Tech Infection

Not Just Nokia Lumia Have Windows

2011-11-18T01:18:00.001-08:00

5 Impressive Windows Phone Powered Smartphones

Microsoft's Windows Phone mobile OS has gained a lot of mileage in the last couple of weeks, courtesy Nokia unveiling its Lumia 800 smartphone. While the Lumia 800 is an impressive device, That’s not the beginning and the end of mobile phones based on Microsoft's Windows Phone platform. There are a couple of other Windows Phone powered smartphones just out in the market or waiting to get launched, which also deserve attention.

Here we take a look at five such Windows Phone powered smartphones that aren't the Nokia Lumia 800.

1. HTC Radar

So far HTC has impressed with its Windows Phone smartphones. The HTC Radar looks set to join that club with impressive specs and performance. The Radar has a 3.8-in SLCD display with a resolution of 480x800 pixels and a 5MP autofocus camera. The Radar runs on a 1GHz Qualcomm Scorpion processor and Adreno 205 GPU and offers 8GB of internal memory.

Price: Rs. 23,990

Availability: Available in India right now.

Why You Should Care: The Radar's 3.8-in SLCD display sounds like a very good proposition. The Radar is also DLNA compatible which is a great feature to have if you have multiple DLNA-compatible gadgets in your home.

2. Samsung Omnia W

Currently, the Samsung Omnia W is the only Windows Phone smartphone from the Korean handset manufacturer to get an official release in India. The Omnia W sports a 3.7-in Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 480x800 pixels and a 5MP autofocus camera. The Omnia W is powered by a 1.4GHz processor and comes with 8GB of internal storage.

Price: Rs. 19,990

Availability: Available in India right now.

Why You Should Care: The Omnia W's 3.7-in Super AMOLED display hits all the sweet spots in terms of size and display quality. At 1.4GHz, the Omnia W's processor is also one of the most powerful you will find on a phone priced below 20K.

3. Samsung Focus

While the Samsung Focus was released a year back in the U.S. and was never officially released in India, it's surprisingly popular on eBay India. The Focus has a 4-in Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 480x800 pixels. It runs on a 1GHz Qualcomm Scorpion processor and an Adreno 200 GPU and has 8GB of internal memory. Imaging is taken care of by a 5MP autofocus camera. While the Focus was originally launched with Windows Phone 7, a 7.5 (Mango) update has been made available for it.

Price: New unlocked models are listed from Rs. 14,800 to Rs. 20,770 on eBay India.

Availability: Not officially launched but available on eBay India

Why You Should Care: At that price, the question is: why shouldn't you? If you look past the fact that the Focus is a year-old phone, you will realize that it represents excellent value for money in terms of specs (4-in AMOLED display, 1GHz processor et.al).

4. HTC Titan
The HTC Titan is certainly a Titan when it comes to specs among Windows Phone smartphones. It sports a massive 4.7-in SLCD display with a resolution of 480x800 pixels and an 8MP autofocus camera. The Titan is powered by a 1.5GHz Qualcomm processor and an Adreno 205 GPU and has 16GB of internal memory.

Price: Rs. 40,000 (approx. excluding shipping charges) from the U.S.

Availability: No word yet on India launch. Launched in the U.S. in October.

Why You Should Care: If you're a fan of the big numbers, then the HTC Titan will interest you. Everything from its screen size to internal memory to processor speed to battery capacity is the highest among Windows smartphones. Also, there aren't too many 8MP cameras on phones out there.

5. Nokia Lumia 710

With all the hype surrounding the Lumia 800, it's easy to forget that the Nokia Lumia 710 is also about to hit the market. Its specs make it appear to be an ideal candidate for a sub-20K Windows Phone. The Lumia 710 has a 3.7-in display with a resolution of 480x800 pixels and a 5MP autofocus camera. It runs on a 1.4GHz Qualcomm Scorpion processor and an Adreno 205 GPU and has 8GB of internal memory.

Price: Expect it be around Rs. 19,000

Availability: Launched in India but no concrete date on when it will hit stores.

Why You Should Care: There is of course the hype surrounding Nokia's first Windows phones, so you probably already do. Nokia understands the mid-range market as well as the best of them, so the Lumia 710 already looks like a good VFM product. It's not miserly in terms of specs either as the 3.7-in display and the 1.4GHz processor proves.

Nokia Lumia Phones Launched in India:TI

2011-11-15T04:08:00.001-08:00

Nokia has announced the launch of its top end Lumia 800 and budget oriented Lumia 710 phones. These devices are Nokia's first Windows Phone powered devices, and will be available in India by mid-December. The Finish Mobile giant has not yet announced the pricing for both these devices.

Both the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 devices run on a 1.4-GHz processor. Also both phones also support HD video playback.
The Nokia Lumia 800 comes in a uni-body design, sports a 3.7-inch AMOLED display and weighs around 142 g. It will also have 512 MB of RAM, 16GB of internal user memory, and will feature an 8 MP camera with 28 mm wide angle lens.

The Nokia Lumia 710, while featuring the same processor as its costlier cousin, the Lumia 800, has a plastic construction. It also features a WVGA LCD display, a 5 MP camera, 8 GB of internal user memory and weighs around 125.5 g.

Nokia has bundled apps such as Nokia Drive, Nokia Music, into both the devices. It remains to be seen how well these Windows phone powered devices will do in a smartphone market that is pretty much dominated by Apple and Google.

TI:Google Releases Ice Cream Sandwich Source Codes

2011-11-15T04:02:00.001-08:00

Google has just released the source code for the latest build of Android, deliciously titled "Ice Cream Sandwich." In a Google Groups post, Google engineer Jean-Baptiste Queru says "this is actually the source code for version 4.0.1 of Android, which is the specific version that will ship on the Galaxy Nexus."

The source code is available for download right now from the Android Open-Source Project git servers, though Queru warns that it is a rather hefty file and can take some time to download. If you plan on checking out the source code yourself, I recommend waiting a bit for the servers to calm down.
Clicking on the link from the original post sent me straight to a 404 page so it might be a while before people can actually get their hands on the full file.
Interestingly, the code includes the previously unreleased source for Android 3.0 (Honeycomb). Queru admits that Honeycomb was unfinished and urges all developers to ignore it in favor of Ice Cream Sandwich.
With another Google event happening on November 16th of this week, we can only hope that this source code release signals the imminent arrival of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. We still have no official release date or price for the Galaxy Nexus, but with the source code out in the wild it's only a matter of time before the phone arrives as well.

SandyBridge-E Debuts with Intel Core i7-3960X six-core Processor

2011-11-15T04:01:00.001-08:00

Today Intel announced what it called its fastest chip to date for PCs, the six-core Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition processor, which is based on the Sandy Bridge microarchitecture and designed for use in high-end desktops. The 3960X and 3930K processors will be the first to require Intel's new X79 motherboard, which uses an LGA2011 socket.

The processor is targeted at enthusiasts such as gamers, who usually are early adopters of the latest technologies. More cores and faster clocks speed up PCs and are valued by gamers, who demand peak performance when playing graphics intensive games.
The Core i7-3960X runs at a default clock speed of 3.3 GHz, cranking up to 3.9 GHz per core depending on performance required. The chip has 15MB of cache and supports four channels of memory, also the most available on Intel PC chips to date.
The chip is about 52 percent faster in video editing than the Core i7-2600K chip, which is also based on Sandy Bridge and targeted at enthusiasts. The memory performance is up to 114 percent better, Intel said. The Core i7-3960X will succeed the Core i7-990X Extreme Edition, which was the fastest chip based on Intel's previous Westmere architecture.

Intel Core i7 3960X Processor Die Detail
The i7-3960X processor is priced at US$990 for 1,000 units. It will compete with the Advanced Micro Devices' eight-core (Bulldozer) FX-series processors, which started shipping last month and are also targeted at enthusiasts.
Intel and AMD are adding cores and ratcheting up clock speeds in an effort to gain the chip performance crown. AMD in September demonstrated its eight-core FX processor running at 8.429GHz in a system, which the company claimed broke the world record.
Intel also introduced the six-core Core i7-3930K chip, which operates at 3.2GHz and can be clocked up to 3.8GHz. The chip has 12MB of cache, four memory channels, and is priced at US$555 in quantities of 1,000.
Of course, this means that the previously reigning king (Intel Core i7-990X) will have to step down in price. For a quick reference of what the new Sandy Bridge-E series will be competing against, at the top-end within Intel's family of desktop processors, see the table below. Note that all of the processors listed below support Hyper Threading, so they can simultaneously run twice the number of threads as the number of cores they have.
Specifications:

Nokia Lumia 800:TI

2011-11-15T03:59:00.001-08:00

Nokia recently launched their first Windows Phone powered smartphones in India- the Lumia 800 and the Lumia 710. Both the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 run on a 1.4GHz processor and support HD video playback.

I managed to get my hands on the Lumia 800 during the Nokia Developer Conference 2011 in Bangalore and tried it out for some time. Here are some of my initial impressions:
1. Beautiful Display: The Lumia 800 sports a large 3.7-in AMOLED display with a resolution of 800x480 pixels. The specs sound pretty good but they don't do justice to how the display looks like in real life. In the little time that I had the device, the display looked like it could stand tall among the best. Colors (especially blacks) looked very rich and made the tile-based Windows Phone UI look even prettier. The only issue was that the display was very glossy which means that it would be a fingerprint magnet.

2. Great Build & Looks: The Lumia 800 felt like one of the best phones I had ever handled. The phone has a polycarbonate body which was unlike anything I have seen on any other phone. The phone's body felt really solid and very smooth to the touch, similar to the aluminum casing on the Nokia N8 and the HTC Legend without compromising on slimness or weight.
3. Windows Phone: The Lumia 800 comes with Windows Phone 7.5 Mango and if you've seen how it looks and handles earlier, there's not much new here. One great addition though is that the always-excellent free Nokia Maps comes pre-installed on the Lumia which means that you don't need to use the default Bing Maps.
4. Touchscreen: The one issue that mostly hounded Nokia's earlier Symbian phones was that touch accuracy was inconsistent. Fortunately, with the Lumia 800 this problem seems to have been dealt with well. Scrolling through the various menus and screens was smooth and the keyboard was also accurate.
The Nokia Lumia 800 and the Lumia 710 are expected to hit Indian markets by mid-December. Expect a more in-depth review by then.

ARM Mali-T658 Eight-core Graphics Chip Introduced Tech Infection

2011-11-11T20:25:00.000-08:00

The Mali-T658 graphics processor announced by ARM on Wednesday can be equipped with up to eight cores to help it deliver ten times the graphics performance of the company's existing GPU (Mali-400 MP).

The superior graphics performance is compared to the Mali-400 MP, which is used on a number of smartphones from Samsung Electronics, including the Galaxy S II and the new Galaxy Note. The chip also has four times the computing power of the Mali-T604 GPU, which has yet to appear in any available products.
The performance boost will result in better HD gaming and help usher in new compute-intensive applications, such as augmented reality, according to ARM. Besides smartphones, the GPU will also be used in tablets, smart TVs and automotive entertainment systems.
But don't expect products based on the Mali-T658 GPU anytime soon. Smartphones based on the Mali-T604 GPU will arrive next year, while products that use a Mali-T658 chip with four cores will arrive in 2013. Products powered by a version with the maximum eight cores are expected to be introduced in 2015, according to a chart from ARM detailing the evolution of its mobile processors.
Samsung, Fujitsu Semiconductor and LG Electronics are among the companies that will partner with ARM on products, ARM said.

