Sony Xperia S

Sony Xperia S Sony Xperia S hands-on - nice new Android phone w/ great screen

5 Free IPL cricket apps for your mobile

The Indian Premier League or IPL as most of us know it as, is on in full swing. Now many of us are busy at work or are on our way home from work when most of these matches are played, so it’s hard to tune it on the action on TV. Many app development houses have been working on apps for various mobile platforms that let users stay updated with the latest happenings, scores, commentary and schedules of these matches. We’re looking at some of the free apps available for the most popular mobile platforms. IPL 5 Calendar and Live Score (Android)

IPL5 Calendar and Live Score is one of the more popular IPL apps on the Android Play store with a ton of downloads and votes. Like most of the other free apps, you’ll find an ad banner on both the app and also the Android desktop widget, that gives you a reminder of upcoming cricket matches. The scoreboard lists all the recent matches along with the team logos along with detailed scores and statistics. If you’re looking for records broken through the series, you’ll find those details too through the Series Stats menu. Live scores are updated automatically and you also have the option of entering the frequency of updates. Users can choose to be notified when a wicket falls as well. There’s also a commenting section for those who want to leave comments for other app users to see. The live scores along with the ability to interact with other fans makes it a rather interesting app to use on your Android device.

The IPL has its own official app out for Android and BlackBerry devices. The apps are pretty identical in terms of features on both platforms but there are a few differences as far as the user interfaces go - that’s it. The interface on the Android platform appears more colourful. There are detailed statistics and personal details of all the players from the various teams. You can also browse through the past few days and look at results of the matches held then. Users can also browse through photo galleries of matches and practice sessions being held at the different venues. Then, you have the list of all the matches being played at the different stadiums being clearly mentioned along with the teams. The BlackBerry app doesn’t have videos and the UI looks a little underwhelming. Nevertheless, it gives you the information you need.

Mobile Grudge Match - HTC One X vs Apple iPhone 4S

Mobile Grudge Match - HTC One X vs Apple iPhone 4S Today, we’ll be pitting two mighty titans against each other to determine which the best high-end smartphone in the market is if money was no object.

Today, we’ll be pitting two mighty titans against each other to determine which is the best high-end smartphone in the market if money was no object. We have the best offerings from both camps, the HTC One X from the Android camp and of course, the iPhone 4S from camp iOS. Both these handsets offer bleeding edge technology and are the absolute cream of the crop. Now, if you’re an Apple or HTC fanboi, then we don’t expect you to read this since you already own one of these handsets, but for someone who has this sort of budget and wants to know which phone to pick, read on to find out. HTC One X Hot from HTC’s stable is the One X, a quad-core, Android 4.0 running beast. HTC's ditched the unibody aluminium design for their flagship and have gone with a lighter, polycarbonate shell which makes it super light despite its gigantic proportions. The new ‘overflowing’ screen design looks incredibly sexy and gives it a fresh look. The phone features Sense 4.0, which isn’t as graphics heavy as their previous versions but manages to provide a familiar look and feel.

The One X also features Beats Audio for enhanced sound quality through the bundled music app. The interface is incredibly slick and with a good pair of headphones, the sound is rich with plenty of deep bass. The pièce de résistance of the One X however has got to be the processor and camera. It features Nvidia’s quad-core Tegra 3 CPU running inside which makes it the first quad-core handset in the market. Although many apps aren’t quite optimised for four cores yet, games like GTA III will definitely see a boost in performance. The camera fares well under low light as well and takes less than 2.5seconds from the time you open the app and capture the image. Apple iPhone 4S The iPhone 4S wasn’t quite what we were expecting after all the leaks and rumours but it wasn’t a terrible upgrade either. The distinguishable features of the 4S include the new powerful dual-core processor, beefed up 8MP camera with 1080p video capabilities and of course, Siri. Apple didn’t mess around with the design of the phone too much; in fact, it’s practically identical to the iPhone 4 from the outside. The faster CPU does allow for a better gaming experience and also multi-tasking is a lot smoother.

iOS 5 made its debut with the 4S and brought with it new features like notification centre, iMessage, reminders, etc. The camera in the 4S is able to capture a lot more detail thanks to the larger pixel count. That, coupled with the faster processor enables you to record in 1080p as well. Finally, we have Siri, the electronic assistant to help you automate mundane tasks. While getting it to work with a heavy accent can be a task, it works well if you speak in a neutral accent. Both these phones are great in their own right but there can be only one winner. Let’s go to the charts to find out.

The Bottom Line On paper, the HTC One X smokes the iPhone 4S and comes out as the clear winner. The hardware present in the One X is clearly better as you get four CPU cores to handle all floating point operations and twelve GPU cores for rendering graphics. Despite this, it’s really tough to clearly decide between the two and ultimately, it depends on how much flexibility you’re willing to live with. The One X is a great option if you do some heavy gaming while travelling as the Nvidia chipset is more than capable in this department. You also get the freedom to customize the look and feel of the phone to suit your liking and it’s also slimmer and lighter (albeit larger) than the 4S. Areas where you might face issues are the battery life, which is not the best, especially if you’re going to be stressing the phone out every day. Timely updates are another issue as even though Google may roll out new updates, it will be a while till HTC rolls it out to their customers. Apple on the other hand may have a very tight knit ecosystem, but that works in their favour as they only have one phone to worry about. You may not have the flexibility to customize the look beyond a point and transferring data to and from your device is not the easiest as it is on Android. However, once you make your peace with it, it’s not too bad. In the end, both of these handsets represent some of the finest mobile phones money can buy. We’d say go with the HTC One X if you like endlessly customizing the interface, do a lot of gaming on the move and need something slim and light. If you already own an older generation iPhone then I think the choice is pretty obvious.

Games of April 2012

Games of April 2012 April is the month most gamers flock to their favourite hobby because it’s usually break time at colleges and schools (if my memory serves me correct).

