Category: Brands and Companies

All Brands and Company Names

Apple : 3 Million iPads Sold Over The Past 3 Days

The iPad mini and the “fourth generation iPad” went on sale last Friday. The iPad mini is smaller, thinner and lighter than any previous version of the 10-inch iPad and Apple sent out a very interesting press release today. Usually when a product launches they boast about the millions of sales it produced in 3-days. This time around they did – claiming that “Three Million iPads in Three Days” – but that number combines both the iPad mini and the fourth-gen iPad with Retina display.

[quote]No clear numbers on how the iPad mini specifically performed. Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, noted that“Customers around the world love the new iPad mini and fourth generation iPad. We set a new launch weekend record and practically sold out of iPad minis. We’re working hard to build more quickly to meet the incredible demand.”[/quote]

This “practically sold out of iPad mini” is somewhat new for Apple. They have repeatedly sold out of product on launch weekend. The iPad mini was released in 34 countries on Friday. Perhaps people are waiting for the 3G version to be released in a couple weeks.

Regardless, 3 million iPad sales in something to be proud of.

November 5, 2012
2013 BMW 6 Series Gran Coupe To Be Launched In India On November 8

BMW is all set to roll out its first four-door coupe in the country before Diwali, 2012. As per the announcements made by the company, the all-new 2013 BMW 6 Series Gran Coupe will hit the Indian roads on November 8, 2012.

The unique feature of the new 6 Series Gran Coupe is that it consists of four doors while the conventional 6-series consisted only of two-door. This four doors feature is available for the first time in BMW’s history and comes with a seating capacity of 4+1 people. This all new 2013 BMW 6 Series Gran Coupe was first unveiled at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show.

Having a sultry look with low sloping roofline, the Gran Coupe can easily be distinguished from the traditional sedan design. Apart from the inclusion of two extra doors, and revamped sheetmetal, the 2013, 6-Series Gran Coupe quite resembles the traditional 6 Series coupe and other convertible models that are already available on sale.

The all new Gran Coupe comes with a length of 5,007 mm and a wheelbase of 2,968 mm and is longer by 111 mm to its 2-door Coupe sibling. A large part of this extra length has been contributed towards the seating arrangements to provide more comfort to the rear passengers. The BMW 6-Series Gran Coupe has a width of 1,894 mm and has a height of 1,392 mm. When compared to BMW 550i, the Gran coupe is 102 mm longer, 34 mm wider and 72 mm lower.

Though the technical specification of the all new 6-Series Gran Coupe is not known so far, it is expected to house a 442 bhp, 4.4-litre V8 engine or the 3.0 litre turbocharged inline cylinder. THIS 3.0 litre engine, which comes mated with an 8-Speed automatic gearbox, is BMW’s most popular and is capable of delivering a power as high as 314 bhp.

When launched, the all new BMW 6-Series will compete with Mercedes Benz CLS, Audi A7 and the Porsche Panamera.

[Car Trade]

November 4, 2012
Samsung : Over 30 Million Galaxy SIII Sales

Samsung seems to be on a roll with their flagship Galaxy devices. Earlier today they announced that the Note II passed over the 3 million in sales. Now, according to a post on Facebook, plus a picture of proof, the Samsung Galaxy S III has surpassed 30 million in sales.

“We have already sold 30 000 000 Samsung Galaxy S III in the world! You already had a chance to test its features?”

At last count, less than two months ago, the 4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD device had racked up 20 million sales around the world.

So with around 10m further shipments in the last two months alone, momentum continues to be high for the flagship Galaxy S3.

November 4, 2012
Microsoft Testing A Surface Phone?

After the launch of the Surface tablet, Microsoft (MSFT) is reportedly is busy testing a smartphone with Asian suppliers, according to the Wall Street Journal.

However, it is not clear if the device will enter into mass production. The phone comes with a screen size between four and five inches, The Verge has reported.

Though previous reports suggested that Microsoft was mulling its own flagship Windows Phone, the device is unlikely to be unveiled before 2013.

The company is waiting to gauge the reception of its partners’ products — Nokia’s Lumia 820 and 920, HTC’s 8X and 8S, and Samsung’s ATIV S — before committing to bringing the phone to market. Unlike Android vendors, Microsoft keeps its phone hardware partners on a short leash, so few of the software elements can be changed. And even Nokia thinks it would be a good idea for Microsoft to release its own phone.

It’s possible that the company is waiting for sales numbers of its Surface tablet in order to see whether consumers are willing to buy into Microsoft as a device company.

November 3, 2012
Galaxy Note 2 Sales Hit 3 Million In Just Over 30 Days

Today, Samsung announced that the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 has sold three million units in just over 30 days since the phablet launched. And those sales figures should only increase once the device hits the two biggest carriers in the United States, AT&T and Verizon, which its poised to do in the weeks ahead.

