Samsung has released the new edition of Galaxy Tab , the tab 7.1 , 8.9
and the Galaxy tab 10.1 is the latest tab . The Galaxy tab 10.1 is more
than lighter and Thinner than Apple iPad 2 . I Compared the Some
specification of Galaxy tab 10.1 vs iPad 2
Features : Apple iPad 2 Samsung Galaxy Result Processor 1 Ghz Dual Core 1 Ghz Dual Core Both Equal weight
601g
595g Galaxy is lightner Cost 16GB WIFI 499$ 499$ Both Equal Thickness
8.8m
8.6m Galaxy is thin Display
1024 x 768 px
1280 x 800 px Galaxy is better Camera
0.92 MPx Rear & Decent VGA 3
Mpx Rear & 2 Mpx
Front Cam (Shoot 720p video ) Front Cam
(Shoot 1080p) Galaxy Beat iPad
Samsung has released the new edition of Galaxy Tab , the tab 7.1 , 8.9
and the Galaxy tab 10.1 is the latest tab . The Galaxy tab 10.1 is more
than lighter and Thinner than Apple iPad 2 . I Compared the Some
specification of Galaxy tab 10.1 vs iPad 2
Features : Apple iPad 2 Samsung Galaxy Result Processor 1 Ghz Dual Core 1 Ghz Dual Core Both Equal weight
601g
595g Galaxy is lightner Cost 16GB WIFI 499$ 499$ Both Equal Thickness
8.8m
8.6m Galaxy is thin Display
1024 x 768 px
1280 x 800 px Galaxy is better Camera
0.92 MPx Rear & Decent VGA 3
Mpx Rear & 2 Mpx
Front Cam (Shoot 720p video ) Front Cam
(Shoot 1080p) Galaxy Beat iPad
DOWNLOAD FREE QUICK HEAL TOTAL SECURITY 2010 FULL VERSION
Quick Heal AntiVirus 2010, with its intuitive and easy-to-use interface,
provides hassle-free protection for your system. Once installed it acts
as a shield against viruses, worms, trojans, spywares and other
malicious threats. It also provides protection against new and unknown
viruses using Quick Heal's renowned DNAScan technology, and blocks malicious websites. Quick Heal AntiVirus 2010 is very low on resource usage and gives enhanced protection without slowing down your computer.
To anyone keeping up with the smartphone market, the Chinese
manufacturer ZTE won't be entirely unknown. Specialising in affordable
handsets, the company has now turned its hand to budget tablets and the
result, the ZTE Light Tab 2, isn't a bad offering.
It's solidly
constructed and surprisingly zippy. The only problem is the operating
system is well out of date and, more importantly, there's no sign of
Google Play.
Although this is one of the more pricey budget
Android tablets, you get a fair amount for your cash. There's a 1,024 x
600 capacitive touchscreen, while power is provided by a Qualcomm 1.4GHz
Snapdragon processor and 512MB of RAM.
Unfortunately though, the
ZTE Light Tab 2 is saddled with Google's Android 2.3 Gingerbread
operating system, rather than the tablet-focused Honeycomb or Ice Cream
Sandwich iterations. Gingerbread was released in 2010 and ported to
tablets from smartphones, and there's no getting away from the fact it
seems dated.
Interestingly, the ZTE Light Tab will allow you to
insert a SIM card for 3G and, if you're so inclined, phone calls.
Holding it to your ear is a little bit impractical though, given the 202
x 122 x 13mm dimensions.
At 395g the ZTE Light Tab isn't heavy,
but the BlackBerry Playbook and Tablo are lighter and therefore easier
to use long-term. Some may argue that a little extra weight adds a sense
of quality to a gadget, and the ZTE certainly feels strong and well
constructed.
There's a fairly thick bezel wrapped around the
screen, with touch-sensitive Android buttons for Home, Menu and Back.
The rear of the tablet features a matte plastic covering that comes away
to reveal the 3,400mAh Li-Ion battery and slots for a SIM and MicroSD
card.
With only 4GB of on-board storage, half of which is taken
up with the OS and pre-installed apps, you'll want to accessorise the
ZTE Light Tab 2 with a MicroSD card if you want to store your media
collection.
The ZTE Light Tab 2 handles media well. The smaller
size might not be to everyone's taste, but it's perfectly serviceable
for small bursts of entertainment. The built-in browser supports Flash
playback, so you can visit sites like YouTube and iPlayer and watch
embedded video right on the page.
All work, no Play
While
that sounds like a good thing, it is in fact masking the biggest
drawback of the ZTE Light Tab 2 - the lack of a pre-installed Google
Play app store. Of course, if you're a dedicated tech head there are
ways around this, but for the vast majority of us, Google Play is a
must-have addition. The fact that the ZTE doesn't come with it is a
black mark on its record.
It comes with lots of pre-installed
apps, including some good ones like Documents to Go (an Office app), FM
radio, email and several games, but with no option of adding more, this
tablet has a limited lifespan.
If you're less keen on apps and
are instead looking for a device for watching media and browsing on the
move, the ZTE Light Tab is a good choice. The 3G capability and
excellent screen are clear standout points, but the lack of Google Play
and the outdated OS make it somewhat hard to recommend.
Battery life has been an ongoing issue for some iOS 5 users, particularly those with iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. The recent iOS 5.1 update
aimed to fix that with "improved battery life” mentioned in the release
notes, but just how improved is it? With casual use since the update
was released, the consensus at OSXDaily suggests the improvement is substantial, and thus if you haven’t updated your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to iOS 5.1 yet, it is highly recommended to do so now.
Every user is going to notice different gains depending on their
device usage and general battery health, but overall the improvements
seem to be most noticeable on cellular iOS devices, particularly iPhone
4S, iPhone 4, and iPad 2 3G models. The assumption is that some of the
potential location services issues has been resolved, though its
certainly worth mentioning that users of the standard Wi-Fi models and
iPod touch also report a nice boost, even if it doesn’t seem to be quite
as dramatic (likewise, the original drain problem usually wasn’t as bad
either).
Monitoring Your iOS Device Battery Life
To get a good feel for the improvement and to monitor battery drain,
it’s best to have made note of the prior usage history and then compare
it to the iOS 5.1 battery usage, but those who have already updated
won’t be able to do this obviously. Nonetheless, it also helps to turn
on the "Battery Percentage” indicator and make a mental note of usage
data too. Here’s how to do both of these in iOS:
Tap on "Settings” and tap "General”
Tap "Usage” and then swipe down to "Time since last full charge” to
find the usage time (actively using the device) and standby time (device
is on, but not in use)
In the same "Usage” screen, swipe "Battery Percentage” to "ON” to follow precise drain
The percentage indicator displays alongside the battery icon in the upper right corner of the screen:
Update iOS, Calibrate the Battery, and More
Update to iOS 5.1 and hopefully any lingering battery drain problems
will be resolved once and for all. Don’t forget to calibrate an iOS
devices battery about once a month by letting it charge to 100% and then
running it down to 0% before recharging again, that helps keep the
battery in good health. It’s also a good idea to disable battery
draining services you don’t use often, be it Bluetooth or Push
Notifications, and you can check out some general iOS 5 battery life tips we have discussed before for more on that.
iOS 5.1 was released a few days ago but some people are still having
problems when trying to update. The download can time out, not start at
all, or sometimes throw an error message saying "Unable to Check for
Update. An error occurred while checking for a software update.” or "The
network connection could not be established.”