April is the month most gamers flock to their favourite hobby because it’s usually break time at colleges and schools (if my memory serves me correct). And even though this month isn’t particularly crowded with releases, there are a few games worth considering. Prototype 2 (Xbox360 PS3 PC) As Alex Mercer, a mutated resident of New York City, players used a plethora of devastating abilities to find out who caused the outbreak in this open world game from developer Free Radical. For the sequel, you’ll step into the boots of Sgt. James Heller, a retired war veteran whose family was slaughtered by Mercer. Now mutated and consumed by his lust of revenge, Heller must use his new found powers to hunt down the man responsible for ruining his life and wiping out half his city. The Witcher 2 (Xbox360) The Witcher 2 was a fine action RPG from Polish developer CD Projekt that only PC gamers have managed to experience till date. While that platform still remains the ideal one to experience this graphically intensive game, Xbox360 owners can see what the big deal is as developer CD Projekt prime the game for a console release. The Xbox360 port ships with a bunch of extras like the game’s OST as well as a ton of extra in-game content. Devil May Cry HD Collection (Xbox360 PS3) The Devil May Cry series has always been about over-the-top shenanigans and brilliantly choreographed fight sequences. In case you missed out on the older games due to the lack of a PS2, Capcom is now allowing new gamers to experience all of Dante’s adventures in HD with the DMC collection that includes all three last gen DMC games. As with most collections, this one is enhanced by HD visuals as well as Trophy support. Kinect Star Wars (Xbox360) Using Kinect to play a Star Wars game seems like a perfect idea on paper and hopefully Kinect Star wars will be the game fans of George Lucas’ sci-fi trilogy have been waiting for since forever. The game will allow players to step into the boots of an unknown Jedi as he experiences certain events from the Star Wars universe during the series’ prequel timeline.

Samsung launches Galaxy S Advance and Galaxy Pocket 

Samsung Electronics announced the expansion of its Galaxy smartphone range with the launch of the Galaxy S Advance (GT-I9070) and Galaxy Pocket (GT-S5300). For its Indian smartphone users, Samsung has made available several interesting apps in its application store. Through the My Reader app, Indian consumers can access over 3,00,000 books from Landmark, get 26 Newspapers and 28 Magazines, and access popular comic titles such as Amar Chitra Katha etc. The My Music app allows Samsung Smartphone users to download and listen to more than 1,00,000 songs from Hollywood and Bollywood as well as popular regional titles. Handy is a single point application where users can search, book and pay for flights, trains, buses, and movie tickets. Users can also create their own stock portfolio, get real time stock prices and stay updated on the latest in business news. Furthermore, users can search a restaurant by cuisine and even reserve a table for themselves. The Mobile TV app allows users to watch their favourite TV shows while being on the move while the My Movies app gives users access to movies, videos, and trailers of their choice. The S Advance is priced at Rs.26,900 and the Pocket is priced at Rs.8,150.  

 

The Samsung Galaxy S Advance features a WVGA Super AMOLED display and a large 4-inch curved glass screen and is powered with a 1GHz dual-core processor which offers fast booting, seamless internet browsing and smooth image processing. It is based on the Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS and users can access Google Mobile Services and download free apps from the Samsung Apps store. The device comes loaded with three content rich hubs - Readers’ Hub, Social Hub and Game Hub that redefine the mobile entertainment experience. Users can capture special moments through videos and photos using the device’s 5MP camera and can also tune in to their favourite MP3 songs or listen to their favourite programs on FM radio. There is also Find My Mobile, a lost-phone management system that enables users to track their lost phone via a web browser and allows remote deletion of data.

Some of the highlights of the phone include:

• Android 2.3 Gingerbread
• 4-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 800 x 480
• 1 GHz dual-core processor
• 5 megapixel AF camera
• 8GB internal memory
• GPRS / EDGE / HSDPA 14.4 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps
• Bluetooth 3.0 + EDR, Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
• 1500mAh Battery

The Galaxy Pocket is an easy to carry around at a depth of 11.9mm and weighing in at 97.0gms. However, despite its compact size, the Pocket packs in quite a punch with a powerful 832MHz processor and HSDPA 3.6Mbps with advance Wi-Fi connectivity, that enables fast data processing, advance multi-tasking and fast downloading of multimedia files. It is based on Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS and features 3GB internal memory (expandable up to 32GB). The TouchWiz interface of the device provides a smart and intuitive touch screen that provides smooth menu navigation through easy-to-access widgets.

The main highlights of the phone include:

• Android 2.3 Gingerbread
• 2.8-inch TFT display with a resolution of 240 x 320
• 832MHz processor
• 2 megapixel camera
• 3GB internal memory
• GPRS / EDGE / HSDPA
• Bluetooth 3.0 + EDR, Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n, Wi-Fi hotspot
• 1200mAh Battery

TRAI makes new regulations for mobile banking 

Starting with stringent measures to keep pesky calls and SMSes at bay, TRAI has been asking for several reforms for the betterment of mobile customers. They have been successful to a great extent at banning unsolicited calls/messages. It had even asked telcos to maintain tariff transparency by advertising mobile tariffs in newspapers. With the ongoing buzz about mobile money, wherein companies have been promoting how transactions through mobile are convenient and secure, TRAI has decided to come out with some relevant rules here too. It has issued new guidelines for mobile banking, as per reports. All service providers offering mobile banking have to adhere to and meet the quality standard that has been laid down by TRAI. Airtel recently extended its mobile money service to more cities, while Loop also has its mobile wallet services.

These new guidelines include that the access service providers have to facilitate banks for the use of text messages, unstructured supplementary services data (USSD) and interactive voice response (IVR), in order to provide banking services to its customers. Besides, the access service provider can also facilitate banks to use WAP, which is however optional. It has further added that the response time for the delivery of messages for mobile banking services generated by the customer or the bank has to be within a time frame of up to 10 seconds for SMS, IVR, WAP and STK and up to 2 seconds for USSD.

