Category: Latest

All the Latest, News, Reviews, Updates, How To, Mobile Phone news, Global and International News, From Cameras to Automobiles, from TV To PC and a lot more! Constantly updating!

Windows Phone Market Place Crosses Target 25,000 Apps in June

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.

July 4, 2011
Samsung Galaxy S II is Company’s Hottest selling phone 3 Million in 55 days (PR)

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]

July 4, 2011
App A Day : TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch
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
Download

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON – Electronic Arts
July 2, 2011
Google Releases a Preview of the New Gmail Look (PR)

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.

[toggle title_open=”Collapse Press Release” title_closed=”Expand 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”]

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.

[/toggle]

July 2, 2011
The T.27 – World’s Most Efficient Electric Automobile

UK based Gordon Murray Design has unveiled a new car designed for the urban environment which it has dubbed the T.27. The design and development program for the T.27 has cost £9 millionwas made possible through a £4.5 million investment from the government-backed Technology Strategy Board. From design to concept to working prototype, the car has taken just 17 months to come to life, including the design and build of a completely new electric powertrain by Zytek Automotive Ltd.

T.27 specifically targets the urban city environment via a unique manufacturing process called ‘iStream’ developed Gordon Murray Design. It aims to significantly reduce lifecycle impacts and enable low cost, efficient manufacture within the UK. The electric car sets new standards in weight, footprint, small car dynamics, safety, packaging and efficiency whilst addressing full lifecycle CO2 emissions, congestion, parking and low cost motoring.

Company CEO, Professor Gordon Murray, said at the unveiling of the car

[quote]Lightweight is the most powerful tool we have in our armoury in the fight against emissions and fuel consumption. This is true of all cars and especially so with electric vehicles! A lightweight car means a lightweight battery increasing the levels of safety and reducing the retail price dramatically.” The T.27 represents a huge step forward in protecting our mobility and our environment.[/quote]

The tech specs for the T.27 are as follows:

In comparison to other electric cars the T.27 has much lower energy consumption per mile, the Smart EV uses 29% more energy per km, the Mitsubishi iMiEV uses 36% more energy per km, and the Mini-E uses 86% more energy per km, making the T.27 the most efficient electric car by some margin.

July 2, 2011
Samsung sneaks in the Galaxy Z
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/-
July 2, 2011
FaceBook to Earn $1 Billion from Social Gaming This Year

Kevin Ryan, an entrepreneur and ex-CEO of DoubleClick, predicted that Facebook will generate approximatly $1 billion from its social gaming services this year. He arrived at the figure with the help of his brother Sean Ryan, who is the director of social gaming partnerships for FaceBook.

FaceBook however, as a private company, has no obligation to disclose such financial information and has refused to comment on the prediction. The company will be going public next year with a very high Initial Public Offering because its valuation has been predicted to be greater than $100 billion.

July 2, 2011
Skype Video Calling Hacked to Work on Sensation and Galaxy S2 Update : Mi 410

The latest Skype update enables video calling on Android device, but is limited to a strict number of devices. The folks over at DroidLife have found a way to make it work on your new Android 2.3 devices including the HTC Sensation and the Samsung Galaxy S2.

Simply Download the Cracked Skype from the link on droidlife and copy it to your device and install it. (Make sure third party apps are enabled in your settings)

Oh yeah we tested it on the HTC Sensation, and it works flawlessly.

UPDATE: Big update we got the new Skype app up and running and making calls on the Mi 410 from SPICE. A video coming up soon.

July 2, 2011
How to Shut Down a Nuclear Reactor

At the Torness nuclear power station in East Lothian, UK, seawater is taken in and filtered before it is used to cool down the reactor cores. It is not unusual for these inlets to be clogged with debris from the ocean, mainly seaweed and jellyfish. But on the 28th of June, the power plant faced a highly unusual situation.

Clouds of jellyfish seemed to be pulled towards the plant and clogged its intake filters. This reduced the flow of cool seawater to the reactor cores. At first the plant engineers tried to reduce the load on the cores to reduce the amount of water required to cool them, but that was not sufficient and the cores had to eventually be shut down. Local fishermen were employed by the plant in the effort to clear up the jellyfish. They also used spotter planes to identify the large swarms or blooms of the sea creatures out in the open ocean. Large industrial vacuum cleaners (mounted on trucks) were also used to clear the water of any jellyfish that made it past the intake filters.

The incident has been picked up by environmentalists to prove the unreliability of nuclear power, however the plant bosses claim that the public was never in any danger. The plant is regularly taken offline to ensure that its in good working order and this incident was no different. One of the plants cores was brought back online today while the other core is still being serviced.

Why the jellyfish decided to make the sudden migration to the plant’s intake filters remains a mystery to experts and has stumped locals. So how many jellyfish did they end up catching? Over 600 tons!

