Airtel Digital TV, in association with UTV Indiagames, has announced the launch of a mobile game based on Akshay Kumar’s upcoming movie Tees Maar Khan for its subscribers. The movie is scheduled to release on December 24, 2010.
The game based on Tees Maar Khan movie is exclusively available to over 4.7 million Airtel Digital TV customers.
Playing as Tees Maar Khan, the gamers have to rob a series of banks, museums and a train filled with tons of gold, tactfully avoiding the patrolling guards and various high-tech security devices. The game is broken into three stages.
Inspired from the scenes of the movie, the stage one is about a bank robbery, where the gamer has to cross three levels of bank robbery by breaking through the security, cracking the lock and escaping with the loot before the alarm is activated.
The stage two is the museum heist, where gamer has to steal precious artifacts from some famous museums and pass through three such levels to finally come to the final stage – the great train robbery.
In this stage, gamer has to rob a moving train. Here the gamer has to jump from one bogey to another, reach the special compartments to infiltrate the heavily guarded interior and steal the precious cargo through three levels.
The TMK game can also be played by Airtel Digital TV customers on computer and DTH.
UTV Indiagames has been in the mobile gaming space for long and has partnered with several major game publishers and media companies in the world such as EA, Disney, THQ, Atari, Universal, Fox, Warner brothers, Sony, MTV, 2K etc.
Some of UTV Indiagames’ successful titles include the first Spiderman game on mobile Bioshock, Garfield, Godzilla and Warchess (iPad). Two of the largest IPs developed and published by UTV Indiagames includes the IPL cricket franchise for mobile, iPhone,iPad and online as well as the game Bruce Lee on all mobiles and iPad platform.
Tees Maar Khan now on mobiles!
RCom announces 3G tariffs
Reliance Communications (RCom), the second private operator to launch its 3G services in India after Tata Docomo, has announced tariff plans for its 3G consumers.
Mobile subscribers who are currently availing RCom’s 2G services and have a 3G enabled device will automatically be upgraded to the 3G network. All 2G voice and SMS tariffs will remain unchanged and both the pre-paid and postpaid customers can continue using their existing tariff plans.
3G Mobile Broadband
The USB data cards are available in two variants-7.2 Mbps and 21 Mbps. While the 7.2 Mbps USB data card is priced at Rs 2,599, the 21 Mbps variant is available for Rs 4,499.
Under ‘pay as you go offer for postpaid’ users are charged on the basis of usage. For usage below 50 MB a user will be charged 10p per 10kB and for usage above 50 MB users would be charged one paisa per 10kB.
Whereas for prepaid users ‘small validity data packs’ is available wherein they’ll have to pay Rs 20 for a 25 MB one day pack and Rs 98 for a 125 MB one week pack.
Monthly plans are also available for both prepaid and postpaid subscribers wherein they’ll be charged Rs 100 for 100 MB, Rs 399 for 500 MB, Rs 649 for 1GB, Rs 899 for 3GB, Rs 1,499 for 10 GB and Rs 2,100 for 21 GB.
3G Mobile TV
RCom has categorised mobile TV tariffs into daily, weekly and monthly plans. For example users can access 15 news, kid and fun channels at a daily price of Rs 25; weekly price of Rs 75; and monthly price of Rs 150.
Devotional channels, five in number, can be accessed at a monthly price of Rs 100.
Mega Pack which includes a bouquet of 75 channels are available at daily price of Rs 50, weekly price of Rs 100 and Monthly price of Rs 250 for Rcom subscribers.
Apart from that users also have an option of subscribing to a single channel with daily price of Rs 10, weekly price of Rs 10 and Monthly price of Rs 75.
3G Combo Plans
Combo offer includes voice minutes, SMS and Data usage. For postpaid users monthly plans are priced at Rs 199, Rs 499 and Rs 2,499.
Rs 199 plan offers subscribers 300 voice minutes, 50 SMSes and 50 MB data usage; Rs 499 will offer 1000 voice minutes, 600 SMSes and 100 MB of data usage; and Rs 2,499 pack will provide6000 voice minutes , 6000 SMSes and 5 GB of data usage.
For prepaid users two monthly packs valued at Rs 299 and Rs 699 are available.
