Research In Motion (RIM) announced its Tablet PC, called the BlackBerry Playbook. the device is a a “Flash-loving,” “device-pairing,” “enterprise-ready” tablet with an “uncompromised browsing experience” on a 7-inch screen. It is 9.7 millimeters thick and features a high-res wide screen display that supports 1080p with HDMI and USB ports.

The technical details from the release:

• 7″ LCD, 1024 x 600, WSVGA, capacitive touch screen with full multi-touch and gesture support
• BlackBerry Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
• 1 GHz dual-core processor
• 1 GB RAM
• Video playback: 1080p HD Video, H.264, MPEG, DivX, WMV
• Audio playback: MP3, AAC, WMA
• HDMI video output
• Wi-Fi – 802.11 a/b/g/n
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Connectors: microHDMI, microUSB, charging contacts
• Open, flexible application platform with support for WebKit/HTML-5, Adobe Flash Player 10.1, Adobe Mobile AIR, Adobe Reader, POSIX, OpenGL, Java
• Ultra thin and portable:
• Measures 5.1″x7.6″x0.4″ (130mm x 193mm x 10mm)
• Weighs less than a pound (approximately 0.9 lb or 400g)
• Additional features and specifications of the BlackBerry PlayBook will be shared on or before the date this product is launched in retail outlets.
• RIM intends to also offer 3G and 4G models in the future.

Can it give a challenge to Apple iPad ………… stay tuned !

“We fit the whole world into a 5-inch screen”
Dell says this to be The perfectly-sized, go-anywhere entertainment, social connection and navigation device.

• Widescreen display optimally designed for mobile web, video and movies
• Integrated social networking widgets and apps, plus tons of apps through the Android Marketplace
• Crystal-clear damage-resistant Gorilla®  glass screen
• Google MapsTM  with navigation and text-to-voice, turn-by-turn directions with Street View
• Multitasking Google Android OS that gives you the freedom to do what you want

A brilliant 5″ screen lets you surf, watch videos and stay connected1, with less squinting and pinching, plus front-and-back cameras capture photos and videos on the fly with 5MP2 resolution. Watch streaming video on YouTubeTM , then post your own movies directly from your Streak.

With compact 6″ wide x 3.1″ high x .4″ thin dimensions, there’s plenty of space to take full advantage of the multi-touch display, plus the high-quality scratch-resistant Gorilla®  glass means your view stays crystal clear.

Ultra-intelligent facial proximity and ambient light sensors automatically adjust screen brightness, optimizing your battery life. The Dell Streak ensures that you can multitask and play without delay (including music and games), with the powerful yet efficient 1GHz Qualcomm SnapdragonTM  processor speeding things along using Google’s Android-based OS with multi-touch Dell user experience.

3G mobile broadband, WiFi and Bluetooth®  mean you’ve always got an easy way to connect, while swappable microSD memory cards mean virtually limitless storage for movies, music and pictures — up to 42 movies, 32,000 photos or 16,000 songs3 on each of your individual 32GB memory cards.

Facebook® , TwitterTM , Gmail, a phone call — however you like to stay connected5, the Streak keeps the lines of communication open. The Streak is a full-function 3G phone with IM and SMS/text capabilities, plus you can take photos for sharing using the rear-facing camera with dual-LED flash. Integrated real-time Facebook and Flickr® upload abilities put your photo or video online in no time.

A new BlackBerry called the Torch, with both a touchscreen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard, was unveiled Tuesday by Research In Motion, which hopes to stop which the bleeding of customers migrating to the iPhone and phones using the Android operating system.

The phone, also known as the Torch 9800, will be available Aug. 12, and cost $199 with a two-year contract with AT&T, which will be the exclusive provider of the Torch.

The device will use RIM’s new Operating System 6, which includes a badly needed re-do of the BlackBerry Web browser, which is painfully slow and frustrating to use.

The new browser is called the Torch Mobile browser. It is based on WebKit, the same engine used by Apple and Google.

The phone, with Wi-Fi, has pinch-to-zoom on the touchscreen, something the iPhone and other devices already feature. It also has a 5-megapixel camera with flash and autofocus, as well as “environment” settings. The camera will name pictures by location.

Rumours, that it is going to be launched soon, meanwhile check this video:

Happy Surfing …

It was announced in the Mobile World Congress 2010 at Barcelona that Microsoft would launch its handsets based on its new mobile phone OS (operating system) christened Windows Phone 7 series. This new operating system will be quite a departure from the earlier versions.

