Asus launches the Eee Pad Transformer with 16-hour battery life and Android 3.0

At the last CES event, Asus showed off a quartet of new tablets, meant to compete with the iPad and Android leaders. Then in February, rumors circulated about a  secret weapon that Asus was preparing to dethrone Apple's iPad. And we're inclined to believe that they were referring to the Asus Eee Pad Transformer tablet, which was officially announced on Friday.

The most unique feature of the Eee Pad Transformer is its docking capability, which resembles that of the Motorla Atrix 4G. But instead of the device plugging into a display/keyboard combo, the Eee Pad Transformer merely connects to a keyboard. That keyboard, we might add, boosts the tablet's battery life to an impressive 16 hours. The tablet alone has a battery life of 9.5 hours.

Beyond its novel keyboard/battery dock, the Eee Pad Transformer has a compelling set of specs. It is the first Asus device to feature Android 3.0, and run on the NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor. It also features a 10.1-inch, 1280x800 resolution screen, equal to that of the Motorola XooM. The tablet has a 5MP rear-facing camera that shoots HD video, and a 1.2MP front-facing camera.

Included are features like Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi, GPS, HDMI output, digital compass, 3.5mm headset jack, and accelerometer. You can also choose between 16GB and 32GB versions. There's no official word on pricing, but a European retailer leaked a €399 ($565) pricetag. The Eee Pad Transformer is available for pre-order in Taiwan, will go on sale on March 30th in the U.K., and is expected in the U.S. some time in April.

HTC Incredible S Available in India Between Rs 27000-29000

Introduction

The unfortunate naming aside (seriously, didn’t anyone say it out loud before they announced it?), the Incredible S is a pretty great smartphone. You’ve got spotless connectivity, an exciting new screen, those cool rotating buttons and the proven power of Snapdragon under the hood.

HTC Incredible S official photos
HTC has earned a name for itself and there’s no wonder that the launch of the Incredible S was greeted with excitement. Their new potential bestseller is too important a device to go unnoticed even if it tries to be merely an evolutionary, rather than revolutionary step forward.
It seems the Incredible S has got the proper set of ingredients to make for a really capable smartphone at a reasonable price (for a high-end device, that is).

Key features

• Quad-band GSM and dual-band 3G support
• 14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
• 4" 16M-color capacitive LCD touchscreen of WVGA resolution (480 x 800 pixels)
• The best screen on an HTC device by some distance
• Android OS v2.2 Froyo with HTC Sense UI (ver. 2.3 update promised soon after launch)
• 1 GHz Scorpion CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 chipset
• 768 MB RAM and 1.5 GB ROM
• 8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and geotagging
• 720p video recording @ 30fps
• Wi-Fi b/g/n and DLNA
• GPS with A-GPS
• microSD slot up to 32GB (8GB card included)
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• microUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth v2.1
• Smart dialing, voice dialing
• Front facing camera for video calling
• DivX/XviD video support
• Dolby Mobile and SRS sound enhancement
• HTC Locations app
• HTCSense.com integration
• HTC Portable Hotspot 
• Ultra-fast boot times (if you don’t remove battery)

Main disadvantages

• No dedicated camera key and no lens cover
• Runs Froyo on launch, instead of Gingerbread
• Poor video recording, 720p footage is pretty jerky
• Uninspiring audio quality

2010 was the year of the droid in the smartphone calendar and Google will undoubtedly try to serve us more of the same in 2011. To achieve such an explosive growth is a tall task, but certainly not impossible. There are two things that the Open Handset Alliance will need to achieve in order to complete it.
First, they will need to finally grab a sizable share of the lower mid-range market and second they need to maintain their positions in the high-end segment, which has been their stronghold lately.
And while the implosion of Symbian will certainly help the droid army with their march towards lower segments, some serious efforts will be required to keep iOS and the rapidly improving WP7 at bay on the top.
That’s why devices like the HTC Incredible S are so important. Not only do they need to generate as much revenue as possible for their manufacturer, but they also need to perform well to maintain the platform’s reputation.

