March 14th, 2010
Opera has announced its Mini 5 browser for the Google OS. Opera for Android is a beta version that allows tabbed browsing, ’speed dial’ bookmarks, power scrolling with touchscreen as well as physical keyboard support. The browser provides upto 90% compressed webpages that allows faster browsing. The Opera link feature allows the user to sync bookmarks between the mobile phone and desktop computer. It also features an in-built password manager. The browser can be downloaded free from HERE. It is also available through the Android Market.
Categories: Android, Google, Softwares, Tech Industry News, mobile app |
Tags: Android, android market, opera mini, opera mini 5, opera mini 5 browser for Google OS android phones | 1 Comment
March 14th, 2010
Amid rumors doing the rounds for apps specifically designed for the iPad; Barnes & Noble have confirmed that they would be releasing an eReader application. They would be releasing the application around the time the iPad becomes available. The application has been designed exclusively for the iPad and would give iPad users access to millions of eBooks, magazines and newspapers. Existing customers can also access their Nook ebook content through their Barnes & Noble digital library. B&N have announced that the application would be available free, although the cost for the content has not been announced.
Categories: Apple, PMP - Portable Media, Softwares, Tech Industry News, eReaders & Tablets |
Tags: apple ipad, b&n, b&n ipad app, barnes and noble, barnes and noble ereader application for the iPad, ipad, ipad application, Nook ebook application for the iPad | No Comments
March 2nd, 2010
If there is one winner that Microsoft has rolled out in the handheld space, its the Zune HD. Going live against the iPod touch 3G last year, the Zune HD did do a fair enough job. The design & UI were impressive and multitouch came in just on time. Now there is one social networking player who has leveraged the smartphone boom to its advantage pretty well and thats Facebook. Right form the impressive iPhone app to the Palm WebOS, they have taken the trouble to optimize FB for mobile more than anyone else. And it comes as little surprise to us that they have now gone live with the Facebook app on Zune HD. Zune HD users, do let us know whats your opinion on the same!
Via
Categories: PMP - Portable Media, Softwares, Tech Industry News, mobile app |
Tags: facebook app, facebook for windows mobile, microsoft apps, mobile app, mp3 player, windows mobile apps, zune app, zune hd | No Comments
February 18th, 2010
Nokia has finally done something that makes us feel that they aren’t really heading towards the platform confusion mode as we have constantly been thinking. After juggling 3 different OS (Symbian, Maemo and oFono with Intel), Nokia has announced MeeGO which merges the Maemo project with a solo Intel project called Moblin (remember the Linux based OS?). Though this still leaves us wondering what would be the fate of oFono project that Intel and Nokia kicked off some time back.
While Maemo brings a PC capable platform, Moblin was aimed as the fastest booting OS by Intel. What would be the result of combining the two? Hope better than what they are doing individually! At the same time we also have a official promo video of the UI for Symbian 3 by Nokia, (similar to what has been seen earlier) bringing on-board multiple homepages, pinch to zoom etc. While we ain’t a 100% impressed, it seems that Nokia would finally get capacitive love. (video downstairs)
(more…)
Categories: First look, Softwares, nokia, smartphones |
Tags: maemo + moblin = meego, meego os, mobile world congress nokia, Moblin, mwc, nokai ui, oFono, symbian 3, symbian 3 ui | 1 Comment
February 14th, 2010
No I ain’t speculating, but fact remains that both android and iPhone comes from really sophisticated Internet + software companies, I may be wrong but I doubt if Samsung can deliver that level of a smartphone os. The touchwiz UI powered Bada OS IMO would be good support for Samung’s media rich devices. Having handled the Omnia pro recently, I can very well see the need for Samsung to have it’s own software powering it’s taste if UI (the WinMo is horribly modded with the widgets interface).
One thing that has brought tremendous success to Samsung is the iPhone wannabes strategy. They have artfully catered to the sub $200 market with good looking touchscreens. The Corby & Star i.e. These phones aren’t about rich experience in terms of mobile internet or smart apps, but they give what the Rs 10k junta wants – good looks, iPhone style full touchscreen & feeling of a smartphone. If Samsung can pack a better OS (a much more matured OS as I like to call them) in a $200 full touchscreen like Corby, the potential is killer!