The sales growth was more than three times faster than its previous model Galaxy Note, of which sales breached the 3-million mark in three months after its launch, reported Xinhua.

“The rapid Galaxy Note 2 sales have a meaning of not just creating a new category of smartphone, but also of popularizing the category,” said an official at Samsung.

Research firm IDC estimates Samsung topped the global smartphone market in the July-September third quarter with 56.3 million sales – more than double Apple’s 26.9 million iPhone sales.

November 3, 2012
Samsung Galaxy SIII Mini Launching On November 8

Samsung’s hotly awaited new phone will launch on 8 November in the UK, the company has announced.

The compact version of the world’s best-selling Android phone, the Galaxy SIII, will be in shops a week today, and come with free games The Sims 3 and Bejewelled 2.

The Mini features a 4″ screen compared to the regular SIII’s 4.8” version. It also offers a dual core processor rather than the quad core in the main model.

Aimed at a more mid-range market, the device is expected to capitalise on Christmas upgrades, as well as appeal to those who find the larger screens of top Android phones too cumbersome.

Both the SIII and the SIII Mini have now been upgraded to the latest version of Android Jelly Bean (version 4.1), and changes to Gmail the search system Google Now announced earlier this week in version 4.2 can also be downloaded separately.

No news on the pricing yet though, but we expect it to be around the Rs 20,000/- mark.

November 2, 2012
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Hits 2.7% Adoption, ICS at 25.8%, Gingerbread Still On 50%

Google has once again released their numbers of where each Android OS version is sitting at. This month it’s OS 4.1 Jelly Bean that has seen a modest boost, now powering 2.7% of all Android devices and up 0.9% in the last month. Ice Cream Sandwich also rose a respectable 5.1% to 25.8%. Still making up the largest share is OS 2.3 Gingerbread with 54.2%, but a good sign is that it decreased in the last four weeks by 1.6%. In addition, Cupcake, Donut Eclair and Froyo have all falled in percentages and continue to make their way into the history books.

What version are you running?

November 2, 2012
iPad Mini Teardown : Samsung Display, Stereo Speakers And Low Repairability Score

The iPad mini isn’t even officially on sale yet, but iFixit managed to get its hands on one to tear apart.

Like many of Apple’s other gadgets, the iPad mini isn’t very easy to open up and repair yourself. iFixit gives it a 2 out of 10 repairability rating.

A lot of the parts are familiar, coming from either the iPhone 5 or MacBook Air, and Samsung makes a somewhat surprising appearance as an LCD panel supplier, something some early reports suggested Samsung would not be involved in supplying this component for this device.

[quote]”Though the markings on the back of the LCD (display) don’t turn up much information, the Samsung display driver IC (chip) reveals that Apple, once again, went with Samsung in its display manufacturing,” iFixit said, detailing the teardown on its website.[/quote]

The iPad mini is the first Apple tablet to come with stereo speakers, likely owed to the space saved from the new Lightning port. This makes it more-than-likey the fifth generation iPad will sport a similar design. Judging from early reviews, the lack of physical speaker separation renders the addition largely superfluous — there’s no real dynamic range — but it’s still a welcome find.

Image Courtesy : iFixit

Unlike with the iPhone 5, the mini’s LCD and glass are not fused together into a single unit, so these parts can be replaced individually if needed. Also, the battery is also not soldered to the logic board here. Still, the battery and other parts like the front- and rear-facing cameras, front glass, and logic board are held together with “copious amounts of adhesive,” according to iFixit.

November 2, 2012
HTC 8X and One X Plus To Cost Rs 37,000/-, 8S Priced At Rs 20,000/-

Windows Phone 8 devices from HTC, the 8X and 8S and the HTC One X Plus will be hitting Indian shores next week.

The pricing of the three devices have been revealed. The Windows Phone 8 powered 8X and the HTC One X Plus have been priced at Rs 37,000 whereas the 8S has been priced at Rs 20,000.

The 8X and the One X Plus are expected to launch before Diwali.

The HTC 8S comes with a Qualcomm S4 1 dual-core processor but this is clocked at 1Ghz.It has a total storage space of 16 GB, and has spaced for a Micro SD card slot to increase space. The RAM is less though, only 512 MB. It’s smaller phone though with a 4 inch Touchscreen with super LCD and WVGA resolution. Again it uses a Gorilla Glass screen. It has a 5 megapixel rear camera with auto focus and LED flash. The video camera allows video recording at 720p. There is no front camera though

Built using a 4.3 inch SuperLCD 2 display, with a true 720 pixel resolution, the HTC Windows Phone 8X comes protected with Gorilla Glass 2, which further enhances the durability of the device. The device is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon, 1.5 GHz dual-core Krait processor along with the Adreno 225 GPU and 1 GB of RAM.

