Gadgets
Evernote for iPhone 3.0 is here; major update
Jun 18th
iPhone 3.0 is officially launched and new app is ready. The two main reasons to be excited about Evernote for iPhone 3.0: and the even greater stuff that will be added in the near future.
Let’s check out what’s new? I have discussed those features which I felt necessary, you can checked out more features here.
Beefy synchronization
The data synchronization part of the application is rewritten to take advantage of the new iPhone 3.0 capabilities, this will cause your info about all your notes to be synced locally on the device. You can scroll through thousands of notes without interruption and without ever seeing the dreaded “load 25 more” message.
No pending
New data handling functionality means that there’s no longer any need for a “Pending” tab — pending notes are now displayed in the normal note list and you can edit them at any time, even before they’ve been synced!
Where in the world?
You can push the “pin” button at any time to see all of your notes displayed on a map. The numbers indicate how many notes you have in a particular area, and zooming in will break up the groups until you can see each individual note as a pin.
Instant groups
The note views lets you group your notes by date, title, notebook, city or country. You can also instantly jump to a different group by taping the index bar on the right of the note list or scroll your finger over the index bar to fly through your notes at breakneck speed.
Advanced Searching
You can search through your notes and we’ve made that better as well. Advanced search options are now easier to use and many types of searches can be performed without ever having to touch the server, so they’re really fast.
Cinema-quality Landscape View
Mercy for your fingers
The steps and small buttons re eliminated when making snapshot and camera roll notes. Now you can snap a picture and send it to Evernote with just a couple of clicks.
Plays nice with others
Evernote for iPhone 3.0 now supports in-app integrations with iPhone apps from other developers. Several exciting Evernote-aware apps should be launching really really soon.
General improvements and bug fixes
This is our third major version of Evernote for the iPhone, so there’s a lot of improvements under the hood.
Get a look at Samsung Jet Phone S8000
Jun 16th
Samsung has just announced its new Jet Phone the S8000 smartphone. The curtains were lifted at the CommunicAsia 2009 and Samsung Unpacked event at London and even in Dubai. Samsung claims it to be smarter than a smartphone. The reason behind this claim is yet to be revealed and known. Jet S8000 comes equipped with an 800 MHz Samsung 6410 processor. This interesting smartphone will be made available by Samsung during the course of this year.
This smartphone happens to be a part of the Cubic project. The Cubic project also includes i8000 Omnia II and M8000. Cubic Project is about a cubical like central button which once pressed initiates a Cube-like interface. The packing of 8000 MHz processor into the phone is supposed to assist the new TouchWiz 2.0′s widget loaded interface to run zippier along with Motion UI and Media Gate 3D.
Motion UI is the motion recognition engine built by Samsung which allows the user to access multimedia features with the help of tapping, tilting or flipping the phone. Media Gate 3D is a UI feature that displays a six sided Cubic UI which contains various multimedia features such as:
- Music Player
- Video Player
- FM Radio
- Internet (web browser)
- Games
- Photo Album
The Jet Phone also provides a feature by the name “Smart Unlock”. This feature allows the user to unlock the phone and perform tasks like making a phone call or launching a menu item just by drawing the respective alphabet on the touchscreen.The phone also comprises of a 5 megapixel camera and a Dolphin Browser.
A more detailed specification are provided below
- Network: EDGE/GPRS Class 12 (850, 900, 1800, 1900MHz); HSDPA 3.6Mbps (900, 2100MHz)
- CPU: 800MHz Samsung 6410
- Interface: TouchWiz 2.0 interface with Motion UI, Media Gate 3D, Multi-tasking Manager
- Dimensions: 4.3 inches x 2.1 inches x 0.47 inches (HWD)
- Display: 3.1-inch 16M WVGA AMOLED display
- Camera: 5.0-megapixel AF camera with face detection, Smile Shot, panorama shot, blink detection, geo-tagging, and photo editor. Video recording at 30fps with video editor
- Music: Player with DNSe and SRS WOW Sound Effect, FM radio/recording
- Audio Support: MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, AMR, MIDI, SP-MIDI,i-melody, WAV, MMF, XMF, OMA DRM v2.1, WMDRM
- Video Support: MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV, DivX, XviD
- Web Browser: In-house-developed Dolfin browser
Other functions: A-GPS, on-board navigation (3D map), Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, Share Pix & Mobile Widget
- Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth v2.1, microUSB (USB v2.0 Hi-Speed)
- Memory: 2GB or 8GB, plus External MicroSD slot (up to 16GB)
- Battery: 1,100mAh
- Talk time: 8.2 hours on 2G; 5 hours on 3G
- Standby time: 422 hours on 2G; 406 hours on 3G
The shipping date for this amazing smartphone is yet to be announced.
Nokia E72 unveiled
Jun 15th
The all new Nokia E72 has great new features including optical scrolling and a five-megapixel camera. The E72 takes the very best of Nokia’s most successful QWERTY device and makes it even better. The frame is extremely slim of about 10mm with some sleek design touches and inside the device is treated to a range of user interface improvements too.