The HTC Incredible S live shots
This certainly is a heavy burden, but is the Incredible S fit to carry it? We’ll find out in the course of this review. Now join us on the next page for the unboxing of the beast.


ONLINE PRICE IN INDIA -----RS 26990
OFFICIAL PRICE IN INDIA----RS 28900

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9" Review.........

Samsung definitely has something to show for this year’s CTIA 2011, despite not seeing anything new in the smartphone camp, but rather, they unveiled their latest GALAXY Tab member. Finding itself squarely in the middle, the 8.9” Samsung GALAXY Tab 8.9 rounds out the selection as Samsung’s tablet offerings will be able to accommodate just about every consumer out there. Naturally, it embodies most of the characteristics that are evident with their current line, but it still aims to provide a tailored tablet experience with Samsung’s TouchWiz 4.0 interface on top of Honeycomb. Although seen as an unexpected gesture, Samsung concretely positions it to launch within the summer time frame (June 8, to be precise) – with the price tags of $469 for the 16GB model and $569 for the 32GB one.

After being somewhat taken by surprise by the iPad 2, there is no denying that Samsung is doing their best in making sure that their 8.9” Tab will be impressive on its own two feet thanks to its 8.6mm thickness and 470 gr weight. Holding the tablet for the very first time, we’re presented with a very plasticy constructed device that aids in making it rather light weight – however, there isn’t the presence of premium in its feel.  Still, it’s appreciable since it’s fairly easy to carry around and comfortably held in the hand. Conversely, it still doesn’t quite necessarily come off as being all that attractive with its conventional looks.

The Samsung GALAXY Tab 8.9 is 8.6mm thick

We find a dedicated power button, volume rocker, and 3.5mm headset jack all lining on the top side of the tablet, while the power port is located on the other side.  Since it flaunts stereo speakers, we find them clinging on both the left and right edges – which of course, should enhance the experience. There’s a front-facing 2-megapixel camera, while the rear hosts a sufficient 3-megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash.
Naturally, the most prominent thing about it all is the 8.9” WXGA (1280 x 800) capacitive touchscreen that provides enough clarity to view even the smallest of text on-screen. As we set it to it the highest brightness level, we’re not too flattered by its color output – which mainly looks washed out. Still, it’s nice to see that it enables the tablet to be compact and light enough to carry around.

Interestingly, Samsung has been allowed to customize the Android 3.0 interface, and so it has equipped the tablet with a new version of the TouchWiz 4.0 (or TouchWiz UX) UI, but the unit on hand at the booth is still in production, so we wouldn't be jumping to conclusions about it just yet. Running the new interface on top of Android 3.0 Honeycomb, the Samsung GALAXY Tab 8.9 moves at a decent rate, but it doesn’t quite have that silky smooth movement with its operation – then again, it’s still a pre-production build. Focusing on the social networking conscious users out there, we find the Social Network Hub which fittingly aggregates content from your various accounts. Quickly looking it over, TouchWiz 4.0 is everything we’d expect it to be, but it doesn’t seem to offer much more in terms of functionality over the core Android 3.0 experience.
So far, it’s just great to know that Samsung is doing its best to offer solutions to a wide array of consumers, and of course, the Samsung GALAXY Tab 8.9” looks to complete their lineup.

Samsung has been allowed to customize the Android 3.0 interface

BlackBerry Curve 8520 Price Drops to Rs.9990 Only

Looks like BlackBerry wants to be part of the sub-Rs.10000($220) segment in India as the price of the most affordable BlackBerry – the Curve 8520 has dropped to Rs.9990. The device was earlier available for Rs.11-12,000. The handset also comes with a 18 month warranty while most brands offer only 12 months.
If you ever wanted to own a BB and turned down the idea due to the huge upfront investment, now is your time to try again. Just a friendly reminder that you still have to pay for your Blackberry Plan if you wish to use push email on this device. While the advert mentions the MRP of Rs.9990 you can get this handset for a lesser price at some retailers

IPAD 2 UK PRICES OUT..........

