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Glasses free 3D is taking over the mobile world one device at a time. In February 2011, Nintendo launched the worlds first glasses free 3D console , the Nintendo 3DS, with a autostereoscopic screen. Then came the worlds first glasses free 3D smart-phone, the HTC EVO 3D. Now, Toshiba has launched the worlds first glasses free 3D laptop, the Qosmio F750. The laptop sports a 15.6″ full HD (1920×1080) lenticular lens screen which sends images of a slightly different perspective to the left and right eye of the user. There is a very definite view angle on the device so you cant sit and watch a 3D movie with your friends yet. The laptop’s web-cam is used to track your eyes so the image can be adjusted to your exact perspective so that you see in 3D.
The F750 3D is a powerhouse of a laptop. It has an Intel Core i7 processor, NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M graphics card (up to 2GB), 640GB (5400rpm) SATA hard drive, 6GB DDR3 (1333MHz) RAM, 3 USB 2.0 ports and 1 USB 3.0, Blu-ray XL drive, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0 and a HD Web-cam.
It remains to be seen how the market will respond to this new display technology. The laptop will be available for purchase in August 2011.
[dropcap]S[/dropcap]leek bionic spectacles could soon replace a blind persons cane, as scientists at the Oxford University in the U.K. suggest. dubbed the “smart spectacles”, these bionic glasses use tiny cameras and a pocket computer to alert wearers to objects and people ahead.
A price of less than 1,000 pounds (approx Rs. 75000) should make them affordable, but does not for the large population of India, the researchers told the Royal Society’s Summer Science Exhibition.
The most to benefit from this technology will be Elderly people with age-related macular degeneration- added the Scientists
Dr Stephen Hicks, who has completed the basic research and is now working on prototype spectacles, said :
It is satisfying to think that we will be able to produce this at a cost that is going make it available to the people who will benefit the most”
The cameras will take in the information the eyes should see and send it down a cable to a mobile phone-sized computer in the wearer’s pocket. The computer will process the information and simplify it into a pattern of dots. The LEDs in the lenses then light up in that pattern, giving the wearer vital information about what lies ahead.
StatCounter reports suggest, Google’s Chrome web browser now has a 20.7% share of the web browser pie, An increase of seven times over just two years. This also means that highest competition Internet Explorer’s Share is now only 50% of the total pie and Firefox has a 28% share which has come down from 30%.
StatCounter gathers its data from more than 3 million websites with more than 15 billion page views.
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.
Rare earth metals are used in the production of everything from iPods to flat screen TV’s. China was the worlds leading source of these metals till today when scientists from Japan announced that they had located a huge cache of these metals in the Pacific Ocean. China accounts for 97 per cent of the world’s production of 17 rare-earth elements, whose unique electrical, magnetic, optical and thermal properties make them vital ingredients for some of the most technologically advanced products.
According to the journal Nature Geoscience, a team of scientists led by Yasuhiro Kato, found an estimated 100 billion tonnes of the minerals in mud at 78 locations on the Pacific seabed. To give an idea of just how much that is, the current reserves of rare earth metals amount to 110 million tons which are found mostly in China, Russia and other Soviet countries and the US. The commercial viability of procuring these metals has yet to be worked out as they are located deep in the ocean, at approximately 13,000ft and 16,250ft.
China’s commerce ministry said that between January and November last year, the country exported 35,000 tonnes of rare-earth minerals, up 14.5 per cent on 2009. About a third of China’s reserves have already been used up, leaving about 15 years’ worth at the current rate of depletion.
The key has been one of mankind’s constant companions for ages. Now it is being swallowed by the cellphone. New technology lets phones unlock hotel, office and house doors. The same technology can also be used to provide key-less entry to your car and start it remotely as well. How it works is that the phone sends a data packet over the Internet to a converter box connected to a door or a deadbolt. Other systems use internal company networks, like General Motors’ OnStar system, to unlock car doors.
Since nearly everyone today has a cellphone, quite a few start-ups, lock companies and car manufacturers are getting on board to provide broad acceptance of the technology. Schlage, a major lock maker, markets a system that lets homeowners use their mobile phones to unlock their doors from miles away, and manage their home heating and air-conditioning, lights and security cameras.
The public is yet to come to terms with the new technology. It still does not feel safe to start a car with your cellphone. If you have a dead battery or no Internet connection, you might just end up stranded. Keys wont be gone for another few years still but in the future, we may just see a more refined version of this technology that addresses all these issues.
