Samsung has released a new brand of mobile called the Memoir code names the SGH-T929 that comes equipped with a 8 mega pixel camera that has a 16x mega zoom, allowing you to shoot videos and a touch sensitive mobile device that would lure the mobile freaks out there. The camera comes equipped with xenon flash and is to be released on T-Mobile’s 3G network.

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Not an iPhone beater but is feature rich that comes with a HTML browser, a virtual keyboard and toting a slew of multimedia features. The 8-MP camera is the main draw on the mobile which allows you to share your pics on online networkin g sites like Flickr, Photobucket, Snapfish or Kodak gallery.

The let down is that its a Wi-Fi null device.

The specs include:

• 8 Megapixel Camera with Xenon flash and 16X digital zoom

• microSD slot for storage capacity expansion

• A-GPS for navigation and location based services

• 240 x 400 pixels touchscreen display (262k TFT)

• Full HTML browser along with POP3 e-mail support

• TouchWiz interface with customizable widgets

• 3G/EDGE/GPRS data access speeds compatible

• Wireless Bluetooth 2.0 technology (Stereo)

Android has so fervently become the flavor of the season that even Dell is considering to pitch in to the Mobile market with its own branded mobile. And guess what we are up for a real treat in here. Plans are in the pipe line that they ‘d in no way be disappointing Microsft’s Windows Mobile OS as they would be launching one for that too.  So, its chilling time for all the Android and Windows Mobile users as they would be finding their mobiles sporting an alienesque look.

The name though is kinda let down. MePhone not so appealing a name for this phone. Hope this will change sometime soon, and be christened to something cool as the phone itself.

I don’t know whether any one would remember 2007 or will remember 2009. But, 2008 would quite inadvertently go down in to the memory drain of the man kind as one of the most happening years in our history. 2008, saw the dawn of many things. It’s been a rocking year as far as technology was concerned and a rockling year for the economy. We saw interest rate cuts, budget cuts, GDP growth rate cuts for every single country on our planet.

As bad was the economy, so at its best was the technology that emerged in 2008. We saw few of the most memorable releases that would go down to play a major role in the coming years. Well, quite naturally the best thing that happened was the release of Android, Google’s foray in to the mobile industry with its flagship open source operating system. And, whenever a giant like Google sets its foot in to such a demanding industry as the mobile industry, we expect something magnanimous and Google never disappoints its supporters. Android, the very first day it was announced created ripples in the mobile industry which slowly transformed to waves that really hit the other players so hard that they were rather found to have magnetized themselves to become open source.

We saw the competition grow to the heights with the entire industry embracing the developer and user-centric attitude. According to their recent research report, Gartner said that Symbian still commands 49.8 per cent of the global mobile OS market and was pretty skeptical in its reports over Android. The very fact that, Android is being mooted in just less than a year of its release shows its on to something real serious in terms of apps and the user experience.

The stand out players of this year have been Apple, Google and HTC. Apple overcame its own jinxed sales record by recording a massive 327.5% YoY growth in its iPhone sales. Google itself completed a decade, it released its own browser, the Chrome and Android, which changed the entire perception of a mobile OS. HTC, has surely established its brand the world over by releasing the first device to run Android along with a slew of niche hand sets.

Microsoft and Moto were largely taking too much on to them this year. After the release of Android and even Symbian being evangelized to become an open source OS, Microsoft found itself to be short on fuel, resulting in a sling-a campaign. Moto though was on the economic side of the year, with it being nailed down with a massive loss that it ‘d love soon to regurgitate. We, though see the sunny side by expecting a breath-taking design from Moto in 2009, with their brand new OS, Android.

So, as 2009 is nearing everyone from a Tech geek to a bearish-economist is expecting the best of the year 2009.

