New Apple TV launches with 1080p video and new UI

Apple TV has, as predicted, just received an update alongside the new iPad. It looks the same as the original, packed into a palm-sized black box of beauty, but its insides are far more fascinating.

A new user interface serves up third party apps like YouTube, Flickr and Vimeo – easily accessed from big, pretty tiles. It even lets you use Netflix if you’re not a fan of iTunes movies – and it now has a Genius button to help you pick your flick.

Photo Stream is now available on your Apple TV and syncs live from the ether, all displayed in glorious HD. Judging from the “Computers” icon in the menu you should be able to access your home network’s content very easily – probably still only MP4 films though. But it will come with AirPlay mirroring if you want to run a film on your MacBook and watch it live on your TV.

And the best part, it'll all come for a meagre £99. Plus owners of the old Apple TV will be able to download the new UI.

Read more »

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Nights coming to PS Vita

In all the fuss and kerfuffle about Apple's new iPad, there's a rather exciting bit of PlayStation Vita news you might've missed – Grand Theft Auto is coming to the portable PlayStation.

A source tipped off Eurogamer that online retailer Play.com had inadvertently leaked four big PS Vita titles – Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Nights, Monster Hunter Portable 3, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD and Tales of Innocence R. The latter three titles have all been released in Japan on one or other Sony platforms – but GTA: Vice City Nights is all new.

It's unclear at this point whether GTA: Vice City Nights will use the map (and graphical stylings) of PS2 title GTA: Vice City, or whether it'll be overhauled to match the HD graphics of the GTA IV generation of titles. Hopefully we'll find out when Sony officially announces the next round of PS Vita titles at PlayStation Vita Game Heaven on March 9th.

Read more »

Next-gen Xbox 720 to do away with optical drive

According to video game magazine, MCV, Microsoft’s next version of the Xbox console will not feature an optical disc drive. Instead, the magazine claims the next-generation Xbox will rely solely on downloads, and inbuilt-solid state memory.

The MCV report also indicates that the Xbox 720console will be launched next year, as expected by industry pundits. Microsoft has officially denied most such rumours, and stays tight-lipped about a tentative launch.

Instead, the Redmond giant speaks of the many ways the company has prolonged the lifespan of the console, introducing natural user interfaces like voice recognition and the Kinect motion sensor, as well as adding a content platform for users.

Of course, relying on digital downloads as the sole medium is inherently risky – not all target markets have access to a developed internet infrastructure – perhaps, two versions, including one with an optical drive, will be released for relevant markets.

We should know more at E3 2012, when Microsoft is expected to show off the console ahead of its launch next year.

Read more »

Koenigsegg Agera R to be world’s fastest production car

Hyper cars are the new super cars, achieving record-shattering speeds reserved only for the mega rich, and the Koenigsegg Agera R will sit at the front of the pack soon, as the world’s fastest car.

The record is currently held by the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport at 431km/h, but the Koenigsegg Agera R 2013 is packing a dizzying 1140bhp that should get it up to 440km/h (273mph) when it’s put to the test later in the year. Koenigsegg used to hold the top spot so it’s in with a big chance of taking that back. But even if the Agera R isn’t the fastest production car in the world it still has some impressive attributes.

The Agera R can manage 0-200mph in a jaw shaking 17.8 seconds. And it does it thanks to a unique hollow, one-piece carbon wheel designed from scratch by Koenigsegg to shave off 20kg of weight. This gives the Agera R, “the lowest unsprung weight of any supercar”.  And the technology doesn’t stop there as the cylinders are coated in a low friction nano-composite that saves energy otherwise wasted on friction, delivering 1.8-4.5 percent more energy efficiency. It sounds petty but in the upper echelons of speed every bit counts.

So if you’ve got a few quid floating around and want to kit out your Koenigsegg to perfection, you can chose every last detail here on theKoenigsegg configurator page.  Then all you have to do is sweet-talk the authorities when they catch you doing 273mph down the M25.

Read more »

Samsung Launches New LED Monitor Series Starts from Rs 6200 for 18.5".

Samsung has launched a new LED monitor series in India, which claims to be superior to its predecessor in more than one ways. The new monitors sport a better design and apparently, have better picture quality. Available in screen sizes of 18.5", 20", 21.5", 23", and 27", these target general as well as business consumers. The new series does not have any specific name as such.