The current windows mobile operating system is based on Windows CE 5 while the latest version will entirely depend on Windows CE 6 kernel such as the Zune HD.  7 Series has rebuilt Windows Mobile from the ground up, featuring a completely altered home screen and user interface experience, robust Xbox LIVE and Zune integration, and vastly new and improved social networking tools. Check the Windows Phone 7 site also.

This new mobile phone operating system is just the beginning for Microsoft. Everything will be new here. From the look and feel of the mobile to downright underlying code- every detail has been revamped and changed. The all new 7 series will boast of altered home screen with more robust user interface experience coupled with better social media optimisation and integration tools.

Here’s a look at some of the minimum specs available so far:

• Large WVGA screen with a single aspect ratio (which means BlackBerry-style devices won’t be readily available to begin with)
• Five specific hardware buttons required: Start, back, search (a dedicated Bing button), camera button, and power — no more, no less
• Capacitive multitouch
• CPU and GPU requirements (beginning with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon as the go-to processor)
• WiFi
• AGPS
• Accelerometer
• FM radio
• High resolution camera

Check out the Feature Demo video, a nice one !

~

Now, the world would wait and watch to what extent Windows Phone 7 Series gives a competition to Apple’s iPhone and Googles’s Nexus One and other Android phones. Keep reading !

Here is the internet supergiant Google in the world of smartphone with its latest product Nexus One and in direct competition with Apple iPhone. Google is now vying the smart phone market and is trying to establish and build its market presence in the world of communication coupled with Web technology.

Nexus One is powered by Android Mobile Technology Platform 2.1 and Snapdragon 1GHz core processor. It is the look of the latest Google smart phone that is mind blowing. Nexus One is slimmer, slightly thinner as well as lighter than the iPhone. Nexus One measures 119mm in height, 59.8mm in width and 11.5mm in depth. Additionally, the weight of Nexus One is slightly lighter than iPhone that is 130 gms in comparison to 135gms of iPhone. This high-end smart phone from Google is Android’s signature gadget.

The display of Google’s smart phone will be through 3.7 inch WVGA-AMOLED capacitive touch screen with picture clarity of 800 x 480 pixels. It is through this screen that most of the navigation happens and is quite a pleasure to watch. The snapdragon processor is fast and is able to handle multiple applications without much discomfort.

Officially the phone has up to 7 hours of talk time, 5 hours of internet use and up to 250 hours of standby time on 3G, 7 hours of video playback and 20 hours of audio playback.

Now we see how the new Google Nexus One gives competition to other Smartphones, specially with Apple iPhone.

Keep Reading !

To explain, Augmented Reality is one of the newest innovations in the electronics industry. It superimposes graphics, audio and other sense enhancements from computer screens onto real time environments. Augmented reality goes far beyond the static graphics technology of television where the graphics imposed do not change with the perspective. Augmented Reality systems superimpose graphics for every perspective and adjust to every movement of the user’s head and eyes.

Development of the needed technology for augmented reality systems, however, is still underway within the laboratories of both universities and high tech companies. It is forecasted that by the end of this decade, the first mass-produced augmented reality systems will hit the market.

Now, slowly we will find products coming in this area. Vuzix is generating a lot of buzz over by their booth at this year’s CES with their new Wrap 920AR eyewear – the first augmented reality sunglasses on the market. Complete with a stereo camera pair, users can view the real-world environment and computer-generated imagery seamlessly mixed together; allowing video game characters to jump out of the TV and come to life in your living room, or magazines and books with animated links back to the web in real time.

The stereo camera pair delivers a single 1504 x 480 side-by-side image that can be viewed in 3D stereoscopic video, while the video eyewear provides an unprecedented 67-inch display as seen from 10 feet. The Wrap 920AR also includes a 6 Degree-of-Freedom Tracker, which allows for absolute accuracy of roll pitch and yaw and also X, Y and Z positioning in 3D space.

“The Wrap 920AR offers the world’s only sunglass styled Augmented Reality experience” said Vuzix CEO, Paul Travers. “This state-of-the-art video eyewear, offers consumers an AR solution only available in handheld devices to date, merging the real world with the digital in a pair of glasses makes for world changing experiences from industry to gaming,” adds Travers. “With the Wrap 920 AR, Vuzix brings exclusive new capabilities to the consumer.”

The Wrap 920AR’s stereo camera assembly and 6-DoF Tracker will also be available separately for upgrading existing Wrap video eyewear.