July 1, 2011
MSI Launches A75MA-G55 Worlds Fastest Motherboard with Integrated Graphics in India (PR)

MSI has launched the A75MA-G55 Motherboard with Integrated GPU in India.

The A75MA-G55 board is a micro-ATX part based on AMD’s Hudson D3 chipset. It features MSI’s Military Class II components. four DIMM slots with support for up to 32GB of memory, four USB 3.0, eight USB 2.0 ports, six SATA 6Gbps, 8-channel audio, GbE LAN, HDMI, DVI, D-Sub, and MSI’s Click BIOS concept based on UEFI.

There is no word on pricing or availability.

[toggle title_open=”Collapse” title_closed=”Expand 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”]

2011/6/29

MSI A75MA-G55: World’s Fastest Mainboard With Integrated Graphics

MSI A75MA-G55 was officially announced on June 27 as the world’s fastest mainboard with integrated graphics. MSI, the world’s leading graphics card and mainboard manufacturer has incorporated over 25 years of overclocking experience in their latest motherboard. Hardware enthusiasts and and overclockers were eagerly waiting for the MSI A75MA-G55 with FM1 sockets. The mainboard is the perfect tool to enjoy the superpower of A series APUS by AMD. The mainboard has scores P1646 points on 3DMark 11. With Military Class II components, A75MA-G55 was found to be perfectly stable under highest workloads.

MSI A75MA-G55

Those who are technically challenged when it comes to overclocking, but still want to enjoy extra power can use MSI’s OC Genie II technology. It allows single click overclocking without need of any technical knowledge. OC Genie II is available on all MSI A75-Series mainboards. MSI claims that the mainboard has broken records on 3D Mark 06 which has been made possible only by versatile Click BIOS UEFI interface and improvements in mainboard design.

Certified Military Class

MSI’s Military Class II components have been certified by the United States Department of Defense 810G Standard. Only Military Class II components have the lifetime and stability required by today’s most demanding situations of extreme overclocking but at the same time provide great levels of power saving. The MSI A75MA-G55 has proven to be stable under the highest workloads and stress conceivable, overclocking, clearly displaying the top quality and stability demanded by professional overclockers.

OC Genie II – Easy one click overclocking

MSI’s OC Genie II technology allows everyone to enjoy the benefits of extra performance without having any technical knowledge.

Applauded by media worldwide for its simple operation and great benefits, OC Genie II set the new standard for mainboard performance and that technology powers todays 3DMark 11 and 3DMark 06 world records. OC Genie II is available on all MSI A75-Series mainboards.

Not only is the MSI A75MA-G55 fastest in the latest world standard benchmark 3DMark 11, but it also broke the world records for 3DMark 06. The MSI A75MA-G55 thanks its recordbreaking performance to the use of the most stable components found in Military Class II, versatile Click BIOS UEFI interface and excellent mainboard design

[/toggle]

July 1, 2011
Poll : And The Winner Is !

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]

July 1, 2011
Scientists Develop Robotic Skin

The human skin is a magnificent sensory organ. It can detect the minutest gust of wind to a single touch. Robots however, are unable to sense the world around them in this fashion. Scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany, are developing an artificial skin for robots with a similar quality.

The skin will provide important tactile feedback for the robot and augment its existing camera “eyes”, its infrared sensors and gripping tools. As with human skin, the way the artificial skin is touched could trigger different reactions from the robot. It could for example, run away when hit, or use its eyes to see what has touched it.

The centrepiece of the new robotic skin is a five square cm hexagonal plate or circuit board. Each small circuit board contains four infrared sensors that detect anything closer than one cm. There are also six temperature sensors and an accelerometer, which allow the robot to accurately measure the movement of its limbs. The circuit board was designed keeping future expandability in mind, hence it can have more sensors attached as needed.

July 1, 2011
Microsoft unveils Office 365 In India

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.

July 1, 2011
Skype – Cross Platform Video Calls Now on Android

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

July 1, 2011
Facebook to launch Facebook Credits for India today

Social networking site Facebook will finally introduce a payment system ‘Facebook Credits’ for Indian users. Members can then spend the virtual currency across various games or applications on Facebook.

Facebook Credits is already a popula virtual currency in many countries.

Facebook will introduce a new payment system Facebook Credits in India from July 1,” a company spokesperson told media.

Starting July 1, we will require all social game developers on the Facebook canvas platform to process payments through Facebook Credits. Facebook Credits is currently used in more than 350 applications from 150 developers, representing more than 70 percent of virtual goods transactions volume on Facebook,” Facebook Platform Marketing Manager Deb Liu wrote on the company’s official blog in January

This will also help various brands, which use the medium of Facebook to retail them goods through their social pages. Many developers such as Zynga, Playfish, CrowdStar , Digital Chocolate, PopCap and Arkadium have already adopted Facebook Credits for in-game virtual goods.

July 1, 2011