But that might not be the real reason Samsung wants the Bada OS. A great motivation behind the Bada OS might well be the apps market. Mobile apps is now raking in billions and Samsung sure wants to monetize this segment with it’s own OS>developers>apps ecosystem. With over 50 million Samsung touch phones by Samsung being out In the market, the opportunity is certainly exciting.
So will Samsung crack the app store model for itself? Probably yes. But will Bada really bring in competition for Android and iPhone? Unlikely!
Categories: Market Watch, Softwares, samsung, smartphones |
Tags: bada, bada os, iphone vs android vs bada, platform wars, samsung, samsung bada os, samsung bada vs iphone, smartphone os | 2 Comments
February 10th, 2010
I just came across this really sexy and sleek Qisda mobile that would launch sometime soon. On the specs front this promises 1280×768 resolution on a 4″ touchscreen. Thats even higher than the 854×480 we saw on the Motorola Droid. And I am just wondering if we are ready for this?
Over the past 2 years the smartphone market has grown beyond belief. From a point where we used to talk about camera in a phone as a giant leap, we have moved on to OLED displays (AMOLED aswell), operating systems smart enough to be ported on netbooks, cameras that are killing the basic digicams and now the 1.5GHz processor (heck my first P4 PC was less powerful than that). Going hands on with the Acer Liquid last week was one of those moments when I couldn’t stop appreciating the progress mobile technology has made – full HD video in your palm! While its true that we would see ourselves do some real high performance computing on the mobile and a major chunk of our work would be doable on the mobile (in many ways, it already is!) – I am pushed back by the idea of mobile technology growing so fast or rather in the manner we are thinking of these mobiles.
Some basic fundamental queries in my mind remains unanswered even after reading a whole lot of thoughts from across the globe on this subject. Do we need mobiles that can replace our desktops / notebooks? Would you ever keep a smartphone on your desk and work all day at your office?
You may call me old fashioned but (more…)
Categories: Reviews, Softwares, Tech Industry News |
Tags: 1280 x 768 mobile display, future, mobile, Qisda mobile, Qisda mobile 1280 pixels, Qisda vodafone, smartphone future, superphone, touchscreen | No Comments
February 2nd, 2010
The iPad came and went down with a lot of criticism. In a market where traditional PC’s rule and only the scaled down version of the very same interface sells, Google tried to sell us the Chrome OS concept last year and got a luke warm response (better than the bombing iPad has got). With the 2010 flavour of tablets, a tablet version of Chrome OS is what we are looking at now.
Last month we hard heard rumors of HTC working on a Google tablet that would be powered by the Chrome OS and here we have a tablet concept UI posted on the official Chromium site. While Chromium is the open source community that powers the Chrome browser and the Chrome OS, Techcrunch notes that these might well be posted by Glen Murphy (Google Chrome’s designer). It is rumored that Google is working closely with manufacturers to fine tune the Chrome tablet, just like it worked with HTC to build the Nexus One.
This seems to be the only way in which Google can counter the advantage cos like Apple & Palm have (controlling the entire experience: hardware + software). More pictures below, video here. (more…)
Categories: First look, Softwares, Tech Industry News, eReaders & Tablets |
Tags: chrome os, chrome tablet, google ipad, google tablet, htc tablet, ipad, tablet, tablet os | No Comments
January 21st, 2010
When Google launched its turn-by-turn maps navigation for Android, it made the Droid a whole lot powerful with a superb GPS software. Having the Google search for GPS was amazing. And today Nokia has went free with navigation services via its own Ovi Maps. Coming to 10 S60 handsets to begin with the Ovi Maps navigation would also be brought to Maemo and S40 series models along with being preloaded on Nokia devices from March 2010.
This is certainly a bold move by Nokia and increases its competitiveness in the smartphone race. While the free Google navigation is available only in the US for now, the Nokia Ovi will give you worldwide access (detailed maps for more than 180 countries). Not just that, the Nokia Maps can be downloaded and loaded on to your handset for a Internet free navigation. This is unlike Google Navigation that requires an active data connection on your smartphone to do (more…)
Categories: Google, Softwares, nokia, smartphones |
Tags: free gps navigation, gps, gps maps, maps, navigation, ovi maps | 3 Comments
January 17th, 2010
Eric Tseng, senior product manager (Android), has spilled the beans on the name of the next version of Android. Eric told Engadget, that the next version of Android would be called Froyo which is short for “frozen yogurt”. The new name fits right in the delicious lineup of android names after Cupcake, Donut and Eclair.
