Gigabyte India Grows 37 Percent YoY

Motherboards manufacturer Gigabyte Technology reported a 37 percent year-over-year (YoY) revenue growth in Q4 FY10 in which its motherboard sales in many tier 2 and tier 3 regions grew by over 100 percent.

The company credited its partners who drove over 85 percent of the company business. Rajan Sharma, General Manager, Marketing and Sales, Gigabyte India, said, "We were able to leverage our distribution strength, spread and expertise to reach new regions and partners. Our local resources were spent more on channel building, education, training, marketing and brand-building activities that ensured sustainable and continuous demand generation.”

"In Q4, we also continued with the smooth transition of our business model to direct shipment, which began in Q3," he added. While over 2,000 resellers registered for the Q3 2010 Gigabyte Value Partner Program (GVPP), the company expects to increase its value partner base to over 2,500 with its current GVPP. Its post-sales infrastructure includes a service network spread over 100 locations across India and a dedicated RMA team.

Commenting on the 2011 plans Sharma said, "In 2011, we look forward to further increasing our presence in non-metros by focusing on product visibility, availability and channel penetration. We also intend to increase our Premium Partner base for smoother and efficient supply chain. As always, our focus will be on ensuring the right price /performance ratio for our products and customers. We are also working closely with our distributors to leverage their strengths in warehousing and supply to reach more locations."

Gigabyte’s national distributors include Avnet, Ingram Micro, Redington and Neoteric.

Philips updates markets on Lighting and Design in meeting

Royal Philips Electronics will update the markets on progress at its Lighting sector. Rudy Provoost, Chief Executive officer of Philips Lighting and member of the Philips Board of Management, will discuss Philips’ strategy to further strengthen its global leadership position in Lighting.

Mr. Provoost, together with members of his management team, will discuss the drivers that are expected to help further increase profitable growth, including a progress update on both ‘Green’ lighting solutions and on the integration of recent strategic acquisitions. Mr. Provoost will also address Philips Lighting’s strategy for emerging markets and will elaborate on developments in the important business area of Solid State Lighting explaining how the sector is well positioned to capture the opportunities in this fast-growing field.

Mr. Provoost will confirm that Philips Lighting is on track to achieve its EBITA margin target of 12% to 14% for 2010, supporting Philips’ Vision 2010 group guidance. He will also confirm Lighting expects for the medium term an average annual sales growth of around 6% on a comparable basis.

At today’s meeting, Philips will also update the markets on its Design activities. Stefano Marzano, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Creative Director of Philips Design, will discuss how Philips’ deep understanding of people, society and trends shapes the company’s people-centric design approach. Mr. Marzano and his team will explain how this approach creates value for the Philips Group, enabling the creation of a steady stream of innovative solutions for customers and clients

Samsung Claims 10 Million Galaxy S Phones Sold

Samsung Electronics said that Galaxy S, the company's showpiece Android-based smartphone, has crossed the 10 million-sold threshold seven months after it launched. The milestone puts Samsung among the vanguard manufacturers backing Google's white-hot Android platform, which is itself now the No 2 mobile OS in the world behind Symbian, according to analysts.

According to Samsung, 4 million Galaxy S units have been sold in North America, with 2.5 million sold in Europe and 2 million sold in Asia.

"The Galaxy S is the result of our 22-year heritage in the mobile industry," said JK Shin, President and Head, Mobile Communications Business, Samsung Electronics, in a statement. "It is the realization of our concept of 'the Smart Life'— we wanted to make users' lives more convenient, more exciting and more integrated. Today's milestone shows that we have succeeded: 10 million Galaxy S users around the world are living the Smart Life."

Shin added that Samsung is selling more than 1.4 million Galaxy S devices per month.

Galaxy S was first introduced by Samsung at CTIA Las Vegas in March 2010, and strong word-of-mouth, solid reviews and customer embrace of Android devices propelled it to a spot among the coolest smartphones of 2010.

Galaxy S was released on all four of the major U.S. carriers last year, under different names, such as Sprint's Epic 4G and Verizon's Fascinate. Though each version has slightly different features, each includes a 4-inch Super AMOLED screen and a 1Ghz processor, 5MP camera, 2GB of storage and support for Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi.

