Sunday, 7 July 2013

Apple seeking 'next big direction': Steve Wozniak


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Apple is in a waiting period with the US gadget giant seeking the "next big direction" almost two years after the death of its groundbreaking boss Steve Jobs, the company's co-founder Steve Wozniak said Thursday.Wozniak, speaking at a forum in Mexico City, insisted that Apple remains a "great company" with its "own culture" and a collection of trademarks despite its leader's death.
Wozniak, a childhood friend of Jobs who co-founded the company in the mid-1970s, countered critics who say Apple has failed to offer innovative products since the latter lost his battle with cancer in October 2011.
"I think Apple is in one of these waiting periods waiting for the next big direction," he said.
"You can't expect a whole new incredible revolution of a category of existing consumer electronics , you can't expect that every year," he added. "If you could have one every year it would be quite a surprise."
Jobs unveiled the second-generation iPad tablet in March 2011, his last presentation. Last year, the California company launched the iPad mini and the iPhone 5.
Apple has filed a trademark application in Japan for a product named "iWatch" and reports say similar paperwork was filed in other countries, including Mexico and Taiwan, fueling speculation that it is preparing to introduce a device that can be worn around the wrist.

Wozniak appeared to hint as much, telling the Mexico City audience that devices are getting smaller.
"I think, oh my gosh, I just wish I had the old iPhone right here on my wrist and I wish I could ask it questions like a new Siri (voice assistant technology) or tell it to play certain music," the 62-year-old said.

Panasonic to close solar cell factory in Hungary: Report


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Japan's Panasonic Corp plans to shut down its sole European solar cell plant next March and dismiss about 500 workers at the factory, the Nikkei reported.The Hungarian factory will end production in September, leaving the company with one solar cell plant each in Japan's Osaka and Shiga prefectures and another in Malaysia, the business newspaper said.
Equipment from the Hungarian facility will be transported to the other plants, the daily said.
The European solar energy market is dominated by Chinese suppliers such as Yingli Green Energy. The market has been shrinking due to duties imposed by the European Union on imports of Chinese solar panels.
A growing Japanese market along with a weak yen prompted Panasonic to shift production to Japan from Europe, the Nikkei said.
The company aims to sell some 675,000 kw of solar cells worldwide in the year ending March, up 25 percent from a year earlier, the Japanese daily said.

Dell eyes move into wearable computing space: Report


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Dell is said to be eyeing a move into the wearable computing space to counter a decline in revenue from its traditional PC business.
A report in The Guardian quotes Sam Burd, Dell's Global Vice-President of Personal Computing as saying that the company is exploring ideas beyond the PC world.
"Looking ahead five years, we expect devices and form factors to continue to change," Burd said. "There will still be a need for 'static' computing on desktops, but there will be a real need for mobile devices. There's a lot of discussion about how that fits into wearable devices like we've seen with Google Glass and watches. We're looking at a world of lots of connected devices."
Burd, however, said he doesn't expect something as revolutionary as iPad to come up anytime soon, and admits that Apple's tablet took everyone by surprise.
"I don't see any magic new form factor like the iPad - I don't think anybody saw how that was going to change devices. But the number of [computing] devices per person is exploding."
With PC sales declining sharply, companies like Dell are looking at other streams of revenue and alternate computing devices are a logical thing
With PC sales declining sharply, companies like Dell are looking at other streams of revenue. Wearable computing has garnered a lot of interest from industry insiders as well as casual observers ever since Google demoed Glass at last year's Google I/O conference. Recently, Sony announced its SmartWatch 2, a second screen for Android devices. Apple is said to be in the next in line, as evident from its move to trademark 'iWatch' in Japan and other countries.
Others like Google, Samsung, Microsoft, and LG are all said to be working on bringing their own smart watch-like devices to the market.

Solar-powered airplane to end US journey


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A revolutionary solar-powered plane is about to end a slow, symbolic journey across America by quietly buzzing the Statue of Liberty and landing in a city whose buildings often obscure the sun.The Solar Impulse leaves from Washington on a journey planned for Saturday, depending on the weather. It will take hours for the journey - top speed is 45 mph (73 kph) - and there are none of the most basic comforts of flying.
The aircraft's creators view themselves as green pioneers - promoting lighter materials, solar-powered batteries and conservation as sexy and adventurous. Theirs is the high-flying equivalent of the Tesla electric sports car. They want people to feel a thrill while saving the planet.
Bertrand Piccard is one of the two pilots who take turns flying Solar Impulse. His grandfather was the first man to see the curve of the Earth as a pioneering high-altitude balloon flier more than 80 years ago. His father more than half a century ago first took a submarine to the deepest and most inaccessible ocean trench on Earth.
Now, Piccard says there's no truly new place on Earth for explorers to pioneer. At 55, he's tried.
"After a conquest of the planet, the 21st Century should be about improving the quality of life," Piccard said.
Europe saw Solar Impulse first with a test flight from Switzerland and Spain to Morocco last year. This year's U.S. flight is another trial run that's preparation for a 2015 around-the-world trip with an upgraded version of the plane.
"We're flying the most extraordinary airplane in the world," Piccard said.
Parts of its wings are three times lighter than paper. Its one-person cockpit is beyond tiny.
Most of the 11,000 solar cells are on the super-long wings that seem to stretch as far as a jumbo jet's. It weighs about the size of a small car, and soars at 30,000 feet (10,000 meters) with what is essentially the power of a small motorized scooter.
"We can use much less energy than we use today without the sacrifice," said Solar Impulse CEO Andre Borschberg, the plane's other pilot. "And that's really important."
Borschberg and Piccard both say this is not about clean-energy planes for the future. What they're doing is more likely to improve energy efficiency on the ground, in cars and homes, agrees U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, who met with the pair to talk up future energy a couple days after they landed in Washington.
Still, questions of practicality come up.
"It's clearly a stunt," said John Reilly, co-director of MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. "And it's clearly an attention-grabbing stunt. The idea that you could fly an airplane powered by the sun is kind of hard to believe. So doing it is an impressive stunt, I suppose."
But these kinds of gimmicks do pay off at times, Reilly said.
University of Colorado science policy professor Roger Pielke Jr. compared it to giant prizes that encourage private companies to go into space or build robot-driven cars, which are proving successful.
This, Pielke said, is "an essential part of technological innovation. It gives people an opportunity to attempt what previously was thought of as impossible."

NTT DoCoMo to stay with Tata Teleservices: Report


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Japan's largest telecom operator NTT DoCoMo in a media interview said it has no plans to sell any part of its stake in the joint venture with Tata Teleservices and stated it will stay invested in the firm."We were thrown for a loop when we heard about (the auctioning of the revoked licenses and the rule changes), but we plan to hold on to our stake. We're aware that growth may take time," DoCoMo President Kaoru Kato was quoted in a Wall Street Journal report.
NTT DoCoMo holds 26 percent stake in Tata Teleservices and rest of the stake is with Tata Group.
The Supreme Court has cancelled three CDMA licences of Tata Teleservices in its order of February 2, 2012 which quashed 122 2G permits. Later, a section of industry raised question on 19 GSM licences of Tata Teleservices and called for their cancellation.
According to sources, Department of Telecom recently received legal opinion on the matter which said that GSM permits of Tata Teleservices were not included in the licences that Supreme Court found faulty and cancelled.
Kato also denied to be in talks with Russian conglomerate Sistema, which holds majority stake in Indian telecom firm Sistema Shyam Teleservices.

