7 Most Anticipated Smart Watches of 2013

June 22, 2013 By ishayat 3 Comments

Smart watches are soon expected to become the next big thing and big companies like Apple and Samsung are already trying to capture the smart watch market with its very own smart watch. Let’s take a look at seven best smart watches coming in 2013.

Apple’s iWatch

Apple is working on a smart watch that will allow users to perform some of the tasks that can be done by the currently available iOS devices like reading messages and notifications. The smart watch from Apple is expected to feature Bluetooth and a 1.5-inch screen using curved Gorilla Glass that can flop just like a piece of paper. About 100 designers are working on the watch according to a report of Bloomberg and we can expect to see the device in 2013 for sure.

Samsung Galaxy Altius

There have been rumors of Samsung planning to release a smart watch after hearing about Apple’s iWatch and now we have a screenshot to confirm that. Samsung’s upcoming smart watch titled as the Galaxy Altius is expected to come with cellular connectivity as shown in the screenshot, 2 or 3-inches screen, music player, message/email viewer and will be running a new OS called the AltiosOS. Everything about this smart watch including its release date is still a mystery so we have to wait for an official announcement to confirm these things.

Microsoft’s Rumored Smart watch

Microsoft is currently working on touchscreens smart watch to join the race with Samsung and Apple. Everything about this gadget is a complete mystery but the smart watch is currently in the prototype phase if the report by the Wall Street Journal is true. Teams who have worked on the Kinect sensors and the upcoming Xbox are working on this watch so we can expect to see something really cool once it’s out.

I’m Watch

I’m Watch is an almost complete Android based smart watch that comes with some extra useful features unlike its rivals. About 100 apps are available just for this smart watch and users can read messages, emails, call people by choosing a contact via Bluetooth, a special USB port that comes with a cable that has a USB connector on one side and 3.5mm jack on the other. You can manage your Facebook, Twitter and email accounts and watch your appointments on Google calendar using this watch. It features a 1.54-inch color touch display, 128MB RAM, 4GB of flash memory, a customized Android OS, and cool apps designed for this watch like Instagram, compass and Weather. This watch is available for $450.

Sony’s SmartWatch

Sony’s SmartWatch is an Android compatible gadget that makes sure you never miss a thing and keeps your hands free. You get all the important notifications like call, message or other notification right in your watch. The watch gently vibrates when you receive a call if you are within 10 meters and let you know. This smart watch works with almost any Android phone and dedicated apps are available on the Google Play Store.

Pebble

Pebble is a smart watch designed for both iPhone and Android that comes with a power-saving e-paper and lasts for a whole week when fully charged. It was first unveiled at CES 2013 and is now available for pre-order. You can customize the look of the watch, check incoming caller ID, email, SMS, iMessage (for iOS), Facebook messages, Twitter alerts and other notifications. You can connect this smart watch with smartphones using Bluetooth and this cool smart watch will be available for $150 only.

WIMM One Watch

WIMM One Watch is another Android-based watch that comes with a promising set of features including a 1.41-inch touchscreen display, a Samsung ARM11 processor running at 667MHz, 256MB RAM, 2GB internal storage, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, magnetometer, accelerometer and GPS. About 30 apps are available for this watch and it’s available for $199 at the moment.

What you think of this list of best smart watches? Do you have a suggestion to add to this list? Your comments are welcomed.

Sony’s PS4: Specs, Price and Release date

June 12, 2013 By ishayat 1 Comment

Sony unveiled the PS4 back in February before Microsoft showed up with the Xbox One. Microsoft also revealed what the upcoming Xbox has to offer recently and Sony managed to get one step ahead of Microsoft by offering all the features that we were expecting to see in the new Xbox. Unlike the Xbox One, the PS4 is restriction-less and is also cheaper. Let’s see if the PS4 has really something more to offer than the Xbox One or not.

Specs

As mentioned earlier here, the new PlayStation will feature an 8-core 64-bit x86 AMD CPU called “Jaguar”, 8GB GDDR5 RAM, 6x Blu-ray drive and an enhanced Radeon GPU to give users “the kind of multi-dimensional experiences they expect and deserve”. However, what we didn’t know earlier is that the new PS4 will allow users to play games offline and you don’t have to be always-online or follow daily check-ins to play games. Last time, the company didn’t reveal any picture of the console either but now we have a picture of the console too.

