GlacialTech recently introduced a series of mini battery chargers—ML30, MM30, and MF30. The 0.6A chargers can be used to power up hand tools, household appliances, and gardening tools.All three chargers incorporate an intelligent microcontroller to monitor and supervise the whole charging process. The specifications include 100-240V AC input and 47-63Hz frequency.A three-stage charging procedure implemented in the ML30 series is suitable for charging lead-acid batteries; a two-stage charging procedure implemented in the MM30 and MF30 series is suitable for charging Lithium Manganese Dioxide and Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries.All battery chargers incorporate an intelligent and versatile microcontroller to detect the battery disconnection, coordinate and dominate the whole charging process as well as control the charging time, enabling you to enjoy a smarter, faster, and safer battery-charging process.

The charging time is well controlled to prevent batteries from overcharging and overheating. The ML30, MM30, and MF30 battery chargers also feature bicolor LED status display, short-circuit and reverse-polarity protection, a fanless and dustproof design to get rid of noise and dust as well as compliance with safety regulations including UL, CE, TUV, etc.

NetApp reported very strong first quarter revenue and earnings growth, and said it expects growth to continue going forward.NetApp's glowing financial report also signaled that it is continuing to be a strong competitor to storage arch-rival EMC, which a couple weeks ago also reported double-digit revenue and triple-digit earnings growth.NetApp said revenue for its first quarter of fiscal year 2011, which ended July 30, hit $1.14 billion, was up 36 percent compared to the $838 million it reported in the same period a year ago.The storage vendor also reported earnings of $142 million or 38 cents per share, which was up 173 percent compared to the $52 million, or 15 cents per share, it reported last year.This compared very well to EMC, which in late July said its first fiscal quarter revenue grew 23 percent over last year to reach $4.02 billion. EMC's earnings grew 108 percent to reach $426.2 million compared to the year before.Looking forward, NetApp also estimated its revenue for the second fiscal quarter 2011 to be between $1.16 billion to $1.21 billion. This compares to the company's actual second fiscal quarter 2010 revenue of $910 million.The company also estimated earnings for the current quarter will be between 35 cents and 38 cents per share, compared to the 27 cents per share it reported last year. "NetApp has begun our fiscal year with great momentum,” said Tom Georgens, President and CEO, in statement. “The NetApp value proposition allows customers to implement more flexible and efficient storage infrastructures at a lower cost. Our results indicate we are achieving clear customer preference as IT organizations transform their data centers.”

GlacialTech recently introduced a series of mini battery chargers—ML30, MM30, and MF30. The 0.6A chargers can be used to power up hand tools, household appliances, and gardening tools.All three chargers incorporate an intelligent microcontroller to monitor and supervise the whole charging process. The specifications include 100-240V AC input and 47-63Hz frequency.A three-stage charging procedure implemented in the ML30 series is suitable for charging lead-acid batteries; a two-stage charging procedure implemented in the MM30 and MF30 series is suitable for charging Lithium Manganese Dioxide and Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries.All battery chargers incorporate an intelligent and versatile microcontroller to detect the battery disconnection, coordinate and dominate the whole charging process as well as control the charging time, enabling you to enjoy a smarter, faster, and safer battery-charging process.The charging time is well controlled to prevent batteries from overcharging and overheating. The ML30, MM30, and MF30 battery chargers also feature bicolor LED status display, short-circuit and reverse-polarity protection, a fanless and dustproof design to get rid of noise and dust as well as compliance with safety regulations including UL, CE, TUV, etc.

Seagate Technology and Samsung have recently entered into a joint development and licensing agreement. They will jointly develop and cross-license controller technologies for solid state drive (SSD) storage devices to attain the high levels of performance, reliability and endurance demanded by enterprise storage applications.“We are pleased to be jointly developing a high-performance SSD controller with Seagate for the enterprise storage market,” said Dr Changhyun Kim, Senior Vice President and Samsung Fellow, Memory Product Planning and Application Engineering, Semiconductor Business, Samsung Electronics. “Our green memory solution is designed to enable more energy-efficient server applications, which is expected to increase the use of NAND-based SSD storage in enterprise applications.”The controller will be built on the existing SSD capabilities of each company—combining Seagate’s leadership in enterprise storage technology with Samsung’s flash memory technology specific to 30nm-class MLC NAND—and will be utilized in Seagate’s enterprise-class SSDs.“Seagate has long recognized that solid state technology has an important role to play in the comprehensive solutions the storage industry will deliver today and in the future, particularly in the enterprise market,” said Steve Luczo, Chairman, President and CEO, Seagate. “The agreement with Samsung will help us bring a compelling set of SSD innovations to the enterprise storage market, with benefits that range from enhanced performance, endurance and reliability to cost and capacity improvements. Overall, this agreement with Samsung strengthens our SSD solutions strategy, and positions Seagate well as global demand for storage continues on its strong growth path.”

