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Samsung SII smartphone debuts in India

Samsung has launched the latest Galaxy S II smartphone in India, which is touted as world’s slimmest handset in its category.

The phone runs on 2.3 Gingerbread, and has a 4.27 inch Super AMOLED Plus display (one of the best in the market), a dual core processor, Touchwiz 4.0 user interface design, an 8 mega camera with the ability to capture 1080p video, and a 2 mega pixel front camera for video chats.

The Super Amoled technology promises almost double the contrast, 18 percent better brightness, 16 per cent more colour compared to the IPS panels (which is currently industry best).

The smartphone also has a 1 RAM, 32 GB slot, Wifi, 3.5 mm audio jack, support, Google Mobile Services, 3D TouchWiz UX and 4 hubs &#151 Social hub, Readers hub, Music hub and Game hub.

The phone comes with HSPA+ capable of 21 MBPS, and 5GHz WiFi which will help you stream live content from your Samsung 3D TV (which was also launched) or internet.

Galaxy SII will be the best successor of Galaxy S, with better readability, better battery, a slimmer design, faster downloads, smoother UI, quicker multi tasking, efficient gaming and snappier streaming. Now there are 5 Galaxy Smart phones in the market namely Galaxy Fit (3.3 inch screen), Ace (3.5 Inch screen), Pop (3.1 inch screen), and Galaxy Pro (Touch screen plus keypad).

Samsung has also launched a range of 3D LED TV with Internet capablity, Galaxy SII can be used as a remote control for these TVs, you can also see the the telecast on your mobile phone as well.

The phone will be available in market after two weeks and will be priced at around Rs 30,000.

Samsung’s Tab 8.9, Tab 10.1 comes to India

Samsung has announced the availability of Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Tab 8.9 in India.
The new tablets, as Samsung claims, are the thinnest mobile tablets measuring just 8.6 mm. While Galaxy Tab 10.1 weighs 595 grams, the 8.9 version weighs 470 grams.

Both the tablets have similar features and specification. Based on the 3 or the Honeycomb, the tablets have better Flash support, full HTML web rendering capabilities, better power management, and a neater user interface.

Another welcome inclusion is the adoption of Nvidia’s dual core Tegra 2 clocked at 1 GHz, and DDR2 based RAM. The devices are capable so users will get up to 21 download speeds depending on the operator.

This devices offer better graphics and gaming experiences, and for that it also has a gyroscope and an accelerometer.

For multimedia, the tablets feature stereo speakers and full 1080p playback at 30 frames per second, which can also be played on a big screen TV with the help of HDMI out port.

As compared to the previous version of Galaxy Tab, the new Galaxy Tab 10.1 features a bigger 6860 battery and comes in 32 and 64 GB variants.

There has been no news on the pricing of the tablets so far.

Micromax Bling 2 coming next month

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In a move to win the hearts of female mobile users, Indian handset maker Micromax will release Bling 2, a successor to Bling Q55, in May.

Sources familiar with the development in Micromax, said to The Mobile Indian, “Bling 2 will be launched in the first week of May and it will be priced at around Rs 9,000.”

Bling 2 will have a 2.2 inch capacitive touchscreen and will run on 2.2. It will also have Bluetooth, GPRS, WAP, MMS, and a 3.5 mm audio jack.

Bling Q55, a dual phone, sports Swarovski keys, a compact rear mirror, 2 camera, and preloaded Opera Mini browser. It has a swivel design.

Micromax joined the Android handset bandwagon some time back with the launch of A60 priced at about Rs 7,000. Micromax A60 is one of the most affordable Android handsets available in the market.

MTS to launch dongles that work on both CDMA and GSM

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MTS plans to launch a CDMA dongle (USB data card) that will also work on GSM networks. However, this will be targeted only at international travelers.

BlackBerry has similar smartphones dubbed as world edition phones that work on both CDMA as well as GSM networks.