The chip is compatible with a number of different of graphics and compute APIs, including DirectX 11 and DirectCompute from Microsoft; Khronos OpenGL ES and OpenCL; Google's Renderscript and OpenVG.
Besides the new Mali GPU, this week also saw the introduction of Asus's 10-inch Eee Pad Transformer Prime tablet. It is powered by the ARM-based Tegra 3 processor, which has four cores, and will start shipping worldwide in December.

Download FirstCloud OS

2011-11-11T20:23:00.000-08:00

Oracle has updated its Unix-based operating system Solaris, adding some features that would make the OS more suitable for running cloud deployments, as well as integrating it more tightly with other Oracle products, the company announced Wednesday.

"We looked at some of the big challenges that people were having in deploying cloud infrastructure, either in a private cloud or public cloud," said Charlie Boyle, senior director of product marketing. "In the release, we engineered out some of the complexity in managing a cloud infrastructure, and made it possible to run any Solaris application in a cloud environment."
Cloud deployments require even greater levels of automation and streamlining than a standard IT infrastructure would, noted Markus Flierl, Oracle vice president of software development. While an organization may run hundreds of Solaris servers, as it moves its applications to a cloud infrastructure, it may run them across thousands of virtual Solaris instances.
Solaris, a Unix implementation, was originally developed by Sun Microsystems, which Oracle acquired last year. While not as widely known for its cloud software, Oracle has been marketing Solaris as a cloud-friendly OS. In Oracle's architecture, users can set up different partitions, called Zones, inside a Solaris implementation, which would allow different workloads to run simultaneously, each within their own environment, on a single machine.
Oracle Solaris Zones has 15 times less overhead than a VMware implementation, Oracle asserted in its marketing literature. The company also touted that Zones had no artificial limitations set on memory, network, CPU or storage resources.
Many of the new features were designed to ease the administrative overhead of running a cloud-like infrastructure, Flierl said. One new feature, called Fast Reboot, will allow the system to boot up without doing the routine set of hardware checks, a move that can make system boot times up to two-and-a-half times faster, Oracle claimed. This feature can be handy in that an administrator applying a patch or software update across thousands of Solaris deployments can reboot them all the more quickly. "It allows you safely to upgrade your entire environment," Flierl said.

The new Solaris also features a new software management system, called Image Packaging System, that will keep track of a program's dependencies, or the libraries and other software that the program needs to run. The Image Packaging System keeps all the software packages in a system up-to-date, including those in a virtual environment.
Also adding to Solaris' cloud capabilities are new administrator controls that lock down the settings in individual Zones. Users can be limited in what changes they can make to the file system, or to the network settings. It can also limit the amount of network bandwidth each Zone can use. This is also the first version of the OS that allows users to virtualize networking resources, meaning supporting network cards can route traffic to appropriate virtual machines without any additional processing on the part of the server CPU itself.
In addition to work Oracle has done to make Solaris cloud-ready, the company has also closely tailored other Oracle products so that they can be coupled more easily to Solaris, including the Oracle Database 11g, Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g and the Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center administrative software package. By controlling an entire stack of software, the company can make "holistic" decisions over which part of the stack would be best suited to tweak to gain performance improvements, Flierl said.
Solaris 11, which complies to the Open Group's specifications for Unix implementations, can support any programs that were written for earlier versions of Solaris, dating back to Solaris 6. The company also runs the Oracle Solaris Binary Application Guarantee Program, which certifies more than 11,000 applications that can run on Solaris 6.
Solaris 11, released Wednesday (9th October 2011), will run on both x86 and Oracle's Sparc-based processors. You can download Oracle Solaris 11 for free, for both x86 and SPARC architectures, targeted for various install media and methods from the vendor's site.

Targus iPad 2 Cases Now Available in India

2011-11-11T06:39:00.001-08:00

US based Targus recently announced the launch of Targus 9.7” 360 degrees rotating case and stand for the iPad 2 in India.
"Targus believes in innovation and develops products in line with latest trends in fashion and technology. Targus 9.7" 360 degrees rotating case,is developed using a patent-pending design that will not only protect the users precious iPad2 but also enhance its viewing experience," says Arun Goenka, Senior Manager - Business Development, Targus India Pvt. Ltd

A patent-pending mechanism that frames the Apple logo rotates all the way around, allowing the iPad 2 to recline in either landscape to portrait mode. The hard-shell outer layer measures 9.84"L x 7.68"W x 0.71"H made to fit the slim iPad 2.

Targus 9.7" 360degrees rotating case and stand (Black) is now available at leading retail outlets in India and Apple outlets at Rs. 3099.

No Further Development On Flash Player Mobile Version

2011-11-11T02:21:00.001-08:00

It has been reported that Adobe will be discontinuing any further development of Flash Player on the Mobile platform. ZDNet provided the following announcement from sources who are abreast of these developments at Adobe:

"Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores. We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations. Some of our source code licensees may opt to continue working on and releasing their own implementations. We will continue to support the current Android and PlayBook configurations with critical bug fixes and security updates."
While nothing has yet been announced on official channels, Adobe will henceforth be reportedly only focusing on Flash on Desktop and Adobe AIR and HTML5 for mobile platforms. An official announcement from Adobe is expected soon.

Steam Servers Hacked On 6 NOV

2011-11-11T02:18:00.000-08:00

On Sunday November 6, Steam servers got hacked, and the hackers gained access to the user database. Initially the attack appeared to be against the Steam forums, but Valve later discovered the attack had run deeper than the online community. If you're a gamer who plays titles that use the Steam platform from Valve, you may want to keep a close eye on your personal data.

Details are still a little thin on the ground, but on Thursday Valve, the company behind Steam, posted the following message to its forums: “We learned that intruders obtained access to a Steam database in addition to the forums. This database contained information including user names, hashed and salted passwords, game purchases, email addresses, billing addresses and encrypted credit card information. We do not have evidence that encrypted credit card numbers or personally identifying information were taken by the intruders, or that the protection on credit card numbers or passwords was cracked. We are still investigating. We don’t have evidence of credit card misuse at this time. Nonetheless you should watch your credit card activity and statements closely. While we only know of a few forum accounts that have been compromised, all forum users will be required to change their passwords the next time they login. If you have used your Steam forum password on other accounts you should change those passwords as well."
The compromise comes at a pretty bad time for PC gamers due to the imminent release of Skyrim: The Elder Scrolls V, which is supposed to be ready for download at midnight Friday morning.
Valve suggests that you change your Steam password and keep a close eye on your credit card and bank statements. Now would also be a good time to look at using Steam Guard. Steam Guard is available to all account holders, and prevents others from accessing Steam from an unknown computer unless you enter a code, which is delivered to your email.
Also, you should make sure your email address is verified with Steam in order to set up security features like secure questions. To get more tips on keeping your Steam account secure, visit Steam’s security page.

Map My India App For Android iPhone and BlackBerry

2011-11-11T02:16:00.000-08:00

MapmyIndia, a company well known for making digital maps, recently announced the launch of ShowNearby, a free location-based places app for Blackberry, Android and iPhone, that allows users to search and discover all places of interest nearby, such as restaurants, ATMs, petrol pumps, retail brands, coffee shops, tourist spots, emergency services etc. The application is powered by the digital map data from MapmyIndia.

The application works like any location based app which determines your position based on the GPS and based on that shows a list of places around your marked location. The user can view the place on MapmyIndia’s maps and get accurate directions to it, directly call up the place, save it to his contacts and also share the place with friends via email or SMS. The user can also see and request deals at outlets and brands in the application.
Rohan Verma, Director MapmyIndia, says ‘We’re very excited to launch the MapmyIndia ShowNearby application in India as an easy utility for users to get information of nearby places and offers on their mobile, and an excellent platform for brands to help users discover their store and business locations and run location based offers and promotions. We are happy to collaborate with Douglas and his team at ShowNearby to bring this application to the Indian market.’

The application is available free of cost to the user. It is currently available for Blackberry, Android and iPhone platforms and will soon have versions for mobile web and Windows Phone 7. The application can be downloaded through the Blackberry App World, Android Market and iTunes App Stores or by visiting http://m.mapmyindia.com/shownearby from the user’s mobile phone browser. More details about the app are available at http://mapmyindia.com/shownearby.

Modern Warfare 3 Now Avaliable on Stores

2011-11-09T20:41:00.000-08:00

Close on the heels of the launch of Electronic Arts much-hyped Battlefield 3, Activision’s hugely popular Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (COD: MW3) hit stores Tuesday midnight. Thousands of devoted fans of the COD series lined up to grab a copy of the game.

The sales figures of the game have not yet been released by Activision but the company claims that the pre-order of MW3 has already topped those of Call of Duty: Black Ops (previous iteration). The critics have given the game great ratings and the Metacritic score is 90 for the Xbox 360 version and 88 for the PS3 version.

The Xbox 360 and the PS3 version are both available for Rs. 3079. If you are planning to buy a copy for the PC, Steam is the best bet for now because the retail copies are yet to hit the stores.
Take a look at the official launch video below.

Siri: Alternatives On Android

2011-11-08T17:34:00.000-08:00

Want Siri on Your Android Phone? Try These Apps

Wouldn't you like to have your very own gofer dedicated to doing all the menial tasks you hate? That's a big part of the appeal of the iPhone 4S: Siri, the voice-driven virtual assistant, turns anyone with a couple hundred bucks into a CEO attended by a full-time lackey. But can you get the same kind of slavish devotion from an Android phone?

I've spent the past week auditioning all manner of Android virtual assistants, most of them free, including Google's Voice Actions app, the awkwardly named Speaktoit Assistant, and a digital "intern" named Eva that interrupted my conversations to hector me about upcoming appointments.

I've concluded that you can find decent virtual help on an Android phone, but the assistants available likely won't be as smooth and capable as Siri. Siri is like the classic executive secretary, always well-dressed and possessed of an elephant's memory and a dry wit. Android assistants are more likely to show up with their shirttails hanging out occasionally. They don't know how to do some things that Siri can do, and they usually won't get your jokes. But that doesn't mean they aren't helpful.

More Than Voice RecognitionMany people think of Siri and apps like it as being primarily voice recognition programs. But while deciphering what you say is important, what differentiates virtual assistants is what they can do after interpreting your speech. That's especially true of Android virtual assistants because most of them rely on the OS's built-in voice recognition capability.

Both Apple and Google send what you say to their servers, whose powerful processors decipher your speech and then send a text version back to your phone. Google's speech recognition is uncannily accurate. I found it superior to Siri's (though in fairness, I didn't spend nearly as much time with Siri as I did with my Android phone).

So virtual assistant from another differ from one another primarily in their ability to execute your commands after receiving them from the server. I put all of the helper apps I tested through a series of 18 tasks, from checking the weather and stock prices to sending an email message, mapping a location, and tweeting. My favorite assistants: Speaktoit Assistant and Google's Voice Actions.

Speaktoit AssistantI spent a lot of time last week talking to my phone and I found it oddly helpful that the free Speaktoit Assistant presented me with an actual (albeit animated) person that I could talk to. You can alter your assistant's appearance in myriad ways, including changing his/her sex, hair style, and nose size. Female assistants can wear anything from a formal gown more appropriate for a red-carpet event to a skimpy vest-and-tie combination that looks as though it belongs (temporarily) on a stripper.

Speaktoit handled most of its assignments well, including checking the weather, making phone calls, and answering questions (for instance, "How tall is the Empire State Building?"). When I asked Speaktoit to search the Web or to find a location on a map, it brought the results up in a window of its own, rather than opening my default browser or mapping software. But you can touch an icon in the corner of the window to bring up the same information in the default apps.

I liked the app's approach to sending texts and email. It would transcribe my message and then put it in the message field of my phone's default app. That arrangement left it to me to manually choose the recipient, add a subject (in the case of an email), and press Send. Though the approach isn't as hands-free as the way Siri handles the same tasks, it's superior to how many other Android assistants do it. Speaktoit also successfully tweeted and posted status updates to Facebook, which Siri can't do without a workaround.

