GREETING CARD STUDIO

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f you want to do something different than presenting a ready greeting card or an electronic greeting you might want this software a shot. Greeting card studio lets you create your own greeting cards for various occasions using the built in templates and photos of your choice. With templates you can create a card in a jiffy. These are basically decorative frames within which you can place your photos. The photos can be scaled within the frame and rotated. However you have to go via the munes to rotate the photo and you do not get a real time preview. You can throw in clipart and captions to jazz up your greeting card. These are 40 odd clipart elements for various occasions such as birthday, Christmas and wedding.

          If you choose to start with a blank card you first have to set the size orientation and resolution of the page. To the right of the work area is a panel from where you can add or remove elements and enhance them. The software has a good collection of backgrounds and textures plus you can also use a solid color or a gradient. The software features support for layers and you can adjust the opacity and use marks. The order of the layers can be changed depending on the elements you want in the background of foreground but it can be done via the context menu or the toolbar.

          So it’s only by trial and error that you will get the sequence correct especially when there are multiple layers. The layer properties tab should have had a section in which the user can move layers and hide/unhide them- like in Adobe photoshop. Also a few functions should have been preset I the panel to the right instade of in the toolbar so that the user has everything in one place for easy access. Some of these are picture frame and text box.

          Overall greeting card studio is easy to use and you can create great looking cards if you use layers and other functions to your advantage.

BITDEFENDER TOTAL SECURITY 2012

To protect your system from the ever present threats and viruses and spyware you need to have robust security software installed. Bitdefender’s total security 2012 has consistently scored in high in AV-test.org tests having scored 6 out of 6 on protection and an overall score of 15.5 out of 18.

                It will effectively protect your system from malicious threats like viruses, Trojans, spyware and even identity attacks. Apart from this it provides features like performance tune up parental control encryption online back up chat and facebook and twitter protection. Its interface is user friendly and easy to navigate. In the home screen you will see a status ring with colored indicators which give you a glimpse of the health of your system. Next to it is the events tab which is basically an activity log in which you will see small numerical notifications icons. You can click on it to check the activity log for each of the functions such as scan, update etc.

                On the home screen you will see four panels using which you can configure the settings. You can scroll to browse through all the setting panels. Also you can move these panels by simply dragging them which is a handy feature as it always you to set the ones that you are more likely to use often right on the home screen.

                Another interesting feature is the autopilot mode. This is selected by default when you set up it will run in the background identify threats and take appropriate actions all this without any pop up notifications. It will basically make all the decisions for you. If you want have greater control then you can switch off autopilot. It also has a rescue mode that reboots your PC in a trusted environment during cleanup and restoration.

ARCSOFT MEDIA CONVERTER

Media converter is powerful video and audio encoding tool from ArcSoft. The software can convert virtually any media file into formats playable by media players be it PC, TV or mobile device from Apple, HTC, Samsung, Nokia and others. The user interface is simple simply import the media file from your hard drive CD, DVD or camcorder and choose the output device. You can additionally tweak the output format in terms of resolution audio and video bitrates and frame rates. The software can take the advantage of an Nvidia GPU for faster processing reducing the load from the main processor. Media converter can optionally set to delete the original file after completion skip convertion if files can be played on the target device already sharpen videos upscale videos and automatically adjust the volume levels. The software can also convert 2D photos and video into 3D formats and also the ability to transfer online videos to your personal devices. Extraction of audio tracks from DVDs and AVCHD files are also possible. The trial version is limited to a 15 day period only. The full version is available for a price of Rs 2,000 approximately. 

ADATA XPG SX900

A data claims its XGP SX900 solid state drive is the most powerful SSD on the earth. This seems true after having tasted the fastest SSDs available the market. The SX900 belongs to Xtreme performance gear series of enthusiast class hardware and uses optimize firmware to efficiently utilize the NAND chips. Couple with a sandforce 2281 controller the SX900 can reach read and write speeds greater than 500 MB/s. This SSD is available in 64GB, 128GB, 256GB and 512GB capacities which gives you multiple option depending on your budget and application area. The package includes a 3.5 inch bay adapter.

