Technical Update for Everyone

SYGIC best navigation available for India

2010-02-27T16:57:00.000+05:30

SYGIC is the best navigation available in India. Google maps is great with great detailing. But the huge disadvantage is that you can not use the Google Maps offline. So you need a GPRS connection for the Google Maps.
Ovi Maps is also a great solution and supports map viewing offline, but unfortunately the map detailing is not good enough for India.

A GPS navigation system can only be so good as the underlying map data.

If the maps are not detailed, accurate and updated, the GPS device is not very useful. Mapmyindia's award-winning maps have been built over the last 15 years, and have been successfully validated by over 500 of our enterprise customers and lakhs of individual consumers.

With MapmyIndia Maps, you get unparalled breadth and depth coverage across India.
Anywhere to everywhere travel in India
• 401 cities with complete details of streets, localities, sub-localities and points of interest
• 4,10,000 towns and villages connected by national and state highways
• 9,45,000 point of interests across multiple tourist and business categories such as petrol pumps, ATM's restaurants, hospitals, etc.
Discover lakhs of points of interest
MapmyIndia Navigator provides complete details of streets, localities, sub-localities and points of interest in 401 cities across India.

City coverage

Andhra Pradesh:
• 21 cities: Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Visakhapatnam, Adilabad, Anantpur, Cuddapah, Guntur, Kakinada, Karim Nagar, Khammam, Mahboobnagar, Nellore, Nizamabad, Ongole, Rajahmundry, Sangareddy, Srikakulam, Tirupati, Vijayawada, Vizianagaram, Warangal.

Arunachal Pradesh
• 1 city: Along

Asam
• 6 cities: Dibrugarh, Golaghat, *Guwahati, Nagaon, Silchar, Tezpur

Bihar
• 3 cities: Patna, Bodh Gaya, Gaya

Chandigarh Metro
• 1 city: Chandigarh

Chhattisgarh
• 5 cities: Bhilai, Bilaspur, Durg, Raipur, Rajnandgaon

Delhi
• 1 city: New Delhi

Goa
• 10 cities: Calangute, Calapor, Candolim, Colva, Mapusa, Margao, Old Goa, Panaji, Ponda, Vasco Da Gama

Gujarat
• 18 cities: Ahmadabad, Anand, Ankleshwar, Anjar, Bharuch, Bhavnagar, Dwarka, Gandhinagar, Gandhidham, Himmatnagar, Jamnagar, Kalol, Rajkot, Surat, Surendranagar, Vadodara, Valsad, Vapi

Haryana
• 24 cities: Ambala, Bhiwani, Faridabad, Fatehabad, Gurgaon, Hisar, Jhajjar, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Mahendragarh, Mandi Dabwali, Manesar, Narnaul, Palwal, Panipat, Panchkula, Pinjore, Rewari, Rohtak, Samalkha, Sirsa, Sohna, Sonipat, Yamunanagar

Himachal Pradesh
• 19 cities: Arki, Bilaspur, Chail, Chamba, Dalhousie, Kangra, Kasauli, Khajjiar, Kullu, Manali, Mandi, Nahan, Nalagarh, Palampur, Pragpur, Shimla, Shoghi, Solang, Una

Jammu & Kashmir
• 2 cities: Jammu, Shrinagar

Jharkhand
• 6 cities: Bhuli, Bokaro Steel City, Dhanbad, Jamshedpur, Ranchi, Saraidhela

Karnataka
• 12 cities: Bangalore, Mangalore, Mysore, Bellari, Bidar, Chitradurga, Devanagere, Dharwar, Hampi, Hubli, Tumkur, Udupi

Kerala
• 26 cities: Alappuzha; Aluva, Changanassery, Cherthala, Ernakulam, Guruvayur, Kalady, Kasaragod, Kayamkulam, Kochi, Kodungallur, Kollam, Kottayam, Kovalam, Kozhikode, Kumarakom, Kumily, Palakkad, Pathanamthitta, Perinthalmanna, Ponnani, Punalur, Thalassery, hiruvananthapuram, Thrissur

Madhya Pradesh
• 12 cities: Bhopal, Dewas, Gwalior, Hoshangabad, Indore, Jabalpur, Khajuraho, Murwara Katni, Narsimhapur, Sagar, Shahdol, Shivpuri

Maharashtra
• 32 cities: Ahmadnagar, Akola, Ajanta, Alibaug, Amravati, Aurangabad, Bhiwandi, Chiplun, Dhule, Ellora, Ganapatiphule, Kalyan Dombivli, Kolhapur, Latur, Mahabaleshwar, Matheran, Mumbai, Nagpur, Nanded Waghala, Nashik, Navi Mumbai, Padagha, Panchgani, Pimpri Chinchwad, Pune, Ratnagiri, Satara, Shirdi, Solapur, Thane, Virar, Vashind

Meghalaya
• 1 city: *Shillong

Mizoram
• 1 city: Aizawl

Nagaland
• 1 city: Kohima

Orissa
• 3 cities: Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Rourkela

Pondicherry
• 1 city: *Pondicherry

Punjab
• 32 cities: Abohar, Adampur, Ahmedgarh, Amritsar, Barnala, Dasuya, Dhuri, Faridkot, Fazilka, Firozpur, Goraya, Jagaran, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Kharar, Kotkapura, Ludhiana, Malaut, Malerkotla, Moga, Mohali, MondiGovindgarh, Morinda, Mukerian, Muktsar, Nakodar, Patiala, Phagwara, Phillaur, Sangrur, Sunam, Tarantaran

Rajasthan
• 22 cities: Ajmer, Alwar, Bharatpur, Bhilwara, Bikaner, BITS Pilani Campus, Chittaurgarh, Deeg, Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Jhunjhunun, Jodhpur, Kota, Mount Abu, Mandawa, Nagaur, Nawalgarh, Pilani Town, Pushkar, Sariska, Sawai Madhopur, Udaipur

Sikkim
• 9 cities: Gangtok, Gyalshing, Jorethang, Mangan, Namchi, Nayabazar, Rangpo, Singtam, Upper Tadong

Tamil Nadu
• 21 cities: Chennai, Coimbatore, Erode, Kanchipuram, Karur, Krishnagiri, Madurai, Mamallapuram, Nagapattinam, Namakkal, Pudukkottai, Salem, Tiruvallur, Theni, Tiruchirappalli, Tirunelveli, Tiruvannamalai, Udhagamandalam, Velankanni, Vellore, Virudhunagar

Tripura
• 1 city: Agartala

Uttar Pradesh
• 38 cities: Agra, Aligarh, Allahabad, Baghpat, Bareilly, Barsana, Bijnor, Bulandshahr, Fatehpur Sikri, Garhmukteshwar, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Govardhan, Greater Noida, Hapur, Hathras, Jhansi, Kanpur, Khurja, Lucknow, Mahaban, Mathura, Meerut, Modinagar, Moradabad, Mughalsarai, Muradnagar, Muzaffarnagar, Nandgaon, Noida, Pilkhuwa, Radhakund, Rae Bareli, Raya, Saharanpur, Sarnath, Varanasi, Vrindavan

Uttaranchal
• 21 cities: Almora, Auli, Bageshwar, Corbett, Dehradun, Doiwala, Dwarahat, Hardwar, Herbertpur, Jhabrera, Laksar, Landhaura, Manglaur, Mussoorie, Nainital, Pithoragarh, Ranikhet, Rishikesh, Roorkee, Rudrapur, Vikasnagar

West Bengal
• 51 cities: Arambag, Asansol, Balarampur, Balurghat, Bangaon, Bankura, Barddhaman, Basirhat, Bidhan Nagar, Bilandapur, Birnagar, Bishnupur, Bolpur, Chakdaha, Contai, Darjiling, Debipur, Diamond Harbour, Digha, Durgapur, Egra, English Bazar, Farakka Barrage Township, Ghatal, Gobardanga, Habra, Haldia, Haora, Islampur, Jalpaiguri, Jangipur, Jaynagar Mazilpur, Jhargram, Kaliaganj, Kalna, Kalyani, Katwa, Kharagpur, Koch Bihar, Kolkata, Krishnanagar, Medinipur, Murshidabad, Nabadwip, Nalahati, Phulia, Puruliya, Raiganj, Ranaghat, Santipur, Siliguri

Anywhere to everywhere travel in India
Running out of petrol and looking for the nearest petrol pump? Out of cash and searching for an ATM? Want to find a new restaurant and need to call it to make a reservation?

