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Wi-fi direct to let your laptops Talk and Play

Most of the Wi-Fi users would have wondered atleast once why they are not able to connect their wi-fi enabled laptops and transfer files with their friend’s laptops. It is after all natural to expect a Bluetooth/LAN kind of functionality from WiFi devices.

This soon might become possible as Wi-Fi alliance is pushing for Wi-Fi direct (or Wi-Fi Adhoc) enabled devices as early as first quarter of 2010.The Wi-Fi direct will allow computers/devices to talk without a need for a wireless Hub / Wireless router. Currently Wi-Fi devices need to be connected to a Router/Hub to share data and communicate.
But with Wi-Fi Direct protocol the future devices can discover and automatically authenticate as in the case of current bluetooth technologies.

There are currently other limitations like you can have atmost one connection anytime in the Wi-Fi devices, For example I can only connect to one Wi-Fi network at any time. When we allow ad-hoc connections, the ability to connect to your internet and print at the same time from a Wi-Fi enabled printer becomes relevant. But whether this shortcoming will be addressed in near future is still a big question.

This new technology is expected to make the bluetooth technology which is a shorter range technology irrelevant in the long run.

More details and updates on Wi-Fi Direct can be accessed in Wikipedia’s article here

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HP launches ultra cheap CQ61 Laptop for $399 / Rs 20000

HP launched a new ultra cheap laptop from its Compaq saddle the new Compaq CQ61 with a decent specifications for your day to day activities. The CQ61 has a AMD Semptron M100 2GHz processor , 2GB DDR2 RAM , 160GB Hard disk, ATI Radean 4200 Graphics card (64MB) and even a DVD burner.

The laptop is targeted at colleged kids and has 15.6 display, the Compaq could become a hit among those who are looking to upgrade from assembled PCs in India, as a cheap laptop will avoid the need for Speakers/UPS etc.

This laptop’s specification should suffice if your work involves Web Browsing, Email, Office documents , Music and Movies etc. The laptop is should also be Ok for small Flash games.

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Will Netbeans and Glassfish survive the Sun-Oracle merger ?

Well the Sun-Oracle merger throws more questions than answers everyday, though Oracle’s intention on Java cannot be doubted, on the other hand the fate of Netbeans and GlassFish is uncertain. Oracle also own WebLogic server and is more popular than Glass Fish and in all probability development on GlassFish might end in the near future.

But on Netbeans front the story can be different, though Oracle currently promotes Eclipse IDE, it might change its tune in the near future, Netbeans is a neat package and good IDE for Java/J2EE development. Currently Netbeans bundles Glassfish,Tomcat and even WebLogic Server.

And the larger impact could be on Open Source database promoted by Sun, MySQL. Few years back Sun purchased MySQL and MySQL is one of the most popular database used for websites and other applications. And MySQL is a direct competitor in these areas, So there will be many players watching Oracle’s next move.

Well before all this European regulators need to clear the merger as Oracle is buying out Oracle’s direct open Source competitor in MySQL (currently owned by Sun).

Lets see how things play out in the near future.