Speaktoit was one of the few Android assistants I tested that could figure out how to play music from my collection, with this limitation: Whether I asked it to play an album or an artist, it played just one song from the album or artist, a selection that it seemingly chose at random. Another idiosyncrasy: Speaktoit can tell you your agenda for today, but not for any other day.

Google Voice ActionsMost virtual assistants claim that they can figure out what you want regardless of how (within reason) you phrase your requests. Google's free Voice Actions assistant--part of its Voice Search utility--demands a more consistent approach. To use this app, you must employ Google's set phrases. To play music, for instance, you have to say "Listen to Benny Carter" rather than "Play Benny Carter." Google's app is somewhat more limited in what it can do, too: In addition to playing music, it can send texts and email, make calls, map a location, give directions, write a note, search the Web, and go to a specific site.

If you play by Google's rules, though, you'll find that the app is smooth and helpful. Perhaps because Voice Actions is a Google-developed app interacting with a Google-developed operating system and (in many cases) with other Google-developed apps such as Maps, the whole system works fairly seamlessly.

For a number of tasks, however, Voice Actions wasn't quite as hands-free as I might have wished from a virtual assistant. When I asked for the day's weather, for instance, instead of reading me the day's forecast--as Speaktoit Assistant did--Voice Actions searched the Web for a weather report that I had to read off my screen; this arrangement isn't a problem if you're walking along the street, but it's definitely inconvenient if you're driving.

VlingoVlingo is one of the few Android assistants that doesn't rely exclusively on Google's voice recognition system. You can choose to use Google's system or Vlingo's home-grown processing. My advice is to stick with Google. I tried Vlingo's voice recognition and found it generally disappointing.

In fact, I was disappointed by this free app overall. It couldn't perform a number of functions--such as reading me my calendar or setting an alarm--at all. Even odder were capabilities that it had one day and seemed to lose the next. The first time I tested Vlingo, for instance, it did a competent job of preparing an email message. But the next time I asked it to "send an email," it simply offered to Google the phrase "send an email."

Vlingo does have some bright spots. It can send tweets and update your Facebook status. Also, when you give Vlingo a command, it continues listening to you until you press Done. Many other systems stop listening as soon as they detect a pause, forcingyoutospeakreallyfastsothattheydon'tcutoffbeforeyou'redone.

Jeannie
Up until about a week ago, this app was called Voice Actions, just like the Google app. To end the confusion, the third-party developer, Pannous, changed the name of its app to Jeannie (it still shows up on my phone as Voice Actions, however, even though I've updated the app). Jeannie is free. Alternatively you can purchase a $3 (~Rs. 147) Voice Actions Plus app with the same capabilities. Pannous says that the Plus version of the app should process your speech more quickly.

Unfortunately, signing up Jeannie as your personal assistant is a bit like hiring a slacker with a poor work ethic. When I asked Jeannie to send a text, for instance, it asked for the recipient's name, but then just switched me to my texting app, without starting the text or adding the name of the recipient. (Jeannie can be a bit passive-aggressive, too. It asked whether I wanted to leave it to go to my texting app. When I said "Okay," it responded "Okay by me, too." Ouch.)

Other things Jeannie did were just mysterious. It set an alarm when I asked it to, and the alarm went off right on schedule, but I couldn't figure out how to turn it off because Jeannie hadn't set it using Android's built-in alarm system. When I asked Jeannie to take a note, it started recording me--but never showed me what it had transcribed. Instead, it simply said "Done," and then told me I could send the note by email "later." It wasn't clear to me how.

One of my tasks involved asking each of the personal assistants to get me Apple's stock price. Many of them fell short in various ways--giving me a general market report, for instance. But Jeannie's response was the most surreal: It searched the Web for images of apples and presented those to me.

Eva InternEva is like a job applicant who seems brilliant in the interview, but who you end up wanting to strangle after a couple days of frustrating collaboration.

Eva is represented by a photo of a brunette who is attractive but (to my eyes anyway) has an underlying air of vapidity. A companion app called Evan gives you the option of ordering a guy around, if you prefer; he looks like a model from the cover of a romance novel. The list of things that Eva/Evan can theoretically do is impressively long: Bulletproof, which designed the app, says that it can create expense reports and journal entries, start applications, post to Facebook, make playlists, and manage contact groups. (Eva Intern is free only for the first 28 days, by the way; after that, you have to pay $9 - ~Rs. 442 - for the full version.)

Unfortunately, Eva came across as both so dense and so afraid of making a mistake that it couldn't get much done. When I asked the app for Microsoft's stock price, it listed three possible interpretations: "give me microsoft stock price," "give me a microsoft stock price," and "giv me microsoft stock price."

You might imagine that any one of those would be close enough for an intelligent assistant to figure out. But Eva's reaction was "I'm sorry, I heard what you said but I don't know how to interpret it. Please try again."

Eva also had the annoying habit of popping up unsummoned--even when my phone was asleep--to read calendar entries to me. "Hi Ed, I'm reminding you about conference call with Stacey in CR-500 at 5 p.m." Even more annoying was that the app insisted on reading each calendar entry three times. Eva's instructions said that the virtual assistant would be quiet if I asked it to, but the ensuing peace lasted only until my next appointment, when Eva would again implore me three times not to miss the impending meeting. There may be another way to get Eva to shut up, but I never found it. The app's instructions are the longest and wordiest of any mobile app I've seen; and after plowing through them for a while in hopes of solving an immediate problem, I usually lost patience with trying to use them.

Finally, I wrote a calendar entry reminding me to uninstall Eva as soon as I'm done with this story. That may be the only time I'll be glad to hear this virtual assistant's voice.

HTC Phones To Get Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in 2012

2011-11-08T17:33:00.000-08:00

Owners of HTC phones will have to wait until early 2012 for their device's mobile OS to be upgraded to Google's Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0. In a post to its Facebook page, HTC wrote not just mobile phones with fast multi-core microprocessor chip architectures would get Android 4.0, but also HTC phones with fast single-core processors, such as the HTC Sensation XL.

The HTC Sensation, Sensation XL and Sensation XE were named as the first HTC smartphones lined up for the Ice Cream Sandwich update early next year, as well as the HTC Rezound, HTC Evo 3D, EVO Design 4G, and Amaze 4G, which will receive the update over the air "through close integration with our carrier partners," HTC says. The new HTC Vivid is also on the upgrade list.

HTC Rezound
That will leave some HTC smartphone owners happy, but several models are missing from that list. Users whose phones aren't on the list shouldn't worry too much, at least not yet, and instead "stay tuned for more updates on device upgrades, timing and other details about Ice Cream Sandwich," HTC said.
Android 4.0 is meant to be Google's OS that bridges the smartphone and tablet gap -- which is currently served by two different versions of the OS. Ice Cream Sandwich refreshes the navigation methods on Android phones by removing the need for the hardware navigation buttons, as well as a sleeve of improvements and gimmicks.
The first phone to run Android 4.0 will be Google's Galaxy Nexus, manufactured by Samsung. The phone sports a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, a huge 4.65-inch curved glass display, and NFC capabilities. Google is also working on the update for the Galaxy Nexus S, but those with a Nexus One are out of luck.
Motorola promised to upgrade the Droid Razr and Bionic, as well as its Xoom tablet to Ice Cream Sandwich, but the exact timing is unclear -- some six weeks after the official release of the update from Google. LG and Sony also hinted at Android 4.0 updates for their high-end phones, but no solid details are available on that yet.

First Look At Symbian Belle

2011-11-08T01:45:00.001-08:00

Symbian Belle hands-on

It is easy to write off Symbian when you look at videos of N9 running Meego or even the WP7 based Nokia phones which are expected to ship next year. Little did I know Symbian had something big in the works in the form of 'Belle'? The moment we realised the Symbian Belle leaked software for Nokia N8 was doing the rounds of various forums on the internet we had to try it.
So here is the first look of the improved User Interface (UI) of Symbian Belle on PCWorld India. Please note that Near Field Communications (NFC) is not available in India and as a result I could not test it.

Pull-down Notifications Tab

The first thing that struck me was the slick pull-down notification tab similar to Google’s Android. I guess if Apple’s iOS can ape Android, Symbian can too. But frankly I quite like the design of the Nokia one. It is indeed classy.
Six Homescreens

I’m not a fan of too many homescreens. But for those who can't stop arranging everything on your phone in homescreens they might appreciate the six that Symbian Belle provides. You have more real estate now for all your icons. I wonder if you'd ever need the menu button again. Oh I almost forgot to mention, there is a dim background in the menu screen as well.
Better Customization Options

I know you have been craving for this feature in Symbian^3 and Symbian Anna. Now you can move around your icons similar to the wobbly icons on iOS. Though it is very handy to move your icons around you cannot drag icons into folders directly which is a letdown.
Improved Search Integration

It is like that famous jingle that goes "wherever you go our network follows" the search button in Nokia follows you wherever you navigate on the phone. I totally approve this considering the fact that I have a lot of apps that I use and it is difficult finding a single app in the heap.
Widgets

Loads of widgets are now available at your disposal. The one that caught my attention, however, was the new music player widget.
Conclusion
It is too soon to say how Symbian Belle's final build will function on the soon to be released Nokia 700 and Nokia 701. On the N8, I can say it looks good despite the fact that it borrows a lot of design cues from the other mobile operating systems.

Close Look To Features Of Android Ice Cream Sandwich

2011-11-06T20:30:00.000-08:00

Ice Cream Sandwich

From its navigation methods to fonts, Android is redesigned and refreshed in its Ice Cream Sandwich edition to meet the tastes of its users. Google introduced the update to Honeycomb and Gingerbread Tuesday night alongside Samsung's debut of the Galaxy Nexus. Here are the highlights.
The Lock and Homescreens
The Android 4.0 lockscreen closely resembles the one found on Android Honeycomb tablets: a lock icon, surrounded by a circle, which you flick outward to unlock the phone. Home screens behave the same way as they currently do on Android (swipe left or right to navigate, open an app drawer, retrieve widgets, and so on) except you now get a customizable “favorites tray” that resembles the dock in iOS. Because the Galaxy Nexus lacks physical navigation buttons, the Back, Home, and Recent Apps icons are located at the bottom of the screen and lit up when touched. Google gave no word on how ICS will work on older phones with physical nav buttons, but future phones running Android 4.0 may lack them as well.

The app drawer is updated to look more like the one in Honeycomb and you now scroll through apps by swiping left or right. Widgets have their own tab in the app drawer to make them easier to find. They look and work like the ones we have seen on Honeycomb, and are resizeable so you can fit them wherever you feel like.
Taking another leaf out of Apple’s book, Android 4.0 lets you create folders by dragging one app onto another. Apps can be rearranged in folders by dragging them around and folders can be renamed to your liking.
Recent Apps and Gestures
If you tap the Recent Apps icon at the bottom right of the screen, a scrollable list of running apps pops up -- each with a thumbnail image of that application. You can close a particular app by flicking it away. The flicking gesture command is accepted throughout Android Ice Cream Sandwich, and is also used to dismiss specific notifications in the Notification Tray.
Besides accepting gestures, the Notification Tray displays photos and supports music controls, so you don’t have to go into a specific app in order to skip a song or pause your music. The Notification Tray is now accessible without having to unlock your phone. Just drag down the tray from the lockscreen and you can quickly jump to new text messages or e-mail messages by tapping on a notification. I like the fact that you can quickly get into apps without having to unlock the phone first, but I hope Google puts a security measure in place so that not just anyone can access your private communications.
Speaking of security, in Android 4.0 your face can be used to unlock your phone. Ice Cream Sandwich and the Galaxy Nexus support facial recognition, so the phone can be set to unlock only if it recognizes your face. When demoed on stage, the phone failed to recognize its owner and defaulted back to the traditional pattern unlock screen. Let's hope the Android team gets the kinks worked out before launch, and that other phone manufacturers support this feature in future handsets.

