When Jobs declared that 10-inch is the perfect size for a tablet, his imaginative faculty must have taken a short holiday because Microsoft is planning to “actually” launch gigantic 80-inch Windows 8 powered tablets in near future; but these tablets would be for offices and not for homes. Microsoft’s Frank Shaw revealed that Microsoft’s current CEO – Steve Ballmer has an 80-inch tablet in his office, hung on the wall like a portrait. “He’s got rid of his phone, he’s got rid of his note paper. It’s touch-enabled and it’s hung on his wall,” he said.

Microsoft had unveiled a similar 82-inch Windows 8 machine at MWC 2012. Shaw says Ballmer uses this gigantic screen as a whiteboard and email machine. Since this 82-inch marvel is gonna be a fully operational Windows 8 device, you’d be able to do everything that you can do on a Windows computer — from editing docs to watching movies and playing Xbox live games (if, of course, you are CEO of a big corp.). Maybe, this is another block in Microsoft’s vision of integrating all its products because this device looks perfect Kinect gaming (well that’s just an assumption; baseless, yet possible).

Microsoft believes “every screen should be touch, every screen should be a computer.” Because of its cost, the device would remain limited to offices of large corporations. Anyways, let’s wait for the time when Ballmer officially says something about this tablet.

Do you think Apple’s new CEO Tim Cook would start working on a 72-inch iBoard after hearing Microsoft’s plans? Share your opinions below.

[Wired UK via The Verge]

After launching its 4G LTE plans in Bengaluru and Kolkata, Airtel has tied up with Qualcomm to bring the same high-speed internet plans to Delhi and Mumbai. Qualcomm had acquired BWA (Broadband Wireless Access) 4G licenses for Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala while Bharti Airtel acquired 4G licenses for Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala. This tie-up would make Airtel ‘the strongest player in the telecom sector.’ Pricing and availability is under veil though you can check out 4G data plans for Bengaluru and Kolkata. Recently, Airtel has slashed prices for its 3G services all over India — a big indication that something better is coming.

[via IBN Live]

[photo-credit Digital Trends]

It’s confirmed. The brightest star in the Galaxy S line-up is gonna hit Indian shores on 31^st of may in three variants – 16GB, 32GB and 64GB and two colors – Pebble Blue and Marble White. Sammy hasn’t revealed the exact pricing of the Smartphone Superphone Ultraphone but insider sources suggest that it’s gonna cost Rs. 42,500. Though, as of now, it’s not confirmed whether this price is for the lowest 16 gig model or the top most 64 gig model (I am 90 percent sure that it’s for the lowest 16GB model).

Since its release in London, many techies aren’t very impressed with the device; they think Samsung hasn’t done much to give it a premium look. I somehow feel the same. The new Galaxy is good but surely a lot more could have been done. In India, software is not considered as important as hardware, therefore, Samsung might not find people tumbling over each other to grab a piece of the new Galaxy.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.

Casio Japan has announced an ultra fast, compact digital camera that is gonna make your casual photography experience a lot better and snappier. The all new “Exilim” EX-ZR300 boasts a 16.2-megapixel sensor and an impressive start-up time of less than one second. The camera features a 24-300 mm (f/3.0-5.9) lens that can zoom up to 12.5 times and takes continuous shots at .26-second intervals. The device lets you adjust ISO range from 80 to 12,800 and you can transfer images wirelessly as a result of Toshiba’s FlashAir tech. There’s another positive to this camera, it can record Full HD videos i.e. at 1080p resolution. This new lightening fast camera is set to hit stores in Japan on 8^th of June, prices still under the veil.

[Casio Japan via Engadget]

If you’re looking for a social Smartphone under Rs. 10,000 then you should definitely consider HTC ChaCha which has recently experienced a price slash from Rs. 11,500 to Rs. 9,700. The device is specially designed for people who can’t survive without their friends on social networking sites — the exclusive blue colored F button is a solid proof for that. The device is not bad on specs either; it’s got a 2.6 inch capacitive touchscreen display (480 x 320 pixels resolution), up to 32 gigs of storage, 512 MB RAM, 5-megapixel rear camera, loads of connectivity options, 720 x 480 pixels video recorder, 800 MHz processor, Gingerbread operating system and about 7 hours of battery life. Hit the source link below to own the full QWERTY HTC ChaCha.

