Best iPhone Applications: Part I

The feature that makes the iPhone so special is its large database of applications all available under one roof - the App Store. It not only provides a one stop solution to your application needs but also provides a chance for millions of coders to showcase their talent and creativity.

The App Store is broadly divided into two categories - free and paid - and can further be classified under these heads. Though there are so many applications to choose from the App Store, there are a few that are really worth using to get that little extra from your iPhone.

One of your requirements would be an internet connection on your mobile phone. The iPhone is sold through Vodafone & Airtel, and both of these network providers bundle an internet service subscription along with the phone. So it's almost a given that your iPhone has internet services (GPRS/EDGE) activated on it, unless you're using a jail-broken iPhone and haven't made sure to activate GPRS/EDGE.



Here are a few applications that may be useful to you.



Shazam

Now I'm quite sure that you too have been in this situation; you're hanging out with a bunch of friends at a pub or a coffee shop and you really like the song that is being played. However, you, nor your friends, know the song or the artist. So you eventually start referring to the song as - 'that song we heard at that coffee shop/club...'

So here is an application that can get you out of your misery. Sony Ericsson's Walkman branded phones come with an application called TrackID, but on the iPhone it is called Shazam.

Shazam comes handy when you need to know the name of the track that is playing. All you need to do is start Shazam and let it do the rest. It'll sample the song and come back with results of the track name, artists' name, album name, and more details. A very handy application indeed!

Facebook

Facebook needs no introduction. It's the largest social networking site at the moment and it is growing further. The facebook application will let iPhone users stay connected with friends and also upload pictures with tagging feature. You can also stay updated on the status of your friends, while on the go. Soon there will be a host of other features, like the ones that appear on the web version

fring

Fring is a new community of mobile users. It is the first of mobile VoIP services to land in the App store. Before Apple realized its presence, this app was available only for jail-broken iPhones.

Fring is a one stop application for IM - you can connect to Google Talk, AIM, Skype, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Twitter, plus VoIP calls over Wi-Fi. Fring has multiple connectivity and is seamless over 3G, Wi-Fi, GPRS and EDGE all automated switching. A must-have to stay connected with friends.

Google Earth (My Location)

Google Maps works on most phones that support Java, though the desktop version Google Earth is something that provides a lot more than what Google Maps can. It's astonishing that Google have managed to successfully port the desktop version Google Earth to the iPhone. It's fun to swipe the screen and see the world spin on the screen of your iPhone. The iPhone version of this application also sports the latest features of the desktop version, such as Street View and 3D terrain.

This is the currently available free GPS app for the iPhone and it can point out your location and also helps with places around your GPS position.


Wi-Finder

Wi-Finder is an application that helps you scan the area for Wi-Fi hotspots. This application does the dirty work for you checking if you are able to access the internet via a Wi-Fi hotspot and lists it as an open network. It doesn't break into a closed network but its fine for those who are just looking for a way to access the internet quickly. The Wi-Finder also has a notification option, so when it comes across an open Wi-Fi spot it'll make a notification sound.


iZoho

Zoho for the iPhone is iZoho. It's possible to access Zoho applications on your iPhone. There are three of them that are currently available - Zoho Writer, Sheet and Show- and let you open documents, spreadsheets and presentations respectively. You can both view as well as edit documents. As an additional feature you can view presentations in landscape mode and create new documents.

Shozu

Shozu for the iPhone lets you upload images and videos to several sites; these include image sharing websites like flickr, facebook and even your blog. It also has geo-tagging and you can update your status from anywhere. It lets you even connect to twitter for status updates. Shozu is available on other mobile platforms.

Google Mobile App

Google Mobile App helps you find the information you need quickly and easily with instant access to Google Search. Search can be typed or voiced. You can search with 'My Location' for details on finding the nearest food joints, business info, weather and movie info. Suggestions appear as you type to save your time. You can also launch Gmail, Google News and more from the Google Mobile App.

AirSharing

This application lets you store files on your iPhone and also acts as a viewer. You can setup the application to work while having it connected to a PC via Wi-Fi. So now you not only have the freedom to browse through files but can also view several file types.

Standout file types that are supported are Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), PDF, iWork (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote), and several audio/video/image formats supported by the iPhone.


Ocarina

Ocarina is a musical instrument created for the iPhone. It simulates a flute, and since it's a flute you need to blow into the microphone while tapping various points on the screen to create your own music. Its sensitivity to breath, touch and movements is amazing. There are advanced options that allow you to choose between diatonic, minor and harmonic scales. Ocarina is a social application so you can tap on the globe icon and see/hear other Ocarina players. You can also rate your favorite performances. Ocarina lets you name your "Ocarina" so your created content will be appreciated and shared.

Conclusion

These are just a few of the listed applications from the App Store that we found to be impressive or just provide great productivity and connectivity. Since there are a lot more apps, especially in the games section, that you may find interesting and useful, we'll have more iPhone app listings coming your way very soon.