The optical navigation key makes scrolling through emails very easy as it also helps switch around the menus quickly and easily. The camera has been upgraded to a full five megapixels and heavy data users will have the support for up to 10.2Mbps connections over HSDPA. The audio jack has also had the upgrade treatment with 3.5mm jack now appearing on the top of the device.
Nokia Messaging is also there and now supports for Instant Messaging accounts including Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk and Ovi, and many others. Email set up is easier than before through Nokia Messaging, Mail for Exchange and IBM Lotus Notes Traveler.
Sound quality on calls is improved with the addition of active noise cancellation and navigation gets a improvement with addition of a digital compass. Maps is also integrated and comes with a lifetime walk and 10 days of turn-by-turn navigation, if activated within the first three months.
The Nokia E72 is expected to begin shipping in the third quarter of 2009, estimated retail price is €350.
New iGoogle for Android
Jun 12th
iGoogle is so convenient on mobile devices. When you’re waiting in line, you can check iGoogle on your phone for a quick "info snack". Many of the users told us that you wanted to use more of your iGoogle gadgets on your phone.
Google employee in January said:
We’ve found that people hit iGoogle from lots of different phones — we want to ensure you’ll all see the same version,
Previous version of mobile iGoogle doesn’t have tabs and it’s optimized for WAP phones, not for today’s smartphones.
But now Google rolled out an improved beta version of iGoogle for the iPhone and Android-powered devices. This new version is faster and easier to use. It supports tabs as well as more of your favorite gadgets, including those built by third-party developers. Note that not all gadgets — like those with Flash — will work in mobile browsers.
One of new features is the in-line display of articles for feed-based gadgets. Now you will be able to read article summaries without leaving the page. You can also reorder gadget or keep your favorite gadgets open for your next visit.
The new version of iGoogle for mobile is available in 38 languages. You can also try the new iGoogle, just go to igoogle.com in your mobile browser and tap "Try the new Mobile iGoogle".
You can also bookmark the page or make it your home page so you can return to it quickly.
Nokia N86 now shipping worldwide
Jun 10th
Nokia N86 8 megapixel cameraphone wasn’t too far off after the support pages went live on Nokia’s site earlier this week, but now the Finnish phone maker’s gone and pulled the firing pistol. The Nokia N86 is shipping worldwide, as we speak!
The sliding, Nokia N86 cameraphone with GPS and 8GB of storage is the company’s first with an 8MP sensor, and while it’s late to the party, it promises to be one of the best yet for hi-res imaging, whatever the conditions, as it packs a mechanical shutter and blur reduction.
The device features variable aperture, which results in vibrant photos even in challenging bright and low-light conditions. Processing times between pictures have been more than halved in comparison with many other camera phones.
Uploading pictures and videos on social networking sites like Ovi Share and Flickr is fast and simple with high-speed connectivity of the Nokia N86 8MP. 8GB of internal memory provides enough space for up to 4000 photos and the memory can be increased even further with an exchangeable 16GB microSD card.
The imaging:
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Capture high quality pictures and videos with the wideangle, 8 MP Carl Zeiss Tessar optics
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Excellent pictures in challenging low and bright light conditions due to variable, large aperture
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Upload and share pictures and videos to Ovi Share or 3rd party services directly to the web
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Organize photos by albums and tags, and synchronize with PC
Full specification are available here.
Nokia unveils Nokia N97
Jun 9th
Nokia has unveiled the N97 converged touch device from its N-Series. The N97 is a S60 5th edition mobile computer with a large 3.5″, bright TFT color display and 640 x 360 pixels and 16:9 aspect ratio.
It provide user experience for internet and entertainment by combining a ‘qwerty’ keyboard with touch user interface and home screen functionality. The N97 connects to the mobile broadband using WLAN or HSDPA (3.5G).
More features include direction and location finder with integrated A-GPS included maps, game titles with N-Gage, a 5 mega pixel camera with dual LED flash and automatic geotagging of images and videos, FM player transmitter, MP3 player, etc.
The Nokia N97 is the first device to ship with Ovi Store (a one-stop shop for a full catalog of applications, games, videos, podcasts, productivity tools, web and location-based services, etc).
Specifications of the N97:
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Screen: Resistive TFT touch screen, 16M colors, 360 x 640 pixels, 3.5 inches with handwriting recognition
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Connectivity: GPRS Class 32, HSCSD ,EDGE Class 32, 3G HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps, WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP technology, Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP, USB v2.0 microUSB, GPS with A- GPS
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OS: Symbian OS v9.4, Series 60 rel. 5
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CPU: ARM 11 434 MHz processor
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Messaging: SMS, MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
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Camera: 5 MP, 2592×1944 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, LED flash, video light
Google Mobile App now for Nokia S60 smartphones
Jun 4th
The development of Google Mobile App for Nokia S60 smartphones, which was just launched yesterday, has addressed three aspects of an issue we hear about on a regular basis: immediacy.
1. Immediacy of access
Quick key mechanism launches the application directly from the home screen, making search, Google Maps, Gmail, and other Google mobile services available immediately.
2. Immediacy of location
Google Mobile App for Nokia Series 60 smartphones comes with location awareness built in. If you use the My Location feature, you’ll get local search results that relate to where you are.
