Monday 29 October 2012

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After Kolkata and Bengaluru Airtel 4G services rolled out in Pune

After Kolkata and Bengaluru Airtel 4G services rolled out in Pune



Buoyed by good response in Kolkata and Bengaluru, Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecom services provider with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, on Thursday rolled out Airtel postpaid 4G services in Pune. With this it has become the first operator in Maharashtra to bring the 4G experience for its customers.

Airtel customers in Pune will now have access to cutting-edge 4G LTE technology that delivers the most advanced wireless broadband experience available across the globe today.

Airtel also announced the availability and free trial offer of its all new service innovations for Airtel 4G customers, Airtel Broadband TV and Games On-Demand. Additionally, Airtel 4G services for prepaid customers in Pune will be launched shortly.

 “With both home and office users opting for 4G services, it is heartening to see early adopters of this technology acknowledge the experience that Airtel 4G delivers, for everything from streaming videos and downloading music, to accessing business applications, email and rich multimedia content. We are optimistic about the traction that 4G will see in months to come and look forward to rolling out our services in other circles soon”, said K Srinivas, President, Consumer Business, Bharti Airtel.

Airtel said that customers can now check the availability of Airtel 4G services in their area online through the familiar Google Maps interface and buy the services online. Along with a host of payment options, Airtel 4G will also be available on monthly EMI’s and cash on delivery. The online purchasing capability will soon be rolled out for customers in Bengaluru and Kolkata as well.

Airtel Broadband TV service on Airtel 4G dongle allows customers to stream live TV content directly onto their laptop or desktop without the prerequisite of a cable or set-top box connection. Using Airtel 4G, customers can now enjoy access to close to 76 channels and on-demand videos across various genres including movies, music, entertainment and news. While the price applicable for this pack is Rs.150 and Rs 49 for monthly and weekly subscribers respectively, Airtel 4G customers can leverage its introductory trial offer and access Airtel Broadband TV free of charge.

Airtel 4G LTE will also allow a seamless gaming experience on PCs and laptops. Customers opting for 4G can now leverage Games On-Demand service on Airtel to enjoy video games like FIFA and NFS from a host of publishers including as EA, Ubisoft, Square-Enix, PopCap and Alawar. Ranging from Rs. 5 a day for 30 games, to a full-fledged Rs. 199 plan offering over 350 games for a month, as many as seven Games On-Demand plans are now available for customers to enjoy. Customers can also experience these exciting games on Airtel 4G through a limited period trial offer. Airtel Movies launched earlier in Bengaluru now provides the subscriber an updated movie library of 1250 titles consisting of recent chartbusters, classics, and lot of critically acclaimed movies across different language and genres (action, comedy, drama, romance, etc).While the monthly subscription pack is Rs.149, we now have a offer free trial offer for all our 4G customers.

In 2010, Airtel had successfully bid for BWA license spectrum in Kolkata, Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra (excluding Mumbai) circles. Additionally, earlier this year, Bharti Airtel acquired 49 percent interest in Qualcomm AP’s India entities that hold BWA licenses in Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala. The company has launched its 4G LTE services in Kolkata, Bengaluru and now Pune, and is currently working towards rolling out state-of-the-art networks in remaining licence circles.

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FACEBOOK nd ZYNGA threatened by HACKERS

Facebook and Zynga threatened with shutdown by Anonymous hacktivists in retaliation for gaming giant's layoff 

  • Hackers have threatened to shut down sites on November 5, which marks Guy Fawkes Day
  • The threat by Anonymous comes after Zynga slashed its workforce of 3,000 employees by 5 per cent
  • The gaming giant, known for FarmVille and Words With Friends, allegedly plans to outsource jobs to India
  • The 'hacktivists' have targeted Zynga for its 'outrageous treatment of their employees' 
  • The online activist group, known as Anonymous, has threatened to shut down Zynga and Facebook, days after the gaming giant announced it was laying off 5 per cent of its workforce.The group is targeting the San Francisco based company because of 'the outrageous treatment of their employees and their actions against many developers,' an unidentified member of the group, donning their trademark Guy Fawkes mask, announced in a YouTube video posted on Sunday.
    Slamming the tech firm for slashing its employee base while sitting on 'billion dollars cash,' the hackers threatened to release games it has stolen from Zynga's server, in addition to shutting down both Zynga and Facebook on November 5

    The looming threat to take down the social networking sites comes after Zynga unveiled a restructuring plan in the wake of its disappointing third quarter earnings report on October 24.
    Zynga CEO Mark Pincus announced last week it would lay off five per cent of its workforce, of approximately 3,000, shutting down its office in Boston and slashing the staff at the company's Austin branch.
    The company is also said to be looking at closing operations in the UK and Japan.

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iphone lovers.. iphone 5 launched in india


16GB version of the iPhone 5 will be priced at Rs 45, 500

The long wait for Apple iPhone lovers in India seems over. Ending the indeed long waiting period of two months since its first launch, the all new iPhone 5 is reportedly make its way to the Indian shores on November 2.

Confirming the news in a press release, Apple’s partners, Ingram Micro, said: Ingram Micro announced today that it will offer iPhone 5 at leading modern trade stores and retail outlets across India beginning Friday, November 2. 

Redington and Ingram Micro, the distributors of iPad and iPods in the country are readying themselves for a massive sell as the Indian consumers have awaited the smartphones arrival and as the phone enters the market around the festive season of Diwali. Reportedly, the basic 16GB version of the iPhone 5 will be priced at Rs 45, 500, whereas the 32GB and 64GB will be priced at Rs 52,500 and Rs 59,500 respectively.

 

The iPhone 5 has a larger 4-inch "retina" display, a surf capacity of high-speed 4G LTE network and is 20% lighter than its predecessor.

 

While the phone's main camera iSight stays the same, a new addition is the dynamic light mode. The new addition also helps users to launch photography apps up to 2.1 times faster. Moreover Apple has added a new feature called an image signal processor, which brings spatial noise reduction and a "smart filter" that produces better low-light pictures and captures images faster.

 

In the audio front, the iPhone 5 gets an additional microphone which sums it up to total of three. While one microphone is on the bottom, one is placed on the handset's front face, and one on its rear side. Also, the speaker now has five magnets which will provide clarity in sound.

 

However, some consumers have echoed concerns over the presence of a nano-SIM in the device. However, according to media reports, some of the domestic operators have nano-SIMs ready in stock to usher in Apple iPhone 5 official entry into the Indian market.

