Do you wish that you were a part of Google’s new Social Network Google+? Well your not alone. A lot of people all over the world have the desire to test Google’s new offering and some of those people have seen an opportunity to make some money. Google+ is currently in the testing phase so Google has restricted access to the service.
While joining Google+ will be free, people who are already on the service have started selling invites on E-Bay. A quick search on E-Bay gives a number of results ranging from $0.99 an invite all the way to $99.99 for one.
The downside to a purchase is that you still won’t be able to join the Google+ service. Google announced that the interest in Google+ was so great that the company had decided to stop accepting new users. A Google spoksperson said that they will be accepting new users in periodically as the company readies for its big public debut.
[dropcap]H[/dropcap]otmail was launched 15 Years ago on 4th of July to mark the independence from generic emailing services. The most popular email website ever was acquired by Microsoft and made a bigger and better service.
About 10 years ago Hotmail’s biggest challenge came from the likes of email services like Google Mail (GMAIL) and Yahoo Mail. Despite all the tough competition Hotmail rebranded itself as Windows Live Hotmail in 2007. It continues to be one of the most used email services online.
[dropcap]W[/dropcap]ho does not need an expense monitor, an easy to use and definitive way to organize and maintain your expenses. The new MoneyTron App for the iPhone, iPad and iPod does exactly that, and that too with an interesting user interface.
When you start Moneytron you are greeted with a nice startup screen with two options new or report. Taping on new shows a carousel which lets you select the type of record, ranging from incoming income, to expenses like clothing, drinking, eating , social and even household expenses and groceries. there are tons of options, and if you don’t like or use a particular option you can turn it off.
Next all you need to do is enter the value of your record and save, thats it you are done, a reassuring cash register sound confirms the record(the sounds can be turned off too). The app is an easy and effective way to record transactions. The report feature is excellent too, it lets you check your monthly, daily or total transactions. The new update adds a passcode lock which will help you avoid unwanted eyes. The add a note feature allows you to type in a quick note about the transaction.
One thing that majorly lacks in this app is the ability to export reports. There is no option to email or share reports, say you want to send your details to an accountant or a friend, you cant.
This app would have been perfect with an export feature so right now it gets one rank less.
[xrr rating=4/5 label=”We Rate it : ” imageset=shiny_yellow_star display_as=fraction_stars]
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1 or later
Within a year of its launch, Apple’s iPad now holds over 1% share of global web browsing and a 2% share of all browsing in the US. Reports from analytics firm Net Applications’ NetMarketShare Report show that the iPad had 53 times the usage share of its nearest competitor, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and 76 times the usage share of the Motorola Xoom. When compared with the Research In Motion’s PlayBook, the iPad leaves it in the dust with a 306 times greater market share.
In the US mobile browser market, the iPad takes has a moderate 25.5% share, only trailing Android, which has a 31.6% share, and the iPhone, which has a 35.2% share. When you combine the share of the iPhone and the iPad, they come in with a 60.7% share of the US mobile browsing market. That’s almost twice the market share of Android. Blackberry came in at 6.9 percent, while Symbian, Windows Mobile and webOS are left far behind, accounting for less than 0.5 percent.
With the launch of iOS 5 and the addition of tabbed browsing in Mobile Safari, the user’s browsing experience will be brought closer to that of the Mac. This should help the iPad become more acceptable as a mobile browsing platform and gain it higher market share than it holds today.
The Mi 410 is the first attempt from Spice to attack the 1 GHZ smartphone market in India. Possibly the only phone to offer these specs at a pretty decent price. Lets look into the Spice MI 410 carefully.
BUILD QUALITY, HARDWARE & DESIGN
The Spice MI 410 is built to last, metal accents and a full metal back cover, a metal frame and solid construction make the Mi 410 an extremely robust device. The volume rocker and the power button are flush with the device and highly tactile. The screen is also scratch resistant, but its no gorilla glass.
The device or its internals don’t shake or rattle and the phone is like one solid piece of hardware. Talking about hardware, lets look at the specs.