MapmyIndia Navigator's built in list of 9,45,000 points of interest among multiple tourist and business categories lets you easily search for a place, and navigate to it without having to stop and ask strangers on the road.

Why Sygic maps is better than OVI maps and Garmin maps, read more:

1. Sygic renders maps smoothly and quite beautifully. If you are on a 3G network then you will have a blast rendering maps at a phenomenal 20 frames/second on your N-Series or E-Series S60 devices like Nokia N97 , E71, or the 5800 XpressMusic.
2. Dynamic detailed map navigation with an easy to understand clear turn by turn instructions and automatic discovery of services/hotspots/point-of-interests etc makes it a complete information depot for any location you want to explore properly.
3. Speedy routing and re-routing capabilities that are rarely seen on a mobile device are offered by Sygic GPS. It has certainly one of the most detailed maps for Europe countries like UK, France, Italy among many others to begin with.
4. Intuitive direct maps will make you feel like the GPS navigation is being assisted with the help of a ‘live-map’ everytime you want to reach a specific destination. Sygic Navigation software for symbian operating systems offers instant details to all your points on map thus making your re-routing a joy ride.
5. With Sygic GPS you can be there even without actually being there! Know what I mean? No!? This awesome gps navigator can show you a preview of the route you gotta follow to reach your desired point on map. You can check to see the available modes of transport, toll crossings, arrival and remaining time estimation, ferry conditions and even if the road you are going to take has an unpaved finish or a paved one.
6. Custom Points of Interest calculation and its ability to be shared makes Sygic users a community driven initiative. Like you do in Google Earth, you can simply customize and share your personally created POIs with anyone in the community. Plus in Sygic you can set up alerts for any upcoming POIs for better time management.
7. Remote desktop and laptop management from home makes you plan better plan your trip and saves you some unnecessary expense as well. Just like in Nokia Maps you can load the maps through the OVI Suite, you can now download and load Sygic Maps through your desktop pc.
8. Fun little extra features like activity logging, world clock and other nifty features are always being added to mobile software so that you can enjoy a better experience through Sygic GPS. It also supports bluetooth connectivity for tracking.

Compared to other similar GPS apps in the market today like OVI maps and Garmin maps - Sygic seems to be a strong contender. With its technology-tingling support for assisted GPS on Symbian devices specially of Nokia it sure seems to head for the right way. They are also offering regular updates of the existing maps where you can have access to the latest detailed maps that Sygic has to offer.
All in all if you are using a Nokia S60 3rd or 5th edition smartphone you should download Sygic and give it a go – You’ll have edge over others such as Garmin or Ovi.

PROCEDURE TO INSTALL SYGIC NAVIGATION (Source Orkut)

First download file from the link given below it contain sygic software for symbian and android phones

http://www.ziddu.com/download/8672969/Sygicinstallation.rar.html size:64.75MB

1)Install the .sis

2)Copy these folders: Drive, Maps and Res to the root folder of your memory card

3) now download the indiamaps from the link given below

http://www.ziddu.com/download/8672629/mapmyindia.rar.html size : 152.77MB

4)now goto your phone memory card and remove everything from the maps folder which you copied previously.Now the map folder must be empty

5)copy everything from the 150 mb attachment into the MAPS folder in the memory card

6)now open sygic app and get the device id

7)now in the pc using the mlm file in the downloaded maps folder and the device id obtained generate the key using keygen (keygenerator is given with maps file )

8)register using the key and enjoy navigation

once you have finished this you will just see hierarchyl01.iso hierarchyl02.iso and so on when you search for POI's in the map
for this:
IN order to see the states' names instead of hierarchy.l01.iso.....

replace the file in the following location

E:\res\skin\english.lang

with the given file from the attachment from below link

http://www.ziddu.com/download/8656624/english.rar.html

The Desi iPAD

2010-02-24T10:37:00.000+05:30

Are Tablets really the next big thing in computing? May be, may be not (need to wait for sales figures to answer this)! However, Apple's iPad has surely created a buzz around Tablets. You have HP, Dell and all other PC vendors of every size and shape readying a Tablet PC.

In the content is a Desi Tablet too, Adam. Designed by an alumunus of National Institute of Design, Makarand Kulkarni, Nokion Ink's Adam is being billed as an iPad killer. Here's looking into what Apple's iPad has that our Adam lacks and vice versa. And how the two compare on various specs like memory, display, connectivity, pricing and more.

The key features of Nokion Ink's ADAM

10 inch transflective LCD
180 degree Swivel Camera
Dual-Core ARM® CORTEX
-A9 MPCORE™ Processor
Full High Definition Multimedia
Longer Battery Life
Dual Display
Ebook Client
3G and WiFi Connectivity
Multi-touch Support.

Dimensions

Measuring 6.3 x 9.8 x 0.6 inches, Adam weighs around 770 gms. Adam has two versions, one is 12.9mm and the other is 11.4mm in thickness. Both versions are slimmer than iPad which is 13.4mm in thickness.

While Apple's iPad measures 9.56 inches in height, 7.47 in width and 0.5 inch in depth. iPad weighs 1.5 lbs (0.68 kg), the 3G version is 0.1 pounds heavier.

Display

Adam boasts of a 10-inch Pixel Qi transflective display, a capacitive touchscreen capable of recognizing six simultaneous points of contact. Pixel Qi's technology offers two different modes: full colour LCD for indoor use or in a low-power reflective mode that actually gets brighter when more direct sunlight falls upon it.

iPad has a 9.7-inch LCD colour screen. The device uses iPhone's multi-touch technology, Apple's Magic Mouse, and the company's trackpad technology found in some of the company's laptops.

Camera

Adam supports a 3 megapixel swivel auto focus camera. It rotates 180degree. This implies that the device will support video calling.

However, Apple's iPad lacks camera. Lack of camera being widely seen as a negative in iPad as the device is said to be placed somewhere between a smartphone and laptop.

Output
Adam has HDMI-out and 3 USB ports, and can output video at 1080p resolution.

However, there is no facility for HDMI output in iPad. This means users will not be able to view HD videos on a large TV screen even if they have downloaded the same from iTunes. The Apple device can playback at 720p HD video.

Processor

Adam is powered by Nvidia Tegra 2 chip which runs at 1GHz and acts as both a CPU and graphics card in one. It will run on Google’s Android OS.

iPad runs a version of the iPhone's operating system. The iPad has a 1GHz chip that is custom designed by Apple.

Memory

Adam will come in 16GB or 32GB versions. But it has support for expandable memory.

Apple iPad will come in 16, 32 and 64GB versions.

Multitasking

According to Adam creator Notion Ink, the Tablet will support multitasking. This means the device will be able to run several applications in parallel.

However, there is no multitasking option in iPad's OS. This means for example users can't listen to FM while they surfing the Web, or switch back and forth between Facebook or Twitter, or write an email while talking on a VOIP call.

Flash

Adam offers support for Flash, video standard used for viewing websites. However, iPad doesn't offer support for Flash.

