Tech N Hack

                                  



It’s one thing to admire Nokia for its design prowess but quite another to appreciate the aesthetics that go behind the design itself. Nokia’s Lumia 820 was only recently launched for the Indian market, and being at the launch venue itself gave me the opportunity to get a quick hands-on of the new Windows Phone 8 toting smartphone.

Design and build
The Lumia 820 has an appealing design form even if it does seem a little generic. It’s a simple rectangular, candy bar-styled handset in a nutshell. Keeping that in mind, it was initially rather disappointing at first sight as it gives you a whole different feeling when it’s in your hand. The rounded edges and width of the handset make it easy to hold and quite comfortable to access most parts of the display with ease.
                                    



The volume rocker is placed on the right side, followed by the power key and the camera shutter release/activation button at the bottom of the same side. It's always great to have a shutter release for mobile handsets as it makes it so much easier for capturing media. Sometimes, tapping on the virtual capture key can be quite cumbersome.

Like the Nokias of old, the Lumia 820, in an attempt to live up to its heritage, has a removable rear panel that can be interchanged with alternate colour options. The device itself is all black, so it pairs easily with any and all colours. The panels themselves are available in a variety of types – matt, glossy and rugged (slightly rubberised). This will allow you to be colour coordinated with your device if that's what you're into. Sadly, you'll have to buy these yourself if you want a range of choices. So pick a colour you like upfront. The only options available for now are in Glossy tones. We noticed that the covers with wireless charging tends to sit very snugly on the back while the covers without this feature felt a tad loose.

Nokia's Clear Black Display technology makes sure viewing angles are optimised irrespective of the lighting conditions. The contrast ratio is vivid and the 4.3-inch display with its 480 x 800 pixel resolution really pops.


Interface
There's really not much one can say about the Windows Phone 8 UI that hasn't already been said. It's designed to work smoothly whether its on a Rs. 35,000 handset or one that's priced at significantly lower bracket. Thanks to Qualcomm's Snapdragon Krait dual-core processor running at 1.2GHz, all functionality seemed absolute and swift.

This kind of processing power also allows for seamless playback of full HD content, which was available to try. Needless to say, it was a fair experience. We also got the opportunity to test the audio on this handset and thanks to audio partner Dolby, with their Headphone Sound Enhancement, tone quality seemed pristine. But we'll have to test it in our labs and in outdoor conditions for a more detailed experience.


Getting rid of Zune's media transfer feature, like it is on the WP7 devices, Microsoft has made media lovers quite happy. The new added microSD card slot with support for up to 64GB was a welcome sight. Add to that the available 8GB of onboard storage and you've got more than enough space for your media and more. Nokia will also be providing up to 7GB of online cloud storage via SkyDrive. What the Lumia 820 could have certainly used is a hot swap memory card slot. Unfortunately, you're going to have to remove the battery should you require removing the card for any reason. I suggest getting a higher capacity card if you want to avoid this situation. Speaking of the battery, we noticed that it just tends to slip out while opening the rear cover so it's advisable to hold the phone face down and then open it.

Misc. features
A lot of extras such as a video and photo editor are part of the handset's software makeup. Nokia's Mapping (Nokia Drive) software with GLONASS support via GPS will be much appreciated, I'm sure. Other location-based apps – other than those for social networking – including Nokia's City lens and a few other apps will also prove to be handy for travellers.

NFC and wireless charging was also showcased for all the Lumia devices that were announced. Accessories were announced and will be available from next week onwards. Prices are yet to be disclosed.

Camera
As you may well know by now, the Lumia 820 sports an 8MP autofocus shooter with a dual LED flash. We'll put the camera to test when it gets to our labs. It's no PureView, but with Carl Zeiss backing Nokia for so long, there's very little to complain about the camera section. The various lenses included with the device will help make your images a little more 'entertaining', for lack of a better term.

The bottom Line
With an MRP of Rs. 27,599, Nokia might just have a real winner on its hands with the 820. However, it will need to seriously boost app capabilities—which is the only major issue with the platform. As far as the hardware goes, the Lumia 820 is right up there with the best in this range and could make a few loyalists, who can't afford the 920, very happy. But we did expect the price to be a little more competitive. So their catch phrase – Switch to Lumia – is more of a question, at least for most of the Android and Apple users.

