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Samsung Omnia W Review
Samsung has actually reigned supreme in the year 2011, and looks like the year 2012 will be in their hands too. The Omnia W is a representation of what a company like Samsung is capable of. The device is considerably cheaper than its competition but has excellent specs and usability. Here is our review on the Samsung Omnia W ( Wonder).

Build Quality

The Omnia W is well built, not the best build you would find in this price range, but definitely well built. The construction is all plastic and appears flimsy, but is actually quite good. The back panel has some shell/metal elements that have a brushed and painted look , to try and give the device a little more elegance than it actually deserves, that part may not have been achieved. Buttons are well raised and fairly easy to use. The front bezel is a hair higher than the glass front, protecting the display from flat falls. Overall the device should do well in day to day usage.

Specs
- 1.4GHz processor
- 512MB RAM
- 3.7-inch display
- 480×800 resolution
- 8GB storage
- 5MP camera
- 720p HD videos
- 1,500 mAh battery
Camera, Display and Multimedia

The camera on the Omnia is a 5 mega pixel autofocus camera, with impressive light capture, the camera is one of the best cameras in its class of phone. The autofocus is fast, although you have the ability to tap to focus aswell, images can be clicked almost instantly. Video on the other hand is capped at a 720p HD quality, we often wonder why companies do not design the cameras to deliver 1080p, either way, video capture will require a lot of ambient light and indoor video is poor. The front camera is only good enough for low bit video calling , and should solve the purpose unless your friend on the other side is viewing your video on a big screen TV, if so is the case you will look like a character from Minecraft.

The display is a beautiful Super AMOLED display is a Samsung PenTile display which means that two red subpixels, two green subpixels, and one central blue subpixel is placed in each unit cell of the display. In layman words, its an old technology developed by Samsung back in 1990, and is still used in some of their devices. The display matrix arrangement has often received critique, and is not appreciated well. We however, found that the display was able to reproduce color well and had good deep black levels. The display is excellent for viewing video and and playing games. If you have a thing for the “world wide web”, or a bookworm within, then the display is capable of crisp fonts / texts on the screen for easy viewing. Outdoor visibility is low-poor, due to the inherent problems in AMOLED screens.

With limitations to the kind of files that can be played back on the device, it does not compete with an Android device. Bluetooth is locked and file transfer denied, for most of the things. However, whatever Windows can play natively will work on the phone, and you can always sync up using Zune, or Windows Phone Connector. The speaker is loud enough for music and watching movies. The included earphones are above average, but will not satisfy the bassphile.

Phone and Messaging

A capable phone is what the Omnia W turned out to be. The earpiece and mic war loud and clear, and network connectivity was strong. In our standard 3 hour call test the Omnia dropped the call twice exactly at 1 hour 51 mins , both times. No network drop was faced in the overalll testing and we are quite happy with the result.

As we have already stressed enough, the WP7 keyboard is one of the best in the world, we don’t need to say that its really good on the Omnia W. It has predictive text and autocorrect, and it is a super fast keyboard, no complaints. The messaging and email capabilities are good, the OS is connected well to Facebook and Twitter and should serve you well.

Internet, Battery and Operating System

The internet is a domain which is not properly tapped on the Omnia, with limitations of the browser in terms of javascript and flash. That being said it is one of the fastest internet browsers out there. The screen is great for website browsing and even better to read daily news stories from iGyaan. With a host of apps from the marketplace you can actually find your fix for the web.

Battery life is impressive on the Omnia W with upto 2 days of standby and 5 hours of talk time. The battery fares well while gaming and heavy graphic games can be played for a good 2-3 hours. Music playback should last 10 hours while video lasts about 4-5 hours.

The OS is a different playing field in the world of iOS and Android, as we mentioned in our previous Reviews. The interface is one of the cleanest and snappiest out of the lot, and there is no crashing or lagging from the interface even when multiple tasks are running ( Surprising since Windows is the name attached). The marketplace is also ever-growing with a host of applications and games, the future of Windows Phone looks bright. With no access to file sharing over bluetooth and native file compatibility, the closed system may be a let down for some. Samsung has added Video Calling to the OS to make it a little worthwhile. Samsung also offers multiple apps to make the experience a bit better. The included AllShare will allow for you to stream media to other Samsung Devices.