This means users will encounter those `big, empty video boxes in the middle of a page' while surfing on the pages which require Adobe Flash. Youtube will be supported just like in iPhone but no Flash games. In iPhone 3GS too when users browse through Web pages with Adobe Flash, it displays empty spaces with missing icons. Adam also supports accelerated JavaScript so the applications taking support of the JavaScripts will run seamlessly on Adam.

Connectivity

Adam packs WiFi, 3G, Bluetooth, a pile of sensors and accelerometers and GPS.

Apple iPad supports both WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. The WiFi antenna supports 802.11 a/b/g/n. The device also packs GPS.

Battery

According to Notion Ink, Adam will be able to play music for up to 25 days, 16 hours of internet browsing and play high definition video for 8 hours. According to reports, Adam integrates two breakthrough power saving components that promises twice the battery life of Apple iPad. The ink mode of the screen consumes only 250mW so will have enhanced battery life.

iPad offers battery life of up to 10 hours. The standby time is approximately a month.

Apps

Notion Ink has planned an App competition offering $1,000,000 prize money for the best Adam-compatible app.

Apple's iPad can use virtually all the over 140,000 apps currently available for the iPhone. However, iPad will let you download applications only from Apple's AppStore. iPad doesn’t allow users to download any apps other than from the App Store.

I think iPad wins here with the support of the existing app store. Since Adam is build on Android, it should make use of the existing Android market. So it should support the present apps and for accelerated apps make use of the SDK.

Price

The Adam is expected to cost about $325.

iPad’s 16GB version of the basic Wi-Fi model will sell for $499. A 32GB version will cost $599, and a 64GB device will be $699. The 3G models won’t be available until April. Those will range in price from $629 to $829.

Videos:

via

Windows Phone 7 Series Official Videos

2010-02-16T14:15:00.000+05:30

Well just as expected, Microsoft today launched its latest version of Windows Mobile system, the Windows Phone 7 Series at Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona.

Here are the official demo videos of the Windows Phone 7 series. Check it out!

Gmail coming hard on Facebook and Twitter

2010-02-09T23:26:00.000+05:30

With the fast growing market for Facebook and Twitter, Google is definitely feeling the heat. Google is gearing up to give serious competition to Facebook, Twitter and other networking sites. The search giant's free email service Gmail is reportedly planning to make Gmail more social by allowing users to exchange status updates with friends and share Web content links.
According to a report in Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the change will add a module to the Gmail screen that will display a stream of updates from individuals a user chooses to connect with.

These status updates are expected to eventually include content shared by a users' Google contacts through other Google properties, such as YouTube and Picasa.

Presently, Gmail users can only post a brief message about their status through its Chat system, which is linked to Gmail.

Last year, Yahoo too added a similar feature to its mail allowing users to see if their friends have uploaded a photo or put a new staus message.

Gmail has been trying to integrate social features in various ways. Google users can chat via Jabber or AIM, make video calls, and send SMS messages from Gmail's web interface.

A report in Financial Times says that Google will soon be holding a press conference at its Mountain View, California, office to show off the new features.

Google is still far and away the No. 1 most-visited website, with 173 million US visitors in December, according to measurement service ComScore Media Metrix, up 16% from the previous December. But Facebook is close behind. The social network was the fourth-most-visited site in December, with 111.8 million visitors, up 105% from the prior year.

Intex iSmart Dual SIM (GSM + GSM) Mobile Phone

2010-02-09T14:16:00.000+05:30

A dual sim phone, with a QWERTY keyboard, great form factor, dual camera at Rs.4700/-. This is no joke. Intex launched its new iSmart to shock the market. Like its predecessor, IN 6611 Ace iSmart also boast of a good QWERTY keyboard. The formfactor makes it look like BlackBerry Curve 8900 which comes at around Rs.31K.

Form Factor

At first glance it looks like the BlackBerry Curve 8900. It’s sleek with a large QWERTY keypad that’s well spaced and easy on the fingers. It even has a trackball for navigation and only seems to lack the BlackBerry menu key. The 2.2-inch TFT LCD display is bright and clear enough to read making it easy on the eyes. A 2.5mm handsfree port is located on top and volume/zoom keys, are located on the same side as the micro USB port. A microSD card slot is on the opposite side. It’s an extremely light handset and over all one would find it quite hard to dislike it until the blaring blue light of the trackball starts to glow. The absolute contrast of the blue against the glossy wine red borders ruins the iSmart’s otherwise classy demeanor.

Intex has also included a very well designed case for this Dual SIM handset that allows you to access all of the handset’s keys without any hindrance. Slots have been cut out evenly for all necessary access points, except for the charging port at the bottom.

Features and Performance

Interface
The UI’s design, from the desktop to the main menu page is a complete rip-off from RIM, complete with background colors and icons. The oddest thing is that the submenus have miniature icons of a Symbian variety. It can be a little confusing to look at if you’ve used either Nokia or BlackBerry handsets, but when it comes to actual functionality, the UI is relatively well designed. However, it’s dreadfully sluggish and this makes the trackball a major liability to use. It takes too long to move from one selection to another and can be very quirky in this respect.

However, the UI does incorporate a few features like quick replying to messages right from the desktop so you don’t actually have go into the message section at all. You can read and reply to an SMS right from the main screen. The options for accessing either SIM are clear for making calls or sending messages and even accessing the web. Even incoming calls will identify which SIM’s number the call is coming in on. It’s a very well laid out UI but the painfully slow speed is what makes it quite annoying to use.

The funny thing is that in order to make it look as much like a Blackberry menu as possible, Intex has unnecessarily duplicated icons and features. It’s also a bit confusing as the symbols of the icons aren’t associated with the features inside. The spanner icons that usually means ‘Settings’ is the ‘Organizer’, the Magnifying glass that should be the search is the Call Log and so on.

Media
The bundled in-ear handsfree is surprisingly provisioned for comfort and pretty good audio as well. The player looks exactly like Symbian’s S60 version and audio quality, though a little on the sharp side, is not all that bad. The music player comes with EQ presets to help enhance the audio and it manages that quite well. The FM radio’s reception was not anything to write home about but was ok. There was quite a bit of static in most areas where I usually get decent reception from other devices. An FM recorder is lacking but a voice recorder is present. The range of the microphone is about 2 feet for clear recordings. Video playback was also an issue as my standard 3GP and MPEG4 files were framing throughout.

Connectivity
Forget about 3G of course, as handsets in this price range are not going to be capable of that technology - not that it matters for most mobile users in India. The iSmart is however GPRS and WAP enabled. The browser is very simplistic and may not be too fast but it gets the job done. If you prefer Intex has included Opera Mini which is quicker. The problem is that due to the slow UI and quirky trackball navigation maneuvering around the screen to access links can be a pain.

If you’ve got all the required settings for your POP or IMAP email accounts, it’s not hard to set them up and send or receive mails. Intex has also provided a shortcut to Facebook’s WAP page (don’t be confused by the icon, it’s not an application but merely a link). A link to MSN and QuickIM are also available for chatting, but only for those with MSN Messenger and AOL accounts and no other. The iSmart also supports USB 2.0 and Bluetooth with A2DP.

Features like a World Clock, Alarm, Calculator, Calendar, stopwatch etc. are all present. An Ebook reader is also available for .TXT files. It’s not very hard to read but prolonged viewing of the white lettering on a dark background can get a little difficult.

Camera
The VGA camera comes with an LED flash and features White Balance, video recording, Night Mode, Contrast adjustment, frames and a few effect settings. The weirdest thing is that image size in the handset goes up to 1280 x 1024 which is actually the resolution for a 1.3 megapixel camera, however, irrespective of choosing that resolution, images are always captured in 640 x 480 pixel resolution i.e. VGA.

