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Friday, February 19, 2010

Nokia N86 vs Sony Ericsson W995

Introduction:

After a long time of making fans wait for it, Nokia has finally launched its 8 Megapixel phone in the market - the Nokia N86 8 Megapixel. The phone has been a force to be reckoned with everyone hailing it as the best non-touchscreen smartphone that you can buy today. Sony Ericsson couldn't have come up with a better competitor. The W995 has combined the best of both Sony Eric
sson mobile phone worlds, the Walkman and the Cyber-shot along with a bevy of features making it incredibly talented all-round feature phone. Both phones manage to match each other almost completely on the spec sheet with the only major difference being the presence of a full fledged smartphone OS, Symbian S60, on the N86. We often have people asking questions on which phone is better. They usually don't care for smartphone functionality which makes their choice even more difficult. So, to make their life easier, we set out on this mission to compare and find which one of these two multimedia juggernauts is worth their hard earned cash.
Design and Construction:

Let us start with their form factor. Both the phones are essentially sliders, however, the N86 goes a step ahead and slides both way. Underneath the other side are a set of music keys. This has been around since the N95 and has been pretty much useless until the N-Gage functionality came along which made good use of these keys. The W995 has none of these and uses a standard slider design. The music controls, a rarity before on Sony Ericsson phones, find their place on the side of the phone.
 The front side of both the phones are pretty much common, with the speaker, camera and light sensor placed above the 2.6" display and the navigation and Call/End keys placed beneath. Both phones use scratch resistant protection glass over their displays. The one on the N86 extends over the entire front surface which is good but, it also increases the area attracting fingerprints.

The sides on the N86 are far less cluttered since the buttons and ports are all placed elsewhere. The W995 gets tiny music keys on the sides along with the camera and volume keys. The N86 has its speakers placed on the sides. On the left side, the N86 gets just the keypad lock key while the W995 has the Walkman key and the Fast Port connector. Both the phones have their memory cards slots placed beneath the battery cover. But isn't too much of a big deal as the N86 has built-in 8 GB memory while the W995 comes with an 8 GB memory card. So, you won't be changing cards much with either of these phones.
On the top, the N86 has the power key, the 3.5mm headphone/TV out jack and the microUSB port. The N86 also supports charging over USB, something which the Sony Ericssons have been managing to do since ages. On the W995, there is only a 3.5mm headphone jack and the left stereo speaker. The W995 is the first Walkman phone to sport a 3.5mm headphone jack. It does not have TV-out though. The right stereo speaker is placed at the bottom of the W995.

On the rear side, you'll see that the N86 has a more simplistic design. The cover extends all around the rear. The W995 cover is made of metal, the only metal bit on the phone, and only covers the centre of the rear side. To open the rear cover, you need to flip the kickstand up, slide a button beneath it and then the cover can be opened. This arrangement is much better than the 'pry-it-open-with-your-nails' approach of the N86 battery cover. It must be mentioned, however, that the letters '8.1 Megapixel' that was printed on the cover started to erase by just scratching your fingernails on the it.

The lens of the N86 is protected with an active lens cover. The one on the W995 has been completely left exposed. The W995 also has a single LED flash compared with the dual flash on the N86. Both the phones have a kickstand at the back. The one the N86 is made of plastic and is a bit flimsy while the one on the W995 is much more solid. However, the N86 has an active kickstand which can be set to open any application of your choice when you open it, something that the W995 cannot do.

Previous N-Series and Sony Ericsson phones were far from being perfect in the build quality department. However, that's not the case with these two. The overall build quality of both the phones is very solid, almost exemplary. The N86 uses metal along the sides with high quality plastics used elsewhere while the W995 is content with having plastic everywhere except the battery cover. The N86 is the heavier of the two, the downside of using all that metal, but not unpleasantly so. Both the phones fit perfectly in hand and sliding them open is easy as well. The W995 has a faster sliding mechanism with a nice click sound at the end of the travel, however, there is a slight roughness in the motion. The N86 on the other hand has a smoother, softer mechanism with a muted click at the end but requires a bit more effort to slide open. We have been using both the phones around a month now and the sliding mechanisms have held well so far.

The designs, well, is a matter of personal preference. However, I preferred the simpler and more mature design of the N86 better looking than the W995 which was quite handsome looking as well. However, the shiny chrome bits were overdone. I also could not understand why the battery cover had a different (brushed metal) finish than the rest of the rear side (matte) as it did not blend in.

Speaking about the respective bundles of the phone, the supplied accessories on both the phones are more or less the same. The N86 has a remote control built-in to the headset and for once comes with good quality pair of earphones for a Nokia phone. The W995 lacks the remote but comes with a neat little portable speaker that snaps on the phone and runs on the phone's battery. The N86 also has a carry case provided but no TV-out cable.

New Phone with Opera Mini, 3.2 MP Camera

Lava Mobiles has announced the launch of its latest mobile phone, the Lava A9, in the Indian market. The phone, a feature packed device, is expected to be priced very competitively and is aimed at consumers who want to more phone for less money.

Let us delve into the features of the A9 now. It features a 2.4-inch TFT screen that is capable of displaying 262k colors. A 3.2 MP camera adorns the rear of the phone. The multimedia intention is clear with a fully featured music and video player too making their presence felt. The A9 has 256MB of onboard memory that can be expanded upto 8GB using microSD cards.

Connectivity options include Bluetooth and GPRS/EDGE. It would be too much to expect Wi-Fi considering the price this phone will retail. The A9 comes pre-installed with Nimbuzz and Opera Mini - so all you need is a GPRS connection to get things rolling. The 920mAh battery should be sufficient for moderate usage. There's a standard FM Radio player thrown in as well.

The phone will be on sale acriss India soon. The price is yet to be revealed.
Note: Lava Mobiles has informed us that the phone is yet to be launched and that the price too has not been revealed. We will update the new price details as soon as we get them.

Specifications:
  • Display: 2.4" TFT, 240*320, 262K Color 
  • Battery capacity: 920 mAh 
  • Camera: 3.2 Megapixel 
  • FM Radio 
  • MP3/MP4 Player 
  • Bluetooth 
  • Memory Internal : 256 MB 
  • microSD card Upto 8 GB  
  • JAVA support 
  • Email 
  • Nimbuzz Instant messenger 
  • Opera Mini browser 
  • Contacts Backup 
  • EDGE/GPRS support 
  • WAP 2.0 
  • Games

Motorola Backflip brings Android to AT&T

After a long period of letting the iPhone hog AT&T's spotlight, the carrier has finally opened its arms to Android. Today, the carrier unveiled the Motorola Backflip, the first of three AT&T phones powered by Google's operating system.

Backflip not only represents an end to the Apple/BlackBerry smart-phone hegemony at AT&T, but also incorporates several really interesting design features.

The phone's name comes from its inside-out design. A keyboard swings out to complement its very iPhone-reminiscent touch screen. The curious part: when tucked underneath, the keyboard faces outward. Also, hidden behind the screen is a trackpad, which offers users another way to navigate through applications. The concept seems intuitive enough, but it's weird that users won't be able to see the trackpad while they use it.

While based on Android, Backflip comes with Motorola's Motoblur, a user interface that highlights social-networking features such as Facebook and Twitter. We talked about Motoblur in more depth in this article about the Motorola Cliq.

Backflip will cost $100 with rebate and two-year contract, and debuts March 7.

Amazon Kindle DX (U.S. Wireless)

As of January 19, 2010, Amazon has discontinued this version of the Kindle DX and replaced it with the international Kindle DX model. That new model runs on AT&T's network and can access content on cellular networks inside and outside of the U.S. It's otherwise essentially identical to the Sprint-powered Kindle DX reviewed below.