Core Apps Updated
All the core Android apps are getting a facelift and new features, though only the Browser, Calender, and Gmail were explicitly detailed at the introduction event.
The Browser now supports incognito mode and your bookmarks from the Chrome browser on desktop are now synced to the Browser in ICS. Google adds support for tabbed browsing, and you can quickly view which tabs are open, each with a live preview of that page. As with the notifications and Recent Apps list, you can quickly close tabs by flicking them away.
The biggest update to the Browser has to be the capability to save pages for offline reading. You can save web pages exactly as they are, and access them even when you don’t have a data connection. This is great for people who find an interesting article they want to read, but are going to be in an area with little to no data coverage.
Gmail also received a substantial update and is now much faster to use, thanks to the new Action Bar at the bottom of the screen. The bar is context-sensitive and changes depending on where you are in Gmail. For example, when viewing your inbox you the Action Bar has options for composing a new message, searching for a specific message, and so on. However, once you select one or more e-mail messages, the Action Bar buttons change and offer options to Delete, Archive, or Move those selected messages.
A new preview pane allows you to preview messages without having to open them, and you can now search through the last 30 days of your e-mail offline. It's unclear whether these updates are exclusive to the ICS Gmail app, or if the Gmail app on older Android devices will be updated to support these features as well.
The Calendar was mentioned only briefly, but you can now pinch to zoom in on your calendar events to see more details about specific events or you can zoom out to see all your events for that day. It's pretty cool, and beats tapping each event individually to find out more about it.
Maps, Music, and other core apps were updated as well but weren’t demonstrated.
Talk To Me
Yes, the Android keyboard is updated for better text predictions, but the show-stealer was definitely the improvements that were made to the speech-to-text software.
Previously, in order to dictate a text message or other text field, you had to manually press the voice command key on the keyboard to activate it. Now, you simply start talking to your phone and the software activates automatically. While it's not exactly on the level of Siri, this is huge for people who use their phones while driving, since it no longer requires them to fuss with their phones to activate the dictation software.
Cut and Paste is improved upon even further as well. Now you can drag selected text to the position you want, and the controls for cutting and pasting text are more consistent throughout the operating system.
Camera and Gallery
The camera on the Galaxy Nexus has zero shutter lag -- and demonstrators proved it by rapidly taking a series of photos just seconds apart. We still aren’t sure if that is a feature of Android 4.0 or if it’s exclusive to the Galaxy Nexus, but it was impressive nonetheless.
Once you snap a photo, you can quickly share it by tapping on it. A list of applications you could use to share the photo will pop up, and you can quickly select where you’d like to send the photo. If the photo could use a touch-up, ICS provides an impressive array of photo editing tools. These include various filters (which were lovingly described as “hipster”), the capability to adjust the image angle, red eye removal, cropping capabilities, and a few others that were not discussed. Any edits you make to a photo will create a copy, in case you ever want to go back to the original.
ICS also comes with a simple-to-use panorama mode. You just set the mode to panoramic, then take the first picture. A slider at the bottom of the screen guides you so you know when to move the phone, and you can preview the image as the device stitches the pictures together. I would expect to see way more panoramic pictures on Facebook and Twitter once Android 4.0 launches.
Video recording gains continuous focus as well as support for time-lapse and video snapshots.
Like with the Notification Tray, you can quickly access the phone camera from the phone lockscreen by flicking the lock icon to the left. A small camera icon pops up and you can launch straight into the Camera app.
People App and the Dialer
The Contacts app is revamped as the new People app. The People app functions in the same way as the Contacts app found in Android 2.x, but it changes contact cards to show much more information at a glance. Nice big photos replace the tiny thumbnails, and you can quickly see a contact's recent photos or status updates. If that person is your friend on a social network, that data is automatically pulled so you can easily see their latest Tweet without having to open the Twitter app. Though described as an evolution of the current Contacts app, this felt more like a fine-tuning than a sensational leap forward.
The Dialer also has a few tweaks here and there. You can now retrieve voice mails from inside the call log, and can speed up or slow down their playback. Those nice big photos in the People app take up the entire screen whenever someone calls you, and you can send a Quick Response to anyone whose call you decline. Quick Responses are customizable canned text message responses that you can send to a caller to explain why you declined their call. It's pretty neat, and I can see myself using them on people I want to avoid.
Android Beam
Google is really pushing Near Field Communications with its Google Wallet app, and Android Beam in Ice Cream Sandwich is just another reason to own an NFC-equipped phone.
With Android Beam, you can share any contacts or content between two Android devices just by tapping them together. You can share webpages, maps, and even apps. It's handy if you want to give your friends directions or want to share an article you found while browsing the web.
Odds and Ends
Google mentioned tighter Google+ integration in Ice Cream Sandwich, but didn’t really demo anything. Representatives did, however, bring up the subject of data caps, and described a way for to better manage data usage.
By going to Settings>Data Usage, you can see a chart of how much data you have used that month as well as an estimate of your expected usage. You can also set limits and alerts so that you know exactly when you exceed your data limit, so you don’t get hit with overages. You can also select specific sections of the chart to see which apps used the most data that day. The phone will show you a breakdown of how much data that app uses, and allow you to restrict the app so that it uses data only when you want it to.
This is a huge step in giving users more control over their phones, and should help save people the headache of accidentally exceeding data limits.
Android 4.0 adds a handful of new live wallpapers as well as a new font aptly titled "Roboto." The live wallpapers were kind of neat, but Roboto was interesting because it is designed to be used on high-density displays. Since Ice Cream Sandwich natively supports 1280-by-720-pixel displays, let’s hope it gets used a whole lot more often. Barometer support is also added, although its use is unclear.
The first Ice Cream Sandwich equipped phone will be the Nexus Galaxy, which launches in November, but the SDK is available for developers now on the Android.com website. Now we wait to find out which phones are getting a tasty Ice Cream Sandwich update.

Tech Infection Best Buy

2011-11-06T20:27:00.000-08:00

Best Buys 2011

Along with meeting friends and family, eating tons of sweets and bursting a megaton of firecrackers, Diwali is a time when you will probably want to buy a new gadget (for yourself or as a gift). While you may be in the mood to shop, we know that you want every purchase you make during the festive season to be completely worth your money and time.

Over the year Tech Infection review hundreds of gadgets from the most high-end gaming laptops to the most basic 2GB USB drives. Every so often we come across products that impress us with their looks, features, performance and with their overall value-for-money quotient. These are the products that we think are worth your money and this is us doing what we are best at- giving you technology advice you can trust. Read more after the jump.

Here are the 15 products across 5 categories and 12 sub-categories that make up the 2011 Tech Infection Best Buy list:

Mobile Phones

High-End Phones

If you aren't particularly shy of spending the big bucks on the best smartphone in the market, then these are the best choices for you:

Samsung Galaxy S II: Undoubtedly, the best smartphone in the market, the Galaxy S II combines a massive screen, ultra-speedy processor and fantastic usability in a single device. If you're also looking for excellent multimedia performance in terms of audio and video playback and imaging, then the Samsung Galaxy S II won't disappoint you.

Killer Features:
- Very fast performance
- Beautiful massive 4.3-in display
- Probably the slimmest & lightest phone in the market
- 8MP Camera doesn't disappoint
- Impressive battery life

Best Price: Rs. 27,790

Apple iPhone 4S/iPhone 4: With the new iPhone 4S hitting stores in the U.S. and other countries, it is clearly the best iPhone to buy. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't offer universal warranty on iPhones which means that buying an iPhone 4S from abroad is a risk without warranty cover in India. However, the iPhone 4 is officially available in the country and is still a damn good phone to own.

Killer Features:
- Unmatched usability
- Probably the best looking display on a smartphone
- Access to the Apple App Store and thousands of quality apps
- iOS 5 unlocks great new features in the iPhone 4
- Excellent battery

Price: iPhone 4 (16GB)- Rs. 34,500, iPhone 4 (32GB)- Rs. 40,900; iPhone 4S (16GB Unlocked)- USD 649, iPhone 4S (32GB Unlocked)- USD 749, iPhone 4S (64GB Unlocked)- USD 849

Mid-Range Phones

The mid-range segment of smartphones gives you the perfect mix of performance and value. That's why we think the best phone in this segment should be reasonably priced without compromising on performance. Here's our choice:

Samsung i9003 Galaxy SLCD: The more tempered version of the original Samsung Galaxy S, the Galaxy SLCD represents superb value for money for features, specs and performance that belong on a phone much more expensive than it. The Galaxy SLCD has everything going for it including a great display, a powerful processor and a price-tag that's not going overboard.

Killer Features:
- 4-in SLCD display
- Very Slim
- 1GHz processor gives great performance
- Very capable video playback
- Good battery life

Best Price: Rs. 16,790

Budget Phones

The primary objective of budget phones is to make you feel the least possible pinch when buying a new phone. These phones may not offer you the best performance in the market, but they certainly give you excellent value for money. This phone is a perfect example:

LG Optimus One P500: At one point the Optimus One was just a good mid-range smartphone but now with a new anorexic price-tag, we can't help but recommend this phone. The Optimus One is a great example of how Android can work on inexpensive phones without taking a massive chunk out of usability.

Killer Features:
- GPS, Wi-Fi and 3G support
- UI looks good and has decent usability
- Good camera
- Build quality is solid

Best Price: Rs. 9,700

Tablets

Last year, around this time, there were just two tablets around that were worth buying. Now, with the advent of Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), tablets other than ones made by Apple can be considered as serious alternatives. A good tablet should provide you with a sharp large screen and shouldn't be too heavy or bulky. It should also let you browse the Web or watch hi-res videos without freezing up or stuttering. Only then will it be worth the premium that you are going to pay for it. We think this tablet is worth that premium:

Apple iPad 2: Were you seriously expecting anything else? The iPad 2 is by far the best tablet in the market today and although it definitely commands a hefty price, it gives you the optimum tablet experience. And if you want, you can improve that experience by buying some cool accessories, including the neat smart covers and the keyboard dock.

Killer Features
- The most usable tablet in the market
- Powerful graphics performance
- Large, great looking screen
- Battery life is best in class
- Plenty of apps optimized for large screen

Price: 16GB (Wi-Fi)- Rs. 27,000, 16GB (Wi-Fi + 3G)- Rs. 36,900; 32GB (Wi-Fi)- Rs. 34,500, 32GB (Wi-Fi + 3G)- Rs. 41,900; 64GB (Wi-Fi)- Rs. 39,500, 64GB (Wi-Fi + 3G)- Rs. 46,900

There are also a number of inexpensive tablets in the market but there's not really any single product that we can recommend whole-heartedly. There are a couple of good products in the mix (the Reliance 3G Tab comes to mind) but nothing really spectacular.

Cameras

Point-and-shoot

Point-and-shoot cameras are the most selling compact digital cameras because they can be picked off the shelves and you can start shooting with them in an instant.

Canon IXUS 220HS: Canon makes some of the best point-and-shoot cameras available in the market today. And the Canon IXUS 220HS with its slim form-factor and the features it packs into this frame makes it to the top of the Tech Infection India’s best buy in this segment.