          We received the review unit as soon as the SX900 was launched. After formatting you get 138 GB of usable storage space. The capacity is sufficient to comfortably store hundreds of movies and music albums or multiple games and application that require gigabytes of storage space.

          The only drive that came close to this one was the 240 GB SSD in Intel’s 520 series. The sequential read and write scores reported by ATTO Disk Benchmark and SiSoft Sandra 2012 indicates how fast the SX900 is. It was the only drive in the roundup that could write data faster than 500 MB/s. Think of a hefty 4 GB file getting transferred in under 5 seconds! With the highest scores in most benchmarks the drive scored a whooping 97 points out of 100. There is no other choice if you want a superfast PC.

CREATIVE Zii SOUND T6

The creative’s Zii sound T6 is a premium 2.1 channel speaker system which features a built in USB audio card and support for Bluetooth. Bundled along the speaker is a USB Bluetooth transmitter. An IR remort control and a control pod make up the controls of the T6. Also bundled along is a free Bluetooth transmitter that can be used with an iPod or iPad. The speakers are pretty loud and don’t distort too much at high levels. The bass and treble are pretty decent but there is a lack of punch and extreme highs. The audio quality and the performance of the T6 can only be enjoyed at medium to 80 percent volume levels in a closed room. Overall the speakers are good for gaming and music listening. If you prefer warm bass and loud volume levels the T6 will possibly impress you.

AOC i2353PH

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OCi2353ph a 23 inch LED backlit display that boasts of an IPS panel in place of the standard TN panel that’s common on most budget displays. In terms of connectivity there are too many option there is an older D-sub connector and two HMDI ports. There are no controls whatsoever surrounding the display instead they’re all positioned on the stand.

            Users can not adjust the height or rotate the display with the stand it can be tilted back and forth quite a bit unlike most stands that are thin and solid this one is slightly higher and is almost completely made of plastic.

            The user interface of the AOC i2353ph is easy to use and it takes no more than a few minutes to get used to it.

            We tired viewing images on the display and we found the image quality to be excellent. Colors are very natural even without calibration. Video quality of movies is good. There is a good amount of detail that can be seen in HD content but what is more impressive is the reproduction of colors.

            The integrated speakers on the i2353ph are not very loud but they are fine for very casual music listening sessions. The AOC i2353ph is a good product overall I is a somewhat affordable 23 inch IPS panel display.

AOC E1649FWU

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OC’s USB monitor is designed for power users who understand the joy of multitasking across multiple monitors. The 15.6 inch screen can be plugged into any windows or MAC desktop or laptop with a single USB cable. It is surprisingly light though a bit bulky. It won’t slip it into most backpacks but it is easier to manage than a desktop monitor. The stand allows for portrait or landscape orientation installation requires the driver on the bundled CD. With only a single USB cable to plug in road warriors can give impressive presentations practically anywhere.

                Desktop users could also benefit with an extra screen for programs that stay running in the background. A Y-shaped USB cable is provided but our tests ran fine without the extra power lead. Image quality is impressive but viewing angles are not spectacular. The glossy finish and lack of adjustability sometimes impair visibility. We experienced minor artifacting  while playing HD video via the USB connection but other USB devices such as hard drives tended to interface with the connection. Oddly there is no power button or controls for image settings.

SONY ERICSSON XPERIA PRO

Available in the colors silver black and red the Xperia Pro has a chrome rim with a slide out full QUARTY keypad. The Xperia Pro is a good looker with just a 13.5 mm thick body and weighing around 142 grams. Built with a 1 GHz scorpion processor on a qualcomm MSM8255 snapdragon chipset coupled with an Andreno 205 GPU 512 MB of system RAM the pro took the best performance title with great ease. The handset sports a large 3.7 inch LCD touchscreen with scratch resistant and features a resolution of 480*854 pixel. It runs the Android Gingerbread operating system with sony ericsson timescape UI and sony mobile bravia engine for smoother graphics. The pro has a low built in storage for apps and can support up to 32 GB of memory expansion via a micro SD card but sadly does not feature a hot swap SD card slot. The overall built quality is pretty good and sturdy even though the keyboard is a slider but the back panel is a pain to open. Unlike newer phones this one feature physical button for home menu or back but the buttons are pretty small in size making the ergonomics suffer slightly. The keyboard has well spaced keys for speedy and comfortable typing. On the performance front the phone does a great job especially the media viewing and photo capture quality. The timescape UI is very good. The xperia pro features a 1500 mAh battery which can deliver up to 7 hours of continue usage on a full charge. Bundled along with the product are a micro HMDI cable and an 8 GB micro SD card which adds more value to the product. If you are looking for an Android based headset for work and entertainment and one that can capture good quality photo the xperia pro is a good choice.

