With modern smartphone platforms having left Symbian devices far behind for a while now, I look to each update with a mix of trepidation and anticipation. With Symbianˆ3, Anna and Belle versions this year alone, Nokia is picking up the pace. How then does the new Symbian Belle-sporting Nokia 701 fare?It's a good looking phone, no doubt about that, and the good deal of metal and premium plastics ensures that it feels much more than its asking price. I quite like the fact that Nokia has chosen a 3.5-inch screen, keeps the size small and easy to handle. Speaking of which, Nokia claims the 701's screen to be the brightest in the world, and while that may be debatable, it certainly is a worthy opponent to the SuperAMOLED Plus displays out there, besting them when it comes to sunlight legibility. Certainly not the sharpest (in terms of pixel count) displays around, though.The Belle software that powers this phone is… how should I put it… inspired heavily by Android. A pull-down notification menu, multiple customisable homescreens, app folders - all take some design cues from Android. To be fair, the result is slick and Belle is a much refined version of the touchscreen attempts that had plagued Symbian till very recently. It helps that the device is powered by a 1GHz processor and 512 MB of system memory—using the phone is a breeze (except for some random user interface lags) and battery life is un-smartphone-ish—it lasts between 1.5 to 2 days on a single charge!With Belle, Nokia's betting big on Near Field Communications (NFC), pushing it as a multimedia-oriented technology rather than something that's banking oriented. With the 701 and other Belle devices, you can see some of the NFC-goodness by way of tap-to-share media between devices, or pairing with special NFC enabled accessories like hands free headsets and speakers just by placing the phone on the device.All in all, the 701 is a good bet if the words Nokia and battery life are critical to your purchase decision. For all others, the Android army presents worthier alternatives.Rating: 7/10Price: Rs 18,999/-URL: http://bit.ly/smkfFXWindows Phone 7.5It's one of the first Windows Phone 7.5 Mango devices to hit Indian shores, and boy, does the HTC Radar do a good job of championing the Microsoft cause or what? With so much happening on the WP 7.5 screen, the phone itself pursues a minimalist aesthetic with its white and silver finish. You get an aluminum chassis carved out of a single piece of the metal with the only exception being the removable cover (for the SIM slot). Yes, the battery is sealed in and there is no option for memory expansion;but you can thank Microsoft for that mandate.With a 1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM—components that I'm sure you'd have noticed are pretty standard in smartphones these days—the device leaves little to complain in terms of performance or responsiveness. Even when I pushed it—playing music while surfing the Internet across many tabs—the device kept up. The WP7.5 optimisation to the hardware is second only to the Apple products, lending itself well to the overall experience of using the device. It's clearly the result of Microsoft working closely with the hardware guys, which is a good sign compared to the massively all-over-the-place Android situation.Windows Phone 7.5 brings with it Microsoft's Office Suite, IE9 and tight integration with XBox, and one can only hope with the Windows Marketplace now officially accessible in India, the apps situation improves rapidly and more devices follow. For now, the Radar marks the entry of a very viable contender in the smartphone wars.Rating: 8/10Price: Rs 23,990URL: http://bit.ly/uWJPXlPlantronics Savor M1100Most premium Bluetooth headsets these days pack in two microphones—one to capture your voice and the other to analyse external noise and suppress it. Plantronics Savor M1100 packs in an additional microphone which kicks in anytime there is at least 65dB of external noise. Combined with Plantronics' AudioIQ digital signal processing (DSP) technology and Wind Smart tech to reduce wind noise, the M1100 packs in quite a punch into a slim profile. It is definitely one to consider for those with noisy commutes.Rating: 8/10Price: Rs 4,790URL: http://bit.ly/rTa9lj New Range Of Focus Prepare for your mind to be blown. The Lytro camera is the world's first consumer light field camera - in simple terms, the camera captures an infinite range of focus, allowing you to choose the focus of the image after the fact! Imagine the benefits - shoot images instantly, and pick the person/face/object you'd like to be in focus on your computer or on the camera instead of waiting for the camera to focus! URL: http://bit.ly/sErRq2Price: $399 (8GB) or $499 (16GB) technocool at kanwar dot nettwitter@2shar