OS
ANDROID 2.2
Processor
1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255
Flash ROM
2GB eMMC
Ram
512MB
Dimensions
122X 66X 9.9 mm
Weight
143 gm
Display
4.1-inch Capacitive Touch Screen , 800 X 480 WVGA
Camera
5 MP rear with HD Video, 0.3MP front
Battery
1400 mAH
Talk Time
Upto 380 Mins GSM , Upto 300 Mins (3G)
Standby Time
Upto 300 Hours
Network
Quad band GSM , Tri-band 3G, HSDPA/HSUPA , up to 14.2 Mbps
Connect
Bluetooth v2.1 EDR
Other
Supports Flash 10.1
Price
Rs. 14,000/-
Design on the Mi410 is pretty good too with a flat slab/tablet type structure on the device. It one of those designs that may not appeal to all in the beginning, but grows on you as you begin to use the device. Honestly, it kind of reminds us of end 2010 HTC phones, with really prominent edges.
CAMERA & MULTIMEDIA
The rear camera on the Mi410 is a 5MP autofocus camera which does a good job of focusing, you can actually see the camera move when its trying to focus, making it an exceptionally great autofocus mechanism. It also utilized 4 point metering to gain a focus point allowing it to be accurate in most situations, indoor, outdoor or night mode.
Video quality is also decent with jitter free recording and smooth capture. While in video mode the zoom option while recording is missing, but was not quite missed.
The screen is nice and vivid and has a comparatively large ppi at 227.55 ppi. With a native resolution of 480×800 pixels making it a very good display. We have no complaints with the display and in-fact were quite happy with it. The screen is good for watching videos and browsing the internet. The ppi is rich enough for reading books, documents and articles without trouble. Let us remind you that its no retina display, but its possibly one of the best resolutions you can get for the price.
The inclusion of stereo speakers caught our attention at the get go. Its surprising the kind of sound you can get from these speakers. In a normally quiet environment the speakers are sufficient for watching videos and movies. The speakers are loud and clear with accurate channel mapping.
The touch screen on the Mi410 seems like a bother initially, after a bit of playing around we found out that the maximum issue is with the lock screen, where the screen response seems to be less, it also seems like a software glitch, as we upgraded to 2.3 the touch sensitivity issue reduced significantly, but is still there. Pinch to zoom and scrolling work fine and are not affected by the issue.
The included earphones are simply ordinary and don’t expect much from them. While they can be used for simple handsfree usage, if you want to enjoy music on this device, invest in a good pair of earphones.
PHONE & MESSAGING
The sound quality from the earphones and the outgoing sound from the mic is great, and more than expected. While network strength is constantly 1 bar less, it does not affect the usage of the device and in our signal measurement test we would get a consistent -60db value.
Messaging and typing on the keyboard is achieved with ease and effortlessness. The keyboard is well spaces with large keys and responsive, the touch sensitivity issue does not occur in the keyboard, that why we insist its a software issue and not hardware (we could be wrong too).
BATTERY LIFE
A lot of people asked us to test the battery and we did some extensive tests on the battery.
VALUES
2G
3G
WiFI
Talk Time
5 Hours
3.5 Hours
-NA-
Standby Time
72 Hours
50 Hours
5 days
Internet Browsing
5-6 hours
5 hours
8 hours
Video Playback
3 hours
3 hours
3 hours
Video Stream
2.5 hours
1 Hour
3.5 hours
Music
12 hours
12 hours
12 hours
Music Stream
7 hours
5 hours
8.5 hours
We noticed a well managed battery life even with the wifi hotspot on. Battery was inconsistent and scores above are average from out tests.
CONCLUSION
The Spice Mi410 is an extremely great option at its price. With features usually found in devices upwards of 20k. This device also looks, feels and performs like an expensive phone, so it should be a satisfying experience for the user. The fact that this handset is easily root-able will let people exploit the real benefits of the device. The screen issue may bother some , but it is not enough to not let us recommend this phone to some one who has this device in mind.
PRICE : 14,000/-
[xrr rating=4/5 label=”We Rate it : ” imageset=shiny_yellow_star display_as=fraction_stars]
Electronic Arts is having a mega sale on the app store. Most games that were priced at $4.99 are now priced at $0.99 for a limited time. Purchase your games today from the links below.
According to a report by Digitimes, Apple will surpass HP as the largest Notebook vendor in 2012, if tablet sales are included in the projections.