Killer features
- Slim design
- Great ISO test results
- Great for capturing photos in low light situations
- A plethora of shooting modes
- Can capture 1080p HD videos

Best Price: Rs. 10,665

Micro Four Thirds

The micro four-third category of cameras has quietly evolved amidst the already established camera categories like the point-and-shoot, compact zoom and DSLR. The last two years has seen an influx of cameras from Olympus and Panasonic, the two manufacturers who make dedicated micro four thirds cameras. Not all of them are available in India. However, out of those available, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 emerges as our best buy micro four third camera this Diwali.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1: With a point-and-shoot like design, interchangeable micro four thirds lenses, 720p HD video recording and at the low price that doesn’t compare the features, the Lumix DMC-GF1 is the camera you should be buying this Diwali.

Killer Features:
- Slim design
- Affordable Price
- Faster autofocus and AF subject tracking
- High resolution screen

Best Price: Rs. 25,300

Compact Zoom
If you travel a lot and in the course of your journey capture moments and scenes that make for that perfect memory, then the compact zoom category of cameras is your perfect bet. These cameras have an extra edge over the point-and-shoot variety with their zoom lens.

Sony HX100V: The three cameras that were in the race were the Canon Powershot SX230 IS, Sony HX100V and Nikon Coolpix P500.
However, the Sony HX100V wins the race with the Coolpix P500 coming very close.

Killer features
- Great 1080p captured videos.
- GPS
- Easy-to-use UI
- Some really good scene modes you can play around with like the Background Defocus mode.

Best Price: Rs. 21,950

Laptops

The Diwali festive season is almost upon us and many folks, who would have saved up on their finances, will be looking to spend it on buying some device that they might really need/want. So for all those folks looking to buy a laptop this season, we have made a list of the best buys in the laptops, in both the mainstream and budget categories.

Mainstream Laptops

If you're looking for a good mix of performance and price, we have narrowed down your choices to the following:

Acer Aspire 5755G: Acer has, for quite some time, been one of those laptop manufactures who you can expect to provide very good configuration at very reasonable rates. And with the 5755G, Acer provides such a versatile product. It comes with a 2nd Gen Core i5 processor, 15.6 glossy screen - which can tilt back almost 160 degrees backward, 4GB RAM as well as featuring a 2GB NVidia GeForce GT540M graphics card and some handy USB3.0 and HDMI ports. For gaming on the native screen at 1366x768 resolution, the 1 GB of graphics memory would suffice. However, say you were to connect the Acer 5755G to an external monitor source through HDMI, and watch a video or play a game at a resolution that is much higher than the screens native resolution, then the 2GB graphics memory will factor in and enable you to do so more effectively. Moreover it features a very responsive full-sized keyboard - with a dedicated numpad, good audio and viewing 720p or 1080p videos won't be an issue. The Acer Aspire 5755G hits just about all the right spots for users looking to buy a very good multimedia laptop.

Killer Features:
- Good performance
- You will more than get your money's worth
- USB 3.0, HDMI and other handy ports
- 2GB discrete graphics
- Very responsive keyboard and touchpad

Best price: Rs. 42,572

Acer Aspire TimeLineX 5830TG: We have yet another Acer unit in the listing and this is because, well, it provides a good combination of features for users, like students, who might want a good performing laptop, but one that can also be used on the move as well, for a comfortable enough period of time - without having to resort to plugging the laptop to a nearby power outlet. Its futuristic design, along with the black-blue-silver colour tone, makes it stand out from the rest of the mainstream laptop crowd. It also features a very good audio, and if you want to finely balance performance and battery life, relative to what you normally find for a mainstream laptop, then this unit is a very good choice for you to opt for.

Killer features:
- Good performance
- Good battery life
- Sleek, Futuristic design
- Very good audio
- Very responsive keyboard and touchpad

Best price: Rs. 36,446

Budget Laptops

For folks looking to maximise their laptops performance at the lowest possible price range, we have narrowed the list to one laptop.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Z570: Coming for a price of Rs. 29,605, this unit has all what a budget user will need for getting through his/her daily chores - a second generation core i3 processor, 3GB RAM, 640GB Hard Disk and Intel HD 3000 graphics. I have tested a Lenovo Z570 unit, which save for the GT520M graphics card, had the exact same hardware configuration as this model mentioned here. The unit has a good build quality, and as far as performance goes, it should perform well enough to get through most chores except the more intensive activities such as gaming - which given that it only has Intel HD 3000 graphics is understandable. So if you're in the market for getting the right bang for the buck, you should definitely check out this unit.

Killer Features:
- Attractive pricing
- Good build quality
- Ease of upgradability
- Very Responsive Keyboard

Best Price: Rs. 29,605

Ultraportable Laptops
These are the laptops that find a good balance between performance and true portability, and consequently have a premium price tag attached to them.

Apple MacBook Air (2011): This is one truly elegant machine that packs quite a performance punch. If there was one unit which would embody what an ideal ultraportable should be, that would be the MacBook Air. From looks to portability to performance, the MacBook Air is a niche product that is worth buying.

Killer Features:
- Impressive performance
- Solid build quality
- Highly portable
- Very responsive backlit-keyboard and trackpad.

Price: Rs.67,900

Storage

Flash Drives

This humble storage device can show its relevance in those sticky moments, when trouble-shooting or quickly copying a fair quantity of data. The best choice presently is:

Transcend Jet Flash 700 USB 3.0 16 GB: Owning a good pendrive can have unexpected benefits, such as the time when you use it on a USB 3.0 enabled laptop or when copying large number of files onto it. The 16GB capacity of this drive, and an affordable price means that you will feel glad about your purchase for quite a while to come. Don't let its looks fool you, the JetFlash 700 is not any normal pendrive, it offers great read speeds when used on a USB 3.0 port. On older computers with USB 2.0 ports, it will still be one of the fastest around.

Killer Features:
- USB 3.0 support for great read speeds
- Looks better than the standard pendrive
- Plenty of data storage capacity for most purposes
- Surprisingly affordable

Best Price: Rs. 1,068

External Hard Drives

No, you are not alone in wanting to cart around Gigabytes (or even Terabytes) of data in your bag, and you know that. With increasing laptop presence, external/portable hard drives are not only about backups anymore. You can store a backup copy, and also perhaps your entire movie/TV/music/software collection on a single drive. The good news is that HDD brands have extremely appealing deals now compared to last year. Featured below are the best choices for desktop-style external drives and for laptop-style ultra-portable drives.

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk 2TB: Having extra storage space never hurt, did it? When looking at a desktop-style external hard-disk, we suggest getting plenty of space from the get-go. The Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Desk 2TB is priced at the same level as other brands, but offers a bunch of extra benefits of its own. One such GoFlex benefit is the ability to switch data interface - to USB 3.0, eSATA or FireWire. If you own a desktop, we can't understate the merits of being able to unplug the USB adapter and connecting it directly as an internal SATA hard drive for superfast file copying. You can enjoy all the benefits of an internal HDD, and yet be able to cart it around as a portable HDD when required.

Killer Features:
- 2 Terabytes of storage space is plenty
- Software for encryption and automatic backup
- Storage capacity gauge
- "GoFlex" inter-changeable data interfaces

Best Price: Rs. 4,630

Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Ultra-portable 1TB (USB 3.0): This drive is our suggestion if you want a physically smaller form factor that can fit in your shirt pocket. The GoFlex Ultra-portable does not need a separate power adapter, so that helps reduce clutter for laptop users. A whole Terabyte is still plenty, in addition to the flexibilty of usage that GoFlex drives offer. You'll find the extra Rs. 500 pricing to upgrade from the USB 2.0 to USB 3.0 variant of this product, to be well worth it.

Killer Features:
- 1 Terabyte of storage space
- Backup software included
- Speedy USB 3.0 connectivity (backward compatible with USB 2.0)
- "GoFlex" inter-changeable data interfaces

Best Price: Rs. 4,750

What to Consider When Buying a Mobile Phone !!!!!!

2011-11-06T05:25:00.000-08:00

Mobile Phones Buying Guide

If you don't have to own the latest and greatest smartphone, right now is a good time to buy a new phone (check out our Best Buy Mobile Phones to see which phones best fit your budget). Before you hit the stores, however, do a bit of research and read our guide so you'll know exactly what to look for.

Features to Consider

When shopping for a phone, you can do some simple hands-on tests in the store to make sure the phone has everything you need.

Call quality: What good is a phone if it can't make calls? Some of the most simple, bare-bones "feature" phones offer the best call quality--and on the flip side, some fancy smartphones have dismal calling. When evaluating phones, be sure to make a few test calls. In PCWorld's hands-on tests, we generally make a few calls in a quiet room and a few calls in a noisy environment. You might not be able to replicate such tests indoors, but try your best. Take note of static, tinny voices, or any other interference. Ask the person on the other end of the line if they can hear a disruptive amount of background noise.

Design: Your choices range from flip-open clamshell-style phones to candy bar-style phones to slider-style phones with full-QWERTY keyboards. Whichever type of phone you select, check its ergonomics. Is it comfortable to hold against your ear, and can you hear callers without constant adjustment? Can you use the phone with one hand? Consider hands-free use: Can you comfortably hold the phone to your ear by scrunching your neck and shoulder?

Operating system: If you're looking to do more than make calls and send text messages with your phone, consider the platform on which it runs. The mobile operating system you choose will greatly affect the capabilities of your phone. The most popular platforms are Google's Android OS (found on multiple devices), iOS (found only on the iPhone) and BlackBerry OS (found on BlackBerrys of various designs). Each has its advantages and disadvantages, and you should definitely familiarize yourself with all of the platforms before settling on one. Other platforms include Symbian (found on most Nokia smartphones), Windows Phone 7 and Samsung's very-own Bada.

Display: If you intend to send and receive text messages, surf the Web, or use the phone's organizer, make sure the screen is up to snuff. Is it big enough for you to take full advantage of the phone's features? If you're going to surf the Web or edit office documents on your phone, a screen that measures less than 2.7 inches diagonally will feel very cramped.

The screen's contrast and backlight are also important. The phones we've seen show marked differences in viewing quality. If your phone allows you to adjust such settings, you can make text and graphics easily viewable--even in bright places.

Consider the screen's resolution, too. The higher the resolution, the better the screen will look--an important factor if you plan to use your phone to watch videos or view photos.

3G support and availability: Although a lot of buzz surrounds the next generation of wireless networks, 3G has finally seen the light of day in India. 3G's faster download speeds significantly improve streaming video and allow features such as videoconferencing and network gaming. All major telecom providers offer 3G services in most Indian cities today and therefore 3G compatibility is important for a new phone.

Cameras: If you intend to take a lot of photos with your phone, you'll definitely want to pay attention to the camera specs. For mid- to high-level smartphones, 5 megapixels is now pretty much the standard. Some phones ship with 8- or 12-megapixel cameras, but a higher megapixel count doesn't necessarily mean a better camera. Verify that the phone you're interested in has a flash--dual-LED or Xenon flashes work the best--or else you won't be able to take any pictures indoors or at night without their looking like blurry messes. Try to take a few pictures in the store to get a good idea of the camera's photo quality.

Most cell phone cameras also have video-capture capabilities; some high-end phones can even capture high-definition 720p or 1080p video. If video is your thing, make sure that the OS provides an easy way to upload your videos to Facebook or YouTube.

Tweak Your System Speed

2011-11-06T05:18:00.000-08:00

The Windows Registry is a database that holds your operating system's configurations and settings. This includes everything from how long your mouse must hover over a taskbar icon before the preview pops up (in Windows Vista and Windows 7) to performance settings.
Windows 7 (and Vista) have more eye-candy features built into the operating system, but a number of Registry hacks and tweaks can speed up--or, at least, appear to speed up--the performance of your computer. Before we start mucking around with your PC's guts, however, we're going to make sure that you have a reliable backup of your Registry in case something goes sour.