Samsung's strength with the Android platform should come into sharper focus in 2011, as its Samsung Galaxy Tab—an Android-based rival to Apple's mighty iPad—looks to gain traction among tablet customers. Samsung has not released initial sales figures for the Galaxy Tab, which launched in November.

Intel Adds New Members In Its Processor Family

Intel introduced the second generation Intel Core processor family. Throughout the next year, more than 500 desktops and laptops are expected from all major OEMs worldwide. In India, systems are likely to be available from OEMs like HCL, Wipro, MSI, HP, Lenovo, Toshiba and Dell amongst others as well as from local channel partners.

The processor features include, Intel quick sync video, and a new version of Intel Wireless Display (WiDi), which now adds 1080p HD and content protection for those wishing to beam premium HD content from their laptop screen to their TV. “The new second generation Intel Core processors represent the biggest advance in computing performance and capabilities over any other previous generation,” said R Sivakumar, Managing Director, Sales and Marketing Group, Intel South Asia. 

The second generation Intel Core processor family is the first micro architecture to combine visual and 3D graphics technology with performance-leading microprocessors on a single chip. Incorporating the newly architected Intel HD graphics on each 32nm die enables significant graphics performance improvements over previous generation graphics, for both HD media processing and mainstream gaming.

The new processor graphics technology will focus on high-definition (HD) video, photos, mainstream gaming, multi-tasking and online socializing and multimedia.

“Today, the consumption patterns clearly indicate a shift towards heavy access to online audio and video content by mainstream users and I am confident our partnership will produce a range of products that will address the growing need, offering mainstream users an immersive computing experience on our products powered by the 2nd generation Intel Core processors,” said George Paul, Executive Vice President, HCL Infosystems.

“The second generation Core processor family promises to offer a better set of visual capabilities that’s now seamlessly integrated with the processor performance. We’re very excited to bring to market a set of products based on these new processors, which will offer the consumers an unparalleled and entertaining PC experience,” added Amar Babu, Managing Director, Lenovo India.

"Microsoft has lost interest in merger " - says Yahoo

In a major twist Yahoo Inc Chief Executive Jerry Yang is said to have claimed that  Microsoft seems to have lost the interest in a merger eventually.

The talks have been going on for quite some time with Microsoft initially expressing interest and then backing off owing to cold response from Yahoo.Microsoft offered $31 a share in a half-cash, half-stock bid, to buy Yahoo, which valued it at $44.6 billion. Yahoo rejected the offer quoting the value to be much lower than its actual worth.According to the sources recently, Microsoft has proposed buying Yahoo''''s search business and taking a minority but reinitiated full merger negotiations.

Several orientations have changed since the beginning and now a complete merger was proposed. The exact course of action has still not been decided."Microsoft is no longer interested in buying the company, and we are talking about other things. We definitely have to understand what they''''re proposing...they clearly have an interest in Yahoo, and we need to understand more," Yang said.

Another modulation of a proposed deal theory is that, Yahoo would sell its Asian assets including significant minority stakes in Yahoo Japan and China''''s Alibaba Group, while Microsoft would buy a chunk of what remains of the company, the source said. 

Microsoft Unveils Free Software Tools for development in Open access and interoperability

In a bid to help improve research process as well as offer innovative tools for developing and supporting efforts in open access, open tools, open technology and interoperability, Microsoft has unveiled free software tool for Scholarly communication.

Microsoft has drawn a sketch for the exercise of computing technology in research progression. The software tools launched by Microsoft help to enhance interoperability with commonly used existing tools. 

In the area of scholarly communication, essential processes are collecting, analyzing, authoring, publishing and preserving information. All these processes can be performed with ease with the assistance of search and discovery.

The free available tools are Creative Commons Add-in v1.0 for Microsoft Office( for creating common licenses directly into office documents), Microsoft e-Journal Service (Alpha)( facilitates easy self-publishing of online journals), Research Output Repository Platform (Alpha)( helps capture and leverage semantic relationships among academic objects), Research Information Center (Beta)( allow researchers to collaborate) and Microsoft Math Add-in for Microsoft Office Word 2007(aids mathematical calculations).
All of the above tools are free to download and users can download the tools from the site www.microsoft.com/mscorp/tc/scholarycommunication.m.spx

DDR3 Prices Crash by 50 Percent in Last 45 Days

DDR3 prices have hit an all-time low following sluggish markets and liquidation of stocks by major Far Eastern distributors as the Chinese New Year approaches.

