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2012-10-19T15:14:00.002-07:00

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Quick Review: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich on 2011 Sony Xperia devices

2012-06-19T15:22:00.000-07:00

After a wait of nearly half a year since the initial announcement that all Sony Xperia smartphones released in 2011 would be upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the promised upgrade has finally arrived on my Xperia Mini Pro after being rolled out to the Xperia Arc S, Neo V, Ray, Arc, Neo and Pro and being cancelled for the poor Xperia Play. Given that many Xperia users, myself included, have been eagerly looking forward to this upgrade, I decided to do a quick review of Sony’s remix of Android 4.0 as it exists on my little Android phone.

Sony Mobile has done better than most in upgrading existing devices to Android 4.0I’m certainly no newcomer to Android 4.0 or indeed the Android world itself; I’ve actually been running the very latest version of pure vanilla Android on my Xperia for several months now through a little custom ROM project called CyanogenMod. Going the custom ROM route in order to have the very latest Android experience as Google intended isn’t without its downsides; you definitely lose a degree of stability, certain features such as HD video recording and mobile hotspot simply do not work, you’ll have to set aside time to regularly flash newer versions of the custom ROM in order to enjoy the latest bug fixes and I’ve experienced issues like poorer battery life running a custom ROM on my device as opposed to running a manufacturer-supplied ROM. In fact, even the process of flashing a custom ROM isn’t something that a layperson can understand. That’s why I don’t consider custom ROMs a real solution to the issue of Android software upgrades, rubbish custom skins and poor out-of-the-box experiences. It is important that Android hardware makers push official platform upgrades for devices, and Sony Mobile has done better than most in this regard.

I haven’t noticed any substantial lag or slowdown, but the bloatware is a huge downerDespite Sony Mobile’s attempts to manage user expectations by making the Android 4.0 upgrade optional and providing prominent warnings that users might see decreased performance after the upgrade, I actually haven’t noticed any substantial lag or slowdown on my Xperia Mini Pro, and navigating through the user interface and in and out of apps feels just as speedy as it was on Android 2.3 and vanilla Android 4.0. Where the device really feels limited, however, is internal storage. My Xperia Mini Pro has a total of 420MB of internal storage; on CyanogenMod, I could make use of the entire chunk of it. On Sony Mobile’s official build of Android 4.0, only 280MB remains accessible to the user. I don’t understand why Sony Mobile insists on continuing the tradition of loading bloatware on these Xperias knowing full well that they are already rather lacking in internal storage. I took another look, and most of the bloatware can indeed be disabled, but PlayNow is definitely sticking around. It’s thoroughly disappointing.

You’ll probably wonder whether the upgrade actually completed successfully or notUpgrading a device to Android 4.0 is one thing; being able to push a high-quality upgrade that allows users to fully enjoy what the new version of Android brings to the table is another. However, when you first boot up your newly-upgraded Xperia device for the first time, you’ll probably wonder whether the upgrade actually completed successfully or not. Sony Mobile has swapped out the old Sony Ericsson bootscreen, of course, with one that just says ‘Sony’ and then ‘Xperia’, but you’re then confronted with the exact same launcher that existed on Sony Mobile’s build of Android 2.3, complete with old Gingerbread-style menus and dialogs along with the old Timescape widgets that all look so dated today. However, much of the iconography has been replaced; most of the built-in apps gain new, cleaner-looking icons, the status icons up in the notification bar are new and so are the icons that appear in various menus and dialogs in the user interface. I don’t really mind the new iconset (of course, I’d have preferred that Sony Mobile leave the icons as they are in vanilla Android 4.0, but we’ve got to deal with what we’ve got here) but I’d have liked a little more consistency because, as usual, some icons have been neglected entirely and left as they are.

It’s worth noting that certain UI elements such as the lockscreen clock and unlock slider, as well as the buttons, radio buttons and checkboxes have been brought over from Sony’s new UXP NXT custom UI that we’ve seen on the 2012 Xperia devices. The settings app has been skinned to look the same as how it did on Android 2.3 as much as possible, complete with prominent separators between menu items. It’s very disappointing to see that Sony Mobile has entirely forgotten about user interface consistency in this upgrade. I wish Sony Mobile could have just embraced Holo UIIt’s already bad enough for a device manufacturer to take Android 4.0′s beautiful, understated and minimalist Holo UI and completely piss on it with a custom UI. It’s even worse to mash various elements from 2 very different-looking custom UIs and then dump that mess on top of Android 4.0. I’d have loved to see UXP NXT, or at least a stripped-down version of it, come to the 2011 Xperia devices via the Android 4.0 upgrade. Even if that isn’t possible, even a wholesale transplant of Timescape UI would be a bit more palatable than the mashup we’ve got because we’d at least get to keep some extent of UI consistency. What we’ve ended up with just makes me wish Sony Mobile simply put out a completely vanilla build of Android 4.0 for these devices and called it a day, because the worst is yet to come.

Sony Mobile ripping out core Android 4.0 apps depresses meWe all know that Android 4.0 brings a new level of UI consistency and polish to the Android platform, and this is especially apparent with core apps such as the messaging and contacts apps that no longer look like they were built in an afternoon. But if you were hoping that Sony Mobile would leave these alone, you’ll be sorely disappointed. They couldn’t bring themselves to leave the core apps as they were; it was far too challenging. So what they’ve done is to transplant apps from Android 2.3. I’m not even kidding. The gorgeous, functional Android 4.0 Calendar app has been given the boot in favour of Sony Mobile’s calendar app that they shipped with their build of Android 2.3. Ditto for the Messaging app. And the Clock, Calculator, FM Radio and Music Player. The Phone and People apps in Android 4.0 have also been dumped and replaced with the integrated contacts and dialer app from UXP NXT. The Android 2.3 Gallery app has also been retained and rebranded as ‘Xperia Gallery’ just for the sake of it – the Android 4.0 Gallery app is still present and unmodified. Even the old virtual keyboard has been retained when it would be trivial to include the much-improved virtual keyboard from UXP NXT. It’s downright depressing. There isn’t a single valid reason that I can think of that would explain why this had to be done.

On a brighter note, I do like how we finally have direct camera access and music controls on the lockscreen, a feature that I’ve found nearly indispensable on my iPhone. I also appreciate all the areas where Android 4.0 is allowed to shine through – the Gmail, Maps and Browser apps are fantastic, and being able to swipe away individual notifications is really nice. The multitasking menu is smooth and responsive, and Sony Mobile has brought over the Camera app from UXP NXT that’s really fast and can shoot macro photos without making the user switch to a dedicated macro mode.
It’s fair to say that I expected a lot more from this upgrade. I just don’t understand why a reasonable person would conclude that it makes perfect sense to deliver a major software upgrade to a smartphone that dumps so much of what’s new in favour of the old. I’ve been waiting for so long for Sony Mobile to finally get around to releasing this, but now that I’ve got it, I’m not sure I want it anymore.

Perhaps this underscores how I feel about Android now. As a tech blogger, I still cover the platform and stay up to date with its development because of its dominance and relevance in the smartphone space. As a user, I still use an Android phone day to day because it’s what I’ve got at the moment and because I need to write about Android. But instead of loving the platform or heck, even enjoying it, I merely tolerate it. I merely put up with it. This is yet another disappointment then. I’ll deal with it.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus Review

2012-06-18T15:25:00.000-07:00

As the current Google flagship smartphone, the Galaxy Nexus by Samsung is the first device to run Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The version for Verizon's LTE network in the U.S. is slightly thicker than the European model, but it also gets a larger battery and, of course, the 15Mbps 4G downloads on Verizon's network, otherwise they're functionally the same.
The super large, super high-resolution display on the Galaxy Nexus is a dream to look at, and the new Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system gives users something very new and interesting to work with. It's a good combination.
Unfortunately the phone does seem to carry a flaw from scratch, though. Reception, especially on 4G, can be a problem. Not everybody seems to experience this, only showing itself in weaker signal areas. Apart from that, the Galaxy Nexus is every bit the hero smartphone that Google needs it to be to move Android to the next stage of its evolution.

Hardware

The Samsung-built Google Galaxy Nexus shows off an interesting design without being groundbreaking. It features a subtly curved front glass panel that protects the 720p resolution (720 x 1280) Super AMOLED HD touchscreen display. There are few exterior controls on the phone: a volume control on the left edge and a power switch on the right. The phone feels to be solidly constructed and its 146.2g (5.2oz) weight gives it a nice amount of heft.

The Galaxy Nexus' 136mm x 68mm x 10.0mm (5.4in x 2.7in x .4in) dimensions can make it a bit of a handful, though. It's longer and significantly thicker than the Motorola Droid Razr, but fits in the hand a bit better since it is narrower, even when the Razr has a smaller screen. There are no dedicated touch sensitive controls on the phone, which is a feature of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, but it still takes a pretty long reach to get to the upper edge of the display when using the phone one-handed.
The display is absolutely brilliant. It is sharp, bright, and colorful, and its 4.65-inch diagonal size is amongst the largest in the smartphone world. It is my favorite smartphone display on the market today, even though it uses the much-derided Pentile sub-pixel arrangement. Without magnification, I don't think a normal person will notice the difference and that is what matters in the end.

Removing the Galaxy Nexus' somewhat thin rear cover reveals the micro-SIM card and slot required for LTE service on Verizon as well as the battery. There's no microSD memory card slot on the phone, as was the case on the Nexus S, but the Galaxy Nexus does come equipped with 32GB of internal storage. Also found on the back are the 5 megapixel camera and flash. A secondary 1.3 megapixel camera can be found on the front of the phone, and there is also a large, hidden notification light resting beneath the display near the bottom edge of the phone.

Usability

With the arrival of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, Google's OS finally appears to be growing out of its somewhat awkward childhood years and approaching maturity. While Ice Cream Sandwich uses many of the UI themes first introduced in Android 3.x Honeycomb (for tablets), they have been refined and now make better sense. Google has even introduced a new font for the operating system called Roboto. But while Android is a visually changed OS, it still offers the same basic functionality that it always has.
The Galaxy Nexus offers 5 home screens that you can configure. Users still swipe left and right to switch between them, and they can be configured with shortcuts and widgets as before - though all of these features are now accessed from the Widgets tab of the main menu where one previously only found apps. Since there are no hardware keys beneath the display, the main navigation controls are now drawn on the bottom of the touchscreen, which allows them to be more visually appealing and adjusted at times, as needed.
Home and back functions remain, but search and menu are gone. Search is replaced by in-app functionality and the search bar found on every home screen panel. Menu is replaced by an on-screen control made up of three vertically aligned dots that can appear at the top of an app, the bottom of an app, or to the right of the third, and new, main control at the bottom of the screen.

That new control is the task switcher, which is inherited from Android Honeycomb. Tapping on that control brings up a visual history of applications that are running or have recently been used on the phone. One scrolls up and down through the list, switches to an app with a tap, or removes it from the list with a swipe left or right. I was unimpressed by it on a tablet, but love it on a smartphone.
The swipe-to-remove gesture can also be used in the updated notification area at the top of the screen, making it now possible to remove individual or all notifications as desired - something all prior versions of Android lacked. A convenient link to the phone's Settings app is also found there.

Android still has no proper ringer profile support, but now it allows to toggle between normal, vibrate, and truly silent ringer settings using the volume control. A tap on the on-screen volume will do the trick, as will pressing up or down repeatedly on the volume key on the side of the phone. The Android keyboard has been updated, and features a much larger space key. Voice input on the keyboard, when enabled, is fantastic. It inputs words in near real-time as you speak them when you have a fast enough data connection.
While there's no built-in support for social networking on the phone, Google provides an API that allows third party apps to integrate not only contacts with the phone, but to also show status updates in a contact record. The new contacts app features an oddball color scheme that doesn't match that of the rest of Ice Cream Sandwich, though. It's pretty, but inconsistent with the electric blue on black leanings of the OS as a whole.
Overall, though, I can't put into proper words just how happy and pleasantly surprised I am about how Android 4.0 operates. There's a learning curve for new users, but it's not a particularly steep one, and the rewards in the end are worth it.

Calling / Data, Messaging, Browser

Calling / Data

Samsung's Google Galaxy Nexus for Verizon offers pretty reasonable audio quality during voice calls. Inbound sound is quite pleasant, and outbound audio is acceptable. As an LTE 4G equipped phone, the Galaxy Nexus is capable of some extreme data speeds. When in stronger signal areas, 15Mbps downloads and 9 Mbps uploads were common. However, when signal strength dropped, I found that the Galaxy Nexus had a much harder time with data than other Verizon LTE devices that we sitting right next to it, such as the Motorola Droid Razr. When the signal is not so strong, the Galaxy Nexus can have trouble maintaining a data connection, flip-flopping back and forth between 3G and 4G, and sometimes just getting stuck.

While I don't expect a firmware update to improve the phone's reception abilities, I do expect that a future update could make it behave better with lower strength signals. Verizon says a related update is in the works. In addition to 3G and 4G connectivity, the Galaxy Nexus also support Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth. The phone can also tether over USB or share its connectivity though its Wi-Fi hotspot mode support.

Messaging

Like any Android phone, the Google Galaxy Nexus offers up a fine suite of messaging capabilities. The built-in Gmail and standard email apps, which were beefed up and polished as part of the Ice Cream Sandwich update, handle multiple accounts with ease. The new text messaging app is very nice to look at and functional as well. Instant Messaging is limited to Google Talk out of the box, but there are plenty of third party solutions available from the Android Market. Social networking apps will also need to be found in the Android Market, as none come pre-installed. The new Twitter client does integrate tweets with the contacts application, though, which is cool.

