The Tech Rythm

Aakash (UbiSlate7) tablet a huge hit ! 1.4 million orders in two weeks

2012-01-06T20:19:00.000+05:30

Pre-booking rate of Aakash Tablet is now averaging over 100,000 individual end-user sales each day and have cumulatively exceeded over two million. The elder brother of Aakash will be available in March of this year, sporting upgraded specs which include a Cortex A8 700 Mhz processor, 3200 mAh battery and Android 2.3. This is the only tablet in the market which offers UbiSurfer browser ; based on 18 international patents which accelerates web pages loading by 10X to 30X. Here is a comparison of the younger brother Aakash(UbiSlate7) and the elder brother Ubislate7+.

Firefox 10.0 beta 3 released

2012-01-06T19:18:00.000+05:30

Firefox 10.00 beta 3 version has recently been released by firefox with some improvements in this version. Version 10.0 is expected to release on 31st January 2012. The third beta version of firefox 10.0 comes with the following new features:

The forward button remains hidden. They appear as and when you navigate back to it.

Bug 615976 now fixed. WebGL Anti-aliasing now implemented.
Full Screen API's : Allows users to build full-screen apps.
Bug 505115 fixed,supports CSS 3D transforms.

Download

Download Firefox for Android Browser

2012-01-06T18:59:00.000+05:30

If you are an active net user browsing all the time through the web using firefox web browser and if you want the same browsing experience on your android based device, then this post is for you. Firefox brings to you the firefox browser for Android, to give its users the same browsing experience as on the PC and is optimised for use on a tablet. The browser is fast, easy to use and customizable.

download Firefox for android.

Say hello to the fastest single-GPU graphics card on the planet: AMD Radeon™ HD 7970

2011-12-22T23:25:00.000+05:30

AMD today announced the fastest single-GPU graphics card on the planet. It's also the world's first 28nm GPU. Here are the mid-boggling specs:

925 MHz core clock
2048 Stream Processors
5.5 GHz effective GDDR5
384-Bit bus with 3GB Frame buffer
4.31 Billion transistors
Full support for 3GHz HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort 1.2
Supports PCI Express 3.0 standard

The card will be actually be available for purchase from the 9th of January 2012. The estimated cost is approximately 30,000 rupees which is pretty hefty for a single GPU card.

iPhone Facebook application updated to 4.1

2011-12-19T15:46:00.000+05:30

You must have tried out the Facebook's Timeline feature by now, if not go grab it now! The new app is available only for the iPhone users but the iPad version is expected to roll out soon. This new version brings timeline view on your iPhone and soon on your iPad, but you will need to have already activated the timeline function on the web-based original. This new version also allows access to friend lists, subscribers and subscriptions; and the usual suspects: performance improvements, ability to easily view and comment on photos.

Download the application from the App Store here.

Nokia releases Windows Phone 7 based devices

2011-10-28T06:32:00.000+05:30

Nokia unveiled its first Windows Phone based devices: The Lumia 800 and 710. Both the devices come with a blazing fast 1.4Ghz Qualcomm single-core processor along with 512 megs of RAM. The 800 features a uni-body design which makes it a sleek looking one. The 800 also has a 3.7 inch AMOLED display with Nokia's clear black technology, 16 GB of flash memory on board, 8MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics.

The 710 has almost the same specs except that it comes with a 5MP camera and a microSD card which is not included in the 800. Both models use micro-SIMs. Along with the hardware Nokia announced their unique software bundle which will be preloaded on every Lumia device (i.e) Nokia Maps and Nokia Music , the maps application is based on Nokia's own Ovi-Maps, which includes voice guided navigation, turn-by-turn navigation. Maps allows you to download and preinstall maps ahead of time so as to avoid streaming on the go. Nokia 800 is stated to be available in November and it's sibling the 710 is stated to be available before the end of the year.

Linux kernel hits 3.1

2011-10-26T02:43:00.001+05:30

Three months after the 3.0 the 3.1 comes, with all its bell and whistles. Linux is a popular open source platform that is nearly fifteen years old. The major update in this version is for visualization , 3D support for NVIDIA graphics, improvements to the upcoming Intel's Ivy bridge chip and GMA500 enhancements.
The other highlights are NFC support, Nintendo Wii support, various file systems support. The new kernel includes OpenRISC architecture, it also provides better power management features via the new cpupowerutils user-space utility.

