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Vodafone brings cheapest HTC smartphone with cheapest 3G plan

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HTC has launched its latest and India centric smartphone – HTC Explorer. The phone has been designed especially for the Indian market and is arguable the first time HTC has done so. India is also the first market to get this Smartphone.

The phone is priced attractively at Rs 11,600 and comes with a 3.2 inch capacitive touchscreen with 320 x 480 resolution, and is based on the latest 2.3 Gingerbread, with HTC Sense user interface’s latest 3.5 version sitting on top of it. Besides, it features a 3 camera. Indian consumers will enjoy exclusive pre-loaded content and applications including Saavn, Bollywood Hungama, NDTV Cricket, NDTV news, eBuddy XMS, HTC Flashlight, Asphalt Adrenalin, Uno and Cricket Pro.

The phone has very modest specs with just 600 processor, 384 MB RAM and 3.2 megapixel camera. However, given the price and HTC’s quality and user interface, it makes a good value for money smartphone. The also comes with several India specific applications.

What makes it all the more attractive is the special offer from Vodafone, which is available to all users of Explorer who buy the device before December 31st 2011. Vodafone will offer double the data compared to plans available to other users. So HTC Explorer totting individuals will get 200 MB data for Rs 100, 1 for Rs 375 and 2 GB for Rs 650. The offer will be valid for three months after activation.

Kumar Ranganathan, chief marketing officer of Vodafone India said: “This phone is customised for India, with Indian applications built-in. We are confident of its success in the country”.

Lennard Hoornik who is the president of HTC South Asia is equally confident of the device. He said, “We are pleased to announce this smartphone for India, and we believe that it will get a favourable response from Indian consumers.”

The phone gets all that you expect from a typical Android phone, but all that you get is the latest for instance the offering 560 Kbps, latest 3.0 version, and WiFi b/g/n. Not that it is the only device to do so, but it certainly one of the cheapest with all this and more.

However, 600 MHz processor and just 384 MB of RAM mean that it will not be the fastest even amongst its peer in this price range, with the norm being 512 MB RAM, and many having 1 GHz processor.

G’Five launches two smart feature phones

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G’Five today announced the launch and availability of two fully-loaded touch screen models – G66i and G99 – in India.

The G’Five G99, which comes in aesthetic brown colour, is a touch and type phone with decent features. It features a 6.5 cm (2.6″) TFT display, dual digital camera, FM radio, music and video player, stereo Bluetooth, expandable memory up to 4 GB, 800mAh battery and Java besides supporting the Dual SIM dual standby function. A stylish flip cover that houses both the detachable keypad as well as the additional battery adds to the style quotient of G99.

The G’Five G66i comes with a large 7 cm (2.8″) WQVGA touchscreen. It has WiFi, 1500 battery, TV; along with dual SIM dual standby, dual camera (digital camera in front and 2 megapixel camera at the rear), expandable memory up to 16 GB and Java. For the music aficionados, G66i has FM radio, music and video player, 3.5 mm universal and stereo Bluetooth. It comes bundled with a free 2 GB memory card.

G99 & G66i are available for Rs 2,789 and Rs 4,089 respectively.

Arshit Pathak, managing director, Kingtech Electronics, a group Company of G’Five International, said, “We are creating a new category of smart feature-phones, of which G99 & G66 are just the starters. As a mass market brand, we not only bring out innovative products every now and then but also live up to the service expectations with more than 500 service centers across the country. Besides, we also offer an unmatched warranty cover of 500 days as against the industry standard of 365 days.”

Handset Review: Colors X5

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Dual mobile phones today not only offer benefits of two SIMs but have also undergone drastic changes becoming sleek and stylish handsets. Colors X5 is another such dual SIM handset that we got for review at our test center.

Colors Tele Tech has been in the Indian market from quite some time now and in the past we have seen some great products coming for this brand as well. The company has launched the Colors X5 handset to mark its 2nd anniversary. So how well does it stack up against the real world situations let’s find out.

The Colors X5 seems inspired from a couple of mobile phones that we have seen in the past but resembles none. The looks of this mobile are great with a full glossy body and the colour choices offered by the company do justice to the design and makes this device look classy. The body, as we mentioned earlier, also has a glossy finish that adds a few more points to its looks but at the same time is a bit difficult to maintain or keep clean as we live in a sub tropical climate.

The device has a bold size and with a thickness of 12.4 mm, this device gives sure grip to the user and the confidence to talk freely. The edges of the phone are rounded and smoothened which adds a little more comfort in holding and while talking on the phone as well.
The company has spent some good amount of time in designing this phone and by far this has turned out to be a good looking phone and is definitely one of the USP’s of this device.