If you’re having trouble downloading iOS 5.1 from Apple’s servers, try these fixes:
Reset Network Settings on iOS Device: Tap Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings
Clear Hosts File: Look at your hosts file for
anything blocking Apple’s servers and comment them out, this is mostly
relevant to jailbreakers and if you see "Error 3194"
Change DNS Servers: Adjusting DNS on either the
computer you are downloading from or iOS device if using OTA can resolve
the issue, instructions on how to do so are below
Changing DNS seems to be the most reliable method, here is how to do so in iOS and OS X.
Changing DNS in iOS
Tap on Settings, tap on "Wi-Fi”, and tap on the blue arrow next to the router name
Under "DHCP” tab tap on "DNS” and replace with: "8.8.8.8″ for Google DNS, or "208.67.222.222″ for OpenDNS
Tap the Back button and attempt to use OTA again
Change DNS in OS X
Open System Preferences from the Apple menu
Click on "Network” and then click on ‘Advanced’ in the lower right corner
Click the "DNS” tab and then add a new DNS server by clicking the
"+” icon, adding either "8.8.8.8″ for Google DNS or "208.67.222.222″ for
OpenDNS
Drag the newly added DNS server to the top of the list, click "OK” then close out of System Preferences
On a Mac you may need to follow this up with flushing DNS cache, so open the Terminal and type the following:
You may have noticed that iOS 5.1 changed the behavior of the lock screen camera compared to it’s predecessor, this has caused some confusion
as to how it works compared to iOS 5. You’ll notice that if you tap on
the camera icon now it just causes the screen to bounce. No, the
bouncing screen doesn’t mean the camera isn’t working anymore, it’s aim
is to indicate how it works.
You now swipe up to activate the lock screen camera in iOS 5.1. Likewise, you can swipe down to deactivate the camera and return back to the lock screen.
Get used to the new gesture, it’s actually faster than the double-tap home button method before in iOS 5,
and you’ll be able to take pictures quicker than ever after you get
accustomed to it. There also doesn’t seem to be a way to return to the
old behavior anyway, so old habits will have to be broken here.
iOS 5.1 has been released, alongside the new iPad 3 and new Apple TV.
The update brings a variety of new features and bug fixes to iOS
including the ability to delete images from Photo Stream, camera
shortcut visible by default on lock screen, improved camera face
detection, Japanese language support for Siri, genius mixes for iTunes
Match, updated AT&T network indicator, improved battery life, and
more.
You can get the iOS 5.1 software update directly on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch by using OTA Update, otherwise you can update through iTunes or by downloading the IPSW and performing a manual upgrade.
We have included links to the firmware files below, they are hosted by Apple.
Turning on the iPhone camera grid makes it easier to take better pictures, here’s how to enable it:
Launch the Camera app from home screen or lock screen
Tap on "Options” at the top
Swipe Grid to "ON”
Tap "Done” to hide the Options again and return back to Camera
The grid will not appear on finalized images in the photo stream.
What’s the point? If you’re new to photography or don’t know why the
grid is potentially useful, the grid makes composing images using the
"rule of thirds” easier. Essentially that means by dividing a picture
into horizontal and vertical thirds and placing compositional elements
along those lines and intersections, you’ll end up with better pictures.
It’s an old artistic technique that has been around for hundreds of
years.
If you’re suffering from email overload, sometimes the easiest thing
to do
... Read more »
The new iPad, the iPad 3, the new iPad 3… call it what you want, but
it's a device that from the outside looks remarkably like the iPad 2 but with an overhaul on the innards.
The question most people ask us when it comes to the new iPad is: what's different from the old one?
Well,
in this case it's pretty easy: there's a Retina Display that makes
everything looks superbly crisp, an updated A5X processor bringing
quad-core graphics and a 5MP camera on the rear with a VGA sensor on the
front.
Oh, and the iPad 3 is also the device that brings iOS 5.1 to the masses (well, it's also on the likes of the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 as well, but hey, we're not reviewing those today, and you don't really care unless it's a new iPad.)
The
design of the new iPad 3 isn't really anything different from the
original duo from Apple's tablet range. Actually, while we're thinking
about it, it looks almost identical to the iPad 2 – to the point you'd
struggle to tell them apart when turned off.
However, in
the hand, there's a little bit of a difference, especially when it
comes to the weight. The new iPad is nearly 60g heavier than the
previous iteration, and while it's not terrible, it does add a little
arm strain during a marathon movie session.
Retina Display
Before
we get onto all the normal insight over the frame of the new iPad, it's
worth talking about the main feature: the Retina Display.
Apple
has packed a huge amount more pixels into the 9.7-inch screen - 1536 x
2048 to be exact. However, despite the fact that the Cupertino brand
makes a big thing about the 330 PPI density of the iPhone 4, we're
looking at a screen that's technically a lot less sharp than its
smartphone brethren - around 264PPI.
Apple
has got around this fact by stating that the screen is meant to be held
at 15 inches from the face, rather than the 10 inches the iPhone is
supposed to from your eyes, and as such the sharpness is the same.
Given
the fact the term 'Retina Display' really isn't a legally binding term,
we don't care. What matters is the effect - and it's one of the most
impressive we've seen on a tablet to date. If someone took an iPad,
printed out a really hi-res image of an iOS system and stuck it on the
front, we'd struggle to tell the difference - it's superb, and even
squinting up close you'll be hard pushed to notice any pixelation.
The
colour reproduction will also appeal to many, as it's pretty close to
reality - it lacks the punch of the Super AMOLED HD screens seen on the
likes of the Samsung Galaxy Note for instance, but it will depend on
personal preference as to whether that's a good thing.
We like the vivid colours of Samsung's screens, but we know plenty of people that loathe them too.
The
main thing is things like internet browsing; photo viewing and movie
sessions are all much, much improved over the iPad 2, and is one of the
main reasons to pick up the new iPad.
Design
The
new iPad, as we said, is only marginally thicker and a little heavier
than the iPad 2, and if you pick it up with no knowledge of the former,
you'll likely be mighty impressed.
The rest of the design is
premium too - given you can be paying nearly £700 for a top end model,
it needs to seem like a worthwhile investment, and it does.
The
curved edges, the oleophobic scratch-proof glass and the aluminium
chassis are all the kind of thing that some Android tablets have tried
to ape and failed. Of course, many will prefer the feather-light frames
of some of the Samsung models but, like the screen, it really comes down
to personal preference.
The buttonry on the new iPad is pretty sparse though - we're talking four buttons and that's your lot.
The iconic home button is back once again, despite rumours of its demise, and is easy to reach and hit within the thick bezel.
The
rest of the buttons are all clustered tightly together in the top
left-hand corner of the new iPad, with the rocker/volume key, the
mute/orientation switch and power/lock key all within an inch of one
another.
As you can see, Apple has been pretty efficient with the
button placement, with all of them performing more than one function.
And they say the iPad can't multi-task... tsk.
The new iPad 3 picks up the iOS story where the iPad 2 left off - with an incremental upgrade to iOS 5.1 the main talking point.
However,
before we go through what's new, we'll take a quick tour across the
operating system to show just how simple it is to operate a new iPad.
The
home screen is laid out in a very similar way to the iPhone, except
we're seeing some much larger icons for the apps you've downloaded.
You
can fill as many home screens as you like with apps as you download
more from the App Store, and swiping from screen to screen on the iPad 3
is silky smooth even with loads of programs downloaded.
