Asus Launches Transformer Pad TF300TL

LTE-equipped tablets have been around for a while. The feature of 4G connectivity is kind of becoming inevitable for the current crop of tablets, given the consumer’s needs to engage with high-speed connectivity and the consequent high demand for it.

Asus hasn’t been much behind and has now launched its own quad-core LTE equipped tablet, Transformer Pad TF300TL. Given the fact that the specifications of TF300TL are more or less the same as the Asus Transformer Pad TF300, we can safely say that the new slate is essentially a 4G-LTE version of the latter. We recommended TF300 for those looking to do some serious computing and would suggest the same about TF300TL.

The tablet packs Nvidia’s quad-core Tegra 3 processor and a 12-core GeForce GPU rendering it a fairly handful power-punch. The display, which is a 10.1″ WXGA, can seamlessly play full 1080p full HD video while Asus promises a great gaming experience on the tablet.

TF300TL features an 8mp rear camera as well as a 1.2mp front camera. The rear camera is equipped with a 5-element lens which enables it to capture 1080p HD video. Asus is currently offering the tablet in two variations, 16GB and 32GB. The battery life clocks at 9 hours, which is not bad for an LTE-capable tablet.With the ‘suggested’ retail pricing of the tablet starting at $499 (for the 16GB model), Asus has launched it with AT&T data plans. The pricing and availability of the tablet may vary across different regions. You can also fit it up with a separate mobile dock which comes at $149 and adds three additional hours of battery to the tablet.

Lenovo G560:The Best Laptop To Buy

The Lenovo IdeaPad G560 looks no different than its elder sibling - the G565, which we have reviewed earlier. However, subtle changes add a touch of class to the G560, giving it an identity of its own. Unlike the G565, the cover lid, screen bezel and the keypad layout are all coated in glossy black finish. While the rear-panel and the palm-rest are still coated in matte black finish, the keypad keys coated in glossy black and add a stark contrast to the textured battery compartment above the keypad. The screen bezel is marked with tread-like textures & decorated with four buttons each at the top and bottom, giving it an antique look. The glaring shiny surface on the cover lid and palm-rest are vulnerable to fingerprint smudges, compromising any positives derived from its antique yet stylish design.

The Lenovo IdeaPad G560 is quite bulky weighing in at about 2.63 kgs. Inheriting the most characteristic features from its elder sibling – the G565, the G560 also incorporates subtle changes such as capslock & numlock status indicators, as well as mute, volume up/down and video recording buttons located at the top of the keypad. It is a welcome change to see the addition of eSATA and HDMI ports which were missing on the G565. The special status LED indicators, the Wi-Fi on/off switch and the multi-format memory card reader add value for money.

HP Pavilion G6 Features

The HP Pavilion G6 is a very good option for a price of under Rs. 40,000, out-performing some of its more expensive rivals. It ticks all the right boxes - decent specs, pretty powerful graphics and to top it off, good battery life. On a budget, this is one combination that impresses.


Design Specifications

A couple of things are very clear right from the moment the HP Pavilion G6 comes out of the box. First, is that it is big. There is no getting away from the fact that anyone who is going to be carry the laptop around often, is not going to buy this. The 15.6-inch display is the biggest factor for this, but then again, this isn’t appealing to anyone who wants a slim light machine. The second is the build quality of the HP Pavilion G6. It is much better than expected, and unlike some brands that make laptops glossy to give them an upmarket look, HP has taken solace in the enamel finish. And it looks very good, without being maintenance hungry like the fingerprint attracting shiny finishes.
Since the HP Pavilion G6 has a 15.6-inch display, there is a lot of real estate afforded for the keyboard and the touchpad. Generously, this one gets a well spaced out keypad, with a dedicated number pad. The touchpad is adequately big for multi-touch gestures to work without your fingers hitting the edges.

Overall, the HP Pavilion G6 feels much more expensive than it is, and that probably says everything there needs to said about this laptop. You will not be reminded that this is a budget laptop that you use.

Features

Well, being a budget laptop, there were bound to be some cutbacks in terms of what is on offer. Happily though, the Pavilion G6 doesn’t have too many of them on the power package front. The only little hiccup that we can foresee in the long run is the Intel Core i3 processor. The one here is the dual core 2350M clocking at 2.3GHz, with 4GB of RAM to help it along. We will talk more about how good this is, in the performance section.
Graphics capability is where the Pavilion G6 really surprises, at least on the spec sheet, with the AMD Radeon HD 7670M (2GB). This is the same graphics chip that we have seen earlier on the more expensive Sony Vaio E-series and the Toshiba Satellite L850 that we had tested sometime back. Technically, the one in this laptop is the older Thames-Pro series with the DDR3 memory. There is a faster version in the market, codenamed Thames-XT, for the higher-end laptops. However, even this older gen graphics chip is more than capable.
The HP Pavilion G6’s 15.6-inch display has a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, and we believe this is doing very well on most fronts. Natively, it has a good amount of brightness to work its way forward from a solid base. Colour reproduction is very good, and surprisingly, there is no visible gradation. However, contrast doesn’t have the necessary punch you would expect on a display that may be used quite a bit for watching movies on. Decent amount of crispness makes readability easy, but if you look very closely, there is a very limited amount of noise around the individual alphabets.
The Pavilion G6 comes with a 500GB hard drive, and Windows 7 preloaded. HP does preload the machine with certain utilities, but the clutter is definitely lesser than what we saw on the previous generation notebooks. We particularly like the software update utility within the larger Support Assistant app.

Performance

While this is technically a Core i3 processor, it is by no means a slouch. The performance is very close to the much more expensive Toshiba Satellite L850, and on our benchmark test score sheet, there was just .1 of a difference between the two, with the Pavilion G6 ahead! While we aren’t comparing between the two because the two play in very different price brackets, the fact that the G6 is so close to a laptop more expensive shows that there is no cost cutting in terms of the power package.

