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Sony to launch Xperia Go, Ion and Neo L in India

Sony is really ready to take on the Indian Android phone market with a storm. Apart from their already announced released and Reviewed Xperia NXT series, Sony has already announced plans for 3 new devices in India. The Xperia Go, Xperia ION and the Neo L.

Xperia Go

The active phone, is ready to go on sale in the coming days, and has already gone up for preorder. The phone is equipped with a 3.5-inch HVGA display, a water resistant and dust resistant body, 5-megapixel camera, a 1GHz dual-core processor and will run on Android 2.3 Gingerbread, with a ICS update possibly already out. The pricing on the phone is expected to be under the Rs. 20,000 mark as the phone replaces its predecessor the Xperia Active.

Neo L

The Neo L will replace predecessor Neo V, The phone will ship with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box and will be available in India later this month. Neo L has a 1GHz single core processor, 512MB of RAM, a 4-inch LCD display with a resolution of 854×480 pixels. A 5-megapixel main camera, a front facing camera and a 1500 mAh battery pack.

The device will have 320 MB of user memory and will also be PlayStation certified. The company is also continuing to offer the 50GB cloud storage, and is trying to remove the 2 year limit to make it lifetime.

Xperia ION

The ION will be the flagship phone for Sony in India, powered by a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S3 processor the Xperia ION will have a 12-megapixel camera and will feature a 4.55-inch 720p reality display. The phone set to supersede the Xperia S and become the one to compete with the likes of Galaxy SIII and HTC One X.

As always expect full coverage here on iGyaan.

July 14, 2012
Blackberry App World gets “Upgrade All” Action, All Rejoice

It has been literally years, since the Blackberry App World updates had to be launched one by one. Blackberry users and fans will finally get a reason to rejoice as the latest update to App World introduces a feature that’s been a long time coming: the ability to upgrade all apps at once.

Now you can finally put the frustrating and slow single app list update, which can be really painful if you get more than 5 app updates at once. The latest update to Blackberry App World also brings the ability to view and share lists of installed apps with friends via NFC and adds Finnish language support.

July 14, 2012
Google Maps adds walking directions for 44 African nations

Google has just announced an update for its popular Maps service, extending support for walking directions to 44 African countries. Following the mandatory safety warnings that come with the beta tag (routes may be missing pedestrian crossings etc.), Google is encouraging residents to try out the service, available today on both web and mobile. A separate update will no doubt be appreciated by cyclists in Europe and Australia.

As the African continent develops, there should be no shortage of users for the mobile version of the service. Telecoms & Media reported last year that Africa is now the second most connected region in the world in terms of its mobile subscription count. There are currently more than 500 million mobile users on the continent, and by 2015, there are expected to be 265 million mobile broadband subscriptions in Africa, a significant increase from the current estimate of 12 million.

Support for cycling directions has also been improved. Previously only available in the US and Canada, the service has now been extended to both Australia and Europe, just in time for the yearly post-Tour de France cycling enthusiasm. Routes devised for biking are designed to make use of dedicated bike lanes and avoid significant hills whenever possible.

July 13, 2012
Yet another iPhone 5 image leaked

KitGuru has leaked what it claims is a “test sample” with the glass front panel roughly intact. We’ve seen the darker steel sides, aluminum back and new dock connector before, but the front gives us a much better sense of how the finished product will turn out. Sitting next to an iPhone 4S, it’s suggested that the new model would stuff in that bigger screen more through a better use of the available area — there’s much less blank space than on the iPhones we’ve known since 2007. Now as we’re getting closer to the official launch of the next iPhone, be prepared for an avalanche of leaked images!

July 13, 2012
Samsung Galaxy S3 / SIII Pebble Blue Unboxing

As requested by our viewers, Bharat Nagpal unboxes the Pebble Blue version of the Samsung Galaxy S3. The box contains a 2100 mAH battery, Stereo headphones with changeable earbuds and a microphone, a mains plug with USB sync charge cable, a Quick start guide and a Warranty card. The MRP of the device is INR 42,000 but is available in the market for around INR 36,000.

We will be coming out with a full in-depth review soon, so stay tuned!

Check out our unboxing, hand-on, video and image samples and launch videos here :

July 12, 2012
US Court lifts Galaxy Nexus smartphone ban, tablet still blocked

A US appeals court gave Samsung a temporary reprieve Friday on the sale of its Galaxy Nexus 7 smartphones while leaving intact a court ban on US sales of its tablet computers in a patent battle with Apple.