The new monitors come with a specified Mega Dynamic Contrast Ratio of 5,000,000:1. Samsung has once again used its Magic Angle technique for wide vertical as well as horizontal viewing angles of up to 178 degrees, thus the images appear the same regardless of the position of the viewer.

Read more »

Angry Bird Space Releaved

According to Rovio "It's one small step for birds, one giant leap for birdkind". Indeed, who would have thought that a mobile app maker can become big enough to tie up withNASA? Hard to believe, but the new Angry Birds game has been announced from the International Space Station.



This is the biggest announcement from Rovio after a long time. As its name suggests, Angry Birds Space is set in zero-gravity conditions. Needless to say, the gameplay has been drastically changed, and this new gameplay mechanics have been explained by the NASA astronaut Don Petit.

Read more »

Apple drops iPad 2 prices in India, now starting Rs. 24,500

pple lovers rejoice! We may not have a launch confirmation of the new iPad in India but the iPad 2 has seen a price drop globally. With the launch of the New iPad (which will be available in the US beginning March 16th), the price of the iPad 2 in India has fallen.

Customers can pick up an iPad 2 Wi-Fi only for Rs. 24,500 and the iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G for Rs. 32,900. In the US too, the iPad 2 saw a drop in price of $100.

If you wanted to pick up a 32GB or 64GB version of the iPad 2 you’d better hurry as Apple will discontinue these models (due to the obvious reason of the price overlap).

With the cheapest iPad now costing Rs. 24,500 the competition will have to fight a price war. We can expect to see competing tablets slash their prices over the coming weeks or offer bundle deals on their products (remember the BlackBerry Curve + PlayBook offer anyone?).

If you are confused as to which tablet device is right for you, you can check out our iPad 2 versus the new iPad tablet comparison here.

So, the big question remains; is anyone still interested in picking up the Asus Transformer Prime in India for Rs. 50,000?

Read more »

Motorola Motoluxe hits shelves today

It may be slightly later than its previously touted end-of-February release date, but Motorola has finally announced that its Gingerbread-toting Motoluxe smartphone can be picked up from today for free, on a two year £21 per month contract or for £235 SIM-free from Clove.

The 800MHz-powered Motoluxe sports a 4in screen and will be an appealing choice for social butterflies on a budget, thanks to its 8MP camera and Moto's custom Social Graph feature. Its Moto Switch interface, which places your most used apps front and centre, will also come in handy for lazy gadgeteers who want to shave milliseconds off their screen prodding time.

Check our Motorola Motoluxe hands on review before deciding whether or not Moto's latest Android offering is the right pocket companion for you.

Read more »

erahertz bandwidth could make cellphones 1,000 times faster

Forget 3G and 4G. In fact, forget about the gigahertz frequency altogether—a team of researchers at the University of Pittsburgh say they've managed to devise a means of transmitting data thousands of times faster.

The team led by Hrvoje Petek, a physics and chemistry professor in Pitt's Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, successfully created what they call a "frequency comb" that "spans more than 100 terahertz (THz) of bandwidth by exciting a coherent collective of atomic motions in a semiconductor silicon crystal."

 

The frequency comb is created by the division of "a single color of light into a series of evenly spaced spectral lines for a variety of uses."

 

What that means is that Petek and his colleagues have devised a structure that could theoretically transmit data to devices like cellphones and computers in the terahertz frequency region—and in fact observed reflected light oscillating at 15.6 THz during their experiments.

 

The research was published in the March 4 issue of Nature Photonics and summarized on the University of Pittsburgh website.

 

Petek said the team has discovered "a physical basis for terahertz bandwidth," which could potentially be used to leverage the "portion of the electromagnetic spectrum between infrared and microwave light" to transmit at rates several orders of magnitude faster than today's conventional wireless electronics with bandwidth limited to the gigahertz frequency.

 

"The ability to modulate light with such a bandwidth could increase the amount of information carried by more than 1,000 times when compared to the volume carried with today's technologies," Petek said.

 

"Needless to say, this has been a long-awaited discovery in the field."

 

The scientists worked with silicon, the material used to fabricate the semiconductors at the heart of computing's process technology. Petek said his team expected to hit 15.6 THz in its experiments, the "highest mechanical frequency of atoms within a silicon lattice."

