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New HTC Sensation XL with Beats Audio unveiled

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New HTC Sensation XL with Beats Audio unveiled

HTC has announced its new Sensation XL smartphone with Gingerbread and Beats Audio smartphone at the Beats Event in London.

The new HTC Sensation XL is the fourth device under the Sensation brand succeeding Sensation, Sensation and Sensation XE. The new HTC Sensation XL was previously reported at the HTC Runnymede 2.

HTC has used a massive 4.7 inch Super touchscreen display with technology. Surprisingly, the display has WVGA (800×480) pixel resolution. With that resolution, the icons on the big touchscreen might not look that sharp and a qHD 960×540 pixel would have been perfect to suit the display size.

However, countless applications for Android platform are built to support the WVGA as the best makes the WVGA native resolution an obvious choice for Sensation XL.

Under the 9.9mm thick chassis, the smartphone runs a single-core 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 coupled with Adreno 205 graphics chip and 768 MB RAM. This hardware is decent enough to run the Android 2.3.x Gingerbread update with layer of new HTC Sense 3.5 smoothly on it.

By default the smartphone has 16 onboard storage out of which only 12.64 GB is actually available to the user. For those who wish to add more storage can make us of the micro SD card slot that can hold up to 32 GB memory card. Interesting part of this handset is that it supports the m4a and m4v file formats which are typically used for the Apple devices for high quality Audio and Video.

The Sensation XL has 8 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash and a 28mm f/2.2 lens to capture beautiful images and also record 720p videos. In the front lies 1.3 megapixel camera for video calling or video chat. Under the chassis, the smartphone has gyroscopic sensor, G-sensor (accelerometer), digital compass, proximity sensor and ambient light sensor.

HTC has also used 3.0 and WiFi (802.11 b/g/n) for wireless connectivity. HTC has added 1600 mAh battery pack promising up to 12 hours of talk time on GSM networks and up to seven hours of talk time on networks.

The unique aspect of the Sensation XL smartphone is that it comes pre-loaded with the Beats Audio music profiles to complement the bundled urBeats headsets. The urBeats headphones come with line-in remote and microphone. The Beats profiles are loaded as soon as they are plugged in to the smartphone through the 3.5mm audio port.

HTC did not specify the price of this handset but promised that the same would be available in UK soon from Three and O2 network operators. Also, no specific date of release in the USA or other regions was shared at the launch of HTC Sensation XL.

Google to launch Android Ice Cream Sandwich on Oct 11: Report

samir-makwana
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Google to launch Android Ice Cream Sandwich on Oct 11: Report

Google will launch the Ice Cream Sandwich operating system on October 11 at the CTIA Enterprise and Apps 2011 convention in San Diego, USA.

In enthusiasm, the Developers’ official account had made the video of ‘Android ICS launch’ on its YouTube account and pulled it back later. CNET managed to grab the screenshot in time and thereby confirmed Google’s Android Ice Cream Sandwich launch plan.

Google announced Android Ice Cream Sandwich update at the Google I/O Conference earlier this year in May. The Android Ice Cream Sandwich update will unify the Honeycomb and Gingerbread experience for both tablets &#151 One that runs everywhere providing a seamless user experience on smartphones, tablets and other devices.

Most importantly, the Android Ice Cream Sandwich is expected to eradicate the fragmentation to ease off the developers. For users, there would be a shiny new user interface that will be like a mixture of Gingerbread and Honeycomb put together.

Till now, there is no clarity on the version number of the Android Ice Cream Sandwich and one can expect more details at the CTIA event next week.

Samsung is expected to show the first Android Ice Cream Sandwich loaded Google Nexus Prime smartphone on October 10, a day before the actual Ice Cream Sandwich launch.

Confusion over Zune Media Player lingers

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Confusion over Zune Media Player lingers

There is some confusion in the air about the current status of Zune hardware, the portable media player from Microsoft.

Microsoft had earlier said that the Zune HD is dead and that Windows Phone is the new focus for it.

“We recently announced that, going forward, Windows Phone will be the focus of our mobile music and video strategy, and that we will no longer be producing Zune players. So what does this mean for our current Zune users? Absolutely nothing!”

Microsoft posted on Zune.net website some days ago.

