Samsung Next Generation Galaxy S

Samsung has updated its promotional website, www.samsungunpacked.com to announce the arrival of it's new Samsung Galaxy S2 or as we call it the next generation Galaxy S.

They have now released a new teaser video of Galaxy S2. It's worth watching.



This much awaited smartphone is going to be announced on Feb 13th at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Nothing much has been known about this phone yet. But we expect it to have all the uber cool features of the smartphones of this generation. Atleast that's for sure.

Expect the 4.3 inch super AMOLED screen with Gorilla Glass Technology, most probably 1280x720 pixels resolutions(Thats 720P). An 8MP camera with 1080p video recording.

It will surely be running on the Android 2.3 Gingerbread and also it will sport T-mobiles 4G network. It is rumoured to have a RAM of 1GB. The memory must surely be microSD expandable upto 32GB.

It's also tipped to have a 2GHz processor which might be samsung's own hummingbird chip. Connectivity includes WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0. No pricing info has been available.

Looking at all this we can say one thing for sure. This successor of Galaxy S is gonna rock.

LG Optimus 3D

Reports have been leaked about an upcoming 3D phone from LG, which might be called the LG Optimus 3D. The leaked picture from Phandroid definitely shows that the device will sport a glasses free 3D screen like the one demonstrated at CES. LG was already planning to enter the 3D market. And this seems to be their flagship product.

It features a 4.3 inch display and will most probably contain a dual core processor and multichannel RAM powering up the 3D WVGA display. This product from LG will be announced at the Mobile World Congress and we will have to wait till then to get to know it further.

Motorola's new Xoom Ad

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc

Introduced at CES 2011 this one from sony ericsson is a beauty in itself. 4.2" Sony's own super LCD screen with 480x854 pixels of resolution and LED back-lighting. And one more thing is that this beauty is slim. Just 0.34" (8.7mm) thin in the middle, which gradually becomes 0.39" (10mm) at both ends. And this arch makes it super stylish and comfortable to hold.

Also the Xperia Arc comes preloaded with the Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Well that's something to look out for. The thing is the 480x854 pixels of resolution. That's become old stuff with the Retina display of iPhone and now the qHD displays of some Motorola phones. What Sony has to stand in this area is the Reality Display. Backed up with its award winning Bravia Engine. It revs up the contrast or sharpness when it displays the photos or playing the videos.

This phone comes with a 512 MB ram and the 1 GHz scorpion processor from Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset. It has an internal memory of 8GB expandable upto 32 GB. It sports an 8MP camera with LED flash.

And trust me this phone is worth your interest. The thing that really sets this phone apart from its competitors is its arching design. Look out for it as it's so ubercool.

Now O2 UK has confirmed the availability of the Arc on April. They have not revealed any pricing info but the SIM free version will be available on about 459£. And also the phone is likely to be officially announced at the Mobile World Congress on February.

World's slimmest Pico projector.

Franhofer Research institute has developed a new prototype of a pico projector which is only 6mm thick. This is now the world's slimmest ever. The projected image is said to be 10 times brighter than a pico projector of size would have previously been(if existed). The new prototype is made of 45 red, green or blue microlenses, each with a 200 x 200 pixel LCD, inspired by a microlens array called a fly's eye condenser. The resulting resolution is WVGA with 11 lumen's of brightness. The prototype will finally be out at nano-tech 2011 at Tokyo.

And this thin lens can surely be integrated into cell phones and we may be able to see cells with this projector soon.

Angry bird's Rio

The new angry birds Rio is up. And do you know what Rio is. It's a animation movie to be released by twentieth century fox. When Blu, a domesticated macaw from small-town Minnesota, meets the fiercely independent Jewel, he takes off on an adventure to Rio de Janeiro with this bird of his dreams. This is the theme of the movie.

And now Rovio has now combined with 20th century fox to release the movie based version of the Game with whole new 45 levels. This edition will also feature the characters from the upcoming movie. The difference in this edition is that instead of eggs now the birds itself are stolen and they have to fight to get themselves out. Watch the new trailer.

