Micromax’s newest offering to the entry-level Android smartphones, the A45 “punk”, was made available for purchase on Wednesday at a price tag of Rs 5,499. The device, like it’s predecessor the A50 “Ninja”, comes pre-loaded with Micromax’s voice assistant “AISHA” which helps you with simple tasks such as finding the nearest restaurants and weather forecasts and is mainly a music phone.
The A45 Punk runs Android 2.3.6 (Gingerbread), and comes engineered with a 650 MHz processor, a 8.89 cm full touch capacitive screen with a resolution of 320 X 480 pixel. The phone reportedly provides a talk time of 4.5 hours powered by a 1300mAh Li-ion battery. It is a dual SIM phone, and sports a 2 megapixel camera, with a memory is expandable up to 32GB. The device offers a new way to explore, discover and enjoy music and thus revamp your music listening experience through a set of funky looking headphones (with HD surround), provided along with the handset. It comes with all essential apps such as Facebook, Whatsapp etc and the rest are available for download from the Play store.
The pricing makes this device a value-for-money deal and is expected to challenge Samung’s Galaxy Y.
The Wii U is the first Wii device to sport it's own screen.
Gaming giants Nintendo unveiled the launch version of their new family gaming device, the Wii U. Presenting the device at the Nokia centre at the E3 gaming event, Nintendo was light on details about the insides of the device, and chose to focus more on the game titles it’ll be bringing out this year for the console.
The Wii U has seen a massive change from what was showcased last year and is now a tablet styled device which comes with a bunch of buttons, including 2 analog sticks on both sides, a stylus and a camera on top of the device for both gaming applications and video chat! This is the first Wii device to sport a dedicated screen.
[quote]Game machines had to be connected to the TV. They couldn’t have a more important role than the TV. We decided our next system would have its own dedicated screen … and make it the first screen people go to when they go to the living room. With the Wii U gamepad we have the first dedicated personal screen in the long history of videogames said game designer and producer Shigeru Miyamoto.[/quote]
Shigeru Miyamoto at the presentation.
Apart from that, Nintendo announced 23 new game titles and by releasing some “hardcore games” made it evident that they were ready to make the Wii console a bit more mature as far as the games were concerned. News that the titles – including Batman Arkham City: Armored Edition; Aliens: Colonial Marines; Mass Effect 3; Assassin’s Creed 3 and ZombiU – are under development will help their appeal. Casual gaming titles like Mario, Wii Fit and Picmin 3 also make their way back into the device.
Nintendo also promoted the integration of its Miiverse social network, allowing a user’s friends to pass on tips or boast of their recent scores while play continued.
Nokia’s newest offering, the 808 PureView, which boasts of a massive, high-resolution 41 megapixel sensor with high-performance Carl Zeiss optics and has full HD 1080p video recording and playback, is all set to hit Indian stores tomorrow. The PureView was made available for pre-booking last month on Nokia’s website. The cost is expected to be around the Rs 30,000 mark.
Some features of this smartphone :
The OS is Symbian Belle
1.3GHz single-core chip
Display is 4-inches corner to corner, resolution of 360 x 640 (nHD).
512MB of RAM and 16GB of on-board storage, expandable via microSD.
The company’s flagship smartphone model, Nokia Lumia 900and Nokia Lumia 610 will also hit the market this month expected to be around Rs 28,000 and Rs 11,000 respectively.
For the past 5 years, Microsoft has been the star at E3 gaming event. Hence, it was only natural to think that they wouldn’t disappoint this year either. Oh, we were mistaken. The lack of a big surprise and a relative dearth of brand new titles stopped this from being a great conference. Even Usher couldn’t bring the crowd off their seats.
The event started out with a loud and action-filled (obviously) trailer of Halo 4, which was followed by Don A. Mattrick, President of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft taking over the stage and announcing “We’re on a mission to make entertainment even more amazing”. How we wish.
Halo 5!
Cut to footage of Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Ubisoft Toronto’s first announced title, developed under the stewardship of Jade Raymond. Seems Splinter Cell has morphed into a cross between Ghost Recon and Black Ops. However, an interesting feature was the use of the Kinect Mic to attract the attention of your enemies.
Andrew Wilson, Head of EA SPORTS at Electronic Arts, took to the stage and announced that Kinect support will be coming to Madden 13 and FIFA 13. A Video showed players making subsititutions and adjustments to team formation by shouting at Kinect, just like a real manager probably. Though I’m not sure my neighbor wants to hear me yelling “get Mario off the pitch he’s a liability!”