Apple recently launched the successor to the Apple iPad which is known as the Apple iPad2. iPad2 is better as compared to Apple iPad. It’s thinner, faster and stronger. iPad2 is available in UK via different network providers and now Vodafone UK is also offering it and it’s available on different rates.
If you are already a Vodafone UK customer and looking forward to buy an iPad2 on contract, then you can get the 16GB version for £199, 32GB for £259 and 64GB for £349, but if you are not a Vodafone customer and looking forward to join it, then you have to pay additional £30.

If you talk about monthly rates, then it’s £24.50 for existing customers and £27 for new ones. Users will get 2GB of data in this price and £15 per GB if you cross the limit. Well, that’s what Vodafone is offering. So if the contract suits your budget, then head-over to Vodafone and order your Apple iPad2.

Gevey SIM Unlocks iPhone 4 on iOS 4.3

So here is the news for all those who own an iPhone 4 running on 4.2.1 or above versions and have been waiting for the Dev team’s Ultrasnow to do the unlocking. The phone can finally be unlocked with a new SIM imposter called Gevey SIM. A SIM card hack known as Gevey has been released to unlock the iPhone 4 running the latest iOS 4.3 and baseband. This is a hardware hack which is quite different from the usual software hack like Ultrasn0w.

The hack involves a wafer thin SIM, which needs to be inserted in the SIM card tray along with the original SIM card that you use with your iPhone 4. You then have to follow a short procedure of dialling an emergency number, hanging up, then toggling flight mode on and off a few times. Then service with your chosen provider magically appears. It is a little convoluted and has to be repeated if you reset your iPhone 4 or run out of battery.
Gevey SIM supports iOS 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.2.1, 4.3 and basebands 1.59.00, 2.10.04, 3.10.01, 04.10.01. In order to avoid the phone from being locked, the Gevey SIM needs to be with the phone all the time. If you switch off your iphone or battery drains out, you will lose the unlock and will need to follow the entire unlocking process again.

The Gevey SIM is now available for $75 which is quite a costly solution. But if you want unlock your iPhone 4, its currently the only solution available which does not even need a jailbreak.

Honda Brio Coming in APRIL 2011

 

Honda Brio

Expected in April 2011

Estimated price: Rs 4-5 lakh

In country like India, the automobile market is dominated by hatchbacks. Here most of the auto giants who wish to set a firm base in India, are focusing on small car market. Honda tried the same thing with the Jazz, but the expensive price tag didn't work in it's favour. So, Honda now plans to launch a small car for the Indian car market.

Honda had unveiled its small car concept the 2010 Auto Expo, and the company plans to launch this small car in India somewhere around in early 2011. This new small car will be smaller than four metres in length and will get Honda Jazz's 1.2-litre petrol engine to avail the duty cut.

NEW Yamaha R15 2011 with lower price

The exciting bit of news is that the 2011 Yamaha R15 is likely to be priced at  lower to bring it down below its current price of Rs 1 lakh. According to sources, the new R15 will have split seats, a wider rear tyre, raised rear seat, new alloy wheel pattern, rear wheel hugger, all new exhaust, LED tail lamps and slightly improved power and torque.

Yamaha R125 to Hit Indian Roads on 17th April.. ...Price - 82000 to 87000

The country's one of the leading two-wheeler manufacturer, India Yamaha Motor is going to launch its Yamaha YZF R125 on 17th April. The most awaited Bike is suites to the new generation, who are interested to ride a highly anticipated R125. One thing is very interesting to know that the company was planning to introduce its Yamaha SZ16 model, but surprise confirmed for Yamaha YZF R125 in India. The new bike engine has been loaded with liquid-cooled single-cylinder 4-stroke engine, which delivers maximum power of 14.5 bhp at 9000 rpm and maximum torque of 12.2 Nm at 8000 rpm. The bike has already been displayed at the Delhi Auto Expo 2010. New Yamaha YZF R125 will be available at a price of Rs. 83,754/- (ex-showroom price, New Delhi). The company will launch its Yamaha YZF R125 with various colour options- Midnight black, Impact Yellow, Burning Blue and Sport White. Yamaha YZF R125 has been equipped with features like Fuel Injection, 6-speed transmission, wet-sump lubrication system, electric start, Steel Deltabox Chassis, R6-style mid-ship muffler, Aluminum swinging arm, Duel catalysers and Air Induction system. On the other hand, Royal Enfield has launched its new Bullet Electra with a new advanced feature 'Twinspark'. Apart from it, Harley-Davidson has launched its 12 bike models including Harley-Davidson sportster motorcycle in India.
Specs:

