Asus launches A series budget range of laptops; starts Rs 23,990

I recently read the monthly newsletter sent by Asus, and I noticed that Asus has announced the ‘A’ series budget range of laptops. In addition to the launch of the new range of budget laptops, the company has also announced a 2-year warranty program for any laptop in the A series.

The A553 laptop is the first laptop to be launched in the A series. Priced at Rs 23,000, the A553 laptop is equipped with a 2.16 GHz Intel Quad-Core Pentium Processor, with 4GB RAM and 500GB storage. The product is available in 4 colour options: Purple, Pink, White and Black.

Asus A553

In addition, Asus also unveiled two performance notebooks in the budget category. These are the A555LF & A555LA, which the company hopes will appeal to Indian consumers due to ‘its sleek, stylish looks, design aesthetics, merging glitz with substance backed by performance.’

The A555LF and A555LA are available in six different trendy colours, with a starting price of Rs 34,190 for the A555LF and Rs 28,990 for the A555LA. The product is aimed at students, first-time users, offices and value-driven buyers.

Asus A555LA

The 15.6-inch HD laptops are powered by an Intel i5-5200U processor, and are pre-installed with Windows 10. The A555LF packs has an impressive 8GB DDR3 RAM along with Nvidia GeForce GT930 2GB DDR3 virtual memory card translates into a seamless gaming experience. On the other hand, the A555LA comes with 4GB RAM.

Asus A555LF

The display offers automatic colour adjustment with visually stunning experience according to Asus.

Asus claims its exclusive AudioWizard along with SonicMaster ensures optimised audio performance for music, movies, and games.

According to Peter Chang, Regional Head of South Asia and Managing Director for Asus India, “The Indian market is extremely price sensitive where the consumers look for a value-for-money purchase. The ‘A’ series is crafted for performance, style and mobility but at the same time is economically friendly which can be used for everyday use ranging for gaming, entertainment to educational purpose and office work. With our A555LF laptop, it will be a best buy for this festive season, delivering a seamless technological experience to our consumers.”

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Windows 10 now runs on 75 million devices: Microsoft

Early last week, Microsoft released the third cumulative patch for Window 10, and also announced that its latest operating system is now installed on 50 million devices. It has now hit a new milestone with 75 million devices as it edges towards its target of 1 billion installations of Windows 10.

In a tweet, Microsoft India announced the new milestone.

@nashpd Hi Nash, we're excited about how Windows 10 has been doing. We thought you should read this. :) https://t.co/L9ylvniTdk

— Microsoft India (@MicrosoftIndia) August 26, 2015

Quoting Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President, Windows and Devices Group at Microsoft:

1. #Windows10: More than 75 million devices running Windows 10 – and growing every day. 1/10 pic.twitter.com/g0kqGizU0c

— Yusuf Mehdi (@yusuf_i_mehdi) August 26, 2015

Mehdi also said that Windows 10 was now officially available in 192 countries:

2. #Windows10: Windows 10 is running in 192 countries, virtually every country on the planet. 2/10 pic.twitter.com/GcAzAd501T

— Yusuf Mehdi (@yusuf_i_mehdi) August 26, 2015

Among the 75 million devices that have upgraded to Windows 10, there are over 90,000 unique models of PCs and tablets.

3. #Windows10: More than 90,000 unique PC or tablet models have upgraded to Windows 10. 3/10 pic.twitter.com/dEHWnBf1g9

— Yusuf Mehdi (@yusuf_i_mehdi) August 26, 2015

Among the devices that have upgraded to Windows 10, some go back to 2007.

4. #Windows10: Even some devices manufactured in 2007 have upgraded to Windows 10. 4/10 pic.twitter.com/Jo14necMkY

— Yusuf Mehdi (@yusuf_i_mehdi) August 26, 2015

Mehdi added that game streams from Xbox One to Windows 10 devices now stands at 122 years.

5. #Windows10: More than 122 years of gameplay have streamed from Xbox One to Windows 10 devices. 5/10 pic.twitter.com/viUMnSV8wM

— Yusuf Mehdi (@yusuf_i_mehdi) August 26, 2015

In addition to the above milestones, Microsoft Solitaire Collection and Micecraft: Windows 10 Beta have crossed 10 million downloads.

#Windows10:10 million achievements unlocked: Microsoft Solitaire Collection, Minecraft: Windows 10 Edition Beta 6/10 pic.twitter.com/2tEmkBvmGZ

— Yusuf Mehdi (@yusuf_i_mehdi) August 26, 2015

In a positive trend, the Windows 10 Store has witnessed 6 times the growth that was witnessed during Windows 8.

