Open user profile folder and workstation using the keyboard

There are multiple options to open important directories in Windows Explorer. Most of these demand multiple mouse clicks. The same actions are faster using the keyboard.

Through a hidden feature, you can quickly open the profile folder of the current user account. Click on ‘Run’ in the start menu, type in a point ‘.’ and press [Enter]. In Windows XP, the folder ‘C:\ Document and Settings\[User Name]’ opens up; Vista onwards the folder ‘C:\Users\[User Name]’. By typing in two points ‘..’ you can also open all the sub folders of all user profiles. 

By entering Backslash ‘\’ you can reach the root folder ‘C:’. Similarly, by entering three or more points ‘...’ the work place. Windows starts the Explorer automatically. This method also functions under Vista and Windows 7, however not directly in the search field of the start menu. In both the operating systems, first open the Run dialogue box, which is done fastest with key combination [Win] + R. Only the quick call to the workplace does not work.

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SONY ERICSSON XPERIA X8

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 is a compact phone, but not as compact as the X10 Mini. The display is a 3-inch capacitive touchscreen (320x480). The USB and headphone jack are now placed on top, alongside the power button, which works well. A microSD hot swap slot is just under the rear panel, and you have quite a few color options for the rear panel to suit your style.

 The X8 comes equipped with a Qualcomm 600 MHz processor, runs on Android 1.6, and uses Sony Ericsson’s Four Corner UI with Timescape for social networking. The UI is noticeably smoother than the X10 Mini/Mini Pro. Sony Ericsson has always complied with the norms for portable audio, but the normalization on this device makes the music almost inaudible in public. The display, although small, is comfortable enough to watch YouTube clips or 3GP or MPEG4 videos. The FM radio also has slight improvements over the previous releases. The phone comes bundled with apps like Creatouch, Roller coaster, and Peggle. However, some apps like Robo Defense don’t work with the phone. Packed with 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, and EDGE/GPRS, this phone has enough options for connectivity.

Wi-Fi connectivity was a lot more stable than in the X10 Mini Pro. The X8 features a GPS module to provide location-based information, and includes the WisePilot app for turn-by-turn navigation. The X8 has just a 3-megapixel fixed-focus camera, which is just ridiculous. Thankfully, the image quality is not bad at all. The battery life was decent, lasting about a day and a half with Wi-Fi, browsing, and social networking usage. Talk time was 3 hours 30 minutes, which is average. This phone would have been a great buy at Rs 12,000, but at Rs. 15,990, it’s not really worth the price.

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ASUS EAH6870, 1 GB

Going by AMD’s nomenclature, 6870 should be the most powerful single GPU followed by the 6850. But surprisingly, this is a mid-range GPU, which falls behind the 5870. The 6870 has 1120 stream processors (30 percent less than HD 5870) and runs at 900 MHz. The GDDR5 memory tied to a 256-bit wbus runs at 1.05 GHz, (150 Hz slower than HD 5870).

 Other changes in the HD 6000 include an improved tessellation engine that performs signifi cantly better at lower tessellation factors, better anti-aliasing, UVD 3, HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort 1.2. UVD 3 supports hardware acceleration for Blu-ray 3D, MPEG-2, and DivX and XviD codecs. The EAH6870 uses AMD’s reference design, which is similar to that of the HD 5870 with an intake fan that cools the heatsink with copper pipes running through. The cooler is enclosed in a plastic shroud that creates a chamber for the air to move through the fins and expel from the rear, and a few vents on the side. The rear panel sports two DVI ports, two mini DisplayPorts and an HDMI port. The HD 6870 was just about able to handle Crysis Warhead at 1920x1080 using Enthusiast settings, but with AA disabled. Just Cause 2 was relatively easy to handle with Very High settings and AA set to 8x.

