When you spend more than Rs 20,000 on a phone, you need to be sure that you are getting value for every penny.

Here is a list of five Android phones that come with all the latest features and hardware, irrespective of the cost.

Olive Smart V-S300

Olive Telecom, which was the first Indian company to launch a tablet, has released India’s first HSPA+ Android smartphone, the Olive Smart V-S300.

What this means is that you will get speeds of at least 14.4 Mbps for downloads, and 5 Mbps for uploads. It also comes with a Wifi hotspot feature which lets you share this high speed network with five other devices over Wifi.

Other goodies include the latest Android 2.3 Gingerbread, a 5 mega Pixel camera for high definition video recording, a front facing camera for video chat, A-GPS with Google Maps, and to top it all a 4.1 inch capacitive touchscreen.

With a 1GHz Snapdragon Processor and dedicated graphics card, the phone is no slouch. Unlike earlier Olive products this phone doesn’t suffer from insufficient hardware.

The phone is DLNA certified so you can share data with other DLNA certified devices such as TVs, cameras, phones and PCs. You can also share data with devices that have a USB port.

The phone is the cheapest such device in India and costs Rs 20,000. Despite officially being announced more than a fortnight ago though, it is still not available in stores.

HTC Incredible S

The latest Android phone from HTC is worth every penny. It comes with a 4 inch S-LCD capacitive touchscreen, Android 2.2, 3G (14.4 Mbps support), Wifi, A-GPS, DLNA, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and EDR.

The phone has an 8 mega pixel camera with auto focus and dual LED flash, and a 1.3 mega pixel secondary camera for video chat.

It uses a 1 GHz processor with 768 MB RAM. It comes with 1 GB of internal memory, which is expandable up to 32 GB.

The best part of any HTC phone these days is its Sense user interface. Incredible S comes at a market price of around Rs 27,500.

Samsung Galaxy S

Samsung Galaxy S is a hugely popular device in India. The phone has a 4 inch capacitive touchscreen, a 1 GHz processor, 5 mega pixel camera, 3G (7.2 Mbps speed support), A-GPS, Wifi and Bluetooth.

Galaxy S has 4 GB of Internal Memory (the maximum available,) which is expandable up to 32 GB. Samsung has integrated a lot of applications such as augmented reality apps, Google Maps, an App that makes the phone work as a remote control for your TV, and Swype for easy typing.

The phone has a 5 mega pixel camera which is capable of recording HD video and a secondary VGA camera for video chat. At Rs 25,000 the phone is definitely one of the better devices at this price point, a totally safe buy.

Dell Venue

Dell Venue comes with a healthy spec sheet that reads: 4.1 inch WVGA AMOLED capacitive multitouch display, 8 mega pixel camera, 1 GHz processor and Android 2.2.

Apart from these goodies the phone also has Wifi, A-GPS, 3G (7.2 Mbps speed support), Bluetooth and 3.5 mm audio jack.

Priced at Rs 28,500 it is not cheap but given that it has a wonderful display and other features to match Venue is worth buying.

Motorola Milestone XT800

Milestone XT800 is the first dual SIM Android phone, that not only supports 3G GSM, but also CDMA Rev A (3.1 Mbps). However, processor speed, at 550 MHz, is quite slow.

Motorola recently announced an Android 2.2 Froyo upgrade for this phone which earlier used Android 2.1. Other features include a 3.7 inch capacitive touchscreen, 5 mega pixel camera with dual LED flash, HDMI port to watch video on TV, A-GPS, Wifi and Bluetooth.

The phone is priced at Rs 28,000 and provides a good option for people who want to use CDMA for high speed data transfer, and GSM for voice.

Good news for all the Nokia users who own a Macintosh. Nokia has officially released an updater application designed specifically for people using Macintosh computers.

With this new application, Mac users will be able to update their Nokia phones as well. Earlier there were no dedicated application for Mac for specifically upgrading Nokia devices.

Mac users will also be able to upgrade their Nokia phones directly from their computers. However with the beta or the release candidate version of this application only supports firmware upgrades for Nokia devices. The application with full software and application update will be added later on Nokia confirms.

