Google just announced movie rentals in the Android Market at its I/O conference. You can choose b/w thousands of movies and download and view them with a single click. “Pinning” mirrors the experience with apps and books, you can select it on your PC and download to the device in the background for offline viewing.Devices with Android 2.2 or higher will support this service and it should be made available to everyone in the coming weeks.Tablets however will get this service in the new 3.1 OS upgrade.
Renting works in a simple manner 30 days to watch the downloaded movie and 24 hour window once you start watching. Prices range from 48 Rs. upwards and about 280 Rs. for High Definition popular movies.
Froyo’d or Doomed? The official update Galaxy 3 Update for Android 2.2 came out a couple of Days ago and multiple users are reporting several problems with the update:
Proximity sensor issues
Battery Life
Problem with silencing the device with volume rockers
Swype not working
Camera App Crashing
So if you did update and are facing issues select your issues in the poll below and vote. If You still have not updated and want to despite the errors visit our Step by Step Guide
It also appears to have a secondary VGA front facing camera
Although the device images are rendered , we have a strong feeling that the device will not look like the Image. We also have enough reason to believe that the device will not have a trackball or a trackpad. But, hey at-least we have something to look forward to.
Looks like the company is planning to launch the A70 and the A55 to target both male and female markets. Giving Micromax the edge over their competitors. Check out our exclusive on the A55 Bling 2 here.
The newest updated version of the Google Translate app on Android Devices brings Japanese, Korean and Arabic languages in its text to speech recognition, apart from the currently supported 21 languages. The new version also enhances the 15 other popular languages including Russian, Chinese and Portuguese.
Now, if you are not already aware the app already supports text-text translation in over 55 languages.
This app is available Free in the Android Marketplace.
Samsung has finally let out their most awaited update for the Samsung Galaxy 3. Android 2.2 aka Froyo is now available for all those with samsung Galaxy 3s in India and Europe.
Today we have an image editing software for you which manipulates images and allows you to re-colour them. Like the caricature artists in fairs you too can now cartoonize and re-colour your images from your photo albums or take fresh images from your camera. You can share your images in the ToonPAINT hall of fame, post them directly to facebook, tweet about them and also e-mail them.
Lets look at some of the features of the app. After you’ve selected your image, the app processes the image and you can pan/zoom to the desired region, change shading options and the sizes of various attributes that modify the image. After you’ve set the image the way you want it, we move on to the painting section. Here, you can select colours, set brush sizes and pan/zoom into a section of the image and work your magic.
The palette has a few other options to Auto Colour the image (Available as an in-app purchase) and an Alpha Brush(Available as an in-app purchase), which re-colours your image from the original. Although the interface is attractive, several of the actions are a pain to complete as you must switch between control panels constantly.
We are Live at the Samsung Forum 2011 and we got some hands on time with the new Samsung Galaxy S Personal Media Player which was just announced for India. Check out the images below and Stay Tuned for the demo Video.
Video Hands on (iGyaan Exclusive)
Key Features
* 141.3 x 78.2 x 9.9 mm * 5.0 inches ( 400 x 800 pixel ) LCD Capacitive Touch Screen * TouchWiz UI * Multi-touch input method * Touch-sensitive controls * Swype text input * Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate * Digital Compass * 5 MP Camera with video recording, auto focus and LED flash * 2 MP front camera * Android OS, v2.2 (Froyo) * 16GB internal memory which can be expanded up to 48GB * Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and USB * GPS with A-GPS support * 1 GHz Processor * Image and video editor * 2500 mAH Li-Ion battery
Today we decided to review something fun for you. Here’s MicDroid from the Android Marketplace. Its a audio recording software which auto tunes your ‘be-sura’ voice into a one hit wonder. We had quite a lot of fun while playing with this app. It can provide random entertainment while your waiting for a bus or a train or in line for your movie tickets.
Features:
-Automatic pitch-correction
-On-the-fly pitch correction
-Email recordings
-Set recordings as ringtone
-Disable/enable ads in settings
The best thing about this app is that its FREE! So record yourself, your friends and even your dog and post the links below in the comments. Although the app is still in Beta, it promises to have an exiting future. You can get a free audio hosting account from Chirbit and upload files in multiple formats.
Here’s a sample of us singing a popular song from Youtube.
You can download the app from this link or scan the QR code below from your phone.
The Micromax Bling 2 is the upcoming Handset from Micromax that is exclusively targeted at the ladies. This one has Android 2.2 directly to boot. Here are the remaining images with more information and a video preview coming shortly.
After the much hyped rumors of the Bling 2, we have it here folks, an exclusive iGyaan leak of the device. The successor to the super successful Micromax Bling Q55, a popular phone with the ladies. The new device is said to have Android 2.2 a capacitive touchscreen, and a whole new candy-bar form factor, that will also appeal to the metrosexual male.