 So you can rest assured that most of the latest games will run comfortably at full HD resolution with all the settings maxed out, but with AA disabled or set to lower values. The overall performance is good. It’s slightly more powerful than the GTX 470, but it takes a beating from the HD 5870, which is 12 percent faster. Our system power consumption went down by 12 percent when using HD 6870 instead of the HD 5870, but the idle power consumption dropped by a mere 2 Watt. Priced at Rs 17,500, the Asus EAH6870 off ers good value for money. Competing GPUs by Nvidia also deliver similar performance at the same price point, but the power consumption is slightly higher.

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DELL ALIENWARE AURORA ALX

The Alienware Aurora ALX looks almost identical to the previous Aurora gaming rig we tested, with the addition of motorized vents on top of the tower. The entire cabinet uses black plastic, except for the LED-lit translucent acrylic strips the sides. Calling this machine feature-rich would be an understatement. Built around an Intel X58 chispet, it is powered by an Intel Core i7 Extreme 980X processor, which has six cores, is clocked at 3.33 GHz, and has 12 MB L3 cache. It is equipped with a whopping 24 GB RAM and has two 320 GB hard drives; rather meager for such a powerful machine.

There are two ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics cards in CrossFire, and each has two DVI ports, an HDMI and a display port. These cards seamlessly handle the most demanding games at maxed out settings. With fire power like that, the Aurora ALX is by far the most powerful machine we’ve tested. The front panel sports memory card readers and a Blu-ray combo drive. At the back, there are seven USB ports (one is USB 3), an Ethernet jack, six audio jacks and optical out. The rig comes preloaded with Windows 7 Ultimate. Crysis Warhead delivered 40 fps in Enthusiast modewith 8X AA and everything else maxed out, which is really something. After we fi nished testing, we went into the BIOS settings and increased the multiplier for all six cores to get higher clock speeds.

With a multiplier of 32 (default 25), the PC froze, but at 31 we got the highest clock speed of about 4.14 GHz (default 33.3 GHz). After overclocking, video encoding and fi le compression were faster by three or four seconds, and game framerates improved marginally. Here’s the question though - do you really want to spend Rs 3 lakh on a PC? You can assemble a high-end gaming rig, which can play Crysis and other demanding games at maxed out settings, for less than half this price.It's extremely Expensive!

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Navigate faster and comfortably using jump lists.(Win 7)

The control panel in the current window is also quite confusing. A number of functions are available only by clicking multiple levels.Set shortcuts for the often used
objects of the control panel, for which you can create a jump list. These are commands of an application that show when you right-click on the symbol of the application in the task bar.
Navigate to ‘Start | Control Panel’.
As soon as this is opened, the operating system displays the corresponding symbol in the task bar. Right-click on this to open the context menu. Apart from a few entries under ‘Recent’ and a few standard commands, the menu currently does not serve any further objectives. You can, however, extend this menu to often used functions. Click on the link of the desired function and keep the mouse key pressed, drag the cursor to the control panel symbol in the task bar. As soon as the message ‘Pin to Control Panel’ appears, release the mouse key. Windows 7 links the functions permanently to the jump list of the application. They further appear here under the heading ‘Pinned’. Repeat this process for all the required functions. To delete a pinned function, click on the small pin in the jump list that appears when you move the cursor over the entry of the function.
NOTE:To avoid opening the control panel via the start menu, click in the jump list on ‘Pin this program to the taskbar’. The control panel symbol will now be visible in the taskbar even if the application is closed.

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ADVANCED SYSTEM CARE

System tweaking, cleaning and scrubbing utilities are available in abundance in both free and paid versions. Advance System Care is a free utility that is powerful and has lots of tricks up its sleeve. The utility features three main sections - Tuneup, Security and Admin tools. The Tuneup section highlights a disk cleaner, disk doctor, fi le shredder, RAM, Internet and game booster, defragmenting for disk and registry, and a shortcut repair tool.

