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Volvo launches mobile app to control cars

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Volvo has launched a new application to help drivers stay in touch with their cars remotely. The allows drivers to monitor and check their vehicle from an iPhone handset.

However, the new app is available only for new Volvo models manufactured after 2012. The app helps drivers to easily find their cars by displaying its position on a map and remotely activating the lights and horn if necessary. Drivers can also lock or unlock the doors of their vehicle remotely through this app.

Drivers can also remotely view the vehicle dashboard to read information such as fuel level, range to empty, and average speed, as well as viewing more detailed information such as technical data and logs of recent trips made.

If the car alarm is triggered, a notification is automatically sent to the mobile app. Besides, other safety features such as roadside assistance and automatic collision notification are also included by Volvo.

The application is available for use in Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, the UK, Russia, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands and is expected to be available in other countries like India soon.

Volvo’s chief executive officer Stefan Jacoby says that the Swedish brand has “ambitious plans” in the connectivity field, although the automaker is hardly the only one vying for yet more space in drivers’ pockets.

As cellular communications and satellite navigation devices combine with more powerful in-car computers, most major automakers are now looking for ways to safely enhance the driver experience, even when the driver isn’t behind the wheel.

Earlier this year, Chevrolet’s parent brand General Motors revealed that its remote access app, powered by telematics system OnStar, has over 56,000 users, who have completed some 1.3 million interactions with their vehicles.

Winamp for Android gets an update

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Winamp has released a major update of its music application for platform, bringing in some new exciting features. Winamp for Android is a music player that offers several popular features of the program’s desktop version.

The new Winamp will let users listen to all new releases from AOL’s Full CD Listening Party website for free and also of the day. Available for Android 2.1 or higher running devices, the new Winamp for Android 1.1 app is available as free download from the Android Market.

The Winamp app brings several useful features such as wireless desktop sync feature, importing iTunes library and also listen to your favourite genre from thousands of Internet based radio stations using the SHOUTcast feature. Previously the SHOUTcast feature was limited only to Android 2.2 Froyo or higher update running devices.

The recent build brings improved SHOUTcast performance with featured station list and streaming playback functions with its improved native media engine.

The app also brings supports to 14 more languages which include traditional as well as simplified Chinese. It’s one must have music player app for Android smartphone owners. The app doesn’t offer support to play video files for Android platform yet.

Zynga launches new game on Apple AppStore

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Zynga, a social network game developer, has announced the launch of yet another game from its “With Friends” series. The game, named as Hanging With Friends, was created on the lines of the popular classic game of Hangman with added variety.

Hanging With Friends challenges players to take turns creating and guessing words to stump, amuse and impress friends. Players choose their avatar from a line-up of delightfully colourful characters and then join their opponents in a hilarious race to see who can hang on the longest. Guess correctly and survive to play another round. Miss a word, and its one step closer to the end! Players can also grasp at strategic lifelines that offer crucial hints and watch instant replays that provide a glimpse into their opponent’s tactics.

“We took a game that everyone knows and loves and reinvented it for the With Friends platform. Hanging With Friends is a truly social game that puts your creativity and puzzle-solving skills to the test,” said Paul Bettner, vice president and general manager of Zynga With Friends.

Players can connect to Hanging With Friends with their existing With Friends account or utilise Facebook Connect to easily find new friends to take on. In the new game, players move at their own pace, and up to 20 simultaneous games can be enjoyed at the same time.

Push notifications alert players when it’s their turn and in-game chat invites some serious smack talk. And if a player’s own friends leave them hanging, the random opponent feature will instantly find new challengers.

Hanging With Friends will be available soon as a free or premium download from the Store on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, or at www.iTunes.com/AppStore. Initially it will be available in Canada via the Apple App Store and will be available in other regions in the coming days.

Must-have tablet accessories

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Tablets have changed the way we look at mobile computing; they are ultra portable yet powerful enough to fulfill basic computing needs and also do their duty as communications and entertainment devices.

However, in the process of losing weight and bulk, tablets have also lost some of the hardware that was essential at times. However, the good thing is that you can still have this hardware when you need it.

Some tablets, such as Galaxy Tab, Apple iPad and Olive Pad come with only a case and a charger. Here are some other accessories that you will find useful:

Keyboard dock

Tablets rely on touchscreens for inputs. Though effective, at times you want to feel your inputs, especially for tasks like typing. For these times you can buy a keyboard dock.

You can connect a keyboard to a tablet if it has a slot, or you can buy wireless keyboards. Some keyboards also act as tablet stands and then there are those that also have a battery pack to juice up your tablet’s battery. Yet another variety acts as a case for your tablet.

These keyboards start at Rs 1,200 (for Chinese ones) and go up to Rs 5,000 (for an aluminium Logitech keyboard case for iPad).

Stand

Tablets are a good way of watching movies while on the go, but then you don’t want to hold them all the time while you are watching your favourite flick. In that case you can invest in a case that also works like a stand, or you can buy a charging dock which works like a stand as well.