Check out the images and stay tuned for more exclusive pics and video of the device.
We were in a cab coming back to the office from the airport and we found the handset in the back seat, with no sim card installed. We asked the cab owner and he claimed to have no information on the handset. We have already contacted Micromax to return the device. (but only after a full set of tests ;) ) .
Update :
We can confirm that the device runs Android 2.2 and will have Wifi Hotspot.
The Unit we have is still a prototype as the earpiece grill is missing.
The phone dialer does not work on the prototype currently but the camera looks good. The device also does not mention the megapixel of the camera but we are trying to investigate that.
The device is extremely solid and the touchscreen is smooth.
We will have a third image up in a video below so check it out!
Spice has launched a new Android Smartphone, the MI-310 running Android 2.2 Froyo to compete in the mid-range mobile market. Read the review for more details.
BUILD QUALITY AND HARDWARE
The MI-310 has a stylish aluminium body which gives easy access to the battery and internally fitted Micro SD card. The Power/Unlock button on the top of the phone is flush with the bezel which may cause some difficulty while unlocking the device. It has a 320×480 pixel, 3.15 inch capacitive touch screen display which displays vivid images and videos and there are no complaints there. The phone also comes with a stand-alone camera shutter button, volume buttons and a small touch-sensitive trackpad for easier scrolling.
The overall construction of the phone feels quite sturdy and its quite comfortable to hold and use. It has an inbuilt memory of 85 mb with a Micro SD slot expandable to 16Gb, built in GPS with AGPS support, 3G compliance with HSDPA access (7.2 mbps), bluetooth 2.0, WiFi 802.11 b/g, a 2.0 MP camera with digital zoom and video recording and an internal FM radio. As far as sensors go the phone has a built in proximity sensor and accelerometer. While in a call, the proximity sensor sometimes fails and causes your cheeks to start pushing buttons on-screen, which can get quite frustrating. (A factory reset of the device however fixed this problem for us)
MULTIMEDIA AND CAMERA
The 320x480px screen is quite vivid and does a great job of displaying videos (even in HQ) and photographs. The audio output of the loudspeaker is pretty loud,and is sufficient while on the move. The in-ear headphones that come with the phone are quite comfortable and the sound quality is clear and crisp. The high notes are quite sharp and the bass is quite deep. The phone doesn’t come with any games, but there’s LOTS of games that can be downloaded from the Android store. The inbuilt Android Music and Video player support many formats and are quite user friendly. The phone also comes with an in-built FM radio which can scan and store pre-set channels and favourites.
The 2.0 MP camera leave a little to be desired but is quite easy to use with the stand-alone camera shutter button. Video recording is a breeze. The two things that would make the experience better are better focusing and the addition of a camera flash. The phone comes with all the standard camera effects for video recording and image capture. We did notice that Video capability on this camera was much better than still images.
PHONE, MESSAGING and BATTERY
The Spice MI-310 is a very easy to use phone. It has a very large phonebook, and the ability to sync your contacts with Gmail, FaceBook etc. The biggest issue we faced with this handset was the microphone. At some point during the review the diaphragm of the mic got stuck and we got REALLY BAD voice quality. Now we dont know if this was a problem with the design of the phone or just this particular piece but this is something to be wary of a little air dusting and light whack to the microphone fixed the problem. There were no signal issues for voice calls but we faced repeated issues with the HSDPA network. Eventually the phone refused to connect to 3G and remained in EDGE mode or WiFi (when we were in range). Switching the mode to WCDMA only via an app from the Android MarketPlace fixed this issue.
When it comes to typing on the on-screen keyboard, its a bit of a hassle in portrait mode (we have big fingers), but works brilliantly in landscape mode. The best thing about messaging is the speech to text function. The bottom strip of menu buttons (standard on most android phones) are a bit too sensitive and may cause unwated tension while typing. The phone has decent battery life, lasting for approximately 3-4 hours talk-time and around 48 – 60 hours standby depending on usage.
CONCLUSION
The Spice MI-310 is good to look at, lightweight and is feature packed for its price. The display is quite vivid and getting a capacitive touch screen for this price is amazing. The fact that this is an android phone opens up many avenues for customisation through the Google Marketplace. However, there were slight problems that we faced with the microphone, the proximity sensor and the 3G which after resolution can make this device the only one in this price bracket with the brilliant spec list.
The newest updated version of the Google Translate app on Android Devices brings Japanese, Korean and Arabic languages in its text to speech recognition, apart from the currently supported 21 languages. The new version also enhances the 15 other popular languages including Russian, Chinese and Portuguese.
