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Olive Telecom Launched Android based 3G tablet in India

Ram — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 04:29:33 +0000

Olive Telecom launched a 3G tablet in India priced at Rs 25000, and dubbed as OlivePad. OlivePad is running Android 2.1 with HSUPA, Wi-fi and Bluetooth connectivity.

The multi purpose tablet comes with a 3 mega pixel camera, a front camera, and can be used as a netbook for browsing, as a GPS device for turn by turn directions, e-book reader or as a Television. OlivePad also has a smartphone functionality allowing voice and video calling. Other OlivePad features include flash support, mini USB port.

OlivePad will be made available through Croma electronic stores from August.

Press Release

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Twitter launches SMS in India with Bharti Airtel

Ram — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:09:49 +0000

Earlier twitter SMS updates were available in India but later twitter discontinued the SMA updates because of the cost associated with them. Now they have reached a sort of exclusive deal with Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile operator. Bharti Airtel customers can now send tweets from their mobile phones @Rs.1, and they can receive the tweets for free.

Rs.1 per SMS is a good deal and also receiving tweets is free. The customers who are already on twitter can send START to 53000 to receive tweets. New users can SMS Signup to 53000 to complete the registration. Airtel twitter page has more details.

Although it looks like an exclusive deal it is not, the exclusivity is only for 4weeks and later other telcos will also join the twitter fun.

Twitter partnership with Airtel makes sense as internet penetration in India is not very high, and there are millions of people with mobile phones. Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone says “Our partnership with Bharti Airtel, the largest mobile operator in India, means a huge population of people can now send tweets at standard rates and receive tweets for free.”

From Twitter Blog.

Bharti Airtel is offering people in every city, every village, every remote taluk and even the smallest panchayat the opportunity to connect to Twitter and enjoy the open exchange of information with no added fees. We are proud to have Bharti Airtel as our partner. Give Twitter a try with your Airtel phone by sending START to 53000. And spread the word!
Twitter is not about technology, it’s about people. We worked quickly to establish full SMS service in India with the largest operator because organic growth in the region has been unusually strong and there is huge potential for positive impact.

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Amazon Kindle Goes International with a Price Cut

Ram — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:50:52 +0000

Amazon Kindle debuted with a hefty price and then in July it dropped the price to $299 and today they dropped the price to $259. The big Kindle DX is still priced at $489 though. Price cuts aside, Amazon has added an international version for $279 with US & International wireless options.

The Kindle international allows you to download content in over 100 countries. Amazon is taking pre-orders now and the new version will on October 19. There is some country specific information that you want to check before purchasing the device. International users have to buy Kindle from US, that means the device interface will be in English and ships with a US wall adapter.

If you want to ship Kindle to India here are the things you should know

Important Product Information for Your Country (India)

Your international shipment is subject to customs duties, import taxes and other fees levied by the destination country. We will show you these fees upon checkout. Learn more
Kindle ships with a U.S. power adapter and a micro-USB cable for charging your Kindle via a computer USB port. The U.S. power adapter supports voltages between 100V – 240V.
You can transfer personal documents to your Kindle via USB for free at anytime. Service fees for transferring personal documents via Whispernet are currently $.99 per megabyte. Learn more
Wireless download times can vary based on 3G or EDGE/GPRS coverage, signal strength and file size.
Kindle books, newspapers, and magazine are currently priced and sold in United States dollars
Blogs and the experimental web browser are currently not available for your country
Kindle includes a 1-year limited warranty. See details
Use of the Kindle is subject to the Kindle License Agreement and Terms of Use

Kindle Features

Slim and Trim: At just over a third of an inch thin (0.36 inches) and weighing just over 10 ounces, Kindle is pencil thin and lighter than a typical paperback.

3G Wireless: Readers living in or traveling to Kindle’s wireless coverage areas can wirelessly shop the Kindle Store, download books in less than 60 seconds, automatically receive newspaper and magazine subscriptions, and receive personal documents—all without a PC, Wi-Fi hot spot, or syncing. Customers who are not in the coverage area can quickly transfer content to Kindle over USB.