Apple will ship 40 million Tablets this year out of the total 60 million tablet sales. The number of the total tablets sold in 2012 is expected to be 80 million out of which Apple iPad are expected to be around the 60 million mark. The total number of sales for Apple in 2012 are expected to be around 75 million including the 60 million iPads and 15 million MacBooks. In comparison HP will only sell 40-45 million Notebooks including the Touchpad the HP slate and various Notebooks.
Microsoft said in January, that the marketplace will cross the 25,000 Apps target in June and so it has. The marketplace, relatively slow, but has managed to cross the the 25,000 apps number . That’s a rapid jump from the 18,000 applications that were available in May but it is still far away from the number of apps offered by iOS and Android.
Android has over 200,000 Apps, whereas the Apple App Store has over 500,000 Apps and growing. Thats a huge target to close up and Microsoft thinks it can achieve a significant reduction in gap in the coming year thanks to the Mango update.
The top 5 downloaded apps are games including the recently released Angry Birds at number one follwed by Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1, Plants vs. Zombies at two and three.
Samsung has sold 3 million of its super Amoled Plus monsters in 55 days and are proud to tell you about it. The original Galaxy S took 85 days to reach that target.
[toggle title_open=”COLLAPSE” title_closed=”READ THE PRESS RELEASE” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]Samsung GALAXY S II reaches 3 Million global sales
SEOUL, KOREA–(Korea Newswire) — Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a global leader in digital media and digital convergence technologies, today announced that the Samsung GALAXY S II(Model: GT-I9100), has reached global channel sales of 3 million units.
The GALAXY S II is Samsung’s flagship smartphone device; a beautifully thin (8.49mm) and lightweight, dual-core smartphone that combines an unmatched Super AMOLED Plus viewing experience with incredible performance, all on Android, the world’s fastest-growing mobile operating system. The next generation smartphone also includes exclusive access to Samsung’s four new content and entertainment hubs, seamlessly integrated to provide instant access to music, games, e-reading and social networking services.
“Announced at Mobile World Congress 2011, the GALAXY S II represents our most advanced smartphone to date and demonstrates Samsung’s commitment to deliver premium, market-defining devices,”and “This milestone reflects the continued strong support from our carrier partners around the world who have chosen the GALAXY S II as their flagship Android device.” said JK Shin, President and Head of Samsung’s Mobile Communications Business.[/toggle]
Just as the movie releases the Game for iOS is out by EA and it delivers 13 levels of non-stop action spread across various settings, from cities like Chernobyl and Atlantic City to the Moon. Just like in the movies, the Autobots can transform between robots and vehicles.
The fight is basically between the Transformers and Decepticons You may unlock up to 13 weapons, each of which may be upgraded using blue energon cubes that you’ll be collecting as you roam about. In this same manner, you can also upgrade your character’s skills. All these upgrades may be performed between levels in the lab. In addition to the weapons, you have two types of special attacks, including one that allows you to lock onto multiple targets. You can also attack the Decepticons at close range with a melee attack button.
Although there is a lot of fighting and action involved, it just seems like the same thing over and over again. The game gets really repetitive and feels like a drag after some time.
The lack of a better storyline fails to impress us with this game.
[xrr rating=2.25/5 label=”We Rate it : ” imageset=shiny_yellow_star display_as=fraction_stars]
Released: Jun 28, 2011 Version: 1.0.0 Size: 175 MB Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Google has decided to update its offerings with a new look with the launch of its Google+ service. You would have already noticed the black bar above the Google search page. Adding multiple features over the years has made their Gmail interface more cluttered and complicated to use. They are attempting to clear it up as well as add some more features, however, they have scheduled to do it in phases, so not all features will work at this time. You can check out the new interface by logging into your gmail account and changing your theme. The new interface not only changes the colour scheme of the interface, but also introduces many UI enhancements such as changes in buttons and overall layout. Changes to the Google Calender are also coming soon. Read the Press Release for more info.
We get a lot of great feedback about how Gmail helps you be more efficient, keep in touch with family and friends, and get work done. We’ve saved you from forgetting attachments and made sure that you got the right Bob. Over the years, adding countless features to Gmail has made it an increasingly powerful communication hub, but along the way the interface has also become more cluttered and complex.