Mid-Budget Androids

Android based handsets have made their mark in the smart phone market and every second person you come across flaunts one. While affording an Android smartphone today might be pretty easy are they powerful enough for your daily usage? Hardly two years ago Android smartphones started off with 600 MHz processor that could easily run older apps but now the demand for higher speeds for better performance and compatibility with the newer OS version has put mobile phone manufacturers in the battle zone to build the fastest phone on the earth. Take for example the Samsung  Galaxy S II or Galaxy note which features dual core processors and large multi touch screen which are ready for the next generation Android OS. All these are available above the Rs 25,000 mark and not all can afford them. Also not many might actually find the need for dual core processor handset for their daily uses. Single core processor based Android smartphones running Gingerbread are also good enough to get you going on the information superhighway through 3G,GPS, instant messaging  and social networking tools running pretty smoothly. The demand for more processing power comes into play when you need the device for high end gaming or heavy image and video editing on the phone itself. Look around you and you will find people find people happy enough with their mid range Androids. Many people are also tempted by expensive handset but don’t really need them.

                This round up highlight mainstream or mid range Android smartphones in affordable price range of Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000. Most of these phones feature either an 800 MHz or 1GHz processor which is adequate for daily casual usage such as video surfing , email, chatting, music and movies. The phone featured here are definitely not feature proof but their feature sets will last you at least another two years if not more. The comparison tablet at the end of this test should help you pick out the best phone in the budget.

AOC E1649FWU

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OC’s USB monitor is designed for power users who understand the joy of multitasking across multiple monitors. The 15.6 inch screen can be plugged into any windows or MAC desktop or laptop with a single USB cable. It is surprisingly light though a bit bulky. It won’t slip it into most backpacks but it is easier to manage than a desktop monitor. The stand allows for portrait or landscape orientation installation requires the driver on the bundled CD. With only a single USB cable to plug in road warriors can give impressive presentations practically anywhere.

                Desktop users could also benefit with an extra screen for programs that stay running in the background. A Y-shaped USB cable is provided but our tests ran fine without the extra power lead. Image quality is impressive but viewing angles are not spectacular. The glossy finish and lack of adjustability sometimes impair visibility. We experienced minor artifacting  while playing HD video via the USB connection but other USB devices such as hard drives tended to interface with the connection. Oddly there is no power button or controls for image settings.

AOC i2353PH

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OCi2353ph a 23 inch LED backlit display that boasts of an IPS panel in place of the standard TN panel that’s common on most budget displays. In terms of connectivity there are too many option there is an older D-sub connector and two HMDI ports. There are no controls whatsoever surrounding the display instead they’re all positioned on the stand.

            Users can not adjust the height or rotate the display with the stand it can be tilted back and forth quite a bit unlike most stands that are thin and solid this one is slightly higher and is almost completely made of plastic.

            The user interface of the AOC i2353ph is easy to use and it takes no more than a few minutes to get used to it.

            We tired viewing images on the display and we found the image quality to be excellent. Colors are very natural even without calibration. Video quality of movies is good. There is a good amount of detail that can be seen in HD content but what is more impressive is the reproduction of colors.

            The integrated speakers on the i2353ph are not very loud but they are fine for very casual music listening sessions. The AOC i2353ph is a good product overall I is a somewhat affordable 23 inch IPS panel display.

PANASONIC KX-MB1520

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ith improved designs laser printers are now almost as compact as inkjet printers. One such device is the Panasonic KX-MB1520 which incorporates a scanner and fax. The most striking feature of the printer is its design. Its footprints is almost the same as an inkjet printer thanks to the paper tray that resides within the printer as opposed to protruding out. Also despite an integrated scanner the height is not too much.