The last test match between India and England proved to be a dullard following frequent interruptions from the weather. The match was always heading towards a draw, in the most unlikely case being, iff any of the two teams succumbs to a tame innings, which was quite an unlikely event as well. The contest between the two teams has been more than healthy, with KP really showing his mettle and at last playing his most notorious switch-hit in the sub-continent. But, in more was than one Dhoni has showed that he is on to become one of the most successful captains the game has ever produced. Though, he has to go a long way to break himself in to that exclusive phalanx of extraordinary captains that has Sir Don, Clive Lloyd, Steve Waugh and Hansie Cronje in its ranks.

But then England have learnt a lot of lessons from this tour. They’ve discovered a champion is Swann and Strauss proved his class once again by nearly dominating the entire English innings in the first match, before Sehwag blew it away for them. The first match was exhilarating and test match at its best. The Chepauk always produced master pieces and this time we could have the master himself sketching a master piece of an innings and dedicating it to the terror-strife country. The gesture really got everyone on their feet. 

And then there was this jinx, of the side that ‘ll lose the test series will go on to win the ODI. It happened to Australia, South Africa and Sri Lanka which have all won the test series but eventually lost out in the ODI format. So, by conquering both the formats India made sure we were in the hunt for that elusive no. 1 spot.

2008 saw Gambhir rise to a level where he can really bet his position to become one of the greatest south-paw in Indian cricket. Whether he is going to carry that from is to be seen? 2009, has man things in store for us. India can surely place its ghosts to rest and open the race to become the no.1 team in the world. Though the proteas are also there in the chase, but guess India’s chances are much higher to succeed, following the differences between the teams being the batting line-up. India’s batting line-up guess is the most formidable in the entire world right now. And any bets on this eh!

So, here it is! Neoi 906E is being bandied as the world’s thinnest and sleakest smartphone.

Few of it specs other than the QWERTY key board include:

GSM/GPRS
MP3 Player
Micro SD card slot
Camera
And a few short cut keys on its hood.

Brian Cornell, a software engineer at Google developed the My Map Editor app that allows Android phone users to create and share maps using their mobiles and also to synchronize them in to their PCs.

Tell you what, he has developed this app using just 20% of his time over a span of four months. The app sounds brilliant not only by the appearance but also application wise. The app is said to provide an excellent interface between the mobile and desktop.

The application lets users create, edit, share, and view personalized maps on their Android powered phone, as well as synchronize with the My Maps tab on Google Maps. “Create a map on your desktop computer using Google Maps and then take it with you on the go and update it on location. My Maps Editor by Google supports full editing functionality for markers, lines, and shapes on maps, plus the ability to mark your location using GPS or attach a photo directly from your phone. Your maps are automatically synchronized with your My Maps on the web.” —- writes Brian in his Google Blog.

The app is ready for download on the Android Market.

I don’t exactly remember when was I disappointed when the team lost. Yeah I do remember now, it was in Sri Lanka. The Test matches proved too heavy that we just ‘d ‘nt fathom the guile of Mendis and Murali. And that was a long time back. Now, look what we have here. A match winning team which is slowly gaining momentum and ‘d we start calling them “Dhonis’ Invincibles”.

Ah, there it was. This match after England declared was inadvertently tilted in only one way. In England’s! And then there were the uber optimists like me who always expected something special from the God himself. Tell you what, guess he listened to us. And he did listen to the billions of Indians cadging him to produce a master piece, that match winning knock in the fourth innings of the test which is the only missing thing in his oeuvre.

387! It is always a herculean task to chase that on a pitch that has been used for more than 300 overs. But it was made to look awfully low score for the batting line-up that has the likes of Sehwag. Quite easily the most destructive batsman ever to wield a willow. He was the one who paved the best platform and let loose the horses and colts to have their day off. The way he batted, would ‘ve seriously dented any opposition Captain’s confidence let alone KP’s. I don’t think if there was any captain to have any plot for this kinda player. As, destructive was his batting on the penultimate day, so magnanimous was the master piece from Sachin. No hurry and no worry. There was no hurry in his batting. No sense of urgency shown. And till the meastro is there donning the role so are the billions of Indians with out even a fickle of a worry.

