Nokia News & Reviews

AIEEE 2012 | AIEEE Announced To Date Access To Technology And Architecture

2011-11-01T10:39:00.001-07:00

The All India Entrance Examination Engineering (AIEEE) is an all-India examination common entrance for access to engineering and architecture and planning programs at the baccalaureate level.

Annual Examination is a Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). Candidates who are eligible for AIEE can apply for entry to universities and others from all over India for BE, BTEC, Barch BPlanning or courses.

AIEEE 2012 exam will be offline April 29, 2012 and 2012 AIEEE online survey will be conducted from May 7 to 25, 2012.

7 Billion Baby

2011-11-01T10:35:00.000-07:00

For advocates of population control, it is normal for the expected birth of the world 7000000000: e the child falls on Halloween. For them it is a worrying development which portends a higher risk of poverty, hunger and financial instability.

From another point of view, but "this child is a blessing." Is how Kathryn Lopez at National Review Online describes the event in his interview with Anna Halpin, founder and CEO of World Youth Alliance (WYA). This year, pro-life youth organization focused on international population and the Economy: Investing in the individual. Each new life should be allowed, they argue, is considered a new potential for creativity and innovation that contributes to the opportunities and growth.

After all, you never know when the next child could grow up to be a Steve Jobs or a Mother Teresa.

Because of this view is often WYA pushing the work of the United Nations and related organizations such as the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) and UNICEF, which apparently upset by the growing population. The solution, according to some in the UN, is to increase the "population control" efforts through better access to contraception and abortion. The pressure of the UN in developing countries to eliminate the regulation or prohibition of abortion.

In an essay contributed to the heritage collection indivisible social and economic foundations of Liberty, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins points on predictions that advocates population control "are disastrous skiing:

Film Review: RA.One

2011-11-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

First Indian company in Superhero Movie is so powerful and emotionally filled as part of the tradition of Bollywood.

Bollywood superhero would be a combination of all the world, super-beings than men in costume fun to fly, swim, and American and white cloth tied to the force of gravity that define warriors Chinese, Hong Kong martial arts enthusiasts and video games pyrotechnics. So, ladies, gentlemen, and especially for boys and girls, Shah Rukh Khan to give you a G. One, the father of a superhero and sci-fi film RA.One, which boasts the largest history of Indian cinema budget and rolling out of the weekend Diwali, the biggest festival of India, known as the Festival of the West Lights.

The film, directed by Anubhav Sinha, is delightfully silly, with waterfalls, CG animation and musical numbers erupt everywhere, but his heart is beating in a banal story of a family and especially a father and a son who does not understand not others. Oscar Hammerstein II said something like that you must believe in whiskers on kittens and warm woolen mittens to get away with such platitudes to write about in SRK Shah corny lyrics and then as he is known for billions of the fans really believe in family values and the power of cinema.

You do not need to be passionate about Bollywood RA.One to embrace, but it sure would help. The "point" numbers, and cultural references come fast and furious with little concession to Western audiences unfamiliar with South Asian cinema. But the characters of our time environment video game and computer technology to make backup copies of fantasy score big with young people across the globe. And the stunts and FX work the end product credit crawl over 10 minutes pass from Indian cinema to a new level of technological expertise.

It seems that cost more than $ 25 million, the film was originally scheduled to deploy in June, however, the launch was postponed due to extensive post-production Diwali and 3D conversion. The impression is examined here is a 2D version is shown in most countries in the theaters, all that was available in Los Angeles before the appearance of SRK in town for a gala after the first time in London and Toronto on consecutive nights.

The film begins with a superhero committed Dreamscape (Khan) races to save the poor damsel prisoners (giving Bollywood stars Priyanka Chopra and Sanjay Dutt with a crowd-pleasing cameos). This turns out to be a daydream school boy, Prateek (Armaan Verma), whose father is boring, at least in his eyes, a computer geek, who designs video games for the gaming tycoon London.

Khan, wearing a curly wig, very badly and causing a great South Indian accent complete with stereotypical mannerisms and eating an occasional slip in Tamil, plays Shekhar Subramanium, who has never been a hero to his son. Even Michael Jackson on his Bad era representation is not to impress and nothing to worship Shekhar punjabi wife Sonia (Kareena Kapoor, the big star) can not shake Prateek believe needs a new father.

In desperation, join the nerdy father of her son's request to create a video game villain "who only make" a complete badass can not be defeated by a player. This player is called the access Shekhar A random design team or RA.One. The hero who will try to beat this super villain, with low chances of success, is appointed or G. A Good One, and is shaped in the image of his Creator , Shekhar. (The explanation goes fast, but loose RA.One is a game of Raavan, the demon king in Hindu mythology, and G. You will get close to Jeevan Hindi word or life.)

In a complex and time sequence that owes much to the 30 universal time of Frankenstein movies, the computer lab that makes this game works as the villain Amok becomes more sensitive and escapes the world of video to wander among men and destroy at will. It not only kills his colleague Shekhar Akaash Chinese (Hong Kong-born martial artist Tom Wu), but Shekhar confronts and kills himself.