According to the recent report by DRAMExchange, the lowest price for 4GB DDR3 module quoted for the third week of January 2011 was around $32, which is approximately 50 percent lower than the price at the start of December 2010.

“Prices have been steadily dropping. It's a great time to upgrade or buy new memory,” said Suresh Purohit, Manager at Hyderabad-based DRAM India, a memory distributor, “Spot prices for a 4GB DDR3 module has dipped to less than Rs 2,000 from Rs 4,000 during the past 45 days.”

J Ramesh, Manager at Chennai-based Ralco Synergy added, “There is nothing new in the lows we are seeing in the DRAM market. It’s a cyclical trend that we have seen it in the past too. In Q3 and Q4 memory prices usually go up due to the Christmas season, and once that is over, it falls.” 

According to GA Mannan, Country Manager, Corsair India the other reason for the crash in prices is the transition that is happening from 45nm to 32nm manufacturing.

“Leading chip manufacturers have moved a large chunk of their memory manufacturing to 32nm fabs and hence are liquidating the 45nm inventory in order to move completely to the new and more efficient fabrication process,” opined Mannan.

Mannan sees memory prices firming up post the Chinese New Year, which is on February 3, 2011.

Microsoft to unveil Beta 2 for IE8

The world's largest software giant Microsoft Corp. unveils the second test version of Internet Explorer 8 which is complete with features update on the Web browser, most commonly used. This second test version  is beta 2. Although the internet Explorer enjoys a market share of almost 75%, the new version has come up with new features.
This version being aimed at a larger customer base will enable convenience, flexibility and complete security.    

A part of the market share of Internet Explorer was taken away by Mozilla's Firefox, so Microsoft is on the way to bring up more updates on Internet Explorer. 

•The beta 2 version will have features similar to the ones found in Firefox 3 and will include a "smart" address bar too so that users can be directed to the unique website addresses.

•This version will also have a mode called "InPrivate Browsing" so that the temporary and the previous internet files and also the cookies are not stored on a user's PC.

•Also the version is having feature which will allow a user to obstruct the content coming from the third-party site. This enhanced capability will block the third party from tracking the user's online behaviour.

•The other features known as "Activities" will also be included in this version which will allow the user to use information such as the address existing on one page along with other service like the online mapping without even coming out from the original site.  

The official launch date of Internet Explorer 8 has not been declared by Microsoft as yet. 

Speech capabilties come to Google Chrome

Now Chrome users have a new reason to smile. Considering it as an industry-standard technology, Google technologists have the idea to develop audio capabilities that could serve just the right purpose.

A potential text-to-speech system for mobile and desktop browsers has been developed in the company. To spread the message across, sources claim that a formal conference was held in San Francisco recently.
 They’re hoping that the text-to-speech APIs as well as the voice input, voice recognition ship in Chrome but also become a Web standard that is implementable by any browser out there. However, the estimated date of offering this facility has not been out as yet.

It must be noted here that people who want to use voice input system can now speak of their queries with quite an ease.
There's voice recognition and there's text-to-speech, so not eventually a bad idea to build that into the browser adding that the company is hopeful its technology will enable a whole new class of applications.

Non-IT Company Dumps Products In Mumbai

Supreme Infrastructure, a non-IT and public-listed company, has allegedly dumped IT products in the Mumbai market, at prices 20-30 percent below the market operating price. Supreme has allegedly dumped inventory worth Rs 12-14 crore in the past four to six weeks. These include products from HP, Asus, LG, Kaspersky and Microsoft hardware, according to informed market sources.

Ketan Patel, CEO, Creative Peripherals and Committee Member, TAIT informed, “We have investigated the matter as a distributor of Microsoft hardware products and also at the level of TAIT based on complaints from a few members. What has emerged is that Supreme had sourced IT products from a company called eOffice Planet—now part of Office Depot—to supply to MMRDA. For some reason this product wasn’t supplied to Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and instead landed back in the open market. We don’t know the reason behind why products meant for MMRDA were sold in the open market.”
Patel said that Creative had in fact supplied a large number of Microsoft hardware to eOffice Planet at Rs 600 per mouse and keyboard combo. “These products came back in the open market and began selling at Rs 450 per unit. That’s what raised our eyebrows.”