For more information on availability details please visit www.imonline.co.in. For more information on iPhone 5, please visit www.apple.com/in/iphone.

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Win 8 launched in India

With Windows 8, launched on Friday, Microsoft wants to ensure that its new operating system runs on all form factors - desktops, notebooks and even tablets. The software giant foresees people using a common OS, seamlessly interoperating between different devices without any glitches. It also envisions hybrid gizmos that can function as a fullfledged tablet or laptop depending on the user's requirements. Of course, to create an OS that would work just as well with touchscreens as it would with the keyboard and mouse, MS has had to make some big changes to Windows.

Logging in

Windows 8 is heavily integrated with Microsoft's web services. Users are provided with the ability to log on to their PCs with a Windows Live ID (instead of a more traditional local user account) for seamless functioning between various devices. For example, if you're following certain news feeds in the Reader app on your tablet, the same content will also be available to you on your PC. Besides you are automatically logged-on to those Metro-style apps and services that use your Live ID for authentication.

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With Windows 8, launched on Friday, Microsoft wants to ensure that its new operating system runs on all form factors - desktops, notebooks and even tablets. The software giant foresees people using a common OS, seamlessly interoperating between different devices without any glitches. It also envisions hybrid gizmos that can function as a fullfledged tablet or laptop depending on the user's requirements. Of course, to create an OS that would work just as well with touchscreens as it would with the keyboard and mouse, MS has had to make some big changes to Windows.

Logging in

Windows 8 is heavily integrated with Microsoft's web services. Users are provided with the ability to log on to their PCs with a Windows Live ID (instead of a more traditional local user account) for seamless functioning between various devices. For example, if you're following certain news feeds in the Reader app on your tablet, the same content will also be available to you on your PC. Besides you are automatically logged-on to those Metro-style apps and services that use your Live ID for authentication.

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Friday 26 October 2012

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DARPA Wants Robotics to Rise to the Challenge of Disasters


CHIMP


The DARPA Robotics Challenge kicks into high gear today as the organization announces the top teams that will be competing to create robots that can prevent the compounding of human peril in manmade and natural disasters.
Spurred by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in which the "Fukushima 50" ventured into a nightmare scenario to prevent a nuclear meltdown, DARPA is seeking robotic substitutes so that one individual's life is not weighed against dozens or more of others'.
Dr. Gill Pratt, the program manager for the challenge, noted that the program's focus on humanitarian assistance in disaster response is aligned with one of the 10 primary missions of the U.S. Department of Defense that was laid out by the White House and the Secretary of Defense in January 2012. But Pratt called attention to another reason why DARPA chose the subject of this challenge: "[W]e believe that this is very inspirational for participants because it's a universally understood and appreciated mission."
The participating teams are divided into two tracks: Track A teams will create the robots themselves as well as the software while Track B teams will be provided with the Boston Dynamics-designed Atlas robot, the descendant of Pet-Proto, and create software for it. Both teams will receive DARPA funding for their projects and they have until approximately December 2013 to complete them.
DARPA has chosen seven Track A teams from Carnegie Mellon University, Drexel University, Raytheon, SCHAFT, Virginia Tech, the NASA Johnson Space Center, and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The 11 Track B teams are from Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Laboratories, RE2, the University of Kansas, Carnegie Mellon University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, TRAC Labs, University of Washington, the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, Ben-Gurion University, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and TORC Robotics.
To open up the pool of talent to the challenge, which is already an international competition, DARPA has added two tracks. "The reason for doing this is to open the aperture as wide as possible, so that we can gather teams that are not in traditional robotics fields, that may not have been used to sending in proposals to DARPA, maybe from other parts of the world that aren't used to doing business with us," Pratt said. "We really want to see what talent is out there and find the best possible talent."
Participants in Track C won't receive DARPA funding up front but should they perform better than the Track A and Track B teams, they might be eligible to receive one of six Atlas robots to work with and funding to progress further in the challenge. Track D is for those who do not want to take any DARPA funding at all but would like to compete anyway.
Robots will be tasked with driving a vehicle (under the supervision of an operator at a distance), opening a door, climbing up a stairway, and connecting a cable or a fire hose. "We understand that where disasters matter the most, the environment generally has been engineered for use by human beings and even if the environment is degraded, it is not a random, unstructured outdoor environment," Pratt said. "In fact, it's one that has a lot of things made for people to use; for instance doors and stairways and ladders, things like that. And so the robots that we're developing, the technology that we're developing here, are strongly geared toward operating in environments that have been originally engineered for human beings."
The robots will also be required to tackle one of the things that separates humans from many other species: figuring out tools. "Disasters often occur in environments that have plentiful numbers of tools that are meant for human beings," Pratt said. "And by tools, I mean things from screwdrivers to vehicles and everything in between. And often those tools are around both for construction and repair and maintenance. And, again, during the first few days after a disaster, there is no time to bring in specialized tools and, so, can we build robots that can reuse tools that were originally meant for human beings?"
Of particular importance in the challenge is human-robot interaction. "Often in a disaster, the experts who know how to handle the disaster are not robotics experts," Pratt said. "And so we want to shorten the amount of time and the amount of work that needs to be done to allow those people to be able to directly use the robots in the disaster." Pratt again cited Fukushima, where robots were rapidly brought in from Japan and the United States, but the plant operators needed to spend several days in training to learn how to use them.
The ultimate prize for the team that best meets DARPA's requirements is $2 million, and it will be handed out sometime near December 2014. Additionally, DARPA projects often end up extending into the consumer realm. One of the most nascent examples is the Google self-driving car, which came out of a 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge win for a team led by then head of Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and Google Vice President Sebastian Thrun.
Beyond the creation of a task-driven robot, the robotics challenge has higher-level goals that involve the robotics field as a whole. Pratt said DARPA is investing in an open-source simulation package to advance the state of the art in robotic simulation. "In particular, we want to have these tools outlast the program and be the foundation for catalyzing the field of robotics, particularly helping to make the design of robots move from an art to a science," he said. DARPA is also funding the Open Source Robotics Foundation to further develop a preexisting simulator that will use cloud computing for quick and easy scalability.