This film is an emotional turning point. Widow and son Shekhar surprising faces all of their husband and father of Miss deceased, but also to do with its virtual exchange. The Son, and Shekhar your team scores the only way to fight is releasing RA.One G. One of the game as well. So Shekhar self-designed, double-Khan warrior, not a bad wig, moves in the real world to protect his family, RA.One, and discover the latest villain in the guise of what Akaashi any number of assumed identities . (RA.One is mostly played with Arjun Rampal, Bollywood actress.)

Sequences include a demolition derby main running through the streets of downtown London and an airport parking lot brawl of a runaway train in Mumbai, which causes the destruction of large CG for Victoria Terminus, and a final confrontation between the two warriors in a virtual world that moves more and more a land of video games. Appropriately, Prateek team with the ego of his father change in this duel.

Musical numbers are nothing to expect in the Terminator or Matrix movies, two widely cited, but are mandatory in a Bollywood film. But here, in fact gather for story and characters, even in a moving moment to express the pain of a woman and her son in the father's death.

Work to push the emotions that you expect the film is based on an imaginary video game, which is sure to become real. The child provides the most realistic and affecting performance. Khan, in his dual role is a really sweet if on top of each. Kapoor is a wonderful and fun than a lover, then his wife weeps, when Rampal makes a great villain.

During the race, the credit, the film has a point of showing a backstage EPK tricks and effects, driving double points of origin. The first is that SRK has, as announced, his own stunts. And two, that India can compete in the majors and FX waterfalls. SRK, whose company Red Chillies Entertainment is the film with Eros International, has paid a lot of money on creating your own special effects house and RA.One Mumbai is not just a business card to the world of cinema .

RA.One so well serve two masters, family values and good instincts capitalist. And, as usual Diwali, a doll, and the next would be burned as good overcomes evil.

Common Entrance Test IIT (JEE) 2012 The Application Process Begins Online October 31, 2011

2011-11-01T10:30:00.000-07:00

The IIT Joint Entrance Exam (JEE 2012)Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) 2012 The application process begins online from October 31, 2011

Most likely the last time, common admission test for access to all of India at the Indian Institute (s) of technology will be April 8, 2012.

The online application process will begin IIT JEE 2012 October 31, 2011, and the last date for submitting applications is December 10, 2011

Common Entrance Examination (JEE 2012) apply for admission to undergraduate courses at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Bhubaneswar, Bombay, Delhi, Gandhinagar, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Mandi, Patna, Punjab, Rajasthan, Roorkee, IT-BHU Varanasi, ISM Dhanbad

For more information see the IIT entrance exam 2012 common Notification and dates

For IIT entrance common materials Exam Study, see PLEADE IITJEE 2012 Question Papers solved and Test Preparation CD---IITJEE 2012 Solved Question papers and Test preparation CD

Sales And Earnings Continued To Rise In HTC's Report Shows The Third Financial Quarter

2011-11-01T10:27:00.000-07:00

HTC has made large enough in Q3, as judged by the company's financial report. Volumes of the company sales and profits continued to rise and the Taiwanese could easily reach its Q3.

HTC shipped 13.2 million units in three months, providing 4.54 billion dollars in revenue. Both figures compare favorably with those obtained in the same quarter of 2010, an increase of 93% and 68% respectively. Naturally, the increase in sales reflects net income, which is $ 625 million, up 7% from Q2 2011 and 68% in Q3 2010.

The high turnover rate in the third quarter was boosted by the launch of the brand Beats Sensation Sensation XE and XL, as well as rhymes HTC, who hopes company will also help achieve emotional connection between customers and the brand HTC . And when they were only available at the end of the quarter, we imagine they have an even greater influence in the performance of HTC this holiday season.

Curiously, HTC plans to send 12 to 13,000,000 units in the last quarter of the year, which is less than what they managed to repel the third quarter, when revenues expected to decline slightly. We'll see how it pans over the next three months, of course, but we are pretty sure that the company will be able to turn these goals easily.

Gingerbread Coming LG Optimus 2X, 3D And Black

2011-11-01T10:26:00.000-07:00

LG Optimus 2X, 3D and Optimus Optimus Blacks are finally Android 2.3 Gingerbread in November this year. The program is as follows and applies to models independent operator Optimus.

LG Optimus 2X - rolls updated to November 1

LG Optimus 3D - rolls updated during the week of November 21

LG Optimus Black - rolls updated during the week of November 28

The schedule update for other market participants real and locked models will be announced later, or you can ask your local representatives.

The information comes via the official Facebook LG. There really is no more information beyond (with a few "thank you for your patience").

Vivid HTC And Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket LTE To Hit AT & T

2011-11-01T10:24:00.000-07:00

AT & T today announced the HTC Vivid and Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket, both the LTE has to mark newly created LTE network operator.

Samsung Galaxy S II dramatically

II Skyrocket Galaxy S II is like the Galaxy S, but with a screen of 4.5 inches larger SuperAMOLED more, and faster dual-core 1.5GHz and 1 GB of RAM.

And in the back of an 8-megapixel camera, will take the photos, which will be recorded in the 16 GB built in storage, expandable with microSD cards up to 32GB Vivid card.HTC

Vivid on the HTC, another proud LTE smartphones, the configuration of AT & T running Gingerbread 2.3.5 as well. Although it is the same 4.5-inch display so dramatically, Vivid QHD provides a resolution of 540x960. Other key information includes 1.2GHz processor, 8-megapixel rear camera and 16 GB of storage on-board microSD card support.

