,

    Sony has launched a pair of smart glasses, just as Google is deciding what to do with its own connected eyewear.



    The Smart Eyeglass, made by Sony, will be available from March 10 in the UK as well as Japan, Germany and the US. It will cost €670.

    Sony’s launch comes weeks after Google halted sales of Glass, taking the product out of its experimental stage but making no clear commitment to start re-selling it. Glass’s cancellation came amid much speculation about whether consumers would ever take to smart glasses worn on the face.

    Sony’s glasses offer much the same features as Google’s. They connect with Android smartphones, and the show text, images and information on a small built-in screen, superimposed over the real view.

    They are built into a slightly less obvious pair of glasses. Where Google’s eyewear had much of the computer components built into a box on the side of the frame, Sony’s glasses are bigger and wraparound the face.

    The company will release a new version of its kit that allows software developers to make apps for the glasses.

    As well as displaying images and texts, apps can receive information from the phone such as geographical location and inputs.

    Developers have made a range of apps for Google Glass — mostly using the screen as a way of displaying notifications, similar to smart watches — but development has mostly lagged behind expectations  as the glasses have failed to take off.

    , ,

    NAMO stands for Narendra Modi and Next Generation Android Mobile Odyssey. Our product is our way of dedication & respect to our great nation leader.
    If you're a fan of BJP's PM candidate Narendra Modi you can buy a new smartphone called Smart Namo to show your loyality.
    As per the offcial website of the phone www.smartnamo.com the phone is Android 4.2 and available in 16G/32G/64G versions.
    The manufacturers claim that they are "fans of Shri Narendra Modi, our forthcoming future leader of our great nation India, we are manufacturing latest android handset dedicated to the "IRONMAN" of modern India.
    NAMO stands for Narendra Modi and Next Generation Android Mobile Odyssey. Our product is our way of dedication & respect to our great nation leader."



     

    Features:
    Ultra Powerful Quad Core 1.5Ghz CPU, 6589-T quad-core processor 
    5 Inch IPS Touchscreen, 2GB RAM + 32GB ROM. 13 MP Camera.
    The company has announced two smartphones, namely Smart NAMO Saffron 2, Saffron 1. While the Saffron 2 is priced at Rs 24,000, the Saffron 1 smartphone will come in two variants for Rs 23,000 and Rs 18,000.

    The report claims that Smart Namo phone will cost Rs 16,000 at launch and have videos as well as apps related to Modi.
    In addition to the smartphones, team Namo also plans to introduce feature phones starting from Rs.1,000.

    , ,


    Samsung will reveal curved smartphone in Q4 2013, but it won't be 'completely flexible'

    In the midst of Samsung's global launch for its Note 3, the company is already thinking about its next big reveal. This time around, it'll involve a curved display. The unnamed device could appear in Korea next month, according to Reuters, although Yonhap News (through the wonders of Google Translate) was told to expect a new device announcement some time in Q4. In either case, it's soon. The last time we heard about Samsung's handheld flexible displays was back in CES in January, where a 5.5-inch prototype device named 'Youm' was revealed -- that's what you can see above. The prototype's screen stretched to the outer edges of the device and was able to display notifications along the side, although the handheld itself wasn't flexible. According to Park Sang-jin, CEO of Samsung SDI, the new device will use a similar OLED panel and will be curve-shaped ("not completely flexible"), which will "differentiate" the device from Samsung's existing smartphone family. We suspect it may arrive with that new camera sensor too.

    , ,

    Panasonic has officially launched three new dual-SIM Android smartphones in the Indian market. These phones include P11 and T11 phones, which were found to be on sale at one online retailer last week. The third smartphone to be unveiled today is Panasonic T21.Panasonic T21
    The newly released phones will join the company’s already available P51 smartphone in the country. Coming to the specifications, Panasonic T21 runs on Android 4.1 and is powered by 1.2GHz Broadcom 28145 dual-core processor. The phone also comes with 4.5-inch 720p HD display, 4GB of storage, 8MP rear camera, 2MP front camera and 1700 mAh battery.
    T21 has been priced at INR 13,990 and will be available beginning this week.
    Panasonic T11 features a 4-inch WVGA display, Android 4.1, 1.2GHz Snapdragon 200 quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of storage, 5MP rear camera, front camera, and 1500 mAh battery. On the other hand, P11 packs a 5-inch 720p HD display, 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 2000 mAh battery, Android 4.1, 8MP rear camera and 2MP front camera.Panasonic P11 and T11
    Panasonic P11 and T11 have been priced at INR 16,490 and INR 9,790 respectively and are already available in the country.
    “With the launch of these devices, we are yet again raising the bar for innovation. Smartphone is a reflection of who you are, and since we are all different, it is imperative that we do not adopt a ‘one size fits all approach’. Panasonic’s new offerings will deliver a remarkable mobile experience to our consumers and set a new standard in premium smartphones,” said Manish Sharma, Managing Director, Panasonic India.

