LG could introduce Intel-powered smartphone at CES

A year after it made smartphone history by

introducing the dual-core Optimus 2X at CES

2011, LG is set to do it again at the upcoming

2012 show .

According to a report published today in the Korea Times, LG

will use its time at CES in two weeks to introduce the first

Android smartphone running on an Intel chipset.

Though the Korea Times was unable to confirm the leaks

with LG or Intel spokespeople, the publication quoted

executives from both companies who predicted the launch.

This isn't the first time that LG and Intel have collaborated on a phone at CES, but like so many products displayed

at the show, the previous device never made it to market.

If LG actually follows through on the rumor it may have better luck this time around, but the company will face

more competition from other technologies in Las Vegas including a possible HTC device running on new Nvidia

Tegra 3 1.5 GHz quad-core processor.

Rudz

JXD S7100: The $140 Android Tablet That Plays Everything

It' s one thing to base your entire company's reputation off the wholesale infringement of popular gaming

devices, but JinXing Digital decided to kick things up a notch. As spotted by the Gadgeteer , the Shenzhen-

based group has officially released a tablet that manages to steal design notes and intellectual property

from Apple, Sony, and Nintendo. Even crazier, the entire device sells for a paltry 140 dollars.

Marketed as a PC tablet mixed with a gaming console, the JXD S7100 has a smorgasbord of features that

would send other tablet manufacturers into fits. Even though it only runs on Android 2.2, the tablet sports

a 7-inch 800x 480 touchscreen, 512MB RAM, 16GB of storage, 1080p HDMI-out connectivity, and USB

support, with a 0.3 megapixel camera in the front and 2 megapixels in the back. JXD's S7100 also has

multi-language menu support, so we have to assume that English-only speakers won't have too much

trouble navigating the system' s interface.

Phandroid notes that the processor and graphics specs may be the most impressive of all:

We’ve seen quite a few Android gaming handsets make their way out of China and while the JXD

S7100 doesn’t look much different, it’ s what this handset has on the inside that really caught our eye.

Boasting specs more along the lines of a Galaxy S II device, the JXD offers almost the same processor

with a dual-core Cortex A-9 processor and Mali 400 graphics core powering the device. This makes

the JXD more than capable of most graphics intensive Android titles as long as they don’t require

anything over Android 2. 2, which the device comes shipped with.

If some elements of the JXD S7100 look a bit.. . familiar, you're not seeing things. Although the majority of

the tablet's shell is pretty standard, the directional pad and button layout is ripped wholesale from Sony's

PlayStation devices, right down to the Triangle/Circle/ Cross/Square button logos. As shown in the official

product video (which includes background music from Justin Bieber's "Never Say Never" single), the JXD

S7100 is also built with ROM-based gaming in mind.

Prominently displayed in both the demo reel and the main product page is gameplay footage of Super

Mario 64, Metal Slug, King of Fighters '97, Mario Kart 64, Tomb Raider, and the hilariously mis-labed "Jump

Super Stars," which is actually Super Smash Bros. All of these titles can be played on the tablet via the

built-in software or an emulator, which opens the device up to ROM gaming. Where most companies

wouldn't display that right on the product's sleeve due to the painfully obvious legal implications, JXD does

prominently.

Although JXD's product page mostly focuses on the gaming aspects, the tablet's user interface attempts to

streamline any other app-related needs with an "Apps Center" and a "Game Center" that house up to 48

icons in each category. JXD also notes that instant messaging, web browsing, and e-reader software are

built-in and supported with the "capacitive five-points" touch panel. Considering the sheer number of

gaming consoles that JXD has already mimicked, this latest one is the most brazenly impressive.

We're not sure if Apple, Nintendo, and Sony's legal departments are still on holiday break, but if you want

to get your hands on a JXD S7100, the device is currently being sold at isharegifts.com and China Grabber ,

both in black and white color schemes.

Rudz

Cnet top 40 blue ray titles

Rudranil Das (@Ruds4u) - "CNET: The top 40 Blu-ray films http://t.co/EamNDmVt" --http://twitter.com/CNET/status/152847744350945282 

Cnet's top 40 blue ray titles.

Casio’s New G-SHOCK Connects To Smartphones, Shows Incoming Calls, Emails, SMS

Casio Japan is planning [JP ] to roll out

the G-SHOCK GB-6900 on March 16

next year, a wristwatch that connects

to certain smartphones via Bluetooth

LE (LE=low -energy, a standard that’s

baked into Bluetooth 4.0) . The device

will be compatible with the Medias LTE

N-04 D Android phone from NEC (to

be released next year) and

NEC’s Medias PP N-01 D.

Casio says that the G- SHOCK not only

synchronizes the time with the phones

but also shows incoming calls, emails,

or SMS on its display. Users can also

switch their handsets to vibration

mode by pushing a button on the

watch or set alarms.

The watch isn’t the first that connects

to phones, but the main selling point

here is the Bluetooth LE feature (in

fact, it’s the first watch with Bluetooth

4.0 on board): Bluetooth LE consumes

a fraction of the energy of other

Bluetooth versions. In the case of the

G-SHOCK GB-6900, Casio says users

can expect a battery life of about 2 years with one

conventional CR 2032 button battery.

The company initially planned to start

selling the watch in December but had

to push back the release date to

March 16 because of the floods in

Thailand (which dampened

production). It will cost 18,000 Yen (US

$231 ).

Rudz

60Beat, a Proper Game Controller for iOS

iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad

have turned out to be great for

games. I play more these days

than I have anytime since I was

a stoner in college, hooked up to

a SNES all day long. But

sometimes you just really need a

proper controller. Enter the

60Beat GamePad, a Playstation-

style joypad for iOS devices.

The 60Beat has almost as many

buttons as the keyboard on

which I’m typing this post.

There’s a D-pad, dual analog

sticks and a host of regular

buttons and shoulder buttons.

As if this wasn’ t enough to get

you entertaining thoughts of

jailbreaks and SNES emulators, it

gets better. The 60Beat doesn’t

use Bluetooth, or the 30-pin

dock connector. Hell, it doesn’t

even need any batteries.

Instead, it plugs into the

headphone jack. Check it out:

The only problem is that–

currently–there are only two

titles that work with the pad:

Bugdom 2 and Aftermath.

Adding support to games should

be pretty easy, though, so

hopefully there will be some big-

name titles joining the list. Grand

Theft Auto 3, currently on almost

constantly in the offices of

Gadget Lab Spain, would be a

great candidate.

The 60Beat GamePad is shipping

now, and costs $50.