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App-what, you ask? Appcessories, as in apps + accessories, are gadgets that plug into iPads or iPhones (some work with Android phones as well) and pair up with companion apps on your device. The unique marriage of hardware and software practically sings on these babies, allowing you to do previously unimaginable stuff with your phones! Jawbone Up ($99.99, http://bit.ly/rrFcr6): It's a wristband you wear all day, but unlike the Livestrong variety, this one watches you, tracking and analysing your every motion. Plug it into an iPhone via the 3.5mm audio plug and it transmits the data over to the iOS app. Now, since the up is watching every move of yours (literally, it's an accelerometer at its most basic), it can present a ton of useful information about how your day or night was. Want detailed graphs on how many hours you slept or how long it took you to nod off, or even how many steps you took or how much you burned while exercising? You got it! Probably the most understated feature of the Up is the smart alarm feature that will wake you up during a light sleep cycle, within a specific range of time. For example, you could set up your Up to wake you up between 6:00am and 7am, and because it wakes you up during a light sleep cycle, you'lll theoretically wake up feeling more refreshed. I'm not so very convinced with the food tracking feature, which encourages you to track what you eat by taking a photo of your meal, and then tracking how you feel—felt more gimmicky than useful. The Up has great all-day potential, and if you've got friends who've got one as well, you can challenge them to contests like "Who walked the most today?" with the built in social networking component. appBlaster ($45, http://bit.ly/ujBjxt): Been working too hard and need a break? Whip out your iPhone, plug it into the appBlaster plastic gun and fire up the free companion shooting game. The game uses the camera on your phone, works in some Augmented Reality trickery, and superimposes aliens floating above your furniture, or around your office cubicle walls. Pull the triggers and two capacitive pads touch the screen to fire at the invaders that only you can see. Aliens not your preferred letting-off-steam target? You can choose empty cans or clay pigeons too! Of course, there's the minor issue of what happens when your iPhone rings safe to say you're going to feel more than a little daft holding a gun up sideways to your head! With a game so addictive, you're probably not going to care much for those phone calls anyway. Griffin Beacon ($80, http://bit.ly/sQXJvj): You have your phone with you all the time, so it makes perfect sense for it to be the TV remote too, wouldn't you agree? Pair up your iPhone or Android phone over Bluetooth with the Beacon, install the free remote control app and the device converts your phone's Bluetooth signal into infrared commands that your TV, DVD or Blu-ray player understands. Now, be warned that a lot of US-only functions such as TV listings may not work, but as a universal remote, this should be the one-stop-shop you need. It has the footprint of a coaster, is powered by 4 batteries and the app conveniently shows you the battery status. The best bit? You can call your remote if it goes missing! If you are a fan of keeping things minimal, then the Beacon is a perfect buy. Remotes in the cupboard, iPhone in the pocket, Beacon does the rest. Nest Thermostat ($250, http://bit.ly/vIRs1f): If you can afford central air conditioning for your house, this is the thermostat you should splurge on. Designed by a former Apple iPod and iPhone hardware development head, the Nest touch-controlled thermostat promises to learn how warm or cold you like your house at different times of the day, and then set that temperature automatically. Nest aims to save homeowners tons of money on their electricity bills with its learning algorithms, motion-sensor based auto-cutoffs and user-friendly interface. You'd notice it demonstrates an eye for visual design, no surprises given its origins. The free companion app for iPhones (soon on Android too) allows you to control the Nest remotely, so the house is at the perfect temperature when you return, plus it lets you keep an eye on energy usage as well. Withings Wi-Fi Body Scale ($159, http://bit.ly/sq4Diy): Withings has taken a product most of us dread and, with the Wi-Fi Body Scale, given it a makeover. The scale not only looks ridiculously stylish with its tempered glass surface, brushed metal lining and inverted LCD display, but also serves a variety of functions as a scale - it's able to measure both your weight and body mass index, giving you a better idea of your fitness and health levels, and thanks to a built-in WiFi connection it can upload that data to a website allowing you to monitor your weight and BMI over time in convenient graph form. And the icing on the cake - it connects to your iPhone/iPad and automatically transfers your weight, your lean/fat mass and your BMI to the companion app, and lets you track your weight over time. Also comes with the ability to set up profiles for the entire family! Parrot AR.Drone ($280, http://bit.ly/skkY2E): Take a quadricopter (like a helicopter but with 4 rotors), add a camera onto it, and pack in iPhone/iPad/Android connectivity, and you have the AR.Drone. Piloted via simple onscreen controls from your phone, the AR.Drone has two cameras - one for a first-person view of the front of the toy, and the other camera in the belly offers a bombardier's view of the ground directly below. Warning: insane amounts of fun guaranteed! Garmin ANT+ ($49.99, http://bit.ly/t98O96): Paired with the Garmin Fit iPhone app, the ANT+ fitness accessory tracks your running, cycling or running route and speed, plus how many calories you've burned per session. Unlike the Up, this baby can connect to specific gym equipment like treadmills, exer-cycles and rowers to track your exercise routine.technocool at kanwar dot nettwitter@2shar