Japan's DoCoMo holds out to iPhone mania, but at what cost?


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NTT DoCoMo In, Japan's largest mobile provider and a pioneer of the mobile Internet, is one of just a few holdouts among the world's big mobile carriers not offering Apple Inc's iPhone to its 60 million customers.It is paying heavily for that obstinacy - with a net 3.2 million users jumping ship to its two domestic rivals over the last 4-1/2 years - but is determined to protect the walled garden of services it has built around its own smartphones.
"We're trying to develop a lifestyle system," NTT DoCoMo CEO Kaoru Kato told Reuters in an interview this week.
While customers and even some executives increasingly clamour for it to relent and sign an iPhone deal, DoCoMo is showing no signs of softening towards Apple.
"The biggest problem is the impact on the services that we offer," Kato said.
DoCoMo's broad offering of exclusive features, however, is no longer attracting what has become the iPhone generation. It is expected eventually to either reach a deal with Apple or risk losing its crown at the top of its industry.
"Unit sales are doing quite well this year but they're still losing customers to other networks," said Hiroshi Yamashina, senior telecoms analyst at BNP Paribas. "If that's the case then they really have no choice but to go for the iPhone."
Japanese consumers favoured DoCoMo's mode of integrated system back when it launched the world's first large-scale mobile web access service and introduced streamed TV to cellphone users. But its wide array of features - while retaining its share of fans - is not considered sufficient to counter the appeal of the iPhone.
"Its photo service, for example, is very difficult to use and I'm not sure anyone still bothers in the age of Instagram and Flickr," said Yamashina.
Walled garden
DoCoMo's resistance contrasts with holdouts in other markets that are giving in this year to the demand for iPhones.
T-Mobile US Inc's CEO said its April release of the iPhone filled a "huge void" in its line-up.
China Mobile Ltd, the world's largest mobile carrier by number of subscribers, is moving to upgrade its service with 4G technology to allow the 10 million of its customers who already own the iPhone to connect to its network, rather than being restricted to WiFi.
DoCoMo's stubbornness is particularly noteworthy in Japan, where the iPhone not only has established itself as the kingpin in the smartphone market, with a 42 percent share in the last three months of 2012, but is fending off Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's Galaxy series, which has found popularity in other major global markets. Samsung has 46 percent of Western Europe's smartphone market, but has reached only one-fifth of iPhone's sales in Japan.
DoCoMo's stance may also reflect strict contractual obligations imposed by Apple. While negotiations between the two have been a strictly guarded secret, Kato's predecessor made comments at a shareholder meeting last year suggesting the U.S. company was demanding iPhones make up half of its handset sales.
DoCoMo's requirement that its company logo be imprinted on all its devices also conflicts with style-conscious Apple's insistence that its products be left as manufactured.
For now, DoCoMo hopes to retain customers with smartphones running Google Inc's more flexible Android operating system. Its marketing efforts this summer are focused on Sony Corp's Xperia A and Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S4.
DoCoMo has moved 830,000 Xperia A handsets since their mid-May launch, already close to its target of 1 million by autumn, but the S4 is lagging with less than half of Xperia's total.
But DoCoMo is still haemorrhaging customers to its rivals, with monthly data on Friday showing a net loss of 146,900 existing users to other carriers in June, the 53rd consecutive month of such losses.
But with DoCoMo's total subscriber numbers up 630,000 in the first six months, as it gets a lift from overall smartphone demand even without the iPhone, and with its profits strong, it may opt for a waiting game with Apple.
There are no signs the iPhone's popularity might soon wane in Japan, while the breadth and reliability of DoCoMo's network could be a selling point.
"At some point, SoftBank and KDDI will reach a saturation point for iPhone sales," said an executive at a rival mobile carrier. "Apple may have no choice but to look to DoCoMo to sell more iPhones. Perhaps DoCoMo is just waiting."

Nokia downgraded by S&P after Nokia Siemens Networks purchase


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Ratings agency Standard and Poor's on Friday downgraded Nokia Corp.'s credit rating, citing the deal this week to buy out Siemens from its Nokia Siemens Networks joint venture for 1.7 billion euros ($2.21 billion).The agency lowered the Finland-based company's long-term corporate credit rating to B+ from BB-, warning that its strong balance sheet will weaken as a result of the acquisition.
S&P also affirmed Nokia's B short-term corporate credit rating, with a stable outlook, and cut the issue rating on Nokia's senior unsecured debt to B+ from BB-.
"The ratings reflect our revised assessment of Nokia's financial risk profile assessment to 'aggressive' from 'significant,'" the agency said. "We continue to assess its business risk profile as 'weak.'"
Nokia said it believes the deal to buy out Siemens, to be completed during the current quarter, added value to the company.
"With a strong positive gross and net cash position, Nokia was able to take advantage of an opportunity to fully own Nokia Siemens Networks and, we believe, create meaningful value for Nokia shareholders," CFO Timo Ihamuotila said. "We will continue to prudently manage our cash resources post-transaction."
On Monday, Nokia announced its intention to purchase Siemens' half of the 2007 joint venture, in a move to help bolster its struggling smartphone division.

The networks operation had been loss making for several years amid speculation and rumors that it was an acquisition target but recently had shown signs of improvement after restructuring and substantial job cuts.
Nokia stock was down 2 percent at 3.10 euros in early afternoon trading in Helsinki.

Mount Everest base camp gets 4G LTE connectivity


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The world's highest mountain, Mount Everest, now boasts of 4G network coverage allowing mountaineers to access high speed data services.

According to a press statement by Huawei, mobile operator China Mobile and equipment manufacturer Huawei have set-up the first ever 4G LTE TDD network at the Mount Everest base camp, which is at an altitude of 5,200 metres. The two companies had earlier deployed a GSM network at the same place in 2008 coinciding with the Olympic Games torch relay. Prior to that, Nepali telecom provider NCell had also setup a 3G network at the Mount Everest base camp. The network is home to world's highest mobile network tower.

Talking about the service, President of Huawei Wireless Networks, David Wang, said, "Bringing 4G to Mount Everest marks an important milestone in global LTE TDD development. We are very excited to make this possible, and look forward to working with more operators worldwide to bring high-speed mobile broadband services anytime and anywhere."

The network will offer increased connectivity including high speed data coverage to mountaineers in a bid to ensure their safety. The service was demonstrated last month by streaming a live video from the camp.

It's worth pointing out that the 4G network at the Mount Everest base camp is based on LTE TDD technology, which is different from LTE FDD technology, used for offering 4G services in the US, European countries, Japan and Latin America, among others. LTE TDD is more prevalent in China, India and some African and European markets. So mobile handsets, data cards, wireless modems and tablets that feature chips compatible with LTE FDD would not work with the newly deployed network. 

Cleartrip Android app now offers train bookings


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Online travel portal Cleartrip has updated its Android app to include train bookings. The app allows users to search, check availability and book trains directly from their Android devices, in addition to enabling them to check the PNR status of their wait-listed tickets.

The railway reservation feature on the app integrates Cleartrip features such as stored cards, that allow users to save their credit card details for quick payments at the time of checkout, and saved traveller profiles, that lets you save personal details of friends and families so you don't waste time filling the information while booking a ticket.

Cleartrip has also announced that it won't be levying an additional service fee for booking train tickets through the app, and the user would only pay the IRCTC reservation charges in addition to the train fare.

The app offers a clutter free interface inline with Android's Holo design language. It allows users to search for trains and filter them across parameters like Price, Time and Duration.