Rudz

HTC makes locked bootloaders a thing of the past

(Credit: HTC)

As promised by HTC CEO and president

Peter Chou, all HTC Android devices

launched after September 2011 can have

their bootloaders unlocked.

The bootloader is a program that

controls the startup process for a

device. Unlocking the bootloader is a

key step in customizing Android to make

a phone do things its manufacturer (or

carrier) never intended. That's

something most people don't want to

do, but according to HTC, its customers

have been asking for it so much that it

sounds like it couldn't ignore them.

Note, this is not for unlocking your SIM

lock. It is just for unlocking the

bootloader. HTC is working on

unlocking models released before

September 2011; you can check this list

of currently supported devices to see if

yours is on it.

Of course, this doesn't mean you're free

to brick your device without

consequences. The HTCdev site detailing

the procedure repeatedly warns of side

effects and warranty concerns. Still, if

you've been itching to customize HTC

devices, this is a nice step forward.

Now it's your turn, Motorola.

(Via XDA Developers )

Rudz

Samsung Wave M available in India, for Rs. 12,500

The Samsung Wave M S7250 wasl recently officially launched in India, priced at roughly Rs. 12,500 . The Bada 2.0 -

based Wave M is also retailing for Rs. 11,900 for now, at Letsbuy.com .

The Wave M S7250 has a 3.65-inch HVGA (320x 480) display, 832MHz processor, 5MP autofocus camera with LED

flash, front-facing VGA camera, 150MB built in storage, expandable via microSD (2GB card bundled), and a 1,500

mAh battery that is rated to deliver up to 6 hour 30 minutes of talktime, and 480 hours of standby time.

The Samsung Wave M also has such connectivity options as HSDPA 7.2Mbps, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g /n, GPS with A-GPS

support, stereo FM with RDS, Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP , and microUSB 2.0 .

Bundled onboard, is the TouchWiz UI, Samsung ChatON instant messaging platform, push email, and an image

editor. The Wave M weighs in at 121 grams, and has a 12.2mm thickness. Notably, the Wave M S7250 also features

DNSe (Digital Natural Sound Engine) audio.

Rudz

Samsung Omnia W Preview

The 3. 7” Super AMOLED (not Plus) display is a good differentiator among the other new Windows Phone handsets that are

about to flood the market soon. Its nice, saturated colors are quite appealing. The 480x 800 pixels resolution should result in

252ppi pixel density, which is quite good, but due to the Pentile matrix, it is way less.

The display sports the usual for AMOLEDs pitch blacks, high contrast and very good viewing angles, but the colors displayed

are on the colder side, again something that seems inherent to Super AMOLEDs, making white appear blueish.

Front facing camera Buttons below the display

Overall the design of the Samsung Omnia W doesn't stray away from the Windows Phone guidelines, offering the obligatory

three navigational keys below the screen, with a physical Home button, and a dedicated camera key plus LED flash to

accompany the 5MP shooter on the back. The chassis is a tad bland but pleasant to hold and look at, and if the phone was

offered in other colors than black it would even be a looker.

Rudz

Samsung omnia w Review videos

 unboxing 


 review 



Courtesy- www.igyaan.com   and www.phonesarena.com

Rudz

Hands on: Sony Ericsson Xperia Active

What is it with Sony Ericsson and the unique designs of the phones! The Xperia Arc S walks the design path of

the phone it is succeeding. The Xperia Ray has one of the slimmest display sizes and now the Xperia Active.

From what we can understand, this phone is simply meant for the “look at me” crowd. Hence, it no wonder that

the phone comes with multiple colours of battery covers with the phone - one to match your wardrobe daily!

Moving beyond that, here is what we think about the Xperia Active:

The build of the phone is quite satisfactory, even though it is mostly plastic.

Needless to say, at 16.5mm, this phone is one of the fattest (or should we say thickest, to not annoy someone!)

around.

Multiple colour options for the battery cover remind of the time when Motorola used to offer the same with

one of their truly forgetful phone!

The 3-inch display has a nice crisp feel to the text rendered on it. Adequate brightness levels mean that even in

bright sunlight, reading that SMS will not be a problem.

The TimeScape UI in this phone is the one that we saw in the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini and the Xperia Mini

Pro, launched a few months back. It has the corner menus, but the widgets remain largely the same across the

TimeScape versions.

Just like the Xperia Ray, the Active also has a slim display. The fear that the on screen keypad wont work in

portrait mode was allayed very quickly. Despite the thin keys, the typing is a very precise activity, with literally no

spelling mistakes.

The charging port is hidden behind a cover. We don’t really think it is a very good idea to keep opening that

cover daily when charging the phone. Longevity will definitely suffer.

For its uniqueness, the Xperia Active is retailing for around Rs 19,000 in the market. From what we have

experienced in this short duration we have used the phone, this one definitely has a lot of uniqueness about

it. But beyond that, it might struggle to compete against the oomph value commanded by the Apple iPhone

3GS (yes, still!).

Stay tuned for a detailed review!

Rudz

Madras High Court issues notice to telecom operators about SMS rate hikes

After hearing a petition regarding additional charges on SMSes during festival days, the Madras High Court has

issued a notice to TRAI and the regional managers of 10 telecom operators, directing them not to hike prices

during such periods.

The petition seeks an interim stay on what it calls “unfair” SMS rate hikes during festivals, hoping for it be put into

place by New Year’s eve. It further said such hikes, enforced when people most use the service, to be "fully

violating natural justice and rights given in the Constitution."

While the news certainly is heartening, we don’t expect much to come of it just yet, certainly not India-wide , or

even before the upcoming New Year’s celebration. Another hearing handling the admitted petition will be held on

January 21.

The list of telecom operators who’ve been issued notices by the Madras High Court: Aircel, Bharti Airtel, BSNL

Mobile, Idea, MTS, Reliance, Tata Indicom/Docomo, Uninor, Vodafone, and Videocon.

Source: ET

Rudz

Samsung ships 1 million Galaxy Note devices in two months

Samsung his shipped 1 million Galaxy

Notes since the device debuted in

October.

(Credit: Samsung)

Samsung said it has

shipped one million Galaxy Notes since

the mobile gadget hit the market in late

October. But the electronics giant didn't

say how many it has actually sold.

Part smartphone and part tablet, the

Note has seen a rise in sales across

Europe and Asia , particularly France,

Germany, Hong Kong, and Taiwan,

according to a Samsung press release

displayed today on Flickr. Samsung

called the Note's sales "notable" since

the device is creating a new market for

a cross between a phone and tablet.