Conclusion

One of the best phones available at the price range, if you are not happy with the Android OS. or the way it looks. Also to consider the OS is as fast and responsive as iOS if not faster. A good smartphone with inbuilt office documentation capabilities and one that supports Microsoft SkyDrive. If you are a true windows junkie, the interconnectivity will impress, the lack of script execution may limit the experience. But overall the phone is a complete mix of Phone, Smartphone and PMP.

We Rate It : 4/5

Price Rs. 17499/-

Video Unboxing

Video Review
January 27, 2012
Samsung makes US $ 42 Billion in Sales and $ 4.7 Billion in operating profit

Samsung has released its Q4 results and it shows that the company is headed in the right direction to becoming bigger than ever before. The electronics mammoth company has posted a 5.3 trillion won ($4.7 billion) operating profit in Q4 2011, with a sales revenue of 47.3 trillion won ($42 billion). The major of the chunk of its income is thanks to the impressive smartphone sales by the company , with over 300 million phones sold in 2011.

The earnings also reported that the mobile division stood accountable for 40% in the total earnings, while other major contributors were Samsung Semiconductors and Display divisions with 2.3 trillion won ($2 billion) and 8.55 trillion won ($7.6 billion) in sales respectively.

Samsung reports that in 2012 the sales from mobile phones will account for 50% of its total revenue considering it has an impressive lineup coming. Shipments of Samsung’s smartphones jumped 30 percent compared to the previous quarter (holiday quarter). Looking forward, Samsung expects the demand for entry-level smartphones and LTE will grow the smartphone market by more than 30 percent over the year, and the company expects tablet demand to grow as well.

January 27, 2012
Apple is the largest Buyer of Semiconductors in the Worlds

Thanks to its massive numbers of devices sold, Apple is now the largest buyer of semiconductor chips in the world. According to a report by Gartner the company which was number 3 in 2010 , is now the largest in the world with a purchase of over 17 billion dollars. Up from the 12.8 billion in 2012, Apple saw a growth of one 34 %. Samsung stayed in the number two spot with a 9.2 percent increase in spending to $16.68 billion. Meanwhile HP dropped to third by buying only $16.62 billion worth of semiconductors.

[toggle title_open=”Press Release” title_closed=”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”]Gartner Says Apple Became the Top Semiconductor Customer in 2011

Top 10 Original Equipment Manufacturers Represented $105.6 Billion of Semiconductor Demand, Accounting for 35 Percent of Total Semiconductor Chip Revenue in 2011
STAMFORD, Conn., January 24, 2012-

Leading electronic equipment manufacturers remained the center of the semiconductor world in 2011, accounting for $105.6 billion of semiconductors on a design total available market (TAM) basis – 35 percent of semiconductor vendors’ worldwide chip revenue, according to Gartner, Inc. This represented a year-over-year increase of $1.8 billion, or 1.8 percent from 2010.

Design TAM represents the total silicon content in all products designed by a certain electronic equipment manufacturer or in a certain region, while purchasing TAM represents the total silicon content purchased directly by a certain electronic equipment manufacturer or in a certain region. Design TAM is a useful index for semiconductor vendors when they are considering how to allocate their sales or field application engineer resources by customer or region. Purchasing TAM is a useful index for semiconductor vendors when they are considering how to establish an efficient distribution network by customer or region.

“The major growth drivers in 2011 were smartphones, media tablets and solid-state drives (SSDs),” said Masatsune Yamaji, principal research analyst at Gartner. “Those companies that gained share in the smartphone market, such as Apple, Samsung Electronics and HTC, increased their semiconductor demand, while those who lost market share in this segment, such as Nokia and LG Electronics, decreased their semiconductor demand. Media tablets were also a growth driver for the semiconductor market throughout 2011.”

“Given the rapidly changing competitive structure of the IT and electronics industry, no semiconductor device vendor can afford just to monitor the requirements of the current market leaders,” Mr. Yamaji said. “Vendors need to be constantly looking for new market entrants who will, in turn, be tomorrow’s market leaders.”