It's also worth pointing out that on first use, you'll need to sync your IRCTC account by following the instruction on Cleartrip's website. This is a one time activity only. Users can search for trains and for the PNR status without syncing their accounts, though.

IRCTC had also launched its own mobile website, in January 2012, and offers train bookings via third party mobile payments services apps such as ngPay and Pyro. It has also recently launched train ticket bookings through SMS and USSD.  

Lava Etab Xtron+ review

Lava launched its first Android 4.1 Jelly Bean-powered tablet, the Etab Xtron, earlier this year. The company has now added a rear camera, an HDMI port and updated the OS to Android 4.2, and launched the Etab Xtron+, the successor to the first Etab Xtron tablet. We try to find out if the budget tablet delivers value for your hard earned money.

Build
The Lava Etab Xtron+ comes with the same design and build as that of the Etab Xtron, exuding a feeling of durability. The 7-inch tablet looks compact, yet sturdy. The front of the tablet features a 7-inch screen, which is surrounded by a large bezel. You'll also spot a VGA resolution front-shooter right in the middle.

The back of the tablet is made of polycarbonate but has been given a brushed aluminium finish. The frame extends to the front, and adds to the design of the tablet. A microSD card slot and a 3.5mm headphone jack sits at the top edge at the right side while the speaker grill is located towards the left. There are no ports on the bottom edge.

The power button, a volume rocker, and a refresh/ 'return to home screen' button and a microphone are located at the right hand side of the tablet.

The Micro-USB, micro-HDMI and a 2.5mm proprietary charging port are located at left hand side.

Turning the tablet over, there's some Lava branding at the bottom right corner and ETab Xtron+ branding in the middle.  The 2-megapixel camera lens is placed towards the upper part.

Display
The Etab Xtron+'s 7-inch IPS TFT display comes with a resolution of 1024x600 pixels, which is not that great but given the price of the tablet, we can live with it. Images and videos look good but text, specially with smaller font size, is not very legible.

The screen brightness is below average, and the screen is extremely reflective, resulting in poor visibility under sunlight. It's very difficult to read a book or click a picture in sunlight. Viewing angles aren't great either.

The touch sensitivity is good, and we didn't encounter any issues while using the device. Overall, we were not satisfied with the quality of the tablet's display and it feels like a downgrade from the Lava Etab Xtron.

Software/ Interface
The Lava Etab Xtron+ runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, the latest iteration of the operating system at the time of writing this review. It's a near stock build of the OS bundled with a few third-party apps including music streaming app Saavn, a file browser, an app for Video-on-demand service, BigFlix, education app EduKart, a video player and a local deals and search app, UAhoy. We like the fact that there's no bloatware.

lava-etabpls-ui2.jpg Similar to the Nexus 7, the tablet's onscreen controls are located at the centre. However, instead of one there are two slide-down trays at the top, one at the left, with the date, time and notifications, and another one at the right with toggles for Brightness, Settings, Wi-Fi, Screen rotation, Battery, Airplane mode, and Wireless Display (an Android 4.2 feature).

The tablet offers five customisable home screens that can be filled with app shortcuts and widgets.

During our use, we didn't notice much lag while navigating through menus, and Google's much touted 'Project Butter' makes the overall experience more responsive than tablets running Ice Cream Sandwich.

lava-etabpls-ui1.jpgThe other major feature that Jelly Bean brings is 'Google Now', a voice-based information assistant and an extension of Google search. You can ask questions and the tool returns answers or search results. It uses 'cards' which are essentially small boxes that offer different sets of information ranging from weather forecast, directions, traffic information, scores, appointments, and currency conversion, among others. Google Now collects information based on the user's behaviour, location and even email to offer information, automatically.

The tablet also includes another Android 4.2 feature, lock screen widgets. You can choose from the Clock, Camera, Gmail, Google Now and Messaging widgets in addition to widgets offered by third-party apps installed on your tablet. These widgets offer glance-able information from the apps and allow users to perform certain app actions even when the tablet is locked.

Another Android 4.2 feature for tablets is multi-user accounts i.e. different profiles and access for different users. However, this tablet doesn't include this functionality, which is a pity.

lava-etabpls-ui3.jpgIt also offers another Android 4.2 feature, Daydream, that displays photo albums or the clock while the phone's charging. The option to wirelessly mirror the phone's display with an HDMI enabled device through a wireless display adapter is also present.

Camera
The Etab Xtron+ tablet comes with a 2-megapixel rear camera and a VGA front camera. Personally, we're no fans on using tablets for clicking needs, but some people may use a rear camera for taking casual shots or just for scanning some documents.

The camera app is pretty basic, offering Still, Video and Panorama shooting modes. Each mode just offers pre-set white balance settings for Incandescent, Daylight, Fluorescent, and Cloudy conditions.

lavatabcamsample1.jpg The fixed focus camera doesn't take great pictures but it can save the day when you need to share a picture quickly and don't have any other camera device. Pictures shot indoors turned out to be grainy, though. Videos shot with the camera were also average but it saves them in .MP4 format.

The pictures that we clicked with the front camera, indoors, were strictly functional, but it does a decent job when used for making video calls over Skype or other video chat apps.

Performance/ Battery Life
The tablet is powered by a 1.5GHz Cortex A9 dual-core processor, a Mali-400 GPU and 1GB of RAM. We did not encounter any crashes while working on this tablet and multitasking was comfortable.

We did notice some minor lag specially while switching from portrait to landscape mode but other than that we were able to play tablet optimised games and HD video clips, without a hitch as the bundled video player supports all major video file formats.

The tablet comes with the native Android browser and renders all webpages well.  Adobe Flash is pre-installed allowing the browser to display Flash videos, banners and other elements.

The speakers deliver average sound that distorts a bit at high volume levels. The output through the speaker grill was not very loud.

There's no voice calling but the major omission is Bluetooth connectivity. We're not sure why Lava had to exclude it since most major Android devices offer this functionality, and consumers might use it for wireless file transfers or for connecting a wireless input device. However, we see a lot of budget tablets these days ship without Bluetooth and we're not convinced it's a good trend.

The tablet comes with a 3,700 mAh battery and we were not very happy with the backup that it offered, specially when playing multimedia files. We were able to get around 4 hours of video playback, with the display at full brightness levels. The standby time with push notifications and emails on was decent, though. With intermediate usage during the day, we were able to get a day of backup.

Verdict
The Lava Etab Xtron+ is an above average tablet for its price. At a price of Rs. 6,990, it offers a good package with decent hardware, compact form factor and the latest version of Android Jelly Bean. It's interesting to look at if you're looking for a device for browsing the Web or playing casual games and are on a budget.

However, the highly reflective screen and underwhelming battery backup are some of the problem areas. You'll not be able to use the tablet under sunlight for reading, viewing content or for even taking pictures. Despite running Android 4.2, the lack of multi-user accounts is a disappointment as well.

Though the Etab Xtron+ adds a rear camera, it downgrades the front facing camera compared to its predecessor. The rear camera is also nothing to talk home about. So if you're looking at a tablet with a good camera performance, this one won't fulfil your appetite.

Looking at competing devices, the Acer Iconia B1-A71 is also an interesting 7-inche tablet, which also offers Bluetooth connectivity, but is inferior in terms of build quality and costs more. If you're looking for a tablet that also offers voice calling, the Micromax Funbook P360 is another good option available at a price of Rs. 7,049. The Wickedleak Wammy Desire and Desire Tab 2 are other 7-inch tablets running Jelly Bean worth considering.