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Antarctic Ozone Hole Second Smallest in 20 Years, Scientists Say


Antarctic Ozone Hole Second Smallest in 20 Years, Scientists Say


The seasonal ozone hole above the Antarctic was the second smallest in 20 years as warm temperatures slowed depletion of the layer that shields the planet from ultraviolet radiation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The average size of the ozone hole this year was 6.9 million square miles (17.9 million square kilometers) and reached a maximum of 8.2 million square miles on Sept. 22, the agency said in a statement today.
The Antarctic ozone hole first appeared in the 1980s and was one of the first signs of man-made climate change, according to the statement. International efforts to regulate chlorofluorocarbons, the chemicals blamed for the annual event, may not lead to any measurable recovery in the layer for a decade.
“It happened to be a bit warmer this year high in the atmosphere above Antarctica, and that meant we didn’t see quite as much ozone depletion as we saw last year,” Jim Butler, the director of global monitoring at NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder,Colorado, said in the statement.
Last year’s gap stretched 10.1 million square miles and was the ninth largest. The biggest was in 2000 at 11.5 million square miles.

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Apple iPad mini launched, price ranges from USD 329 to USD 699

Apple iPad mini launched, price ranges from USD 329 to USD 699



As expected Apple on Tuesday launched iPad mini, a completely new iPad design that is 23 percent thinner and 53 percent lighter than the third generation iPad.
iPad mini with Wi-Fi models will be available in black & slate or white & silver on Friday, November 2, for a suggested retail price of $329 (US) for the 16GB model, $429 (US) for the 32GB model and $529 (US) for the 64GB model. The fourth generation iPad with Wi-Fi models will also be available on Friday, November 2, in black or white for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) for the 16GB model, $599 (US) for the 32GB model and $699 (US) for the 64GB model.
iPad mini and the fourth generation iPad will be sold through the Apple Online Store, Apple’s retail stores, and select Apple Authorized Resellers in the US, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.
The new iPad mini features a stunning 7.9-inch Multi-Touch display, FaceTime HD and iSight cameras, ultrafast wireless performance and an incredible 10 hours of battery life, every inch an iPad, yet in a revolutionary design you can hold in one hand. Apple today also announced the fourth generation iPad featuring a gorgeous 9.7-inch Retina display, new Apple-designed A6X chip, FaceTime HD camera and ultrafast wireless performance. Both iPad mini and fourth generation iPad come with iOS 6, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system with over 200 new features.
“iPad mini is every inch an iPad. With its gorgeous 7.9-inch display, iPad mini features the same number of pixels as the original iPad and iPad 2, so you can run more than 275,000 apps designed specifically for iPad,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “iPad mini is as thin as a pencil and as light as a pad of paper, yet packs a fast A5 chip, FaceTime HD and 5 megapixel iSight cameras and ultrafast wireless, all while delivering up to 10 hours of battery life.”
iPad mini comes in a beautiful new aluminum and glass design that is just 7.2 mm thin and weighs only 0.68 pounds. The 7.9-inch Multi-Touch display delivers the same iPad experience users have come to expect, in a design that has 35 percent more screen real estate than 7-inch tablets and up to an astonishing 67 percent more usable viewing area when browsing the web. The dual-core A5 chip delivers responsive graphics and a fast, fluid Multi-Touch experience, while still providing all-day battery life.
iPad mini features a front-facing FaceTime HD camera and a 5 megapixel iSight camera on the back with advanced optics for taking sharp still pictures and recording full 1080p HD video. The iSight camera includes video image stabilization and both cameras feature backside illumination to let users capture great pictures in low light. iPad mini also allows easy sharing of photos with friends and family using iCloud’s Shared Photo Streams.
iPad mini features dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi support for speeds up to 150 Mbps, which is twice the Wi-Fi performance compared to previous iPad models. iPad mini is available in Wi-Fi + Cellular models which are world-ready with built-in support for ultrafast wireless standards, including LTE and DC-HSDPA, so you can browse, download and stream content fast from wherever you are. iPad mini data plans will be available with no contract so you can simply sign up and activate service directly from your iPad. The Personal Hotspot feature means you can share a fast cellular data connection via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or USB with up to five other devices such as MacBook Pro, iPod touch or another iPad.
The new fourth generation iPad features the amazing 9.7-inch Retina display and includes a new Apple-designed A6X chip that delivers up to twice the CPU performance and up to twice the graphics performance of the A5X chip, all while delivering an incredible 10 hours of battery life in the same thin and light iPad design. Other new features include a FaceTime HD camera, twice the Wi-Fi performance when compared to previous iPad models and support for additional LTE carriers worldwide.
iPad mini and fourth generation iPad both feature support for the Lightning connector that is smaller, smarter and more durable than the 30-pin connector. Lightning connector accessories are available to support cameras, SD cards and VGA or HDMI digital video. Existing iPad Smart Covers and the iPad Smart Case are compatible with fourth generation iPad, and new polyurethane Smart Covers custom-designed for iPad mini are available in pink, green, blue, light gray, dark gray and (PRODUCT) RED for $39.
iPad runs over 700,000 apps available on the App Store, including more than 275,000 apps designed specifically for iPad, from a wide range of categories including books, games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel. iPad also supports the more than 5,000 newspapers and magazines offered in Newsstand and the more than 1.5 million books available on the iBookstore.
The iTunes Store puts the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store at your fingertips with a catalog of over 26 million songs, over 190,000 TV episodes and over 45,000 films. The new iBooks app for iPad lets users read ebooks in over 40 languages. iBooks also lets users experience an entirely new kind of ebook that’s dynamic, engaging and truly interactive. Ebooks created with Apple’s new iBooks Author offer gorgeous, fullscreen ebooks with interactive animations, diagrams, photos, videos, custom fonts, mathematical expressions and much more.

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nano SIM Cards...

Top Telcos to offer nano SIM card in Mumbai before iPhone 5 launch   






Top telecom operators, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and MTNL Mumbai will be offering nano SIM cards to the customers in the Mumbai circle, ahead of iPhone 5 launch.
Nano SIM card which is currently being used exclusively in the Apple iPhone 5 measuring 12.3 x 8.8 mm, is about 30 percent smaller than the micro SIM. The thickness of the card has also been reduced by about 15 percent.
MTNL (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd), confirms that nano SIM cards for its customers are ready and will be available in next couple of days across all Customer Service Centers across Mumbai for “simex” i.e. SIM for exchange basis. One can get their old SIM replaced with this new nano SIM.
Vodafone India confirms that nano SIM is available across all Vodafone circles for SIM exchange. There is no premium cost and Vodafone nano SIM is available at the same cost of the normal SIM.
Bharti Airtel also confirms that Nano SIM cards are ready and will be available commercially anytime soon across all circles.
The nano SIM offers device manufacturers the crucial advantage of freeing up extra space for other mobile phone nano SIM the smallest SIM form factor on the market components such as additional memory or larger batteries.