Rs 299 packs gives you 300 voice minutes, 100 SMSes and 200 MB data usage and Rs 699 pack gives you 600 voice minutes, 600 SMSes and 500 MB of data usage.
Gmail for mobile now available in Hindi and Urdu
Google has introduced a new version of Gmail for mobile. The new HTML5 based version will include features such as search, stars, labels and threaded conversations.
All these features will work in the mobile web application just as they do in the desktop Gmail.
The new language includes Hindi and Urdu apart from languages like Chinese, Dutch, Arabic etc. The new version is available for iPhone and Android based handset users.
The new Gmail can be used in the desired language provided the phones default language is set according to language preference of user.
But the problem with this App is that most of the Android phones do not support Hindi or Urdu. So the user will have to download the Hindi or Urdu font in his phone first.
Google has also included offline support, smart links (titles will appear in links for Google Maps, YouTube and Google Docs), the ability to add and remove labels, layout improvements, in addition to the existing features.
This new version works for iPhones running iOS 2.2.1 and above, and all versions of Android. User will need to go to gmail.com in the phone’s Browser and after Gmail will be display in the phone’s default language automatically.
Huawei to launch Ideos X5 & X6 in India
Huawei Technologies plans to launch two Android smartphones Ideos X5 and X6 in India by mid January. The new mobile devices have recently been launched in the Australian market, and both run on the Froyo edition of Google’s Android operating system.
A Huawei spokesperson said to Telecom Yatra, “We are planning to launch Android based smartphones Huawei X5 and X6 around the third week of January, and as of now I cannot comment about its pricing.”
Huawei Ideos X5 features a 3.8 inch capacitive touchscreen, an Accelerometer and a 5.0 mega pixel camera with LED flash. The device accesses broadband internet via WiFi, and HSDPA and HSUPA 3G networks. It is integrated with assisted GPS and since it uses Android OS, the phone supports Google applications.
Meanwhile Huawei Ideos X6 supports maximum download speeds of 14.4 Mbps. It has a 4.1 inch capacitive touchscreen with 480 × 800 pixel resolution. X6 supports high definition video recording and playback, and Dolby mobile surround sound. It has an HDMI out port that can be used to connect the phone to a high definition TV. Like the X5, Huawei’s X6 also has a 5.0 mega pixel camera that is enabled with LED flash.
Huawei had forayed into the Indian handset market in July this year with the launch of 20 mobile handsets divided among two series, Hangout and Android, which are powered by Qualcomm’s chipsets.
Huawei’s Hangout series includes a full range of trendy and feature rich mobiles that use multiple technologies such as GSM, CDMA and UMTS and cater to entry level, medium and mid-high level segments.
Similarly, the Android series comprises smartphones right from affordable to high end devices on the Android platform with loads of applications catering to medium and high end consumers.
The best Nokia 3G phones
Nokia has constantly been losing market share to other, newer entrants in the Indian handset industry. According to the latest IDC report, Nokia’s market share plunged to 36.3 per cent in June from 54 per cent at the end of 2009 and from over 70 per cent in 2008. However, the company’s market share has fallen because the size of the market has increased and new mobile users (mostly in tier two cities and rural areas) are being catered to by manufacturers other than Nokia.
Now, with 3G in the offing in India, Nokia too has developed 3G enabled phones, including a low cost 3G device, Nokia 2730, to address its price sensitive audience.
At present, Nokia is offering 23 3G-enabled handsets in the country, and more are expected to arrive very soon. Here is a list of some of the best, available and awaited, 3G handsets from Nokia:
1. Nokia C6 – Priced at Rs 13,000 this is by far the most loaded phone in Nokia’s C series. The touchscreen smartphone has a slider Qwerty keyboard and a 5.0 mega pixel camera with LED flash. It includes WiFi, GPS and a 3.5 mm jack, and offers a plethora of Ovi services, including Nokia Ovi Store, Music, Chat and Mail.
2. Nokia C5 – Nokia C5 is available for approximately Rs 8,000. The device supports Ovi Maps 3.0 and Nokia Messaging. It comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera with flash, a music player and a built in FM radio with RDS.