The benefits of such dongles cannot be over stated. With this technology, a subscriber can travel anywhere in the world without worrying whether or not he will be within network coverage.

This technology is particularly important for CDMA players as most of the world has GSM coverage while CDMA coverage is somewhat rarer. This leads to people preferring GSM dongles even where GSM network is weaker than CDMA.

Talking to The Mobile Indian, MTS spokesperson Viraj Chouhan said, “We plan to introduce a CDMA + GSM dongle in India targeted specially at frequent international travelers who need seamless data connectivity.”

He, however, did not disclose a timeline or price for this new device.

MTS is a CDMA only operator unlike the two other CDMA operators in India &#151 Tata Communications and Reliance Communications, both of which have GSM operations as well.

Opera Mobile 11 or Mini 6?

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Opera has last month released two versions of its mobile browser, the Opera Mini 6 and Opera Mobile 11 sending the users into a tizzy as which one should they go for?

The biggest difference between the two is that Opera Mobile 11 is only for those smartphones that has Symbian, or Windows Phone operating system. Else, you will have to be content with Opera Mini 6 only.

The core of both the mobile browsers remains the same. The experience and features are also similar in both. The browser engine in Opera Mini 6 is located on Opera servers, whereas Opera Mobile 11 has the browser engine stored in your phone itself.

When the users enter a web address in the address bar of the browser, the Opera Mobile 11 gets the page loaded directly from the web server, whereas in Opera Mini 6, the request first goes to Opera Mini server, which gets the pages for you from the web. The pages are then converted into a lightweight version which is then sent to the smartphones.

In Opera Mini 6, however, some complicated web pages may not appear correctly in your smartphones. The advanced users could get both the browsers installed and browse mobile websites depending on the connection, for example they may use Opera Mobile 11 when they are on WiFi and Opera Mini 6 when they are browsing on mobile service provider network.

There are some superficial changes such as the black navigation bar background and menu bar icon that now appears as “O”. Once users start browsing, they notice the deeper changes. The HTML5 support, better web page rendering, and of course the touchscreen specialist &#151pinch zooming, which is extremely smooth and works well even on phones where (random access memory) is less.

However, the Pinch to Zoom function does not work well on resistive touchscreens or on phones where multi touch doesn’t work.

The Symbian version of Opera Mobile 11 looks good. Zooming in the web pages doesn’t distract from the web pages because the text fits again to adjust with the screen size. Another new feature is zooming in and zooming out by just tapping twice on the touchscreens. In the earlier version, only a single tap allowed users to zoom in.

The demand from users that they be allowed to quickly go up or down the web page has also been answered this time with the on screen arrows.

The sharing feature allowed in Android and Symbian (on these phones, sharing is called “SEND”) phones lets users to share the web page address and title with others. The new tabs are opened in the background, another change from earlier Opera version.

And yes, users can play Flash videos on it without even downloading Flash player in their devices. The navigation bar of the browser goes to the top in tablet version of the browser.

Mobile batteries that charge faster in the offing

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The Lithium-ion batteries that power our laptops and smartphones can be charged up to 90 per cent within minutes if a new battery technology fructifies.
A research team at Colorado State University has come up with the new method of producing battery electrodes with the help of metal foams.

The process has not been commercialised yet, but if and when it does, it may become possible to charge the smartphones within 30 seconds (another source says 12 minutes, which is still faster than usual charging time). These electrodes are compatible with a wide variety of battery chemistries.

The speed with which a battery charges depends upon the movement of electrons to and from the cathodes, also called negative electrode. The research team has come up with metal foams which are covered with battery materials. The metal foam provides with the necessary conductivity, and the battery active material stores electrical energy in it.

The battery consists of nanowires, which are collected together like hairbrush bristles, with an electrolyte (chargeable) coating which in turn covered with a Lithium cathode.

Although the final product itself is not ready yet, the laboratory samples are good enough to create news. Some doubt the commercial viability of the product because the manufacturing process is complicated enough to drive the costs upward.