Kerala’s channel association—which recently boycotted HP PSG to protest against their new distribution policy—is now unhappy with the vendor’s IPG business, following the decision by the IPG team to drop three Kerala partners from the role of Volume Core Partners.AKITDA alleges that HP IPG has penalized these partners for their role in supporting the association’s call for boycott of all HP products during the months of June and July.Digital World, Aldous Glare and Positive Systems are the three partners in question who have been dropped as Volume Core Partners of HP IPG. Allegedly the local HP sales team have communicated to these partners verbally that their status is on hold, because they did not do business for about 45 days during June and July.“While it’s HP’s prerogative to appoint or dismiss partners, we are upset because these partners have been punished for supporting a common cause for which the entire channel has united,” said Toshy Mathew, President AKITDA.“When the embargo was lifted on July 27, all three partners immediately approached HP IPG team and requested for stocks. They were told to wait till August 1. When they went back in the first week of August, the local IPG team informed the three partners that their accounts have been automatically locked since there was no billing for the past 45 days. The local team also expressed that they cannot do anything about this till a clearance comes from Singapore,” he explained.
“What HP local management has done is unethical, as they had misinformed the partners and could have been upfront,” Mathew added.Sampath Kumar, CEO, Positive Systems, confirmed the news. “We have informed the association of all the details about the case and AKITDA is pursuing the case. I have been an HP partner for many years and this is the stupidest reason I have heard from them. I believe they are being unfair, and there is no doubt that they are being vindictive and arm-twisting us for supporting the ban.”Both Aldous Glare and Positive Systems have won awards from HP IPG for exceeding targets in the past.HP IPG has appointed Radha Electronis and Star Computers as Volume Core Partners. AKITDA alleges that both Radha and Star were signed on by HP IPG during the embargo period and hence the local team’s explanation that the system has locked the three volume partners is totally irrational and smacks of HP’s big brother attitude.  Despite CRN sharing specific information with HP IPG about the episode and seeking clarity on the matter, HP IPG spokesperson responded with a rather ambiguous statement. “HP IPG has the largest channel partner network across India with over 6,000 members and engages with its channel fraternity in a consistent, effective and well defined manner, in line with its policy and processes. This robust channel ecosystem is the backbone of the company’s growth in India and we are very focused on their cooperation and growth at all times. In Kerala, we are operating with our current partners. We have not removed any partners from our system. The partners are very valuable to us and will continue to remain so,” said the HP spokesperson.

Dell signed an agreement to acquire storage virtualization vendor 3Par for approximately $1.15 billion, according to Dell.Dell is hoping 3Par's technology can accelerate its push into the virtual era by offering a multitenant, clustered storage architecture that can reduce storage administration costs by up to 90 percent and infrastructure costs by up to 75 percent, according to Dell.3Par's storage arrays are designed to overcome traditional limitations of modular and monolithic arrays, according to Dell. The 3Par offerings, which include the branded InSpire architecture, InServe storage servers, InForm operating system and additional InForm software applications will complement Dell's PowerVault, EqualLogic and Dell/EMC storage offerings, according to Dell."We have aligned our storage offerings over the last several years to provide our customers choice and value," said Brad Anderson, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Product Group, Dell, in a statement. "3Par brings the same values of performance, agility and ease of use to higher-end, virtualized storage deployments as EqualLogic does for the entry level and midrange, rounding out our industry-leading solutions portfolio."Dell plans to purchase 3Par for $18 per share in cash, an 87 percent premium over 3Par's closing price last Friday of $9.65 per share. 3Par's 52-week high is $13.67 per share.3Par, based in Fremont, California, was founded in 1999. After the acquisition closes, Dell plans to maintain and invest in additional engineering and sales resources and there are no plans to move 3Par's current operations, according to Dell.3Par reported a $1.8 million loss, or 3 cents per share, on $54.3 million in sales for the first quarter ended June 30. For the 2010 fiscal year ended March 31, 3Par lost $3.2 million, or 5 cents per share, on $168.0 million in sales.