Picture quality is very very average and if you don’t adjust the contrast accordingly, most images will appear quite over exposed.

Battery Life

The average battery life of the iSmart is good. With 1450mAh it has a decent battery life.

Rating : 9.2

via

Image Searching in internet

2010-02-06T17:06:00.000+05:30

How many times have you tried to search images in internet? How many clicks did you go before getting the actual image you are looking for? You can actually get the image with a single click, but you have to be very lucky.

Google may be the undoubtedly the best search engine, even if Microsoft doesnot like it. But when it comes to image search the landscape changes dramatically.

Truly said, images speaks more than a thousand words. But is http://images.google.com/ is your only answer? Does yahoo or bing do it better?

Microsoft is planning with Apple to be the default search engine, but is it doing enough for the images search. The new visual search bing can catch your eye. Try http://www.bing.com/visualsearch to believe.

Loaded on Silverlight, see images appear based on the categories. You can narrow down your search results and see unwanted images disappear. You can get information on the images with a mouse over. Once you get the right image you are looking for, click on to it to go the bing search results page. Microsoft is not indexing all the images, it says it will index only those images which it feels are more relevant to the zone.

You have another competitor for bing. Cooliris, is an old solution for visual pleasure of searching images, videos on the internet. It indexes on bing, yahoo, google, flicker, picassa and many other services. You can load the extensions from http://www.cooliris.com/.

The 3D wall is great and you can actually swap through the 3D wall to the picture or video of your choice. Adjust the 3D wall size as per your choice. You can get Cooliris for your IPhone and Nexus One as well.

Well, will google be quite when there is so much to offer from others? Will Google have only old image search? No, you are right. Google is doing something and doing it big. Check out http://image-swirl.googlelabs.com the new venture of Google. Based on the Google WonderWheel technology, image swirl is really a great thought from Google.

Search for any image, then see the wheel take the control of your mind. Click on the particular image, see a sew wheel come up with more relevant images. You can go on discovering the image of your choice, and Google keeps remembering the wheel path for you to trace back. Google, unlike Bing will index on all the images for the web pages it indexes.

Post your comments on what do you think will rule the future?

Nokia Launches Custom Dictionary for Predictive Text

2010-02-02T11:34:00.000+05:30

Have you ever wanted to change the words the S60 Predictive Dictionary had? Then, Nokia Custom Dictionary is the app you must have!

The new Nokia Custom Dictionary app from Nokia Beta Labs, allows you edit the list of words used by the phone for text prediction and also transfer it between phones.

You can also create specific word lists which can then be shared among a like minded community viz Tech Writers, Medical Doctors etc using this app.

Other Features of this app include:

View all the words in your custom dictionary.
Add new words to it.
Edit and Delete existing words.
Export the dictionary as xml file.
Import words from an xml file.
Scan text files to import all the words.
Transfer your dictionary to another phone.

The application is fully functional on many S60 3rd and 5th Edition Phones like Nokia E71, Nokia E63, Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic, and Nokia X6.

However the application only has limited functionality on devices like Nokia N96, Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia N82, Nokia N79, Nokia N78, and other older phones.

Here is a Video Demo of Nokia Custom Dictionary App in Action. Check it out!

Download via http://betalabs.nokia.com/apps/nokia-custom-dictionary

Twitter blocked in China?

2010-02-02T03:22:00.000+05:30

Twitter co-founder Evan Williams today said he had been told that his microblogging service has been partially blocked in China but had no confirmation.

"That's what I've been told," he said, adding that he had "heard reports on that" but that the company did not have direct confirmation.

Williams said that China can use a firewall to block access to the service.

"There are ways for users to get around it, but I'm not an expert on that," he said, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos.

When asked about media reports that Twitter was developing ways to get around the firewall, Williams said he had been "misquoted."

"We're not actively developing any way to get around it," he said, although he stressed that "we're for the free exchange of information."

Asked if his company had noticed any cyber attacks, such as those launched against search engine giant Google from China, he said that no such moves had been detected.

A good iPAD killer from Dell

2010-01-30T20:15:00.002+05:30

Dell has its own answer to Apple's iPAD. Steve you have competition. iPad can be sleek but this is more powerful. Running on Android, supports SIM, so can actually call. A wifi, 3G data service. 5MP autofocus camera, front video calling camera, multitasking, in browser flash support. HDMI output. I think Dell got it right where Apple went wrong, and you can actually take it out from your court pocket.

9 iPad misses

2010-01-30T14:47:00.001+05:30

After three years Apple is back to what it is known to be best at -- launch new product. The computing giant launched iPad, a sleek table that aims to revolutionise the publishing business the same way as Apple iPod transformed the music industry and iPhone transformed the telecom industry.

But can iPad really do what iPod and iPhone could in their respective domains? While there are many who are going gaga over Apple's new launch and see it as a disruptive technology. There are others who are cautious and apprehensive.

The critics are lamenting the absence of some features which they feel are basic for any product of iPad's category. So what is it that is missing from Apple's big launch?

1. One big miss in Apple iPad is camera. Lack of camera seems disappointing especially since the device is said to be somewhere between a smart phone and laptop. And in today's smart phones presence of camera seems almost default.

Lack of camera means there is no option to video chat or even do video-conferencing.

2. With iPad coming in 16, 32 and 64 GB versions, storage seems big. But still extra storage is always welcome. And with no SD card support that option is not available.

3. Another big miss is absence of Flash support. With a screen as big as 9.7 inches, Flash support is surely to be missed.

As surfing the Web without Flash is not same. The `big, empty video boxes in the middle of a page' that will appear are sure to disappoint. People won't be able to access miniclip, play farmville, watch ESPN or Hulu.

In iPhone 3GS too when users browse through Web pages with Adobe Flash, it displays empty spaces with missing icons.

4. Multitasking seems to be becoming a computing norm, with even mobile OSes offering it. However, there is no multitasking option in iPad's OS. This means for example users can't listen to FM while they surf the Web, or switch back and forth between Facebook at Twitter, or write an email while talking on a VOIP call.

5. Analysts feel that a 4:3 aspect ratio may be just perfect for using iPhone apps in full screen mode. However, a similar aspect ratio may not be as good for media. Especially since the digital world is rapidly moving to widescreen formats.

6. Being touted as a 'Kindle killer' by many, Apple iPad is not exactly that. For, Apple iPad lacks the advantages of a digital ink and paper which are considered to be integral parts of an e-reader.

7. There is no facility for HDMI output in iPad. This means users will not be able to view HD videos on a large TV screen even if they have downloaded the same from iTunes.

8. The design may seem just seamless. But, you may find it too seamless when you will figure out the number of adapters you would require with it. Apple iPad has no USB ports reportedly. So, whatever you want to use with it camera, printer or even a USB, you would need an adapter for it.

9. If you are among those who loves trying new applications, iPad is surely not for you. As in ipad you can download applications only from Apple's AppStore. iPad doesn’t allow users to download any apps other than from the App Store!

So, iPad with the huge buzz is not upto the expectation of the users? Steve, you got many thing right but some how missed out so many things, it's surprising!!

Hands on and video: Lenovo’s Lephone

2010-01-25T23:55:00.003+05:30

Hands on Lephone at CES2010

Free Turn-by-Turn Voice Guided Navigation with Ovi Maps

2010-01-24T11:55:00.000+05:30

We were hoping something like this would happen but we would be lying to you if we claim to have smelled this before Nokia left this cat out a couple of days ago. Yeah, we are talking about the new avatar of Ovi Maps offering free turn-by-tun voice guided navigation across 74 countries in 46 languages.