Now an open request to all ya iPhone/iPod Touch users (ideally the official users); please feel free to put down your favorite apps that you feel should have made it in this article- keeping in mind productivity and connectivity.

How to Create a Website (Tips)

I want a website. But how do I go about it? Whom do I contact? Will it cost a lot of money? These are only some of the questions that would be raised in your mind if you are thinking of building your own website. Here, I'm going to answer these and several other queries which would be raised when one wants to build a website.

Did you know?

Did you know Muchhad Paanwalla has a website too? Who is Mucchaad paanwalla? He is the famous paanwalla who sits at Kemps Corner. He is very well known for his meetha (sweet) paan a.k.a Ladies paan. It's my favourite too!

Please note that I'm not going into a heavy HTML tutorial on website building and would rather focus on the pre-process of building a website. Yes. The "Pre-process". Many erroneously think that building a website is simply slapping on a few webpages together. Well it isn't that simple and is much more than that! The information here is not complete, but is helpful enough to set creative as well as analytical juices flowing towards building a website.

Why a website? Asking the right questions
Why is it that you want a website? Just because the guy next door does or is it that your competitors do and therefore you want it too? This is like a kid telling his mom "If Vishal can have it, why can't I?" It would help more if you think constructively rather than reactively. Ask the right questions and you'll get the right answers.

1. What is it that you are trying to achieve through a website?
This will help you understand your goals and in effect the websites goals much better.

2. Is it business related or pleasure/hobby? What is your business/hobby all about?
This will help you angle the website in a particular way. If it's a business website, it will have a more serious flavour to it as compared with a hobby website, which would perhaps have brighter colours and/or have funky designs.

3. Is your website going to just inform the audience or are you going to sell something on it too?
There are two types of informational websites - one where the content is pretty much fixed and to change it you require the developers help, the other which uses a content management system that enables you to change content yourself such as blogs. If you are going to sell, the simplest way is to let people contact you or have an online shopping cart.

4. Who is your target audience?
This question will help you decide whom you are talking to and how. It will also help you to figure out what language to use and which style would suit your content better. Also, you can decide the kind of images/photos would appeal to the audience.

5. Who are your competitors? In case of a hobby website, who are the other fellow hobbyists?
This will help not only in your website creation but business in general. Knowing what the competition/other guy has up for offer will help you know your place in the business world/hobby world and determine how important you are to your audience.

6. What are the websites that you've referred? What are the websites that you like?
Before you try to decide what your website will look like, look at what other websites look like. Also, see how easy or difficult it is to get what you want on the website. Refer not just competitor websites but take a cue from those you like in general.

What's in the name?
Since you've finally decided to build a website, the first thing you need to do is think of a name or rather several alternatives of a name. For a business website, you will obviously want the name of your business; for a hobbyist you'd probably want a name of your hobby attached, such as coin collector. There are several things that you may want to think about before deciding on a name.

1. If your hobby is coin collection as of now, it may not be wise to get a name such as coincollector.com because after a few years, if you want to expand your hobby, coincollector.com will not fit in. It would thus be smarter to go for a generic name or your own very name as a website address. If you are a business, you have far less of a chance of change in a name. For example, if you are called Shree Riddhi Siddhi Computers, it would probably be easy to get the same name, but be ready for a slight alteration if you don't.

2. Getting/deciding on a name can get to be difficult. Understand that Internet has no boundaries and therefore every English dictionary name you think of is probably already taken such as coincollector.com. Also, having a .com address, which is long, can get difficult and frustrating to type in. Like missing out a "d" in Riddhi Siddhi will give an error and most novice users will probably not understand the problem.

3. If you cannot get a name in a .com form, don't fret as not all addresses end in .com. You can look at several alternatives such as .org, .net, .in, .co.in, etc. The cost of each of these may vary.

4. You don't need a web designer to tell you what name you can or cannot choose. You can choose this from a wonderful little site called DomainTyper.com which very clearly explains what site name you can or cannot take. If you really like the name you've chosen but cannot find a .com, .net, or .org name, click on the "Add Extension" next to it where you can choose a different extension altogether.

Practically speaking, there is really no difference in .com, .net, or .org name these days. Search engines don't discriminate between a .com address and a .net address. The .com addresses are just the most popular domain extensions and therefore the Internet is thought of as "dot com". As a rule, go for .com first and if it is taken, try for others.

Buying space
Yes, just like you need space for your office, you need space for your website too. It's measured in MB's and GB's here and not in width, height and depth.