The Note sailed to the shores of the

U.K. in mid-November, further

contributing to its sales. Though U.S.

consumers are still Note-less, Samsung

has confirmed that a U.S. launch is in

the works for next year but hasn't yet

revealed a specific date.

First shown off at the IFA Electronics

Show in early September, the Note

functions and is marketed as a

smartphone but is sized like a very

small tablet with a 5.3- inch screen.

Outfitted with Android 2.3 Gingerbread,

the Note is powered by a 1.4GHz dual-

core processor and includes 16

gigabytes of internal storage with a

microSD card slot that can hold up to 32

GB.

Beyond using Wi-Fi, the device can tap

into a variety of data networks,

including 4G LTE, HSPA+, and Edge.

Samsung also includes a stylus to let

people write notes and draw.

"One million global shipping of Galaxy

Note means it has well positioned itself

as a market creator," a Samsung

representative said in the press release.

"Samsung will continuously strengthen

its leadership in the global smartphone

market as well as create new markets

with innovative devices."

Of course, the 1 million number marks

only shipments to retailers, not sales to

consumers.

Samsung has in the past fudged the two

when referring to its Galaxy Tab tablet.

Last December, the company announced

that it had sold 1 million Galaxy Tab

units, and then in January claimed it

sold 2 million. A Samsung executive

later admitted that those numbers

didn't refer to consumer sales but to

the number of tablets shipped to

retailers.

With the Note, Samsung seems to be

following its latest strategy of sticking

with shipment numbers and not

revealing actual sales data. Typically,

such hybrid devices have a difficult time

carving out a niche in the marketplace.

But sources told AllThingsD that the

Note actually sold out in Hong Kong

during its first month. So the next

question is: will the Note enjoy the

same demand in the U.S. that it's

captured in Europe and Asia?

Rudz

Smartphone or tablet for Christmas? Here’s a list of recommended apps from AVG’s community

You can get an app for just about everything these days, even for the things you never thought you needed,

such as star gazing apps, or to the very useful, such as apps to help you locate your phone when you’ve

misplaced it!

And it’s likely that new smartphones or tablets will be among the most popular presents this festive season

and the simple fact is that a tablet or smartphone are only made better by the apps you have on it.

So we asked our Facebook community to tell us what their favourite apps are for their Android phones and

tablets. So if you are the lucky recipient, you at least have a place to start for highly recommended apps.

Let us know what you think? It’s not an exhaustive list and I am sure there are some apps missed off, so let

us know what you think and suggest your favorites as well.

Of course, if you want to stay safe then download AVG Mobilation from the Android marketplace to keep your

phone and tablet safe and virus free.

AVG’s Facebook community’s favourite apps

Performance and data improving apps

Advanced Task Killer – helps manage tasks and stops them running and draining your memory

CPU Master – changes CPU speed of a rooted Android phone

My data manager – control mobile data use and save yourself some money

AirDroid - manage and control your Android device Over-The-Air

JuiceDefender - manage your battery life

Useful productivity apps

Camscanner - turn phone to documents scanner

Springpad – a great remembering tool

Trip it – good for keeping your holiday itineraries and plans in one place

Google goggles – search the real world by taking a picture

Barcode scanner – scan barcodes then looks up prices and reviews

AK Notepad – easy note taking

Pandora radio – free radio

Other useful lists of Android apps can be found here – Best Android Apps of 2011 and also 101 best Android

apps.

Happy festive and holiday season.

Cortesy- avg.

Rudz

Facebook's Timeline coming to iPad next month

If reports are to believed, Facebook's Timeline will be available for the iPad users by January 2012. It's notable

that the Timeline is already available for the Android and iPhone users. The iPad version of Timeline was slated to

be launched in mid December, but got delayed due to some bugs and technical snags.

According to reports, Facebook wanted to leverage the iPad's graphics and touchscreen abilities. Facebook has

said that the iPad version of Timeline requires more delicate coding than the conventional smartphone

applications. The reports of Timeline for iPad come months after Facebook launched its iPad app .

Facebook had rolled out its Timeline profile earlier this month. The social networking site had also released a

mobile version of the Timeline. Later, it was also made available on Google's Android platform. A few days later,

Facebook brought the Timeline to the iPhones.

The iPad users can presently access Timeline via Facebook's mobile site using a browser. However, the Timeline

reportedly does not work very well through the browser on the iPad. With the arrival of Timeline, the iPad users

will be able to access the full functionality of Facebook. They can also add or replace the cover photo for their

Timeline.

Rudz

Google, Facebook top Internet destinations in 2011

Search

was still more important than being social

on the Web in 2011--but not by much.

Google edged out Facebook as the top

Internet destination this year, according

to data released today by market

researcher Nielsen. The Web giant logged

153.4 million average unique visitors per

month, compared with the social-

networking giant's 137.6 million.

Yahoo came in at No. 3 with 130.1 million

unique monthly visitors, while Microsoft's

MSN/WindowsLive/Bing and Google's

YouTube filled out the top 5.

While Google was tops in overall Web

properties, Facebook remained firmly

entrenched as No. 1 in social networks

and blogs with the aforementioned 137.6

million average unique visitors. Blogger

came in at a distance second with 45.7

million average monthly unique visitors,

and Twitter was third with 23.5 million.

Google+, Google's nascent social network,

came in at No. 8 with 8.2 million average

unique visitors per month, behind

WordPress.com MySpace, LinkedIn, and

Tumblr.

Also not a surprise, YouTube was the top

video destination on the Web, averaging

111 million unique visitors a month. Vevo

was a very distant second with 34 million

average unique monthly visitors, and at

No. 3 was Facebook with 29.8 million

average unique monthly visitors. Video-

streaming site Hulu came in at No. 8 with

12.4 million average unique monthly

visitors. Bringing up the bottom of the top

10 list was troubled video site Netflix,

with 7.4 million average unique monthly

visitors.

Nielsen also ranked smartphones, listing

Apple at the top with 29 percent of the

market, followed by HTC with 21 percent

and Research In Motion with 17 percent.

Rudz

Nokia 603 available online in India, at Rs. 14,285

The Nokia Belle-powered Nokia 603, which till now had not been officially released in India, is now retailing

online, at Letsbuy.com , for Rs. 14,285 .

The Nokia 603 is roughly the same phone as the Nokia 600 , which was released back in October this year at Rs.

12,999, with a few differences. The Nokia 603 has a ClearBlack IPS LCD display, instead of the Nokia 600’s TFT LCD.