The latest move by Nokia is taking the navigation tools competition to a new level, a level very few services can sustain. Google started the trend with its similar free service in the US with its android app but Nokia beat them hands down, by offering a similar service across the globe and going by the present market penetration of Nokia devices, it’s anybody’s guess which is going to shape the navigation industry in the long-run.

As you can see from the screenshots, Ovi Maps has got a new makeover. Not only are the navigation options free but some there are some third-party add-ons as well. Lonely Planet is one notable addition and so is Hungry-Go-Where.Before we go gaga over the killer features of this app, take a look at this introductory video on the new version of Ovi Maps

Now, that’s what we call a “Complete Navigation App“. Ovi Maps also offers real-time search for points of interest and weather forecast, just in case you are too lazy to pop your head out of the window to see what the sky looks like!

We tried the navigation app extensively here and found the voice instructions pretty lucid and easy to follow. Further local street names were pronounced correctly and not with an European accent as you would expect from a “Made in Europe” app. Once you select your starting and end points, you can select what language and voice (male/female) you would like to have for your instructions and the itinerary is downloaded in real time, updating on traffic info as seen from the video above. Pedestrian navigation is handy as well, especially when you find yourself lost in the wrong lane.

The bottom line is the new Ovi Maps is one killer app and waste no further time and head to www.nokia.mobi/maps/dl to get the latest version of Ovi Maps on your 5800s.

Apple ditching Google Search for Microsoft Bing on iPhone

2010-01-21T11:06:00.001+05:30

According to reports , Apple and Microsoft are in talks to replace Google Search with MS Bing as the Default search engine for the iPhone.

BusinessWeek is reporting that Apple is in talks with Microsoft for few weeks regarding the default search engine iPhone . The move comes as a result of the growing rivalry and competetion between Apple and Google.

Now the Nexus One from Google is taking on the Apple iPhone 3GS directly and its obvious that Apple does not want to use a competitor’s product – Google Search

A significant amount of Mobile Search traffic is from Apple iPhone and iPod touch and Google’s income from Mobile Ads might be impacted by the outcome.

CNBC is reporting that the Microsoft Bing App for iPhone is very successful from the Mobile Search point of view. It drives more traffic than from all of Verizon Wireless’s phones.

Microsoft is willing to pay more money to Apple compared to Google for the search ads.

Steve Jobs wants a Bing Search API where he can integrate search results so deep in the product that user will never have to see the Bing web page and UI

These talks have been going on since October / November 09 .

Apple never saw Google as a Competitor until the rise of Android , Chrome and most recently the Nexus One. Now the relationship has turned bitter . Now we are hearing about the Search but Apple was even considering ditching Google Maps

This is going to be an interesting space to track as Mobile Search volumes are expected to boom in the coming years.

Skyfire the fastest browser for Symbian

2010-01-21T10:51:00.000+05:30

Skyfire just released an updated version of their browser for Symbian phones. You can download the version 1.5 of the Skyfire browser for both S60 v3 phones and S60 v5 touch phones. This update follows the launch of Skyfire 1. 5 for Windows Mobile in December 2009. The browser for S60 3rd edition brings Smooth Scrolling , Updated UI for 3rd edition devices and Performance tweaks.

The S60 5th Edition Beta brings a Finger friendly UI with Kinetic scrolling. You can now also browse in Fullscreen mode. There is Auto-Rotate too which users your phone’s accelerometer

“There was a great response when Skyfire 1.5 launched in December 2009 for Windows Mobile. Video, text, and images all look crisp and stunning in high-resolution,” explains Jeff Glueck, CEO of Skyfire. “We’re glad to bring all the unique new features of Skyfire 1.5 to our dedicated Symbian user-base.”

It playes youtube videos seamlessly. The rendering of the page is great. And it is amzingly fast.

So, how does Skyfire works. Every request form the browser first goes to a Skyfire server and from the skyfire server it goes to the actual server in the internet. So, what does the Skyfire server do? It does all the processing for the page and aligns everything so that the page is viewed perfectly in the mobile. So, it takes all the CPU processing from the mobile to the huge servers.

And yes they do it all for free. Believe me it is better than and faster than Opera.

Get your copy of Skyfire today gtom http://get.skyfire.com.

It supports Windows Mobile touch and non touch , Symbian S60 v3 and v5.

One change I would like to see on Skyfire is the cancel button. There is no way I can cancel a request or stop a request. Skyfire, I hope you are listenig.

6 Problems with Nexus One

2010-01-20T11:28:00.000+05:30

Is Google's 'super phone' Nexus One turned out to be a super flop? The company is flooded with complaints relating to its first branded smartphone. In numbers too, mobile research firm Flurry estimates that Google sold around 20,000 units of Nexus One phone in its first week, the sales figure is well behind that of competing smartphones.

Nexus One is reportedly giving users tough time with Google's support forums full of customer complaints regarding company's poor service.

Here's looking into what is troubling Google Nexus One.

3G Connectivity

Poor 3G connectivity seems to be one big sore issue among Nexus One users. According to reports, Nexus One switches back and forth between EDGE and 3G service even when strong 3G signals are available.

A user wrote on a customer forum, "Don't have a "comparison" phone next to it, but I can confirm that the 3G signal falls in and out almost constantly. It moves between 3G and EDGE probably every minute."

Another wrote, "I upgraded from a blackberry pearl to the nexus one. I cannot get any 3G service as of yet. Don't know what the problem is. TMobile and HTC have not been able to help."

A company spokeswoman said that Google is aware of the problem and is looking into it.

Customer Support

Another issue troubling Nexus One users is the device's customer service. Many users are complaining that they have to shuttle between Google, device manufacturer HTC and network provider T-Mobile USA to sort their issues. Many buyers are also grumbling that they have nowhere to go but online for answers to complaints or questions.

Usually mobile-related problems are directed to the service provider as in the US most people buy subsidised phones from a mobile operator. However, since Google is selling the phone directly to end-users, it has resulted in many users turning to the search giant itself.

Also, Google reportedly appears to be only accepting e-mail customer queries, to which it pledges to reply in one to two days. On the forums, Google promises an e-mail response within 48 hours, but offers no telephone service.

User forums are swamped by customer complaints that they need a proper customer care centre for the device just like other manufacturers provide.

Touchscreen

Many users are also reportedly said to be facing problems in using the phone's touchscreen and difficulty in returning back to the home screen. Google Nexus One features a 3.7-inch (9.4 centimeter) AMOLED touchscreen display. However, the phone doesn't support multi-touch functionality.

Delivery Problems

With Google selling the phone directly to users through its website, many users have also complained about delivery issues.

Many users wrote on Google customer forum that they didn't received order confirmation even after three days of placing an order. A user wrote that he is waiting for his order to be processed even after 72 hours.

Battery Life

Users are also reportedly facing issues with the battery life of Nexus One phones. The mobile phone's battery seem to be shortlived, with many complaining that it runs out of power in a day even with minimal use.

According to Google, Nexus One offers talktime of upto 10 hours on 2G, upto 7 hours on 3G. Standby time is upto 290 hours on 2G up to 250 hours on 3G. The phone offers video playback of upto 7 hours and audio playback of upto 20 hours.

High Termination Fee

Another issue that has left many customers fuming is double termination fee.

The termination fees levied by both Google and T-Mobile adds up to a whopping $550 for customers who cancel their contract.

Google charges a $350 for "equipment recovery fee" for cancellations done in the first 120 days. T-Mobile charges Nexus One customers $200 for canceling at any time in the first eighteen months of their 2-year contract.

The phone costs $179 ($240) with a two-year T-Mobile contract and $529 without it.