Patel informed that TAIT has also investigated the matter after few members reported dumping. “TAIT did the investigation and found the above facts. More than the dumping of products we were concerned about TAIT members who may have supplied the products to eOffice Planet. So we checked with all our members if they had received their payments. Fortunately, Creative and KK Overseas, both who had supplied products have received their payments. So we didn’t pursue the matter further,” he opined.

A Mumbai-based reseller, who didn’t want to be named, admitted to having purchased around Rs 60 lakh of products from the company. “The reason we bought products from Supreme is because they were duty-paid with India warranty; and prices offered were almost 30 percent less than the distributor transfer price,” said the reseller.

When contacted Supreme’s Company Secretary Vijay Joshi said his company has no interest in IT business and that the allegations brought forward by CRN about the company dumping IT products in the market has absolutely no basis. “I am completely shocked with such speculations and allegations against our company. We are a listed company and such news could have negative impact. We are a real estate and infrastructure developer and have no interest in IT business whatsoever. Probably it’s some other company having a similar name that is involved,” he said.

Patel said that Creative has verified that ePlanet Office sold products sourced from his company to Supreme Infrastructure for a MMRDA project. Supreme’s Web site lists MMRDA as one of the large projects it is executing currently.

HCL Introduces new Beanstalk Range of Desktop - Latest IT News, Computer vendors in India, IT Blogs, IT industry in India : Latest IT News

HCL Introduces new Beanstalk Range of Desktop - Latest IT News, Computer vendors in India, IT Blogs, IT industry in India : Latest IT News

Scientists Extract Images Directly From Brain

Pink Tentacle reports that researchers at Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed a system that can “reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer monitor.”

According to the researchers, further development of the technology may soon make it possible to view other people’s dreams while they sleep.

The scientists were able to reconstruct various images viewed by a person by analyzing changes in their cerebral blood flow. Using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, the researchers first mapped the blood flow changes that occurred in the cerebral visual cortex as subjects viewed various images held in front of their eyes. Subjects were shown 400 random 10 x 10 pixel black-and-white images for a period of 12 seconds each. While the fMRI machine monitored the changes in brain activity, a computer crunched the data and learned to associate the various changes in brain activity with the different image designs.

Then, when the test subjects were shown a completely new set of images, such as the letters N-E-U-R-O-N, the system was able to reconstruct and display what the test subjects were viewing based solely on their brain activity.

The researchers suggest a future version of this technology could be applied in the fields of art and design — particularly if it becomes possible to quickly and accurately access images existing inside an artist’s head. The technology might also lead to new treatments for conditions such as psychiatric disorders involving hallucinations, by providing doctors a direct window into the mind of the patient.

ATR chief researcher Yukiyasu Kamitani says, “This technology can also be applied to senses other than vision. In the future, it may also become possible to read feelings and complicated emotional states.”

May be in future you could use this technology to understand why your kid is crying? 

The research results appear in the December 11 issue of US science journal Neuron.

Research: Bacteria Capable Of Generating Electricity

 Researchers at the University of Minnesota studying bacteria capable of generating electricity have discovered that riboflavin (commonly known as vitamin B-2) is responsible for much of the energy produced by these organisms.

The bacteria, Shewanella, are commonly found in water and soil and are of interest because they can convert simple organic compounds (such as lactic acid) into electricity, according to Daniel Bond and Jeffrey Gralnick, of the University of Minnesota’s BioTechnology Institute and department of microbiology, who led the research effort.

The discovery means Shewanella can produce more power simply by increased riboflavin levels. Also, the finding opens up multiple possibilities for innovations in renewable energy and environmental clean-up. The research is published in the March 3 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Microsoft feels the urgency to bring iPad killer?

It seems Microsoft has taken the investors feedback very seriously and is now aiming towards consumer segment. The company in wake of ruling the consumer segment too has announced slew of tablets and Smartphones. 

To catch up the rivals and in fact to beat them, company has all set its roadmap and is betting on Intel’s upcoming “Oak Trail” processor. The devices as expected would run on Windows.