The security section features a driver and system backup utility apart from an IE security tweak and a system file checker. Lastly, the Admin tools section highlights options such as auto shutdown, duplicate fi le and folder scanner, context menu manager, system restore, startup manager, etc. One-click options are available too, with pre-defi ned functions such as Windows maintenance, which includes spyware removal, privacy sweeper, registry fixer, and junk file cleaner. The utility is a set of multiple application utilities under one roof, which work together to boost performance and maintain your system automatically. It works pretty well and can be used for daily scrubbing of your operating system to keep your computer in shape.

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BLACKBERRY TORCH 9800

The BlackBerry Torch 9800 feels solid when held thanks to a nice rubbery, ribbed back. One thing missing is the convenience key on the left side, which was present in most BlackBerry smartphones. Being a slider, the only visible buttons are the standard four BlackBerry buttons. The screen is a 3.2-inch 360x480 multitouch display.

While the multitouch display is good, the iPhone still reigns supreme. The onscreen keypad is quite rubbish, but with a slider QWERTY keypad available, you probably won’t use it. The optical trackpad is brilliant and classic BlackBerry. The new BlackBerry 6 OS is more of an incremental evolution than a revolution, and improvements are in terms of visual refi nements and addition of some missing features. RIM has retained a 624 MHz processor, and there’s 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of space. 

Universal Search is a big plus, letting you search across apps, folders, the Web, e-mail, and more. The Social Feeds feature is supposed to aggregate your social networks, but it’s a disgrace compared to third-party apps like SocialScope. The new browser displays pages well, and pinch-to-zoom and tabbed browsing are available, but there’s still no Flash support. E-mail also uses Webkit for HTML rendering, but thanks to the slow processor, simple tasks such as exiting an app take too long. 

The 5-megapixel camera is easily the best BlackBerry camera yet. The Torch 9800 is 3G-ready, and there’s also Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR with A2DP connectivity. We were horrifi ed to only get half a day of battery life. For a smartphone of its class, this is a deal breaker. At Rs 35,000, it’s too priced for what’s on off er. It just doesn’t live up to the hype. We’ll wait for Torch 2.

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CONNOI POWER CRUNCHER CPC-580

Bengaluru-based Connoiseur Electronics has branched out into high-end gaming systems. The highlights of this system are its GeForce GTX580 graphics card and 3D Vision kit. Connoi is the fi rst company to off er a system with this card in India. The CPC-580 uses an imposing Cooler Master HAF 932 cabinet, and comes with a Samsung 2233RZ 3D-capable monitor and vanilla Logitech keyboard and mouse set. These brands’ logos are covered by crude black Connoi stickers. Inside, an Intel Core i7-920 sits on an X58-based Asus P6T Deluxe motherboard with 4 GB of Corsair 1333 MHz RAM. The motherboard is solid, but the CPU is rather aged and the RAM is just pedestrian.

The system is impressively quiet, thanks to the HAF cabinet and Nvidia’s new graphics card cooler design. Connoi has done a great job with routing wires, and everything feels sturdy. However speakers aren’t included, which is strange for a high-end gaming PC. Note that the 3D monitor’s resolution is only 1680 x 1050;  below the HD norm of most 22-inch LCDs. The tradeoff is due to the 3D vision support. Our review unit came preloaded with Windows 7 Home Premium and no software; not even an antivirus package.
Performance scores were impressive, with PCMark Vantage giving us 7458 points overall.

Real-world tests showed the CPC-580 was as fast as our own test benches with the same CPU. The score of 13,506 in Cinebench R10 was particularly strong. Multimedia encoding/decoding tests didn’t disappoint us either. The GTX580 shone in gaming tests, pushing frame rates up to 100.29 and 84.63 in Left 4 Dead at low and high resolutions/quality settings respectively. Connoi promises one year warranty and service centers in six cities. You could probably assemble better components, but the 3D kit makes it a suitable choice at this price.Price:1,50,000

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ZOTAC GEFORCE GTX 580, 1.5 GB

The first retail sample of the GTX 580 was sent to us by Zotac. It sports the reference design with the core and memory running at stock speeds. Despite slower-switching transistors, the core of the GTX 580 runs 72 MHz faster than GTX 480 at 772 MHz. The 1.5 GB of GDDR5 memory tied to a 384-bit wide bus is clocked at 1.02 GHz, which is again faster by 96 MHz. The card draws power from an 8-pin PCIe power connector and a second 6-pin connector.