Vuzix Wrap 920AR Specifications:

• 1/3-inch wide VGA Digital Image Sensor
• Resolution: 752H x 480W
• Includes 6 Degree-of-Freedom Tracker
• Frame rate: 60 fps
• Dynamic range: >55dB linear; >80-100dB in HiDy mode
• Shutter efficiency: >99%
• ADC Resolution: 10-bit column parallel
• High-speed USB 2.0
• PC and Mac compatible
• System requirements: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, Windows7, Mac OS X     10.4.9 or higher
• MSRP: $799.99

Would be interesting to watch, how more and more products come in this area. Keep reading …

Motorola droid is one of the most hyped and talked about smart phones that is going to make its way to the market on 6^th Nov 2009. The phone is powered with the Android version 2.0 and is expected to show a noticing leap in the over all performance as compared to other android mobile phones. This CDMA phone comes with Verizon wireless network. Let’s see what makes it better or at least at par with other smart phones.

The Tech-Spec:

• The processor: Arm Cortex A8 (600MHz, OMAP 3430). This brings a significant improvement in the speed specially while switching from one app to another.
• It possesses 256MB RAM and 512MB ROM.
• Screen: 3.7 inch touch screen with a resolution of 480 x 854. It is not a multi- touch screen, a point worth noting.
• Keyboard: It sports both a physical and an onscreen QWERTY keyboard. The sleek slide out physical keyboard has a toggle bar similar to RIM’s Blackberry trackball where as there are no enhancements in the onscreen keyboard.
• Camera: It is coupled with a 5 megapixel camera having 4X zoom, dual LED flash, automatic focus, image stabilization, real-time colour effects, scene modes, location tagging, and videos can be captured at 740 x 380 resolution, upto 24fps and playback up to 30fps. It also has image editing tools.
• Connectivity: It has Stereo Bluetooth Technology v2.1, WiFi 802.11, micro USB connector, provides support for Corporate calendar, email and contacts( Exchange 2003 and 2007), Google contacts, calendars, Gmail, Facebook contacts
• Battery power: Up to 385 min of usage time and standby time up to 270 hrs.
• Messaging: Includes email (corporate, Gmail, IMAP, POP3, Attachment and browser document viewer), MMS, SMS, IM (Gtalk), Voice mail.
• Navigation: It has come up with beta version of new navigation service that tells us the real-time direction, turn by turn in collaboration with Google maps. Google provides a good combination of its satellite, map, traffic and location info with text to speech directions. This is considered as one of the major enhancements.

With droid being the first mobile loaded with Android v2.0, it is a much awaited smart phone. Let’s wait and watch how well it grips the market.

 Satio, a Sony Ericsson product, launched in market on 7^th Oct, 2009 will definitely leave you amazed with it’s the startling features. You might call it a perfect blend of a whooping cyber shot 12.1 megapixel camera, a walkman music player and of course a touch screen mobile phone. It has all the multi media features you can think a phone can have. This phone was first introduced in Barcelona with a name ‘Idou’. Now to substantiate on the above claims, let’s have a brief overview of its tech specs: 

1. Camera:

• 12.1 Megapixel Camera
• Upto 12x digital zoom
• Auto focus, intuitive touch focus
• Xenon Flash
• Face and smile detection.
• Geotagging
• VGA 30 f/s Video recording
• Photo Editing
• Best Pic 

1. Dimension : 112 x 55 x 13.3 mm
2. Weight : 126 gm
3. Screen: 3.5 inches, 16:9 widescreen, TFT Screen, Accelerometer Sensor
4. Resolution : 640 x 360 pixels
5. Internal Memory: 128 MB, 256 MB RAM
6. Card Slot : MicroSD, expandable up to 32 GB
7. Colours : Black, Blue, Bordeaux
8. OS : Symbian Series 60, 5^th edition
9. CPU : ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz
10. Connectivity :

• In-Built Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth : v2.0 with A2DP
• USB : v2.0
• 3G : HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 3.6 Mbps
• TV Out

1. Keyboard : Onscreen QWERTY Keyboard
2. Battery Life :
3. Miscellaneous :

• Stand By : Up to 360 h (2G) / Up to 340 h (3G)
• Talk time : Up to 11 h (2G) / Up to 4h 50 Min (3G)

• HD and 3D Games
• FM Radio with RDS
• Facebook Application
• YouTube
• Google Maps
• Media Player, Bluetooth Stereo ( A2DP), Music Tones ( MP3/AAC)
• Web Feeds
• Document Readers/Editors
• GPS Positioning 

Satio comes with many other basic functionality along with the above mentioned ones. One striking change is the customization of the OS, as a result of which Satio features a tabbed homescreen with tabs that link to favourite app, gallery, contacts, network services etc. It comes with colour-matched Wireless stereo hands free. 

