Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia says it has shipped the 1.5 billionth phone running its S40 operating system.

The first S40 device  Nokia 7110 was released in 1999. A 21-year old Brazilian woman made the historic purchase 1.5 Billionth purchase in São Paulo.

Nokia claims its development over the years means that it now blurs the line between feature phones and smartphones. Phones like the Asha 303 can do smartphone type things like play Angry Birds, browse the web, and use social networks.

The desktop remains central to our everyday work and play, despite all the excitement around tablets, TV’s and phones. So it’s exciting for us to innovate in the desktop too, especially when we find ways to enhance the experience of both heavy “power” users and casual users at the same time. The desktop will be with us for a long time, and for those of us who spend hours every day using a wide diversity of applications, here is some very good news: 12.04 LTS will include the first step in a major new approach to application interfaces.

This work grows out of observations of new and established / sophisticated users making extensive use of the broader set of capabilities in their applications. We noticed that both groups of users spent a lot of time, relatively speaking, navigating the menus of their applications, either to learn about the capabilities of the app, or to take a specific action. We were also conscious of the broader theme in Unity design of leading from user intent. And that set us on a course which lead to today’s first public milestone on what we expect will  be a long, fruitful and exciting journey.

Head-Up Display, or HUD, which will ultimately replace menus in Unity applications. Here’s what we hope you’ll see in 12.04 when you invoke the HUD from any standard Ubuntu app that supports the global menu:

Voice is the natural next step

Searching is fast and familiar, especially once we integrate voice recognition, gesture and touch. We want to make it easy to talk to any application, and for any application to respond to your voice. The full integration of voice into applications will take some time. We can start by mapping voice onto the existing menu structures of your apps. And it will only get better from there.

But even without voice input, the HUD is faster than mousing through a menu, and easier to use than hotkeys since you just have to know what you want, not remember a specific key combination. We can search through everything we know about the menu, including descriptive help text, so pretty soon you will be able to find a menu entry using only vaguely related text (imagine finding an entry called Preferences when you search for “settings”).

We are sure that this is going to be a lot of fun. To read the Mark Shuttleworth’s blog post click here

Samsung has released Android 2.3.6 update for Galaxy Ace S5830I in India. The update is available via Samsung Kies.

The new version is S5830IXXLA2/S5830IODDLA1.

you might receive notification of this update on your device, if you have received such a notification- follow the onscreen instructions and update with the same.

If you have not received any such, then you can check it manually. To do that follow the path of home screen and hit Menu > Settings > About Phone > System update and click on Android update. Your update will be automatically be installed on your handset and you would be able to use your handset within 10 minutes.

Notion Ink partners with Texas Instruments 

21 January 2012, Bangalore

Notion Ink has partnered with Texas Instruments (TI) Incorporated for its next generation Adam II Tablets. Adam II will be using OMAP44xx processor along with other TI components like Wi-Link 7.0 and Phoenix Audio Power Amplifiers. Adam II will also leverage the power optimizations achieved using mature combination of TI’s integrated power-management IC.

Designed specifically for best Power Performance and Multi-tasking Experience, Adam II will be based on Google’s IceCream Sandwich Operating System.

The OMAP44xx platform’s smart multicore architecture pairs its main CPUs with several differentiated features including programmable accelerators, hardware composition engines and a dedicated ISP. Imagination Technologies’ super-fast PowerVR SGX5xx GPU and enhanced memory architecture add still more functionality while an OMAP-specific distributed composition architecture enables advanced image and video layering for crisp, HD visuals. These elements and more are the force behind the OMAP44xx processor’s ability to enable fast and fluid multitasking while maintaining ultra-low power consumption.

Adam II will release the world’s first Modular Based Software Architecture which will further expand the scope of application development and use nearly every single hardware feature in a “user customizable” application. Drag and drop features will enable easy application modification and Open Source Module will further expand the use cases and tablet deployment. Node operations like in Blender, and “Application Authoring Tools” are primarily aimed at non-programmers for composing applications, games and use-case flows in a drag-and-drop fashion, utilizing visual editors and behavior-based logic system.

This System will help consumers, professionals and students become productive as they will be able to use the tablet as a logic analyzer, medical imaging device, signal acquisition and processing, 3D modeling and multi-media.

For more information about TI OMAP processors, visit www.ti.com and follow this blog for Adam II.

New Delhi, January 16, 2012: At the inaugural session of GridWeek Asia 2012 organized by IEEMA (Indian Electrical & Electronics Manufacturers’ Association) and Clasma Events and co-located at ELECRAMA-2012, Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister, Government of India and Chairman, Indian Smart Grid Task Force, today said that the government is planning to set up ‘Smart Meter Task Force’ that will look into modernizing our primitive ways of calculating power usage.

“It is amazing to see how India – which is a super power in Information Technology – lags terribly in the Power sector. It is really annoying to see our primitive ways of providing power – be it evacuation, grids, meters or even the way we manually calculate power consumption till date. All this has to change and it will change, for this decade has been declared by the Government as the ‘Decade of Innovation’,” said Mr. Pitroda.

The Government reckons that India needs 100 million meters and towards this end, the Smart Meter Task Force will be entrusted the task of introducing Rs 1000 – 1500 Low Cost Meters. “We need a 2-chip Meter that can be connected through GSM technology. Basically a dumb meter that is smart enough. These Low Cost Meters will feed critical data into the Smart Grids that are considered to be the panacea for our primitive Power Sector,” Mr. Pitroda added.

Mr. Pitroda said that the UPA government is committed to democratizing information and towards this end two major steps have already been taken. One, the Government has initiated a National Knowledge Center wherein 1500 nodes will capture data across sectors and feed into a central node. Of these 750 nodes are already connected and the balance 750 nodes will be operational in the next 12 months. Two, mammoth number of 250,000 Panchayats (local governments) will be connected through optical fibre enabling faster and better education, health services, public services and governance etc. “The Government has earmarked US$ 5-6 billion for one-of-its-kind project in the World.