            The printer uses a toner cartridge with a built in drum and it costs Rs 4,100. The company’s rated yield is 2,500 pages which translates to economy of Rs 1.64 per print. The print resolution is 600*600 dpi which is the standard resolution of an entry level mono laser printer. The paper tray can hold 150 sheets and it can take paper size only up to A4. If you wish to use legal paper you have to use the manual feed. The faxes using the built in 33.6 kbps modem. The printer has 3.5 MB memory to store around 150 pages of fax.

            The printer logged a speed of 18 ppm which matches Panasonic’s claim. The quality of printed text is very good we were not too satisfied with the print quality of gradients. The transition from black to white was not smooth in some cases but it goes unnoticed when you print small graphics.

ASUS HD 7970 DIRECT CU II TOP

The HD 7970 Direct CU II is a tiny bit shorter than Asus’ HD 7950 at 11 inches. It is still colossal and feels heavier too. It uses the same Direct CU II cooler in which the heat pipes come in direct contact with the GPU for better heat dissipation. The two large fans move enough air while staying whisper quite. Asus has pushed the core speed to 1 GHz which can be further increased using the bundled GPU Tweak software. The card packs 3 GB of GDDR5 memory . the VGA hotwire feature works in conjunction with their Rampage IV Extreme motherboard which supports the same. This allows you to directly control the voltages and clock speed by via the leads on the GPU. All this can be monitored in real time either through the BIOS, OC key or their TurboV EVO utility.

        The second exclusive feature is the DIGI+  VRM, which is a similar digital power regulation system used on their sandy bridge motherboards which consists of a 12-phase power and super Alloy components such as capacitors and chokes that are designed to withstand high voltage and temperature for more stability and longer lifespan even at extreme overclocks.

        Performance is certainly up there and it even beats the GTX 580 in all DX11 titles. This does come at a price of a whopping Rs 36,000.

ASUS U32U

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he Asus U32U is powered by a 1.65 GHz AMD E-450 APU which features the integrated Redeon HD 6320 graphics processor. It’s got a whopping 8 GB of RAM and a 320 GB hard disk.

          In the performance section the boot up times didn’t impress us and memory intensive application slowed down the laptop a little. However for light usage like surfing and viewing content the U32U works just fine. The trackpad is quite and responsive but the keys are rather hard so you will have to the MSI U270 powered by the E-350 and they both pretty much complete with each other. Battery Eater pro reported 3 hours and 21 minutes of battery life before giving way.

          The variant that we received is priced at Rs 34,990. Alternatively you can opt for a 2 GB RAM variant which coasts Rs 30,990. We found the U2U expensive because you are paying quite a bit for the processing power equivalent to that of a netbook. If the U32U would have been priced around 30,000 it would have been a much better buy. At this price tag we’d recommend you consider the other options such as a budget laptop provided you don’t mind the extra bulk.

LAVA A16

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ava’s A16 falls into a price band crowded with touchscreens and QWERTY keyboards. It is a traditional dual SIM candy bar but is designed in a way that obviously targets women. The rear panel is all white with a diamond cut pattern below the surface that makes the phone stand out. A small MTV logo indicates a tieup with the channel in the form of downloadable episodes of three popular TV shows. The A16 feels solid in the hand if a bit too heavy. The main letdown is the flimsy keypad which makes typing a bit of a chore. The phone’s speaker is surprisingly loud and crisp but the 3.2 megapixel camera produced patchy blurry shots even in board daylight.

          The A16’s screen is sharp and pleasant to use. You get three themes all of which seem to be designed for female users. The built in apps include Facebook, ngPay, Nimbuzz and opera Mini plus yahoo, windows live, skype and Twitter for all your chatting and social needs. There are also two basic games and the usual calculator, torch, stopwatch, FM radio, photo effects, world clock, and notes. The women centric features continue with a BMI calculator and menstrual cycle tracker. The phone’s software is mostly easy to use but lacks polish in places.

          Calls are no generally high quality and we were pleasantly surprised to see the battery last several days on standby.

SAMSUNG WAVE Y

If you are not too well versed with Samsung’s Bada operating system you might just mistake the Wave Y young to be an Android phone. But we won’t blame you considering the similarity in their touchWiz UI for both platforms. This phone runs on an 832 MHz processor and has 150mb of internal memory. With Bada 2.0 the processor just about does the job. It has a powerful media player and with 3G, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct and A-GPS, your connectivity options are well taken care of . The 2 megapixel camera is decent enough for casual shots and the battery life is good.