Quite aptly an innings can’t be as timely as this one as Mumbai’s own son scripts this victory after the scenes it went through the past couple of weeks, with never to be healed scars on its face. And scars on Mumbai, the financial capital of India is that it means that the every Indian’s pride is dented by that ghastly and heinous attack. Guess, the cricketers have given the perfect tribute to that.

Just imagine what ‘d happen if each of the billions of the Indians pay tribute to India and all the martyrs who have laid their lives to weed out the dastards, in their own way. That ‘d literally transform India free of everything. I hope that starts with me. As some one said Practice and Preach.

This is the new offering from HTC. Very surprising to see the form factor. The guys who’ve given us the Touch Pro are reminding us that they can produce something shaggy too.

The specs include:

Procesor: Qualcomm MSM7225, 528MHz
Operating System Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard
Memory ROM: 256MB
RAM: 256MB SDRAM
Dimensions (LxWxT) 116.3 mm x 43.4 mm x 16.6 mm (4.58 in x 1.71 in x 0.65 in)
Weight 140 grams (4.94 ounces) with battery
Display 2.4 inch TFT-LCD with backlight LEDs and QVGA resolution
Network HSDPA/WCDMA:
. Europe: 900/2100 MHz
. Up to 384 kbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:
. 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

Device Control 4-Way navigation control with Enter button
Keyboard Slide-out 4-row QWERTY keyboard
GPS GPS and A-GPS ready
Connectivity Bluetooth 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate and A2DP for stereo wireless headsets
Wi-Fi(R): IEEE 802.11 b/g
HTC ExtUSB (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
Camera 3.2 megapixel color camera with fixed focus
Audio Built-in microphone, speaker and FM radio
Battery Rechargeable Lithium-ion polymer battery
Capacity: 1000 mAh
Talk time:
Up to 300 minutes for WCDMA
. Up to 350 minutes for GSM
Standby time:
. Up to 400 hours for WCDMA
. Up to 260 hours for GSM
Expansion Slot microSD memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)

China Mobile’s new initiative to support the Open source mobile operating systems seems to be gaining momentum as Lenovo is planning to break in to the smart phone segment with its OPhone. The OPhone is based on Android plus the home grown TD CDMA.

OPhone, the name seems to sound familiar. China Mobile had been for a long while in talks with Apple over the iPhone market in China. But the talks proved futile as China Mobile was not ready to partook with its share of the profit. And now, it found in Android, a best possible option of getting its hold on the hand set makers.
Modmygphone has got the information from a well-placed source who was quoted as saying:

“Given these(iPhone, Android, Symbian) developments, it is becoming very clear that developing a proprietary handset operating system is essential for dominance of the mobile Internet market in China. At the moment, China Mobile is in a comparatively weak position without its own operating system. With its own operating system, China Mobile will be able to commission customized phones from handset makers and keep its hand strong in negotiations over profit sharing. There is even the possibility that China Mobile may move into manufacturing handsets itself.”

The device looks an iPhone look alike and the specs are still not known. What ever might be the fate of the other Android based devices in China, OPhone will surely have something to it and with two of the leaders riding behind its back, it might cover a huge ground!

Google is trying to make things simpler as it tries to woo the developers by giving away the G1’s with SIM and hardware unlocked from today. You need not now purchase the T-Mobile G1 and begin your endless countdown to have your device unlocked. Instead Google has come up with a sweet alternative.

What you need to do is just sign in as a developer on to the Android Market site by paying the nominal one-time registration fees of $ 25 and shell out the $ 399 price tagged to the G1 and Lo and Behold you have your G1 totally unlocked. According to Mobile Crunch, the bootloader this version also doesn’t restrict the device to officially signed firmware builds.

The device would be initially be available in US, UK, Germany, Japan, India, Canada, France, Taiwan, Spain, Australia, Singapore, Switzerland, Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Poland, and Hungary with plans to expand to more regions.