Though editing the Windows Registry is not nearly as scary as it sounds, making an incorrect change can cripple your system. To ensure that this doesn't happen, it's important to take the precaution of backing up part, or all, of the Registry before you proceed.
Back Up the Entire Registry
To back up your Registry, you can use the free Registry-specific backup tool ERUNT (Emergency Recovery Utility NT). ERUNT is simple to use, more reliable than System Restore, and works with Windows XP, Vista, and 7 (even 64-bit versions). ERUNT also saves each restore point independently of the other points, unlike System Restore (in System Restore, all restore points are dependent on other points).
Back Up Part of the Registry
If you're changing just one part of the Windows Registry, and you know which part that is, you don't have to back up the entire Registry. Instead, you can back up the part you plan on changing using the Registry's export feature.
First, go to Start, Run, type regedit, and press Yes. This will open the Registry Editor.
Next, find the part of the Registry you're going to change. Right-click on the Registry key you plan on changing, and click "Export." The Registry Editor will prompt you to save a .reg file to your hard drive.
To undo Registry changes, just find your .reg file and double-click it. The .reg file will reset your Registry values to their existing values (but will not remove values that you've added).
Hack Your Registry
Now that you've backed up your Registry--perhaps more than once--it's time to start hacking away. To get to the Windows Registry, go to Start > Run (in Windows Vista/7 you will have to type run into the Start menu search bar and press Enter). Type regedit, click Yes, and the Registry Editor will open.
Hack 1: Speed Up Aero Peek
Windows 7's Aero Peek lets you see the desktop when you move your mouse cursor over to the "show desktop" button at the end of the taskbar. The standard delay time for the Aero Peek preview is 500 milliseconds, or half a second. Here's how to speed it up:
1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > Advanced.
2. Right-click on the right pane and click New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the new DWORD "DesktopLivePreviewHoverTime."
3. Double-click on DesktopLivePreviewHoverTime to open it. Under "Base," click Decimal and then enter the delay time (in milliseconds) in the "Value data" field. Click OK, and your Aero Peek time will be set. You can set the value to higher (a longer delay time) if you're activating it too often by accident, or to lower (a shorter delay time) if half a second is just too long.
4. Log off and log back on for the change to take effect.

Hack 2: Speed Up Taskbar Previews
When you roll over taskbar icons in Windows Vista and in Windows 7, little previews appear. The standard delay time for these previews is 400 milliseconds, or just under half a second. If this is too slow (or too fast) for you, you can adjust the delay time with an easy Registry hack.
1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > Advanced.
2. Right-click on the right pane and click New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name the new DWORD "ExtendedUIHoverTime."
3. Double-click on ExtendedUIHoverTime to open it. Under "Base," click Decimal and then enter in the delay time (in milliseconds) in the "Value data" field. Click OK to set the time (default is 400 milliseconds).
4. Log off and then log back in for the change to take effect.
Hack 3: Speed Up Menus
If you'd like to speed up the menus in Windows Vista or Windows 7, try this easy Registry tweak:
1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel > Desktop.
2. Find MenuShowDelay and double-click to open. Adjust the value in milliseconds (the default is 400 milliseconds, or just under half a second).
3. Log off and then log back on for the change to take effect.
Hack 4: Prevent Reboots
If you have a habit of leaving your computer on all the time (as do I), you'll occasionally run into the problem of automatic system reboots. These usually happen after Windows downloads some sort of important update, and will usually be preceded by a notification (that gives you about 10 to 15 minutes warning, unless you click it away). If you're not around to see said notification, and you have a lot of windows or important documents open on your computer, these reboots can be a hassle.
So here's how to keep your computer from automatically rebooting with an easy Registry hack. This hack works for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.
1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Policies > Microsoft > Windows.
2. Right-click in the right pane and select New > Key. This will create a new folder. Name the new folder "WindowsUpdate."
3. Open WindowsUpdate and right-click in the right pane (there will be a value already in the pane called "Default"). Select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name this DWORD "NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers."
4. Open NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers and change the Value data to 1. Do not change the Base button to "Decimal"; instead, keep it at "Hexadecimal." Click OK.
5. Exit the Registry Editor and log off and log back in for the settings to take effect. Your system will now never force a reboot without your explicit permission.
Hack 5: Disable Notification Balloons
If you hate pop-up notification balloons on your Windows Vista or Windows 7 taskbar, you can disable them using a simple Registry hack:
1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > Advanced.
2. Right-click on the right pane and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name your new DWORD "EnableBalloonTips."
3. Double-click on EnableBalloonTips and set the Value data to 0. It doesn't matter if you have Decimal or Hexadecimal clicked under "Base," because 0 is 0 in both decimal and hexadecimal.
4. Log off and log back on for the change to take effect. You'll no longer see any annoying notification balloons from the taskbar.
Hack 6: Boot XP Faster
Is Windows XP booting too slowly? Here's how to speed up your boot-time with a quick Registry tweak.
1. Open the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control > ContentIndex.
2. In the right pane will be a value called "StartupDelay." Double-click on StartupDelay to open it. Change the "Base" from Hexadecimal to Decimal, and enter 40,000 (the default setting is 480,000).
3. Exit the Registry Editor and restart your computer. Your computer should boot up considerably faster--while this worked for me on my Windows XP laptop, values lower than 40,000 didn't produce a noticeable difference.

Use Twitter Like A Pro

2011-11-06T05:16:00.000-08:00

Is your business on Twitter? It should be. The microblogging site has tweeted its way, 140 characters at a time, to the top of the social media ladder. With more than 200 million members sending out an estimated 65 million tweets per day, your business should be engaged.

But hold on. If you haven't learned yet from using Facebook or other social networks, establishing relationships with customers via such platforms is not the same as just marketing to them. You need to understand both the unique aspects of Twitter and how to use it effectively to communicate with your customers in order to be successful.

Here are eight tips to get you started in the right direction.

1. Build a Following
No matter how valuable your Twitter communications are, they have little purpose without readers. Your tweets are publicly searchable by all who look for specific topics, but you need to build a following of users who actively subscribe to your content. Your Twitter followers represent your community, and are the audience you are really engaging with.

If you're Ashton Kutcher, Charlie Sheen, or Lady Gaga, just show up, and millions will follow you instantly. If you are not a megastar, though--and most of us aren't--you will have to put a little more effort into it. Start by inviting any existing customer communities you might have.

TweetDeck is a powerful tool for Twitter that helps you organize and schedule tweets.

Does your company have a Website, blog, customer e-mail distribution list, or a product newsletter? Use all means at your disposal. If your customers have a Twitter account, invite them to follow you. You should also include the Twitter icon with a link to your Twitter account in your e-mail signature, marketing collateral, or anything else that might get exposure. You can even provide incentives for anyone who follows you, such as the chance to win a free product or service, or a discount.

Part of the culture of Twitter is that users generally follow back those who follow them. Click on Twitter's own "Who to Follow" link for suggestions. A tool like Tweet Adder software can provide even more detail. Use it to search for Twitter users who already follow similar companies, or who express an interest in your topic or industry, and then automatically follow those users. Some portion of them are likely to follow your Twitter account. First, of course, make your Twitter page attractive with a compelling profile image, background, and "About" description.

2. Know the Rules of Engagement
If you're a newbie, get to know the basic Twitter best practices, such as direct messaging, "@" replies, and "retweeting." You can send a private message directly to someone who follows you by typing the letter "d" in front of their username in a tweet. In your public tweets, use "@" replies to comment on any other user's tweets; just include the "@" symbol before their username in your message. If you want to repeat what someone else tweeted, choose "Retweet" and include the letters "RT" in the beginning of your note. You can even ask politely in a tweet for others to retweet you.

These practices draw attention to fellow users, who in turn can see that you're noticing them. To use them well, add your own insight in a retweet rather than simply repeating what someone else said. And check when others call out your tweets, so you can keep the conversation flowing. Once you have the hang of the basics, tools such as GroupTweet enable you to communicate with groups of users, even privately.

3. Provide Value
One of the biggest mistakes companies make with Twitter--and social media in general--is trying to use it for old-fashioned marketing. The sound bite or slogan that you plaster on a highway billboard or in a magazine ad may come across as false on Twitter.

Tweets should include original thoughts and build a conversation that engages other users by using tactics such as "retweeting."

Twitter can be an effective marketing tool, but social media is about engaging in conversation and providing value. You market by who you are, not by what you say. You can certainly use Twitter as a medium for announcing new products or features, but your tweets have to provide more value to keep your audience interested. Share relevant news about your industry in general, as well as helpful tips and advice, and some general conversation to give your followers a reason to stay engaged and participate in the discussion. Make your tweets entertaining and witty, and say something unique. Position yourself as an expert in your field and offer free advice. It's better to extend your personality and opinion than merely to parrot headlines from news stories.

4. Keep It a Tight Fit
Make sure that you're not spending most of your 140-character allowance on a long Web address. URL-shortening services like Bit.ly or TinyURL can abbreviate such lengthy strings. Bit.ly provides additional value by gathering valuable metrics you can use to monitor the success of your Twitter efforts. You can examine how many clicks your shortened links get, and where in the world your URL is getting the most action--information you can use to figure out what works best.

5. Enrich Tweets With Third-Party Tools
A seemingly countless number of third-party tools and plug-ins can extend the value of Twitter. While Twitter was founded on the concept of essentially providing public SMS text messages via the Internet, you can extend its capabilities beyond the standard 140 text characters. Start by using TwitPic or Yfrog to send photos or video clips out via Twitter. Enable these services to work on your smartphone so that you can show, not tell, about the funny thing you saw on the street.

You can make tweets more interactive by connecting them with polls, using a service like Twtpoll, or with chat rooms, using Nurph. Your followers will find more value in paying attention to your tweets if they find interesting conversations to participate in. And integrating Twitter with location-based services such as Foursquare can call attention, for instance, to that conference you're speaking at in Atlanta, and maybe someone nearby in your field will notice.

Tweetdeck--which was recently acquired by Twitter--lets you view and manage multiple Twitter accounts, as well as Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Google Buzz, and Foursquare accounts. You can create lists and filter content to cut through the noise, and use Tweetdeck to post updates to the various connected networks. Columns in Tweetdeck let you monitor specific keywords or hash tags. You can also set up a column in Tweetdeck to monitor when other Twitter accounts mention your company, providing you with an opportunity to recognize loyal customers, identify possible public-relations issues, and put out fires quickly.

Klout attempts to give your influence a numeric score. Hey, we can't all be Lady Gaga.

Tweetdeck lets you schedule tweets to post in advance, but Flowtown's Timely goes a step further. It analyzes your past tweets to estimate what time of day favored them the most. Then, it autoschedules your future tweets accordingly.

6. Hash It Out
You can use hash tags (the # symbol followed by a keyword) to make your Tweets easier to search for. Tools including Tweetdeck and Hashtags.org let you see the latest tweets for any hash tag. One common Twitter hash tag is #FollowFriday or #FF, which you can include on Fridays along with the names of Twitter accounts you find valuable. It is a great word-of-mouth means of attracting new followers. If you are mentioned via FollowFriday, reply back to say thank you. That sort of personal touch is one of the things fellow users appreciate.

One way to attract attention is to tweet about a topic while it's popular. Set up a Google Alert to track the topics in your field, and when it sends a hot story to your e-mail inbox, tweet about it. If your company fixes old PCS, and a report about electronics waste is making headlines, you could include the hashtag #ewaste in a tweet explaining how your work keeps tech out of landfills. Even if you're not commenting on one of the top news stories of the day, you can tie your tweets to upcoming events in your area. For example, if your business bakes seasonal organic pies, you could include hash tags like #localfood and #farmersmarket to announce that you'll be at next Sunday's farmers market. NearbyTweets lets you view who's talking about nearly any topic in a specific part of the world, such as real estate in Chicago.