Even before the Kindle 2 launched, there was talk of an even newer, larger digital reader from Amazon that would be geared more toward reading textbooks and periodicals. We all assumed it would be bigger, but it was unclear exactly what form it would take. Well, now that it's finally arrived, what is a little surprising is how much the Kindle DX--bigger face aside--is a dead ringer for its little sibling.

In profile, the two devices appear equally svelte: the 0.38-inch-deep DX is just a tad thicker than the 0.36-inch Kindle 2. Obviously, the big difference here is the Kindle DX's 9.7-inch e-ink display (1,200x824-pixel resolution), which technically offers 2.5 times more screen real estate than the Kindle's 6-inch display. That extra screen comes at a price, both figuratively and literally, as the DX weighs almost twice as much (18.9 ounces) as the Kindle 2 and costs $130 more, at $489.

That said, while the DX is significantly larger and heavier, it doesn't feel too burdensome to carry or hold. However, it clearly isn't as portable as the Kindle 2; its larger footprint requires a larger bag or briefcase for stowaway purposes. Most women's handbags, for instance, just won't be big enough to contain the thing.

Amazon says the DX's screen technology and guts (i.e., processor) are exactly the same as what you get with the Kindle 2. The DX comes with more memory: 4GB (3.3 usable) of internal memory, compared with 2GB for the Kindle 2 (neither the DX nor the Kindle 2 has an expansion slot for more memory, like the original Kindle had). That's enough memory to store 3,500 books, according to Amazon. If you run out of space, however, you can delete titles from the Kindle and then later redownload previously purchased books in under a minute, free of charge.

The DX also features a built-in QWERTY keyboard for taking notes, entering search terms when wirelessly accessing the Kindle Store, and typing out URLs in the rudimentary Web browser. Like the Kindle 2, the DX's rechargeable battery is sealed into the unit (read: nonremovable) and delivers about two weeks of battery life if you use the built-in 3G wireless data connection judiciously. If your battery dies, you have to send the device back to Amazon to replace the battery for a fee.

Aside from the expanded memory, the two most important feature additions to the new Kindle are native PDF support and the capability to go from portrait to landscape mode by simply rotating the device. Additionally, you can now adjust not only the font size but how many words you want to see on a line of text. And finally, the Web browser is slightly improved (I'll get to that in a minute).

As advertised, the larger screen lends itself to displaying newspaper and magazine content, especially when you throw some graphics and images into the mix. You see more of the story on a single page and the reading experience is a little more akin to reading an actual newspaper. However, the newspaper/magazine reading experience isn't dramatically changed from reading newspapers on the Kindle 2.


When it comes to textbooks, the Kindle does a good job of displaying graphics and charts (alas, there's no color--only 16 shades of gray), so complex layouts with multiple images end up displaying more or less as they would in a textbook. And obviously, the Kindle DX weighs far less than an organic-chemistry textbook, which is why this device will appeal to students hoping to lighten their backpack loads.

Amazon didn't make a big deal about the capability to add notes and highlight sentences and passages as you're reading, because that functionality was built into previous Kindles along with a built-in dictionary and keyboard. Ideally, of course, the Kindle DX would be a touch-screen model, and you could mark up the "pages" themselves by writing on the screen. You can, however, access those notes on any Web browser.

Another nice convenience: if you have multiple Kindles on a single account--or, more likely, if you're running Amazon's free Kindle App on your iPhone or iPod Touch--all of your content will be synced up. Stop reading a book on Page 116 on the DX, and when you pull it up on the iPhone, it'll resume at that point.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Microsoft unveils Windows Phone Series 7

Microsoft Corp. unveiled a new operating system for mobile phones Monday, marking its latest move to reclaim a leading position against rivals Apple, Research in Motion and Google.

Just a few years ago, Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) was embedded in about a quarter of all smartphones sold. It's now in less than 10%, with competition coming from the iPhone and BlackBerry. Google (GOOG, Fortune 500)'s Android has only made a crowded space even tougher for Microsoft.

Now, after months of speculation, Microsoft has confirmed that 7 will be a tiles based interface and include live access to Facebook, plus its own offerings X-Box Live for gaming and Zune for music and photos. Its search engine Bing is also included.

Microsoft says it looks like nothing on the market and the advantage lies with consumers gaining instant access to all these offerings on their smartphones.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told CNN that this is a major push for the company to get back in the mobile space. He said 7-based smart phones will be sold by the likes of Samsung, LG and HTC and will be available by Christmas this year on multiple mobile networks.

The software experience is designed to "fundamentally focus on what's most important to each individual user," said Joe Belfiore, Microsoft's corporate vice president for Windows Phone Program Management, during a Web cast from Barcelona.

0:00 /5:01Microsoft sees a big year ahead

The operating system's start screen is made up of several "live tiles" that are updated in real-time. So instead of seeing an icon for a Facebook application, Belfiore explained that users will be able to browse through their contacts and get live updates from their Facebook, Windows Live and other social media services in one hub, without moving in and out of various applications.

Users will be able to create live tiles on their start screens for contacts to get constant updates for certain individuals.
Though the iPhone has been outselling the Windows Mobile devices for two years, it recently beat Microsoft in terms of active smartphone users, according to data from comScore.

At the end of 2009, BlackBerry continued to hold the lead with 41.6%, followed by the iPhone with 25.3% and Microsoft came in third with 18% of the smartphone market share. While Google (GOOG, Fortune 500)'s Android still ranks fifth behind the Palm, its market share climbed the most during the fourth quarter, rising to 5.2% from 2.5% in September.

Sony Ericsson shows compact smartphones

SMARTPHONE ANNOUNCEMENTS show no sign of letting up at the Mobile World Congress today and Sony has joined the action by launching two high-end models.

Sony claims that it's "challenging the norm" with its Xperia X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro smartphones by combining high-end features with a version of Sony Ericsson's powerful User Experience (UX) software specifically designed for smaller devices. The X10 Mini and Mini Pro are shrunken versions of Sony's high-end Xperia X10 smartphone that it launched at the tail end of last year.

Both are expected to use Sony's Timescape that puts all social networking communications into one package and will have a 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 processor, 3G and quad-band EDGE, WiFi, Bluetooth, and a 2GB microSD card.

The two Xperia Mini models will ship in a range of colours. The Mini will ship in black, pearl white, lime, pink, red and silver, while the Mini Pro features just black and red. There is a minuscule size difference between the two models, and the Mini Pro features a QWERTY keyboard.

According to Sony, both will run the Android OS with signature applications and its customisable UX software framework. Sony is also throwing you to the Android market store to help give it a wider platform to rival Apple's App store, Intel's recently announced Atom apps and what we can only guess Microsoft will do for Windows Mobile 7.0.

"There has been an enormous buzz around Xperia X10 so it is really exciting to be already unveiling compact versions of this powerful proposition," said Rikko Sakaguchi, EVP and chief creation officer at Sony Ericsson. "With the X10 mini and X10 mini pro we have pushed the boundaries of what is possible with smaller devices and are giving consumers exactly what they want; two high performance mobile phones with a fully customisable user experience platform and a stunning ultra-compact design."

Sony hasn't announced details about a UK release date but Engadget has grabbed a press release that you can see here. ยต

OpenOffice.org launches improved 3.2 version

OpenOffice.org, the world's leading free personal productivity software, has managed to attain more than 300 million download so far and has been an instant success. Now, the company has now announced that it is updating its office suite to make it faster and more compatible with other office software programs, according to The Independent.

OpenOffice.org is a free alternative to Microsoft's Office Suite and Apple's iWork suite. It has around 22 percent of the Office suite market share in countries like Poland, the Czech Republic and Germany according to a February 2010 report by Webmasterpro.de.