In two rulings in the bitter patent dispute, the US Court of Appeals in the capital Washington gave one to Apple and one to Samsung, but only temporarily.

But the “stay” was just temporary until the panel receives arguments from Apple, which argues the phone infringes on patents in its iPhone.

In a separate decision, the appellate judges refused to lift Koh’s injunction on the 10-inch Galaxy Tab computer, which Apple claimed was copied from the iPad.

The court panel in Washington ordered Apple to respond by July 12, while denying a Samsung request to stay, or halt the injunction.

Both Galaxy devices are powered by Android operating software that Google makes available for free to gadget makers. Nexus is the Mountain View, California-based technology company’s own branded line.

July 12, 2012
New Nokia Phones leaked, 4 new Lumia phones indicated

Developers with access to Nokia’s Remote Device Access (RDA) tool have “discovered” a bunch of new Lumia and Belle phones. Interestingly, four of these handsets seem to be Windows Phone devices while the Belle 805 should be running on Symbian Belle.

According to Nokia Power User, the Lumia 920, 950, 1001 and Nokia 510 could be authentic or just misinformation planted by rumormongers. However, the blog believes that the Nokia 510 and Belle 805 are likely “authentic” and that the Nokia 510 could be the “cheapest Windows Phone 7.5 device” aimed at competing against Android.

We think the blog could be right because it doesn’t make any sense for Nokia to release any new high-end Windows Phone 7.5 handsets at the moment with Windows Phone 8 (WP8) expected to launch soon. However, a budget device like the Nokia 510 running the Tango update could be just the thing to maintain Nokia’s presence in the smartphone market before the WP8 mobiles arrive.

July 12, 2012
Google faces $22.5m fine over iPhone, iPad privacy breach

Google faces a $22.5m fine (£14.5m) for breaching the privacy of iPhone and iPad users after bypassing cookie rejection settings on the devices, according to reports.

If confirmed, the fine would be the largest ever imposed by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against a single company – and would be the second time this year that the search giant has fallen foul of regulators in the US.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the FTC and Google are close to agreeing a settlement over the privacy breach, in which Google circumvented Apple’s protections on the iPhone and iPad against the setting of third-party “cookies” – small text files stored on the user’s device – for tracking where users went on the web.

The discovery of the circumvention, by Jonathan Mayer of Stanford University, was first revealed in February. Millions of users of Apple’s iOS software on iPhones and iPads could have been affected, said Mayer. Google declined a request from the Guardian to specify when it began the tracking.

However, Google may have escaped further prosecution for breaching an FTC consent decree over privacy that it signed in March 2011 because although the breach seems to have started in or before December 2011, the documentation in which Google explained what it would do dates back to 2009, before the decree, which covered privacy breaches caused by the Google Buzz social network, since closed.

Whether or not the FCC fines Google over the cookie infraction, it will also publish a report which would detail how it reached the decision, probably with documentation from Google about how many people were affected and for how long.

Google insisted at the time that the ad tracking was inadvertent and that the workaround to plant the Google cookie was feasible within Apple’s system. It said then: “The Safari browser contained functionality that then enabled other Google advertising cookies to be set on the browser [by other advertising companies using the DoubleClick network]. We didn’t anticipate that this would happen, and we have now started removing these advertising cookies from Safari browsers. It’s important to stress that, just as on other browsers, these advertising cookies do not collect personal information.”

Apple said at the time that “We are aware that some third parties are circumventing Safari’s privacy features and we are working to put a stop to it.”

July 11, 2012
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Source Code Revealed

Jean-Baptiste Queru the technical lead for the Android Open Source project has announced the source for the newest version of the OS, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean will be available today. Currently, binaries are available for the Nexus 7 and Galaxy Nexus, with Nexus S and Motorola Xoom versions promised soon.

[quote]We’re releasing Android 4.1 in AOSP today. The name of the tagged release is android-4.1.1_r1. The name of the development branch is jb-dev. We recommend that you create new clients, even if you’re working in the master branch. It’ll make your clients smaller and faster to sync. Proprietary binaries are available for Nexus 7 and Galaxy Nexus. Nexus S and Xoom will follow.