Google though further goes on and clarifies that these are just the kinda phones for the devs and not for the general consumer. So, I don’t think one need to be a dev precisely to get his hands on to this one. Do you?

So, Everyone expected this to be coming. The world’s largest mobile operating system company Symbian, is slowly moving towards becoming a completely open source. Though not wholly, but its code will be made available to the developers of the Symbian foundation, a consortium of companies comprising of Nokia, NTTDoCoMo, LG Electronics, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, AT&T, Texas instruments, Motorola and others, a conglomeration of 64 companies promoting the soon to be open sourced mobile OS in 2009. The plans in the pipeline include the amalgamation of S60, and its followers the UIQ and NTTDoCoMo’s MOAP.

The emerging competition among the various open source operating systems is catching on as Android is growing older and older. And as Nokia, buys out the remaining part of Symbian, speculations are ripe that this could add fuel to the competition among the open source operating systems. With the existing market being ruled by the iPhone and Android making its presence felt, with critics riding on its back for being too Luddite-like, Nokia is trying to fix things up by making its flagship OS, an open source.

Nokia recently launched its new smartphone, the N97, bandied as the most advanced smartphone available.

Is this RIMs’ answer to Apples’ iPhone. If you want to know is it, then Check out this video.

HTC, launches the worlds’ first ever 4G mobile device. HTC has successfully incorporated the feartures of WiMAX in to the MAX 4G, a device which is said to be a Touch HD look alike. This makes Windows Mobile 6.1 the first mobile OS to be running on the 4G.What does that mean for us? The data speeds would be pretty fast. Yeah, about 70Mbps. And guess what it is slated for a late November release in Russia on their Yota network,  which is soon turning out to be HTC’s favorite destination. The new WiMAX technology is said to be introducing some thing better in the Wi-Fi/Radio/Network standard, which enables two users with WiMAX enabled devices to communicate at these enhanced data rates, provided they are relatively nearer to each other.

The specs include:

Processor: Qualcomm ESM7206A 528 MHz
Platform: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
Memory: ROM: 256MB / RAM: 288MB / Flash: 8 GB
Dimensions: 113.5mm X 63.1mm X 13.9mm
Weight: 151 grams (with battery)
Display: 3.8-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with 480 x 800 WVGA resolution
Network: Tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:900/1800/1900 MHz, Yota Mobile WiMAX 2.5-2.7 GHz
Device Control: TouchFL 3D
GPS: Inbuilt GPS
Connections: VoIP,

Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11 b/g ,Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, HTC ExtUSB
Main camera: High-resolution with autofocus
Second: VGA-camera
Additional: Motion G-sensor (automatically rotating picture), Proximity sensor (saving energy while talking due to the switching the display off), FM-radio
Audio: Ring tone formats: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, QCP, MP3, WMA, WAV, 40 polyphonic and standard MIDI format 0 and 1 (SMF)/SP MIDI
Battery: Li-Pol, 1500 mAh
Talk time: GSM: up to 420 minutes, VoIP: up to 230 minutes
Standby time: GSM: up to 350 hours, VoIP: up to 50 hours

WiMAX, though not entirely a 4G technology, but is sure a step towards 4G. What picques me is that HTC off late is getting tagged with many firsts to its oeuvre. G1, MAX 4G and What Next!

Google has done it! Google has launched the voice based search for the iPhone and the free app is rumoured to be available on the App store, at least some time soon. The engineers at Google have added the voice recognition technology to their search algorithm, which now only needs you to just whisper your key word in to the iPhone and Lo and Behold you have your search results. On a fast wireless network you can have them in a whippy.

Wrote John Markoff on the NYT:

Users of the free application, which Apple is expected to make available as soon as Friday through its iTunes store, can place the phone to their ear and ask virtually any question, like “Where’s the nearest Starbucks?” or “How tall is Mount Everest?” The sound is converted to a digital file and sent to Google’s servers, which try to determine the words spoken and pass them along to the Google search engine.