Keypad and Display

The X5 has a standard Alpha numeric multi tap keypad which settles just below the big silver colored Dpad along with the function keys. The keys are transparent while at the base they carry the same colour as the device’s body giving it a neat look. All the keys except the Dpad are of the same size but are spaced out well so that the user does not feel any discomfort while using them even for longer durations. Also the Dpad and the center key are quite comfortably placed and the Dpad is raised slightly above than the rest of the keys which enhances usability.

The display is powered by a 2.4 inch 320 x 240 pixel resolution based TFT screen but with a higher than the displays featured on most dual SIM based devices out there. The display is quite vibrant and the colour reproduction is quite accurate. The display although small is good for viewing pictures and video watchers will also not be disappointed by it.

Build Quality

Despite having a plastic body, the build quality of the device is good. The Colors X5 can withstand the jitters of daily use easily with a few occasional drops added to it as well. The display is protected by a protective plastic shell but be careful as it get scratched very easily.
Also the glossy finish of the device is prone to scratches but good thing that the company has provided a protective soft case with the device to keep it safe and protected in case of drops and falls.

Call performance

The Colors X5 gives good call connectivity between different cellular strength areas and even with 1-2 bars worth of network, the call quality is good. Being a dual SIM device means that it can be connected to two cellular networks at the same time but it has a single SIM standby mode which means it can be connected to only one SIM in one go.

In terms of earpiece loudness and clarity, the Colors X5 again fairs well but the microphone could have been better especially considering that most of the times we people deal with noisy conditions. connectivity is standard with so you can connect any hand free and stereo hands-free as well.

Operating system and Multimedia

The user interface of the Colors X5 is a custom built interface and has no resemblance any other phone provided by any other mobile phone company and possibly is the only one to offer language options in Hindi and Marathi after English. The menu has a grid type layout with bold icons making it easily accessible for the user. Accessing the menu is easier and as the name a lot of colours have been added to the menu and interface as well.

On multimedia front, the X5 is a decent performer. The phone supports up to 8 of external storage, though the company did not bundle any with this device. The X5 has an inbuilt audio video player that supports most popular audio and video formats like MP3, WMA, MP4 and 3GP as well. Besides, the X5 comes with a standard port so no compatibility issues will be faced by the users also.

The 3.5 mm connectivity allows it to connect to any audio device very easily. In terms of music playback, the device’s loudspeaker is great but the headset works good from low to medium volume levels and at high levels the quality goes for a toss. You can also try plugging in another or a better set of ear plugs but the device itself has some issues with playback at high volume levels.

The Colors X5 also features a 1.3 fixed focus camera at the rear with no built in flash. But there is a flash light provided on the top of the phone. The camera does a good job by clicking decent visuals even in low light conditions as well but it’s useless without the flash for night photography.

Battery backup

The device features a 1250 battery pack that is capable of powering this device for up to 3-4 days of standard usage that includes up to 1 hour of calling and music usage per day. But the battery backup will differ from usage of one person to other. The bottom-line here is that the battery backup is good and acceptable as the X5 won’t let you down.

Finally

To sum it up, the Colors X5 is a nice effort by an Indian mobile phone player to present something stylish to the market and it packs in enough features and looks to be liked by many on the first look itself.

It impresses with its performance and decent multimedia capabilities but surely with a price tag of Rs 2,149, the Colors X5 becomes a good value for money offering that you won’t regret even after months of usage.

App Review: Cut The Rope

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Gaming is one such medium that has made even physics haters fall in love with physics all over again. An example that can be cited for use of physics in casual style game play is the Angry Birds.

Cut The Rope is one such physics based games from the Zepto Labs, the developers of the game. You might have come across this game’s icon but probably decided against downloading it after checking the frog like creature on its icon &#151 Om Nom.

Cut The Rope has received Game Developers Choice Award, Apple Design Award and British Academy Video Game Awards (BAFTA) this year.

The game is very simple &#151 manoeuvre the candy to feed the green character named Om Nom. The game has nine different types of box with multiple levels inside each box. The nine different boxes are Cardboard, Fabric, Foil, Gift, Cosmic, Holiday Gift Box, Valentines Box, Magic Box and Toy Box.

The puzzles in this game are pretty different and based on simpler physics which makes the gameplay interesting and challenging at times. Graphics are quite adorable and the colour tone is well-balanced by leaving out loud colours.

Games always have that rewarding tendency for those who put a little extra effort to achieve the tasks. Similar is the case here but the only thing is one has to procure all stars in all levels in order to turn golden.

