breaking – Tech Raman

Nexus 7 hits the stores tomorrow in India, 16 GB Priced at Rs.19,900

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 12:39:13 +0000

Apple unveils iPad Mini; Price starts at $329

Lakshmi Rajan — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 19:17:54 +0000

isn’t just a shrunken-down iPad, it’s an entirely new design.” So what is so new about the iPad Mini? iPad mini sizez upto 7.9″ and has a 1024 x 768 resolution like in iPad 2. An all-new 7.2mm-thick aluminum shell ensures the mini is 53 percent lighter and 23 percent thinner than the newly announced 4th gen iPad. Finding the way inside is a dual-core Apple A5 processor, optional LTE, a 5-megapixel iSight camera, 802.11n Wi-Fi, the new Lightning connector, and also promises a 10-hour battery life. Ah, I can hear you but what would be the price of iPad Mini? The base model of iPad mini that would be a 16 GB, Wi-Fi only model is priced at $329. And for every $100 increment you would get the 32GB ($429) and 64GB ($529) variants. LTE models begins at $459 and again a $100 increment as you raise the storage space. Apple expects to deliver a lethal blow to Amazon Kindle and Google Nexus 7 tablets with their new offering and primarily targets the device for those who basically love to indulge on web browsing and reading on their device. Available in 2 colors – Black and White, iPad mini is available for pre-order from this Friday, October 26th, and Apple will ship it out on November 2nd.]]>

Samsung Galaxy Note II Launched in India, Priced at Rs. 39,900

Lakshmi Rajan — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 14:39:55 +0000

Speaking at the launch BD Park, President & CEO, South West Asia, Samsung Electronics stated

‘By delivering a complete mobile experience for creating content and by introducing new products and continous enhancements to the Note category of devices, Samsung provides a unique user experience that goes beyond passive content consumption to a new world of productivity, active creation and personalized communications‘

Along with BD Park, Azim Warzi, VP Samsing India and the celebrity guest of the event Imitiaz Ali, acclaimed Bollywood director officially launched the Galaxy Note II in India. Azim Warsi explained the key features of the Samsung Galaxy Note II, which we will cover in detail very soon for our readers.

Key features of Samsung Galaxy Note II

Upgraded S-Pen – there is a notable enhancement to S-Pen, which does more stuffs now. It also sports an S-button for better functionality.
AirView – This is one remarkable upgrade in Galaxy Note II, which remains of our top pick of the new add-on enhancements to the new device. AirView enables users to hover the S-Pen over image gallery, video gallery, emails, S-Planner without even touching the screen and preview the contents. It saves time, gives quick access to search and view informations without having to get into multiple tabs or screens.
Easy Clip – Just press the new S-button in the S-Pen and the S-Pen understands that you want to clip or edit the selected content on the screen. The Easy Clip feature allows you to instantly outline and crop any content on the screen in any shape to save, share or paste, even from a browser. The cropped image can be edited through coloring, sharing, or add handwritten annotations and not just that it is mighty easy to share the clip with your friends.
Popup Note – Galaxy S3 flaunted Popup Play video and now Note 2, shows off its Popup Note capabilities along with the Popup video play. Similarly, here the S-Note can be popped up anywhere in the screen and pinch zoomed to any size alongside watching video or smsing or any other activity you do on screen.
Quick command – This is one interesting feature. It lets users quickly activate frequently used apps with S-Pen. The command pad appears when a user just swipes upward on the screen with the S-Pen button pressed. Here you can pre-define set of commands or customize the commands for quick and easy access. Say you can draw a simple ‘O’ to open camera and more..
Best Face feature – Another cool enhancemnt this time to camera. When you click pics with best face feature mode on and when you preview the image, it offers you 4-5 alternate facial expressions it had captured while shooting and you can simply ‘swap’ the expression to the face. So in a group shot, if one person had blinked his eyes, it offers few other facial expression of his and you just click the one you liked and it gets swaped on the image. How cool isn’t it?