Windows XP just turned 10 years old !

2011-10-26T02:15:00.000+05:30

On the 25th of October, 2001, Windows XP was available on the shelves for sale. XP dominated the OS usage from 2003 to 2011 until recently 7 overtook it, Microsoft encourages people to move on from Internet Explorer 6 to the latest explorer 9, In an effort to upgrade from the good ol' XP Microsoft's own Internet Explorer 9 only runs on Windows 7 or Vista because of graphics acceleration support. Also the latest windows live setup which includes movie maker and good stuff doesn't support XP. Microsoft will stop all support for Windows XP on the 8th of April, 2014, also those of you who haven't upgraded to the service pack 3 it's high time you do it because official support is only available for the SP3. A decade is too long and if you are still on the rusty old XP , seriously it's time to upgrade, a solid reason for this is that XP still continues to be the breeding ground for malware, so beware your data and your valuable personal information may be at stake. Better be safe than sorry.

Flip whatever you type on facebook and impress your friends.

2011-10-24T19:54:00.000+05:30

This is an old but an attractive tip for facebook users. You can really dıןɟ(flip) your facebook status or event the chat. This trick works not only for facebook but for any site as well. It works for ɯɥʇʎɹɥɔǝʇ , ǝןboob and any other such site. You need to follow only these steps -

1. Log-in to your facebook account.

2. In a new tab or new browser window go to fliptext.org

3. You will see two big boxes in which you can type a text.
4. In the upper block, type in the text you want to flip and you will see the flipped text in the lower box as shown in the picture below.

5. Copy the text and paste it in your status bar or facebook chat or wherever required and you are done.

Enjoy!!!

Lock a folder in windows without using any software

2011-10-24T18:46:00.003+05:30

You might want to keep some of your data confidential without letting other users, using your PC, to get to know about it. Well if you'ld have tried to do so, you might have used a number of softwares to do that. But what if you don't have such a software to encrypt your data or what if you have software installation restrictions if you are not the admin of a system. Well in that case, techrythm brings to you some simple steps using which you can secure your data. Just follow these steps :-

1.Open notepad.(Windows 7 - Start-> Run-> Notepad)
(Windows xp - Start-> All Programs-> Accessories-> Notepad)
2. In your notepad file just paste the following text,shown between the lines and highlighted in grey color, after copying it from here.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________

cls

:End

@ECHO OFF

title Folder Lock

 if EXIST "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" goto UNLOCK

if NOT EXIST Locker goto MDLOCKER

:CONFIRM

echo Are you sure you want to Lock this folder?(Y/N)

set/p "cho=>"

if %cho%==Y goto LOCK

if %cho%==y goto LOCK

if %cho%==n goto END

if %cho%==N goto END

echo Invalid entry.

goto CONFIRM

:LOCK

ren Locker "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"

attrib +h +s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"

echo Folder has been locked

goto End

:UNLOCK

echo Enter the password to Unlock this folder

set/p "pass=>"

if NOT %pass%==techrythm goto FAIL

attrib -h -s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"

ren "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" Locker

echo Folder has been Unlocked

goto End

:FAIL

echo The password is incorrect

goto end

:MDLOCKER

md Locker

echo Locker has been created successfully

goto End

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

3. In the code above, find the text given below and replace the text "techrythm" in it with your password
_______________________________________________________________________________________________

if NOT %pass%==techrythm goto FAIL

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Now hit ctrl+s and save this notepad file at the desired location(the place where the folder to be locked is located) with yourdesiredname.bat . For example, techrythm.bat

5. In the save as window keep the "Save as type" as "text document(*.txt)" and Encoding as ANSI.

6. After this, a .bat file will be created, which is a system file.

7. Double click on this file .

8. A folder named "Locker" appears at the same location where your .bat(system) file has been saved.

9. Double click on this folder to open it.

10. Copy all your data into this folder.

11. Now double click on the .bat folder again. A Command prompt window opens.

12. Press Y (to lock the folder) and hit enter.

13. Now, the "Locker" folder will hide, and only .bat file remains at the location.

14. When you want to open this folder, just open the .bat file, enter your password(here techrythm) and hit enter.

This is it. You have successfully created a password protected folder. You can open this folder using .bat file infinite times and update your folder any number of times.

