पहला एंड्रॉयड कैमरा लांच

सैमसंग ने आखिरकार अपने एंड्रॉयड ऑपरेटिंग सिस्टम पर चलने वाला डिजिटल कैमरा भारत में लॉन्च कर दिया है। इसका नाम गैलक्सी कैमरा है। इसे कंपनी ने कुछ महीनों पहले हुए बर्लिन IFA  में लॉन्च किया था। इस कैमरे की कीमत 29,900 रुपए रखी गई है और इसे खरीदने पर आपको एयरटेल की ओर से 1 GB  का 3G डाटा भी मिलेगा।

यह हाइब्रिड डिवाइस एंड्रॉयड जैलीबीन 4.1 ऑपरेटिंग सिस्टम के साथ है। इसमें 4.8 इंच की HD सुपर क्लियर LCD स्क्रीन लगी हुई है। इस कैमरे के 16 मेगापिक्सल CMOS सेंसर के ज़रिए कम रोशनी में भी बेहतरीन क्वालिटी की तस्वीरें खींची जा सकती है। यह 21X ऑप्टिकल ज़ूम के साथ है।

एक मोबाइल फोन की तरह इस कैमरे में सारे फीचर हैं आप चाहें तो 3 जी और Wi-Fi से भी इसे कनेक्ट कर सकतें हैं। इसकी इंटरनल मेमोरी 8 जीबी की है। इसमें 1.4GHz का प्रोसेसर लगा हुआ है।

Skype 3.0 Released for android tablets

Today Skype version 3.0 for Android tablets has released. The folks from Skype, now owned by Microsoft, have issued a rather large update to the service bringing tons of new features and enhanced Android tablet support. Until now Skype on tablets wasn’t too pleasing, but now they’ll fully be supporting that 7 and 10-inch real estate, as well as enhanced the user interface.


For the most part Skype has focused this update effort almost all on Android tablets, which is a good thing, but they have also fixed some bugs and brought forth some serious audio improvements for all devices. They’re calling this SILK (enhanced audio) and have released a neat little video below to give you a better idea of what to expect from SILK and the new Skype.

Skype for Android now scales to all tablet sizes, although the Nexus 7 is stuck in Landscape which won’t work too well with that top mounted “portrait only” camera. Overall the new user interface looks beautiful and is easy to work with on tablets. They have also introduced an option to sign in and merge your Skype account with your Microsoft account — since they bought Skype — for those interesting in that feature.

The new SILK audio codec should improve audio across the board, the bug fixes should improve video quality and overall responsiveness, and now you can enjoy Skype on those larger Android screens. Sadly we should not have needed to wait this long but now that it’s here, might as well give it a try. Get the all new Skype v3.0 today in the Google Play Store.

Nokia’s cheapest Lumia comes to India @ Rs 9,999

Nokia Lumia 510, the Windows Phone 7.5-powered smartphone which was unveiled last week in India, is now available in India at Rs 9,999. Online retailer Flipkart is currently selling the device and promising delivery within six to eight days of placing the order.

The key selling points of Nokia Lumia 510 are its 4-inch touchscreen, 5MP camera and its sub-Rs 10,000 price tag. The phone runs on Microsoft's last generation Windows Phone 7.5 mobile operating system with Modern UI and Live Tiles and is powered by a 800MHz processor with 256MB RAM.

Lumia 510 has internal storage of 4G and Nokia has bundled 7GB of free cloud-based storage on Microsoft's SkyDrive with this device. For connectivity, the smartphone works on 2G, 3G and Wi-Fi networks, and comes with Bluetooth 2.1 and microUSB 2.0. The phone runs on a 1,300mAh battery that offers talk time of over 8 hours.

Nokia Lumia 510, the cheapest Lumia phone till date, will compete against the likes of Sony Xperia tipo, Samsung Galaxy Ace and Motorola Defy Mini in the country.

Via : TOI

Nokia Lumia 800 price drops to Rs. 18,867

Nokia has slashed the price of its Windows Phone 7.5-based Lumia 800 to Rs. 18,867. The smartphone is available at the revised price at online shopping site Saholic. Nokia is also offering a Purity Headset by Monster worth Rs. 5,110 free with the device. Other online retailers such as Flipkart and Tradus, however, are still selling the device at the old price.