Earlier this year, TRAI had also issued some new customer service guidelines that need to be followed by service providers. It even ordered that call, SMS and data usage must be given to prepaid users. Basically, TRAI has been working hard at creating stringent rules to discipline the ways of telecom while maintaining transparency of mobile services. It had even laid down norms for simpler and secure acquisition of new numbers.

BlackBerry Curve 9220: New Bottle, Old Wine 

 REVIEW

One of the key reasons why BlackBerry rules the smartphone roost in India has been the entry-level Curve 8520, released way back in August 2009. A basic smartphone without 3G and specs like a 2 MP camera, the 8520 was a mega-success primarily because it was affordable and provided access to BBM, social media feeds and e-mail—different facets of the BlackBerry service. So, despite the smartphone’s low-end features, the price-sensitive Indian customer (and especially the youth) purchased the 8520 for BBM and the BlackBerry service.

Fast forward to circa 2012 and RIM is launching the Curve 9220, the successor to the 8520 with some incremental changes, and seems to be relying on the same business philosophy that made the 8520 a success, and the jury is now out on whether the same mantra will work almost three years later.

To say it in a line, the 9220 is a thinner, slightly sleeker 8520 with the new BlackBerry OS 7.1; it is the first BlackBerry to boast of FM radio and in what few will focus on but is perhaps the most important aspect in my opinion—has the best battery on any BlackBerry smartphone available today.

Form Factor
If you’re familiar with the 8520, the 9220 won’t take you by surprise. Like car makers who announce a ‘new’ edition of an old car by tweaking the headlamps or adding a dash of chrome, RIM has made the 9220 sleeker, which is primarily because it is 1.2 mm thinner than the 8520. It’s the same low-end 2.44-inch display with a resolution of 320 x 240, that Shayne Rana, the Tech2 reviewer who reviewed the 8520 said was “quite mundane” way back in 2009.

 

It’s the same trackpad too, but which performs just as well on the 9220 as on any BlackBerry, making navigation a breeze. However, frills like a lit-up border for the trackpad are missing, and that’s understandable on a low-end smartphone. The QWERTY keypad is quite good and there have been some minor changes from the 8520, including slightly larger keys and minor changes in design, which make typing on the Curve 9220 a pleasure—surely music to the ears of BBM addicts and e-mail warriors.

What’s missing is the 8520’s USP of media keys on the top. While a tiny pause button has been added to the volume/zoom keys on the right side, the media keys are sorely missed. The 3.5mm earphone socket has moved to the top, with the usual lock key. The micro USB slot for charging and PC connectivity stays on the left, while the hot swap slot for the microSD card is under the rear panel and closer to the top of the device.

You might notice that I haven’t mentioned anything yet about the ‘new dedicated BBM shortcut key’ that RIM is touting. Here’s why: Terming this feature ‘new’ is at worst outright fraud and at best marketing spiel. The left convenience key has been around on older BlackBerry smartphones, including the 8520. Granted, it came set by default to voice dialling, but the Settings menu allowed a user to change its use to other features (including BBM) in a few seconds. What really is new is that RIM seems to have finally realised that getting rid of the left convenience key on the whole range of OS 7 smartphones they released last year was a terrible mistake and hence they have wisely decided to bring it back.

On the weight front the 9220 feels a few grams lighter than the 8520, but is easier to hold and slip into pockets because of the slimmer profile. The Curve 9220 will also be released in a range of cool colours aimed at the youth segment, including red, violet, blue, white and of course the standard black.

Features and Performance
Interface
This is where the 9220 races ahead of the 8520. Running the spanking new OS 7.1, the 9220 offers a fresh user experience quite far removed from the one offered on the ancient OS 5.X on the 8520. We didn’t get details on the processor used, but I suspect it’s the same 800 MHz 32-bit Marvell PXA940 that powers the far sexier Curve 9360.
The Curve 9220 comes with 512 MB of RAM, four times as much on the 8520 and 512 MB ROM, which is double that on the 8520. Performance was smooth and the 9220 was very responsive though once in a while I did see the dreaded clock that signifies a lag in performance. However, overall performance was great.

The 9220 comes with the Premium version of Documents To Go, which offers document editing features as well as a native PDF document viewer. This makes it great for all sorts of office use and even students can make great use of this suite. Also pre-loaded is BlackBerry Protect, which allows you to back up and store personal data securely in the cloud, and can help locate a misplaced BlackBerry.

The Webkits-based browser that’s standard on OS 7 is light years ahead of the older one on the 8520. Web page rendering has improved vastly over OS 5.X and multiple tabs make Web browsing easier, though the lack of 3G means browsing is painful on creaky, choked 2G networks and is a joy only on Wi-Fi.

 

Media 

As with all BlackBerry smartphones, media remains a delight. The 9220 didn’t play 1080p videos but 720p was not a problem and it played a wide range of formats, though marred by the poor resolution. And audio quality is sharp and quite excellent and I especially loved the deep bass on the 9220.
And yes, the big one—the Curve 9220 is the first BlackBerry to feature FM Radio. Now, I’m not a big-time FM fan thanks to the lack of stations offering international music in Mumbai. However, on local trains, the lifeline of Mumbai, I see every second person listening to FM radio on the commute home and I know this will be a welcome extra feature in India.

Connectivity
This is the depressing part, since the 9220 offers nothing new as compared to the ancient 8520. The most glaring omission is the lack of a 3G radio. When the 8520 was launched in 2009, 3G didn’t really exist in India (yes I know MTNL did offer 3G then, but that hardly matters), but today carriers even offer daily packs for prepaid customers and it can be quite affordable when used on a short-term basis. Incidentally, Vodafone offers an unlimited 3G data option to BlackBerry BES users at just Rs 299 extra per month in addition to the Rs 899 per month charged for BES. So, 3G is quite cost-effective in India today and RIM has taken a step backwards here by leaving out 3G
In more bad news, despite running OS 7.1, the 9220 did not feature the option for Mobile Hotspot that is present on other BlackBerry smartphones running OS 7.1. Granted that the mobile hotspot feature is best used if you’re on a 3G network, yet I wish it part of the feature set. The standard support for BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) and BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS), which makes setting up e-mail accounts a breeze, continues.  Bluetooth has been upgraded to Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR. And Wi-Fi support now extends to b/g and n. But GPS is missing.

