Nokia N9 - Meego powered handset - First thoughts

The Meego OS packing Nokia N9 design is a sight for the sore eyes. Its brilliant poly carbonate uni body design is as good as a phone design can get. The impeccable build quality means only one thing. Its from Nokia. As a former user of the Nokia N900 which initially ran on Maemo, i was very excited to see the N9 running on Meego. I have to mention that the N900 itself had an option of installing Meego on it if you are a little enterprising. But time never was enough for me to do it.

Hardware :

The body is made from a single block of Poly carbonate material, machined to produce the required form. It is not cast from plastic as is normally is the case. Due to this manufacturing process the body looks flawless without any imperfections or any openings.

There aren't many physical buttons either. Not that you would miss them. The OS is designed from the ground up to not use too many physical buttons. To the right you have the volume rocker and the power lock button. On the left side there are no physical buttons. Bottom a grill opening for the speakers and on the top hidden well designed doors which hide the HDMI port, power/USB connectors and the SIM card slot. The micro SD card also fits to the slot. The top of the phone also has a standard 3.5mm audio connector. All very brilliantly though of.

The phone also comes with all the standard issue sensors: a proximity sensor, accelerometer, ambient light sensor for automatic brightness adjustments and a magnetometer a.k.a compass for proper map orientations in GPS based turn by turn navigation using Ovi maps.

Nokia N9 Commercial :







Display :

The phone features a slightly curved screen which aids in the swipe motion. The edges of the screen blend seamlessly in into the body of the phone.
The 3.9-inch FWVGA (854x480) AMOLED display  is a gorgeous one rendering perfect black and comparable to other top notch mobile AMOLED screens. The screen contrast is so good that you cannot make out the difference where the screen ends and the black uni body poly carbonate shell begins.

Processor:

IRIS for Android is Siri for iPhone 4S reversed

Ever imagine how Siri, the knowledgeable, refined and resourceful personal assistant for the iPhone 4s would have been when she was a child ?

Welcome to iris for Android. Yes you are right, that's Siri reversed. Its developer Dexetra claims that it was all developed as a weekend project just for the kicks of it.

iris is capable of basic word definitions and more basic natural language processing. But one cannot but wonder how a functional version of siri can be put together in a span of just 8 Hrs over a weekend.

I ran it through it paces and the screen shot above gives some of the responses. As can be seen its quiet intelligent enough to grab who is A R Rehman and foolish enough not to understand what is 1+1. It can even pull up images of the topic.


iris is in the early alpha stage in the Android market. It remains to be seen how the developer takes it from here, to a fully matured product or a run of the mill app.

Download iris here

SDK Download - Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich

Google has posted the Software development Kit for Android 4.0. This means the developers can start developing applications using the new features provided by Android 4.0.

This will ensure availability of a fair number of apps available for the OS when Samsung Nexus is released for the general public.

Download Page : Here

Android 4.0 - Ice Cream Sandwich, Samsung Galaxy Nexus launched

Google and Samsung today took the next big step and launched Samsung Nexus S with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich in a press conference in Honk Kong.

Lets first see the OS itself(Android4.0) and then go to the first phone ever to officially have Android 4.0




Android 4.0 - Ice Cream Sandwich:

Ice Cream Sandwich is the latest and greatest in the Android line of operating systems.From the looks of it, this is by far the most refined and sleek looking Android operating system ever.

The UI has gone through some major refinements. As Android.com puts it, it is the logical next step in the refinement and evolution of an already wonderful UI.

It introduces some innovative features like  Android Beam for NFC (near field communications) based sharing where two NFC equipped devices can be touched together and simply tapped to initiate any transfer or other transactions like payments.WiFi-Direct enables users to share content using direct WiFi connections established between two devices.

Another cool feature is device unlock by face recognition.

The OS has much refined animations and system wide feedback providing for a much better user interaction

Support for home screen folders to group related apps has been made available natively. Previously this was achievable only through third party apps.

Widgets can now be re sized and designed to be much more interactive .

New Sense 3.X type of lock screen allowing for actions from lock screen like answering and rejecting calls and checking messages.

A powerful voice recognition engine allows for continuous text dictations

Tight integration between contacts and other social features and profiles.

A totally revamped camera application using live effects with integrated gallery and photo editing.

