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2 pointsSource With the advent of blockbuster Blu-ray movies like The Dark Knight, Pirates of the Caribbean and lately Avatar, all India needed was more options for Blu-ray players. Sony has introduced new Blu-ray player BDP-S370 costing Rs. 9,990. On buying this device, you get two free Blu-ray titles - Legion and Michael Jackson's This is It. Yes, this new player is a step up version of the Sony BDP-S360 which we reviewed back in December. Until now, Indian consumers had to spend over Rs. 18,000 on Blu-ray players and hence considered buying PlayStation 3 as a better option. It's true as we've come across several consumers like that. The new Sony Blu-ray Disc player BDP-S370 is a major enhancement over the BDP-S360 version. This new BDP-S370 allows you to play full HD 1080p Blu-ray titles and also improves the regular DVD quality with Precision Cinema HD Upscale feature that converts SD quality (480i) to full HD (1080p) quality video. New Sony BDP-S370 also offers BRAVIA Internet Video which was missing from BDP-S360 model. This model is also Wireless LAN ready. Audio has been taken care of with internal decoding and bit stream output of enhanced audio codecs - Dolby TrueHD and dts-HD Master Audio. Up to 7.1 channels of lossless surround sound experience can be enjoyed. Users can also hook their USB MP3 players and flash drives to this player either in the front or rear. This feature packed Blu-ray player also comes with DivX playback support. What more do you want from a Blu-ray player? You can buy Sony Blu-ray BDP-S370 player from Sony Center and Sony Authorized resellers across India.
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2 pointsThis thread is for people who have been wanting or trying to shift to Linux - but needed advice on the best option. The easiest way to shift to linux is to start with a dual boot system - booting windows 7/XP and a good Linux distribution and configuring both the operating systems to be identical in terms of everything - from applications to preferences, bookmarks cookies - everything. This will ensure that you get the same experience whether you boot into linux or windows at any time. I recommend using PC Linux OS 2010 (twitter) as its one of the only distributions which is newbie friendly but at the same time very powerful and always updated to the latest apps and is also a rolling release so you don't need to re-install every 1 year or so like Ubuntu or Fedora as entire system keeps getting updated slowly over time. I'll explain the configuration in the later part of the post. First I am giving below some screenshots to convince you that my Win7 and PCL10 systems behave identically with the same browser profiles, same lotus notes (or outlook if you prefer) profiles, same my documents/music etc folder and nearly identical applications. OK, here's my win7 & pcl10 desktops side by side: Lets look at the applications in pcl first and see how the shared profiles with win7 imply the same browser/lotus/etc experience: Browsers - firefox on pcl & win7 (with same profile), chrome & Lotus Notes (can only get screenshot of splashscreen for some reason) Media Players: 3D desktop effects, Cover Flip alt-tab like Mac OS X & real transparency (3d effects are extremely fast on linux unlike win7. transparency is real, not alpha blending so if you are working in a translucent shell you will keep seeing a moving video beneath. In alpha blending, the background screenshot is just dimmed and displayed to give an illusion of transparency - you won't even see you desktop icons beneath let alone video etc.) Some more apps: Google Earth, Google Desktop, Picassa, VMWare/VirtualBox, Media Editing Suites etc. Now lets see how easy it is configure things or to install apps - linux has repositories which have all the applications in the universe. You don't need to search on the internet, download and install. Just click/select the apps in the repo client like Synaptic and click apply. Some repos will be already configured while others like google etc. you can add anytime. Start menu options - classic or searchable like win7: File manager has not just Tabs but also splittable views, Wifi & EVDO/3G modem support, Huge 3d effects options OK, end of screenshot fiesta as post attachment limit reached. There are over 20,000 apps in the 2 repos i have selected so there's no shortage of apps. In fact its the opposite - it takes time to find out the good ones. You can download CD iso from the pcl site and try it without installing as its a live cd. If you like it you can then install by clicking on the install icon on the desktop. The Live CD will have default root/guest password mentioned on the