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Acer Iconia A200 coming to India this month

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Acer Iconia A200 coming to India this month

Acer has announced the launch of its Iconia A200 tablet. The company has also clarified that the tablet, which will initially feature the older Google Honeycomb 3.2 operating system, will get the latest Android Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade in the month of January next year.

Notably, Iconia A200 is expected to come to India towards the end of this month.

Iconia A200 is a 10.1 inch tablet meant for both casual and business users. The customised user interface, which resembles the one found in Iconia A500/501, is much better to use.

Iconia A200 is almost identical to the A500 and the 501 in terms of hardware specifications, with an Nvidia Tegra 2 dual core for meeting it computation needs while 1 of DDR 2 RAM makes sure there is enough for applications to perform freely.

Although connectivity for the tablet is not clear, the press release issued by Acer does hint at cellular connectivity with video calling both at home and outside.

Samsung unveils dual screen, dual SIM Android phone

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Samsung unveils dual screen, dual SIM Android phone

Samsung has unveiled an phone, named SCH-W999, in China. It is a flip phone with two 3.5 inch Super Amoled 480 x 800 pixel displays. It is based on Android 2.3 operating system. The phone will also feature TouchWiz interface (Samsung’s customised Android user interface) on both displays.

Another important aspect of this phone is support for two SIMs, one CDMA and the other GSM, with support for through both.

The phone packs a dual-core 1.2 GHz Qualcomm MSN8660 processor, a 5 rear camera with flash, and 4x digital zoom, dual SIM card slots, Bluetooth, and WiFi.

Samsung SCH-W999 is expected to be launched sometime in 2012, but there are no specific details on it or about the price right now. The phone is likely to be available in China only, at least for the time being, and is not likely to be cheap since the SCH-W999 is the successor of the W899, which costs around $1400 (about Rs 72,000).

We think that the phone is not going to be made available in India any time soon, not just because it is expensive but also because flip phones have not worked well here.

Airtel finally launches unlimited 3G plan

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Airtel finally launches unlimited 3G plan

So far operators offering services have shied away from introducing unlimited plans. Airtel, however, has now introduced a new unlimited plan priced at Rs 950.

The plan is meant for USB data card users in Rajasthan only, and will subsequently be offered in other parts of the country. It offers a speed of up to 7.2 Mbps for the first 6 data.

Airtel 3G is available across 42 towns in Rajasthan.

Sudipto Chowdhury, chief executive officer for Rajasthan, Bharti Airtel said, “We are delighted to announce the launch of Airtel Super 950 plan for our valued customers. As data and 3G services drive the next wave in India’s telecom industry, we are offering a plan that will offer an exciting user experience at the best price. We invite all our customers to enjoy the magic of Airtel 3G on the move.”

The biggest benefit of this offer is that people will not need to worry about inflated bills due to data usage beyond the 3G limit, which is generally between Rs 15 to Rs 25 per MB. Till now Airtel has been offering just 1.25 GB for Rs 675, which makes this plan look all the more attractive.

Yahoo brings BBM-like service for Android devices

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Yahoo brings BBM-like service for Android devices

Yahoo has announced the launch of its latest innovation – the Hub mobile messenger. With this new feature both Android mobile phone and tablet users will have BlackBerry Messenger-like functionality on their devices.

With Yahoo Hub, users can connect with fellow Hub users or other cellphone and smartphone users within the same application. Hub connects over and WiFi as well and allows users to communicate via messages. So though cellular charges are not applied to messages sent though Yahoo Hub, users have to pay for data use.

What makes the Hub unique is its ability to transmit messages both to users and to non-users of this application. If a user chooses to send a message to a non-user, then the receiver gets the message in simple text format. The recipient can also converse with a Yahoo Hub user through messages without having to install the application.

Yahoo Hub is presently in beta and is therefore not available in all countries. Indian users may get this app soon after the testing phase.

The Yahoo hub application is a free to use application and can be downloaded from the Google Android application store.

Half of Android devices have Gingerbread OS

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Half of Android devices have Gingerbread OS

Most smartphones today use Gingerbread operating system, according to a report from Google, the parent company of the OS.

Right now, there are six versions of Android out in the market – Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread and Ice Cream Sandwich (which is set to be released).