There are various places you can buy space from. However, it's best left upto your web designer/company you are getting this through. If you want a general cost structure for buying space and domain name, is will cost you about Rs.150 per month or more. Here are a few popular hosts that offer webhosting for your website. Each host has several offers/goodies to offer. I will not go into this as it is beyond the scope of this article. However, be careful of webhosts that claim unlimited space and bandwidth. There are no free lunches and unlimited generally means that there is a limit but most small websites will not exceed it. However, once you do, you'll be asked to pay for a higher package or move to another host. Don't worry. The unlimitedness threshold is quite high such as 6GB for space or more and 500GB or more for bandwidth. Also, Linux webhosting is cheaper than Windows.

lunarpages

Bluehost

Want to make your basics stronger?
If you are really technologically-challenged you need to read this. My completely technologically-challenged uncle asked me certain questions I never even thought about. He couldn't understand what the internet was or what a website really is. So, here are some of the questions and answers that I came across.

What is the Internet?
As per Wikipedia (online encyclopedia) , "The Internet is a global network of interconnected computers, enabling users to share information along multiple channels." Basically, for something like an Internet, you need several people who have computers hooked up to each other through wires to send and receive data.

This is what the internet would look like when visualized with colour codes. Original higher size is available at Wikipedia Internet Map.
It is pretty much like a club called the Internet and several people joining in (logging in) to send other club members some information. In order to facilitate faster communication and exchange of services, certain members are rich enough to have big information centres (called servers) that can share info for certain exchange of information from you. This is, of course, a very simplistic explanation and I'm sure many of you are already raising your eyebrows. I cannot discuss this in detail here, do hop on to Wikipedia entry on Internet for better information. If you are interested in actually seeing a better visual representation of how Internet network looks, see World Wide Web Around Wikipedia.

What is URL/Internet address? I already have an office address.
URL/address is being referred to as a location where your website is or will be. You cannot just say "Go to the Internet and see what we are offering." It's like saying "Go to Andheri and you'll find the Techtree office." You need to specify where you need to go exactly and there cannot be landmarks for websites either, you cannot say it's next to the Wikipedia website. The URL address is something like www.techtree.com, which is equivalent to giving exact address to someone to reach your office.

What is a website?
Just as you've an office site/space where you sit, your internet office sits where your website is.

I don't want my competitor to see my website
In business, you can avoid to show your competitor your offerings, but you cannot so that on a website as you do not have control over who comes to see your website. Internet has no boundaries -- anyone, anywhere can come see your offerings and probably copy or offer something better. You can limit your website to a closed set of people with a password protection. However, this defeats the purpose of a website, plus you need to have a real solid offering for someone to really want to get included in such an elitist club


Designing a Website
Before you skip this, I'm not getting into the technical details here. I will just take you through the thought process that you need undertake when you want to build your own website. Yes, even if you hire a web designer and it's his job to do this, it will help and reduce a lot of heartache if you streamline your thought before you go to explain him what you want.

1. Design for easy reading across webpages. Nothing should interfere with the readability of the webpage, that's the only way you can communicate with your audience. You may like red colour, but, please don't paste it across the entire webpage as it makes readability difficult; use white instead as it's the most readable and professional to look at.

2. Don't try any stupid cheap tricks to fool the search engines. In the past, web designers have developed nefarious methods in an attempt to get higher rankings in the search engines such as repeating several words in the same page, putting invisible text, etc. Gone are those days. Trying to fool Google (the king of search engines) will get your website banned.

3. Forget silly under construction pages. If you don't have anything there, just don't put anything there at all. No one wants to go to an under-construction page. It's like announcing a new road and then saying, "Oh it's under construction come later".

Webology
Domain
A domain identifies a computer or computers on the Internet. The name appears as a Web site URL, e.g. www.techtree.com. A domain needs to be registered on domain name registrars such as the popular three mentioned earlier.

Subdomain
In the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, a subdomain is a domain that is part of a larger domain. For example, "mail.example.com" or "calendar.example.com" are subdomains of the "example.com" domain, which in turn is a subdomain of the ".com" top-level domain (TLD).
Source - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subdomain

ICANN
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, headquartered in Marina Del Rey, California, U.S., ICANN is a non-profit corporation that was created on Sept. 18, 1998. ICANN is responsible for managing the assignment of domain names and IP addresses.
Find out more here.

TLD
A top-level domain (TLD), sometimes referred to as a top-level domain name, is the last part of an Internet domain name, i.e.; the group of letters that follow the final dot of any domain name. For example, in the domain name www.example.com, the top-level domain is .com. Read more here.

Cyber Squatting
Cyber Squatting is the registration of a well-known brand or company name as an Internet domain name in the hope of selling it at a later date for an exorbitant amount. This is considered an offence and is a crime.
Read more about it here.

Microsoft: Windows 7 Downgradeable to XP (news)

Microsoft's beloved operating system Windows XP might just get another extension. With Windows 7, the software giant Microsoft and PC makers will offer Windows 7 downgrade options. Under the downgrade option, PC buyers would be able to downgrade Windows 7 to Vista or even Windows XP. Of course, there would be certain conditions applicable.

Microsoft's Windows 7 looks good enough to repair Windows Vista's woes. While the public beta is available and being used, Microsoft is rumored to be releasing Windows 7's release candidate this summer. AppleInsider reported that HP got the green signal for extension of rights to sell Windows XP loaded systems till April 30, 2010. Also, HP would be offering volume-license users the option to downgrade to Windows XP.