3. Immediacy of query formulation
The dual approach is followed to help make query formulation little efficient. First, your search history is available so that it’s easy to repeat queries. Second, query based suggestions is offered on what has been entered so far to get you to your results as quickly as possible.
In Google Mobile App, an item is provided in Settings to let people choose what best suits them.
Download Google Mobile on your phone’s browser.
Xbox 360 to integrate with Facebook and Twitter
Jun 2nd
Microsoft yesterday made an official announcement that is surely going to make a lot of readers happy. The announcement is that Xbox 360 is going to integrate with the ever popular social network Facebook, the microblogging network Twitter and the online music catalog Last.fm.
What this means is that with your Xbox 360, now you can share, chat and interact with your friends all around the globe, update your status in real-time, check out photos on the big wide screen using Facebook. All this can be done, while you sit in your living room on your couch. Think that is all you are going to get from Facebook Connect. Well think again, using Facebook you can share all of your favorite and preferred gaming moments with your friends. To add to that, you now even have the option to send invites to your Facebook friends to direclty play games on their console.
Xbox 360 -Twitter integration means that Twitter users can post their twitter updates directly from Xbox as well as read their friends updates and postings. Xbox live gold subscribers now have the option to listen to streaming music from their favorite gaming console through Last.fm.
John Schappert, corporate vice president of Interactive Entertainment LIVE, Software and Studios at Microsoft, said:
We are always asking ourselves how to make the TV more social,”By bringing Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm to Xbox 360, we’re not only extending the walls of your living room beyond your home to your friends all over the world, we’re creating the definitive social network, uniting more than 300 million people to share thoughts on music, play games and tweet.
What all this integration marks is that now you will be connected to your family members and friends all the time. You will have the opportunity to share your updates, status and favorite gaming moments with your loved ones as well. An amazing step taken by Microsoft. What do you think. Please share your thoughts and comments with us.
Samsung Pixon 12 – World’s first 12 megapixel phone
Jun 1st
Samsung has announced that they are the first company to reach the 12 megapixel threshold for a camera phone. Samsung’s rumored 12 megapixel cameraphone has finally arrived. The Pixon 12 and its 3.1-inch AMOLED touchscreen with a Samsung promise of fast shutter speeds and quick browsing.
The Pixon 12 (M8910) has a dedicated shutter button, touch auto-focus (wherever you touch becomes the focal point) that locks in to track moving subjects, Smart Auto mode that adjusts to conditions, and a 28-mm wide angle lens.
More megapixels do not make for better photos especially when jammed tightly into a sensor small enough for a cellphone. And 12 megapixels translates to files ranging from 2MB to 18MB and beyond depending on the compression used (Samsung doesn’t say).
Is it really worth the storage space and the associated delays when uploading images to Samsung’s Share Pix service (with Facebook, Picasa, Flickr integration) over the Pixon 12′s built-in WiFi and HSUPA data? No rush, you’ve got time to decide — Pixon 12 will be hitting Europe in late June, other regions sometime in August. One more pic after the break.
An update says that full specs just arrived which is: 150MB of on-board storage (up to 16GB MicroSD expansion); quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, HSPA 900/2100MHz; Xenon + Power LED flash; 720 x 480 pixel videos at 30fps; internal GPS, and FM radio with RDS.
Dell’s new netbooks wont contain the latest version of Ubuntu
May 28th
Dell‘s netbook Mini 10v was released last week. As expected, this latest release contained a few interesting updates. Speaking of updates, I would like to inform you that the latest netbooks from Dell wont be using the latest version of Ubuntu. So if you are expecting to get version 9.04 of Ubuntu on the Dell’s netbook, then you should stop doing so. Dell has decided to provide Ubuntu 8.04 instead of going for Ubuntu 9.04 or even 8.10 for that matter.
Dell has explained the rationale behind this decision using a couple of reasons as the basis. A spokesperson from Dell said
We are trying to stay on a 12-month cadence to keep costs down, and build a stable platform. A mainstream user does not care if it’s 8.04 or 8.10 or 9.04 (he/she does not know what those are) — she just wants it to work right and be stable/safe… most of the Linux enthusiasts would not like to be so far behind, but they are not our primary target audience for the [operating system] image
Dell still maintained that they are more than happy with Ubuntu and are satisfied with their selection of this OS for their netbooks. Dell stated:
We have offered Ubuntu pre-installed on our consumer systems for two years now, based on customer feedback on Ideastorm. Canonical has been enthusiastic about working with us to deliver a rock-solid Linux experience for the general non-technical community, and we look forward to continuing this dedicated team effort going forward.
Dell places quite an emphasis on the stability concept and want their devices to possess this value as much as possible. They state:
In addition to 8.04, we chose to control our updates (via our own update repository — similar to MS update). We go the extra mile in double qualifying all updates (that one would see in stock 8.10 and 9.04) and only publish those that are rock-stable. We will [put in] select features over the course of the year that make sense for the product, like wireless improvements.
I myself, being the user of a Dell laptop, can say that they really go for incorporating stability into their products. Let us hope that they continue to do that in the future as well.
