Home Blog Page 4580

Sony Ericsson announces Xperia Active and Xperia Ray

nilabh-jha
-
0
Sony Ericsson announces Xperia Active and Xperia Ray

Sony Ericsson has added two new mobile phones to its Xperia series. Both the phones, which were announced during CommunicAsia 2011 in Singapore, feature the latest 2.3 operating system along with a 1 GHz processor.

But that is where the similarity ends.

Xperia Active comes with a 3 inch reality display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine (Sony’s display technology), and a 5 camera with video functionality. It is a dust proof and water resistant phone, and incorporates wet finger tracking to ensure the phone works perfectly when either the screen or the user’s fingers are wet.

Xperia Active is for health conscious people. The phone comes pre-loaded with sports apps that enable consumers to easily track their fitness levels. Users can set their ideal training route using the built-in GPS, barometer and compass. On-screen heart rate and pulse can be monitored in realtime (enabled by wireless networking technology), while the iMapMyFitness can monitor day to day performance. In addition, Facebook inside Xperia allows consumers to share their progress and experiences with friends.

The phone also comes with one extra, changeable soft-touch back cover, detachable ear hooks for the portable handsfree active headset that ensures the earpieces remain in place while you are running; a wrist strap and an arm case for use during a workout.

The phone is not the lightest &#151 it weighs 110.8 grams. The battery is a measly 1200 (measly as it is a smartphone); we hope that Sony Ericsson has some tricks up its sleeve to make the battery last a full day.

The other Sony phone, announced today, is called Xperia Ray. Aimed more at style conscious consumers the phone comes with a sleek aluminium frame, reality display, Mobile BRAVIA Engine, and 3.3 inch screen.

Besides, it has an 8.1 megapixel camera with Exmor R technology (Sony’s camera technology) and HD video functionality, which means that the camera will be one of the best, if not the best, in its class.

Xperia Ray runs on the latest Android platform for smartphones (Gingerbread 2.3), and is powered by a 1 GHz processor. The phone is quite sleek with 9.4 mm thickness and the design certainly is gorgeous.

The phone incorporates a front facing camera and a scratch resistant screen with excellent and brightness, and integrated touch keys. The phone is light weight at just 100 grams. All the other bells and whistles of the smartphone, such as WiFi, 3G, and DLNA are all present.

Sony Ericsson has not announced the prices of these devices but we think they would cost somewhere between Rs 15,000-20,000.

There is a high probability of these phones making it to India at the time of their launch. Sony Ericsson India has already said it will be very aggressive in the Indian market and will launch several products in the next three months, and we expect these to be included in that list.

Apps more used than mobile web browsers

prasoon-kumar
-
0
Apps more used than mobile web browsers

Mobile phone users are spending more time using applications than surfing the internet on their handheld devices, Flurry, a mobile ad company, says in a new study.

At the time when smartphones had just arrived the main activity on these devices was browsing the web. People used to check their email, go to social networking sites and browse webpages on their smartphones.

However, mobile apps have evolved with time and are more handy now than they were before. Many apps, mostly games, allow users offline access as well, which is not possible with a webpage.

Charles Newark-French of Flurry said in a blog post, “It took less than three years for native mobile apps to achieve this level of usage, driven primarily by the popularity of and platforms.”

The study, which covered smartphone users in the USA, found them spending on average 74 minutes per day browsing the internet and 81 minutes per day on mobile apps. Users are spending about nine per cent more time using mobile apps says the Flurry blog post.

App usage has doubled within just one year (it was 43 minutes per day in 2010,) whereas it grew at a comparatively slower rate, from 64 minutes per day in 2010 to 74 minutes per day in 2011.

“Consumers spend nearly half their time playing games, and a third in social networking. Combined, these two categories control a whopping 79 per cent of consumers’ total app time. Further, as we drill down into the data, consumers use these two categories more frequently, and for longer average session lengths compared to other categories,” the study added.

Flurry, which monitors major smartphone platforms such as Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Windows Phone and J2ME, said that 47 per cent time of users’ app time goes into playing games; whereas social networking apps consume 32 per cent.

News and entertainment activities were next on the list, but came at a distance, which is surprising since many people seem to spend a lot of their time watching videos on smartphones as well as on their desktops and laptops.

The analysis from Flurry underlines one important point: a strong mobile app ecosystem is extremely important for the success of any device.

Apple to dominate mobile gaming business: ex-head of Sony

prasoon-kumar
-
0

Apple, the maker of iPhone, could dominate the mobile gaming industry ahead of the likes of Sony, which has made a name for itself in the gaming industry with products like Playstation and Xperia Play smartphone, says former Sony head Phil Harrison.

“At this trajectory, if you extrapolate the market-share gains that they are making, forward for ten years – if they carry on unrestrained in their growth, then there’s a pretty good chance that Apple will be the games industry,” Phil said in an interview given to Edge.

