Wednesday, 31 October 2012

Gmail introduces new Compose mail box features

  
 Gmail has seen a lot of changes since its inception, with innumerable features being added to what was essentially a mailbox. One thing that hasn’t changed much over the years is the way you compose mail. That is about to change.
When you compose mails in Gmail from now on, a New Message box will open just like a chat window. So say you are looking at mails in your Inbox and you want to compose a mail, the Gmail will not open a separate compose mail page, instead, you will be able to see the contents of your inbox and write out your mail in the New Message box. You can even insert messages inline.
 
 
On hovering your mouse pointer over the Attachment logo, it further breaks up into two more logos, namely Insert Photos and Insert Links. There are two more icons which are currently disabled - Insert Emoticon and Insert Invitation.
 
Just like in a chat window, you can minimise the New Message box and continue writing the mail later. This solves one of the critical issues that faced the older compose mail page. In case you wanted to refer to some other mail while composing your mail, you would have to Save the current mail as a Draft, go back to Inbox and then re-open the Draft to compose the mail. With this move, Gmail has made referencing older mails a piece of cake. You can even use the search mail option while keeping the New Message box minimised.
 
In a move to integrate this new feature with Google+, you can now even see your contact’s photo as you are typing out the address. You can also drag and drop the new address chips between to:, cc: and bcc:. When you’re done adding recipients, the address area collapses automatically to get out of your way.
 
Even the Reply option is designed to fit inline. It takes up a lesser vertical height and intelligently expands to fit in your content at the same time keeping your recipients and other controls in view irrespective of the length of the message.

 

Microsoft fixes Windows 8 Rs. 699 upgrade loophole

  
Early , word spread that Microsoft's $15 upgrade offer for Windows 8 had a loophole that would allow anyone to get the new OS for dirt cheap. Well, the boys at Redmond were quick to catch on and have patched the loophole.
 
Microsoft has extended an offer to those who had bought Windows 7 machines after June 2, 2012, allowing them to get the new OS for just $15 as against the regular $40 price. All users had to do was go to the offer website and fill in their details along with the brand, model and date of purchase of their machine and following that, Microsoft would dispatch a promo code to the supplied email which would offer the whopping discount in the purchase stage. It didn't matter whether these details were correct or not, but as long as all the fields were filled in and the date of purchase was post June 2nd 2012, you were on your way to a really cheap upgrade.
Microsoft caught on real quick, perhaps due to a surge in people availing the offer or maybe someone tipped them off. But now, once the initial details are submitted, MS wants you to verify your purchase by entering the license key for your existing copy of Windows, for which it checks the activation date to verify that you qualify for the offer.
We're not really sure how long this loophole has been open, perhaps from the very beginning or maybe it was a glitch that developed in the last few days. We could also postulate that this was a deliberate oversight from Ballmer's crew to ensure many buyers for the new OS, as its better to sell the OS at $15 than have virtually half their user base pirate it. But according to the official Microsoft terms of agreement for the offer, it is strictly for those who have purchased a licensed Windows machine post June 2. Bottom-line is, if you are still hoping to score a cheaper than cheap copy of Windows 8 for your machine, you can't.

 

Tuesday, 23 October 2012

Thursday, 18 October 2012

Bharti Airtel Rolls out 4G services in Pune

  
Bharti Airtel has announced the launch of its 4G services in Pune, months after the company rolled out the fourth generation mobile services in Kolkata and Bengaluru. Airtel's 4G services are currently available for postpaid users in Pune; for prepaid customers the services will be launched shortly.
 
Airtel customers in Pune can now use Airtel 4G LTE modems to start using the LTE network. The dongle for accessing 4G network on laptops and PCs is priced at Rs. 4,999 and comes with monthly usage charges. To find out more about Airtel's 4G LTE USB modems, click here.
In the meanwhile, check out Airtel's 4G tariff plans for Pune customers:
 

 
The telecom operator has also announced the launch of Airtel Broadband TV and Games On-Demand services for its LTE customers. These services are available for Rs. 150 and Rs. 49 for monthly and weekly users, respectively. The telecom operator is currently offering Broadband TV services for free as an introductory offer.
Games On-Demand service on Airtel includes video games from the likes of FIFA and NFS, and from a host of publishers such as EA, Ubisoft, Square-Enix, PopCap and Alawar. The service is available for a price ranging from Rs. 5 a day for 30 games, to a comprehensive Rs. 199 plan featuring over 350 games for a month. There are some seven Games On-Demand plans available for customers.
The teleco has also launched its Airtel Movies in Pune, offering an updated movie library of more than 1,000 titles. Airtel Movies services are available for a monthly subscription of Rs. 149. Airtel is currently offering a free trial for all 4G customers.
“Today, we are excited to launch Maharashtra’s first 4G experience for Airtel customers in Pune. The response received by Airtel 4G services in Kolkata and Bengaluru has been compelling – thus reinforcing our long term focus on delivering technologies to fulfil the needs of India’s rapidly growing data evolution story,” says K Srinivas, president, Consumer Business, Bharti Airtel.
The launch of Airtel's 4G services in Pune comes shortly after the telecom giant (in coordination with Qualcomm and Huawei) launched India's first 4G LTE smartphone called Huawei Ascend P1 LTE. The company hasn't revealed the pricing and availability of the phone, but it's expected to launch around Diwali this year.
Right now, Airtel is the only 4G service provider in the country. While other service providers are yet to reveal their cards on 4G, Airtel has apparently started making efforts to dominate this segment. Airtel is expect to roll out 4G services in cities such as New Delhi and Mumbai soon.

