TECH-x-CLUSIVE

It may not be first touchscreen digital camera on the market, but Panasonic's new LUMIX FX500 is better late than never with a 3-inch touchscreen LCD and the same 25mm ultra-wide-angle Leica DC lens 10.1MP resolution, intelligent ISO and face detection as the FX35. It also features a 5x optical zoom, auto focus tracking and the ability to shoot HD video (1280 x 720p) content and still photos with a 16:9 aspect ratio. Not to bad for the $399.95 price tag. Expect to see it on store shelves starting this May. Additional pic and press release after the break.

PANASONIC UNVEILS COMPANY'S FIRST TOUCH-SCREEN LUMIX DIGITAL CAMERA, COMPLETE WITH 25MM ULTRA-WIDE- ANGLE LENS AND HD VIDEO CAPABILITIES

New LUMIX FX500 Packs 3-inch LCD with Touch-Screen Operation, 5x Optical Zoom and 10.1 megapixels in Slim and Compact Design


SECAUCUS, NJ (March 18, 2008) - Panasonic today announces the LUMIX DMC-FX500, the company's first digital camera with a 3-inch touch-screen LCD - also featuring a 25mm ultra-wide-angle Leica DC lens, 5x optical zoom and 10.1 megapixels. With a dual control system using both touch-screen and joystick operation, the ability to record High Definition (HD) video and advanced Intelligent Auto technologies, the FX500 packs innovative features and intuitive design, helping consumers enrich the digital photography experience and take better photos.

Google increased their hold on search market from 70.5% to 76.6% and performed almost outstanding compared to their fiscal growth target and previous year results. On other hand Yahoo is giving up to compete with Google and analyst have suggested that they are outsourcing the search part to third parties.
Yahoo is struggling for the search market. Yahoo company growth is not as expected. In recent conference for fourth quarter result Yahoo chief announced their employee lay off. Company is planning to lay off around 1000 employees which is around 7% of total Yahoo workforce. This suggest much about current company performance.

New Yahoo chief Jerry yang said, “This is a necessary next step in our transformation,” Though Yahoo reported fourth quarter profit of $206 million with increasing revenue by 14% to $1.4 billion. Display advertising revenue is continuing to grow by around 20% and company focusing more on display advertising network.

Yahoo online search share fall from 24.1% to 17.9%, which is almost 25% fall compared to previous year. Google captures major part of this search share.

For the year 2008 in spite of headwind in the beginning company is expecting double-digit cash flow growth this year. Display advertising and search integration is final hope for Yahoo.

MacGeneration has spotted a new Airport Express unit listed at the Swiss online Apple Store. The updated router looks identical to the older Airport Express, however, the specification for the refreshed model lists 802.11n wireless network support.
The Swiss variety shows a one week ship time and Macrumors is reporting a reliable source informs them of a $99 price point, as well as an ETA of sometime next week for a Stateside release—anyone taking bets for not Tuesday? As before, iTunes streaming, printer and internet sharing should all be thrown in. We'll keep you posted on any midweek confirmation.

Microsoft looks to learn from the successes and failures of Vista to deliver its strongest OS yet

Windows Vista was supposed to usher in a new era for Windows operating systems, employing a stylish aero graphical user interface and offering many improvements over its previous version.

However for all its hits, the OS has certainly had its misses. Initial hardware support for the 64-bit home version was bad leading to multiple incompatibilities, while the more "user-safe" interface with its many prompts (which some don't realize can be disabled) left many annoyed. Further, the multiple SKUs left many wondering what they were buying, though in Microsoft's defense, the software giant did document the differences between versions extensively online, and worked with retailers to provide this information.


The company was also slammed with a major class action suit, after its executives admitted lying to consumers about computers' "Vista readiness" under pressure from a hungry Intel looking to sell chipsets. Said one executive, unhappily, "We set ourselves up."

The long awaited high-end successor to NVIDIA's wildly popular GeForce 8800 series is almost upon us.

Those anticipating a new architecture, unfortunately, will have to sit this generation out. The core logic used in the GeForce 9800GX2 and GeForce 9800GTX is none other than the 65nm G92 core found on the GeForce 8800GT, though all 128 shaders are enabled -- opposed to the 112 found on last year's G92.

NVIDIA's GeForce 9800GX2 is poised as the ultra high-end enthusiast graphics card. The new adapter takes a page from the GeForce 7950GX2 since it's actually composed of two G92 cores on a single board. Factories are instructed to set these core frequency at 600 MHz and memory frequencies at 2000 MHz.

The GeForce 9800GX2 uses a dual-slot cooling fan. Reference designs of this card include twin DVI outputs and a single HDMI port.

AMD's "Spider" platform, unveiled last year, combines the high-end 790FX chipset with the Phenom processor and 3000-series ATI graphics cards. It's targeted at mid-priced and enthusiast PCs, and while we aren't entirely thrilled with the Phenom processor so far, there's nothing inherently wrong with the chipset or motherboards.
But they're not for the mainstream business and low-cost home user. For the bulk of PCs sold in the $500–800 3, integrated graphics is the norm, and smaller, cheaper, lower-power motherboards and CPUs are common. Now, AMD has unveiled the new RS780G chipset, sporting new processor support, new integrated graphics, a new southbridge, and Hybrid Graphics—the ability to gang up your integrated graphics and a low-cost graphics card for CrossFire on the cheap.

Samsung's Spinpoint M6 is the world's first 2.5-inch, 500GB HDD. Standing in at 9.5mm tall, the M6 will easily fit most existing laptop hard drive bays. For those of you worried about sloth like performance, the Spinpoint M6 has a 5400rpm spindle speed, an 8MB cache, as well as a 3.0Gbps SATA interface. A Free-Fall Sensor can be added as an optional extra. Not content with breaking the world record for the HDD with the smallest size / biggest capacity, Samsung are also introducing the industry's fastest DVD burner.

ASUS' popular Eee PC gets a screen, memory boost

The wait is nearly over for an Eee PC with a larger screen. ASUS was hard at work on an 8.9" version of its wildly popular Eee PC sub-notebook. Today, images and details are finally rolling out for the highly-anticipated update.
As previously reported, the 8.9" display should have a 1024x600 resolution which is a welcome jump from the confining 800x480 display on the first-generation Eee PC. The increase in screen real estate made a minimal impact on the exterior dimensions of the device -- the Eee PC 900 is slightly larger and thicker and features a larger touchpad. The keyboard looks to identical to the previous model.