Mary Jo Foley, who writes on All About Microsoft Blog, questioned Microsoft on the Windows XP downgrade rights. Foley stated that Microsoft will offer downgrade rights to users for downgrading Windows 7 to earlier Windows versions. So, basically, users can downgrade Windows 7 to Windows XP, Windows 2000, or even Windows 98.

Getting back to the HP-related downgrade arrangement, Microsoft's spokesperson warded off the possibility of HP-exclusive downgrade rights. Microsoft said that the downgrade policies will be applicable to all main OEM partners and not as a special arrangement. Microsoft's spokesperson stated, No dates have been announced for the end of Windows 7 downgrade right facilitation to Windows XP.

To be noted, Microsoft and its OEM partners offer downgrade rights on only two Windows Vista versions Business and Ultimate. Either of these versions could be downgraded to XP Professional. Not to be forgotten that the OEMs charge customers a price for the downgrade. Customers buying new machines with Windows XP downgrade from Windows Vista this summer would also be eligible for free Windows 7 upgrade.

It is interesting that people are actually concerned about downgrade options even before the release date of Windows 7 is announced. On the other hand, Apple offers upgrades to their Mac OS X operating systems, and a preview of the Snow Leopard is expected at the Worldwide Developers Conference 2009 starting June 8.

It would be unfair to compare these options since a majority of corporate customers are concerned about supporting their infrastructure, services, and products with multiple operating systems from the same company. Yet another wait and watch game for customers to check out what's in store with regard to Windows 7.

Sony Vaio P - Pocket PC [Review]

I'm sure you must have seen the ad where a lady tries to contain a gleaming red gadget from falling out of her back pocket. Yes, that's the Vaio P, Sony's latest Ultra mobile PC, and we have it in the labs today for a full review. We had previewed the Vaio P last month and although we didn't get to spend a lot of time with it, everyone went gaga over it.

It's very rare for Sony to send out review samples and if this is a sign of things to come, then hopefully we can expect more products in the future. Sony has sent us their full-blown version of the Vaio P that comes with Vista Home Premium, 64GB SSD and a couple of bundled accessories. First let's check out the bundle followed by a closer look at the Vaio P itself.


Bundle

The bundle consists of the following accessories;

Charger

Port extender

MDR-NC 021 Noise cancelling earphones

The port extender and the earphones are only available in the high-end model and are otherwise sold separately. The earphones seem to be quite an old model and you won't find it anywhere on their website.

Build and Design

This time we got the black version instead of the red one, which looks even slicker. The device weighs only 594gm and can easily be slipped into your coat pocket or a handbag. The paint job on the top and bottom is glossy thereby attracting fingerprints and scratches.

On the left we have the charging dock, a single USB port and the headphone jack.

The right side features the Port extender jack and another USB port. Using the port extender you can use the VGA out port and the LAN jack. It's a real shame that you have to buy this separately with the lower model, since I would have expected something as basic as a LAN and VGA jack to be included by default.

On the left we have the Wi-Fi on/off switch that also enables Bluetooth. Just below that is a SD and Memory stick card reader neatly tucked away in the bottom.

The power switch is very similar to the PSP and prevents an accidental press. The two LED's on the side indicate battery capacity and hard disk activity. When the battery is running low, the power and the battery LED blink slowly in a breathing fashion.

Even though it's the full-blown version, we have to settle for the standard two cell battery. Now here's the interesting bit. When Sony gave us a presentation on the Vaio P, they specifically mentioned that it will feature the new Lithium Polymer battery. However, now we see that it is a Lithium Ion battery and that too just a two cell.

Opening the lid reveals the full QWERTY keyboard along with all the function keys. The entire keyboard is recessed a bit and the keys are small, but thanks to a clever design there is sufficient spacing around the keys making it very comfortable to use.

The 8-inch widescreen is really bright, thanks to the high resolution and the LED backlighting that uses less power and produces a more even backlight compared to CCFL.
The 1600x768 seems a little odd at first, since everything is too small. You have too zoom in to read text or while browsing the net. But for watching a movie or using an application, it's not that bad. Trying lower resolutions only makes things worse, so you have no choice but to stick with the native.

Daily Usage and Performance

Keyboard

The keyboard will definitely take some time getting used. The keys have the right spacing and size to be comfortable enough to be used on a desk or your lap. All in all, I give Sony two thumbs up for the brilliantly-designed keyboard given the space constraint.

The pointing stick is a real joy to use and the sensitivity can be completely customised with the AlpsPoint software. Tap the stick once for a left click, tap it twice and you have a double click. What about scrolling? Well, for that you have to hold the center button (between the left and right click) and move the stick up or down. Don't worry, as it is a lot less complicated than it sounds.