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The biggest legal battle for the technology industry is playing out in a federal court in Silicon Valley, where Apple is trying to stop Samsung from selling Galaxy phones and tablets in the United States.In the lawsuit, filed in April, Apple accuses Samsung of "slavishly" ripping off its designs for the iPad and iPhone. Although there is worldwide interest in the case, the proceedings have largely been shrouded behind a veil of secrecy: most of the court papers are sealed, meaning they can't be viewed by the public.Filing documents under seal has become almost standard procedure in many intellectual-property cases -- like Apple versus Samsung -- as companies claim their trade secrets and confidential information could come out during litigation. Judges have surprisingly wide latitude in deciding what should be kept under wraps and what shouldn't.Some courts, like the US District Court for the Northern District of California, where the case is being heard, have rules requiring that judges specifically sign off on every request to seal a document -- but these rules set no deadline.In the Apple/Samsung case, some secrecy requests have languished for months while investors, academics and tech bloggers struggled to piece together whatever bits of information were available.In every instance that she did issue a ruling on a sealing motion, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose granted the request. Just this week she approved six more motions to seal. Samsung's most crucial legal brief became available after months of delay -- and then only in redacted form.The stakes here are high: Samsung had 23.8 percent of the global smartphone market in the third quarter, nine points higher than Apple. Yet Samsung's holiday sales could be jeopardized if Koh, who is expected to rule any day, grants Apple's motion to halt Samsung's sales of Galaxy.Lack of transparency in the courts troubles many observers."For the judicial system as a whole, we want transparency so the public can have confidence in the judicial decision-making process," said Bernard Chao, a professor at the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law. "When things aren't transparent, that view is undercut."In an email on Thursday, Koh declined a Reuters request for an interview on her sealing decisions in the Apple/Samsung case, or about her general policies. However, shortly after the inquiry from Reuters, Koh issued new guidelines governing sealed documents in her courtroom.Koh's guidelines, posted on her official website, mandated that parties file a redacted, publicly available version of every document that they seek to seal -- at the same time they make the sealing request.Koh and US Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal, who oversees certain procedural motions in the case, are newcomers to the federal bench and were both previously intellectual property lawyers representing companies at large law firms. They have not only granted many of Apple and Samsung's sealing motions, in some cases, they've gone a step further.During an October hearing on the proposed injunction, Koh, unprompted, asked Apple and Samsung if they wanted to seal the courtroom. When the lawyers said such a step wouldn't be necessary and that they would not mention confidential material during the hearing, Koh commented, "I guess if you all can be careful not to disclose anything that requires sealing, then we can still have that with the open public."Representatives from Samsung did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday, and an Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.Secrecy in the courts is an ongoing concern. The policy body of the federal courts recently reminded judges to limit broad sealing of cases, and interest groups such as Public Citizen and the American Civil Liberties Union frequently intervene in cases where major records are sealed.For their part, investors look at briefs and filings to see what kind of effect a patent is having on the marketplace, professors study them for novel legal theories, and lawyers track them for developments in intellectual property law.Like Koh, many federal judges routinely grant requests to seal documents. In the Eastern District of Texas, where the docket is always clogged with patent cases, lawyers don't even need permission from the judge to file documents under seal, said Michael Smith, an IP attorney who practices there."The court has made it as easy as they possibly can," Smith said.Judges say it's a balancing act."It comes down to: 'how do you see the interplay between transparency and protecting the interests