Apps / App Store

While application support for Android 3.x Honeycomb tablets was a real sore spot, smartphones running Android 4 don't seem to have any large hurdles to overcome. Almost all of the apps I tested performed exactly as I expected, which speaks well for the Galaxy Nexus user when it comes to the other couple of hundred thousand apps offered in the Market. Apart from a few Verizon-branded services like VZ Backup Assistant and My Verizon Mobile, you'll find no real bloat on the Galaxy Nexus; just a ton of pre-installed Google apps that now includes Google+ right out of the box. The core Android apps have all been refreshed as part of the OS update, so you will find a new calendar, calculator, and clock app - among others - on the Galaxy Nexus.

Browser

One of the core components of Android to get a major upgrade is the browser, which is now based upon the same browser found in Android 3.x Honeycomb. Like Google's Chrome desktop browser, the Android 4 browser supports tabbed browsing and WebKit-based rendering extensions. While I approve of the new interface and find the browser to be stable and quite functional, it's not as smooth as it should be.
Even with the phone's 1.2GHz dual-core processor, there's still a slight lag when you start to pan or scroll complex pages (even with Adobe Flash support disabled). It's not a huge deal, and the browser is very smooth otherwise, but it is a minor distraction that should not be there.

I also find that the browser doesn't render pages quite as accurately as the old browser did, in that it appears to shrink columns of text down more than it often should, which can result in misplaced ads and such. Usability has taken a solid step forward, for sure, but at the cost of some accuracy it seems.

Camera, Battery Life, Conclusion

Camera

The camera app in Android also received a major update, even if the Galaxy Nexus camera only features a 5 megapixel sensor. The camera is super fast, making it possible to fire off shots in rapid succession as long as the phone's decent built-in flash is not being used. Images look quite good, and there's a built-in panorama mode. In camcorder mode, the camera can record 1080p Full HD video, but the video can become a bit choppy. It also offers a number of cool effects that can be used in videos, such as "big eyes."

The forward-facing 1.3 megapixel camera, which lacks autofocus and flash, can record its own 720p HD videos. All of this functionality is controlled through a new user interface that is a vast improvement over the old one, and the photos and videos the phone creates are of good quality.

What more could you ask for, really? Oh, an HD video editing app. You could ask for one of those, and you'd get it, too. It's a little awkward to edit video on a phone and the rendering can take its time, but having the ability to do it is cool no matter how you look at it. All that's left to ask for is more resolution, and Google's partners will certainly fill that gap when they release their own Ice Cream Sandwich smartphones.

Music

The Galaxy Nexus features an Ice Cream Sandwich version of the Google Music app, which supports Google's cloud music service. It lacks the fancy 3D rendered look of the Honeycomb app, but it is otherwise very similar in look and function. It offers music controls in the notification area and lock screen, and comes with home screen widgets as well. Audio quality is outstanding with a good set of headphones, and exactly what you'd expect without. Enabling the 5-band graphic equalizer, let's you tweak the sound the way you like. Users have the ability to mark a track as liked or disliked and there's a convenient link into the Android Market's music store (which is somewhat limited at this time).

Battery

The Google Galaxy Nexus features a high-capacity Samsung 1850mAh battery that includes an NFC antenna. In spite of the reception issues people are experiencing with the phone, I still managed to get an easy work day out of a full charge as long as I wasn't goofing off too much and kept the screen's brightness set to automatic. That is, quite honestly, much better than I expected. Verizon claims that the phone's battery is capable of powering it through up to 12 hours of talk time or 6.25 days of standby time.

Final Thoughts

While all of the early reviews of the GSM/UMTS version of the Google Galaxy Nexus out of Europe were full of superlatives and the written equivalent of high-fives, I had only modest expectations for the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon. I dislike Android 3.x Honeycomb that much, but I'm floored by Ice Cream Sandwich, to be honest.
I'm also in love with the the HD resolution display on the Galaxy Nexus. I could certainly do with better reception, but I have some hope that Verizon's promised software update will deal with that. I'm also pleased that the battery life seems to be basically as good as most non-4G Android smartphones, even if that still falls somewhat short of what I really desire.
At $299.99 on contract, it's a pricey affair and the reception issues bug me a bit, but I have not had so much fun playing with a smartphone in a long, long time.

Pros: Big and beautiful display, slick new user interface, fast camera with good effects, LTE data speeds.
Cons: Quite large, LTE reception issues, relatively low resolution camera.

HTC One X Review

2012-06-17T15:06:00.000-07:00

Many in the industry believe that HTC, which was once most beloved among Android fans, has fallen from grace. That the company has lost its way, its edge. I am here to tell you that those people are wrong. I offer as evidence the new HTC One X.
The One X, the company's new flagship Android smartphone, is the kind of phone that just leaves you breathless. Its single-piece polycarbonate body is unique in the Android world, and it is as comfortable to hold as it is drop dead gorgeous. The X's 720p resolution touchscreen display is just as attractive and functional as it is expansive, measuring 4.7 inches across the diagonal.
The One X's two marquee features, however, are likely its Android 4 OS with the new Sense 4 user interface and the phone's powerful NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor, which has 4 processing cores that can run at speeds of up to 1.5GHz. The real world impact of a quad-core processor might be negligible for most tasks, but there's no denying that the marketing appeal it offers is great.

About the only thing that is missing is 4G connectivity, since that shiny new Tegra 3 processor lacked LTE support until very recently.Apart from LTE, the HTC One appears to be everything that the Google Galaxy Nexus by Samsung is and should have been. Read on.

Hardware

The HTC One X is an exquisitely designed device. The white body of our evaluation handset is made from a single piece of polycarbonate that features a matte finish, save for the high-gloss edge of the phone. It is supremely attractive and comfortable, and it blends perfectly into the tapered edges of the Gorilla Glass front of the phone that protects its 720 x 1280 pixel Super LCD2 display.
Offering a dot pitch of 312dpi, the One X's 4.7-inch HD touchscreen is more than sharp enough to make even the smallest of fonts look entirely readable - assuming your eyes are up to the task. The X's display also shows significantly deeper black levels than previous HTC HD displays, such as the one seen on the HTC Vivid for AT&T. It still can't quite compete with Super AMOLED for black levels and color saturation, but it is getting quite close.

Since it is an Android 4.0 device, and was designed from the ground up as such, the HTC One X features only three touch sensitive controls under the display. Users will find a back button, a home button, and the task switcher button. Missing is the search button found on most older Android smartphones, and I am glad to bid it farewell since a three button arrangement is much easier to use without looking, as LG showed on its Nitro HD for AT&T.
Above the display on the front face of the phone is the secondary 1.3 megapixel camera for video chatting, which supports the primary 8 megapixel camera, with LED flash, that resides on the back of the phone. A power button sits on the top edge of the One X, where it is somewhat difficult to reach - even with large hands. A 3.5mm headphone jack resides there as well, as does the hidden tray for the phone's mandatory micro-SIM card, which requires a paper clip or something similar for removal. A micro-USB port for charging and data is located on the left edge of the phone, with the volume control sitting exactly on the opposite right hand edge.

With a weight of only 134g (4.7oz) and a svelte profile of 9.2mm (.36in), the One X fits easily into a pocket. Its 134.5mm x 70.8mm (5.3in x 2.8in) length and width can make it a bit unwieldy to use single-handedly for those with smaller hands, but it is no worse than Motorola's popular DROID RAZR and DROID RAZR MAXX smartphones in that regard, even though it offers users a much larger, higher resolution display.Apart from the position of the power button and the micro-USB port, I find the industrial design and build quality of the HTC One X to be just about as good as it gets. It is a device worthy of both love and lust.

HTC Sense 4, Usability, Calling/Data

Usability

There was a time when HTC's Sense user interface was the belle of the smartphone ball, adored by all. In recent years, though, that has changed as Sense has gotten heavier and more intrusive, and once-hated systems like Samsung's TouchWiz have gained favor through iterative refinements. With Sense 4, HTC has started moving back in the direction of favored and refined, as some of the bulk in previous Sense versions has been removed, with the company even improving upon some of the base shortcomings in Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich's stock user experience.
For starters, Sense still offers some of its key features, such as the shortcut icons on the lock screen and the ability to save multiple home screen configurations as "scenes" that can be quickly switched between. But gone is the waste of space at the bottom of the home screen for that oversized "phone" button we're used to seeing, having been replaced by 4 user configurable shortcuts.
The multi-paned, tabbed view of settings and shortcuts in the notification area has also been dropped in favor of a simple list. HTC's vertically scrolling main menu, which scrolled in one page increments, has been replaced with a horizontally scrolling paged menu that is similar to what Google offers as stock, but it comes with tabs for other views such as "downloaded" that makes it handier to use. On the other hand, HTC's new task switcher, with its paged view of apps, needs to be dropped. It is cooler looking than Google's stock switcher, but ultimately far less usable.
The new Sense on-screen keyboard is larger than before, due to the addition of dedicated arrow keys. It still supports a trace mode that emulates most of Swype's features, but is merely a pretender to the throne in that regard. I continue to dislike the keyboard's number mode key being located on the right hand side, as it has long been, but otherwise find the keyboard to perform quickly and accurately.
Some things that Google totally missed the mark on, such as widget management, have also been entirely replaced by far more usable HTC solutions. And while we still see cool Sense features like twitter and Facebook integration in the contacts app and a suite of beautiful clock and weather widgets, the UI as a whole now feels more like a benefit rather than a hindrance. There is still work to be done, but at least Sense is moving in the right direction once again.

Calling / Data

The HTC One X can be used on GSM and 3G networks around the world. I tested my European model on AT&T's network, where I still got ~HSPA data speeds - though not as fast (or stable) as I might have expected. In strong signal areas I managed to get data speeds of 3Mbps down and 1.5Mbps up. Reception on the phone appears to be somewhat weak, or at least inconsistent, but call audio quality was nice and crisp. The phone also supports Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n data connections as well as supports Bluetooth for headsets and other features and USB for connecting with a personal computer. A hotspot mode can be used for connection sharing with Wi-Fi capable devices, as well, and ~NFC support on the X can be used with functions like Android Beam.

Messaging

I absolutely love the email client that HTC includes on the One X. It's very attractive and offers functionality like a combined inbox view, gorgeous home screen widgets, and the ability to scroll through an inbox by date by using two fingers. You can use it with any mail server that supports IMAP, POP, or Exchange - which is just about everything. The messaging app is also well done, offering an clean interface as well as the ability to adjust the font size and configure the inbox to work as you like. The only instant messaging app pre-installed is Google's own Talk, but the One X comes with Facebook and Twitter loaded out of the box.

Apps / App Store

As an unlocked, carrier-free device, the HTC One X has very little bloatware. HTC loads a number of its own apps, like the HTC Watch streaming app, but mostly One X users will just find mostly Google branded apps (Maps, Gmail, Google+, etc). There are a few exceptions, though, such as HTC's Notes app, which is a slick front-end to Evernote that takes some of its inspiration from HTC's Flyer tablet. Polaris Office and a PDF reader handle Office document editing and viewing, and both are integrated with Dropbox (25GB for two years included) and Microsoft Skydrive support, which is truly useful. If you still need more, then the Google Play Store (formerly the Android Market) offers hundreds of thousands of apps (and books, songs) that you can browse through.

Browser

HTC has given the One X a fine new browser that is very fast and smooth in operating - with one exception. The browser exhibited some odd behavior during intelligent "double tap" zooming, often zooming in as desired, only to pan over unexpectedly to the wrong part of the screen. Apart from that, though, the Flash- and HTML5-capable browser worked very well. Still, for my money, you'd do even better by checking out the Chrome Beta browser from Google, which is just fantastic in most every way. Chrome doesn't yet support Flash, though, but it is expected to be the standard browser in future versions of Android.

Camera, Battery Life, Conclusion

Camera and Video Capture

Now on to one of my favorite parts of the One X, the 8 megapixel camera. Not only does the camera offer a truly magnificent user interface, with quick access to settings and controls of all sorts (even filters!), but it just takes great photos - both with and without flash. And it does so very quickly. In fact, you can shoot a burst of photos by simply holding down the on-screen shutter button.

On top of that, you can record full-resolution 8 megapixel still photos while you are recording a 1080p full HD video just by tapping the shutter button. Both buttons are on the screen at the same time, so you never have to switch modes. It's such a convenient feature to have. I also approve of HTC's fast and wide-angle lens, which makes the camera much more practical for real life situations.It doesn't hurt that a decent video editor, with themed transitions, is pre-loaded on the phone, though I occasionally had problems with focus-hunting while recording videos outdoors. No other smartphone has been as much fun to use for photography as the HTC One X, though.

Music

HTC's music player on the One X is very attractive and capable. It features integration with the 7digital music store, SoundHound's music identification service, and Tunein Radio's service for streaming live, ground-based radio stations.
The music app makes good use of album art, and is organized well, but it lacks support for Google's own cloud based music service, which is now part of the company's Google Play properties. There's nothing to stop you from downloading and using Google's music app on the One X, though, so your bases are pretty much covered.

Battery

HTC's One X comes equipped with a reasonably large 1800mAh battery that is permanently embedded inside its one-piece body. There's no option to swap out the battery, just as is the case with the Nokia Lumia 800.
HTC does not provide any talk time or standby time ratings for the One X, but I've found the phone to be a pretty solid performer in terms of real world battery use. Getting a full 24 hours out of the battery is easily within reach, but you still won't get two full days out of it unless you use it ever so sparingly and have it configured with few apps updating in the background.

Final Thoughts

The HTC One X is easily my favorite phone on the market today. Even Samsung's Google Galaxy Nexus pales in comparison. The sexy hardware design, the updated Sense 4 user interface, and the amazing camera team up with blazing performance to make the One X an unstoppable force of nature that I simply must have in my hand.
I am quite certain that there are going to be quad-core Samsung-built Android devices with equal speed and camera performance in the near future, but I doubt that Samsung has the grapes to put out an industrial design as bold as that of the HTC One X.

Pros: Beautiful design, great display, speedy and easy to use camera, improved Sense UI, quad-core processing speed.
Cons: Non-swappable battery, no 4G data support, somewhat large.