    , ,



    amazon_kindle_fire_hd_8.9.jpg

    The 7-inch variant of Amazon's Kindle Fire HD tablets has received a price cut in the Indian market. The tablet's 16GB storage variant now costs Rs.11,999, while the  32GB storage variant is priced at Rs. 15,999.

    The Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7 was launched in June, with the 16GB variant priced at Rs. 15,999, and the 32GB variant priced at Rs. 18,999. The tablet is available on Amazon.in and is sold by Croma with order fulfilment by Amazon.

    Kindle Fire HD is a 7-inch tablet with a 1280x800 pixel display resolution, and is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and Imagination SGX540 GPU. It weighs 395 grams and runs on a 4400mAh battery rated to deliver up to 11 hours of usage. It comes with 1GB of RAM, dual-band Wi-Fi, Dolby Audio with dual stereo speakers, a front-facing HD camera and Bluetooth 3.0.

    The tablet runs a highly customised version of Android 4.0.3, with apps available through Amazon's Appstore instead of Google Play store. Kindle Fire HD tablets can also consume content from Amazon's large library of audio, video and book content, though only books are available in India at this point in time.

    The 8.9-inch version of the tablet, Kindle Fire HD 8.9, still costs the same. The 16GB version of the tablet costs Rs. 21,999, while the 32GB version is priced at Rs. 25,999.

    The price cut comes at a time when Amazon is rumoured to be working on the next-generation Kindle Fire HD tablets. Last week, an alleged leaked press render featuring the rumoured next-gen Kindle Fire HD in all its glory had appeared online, courtesy @evleaks.

    Previously, the next-generation Amazon Kindle Fire HD tablet appeared online with specifications and some purported images via BGR. The website's source claimed the leaked images were of the 7-inch variant of the next-generation Kindle Fire HD tablet. The site however noted that the bigger model, the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD tablet would have the same design as the 7-inch model. The leaked images revealed a tablet with an angular design, featuring no physical buttons in the front, and revamped power button and volume rocker controls.

    The last leak also pointed to some of the expected specifications of the next-generation Amazon Kindle Fire HD. It is expected to feature a 7-inch display with 1920x1200 pixels resolution, powered by a 2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor and 2GB of RAM. The tablet is likely to run on a forked version of Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and is likely to come in three storage variants - 16GB/32GB/64GB. Previously, Amazon's next-generation Kindle Fire HD tablet was spotted in benchmark results.

    , , ,

    Why do people queue for days to buy the latest Apple gadget? Lucy Kinder discovers discovers the pitfalls of a trip to the lavatory and why planning laws have left them without a tent over their heads.

    iPhone5
    iPhone 5s enthusiasts in Japan, left, get into the party spirit, whilst the queue in the UK was slightly more reserved Photo: REUTERS/HEATHCLIFF O'MALLEY FOR THE TELEGRAPH

    It annoyed Green slightly, because he could have used the publicity.
                       Noah Green at the front of the queue. (HEATHCLIFF O'MALLEY FOR THE TELEGRAPH)