            Pricewise the Wave Y directly completes with Samsung Galaxy Y and spice Mi-350n. going by the spaces the spice Mi-350n might provide more bang for your buck with a better camera and a larger screen though it fails a bit short in processing speed. But if you are looking for brand value you will be more inclined towards either the Galaxy Y or the WaveY. Whilst the Galaxy Y is based on Android it is a tiny bit smaller in terms of screen size and resolution than the Wave Y. the only thing that holds the Wave Y back is the lack of app support in the market.

            If you want a nice stable experience on a phone then the Wave Y is definitely a good option but if you are more interested on what games and  apps your phone will run Android phones are better bet.

NOKIA 700

The Nokia 700 has a slim and compact design. Although the design is good but Nokia could have done better with the all plasticky built quality of the phone. Embedded with a 3.2 inch screen it is much lighter than similar phones like Sony Ericsson live with walkman. This device runs on the Symblan Belle which is zippy and quick and is powered by a 1GHz CPU. The homescreen has been customized to be a great extend and the phone also borrows some stuff from Android. However the small screen makes typing difficult.

          The stock music player is good be it using headphones or loudspeaker. The 16:9 aspect ratio does tend to make this phone a better viewing device than the other phones with a similar 3.2 inch screen and it did manage to play 720p files. On connectivity front one will find 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, GPs and NFC. On the flip side Flash video does not load properly and even slightly image heavy web pages take crazy amount of time to render. The 5 megapixel camera dishes out some neat pictures but lacks autofocus. Outdoor snaps did come out quite well but we did have focusing issues. On the whole we find it’s expensive because of its limitations.

HP PAVILION DM4-3010TX

The pavilion DM4 looks and feels chic with a 14-inch LED backlit screen and slim form. It weighs 1.9 kg and features a smooth brushed aluminum like finish on the lid and the interiors keeping smudges at bay. It has two USB 3.0 ports and one USB 2.0 port along with VGA, HMDI, a card reader, DVD burner a webcam and beast audio for the sound processing. The keyboard unfortunately is not backlit but is comfortable to use. The trackpad is smooth but the buttons are stiff. It has a core i5-2450M dual core CPU running at 2.5 GHz that can turbo up to 3.1 GHz when required. The chipset can handle up to 16 GB of RAM but HP has added 6GB. You also get a 640Gb hard drive and AMD radeon HD 7470M discrete graphics with 1GB of GDDR5 memory. The dm4 being is able to keep up quite well with the more powerful GE620 but it did struggle a bit with video encoding. We got 27 fps in DX10 mode with the very high preset. The AMD GPU comes with automatic switchable graphics. Depending on the application the driver automatically calls for onboard or discrete GPU. We got a battery life of 1 hour 20 min which can go up to about 3 hours or more. There was no overheating during our tests. If you are shopping around with this budget then we strongly recommend it.

MSI WINDPAD ENJOY 10

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he new MSI Windpad Enjoy 10 has a smooth finish and rounded edges. The only glossy bit is along the edges on the front of the tablet and there is equal amount of bezel on all the sides of the slate. The usual set of connectivity options exist two mini USB ports, a headphone jack and an HMDI port along with the buttons volume rocker and lock button. The microSD card slot is located at the back underneath a rather huge flap. The speakers are located at the back as well. The front consists of an ambient light sensor and four capacitive buttons with haptic feedback next to the 10 inch display that has a resolution of 1024*768 pixels. At 800g the windpad enjoy 10 is not the lightest tablet around.

          The windpad enjoy 10 is powered by a 1.2GHz cortex A8 processor with 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB internal storage. It runs Android 2.3 and MSI has not done much to the stock interface. With those spaces the enjoy seems to be able to handle it all but that is where good part ends. The tablet is extremely sluggish. Poor resolution and viewing angles make viewing the screen a sore experience. In all fairness it is not the worst out there but definitely not something you’d want on a 10 incher.