7. Avoid Pitfalls
We already talked about not using Twitter as a bullhorn for spamming followers with marketing sound bites. But watch out for other pitfalls. For one thing, remember that many "followers" aren't actually paying attention. While the tactic of following like-minded Twitter accounts in the hope of soliciting a reciprocal follow has merit, it only goes so far. Many of the users who follow back are just using that same tactic to pump up their own following, and aren't really interested in your tweets or your business.

Check out Klout or PeerIndex to get an idea of how many of your followers are actively engaged. These services assign a score from 1 to 100 to measure your online influence. At some point, you have to draw the line and stop using the strategy of following others just so they will follow you back. Let your Twitter account speak for itself, and let word of mouth build quality followers that matter.

8. Don't Expect Miracles
Need I remind you that you are not Lady Gaga? You won't instantly have millions of followers. There won't be a miraculous spike in sales or profit for your company just because you set up a Twitter account. As with anything worth doing, there is no magic shortcut.

If you do it right, Twitter can be a powerful marketing tool--a subtle instrument for building brand recognition and customer loyalty. Be patient. Provide value. Build a community, and let the content and success of that community be the force that drives your success--both on Twitter, and as a business.

How to Get Any File to Play Back on Your Android Phone

2011-11-06T05:14:00.000-08:00

Android may be a versatile OS, but the little green robot can run into trouble when it comes to certain file formats. RAW photo formats such as .NEF won't show up in the default Android's image and video Gallery app. Even common video file formats such as .AVI and .MKV will stop most Android phones in their tracks.

Luckily, there are apps and workarounds so your Android phone can open most audio, video, image, and Office file formats you throw at it. Being able to playback a myriad of file formats is good because not all file formats are created equal. RAW images, for example, tend to be of higher quality than standard .JPEGs. And .MKV files can play videos with subtitles--helpful if you are hard of hearing, watching a foreign film, or stuck on an airplane with crummy headphones.

Also, by making your phone accept a more diverse number of file formats, you can save yourself the hassle in converting your media files into (more often than not) inferior and more common file types that aren't as good at reproducing hi-fidelity music, saving storage space, and displaying crystal clear images.

Audio

The default Android media player is very picky about what it accepts if you try to load it with anything other than .MP3s. For a better audio experience, look no further than the PowerAmp Music Player. The list of formats that PowerAmp can play includes .MP3 (of course), .MP4, .M4A, .ALAC, .OGG, .WMA, .FLAC, .WAV, .APE, .WV, and .TTA. Besides accepting a wide variety of audio formats, PowerAmp is customizable with several themes and comes with a handful of widgets to choose from. PowerAmp costs $5 (~ Rs. 230) for the full version, though there is a free 15-day trial as well so you can try it out before you buy.

If you don't feel like spending $5 (~ Rs. 230) on an app, you can also try out Mortplayer Music. Mortplayer (free) can handle all the same formats that PowerAmp can, though the interface is not as clean as the one in PowerAmp and it cannot play .FLAC files on all devices.

Office Documents
While Windows Phone 7 phones may be the kings in handling Office documents, Android also can juggle work documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Adobe) with ease. All Android devices by default can view Office documents, but you will need a separate app in order to edit and create new ones. There are quite a few mobile office apps to choose from; it really boils down to what features you want.

I personally prefer to use QuickOffice ($15/~ Rs. 688) because it can sync my files with my DropBox or Google Docs accounts. Chances are your phone came pre-loaded with the trial version of a mobile office app. Much like with PowerAmp, I would recommend playing around with a trial version before committing $15 (~ Rs. 688) for an app that doesn't have the features you want.

One workaround is Google Docs, Google's online service for creating and viewing office documents. The official Docs app does a sufficient job at displaying your documents. However the app has issues with keeping document formatting, so I would not recommend using it to create or edit your work. Results may vary on your Android phone or device. For all other text formats, the best and easiest workaround would be to e-mail the document to your Gmail account, then view the document using the "Preview" option inside your Gmail message. You may not be able to work on it, but at least you can read what the file says.

Photos
By default, the Android Gallery can handle most standard image formats (.JPEG, .GIF, .PNG, and .BMP). Unfortunately after searching the Android Market, I only found one app that allows you to view images in the RAW format. The app is called RawDroid (free) and is currently only available as a demo, though it allows you to view images in formats such as .NEF and .CR2.

For Adobe Photoshop users who live and breathe by .PSD files, as of now, there is no apps solution for viewing that file format. Even Adobe's own Photoshop Express application wouldn't recognize the ones I loaded onto my phone's SD card. Hopefully Adobe's Photoshop app is updated and .PSD formats are supported in the future.

Videos
Trying to format videos so that they work on your Android phone can be a nightmare. Until the VLC player comes to Android, you'll have to look elsewhere to find an app to play your HD files. The desktop client DoubleTwist can convert your videos into a format that natively works on your phone. Run the program, and plug in your phone. DoubleTwist should recognize it. From there you just drag and drop the media you want put in. While helpful, DoubleTwist can be extremely buggy at times and is known to crash randomly. Still, it is the easiest and best way to put playable video files onto your Android phone.

Another advantage DoubleTwist and VLC have over the stock video player that comes with Android is that they support video bookmarking. That's an important feature if you are watching a video longer than 20 minutes. Bookmarking allows you to stop and start the video in the same place. That beats having to scroll through a video to find the spot you think you stopped watching the video.

Having a device that works seamlessly with a variety of file formats allows you to get the most out of your digital life and your Android phone. P.S. It can also save your bacon when your boss wants you to proof a work document.

Super Clean HDTV

2011-11-06T05:13:00.000-08:00

Clean Your HDTV

A dirty HDTV screen won't give you much pleasure--or much information. Screens are delicate, however. Clean them the wrong way, and you ruin them for good.

The main tool you need is a microfiber cloth. You can get a very small one, perhaps even for free, at your optometrist's office. You can buy larger ones for a few dollars at camera stores, electronics stores, hardware stores, or online.

Here's how to get your HDTV screen nice and clean:

1. As a safety measure, unplug your TV.

2. Wipe the screen gently with the dry cloth. Don't press hard on it, but for particularly stubborn dirt you can apply some gentle pressure.

3. If a dry cloth doesn't do the job, you'll need to use a wet one--and that can be tricky. Distilled water is the safest and cheapest liquid for a screen. If that isn't strong enough, mix it half-and-half with white vinegar.

4. Put the liquid into a spray bottle, and spray it onto the microfiber cloth.

5. Wipe the display as described above, and then wait until the screen is completely dry before turning the device back on.

You also might want to freshen up the TV's frame. A dirty frame won't interfere with your viewing pleasure, but it hurts the room's aesthetics.

1. Once again, unplug your HDTV.

2. Use a soft cloth; the microfiber one you use on the screen will do, but so will an old T-shirt. Dampen the cloth with water, and apply to the frame.

Here are some other tips for keeping your HDTV clean:

-> Let your HDTV breathe. Make sure you don't block its ventilation openings, and don't install it near a heater.

-> Keep the set dry, too. Make sure that anything that might spill stays away from your television. Humidity can also be a problem, especially if you live in a tropical environment and want to watch television on your semi-open patio. As a general rule, an HDTV shouldn't be subjected to more than 80 percent humidity.

-> A direct hit to your home by lightning can get through your surge protector and fry your television. If a thunderstorm is coming, unplug the HDTV. Unplug it if you're going away for a few days, too, just in case a storm comes during that time.

-> Burn-in isn't the problem it was a few years ago, but it can still happen, especially with plasma sets. Check your TV's setup menu for a screen saver or an automatic turn-off option; if you find it, enable it. And in the unlikely event that burn-in occurs, leave your television on for a few hours with a constantly changing image that fills the entire screen. A photo slideshow--provided that the photos fill the screen--will do.

RAID Setting on Your System

2011-11-06T05:11:00.000-08:00

Setting Up RAID on Your PC

Configuring two or more hard drives in a RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) setup can increase performance and/or provide automatic protection against data loss from drive failure. RAID used to be expensive, hard to implement, and limited to businesses with dedicated IT departments. Now, motherboards in most desktop PCs support RAID, and Windows 7 provides software RAID that requires no special hardware at all. The technology is easily within the reach of the wallet and skills of any reasonably tech-savvy PC user.

What type of RAID do I want?RAID comes in a number of flavors--or levels--that offer data protection, enhanced performance, or both. In addition to the seven core levels (RAID 0 through RAID 6), you'll encounter a number of variants and combinations. Some controllers (and dedicated external storage and NAS boxes) can layer and even abstract RAID levels, allowing you to mix and match different capacity drives and add capacity without any additional configuration.

Here are a few of the RAID levels you'll find on affordable, consumer-level RAID adapters, motherboard chipsets, and Windows software RAID:

JBOD (extend, spill over): JBOD, or Just a Bunch Of Disks simply allows you to extend a volume (drive letter, e.g. C:\) onto other disks. Data is written to the first disk until it's full, then to the second disk, then the third, etc. It offers no boost in performance or redundancy and is a holdover from the days when smaller disks had to be chained to handle large amounts of data. It's largely irrelevant given today's more capacious hard drives.

RAID 0 (Striping): This setup increases hard-drive performance by splitting, or striping, data across two drives. By leveraging two data busses, data can be read and written more quickly. Unfortunately, RAID 0 provides no data protection--in fact, it actually increases the chances of data loss since the failure of either drive in the array results in the loss of the data stored on both drives. RAID 0 setups are standard on high-end gaming PCs and graphic design workstations, and provide a measurable, albeit modest performance boost for hard-disk-intensive programs.

RAID 1 (Mirroring): A RAID 1 setup protects data from drive failure by simultaneously writing the same data to two hard drives. Since each drive is an exact duplicate of the other, you can continue working if one fails. RAID 1 offers no gain in performance and effectively reduces available capacity by half -- two 2TB drives provide only 2TB of storage.

RAID 5 (Distributed Parity): Though you get both faster disk performance and data protection from this setup, it requires a minimum of three hard drives. Instead of using an entire hard drive as a backup, RAID 5 spreads redundancy information--called parity bits--across all of the array's drives. Where RAID 1 requires 50% of available storage for redundancy, RAID 5 requires only 33%.

When one of the drives in a RAID 5 array fails, the data content of that failed drive is reconstructed using the parity bits on the surviving drives and written to a new, replacement drive. The array is still usable in the meantime.

RAID 1+0, 0+1, 10: Some adapters combine (referred to as nesting) RAID 0 and RAID 1 to provide both data redundancy and increased disk performance. This works by either striping data across a pair of drives then mirroring (0+1) them with another pair, or striping data across two mirrored pairs (1+0, aka 10). RAID 0+1, 1+0, and 10 require a minimum of four hard drives.

What do I need to set up RAID?If you're installing and configuring hardware RAID on a fresh system with no OS (your best option), or are adding disks for a separate array, skip this. Otherwise, back up your important data. Best practice is to have three copies of your data: the original, a backup, and a backup of the backup, preferably offsite.

If you have existing data that you want on the array, you'll need to back it up, then restore it from a backup you make before creating your array--a process that writes new data to your hard drives regardless of what's there. This is not necessary with Windows software RAID 0, however, it's far faster than letting Windows re-sync (copy the data to) the mirror in the background.

Transferring an existing operating system is tricky, and with older versions of Windows, sometimes impossible. See "Transferring Existing Windows Installations to RAID" on the next page for instructions.