Price: Rs. 6,990

Pros
  • Runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
  • Decent performance
  • Good build quality

Cons
  • Highly reflective screen with poor viewing angles
  • Battery life could have been better
  • No Bluetooth
  • Underwhelming camera

Ratings (Out of 5)
  • Design: 3.5
  • Display: 2.5
  • Performance: 3
  • Software: 4
  • Battery Life: 2.5
  • Camera: 2.5
  • Ecosystem: 3.5
  • Value for Money: 3
  • Overall: 3

iBall Slide 3G-9728 tablet with voice calling launched for Rs. 15,000


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iBall has launched Slide 3G-9728 tablet with voice calling support.
iBall Slide 3G-9728 features a 9.7-inch multi-touch display with 1024x768 resolution. It is powered by a Cortex A9 dual-core processor alongside 1GB RAM and 16GB internal storage, which is expandable by another 32GB.
The tablet comes with a 5-megapixel rear camera with auto-focus and LED flash as well as a VGA front camera. Connectivity options include GPS, Wi-Fi and 2G as well as 3G data, in addition to voice calling. iBall Slide 3G-9728 runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and comes with FM but no Bluetooth.
Commenting on the launch of iBall Slide 3G-9728, Sandeep Parasrampuria, Director, iBall, said, "We are delighted to present this 9.7-inch 3G tablet at the most appealing price to the users."
In June, iBall had launched the 7-inch Slide 7334i 3G tablet. It packs in a dual-core Cortex A9 1GHz processor along with 1GB RAM. Like the 3G-9728, the 7334i comes with 16GB of internal storage, which can be expanded by up to 32GB through microSD card. It is a dual-SIM tablet that runs Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) and packs in a 3,000mAh battery. For camera, there is a 2-megapixel rear camera with flash and a VGA front camera. The tablet also supports wireless FM and GPS.
iBall Slide 3G-9728 is now available for Rs. 15,000.
iBall Slide 3G-9728 key specifications
  • 9.7-inch 1024x768 resolutions multi-touch display
  • Cortex A9 dual-core processor
  • 1GB RAM
  • 16GB of internal storage, expandable up to 32GB via microSD
  • 5-megapixel rear camera
  • VGA front camera
  • Wi-Fi, 3G, GPS, FM, Voice calling
  • Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

Gamers protest EA's move to hike PC game prices in India


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Electronic Arts (EA) has increased prices of its PC and console games in India, with PC games witnessing a hike of as much as 133 percent over last year's prices.

Popular PC racing game, Need for Speed:Most Wanted - 2012 was priced at Rs.1,499, last year. The game's latest edition, Need for Speed: Rivals, has been priced at Rs. 3,499. Similarly, FIFA 14 is priced at Rs. 2,499 for the PC edition, while FIFA 13 was priced at Rs. 1,799. Both titles were available for Rs. 999 on the PC the year before.

As noted by gaming-focused website Indian Video Gamer, it seems the rationale behind this price hike is not the the weak Indian rupee, but EA's intent to have prices of PC games on its Origin Web store and for Box packs, in India, close to international prices. It notes that EA is now pricing PC games at $60, even in the Indian market.

If the Rupee rises again, the prices may fall marginally, but will perhaps be still too high for PC gamers used to popular titles from the likes of Ubisoft and Warner games being priced around Rs. 999. With these increased prices for PC games, they're now at par with console games which have always been priced higher, upwards of Rs. 2,499.

The article also tries to introspect why EA has also increased prices of Boxed games in India. It assesses that illegal re-exporting is very prevalent in the Indian market which essentially means that users, distributors, and resellers sell codes for Origin store that are supplied with box packs internationally at higher prices, which has resulted in the price hike.

On its part, EA feels that PC game sales are not increasing even at the Rs. 999 or Rs. 1,499 price points, so it's not worth sticking to lower prices. The report quotes Jayont R Sharma of Milestone Interactive, the company that distributes EA's PC and PlayStation games in India as saying that volumes are increasing even at higher prices as evident from pre-orders and that volumes did not change much when the company dropped prices.

Following this situation, it's feared that PC gamers will resort to piracy as these games have become extremely unaffordable.

To reach out to EA, the site has even started an #EAPCIndia movement on Twitter through which gamers can tag @EAIndia in their tweets and speak their minds out on the rising PC game prices in response to EA's move.

Internet sites join July 4 protest against US surveillance


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The online community rallied on Thursday in support of live protests against the U.S. government's surveillance of Internet activity, a practice recently exposed by a former contractor for the National Security Agency.Websites such as Reddit and Mozilla supported a campaign in cities across the United States to "Restore the Fourth" - a reference to the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment, which protects citizens against unlawful search and seizure.
The home page of the website Boing Boing, for example, displayed the following message to the NSA: "Happy 4th of July! Immediately stop your unconstitutional spying on the world's Internet users The People."
The protest comes as the United States celebrates its Independence Day holiday.
By early afternoon, crowds of more than 400 had gathered in New York City and Washington, D.C., the organizers said. They estimate the total turnout will be more than 10,000 nationwide.
The NSA, on its own website, said: "NSA does not object to any lawful, peaceful protest. NSA and its employees work diligently and lawfully every day, around the clock, to protect the nation and its people."
Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has been charged with espionage after disclosing the agency's surveillance programs. He has spent more than a week in a Moscow airport seeking a country that would grant him asylum.
The online protest was launched by the Internet Defense League, a network of more than 30,000 websites and Internet users whose goal is to protest attempts to curtail the freedom of the Web.
Evan Greer, a spokesman for the IDL, said nearly 13,500 Twitter users had taken part in a so-called thunderclap, in which they all tweeted the same or similar message at the same time to their more than 9 million followers.

Google Maps offers a virtual tour of Harry Potter's Diagon Alley


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Google Maps Street View now offers a chance to explore the famous fictional marketplace, Diagon Alley, that appeared in Harry Potter movies.

Street View now offers a 360-degree view tour of Warner Brothers studio in UK that features the elaborate Diagon Alley set, that took 3 months to build. Around six months were spent creating 20,000 different items and packages that are scattered across the set. The tour is extremely detailed and even offers a view of prominent shops Ollivanders Wand shop, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes (or Weasley and Weasley) Joke shop, and Mr. Mulpepper's Apothecary that appear in the movie series.

The virtual tour through Street View allows all Harry potter fans to explore the fabled marketplace without the need to visit the Warner Brothers studios physically and relive the tale of their favourite fictional characters.

While Google Street View offers 360-degree tours of leading landmarks across the world, UNESCO world heritage sites, leading universities and even commercial establishments like Burj Khalifa, this would be the first time it's offering a tour of a movie studio set.

However, it had previously offered a Street View tour of the island of Hashima off the coast of Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan which was used as the villain's secret island hideout in the recent James Bond movie Skyfall. It offers street imagery of the island including that of places beyond the cordoned-off areas for tourists around the island.

It also uses its Business Photos technology to offer users views of abandoned buildings, complete with ancient black-and-white TVs and discarded soda bottles.