Multimedia Performance


I'm very disappointed here. Believe it or not but the DVD movie playback is quite jerky. Even after installing the K-Lite codec pack and using Media Player Classic, a typical 700MB movie does not play smoothly. I'm not even talking about skipping to a particular scene but simply watching it causes the video to freeze while the audio continues to roll and loose sync.
It does catch up again but spoils the whole fun of watching a movie. There was no doubt that Vista is the culprit here, so I switched the theme to Vista Basic that uses lot less resources, especially memory and was pleasantly surprised to see the video playback get a little better.
I then switched to Windows Classic, which showed some promising signs but wasn't quite there. In the Advanced Settings I selected the best performance option and even set a custom page file size, none of which fixed the problem completely. The playback seemed to be a little better in Windows Media Player but there was always a little sluggishness and the audio would loose sync often. What's surprising is the CPU usage never goes above 30% but the memory usage is around 1.2GB, leaving hardly anything for applications.



Battery Life

The Vaio P comes with a two cell Lithium Ion battery instead of the previously stated Lithium Polymer battery. Before testing, the battery was charged to a 100% and the brightness was kept at medium with Wi-Fi off.
I was pleasantly surprised when the Vaio P gave me a back up time of three hours and 20 minutes after which it was completely dead. This is very close to the rated four hour target and is good for a two cell battery.


Instant Mode

This is essentially your PSP/PS3 CrossMedia bar (XMB) that lets you quickly browse through photos and surf the Internet without booting into Windows. What's odd is that even this interface is jerky and not smooth like the one used on the PSP, which really makes me wonder what's eating all the resources? Either there's some major bug in the firmware or Sony needs to work on a patch to fix this problem. I definitely don't expect Linux to run so poorly on an Intel Atom with 2GB of memory.

Verdict

Call it the ultimate productive gadget or the rich kids tech toy, you cannot deny the fact that Sony has created a memorable piece of gadgetry that's going to inspire plenty of spin-offs from many manufacturers. The entire design and execution of the Vaio P is sheer genius and once you flip it out of your coat pocket or handbag, its game over.

The Sony Vaio P is available in many colors keeping both the sexes in mind. The screen is simply gorgeous sporting a really high resolution. The keyboard layout is well thought and is really comfortable once you get a hang of it.

Of course don't expect the state-of-the-art technology to be cheap. The base model has a price tag of Rs. 50,000, while the full-blown model that we reviewed comes for Rs. 65,000. While this could be device for someone looking at a productive gadget for work and entertainment on the go, Vista ruins the show.
Not only is it too much for the Atom processor to handle, you cannot even play a normal DVD movie without the video locking up every few seconds. Another thing I noticed is that the bottom of the Vaio P gets really hot during normal usage, which is not good for the components.

Make no mistake, Sony is strictly targeting the wealthy youth and businessmen with the Vaio P so don't expect any major price cuts, as the sole audience is going to be the rich folk with oodles of spare cash. My only resentment is the operating system which is a damper on what otherwise would have been the perfect little pocket PC.
Test unit sourced from Perfect Relations


Specifications

source : http://www.techtree.com/India/Reviews/Sony_Vaio_P_-_Pocket_PC_Review/551-99325-616-8.html

HP Elitebook 6930p [Review]

It's not often that we get to review business notebooks, but today we have one of HP's most celebrated and talked about enterprise notebook- the EliteBook 6930p. This notebook is targeted at the traveling businessman, who needs a no-nonsense, rugged and durable notebook that's resistant to moisture, shocks, vibration and the ability to work in extreme temperatures.

Based on the new Centrino 2 platform, the EliteBook packs in a powerful processor along with a strong graphics card to handle any task you throw at it. The 6930p can be pitted against Dell's Latitude series of business notebooks, mainly the E6400 series, since both have the same screen size.

Bundle

HP didn't send any backup DVD with their notebook and all that was there in the bag was the charger and some instruction leaflets.

Build and Construction

This is something I would like to see more often on notebooks. The entire lid is protected by HP's DuraCase finish, which is a layer of honeycomb patterned magnesium shells between the display and the aluminum cover, for extra durability. The brushed metal finish requires very less maintenance and is scratch proof to a certain extent.

The front houses the SD/MMC card reader along with the speaker. The notebook is locked when closed and requires you to push the button to unlock it.

The VGA out port and the charging port is tucked away in the back.

The EliteBook has three USB ports, two of which are on the left side along with the firewire port and the headphone/microphone jack. Just above it is the Express card slot. The laptop base is not thick in spite of it containing the graphics card. I just hope it doesn't get too hot with just a small vent on the side.


The third USB port can be found on the right side along with the RJ-45 LAN jack and the modem jack. The optical drive is an Optiarc DVD writer that's hot swappable. The optical drive can be removed and another hard drive or hard disk can be put in its place.

We have a clear shot of the HP expansion port to be used with the optional docks. Just below that is a jack for the secondary 8-cell or 12-cell battery that will dock here. You can still use the 6-cell battery in conjunction with this for an even longer battery life.