Well, we spend quiet a good time with the Galaxy Note II during the event and there are lot more cool and interesting features. Ofcourse we will detail all of them in our coming posts very soon. Keep glued to us. Samsung India also announced an exciting news while winding up the event. Samsung Galaxy Camera which blends the smartness of the smartphone and camera is getting launched next month for the Diwali festive season. Quiet a dhamaka isn’t it? Galaxy Camera has the smartness of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS within it and also has a 3G, bluetooth,WiFi options. You just can’t make a call through it but rest of all the Android smartphone features you can enable as well as quick share the photo images from the device.]]>

Samsung Galaxy Note II Pre-booking Opens in India

Lakshmi Rajan — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 05:15:05 +0000

Key Features of Samsung Galaxy Note II includes:

Enhanced Handwriting & Photo Note
Enhanced S Pen / S Note
Powerful performance at its best
AllShare Play & AllShare Cast
Samsung TouchWiz, Samsung Kies Air
Smart Stay, Direct Call, Screen Recorder

Samsung Galaxy Note II is positioned as an ‘incredibly creative’ device that lets you capture inspirations around you and be creative! Pre-booking of Galaxy Note 2 is now open at Samsung India’s e-store. You can pre-book it by paying an advance of Rs. 5,000. As an exclusive pre-booking offer, you also get a free desktop dock worth Rs.2,399 with every booking. For pre-booking visit – Samsung India E-store

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Apple announces iPhone 5 – Find out what is new

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 21:09:24 +0000

iPhone 5 got bigger in size

Since the first iPhone release in 2007 and 4 models subsequently the size has remained a constant at 3.5 inches. Steve Jobs was famously against bigger size screens but with Android smartphones taking the screen sizer to almost a mini tablet size, what with 5.5″ screen in Samsung Galaxy Note and almost all high end Android smartphones not less than 4.3″, users have discovered that size does matter and there is a joy in the bigger screen thanks to the awesome apps being added every day. So finally Apple has to follow suit. So iPhone 5 got tad bigger and taller. The new iPhone 5 stands tall at 4″. The folks at Apple has retained the same width. So you get a taller iPhone with the same width what it means is, you get the same familiar grip while holding the phone. Good design move? Well, it’s upto the individual preference. Personally, I am not for tall-boy design. Ah boy! How I used to hate that LG choclate bar! So the new iPhone 5 dimensions:

Height: 4.87 inches (123.8 mm) Width: 2.31 inches (58.6 mm) Depth: 0.30 inch (7.6 mm) Weight: 3.95 ounces (112 grams)

Not just taller but thinner too…

The new iPhone is 18 percent thinner than the iPhone 4S. Now it measures 7.6 mm thin. Though Phil Schiller, Senior V-P at Apple who demonstrated the iPhone 5 says ‘It’s the world’s thinnest smartphone’. I am surprised they have not heard of oppo finder, which currently is the world’s thinnest smartphone at 6.65 mm. And also there is Huawei Ascend P1 at 7.6 mm and even 7.1 mm thick Motorola Droid Razr. I assume, what Phil really meant was world’s thinnest Apple phone. meh! So all this bigger dimension for Apple user is they can have an extra row of icons on their homescreen. The third part apps which were developed with older phones in mind will continue to be displayed properly albeit a black borders on top and bottom, since they will be centred to avoid scaling and stretch.

LTE connectivity

iPhone 5 will now support 4G LTE networks. For beginers, 4G enables a super-fast communication of high-speed data faster than even the existing wi-fi. That’s in addition to the current support for GPRS, EDGE, EV-DO, and HSPA data networks. LTE has a single chip for voice and data, a single radio chip, and what Apple calls a “dynamic antenna” that will switch connections between different networks automatically. Apple has to follow suit with LTE as its main rivals are already on-board that and with HTC and Samsung holding many LTE patents are even baying for Apple’s blood in court when it announces the iPhone 5 with LTE. So look forward to more legal mess.