The app comes in to play when one has to search for any landmark or directions. This though isn’t the first voice based offering from Google and not for a pint the first in the world. Microsoft and Yahoo already have their own voice based services for mobiles. According to John Markoff, the Googles’ version is far from perfect and at times returns queries that tend to be gibberish.

What’s interesting is that Google has launched the voice based search for the iPhone rather than the G1. Google could well keep the new technology for it self that could shoot up the sales of the G1 exponentially. But Google has decided to go with the iPhone first. Google executives admitted that this could result in more ad revenues especially from the local businesses for the location-based services.

The first speech offering from Google was in March, the GOOG-411 which enables users to evoke their business contacts. The iPhone service was partly inspired on the experience with the GOOG-411.

So, Google has added one more cap to the iPhone which is already brimming with all its virtues that make it the world’s best selling smart phone.

Yahoo! has this from quite come time and Google is soon to follow suit. Gmail, soon is going to be incorporated a new feature that lets us send SMS through our Gmail. Well, this is good news for us avid Gmail users, and gives a big thumbs up for why we ‘d we be using the Gmail. Guess, this was one of the features that was on their missing list.

But the news is that just before it was to be shipped to the GLabs, they found quite a few bugs which made their experience a bit un pleasant. So, they had to put away the plans by another 2 weeks.

It really intrigues me about how these things work and Garett Rogers  of ZDNet.com gives a good account of How this stuff really works?

Google has reserved 1000 phone numbers especially for this purpose. So, what happens is when we send an SMS, the GMail assigns us a number to communicate with that single person. So, SMS n people n unique numbers are asigned to you, where n < 1000, assuming a condition that you might not be communicating with that many in a single session.

Interesting, it seems though, it surely does rejuvinate our experience and give us a way to reach out to friends from any where to everywhere.

The specs include GPS, Opera browser, Touch FLO interface and et al. The videos provide us with a good perspective of the handset.

India might win this series or not but this series will be remembered as the one which saw two of the legends of world cricket quit the international scene with a vow to never return. The two represented a phase that was responsible for the turnaround of the Indian cricket. They inspired millions in to believing that India can win any where. While Ganguly was a natural born leader, a natural talent, Kumble had his guile and undeterred competetive attitude to himself which made him an impeccable match winner who was there at all the times when the team wanted him. There’ve been many moments which ‘re cherished and ‘ll naturally go in to the history as the best moments of international cricket. There are few of my own personal favorites which just highlight the dint of Jumbo to take the fighting to the opposition.

As a bowler he has many, but he also has been a good batsmen and not every bowler who has close to 1000 international wickets has a test century to his name. And that innings that he played at Bangalore in a crunch match against Australia in the Titan cup along with Srinath, guess that was really awe inspiring stuff because that not only paved the road for the final but also inspired them to conquer Cronje’s Proteas which was quite arguably the best side ever to play after the Lloyd’s Windies. I still remember how we were inspired by that and won the match the following day. As an Indian the picture that might come of Kumble as batsmen is that of him raising the bat at the Oval, as soon as he saw off the ball going past the wicket keeper.

And after sending the batsmen back to the pavillion for 619 times everyone still think twice about what really is it that makes him a legend. There are few questions that need be answered when someone compares him to either Murali or Warne. What these two have is that the spin the ball. They are the most tallented spinners who deceive the batsmen with their guile or the trajectory etc. Kumble doesn’t turn too much and not long ago his critics had had him written off of being the bowler who ‘d pluck more than 600 wickets. But he was there, he reached there and with his own stolid demeanor and unassuming humbleness. The thing that really weeds out Kumble from the other two legends of spin bowling is that he’s got the wickets without turning the ball much or foxing the batsmen. All three have been tremendous match winners to their respective teams and hence the figures, but there are a few things uncommon between the three and that is the undinted determination and never-say-die attitude.

All three had a rough phase to go through, Murali though had off-field lows in his career than the on-field ones. But, when it comes to plucking the batsmen with a straighter ball than Kumble might give any other bowler a run for their money.

