In the wake of increasing popularity of Android phone and Apple’s iPhone, Research In Motion (RIM) has not been having a good run with its BlackBerry devices. Fortunately for the company, India is one of the few markets in which it is still popular amongst youngsters, thanks largely to the BlackBerry Curve 8520. Launched way back in 2009, 8520 was the first Curve smartphone from the Canadian handset maker and it continues to be their bestselling smartphone in the country.
Though the Curve 8520 continues to be the top selling model for RIM, it runs on the dated OS 5, has a slow processor and an average battery backup.
The reasons why Curve 8520 proved to be such a big hit are easy to understand. It’s the cheapest BlackBerry around, and the go-to option for the young crowd who use BlackBerry Messenger as if their life depended on it. The wide variety of color options no doubt helped the sales.
This is where the new BlackBerry Curve 9220 steps in. Priced attractively at Rs. 10,990, the company expects it to be as popular as the first Curve and is specifically being targeted at the youngsters.
Nokia has partnered with Indian telecom operators Airtel and Vodafone to provide carrier billing in Nokia store. Consumers can now download local as well as global paid content from the app store and pay for downloads as part of their monthly phone bills or have the amount deducted from prepaid account balance.
Nokia already provides carrier billing in the country with Reliance Communications.
Nokia store currently offers applications, games, videos, pod-casts, productivity tools, web and location-based services and much more.
Along with the carrier billing, the Finnish handset maker has also announced the availability of in-app billing solutions, which allow consumers to purchase digital content directly from within the application’s interface.
“The Nokia Store is focused on providing relevant and useful content to our consumers to help them get the most out of their mobile lifestyle. The response from consumers in India has already exceeded our expectations, with the number of monthly downloads at 60 million and growing. We believe our partnership with Vodafone and Airtel, the two largest GSM mobile operators in the country,will provide more and more Indian consumers easy access to paid content on the Nokia Store’” said Viral Oza, Director Marketing, Nokia India.
Sony has just announced the availability of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich for the Tablet S. Sony says that you should be prompted for a system update the next time you connect to a wireless network. The update includes a number of new features including a panoramic camera mode as well as direct SD card access.
To celebrate the release of ICS, Sony is also discounting the tablet in the United States. If you purchase the tablet between now and 12 May you will receive a $50 instant rebate and free cradle. This implies a $349 cost for the 16GB Tablet S and $449 cost for the 32GB version. See a video preview of the Android 4.0 update below.
Google Inc. has opened its first retail store in London to display Chromebooks and promote the always-connected laptops, according to the company’s official website. The search giant opened Chrome Zone Sept. 30 in an electronics superstore in the hope that consumers will spend time discovering web applications on a Chromebook and chat with Chrome specialists. “Many things in life, like football and rock music, are best experienced in person. Chromebooks are no exception,” Laura Thompson, Google’s product marketing manager, posted on the Google Chrome blog. Google’s Chromebooks, unveiled in June this year bearing the brand names of South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co. and Taiwan’s Acer Inc., are supposed to offer users a quicker and simpler experience by storing all software and data using cloud computer technology. So far, only the 12.1-inch Samsung Chromebook is for sale at Chrome Zone, with Acer’s 11.6-inch version yet to be launched in the U.K., according to the U.K.-based online news TechRadar. Thompson said Google will open more Chrome Zones in additional locations in the U.K. over the next few months, but did not say whether the retail store concept will make its way to other countries. Chromebooks are currently being sold in the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and South Korea.
Research In Motion’s retail partners have begun slashing prices on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in an effort to bolster unimpressive sales. RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie confirmed on the company’s second-quarter earnings call that price drops were imminent after the company reported just 200,000 units shipped into channels during the tablet’s first full quarter of availability. YoGadgets reported earlier this month that Rogers employees were able to purchase the PlayBook starting at $250, and now the general public can finally get in on the action. Read more…
The new features in the software upgrade of the 2011 Xperia™ smartphones.
