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Asus sticks to Windows 7 tablet

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Despite the popularity of and platforms, Asus has reiterated its commitment to make Windows 7 tablets in future. The Taiwan-based company also believes that Windows 7 is strong enough to withstand the Android and iOS onslaught.

“We’re making Windows 7 tablets because we still get a lot of inquiries from corporates and end users who are just used to Windows,” Asus’ product management specialist Julie Cheng was quoted by a website as saying.

“They don’t want Apple and they don’t want Android because they just simply want Windows – they’re used to it. There are still demands for Windows solutions,” added Cheng.

Asus has already launched a Windows 7 tablet and is set to come out with three Android tablets. Speculation suggests that a OS (operating system) netbook is also on the way.

Some industry observers, however, do not agree to Asus’ enthusiasm about Windows 7 tablets as consumers are shifting fast to the finger friendly operating system; whereas Windows 7 tablets are operated by a stylus.

As reported by The Mobile Indian, the Asus Eee Slate, running on Windows 7, is quite heavy and thick. Those who want to carry a tablet in their pocket can’t do so with the Eee Slate.

It has a bright screen, quad core chip, and users can expect this device to consume more battery relative to other tablets in the market. The interface is not intuitive either, but does seem familiar, as users might have already worked with Windows 7 on a desktop or laptop.

It will be interesting to see how Asus will convert these inquiries (about Windows 7 tablets) into sales in the future.

‘Mobile gaming rising at the expense of game consoles’

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The rise in cellphone entertainment is gradually eating into the traditional game console market, according to a survey.

A blog post from Nielsen, says that the traditional console gaming is witnessing mass exodus towards smartphone gaming.

According to the Nielsen survey, people’s spending on cellphone entertainment including mobile games is increasing gradually while their expenses on game consoles are decreasing every day

At the same time, it may just be possible that the smartphone segment is expanding rapidly whereas console games have just remained static, as the Nielsen study just takes leisure spending into account.

Nielsen study also says that may be the screen, on which the games are played, are changing but the games are likely to remain the same.

Different websites such as Gamasutra and Venture Beat have covered Nintendo high rung officials as saying that smartphone gaming is useless and that gaming consoles will win in the long run.
Nintendo has offlate fought back by adding better graphics, 3D and 3D camera to the Nintendo DS.

The company intends to become the destination for high quality games. The 3D effect is created by using parallax barrier technology, which uses two different images for each eye to create an impression of depth. This technology, however, requires you to be in a sweet spot where the 3D effect works best. If you move away from there, the 3D experience is not quite there.

There still remains a huge difference between a game that costs $50 (Rs 4500) and the smartphone games that are either free or just cost $0.99 (Rs 45).
The smartphone games are no less in terms of popularity and are a popular device in their own right. Apps are being downloaded to these devices by tonnes and most of these are games.

The smartphone games, however, do not come with a detailed storyline. The games on the smartphones are also repetitive in nature.

HTC plans ahead for April 12

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HTC, which has called for a press conference on April 12, may announce a range of devices such as the HTC Cha Cha, HTC Salsa, and the improved versions of Desire and Wildfire.
There are also speculations that HTC is planning to make big announcements at the press conference.

The biggest expectation is that the company may launch the HTC Pyramid, as revealed by XDA developers.

The HTC Pyramid, after the HD2 will become the flagship product of the handset maker. The HTC Pyramid features a large 4.3″ display but with a qHD of 540 x 960 pixels.

A big thing for this device is the inclusion of Qualcomm’s next generation Snapdragon running at 1.2 GHz with Adreno 305 graphics engine.

764 of RAM and a 16 internal storage are some of its key high lights. In contrast with the current smartphones, this phone looks promising and much faster in performance.

With the HTC Desire Z launched in India, HTC might soon launch newer devices including the recently unveiled tablet computer. But pricing would definitely be different than what it is in the other countries.

Dell Venue Pro to get Windows Phone 7 updates

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Dell will issue the long-awaited Windows Phone 7 updates to its Dell Venue Pro customers in a “phased rollout” that would take place over the next few weeks.