Within the top 10 rankings, three companies were from the Americas, three from Asia/Pacific, three from Japan and one from Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Apple led the market in 2011 (see Table 1), achieving significant growth, as it has done for the past five years. As a result, Apple became the biggest customer of semiconductor chip vendors in 2011, climbing two places in the ranking, from third in 2010.

Apple gained a much greater share of the smartphone market, and its media tablet business was also highly successful in 2011. While DRAM prices fell drastically in 2011, and many PC vendors decreased their total semiconductor demand accordingly, the success of the MacBook Air enabled Apple to increase semiconductor chip demand even in its PC business.

Mr. Yamaji said that as more brand-name companies are increasing their production outsourcing to original design manufacturers (ODMs) and electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers, semiconductor procurement by ODMs and EMS providers has increased year over year. Currently, three of the top 10 purchasing TAM companies are so-called contract manufacturers.

“Semiconductor chip vendors must pay attention not just to the design TAM and purchasing TAM by company, but also by region,” said Mr. Yamaji. “This is the key to avoiding inappropriate sales resource allocation. They must keep an eye on design-win opportunities in the U.S., while also establishing a strong distribution network in China.”

*Note to Editors on Nokia and Sony
In the ranking table, two joint ventures are included as stand-alone firms, as they are independent buying centers: Sony Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks. They are still considered independent companies in this report. This means Nokia does not include the TAM of Nokia Siemens Networks, and Sony does not include the TAM of Sony Ericsson.

Additional information is available in the report “Market Insight: Apple Led OEM, ODM and EMS Semiconductor Demand in 2011.” The report is available on the Gartner website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1517414.[/toggle]

[Gartner]

January 25, 2012

Nokia Belle 701 Review

Nokia is really struggling with their Symbian phones, especially after the announcement of the end of days for the OS. Nokia Belle is the name given to the dying OS and the new revision brings some promise. Lets see how the Nokia 701 with Belle does in our review.

Build Quality

The Nokia 701 is exceptionally well built, If you have handled any of their E-Series metal phones, you will feel a similar sort of construction here. The back cover and top front bezel are all steel, the frame and remaining parts are solid plastic with a nice paint job that fools you into believing that the whole phone is made of metal. The 701 is also considerably heavy and feel really solid in the hand . The glass however, sits flush with the bezel and is prone to cracking if the device falls face-first. Overall the build is up to mark if not above it.

Specs

Price	Rs. 17,990
Frequency	Quad Band
Phone Style	Candybar touchscreen
Thickness	11mm
Length	117.2mm
Width	56.8mm
Weight	131g
Built-in Memory	8GB
Additional Memory	microSD – up to 32GB
High-speed Data	GPRS, 3G, HSDPA
Connectivity	Bluetooth, USB, Wi-Fi, A-GPS
Screen Size	640×360 pixels, 3.5 inches
Secondary Screen Size	N/A
Screen Colours	16 million colours
Camera	Yes
Camera Resolution	8 megapixels
Flash	Yes, dual LED

Radio	Yes, with RDS

Battery	1300mAh, 6hrs talktime, 504hrs standby

Display, Camera and Multimedia

The display on the 701 is supposedly the brightest display in the world. It has a 1000 nits brightness and excellent outdoor visibility. The screen is also very responsive to touch and has great color reproduction.

The camera was a let down especially because sits a fixed focus camera, so has a lot of limitations. The video quality is mediocre and pictures are decent. Indoor performance is poor to say the least. Don’t rely on the camera much if you are a happy snapper.

Audio quality from the speaker is impressively good, the sound has deep bass and great quality mids and highs. The included earphones can be used for daily medium use, If you like listening to good quality music on your phone consider investing in a set of good earphones.

OS, Apps and Internet

Belle is possibly the only OS from the Symbian range that can truly compete with the Likes of Android and iOS, still not truly there, the OS is much more responsive than the previous builds and offers a more-Android-esque UI. Switchable dashboard, a notification panel, app drawer and widgets that mimic Android. Still, its user friendly , but certain things such as age old connectivity options and old menus are a let down.