of the party,'" said U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel, director of the Federal Judicial Center, in an interview. "Transparency sounds so noble, so apple pie, but the interests of the parties are important, too."The release of Samsung's redacted brief this week demonstrates some of the inconsistencies in what gets sealed, and why.Previously, Koh had sealed a separate document because, according to Samsung, it contained "unreleased product launch dates, and information relating to Samsung's total number of employees, and the number of employees involved in the design and marketing of the products at issue."Samsung said references to other confidentially-filed motions in the case justified its sealing, and Apple did not object.But in the key Samsung brief released this week, even the redacted version revealed not only numbers of Samsung employees (more than 8,500 engaged in telecommunications research and development projects), but also the dollar amount of its research and development costs (over $35 billion for electronics product lines from 2005 to 2010).When there isn't pushback from one of the parties, judges typically grant sealing requests without much scrutiny, said Chao, the University of Denver professor."I think at times they are just overwhelmed," Chao said.Even contemplating closing a courtroom, as Koh did, shows an unusual level of accommodation to the parties, said Richard Marcus, a professor at University of California Hastings College of the Law, and can also erode trust in the courts."Locking the courthouse doors in a trial-like situation is extremely rare and requires exceptional circumstances," he said.In fact, 50 miles from the Samsung/Apple battle, US District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco has taken the opposite tack in the monster IP fight between Oracle and Google over the Android operating system.Since Oracle brought suit in August 2010, Alsup has rejected more than a half-dozen requests from the companies to keep material secret and issued a number of harsh warnings.Among other documents, Alsup unsealed an email drafted by a Google engineer saying Google needed to negotiate a license for Java -- the programming language Oracle has accused Google of infringing.Google investigated alternatives to Java for Android and concluded "they all suck," the email said. Alsup even read the email aloud during a July hearing. (Google has asked an appeals court to overturn the unsealing)."The United States district court is a public institution, and the workings of litigation must be open to public view," Alsup wrote in an October order. Alsup declined to comment, as did an Oracle spokeswoman. Google representatives did not respond to a request for comment.For David Sunshine, a New York lawyer who tracks technology cases for hedge fund investors, judges like Alsup who challenge companies on sealing requests make the job much easier. "I love those guys," Sunshine said.The Apple/Samsung case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Apple Inc v. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, 11-1846.The Oracle case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, is Oracle America, Inc v. Google Inc, 10-3561.(Reuters)
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Wow! It sure has been a busy month in mobile platforms, with the 500-pound gorillas of the industry — Apple and Google – rolling out the latest versions of their mobile operating systems for phones and tablets, and relative newcomer Microsoft hitting India with phones sporting its latest Windows Phone 7.5 ‘Mango' platform. What do these latest releases mean to you? Here's the lowdown on the new features I've loved and which ones I couldn't care too much for! iOS5Arguably the most mature and polished of the platforms, not to mention a solid apps ecosystem, Apple's iOS platform has not been without its feature holes either. Which is why iOS5 is as much about addressing long-standing feature requests as it is about pushing the envelope. What I LikedNotifications: Apple has righted its pre-iOS5 notifications sins in a rather ‘inspired' fashion. As with Android, a list of recent notifications is visible by dragging downward from the top of the screen, and new notifications appear discretely at the top of your screen, and disappear after a few seconds. You can set per-app notifications, deciding how many recent items (missed calls, new tweets etc.) should show up for each app and how intrusive they should be. Lock Screen: The lock screen overhaul deserves special mention – with iOS5, your lock screen gives you a scrollable list of all your notifications, listed in the order that you received them. Best of all, swiping any icon will unlock the phone and take you right to that application, so you could return a missed call or reply to an SMS directly from the lock screen. Oh, and did I mention you can launch the camera from the lock screen as well? No more fidgeting around with unlocking the device and launching the Camera app. PC Free and iCloud: Arguably the most important changes, these. PC Free will let you activate and update your device over the