VLC 2.0 Player With New Look – Additional Codecs, Advance Features

2012-06-16T15:22:00.000-07:00

VLC Player 2.0 is the latest version released by VideoLAN Organization. The official release of VLC 2.0 Final was made on 20th Feb 2012. This open source video player is very much capable of handling most media formats. VLC 2.0 is the first landmark update since its first official release in June 2009. You can find a lot of changes in the VLC 2.0 version. Especially the look and feel in Mac platform is really impressive. It can support the Blu-ray playback being overshadowed with amazing interface. VLC 2.0 on the Mac platform replaces the simplistic interface and resembles iTunes old versions. You can observe a lot of other additional features in the Mac version of VLC 2.0.

The stable Mac version of VLC 2.0 can play more audio and video files. You can find a two-paned window which contains a list of common locations for media files. You can see this in the left hand pane of VLC 2.0. And it also gives you an invitation to drag and drop files into the window for playback on right side of the player. Now if you come to the windows version, VLC 2.0 has got great support towards it too. The one major upgrade you can find in windows version is, you can find a dedicated 64 bit build of VLC. Apart from this small upgrade, you can find many more updates and features like never before. Check out some of the features and upgrades in the below post.

VLC 2.0 : New Features, Advance Options

The most important features you will find in VLC 2.0 :
1) Simple, Fast and Powerful.
2) Plays almost all everything (Files, Discs, Webcams, Streams)
3) Supports all types of codecs like MPEG-2, H.264, DivX, MPEG-4, WMV and etc. without any packs needed.
4) Completely free from spyware, ads or user tracking.
5) Works on most platforms like Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Unix and Other.
6) Media Converter and Streamer.

The new VLC 2.0 can support a lot of Audio and Video formats, Check out the list of formats it support in audio and video.

VLC 2.0 : Audio Formats

MPEG Layer 1/2, MP3 – MPEG Layer 3, AAC – MPEG-4 part3, Vorbis, AC3 – A/52 (Dolby Digital), E-AC-3 (Dolby Digital Plus), MLP / TrueHD”>3, DTS, WMA 1/2, WMA 3 1, FLAC, ALAC, Speex, Musepack / MPC, ATRAC 3, Wavpack, Mod (.s3m, .it, .mod), TrueAudio (TTA), APE (Monkey Audio), Real Audio 2, Alaw/µlaw, AMR (3GPP), MIDI 3, LPCM, ADPCM, QCELP, DV Audio, QDM2/QDMC (QuickTime), MACE

VLC 2.0 : Video Formats

MPEG-1/2, DIVX (1/2/3) , MPEG-4 ASP, DivX 4/5/6, XviD, 3ivX D4, H.261, H.263 / H.263i, H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC, Cinepak, Theora, Dirac / VC-2, MJPEG (A/B), WMV 1/2, WMV 3 / WMV-9 / VC-1 1, Sorenson 1/3,(Quicktime), DV (Digital Video), On2 VP3/VP5/VP6, Indeo Video v3 (IV32), Indeo Video 4/5 (IV41, IV51), Real Video 1/2, Real Video 3/4

Apart from these above formats, VLC 2.0 can support a lot of additional Input features, Subtitle/Tag formats, A/V outputs, A/V filters, Interfaces and other additional formats, In one simple world, VLC 2.0 is a universal player which can play anything. You can always check the list of features from the official site. Click here to check all the available features of VLC 2.0.

If you take a look at the new interface, you can find many changes in the look and feel of VLC player. The amazing silver look of VLC 2.0 is really pleasant and professional.

As you can see the above screenshot with different panels and different options, each one of them has got its own way of functioning. Take a look at the left and right panels in the player, which allow you to add multiple files at a time. As told above, the files can be added by just dragging them and dropping into the player. You can observe that almost everything is changed in the new VLC 2.0 Player. You can also download a lot of new VLC 2.0 skins from the official site. Click here to take a look at the latest VLC 2.0 Skins.

And if we talk about the stability, VLC 2.0 is more stable and will crash very less if you compare it with the previous versions. The new interface is really light, you can surely make out the difference between the older versions and the new stable version of VLC 2.0. If you want to download this amazing player, you can download from the below link directly. You can ask us any additional information related to new VLC 2.0.

Laptops vs Netbooks vs Ultrabooks – What’s the main difference?

2012-06-15T15:20:00.000-07:00

Portable computers are usually referred to as laptop computers or simply, laptops. In reality, there are many types of laptop computers. There’s basically the default laptops, which have slightly less capabilities than a full desktop PC, there’s the desktop replacement laptop, there’s ultrabooks and finally netbooks. In the strictest sense, classifications like these are usually done based on a set of conditions the portable computer in question fulfills.

Laptops, their average capabilities and price range is already well known. They are portable, quiet and have all components integrated. However, the sub categories of laptops are still not very well known. It’s quite important to known exactly what type of laptop to buy because there’s not much sense in buying a full featured laptop when all you need is to edit a few word document or browse the web, is there? So lets break down the types of laptop computers on offer so you can choose one exactly according to your requirements. The categories are:

Desktop Replacement laptops:

These laptops are exactly what their name suggest, they are desktop replacements. They are often also called gaming laptops or media center laptops. Desktop replacements are basically large, bulky laptops with everything you can find in a desktop computer. They have large screens, powerful graphics cards, high storage capacities and basically all the bells and whistles. The only downside is, they don’t offer much in the way of battery backup. Then again, they’re not exactly meant to be taken around everywhere, they’re just a portable version of your desktop. With all this power in a portable package, needless to say, desktop replacements are rather expensive.

For example, the MSI GT783R offers a 2nd generation Core i7 processor, 6GB DDR3 RAM, GeForce GTX580M graphics card with 2GB VRAM, 1TB HDD and a Blu-Ray drive! Similarly, Dell, Razer and Alienware offer such high powered laptops with amazing performance. They retail for around 2000$ and above. So if you’re looking for the highest computing power in portable form and aren’t concerned with battery backup, then grab one of these!

Ultrabooks:

Ultrabooks are Intel architecture only superlight laptops that sport good performance while not compromising on battery life. These category of laptops usually don’t have much storage capacity or expansion slots. They usually sport only SSD’s or an SSD in tandem with a small regular HDD. To minimize power consumption, size and weight, power efficient processors and RAM modules are used that offer good, but not blazing fast performance like the desktop replacements. The term “ultrabook” was basically coined by Intel and all ultrabooks run on Intel processors. Intel has applied for a trademark and dictates certain minimum specification a laptop computer must have before it can be classified as an ultrabook. The first set of specifications were stated in October 2011 and the second and current set will be effective minimum from June 2012. The minimum specifications are:

Release date	October, 2011	June, 2012 (expected)
Processor	Sandy Bridge microarchitecture Intel Core models CULV (17 W TDP)	Ivy Bridge microarchitecture Intel Core models CULV (17 W TDP)
Height (maximum)	18 mm for 13.3″ and smaller displays 21 mm for 14.0″ and larger displays	18 mm for 13.3″ and smaller displays 21 mm for 14.0″ and larger displays 23 mm for convertible tablets
Battery life (minimum)	5 hours	5 hours
Resume from hibernation (maximum)	7 seconds from S4	7 seconds from S4
Storage	no requirements	80 MB/s transfer rate (minimum) 16 GB capacity (minimum)
Ports	no requirements	USB 3.0
Software and firmware	Intel Management Engine 7.1 (or higher) Intel Anti-Theft Technology Intel Identity Protection Technology	Intel Management Engine 8.0 (or higher) Intel Anti-Theft Technology Intel Identity Protection Technology

(Table courtesy Wikipedia)

Although the ultrabook classification is basically Intel’s, the Apple MacBook Air also comes under the ultrabook classification as it satisfies the specifications albeit running on Mac OS X. An example for an ultrabook is the Dell XPS 13, which has an Intel Core i5 processor running at 1.6GHz, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 128GB SSD and Intel integrated graphics. It weighs around 1.3kg, has a claimed battery backup of 8 hours and costs about 1000$. So if you want portability and battery life at the cost of a little less performance, then get yourself an ultrabook!

Netbooks:

The last and smallest versions of laptops are called netbooks. They are sometimes also called mini-laptops. Netbooks feature small screens, low powered processors and less storage capacity. They often also come without optical drives, with small keypads and weigh 1kg or less. However, netbooks have a long battery life and are frequently used in educational environments. Netbooks usually run on the Intel Atom platform or the AMD Fusion platform. Although most modern netbooks run on Windows 7 Starter, netbooks running on higher versions of Windows 7 are available as well.

One of the best and most popular netbook series is the Asus Eee PC series. The Asus Eee 1016P offers a single core Intel Atom N455 processor running at 1.6GHz, 2GB DDR2 RAM, Intel Integrated graphics, 250GB HDD and features a 10inch screen. It runs on Windows 7 Professional. Asus offers 500GB of cloud storage for customers of the Eee 1016P, so you effectively have 750GB of storage space, which should be quite enough for most people. It’s worth noting that the 1016P is a very basic model and the newer Eee 1215B features a AMD Fusion processor running at 1.6GHz, 2-4GB DDR3 RAM, 250-500GB HDD and an AMD Radeon 6 series graphics card with a 12inch screen and Windows 7. This fair bit of performance comes at a higher price, but still offers around 8 hours of battery life.

While the specs don’t seem like much, it does everything it’s meant to do, you can surf the web, watch movies, listen to music and do most things, just not very system intensive things like video editing, gaming or heavy multi-tasking. Then again, netbooks aren’t meant for system intensive tasks. The biggest draw is battery life, the Asus Eee 1016P claims a whopping 13 hours of battery life! Most netbooks have a battery life of around 8-10 hours. For people on the go who just need the basic functions of a computer but need more flexibility than a tablet, get yourself a netbook. They are also quite affordable at around 500-600$.

So these were the types of laptop computers available, what would you prefer?

Leave Your Comment Here.........

HOW TO CHANGE FACEBOOK COLOR ?

2012-06-14T15:40:00.000-07:00

By using the Firefox web browser & the Greasemonkey Add-on, and this userscript you are able to change the colors of Facebook to anything you wish.

(1)Make sure you are using the Firefox browser.

(2)Make sure you have the Greasemonkey add-on installed (this requires restarting your browser).

(3)When you have Firefox and Greasemonkey, go to this Facebook colour changer userscript page and click the install button at the top right of the page.

(4)Click to confirm that you wish to install the script, and it will be installed.

(5)Now, when viewing any page on Facebook simply go to ‘Tools’, ‘Greasemonkey’, ‘Userscript Commands…’ and then ‘Customise facebook colours…’. See the image below for help with this. (Alternatively the same menu can be shown when right-clicking on the monkey on the bottom right).
Select the colours you’d like facebook to be, click “Set!”, and you’re done!

Top 5 Internet Predictions for 2012

2012-06-13T15:40:00.000-07:00

Top 5 Internet Predictions for 2012

2012 is coming with a lot of expectations; hence there have been lots of predictions about Internet in this year as well. Most people consider that these predictions are useless but they can provide a certain idea about the future too. They might not be correct every time but they surely clarify one’s thinking regarding the future. Customers are expecting retailers to be on the web during this coming year due to the expansion of e-commerce and mobile. Hence 2012 is expected to see huge development in terms of the web industry. Here are the top five predictions about the Internet:

1. Rise of more business problems and regulations

COPA is dealing with copyright infringement and it is felt that some innocent casualties can also result due to it. Moreover US recession is also affecting site sales and it has caused websites to focus more on converting their visitors into sales. It is a common fact that quality traffic is getting more expensive, and the successful ones are those who are able to turn their visitors into sales. The same trend will continue during 2012 as well. The fact is that 2012 has been predicted with the end of the world, though it might not be true but it is obvious that there might be many problems during this year. The question is how you will deal with them.

2. Chrome will rule

For the past few years, Firefox and Internet Explorer have slowly dropped in their popularity. Chrome, on the other hand, has been on a steady rise. Right now Chrome has passed Firefox and IE is dominant too. With the expectation that Chrome will unite with Android, Chrome’s numbers may climb sharply.

3. Rise of Ecommerce and entertainment-focused companies:

With the ever growing popularity of Internet that is reaching over a billion people now, Vertical markets have grown so massively that can even support huge companies that have a focus on one product category. With such companies leading nowadays, value creation and investment will surely prosper during 2012.

4. More focus on mobile development:

2011 shopping season has proved the fact that people are getting more interested towards mobile web. Around 15% traffic came through mobile devices, which is double in number than the previous year. Shoppers using iPads were seen spending more money than desktop shoppers. Hence retailers will try to match the scope and size with their mobile teams in 2012.

5. The popularity of social networking sites:

The most famous social networking site Facebook is believed to reach to 1 billion users in 2012. It already has 800 million accounts and people still expect the rise of this site as it is getting dominant in big developed market. 2012 is also expecting to see more popularity of Twitter which makes use of various ad formats that is why it is believed that Twitter will really scale up during the coming year.

Hence, these predictions are based upon the current situation of Internet world and the expectations from it during the coming year. So there is a certainty of these predictions to become true as well.

Nokia Lumia 800 Full Review

2012-06-12T15:11:00.000-07:00

The Nokia Lumia 800 is probably the most highly-anticipated Windows Phone ever. We’ve been wishing and hoping for Nokia to use a powerful Windows-based mobile operating system since 2003, and finally we see the incredible phone manufacturing expertise from Finland merged with the gorgeous new Windows Phone software. It’s not all good news, though, since Nokia only recently decided to go with Windows Phone around 6 months ago, and that means they really did not have much time to release this phone. Corners may have been cut a bit, and it’s clear that this phone is using the same design as Nokia’s N9, but is it still worthy of ushering in Nokia’s new Windows Phone ecosystem? Read on to find out.

EDIT: The Nokia Lumia 800 reviewed here is a late-stage prototype and may not be completely representative of the full production models.