The former head of Sony seems to be more impressed with the sheer diversity of devices provided by Apple. He says, “You’ve got iPhones, iPads, iPods, which are all part of the same ecosystem; the speed at which Apple sold 15 million iPads is phenomenal. And the number one activity on an iPad, according to some reports, is games, and I think that will only continue.”

He thinks the role of consoles in gaming will grow less intense. Gaming, he believes, will shift to browsers. He doesn’t think the Xbox or PlayStation brand will continue to live on. He says, “It could be that the game and of the future is powered by PlayStation, or powered by Xbox Live or Nintendo. I think that that’s where you’ll see the battleground: not necessarily putting boxes full of chips and hard drives into your living room but giving you a storefront, navigation, discovery, a business model and user-interface. There is undoubtedly a generation of kids alive on the planet today who will never purchase a physical media package for any of their digital entertainment.”

His vision for the future becomes more important in the light of rumours that Apple may be considering acquiring Nintendo. The move, if it happens, will give Apple a stronger foothold in the video games market. Currently, the top mobile gaming options for users include LG Optimus 2X, Samsung Galaxy S, Sony Xperia Play and Micromax Gameolution G4.

It’s not just the ability to play the game on different devices from Apple, it’s also about the way Apple is seamlessly connecting every electronic item users interact with, including television.

For example, AirPlay Mirroring connects the television with the iPad screen so whatever appears on the iPad screen appears on the TV screen also. If the trend continues, Apple will indeed be on every possible device leaving very little room for others to get in.

More smartphones used on Wi-Fi than computers

The Mobile Indian Network
-
0

Contrary to the popular perception that networks are primarily used by computer and laptop users, a study has now found that it is instead the smartphone users who were using the facility more than the former.

The WiFi usage data of the USA has been gathered by Meraki, a cloud management company for businesses, and was first reported by Gigaom.

In the first six months of 2010, Windows and Mac computers made up 64 per cent of the devices connected with the Wi-Fi networks in the USA monitored by Meraki. In the same period in 2011, computers made up just 36 per cent of devices connected with the WiFi networks.

Though it’s not expected that Meraki data would be applicable across the world, but the trend of increasing smartphone popularity cannot be missed.

Apple’s devices counted for 36 per cent of all the devices connected to WiFi last year and its share increased to 47 per cent in the first half of 2011. devices came out of almost nowhere at 11 per cent Wi-Fi connectivity. The Meraki data monitored about 100,000 devices connected to Wi-Fi networks across US.

The dividing line between computers and mobile devices is getting thinner with the day, which shouldn’t come as a surprise when smartphones and tablets are getting increasingly popular. Almost everybody seems to own a Wi-Fi connected smartphone and the tablets are anyway seen more as an alternative to netbook or even the regular laptop.

Since Wi-Fi networks are available at public places as well, it makes sense for the users to use their smartphones there, as using laptops would be a cumbersome process. It’s not that the number of laptops accessing the Wi-Fi networks is not growing, it’s just that the number of smartphones is growing at a bigger rate.

Even in India, apart from regular smartphones, there are many feature phones which connect to Wi-Fi and even come for as little as Rs 6,000. These include Lava B8, Samsung Chat 355, Akai Connect Book, Micromax X560 and Spice QT 68.

It won’t be much of a surprise if we see a repeat of the same trend in India as well.

Micromax introduces first push mail phone

anil-satapathy
-
0

Micromax today announced the launch of their first push email powered phone, the Q80, which is a and Wi &#151 Fi enabled phone with an optical track pad. The push email service allows the users to receive their mails instantly. Q80 is a dual phone which is designed to run both 3G and 2G enabled SIMs.

It is packed with a 3.0 camera with the face and smile detection ability, and a VGA front camera for video calls. The phone has a music player with built in Yamaha amplifier for better music quality. The Q80 boasts a 2.4 inch TFT screen (320 X 240) with an optical trackpad and preloaded applications including Opera Mini, Snaptu, Bloomberg UTV, ngpay, Burnout, Newshunt, Facebook and Nimbuzz.

The Q80 comes with an in-built memory of 68 which is expandable upto 8 GB. Micromax claims that the 1200mAh battery of the phone provides a of up to 130 hours and of upto 5 hours. It is priced at Rs 4,999.

Hip street launches iPhone 4 slider case in India

rahul-gupta
-
0

Canada based digital accessory and peripheral brand, Hip Street has announced their entry into the Indian market with a wide range of accessories for smartphones, tablets and media players. Some of the most innovative products launched include the iPhone 4 slider case that includes a slide out keypad of the iPhone targeted at people who find it cumbersome to type using the touchscreen.

Sukhesh Madaan, general manager, South Asia, Hip Street during the launch said, “Indian offer a unique challenge of providing best of the quality and innovative products at most effective price and we are hopeful with our strong R&D facility in Canada we will remain able to come at par with those expectations.”