The HTC Windows Phone 8X features an 8 megapixel camera with a Back Side Illumination sensor with an F/2.0 aperture and a wide 28mm field of view. In the front, there is another F/2.0 camera which is capable of doing 2.1 megapixel still shots as well. Both the cameras are capable of recording HD 1080p videos with stereo sound. It also has NFC functionality.

The One X Plus features a 4.7-inch display, a Tegra 3 1.7GHz quad-core processor, a 2100 mAh battery, an 8-megapixel camera and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. And like all HTC phones, the One X+ will come preloaded with Beats Audio and its Sense 4+ user interface layered over Jelly Bean.

November 2, 2012
75% Of Smartphones Shipped in Q3 Run On Android

Smartphones running Google’s Android software have leapt to 75% share of worldwide smartphone shipments, according to market tracker IDC.

Google’s OS was present on 136 million devices shipped in Q3, up from 71 million a year ago, a boost of 91.5% year-over-year. Apart from RIM and Apple, most smartphone manufactures have produced a wide variety of handsets that run on Android.

Coming in a distant second was Apple’s iOS with 14.9% of the smartphone market. That is also impressive as Apple has only three phones in production, the iPhone 4, 4S and 5.

Top-end Androids like Samsung’s Galaxy S III (which is expected to sell 30 million this year) are holding their own against Apple’s iPhone.

Coming in 3rd place is RIM – who hasn’t come out with a new smartphone in over a year – and they captured 4.3% of the market, significantly dropping of 34.7% over last year. Hopefully RIM’s tune will change when they launch their new BB10 devices in early 2013.

Nokia’s Symbian squeaked in with 2.3% market share, meanwhile Microsoft’s Windows Mobile/Windows Phone rose 140% over the year to take hold of 2% of the market, but have failed to grab the buyers attention. This might shift with all their new WP8 handset coming out in a couple weeks.

November 2, 2012
Hands On : HTC Desire SV in a Saffron Orange for the Indian Market

HTC has kept it a secret and announced it today, the HTC Desire SV is a phone targeted and designed primarily for the Indian Market . The Desire SV features a Dual Core Qualcomm Processor Clocked at 1 GHz, and in. The phone also has dual sim capabilities and 4.3 inch WVGA 480×800 px SLCD Display. The phone is expected to sell for a price of Rs. 20,000 and runs on Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich along with Sense 4.0.

HTC Desire SV Initial Impressions

The phone resembles the build and design of the One series, with along with the same speaker grills and Beats Audio. The orange color looks bright and nice, however it does not appear to be for everyone. The phone is sleek and the display vivid, the OS seems responsive on the demo unit we handled. You can expect a hands on in a few hours video along with an Unboxing and Review Video in the coming days.

The bigger screen definitely helps the overall look of the phone, adding a full glass front with a tiny display bezel boosts that. The Phone also builds on the Amazing Camera and Authentic Sound with an 8 Megapixel f2.2 camera which has “impressive low light performance”, the Beats audio “ensures the amazing sound” as claims HTC.

[quote]HTC South Asia President, Lennard Hoornik, told us ” The HTC Desire SV is especially deigned and targeted at India and will bring about something that no other manufacturer has been able to deliver, Amazing Camera, Authentic Sound along with the HTC legacy of Build Quality and standards.”[/quote]

The HTC Desire SV is expected to hit the Indian Market in November along with the Windows Phone 8X the Windows Phone 8S and the HTC One X plus.

HTC Desire SV Images

HTC Desire SV Video

November 2, 2012
Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac updated for Windows Phone 8
The Mac app for connecting and syncing your precious upcoming Windows Phone 8 device has been updated on the Mac App Store. Not only has the app been updated to Version 3.0 but it has also received a new “Windows Phone” name, to prevent further name changes one can presume. The app has added support for Retina MacBooks and also drag and drop sharing capabilities b/w some of Apple’s native apps like iPhoto and iTunes.

The new app will support all upcoming phones including the ATIV S, HTC WP 8X and 8S along with the Nokia Lumia Devices. Full Changelog below :
- Support for Windows Phone 8
- Drag and drop files between Windows Phone and your Mac desktop
- Drag and drop files from Finder to your Windows Phone 8 devices
- Support for iPhoto 9.3.2 and Aperture 3.3.2
- Support for battery charge state (Windows Phone 8 devices)
- Enhanced capability support for ringtone files (Windows Phone 8 devices)
- Support for Retina display Macs
[Mac App Store]
November 2, 2012
Windows Phone 8 SDK now available
Microsoft has finally released its long-awaited software development kit (SDK) for Windows Phone 8. It’s been a long time coming, but it makes sense since today is the first day of Microsoft’s BUILD conference in Redmond, Washington.