Apps are limited to the ones on the OVI store and there are a lot now-a-days . From Angry Birds to NFS you even have Whatsapp and Skype.

Internet browser is still slow and laggy, pinch to zoom does not work and the browser cannot render a full page within the screen. The need to pan limits what you are looking at in the phones screen. There are however tons of apps from the Ovi store like : Opera Mini, and U browser that make the internet experience a lot better.

Battery Life

The Phone has a really bright display so you would expect a high battery drain, contrary to that battery life was excellent with over 5 hours of talk time, sometimes even 7 hours. the phone lasted 5 days on standby which was needless to say – impressive.

Conclusion

The Nokia 701 is proof that the company is really trying to prove itself in what has now become a world of iOS, Android and Windows Phone 7.5. The build quality is superior and so is the display , the OS is a drastic improvement over previous gen interfaces that were usually a let down. However, that being said, the phone feels a bit overpriced, and we have seen capable companies with better softwares and hardware throw out better phones at lower prices. We fail to understand why Nokia keeps pricing their phones so high. If you are a die hard Nokia fan and still need a fix of that Symbian Love this phone should suit you, bear in mind that the optics are sub satisfactory.

We Rate it 3.5/5

Price Rs. 17,999/-

Video Unboxing

Video Review

January 24, 2012

Tablet ownership doubled worldwide, Quadrupled in India in the Holiday Season

Tablet owners rejoiced as the world embraced Tablets this holiday season. As per several reports the Christmas time brought about a cheer for a touchable surface. Tablet consumers doubled in most parts of the world including the United States of America.

In India however if you take the Aakash Tablet into account , the Price drop of the RIM Playbook and Galaxy Tab (original 7 inch). There are tons of other tablets that boosted tablet sales in India, including the HCL me tab, Reliance and Beetel tab. The number of Tablet owners has quadrupled in India. Is the country finally embracing this new niche of the consumer segment.

What is your take? Would you add a tablet to your Arsenal?

[polldaddy poll=5869988]

January 24, 2012
All New Delhi Auto-Rickshaws to get GPS devices by March

City’s autorickshaws may finally get fitted with GPS from March. DIMTS, the agency in-charge of the project, has been asked by the transport department to empanel vendors who will supply the GPS devices to three-wheeled scooter rickshaws (TSRs). The process should take about a month after which the Govt will be in tune to install the devices. Meanwhile, the authorities are working on a comprehensive auto-rickshaw policy for the addition of 45,000 new autos as part of a court directive. These new rickshaws will all be pre fitted with gps enabled meters for accurate tracking and billing.

We will have to issue a notice giving details of the specifications vendors need to meet. Their applications would then be evaluated by us and the entire process is likely to take 40 days. Auto-rickshaw owners can then get the GPS fitted from these authorized vendors”

-DIMTS official

After the whole process is complete, which is expected to take another 6-9 months. A total of 1 Lakh traffic law violating AutoRickshaws will ply on New Delhi streets. Although all of these will be equipped with state of the art meters, a real resolution to the growing traffic menace is still awaited.

January 24, 2012
Indian War Comics digitized for Aakash Tab

Indian Army Chief V K Singh today launched the digital version of Indian War Comics (IWC), which will be available for users of upcoming version of Aakash tablet PC to be supplied by Datawind.

This particular idea itself is not only laudable, but I think each one of us must realise that there is something which will make tremendous difference,Those of you who have been lucky to read the Amar Chitra Katha and know what it did to you, to know your own history, I think these war comics are going to make a fantastic difference. Specially when they are loaded on to the Akash tablet”

– V K Singh

The comics will be available free of cost on both the Ubislate and Aakash TAB.

“We will put these comics on both Aakash and Ubislate tablets,”

-Datawind CEO Sunit Singh Tuli

These comics are really popular in their print form and will add to the tablet madness that has struck our country.

January 24, 2012
RIP : Google Shuts down Three More Services

Google announced today that three of its web services will be getting an arrow to the knee. Picnik, a photo-editing company that Google acquired in 2010, Needlebase, the data management platform and Google owned Sky Map Android app will go open-source by mid-year.