The Nokia 603’s display is also larger, at 3.5 -inches, compared to the Nokia 600’s 3.2 -inch display

Other features on the Nokia 603, in addition to the Nokia 600 features, include USB-on-the -Go support, active

noise cancellation with dedicated mic, microSIM card slot, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g /n, Quick Office document editor, and

TV-out. It should also come with differently coloured back panels.

Common specifications include a 1GHz processor, 2D /3D graphics HW accelerator with OpenVG1.1 and OpenGL

ES 2.0 , 5MP fixed focus camera with 720p HD video recording, as well as such connectivity options as HSDPA 14.4

Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps, Bluetooth v3 .0 with A2DP and EDR, NFC, microUSB 2.0 , stereo FM radio with RDS, GPS

with A-GPS support.

The Nokia 603 weighs in at 110 grams, and has a 1,300 mAh battery, rated to deliver 68 hours of battery life, 8.7

hours of talk time, and 540 hours of standby time.

Rudz

BlackBerry PlayBook prices slashed by 50%, till December 3

If you were itching to pick up RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook at a bargain, you have till Saturday the 31st to enjoy

the new slashed prices. Now selling for half its original pricing of Rs. 27,990, the 16GB PlayBook will retail for Rs.

13,490 during the limited period offer.

The 32GB and 64GB models of the PlayBook have received their share of dramatic price cuts as well, at Rs. 15,990

and Rs. 24,490, respectively, compared to their original Rs. 32,990 and Rs. 37,990 pricing.

While the BlackBerry PlayBook was not exceptionally well-received globally, no-one denied its capabilities in some

spheres, including the hardware. Consumers could always load the Android operating system of their choice on

the device. However, even with that incentive (albeit effort- laden) and the reduced price – the PlayBook does not

still become too appetizing a bargain.

Let us know what you think about the limited period offer, in the comments section below.

Rudz

BlackBerry PlayBook prices slashed by 50%, till December 3

If you were itching to pick up RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook at a bargain, you have till Saturday the 31st to enjoy

the new slashed prices. Now selling for half its original pricing of Rs. 27,990, the 16GB PlayBook will retail for Rs.

13,490 during the limited period offer.

The 32GB and 64GB models of the PlayBook have received their share of dramatic price cuts as well, at Rs. 15,990

and Rs. 24,490, respectively, compared to their original Rs. 32,990 and Rs. 37,990 pricing.

While the BlackBerry PlayBook was not exceptionally well-received globally, no-one denied its capabilities in some

spheres, including the hardware. Consumers could always load the Android operating system of their choice on

the device. However, even with that incentive (albeit effort- laden) and the reduced price – the PlayBook does not

still become too appetizing a bargain.

Let us know what you think about the limited period offer, in the comments.



Rudz

Android Market still selling half a million albums for $4.99

Google is keeping the holiday spirit

alive on the Android Market by trimming

prices on more than half a million albums

and ten million songs.

Initially kicked off early last week, the

blowout music sale offers a large array of

albums for just $4.99 and an even larger

array of individual tracks for just 49 cents.

Though advertised as a limited time offer,

the sale is continuing to run past

Christmas.

Marked-down albums include ones from

the likes of the Rolling Stones, Aretha

Franklin, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, and

Rihanna. The individual tracks also

represent a diverse playlist from such

artists as U2, Amy Winehouse, Elton John,

the Beatles, and Frank Sinatra. Being a big

jazz fan, I discovered a healthy collection

of jazz albums and songs on sale.Android users can download songs and

albums directly to their devices. However,

non-Android users can also grab their

favorite music by storing it on their cloud-

based Google Music page or downloading

it to their computers in the form of MP3

files.

The search giant launched its Music store

around the middle of November in an

effort to compete with iTunes and other

online audio services.

Beyond its blowout sale, Google has been

offering more than 100 songs for free ,

including tunes from Kelly Clarkson, Kenny

Chesney, Five for Fighting, Harry Connick

Jr., and Elvis Presley.

Published with Blogger-droid v2.0.2

LG Prada 3 too sexy.(up coming)

After briefly mentioning itk
yesterday in its Ice Cream Sandwich
upgrade plans, LG spilled more details
today on its upcoming LG Prada 3
Android smartphone.
Like the Prada and Prada 2 before it,
the Prada 3's calling card is its sleek
(0.3- inch), "look at me!" profile. Though
relatively minimalist by Prada
standards, the handset's glossy black
skin, "Saffiano" pattern on the battery
cover, and prominent logo are enough
make it eye-catching. Accessories are
optional, but encouraged.
Features include a WVGA 4.3-inch
display with a Prada-designed user
interface, a 1GHz dual-core processor,
a 1540aMh battery, an 8-megapixel
camera, and 8MB of internal memory.
Though currently running Android, the
Prada 3 will get Ice Cream Sandwich in
the second quarter of next year.
The Prada 3 is debuting in South Korea
first on SK Telecom and then on KT on
January 5. Full price is a hefty 899,000
won ($775), but both carriers will knock
the price down if you sign a contract.

Windows Phone Marketplace hits 50,000-app mark

Nearly a year and two months after its
launch, Microsoft's Windows Phone
Marketplace has hit a new milestone.
The collection of apps and games that run
on Microsoft's Windows Phone devices
now sits north of 50,000 applications,
according to a count by the blog All
About Windows Phone. More than a third
of those were added in the past three
months, and nearly 16 percent within the
past 30 days, the site said.
In actuality, users have access to fewer
than the 50,126 items on the store as of
today, with about 6,000 apps having been
removed from the store over time, cutting
the total count in the U.S. to 42,655 apps.

The
Windows Phone Marketplace's last big
benchmark was 40,000 apps, a number
Microsoft reached less than a month ago,
followed by 45,000 on December 12. Both
of those counts, which were logged by All
About Windows Phone, set Microsoft to
hit the magic 50,000 number by the first
week in January, a benchmark today's
total bests by a week.
In addition to the total, the new numbers
show that the volume of apps and games
added to the Windows Live Marketplace
each day is increasing. At the 50,000
mark, Microsoft's publishing 265 new
games and apps each day, up from the
165 a day total from mid-November.
As mentioned in previous coverage,
Microsoft's app volume comes in
considerably lower than that of its
competitors, which had a multi-year head
start on their platforms. Apple's App
Store, for instance, tops 500,000 apps as
of May, with a more recent and unofficial
count from app tracker Appshopper.com
putting that total at 526,855. 150,000 of
those apps were published inside a four
month time period. As for Google, an
overall app count from analytics firm
Distimo pegged its volume at 380,297
applications in October.
Microsoft launched Windows Phone 7 in
Europe near the end of October last year,
bringing it to North America in the second
week of November. The platform is a
reboot of the company's Windows Mobile
platform and ties in with a number of its
software and services including Microsoft
Office and Xbox Live.