It further added, “Your device will continue to work with Zune services just as it does today. And we will continue to honor the warranties of all devices for both current owners and those who buy our very last devices. Customer service has been, and will remain a top priority for us.”

Contradicting the above statement, the Zune Support team has now on Twitter said: “We are still supporting the Zune HD hardware. No official info has been released stating hardware is being discontinued.”

New app aims to bring Android apps to other devices

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Myriad, a member of the Google formed Open Handset Alliance which supports Android, has come out with a cross platform application that can work on different devices.

Myriad Alien Dalvik 2.0 will not only enable apps to run across non-Android smartphone platforms, but will now enable the Android ecosystem to be extended across multiple devices and screens such as tablets, e-books, TVs, automotives and even avionics.
“Myriad Alien Dalvik brings Android applications to non-Android devices, allowing OEMs, operators and application stores to leverage the Android eco-system across a much wider range of mobile devices. Android applications run unmodified and with no loss of performance on non- Android platforms,” the company said in a press release.

The basic idea to create one Android which can run on other platforms through virtual machine is enticing enough for the users, and the performance difference on different platforms where the apps are run is close to zero. Even at the time when there is talk of HTML5 becoming the default standard of web apps to make sure users don’t have to worry about which platform they are accessing the apps from, the Myriad solution to bring Android apps to all the platforms is impressive to say the least.

“We have seen incredible momentum in Android adoption, but we are just scratching the surface,” said Simon Wilkinson, chief executive officer, Myriad Group. “With Alien Dalvik 2.0, we are creating a more flexible, consistent user experience by mobilising content such as live sports, recorded TV shows and on-demand movies, so users can enjoy content seamlessly from one device to the next.”

At the same time, if the users are thinking they can download Alien Dalvik and run Android apps on whichever device they are using, it’s not going to work that way. Instead, Myriad is working with handset makers to make sure its solutions are incorporated at the device level itself. Those wondering why the company is focusing so much on the Android apps only to bring them to the masses, it’s because Android apps anyway run on a virtual machine &#151 they are made that way by default. Hence Android apps are a natural fit for the company and its product.

Xbox companion app for Windows Phone coming soon

rahul-gupta
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Xbox companion app for Windows Phone coming soon

Microsoft has announced that it will soon launch an Xbox companion application for Windows Phone based smartphones. With the new Xbox companion application, Windows Phone users will be able to remotely control and play games on their Xbox console using their smartphones.

Microsoft has released a new video displaying the capabilities of the Xbox Kinect sensor in terms of multimedia and entertainment. The video also shows the use of Windows Phone device to control the Xbox 360.

The Xbox Companion application on Windows Phone will allow users to find content just like on your Xbox while giving access to the Xbox LIVE Marketplace catalog of games, movies, music and TV shows.

Also with the use of this application, users can get more details and information about the video being watched or the song being played on the Xbox right on their Windows Phone based device.

Finally the application will allow users to control and play the content on their Xbox. With Windows Phone based devices would offer functionalities like a remote control, controlling media in real-time.

Microsoft has, however, not said anything on the availability of the Xbox companion application as of now but with Windows Phone Mango update being rolled out, it is highly expected that the application will be soon made available to all the users that too free of cost.

Aakash: The Nano of the tablet world

Sandeep Budki
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Aakash: The Nano of the tablet world

In 2009 Tata launched the world’s cheapest car at Rs 1 lakh. It was dubbed the car for the masses and now DataWind, in association with IIT Rajasthan, has launched world’s cheapest 7 inch tablet, Aakash at Rs 2,250. The device aims to bring India’s masses onto the information highway.

India pioneers in innovations aimed at making the lives of common people easier at an affordable price and Aakash is the step in that direction.

Aakash world’s cheapest internet device was conceived under the Human Resources and Development Ministry’s National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NME-ICT) to provide students a device that could be used as an Ebook reader, to access online streaming course material and web based research.

Under NME-ICT, the government intends to deliver 10 million tablets to post-secondary students across India. The target price of the 10 million units is Rs 1,750 per unit.

Not limited to students, Aakash offers anybody that wants to access web, social networking, instant messaging, multimedia, games and hundreds of thousands of applications, through a durable and affordable mobile device.


