Google Catches All Eyes The Digital Way

Unveils digital glasses that can take photos, start videochats, read user’s voice to display directions.

Google Inc is getting into the eyewear business with a pair of thin wraparound shades that puts the company’s web services in your face. The experimental ‘argumented reality’ glasses – from the same team that is developing self-driven cars – can snap photos, initiate videochats and display directions at the sound of a user’s voice.

the image released by Google shows eyewear that meshes the online world with the real world

  The prototype digital glasses, unveiled on the company’s Google+ social network on Wednesday, are still being tweaked and tested, and are not available in stores yet.

    “We’re sharing this information now because we want to start a conversation and learn from your valuable input,”Google wrote in a post on a Google+ page devoted to project Glass.

    The spectacles are being developed by Googlex, the secretive group working on advanced research projects such as self-driving cars. The Google+ page featured a 2.5 minute video, shot from the perspective of someone wearing the glasses. The wearer goes about his day walking through New York City while speaking commands to the glasses to do things such as take a photo and post it to Google+, get block-by-block directions and weather conditions and get a pop-up alert when a friend is nearby.

    The Google posting is intended to show ‘what this technology could look like’, the company said. Mockup images of the glasses on the Google+ page depict a stamp-sized digital display that seems attached to a pair of glasses and sits at the top corner of one of the lenses.

    The post asks people to submit their suggestions for what they would like to see in the glasses. Google, the world’s No. 1 search engine, is famous for letting its employees work on ambitious projects that don’t always have a direct relation to its business.

      Those projects have not always sat well with investors, who worry about Google’s spending on projects with uncertain returns. Google Chief Executive Larry Page has cut down on many of the projects underway at the company since taking the reins a year ago. But he has defended Google’s commitment to working on ‘speculative’ projects that could one day turn into ‘billion-dollar business’, though he has stressed the company isn’t ‘betting the farm’ on such efforts.

     The glasses could provide a way for Google to more closely entwine its advertising-supported online services, including Web searches, maps and email, into daily life.   

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HCL Launches Android ICS Tablet “My Edu” Starting At Rs 7,999

HCL Infosystems, has launched three new tablets in India, focusing on the education segment, with a starting price of Rs 7,999, reports The Mobile Indian. My Edu Tab U1, the first tablet from HCL, is targeted towards mass market and is the cheapest tablet from HCL starting at Rs 7,999. The other two tablets; My Edu Tab K12 and My Edu Tab HE are tablets specially designed for students.


The ‘My Edu Tab K12′ comes with pre-installed educational apps and NCERT books for free with a memory card for students up to 12th Std and retails for Rs  11,499. The ‘My Edu Tab HE’ comes with pre-installed apps and multimedia content for  professional and technical skills for college students and retails at Rs 9,999. Both the tablets also come with support for cloud storage.



Specifications

All the tablets: My Edu Tab U1, My Edu Tab K12, and My Edu Tab HE comes with similar hardware specifications. HCL’s tablets sports a 7-inch Capacitive screen with 800*480 pixel resolution, 1GHz Arm Cortex A8 processor processor and runs on the latest version of Google’s Android operating system Ice Cream Sandwich.  It also comes with 512MB RAM, 4GB of internal memory, 0.3 Megapixel front facing camera, USB support, a mini USB port and a micro SD card slot. It with 3600mAh battery to support the powerful 1GHz processor and Android OS which with normal usage might last up to 4-5 hours.

3G connectivity

Although the tablets do not come with support for 3G out of the box customers can enjoy 3G connectivity via USB modem. There are a tons of exciting packages from Vodafone, Reliance, Airtel, BSNL and MTNL.

Apps

None of the HCL’s latest tablet support Google Play (Previously Android Market) but comes with support for  HCL Me App Store from where users can download applications. HCL claims that HCL Me App Store features more than 10,000 apps. All three tablets come with pre-installed apps like BookMyShow, Clear Trip, Hungama, Money Control and more.

HCL entered the tablets market late last year with HCL Me X1 Tab which again didn’t come with support for Android Market. Although Android Market could be separately installed if customers could get hold of the installer file for the same which becomes too technical for an average Joe. The same is bound to happen with HCL’s newer tablets.

Competition

Currently, there are plenty of tablets in the market targeted towards Indian mass market from Reliance’s CDMA Tab (Our take), Beetel Magiq, Wishtel, iBerry, and governments own Aakash tablet. While other tablets in the market may not come with pre-installed educational packages the only way for HCL’s new offerings to succeed is if they directly market them to schools and colleges.

The only competition to HCL’s educational tablets comes from AcrossWorld’s educational tablet ATab which retails at just about Rs 5,000 and has tie ups with educational institutions  and universities like Carmel Public School, Gaujrala; Dr. Ambedkar Memorial Institute of Technology, Rourkela; Shikhar Shishu Sadan Convent School, Dhampur; and, Gandhinagar Public School, Moradabad with a dozen schools and colleges from cities like Delhi, Kanpur, Allahabad, Rourkela and Gaujarala indicating interest in the ATab.