Yamaha YZF-R125 Specifications:

Engine

• Engine type:Single cylinder, liquid-cooled, 4-stroke, SOHC, 4-valve
• Displacement:124,66cc
• Bore x stroke:52,0 mm x 58,6 mm
• Compression ratio:11,2 : 1
• Maximum Power:11,0 kW (15PS) @ 9.000 rpm
• Maximum Torque:12,24 Nm (1.25 kg-m) @ 8.000 rpm
• Lubrication system:Wet sump
• Carburettor:Fuel Injection
• Clutch Type:Multiple-disc coil spring
• Ignition system:TCI
• Starter system:Electric
• Transmission system:Constant Mesh, 6-speed
• Final transmission:Chain

Chassis

• Frame:Steel Deltabox
• Front suspension system:Telescopic forks
• Front travel:130 mm
• Caster Angle:24,2º
• Trail:86,1 mm

• Rear suspension system:Swingarm, (monocross)
• Rear Travel:125 mm
• Front brake:Single Disc, Ø 292 mm
• Rear brake:Single Disc, Ø 230 mm
• Front tyre:100/80-17 M/C
• Rear tyre:130/70-17 M/C

Dimensions

• Overall length:2.015 mm
• Overall width:660 mm
• Overall height:970 mm
• Seat height:818 mm
• Wheel base:1.355 mm
• Minimum ground clearance:155 mm
• Wet weight (including full oil and fuel tank):138 kg
• Fuel tank capacity:13.8 litres
• Oil tank capacity:1.15 litres

Available colours

• Burning Blue
• Sports White
• Impact Yellow
• Midnight black

Yamaha YZF-R125 Price In India: Rs.84,000/-

HTC EVO 3D Vs LG OPTIMUS 3D

Which is the best 3D smartphone? 

HTC EVO 3D

LG OPTIMUS 3D

LG announced the world’s first 3D glasses-less handset but now HTC is aiming to muscle into 3D territory, but which handset will emerge as king of 3D phones?
Form
LG Optimus 3D - 128.8 x 68 x 11.9 mm, 168g
HTC EVO 3D - 126 x 65 x 12.1 mm, 170g
At first glance these phones have a lot of similarities, despite coming from different manufacturers, they seem to be following in Samsung’s footsteps with the Galaxy S II of going for thinner, longer and more angular ‘card-like’ phones and we think this can only be a good thing.
There is one visual element which we feel the both phones have tripped up on though and that is the back panel and camera integration.
These 3D handsets use a dual camera setup to capture stereoscopic images and LG have opted for a fairly chunky metal bar on the back panel of the Optimus to seat the cameras in and which has ‘3D Stereoscope’ etched into it.
HTC’s arrangement is far more subtle and looks all the better for it, integrating well with the sleek design of the rest of the handset and maintaining the low profile look.
However, HTC have compromised this by incorporating a rather ugly silver swirly crossbar design into the whole back panel of the phone with the Google logo etched into the middle of it – if it weren’t for this the HTC would be far superior visually but as it stands, while they are both good looking phones from the front, there is nothing praiseworthy about either at the rear.
Winner - Draw
Display
HTC’s newcomer, the Evo 3D, has a 4.3-inch capacitive LCD touchscreen running at 540 x 960 resolution.
The Evo features multi-touch input, accelerometer and gyro and the HTC Sense user interface (UI).
LG’s Optimus 3D also has a 4.3-inch capacitive LCD touchscreen, this one is at 480 x 800 resolution and uses the LG 3D UI, there's no multi-touch on the Optimus 3D but it does have the usual accelerometer and gyro sensors.
There’s not much between these two but we feel the HTC just steps ahead with its higher resolution screen and additional features such as multi-touch.
Winner- HTC Evo 3D
Operating System
Both phones are Android based, the Evo 3D uses the latest smartphone build, 2.3 Gingerbread, while the Optimus 3D currently ships with 2.2 Froyo, it is, however, due to receive an upgrade to 2.3 in the not-too-distant future.
Gingerbread is a good choice for both these handsets as their hefty processing power will let them get the best out of the efficient multitasking and customisation on offer, they should both be able to run the operating system very smoothly.
Gingerbread isn’t optimised for the dual-core processors these handsets have but future versions of Android might be and it would be interesting to see how this could improve performance and efficiency with these two phones.
ProcessorThe Optimus 3D has a 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor running the TI OMAP4430 chipset and featuring a PowerVR SGX540 graphics processing unit (GPU).
HTC, meanwhile, has opted for a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm MSM8660 dual-core processor on the Snapdragon chipset and with an Adreno 220 GPU.
The Evo 3D has the better of the two processor setups here, the Cortex-A9 in the Optimus is a brilliant piece of kit but these new Snapdragon processors really are something else.
Winner – HTC Evo 3D