There's
also the dock at the bottom of the display which can hold up to six
regularly-used apps that are present on all home screens, which is more
than the four on offer with the iPhone thanks to the extra screen real
estate.
Neat
freaks need not despair either: it's easy to create folders of the apps
you want to lump together simply by dragging an icon and plopping it on
top of another – the iPad will create a name for the group based on the
content, but it's easy to rename these.
iOS 5.1 doesn't offer too
much in the way of new features for the users interface, but a trick
that Apple has learned from Google's Android is the notifications bar,
which can be accessed simply by swiping down from the top of the screen.
This
contains information on everything from unread mail messages to
notifications of new moves in games you're playing with friends. It's a
simple system and one that's prevalent throughout the system, even in
most apps, meaning you can easily jump in and out of applications where
necessary.
Speaking of which, it's worth taking a look at the
multi-tasking gestures on offer, as they're pretty sensational. Using a
full set of fingers on the screen allows three functions: pinching in
will take you to the home screen, flicking up will enable the
multi-tasking window and swiping left will let you bounce between open
apps.
It really works on the new iPad, and we urge you to check it
out as it really makes moving through the system easy and cool at the
same time.
There's a great debate over what really constitutes
multi-tasking – but in our view, the iPad does enough to warrant the
title. The likes of the BlackBerry Playbook
are more capable when it comes to fully running programs in the
background, but most users will struggle to really notice the difference
when the iPad and its Android competition are asked to jump between
apps.
As mentioned, you can easy multi-finger swipe up or double
tap the home button to call up a list of recently opened apps, which can
be deleted from the tray by a single long press and tapping of the 'x'
that appears.
Swiping
right in the multi-tasking tray will also call up the music player,
which allows you to see what songs are about to play, or change the
volume or brightness. Not new, but the closest thing to a widget we'll
get here.
The lock screen allows you to do some pretty funky
stuff; double tapping the home button will call up the music player so
you can switch tracks or pause without needing to open the iPad. Also,
there's an option to have a slide show of y
... Read more »
Samsung has plenty of experience in crafting slim, powerful laptops, but unlike its premium Samsung Series 9 ultraportable, the Samsung Series 5 Ultra appears to be more of an "everyman" device.
It won't out-power Ultrabook rivals such as the Dell XPS 13, Acer Aspire S3 or Asus Zenbook UX31,
and it doesn't look A jaw-droppingly attractive. But importantly, and
some would say crucially, it won't cost you the Earth, either.
The
Samsung Series 5 Ultra is available in two models - a 13.3-inch model,
the NP530U3BI, priced at £799.99 in the UK or $879.99 in the US, and a
14-inch model, the NP530U4BI, costing £849.99 or $899.99.
Considering
most Ultrabooks retail for £899-£1,100, this makes the Samsung Series 5
an attractive proposition for anyone on a budget.
Both
models pack in mid-level Intel Core i5-2467M processors, but the
14-inch model comes with an optical drive and an HDD capable of being
upgraded to an impressive 1TB of storage space.
Our review unit
was the smaller 13.3-inch model, but at 20mm in thickness, the Samsung
Series 5 Ultra 530U3B is still one of the bulkier Ultrabooks we've seen.
It's comparable to the HP Envy 14 Spectre but unlike that machine, the chassis doesn't feel chunky.
It has the sloping, blade-like appearance of other Ultrabooks and weighs a miniscule 1.5kg.
The
outward design is attractive without being breathtaking. The plain
silver design is equally well placed at home or the office, and the
brushed metal finish won't attract smudges the same way a reflective
surface would.
Look
below the surface, though, and you'll soon notice the Samsung Series 5
Ultra 530U3B has a few tricks up its sleeve. Most notable is the option
of including a 500GB HDD alongside a fast-booting 16GB SSD, giving you
both space and speed.
The usability of the machine hasn't been
ignored either, and the keyboard and touchpad are indicative of
Samsung's usual excellence.
Standing out from the crowd of
Ultrabooks isn't getting any easier, and whether this - Samsung's first
attempt - is strong enough remains to be seen.
It might get noticed thanks to the friendly price, but can the rest of the machine live up to the Ultrabook moniker?
Samsung
has taken the middle ground on equipping the Series 5 Ultra 530U3B,
opting for an Intel Core i5-2467M (1.6GHz) CPU, 4GB RAM and a 1366 x 768
screen resolution.
The processor is part of the Sandy Bridge
family (a prerequisite for Ultrabook-class), so the graphics memory is
built into the CPU core.
Don't expect any hard gaming on the Series 5 - if that's what you're looking for, Samsung has crafted the Series 7 Gamer especially for you.
Gaming aside, the integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 chip doesn't do a bad job. You'll find streaming movies over Netflix or using editing programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver is within the grasp of this machine.
If
you do crave a slightly bigger graphical grunt, the 14-inch Series 5
packs in a dedicated AMD Radeon HD7550M GPU. And, while both machines
come with 4GB RAM as standard, there's the option to upgrade to 8GB for a
bit of extra future-proofing.
One of the main features of the
Samsung Series 5 Ultrabook is the decision to include a 500GB hard disk
drive, as well as a 16GB SSD (an SSD-only option is available).
In
order to keep to Samsung's stated 20-second boot-up time, the Series 5
Ultra 530U3B also includes a 16GB iSSD and a technology called
ExpressCache. Start it up and ExpressCache loads the operating system
and most-used programs straight from the iSSD, while the HDD is left to
boot in the background.
It
appears to work very well, and the Series 5's boot-up time stands up
against the other Ultrabooks we've tested. The extra storage space is
undoubtedly a bonus.
Even though external hard drives don't cost a
fortune any more, buying one to go with your Ultrabook still means
extra bulk to carry around. If you've got a large media library or a
wealth of documents and programs, you'll thank Samsung for giving you
the extra space.
Samsung takes a certain amount of pride in its
bright screens, and the 300nit screen on the Samsung Series 5 Ultra
530U3B is no exception. The lack of a Super-TFT coating means bright
lights and reflections don't interfere with usability.
This
should prove popular with anyone looking to use the Series 5 as a mobile
workstation, although media enthusiasts might miss the richer colours
and deeper contrast supplied by a reflective coating.
The 1366 x
768 pixel resolution is perfectly serviceable for watching films in 720p
high definition, and the silver bezel doesn't intrude on the experienc
Cinebench 10: 5,809
3D Mark '06: 3242 Battery Eater '05: 191mins
So,
after tearing through the specifications, the real question is how does
the Samsung Series 5 Ultra 530U3B perform day-to-day? This i
... Read more »
Can LG make an impression on the laptop market with these Ultrabooks?
Not renowned for their PCs, Korean behemoth LG has released two Intel Ultrabooks here at CES 2012. And these aren't just Ultrabooks, the press release refers to them as Super Ultrabooks.
We're
not quite sure why this is, but we'll go along with it. After all,
we're in Las Vegas, where everything is supposed to be Super.
You can check out TechRadar's video of LG's Ultrabooks below:
There are
two models, the Z330 and the Z430 and as you can see the chassis of this
model looks very nice indeed – what's more, they're among the slimmest
and lightest Ultrabooks on show.
The
13-inch Z330 is the model shown here. LG has gone for the top of the
pile with these models (and therefore they will be highly priced) and
features the top-line Core i7 processor.