Most of the latest Nokia handsets are already supported for update with the Mac version. However, users might experience some problems while updating cellphones as it is a beta application. So Nokia advices users to follow the instruction to the key till the application is finalised.

User who would like to give it a shot can download the application from the Nokia beta test labs directly or can also follow the following link for downloading the application. https://betalabs.nokia.com/apps/nokia-software-updater-for-mac/download_and_installation

The recent malware attack through Android Market left users disoriented. It all began in the month of February, when some applications such as Bowling Time and Dice Roller were posted on Android Market, and it was later discovered that the apps were actually trojans. Once these apps were installed, they kept a backdoor in the Android smartphones open so they could download more malware from the internet.

There were a total of 58 such apps which had been removed by Google as on March 1. According to estimates, about 260,000 Android phones had already been infected by that time. Google also assured users that the apps accessed only IMEI numbers of phones and other personal information was not compromised.

An underlying problem still remains in phones; only the package of the bug has been removed. The security hole created by malware apps still remains. The fact that these apps were getting root access (meaning they could modify the system files) makes the matter even more complicated.

Another complicated part is the number of customised Android builds available in the market, since each handset manufacturer creates its own version of Android operating system. Despite the release of an updated version of Android, there are still several handsets which run an older version of the OS, and are still vulnerable.

If these phones have to be fixed, the updates first have to come from handset companies, which will be passed on to carriers and then to customers after another round of testing. The updates might end up affecting the network as well, so it’s highly unlikely that they will take a risk with the update.

Despite the diversity, there are some steps users can take irrespective of which Android phone they are using. The first and most obvious action is, users should not download anything outside the Android Market. The apps being downloaded, for example, may ask for access to users’ SMSs and contacts, which may sound very unreasonable if all it talks about is recipes or health advice.

However, there are several Android apps which are open all the time, especially the ones selected as widgets on the home screen. Use the task manager App to find out which of the apps are opening without any rhyme or reason, and remove them.

The users who root (get modify access to the system files) their phones to run some program actually end up removing protection around the phone kernel. Such phones are more susceptible to those malicious apps which ask for root access.

Other small steps users can take to secure their mobile devices include treating their phones more like computers, which they actually are. Avoid visiting unknown places from the mobile phone browser, and unknown links should not be clicked on either.

Fraudulent apps can also be identified by their file images or simply by their names. Last but not least, it is important to install a security software (or antivirus), as users already do on their desktops or laptops.

Once upon a time the pager had a ubiquitous role only to be wiped out by the mobile phones which devoid the former of all its role. In a similar way, when Kindle e-book readers arrived, people speculated the death of the print industry.

Others believed it would actually help the cause of the literature. Then came the tablets, which worked as computers, easier computers actually, and also doubled up as e-book readers. As readers, where do these developments leave us?

The e-books are rising rapidly, or so says Amazon, and this gives rise to concerns by Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison.

“My biggest concern is that the technology will continue to widen the gap,” she told Reuters. “It won’t just be the digital divide but also a reading divide if reading becomes an activity that’s now dependent on technology”.

The concern looks legitimate when the price of a regular book (Rs 300&#151500) is considered, whereas about Rs 10,000 would be needed to buy an e-book reader. But then, we can’t discount the fact that a single Kindle device can hold about 1500 non illustrated books (with reduced search speed).

So who will exactly buy an e-book?

Gadget freaks just need the first sign of technology they hadn’t seen earlier and they are hooked. Then there are hard core readers, who just love the words, in whatever form they come. If they come in the form of e-book readers, where they can store so many more books that what they could access in their libraries, so much the better.

Apart from Kindle, there are other good e-book readers also, such as Nook from ‘Barnes and Noble’. There are also devices from Samsung and Sony. The popular tablets are iPad from Apple, Galaxy from Samsung, Xoom from Motorola.

Apart from the younger readers, even readers over 50 are buying such devices.

People belonging to this group are heavy readers and have been loyal followers of conventional print books. Things became more interesting when Kindle claimed their e-readers had sold more than the Harry Potter books.

With the arrival of video, radio was believed to be killed. The truth is, today both the media coexist side by side, without disturbing each other.

Similarly, e-book and tablet may conveniently agree to live with the other.