HTC EVO VIEW 4G TABLET ANNOUNCED....

HTC have just announced a new Android based tablet for the US market on the Sprint network. It is called the HTC Evo View 4G.
It is a 7″ Touchscreen tablet like the HTC Flyer. The specifications of the HTC Evo View 4G are:

• 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Processor, 1GB RAM
• 7″ Touchscreen  with 1024×600 Pixels Resolution and Pinch-to-Zoom
• 7.7 inches (195.4 mm) x 4.4 inches (112.5 mm) x 0.5 inches (13.2 mm), 14.88 ounces (421.84 grams)
• 5 Megapixel Camera with Autofocus and 720p HD Video Capture
• 1.3 Megapixel Front Facing Camera
• 32GB Internal Memory, microSD Card Slot Supporting upto 32GB
• 3.5 mm Audio Jack, Bluetooth 3.0
• 4000mAH Battery

Price and availability has not been revealed but it is expected to come in summer.

HTC EVO 3D OFFICIAL VIDEO ..

At the CTIA 2011, Sprint officially announced the successor to the famous and America’s first 4G  phone HTC EVO 4G, which is known as the HTC EVO 3D. The front panel of the device is similar to EVO 4G, but it’s completely different from the back side. It’s also HTC first 3D phone because it comes with a 3D display and a 5 megapixel camera which is capable to record 3D videos at 720p. The device comes with glasses free 3D display. Now HTC has posted the first promo video of the HTC EVO 3D, in which HTC is telling us about their first ever 3D smartphone. Want to know more? Then check out the below and experience your mobile life in 3D with HTC.

Have a look:

Xperia X10 getting Gingerbread(Android 2.3)

Xperia X10 was Sony Ericsson’s first Android smartphone with 4-inch capacitive touch display, 8.1 megapixel camera , and the cool Rachael Android UI with Mediascape and timescape UI. The Xperia X10 got updated to Android 2.1 last year. It looks like they have changed the mind of canceling updates to X10. Today their official blog has revealed that they are working on a GingerBread update (Android 2.3 for X10) ! . 
And they said

We plan to bring an upgrade to Android Gingerbread for the Xperia^TM X10 to generic trade kits end Q2 / early Q3 this year.

But this update also removes some of the features of X10 such as

• The current plan is that the Xperia^TM X10 will get the  Android standard Camera user interface and therefore features like e.g.  face recognition, smile shutter etc will be lost.
• Moxier is replaced by the gingerbread native EAS functionality.
•  Mediascape is being replaced by the media experience widgets and music player included in our new 2011 products.
• DRM keys for protected content on your phone will be lost in the upgrade process.
• The Sony Ericsson Backup and Restore client is not supported in the Gingerbread version and will therefore be lost.
• Support for bi-directional languages will be reduced compared to the latest version of the 2.1 version of the Xperia^TM X10.

They said that they will bring most of the software features to X10 as their new Android devices.  Well its great news for X10 owners.