[source Saholic]

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 (GT-P3100) which was announced in February is up for pre-order at the official online Samsung Store in India with a price tag of Rs. 23,250. Considering the specs and build quality, this tablet is probably gonna be the best 7-inch tablet available in the market. It’s got a 7-inch capacitive display (1024 x 600 resolution), 1 GHz dual-core processor, Android v4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, 1 GB RAM, up to 32 GB storage, 3-megapixel rear and VGA front cameras, and up to 30 hours of battery life. Hit the source link below to pre-order this new 7-inch ICS tablet. You can also subscribe to Samsung notification service via email.

[source Samsung India]

Sony has released its “Music Unlimited” app for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad which would enable you to savor high-quality tracks on the go. As of now, the app is limited to New Zealand app store though I am sure other Sony Music Unlimited countries would get the app soon. In order to listen to millions of songs on your iDevice, you’d have to download the free and subscribe to Sony’s services which costs $4 per month. You would also be able to sync your music with your Mac or Windows computers via Music Sync service. This feature sounds really cool to me, I guess other such services would have to buckle up in order to survive against Sony’s excellent collect of music.

[Sony via Engadget]

If you’ve been waiting to jailbreak out of the latest iOS 5.1.1 on your iDevice then there’s good news for you. Pod2G tweeted that they have successfully managed to create a stable untethered Jailbreak for iOS 5.1.1 which they expect to release with a week or so. This new Jailbreak won’t be supported by all the iOS operating device; for one, the new 1080p Apple TV won’t be supported, however, there’s a possibility that this untethered jailbreak would work fine with Apple’s Retina display iPad.

So, are you gonna Jailbreak your new iPad?

[Pod2G via iMore]

If you’re looking to buy a cheap Windows-based Smartphone then look no further because AT&T has something for you — it’s the Samsung Focus 2 which the company unveiled at CTIA event a few weeks ago. You can call Samsung Focus 2 a mid-range Windows phone; it features a 4-inch display, 8 gigs of internal storage, 4G LTE support, 5-megapixel rear camera, 720p high-def video recording, 1.4 GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 205 GPU and weighs just 122 grams. The phone will be offered to you only in white casing with a price tag of $49.99 with and $399.99 without 2-year data contract with AT&T.

[AT&T via The Verge]

Facebook’s co-founder Mark Zuckerberg published a new event on his Facebook timeline — his marriage. The 28-year old billionaire married to 27-year old Priscilla Chan whom he had been dating for a very long time. The marriage took place in Zuckerberg’s backyard, in front of about 100 guest who initially thought that they had been invited for celebrating Priscilla’s med school graduation.

Reportedly, Mark placed a ring made out of “a very simple ruby” on his wife’s finger which he had designed himself. The couple met while both were attending Harvard and have been together for a beautiful time-span of 9 years.

[via Mashable]

In one of my previous posts, where I talked about the negatives effects of Facebook, I had mentioned that Facebook cripples relationships and today I am going to share another example with you.

A 28-year old Indian woman filed for divorce against her husband after he failed to change his relationship status from ‘Single’ to ‘Married’ on Facebook. She seriously believes that her husband might be hunting for other women on Facebook and thus can’t trust him.

It’s quite strange how people, who fell in love, don’t learn how relationships work and don’t understand that it can fall apart even with minor issues such as ‘not changing relationship status on Facebook’ — where’s the trust?  We’ve seen how Christie almost set Eduardo’s room on fire in ‘The Social Network,’ but that was just a movie, right?

An analysis of 5,000 behavior petitions that were filed with the firm last year suggested that over 33% mentioned the site – Facebook.

In my opinion, this is Insane! What do you think?