YouTube ban to stay in Pakistan


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A Pakistani court Thursday refused to issue an interim order to restore the services of banned video-sharing website, YouTube, in the country.Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah of Lahore High Court sought suggestions from experts of Ministry of Information Technology about "removing blasphemous and undesirable material" from YouTube and other websites for July 25.
Shah was hearing a petition filed by NGO - Bytes for All - for lifting the ban.
The Pakistan Peoples Party government in September last year, had banned YouTube across the country following refusal of its parent company Google to remove a blasphemous film from the site, which had triggered violent protests in the conservative Islamic nation.
The petitioner's counsel urged the court to pass an interim order to the PML-N government for restoring the access to YouTube.
The deputy attorney general opposed the plea contending that it was a "sensitive matter" and allowing access to YouTube might trigger protests in the country.
Advocate Dasie Hamdani, counsel for the petitioner, maintained, "All internet curbs are counterproductive and deprive Pakistanis of the right to access information as well as the right to counter any propaganda against the country or against their beliefs. Taking away the access to YouTube is tantamount to taking away a scholar's pen."
The ban amounted to infringement of fundamental rights to reading and knowledge as a large number of people of Pakistan had been affecting by the ban, he argued.

France operates Prism like spy network: Report


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A leading French newspaper says France's intelligence services have put in place a giant electronic surveillance gathering network.Citing no sources, the Le Monde daily says France's Direction Generale de la Securite Exterieure, the country's foreign intelligence agency, systematically collects information about all electronic data sent by computers and telephones in France, as well as communications between France and abroad.
According to Le Monde, data on "all emails, SMSs, telephone calls, Facebook and Twitter posts" are collected and stored in a massive three-floor underground bunker at the DGSE's headquarters in Paris. The paper specified that it is the communications' metadata - such as when was call was made and where an author was when she sent an email - that is being archived, not their content.
Officials at the DGSE did not answer phone calls or emails seeking comment Thursday.
The vast archive, which Le Monde says amounts to tens of millions of gigabytes, is accessible to France's other spy agencies, including military intelligence, domestic intelligence, Paris police and a special financial crimes task force.
Le Monde compared the French digital dragnet to Prism, the U.S. National Security Agency program which has most caught the imagination of Internet users. But Prism appears aimed at allowing U.S. spies to peel data off the servers of Silicon Valley firms - whereas the program described in Le Monde appears to be fed through the mass interception of electronic data bouncing across the world.
Also, Prism can apparently be used to collect content, not just metadata.
Le Monde said the French surveillance program relies on spy satellites, listening stations in French overseas territories or former colonies such as Mayotte or Djibouti, and information harvested from undersea cables - all three of which are methods long familiar to the NSA.
A French lawmaker played down the report, saying France's surveillance gathering system is not comparable with the NSA's.
Patricia Adam, a lawmaker who until last year headed parliament's intelligence committee, said French spies "are line fishing, not trawling" the vast oceans of data thrown up by mobile phones, emails and Internet communication.

Samsung Galaxy S4 vs HTC One: Battle of the Nexus editions


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Two new Android phones will look and sound familiar to those who have been paying attention to phones. That's because these two devices are replicas of Samsung's Galaxy S4 and HTC's One, except they lack most of the bells and whistles added to the original models.And that's a good thing.
The modifications Samsung and HTC apply to Google's Android software are meant to be improvements. But I've complained before about how the changes actually make phones more complex to use. The S4 even has an easy mode for first-time smartphone users, an admission that the normal mode is too confounding.
Google worked with both Samsung Electronics Co. and HTC Corp. to come out with "Google Play" editions of the hit phones. Instead of customized software from Samsung and HTC, the Google phones run a pure version of Android, just as it was developed by Google.
Google lets any phone maker use its Android operating system for free. To set themselves apart from competitors, phone makers often add their own touches to devices. They rearrange the menu or load additional apps. Wireless carriers also like to add their own apps. Before you know it, phones are bloated with features and apps you don't want and can't get rid of.
Consider my experience with the original S4 over the weekend. As I tried to adjust the camera's flash setting, I inadvertently made some postage stamp icon pop up. That activated the camera's dual-shot mode, which snaps a shot of you with the front camera to superimpose over whatever you're shooting with the camera on the back of the phone. I didn't want that, but I couldn't figure out how to get rid of it. My friend couldn't either. So we bagged the shot. Taking photos with a phone is supposed to be fun, not a chore.
With Google's version of the S4, I get a no-frills camera that is easy to figure out. It lacks gimmicks such as dual shots and the ability to combine several images of motion into a single shot. It offers about a half-dozen shooting modes, such as night, action and panorama, rather than the dozen or so on the original S4. But a half-dozen is about a half-dozen more than I need and use.
Google's S4 also lacks the original model's ability to pause video automatically when you look away from the screen or to scroll down an article when you tilt your head. Those features may sound cool, but they often don't work properly.
The Google version of the S4 also has alarm sounds that I can actually wake up to. Samsung had substituted those sounds with soft, soothing melodies that I end up incorporating into dreams. I've overslept a few times as a result.
As for Google's version of the HTC One, you don't get a busy home screen filled with news articles and Facebook status updates your phone thinks you want to read. Instead, you get a clean page with few apps. It's up to you to add the ones you want to see and use.
Both Google phones feel spare and minimal, which is great because it makes me feel in control. If I want to constantly know the weather, it's easy to add a weather widget to the home screen of either phone. But it's not forced.
The same goes for apps. I get basic functions such as text messaging and the clock and a range of Google services such as Gmail and YouTube. If I want other apps, I can easily tap the Google Play icon to get them. With the original S4, Samsung tries to steer you into its own app store, as well as its own music and video players. You end up with too many ways to do the same things.
You might think it takes a lot of work to add the apps you want to Google's phones, but it actually takes more work to hide or turn off everything you don't need - that is, if you can at all- with Samsung's and HTC's versions.
Now for the bad news: The Google edition of the S4 sells for $649, while Google's HTC One goes for $599. You can typically get the original models for $100 to $200 through your wireless carrier with a two-year agreement. And unless you're on T-Mobile, your monthly bill won't go down just because you pay full price for the phone elsewhere.
In addition, both Google phones are compatible only with T-Mobile, AT&T and other carriers that use GSM cellular technology, not the CDMA networks used by Sprint and Verizon Wireless. The Google edition would have been great for Verizon customers who still have unlimited data plans. Verizon no longer lets you stay on that plan if you buy a subsidized phone, so you'd have to pay the full price anyway.
The Google phones are also ideal for people who want the latest Android system that Google has to offer. You'll be able to update your phone as Google releases new versions of Android. Normally, phone makers and wireless carriers delay updates by weeks or months, so you can only read about those new Android features.
There are a few useful Samsung and HTC add-ons that Google does bring to its versions of the phones.
Google's S4 is compatible with Samsung's S-View flip cover. Using a magnetic sensor, the phone detects when the cover is closed and switches to a special mode that gives you the current time and details about who's calling through a small window in the cover. You can answer or reject a call without flipping over the cover.
Google's HTC One, meanwhile, shares the original model's front-facing speakers, giving you great sound when you're watching a movie or listening to music. Both models also have cameras with larger sensor pixels for better low-light shots. Our tests show that the HTC One produces low-light images with less distortion than other Android phones, though images aren't particularly crisp because the resolution is lower.
There are a few things I wish Google would have brought to its phones and to Android in general.
In the original S4, the on-screen keyboard has a row of numerals to type in. With the Google S4, you have to hit a button to get another screen with numerals, then toggle back for the letters. The original S4 also has the ability to run two apps side by side in a split window. That's gone in Google's S4.
Meanwhile, the original HTC One has the ability to make calls, send texts and take photos by sliding icons from the lock screen. With the Google version, you have to unlock the screen before getting icons to those functions.
On both phones, Google also adds one feature I could do without: a 360-degree panorama known as Photo Sphere. Neat as it is, it detracts from what is otherwise a just-the-basics camera. It would have been better as a separate app for those who want it.
But that's no reason to shun the Google phones. The minimized feel of Google's versions underscores how busy software can detract from good hardware. Take away that clutter, and you have excellent phones.
It's a bummer that you can't get the simplified phones through regular channels. You can get them only through Google's online Play store - for hundreds of dollars more.
About the Google phones
The new phones are existing Samsung and HTC phones loaded with Google's version of the Android operating system. That's the version that Google makes, before phone makers and phone carriers load Android up with their own features and apps.
These phones are good options for those who don't like all the bells and whistles in the original models. They are cleaner and easier to use. But they are also more expensive, as you have to pay full price through Google's online Play store rather than a subsidized price that wireless carriers offer with two-year agreements.
These phones aren't compatible with Verizon's or Sprint's CDMA networks. If you're on AT&T, you'll be paying more for the phone without any reduction in monthly phone bills. If you're on T-Mobile, though, expect to save $20 a month, or $480 over two years. You're still paying about $70 more overall for Google's S4 and $20 more for Google's One, but it's not the hundreds of dollars you'd be paying on AT&T.
The one-time, upfront cost is $649 for Google's S4 with 16 gigabytes of storage and $599 for the One with 32 gigabytes. Both phones are available in the U.S. only through Google's online Play store, with shipments expected by July 9.