This upgrade will include an upgrade to Android 2.3.4, Google Talk with Video Chat (models with front-facing camera), updated Facebook inside Xperia™ functionality for enhanced like, share and discover abilities, 3D sweep panorama functionality powered by Sony, swipe text input, screen capture on your phone with easy sharing and USB on the go to turn your Xperia™ smartphone into a mini-mobile PC by connecting USB peripherals (mouse, keyboard or game controller) to Sony Ericsson LiveDock™ multimedia station. Combining that with HDMI to a TV you can have a big screen experience with your Xperia™ smartphone.
The Xperia Mini Pro camera is a 5MP effort with a single LED flash, and is capable of recording 720p HD footage. The LED is pretty darn bright for such a small package, flinging out bucketloads of photons even in only semi-darkness, and also acts as a handy video light too. Read more…
None of other video sharing site has become as popular as YouTube. Many of us must have uploaded at least a couple of clips to share with friends. However, there was no way to tweak the uploaded videos, until now.
Google has now implemented an Edit video button on the My Videos page. It enables you to stabilize your shaky footage, rotate it, and boost the contrast as well as colours. Moreover, there are a number of effects available, such as Black and White, Thermal, and Cartoon. Since the editing is performed online, you don’t have to re-upload the video. This means you won’t lose your view count and comments.
The editor also features an option to revert to the original, so you don’t have to worry about your experiment going horribly wrong. Here’s a quick video showing what you can do with the editor : Read more…
Several of Samsung’s forthcoming Android, Windows Phone and bada devices have been leaked by telefonino.net. If the leak is indeed legitimate, Samsung will surely have some big announcements during the Berlin-based IFA trade show in early September and probably at CTIA Fall 2011 in October as well. Starting things off, the P6200 is said to be a 7-inch Honeycomb tablet with a 1024 x 600-pixel Super AMOLED display, an HSDPA radio, a 3-megapixel camera and a 2-megapixel forward-facing camera for video chats. Also on deck is the Samsung I9250, which is apparently equipped with a 4.65-inch 1280 x 720-pixel Super AMOLED HD display, a 5-megapixel camera and Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Samsung’s first Windows Phone Mango device could be the Samsung i8350 Omnia W, which offers a 3.7-inch WVGA display, a 1GHz processor and a 5-megapixel camera. It’s expected to launch in October according to the report, which is on a par with Microsoft’s leaked Mango launch plans. Read on for more details on Samsung’s Android and bada handsets.
By now, you’ve no doubt seen the news: Google intends to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. What this will do is not only give Google access to Motorola’s vast patent library consisting of nearly 25,000 patents, but it will also give Google an end-to-end hardware and software strategy with smartphones, tablets and even with Google TV. The thing is, Google didn’t need to buy Motorola. Google could have just licensed the patents from Motorola. Google bought Motorola because it felt like control of the Android experience was slipping away. It’s apparent that one Nexus-like device from Google a year won’t be enough — MOTOBLUR has probably given Andy Rubin ulcers — and it’s apparent that a company that’s leading in many areas of the smartphone arena wants to control that entire experience. Open or not, it is Google’s, after all. Smartphones and tablets are also going to be the biggest categories in technology for the foreseeable future, and if you think Google is just going to play around with that, well, you obviously haven’t seen the company’s recent moves. Read on for more.
HTC, Samsung, LG, and other manufacturers are probably pissed. Regardless of any protection they might receive from Google owning Motorola’s patent library, and regardless of recent official comments, they are now not only competing with one of the best Android device vendors, but also with Google itself. The end result? You’re going to see HTC, Samsung and LG continue to buy up as many Beats-like companies as possible to further differentiate their Android experiences, because they’re not going to have anything else to offer pretty soon. There are only so many ways to physically differentiate a touchscreen device, and with Google in control of its own hardware, software and services, differentiation could become the key to other partners’ survival the Android ecosystem.
The Xperia Mini Pro camera is a 5MP effort with a single LED flash, and is capable of recording 720p HD footage. The LED is pretty darn bright for such a small package, flinging out bucketloads of photons even in only semi-darkness, and also acts as a handy video light too.
