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Sansa C240 is one of the high performance thumb sized MP3 players developed by a world leading company in flash based storage devices, SanDisk. It has got everything you may need while on the move. It’s the best audio solution for those who wish to have a pocket friendly MP3 player while jogging, working out in the gym or any other place.

This diminutive gadget offers audiophile-quality sound along with FM radio and stylish looks. Moreover, it’s an affordable device available in 1GB and 2GB storage capacities. This means you can store various audio files and photos and carry them along anywhere you want. You can also use the Sandisk Sansa C 240 1GB FM as a thumb drive and store numerous applications and other digital files for data transfer and backup purposes. The player also sports a compact colour screen to display track info with all the necessary controls. User interface is great. You can get hold of all its functions in no time. It also supports Microsoft PlaysForSure subscription music, an extremely useful goodie.

C240 MP3 features

• Brilliantly styled, thumb sized MP3 player
• Holds large number of audio, photo and other files
• Can be used as pen drive
• Sports built-in FM radio
• Compatible with Microsoft PlaysForSure subscription music
• 1.4 inch colour screen
• Rechargeable battery with up to 15 hours of continuous playback
• MicroSD slot for extended storage
• High speed USB 2.0 interface

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Like most of the people do you also perceive videos games spoil the child and have a bad effect on them? If yes then it’s time to think again because it has been proved that the today’s hi-fi video games help in sharpening the child’s skills and enhance their IQ. Next generation video games make the kids think smartly than ever before. Action packed games such as Gears of War 2 make the kids think on their feet and take the best possible decisions under different circumstances. Such games judge a child’s EQ as well as IQ and improve the both over a period of time.

Multiplayer games enable the kids to chat with their team-mates while keeping and eye on the opponents and defending themselves. Good strategic and RPG (role playing games) titles can develop the sense of responsibility, patriotism and commitment in the gamer. The software company that developed Gears of War 2 is currently initiating a research in which it is studying the impact that the game has on the behaviour of different gamers. Incredible the results are good and oppose the traditional mindset the people have towards video games. The company has found that games like Gears of War enhance the learning skills of the gamers that they can apply in their classrooms too.

Microsoft has just started a venture with New York University and other colleges to start The Games for Learning Institute. This will be like a research that will be conducted to analyser whether video games can draw students into math, science and technology-based programs. The program will reveal some deeper benefits of video games in near future.

Tags for this article: children, iq, kids, microsoft, nyu, smarter, study, video games

Despite the economic slowdown, Microsoft has decided to launch its own retail stores. According to the company this is necessary to connect to the end consumers in a better and deeper way. The competitors like Apple have already made this move and have been very successful in boosting their sales with their Apple retail stores. Microsoft too expects such a positive outcome by launching its own chain of retail stores that will target all the consumers instead of some high profile ones.

The company has hired David Porter for this project. David Porter has worked with Wal-Mart for 25 years and has promoted the organisation to a great extent. He will be joining Microsoft as the corporate vice president of the Microsoft retail stores and will help the organisation in creating a better PC and Microsoft retail purchase experience for consumers. We can expect the shops to specialise in selling the latest copies of Windows, Xbox 360 consoles and games like Left 4 Dead, and perhaps Windows Mobile phones as well. However, the company has not revealed a specific date regarding the grand opening, store locations and total number of stores.

Microsoft COO Kevin Turner says, “Microsoft is working hard to improve the articulation and demonstration of the company’s innovation and value proposition so it’s clear, simple and straightforward.”

David Porter says, “There are tremendous opportunities ahead for Microsoft to create a world-class shopping experience for our customers. I am excited about helping consumers make more informed decisions about their PC and software purchases, and we’ll share learnings from our stores with our existing retail and OEM partners that are critical to our success.”

Tags for this article: apple, chain, microsoft, retail stores, shop

Microsoft is going to release a new and unique dock for smartphones. Smartphones are used by many consumers instead of regular mobile phones, and actually possess many abilities typical of mobile computing. Be it work, play or entertainment, smartphones can excel in all these departments. New markets are also emerging day by day for these phones as they continue to gain in popularity and market share.

With this in mind the Microsoft Corporation has decided to develop an amazing universal smartphone dock that will not only charge and hold the phone smartly but also offer variety of connectivity options. It will feature USB ports, a connection for an external display and an Ethernet jack. It will have a universal smart interface and peripheral management system for portable devices. Thus, the users will be able to connect external displays, television, US devices, input devices, printer and other peripherals to it and add versatility to the smartphone. In short, the Microsoft smartphone dock is far more than your ordinary smartphone dock like the Logic 3 universal dock pro for the iPhone, which simply charges the phone and does nothing more. The Microsoft dock will also feature its own processor, memory and solid state drive to support the smartphone operations in situations where the phone’s processor and memory are not enough to handle the task, making it more of a computer of sorts.

