet disclosed.

Sony Ericsson launches C902- goes James Bond way to promote

Sony Ericsson unveiled the C902 cybershot camera phone Titanium silver edition to coincide with the upcoming James Bond film “Quantum of Solace”.

The C902, which is the company's trademark cybershot phone featuring a 5 megapixel camera, is used by popular film character Bond in the upcoming movie.

This isn't the first time Sony has used virtual marketing to promote its product. Casino Royale, which marked Daniel Craig's debut as James Bond, showcased an array of Sony products right from its Vaio range of laptops, digital cameras and mobile phones.

Vesper Lynd, who according to the story was Bond's first and last love interest but actually was a double agent working with Mr. White - the film's villain representing the Quantum Organization - also used a Sony Ericsson phone.

The phones weighs Size 107 grams and is 108 mm long. With a built in memory of 60 MB which can be extended using a memory card, the phone has a screen size of two inches. The limited Titanium edition will come pre-loaded with Bond ring tones and wallpapers.

Nokia too has used this marketing strategy in the past. In the recently released Batman movie - The Dark Knight - Nokia used the strategy to showcase their upcoming Tube mobile phone, which will be the Finnish major's new full touch screen mobile phone.

C902 will cost Rs.20,995 in the Indian market.

Sony Ericsson unveiled T700 ultra thin mobile handset

Sony Ericsson has recently unveiled the T700 phone. This ultra thin phone is meant to be the successor of the T610 style icon. This T700 mobile handset is 10 mm thick and sports a flawless design with premium features.

The T700 is a GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMTS/HSDPA 2100 phone that will be available in selected markets in the colours Black on Silver, Black on Red and Shining Silver from early Q4 of 2008. It has an optimal memory of 512 MB. The camera is 3.2 mega pixel and has the self portrait facility using which you can click your own photographs.

Few specific features of T700 are as following:
• The perfect slim elegant phone – slick stick design with premium metal finish
• 3.2 megapixel camera – snap a great shot and share with your friends via your blog or web page
• High quality stereo speakers – share your music with friends
• Colour matched headset – colour co-ordinate your accessories with your phone
• High speed sharing – via the operator network or Bluetooth™
• 512MB memory card memory in box – and even more to expand
• 2" TFT display – add more emotion when you’re in motion, download film clips and view in vivid colours

This phone is intended to take on the Motorola L6, L7 and the Nokia 6300 and 5310 Xpress Music series. The T700 has a talk time of 9 hours and 30 minutes and a standby time of 370 hours.

The T700 is a slim elegant phone for the mass market – whether you want a phone that looks good or one that is perfect to show off in an important business meeting. The pricing of the mobile handset has not yet been declared.

coming soon: a digital camera based on the human eye

Digital cameras would soon be more humanised, what with a new technology that can produce images with a wider field of view, just like the human eye.

In a collaborative study, Yonggang Huang, Joseph Cummings Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Mechanical Engineering and John Rogers, the Flory-Founder Chair Professor of Materials Science and Engineering have created array of silicon detectors and electronics that can be conformed to a curved surface.

Thus, just like the human eye, the curved surface can act as the focal plane array of the camera, which captures an image.

In a normal camera, such electronics must lie on a straight surface, and the camera's complex system of lenses have to reflect an image several times before it can reflect on the right spots on the focal plane.

"The advantages of curved detector surface imaging have been understood by optics designers for a long time, and by biologists for an even longer time. That's how the human eye works -- using the curved surface at the back of the eye to capture an image," Nature quoted Huang, as saying.

The researchers established experimental methods and theoretical foundations for an effective way to transfer the electronics from a flat surface to a curved one.

They created a hemispherical transfer element made out of a thin elastomeric membrane that can be stretched out into the shape of a flat drumhead. In this form, planar (flat) electronics can be transferred onto the elastomer. Popping the elastomer back into its hemispheric form enables the transfer of the electronics onto a hemispherical device substrate.

But the drawback was that such a process applied to conventional electronics leads to catastrophic mechanical fracture in the brittle semiconductor materials

Thus they created an array of photodetectors and circuit elements that are so small - approximately 100 micrometers square - they aren't as affected when the elastomer pops back into its hemispheric shape.