First impression: Aakash

When I took Aakash in my hand for the first time, I was impressed by how it felt. The 7 inch tablet gets a big thumbs up for its design, and for weighing just 350 gm.

The tablet surprisingly has very decent specifications as well. It has 2.2 Froyo operating system, which most low cost smartphones run on. While it has a very small 366 MHz processor, to improve performance there is an video co-processor and graphic accelerator, and 256 of RAM. But watching regular HD movies on the device could be difficult.

While surfing the tablet I didn’t see the icon for Android Marketplace in the menu, but a DataWind executive said the model for sale will have it though he didn’t clarify why it’s been left out in the model meant for college students.

The touchscreen is a 7 inch unit and uses resistive technology, which is not as good as capacitive, but is okay considering the price. Connectivity options include built in WiFi support and the ability to connect a data card for and GPRS connectivity. There are two USB ports, and Aakash has 2 of built in memory. It comes with a 2 GB slot and supports external memory up to 32 GB. The USB port can also be used to attach an external camera.

The used in the tablet is called UBI Surfer, which has been developed by DataWind and is said to be ten times faster than any mobile browser. I was not able to check its surfing capabilities because there was no WiFi network.

Aakash supports popular file formats like .doc, .docx, .pdf, .pptx and has a 3.5 mm standard stereo jack. It has a 2,100 battery which can last for about 3 hours depending upon usage.

The tablet comes with a leather case which not only protects the device but also doubles up as a keyboard case so that tablet can be used as a netbook as well. For that though the user has to connect the cover with a USB port.

The tablet has two buttons one at the side panel which is a power on button and the other on the front panel which is the home button.

What can consumers expect?

DataWind, a Canadian company that is manufacturing Aakash, will begin selling the tablet through retail stores by the end of November at Rs 2,999.

Suneet Singh Tuli, chief executive officer of DataWind said, “Commercially we will be selling Aakash under the brand name of UbiSlate with a one year warranty.”

He added that the tablet in the open market will have a slot and will link to Android Market. Tuli further said, “We are in talks with two mobile service providers in India to offer an internet plan at Rs 99 per month bundled with the tablet when it is commercially available because we want people to have an affordable tablet along with an affordable data plan.”

Tuli said, “Apart from Android market we are also working on incorporating some value added service (VAS) for addressing the entertainment needs of Indian consumers.”

About the processor he said, “The next stock on the tablets will have a 600 MHz processor and we are also working on a 1.2 GHz processor for the next version of the tablet.”

In the pipeline

DataWind has many products under it sleeves for the Indian masses and the company has no plans to compete with the likes of Apple or Samsung.

Tuli said to The Mobile Indian, “Products from Samsung and Apple are for the elite class and we cannot match them at the price we are offering our products. We are making good quality products in India for Indians at an affordable price.”

Regarding the next product DataWind is going to launch, Tuli said, “By the end of the year we will have a 5 inch Android 2.2 smartphone at a price which will not put any burden on the pocket of consumers who currently buy low end feature phones to meet their communication needs.”

On the future course of action, he said, “We have not set a time frame for future launches but we are working on 9 inch and 10 inch Android tablets. They will have capacitive touchscreens and we will try to keep them under Rs 5,000.”

While the tablet looks quite attractive as far as price and form factor are concerned, the public’s response is yet to be seen when it is available in the retail market. But we are sure that it will not disappoint users who have been using low cost handsets for a long time and now plan to experience a tablet at an affordable price.

Samsung Galaxy Note in India this Nov

rahul-gupta
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Samsung will launch its Galaxy Note in India in the first week of November, a spokesperson for the company told The Mobile Indian. Also, Samsung UK has just issued a press note saying that the Samsung Galaxy Note will be available in the UK market for purchase after November 17 this year.

Samsung had unveiled Galaxy Note at the IFA 2011 event in Berlin, Germany. Since then the device has created a lot of buzz especially for its huge 5.3 inch display that offers the functionality of both &#151 a smartphone and a tablet.

Galaxy Note is the first device to sport a 5.3 inch Super Amoled screen, and it displays native resolution of 800 x 1280 pixels, supports multi-touch and also comes with an S Pen advanced stylus. Galaxy Note runs 2.3 Gingerbread along with Samsung TouchWiz user interface.