Picnik, was supposed to be integrated into Picasa, allowing users to edit their images online. But, the company will now be shuttered. Needlebase is possibly the only service out of the three that no-one has heard of, acquired from ITA Software, on June 1, 2012. The technology is being evaluated for integration into Google’s other data-related initiatives.

Sky Map was created by half a dozen Googlers at the Pittsburgh office in their 20 percent time to show off the amazing capabilities of the sensors in the first-generation Android phones and offer a window into the sky. This will now be converted to open source.

Google is knows for acquiring and ending companies faster than most people can develop a business plan.

[Google Blog]

January 23, 2012
Concept : The Future of Car Doors

Now this is an amazing video demonstrating the use of a creative yet useful technology. Looking at the video it seems that this concepts was made quite some time ago and dropped . We wish some company would buy this doors design and implement it in their cars. Its simply brilliant.

The rolling door not only makes it easier to get out or get into the vehicle, it also makes parking a breeze as you will see in the video. It will come in really hand for those tight parking spots you would have faced, if you live in cities like Delhi or Mumbai. The door is theoretically also much safer, since it can’t accidentally be left open or opened while the car is moving.

The company behind the design is called Jatech, but it seems that after they made this video their work on the project stopped completely.

January 23, 2012
Yummy : A 3D Printer that works on Chocolate

Imagine 3D printer is the first of its kind 3D printer, instead of meted plastic this printer can make 3D objects using molten chocolate in its syringes. 3D printing is the next step in the Industry especially with its advancements every day. Using a 3D printer to make items in chocolate could actually change to way people celebrate functions or festivals. The printer has other capabilities and in addition to chocolate, the syringes can also be filled with cheese, epoxy, silicone, and even concrete for those permanent casts.

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Wiki

3D printing is a phrase used to describe the process of creating three dimensional objects from digital file using a materials printer, in a manner similar to printing images on paper. The term is most closely associated with additive manufacturing technology, where an object is created by laying down successive layers of material. Recently the term is increasingly being used to describe all types of additive manufacturing processes, or even other types of rapid prototyping technology.

Since 2003 there has been large growth in the sale of 3D printers. Additionally, the cost of 3D printers has gone down.The technology also finds use in the fields of jewelry, footwear, industrial design, architecture, engineering and construction (AEC), automotive, aerospace, dental and medical industries, education, geographic information systems, civil engineering, and many others.

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[ED]

January 23, 2012
MS- Paint literally used to make Music video for LMFAOs Party Rock Anthem

Have you ever thought of how music videos would be if they were actually made as per the words of the song. A youtube user puts his MS Paint skills to use to show you exactly how LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem would look if it was based on the words. The user also did “Look at me now” in one of his previous videos. Its actually quite creative yet its hilarious.

January 23, 2012
Apple Releases Free iBooks Author app to the Mac App Store : Hands on

Considering how Apple just reinvented the text book with the new iBooks 2 App, the best feature about iBooks 2 is the ability of authors to write textbooks and publish them on iBooks. To make that project easier, Mac users can now download the iBooks Publisher App. This new app allows would be book sellers the ability to drag and drop photos, videos and even Microsoft Word files into various templates. If you use iWork you can drop a Keynote presentation into the doc, and it becomes an interactive widget. Authors can also arrange glossaries by highlighting and clicking words, and clicking again to add a definition.

The books can then be published straight to the Apple iBooks Store for either Free or a maximum of US $ 14.99, The paid books will go on revenue share with Apple, in a 70/30 split where the Authors get 70% of the total sales.

The App itself is quite amazing as we ant hands on with it.

When you start it up , it shows you a bunch of templates.

You can select your type and then continue to drag and drop media as per your convenience.

Influenced to write your own book yet!

January 20, 2012
App A Day: Tiny Tower

Do you remember when you were younger, there used to be a game called SimTower? Today we bring you another free game for your iDevice called Tiny Tower which is kind of a remake of the older game. Tiny Tower lets you build a tiny tower and manage the businesses and bitizens that inhabit it. The objective is to build the highest most revenue generating tower that you can.