How to place pictures in Facebook chat

Over the weekend, a Facebook chat feature was revealed--one that allows you to use a
profile picture to represent someone instead of simply typing their name.
To place a picture into your chat, all you need to know is the Facebook user ID for either the friend or the page
you want to use. You can find either one by visiting the user's profile and looking at the URL.
User ID's can also be a string of numbers. Using the URL

Once you have the user ID, to place the profile picture of that user into a chat, surround the user ID with double
brackets. So, as an example, to place the CNET profile picture in a chat, you would enter [[cnet]] . Once you send
the message, Facebook will automatically place the profile picture into the chat, instead of the text.
Here's an example of what it looks like:

Going one step further, a generator was made, which allows you to type in what you want to say and get the
corresponding picture codes for each letter. Simply copy and paste the code into your chat to see the fruits of
your labor. See below for an example.
Click to enlarge

A list of troll faces can be found on the Reddit page linked to at the bottom of the post. Yes, trolling via Facebook
chat just got a whole lot easier. This trick will only work when using chatting on Facebook.com, it will not work on
any of the mobile Facebook apps.
While inserting a profile picture can  be fun, and will probably be used a few times and then forgotten, the
generator is sure to catch on with your 13-year-old cousin. So please, for the betterment of the Internet, try to limit
the use of the generator to pranks and annoying your friends and not letting your cousin in on it. Please?

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Reports: Nokia prepping a new flagship smartphone, Lumia 900

If reports are to believed, Nokia is
prepping a new Windows Phone
operating system based device. The
rumoured device, dubbed as the
Nokia Lumia 900, does not have
physical buttons on the front panel. A
leaked image posted by My Nokia Blog
suggests that Nokia is likely to launch
its next flagship smartphone at the
forthcoming Consumer Electronics
Show (CES) to be held in Las Vegas in
January second week. The Nokia Lumia
900 will be accompanied by other new
Nokia smartphones as well.
According to reports, the Nokia Lumia
900 will feature a 4.3 -inch ClearBlack
AMOLED display and will come with
the latest Windows Phone Tango
update. The Lumia 900 is reportedly
powered by a 1.4 GHz processor and
features an 8 megapixel rear camera
with single LED flash. The upcoming
Nokia smartphone is likely to sport a
front-facing camera and is expected
to come in a variety of colour options.
The rumours of new Nokia flagship
device come in the backdrop of
reported battery issues in the newly
launched Nokia Lumia 800
smartphone. However, Nokia has
clarified that the battery glitch is
likely to have minimal India impact.

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Microsoft: Five things to look for in 2012

Next year is one of
those years that can't come soon
enough for Microsoft.
It's not that 2011 was a particularly
difficult year. The company posted
record revenue for the fiscal year that
ended June 30. And its 2-year-old PC
operating system, Windows 7, hit 500
million copies sold , further embedding
it as the most widely used operating
system in the world. But 2011 had few
big product launches at the company,
Office 365 and Internet Explorer 9
notwithstanding.
Next year will be altogether different.
Microsoft is prepping the big kahuna of
its product arsenal, Windows 8 . The
company hasn't set a date, though most
analysts expect the flagship operating
system to debut before the end of the
year, and perhaps in time for back-to-
school shopping. From that product,
much else from Redmond flows.
So here are five things to look for from
Microsoft in 2012:
1. Windows 8 tablets
Windows 8 is one of the boldest bets
Microsoft will make, radically changing
the interface on the operating system to
the company's tile-based Metro look,
first used by Windows Phone 7 last
year. The familiar desktop photo
covered with application and file icons
will be available to PC users who want
it. But Microsoft is pushing the new
touch-friendly interface to convince
consumers to buy tablet computers that
will run it.
It won't be an easy sell. Microsoft will
be coming to the tablet market more
than two years after Apple iPad
launched and quickly became a
commercial success. And this holiday
season, Amazon debuted its Kindle Fire,
which became the first non-Apple tablet
to gain a meaningful foothold. Market
analyst Forrester recently reported that
consumer interest in Windows tablets is
waning.
As the core of computing moves beyond
the PC, Microsoft needs Windows 8
tablets to succeed. It's all the more
pressing as PC growth sputters and the
tablet computer market soars.
The market muscle of Microsoft and its
partners will help propel Windows
tablets at their debut. But unless
Microsoft can convince developers to
create tablet-specific apps that users
can't live without, the devices will have
a hard time making a dent in iPad's
massive lead.
2. Xbox moves farther into live TV
Even in its earliest days, Microsoft's
video game console business was
pegged as a Trojan Horse to bring the
company's technology from the office to
the living room. But the brains behind
Xbox knew they had to make a great
gaming experience job No. 1. Now,
leading the United States in console
sales in 2011, Xbox is pushing in earnest
beyond gaming.
Microsoft just brought the first hint of
live TV to Xbox consoles with an
updated look to its Xbox Live service
earlier this month. In addition to
introducing the Metro-style look to
Xbox, it also let customers of Verizon's
Fios cable television service choose
from 26 different live TV channels--
Comedy Central, HBO, and
Nickelodeon. A handful of other
partners are offering live programming
through Xbox as well.
That's clearly just the start for
Microsoft. The company is moving
toward the goal of getting consumers to
fire up their Xbox whenever they flip on
their TVs, not just when they want to
play a game. Next year will see more
live television content come to Xbox
Live. It's a foundation that Microsoft will
build out as it readies the next version
of the Xbox console, something a
source on the Xbox team says will
happen in 2013 .
3. Windows Phone: We're No. 3
It may be a measure of the decade-long
struggle to succeed in mobile telephony
that, for Microsoft, a victory would be
grabbing the third place spot in terms
of smartphone market share for its
Windows Phone software. While the
company has wrestled to arrive at a
winning formula, rivals Apple and
Google have introduced mobile-phone
operating systems that have seized
business that Microsoft had hoped to
grab.
Microsoft rebooted its phone effort at
the end of last year, introducing a
passel of new phones from partners
running its brand new operating system,
Windows Phone 7. The slick-looking
software, refreshed in September with
an update dubbed Mango, has won
plaudits from reviewers for its
animation and app integration.
While the technology is catching up with
rivals, Windows Phone's market share
hasn't. According to market research
firm Gartner, just 1.5 percent of the
smartphones worldwide run Microsoft's
operating system. And rivals aren't
standing still. Apple's new iPhone 4S
has outsold every other mobile phone
since its debut in October. And despite
the market fragmentation of Google's
Android, with different handset
manufacturers running different versions
of the mobile operating system, it
continues to pull ahead in the
marketplace.
There's little doubt that Windows Phone
share will grow, if only because of the
marketing push Microsoft and partners,
particularly Nokia, will make, coupled
with the tiny toehold it currently has.
But it's most likely to grab customers
from Research In Motion's foundering
Blackberry business rather than
established Apple and Google
customers.
4. Patent litigation aggressor
The ground Microsoft hasn't been able
to take away from Android in the
marketplace may well be covered by
the revenue it's able to generate
through the threat of litigation. The
software giant has persuaded several
handset makers--including HTC,
Wistron, and Compal -- to pay it a vig
for each Android device they sell to
settle allegations that the mobile
operating system violates Microsoft's
patents.
The Android device makers that don't
pay? Microsoft's taking them to court.
Two high profile cases will move toward
resolution next year-- Microsoft's suit
against Barnes & Noble, whose Nook e-
reader runs Android, and a separate
suit against Motorola . (Google is in the
process of acquiring Motorola Mobility.)
The tactic has proven so successful that
in 2011, Microsoft started collecting
fees from companies that make devices
running Google's Chrome operating
system as well, including Acer and
ViewSonic. Expect Microsoft to continue
to press device makers that use its
rival's technology. Likewise, count on
those manufacturers, particularly the
smaller ones, to pay up rather than face
Microsoft in the courthouse.
5. Growing search through social
Like the mobile-phone business,
Microsoft has bounced from one
strategy to the next in a bid to be more
relevant in Internet search. It's re-
branded its search engine a few times,
added key partners, and cycled through
senior executives, and still significantly
trails market leader Google.
There's one Microsoft partnership that
could start to pay off in 2012, and it's
not the deal to handle search queries
from Yahoo . It's Microsoft's deal with
Facebook. In May, Microsoft began
including recommendations from
Facebook friends into its Bing search
engine, creating customized results by
elevating the ones that receive a "like"
from someone in the searcher's
Facebook network. So when someone is
looking for a Thai restaurant in Seattle,
for example, a spot that earned a like
from a Facebook friend will rise in that
person's particular search rankings.
Google is on to the same formula too,
creating its Google+ social network to
infuse its search results with customized
answers to Web surfer queries. But in
social networking, Facebook remains
king. Using Facebook "likes" are just
the first step. Microsoft clearly plans to
add more social signals to Bing in 2012.
And while that won't topple Google, it
does offer the opportunity to grab a
large slice of the search business by
providing more relevant results.