The company is on roller coaster ride and is in full mood to beat the milestones and achievements met by Apple till date, cited related sources. To make things happen and actually to create a buzz in marketplace, the company is betting big time on Windows operating system and Intel Oak Trail processor. The pact that Microsoft entered with ARM holdings would offer an edge, for sure. 

Microsoft is betting on Oak Trail since it promises longer battery life, lower power consumption, and many other pre-requisites for portable devices.

Over tablets, Microsoft is preparing a whole spectrum and is in talks with various OEMs including Asus, Dell, Samsung, Toshiba, Sony, Lenovo, and Fujitsu.

Microsoft feels the urgency to bring iPad killer?

It seems Microsoft has taken the investors feedback very seriously and is now aiming towards consumer segment. The company in wake of ruling the consumer segment too has announced slew of tablets and Smartphones. 

To catch up the rivals and in fact to beat them, company has all set its roadmap and is betting on Intel’s upcoming “Oak Trail” processor. The devices as expected would run on Windows.

The company is on roller coaster ride and is in full mood to beat the milestones and achievements met by Apple till date, cited related sources. To make things happen and actually to create a buzz in marketplace, the company is betting big time on Windows operating system and Intel Oak Trail processor. The pact that Microsoft entered with ARM holdings would offer an edge, for sure. 

Microsoft is betting on Oak Trail since it promises longer battery life, lower power consumption, and many other pre-requisites for portable devices.

Over tablets, Microsoft is preparing a whole spectrum and is in talks with various OEMs including Asus, Dell, Samsung, Toshiba, Sony, Lenovo, and Fujitsu.

Renu Singh/ITVoir Network

NASA Tests Linux For Spacecraft Control

According to LinuxDevices.com, Linux was selected for a NASA experiment aimed at proving the feasibility of COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) hardware and software for scientific space missions. A key requirement was for application development and runtime environments familiar to scientists, to facilitate porting applications from the lab to the spacecraft.

NASA’s “Dependable Multiprocessor” (DM) experiment is among four scientific payloads scheduled for launch in November of 2009, in the “New Millennium Program Space Technology 8 (ST8) mission. Honeywell Aerospace was chosen to be the lead contractor for the DM experiment, while Orbital Sciences was selected to build ST8′s “Spacecraft bus.”

In order to attain success, Honeywell will have to overcome several obstacles — primarily through enhancements to Linux via custom high-availability middleware, it appears.

Embedded Linux vendor Wind River says it was selected to “support the development of NASA’s New Millennium Program Space Technology 8 (ST8) Dependable Multiprocessor.” As part of its role in supporting the project, the company will supply its Platform for Network Equipment, Linux Edition (PNE-LE) for use on the DM system.

Wind River said that as a whole, the DM system’s Linux-based software would enable the ST8 to “process and analyze its own data to make instant decisions about what is observed without having to send the information to Earth and wait for a reply.” The environment will also be able to dynamically adjust the level of fault tolerance for various subsystems, according to their criticality, the software vendor said.

Hope Linux passes this test!

Apple to get a slimmer version of iPad by next year

Apple just does not seem to cease extending boundaries in terms of innovation. The recent buzz doing the rounds is that Apple is working on getting a slimmer version of its popular product, iPad.

Analysts are of the opinion that the improved version of iPad will have features such as a camera for video-calling and chips made by Qualcomm that let it work on global wireless networks. Sources reveal that the production may start as early as January. Moreover it is being said that the product will be introduced to the public by February or March.

It has been reported that the device will feature Qualcomm chips that allow a Web connection on both GSM and CDMA networks, the most prominent radio standards used in mobile phones. Trusted aides have reported that Infineon Technologies, whose wireless business is being acquired by Intel, will make those radio chips for the iPad.

Modu Mini Phone: Worlds Lightest And Smallest Phone

Everyday there is a new mobile phone model is being released in to the market. Some are trendy, some are smart and well designed and loaded with hundreds of features.

Did you ever wanted to have a phone that’s just a phone. Here comes the lightest and smallest phone: Modu Mini phone. You can think of Modu as an expanded SIM card. It can make a call, send text messages, and hold a contact list—the bare minimum required to be a mobile phone. That is why it is so small—about the size of an iPod Nano.

