BijvaniTech

Google Nexus 4 Review and Specs

2012-11-15T22:22:00.001-08:00

Google's Nexus (ten points to anyone who can tell us if Nexi is the correct plural) smartphones have always set the standard when it comes to a pure Google experience.

The first Nexus One was a true geek device. Sold only through Google directly (apart from a brief flirtation with Vodafone), it never achieved massive sales. But it gave the world the true raw power of Android without the bloatware of other variants. As of January 2010, the ball was well and truly rolling.

We've had several now – and everyone, it seems, had a go: HTC, Samsung, Asus and LG – though strangely, not Motorola, which is now part of Google itself.

Some handsets we look forward to with much anticipation – only to feel deflated when we actually use them. Others, we wait for with little expectation – and they absolutely blow our socks off.

A stealth surprise. We'll lay our proverbial cards on the table here from the outset. The Nexus 4 is one of those rare devices.

LG's not had the best track record of late. Sure, we thought the Optimus 4X HD was a pretty decent offering, but too little, too late compared to what was already out there by the time LG got it to market.

And whereas LG did have good form when it came to innovation back in the day (who remembers the Chocolate, the Shine – and even the dubious widescreen BL40?), the mojo seemed to have passed.

That's not a dig at the South Koreans – far from it. But just to set the scene to show why we weren't expecting much from the Nexus 4.

Perhaps the worst kept secret since the iPhone 5, the Nexus 4 even got left in a bar in true cliché style. And from the pictures, we weren't alone in thinking it looked like a copy of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

The difference is, when we took the Samsung model out of its box this time last year, we thought it was nice. When we took the Nexus 4 out of its box last week, we thought it was beautiful.

Size wise, the Nexus 4 comes in at 133.9 x 68.7 x 9.1 mm – which means it is similar to its predecessor. But it is far more stunning to look at and hold.

The front is all glass in piano black. Extra tough too thanks to the Corning Gorilla Glass 2. Think iPhone 4 territory, but just a little nicer looking (we are aware that is a matter of opinion, iFans!)

The whole front is set within a dull chrome bezel and the shininess even extends to the rear of the handset, which has an attractive, though unusual sparkly pattern adorning it.

Think the glittery kind of jacket that you could see Cilla Black, Joan Rivers or Shirley Bassey in at an awards ceremony, and you catch our drift.

At 139g, the Nexus 4 isn't the lightest handset in school – but it's just about solid enough to get away with carrying that extra weight and puts those who say Android devices look like toys firmly in their place.

The screen is invisible when off – but when it lights up, you're treated to 4.7-inches of True HD IPS Plus beauty. That's 768 x 1280 pixels with a pixel density of 318. It is razor sharp – blowing Retina out of the water and we'll venture it is one of the best we've seen on a handset.

Another reason for this is because there is such little space between the glass and the display. So where we berated the Optimus 4X HD for leaving enough room here to park a small car, the Nexus 4 leaves no gap at all.

It exudes a clarity that has to be seen to be believed. Colours look beautiful, icons and text are razor sharp and everything floats perfectly.

We find it hard to see how this could be beaten. When you're looking at icons on a black background (like in the app drawer), you can't even see the black, if that makes sense. It is so deep, that icons just float. Beneath the screen, in the centre, but hidden until needed, lies a pulsating notification light.

Another element worth pointing out here is the way the phone curves at the sides, from the main panel into the bezel. It seems to make the screen look even more realistic and beautiful. It's one of those things you really have to experience to appreciate.

Round the edges, you'll find the usual adornments. A 3.5mm headphone jack on top, volume rocker and micro SIM tray on the left, micro USB port plus a few dubious screws on the bottom, and a perfectly placed lock/unlock/power button on the upper right hand side.

It's just in that sweet spot where it's easy to press with the thumb if you're right handed and not impossible if you're a leftie.

There's no way of getting the back off – so you know what that means, peeps. No removable battery and no expandable storage. The former doesn't faze us too much since the 2,100mAh battery pack is no slouch but the lack of memory card allowance is annoying.

Yes, we know that ever since the Nexus S, expandable memory is out. Google's said that it doesn't offer it because it's confusing. But for those with lots of content who can't or don't want to stream, it's a real pain. We don't quite buy Google's argument.

As for the innards, LG has cut no corners here. Make no mistake, this is a premium handset. DC-HSDPA, the very latest iteration of Jelly Bean 4.2, a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, quad-core 1.5GHz processor, A-GPS with GLONASS, NFC and so forth.

But what makes this so sweet is the price. Let's just point out that sim-free, a HTC One X with similar specs will set you back around £399 (around $637/AU$611) – even the 18-month old Samsung Galaxy S2 retails at £329 (around $525/AU$503).

And while last year's Galaxy Nexus will leave your wallet £299 (around $477/AU$458) lighter, this brand new model, the Nexus 4 is priced – almost unbelievably – at £239 ($299/AU$349) for the 8GB version and £279 ($349/AU$480) for 16GB. Yes, the newer Nexus is cheaper than the year old Nexus. Word!
We can't overestimate just how revolutionary this is and it leaves us open-mouthed at how Google is doing this. Either it's selling the Nexus 4 at a loss – or the mark-up on handsets is now shown up as being ridiculously high. Whichever it is, it means the Nexus 4 has a distinct advantage over the competition.

Bizarrely, in the UK Google has promised O2 that it can sell the Nexus 4 as an exclusive for the first month. We can't understand why – especially because you could end up paying £800 for the device over the course of the contract.

Most people with sense (and a bit of spare cash) will buy the Nexus sim-free and get themselves a cheap as chips sim-only plan.

But anyway, with an early November release, that means there'll still be plenty of networks marketing this heavily pre-Christmas once that month-long deal with O2 expires. And we can see the Nexus 4 being on a lot of Christmas lists.

Facebook Comments Vs Disqus

2012-11-15T21:46:00.000-08:00

In one corner, weighing in at 600 million plus users is the social behemoth known as Facebook, a Jedi Master when it comes to all things social, but a novice when it comes to the commenting arena.

In the other corner is Disqus, weighing in at 35 million active users, and who currently sits as king of third party commenting systems.

Although there are other commenting systems such as Echo and IntenseDebate (the latter which is owned by Automattic), I’m coming across more sites and blogs adopting either Disqus or Facebook comments so for now I’ll focus on these two titans.

Since both services have advantages as well as disadvantages against each other, we’ve decided to put each through 7 rounds to see which service is more suitable for your site.

Threaded Comments

Both Disqus and Facebook offer bloggers threaded comments, which in today’s world is necessary in order to help organize conversations and prevent confusion from breaking out between discussions.
As a bonus, both offer multiple threaded conversations, allowing readers to reply to those replying to them (a feature Facebook comments recently adopted.
Disqus: 1, Facebook Comments: 1

@Mentions

The ability to add other users to the conversation is a killer feature that is lacking in most third party commenting systems.

Fortunately both Disqus and Facebook offer bloggers and webmasters the ability to contact friends or followers albeit using different methods.

Disqus allows readers to mention fellow Disqus users or tweeple (or twitter users) while Facebook only allows you to mention fellow Facebook friends or fan pages.

Although Facebook has more users, the @Mentions feature is only limited to your circle of friends while Disqus (who lacks Facebook access) allows you to contact any tweeter or Disqus buddy.
Disqus: 2, Facebook Comments: 1

Analytics On The Go

The social networking giant and the commenting king both provide analytics for bloggers and webmasters in order to help them understand just who is commenting and liking posts upon their blog.

While Disqus analytics provides in depth analysis of where your users are coming from, it’s offered as a premium service that starts at $19/month.

Facebook on the other hand offers their analytical services for free, although even if price were not an issue, the social giant is able to provide greater demographics Â (such as age, gender and primary language).
Disqus: 2, Facebook Comments: 2

Spam/Troll Unfriendly

With commenting spam on the rise (both robotic and humans), many bloggers have had to rely upon the “wisdom of the crowds” to alert admins of intrusive comment ads as well as vote down annoying trolls.
Although Disqus does also allow users to utilize Akismet (on top of your commenting community), human spammers are not only still sneaking, but they are also sometimes engaging your readers within the discussion (note: by their links you shall know them).