And now to the Phone :

Samsung Galaxy Nexus :

Galaxy Nexus takes the credit of being the first phone to officially sport Android 4.0

It sports a slim and curved design. Some of it highlights include among others:

1. A 1.3 Ghz Dual core processor
2. A gorgeous 1280 x 720 HD display
3. NFC based transactions for proximity based communications
4. Face Unlock
5. A zero lag 5 mega pixel camera capable of 1080p video with continuous auto focus and single motion panoramic shot
6. 4G capable
7. Voice dictation

Must have Android apps for Indian users - BookMyShow- Category - Entertainment

Number two on the series on Must have Android apps for the Indian user is BookMyShow. Movie junkies need not look any further for their ticket booking needs. BookMyShow provides a convenient way to search and book movie tickets. Currently the application supports movie, art and theatre and sporting tickets.

The developers have promised to include other miscellaneous events in the near future. Once the application is launched we are greeted with a rather elegant and simple screen. This gives an option to choose from the below categories.

Once a category is selected (in this example movies), the select region screen is displayed. You can use the

Must have Android apps for Indian users - TOI - Category - News

Number one on the series of must have android applications for the Indian consumers is the TOI - TIMES OF INDIA app. This is one of my favorite news applications presenting the information in a simple and uncluttered format. The categories are organized sideways and all the news headlines related to the category are organized in a page. One can move to the next category using the category label at the top or a side swipe gesture towards left or right. One cannot but avoid noticing the advertisement in the bottom of the screen. This from my experience is mostly unobtrusive.

Main screen showing various categories and news articles

Detailed news is brought about by clicking on the headline which opens up the news in detail.

Clicking inside the news expands the news to full screen mode which is convenient.

A rather interesting category that stood out from other normal categories one would expect from a news application is the Movie Reviews. I was pleasantly surprised to see all the ratings and reviews collected and presented in a single page.

I will be covering other apps in this last in my future posts. Please leave a comment if you have any app in mind.

Market Download Link : here

Google Translate with Conversation Mode for Android - Realtime spoken translations now in 14 languages

Google has updated Google translate to support 14 languages in its rather interesting feature called conversation mode.

Conversation mode translates spoken words in real time and speaks out the translated voice in the other language.

The initial release was done earlier this year with only English and Spanish support.

See the action in the video below.




Jeff Chin the product manager at Google responsible for Translate writes that the product is still in Alpha and is susceptible to background noise and regional accents.



As Google translate is a self learning program, he predicts that as more people use it, the system learns the various accents and will provide  better results.

Google translate can be downloaded from Google market here.

Dennis Ritchie, the co-creator of C programming language and Unix is dead

Dennis Ritchie who co-created C and UNIX and all the software systems we know now is dead at the age of 70 after battling an unknown illness for long.

The news was reported by Rob Pike a Google engineer and Former colleague of Dennis Ritchie via Google+.

Pike writes : He was a quiet and mostly private man, but he was also my friend, colleague, and collaborator, and the world has lost a truly great mind

Dennis Ritchie's profile page in Bell labs: http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/dmr/

For more on Dennis Ritchie :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ritchie

Microsoft launches Windows 7.5 Mango phones in India

Microsoft launches Windows 7.5 based mobile phones in India. The OS is code named Mango. For those who think what a odd choice of name this is, consider "Ice cream sandwich" which is the code name for the next version of android 4.x devices.

The OS employs the "Metro" UI which presents information in live tiles displayed in the home screen. These tiles are live in the sense they can pull real time data as well as run processes in the background.

Currently Microsoft store has HTC Radar on sale for Rs 23,990

http://www.microsoftstore.co.in/microsoft/1214/product/HTC-Radar.aspx

The OS includes various features like :

Google announces Q3 earnings $9.27 billion revenue, $2.7 billion in income

Google today announced its 3rd Quarter earning of $9.27 billion in total revenue and $2.7 billion in net income. This represents a 33% jump when compared to the same quarter last year.

Google CEO Larry Page also announced that there were 190 million active android phones and 200 million Google Chrome web browser installations

Google+ has more than 40 million users now.

Apple releases iOS 5 update for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod and iPad

Apple today released iOS - the next generation of the iOS operating system that powers the iPhone, iPod
and iPad.

The compatible devices are

iPhone 3GS

iPhone 4

iPhone 4S

iPad

iPad 2

iPod Touch 3rd generation

iPod Touch 4th generation

http://www.apple.com/ios/

How to update: The updates can be received by connecting your device to iTunes.

 

CyanogenMod 7.1 Released - Now supporting more than 20 new devices

CyanogenMod 7.1 has been released and now supports more than 20 new devices including the Sony Ericcson Xperia Arc range of devices. Devices including HP Touchpad, Optimus 3D are in beta.