Microsoft then turned their attention to their first party franchises. Fable The Journey had a brief trailer. Seems like last year’s lukewarm reception to the game made an impact, it looks much better. However, that was only in terms of visuals, with no gameplay showed, so quite how the game has developed in the past 12 months remains a mystery. In a quickfire volley of trailers, Gears of War Judgment got its first airing, apparently casting Baird in the lead role which came as a shock as nobody quite liked Baird. Again, no gameplay but it will be interesting to see how new developer People Can Fly (Bulletstorm) bring their unique attitude to shooters, and how they can make Baird less of a jerk. Forza Horizon and a whopping dollop of dubstep rounded out the trailer, taking the detailed visuals and handling of Forza and transplanting it into open road racing and motor festivals. Resident Evil 6 and Tomb Raider too made blink and you miss appearances.
What turned out to be the most interesting announcement of the event was the announcement of Xbox Music and SmartGlass. Microsoft revealed the details of the two concepts at their pre-E3 press conference. Xbox Music will go up against popular music streaming services like Spotify, Apple’s iTunes etc. to bring music to your Xbox console as well as Windows tablets and smartphones. There was no indication of the release date, but Microsoft insisted that while Xbox Music will replace their not-so-successful Zune, it will be more than a simple revamp of that application. The teaser video showed users being able to queue up music and share what they are listening to with friends, much in the same way Spotify does. However, Microsoft said that the unique features for the service will be detailed in the coming weeks.
Xbox Music is aimed at challenging Spotify and iTunes.
Xbox SmartGlass allows users to interact with their Xbox console and television screen using their tablet computers –including Apple’s iPad– and smartphones. The concepts on display included being able to watch a movie on your tablet computer and then transfer it directly to your Xbox and television to pick up where you left off. Interestingly, while you are watching a television show or playing a game on your television with Xbox SmartGlass enabled on your tablet device, the two screens will interact with each other in different ways. For games, there was a concept demo of a player of American football game Madden 13 choosing plays on their tablet while playing the main game on the television, and a concept for FPS Halo where the player could examine weaponry and interact with friends over the Xbox Live service on their tablet. This seems similar to Nintendo’s Wii U console, which comes with a tablet style controller. Microsoft also revealed that Internet Explorer would be making it’s way into Xbox and would be compatible with Kinect and SmartGlass.
The SmartGlass enables your tablets and smartphones to interact with your TV.
The show was rounded off by a Call of Duty Black Ops II trailer which nearly brought the whole center down by sheer volume. It showcased some interesting gadgets, with the player controlling a small drone to wipe out enemies and a sniper rifle that can see through walls. It was classic Call of Duty gameplay, though the near future twist and vehicles add flavour to this most ubiquitous of series.
The new series of tablets will be powered by Windows 8.
At Computex-world’s largest computer related exhibition, tech giants Acer showcased a number of devices, including Windows 8 based machines. The company said that this year it would launch two tablets (W700 and W510), Aspire 7600U and Aspire 5600U all-in-ones, and Aspire 7 series ultrabook powered by Windows 8.
[quote]The unique part of the W510 tablet is the tri-mode, allowing users to touch, type and view. Aside from the conventional tablet mode, it can be used in productivity mode. A detachable keyboard dock can be connected to the tablet for optimal typing as well as extending the battery life up to 18 hours. Rotating the tablet 295 degrees allows it to be used in presentation mode, which is excellent for watching a video, browsing a webpage or viewing a PowerPoint presentation, the company said.[/quote]
In addition, the W510 has Always On, Always Connect technology, and a 10.1-inch touchscreen, which delivers wider viewing angles and vibrant colours, while W700 has a full HD 11.6-inch screen.The smaller tablet will be priced at Rs $799 while W700 will cost at least $999.
For all those android users using a CyanogenMod 9 or AOKP ROM (Oh yes, we know), who want their phones to run HTC’s beautiful Sense 4.0 UI, here comes the app that you’d been waiting for! This theme from BlackDub imitates the new streamlined and functional interface to perfection. A must have for spicing up your phone.
The HTC Sense UI 4.0
JetAudio Basic (Free)
This is an app worthy of replacing the default music player on your Android Smartphones.
It comes with 32 equalizer presets that will provide a wide array of listening experience. For those who would like to customize their own sound experience, it also allows 10 bands graphic equalizer and other advanced playback functions including playback speed control, crossfading, AGC and much more. It’s available for free on the Play Store.
There are multiple Presets and equalizer options.
[/tab]
[tab title=”iOS”]
SkyDrive (Free)
It comes as a shock, but Microsoft online storage service has been available for iOS users. The latest release adds a couple of new features such as support for Retina displays on the new share of apple devices. Features such as the option to upload multiple pictures and videos, sharing of these files via e-mail or web link help it to be the app of the week. The SkyDrive app also lets the user open files uploaded to SkyDrive using other iOS apps. So, if you fancy additional-based cloud storage, head to the iTunes store for the latest version.