According to Mr. Pitroda the Government has set up US$ 1 billion Venture Fund to foster ‘Innovation’ across sectors and States. “We have set up a National Innovation Center that will oversee State Innovation Centers and 100 Sectoral Innovation Houses. All these efforts beautifully tie-up into the Smart Grids. Today I personally think that Power is our biggest bottleneck for 8% GDP growth. It is a larger challenge that many of us don’t realize considering that Power has to reach to the bottom of the pyramid and that too cheap power. Only Smart Grids – that too India specific model of Smart Grids – can solve our problems. The Western model is not scalable, affordable and workable.”

ELECRAMA hosted the maiden GridWeek Asia which is an extension of the annual GridWeek conference held in Washington, D.C., U.S.A. The Smart Grid potential in Asia – a rapidly growing market – is expected to reach US$22 billion by 2020.

Globally recognized as the must-attend Smart Grid gathering, GridWeek is the only event that attracts the complete diversity of Smart Grid stakeholders to explore Smart Grid’s impact on the economy, utility infrastructure, consumers and the environment, while answering the industry’s most pressing questions.

India is experiencing rapid growth in gross domestic product (GDP), with an expected growth rate of over 8 percent per anum this decade, which is fueling the need for expedited infrastructure development. India’s total installed generation capacity is close to 175,000 megawatts (MW), and the country requires an additional 100,000 MW of generation capacity in the next six years with the corresponding investment expected at well over $500 billion (USD) in the electricity sector.

Airtel and Vodafone on Thursday announced fixed fee-based plans with different terms and conditions which will allow unlimited use of BlackBerry Messenger Service to their customers.

While Vodafone’s plan to be launched next week under name ‘Go BBM’ unlimited access to BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) for Rs. 5 per day or Rs. 129 per month for prepaid. There will be fixed price of Rs 129 per month for post-paid subscribers, the statement said.

Airtel in a statement also announced unlimited BBM service usage plan for its post-paid customers against monthly rental of Rs. 129. This plan will also provide 300 local and national SMS to BlackBerry handset user, the statement said.

To subscribe, existing and new postpaid Airtel mobile customers on BlackBerry can call 121 or walk-in to their nearest Airtel postpaid activation help-desk.

Corel has released Photo Management software AfterShot Pro for Linux. Its main features are

• Complete RAW workflow
• Flexible photo management
• Advanced non-destructive editing

Corel® AfterShot™ Pro is a fast, flexible photo workflow solution that combines robust photo management, advanced non-destructive adjustments and complete RAW processing. Organize your photos in catalogs or folders. Find images quickly with extensive Metadata tools that let you search by camera settings, keywords, tags and more. Experiment with and alter images freely with non-destructive adjustment tools and apply enhancements precisely with selective editing. Easily output your work for albums, web sites or client review. With RAW support, powerful batch processing and incredible speed, AfterShot Pro is the fast way to professional photos.

To try AfterShot Pro visit Corel AfterShot Pro Website

HTC has unveiled the HTC Titan II, the company’s first Windows Phone to run on a 4G LTE network.

The HTC Titan II comes equipped with a 4.7-inch super LCD capacitive touchscreen display, and offers quick and easy access to the latest movies and TV shows via HTC Watch and on-the-go gaming with Xbox LIVE, the vendor said.

The phone also has a 16 megapixel camera with a wide-angle lens, autofocus, dual LED flash, red eye reduction, image stabilization, a backside-illuminated sensor and a physical camera button. The smartphone also enables 720p HD video recording.

Powered by Qualcomm’s 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S2 processor, HTC Titan II will feature the latest version of Windows Phone OS and will pack 1,730mAh lithium ion battery.

The new phone will be released exclusively on AT&T in the US in the coming months.

Intel has announced new range of Atom processors for smart-phones and tablets. The first phone powered by the new Medfield chips will be launched by Lenovo later this year.

As of now Intel has announced only one version of Medfield chip: the Intel Atom Z2460. The Z2460 features a single Atom core with a 512KB L2 cache, a PowerVR SGX 540 GPU and a dual-channel LPDDR2 memory interface.

Medfield’s system-on-chip design packs an X86-architecture central processing unit (CPU), RAM memory, storage and an Imagination Technologies-designed graphics processing unit all onto the same chip using the firm’s established 32 nanometre manufacturing technology.

The chip is smaller than a fingertip and is designed to balance processing power against energy use in order to maximise battery life.

Intel said a prototype unit, which it built itself, could deliver eight hours of 3G voice calls, six hours of 1080p video decoding or five hours of 3G internet browsing.

The first Medfield chipe powered phone Lenovo K800  will have a 4.5-inch (11.43-centimeter) touch screen and will be able to stream video to TV sets equipped with Intel’s Wireless Display technology.

Motorola also in the list of manufacturers to use Intel Medfield processors. Intel-powered Motorola devices are expected to enter the validation phase this summer.

Samsung said its new ES8000 55-inch “Super OLED” 3D smart TV contained a dual core processor and was therefore capable of multitasking. Samsung would release TVs of this form as large as 75 inches. OLED or organic light-emitting diode is replacing LCD as it offers brighter and thinner screens than LCDs, and uses less power, yet is cheaper to manufacture.

TV’s built-in cameras use face recognition to automatically sign users into their personal profiles. Then, users can issue voice commands like “channel 34″ or “guide” to control the TV. They can also use gesture controls for Web browsing, adjusting the volume and more.

The company also unveiled a  $199 device called the InTouch, which converts regular TVs into smart TVs.