Micromax A88 Canvas Music review





Micromax is rapidly expanding its Canvas portfolio and the latest addition is A88 Canvas Music. Available for Rs. 8,499, this smartphone comes with free JBL Tempo headset. The company is also offering Micromax A88 Canvas Music owners unlimited music downloads for three months from M!Live mobile Web application. So is this music phone a smart buy? We find out in this review.
Hardware/ Design
Micromax A88 Canvas Music looks very similar to Micromax A116 Canvas HD. The smartphone has a plastic body with rubberised back for a steady grip. The thin chrome lining at the edges and the well-rounded corners make the smartphone look presentable.
Its curvy back makes the smartphone appear bulkier than it actually is. Canvas Music weighs 136 grams and feels comfortable to hold. It has a 4.5-inch display, which is neither too big nor too small, by today's standards.
Most of the front is taken by the screen and there are three capacitive Android buttons - Menu, Home, and Back for respective functions.
Display
The Micromax A88 Canvas Music sports a 4.5-inch display with a resolution of 480x854 pixels and a pixel density of 217ppi. This is not one of the best displays we have seen on a sub Rs. 10,000 smartphone. Pictures and videos look washed out and at times it becomes difficult to read text.
The screen is reflective and under sunlight legibility is just about average. The viewing angels are bad. The smartphone lacks the ambient light sensor, and as a result auto-brightness option is missing.
The screen is also a fingerprint magnet and prone to scratches.
Software/ Interface
The smartphone runs Android 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean). Micromax has skinned some elements of the user interface, such as the app icons and the notification tray.
Even the lock screen appears to be slightly different on the A88 Canvas Music. It offers quick access to dialler and SMS application. The notification tray includes toggles for settings such as Wi-Fi, Brightness, Rotation, Bluetooth, GPS, Data, Screen timeouts and profiles (for alerts and other notifications).
Canvas-music-player.jpgThe smartphone comes with nine customisable home screens that can be filled with app shortcuts and widgets.
Micromax A88 Canvas Music comes pre-loaded with Micromax's own suite of apps such as HookUp!, M! Zone+ and M! Live. HookUp! is a messaging service while M! Zone+ lets you schedule SMS alerts for various services such as Jokes, Astrology, love tips, Cricket, et al. M! Live is catalogue of over 3 lakhs songs in various languages including English, Hindi, Gujarati and Punjabi.
Trial versions of games such as The DarkMan and Fruit Devil come pre-loaded on this smartphone.
Camera
Micromax Canvas Music comes with a 5-megapixel rear camera along with dual LED flash. The images clicked through the camera in broad daylight are decent. However, the dual LED flash tends to make the images too bright at times.
Canvas_music_camerasample.jpgThe shots clicked in low-light are a bit noisy. The camera is also capable of capturing videos at 720p HD resolution, which are of average quality.
The Camera app leaves out the Panorama mode, but offers a burst mode. The phone offers three basic modes - Face Beauty, HDR and Photo. The Photo mode allows users to modify settings like exposure, colour effect, ISO and white balance, among others. There's a self-timer of up to 10 seconds as well.
The smartphone also comes with 0.3-megapixel front camera for capturing self-images and doing video chats. The images clicked through the same are grainy.
Performance/ Battery Life
Micromax Canvas Music A88 is powered by a 1GHz dual-core MediaTek MT6577 processor along with PowerVR SGX531 GPU. The smartphone comes with 512MB of RAM.
The experience of playing popular games such as Fruit Ninja, Subway Surfers and Temple Run 2 through this smartphone is average.
As the Micromax A88 Canvas Music comes with a scanty 512MB of RAM, the multi-tasking experience suffers and we experienced lags even while transiting between home screens.
Micromax Canvas Music A88 comes with 4GB of internal storage of which 1.93GB is user accessible. The internal storage can be expanded by up to 32GB through a microSD card.
The phone comes with the native Android browser as well as Chrome and we found that it renders all webpages well.
Micromax is promoting this smartphone as a music phone and is giving JBL Tempo headset as a free accessory along with the device. In addition to this the company is also offering free music downloads through its M! Live app for 90 days.
The native app can play MP3, MIDI, AAC, AMR and WAV audio formats. The music application in itself looks quite basic but it offers equalizer presets along with Bass and Reverb controls. The quality of audio through the JBL headphones is very good. However, the same cannot be said about the speakers of the smartphone.
The call quality of the smartphone is decent.
The phone comes with an 18000mAh battery, and based on our experience, it lasted almost full day with a single charge. We charged the phone in the morning, and with medium to heavy usage, including 1-1.5 hours of phone calls, one email account with push notifications, screen at maximum brightness, playing some music and video clips, Twitter notifications and WhatsApp chats, the phone lasted 8-9 hours. It's also worth pointing out that we were on Wi-Fi throughout the day, and did not use 3G.
Verdict
Micromax Canvas Music A88 is an interesting option for people looking for a good music smartphone on a budget. However, apart from the JBL Tempo headset, this smartphone does not have much to offer.
The competition is the Rs. 10,000 market has increased many folds in the last few months. Currently one can buy a decent quad-core offering by Karbonn, Xolo or Intex on a similar budget.
You are advised to look at Karbonn S1 Titanium, Xolo Q600 and Intex Aqua Wonder before making your decision.