Facebook on the other hand users their social graph to weed out the spammers as well as trolls with surprising effectiveness (as Facebook limits viewership of a spammer’s comment to their circle of friends).
Disqus: 2, Facebook Comments: 3

Multiple Logins

Both Facebook and Disqus allow users to comment using accounts from other services.
However Facebook only allows readers to login using their Facebook, Yahoo! or Microsoft Live (via Hotmail) account while Disqus not only matches Facebook, but also offers Twitter and Google as extra options.

Note: Facebook would add Twitter and Google if it were not for the fact that both companies refused to embrace the social giant due to “trust” issues.
Disqus: 3, Facebook Comments: 3

Editbility

The ability to edit comments on your blog is priceless, especially when dealing with quality comments that may ere too much on theÂ vulgarÂ side (or post sensitive information that needs to be removed).

It’s alsoÂ convenientÂ to users who want to make minimum edits to their comments to correct grammatical errors or correct spelling mistakes.

Disqus gives both admins and readers the ability to edit comments, although Facebook only allows you to delete a comment, with no way to correct a simple spelling mistake or clarify your opinion on someone else’s site.
Disqus: 4, Facebook Comments: 3

Installation

Probably the most critical aspect of third party commenting systems is installation as messing up here will prevent one from utilizing them in the first place!

Disqus not only provides plugins, extensions and modules for self hosting fans, but alsoÂ tutorialsÂ (with images!) for those using blog services like Tumblr, Blogger or even Squarespace.

Facebook on the other hand more or less leaves you in the dark, requiring third party tutorials from geeks or (if you’re lucky) an unofficial plugin.
Disqus: 5, Facebook Comments: 3

Who Do You Prefer?

Although I’m slightly biased towards Disqus (due to the fact they’re tweet friendly), other features may convince you to side with Facebook (especially if you’re a data geek who loathes spam).

For those of you out there who have chosen third party commenting systems, would you choose Facebook comments over Disqus? (or vice versa?) If so, why?

Samsung Galaxy Camera

2012-10-15T22:53:00.003-07:00

In a room full of phones, the camera stood out. I'm not sure whether the Samsung Galaxy Camera will be a best seller - it's a lot of expensive tech for a point-and-shoot camera category where people are used to prices under $300. But for me, it was the weirdest, most interesting thing at an AT&T event full of interesting things.

The Samsung Galaxy Camera is a point-and-shoot camera that runs Android 4.1. It isn't a phone, although it has a microphone and it could run Skype if you really wanted it to. We have hands ons from IFA and last month's Photokina already, but I got to take a bunch of photos with the Galaxy Camera, and I wanted to show them to you.

The first thing to realize: it works like a camera, not like a phone camera. So, you get fast autofocus, 21x optical zoom, no shutter delay, and the ability to focus on pretty much anything.

Coming from a realm of phone cameras and cheap point-and-shoots, the 21x zoom impressed me the most. Take a look at that shot of the street corner, which I took from a 20th-story hotel penthouse, through a window. (It's a foggy day and the photo is through glass, which is why everything looks very pastel.) It's sharp, and it's spy camera-like.

The camera handles backlighting much better than phone cameras do. That photo of Alex and Eugene in the demo room? It would have been so washed out on a phone camera.

I also really liked the manual and scene settings on the Galaxy Camera. There are a bunch of filters; you can pre-enhance colors, or create silhouettes on backlights. But what I liked most was the manual mode, which popped out very clear rings to let me set shutter speed, aperture, exposure compensation and ISO. Hooray! As a guy who's often been stuck using whatever camera PCMag photo analyst Jim Fisher gave me that day, it was thrilling to see a manual mode so clear and easy to operate.

The mundanity of the camera experience is what's extraordinary about the Samsung Galaxy Camera. It works just like a camera. But it's a full Jelly Bean tablet. Will that make sense to people? I'm not sure. But I like it.

The Samsung Galaxy Camera will be available from AT&T sometime before the end of the year, and I'm desperately hoping it won't require a contract. It has HSPA+ and Wi-Fi and could operate entirely over Wi-Fi, so it'll work even without AT&T service.

Android-based Nikon Coolpix S800c camera

2012-10-15T22:43:00.004-07:00

The Coolpix S800c is Nikon’s first Android-powered camera and there’s a lot of buzz around it. The Nikon Coolpix S800c packs in a 16MP back-side Illuminated sensor which is complimented by a 25-250mm zoom lens with vibration reduction. It also has a built in GPS for geo-tagging and a Wi-Fi chip for uploading photos to social networking sites straight from the camera.

We got our hands on one of the first review units of the Nikon Coolpix S800c and after playing with it for a while, and here are our first impressions:

We love the full Android Experience. We had full access to Google Play Store and managed to install Facebook without any hiccups.
The touchscreen is very smooth, unlike the ones that you would normally find in point and shoot cameras.
The built-in connectivity options are great for instant sharing.
The camera operations are pretty smooth and all functions can be controlled through the touchscreen.

In our somewhat brief time with the camera, we’ve formed some pretty good impressions of it so far. It is sleek, it works smooth and handles well. The user interface is simple and the camera overall does offer more than just the camera features. But the real question is, do you need the extra fluff? We will answer that question in our full-fledged review of the Coolpix S800c, but for now, do take a look at our hands-on with the camera.

LG announces Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update

2012-10-15T22:18:00.000-07:00

Korean manufacturer LG has released a list of select devices that will receive Android v4.1 Jelly Bean upgrade in near future. According to the company, the Jelly Bean roll-out will begin next month. The first devices that will receive the latest Android version are the Optimus LTE II and Optimus G.

The Optimus LTE II is scheduled to get the update in November, while the Optimus G will receive the upgrade in December. The Optimus Vu and Vu II will be updated in the first quarter of the next year.

Interestingly, the LG list does not include the mention of its latest flagship smartphone, Optimus 4X HD, which launched in August this year. The list also does not feature LG's latest L series smartphones, which launched with Android v4.0 ICS straight out of the box.

The Jelly Bean upgrade is likely to bring in a host of improvements for the LG devices. The updates include improvement to the UI and browser, split-screen Q Slide feature and some app tweaks. As with nearly all updates, LG says that the Android 4.1 upgrades will be carried out sequentially, which means roll-out will begin from its home country (Korea) and expanding thereafter.

LG's Jelly Bean upgrade plans come amid rumours that the company is going to launch Nexus smartphone, which is expected to come with Jelly Bean on-board. According to rumours, the LG-branded Nexus will be launching on October 29.

HTC launches Desire X for Rs. 19,799

2012-10-15T22:14:00.005-07:00

HTC has officially announced the launch of its Desire X smartphone in India. Priced at Rs. 19,799 (MOP), the HTC Desire X runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system and is powered by a 1 GHz dual-core processor.

The HTC Desire X, recently spotted on various online retailers, features a 4.0-inch capacitive touch screen with 800 X 480 pixels resolution. HTC says the 5MP auto focus camera of the Desire X is powered by the company's proprietary ImageChip, and features a f/2.0, 28mm wide-angle lens, BSI sensor, HDR mode and automatic adjustable flash.

Other specifications of the Desire X include HTC Sense 4.0, built-in Beats Audio support, 4GB internal storage and a microSD card slot for additional storage up to 32GB. The device comes with a 1,650 mAh battery. HTC is offering 25GB of cloud storage from Dropbox free with the Desire X.

Moreover, the HTC Desire X supports 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 with A2Dp and aptX audio and GPS. The HTC Desire X comes in Blue and White colours. Read the full specifications of the Desire X here.

“HTC Desire X is an extension of your social life. If you’re looking to enjoy and share high quality multimedia, wherever you are, this is the phone for you. It not only looks and sounds great, but also provides a super-fast, highly personal mobile experience at a great price,” says Faisal Siddqui, Country Manager, HTC India in a release.

HTC's Desire X will take on the Motorola Atrix 2, Sony Xperia Sola and other mid-range smartphones in the market.