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Micromax Launches Low-Cost Tablet Targeting Education Segment

Micromax has launched Funbook, a tablet which runs the latest iteration of Google’s Android operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich, and has priced it at Rs 6,499, reports BGR India. The tablet is targeted towards students and includes study material  for students from Std 1 to graduation level. Micromax has provided an E-Reading app which offers content from publishers like Pearson and Universal Tutors with content for over 500 courses including preparatory material for medical, Engineering and MBA exams. The company claims that the tablet has been manufactured in India.

Hardware Specifications and Features
The tablet comes with a 7-inch capacitive display and sports a 1.2ghz Cortex A8 processor with Dual Mali 2D/3D Graphics processor.. It runs on Google’s Android operating system-Ice Cream Sandwich which is the latest version of Android from Google. It also comes with 4GB built-in memory which is expandable up to 32GB via a MicroSD card and 512MB of RAM. It also features a 0.3 Megapixel front facing camera for video calls.

It comes with rather dismissable battery of 2800 mAh that can offer up to 5 hours of browsing time. Comparatively, Indian Government’s Aakash Tablet comes with 3,300 mAh Battery.

Connectivity

The tablet does not support 3G out of the box, that is, it does not include support for a SIM card but customers can avail 3G connectivity through a USB 3G dongle, which is being bundled with the device. The device also includes support for WiFi,USB 2.0, and HDMI out.

Apps & Entertainment

Apart from study material the tablet also comes with entertainment apps and multimedia content with a collection 6000 songs, 4000 videos and M clips that is powered by Bollwood Hungama and Big Flix app to watch movies. It also includes facility to watch live TV with the Zenga TV app. It also comes with support for HD playback (MPEG2/4, AVI, WMV, MOV).

Competition

While a lot of manufacturers are jumping into the lucrative tablet market, there’s little left for them to differentiate their product which is why almost everyone seems to target the India’s huge student market. Micromax’s competitors – HCL’s My Edu Tablets, Aakash Tablet by Indian Government, and Wishtel which target the same audience has tied up with various educational institutions. Information on any such tie ups by Micromax was not available.

Micromax has hit the sweet spot with its price tag of Rs 6,499. Now only if they market it well to educational institutions or ink strategic tie-ups with them, the tablet could probably do better than Aakash tablet which has hit numerous hurdles since inception.

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Students Tablet From HCL Launched India

Yesterday HCL info systems launched three new tablets in India. Today the world is flooded by tablets. In this last 1 year the table sales rate have increased enormously and almost all IT manufacturing companies are producing tablet of their own. So as for now hcl infosystems $2.4-billion IT hardware and services provider said that it had captured 15% of the Indian tablet market after launching its first tablet (Me Tab) last year. These HCl tablets are fully loaded and have features differently. So price and specs of all the three tablets are given below.


HCl U1 Tablet 

This is a wifi + 3G enabled tablet and is based on android icecream sandwich operating system. The display size of this tablet is 7 inch which is great for viewing movies & videos. So this miniature machinery comes with 17 inbuilt applications that includes  jobs, games, social networking and music. This tablet is priced at rupees 7999/-

HCL MyEdu Tab is another tablet that has two versions the k12 version is almost the same as the U1 and is priced at 11499 just because it has some more additional features. Another one comes bundled with K12 curriculum, educational applications, games, videos and ebooks. The tablet for higher education bundled with surprises and is priced at Rs 9,999. Both education-based tablets have NCERT-based content which is indeed a good thing to make the tablet run.

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All About Google Android

At last count, over 7,00,000 Android devices were being activated everyday according to Andy Rubin, senior vice president of mobile at Google. Late last year, Gartner estimated that Android held 52.5% of the global smartphone market, significantly higher than the nearest competitors Symbian (16.9%) and iOS (15%). There are a couple of big reasons why Android is leading the charge. The wide choice of hardware at all price points, the number of apps and constant development make sure it stays at the top of its game. These are the current versions of Android you'll get if you buy a device today.


Android  2.0
Although the first commercial version of Android (v1.0) was released in 2008, all phones today (even the entry level range) come with at least Android 2.1 (code-named Eclair, which was released towards the end of 2009). Version 2.0 onwards is when Android really came into its own. The user interface was completely revamped, support for higher screen resolutions and screen sizes was included, as were live wallpapers, camera flash support, Exchange email support and multiple account/contact synchronisations on one device.