The design is not really impressive and it looks quite similar to Xbox One. However, we don’t have the exact dimensions yet so we don’t know if it’s really as big as it looked like at E3. You will find two USB connectors on the front, one HDMI out, Aux socket, S/PDIF optical audio out and Gigabit Ethernet socket on the back. Another great feature of the PS4 is, it will let you play used games.

Price and launch titles

The next-gen PS will be available for only $399 which is a huge win for Sony as Microsoft’s Xbox will be available for $500. It’s the exact opposite of last time and looks like Sony managed to find all the weak points of the Xbox One this time and went one step ahead of Microsoft.

Sony is planning to feature some exclusives like Final Fantasy 15, Kingdom Hearts 3, KIllzone Shadow Fall, Destiny, Driveclub and Knack as launch titles. The next installment of the famous Infamous series is also ready to release for PS4 in Q1 2013. Some games like Assassins’s Creed, Grand Theft Auto and Elder Scrolls will be available for both the consoles.

PS4 Release date

Sony wasn’t specific like Microsoft about release date so we don’t know when exactly the company is planning to launch the PS4 in “this holiday season”. However, we do know that the Xbox One will be available in November.

Here’s the complete list of specs released after the event:

Main Processor: Single-chip custom processor
CPU: x86-64 AMD ‘Jaguar’ 8 cores
GPU: 1.84 TFLOPS, AMD next-generation Radeon™ based graphics engine
Memory: GDDR5 8GB
Hard Disk Drive: Built-in
Optical Drive (read only): BD 6xCAV, DVD 8xCAV
I/O and communication: Super-Speed USB (USB 3.0), AUX ,Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T), IEEE 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth® 2.1 (EDR)
AV output: HDMI, Analog-AV out, Digital Output (optical)

Top Smartphones Launched In India In May

May 29, 2013 By Arshdeep Singh Leave a Comment

Every month we usually see new phones showing and most of them are running on Android which also shows dominance of Operating System in the market. We are thinking to try out new post series like writing a post which has all the best launches of the month and this a first step in this regard. So here is a quick view of all the launches that happened. Some launches were international while others were at national level only. Let’s have a quick look at them.

Nexus 4:

This is one of the biggest launch of the month though phone took six months to come to the country. Probably this is a first Nexus Device launched by companies in a true manner though Nexus S was made available in country too but that was kind of stock clearance thing. The phone is not available through the Google Play Store yet but is being is LG only that’s why the price is pretty much higher i.e. Rs 25,990 if Google had done it then we might have got it for Rs. 22,500.Only 16GB version is being launched in the country. Phone has 720p display, Snapdragon S4 Pro quad core SoC and stock Android experience with 2GB RAM so this price is quite low if we consider other devices present in the country.

Nokia Lumia 925:

Nokia launched a updated model of the Lumia 920 with an aluminium and plastic body. Phone is slimmer and lighter than Lumia 920. Phone was launched in conference in London this month only. Lumia 920 and 925 are pretty much same in terms of specifications. But the design makes 925 better. Phone has same 1.5GHz dual-core Krait processor with Adreno 225 GPU powered by 1GB of RAM. It comes with 8 Mega Pixel auto-focus camera with Carl Zeiss lens with Optical Image Stabilization, face and smile detection.

Google Edition Samsung Galaxy S4:

This device was launched at Google I/O 2013 on first day. There were lot of rumors about this device before it went official. It comes with unlocked bootloader, 16GB version running on Stock Android 4.2.2 with all goodness of Samsung and is priced for Rs 35000. This device is available in US only. There’s no TouchWiz in this S4 and so Android updates will be hitting this phone at the same time as they do the Nexus phones so you can say it a “SAMSUNG GALAXY NEXUS S4″. It will be available from June 26 at Play Store.

Sony Xperia ZR:

Last not the least Sony Xperia ZR it is also the one of the important and biggest launch of the month. It is basically a newer sibling of Xperia Z and ZL. It is placed to fulfill the gap between the two.It can be used deeper in water for longer time. It sports a 4.6-inch 720p display with a 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro and has 4G LTE. Phone supports a 13 megapixel camera with Sony’s Exmos RS for mobile sensor plus a camera shutter button making it a try under water device. Other specifications remains the same as Z and Zl

So which device you found to be the best do tell us in comments.