NOKIA ASHA 3OO

The Asha 300 brings with it superb build quality and great attention to detail. The candy bar phone rests nearly in you palm and is not too heavy. The phone is mostly built of plastic but thankfully there are not too many glossy bits other than the screen and the chrome strip at the front. The volume rocker and the lock screen button are placed on the side. This is a touch and type phone there is no directional pad just the keypad and the call answer and end keys along with a shortcut to e-mail. The keypad is built well and the buttons offer good feedback. The Asha 300 also supports 3G but there is no front facing camera for video chat. The user interface is fast but is does not feel snappy. You get your facebook and twitter updates though a widget. The resistive touchscreen is not the best and on several occasions while typing to scroll through a menu you will accidentally activate an app which is quite annoying if you are careful though the screen responds well but you need to have some patience. The Asha 300 is just way too expensive for a feature phone. You can get a budget Android phone in this price bracket.

SONY TABLET P

In world dominated by extremely similar looking tablets Japanese electronics gaint, Sony have sent it a wave of fresh air. They have brought in two different form factors-first one being the Tablet S- which was not a major overhaul in terms of design and the second one the Tablet P- the world first clamshell design Tablet. Nintendo did it quite well in the gaming genre but has Sony been able to pull off something similar with the tablet P? let’s find out.

      Form fator:

                                                The most interesting form factor that is ever exited on an Android tablet so far means two things- Sony is not the mood of create iPad lookalikes and it’s trading a thin line between being outrageously creative or outrageously pointless. The second debate more or less carries forward through this review. We have this design on a portable gaming consol the Nintendo DS but the by terming it a tablet you are throwing in a lot more variable into the picture.

          In terms of plain aesthetics the tablet P has got every bit of oomph and class you’d want in your device. Smooth curves, metallic finish, few plastics, and brilliant color tones this one has stylish written all over it. However the insides are glossy black and are quite prone in fingerprints. The dual screens feel immensely small when you compare them to size of the tablet itself. When it’s shut it might just slip into your front pocket but it is not really comfortable so it is best suited for a jacket pocket. The design is quite catchy no doubt but we would have loved a slimmer and a smaller version.

Interface:

                                      The p is powered by a dual core 1GHz Tegra 2 processor and has 1GB of RAM with Android Honeycomb 3.2 onboard. It is super slick and fast and though the boot up time is not that quick you won’t find the device lagging even when you have loaded up a bunch of memory heavy applications.

          We put the P through a few synthetic benchmarks as well. In Linpack the tablet got a score of 27.926 MFLOPS in the single thread mode. It falls short of the Galaxy Tab 620 which has a dual care Exynos 4210 chipset. In our AnTuTu benchmark test it got a score of 4955 points which places it below the LG Optimus 2X and the S II but above the Amazon Kindle Fire.

Media:

                             The dual screen functionality has been nicely put to use in this section. For music all your controls shift to the bottom consists of a collage of all your album art allowing you to segregate all your favorite music without having to scroll down to find each song. There is five band equalizer with support for custom presets along with a dynamic normalize and their xLOUD technology. So you can tweak your music to suit your needs. The loudspeaker although is not as loud as we’d want it to be is okay enough for personal viewing. Music via headphones is much better just what we’d expect from a Sony product.

Connectivity:

                                                The P has quad band 3G, Wi-Fi with DLNA, Bluetooth 2.1 and GPS. Browsing is better when the tablet’s completely flipped open otherwise we viewing angles start playing an important role in deciding what’s more clearly visible to you.

          One big concern we had with our review unit was that particularly came to light while downloading large files.

Other features:

                                                The tablet P is a Playstation certified device. Sadly we could not find any content on its official app for the Indian sub religion. Secondly the tablet comes with a My Apps application that basically connects you to an online store where you can download the latest apps optimized for the Indian region. The phone comes with Crash Bandicoot and Pinball pre installed and they make effective use of the dual screens. The size of the controls can be adjusted as well so you have got the game playing on the upper screen while the controls reside on the lower one. Another problem out here is the display resolution- Crash Bandicoot does not occupy the whole screen so you will have like a minor part of a 5.5 inch screen occupied.

          The default Skype app does not work too well and Sony have their own ‘video chat plugged into Skype’ application which utilizes both screens.