This Modu Mini Phone is a modular phone, that can be slipped into different device jackets —like an MP3 player, a GPS device, a bigger cell phone, car stereo, or a digital camera. (Although, it will initially only support GPRS, which is slow. Another drawback—there is no WiFi.) In a camera, for instance, Modu can be used to send pictures over the wireless network. (Although, it will initially only support GPRS, which is slow. Another drawback—there is no WiFi.)

IBM To Build Next Generation Chips Using DNA

In future DNA wouldn’t just control human evolution but also computing evolution, if IBM succeeds to use DNA in development of next-generation microchips.

IBM scientists are using DNA scaffolding to build tiny circuit boards; this image shows high concentrations of triangular DNA origami binding to wide lines on a lithographically patterned surface; the inset shows individual origami structures at high resolution.

Scientists at IBM Research and the California Institute of Technologyannounced a scientific advancement that could be a major breakthrough in enabling the semiconductor industry to pack more power and speed into tiny computer chips, while making them more energy efficient and less expensive to manufacture.

Today, the semiconductor industry is faced with the challenges of developing lithographic technology for feature sizes smaller than 22 nm and exploring new classes of transistors that employ carbon nanotubes or silicon nanowires. IBM’s approach of using DNA molecules as scaffolding  – where millions of carbon nanotubes could be deposited and self-assembled into precise patterns by sticking to the DNA molecules – may provide a way to reach sub-22 nm lithography.

The utility of this approach lies in the fact that the positioned DNA nanostructures can serve as scaffolds, or miniature circuit boards, for the precise assembly of components – such as carbon nanotubes, nanowires and nanoparticles – at dimensions significantly smaller than possible with conventional semiconductor fabrication techniques. This opens up the possibility of creating functional devices that can be integrated into larger structures, as well as enabling studies of arrays of nanostructures with known coordinates.

“The cost involved in shrinking features to improve performance is a limiting factor in keeping pace with Moore’s Law and a concern across the semiconductor industry,” said Spike Narayan, manager, Science & Technology, IBM Research – Almaden. “The combination of this directed self-assembly with today’s fabrication technology eventually could lead to substantial savings in the most expensive and challenging part of the chip-making process.”

The lithographic templates were fabricated at IBM using traditional semiconductor techniques, the same used to make the chips found in today’scomputers, to etch out patterns. Either electron beam or optical lithography were used to create arrays of binding sites of the proper size and shape to match those of individual origami structures. Key to the process were the discovery of the template material and deposition conditions to afford high selectivity so that origami binds only to the patterns of “sticky patches” and nowhere else.

The paper on this work, “Placement and orientation of DNA nano structures on lithographically patterned surfaces,” by scientists at IBM Research and the California Institute of Technology, will be published in the September issue of Nature Nanotechnology and is currently available at:http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nnano.2009.220.html

Is Charging Your Gadget Overnight Waste Of Energy?

A six gadget charger

Many times we leave our gadgets Mobile phones, PDAs, MP3 players, Cameras, Laptops etc with charger plugged in overnight. Lets check if this is a major waste of energy..

What happens if you leave the mobile phone plugged in all night?

According to measurements from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the average cell phone draws 3.68 watts of power from the outlet while it’s charging and 2.24 watts when charged. Let’s take the worst-case scenario and assume that you’re over-juicing a charged battery for the entire night. Leave the average phone plugged in for eight unnecessary hours, and it’ll use about 0.018 kilowatt-hours of electricity. Do that every night for a week, and the figure rises to 0.13 kWh; every night for a year, and you’re looking at a grand total of 6.5 kWh of electricity.

What if you leave your phone charger plugged in all the time, even when the phone itself isn’t attached—how much vampire power would that suck up? Again using the Berkeley Lab figures, if the average charger is plugged in for the entire 8,760 hours of the year, it’ll use about 2.3 kWh of electricity.

Your iPod or Zune probably isn’t worth worrying too much about, either: According to Chris Calwell, the founder of energy efficiency consulting firm Ecos, digital music players only draw about 0.25 to 0.4 watts when fully charged.