The PC Mark Vantage benchmark score of 6247 indicates that the Core i3 will not be as sluggish as we had expected it to be. The real life usage performance of the HP Pavilion G6 is rather smooth, and will handle a bit of multi-tasking as well with some ease. However, there will be limitations post a certain level, and you should be ready for that.
The HP Pavilion G6’s battery life is surprisingly good. In our battery test, the G6 lasted a bit more than 2 hours. Essentially, in a real world scenario, you will get around 3.5 hours of battery backup, and a bit more if you are careful with the settings.

Final Review

For a price of under Rs. 40,000, the HP Pavilion G6 is one of the better machines that you can consider. Yes, it is still on the older Sandy Bridge hardware, but in terms of price vs. performance, we can’t hold that against the G6.

BSNL To Launch Android Tablet

IRA ICON

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and WishTel have teamed up to launch a new Android-based tablet called ‘IRA ICON’. Scheduled to be officially released on October 1, the IRA ICON is priced at Rs. 10,500.

The IRA ICON runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system and is powered by 1.2 GHz processor. The device, also dubbed as the Triple Play tablet, has a 1GB of RAM. It has a 7-inch capacitive multi-touch screen with 800X400 pixel resolution, 0.3MP front camera, 2MP rear camera, 4GB internal storage and microSD card slot that supports storage up to 32GB. The IRA ICON comes with a massive 4,000 mAh battery, which is rated to deliver browsing time of about 4-5 hours. The device comes with built-in stereo speakers and a microphone as well.
Features

For connectivity, the IRA ICON supports voice calls (SIM slot), Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), 3G, GPS, WI-Fi, Bluetooth, mini HDMI, 3.5mm jack and USB. The IRA ICON comes preloaded with a wide range of applications such as Wish Learning, Wish Studio, Wish TV, Wish News, Wish video calling, Skype, Photo Viewer, Games , Gtalk,  Google play.BSNL is offering a 3G SIM and free 3G data of 2GB for two months for the IRA ICON customers. The state-run telecom operator also provides a wide range of BSNL 3G plans or customised plans for the tablet.

The IRA ICON is available in two colours - black and white.

Partnership

Prior to partnership with WishTel, BSNL in collaboration with Pantel Technologies has launched budget tablets namely T-Pad WS802C and T-Pad IS701C. WishTel has also launched quite a few budget tablets as part of its IRA-Series. The company recently launched 10.1-inch ICS-based tablet, called the IRA Comet HD at Rs. 9,999.

Hitachi Releases Glass Storages Prototype

 Hitachi demonstrated its ability to encode data onto what it calls "quartz glass". Data etched into the material should last 100 million years, the company claims. Diamonds may be forever, but apparently quartz isn't very far behind.

"Quartz glass" is a curious material, being that quartz is actually a trigonal crystal while glass is considered an amorphous solid. Hitatchi's QG formula is likely to remain a secret, but if the mineral is subjected to high enough temperatures for a long enough period of time (at least 2,000 degrees Celsius), it loses its crystalline structure and can be made into a glass-like substance known as fused quartz. This often very pure form of amorphous quartz may be what Hitachi is using.

The prototype storage device is two centimetres (0.8 inches) square and just two millimetres (0.08 inches) thick and made from quartz glass, a highly stable and resilient material, used to make beakers and other instruments for laboratory use. The chip, which is resistant to many chemicals and unaffected by radio waves, can be exposed directly to high temperature flames and heated to 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,832 Fahrenheit) for at least two hours without being damaged. It is also waterproof, meaning it could survive natural calamities, such as fires and tsunami.

The new storage medium is expected to hit the market in 2015, but don't expect to replace your SSDs with data crystals any time soon. Although quartz-etched data may essentially last forever, the amount of data it can hold is relatively miniscule. Currently, the process only packs 40MB per square inch -- that's roughly equivalent to the density of a compact disc -- but falls woefully short of the 1TB per square inch we see on today's magnetic storage devices.

Additionally, there was no mention of the material being erasable or rewritable.

Although the amount of data Hitachi's quartz technology can store is small, this may improve with time. Until then, it could be ideal for recording important works of literature, historical information and such. Just remember though: don't drop it.

AMD Second Generation A-Series Desktop APUs

AMD has unveiled the launch lineup for their second generation A-Series APUs for desktops based on Trinity silicon. The chip designer launched mobile processors of the same variety earlier this year to take advantage of seasonal back-to-school sales while desktop components remained in development.

Desktop A-Series APUs will only work in Socket FM2 motherboads with A75 and A85 chipsets. APUs will consist of four (or two, depending on the model) x86-64 cores split across two Piledriver modules and will contain Radeon HD 7000 series graphics. Furthermore, AMD has integrated the northbridge and dual-channel DDR3-1866MHz memory controller onto the APU for what appears to be the complete package.

The high-end A10-5800K and -5700 both contain Radeon HD 7660D graphics with 384 VLIW4 stream processors, four CPU cores, 4MB of cache and Turbo Core 3.0 support. The 100W TDP –K part is unlocked for easier overclocking with a base clock of 3.8GHz. The slightly slower A10-5700 ships out at 3.4GHz with a 65W TDP.

Mid-range A8 components include the 5600K and the 5500. Both utilize an HD 7560D GPU with 256 stream processors, 760MHz GPU clock speed, four CPU cores and 4MB of cache. Again, the –K series chip is unlocked with a higher 100W TDP while the 5500 requires only 65W.

AMD’s budget processors are the A6-5400K and the A4-4300. Both are only dual-core components with 1MB of cache, Turbo Core 3.0 support and a 65W TDP. Expect less graphics processing power as well as the –K series has 192 stream processors while the 5300 only ships with 128.

These new desktop components are expected to hit retail sometime next week. Pricing should start around $70 on the low end and top out around $140.

7,200 T-Mobile Cell Towers For $2.4 Billion

T-Mobile USA has entered into a licensing agreement with Austin, Texas-based Crown Castle that will allow them to use 7,200 cell phone towers. The $2.4 billion deal gives Crown Castle access to the towers for the next 28 years at which time they will have the option to acquire them for another $2.4 billion should they choose to do so.

The company has reportedly been shopping the towers around for many years in an effort to bring in some much needed cash. T-Mobile will likely use some or all of the money to help fund the build out of their 4G LTE network over the next three years. The fourth largest provider in the US has already committed to spend $4 billion on the project following a failed merger with AT&T earlier this year.