The game starts out very simply. You have a lobby on which you have to construct a new floor. You start with a simple residential floor. It can hold 5 “Bitizens” who pay you rent every day and work for you in your tower. Once your residential floor is completed, you can build your first business!

All businesses require employees. While playing, you’ll come across many different bitizens with a variety of strengths and weaknesses, It is up to you to assign the right bitizen to the right job. Along the way, you may just give a few people their dream jobs.

When you tap a business floor, a new interface pops up that allows you to hire and fire people as well as to produce items for sale. Different businesses produce different items, and each item is prepared in a different quantity and in a different amount of time. Each business can produce three levels of products. The first level sells the cheapest and is produced in the least amount of quantity, time and money, while the third level sells for the highest price and is produced in a higher quantity but is more expensive and takes the maximum amount of time to produce. To produce a level 1 item, you need to have one employee, two employees for level 2 and three employees for level 3. Once items are ready, the business has to be “stocked” by tapping the business again. Once a business is stocked, it will continue to sell products even if you aren’t playing the game while it still has stock remaining. Once it is sold out, the business will close down and you start the whole process again.

A really easy, though low paying, way to make money is to do the job of the elevator attendant. From time to time, different people will walk into the lobby and request to be dropped to a specific floor. While this sounds easy, when your tower reaches 20+ floors, you’ll realize that it starts to take a while for you to get from the lobby to the floor and back.

Sometimes special bitizens with a large VIP label show up. VIPs provide various advantages to your tower. They range from a real estate agent who can instantly fill up a residential floor to a rich tycoon who buys out all of one item from the business that you take him to. When a VIP appears, you can drop them to the floor that you feel will provide you the most advantage. Choose carefully though.

As your tower starts to grow, you can reorganize floors by moving them and you can also customize the look and feel of each floor by repainting it. Has your tower grown too tall? Relax. You can upgrade your elevator too.

As with most free to play games, there are various in-app purchases that allow you to buy various “TowerBux” packages. TowerBux can be spent on speeding everything up in your tower, from construction to item production.

All in all this game isn’t one that you’ll be playing for hours at a stretch, but it is the game that you’re gonna come back to for five minutes every hour.

January 20, 2012
Apple Releases iBooks 2, now with Textbooks (PR)

Apple has released a new version of the iBooks publishing platform yesterday at the Guggenheim museum in New York City. The new iBooks 2 app is available today as a free download from the App Store. It features a lot of new improvements including the ability to share textbooks. The reason for giving iPad’s to students in universities becomes even more useful starting today.

The App allows fullscreen books, interactive 3D objects, diagrams, videos and photos, the iBooks 2 app will let students learn with just a tap or swipe of the finger.

Education is deep in Apple’s DNA and iPad may be our most exciting education product yet. With 1.5 million iPads already in use in education institutions, including over 1,000 one-to-one deployments, iPad is rapidly being adopted by schools across the US and around the world, Now with iBooks 2 for iPad, students have a more dynamic, engaging and truly interactive way to read and learn, using the device they already love.”

-said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

[toggle title_open=”Press Release” title_closed=”Press Release” hide=”no” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]

Apple Reinvents Textbooks with iBooks 2 for iPad
New iBooks Author Lets Anyone Create Stunning iBooks Textbooks

NEW YORK-January 19, 2012-Apple® today announced iBooks® 2 for iPad®, featuring iBooks textbooks, an entirely new kind of textbook that’s dynamic, engaging and truly interactive. iBooks textbooks offer iPad users gorgeous, fullscreen textbooks with interactive animations, diagrams, photos, videos, unrivaled navigation and much more. iBooks textbooks can be kept up to date, don’t weigh down a backpack and never have to be returned. Leading education services companies including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill and Pearson will deliver educational titles on the iBookstore? with most priced at $14.99 or less, and with the new iBooks Author, a free authoring tool available today, anyone with a Mac® can create stunning iBooks textbooks.

“Education is deep in Apple’s DNA and iPad may be our most exciting education product yet. With 1.5 million iPads already in use in education institutions, including over 1,000 one-to-one deployments, iPad is rapidly being adopted by schools across the US and around the world,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Now with iBooks 2 for iPad, students have a more dynamic, engaging and truly interactive way to read and learn, using the device they already love.”