Now you can edit Comments in Facebook

2012-06-22T02:57:00.000-07:00

We’ve all done it. Your friend uploads a picture of their new puppy to Facebook, and you somehow manage to leave a comment congratulating them instead on their “new pappy.”

So what do you do? Until now, the only thing Facebook would let you do to correct the error was delete the comment and start again.

But starting Thursday the site is also now offering the ability to edit your comment — and change that pappy back to the puppy you intended in the first place. The edit option appears in the form of a small pencil icon on the right side of your comment. Clicking on the pencil will bring up a drop-down menu the option to edit your comment as well as the option to delete it entirely.

Facebook told Mashable the site will also be “showing the editing history for a comment so that subsequent commenters or likers have the full context of the conversation.” That way if someone responds to a comment that gets edited commenters in the future can see the history of the conversation and not get lost.

The editing ability went live on Thursday evening, and will be gradually rolling out to all users over the next few days.

Has the comment editing system kicked in for you yet? Let us know in the comments.

Google started Fights to Save around 3,054 Languages

2012-06-21T02:34:00.000-07:00

Will you be any worse off the moment humans cease to speak in Aragonese? How about Navajo or Ojibwa? Or Koro, a language only just discovered in a tiny corner of northeast India?

No, you probably wouldn’t, not in that moment. But humanity would be. Science, art and culture would be. If, as the phrase goes, another language equals another soul, then some 3,054 souls — 50% of the world’s total languages — are set to die out by 2100.

If there is hope, it lies in the world’s centers of information — such as Google. The search giant’s philanthropic arm, Google.org, has launched the Endangered Language project, a website devoted to preserving those ancient tongues that are now only spoken by a few thousand of us.

The site, launched early Thursday, features videos and an interactive map. The curious can click on any one of the dots that hang over each country (including a suprising number in the US), each representing a whole language.

You can hear the heartbreaking, beautiful sound of Koro being sung, or read 18th century manuscripts written in a nearly-dead Native American tongue. “Documenting the 3,000+ languages that are on the verge of extinction is an important step in preserving cultural diversity,” write project managers Clara Rivera Rodriguez and Jason Rissman.

The idea is to unite a lot of smaller preservation efforts under the Google.org banner. “By bridging independent efforts from around the world we hope to make an important advancement in confronting language endangerment,” said Rodriguez and Rissman. “We hope you’ll join us.”

Check out the project’s video below, and let us know in the comments: how else can 21st century technology help save ancient language?

Twitter Focuses On Search As Google Struggles With Its Mission

2012-06-19T05:43:00.001-07:00

Should Google worry about losing a portion of its search market share to Twitter? Most people probably don't think about Twitter so much as a search engine, yet it's the go-to place for up-to-the-second updates on any event in the world. News often breaks on Twitter before actual news publications get to it.

Twitter search is a way not only to search for news, but to search for opinions on just about anything. Opinions, of course, can sway decisions. The fact that anyone can easily add their voice to any discussion using Twitter (much more easily than they can even with a blog), makes Twitter an incredibly powerful source of information in (but not limited to) real time.

Google's stated mission is to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." Google does a pretty good job of that in a lot of ways, but it is (and will always be) a work in progress. The world's information is coming in faster than ever, and while Google can continue to make strides in other areas of information, real time is an area where the search giant has simply fallen behind.

Google used to be better at real time information organization and accessibility. There was a feature called realtime search, and it would appear on search results pages when users searched for queries related to topics that were heavy in realtime updates. The problem is that this was primarily powered by Twitter, and the deal that Google had with Twitter to get that data was not renewed once it expired last year.

I don't think a ton of people are switching to Bing because of Google's lack of realtime search. Bing, which actually does have access to Facebook and Twitter data that Google does not, isn't really doing much in the way of useful realtime search integration as far as I can tell. That doesn't mean it won't, but I also don't think it's a big enough deal to most people to make them switch search engines.

That said, Google has left a gaping hole in its search results, which will simply send people to Twitter for this kind of info. If they're looking for realtime tweets, they're not going to find them on Google, so Google is essentially giving them a reason to search somewhere else.

It just so happens that Twitter has been working on making its search better. Om Malik made some interesting points about Twitter and search in an article today, suggesting that Google should worry more about Twitter than Facebook. He writes:

Twitter's search ambitions are becoming clearer with the people it is adding to its search team. For instance, it recently hired away John Wang, a well-known engineer in the search business from LinkedIn. In addition, the company added Ruslan Belkin as a Director of Engineering, Search and Relevance. Twitter has also made its search better, or at least faster, as it noted in a blog post. They have added related queries and spelling suggestions to their search.

Offering personalized search with more relevant results, surfacing related images and videos related to the query are somewhat reminiscent of the efforts made by Google on its search offering.

At LinkedIn, Wang was responsible for search technology, and worked on developing "large-scaled realtime streaming semi-structured search systems to make the awesome LinkedIn data more consumable," according to his LinkedIn profile page.

On Belkin's profile, his job at Twitter is described as, "Locking in Twitter's dominance as the place on the Internet where users go to find and discover the most relevant and personalized in-the-moment content, insights, events, people to follow, and things to do."

Also a LinkedIn vet, his team worked on LinkedIn's real time search platform. His position at the company was associated with projects like LinkedIn Signal (described as "Applying professional faceted search to the real-time stream") and SenseiDB (described as a "Real-time search platform powering LinkedIn Homepage, LinkedIn Signal and the network updates stream").

While Google is probably happy to acknowledge any area where other companies can compete, from a regulatory standpoint, from an actual competitive standpoint, Google's biggest worry is people's decreased reliance on Google search. That doesn't have to come from shifting market share to a direct competitor like Bing. It can (and more likely will) come from people simply finding better ways to access information, which in most cases, is likely through a combination of different sites, apps and services. Twitter is one such service.

Google+ could be a major component in filling the realtime search void of Google's search results. The company has hinted in the past that they would like to use Google+ to do so. Users are already getting a large dose of Google+ in their search results in terms of personalization, but on the realtime, public data search front, the results just aren't there. People just aren't using Google+ like they're using Twitter. Even some that use Google+ regularly are only posting updates limited in visibility, thanks to the lauded Circles functionality that was one of the main selling points of the social network in the first place.

In other words, Google can't return the kind of realtime results it was getting with Twitter, using Google+ updates. That info flood isn't happening in the same way. Twitter is almost all public. That makes it easy, from the privacy standpoint, when the data is available. Sure, Twitter has privacy settings, but by default, it's public, and few bother to make adjustments. People are just tweeting out whatever they want for the world to see, and that's happening very, very rapidly. With each tweet, Google is another step behind in its mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible. They may catch up to those tweets eventually (and Google has certainly come a long way in its indexing speed), but how relevant is the average tweet when it's not happening in real time?

Google simply is not the best place to find out what people are saying about the event that's happening right now. No wonder the text on Twitter's search page (pictured above) plays that up.

Google Launches New Chrome OS, Chromebook, and Chromebox

2012-05-30T05:07:00.000-07:00

In case you’ve forgotten, Google has its own operating system called Chrome OS, and it has been working closely with Samsung on the hardware. Today, Google announced the next phase of its OS and the focus is simple: speed.

In a world where we have two major options, Mac or PC, Google is looking to leverage the cloud to make the next generation desktop experience a more lightweight one. It’s not just a mobile thing anymore, Chrome OS has gone to the desktop.

The new Chromebook is something that we’re familiar with, but the new Chromebox is reminiscent of the Apple Mini.

Here’s what the company had to say about it today:

Speed is integral to the Chrome experience. The new Chromebook and Chromebox, based on Intel Core processors, are nearly three times as fast as the first-generation Chromebooks. And support for hardware-accelerated graphics, a built-from-scratch multi-touch trackpad and an open-source firmware stack provide a much faster and more responsive computing experience. The new Chromebook boots in less than seven seconds and resumes instantly. With the Chromebox, you can be on a video conference while continuing to play your favorite role-playing game on the side.