Camera
Nothing new here. Same fixed focus 2 MP camera as the old 8520. Pictures are grainy especially under artificial light. Passable for a 2 MP shooter, but one expected more in a smartphone which is supposedly an upgrade. Cheap Rs 3000 phones have better cameras than this one

Battery Life
As I said before, this is my favourite part of the 9220. The 1450 mAh battery is the best one on any BlackBerry today. To put it in perspective, a top-end BlackBerry smartphone like the Bold 9900 packed with 3G radio, NFC, touchscreen and a high-res display only has a 1230 mAh battery. In real life this meant that on BES I got over a day of juice (compared to the around 5 hours I get on the 9900) and on BIS I got nearly 48 hours of use before the battery died. That’s outstanding performance indeed and if there’s one reason why I would spend a couple of thousands more on the Curve 9220 as opposed to the Curve 8520, it would the amazing battery life the 9220 offers.

In the Tech2.com Video Test, the 9220 clocked close to 7.5 hours of continuous video playback with the mobile network on and e-mails from 5 different accounts pouring in. In the loop test (2 hours of video, 2 hours of music, 2 hours of streaming and a 1.5-hour phone call), the 9220 almost completed one loop. To be fair, I conducted the loop test at work when the 9220 was on BIS on the Tata Docomo network. Unfortunately Tata Docomo is very spotty at my workplace and offers merely 1-2 bars of network strength, which means battery was being sucked up at a far higher rate than usual.

OS 7.1 also offers a Battery Saving Mode and you can set threshold levels. However, while this feature is a must-have on other BlackBerry smartphones running OS 7.1, it will remain unused on the Curve 9220.

Misc. Features
The 9220 is also missing the very cool BlackBerry Tag feature support, which makes possible transactions, data exchange, and connections with a mere touch, is missing.

Bottom Line
At Rs. 10,990, frankly, the Curve 9220 doesn’t hold a candle to cheap Android devices that are now proliferating and which offer features like 3G, GPS and mobile hotspot at a lesser price. So, if you’re considering the 9220 for your first smartphone, only look here if all your friends have BBM and thus you have to go for a BlackBerry because of peer pressure. The other reason could be if you type a fair bit and touchscreen phones are the equivalent of smartphone hell for you. And also for BlackBerry USPs like e-mail.

If you’re thinking of an upgrade from the 8520, the 9220 doesn’t offer enough and the battery may the only key factor that might push you to upgrade—I’d suggest you wait for the 9320, which should release in May and will come with 3G support.

Overall, while I welcome the amazing battery and OS 7.1 with the boost in RAM and ROM, I wish RIM had more to offer on the 9220. 

 

FellowUp: A Social Networking Personal Organizer

FellowUp: A Social Networking Personal Organizer FellowUp is a social networking personal organizer application. It has a desktop version as well as an iOS application with Android and Blackberry applications to come soon. The app syncs with your LinkedIn, Facebook and Gmail accounts to get your contacts, as well as you can manually import contacts from Outlook. What you then do is write notes and reminders about these contacts, or even just for yourself. Reminders can include things like lunch with a friend, a colleague's birthday or a reminder to remind a relative about something.

Design The app's design is highly simplistic and goes along with the simplistic features it offers. There is basically a bottom bar with four tabs. One takes you to a screen where you can add new notes, reminders and contacts, another takes you to notes, the third to your reminders and the last one to your contact list. The difference between adding a note and adding a reminder is that a reminder has the time element to it whereas a note is just something you need to mention or remember about someone. As said earlier, because the application isn't too feature heavy, the design is actually clean and simple enough to use the app with.

Features The features of the app are pretty simple. When you add a note, the app saves a note, when you add a reminder, the app saves a reminder and your contacts list is mostly your Facebook friends (or whichever accounts you have synced with the app). If your contacts haven't linked say their Facebook and Google accounts or their LinkedIn and Facebook accounts, the same person will show up as two different people in your contacts list. However, when you write notes or reminders about them, they do not get a notification about it so it really doesn't matter which account you choose to write a note about. You can bundle your contacts into groups of either friends, family or school, or make your own groups. The add contact tab is for if you meet a contact who's not on a social network and you still want to remember them. It's like adding them as a contact in your phone anyway.  

Conclusion
As is obvious from the description of features, the FellowUp app really only seems to be a very very light version of its website. It doesn't serve as a self contained application where you basically have most of the website's functionality on the go. It is a free app but really can mostly only be used for referencing and writing notes on the go. A far superior alternative to this app, would of course be Evernote where you can do so much more than just write text notes and give yourself alarm-less reminders of your friends and contacts. Furthermore, contacts can only be brought in from four sources. FellowUp says that they're working on syncing with Twitter, Yahoo and other internet services. The FellowUp app is available from the App Store and can only be used once you have signed up for an account and asked for an invite to use the app.

Samsung insulted in Lumia challenge video, cries foul

Samsung insulted in Lumia challenge video, cries foul


Nokia India recently started their ‘Blown Away By Nokia’ campaign and it seems that they are going all guns blazing in promoting their latest Nokia Lumia smartphones. At one of the events in Delhi, one of the participants was asked to click a picture, tag it and upload it to Facebook. The time taken by the two devices was compared with the eventual winner in that particular incident being the Nokia Lumia phone. Well, the guy did state that the Lumia phone won and that he was using a ‘Samsung Galaxy’ phone, but that’s not it. Once he lost the mini competition, the girl along with him got pretty fed up and said that his current phone was ‘the worst piece of sh*t’. Now, that certainly didn’t go too well with a certain Korean giant who, via a spokeswoman, said that, "The campaign is clearly unethical", as reported by The Handheld Blog. You can have a look at the video below.