Micromax A88 Canvas Music: In pictures
Price: Rs. 8,499
Pros
  • Looks decent
  • The audio output through JBL headset is great
Cons
  • Sluggish performance
  • Low resolution screen
Ratings (Out of 5)Design: 3
Display: 2.5
Performance: 2.5
Software: 3
Battery Life: 3
Value for Money: 3
Camera: 3
Overall: 2.5

Samsung misses Q2 forecast after 'disappointing' Galaxy S4 sales


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Samsung Electronics Co Ltd missed already modest expectations for its quarterly earnings guidance on Friday, deepening worries that its smartphone business may have peaked, as growth in sales of its blockbuster Galaxy phones begins to wane and new rivals emerge to eat away at its market share.The Galaxy S, powered by Google's free Android platform, propelled the South Korean firm into the top rank of smartphone makers in 2012, overtaking Apple Inc whose iPhone had set an industry standard five years earlier.
Now investors fear Samsung may also follow in the footsteps of Apple and other once-mighty players that are struggling with shrinking margins, in an industry where companies live and die by their ability to stay ahead of the innovation curve.
"Is Samsung's smartphone story now over? Not quite yet. It's growth is indeed slowing due largely to disappointing sales of the S4," said Jung Sang-jin, a fund manager at Dongbu Asset Management, which owns Samsung shares.
"Yet I think Samsung has some exciting stuff up its sleeves. The problem is no one is sure whether these products can really wow investors and consumers."
The disappointing earnings estimate by Samsung, which has had a track record of beating even the most bullish forecasts, sent its shares down more than 3 percent on Friday.
They have dropped 17 percent since early June, hit by a series of brokerage downgrades. The share price reflects concerns about Samsung's handset margins, with its mobile business generating 70 percent of the tech giant's total profit.
The fall in the share price equates to a drop in market value of 39 trillion won, or worth the combined market capitalisation of Sony Corp and LG Electronics Inc.
"One of the biggest risks for Samsung Electronics going forward is that 70 percent of total operating profit comes from mobile business. Diversification is key. Samsung needs to engage in active business transition until end-2014," said Jeff Kim, an analyst at Hyundai Securities.
All time high again in h2?
To be sure, Samsung's 9.5 trillion won operating profit forecast, up 47 percent from a year ago, is a record and it is expected to report higher earnings in the current and fourth quarters as sales of its latest Galaxy S4 phone pick up and new products hit the stores. Prices of memory chips, another industry which Samsung holds the lead, are also expected to remain strong.
"Samsung's got diversified businesses. When one business lags, it's got others outperforming and propping up the overall profit," Jung at Dongbu said.
"The component business is widely expected to pick up the slack in the second half when smartphones slow, but now worries are also mounting that the component business' recovery could be short-lived."
The guidance, released ahead of full quarterly results due on July 26, was worse than an average forecast of 10.16 trillion won in a poll of 43 analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
"I think Samsung spent more on marketing expenses than expected because of the launch of Galaxy S4 smartphone, which led the company's results to miss the market consensus," HMC Investment Securities analyst Nho Geun-Chang said.
Samsung spent more on marketing than R&D in 2012 for the first time in at least three years, and the S4 was launched in March with a Broadway-style show in New York.
The company also invested heavily in distribution channels including opening brand shops in 1,400 Best Buy stores in the United States.
But the glitz and glamour has failed to arrest a slide in handset sales growth, and shipments are seen rising only 4 percent to 8 percent in the second quarter from the previous quarter.
Handset margins are also being squeezed, as consumers in countries like China - the world's biggest smartphone market - opt for stripped-down cheaper devices.
Next big thing
Competition is getting intense with Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and ZTE Corp making ground in the popular mid- to low-end market.
Nokia Oyj, once the handset king, unveiled two back-to-basics 3G phones this week. They allow access to popular applications such as Facebook and Twitter, and sell for just $68.
"There's still a big uncertainty about how Samsung will respond to the low-end market," said Brian Park, an analyst at Tong Yang Securities, referring to its plans to launch a device based on the open-source Tizen operating system.
Wearable gadgets will also be crucial to the company's hopes of riding a new wave of extraordinary profit growth.
Apple applied for a trademark for "iWatch" in Japan, signaling the iPhone-maker may be moving ahead with plans for a watch-like device as the industry turn its attention to wearable computers.
Samsung has also filed a trademark for "Samsung Gear" in the Untied States for its range of wearable devices.
"The (expected launch of) wearable devices won't be able to replace Samsung's smartphone business, but it's more likely to complement its earnings at best," said Byun Han-joon, an analyst at KB Investment & Securities.

Sony Xperia smartphones getting my Xperia remote security service


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Sony is rolling out its remote security service "my Xperia," worldwide after piloting it in the Nordic countries in January.

Sony has informed that the service will be extended to users of Sony Xperia smartphones in the coming weeks. The service is essentially delivered in the form of a remote security app that will enable users to locate and protect their Xperia smartphone and their personal data stored on the device, if it gets misplaced. Users will be able to download the service through Sony's Update Center app.

Once activated through the phone's settings via the 'Xperia' settings option, users will be able to sign in with their Google credentials to the my Xperia website(myxperia.sonymobile.com) and get remote access to their phone. Users will be able to sound an alert overriding the silent mode and wake the display, through the web interface of the service. They'll also be able to map the location of their phone through the service, remotely lock the phone to keep their data private and wipe the phone erasing data from both internal and external storage, if required.

Sony currently offers almost the same functionality through the McAfee Security app with limited functions and limited period validity, in some regions.

While third party services offered by companies like Norton, Quickheal and Kaspersky, among others also offer mobile security services, they charge users a one time or recurring fee. With Sony rolling out its own security services, users will be able to benefit from these free of charge. In fact, remote security services are increasingly becoming standard with Apple offering its Find My iPhone, BlackBerry phones coming with BlackBerry Protect and Samsung and HTC phones coming with their own suite of security services, out of the box.

LG Optimus G2 spotted in fresh leaked images, rumoured to come with 5.2-inch 1080p display


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As we are nearing the launch of the Optimus G2 smartphone, the leaks surrounding this device have increased manifold.
Twitter user @evleaks has posted yet another purported picture of the alleged smartphone, which seems to offer a fairly clear picture of the LG Optimus G2. The image shows a button less front with extremely thin bezel.

LG Optimus G2 is rumoured to come with a 5.2-inch full-HD display with a pixel density of 423 ppi. It will allegedly pack in a 13-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilisation (OIS). It is expected that the smartphone will run on Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) along with a layer of the Optimus UI.

Earlier rumours have suggested that this smartphone will be so thin that the physical buttons will be placed on its back panel. @evleaks had earlier posted a leaked shot of LG Optimus G2 that indicated the volume rocker keys will be placed behind the smartphone.

Just a day ago, there were news reports suggesting that the LG Optimus G2 will come with 3GB RAM. LG has already announced that its forthcoming smartphone in the G series will be powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 processor.

The Korean smartphone maker has already sent out invites for an August 7, 2013 event in New York City where it is expected to reveal the LG Optimus G2. This smartphone will likely start retailing from the third quarter of 2013.

It is expected that LG will also be launching its Optimus L9 II smartphone at the said New York event.

Spice Stellar Virtuoso Pro dual-SIM smartphone with Spice Cloud service launched


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S Mobility has launched Spice Stellar Vituoso Pro, the successor to the Stellar Virtuoso Mi-495 smartphone, at a market operating price of Rs. 7,999.

Spice Stellar Vituoso Pro is powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor with 512MB of RAM, and runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. It has a 5-megapixel auto focus rear camera and a 1.3-megapixel front camera. The rear camera is a downgrade compared to the Spice Stellar Vituoso that featured an 8-megapixel camera. The phone also features SRS audio.

The dual-SIM (3G+3G) phone features a 4.5-inch screen with FWVGA resolution (480x854 pixels). The phone offers 4GB internal storage expandable up to 32GB via microSD card. It's powered by a 1,700mAh battery.

The Spice Stellar Virtuoso Pro will be available across India through all major retail stores and saholic.com.