CNET points out that Crown Castle already operates and maintains roughly 30,000 cell towers across the country. The operator says each newly acquired tower will have enough room to accommodate at least one extra service provider which equates to more revenue from other carriers that choose to lease space. T-Mobile will maintain facilities on the towers for at least another 10 years as per the agreement.

Analysts generally believe it was a good move for T-Mobile but at least one person thinks Crown Castle paid too much for the towers. Jonathan Schildkraut from Evercore Partners said they shelled out about $400 million more than he would have been comfortable spending. "As people start to pull apart the numbers, it doesn't look that great," Schildkraut said, but he also points out that Crown Castle "needed to do it for growth."

The deal is expected to close sometime in the fourth quarter.

The Hi-Call Gloves

It’s time to reconsider the glove–while the human hand hasn’t changed much in the past 100 years, the devices we use have radically changed. We use capacitive touchscreens almost every day. There’s nothing more frustrating than taking your glove off every time you need to change the track or pick up a call. Cutting off the ends just leave your fingers cold. The Hi-Call glove is a glove designed for 2012: it will let you use your phone via capitative thread in the fingertips. It also does one better–it lets you talk to your hand and look like a crazy person through a Bluetooth receiver, microphone and speaker built into the glove. It charges through MicroUSB and may be the first pair of gloves you own that come with an instruction manual. They’re available for preorder now from Hi-Fun for 50 €, hopefully before it gets cold.

Bill Gates Gives Windows 8 His Stamp of Approval

Microsoft’s most famous face has given Windows 8 his stamp of approval. During a recent interview with the Associated Press to discuss the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s participation in a global mission to end polio, Bill Gates made a few comments about Microsoft’s upcoming operating system.

Gates told the AP he is already using Windows 8 and is very pleased with it. Unsurprisingly, the co-founder of Microsoft believes Windows 8 will be a big deal partly because hardware partners are doing “great things” to take advantage of the OS' new features.
Of course, Microsoft is prepared should personal computers continue their downward spiral. Versions of the operating system will additionally be shipping on tablets and smartphones come October 26. It's an important step as the Windows & Windows Live division represented 27 percent of the company’s revenue in 2011. But as the numbers indicate, it’s not all about their legendary operating system these days.

The company has been diversifying their product line to include much more than software. Their gaming division is anchored by the industry-leading Xbox 360 gaming console which just so happens to be developing into a major media hub in living rooms across the world. Redmond also makes a decent profit by supplying computer services to businesses and corporations.

Either way, there's no denying that there will be a lot of pressure on Microsoft to deliver big in the next several months.

Kodak Shutting Down It's Inkjet Printers

Last month Lexmark announced that it was shutting down all inkjet printer R&D and manufacturing over the next three years due to the very thin margins involved. Now, Kodak has announced it is also struggling in the cutthroat market and will exit the consumer inkjet printer business entirely.

Kodak has already exited the digital camera market, and with printers disappearing from store shelves you’ll be hard pressed to find a Kodak consumer product before long. Anyone using Kodak inkjet printers need not worry though, as Kodak intends to continue supporting products with ink and honoring guarantees. However, we won’t see any new printer models appearing and existing stock of printer hardware should disappear at some point next year.

Kodak’s reasons for doing this are similar to Lexmark’s. The market and profits just aren’t there anymore, and Kodak specifically points to mobile devices and sending, rather than printing pictures, being a major factor. Consumers just don’t print anywhere near as much as they used to.

No consumer inkjet printers means 200 more jobs are disappearing at the company. However, Kodak will continue to play a part in the printing business, but focusing on commercial printing only.There will be an ongoing need for consumer printers, but the market will continue to get shrink to the point where, if you want some images printed out you’ll probably just go visit a printing booth rather than using a printer you own.

Instagram Beats Twitter

U.S. smartphone users fired up the photo-sharing app Instagram more than Twitter during the month of August, according to new data from comScore.As first reported by AllThingsD, Instagram, now owned by Facebook, had an average of 7.3 million smartphone users accessing its service every day in August, comScore said. In comparison, Twitter had 6.868 million daily visitors on mobile devices during the same period.

ComScore's data reflects usage among U.S. smartphone owners aged 18 and older accessing the service on a device running iOS, Android, or RIM operating system via a mobile Web browser or app.

Plus, beyond just visiting Instagram more, mobile users also spent more time on the popular photo-sharing app than they did on Twitter. Users last month spent an average of 257 minutes on Instagram via mobile compared to 169.9 minutes viewing content on Twitter.Even so, Twitter still reigned supreme when it came to the total number of unique visitors. The micro-blogging service had approximately 29 million unique smartphone visitors during the month, compared to Instagram's 21.9 million. To put this in perspective, the data indicates that Twitter had a greater number of smartphone users visiting its site overall, while Instagram's fans were clicking on the app more frequently and spending more time on it each time they returned.

The data is notable given that Instagram is not even two years old yet, while Twitter has been around since 2006. Remember, Instagram was exclusive to iOS devices until April, when the company released an Android version.Instagram's reach could soon expand even further. Word has it that the uber popular app could be coming to Windows Phone.

Rovio Launched Bad Piggies

Rovio has come a long way from its no-name history to being the makers of one of one the most successful mobile and web game franchises ever, Angry Birds.
Following the Angry Birds series, Rovio launched Amazing Alex (read our review), which moved away from the strategic flinging to systematic placement of objects to achieve goals. It took on a more puzzle-solving approach than the pull-aim-shoot ways of the Birds. Once again, Amazing Alex failed to strike a chord with the gamers.

Launching Of Bad Piggies:

Rovio has today just launched Bad Piggies, the third game in their portfolio. The game employs the same vibrant colors and physics engine we’ve come to be so familiar with, but instead of taking on the Angry Birds route, it has far more in common with Amazing Alex.

The idea is to get the cute, weird colored little piggy from one point on the map to the finish line while also collecting items spread across the map. Sounds pretty simple don’t it? Well it’s not! The pigs don’t have legs and can only roll around, so the only way they get across the map and to the finish line is using a contraption that must be constructed and here is where the real challenge lies.