I’ve never seen the famous spin quartet that was operating in the 70’s, but they combined ‘d never bring the inspiration and the performances that Kumble brought. A genuine match winner, always dreaded by batsmen, loved by the teammates and respected by the opponents.

He’s the only bowler to have claimed the wicket of the West Indian great Brian Lara while bowling with a broken jaw. This moment was considered a real epitome of the commitment and the undeterred dint he brings to the game. Just before the game at the Kotla he was being lambasted for not picking up a wicket and everyone deriding him and hallucinating that Mishra might be dropped in order to make place for him. Every news channel was skeptic about him plaing the Test at Kotla and now they are tring to dig into his glorious past and eulogise him with all the encomiums. The injury is just a reason for Kumble to have retired and he after Ganguly is a victim of mass criticism and humiliation that these SOGs in the media shower on these senior players. We have channels like the HT and the soap inflected ones like Star News who use the power of media to take a dig at the players which I think is surely having a psychological edge on them resulting in to what everyone has been seeing.

What ever the reason is for his retirement, the gentle giant is never to be sending the cherry at speeds un calculated by the batsmen and with a void that is surely hard to be filled. We might soon read ourselves in to quite a few of the other legends of world cricket retiring soon, but……..

Everyone is pretty baffled over the Moto’s decision to postpone the Android based handset launch to Late 2009. But till then they are trying to comprehend with their latest release, The Aura which is pretty much inspired from the luxury brand of watches and handcrafted design. The form factor is brilliant which might literally give the Vertus and Mobiados, a pale look.

The specs for this amazing hand set are:

• Messaging – MMS,  SMS, Email (POP3/IMAP embedded)1, Open Source
• Audio – AAC, AAC+,  AAC+ Enhanced, MIDI, MP3, WAV, WMA v10, WMA v9
• Video – Capture/Playback, Capture/Playback/Streaming1, H.263, H.264, MPEG4
• Camera – 2 MP, Fixed Focus
• On Board Memory – 2GB user available memory2
• Connectivity – Stereo Bluetooth3 Class 1, Version 2.0 plus EDR and A2DP, USB 2.0 Hi-Speed
• Browser – Open Source
• Bands/Modes – GSM 850/900/1800/1900, EDGE Class 12, GPRS Class 12
• Weight – 141.00 g
• Dimensions – 47.60 x 96.87 x 18.55mm
• Display – 1.55” in diameter, 480 pixel diameter, LCD round
• Battery – 810 mAh typical, 780 mAH minimum
• Standby Time – Up to approximately 400 hours
• Talk Time – Up to approximately 7.3 hours

Scott, rightly pointed out that the mobile ain’t a smart phone though looks pretty smart from the design point of view. No 3G, Wi-Fi and the ubiquitous GPS also found to be missing. So, Moto has really got it to its head.

Just yesterday we saw the count on the number of handset makers working on Android powered handsets cross the half dozen mark. Samsung, LG, Kyocera, OpenMoko, Asus and Hop-on would be soon releasing their hand sets. Though, the two major players Samsung and LG, part of the original OHA prognosticating a release at least in the Q1 ‘09. And everyone was expecting Motorola to gear up and hasten its work on its own Android Handset. They’ve even been busy recruiting people from any where they ‘d get them, from tech-crunch to Monster and what not. And after all this lull Sanjay Jha drops this cool tip off that the Android based handset ‘d well be delayed and ‘d be released only in the latter half of ‘09. Now that’s something to ponder about. Minnows like OpenMoko and Asus are challenging the giants by forecasting a release in the coming months which ‘d be well before Samsung and LG, which implies that they might be succeeding to fend off at least a part of the market from them. And by the time Moto gets its eye candy out, it surely will be on the deficit side. This comes on the day when they’ve declared their quarter earnings and I just can’t imagine Moto ‘d afford to do this following its $397 Million loss. God save Moto!