Apart from the name, no other details were given by Eric like when the next version would be released or what the next version would have to offer. For now, the name sure gets us tempted for another delicious version of Android that would hopefully arrive just in time for a showdown with the upcoming iPhone 4th Gen 
Categories: Android, Softwares |
Tags: Android, android 2010, android froyo, eric tseng, froyo, nexus two | No Comments
January 15th, 2010
The 2010 Nokia UI that we saw earlier is the S^4 UI Concept Proposal submitted by Nokia. Symbian OS 4 is expected to be launched by NOKIA along with some sleeky models most probably sometime in 2010 itself. The inspiration of this OS is taken from Android but we know where the actual push comes from, its the “iPhone”. Latest version of Symbian OSes are built and tested out on QT which have the capability to support hybrid, touch screen and other model phones.
Nokia is working on building clean and interactive (more…)
Categories: Softwares, nokia, smartphones |
Tags: Android, iphone, nokia, nokia touch phone, symbian 4, Symbian OS, touchscreen | No Comments
January 11th, 2010
Mozilla has rolled out Firefox 3.6 RC1 (Release Candidate Pack 1), following are the latest features which they are testing on the beta build
- You can expect less browser crashes in the stable version of Firefox 3.6 because the developers are changing the way how the third party extensions (softwares) is integrated into Firefox.
- The release candidate is available in more than 70 languages, so you can get your own local language copy to test it
- 70+ bugs have been fixed to improve performance, stability, security and features
- Ability to run scripts asynchronously to speed up page load times
- Browser appearance can be changed by a single click with the inbuilt support for Personas
- Automated alert system to display outdated plugins
- Full screen video support added for Open and Naive video, also supports poster frames
- Support for Web Open Font Format
- JavaScript performance has been improved and overall browser responsiveness + startup time has been tweaked too
- New CSS, DOM and HTML5 support have been added
Lets wait for the stable release for some kick ass features, meanwhile if you are eager to checkout the beta version, you can download and test Firefox 3.6 RC1 from http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-rc.html
Categories: Softwares, Tech Industry News |
Tags: 3.6, browser, firefox, firefox 2010, firefox 3.6, mozilla, RC, web | No Comments
January 6th, 2010
Toshiba is busy developing the voice translation software for cell phones which would perform a language translation (voice based) between Chinese, Japanese and English languages (more languages to be added as the initiative progresses).
A mobile user can speak any of the word / phrase into their cell phone, which will be analyzed by the device and the user will be provided with various voice based language translations results which can be played aloud to speak in the exact dialect, this new mobile software will be quite useful for foreigners who travels around the world.
The company is transforming the currently available PC version of the translation software into cell phone application to make it mobile friendly, the mobile app is currently being tested out on Toshiba’s TG01 (which is powered by Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 OS). The 1GHz Snapdragon processor sure helps toshiba develop this technology on the TG01.
Internet connectivity wont be essential for this mobile application because all the required data is stored within the database which will be accessible in OFFLINE mode, the stored database within Toshiba’s TG01 contains 30,000 words spoken in each of the languages. The mobile based software will be launching within this year, we hope they would develop it for other mobile OSes too.
Via MobileCrunch
Categories: Softwares, smartphones |
Tags: language translation, tg01, Toshiba, translation, voice recognizition | No Comments
December 20th, 2009
Seems like Samsung has realised that selling 50million touchscreens won’t help in the long run if the OS on the phone is crappy. The recent Samsung phone like the Star series and the Corby series are advertised heavily with integrated FB, Twitter and Orkut. But the reality is that using any of these services or even plain internet on the Corby/Star browser is a PAIN. So here comes the solution from Samsung: Bada OS. Instead of sticking to the known names like Android, Symbian or Windows Mobile; Samsung has decided to walk the tough path like (more…)
Categories: Softwares, samsung, smartphones |
Tags: bada os, mobile os, open source os, os, samsung, samsung bada | 2 Comments
December 19th, 2009
Wordpress v2.9 is out and it adds some really useful features to the already ubercool platform. Each time wordpress gets new features, its like my wishlist shrinking. So here is what I really love about Wordpress 2.9: (more…)
Categories: Softwares, Tech Industry News |
Tags: image editing in wordpress, wordpress, wordpress 2.9, wordpress features, wp, wp 2.9 | 8 Comments
December 16th, 2009
Though unofficial but the news is that the Android Market is 20000 strong with over 60% free apps to offer. While this may seem minuscule compared to the 100,000+ apps on the iTunes app store, the face that there were 9 Android handsets released this year and another 50 expected next year, this could well be the beginning of the Android revolution. The Droid and the Nexus One has already given Android a significant mindshare over the iPhone 3GS, however the biggest challenge for any iPhone competitor including the Palm Pre is the App store (I hate pointing that again and again). With such growth of Android apps we might well see things changing in 2010.
