iPhone 4G

There is so much buzz and rumours on the next iPhone, i.e. iPhone 4G which people say is slated to get launched in June/July 2010 but we are yet to hear confirmed news on that.

Still with clue of the recently found iPhone in a train, the speculation and analysis of the new set has already created buzz amongst the Apple enthusiasts globally.

We will wait again when Steve Jobs launch it sometime in mid 2010. With the available info around the web, the below could be the feature highlights coming in iPhone 4G, check this with the courtesy of Gizmodo:

What’s new in iPhone 4g

• Front-facing video chat camera
• Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS)
• Camera flash
• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (like the iPad)
• Improved display. It’s unclear if it’s the 960×640 display thrown around before—it certainly looks like it, with the “Connect to iTunes” screen displaying much higher resolution than on a 3GS.
• What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack
• Split buttons for volume
• Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic

What’s changed

• The back is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or ceramic or shiny plastic in order for the cell signal to poke through. Tapping on the back makes a more hollow and higher pitched sound compared to tapping on the glass on the front/screen, but that could just be the orientation of components inside making for a different sound
• An aluminum border going completely around the outside
• Slightly smaller screen than the 3GS (but seemingly higher resolution)
• Everything is more squared off
• 3 grams heavier
• 16% Larger battery
• Internals components are shrunken, miniaturized and reduced to make room for the larger battery

Watch this iPhone 4g Video

.

Keep waiting for iPhone 4G……

Blackberry Bold 9700 is here !

The buzz in the world of communication today is smart phones. Every company is vying the market potential of smart phone with their innovative product launches. From Apple to Google, iPhone to Android-based phones and with the latest iPad, options have more than doubled for high-end consumers. Indians get another option in the smart phone category as Canadian mobile phone manufacturer Research in Motion, the world leader in wireless technology, launched Blackberry Bold 9700 for the Indian market. The Smartphone arena is getting hotter!

Here are some specifications of a sleek and elegant Blackberry Bold 9700 that is packed with multimedia and mélange of communication features:

• Blackberry Bold 9700 has 2.44 inch TFT- LCD (Thin Film Transistor-Liquid Crystal Display) with 480 x 360 pixel bright and high resolution.

• Similar to Blackberry Curve, Bold 9700 is equipped with track pad navigation system. It consists of Full QWERTY keyboard.

• It supports 3G HSDPA network and is powered by 256 MB on-board flash memory and 624 MHz processor. It is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology enabled. If you wish to expand memory you can insert micro SD card.

• One can click photos with 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and 2X digital zoom, multimedia player and video camera.

• Blackberry Bold 9700 comes with new operating system and that is Blackberry Messenger 5. However users need couple of upgrades to make it stable.

• Blackberry Bold 9700 measures 4.29 inches in height, 2.36 inches in width and 122 Gms in weight.

• Battery has standby time of 21 days and has talk time of up to six hours.

• Security feature in Blackberry Bold 9700 includes screen lock, password protection and sleep mode.

Blackberry bold 9700 is available in India through Blackberry, Airtel and Vodafone retailers.

However, to woo customers, I personally felt that it lacked exciting features. Let’s see how Blackberry penetrates Indian Smartphone market with Bold 9700. It is priced just around Rs 32000 in Indian market.

Apple iPad tablet launched to change the world of gadgets

Steve Jobs is in news and so is Apple Inc… Yes, you guessed it right, we are talking about Apple’s much awaited and much hyped iPad tablet that has been launched with an amazing price range. Apple iPad is expected to revolutionize how people read newspapers, magazines, books and even how they watch television.

Besides creating an upheaval in the gadget market, Apple’s share prices showed an upward trend. So, after iPhone and the Macbook, it is iPad tablet that is the buzzing phrase and is being considered as the third category gadget. The aim of Apple Inc is to put iPad tablet into the hands of the masses.