wallpaper itself as its a read only and doesn't have security issues. Install is straightforward with only 2 things you need to do: 1. Select a partition where you want to install PCL. If you have a single partition on you hard disk (only C:) then check that you have at least 10-15 GB free for PCL and defrag your disk before booting pcl livecd. Then select option for PCL to shrink you windows partition and create a new partition for pcl. Alternatively, you can manually shrink you partition either in windows 7 (not in XP) or using ntfsresize command in linux or gparted. There's no need to give separate home usr etc partition just one partition for / and if you have less than 2GB give 1GB for swap space else say no swap. 2. After install it'll come to the boot manager screen (GRUB) Keep only the windows and the top linux option which you can rename to PC Linux or whatever. The other options are for system recovery etc and aren't needed as you can just give the kernel boot options during boot to achieve the same things. Once its installed use your reliance/tata modem or any other modem/wifi/lan to get on internet. Ask me for queries on proxy or route if it doesn't do something automatically or if older reliance/tata 1x modems don't get configured. To connect through these modems you need to run kppp from internet menu and then select new connection. Device is /dev/ttyUSB0 number to dial is obviously #777 login/pass is your number etc. just give any name for connection and device. Multiple devices and multiple operators are supported in kppp very easily. You can also install to a USB pendrive/hard disk as well as use a pendrive instead of liveCD. Ask if you want to know how to do the latter. Former can be done by just inserting usb pendrive before installation and selecting that device for install (usually it'll be /dev/sdb.. while sda will be you hdd. CONFIRM by seeing the size etc before installing on wrong disk/partition any blowing your data away. specially if you have more than 1 HDD - then sdb will be your second drive while sdc would be the pendrive) If you have any problems/confusion ask here, also if you want any linux iso or s/w ask. Lotus Notes is a tough cookie as IBM has not made their installer in the usual linux way but with some binary blobs. Not many people use it so I am not giving details but if someone wants I'll explain as well as upload the LN 8.5 Beta RPMs and some libs required to some site. I am forced to use because we use it in office. While the openoffice version is quite good for 99% of word/excel/powerpoint/project/access work, ifyou need you can install office 2003 or XP (2007/20010 still have some issues ) with wine and it'll work perfectly. I've gone overboard with screen shots as i had a few hours to kill. Also unless people are able to see how good some linux systems work they are not motivated enough to try. So... For more details you can go to PCL forum which is very helpful. I'll explain sharing profiles/my documents/mail storage etc. in later posts once some one installs or needs the info.
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1 pointI have been using e-cigs or PVs (electronic cigarettes or personal vaporizers or just vaporizer) for 6 months now and anyone wanting any info on these for quiting analog cigarettes (ie normal cigarettes) can ask questions here as i've researched quite a lot and bought lot of useless stuff initially before learning what works. Good thing about e-cigs is that you can quit analogs but still get your nicotine fix - without the 5,000 harmful chemicals. More than 99% of the harm in cigarettes comes from the other 4,999 chemicals including Tar/CO2 etc and not from Nicotine. Most of the manufacturers are chinese as US tobacco lobby is trying frantically to stop US mfrs or imports and trying to spread FUD that its not approved by FDA etc. Fact is that e-cigs are proven to be 100 times better than analogs in various studies. Off course, nicotine is still an addiction so its not something for non smokers to pick up but for smokers to use to drop a unhealthy habit. Also there's no tax on nicotine liquid so governments are also wary of how to treat this. But the sales of e-cigs are over $ 100 Mn now and quality & features have improved dramatically. Its quite practical now and there are various advantages - for example you can smoke inside Car or Home/Office A/C environments instead of opening car window in the heat or going and standing outside, there's no smell or bad taste for wife/GF to complain about, after a few months all the gunk in you lungs go away and you feel much healthier. Some downsides are: ordering from china takes 2-4 weeks to arrive so if you run out of batteries or atomizers or