Starting with Windows XP, Microsoft integrated RAID functionality into its operating systems. What type depends on the flavor of Windows:
- Windows XP allows spanned volumes (one volume over two or more disks), aka JBOD.
- Windows Vista Ultimate allows JBOD and RAID 1 striping.
- Windows 7 Home allows JBOD and RAID 1 while Professional and Ultimate add RAID 0 mirroring. Windows 2000 Professional also has JBOD, 0, and 1.
- Windows Server operating systems from 2000 on have JBOD, 0, 1, plus support for RAID 5 distributed parity.

Windows RAID offers several advantages. You can create arrays from within Window Drive manager so there's no BIOS to configure. It's also more flexible with mirrors, allowing you to create them from existing volumes containing data, as well as delete either half of a mirror with the other remaining intact. You can mirror individual partitions, including partitions from different drives onto a single drive.

Though you'll see a lot of talk about hardware RAID being faster, this discussion predates modern CPUs which can easily handle the overhead. Windows RAID is actually quite fast.

RAID controller: If you don't use software RAID, there's hardware. You probably already have a RAID controller in your PC; many older midrange and high-end motherboards come with secondary RAID controller, and newer motherboard chipsets offer integrated RAID obviating the need for an additional controller. Check your PC or motherboard documentation to find out if your motherboard supports RAID (and if so, which levels), and for specific installation instructions.

If your PC doesn't have integrated RAID, you may use an adapter card. Basic PCI and PCIe adapters supporting RAID levels 0, 1, 10, and sometimes 5 can be found online for $100 or less. Adaptec, Promise and other vendors offer a wide selection of pricier, but more capable RAID adapters with onboard cache and advanced features. If possible, buy a card that supports greater-than-2.2TB disks and 6Gbps SATA III.

Two or more hard drives: If you decide on Windows software RAID, you may use any drives you choose. They need not be the same size if you're mirroring individual volumes, though it's generally a good idea.

Back in the days of parallel ATA, it was a no-no to mix drives from different vendors on a RAID controller. Sometimes it would work--more often it wouldn't. With the advent of SATA, mixing vendors is no longer as problematic.

Also, though there are controllers that allow mixing and matching capacities without losing storage space (using advanced parity techniques), these are still relatively rare. Using drives of different sizes usually results in total storage capacity that's only a multiple of the smallest drive. For example, combining 500GB and 320GB drives in RAID 1 would be 320GB * 2, or 640GB instead of 820GB.

In practice, you'll save yourself a lot of time and sidestep possible issues by building your array with identical hard drives--meaning drives of the same make, model, and size. You need at least two drives for RAID 0 and 1, three drives for RAID 5, and four for RAID 0+1, 1+0, and 10.

Floppy drive (Windows XP-only): If you plan to install Windows XP on your new array, you will need a floppy disk with your RAID adapter's Windows drivers, and a floppy drive to read it--Windows' installation won't install the drivers from an optical drive. Thankfully, this incredibly annoying limitation of Windows XP doesn't apply in Windows Vista and Windows 7 which can read drivers from hard drives, flash drives, or optical media.

Tools: You'll need a small, non-magnetic Phillips screwdriver to remove and replace the fastener screw that secures the adapter card to the PC chassis, as well as to install any new hard drives. You might also want a simple grounding strap that attaches to your wrist; look for one at your local computer store for less than $15. Alternatively, never touch exposed contacts or electronics.

How do I install a RAID adapter?Here's how to physically install a RAID adapter card in your PC. If your motherboard already supports RAID, skip to "Configuring the Adapter” below.

1. Unplug your PC and position the case so that you can comfortably reach into the interior. If you have a tower case, you'll find installing an expansion card easier if you lay the case on its side.

2. Protect your PC's delicate circuits from static electricity by properly grounding yourself. If you don't have the patience or time to buy a grounding strap, at least make an effort to ground your body by touching your PC's case before touching the inside of your PC or any component.

3. Locate an open PCI or PCI Express expansion slot and remove the cover bracket that blocks the slot's access port on the back of the case. Typically, a single screw secures the bracket.

4. Remove the adapter card from its packaging, handling the card by its edges (not the edge connector on the bottom); avoid touching the chips and circuitry on either face of the card.

5. Align the adapter card's connector with the expansion slot and gently but firmly push down on the top edge until the card is securely seated in the slot. Secure the card to the chassis with the existing screw or other clamping mechanism.

6. Once the card is installed, install and connect the hard drives to be used in the array. See "How to Install a New Hard Drive" for instructions.

7. Reassemble the PC and power it up.

Configuring the AdapterEach RAID adapter has a firmware configuration program, unique to that make or model, that lets the user select the type of RAID array to install and choose which hard drives to include in the array. Sometimes the RAID functionality is embedded in the motherboard's BIOS. Refer to your adapter or motherboard documentation to guide you through the specific installation steps for your adapter.

- Typically, you launch the setup program for a RAID adapter by pressing Ctrl-R, Ctrl-A, or some other key combination during the PC boot process. Watch the screen for a prompt, or check your adapter's documentation. On some PCs you may have to press the Tab key to see the boot messages and the prompt.

- If RAID is embedded in the BIOS, as with many Intel motherboards, you will need to launch the BIOS setup. This is typically done by pressing F2, Ctrl+S, Del or some other key combination.

- Choose the drives and create the array.

- If asked to select a stripe size or chunk size for a RAID 0 or RAID 5 array, select the default size. Playing with these settings may increase performance for users with plenty of time and energy to experiment.

Installing Windows and the Adapter DriversIf you are installing Windows XP or 2000 onto your array:

1. Carefully watch the bottom of the screen at the beginning of the setup process for the prompt, and press F6 if you need to install a third-party SCSI or RAID driver. Be quick: You have only a few seconds to press F6 and launch the installation process.

2. Wait for the screen that says 'S=Specify Additional Devices' in the lower-left corner. Press S.

3. When prompted, insert the floppy disk with the adapter's drivers into the floppy drive and complete the driver installation. Once that's done, Windows should continue the Windows installation routine.

If you are installing Windows Vista or Windows 7 onto your array:

1. Choose Custom (Advanced) Installation.

2. When asked where to install Windows, if your RAID volume does not appear (Windows Vista and 7 do have some RAID drivers) click the Load Driver button at the bottom of the dialog.

3. When prompted, insert the floppy disk, CD, or flash drive with the adapter's drivers and complete the driver installation. Once done, you should be able to see the drives attached to the RAID controller. If not, you may have pointed to the wrong driver or the array hasn't been created yet.

Transferring Existing Windows Installations to RAIDIt can be difficult, and sometimes impossible to transfer an existing operating system installation to a RAID array. It all depends on the hardware and Windows operating system involved. Follow the steps below for the best chance of success.

Transferring Windows XP
1. Install or enable the RAID controller in your PC. Do NOT create any arrays.

2. Boot to Windows and install the RAID drivers. If your boot drive is attached to the RAID controller (some storage controllers such as Intel's Storage Matrix pull double-duty) you may not be able to boot. If that's the case, you'll either have to attach the boot drive to a non-RAID port or use a secondary RAID controller for the new array. Start over.

3. Create a backup image in a safe, accessible location (external hard drive, flash drive, hard drive not to be included in the array, etc.) of the entire hard drive containing the existing OS installation using Norton Ghost, Acronis True Image or another program. Preferably one with bare metal restore capabilities, i.e. driver support for hardware that wasn't in use when the image was made.

4. Reboot and create your array. Preferably, with new disks while keeping your old disk as a backup.

5. Restore the image using the program you created it with. If your system won't boot, try again using the bare metal restore functions.

Transferring Windows Vista or Windows 7
1. Create an image of the hard drive containing the existing OS installation in a safe, accessible location (external hard drive, flash drive, hard drive not to be included in the array, etc.) using Windows backup.

2. Reboot and enable/install the RAID adapter.

3. Create your array. Preferably, with new disks while keeping your old disk as a backup.

4. Boot using your Windows Vista/7 installation disc, and select Repair your computer.

5. Click on Load drivers and following the prompts, load the RAID drivers and any drivers required for the device you backed up to.

6. Restore your system using the backup image you previously created.

Using Windows software RAIDWindows XP, Vista, and 7 all offer software RAID which is a more than viable alternative to hardware, and easy to implement. Which levels are available with depend on your flavor of Windows.

The basic procedure for implementing Windows RAID is as follows:

1. Open the Start Menu, right-click on Computer and select Manage.

2. Scroll down the tree on the right to Disk Management (under Storage) and click on it.

3. Right-click over the large drive icon to the left for operations that will affect the entire disk (extend, stripe, mirror, or RAID 5). Only what's available on your version and possible with your disk setup will be enabled. For some levels, a wizard will pop up. Follow the prompts. If the disk is not dynamic, this will automatically convert it.

4. On dynamic disks, right-click over a volume on the drive and you'll see an option to mirror that individual volume (Windows 7 Professional/Ultimate, Windows 2000 Professional, and Windows server OS's only).

Depending on the amount of existing data, it can take an extremely long time for new Windows RAID mirrors to sync up, and disk performance will suffer till the process is completed. It's far faster to back up your files, create new mirrored volumes, then restore the data. If you do opt for letting Windows sync all the data, keeping Drive Manager open and on top will speed up the process.

Get Rid From Cookies

2011-11-06T05:09:00.000-08:00

How to Delete Cookies

Cookies are usually delectable delights, but Web cookies can sometimes be less than delightful. These little files hide in your computer so that your browser and websites can track your browsing sessions and save certain useful information, such as account names and passwords, for later retrieval. Although cookies may seem harmless overall, they can threaten your privacy if an attacker tries to use them maliciously.

Because of that threat, most modern browsers make cookie storage easy to understand and control. They also make it simple to remove individual website cookies, or even to delete cookies from your computer entirely. Here's how you can perform the latter task in some of the most popular browsers.

Delete Cookies in Google Chrome
1. If you're running Google Chrome version 14 or higher, click the wrench button in the upper-right corner of the Chrome window. From there, select Options.

2. In the navigation pane of the Options page, click Under the Hood.

3. Under the Privacy section, click Content Settings.

4. Under the Cookies section, click All cookies and site data.

5. When the list of cookies appears, click the Remove All button to delete all cookies stored in Chrome.

Alternatively, you can navigate to the Cookies section of your Chrome browser and click the Remove All button to delete all cookies in one fell swoop.

Delete Cookies in Firefox
1. Make sure you're running the latest version of the Firefox browser, and then select the Firefox menu. From there, select Options and then Options again.

2. Click the Privacy tab to bring up your user-privacy options.

3. Under the History section, click the Remove Individual Cookies link.

4. At the bottom of the Cookies window that appears, click the Remove All Cookies button to delete all cookies associated with your Firefox browser.

Delete Cookies in Safari
1. Confirm that you're running version 5 or later of Apple's Safari browser, and then click the Gears menu in the upper-right corner of the Safari window. From there, select Reset Safari.

2. Check the bottom box, labeled Remove all website data. You can uncheck everything else if you want to remove only cookies.

3. Click the Reset button to eliminate all cookies associated with Safari.

Delete Cookies in Internet Explorer
1. Upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer. Select the Tools menu from the Internet Explorer window, and click Delete Browsing History.

2. In the Delete Browsing History window, check the box next to Cookies. You can uncheck everything else if you want to remove only cookies.

3. Click Delete to remove all cookies stored in Internet Explorer.

Congratulations, you've successfully cleaned out your browser's cookie cabinet. Although cookie files pose a potential threat to privacy, don't forget that they can also improve your Web browsing by making it faster and more convenient.

Download Whole Wikipedia A free Encyclopedia To your Computer

2011-11-05T20:01:00.000-07:00

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