A faster A6 chip

The older A5 chip is replaced with A6 chip. Apple claims it to deliver 2 x faster performance. Graphic rendering will be faster and according to Apple’s specs, users will see Web pages load 2.1 times faster and the Music app with songs will load 1.9 times faster. The chip also is 22 percent smaller than A5.

A better battery

LTE is one power hungry addition, plus you have a slightly bigger screen. So it is obvious the new iPhone 5 would require a better battery else it would be a disaster. Here is what Apple promises the new battery would deliver 8 hours of 3G talk time, 8 hours of 3G browsing, 8 hours of LTE browsing, 10 hours of Wi-Fi browsing, 10 hours of video playback, 40 hours of music, playback, and 225 hours of standby time.

Better Camera …. hmmm..

There was no doubt Apple sports a great phone camera but other manufacturers have got wiser too. Ofcourse not even Apple now can match Nokia’s awesome and amazing 41 MP pureview technology but it has to fine tune its camera front to raise the bar with HTC’s One X and Galaxy S3 camera features. It has taken ‘inspiration’ from them (Apple does not ‘copy’ you see, blashpemy!) iSight retains the same 8 Mega pixels but has decorated it with features like backside illumination, a hybrid IR filter, a five-element lens, a f2.4 aperture. The better camera, Apple promises faster launch of camera app, an image signal processor that will improve noise reduction, a “smart filter” that produces better low-light performance, and then a built-in panorama mode that stitches shots together for one large 28-megapixel photo. And ya, you can click photos while shooting videos too. I know those who used some of the Android premium phones will yawn listening to all this. The secondary camera can now shoot 720p HD video.

And the Audio…

Now your iPhone 5 will sport 3 holes. I am not talking dirty but talking about microphone holes with an addition of the third one. so you get one on the bottom, on on the handset’s front face, and one on its rear side. The usual promises of better reception and noise cancellation stays. And then there is a new wideband audio feature that promises more natural-sounding voices.

Lightening, the new small dock connector

A all-digital, 8-signal design, smaller in size replaces the old 30 pin connector. So if you have gathered too many old docks and accessories to connect don’t fret there is an old-to-new converter but then it costs 29$. One good thing about the new connector it is reversible, so you don’t have to get confused which end to plugin where!

Nano SIM

If you are planning to upgrade to iPhone 5, its time to upgrade your SIM too. Since the new iPhone uses a nano SIM that is much smaller than your micr0 SIM.

And finally what is not new and disappointing?

No NFC
Bluetooth is still limited like how it was before.
No micro USB adoption

iPhone 5 Pricing and availability

Luckily iPhone pricing would be same as 4S that means 4S will get cheaper and iPhone 3G is phased out. Pre-orders start on Friday the 14th. Shipping on September 21st in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. 20 more countries to follow the next month. So are you excited about iPhone 5 or is it disapointing upgrade?]]>

Nokia unveils Lumia 920, its first Windows 8 SmartPhone

Lakshmi Rajan — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 05:15:58 +0000

Yes, you heard it right – PureView camera but then don’t get too excited, its not similar to the awesome PureView camera that you have seen in Nokia Pureview 808 Symbian phone that packed in an unbelievable 41.0 megapixels. But Nokia says it has upped the ante with few other optical wizardry. Digging deep into its acclaimed Pureview technology and optics, Nokia says its not just about over-sampling size with monster megapixels. Call it a marketing ploy to hype the higher end camera. Lumia sports a 8.7 MP camera, similar to most of its competitors in the high-end smartphones but it claims to use other optical and pixel magic to boost its camera prowess. Lumia employs what it calls ‘Floating Lens’ technology, to begin with. For beginers it translates to hardware image stabilization and also provides for impressive low-light capabilities. The screen boasts of ‘Super Sensitive Touch’ courtesy Synaptics ClearPad Series 3 technology that assures you to the phone’s touch screen functionality effortlessly even when wearing gloves or using with long fingernails. The screen also packs a brighter 1,280 x 768 WXGA resolution. The body is polycorbonate uni-body like its predecessors but Nokia has chosen to dress up with glossy finish instead of the matte finish that was in Lumia 800 and 900. The highlights? Wireless charging, NFC. Windows 8 also address the lack of memory with its micro-SIM card option expandable up to 32 GB finally kicking into the Lumia devices. Lumia 920 is available in 5 colors – Black, White, Grey, Red and Yellow.]]>