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HTC One X - Rival to samsung galaxy S III


HTC One X - Rival to samsung galaxy S III

Review: HTC One X - Rival to samsung galaxy S III
Why to buy:
It is a good Android phone offering features such as impressive bright 4.7-inch screen, high speed 3g access, 8 Megapixel camera and for music lovers, there is Beat Audio providing high quality audio.
Why to avoid:
You have to be satisfied with 32GB inbuilt memory, there is no option of adding external memory. Battery life is very poor compared to peers and it is non removable.
Our take:
Go for it if the budget suits your pocket. You will enjoy state-of-the-art Android phone. You may like to take a look at our review of Samsung Galaxy S3 before buying HTC One X.
Rating: 
Price: Rs. 38, 000

Detailed Review

Design:
Simple design of HTC one X in premium polycarbonate plastic body looks good. Competitors use mainly aluminum unibody. The big 4.7-inch Gorilla Glass screen is durable and scratch-resistant. And the minimalist design includes curved glass, a piano gloss sidewall, and an iconic camera ring on the back. On the right side of the phone has a key for sound. Whereas, on the left side is a Micro-USB port with tiny power button, a micro-SIM card compartment, and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top.
Interface/operating System:
The key feature of One X is its Quad core processor, the first in the world. Along with this the HTC One X runs not only on latest Google’s Android operating system 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICE) but also on HTC’s own Sense 4. HTC has proved its technology sound with past success and has moved a step further. With both Android 4.0 ICE and sense 4, the handset promises the blazing speed.

   

Camera:
With an 8 megapixel main camera and 1.3 megapixel front Camera, One X assures the quality. It hardly takes a second to start. With HTC Image Chip it takes shots despite of lighting and movement. So, we can say it never misses a shot. Even with continuous photo shoots you can easily jump to HD video recording and also while recording HD video it can take photos. the picture quality and the colours remains same even in an indoor shoot. Apart from basic camera features of this segment such as face detection, auto smile capture, and panorama, the One X has High Dynamic Range (HDR) mode, which uses the device’s back-illuminated sensor to add shadow so that it should give any overexposed images.
Sound/Music:
The One series of HTC comes with Beats Audio technology. So everything you hear on your phone be it music, videos, games or even YouTube you get rich and clear sound.
Audio/Video:
With 1 GB of RAM and 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Quad core processor from, One X delivers uninterrupted audio and video surfing on 3G. We must say it’s as smooth as making a call.
Memory:
With inbuilt 32 GB of memory HTC One X assures you to get most of your data saved. Lacking here in the trend of more memory space with no micro SD card slot HTC has come up with Dropbox that is integrated into HTC Sense. You can automatically save all your photos and videos to Dropbox and can access and share all your pictures directly from the Gallery. Dropbox also makes it easy to edit and share files.
Battery:
With strong CPU speed of 1.5 GHz Quad core the 1800mAh battery has comparatively less life. This is not what people would have accepted from this powerful phone. Though with general use it delivers good talk time and stand by time, but while on 3G it discharges the battery quickly. So, we cannot say it has a bad battery life but of course not best too.
Conclusion:
The HTC One X is an attractive phone with blazing speed of World’s first 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Quad core processor and 1 GB RAM. The 8 megapixel camera, Beats Audio sound technology, High Dynamic Range camera mode, Android 4.0 Ice cream sandwich and HTC Sense 4 makes device simply superb in the segment. Though non removable battery, no micro SD card Slot and less battery life can let you think once more for this amazing phone. So, we give this phone 4.5 star rating.
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Samsung Galaxy Chat – GT-B5330



Samsung Galaxy Chat – GT-B5330

   
Review: Samsung Galaxy Chat – GT-B5330

Why to Buy:
This phone is a good option for touch and type users. Its battery life is good, comes with Android 4.0 version and is upgradeable to latest Android 4.1 Jelly Beans.
Why to Avoid:
Its 2 megapixels camera is poor. Its RAM is less that delays in multitasking and swapping applications.
Our Take:
At price of Rs. 8,660 this is a good buy for youth as it is filled with many latest features and its plus point of touch and type. But those looking for good camera and fast processing speed might take a look at our other reviews.

Rating: 

Price: 
Rs. 8,660

Detailed Review

Design:
Samsung’s new launch “Galaxy Chat” is a touch and type Android smartphone. In this price range, it has plenty to offer more than its competitors. The design is unique and simple to operate. The dimensions of this device are 118.9mm, 59.3mm and 11.7 mm in height, width and depth. Its screen size measures 3 inches diagonally and is a multi touch display with TFT capacitive touchscreen display type. The phone is all in plastic body material, which feels good and is well textured too. It is handy and easy to carry.

              

The right side of the device holds a power/lock key but lacks with a dedicated camera key. The left side hold the dedicated volume control key whereas, the 3.5mm earjack is placed on its top. The bottom is left bare with just USB connector. Above the screen of Galaxy chat is an earpiece with proximity sensor and below the screen are Android touch keys for Home, Back and Menu. Below this is a full QWERTY keypad. On its back side is a 2 Megapixels camera lens and loudspeaker grill. The phone is light in weight of just 112 gm. The Samsung Galaxy chat is a strong build phone that fits best in your hand.
Interface/Operating System:
The good part of this phone is that it runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system and can be upgraded to latest Android 4.1 Jelly Beans through software upgrade. This operating system suits this phone the best and the spontaneous Touch Wiz interface works great and is easy to access. But, multitasking and swapping applications is not easy because of it slow processor.
Features:
Samsung Galaxy Chat in this price range offers multiple features and access to various applications. It comes prepared with Social Hub which is a one stop solution for communication needs. It comes in-built with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. and the famous ChatOn with a dedicated key on its QWERTY keypad. which gives you access to stay in touch with multiple features like multimedia content sharing, group chats and animated images. FM stereo with RDS also exist in Galaxy Chat that updates you with latest news and many FM stations. The Android 4.0 operating system suits this phone the best and the spontaneous Touch Wiz interface works great and is easy to access. But, multitasking and swapping applications is not easy because of it slower RAM. The screen resolution is low and it has no adobe flash support. The phone comes with NO secondary camera but, that cannot be complained in this price range. For connectivity it has a Bluetooth BT 3.0 HS, USB for mass storage and PC connection, Android Internet HTML Browser, Wi-Fi and aGPS support with GLONASS. It comes with many basic features like; calendar, organizer, calculator, etc. all are in-built. Overall, the phone is worth money but lacks with few advancements that could have made it the best in this price range.