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Mobiles forced to send premium-rate texts in new attack

Hacker hijacks SMS error message
flaw

Cybercrooks may be able to force
mobiles to send premium-rate SMS
messages or prevent them from
receiving messages due to security
weaknesses in mobile telecoms
standards.
The weakness involves the handling of
messages directed towards SIM
Application Toolkits, applications
preloaded onto SIM cards by mobile
operators. The applications can be
used for functions such as displaying
available credit or checking voicemail,
as well as handling value- added
services, such as micro-payments.
SIM Toolkits receive commands via
specially formatted and digitally signed
SMS messages. These messages are
processed without appearing in a
user's inbox and without triggering
any other form of alert. Some mobiles
may wake from a sleeping state on
receipt of such messages but that is
about all that's likely to happen.
The encryption scheme deployed is
robust but problems might arise
because error messages are
automatically sent out if a command
cannot be executed. The SIM Toolkit
service message can be configured so
that responses are made via SMS to a
sender's number or to the operator's
message centre. This creates two
possible attack scenarios.
In the first case, an attacker might use
an SMS spoofing service to force the
dispatch of an error message to a
premium-rate number, potentially
ringing up fraudulent charges against
the account of a targeted phone
owner in the process.
Attackers can't control the content of
the automatic error responses, a
potential stumbling block when it
comes to signing up people up for
these services simply because they've
sent a message, but it's easy to
imagine this tactic will be effective
enough times to make it potentially
workable. A premium-rate number is
restricted to signing up people to its
services only in response to properly
formatted requests rather than an any
old message.
In the second case, an SIM Toolkit
error message is sent to the
operator's message centre, and this is
interpreted as a message delivery
failure. Operators usually attempt to
resend the undelivered message:
creating an error loop that prevents
the delivery of legitimate SMS
messages to a user's handset until a
bogus SIM Toolkit message times out,
typically after 24 hours or so. Because
of this, sending a series of bogus SIM
Toolkit messages creates a means of
running an SMS DoS attack.
Independent security researcher
Bogdan Alecu gave a presentation
explaining the security shortcoming,
and demonstrating how it might be
exploited, at a recent DeepSec security
conference in Vienna, Austria.
Alecu tested the attack against phones
from Samsung, Nokia, HTC, RIM and
Apple. Only phones from Nokia have
the option to ask users before
confirming the dispatch of an SIM
Toolkit response. However the the
option "Confirm SIM Service Actions"
is usually disabled by default.
Operators could mitigate the attack by
filtering SIM Toolkit messages and
whitelisting numbers that are allowed
to send them. However Alecu said he
is yet to encounter an operator that
applies such controls, even after
testing the attack on mobile operators
in Romania, Bulgaria, Austria,
Germany and France, IDG reports .
The vulnerability was reported by
Alecu to the Computer Emergency
Response Team and a vulnerability
number has been allocated but there
are no details on when a fix might be
produced. Alecu said that the issue is
more easily addressed by filtering by
operators than by trying to update
millions of handsets anyway.