As
with many other Ultrabooks, LG says it has managed to get the 13-inch
display into a compact 12-inch chassis. Rather than being tapered at one
end, the Z330 is 14.7mm thick across the whole chassis – gven that many
Ultrabooks are 17-18mm thick, the Z330 really appeals. It's also among
the lightest Ultrabooks around 1t 1.21kg.
We also really liked the keyboard on the model we saw, although the trackpad was a bit slippy for our liking.
As
you can see, the 13-inch model pictured here has HDMI out and three USB
ports - you only get two and a mini HDMI with a lot of the tapered
Ultrabooks. There's a drop down bit for the Ethernet port and one USB
3.0 port.
According to LG, the Z330 requires less than 10 seconds to complete booting and has a latest-class SATA3 SSD, too.
The
14-inch Z430 weighs 1.5kg and is equipped with SSD and HDD, meaning
storage capacities of up to 500GB. This is similar to the Series 5
from LG's great rival Samsung. But unlike that model, it's not clear if
the Z430 can be bought with just SSD, or whether it comes with the two
drives as a default.
Last night, this morning Microsoft announced Windows 8 Consumer
Preview in Barcelona, Spain. According to Microsoft this new build has
over 100,000 code changes since the last September’s Developer Preview Release.
Windows 8 System Requirements
Windows 8 Consumer Preview works great on the same hardware that powers Windows 7:
Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster
RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device or higher
To use touch, you need a tablet or monitor that supports multitouch
To access Windows Store and to download and run apps, you need an
active Internet connection and a screen resolution of at least 1024 x
768
To snap apps, you need a screen resolution of at least 1366 x 768
Samsung
published endless press releases about its ever growing global sales
figures, which can only mean one thing. A sequel is guaranteed for 2012.
Samsung is yet to make any official announcement regarding the
Galaxy S3, mind, but the pieces are falling in to place. Samsung's
processor developments are clear to see, with the company announcing
several new Exynos cores during 2011 that could power the new Galaxy S3.
The Galaxy S 3 (which we've also seen referred to as the Galaxy
SIII) is bound to be at least powered by a dual-core processor, but
there's even been rumour of a quad-core chipset in Samsung's pipeline,
which may power the S3. Here's what else we've gathered so far.
The
mobile phone industry is extremely predictable. The high-spec models
for the year are invariably announced and shown off at February's Mobile
World Congress event, with the finished hardware starting to appear on
sale at the end of March and into April.
Samsung managed to
release the S2 right at the beginning of April in 2011, so it's bound to
want to repeat the winning formula and release the S3 at the same time
in 2012. If you're due an upgrade next April, the S3 ought to be ready
and waiting for you.
Samsung has even gone as far as cancelling its whole MWC conference altogether, so we're looking forward to seeing how it diverts all those funds into making the Galaxy S3 launch superb.
Update: A couple of South African carriers
have said that they expect the Samsung Galaxy S3 to hit shelves as
early as July - which tees us up nicely for a March unveiling.
Update: A leaked image claiming to be the Samsung Galaxy S3
has appeared online suggesting it will be unveiled on March 22 -
however Samsung has already denied the date and the image has several
flaws.
Update: The Samsung Galaxy S3 could be in-line for a surprise launch on March 30,
depending on the conclusions you draw from a cryptic paint-job adorning
London's flagship Phones 4U store - although this now looks unlikely as
Samsung has confirmed it is the launch of a Samsung vendor within the
Phones 4U shop.
Samsung Galaxy S3 US release date
The
Galaxy S2 took many months to appear in the US, as Samsung rearranged
the design and changed features to please the US networks and their
customers.
Given that the S2 is therefore still quite "new" to
America, we'd expect the S3's American launch to be several months after
the UK arrival once again. Mobile hardware launches are one of the few
areas where the UK leads the world.
It's
been suggested the reason Samsung has delayed the Galaxy S3 until after
MWC 2012 is so it can be launched simultaneously in the US and rest of
the world.
The Galaxy S2 suffered a US release delay, which saw it
arrive several months after the rest of the world and Samsung is keen
to avoid the same situation this year.
Samsung Galaxy S3 price
Obviously we don't have pricing details for an unannounced phone, so all we can do is speculate. Given the recent launch of the ... Read more »
If you are one of those very early adaptors out there you’ve
probably heard or have tried Windows 8 Developer Preview released in
last September. Today Microsoft has just announced their public beta,
aka Consumer Preview, of the upcoming Windows 8. Together, there are
tons of changes and improvements over the initial Developer Preview
release.
Here are some highlights of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview
Broad range of product changes and improvements
Windows Store with an "App Preview” of new apps
Connecting to the cloud across Windows PCs and Windows Phones
Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 5
So if you have a Windows 8 Developer Preview, here is how you can upgrade your system to the latest Consumer Preview.
I installed my first Windows 8 Developer Preview first day when it
came out on the virtual box. Since then, there are many different
methods you can try out Windows 8 but the upgrade process from Windows 8
Developer Preview to Consumer Preview are pretty much the same.
Insert the ISO image or CD
Let the Windows 8 Developer Preview start up.
Now go back to Windows 8 Developer Preview Desktop and start the ISO image.
Important note: if you are running Windows 8 Developer Preview
64-bit, make sure the Consumer Preview is matching to what your original
version. So if you have 32-bit installed, download the corresponding
32-bit Consumer Preview image as well.
Now just follow the on screen step and ready to roll!
One thing need to point out is that, Windows 8 Consumer Preview setup you need to have this product key: DNJXJ-7XBW8-2378T-X22TX-BKG7J in order to continue to finish the installation process.
Lastly just wait till this finishes.
When everything are all over you will see this "beta” fish (Betta) has changed over since the last time you saw it.
The CPU,
however, increases from the 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 to the 1.4GHz MSM8255
Snapdragon/Scorpion which certainly helps add snap to the Windows Phone Mango operating system.
The
Nokia Lumia 800 (£400 SIM-free), although being the more expensive of
the two Nokia Windows Phone offerings (the other being the £299
SIM-free/£199 PAYG Nokia Lumia 710) shares the Nokia N9's 16-bit AMOLED
ClearBlack display whereas the Nokia Lumia 710 sports a 24-bit
ClearBlack TFT.
This
being said, even though the colour depth is theoretically deeper than
in the Nokia Lumia 710, AMOLED screens are seen as better than the older
TFT technology due to the more vivid colours and better contrast
ratios.
Moving away from Nokia comparisons, the Lumia 800 also has to compete with the likes of the HTC Titan and HTC Radar Windows Mango phones. When we compare screen size we find the Nokia Lumia 800 feeling a little small with the HTC Radar and HTC Titan
entering the fray with 3.8-inch and 4.7-inch screens respectively
although all competitors are limited to the same 800 x 480 pixel
resolution.
Obviously the iPhone has managed to be a success with a
smaller screen at 3.5 inches, but the trend towards bigger displays is
increasing all the time, and we have to say we're fans of those over
four inches thanks to the improved internet and media experience.
This
means that the pixel density on the Lumia 800 is a little sharper, but
in our side by side comparisons we noted very little difference between
them.
When it comes to internal storage the Nokia Lumia 800 and HTC Titan are equal with 16GB of fixed internal storage, with the Nokia Lumia 710 and HTC Radar weighing in with 8GB a piece.
Based
on the two manufacturer's product specs it soon becomes apparent that
the Nokia Lumia 800 is intended to compete against the HTC Titan and the Nokia Lumia 710 with the HTC Radar.