According to the report, Android 2.3, which is also known as Gingerbread, is present in about 50 per cent of Android devices. Android 2.2 Froyo, which was earlier in the top position, fell to second place with 35.3 percent market share. In future, Froyo’s share is expected to come down further as phones get upgraded to Gingerbread.

Eclair is present on about 10 percent of devices, and Android 1.6 Donut is on 1.6 per cent of Android phones.

Honeycomb is on 2.4 per cent of Android devices, because it is only on tablets and is not open source either. Some recent phones which have the Gingerbread update include LG Optimus 3D, Samsung Galaxy smartphones, Google Nexus S, HTC Desire and Sony Ericsson’s Xperia series.

People vouching for Uninor, Idea connections, TRAI data suggests

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People vouching for Uninor, Idea connections, TRAI data suggests

More and more people are going for Idea and Uninor connections, according to a latest report from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

According to the report, in the month of September 2011, Uninor has bagged almost a quarter of new users, 24.24 per cent to be very precise. On the other hand, 22 per cent of the total new users in the month opted for Idea connections.

Earlier according to COAI, Uninor had added 2.67 million users in the month of October, which is almost a million more than the second successful operator &#151 Idea, which added 1.64 million users in that month.

RCom, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone had a share of 12.91 per cent, 11.84 per cent, and 10.37 percent of the total users who opted new connections in the month of September. Only Videocon and HFCl lost users in the month, said TRAI in the report. Other telecom operators showed marginal growth.

Meanwhile, TRAI said that of the total 873.61 million registered mobile users in India, only 617.76 million were found to be active.

There has been also an increased awareness in people regarding Mobile Number Portability.

“As per the data reported by the service providers, by the end of September 2011 about 206.29 lakh subscribers have submitted their requests to different service providers for their mobile number,” said TRAI in a press release.

Regading Mobile Number Portability TRAI said that maximum number of requests have been received in Gujarat, at about 20 lakh, which is followed by Andhra Pradesh with 16.47 lakh requests.

Reliance Infotel to offer tablet for Rs 3,500

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Reliance Infotel to offer tablet for Rs 3,500

Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Infotel, which is the only company with pan India BWA (4G/Broadband wireless access) spectrum, will offer tablets for as low as Rs 3,500 according to a Times of India report.

Way back in December 2010, ‘The Mobile Indian’ had reported about the cheap LTE tablets that Reliance planning to launch. As reported by us earlier, there would be bundled plans accompanied by these low cost subsidised tablets for as low as Rs 10 for one of data.

The service will however be launched only by end of 2012, which is much later than what the company officials had told us then. This delay is mainly on account of the TD-LTE technology being not mature enough to be launched within 2011, with very few devices supporting the technology.

The company spokesperson has also informed the Times of India, that their service will be available to all the devices. There will be dongles, WiFi LTE Modems apart from the Tablets, so that all sorts of people with all sorts of devices will be able to access its services.

The biggest threat of the service will be faced by service provider who have paid much higher amount. For instance, RIL paid Rs 13,000 crore for 20 spectrum in all 22 circles while for just 5 MHz Bharti Airtel paid Rs 12,295 crore for spectrum in just 13 circles.

Therefore the ability of 3G service providers to compete with RIL on price would be limited. Also facing a stiff competition would be the CDMA players like Reliance communication, Tata Communication and MTS, which will have to substantially lower their tariffs in order to compete and also device new strategies in terms of device subsidisation.

For RIL the biggest worry is that such an experiment of subsidised devices earlier through Reliance Communication (When Anil and Mukesh were together and the elder Ambani was running the business) had failed as the company had to write off Rs 4,500 crore due to failed realisation of the subsidy amounts.

Reliance Infotel is now working hard to devise strategies to avoid the repeat of the situation of 2003. The company is also in talks with several device makers for sourcing devices that suit different consumer segments.

Paper Zombie comes to Android

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Apple’s popular zombie action game – the Paper Zombie has been announced for the devices by its developers, Wilbit Studios.

As the name suggests, it is an action game where as a player you have to kill, slay or even burn the zombies by any means necessary or possible. Well this action packed game promises fun filled times with the inclusion of never stopping and ever improving zombies.
Players must improve and innovate as to tackle the zombie and to outsmart them because eventually after a point they will out run you if you don’t learn fast.

Paper Zombie includes three different weapon styles that heave their own set of uniqueness and weaknesses. Users must use the right weapon at the right time to survive the zombie attack.