Adobe creative suite reinvented

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Adobe has announced a new version of its popular Creative Suite for smartphones and tablet PCs.

The Creative Suite 5.5 allows video and image editing by the users. Along with this, there are new capabilities added as well that integrate the tablets into creative workflows, said the company in a release.

The software firm has also announced subscription plans which will allow users to use the Adobe apps by just paying a rental instead of buying them outright.

The prices, of the new version, start from $35 (about Rs 1,500) which goes up to $129 (about Rs 5,700) as users add more apps to their shopping cart.

The software firm has also come out with three iPad applications: Color Lava (it helps mixing colours and helps it transfer to Photoshop), Nav (it lets users choose Photoshop tools) and Ezael (a finger painting app).

The trend of content editing software programmes including audio and video editing on tablets was actually set by Apple itself as it was Apple which showed faith in tablet version of Garageband and iMovie &#151 the software programmes that proved tablets could also be used to create content, instead of just consuming them.

The Adobe approach is slightly different with its new apps, as it pairs the Adobe software programmes on PCs with the tablet apps.

Google eyes music market, acquires PushLife

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Google has acquired Canada-based mobile music streaming service PushLife, an indication that the internet giant is eying to launch its own music service.

Founded in 2008, PushLife’s service allows users to buy and synchronise music on their phones with music libraries on their PCs, using iTunes or Windows Media Players as the primary storage centres.

The services of PushLife are currently supported on Nokia (S40 and S60) devices, as well as handsets from LG, Samsung, BlackBerry and other devices. However, the services are not currently available on iPhones.

In a statement, PushLife has said that Google is a perfect fit for the company as “there’s a lot more work to do in the mobile space, like improving the way applications look and making them easier to use.”

The PushLife service will eventually be discontinued, and replaced by Google’s own replacement created through this acquisition.

Apple currently dominates the music market through its iTunes service, which is available across iPod, iPhone, and iPad. Nokia also has started its Ovi music service, which is also gaining a lot of popularity.

Google, which dominates smartphone market through its mobile operating system Android, has no presence in the music market. In the mobile content space music is the biggest revenue generator with more than half the revenue contribution and as such becomes very attractive place to be in.

Financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed.

Nokia to launch Symbian update

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Nokia is all set to announce an update of its Symbian ^3 mobile operating system. An announcement in this regard may be announced on April 12 in a press conference in London.

As per available information, the new Symbian will be faster and a lot quicker than the present version and will also feature a brand new browser.

It is likely to have a faster and a much comfortable keypad in both portrait and landscape mode.

Nokia could also introduce its X7 smartphones. 3mobile has accidentally posted a video about the upcoming Nokia X7 on its website but removed shortly after.

The video is now available on Engadget.

Whether the X7 comes alongside Symbian update is the bigger surprise. But since the operators have started working on the device, we might be seeing it launched sooner than later.

Android gets Windows Live messenger

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After Windows Phone, the new mobile version of the new Windows Live Messenger is now available in Google’s marketplace. Developed and named by Miyowa, the Windows Live Messenger (WLM) is now available for download under the name “Messenger by Miyowa”.

Built and based on the same Windows Phone variant, the Miyowa WLM features multi tabbed functionality with the initial log in screen followed by the main home screen that displays all connections as similar to the PC variant.

Users can also add Yahoo Messenger contacts to this application along with their Hotmail contacts. Direct access to Hotmail is also integrated within the messenger, which certainly helps save some important time otherwise lost is going to Hotmail using the browser.

Since this is the first ever variant of the Windows Live Messenger, Microsoft has restrained from adding advanced features like calling and even Access to Sky drive (online file storage service of Hotmail) for file transfers.

Microsoft seems more focused on getting the basics right then add more information and features to the forthcoming variants.

Users can now download and use this application on their Android devices from version 1.6 and upwards. Users can either download it directly from the marketplace or can also follow the link to download the application.