What about laptops? If you got yours in the last few years, it may not be much of a nighttime energy hog. According to figures from the University of Pennsylvania’s IT department—which looked at several laptops purchased between 2005 and 2009—today’s laptops draw between one to three watts when switched off but plugged in, and roughly the same amount in sleep mode. That puts them in about the same ballpark as cell phones. A laptop that’s idle, but not asleep, will draw closer to 15 to 20 watts.

Given that the average American’s residential electricity consumption is more than 4,000 kWh each year (PDF), the Lantern doesn’t think that a handful of kilowatt-hours are worth much tossing and turning. You could do way more for the planet, for example, by swapping out a single incandescent light bulb in your home for a compact fluorescent one; as the Lantern pointed out in a previous column, that simple action alone can save 126 kWh a year. Plus, charging your gadgets while you sleep has the added benefit of shifting a tiny fraction of your energy usage from the daytime, when demand is highest, to the nighttime, making things just a bit easier on your local grid.

As Cambridge professor David MacKay notes in his book Sustainable Energy—Without the Hot Air, obsessively unplugging your charger is like “bailing the Titanic with a teaspoon.” By all means, do it, he says, “but please be aware how tiny a gesture it is.” (He goes on to note that, according to his calculations, keeping your phone charger unplugged for a year saves as much energy as skipping a single hot bath.)

25 Best Web Design Practices – How to Make Your Website Stand Out From the Crowd

You might have a complete business model and the perfect plan. But business can’t run without a website. However, designing a website can be a Herculean task!

Here are some of the best web design practices that can make your website unique from all the others. Make sure to keep it subtle, witty and captivating at the same time for the visitors.

25 Best Web Design Practices:

1. First and foremost make sure your website displays properly on the popular versions of IE(7+), Firefox(3+), Opera(9+), Safari(Mac and Windows) to provide tousle free access.

2. Navigation links should be clearly and consistently labeled. Make use of navigation aids such as site map, skip navigation link etc.

3. Use various keywords, phrases and unique titles for each page of your site. Make key ideas on page in bold text font.

4. Your contact information should be prominent and should have all the details like contact name, email address, contact numbers and address information is possible. Also include contact link in the footer.

5. The header/logo should grab the attention of the visitors. It should be consistent. The purpose should be immediately apparent.

6. Content presentation is very important. It should be informative and meaningful. Make it presentable and not in haphazard manner. Content should provide links to other useful sites also.

7. Please no outdated information, no grammatical or spelling errors! Always spell check and proof-read your documents.

8. Page layout is very important. Make good use of design principals like repetition, contrast, proximity and alignment. It should display without horizontal scrolling at 1024*768 and higher resolutions.

9. Don’t forget to optimize website for search engines. Besides a great design websites should also be optimized for search engines using meta tags, title and content keywords, anchor texts and internal linking.

10. Home page should have compelling information and should download within 10 second on dial up connection. Also be clear and precise. Ambiguity is certainly not advisable.

11. Don’t use too many colors in page background/text. It should not appear tacky.

12. Colors should be used consistently and there should be good contrast with the text.

13. Use of graphics should serve the purpose. They should be optimized and should not slow down the page. Use small graphics which can load more quickly.Use images to make your content attractive.

14. Your website should be functional. Keep in mind that all the internal and external hyperlinks should work. No page not found error please!

15. Make use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to keep excessive code out of the way.

16. Don’t make your content dull and boring. Break up those long paragraphs. Try to break the monotony with bullet points, use of white spaces and relevant headings and sub headings.

17. Header tags should be used on every page consisting of the information relevant to the page.

18. All the forms should function as expected and there should be no JavaScript errors.

19. Make use of multimedia features. The audio/video/flash file should serve the purpose and should not distract user from the website.

20. Include download times for the audio and video files and provide suitable captions.

21. Provide links to download for media plug-ins.

22. Buying or reserving information should be accessible and hassle free. (Book now, Checkout, Shopping cart, etc.) You can also create logical navigation with “Product” and “Purchase” links.

23. Your site should be friendly to the volunteers. Give detailed information on how you can get them involved and let them participate.

24. If you running business website then you can include a News Section or Blog. People will come back to your site and your website will get more exposure. Add news about your firm and your cause.

25. Lastly, don’t forget to update your navigation and sitemap whenever you add pages to a site.

                 Have a wonderful website design that everyone will remember as a unique business brand!