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Imagine a scenario wherein you’re in your office giving a presentation to your boss when suddenly he tells you he has an urge to eat, what would you do? Lo and behold! – the Darwin Triangular BBQ, a briefcase that unfolds into a compact grill.
Priced at 52$, this rather interesting piece of “kitchenware” may not be able to dish out the same capacity as your backyard griller at home, but you can still squeeze at least four burgers onto it at one time. Handy eh?
A word of caution- Don’t try to take it through airport security.
No matter how many specs a phone has to offer, one of the biggest factors that affect our choice when we’re buying a new phone is the Camera! We put 5 smartphones to the test! Here they are (We rank them in 3 categories) –
Warning: Images are in Original size and may take long to load.
Outdoor- Close-up, Brightly Lit, Macro
Xperia S
5/5
Xperia P
4.5/5
Galaxy S3
4/5
iPhone 4S
3/5
One X
2.5/5
Indoor- Dim Lighting, Macro
iPhone 4s
4.5/5
One X
4/5
Xperia P
3/5
GS3
2.5/5
Xperia S
2/5
Outdoor- Far focus, Brightly Lit
Xperia S
5/5
One X
4/5
Xperia P
4/5
GS3
3.5/5
iPhone 4s
3/5
1. Outdoor – Close-up
Undoubtedly the best, the Xperia S with its 12MP camera produced an image that even Bharat Nagpal was proud of! Rich in colour and detail, it was hard to flaw the image. A close second was the Xperia P which clicked the image with a sharp focus and brilliant colours. The S3 delivered an image that was nicely detailed and sharply focussed, though the colours seemed a tad bit brighter than normal. The iPhone 4s captured a rather off-focus image but the colours and detailing were top-notch! On the bottom of the pile was the One X, not too surprisingly producing a dull and off-focus image.
2. Indoor – Dim Lighting
The iPhone 4S was the best in this category, with an image which had had perfect focus, brilliant colours and amazing detail! Out of the rest the One X surprised us by clicking a near perfect picture, which was lagging just a bit in detail. The Xperia P and Galaxy S3 followed with images which were didn’t have accurate colours but decent detailing. Last came the Xperia S, which disappointed us a lot as we expected more from it’s camera.
3. Outdoor – Far Focus
The Xperia S was once again the best, evenly focused, accurate colours, perfect image. Tied for second place were the One X and the Xperia P, with high detail images which were slightly off-colour. The Galaxy S3 produced an image which even though wasn’t as detailed as the rest, was perfectly focused. And at the bottom was the iPhone 4s, with an image which wasn’t focused or detailed, only the colours were accurate.
Summary
Xperia S (12/15)
With its 12-megapixel camera, the Xperia S is THE best of the lot when it comes to outdoor shooting, though indoor shooting could have been better.
Xperia P (11.5/15)
A close second was the S’s sibling, the Xperia P, which produced images that were sharply focused and amazingly detailed.
iPhone 4S & One X (10.5/15)
While the iPhone performed excellently indoors, it let us down in outdoor shooting with slightly off-focus images. The One X too was not as impressive as we would like it to be.
Galaxy S3 (10/15)
The biggest disappointment was the Galaxy S3 which boasts of an 8-MP camera but did not produce any exceptional image.
Sotheby’s Auction house had announced a couple of weeks back that they would auction off an Apple 1 motherboard, cassette interface and its BASIC programming manual, originally set to fetch upwards of $180,000. However the original machine, made by Steve Jobs himself in 1979, was sold to one lucky phone bidder for an impressive US $374,500 (Rs 2,08,42,500).
According to Apple Insider, the computer is one of six known out of 50 that are likely still out there. Now that the fetching price is known we might see more come out in the open. Apart from the massive price fetched for that machine, a hand-written note from Steve Jobs during his time at Atari was also on auction, going up to a final price of US $27,500 (Rs. 15,28,450) even though it was only estimated to sell for less than half that price.
The One S comes with an older S3 processor instead of the S4
The HTC One S, which has drawn flak for being fitted with the dual-core 1.7GHz Qualcomm S3 processor instead of the better Qualcomm S4 Krait processor in some countries, is available for online purchase at a starting price of Rs 33,000.
The phone features a 4.3 inch AMOLED qHD display, 8MP rear camera, front camera, Android 4.0, HTC Sense 4.0, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, and 1650mAh battery. It is also company’s thinnest phone till date with just 7.8mm thick body.