The new iBooks 2 app is available today as a free download from the App Store™. With support for great new features including gorgeous, fullscreen books, interactive 3D objects, diagrams, videos and photos, the iBooks 2 app will let students learn about the solar system or the physics of a skyscraper with amazing new interactive textbooks that come to life with just a tap or swipe of the finger. With its fast, fluid navigation, easy highlighting and note-taking, searching and definitions, plus lesson reviews and study cards, the new iBooks 2 app lets students study and learn in more efficient and effective ways than ever before.

iBooks Author is also available today as a free download from the Mac App Store and lets anyone with a Mac create stunning iBooks textbooks, cookbooks, history books, picture books and more, and publish them to Apple’s iBookstore. Authors and publishers of any size can start creating with Apple-designed templates that feature a wide variety of page layouts. iBooks Author lets you add your own text and images by simply dragging and dropping, and with the Multi-Touch™ widgets you can easily add interactive photo galleries, movies, Keynote® presentations and 3D objects.

Apple today also announced an all-new iTunes® U app giving educators and students everything they need on their iPad, iPhone® and iPod touch® to teach and take entire courses. With the new iTunes U app, students using iPads have access to the world’s largest catalog of free educational content, along with over 20,000 education apps at their fingertips and hundreds of thousands of books in the iBookstore that can be used in their school curriculum, such as novels for English or Social Studies.* The iTunes U app is available today as a free download from the App Store.

*Some content is available only for iPad.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.

[/toggle]

January 20, 2012
App A Day: MetalStorm Wingman

Do you love airplanes? Are you an air fanatic? Do you want to shoot down enemy fighters while you’re partnered up with your best friend? If you answered yes to those questions, then you HAVE to try this game.

Metalstorm: Wingman is the successor to the highly successful game Metalstorm: Online. It is a highly addictive flight combat simulator which offers a wide range of gamers the ability to pilot their very own fighter jet. The game is fairly simple to play. At the very basic level, you have to shoot down enemy planes with missles and cannons. You control your aircraft by tilting your iDevice in the desired direction of flight. The on screen controls allow you to fire your weapons, control the speed of your jet, change the camera view and pause the game. You can also swipe the screen in any direction and have your plane perform an advanced evasive maneuver in that direction.

The game offers players a variety of aircraft to purchase, as well as a detailed tech tree for each. Players also have the option of equipping their aircraft from a wide arsenal of missles and cannons.

While these features alone would have made the game quite nice, what makes it truly amazing are its multiple game modes. You have the standard campaign and single player modes but there is also a multiplayer ‘verses ‘ mode as well as a ‘Co-Op survival mode’. What this means is that you can play a game verses your friend and blow his plane to bits, or you could team up with them and see how many waves you can survive as wingmen together. Did we happen to mention that there’s a little icon that pops up in the corner of your screen in multiplayer games? It lets you talk to your wingman/opponent while you’re in-game. Multiplayer in Metalstorm is achieved through the Game Center. It works flawlessly (during numerous tests) over both WiFi and 3G, with players in the same room or across the world.

But wait! There’s More! Do you have a nice, big, shiny and sleek TV in your room? Yes! Ever wanted to play a game from your phone on that big TV? Yes! Do you happen to also have an Apple TV? Yes! All you have to do is connect the Apple TV and your iPad 2/iPhone 4s/iPod Touch and start AirPlay Mirroring. Congratulations. You’re now ready to play Metalstorm: Wingman in 720p on your TV. While the screen is being mirrored, the game shows the inside of a cockpit on your device’s screen, which adds to the coolness of the entire experience.

The only feature of this game that we did not like was the fact that you have to be online to play it, either over WiFi or 3G. You cannot play this game without a connection. Not even single player mode. We can hope that they will disable this feature in a future update.

So how much does this game cost? Nothing. Its free to download and free to play. There are various in-app purchases available for various coin packages to easily help you to upgrade your plane, restock your weapons and even buy an all new plane.

Here’s hoping to see you in the skies someday. God speed. And Good Luck.

January 19, 2012