The game play requires the player to collect all stars from the each level and eventually feed the candy to the Om Nom character. The supporting elements in each level are some key elements that are meant to be used with precise timing and super delicate control in order to manipulate the candy to take the stars. The ropes, bubbles and the air pumps are need to be chopped, popped and tapped respectively to manoeuvre the candy.

Using the different supporting elements, one must make the candy jump, float, swing or fall around. Be careful with the spikes, movable pegs and electrical areas in the different levels. The difficulty level and challenge becomes difficult as one moves further in different boxes. That makes anyone put the some concentration and thoughts before randomly tapping the screen.

Its engaging gameplay becomes challenging with every level and also frustrating at times, making every second worth spending. Its heavily addictive nature will certainly make you bit sharp with puzzles and quick with fingers on the touchscreen over a period of time. You can share your score with others through the Game Center.

One good part about the game is that it is more challenging than the Angry Birds which honestly becomes bit boring and redundant (of course, the opinion may differ) after certain levels.

Cut The Rope is available in Apple Store for $0.99 (Rs 48 approximately) and certainly one of the must-have games on your iPhone, iPod touch and even iPad. The same game is also available for the but due to diversity of hardware and software update, the game at times gives hiccups to the users.

App Review: Due Today

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Due Today allows the users to organise their work, follow deadlines, maintain projects, have a task list all with the help of one free app.

There are several customisable ways to manage and organise work in the app, and users also have the option to download Windows version of the to manage their projects on their personal computers as well. One can also use this on a tablet.

It is extremely easy to create projects in the app, and users also have the option to add sub projects. They can also add team members, monitor their work, assign tasks, and search in the app.

All of us, irrespective of whether we are organised or not, do need some help in managing our administrative tasks and the Due Today app on Android helps the users in doing just that. In a way, this is the usual GTD (getting things done) app which is very simple to use. What makes it different is the ease with which projects and tasks can be assigned to others.

Users have the option for creating deadlines for each project, and they can be made to stay open till the work has been completed. Due Today also supports the ToodleDo online to-do-list.

Bottomline: Those users who just need to keep track of their grocery list or submitting their fees, simple tasks like these, should rather consult their old fashioned notepad. Due Today is for those who are finding it difficult to manage their tasks. Another negative, users cannot attach their files to Due Today.

TomTom Android application in the pipeline

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TomTom, a based navigation service provider, is set to launch an for devices, a senior executive of the company indicated while talking to The Mobile Indian.

“TomTom already has an based application. Though we do not wish to disclose the future plan as of now as a part of our company policy, we do not rule out any mobile operating system, whatsoever,” said Jocelyn Vigreux, general manager and senior vice president of TomTom India.

The company on Tuesday launched three portable navigation devices – TomTom Via 100, Via 120, and Via 125, marking its entry into the Indian market.

First look: BlackBerry Curve 9360

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BlackBerry has announced the launch of its latest Curve series handset for the Indian market, the BlackBerry Curve 9360. This launch is right on schedule as per the plans shared by a BlackBerry spokesperson earlier this year.

Curve 9360 replaces the older Curve 8520 and brings along a sleeker, better looking version of Curve for its users in India. We got to lay our hands on the new device for some time. Read on to know our impression of the BlackBerry 9360 Curve:

The BlackBerry product design team deserves an applause for making this device as good looking as it is. Although BlackBerry 9360 is the same in terms of length and breadth BlackBerry has managed to take 2.9 mm in thickness and 7 grams off the phone. There is not much change as far as weight reduction is concerned but while holding the device every gram counts. Along with the change in dimension the company has also given the smartphone a completely new look and has added trimming all over the device, which gives it a sleeker look as compared to its predecessor.

Curve 9360 has a 2.44 inch TFT screen like its predecessor, but the display has 246 PPI pixel density as compared to the 163 PPI pixel density display used in the Curve 8520. The display is definitely better as far as visual reproduction is concerned and plays video as well. Although Curve 9360 is directly targeted at the youth it still misses out on the multimedia shortcut keys featured on the Curve 8520, but the standard 3.5 mm audio connector and microUSB connector ensure easy connectivity with most other devices.

The device is powered by RIM’s newest BlackBerry 7 OS, and runs on an 800 single core processor so you can expect this device to be fast. However, more information will only be delivered with a more detailed review of the phone. Curve 9360 comes with 512 of RAM, a 512 MB ROM, 4 of and an option to expand the memory up to 32 GB via a card.