Price and Availability

As you know, has launched AT & T LTE network in September to five cities - Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Now, however, with the launch of Lively and availability will Skyrocket LTE will be extended to Boston, Washington, DC, Baltimore and Athens, Georgia.

Galaxy S II Skyrocket and Vivid HTC AT & T will hit stores on November 6, with prices of $ 249.99 and $ 199 respectively. The two units will be offered with two data plans for you to choose. For $ 15 a month, you can get 200 MB of data, or if it is not enough, you also get 2 GB for $ 25 per month.

HTC Became The Biggest Seller Of Smartphones In The U.S.

2011-11-01T10:22:00.002-07:00

The third quarter 2011, compared to Canalys HTC smartphone is now the leading supplier in the United States, taking into account the shipments. HTC shipped some 5.7 million units under its own brand and around 70,000 units according to T-Mobile brand. The second and third place in the United States was made by Samsung and Apple, with 4.9 million and 4.6 million units shipped, respectively.

Meanwhile, Samsung became the leading smartphone vendor in the world. By "world" we mean the APAC, Western Europe and Latin America, pushing Nokia, Apple and RIM to the position of second, third and fourth respectively. Samsung shipped 27.3 million units to these markets and now has a market share of 23%.

Apple's performance was not very exciting in this neighborhood, but you can expect the company to fight in the 4 th quarter of 2011, the results, thanks to huge sales of the iPhone 4S.

Samsung Wants The Source Code Of The IPhone 4S, Are They Real?

2011-11-01T10:22:00.001-07:00

At this point, it seems that we will not live long enough to see the end of the legal battle between Apple and Samsung. However, if you were not bored to death of it already, the latest developments in the Australian court.

Samsung is currently in Oz Apple, claiming that the iPhone 4S is achieved in three of its wireless patents. The legal team of Korean society has formally requested to see the source code for iPhone 4S, Apple with the agreements signed with the Australian airline, so they can assess the potential for patent violations.

Now you can imagine, Apple will not be willing to share all the secrets of iPhone 4S and not share anything without a court order. We still have to see how to cook, but orders are usually very difficult to give, so if Samsung has a very strong case, one suspects he has a good chance here.

Lumia 800 Nokia To Hit The UK On November 16

2011-11-01T10:21:00.001-07:00

The first Nokia Luma 800 shipments were leaving the factory last week, but only now do we learn the actual date of his arrival. The Finns have announced that British citizens will have the chance to buy 800 Lumia, November 16.

Previously, the company set the price of Lumia 800 to € 420, which should translate to about £ 430, after taxes are added to Britain. It may seem expensive, but you should not forget that this guy comes with free lifetime voice-guided navigation, a beautiful AMOLED screen, unibody and oh-so-thin non-colored plastic.

Please visit the Nokia World 2011 live broadcast of live images, the camera samples and reference values for the Nokia 800 snow. After that you are free to send us a line and say the comments section if you want to receive.

HTC Sensation XL Is Launched For Sale In The United Kingdom, 486 Pounds Can Do For You

2011-11-01T10:20:00.001-07:00

We just got the news that the HTC Sensation XL began selling in the UK. The Beats Audio-droid package is already available without SIM card and a contract if you do not mind committing his future to three.

4.7 out of contract "HTC Sense XL costs £ 480, including taxes, making it one of the droids more expensive on the market. Of course you would expect given the beats that are included in the box and the big screen . Not to mention the 8-megapixel camera with promising bright F/2.2 lens.

If you can wait another week Amazon UK will offer the smartphone unlocked for a penny under £ 450 and you get a similar offer of three United Kingdom.

Alternatively, the United Kingdom three Sensation XL will give you for free until you agree to sign a two-year contract worth at least £ 34 per month. Then you must be 500 "at any time, any network minutes', 5000 texts and 1GB data network every month, so it's not too bad a lot, either.

You can also choose one of the plans more expensive (£ 37 or £ 40), the three have to offer more minutes and unlimited data.

IPhone 4S Storm 15 New Countries On November 11

2011-11-01T10:17:00.000-07:00

As promised, we decided to expand the availability of the iPhone 4S. Their last and greatest was published Oct. 14 in seven countries, followed by a 22 to 28 October.

Currently, the iPhone 4S is already available in the U.S., Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein , Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

The iPhone 4S band has now expanded to the entire Hong Kong, South Korea, Bulgaria, Albania, Armenia, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Malta, Montenegro, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Portugal and Romania. It will be officially launched in these countries is 11 November, when the pre-campaign begins Nov. 4 (not available in Albania, El Salvador, Guatemala, Malta, Montenegro and Panama).

According to Apple the iPhone 4S will be available in over 70 countries until the end of 2011, which means that at least 26 countries will begin to offer it through official channels.

Beat YouTube Video Goes Viral McDonald

2011-10-15T21:35:00.000-07:00

Video McDonald disturbing cash from customers with a wand in Greenwich Village in New York City has made headlines the national news, and then posted on YouTube on Thursday.

The video has been viewed nearly 500,000 times, shows two female customers to jump on the counter in the restaurant West 3rd St during an argument in their orders.

Ray McIntosh, the cashier, was charged with possession of crime and criminal assault charges of a weapon. The two women were charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct. One woman suffered a fractured skull and a broken arm in the incident.