Writing in the community blog post, a Dell spokesperson said that the company will offer Microsoft’s “NoDo” updates to Venue Pro users, the company will issue the updates in three phases, including a final phase that involves additional Dell features.

“Microsoft is delivering the Copy and Paste update in batches,” the Dell spokesperson wrote. “That’s why it’s not getting to all of you at once.”

Initially scheduled for release in February, Microsoft’s “NoDo” update, which enables Copy-and-Paste functionality on the Windows Phone 7 platform, was delayed after an initial update of Windows Phone 7-based Samsung smartphones caused error codes on many users’ devices.

Dell has begun a phased rollout of the update in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), as well as in India. According to the post, customers must first add two prior updates from Microsoft itself.
The post refers to the initial update as the “February update” and says the second update from Microsoft requires that customers already have the February update loaded onto their devices.

Dell will offer a third update at some point of time in future that would include faster loading of gaming applications and changes to Microsoft’s Marketplace, where customers can find and purchase Windows Phone 7 applications, as well as Microsoft Outlook. Right now Windows phone 7 market place is not accessible in India.

Dell’s spokesperson then shared his own experience updating the Venue Pro with each of Microsoft’s updates and posted instructions along with the announcement.

According to the post, the “NoDo” update requires Microsoft’s Zune software, which in turn requires a that runs at 1GHz clock speed or more, at least 1 of RAM, and connectivity for optimal operation.

The spokesperson said the update allowed the applications to run faster, and said Dell will offer more details in upcoming blog posts.

Xperia Play hits Indian stores

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Xperia Play hits Indian stores

Sony Ericsson’s much talked about PlayStation phone, now christened as Xperia Play, has started to reach the stores in India, and is already available in some select stores.

Xperia play, which is a combination of an 2.4 Gingerbread based Xperia phone and Sony’s handheld gaming device ‘PlayStation’, will be available for around Rs 35,000.
“The Xperia play is already available in select stores. It will be available across the country after the official launch this week,” a Sony Ericsson spokesperson said.

The phone sports a four inch capacitive touch screen, full PSP game controls, five camera with an flash, a front facing camera for video chat and Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon processor. Besides it has a dedicated Adreno 205 graphics processing unit and a mighty 1 RAM.

Being a gaming phone, it has a collection of more than 60 games from the industry’s biggest content providers including Sony Computer Entertainment, Gameloft, Electronic Arts and Glu Mobile. Popular games in this device include top franchises Assassins Creed, Need for Speed and The Sims.

Company has partnered with over 20 publishers to ensure a steady flow of new games.

Some of the games available include:

Asphalt 6: The latest instalment of one of the leading and top-selling racing games will be available for free exclusively on Xperia Play.

Assassins Creed Altair’s Chronicles HD: One of the most popular gaming franchises, with action, puzzles and stealth gameplay set in the Middle East of the Crusades.

Need for Speed: Grab the wheel of the fastest, hottest, and most powerful cars in the world. One of the most successful video game franchises of all times.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: The latest instalment in this key franchise. Special Forces operative and renegade Sam Fisher returns to fight a corrupt secret agency.

Dungeon Defenders Second Wave: Stunning graphics, intense gameplay and exclusive on Xperia PLAY.

Gun Bros: Choose your weapon and join the ‘Freakishly Rugged’ action heroes Percy and Francis Gun as they take on a terrifying menagerie of alien beings.

Galaxy on Fire 2: Escape into space with hours of deep gameplay and mind blowing graphics in this space exploration game.

Guns ‘n’ Glory: You lead a gang of bandits in this popular and award-winning casual tower defence game with a hilarious western theme.

Worms: Send your worm platoons into battle in this award-winning turn-based strategy game.

Backstab: An epic third person pirate adventure that incorporates intense sword fights and other dynamic combat modes. Launching on April 14th exclusively on Xperia PLAY.

N.O.V.A.2: This game has awesome graphics and is an intense multiplayer gameplay. It makes its Android debut exclusively on Xperia Play.