Curve 9360 also gets a 5 camera with flash, which is a big leap over the 2 megapixel camera featured on the 8520. The device can record video as well but it is still capable of recording in mode only.

The keypad and trackpad have both been upgraded and improved and the keys now offer better feedback and require less effort to get work done. The keys have been made smaller in size but have been spaced out well for speedy, more comfortable operation. The trackpad is somewhat similar to the one on the Bold 9900. It is accurate and highly sensitive as well, thus improving navigation multifold as compared to the 8520.

This is just a first look preview of the Curve 9360, but keep looking at this space for more updates on the device as and when we get the device for a fuller and more detailed review covering the performance and usability aspects as well.

Is India getting ready for 4G?

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Some days ago, it was revealed by the director general of COAI (Cellular Operators Association of India), Rajan S Mathews, that Reliance is going to launch its network starting December this year.

It may be recalled that when was launched in India, device manufactures had started flooding the market with 3G phones six months before the actual roll out. A similar trend is also seen on the 4G devices front as device manufactures launch dongles at regular intervals.

Yesterday, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) launched three new 4G devices at PT Expo Comm in Beijing, China. The devices allow consumers to enjoy access at up to 102 (megabits per second) downlink and 51 Mbps uplink to support data-intensive services on TD-LTE (time division-duplex, long term evolution) networks.

During the unveiling, a spokesperson of NSN said, “As soon as operators in India roll out 4G services in India we will be able to provide dongles to consumers for experiencing it.”

Qualcomm, in collaboration with Huawei, ZTE, Quanta and BandRich, has also launched LTE TDD multi-mode devices which will support HSPA+, HSPA, LTE and EVDO networks in multiple frequencies.

The devices, which were displayed during an event in New Delhi recently, include data dongles, routers and tablets. The four companies that announced the products are both consumer brands as well as ODMs (original device manufactures).

Announcing the launch, Avneesh Agrawal, president of Qualcomm India and South Asia, said, “The announcement of multi-mode LTE TDD devices today is a significant milestone for the commercialisation and deployment of LTE in concert with 4G for Indian BWA operators.”

Indian handset brand Beetel of the Bharti group has also stated that it will launch LTE tablets based on around Diwali this year.

Both LTE and WiMax, called 4G or BWA technology, offer very high speed wireless broadband access at theoretical speeds greater than 100 Mbps; while users can access real speeds of 10 Mbps on these networks. What is also good is the fact that LTE is backward compatible with both GSM and CDMA networks.

During the BWA (broadband wireless access) spectrum auction in June this year, Infotel Broadband Services (now owned by Reliance Industries) won licenses for 22 circles while Aircel won eight, and Bharti Airtel and Qualcomm won four circles each, Tikona won five and Augere managed one.

Facebook iPad app likely during iPhone 5 launch

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The iPad version of Facebook may be launched with the iPhone 5 next week, a tech website has said.

Facebook does not have an app for the iPad. Some users though managed to use the Facebook iPhone app in half screen mode on their iPads, which is surely not convenient.

For that matter, Facebook doesn’t have a dedicated desktop or Mac app either. Dedicated Facebook apps are available on the iPhone and Android, but those apps are limited in scope and are used mostly when users are away from their computers.

However, since Apple has not even confirmed that the iPhone 5 will be launched at the event on October 4, the company cannot be expected to confirm the launch of an iPad Facebook app at that event either. At the same time, an unveiling of the Facebook iPad app at the launch of iPhone 5 would make sense only if it is shown how the application benefits from the new features being announced in 5.

Another notable point is that Twitter has been deeply integrated with the iOS 5 operating system, though it was earlier reported that Apple wanted to integrate Facebook, the deal didn’t work out. During the F8 developer conference, Mark Zuckerberg showed how the Timeline feature looked when used on an iPhone.

Google Drive cloud storage on cards

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The battle space is heating up with Google getting ready to compete against Amazon Cloud Drive and Apple’s iCloud with the help of its Google Drive or GDrive. According to a social media consultant’s website, the new Google Drive has very much Google Docs type look.

Google is yet to officially comment on the news. Google already offers some sort of cloud service with its Google Docs, though it is not a true cloud service like Apple’s iCloud and Amazon’s Cloud Drive.

Google Drive is expected to offer software syncing services which can be installed on all sorts of devices (mobiles, pc, tablets etc) so the users can make maximum use of their files.

It is also possible that the internet giant will release Google Drive and Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich version together. Google has had a good 2011 so far, and with the new image available, there is a lot to come from Google.

The news has been confirmed by TechCrunch as well, which says Google has already been using the product internally.