Warning: Some may find the video disturbing

Play World Of Warcraft Free Online

2011-10-15T21:25:00.003-07:00

World of Warcraft (WOW), the world's best-selling online game now offers a free download and free to play the introductory content. Blizzard Entertainment offers for new players to play for free the first 20 levels, but must be purchased as well as extensions to the original game if they want to continue after level 20

The blizzard dropped their prices to the original game and the extension to $ 20, but the cost of other expansions of about $ 35.

You can reach level 85 in WOW. Therefore, Blizzard has a part of your game for free play. There are a lot of end game content that is designed for players who are looking for new challenges and greater rewards once they reach level 85.

Blizzard Entertainment, WOW is one of the most successful online games is about 11.4 million subscribers per month, which pay about $ 12 per month for access to a world of Azeroth.

As a player, I would say that WOW is an addiction, so if you are going to offer you may end up buying the original game. For more information and start playing right away, sign up on the official website.

Play World Of Warcraft Free Online

2011-10-15T21:25:00.002-07:00

The blizzard dropped their prices to the original game and the extension to $ 20, but the cost of other expansions of about $ 35.

Blizzard Entertainment, WOW is one of the most successful online games is about 11.4 million subscribers per month, which pay about $ 12 per month for access to a world of Azeroth.

Play Team Fortress 2 Online For Free

2011-10-15T21:25:00.001-07:00

Team Fortress 2, a team based multiplayer first person shooter games are now free to download and play. Valve developers said they earn in-game transactions. This means that the game is free, but you must purchase powerful items, if you want to compete

They are the users / players who have purchased the theme, first, get the special privilege of the game, as some additional features, access to rare and cosmetic products, the ability to store multiple items in the backpack, and trade more efficiently and craft skills.

In a way its a win-win situation for both parties. Players can buy hats, weapons, and other cosmetics. But the player would not be detrimental to free players that are valued at cost of goods declared by Valve.

Facilities:

Capture the Flag

King-of-the-Hill

"All game modes, classes and maps are available. Almost all weapons are available through achievements, falls, or crafts," the company said in the ad.

The game is one of the few that there is a team-based gameplay than the single-player. Unlike other teams in many games, teamwork is the most important aspect of Team Fortress 2 In both Windows and Mac

For more information and start playing Team Fortress 2 years for free, visit the official website.

Facebook Has Now Video Calling | Start A Video Chat Facebook In Browser

2011-10-15T21:20:00.000-07:00

Call it a response from Facebook against Google + 's hangout or what Facebook now integrates video chat. And that's what Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and CEO said in the statement that his company would announce "something great" last week.

Facebook Chat window is getting a makeover with a new clean look. A video call button on the top and a button to the chat screen text, this is a Facebook message.

In addition to video chat Facebook also throw in all the new discussion groups, this allows you to have a conversation with several people at once. Facebook has worked on your cat to do is more stable and keep most of the browsers in the market. In summary will be smarter Facebook framing, chat groups, video conferencing and integrated soon.

Facebook using Skype provides better video-chat service that Google already offers +. Rumors of Facebook video chat service begins with the launch of Google + hangouts, a service that allows users to video chat with more than ten friends at once.

All you need is to install a small program once and you're ready to party. Some examples of the look and feel of it.

Start now: https://www.facebook.com/videocalling

1 Year Free Hosting Shared Line Jumps Is $ 119.40

2011-10-15T20:53:00.001-07:00

If you are installing the new site and the cost of accommodation is the highest proportion of the initial investment. The free servers are not always reliable and availability is not guaranteed with the use of low bandwidth. So find a shared hosting free for the year (100% free) would be great to start.

Jumpline Web Hosting offers a year of shared hosting account completely free, no incorporation of this offer promotional services with unnecessary communication.

JumpLine is well-known name is a premium web hosting services. Thus, it is best to start with a trusted name, if you are serious about your business.

To begin with, who are ready to install a small web site easy to use control panel, shared hosting is a viable option. Shared hosting can be a cPanel or Plesk Panel (that's you choice), I recommend cPanel.

Here is a summary of the characteristics of Jumpline Free Shared Hosting:

1 Account

10GB of space

Banda 100GB

Daily backups

cPanel 11

140 + applications

Host 10 domains

Storage is no problem, and the bandwidth is sufficient to start new projects.

Note: Credit cards are essential to buy Shared Hosting account, although it will not be charged for the first year. Next year you can continue with the same account and your card will be charged.

The new domain can be purchased with this offer, or an existing domain can also be used.

You are free to choose, after a year if there is another 1 year free offer Blogsolute.com

Start, go to this link and choose the plan stacked method followed by the annual payment term is $ 0.00/year.

1 Year Free Hosting Shared Line Jumps Is $ 119.40

2011-10-15T20:53:00.000-07:00

Jumpline Web Hosting offers a year of shared hosting account completely free, no incorporation of this offer promotional services with unnecessary communication.

JumpLine is well-known name is a premium web hosting services. Thus, it is best to start with a trusted name, if you are serious about your business.

Here is a summary of the characteristics of Jumpline Free Shared Hosting:

1 Account

10GB of space

Banda 100GB

Daily backups

cPanel 11

140 + applications

Host 10 domains

Storage is no problem, and the bandwidth is sufficient to start new projects.