The games are downloadable via the “Xperia Play launcher”, an application that is activated by sliding open the gamepad. The “Xperia Play launcher” recommends games and enables consumers to search for top titles optimised for Xperia Play on Android market.

There is also a range of PlayStation original games available at launch which we have already talked about here

PS games now available on Android Market

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Games that were released for the original PlayStation have been released on the Market, just in time of the launch of Xperia play. Indians, however, will have to wait for some time before they can get their hands on the phone.

Xperia Play is an Android phone with full PSP (play station portable) functionality including buttons. Five PS1 games, all from Sony itself, have been launched in the Android market. All the games are priced at Rs 286.47 each. That’s not all that bad a price, considering it’s a full fledged console game that you can play on the go.

Syphon Filter: The game is about Gabe Logan, who is a guerrilla warfare expert who is on a personal crusade to bring down an international terrorist ring and eliminate a deadly virus.

Cool Boarders 2: In this game, you have to control a snowboard. There are 16 intense racetracks to race through and 40 insane stunts to pull off.

Destruction Derby: Just buckle yourself into a shiny new race car and then destroy it, making sure you send your opponents to the junkyard in the sky before your motor bites the dust!

MediEvil: Tale of Sir Daniel Fortesque, a cowardly knight resurrected 100 years after his death to save the land of Gallowmere from the evil sorcerer Zarok.

Jumping Flash: Leap around six colourful worlds in the cockpit of a robotic rabbit, hunting for the evil galactic property developer, Baron Aloha.

All these games are already mega hits amongst PSP users, it is safe to buy them. The success of these games can be assessed from the fact that all these are more than 10 year old.

Facebook unifies mobile sites

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Mobile users of Facebook will no longer need to bother about which handset they are using to choose between two Facebook mobile addresses that existed till now.

Facebook has now announced an upgrade that allows users of touch-based devices and feature phones to log in to a single site, m.facebook.com.

“With the new m.facebook.com, users with high-end touch devices will see a rich touch-friendly interface; for users with feature phones, the site will look and work great,” Lee Byron, interactive information designer at Facebook, said.

Previously, Facebook has multiple versions of its mobile site: touch.facebook.com for touch devices, and m.facebook.com for less feature-rich mobile devices.

Having two sites presented Facebook’s engineers with two problems, the first of which involved limitations on file sizes for feature phones. According to Byron, this had limited the use of CSS and JavaScript APIs on some touch phones.

With the new m.facebook.com, he said every device uses the same framework, and the engineering team can move faster and build new features just once for every mobile device.

It also means that everyone can access the same features, whether writing messages or checking into places. There will no longer be a difference between m.facebook.com and touch.facebook.com, we’ll automatically serve you the best version of the site for your device,” Byron said.

Meanwhile, 0.facebook.com, a stripped-down site, will use the same codebase as m.facebook.com as well, he said.

Handset Review: HTC Desire Z

rahul-gupta
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When it comes to based smartphones, not many handsets have a physical keypad. Neither any manufacturer is trying to make such devices.
The HTC Desire Z is among those very few Qwerty keypad based Android smartphones.

Its big bold size along with grey and brushed aluminium finished metal body are enough to attracts eyeballs. In terms of ruggedness, this phone is a star. An occasional drop on a relatively softer surface will do no harm to it but that doesn’t imply that you be careless with it.

The slider mechanism, as compared to most of the Qwerty smartphones, is a notch above. This phone’s keyboard slider mechanism works on the swivel out pattern, like the one found on the N97, but without the angular placement. So the keyboard sits flat with the phone, making it more comfortable to use.

The ‘swivel out’ design work in three different hinges giving extra stability and durability to the whole thing. Even in the longer run the three hinge design will definitely prove better than sliders and swirlers.

The Qwerty keypad has the right pitch for people even with fatter fingers. The keyboard also has two programmable keys that can be used as shortcut keys.

A big point of concern is the thin ribbon cable, which connects the phone’s lower and upper part, as dust and dirt could easily settle in these areas that could create some serious issues in the longer run.