Music Unlimited (Free Trial + subscription)
Yet another music streaming service, but this time, from Sony. It’s biggest advantage is that it is offered across a ton of Sony hardware-Android, PlayStation 3, PS Vita, and Sony TVs and Blu-ray players. It also boasts music from all the major labels, not just Sony’s own music division. If you’re interested, you can get a free 30-day trial.
The interface is smooth and flowing.
[/tab][tab title=”Windows Phone”]
WizTiles
This app makes it into the list because it brings the much needed option of customizing your home screen. You can choose from images and other themes to make your home screen more lively. It is available for download in the Windows Market Place.
When Google completed a $151 million acquisition ofrestaurant rating firm Zagat in September it was seen as an attempt to compete with Yelp’s popular online rating service and it was only a matter of time before they integrated the service into their products. On Wednesday, Google Maps for Android was updated to prominently feature Zagat-based reviews on many restaurants around the world. The changes announced on Wednesday, a video on youtube by googlemaps, eliminates an annual $25 subscription fee that Zagat had been charging for online access to its surveys of diners. Those diners have rated about 35,000 restaurants in more than 100 cities around the world.
This integration is part of a larger rollout called Google+ Local, on which you can get personalized recommendations from people in your Google+ Circles. According to Google’s Lat-Long Blog,[quote] Each place you see in Google+ Local will now be scored using Zagat’s 30 point scale, which tells you all about the various aspects of a place so you can make the best decisions. For example, a restaurant that has great food but not great decor might be 4 stars, but with Zagat you’d see a 26 in Food and an 8 in Decor, and know that it might not be the best place for date night.[/quote]
Zagat uses a 30 point rating system which includes everything, from food to the ambiance.
Google’s check-in services have never really taken off, so Local’s renewed focus on personalized recommendations goes a long way to making Places relevant again.
The update for Google maps was made available in the play store on Wednesday.
Research In Motion(RIM), manufacturer of BlackBerry, is all set to open it’s first innovation zone for the Asia Pacific region in Kerala. It will do so in collaboration with Startup technologies and will be located at Rubus Labs in Kerala-based Startup Village, the Innovation Zone will be the first of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region, and will showcase the latest in BlackBerry technologies.
Alec Saunders, vice-president of Developer Relations and Ecosystems Development, Research In Motion, said they will provide Rubus Labs access to the latest BlackBerry products and technical information.
The innovation zones would encourage young minds to learn and innovate by giving access to RIM's technology.
The release added that the labs would host regular developer activities such as BlackBerry Hackathons and Bar Camps and that training sessions will be conducted across the 126 engineering colleges in Kerala under the BlackBerry BASE (BlackBerry Apps by Student Entrepreneurs) programme by using the outreach of Startup Village.
Just days after Oppo announced its new phone, Finder, which took the crown of the world’s thinnest phone from Huawei’s Ascend P1 S by a mere 0.03mm, Chinese mobile company ZTE has announced that they will be coming out with a new handset, called ‘Athena’, which at just 6.2mm would become the thinnest android smartphone in the market. The device may not leave Chinese shores, but it’s an amazing feat considering all the technology inside of it. The phone will reportedly featurea 720p display, Cortex-A15 chip (most probably multi-core) and up to 64GB of internal storage, as well as a Miflavor UI, ZTE’s custom ROM that runs over Android 4.0 ICS.
The "Athena" next to an iPhone.
To throw In a few numbers, the iPhone is 9.30mm ‘thick’, the Galaxy S II is 8.45mm thick and the RAZR is 7.10mm thick. From the current generation of quad-core phones, the HTC One X is 8.9mm thick, while Samsung’s latest flagship, the Galaxy S III measures in at 8.6mm.
The Athena is rumoured to be available in a black Kevlar coating, the same as that used on the Motorola RAZR. But the main question is – Would a phone this slim be prone to reduced battery life and heating problems? We’ll have to wait and see! More to come on this handset soon, we hope.
Opera on Friday releases the new version of their popular mobile browser, called Mini 7, aimed at capitalizing on the social networking wave. The biggest change that makes its way into the browser is a new feature called “Smart Page” which brings all the latest feeds from your Facebook and Twitter accounts, your favorite websites (via RSS feeds) on your homepage. The SmartPage also uses Opera’s page compression technology, which shifts a large part of user-end calculation, such as running javascript, to special servers which reduces the data charges involved in mobile browsing.
Other updates include
Better tab features
Unlimited speed dials for quick access to your favorite websites.
Direct URL’s (without “www.”)
The website made the new version available for download for free from their website, m.opera.com, for BlackBerry, Symbian S60 and Java phones. No news yet on when it’ll be made available for iOS and Android users.
