When I penned down “the going ahead for Palm“, I had a feeling that its a little incomplete. Still waiting for a hands-on with the WebOS and reminiscing my days with the Treo 650 (heck, I bought 3 of those one after the another every-time it gave up on me); it couldn’t have been a better time than this to read this piece on Engadget. Called the survival guide for Palm, it echoes a lot of my own thoughts.
I still remember the excitement after the Pre announcement and the numerous pings I made to Palm on twitter for an India release. What I heard from friends at Vodafone, the Pre was shown to them before the iPhone 3GS was announced and I still await a result. Anyways, here is a new (and better) Ad by Palm – video downstairs (more…)
While Apple’s iPad is just around the corner with a launch date of 3rd April, Marvell has come up with a tablet priced at a staggering $99. Whats so staggering about the price is that this tabled called the Marvell Moby is packed with features which is certainly more than the price its offered at.
While this is an “always-on, high performance multimedia tablet”, it also comes loaded with full flash support, 1080p HD video playback courtesy the Armada 600 series processors. Not only that the device also supports (more…)
Finally there is some official word on when the iPhone 3GS launching in India. Reuters reports that Airtel has confirmed a deal with Apple Inc to sell the iPhone 3GS in India. Delayed for several months now, the 3GS was expected launch last year in August, however given the green signal by Airtel now, we await the pricing details and availability.
While iPad is launching in two weeks, we are still waiting for the 3GS. Would you buy the 3GS or skip it in favor of the iPhone 4G?
Google has teamed up with Sony, Intel and Logitech to bring to bring web software to television through set-top boxes and television sets. The service is rumored to be working on set-top boxes and would also be built-in into Sony’s television sets. While Sony is said to be working on the hardware, it would be powered by Google’s Android OS and Intel’s energy efficient Atom processors. Logitech would be developing the remote controls for the system.
Google also expects to make its open-source platform open to third party software developers to build their own plug-ins. Google TV platform would be integrating televisions with web, allowing users to browse through various web applications like Twitter and other (more…)
Palm isn’t doing particularly well, even though it has a impressive product with the WebOS. Last quarter they sold just over 400,000 smartphones and lost $22 million. With a refreshed Palm Pre / Pixi and new carriers going live, Palm would have expected better sales, but they themselves had cut the guidance a while back. IMO part of this can be blamed to the poor advertising of the Pre compared to the Droid or Nexus One and at the same time as Jon Rubinstein himself points out – delay in getting on Verizon (i.e. going on sale after Droid).
What excited me is the fact that Palm (at-least as per Jon Rubinstein’s statement) is making good progress on future products and they are looking to come up with new carrier partners when these products go on sale. Another interesting perspective is the possibility of Google (or any other smartphone maker) buying out Palm which would be valued below $1 billion. Given the aggression Apple has shown with patent disputes with HTC and Nokia, Palm certainly has a good patent (more…)
HTC Supersonic has been into rumors for quite some time now. If the report from WSJ is to be believed, the phone would be announced officially next week at CTIA 2010. WSJ reports that Sprint’s CEO, Dan Hesse would unveil the first ever 4G phone during the event. (more…)
When it comes to hardcore gaming, every gamer needs a mouse that fits more than perfectly for him. But there is a group of people that can’t find that perfect mouse easily. The guys I am talking about here are left handed gamers. They often have to use sub-standard left-handed mouse or just switch to a hardcore gaming mouse built for right-handed guys. Do you lefties feel left out? Well, not any more.
Razor, the hardware manufacturer known for its gaming peripherals, has introduced a gaming mouse built for lefties. The mouse called DeathAdder Left Hand Edition boasts of all the features that a normal gaming mouse has. These are 1000Hz ultrapolling, always-on mode, 3500dpi sensitivity, and on-the-fly sensitivity adjustment. Along with the left and right click buttons, the mouse consists of a scroller and two programmable buttons. It can track accurately at 60-120 inches per second with 15G of acceleration.
DeathAdder Left Hand Edition is available for $59.99.
Google might have to look for different names for its super phone, now since the US Trademark Office has rejected its application to trademark “Nexus One”.
The reason for the refusal is that the name conflicts with another Nexus mark, given to Integra Telecom back in Dec 2008. The mark owned by Integra refers to “the provision of telecommunication services and the transmission of voice and data”. But Google might argue that theirs is a product and not a service.
Nokia has launched the Design By Community project wherein Nokia is inviting anyone across the globe to give their input for the “smartphone concept device of the future”. The 8 week project would involve a new design widget every week and users can give their input for the design. The design widget also takes care of the feasibility of your design through a needle hovering in three zones – Red, Yellow and Green. Where Green obviously means ‘Perfect Mix’. Not exactly like the Sony Ericsson Dot, but seems like crowd-sourcing is the new mantra.