Camera:  

                             The P comes with a 5 megapixel rear camera and VGA front camera. It is also capable of recording videos at 720p at a frame rate of 30 fps. There’s no touch focus so you will have to long press on the camera button to get the object into focus. The image somehow gets displayed on the bottom screen which is just puzzling.

          There is not too much details in the snaps and unless you have got a lot of light falling on the object your picture won’t appear too great. Video capture has a lot of color banding and noise. Again not impressive.

Battery life:

                                      The tablet has a 3080 mAh battery and Sony claims that it has a battery life of about 7 hours. In our video test the P played a 720p video nonstop for 6 hours 20 minutes before shutting down so they are holding true to their claims which is quite nice. Under average usage you will easily crank up to a day’s juice. P for power, eh?

Verdict:

                             The Sony tablet P is priced Rs. 36,990. This makes it compete with the top notch Android tablets and the ipad as well. The P makes for an interesting design but whilst doing so it limits your functionality greatly.

Foursquare switches to OpenStreetMap

Foursquare which previously used Google’s Maps API for mapping is now
using open map data from the openstreetmap project for its location
based social networking service. “During our January hackathon, one of
our intrepid engineers wondered what the world look like if we made
our own maps. To do that he used data from openstreetmap. We love the
idea to open data and were happy to try it out”, a source in the
company said. The New York based start up with a compny of more than
15 million users worldwide said it is using map box street global
block level map to power all of its maps.

Firefox users can now find out who is spying on them

Mozilla has unveiled a new feature in its Firefox browser which will
all let users know who is spying on them on the internet. This is new
add on which enables users to instantly view which companies are
watching them as they browser.
       Ironically the move comes almost at the same time when Google
introduced its ‘controversial’ privacy policy. The privacy policy aims
to provide data for Google’s advertising business despite the fact
that tracking of private data may be illegal in many countries.
       According to an ET report Gary Kovacs chief executive officer Mozilla
said that this new Collusion add on in Firebox will enable the users
to ‘pull back the curtain’ on web advertising firms and other third
parties that track people’s online movements.

Here comes the world’s Linux based surgical robot

Research At the university of Washington seattle are on their way to
releasing a number of medical robots called Ravens with wing like
arms.
       The ravens developed by Blake Hannaford and his colleagues were
developed initially for the American army as a prototype for robotic
surgery on the battlefield. The Ravens are reportedly light compact
and cost around $250,000.
       What is unique about the raven is that it is the first surgical robot
to use open source software. Researchers have the option to
experimenting too as the Linux based operating system of the robot
allows anyone to modify and improve the original code. With the help
of Ravens surgeon can make tiny incisions that cause less tissue
damage enabiling the patient to recover. American regulars have not
yet approve the Ravens and as of now, experiments with these robots
are just restricted to animals and human cadavers.
       The first ravens were delivered in February 2012 across universities
of America.

The world’s smallest Linux-based computer up for pre-order

FXI
 technologies showcased its USB drive-sized computer dubbed ‘cotton
candy’ at CES 2012. The company has now said that Cotton Candy is
available for pre order. The retail price of the ‘world’s smallest
computer’ is $199 excluding taxes. The computer is expected to ship
sometime in March 2012. The USB stick sized computing drive runs
android 4.0 and Ubuntu. The drive is reportedly technically capable of
running windows 8 as well, since ARM is a supported architecture. The
cotton candy provides user with a single secure point of access to all
personal could service and apps through their favorite operating
system while delivering a consistent experience on any screen.
       The powerful device will support a slew of devices and platforms. The
cotton candy USB stick will serve as a companion to smartphones,
tablets, notebooks and Macs. It will let you add smart capabilities to
exciting displays, TVs, set-top boxes and other media that supports
USb mass storage.
       This tiny computer has a small form factor but offers relatively high
spaces which makes it a compelling choice for Linux enthusiasts. The
cotton candy comes equipped with an ARM cortex-A9 CPU from Samsung and
ARM Mail-400MP GPU, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and HMDI output. The power
packed stick decodes MPEG-4, H.264 and other video formats and
displays HD graphics  on any HMDI equipped screen. Users can control
content via smartphone, keyboard, mice and other USB peripherals.