CyanogenMOD 7.1 screen shots:

Copy all Context Menu

Home screen

Rings Lock Screen

Gestures

Android 2.3.7

Though not ground breaking in new feature list, there are a tons of subtle changes that make the already great ROM even better.

Changes include :

What is Android fragmentation - An explanation

Often we hear the term when talking about Android.
To understand what is fragmentation , we have to take a look at all the version of android released till date. Spanning from Android version 1.0 to 1.5 cupcake , 1.6 Donut, 2.x eclair, 2.2 Froyo, 2.3.x Gingerbread, 3.x Honeycomb and soon to be release 4.x Ice Cream Sandwich, there are more than 10 versions of the OS including all the point releases.

T-Mobile G, the first android device - Running 1.5 cupcake

So in a short span of time between 2008 and 2011, Google had released so many version of the OS. This meant that device manufacturers also had to keep up with the latest versions of the OS and release their devices with them running.

This also meant that users who had purchased older phones and which are still active due to the short time span are running an older version if the same OS.

This gives rise to the fragmentation issue. Same OS, different version all active and alive.

As per android.com the chart above illustrates the share of devices and their version numbers that visited the android market for 14 days as of October 3.

As can be seen, though the number of older devices are subsiding, the android ecosystem in terms of version is very much fragmented,

To call it either fragmented or quick updates which means additional functionality and optimization all depends on the user point of view.

Please leave your comments.

Android apps to run on Apple devices - Myriad announces Alien Dalvik 2.0 Engine

Myriad announced the Alien Dalvik 2.0 engine which enables android application to run in any other device which has a compatible Alien Dalvik engine.

Myriad says this could solve the inherent fragmentation problem in the Android ecosystem and provide a consistent user experience. It also says that this could mean apps running in various platforms and OS's without any modifications.

Myriad will demo Android apps running on a iPAD 2 at CTIA Enterprise and applications 2011.

What this could mean is that the goodness of the android ecosystem and apps can be extended to a myriad of devices like TVs, Tablets and even automobiles.

The users could simply install the android apps in their devices and open them as would be done in a android device to run them. In other words, the technology is totally transparent to the users.

Press release : Here

Apple co founder and former CEO - Steve Jobs dies at 56

Steve Jobs, Apple Co founder and former CEO died Wednesday - October 5th 2011. He was 56.

He was born February 24, 1955 and founded apple in 1976.

Jobs' death though appearing sudden, was not unexpected. He had battled cancer for years.

He had taken a medical leave from Apple in January and stepped down as chief executive in August due to his health issues.

Read more from CNN
Apple.com Steve Jobs

India launches cheap $35 Android tablet

India today announced the much hyped $35 (Rs 2999) Tablet. Clearly targeted at the rural student community who don't have access to basic computing devices. This actually turns out to be the Ubislate 7 from Datawind that has been subsidized by the government from the list price of $60.

The specs include a 7-inch 800 x 480 resistive touchscreen, 366MHz Connexant CPU, 256MB of RAM and 2GB of storage  and a microSD slot for more memory.

Apple iPhone 4S Price and availability

The recently announced Apple iPhone 4S will start shipping from October 14 and the carriers in the US will be AT&T, Sprint Nextel, and Verizon Wireless.

The pricing information is as below for a new 2 year contract:

16GB - $199
32 GB - $299
64 GB - $399

The details about the new iPhone 4S is impressive packing a dual core CPU and graphics engine, a 8 MP camera and the iOS 5. More details here.

Apple announces new phone - iPhone 4s

Apple today announced an upgrade to the Apple iPhone 4. The iPhone 4s which brings in a powerful dual core processor and a 8 Mega pixel F2.4 lens camera among other improvements. Full improvement list below:

The upgrade include:

1.  A faster A5 processor
2. A dual core CPU with up to 2X more processing power
3. Dual core graphics processor with up to 7X more processing power
4. 2 antennae design for even better call quality
5. 2X faster downloads

Read on More after break:

Apple expected to announce new devices today - Including the iPhone 5

Today is the much awaited Apple press conference and people around the world are waiting with fingers crossed for the announcement the big apple is going to make.

It is rumored that apple will announce two iPhone devices, the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 4s. Also some believe that apple would announce the iPad price reduction.

Let us know your thoughts in the Comments section :

Capture all the excitement in the Live Blog by Engadget here

Keywords: Apple Keynote, iPhone5, iOS 5, iPad

Top Android apps - Google Maps for Android

Google Maps is an indispensable app for those directionally challenged of us.

Google maps offers

*Navigation: Free, voice-guided GPS navigation system
*Places: Find, rate, and get recommendations for places
*Latitude: See friends on the map and check in at places