India is the Fastest Growing Smartphone Market states IDC reports

Lakshmi Rajan — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 17:09:55 +0000

IDC states that India having the lowest smartphone penetration in in Asia/Pacific countries is also the fastest growing smartphone market in the world. Though it only accounts for 2.5% share of the total smartphones shipped globally this year, being the world’s second most populated nation with a billion plus market and a zooming economy, India is poised to grow at 57.5% for the next couple of years making it the fastest growing smartphone market in the world. But even at this phenomenal growth, it would only be garnering 8.5% of the market share in 2016. With the markets flooded with low-cost smartphones and dropping data tariffs India has a huge untapped growth potential and a lucrative market for the mobile makers of all pedigrees. Faced with intense competition, the data tariffs are poised to nosedive further and though 3G charges are still expensive, it might get cheaper in coming years and also the advent of 4G would drive the market further. Localized apps also plays a key role in fueling the growth. While India is poised be the fastest growing smartphone market, it’s giant neighbour China is expected to overtake the US as the world’s biggest smartphone market. Commanding a 25.5% share it is comfortably ahead of U.S.’s 17.8%. Top Five Smartphone Markets and Market Share for 2011, 2012, and 2016 (based on shipments)

Country	2011 Market Share	2012 Market Share	2016 Market Share	2011 – 2016 CAGR
PRC	18.3%	26.5%	23.0%	26.2%
USA	21.3%	17.8%	14.5%	11.6%
India	2.2%	2.5%	8.5%	57.5%
Brazil	1.8%	2.3%	4.4%	44.0%
United Kingdom	5.3%	4.5%	3.6%	11.5%
Rest of World	51.1%	46.4%	46.0%	18.1%
Total	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	20.5%

Source: IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, 2012 Q2 Forecast Release, August 30 2012 Note: Countries listed in terms of ranking in 2016.]]>

Samsung Galaxy Beam Projector Smartphone launched in India, priced at Rs. 29,900

Lakshmi Rajan — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 16:13:39 +0000

pièce de résistance, a built-in projector. This projector smartphone is powered by 1.0GHz dual-core processor. It packs in a 8 GB internal memory and an expandable memory slot of up to 32 GB. Galaxy Beam boasts of a front and rear camera with a decent 5 MP camera with auto focus and flash LED in the rear and a modest 1.3 MP camera in the front. As far as the video goes, you can shoot a 720p video recording. It also packs in a 2,000 mAh battery. The device connectivity includes Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz, microUSB, USB 2.0 and GPS. The in-built projector uses a 15 lumens lamp that is capable of projecting a 50-inch wide high-definition image at a distance of 2 meters. So you can share images, video and digital content with others on a larger screen, which can be put in use both for fun as well as work productivity. To enhance its utility value, Samsung Galaxy Beam also bundles in some specialized apps like the Ambience feature for various mood experiences and a drawing tool for presentations. Samsung Galaxy Beam is available at Samsung India e-store for Rs. 29,900. You also get one free additional battery pack.]]>

Jelly Bean: 6 interesting upgrades that comes in Android 4.1

Lakshmi Rajan — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 19:08:28 +0000

6 main features of Jelly Bean Android 4.1

Google Now

To quote Google ‘Google Now gets you just the right information at just the right time‘. With Google Now, Google brings its power of Google Search to Android in a more enhanced and personalized way. Also, it takes on Apple’s Siri with a voice search feature. It also outwits Siri by not just passively replying your queries but also proactively ever ready to alert you at many events and needs. Its smartness relies in its ability to track flights, keep an eye on traffic and your calendar, check sports scores and keep tab on weather, look out for suggested places nearby etc and also alert you based on your location, time, likes and needs. Sounds a bit of some AI isn’t it? And you are alerted/suggested through google now ‘cards’ and you have many types of cards that would pop on your screen based on your preference. In short, Google is trying to get greedy here and trying to reduce your individual attention/need on apps like Yelp, FourSquare etc by giving one-stop solution. To know more about Google Now. Click HERE