OpenOffice.org version 3.2 provides users with faster start-up times, improved compatibility with open standard (ODF) and proprietary file formats, a Chart module that can be used throughout OpenOffice.org, and many new enhanced features across the board.

"Some people are currently locked in to other personal productivity tools - maybe by corporate IT policy, or by tie-in to other legacy software. For everyone else, we want OpenOffice.org to be the 2010 office software of choice, and 3.2 takes us another step towards that goal" said Florian Effenberger, Marketing Project Lead of OpenOffice.org.

MWC 2010: LG's Touchscreen GD880 Mini Announced

Korean mobile phone manufacturer LG Electronics has announced its latest touchscreen device in the form of the GD880 Mini. The newest phone from LG boasts of a 3.2-inch full touch display, a 5 megapixel camera and packs in Bluetooth 2.1 and Wi-Fi.

The GD880 Mini claims to be the smallest and the slimmest touchscreen handset out there today. Incidentally, this is also the case with the just launched Xperia X10 Mini by Sony Ericsson. In fact, we think the X10 might just win the battle here. A senior official from LG has clarified that the LG Mini has been designed in response to specific requests from their consumers who were unhappy with current full touchscreen phones that are too bulky, clunky and expensive.

Coming back to the features on the device, it supports aGPS, and full HSDPA support. The GD880 Mini will also feature discrete 5.1 multichannel surround sound - thanks to technology from Dolby. This bit, however, is in its early stages only and is being demoed at the MWC for evaluation purposes.

There is no word on the price of this device or details as to when we should be expecting its launch in India. Europe should see the launch of the GD880 Mini next month.

Nokia 2730 Classic a lowest price and 3G enabled Nokia phone

Nokia is driving us crazy with a dump of so many new models and we are talking about Nokia 2730 Classic. A new 3G phone from Nokia and is the cheapest 3G phone at price Rs. 4,700 from Nokia. The Nokia 2730 Classic phone is pretty cheap and economical and won’t make dent in your pocket. The phone has everything. The one would feel great to spend money on such a phone and is worth your cash.

Nokia 2730 Classic features and specifications: The Nokia 2730 Classic has a Li-On battery (BL-5C) with a standby time of up to 396 hours and up to 408 hours in 2G and 3G respectively. It has a talk time of more than 7 hours and more than 3 hours in 2G and 3G respectively and 12 hours of music play. The Nokia 2730 Classic weighs 87.7 grams and 109.6 x 46.9 x 14.4 mm in terms of its dimensions. It has a TFT display with 256K colours and a 2 inches screen with a 5 way navigation key.

Music will make you drool because the new Nokia 2730 Classic has a 3.5 mm audio jack and radio. This will surely keep your music heads grooving. Nokia 2730 Classic’s internal memory is 30 MB which supports microSD card up to 2 GB and the phone book can store 1000 entries, 20 dialed, 20 received and 20 missed calls. The Nokia 2730 Classic phone supports both 2G and 3G networks fulfilling your internet requirements and bringing the world closer to you. It has a USB port and A2DP Bluetooth making file share easy and exhilarating. Plug to a computer or pair with a device for easy file sharing.

Nokia 2730 Classic other features: In Nokia 2730 Classic, the thing that keeps you connected is a call or even a message and with Nokia 2730 classic you can SMS, MMS, EMS and even email to your kith and kin. Stay connected anytime and everywhere. The Nokia 2370 Classic is powered by a 2 MP camera with 1600 x 1200 pixels with video recording of 176 x 144 at 10 fps (frames per second). Now click and share.

Nokia 2730 Classic value added services: The Nokia 2730 is Java enabled and contains various applications including some games. The phone is available in black and dark magenta. The phone has different interesting applications with some games.

Nokia 2730 Classic price in India: The Nokia 2730 Classic comes with an exclusive price range of Rs. 4,700. The phone is a total worth the money one is spending on it with all the style and elegance.

Microsoft Starts Over in Phone Software


Microsoft, Intel and Nokia — all leaders in their respective markets — have struggled to capitalize on the rise of a new class of smartphones that can tap into a vast pool of software. So these companies have come to the world’s largest mobile technology conference here with a message of change. They’re willing to abandon tradition if it means getting another shot at the fast-growing mobile device market and blunting the advance of companies like Apple and Google.

On Monday at the Mobile World Congress, Microsoft unveiled a new version of its flagship smartphone software, which was called Windows Mobile but has now been dubbed Windows Phone.

Steve A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, took the stage for a few minutes before a demonstration of the new software began.

“We debated a lot about how much we should position and talk about from whence we have come and what we will show you,” Mr. Ballmer said. “At the end of the day, we said, ‘Let’s get on with the show.’”

Windows Phone 7 Series has a cleaner look than most of today’s phone software, with bright blue icons on a black background. One version of the initial screen has four large, square icons for Phone, People, E-Mail and Text functions that Microsoft calls Live Tiles.

Underneath, a rectangular box pulls in calendar information. And below that Microsoft is highlighting its Zune music and video software and its Xbox Live gaming service.

Overall, Microsoft has blended trimmed-down menus with slick applications like an animated calendar.

The product marks a rare moment when Microsoft scrapped previous versions of its software in favor of building something new from scratch. Microsoft has spent the past 18 months trying to add gloss and sophistication to a product that had suffered ridicule as being clunky and too wedded to the company’s personal computer roots.

“We think there is a really big opportunity for a fresh start,” said Todd Peters, the vice president at Microsoft in charge of mobile product marketing. “Consumers have an amazing capacity for retrying things.”

Intel and Nokia too have opted for a fresh start. The companies have decided to create a new software platform called MeeGo that they hope will make its way into cars, home phones, smartphones and computers.

At its core, MeeGo stands as a broad attempt to outflank mobile phone software from Google, Apple and Microsoft by creating a product that can bring a similar interface to a wider range of computing devices.

“The next evolution of mobile computing, which is way beyond smartphones, tablets and netbooks, will require a truly open platform,” said Kai ร–istรคmรถ, Nokia’s head of devices.

Historically, Microsoft and Intel have dominated the computing industry hand-in-hand, with Microsoft producing the most-used software and Intel building the most popular chips. But this Wintel duopoly, as it’s sometimes called, has failed to carry over to the mobile world.

Instead, Microsoft finds itself taking yet another crack at building phone software and trying to play the role of the innovator rather than an also-ran mimicking Apple and Google.

For its part, Intel has been forced into the software game so that it can ensure that enough solid applications exist for the company’s Atom chips, which sit in laptops today but have yet to make their way into mobile phones.

So different is this new world order that Microsoft has thus far refused to offer a version of its mobile operating system for the Atom chips, focusing instead on building software for rival ARM chips.

Nokia emerged as a natural partner for Intel given the company’s recent struggles in the smartphone arena.

While its leads in overall smartphone market share, Nokia has watched interest in Apple’s iPhone and phones based on Google’s Android software skyrocket. The iPhone, in particular, also opened up the market for mobile applications through Apple’s App Store, which has served up more than 3 billion software downloads.

Intel and Nokia look to team on attracting software developers to MeeGo, and Intel has even backed the idea of running MeeGo on rival chips if it helps the software gain broader interest.

Analysts contend that the mobile market remains in a state of flux, leaving plenty of room for these companies to build momentum if they can create something that catches the consumers’ eye.

Microsoft has intended to do just that by reorganizing its mobile division and presenting people a phone interface quite unlike anything else on the market.

More than two years ago, Microsoft started plucking top executives away from companies in a wide variety of industries, hoping they could revitalize its mobile software group. Mr. Peters brought some marketing muscle over from Staples, where he helped to create the popular “Easy Button” campaign.