We all know that Samsung currently has a massive share in the market and this aggressive marketing strategy by Nokia may just be the start of a new war that we might have to see in the times to come. For their part, Nokia mentioned that this competition was validated by Nielsen, while also mentioning that the Lumia 800 clearly won in 94 percent of the total 104 challenges that were timed and judged by Nielsen. We have seen a lot of these in the recent past with Samsung taking on Apple, but being at the receiving end is a whole new story, altogether. The competition was simply based on who can upload to social networking sites faster, so it clearly wasn’t a representation of which phone is better. However, with this ad, Nokia definitely is trying to make a statement with its new Lumia smartphone range. Either way, the girl did do a pretty good job at ridiculing the guy’s tastes.

So, what do you guys think – Blown away by the Lumia or just plain bad acting? Either way, let us know in the comments section below!

How to Increase Your Wifi Signal

Dell launches the XPS 13 Ultrabook in India

Ultrabooks just started trickling in towards the tail end of last year and it’s only now that they are gaining momentum. Today, Dell joined the bandwagon, when then launched the XPS 13 Ultrabook in India. Made from a blend of aluminium and carbon fibre, their new XPS 13 is incredibly slim at just 6mm at its thinnest point and manages to pack in a 13.3-inch display into the size of a 11-inch netbook. This is their premium offering and it doesn’t come cheap, as prices start from Rs.79,900 and go all the way up to Rs.99,900.

The Ultrabook is powered by a range of Intel ULV processors, starting with a Core i5 and going all the way up to a Core i7. 4GB of DDR3 RAM comes as standard and so does a 128GB SSD. The storage space can be expanded all the way to 256GB, but you’ll have to shell out a lot more as well for that. Besides the typical Ultrabook specifications, Dell have given their own special touch to the Ultrabook to make it stand out from the crowd. Most of the chassis is made of aluminium, while the bottom portion is made from carbon fibre. The screen also has an edge-to-edge glass for a more seamless look, which thanks to Gorilla Glass is scratch resistant.

Currently, Dell is offering three pre-set configuration for Indian consumers - one at Rs.79,900, Rs.89,900, and their flagship model, which retails for Rs.99,900. The only real difference between these models is the CPU and storage space. Despite and slim and slender profile, it’s still a bit heavy and even though Dell doesn't mention this on their site, it certainly feels heavier than a MacBook Air or the Asus UX31. A nice addition is the backlit keys, which means you can work late nights without keeping anyone up. Out of the two USB ports, one of them is USB 3.0, which is good, but sadly; they’ve had to sacrifice the card reader in order to keep the notebook slim and light.

Whether or not, it offers better value than the current Ultrabooks in the market will be known once we’ve reviewed it, so stay tuned.

PlayStation Move Street Cricket

Trine Games has been a busy little studio of late, releasing three console titles in less than two years. While Street Cricket Champions was fun in parts, last year’s Ra.One: The Game was quite a disaster. Now, however, Trine has released what gamers from our cricket-crazy nation have been clamouring for ever since Nintendo announced the Wii. Move Street Cricket, as the name suggests, is a cricket game for the PS3 based entirely on motion controls via the Playstation Move. Motion controls and cricket are the perfect fit, and in theory, Trine and Sony should have a winner on their hands.

But it’s never quite that easy. Cricket might seem like the perfect game to build around motion controls, but that only really extends to the batting part of it. The real challenge lies in implementing the other aspects of the game - bowling and fielding. But naturally, the first thing you want to do in a motion-controlled cricket game is batting, so that’s what I did. Off the bat (heh!), there were some controller calibration issues. For a game that requires such intricate use of the Move controller, the calibration process is rather basic, and this adversely affects gameplay. Even if you hold the Move controller with your wrists turned outwards to present the full face of the bat, the stance on screen shows the bat facing inwards. This presents a problem when playing shots on the offside, because you’ll have to turn your wrists out to an uncomfortable degree to open the face of the bat. Further calibration issues result in the bat often being half buried in the ground, despite the fact that I’m over six feet tall and my Playstation Eye camera is placed on top of my TV. A more detailed calibration process would have taken care of both these issues.

That aside, strokeplay in Move Street Cricket is quite fun, and the game does a surprisingly good job of allowing you to play an array of strokes, including late cuts, paddle sweeps and the Dilshan scoop. It takes a while to get the timing right and even after you do get used to the game, playing back-foot shots square of the wicket is quite difficult. Making batting considerably harder is the camera, which is placed at a slight height behind the stumps on the batsman’s side. The problem with this angle is that the ball tends to get lost in the background after it leaves the bowler’s hand, making it hard for you to judge its speed and flight. All these gripes aside, however, Move Street Cricket delivers a batting experience that is quite close to what cricket fans would have expected from a motion-controlled game.

Unfortunately, the other aspects pale in comparison, especially the bowling. The delivery selection process is asinine, requiring you to perform looping rainbow-like gestures rather than simply pointing the controller in the direction of the delivery you’d like to select. Even more ludicrous is the method of placing the marker where you’d like the delivery to pitch. These cumbersome controls often lead to no-balls, wides, wrong delivery selection, and short balls. Batting was always going to be the preferred activity in a Move cricket game, but thanks to the poor bowling controls, you’ll often want to just quit matches once you’re done batting. Fielding is mostly AI-controlled, but the catching mechanic is again unnecessarily complicated. Rounding off the bouquet of poor gameplay mechanics is the running between the wickets, where the batsmen seem to want a drinks break before setting off on a second run. Long story short – the only time you’ll be having fun in Move Street Cricket is when you’re swinging for the fences.