Satio provides you with ultimate multimedia experience, from HD Games to smooth High Definition video viewing, from GPS positioning to photo and document editing to a rich experience of a Digi Cam. What else do you want from a mobile phone? 

Last, but definitely not the least, its price – Rs 35,500 (Approx). Now, It’s for you to decide if Satio deserves to be your handset or not.

Its LGs turn now, after Asus and Acer, to make its mark in the race of slim and laconic PCs. LG has rolled out its first small desktop computer known as the XPION X30 that will be powered by the vaunted NVIDIA ION graphics. LG has done it with style, launching its first ever nettop, XPION X30 on 18 Sept, 2009 in its native market, Korea. 

Let’s have a quick look at the tech spec of this Ion based nettop: 

• It is powered with 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N230 processor.
• It also encloses 2 GB RAM, 250 GB HDD.
• It is pre-loaded with Windows vista, but is soon expected to come with Windows 7 (after its launch).
• Nvidia Ion (MCP7A) enables it to handle full 1080p HD video with 7.1 HD audio and supports DirectX10 which liberates you from the worries of sluggish behaviour of the system when playing a high definition video and a game simultaneously.
• With a weight of mere 1.54 kg, it draws a power of just 40 W.
• It sports a sliding cover on a 3.5” case, under which there are 6 USB ports , audio ports and a 4-in-1 memory card reader. 

The most scintillating feature of this nettop is its ability to get VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) mounted to an LCD.

Let’s wait and watch when LG plans to open up its nettop sale to other countries.

Here comes Nokia with miniature N97, not that it is miniature in any of the major performance parameters. In Nokia world, 2009, a conference in Stuttgart, Germany, Nokia disclosed its plans to launch N97 mini in October. This one is another addition to Nokia’s touch screen portfolio.  And the buzz around is – what is it in N97 Mini which is not present in N97 and vice versa. 

Let’s try to get an answer to this question by having a look at features the new N97 Mini exhibits: 

• The most striking add-on is the software on which N97 mini is going to run. The usual Symbian S60 OS will be running with user interface improvements like flick scrolling, more home widgets and more social networking tools.
• The first of its kind is the addition of, Lifecasting with Ovi (a partnership with facebook). This program gives user, the liberty to post their location, update their status, photos on facebook, directly from the device homescreen.
• It will have new Ovi maps loaded in it, where contents will be accessible from Lonely Planet, Michelin and Wcities.
• The dimension of N97 mini is 4.4 inches x 2 inches x 0.5 inches where as N97 measures 4.6 inches x 2.1 inches x 0.6 inches.
• N97 mini weighs 138 g, slightly lighter than N97 which weighs 150g.
• It has a 5 Mega pixel, 4x zoom, 640 x 480 video recording resolution, 30fps recording frame rate, Carl Zeiss camera which is as good as N97 but is accompanied with more features like Geo-tagging, video stabilization.
• It will support RealVideo and Flash Lite 3.0.
• It sports a 3.2 inches inclined resistive touch screen as compared to N97’s 3.5 inches screen.
• It possesses 8 GB of memory expandable to 24GB with an addition of 16GB  microSD card while N97 has 32 GB of memory.
• The stand-by time is as long as 12 days and music playback in offline mode is 28 hours.
• This is accompanied with a QWERTY keyboard, with no D-Pad(directional pad) which was present in its predecessor, N97.
• It is a Wi-fi, Bluetooth, and Quadband ( 850/900/1800/1900 MHz) GSM device. 

Some drawbacks:  

• The smaller keyboard, which makes typing difficult.
• There is no camera lens cover which makes the camera vulnerable to dust, scratches and finger prints.
• There is no North American 3G Bands support. 

This high end phone will cost $639 approximately, definitely not a miniature to N97 in this aspect, which costs around$700 Lets see it impresses how many and it will be interesting to keep a watch on N97 vs N97 mini battle.

Lets watch it more before you decide to go for it.

Microsoft is all set to make its presence felt in the portable digital media player market with the launch of its touch screen mp3 player named Zune HD on 15^th September 2009.

credit: cnet.com

This sleek and stylish gadget is loaded with some serious high end features like:

• HD radio in this device is considered as the biggest breakthrough in portable media players with
• The OLED  3.3– inch glass touch screen, 16:9 display(480X272 pixel resolution) that it possesses, promises you an unparalleled entertainment experience using less power
• For people who enjoy big screen viewing, it is possible to connect Zune HD to a HD TV in 720 p through a HDMI A/V docking station(Separately available).
• First time in the Zune series of mp3 players, there is a web browser, Internet Explorer Mobile 6, packed with tap-to-zoom technology, Qwerty Keyboard and a built in accelerometer, which enables you to have a perfect full screen browsing experience
• It is powered by a Nvidia Tegra processor and supported by Windows CE operating system.
• Zune HD is wifi enabled supporting instant streaming from enormous tracks on zune music store
• It takes 3 hrs to charge when done through PC and 2 hrs when done through AC adapters.
• The 16GB model will be black in colour and 32-GB in platinum for pre-orders and later many more colours are expected to join the league.