8 High Tech Futuristic Gadgets Coming In 2013

April 28, 2013 By ishayat 1 Comment

Sometimes we see some cool and Hi Fi gadgets in movies that we wish to use in real life. Here, we are going to talk about 8 futuristic gadgets that are coming out or have been released this year to grace our lives.

Google Glass

is an augmented reality eyewear that comes with a display that said to be “the equivalent of a 25 high definition screen from eight feet away”. The futuristic gadget also features a 5-megapixel camera that can help you to share what you are seeing live and can also capture 720p videos. It has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support for sharing, 12GB memory for images and videos and its battery can tolerate a full day of typical use.

The futuristic glass will be available for $1500 and is expected to launch next year for regular users.

Oculus Rift

Oculus Rift is a virtual reality headset that can offer an amazing way to enjoy video games. The prototype version featured a 5.6-inch screen but it was upgraded to 7-inch later after a successful Kickstarter project. A developer’s kit is now available for developers and a consumer oriented Oculus Rift is currently in the works and is expected to be available in 2014.

4K TVs

We saw Sony’s 84-inch UltraHD TV at the CES and now the company is planning to unveil affordable 4K TVs soon. It’s new 55- and 65-inch TV will cost about $5,000 to $7,000 which is really affordable comparing to the $25,000 price tag. You can also get a media player for another $700 if you are worried about the lack of 4k contents.

3Doodler

3Doodler is the world’s first 3D printing pen that allows you to draw in the air. Moreover, you can do it without any software or computer knowledge. It’s user-friendly, pocket-friendly and can be used almost anywhere once you are done plugging it into a power socket. This 3D printing pen can be used for creating basic 3D shapes, 3D models, jewelry, pendants, decorative pieces and much more.

The shipping is expected to start from February 2014 but you can preorder one right away from 3Doodler’s official website for $99.

Pen Sized Scanner

The Pen Sized Scanner is a portable document scanner that comes in the size of a ballpoint pen just like its name suggests. Its 5-megapixel scanner can easily scan recipes, letters, newspaper clips or documents and can store more than 1,000 scanned pictures in JPEG format in its 1GB internal memory.

Users can also create voice memos using this scanner and this gadget is compatible with Windows 8, 7, Vista, XP and Mac OS X. You can order one for you right away for $124.95.

Celluon Magic Cube

Celluon Magic Cube can create a full keyboard on any surface and can work just like any other keyboard. This magical keyboard comes in the size of a cube and uses laser beam to generate a full size laser keyboard. It can be used with smartphones, tablets, PC and any device that has Bluetooth HID.

The futuristic gadget is available for $148.99 which is not too much comparing to other high-end accessories. However, you can get a Bluetooth keyboard or a USB keyboard for less than $50.

MYO

MYO is a gesture control armband that can work as an alternative to camera based gesture control. It can measure electrical activity in your muscles and can help you to interact with computers in a magical way. You can control your PC, phone and other selected gadgets with a wave of your hand.

This futuristic gadget is available for $149 and the next batch will be shipping in early 2014.

Targus Touch Pen

Targus Touch Pen is a Windows 8 based gadget that can turn any Windows 8 based laptop’s LCD into a touchscreen (or at least work like a touchscreen). The pen comes with a small receiver that you have to plug into a USB port and then stick the device to the side of the display. Once you are done calibrating for the first time, you can use it just like a stylus.

The touchpen is really easy to use and doesn’t require any software. It’s available for only $99.99 and works with any Windows 8 laptop.

Portronics Handmate Makes Any Computer Screen Touchable

April 27, 2013 By Kiran Yasmin Leave a Comment

Windows 8 is a beautiful OS but it is even more enjoyable when used on a touch screen. While you may not have a computer with touchscreen, this does not mens you cannot use its screen as a touch screen. Meet Portronics Handmate! This amazing device lets you experience a touchscreen joy at any of yours Windows 8 laptop. No kidding, see it to believe it.