air, without docking it into a computer (or wireless synching with your computer, should you want). As of this writing, the first wireless update went out to iOS5 devices – no more plugging into the PC to update your iDevice!iCloud is Apple's cloud storage and synching service, which lets apps store upto 5GB of data and documents free (pay and get more), and subsequentlysynchronizes all your stuff across other devices registered on the same account. Photos and documents on your iPhone seamlessly find their way to your iPad, almost instantaneously. Location-based reminders: The new Reminders app in iOS5 packs in a innovative feature, even if Apple's not the first one to roll it out. At its most basic, the idea is that if you want to be reminded to do something at a particular place—say, remembering to buy eggs and ketchup when you're at the grocery, or even when you leave your office, you can input that location and, when you arrive there (or depart as the case may be), your iPhone will display a notification. It does have some caveats – it needs you to add a contact for the location (clumsy, much?) and works only on the newer devices like the iPhone 4 and 4S. Older Hardware: iOS5 runs on all current-gen iOS devices, and supports even the now two-year-old iPhone 3GS (although somewhat grudgingly). Talk of truly supporting your users! What I Didn'tiMessage: What started of as BlackBerry Messenger for iOS users needs serious address book tweaking to be functional. There's also no way of finding out who in your contact list is on iMessage or not. However, what I did like (and this is something Google should seriously consider for Android) is the fact that Apple has combined SMS and iMessage into one app, so you don't have to go to a different app to send an SMS or an iMessage. Ageing UI: Apart from the Notification Center, not much has changed in the user experience, and while functional, it looks rather dated compared to the other platforms on this page. Windows Phone 7.5Having arrived on the scene late, there's no denying that Microsoft needs to hit the ground running. Windows Phone 7.5, codenamed Mango, brings to devices a ton of features – no less than 500 – many of which I've missed dearly. What I Liked Fresh, signature look: Pick up any Windows Phone 7.5 device, and you'll be greeted with a uniform user experience – the Metro UI (user interface). The two columns of live tiles now dynamically update with information such as unread Facebook messages or emails, and you can even pin third party apps to the Start screen. Instead of looking at different apps for Facebook and twitter, your social stream is now built-into the OS and available on a tile. Perfect for glancing and going. Vastly improved email and messaging: Multiple email accounts in one universal inbox, threaded conversations, texting, FB-chatting and IMing from one single app— it manages to pull off integrated messaging in way that feels more complete and natural than any other platform. Internet Explorer 9 Mobile: Packing in the same rendering engine as its desktop sibling, IE9 Mobile is highly compatible with websites of all sizes and shapes, and it sports the same hardware-assisted text, video and graphics representation as well, which makes it very fast to boot! Improved Multitasking: How much you get to enjoy the multitasking capabilities of the device depend a lot on which apps you run. Some apps, music players for example, are allowed to run in the background, but most apps allow you to do the same fast-task switching as before, with the addition of an app picker view so you can choose what you want to go back to. Newer apps, written specifically with Mango in mind resume much faster, and can run certain background processes via the OS as well. It's a handy compromise between true multitasking (keeping the full app running in the background) and battery life. Battery Saver mode: Really, each smartphone should come with this. When your battery gets low, this mode turns off Wi-Fi, push email and background apps, squeezing extra life out of the phone when you need it not to die on you. What I Didn'tStill very much Work In Progress: Multitasking is occasionally fidgety, services like Google Talk, Foursquare aren't tied into the Start page experience. And while I'm at it, how about allowing device manufacturers to customise the look and feel, Microsoft? Apps: Still a long way to go to even match the depth and variety of Android apps, leave alone iOS apps. Android 4.0It may well be the only update that hasn't yet hit the market, though that doesn't stop enterprising geeks from giving it a shot. Codenamed Ice Cream Sandwich, Android 4.0 is the platform that will unify phone and tablet form factors. What I LikedNew multitasking UI: Switch from one to another is now enabled via a list of tiles showing which apps are open and their most recent content to help you recognize what's going on. If that sounds familiar, that's because its reminiscent of the Cards system employed by Palm's WebOS and then in the BlackBerry Playbook. Richer Social Experience: A bevy of social networks linked to each of your contacts, allowing you to keep track of their social presence all in one place. Better Photos: Adding new camera capabilities like continuous focus, zero shutter lag exposure, face detection and a panorama mode, Android phones are certainly set to rival compact cameras in the features department. What I Didn'tAvailability for your Phone: Anyone's guess, really! If you own even a recent Android phone, the general rule of thumb is that devices released in the last 18 months have a fair chance at getting an upgrade, but when those devices will receive their update is truly guess-work.technocool at kanwar dot nettwitter@2shar