8. #Windows10: Windows Store for Windows 10 has seen 6X more app downloads per device than Windows 8. 8/10 pic.twitter.com/OusimL2Xjd

— Yusuf Mehdi (@yusuf_i_mehdi) August 26, 2015

Talking about the #UpgradeYourWorld campaign, Mehdi added,

9. #Windows10: Over 2,000 organizations vying to win the global partner slot in #UpgradeYourWorld. 9/10 pic.twitter.com/sfn8VJGWxX

— Yusuf Mehdi (@yusuf_i_mehdi) August 26, 2015

10. #Windows 10: Thank you @KimKardashian,@ladygaga,@therock, and all who helped to #UpgradeYourWorld. Do Great Things. 10/10

— Yusuf Mehdi (@yusuf_i_mehdi) August 26, 2015

On the funny side, in response to “tell me a joke” Cortana has cracked over half a million jokes since launch, Mehdi added.

#Windows10: In response to “tell me a joke”, Cortana has told over half a million jokes since launch. :) 7/10 pic.twitter.com/ztDSTod2Rg

— Yusuf Mehdi (@yusuf_i_mehdi) August 26, 2015

I'm pretty sure that Microsoft has many more milestones to achieve with its Windows 10 project. But Congratulations Windows 10 on achieving this!

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Windows 10 uses your Internet bandwidth to offer updates to others: Report

Microsoft’s Windows 10 launched on July 29 and was available as a free update for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 users. However, a feature known as Windows Update Delivery Optimisation, which is used to upgrade computers worldwide, might be eating into your internet connection to share updates with others across the web.


According to a reports, this feature is designed to help users get updates faster and is enabled by default in Windows 10 Home and Pro editions. Other Windows 10 editions such as Enterprise and Education too have the feature enabled but designed to use only the local network.

Users can disable this function but the option is buried in the Settings menu for the Windows Update. Users have to click Advanced Options’ and then ‘Choose how updates are received’. This feature works like torrents, with peer-to-peer distribution of files.

This move seems to be aimed at easing stress for the company’s servers but for most users around the globe these uploads will count against their bandwidth, the report added.

Microsoft responded to this criticism and stated that this feature “helps people get updates and apps more quickly if they have a limited or unreliable Internet connection”. It added that this move “does not slow down your internet connection” as it uses a ‘limited portion’ of idle upload bandwidth. The company also addressed privacy issues and clarified that the Windows Update Delivery Optimisation will not download or send personal content and that it only sends “parts” of the update cache.

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Microsoft’s Windows 10 launches today: Here’s a checklist to follow before you upgrade

Microsoft is revamping Windows. It’s newest flavour of the Windows operating system launches today. 29 July is marked on many calendars across the globe. Given that it’s the first time Microsoft is making a major release a free upgrade, it’s quite interesting! There’s a catch though. All genuine users of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 are eligible for the free upgrade for up to a year.

Eligibility check

According to Microsoft, the Windows 10 operating system will be available as a free upgrade for qualified devices running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. Yes, for free!

You may be desperate to claim something that is available for ‘free’ on the first day itself. And you need to decide whether or not you want to. The launch day is tomorrow. But you might just want to wait it out.

Before you decide to upgrade it’s important to understand the real deal behind Windows 10.

Check your system specifications

If you decide to not wait it out and opt-in for the upgrade, you will need to ensure that you run the latest update of the operating system. If you run Windows 7, then you should have installed SP1. If you haven’t, you can download it here. Similarly, if you are on Windows 8, then the Windows 8.1 update is a must to be eligible for the upgrade to Windows 10.

The minimum hardware specifications to run Windows 10 are as follows:

Processor: 1 Gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor or SoC
RAM: 1 Gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit
Hard disk space: 16 GB for 32-bit OS or 20 GB for 64-bit OS
Graphics card: DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver
Display: 1024×600

How do you upgrade?

I'd written before on how you could reserve your update for the new Windows 10. Here's in short for readers who haven't read it.

Assuming you have weighed all factors that need to be considered, and have decided to upgrade to Windows, all you need to do is install the Get Windows 10 app.

You could click on the Windows icon on the Windows icon on the system tray (at the right end of the taskbar).

Once you click on the same, you can Reserve your free upgrade!

What if you don’t upgrade?

You can still buy Windows 10! Windows 10 Home edition will cost you $119 (Rs 7,000 approximately). In comparison, Windows 10 Pro edition will cost you $199 (Rs 12,000 approximately). If you prefer upgrading from the Home edition to the Pro edition, you can opt for a Windows 10 Pro Pack at $99 (Rs 6,000 approximately).

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Microsoft Missed Shift to Mobile Due to Focus on PC, Says Nadella

Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella acknowledged that "one big mistake" the company made in the past was to think the personal computer will reign supreme forever and failing to anticipate the technological transformation of the mobile phone.


"If anything, one big mistake we made in our past was to think of the PC (personal computer) as the hub for everything for all time to come. And today, of course, the high volume device is the six-inch phone. I acknowledge that. But to think that that's what the future is for all time to come would be to make the same mistake we made in the past without even having the share position of the past. So that would be madness," Nadella said in an interview with technology news website ZDNet.

He added that the company has to be on the "hunt for what is the next bend in the curve".

"That's what, quite frankly, anyone has to do to be relevant in the future. In our case, we are doing that. We're doing that with our innovation in Windows. We're doing that with features like Continuum. Even the phone, I just don't want to build another phone, a copycat phone operating system, even," he said.