When compared dimensionally with the HTC Titan
(131.5mm x 70.7mm x 9.9mm and 160g) we note that the Nokia Lumia 800
(116.5mm x 61.2mm x 12.1mm and 142g) cuts a very slim profile, with a
lighter yet reassuring weight.
The physical appearance of the
Nokia Lumia 800 is a dream to observe and handle, with its smooth curves
fitting snugly to the hand both with and without the protective case
provided in the purchase packaging.
That said, if you're used to
handling the current crop of super slim handsets doing the rounds in
today's phone shops, you can't help but feel the Lumia 800 is a little
on the chunky side, even compared to the iPhone 4S thanks to it being around 10 per cent thicker.
However,
that's not to say it isn't an attractive device, with its large
3.7-inch AMOLED screen pushed to the sides of the chassis and a cool
curved polycarbonate shell gives the phone a very premium feel indeed.
Nokia
has worked very hard on the unibody design here, using top-mounted
flaps to cover the charging port and SIM slot, but sadly leaving the
battery inaccessible. Intriguingly, we're seeing a microSIM here, which
seems to be the fashion for the next wave of smartphones.
The
battery is something we can get on board with as this isn't the first
Nokia device to have an enclosed power pack and makes sense if it allows
a greater design freedom.
There was no easy option for battery removal on the Nokia N8 or Nokia E7,
for example. The problem is that with a charge lasting no more than a
day, the option to switch out the battery, as with the Nokia Lumia 710,
would have been nice.
The microSIM is somewhat more of an
annoyance, since we couldn't even carry an old Nokia as a back-up
because the SIM card is a different size.
SIM card adaptors are
available, but use them at your own risk since they have a tendency to
wedge in some phones. Add to this the frustration when you find that
some operators charge for providing a microSIM when on a standard SIM
contract.
The
SIM to microSIM switch comes down to the simple issue of space. In the
phone, the microSIM sits within the metal assembly bottom right.
The
Nokia Lumia 800 is quite reasonably priced, costing nothing on as
little as a £26 Orange or Vodafone contract with Carphone Warehouse
compared with HTC Titan starting at £31 pm with Vodafone and £36 pm with Orange.
The
major difference between Nokia Lumia series and other Nokia phones is
the fact that it uses the Microsoft Windows Phone operating system. The
system itself is nothing new, of course, releasing its latest
incarnation (WP 7.5) on the HTC Titan and HTC Radar in 2011 and due for an update to Windows Phone Tango later this year.
A major point for and against WP7 for some is that it looks completely different to iPhone, Android, Symbian and Meego as the concept of application grids is nowhere to be seen.
Instead
of the more standard home screen, or "Start Screen" in the case of
Windows phone 7.5, the Nokia Lumia 800 uses "Live Tiles", fitting a 2x4
grid (although Calendar and Pictures tiles are full screen width) of
tiles on the screen, vertically scrolling to display as many tiles as
you wish to add.
Adding tiles to the Start screen is as easy as
left swiping to the apps list, long pressing an app and selecting "pin
to start", with removing a tile requiring a long press on the tile on
the Start page and then tapping the drawing pin with a line through it.
Moving tiles around is just as easy, requiring a long press and then dragging them to the desired location.
At
first we were unsure about the large tile based layout, finding it a
little cumbersome and poor screen re
... Read more »
On Wednesday, Microsoft officially released the Windows
8 Consumer Preview (which is essentially a fancy term for ‘public
beta’). If you’re eager to dabble around with the build in a virtual
machine – perhaps due to the lack of a non-production machine, a spare
partition, the fear of using it in a production environment, or, well,
if you just want to install it in a virtual machine – then you’re in
luck.
Here’s a quick tutorial
that will show you how to install Windows 8 in a VirtualBox virtual
machine, so you can enjoy the Consumer Preview from the comfort of a
safe and sound OS. So, what do you need? A copy of VirtualBox (free), and a copy of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, which you can grab from here. Let’s get started.
Step 1: Launch VirtualBox and click on the "New"
button to create a new virtual machine. In the wizard that pops up,
select the Microsoft Windows Operating System and the Windows 8 version (remember to select the 64-bit version if your ISO is an x64 copy).
Step 2: Select the amount of memory that you wish to
allocate to the virtual machine. VirtualBox recommends the staggeringly
specific amount of 1536, so I just went with that. Raise or lower the
memory amount as you please, but bear in mind that decreasing it too far
beyond the minimum recommended amount will lead to diminished
performance.
Step 3: Now, you’re going to have to create a new
virtual hard disk. VirtualBox recommends that its size be 20GB; this is
the minimum amount that Windows 8 needs for its x64 version (x86 is
16GB). If you do wish adjust this amount, the only way you can go is up.
Step 4: Select the virtual disk file type that you wish to use. I went with a VirtualBox disk image
as I won’t be using this virtual machine with other VM software, but
you do have the option to select a more generic file type if needed.
Step 5: You will be able to choose between a fixed
virtual hard drive size and a dynamically allocated size. Basically, the
latter will allow your virtual machine hard disk size to increase in
size as it fills up. If you choose to create a fixed virtual hard drive
size, set your HDD size here.
Step 6: We’re getting there. Verify that the settings are the ones that you desire, and create the virtual machine.
Step 7: Now, start the virtual machine that you just created; a wizard will appear.
Step 8: Browse to and select the Windows 8 Consumer Preview ISO that you downloaded.
Step 9: Install Windows 8. Assuming that the previous steps were performed correctly, you should now be viewing Windows Setup.
Step 10: Wrap up the Windows 8 installation process, and voilà.
On Wednesday, Microsoft officially released the Windows
8 Consumer Preview (which is essentially a fancy term for ‘public
beta’). If you’re eager to dabble around with the build in a virtual
machine – perhaps due to the lack of a non-production machine, a spare
partition, the fear of using it in a production environment, or, well,
if you just want to install it in a virtual machine – then you’re in
luck.
Here’s a quick tutorial
that will show you how to install Windows 8 in a VirtualBox virtual
machine, so you can enjoy the Consumer Preview from the comfort of a
safe and sound OS. So, what do you need? A copy of VirtualBox (free), and a copy of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, which you can grab from here. Let’s get started.
Step 1: Launch VirtualBox and click on the "New"
button to create a new virtual machine. In the wizard that pops up,
select the Microsoft Windows Operating System and the Windows 8 version (remember to select the 64-bit version if your ISO is an x64 copy).
Step 2: Select the amount of memory that you wish to
allocate to the virtual machine. VirtualBox recommends the staggeringly
specific amount of 1536, so I just went with that. Raise or lower the
memory amount as you please, but bear in mind that decreasing it too far
beyond the minimum recommended amount will lead to diminished
performance.
Step 3: Now, you’re going to have to create a new
virtual hard disk. VirtualBox recommends that its size be 20GB; this is
the minimum amount that Windows 8 needs for its x64 version (x86 is
16GB). If you do wish adjust this amount, the only way you can go is up.
Step 4: Select the virtual disk file type that you wish to use. I went with a VirtualBox disk image
as I won’t be using this virtual machine with other VM software, but
you do have the option to select a more generic file type if needed.
Step 5: You will be able to choose between a fixed
virtual hard drive size and a dynamically allocated size. Basically, the
latter will allow your virtual machine hard disk size to increase in
size as it fills up. If you choose to create a fixed virtual hard drive
size, set your HDD size here.
Step 6: We’re getting there. Verify that the settings are the ones that you desire, and create the virtual machine.