Huawei Attempts to bring 3G Experience over EDGE

2010-01-20T11:16:00.000+05:30

The Chinese Telecom and Network solutions company has managed to achieve record speeds of 564 Kb/s over 2G Networks
In a recent trial conducted for EDGE / Enhanced Data Rate for GSM Evolution Huawei managed to clock 564 Kb/s which is roughly 2 times the current speeds possible over EDGE.
It’s an attempt to bring 3G experience over 2G networks which can bring services like Video Streaming etc.
He Gang, president of GSM/UMTS product line for Huawei commented: “This milestone demonstrates Huawei’ s continued commitment towards driving GSM evolution, the world’ s most widely deployed technical standard with the largest mobile subscriber base. Huawei’ s advanced EDGE+ technology enhances flexibility for operators building their 3G networks and provides a seamless high-speed data service experience.”
Huawei is calling this technology EDGE+ or we call it EDGE on Steroids !
If such a solution is implemented by Operators in India where we barely get 100Kb/s even in the middle of the night it would be more than welcome. With large scale 3G deployment in India still a distant dream possibilities like the above are a ray of hope .

via

Five great free S60v5 applications

2010-01-19T23:55:00.000+05:30

With the fast increasing mobile applications for Iphones and Android, don't be sad for your Symbian S60v5 phones. There are similar mind blowing applications for Symbian as well.

Here is a quick look at the 5 best applications for Symbian S60v5, and of-course all of them are free...

1. Google Maps

The first really huge third party S60 application to get a full touch makeover, this works superbly on S60 5th Edition, on all phones, in both landscape and portrait modes, and with touch-panning of maps and of the StreetView displays (in countries where this is supported). Version 3.2.1 is the latest and has built-in Latitude (friend-finding), Traffic and Wikipedia (layers) support. It's also terrific as a general purpose location-centric search tool (e.g. find the nearest plumber or pizza or hairdresser). Ovi Maps is good, but I think Google Maps are better.

Get it at m.google.com

2. Opera Mini

Why on earth would you want another web browser? You have S60 Web, after all? Moreover, why would you want a mouldy, ol' Java app? Because it's faster, slicker and more frugal than Web, that's why. Once you get past the initial Java hand-holding 'Do you want to go online?' question, Opera Mini, quite simply, rocks. Backed up by special proxy servers, even huge web pages like BoingBoing can be opened in just a few seconds and browsed around with full touch-panning. If you find S60 Web too slow for tradition text-based pages then Opera Mini is a definite candidate, especially if you're not on a flat rate data plan. The new version 5 beta introduces multi-tab browsing and an integrated touchscreen keyboard to save you messing with the standard Java text box forms, but the production v4.2 is also well worth installing.

Get either version from mini.opera.com

3. Nokia Photo Browser

Download from http://betalabs.nokia.com/apps/nokia-photo-browser

4. Fring

This is a great application, where you have a common use point of all your messengers. You name it and they have it. GTalk, Yahoo Messenger, MSN messenger, Skype, AIM, ICQ and others. You can also link your twitter and facebook with it to get the latest updates and post updates. The most important is you can even call using VOIP over Gtalk, Skype or ant SIP. The latest addition is to make video calls. You can use it to make video calls to your skype friends. The front camera is used for the video call. So this is a must for all S60v5 users.

Get Fring by going to m.fring.com in Web

5. JoikuSpot Light FREE Hotspot

Perhaps a pinnacle of modern software engineering, JoikuSpot turns your S60 phone and its data connection into a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot for other devices (of yours) to hook into. The premium version has loads more functions and security, but for cheap, cheerful and ad-hoc use, the free 'Light' version does very well, letting you surf away on your laptop, for example, using (in this case) the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic as the hotspot. Yes, PC Suite also allows through-Internet connections, but isn't is just so cool to be making your own Wi-Fi hotspot?

Get it from the Nokia Ovi Store or from Joiku's download page.

Which touch phone to buy within Rs.10K

2010-01-17T13:34:00.005+05:30

After Apple showed the world, the magic of touch, there are several players who have ventured this avenue. So, today we have so many touch phones in market that it makes one confused which phone to buy.

Apple comes at around Rs.30K, which is quite large for everyone. This is where Apple has gone wrong. If they reduce the price then other players will surely be eliminated.

I will give you a detailed review on which touch phone to go for, and yes below 10K. There are so many players, that I am also confused whom to include and whom to not.

First make up your mind what exactly do you want from your phone. There are two types of touch phones in market. One is a normal touch phone, another is called touch smart phone. Now, I have heard that word smartphone, what is it? A phone where you can install new softwares and perform some enhanced functions is a smartphone. It is like your pc, but its a phone after all. There is a huge market full of applications that you can download and install to your mobile. I will give you an example, say you want to use your mobile as a Business Card reader, and your phone doesnot support it, then you can download a software which will use your phone camera, and convert your phone to a Business Card reader. This is a smart phone.

The other type is, you can not install softwares to that phone, but use the applications that is provided in the phone itself. But there are java applications which you can run on these phones and can achieve the flavour of the softwares. But you need a phone where you can run java applications. You can get all the java applications from http://www.getjar.com.

Now with the phones. First phone that comes in mind is from the market leader, NOKIA.

The phone recently released was Nokia 5230. When coming from the market leader, you can be rest assured that this is one of the best phone. Priced at Rs8300/- this is a smartphone running on S60v5 Series. This is the same operating system on which n97 runs, and a powerful processor. So indirectly it means you can install all applications in 5230 that you can on n97. Another fact is, this phone is a 3G enabled phone. So, you get a fast browsing and net experience with this phone. It has been tested over BSNL 3G in Kerela, and is working without any problem, and yes we were able to stream videos from youtube without hiccups over the GSM 3G network. One point in which it beats the iPhone is it supports flash in the browser, which means you can watch youtube from the normal browser itself, you do not require a separate application. So, with so many good points, is it the ultimately phone? No, there are some drawbacks to this as well. First this one doesnot support a wifi, which is a must these days. Second it has a 2MP camera, come-on Nokia, 2MP? The bare minimum you should be giving is 3.2 with flash. 2MP is not acceptable. Also, it is a 3G phone without video calling? How could Nokia do this?

Now moving on to the next market leaders, Samsung. Understanding the market and the need for touchphone

Samsung released a series of touchphones and yes in less than 10K. Though these phones are not smartphones, but you can install Java applications in these phones. There are so many phones, with almost equal features that it is not possible to get all the details of these phones here. But I will try to give the most I can. Starting with the 3G version, Samsung Star 3G is a great landmark. Star 3G is a great phone, with great touch screen, 3G, Video Calling, great features, 3.2 MP camera and at a price Rs.9856/-. The non-3g is also good. It has the wifi, and almost similar features but a bit bigger than 3g at a price Rs.8654/-. Then Samsung releases a Corby series. All Corby phones are non-3g, and non-wifi. But it has many social widgets on the homescreen and the target audience was the young generations. Samsung Corby S3653@Rs.7692/-,
Corby Pop S3510@Rs.6827 /-, Corby Plus B3410@Rs.8749 /-. To install java applications on Samsung phone please go through my other blog. All these phones have the touchwiz interface with widgets for fast action and use on the homescreen itself.

Moving to LG Mobiles. LG has some great mobile phones, but when somehow this 10K market has been missed out. It has only one phone LG Cookie released at Rs.7212/-. The phone has a good touchscreen, and some great features. But it is a non-3g, non-wifi phone. It has the features of widgets on the home screen and it is customizable. It has a good 3.2 MP decent camera, and 8GB expandable memory. It has support for EMail, Instant Messaging. It also supports Java applications.

There are other touch phones as well from so many companies. We have Motorola E6, Spice, Fly, Simocco and others who have touchscreen phones. But I should mention, most of these touch screens are useable with a stylus. But when we have touchscreen phones which we can use with our fingers, these phones with stylus is a big no from me. But I should mention of the new company Movi. They have a good dual sim touch screen phone MT1.