                                    

Camera:
This is probably the weakest section of Galaxy Chat. It comes with a normal 2 megapixels camera lacking with auto focus and LED flash. It lacks with a dedicated camera key too. We were expecting a minimum of 3.2 megapixels camera for this device as many of the devices in this price range offers it. But, the image quality from its 2 megapixels camera is good but with proper lighting and good hand. You can share the images clicked to Social networking Sites straightaway and that is the good thing about this phone.

                                               

Battery:
For the long lasting and never ending experience, the Samsung Galaxy Chat comes with a 1200 mAh standard Li-Ion battery. When tested, the battery showed good results. The Talk Time it delivered was up to 13 hours on 2G and up to 5 hours on 3G. Web browsing, multitasking, swapping applications and downloading discharges the battery fast. The stand by time it delivers is up to 460 hours on 2G and up to 350 hours on 3G. Overall performance of the battery is good and it takes less time to get charge.
Memory:
Galaxy Chat is a treat for memory. It gives you 4 GB inbuilt memory space which can be expanded to 32 GB using a micro SD card. It has a powerful 850 MHz processor with 512 MB RAM. The micro SD card space is under the back cover of the phone.
Conclusion:
Samsung Galaxy Chat is a good mid range smartphone with touch and type facility and lot many exiting features. The famous ChatOn service comes with a dedicated key on the keypad. It lacks with camera’s dedicated key, poor 2 megapixels camera and slow processor. The design of this phone is good and is well constructed too. So we give this phone 3.5 star rating.
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Nokia Lumia 800 gets a price drop by over Rs 4K...!!!


Nokia Lumia 800 gets a price drop by 

over Rs 4K...!!!


Nokia Lumia 800 which was selling at close to Rs 23,000 till recently has seen a major price drop.


Nokia Lumia 800, which runs on Windows Phone 7.5 operating system, has got a major price drop with many online retailers like Saholic, Buytheprice, ebay and Themobilestore are offering the phone for close to Rs 18,500.
The phone was selling and is still selling by many stores for close to Rs 23,000. What's more, buyers will also get a free Nokia Purity Headset by Monster worth Rs 5,110 when they buy this phone.
Microsoft is going to unveil the next version of Windows Phone(WP) operating system - the WP8, but the current versions of Lumia smartphones like the Lumia 510, 610, 710, 800, and 900 will not get the new operating system. This has led to drop in sales of the existing phones. However, these phones will be upgraded to WP 7.8 which will bring many features of the WP8 to these phones.

Nokia Lumia 800

This is probably why Nokia and its retailers are trying to clear up the stocks of the existing Lumia phones by offering discounts and freebies.

Nokia Lumia 710 is also available at a discounted price of Rs 14,000. Recently launched Lumia 900, which is the current flagship product of Nokia, is available at Rs 30,500.
The Lumia 800 features a 3.7 inch Amoled display with WVGA 800 x 480 pixel resolution. It is powered with a single core 1.4 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM 8255 mobile chipset coupled with 512 MB RAM and 16 GB on-board memory.
It also features an 8 megapixel camera with LED flash and Carl Zeiss optics. This camera is capable of recording 720p HD video at 30 frames per second.
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Thursday 25 October 2012

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Microsoft courts mobile lifestyles with Windows 8

Microsoft courts mobile lifestyles with Windows 8

    SAN FRANCISCO: Microsoft on Friday will release a new version of its flagship Windows operating system tailored for a world shifting from personal computers to smartphones and tablets. The software giant gambled by changing long familiar user interface features to make Windows 8 compatible with trends toward keeping programs and data in the Internet "cloud" and relying on mobile gadgets at work and at home. "Microsoft has this vision where they want to go; and it is Windows in the cloud," said analyst Michael Cherry of Directions on Microsoft, an independent firm that tracks the Redmond, Washington-based company. "The chasm is very big and Windows 8 is a good first step," he continued. "But, all of these transitions come with a little pain." The arrival of Windows 8 will coincide with the availability of Microsoft Slate tablet computers to challenge Apple's market-ruling iPads and rivals built on Google's Android software. Slate tablets will be among Windows 8-powered devices sold in real-world Microsoft stores that will "pop up" on Friday in the United States and Canada. Microsoft promised that the temporary, holiday-season shops will feature a "curated collection of Microsoft's coolest products." Windows 8 and an accompanying version of Microsoft's free Internet Explorer web browsing program, were designed to optimize touch-screen capabilities. "This is an absolutely critical product," Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates said in a video interview posted on the company's website. "It takes Windows into the world of touch, low-powered devices, really giving people the best of what we think of as a tablet-type experience and the PC experience," he continued. "It is a big step." Windows 8 will support a wide range of devices, including touch- and stylus-based smartphones and tablet PCs as well as desktop and laptop machines. 


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    Skype – Skirting more than phone charges...

    Skype – Skirting more than phone charges...

     

    Skype is a tiny piece of internet telephony software (available for Mac, Linux and Windows) that lets you connect with friends and family across the globe through text chats or audio and video calls.

    Create an account on skype.com, then install the free Skype client and you are all set to make telephone calls to those millions of other Skype users for free. Skype has all the features offered by popular instant messengers like Yahoo, Windows Live or Google Talk and few things extra that make it an indispensable communication and collaboration tool for most users including businesses and students.

    One of the very popular features of Skype is SkypeOut — you can call any landline or mobile phone in the world through your computer. The calling rates are based on the destination country and start from 2 cents per minute. With SkypeOut, it is also possible to call the toll free numbers in some countries like US, UK, Canada or France for free.

    Skype can now be used as a virtual meeting tool and also packs in features for gurus who can offer advice on phone.

    Skype can also be used for receiving phone calls from traditional phones to your computer with SkypeIn, a regular phone number provided by Skype. There’s a big cost advantage here. Say your business is based in India but most of the clients are in London, just buy a London SkypeIn number and clients there can reach you without paying any international calling charges as they’ll be dialing a local number of London. (You can buy these Skype services in India either through Paypal or international credit cards.)