The Desire Z features a magnificent 3.7 inch capacitive touch based display, the most important and useful feature of this phone. The screen delivers crisp and vibrant visuals and definitely gives best possible support for recently added games on the android marketplace.

Talking about the operating system, the Desire Z runs on Android 2.2 Froyo, slightly older for a relatively newer phone but it works fine. People at HTC have modified the operating system and have added the HTC Sense to Froyo, which in turn works exceptionally fine and adds a few tweaks and enhancements to the stock system .

The phone runs on the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platform but surprisingly despite having a 1 GHz processor, HTC chose a slightly underpowered 800 scorpion for this device along with the stock Adreno 205 graphics processing engine. But this does not mean that the phone is slower but a more powerful processor would have been better.

During the whole testing operation, the phone never got hung, although with too many applications running the performance goes a few notches down but not something to break the heart of an Android fan. With 1.5GB of on board memory which doubles up as and 512 RAM, this phone performs flawlessly and without any hiccups or freezes nor are there any delays in execution of operations.

The Desire Z also features a very good five camera with a dual power flash. The camera does a brilliant job in bright light conditions and a good job in lower light with the help of the flash.

Since the camera is placed on extreme left, during close ups the flash might prove futile and may cast a bright halo on one side of the pictures.

Videos, shot by this camera, are impressively smooth and flicker free. There’s also a selection of entertaining filters and effects that you can add to your snaps. Nothing out of the ordinary but these effects can sure zing your shots up a bit.

The Web is impressive and supports multi-touch gestures. With support for and 802.11b/g/n WiFi, the Desire Z comes fully loaded as far as wireless connectivity comes in to play.

You can open almost every daily use applications on this and still somehow it manages to keep going. For multimedia, it sports the default Android player, but you are free to add many more as you like and can download from the Android marketplace.

Playing games is of great fun on this device. With an HD capable display and a dedicated graphics engine, this smartphone has got enough muscle to take on the most strenuous of games and run them flawlessly.

Battery life is one of the major drawbacks of this phone. With a number of applications running and display set at bright level, it won’t last more than a day. Although users can activate the battery saver feature to save the battery but still the 1300 battery does not seem adequate for such a device. The battery should have been alt-least a 1600 mAh or more considering the weight of this phone which is on the much higher side.

To conclude, the Desire Z is a superb smartphone with tons of features crammed up in a smallish smartphone. It impresses at almost all the fronts, except the battery and the fragile parts which might turn out to be a problem in the future.

Agreed that it is a slider Qwerty keypad based phone but still does not hides the fact about the heaviness of the device.

App Review: Share my app

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Recently, a survey has found that more than 50 percent of the application users are not able to search for their favorite application using the market’s default search feature and with the number of applications growing by the day the situation is getting even worst.

Just imagine if you would be able to share the applications installed on your phone with any and all of your friends flawlessly and seamlessly!

Well with the ‘Share My Apps’ application, you can easily share any and all of the applications installed on your Android smartphone to any other Android phone.

The app also lets you make a list of applications, which makes it easier to share multiple applications with other users.

To share all the user needs to do is to long press an application from the list visible in the app space and select the method to transfer the application. Applications can be transferred via mail, Bluetooth, QR Code (Requires Barcode Reader application also) or through other applications which accept text (such as SMS, Facebook, Google reader.)

With its easy to use interface, it makes sharing application a whole lot fun and easy to do. The layout of the application and the listing is very nice with alphabetic sorting makes it easy to use.

Users who wish to download and use this application can choose from the ad supported free version application or the one time paid version which costs about Rs 45. Users can download it directly from the android marketplace or can also follow the link to do the same.

Best mobile ticketing options

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While having a good time with your pals you suddenly plan to watch a movie. Will you prefer to turn on your laptop or book a ticket through your phone?

Here are some of the apps you could consider using to book rail, air and movie tickets on the go:

NGPay.com

This application will become your one stop source for booking all sorts of tickets &#151 be it rail, bus, or for a movie. The only thing lacking is the option of booking air tickets.