Five Nokia Touchscreen Smartphone at a glance

2010-01-16T18:56:00.004+05:30

	Nokia X6	Nokia N97 Mini	Nokia 5800XM	Nokia 5530XM	Nokia 5230
Network	GSM Quad-band phone capable of global roaming (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) UMTS tri-band global 3G (2100/1900/900 MHz)	GSM Quad-band phone capable of global roaming (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) UMTS tri-band global 3G (2100/1900/900 MHz)	GSM Quad-band phone capable of global roaming (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) UMTS dual-band American 3G (1900/850 MHz) European version has UMTS 900/2100 MHz; Other version is GSM only	GSM Quad-band phone capable of global roaming (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)	GSM Quad-band phone capable of global roaming (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) UMTS dual-band European/Asian 3G (2100/900 MHz) Other versions support UMTS 850/2100 MHz
Dimensions	4.37 x 2.01 x 0.54 inches (111 x 51 x 13.8 mm)	4.45 x 2.07 x 0.56 inches (113 x 52.5 x 14.2 mm)	4.37 x 2.04 x 0.61 inches (111 x 51.7 x 15.5 mm)	4.09 x 1.93 x 0.51 inches (104 x 49 x 13 mm)	4.37 x 2.04 x 0.61 inches (111 x 51.7 x 15.5 mm)
Display	Color, 16,777,216 colors, 360 x 640 pixels	Color, 16,777,216 colors, 360 x 640 pixels	Color, 16,777,216 colors, 360 x 640 pixels	Color, 16,777,216 colors, 360 x 640 pixels	Color, 16,777,216 colors, 360 x 640 pixels
Camera	5 MP with Flash	5 MP with Flash	3.2 MP with Flash	3.2 MP with Flash	2 MP
Battery Life	401 hours (17 days) of Stand-by time 8.5 hours (510 mins) of Talk time	320 hours (13 days) of Stand-by time 7.16 hours (430 mins) of Talk time	406 hours (17 days) of Stand-by time 8.8 hours (528 mins) of Talk time	336 hours (14 days) of Stand-by time 4.9 hours (294 mins) of Talk time	438 hours (18 days) of Stand-by time 7 hours (420 mins) of Talk time
OS	Symbian S60v5 9.4	Symbian S60v5 9.7	Symbian S60v5 9.6	Symbian S60v5 9.8	Symbian S60v5 9.5
Bluetooth	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Music Player	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Memory Slot	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Built In Memory	32768 MB	8192 MB	86MB	70MB	70MB
Email	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Wi-Fi	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
3G	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Video Calling	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
GPS	A-GPS	A-GPS	A-GPS	No	GPS
Sensors	Accelerometer	Compass, Accelerometer	Accelerometer	Accelerometer	Accelerometer
Headphones connector	3.5mm	3.5mm	3.5mm	3.5mm	3.5mm
Touch Screen	Capacitive	Resistive	Resistive	Resistive	Resistive
Price	Not release in India	23000/-	13000/-	15000/-	8300/-

Another new Mobile company Movil

2010-01-16T15:00:00.004+05:30

Bling Telecom has launched its new brand Movil in the Indian market. Movil Mobile has recently launched the MT1 as part of its first handset range.

The Movil MT1 has a price of Rs 5,500 in India.

Movil MT1 is a smooth and sleek mobile phone with dual SIM supporting two GSM connections (GSM + GSM), a large 3 inch touchscreen and a 3 megapixel camera.

Movil MT1 has a multipurpose mini USB port which functions as a charging port, headphone jack and a data port. The phone comes with Bluetooth and GPRS as well. MT1 has an internal memory of 87MB. It supports expandable memory up to 8 GB microSD card.

The user interface of MT1 has 3D effects to transitions while accessing the menu. The signal strength of both the SIMs is displayed on the network logo of SIM 1 is displayed in the center of the screen. Users can add the icons of their favorite functions such as calendar, music player gallery, etc. on the home screen itself. These icons can be accessed from a slide-out bar just above the touch sensitive menu key.

The 3-megapixel camera (2048 x 1536 pixels) is fixed focus and gives a decent picture quality. It has no flash. You can take photographs either using the hardware shutter release key on the side of the phone or use a touch key on the screen. Other features of the camera includes white balancing, image settings, scene mode and effect settings. The camera supports normal, gray-scale, sepia and color invert for its effects setting. The video recording can be done with low, high and normal quality settings. For video recording, the length is defined by the capacity of the memory card.

The MT1 has a basic photo editing functionality, to crop the image, add text to the image, fun frames, add effects, and blur any selected portion of the image. You can make a mirror image or rotate the picture in any direction as well.

MT1 has a speaker that can be used for playing out the music with the MP3 Player or FM Radio. The FM radio gives you an option to have a scheduled FM recording of your favorite programs.

Specifications

Size: 102 x 51 x 13.6 mm
Weight: 98 grams
Memory: Internal – 87MB , Expandable – 8GB MicroSD
Screen: 262,144 colors
Battery: Li-ion, 1000 mAh
Talk Time: Upto 7 hours
Stand By: Up to 120 Hours
Bluetooth
Phonebook: 1000
GPRS
Camera: 3 MP
Music Player
FM Radio
Motion Sensor games

Has Google Nexus One failed?

2010-01-16T14:21:00.001+05:30

Mobile application analyst Flurry estimates that Google sold around 20,000 units of its recently released Nexus One phone in the first week of the device going on sale, putting initial Nexus One sales well behind those of smart phone devices made by other competitors.

Hype surrounding Google's flagship device generated "unprecedented buzz," and left bloggers and consumers expecting high handset sales.

Estimated Nexus one sales are weak, however, when compared to Motorola Droid's first week sales of 250,000 units and not even a drop in the water when compared to Apple's iPhone 3GS first week sales of more than 1,600,000 units.

"Flurry estimates that Nexus One was outsold by Droid by more than 12 times, myTouch 3G by 3 times and iPhone 3GS by a staggering 80 times," wrote Peter Farago on Flurry's blog on January 13.

via Indiatimes

How to install softwares in Samsung Star

2010-01-16T13:53:00.002+05:30

Samsung came up with three new touch screen phones, Samsung Star, Samsung Star 3g, Samsung Corby. Great phones and great price. But unfortunately these are not smartphones, so you cannot install softwares and change your normal phone to something extraordinary.

But the phones support J2ME apps, so you can install jars and still get a feel of apps. Download new java apps from http://www.getjar.com. But there is another problem, just putting the jar file in the memory card doesnot solve the purpose. There is no way to install these jars. I will teach you a way to install these apps to you Samsung phones.

Ok, lets start. We will require 3 things

TKFileExplorer
Jar creator (optional, required only if your Java file ".jar" does not have a .jad file.Download here)
Java App/Game you want to install. :)

Step 1: Download and install TKFileExplorer from here Also if you haven't installed PC STUDIO or the USB driver, now will be a good time to do that.

Step 2: Open TKFileExplorer and go to Settings then choose COM. On Port,
click the drop down menu and choose the only port that is visible (something like port 5/port 6). In my case it was port 8. (IF COM PORT IS NOT PRESENT, TYPE IN MANUALLY.START FROM COM1,COM2.. so on)

NOTE* You must NOT be connected in PC Studio program.

Now click on FILE and CONNECT or in the icon as shown below.

Step 3: On the bottom Left of TKFileExplorer, browse through these folders Exe -> Java -> Games.
Now that you are in Games, Create a folder on your machine with the name of the game & paste the .jar & .jad file in that folder.Now go back to TKFileExplorer & browse for that location where you have made the folder right click & Select Download.

Thats it you done for the TKFileExplorer part. Discconect your phone by clicking the icon or by File -> Disconnect.