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Apple may use fuel cells to power iOS and Mac portable devices

Apple has reportedly filed a patent
for a new type of battery
technology for their mobile devices –
hydrogen fuel cells. Certainly
eyebrow raising, the patents show
one direction the fruity giant is
pursuing in order to give its future
mobile devices a few weeks worth of
battery life without a recharge.
The schematics of the new fuel cell
system can be seen in the patent
application images below, released by
the US Patent & Trademark Office on
December 22. The company hopes to
power both iOS and OSX portable
devices with the new tech. This is
apparently not the first patent in fuel
cell technology filed by Apple in the
recent past, with one in October
covering fuel cell plates.
The latest patent applications show
the use of an Apple MagSafe
connector for fuel cell recharging. The
fuel cell system design, as seen in the
images, seems to be based with the
intent to provide power to and
receiving power from a rechargeable
battery. It contains a fuel cell stack to
converts fuel into electrical power, as
well as a regulating controller, a
power link, and a communication link
t.
The patent filings elaborate:
"Such fuel cells and associated fuels
can potentially achieve high volumetric
and gravimetric energy densities,
which can potentially enable
continued operation of portable
electronic devices for days or even
weeks without refuelling"
Apart from hydrogen or
hydrocarbons, Apple is also looking
into alternative fuel cells technology,
such as solid oxide, molten carbonate,
direct methanol, and alkaline fuel cells.
You can check out more details about
the technology in the patent
application.
The application cites the following
reason for pursuing the technology:
"Our country's continuing reliance on
fossil fuels has forced our
government to maintain complicated
political and military relationships with
unstable governments in the Middle
East, and has also exposed our
coastlines and our citizens to the
associated hazards of offshore
drilling."

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Experimental CyanogenMOD 9 port brings ICS update for Motorola Defy

Motorola Defy users can now upgrade to the

latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich platform

via an experimental build available at the XDA

developers' forum. The experimental

CyanogenMOD 9 port comes with various unfixed

bugs, therefore users may have to wait to get a

fully functional platform. Majority of important

functions such as touchscreen, USB, Wi-Fi and

hardware components are reported to be working

fine excluding the camera and other some minor

snags.

The build is recommended for only advanced

users. To install the port, one needs CM7. 1 stable

ROM or nightly and then boot in recovery to flash

the ICS build.

Users looking to update their Motorola DEFY

devices should visit this forum at the XDA

Developer’s site.

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Aakash tablet now selling on NCarry.com

If you missed out on ordering the
Aakash tablet last time, here's good
news for you. DataWind's ultra low-
cost tablet is now available at online
shopping site NCarry.com. The
Aakash was previously exclusively
available at the aakashtablet.com .
The Ncarry.com is offering the Aakash
tablet for Rs. 2,499 along with Rs. 199
shipping charges. Though customers
are given option of cash on delivery,
but the site stresses that it will give
preference to online paid orders as
they have limited stock of the
Aakash tablet.
It may be recalled that that Aakash
tablet was sold out in less than a
week it was released online. However,
the last update we had on the Aakash
that DataWind had delayed its
delivery till January. The Aakash tablet
was supposed to be delivered within
seven days of the order. A
spokesperson of DataWind said the
people who had booked the tablet
online would start receiving the device
in January.
Aakash tablet is now also available
on Ncarry.com
DataWind is still taking pre-orders of
the UbiSlate 7 , the upgraded version
of the Aakash tablet, which is slated to
arrive early next year. The UbiSlate 7
a.k.a Aakash 2 comes with various
improvements over the present
Aakash tablet. Read our detailed
analysis on why you should skip the
Aakash tablet and choose the UbiSlate
7. Also read, five reasons why
UbiSlate 7 should have been the
original Aakash tablet .

Angry Birds named most downloaded paid app of 2011

Rovio's Angry Birds has been named
the most downloaded paid app for
the smartphones and tablets in 2011.
According to research firm Distimo,
Angry Birds was downloaded more
than any other application across all
major operating systems including
Android, iOS, Windows Phone and
others. The only platform missing out
on the list is BlackBerry. However, the
game was recently made available on
the BlackBerry's App World.
Angry Birds was followed by Fruit
Ninja, while another variant of Angry
Birds, Angry Birds Season grabbed
the third spot on the list of the paid
apps for the year 2011. Among the
free apps, Facebook grabbed the top
spot, while Pandora Radio followed at
the second spot. The free versions of
Word with Friends and Angry Birds
remained on third and fourth position
respectively.
The Distimo report covers data
collected from January to November
2011. The report has various notable
findings such as Apple App Store has
four times more revenue than
Google's Android Market. China is
rapidly catching up with the US in
downloading apps from the Apple
App Store. Amazon's Appstore for
Android has posted the fastest
growth in terms of apps availability.
The Windows Phone Marketplace has
increased the number of apps by 400
per cent past this year and is the
fourth largest app store.

A look at the AMD Radeon HD 7970, the new single-GPU king

AMD has introduced its first Southern Islands GPU, the AMD Radeon HD 7970, featuring a record 4.31 billion transistors, more than 1.5x its previous generation’s single-GPU flagship, the HD 6970, and more than twice the HD 5870. The Radeon HD 7970 is based on AMD’s new Tahiti GPU, and features the company’s brand new Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture.

The AMD Radeon HD 7970 has a couple of other firsts to its name – it’s the first graphics card to use a 28nm GPU, as well as the first card with support for Direct3D 11.1 (though the first drivers for the new standard are expected only with Windows 8 beta, early next year). The HD 7970’s Tahiti GPU is fabricated on the new High-K process at TSMC, and has a die size of 365mm2.

Expected to release on January 9th, at the CES 2012 trade show, the AMD Radeon HD 7970 has been given an MSRP of $550, placing it in direct competition with Nvidia’s single-GPU flagship – theGeForce GTX 580, while being slightly more expensive, and effectively replacing the HD 6970. Pricing is expected to drop after a while however, effectively transferring the cost saving of the 28nm process to the user. Lower end Southern Islands GPUs expected are the Pitcairn and Cape Verde.

The new card has much improved tessellation as well as overall performance, finally beating the Fermi architecture at its own game. The HD 7970 is between 5% and 35% faster than NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 580, depending on the benchmark. Some benchmarks, showed the single GPU HD 7970 outpacing a GTX 580 SLI combination by a significant margin. Refer to AnandTech’s benchmarks for a closer look at the performance differences. 

Before getting to the new architecture, we take a brief look at the hardware specifications of the AMD Radeon HD 7970. It contains 2048 stream processors, a 384bit memory bus, 3GB of GDDR5 video memory, a 925MHz core clock, a 5.5GHz memory clock (effective), 32ROPs, and 128 texture units divided into 32 CUs (AMD’s new Compute Units).

Graphics Core Next ArchitectureWith the new architecture, the Radeon HD 7970 is rated to deliver 3.79TFLOPs of theoretical computing performance. Memory bandwidth is a startling 264GB/sec. The Radeon HD 7970 is much more powerful than the 6970, but thanks to the new process as well as the new power management technology, has a healthier TDP of 220W (250W PowerTune limit). It has a 15W idle power consumption, which drops to as low as 3W with ZeroCore Power technology – which almost completely switches off the GPU when not required, even cycling down the fan when the display is off. This also makes it much quieter.