BOX CONTENTS

Unboxing the Nokia Lumia 800 and holding the device in your hand for the first time is quite an experience. The packaging is much more unique than the glossy cheap orange boxes from AT&T or shoe-box like boxes from T-Mobile that we’ve seen a lot of lately. Though I’ve held the Lumia 800 before, taking a fresh one out of the box and holding that smooth single-piece of carbonate in your hand is extremely impressive. We’ll take a closer look at that in our full review, but for now let me tell you what else it comes with. You’ve got the usual USB charger, microUSB cable, and some nice headphones with a single-button microphone on the wire. You’ve also got a bunch of documentation in different languages, and a nice silicon rubber case to put the phone in.

HARDWARE

The Lumia 800′s hardware design is very impressive. It’s unlike anything we’ve seen before with the exception of the Nokia N9, which is essentially a MeeGo version of this. The single piece of polycarbonate plastic feels great in the hand and the shape of the device, with its curved screen, is pretty incredible. The phone’s dimensions are 61.2 x 116.5 x 12.1 millimeters, and it weighs 142 grams. The 32-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255T 1.4GHz CPU and 512MB RAM keep the device running very smoothly, though perhaps not as fast as the Samsung Focus S and Focus Flash. The Lumia 800 also has 16GB of storage and a very good looking 3.7-inch AMOLED “true black” screen. In terms of network bands on this model we’ve got GSM 850/900/1800/1900, UMTS 850/900/1900/2100, CSD, GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, HSUPA, and HSPA+. Of course it also has Bluetooth, WLAN, GPS, FM radio, accelerometer, etc. There’s an 8.8-megapixel camera on the back with a dual LED flash and Carl Zeiss lens and the battery is 1450mAh.

The left side is completely bare of buttons. It’s just smooth tapered polycarbonate.

The right side is where all the buttons are. You’ve got the volume controls at the top, the power button in the middle, and the camera button at the bottom. Unfortunately there isn’t any real tactile difference between the camera button and other buttons so if you’re trying to launch the camera just by feel, you may end up holding down the power button instead.

The build quality of the buttons is a bit disappointing. They feel a little loose actually. There’s a subtle wiggle to them, but still the tactile play when pressing them is just fine.

On the top you’ve got the 3.5mm headset jack, a door for the Micro USB port, and a drawer that slides out to reveal the microSIM tray.

On the bottom there’s the loudspeaker. It’s not of terribly impressive quality and it can get muffled very easily by your hand.

The back is totally smooth and contoured. You can barely feel the seams around the camera lens and flash. There are no protrusions or insets here — everything is completely flush with the polycarbonate shell — and it’s quite beautiful.

SOFTWARE

If you’re not already familiar with the Windows Phone operating system that’s featured in the Nokia Lumia 800, be sure to take a good look at our Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 7.5 Reviews. There are many, many features in the OS that you’re sure to enjoy, but for the sake of this review, we’re mostly going to look at what kind of added value Nokia has brought to the table.

Even though Nokia is probably the Windows Phone manufacturer with the most freedom to customize the operating system, at least with the Lumia 800, they haven’t done much at all. The bundled apps consist of only the Nokia Drive GPS navigation program, a “We care” app, and a bluetooth contact transfer app. That’s it! Well, you also get the Nokia blue theme color, a bunch of Nokia ring tones and sound effects, some nice Nokia wallpaper images, and a “Feedback to Nokia” option in the settings. We hear that Nokia is also making a music app to include with their devices, but it hasn’t shown up on our Lumia 800. The lack of value-added software from Nokia compared to what other manufactures like HTC, Samsung, and LG have added is probably because Nokia really wanted to get this phone out to market before the end of the year so they didn’t have much time to do really innovative things with the platform.

Nokia Drive is good to have though. It’s not as full featured as some other GPS navigation programs, but it’s free, you get free offline downloadable maps from all over the world, and it’s very fast. The search/destination field doesn’t search contacts, though, so you’ll have to copy/paste addresses there. It doesn’t integrate with Bing or Bing Maps either, which is a sorely missed feature.

CAMERA

For a long time Nokia has been known for their camera phones. They are the largest manufacturer of cameras after all! The fice-megapixel N95 was way ahead of its time as was the 12-megapixel N8. The Lumia 800 is more of an “average” camera especially when compared to some of the other recently released camera phones. It doesn’t really break any boundaries. That said, it’s still perfectly usable as long as you understand its limitations and don’t expect it to be the best.

It’s a bit disappointing to see no sign of any special camera features in the Lumia 800 either. HTC’s new devices have the excellent panoramic and burst shot features in their camera software, and the new Samsung Focus S has a very useful wide dynamic range option, not to mention the myriad of Samsung-made photo editing and filter programs. Well, the Lumia 800 does have a focus setting option which allows you to switch between Macro and Normal focus modes. The normal mode will focus much faster, but you’ll have to switch to macro for the close-ups. Hopefully future Nokia Windows Phones will see a wider range of functionality in the photography area.

In the above left image, the photo was taken in almost complete darkness with the flash turned on. As you can see the flash does not get much range and there’s plenty of fall off in the corners. The color accuracy with the flash on is not so great either.

The photo on the right was taken outdoors during the daytime. This photo is pretty close to what it should look like. There isn’t a significant amount of sharpening and the colors look good.

Above is a series of 100% crop selections from a variety of smartphone cameras. The 100% crops will give you a pixel for pixel comparison. You can download full resolution versions of each here: Nokia Lumia 800, Nokia N8, Samsung Focus S, HTC Radar 4G.

Looking at the four close-up crops, there’s not a significant amount of variation. Yes, the Radar 4G still over sharpens, but the Lumia 800 is getting accurate color and white balance, while the N8 continues to show its conservative tonal curve that tends to maintain more detail in the highlights.

Above is a 720p video recording sample from the Nokia Lumia 800. It doesn’t support higher resolution 1080p HD video recording, but for most people, 720p HD video will be totally acceptable. Video quality and audio seem to be quite acceptable, and the changing exposure levels are very smooth. Even close-ups actually work pretty well.

BATTERY LIFE

The Lumia 800′s battery life with the 1450mAh capacity is good, but not fantastic like the Samsung Focus S. It’s still certainly comfortable enough to not have to worry about going completely dead during the day. You can be sure to get around a day and a half with average use, which is important, since the battery is not removable. If you’re going away for a long weekend, you’ll probably still want to bring a portable charger.

PURCHASING AND AVAILABILITY

The Lumia 800 is available in the United Kingdom right now and will be coming to a number of other European countries soon. The no-subsidy, no-contract unlocked versions can be found in the $600 range, but the device will be much less expensive if you get it from a carrier. Check out Nokia’s website for updates on availability.

PROS

+ Beautiful hardware design

+ Three polycarbonate body color options

+ 1.4GHz CPU is very fast

+ Nokia Drive free navigation software is very fast

+ Beautiful screen

+ Excellent ergonomics

CONS

- Non-replaceable battery

- No front-facing camera

- MicroSIM slot

- A lot of features missing from older, high-end Nokia devices

- No Internet Sharing

CONCLUSION

I suppose the bottom line is that this is not Nokia’s “A” game. This might be kind of like Nokia’s “Do whatever you can to get something decent out before the end of the year” game. While the Lumia 800 isn’t the best at photos, nor the best at value-added software, nor the best at speed, big screens, or battery life (relative to the secondnd generation Windows Phones)…I believe it is the best in design. The single piece of polycarbonate sculpture combined with the true-black AMOLED screen and the uniquely personal, beautifully designed Windows Phone operating system make for quite a pleasant experience that feels incredible in your hand and is gorgeous to look at. Plus, it comes in black, cyan, or magenta!

Like Apple, the Nokia brand carries a lot of weight with it. Even though the Lumia 800 may not be the best Windows Phone around, it is still a very desirable, enjoyable, and attractive device.

Detailed specifications for the Nokia Lumia 800

General	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 - RM-819 HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 - For Canada
		HSDPA 900 / 1900 / 2100 - RM-801 CV
	Announced	2011, October
	Status	Available. Released 2011, November

Body	Dimensions	116.5 x 61.2 x 12.1 mm, 76.1 cc
	Weight	142 g
		- Touch-sensitive controls

Display	Type	AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	480 x 800 pixels, 3.7 inches (~252 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes
	Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass
		- Nokia ClearBlack display

Sound	Alert types	Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes

Memory	Card slot	No
Memory	Internal	16 GB storage, 512 MB RAM

Data	GPRS	Class 33
	EDGE	Class 33
	Speed	HSDPA 14.4 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
	Bluetooth	Yes, v2.1 with A2DP, EDR
	USB	Yes, microUSB v2.0

Camera	Primary	8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, dual-LED flash,
	Features	Geo-tagging
	Video	Yes, 720p@30fps,
	Secondary	No

Features	OS	Microsoft Windows Phone 7.5 Mango
	Chipset	Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon
	CPU	1.4 GHz Scorpion
	GPU	Adreno 205
	Sensors	Accelerometer, proximity, compass
	Messaging	SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
	Browser	WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML5, RSS feeds
	Radio	Stereo FM radio with RDS
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support
	Java	No
	Colors	Black, Cyan, Magenta, White
		- MicroSIM card support only - SNS integration - Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic - MP3/WAV/eAAC+/WMA player - MP4/H.264/H.263/WMV player - Document viewer/editor - Video/photo editor - Voice memo/command/dial - Predictive text input

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Ion 1450 mAh (BV-5JW)
	Stand-by	Up to 265 h (2G) / Up to 335 h (3G)
	Talk time	Up to 13 h (2G) / Up to 9 h 30 min (3G)
	Music play	Up to 55 h

Misc	SAR US	1.27 W/kg (head) 1.08 W/kg (body)
	SAR EU	0.94 W/kg (head)
	Price group

Tests	Display	Contrast ratio: Infinite (nominal)
	Loudspeaker	Voice 60dB / Noise 59dB / Ring 61dB
	Audio quality	Noise -87.3dB / Crosstalk -87.8dB
	Camera	Photo / Video
	Battery life	Endurance rating 35h

Top 10 computer mouse tips everyone should know

2012-06-11T15:10:00.000-07:00

Most computer users don't take full advantage of the computer Mouse. Below are computer mouse tips and secrets that help you get the full potential of your computer mouse and increase your overall productivity while on the computer.

Shift key and mouse click

Many text editors and programs allow you to highlight all or portions of text using the Shift key and the mouse. For example, place the cursor at the beginning of a paragraph, hold down the Shift key and click at the end of the paragraph to highlight the full paragraph.

Take full advantage of the scroll wheel

Today, everyone is fully aware of a mouse wheels ability to scroll up and down on a page. However, this wheel can also do so much more, as shown below.

The mouse wheel is not just a wheel, it can also be used as a button. Pressing down on the wheel will act like a third mouse button. This can be used to open a web page in a tab by clicking the wheel on any link and can also be used to close a tab by clicking the wheel on any open tab.
Quickly Zoom in and Out on a web page, word document, excel spreadsheet, etc. by holding down the Ctrl key and scrolling up to zoom in and down to zoom out.
Move forward and backwards while browsing the Internet by holding down the Shift key and scrolling up and down. Scrolling down goes back and scrolling up goes forward.

Select with double and triple click

Any word can be selected by double-clicking the word. If you want to highlight the whole paragraph, click the mouse button three times on any text in the paragraph.

Use the right-click

Take full advantage of the right-click any time you highlight text or wish to view the properties of an object. For example, if you highlight a file or text, you can right-click that highlighted item copy it and then right-click anywhere else to paste it.

Tip: If you right-click on any file or text and drag it while continuing to hold the right button, when you let go you will be given the option to move or copy that file or text. This saves you the extra step of having to right-click where you want to paste the item.

Tip: While in a browser pressing and holding Ctrl while clicking on any link will open that link in a new tab.

Ctrl key and mouse click or highlight

While holding down the Ctrl key you can left-click to select multiple objects or highlight multiple sections of text. For example, in Microsoft Windows you could hold down the Ctrl key and click to select multiple files at once. If you wanted to highlight different parts of a paragraph or web page, you could also hold down the Ctrl key and select each section you wanted to copy.

Tip: Mozilla Firefox users can also hold down the Ctrl key and individually click on each cell in a table they wish to copy or drag their mouse down a row to select just that row or text without selecting any of the other text in that table.

Use the mouse side buttons

Many new computer mice have buttons on the side of the mouse. These buttons can be programmed to do anything, however, by default the left-thumb button can be used to go back on a web page. This makes browsing the Internet more enjoyable since you do not need to move the mouse cursor to the browser back arrow button in order to go back a page.

Use the Windows Snap To feature

Take full advantage of the Windows mouse Snap To feature, which will automatically move your mouse to buttons that appear in a dialog box. For example, if you delete a file or close a window you may get a prompt asking you if you are sure you want to perform the task. With the Snap To feature enabled, the mouse cursor automatically moves to the Ok button, so all you will have to do is click the mouse button if you agree. This saves you the time of having to move the mouse cursor over to the Ok button and then click Ok. To enable this feature open the Mouse properties under the Windows Control Panel and check the Snap To check box under the Pointer Options tab.

Tip: While changing this feature we also suggest looking at other available options in the Mouse settings. For example, increasing the Motion speed can also help increase your productivity while using the mouse.

Manage the open window with the mouse

Double-click the top title bar of any window to maximize a window or if it is already maximized resize it to a window. You can also double-click the icon for the window in the top-left corner of the window to close that window.

Move the mouse with your keyboard

Instead of using the mouse that came with your computer you can also enable Windows to use the number pad as a mouse.

Customize your mouse

Finally, if you have a mouse with more than two buttons, installing the included mouse software will allow you to customize the mouse even more. For example, if you don't use the side buttons to move back and forth in a web page change it to something you do more often, such as switching between open windows or opening the calculator.

Read More Tips and Tricks Click Here.....