Hip Street’s mobile phone accessories portfolio also includes hand-free kits, fingerprint resistant scratch guards and multi chargers. Besides, it has a range of protective cases for tablets like the iPad and the Blackberry PlayBook with detachable Bluetooth keyboards.

The company has even launched iPad 2 venture case, which can accommodate the tablet and a detachable rechargeable Bluetooth keypad for the iPad 2, priced at Rs 4,500.

As a part of the return policy, all Hip Street products come with a ‘no questions asked replacement’ warranty, which states that the products will be replaced at the designated service centres.

Nokia tries to clear doubts about its future

Sandeep Budki
-
0
Nokia tries to clear doubts about its future

Mobile phone giant Nokia on Tuesday assured its customers that all is well within the company, and that mobile consumers across the globe can look forward to a range of new devices from the market leader amid stiff competition from rivals such as Apple and Samsung.

Stephen Elop, chief executive officer of Nokia, said at CommunicAsia 2011 in Singapore on Tuesday, “Earlier this year, Nokia outlined a new course to change our direction. Just four months and ten days later, on June 21st, today, a new season is beginning at Nokia as well.”

Stephen said the company is putting in place the pieces needed to capture the next one billion users who will connect to the internet, many of whom will be in the Southeast Asian region.

He further said that Nokia will ship its first Windows Phone based device later this year and that the company will continue supporting its own platform, Symbian, till 2016.

The next generation Symbian Anna update for Symbian^3 handsets, he said, will arrive at the end of August this year. The Anna update for Symbian^3 devices, which includes N8, E7, C7 and C6-01, is expected to bring a new user interface, new icons, and all the other performance jazz promised earlier by the Finnish handset maker.

Nokia will start rolling out Symbian Anna from July. However, users across the globe will be able to download it via their PC or over the air only around the end of August.

Apart from that, at the Nokia Connection 2011 event, which was held in conjunction with CommunicAsia 2011 in Singapore, Nokia released a statement saying that Series 40 phones will now be pre installed with maps and places of interest.

The maps installed on the phones will be for the region that the phone has been bought in. This means the maps will be available to users even when the phone is not connected to the internet. Hence, users will save on the cost of downloading maps on their phones through mobile networks.

The updated Nokia Maps for Series 40 phones received extra attention simply because the feature comes free with the phone. This is a big boost to the capabilities of the Series 40 phones since these are low end phones targeted at emerging markets.

These maps do not depend on the Global Positioning System, but rather calculate the location of the user from the cell phone towers nearby. The phones will have smart routing software installed as well, so they will be able to provide turn by turn navigation.

At the same event, Nokia also showcased its next generation handset, the N9. The new handset is a full touchscreen smartphone with no buttons on the front panel. Flaunting a new industrial design with vivid 3.9 inch Amoled touchscreen display, the Nokia N9 is certainly a worthy successor to N8 and is also a worthy flagship MeeGo device.

The N9 is expected to be made available later this year.

Along with the announcement of the N9 smartphone, Nokia has also released the hardware specifications of its other MeeGo smartphone, the N950.

Nokia N950 will not be released for the general public; and rather it is expected to be a developer-only phone. It will therefore come sans support and warranty.

Nokia N950, according to the specifications released, is totally different from what the speculation and leaked images that were floating around on the internet till some time back indicated.

Nokia also unveiled three new handsets &#151 C2-02, C2-03 and C2-06, all of which are touch and type devices. Of the three new handsets, C2-03 is a device and has the exact same specifications as those of C2-02, which is a single SIM handset.

All three new Series 40 handsets running mobile OS come with Nokia Maps for Series 40 application pre-loaded on them.

Mary McDowell, head of Nokia’s Mobile Phones business unit, while unveiling the handsets, said, “These phones all offer a web, maps and experience second to none in the market. And with the choice of a touchscreen or a keypad, we really have made everything available and easy to use in an affordable phone that comes in both dual or single SIM options.”

She further said, “We want the web to be easy to access, fast and affordable for all. The technology behind the Nokia means that consumers, especially those new to the mobile internet, can get the information they need quickly, as the Nokia Browser serves up relevant local content – making the whole experience more personal and enjoyable.”

The Nokia C2-03 is a dual SIM handset that offers Easy Swap feature and lets users change the SIM card without having to switch their mobile off or taking off the back cover. Apart from that, users can personalise the look, feel and tone of up to five different SIM cards.

All three handsets have touchscreens that support 240 x 320 pixel resolution, and have sliding keypads. This means you can either use the phone via its touchscreen or via the keypad for quick messaging. Sporting a 2 camera at the back, these devices have 10 of and the capability to expand the storage with a of up to 32 GB.