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]
The Spice Popkorn is the first phone in India to have a built in projector and as such sets the standard for all future devices with this technology. Lets find out how it fared at the iGyaan Lab.
Build Quality, Hardware & Design
The Popkorn has a standard candybar design that is much thicker than a regular candybar phone due to the inbuilt projector. It feels quite solid and is comfortable to hold with its metal and rubberized plastic body. The phone weighs 123g and is quite a bit heavier than phones of a similar design, but due to its form factor, it still feels quite comfortable in the pocket.
One feature that we thought was a little delicate was the telescopic antenna. Its quite thin and fells like it will bend if a little too much pressure is applied. Be careful when expanding and retracting the antenna as you use this device.
The screen on the Popkorn is a 6cm 320x240px QVGA display which is quite vivid and displays good contrast in colours. Its nothing to boast about, but then its not the only display the phone has. The device has Dual SIM capabilities and supports GPRS and WAP connectivity. It also has built in bluetooth to allow you to connect your phone to a bluetooth device. It does not support 3G or WiFi.
Included Accessories
The phone comes with a tripod and a tripod mount. We felt that the quality of the tripod could be improved as it feels like it might tip over with the weight of the phone, but such is not the case. The tripod mount holds the phone securely and keeps it nicely balanced on top of the tripod.
Overall, the build quality of this device is exceptional, when you consider the fact that Spice has managed to stuff a projector into a device that weighs only 123g.
Camera and Multimedia
The Popkorn has a 3.2MP rear facing fixed focus camera that can capture images upto 2048 x 1536 px. It can also record video at a maximum of 15fps and also comes with a 4x digital zoom.The camera can be used as a webcam as well, once you plug it into your computer via the included USB cable.
The projector on the device, in our tests, has given a readable display of approximately 40 inches at its largest and 2″ at the smallest. That’s a HUGE screen from a tiny device. We recommend that the phone be setup so that the display is approximately 27″ to 30″ large as this gives the best picture quality. However, the projector is not extremely bright so using it in a well lit room is not advisable. Keep the lights off and the curtains drawn when using the projector. With many air vents around the phone, we did not notice any significant heating of the device, even after extensive use of the projector.
Another great use of the projector is to watch TV. The Popkorn catches analog TV signals from its telescopic antenna. Channels can be programmed and saved to the device so that you can view them at your leisure. While watching TV is a nice recreational activity, the phone also has a feature that can come in handy while at work. It has the ability to playback PowerPoint Presentations, and with the included laser pointer, you can make excellent professional presentations. You no longer need to carry your laptop to your meetings. Simply copy your ppt onto the memory card and carry the phone.
The phone also has built a built in FM radio, and with the telescopic antenna, you do not require headphones to catch a signal. It also has the ability to schedule and record FM radio so you can catch all your shows at your pleasure. The speaker phone is very loud and gives sufficient sound to be clearly heard in a large room. Spice has also included an external speaker which increases the audio output of the device many-fold. The speaker also has a built-in battery so it does not drain the battery on the phone while in use. A few cables have been included to connect as well as charge the speaker.
Phone and Messaging
The Popkorn supports Dual SIM cards. It also has a standard numpad which makes dialing and placing calls a breeze. The microphone and earpiece perform as expected and we have no complaints. As stated, the loudspeaker is really loud and provides a good hands free experience.
Typing on the phone is also easy as the keypad is quite responsive and the keys are easy to press.
Data & Internet
The Popkorn supports GPRS and WAP. It has a browser that leaves a lot to be desired. One feature we found lacking was WiFI. It would have been great if we could use WiFi to browse the internet on the projector or even stream videos directly to the device via our desktops/laptops. Maybe they will include this feature in the next version of the device.
Conclusion
When we got this device, we had low expectations of its performance. However, after using it for a while, we were, quite literally, blown away. The phone by itself is comparable to any number of Dual SIM phones that are on the market today, but the other features that it packs set it a world apart. The Projector with its Video playback, Analog TV and Presentation capabilities left us in awe. For its price, it is possibly the most inexpensive projector on the market today. The fact that its a phone and can fit in your pocket just adds icing to the cake.
MRP: Rs. 6699/-
[xrr rating=3.75/5 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.