Opening the lid reveals the same magnesium alloy for the palm rest. The keys also have the DuraFinish, which provides a moisture resistant texture on the keys. There are a bunch of shortcut buttons for Wi-Fi, presentation and volume control that work very well with just a slight touch.


Overall the build of the notebook is rock solid with no creaking parts. The weight is around 2.2 kg, which is not that heavy to carry around, as the distribution of the weight is good. Let's see how this performs in our tests.

PCMark Vantage

3DMark 06

SiSOFT SANDRA 2009

Processor Arithmetic

Processor Multimedia

File System

Memory Bandwidth

Cache and Memory

Performance Analysis

The tests show that when it comes to processor intensive tasks the 6930p is around 10% slower compared to the Dell Studio XPS 16, which is mainly due to the better processor. You can upgrade the processor all the way up to a T9600 running at 2.8GHz, but will also drive up the cost.

General Usage


This is definitely one of the most well built notebooks I've come across and the build quality and finish are top class. The DuraFinish on the keys keeps sweat or any moisture away and the spill resistant design of the keyboard ensures that the keys remain dry and perfectly usable when on the road.

The trackpad is very sensitive and also features a similar moisture resistant finish. The two rubber buttons are fairly soft to press; if you're typing, the two buttons just below the space bar are a lot more convenient to access. The keys have a good tactile feedback but you have to make sure you firmly press the keys all the way in, or else the keystroke would not be registered. I found this really odd and didn't like the whole feel of it that much.

The HP Night Light is perfect when you need to work at night without disturbing those around you. The light is bright enough to illuminate the entire keyboard, so you can continue typing. The light is otherwise concealed and pops out when you push the dedicated button.


Multimedia Usage


Our version of the 6930p came with the optional ATI Radeon HD3450 graphics card, which is great for offloading processor intensive tasks like in Photoshop CS4. Even though it's a low-end card it should easily be able to handle older 3D games like Half-life 2 (source based) or UT 2004 quite easily.

The speakers are located in the front where the locking button is placed. The HP 6930 is able to produce really loud and clear sound- pretty impressive for a business notebook. I played a couple of trance tracks and they sounded really good. You can't max out the volume though, as the sound tends to distort.

One thing that I liked is that even though the EliteBook houses an ATI graphics card, it never gets too hot on battery mode. In fact only the left side tends to get warm since that's where the exhaust is.

Battery Life


You get a 6-cell Lithium Ion battery even with the full blown version, but you can always upgrade to the 8-cell for a longer battery life. We carried out two tests, one with Wi-Fi off and the notebook set to Power Saver mode and second, with Wi-Fi on and the notebook set to High Performance mode.


In the first test, we got a battery life of three hours and 50 minutes. While using Wi-Fi on high performance mode, the notebook gave around two hours and 30 minutes of working time, which again is nothing spectacular since it's a 14.1 inch screen. But you also have to take into account the processor and the graphics card.

Pricing

Don't expect this business notebook with a magnesium alloy casing to come cheap. Our version of the EliteBook 6930p, which comes with a three-year on site warranty, will set you back by Rs.89,600. Yes, it's expensive but for this price you're getting a powerful configuration wrapped in one of the most durable exteriors.


The Dell Latitude series can be a worthy competitor to the 6930p. The Dell E6400, which starts from 95K, has the same 14.1- inch screen. However, what's weird is the standard configuration. As per Dell's website, the cheapest Latitude E6400 comes with a weak configuration of just 1GB RAM, 160 GB hard disk, and Intel onboard graphics. This makes me wonder why Dell is charging a premium.


If you buy the HP 6930p without the ATI HD3450 card, it'll save you 10K, as it retails for Rs.78,400.

Verdict


You can't help but fall in love with the EliteBook 6930p with its beautiful brushed metal finish and aircraft grade magnesium shell that makes it rugged and durable. Even the hard drive has a special protection (HP DriveGaurd) to safeguard from accidental drops.


The specification is rock solid and balanced; HP has coupled a powerful processor with a good entry-level graphics card. But the premium you're paying is for the magnesium alloy casing that protects the screen as well as the components inside. The weight distribution is good as the notebook does not feel very heavy even at 2.2 kg. The best part is that it never overheats. The screen is adequately bright and works well even in direct sunlight.


Apart from the feedback of the keys, which wasn't accurate at all times, there's really nothing to complain about. If you're looking for an off-road notebook that can take the dirt and grime without breaking into a sweat, then the HP EliteBook 6930p is something you should consider as it's a good performer that's built to last.


Test unit sourced from Genesis PR

Source : http://www.techtree.com/India/Reviews/HP_Elitebook_6930p_Review/551-100788-616-8.html

ECS A790GXM-AD3 Motherboard Review

The Socket AM3 Black Series Gets Better

ECS continues with their Black Series of motherboards with the introduction of the ECS A790GXM-AD3 motherboard. The Black series boards that we have dealt with have seemed to have a quality build with great features and they are offered at a very reasonable price. Today’s market seems to find nearly everyone searching for a bargain, so this new motherboard from ECS may be just the hot deal you have been looking for... or is it? That is what we intend to find out as we look at the AM3, 790GX based motherboard.