NFC to come to feature phones soon

rahul-gupta
-
0

Near Field Communication, which allows mobile phones to process wireless monetary transactions, is currently the buzz word amongst all smartphone manufacturers.
But, one of the major drawbacks of the present technology is that it requires physical hardware in the form of a chip, which is to be embedded inside the smartphone to make NFC transactions possible from that device. This leaves no space for older devices to make use of this technology as there is no way an NFC chip can be installed in them.

To overcome this, Naratte, a USA- based startup, has developed a technology called Zoosh.

Whenever an NFC enabled smartphone comes close to a POS or point of sales terminal, the NFC chip that is embedded inside the phone communicates with the sensor and the user is required to touch or move his phone across it. Once the phone comes in proximity of the POS sensor, it communicates with the NFC chip and data related to the transaction is transmitted to the sensor by the chip.

On the contrary, the new technology uses sound waves to transfer data between devices even in the absence of NFC chips. Zoosh enables users to securely exchange data between devices using speakers and microphones found on most devices.

POS terminals, on the other hand, only need to install a microphone that allows them to record or listen to the sound that is generated by the cell phone to complete the transaction.

Not just smartphones; feature phones can also be NFC enabled with this technology since no hardware upgrade is required by the device.

“Zoosh operates across a broad range of products including feature phones, smart phones, media players, tablets, POS systems, personal computers and even televisions,” the company says in its website.

Naratte, in the beginning of the year, had only released software development kits for both and platforms for developers to make applications using this solution.

New eBay Android app update adds selling option

nilabh-jha
-
0

Popular online market place, eBay has updated its official app for to add selling function. This allows users to list, relist or revise their listing of stuff they want to sell.

Using your Android-powered device, you can list an item and even include up to eight photos. What’s more, this new updated app supports RedLaser’s barcode scanning technology to prefill item details for an array of products.

There are other options like revise items from your “Active Selling” list, relist them from the “Unsold” list, “Sell one like this” capability (when viewing a similar item on eBay), as well as the ability to schedule an auction (start immediately or choose a later date), end an active auction, mark an item as shipped, and contact the buyer right from within the app.

In addition, eBay for Android has a new home screen, which has more options for refining search results (condition, free shipping, location, completed listings and sold items only). Besides, the home screen now also shows feedback ratings and recent comments from eBay members.

The online shopping portal has also done a lot of changes under the hood – fixing a number of bugs and bringing performance improvements.

Eko: The mobile bank for low income customers

prasoon-kumar
-
0

Eko is a low cost mobile banking solution for people in the low income groups. It is just the right service for India, where the workforce is 540 million-strong. Only about six per cent of these workers are employed in the organized sectors. The low cost mobile banking company Eko aims to serve the unorganized segments of our economy.

Eko was founded in 2009 with the aim to reduce the cost of financial transactions. The reason? The bigger banks used to target only higher income group customers due to more earnings from them. Eko decided to reach out to low income group customers through mobile phones to deliver banking services to them.

Almost at the same time a regulation was made by the Reserve Bank of India, which said non-profit companies could only become business correspondents for regular banks, and that retail outlets such as grocery stores and petrol pumps could work as sub-agents of these business correspondents (BCs). These regulations allow SBI and Eko to work together to allow customers to open zero-balance accounts. Customers can save money in these zero-balance bank accounts and earn an interest rate of 2 to 3 per cent per annum on their savings.&#151 all the banking activities such as deposit, withdrawals, remittance and checking balance can be done through SMS.

Low income group customers just have to approach local retail stores that are sub-agents of Eko with their identity proof, a photograph and of course, a personal mobile phone. Eko has managed to reach its target audience easily by collaborating with local retail stores, which are in direct touch with the customers.

Mugdha Bhargava, vice president of communication, Eko, said, “We plan to cover Bihar, Jharkhand and Delhi for the next six months and then move to other parts like UP and Maharashtra.” She said there was no referral system in place right now and that the company targeted the customers through various activities like nukkad natak, promoter-led and van activities, financial literacy comics etc. The company had plans to associate with banks other than SBI and ICICI Bank, but details were not given.

According to another official from the company, Eko is currently present in Delhi NCR region and Bihar-Jharkhand region, which are full of migrant workers. Eko currently engages about 1,300 CSPs (customer service points) or retail outlets to serve customers. These retail outlets are chosen on the basis of certain risk parameters like criminal record, identity proof, shop address proof, and business details like footfall, cash management capabilities, goodwill in the market etc.

These retail stores work like mini bankers for low income group customers who otherwise have no access to banking services. The transactions are kept secure with the help of unique and secret numbers.

Eko has also entered into a partnership with VeriSign to make sure that transactions are kept secure. The details of the transactions conducted are also sent to the customer in the form of an SMS.

1...4,5794,5804,581...4,773Page 4,580 of 4,773

© 2024 All Rights Reserved. The Mobile Indian.