Connectivity Of The Device:

The users can connect this Handmate Windows 8 Pen with any ordinary USB port quite easily and then what—they just need to fix the installation and the device is ready to use. This is an impressive equipment made for notebooks and desktop computer and qualified enough to turn normal screen into contact which obviously allow displays for comfort and ease of use. It is a special accessory for those who are willing to experience and enjoy the features of Windows 8 to the maximum.

Features of Portronics Handmate:

Wonderfully this Pen is equipped with infrared and ultrasound technology stylus which lets its users get the device’s facilitation in an effective way. This Pen is also a perfect tool to be used not only on Windows 8 PCs but also any non-touching notebooks and ordinary computers. The device has a coverage area of about 17″ or even more and its resolution power is 100 DPI.

Some other features which make this Pen one stop destination for touch-screen lovers are as follows:

Easy to use plug and play system.
Being cost effective, it can be a better alternate to costly touch screen laptops.
Glide, exchange, move to operate.
It can quite easily be activated on numerous software icons so you don’t need to worry about whether it would work on your heavy software icon or not as it really would.
The Pen can help the user zoom in and zoom out the pictures he likes.
Last but not the least, this wonderful accessory’s battery life is over 450 hours.

The device can easily be purchased from an outlet or any popular online store.

Acer Iconia W3-810 Will Come Up With An Atom Processor Of 1.8GHz Speed

April 23, 2013 By Kiran Yasmin Leave a Comment

In this technology oriented world, every company is willing to boom the customer friendly tablets. Since last decade, the race to unveiling the market oriented PCs, laptops and tablets has greatly been increased. Most of the users love to experience the Android tablets, which come up with various specifications and features which can make our experience a worth. But recently, a variety of options and extra features have been introduced on the Microsoft’s Acer Iconia W3-810 platform.

An effort has been made by Microsoft in its Acer Iconia W3-810 to fill the gap of some missing features of Android tablets such as an 8-inch screen.

Specifications:

According to a leaked news and some other sources such as Geekbench, the new Acer Iconia W3-810 will possess the following extra ordinary features and specifications:

Operating System with Microsoft Windows 8 Pro with 32-bit capacity.
The processor with Intel Atom Z2760, 1.80 GHz capacity.
A wide range of connectivity options to choose from such as micro USB support, Bluetooth, GPS and Micro SD card support.
RAM with 2GB capacity.
Front and rear cameras.
A possible microSDHC slot.
Keyboard cases designed for the 7.9 inch iPad mini.

Availability Of The Tablet:

The tablet is available in both white and black colors. But as we can see in the image above, the black color is something which can attract the maximum eyes due to its shiny surface. Let me tell you another thing here that the tablet has a single kinda analogous button on top of its screen closer to the VGA front camera. Not only this but also the leaked reports say that the other accessories of the tablet include a tiny keyboard dock and a cover that has the doubling power just like a kickstand.

So, I am for sure going to wait till September 2013 when this tablet is expected to rock the international markets especially USA, Europe, China and India. Will you??

World’s First Braille Smart Phone For Blinds, Made In India

April 19, 2013 By Abhishek Prakash Leave a Comment

In a country like India, where there is absolutely no infrastructure for physically disabled, this news brings the fresh air of change and hope. A start-up, Kriyate Design Solutions, based in India has successfully created World’s first Braille smart phone for blind people.

This phone converts all text in to Braille pattern and thus allow the blind people to read SMSes and emails. Sumit Dagar, the innovator of this smartphone claims, “This product is based on an innovative ‘touch screen’ which is capable of elevating and depressing the contents it receives to transform them into ‘touchable’ patterns“.

The working of the phone was explained by Times of India as:

The phone uses Shape Memory Alloy technology, based on the concept that metals remember their original shapes, i.e. expand and contract to its original shape after use. The phone’s ‘screen’ has a grid of pins, which move up and down as per requirement. The grid has a Braille display, where pins come up to represent a character or letter. This screen will be capable of elevating and depressing the contents to form patterns in Braille. All other elements are like any other smartphone.