Step 7: Now, start the virtual machine that you just created; a wizard will appear.
Step 8: Browse to and select the Windows 8 Consumer Preview ISO that you downloaded.
Step 9: Install Windows 8. Assuming that the previous steps were performed correctly, you should now be viewing Windows Setup.
Step 10: Wrap up the Windows 8 installation process, and voilà.
Offering Verizon Wireless subscribers yet another glossy-looking 4G
LTE smartphone to choose from, the LG Spectrum is a variant of the LG Optimus LTE, also seen in a different form on AT&T as the LG Nitro HD.
The
LG Spectrum packs in a dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon processor and 1GB of
RAM, which results in generally snappy performance around the menus and
while using apps. However, the phone still runs Gingerbread (Android
2.3.5), with an Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) upgrade expected at an
undisclosed date.
What
immediately grabs your attention is the crisp 4.5-inch display, which
shines at 1280x720 resolution at 329 ppi, making it one of the sharpest
screens on the market. It's protected by Gorilla Glass, which keeps the
screen impressively free of scratches.
You'll have to look very
closely to spot individual pixels, though in regular day-to-day use, the
display impresses consistently whether viewing videos or browsing the
web. It's a bit prone to fingerprints, but that's a small price to pay
for a fantastic screen.
The
LG Spectrum sports a slim and sleek build, at just 0.41-inches deep,
with a front facing camera up top and three touch buttons at the bottom.
The center Home button resembles a physical one due its silver sheen,
but like the Menu and Back buttons around it, the phone must be powered
on to use it.
On the back, you'll find a black-and-silver
checkerboard pattern atop a very slick, shiny cover. Without any sort of
tactile grip, it's sure to slide around in some users' hands,
especially as the weather heats up, but it's an attractive and sturdy
backing that can be pretty easily removed from a notch on the bottom of
the phone.
Also
on the back is the 8-megapixel camera lens, which is accompanied by a
small light – the whole of which only slightly juts out from the rest of
the cover. In addition to photos, the lens can also shoot HD video up
to 1080p resolution.
The
top of the phone includes the physical power button, a 3.5mm headphone
jack, and a mini-USB input, which is covered by an attached flap. The
left side of the phone includes a lightly raised volume rocker, while
the right side is completely free of buttons and inputs.
Included
on the LG Spectrum is 4GB of internal storage, but unlike some phones,
we weren't able to access this space by connecting the phone to a
computer. Luckily, the phone also comes with a 16GB microSD card, and it
can accommodate 32GB cards as well. The card is found behind the back
cover above the 1830 mAh battery and adjacent to the SIM card.
The
LG Spectrum is available on Verizon Wireless for $199.99 with a
two-year contract, with the full retail price for the phone listed at
$589.99.
The LG Spectrum launched more than a month after the Samsung Galaxy Nexus
introduced Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) into the marketplace, yet
is still stuck running Android 2.3.5. Despite the dated OS build, the
Spectrum moves pretty fluidly across the LG-skinned menus and in and out
of apps, putting its dual-core 1.5GHz processor to work.
Seven
home screens are available on the LG Spectrum, with the center one
initially dominated by a large and attractive digital clock widget that
also includes the current weather for your location, along with a visual
representation of the conditions.
Another page is set by default
to contain a scrolling list of large icons that grant access to photos,
videos, and music sorted by albums, artists, and playlists, which makes
it easy to jump into media without digging through menus.
Left
and right swipes get you around the menu screens, with a tap of the
home button bringing you back to the center one. Pinching any home
screen brings up an overview of all seven, which lets you drag and drop
them to rearrange the order.
Rearranging app icons is curiously a
hassle, though, as it's not possible to move them around an
already-filled screen. Attempting to drag an icon into the gap next to
or between others doesn't automatically create a space for it; instead,
you'll have to move an app to another page to create a space to work
with, or delete an icon to do the same.
Various
widgets – including social networking, news, finance, and calendar
options – can be added to any of the home screens, along with shortcuts
and folders for storing multiple apps. LG's Friends+ widget lets you
handpick pals from Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, and quickly view
their latest status message or photo update. It's a handy tool, but no
replacement for each full-service social networking app.
The
Apps listing is a bit of a headache to deal with, as it offers access
to apps in only one of two layouts: sorted by category, or listed in a
very long and unnecessarily chunky list. We would have loved to just see
a few pages of alphabetically sorted icons, but neither option here is
particularly ideal.
Gingerbread's pull-down notifications tab is a
little busy in this skinned iteration, but offers easy access to a few
helpful settings, like orientation lock, Airplane mode, Bluetooth and
Wi-Fi on/off access, and the ability to control your music.
The
touch buttons located below the screen make it easy to return to the
main home screen, flip back a screen or option in any app, and access
settings and options applicable to the current app or screen,
respectively.
The LG Spectrum offers a pretty familiar take on Gingerbread's
contacts system, letting you search for and join together contacts,
which can be imported en masse from Google, Facebook, and Twitter.
Pairing
together multiple accounts from your friends is as simple as finding
one in your contacts, selecting "Edit Contact" from the Menu touch
button after viewing it, and then pressing the Menu button again to find
"Join." From there, it will suggest other listed accounts that might
match it, or you can view the whole list.
Of course, if you prefer
not to import in contacts, or simply want to add in someone not
affiliated with your social networks of choice, you can easily add them
locally and search for contacts from the box atop the Contacts page.
Calling
On
the calling side, the LG Spectrum includes a clean-looking dialer, with
rectangular touch buttons that collectively fill half the screen and an
auto-complete box that'll suggest numbers from your Contacts as you
dial. Each number press triggers a light haptic response from the phone,
which is an appreciated touch.
At AddictiveTips, we are always looking for newer and better software that can make the life of our readers simpler. Screenshots
are used in several situations; from creating a manual to getting help
on a forum, screenshots act as a visual aid to the topic or problem
under discussion. We have covered a lot of screenshot-taking tools in
the recent, as well as not-so-recent past. Today, we thought of picking
out some of the best screenshot tools and comparing them against each
other for our readers. The following articles contains a roundup of five
of the best screenshot taking tools featured on AddictiveTips.
Being a full-featured screenshot taking tool, Shotty is used as the
primary screenshot taking utility by a lot of people (including a lot of
us at AddictiveTips). Its ability to capture the Aero-Glass effect in
Windows Vista and Windows 7 allows it to take HQ screenshots with
semitransparent borders, along with the shadow of the selected window.
Some other useful features include cropping the captured image,
captioning the image, marking a specific area and inserting text. It can
not only capture the selected windows, but also the windows running in
the background without having to bring them to front. Shotty also lets
you directly upload images to image hosting websites.
Cons:
Even though the high quality image looks pleasing to the eye, the
compression of PNG images is not that good. Resultantly, the size of the
captured image is quite high, and further compression with an external
image editor is required specially if you want to upload it to a
website.
Key Success Factor:
The ability to capture Aero-Glass and shadow effect and take
screenshots of windows running in the background makes this software a
perfect choice for taking high quality screenshots of complete windows.
GreenShot is an open source screenshot capturing software, allowing
you to take screenshots of the complete screen, active window or an area
of the screen. It has been under my own use ever since I started
blogging, specifically for its area capture mode. Taking over the Print
Screen button, it allows you to quickly take area specific screenshots
and edit them. The GreenShot Image Editor allows you to move or remove
the mouse cursor even after taking the screenshot. Other options include
drawing different shapes, adding text to image, obfuscating elements,
filling color etc.
