Computer

New Xbox more than a game console for Microsoft

Seattle: Microsoft Corp is set to make a splash this week with the eagerly awaited unveiling of its new Xbox game console, eight years after the last version, as it seeks a larger share of the $65 billion a year global computer gaming industry.

But the small device faces some big competition from the PlayStation 4 by Sony Corp and the Wii U by Nintendo Co Ltd in a shifting market.

Gamers are gravitating to online play - suggesting the hey-day of console games are over - while Microsoft wants its sleek new toy to finally cross the bridge to the mainstream and become the family's entertainment center.

"Core gamers are very hungry for a new machine but the difference between 2005 and now is that the stakes are so much higher," said Ryan McCaffrey, executive editor at entertainment website IGN.com, harking back to Microsoft's last Xbox release. "The entire Xbox experiment from Microsoft was for it to be the center piece of your living room."...more    

Cars, computers, internet make way into Punjab slums

Chandigarh: Slums may lack basic amenities, but computers, Internet connectivity and cars have made their way into the dingy alleys in Punjab. As per data, as much as 7 per cent of slums have computers/laptops without Internet and 4.3 per cent have computers with Internet in Punjab. Punjab has 14.2 per cent of urban households living in slums while out of 143 towns, 71 have reported slums in 18 districts,...  

US urges China collaboration on cyber intrusions

Beijing: The top US military officer said on Wednesday that he has called on China to be more transparent about cyberattacks and boost collaboration with the US to tackle a common threat to their economies. General Martin Dempsey said tackling cyber intrusions featured in his talks with his Chinese counterpart and other Chinese leaders during his three-day visit to China aimed at building mutual trust between the world's most powerful...  

Mathematical genius Shakuntala Devi dies at 83

Bangalore: Mathematical genius Shakuntala Devi, nicknamed as "human computer" for her ability to make complex mental calculations, died at a hospital here on Sunday following respiratory problems. She was 80. "She passed away at Bangalore Hospital," Shakuntala Devi Educational Foundation Public Trust Trustee DC Shivadev told reporters. Doctors declared her dead at 8.15 am, he said. Devi was hospitalised a couple of weeks ago for critical respiratory problems, Shivadev said....  

HP aims to revolutionise computers with motion-control technology

San Francisco: Computers controlled by a swipe of the hand - a staple of science fiction flicks like "Minority Report" - could soon hit the mass market as the result of a new deal between Hewlett-Packard Co and a San Francisco startup called Leap Motion. As the world's largest PC maker, HP's move to embrace motion-sensing technology could potentially change how people interface with computers in the same way that...  

Bihar clocks 29 per cent hike in commercial tax collection

Patna: In another first in the country, tax collection in Bihar in the 2012-13 fiscal jumped to 29 per cent, Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said on Saturday. "The achievement becomes all the more impressive considering that the world was witnessing an economic slowdown," Modi, also the Finance minister, told a review meeting of the commercial tax department in Patna. Other states registered a growth rate of 16-17 per...  

Microsoft Windows 8 doing more harm than good to PC sales

San Francisco: The ailing personal computer market is getting weaker, and it's starting to look like it will never fully recover as a new generation of mobile devices reshapes the way people use technology. The latest evidence of the PC's infirmity emerged Wednesday with the release of two somber reports showing unprecedented declines in the sales of desktop and laptop machines during the first three months of the year. As...  

Soon, replace your passwords with your thoughts

Washington: You may be spared from typing pesky passwords in the future! Instead of typing your password, you may only have to think about it, thanks to a new wireless headset device developed by researchers. Remembering passwords for all your sites can get annoying. There are only so many punctuation, number substitutes and uppercase variations you can recall, and writing them down for all to find is hardly an option....  

1.5 lakh Punjab students to get tablet computers

Chandigarh: Nearly 1.5 lakh students studying in Class 12 of government schools in Punjab will get tablet computers, a minister announced on Tuesday. Education Minister Sikander Singh Maluka said the state government will provide free computer tablets to all the 1.5 lakh students studying in Class 12 in government schools at a total cost of Rs.110 crore in the current financial year. Maluka said satellite-based education (EDUSAT), earlier launched in...  

End of the line for Roadrunner supercomputer

It's the end of the line for Roadrunner, a first-of-its-kind collection of processors that once reigned as the world's fastest supercomputer. ...  

Tech Mahindra shares fall as merger with Satyam delayed

Shares in Tech Mahindra Ltd fall 1.9 per cent, while Satyam Computer Services Ltd drops 1.6 per cent, a day after the companies said a long-planned merger between the two had been delayed by an additional six months up to September 30. The companies did not give a reason for the delay in their exchange filing. ...  

Computer users to spend 1.5 billion hours, $22 bn battling malware: Study

Computer users will spend 1.5 billion hours and USD 22 billion identifying, repairing and recovering from the impact of malware, while global enterprises will spend USD 114 billion to deal with the impact of a malware-induced cyberattacks, says a Microsoft study. ...  

South Korean banks, media report network crash

Police and South Korean officials were investigating the simultaneous shutdown on Wednesday of computer networks at several major broadcasters and banks. ...  

Soon, self-healing smartphones and computers

Imagine if your smartphone or computer could repair on its own! It might sound like the stuff of science fiction as engineers at the California Institute of Technology, for the first time ever, have developed self-healing integrated chips. ...  

US top source of hacking attacks on country: China

The United States was the origin of more than half of the hacking attacks on China in the first two months of 2013, state news agency Xinhua said on Sunday, amid escalating tensions between Beijing and Washington over the use of the Internet. Beijing and Washington have been squaring off for months over the issue of cyber attacks, each accusing the other of hacking into sensitive government websites. ...  

Delhi: Computer glitch hits IGI airport operations

A glitch in the computerized check-in, baggage handling and plane's docking system of the terminal 3 of the IGI airport here today delayed the schedule of around 21 domestic and international flights, causing inconvenience to the passengers. ...  

Calling Ankit Fadia's bluff: Is he the hacker he claims to be?

Forbes India's Charles Assisi writes an open letter to Ankit Fadia questioning his credentials as a computer security expert. ...  

Companies Bill to prescribe norms for class action suits

In January 2009, in what is widely referred to as 'India's Enron', 300,000 shareholders of Satyam Computer Services (now Mahindra Satyam) came together and sued the company. Satyam's founder Ramalinga Raju had confessed to misstating accounts, and the company stock plummeted. The shareholders claimed damages worth Rs 5,000 crore. ...  

Dell to go private in $24.4 billion deal

Slumping personal computer maker Dell is bowing out of the stock market in a $24.4 billion buyout that represents the largest deal of its kind since the Great Recession dried up the financing for such risky maneuvers. ...  

Dell's shares surge on report it's in talks to go private

Shares of Dell Inc soared 13 per cent to a near eight-month high on Monday after Bloomberg reported the world's No 3 PC maker is in talks with at least two private equity firms about going private. ...