e-juice (nicotine liquid) or cartridges you will fall back to analogs. You need to plan in advance which is not always possible or you end up ordering too much stock. Also customs charges (around 500 for Rs 5000 order) vary and so does the time they take to clear the package. But you don't have to go to customs office, you just pay the postman when he comes to deliver. The cost per month is nearly the same as analogs or maybe little higher during initial months as you settle down. But each order size is 3,000-5,000 which seems little large as we buy cigs for 50-100 per pack and just 1-2 pack at a time. One order will go on for 1-2 months usually. Some forums for more info: www.e-cigarette-forum.com Good (& Cheap) supplier: www.heaven-gifts.com Good Models: newbie: M Series or M401 (looks identical to analogs) later: Joye eGO (looks more like a pipe - but 6 hours battery life compared to 1 hour of M series) You need to get 1 starter kit plus 3-4 extra atomizers (attys) and 10-20 empty cartridges (carts) and 1-2 bottles of 35 ml e liquid of extra/super high strength (denoted in mg eg. 24 mg) For 36 mg strength you will need to go to bestecigs.com but 24mg is also ok. You can also buy pre-filled carts but turn out to be expensive so i don't prefer them. YOu can order pre-filled carts if you don't want the hassle of refilling your carts every 2-3 days (takes half an hour) You can use a USB Pass through (USB PT) to connect and vape (smoke:smoking :: vapour:vaping) without using the battery. I even connect the USB PT to my car cig lighter jack using a motorola car charger to vape in car. Batteries usually work for a month or two before conking off. You typically need to vape for more time than you usually smoke as its slower than analogs. This is because nothing is burned in e-cigs, the atomizer heats a little (60-80 C) and the liquid (soaked in a foam in the cartridge) is vaporized before you inhale it. Since the feeling of a normal cigaratte and look of smoke is there, this product doesn't involve any other changes in your lifestyle and so it is easier to quit. I have been 10-15 analogs per day person for a decade or two and found it difficult to quit as i like the nic kick. But with e-cigs it just took me 2 days to drop of analogs. after a few weeks i threw away my various lighters ash tray etc. and for in a few months i started really hating the smell of cig smoke. Ran out of e-cigs then and fell back to analogs since my next order took 5 weeks to arrive. Switched to e-cigs again after that and am now trying to order in advance. In full disclosure, I still do sometimes have an analog with people (every 3-4 days) when I don't want to take out the e-cig and waste time in everyone going gaga over it and trying it out and wasting time in all types of explanation of how it works. Will write in detail when i have some more time or if anyone has any quries. Just thought that this might help someone quit so...
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1 pointthanks Ami1.. Nvidia works outa the box!! wonderful.. Virtual repository.. ouch.!! donno how i missed that idea. This machine is not connected to the net but my machine is.. so a crossover cable is wat is required here.. i will be putting the machine in peer with mine while my machine will act as the rpm repository.. there is a setting somewhere to change the default repository location.. have done it on RHEL.. will look it up for PCL.. no problem at all!! Now that we have the repository problem resolved.. dont think codec download would be a problem at all.. Thanks n Cheers!!
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1 pointNo.. it doesnt have the send later function.. They keypad of the b100 and all other guru models i have seen have dustproof keypads.. messaging is pretty fast once u get used to it. The keys also give a good tactile finish and the phone has a sturdy finish.. Nokia 1203's rubber keypad kind of swells with use.. so its up to u.. i am not anti-Nokia but we should give a fair chance for other companies too and that too when they are making really commendable products.. T9 - switchin to T9 needs a different key combination compared to nokia's interface and rotating word options needs u to press 0.. this can be better understood when u try it out for urself.. Cheers!!
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1 pointHitesh bhai.. Ubuntu has a whole OS flavor revolving around your requirement.. Its called Ubuntu Studio edition.. Check it out here and the best part its free! Cheers!!
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1 pointThe Best Video converters for Incredible (and for that matter any phone) are - * SUPER C - download here * HANDBRAKE - download here