Paper zombie as the developer also emphasizes has been one of the top 10 popular games on and developer sure hopes for the same with android as well.

The game is a free to play game for all android devices running version 2.1 and above and can be downloaded by visiting the following link.

Top 5 mobile accessories – June

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Top 5 mobile accessories – June

A good set of accessories unleashes your phones’ potential like no other enhancement. A nice speaker, handsfree or car kit enable you to use your phone for tasks other than the usual.

Here are some accessories that are available at a discount and will help you use your phone better.

Nokia BH-503 Bluetooth headphones

This Bluetooth handsfree has a very comfortable design and offers decent sound quality thanks to DSP (digital sound processing) technology. Both music and voice clarity are great and the neck design means that you can wear this headphone without worrying that it will slip off.

The handsfree connects with any Bluetooth handset, and has call and music control buttons on the handsfree itself.

It is identical in design to Trueblue voice S81 headphone, which we have reviewed.

This Nokia device can be bought at IndiaTimes shopping for Rs 1,250.
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Philips SBA1700 speaker

Philips SBA1700 is compact, stylish and very light. The design is neat with a polished metal finish. It has a foldable stand and metal grill, and can be connected to any device with a 3.5 mm jack.

In terms of control there is only one power button and an light for indication. There is no volume control on the speaker.

Sound is clear and output is decent with 2 W of RMS power. This speaker brings out vocals very well. It is handy for internet radio, audio books, podcasts etc. and would make a good gift for elders, mothers and kids with portable players/ipods/mobiles.

The speaker works with 3 AAA cells. You can use rechargeable NIMH cells. The speaker comes with a carry bag to protect it from scratches.

Priced at Rs 950 on Flipkart, this is one of the cheapest speakers of this quality.

Belkin AirCast Connect in-car adapter

Belkin is a very popular name in car kits, and Aircast is a value for money offering since it not only offers music through the car’s speakers, it is also very useful as a handsfree kit and doubles up as a mobile charger.

It can be connected to a car’s cigarette lighter socket, which then acts as a port that you can use to charge any phone.

There are two 3.5 mm cables – one connects to the phone’s jack and the other to the car’s stereo. There is a small pod which houses the only button (for call and play/pause) that you can use to answer a call. The pod also houses the microphone. It can be attached anywhere in the car so long as the microphone picks up your voice well.

As soon as you receive a call, Aircast stops music playback and by pressing a button you can have it route the incoming sound through your car’s speakers while your voice is captured via the mic.

There is a lead ring around the pod that glows in the dark. The product comes with a one year limited warranty. It costs Rs 2,399 at eBay.
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Verbatim 8 MicroSD card

Accessories are a waste of money if your phone doesn’t have memory to store music. The good news is that memory cards are getting cheaper by the day.

Verbatim is a new name in the memory business but it is catching up fast thanks to good quality and value for money. The 8 GB card from Verbatim is a class 4 SDHC card capable of 4 data transfer speed. This is currently the most popular type of MicroSD card for mobile phones. It is available at Rs 399 from Letsbuy.

Riona mobile charging holder

This is the cheapest product in the list, though that doesn’t mean it is not useful.

Many a times we struggle to prop up our phone somewhere while it charges in a moving car. This holder is a perfect, space saving and low cost solution for this problem.

It is a simple piece of plastic that has a cradle for the phone and a vertical piece with three holes through which the charger of the phone can be inserted to recharge the device.

However, avoid using cheap chargers with very thin connectors as they often slip out of the socket and your phone might fall. Whichever charger you choose, check for a loose fit before you leave the phone for charging.

Homeshop18 is offering this holder for Rs 150.

Mobile Review: LG Optimus Net

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In recent times, many handset manufacturers have targeted the low end smartphone category such as Samsung and the HTC who has Galaxy Y and the HTC explorer respectively in their kitty. Perhaps following the trend, Korean handset manufacturer LG has also announced the Optimus Net, a low end smartphone with operating system.

Like always, LG has not compromised on the hardware or even the software a bit and have provided many features in the smartphone. In terms of hardware specifications, the device is impressive but how well it fairs in the real world scenario, let’s find out.

Looks and Build Quality

The LG Optimus Net has a similar profile like the LG Optimus One but the former has lot of freshness in it.