The process of downloading is simple. Open your phone’s browser, type ngpay.com. You will get a link to download. Fill up the form and you are ready to go.

For movies you have the option to book tickets at Big Cinema, Fame Cinema, Inox Movies, and PVR, among other theatres. You can also book tickets for other events.

Rail ticket booking is done through a tie-up with IRCTC, and a rail tourism option helps users book package tours.

You can also shop for various products and pay through your credit, debit or cash card.

The company claims to be the ‘biggest shopping mall on mobile’, and it seems justified given the number of products you can buy using this service.

Oxicash

Oxicash is a mobile wallet from Oxigen which provides recharge and bill payment services.

You can download this app from Oxigen’s website. After that you can create an account with Oxigen; deposit cash in the account through more than 75,000 Oxigen outlets; or top up the account via online fund transfer. You can use your Oxicash account to book tickets, pay utility bills, and to recharge prepaid accounts (such as mobile and DTH) as well.

You can book a variety of tickets using this service such as air, rail, bus and movies (through bookmyshow), car rental, hotels and holiday packages.

You can also avail a cash card facility, which you can use to make online payments through other gateways. Delhi residents can use Oxicash to recharge their Delhi Gurgaon toll plaza E-Tag.

mChek

mChek is a mobile wallet service operated in partnership with Airtel and Tata Indicom. A similar option is available at HDFC.

Like Oxicash, it allows you to book rail, air, bus and movie tickets. You will have to link one or more of your credit cards to your mChek account to process all your transactions. It is safe to do so.

To download the application you can “MCHEK” to 5676709 from any phone; or make a toll free call to 543219 from an Airtel phone or to 59909 from a Tata Indicom number.

The mChek account will help you make payments at partner websites and pay utility bills.

Since this service is operated in partnership with banks and telecom service providers you could also reap the benefits of any tie-up that your bank and service provider have.

However, you cannot recharge your mChek account with cash; something you can do with Oxicash, and which is an advantage for people in rural pockets who don’t have a bank account.

Bookmyshow

Bookmyshow is a popular ticketing website for movies and events. It recently launched a mobile website of its own.

This site works in the same way as its online version in which the user can see seat availability and time slots of different movies running in their city, and can use their credit cards to make payments. It is a good alternative for people who do not want to use mobile wallets or don’t want to download the application, which many phones at any rate don’t support.

PVR

PVR has the largest chain of cinema halls across India. The company has introduced a mobile platform for booking tickets that works through enabled handsets.

Download the application by sending ‘PVR’ in an SMS to 53030 from your mobile. You will receive a download link. Click on the link to download the application. You will have to use your credit or debit card to make payments.

Big Cinema

Big Cinema, a Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group venture, has also launched its own mobile ticketing platform. You have to type http://m.bigcinemas.com on your mobile and install the correct version of the application on your mobile handset. The payment process is similar to that of the PVR application.

Redbus.in

For bus ticket bookings Redbus.in has emerged a popular option. The website also has a mobile optimised site, and for payments it has tied up with mChek. To access the site you simply need to type redbus.in in your mobile browser.

Makemytrip

One of the most popular ticket booking websites has an application for BlackBerry, using which people can book and cancel flight tickets, get e-tickets and track refunds.

It integrates your flight bookings with your BlackBerry calendar by marking the date of travel as an event entry. You can also check flight status, share on Facebook and Twitter, and find out the latest deals.

The free application also uses your phone’s or your flight destination to find restaurants in your vicinity.

Cleartrip.com

Cleartrip has a mobile optimised site for airline and train tickets, and for booking hotels. The process is simple. Type cleartrip.com on your mobile browser, select details and make payments using your credit card.

Other options

Most other online ticketing sites have either launched a mobile site or are in the process of doing so. In case your phone can’t access GPRS, you can call an airline booking agent, or call 139 for railway bookings. You can also use SMS services. This last is not a popular option as you need to remember short codes.

Whatever option you do choose, your mobile phone is definitely going to be the medium of choice for ticket bookings in the coming days because of its ease of use, and also because these services are increasingly becoming secure.

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