Week 1 of the project involves design aspects related to the phone’s display and UI, covering features like screen size, screen type, screen ratio and secondary buttons. The entire 8-week schedule is as follows – (more…)
Having traveled to Hyderabad last week for the HeadStart – ITsAP startup showcase, we happened to run into Hyderabad based Notion Ink who were one of the startups selected for an onstage demo and exhibition at the event. We met two of the company founders Sachin Ralhan and Rajat Sahni and also saw a dummy build of the Adam (no prototype . )
During the Notion Ink presentation we didn’t have too much new to listen to, but we had a long conversation with the founders on how they started (the story should come up on the HeadStart blog soon). A few things that we learnt were: (more…)
Aircel has launched “Peek” – a physical QWERTY handset made specifically for emails. Aircel claims that Peek is the thinnest email device ever. Peek can support upto three email accounts at a time. The email clients supported are Gmail, Yahoo!, Hotmail and all POP3 or IMAP accounts.
Peek supports PUSH email which allows automatic retrieval of new mails. The attachments supported are Microsoft Word, Excel, PDF and all image files. The screen on this device is 2.5″ QVGA with no touch support. The battery on the device is good to last for 2 to 3 days on a full charge, for ‘average’ email users. Aircel Peek is priced at Rs. 2999 which sounds quite affordable. Other charges involve a Rs. 897 for email access for first 90 days and Rs. 299 per month hence. The device would be available in two colors – Red and Black.
The rental charges per month might happen to be a deal breaker as Aircel charges only Rs. 98/month for unlimited GPRS on mobile. Mobile users can easily configure multiple email accounts to their handsets, which BTW is also used for making calls (unlike Peek)
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.
After Nintendo revolutionized the gaming industry by introducing motion gaming through Wii, Sony and Microsoft started catching up for the same. While Microsoft’s Project Natal is yet to be released, Sony has introduced its – Playstation Move. Sony introduced its motion gaming controller at the Game Developers Conference or the GDC 2010.
The motion gaming controller is an upgrade to the Playstation eye camera. Playstation Move is compatible only with (more…)
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.
The wait for iPhone 3GSs official unveiling in India has been way too long and event the most die hard Apple fans that I know have given up and purchased a 3GS from the grey market already. However we now hear (or rather our friends over at Fonearena ) that the iPhone 3GS would be launched by Apple in India tomorrow i.e. 15th March 2010 with 4 operators. To my surprise Airtel has been dropped off according to this rumor. Last year we had seen Vodafone actually pushed iPhone aside and promoted Blackberry, but then given the market size you never know if Airtel dumped iPhone or its Apple taking the call! This time around Vodafone, Reliance, Aircel and Bharti would carry the phone officially in India (remember its still a rumor).
The issue now isn’t what price Apple would launch the iPhone 3GS for or if Bharti would offer 3G plans for the same or not – the iPhone 4G expected in June motivates people to wait a little more (you can’t blame them for their patience, Apple!). Just yesterday (before I heard this rumor) I happened to discuss with a friend about the iPhone 4G and he immediately shelved his 3GS plans . Does Apple really expect to sell 3GS in India with the iPhone 4th generation expected to be out (atleast in US) by June end?
It would not be wrong to say that LG was the first to introduce economy touchscreen smartphones. LG managed to create a new segment with LG Cookie. The segment also has developed interest by many other cellphone manufacturers like Samsung with its Corby and now Nokia introducing the C-Series. After LG Cookie and LG Cookie Plus GS500, now there is a new member under the Cookie umbrella - LG Cookie Fresh GS290.
Yes I know that we are still waiting for the 3G license auctions in India but here is a cheer from Verizon (US). Testing their LTE / 4G network, Verizon has released promising numbers of data transfer speeds over the network. The average speed given in these tests are between 5-12 Mbps, though much lesser than the 100Mbps theoretical promise, this still does a lot better than the 3G networks with peak download of 50Mpbs.
Trials in Boston and Seattle indicate the network is capable of peak download speeds of 40 to 50 megabits per second (Mbps) and peak upload speeds of 20 to 25 Mbps. The speeds are significantly faster than Verizon Wireless and other wireless providers’ current or promised 3G network speeds. [Verizon]
Rolling out later this year (possibly with the new iPhone 4th Gen?) the Verizon 4G network would initially cover 20-30 areas and go nation wide in US by 2013. Now only if we can have some handhelds that can use this super speed? Please
Blackberry remains the highest selling smartphone in the US, thanks to the plethora of business handsets it has to offer. One company that is fast catching up (and currently in no 2 position) is the Apple iPhone. Analyst prediction says that the iPhone would overtake Blackberry in sales sometime in 2011.
RIM’s touchscreen attempt with the Blackberry has failed to matchup and failed to counter the touch hype that iPhone has created. Meantime the iPhone 3GS has went on to be the best selling iPhone ever with Apple unable to go ahead with its global roll out as scheduled due to stock issues. Apple is expected to nab a 11% market share where as RIM Blackberry is seen at 8% in 2011. While a lot (more…)
A new Palm phone has surfaced on a lot of websites that sell phone accessories. A snapshot from one of these websites shows that the handset is called Palm Elan. An AT&T employee also leaked that the Palm Elan would feature a ’soft keyboard’ and its (more…)
Finally there is some official word on when the iPhone 3GS launching in India. 
. )
) that the iPhone 3GS would be launched by Apple in India tomorrow i.e. 15th March 2010 with 4 operators. To my surprise Airtel has been dropped off according to this rumor. Last year we had seen Vodafone actually pushed iPhone aside and 