Dagar, a TED fellow and recipient of prestigious Rolex award for Young Laureate, says he felt the need of such a device when he realised that so far, technology has completely ignore the marginalised ones and focuses mainly on the mainstream people. His idea got the boost at the Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship, located in IIM Ahmedabad. The prototype of the device is being developed at IIT Delhi and is currently being tested at L V Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad.

I am very thrilled to see that finally India is using its technical power in the right direction.

Review: Sentry Neon Stereo Earbuds

April 10, 2013 By Louis Smith Leave a Comment

Compatibility: 3.5mm Jack Devices

Before you read this review, I recommend watching my unboxing so you could get a better understanding of this product and how I came about it.

These earbuds are selling for less than $10 on and also available at local retailers. I believe that this is a great price since it provides great audio quality for watching portable TV, portable gaming, gaming, iPods, MP3 Players, smartphones, and many more devices.

You can purchase it in four different colors, I have the color red, and the accents are very professional for such a low-cost pair of earbuds. Sentry paid close attention to these earbuds and provided you with the best service for style and design.

The earbuds themselves are somewhat comfortable. I place them in my ears and found that they don’t fit perfectly. Sadly, Sentry don’t provide more earbud tips sizes. I found that they would fall out when doing sports and anything that involves a lot of movements.

Also, I noticed that it don’t provide an in-line mic or playback controls. This is a con since other earbuds include this feature. I found this as a problem since I prefer to control my music via my earbuds without taking out my device.

The cord length was perfect for my use and the the 3.5mm plug fit many devices that you probably own. I found no problems with this. I’m very please with the audio quality, with included bass boost, and found that this to be very pleasing when tuning out people and other surrounding sounds.

I would recommend this is the average consumer especially for this price. Otherwise, you could find better for a little more money. Watch my full review video via the second video on above, purchase via the links listed, and share with others if you enjoyed this review. Till next time, have a great day!

HTC First Unveiled: The First Phone to Feature Facebook Home

April 6, 2013 By ishayat 1 Comment

HTC First is now official! After lots of rumors and leaked images, HTC and Facebook have finally unveiled the smartphone yesterday. It’s not exactly similar to the HTC Status which came with a Facebook button so let’s see if the first Facebook Home optimized phone is ready to attract the Android users or not.

Specs and Features

The Facebook Phone will run a customized version of Google’s Android Jelly Bean titled as “Facebook Home” which is tightly integrated with Facebook to make it the “ultimate social phone”. As the leaks hinted earlier, the phone features a 4.3-inch display and 1280×720 display resolution-wise, a dual-core Qualcomm processor, a 5-megapixel rear camera, 1.6-megapixel front-facing camera, 1GB RAM and a 2,000mAh embedded battery that is expected to be non-removable. However, it’s not the hardware specs that we want to know mostly about the First, right?

Facebook Home

, a customized version of Android removes the usual backgrounds and homescreens of Android and fills them with updates from your Facebook friends and its own skin. Users will see the log in screen of Facebook when turning on the HTC First for the first time. This new operating system is a great move from Facebook and it can be also downloaded from Google Play Store for selected Android smartphones.

Your lock screen will show different pictures of your friends and from your album every time you open which is a great feature if you love browsing pictures uploaded by your Facebook friends. You will see a small bubble with your profile image on it on the lock screen that can take you to the app launcher, your last used app or to the Facebook messenger.

“Chat Heads” is an attractive feature of Facebook Home that shows a face of your friend in a little balloon when they send a chat message via Facebook or text. It will alert you when you are using an app and stays there. Users can just tap on the balloon to see the message without getting out of the app they were using. Other notable features of this ultimate social phone are- cover feed, attractive notifications system and app launcher.

Design

The First is a mid-range phone and is not the best phone you can expect from HTC design-wise. There is no “Beats Audio” logo on this model like other HTC phones. The phone is slightly bigger than the iPhone 5 and is 125.6mmx 64.93mm x 8.96mm in size and the back is made of plastic to give the phone a two-tone effect. The phone will be available in four different colors- red, pale blue, grey and white.

That’s all we know about the latest HTC phone. There is not much to talk about this phone, hardware-wise. The Facebook Home is the only notable feature of this smartphone and the customized Android OS looks attractive for those who are glued to social networks. The HTC First will be available on April 12th for just $99.99 in the US on AT&T only. You can click to pre-order one today.

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