Other executives arrived from Procter & Gamble and Nike, as Microsoft sought to find a new way of talking to consumers, since about 86 percent of phones running Windows are sold through retail outlets.

While studies show that consumers tend to react favorably to the Windows brand, they’ve been less enamored with the way Microsoft’s phone software works.

“We need to have a degree of humility as we go about our business,” Mr. Peters said. “It has been painful, but it’s getting better.”

Microsoft has also pulled some of its top engineers from other divisions over to the phone group, hoping the workers could provide inspiration and structure around the processes needed to make a polished product on time.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Nokia's Cheapest 3G Phone Launched for Rs. 4,499

Nokia has launched its most affordable 3G handset in the country earlier today with the launch of the Nokia 2730 Classic.

The phone, priced at just Rs. 4499, comes loaded with a host of features rarely seen on a device in is price range. The 2730 Classic packs in Ovi Mail, Nokia Messaging, Nokia Life Tools, and full HTML browsing as well. It also comes with Opera Mini preloaded.

The 2730 Classic has a 2-inch QVGA display that can display 262k colours. At just 88grams, the phone is quite light-weight. As expected, it runs Nokia's S40 interface. The 30 MB of internal memory can be augmented using a microSD card and the phone comes with a 1GB card - preloaded. It offers a maximum of 7.4 hours talk time and 16.5 days standby time. Music lovers on a budget can rejoice - thanks to the 3.5mm slot this one comes with. If that wasn't all, there is Bluetooth and microUSB support as well.

There is a decent 2 megapixel camera at the rear that should be good enough for casual imaging. Along with 3G, it also supports class 32 EDGE - making it a good device for browsing while on the move. There's FM Radio with RDS as well.

The 2730 Classic should make a decent buy for a feature packed, cheap first phone.

Nokia 2730 classic now in India

The Nokia 2730 classic has everything what one should expect from a basic telephone in the year 2010. Nokia 2730 classic represents a classic “bar phone – available in the colors dark magenta or black. The keyboard is almost as if Nokia’s common practice, a keyboard mat that provides sufficiently large buttons with a reasonably pleasant pressure point. Visually oriented, the more like its big brother Nokia 6700, but is used here in the small counterpart, plastic and chrome, in order to keep up appearances.

The processing of the Nokia, however, has become better in the meantime, thanks to the back, which is just completely take off as a battery cover, the phone feels quite solid. The plastic is fairly valued and so it makes a good impression. The battery comes with good network coverage even times over four or five days, with more voice but it can be empty even after two days, especially in the UMTS network.

There’s still life tools and Nokia Ovi mail that Apps from Nokia, particularly in the area where the emerging promises even something extra return.A browser can be found naturally. The two-inch screen dissolves with 320 x 240 pixels very clearly and is made up of other phones in the price range starting well, here are some lower resolutions still the rule.

Unfortunately, the border around the 2-inch display is a bit too big here, the phone looks more like a toy than for how a “real” phone. Additionally found in the equipment list or an MP3 player with expandable memory, an FM radio and a 3.5 mm jack for standard headphones. The 2-megapixel camera with video capabilities completes this offer. In addition to the above email Ovi and Nokia Lifetool Apps can of course also install other Java applications. For the transfer to the computer by Bluetooth and micro USB cable are available.

This phone has now knocked the Indian door and can be grabbed at Rs 4499.00

Top 5 Olympic Sites for Following the Games

Don't let a little thing like being at work get in the way of following your favorite sporting events and athletes at the Winter Olympics. From streaming video to event explanations to ski slope imagery courtesy of Google, these five handy sites will help you follow all the action.
NBC Olympics  

Useful for: Video highlights/live streaming coverage of the Games. If you're in the United States, this is the only place you'll (legally) get it.

What it is: NBC has exclusive U.S. broadcast rights to the Olympics, but here's the rub: For live coverage, you must be a subscriber to a cable, satellite, or IPTV provider. Otherwise you'll only be able to access event recaps and highlights, athlete biographies, interviews, news, and other short clips.

NBC is still partnered with MSN and Microsoft's Silverlight, so you'll need to have Silverlight 3 (along with the latest version of Adobe Flash Player) installed in order to view any video content on the NBC site. Don't worry, though — it's a quick and painless download. If, for some reason, NBC doesn't work out for you, you can check out our article on how to stream the Olympics from anywhere (including outside the United States).  

Why you should check it out: As the exclusive broadcaster of the Olympic Games, it's the only site that will have easily accessible, high-quality streaming content. Also, for those of you following the games at work, it even features a "BOSS" button that brings up a Windows desktop (complete with spreadsheet), so you can stream under the radar.

Google Maps' "Inside the Games"  

Useful for: Visuals — maps and pictures of the event venues, official courses, and slopes.  

What it is: Those of you who followed the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic games might remember Google's nifty little "Inside the Games" site, which was powered by Google Maps and featured stadium locations and pictures — a neat way to bring people closer to the games. Google has one-upped itself with the 2010 Winter Olympic Games' "Inside the Games" site, bringing Google Street Views into the mix.

Now, in addition to venue and event locations, you can also see the ski slopes, bobsleigh courses, and luge courses in Google Street Views. Google's site also features a simple event schedule, medals chart, and news feed for the Olympics.  

Why you should check it out: The Google Street views will make you feel like you're practically at the games themselves. Also, the simplicity of the event schedule and medals chart is great for people who are looking for the straight facts — and a welcome change from ad-ridden sites like NBC.
Twitter  

Useful for: Short, sweet updates and some lively back-and-forth discussion.  

What it is: The microblogging site, which features news updates in spurts of 140 characters, is host to a bevy of Olympics-related feeds. If you're not sure whom to follow, take a look at NBC's Olympic Pulse "Tweet Sheet" (which features tweets by athletes and analysts), the New York Times' Winter Olympics Twitter list (athletes and organizations), or just check out the #Olympics hashtag search results.

If you're looking for official updates, the International Olympics Committee has a Twitter account (@Olympics), as does Vancouver 2010 (@2010tweets). And of course, for straight coverage follow @NBCOlympicZone 

Why you should check it out: Twitter lends a personal element to the games — you can follow athletes, teams (follow Team USA @USOlympic), and other fans. And if you dream of being an Olympic athlete one day, check out @OlympicHealth for tips from Olympians on diet, training, and recovery.

The New York Times' Olympics Site  

Useful for: Lots and lots of Olympics-related facts and information.  

What it is: A ton of great features to enrich an Olympic-watching experience — all in one place. While naturally centered around news articles from the Times' staff, it also features interactive graphics (such as this one on countries that have won gold medals in past Winter Olympics games), and informative pages for each sport.

While I wouldn't recommend this site for straight results, it's a great place to learn more about the games you're watching. Each sport page features a great deal of information on the sport itself — including an explanation of the sport, its history, and how it's scored — something no other site (that I've seen so far) has managed to put together.  

Why you should check it out: For the first time in your life, you'll be able to watch figure skating or alpine skiing and understand what you're seeing and how it's scored — and you might even discover some fun background facts to impress your friends with.

Vancouver 2010 Olympics Official Site  

Useful for: Information on events surrounding the Games.

What it is: The official spot for all things official: art, merchandise, and ticket information. It's a great place to learn about all things surrounding the Olympics — including the 2010 Paralympic Games (which take place March 12-21) and project Canada CODE (a collaborative online project of Canadian stories, photos, and artwork). After all — to some — the Olympic Games are more about culture and less about scores and times.

One drawback: It's not the best site for quick result info. It does have schedules, results, and up-to-date multimedia (though not streaming video), but numbers are a bit lost in the complex-but-visually-breathtaking design.  