Reads Like Real Paper: Kindle’s 6-inch electronic ink display reads like printed words on paper because the screen works using real ink and doesn’t use a backlight, eliminating the eyestrain and glare associated with other electronic displays.

Stores Up To 1,500 Books: Kindle’s 2 GB of memory holds up to 1,500 books and Kindle books are automatically backed up by Amazon so customers can re-download titles in their library.

Read For Weeks On A Single Charge: Kindle’s electronic paper display sips battery power so users can read for over two weeks with wireless turned off and up to four days on a single charge with wireless on.

Read-To-Me: With the experimental Text-To-Speech feature, Kindle can read most newspapers, magazines and books out loud.

Automatically Syncs With Kindle and Kindle Compatible Devices: Amazon’s “Whispersync” technology automatically syncs customers’ last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights across Kindle, Kindle DX, and Kindle compatible devices like Kindle for iPhone.

Wirelessly Receive and Read Personal Documents: Wirelessly send, receive, and read personal documents in a variety of formats such as Microsoft Word and PDF.

Instant Dictionary Lookup: Kindle comes with the New Oxford American Dictionary and over 250,000 definitions that appear instantly at the bottom of the page.

Choose Text Size: Kindle lets readers customize their reading preference by providing six different text sizes.

Bookmarks, Notes, and Highlights: By using the QWERTY keyboard Kindle users can add annotations to text, as well as highlight and clip key passages and bookmark pages for future use.

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Nokia Booklet 3G specifications and videos

Ram — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 21:29:43 +0000

Nokia released the Booklet 3G as expected today at Nokia World 09. The booklet will be available in three colors, black, white and blue. The chassis is made from Aluminium and comes with fanless design. Weighs a may The specs include, 10.1 inch LCD with 1280×720 resolution, weighs about 1.25kg, 129GB hard disk, 1GB DDR2 RAM, integrated Ovi store and 16-cell Li-ion removable battery which gives 12 hours of battery life. Other specs include Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, Assisted-GPS, HDMI, USB 2.0, an SD Card reader, built in Wi-Fi, a SIM card slot for 3G access and 1.3 mega pixel camera).

The battery life is something to cheer about the price tag is quite heavy, €570 ($810), according to Nokia the price will be heavily subsidized by the carriers if you take a contract.

Videos

Via Nokia Conversations

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Nokia’s Linux based N900 announced

Ram — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:05:46 +0000

Nokia today announced a new smartphone that uses Linux based OS Maemo. This is the first phone for Nokia that is using Maemo. Whether you call it a smartphone or an internet tablet this thing is looking great in the pictures.

N900 comes with 32GB of storage expandable upto 48GB via microSD card and runs on ARM Cortex-A8 processor. Other specs include 3.5-inch 800×480 resistive touch screen, sliding QWERTY keyboard, GPS/A-GPS, FM transmitter, TV-out, Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi. It comes with 5MP camera with carl zeiss optics and dual-LED flash. 1GB of application memory and OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics acceleration.

Nokia is touting it as a “PC-like experience on a handset-sized device”. It also comes with mozilla based web browser with Adobe Flash 9.4 support, so it is possible to watch Youtube or other video using the phone.

The Nokia N900 will be available on display at Nokia World next week, it will be released in select markets in October with a price tag of €500 before tax and any possible subsidies according to Nokia.

Nokia Press Release

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Nokia Launches Booklet 3G Mini Laptop

Ram — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:09:49 +0000

The mobile giant Nokia is entering the PC market with a new netbook dubbed as Booklet 3G. There is speculation about Nokia entering PC market for quite some time, Nokia today announced it’s first PC product named Booklet 3G powered by Intel Atom processor.

Although the small laptop looks like a netbook it has some interesting features like, an HSPA 3G modem in addition to Wi-Fi. Nokia claims that Booklet 3G gives 12 hours of battery life. Booklet 3G comes in an aluminium chassis and weighs 1.25kg.

Nokia also integrated its suite of Ovi services that gives certain advantage over other Netbook offerings. The Ovi store applications might be an attractive addition to the booklet.

It is not yet clear what Windows version it will run, the Windows version shown in the promotional video looks like Windows 7. Nokia will announce other details and pricing at the Nokia World on Spetember 2.