PayPal amendments

Today PayPal has made some amendments in its policy for indian users. They have sent out a 30 day notice to Indian users about the new guidelines.

These are the three amendments.
- PayPal won't let Indian users receive payments for more than $500 per transaction
- Indian Users won't be able to keep money in their PayPal account balance.
- Customers will have to link their Credit Card to their PayPal account for money to Indian PayPal account users.

PayPal has been under severe and strenuous pressure from the RBI and this amendment is now for PayPal to comply up to RBI guidelines.

The following email was sent to PayPal users.

Dear user,

As part of our commitment to provide a high level of customer service, we would like to give you a 30-day advance notice on changes to our user agreement for India.

With effect from 1 March 2011, you are required to comply with the requirements set out in the notification of the Reserve Bank of India governing the processing and settlement of export-related receipts facilitated by online payment gateways ("RBI Guidelines").

In order to comply with the RBI Guidelines, our user agreement in India will be amended for the following services as follows:

- Any balance in and all future payments into your PayPal account may not be used to buy goods or services and must be transferred to your bank account in India within 7 days from the receipt of confirmation from the buyer in respect of the goods or services; and

- Export-related payments for goods and services into your PayPal account may not exceed US$500 per transaction.

We seek your understanding as we continue to employ our best efforts to comply with the RBI Guidelines in a timely manner.

We regret any inconvenience caused to you and hope the advance notice will enable you to plan your future use of our services accordingly. For further information, click here.

If you have any questions, please contact PayPal customer support by logging into your PayPal account and clicking on 'contact us' at the bottom of the page. We sincerely thank you for your patience and continued support.

Sincerely,

The PayPal Team

For more info regarding this matter visit their site. Here is the link.

Well at least one thing is clear that RBI has made it much more difficult to Indian PayPal users.

Atrix 4G -new promo video

Hey this one is a cool new video from Motorola on Atrix 4G. Well this is one powerful phone with powerful computing capabilities. For more details on this phone click here

Samsung Galaxy S page on T-Mobile

T-Mobile has created a signup page for updates about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S 4G. Do not expect any info of the phone on its visuals or price rates. The page do not even contain the ability to pre-order. Well it will provide you with status notifications of the release updates of the phone.

The phone will sport all the features of the Galaxy S with 4G, which will be extremely awesome. This is considered to be released on the coming Mobile World Congress 2011 at Barcelona. One thing certain about the phone will be that it is called Samsung Galaxy S 4G and not Vibrant 4G.

Motorola Xoom coming on February 17th

Motorola Xoom is now entitled to be released on February 17th at Best buy. And also prices has also been rumored to be around 800$. It will be released with a 32 GB internal storage. This is about 70$ more than the iPad which sells for 729$ for the 32 GB, 3G version.

Motorola has teased iPad as a big iPhone and said Xoom will be the next chapter in tablet revolution. This beauty runs on dual core tegra 2 processor. For the video click here.

And now this iPad competitor is going to be available at Best Buy at February 17th. The specialty retailer which holds about 19% of the market will now sell its 32 GB Xoom. The pricing info is still not available.

Apple hits 10 billions apps download

Apple has finally reached the point of 10 billion app download. It have been one heck of a ride store after the iApps was launched in 2008.

Success story of apple apps began in July 2008. Now app store is the most popular mobile app portal on any platform. It just reached the 7 billion download mark in October. The diversity of the apps has been one of the various reasons for the growth of the market.

Apple which began with 500 apps, now has over 300,000. Nearly twice as that of Android. One more achievement for apple to count. Now I wonder when apple will reach the 20 billion dollar mark. And there is not much wait for that.

Samsung Gem

Samsung has released in it's website some photos of the new entrant from Samsung into the market, SCH-i100 Gem right up on their website. Some of the features of this phone are that it runs on Google Android 2.1 Eclair, 3.2 MP camera, 3.2 inch WQVGA resolution touch screen.