 

The University of Pittsburgh researchers are actually aiming even higher, or rather faster. By studying the coherent oscillation of electrons, Petek and his colleagues believe they can harness "light-matter interactions" in the petahertz-frequency range, or 1,000 times faster again than the terahertz oscillations they've already achieved.

 

Read more »

Asus Google Nexus tablet could arrive in May

Asus' long-rumoured 7in Google Nexus tablet could be landing as early as May, if Digitimes' sources are to be believed.

The world's first Google-branded tablet will also reportedly be arriving with a low US$200-US$250 price tag, making it a very appealing alternative to the upcoming Amazon Kindle Fire and rumoured 7in AppleiPad Mini.

Google is also expected to debut its recently rebranded Play Store on the new Asus Google tablet, which we're hoping will keep the same stylish design and ultra-thin build quality as Asus' Transformer Prime tablet.

We're still waiting on any official information, so join us in sprinking a generous helping of salt over all of this Google tablet news for the time being.

Read more »

Facebook launches Interest List, allows users to create personalised newspaper

Facebook has announced a new feature called the Interest List that allows users to compile “interest lists” around topics, wherein the top stories from each interest will appear on newsfeed. The new feature will be rolled out in the coming weeks, and will allow users to create a list in which they can subscribe to their friends, brands, celebrities and others present on the social network.

The new Interest List feature on Facebook is similar to Twitter's list feature or Google's Reader, which allows users to create a small list of subscribed social news. However, Facebook's Interest List is much easier to curate and customise news feeds. The social networking giant says its new feature turns the service into a personalised newspaper. Facebook users can create their own lists and share them, or can keep them private. Users can also subscribe to lists shared by others."Interest lists can help you turn Facebook into your own personalised newspaper, with special sections—or feeds—for topics that matter to you. You can find traditional news sections like Business, Sports and Style or get much more personalized—like Tech News, NBA Players, and Art Critics," Eric Faller, a Facebook software engineer, wrote in a blog post.

With the new Interest List, Facebook is now trying to fill up the gaps which it had left. The social networking giant recently updated its photo viewer. The new Interest List will definitely allow Facebook to grab attention of those who have been using other social networks such as Twitter and Google+ to create a personalised information.

Read more »

IS APPLE PLANNING AN IPAD-MACBOOK HYBRID?

Following the launch of Apple's new iPad, Patently Apple has unearthed apatent that points towards plans for a Transformer Prime-style iPad that combines a tablet and a keyboard dock.

Intel is already planning to unseat Apple in 2013 with its Haswell Ultrabook – “a tablet when you want it and a PC when you need it” – using Windows 8 and Windows Metro operating systems for a perfect laptop-tablet synergy.

We can’t see Apple taking that sitting down. Which is why Apple’s patent for computers has been changed to include, “touchscreens, tablet computers, and electronic notepads.” Rumours of an iPad Air have already done the rounds, and with a new line of MacBooks due soon it looks like excitement over Apple's products will show no sign of abating in the near future.

Read more »

Nokia Lumia 800 gets a price cut; selling at Rs. 24,000

Nokia has slashed price of its newly launched Windows Phone 7.5-based Lumia 800 by Rs. 6,000. The Nokia Lumia 800 was initially priced at Rs. 29,999. The device is now available for Rs. 24,000 at online shopping stores such as Flipkart. Another online retailer, Letsbuy is selling the device for Rs. 23,790.

To refresh your memory, the Nokia Lumia 800 features a 3.7 inch AMOLED ClearBlack curved display and is powered by a 1.4 GHz processor with hardware acceleration and a graphics processor. The Nokia Lumia 800 runs on Windows Phone 7.5 OS, and includes an 8MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics, HD video playback, 16GB of internal storage and 25GB of free SkyDrive storage for storing images and music.

In our detailed review of the Nokia Lumia 800, we had also pointed out that the Lumia 800 is slightly overpriced and that Nokia needs to get the pricing of its Lumia devices right. Nokia recently slashed price of its Lumia 710 smartphone by 20 per cent. Launched only a month ago for Rs. 18,999, the Lumia 710 is now available for Rs. 15,490. Check out the Nokia Lumia 710 

Read more »

Motorola Atrix 2 now available in India for Rs. 22,990

The Motorola Atrix 2 (successor to the Motorola Atrix) wowed us at CES 2011 and is available for preorder in India at Rs. 22,990 today.

