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Samsung launches new remote with Siri like voice commands

Heard rumors of an Apple TV with Siri voice control, well Samsung’s not even waiting for that to launch as the company has already launched a new remote with voice activated functionality. The new remote is a Universal remote and can be used on all Samsung Televisions and Home Theater systems. It drops all flavor of buttons to be replaced with voice features.

While the remote will use a combination of Bluetooth and IR to connect to a range of existing and upcoming TVs, Samsung is yet to give out an official list of supported devices, or even if the remote will work cross brands. The remote can also be used for controlling a set-top box, Blu-ray Disc player, etc.

With the possibility of Apple taking the HDTV industry by storm major companies are not waiting around to see what the outcome is, as they did with the iPhone and iPad. All brands including Samsung, Sony, LG and Philips showed off Voice activated features in their displays at CES 2012.

[Link]

February 8, 2012
Facebook changes looks again, new photo viewer claimed better!

Facebook has once again implemented new changes to the out look of its main website in continuation of its timeline UI. The new features include a newer photo and video viewer which darkens the background to retain focus on the photo in question , the comments and the “sponsored stories”.

The new photo/video browser while appreciated a lot more that the previous version which was slow and laggy compared to the original Facebook photo/video viewer, wow its happened many times. A lot new changes can be expected from the website, especially since it has recently filed the largest IPO by an Online company, since Google.

[facebook]

February 8, 2012
Samsung Wave M Unboxing and Quick Review
So we finally got our taste of the new Wave M, the cheaper version in the new range of BADA devices from Sammy. The Phone has a good set of specs and a decent price, but we sometimes feel Samsung is stretching its luck.

The device is well built to say the least, the touchscreen is very responsive and the list of included apps is interesting. The device does however lag a lot, and we saw this during our initial impression, its not a pretty sight.

In the Box is a charger, usb cable, 3.5mm headset with in-ear cups, the phone itself, a 1350mAh battery, a leather type cover and the warranty booklet along with quick start guide.

The back of the device is an interesting metallic texturized looking finish which is actually pretty smooth to touch and yet does not attract fingerprints. The buttons seem tactile and the device feels good to hold in the hand.

Initial impressions of the software lacked and the device failed to deliver during browser testing in the initial hands on (you will see in upcoming video).

Specs Include
- 832 MHz Processor
- 3.65 Inch Screen
- Bluetooth 3.0
- WiFi Direct
- Bada 2.0
- 5MP Cam
- 3G
Price is about Rs.12,250 in the Market.

Video Unboxing Coming Up!
February 7, 2012
Samsung Champ Duos Deluxe C3312 Unboxing and Hands on !
The next revision of the Samsung Champ is here and with a bang. The Champ Duos Deluxe is a dual sim variant of the Champ lineup with added features, an improved touchscreen and a lot more apps in the newer user interface.

In the box of the Champ Duos Deluxe you will find a charger, handsfree , manual and warranties along with the handset itself. The first look of the device shows that the device is well built and can handle some beating.

The touchscreen is a resistive touchscreen but is very responsive to the finger aswell, as will be demonstrated in our video.

Samsung Champ Deluxe Duos C3312 features and specification:
- 1.3 MP Primary Camera
- Dual SIM (GSM + GSM) with dual standby
- 2.8-inch Touchscreen
- FM Radio
- GPRS and EDGE Enabled
- Expandable Storage Capacity upto 32 GB
- Operating Freq:GSM – 900, 1800
- User Interface: TouchWiz
- Java: Yes
- Screen resolution: QVGA, 240 x 320 Pixels
- Video Recording:Yes
- Size:55 x 101.8 x 12.1 mm
- Battery:Li-Ion, 1000 mAh
Price of the Phone is (MRP.) Rs 4750

Video Coming Soon.
February 7, 2012
Volkswagen Ready to source double components from India – Spend US$ 942 Million

Volkswagen Group is looking to double ‘component sourcing from India’ with an expense of $924m for the current year said Audi Chief Michael Perschke. While Audi looks at multiple car launches and dealership expansion in 2012, VW Group luxury car maker acknowledges that cost effective manufacturing would find strength in component sourcing from India, and investment in new plants.

The Volkswagen Group sources various components from India that include crankshafts for vehicles across its Audi, Volkswagen and Skoda brands.