Cons:
The complete window capture of GreenShot is not that good, and
sometimes, either cuts the edges of windows off, or adds a little bit of
background around the edges.
Key Success Factor:
Allowing you to take screenshots by simply hitting the Print Screen
button on your keyboard and selecting the required area makes GreenShot a
very useful and time-saving screenshot capturing tool.
Screenshot Captor is one of the most extensive and comprehensive
screenshot taking tools out there. It has an array of options allowing
you to take screenshots, edit them, add special effects, add colors,
objects and share the screenshots. You can specify pre-capture and
post-capture settings, and edit the image using the built-in editor. You
can create mailing lists to share captured images with multiple people
or print them directly from within the application. Other options allow
you to crop image to selection, resize the image, adjust image, enhance
selection, blur the image, adjust its colors, add captions, change its
transparency etc. There is also support for multi-monitor setup allowing
you to take flawless screenshots across all connected monitors.
Cons:
Compared to GreenShot or Shotty, setting up and learning to use
Screenshot Captor can be a bit difficult. Users will have to put some
time and effort in getting to know the software to use it at its full
potential.
Key Success Factor:
To be honest, I cannot name any one factor which makes this tool
stand out from the crowd. The massive number of options let you perform
almost every thinkable function for capturing and editing the
screenshot.
Live Capture can easily be a direct contender to Screenshot Captor in
terms of the number of available options. It boasts a whopping total of
not 4 or 5, but 12 screenshot capturing modes. Each mode can be
equipped with its own hotkey. That’s not all, there is also a Magnifier,
Color Picker, Color Palette, Ruler, Editor, Crosshair, Protractor and
GIF animator packed within the application. The "Capture Bar” stays on
top of every window – with adjustable transparency – allowing you to
quickly grab the screen you want. Other than the usual file capturing
modes, Live Capture has Window Control Capture, Timing Capture, Repeat
Last Capture, Web Capture and Program Menu Capture.
Cons:
The application doesn’t have its own image editor. You will have to
use MS Paint (selected by default) or any other external image editor of
your choice.
Key Success Factor:
The 12 different capturing modes, supplemented with several other
tools, such as Color Picker and GIF animator, makes it a feature-rich
tool for capturing any kind of screenshots.
Recently, a screenshot taking application named Snappy caught our
eye, mainly because of its Event Capture feature. The Event Capture
feature allows you to set a timer for capture and initiate screenshot
capture on specified mouse and keyboard events, such as every mouse
click, release or double click or every keyboard key pressed or
released. It stores each screenshot in to its own memory and allows you
to Export all the selected images in a single PDF file. The image editor
lets you tag additional data to the image, adjust its RGB values,
Brightness, Contrast and Color, as well as add lines with adjustable
width. There is also an option to directly email the images for sharing
with someone, from directly within the application.
Cons:
It took me a lot of time to find out something missing in this tool,
but finally I noticed that there is no Aero-Glass effect or shadow
capturing option available in Snappy.
Key Success Factor:
The Event Capture option is definitely a useful tool for effortlessly
capturing screenshots specially while making guides and adding visual
aid.
Nokia might be pushing at the high end of the smartphone world with its Lumia 800 and Lumia 710, but the company also has a budget series, Asha. The Nokia Asha 201 is designed for the chatterbox.
And
costing around £65 SIM-free it sounds like a steal, with its QWERTY
keyboard just crying out to be typed on. Our sample came from Vodafone,
which sells it for the even cheaper UK price of £45 on pay as you go.
At
that price you clearly have to expect some less than stunning
specifications. Probably the lack of 3G and Wi-Fi will put many people
off immediately. And then there's the small screen (320 x 240 pixels),
and the rather old hat Symbian S40 operating system that holds
everything together.
But
that low price beckons, and there's a quoted seven hours of 2G talk
time from the battery to lure you too. You've got various colours to
choose between depending on where you buy from, with eye-watering shades
of green, blue, pink and orange all in the mix as well as more
standard, and less frightening black and white.
The
Nokia Asha 201 is a smallish handset considering it totes a mini QWERTY
hard keyboard, and light too, thanks to its plastic shell. At 105g and
measuring 115.4 x 61.1 x 14mm, it's a good size and weight for small
hands and pockets. We bet that youngsters are high on its target list.
The
build is reasonable, but not outstanding. The plastic feels solid
enough, but on our white sample we could see the join between the
pearlescent white backplate and the edges of the phone, which we found
irritating.
There's
a microSD card slot on the right edge, under a hinged cover. You'll
need to use this to boost the 10MB of built-in storage. Other than that,
all the ports and connectors are on the top, with the bottom and left
edges clear.
So,
the top edge has headphones connector, USB port and a connector for the
tiny round pin Nokia mains charger. No, you can't charge over USB.
There's
no volume rocker or shortcut button for the 2MP camera. Meanwhile, the
front of the Nokia Asha 201 houses a physical mini QWERTY keyboard and a
nice arrangement of buttons.
The
central D-pad has a ring where the top and bottom edges move you
through the main screen (it's not a touchscreen), while a press on the
right edge takes you to the calendar, on the left edge to messaging.
Two
soft menu buttons offer various changing functions, and there are two
shortcuts, one to the web (via Opera Mini), and one marked up for
messages but which you can customise. There are also Call and End
buttons. It's nothing special, but it is all quite neat.
The
Nokia Asha 201 runs on Symbian S40, albeit a tweaked version. This is
an old, old, old operating system that's been beefed up to look and feel
modern.
And it does have its good points, but don't for a moment
be fooled into thinking it is a bells and whistles smartphone operating
system. This is what we call 'feature phone plus' territory.
The single home screen looks quite attractive with its favourite contacts, social media and app shortcuts all lined up.
And
you can configure how it looks, too, deciding what you'd like to have
displayed on the home screen. But doing so is a bit of a faff. We had to
walk through five screens to get to the one where we could personalise
the home screen view.
This
being a Series 40 handset, the Asha 201 has a rather old fashioned
Nokia look and feel once you get beyond the home screen. Hit the Menu
button and you are into an icon driven-area with a very Nokia-esque
look.
Elsewhere
there are other shades of old fashioned Series 40. On the main screen,
for example, hit the left softmenu button (marked 'Go to'), and you can
then scroll through a number of shortcuts for quick access to them.
Well, we say quick, it's a bit tedious tapping away at the D-pad, but
if' youre ont used to a touchscreen then you won't find this too much of
a hassle.
Contacts are a bit of a bugbear with the Nokia Asha 201. They aren't
drawn from your Facebook or Twitter accounts when you sign in, so
everyone you know will either need to be on your SIM, entered manually
or copied using Bluetooth-based Sync and Backup if you're transferring
from another Nokia handset.
Manual contact entry is made easier
thanks to the keyboard, but it's still a bit of a pain. You enter a
number and name and then save the contact, then have to come out and go
back in to add other contact info such as email address, postal address,
nickname, birthday and notes.
You can assign contacts as
favourites, and these will appear on the home screen with little
thumbnail photos if you have assigned them. If you've no photos,
hovering the cursor over the generic contact icon will show their name,
and you can then choose the one you want to contact.
It's quite annoying that contacts are listed by last name then first name. It's a lot more formal than we like.
Making
a call is easy enough, but there's no smart dialling support. You can't
start tapping out a name or number on the keyboard and then see a list
of contacts diminishing as you get close to the one you want.