Nokia Press Release

Powered by the efficient Intel Atom processor, the Nokia Booklet 3G delivers impressive performance with up to 12 hours of battery life, enabling people to leave their power cable behind and still be connected and productive. Delivering the rich experience of a full-function PC inside an ultra-portable aluminum chassis, the new mini-laptop weighs 1.25 kilograms, measures slightly more than two centimeters thin, and has the features one would expect from the world’s leading mobile device manufacturer. A broad range of connectivity options – including 3G/ HSPA and Wi-Fi – gives consumers high speed access to the Internet, including Nokia’s broad suite of Ovi services, and allows them to make the most of every moment and every opportunity.

The mini-laptop also comes with an HDMI port for HD video out, a front facing camera for video calling, integrated Bluetooth and an easily accessible SD card reader. Other premium features include the 10-inch glass HD ready display and integrated A-GPS which, working with the Ovi Maps gadget, can pinpoint your position in seconds and open up access for a truly personal maps experience. The Nokia Booklet 3G also brings a number of other rich Ovi experiences to life, whether its access and playback of millions of tracks through the Nokia Music Store, or using Ovi Suite to sync seamlessly from your Nokia smartphone, to your mini-laptop, to the cloud.

Check out the promotional video:

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Panasonic Launches New Cameras: FZ35, FP8 & ZR1

Keshav — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:04:58 +0000

Panasonic yesterday announced some new additions to its Lumix range of premium compact cameras. The cameras launched: FZ35, FP8 and ZR1 target different audiences and sport varied features. The cameras are planned to release this September. Let’s check what Panasonic has got this time.

FZ35

The successor to the highly popular FZ28, the FZ35 (FZ38 in some regions like Europe) keeps the pride of Panasonic’s Superzoom lineup high. This beast carries a 18x zoom and holds an upgraded 12.1 Megapixel lens (The FZ28 had 10.1MP). It brings with it a faster Venus Engine for quicker image processing and a better image stabilizer. The FZ35 also has a new facial recognition mode for babies…! It’s expected price is $400.

FP8

The Lumix FP8 is more about the looks and well suited for people looking for a fashionable camera. But this beauty has got brains too. Sporting a 12.1MP sensor and a 4.6x Optical zoom, this camera is for those looking for both looks and power. Along with the futuristic looking body, the camera includes advanced functions like high speed Auto Focus, Image Stabilization and Panasonic’s Intelligent Auto (iA). Expected price for the FP8 is $300.

ZR1

The ZR1 (ZX1 in Europe) sports the “world’s first 0.3mm thin aspherical lens”. Along with a 12.1MP sensor like the other models in the lineup, it manages a 8x Optical zoom. The ZR1 includes many other features like Panasonic’s Intelligent Auto (iA), Face recognition, a travel mode and a high dynamic mode. When it comes out in September, the ZR1 will sell for $280.

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Sony Steps Into The Netbook Market: Unveils Sony Vaio W

Keshav — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 18:29:00 +0000

When Sony unveiled Vaio P series in January this year, everyone called it a netbook, but Sony disagreed and wanted to call it a ‘lifestyle PC’. Well said, with the $1000 price tag it had and sleek pocket-size design. But this ‘lifestyle pc’ had a low powered atom processor. So neither could it be called a full featured laptop because of the low powered processor and nor a netbook because netbooks don’t sell for a thousand dollars in these days of recession. Bummer, nobody bought a Vaio P.

But it seems like Sony wants to come to the right track now. Unveiling the Vaio W series, which looks and works like a netbook from all sides.

The Vaio W netbooks will sport a 10.1” display and will be released mid-August for about $500. Like most other other netbooks, it will be powered by an Atom processor, 1GB Ram and Windows XP. Storage available will be 160GB although Engadget notes that one should not expect a SSD option.

The W netbooks will also come with a 1366 x 768 high resolution LED backlit screen that will make browsing web pages easy with no side-to-side scrolling. It will also get SD card slot, webcam built in and for connectivity there is Bluetooth and wifi, although there is no word on gps and 3g.

The new release from Sony will surely get it on the road in the Netbook race. Even though it’s a bit expensive than the regular netbooks in the market, but it’s Sony man!