The Nokia Lumia 800 had launched earlier this year at an MRP of Rs. 24,999. The Lumia 800 runs on Windows Phone 7.5 (and won't get the Windows Phone 8 upgrade, sadly) and is powered by a 1.4GHz Qualcomm processor. It has 512MB of RAM. There is 16GB storage built-in on the Lumia 800, but no memory expansion slot. The device has a 3.7-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with 800x480 pixels resolution and an 8MP camera with dual LED Flash.

There's also Nokia Maps, Bing Maps and A-GPS. Other connectivity options include Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, WLAN IEEE 802.11 b/g/n and EDGE/GPRS.

Nokia earlier this week introduced an entry-level Windows smartphone, Lumia 510. The expected price of the device is likely to be below Rs. 11,000 and is scheduled to hit the market next month, sometime close to Diwali.

Source : thinkdigit.com

Windows 8 available in India, pricing starts at Rs. 699

Finally, the wait is over. Microsoft has announced the availability of its latest Windows 8 OS for users in India and around the world. Starting today, users can access the latest Microsoft OS on a wide range of Windows 8 PCs, ultrabooks, tablets and hybrid devices. Windows 8 will be available in two versions at retail - Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro.

Apart from buying from the new range of Windows 8 devices, users can also upgrade their current PCs to Windows 8. From 2nd June 2012 until 31st January 2013, users currently running PCs with Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 are qualified to download Windows 8 Pro for an estimated price of Rs. 1,999. Those who wish to buy a DVD to upgrade will have to pay Rs. 3,499. This offer is valid until January 31, 2013. After that the OS is expected to be priced above Rs. 11,000.

Any Windows 7 PCs purchased between June 2, 2012, and January 31, 2013, are also eligible to get a Windows 8 Pro update for an estimated price of Rs. 699 with the Windows Upgrade Offer, available at www.windowsupgradeoffer.com.

For business users, Microsoft is offering 'Windows 8 Enterprise', which features Windows To Go, DirectAccess, and BranchCache, as well as new security with features including BitLocker and AppLocker.

Microsoft has also announced the launch of Windows RT for ARM based tablets, which will only be available pre-installed on new devices. With the Windows 8 launch, the Windows Store is now open for consumers to download apps. Indian users have access to a range of free and paid apps that can be downloaded including Bharat Matrimony, BigFlix, BookMyShow, Bookyourtable, Burrp, Dhingana, Fastrack Tees, Flyte MP3, Gaana, Goibibo, ICICI Bank iMobile, ICICIDirect, JustEat, MakeMyTrip Explore, MapmyIndia, my airtel, PVR Cinemas, Tarla Dalal, Yahoo Cricket and Zovi.

As many as 14 OEM partners including Acer, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu, HCL, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Lenovo, RP Infosystems, Sai Info System, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, Wipro and Zenith Computers will be providing Windows 8-based PCs and tablets in India. According to Microsoft, more than 250 Windows 8-based devices, including 23 brand new SKUs of Windows 8 PCs, will be available in 100 cities and more than 2,500 retail stores in India.

“With the launch of Windows 8, Microsoft is unveiling a reimagined Windows to the world,” says Mr. Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd. “Whether you want a tablet or a PC, whether you want to consume or create, whether you want to work or play – Windows 8 delivers a personalized experience that fits your unique style and needs.”

Via - thinkdigit.com

SwiftKey Flow to take on Swype with continuous input, predictions

SwiftKey has announced yet another keyboard app for Android. Set to arrive soon, it has been dubbed as SwiftKey Flow. Company gave an early peek at this virtual keyboard on Thursday and it looks really nice.

SwiftKey Flow is brining continuous input. So, instead of tapping individual keys, you will be able to type by simply dragging you fingers from letter to letter continuously.

While, all of this sounds similar to Swype, SwiftKey is adding its own prediction powers to be distinctive. SwiftKey Flow will not only be able to show suggestions for the word, you are currently typing, but also be able to predict the next word in the sentence, based on the context.

“This is different to the other keyboards out there. It’s been built from the ground up based on SwiftKey’s powerful engine. From the moment you touch the screen, SwiftKey Flow begins offering predictions based on the movement of your finger. Simply let go of the screen as soon as the desired word is predicted – sometimes four or five characters before you’ve finished gesturing it out – and SwiftKey seamlessly enters your word onto the screen,” company noted on the official blog.

Company plans to start the beta testing of SwiftKey Flow in the coming weeks and you can sign up of their website to get a chance to try out the app. The consumer release is expected in first quarter of 2013.