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Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines. As the inaugural Indian Grand Prix commences, there are a few places a die-hard petrol head would want to be today outside of the Buddh International Circuit. However if you are — like me — far from attending the race today, Codemasters has just the fix of racing action you need. I give you, F1 2011, the 2011 successor of Codemasters' hugely successful licensed game franchise that taught us just how ferociously intense jostling for track position with 23 others cars can be. Once you understand this simple fact, you realise that F1 2011 is no ordinary racing game. If anything, the experience of racing one of these beasts is about as authentic a driving simulation as you will get outside the closed-door testing labs at Ferrari or McLaren. Not only do you get a raw sense of the speeds at which a F1 driver has to make decisions (and turns, not to forget), but you get a very real sense of how much surgical precision this sport requires. Miss the apex of the turn, brake too hard and before you know it, your car has spun you out onto the gravel and the race is history. As intensely terrifying as it may sound, this is a game at the end of the day, and while the focus is on realism front-and-center, you can choose to turn on a wide range of driving aids and customisable car setups to allow for your driving handicap. So you can choose to race down the Buddh International Circuit, admiring the banked track layout while the game handles the minor details like, you know, the brakes for example! Or if you find the full race distance too much to handle, you can choose to just do 3 laps of the Monaco circuit and get on with your day. Either way, playing the game with some patience, planning and attention to detail is recommended. The game makes large strides in the visuals department over last year's game, with finer car and track details, and much improved audio feedback – you can now listen to your car or the radio chatter for what strategy to follow mid-race. All in all, if you're an F1 fan and want a game that is faithful to the sport in both spirit and realism, this is the game to buy. Rating: 8/10Price: Rs 2,499 (PS3, also available on Xbox 360 and PC)URL: http://bit.ly/r4K7OyMemory On The MoveAs tablets and phones become our TVs of today – many folks I know watch movies, TV sitcoms and recorded content while on the move – storage for this entire media becomes a paramount consideration. Seagate's GoFlex Satellite claims to offer a solution. What you get with the Satellite is essentially a portable external hard drive, but one with a built-in battery and a Wi-Fi access point that wirelessly broadcasts digital content stored on it. This added feature makes this device a must-have, especially for owners of the storage-constrained iPad which cannot otherwise access external hard disks without using a computer as an intermediary. How it works is interesting. Switch it on and you get an open Wi-Fi network that lets you access drive contents either via a web browser or via the iPad/iPhone app. Bear in mind, the app also lets you download content onto your device, but you can view it only in the GoFlex Media app, not the iPod/iPad library. That said, the device can stream basically all content supported by the iPad including videos, audio, documents and photos. What started as a terrific idea does that some execution issues. The Satellite supports only 3 wireless clients at a time, and it can't work with an existing Wi-Fi network. For now, iPad owners have to pick either to connect to it, and stream media, or to another wireless network to gain access to the Internet. The iPad app is limited in functionality as well – you can't play multiple items in a playlist for example, and have to play each one, one by one. It may work for movies, but wont for songs. Rating: 7/10Price: Rs 11,500 (plus taxes) for 500 GBURL: http://bit.ly/oC77eItechnocool at kanwar dot nettwitter@2shar