It runs on an 800 MHz processor, expandable memory upto 16GB. Also supports 850/1900 MHz CDMA spectrum. GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth support. And it comes preloaded with swype and also Samsung social hub in it. Well no info about the pricing, release or carrier yet. Will it be Verizon?...

iPad2, iPhone5 & Apple TV

There have now been more reports for apple's upcoming products. Well this is going to be one hell of a treat for us. And these include info on iPad2, iPhone5 and the second edition of the Apple TV.

There has been reports on Engadget that apple's new iPad 2 will only be out on around April.. Also it is said that the thing will get a new display screen, much similar to iPhone 4's retina display giving the iPad a super resolution display. Though not the same. But various reports till now have said that there won't be much difference in the display or resolution of the iPad. Also this product will be having front and rear camera's(As mentioned in the previous post). And an SD slot.

The reports say with near certainty that there will be an SD card slot. Well this is shocking as Apple usually do not allow SD cards and they were usually playing with flash memory. The new iPad will feature a dual GSM / CDMA chipset produced by Qualcomm and will mark Apple's shift away from Infineon as its chipset maker to Qualcomm for all of its mobile devices. The strength of the new dual-mode chipset might be that it will allow both Verizon and AT&T to offer the iPad simultaneously.

Also the reports reveal that the iPhone 5 will also be based on all of this and also it will be most probably a summer release. The new device will be a total rethink from a design standpoint and will be running atop Apple's new A5 CPU (a Cortex A9-based, multi-core chip). This device, like the iPad 2, will feature a Qualcomm chipset that does triple duty as the CDMA / GSM / UMTS baseband processor.

Also the A5 will make its way to the Apple TV which will make it blazingly fast and play 1080 pixel. Currently the Apple TV's capability is 720P.

Well most of these info's were expected excluding the SD card slot and shift from infineon to Qualcomm. Well stay tuned to get more updates.

Apple iPad 2 Still, Video cameras

Reports have surfaced that confirms that the iPad 2 will have one or two cameras capable of still and video capture. So the iPad 2 due to arrive in spring this year could get full time face capabilities like its siblings, the iPhone 4 and current generation iPod touch. The original iPad's frame sported a place for front facing camera, but was later omitted from the design, possibly due to cost issues.Camera references were still available in the SDK for the original iPad, so the plan for dual cameras could conceivably meet the same fate this time due to other factors not yet known, though this is considered very unlikely.

The new references to cameras, screenshots of the graphics that would be used by the camera app, the leaked case designs that show spaces for a back-facing camera and indications for an all-new graphics engine in future iOS devices all point to the new capabilities that are widely expected in the next iPad.

These are the screenshots for the new camera app....

Apple 10 billion apps download contest

Apple broke the 3  billion mark just last year and now it is all set to break the 10 million mark, thanks to iPad and growing accessibility of iPhones worldwide. This much downloads is even greater than the current world population.

Apple has decided to conduct a competition to honor this. The person who downloads the 10 billionth app will win a 10,000$ iTunes gift card. The terms and conditions are that you must be 13 years older and a legal resident of one of the participating countries. If the contest is promoted on the front page of app store in your country then cheer up you can participate. Only 25 entries per iTunes account or e-mail address are accepted per day. Read the complete rules to find out all the details and good luck.

LG Optimus 2X

There is only word for it, fast. This phone is dead fast. With the dual core Tegra core processor the applications virtually fly. Launching and Switching apps will be over in the blink of an eye. And it also provides highly responsive gaming experience as well.

Measuring 4 inches diagonally, it has 16 million colors and a WVGA resolution of 480x800. The overall phone feels smooth and lightweight--it measures 4.95 inches long by 2.5 inches wide by less than half an inch thick and weighs in at around 4.9 ounces. Other features include Wi-Fi with portable hot-spot capability, full HD video playback and recording, a gyro sensor, DLNA support, an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, and HDMI mirroring.