Levels And Game Details:

The game has 4 “worlds” with 45 levels each. The first two worlds are the only unlocked ones and the latter two must be unlocked by making good progress. The first three or four levels on each world are pretty simple, but collecting the bonuses is always tricky. The levels increase in difficulty pretty quickly, with the terrain becoming trickier and more and more tools becoming available for use.

We spent some time playing the game and noticed that having access to TNT and rocket bottles and fans all in one stage didn’t mean clearing it (forget about clearing it with a good score). The clearing of the stage requires a very precise combination of tools and their positioning. Eventually the game introduces precise timing as a factor too, requiring popping of balloons or starting the rockets at a very precise moment. At any moment, there are only a certain number of tools that can be used to build the pig-transporting contraption, adding to the difficulty of the game.

Conclusion:

However, seeing how the simplicity of Angry Birds made it a popular hit with the little kids, we feel that the higher level of difficulty might not go down so well with the young ones. Regardless, the game is a classic Rovio product, offering fun and challenges all packaged into a neat little game.

Samsung Galaxy Music Releasing On October 11Th

Samsung is expected to launch two music-centric budget Android phones in next month, and the specifications and images of the devices have leaked on the Internet ahead of the official announcement.
Samsung's forthcoming phones are called the Samsung GT-S6010 Galaxy Music and the Samsung Music DUOS Galaxy GT-S6012. The DUOS model will be the dual-SIM version of the Galaxy Music. No exact price or release date of the phones was leaked but expect the official announcement on October 11th.
The specifications of the phones include a 3-inch QVGA LCD display with a 320x240 pixel resolution, 3MP camera, and 4GB internal storage expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card, Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity.

The music Android phones will run on Google Android 4.0 ICS straight out of the box with the expectation that the phones will be upgradable to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Being music phones, the Samsung GT-S6010 Galaxy Music and the Samsung Music DUOS Galaxy GT-S6012 boast of stereo speakers. Under the hood, the smartphones will be powered by an 850MHz single-core CPU and 512MB RAM. The budget Android music phones will have a 1300mAh battery.

Being music phones, they will support a wide range of audio formats like MP3, OGG, ACC, ACC +, eACC +, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, WAV, MID, IMY, FLAC and WMA.

Stay tuned, as we will bring you the complete lowdown of the device once they are unveiled on October 11th.

Nokia Lumia920 Price Beats Galaxy SIII

Pricing for the soon to be released Nokia Lumia 920 smartphone has been revealed for the selected European markets. The company published the pricing data on its local websites on Thursday, with Lumia being cheaper than the Apple's iPhone 5, but more expensive than Samsung's Galaxy S III smartphone.

According to a Reuters report, the Nokia Lumia 920 32GB variant will be sold at around 5,700 Swedish Crowns, which is around Rs. 46,116. It's notable the 16GB Samsung Galaxy S III in the country is around 4,515 Crowns, while the 32GB iPhone 5 is due to sell 6,995 Crowns.

In Italy, the Lumia 920 has been priced at 599 Euros (Rs. 40,925 approximately), against the 16GB Samsung S III's 529 Euros. In Germany, the Nokia Lumia 920 for 649 Euros (Rs. 44,352 approx.). It sells the iPhone for 820 Euros, the 32GB Galaxy S III for 740 Euros and the 16GB Galaxy for 530 Euros.

Nokia has pinned its turnaround hopes on its new Lumia series smartphones, featuring Windows Phone 8. However, experts believe the high pricing for the Windows Phone 8-based Nokia Lumia 920 could jeopardise the company's efforts to catch up with the competitors. Experts suggest the pricing of the Lumia 920, which is 10 to 25 percent higher than Samsung's Galaxy S III, also risks a consumer backlash.The pricing of the Lumia 920 puts the device in direct competition against high-end smartphones such as the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S III. However, the S III has been in the market for quite sometime now, while the iPhone 5 will be rolling out in different markets very soon.

As far as the Indian market goes, the high-end devices like the Samsung Galaxy S III, Galaxy S II, HTC One X and Apple's iPhone 4S are priced between Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 45,000. If reports are to believed, the iPhone 5 will also fall under the same price range. The Indian market has been traditionally price sensitive, even for the premium devices. Nokia, on the other hand, has a reputation of giving out affordable devices to the Indian consumers. However, it is a little unlikely that the Indian consumers will be willing to shell out more money the Lumia series, unless the Windows Phone 8 platform proves to much more compelling than Android and iOS.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO GOOGLE

Google celebrates its 14th birth anniversary with an animated doodle on its home page. The doodle features a cake with 14 candles, and below that, portions of a chocolate cake, which together form the word “Google”.

Google, now a dominant Internet company, was started as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1996. The company filed for Inc. on September 4, 1998 and booked Google.com domain on September 15, 1998. The company later chose to celebrate its birthday on September 27, most probably to avoid being too close to the tragic September 11 event. Google, however, says it's just “whenever they feel like eating cake.”

On its 13th birthday, Google's doodle featured five letters of the company logo donning party hats seated around a cake with balloons and gifts around. Check out Google's 13th birthday doodle here.
Over the years, Google has played a pivotal role in changing the way we use the Internet, making it simple and convenient for us. Its contributions to the web has been invaluable, and the company has continuously updated things around. For more read Google's top seven contributions to the Internet.

The All New Sony Xperia TIPO

The Xperia Tipo is the first Xperia smartphone to be launched in the entry-level category.The Xperia Tipo is retailing now in stores for around Rs. 9,449, and is aimed at the young demographic, with the majority buyers getting their first smartphone experience.

The Xperia Tipo is available in two versions – single SIM and dual-SIM. There is approximately Rs. 1,000 price difference between the two versions, with the dual SIM one being more expensive.
Both phones come with Android 4.0.4 preloaded. Not many phones in this price bracket offer that.
There is a single-core 800MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor powering the Xperia Tipo. From what we experienced, this phone's UI is slightly slicker than the Samsung Galaxy Y – that has an 832MHz processor but comes with Android 2.3 out of the box.