No change has been made to the video outputs on the rear, except that the mini HDMI port is version 1.4a. Zotac has bundled Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands with this card. So far, none of the single-GPU cards have been able to handle Crysis Warhead in Enthusiast mode at 1980x1080 with the AA maxed out. The GTX 580 just managed it at a steady 38 fps, which is smooth. The HD 5870 and GTX 480 could deliver a little over 30 fps at 4x AA. So 16x AA was out of question. Mafia II is another game that can bring high end graphics cards to their knees. At 1920x1080 with AA enabled and PhysX disabled, it ran very smoothly at 70.5 fps.

With PhysX on high, however, the car just about managed it at 36 fps, which is very commendable. Just Cause 2 didn’t show any signifi cant improvement. The GTX 580 shone in the Unigine Heaven 2.1 benchmark, which features extensive use of tessellation. At 1920x1080 with 4xAA and extreme tessellation, the scenes were running at 37 fps. Overall, the GTX 580 is 25 percent faster than its predecessor and consumes 80 W less at full load. It goes without saying that the GTX 580 is the fastest single-GPU card in the market at present. Take any game and max out all the eff ects and this card won’t give in easily. No other card comes close to the GTX 580, but a pair of HD 6870s, which would cost around the same would give it some serious competition.

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VIDEOCON V7500 EVOLVE

The Evolve (Zeus) is quite similar to Spice’s Android off ering, with a few diff erences. For one, it comes off as far more elegant. The specs are almost identical though; a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen (320x480) with multi-touch, a concealed micro USB port, and a hot swap microSD card slot (8 GB card included).

Videocon has adopted the same gaudy UI as the Mi-300. The icons are oversized and a little too colorful. The UI is smooth, responsive and easy to navigate. Audio volume was loud enough and quality is quite decent too, but the lack of FM radio is a stinger. The Zeus handles iPhone MP4 videos and 3GP fi les with ease. It’s a 3.5G handset, with EDGE/GPRS for us non-3G countries. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth with A2DP and GPS with Google Maps are all present.

Gtalk and YouTube apps are included too, but a Facebook app is missing. The Zeus also comes with a 5-megapixel autofocus camera. Image quality isn’t anything spectacular, and in bright sunlight, certain brighter colors get over-exposed. On one charge, the Zeus is good for a little over a day and a half, with about 3 hours of talk time. The Zeus’ design makes it worth the Rs 12,500 MOP, but if you’re looking for an Android handset on a low budget, the Samsung Galaxy 3 is the best choice.

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ASUS G53J

The G53J is another winner from Asus’ Republic Of Gamers series of laptops. It’s a mean machine in terms of hardware and looks, but it’s also more expensive than the  G51J. Aesthetics is one of the major distinguishing factors of this mammoth machine. With a rubberized all-black matte body and rugged build, the G53J looks more like a stealth aircraft. The surfaces are absolutely fl at, with no curves whatsoever. Typing on the chiclet keyboard is pretty comfortable, with the well-sized keys, touchpad and buttons.

The one downer was the poor quality of plastic in some places. Built around the Intel HM55 chipset, it is powered by an Intel Core i7 720 QM CPU, and has 8 GB RAM, two 750 GB hard drives, an Nvidia GTX 460 GPU and a 3D-ready 15.6-inch screen (1366x768). Other features are common to high-end machines, such as a Blu-ray combo drive, and standard connectivity options like Wi-Fi N, gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth. It’s got all the necessary ports, such as a memory card reader, four USB ports, and HDMI and VGA ports. The machine also comes with the Nvidia 3D Vision kit, the receiver for which is built in. The benchmark scores and gaming experience lived up to our expectations, with much better 3D gaming performance than the G51J. The G53J ran at 25 fps in Crysis Warhead’s enthusiast mode, which is pretty good.