Google employees are weighing in on the news as well, with Louis Gray mentioning the faster loading speeds:

The new Chromebooks are incredibly sleek, light and fast to boot. That may be hard to substantiate, especially if you assume my pro-Google filter is in effect, so I tested on the WebGL fishtank demo, getting 60 fps at 1,000 fish, lowering to the high 40s if I made that its separate window and kept working on something else, be it Gmail, playing a YouTube video, accessing my docs on Google Drive, or browsing the web.

With the OS itself, Google wants you to be able to access all of your apps quickly, letting you pin the things you use the most onto the desktop:

New Chromebooks range in prices from $349-$549, and are available now from Amazon and Newegg in the US. The Chromebox will run you $329 and sports the following specs:

Intel® Core™ processor
4 GB RAM
Built-in dual-band WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n
Gigabit ethernet
6 USB 2.0 ports
2x DisplayPort++ Output (compatible with HDMI, DVI, VGA)
DVI single link output
Bluetooth 3.0™ compatible
Kensington™ key lock compatible

Now that the Chrome browser has surpassed Internet Explorer for the coveted #1 position, we know that consumers are familiar with Google being something other than “just a search engine.” It makes sense that Google would get serious about its own desktop operating system now that it’s on a company-wide streamlining mission.

If you’re already using Google products like search and docs, as well as carrying around an Android phone, a desktop computer isn’t that tough of a sell to consumers. The “(always) new computer” marketing message from Google isn’t one to be taken lightly, as upgrading your operating system is a fear of many computer users.

Poonam Pandey finally made good on her promise to get naked

2012-05-28T03:37:00.001-07:00

It's the SRK factor. The Kolkata Knight Riders team owner has done what the combined forces of Sachin, Dhoni and Yuvraj couldn't after last year's big World Cup win - get Poonam Pandey to strip.

SRK's boys beat the Dhoni-led Chennai Kings in last night's IPL finale, and Poonam Pandey finally made good on her promise to get naked, posting this picture on Twitter with the caption: "#NewPicAnd here is a Pic as I PROMISED #IPL #KKR #SRK #Dare2BareAll #OnlyForAbove18."

The model and would be actress made headlines (some would say entirely unwarranted ones) last year by promising to take off all her clothes for the Men in Blue if they brought home the World Cup.

They did, but she didn't. She had already qualified her statement by saying she would strip only with the BCCI's permission, even sending them an official letter saying it would have a "therapeutic effect" on Team India, and later said she would make good on her promise if she were allowed to do so in a country other than India.

Since then, she Poonam has regularly tweeted racy images of herself, usually clad in a tiny bikini. Two such images were dedicated to cricketers Virat Kohli and M S Dhoni. But this one's for the Bengal brigade.

Samsung Galaxy S III goes up for booking in India

2012-05-23T20:25:00.000-07:00

Samsung has opened Galaxy S III booking, on the company’s official India on-line store. Customers are ready to book the device for Rs. 2,000, and pay the rest at launch.

You can check out the Galaxy S III listing here. For now, Samsung has not given a sign of pricing in India, however, to sweeten the deal, it offers a free Bluetooth headset for pre-booking customers. Earlier reports held that the device are priced at roughly Rs. 38,000.

Users may like better to be notified regarding availability, aside from pre-booking the device – no tentative dates are provided. However, Stuff India has reportedly got an invitation for the India launch event, that it notes as might thirty one.

The Galaxy S III thus far feels like it'll be one amongst the simplest Android smartphones within the market when it launches, with early benchmarks showing quite some promise, aside from the phone’s top-of-the-line specifications, and fascinating smart-feature set, creating it look like a good deal.

India tested Agni 5 missile, ranging 5000 km

2012-04-19T21:50:00.000-07:00

India Thursday created history with the successful testing of the much awaited Agni-V long-range ballistic nuclear-capable missile, described as 'China killer', that can accurately hit targets more than 5,000 km away.

The successful take a look at of the 5000-km, solid-fuelled, cannisterised IRBM Agni-5 missile is no doubt a major milestone in enhancing not simply India's defence posture however conjointly its strategic outreach. however when the state savours the success of the ballistic missile take a look at, it's vital that the country does not go ballistic over it. whereas Agni-5 actually catapults India into a awfully choose club of states with such a capability, the membership of this club entails onerous responsibilities and adds layers of complexities to the strategic and security doctrine of India.

Missile Specifications

Weight                  50,000 kg
Length                  17.5 m
Diameter               2 m
Warhead               Nuclear
Warhead weight 1100 kg
Engine                   Three stage solid fuel
Range                   Over 5,500 kilometres (3,400 mi)
Speed                    Mach 24[7]
Transport              Road or Rail mobile

Quite frankly, if India was to simply stop indulging in unnecessary chest-thumping for slightly whereas and sit back and ponder on how well it's coped with the strategic challenges till currently, it'd realise that technological prowess constitutes only 1 a part of the general strategic and security setting within which India operates.

In alternative words, technology could be a necessary however not sufficient condition for achieving strategic objectives and countering security threats. the important lacunae in India's strategic and security posture isn't most technology connected because it is that the ability of the Indian State to project its power and resolve to use this technology for effectively deterring any and each hostile action against it.

The real worth of the Agni-5 missile lies within the incontrovertible fact that it extends India's ability to focus on the japanese seaboard of China. this suggests that vital Chinese centres like Beijing and Shanghai currently fall at intervals the vary of Indian missiles. To the extent that this capability offers India a degree of strategic parity with China and thereby contributes to strategic stability between the 2 Asian giants, it has to be welcomed.

But inspect it otherwise and queries begin to arise on whether or not the induction of Agni-5, that remains one or two of years away, can really lend strategic stability and place in place a reputable deterrence.

The whole plan of deterrence operates on the logic of 1 country imposing unacceptable injury on another country. whereas definitions of unacceptable injury will cautious -- for a few countries a nuclear strike anywhere constitutes unacceptable injury, whereas alternative countries can solely be deterred if either the political or economic capital or an outsized population centre is attacked -- it's still not clear if solely Beijing and Shanghai fall within the class of unacceptable injury for the Chinese.

While it's actually a no brainer that each these cities can fall within the class of unacceptable injury, additional therefore if such injury is caused by India, it's unlikely that China would be blasé concerning an Indian strike on alternative giant population centres and economic hubs, one thing that fell at intervals the placing vary of Indian   missiles even before testing of the Agni-5.

It is during this sense that the Agni-5 is not quite the game-changer it's being created out to be, and will not be till India's nuclear posture acquires a level of credibility, that it does not currently. to not belabour the purpose, however if India's nuclear and missile capability before Agni-5 wasn't enough to discourage China, then it's unlikely that Agni-5 can.

Deterrence ultimately could be a state of the mind and is the maximum amount psychological because it is technological. For deterrence to figure, the opposite aspect should be convinced of not simply your capability however conjointly your intent and resoluteness to use your weapons. sadly, partly as a result of India's namby-pamby 'no-first use' nuclear doctrine and partly as a result of the final impression of Indian political leadership being incapable of taking laborious choices, India's deterrence capability isn't taken terribly seriously by the 2 countries -- Pakistan and China -- against that a lot of of our deterrence is directed.

Conversely, each these countries have successfully managed to use their own deterrence capability against India. Take, for example, Pakistan. Ever since Pakistan initial went public with its nuclear capability -- in 1987 when it used an Indian journalist to announce that it possessed nuclear weapons -- it's convinced (some would argue bluffed) India that it'll even have no hesitation in using its nuclear weapons to counter any Indian thrust into Pakistan.

With full-scale typical war being taken out of the equation, India tried to come back up with the concept of a restricted war, that in line with some Indian strategists was doable underneath a nuclear overhang. however Pakistan has currently tried to counter this additionally by threatening to use tactical nuclear weapons against any Indian integrated battle cluster -- the Cold begin doctrine -- that enters Pakistani territory.

Keeping before them the expertise of Nato that found the doctrine of overwhelming retaliation to be unworkable, the Pakistanis see the Indian doctrine of retaliating with overwhelming force against use of tactical nuclear weapons as lacking in credibility. additional importantly, when having convinced India of its sturdy deterrence, Pakistan has used its nuclear umbrella to continue waging proxy war against India.