-Jean-Baptiste Queru[/quote]

With the code now available developers will be able to flash their devices much faster, and create custom ROMs etc for rooted phones and tablets.

[Android Building Google Group]

July 10, 2012
Your Canon Camera may cause an allergic reaction!

Canon has just released a statement saying the front rubber grips of some Canon T4i DSLR cameras may cause an allergic reaction. The grips could also turn white after a short period of time, which combined with the possibility of allergies, can cause big problems for users.

According to Cannon’s statement, the front rubber grips of some EOS REBEL T4i units produced in certain lots during the sixteen-day period between May 31st through June 15th, 2012 may turn white after a short period of time due to the presence of the substance zinc bis (N,N’-dimethyldithiocarbamate) is what causes the rubber surface to turn white. the quantity of rubber accelerator used in the affected production lots was slightly higher than usual.

Zinc bis is what can cause allergic skin reactions. To find out if your T4i is affected, you’ll have to plug in your serial number into Canon’s website. You’ll only need to do this if the sixth digit of the serial number is “1”.

July 9, 2012
Samsung planning Windows RT based tablets?

Samsung is reportedly working on a Windows RT tablet that will be launched in October this year, giving the much needed boost to the newly announced operating system.

According to a report in Bloomberg, sources familiar with the development stated that the tablet release will coincide with the Windows RT debut and it will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, probably S4.

Windows RT is the first operating system version from Microsoft that is made for touchscreen devices and supports ARM chips, which consume less power than x86.

If it does come through, the tablet would be Samsung’s first running a Microsoft OS.

July 9, 2012
RIM’s Blackberry App World marks 3 billion App Downloads

Everything may seem horribly wrong at Rim but all is not lost , when the company shows up with good numbers in at least one sector. The Blackberry App World just registered 3 billion app downloads it’s seen since the launch. According to RIM, that number amounts to 2.5 million downloads a day. At present, there are 90,000 apps available through the mobile app market.

[Inside BlackBerry]

July 9, 2012
Galaxy S3 Explosion was a fake! Samsung Calls Foul Play, Owner Admits !

After the whole Galaxy S3 explosion story went all over the world, Samsung went ahead and investigated the issue, it turns out the explosion was actually a way for the owner to get a replacement. After Samsung and a Third Party investigation was concluded it appears that the explosion occurred as a result of “external energy” being applied to the device, not anything from within the phone itself. The original poster dillo2k10 has posted an update on Boards.ie, indicating it was a mistake by someone else in an attempt to recover the phone after it got wet.

Fire Investigations UK reports on finding that the phone itself was not responsible for generating the heat that caused the damage. So now owner and potential buyers can breathe easy.

[Samsung Tomorrow]

[Boards.ie]

July 7, 2012
Sony Mobile receives four red dot awards for product design

Sony Mobile Communications today announced it has received four 2012 red dot awards in the Product Design category, as well as one honourable mention. The jury of international experts evaluated entries against key criteria including the degree of innovation, ergonomics, durability and ecological soundness. The awards presentation ceremony took place in Essen, Germany on July 2.

[quote]

“Design is at the heart of Sony Mobile’s product development philosophy and these awards are testament to the design quality of our Xperia smartphones and Smart Accessories, demonstrating our commitment to offering consumers a rich smartphone experience without sacrificing on functionality or design,” saidJeanna Kimbré, Director of Creative Product Design for Sony Mobile Communications.

[/quote]

Xperia active, Xperia ion, Smart Wireless Headset pro and SmartDock for Xperia ion received red dot awards in the Product Design category, while Xperia ray picked up an honourable mention

July 7, 2012
Xperia P has the ‘Brightest Smartphone Display’

Test Factory after a Test of 12 smartphones conducted in independent certified laboratory conditions in May 2012 has adjudged the Sony Xperia P to have the brightest display.

All environmental influences were minimised, each smartphone’s display set to maximum; with automatic functions turned off, and then a spectrometer was used to evaluate the brightness of each display.

This is due to Sony’s WhiteMagic, a technology that makes its smartphone debut with Xperia P. On a normal LCD display the color of each pixel (including white) is produced by mixing three subpixels: red, blue and green. But, Xperia P’s 4” Reality Display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine has a fourth white subpixel. This makes it possible to significantly brighten the display to guarantee a clear and sharp picture, even in dazzling sunshine.

July 7, 2012