The device has a 4.3-inch qHD display with a resolution of 540x960, a 1GHz dual core cortex A9 processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB internal storage expandable up to 32GB via MicroSD card, 8MP rear shooter, a front facing camera and runs on Google’s Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS with the MotoBlur interface added to it.

The Motorola Atrix 2 is competitively priced and takes on the HTC Desire HD (Rs. 19,000 approx.),HTC Radar (Rs. 23,990 approx.), Samsung Galaxy R (Rs. 20,000 approx.), and LG Optimus 2X (Rs. 19,000 approx.).

Like its predecessor, the Atrix 2 is also compatible with the Motorola Lapdock 100. The Lapdock essentially turns your smartphone into a 10.1-inch netbook giving you additional battery life and the ability to watch videos and edit documents with a physical keyboard.

Models	Motorola Atrix 2	Samsung Galaxy R	LG Optimus 2X
Screen Size	4.3-inch	4.2-inch	4-inch
Screen Resolution	540x690 pixels	480x400 pixels	480x400 pixels
Processor	1GHz	1GHz	1GHz
RAM	1GB	1GB	512MB
Internal Storage	8GB	8GB	8GB
Expandable Storage	Up to 32GB via MicroSD card	Up to 32GB via MicroSD card	Up to 32GB via MicroSD card
Front Camera	VGA	1.3MP	1.3MP
Rear Camera	8MP	5MP	8MP
OS	Android 2.3 Gingerbread	Android 2.3 Gingerbread	Android 2.2 upgradable to 2.3 Gingerbread
Price	Rs. 22,990	Rs. 20,000 (approx.)	Rs. 19,000 (approx.

Read more »

Asus to launch first Jelly Bean tablet, Key Lime Pie to be Android 6.0?

Comments by Asus’ corporate vice president, Benson Lin, indicate that the Taiwanese company, because of its close relationship with Google, will be one of the first manufacturers to offer devices with Android 5.0 Jelly Bean update.

Speaking to TechRadar, Lin said: "Asus is very close to Google, so once they have Android 5.0 I think there will be a high possibility that we will be the first wave to offer the Jelly Bean update."

Apart from offering an update, speculation has it that Asus will launch the platform lead device forAndroid 5.0 Jelly Bean – a 7-inch, $200, Google Nexus Tablet, according to a Digitimes report. If you remember, the Transformer Prime was initially going to share that distinction, but ultimately, did not ship with Ice Cream Sandwich out-of-the-box, or the Nexus moniker accompanying it.

Jelly Bean will apparently also be optimized for multi-OS environments, capable of being simply loaded onto say, a Windows 8 tablet.

In the meanwhile, even as Ice Cream Sandwich is rolling out, and Jelly Bean is being spoken of, rumours of Android 6.0 being called ‘Key Lime Pie’ are now doing the rounds. The name follows alphabetically, and could actually be what the next version will be called. Google has yet to officially confirm the rumours however.

Asus also recently announced that its Eee Pad Transformer series will be rebranded as Transformer Pads, with the Transformer Prime now being called the Asus Transformer Pad 300. At the same time, it announced a new Transformer tablet, the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity, which bears much the same specifications as the original Transformer Prime, but instead, features a  10-inch full HD (1920x1200) Super IPS+ display, with a 224 pixel per inch density.

However, the Wi-Fi only version of the Transformer Pad Infinity is the only one to offer the quad-core Tegra chipset, clocked at 1.6GHz, while the 3G and 4G versions will come with a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 Krait processor. The Transformer Prime's Tegra 3 processor was clocked at 1.3GHz. Asus will also offer a 16GB version of the Transformer 

Read more »

Assassin's Creed III coming to PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in October

For the past couple of years, Ubisoft has given us the pleasure of being a part of some of the best historic locations through their Assassins Creed Franchise. With the end of Assassins Creed Revelations, we saw the saga of Ezi oAuditore da Firenze and Altaïr Ibn-La'A had come to an end.