Enjoy!!!

Synapse 2.0 by Razer

2011-10-23T04:34:00.000+05:30

The Razer Synapse 2.0 moves your peripheral settings to the cloud. The basic idea is to give users access to their customized peripheral settings on the fly. This may not be much of an appeal to stationary gamers but rather appealing to tournament gamers who more often than not use many computers for gaming. Admitted that you can store your profiles onto your peripherals on-board storage but you'll have to carry around your "things". Just download the application it gets the work done, all your custom setting keys are re-binded via a simple login and sync process, in addition to these the software automatically downloads driver, game add-ons and firmware patches for your device to ensure that you are up to date.

Top 5 Apps to make a free call from your android based phone or tab

2011-10-22T22:24:00.074+05:30

Windows or any other platforms use VoIP services for internet calling services. With the advance in the field of software technology, we now have an option of making a call free-of-cost from out portable devices. Using a few apps, a free call can be made over the internet, within a few seconds with data-enabled smart-phones. If you use a device based on the android, with Wi-Fi access or a 3G connection, you can use these services, but the primary requirement of these services is that your friend on the other end of a call should use the same service on their device.

Here is a list of a few apps that you are surely going to get your hands on -

1. YAHOO MESSENGER -

This widely used messenger on windows is now available for android based devices. Using this app you can connect to friends who use this application whether on a portable device or a PC. This messenger provides a handful of quality services that you would love to use. A few of them are -

1. Share your Photos and videos with your friends.

2. Chat with your facebook friends.
3. Free SMS (international).

4. Video and voice chat (not available in the basic version).

5. Windows Live chat.

If you are using a basic version of this app, you cannot avail the video and voice chat facility. If you have the basic app installed on your device you can use this link to update your app in order to avail voice and video chat facility. Apart from giving so much, yahoo messenger has some drawbacks like you don't have an option to start a group video chat in yahoo messenger. Also you need to have an account on yahoo messenger to use it.

However there are a number of other apps, that have been discussed further, that do not require an account on it to use their service.

2. NIMBUZZ

Nimbuzz has been a popular service from a long time and has been serving users using nimbuzz on a PC or a symbian device. Now with high speed internet on Android based devices, Nimbuzz is providing a good amount of quality services to its users. The best part of this app is that you have all the contacts in one place. With this app you also get the following services-

1. Free voice calls.

2. Cheaper international calls.

3. Free messaging facility

4. SIP account
5. VoIP account
6. All contacts in one place.
7. HD Voice calls
8. Webchat language selector
9. Easy access to free games.
10. Push notifications.

Download Nimbuzz application from here!

3. FRING

This is an app for those who want to have group video chat with their friends using their portable devices. Fring allows 4 way live video calling for free. It even allows you to chat with fring users free of cost.

Its features include -

1. Video chat
2. Group video chat
3. Voice calls
4. Chats
5. Cheap phone-call prices

Download FRING .

4. VIBER

Using Viber you can make a call from your android device. The best thing about viber is that it does not require any user account, in order to access it. Neither do you need to add any friends to make a call. Just by installing this app you can make a call to your friend using his number and send him free messages.

Viber includes -

1. Free international calls to other viber users on 3G or WiFi.
2. Free text messages to other viber users.
3. Uses your existing contact list.

Download VIBER for android.

5. TANGO

This application allows its users to call other tango users free of cost. The app is user-friendly and is really easy to use.

Its features are -

1. Free calls between android and iOS users.
2. Switch to video call from voice call anytime by just pressing the camera icon on screen.
3. Auto friend( using tango ) finder.
4. Send invitations to friends.

Download it from here.

Galaxy Nexus with Ice Cream Sandwich!