The SDK is described as an environment “for building apps and games for Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 7.5.” That’s pretty obvious but why 7.5? That’s the odd thing here.

It has a stand-alone Visual Studio Express 2012 edition. It can also work as an add-on to Visual Studio Express 2012 edition for Windows Phone or works as an add-in to Visual Studio 2012 Professional, Premium or Ultimate editions. Microsoft says the SDK also includes emulators and additional tools for profiling and testing a Windows Phone app under real-world conditions.

Requirements:
- Hardware:
  - 4 GB of free hard disk space
  - 4 GB RAM
  - 64-bit (x64) CPU
- Windows Phone 8 Emulator:
  - Windows 8 Pro edition or greater
  - Requires a processor that supports Second Level Address Translation (SLAT)
October 31, 2012
Asus : Nexus 7 Sales Approach 1 Million Per Month

Sales of Google and Asustek’s Nexus 7 tablet have steadily increased since its launch, and are now near 1 million units per month.

Asustek Chief Financial Officer David Chang told The Wall Street Journal that Nexus 7 sales have grown from a start of about 500,000 units in the first month. In the latest month of sales, the number was “close to 1 million.”

[quote]David Chang said , “At the beginning, it was, for instance, 500K units a month, then maybe 600, 700K. This latest month, it was close to 1 million.”[/quote]

Even though Apple sold some 14 million iPad for this quarter, 3 million devices for the quarter is a pretty big number for Google’s tiny tablet. Asus also showed a 43 percent jump in net profits — $230 million compared to $160 million last year, says the report.

The Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire face stiff competition from Apple’s new 7.9-inch iPad mini, which will go on sale this Friday. The iPad mini has a starting price of $329, which places it at a premium over the $199 entry price of the Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7.

Late Monday, Google also released an upgraded version of the Nexus 7. The $199 version now has 16GB space while there’s another 32GB version with 3G for $299. Wi-Fi only 32GB Nexus 7 will cost $249.

The original 8GB Nexus 7 has been discontinued. The new version runs pure Google Android OS version 4.2 aka Jelly Bean.

October 31, 2012
Windows Phone 8 Launched

Microsoft lifted the veil on its latest Windows Phone 8 (WP8) operating system (OS) at an event in San Francisco today. Handsets from HTC, Samsung and Nokia will feature the new mobile OS. Huawei is expected to launch a device as well. Those living in Europe will be able to get the new WP8 handsets this weekend. Other markets, such as Asia, are expected to be able to buy the handsets in November.

“There’s one more thing that sets Windows Phones apart,” said CEO Steve Ballmer. “That is new, killer hardware.”

The flagship of the Windows Phone lineup is the Nokia 920, built out of a partnership between the two companies. It will be available in the U.S. in November.

Two other high-end smartphones, the Samsung Ativ S and HTC Windows Phone 8X, were previewed by CEO Steve Ballmer.

“The global launch of Windows Phone 8 is just starting,” said Ballmer.

The software presents a very different home screen from the rows of icons found on Apple or Android phones and is a key design feature of the operating system.

Its design uses the same active tiles found on Windows 8, Microsoft’s new PC operating system that launched Friday. The tiles are constantly changing with fresh information so, for example, a weather tile will update with the latest forecast while the email app will show the latest message received.

“The static grid of icons has been the standard on smartphones,” said Belfiore. “We decided not to use that tired old metaphor. Our way is to put people at the center of the experience.”

People users interact with can be given their own tiles so that the latest interactions on email or social media are updated.

“It’s the most personal smartphone operating system you can get and keeps you closer to the people that matter most in your life because of that,” he said.

New features include the speed of Internet Explorer 10 which it said was up to seven times faster than the version on WP7.5 at handling webpages based on the commonly used Javascript language. In addition it has been designed to make use of devices’ graphics processing units (GPUs) to render videos or animations written in the HTML5 computer language.

The firm also showed off Kid’s Corner – a function designed for parents who give their handsets to their children to play with. It allows them to restrict access to a limited number of apps without giving access to email, phone call or text message functions.

Microsoft said a survey had suggested about two-thirds of smartphone-owning parents in the US had used the handsets to occupy their children while out shopping, visiting friends or some other activity.

Another new feature is Rooms which allows users to create an invitation-only environment in which members share their calendars, notes, photos and other material. The firm suggested it might be used to help families, sports teams and other community groups stay “in sync”.

Microsoft also made much of an “always-on” Skype experience.

This addresses one of the major flaws with its previous mobile system which had not allowed the video chat program to run in the background. That had meant that users of iOS and Android phones had been able to receive calls while using other apps, but WP7.5 devices had not – a notable omission bearing in mind Microsoft paid $8.5bn (£13.7bn) to buy Skype in 2011.

Overall, it has been an interesting day with the WP8 launch and Google’s announcements! More to follow.

October 30, 2012