The overall gameplay on this machine is pretty much like it was in the G51J, with the added 3D performance. The G53J costs more than the G51J, but for the extra money, you get twice the RAM, an upgraded GPU, more space, and a built-in Nvidia 3D Vision receiver. And while the G51J looks pretty much like a gaming/multimedia laptop, the G53J is in a league of its own. So while the G51J costs about a lakh, the G53J gives you all these extras at Rs 1,12,499. If we were to spend around a lakh on a gaming laptop, we’d defi nitely get this one by paying that 10 percent extra.

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Dual-sim touch phone

The new Samsung Star Duos is the first 3G + 2G Dual-Standby Touch phone with full touch functionality. 3G + 2G (HSDPA + EDGE) Dual Standby utilizes two SIM cards to expertly manage both work and life tasks in one unit. 

The WAP/MMS/E-mail supported software keeps the user always connected. The three-page extended menu and Touchwiz 2.0 provide an intuitive UI for easy navigation. The Samsung B-7722 has distinct business features to maintain a mobile office: Active Sync which updates e-mails from the desktop to the user’s mobile, Phone Book 2000 for organizing contacts, Document Viewer for MS Office, PDF TXT and other files, and a multilanguage dictionary. There is also a 5-megapixel AF camera with Power LED. It comes with a 250 MB internal memory,expandable up to 16GB.

PRICE: Rs 12,300
WEBSITE: www.samsung.com

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SPICE MI-300 ANDROID MOBILE PHONE

The Mi-300 is Spice’s first Android device, and it manages to pack in a 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen display and still stay aff ordable. The UI is riddled with overly colorful and gaudy icons. However, the layout is easy to navigate and the UI is smooth thanks to the MSM7227 chipset and 600 MHz processor. Multitasking, multitouch functions, accessing apps and the accelerometer all worked without a hitch. It runs on Android 1.6, but will be upgradeable to Éclair (2.1) soon. Audio quality for music is average, and the phone smoothly plays MPEG4 and 3GP files.

 This 3.5G handset also supports EDGE, and Wi-Fi. Besides a Gmail app, it supports MS Exchange with push mail support. The native browser works just fine, while Gtalk and Socially apps are available. The 5-megapixel camera supports Geotagging, and the image quality is not bad at all. The battery life is quite poor, giving no more than a single day’s usage. Rs 9,990 is a very attractive price for an Android device, but some major issue hold it back.

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MOTOROLA MILESTONE XT720

The Milestone XT720 features a more ergonomic design than its predecessor. Its 3.7-inch high resolution touchscreen is delightful to work with. Although it is much slimmer than the original Milestone, the absence of a physical keypad aff ects usability negatively. As far as the UI is concerned, absolutely every kind of motion is a smooth as silk, and the widget screens are wide enough for you to pack in your apps. The processor lets you run all applications without any hiccups, and we were able to have four apps running simultaneously. This XT720 also does a great job in contact integration with Google. The 8 megapixel camera is great for outdoor photography, and it can also record HD video at 720p. The audio player is good enough to give the iPhone a run for its money, while the FM radio manages to catch clear signals. The XT720 features Wi-Fi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1, aGPRS, and 3G, and wireless connectivity is seamless. It also features great GPS functionality out of the box. Applications such as QuickOffice, Motonav, Moto Phone Portal,and a PDF reader are preloaded.