The screens, which were shown off here as just a concept, promise to change what kind of form factors are possible for companies that make smartphones and tablets.
Samsung brought out a handful of demo units around 5-inches in size to show press, including a phonelike device with a screen that wraps around the side edges and could therefore display information like text messages and other alerts without a user needing to view the entire screen. A similar design puts the wraparounds on the bottom, while another concept (shown off in a video) rolled out like a scroll.
Behind the scenes, Samsung is making use of OLED to give the screens what it says are deeper blacks and a higher overall contrast ratio with better power efficiency than traditional LCD displays.
During a brief viewing of the technology following the presentation, Samsung showed a small group of reporters a close-up of the screens, which were displaying still images and videos. Touch interactions with the tech were not shown off (since the displays were not hooked up to CPUs), but Samsung was keen to demo the possible form factors, from a screen bent like a question mark to more simple designs that form a small curl on the edges.
Samsung did not provide a price or release date for Youm.
Samsung's approach (which the company teased last month) differs from competitor Nokia, which made waves in October 2011 with its "kinetic interface" technology. Nokia showed off a flexible screen that controlled aspects of the phone hardware depending on how users twisted the screen. So far, Samsung appears to be more interested in using its own technology to turn parts of the phone that would otherwise go unused to additional areas to display information and add interactivity.
This is not the first time Samsung has unveiled flexible-display technology at CES. The company demoed flexible, transparent displays at the same show in 2011, also with the intent to bring them to future devices. The newer models come in larger form factors and with higher pixel displays.





Source: CNET

Panasonic showed off a new tablet device at its CES 2013 keynote today. The Windows 8-based device is less than half-an-inch thick, with a 20-inch screen with 4K resolution for ultra-crisp images. The device is clearly aimed at the professional market, and a promo video Panasonic showed featured a photographer talking about how it can help him with his workflow. The tablet has pen input, and is not only incredibly thin, but also very light.
For use in the field, this has obvious benefits. Similar products in the past like the Wacom Cintiq line of digital tablets require an external computer to work, and are also much bulkier and much lower resolution. The potential applications really are impressive, especially if it works as smoothly as it did in the slick demo video Panasonic put together to show it off. Pricing and availability are still unknown, but since this is a device targeted at industry and professional users, don’t expect it to be cheap.
Panasonic will have the new tablet on the show floor here at CES, so we’ll try to get up close and personal, and also nail down some more specifics in the process.
Source: tech crunch

2013 will see one of the most iconic battle every in gaming industry, as two of the most highly anticipated games "GTA V and Watch Dogs" will go head to head  against each other for Crown of Best Open World Game 2013.
GTA V:
Talking about GTA, the entire series has been undisputed king of open world genre every since the release of first game way back in 1997. Over the years we have seen steady flow of GTA games, and each version comes with improved levels of gameplay, innovations and more (including strange controvery). The latest installment in the series, GTA V is set in the city of Los Santos and its surrounding hills, countryside and beaches. Many are already claiming it a bold new direction in open-world freedom, storytelling, mission-based gameplay and online multiplayer.
GTA V is expected to shatter all gaming records, and rewrite history on its own. The game is schedule to arrive in Spring 2013, and is already available for pre-order. However on the horizon looms the launch of Ubisoft's Watch Dogs (the biggest challenger to GTA series crown of Undisputed King of Open World Genre).
Watch Dogs:

The first and the foremost reason Watch Dogs is touted as a biggest and real threat to GTA V in open world genre is that it is designed by a team comprised of industry veterans from blockbuster franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow 6 and Far Cry. Release date for Watch Dogs is not yet announced yet, but it is expected to arrive in late 2013.
Watch Dogs will feature massive map with endless possiblilities and variant ways to complete the game. The game blends cutting-edge technologies and sophisticated game design into a realistic and living open world where players must use any means at their disposal to take down a corrupt system. The game revolves around main protagonist, Aiden Pearce. Gamers just need to direct Aiden through various mission, using his hacking, stealth and fighting skills to successfully complete it.

We already have seen early gameplay footage of both these games, and going by the details in it we can say that GTA V has a slight edge over Watch Dogs when it comes to cruising the streets in cars. Watch Dogs is slightly weak in this area, whereas GTA series is know for its great driving simulator experience.

But according to me this time around the deciding factor will be whether gamers go for well versed dark humour of the GTA series (with GTA V) or prefer a more more serious, conspiracy oriented storyline of Watch Dogs. The answer to this will only be available upon the release of GTA V and Watch Dogs.