This one runs on Android 2.2 but I bet it could be upgradeable to 2.3 or even the new android version the honeycomb. It supports quad-band GSM and tri-band UMTS. This price of this phone is around 500$.

BlackBerry Dakota pics and specs Leaked

Jonathan Geller, blogger at BoyGeniusReport, has got an interesting piece of information about an upcoming BlackBerry handset codenamed BlackBerry Dakota.

Mobile World Congress is only next month. And so this is to be expected. Not only this and the already leaked info's and pics about phones, but there will be many many leaks about the products that are going to be released.

BlackBerry Dakota bears a close resemblance to the BlackBerry Bold handset. This feature-rich handset also seems to be the thinnest BlackBerry handset with a 10.5 mm thin profile. Dakota has a 2.8-inch VGA capacitive screen to let you touch and interact with the BlackBerry OS. Apart from that this smartphone sports a Near-Field Communication chip, like the one found in the recently released Nexus S device, which could be used for various location based e-commerce services.

The Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and Tri-band UMTS supporting Dakota will let you turn it into a 3G Mobile Hotspot. So RIM indeed is following in the footsteps of Android and Apple (with iOS 4.3 update). Dakota will come pre-loaded with BlackBerry OS 6.1 that would bring its own sweet set of features. Mobile Hotspot feature for BlackBerry devices would come with BlackBerry OS 6.1 update. This is yet another blackberry handset with a 5MP camera and able to record HD videos after BlackBerry 9780.

- Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
- Tri-band UMTS
- 5 megapixel camera with HD video recording, flash, and image stabilization
- 4GB of built in storage, 768MB of RAM
- 2.8-inch VGA 640 x 480 capacitive screen
- BlackBerry OS 6.1
- WiFi 802.11b/g/n on 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies
- 3G mobile hotspot
- MicroUSB port
- Bluetooth
- Near Field Communication
- Magnetometer
- Accelerometer
- Proximity sensor
- 10.5mm thin

SEGA Dreamcast Collection

Some of us may still remember the old SEGA Dreamcast console which was better than Sony ps2, but lost the console war due to ps2's better software support. Well it was one great console way ahead of its time then, but just withdrew from the hardware and they intended to focus mainly on software. Even though it quit it still has its cult status.

For those nostalgic ones, sega's now bringing up the dreamcast collection to PC's and Xbox. The collection will be introduced in disc format and through digital distribution on February 22 in North America, February 24 in Australia, and February 25 in Europe and New Zealand. The Dreamcast Collection will include classics Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi, SEGA Bass Fishing, and Space Channel 5: Part 2.

Sega skipped Dreamcast gems like the path breaking emergent gameplay masterpiece Shenmue, the original Soul Calibur, Jet Grind Radio, and Skies of Arcadia. SEGA has not revealed the pricing and it better be conservative since it skipped the some of the best ones.

Samsung Galaxy Mini

Samsung which is gearing up for the MWC next month will have much to show. One such phone in it's showcase will be the Galaxy Mini. Well this is much more like a rumor and the photo was leaked one. Well even at the first glance we can tell it's similarity to the nexus due to the curved back.

The Samsung Galaxy Mini – otherwise known as the S5570 – runs Android 2.2.1, has a 320×240 resolution display (size not yet known), TouchWiz, Bluetooth 3.0, WiFi N, a camera (resolution and features unknown, but no flash), and has a microSD card slot. This pricing will not be much tight for this. The device measures 110.42 x 60.76 x 12.68mm in dimensions and has been recently certified by China's Communications Commission Agency (similar to the U.S. FCC).

We will surely be seeing this one at the Mobile World Congress.

Adobe's "cookie abuse"

Adobe has finally acknowledged it's cookie abuse after FTC made reports about Adobe's flash player cookies, or what they call LSO(Local Shared Objects). And also there have been many law suits against flash player.