The A790GXM-AD3 Black Series motherboard uses the AMD 790GX chipset, so it fully supports all of the Phenom and Phenom II processors on the market today. In addition, the ECS A790GXM-AD3 comes with the feature of dual channel memory architecture that supports DDR3 1333MHz memory up to the capacity of 32GB which is capable to provide faster data throughput for memory-intensive applications. To meet hardcore overclockers’ requirements, the latest exclusive BIOS utility, M.I.B. II, is included to provide various detailed tweaking options. Paired with AMD SB750 south bridge controller supporting the function of ACC (Advanced Clock Calibration), ECS A790GXM-AD3 allows users to push the overall system performance to another higher scale. It also means that you you are trying to 'unlock' a triple core AMD Phenom II processor and make it a quad core this board should be able to give it a shot. The board also features a five phase power design with a massive heat sink to help keep things from overheating. The board of course also features AMD CrossFire technology for true multi-GPU gaming performance and six SATA II 3.0GB/s ports that support advanced RAID configurations like RAID 5 and RAID 10. Let’s take a closer look at all the specs:

CPU

• Socket AM3 socket for AMD Phenom II processors
  
• High-performance HyperTransport 3.0 CPU Interface
  
• Support transfer rate up to 5200 mega-transfers per second
  
• Note: This board supports CPU up to 140W TDP only; you can refer to AMD website to check your CPU.
  

Chipset

• North Bridge: AMD 790GX
  
• South Bridge: AMD SB750

Graphics

• On Chip (AMD 790GX-based with ATI Radeon HD3300 graphics )
  
• Integrated DirectX 10 graphics processor

Memory

• Dual-channel DDR3 memory architecture
  
• 4 x 240-pin DDR3 DIMM socket support up to 32GB*
• (Due to the DRAM maximum size is 2GB at present, the memory maximum size we have tested is 8GB)
• Support DDR3 up to 1333/1066 DDR3 SDRAM*
• (Due to AMD CPU spec limitation, please refer to Memory QVL for more information)

Expansion Slot

• 2 x PCI Express Gen 2.0 x16 slots
• 2 x PCI Express x1 slots
• 2 x PCI slots

Storage

• Support by AMD SB750
• 2 x Ultra DMA 100/66/33 devices
• 6 x Serial ATAII 3.0Gb/s devices
• RAID0, RAID1, RAID5, RAID 10 configuration
• Support by JMB 361
• 1 x eSATA

Audio

• Realtek ALC888 8-channel audio CODEC
• Compliant with HD audio specification

Rear Panel I/O

• 1 x PS/2 keyboard & PS/2 mouse connectors
• 1 x D-sub(VGA)
  
• 1 x HDMI Port
  
• 1 x RJ45 LAN connector
  
• 1 x optical S/PDIF Out connector
  
• 1 x Audio port (Line-in,4x Line-out, Mic_in)
  
• 1 x Clear_CMOS button
  
• 1 x eSATA
  
• 6 x USB ports

Internal I/O

• 1 x 24-pin ATX Power Supply connector
  
• 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V Power Connector
  
• 1 x 4-pin power connector for VGA card
  
• 1 x 4-pin CPU_FAN connector
  
• 1 x 3-pin SYS_FAN connector
  
• 1 x 3-pin PWR_FAN connector
  
• 1 x 3-pin NB_FAN connector
  
• 1 x Power on button
  
• 1 x Reset button
  
• 1 x IDE connector
  
• 1 x Speaker header
  
• 1 x Front panel switch/LED header
  
• 1 x Front panel audio header
  
• 1 x SPDIF out header
  
• 1X Power on LED (Green light)
  
• 6 x Serial ATA 3Gb/s connectors
  
• 3 x USB 2.0 headers support additional 6 USB ports

Form Factor

• ATX Size, 305mm*244mm

Warranty

• 36 months on parts
• 24 months for parts and labor

Board Layout and Bundle

The layout of the ECS A790GXM-AD3 motherboard has a very neat and clean layout. The heatsinks on the board make this board very heavy and of a quality build. The Black Series motherboards add some color to the plastics of the board, but nothing too loud or distracting.

The bundle included with the board is a little thin, but once you look at the price, you can see the reason. To keep the price low, they have to cut some things out, and there is not too much that is cut out on the board, so the bundle had to be thinned.

BIOS

The BIOS of the ECS A790GXM-AD3 was also very easy to work with. We flashed to the latest BIOS using the Windows flasher, and had no issues at all with setup and tweaking of the board.