[source Indian Express]

Kindle Fire, probably the only tablet that costs more money to manufacture than its selling price might get ads on its home-screen in the near future. AdAge reports that Amazon has already started sniffing for ad agencies who’d like to buy an ad spot on Kindle Fire’s home-screen for a colossal $600,000. This idea is not new; Amazon has been selling a cheaper ad-supported version of Kindle e-Readers which seems to be working fine.

It’s possible that Amazon might not subsidize Kindle Fire’s cost because of these ads which might create resentment in users. So far, we’ve seen Kindle Fire becoming the most popular sub-$300 tablet and I don’t think Amazon would be interested to sabotage their success graph. After all, had Amazon not making profits by selling its entertainment content, its Kindle Fire range wouldn’t have been going this strong.

This ad deal might not go as Amazon intends it to. With net number of Kindle Fire devices and user demographics out of the picture, I don’t think there would many advertisers willing to push their riches in an unknown environment.

[Ad Age via The Verge]

ASUS India recently launched two new laptop computers – the N56VM and the G75VW. First one is an addition to ASUS’ N series multimedia range, it features an all new zinc alloy casing, 15.6-inch LED-backlit Full HD display with wide viewing angles, 2.6 GHz quad-core Intel’s 3^rd generation “Ivy Bridge” processor with eight-thread processor with 6MB of cache along with SonicMaster Premium sound. The device also uses ASUS’ Super Hybrid Engine II technology giving it a 2-second instant resume and a 2 weeks standby time.

The G75VW however, is a full-blown 17.3-inch gaming notebook. The device offers Full HD display resolutions with Non-Glare 3D Panel. It is also powered by a 3^rd gen Ivy Brigde processor and nVidia’s latest GeForce GTX 670M (3GB DDR5) standalone graphics. It also comes loaded with 16 gigs of RAM, 1.3 TB of Hard Drive and Blu-ray combo drive.

Both laptops feel lavish but they are not gonna come cheap. You’d have to pay a hefty sum of Rs. 89,999 for N65VM and Rs. 1,39,999 for the G75VW.

[source IBN Live]

A teenage Indian Schoolboy from Agra named Rahul Agrawal would be mentioned at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2012 for having developed a “security lock” for the third gen iPad. NewsX’s coverage didn’t reveal much information about the program but it seems that it won’t be downloadable app but lines of code that would be integrated within iOS operating system.

Rahul sent Apple his program on 22^nd of March which was accepted almost instantly. On 24^th of March, Apple sent Rahul an email telling him that his account with Apple has been upgraded to Apple Developer Premium. He also received a Developer Series third-gen iPad, iPod Touch 4^th Generation, and a $2200 Apple gift card.

We’ll have to wait till WWDC 2012 to learn more about this security feature which is going to happen from June 11-15 in San Francisco.

[via NewsX]

Facebook developers just can’t settle for a layout that works; they are constantly fidgeting to add new features in order to make user experience better. This time around they have tweaked the “Notifications” dropdown.

Earlier, you could only see a few of the recent notifications by clicking the “Notifications” dropdown, if you wanted to see more, you had to click on “See All Notications” which took you to a history of all Notifications that you’ve received from other people, pages and apps.

Personally, I had found previous layout (sans images) pretty boring. Now however, with this minor tweak, you would be able to read all your recent notifications by dragging the scroll bar or using “Up” and “Down” buttons, similar to Ticker and Wall.

After months of keeping T-mobile users on the edge, Samsung finally confirmed that they would release Official Android v4.0 ICS update for phones and tablets running on T-mobile 4G networks. The South Korean group confirmed that the Galaxy S II, Galaxy S Blaze 4G, Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, and Galaxy Tab 10.1 would receive ICS update with TouchWiz 4.0 user interface.

Earlier, Samsung had hinted a date but they couldn’t back it up; this time around Samsung said nothing regarding the date, when you’d see a pop-up upgrade notification on your device. Since T-mobile’s upgrading HTC Sensation 4G to the latest version of Android this week, you can expect Samsung to roll out the same within a few months.