  Within six months, Google announced the next update, Android 2.2 (code-named Froyo). FRoyo added the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality, USB tethering, better multimedia management, push notification and the ability to install application on the memory card instead of the phone memory. Other minor additions included performance improvements, an improved application launcher, batch and automatic app update support in Android Market, Adobe Flash support and voice dialing via Bluetooth. Froyo was also picked up as the OS of choice for tablets because of the built in support for larger displays and better stability.
  Another six months down the line, Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) was launched with the Google Nexus S. Gingerbread provided revamped user interface, an improved keyboard with better accuracy and simpler copy/paste functionality. It added support for a front camera, gyroscope and barometer on Android devices. Improvements on the power management front provided for better battery life. Gingerbread has been getting minor updates that improved on performance and fixed various security and functionality issues.


Android  3.0

Android 3.0 is a dedicated version for tablets, designed keeping a larger screen in mind (7-inch and larger). It includes a new interface with 3D effects, plus it tackles the issue of Android button standardisation. The OS removes the need to have physical buttons on the device by adding a system bar at the bottom. The system bar displays navigation buttons, notifications and even provides one-touch access to connectivity settings. Other improvements include a better onscreen keyboard, hardware acceleration, multi-core processor support and multi-tasking. Android 3.1 brought in support for external USB keyboards and joysticks, while Android 3.2 includes further bug fixes and overall performance improvements.


Android  4.0

Google's newest version of Android (version 4.0 code-named Ice Cream Sandwich) will be common OS for both Android phones and tablets going forward. It incorporates the best of both Android 2.X and 3.X - it has a new look and is lighter, improving performance of even existing devices. It also brings in new features like face unlock (face recognition), a customisable launcher, separation of installed widgets, a new tabbed browser, built-in photo editor, improved camera performance and a refreshed contacts app with social network integration. Android 4.0 is currently only on Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone, though the OS will be available as an update for a majority of existing flagship Android devices from all the major manufacturers.

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How To Update Your Device's Firmware

There are several ways to do this. First, you can check for updates using your device itself. Head to Settings > About Device. Here, you should see an option to search for software updates (use Wi-Fi/3g for larger downloads). If none are available, find out if your device delivers updates using desktop software - like Kies for Samsung, Motocast for Motorola, PC Companion for Sony and so on. Download and install the latest version of the software from the support section of the manufacturer's website and then connect your phone to the PC. If the software is already installed, it will most likely notify you of a phone update using pop-up notifications.

Custom Firmware

Should You Install It?

    This is debatable. On one hand, many will be satisfied with using launchers to customise their device. Using a launcher (like Go Launcher) can completely change the look of the phone/tablet - including the home screen/app screen, the icons and on-screen buttons. But if you're fed up of waiting for the latest 'official' Android version for your device, custom ROMs can offer a solution. They can improve on the original, manufacturer-supplied version by being lighter and more efficient (and with less boltware, making the device faster). But installing them can be tricky and you might lose your warranty. IT's something that you do at your own risk.

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Google Nexus Phones : Why They're Different ?

For starters, they are free from user interface customisations that manufacturers pre-install on device(for instance, Samsung's Touchwiz, Sony Ericsson's Timescape, HTC's Sense and Motorola's MotoBlur). Nexus phones do not have 'boltware' - trial/limited versions or apps that you didn't ask for. For people who like a clean, fresh slate, a Nexus phone offers the stock Android look and feel with only most basic pre-installed apps. Finally, Nexus phones always get Android updates first - since there are no changes to be done to the interface, new versions of Android can be delivered much faster. Plus in some cases manufacturers may not even update low priority devices to the newer versions of Android.

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Screen Protector : Is It Necessary ?

I've heard so many people talk about a screen protector for their phone or tablet as a necessity - something that's purchased along with their device and replaced every few months.
Newer capacitive touchscreens have become very sturdy. Especially if you're sure that your device is equipped with Gorilla Glass screen (a brand name owned by Corning), you probably don't need a screen protector. To check whether your device has a hardened screen, look up the official specs.
  There are certain exceptions however. For instance, if you keep your cellphone without a cover, in a pocket that also keeps a lot of loose change and keys, then a screen protector might be a good idea. Or if a tablet screen is going to be roughly used.
  Some people also get screen protectors for reasons other than screen protection. You can get privacy guards (they hide the screen from people sitting off to the side) or you can get mirrored screen protectors that work as a mirror when the screen is off.

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Draw Something : App Review

This addictive new app is a new take on Pictionary- an innovative way to get the digital generation hooked onto word games. Essentially, you can connect with your friends (you can use Facebook connect or directly with a username) or connect to random people to start a quick game. you're presented with words, which you draw on the screen, and your friend has to guess what you've drawn. Correct guesses will award you coins which you can use to upgrade your drawing tools/colours. Start with the free version which has limited words and upgrade if you get addicted. 

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Compare Phone Size : Quick Tip

Phones come in various different sizes now. To find out which one will better suit your hands or your pockets, head over to www.phone-size.com. Here, you can compare sizes of phones side-by-side (along with basic details on dimensions). Set the display size and type first and then choose the phones you want to compare. You can add phones side-by-side as many as your PC display allows.

            

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