Biggest Tech Disappointments of 2007

Windows Vista
Five years in the making and this is the best Microsoft could do?
The integrated security and parental controls are nice, and the Aero interface is as whizzy as it gets. Searching and wireless networking are much faster and easier than under XP.

It's just that Vista isn't all that good. Many of the innovations the operating system was supposed to bring--like more efficient file and communications systems--got tossed overboard as Microsoft struggled to get the OS out the door, some three years after it was first promised. Despite its hefty hardware requirements, Vista is slower than XP.

When it debuted last January, incompatibilities were rampant--in part because hardware and software makers didn't feel any urgency to revamp their products to work with the new OS. The user account controls that were supposed to make users feel safer just made them feel irritated. And at $399 ($299 upgrade) for Windows Ultimate, we couldn't help feeling more than a little gouged.

No wonder so many users are clinging to xp like shipwrecked sailors to a life raft, while others who made the upgrade are switched back.And when the fastest Vista notebook PC World has ever tested is an apple MacBook Pro.there's something deeply wrong with the universe.

We have no doubt Vista will come to dominate the PC landscape, if only because it will become increasingly hard to buy a new machine that doesn't have it pre-installed. And that's disappointing in its own right.

Nokia Brings 6110 Navigator to India

Nokia has launched the Nokia 6110 Navigator GPS handset in India, which offers integrated maps, routing, and navigation with the click of the one-touch Navigator key.

The handset promises turn-by-turn 3D navigation, suggesting the best route to follow to reach any location. It offers voice guidance as well as turn arrows on maps to help people find the fastest way to their destination.......
The navigator comes pre-loaded with maps of eight cities, including Delhi and NCR (National Capital Region), Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Pune, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. In addition, users can download maps of over 150 countries on their phones.

The eight city maps promise locations and details of 75,000+ km roads, 10,000+ restaurants and hotels, 10,000+ banks and ATMs, 5,000+ schools and colleges, 3,000+ petrol pumps, 3,000+ places of worship, 2,000+ hospitals and medicine shops, 2,000+ car and auto service stations, plus 1,000-odd other places of interest.

According to Devinder Kishore, director (Marketing) of Nokia India, "With GPS and navigation services expanding rapidly into mobile communications devices, this industry is poised to grow. Maps and navigation will become a standard feature in a number of Nokia mobile devices."

Other features of the new navigator include: a 2 mega pixels camera with integrated flash, 4x digital zoom and panorama mode; 2.2-inches QVGA screen, 40 MB internal memory, and microSD expandable up to 2 GB.

Featuring Symbian OS, the handset enables fast and seamless access to online information with HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) up to 3.6 Mbps.

The Nokia 6110 Navigator will be available from end this month for Rs 20,869.