3. Nokia E72 – A successor to Nokia E71, this is another bestseller from the company’s E series and is priced at about Rs 16,000. E72 supports WiFi and comes with a 5.0 megapixel camera with flash. It also offers navigation and video calling.
4. Nokia E71 – E71 costs around Rs 13,000. The phone has a 3.2 megapixel camera and is WiFi enabled. It also supports Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, and has GPS receiver with AGPS.
5. Nokia E63 – Priced at about Rs 9,000 Nokia’s E63 has a 2.0 megapixel camera with flash, WiFi support, Bluetooth with A2DP, as well as Nokia Maps and Messaging.
6. Nokia E5 – At about Rs 11,000 Nokia E5 offers Ovi Maps, Nokia Messaging and WiFi connectivity. E5 has a GPS receiver with AGPS support and a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash.
7. Nokia N900 – This touchscreen device costs approximately Rs 24,000 and comes with Linux-based Maemo software. It has a built in 5.0 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics. N900 includes WiFi connectivity and comes with an Internal Memory of up to 32 GB.
8. Nokia N8 –At about Rs 23,000 N8 is slightly cheaper than the N900. The device boasts a 12 megapixel camera with Xenon flash and an OLED screen. N8 comes with 16 GB of on board memory and expandable memory up to another 32 GB. It can also be used for video calling.
9. Nokia X5-01 – This is a compact slider phone and costs about Rs 9,000. X5-01 has a square design and a Qwerty keyboard. It supports WiFi connectivity, has a 5.0 megapixel camera with LED flash and supports Bluetooth with A2DP.
10.Nokia 5800 Express Music – For about Rs 12,000 Nokia 5800 is a 3.2 inch touchscreen phone. It has a built in WiFi and GPS. The device has powerful speakers and is targeted at music lovers. Nokia 5800 also has a 3.2 megapixel camera with Autofocus and a double LED flash.
11. Coming Soon: Nokia E7 – This business smartphone priced at about Rs 30,000 has a 4 inch ClearBlack AMOLED touchscreen and a sliding Qwerty keypad. It offers Nokia Maps with free GPS navigation, has an 8 megapixel camera, and supports HD video.
Facebook adds privacy controls for mobile users
In October, Facebook added a dashboard to give users a way of clearly seeing and controling the ways that applications use the information they share on the social networking site. Now, these controls will be available for mobile users as well.
Over 200 million people use Facebook on their mobile phones to share photos, access applications and stay connected with friends – so this new feature will have many takers.
Users can now get a detailed view of the information they have shared with various applications and websites and can adjust privacy settings as well.
The new controls give a list of all the applications used along with the time when each was last accessed. These controls are in the within Privacy Settings of the application.
Settings one can adjust include access to a user’s basic profile information, photos and videos, friends’ information and more. To see your privacy controls on your mobile, go to m.facebook.com/privacy or visit the Settings page and click the Change link next to Privacy Settings.
These new mobile features will begin rolling out to everyone over the next few weeks.
Android Gingerbread on LG Optimus
Soon after Android’s latest update – version 2.3 or Gingerbread – was released, a post on LG USA’s Facebook page said that the new OS would not be coming to LG’s Optimus series, although these phones were released just this year on the Android platform. LG said this since Gingerbread requires 1GHz of processing speed, while the Optimus line uses processors clocked at 800 MHz.
This post was in response to a question on the company’s Facebook page, and quite understandably sent Optimus users in a tizzy because these supposedly next generation devices cost more than $200 or Rs 12,000.
LG Optimus gets Gingerbread
Things seem to have ended reasonably well, however, both for LG Electronics and for its Optimus smartphone users. HTC’s G2 Android device, which is bundled with a T-Mobile connection in the USA, is able to upgrade to Gingerbread though it too runs on an 800 MHz processor.
This might have been why people had wondered whether Optimus would be compatible with Gingerbread as well, and therefore ventured to ask LG about it in the first place. It later emerged that the 1 GHz processing power that Gingerbread presumably demanded was a recommendation rather than a requirement.
Processing power for Gingerbread
While it’s correct that there are no hard and fast requirements for the CPU, as the software grows mature, older hardware will tend to prove inadequate. That is the way technology works. Even if 800 MHz processors run Gingerbread, the machine’s computing speed might be sluggish. Subsequent updates, assuming they can be installed, will certainly stall the machine altogether.