One new software add-on is the magnifying glass for text fields. Essentially, it brings up a small magnified area above your thumb, showing you where your cursor is. The battery life of the XT720 is impressive. Its predecessor, the Milestone,did have issues with battery life, but that has been rectified here, with the battery lasting us close to a day with maximum usage.
All in all, the Milestone XT720 is a joy to use and a great Android phone. The only issue with the phone is its extremely steep price point of Rs 27,490. Right now though, this is the standard price for most high-end Android phones.

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Increase torrentz download speed

These days who doesn’t need free games or buy games from shops.There is torrentz for that! Well the popularity of torrents has risen very high in past few years.And it has become a part of our daily internet usage. Torrents have become so popular that we get almost all the files we require from these sites as well as with much better download speeds and better management.

So for all those greedy people who want even higher speeds, here i am going to tell about a software by which you will be able to drain a bit more speed than your average torrent download speed.

The software we are talking about is uTorrent Turbo Accelerator.

This tool will be able to improve upon your current download speed based on effective management of bandwidth.Hence you will be able to see a slight improvement in your torrent speed as compared to your normal download speed.

Its available for all the versions of windows operating system and doesn’t contain any adwares.

Cleans up invalid files as well as “finished” files automatically.Feel free to make use of this tool.
Download uTorrent Turbo Accelerator.After you install it,the software asks you to upgrade or buy full it,Ignore it by clicking the close button.

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ASUS EEEPC 1201N

The EeePC 1201N is not as slim or as light as the previous Seashell 1008HA netbook, which was merely an inch in thickness and weighed a kilogram. Nevertheless, at about 1.3-inches in thickness and weighing about 1.4 kg, this netbook packs more than double the power and off ers the same style and sexy looks. In fact, ergonomically, it’s much more comfortable to use, thanks to the larger 12-inch form factor. Typing on it is more convenient because the keys aren’t as crammed as they are on most netbooks. Except for the keys and the base, which feature a black matte coating, the entire unit has an overall glossy finish.

Ports are well-placed at either side and the built-in speakers are in the front, which isn’t the best thing. When using the machine placed on the lap, you might cover the speakers, which easily drowns out the sound.
In terms of features, it is the hardware that distinguishes this machine from all other netbooks. Built around Nvidia’s Ion platform, the Asus EeePC 1201N is powered by an Intel Atom N330 processor. It has 2 GB RAM, a 250 GB hard drive, GeForce 9400M integrated graphics, and a 12.1-inch glossy screen (1366x768). There’s no optical drive, but that’s not yet a downside on netbooks, Other features are rather common, such as HDMI and VGA ports, webcam, memory card reader and three USB ports.

Finally, the machine we tested came preloaded with Windows 7 Starter, but there are also variants that come with Windows 7 Home Premium. This netbook is twice as powerful in terms of processing and graphics when compared to entry-level netbooks. As a matter of fact, you can even enjoy light gaming on this machine, thanks to Nvidia’s Ion platform. In terms of multimedia, it can seamlessly playback HD-movies. The battery runtime under medium load is 3 hours 43 minutes, which isn't bad.But the Volume could have been better.

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Create a folder without Name

This trick will help you in creating a new folder without any visible name for it.So the folder goes completely unnoticed . So here are the steps to do it.

Step 1: Select the file or folder you want to rename.

Step 2: press F2 or you can even go to rename option available in the actions.

Step 3:Press and hold any one of the the Alt keys and then type in 0160 from the num pad available at right end of your keyboard.

Step 4: Leave the alt button after typing the number, then automatically you will notice a space has been named for the folder.

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LG GS290 COOKIE FRESH

The GS290 or Cookie Fresh. is designed to offer the younger mobile user all that a mobile phone should at a reasonable price. LG’s Cookie range of phones is known for its bold looks, and this one is no different.
The 3-inch 240x400-pixel resistive touchscreen makes viewing easy on the eyes and navigating the menus a breeze. A micro USB port is placed on the same side as the screen lock and camera button, while a microSD card slot (2 GB card included) and volume/ zoom keys are on the other side. A 3.5 mm hands-free jack is available at the top. The Fresh runs on a Flash-based UI that’s pretty standard for LG’s lower end touchscreen handsets. 