2011-10-19T18:58:00.001+05:30

This time the new Google phone arrives with a bang! This bad looking guy has a 4.65-inch HD (1280x720) super AMOLED display. This phone comes with a blazing fast 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 1 Gig of RAM, Bluetooth 3.0 , 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, an embedded NFC module, 5 mega pixel rear camera (with LED flash), a 1.3 mega pixel front-facing camera for 1080p video recording and playback; hold on we are not finished yet! ,accelerometer, compass, gyro, proximity sensor and even a barometer with 16 or 32GB of internal storage space and a 1,750mAh battery.

Along with their new phone Google is launching Android 4.0(Ice Cream Sandwich) which includes a bunch of features like facial recognition, camera application with zero shutter lag and capability to zoom while video recording, monitoring data usage, new Roboto font, browser with support for up-to 16 tabs and bookmarks syncing capability, improved error correction for the keyboard and loads of other stuff.

Microsoft to exhibit touch screen for any surface

2011-10-18T14:32:00.001+05:30

Named as omnitouch, Microsoft exhibited, a wearable mechanism that will allow multitouch input on any surface - as described on the Microsoft Research page.
Omnitouch turns any surface around you into a touch interface. The technology uses a combination of a projector (laser based pico projector) and a camera that can sense depth and is build to work in a short range and is produced by primesense.

Demo of Omnitouch

This project will be unveiled at the UIST 2012 (User Interface Software and Technology) , 24th symposium of the Association for Computing Machinery's that is to be held from 16 -19 october in Santa

Barbara, Calif.

Apple sells 4 million iPhone 4S sets in the first weekend of its release

2011-10-18T08:09:00.000+05:30

Apple, on monday declared that it recorded a huge sale of its iPhone units in the last weekend. According to Apple Inc., 4 million iPhone 4S units were sold during the last weekend,that is, from friday to sunday. Apple's senior vice president for world product marketing, Phil Schiller, said that the number of iPhone 4S sold during the last weekend is just double the number of iPhone 4 sold after 3 days of its launch. According to Apple's iPhone 4 selling stats, 1.7 million iPhone 4 units were sold during the first weekend, just after iPhone 4 was launched.
The iPhone 4S , launched on Friday, has the same design as the iPhone 4, but Apple has done some improvements in the iPhone 4S which includes an 8MP camera, full HD 1080p video recording and a dual-core processor , making multi-tasking even faster.

Those neutrinos ; actually were not faster than light!

2011-10-18T01:30:00.002+05:30

Scientists at the world's largest physics lab(CERN) said that they have clocked neutrinos travelling faster than light. But, according to Einstein's special theory of relativity nothing can go faster than the speed of light, his theory could be at risk but it isn't. Scientists have come up with an explanation for the neutrinos which were possibly travelling faster than light! Possible explanation of the happening is that the GPS satellites which were used to measure the departure and arrival times of the neutrinos were themselves subject to the Einsteinian effects, because of the simple reason that they were in motion relative to the experiment which was not properly taken into account during the original calculations.
Be glad that it worked out this way or some random guy could go back in time and then change a small thing thus triggering a cascade of events that could ultimately end up killing your great, great, great grandfather and thus wiping you out of existence!

Google to compete with itunes

2011-10-18T00:25:00.001+05:30

Google Inc. is in talks with several record companies and is trying to seek agreements with them. Doing so, google will open a music store that would surely be a rival of itunes. Google is also seeking permissions for putting music files online for downloads and for streaming. Obviously, users will have to pay a price to use this service but itunes will surely have to gear for a tough fight.
Stepping into social networking , google is now into entertainment giving tough fights to present popular services on the internet.The beta version of google music was announced earlier this year on may 10.

Apple to provide its users movie cloud service soon

2011-10-15T15:16:00.001+05:30

With the controversy around about netflix swirling, Apple seems to be taking advantage by putting movies in the cloud.
A report by The Los Angeles The Times' anonymous sources state that Apple representatives have been in talks with the Hollywood studios in order to sign-up deals with them that would let apple consumers to access their favorite movies in the cloud and on any of the apple devices. This cloud service is expected to be launched by the end of 2011 or early in 2012.
People who usually watch movies on DVDs or Blu-Ray Discs now have an option to watch the movies directly online on their apple device or smartphones, internet connected televisions.

facebook releases iPad app.