Offline voice typing feature

This should easily be my favourite flavour of the Jelly Bean. Those with slow connections know how painful or irritating it would be while waiting for the server connection to enable the voice typing and you curse when it says ‘server error’ duh! The good news with Jelly Bean: Google’s voice-recognition service for text input has been enabled for offline use. Yay! So now you can dictate your heart out without having to get connected. One delicious feature isn’t it?!

Notifications center gets a face-lift

Android notifications has always impressed. Jelly Bean upgrade makes it more powerful and user-friendly. So now you can return a missed call or send a message directly from the notification pane, see emails, control certain apps and do more actions right from the notification pane making it easier as well as reducing the gestures required to perform an action.

Improvement in internal dictionary

Jelly Bean is supposed to have enhanced the internal dictionary options that aids you in predictive typing. So expect more word-completion options as well as when you tap on one of those suggested word, it will additionaly pop even more options for that particular word. Hmmmm… call me old fashioned but I don’t use predictive texting much.

Improvement to media gallery

To put it naively, it makes deleteing easier. Go to media gallery, pinch a photo and you can make it smaller. Once you do it, you will see all the images in film-strip mode and you can navigate through pictures by swiping left or right. Once here, if you have to get rid of unwanted pic, you just swipe it to the top of the screen.

Automatic widget-resizing

Too many cooks widgets spoils the page? Now the widget will automatically resize when you drop it into a crowded page. You can also make its size and shape by controlling the ‘nodes’. Apart from these 6 enhancements / improvements / features , Jelly Bean also provides some performance improvements to experience a smoother and quicker usability. So now lets hope the taste of Jelly Bean arrives at your compatible devices faster and earliest too but judging by the past experience errm … well taste a jelly bean candy till then instead of keeping the fingers crossed!]]>

Google spills its Tablet bean: Nexus 7 Tablet with Android 4.1

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 19:36:43 +0000

U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia and will ship in mid-July. For the rest of us, a small wait but am sure it won’t be for long. Coming to the Nexus 7, its a 7″ slate and looks neat and compact and built by Asus as per Google’s hardware and software specifications. It would be available both in 8 GB and 16 GB capacities with the later priced at $249. Additionally, you also get as a bonus $25 credit for the Google Play store, a copy of the movie “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” the eBook “Bourne Dominion,” and subscriptions to various magazines, including Popular Science. Hmmm… Google is aggressive isn’t it?

Nexus 7 Specifications and other details

The 7-inch screen throws up a 1280 x 800 resolution and comes garnished with a scratch-resistance glass from Corning. Weighing 340 grams (12 ounces) and measuring 198.5 x 120 x 10.45 millimeters (7.8″ x 4.7″ x 0.41′”) it is in similar league with its competing 7″ slates. Powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 3 quad-core processor and 1 GB of memory Nexus 7 and running on the very latest Jelly Bean Android 4.1 that was introduced today, the tablet also supports NFC, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth and a GPS . It sports a 1.2 MB front camera but no rear camera. Not surprisingly, Google stresses and feels the front camera is more indispensable at the time when it also introduced an impressive tablet version of Google plus and so the camera might come in handy for its hangout feature. Nexus 7 is packed with a 4325 mAh battery and if Google has to be believed it should last for should last for around 9 hours of HD video and a standby of 300 hours. Nexus 7 will also be the first Android Tablet device to come with Google Chrome as its default Internet browser. Claiming the tablets aren’t just for casual gamers, the demonstrators showcased “Horn” to demonstrate the Nexus 7’s capabilities as a “serious gaming device.” The Google maps services gets an update too. The Nexus 7 will be able to access Google Maps offline and you can download the city maps and use it without worry of network and will also run a feature called “Compass Mode,” allowing you to see inside places and look around and it was looking impressive with accelerometers making it lively. ]]>