The Timescape UI is exactly the same as what we saw on the much more expensive Xperia Ion recently, albeit this is fit into a smaller display size. The range of widgets is impressive, but still doesn’t match the variety that HTC throws along with the Sense UI. The most important part is that it seems very well optimized with the hardware and the slickness while using it is a testament to that fact.

The 3.2-inch display does give the phone rather compact dimensions. The quality of the display is satisfactory. Quite bright, and colour depth is adequate. The crispness is slightly off, and certain smaller text (like app names) can seem a little off.The build quality is much better than expected. On the front are three touch sensitive keys below the display, and below it starts the colour line. The front and part of the sides have the enamel finish, while the battery cover has a plain matte finish. This isn’t the slimmest phone around, but even with the battery inserted, feels very light.
.
Very elegant design, which looks sporty while being minimalist. There are four colour options to choose from, white, red, blue and black.Top down, rear side. You see the camera and the 3.5mm jack.Three touch sensitive keys below the display.The widgets across all screens.The swipe to type feature is carried down from the more expensive phones, and that is a real value addition for someone who will text a lot.The micro USB port on the left spine. Notice the curve on the top and the bottom, We feel this lends it a more sporty look.The battery cover has a plain matte finish. The opening mechanism is not the most elegant one, prise out with nails!.
Surprisingly, the on-screen keypad is a delight to use. It isn't cramped, as most are on small displays.Smaller text, like the app labels do seem have lost out on the crispness though.No Mobile Bravia engine, as seen on the more expensive siblings.Comes with Android ICS out of the box.Basic specs for the display, but does well in terms of brightness and colour depth..

Google Play Crosses 25 Billion Downloads

Google officially announced that its online store, Google Play, reached the 25 billion downloads mark. And to celebrate the event, the search giant is offering some great discounts for the next five days.

Special collections such as  25 movies you must own, 25 banned books, 25 albums that changed the world and the 25 top selling magazines in Google Play will be offered at discounted prices, and you will be able to buy a few games for 25 cents each.

In case you are still curious about this type of metrics, Google Play now counts over 675,000 apps and games.

HP Envy Spectre XT Features

Three years ago, HP introduced the Envy 13. This week,reviewing its spiritual successor, the Envy Spectre XT. the Envy was accused of cribbing from Apple's MacBook playbook. Then, as now, it's a shiny silver machine, with an ultra-low-voltage processor, a single-button clickpad, no optical drive, few ports, and a 13-inch screen.
 the overall effect is clearly crafted to attract people who want a MacBook Air with Windows on board.

             
There aren't loads of ports on the Spectre XT, but for a machine that weighs just over three pounds and measures about half an inch thick, HP's actually provided a very generous array of connectivity. On the left side you'll find a full-size HDMI port, a USB 3.0 socket, and a bona fide Gigabit Ethernet jack that opens its spring-loaded metal jaws to accept a cable with a minimum of wasted space.
On the right, there's a USB 2.0 port that can charge gadgets when the laptop's off, a 3.5mm headset jack, and a full-size SD card slot that can actually hold the entire card inside the laptop's frame, as well as the power jack. We've seen some of these ideas in other recent ultrabooks, but taken as a whole, I'm hard-pressed to think of another machine this thin with this much connectivity. HP doesn't skimp on wireless either, by the way: Bluetooth 4.0 and an Intel Advanced-N 6235 solution for dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi (and WiDi, should you use the screen sharing technology) come standard. It is worth noting that the AC adapter's power plug doesn't mate well with the Spectre XT, and can get disconnected if you jolt it. The jack is clearly made for the deeper socket of a different laptop.


Since the very first HP Envy three years ago, the company has sought to provide Envy customers with displays a cut above. While one of those screens had some color issues and another one annoyingly ran out of stock, HP's generally offered brighter, more vibrant, high-resolution displays at a lower price than anyone else. Just a few months back, the Envy 14 Spectre's 1600 x 900 display was lovely. Here, you're stuck with a comparatively dim 1366 x 768 panel that loses brightness and threatens to invert or wash out your colors with the slightest change in viewing angle. It's not quite as bad as the display that comes with, say, the Dell XPS 13, and it’s bearable if you keep your head and the lid in a single position and don't move either one, but there are far better screens to be had in other laptops.
Speaker quality is almost always an afterthought in these thin notebooks, whether they have a fancy audio brand associated with them or not, but the sound that the Spectre XT produces isn't bad at all. The laptop has four drivers, two angled up towards the user in a speaker bar right beneath the screen, and two more pointed down in the curved sides of the chassis. Between those four drivers and some Beats Audio magic, the audio is reasonably full, and surprisingly loud for a laptop its size. It can't handle high highs or low lows, and layered combinations of instruments get lost, but anything which sounds like it was written specifically with the radio in mind sounds fairly good.
HP figured out how to build a good thin keyboard a while back, and the company actually improved on it here: despite the thinness of the Spectre XT, the keyboard is excellent. It's much like the one on the MacBook Air, in fact, with practically identical key size and spacing, a similar scissor-switch mechanism underneath each key, and a very similar cushiony feeling when I press down.
$999 buys you a fairly standard set of ultrabook specs. The entry-level Spectre XT comes with a dual-core 1.7GHz Core i5-3317U processor, 4GB of memory, 128GB of solid state storage and integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics. You can trade up to a 256GB SSD for an extra $200, or buy a smidgen of extra processor speed in $125 increments for a 1.9GHz Core i7-3517U, or a 2GHz Core i7-3667U instead. The larger SSD might make the most sense, since HP's recovery partition and system image take up a substantial chunk of space all by themselves, leaving only 69GB for your files on the 128GB model. Meanwhile, you can't expand the system memory at all: that 4GB of RAM is soldered to the motherboard.
It's not easy to balance temperature, fan volume and battery life in a chassis this thin, but the Spectre XT manages two out of three fairly well. Between the cool brushed aluminum palmrests and the insulated rubberized base, the Spectre XT always seems to fall in the comfortable range between warm and cool. Fan noise is always present, but not annoyingly so, and it's much preferable to the alternative.If style and sophistication are what you’re looking for in a Windows laptop, the $1,399 Envy 14 Spectre is still your best bet. If you want a workhorse, get a Lenovo ThinkPad X230 with a solid state drive, the premium IPS display, and a large battery instead.