The black matter finish all over the device makes the Optimus Net look grand and it will never ever leave even a subtle hint for the lookers to guess that it’s a low cost device.

As we mentioned earlier as well, the device looks classy and grand in matte black but along with that the device comes with a complimentary white back cover in glossy white, just in case you need to show some highlights.

As far as the build quality goes, the LG Optimus Net inherits it from the expertise LG has gained over the years by making phones and smartphones. The phone is build solid and can easily handle even the most flimsy of users without any problems.

Although made up of plastic, the device is sturdy enough while the back panel has a snug fit so that nothing goes bad even after a couple of month’s usage.

Display and Touch

The LG Optimus Net has a 3.2 inch TFT display featuring a 320 x 480 pixel resolution in 16 million color pallets. The display is a little low on resolution and has a lower of 180 PPI as well. But we should never forget that this device falls in the low cost device category here everything is a bargain and the most suitable choice is made as far as specifications go.

The capacitive touch of the LG Optimus Net is great and gives all the options that include pitch to zoom, two finger scroll and even pinch to rotate is available for supporting applications. A bundled scratch guard as well however would have been nice but there’s none. Also there is no special scratch resistant glass used here to protect the screen so users will have to be careful while using the device without the scratch guard or they can also invest is a good quality holster or pouch for this device.

Performance

The inclusion of the Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM 7227T chip that includes a 800 single core processor and Adreno 200 graphics engine for dedicated graphics support, is a big welcome and the effect of the speedy is visible in most tasks this device performs. The LG Optimus Net is a quite responsive and performed well as per the expectations. So be it gaming or multitasking, this device does not show signs of fatigue.

The phone has a 512 of RAM and another 150 MB of internal storage as well. The 32 external memory supported by this device is pretty much a standard these days. As far as performance figures go, the RAM completely supports the processor and allows it to keep the operations flowing smoothly.

The best thing about the Optimus Net is that it comes with the latest, but not the most recent Android build – the Gingerbread version. The operating system has support for all the applications and features the newly updated store as well. And yes when the Google Music service will be announced for India, the LG Optimus Net will also get it by default, all thanks to the latest operating system.

Connectivity

In terms of connectivity, the LG Optimus Net is a winner amongst competition. The LG Optimus Net is a enabled phone that supports HSPA upload and download speed along with the most recent v3.0 version for speedy wireless file transfers as well. The LG Optimus Net also features WiFi Hotspot feature that makes this device act as a wireless internet router for other WiFi enabled devices if needed. The LG Optimus Net is also DLNA certified which allows it to connect to any other DLNA certified device over the WiFi network.

Camera and Multimedia

The LG Optimus Net features a 3.15 camera at the back but has no front camera. Hence, though users get a fast 3G device, they cannot make video calls. The main camera supports video recording but in a puny VGA resolution and that too at the bare minimum 24 which is not at all impressive. The camera in the absence of a flash also fails as a good camera in low light conditions while the bright light conditions are strictly meant for phone viewing only.

LG Optimus Net can play almost any media file with the help of applications that can be downloaded from the marketplace. With the added Divx support, users can also play 720 resolution videos on the LG Optimus Net without any hassles.

The 3.5 mm audio connector is great as it offers standard connectivity with most audio hardware. Along with that the audio output is good and the LG Optimus Net will definitely make your ear buds smile.

Battery performance

The LG Optimus Net has a 1500 battery pack that powers the device but it would be unjustified if we were to rate this device on the battery backup. It is almost like asking how much a mug of coffee will last, whereas it depends on the speed at which you finish it. So simply put forth the battery backup of this phone is decent as it lasted for 2 days of nominal usage with moderate WiFi and web browsing included in it.

Conclusion

Well the device is a bargain to sum it all up in a word. It impresses us with its features but the competition out there is offering the same at much similar price points. So basically, the LG Optimus Net fails to make an outright independent impression for which the device could be known for.

The flaws are minimal like the poor camera but are shadowed by bigger advantages a user gets with the LG Optimus Net including an overall performer with great battery backup and DivX support too.

Finally the LG Optimus Net finds itself in tough competition with the Samsung Galaxy Y, HTC explorer and for that matter the HTC wildfire as well. But the LG Optimus Net ultimately is a fast Gingerbread based device with a decent price point that offers better value for money too.

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