Why you should check it out: In addition to the above, Vancouver 2010 features an interactive Olympic Torch relay map, which includes clickable checkpoints of where the Olympic Torch has been. Each checkpoint has a map of the Torch route, as well as photos and stories from the event.

Websites are not your only options, of course. If you want to stay even more up-to-date on the latest Olympics news, try one of the several free iPhone apps — there's an official one, and two (including a "cheer app") from NBC.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Nokia 5233 price in India with specifications


Nokia 5233 price in India with specifications :-In early 2010 another new listing of a Nokia model 5233, targeted at low-end market, this stylish wide-screen touch phone in appearance and performance quite similar to 5230. 3G, music, pictures, intelligent, handwriting, GPS and other specifications of Nokia 5233 are very comprehensive.
Nokia 5233 has a compact body shape and smooth curves, straight classic big-screen design is very eye-catching style. Screen configuration using 3.2 inches 16 million color touch screen, and also supports 640 × 360 pixel resolution and touch handwriting features. Fuselage built-in 2 million pixel camera specifications and there is no matter how eye-catching, but it would certainly meet the needs of everyday shooting.
As a smart phone, the Nokia 5233 is not only equipped with the fifth edition of the S60 operating system, also equipped with a 434MHz processor, the AMR11 can make a more smooth operation of the speed. Has 70MB of memory in the case of the fuselage, but also can support maximum 16GB capacity memory card expansion. Nokia 5233 also supports A-GPS navigation capabilities, using the latest version of Ovi map, get more than 200 cities, satellite images and 3D icons, as well as facilitate the pedestrian navigation and driving navigation when browsing features such as topographic map services.

Entertainment, the Nokia 5233 convenient to use built-in music player that supports MP3 (VBR), AAC, eAAC, AAC, WMA, WAV and other audio format player, can play music continuously 33 hours, and equipped with 3.5 mm headphone plug hole. Support WMV9, MPEG4, 3GP (H.263) video format play, etc., and can Mpeg4 format, 4.6 hours of playback, nHD format of 3 hours. Such as the FM FM radio, Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, A2DP stereo Bluetooth headset capabilities are also very useful.

And 5230, the Nokia 5233 price comparison is not only affordable, feature is also very rich, are now equipped with the mainstream configuration, usability and playability are very high. Currently businesses are given the price of 7850 rupees.

AT&T Will Let Revised Sling Player Use 3G on iPhone

The trend toward TV anywhere took another step forward Thursday as AT&T announced that it will support Sling Media's mobile application on its 3G network. Sling, whose player app is already in use on the carrier's Wi-Fi network, released a player for the iPhone late last year.

The announcement reverses a decision by AT&T last spring not to allow the Sling iPhone app because it would increase congestion on its 3G network. In Thursday's announcement, AT&T noted that Sling has developed its wireless app to "make efficient use of 3G network bandwidth" and to "conserve the finite wireless spectrum available to the wireless industry."

Overwhelmed AT&T 

AT&T and Sling are saying that the new app has been optimized for its network, the result of a cooperative effort between both companies. AT&T mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega has indicated that his company will be working with developers to make data-intensive apps more "bandwidth-sensitive."

The Sling app is only useful for consumers with a Sling box. The app allows the user to watch streaming TV from cable, satellite or DVRs from the Sling hardware over the Internet, as well as control the TV sources.

AT&T's bandwidth capacity has become an issue with consumers recently, so the carrier wants to make clear that it is paying attention to bandwidth in adding new video-player capability for the iPhone.

In late December, blogger Dan Lyons -- aka Fake Steve Jobs -- promoted an effort to overwhelm AT&T's network by having thousands of users run data-intensive applications at the same time. The intent was to protest the network performance, but the protest was called off after a warning from the Federal Communications Commission.

iPhone Is 'Test Case' 

According to industry observers, AT&T may have underestimated the iPhone's appeal and the bandwidth needs of those customers. The initial projections by the real Steve Jobs, CEO and cofounder of Apple, were that his company would consider the device successful if it took one percent of the global market. It now has 14 percent.

In addition, there are more than 140,000 apps easily available through Apple's App Store for the iPhone, many of them data-intensive. AT&T Operations President John Stankey has admitted the carrier "missed our usage estimates."

Significantly, when Apple announced its iPad tablet computer, AT&T remains its carrier partner for data, but consumers will be able to move to another carrier if they are dissatisfied with the service.

Avi Greengart, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, noted that "AT&T is actually a bit advanced, compared to other carriers" in dealing with the bandwidth crunch. He said this is because "there are more smartphones on AT&T than on other networks, and the iPhone is the test case for usage models going forward."

In adding Sling's "bandwidth-sensitive" player to the iPhone, Greengart said, "AT&T is clearly trying to find a balance."
Source:Yahoo News

Online Video Explodes

The online video market continued to grow in December, as nearly 178 million U.S. Internet users watched 33.2 billion videos in the month a lone, said comScore last week. When broken down, the numbers mean that 86.5 percent of total U.S. Internet users watched online videos and averaged 187 videos per user. The average length video watched was 4.1 minutes, up from 3.5 minutes in a report from last March.

Google sites account for 13.2 billion videos, or almost 40 percent of the total. More than 134 million people watched more than 13 billion YouTube videos, averaging 97.1 videos per user.

Hulu had a record-breaking month.

"Hulu ranked second with more than 1 billion videos viewed, an all-time high for the property, and representing 3.0 percent market share," said Andrew Lipsman, in the report. The site saw 44.1 million unique visitors in December; each spent an average of 2.2 hours watching 22.9 videos.

Although Hulu came in second for total videos viewed, the site came in sixth place for most unique visitors. Not surprisingly, Google topped the list and was followed by Yahoo, Fox Interactive Media, CBS Interactive and Microsoft sites.

iPad Study: The More You Know, The Less You Want One

The more people know about the iPad, the less they want to buy one, according to a study released Friday. But, are we expecting too much?

The study seems to confirm the iPad as Apple's least exciting announcement in years. And the company is feeling the backlash that comes from not delivering on the hype.

Retrevo, an online marketplace for consumer electronics, surveyed 1,000 of its customers and found that the iPad's Jan. 27 announcement did more to snuff out customer interest than to spark it.
That's not surprising when all Apple introduced was just a supersized (and superexpensive at the high end) iPod touch. My friend and fellow pundit Larry Magid described as the iPad as "underwhelming."

I agree, the iPad is underwhelming, especially as a business device. And the more people heard about the iPad, the less they wanted one, according to Retrevo.

"The word definitely got out as the number of respondents saying they had heard about the tablet rose from 37% shortly before the announcement to over 80% after the media frenzy on January 27th," Retrevo said Friday in a blog post.

"Unfortunately for Apple, the number if respondents saying they had heard about the tablet but were not interested in buying one, doubled from 25% before the announcement to over 50% following the announcement."

Of course, that 50 percent who are interested is plenty to make the product a success, provided many of them actually become buyers. (Learn more about the study in this story by Greg Keizer).

I think we may be being a bit hard on the iPad. I still don't think it will become a big enterprise computing tool, even if it does "run" Windows 7 (as a virtualized desktop). I also don't think traditional mobile line-of-business applications--think your UPS driver--will start carrying iPads.

But, entertainment, gaming, and e-reading, especially in education, could still make the iPad quite a winner.

Apple already has the ecosystem in place--developers, content, shopping--to make the platform immediately useful when it arrives.

The iPad appears to be an excellent e-reader, though I said that about the Nook before it shipped, too. In this case, however, enough pre-production iPads have been around that I feel pretty confident.

I still don't feel the need for an iPad, but I do expect to invest in an e-reader soon and am glad I didn't get a Nook for Christmas.