Audi sold just over 5,500 cars in India in 2011, and targets sales of 8,000 cars in the current calendar year, in line with luxury car sales growth of around 50 percent in the country.

In the long run, our expectations are to increase our global sourcing out of India,” Perschke said. “In terms of cost competitiveness […] India has a strategic advantage.”

-Michael Perschke

Audi sold just over 5,500 cars in India in 2011, and targets sales of 8,000 cars in the current calendar year, in line with luxury car sales growth of around 50 percent in the country.

Spending on luxury cars in India grew 36 percent in 2009-10 to $1bn, according to a recently released report by AT Kearney, outstripping growth in jewellery, electronics and watches. But, we still lack behind countries like China where Mercedes and BMW sold a combined 320,000 vehicles in the first nine months of 2011.

February 6, 2012
Facebook, Google and other social media companies hearing today

A district court in Delhi will hear a civil suit on Monday against 20 social networking sites including Facebook, Google for posting objectionable content on the web. The websites were asked to remove all objectionable content and file a reply stating the measures taken to screen uploaded content. A criminal suit is also being heard in the Patiala house court on Monday, which had summoned representatives of websites including that of Google and Facebook.

Google and Facebook had appealed against the lower court’s proceedings in the Delhi High Court. Internet companies including Google and Facebook argued that they cannot develop a method to monitor defamatory or obscene material that’s been posted on their sites.

The issue relates to a constitutional issue of freedom of speech and expression and suppressing it was not possible as the right to freedom of speech in democratic India separates us from a totalitarian regime like China,”

-Google advocate NK Kaul

Facebook too had noted that it already has rules of blocking and removing content, whenever specific matters are brought to its notice. Both websites are challenging a trial court’s order to prosecute them. Google and Facebook had on January 16 told the Delhi HC that blocking them was not an option as a democratic India does not have a “totalitarian” regime like China.

We will keep you updated on the outcome of todays hearing.

February 6, 2012
MNP to increase due to 2G Scam licensing issues

If you have not already read the report, its high time you know that, the Supreme Court of India and revoked and cancelled licenses of 122 telecom operators such as Idea Cellular, Uninor, Tata Teleservices, Loop Telecom and Videocon due to the 2G scam. This will give a huge rise to the use of Mobile number Portability by users who are on these networks.

Though in India people are not very committed to MNP as in West, it will still be used as an option by those for whom retaining their numbers is very important. MNP would certainly act as a useful aid

– Com First India – Mahesh Uppal

TRAI also had a say on the subject claiming the total number of users affected is 5 % of the total subscribers.

The move is likely to affect less than 5 percent of users as the current operators other than the ones whose licences have been cancelled control almost the rest of the market, Customers can always go to the operators of their choice (through MNP)”

–Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman J.S. Sarma

Even if the affected audience is only 5%, it actually amounts to a very large number if you consider the active subscriber list. Mobile number portability takes upto 14 days, in such a scenario users may find themselves without a way out.

February 3, 2012
Samsung Launches Champ Deluxe Duos (C3312) in India
In an effort to boost its affordable Champ phones, Samsung has launched the new Champ Deluxe Duos (C3312) in India. The new budget touchscreen phone has Dual Sim capabilities along with a 2.8 inch touchscreen. It also boasts Touchwiz UI on top of what appears to be either Brew OS or Samsung lower form of BADA.

Some Apps Like Facebook, Twitter,Yahoo, MSN and GTalk come preinstalled along with Samsung’s popular ChatOn application.The OS has a Virtual QWERTY keyboard, Hindi language input and dual-SIM dual-standby support.

Other Specifications Include:
- GSM Dual-Sim
- 2.8 inch TFT capacitive touchscreen with 240 x 320 pixels resolution
- 3.5 mm jack
- microSD card support upto 32GB
- EDGE
- Bluetooth 3.0
- microUSB 2.0
- 1.3 megapixel camera
- FM Radio
- 1000mAh battery
Owners will get unlimited Free Music and unlimited Free Games from Samsung Hub / Samsung World and Samsung Apps. The device will also come preloaded with tons of free apps.
February 3, 2012
Google gets fined in France for Free Google Maps

Really? A Parisian commercial court in France has fined Google to pay a fine of €500,000 for giving its maps for free. Bottin Cartographes, who was on the other side of the lawsuit claimed that the Company ( Google) has leveraged the market by giving away its Google Maps service for free, while others try to make a living off it.