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Research In Motion has set up a facility in Mumbai to help the government carry out lawful surveillance of its BlackBerry services, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.RIM gave India access to its consumer services, including its Messenger services, in January this year after authorities raised security concerns, but said it could not allow monitoring of its enterprise email.RIM partly assuaged India by setting up the small Mumbai facility earlier this year to handle surveillance requests from India, the WSJ reported.India can submit the name of a suspect its investigators want to wiretap, and RIM will return decoded messages for that individual, as long as it is satisfied the request has legal authorization, it said.RIM was not available for comment outside regular Canadian business hours.The new facility will handle lawful intercept requests for consumer services including the BlackBerry Messenger chat service, the paper said.India saw the move as a positive step, but would prefer an arrangement where it has the ability to decode messages itself, so that it can conduct surveillance without disclosing the names of suspects to RIM, the Journal reported.India still has no method to intercept and decode BlackBerry enterprise email, which is used by corporate customers and features a higher level of encryption than consumer email and instant messaging, the report said. (Reuters)
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These days, there aren't many weeks that go by without the launch of a new tablet that runs Android's Honeycomb version. For the most part, I meet such news with a mild amount of interest. Don't get me wrong – I really wanted to like Honeycomb, the tablet version that was designed to make mincemeat of the iPad. But the offerings have been mediocre at best. With the launch of the Galaxy Tab 750, Samsung has taken its experience in making successful Android phones and applied it to the Honeycomb tablet space. How does it fare? Let's find out!Form factor wise, Samsung seems to have pulled one out of the bag, with the new Tab actually thinner than the iPad 2 — 8.6mm versus the iPad 2's 8.8mm. By forgoing the use of metal in the rear, they're lighter as well than the iPad 2. Round that out with excellent build quality and fit and finish, and the Tab makes all the right first impressions. It oozes quality and desirability from the word go. Beyond the numbers, the Tab 750 feels pretty great in the hand, and I've actually started preferring the curved edges to the iPad's sharper edges. Being lighter helps as well, yet the Tab 750 manages it without any real compromises to the build quality.Switch it on, and the 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 pixel screen offers excellent clarity and brightness. Now, while it's no Super AMOLED Plus that the Samsung Galaxy S II sports, it is one of the best and most responsive screens I've seen on a tablet, bar none. Viewing angles are superb, there's no visible color distortion if you look at the tablet off-center either. Brightness is on par with the iPad, possibly even a tad brighter. The speakers are nice and loud, but a tad tinny.Despite its svelte dimensions, the Tab 750 packs some serious hardware under the hood, with a dual-core Tegra 2 processor and 1GB RAM. You get 3G SIM Connectivity, but the serious let down comes by way of the 16GB internal storage, with no memory expansion – what were Samsung thinking here? The cameras are perfunctory in nature – a 3.2MP version around the back and 2MP in the front. Even with such horsepower, the battery managed to last the better part of the day, giving me anywhere between 7-9 hours, depending on use.The hardware seems to have checked off the necessary boxes, but my complaint with Honeycomb tablets thus far has been the software, rather the lack of apps targeted at the Honeycomb platform and the overall lack of maturity of the Honeycomb 3.1 release. The lack of tab optimized apps is really proving to be Honeycomb's Achilles' heel at the moment, with application selection in the few hundreds. And just so I'm clear, it's not the tens of thousands of iPad apps that are winning the battle for the iPad, but a selection of high quality apps that can let me get my everyday jobs done as well as on the iPad.On its own, with the Tab 750, you get a mixed deal. So while web browsing, multitasking and multimedia playback support are better than the competition (both Honeycomb tablets and the iPad), and Samsung has beefed up the software offering as part of its TouchWiz customisation of Honeycomb, it is evidently clear the 3rd party apps are just not up to scratch. TouchWiz also brings with it a number of different apps, like Media Hub, Social Hub and Samsung Apps, among others, but most are just more polished versions of the base Honeycomb apps. There is a larger concern with the TouchWiz update – a custom skin like TouchWiz only means update delays for future Android versions. Not the kind of compromise I'd like to accept when I'm looking to buy bleeding edge stuff. All in all, there's still a long way to go before the 750 unseats the iPad, but if you're looking for a capable Android tablet, this is the best on offer at the moment.Rating: 8/10Price: 36,200/- (with data plans with select operators as well)URL: http://bit.ly/oJsBIyMaximum OptimisationProfessional projectors, especially the kind you'd put in offices and small conference rooms don't have it easy, and are often used in non-optimal conditions – excessive ambient light, non-white projection surfaces, the works! BenQ's latest SH960 DLP projector seems equipped for the job – it packs in 1080p resolution, a 