Now, I want to wait a bit and see how the devices, content pricing, and content availability shake-out. At some future moment, the combination of e-reader features/content and interesting apps (not available on my iPhone) could convince me.

So, while I don't see an iPad in my immediate future, I am closer to buying one--or perhaps a competitor--than I was before the announcement. I still wouldn't say I want an iPad. But, I see how I might be convinced in the future.
Source:Yahoo News

BlackBerry Bold 9700 smartphone now available with Airtel

Research In Motion (RIM) and Bharti Airtel announce the availability of BlackBerry Bold 9700 smart phone for Airtel customers in India. Already Reliance, Tata Teleservices and Vodafone announced the BlackBerry availability of Bold 9700 on their networks.

Raghunath Mandava CMO Airtel said at the launch, “Airtel has been a pioneer in providing business solutions to customers and was the first to partner with RIM to launch the
BlackBerry solution in 2004. With Airtel’s comprehensive nation-wide coverage, customers can stay connected 24X7. Today, BlackBerry smartphones and services have evolved to attract both business users and consumers and we are proud to introduce the newBlackBerry Bold 9700 smartphone to our customers in India. The cutting edge design and enhanced features set will give users of this ultra-stylish smartphone the benefits of staying connected while on the go.”

“We are pleased to launch the BlackBerry Bold 9700 smartphone with Airtel. The new BlackBerry Bold 9700 builds on the success of the original BlackBerry Bold and offers top-of-the-line functionality, features and performance in a sleek and elegant design that serves a broad range of customer interests,” said Frenny Bawa, Vice President, India,Research In Motion.

BlackBerry Bold 9700 is a 3G smart phone with many smart features and services, HSDPA networks, 624 MHz processor,256 MB on-board Flash memory, 3.2 MP camera, Bluetooth, built-in GPS Wi-Fi and BlackBerry App World. Bold 9700 is now available at Airtel retail outlets across India at a retail price tag of Rs 31990 plus taxes extra.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Bushnell Onix 350

Bushnell Onix 350 is new handheld GPS from Woot, a company with reputation for such devices. So Woot has given you another opportunity to lay your hands on a Bushnell Onix 350 color handheld GPS with Geo-reference maps.

New Bushnell Onix 350 has 3.5 inch color LCD screen with a resolution 240 x 320 not mentioning the TruView navigation. The battery lasts for 30 hours. The navigation device is equipped with self-calibrating tri-axis digital compass. For your convenience it has a 512 MB microSD card. The new baby has temperature sensors, barometric pressure detector, again to mention SiRF Star III with twenty channels.

Bushnell Onix 350 is waterproof. It sports up to 1000 waypoints, 50 routes, alarms, WASS and it has USB connection for all your convenience.

Bushnell Onix 350 is not too heavy neither too large to handle. It measures 6.9 x 3.1 x 1.7 inches and its weight is just 9 ounces on the weigh scale. Did I leave anything that could take you out to search for your Bushnell Onix 350 or go internet to find one for you then I must miss the price. This new digital baby from Woot costs only $ 69.99

The sports lovers would find it a reasonable deal for their next enterprise through land or sea route and its light weight will not bother your shoulder or back pack at all.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Srinivasa Ramanujan

Mathematical achievements

In mathematics, there is a distinction between having an insight and having a proof. Ramanujan's talent suggested a plethora of formulae that could then be investigated in depth later. It is said that Ramanujan's discoveries are unusually rich and that there is often more in it than what initially meets the eye. As a by-product, new directions of research were opened up. Examples of the most interesting of these formulae include the intriguing infinite series for ฯ€, one of which is given below

 \frac{1}{\pi} = \frac{2\sqrt{2}}{9801} \sum^\infty_{k=0} \frac{(4k)!(1103+26390k)}{(k!)^4 396^{4k}}.
This result is based on the negative fundamental discriminant d = −4×58 with class number h(d) = 2 (note that 5×7×13×58 = 26390) and is related to the fact that
 e^{\pi \sqrt{58}} = 396^4 - 104.000000177\dots.
Compare to Heegner numbers, which have class number 1 and yield similar formulae. Ramanujan's series for ฯ€ converges extraordinarily rapidly (exponentially) and forms the basis of some of the fastest algorithms currently used to calculate ฯ€. Truncating the sum to the first term also gives the approximation 9801\sqrt{2}/4412 for ฯ€, which is correct to six decimal places.
One of his remarkable capabilities was the rapid solution for problems. He was sharing a room with P. C. Mahalanobis who had a problem, "Imagine that you are on a street with houses marked 1 through n. There is a house in between (x) such that the sum of the house numbers to left of it equals the sum of the house numbers to its right. If n is between 50 and 500, what are n and x." This is a bivariate problem with multiple solutions. Ramanujan thought about it and gave the answer with a twist: He gave a continued fraction. The unusual part was that it was the solution to the whole class of problems. Mahalanobis was astounded and asked how he did it. "It is simple. The minute I heard the problem, I knew that the answer was a continued fraction. Which continued fraction, I asked myself. Then the answer came to my mind", Ramanujan replied.
His intuition also led him to derive some previously unknown identities, such as
 \left [ 1+2\sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{\cos(n\theta)}{\cosh(n\pi)} \right ]^{-2} + \left [1+2\sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{\cosh(n\theta)}{\cosh(n\pi)} \right ]^{-2} = \frac {2 \Gamma^4 \left ( \frac{3}{4} \right )}{\pi}
for all ฮธ, where ฮ“(z) is the gamma function. Equating coefficients of ฮธ0, ฮธ4, and ฮธ8 gives some deep identities for the hyperbolic secant.
In 1918, G. H. Hardy and Ramanujan studied the partition function P(n) extensively and gave a non-convergent asymptotic series that permits exact computation of the number of partitions of an integer. Hans Rademacher, in 1937, was able to refine their formula to find an exact convergent series solution to this problem. Ramanujan and Hardy's work in this area gave rise to a powerful new method for finding asymptotic formulae, called the circle method.[81]
He discovered mock theta functions in the last year of his life. For many years these functions were a mystery, but they are now known to be the holomorphic parts of harmonic weak Maass forms.

[edit] The Ramanujan conjecture

Although there are numerous statements that could bear the name Ramanujan conjecture, there is one statement that was very influential on later work. In particular, the connection of this conjecture with conjectures of Andrรฉ Weil in algebraic geometry opened up new areas of research. That Ramanujan conjecture is an assertion on the size of the tau function, which has as generating function the discriminant modular form ฮ”(q), a typical cusp form in the theory of modular forms. It was finally proven in 1973, as a consequence of Pierre Deligne's proof of the Weil conjectures. The reduction step involved is complicated. Deligne won a Fields Medal in 1978 for his work on Weil conjectures.[82]

[edit] Ramanujan's notebooks

While still in India, Ramanujan recorded the bulk of his results in four notebooks of loose leaf paper. These results were mostly written up without any derivations. This is probably the origin of the misperception that Ramanujan was unable to prove his results and simply thought up the final result directly. Mathematician Bruce C. Berndt, in his review of these notebooks and Ramanujan's work, says that Ramanujan most certainly was able to make the proofs of most of his results, but chose not to.
This style of working may have been for several reasons. Since paper was very expensive, Ramanujan would do most of his work and perhaps his proofs on slate, and then transfer just the results to paper. Using a slate was common for mathematics students in India at the time. He was also quite likely to have been influenced by the style of G. S. Carr's book, which stated results without proofs. Finally, it is possible that Ramanujan considered his workings to be for his personal interest alone; and therefore only recorded the results.[83]
The first notebook has 351 pages with 16 somewhat organized chapters and some unorganized material. The second notebook has 256 pages in 21 chapters and 100 unorganized pages, with the third notebook containing 33 unorganized pages. The results in his notebooks inspired numerous papers by later mathematicians trying to prove what he had found. Hardy himself created papers exploring material from Ramanujan's work as did G. N. Watson, B. M. Wilson, and Bruce Berndt.[83] A fourth notebook, the so-called "lost notebook", was rediscovered in 1976 by George Andrews.[2]