To power this massive device Samsung has used a dual core 1.4 GHz Exynos microprocessor with a Mali-400 graphics chip. The Galaxy Note also features 1 of along with 16 GB onboard storage memory. Its 8 megapixel camera comes with LED flash and is capable of recording 1080p full HD video at 30 fps. There is a front facing 2 megapixel camera as well.

The price of the device still remains a mystery but is expected to be above Rs 30,000.

Features of iOS 5

samir-makwana
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Features of iOS 5

Apple has announced that the much awaited 5 update will roll out on October 12. Those wondering why it took so long would do well to consider the new apps and improvements.

Apple’s iOS 5 is a major game changer for it will make the iOS device sync with the iCloud &#151 Apple’s cloud based service, for storing data and performing other functions.

Here’s what to expect from iOS 5:

Notifications Center

Apple has worked hard on the new notifications interface after hiring software programmer Peter Hajas who wrote the Notifications that require jailbreaking the iPhone.

The new Notifications Center is a pull-down gesture based drawer for notifications about emails, text, events, news, weather and pretty much everything in the iOS 5. The notifications have been programmed to appear discretely at the top of the screen while you’re using another app. You can also customise the position, type and even its volumes of notifications.

The gray Notification Center does look inspired by but Apple’s Notification Center does not come with toggle shortcuts.

iMessage

This is one service that every iOS user will get addicted to &#151 free instant messaging. The new iMessage service will be available for iOS 5 devices including the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

Apple has developed iMessage using a protocol for instant between iOS devices. Hence, it will not accommodate BlackBerry and Android devices.

iMessage comes with iOS 5 and you need to register with your Apple ID and phone number to use it. It has group messaging and image and video sharing via iMessage. The new iMessage will work over WiFi and networks with iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch (WiFi only).

Twitter integration

Social network Twitter has been deeply integrated in iOS 5 so that users need to sign in just once. Twitter updates can be posted from other native apps such as Safari, Photos, Camera, Maps or YouTube as well. The autocomplete feature for quickly adding your contacts to a Twitter update is pretty neat as well.

experience will be available across other apps and even with iTunes. This integration is a biggest bet by Apple to add more social features at different functions in the iOS devices.

Camera improvements and Photo editing

Camera icon will appear on the lock screen that will let users quickly turn on the camera and capture an image with a single tap. Besides, users can make use of the pinch-to-zoom for framing the shot and tapping on the screen to focus on that particular point.

To capture an image, users can make the best of Volume up button instead of tapping on the screen. After taking photos, you can quickly edit them on the phone itself like removing the red eye, cropping out the unwanted portions or simply rotate them. Imaging and photo editing has been made easy with the iOS 5 update.

Find my iPhone

Previously available through MobileMe cloud based services, the Find My iPhone App will help locate your lost iPhone using Google Maps on other iOS device. Alternatively, users can sign into iCloud.com for locating the lost or misplaced device. One can also set up passcode lock remotely to bar unauthorised access to the iPhone.

Similarly, users can also perform a remote wipe of data and information onfrom the iPhone. The best part of the Find My iPhone app is that it can override sound and volume controls to play a sound and grab attention. However, the most polite way is to send a message remote that pops-up on the device screen.

Cards

This is a fresh app that will allow you to create e-greetings using images, text and artwork on the phone itself. You can then share those greetings via email, social networks or MMS.

It doesn’t end here. You can also send prints of e-greetings via snail mail to your friends for $3 for domestic mail within the US and $5 for international mail. This app will be made available in other countries as well though the details aren’t available yet.

Find My Friends

You can search for contacts near you using this Find My Friends feature. For this the contact you’re looking for needs to have location sharing enabled on his device, but you can invite people to share their location. This feature can save you many phone calls and immediately connect you to contacts near you.

A simple change in privacy settings allows temporary location sharing as well. The app includes some parental controls and is useful for parents.

Reminders

It is a fancy to-do application with a college rulebook like background but white in colour. By connecting to the iCloud service you can push your reminders to multiple devices.

Newsstand

People interested in news can keep their newspaper and magazine subscriptions in one single app with Newsstand. Read newspapers or magazines and also stay updated with breaking news through pushed notifications. The Newsstand app refreshes once a day and fetches updates in the background. It does not support RSS or ATOM feeds.