2011-10-15T14:41:00.001+05:30

The wait for the facebook app for iPad ended this monday, when facebook released its app for the apple iPad. People were eagerly waiting for a facebook app that could fill out the large screen of the iPad and facebook ended their wait by releasing a full screen app for iPad.

There gave been rumors swirling all around that Apple and Facebook were in talks related to the integration of the social network site into the system software of the iPhones and iPads. Apple's latest updated system software features Twitter,instead of Facebook.

The Facebook app for the iPhone and iPad app is free jsut like the previous one.
Download one from here.

The new Nokia 603 and Luna headset

2011-10-14T14:50:00.001+05:30

Nokia launched an NFC enabled smartphone with Symbian belle. The 603 is powered by a 1Ghz processor sporting a 3.5-inch 640x360 capacitive touch screen. It comes with a 2GB of internal memory and expandable to 32GB via microSD card and a 5 mega-pixel camera and last but not the least also Bluetooth 3.0

Along with the 603 Nokia also launches their new Luna Bluetooth headset, an in ear accessory with NFC capability with 8 hours of talk time.

India gets 4G in January 2012

2011-10-13T13:35:00.005+05:30

Bhopal gets to kick off 4G first, during the auction of the 4G services the company Augere won the broadband wireless access spectrum for Madhya Pradesh the previous year. Reliance the other big player in the market plans to introduce 4G or LTE during the same time frame.

Long Term Evolution (LTE) has a capacity of up to 100 Mbit/s in the down link and 50 Mbit/s in the up link if a 20 MHz channel is used. This technology is often branded as 4G but does not comply with the IMT-Advanced requirements.

So are you ready for 4G?

Update your iDevices to iOS 5

2011-10-13T01:43:00.003+05:30

First off you will need to update your iTunes to version 10.5 to upgrade to iOS 5. The upgradable devices are iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, both iPad's and the 3rd and 4th generation iPod touch.
The new iOS brings the following features:

Camera access from the lock screen
Pull down notifications
Twitter integration
iMessage & iCloud
News-stand & reminders

Unfortunately the voice assistant "Siri" is restricted to the new device the 4S.
Happy Updating!

ARM Support on ubuntu 11.10

2011-10-12T22:39:00.000+05:30

Ubuntu 11.10 will arrive with support for ARM architecture, in addition there a couple of other features like

Cloud service orchestration engine called JuJu
Latest OpenStack cloud software called Diablo

Be warned that this may not be a fully polished version for the ARM architecture.
Juju can be used to automate start-up and shutting down of cloud servers running on Open stack. The desktop and the server editions of the distro will be available for download on the 13th of this month.

Youtube launches spacelab

2011-10-12T22:35:00.000+05:30

Youtube, on monday launched its space lab program in association with lenovo. This spacelab program aims at increasing students interest in the field of science and technology. The competition is open for teenagers between 14 to 18. The YOUTUBE SPACE LAB program was launched in partnership with lenovo, the European, NASA and Japanese space agencies. In the competition, the teens will have to design their own space experiment, following which two will be declared as the winners and these experiments will be live streamed fron the Space Station next year. Google's marketing chief for Europe, Africa, and the middle east, Zahaan Barmal, came up with this idea of a space lab program.The winners will get to travel to Tanegashima island, Japan to see the launch of the space shuttle or they have an option to wait till the age of 18 to get a chance to be trained as an astronaut at Star City, Russia. For more info visit youtube space lab's official channel

Opera 12 : Let your hardware accelerate it!

2011-10-12T22:09:00.000+05:30

Opera is demonstrating upcoming version of Opera 12 with hardware acceleration, which will be supported on Windows, Mac and Linux platforms. The company originally planned to introduce acceleration in its 11th version of its browser but put it on hold for the simple reason that they intend to offer full acceleration across all platforms.
In addition to the acceleration , it will include a new page navigation system that replaces scrolling with touch or mouse swiping, direct support for webcams, new theme features which includes enabling and creating one of your own!
The first alpha version of the browser is expected to be unveiled on the 13th of this month.