Adobe flash which is used in about 98%  of  the pc's in the world, does not allow to delete its LSO, even if users manually try to do it. Flash however has argued till now that LSO is not for tracking purposes. LSO allows other websites( not adobe itself) to track user behaviour, thus violating their privacy.

Blogger Emmy Huang addressed the issue in an update on Adobe's Flash blog, saying the company was "collaborating with browser vendors to integrate LSO management with the browser UI," giving users an easier and locally-based way to clear LSOs of third-party information and prevent re occurrence. An API called NPAPI ClearSiteData has already been approved for implementation in Firefox, and will be added to Chrome as well. Additionally, Huang promised that a system preference setting for Windows, Mac and Linux would give users local control over LSO management (including turning it off entirely) rather than the present Shockwave-based web panel control that few web users are aware of.

No timeline matters were discussed by Huang. And only mozilla and chrome were named as partners in this program. However Apple and Microsoft(among others) are expected to join.Safari browsers running in Private Browsing Mode and using Flash 10.1 or higher already have the ability to clear LSOs, but most users do not implement Private Browsing as it is impractical for routine internet usage.

Lawsuits involving the misuse of LSOs have been filed against Clearsprint, Quantcast, the Walt Disney Company (Internet Group), Warner Brothers Records and Specific Media among others over the last year and a half for misusing LSOs to restore the ability to track customers who deliberately deleted "regular" cookies in order to protect their privacy. Researchers at the University of California Berkeley discovered last August that 50 percent of the websites they sampled were using LSOs to track users.

Adobe has always condemned the misuse of LSOs by third parties, but critics have argued that they themselves opened the door to abuse by making LSOs some 25 times bigger in file size than traditional web cookies. Though the company has previously said it "won't stand" for abuses, this is the first time the company has documented any concrete steps towards making LSO management easier and more obvious to users.

Motorola Atrix 4G

Man this is one heck of a phone. Atrix is the most powerful android smartphone yet from Motorola with 1 GHz dual core tegra 2 processor powerful enough to run full HD(1080p) videos, 1 GB of ram, 4.0 inch qHD display(940x560 pixels) with gorilla glass technology, etc. This phone currently runs on android 2.2 Froyo, but will later run android honeycomb. It is said, to run honey comb you might need dual core processor.

It sports a front VGA camera and back 5.0 MP camera with LED flash. One another cool thing about this phone is the fingerprint scanner at the back. You can use this to unlock the phone or access email accounts.

And the real cool feature of this product is the laptop dock. This laptop dock does not have any hardware components of it's own. All it provides it the keyboard and battery. The laptops runs entirely from the phone. There is full Firefox browser for the phone, which is pretty impressive and it is a Linux build. You can view the phone in the dock, and do anything with the phone in the dock itself, like sending messages. No need for PC suite or syncing and all. phone will be automatically charged in the dock and the dock boasts of an impressive battery life of 8 hours.

This phone has now brought the concept of full mobile computing a bit more closer. Soon we should see mobile phones as powerful as computers.

This phone will be coming in first quarter of 2011 and we still don't have any pricing information.

iOS 4.3 Beta released

Iphone has released the beta version of the ios 4.3 for developers and not for the general public. This version of the ios will sport various feature upgradations.

Included features are the personal wifi hotspot as in verizon's Iphone, where you can share your cellular connection with upto 4 or 5 people with wifi. Then various multitouch gestures have been included, like you can now use four fingers to close an app or switch between various apps in your Ipad. Also you can access the app manager with four fingers. These gestures can activated or deactivated in your ipad. Then the silent mode button has also included with it orientation lock. You can choose whether you need orientation lock with silent button or not.

User's now have the option of playing mms alerts for upto 10 times.Developers can also take advantage of the new AVFoundation APIs for HTTP Live Streaming Statistics, allowing them to track important information about their content, including how many people are watching their online videos, how long they are watching them, and how well the ads on those videos are performing.