The only thing that Android apps are missing probably is the big hits like we have seen with the App Store. For example the TomTom navigation app that till recently sold for over $100 for the iPhone managed to get 80,000 purchases in Q3 2009. This brought the co. $8 million in revenue. Once Android market proves its commercial ability in a comparable manner, we can cheer the 000’s of Android apps with much more confidence!
Source: Android Apps stats and image
Categories: Android, Softwares, mobile app |
Tags: Android, android apps, android market, app store vs android market, apps, iphone vs android | 1 Comment
November 24th, 2009
Fring has been one of the most regularly updated mobile VOIP app. And its compatibility list is comprehensive with everything from Symbian to Android covered. Adding another feather to its cap, Fring today announced that they have launched video chat on Skype for Symbian users. This is certainly amazing news, given the fact that Fring is FREE.
Currently the video calling works on the following Nokia models (Nokia touch such as X6, N97 mini,N97, 5800), N95, N95 8G & N82. Other popular platforms would be added soon as per the official post. Video demo below (more…)
Categories: Softwares, mobile app, smartphones |
Tags: fring, fring app, skype movile, video calls on skype using mobile, video voip, voip | No Comments
November 6th, 2009
It is not often that you find the head of a company admitting that his company’s flagship product has lost steam. So you can bet that our ears pricked up when Nintendo’s President, Santoro Iwata, admitted that the Wii – the console that had so famously rubbed the noses of PS3 and XBox 360 in the dirt -had stalled. “Games of high demand could not be continuously released and the good mood has chilled,” Iwata told Japan’s Mainichi Newspaper in an interview that has been doing the rounds of the gaming circuit. And he certainly needs to be commended for being realistic – after the initial euphoria surrounding its amazing motion-sensing gaming concept, the Wii came up short in the department that matters most for many gamers – gaming titles. And with both Microsoft and Sony promising motion sensing gameplay in the coming months, the Wii literally ran out of steam.
There are many in the tech world who believe that there are parallels between the Wii and the iPhone. The iPhone (more…)
Categories: Apple, Gaming, Softwares, iphone |
Tags: app store, app store case study, app store vs wii, apps, iphone apps, nintendo, wii | 2 Comments
November 1st, 2009
With the major cellphone OS application stores already in place, why should the one having the largest market share be left out? We are talking about Symbian. The platform has announced that its own application store is now ‘open’.
The announcement about the Symbian application store, dubbed Horizon, came at (more…)
Categories: First look, Market Watch, Softwares, Tech Industry News, mobile app |
Tags: Hoizon Symbian store, symbain horizon app store, symbian, Symbian app store, Symbian Horizon | 4 Comments
October 26th, 2009
Mac users are not going to be forced to use any ‘unsafe’ hacks to install Windows 7 OS on their precious portables. Apple announced that it willprovide a Boot Camp update ’soon’, which will allow for Windows 7 installations on Mac.
The update will include support to install either of the three variants of Windows 7 – Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate. The update is expected to be released before the end of 2009. This Boot Camp update will come as a software update to Snow Leopard. Windows 7 support would unfortunately not be available to users of earlier versions of the Mac OS.
via [Geeky-Gadgets]
Categories: Apple, Notebook / Laptops, Softwares |
Tags: bootcamp win7, snow leopard win7, win7 for mac OS, windows 7 for mac, windows7 bootcamp update | No Comments
October 22nd, 2009
While this is something we would typically expect Google to initiate, surprisingly Apple had filed a patent back in 2008 for an Operating System-concept that would be ad-supported. This would, in theory at least, make the software free (or available for a discounted price) for the end-user. The patent shows the (more…)
Categories: Apple, Softwares |
Tags: ads in os, apple patent, operating system, patent ad supported OS | 1 Comment