Again, the decision of the type totally depends on what you need and what you already have. The prices start at Rs 600 and go up to Rs 2,600, for which you can get a genuine Motorola Xoom stand. Tablets like iPad and Galaxy come with their own case, which act as stands.

Screen protector

Tablets have big screens and hence are prone to scratches, despite the fact that they have better scratch resistance than they used to. So the first thing that we recommend is a proper scratch guard.

While looking for a scratch guard, do remember that most tablets have a capacitive touchscreen that works using your body’s static charge. The wrong scratch guard can therefore impede the working of the touchscreen.

There are scratch guards available for capacitive screens but they are slightly more expensive than those for resistive screens. Make sure you get the right kind for your tablet. Prices start at Rs 200 but the good ones will cost you more than Rs 500.

Stylus

Most tablets, as stated earlier, come with capacitive touch screens. Since they work best with fingers, manufacturers do not supply a with them. However, fingers are not the best way to write, at least for most of us, so a stylus is necessary. Moreover a stylus will be really useful in case you are working on applications like Paint.

There are styluses which work on capacitive touchscreens by mimicking the human body static charge. These styluses cost anything between Rs 300 to Rs 1,000.

Car kit

All tablets that we have here in India use GPS, and are therefore good navigation devices as they have the largest screen size among personal navigation devices. But placing them in the car can be tough. The solution is a car kit. These kits offer various levels of features, from very basic stands to car chargers, and connectors for the car’s music system.

These car kits are not very different from mobile phone car kits and work like docks that stick to the car’s windscreen, or onto the AC vent of the car. In case of tablets, you will also find holders for the headrest so that rear seat passengers can enjoy watching movies on their tablets. Prices vary from Rs 500 to Rs 2,000.

Unbranded tablets catching up with iPad

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We are sure Apple would not have thought of competition from this section of the market. Non-branded tablets, also known as whitebox tablets, have increased substantially in the first quarter of 2011, next only to iPad from Apple, says a report by a market research firm.

The research firm, DisplaySearch, says non-branded tablets are globally the fastest growing market in this segment. The shipments of whitebox tablets stood at 567,000 in the last quarter of 2010 (October-December) and the number increased to 1.9 million tablets in the first quarter of 2011 (January-March). The quarter-to-quarter growth rate has been a whopping 235 per cent, says the report.

The whitebox tablet segment has mostly been ignored so far, but it now stands solid at second place, right behind Apple. “Price is a significant influence on any consumer product, and tablets currently carry a healthy premium on the cost of the hardware components,” said Richard Shim, senior analyst at DisplaySearch.

“The emergence of the whitebox tablet market is an indication that the market is reacting to that premium and is trying to give consumers a lower price to drive adoption. In the short term, the tradeoff will likely result in a less than ideal user experience,” Richard added.

After Apple’s iPad and the unbranded segment, Samsung comes in next at about one million units in the first quarter of 2011. Most whitebox tablet makers use ARM processors and operating system in their devices.

While China is the largest market for such tablets, other regions where these tablets are becoming popular include Asia Pacific, Latin America, and parts of EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa). Most of these tablets are being bought by students looking for lower priced tablets. They are not affected by the low quality &#151 such as low brightness &#151 of the tablets either.

The term ‘whitebox’ was coined for a computer which was built from scratch by users at home. Such devices turned out to be very good for those who had the knowhow, and in addition they were inexpensive as well.

Phones also have their whitebox segments, but here the term doesn’t refer to phones from unbranded manufacturers but to phones coming from small and medium sized producers. The word similarly applies to the tablet market.

Cloud-based gaming for Android, iOS tablets coming soon

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OnLive, a USA-based company, has announced that it will bring its cloud server supported games to Apple and Google tablets later this year.

It will release the OnLive Player in September-October for US and Europe regions. The subscription based digital game distribution service, OnLive, will allow tablet owners to play top game titles on their Android or iPad tablets.

Users can enjoy games without installing them. However, one would have to pay some monthly subscription fee to enjoy gaming anywhere, provided a decent connection is available.

Cloud servers based entertainment is the future for tablets and smartphone owners. Several services are available that store everything on cloud servers – right from movies to documents. The only link missing in the chain has been ‘gaming’.

Cloud based gaming scores over the traditional type as it does not require the user to install games on their devices. Also, it frees up the limited space available in devices and also makes additional hardware unnecessary.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that you can play all PC or console games on your portable device but there are special games for different platforms:

The social gaming phenomenon FarmVille by Zynga was launched for iOS devices last month. (That includes the iPad.) Hence, several FarmVille addicts would be ploughing their farms using their iPads.

However, Android hasn’t been blessed with a separate app since the game is Flash based and the latest Adobe Flash Player 10.3 is supported by the platform, unlike on Apple devices, which don’t support Flash and need specially built apps.

The cloud computing trend will obviously bring richness to tablet and mobile platforms. Though there’s a rise in cloud based services and promotions in India, so far there’s no service available that allows full-fledged entertainment through cloud servers. Also, there is no dearth of cloud computing companies or game development companies in India.

Hopefully in the near future we will see a couple of Indian companies launching games on demand services similar to OnLive.