In addition, each of these devices on the array is connected by thin metal wires on plastic, which form arc-shaped structures that Huang and Rogers call "pop-up bridges." These bridges interconnect the silicon devices, thereby relaxing all of the strain associated with return of the elastomer to its curved shape.

The array was also designed in such a way that the silicon component of each device is sandwiched in the middle of two other layers, the so-called natural mechanical plane. That way, while the top layer is stretched and the bottom layer is compressed, the middle layer experiences very small stress.

The images obtained using this curved array in an electronic eye-type camera indicate large-scale pictures that are much clearer than those obtained with similar, but planar, cameras, when simple imaging optics are used.

"In a conventional, planar camera, parts of the images that fall at the edges of the fields of view are typically not imaged well using simple optics. The hemisphere layout of the electronic eye eliminates this and other limitations, thereby providing improved imaging characteristics," said Huang.

The results of this research will be published as the cover story in the upcoming issue of the journal Nature.

Airtel and Vodafone to launch iPhone on 22 August

The iPhone is finally on its way to India. Airtel and Vodafone will be launching iPhone on 22 August 2008. It was earlier reported that only Airtel will be launching the service. However now it has now been confirmed that even Vodafone will be selling iPhones from the same date.

The iPhone will provide 3G services, which are expected to be twice as faster as 2G services. The price details for the phone in India have not yet been released.

According to President Bharti Airtel mobile services Sanjay Kapoor, “iPhone has been an iconic technological revelation of this year and Airtel has been at the forefront of innovation and customer delight in the Indian telecom sector”.

Now what about the price? No one knows the exact price and even the Airtel or Vodafone has not disclosed it either. However, a 3G phone is expected to be sold at about Rs 20,000.

Intex to launch a series of nine notebooks in India

Intex has announced to launch a new series of notebooks in India. The new series consist of one model each in the Lifestyle, Gaming and Tablet Pad types and three models each in the Business book and Education notebook series.

All the newly launched Intex notebooks are equipped with connectivity features like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

The Lifestyle Book targets working women. The notebook comes in pink, black and white colors and weighs only 1.8 kg. It is priced in the range of Rs 33,000. The Gaming notebook is a high-end laptop. It sports the Intel Centrino technology with Nvidia Graphic Power. It has a hybrid TV tuner card and targets the younger generation of gaming enthusiasts. It is priced at 75,900.

The Tablet Pad has a 12.1inch TFT touch screen that can be rotated through 180 degrees. It is aimed at professionals. The Business Book variant comes in 15.4 inch and 13.3 inches size screens. It features a HDMI port, security features of finger-prints and hotkeys to play music. It is priced between Rs 32,900 to Rs 42,900.

The Education laptops are value for money laptops. They are targeted at students and promise to deliver high performance. The education laptops from Intex are priced between Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000.

Samsung launches TouchWIZ F480

Samsung has launched its full touch screen, ultra-slim Lifestyle segment mobile phone – The Samsung TouchWIZ F480 in the Indian market.

The Touchwiz’s 5 MegaPixel, AutoFocus-LED Flash camera, refined metal body casing and luxurious leather cover combine the best of form and function to create new benchmarks in Lifestyle space in mobile phones.

The F 480 is a high tech touchscreen phone that has Olympics 2008 as its theme. The Samsung TouchWIZ offers a brilliant full touch navigation experience ; widgets with ‘Drag and Drop’ technology and User Interface with Haptic Feedback which makes the experience of using the phone highly interactive and easy. The TouchWIZ strengthens Samsung’s lineage in touch UI with the already existing portfolio of I780 & I710, the Giorgio Armani P520 and Soul.

The innovative, quick and simple ‘drag and drop’ technology of the Samsung TouchWIZ allows widgets to be selected from the left panel of the screen and dropped anywhere on the home screen. Since the Widgets comprise widely used applications like clock , calendar , alarms , Music Player , FM , Games and Profiles, this practically equips the user to set hotkeys on the touch menu for all these functions as per their will. The colourful widget icons add a dash of colour and life to the idle phone screen and desktop. Haptic Feedback offers a tangible feedback when a user makes a selection on the touch screen.