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM Now In India

Good news for photography aficionados in India. The long-awaited Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM lens has finally hit Indian shores.
he new lens was announced all the way back in February this year and scheduled for a May-June release but then suffered several delays. After months of speculation, the lens is finally available in the Indian market.

According to Canon, the new version of the 24-70mm f/2.8L lens is significantly sharper than its predecessor. Along with optical improvements, the lens also has been redesigned to make it lighter by about 150 grams. The length has also been reduced from 124mm from version I to 113mm on the version II.
All this reduction would make you think that there must be some corners Canon has cut. Whatever those corners may be, optics isn't one of them, as the new lens sees the inclusion of two ultra-low dispersion elements and one Super UD aspheric element to minimize chromatic aberration.
The lens also comes coated with Canon's Super Spectra coating to drastically reduce flare and ghosting. Interestingly, while the overall sense of the design suggests that miniaturization has been an important feature of this lens, the front element now incorporates an 82mm thread, as against the 77mm on the older lens.

The lens is now available through the Canon stores in India for a whopping price of INR 149995, which is significantly higher than what the older lens was priced at. However, early samples seem to suggest that the 2-70 f/2.8L USM version II is much sharper than the previous model of the same focal length along with much better control, adn reduced flare and ghosting.

Blackberry 10 Beta3 Features:Latest

RIM has just unveiled the latest iteration of the BlackBerry 10 operating system, set to be released on new devices early next year. We have finally gotten a look at the UI RIM will be shipping, and it's an interesting mix of user interaction metaphors we've seen on multiple devices to this point and a strong progression from the version of the software we first saw back in May.
The device is running the "Beta 3 SDK" of BlackBerry 10, which has the look and feel that consumers can expect on the actual phones the company is launching next year. RIM has been talking about the "flow" of it's next OS, and there are elements here that are genuinely interesting.

Starting with the device in sleep, you can wake it simply by swiping up from the bottom of the screen — no need to hit a power button. As you swipe up, the lockscreen fades under your finger to reveal the OS underneath in a way not entirely dissimilar from what LG has done on its recent homescreens. The lock screen also shows how many (and what type) of notifications you've missed and allows users to launch the camera directly.

Once you're in, the OS starts with a multi-paned home screen. The first screen holds up to 8 "Active Frames," which are the applications currently running on the phone. The Active Frames are listed in reverse-chronological order, with the most recent at the top left. You close apps by tapping a small "X" in the lower-righthand corner (or, presumably, by opening up a 9th app). Four of them will fit on a single screen, and you scroll down to get the other four.To the right of the Active Frames homescreen is a standard grid of icons. They arranged manually like they are on the iPhone, including support for drag-and-drop folder creation. As we've seen on leaked screenshots, this grid of icons is decidedly square — both the folders and the apps themselves live in small rectangles.

Switching between apps involves a swipe-up from the bottom of the screen, which takes you back to the homescreen where you can select another app. RIM actually removed all of the side-gestures it had in the last version of this OS, so there's no way to switch directly between most apps. Swiping down from the top bring up settings and other menu options, depending on context. In all, it's a user interface that's a mix of Windows Phone, webOS, and iPhone — but there's one major exception, and that's the "BlackBerry Hub."Although describing the gestures to bring up the Hub is a little complicated, in practice it's fairly intuitive once you've done it once or twice. It's also less likely to come up accidentally than what we saw in the last BlackBerry 10 Beta, where it sat on the right of every screen and was brought up with a swipe from the side of the screen.

When you launch an app in "Work" mode, its Active Frame has a small briefcase icon on it to denote that it's running in a secured mode. If you company won't let you copy and paste from the browser, for example, you won't be able to do it in that secured app — but you can launch a "personal" browser instance alongside it.

RIM has a very difficult road to travel with BlackBerry 10: it needs to get a critical mass of apps by launch to even get a second look from consumers, let alone a first one. To prepare developers, the company has had to keep them up to speed by trickling out information about the next platform instead of unveiling it all at once with a big splash. That has made for a series of teases and hints, but not a complete picture of RIM's mobile strategy.

Apple Sells Five Million iPhone 5

Apple managed to sell over five million new iPhone 5 handsets during the first weekend of availability, topping the 4S’ record from last year by one million units. The phone launched in the US, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK on September 21. Furthermore, over 100 million devices have already been updated with the recently release iOS 6.

Reports suggest Cupertino’s initial stockpile of iPhone 5 handsets sold out within one hour of being made available for pre-order. Apple’s website currently shows the handset is on backorder for 3-4 weeks regardless of color, capacity or carrier.

Users interested in the new Apple phone might have better luck shopping through their respective carrier, at a local Apple store or through third party auction sites like eBay. Recently completed listings reveal the 16GB base model is selling for around $800 on average.Demand for the iPhone 5 isn’t expected to slow down anytime soon. J.P. Morgan analyst Katy Huberty expects sales to hit 25 million for the quarter ending this month. The holiday season could see total iPhone 5 sales hit the 50 million mark and if things continue to do well next year, Apple could move 200 million iPhones in 2013.

The iPhone 5 will be released in 22 more countries on September 28 and will ultimately be offered in more than 100 countries by the end of the year. Interestingly enough, stock prices are down roughly 1.3 percent following the weekend sales announcement.

FIFA 13 Midnight Launching Party

It’s that time of the year, with just over a month after the several European leagues began their respective campaigns, when it’s time to unwrap and unveil the latest FIFA game from Electronic Arts. FIFA 13, the highly acclaimed football simulator game from EA Sports, will be officially unwrapped at the stroke of midnight on 27th September, 2012, across Game4u stores around the country.

According to details received, Game4u’s FIFA 13 launch party begins at 11:30 pm on the night of 27th September, where fans will lineup and wait outside Game4u’s stores. At exactly 12 am, in the wee hours of September 28th, which is when FIFA 13 officially launches in India, the launch party kicks off.

Apart from handing out FIFA 13 copies, the retailer has a bevy of exclusives bundled together for the gaming fraternity – details of what they are remain scarce at best. Attendants of the midnight FIFA 13 festivities will no doubt find that out soon enough.