The pricing seems to be perfect but the old processor may just turn out to be a deal breaker.
Skeptics believe this is just another tactic used by Facebook to gain private details
In wake of the recent leaking of passwords of LinkedIn and eHarmony accounts, social networking giants Facebook started promoting security tips at the top of each user’s home page, with a link to information about scams, passwords and how to stay safe on the social network.
Users are urged to give Facebook their mobile phone numbers, which the company says it will use to text them a new password in the event of a data breach. Facebook said the desktop security message, already seen by millions of users in the U.S., will be on all accounts in the next few days. Skeptics are far from pleased with the move, suggesting that the Menlo Park web giant is taking advantage of the recent leaks to prise yet more personal data out of their users under a benevolent guise. Admittedly, it’s unlikely to be something that appeals to the Internet’s more paranoid surfers, assuming they even use Facebook to begin with.
The new version also brings in the option of using themes!
Opera 12 made its public debut today with numerous changes that mostly focus on faster browsing. The browser, whose mobile version is more popular than its PC counterpart, with this update brings in themes capability to dress up your browser, Do Not Track privacy support, and lots of performance enhancements. It also brings a couple of completely new ways to experience the Web involving your webcam and paged layouts, and HTML5 drag-and-drop.
[quote]You spend hours each day in front of a Web browser, said Opera CEO Lars Boilesen. Shouldn’t those hours be as fun and, occasionally, as productive as possible? We think so, so we made Opera 12 the smartest, fastest and most unique browser available.[/quote]
Opera’s hardware acceleration go beyond just web content, using your graphics processor to boost the rendering speed of the browser’s user interface as well, though we feel that the browser lags behind competition due to delayed updates which means that browsers like Chrome and Firefox already have what new versions of Opera have to offer.
Opera released a video to showcase the new version:
Liveside.net leaked screenshots of the new interface
Most of us had our first email accounts at hotmail.com, but somehow after the arrival of Gmail, it faded into oblivion. Even though it still has the most number of users, 10 million more than Gmail, its growth rate has been alarmingly low! In a bid to bring it back to its former glory Microsoft has renamed and revamped Hotmail, now called Newmail, which is understood to have a ‘clean look’ when it comes to the font that has been used for the labels in the inbox, which resembles its adversary(Gmail).
The new email service will also be linked to Facebook and Twitter and will allow users to keep their contacts automatically in sync and see what their friends are doing on the service. However, all new accounts would still have the @hotmail tag.
After selling over 1 lakh units of its previous models of 3G phones, from the “What an idea sirji” campaign, Aditya Birla group led Idea launched a new dual-sim (GSM+GSM) 3G device, the ID-918 made by Alcatel in China priced at Rs 5,994.
It runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread and features include FM Radio, 150 MB internal memory, expandable memory up to 32GB with microSD (2GB card included), 512 MB RAM, 256 MB ROM and a 1300 mAh battery.
Along with the handset, Idea is also offering benefits worth Rs 2,340 apart from a 2 GB data per month for three months after 48-72 hours of recharge.
The highlight of the device is its inbuilt 3G capabilities
iBall’s launched its latest tablet, the Slide 3G- 7307, at an MRP of Rs.16,499 with the best buy price of Rs. 15,499. According to the company, the USP of this tablet is that it comes with built-in 3G capability.
What’s disappointing is that the device comes with Android 2.3 Gingerbread and no indication has been given as to whether it will get an update to ICS or not.
It features a 1GHz processor,supports 8GB storage expandable up to 32GB and can play 1080p HD videos. The built in high speed HSPA+ 3g supports upload download speeds up to 7.2 Mbps and download upload speeds up to 5.76 Mpbs. The tablet features a 7-inch capacitive touchscreen with an 800 x 480 resolution and Front and rear camera. Also included an a direct USB, HDMI port, supporting simultaneous use on tablet as well as TV.
The pricing could have been better as you can get your hands on a Samsung Galaxy Tab2 P3100 by paying just a little more, which seems like a better option.
Ever been to a party where you start showing friends your favorite YouTube videos? Well YouTube and Google+ think you have. If you are in a Google+ Hangout and as long as everyone has the web app running, they can share individual videos or whole playlists that run in sync. Voice chat, flips to a push-to-talk requirement to prevent friends from talking over your favorite clip or creating a fish market of the situation.