It’s got the look and feel of LG’s proprietary S-Class UI, which is easy to navigate, but a bit sluggish. The 2 megapixel camera comes with very basic features, such as white balance, exposure, night mode and timer. Processing is quick, but image quality, while crisp, always ends up quite dull. The Fresh was able to dish out an average talk time of about 3 hours 45 minutes. On a single charge with plenty of social networking, calls, messages and music, we got just a little over a day and a half of usage.It costs around 6,199INR, Value for money goes 4 out of 5!

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ROCCAT KONE+

The Roccat Kone+ is quite a large gaming mouse, but it feels extremely comfortable to use. Its rubberized body provides a fi rm grip and a much higher level of comfort. Both sides of the mouse are ergonomically carved out, allowing for better movement. Apart from the standard left and right buttons, the Kone+ consists of fi ve buttons and a 5-way scroll wheel. It also features a special button known as EasyShift+, which allows the user to double the overall functionality of the buttons. This means that you can assign two functions to a single button, giving the user a total of 24 unique functions via the 12 buttons.
However, this can only be done via the application provided with the product.

The application also comes with a Macro Manager that allows you to either redefine the already existing macros or create your own. Five control profiles are featured in the application to be used in accordance to the game type. Moreover, each profi le can be directly linked to three different games, thus allowing the set profiles to automatically load when you boot up a game. To further enrich your gaming experience, the Roccat Kone+ comes with a modular weight system that sits at the bottom. The supplied weights (four in total), each weighing 5 g, can be fit towards the bottom, thereby enhancing the overall precision and movement of the mouse.It costs around Rs:7,550 INR.It's Very Expensive when looking at its features.

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Cities in Motion (PC)

Cities in Motion (CIM) is a city-based mass transportation simulator for the PC. Players operate their own transportation company, building a public network with a variety of vehicle types, including buses, trams, and subway trains.By meeting the needs of city residents, the player tries to make as much profit as possible. Observing the changing and growing city, as well as the different types of people in it, is key to building a successful and efficient network.

Features:

• Explore four different cities: Vienna, Helsinki, Berlin, and Amsterdam

• Engage in a campaign with 12 scenarios, as well as a sandbox mode where all campaign cities are playable

• Experience realistic 3D graphics with more than 100 unique, highly detailed buildings

• Use the advanced map editor to create your own cities

• Immerse yourself in an advanced economic simulator as you struggle with banks and shifting economic trends

• Play through 100 years of transportation history throughout four eras, spanning from 1920 to 2020

• Choose between more than 30 different vehicles based on real-life models of buses, trams, water buses, helicopters, and subways, complete with an underground view

• Meet residents’ travel needs as 7 different social groups exhibit different passenger behaviors

• Experience a real-time city and traffic simulator as each location's bustling population commutes between their homes, jobs, and leisure sites.

System requirements:
Pentium IV 2 GHz, 2 GB RAM, graphic card 512 MB (GeForce 8800 or better), 2 GB HDD, Windows XP/Vista/7.

 

 

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The Verdict:BRANDED vs ASSEMBLED PC

 The price difference between branded and assembled PCs has largely eroded, and promises of qualified at-home service and phone support are making it extremely tempting to forget about buying individual parts for good. The fit and finish of a branded PC is almost always superior these days, mostly due to the poor availability of affordable high quality cabinets and the manufacturers’ constant efforts to differentiate their products’ exteriors. Mass production also allows the brands to off er better moulded plastics, goodies like built-in card readers, intelligent cable management, and qualified installation at home. You’ll save money on the OS and other included software, though some extra unnecessary programs are bound to be present.