                        
                                            
                         
Google has slowly been building up its service provider cred, with an ambitious fiber project in Kansas City and free WiFi initiatives through a partnership with Boingo. Today, the search giant is taking another step in that direction: it will unveil a free, public WiFi network in the New York City neighborhood of Chelsea. U.S. Senator Charles Schumer is expected to join Ben Fried, Google’s CIO, to make the announcement at 10.30 am Eastern time.
The network will become the largest public outdoor service of its kind in New York, and the first neighborhood in the city with free WiFi. Although the network will be open to anyone, the Chelsea Improvement Company, also involved in the scheme, is hoping that it will provide a further boost to the city’s so-called “Silicon Alley” by attracting more startups and other tech businesses to the area. Chelsea is also where Google has its own New York headquarters.
The network will cover the area between Gansevoort Street and 19th Street from 8th Avenue to the West Side Highway, and will include the Chelsea Triangle, 14th Street Park and Gansevoort Plaza.
Google has already been providing some WiFi services in the city. Over the summer, to promote Google Offers, it teamed up with Boingo to provide free WiFi at 200 public hotspots. (A promotion that later got picked up by Microsoft when the Google deal ended.) Boingo is also working, longer term, on a project to light up WiFi across New York’s subway network. To promote Google Play, Google also teamed up with Boingo for a 4,000-hotspot U.S.-wide service.
Google has also rolled out free WiFi in Mountain View, “as part of our ongoing efforts to reach out to our hometown,” it notes on the login page. But it’s also had some hiccups in its municipal WiFi efforts in the past, including one effort in San Francisco that was abandoned, back in 2007, after Earthlink hit the rocks.
We’ll update this post as we learn more.

Source:Tech Crunch

                                        
Right on schedule, Mozilla released the latest stable version of its Firefox browser for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Firefox 18 is the first stable version to feature Mozilla’s new IonMonkey JavaScript compiler. Given the right benchmark, IonMonkey outperforms Mozilla’s old compiler by more than 25 percent, and most Web apps, and especially browser-based games, should be significantly faster on Firefox 18.
To show off this new-found power, Mozilla is highlighting BananaBread today, a 3D web game developed by the Mozilla Developer Network that’s powered exclusively by the trinity of HTML5, WebGL, and JavaScript (the game itself, by the way, isn’t actually new but was release last August).
As expected, Firefox 18 also brings support for high-resolution Retina displays to the stable channel. The browser now also uses a new algorithm for scaling images, which should result in better image quality on quite a few sites that depend on in-browser scaling.
Also new in Firefox 18 is preliminary support for the new in-browser WebRTC communications framework for real-time video and audio chats.
One feature that didn’t make it into this release, by the way, is Mozilla’s new built-in PDF reader. While the organization has been working on this for a while, it will only make it into the beta release that’s expected to arrive on Thursday.

New In Firefox For Android: IonMonkey, Phishing Protection And Google New Search Widget Integration

As usual, Firefox for Android is also getting an update today. Just like the desktop version, Firefox for Android now uses IonMonkey. The mobile browser now features opt-in search suggestions in the Awesome Bar. These, Mozilla writes, “are conducted over a secure connection to protect your user data.”
The mobile browser now also includes new anti-phising and anti-malware features that warn users when they encounter a malicious website.
Another interesting new feature of Firefox for Android is its integration with the Google Now search widget.

Source:tech crunch

 




Infotainment platforms are a dime a dozen these days, but Garmin's K2 "glass cockpit" is definitely one system that you're going to want to take seriously. You'll be interacting with a 10.4-inch capacitive touch screen, which is positioned front and center, while a squat 12-inch digital gauge and information readout console is fixed just behind the steering wheel. The system pulls its realtime data from Garmin's servers through your connected smartphone, or, if vehicle manufacturers opt to include it, you may be able to maintain a constant connection by adding a dedicated modem. Then, you'll have access to realtime traffic information, fuel rates at local gas stations, along with email, text messages and other data feeds, including news and sports scores.
As expected, Garmin has taken safety into account -- depending on OEM configurations, you'll likely only be able to operate the center panel while stopped, at which point you can also read and respond to email, send texts, flip through your directory, search for weather, etc. While you're driving, all of those functions shift to a text-to-speech system, which also recognizes commands presented in full sentences. Emails pop up as they're received, with the platform reading messages aloud, if you so choose. You can speak your responses, and a reply will be fired off without any need to direct your attention away from the road.
The system worked very well during our hands-on demo today at CES. Unlike the version that Garmin presented in 2012, this iteration is completely operational, rending detailed 3D graphics and popping up with real POIs in response to actual queries. In other words, the K2 we saw would work perfectly well on the road, though Garmin opted to fix the GPS location in Chicago for the purposes of today's demonstration. There's no set date on when we can expect the platform to make its way to vehicles, and pricing will be set by OEMs, but the version we saw today was installed in a Dodge Durango, and it looked mighty fine there. But don't take our word for it -- you can catch the full hands-on demo just past the break.

Source: Engadget