In a bid to target SMB, Enterprise, Government, and Graphic Arts verticals, Xerox India has announced products across four color technology platforms in color—Laser, LED, Solid Ink and Inkjet.The new printers and production equipments include WorkCentre 7120 multifunction system, ColorQube 9201/9202/9203 multifunction systems, Xerox 7142 and Xerox 8264ETM color wide format printers.Among the newly launched products is ColorQube series, which includes Xerox’s patented Solid Ink technology platform that uses solid sticks (or blocks) of no-mess, non-toxic ink instead of toner or inkjet cartridges.Targeted at the Graphic Arts community, the Xerox 7142 and 8264E color wide format printers are AO wide format Inkjet printers suited for CAD, GIS applications of architectural or engineering renderings, schematics, mechanical 2D and 3D, solids modeling scientific/medical, seismic and GIS/Mapping.Xerox also showcased seven other products: Phaser 8860 colour printer, 4127 with high capacity stacker, WorkCentre 5700 multifunction system, Docucolor DC 252 with FFPS+OHCF, 700 digital press with EFI, 6279 wide format printer, and WorkCentre 7435 multifunction device.“Xerox’s strength has been as a technology innovator having ushered multiple technology revolutions in the printing industry,” said Andrew Horne, Managing Director, Xerox India. “In our go-to-market strategy for 2010,  we have focused on providing better value proposition to our customer by broadening the solution offering and focusing on all segments and key verticals  such as Corporate, Enterprise, Government, SMB, and Graphic Arts community.”The new color range is available with Xerox’s authorized distributors.

Buffalo Technology has launched a new incentive scheme for resellers, valid till August 31, 2010.The scheme is valid for resellers across India. Resellers have to buy the products in standard quantities from authorized partners of Buffalo to avail the benefits. Under the scheme partners who buy three to five units of portable DVD writers, routers and portable HDDs, would get an additional incentive ranging from `100 to `500. For HDDs, the scheme is valid on 320GB capacity and 500GB capacity, only.Announcing the scheme, Susumu Kobayashi, Country Head, Buffalo Technology, said: "Buffalo recognizes the need to reward its partners and is confident that such attractive schemes will act as a tool for motivation. The main objective of this scheme is to increase the channel base and penetration.”

Dell India has tied up with Eaton to offer its power backup solutions through its SMB channels.An $11.9 billion diversified power management company, Eaton offers solutions varying from fuel-efficient systems to power chain management tools and components for commercial aircrafts. Eaton also offers Powerware range of UPS systems for office and large enterprise market.“Eaton’s technically superior UPS solutions improve asset utilization, operational efficiency, and business agility of SMBs and enterprises. Dell is proud to extend the existing relationship it has with Eaton in the other parts of the world, to India,” said Sandeep Sharan, Director, SMB Business, Dell India.Dell India team did not specify any targets for the new business.An estimated $22 billion of Dell’s global revenues of $52 billion in 2009 came from sales of non-Dell IT products and services.

Japanese company Wacom, popular for its digital interface solutions, is in the process of setting up its Indian subsidiary with the head office in Delhi.“We have been doing business in India for the past 15 years through distributors and we are seeing huge potential to grow in this region. Especially in the past three years there has been tremendous growth. Hence to strengthen our business operations we decided to set up an office and have our own subsidiary,” said Noboru Fujisaki, Division General Manager, Asia-Pacific Sales Division. “We will be growing the India office step by step, wherein the first few years it will be support operations and after a couple of years we intend to adopt the buy-sell model, which means that the India office would be directly buying products from the Wacom headquarters and would be selling it directly to the distributors.”Wacom has also appointed Aditya Infotech as national distributor for its interactive pen display range of products such as Cintiq and DTU. “Aditya Infotech has been in this business for a long time now and distributes Autodesk and Corel, which are meant for the animation and design users. Hence we saw synergy between the two companies as we are targeting the same users. Aditya Infotech can get our products the required exposure,” added Fujisaki. 

Commenting on the partnership, Rishi Khemka, Director, Aditya Group, said, “Our partnership with Wacom fits in extremely well with our existing range of products and will enable us to move towards being a single stop solution provider for all our customer needs.”