READ MORE HERE

Contributions of S. Ramanujan

The great Indian mathematician, S. Ramanujan has left the sign of his brilliance in various fields of mathematics like Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Calculus, Number theory etc. throughout his entire life. He has also made some extraordinary contributions to the fields like Hypergeometric series, Elliptic functions, Prime numbers, Bernoulli`s numbers, Divergent series, Continued fractions, Elliptic Modular equations, Highly Composite numbers,
Riemann Zeta functions, Partition of numbers, Mock-Theta functions etc. Actually, apart from a few elementary ones, most of the contributions of S. Ramanujan belong to a higher realm of mathematics that is often referred to as "Higher Mathematics". In fact, one can find it quite difficult to understand S. Ramanujan`s mathematics if he does not have the basic foundation in various mathematical subjects.

According to an eminent mathematician, all the numbers were actually the intimate friends of S. Ramanujan. Ramanujan was so close to the numbers that he made the number 1729 as the `Ramanujan number`, as the other mathematicians call it so in his honour. The main reason behind this is that S. Ramanujan gave its fine characteristics in an anecdote involving G. H. Hardy, who had visited him in a sanatorium by hiring a taxi having this number. In order to calculate the value of pi (.*) up to 17 million places using a computer, the present day mathematicians actually use S. Ramanujan`s fastest step-by-step method. The mathematical contributions of S. Ramanujan have also been widely used in solving various problems in higher scientific fields of specialisation. The diverse specialised higher scientific fields include the likes of particle physics, statistical mechanics, computer science, space science, cryptology, polymer chemistry and medical science. The strange thing is that some of these fields were not even in existence during his lifetime. Apart from the above fields, S. Ramanujan`s mathematical methods are being used in designing better blast furnaces for smelting metals and splicing telephone cables for communications, as well.

S. Ramanujan was highly honoured and respected by all the other mathematicians of the world in his time and some of them openly praised S. Ramanujan as the genius. G. H. Hardy was one of the most prominent among them and it should also be said that Hardy was the man, who had the credit of introducing S. Ramanujan to the whole world. Hardy had an informal scale of rating eminent mathematicians and once in that scale of 100, Hardy gave himself 25, the other mathematicians like Littlewood 30, the German David Hilbert 80, and S. Ramanujan, a full 100. In fact, there was no rival for Ramanujan in the whole world, during his lifetime, as no mathematician was this much dependent upon his native intelligence as he was. Hardy was also quite happy for having the credit of introducing Ramanujan to the world, as he once said his greatest contribution to mathematics was the discovery of Ramanujan. He also later wrote about Ramanujan in his popular book "A Mathematician`s Apology".

S. Ramanujan actually belonged to the `Formalist` school of mathematics, just like the earlier great mathematicians Leonard Euler and Carl Jacobi. Though Ramanujan did not give any serious thought to the deeper meaning of mathematics, he gave a form to mathematics through his formulas, theorems, identities etc. He also searched for forms or patterns in mathematics and he actually worked more by intuition and induction and showed relationships between numbers, something that nobody could even imagine at that time. As he was an untrained mathematician, he never gave importance to stringent proof, which is the hallmark of western mathematics. He just went ahead and built a relationship between numbers without bothering about any proof, whenever, he intuitively and by induction felt something was right. As a result, he also made mistakes and some of his mathematical work was later proved to be either incorrect or lacking sufficient proof. S. Ramanujan had no distinct philosophy about mathematics and he believed that all the finite numbers are nothing but only the products of zero and infinity. S. Ramanujan also stated results that were both original and highly unconventional, like the `Ramanujan prime` and the `Ramanujan theta function`, and these have inspired a vast amount of further research.

S. Ramanujan wrote down all his mathematical findings, in ledger-like notebooks that lately became famous as "Ramanujan`s Frayed Notebooks". All those findings were actually a treasure trove of creative mathematics and the Notebooks contain about 4,000 theorems, formulas, corollaries and examples. According to G. H. Hardy, at least two-third of the mathematics in the notebooks was totally novel, and none of the western mathematicians touched them before. There are actually three notebooks of S. Ramanujan. The `First Notebook` is about 134 pages long and the book is divided into 16 chapters. The `Second Notebook` is actually a revised and enlarged version of the `First Notebook` and the Notebook is about 252 pages long and divided into 21 chapters. The last or the `Third Notebook` is 33 pages long and this book contains all the un organised material of S. Ramanujan`s works. This book was written by Ramanujan during his last days of illness in India and the book is also referred to as the "Lost Notebook". The book was taken as `lost` for some years and it was the American mathematician, George Andrews, of Pennsylvania State University, who eventually discovered the book in 1976. He discovered the book in a box, along with some bills and letters in the library of the Trinity College, Cambridge.

However, none of the `Frayed Notebooks` of S. Ramanujan became popular during his lifetime and they became famous only after his death. The Cambridge University Press brought out his Collected Papers in 1927 and after this, the mathematicians all over the world became fascinated by his work and personality. In 1929, two British mathematicians, G. N. Watson of the University of Birmingham and B. M. Wilson of Liverpool University, started to study and edit the notebooks with an intention to unearth the mathematical gems lying undiscovered in them. However, they could not complete the task, as one of the mathematicians died within a few years. Eventually, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai published the facsimile editions of the two volumes of Ramanujan`s notebooks in 1957. The books were published at the initiative of the Indian nuclear physicist Homi J. Bhabha and the publication once again, renewed the mathematicians` interest in Ramanujan`s notebooks.

The most celebrated application of the `Ramanujan conjecture` is the explicit construction of Ramanujan graphs by Lubotzky, Phillips and Sarnak. In fact, this conjecture gave a name to the graphs. Although there are numerous statements that could bear the name `Ramanujan conjecture`, there is one statement that was very influential on later work. In particular, the connection of this conjecture with conjectures of A. Weil in algebraic geometry opened up new areas of research. Ramanujan was also considered as the master of numbers. His most outstanding contribution was his formula for p (n), the number of `partitions` of `n`. For all these reasons, Ramanujan is hailed as an all time great mathematician like Euler, Gauss or Jacobi for his natural genius.

Volvo S80 sedan comes now in India

Volvo S80 comes now in India: Volvo has announced to roll out its Volvo S80 sedan on the Indian roads. This car would be sold to higher class.

It would be available at a price tag of Rs 39 lakh in India, through a network of 12 dealers across the country. It’s said to be luxurious and youthful.

One striking feature about Volvo S80 is its steering wheel, which is dependent on speed. It is very smooth in slow speed and more stable in high speed.

According to the press reports, car is the world’s first executive car which would emit less than less than 120g of carbon dioxide.

The interior of the car is quite distinct and have clean surfaces, exciting contrasts, smooth function as well as comfortable seats.

How to maximize the discharge time of your Dell Inspiron 1526 battery?

The discharge time will vary by user. It depends on the features you are using in your laptop during the time you are using the Dell Inspiron 1526 battery.

There are some tips for maximizing discharge time:
  1. Store the battery in a cool dry location. 
  2. Set the Power Management settings to “Max Dell Inspiron 1526 battery". 
  3. Do Remove the battery from the notebook PC when it is not being used or charged for a long period! 
  4. Buy another Hi-Quality & High Capacity battery to extend the overall operating time on battery. 
  5. Lower the brightness on the display.