Everyone can add videos in the Hangout through a search tool in the app, or remove the videos you don’t like. All your friends in the Hangout can drag and drop videos to sort the order in the playlist, or skip forward or backward to play the next one.
If you like a video that’s playing, you can share the video with your Google+ circles at any time. Since great playlists are works of art, you can also save the playlist that you and your friends created to your YouTube account as public or private to enjoy later.
If you are rocking one of the new Xperia NXT phones then you might like to know about this new app called “Illumination Bar Notification”. The app is meant only for Xperia S, P and U and allows you to set up notification alerts by making the light in the transparent bar flash.
The illumination bar can blink with different speeds or have a constant light depending on your preference. This app will only work on the latest range of Sony Xperia mobile phones that have the illumination bar (the transparent bar at the bottom of the phone). Currently this is the following models: Xperia S, Xperia P & Xperia U. On Xperia U multiple colors are available to choose from (Red, Green, Blue, etc).
Various Settings allow for custom notifications, including the light staying on till the SMS is read, or till the screen is unlocked. Go to the link below to download the app yourself.
A developer working on the Playbook has been able to run iOS apps on the BlackBerry PlayBook. The developer likens his project to WINE, which doesn’t do hardware emulation, but rather relies on a custom set of APIs to make the apps boot and run on the Playbook. The dependency of the said port is only possible properly if the app does not rely on Apple’s UIWebView or CoreData frameworks. businesscat2000 the developer, has yet to make the software publicly available, although he’s expressed a bit of interest. It remains to be seen whether this project will ever see the light of day.
Sony yesterday announced three colorful, entry-level Android handsets (9 days before the official countdown) via its Facebook page that are expected to ship in the third quarter of the year. Though no spec-sheets have been revealed, here they are!
Xperia Miro
The Miro is an entry level Xperia
Xperia miro packs a 3.5″ screen, 5MP camera, DLNA, Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and, of course, a bunch of Sony exclusive software tricks to go with the adjustable illumination effects of the handset. There’s also a front facing camera for video chat. This is a Sony’s Facebook-centric smartphone, with the social networking site being integrated into the device.
Xperia Tipo, Tipo Dual
The Tipo dual has a dedicated sim-switch button
The Xperia tipo and tipo dual are basic Android ICS handsets with a 3.2″ display and 3.2 MP camera. The phones run on an 800 MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor but only 2.5 GB user accessible memory out of the 4 GB onboard memory. The tipo dual features a dedicated SIM-swap key to help switch between SIM cards. Users can also preset the phone to swap between SIM cards at a particular time during the day. Both the devices feature identical specifications except for the dual-SIM capabilities on the Xperia tipo dual.
Check out these introductory videos put up by Sony-
The phone features the same Kevlar coating as that of the Droid Razr
The Motorola Razr Maxx, which was showcased at CES Las Vegas in January, is all set to hit Indian stores starting 24th July. The device is up for pre-orders online from Infibeam at a price of Rs 31,999/-.
The Razr Maxx features a 4.3-inch Super Amoled advanced touchscreen display with qHD (960×540) pixel resolution. It promises an impressive battery backup, providing a standby time of about 380 hours and 20.5 hours of talk time, 7.5 hours of web browsing with around 14 hours of video playback on a single charge.
Powered by dual-core 1.2 GHz mobile processor, the phone packs 1GB RAM and 16GB ROM, has an 8 megapixel camera and 1.3 megapixel front camera. It comes with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich onboard and has an 8 megapixel rear camera, capable of recording at 1080p at 30 fps. Like the Droid Razr, it comes with a Kevlar coating which adds to the device’s durability.
The app will turn the iPhone into an Xbox controller
Microsoft on Wednesday released an update for their My Xbox Live application for iOS (4.3 or later) which allows iPhone users to use the app to control their Xbox 360 consoles using a simple touch interface. The app also lets users launch games or apps on the 360 from the app on their phone without having to wade through tons of menus on the Xbox 360.
Even when the device is not connected to the Xbox, users can make changes to their profile, view their stats etc from their iPhone. Other additions to the iOS My Xbox Live app include improved authentication for increased stability, and high-resolution images for the new iPad. Remote control functionality is not yet available on the iPad.
The app was also released for Android but with restrictions, that is, users cannot gain any practical control over the Xbox, they can now check their Xbox Live profiles, friend statuses and the highlighted games.