Let me make one thing clear and that is iPad is not a mere replacement of iPod Touch or iPhone and it is also not a device away from laptop. This iPad sits right in the middle and is not for making phone calls and it has no mouse or keyboard, but it provides with excellent web browsing experience. The iPad users will be able to send email, read e-books, create albums and enjoy videos and all that at an affordable price.

The iPad is definitely lighter and thinner than any netbook or laptop as it is just half-inch thick and weighing not more than 1.5 pounds. One can work with this device both in landscape and portrait mode. The users of iPad can definitely download to read the latest novel and book e-ticket for the forthcoming movies, but it cannot make a phone call or click a photo at least for some time now.

The first generation of Apple iPad will be available in the market by the end of March 2010. The 16 GB model is priced at $499 while 32 GB and 64 GB will be available at $599 and $699 respectively.

There are two versions of iPad. One that is available with Wi-Fi and the other supports both Wi-Fi and 3G.

Wall Street Journal says, “Apple focused on the role the gadget could play in homes and in classrooms,” the WSJ reported, envisioning “that the tablet can be shared by multiple family members to read news and check email in homes.”.

Experts put their comments about the gadget in their own way:

• TechCrunch — MG Siegler provides pictures of the tablet that are so realistic-looking that they might even be pictures of the tablet.  There’s also a commercial floating around this morning created by someone looking for a job. Eyeballs beware today.

• Circuit Breaker (CNET) — Erica Ogg collates rumors about iPod-like docking connections, 3G connections, and publisher connections.  (Yes, yes, and yes, in case you’re in a rush.)

• Gizmodo — Dan Nosowitz adds that iPhone apps will likely port to the tablet easily.

• TechCrunch — Like a Barnes & Noble bookstore app, maybe?  Maybe.

• Boy Genius Report — Speaking of 3G rumors, Verizon apparently has told its employees to expect big news Wednesday.  Of course, that could merely be an ancillary rumor about iPhones appearing on other networks soon.  Silly, forgotten iPhones… don’t confuse matters!

• TUAW — The tablet has already been tasked with saving the entertainment industry as well as publishing, but did you know it’ll also resuscitate education in America?  There’s an app for that, apparently.  Michael Grothaus wonders if we’ll see a tablet on every desk soon.

• ReadWriteWeb — Of course, that will come after it’s done reducing health care costs and improving quality, according to Mike Kirkwood.  Don’t get pushy, kids… the tablet will heal all!

With lots of promises and expectations, we will have to wait and watch to what level the Apple iPad can meet this. I will keep you posted on this !

pics credit: AP

Apple launches Mac OS X 10.6 ‘Snow Leopard’ 

Mac OS X 10.6, code named as ‘Snow Leopard’, launched on 28^th August 2009 is claimed by Apple as the world’s most advanced operating system. Let’s find out the various small and big leaps Apple has tried to make with this OS and also the requirements a system must fulfil for you to enjoy the experience of operating system, which definitely is one of its kind. 

What’s new in the Mac OS X 10.6? 

• This new refined OS and most of the 10.6 application is compatible with 64-bit processor and is also ready to support a 16 terabyte RAM. 
• Microsoft Server Exchange support: 

1. It is very smooth and easy to connect to Microsoft Exchange server 2007 using Apple’s Mail app, taking the global address list from the Apple address book and set up meeting using the intuitive iCal.
2. Launching a mail, searching and moving a message has become twice as fast and listing the content is 4 times faster.  

• The finder is rewritten in 64-bit Cocoa making it classier with following enhancements: 

1. A customizable spotlight search option with the facility of sorting spotlight search result by name, date modified, date created, size, kind or label.
2. The item in the trash folder can be restored to the original location by selecting the item and choosing put back from the file menu.
3. We can watch a QuickTime movie preview in the icon view right in the finder.
4. Preview also provides a smart feature of previewing a file of any format like Microsoft excel, power point without having it installed in the system.
5. We can modify the default size, labelling and alignment of icons.
6. Ejecting external drives are more reliable and intelligent. Core system services like Spotlight indexing and file system events stop their work so you can remove your drive. And improved dialogs assist you in finding which applications are using the drive making it easier to know, what to close in order to safely disconnect the drive. 