Motorola Droid Razr Maxx Review

2012-06-10T15:44:00.000-07:00

The good: Despite a beefed-up battery, the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx has a slim, attractive, and durable design with the same gorgeous display, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, and fast Verizon 4G/LTE data speeds as its predecessor. It retains powerful multimedia chops and tight security features.
The bad: For such an advanced smartphone, the vague promise of a future Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is disappointing. Also, while a stronger battery is great, it's still not user-removable. People with small hands will find it hard to wrap around the phone's wide frame, and the 8-megapixel camera is unimpressive.
The bottom line: The Motorola Droid Razr Maxx proves that a powerful Android superphone can remain thin yet still promise marathon-worthy battery life. If you can live without Ice Cream Sandwich and have big hands, the Maxx is extremely compelling.

Motorola Droid Razr Maxx

Editors' note: Since the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx is almost identical to the original Motorola Droid Razr save for its enhanced battery, portions of this review are based on our experience with its predecessor.
Motorola ups the Android ante with its new creation, the Droid Razr Maxx. Not only does this superslim handset come equipped with all the outstanding features that graced the first Droid Razr, Motorola has thrown in an energy-dense 3,300mAh battery, too. Promised to run for days on end, the Maxx could be the longest-lasting, most powerful smartphone we've ever seen. Read on to find out if it's worth its $300 entry price.
Design
Motorola made a splash with the first Droid Razr with the bold testament that it was the thinnest Android smartphone the world has ever seen. For the company that started the thin phone craze with the original Razr V3, it was a fitting move, even if the Razr to have the trimmest chassis is always changing.
Interestingly, the company can't make the same boast with the Droid Razr Maxx. Measuring 5.14 inches long by 2.75 inches wide by 0.35 inch thick and weighing 5.1 ounces, the Maxx is slightly thicker and heavier than its predecessor (0.28 inch; 4.5 ounces). Even so, it still feels very svelte and lightweight, despite its larger footprint. I also found that it fit well into my pants pocket, though with an embarrassing bulge. Of course, people with small hands (because of the wide bezel housing the display) will have trouble grasping the big-screened device. Gone, though, is the hump in the back of the phone that held the camera lens and made the first Droid Razr top heavy.
In fact, the way Motorola managed to squeeze in the Razr Maxx's more powerful battery was to fill in that hump. It was a smart design call since without the hump the Maxx feels more balanced even as it sports a thicker profile.

Virtually the same in overall thickness, the Droid Razr Maxx (left) is just as pocket-friendly as the first Droid Razr.

Not to worry, though: other Motorola innovations have remained, such as the chassis built from diamond-cut aluminum, and the thin sheet of glass in front sculpted to fit flush against the phone's edges. Just like the original Razr, Motorola coated the Maxx's back in Kevlar, which, while smooth and soft, means the battery is not removable. Thankfully the Razr Maxx features a souped-up 3,300mAh battery, compared with the Droid Razr's smaller 1,780mAh battery pack.
I do like the Kevlar backing. It won't stop bullets, but it does resist scratches and scuffs admirably. Another durability feature is the Maxx's "nanotechnology coating," also found on the Droid Razr, which shields the handset's innards from light moisture and klutzy spills. Don't get me wrong, it's not water-resistant so don't take it to the beach. Making the Maxx even tougher is a Corning Gorilla Glass display with a chemically treated scratch-resistant surface.
User interface
Like the Droid Razr before it, the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx runs Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread with a more subtle version of Motoblur placed over it. For instance, you don't have to annoyingly create a Motorola account before using the phone like older handsets forced you to do. It's the same implementation already seen on other Motorola handsets like the Atrix 2 and the Droid Bionic. There are five customizable home screens to choose from, with more shortcuts to the phone dialer, messaging, camera, and the main menu running along the bottom. Hitting the Home button in standby mode pulls up a view of all the home screens at once, similar to HTC's Sense UI.
The lock screen displays the typical digital clock, date and battery info. To unlock, just swipe the lock icon from left to right. You can toggle the vibrate/ringer function here, too, and jump straight to the camera app. Those who liked the Droid Razr's virtual keyboard will find the same well-spaced keys, light haptic feedback, and responsiveness here. You also have the choice of using the default keyboard or Swype for fast one-handed writing.

The Droid Razr Maxx uses a lock screen that lets you toggle the ringer or jump straight to the camera.

Dedicated Droid Razr owners will appreciate the same great virtual keyboard on the Maxx. It has large buttons with lots of spacing, plus the buzz of light haptic feedback.

Features
Offering a mother lode of Android abilities, the Droid Razr Maxx has all the staples, including a few surprises, such as GPS, Bluetooth 4.0 (which supports a new generation of low-power accessories), Wi-Fi, and a mobile hot-spot capability that lets the phone act as a modem for up to eight Wi-Fi-enabled devices. Keep in mind that the mobile hot-spot feature costs about $20 extra per month on top of your voice and data plans.
The Razr Maxx also offers the usual selection of Google's apps and services, most already loaded: Gmail, Google Talk, Google Search with Voice, Google Maps with Navigation, Google Books, Places, Latitude, and YouTube. Phone and organizer functions include a calendar, alarm clock, calculator, a file manager, task list, voice command support, and speakerphone.
Other apps preinstalled include a healthy helping of free and paid software and services such as Amazon's Kindle app, Blockbuster, Let's Golf 2, Madden NFL 12, Netflix, Slacker Radio, MotoPrint, and VideoSurf. Of course Verizon added some bloatware of its own, like Device Setup, Verizon Instant Messenger, My Verizon Mobile, NFL Mobile, V Cast Tones, Verizon Video, VZ Navigator, and Visual Voicemail, which costs around $2.99 a month. Honestly the most helpful of the lot in my opinion is the My Verizon Data widget, which lives by default on the home screen and estimates your data usage to avoid being throttled or slammed with extra fees.
Corporate and government friendly
Who says you need a BlackBerry for private or public sector mobile security? Motorola doesn't think so. Also folded into the Droid Razr Maxx is support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, not to mention government-grade FIPS 140-2 encryption for e-mail, calendar, and contacts. For even more peace of mind, more-severe methods such as remote wipe, PIN lock, SD card and device encryption, and remote enable/disable of camera and Wi-Fi are
If you must tweak that doc on the road, the Razr Maxx features the Quickoffice app, which lets you create and edit office documents; Citrix's GoToMeeting video conference application; and the portable PC experience that Webtop provides (more on that below).
MotoCast, Webtop, and Smart Actions
Pushing the smartphone productivity envelope further is the MotoCast app. It lets you share your documents and media files with your home or work computer. MotoCast also links with the Gallery app to serve up photos, and the Music app to access music files.
Many Motorola Android phones feature the company's Webtop app, and the Droid Razr Maxx continues the tradition. It morphs the handset into a quasi mobile PC with Netbook-level functionality. Just attach it to compatible accessories like the Lapdock 100 (10-inch screen), the Lapdock 500 Pro (14-inch screen), or an HD Station, and the Webtop platform fires up automatically. These Lapdocks sport a keyboard and touch pad, but you'll have to contribute your own input devices if using something like the HD Station.
The Webtop platform at its core is a Linux-based operating system offering a Netbook-like experience for creating documents and surfing the Web via a full Firefox Web browser. The UI is pretty sparse, made up of a dock or software launch pad with a few applications. The phone's screen is mirrored on the larger display as well, so you can still access your phone's contents and functions in this configuration. To read more about the Webtop solution, check out our review of the Atrix's laptop dock.
Another interesting software spin on Android is Motorola's Smart Actions app designed to make the company's handsets easier for novices to operate. It's basically an automation tool for phone behavior that follows rules you define. For example, you can have the phone automatically turn off Bluetooth and GPS when your home Wi-Fi network is detected. Conversely, the Razr Maxx's brightness can be commanded to dial way down when battery levels are critical.
Other neat tricks are possible, such as having the ringer automatically silence itself in the office or launch the music player when you plug in your headphones. Still, I'm not sure how useful this is since I feel humans should control their technology, not the other way around. When smartphones really become self aware and double as personal companions, perhaps they'll be able to predict my whims, but for now I'd rather choose what I want to do when I want to do it.
Multimedia
A jack of all trades, the Motorola Droid Maxx serves up a wealth of multimedia skills to pass the time. Besides third-party apps like Slacker Radio, the Maxx has the same robust Music app that is much more capable than the stock Android software. Similar to the Droid Bionic, the app has Internet radio functions, a Music Store courtesy of Verizon Wireless, and my personal favorite, support for podcast subscription and playback. Don't forget, you can also use the app to stream music from your home server via MotoCast. Thankfully, the Droid Razr Maxx has 16GB of internal memory, plus a preloaded 16GB microSD card, and can support cards up to 32GB. Files it can handle are AAC, AAC+ AAC+ enhanced, AMR NB, AMR WB, MIDI, MP3, WAV, WMA v10, and WMA v9 formats.
Netflix pairs nicely with the Maxx's stunning HD AMOLED screen. Watching "Tron Legacy," even over an LTE connection, was mind blowing and I quickly forgot that the movie has no logical plot. Colors were rich and deep, and blacks were endless. Another treat is the phone's Micro-HDMI port, which you can hook up to a large-screen HDTV to make your experience even more enjoyable. This is possible via DLNA as well. Video formats supported are H.263, H.264, MPEG4, or WMV v9; load your own or download them directly from the Android Market.

Watching the HQ YouTube trailer for "The Avengers" and movies like "Tron Legacy" over Netflix was a blast on the Droid Razr Maxx's big AMOLED screen.

Just like the Droid Razr, the Droid Razr Maxx offers a nimble 8-megapixel camera that loads up in a swift 1.1 seconds from the lock screen. There's virtually no shutter lag in between shots to speak of, either. You can adjust the resolution, the shutter tone, the color effects, shot modes, and the exposure. Other settings include geotagging, a self-timer, several scenes modes like Macro and Night Portrait, panorama mode, and flash.
For all the Droid Razr Maxx's speed, picture quality was solid, with clear images and detail. Color accuracy is the phone's weakness, though. Still-life shots looked washed out and muted. In low light, most photos contained image noise, too. The LED flash didn't help this problem, but it didn't blow out subjects in the foreground, either. Able to capture full 1080p HD video with many extra audio functions like Stereo, Wind Reduction, Concert, Balanced, and Front Facing to choose from, capturing movies is the Maxx's forte. My video clips were clear and well exposed even in low light, and the auto stabilization tamed any hand shake.

While the Droid Razr snaps pictures with speed and in clear detail, colors looked muted.

Performance
I tested the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx on Verizon's CDMA/LTE network in New York. Confirming that there's a reason Verizon is proud of its cellular infrastructure, in my tests the Razr Maxx demonstrated excellent call quality. The phone's earpiece had plenty of volume and I heard no static, buzz, or other digital artifacts during the voice calls I placed. Callers on the other end also said the line was clean and free of any distortion and had difficulty telling I was speaking to them from a mobile phone. Similarly, callers couldn't tell I had switched to the Razr Maxx's speaker phone. I on the other hand noticed that the handset's speaker was soft and lacked serious oomph. That said, the speaker didn't distort at high volumes.
During the short evaluation period, data speeds, even within the CNET offices, were impressive, with fast download speeds averaging just shy of 9Mbps. Uploads, however, in the same location hovered around 0.6Mbps. This performance is lower than the typical speeds we see from Verizon LTE handsets. I plan to update this review with additional test results soon.
Of course the Droid Razr Maxx's claim to fame is its high-performance 3,300mAh battery. The phone is rated by Motorola to offer 21.5 hours of talk time and close to 16 days in standby mode. With numbers like these, it'll take time to run our battery tests on the Maxx, but in anecdotal use during my brief initial test period, the phone never dropped below 80 percent charge--quite remarkable. Later, while testing in the CNET Labs, the Razr Maxx played "The Godfather," with the screen brightness at 50 percent and audio at half volume, on a continuous loop for 19 hours and 47 minutes straight. That's enough juice for more than three back to back, coast to coast flights. In subsequent tests, we squeezed 20 hours of continuous call time. Though it's less than the promised 21.5 hours of talk time, it's still stellar.
Motorola Droid Razr Maxx call quality sample Listen now:
Conclusion
In many ways, the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx is the smartphone the Droid Razr should have been. Adding a powerful battery yet keeping a slim and trim size makes this excellent Android handset extremely tempting. I really wish the phone came running Android's latest and greatest Ice Cream Sandwich instead of the mere promise of future upgrades. Additionally, its sky-high $299.99 price tag will give all but the most addicted gadget hounds reason to think twice. Still, with fast 4G LTE data speeds, an amazing HD AMOLED screen, and a battery built to make the Energizer Bunny green with envy, the Maxx may be more than enough mobile tech for your needs.

Need For Speed Windows 7 Theme

2012-06-09T15:04:00.000-07:00

Description

Need For Speed is perhaps the biggest name when it comes to the games of the racing genre. Since the first game in the series, The Need For Speed, started in 1994, it has been a phenomenal success. Need for Speed is the most successful racing video game series in the world, and one of the most successful video game franchises of all time.
The Need for Speed series development and release cycle has seen quite a bit of change in last few years. While the game had a annual release cycle from 2003 to 2008, last three years it has adopted a bi-yearly release cycle.
There have been a lot of games released under the series lately, but if you ask me, Need For Speed: Most Wanted is perhaps the best game in the series. Dedicated to this awesome racing game series, here is a theme based on The Need For Speed.
Need For Speed Windows 7 Theme consists of 40+ Hi-Res Wallpapers, custom Icons and sound clips. Bring the adrenaline to your desktop with Need For Speed Windows 7 Theme.

To Download Need For Speed Theme Click on the links below

Wait 5sec.and Skip The ADD
Download Need for Speed Windows 7 Theme

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus review

2012-06-08T15:41:00.000-07:00

We've already established that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a great tablet. Then, just recently, we summarily found that the 1.2-inch smaller Galaxy Tab 8.9 is an even better tablet -- at least for anyone who wants to take their slate places. So, following that logic, the even more petite Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus should be the best of the three, right?