Gigabyte will have an Android handset, but it’s not the one you saw

 

I saw a few of these pictures floating around a little while ago, when Gigabyte was announcing it was putting out an Android handset. “Good for them,” I thought, “but they couldn’t come up with something a little more original?” As it turns out — they might have. Because it turns out
those pictures were fakeity-fake. I mean, the pictures themselves were real pictures, but they did not depict an actual Gigabyte handset. Seems weird that there would be this amount of intrigue associated with something as un-exciting as a phone launch by a relatively minor player, but hey. I don’t make the news, I just report it.

The GSmart PR person added that the phone they’re working on is totally different, and likely won’t be seen until late 2010. You’d think they would hurry — by late 2010 we’re going to be swimming in Android devices.

Microsoft: Buys Office 2003…Asked you

These two day of Microsoft\’s news are many very, looked like Microsoft to speed up the numerous products and the LH engagement footsteps. In Microsoft speeds up the speed to in the second half of this year later period time emits the new edition Office, but Microsoft can not but face a such question: Had the majority customer still not to promote to Office 2003….

Although 2003 are the newest editions. According to the Register Britain reported that only then 15% customers have installed office 2003, before update Office comes out Microsoft needs to have 50% customers at least to promote to 2003. Therefore Microsoft prepares to hit a blitzkrieg, the persuasion these third party development personnel as far as possible develop 2003 auxiliary softwares to promote 2003 volume of users enhancements. The major problem, that is natural. Because has the majority user to think that does not need to promote.

More than ten million users have used the product which he has 3 to 5 year long time, moreover they have not discovered until now has the promotion necessity, then you cannot force them to promote. Analyst Paul DeGroot said.

Microsoft must reconsider his decision, this was not likely asks your user to use the best method which many year softwares promoted

From: The Register Sci-Tech News for the World

Acer Launches first Liquid Phone with Qualcomm Snapdragon Processor

Acer has brought a new liquid phone in India. It’s really liquid due to its unique feature which differentiates it from the other phones. This phone has the world’s first Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and is based on the first Android 1.6 high definition smart phone. It delivers real time communication as well as content which are location aware. This smart device brings forth a unique combination of high quality performance as well as bold style.

This high defining smart phone combines the cutting edge technologies; software innovation as well as ultra-fluid user interfaces so that users can get a completely new experience with this phone. Unique set of features developed by Acer and its partners would include a new user interface as well as improved power management systems. This enhanced power management system would help the user to achieve longer battery autonomy.

Acer Smart Handheld Business Group (SHBG)’s India Country Head Richard Tan said: The name “liquid exemplifies speed in style.” With sexy curves and available in three different colors of black, white and red, this liquid with a slim body shape will really please the consumer who seeks for style and fashion. It beautifully fits in the hand and it is the fluidity of the curves that gives Acer liquid its unique character along with an unconventional style.

This liquid is outstanding for its smooth display along with the facilities of multimedia, web browsing, social media integration as well as video streaming. These can be shared with family and friends through e-mail or web posting.

In India the price of the liquid phone would be Rs 24,900 and it would be soon available across the major retailers. The optimized camera with geo tagging, self-timer options is sure to bring smile in the consumer’s face.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

AMU VC meets Bihar CM today

Aligarh: A five-member team led by the Vice Chancellor, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Prof. P. K. Abdul Azis will be visiting Patna to meet the Chief Minister of Bihar, Mr. Nitish Kumar at his office today.
The visiting team will be presenting a Power Point (PPT) presentation before the Chief Minister, ministers and other officials.

The PPT presentation will include a brief history of AMU and the new vision for special centres of the AMU to be established in West Bengal, Kerala and Bihar.

The visiting team would be expressing gratitude to the government of Bihar for giving 250 acres of land free of cost to the AMU for opening its centre in district Kishanganj instead of Katihar as earlier approved by the university authorities.

The VC, Prof. P. K. Abdul Azis, will also present a memento to Mr. Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar.

AMU delegation will also visit Kishanganj.

Other members of team are Prof. Javed Akhtar, Dean, Faculty of Management Studies and Research, Prof. Saud Alam Qasmi, Dean, Faculty of Theology, Prof. N. A. K. Durrani, Department of Mass Communication and Prof. Ekram Husain, Former Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Technology.

Why Google is Bad for the Newspaper Business

One of the key core competencies of a publication is the process of selecting “all the news thats fit to print”.

No one can read every news story. Instead of even trying to consume everything, we all have a process we go through for discovery of news, information and topics of interest to us. We have sources we trust for our news and information. It may be a printed paper or magazine, a website, tv news, facebook or twitter updates, or some combination of everything we have access to.

No matter how we get information there is one certainty, there is a finite number of sources we will use.

When someone selects google news as their destination for news discovery it is probably at the expense of another destination or product who aspires to be a “discovery destination”. But lets pretend it is just an incremental source. That for a while at least a consumer will both go to Google News and to the website of their local paper. What is the branding message the consumer is receiving ?

When that newspaper allows itself to be included in Google News it becomes a de facto endorsement of Google News as an acceptable and probably preferable “discovery destination” . The branding message to the consumer is “I dont need to go to the newspaper homepage. Everything the newspaper has is referenced here in Google News. So if there is something of interest to me from the local paper, Google News will send me to their site. I don’t need to go to both sites any longer. I can just go to Google News.

Thats not good for the publication brand and business. They just lost their position as a trusted source where real people make decisions on what content they think their readers will want to discover – to an algorithm.

But wait it gets worse.

When that consumer goes to Google News, it lists the number of sources. You immediately become one of 2,172 articles. It is never good for a brand to be considered one of 2,000 plus sources. Ever. That makes you a commodity. All that promotion you did saying how good your reporters are ? On its way to becoming worthless. To the consumer there are 2,000 other people able to do the same thing (even though there really arent 2k sources, thats not what the branding message they get from Google)

And the bad news will keep on coming.

As a newspaper or other information source, you can never discount the very real possibility that Google starts becoming a content creator. Why couldn’t they hire reporters ? Why couldn’t they give their content priority over all others ? More importantly, why wouldn’t they ?

Never happen you say ? See AOL. See Yahoo. Both are now creating original content in huge quantities. I promise you, someday there will be a bunch of Googlers sitting in a meeting discussing how they can generate enough revenue and profits to increase earnings per share by a penny. You can bet someone will pull up a spreadsheet showing the increase in CPMs for original content with the trusted Google News brand on it. It will show that by simply hiring a bunch of reporters to create news, with Google’s traffic and the higher CPMs of original content, we can make a lot of money for our shareholders. You are in denial if you think this will never happen.

It was smart to ride the Google wave of traffic when you were able to sell it all. Things change. Now you can’t sell all your organic traffic, let alone the traffic you get from Google. Now the value equation has shifted. You are endorsing Google News as a discovery destination making their brand stronger by the day. Google News’ brand value will increase fast enough on its own. There is no sane reason to allow them to co-opt your brand and use it to accelerate the growth of a business, Google News that will very likely be your biggest online competitor

Update: I want to put a qualifier here because some people think this applies to any or all media companies. It doesn’t. This is meant for media companies that have established brands and brand equity. If you are a startup, you should use Google for everything its worth. It can be very valuable. If you are trying to create or establish a brand, you should use Google.Google News. If you have no revenue, you should probably rethink your choice of professions and /or business, but Google traffic can only help.

For you, every visitor is a good thing and an opportunity to convert that user and build your brand image.

On the flipside if your company name is one of multiple choices that comes to people’s mind when they need the type of information/news/info you provide, then you need to think through just what impact Google.GoogleNews has on your business today and in the future.