Here’s a list of Game4u store locations where the FIFA 13 launch party kicks off on the night of September 27:

Game4u, Mega Mall, Oshiwara, Mumbai
Game4u, Infiniti Mall, Malad, Mumbai
Game4u, MGF Metropolis, Gurgaon
Game4u, VIVA Collage, Jalandhar
Game4u, MBD Neopolis, Ludhiana

FIFA 13 launches in India on September 28th, 2012, and will be available on Playstation 3, Playstation 2, Playstation Vita, Playstation Portable and Xbox 360.

Dell Launches New Range Of S Series Monitors

Dell today announced the launch of a new range of S Series monitors. The new S series monitors are available in 27-inch, 24-inch, 23-inch and 21.5-inch sizes.Dell says its Dell S Series monitors will deliver an improved viewing experience and better colour accuracy. The panels of the monitors tilt up to 4-inch forward or 21-inch backward and behold images with full HD 1920 x 1080 (max) resolution in an ultra-wide 178/178-inch viewing angle.

The new S Series monitors feature advanced panel technologies which support ultra-wide viewing angles, while the new Image Enhance feature improves visual quality. Dell says the new monitors will help users tackle creative projects with efficiency. Dell Display Manager also aids productivity with fast access to software such as Auto Mode, which lets you select your preferred preset modes for specific applications.
S2740L 27” Monitor with LED

27-inch wide (69cm) VIS with LED backlight:
Full High definition, 1920 x 1080 at 60 Hz
In-plane switching panel technology
178°/178° (vertical/horizontal) wide viewing angle
8million:1 (typical) mega dynamic contrast ratio
VGA, DVI-D (HDCP), HDMI and USB ports
S2440L 24” Monitor with LED

24-inch wide (61cm) VIS with LED backlight
Full High definition, 1920 x 1080 at 60 Hz
Vertical alignment panel technology
178°/178° (vertical/horizontal) wide viewing angle
High contrast ratio of 5000: 1 (typical)
8million:1 (typical) mega dynamic contrast ratio
S2340L 23” Monitor with LED

23-inch wide (58cm) VIS with LED backlight
Full High definition, 1920 x 1080 at 60 Hz
In-plane switching panel technology
178°/178° (vertical/horizontal) wide viewing angle
8 million:1 (typical) mega dynamic contrast ratio
S2240L/M 21.5” Monitor with LED

21.5-inch wide (55cm) VIS with LED backlight
Full High definition, 1920 x 1080 at 60 Hz
In-plane switching panel technology
178°/178° (vertical/horizontal) wide viewing angle
8 million:1 (typical) mega dynamic contrast ratio

Iran Blocks Google

According to Reuters, Google's search and Gmail services have been blocked from public view in Iran. Tehran officials say these latest additions to Iran's web filter are the result of a much publicized anti-Islamic video called "Innocence of Muslims". The controversial video made its home on YouTube a couple of weeks ago, where it has managed to incite anger, protests and violence across portions of the global Muslim community.

Iran already has one of the largest collections of blocked URLs found in any country, but that's just the start. Earlier this year, Iran announced plans of creating its own domestic "Internet" -- an intranet which would be isolated from the rest of the world. Officials claim the goal is national security, something Iran is rightfully concerned about after government servers were infiltrated by US-Israel sponsored Stuxnet and Flame viruses. Skeptics, however, believe Iran's claim of "national security" is little more than an excuse to keep protesters away from "Western" social media tools and non-sanctioned information.

ComputerWorld says this security researcher has confirmed that Google and Gmail are still accessible via direct IP addresses although their hostnames remained blocked. It also appears some mobile phone operators aren't on the same page yet as the Iranian government, allowing mobile access for some -- for now.

Tehran officials says phase one of Iran's upcoming "domestic Internet" has already passed, isolating government operations on its own national network. Phase two, which is expected to arrive sometime next year, will put the rest of Iran's population on their state-sponsored intranet. After the system is deployed, it remains unknown if there will be gradual transition from the global Internet or if Iran will abruptly cut ties.

Sound Taxi Tours London

The hubbub of the city—tinkering bikes, hissing buses and booming sirens—have been transformed into melodic tracks by a suped-up London cab that translates ambient sound to music in real-time.
The brainchild of Yuri Suzuki—a sound artist and designer in residence at Design Museum London—in collaboration with headphone developer AiAiAi, Sound Taxi has been putting smiles on the faces of commuters and tourists all week as it tours the city, its 67 speakers beaming out haunting crescendos that change in time with its surroundings.

Most of its speakers are embedded in the side of the taxi, but a series of huge Indian horns (typically used to call worshippers to temple, and in this case calling city dwellers to a mini, mobile temple of music) sit atop the roof, making for quite a spectacle. Put it this way, if the Child Catcher had one of these bad boys, there'd be no need for any prison bars—no one voluntarily gets out, and after going for a quick spin near Wired.co.uk's offices, it looks like everyone wants to get in.

"What's interesting is the reactions are different depending on what area you're driving in," says AiAiAi representative Tobia Holz who came along for the ride. "We had the most engaging reactions in the Hackney area, with bus drivers stopping, opening their windows and shouting 'does it play reggae'? Round Mayfair you get a lot of puzzled looks and also a lot of smiles, but it's not as enthusiastic. It's a bit more reserved."

The melody that pours out of the speakers, inside the cab and out, is intriguing to follow, with passing motorbikes causing a stream of sound and the hiss of a bus turned into a tinkering hi-hat frenzy. A measurement microphone fixed to the roof picks up the ambient sounds and feeds it into software created by sound designer Mark McKeague using Max for Live. This analyzes the different frequencies, and translates them into different musical tones using Ableton Live—for instance, a siren is a medium frequency so triggers a medium melody where the bass isn't too harsh.