Not so fast. We've been here before, and things weren't exactly great. The original Galaxy Tab was, of course, a 7-incher and wasn't universally well received thanks to a number of problems -- the first being a $600 MSRP. Another issue was an Android 2.2 build that tried its best but was ultimately ill-suited for tablet duties. This new 7-inch installment packs a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, a tablet-friendlier build of Android 3.2 Honeycomb and a somewhat more palatable $400 price tag.

So, it's clearly better equipped than its predecessor, but that one shipped a whopping 12 months ago. How does the newer, fancier Tab compete in this newer, fancier present? Read on to find out.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus review

Hardware

Samsung's last tablet really did look like a slate that was run through the wrong washing cycle and came out a size 8.9 rather than the 10.1 it started as. The 7.0 Plus, however, is a rather different beast, slotting in somewhere between the 8.9 and the Galaxy Note both in terms of styling and, of course, size.

It has the same faux-brushed metal backing that Samsung calls Metallic Gray -- despite being far closer to black and not having a hint of sparkle. And still being plastic. But, it does look cool and sophisticated and is far more pleasing to touch than the smooth plastic the company originally put on its 10.1. The non-removable back is perforated to allow the three megapixel camera and its LED flash to poke through, units that appear to be borrowed from the 8.9 and 10.1 that came before.

With Skype installed those looking to make some calls on a comically large celly are certainly welcome to do so here.

That is paired with a two megapixel camera on the front peering through the top-right portion of the LCD's bezel when held in portrait. That's a very different location than on the other recent Tabs, which put the shooter front and center on the top when you're holding the tablet in landscape mode. Why the change? Well, the 7.0 Plus is aping some phone styling here, including a gash in the bezel for a speaker and even a microphone on the bottom. The WiFi-only version we were sent of course doesn't support proper calling, and with Honeycomb it's clearly not meant to be a phone, but with Skype installed those looking to make some calls on a comically large celly are certainly welcome to do so here. The only thing missing is a proximity sensor to disable the screen -- and maybe an invisibility cloak to hide your look of shame whilst holding a 7-inch slate to your face.

So this is a device intended to be held portrait-style, reinforced by Samsung putting its logo on one of the short sides rather than on the long side where it's typically found. This is again similar to the original 7-inch Galaxy Tab, which had its array of four capacitive touch buttons on the same, shorter side. No such buttons here -- Honeycomb has of course nixed that -- but the intent is still the same.

The IR emitter opens the door for the 7.0 Plus to be the biggest, beefiest Harmony there ever was.

The physical buttons here are limited to power and a volume rocker, are also in the same place as on the original Tab -- on the side on the upper-right. However, slotted in beneath them on the same side is something new and interesting: an IR emitter. IR has long-since fallen out of favor as a means of intra-device communication, replaced by Bluetooth and NFC and the like, but it is still the mechanism of choice for controlling home entertainment systems, opening the door for the 7.0 Plus to be the biggest, beefiest Harmony there ever was.

The standard 3.5mm headphone jack is found up on the top, shifted to the right, but continue around to the left side of the device and you'll find something a little less common: a microSD slot. Through this you can easily add up to 32GB of storage for music or movies or whatever. Pick up the 3G version of this device and you'll also find a tray for a SIM slot.

Finally, on the bottom lies Samsung's proprietary 30-pin connector, flanked on both sides by two tiny little speakers that emit decent sound but at a maximum volume too low to be of much use in all but the quietest of small rooms. Connectivity options on this model include 802.11a/b/g/n at both 2.4 and 5GHz along with Bluetooth 3.0. The 3G model adds on 21Mbps HSPA+ (900, 1900 and 2100MHz) and quad-band EDGE/GPRS (850, 900, 1800 and 1900MHz).

Display

While the Galaxy Tab 8.9, the increasingly mythical 7.7 and even the Galaxy Note manage to offer the full 1280 x 800 resolution offered by the big boy 10.1, the 7.0 Plus sadly is asked to make do with a measly 1024 x 600. That's the same as the original Galaxy Tab and, while we wish this device had the resolution to match its bigger (and even smaller) siblings, it is otherwise a very nice display. Colors are rich and bright, contrast is good and, while it can't quite deliver the sort of mouth-watering saturation that the company's Super AMOLED Plus panels can manage, color reproduction seems to be spot-on.

If the stock color temperature isn't to your liking, there are two others you can choose: Dynamic, which is a little too over-saturated for our tastes, and Movie, which tones things down a bit. Whichever you choose you'll have a great looking picture that doesn't go bad even at extreme viewing angles.

Performance and battery life

The Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus uses internals that are quite familiar at this point: a dual-core 1.2GHz processor paired with 1GB of RAM and either 16 or 32GB of storage. Unsurprising, then, that performance was also quite familiar. Despite being quite smaller than the 10.1, this guy blazes through most tasks with similar aplomb. Apps launch promptly and flipping through and examining pictures in the gallery is as smooth as you like. The only occasional hiccups came into play on web browsing, where webpages occasionally got a bit sticky and browsing became sporadically unresponsive. Disabling Flash helped -- as it usually does -- but out-of-the-box surfing wasn't quite all we'd hoped it would be.

Benchmark	Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus	T-Mobile Springboard / Huawei MediaPad
Quadrant	2,700	1,871
Linpack	28.98 MFLOPS (single-thread) / 69.47 MFLOPS (multi-thread)	46.22 MFLOPS (single-thread) / 58.81 MFLOPS (multi-thread)
Nenamark 1	59.3 fps	43.2 fps
Nenamark 2	41.8	27.9 fps
Vellamo	1,198	1,161
SunSpider 0.9.1	1,679	2,471

When we ran our usual spate of benchmarks, the results almost unanimously confirmed that this is indeed one speedy tablet. You'll see it bested the 7-inch T-Mobile Springboard ($430 off contract) in almost every test, save for the single-thread version of Linpack. Meanwhile, the 7.0 Plus blitzed through the SunSpider benchmark with an average score of 1,679.

But it's in battery life that it really starts to pull away from the competition. In our rundown, which involves looping a movie off the tablet with WiFi on and the brightness fixed at 65 percent, it managed an impressive eight hours and nine minutes. That's really something when you consider the Springboard lasted just six and a half hours and the Acer Iconia Tab A100 came to a wheezing halt in less than five. And in case you're wondering, the 7.0 represents a marked improvement over the original Galaxy Tab, whose runtime was two hours shorter.

Tablet	Battery Life
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus	8:09
Apple iPad 2	10:26
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1	9:55
Apple iPad	9:33
HP TouchPad	8:33
Lenovo IdeaPad K1	8:20
Motorola Xoom	8:20
T-Mobile G-Slate	8:18
Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet	8:00
Archos 101	7:20
Archos 80 G9	7:06
RIM BlackBerry PlayBook	7:01
Acer Iconia Tab A500	6:55
T-Mobile Springboard (Huawei MediaPad)	6:34
Toshiba Thrive	6:25
Samsung Galaxy Tab	6:09
Velocity Micro Cruz T408	5:10
Acer Iconia Tab A100	4:54

Software

For the most part the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus feels like any of the other Galaxy Tabs to use. It's running Android 3.2 Honeycomb, customized with Samsung's TouchWiz interface that adds a number of useful tools to the mix: a task manager, a world clock, a finger-friendly note taking app, a calculator and a music player. They're all accessible by tapping on the little up-arrow at the bottom of the screen. TouchWiz also simplifies the look of Honeycomb a bit and adds some useful toggles to the settings menu that you get when tapping the wrench in the lower-right of the screen.

All standard fare, that, but the Plus does bring something new to the software table: the Peel Smart Remote app. The app typically requires a $100 accessory to work but, thanks to the IR emitter built into the top of this guy, you can use it like a jumbo-sized universal remote control. To set up the app you're basically asked to turn off all your devices and sit somewhere in their general proximity. Rather than digging through endless lists of obscure product names as you struggle to remember whether you bought the Onkyo SR504 or sprung for the SR604, the Peel app just asks you to remember the brand of your device.

It then starts firing out IR commands with wild abandon, asking you after each one whether your device turned on. Once your TV or receiver or DVD player springs to life, happy day, you're configured! That said, if it never does you're in trouble. The app automatically prompts you to email Peel's customer support and enter the particulars of your device, something we had to do for one of our recalcitrant receivers, and they were quite quick to respond.

This does cause problems in some cases, though. For example, we use a Harmony remote with a Nyko BluWave IR receiver to control our PS3. That works great for media playback and navigating through the XMB, but there's no way to turn the console on or off with this. And, if you can't turn the device on, the Peel simply wants nothing to do with it. So, watching movies on our PS3 was not something the Plus 7.0 will allow -- at least with this app. But, we can't wait to see what other developers can do.

We also had problems with our TV, an older Sharp LCD that lacks discrete commands for its inputs. With the Harmony you can configure the remote to cycle through the available inputs as you switch from one activity to another. The Peel app, on the other hand, refuses to play nice.

Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus software

So, you certainly lose some configurability with Peel compared to the Harmony platform, but it is a very easy to set up and use app, and once configured it makes finding things to watch a snap. The app asks what your favorite type of shows and movies are and it goes out of its way to help you find those things on live TV. You'll get an easy grid highlighting what's on. Tap anything you like and it'll take you directly to that channel.

You can also browse by genre and, in general, look at your TV listings in a whole new way. This is great if you often find yourself struggling to find something good to watch -- bad if you're the type who finds yourself idly sitting in front of the TV when you should be getting things done.

The competition

Just who exactly is the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus trying to usurp? That's hard to tell, as the 7-inch slate category is still a bit under-served, but it's safe to say that this guy's strongest competition comes from its own big brother, the Galaxy Tab 8.9, which loses the IR emitter and microSD expansion but adds on a higher-resolution screen with a bit more room.

If you're squarely stuck on the 7-inch size the T-Mobile Springboard is a solid competitor priced at just $30 more off-contract and, for that money, offering 3G connectivity. Of course you'll have to pay for data if you're hoping to take advantage of that, but anyone willing to sign on for a two-year contract will find themselves paying just $180. We'd also be remiss if we didn't mention the Iconia Tab A100, which costs just $330, though, again, that discount means you'll have to settle for considerably shorter battery life.

Galaxy Tab family

Stepping away from Honeycomb we have both the $350 BlackBerry PlayBook, $400 HTC Flyer (with Gingerbread), $200 Kindle Fire and the $249 Nook Tablet. The PlayBook and Fire are well-constructed but, with their angular shapes, a bit less comfortable to hold -- they're heavier, too. RIM's tablet adds HDMI output to the mix, making it great for hosting boardroom presentations, while Amazon's tablet offers an easy view into a very impressive collection of premium media, and of course costs just $200. The Flyer adds stylus input to the mix, while the Nook Tablet is of course quite comparable to the Fire -- just with slightly better specs and aesthetics.

Wrap-up

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus now shipping from Amazon, confirmed to use Exynos SoC

The Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus really is a gussied-up, slimmed-down, priced-right version of the original Galaxy Tab. If that tablet had released last year looking and feeling (and costing) like this one does it would have been a revolution. As it was it never found that level of success and, while the 7.0 Plus is definitely a far better device, it just doesn't have anything that makes it stand out among Samsung's increasingly busy selections.

The performance is good, the IR capabilities are a nice touch and the expandable storage will definitely tempt those with a few extra microSD cards lying dormant. But, for just a little more money, the 8.9 feels like a much more comprehensive tablet and the 7.7, if it ever releases, will quickly make this guy obsolete with its 1280 x 800 Super AMOLED Plus display. And of course there's the Note, which can do proper double duty as a phone along with everything else the 7.0 Plus can do.

While the ideal size for a tablet is a personal decision, amid the increasingly chromatic scale of tablets Samsung is offering we can't help but feel the 7.0 Plus comes in just a little flat for our liking when compared with the almost pitch-perfect 8.9. That said, those looking for something a bit more portable will sing high praise for this 7-inch slate.

Quick Tips for Keeping Your Desktop Clean

2012-06-07T15:33:00.000-07:00

It’s a phenomenon that happens to us all: we go about our normal lives, using our computers to download programs, create files, and surf the web, and before we know it our desktops get messy and cluttered. When this happens, many people simply choose to ignore the clutter, maximize their web browser, and pretend that their desktop cleaning needs are not pressing. Considering the desire to postpone that often accompanies a cleaning project of any nature, this reaction is certainly an understandable one.

But for those of us who are more compulsive about cleaning and enjoy maintaining a semblance of order, needing to tidy up our desktops is an unfortunate yet routine occurrence. We go through file by file, decide what to keep, what to throw out, and what to move, and slowly move through this process until everything is neat and in order. All the while, we wish to ourselves that there was an easier way – a method by which we could clean more easily and insure that the desktop doesn’t immediately return to a cluttered state.

If you’ve found yourself expressing similar sentiments, here are a few tips for removing and reducing clutter on your desktop:

Make A Junk Folder

Every computer has a “Trash” folder for any programs or items that you no longer need. A junk folder is only a natural extension of this concept – it would be the place to put anything that you rarely or never use but have no desire to throw out. This can be incredibly beneficial in the desktop cleaning process, as any items that have no clear destination but are worth keeping can simply be dragged over to “Junk.” It’s probably best, though, to label this folder “Desktop II” or something similarly generic.

Use Practical Widgets and Gadgets

While the desktop was once the main launching point for computer use in the days of dial-up internet, it has now taken a backseat in importance to the browser homepage. But what desktops still have going for them is widgets and gadgets – personalized applications that can be placed anywhere on the screen. If you have widgets that you actually use and refer to with some frequency, then you are more likely to notice your desktop and to habitually keep it clean, therefore saving you the trouble of a major cleaning project. On this note, practical widgets – such as temperature, news, and time displays – can further your goals of a clean desktop.

Switch Up the Background

Similarly, a user who regularly switches up the background is also more likely to pay regular attention to the desktop. A new, exciting, visually appealing, and bold background is one that you will keep coming back to, and in that sense it can make your desktop more like a home screen or a profile page.