Entity Framework 5 Released

Entity Framework 5 ( EF5 ) now released and it is available as Entity Framework Nuget Package and also included in Visual studio 2012

EF5 includes numbers of new features and bug fixes to EF 4.3. Most of the new features are only available in applications targeting .NET 4.5, see the Compatibility section for more details.

• Enum support allows you to have enum properties in your entity classes.
• Spatial data types can now be exposed in your model using the DbGeography and DbGeometry types.
• The Performance enhancements that we recently blogged about.
• Code First will now detect if you have LocalDb or SQL Express available for creating new databases. Visual Studio 2012 includes LocalDb, whereas Visual Studio 2010 includes SQL Express.
• Code First will add tables to existing database if the target database doesn’t contain any of the tables from the model.

The EF Designer in Visual Studio 2012 also has some new features:

• DbContext code generation for new models means that any new models created using the EF Designer will generate a derived DbContext and POCO classes by default. You can always revert to ObjectContext code generation if needed. Existing models will not automatically change to DbContext code generation.
• Multiple-diagrams per model allows you to have several diagrams that visualize subsections of your overall model. Shapes on the design surface can also have coloring applied.
• Table-Valued functions in an existing database can now be added to your model.
• Batch import of stored procedures allows multiple stored procedures to be added to the model during model creation.

Compatibility

This version of the NuGet package is fully compatible with Visual Studio 2010 and Visual Studio 2012 and can be used for applications targeting .NET 4.0 and 4.5.

Some features are only available when writing an application that targets .NET 4.5. This includes enum support, spatial data types, table-valued functions and the performance improvements.

New Google Play Developer Console Available to Everyone

Google rolled out new Google Play Developer Console. At its core, the Developer Console is how you put your app in front of hundreds of millions of Android users around the world, and track how your app is doing.Google hope that with a streamlined publishing flow, new language options, and new user ratings statistics, we’ll have better tools for delivering great Android apps that delight users.

Google Play Designed for speed. You can Quickly locate the app data and business information you use every day.

What’s new in the Google Play Developer Console

• Updated look and feel
• New publishing experience, ability to compare new and old APK versions
• Create store listings in more languages
• Statistics on user ratings and reviews
• Updating your app in the new site makes automated store listing translations available to users on the web

Track user rating and find way to improve

One of the most important things you'll be able to do is track the success of your app over time.You'll see new statistics about your user ratings: a graph showing changes over time. As with other statistics, you'll be able to break down the data by device, country, language, carrier, Android version, and app version.

How can you try the new version?

Go to your Developer Console and click on “Try the new version” in the header or go directly to the new version. If you prefer the new version, don't forget to bookmark the new URL. 

Office 2013 Officially Enters Release to Manufacturing (RTM) Build

The development team over at Microsoft, who have been working on the latest release of Microsoft’s Office 2013, has today announced the software has officially moved into the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) build.
Confirming that all development and testing has been completed and the new Office 2013 suite of tools is now ready to roll out to distribution and into the hands of eagerly waiting customers.

As expected Microsoft’s new Office 2013 includes all the standard Office applications together with the new cloud services and service. Office 2013 has also been designed to be used specifically with Microsoft’s new Windows 8 operating system touch gestures, allowing users to easily create documents on touchscreen devices.

Microsoft is planning to officially launch its new Office 2013 into retail in the first quarter of next year. However anyone purchasing a copy of Microsoft Office 2010 from October 19th onwards will automatically enjoy a free upgrade to the new Office 2013 suite when it launches.

Google launches free SMS service on Gmail for India

Google has extended its free SMS chat service to India, whereby users can send text messages to mobile phones via Gmail Chat.

"You can send SMS messages to your contacts' mobile phones using Gmail Chat ... Google does not charge for using this service," according to information available with Google's website.

 The SMS service is available in India and 51 other countries in Asia, Africa and North America.

The feature was activated for Indian users on October 10 and is available for regular Gmail users as well as those on Google Apps.

As per Google's website, this feature is available on all the mobile operators in the country.

The company said in order to send an SMS, users would have to add phone number to their contact list.

Responses to the SMSs would appear as replies in Gmail Chat and conversations will be stored in users' Chat history, like regular chats.

In the beginning, user lends out 50 message credits to every user, and for every message sent, the credit shall keep going down by one. But these credits will jump by five in case a sent message gets a reply. If ever the credit were to go all out, one credit would automatically be added 24 hours later. Users also have been given the provision to ‘buy’ SMS credits by sending an SMS to their own phone and then replying to te same themselves. If you want to avoid getting messages from a particular user, you can simply block him/her.