Note: Credit cards are essential to buy Shared Hosting account, although it will not be charged for the first year. Next year you can continue with the same account and your card will be charged.

The new domain can be purchased with this offer, or an existing domain can also be used.

You are free to choose, after a year if there is another 1 year free offer Blogsolute.com

Start, go to this link and choose the plan stacked method followed by the annual payment term is $ 0.00/year.

BlackBerry PlayBook review

2011-04-15T01:56:00.000-07:00

The words "play" and "book" are a bit of an odd choice for RIM's latest attempt at consumer relevance, a tablet that, at its core, runs one of the most hardcore and industry-friendly operating systems known to man. The OS is QNX and the hardware is, of course, the BlackBerry PlayBook. It's an enterprise-friendly offering that's also out to conquer the consumer tablet ecosphere, hoping to follow in the footsteps of the BlackBerry handsets that have filled the pockets of corporate executives and BBM addicts around the globe.

It's something of a serious tablet when compared to the competition running software from Apple and Google and, while it certainly has games, its biggest strengths are rather more boring. It does a really great job at displaying PowerPoint presentations, for example, and has the security chops to keep last quarter's dismal sales figures from falling into the wrong hands. Exciting stuff? No, but useful features for sure, and regardless of whether you find those intriguing or boring this is RIM's seven-inch, Flash-having but 3G-lacking tablet clad in an unassuming but extremely sophisticated exterior. It's what's running behind the glass that disappoints.
The black PlayBook, with its angular edges and dark styling, looks decidedly nondescript, more likely to open up a wormhole somewhere in orbit around Jupiter than leap into someone's hands at retail. Only the chrome logo 'round the back adds some flare, with the word "BlackBerry" subtly embossed below the display on the front. The chassis is cool metal, ever so slightly rubberized, the edges squared off, and there is absolutely no flex or give anywhere. It feels perfectly solid and doesn't yield to any attempted contortions, despite being just 0.4-inches thick -- less than a tenth thicker than an iPad 2. At 0.9 pounds, it's considerably lighter, but a bit heavier than the .83 pound Galaxy Tab.

Debate about the perfect tablet size rages on, but we have to say the slightly smallish factor here creates a device that's comfortable to roam with. The light weight certainly makes it easier for reading and the more hand-friendly size makes it feel more comfortable to carry. That size, plus the dark coloring, makes this slate a bit less obvious than much of the competition, which is certainly part of its understated charm.

Up top are four buttons, the only physical controls to be found: volume up, volume down, play/pause, and an unfortunately small power button that's flush with the chassis. It's impossible to find by feel and, once located, difficult to activate. You can't really hit it without using a fingernail and even then it requires a lot of pressure to modulate. Plus, it's located centrally on top of the device, exactly where your fingers likely aren't.

BlackBerry PlayBook vs. iPad 2

It sounds crazy, but this is, hands-down, the worst part of the hardware. Think about how often you use the power button on your phone to toggle the screen and then imagine having to stab really hard at it with a fingernail instead. It's hugely frustrating and, while you can turn the screen on by swiping all the way from bezel-to-bezel, even on this seven-incher that's a bit ornery -- and there's no way other than the power button to disable the screen.

A five megapixel camera peeks out the back, while a three megapixel unit handles front-facing duties. That one is tucked under the glass and situated just above the seven-inch, 1,024 x 600 display that will threaten neither rods nor cones when on maximum brightness. It does, however, deliver great clarity and excellent viewing angles.

Hidden away on the bottom are three ports: micro-HDMI, micro-USB, and a proprietary three-prong charging connector for use when the thing settles down in its docking cradle or gets cozy with the optional external adapter -- charging at twice the rate of micro-USB. Up top there's one more hole, a humble 3.5mm headphone jack, but if you look closely you'll also spot stereo speaker grilles cut into either side of the glass.

Internals

Running the show is a dual-core, 1GHz TI OMAP processor that's expertly massaged and manipulated by the QNX OS here. QNX is a decidedly efficient and bulletproof operating system that powers everything from jet fighters to, well, little black tablets. That's backed by 1GB of RAM and 16, 32, or 64GB of storage, with the smallest costing $499 and each subsequent step adding $100 to the cost of entry.

Graphics are handled by a PowerVR design, which quite handily offloads video decoding and gaming acceleration from the processor, enabling this thing to decode and display 1080p video over HDMI while still ticking along quite smoothly and running productivity apps on the seven-inch display. Not a hint of dithering or pixelation, of course. Apps load quickly, tend to be impressively responsive, and switching from one to the next is effortless.

Early builds of the PlayBook software (we're now on our third since taking possession of the thing) seemingly had some issues managing memory, and on multiple occasions we found upper corners glowing red. Our first thought was that the guns on our CRT had been misaligned by a wayward magnet, but this is just how the PlayBook alerts you to issues, in this case a lack of memory. Memory management seems to be much improved in the most recent build we've received, but you can certainly still kill unwanted apps whenever you want by simply swiping them vertically, off into oblivion.