Test Setup

Test Platform
Component	Brand/Model	Live Pricing
Processor	AMD Phenom II X3 720 AMD Phenom X4 9850 CPU	Click Here Click Here
Motherboard	ECS A790GXM-AD3 Zotac GeForce 8200-ITX WiFi ECS A780GM-A Ultra ECS 8200A Asus M3A79-T Deluxe Asus M3A78-T	Click Here Click Here Click Here Click Here Click Here Click Here
Video Card	Albatron GeForce 9600GT	Click Here
Memory	Corsair 6400C4 DDR2 4GB Kit Kingston HyperX PC3-13000	Click Here Click Here
Hard Drive	Western Digital 250GB, 16mb Cache	Click Here
Cooling	Corsair Nautilus	Click Here
Power Supply	PC Power & Cooling 750	Click Here
Operating System	Windows Vista Ultimate 64Bit	Click Here

All tests were run using a clean install of Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bit. For our stock speed tests, we ran everything at default timings for the CPU. Our Corsair DDR2 kit was running at DDR2 800 speeds with timings of 4-4-4-12 with the exception of the ECS A780GM-A Ultra. We could only run 5-5-5-18 on this board. Our Kingston DDR3 kit was running at speeds of 1333 and 7-7-7-20 timings

Testing Results

Click on image for larger view and complete results

As we look at the results, keep in mind that we are now running a Triple-Core Phenom II CPU instead of the Quad-Core Phenom that was used on all the other boards tested against this ECS A790GXM-AD3. Also, we need to keep in mind that this board is running DDR3 memory compared to the DDR2 kit that we have run on all the other boards. These differences certainly make it hard to compare apples to apples, but it will give you an idea of what you can expect when upgrading to the newest technology. With these changes, some of the results are certainly not a surprise.

In our Sandra testing, we see lower scores throughout the results, which is certainly a result of one less core on the CPU.

Everest scores are much higher due to the use of the newer DDR3 memory and the higher speeds at which it runs.

In our POV testing, render time for the Beta test ties for the top spot, but the real-time rendering is much lower -- again, the result of one less core. That would also be the reason for the longer render time in the Cinebench 10 results as well.

Burst speeds are faster on the ECS A790GXM-AD3 motherboard than any of the other boards tested, and the average speed is also right behind the leader.

The ECS board did extremely well in the 3dMark 06 benchmark. The CPU score was the only one it lagged behind in, and for good reasons (one less core). Other than the CPU score, it scored much better than the other boards here.

Now, on to gaming...

F.E.A.R. testing showed this board to be much faster than the other boards as it scored 4FPS faster than the next board.

Even with one less core, the ECS A790GXM-AD3 scored the best out of all the boards in the Company of Heroes testing, and also did better in the Call of Duty 4 testing in the 1280x1024 resolution. There was not even 1FPS different in it and the top board in the 1920x1200 resolution.

Overall, this setup is a great gaming setup and does it at a very good price, which we will look at in the conclusion

Overclocking

Our overclocking adventures were certainly just that... an adventure! There does seem to be a BIOS glitch somewhere, as there were times when we could not get the Northbridge frequency to adjust, which hampered our overclocking. Every now and then, it would just start working out of the blue. It would continue to work with no issues UNTIL we did a clear CMOS for some reason. Not sure what the issue is, but a BIOS fix will make this board the perfect overclocker.

We started out overclocking at the stock cpu multiplier and just pushed the fsb as far as we could go. Take a look and see what we got!

Yes, you are seeing that right! We got a fsb of 280! Giving us a 1.1GHz overclock! Pretty dang good if you ask me! Next, we wanted to see how high if a divider we could use at default bus speed...

Another 1GHz overclock! This is certainly an awesome board for the overclocking enthusiast.

Conclusion

The ECS A790GXM-AD3 motherboard was a board that was easy to set up and to work with. There was nothing that gave us any issues at all. It was smooth sailing throughout the review, which has been something that rarely happens any more. It seems there is always something that we have to struggle with, but not on this board!

Performance on this board was outstanding, though it is a little hard to compare apples to oranges. This board kept up with the other boards in every area with the exception of gaming, where it pretty much overshadowed them, scoring great scores with one less core!

The layout and setup of the board also gave us no reason to complain. Everything was thought out with great detail, including the power and reset buttons that were included.

The bundle was a little thin, but with so many features on the board, I am sure the reason it is thin is to keep costs down.

Pricing for the board was difficult to come by. We were not able to find this board offered for sale anywhere online. There is a predecessor to this board at an e-tailer for $120, so I would imagine that this board will bring in a bit higher price with its DDR3 and AM3 support.

Overclocking was almost a dream on this board! I say almost, because there does seem to be that BIOS issue that hampers things. Hopefully ECS can get that worked out.

Legit Bottom Line: This board was great to work with. It is fast, a great gaming board, and has upgrade options for the end user. Also, overclocking is phenomenal! Without a price, it is hard to say where this board fits in, but if it is in your price range, it is certainly a board you want to keep on your short list!