Throughout the 4 games in the series -- Assassins Creed, Assassins Creed II, Assassins Creed Brotherhood and Assassins Creed Revelations -- we have visited a variety of locations such as Rome, Firenze, and Constantinople to name a few.The Assassins Creed franchise has been famous for taking actual historic events and locations and adapting it to suit the games story.

Ubisoft has now confirmed that Assassin's Creed III will launch for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in October 2012. If you log on to the official website, there is a timer counting down to “a big reveal”.

From the images that have been unveiled by Gameinformer, it is clear that the game is going to take a dramatic shift in location.

The lead protagonist (still unknown) is seen wearing an Assassin outfit heavily influenced by the Native American culture. In the images, he is seen with a quiver full of arrows and a bow on his back along with a gun in one hand and an axe in the other. It is believed that the story of the game will take place during the 18th century (1777) during the American Revolution. Ubisoft has also released the box art for this forthcoming title.

Read more »

Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal presses for ultra low-cost smartphones

We've already seen an ultra low-cost tablet, Aakash, taking the Indian market by storm. So what should we expect next from the manufacturers? An ultra low-cost smartphone? Very likely. Sunil Mittal, chairman & group CEO, Bharti Enterprises, recently said that he wants smartphone price to come down to as low as $50.

This means, smartphone pricing may start at Rs. 2,500, which is half of the current price of the low-cost Android-based phones available in the market. Mittal pointed out that if any product defies pricing logic, it is mobiles. Meanwhile, Sunil Raina, chief marketing officer at Lava says, that bringing down the cost of chipset can facilitate launch of an ultra low-cost smartphones. He highlighted that processors and LCD display panels mainly make the bulk of smartphone cost.

Global research firm In-Stat in one of its reports said that the integration of GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and sometimes FM radio onto a single chip had helped cut costs in 2010. With more innovation from chipset manufacturers in the works, smartphones sales are likely to grow further more. In-Stat in its report predicted that Android will ship 339 million low-end smartphones (under $150 each) by 2015.

Budget smartphones are already doing good in the price-sensitive market like India. With price going even more down, smartphone sales can really witness a major boost in the country. 

Read more »

Nokia to shut down its Ovi Share service

Nokia is now shutting down its Ovi Share service, which allowed users with Ovi account to upload their photos, videos and files from their phones to Nokia's servers. The Finnish company informed its users via e-mail about the closure of the service, also said to be Nokia's version of Dropbox.

After March 13, users will not be allowed to upload files, while last date to download any file from the server is May 30. The Ovi Share will completely shut down on May 31.

"As of 30 May 2012, we will be discontinuing the Ovi Share service. If you already have another copy of your files existing on your computer or another sharing service, you do not need to do anything," it says. You will continue to have access to Ovi Share until 30 May 2012; however you will not be able to upload new files after 13 March 2012,” reads the Nokia e-mail.

According to Nokia, shutting down the Ovi Share service will help make its business simpler and more focussed on mobile and location based services. “Discontinuing Ovi Share was a business decision to help us focus on our core Nokia service offerings. The new business unit Location & Commerce, established in June 2011, is now in the center of our revised services strategy, bringing you leading location-based services like Nokia Drive, Nokia Maps and Nokia Transport,” says Nokia.

However, Nokia users will still be able to access Nokia's other services with their Ovi account.

Check out the detailed instructions on downloading/saving the files on your computer from Ovi Share here.

Read more »

Samsung unveils Galaxy Pocket, a budget Android smartphone with 2.8-inch display

Samsung has announced another budget Android smartphone called Galaxy Pocket. The new Samsung smartphone will join the series of Galaxy Y and other entry-level Samsung smartphones. The Samsung Galaxy Pocket will be initially launched in Europe later this month and will be gradually rolled out in other markets.

The Samsung Galaxy Pocket features a 2.8-inch display and runs on Android 2.3 platform with upgraded TouchWiz user interface. The device comes pre-loaded with Samsung's ChatON messenger. The Galaxy Pocket is powered by an 832 MHz processor. It has a 2GB of user memory. The Galaxy Pocket sports a 2MP camera and 1,200 mAh battery. For connectivity, the device supports 3G, EDGE/GPRS, Wi-Fi, GPS with A-GPS support, Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP and USB 2.0.

There is no word on pricing of the smartphone yet, but speculations are rife that the Pocket will be even cheaper than the Galaxy Y, which sported a 3-inch screen.
 

Read more »