Connectivity

There are various flavors of 4G coming down the pipe for the PlayBook later this year, including a WiMAX sampler for Sprint as well as HSPA+ and LTE for... well, for other carriers. That leaves us with 802.11a/b/g/n connectivity, plus Bluetooth of course. Using that last standard you can pair up a keyboard and mouse; do so and a microscopic cursor appears on the screen. Left clicks for taps and right-clicks for gestures, initiated at the edge of the screen rather than off of it. This, as you'd expect, turns intuitive gestures into clumsy mouse flicks.

Curiously, though, the device doesn't support simple USB mass storage -- you can't just plug it in to your laptop and dump a bunch of files on it. You can mount it as a drive over USB, but then you have only access to a small, read-only volume that contains a single driver. Install that and the PlayBook shows up as a network drive.

Deliciously, this driver allows you to access the device over the network or connected directly over USB, but if you're rocking something other than a Mac or a PC you're going to be disappointed the first time you try to tether here. And, with no simple mass storage mode, it's far more complicated that it should be if you just want to get a file off the thing.

Battery life

With day-to-day usage, WiFi on, screen reasonably bright, checking out some websites and playing some tunes, the PlayBook has plenty of juice to get you through a couple days without breaking a sweat. It'll handily survive your all-day presentation at the office, make you look cool in front of your boss, then still have plenty of battery life left to chill out to some N.W.A. on the flight home.

But, compared to the competition, it delivers a solid mid-pack performance. We looped a standard MPEG4 video clip with WiFi enabled and screen brightness at about 65 percent, managing seven hours and one minute before everything went dark. That's about an hour more than the Samsung Galaxy Tab, but over an hour less than the Motorola Xoom. The iPad 2, meanwhile, manages ten and a half hours when similarly stressed.

	Battery Life
RIM BlackBerry PlayBook	7:01
Apple iPad 2	10:26
Apple iPad	9:33
Motorola Xoom	8:20
Dell Streak 7	3:26
Archos 101	7:20
Samsung Galaxy Tab	6:09

Software

Operating system

PlayBook interface

Like webOS? If so, you're going to love what's hiding under the PlayBook's (healthy) bezels -- capacitive digitizers that recognize a variety of gestures. System gestures originate to the side of the pixels and terminate on the screen -- except for the swipe to turn the screen on, which has you dragging from one bezel all the way across to the opposite one.

To switch from one app to the next you can swipe inward from the left or the right, which pops the app out of full-screen and lets you move forward or back in the queue. A tap then maximizes your new favorite app. Or, a swipe up from the bottom gives you an even higher-level view of your running apps, which you can again zing your way through. Grabbing one and throwing it upward sends it to the garbage collector, or you can tap the tiny X that appears next to its name.

Swiping from the top of the app brings down a context menu, extra controls that let you save files in Word to Go or jump from one album to another in the media player. Finally, swipe in from either top corner of the screen and you get a system context menu that displays the date and time, simple media controls, battery and connectivity indicators, and a little gear you can tap to tweak your system settings.

Ultimately it's very intuitive to use and, even better, it feels really good. The dynamic action of throwing a frustrating application right off of the screen is quite satisfying, and the lack of any multi-finger antics certainly makes task-switching a far surer affair. Everything is quick and responsive -- just what you expect on a tablet that costs this much money.

Keyboard

At first blush, the keyboard on the PlayBook seems quite good. In landscape mode the keys are spread wide but still reachable by thumbs if you hold this tablet by its horizontal extents -- well, if you don't have particularly short thumbs, anyway. Flipped into portrait it's an even easier reach, but obviously a bit more precision is required.

However, spend a few minutes pecking away and things start to look rather more dire. Neither numbers nor special keys are available without digging into the symbol menu -- even the exclamation point and the question have been driven to obscurity. This means if you want anything more exotic than a humble period or comma you're going to have to go find it. In fact, typing "you're" right there required hitting the symbol key to find the apostrophe -- there's no system-wide auto-correction here (it only works in some apps), no long-presses for alternate characters. What year is this, again?

There is, at least, copy and paste, and it's well-implemented, using a pair of blue tabs to highlight the text you want. Drag them to define the bounds of your text and then your selection is filed away into your clipboard of holding. Annoyingly, though, a double-tap on any word doesn't highlight it.

Browser

RIM has provided a full Webkit browser for you to get your surf on, and it's a reasonably good one. Pages load quickly and naturally are rendered in full desktop mode, with all the pinch-to-zoom goodness and snappy motion you'd expect. Flash Player 10.1 is on-board and works well. YouTube videos play perfectly fine and stutter-free when embedded within pages, though there is a dedicated YouTube app you can use if you like. Even Flash games like Bejeweled play well, important if you're still riding that particular horse.

We ran the browser through SunSpider JavaScript test, where it returned a quite healthy 2,360. That's maybe 10 percent slower than the iPad 2 and Motorola Xoom manage, but still quite respectable.

We should note that we noticed some weirdness in the browser with the most recent (third) revision of the PlayBook software we received. When the system was running under load, with numerous other apps hanging around in the background, the browser would frequently and disconcertingly close. It would simply disappear about half-way through loading whatever page we tried. Closing a few apps seemed to fix it, but behavior like this is always a little unnerving.