Although it's a great experience to hear the track morph in real-time as buses, trucks and fire engines stream past on Piccadilly, it's the faces of the passers-by that are most enjoyable. Their reactions are priceless. In a city where most residents are busily trying to block out urban white noise with headphones, hopping from A to B without an upward glance, the Sound Taxi provides ample reason to pause for a moment and soak up every sight and sound the city affords. A quick spin round Mayfair and builders taking a break on Burlington Gardens can't wipe the sheer glee off their faces, Cecconi regulars don't bat an eye and continue discussing their Savile Row suits (though one mouth did momentarily drop open), Old Bond Street shop workers run out when the cab's in traffic to pose for Twitpics and tourists just start laughing, presumably thinking, 'oh the English, what are they like?'

Fans of art-based automobile oddities can track the cab's progress at the Make The City Sound Better website—an ongoing campaign by AiAiAi—where a live feed streams its journey, compiled tracks are played and user's can use GPS tracking to find its current location. Sadly, the project came to an end at 4pm on 21 September, but part-time DJ Suzuki is in talks with Boiler Room to do a London show with the decks fitted in the back of the cab. It will probably be the most uncomfortable set Suzuki has ever done, but with the sounds of the crowd feeding in to the speakers, it could be the most thrilling one.

iPhone 5 To Be Jail Broken On 1st Day

With every new iPhone and version of iOS, iPhone owners dedicated to Cydia get nervous over whether Apple will patch holes needed to add an unlocked bootlocker. With iOS 6, it’s looking good–the iPhone 4 and 3GS were unlocked yesterday, and today, a few iPhone developers have taken to Twitter to claim that they’ve added Cydia to an iPhone 5. It’s not up for download yet, but if the screenshot is any indication, it should be soon.

iOS developer Grant Paul took to Twitter and posted “Taller screens like Cydia too,”  adding a screenshot that you’re seeing above. If iOS 6 on the iPhone 5 has in fact already been jailbroken, it was much faster than iOS 5, which took several months
. We’ll be monitoring the situation closely, and when you can download the iPhone 5 jailbreak, you’ll see it here.

Top 10 iOs 6 Secret Features

Apple released iOS 6 this week, bringing a handful of new features to iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches.
These are the 10 favorite secret features in iOS 6.

1. Walking Directions in Map

People are not happy with the new Maps app in iOS 6. It's full of problems. One of the major complaints is that it only provides driving directions, leaving walkers, bikers, and public transit users behind. The good news is that Apple didn't leave out these features entirely. In fact, walking directions are still available. To find them, just tap the bent arrow "directions" button in Maps and you'll see your recent destinations. From there, you can toggle between driving, walking, and public transit. Walking directions will work without issue. Public transit, on the other hand, will try to route you to another app (and fail, for now). Hopefully we'll see Apple improve Maps quickly and bring back these important, lost features. In the meantime, if this secret feature isn't enough to satisfy you then check out Lumatic. It might do the trick.

2. Archive or Delete Messages in Mail
A common Mail complaint among Gmail users has long been the need to choose between archiving and deleting a message. iOS just never provided a way to choose on the fly. Now you can. To do this, open a message, tap and hold the Archive button, and make your choice. The unfortunate reality is that you have to actually open the message to do this. You can't tap and hold the Archive button in list view to get these options. That said, it's a welcome improvement. We still prefer Sparrow, though.


3. Launch Apps with Siri

Apple told us Siri got smarter in iOS 6, but they neglected to mention that she'd launch apps for you. All you have to do is activate Siri and then say the word "launch" plus the name of the app you want to open. While this may seem a little lazy, it's really useful if you have a bunch of apps and don't necessarily remember where they all are. You no longer need to search—Siri can do the work for you.



4. Sync Your Text Expansion Shortcuts Across Devices

Apple added text expansion to iOS 5, and it was awesome, letting you type in long usernames, addresses, and other text with just a few strokes on your keyboard. We showed you some essential shortcuts to set up, and now iOS 6 has made the feature even better, letting you sync it between your other iOS devices (like an iPod touch and an iPad)—along with your custom keyboard dictionary. To do so, you'll need an iCloud account. Then, just head to Settings > iCloud, and scroll down to Documents & Data. Tap it, flip the switch to On, and do the same on your other iOS 6 devices. Your custom dictionary and shortcuts should stay in sync between all your devices.

5. Only Receive Message Alerts from Your Contacts

Don't care if you get an iMessage from an unknown source? You don't have to. If you head into the Settings app, then Notifications, then Messages, you can set your alerts to only show up for your contacts. If you don't want to be bothered by people who aren't worth sticking in your contacts—like spam message bots, for example—iOS 6 lets you ignore them.

6. Late Night Listening
Although not available on all devices, newer iPhones and iPads have a new EQ setting: Late Night. This option lowers bass levels and attempts to make your music less-intrusive in the evening so you can listen and fall asleep easily without being distracted by anything too jarring. Why Apple didn't include this option on earlier devices is beyond us, but iOS 6 has shown how much they like to unnecessarily limit their software to keep you from getting off the upgrade treadmill.

7. Wake Up to a Song

Apple update the Clock app—which I still hold to be my favorite native app—to give the alarm functionality a boost. No longer do you have to wake up to one of your ringtones. Instead, you can pick any song in your library. You could even make a recording of yourself telling you to wake the hell up, sync it to your iDevice, and open your eyes to a sunny day and your own, obnoxious voice. Or you could just pick a song that you like. Regardless, you now have a choice. That's very much appreciated.

8. Limit Ad Tracking

Everyone's trying to track you on the web, and your phone is no different. If you'd rather advertisers not track your activity and serve up targeted ads, iOS 6 lets you turn off tracking with a simple switch. Just head to Settings > General > About > Advertising and flip the switch to On. It may take a little while for you to stop seeing targeted ads, but soon enough your activity should be much more private.



9. Tons of New Emoji

Some people love their emoji—the cute icons you can add to messages, emails, or really anywhere that accepts text in iOS. Apple just added a ton of new options. If you have your emoji keyboard enabled already, you don't have to do anything. If not, you can enable it in the Settings app by going to General -> Keyboard -> Keyboards -> Add New Keyboard. That will bring up a list. Choose Emoji and you're all set.

10. Pull to Refresh
Pull to refresh is one of the greatest gestures that Apple took next to forever to adopt. iOS 6 finally allows you to pull down to refresh your mail accounts and various other data sources. Ignore the reload button and start swiping down.