    Skype last month launched an interesting service called Skype Prime that makes life extremely simple for consultants and experts who offer advice over phone. You may be a tax guru or a Vaastu expert or a business consultant — if people are seeking advice over phone, you can route their calls via Skype Prime and this service will take care that client pay your consulting charges as defined by you (which could be minute based or per call). Skype can be used as a virtual meeting tool (poor man’s WebEx) using free add-ons like Pamela recorder, WhiteBoard meeting and Unyte Desktop sharing. You can collaborate on project documents, deliver presentations to remote teams and also record the audio conversations for sharing with other colleagues who could not be part of that online meeting. And the price for the entire setup is so much affordable — $0.

    Skype developers have written several useful extensions for IE, Firefox and Microsoft Office that makes it extremely easy for you who locate and connect with contacts via Skype.

    For instance, the browser extensions for Skype will automatically recognise phone numbers and Skype IDs in web pages and let you call them in a single click or transfer their contact details to your Skype Address book. The same functionality is extended to Word Documents and Outlook emails through the Microsoft Office toolbar of Skype.

    Another promising Skype feature is Skypecasts, which is like a live discussion forum for upto 100 people. As moderator, you have full control over the session and can easily eject or mute the troublemakers. Skypecasts can be used for online debates and discussions where anyone in the world with a Skype account can participate and speak his mind.

    And you do not always require a PC to make or receive calls via Skype. Several reputed vendors like Netgear and Polycom have released hardware devices (read Skype Phones) that connect you to other Skype users through Wi-Fi routers or broadband cables without a computer.

    These standalone Skype devices look much the same as traditional phone sets, therefore mom and dad would have no problems calling your younger bro who’s studying in UK.

     

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    Top 5 PORSCHE Cars..

    Two years ago in 2010, Porsche had her 60th birthday and the feeling for the producers was stronger than we can imagine. For years, this famous auto maker has been producing the best car models that ever hit the streets. In fact it is the most iconic ride that one could ever own. If there is a word that describes Porsche, it is classic. From the hundreds of models that they produced, these are the top five that stand out more than the rest.

     

    • 911S, 1966 – There are quite a number of 911s that were produced but 1966 was the year when they introduced something powerful. The engine is about 158 horsepower and they have bigger brakes. The suspension is also revised. The wheels are the reason why this model is on the list. It is very light in weigh because it is made from Fuchs alloy wheels.

    911S, 1966
    911S, 1966

     

     

    •Porsche 917 – This was made popular by Steve McQueen. This is the reason why the car should be part of the best Porsche car that was ever produced. The thing under its hood is something that can solidify the fact that is the greatest car out there. It is powered by a 620 horsepower engine. It can be said that this car is quite fast. The car was retired in 1971.

    Porsche 917
    Porsche 917

     

     

    • Porsche 959 – This model established the blue print for modern racing cars. This is something that had a lot of wonders in the racing industry. It was made in 1983 and it was a future forward car with a 450 hp engine and an all wheel drive system. The body was unique back in those years. It has flush head lamps and bumpers that are integrated.

     

     

    •550 Spyder – it was the last car that James Dean had ever ridden on. The machine is said to be alarming. The engineering of 550 was inspiring especially on the racing community. It is very light in weight but has a solid frame. The body is made from handmade aluminum. The power output is just about 70 hp. The overall package is proven to be successful.

    550 Spyder
    550 Spyder

     

     

    •718 RS 60 – The previous car models has been successful since the 50’s however they needed to create something new that would stay competitive compared to other racing car. This model is carrying more size and weight so they can be open to trunk and fender. Although today this car is considered to be under-powered but during the year it was produced, this model had won several awards.

    718 RS 60
    718 RS 60
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    Disadvantages of Windows 8 over Windows 7

    Disadvantages of Windows 8 Over Windows 7 

     

    Yesterday I posted about Advantages of Windows 8 over Windows 7. Here is another thread on Windows 8, this time to list down the disadvantages of Windows 8 over Windows 7. Not many at this point as I am yet to discover what all is happening behind the scenes. My concern has always been safety and privacy. So much so that I regularly run online scans to see if there are any keyloggers. I use the on-screen keyboard in Windows to use my bank account (unfortunately, my bank does not provide one). It might be an obsession but keeps my mind at peace.


    1. It was tough to decide whether to use the default antimalware in Windows 8 or to install 3rd party antivirus. I do trust the abilities of Windows Firewall from Vista itself so there is no problem there. But then, is the default antivirus good enough? I have not yet installed any anti-virus on Windows 8 as I am still looking for a detailed literature that explains how it works. If you know of any resource, please let me know.


    2. Media Player: What is this thing? What happened to the default codecs? Where are all the options present in the good old WMP? Are they hidden or completely done away with? No DVD support is understandable. I can use VLC player in case I need to play a DVD but then, what if I wish to rip a DVD into WMV format? One option is to install a video converter and convert from DVD. On Win7, I use AnyVideo Convertor. For some reason, it won't install on Windows 8. Did anyone else face similar problem?


    3. Privacy: If you were not alert during installing Windows 8, you end up granting location access to many of the Windows 8 apps. So even if IE is really not allowing websites to track you down, other apps are giving away your location information freely. It took a good deal of exercise to figure out how to turn off location access to Windows 8 apps. Go to Change PC Settings and from there, move the slider to turn off location access completely.


    There is a lot more coming up. Will keep you posted about the good in Advantages thread and the bad in the disadvantages thread.

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    Monday 22 October 2012

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    10 Email Addresses That Will Be Useful When You No Internet Access