The Samsung TouchWIZ with its 5.0 Mega pixel camera answers today’s customer needs as the perfect digital camera and multimedia mobile combined into one single device. Innovative ‘Auto Smile Shot’ feature makes its worldwide debut in Samsung TouchWIZ. This intelligent feature enables the camera to detect when a person is smiling and automatically take a picture when in the ‘Smile shot’ mode, so the user can easily capture his/her happiest moments. In addition, the chic Samsung TouchWiz is equipped with face detection, image stabilizer, auto focus, CMOS video lens and Wide Dynamic Range (WDR)- features found in the more advanced digital cameras of today.

The Samsung TouchWhiz is compatible with GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSDPA (7.2mbps) networks and functions on GSM 900/1800/1900, and WCDMA 2100 bands. In terms of storage, the phone is equipped with 240MB of internal memory, which can be expanded up to 8GB via the microSD memory card slot.

Users can enjoy super-fast Internet access through the 7.2 Mbps High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) browser and share images or video taken with the phone. With 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, users can also download songs at a faster speed compared to average 3G networks. The high speed internet access (HSDPA) and USB 2.0 connectivity of the Samsung TouchWiz enables users to transfer and download data faster. Whether they are music or video files, customers can enjoy all the benefits of being online on-the-go.

Other usage features include an integrated FM radio, multi-format video playback (MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV, Real), and also MPEG4 video recording and editing functions. Media playback and user interfacing can be enjoyed on a large 2.8-inch TFT LCD (240x320) display screen.

Samsung TOUCHWIZ F480 will be available for Rs 20,990 in the Indian Markets.

Lenovo all set to launch netbooks in India

The trend of launching low cost laptops that can perform basic functions like surfing the Internet and office applications has caught up in a big way.

Lenovo too has jumped in the fray along with Acer, Dell and HP by deciding to launch the IdeaPad S9 and S10 netbooks. These netbooks will be ultra-portable and thin. Mr Liu Jun, senior vice president, Consumer Business Group, Lenovo says “IdeaPad netbooks are the latest in a string of recently announced Lenovo products, designed specifically for consumers worldwide and developed through our heritage of technological innovation and exceptional engineering,”

Their features include 8.9 and 10.2 inch screens with enhanced battery life, WiFi, Bluetooth connectivity and an Express Card slot for users with high speed mobile broadband connectivity. In built web camera, a multi-card reader and two USB ports are provided. With hard disks of 80 GB or 160 GB the net books will be operated by Windows XP or Linux operating systems.

The netbooks will be available in India in September.

Get ready for the next operating system- Midori

According to a report by SD Times, Eric Rudder, senior vice president for technical strategy at Microsoft, has been working on the OS named as ‘Midori’, which is heavily dependent on the Internet based and designed to work on native hardwares (x86, x64 and ARM).

“That sounds possible—I’ve heard rumors to the effect that he had an OS project in place,” says Rob Helm, director of research at Directions on Microsoft, hinting at the latest development at Microsoft.

Windows has come a long way since its release in 1985. The first version of the operating system was Windows 1.0. The latest from Microsoft is the Windows Vista. Midori is expected to be the first operating system outside the Windows umbrella; however it will be hosted by Windows Hyper-V hypervisor or by a Windows process.

Pentax to launch 10.1 megapixels Optio E60 Digital Camera

Pentax has recently announced to launch Optio E60 compact digital camera. The camera sports 10.1 megapixels. It is bundled with the ACDSee viewer/ image software and is compatible with Windows Vista.

This latest member of the Pentax Optio E series is newly equipped with an optical 3X zoom lens designed especially for group shots in narrow settings, landscapes and architecture. In addition, the Optio E60 features a variety of modes including Auto Picture, Face Recognition, High Sensitivity Digital Shake Reduction, and a Green mode that sets exposure, sensitivity and other parameters with the touch of a button for the newest of digital users.

The Optio E60 uses AA batteries and sports World Time and Date Imprint functions. It also has an Image Recovery function to retrieve accidentally-erased pics.

The Optio E60 permits you to combine pictures into one panoramic picture. You can shoot 16 images in quick succession. It has a Green mode where in you can set sensitivity, exposure and other settings at the touch of a button.

It will be available in October for US$140.