China too does not appear notably impressed by India's nuclear posture which is that the reason why it continues to pin-prick India through intrusions along the borders, feels assured in browbeating Indian ventures within the South China ocean, carries out threatening military manoeuvres on the Arunachal border etc. a part of the matter lies within the obtuseness of India's nuclear posture. this suggests that the red lines which might trigger a response from India that might impose an unbearable and unacceptable value on the adversary haven't been clearly laid down.

While doctrinal ambiguity will serve a purpose in bound things, it's clearly not serving any purpose as so much as India is bothered. Another drawback is that the Indian cultural trait of ducking choices, particularly on one thing as monumental as exercising the nuclear possibility. In a sense, by absolving the Indian political leadership of getting to initiate this terribly laborious call (which as a result of NFU are taken for India by its adversary), NFU suits the cultural traits of the Indian leadership.

But on the flip aspect, the NFU degrades the efficiency of the nuclear deterrence. After all, if India is de facto serious concerning adhering to NFU, then at what stage of a standard conflict, with say China, can it plan to use the nuclear option? can India keep its arsenal mothballed if Arunachal falls? can India discard NFU if Guwahati is threatened? Or can it still stick with NFU even though Kolkata falls?

The idea isn't to take pleasure in nuclear war-mongering; rather it's to create India's deterrence therefore effective that war (whether restricted, all-out, proxy whatever) isn't any longer an possibility for either India's western neighbour or India's north-eastern neighbour. within the case of the latter, each India and China stand to realize lots additional by partaking in shut economic and even political cooperation than in confronting one another. except for this to happen, strategic stability has to be ensured so neither aspect gets any wrong ideas and each side desist from needless adventurism.

While Agni-5 will definitely contribute to such stability, India has to perceive that this missile won't create a whit of a distinction unless India is ready to tweak its nuclear doctrine and create it additional sturdy, convincing and credible. This, quite anything, is that the real strategic challenge for India within the years to come back.

Nikon announces its first mirrorless cameras, in the new Nikon 1 series

2012-03-27T06:32:00.001-07:00

Nikon has launched its first mirrorless cameras, the Nikon 1 series, which will go on sale in Japan from October 20. The Nikon 1 series will supposedly be priced between $500 and $1000, with the Japanese optics giant believing that its first mirrorless models would have the best success in that position, as compact interchangeable lens cameras (ILCs).

The first models to be launched will be the Nikon 1 J1 (at around ¥70,000) and the Nikon 1 V1 (at around ¥105,000). A choice of four ultraportable Nikkor lenses will come with them, based on a new mount for the series. The Nikon 1 series will be aimed at prosumers, those who feel a regular compact digital camera is “not quite good enough,” and are unwilling to invest in a dSLR, with its hefty price tag and bulky form factor.

According to Yasuki Okamoto, head of the Nikon’s imaging division, the new Nikon 1 series with their mirrorless design, large sensors, and interchangeable lenses, will deliver benefits of dSLR cameras in smaller bodies. The mirrorless design, already enabling slimmer form factors, will also not require optical viewfinders, further slimming down the end-product.

Other manufacturers, such as Sony, have had their mirrorless, interchangeable lens cameras in the market since 2010. Interestingly, according to IDC, sales of such devices have been extremely good in Japan, accounting for 31% of interchangeable lens camera sales, as opposed to a lukewarm response in the West, accounting for only 10% of ILC sales in the U.S.

Nikon launches entry level DSLR - Nikon D5100 - for Rs. 34,450

2012-03-27T06:28:00.002-07:00

Nikon has launched a new dSLR, the Nikon D5100. Bearing a 16.2MP DX-format CMOS image sensor with an EXPEED 2 image-processing engine, the Nikon D5100 is one of the cheapest entry level dSLR offerings from a major brand – priced at Rs. 34,450.

The Nikon D5100 has a 3-inch super sharp 921K dot Vari-angle LCD onboard, and for video buffs, delivers a full 1080p HD video recording experience at 30 fps, complete with full-time autofocus. As an offering for prosumers, the camera has a wide range of electronic features more common to point-and-shoot cameras, as well as a Special Effects mode for both videos and stills – a first for a Nikon dSLR.

The complete Nikon D5100 kit for Rs. 39,950, with a AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR lens included. HDR functions are enabled, and, it has standard sensitivity settings ranging from ISO 100 to 6400, with a boost using Hi 2, up to ISO 25600 (equivalent). The Nikon D5100 also supports the add-on stereo microphone ME-1, rounding it up as a versatile entry-level dSLR, both as a still and video camera.

Bharti Airtel launches Airtel Photo Service for its broadband customers

2012-03-27T06:24:00.003-07:00

Bharti Airtel has launched a digital photo printing service for Airtel Broadband customers, in association with leading photo-service, Zoomin.com. Called Airtel Photo Service, users will be able upload their photos online, and have them printed, and then delivered to their doorstep.

Apart from printing photographs in matte, gloss and luminous print finishes, Airtel Photo Service gives users many other media to choose from, from T-shirts to mugs, calendars to photo-albums, which can all be customized with personal messages, themes, art clips, etc. Along with online editing tools, users have a handy Organizer to create customized collections.

Users will also be able to store an unlimited number of photos online in their Airtel Photo Service account, and can import albums from Facebook.

The service is available only for Airtel Broadband users, and to make things simple for them, does not require payment online via credit/debit cards. Instead, each item purchased will be billed to the monthly Airtel Broadband postpaid bill, using a ‘pay per instance’ feature to keep track of items. Photo products available on Airtel Photo Service range from Rs. 65 to Rs. 595, inclusive of applicable taxes and delivery charges.

For details on the complete product portfolio, customers can visit www.airtel.Zoomin.com

Fujifilm introduces 12 new FinePix digital cameras in India

2012-03-27T06:07:00.001-07:00

Fujifilm launched 12 new FinePix digital cameras in India at a press conference in New Delhi yesterday, calling it a ‘Spring Bonanza’. Featuring models from the A, B, F, H, J, S, X and Z series, all the cameras are capable of 720p HD video recording. With this launch, Fujifilm has brought its brand new hybrid viewfinder technology to the country, in the form of the retro-styled FinePix X100.

FinePix A series (AV200 and AX300)
Both 14MP offerings, the AV200 features a built in 3x Fujinon zoom lens, and the AX300 has a 5x lens. Both are lightweight, and sport features like - Digital Image Stabilization, Single and Tracking Auto Focus, Motion Panorama mode, Scene Recognition Auto, Face Detection technology and Picture Search (by Face, by Scene and by Date).

FinePix J series (JV200 and JX300)

Just like the A series, the JV200 (16MP) and JX300 (14MP) in the J series come with 3x and 5x Fujinon zoom lenses respectively. They have a slim metal bodied design with a 2.7-inch 16M colour LCD screen, and sport such features as Scene Recognition Auto, Panorama Shooting Mode, Movie Mode with Sound, Picture Search, Face Detection and Blink Detection technology, and a Facebook/You Tube easy web upload widget.

FinePix S series (S2950, S3300 and S4000)

All three cameras have 14MP CCD sensors, with 24mm Fujinon wide-angle super-zoom lenses. The FinePix S2950 has an 18x zoom lens, the S3300 has a 26x lens, and the S4000 has a 30x zoom lens. All three cameras have 3-inch LCD screens, with the S3300 featuring a 230K dot screen, and the S4000 featuring a 460K dot screen. They sport features such as Playback Functions, Face Detection, Auto Red-Eye Removal; Multi-Frame Playback and Photobook Assist.

FinePix X100
Fujifilm introduced its revolutionary hybrid viewfinder technology at Photokina last year, and brought it to retail shelves with the FinePix X100 in 2011. The technology combines two types of viewfinders – a window-type “bright frame” optical viewfinder, and an electronic viewfinder system. Fujifilm has also used an all-glass reverse-Galilean 0.5x optical finder for the 1,440,000 dot LCD panel image.

This allows the hybrid viewfinder technology to show both the live shooting frame and a variety of electronic shooting data as well as previews and playbacks. One can instantly switch between optical (OVF) and electronic viewfinder (EVF) modes using the ‘one touch’ control.

