Toshiba has just launched the Portege M300, weighing in at just 1.59 kg, with a 12-inch screen and a battery life of up to 11 hours. The new notebook is one of a series built on the EasyGuard platform. Toshiba’s EasyGuard focuses three key concepts of Connect (features and software to ensure easy and reliable wired and wireless connectivity); Protect & Fix (protective design features and diagnostics utilities for maximum uptime); and Secure (features that deliver enhanced system and data security).
The lightweight Portege M300 is targeted at the frequent traveler and comes pre-installed with Toshiba ConfigFree connectivity software. Combined with Toshiba’s integrated diversity antenna technology, this means the Portege M300 consistently finds the optimum connection for wireless networking and will automatically configure itself to the strongest network available.
In addition, it comes with all of the popular connectivity options now considered as standard, including Bluetooth and infrared to allow seamless connection to accessories or mobile phones and PDAs. The notebook has a built-in modem for dial-up Internet access, high-speed Ethernet for wired connections or WiFi for connecting from the office or wireless hotspot.
For lifestyle and digital entertainment convergence, the notebook has a multimedia slot for compact flash (CF) and SD cards used widely on digital cameras and MP3 players, allowing the easy transfer of images and sound files.
PhotoShop CS2 Essential for Digital Image Editing
Available in May, Adobe PhotoShop CS2 will be a major upgrade to the professional industry standard for digital image editing and creation. Photoshop CS2 builds on the software’s role as an essential tool for film and broadcast production.
PhotoShop CS2 includes powerful new creativity tools and productivity enhancements that allow production teams to get impressive results while minimizing tedious graphic and photo retouching time. The new Vanishing Point tool allows users to clone, paint and transform image objects while retaining visual perspective, dramatically reducing the number of steps needed to create realistic effects. Photoshop CS2 software’s ability to create and edit 32-Bit High Dynamic Range (HDR) images is ideal for those users doing compositing of 3D rendered scenes for motion pictures.
International versions of Adobe PhotoShop CS2 for Mac OS X version 10.2.8 through 10.3.8, Microsoft Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4 or Windows XP with Service Pack 1 or 2, are expected to begin shipping in late May and early June. PhotoShop CS2 will be available for an estimated price of $599 and licensed users of any previous version of PhotoShop can upgrade for $149.
Research Data and Techniques for Online Marketing
MarketingExperiments.com, an online marketing research laboratory, is making available free subscriptions to its publication, The Marketing Experiments Journal. This move provides marketers with access to hundreds of pages of marketing research and reports about online marketing techniques that have previously been available only to those with paid subscriptions.
Subscribers to The Marketing Experiments Journal can also benefit by participating in online discussions and by signing up for interactive web conferences.
Examples of research briefs published in The Marketing Experiments Journal include:
• Transparent Marketing: Identifies five key principles to help businesses earn the trust of skeptical consumers.
• Comparison Engines: An analysis of 17 different comparison-based search engines to determine the most effective ways to increase sales.
• Marketing Plan: Features 15 tips for maximizing online marketing efforts, such as optimizing home and landing pages, developing e-mail capture, utilizing e-mail marketing and setting up pay-per-click campaigns.
To subscribe to The Marketing Experiments Journal for free, visit www.marketingexperiments.com/newmemberform.asp.
Search Engine for US Shopping Information Goes Live
Become.com, a search engine that helps people find product reviews and relevant buying information, has launched a new 3.2 billion page shopping index with registration-free access to its search engine. Become.com’s new index includes shopping related information from more than 40 million websites. Become.com has also added a spell check feature to further help searchers find the most accurate information. This is spelling correction technology specifically designed for the needs of the online shopper. Everything from the dictionary to the computer algorithms is designed for superior performance on shopping-related searches. Such searches frequently contain brand names, model numbers and other terms missing from most dictionaries.
“Combining the new index with our cutting-edge AIR technology for ranking web pages, we can give users the best search experience for their shopping needs. This shows the ability of our vertical search strategy to produce the first disruptive technology in Internet search since Google,” said Michael Yang, founder, president and CEO of Become.com.