Nadella recalled that when he had joined the company in 1992, the focus and ambition was to take the personal computer in every home and on every desk.

"Guess what: We achieved that. And a company has to outlast any given technology paradigm and any ambitious goal. And so for me this going back to what is it that drove Bill (Gates) to build even the BASIC compiler or the interpreter to what we did in terms of inventing productivity or democratising client-server computing," he said.

The Microsoft chief had spelled out personal computing, reinvention of productivity, and business process and building an intelligent cloud platform as the company's three "bold ambitions" going forward at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2015 underway in Orlando.

Elaborating on his outlook for the Windows Phone, Nadella said he does not want the phones to be like any other phone operating system or device. He stressed Microsoft will also not launch a phone a day but focus on few phones that are unique. "And that's what I want our devices and device innovation to stand for."

The conference was the first major company event following the announcement on July 8 that Microsoft would be cutting 7,800 jobs and write off $7.6 billion, all related to its Nokia business.

Nadella said the announcement about the Nokia business was not about any change to the comany's vision and strategy, but for sure it was a "change to its operating approach".

"The way we're going to go about it. I'm not going to launch a phone a day. I'm going to focus on a few phones that actually grab share that, in fact, showcase our uniqueness," he said.

Press Trust of India

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New Delhi is among 13 global cities to host Windows 10 launch!

India will be one of the 13 countries to host the mega launch of the much-awaited Windows 10, the latest version of the popular operating system, by global giant Microsoft on July 29.

Microsoft is hosting events across 13 global cities, including New Delhi, to launch the latest edition of its operating system.

“We will celebrate the unprecedented role our biggest fans – more than 5 million Windows Insiders – played in the development of Windows 10 at special events in 13 cities around the world, including Sydney, Tokyo, Singapore, Beijing, New Delhi, Dubai, Nairobi, Berlin, Johannesburg, Madrid, London, Sao Paolo, and New York City,” Microsoft said in a blogpost.

These celebrations will offer hands-on opportunities, experiential demos, entertainment and opportunities to meet the Windows team, it added.

Microsoft will launch Windows 10, a successor to the current Windows 8.1 operating system, across 190 countries on July 29 as a free upgrade or with new PCs and tablets.

Windows 10 has innovations like Cortana, Microsoft Edge and the Xbox app. Microsoft claims the new OS is faster, more secure and compatible.

Microsoft is also partnering 10 global and 100 local non-profits to make a cash investment of $10 million in support of their missions and to promote awareness of their causes.

“In addition to the global non-profits, starting in September, we will crowd source nominations for 10 non-profits in each of the following 10 countries: Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, the UK and the US. The 100 local winners will each receive a cash investment to support their work to upgrade the world,” Microsoft said.

Press Trust Of India

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Microsoft gears up for surge in Windows 10 demand; upgrades will happen in phased manner

Microsoft is going all out to ensure that a billion device run Windows 10 – its latest operating system. With a little over three weeks to go before Microsoft Windows 10 is available to consumers, Microsoft Executive Vice President of Operating Systems, Terry Myerson, said on the Windows blog, “We’ve been really pleased with the strong response to Windows 10 since we kicked off reservations in early June, with millions of reservations. We want to make sure all of you have a great upgrade experience, so we’ll roll-out Windows 10 in phases to help manage the demand.”

Late last month, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella sent a memo which first appeared on Geekwire. According to the memo, Nadella laid emphasis on the new direction forward for Windows and the importance of cloud technologies. The key highlight of Nadella’s memo was:

“Every great company has an enduring mission. Our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. I’m proud to share that this is our new official mission statement. This mission is ambitious and at the core of what our customers deeply care about. We have unique capability in harmonizing the needs of both individuals and organizations. This is in our DNA. We also deeply care about taking things global and making a difference in lives and organizations in all corners of the planet.”

To ensure that there are no glitches due to a surge of demand, Microsoft will carry out the upgrade to Windows 10 in phases. The blog adds, “Starting on July 29, we will start rolling out Windows 10 to our Windows Insiders. From there, we will start notifying reserved systems in waves, slowly scaling up after July 29th. Each day of the roll-out, we will listen, learn and update the experience for all Windows 10 users.”

Microsoft wants to lay emphasis on experience with its most important upgrade till date. It is now an organisation-wide mandate from Nadella to:

“Reinvent productivity and business processes Build the intelligent cloud platform
Create more personal computing”

Microsoft is doing everything possible to give its customers the best possible user experience. Microsoft tools would check your system to ensure that it fully complies and it compatible with the requirements of Windows 10 before prompting you for an upgrade. Existing inventory in retail stores will have a compatibility check sticker on it to ensure it can provide the required user experience with Windows 10.

Earlier, Microsoft had announced that users could reserve their free upgrade that will be released on 27 July. Expectations from Microsoft Windows 10 are high, and many have pitted it as a viable option for Apple and Google that currently dominate the devices ecosystem.

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