Also it included some new fonts and also apple has enabled iAds on iPads. Well we could see something even more than this at the release of the original version.

Google OS dilemma

Twitter has really hit hard Google with it's attempt to recruit their product management VP Sundar Pichai. Google already aware of this fact is fighting hard to make a reason for Pichai to stay.

Reports have revealed that Google engineers are targeted by other competitor's like the Facebook to jump out. And Google is already trying hard not to let go of them by offering rewards up to a million dollars. Employees was always a target, but not one's as influential as Pichai. Google and Twitter both refused to comment.

Google is already lagging behind in it's web app based operating system the chrome OS. It has already delayed the release of the operating system to several months to the mid 2011. And losing Pichai at this moment would add further dilemma to the search giant.

Expert also predict that there would not be much differences regarding chrome OS and Android. Only thing that chrome OS could run in computers. Analysts predicts the merging of chrome into Android.

Sony playstaton phone pics leaked

There has been rumors about the coming of a sony play station phone, although sony has never acknowledged its existence. Various sites has often rumored about the phone and now a chinese site has reported about 61 pics of the slider phone. Looks like a new age mini psp.

These pictures show the image of the phone with slide out controls. Included in these pictures are screen shots and also pics from the digital camera.

The site says the photos show a phone with a 4-inch display that's an 854x480 capacitive touchscreen, an 8-megapixel camera, 720p video recording, and a micro SD card slot. The site's analysis goes on to say the chip must be at least 1GHz and running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). It comes in both black and white.

If this phone really exists gonna be one of the worst kept secrets of the consumer electronics world.

Glasses free 3D TV from Toshiba

3D is one heck of fascinating content. It is so cool and amusing. But still you have to put up a pair of dorky glasses. Toshiba has introduced Glasses free 3D concept at the CES 2011. They put up a 65 inch panel at the Toshiba booth, with three pairs of foot guides(black thick stripes to show you were to plant yourselves to get the best 3D effect). If you stand in the middle spot you could see a decent 3D. But tilt your head to the side even a little bit then the pictures will get all wobbly. The 3D effect very easy to lose.

This is based on the fact that each eyes get locked on to two different pixels that creates 3D effect. They use parallax barriers to create this kind of effect.

The panel's got a high resolution even though the images doesn't provide much clarity. Toshiba said it was a demo product and it was not a ready one. Though they said that they plan to sell it's glasses free 3D TV by the end of this year. They didn't disclose the price.

Dell Venue

Dell has announced the release of it's android smartphone, Venue at the consumer electronics show in Las Vegas. It is running on android 2.2 froyo. It has a 1 GHz qualcomm snapdragon processor, an 8 MP camera with LED flash and 4x digital zoom, 720 pixel recording, 4.1 inch AMOLED touchscreen with Gorilla glass technology. This gizmo has an internal memory of 1GB and expandable up to 32 GB with micro SD support.

Dell Venue Specifications:
* 4.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen display
* Android 2.2 Froyo OS
* 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD 8250 processor
* 8 MP camera with LED flash
* Supports 720p HD video recording
* Dell Stage UI
* 1 GB internal memory
* 32 GB micro SD support
* Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
* Wi-Fi
* Android Market
* ActiveSync
* Microsoft Exchange support
* 1400mAh battery

Also this phone will be offered unlocked unlike other's. Dell has not yet announced the price or the date of release. This should be out by first quarter of 2011.

Motorola Xoom

Finally the right competitor for iPad is here, Motorola Xoom.
It's Motorola's first tablet computer announced at the CES 2011.

Speciality's are many for this device, like this is the first device to run on Android Honeycomb. And honeycomb looks sparkling with this tablet pc. One heck of a combination, I would say. Features a 10" completely sensitive touchscreen.

This beauty will be out for sale in america in the first quarter of next year, and will follow shoutly afterwards in Britain. Prices have not been disclosed. CES 2011 in Vegas is proving to be quite a thriller.