Calculator

Yes, we're really writing about the calculator app here. It's one of the many apps on the tablet developed by The Astonishing Tribe, a dev team acquired by RIM who previously worked to define much of the look and feel of Android. The calculator app in particular stands out with the team's patented style. Whether you're in standard or scientific mode, a "paper" tally prints each calculation, digital pulp that can be virtually torn off and disposed. Cute. Slightly more practical is the integrated unit converter, which means we'll never have to look far to get horsepower from kW, and the tip calculator could make your next night on the town go a little more smoothly -- assuming you didn't spend the entire meal playing with your tablet.

Pictures

This is another of the TAT-developed apps, and though simple it shows some nice touches with overlaid transitions as you swipe from image to image. It's of course quite minimalistic, but a pleasure to use.

Adobe Reader

PDF and enterprises go together like executives and golden parachutes, so it's no surprise that Adobe is on-board here with a custom version of Reader. It's a PDF viewer at heart and, therefore, boring. But, performance is great, whether thumbing through boring statistics or pinch-zooming in on tables and charts, even with files laden with megabyte after megabyte of stock images of beautiful people smiling.

Music

Open the music app and you have four big, handy buttons to choose from: artists, albums, genres, or all songs -- the latter for users who can't be constrained by such arbitrary classifications. Albums are simply displayed in a giant grid, tap one to play it, while artists and individual songs go into a long list. The lists are a bit unwieldy, especially since you can't jump to a certain letter, but there is real-time filtering via a search dialog.

Documents to Go suite

The PlayBook comes loaded with Word, Sheet, and Slideshow to Go from DataVis, giving you the ability to view PPT, DOC, and XLS files, even create the latter two right on the tablet. Viewing and editing documents is certainly easy enough and of course being able to do so makes for heightened productivity, but trying to enter Excel formulas using the on-screen keyboard will raise only your blood pressure.

Bridge was one of the last pieces of the puzzle to come together in the PlayBook, added mere hours ago, and it's one of the strongest yet weakest aspects of the device. Here you pair your PlayBook up with a phone running BlackBerry OS 5 or 6, which must itself be running the Bridge app. The two talk sweet nothings over Bluetooth and, once connected, a new suite of applications is enabled on the tablet.

In this way you get your standard productivity stuff: e-mail, calendar, contacts, tasks, and memos. There's also an option to run the Bridge Browser, viewing the web through the phone interface, but as of this moment that feature is simply busted -- the app crashed every time we tried it. The other apps, though, are good. Simple. They're exactly what BlackBerry smartphone users are going to want, but they're also exactly what non-BlackBerry smartphone users will want and, if you don't have a phone to pair, they disappear.

Yes, you can get to your web mail provider of choice here, but the lack of dedicated, basic productivity applications like these feels like a huge oversight. This is RIM expecting 100 percent crossover between PlayBook buyers and current BlackBerry owners, and that seems unnecessarily limiting. Yes, these apps are coming, but they should be here now.

What's missing

Non-Bridge productivity apps (e-mail, calendar, etc.) are the biggest omission, but other things are missing too, like that awesome scrapbooking app from TAT that got us feeling all crafty. It's nowhere to be found. Also missing? The mysterious Android compatibility, support that is coming but sadly won't be working at launch. The ability to run Android apps could totally change the game -- or it could be a non-event. We won't know until RIM flips the switch and lets us all try it out.

Overall, the selection in App World and on the device itself is rather limited at the moment. RIM is quick to point out that there are thousands of apps in the pipeline, written in some combination of Adobe AIR or HTML 5 or Java or within the PlayBook's native compilation engine. We're sure they're coming, but right now it's slim pickins.

Accessories

RIM kindly provided a few accessories for us to experiment with, including the $50 Convertible Case, which adds a good amount of girth to the tablet but also offers a lot of protection, and serves as a stand, too. But, $50 is a lot of cash for a case. (There is, at least, a thin sleeve included with the PlayBook.)

We also received the Rapid Charging Pod, a $70 magnetic stand that uses that three-pronged proprietary charger at the bottom. It's said to be twice as fast as micro-USB charging and its weighted, magnetic design holds the PlayBook firmly in place for watching content while charging. But, the lack of audio output is unfortunate and, again, $70 seems like a lot for a tiny little dock.

Wrap-up

Writing this review has been a lot like trying to hit a moving target thanks to a series of software updates that have been dropping every few days. The PlayBook of today is considerably better than the PlayBook of yesterday, which also was a big step forward from the one we were reviewing two days before that. This is both encouraging and worrying -- encouraging that RIM is actively working to improve things, but worrying that things as critical as memory management are still being tweaked at the eleventh hour.

This means we're not entirely sure what the PlayBook that goes on sale next week will look like. We thought we had "final" software on Sunday -- and then we got another update. So, what we see at the moment is a framework with solid fundamentals but a framework that is, right now, unfinished. We have hardware that looks and feels great but isn't being fully served by the software. And, ultimately, we have a tablet that's trying really hard to please the enterprise set but, in doing so, seems to be alienating casual users who might just want a really great seven-inch tablet. Oh, and don't forget that bummer of a power button.

Right now, the BlackBerry PlayBook is a tablet that will come close to satisfying those users who gravitate toward the first word in its name: BlackBerry. Those who were more excited about the "play" part would be well advised to look elsewhere, at least until Android compatibility joins the party. Then, well, anything could happen.