Have A Plan

But when these tips fail and you are still faced with a messy desktop, it’s always good to go into the cleaning process with a concerted plan. Have an idea of what icons you want to move, where you want to move them, and how different files should be classified. Ultimately, by being decisive, a person should be able to organize even the messiest of desktops in short order.

While a messy desktop is far from a catastrophe, those of us who appreciate having cleanliness in our lives will understand the value of keeping even our virtual spaces free of clutter. Hopefully these tips will help you make that happen.

Nokia 808 PureView Full Review

2012-06-06T15:00:00.000-07:00

Hands on with the Nokia 808 Pureview

The Nokia 808 Pureview wasn't meant to be a surprise, but with a 41MP camera and 1080p video recording, it certainly seems to have turned out that way.The phone is running Symbian Belle, and will probably be one of, if not the, last top end Symbian device to hit the market before all the cool technology gets chucked into Windows Phone.
We spent some time with the large-sensored monster, and it certainly is a beast when it comes to picture taking. We're going to spend a lot of time looking at the camera on this new top-end cameraphone, but let's take a quick look at the software underneath.

See what the monumental 41MP camera in capable of in our first look video at MWC 2012:We're looking at the end of Symbian – there's no idea whether it's going to continue beyond Belle, but at least it's a half decent OS these days (although sadly shows how good the N8 could have been a couple of years ago.)

The interface is more finger friendly than before, responding more quickly to swipes under the finger on the home screens (although not as fast as the likes of top end Android phones or the iPhone 4S).

The build of the phone isn't that impressive if we're honest – there's a hark back to the likes of the Nokia N97 in the plastic build of the case, and the plastic hard keys on the front are a little cheap-feeling, which we don't expect this phone to be.

However, let's talk about the real USP here: the camera. And it, even at this early stage, looks to be pretty darn good.

The headline feature is obviously the 41MP camera, and although you can't access all those megapixels, you can take 34MP photos that you can zoom into to dizzying levels.

There are a decent range of settings you can play with as well, with things like ISO levels up to 1600 making it a very much a replacement for a normal compact camera.

The picture quality is fantastic as well, with zooming in showing a decent level of detail with very little in the way of noise or pixellation.

It seems there are two camera modes on offer with the Nokia 808 Pureview, with the 'full resolution' setting letting you shoot at 34MP in 16:9 and 4:3 mode. You can also jump into Pureview mode as well, which limits you to 8MP shots but chucks in a whole load more information into each pic to make it easier for you to blow up your candid snaps.

Early verdict

Overall, the Nokia 808 Pureview is pretty much the phone Nokia wanted to make – a bog standard Symbian phone that won't set any pulses racing until its flipped over and the full might of the camera is realised.
It's the Nokia N8 made a lot more acceptable to the average consumer that loves to take pictures on the go – but we're more looking forward to seeing similar things on Windows Phones rather than lauding this as the ultimate cameraphone just yet.

Nokia 808 PureView

Full phone specifications

Also known as Nokia 808 PureView RM-807

General	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100
	Announced	2012, February
	Status	Coming soon. Exp. release 2012, June

Body	Dimensions	123.9 x 60.2 x 13.9 mm, 95.5 cc
Body	Weight	169 g

Display	Type	AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
	Size	360 x 640 pixels, 4.0 inches (~184 ppi pixel density)
	Multitouch	Yes
	Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass
		- Nokia ClearBlack display

Sound	Alert types	Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes
		- Dolby Digital Plus - Dolby headphone enhancement

Memory	Card slot	microSD, up to 32 GB
Memory	Internal	16 GB storage, 1 GB ROM, 512 MB RAM

Data	GPRS	Class 33
	EDGE	Class 33
	Speed	HSDPA 14.4 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, UPnP technology
	Bluetooth	Yes, v3.0 with A2DP
	NFC	Yes
	USB	Yes, microUSB v2.0, USB On-the-go support

Camera	Primary	41 MP (38 MP effective, 7152 x 5368 pixels), Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, Xenon flash
	Features	1/1.2'' sensor size, ND filter, up to 4x lossless digital zoom, geo-tagging, face detection
	Video	Yes, 1080p@30fps, lossless digital zoom, LED light
	Secondary	Yes, VGA; VGA@30fps video recording

Features	OS	Nokia Belle OS
	CPU	1.3 GHz ARM 11
	Sensors	Accelerometer, proximity, compass
	Messaging	SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
	Browser	HTML5, Adobe Flash Lite
	Radio	Stereo FM radio with RDS; FM transmitter
	GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support
	Java	Yes, MIDP 2.1
	Colors	Black, White, Red
		- SNS integration - Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic - HDMI port - MP3/WMA/WAV/eAAC+ player - MP4/H.264/H.263/WMV player - Voice command/dial - Document viewer - Video/photo editor - Predictive text input

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Ion 1400 mAh (BV-4D)
	Stand-by	Up to 465 h (2G) / Up to 540 h (3G)
	Talk time	Up to 11 h (2G) / Up to 6 h 50 min (3G)

Apple iPhone 4S Full Review

2012-06-05T15:18:00.000-07:00

The dual-core A5 chip delivers even more power. The 8MP iSight camera with all-new optics also shoots 1080p HD video. And if there’s anything else you need, just ask Siri.

Siri
Performance
iSight Camera
1080p HD Video
iOS
iCloud
Retina Display
FaceTime

Siri. The intelligent assistant that helps you get
things done. All you have to do is ask.

Now you can use your voice to use your iPhone. Just talk to Siri as you would to a person: “Do I need an umbrella?” or “Any great burgers around here?” or “Where’s the closest ATM?” Siri not only understands what you say, it knows what you mean.¹ It figures out the right apps to use to find the right answer. Then, just like a personal assistant, it answers you. Siri makes phone calls, sends messages, schedules meetings, sets reminders, and more. How much more? Just ask, and Siri tells you that, too.

Set reminders.

Tell Siri what you need to do. Even say when and where you need reminding.

Send a text.

Say who it’s for and what the message should say, and Siri writes and sends your text.

Check the weather.

Siri gives you the forecast for where you are or anywhere you’re curious about.

Dual-core A5 chip.
The most powerful iPhone ever.

Two cores in the A5 chip deliver up to two times more power and up to seven times faster graphics.² And you’ll feel the effects. Fast. iPhone 4S is quick and responsive, which makes all the difference when you’re launching apps, browsing the web, gaming, and doing just about everything. And no matter what you’re doing, you can keep on doing it. Because the A5 chip is so power-efficient, iPhone 4S has outstanding battery life.

iPhone 4S is great for gamers. The A5 chip pushes graphics up to seven times faster. So games run smoother and they’re even more realistic. And graphics-intensive apps perform even better.

The you-can’t-believe-it’s-on-a-phone camera.

Photo Gallery: Unretouched photos taken using iPhone 4S.

Tap anywhere to zoom inTap anywhere to zoom out

The iSight camera just might be the best camera ever on a phone. And with all-new optics, it just might be the only camera you need. Because behind every shot, you’ve got 8-megapixel resolution and a custom lens with a larger ƒ/2.4 aperture. Not to mention an improved backside illumination sensor, excellent auto white balance, advanced color accuracy, face detection, and reduced motion blur. It all means that no matter how many people, how much light, and how much action you capture, everything looks exactly as it should. And just wait until you see the photos.

Advanced optics with a custom lens, a larger aperture, and a new sensor mean amazing photos.

The iSight camera gives you 8 megapixels — that’s 60 percent more pixels than the camera on iPhone 4. And they’re engineered with a higher, full-well capacity to collect even more light. With more megapixels and more light, you’ll see a dramatic difference in the resolution and details of your images.

Video recording. In 1080p amazing HD.

See it in action

Shoot stunning 1080p HD video everywhere you go. With all-new optics, the light is always right, the color is always vivid, and everything will look even better than you remember. Video stabilization steadies shaky shots. And you can edit video right on iPhone and share your lush life as fast as you shoot.

Record amazing 1080p HD video at 30 frames per second. The advanced backside illumination sensor and larger aperture let in even more light. Improved auto white balance makes color even more accurate. And temporal noise reduction helps you take great videos in low light.

iOS. The world’s most advanced mobile operating system. And the easiest to use.

With every iOS advancement come even easier ways to do everything. That’s what makes iOS years ahead of anything else. iOS 5 leaps even further ahead, bringing over 200 new features to iPhone 4S. Here are just a few of our favorites.

iCloud. Your content. On all your devices.

iCloud is the easiest way to manage all your stuff, because it manages it all for you. iCloud stores your music, photos, apps, mail, contacts, calendars, documents, and more. And wirelessly pushes them to all your devices. It’s automatic, effortless, and seamless. And it just works.

Retina display.
Clearly remarkable.

The sharpest, most vibrant thing you’ll see on iPhone 4S is everything. The Retina display is the highest-resolution phone screen ever. In fact, the pixel density is so high that the human eye is unable to distinguish individual pixels. But without a doubt, you’ll notice crisp text, sharp graphics, and stunning images. It’s more remarkable than the printed page. And you’ll be completely absorbed.

Retina display.
Clearly remarkable.

FaceTime. It’s even better face-to-face.

AirPlay. From the small screen to the big screen.

With AirPlay, you can wirelessly stream what’s on your iPhone to your HDTV and speakers via Apple TV.⁶ And with AirPlay Mirroring, whatever you see and do on your iPhone appears on your HDTV at the same time.

FaceTime lets you hear a voice and see the face that goes with it — iPhone to iPhone, iPad 2, iPod touch, or Mac over Wi-Fi.⁵ So no matter where they are, no matter where you are, you’ll always be there. Making a FaceTime call is just as easy as making a phone call. And it’s even easier with Siri. Just tell Siri “FaceTime with Mom” and you show up, smile, and wave hello. You’ll never miss a big event, an important meeting, or a good laugh. And who wouldn’t be happy to see your face?

AirPrint.
Print everything wirelessly.

Print your email, photos, web pages, and documents right from your iPhone over Wi-Fi.⁷ There’s no software to download, no drivers to install, and no cables to connect. With just a few taps, you can go from viewing something on the iPhone screen to holding a printed copy.

Call it better, faster, and even more worldly.

iPhone 4S is the first phone to intelligently switch between two antennas to transmit and receive, so call quality is better. It also doubles the maximum HSDPA data speeds to 14.4 Mbps.⁸ Which means faster connections, faster loading and reloading, and faster downloads. And iPhone 4S is a world phone, so you can use it almost anywhere. Whether you’re a GSM or CDMA customer, you can roam GSM networks in 200 countries around the world.

Built-in apps. They do just about everything. So you can, too.

You’ll do everyday things in extraordinary ways on iPhone 4S. Take amazing photos and shoot HD video. See your friends and family with FaceTime. Browse the web on the Retina display. Check email. Send messages. Set reminders. Check calendars. Or just ask Siri to help you get things done — it figures out the right apps to use.

Protection for your iPhone.

Every iPhone comes with one year of hardware repair coverage and 90 days of telephone technical support. AppleCare+ for iPhone extends repair coverage and technical support to two years and adds accidental damage protection for your iPhone.

Extends repair coverage and technical support to two years from the original purchase date of your iPhone.
Apple experts can answer questions and help solve problems over the phone or at an Apple Retail Store.
Provides comprehensive repair coverage including up to two incidents of accidental damage coverage.


Color	White Black
Capacity¹	16GB	32GB	64GB
Price²	$199	$299	$399
Size and Weight³	Height: 4.5 inches (115.2 mm) Width: 2.31 inches (58.6 mm) Depth: 0.37 inch (9.3 mm) Weight: 4.9 ounces (140 grams)
Cellular and Wireless	World phone UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) CDMA EV-DO Rev. A (800, 1900 MHz)⁴ 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi (802.11n 2.4GHz only) Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology
Location	Assisted GPS and GLONASS Digital compass Wi-Fi Cellular
Display	Retina display 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen Multi-Touch display 960-by-640-pixel resolution at 326 ppi 800:1 contrast ratio (typical) 500 cd/m2 max brightness (typical) Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating on front and back Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously
Camera, Photos, and Video	8-megapixel iSight camera Autofocus Tap to focus Face detection in still images LED flash Video recording, HD (1080p) up to 30 frames per second with audio Video stabilization Front camera with VGA-quality photos and video at up to 30 frames per second Photo and video geotagging
External Buttons and Connectors	External Buttons and Controls Connectors and Input/Output
Power and Battery⁵	Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery Charging via USB to computer system or power adapter Talk time: Up to 8 hours on 3G, up to 14 hours on 2G (GSM) Standby time: Up to 200 hours Internet use: Up to 6 hours on 3G, up to 9 hours on Wi-Fi Video playback: Up to 10 hours Audio playback: Up to 40 hours
Audio Playback	Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz Audio formats supported: AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), HE-AAC, MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, 4, Audible Enhanced Audio, AAX, and AAX+), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV User-configurable maximum volume limit
TV and Video	AirPlay Mirroring to Apple TV support at 720p AirPlay video streaming to Apple TV (3rd generation) at up to 1080p and Apple TV (2nd generation) at up to 720p Video mirroring and video out support: Up to 1080p with Apple Digital AV Adapter or Apple VGA Adapter (adapters sold separately) Video out support at 576p and 480p with Apple Component AV Cable; 576i and 480i with Apple Composite AV Cable (cables sold separately) Video formats supported: H.264 video up to 1080p, 30 frames per second, High Profile level 4.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format
Headphones	Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz Impedance: 32 ohms
Mail Attachment Support	Viewable Document Types .jpg, .tiff, .gif (images); .doc and .docx (Microsoft Word); .htm and .html (web pages); .key (Keynote); .numbers (Numbers); .pages (Pages); .pdf (Preview and Adobe Acrobat); .ppt and .pptx (Microsoft PowerPoint); .txt (text); .rtf (rich text format); .vcf (contact information); .xls and .xlsx (Microsoft Excel)
Sensors	Three-axis gyro Accelerometer Proximity sensor Ambient light sensor
System Requirements	Apple ID (required for some features) Internet access⁶ Syncing with iTunes on a Mac or PC requires: Mac: OS X v10.5.8 or later PC: Windows 7; Windows Vista; or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 3 or later iTunes 10.5 or later (free download from www.itunes.com/download)
Environmental Requirements	Operating temperature: 32° to 95° F (0° to 35° C) Nonoperating temperature: −4° to 113° F (−20° to 45° C) Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)
Languages	Language Support English (U.S.), English (UK), Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Arabic, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese Keyboard Support English (U.S.), English (UK), Chinese - Simplified (Handwriting, Pinyin, Stroke), Chinese - Traditional (Handwriting, Pinyin, Zhuyin, Cangjie, Stroke), French, French (Canadian), French (Switzerland), German (Germany), German (Switzerland), Italian, Japanese (Romaji, Kana), Korean, Spanish, Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Cherokee, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Emoji, Estonian, Finnish, Flemish, Greek, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Serbian (Cyrillic/Latin), Slovak, Swedish, Thai, Tibetan, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese Dictionary Support (enables predictive text and autocorrect) English (U.S.), English (UK), Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), French, French (Canadian), French (Switzerland), German, Italian, Japanese (Romaji, Kana), Korean, Spanish, Arabic, Catalan, Cherokee, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, Flemish, Greek, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese Siri Languages English (U.S., UK, and Australian), French, German
In the Box	iPhone 4S Apple Earphones with Remote and Mic Dock Connector to USB Cable USB Power Adapter Documentation

Creating Strong Passwords

2012-06-04T14:16:00.000-07:00

Creating strong passwords for all your online accounts is not a thing you should do. It is a thing you must do. There are so many Algorithms used to Crack a Password. Cracking Password Time solely depends on the characters you used. If you use Strong Password it will take years to Crack it.