“We proved the illegality of [Google’s] strategy,” said the prosecution counsel.

Google plans to Appeal the decision, and believes that the company has not eliminated competition in this segment and is purely giving away its services because it can.

Honestly, since when are Awesome products for free, looked down upon?

February 3, 2012
Supposed Samsung S II Plus Leaks ahead of MWC launch

A supposed leak of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S II + running Android 4.0 with TouchWiz UI has appeared on the inter webs. Industry insider Eldar Murtazin is responsible for the above image of the suspicious looking phone. A close look reveals that the buttons below have been updated to host the new flavor of the Android platform, Ice Cream Sandwich. The device is being considered as the Samsung Galaxy S2 plus purely because of its resemblance to the S2 and the fact that a benchmark score has also popped up on an3dbenchxl website. The device is running a 1.5 GHz processor on a Android 2.3.4 platform, but that could have changed by now.

[Source]

February 3, 2012
Request for preliminary ban on Galaxy Tab 10.1N and Galaxy Nexus Denied to Apple in German Court

German Court has denied the Preliminary ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Nexus, as requested by Apple on the basis of Touchscreen copyright infringement. The court declared the patent invalid due to the market presence of the same technology before the patent was granted. The court in Dusseldorf has yet to give its final decision on the ban of Galaxy Tab 10.1N, which may finally give us the expectancy of the said Tab.

[Bloomberg]

February 2, 2012
Airtel releases official manual GPRS / 3G settings for those in doubt

Possibly sick of the millions of Android / iPhone / Blackberry adopters asking for correct APN et al, Airtel has officially released settings for all possible handsets in this image graphic below.

While their main APN remains “airtelgprs.com” other settings may be needed for some devices.

February 2, 2012
Facebook Files a US $ 5 Billion IPO, Trading this Spring

Social Networking site Facebook has filed for its Initial Public Offering , with a total value of US $ 5 Billion. The Website has a massive 483 Million active users on a daily basis, the company also took in 3.7 billion in revenue last year. Compared to giants like Google , the amount seems lowly.

Facebook made 12% of its revenues from Social networking game maker Zynga. Facebook is desperate to monetize their Mobile applications to benefit from the large chunk of mobile users.

We do not currently directly generate any meaningful revenue from the use of Facebook mobile products, and our ability to do so successfully is unproven.

Although the IPO has been filed and may interest the stock buyer, most experts are claiming this to be a NO-NO territory. The IPO which is only a small percentage of the company’s true value has been setup to earn Facebook a lot of money and not the buyer.

February 2, 2012
Blackberry London gets leaked yet again with details, Slim Savior for RIM?

This to-be (or not to be ) image of the Blackberry London has some promising features to its tail. According to Crackberry the image is the correct render of the said device. More information including Blackberry 10 and support for possible Android Apps comes courtesy the image. First look states that the device is exceptionally slim, yet it retains the Blackberry build feel. It supposedly will run on a dual core 1.5GHz processor made by either Texas Instruments ( TiOmap) or Qualcomm.

We should expect dual cameras ( or see them in the image) 8 Mp + 2MP along with features like autofocus and full hd recording. The device should also feature Android Apps and a better experience to the dying numbers of Blackberry lovers. Could this be RIM’s answer to the iPhone and Android?

[CrackBerry]

February 2, 2012
Samsung Galaxy S III will be announced at a separate event much later than MWC

Samsung has officially confirmed that the Galaxy SIII, the highly awaited successor of the Galaxy SII will be announced at a separate launch event, much later than MWC and close to commercial availability of the device.

The phone earlier rumored to being launched at the Mobile World Congress 2012 held this month in Barcelona, will now be launched later. The phone is rumored to have a dual core processor which will run upto 2.0GHz natively.

Samsung is looking forward to introducing and demonstrating exciting new mobile products at Mobile World Congress 2012. The successor to the Galaxy S2 smartphone will be unveiled at a separate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of the year, closer to commercial availability of the product.

-Samsung Mobile

February 2, 2012