The FinePix X100 is a retro-styled digital camera, with a 12.3MP APS-C CMOS Sensor and an EXR processor, a specification that should enable high-quality images for a wide range of sensitivities. It has a high-performance 23mm F2 Fujinon Lens built-in.

LG reveals four new laptops, and an FPR 3D all-in-one PC

2012-03-27T06:00:00.001-07:00

LG has joined the ranks of Acer, Asus, and Lenovo, announcing its first Ultrabooks ahead of CES. Apart from the two Ultrabooks – LG Z330 and Z430 – LG has also announced two other laptops, the LG P535 and A540, as well as a new 3D all-in-one, the LG V300. All the devices are expected to start shipping by the first quarter of the year.

J.J. Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of LG Electronics IT Business Unit, spoke about LG’s upcoming participation at CES 2012:

“At this year's CES, LG will showcase products that are not only new, but also establish categories defining new standards for personal computing devices. Our new products feature a range of breakthrough technologies from LG, such as IPS display, glasses-free 3D and Super Speed Boot, that will noticeably elevate the personal computing experience. These technologies reflect our goal of satisfying various consumer demands, as well as our aggressive strategy for 2012.”

According to LG, the 13-inch LG Z330 is a “Super Ultrabook that Outshines Ordinary Ultrabooks.” It comes with a second generation Intel Core i7 processor onboard, requires less than 10 seconds to complete booting, switches on from standby in two seconds, and comes with a SATA III SSD drive. It has a uniform slimness of 14.7mm throughout, and weighs 1.21 kg. Its 13.3-inch display has been made to fit in a 12-inch chassis.

The 14-inch LG Z430 apparently delivers “Ultimate Compactness and Performance in a 14-inch Super Ultrabook.” It is powered by the Intel Core i7 processor, comes with a choice of SSD and HDD up to 500GB, and features Super Speed Boot. The LG Z430 fits into a 19.9 mm thin chassis, and weighs in at 1.50 kg. Its 14-inch display has been made to fit in a 13-inch chassis.

The 15.6-inch LG P535 is said to incorporate “Superior 3D Capabilities in a Lightweight, Slim Notebook.” A CINEMA 3D notebook, the LG P535 has a second generation Intel Core i7 processor, a Nvidia GeForce GT 630M graphics card, and a super-widescreen display. It weighs in 2.2kg, and has a thickness of 24.1mm.

The 15.6-inch LG A540 offers “Glasses-Free 3D Entertainment with Enhanced 4.1 Channel Sounds.” Powered by a second generation Intel Core i7 processor, it has a glasses-free 3D display panel, SRS premium sound effect, 4.1 channel 3D sound, Nvidia GT555M graphics card, as well as a 3D editing program that allows users to personalize their 3D images and videos.

Finally, the LG V300, is apparently “LG's First All-in-One PC with Top-Line Display Technology.” Powered by a second generation Intel Core i7 processor, the LG V300 AIO has a 23-inch FPR 3D display requiring passive 3D glasses, and IPS technology with 178 degree viewing angles. It is also a touch AIO PC, featuring triple camera touch sensor system for a superior multi-touch experience.

Lenovo announces nine new laptops ahead of CES

2012-03-27T05:57:00.001-07:00

Lenovo has announced nine new laptops ahead of CES, including a new Ultrabook, as well as a ThinkPad X1 Hybrid, which will arrive in the second quarter of 2012. The other eight laptops are expected only by the third quarter.

The 14-inch ThinkPad T430u Ultrabook is expected to be priced at around $849, and similar to the IdeaPad U300s Ultrabook, with more business-oriented features. The laptop comes with up to 1TB of storage, discrete Nvidia graphics with Nvidia Optimus technology, as well as 1,366x768 pixel display. It will deliver up to 6 hours of battery life, unlike other Ultrabooks, which till now didn’t carry dedicated GPUs.

The 13-inch Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Hybrid, priced at $1,599, features a dual-boot instant-on OS called Instant Media Mode that is based on Android. Running on an integrated dual-core Qualcomm SoC, the Android OS will apparently provide nearly twice the battery life. While there will be no access to the Android Market, though various apps will be bundled, apart from native support for emails, browsing, media consumption, and more. The display has a 1,366x768 pixel resolution, and comes with Gorilla Glass.

Apart from a choice of Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors, 3G connectivity, the business focussed ThinkPad X1 Hybrid will come with an optional slice battery that will adds up to five hours of life.

The Chinese company also announced seven other ThinkPad Edge laptops for SMEs, the 14-inch ThinkPad Edge S430, 14-inch ThinkPad Edge E430, 15-inch ThinkPad E530, 11-inch ThinkPad E130, 13-inch ThinkPad E330, 14-inch B480 and 15-inch B580.

The 14-inch ThinkPad Edge S430 will start from $749, is just 0.8-inches thick, and comes with Intel Thunderbolt connectivity, Dolby Home Theatre sound, optional Nvidia dedicated GPU with Optimus graphics switching, and up to 1TB of storage.

The 11-inch ThinkPad Edge E130, 13-inch ThinkPad Edge E330, 14-inch ThinkPadEdge E430 and 15-inch ThinkPad Edge E530 start at $399, and come with choice of Intel Core processors or AMD Fusion APUs, choice of discrete GPUs, up to 1TB of storage, choice of SSD storage, HD webcam, USB3.0 connectivity, as well as the Lenovo Solution Center from the Intel Small Business Advantage.

The two models from the budget Lenovo B Series, the 14-inch B480 and 15-inch B580 also come with a choice of AMD Fusion and Intel Core CPUs, as well as USB 3.0 connectivity, HDMI-out port, 4-in-1 multicard reader, and up to 1TB storage.

Is 'affordable ultrabook' an oxymoron?

2012-03-27T05:49:00.002-07:00

Acer's president joins customers in wishing for more sub-$800 ultrabooks. Are vendors correct to bet on a segment that's been slow to take off?

Every time you see a patient and therapist in the cartoons, the former is lying on the couch while the latter sits in an adjacent chair taking notes on a legal pad. When I see my therapist, I sit upright while he takes notes on a MacBook Air.

Intel, as you probably know, is spending $300 million to convert my therapist to Windows. That's the amount in the Intel Capital Ultrabook Fund, the chipmaker's investment to develop and promote a class of thin-and-light laptops called ultrabooks by Intel and its OEM partners. Detractors, however, might call them "Air-alikes," because of how closely their specs target the 13-inch MacBook Air: 0.8 inches thick at its thickest point, a 13.3-inch screen, no optical drive, at least five hours of battery life, and a solid-state drive instead of a hard disk for near-instant-on operation.

The first handful of ultrabooks are out now, with a lot more – some say 50 or more – expected at January's CES, and a second wave due in the spring of 2012 with Intel's "Ivy Bridge" successor to today's "Sandy Bridge" processors. When Intel announced the ultrabook initiative at last May's Computex Taipei, it predicted the category would claim 40 percent of global notebook sales by the end of next year. IHS forecasts the 43 percent mark won't actually be reached till 2015, but that's still rapid acceleration for a segment that'll account for just under 2 percent of sales in 2011.

Why such a paltry consumer response? Because Black Friday reminded consumers that they can choose from a flock of $299 and $499 laptops, while most ultrabooks cost $999 or more. Our current Editors' Choice, the Asus Zenbook UX31, is $1,099. My current lust, the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s, is $1,095. Best Buy has an $889 sale on the Acer Aspire S3, but purists sniff that it combines a spinning hard drive with a 20GB flash cache instead of offering a true SSD like its rivals. (To be fair, the Acer's Winchester is a roomier 320GB while its competitors' solid-state drives are 128GB. But the MacBook Air 13-inch also starts at $1,299.)

The under-$1,000 barrier is a tough one to break, according to the Taiwanese trade journal DigiTimes, which reports that the average 13.3-inch, 128GB SSD-equipped ultrabook carries a bill of materials of $690, OEM costs of $100, and marketing and distribution costs of $150, totaling $940.