As the name suggests, the game is a take on gully cricket and features venues such as back alleys and amusement parks, although unlike Street Cricket champions, where venues were of different sizes and had different scoring rules, here, grounds are the same size and the differences are only cosmetic. The visuals aren’t anywhere near what you would expect from a PS3 game. Player animations are stiff, and the venues look bland and often too colourful. The sound effects aren’t up to the mark either; you’ll end up hearing players yell out the same phrases again and again, which can get quite annoying.

If your idea of a good cricket game is one where you get your kicks from batting and quit when it's time to bowl and field, Move Street Cricket is right up your alley. If you're looking for something even remotely well-rounded, however, you'll have to fall back on Codies' games and the standard controller.

BBM to be closely integrated with Twitter, FB and a range of apps

Folks at Research in Motion do accept that their users have a social life that goes past their BlackBerry Messenger service and to that effect they have announced that they will soon be releasing a range of apps, including Twitter and Facebook that can be closely integrated with their extremely popular instant messaging service. As per a post on Inside BlackBerry, Research in Motion has announced that they will be updating apps, like Facebook for their BlackBerry smartphones, Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones, BlackBerry Travel, BlackBerry App World, BBM Music, and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM). These BBM connected applications will integrate BBM functionality right into the app, allowing one to do things, such as invite BBM friends to experience their apps, chat with BBM contacts from inside the BBM connected app and share and discover new BlackBerry apps and content with others.

 Along with these updates, the Canadian smartphone manufacturer has also announced that with the upcoming release of BBM, BlackBerry Tag will be better integrated, thereby giving users the ability to send voice notes quicker, simpler ways to update their profile message, along with and new app integrations. Apart from this, BBM v6.2 will feature animated avatars and when one is logged into BBM, all they have to do is scroll over the avatar to view the animation.

According to the post, the brand details about the updates to Facebook and Twitter by saying, “Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v3.0 and Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones v3.0 are now BBM connected apps. When you connect Facebook and Twitter with BBM, you can share your latest status updates and tweets as your BBM Personal Message by simply selecting the “Share with BBM” icon from within the app. You can also opt to share tweets or Facebook updates with your BBM contacts in one centralized location.”

These updates will begin to rollout over the next few days and to download the new versions of Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones, Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones, BlackBerry Travel, BBM Music and BBM..

Microsoft's Live@edu, Office 365 to reach technical colleges across India

All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) have announced that they will deploy Microsoft’s Live@edu to more than 10,000 technical colleges and institutions, across the nation over the next three months. This initiative would make AICTE Microsoft's largest cloud customer ever for a total of 7.5 million users. Live@edu is a hosted communication and collaboration service that offers e-mail, Microsoft Office Web Apps, instant messaging and storage. Microsoft Office 365 will also be deployed by AICTE when it is made available later this year, providing access to Microsoft Exchange Online e-mail and calendar, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Lync Online and Microsoft Office Professional.

"Microsoft's cloud platform will make for a truly progressive ecosystem and contribute to the country's technical education by providing a better communication and collaboration platform for institutes and students," said Dr. S. S. Mantha, Chairman of AICTE. The All India Council for Technical Education is a governing body for technical education in India, certifying and managing technical colleges and institutes and it requires to have timely and consistent communication with colleges in the remotest regions. They’ve been looking to deploy a technology system that would provide an efficient platform for students and the institutional framework.

"Microsoft's commitment to empower students by deploying Microsoft Live@edu for 7.5 million users across the country with AICTE is commendable and a step towards an informed and developing India. I congratulate both AICTE and Microsoft on this significant milestone," said Mr. Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for HRD .

"We are delighted with the confidence posed by AICTE in Microsoft. Microsoft has always seen education as a priority area and believes that technology offers possibilities that can help empower not just teachers and students but collectively India as a nation," said Sanket Akerkar, Managing Director, Microsoft Corporation India Private Limited. The complete deployment will be seen by summer 2012. Live@edu, a cloud suite for education has more than 22 million people using the service worldwide. The implementation of the service by AICTE is underway, already and has been managed by Microsoft and a set of Live@edu partners.

Samsung Wave 3 

 

 

PRICE IN INDIA

15,140

 REVIEW

We first got a view of Bada 2.0 on the Samsung Wave Y Young that definitely was one of the best phones in that price tag. Now, Samsung’s Wave 3 ups the game with the addition of a Super AMOLED screen and some more goodies. But, it’s also upped the price tag and now competes with quite a few powerful Androids. Let’s find out if it’s worth the bucks.

Features and Performance


Interface

The Wave 3 is powered by a 1.4 GHz Scorpion processor and has 512 MB of RAM with Bada 2.0 running atop. With the Wave Y Young, we had zero issues with the interface speed. Upping the processor speed only makes it smoother, if it already wasn’t. Flipping through the menus and overall navigation is smooth and seamless. The UI is fluid, but as mentioned in our Wave Y Young review, it does have those few hiccups that need to be fixed. For example, the notification bar auto clearing problem still exists.
About the looks of the interface - if you’ve used Samsung TouchWiz UI, you’ll be no stranger to their Bada interface. It’s extremely similar and you can’t really tell one from the other, unless you go into minute details. One drawback that this one has is limited pre-installed widgets. The app store can help you out with that, but again, there’s extremely limited content out there, something we will delve upon in detail in the misc apps section.  
Bada 2.0 also now supports integrated multi tasking, speech recognition and push notifications.