     
    He is being paid £300 to promote a new photo sharing app, as long as he wears their T-shirt and wristbands while queuing.
    He hopes the big money will come if he is able to sell his spot in the queue for thousands of pounds. "I could probably get £8,000," he said. "I know a guy got £15,000 a few years ago. If the right offer comes I will take it."
    A man has already been offering the princely sum of £7,00 for a top spot in the queue. None of the queuers know who he is but say he has promised to come back this afternoon.
    Mr Green is 17 and a part time student. He spends the rest of his time building a website business with fellow queuer Max Fisher, also 17.
    This is Mr Fisher's first launch and he is excited: "Every time I will look at my new iPhone, I'll remember what it was like to queue for days."
    First time queuer Max Fisher. (HEATHCLIFF O'MALLEY FOR THE TELEGRAPH)
    Mr Green has been to every Apple launch since the iPhone 4 in June 2010 and for him the queue is strictly business: "All of the people at the front of the queue are all in the same industry. We are a community. We also love Apple. Other people in the queue do not, they are just here for the money."
    Even if Mr Green does sell his spot he says he will go to the back of the line and buy two phones for business use.
    The first group of people in the queue are all friends, meeting at the iPhone 4 launch and using the following launches as a chance to catch up with each other once a year.
    They have set up a makeshift tent which is big enough to sleep eight. It is well stocked with beer, whiskey, cigars and plenty of food, much of it provided free by Greggs and Domino's.
    However Westminster Council has now told the group that they must take the structure down because they didn't get planning permission to erect it.
    A spokesperson said: "The streets of Westminster are not camp sites and we can’t allow people to block the streets days in advance."
    Apple has provided the queuers with umbrellas and a free coffee each to get them through the last night before the launch.
    The group look after each other's belongings if they need to go to the bathroom, shower (a nearby gym is particularly accommodating for this), or even in the case of Harry Barrington-Mountford, go to a work meeting.
    Harry Barrington-Mountford. (HEATHCLIFF O'MALLEY FOR THE TELEGRAPH)
    Mr Barrington-Mountford, 22, is a risk manager from Upminster. He said he just couldn't wait to get his hands on the new iPhone. "I'm quite impatient. I want something first and if I see it I just have to have it straight away.
    "The launch itself is actually quite uncomfortable and loud. This is the best bit. How many times would you be able to sleep out in the middle of town? I'm in a lucky enough position to be able to do it. It's just a great chance to chat with your mates. The drunk people at night are the best. They are a lot of fun."
    They spend the days reading books and chatting because. says Mr Mountford-Barrington, "there is not much else to do."
    They laugh when they read (On their iPhones) that die-hard Japanese fans have been queuing in Tokyo in the middle of a typhoon.
    A man wears an old iMac case on his head waits for the release of Apple's new iPhone 5S in Tokyo. (REUTERS)
    Passers-by stop and stare at the queuers and some yell obscenities. One van driver winds down his window to take a photograph. He yells "You sad b*****s!".
    There is some tension between the first and second group to join the queue. Apple will only allow a handful of people to queue outside their building on Regent's Street. The rest must go around the corner, and lose a coveted position.
    The second group of queuers attempt to muscle in on the prime position. None of them seems particularly interested in the iPhone.
    Two are Russian with poor English. When asked why they are here they shrug and smile. Alex Ricardi, 21 pulls out a Samsung device. As to why he was queuing he said: "I had some free time. It's a bit of fun."
    iPhone devotees queuing in Tokyo. (REUTERS)
    Mr Barrington-Mountford is frustrated by them. "This happens every year. They are probably being paid by a company to buy the phones. You can only get two each but often companies get lots of people to buy for them."
    His friend Ethan Martin, a market researcher, says the group do not associate with other queuers for that very reason. "Everyone thinks we are sad but I couldn't really care less. People may think we are raving mad but they all have iPhones. You can call us geeks but we aren't nerds."

    , , ,


    iOS 7 vs iOS 6: how different are they?
    Control Center now gives you quick access to functions previously hidden in settings
    iOS 7 is the biggest change to Apple's iOS since the arrival of apps in 2008. It's brighter, bolder and guaranteed to annoy anyone who thought iOS looked just fine, but there's much more to it than that dramatic new user interface. iOS 7 is packed with new features big and small. These are the highlights.

    That new interface

    Like it or loathe it, there's no denying that iOS looks very different. It's much more minimalist than before, with a distinctly flat look - check out the new Messages or Mail compared to the iOS 6 versions and the differences are obvious. Apps that haven't been designed for iOS 7 yet are going to look a little bit odd compared to the stark new Apple apps.

    A new lock screen

    iOS 7 vs iOS 6
    The new lockscreen incorporates parallax effects
    The lock screen benefits from a parallax effect: move your phone and your wallpaper appears to move. Where the iOS 6 lock screen has two swipeable bits for unlocking your device or launching the Camera app, iOS 7 has four: unlocking, Camera, and two new swipes: swiping down from the top of the screen to see notifications, and swiping up from the bottom to bring up Control Center. Speaking of which...

    Control Center

    Control Center is something many iOS users have been clamouring for for ages: instead of wading through endless Settings screens to turn on features such as Airplane Mode, Control Center provides quick access to key features: Airplane Mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb and Rotation Lock. It also provides media playback controls, Airdrop file sharing, and quick access to the phone's LED light and the Clock, Calculator and Camera apps.

    Notifications

    Notifications have been given a major revamp: there are now three sections (swipeable left to right) headed Today, All and Missed. Today tells you what's on your schedule and includes cute details such as "it would take you about 9 minutes to drive home right now" and a summary of the weather forecast. All collates notifications of app updates, messages and so on, and as you might expect Missed tracks notifications of missed calls and notifications you didn't deal with. You can customise which apps can access Notifications in the Settings app.