But there's hope on the horizon, according to Acer president Jim Wong, who told DigiTimes last week that he anticipates Acer ultrabooks selling for $799 to $899 in the second quarter of 2012 and for $499 in 2013.
And while Wong surely knows his business, I can't help pointing out that you don't have to wait until the second quarter of next year to buy an ultrabook for $799.99: You can buy a Toshiba Portege Z835-P330 at Best Buy today. The Z835 is not only a real ultrabook, with a 128GB SSD and everything, but has a lot to recommend it: a backlit keyboard, the most complete selection of I/O ports, the lightest weight in the class (2.5 pounds; the Air and most of the Air-alikes are 2.9), and the longest life in our battery tests (7.5 hours).

What's the catch? Well, the Portege is encased in light magnesium alloy instead of aluminum, and it has a little more flex than its peers. Second, while the Airs have Intel Core i5 processors, the Portege makes do with a slower Core i3.

But I'd contend that's not a deal-breaker. A Core i3 with 4GB of RAM is adequate for the mobile productivity for which ultrabooks are generally used, and even the relatively modest Z835 is light-years away from memories of netbooks with single-core Atom processors (shudder), 1GB of memory (double shudder) and GMA 950 graphics (full-body seizure with whimpering). In fact, depending on how aggressive Intel is with "Ivy Bridge," I have a pet theory that 2012 ultrabooks with "Sandy Bridge" CPUs might be sleeper deals. Joe and Jane Consumer won't care much whether the "Processor" tag says Core i5-2000-something or Core i5-3000-something, and a previous-generation chip might whittle down that $175 to the $200 that DigiTimes attributes to the CPU in its bill of materials.

Meanwhile, the list of vendors aboard Intel's ultrabook bandwagon includes Acer, Asus, Toshiba, Lenovo, and HP (with the new Folio 13). If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on Dell before long. Add Samsung (though there's a quibble about meeting Intel's specs) with the Series 9. LG just announced an ultrabook for the South Korean market. Momentum has been slow so far, but it's building.

What could muddy the waters? Two things, both related to Windows 8: A challenge from the low-priced Windows-on-ARM subnotebooks that I mentioned last month, and confusion between laptops and tablets as users – even at the cost of extra weight, thickness, and, well, cost – demand touch screens to take advantage of Win 8's new interface. Either could splinter the scenario for steadily improving ultrabook sales at steadily declining prices.

Asus launches Zenbook UX31E Ultrabook in India, at Rs. 89,999

2012-03-27T05:45:00.001-07:00

Asus has launched the Zenbook UX31E in India, its offering in Intel’s new Ultrabook category that looks to provide desktop replacement specs in an ultraportable frame. Compared to the Acer Aspire S3 and Lenovo IdeaPad U300S (the other Ultrabooks launched in India), the 13.3-inch Asus Zenbook UX31E does stand out for its high-end specs. It's the top-of-the-range model in the UX31 series, a fact well accounted for in the Rs. 89,999 price. The Asus Ultrabook offering is expected to be in stores by the third week of December. Lower-specced models of the UX31 series are expected sometime in 2012, alongside the 11.6-inch UX21 variants – well primed to take on both MacBook Air offerings.

Intel’s Ultrabook category all share certain features in common, a thin and light frame, solid state storage, quick boot and instant-on wake-up times, and a good battery life. Always-on, always-connected features that Intel envisions for Ultrabooks will probably only come by 2012, awaiting the necessary services and software.

The Asus Zenbook UX31E weighs in at 1.3 kgs, and measures in at a thickness that ranges from nearly 3mm or .11-inches to around 18 mm, or 0.71-inches at its thickest. It runs on one of Intel’s latest mobile processors, a Huron River Intel Core i7-2677M at 1.7GHz (2 core 4 thread, max 2.9GHz Turbo), with 4MB cache, and integrated Intel HD 3000 graphics. The option of Core i5-2557M processor will come later. Asus has also fitted a SATA III 6Gbps 256GB SSD onboard, promising some nifty boot times and performance, coupled with 4GB of DDR3 RAM. As of now, the 13-inch Macbook Air has a 128GB SATA II SSD onboard as a standard spec. Also impressive for a 13.3-inch notebook, the Asus Zenbook UX31E has a 1600x900 pixel resolution display.

It carries a 50Whr battery, non-user replaceable, rated to deliver more than 7 hours of use time, and a 10 day standby time. It comes with the Asus Super Hybrid Engine II onboard, with a promised 2 second resume time.

Other features include audio from Bang & Olufsen ICEpower and Asus SonicMaster Tech, a USB2.0 port, a USB3.0 port, microHDMI and miniVGA ports, a USB-to-Ethernet adapter, SD card reader, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and an integrated .3MP webcam and microphone.

Lenovo IdeaPad U300S Ultrabook launched in India at Rs. 67,990

2012-03-27T04:26:00.001-07:00

The Ultrabook category, a niche first carved by Intel back at Computex 2011, is now finally fleshing out, with new entrants making their presence felt. While Acer beat most folks out of the stable in India, with the launch of the Aspire S3 Ultrabook in early October, other companies are catching up.

Both Lenovo and Asus launched their Ultrabook offerings in the Indian market recently, with Lenovo introducing its IdeaPad U300S Ultrabook, and Asus its Zenbook UX31E today. In the meanwhile, feast your eyes on the Lenovo IdeaPad U300S Ultrabook (first shown off in September), which like other machines in the category, is set to demonstrate unprecedented ultraportability and performance, while staying in the mainstream segment and qualifying as a desktop replacement, using Intel’s newest processors and chipset platforms.

Priced at Rs. 67,990 (excluding taxes), the Lenovo IdeaPad U300S Ultrabook will hit shelves by November 29, next week. The sleek 13.3-inch IdeaPad U300S measures in with a thickness of just 14.9mm, or 0.6-inches, and weighs in at roughly 1.3 kgs. The body of U300s Ultrabook is made from a single-piece aluminum shell and is available in Graphite Grey and Clementine Orange colours. The Lenovo IdeaPad U300S Ultrabook will ship with 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium onboard, and will come with a 3-year warranty (excluding the 1-year warranty battery).

Major specs include a 2nd Generation Core i5 processor (with a Core i7 option expected to retail soon as well) with on-chip Intel GMA HD 3000 graphics, a minimum of 4GB of DDR3 RAM, up to 128GB of SSD storage, Bluetooth 3.0 / Wi-Fi 802.11n / USB 3.0 / USB 2.0 / HDMI connectivity, an integrated 720p HD webcam (1.3MP), SRS Sound enhancement, and Intel’s Wi-Di wireless display technology. According to officials, a 256GB SSD option will only become available later.

So, while Acer’s and Asus’s 13.3-inch offerings are both quite similar to the Lenovo IdeaPad U300S Ultrabook, Lenovo obviously hopes its product will stand apart from its competitors on more than just the brand value – proprietary technologies like a glass touchpad, Lenovo RapidCharge, Lenovo’s The Enhanced Experience 2.0 RapidDrive SSD technology, and Lenovo Long Life Battery should help. Battery life extends up to 8 hours of use, and 30 days of standby time. RapidCharge supposedly assists in charging up to 50% of the battery in under 30 minutes. The RapidDrive SSD tech promises boot times of around 10.5 seconds.

The IdeaPad U300S Ultrabook also features what the company calls a Breathable Keyboard, using Intel’s Advanced Cooling Technology for air flow via the keyboard, sides and rear of the laptop.

Acer launches Ultrabook, a Macbook Air competitor at almost half the price!

2012-03-27T04:23:00.004-07:00

Acer India has announced the launch of the Aspire S3 Ultrabook, that they claim is the “world’s thinnest Ultrabook”. The Ultrabook S3 will essentially be the Windows stable’s response to the extremely sleek Apple MacBook Air.

To enable instant connectivity, Acer have introduced two types of sleep mode with this machine- Sleep that will resume Windows in 2 seconds and Deep Sleep that will restore your last Windows session in 6 seconds. This laptop comes with Lithium Polymer batteries, and not the usual Lithium-Ion batteries that we were seeing with most devices over the last few years. Acer claims that the battery offers 7 hours of usage time and a standby time of 50 days.