  
SPECIFICATIONS

Display
Form Factor	Bar
Screen Resolution	480 x 800
Number of Colours	16M
Type
Input Type	Touchscreen
Screen
Screen Type	AMOLED
Screen Size	4.0 inches (~233 ppi pixel density)
Hardware
Processor	Scorpion
Speed	1.4 GHz
Memory
Internal	4GB
Maximum capacity	32GB
Extendable Memory	Yes
Memory Type	microSD
Resolution
Sensor Resolution	5 MP
Camera Features
Resolution	2592 x 1944
Optical zoom
Video resolution / frame rate	720p / 30fps
Front facing camera	0.3MP
Video Recorder	Yes
Zoom
Digital Zoom
Sound
Speakerphone	Yes
Audio connector	3.5mm
Audio Features
FM Radio	Yes
Connectivity
Infrared
2G	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G	HSDPA 900 / 2100
A2DP	Yes
Dual Sim Support
WAP Enabled
Interface
WiFi	Yes
Connection Options
USB Connector	Yes
EGPRS or EDGE	Yes
GPRS	Yes
Software
OS	Bada
Version	2.0
Type of Camera
Type
Battery
Type	Li-Ion
Capacity	1500
Talk Time with Standard Battery	Up to 849 (2G) / Up to 504 (3G)
Standby Time with Standard Battery	Up to 535 (2G) / Up to 517 (3G)
Dimensions	125.9 x 64.2 x 9.9 mm
Weight	122
Multimedia
Music Player	Yes
Music Format	MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+
Email and Messaging
Email Client	Yes
Type of Email Account Support	Email, Push Email, IM
MMS	Yes
Network
Dual Band
Tri Band
Quad Band
Type
Additional Features
GPS	Yes
Java Type	Yes, MIDP 2.1
Sound Settings
Ringtone Type	Vibration, MP3 ringtones
Volume
Volume
More Features
Unique Feature
After Sales Service
Warranty Period	1

 

Siri now speaks in Hindi

 

 

Siri started out speaking English only at launch and with iOS 5.1, Japanese support was rolled out. Late 2012 will bring Italian, Spanish, Chinese and Korean to Siri. Now however, Siri can talk to you in Hindi. This discovery was made by Kunal Kaul, who set up Siri to respond to questions in Hindi by setting up a proxy server. According to Mobigyaan, he says that Siri on his iPhone connects with his Google API server to respond to questions. Kaul has even shot a video and posted on YouTube with his results showing how Siri responds in Hindi. The interesting thing is, he asks Siri questions in English and the personal assistant responds in Hindi, so it seems Siri cannot understand Hindi, it can only translate a response from English to Hindi before it answers your question. However, Siri's reponse is also transcribed to Hindi in the Devnagiri script, so it makes for a cool visual where the question is written out in English and the response is in Hindi. 

Kunal says that there is still a lot of work he is doing to fully flesh out Siri in Hindi. Siri currently supports four languages; English (in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia), French (in France) and German (in Germany) and Japanese (in Japan). The iPhone 4S was available in Japan in October and it made sense to follow up that launch with Siri in the native language. Hindi hasn't made the list of planned languages, yet. It would also be interesting if eventually Siri adds more regional language support, like Tamil and Bengali. Facebook mobile, in the mean time, has been made available in 8 Indian languages, Gujarati, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Punjabi, Bengali and Marathi, and of course, Hindi. The iPhone itself does not support Hindi as a language, yet, but a Hindi keyboard is available in the international keyboards part of the phone.

 

Nokia unveils their Lumia 610 NFC 

The first NFC capable handset from Nokia was made official, just hours after an accidental leak on Nokia's Finnish website. In the past Nokia had stated that they would be launching this Near Field Communication capability on their upcoming smartphones, but one would have guessed that it would feature on some of their higher end devices. However, good things can also come within smaller budgets, and this seems to have been Nokia's plan, too, as they have officially unveiled their first Windows Phone handset with NFC capabilities and the lucky smartphone that receives this feature is their Lumia 610.“On the technical side, Nokia did this by adding an NFC software stack on top of the Windows Phone platform. The necessary NFC hardware was added into this version of the Lumia 610.”

Here is a quick rundown on the specifications of the Nokia Lumia 610:

• Display: 3.7-inch LCD display with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels
• Processor: 800 Mhz single core
• Camera: 5 MP camera
• Video resolution: 1280 x 720 pixels, 30 fps
• Internal memory: 8GB
• RAM: 256 MB
• USB 2.0 high-speed through micro USB connector
• NFC
• 3G, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi hotspot
• Bluetooth wireless technology 2.1 + EDR
• Battery: 1300 mAh Li-ion/Li-polymer

Mobile Phones -->>Smart Phones....

Mobile Phones -->>Smart Phones....

A smartphone is a mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a feature phone.^[1][2][3] The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant (PDA) and a mobile phone or camera phone. Today's models also serve to combine the functions of portable media players, low-end compact digital cameras, pocket video cameras, and GPS navigation units. Modern smartphones typically also include high-resolution touchscreens, web browsers that can access and properly display standard web pages rather than just mobile-optimized sites, and high-speed data access via Wi-Fi and mobile broadband.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 620 (P6200)

Samsung Galaxy Tab 620 (P6200) Review

 

PRICE IN INDIA

25,900

 

REVIEW

Tablet or a smartphone? When it came to choosing a high-end, do-it-all mobile gadget, the answer used to be simple, and it remained this way, till tablets came along. Now looking at the way the competition is shaping up, we believe that it’s only going to get a lot more complicated and chaotic. Once we enter February, which is when the whole tech community awaits this year's highly anticipated Mobile World Congress (MWC), we should see the battle heating up. But that’s then and this is now, so let’s check out which latest tablet is adding to this dilemma.

Design and Build
The Tab 620 borrows a lot of its features from its elder siblings - the Tab 750 and 730. The chunkiness of the old one has been shaved down for a more streamlined and curvy design. It’s slimmer at 9.9mm and lighter as well, at just 345g. In order to achieve this, Samsung have used a lot of plastic for the chassis, but despite this, it feels sturdy and durable. There aren’t any creaking parts and everything feels put together well. The power and volume rocker has been placed on the right, while the SIM and microSD card is placed on the left.