[Samsung via The Verge]

Lenovo has announced the successor to its ThinkPad X1 ultra-portable laptop; this new thin and lightweight beauty is called ThinkPad X1 Carbon. There a couple of improvements in this new edition, for one, ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a 14-inch device and is now being marketed as a Ultrabook. In spite of its increased display size the ThinkPad X1 Carbon has managed to stay ultrathin and ultra-portable; it weighs 3 pounds and measures 18mm in thickness (complete credit goes to Carbon fiber build).

Lenovo has beefed up its display resolution from 1366 x 768 to 1600 x 900 pixels, the keyboard is island-style, backlit and spill-resistant. Under the hood, it’s got Ivy Bridge processor, Intel’s vPro management technology and most probably Intel’s HD integrated graphics. Like the previous model, this Ultrabook would also feature Lenovo’s RapidCharge tech which will charge the device up to 80% of battery life within 30 minutes; right now, Lenovo is silent about the battery life, I think it will be around 8-10 hours because anything less than that would slaughter ThinkPad X1 in the hands of MacBook Air.

Lenovo hasn’t said anything about its pricing or release date as well but it might go on sale sometimes this summer.

[source Engadget]

For some time now, Microsoft has been interacting with its Fans via their official Facebook page. Now however, they have found a special way of treating those loyal fans. Microsoft unveiled on their official page that they have tied up with Amazon for several exclusive One-Day deals that would be featured in Amazon’s Gold Box. Because of this generous action from Microsoft, you’d be able to buy Windows-based Ultrabooks, Tablets, Operating Systems, Office Tools and other Computer accessories at a discounted price. But remember, the amount of products that can be purchased in each deal is limited, therefore, bag the deal as soon as possible, though you can by unlimited copies of the Software — Microsoft Office Home and Business 2010.

[source Microsoft's Facebook Page]

Scientists and Engineers have created a lot of interesting stuff over time and Makey Makey is one such example. A dream project of two MIT researchers – Jay Silver and Eric Rosenbaum, Makey Makey is one of the coolest inventions I have ever seen. It might not be able to do something really useful as of now (fun is rarely counted as “useful”), but it has a bright future because it is an invention kit for anyone who is “creative, inventive, and imaginative.”

With Makey Makey, you’d be able to use any web application with anything that can conduct even the slightest of electric current. Once the device is connect with your computer via USB and the bananas via alligator clips, you can play web-based Piano by tapping the bananas, and that’s not all. You can play Pacman, and even update your Facebook/Twitter using custom-made alphabet soup keyboard.

Following diagram explains how Makey Makey works, when you touch the object connect to the Makey Makey device, it forms a circuit which is sends electric signals which is then received by your computer and it processes it like a regular keyboard/mouse signal, doesn’t it sound really innovative, yet extremely simple?

Let me tell you once again that it’s a tool kit for inventors. People can make thousands of cool web apps that use Makey Makey, the possibilities are seriously beyond our Imagination.

Guys behind Makey Makey have teamed up with SparkFun to “manufacture safe, environmentally responsible (RoHS compliant) circuit boards.” Right now, these Makey Makey is not available in the market and this idea won’t be realized without initial funding which Jay and Eric believe to touch about $25,000. To generate initial funds, they have put this project on Kickstarter and need you to support them.

To learn more about the Makey Makey project, you can visit their page on Kickstarter, and if you’re interested in supporting the project, you can back it up starting from $1. If you back the project with $35 or more, you’ll get Makey Makey(s) when it released, sometimes in August.

Watch the Makey Makey video below.

Update (15/5/2012 1:35 AM IST) – Makey Makey already got $10,000 of $25,000 at Kickstarter.

[source Kickstarter]

Your favorite orange-flavored media player has reached a new milestone. Video Lan unveiled that their free VLC media player has hit 1 billion downloads; if you’re a Windows user, you’d be happy to know that 90% of the big million came from Windows platform. The reason why VLC player is so loved by us — Windows users — is that it is lightweight and flexible, I mean, I don’t have to add additional codec packages to run (.flv) Flash videos. If you’re interested in the exact numbers, you can hit the source link below that will take you to VLC’s website. By the way, they didn’t reveal the breakdown of downloads that came from Linux, because of the distros.

[source Video Lan]