5500 ANSI lumens brightness lamp and horizontal and vertical lens shift. Now while the full HD resolution is fast becoming available across the board, it's the other two that really make the SH960 worth considering. The extra brightness helps combating badly lit (rather, excessively lit) rooms and the horizontal and vertical lens shift allows you to place this just about anywhere in office settings, and still get the image onto the projection surface. A feature I was particularly impressed with was the Wall Colour Correction feature, which allows you to select the wall color from a list and the projector automatically adjusts the projected image to make for a better viewing experience – perfect for when you can't find a white wall in the office to use for projection. The sticker shock is bound to throw you off for a while, but the SH960 is well worth considering if you're looking for an office projector and don't want to remodel your room to suit a more budget projector's requirements.Rating: 7/10Price: Rs 3,27,578/-URL: http://bit.ly/mRMnR9Divergent ThinkingThinkPads have always had a cult-like following, but admit it, that had more to do with functionality and reliability than looks. The ThinkPad Edge E420s sets out to change that, with its sleek dark looks and chrome accents that are quite unlike its predecessors (in a good way, of course!) Having said that, the build quality is rock solid, as is expected of a ThinkPad. It's a shame they had to make the battery non-removable to slim this baby down, so that's something to keep in mind if you're the sort who travels a lot and relies on a spare battery. Bear in mind that the average battery life is about 2-3 hours here.Performance specs are respectable for a professional's laptop, and this baby should have no problem in even processor and memory intensive tasks. Of course, given the integrated graphics, gaming won't be such a blast – that said, it isn't intended for a gaming audience, though can add a dedicated graphics card, should you wish to add more firepower to your work laptop. It also packs in an excellent complement of ports which is let down only by the absence of a USB 3.0 port. All in all, this is a respectable addition to a famous family.Rating: 7/10Price: Rs 55,200 onwardsURL: http://bit.ly/n7zUl9 Sound iDea If you've bought an iPod/iPhone-only sound system or car accessory and then jumped ship over to an Android phone, here's what you need to do. Pick up the dockBoss+ adapter from CableJive - one end goes onto your proprietary 30-pin connector iPod dock, and the other plugs into your new phone via micro-USB, and voila! Your Apple only sound system now plays nice with all your devices, and it certainly beats buying new accessories for every new device!URL: http://bit.ly/qQWZKfPrice: $30 technocool at kanwar dot nettwitter@2shar
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Catching up on news is among the most popular activities for tablet computer owners, but most are not willing to pay for it, according to a study published on Tuesday.The joint study by the Pew Research Centre's Project for Excellence in Journalism and The Economist Group brings unwelcome news for media outlets hoping to bolster flagging print revenue with paid digital news content. Eleven per cent of US adults now own a tablet computer such as Apple's iPad or some other device, according to the study.Seventy-seven percent of 1,159 US tablet owners surveyed said they use their tablet every day, spending an average of about 90 minutes on the device.Sixty-seven per cent said they use their tablet daily to surf the Web, 54 per cent said they use it to send and receive email and 53 per cent said they use it to get news. Thirty-nine per cent said they use their tablet daily for social networking, 30 per cent for gaming, 17 per cent for reading books and 13 per cent for watching movies and videos. But while more than half of tablet owners were using the devices daily to get news, just 14 per cent said they have paid directly for content, the study found.Another 23 per cent have a subscription to a print newspaper or magazine that includes digital access. Twenty-one per cent of the tablet news consumers whohaven't paid directly for news said they would be willing to spend $5 a month if that were the only way to access their favourite news source on the tablet."When it was launched, many observers believed that the tablet might help change the experience of news consumers and the economic ground rules of digital news consumption," the study's authors said."That belief was based on the sense that people would consume information on tablets largely through special applications or apps... which news organisations might be able to charge for," they said.The study found, however, that while two-thirds of tablet news consumers have a news application on their tablet, most rely on their ordinary browsers.Forty per cent said they get their news mainly through a Web browser, 31 per cent said they use news applications and the Web browser equally, and 21 per cent said they get their news mainly through apps. (Agencies)
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