Forget radiation, mobiles pose infection risk too

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Mobile phones, which are at the centre of debate for their cancer-causing radiation, are now found to be harbouring potentially dangerous bacteria.

An international study published in the June issue of the American Journal of Infection Control said that mobile phones used by patients, patients’ companions, visitors, and health care workers are found to have potentially dangerous bacteria. Some mobiles used by these people have also been found to have multidrug-resistance pathogens including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

This is not the first such report confirming the infection risks associated with cellphones. Two years ago a study found deadly microbes Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) in cell phones owned by the staff of a Navi Mumbai hospital.

Usually, mobiles are handled with sweaty hands, which makes them a good medium for bacterial growth.

This news arrived in the backdrop of a radiation warning from the World Health Organization, which said that the radiation coming from mobile phones are cancerous in nature, though it went on to add that further study was needed in this regard.

Mobeep to give free mobile games during Automobile Fest

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Mobeep, a cross platform mobile application store, will officially launch its Automobile Fest 2011 on June 13 to drive the usage of its mobile appstore.

Mobeep will be featuring different themes during the two weeks campaign. The highlight would be concept cars, eco-friendly or green cars, sports/supercars as well as racing cars. During each of these weeks, Mobeep will be offering free limited edition skins, themes and excitement games for download, exclusively for all Mobeep users.

Ken L, chief executive officer of Ozura Solutions and brand owner of Mobeep, commented, “With the Automobile Fest, we aim to achieve at least 20 per cent uplift in the of usage of our mobile apps store, and to create differentiation from others mobile apps store like Apple App Store, Andriod Market and Nokia’s Ovi Store.”

In addition, Mobeep will also be enriching its mobile content database to further delight its users. Amongst the additional content that will be made available to Mobeep users for free download during the Automobile Fest are automobile-themed wallpapers, videos of racing events, sport car launches, tips on car maintenance and last but not least, a whole batch of the newest racing games.

Get download to your mobile phone for FREE through mobile wapsite m.mobeep.com.

Mobeep is a mobile application store that comes with a patented download accelerator, which supports resumable downloading and offers high-speed downloading rate. These features effectively help users to optimise data transmission and save money. With Mobeep, users can gain access to all types of apps and contents like games, instant messengers and ebooks by using smart phones or even low-end phones.

Mango update to bring cloud service to Windows Phones

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Shortly after Apple launched its cloud service, the iCloud, Microsoft said that it will bring its SkyDrive storage service to the Windows Phones with its next Mango update.

Windows Live SkyDrive is part of Microsoft’s Windows Live range of online services. It is a File hosting service that allows users to upload files to a and then access them from a web browser. The service currently offers 25 of free personal storage, with individual files limited to 50 MB.

However, this service is not integrated with Windows Phones right now. Users will have to wait for the Mango update which will enable them to share photos on their SkyDrive through email, instant messages, text and they can even upload videos to the cloud.

Not that the service is problem free; the user interface is not simple and even cross platform support is missing at the moment. Even moving files between different folders is difficult. But users can stop worrying about the storage they have in their phones, since everything they can’t store in the phone can be stored in the cloud.

All the major mobile operating systems are pushing their teams towards cloud services on smartphones, but the Apple’s approach is slightly different. Microsoft seems to be viewing SkyDrive more like a hard disc in the cloud whereas Apple looks at the situation with an apps first perspective &#151 the result is all the content which belongs to users is accessible on all their Apple devices.

In a way, iCloud seems to be a serious attempt at making users comfortable enough with the cloud so they can store their personal data in the cloud.

In music, Apple is the winner hands down since they almost own the online music business, with iTunes dominating it all the way. The Zune model is different, where Microsoft allows users to access all the music for free, though we can’t be sure about it (it’s not there in the Windows Phone blog post).

Rest of the files, such as photos, office documents, PDFs can be easily stored and accessed from SkyDrive &#151 through all your mobile or desktop devices as well.

May allow others to make WebOS devices: HP

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HP is considering allowing other companies to make smartphones and tablets based on the WebOS but would not make it an open source operating system, its chief has said.

“Even outside companies may be allowed to build WebOS devices if they bring something substantial to the ecosystem. The prospective partners, however, should be special and should add to the ecosystem when they come in,” said the HP WebOS boss Jon Rubinstein at Qualcomm’s Uplinq conference.

The former Apple executive clarified that while WebOS would not remain a walled garden (a closed system), the operating system would not go open source either since HP was not in licensing business.

The WebOS platform of Palm was bought over by HP some time ago, and now is the time when HP’s mobile devices are soon going to come out in the market. The company recently launched its first product HP Veer to a not so good reception but is going to follow up with its ambitious products soon including HP Pre3 smartphone and HP TouchPad.

The company has not provided any specifics about pricing or specifics of any of the products yet. The HP TouchPad is expected to be a 9.7 inch tablet, running on WebOS and competing against iPad and some other tablets.

Some analysts suggest that while licensing may help in creating a bigger and better ecosystem, giving these licenses to companies which make competing products would be counter productive. Instead, the company may give WebOS to television, cars and appliances manufacturers as that would indeed make a rich ecosystem consisting of WebOS running products.