If
you do start tapping something out, the handset only recognises
numbers, ignoring any letters you press, and even then it doesn't search
the contacts themselves to narrow down your selection.
What this
means is that when you want to contact someone specific you either have
to know their number, have them saved as a favourite for quick access,
or trundle through the whole contacts list.
If you’ve been using VirtulBox
as your primary virtualization tool, you must have heard about the
latest iteration – Version 4.0 which hosts many new features in a
revamped UI. Sadly, you wont find portable VirtualBox 4 version over at vbox.me.
Today, we have a simple trick that requires you to download Portable
Virtualbox v3.2.12, which you can use to make VirtualBox v4.0 portable.
Before starting out, it is recommended to backup previous VirtualBox data. In Portable-VirtualBox folder, you need to rename app32 folder to app32.old.
Now on launching Portable VirtualBox, you will get to see the initial
configuration (Extract And Compress) window, requiring user to either
download VirtualBox or specify its path. Here, you need to specify the
path for VirtaulBox 4.0 installation package, – VirtualBox-4.0.0-69151-Win.exe. Choose your system type 32 or 64 and hit OK to make your VirtualBox 4.0 portable.
The HTC Sensation XE built well on the success of the original Sensation, but since the launch of Ice Cream Sandwich toting handsets at MWC 2012 it is in need of an update to keep up with the pack.
HTC
has done just that providing the Sensation XE with Android 4.0.3 Ice
Cream Sandwich, coupled with its own Sense 3.6 overlay update. A new
Sensation XE should now run Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box.
If
you own a HTC Sensation XE currently running Android Gingerbread, the
Ice Cream Sandwich update will be available in the near future.
If
you do need to update over the air we suggest hooking yourself up to
Wi-Fi to ensure a speedy download. All you need to do is to go to
Settings > About Phone > Software Update and follow the on-screen
instructions. In total it took us less than 30 minutes to download and
install Ice Cream Sandwich on our Sensation XE.
Now the Sensation XE sports Ice Cream Sandwich it jumps in between the quad-core One X and the mid-range One S in HTC's line up.
The Sensation XE goes up against devices such as the iPhone 4S, Samsung Galaxy S2 and Motorola Razr and can now be picked up for free on a £25 per month contract or £400 sim-free.
The
Sensation XE is a good looking device with its black case and red and
silver detailing. The premium feel is certainly present with the metal
and rubber unibody case allowing the Sensation XE to sit comfortably in
the hand and providing a sturdy build.
Due
to the quality materials used by HTC on the Sensation XE's body, it
weighs in at 151g – heavier than rivals such as the Galaxy S2 (116g) and
iPhone 4S (139g), but it's not overbearing and reinforces the premium
feel of the phone.
HTC
has gone down the minimalist route with the Sensation XE with just two
well placed and easy to hit physical buttons on the handset, a volume
rocker on the left and a power/lock key on top, accompanied by a 3.5mm
headphone jack.
There
is a third button on the base of the HTC Sensation XE which allows you
to slide off the solid unibody case – providing you access to the SIM
and microSD slots as well as the 1730mAh battery.
You'll
still find the punchy 1.5GHz dual-core processor under the hood, vivid
4.3-inch HD (540 x 960) display on the front and the Dr Dre-inspired
Beats Audio technology to blast tunes down your ear canals.
Rather
disappointingly for a high end phone the Sensation XE only provides 1GB
of internal storage, but an 8GB microSD card is supplied in the box and
it can support a card up to 32GB in size.
It will come as no surprise that the interface on the HTC Sensation XE is where the bulk of the changes have occurred post-Ice Cream Sandwich update.
Not
only does the Sensation XE bring the latest version of Android to your
fingertips, it also delivers HTC's new Sense 3.6 overlay. Now, you may
well be asking where Sense 4.0 is, but this version is only available on 2012 handsets such as the HTC One range - as it's not compatible with older devices.
Ice
Cream Sandwich brings in a raft on new features and improvements to the
Android operating system, but don't panic if you're a loyal HTC user as
the Sense 3.6 overly ties it all together nicely in a familiar skin.
What
we notice straight away is the Sensation XE feels more fluid. It seems
faster than pre-Ice Cream Sandwich - not to say it was slow while
running Gingerbread - but it looks like the addition of Android 4.0.3
has managed to streamline the user experience.
So you downloaded Windows 8 and now want to try it out on VirtualBox
but are constantly getting errors? You are not alone. Installing
Windows 8 on VirtualBox is tricky but not that hard once you get to know
the basics. In this guide, we will explain the step by step procedure
to installing Windows 8 on VirtualBox 4.1.2 (which is the latest
version). Advanced users might want to skip the first few steps and
directly go to settings.
Important Note: Before we begin, make sure your
processor supports Virtualization Technology and is enabled. Windows 8
will not work if your processor does not support Virtualization
Technology. Most processors support Virtualization Technology but the
option is not enabled by default. You can enable Virtualization
Technology option from the BIOS. Now let’s begin!
First grab VirtualBox (link given at the bottom of the post) and
install it. You will get few Oracle permission pop-ups where you have to
click Allow. Once installed, launch VirtualBox and click New. The New
Virtual Machine wizard will open up, click Next.
Type the name of the Virtual Machine, we named it Windows 8, select
Microsoft Windows as Operating system, and select Windows 7 as version. Important Note:
Even if you are running VirtualBox on Windows 7 x64, you still have to
select Windows 7 from version. Do not continue if Windows 7 (64-bit) is
selected, otherwise VirtualBox will crash. When done, click Next.
We will recommend allocating at least 1GB memory if you are
installing Windows 8 32-bit, and at least 3GB memory if you are
installing Windows 8 64-bit. I have allocated almost 4GB of RAM as you
can see in the screenshot below. When done, click Next.
VirtualBox provides options to either create a new hard disk or use
an existing hard disk as a Start-up Disk. By default, it is set to
Create new hard disk. Leave it as it is and click next.
In this step, make sure VDI is selected. VDI stands for VirtualBox Disk Image. Click Next.
In this step, select Fixed size or Dynamically allocated based on
your needs, so that it does not eat up more virtual disk as allocated by
the user. We selected Fixed size but most users prefer Dynamically
allocated.
By default, VirtualBox allocates 20GB hard disk space for new
machine. You can increase or decrease this amount. We would strongly
recommend not to allocated less than 20GB. When done, click Next.
In the last step, you will be given a quick summary of the settings
you have selected. Click Create to begin creating virtual disk file.
It will take anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes to create a
virtual disk space, i.e, a fixed medium storage unit. Please note that
it can take more than 30 minutes if you have allocated more than 20GB
hard disk space for new machine.
Once the process is complete, in the final step, click Create and you
will be taken to the main interface where the Virtual machine will be
ready.
Now go to Settings, click System from left sidebar, and make sure that Enable IO APIC is checked in Motherboard tab. You can uncheck Enable absolute pointing device since it is not used by most users.
When done, move to Processor tab and make sure that Enable PAE/NX is checked.
Finally move to Acceleration tab and make sure both Enable VT-x/AMD-V and Enable Nested Paging are checked.
Checking all these settings are important, otherwise Windows 8 will not install on VirtualBox.
Now go to Storage from the left sidebar and click Empty under IDE Controller. Click the CD icon next to CD/DVD Drive selection box and click Choose a virtual CD/DVD disk file. Now navigate to the Windows 8
... Read more »
