Manupatra Information Solutions, an online legal research publisher, has launched Manupatra mobile applications on iPad, iPhone and Blackberry.

This application is a legal research resource which gives instant access to the entire set of Indian Case laws (since 1844) and Acts and allows intelligent searching of the comprehensive library.

With this, users can have access to the most comprehensive collection of legal information on their fingertips while commuting, in court (during argument to check opponent’s case) or working at an off-site client meeting.

Deepak Kapoor, chief executive officer, founder and director, Manupatra Information Solutions, said, “The application will connect our customers to the comprehensive database of case law and legislation which they require for their daily practice. In addition to this, the application aims to make their search more precise, less tedious and instant.”

He further added, “This tool will go a long way towards empowering the common man, ensuring better access to the courts judgments by the general public and a more robust public participation. The application will give the common man the power to get references anywhere and anytime, assisting them to search information regarding the Indian laws and their interpretations instantly. “

In addition, this application empowers the lawyers, law students, and company secretaries with in-depth legislative, regulatory and procedural information critical for decision making.

This application aims to bring knowledge of law to the Indian society and make common law more commonly accessible.

The application allows free text (Boolean Search) search, including proximity, synonym, stemming, and wildcard. You can search for citation, bare acts, over 1500 central and state acts.

The Manupatra application is available for free on iTunes and Blackberry Store for a limited period. Alternately, users can visit www.manupatra.com to access links to download the Apps. The online version of the application costs approximately Rs 10,000.

The users will require separate registration for the unique user ID and Password on mobile devices. Current user of Manupatra online will need to register through iPad/iPhone or Blackberry since Manupatra ID and password will not work on these devices.

Onskreen, a US-based company, has developed a new home screen for Android tablets. Named Cornerstone, it brings the multi tasking feature of Android to life by making the screens of all running apps visible at the same time.

It is available for Android tablets that run on either Honeycomb or Gingerbread.

Earlier, users could see only one running App at a time; while the others worked in the background.

Onskreen enables the user to interact with several apps at the same time without having to minimise or close one while working on another. To switch from one app to the other, the user needs to press and hold the ‘Home’ button. This brings up icons of running apps.

The method works well on phones that have small screens.

Now that tablets have large 9 and 10 inch screens, users would like it if they could view more than one app at a time.

Ovi Mail and Chat are now powered by Yahoo.

A year ago Nokia announced that it will dump Ovi Mail and its instant Messaging service, and will instead use Yahoo’s platform to provide email and IM.

The process is now complete although older mails will take some time to transfer to the new platform.

Nokia claims that users will get a faster and more powerful mail client, and that they will be able to chat on the web for the first time. Till now it was only available on mobile.

The Nokia or Ovi account id can be used to log into Yahoo services such as Yahoo! News or Finance.

Users will have to accept the terms of service, for which they will have to go to mail.ovi.com. They will have to pull email and contact data into the new service within 90 days of April 6, 2011. After the three months, old data will be lost.

For support there are two sites. The Mail Support Site has basic FAQs (frequently asked questions) and guidance.

In addition, a site hosted by Yahoo! includes help topics, a profile of new features, and guidance on managing the account.

All users, especially the hardcore gamers, already know there are no Epic video games available on the Android platform as the company prefer the iOS platform over the former.

This is not the fault of Google or handset manufacturers, says Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games.

He says that carriers are giving so many pre-installed software programs on the handsets that there is not much space left on the Android smartphones to run games efficiently, whereas Apple controls how much memory is used for what purpose.

According to Tim Sweeney, Google needs to be more controlling of what is being put on the phones by the carriers.

With the launch of Apple iPad 2, the graphics performance of the games has improved substantially, which means the iOS platform will perform better than earlier and the Android will continue to be in the shadows for the time being.

Usually, the gaming consoles see a graphics improvement of 10 to 20 times in about eight years, whereas iPad2 has improved nine times within just one year.

Android fragmentation is also a huge problem for the high end game creators, because they cannot guarantee a consistent performance from the games on all the Android handsets. Even the same Android phones bought from different carriers don’t perform consistently even if the users are playing the same game.

Those who are waiting for the Windows update vis-à-vis the copy and paste functionality, here is a good news.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is working on a project, Sparsh, which could enable the users to copy and paste data from one device to another, which is not possible at present though numerous wireless connectivity options such as 3G, WiFi and Bluetooth are available.

Sparsh, which means ‘touch’ in Hindi, is not exactly an application, rather it’s more likely to become a component of the operating system of the phone itself, just like select all (Ctrl+A) or undo (Ctrl+Z) or redo (Ctrl+Y) functions in the personal computers.

Sparsh works by creating a clipboard based in the cloud. The copied data remains there in the cloud clipboard till the time it is pasted on some other device.

For it to work, both the devices need to have Sparsh and the users have to log in on both before proceeding. Users first need to select the data, which is then copied and sent to the Sparsh cloud. When the user touches another Sparsh enabled device, the copied data is pasted as if it has been copied from that very device.

Right now, the project is only at the concept stage, but it holds substantial promise to be pursued by the operating system creators.

Copy and paste functionality was in the news thanks to Microsoft, which after much brouhaha, brought NODO updates recently. There was a time when Microsoft believed the Windows Phone 7 series didn’t need copy paste because users didn’t need it, or even if they did, they used it rarely. The clipboard option was left out by Microsoft deliberately.

But due to user demand, Microsoft had to bring in copy-and-paste for the Windows Phone 7 with the NODO update, which is still being rolled out.