Now open up your dial pad and enter the following, *#6984125*#.
Choose INTERNALS and enter the following, *#9072641*#.
Now scroll down and choose Storage Settings. Then Update Java DB, followed by update Apps database.
Now you are finished. Go to Menu - Applications -> Games & More. Your newly installed App should be visible!

How to install unsigned app in S60

2010-01-16T13:30:00.003+05:30

There are several mind blowing applications on the internet, but most of them are unsignd. Most of us wonder what does this means. For a application to be installed on S60 mobiles, it has to be certified or signed.

There are several ways to sign these unsigned apps. But, for most of them you need to hack your phone. Now hacking your phone is risky, as it violates the warranty. So, I will show you a way to sign your apps in a computer and install it. So no hacking of you precious phone. Zero risk.

Simply visit http://isign.imobile.com.cn and sign up for an account.

Fill in the required details, use can even use a fake address. Just keep the username and password in mind.

Follow the directions in the screenshot.

Now enter your IMEI number.

The website will display a confirmation with the date and time after which you can sign the apps.

Now the wait begins. If you are not already logged in, login to see if your certificate is ready.

Click the 7th Tab, look at the status bar, it should point to signtool.php, and click the green button. It download the signingtool.
Run the exe, and follow the steps. You will be able to sign your apps

Now download any unsigned apps, sign it, install it and enjoy. I have tried it personally, and it never let me down. Now you can use unsigned apps without hacking you phone.

How to change Product Code for Nokia

2010-01-16T11:54:00.002+05:30

Every Nokia mobile has a Product Code, and the updates are released based on this Product Code. So, sometime there are updates which are not installed on your mobile as it was not released for your Product Code. You can know your product code after removing the battery.

You can update via OTA (Over The Air) or NSU (Nokia Software Updater).
To update via OTA, dial *#0000#. If you are able to select Options, you may Check for updates immediately and update.

Otherwise use NSU, connect using the USB and check for updates. If Update is available, it will be downloaded.

Remember to take a backup before update.

Now for those who know there is a new update, but both OTA and NSU says no update, you need to change the Product Code of your mobile, and then update.

This tutorial should be valid for all Nokia devices and not just the N97, which I have used to demo the procedure. In order to get started, all you need is:

A Windows machine.
A copy of the NSS Suite which you can get here, or use this direct link.
A USB cable to connect the phone to the computer.
The device itself.
Simply connect your device to the computer in the ‘PC Suite’ mode.
Install (use the default configuration, i.e. just keep clicking next during installation) and fire up NSS. You should see the following screen.

Simply click the lens as shown in the picture above

You will see the above screen, next click on ‘Phone Info’ situated next to the top left corner.

In the ‘Phone Info’ screen, click ‘Read’ to bring up your current product code, HW version etc.
Next simply click ‘Enable’ next to the product code.
Fill in the desired product code, I have used a fictitious ‘111111′. Please make sure you fill in the right product code e.g. filling in a NAM product code when your device is a Euro model can cause serious damage when you update. Now press ‘Write’.

Nothing will appear to have happened, but your product code would have been changed. To verify hit ‘Read’ once again.

That’s it. You have now changed your product code and can fire up the Nokia Software Updater to get the latest firmware.

Nokia 5800 new firmware update v40

2010-01-16T11:14:00.012+05:30

At last after long wait, Nokia announces the much awaited firmware update v40. Yes, yes this has the much longed Kinetic Scrolling. Wait for the detailed updated features.

via DailyMobile

Kinetic scrolling everywhere except: main menu, application menu (not even in list mode), browser;
Home style widget with Nokia 5530;
QWERTY Keyboard Auto Rotation (on text input screens);
Refresh Icons "Sharing Online", "Configuring Accessories", "Configure Phone";
New screen alarm, but only when the screen is locked;
Improved application "Updating Applications", which also renames Upgrade SW;
The application "Data transfer" was also implemented in "Settings";
Real Player Updated to 12 October 2009;
Ovi Contacts installed;
Removed Download! (Ovi Store still available)
Touch more responsive;
Improved stability;
Slide to Unlock during call
New contact & music widget.
New screen alarm, but only when the screen is locked.
New screen incoming call, also only when the screen is locked.

Bad news for advanced users. This update is not HACKABLE

List of Product Codes for the update:

0559950: APAC1 BLUE
0559670: APAC1 Indonesia RED
0559476: APAC1 RED
0559958: APAC2 AU BLUE
0559668: APAC2 AU RED
0559953: APAC2 BLUE
0559673: APAC2 India RED
0559669: APAC2 NZ RED
0559548: APAC2 RED
0573762: Balkans Black
0559395: Balkans BLUE
0559299: Balkans RED
0573744: Baltia Black
0559377: Baltia BLUE
0559233: Baltia RED
0573730: British Isles Black
0559346: British Isles BLUE
0552438: British Isles RED
0573747: CIS Black
0559388: CIS BLUE
0559276: CIS RED
0573738: Euro1 ALPS Black
0559368: Euro1 ALPS BLUE
0559054: Euro1 ALPS RED
0573733: Euro1 Black
0573736: EURO1 Black Portugal
0559360: Euro1 BLUE
0570023: Euro1 BLUE Portugal
0573737: Euro1 France Black
0559366: Euro1 France BLUE
0559052: Euro1 France RED
0559051: Euro1 Hispania RED
0558982: Euro1 RED
0570022: EURO1 RED Portugal
0573740: Euro2 Black
0573812: Euro2 Black Bene
0591777: Euro2 Black Bene
0591778: Euro2 Black Bene
0591779: Euro2 Black Bene
0591780: Euro2 Black Bene
0591781: Euro2 Black Bene
0591782: Euro2 Black Bene
0591783: Euro2 Black Bene
0591784: Euro2 Black Bene
0591785: Euro2 Black Bene
0559372: Euro2 BLUE
0570027: Euro2 BLUE Bene
0559066: Euro2 RED
0570026: Euro2 RED BENE
0573741: Euro2 Turkey Black
0559373: Euro2 Turkey BLUE
0559083: Euro2 Turkey RED
0573761: Euro3 Black
0591792: Euro3 Black
0591794: Euro3 Black
0559394: Euro3 BLUE
0559298: Euro3 RED
0573734: Hispania Black
0559363: Hispania BLUE
0573763: Israel Black
0559407: Israel BLUE
0559300: Israel RED
0573748: Moldova Black
0559389: Moldova BLUE
0559297: Moldova RED
0573745: Russia,Belarus Black
0559378: Russia,Belarus BLUE
0559237: Russia,Belarus RED
0573857: RUSSIAN Black HUNGARY
0573856: RUSSIAN Black ROMANIA
0591787: RUSSIAN Black ROMANIA
0591788: RUSSIAN Black ROMANIA
0591789: RUSSIAN Black ROMANIA
0591790: RUSSIAN Black ROMANIA
0591791: RUSSIAN Black ROMANIA
0591793: RUSSIAN Black ROMANIA
0591795: RUSSIAN Black ROMANIA
0591796: RUSSIAN Black ROMANIA
0570122: RUSSIAN BLUE HUNGARY
0570121: RUSSIAN BLUE ROMANIA
0570123: RUSSIAN RED HUNGARY
0570120: RUSSIAN RED ROMANIA
0573743: Scandinavia Black
0591786: Scandinavia Black
0559375: Scandinavia BLUE
0559110: Scandinavia RED
0559857: Taiwan BLUE
0559472: Taiwan RED
0559678: Thailand RED
0573746: Ukraine Black
0559383: Ukraine BLUE
0559246: Ukraine RED
0559676: Vietnam RED

If your product code is not enlisted, please visit my blog on how to change the product code.