Types of password:

*Passwords that contain only Letters
Praveen*Passwords that contain only numbers
1821989*Passwords that contain only Special characters
!@#$%^*Passwords that contain only Letters & Numbers
P100c*Passwords that contain only Letters & Special Characters
P@ssword?*Passwords that contain only Special Characters & Numbers
(@$514)*Passwords that contain only Letters, Special Characters & Numbers
A;wn@l6?%

You can see that the Last password with a Combination with Letters, Special Characters & Numbers seems to be more secure.

I have taken this Password Cracking Time Result from this Site:
http://www.lockdown.co.uk/?pg=combi&s=articles

What makes a strong password?

I shall not elaborate on this since many sites have already discussed this in great detail. In a nutshell, a strong password must constitute the following:

It needs to contain special characters such as @#$%^&
It must be at least 8 characters long.
It must not have any common words such as 123, password, your birth date, your login name and any words that can be found in the dictionary.
A variation of capitalization and small letters

In my opinion, even if your password consists of the above, it is still not enough. Your password needs to be totally unique and different for each and every one of your online accounts. This is to make sure that in the event that one account is hacked into, your other accounts will not be affected.

You must be wondering how you are going to remember so many passwords when you have a problem remembering your existing one.

Keepass a Small Utility that is used to Store all your Passwords. I have already discussed briefly how to save Passwords using Keepass.

1. First, think of a thing, date, phrase, event, place or anything that is unique only to you. It must be at least 8 characters long. I call this the salt term. For demonstration purposes, I will use my name Praveen Kumar as the salt term. Note that the capital letters and the space in between the name are part of the salt term. For your own account, please select a salt term that is difficult for other to guess.

2. I used the following rules to replace the regular characters with special characters. You can form your own rule.

Replace all the ‘a’ with @
Replace all the ’K’ with <
Repalce any space with %
Replace any ‘e’ with 0
Replace any ‘u’ with 3

In this case, the simple term Praveen Kumar becomes Pr@v00n%<3m@r

3. Now go to Password Meter and test the strength of your salt term.

The above screenshot is the result my Password Strength. If your salt term is not strong enough, you will see a list of items that you can improve on.

Is that enough?

That is only the beginning. To really make it secure and hard for others to guess, you will need to change your password every few months, this is Very Important. Some of you may find it a chore to come up with new passwords every month.

Conclusion

Generating and using a strong password is only your first line of defense against hackers.

The most important thing that you should take note of is your internet browsing habits. When you are using a public terminal, make sure that it has the proper firewall and anti-virus installed, make sure your network is secure, log out when you are done with your session and clear the cache once you are done.

I Need Your Comments...........

5 Useful Command Prompt Tricks for Easy Operation

2012-06-03T14:38:00.000-07:00

There are two ways to work in Windows Operating System i.e GUI(Graphical USer Interface) and CUI(Command User Interface).In this post lets see the importance of Command Prompt and how to make it simpler to use.MS-DOS gives you complete control over what your computer does .

1. Command Prompt History

Many does not know that windows command prompt got history.Just press F7 to display the list of commands entered during the current session. Use the arrow keys to select and command from the list you want to run.

2. Full Screen Mode

What to work full screen in Ms-Dos? Just hit ALT+ENTER key for full screen mode.Use the same shortcut to exit full screen.If you wish to close CMD Prompt type Exit and hit Enter.

3.Drag and Drop to enter file path

This is another cool feature of CMD Prompt.We usually type Cd(Change Dirtectory) command to navigate to different locations.

If you are lazy bug like me simply drag folders into the command window and release it to automatically enter the path of the application. Cool Isn’t it?

4. Copy and Paste Text into CMD

You can’t simpley do Copy and Paste operation in CMD with Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V shortcut keys. You can however copy text from other applications, right click on the command prompt windows under Edit click Paste.

To copy text from the command prompt. First right-click inside the command prompt window and go to Edit and click on Mark. Now drag a box around the text you want to copy. The selected text will get highlighted.Again right click CMD Window and go to Edit and click copy.

e-Speaking: Control Your PC Through Your Voice

2012-06-02T15:33:00.000-07:00

An easy software solution to enable you to control your computer, dictate emails and letters, and have the computer read documents back to you. e-Speaking – Voice Recognition software using your voice to command and control your computer. Reduce or eliminate mouse clicks or keyboard input. Use it to enhance your computing experience by providing an additional input to the computer.

10 Reasons for Trying e-Speaking’s Software

1. Free Download of software
2. Over 100 commands built-in
3. Ability to add more commands
4. Runs in Windows2000 and Windows XP
5. Small file size
6. Utilizes latest technologies from Microsoft
7. Seamlesly integrate with Office
8. Voice commands of Mouse events
9. Based on SAPI and .NET technologies
10. Easy to Use

What is Speech Recognition & Voice Recognition?

These are exciting technologies that change the way you interact with your computer. Now you can speak to your computer and it can speak back. The speech that you and your computer exchange is scripted. In other words, you can’t just ask your computer how he/she is feeling? Rather, you can talk to your computer using a set of pre-defined commands and instructions (i.e., a script). Your computer will respond in the same way (also using a scripted language). For example, you can say: “File Open”, and the computer would respond: “Select the file”. Or you can say: “Edit Find” and the computer would ask: “Find What?”.

Download : e-Speaking Software

My Computer takes a long time to load the desktop

2012-06-01T14:26:00.000-07:00

Problem:

When I turn on my computer and log in, my computer takes a long time to load the desktop and system tray icons.How do i get rid of it? And fix the the desktop problem?

Solution:
Your windows takes long time to load because of so many reasons like Virus,Damaged Registry, Fragmented Hard Disk, too many startup items, less memory space.I have already discussed in detail about these things in 5 Reasons that slows down your computer performance post.In this post I am going to show to easy fix a slower PC.

Removing Unwanted startup Items.
Fixing HDD Errors.

Now lets see these things in detail.
1. Remove Unwanted Startup Items

Goto Start–>Run.
Type msconfig and hit Enter.
Navigate to Startup tab.

Keep Antivirus,Instant messenger, and other important applications to load in system tray.
Remove unwanted application.It will pull down your PC performance.

2. Fixing Hard Disk Errors
Hard disk error occurs mainly due to improper shutdown.Its also one of the main reason which makes windows to take long time to load.

Goto Start –> Run.
Type CMD and hit enter.
Type chkdsk and hit enter.

It Check disk command checks error in HDD and fixes it.
Now fix errors in other drives. D,E,F,G,H,….
Type CHKDSK /F for drives other than C and fix HDD error.

Swift Key X Keyboard V 2.2.0.159 Applications For Android Free Download

2012-05-31T15:01:00.000-07:00

SwiftKey X Keyboard makes typing much easier on your phone, replacing your touchscreen keyboard with one powered by smarter natural language technology. It understands how words work together, giving much more accurate corrections and predictions than other keyboards. Very sloppy typing will magically make sense, and it also powerfully predicts the word you may want next.It learns as you use it to make typing easier and even more accurate over time, and you can also personalize it using your Gmail, Facebook, Twitter or blog posts.

SwiftKey X is available for both Android phones and tablets. Both are paid versions but a trial version for both the phone and tablet is available for 30 days, which is a good amount of time in which you can easily make a decision if you want to continue with your intelligent keyboard.

Get this 3$ app for free !!! Download Link

[FUN] How To Fix Any Computer?

2012-05-31T14:25:00.005-07:00

Today I came across a funny picture while surfing net . The funny picture is on how to fix any OS (Windows, Apple and Linux) based on the troubleshooting problems experienced by users across the globe.

How to Fix Windows?

How to Fix Apple?

How to Fix Linux?

Airtel GPRS Trick June 2012

2012-05-30T16:33:00.002-07:00

After long time we have found new successfully working Airtel GPRS trick, this trick is works for both 2G and 3G. Using this trick you can surf or browse internet free of charge in airtel. This trick is works all over the india so enjoy. In this trick we are giving new front query that works very fine.

Instruction

Step 1        :    Make new internet Settings
APN     :    airtelgprs.com
Proxy    :    80.239.242.253
Port             :    80
Home Page :    203.115.112.5

For Nokia S40 series download Prov file maker from here

Step 2         :      Download Handler Application From here

Put frontquery: 203.115.112.5/cgi-bin/nph-get.cgi/000000A/http/

Step 3         :      Install handler Application and use free Airtel GPRS in mobile .

Need for your Comments....

Animating a car in Java

2012-05-30T15:01:00.000-07:00

This program is only for beginners in Java. Most of you may have imagined it is very difficult of it takes a lot of time to grasp the essence of animation in Java. Well this program here dispels all those fears. It is a very basic (and dare I say an ugly) animation of a red car which moves from left to right.

// CARMOVE.JAVA

import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import javax.swing.*;
public class test extends JApplet {
public static void main(String[] args) {
JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.getContentPane().add(new test());
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setSize(1024, 739);
frame.setVisible(true);
}
public void paint(Graphics g) {
try {
int j = 0;
while (j < 500) {
g.setColor(Color.white);
g.fillRect(0, 0, 5000, 5000);
g.setColor(Color.red);
g.fillRect(250 + j, 250, 100, 50);
g.setColor(Color.black);
g.fillOval(260 + j, 300, 20, 20);
g.fillOval(320 + j, 300, 20, 20);
j++;
Thread.sleep(2);
}
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
}
}
}

Increase Your iPhone Battery Life With These Easy To Use Tips

2012-05-29T15:00:00.000-07:00

If you are an iPhone users then you must be aware of the less point of Apple’s iPhone is its Battery. With every usage of it the %age of battery decreases. Iphone offers its users whole new world of features, apps, games which cannot be resisted from exploring. But the main concern for the user will be saving the battery throughout the day. Maximum iPhone battery is 100% and it rapidly decreases according to the usage.

But every problem has a fix to it and Apple has done that for the battery issue. So let’s explore these few simple and few little tricky ones to get that extra bit of battery.

When Not in Use Turn off Your iPhone All Wireless Applications

All the latest phones, being specific Smartphone come with inbuilt wireless applications like Bluetooth and wifi access. So it is advised to switch off such features when they are not in use. As these features tends to deplete your iPhone battery fast. So turning them off can help you extend the battery life for several hours.

If not required then disable the 3G as well. As the 3G technology survives on the battery of the phone. If possible to turn off it will give you long battery life for whole day.

Make use of the auto brightness feature of your iPhone. This will automatically adjust the back light of IPhone as required. This adjustment also helps in saving battery.

Manually Lesser The Screen Brightness

Although you have enabled the auto brightness feature but in some scenarios it does not dim the light as required. There you can manually lower the brightness of the home screen for saving of the battery. Preferred is to keep your brightness to 49% to make optimum use of the iPhone battery.

End Background Apps

According to Apple, the background apps are not technically ‘running’, unless they are front and centre, which means they should not draw any power.

The multitasking application for the iPhone continues to use resources of system more efficiently depletes your battery.

Applications, for example, Skype or even other VoIP can be especially benefit from the battery when you perform within the setting and so it is better to start launching the applications only when you need which can save the battery life.

Cool Off The IPhone Temperature

High temperature of iPhone also eats up its battery life. If you find that while charging your phone the temperature is increasing, then remove the phone cover before plugging in for charging. Let it also have a breath of fresh air so place it on a table or in open space instead of your pocket. The optimum temperature for iPhone and its battery is between 32°F to 95° F.

Make Use of Solar Chargers

Solar chargers give you freedom of charging your iPhone from anywhere. So if your battery is dying out, you can save it with solar power.

Also another advantage is that you can follow the motto “Go green” while saving the electricity which in turn protects the environment.

Frequently Use your iPhone:
We all know that iphone is a precious thing for anyone but that does not mean that you restrict its use to protect it from daily wear and tear. It is best valued with optimum use of it. Not using the iPhone for a long time can reduce its battery life. Therefore one should use it regularly and change iPhone battery at least once every 6 months.

Apple has also strongly recommends that you should charge your iPhone when the battery is completely finished i.e. 0%.

So follow these tips and you can easily save your iPhone battery life and enjoy it for long.

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