Skype for Android vulnerable to hack that compromises personal info

2011-04-15T01:52:00.000-07:00

If you didn't already have enough potential app privacy leaks to worry about, here's one more -- Android Police discovered that that Skype's Android client leaves your personal data wide open to assault. The publication reports that the app has SQLite3 databases where all your info and chat logs are stored, and that Skype forgot to encrypt the files or enforce permissions, which seems to be a decision akin to leaving keys hanging out of the door.

Basically, that means a rogue app could grab all your data and phone home -- an app much like Skypwned. That's a test program Android Police built to prove the vulnerability exists, and boy, oh boy does it work -- despite only asking for basic Android storage and phone permissions, it instantly displayed our full name, phone number, email addresses and a list of all our contacts without requiring so much as a username to figure it out. Android Police says Skype is investigating the issue now, but if you want to give the VoIP company an extra little push we're sure it couldn't hurt.

T-Mobile G2x now available online for $200, hitting stores April 20th

2011-04-15T01:49:00.000-07:00

T-Mobile's Android roster is growing in number and sheer benchmarking virility today with the launch of the LG-produced G2X. This handset runs bone stock Android (Froyo today, Gingerbread in the future) atop a dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 system-on-chip, and just like its international twin the Optimus 2X, eschews the physical flair and focuses on being the best damn 4-inch smartphone that it can be. It costs $199.99 on a two-year contract and can be bought online today or in stores starting April 20th. Also scheduled for general availability on that date is the QWERTY slider-equipped Sidekick 4G, though that sleepyhead is missing out on any early web availability -- it's probably too busy adjusting its tricked-out Android skin and checking that its magenta accents are all spotless. Links are below, whether you're feeling inquisitive or acquisitive.

Neonode's zForce optical touchscreens hitting ASUS tablets later this year

2011-04-15T01:45:00.001-07:00

It's been over a year since Neonode coyly said some nameless "Asian companies" would use its multitouch zForce displays in future products. Now one of them, at least, is coming out of the woodwork -- ASUS said it plans to ship a "series of products" with these optical touchscreens later this year. What does this mean for consumers? Neonode's screens don't tack any additional layers on top of the touchscreen, making this line of 5 to 13-inch displays different from more common capacitive and resistive ones. The result, Neonode says, is thinner and -- one would hope -- more responsive screens. No word on when these products will hit (nor how creative ASUS will get with its designs), but feel to dig for details in the terse press release.

Nintendo 3DS clocks up 400,000 US sales in opening week, nearly matches month-long total for DS

2011-04-15T01:40:00.000-07:00

Now we're talking. After Nintendo slyly told us that the 3DS set a day-one US sales record for its handheld division, it has now been more forthright and actually disclosed some cold hard numbers. 400,000 3DS units were shifted in the month of March, says Nintendo of America chief Reggie Fils-Aime, which amounts to just one working week's worth of sales when you consider the portable console launched on March 27th. That was still enough time for it to threaten the DS' overall March tally of 460,000, however, and extrapolated over a full 30 days would total a whopping 2.4 million transactions. Of course, sales rarely sustain such a roaring pace after launch, but Reggie foresees good things for the 3DS with a marquee Legend of Zelda game, the launch of the E-Shop, and Netflix integration all coming over the summer. So the future's bright, we just wish it didn't have to be turquoise

Nokia W7 and W8 will lead the Windows Phone 7 march

2011-04-15T01:38:00.000-07:00

Mobile Review's one-man Nokia rumor mill Eldar Murtazin has pushed out some details regarding the first fruits from the 'Microkia' (Microsoft/Nokia) team up, in the form of two new devices bearing the names W7 and W8.

Not only are they not exactly the most original names but the devices in question will apparently resemble the Nokia X7 and the N8 respectively.

Nokia apparently already has one working Windows Phone prototype in their possession, the W7. This X7 lookalike differs from it's Symbian sibling by its WVGA display, 8MP camera with autofocus and a Qualcomm QSD8250 Chipset. This (or something very similar to this) is most likely going to be the company's first WP7 device. Nokia targets availability by Q4 of this year, but there's a good chance that it might take until Q1 of 2012 to see it in action. In its current state the W7 is quite reminiscent of the HTC Mozart in terms of functionality, at least.

The followup to the W7 is naturally, the W8 and there is far greater speculation as this device won't be making an appearance until Q2 2012. However plans to make this a flagship imaging handset mean it has to have a strong skill set to stand out from the crowd. Using the N8 as the basis this one is said to pack a 12MP camera, a Qualcomm dual-core CPU and an Adreno 320 GPU. Specs are most likely going to change before the official release, but this one certainly looks promising.

In total Nokia plan to push 12 new devices out across 2012 (whether this includes the W7 is unclear) with mentions of the third and fourth WP7 handsets in the lineup consisting of a QWERTY candybar with a touchscreen, akin to the E71 or E6, and a 'cheap' touchscreen device probably mimicking the abilities of the W7 but featuring lesser build quality, and weaker imaging capabilities.

The Windows Phone 7 Nokia concept from MWC 2011

It seems they could try to make a bigger impression with some completely fresh designs to really shout about the birth of the WP7 Nokia but what we actually receive could still impress. Perhaps the concept they mocked up for MWC 2011, (a concept that so well embodied both Nokia and WP7) will make a reappearance as something more tangible soon.