The new Graphics Core Next architecture is completely new in many ways, primarily replacing the Very Long Instruction Wordset (VLIW4 in the recent Cayman GPU offering) Stream Processor architecture with a new non-VLIW SIMD-based one. The move places emphasis on general computing tasks, and its benefits will be seen not just for discrete GPUs, but also AMD’s future Fusion and Bulldozer offerings. The new SIMD focuses on getting better thread level parallelism (TLP), rather than instruction level parallelism, which the VLIW architecture excelled at.

Principally, the biggest difference between the two architectures is the utilization of ALUs, with the GCN architecture allowing the GPU to schedule tasks ahead of time, and still enable dynamic scheduling during execution. This ensures that less processing units sit idle, and are used to even higher efficiency. Refer to AnandTech’s illuminating article about the new Graphics Core Next architecture for more information of how exactly all this works.

Other New FeaturesApart from ZeroCore Power technology, there are plenty of other new features on the HD 7970, such as Digital Discrete Multipoint Audio (DDMA), which allows for sound to embedded at multiple output points via DisplayPort or HDMI ports, such as each monitor’s speakers in a multi-display setup. This provides improved surround sound capability.

Also new, is D3D11.1 hardware support, which has such features as Target Independent Rasterization. As in the case of the D3D10 or D3D11 releases, here the hardware is ahead of the actual API’s release, but will obviously have to wait for it before becoming useful – wait until a Windows 8 beta Catalyst driver is released.

AMD has introduced Fast HDMI with the HD 7970 and the Southern Islands GPUs, with increased support for 4K x 2K displays, with new cables supporting the higher clocked transmissions, from 165MHz up to 340MHz.

Another new feature, developed as direct competition to Intel’s Quick Sync feature, is AMD’s Video Codec Engine (VCE). This feature will also be in future AMD Fusion APUs. The new hardware H.264 encoders of the VCE system work in Full Mode or Hybrid Mode. In the energy efficient Full Mode, it uses the fixed function hardware on the GPU. With Hybrid Mode, only Entropy Encode is handled by fixed function hardware, while other steps will be handled by the GPU itself, enabling near archival quality encodes. For now, as AMD has not provided information on the topic, it is assumed the first crop of Southern Islands GPUs will use the last-generation’s UVD3 (Universal Video Decoder).

AMD has also brought Steady Video 2.0 to the GPU family, adding support for interlaced and letter/pillar boxed content, apart from an improved steadying effect. It uses a Quad Sum of Absolute Differences (QSAD) instruction set, combining SAD operations and alignment operations into a single instruction.

The HD 7970 will also support Partially Resident Textures (PRT), popularized by John Carmack with his MegaTexture technology. This concept splits textures into tiles, where tiles will only be mapped/pinned as necessary. This will help reduce the workload of the GPU, freeing it for other tasks.

Last, but not least, is support for PCI Express 3.0. Benefits of this are not seen at the gaming level, where PCIe 2.0’s bandwidth is still more than enough. PCIe 3.0 benefits will be best seen in general computing tasks, with lowered latency times. PCIe 3.0 doubles the transport bandwidth to 1GB/sec per lane bidirectional.

New Card Design
AMD has also refreshed its reference design of the HD 6970 for the HD 7970, with a new removable plastic shroud that is rounded to improve airflow. CrossFire enthusiasts will also be glad to know, AMD has gotten rid of the backplate, providing 2.7mm of space, extra.

The HD 7970 will be approximately 10.5-inches in length, excluding a new reinforcement plate, which brings the total length to 11-inches, nearly 0.5-inches longer than the HD 6970 and 5870. This means squeezing in the card into a regular ATX cabinet is still not going to be an easy task. AMD has tweaked the blower, making it larger at 75mm, and quieter.

The card has a new heatsink when compared to the HD 6970, using the HD 6990’s phase-change TIM. The dual-BIOS feature has come to the new card as well. It also has the same 6+8 pin configuration as the 6970

Gone is the secondary DVI port, heralding the return of the full slot exhaust vent. There is now a single DL-DVI port, along with an HDMI port and 2 miniDP ports. Users expected to use SL-DVI port will now be forced to use an HDMI or miniDP port, hence, AMD will require that partners ship both an HDMI to SL-DVI adaptor and an active miniDP to SL-DVI adaptor. This will also enable users to drive up to 3 DVI monitors, right out of the box.

Source: Anandtech

First Impressions: Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc

We must admit to being fans of the form factor and the overall package offered by the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc that we had reviewed earlier this year. Needless to say, we were indeed looking forward to getting our hands on the Arc S. And it arrived at our test centre, in good times.

Here is what we noticed:

• While the Arc had a beautiful chassis and a dash of chrome added a classy touch to the entire phone, the Arc S is all about plastic. Disappointing, because it makes the phone feel less expensive than it actually is!
• The predecessor weighed 116 grams, and the Arc S weighs 117 grams. Not bad!
• The Arc S seems to have lost the ‘arc’! While the predecessor clearly had an inward arc on the rear of the phone, the curve is less profound in the Arc S. While you could slide a thin slice of paper underneath the Arc if it lay flat on a table, you cant really do that with the Arc S. The wide-thin-wide chrome strip running down the side attempts to give the design a virtual visual element.
• The 4.2-inch LED backlit display has a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels. The text is crisp, and brightness levels quite good. Even in sunlight, we didn’t have a problem reading text with the brightness set at about 70%. However, the display does lack the punch of most AMOLED displays.
• A 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255T processor powers the phone. That is paired with 512MB of RAM and an Adreno 205 GPU.
• Sony Ericsson will pack in a 8GB microSD card with the phone.
• There is an 8MP clicker in the Arc S and will do 720p HD video recording. Interestingly, this camera can also take 3D panorama shots, which can then be viewed on a 3D display.
• Speaking of which, there is a mini HDMI port on the phone.
• Performance wise, the Android version on this phone didn’t slow down even after we had multiple apps installed and most of them running in the background. To illustrate that fact, we have the screenshot of the Quadrant Benchmark attached with this feature story.

Overall, we must admit that we expected a bit more from the Arc S, but mostly in the looks department. Performance wise, it does very well. The display is good enough for text and even for video viewing, the touchscreen has a surety about its response and the phone retains its slim and lightweight package.

Anyone interested will find this retailing for around Rs. 28,000 in the stores.

Stay tuned for a detailed review of the Arc S soon. Meanwhile, do check out the images and screenshots of the Arc S and the interface.

click to enlarge