However you are limited in other ways. Choices and customization options are often limited. Buyers are caught between paying way more than market rates for simple upgrades like extra RAM, and voiding their warranties by having it installed later. Choices are also often limited when it comes to the monitor, speakers, keyboard and mouse. If you need higher quality sound and video or more comfortable peripherals, you’ll be out of luck.

Big brands offer high quality construction and
attractive finishes in various designs.

After analyzing product datasheets from nearly every major player in India, our very clear conclusion is that the best branded off erings are in the sub-Rs 35,000 category. This appears to be the sweet spot around which most models are concentrated, and also targets buyers who won’t want too many customizations to their PC configurations.

Going higher up the price range, we find more stylish“lifestyle”-branded PC models with increasingly powerful hardware, but the choices of components do not generally represent the best possible distribution of money to make them optimal for gaming. Here, in the middle and at the upper end of the price range, gamers and extremely discerning consumers are often better off seeking out local system integrators who can build something as a custom order, or simply buy the parts and assemble a desktop themselves. And as far as full-blown workstations go, the tide turns swiftly in favor of branded options again, considering the kind of component choices, construction quality and aftersales support the target audience for these machines would value.

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VIDEOPAD VIDEO EDITOR

Edit your home videos yourself and make them seem like a professionally edited movies with the use of this simple free software. With VideoPad Video Editor, you can clip out boring and uninteresting parts of a video clip, add a voiceover or a music track, give transition eff ects, and much more.
The software is very simple to use, although fi rst-time users might find it quite confusing as there are no help wizards; you’ll have to learn your way through the features. You can also capture video from a webcam or simply download the video clips from any camcorder. Clips can be selected from the original video, split into sections, and each section can be further tweaked with eff ects such as color, brightness, rotate and crop, pan and zoom, watermarks and text tiles. You can also record your own narration and insert the audio track in the video. The projects can be saved with the option of importing and sharing clips between projects too.
Once you’re done editing, you can finalize your video on a DVD disc, save it on the computer, encode it for a portable device, or simply upload it to YouTube.

The VidePad Video Editor is free, but if you need technical support, you’ll have to purchase the software for $60 (approx Rs 3,500). This software is an excellent choice for those who'd like to try editing their own videos at home without spending a dime.

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TWEAKNOW POWERPACK 2010

Is your system's performance slow or erratic? It might be because either there are junk and temporary fi les building up unnecessarily, or the registry is bloating with undeleted keys and strings. TweakNow PowerPack 2010 can come to the rescue in a big way by analyzing and optimizing the operating system. The utility contains a collage of tricks under its sleeve for fine-tuning Windows.

You can optimize the RAM, clean system temp files, clean and defragment the registry, cleanout tracks and cookies left behind by web browsers, securely delete files and folders, uninstall programs properly, and disable programs that start up automatically. It also has a bunch of system analysis tools such as system information, disk usage analyzer and process explorer. The Windows Secrets section helps in enabling/disabling or applying default settings to the browser, control panel, desktop icons, network, startup menu icons and more. This freeware application is very easy to operate and seems more powerful than other free applications. TweakNow can also be password-protected to prevent accidents or misuse. The utility can be used on 32-bit and 64-bit variants of Windows XP, Vista and 7.

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TARGUS WIRELESS COMFORT LASER MOUSE

The Targus AMW51AP is an ergonomically designed wireless mouse that can be used with laptops as well as desktops. It features a 1200 dpi laser sensor that smoothens out movements and improves accuracy to a great extent. Moreover, its 2.4 GHz frequency gives it an operating distance of up to 33 feet. The mouse features a very lucid design, where the bottom half sports a soft rubberized layer that provides superior grip and comfort.
The top layer of the mouse, where your palm rests, is easily detachable as it is only held in place by three magnets. Here, you will fi nd a well designed retention system that holds the two AA batteries in place, while also securing the micro USB receiver within it. Flip the mouse over and you will find a battery life indicator that displays the amount of power left.It's little bit expensive at price of 1,775INR

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