Siri

Siri is the new intelligent assistant that offers voice control to the newly launched iPhone 4S. You can command Siri to search for terms online or check weather reports. Siri allows users to ask for help to send a text, set up a reminder, make a phone call, set a timer or alarm, and ask for directions. Besides, the speech to text engine also enables Siri to take notes.

Siri requires internet connectivity for certain functions. It is available only on iPhone 4S and is currently in beta, supporting English (US, UK and Australia), French and German languages.

In addition to the above mentioned apps, Apple will also introduce a new iCloud service which is a cloud-based storage that allows storing and backup of data and multimedia on your iOS device. This cloud based integration has been smartly developed so as to allow the user to access the same content anywhere using iCloud login credentials.

Asus won’t bring cheap Transformer 2 tablet

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Asus is set to launch the second generation Transformer tablet, a website has reported.

The Asustek chief executive officer, Jerry Shen, told the website that the company currently has no intention to cut the price of its first-generation Eee Pad Transformer and is set to launch its second-generation model on schedule with a price point at US$499.

On the contrary, Research In Motion and HTC have decided to reduce the price of their tablets to stay competitive in the market.

The Asus Transformer 2 tablet will be launched by the end of this year. Asustek has already shipped about one million tablet PCs in the first nine months after launch of the product. By these figures, the Asus Eee Pad Transformer can be considered as one of best selling tablets and no wonder Asus is working overtime to come out with a sequel to it.
There have been rumours earlier that the device will sport Nvidia Kal El processor, named Tegra 3, which will have five cores. Kal El has taken very long time to come and Nvidia is expected to make sure it runs on tablets well in time before the holiday season.

The Transformer 2 is likely to have the same form factor as the earlier tablet from Asus had and it can be safely assumed it will be a 10 inch tablet too. The earlier Asus Eee Pad Transformer is also selling at an attractive price of $399 (Rs 19,700) though the price goes up with the keyboard add on.

Google Nexus Prime to have Android 4.0: TMI exclusive

samir-makwana
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The upcoming Samsung Google Nexus Prime handset will come with the 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, according to an exclusive video received by The Mobile Indian from one of its sources. The smartphone is set to be unveiled in a couple of days at the Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2011 event to be held in San Diego, USA from October 11.

Sources have said to The Mobile Indian that the device will come with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. The Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) has the interface that reflects mixture of Honeycomb and Gingerbread. The menu has two major columns &#151 Apps and Widgets. Clearly, the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich will be have more widgets support than the predecessors.

Lockscreen of the Android 4.0 ICS has been revamped and now will carry a short cut to camera &#151 just like the one 5 will bring for the iOS devices. Take a look at the few screenshots of Android 4.0 ICS and the bit out of focus video below.

The Google Nexus Prime is being manufactured by Samsung. It carries codenamed Tuna and has GT-I9250 as its model number as reported number of times previously.

Samsung Google Nexus ‘Prime’ GT-I9250 will expected to sport a massive 4.65 inch Plus Contour display with 1280×720 native resolution.

Earlier also, Samsung had released a teaser of Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2011 event. From the video also one can make out that the display is curved and the profile of the Google Nexus is super slim.

Reportedly, the Nexus Prime will house a dual-core 1.2 Ghz TI OMAP 4460 mobile processor coupled with PowerVR SGX540 graphics and 1 RAM. This device will debut the most awaited Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update as well.

At the back, this smartphone will have a 5 camera capable of recording 1080p HD video and a 1.3 megapixel camera in the front for video chat. The hardware is capable enough for 1080p HD video playback and 1080p Stereoscopic 3D gaming.

For wireless connectivity, the smartphone will support HSPA+/LTE based on the carrier and of course, WiFi (802.11 a/b/g/n) support. Google Nexus Prime will also feature Near Field Communication chip and most likely will become de-facto in all major high-end Android smartphones.

Noteworthy part of the Google Nexus Prime details is the 1750 battery pack that is expected to power the massive 4.65 inch device which would be good enough for a user to enjoy it an entire day. Google Android based devices suffer from the inconsistent battery life based issues and hopes rest on Ice Sandwich to bring some stability on power management.

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