In addition to the phone, Spice has also launched Spice Cloud, a server cloud based mobile synchronization service, that allows owners of Spice devices to automatically and wirelessly store and secure the data present in their phone and access the same data on multiple devices. It also offers anti-theft features such as remote wipe, remote locking and SIM change alerts, and helps in locating the device, if lost. In addition to these features, it also allows users to retrieve their call logs.

The Spice Stellar Vituoso Pro would be the first device to offer the Spice Cloud service.


Mobiles launched in July 2013

Key specifications of Spice Stellar Virtuoso Pro Mi 491

  • 4.5-inch FWVGA resolution (480x854 pixels) screen
  • 1GHz dual-core processor
  • 512 MB RAM
  • 4GB internal storage expandable up to 32GB via microSD card
  • Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)
  • 5-megapixel auto focus rear camera
  • 1.3-megapixel front facing camera
  • Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi
  • 1700 mAh Battery

Nokia EOS image pops up again, now said to launch as Nokia 909


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Just a day ago, the press render of Nokia EOS leaked online and we were told the phone will be launched as Lumia 1020.

Now, an image showcasing the back of the smartphone has been posted online courtesy @evleaks who now claims the phone will be released carrying the name Nokia 909, since it's a successor of sorts to the .

The Nokia EOS is rumoured be a Windows-based smartphone with 41-megapixel camera sensor. The recent leaked picture further validates that Nokia EOS will come with 41-megapixel camera sensor. The smartphone will also pack Xenon and LED flash. An earlier leak suggested that the Nokia EOS will come with a 'Nokia Pro Cam' application, which may offer advanced controls.
From the leaked image, it appears that the Nokia EOS follows the same design philosophy as the Nokia Lumia 920 and will come with a polycarbonate body.
Past rumours suggest that the Nokia EOS will sport an OLED display, which has a screen resolution of 768X1280 pixels and 32GB of internal storage. This smartphone is also expected to run on Nokia's 'Amber' Windows Phone software update.
The Amber update was unveiled at the time of the launch of Nokia Lumia 925.
Nokia has already sent out invites for a July 11 event with 'Zoom Reinvented' tagline. It is being touted that the Nokia EOS will make its debut at this event.

Karbonn Titanium S9 with 5.5-inch display, Android 4.2 launched for Rs. 19,990


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Karbonn has introduced a new smartphone called Titanium S9.Karbonn Titanium S9 sports 5.5-inch HD IPS display. It is powered by 1.2GHz quad-core processor along with 1GB RAM. The smartphone packs in 16GB of internal storage, which can be expanded by up to 32GB via microSD card.
For camera, there is a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and 5-megapixel front shooter to click self-images and do video chats. It is a dual-SIM smartphone that comes with 2,600mAh battery. Karbonn Titanium S9 runs on Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean).
The smartphone supports 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. It also comes with G-Sensor, proximity sensor, and ambient light sensor. To sweeten the deal, the company is offering a free flip cover along with the purchase of this smartphone, which is available for Rs. 19,990.
Karbonn is currently offering Karbonn S1 Titanium, Karbonn S2 Titanium and Karbonn S5 Titanium under its Titanium series.
Commenting on the launch, Shashin Devsare, Executive Director, Karbonn, said, "The Karbonn Titanium S9 is the most exciting revolution to have come from Karbonn till date. The launch of the device initiates our foray into the HD IPS smartphone category wherein we seek to satiate the consumer needs with the best-in-class technological innovations. We understand the emergent needs of consumers of smartphone devices which look brilliant and work effortlessly. Thus in this regard, our product innovation is geared towards creating an eco-system of mobile devices, which bring the best of smartphone experience to them."


Mobiles launched in July 2013
Karbonn S9 Titanium key specifications
  • 5.5-inch IPS capacitive screen
  • 1.2GHz quad-core processor
  • 1GB RAM
  • 16GB of internal storage, expandable by up to 32GB via microSD card
  • 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash
  • 5-megapixel front facing camera
  • 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
  • Dual-SIM (GSM+GSM)
  • Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean)
  • 2,600mAh battery

HTC Q2 profit plunges 83 percent


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Taiwan smartphone maker HTC said Friday that net profit in April-June dived 83 percent year on year, although it was a slight improvement from the record low seen in the previous three months.The result comes as the firm struggles to turn things around with its high-end HTC Onesmartphone and heavier marketing strategy.
Unaudited net profit in the second quarter came in at Tw$1.25 billion ($41.67 million), compared with Tw$7.4 billion a year ago but up sharply from the Tw$85 million in January-March, the company said.
Revenue fell 22 percent to Tw$70.7 billion year-on-year but surged 65 percent from quarter to quarter and was line with its own forecast of Tw$70.0 billion.
Chief executive officer Peter Chou predicted a sharp rise in second-quarter revenue thanks to the HTC One, which he said had received "overwhelmingly positive" reviews since its launch in February.
He hailed it as a "technological breakthrough" as the company battles to win a piece of the sector that is dominated by Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy S4. However, analysts suggest sales of the phone peaked in May.
And the firm has a fight on its hands.
Research firm IDC said the company held a 4.6 percent share of the global smartphone market in 2012, a sharp decline from 8.8 percent a year earlier. Samsung held a 30.3 percent stake while Apple had 19.1 percent.
HTC sells its own smartphones and also makes handsets for a number of leading US companies, including supplying Google's Nexus One.

Nokia Asha phones getting WhatsApp, Mail for Exchange support with new update


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Nokia is rolling out a new software update for its Asha touchscreen phones bringing new functionality and improvements.

The software update, available for Nokia Asha 305, Nokia Asha 306, dual-SIM variants of Nokia Asha 308 and Nokia Asha 310, adds several new features including enhanced support for Mail for Exchange. It also adds support for popular mobile instant messenger WhatsApp, and improved social apps, in addition to a new dedicated launcher for YouTube.

The update can be downloaded over the air through the Device updates menu in the Phone settings or by connecting the phone to a computer via the Nokia Suite desktop software.
Nokia had announced last week that the Mail for Exchange app was now available on Nokia Store for Nokia Asha users.

The app, which was initially announced in May, is compatible with the Nokia Asha 311, Nokia Asha 310, Nokia Asha 309 and Nokia Asha 308, will allow users to sync their email, calendar and contacts data with Microsoft Exchange 2003, 2007, 2010 Servers and Microsoft Office 365 Mobility Online Service through Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync protocol. Perhaps the update facilitates the installation of the app in the above mentioned Asha series phones.

With support for WhatsApp, Nokia wants to make its Asha phones a strong contender in the low-cost phones segment, with budget Android smartphones eating into its share. While one can install and use messaging apps much more easily on Android smartphones which come with a dedicated app store,Google Play Store, and support for running apps in the background, not all Nokia Asha feature phones support it out of the box due to their software limitations. It's worth mentioning that a large number of users are increasingly using data based messaging apps over conventional text messaging so if Nokia doesn't add these 'smart' features it's likely that it will see its users abandoning the platform.

This also consolidates Nokia's efforts to position the Asha series as a smart feature phone or indeed a smartphone.

Meanwhile, Nokia had also introduced two more apps that will encourage corporate users to adopt Nokia Asha phones in addition to offering Mail for Exchange support. Editori Text and Editori sheet apps allow users to view and edit Microsoft Word and Excel documents on the move. With the apps users can now modify, save and share documents or spreadsheets for quick review right from their Nokia Asha phones.