Friday, 12 October 2012

HTC slashes prices of Desire V and One S

  
HTC has slashed prices of its two smartphones – Desire V and One S, which are now available for Rs. 16,999 and Rs. 25,900 respectively. Online retailers such as Saholic and Flipkart are already selling the One S and Desire V at the new rates.
 
The HTC One S had originally launched in India with an MOP of Rs. 33,590. The One S is powered by a dual-core 1.5 GHz processor. The device runs on Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich with Sense UI and has a 1GB of RAM.
 
Other specifications include a 4.3-inch AMOLED display, 8MP primary camera with LED flash, a VGA secondary camera and 16GB built-in storage. In our review, the One S received 3.5 out of 5 ratings, mainly because of its good performance, crisp and bright display, solid camera and well built.
The HTC Desire V is the company's first dual-SIM smartphone. It runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with Sense UI v4.0. The Desire V is powered by a 1GHz processor and has 512MB of RAM.
 
The Desire V features a 4-inch (800x480) display, Beats Audio, 4GB of built-in storage, 25GB of free Dropbox cloud storage (2 year subscription), a 5MP autofocus camera with LED flash, no secondary camera, and a 1,650 mAh battery.
 
 

The price cut comes along with the availability of the HTC Desire X in India. The Desire X, introduced at the IFA 2012 event, runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system with HTC Sense UI 4.0 on top. It is powered by a 1 GHz dual-core processor and has 768 MB of RAM.
 
Other specifications of the HTC Desire X include 4.0-inch capacitive touch screen with 800 X 480 pixels resolution, 5MP auto focus camera with LED flash, built-in Beats Audio support, 4GB internal storage and a microSD card slot for additional storage up to 32GB. The device comes with a 1,650 mAh battery.

 

Sandisk announces development of CFast2.0 memory cards for next-gen devices

  
SanDisk Corporation has announced that it is developing flash memory cards based on the new CFast2.0 specification introduced today by the CompactFlash Association (CFA). The new specification enables next-generation photo and video applications by supposedly delivering up to four times faster performance than the CompactFlash memory cards currently used in DSLR cameras and other imaging devices.
 
“CFast2.0 memory cards will help drive the future of professional photography and video-recording applications,” said Shuki Nir, senior vice president and general manager, Retail, SanDisk. “With the CFast2.0 specification’s unparalleled performance, flash memory can now enter new markets such as high-definition TV and even cinema production.”

Designed for Next-Generation Professional Video Applications
Professional video applications are growing more powerful than ever before, with 2K video enjoying widespread use and full-frame 4K video already gaining adoption in high-end production environments. These next-generation video applications can produce videos with incredibly high resolutions and large file sizes. The CFast2.0 specification supports advanced video applications through higher interface bandwidth and much higher levels of Video Performance Guarantee to meet the requirements of 2K/4K digital intermediate compressed production environments.
“Professional photographers, videographers and cinematographers demand increasingly powerful cameras that help them unleash their creativity,” said Masaya Maeda, managing director and chief executive, image communication products operations, Canon. “With extremely fast performance, CFast2.0 memory cards will enable us to develop next-generation cameras with more powerful features than are currently supported by CompactFlash cards.”
 
Designed for Next-Generation Photography Applications
Digital cameras are expected to become more powerful, with the ability to capture images at greater than 40MP resolution. These next-generation cameras and DSLRs will produce photos of unprecedented quality, and the large file sizes can quickly overwhelm a CompactFlash memory card’s data-transfer rates and halt shooting.
The CFast2.0 specification features theoretical performance of up to 600MB/sec, four times faster than the highest-performance CompactFlash memory cards. The new specification delivers the fast speed needed to capture a series of high-resolution photos and transfer them quickly to a computer, particularly important to professional photographers whose workflows demand the utmost efficiency.
“PhaseOne believes in open standards where many players have access to the technologies required to create a healthy ecosystem and drive the future of imaging,” said Henrik Håkonsson, chief executive officer, PhaseOne, a leading medium format camera manufacturer. “We intend to integrate CFast2.0 memory cards into our new cameras because they offer significantly higher recording performance and faster offload speeds than other memory card formats.”
 
Sampling Now
SanDisk is currently sampling CFast2.0 memory cards to camera manufacturers as they design and optimize their next-generation host devices for the new specification.

  
The Nikon Coolpix S800c created a lot of buzz around the camera community. It was not so much the specs and everything, but the fact that the camera itself ran on the Android operating system. Today, the Nikon Coolpix S800c is officially available in the Indian market for Rs. 20,950
 
The Nikon Coolpix S800c packs in a 16MP slab of image-capturing silicon along with a 25-250mm (10x) optical zoom lens with a variable aperture of f/3.2-5.8. Also included is 1.7GB of internal memory along with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios, thanks to the companion app Nikon has made for both iOS and Android that allows the camera to connect to any of the iOS or Android devices for easy transfer. The interface on the back of the Coolpix S800c is all touch based and the large 3.5 inch display.
Other features include a 9-point AF system with automatic selection along with lens based Vibration Reduction. The screen is based on OLED design with an anti-reflective coating to help ease the viewing and shooting process even under the mid-day sun.

The S800c is running on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) which is a 2 generation old OS. When compared with the Galaxy Camera from Samsung, which runs the newest Android build (Jelly Bean). While there is no word on the processing power the Nikon packs, the Samsung contender is running off of an Exynos 4 chips, which is a quad-core processing beast.
The Coolpix S800c is now available at various Nikon authorized outlets and can be had for Rs. 20,950, however, we would recommend waiting for our in-depth review of the camera before you commit that hard earned money to it.

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