The company’s patent says, “The cost of cellphones is significantly less than computing systems at many levels. However, the cellphone is rapidly evolving into a smart communications device that can provide sufficient computing power and functionality to drive a wide variety of peripherals as well as access network services. A major impediment to taking advantage of this evolving technology in the cell phone, for example, is the inability to connect the phone to peripheral devices and systems.”

Tags for this article: accessory, dock, microsoft, mobile phone, smartphones, usb

Recently Microsoft’s Zune music player disheartened a large number of users worldwide because of its unexpected behaviour on the last day of the previous year, i.e. Dec 31st 2008. Throughout the globe the Zune players started malfunctioning all of a sudden and then froze. After that the device stopped functioning at all. This worldwide corruption has been dubbed the Zune2K9 incident.

Microsoft engineers underwent a really hard time and finally identified the main cause of this issue. The Microsoft Zune’s internal clock was not efficient enough to handle the leap years and as a result all of this happened. Now Microsoft has come up with an easy solution for this which can rectify the device and set it back to the working condition. If you have got a locked up Zune then all you have to do is:

• Disconnect it from the main power supplies (both USB and AC power supply) so that the player can be discharged gradually. Make sure that you do not open the Zune’s body and take out the battery. It has to get discharged naturally.
• Once the battery is completely out of charge the Zune must show a black screen and should be in off state.
• Simply let it in that state till after noon GMT on 1st Jan 2009.
• Connect the Zune to the power source, charge it and it’s all ready to function again.
• All your rights-managed content will still be safe but you have to synchronise it with your PC to update the rights.

The Microsoft Xbox 360 is a revolutionary video game console that brings joy and excitement right to your door step. It is one of the most powerful video game consoles on the market, and has something to offer every type of gamer, though with an emphasis on the less casual players. The core console is backed by hit games like GTA IV and Halo 3, downloadable content and online play via Xbox Live. Though the debate of PS3 vs. Xbox 360 continues to rage, there is no denying the fact that the Xbox 360 is the better overall seller.

The core Xbox console is sleek and attractive and the best thing is that it can be controlled wirelessly. The graphics rendered by it are simply jaw dropping and the sound is also good. It is powered by the Xenon processor which is designed by IBM. It is based on the triple core power PC design. Each of the core supports multi-threading at a rate of 3.2 GHz and is capable of 9.6 billion dot products per second. Besides the main CPU the console also equips a GPU called Xenos (developed by ATI) which is dedicated to handle the most complex graphics ever. On the memory part, the console has got 512 MB of GDDR3 RAM @ 700 megahertz. The Xbox 360 invokes life into the gaming world with its supplied accessories which enables the gamers to interact with their games in real time. You can steer, sing, play guitar and do more actions by using variety of Xbox accessories including the steering wheel, the big button pad, the rock star kit and much more. Apart from the games the Xbox can play audio tracks, CDs and DVDs so that you can always enjoy high definition media whenever you want. The console has also got a 60GB HDD which can be used to store all your data including photos, games, music and movies. You can also connect to the Internet via Xbox and use the Xbox Live service.

Microsoft Xbox 360 is available in different variants such as Xbox 360 Core, Microsoft Xbox 360 Arcade, Xbox 360 Elite and Xbox 360 Premium.

Technology is restlessly moving forward at a fast pace day by day. Sometime back people were amazed as soon as the Apple iPhone hit the market and now it is being used by millions of Apple fans. If you are one of them, then there’s another surprise for you this X-Mas. Microsoft, usually an Apple nemesis, has recently launched the Seadragon Mobile application exclusively for the iPhone.

This is amazing because the Microsoft and Apple are the two big competitors in the technology market but still the Microsoft finds the iPhone appropriate to handle its Seadragon Mobile application. iPhone users can use this application to view large images on their phone just by tapping their fingers on the touch screen. The development of this application took place in the Microsoft’s Live Labs and it’s the first application MS application launched for the Apple’s product. The Seadragon Mobile application comes with 50 high quality images (up to 10 gigapixels). The users can zoom in and out via touch screen.

The reason behind choosing the Apple iPhone for the Seadragon is that it is potent enough to display multi-resolution images. So unfortunately, fans of Nokia smartphones or the BlackBerry 8100 Pearl, will likely have to wait to get their hands the app. Another main reason why Seadragon was released excluively for the iPhone, is due to both the iPhone’s popularity and exceptional graphics processing, which is a prerequisite for the Seadragon app. Alex Daley, group product manager for Microsoft Live Lab said, “The iPhone was the obvious mobile choice for Seadragon. It is the most widely distributed phone with a graphics processing unit. Most phones out today don’t have accelerated graphics in them. The iPhone does and so it enabled us to do something that has been previously difficult to do. I couldn’t just pick up a Blackberry or a Nokia off the shelf and build Seadragon for it without GPU support.”