• The expose, Apple’s system for finding a window on a scattered desktop, is now integrated with Dock  with the following add on:  

1. Thumbnails of all the windows, corresponding to the application that we click on the dock, opens and quickly gets unshuffled so that we can easily select the window we want to using  Tab.
2. Minimized window appears as smaller icon below the other window.
3. Windows are spring loaded so that we can drag and drop items between windows.
4. For a better and easy view of all items in the stack, stacks are now scrollable in grid view.
5. Windows are aligned in an organized grid. 

• Safari 4 : 

1. Safari in snow leopard is crash proof. If a plug-in crashes, the entire browser will not collapse.
2. The snow leopard safari has the ability to judge if a site is fraudulent or not. In case of a site being fraudulent, a warning pops up. 

• QuickTime X 

1. The interface that appears while a movie is played on the player, auto fades on moving the mouse away from the window.
2. It allows recording a video from webcam, audio and capturing the happenings on screen with few clicks. 

• The over all system related improvements : 

1. Snow Leopard makes shutting down 80% faster and waking up twice as fast also coupling it with the screen locking facility.
2. It has a smart feature that can download and update the latest driver from the internet for the new printer that we plug-in.
3. It natively supports Cisco IPSec VPN connection.
4. Snow Leopard enables Time machine to reduce the time it takes to complete the initial back up to time capsule by 80%.
5. It introduces 4 new fonts : Menlo, Heiti SC and TC , Hiragino Sans GB
6. Inclusion of Bi-directional text, a blessing for people who use Hebrew and Arabic.
7. Boot camps enable us to access the files in our Mac OS X partition from windows. 

System configuration required to support Snow Leopard: 

• Processor Type : Intel
• Min RAM size : 1GB
• Min Hard Drive space : 5GB
• Peripheral/interface device : DVD-ROM 

Pricing: 

• Intel based Mac systems, with Mac OS X 10.5 ‘Leopard’ running on it, can upgrade it to snow leopard by spending US$29 for a single user and US$49 for 5 computers that comes in a family pack.
• If you are using any of the versions older than Leopard, you need to buy a Mac Box Set which will cost $169. 

Drawback:  

One of the constraints with Snow Leopard is that it is compatible only with Intel Macs only, and for PowerPC users it’s still a distant dream. Also, a few of the test results say that it is little slower than older version of leopards. 

With Windows 7 launch in pipe line, it will be an interesting competition in the world of operating systems, and a win-win situation for all computer geeks.

Apple Tablet – Though its a new concpt and most of the features are still under veil but few features, it is anticipated to possess are:

•  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.

Steve Jobs had a liver transplant but it unraveled the flaws in Organ Transplant System

It is the geographic division that came in the forefront when Steve Jobs CEO of Apple got operated for liver transplant when he flew from California to Memphis. What does the geographic division of liver transplant means? It simply highlights the fact that a patient who has only few months to live can be denied a liver while a healthier person can get a liver transplant just because he is in a position to fly. 

It is in Memphis that the lists for liver transplant patients are shorter than that in California. The organ sharing network divides US into 11 regions and according to a rule most livers are allocated by using MELD (Model for end stage liver disease) system. MELD assigns scores to liver functions and overall health. Higher scores in the range of 6 to 40 imply those patients get priority to receiving a liver.

In the year 2008, about 17,000 American patients were on the list of liver transplant but only 6000 were lucky to get them. It is the organ system’s regional disparities on the access of liver are highly criticized by many doctors. 

The patients who can fly get themselves enlisted at multiple transplant centers in an attempt to get the liver transplantation done quickly by increasing the chances of receiving the organ. There is a need to change the local and regional organ distributing system.

The case of Steve Jobs only highlighted the issue of DISPARITY!!!