• SPECIFICATIONS

• Screen
  Screen Size	7.0
  Screen Resolution (pixels)	600 x 1024 pixels
  Screen Type	PLS LCD capacitive touchscreen
  Memory
  Internal Storage (GB)
  ROM (MB)
  Expandable	64GB
  Memory Type	microSD
  Onboard storage	16GB
  Camera
  Megapixel (MP)	3.15
  Resolution (pixels)	2048 x 1536
  Optical zoom
  Video resolution / frame rate	1024 x 720 / 30fps
  Front facing camera	2MP
  Sound
  Speaker	Stereo
  Audio connector	3.5mm
  Connectivity
  2G	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
  3G	HSDPA 900 / 1900 / 2100
  3G USB Modem Support
  A2DP	Yes
  Bluetooth	v3.0
  Wi-Fi	Yes
  WiFi (802.11b/g/n)	802.11 a/b/g/n
  USB	v2.0
  EDGE	Yes
  Software
  OS	Android
  Version	3.2
  Hardware
  Processor	Dual-core
  Speed	1.2 GHz
  GPU	Mali-400MP
  GPS
  GPS	Yes
  A-GPS	Yes
  Battery
  Type	Li-Ion
  Capacity	4000
  Dimensions (H x W x D)	122.4 x 9.9 x 193.7 mm
  Weight (g)	345
  Warranty	1

   

Sony Tablet P Review

  

 

REVIEW

 

In a world dominated by extremely similar looking tablets, Japanese electronics giant, Sony have sent it a wave of fresh air. They've brought in two different form factors – the first one being the Tablet S – which wasn’t a major overhaul, in terms of design, and the second one being the Tablet P – the world’s first clamshell design tablet. Nintendo did it quite well in the gaming genre, but has Sony been able to pull off something similar with the Tablet P? Let’s find out. 

Form Factor
The most interesting form factor that’s ever existed on an Android tablet so far means two things – Sony isn’t in the mood to create iPad lookalikes and it's treading a thin line between being outrageously creative or outrageously pointless. The second debate more or less carries forward throughout this review. We’ve seen this design on a portable gaming console, the Nintendo DS, but by terming it a tablet, you’re throwing in a lot more variables into the picture.
In terms of plain aesthetics, the Tablet P has got every bit of oomph and class you’d want in your device. Smooth curves, metallic finish, few plastics and brilliant colour tones – this one has stylish written all over it. However, the insides are glossy black and are quite prone to fingerprints. The dual screens feel immensely small when you compare them to the size of the tablet itself. The back (or the top, if you want to take it that way) consists of a 5 megapixel camera, while the headphone jack is located in the front. Moving on to the sides, we’ve got a power ON button, a charging port, the microUSB slot and volume keys. There’s an almost invisible notification strip that’s very neatly placed at the front. The microSD card slot is located underneath the bottom flap and is non swappable, whilst the SIM card slot is located under the top flap. Also, the Tablet P is one of the few tablets to have a removable battery.


SPECIFICATIONS

Screen
Screen Size	5.5-inch (x 2 - dual screens)
Screen Resolution (pixels)	1024 x 480
Screen Type	Dual TFT
Memory
Internal Storage (GB)	4 GB storage, 1GB RAM
ROM (MB)
Expandable	Yes
Memory Type	MicroSD
Onboard storage	32GB
Camera
Megapixel (MP)	5
Resolution (pixels)	2560 x 1920
Optical zoom
Video resolution / frame rate	1280×720 / 30fps
Front facing camera	VGA
Sound
Speaker	Yes
Audio connector	3.5mm
Connectivity
2G	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
3G USB Modem Support
A2DP	Yes
Bluetooth	Yes
Wi-Fi	Yes
WiFi (802.11b/g/n)	802.11 b/g/n
USB	Yes
EDGE
Software
OS	Android
Version	3.2
Hardware
Processor	Dual-core 1 GHz Cortex-A9
Speed	1 GHz
GPU
GPS
GPS	Yes
A-GPS
Battery
Type	Li-Ion
Capacity	3080
Dimensions (H x W x D)	14 x 158 x 180
Weight (g)	372
Warranty	1

PRICE IN INDIA

36,990

iBerry Auxus AX02 Review

iBerry Auxus AX02

REVIEW

Making it to the first batch of Android Ice Cream Sandwich-based tablets to emerge in India, the iBerry Auxus AX02 follows the Zync Z990 and Ainol Novo 7 Paladin, straight into our review labs. After dishing out a piece of the Gingerbread, the company was quick enough to launch the Auxus AX02 and it wouldn't make you grin over the price, which is well intact at Rs.10,000. To know if the tablet is worth every penny, and how it fares against its competitors coming with price tags that read Rs.1,000 to 2,000 less, here’s the review of the iBerry Auxus AX02 tablet.



 SPECIFICATIONS

Screen
Screen Size	7 inches
Screen Resolution (pixels)	800 x 480
Screen Type	WVGA-Widescreen

Memory
Internal Storage (GB)	4GB, 1GB RAM DDR3
ROM (MB)
Expandable	Yes
Memory Type	MicroSD
Onboard storage	32GB

Camera
Megapixel (MP)	2MP
Resolution (pixels)
Optical zoom
Video resolution / frame rate
Front facing camera	0.3MP
Sound
Speaker	Yes
Audio connector	3.5mm
Connectivity
2G
3G
3G USB Modem Support	Yes
A2DP
Bluetooth
Wi-Fi	Yes
WiFi (802.11b/g/n)	802.11 b/g
USB	Yes
EDGE

Software
OS	Android
Version	4.0
Hardware
Processor	ARM Cortex A8
Speed	1.0 GHz
GPU	400MHz OpenGL 2.0
GPS
GPS
A-GPS
Battery
Type	Li-poly
Capacity	4000MAh
Dimensions (H x W x D)
Weight (g)
Warranty	1 Year