    Access Internet Through Email, Get Webpages on Demand in your Email Inbox – find stock quotes, weather forecast, currency exchange rates, upload documents, convert PDF documents, share photos and read websites without internet. Perfect if you having a mobile phone.
    Have you ever come across a situation where you don’t have access to the Internet but can send or receive email messages? With email and no Internet, how do you read websites and blogs or check the current stock prices, or find what’s the top story on CNN homepage.
    Well, you can do a lot of interesting things over email without a web connection – you can read any webpages over email, maintain your task list, convert documents, upload photo and videos, get dictionary meanings of words and more.
    Just make sure that you have added the following address to your email address book:
    10. pdf@koolwire.com – You have an Office document or a picture on your computer or mobile phone that you wish to convert into a PDF file. Just email that file an email attachment to the above address and it will soon return to your Inbox as a PDF file. [koolwire review]
    9. ..@photos.flickr.com – Flickr provides a unique email upload address here – you can send your photographs to this email address as attachments and they’ll show up in Flick Photo gallery almost instantly. The subject line of email becomes the photo’s title while the body of the email becomes the photo’s description.
    8. e@xpenser.com – This is like filling data in a travel spreadsheet through email. You can use this address to gather and record your travel expenses while on the road. [xpenser review]
    7. go@blogger.com – You can use this address to post pictures on any Blogger hosted blog. Any picture that you send to this email address will appear as a new blog post in your mobile blog. You can also use this service to post regular text entries to your Blogspot blog. In that case, the “Send to Blogger” email address is available under Blogger Dashboard.
    6. upload@upload.slideshare.net – If you have (one or more) PowerPoint Presentations and PDF documents that you quickly want to share with friends, just email the files to Slideshare and they’ll instantly turn them into a web slideshow.  [Slideshare upload options]
    5. …@mms.youtube.com – YouTube member can create an MMS profile here – if you have a video clip on your mobile phone or comptuer but no access to YouTube website, you can easily upload that video file to YouTube through that email address. [Details on Youtube Email upload]
    4. pdf2txt@adobe.com – Send a PDF document to this email address as an attachment and it will come back as a plain text file. Handy when your don’t have a PDF viewer to open the PDF document. Alternatively, you can send the PDF file to pdf2html@adobe.com for conversion to HTML format. [Extract Text from PDF]
    3. ..@prod.writely.com – Google Docs provides a unique email address here – you can upload your documents, spreadsheets and presentations to Google Docs through this address and read them on your mobile phone using the just launched Google Docs mobile at docs.google.com/m. [Google Docs Upload]
    2. …@rmilk.com – When you signup for Remember The Milk, you are assigned a unique email address. Emails sent to this special address are automatically converted into tasks and appear in your Inbox. Click on Settings -> Info -> Inbox Email Address. Very handy for keeping a track of your unfinished tasks and getting things done while on the move.
    1. wsmith@wordsmith.org – Get the dictionary definition and synonyms of any word by sending a blank email to this email address. Make the subject line as: define myword
    And now the most useful email address that will help you read webpages through email without requiring a web connection:
    0. www@web2mail.com – Send an email with the URL of the web page in the Subject field (e.g. www.cnn.com) and you’ll soon find a copy of that web page in your Inbox. A perfect option when there’s no Internet access in the area or access is restricted (for instance, you want to read the BBC homepage in China).
    Another similar service is www4mail@wm.ictp.trieste.it – it will also fetch websites for you through email though in this case, the site address should go in the body of the email message.
    These web-to-email services will come extremely handy for receiving on-demand Stock quotes (for the current Google stock price, type finance.yahoo.com/q?s=GOOG), weather updates, currency exchange rates (for USD to INR, type finance.yahoo.com/q?s=USDINR=X) and more.

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    creating Fake Calls.

    How to Create fake call without software



    This trick are work only some multimedia set's is Nokia, Samsung etc. This trick for making(Fake call) by  own number on your phone. This trick is very use full for just kidding with friends.This trick can be use as you are talk to other person and reduce balance from another mobile. So Let's following..........

    Denote:-


    Mobile1= 1st person denote by: 1st
    Mobile2= 2nd person denote by: 2nd
    Mobile3= 3rd person denote by: 3rd


    1:-Firstly call the customer care number to your service provider 
         by (1st) mobile.

    2:-When during call time Create a new call to any your friends(2nd).

    3:-Two call are available now on your phone(1st) after then 
         during both call, Click “options” button and choose “transfer” 
         option. after complete this the first call(customer care) to 
         transfer to your friends and then free to use your mobile(1st).

    4:-And after, This trick can work When Your friend not receive Or 
        disconnect by your friend and after then result call on your mobile 
        by your number.



    :In case not transfer your call and change the customer care number 
                  then revised steps(2) to (4)  



    Trick for 3rd mobile:-Dial your friend mobile number(2nd) if you are
                                       Replacing customer care number.


    This trick work some network services, I have also check this trick personally.
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    Why Use Windows 8..!!!