Sony Vaio W should be available mid-August. To pre-book, visit SonyStyle.

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10 Dollar Laptop

Ram — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 23:32:04 +0000

The media in India is reporting that $10 Laptop in unveiled today, but i couldn’t find a picture of the same. I was not sure whether this is real of some fake news, building a $10 Laptop is not an easy task.

The specs according to media reports is, it features 2GB RAM, Wi-Fi and Ethernet and will consume just 2W of power. It is called Sakshat and will go for production in six months.

The $10 Laptop reportedly costs $20 not $10 at launch, but the officials are hoping that the price will come down to 10 dollars with mass production.

The $10 Sakshat Laptop is real or just politics we don’t know yet, but according to Rediff article they have demonstrated (how) the Laptop but i couldn’t find a single photo on the net.

S K Sinha, joint secretary in the ministry for education, giving a demonstration of the device which is smaller than the normal laptop, said that it will need some more fine-tuning. He said the laptop is expected to reach the market in about six months.

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Nokia N97 announced, touchscreen and QWERTY keyboard

Ram — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:46:41 +0000

Nokia unveiled a N-series smart phone N97 today and toutes as the world’s most advanced mobile computer. The N97 will be available from second quarter of 2009, first will hit Europe and Asian markets.

The N97 is a touch screen phone with Symbian S60 v5 OS and a slide-out QWERTY Keyboard, a 5 megapixel camera and a 32GB memory. 16GB memory can be added via microSD card. Comes with 3.5 inch TFT touchscreen display, 360×640 screen resolution, GPS with Nokia Maps 3.O app etc.

Press Release:
Desktop. Laptop. Pocket: The era of the personal Internet dawns with the Nokia N97

Tilting touch display, QWERTY keyboard and personalized home screen – a true mobile computer

Barcelona, Spain – Nokia today unveiled the Nokia N97, the world’s most advanced mobile computer, which will transform the way people connect to the Internet and to each other. Designed for the needs of Internet-savvy consumers, the Nokia N97 combines a large 3.5″ touch display with a full QWERTY keyboard, providing an ‘always open’ window to favorite social networking sites and Internet destinations. Nokia’s flagship Nseries device introduces leading technology – including multiple sensors, memory, processing power and connection speeds – for people to create a personal Internet and share their ‘social location.’

“From the desktop to the laptop and now to your pocket, the Nokia N97 is the most powerful, multi-sensory mobile computer in existence,” said Jonas Geust, Vice President, heading Nokia Nseries. “Together with the Ovi services announced today, the Nokia N97 mobile computer adjusts to the world around us, helping stay connected to the people and things that matter most. With the Nokia N97, Nseries leads the charge in helping to transform the Internet into your Internet”.

Sensing your ‘So-Lo’
The Nokia N97 introduces the concept of ‘social location’. With integrated A-GPS sensors and an electronic compass, the Nokia N97 mobile computer intuitively understands where it is. The Nokia N97 makes it easy to update social networks automatically with real-time information, giving approved friends the ability to update their ‘status’ and share their ‘social location’ as well as related pictures or videos.

Widescreen – Internet and entertainment
The home screen of the Nokia N97 mobile computer features the people, content and media that matter the most. Friends, social networks and news are available by simply touching the home screen. The 16:9 widescreen display can be fully personalized with frequently updated widgets of favorite web services and social networking sites. The Nokia N97 is also perfectly suited for browsing the web, streaming Flash videos or playing games. Both the physical QWERTY and virtual touch input ensure efficiency in blogging, chatting, posting, sending texts or emailing.

The Nokia N97 supports up to 48 GB of storage, including 32 GB of on-board memory, expandable with a 16 GB microSD card for music, media and more. This is complemented by excellent music capabilities, full support for the Nokia Music Store and continuous playback time of up to 1.5 days. The Nokia N97 also has a 5-Megapixel camera with high-quality Carl Zeiss optics, 16:9 and DVD quality video capture, and support for services like Share on Ovi for immediate sharing over HSDPA and WLAN.

The Nokia N97 is expected to begin shipping in the first half of 2009 at an estimated retail price of EUR 550 before taxes or subsidies.

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