That’s one of the reasons we’re embarking on a series of interface updates to help strip out unnecessary clutter and make Gmail as beautiful as it is powerful. This is part of a Google-wide effort to bring you an experience that’s more focused, elastic, and effortless across all of our products. The changes are not going to happen all at once. We know that you love and care about Gmail as much as we do, and we’ll be working on these upgrades gradually over the next few months to allow plenty of time to understand and incorporate your feedback into the evolving design.
We’re kicking things off with two new themes for you to try out as a sort of sneak peek at what we’re up to. Starting today, you’ll see the “Preview” and “Preview (Dense)” themes in the Themes tab in Gmail Settings. Why two themes? Our new interface will eventually expand dynamically to accommodate different screen sizes and user preferences, but until then you can pick the information density that you prefer.
Here’s what one of the new themes currently looks like:
And in conversation view:
If you poke around you’ll hopefully find a lot to like and a much cleaner, modern look but also few rough edges. In particular, some Labs features may look a little strange in the new themes. We plan to fix these issues as we roll out changes in the coming months. You can also expect some updated themes that embody the same design principles but are better suited to working in a dark environment, use a different color palette, or include the illustrations that we know many of you love to see around your inbox.
Look out for these and other new features over the next few months. In the meantime, try out the new themes as a preview of the future of Gmail and let us know what you think.
P.S. Like Gmail, Google Calendar is also getting a new look. You’ll see it automatically within the next few days so there’s no need to turn it on, and we’ll also continue to make improvements there in the coming months. Details about the current changes to Calendar can be found in the Calendar help center.
A new Android smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy Z has appeared on the Three mobile network in Sweden, although there is no official word from Samsung as yet.
The Samsung Galaxy Z seems to be a downgraded version of the Samsung Galaxy S II, it features
4.2inch inch touchscreen Super Clear LCD
800 x 480 pixels
dual core 1GHz processor.
5 megapixel camera on the back
Android 2.3 Gingerbread
WiFi
GPS
8GB of built in storage
microSD card slot
We are trying to get more information on the availability and launch prospects of this device in India, Price is set at 3995 Sweden Kr = INR. 28,000/-
Sometime back we asked you what your next phone is going to be. A lot of you answered and we decided to let you guys know the Result
As per our Readers, by a clear margin, the most popular Smartphone for Q2 2011 is the Samsung Galaxy S2, which got 25 % of the crowd voting for it. Followed by the iPhone 4 which was at approx. 9 % .
About 8% users mentioned other phones not mentioned in the poll and approx. 7% and 6% for the Wildfire S and Motorola Defy respectively.
The rest of the phones including, and not limiting to, the HTC Sensation (4.5%) Optimus 2X (2 %) Galaxy S (3 %) and those waiting for the iPhone 5 fell in the 45 % (others) category.
You can find the original poll over here [button link=”https://igyaan.in/2011/06/poll-phone/” bg_color=”#1f1fff”]Click Here[/button]
Microsoft has announced the launch of Office 365 business productivity solutions on the cloud in India. Office 365 takes aim at cloud based enterprise and small business word processing and document editing and storage. This will enable an enterprise to have their solution available for easy access on the cloud.
The Office 365 plan for Small Businesses is optimized for organizations with 25 users or less and includes Office Web Apps, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Lync Online at approximately $6 per user per month.
With Office 365 Microsoft is attempting to target those users who were using Google apps for business by giving more comprehensive solutions at a selectable pricing. Getting partners and a huge database on board may be the real challenge for MS in OFFICE 365.
Skype announced that its Android client now supports cross platform video calls, so desktop users can now see mobile users and vice versa. At the moment, this functionality is limited to only four Android handsets, the Desire S, Xperia Neo and Pro and the Nexus S. If you have one of these phones, you can now make video calls to your friends over WiFi and 3G both.
Video Calls between android devices have been possible for a while now, but the option to make video calls to desktops/laptops has been limited. Most Android users won’t be affected by this update although Skype promises to add other handsets “soon”.
The new Skype client can switch between front and rear facing cameras, so you can show people your face as well as what you are seeing. It can connect to all Skype clients including the iPhone as well as many Skype enabled TV’s.
the Desire S, Xperia Neo and Pro and (of course) the Nexus S