    10 Key Features in Windows 8: Tablets, Touch and More

    Released just last week in Developers Preview mode, Windows 8 already contains more than 300 new features. At its Build developers conference, Microsoft pointed to plans to keep adding more new capabilities until Windows 8 evolves into a shipping product. Which of the existing features are most important to get to know about right now?
    While no list like this can even approach 'all inclusiveness', our list of ten key features in Windows 8 ranges across new jargon such as "charms" and "snap muti-tasking," to first-time operatibility on ARM-based tablets, to major improvements around support for USB 3.0, touch keyboards, file copying, and more. Here, in no particular order of importance, is the list of ten:
    1. Support for both x86 PCs and ARM tablets
    Windows 8 is the first edition of Windows to operate on both ARM-based tablets and traditional x86 PCs based on ARM processors from Intel and AMD.
    “Support for ARM-based chipsets, touch, and sensors makes Windows 8 work beautifully on your choice of a full spectrum of devices, such as 10-inch slates with all-day battery life, ultra-lightweight laptops, and powerful all-in-ones with 27-inch high-definition screens,” Microsoft contends, in a Windows 8 Guide distributed with Windows Developer Preview
    In addition, the ARM edition of Windows 8 includes a new mode dubbed “always on, always connected,” designed to let tablets act like smartphones. Tablets can remain in standby mode without disconnecting from the Internet, and then wake up instantly.
    Windows 8 is designed to work seamlessly across both PCs and ARM tablets. Yet until developers get a real start on apps for Microsoft’s still empty Windows Store, it’s tough to tell whether that will be universally true.
    2. Touch-centric, Tiles-based User Interface (UI)
    Although Windows 8 might look and feel like an entirely new “user experiemce,”, Microsoft is actually layering a new animation-enabled user interface (UI) on top of an only somewhat upgraded Windows 7.
    The Windows 8 Start Menu is customizable through a mosaic of tiles, which differ from traditional desktop icons by letting you view live information from Windows 8 Metro style apps without actually accessing the apps.
    In demoing the tile-based UI at last week’s Build conference , Microsoft showed how the tile for a Windows 8 weather app is able to display the current temperature in a city – along with projected temperatures for the next two days – without requiring you to open up the app. A tile for Windows Live Mail will show you your latest message, while a tile for a social networking app will show you notifications.
     “The [Metro] apps are full-screen. They’re beautiful.They’re designed for touch, but of course, they work great with a mouse and keyboard as well if that’s what you have. We wanted to make it really fast and fluid for you to switch between them,” according to Jensen Harris, lead program manager on the Microsoft Office User Experience..
    Windows 8 users are also able to access Windows 7 apps. “Everything that runs on Windows 7 will run on Windows 8,” maintained Steven Sinofsky, president of Microsoft’s Windows and indows Live division, during a keynote at the Build conference. However, in order to access Windows 7 apps, you need to switch to a different built-in UI.
    3. Charms
    In large part, ‘charms’ is a new implementation of the traditional Windows start bar. Charms can also be used to quickly configure settings for individual apps. On an ordinary non-touch PC, charms are accessed by dragging the mouse to the bottom-left corner of the screen, to the same spot as the old Windows start button. On a tablet, you swipe from the right side of the screen to bring up charms.
    Microsoft recently applied for a trademark on charms. The charms sidebar offers five sets of options, supporting both app-specific settings and system settings such as volume and brightness. The options include Start, Search, Share, Devices, and Settings. The Start option returns the user to the home screen. The Devices option presents a list of connected devices. Under the Share option, users can see social network sharing apps.
    4. Snap Multi-tasking
    ‘Snap multitasking” is designed to make it easy to run two apps in Windows 8 side-by-side, to resize them, and to switch between them. On the right-hand side of the screen, you can snap an app into place.
    You can make an app smaller or larger by dragging the bar for the app. To switch between apps in Windows 8, you swipe from the left-hand part of the screen.
    However, Windows 8 does not allow you to view all of your running apps on a single screen.
    5. Windows 8 Control Panel
    Beyond revamping the Windows task manager, Microsoft has also redesigned the control panel for Windows 8.  New options include Personalize, Users, Wireless, Notifications, General, Privacy, Search, and Share.
    As Metro style apps become available, you'll be able to use the Personalize menu to customize the Start menu with tiles for calendar, music, e-mail, Netflix, and much more.
    In a demo at Build, Julie Larson-Green, Microsoft's corporate VP of program management for Windows, showed how you’ll be able to position these Metro apps on the screen, and also to combine them into groups such as friends and games.
    6. Web Navigation by Touch
    The Internet Explorer (IE) 10 browser built into Windows 8 is designed to offer faster browsing through greater hardware acceleration, along with rapid gesture-based zoom, pan, and Web site navigation.
    As in other areas of Windows 8, you can quickly access Windows 8 charms, as well as the two keyboards described below.
    7. Two Touch Keyboards
    Windows 8 also contains two soft keyboards: an “enhanced” traditional keyboard, plus a new thumbs keyboard for non-touch typists.
    In efforts by Microsoft to make typing on a virtual keyboard faster and more accurate, the revised edition of the conventional keyboard suggests words on the screen as you type. You can then tap to selected a suggested word.  Microsoft also provides a spellcheck-like feature designed to automatically correct mistyped words – although like any other spellchecker, this feature carries the potential to cause its own errors.
    The keyboards are also aimed at automatically adjusting to whaever human language you choose for Windows. These language settings will automatically apply to the entire computer, instead of only to specific apps
    8. ‘Enhanced Copy Experience’
    Windows 8 also introduces the ability to perform all current copy operations into a single dialog box, instead of requiring you to perform file copying in separate dialog boxes for each app.
    The new dialog box for file copying lets you pause, resume, and stop each sopy operation currently under way. It will also warn you if you’re beginning to copy one version of a file on top of another.
    Microsoft has also added a realtime throughput graph. “Now each copy job shows the speed of data transfer, the transfer rate trend, and how much data is left to transfer. While this is not designed for benchmarking, in many cases it can provide a quick and easy way to assess what is going on for a particular [copy] job,” noted Alex Simons, director of program management with the Windows 8 management team.
    9. Native USB 3.0 Support
    New USB 3.0 ports operate at speeds up to ten times faster than )SB 2.0. To better support these speeds, Microsoft is outfitting Windows 8 with native USB 3.0 drivers.
    Meanwhile, though, USB 3.0 will purportedly continue to work under Windows 7, through the use of third-party drivers.
    “By 2015, all new PCs are expected to offer USB 3.0 ports, and over 2 billion new ‘SuperSpeed’ USB devices will be sold in that year alone,” said Dennis Flanagan, director of program management for the Windows 8 Devices and Networking Group, in a blog post. “There are also billions of older USB devices that Windows must remain compatible with.”
    10. Better Support for Multiple Monitors
    Windows 8 also brings increased support for multiple monitors, The Developers Preview of the new OS includes first-time capabilities for extending the taskbar across two PCs, without any need for third-party apps. You can also stretch wallpaper across two monitors, or display the Start screen on one PC and the desktop on the other, for instance.
    It's also easy to switch between multiple monitors. The primary monitor has a start button, and the secondary monitor has a switcher button. Clicking or tapping on the switcher button will swap it out for the start button, allowing you to turn the secondary monitor into the primary one.


     

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    WiFi cam...


     GoPro's new Hero3 is lighter, faster, higher res and has WiFi, comes in three flavors starting at $199

     

    At a San Francisco launch event GoPro has just revealed the next addition to its line of action cameras, the Hero3. The Hero3 claims specs that are 30 percent smaller and 25 percent lighter than its predecessor, with a resolution that's up to 4x higher and it has WiFi included. The top of the line Black Edition (pictured above) is capable of capturing video at up to 4K res -- if you're willing to drop the framerate down to 15fps -- however thanks to a processor it says is 2x faster, it has also doubled frame rates at lower resolutions. That means 1080p60, 1440p48 and 720p120 modes are supported for your super slow and still-HD capture needs. The Silver Edition maxes out at 11MP stills and 1080p30 video, while the White Edition drops down to 5MP stills. All three versions include WiFi (no BacPac necessary for remote control via the just-released-on-iOS app) however the Black edition includes a remote that can control up to 50 cameras at once with a 600ft range and is waterproof to 10 feet deep. It will also be available as a $79 accessory for the lesser versions.
    As far as pricing, the Black Edition is $399, the Silver is $299 and the White $199. Pre-orders are scheduled to start at 12:01AM PT (3:01AM ET), and there's a handy counter on the GoPro site if you otherwise might forget. The variety of models and ubiquitous WiFi may help fight off competition at the pricing low end like the new ContourROAM2, among others. Naturally we were in the house and will have hands-on pics and impressions soon, check the gallery for pics of the box and detailed specs.

     

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