Mr. W S Mukund, Managing Director, Acer India said, “In line with our corporate mission we have time and again designed devices to break barriers between people and technology. We have redefined our position in the marketplace by making India’s first Ultrabook commercially available at a mainstream price. We will continue to focus on our strengths to bring in innovative technologies that would enable consumers to experience technology and derive multiple benefits.”

The S3 comes with a 13.3-inch HD LED display, a choice of Intel Core i3 and Core i5 processors, 240GB SSD or the 320GB/500GB HDD, Intel HD graphics, HDMI out and weights about 1.4kg. The magnesium aluminum chassis and the fingerprint free metal finish offer a classy look.

The prices of the Aspire S3 Ultrabook start at Rs 49,999/-, and Croma have announced they will be selling it at all their outlets in 13 cities.

Our initial impressions about the product

The S3 does look pretty classy, and feels well built as well. Putting a MacBook Air right next to it put the critical point – the slimness, to test. Both laptops are similarly thick towards the rear, but as you come towards the front, the Air gets slimmer more than the S3. While the Air offers all the ports on the sides, the S3 offers a majority of them on the back. Quite profound are the cooling vents, since this is the thickest part of the machine. Contrast this to the MacBook Air, which hides away the vents under the display hinge.

The Chiclet keypad was quite comfortable to use. The unit on display came preloaded with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, 320GB hard drive and Intel HD 3000 graphics. Even though it is a 64-bit OS, only 3.85GB of the total 4GB RAM was available for the system. The rest has been reserved to enable the new Sleep modes. The Windows Experience Index of 4.5 does indicate a stable performance.

We believe that at a starting price of Rs 49,999 with a second gen Intel Core i3 processor and a 320GB hard drive, the S3 does seem like a good deal. What you will get is a very sleek and solidly build notebook, something that is very light to carry around and has the Windows familiarity about it. We will give you our detailed verdict when we get the laptop for a detailed review. Do stay tuned for that.

Lenovo unveils its first Ultrabook device, IdeaPad U300s

2012-03-27T04:20:00.000-07:00

Lenovo last week showed off its first Ultrabook device at the IFA event in Germany. The laptop named IdeaPad U300s features a 13.3-inch display and is just 0.59-inches thick. With a weight of 2.2 pounds, the device is said to be lighter than Apple's MacBook Air, which is 0.68 inches thick and weighs 2.96 pounds.

The U300s Ultrabook comes with an Intel Core i7 processor with Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0. The Enhanced Experience 2.0 RapidDrive SSD technology helps the device boot up in 10 seconds. The U300s comes with a 13.3-inch ultra-slim 16:9 widescreen HD display, 4GB DDR3 memory and up to 256GB of SSD storage. The device has an eight hours of battery life during active use and 30 hours on standby mode. The body of U300s Ultrabook is made from a single-piece aluminum shell and is available in Graphite Grey and Clementine Orange colours.

The Lenovo Ultrabook U300s is priced at $1,200 and is scheduled to hit the market later next month. The device will be available worldwide by the month of November.

To remind you, the Ultrabook is the new segment of laptops which are slimmer and lighter than the conventional laptops. The Ultrabook series is promoted by Intel, which is reportedly focussing on this new segment of laptops.

It is believed that Intel is making all out endeavours to revive interest in laptops in view of increasing popularity of tablets, especially Apple's iPads. The UK-based chip designer ARM Holdings is also giving Intel giving a good competition with its strong hold in the tablet market.

Intel recently announced a $300 million fund to assist the companies across the world to develop hardware and software technologies for its ultra-thin laptops. Intel hopes the new device category will help gain nearly 40 percent of the laptop market by 2012 end.

Five dual-core Android phones you can get for less than Rs. 25,000

2012-03-27T02:44:00.000-07:00

Dual-core smartphones were considered a luxury premium product when they were introduced about one year ago. They were highly priced, packed a punch under the hood and finally we started seeing alternatives to a little device called the iPhone.

Now, one year later, dual-core Android phones have been available in India for quite some time. The Google Play Store is also filled with apps that take advantage of the powerful hardware under the hood of these devices.

With quad-core phones just around the corner we thought we’d take a look at some of the dual-core phones out there for you that have seen a slight dip in prices – allowing us to bring you a list of the five best dual-core Android smartphones under Rs. 25,000. If you thought a dual-core Android powered smartphone was out of your reach, think again!

Will you pick up one of these as your next smartphone?

Motorola Atrix 2

Processor: Dual-core 1GHz Cortex-A9
RAM: 1GB
Display: 4.3-inch display with a resolution of 540 x 960 pixels
Camera: 8MP AF Camera with an LED flash and a front facing camera
Battery: 1,785 mAh
OS: Android 2.3 Gingerbread
Storage: 8GB Internal Storage expandable up to 32GB via microSD
Price: Rs. 22,990

Verdict: At its price point, the Motorola Atrix 2 is a fantastic product. It has a brilliant display. The MotoBlur UI skin over Android is fun to use with 5 customizable screens. The device also has a micro-HDMI connector so you can playback content on your HDTV. Did we mention the phone is built like a rock?

HTC Sensation

Processor: Dual-core 1.2GHz Scorpion
RAM: 768MB RAM
Display: 4.3-inch display with a resolution of 540 x 960 pixels
Camera: 8MP AF camera with dual LED flash, 1080p Video recording and a front facing VGA camera
Battery: 1,520 mAh
OS: Android OS 2.3.4 Gingerbread upgradable to ICS
Storage: 1GB Internal storage expandable up to 32GB via microSD card
Price: Rs. 24,000

Verdict: At Rs. 24,000, the Sensation is one of the best smartphones from the HTC lineup. We really like the high-resolution display that is quite a bit better than what the competition has to offer at this price point. If you are looking for an overall value for money product that isn’t the Samsung Galaxy S II, you can definitely take a look at the HTC Sensation.

Samsung Galaxy R

Processor: Dual-core 1 GHz Cortex-A9
RAM: 1GB RAM
Display: 4.2-inch display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels
Camera: 5MP AF camera with an LED flash, 720p HD recording and a 1.3MP front facing camera
Battery: 1,650mAh
OS: Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread
Storage: 8GB internal storage expandable up to 32GB via microSD card
Price: Rs. 21,170

Verdict: The only drawback to the Samsung Galaxy R is that it doesn’t feature a Super AMOLED Display. The 5MP camera is a great performer, the gorilla glass makes sure that your screen is safe and the battery life of the device is long enough to survive a hectic day.

LG Optimus 2X

Processor: Dual-core 1GHz Cortex-A9
RAM: 512MB RAM
Display: 4.0-inch display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels
Camera: 8MP autofocus camera with an LED flash, 1080p HD video recording and a 1.3MP front facing camera
Battery: 1,500mAh
OS: Android 2.2 Froyo, upgradable to 2.3 Gingerbread
Storage: 8 GB internal storage expandable up to 32GB via microSD card
Price: Rs. 19,990

Verdict: The Optimus 2X with the 1GHz dual-core processor offers a definite performance improvement over the smartphones powered by 1GHz single core phones. The extra power under the hood does make it a snappier device. For a price of around Rs. 20k, this is definitely a steal. Along with the extra power, you will get a very capable phone, excellent display, a good camera, HDMI video out capability and 8GB built-in storage.

Micromax Superfone A85

Processor: Dual-core 1GHz Cortex-A9
RAM: 512MB RAM
Display: 3.8-inch display with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels
Camera: 5MP autofocus camera and a VGA front facing camera
Battery: 1500 mAh
OS: Android 2.2 Froyo
Storage: 8 GB internal storage expandable up to 32GB via microSD card
Price: Rs. 15,200

Verdict: Probably the only smartphone on our list to boast of gesture controls, the Micromax A85 Superfone is also the cheapest Dual-core smartphone available in the market. Its battery life may be shorter than the competition and considering the price point of Rs. 15,200 it does skim off on some features such as the camera and the build. The bright side is that you get a Tegra 2 powered Android smartphone under 20k.