    Camera

    The Camera app has been dramatically redesigned and offers four kinds of shooting: video, photo, square (for Instagram-style shots) and Pano (for panoramas). You also get Instagram-style filters for adding retro effects.

    Photos

    The Photos app has been redesigned too, and it can automatically organise your photos into what Apple calls Collections. The feature uses your device's GPS to sort photos not just by date, but by location - and it's smart enough to know the difference between the exhibition centre in one part of a city and the cinema in the city centre. You can also zoom out to see your photos by year, which is handy if you never, ever clear the pictures from your iOS device.

    Spotlight search

    Spotlight has been moved: to activate it, just pull down in the Home screen.
    Safari
    iOS 7 vs iOS 6
    The simplified Safari makes for fuss-free browsing
    Safari gets a much simpler interface that disappears completely as you scroll through pages, and the interface for switching tabs is more visual (and very similar to the new multitasking interface).
    Bookmarks can access shared links from your Twitter feed, the address and search boxes have been combined into a single box, and iCloud Keychain can generate and store passwords and securely store your credit card details too.
    You'll have to wait for that last one, though: Apple pulled it from the Gold Master release at the very last minute, and we're expecting it to appear when OS X Mavericks ships.

    FaceTime

    Good news for fans of FaceTime who'd rather not have, or whose connections aren't good enough for, video: iOS 7 now offers audio-only FaceTime.

    Smart Mailboxes and easier mail management

    Mail.app doesn't just get a cool new design. It gets some useful features too. Smart Mailboxes enable you to pin frequently-used mail folders for quick access, and swiping right to left on an email header gives you the choice of Trash or More. That latter option gives you Reply, Forward, Flag, Mark as Unread, Junk and Move options.

    Multitasking

    As with iOS 6 you can force-quit apps by double-tapping the home button to invoke the multitasking view, but in iOS 7 you dismiss them by swiping them upwards. Multitasking has been changed under the hood, too: according to Apple, "iOS 7 learns when you like to use your apps and can update your content before you launch them. So if you tend to check your favorite social app at 9:00 every morning, your feed will be ready and waiting for you."

    iTunes Radio

    The new iTunes Radio feature will supplement your music library with streaming songs, and if you're an iTunes Match subscriber it'll be ad-free. It'll feature personalised stations based on the music you already listen to, and more than 200 genre-specific stations. Apple promises exclusive previews of some new releases too.

    Automatic App Updating

    Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah once more! Keeping our iOS apps up to date was beginning to feel rather like gardening: time-consuming, tedious and utterly pointless. Now iOS lets apps update themselves, although you can disable the feature if you prefer to keep things manual.

    Airdrop

    iOS 7 vs iOS 6
    Airdrop makes sharing between iOS devices simpler

    Sharing files from iOS devices hasn't been as easy as it could be, which is why many of us use apps such as Dropbox or send photos over email to the person sitting six feet away from us.
    Airdrop makes things simpler: if the person you want to share with is nearby and running iOS 7, you'll be able to share photos, videos, contacts or anything else app developers decide to support. You can share one file with lots of people or lots of files with one person, and you can restrict Airdrop to people in your address book or anyone in the vicinity.
    Smarter Siri
    iOS 7 vs iOS 6
    Siri's had a brain - and a helpfulness - enhancement
    Siri can do more in iOS 7 without leaving the app: you can get web results (via Bing, even if you tell Siri to "search the web"), ask questions such as "tell me about [thing]", look for particular people's Twitter tweets and - joy of joys - access key settings, such as Bluetooth and Airplane mode.

    More App Store options

    The familiar App Store has been given a new look and two new discovery features: Apps Near Me, which shows you the most popular apps downloaded from your current location, and a new Kids category for - you've guessed it - kids' apps.

    Activation Lock

    iOS 6's Find My Phone features have been enhanced to make criminals' lives more difficult: disabling Find My Phone or erasing the device requires your Apple ID and password, and those ID details are also required to re-activate it even once it has been wiped. Remotely erasing your iPhone doesn't prevent your phone from displaying a custom message of your choice either.

    iOS in the car

    iOS 7 vs iOS 6
    iOS 7 is ready to work with your car - when your car catches up
     
     
    It'll be a while before this feature's relevant to many of us, but iOS 7 is designed to integrate with compatible in-car systems for hands-free calling, music, messages and navigation.

⬆
Top