Let’s see how and why it might prove as a tough competition for Apple’s iPod, the unquestioned leader:

For the gadget freaks who are getting impatient to have hands-on the device, they can go ahead and do so in a Best Buy store on August 22^nd and August 23^rd and pay $25 for a pre-order. Also it is open for pre-orders since August 13, 2009 in Best Buy, Walmart, Amazon and Microsoft.

Check out the cool one … wait for few days !

•  It is expected to have a 10-inch touch screen display.
•  The OS will be somewhat similar to the one used in iPhone but will support larger screen resolution and higher version of iPhone applications.
•  Speculations say that this device might be free from a physical keyboard.
•  It will have a built in 3GS wireless access.
•  One interesting fight is the chip on which this device is based upon. Is it the Intel’s Atom chips or the customized chip made by PA Semi (A company that was taken over by Apple last year)

One million dollar question that revolves around this device is its price. Speculations say that it will be somewhere near $800. This project, being keenly monitored by Steve jobs himself is expected to go live in market in first quarter of 2010. But there are rumours which say Apple Tablets might hit the market as early as September 09.

The Tablet PC makes up 2% of the portable PC market.  If Apple were able to enter the market and match that 2%, given the amount of notebooks that they currently sell, they’d sell under 27,000 tablet PC’s per year.

As we slowly see the facts about the device uncover, we will keep you posted with the latest add-ons to it.

Update: On Jan 27th, 2010 finally Steve Jobs luanched the Tablet with the name ‘iPad’…. read more on this.

Credit: aboutcellulars.com

The two classic phones from Nokia India are out in the market and its branding is being done by none other than the Bollywood diva and the youth icon Priyanka Chopra. Not only that there is a contest too with the launch. So, read on to know more.

First, let me provide a synopsis on the tech spec of these two mobile phones -Nokia Classic 6700 and Nokia Classic 6300.

Nokia Classic 6700 is equipped with 5 megapixel camera with 2.2 inch display screen with picture resolution of 320×240 pixels. Weighing 113gm, this 6700 phone measures 109.8 x 45 x 11.2 mm in size and has in-built GPS. With micro SD-card, Nokia Classic 6700 can have 8GB memory. You can simply owe this handset at just Rs 14,000.

On the other hand at only Rs. 8000, you can grab the Nokia Classic 6300 with a little compromise on picture quality. Yes, Nokia Classic 6300 is available with 3.2 MP cameras and weighs just 96gm. It’s slim and sleek with stainless steel body and 2.2 inch display screen. For the purpose of navigation and GPS, it supports external GPS.

Credit: ubergizmo.com

Both, Nokia Classic 6700 and Nokia Classic 6300 are equipped with 3.5mm stereo jack, Micro-USB connector and supports Nokia maps.

Here is the detail of the contest that is also named same as the tagline-Pictures get us talking. The main motive of the new campaign is to have a new visionary appeal so that users get to know the elements of mobile imaging as they walk through into the world of mobile communication. The consumer contest provides with the opportunity to upload interesting picture on the Nokia website: www.nokia.co.in.  Next is to find out which picture has started maximum conversation threads or in simple words the most talked about picture on the web will be the winner.

Nokia launches the 8 MP camera phone N86 in India today. Check out the details of this phone in the link below

http://www.sadhanbiswas.com/myblog/gadgetzone/nokia-n86/

credit: engadget

Under its S-series Samsung is adding some cool gadgets. This Korean company has recently launched for its country SCH-W760, the latest mobile that would allow video conferencing in total darkness with sharp 3 mega pixel night vision camera.

But it’s the S9110 touchscreen mobile that would definitely be the showstopper in this S series from Samsung. It will be the thinnest mobile styled as a wristwatch. This is expected to be a high-end one. It is fashioned with stainless steel body with scratch-resistant touchscreen. However, it is loaded with host of features, the details of which is yet to be released. But little sneak peek tells us this S9110 will support Bluetooth 2.1, sync with Outlook email and will be equipped with MP3 player, voice recognition system and a speaker phone.

Another on the anvil is the SCH-i920. Keep waiting as we will keep it posted as details are out.