LG made a late entry into the smartphone market this year and subsequently suffered some corporate setbacks as well. The company now intends to make up by aggressively promoting its Optimus series of smartphones (2D animated ads of which you might have come across on Yahoo and other popular websites), and by making timely moves with regard to the tablet market.
Gmail Priority Inbox on Android 2.2 Froyo
The Gmail App on Android 2.2 Froyo now has Google’s Priority Inbox feature, which automatically filters and flags messages received by you.
It was in August that Priority Inbox was first launched and according to Google, the time that users spend reading emails has reduced by about 15 per cent after this feature was introduced. Till now Priority Inbox was not available on Android although the OS had the Gmail app.
Priority Inbox default in Gmail
Those who have used Priority Inbox on desktops or laptops will find it pretty easy – messages in the inbox that are deemed important by Gmail have an arrow next to them. If you want to go through only important messages, you can choose the Priority Inbox label, which can also be set as the default email filter in your Gmail account.
Gmail app’s priority email alerts
There are other exciting options as well: a Gmail account can be set to notify you with a sound or vibration whenever you receive a new message in your Priority Inbox, and it won’t send you alerts when you receive less important messages or spam.
More Gmail app updates on Android 2.2 Froyo
Google has also made a few other Gmail features available on mobile devices. For instance, selecting the Reply All button on a smartphone is now simpler.
The Gmail app on Android now gets updates more frequently than it used to. This is because the Gmail app was earlier tied to the operating system, which meant that each time Gmail was to be upgraded, the entire operating system would consequently have to be upgraded as well.
Updating an OS is a cumbersome process, so additions to the Gmail app were made in one go and only occasionally. Now, you can expect Gmail to download updates more often, which could be a bother if you don’t have fast and unlimited internet access.
Apple seeking CDMA expertise
Rumors of Apple working on a CDMA variant of the iPhone have been doing the rounds for a while.
Now, a recent job posting on the company’s job board seeking engineers who are familiar with CDMA or code division multiple access technology, has added fuel to the fire.
Many people believe that Apple is considering developing a CDMA iPhone for subscribers of Verizon Wireless, a CDMA operator in the USA. It has been speculated that the CDMA iPhone will be released early next year in that country.
There’s also been some news of China Telecom talking with Apple regarding the CDMA iPhone 4 for the Chinese market.
In addition, a couple of months ago, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was holding discussions with CDMA operators Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices for bringing a CDMA iPhone to India as well.
Mobile phone companies most searched online
If Google is to be believed, maximum brand searches in India are on mobile phone companies and telecom operators. The findings are part of Google Zeitgeist 2010, which is based on the aggregation of search queries people typed into Google this year.
As per the data, seven in ten most popular brands in India, five are mobile handset companies and two are operators. The most popular handset brand is Nokia, followed by Samsung, Micromax, Apple and Sony Ericsson, in that order. The most searched operators include Airtel and Vodafone.
This definitely says a lot about our mobile crazy country. No doubt we have 600 million plus mobile consumers!
Nokia had always been the most sought-after mobile phone brand in India as it caters to both high end and low end customer base. But 2008 saw the rise of Micromax, which started giving tough competition to Nokia with its range of low cost feature rich phones.
Micromax has also recently joined the Android bandwagon with the launch of its affordable Android-based smartphone called A60.
In order to stand firm in this highly competitive market, Nokia launched phones with Dual-SIM facility, much later than Indian players, but failed to capture the segment. However, the Finland-based company is still growing strong with its loyal customers.
Samsung too has created a buzz in the mobile phone market with its attractive smartphones such as Star, Corby, Galaxy S, Galaxy 5 and now, a tablet – Galaxy Tab.
Apple, unlike its popularity in the West, failed to charm Indian customers. Due to the high price of its iPhones and the issue of unavailability without bundling, Apple could not make it so big here. At present, one can buy an iPhone in India only through Airtel or Vodafone stores.
Another interesting trend that we see in Google Zeitgeist 2010 is that among the top ten fastest rising brands on Google search in India two are handset players Micromax and Samsung Mobiles, and free SMS service Way2SMS.