Nokia Launches Two New Handsets in India

Nokia has just launched two new Symbian Series 40 enabled handsets in the Indian market - Nokia 6700 Classic and Nokia 6303 Classic which further strengthened its style and imaging portfolio for mobile devices. The devices, which were launched by Bollywood diva, Priyanka Chopra, are targeted at the suave and savvy Indian consumers who are looking for superior functionality with premium finish at competitive prices.

Alongside the Nokia 6700 Classic and Nokia 6303 Classic launch, the company also rolled out a consumer engagement initiative - “Pictures get us talking”. The consumer contest that starts from today, gives users an opportunity to upload their interesting and unique pictures on the Nokia website – www.nokia.co.in. The picture that starts the maximum conversations and is the most talked about in the virtual world will emerge as the winner. The winning entry will get a complete makeover by a well known fashion designer. In addition, Priyanka Chopra will also talk and Twitter about her favorite pictures on her Twitter page.

Speaking at the occasion, Vineet Taneja, Director Marketing, Nokia India said, “Nokia is delighted to strengthen its bond with India’s style conscious consumers, both by extending our association with Priyanka Chopra and with the launch of Nokia 6700 Classic and Nokia 6303 Classic. The new devices combine the superior functionality and enhanced user experience with premium designs and materials available at an extremely competitive price point. The Nokia 6700 Classic shares the same 'DNA' as its predecessor Nokia 6300 and we believe that it will be one of our best selling devices in 2009.”

The Nokia 6700 combines smooth surfaces, rich materials and precisely crafted parts with a full metal keymat which completes the premium finish. Other features include –

• a 2.2 inch TFT LCD (240 x 320 pixel resolution)
• 3G support with HSDPA, EDGE/GPRS
• Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
• USB 2.0 (micro)
• A-GPS navigation with Nokia Maps,
• microSD card support
• a 5 megapixel camera,
• FM with RDS

Additionally the Nokia 6700 features the innovative uplink noise cancellation (UNC) that blocks out background noises and Navigation via internal GPS with Nokia Maps (30 days license free).

The second handset, the Nokia 6303 Classic features -

• a 2.2 inch screen (240 x 320 pixels)
• a 3.2 megapixel camera
• GPRS/EDGE
• Bluetooth 2.0
• USB 2.0 (micro)
• microSD card support
• pre-loaded Nokia Maps
• 3.5 mm audio jack
• FM radio

The 6303 is not a GPS enabled handset.

The Nokia 6700 Classic is available in Chrome and Black and is priced at Rs. 14,000. The Nokia 6303 Classic is priced at Rs. 8000.

Must Play World War II Games

don’t believe I’m actually saying this but I kinda miss World War II games. Maybe it's because I’ve not played one in a really long time or maybe it has something to do with the dry phase out there. Either way if you miss the feel of an M1 Garand in your virtual hands, here are a few World War II games that could satiate that feeling.

Medal of Honor Series

The Medal of Honor series was actually one of the first World War II games I’ve played. I remember storming Omaha beach with my troops only to be gunned down mercilessly by German troops perched at higher outposts. And even though I cursed my ass off at EA for making that mission so tough, it still’s one of the most memorable gaming experiences. Now the Medal of Honor series has spanned quite a few games across various platforms but the ones I would recommend are:

• Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (PC)
• Medal of Honor: Spearhead (Expansion Pack)
• Medal of Honor: Breakthrough (Expansion Pack)
• Medal of Honor: Airborne (PC Xbox360 PS3)
• Medal of Honor: Heroes (PSP)

Call of Duty Series

There was a time when I thought the Medal of Honor series was the definitive World War II shooter but then Call of Duty came along and changed my thinking forever. Even though the series’ premise was pretty much the same, it's execution was miles ahead of the MoH series thanks to intense gameplay, killer production values and intense scripted events. Even the CoD series has tons of titles under its belt and the ones I’d recommend would be:

• Call of Duty (PC)
• Call of Duty 2 (PC Xbox360)
• Call of Duty: World at War (PC Xbox360 PS3)
• Call of Duty: Roads to Victory (PSP)

Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway (PC Xbox360 PS3)

Unlike the Medal of Honor and the Call of Duty series, Brothers in Arms was all about tactical action. You couldn’t just run into the heat of the battle and expect to survive; you had to use your squad to flank your teammates while you moved in for the kill. The series was actually a breath of fresh air from all the relentless shooting associated with both CoD and MoH and Hells Highway was the best in my opinion with its swanky new cover system, gratifying slow motion kills and gorgeous visuals courtesy of the Unreal 3 engine
Day of Defeat Source (PC)

Day of Defeat Source does not have a single player campaign nor does it have a tutorial. It thrusts you into the midst of action as either the Axis or the Allies and your goal is to capture all enemy flags on a particular map. You can choose to play as a gunner, a sniper or a soldier. It’s not the deepest game on the planet nor does it offer tons of content but it’s enjoyable, entertaining and highly addictive. Plus it's available for just $10 on Steam so I suggest you pick it up ASAP.

Company of Heroes series (PC)

I’m not big on strategy games but if I had to play one, I’d blindly pick the Company of Heroes series. It’s simple to pick up, offers phenomenal visuals, boasts of terrific production values and blowing tiny Germans up to bits using a Mortar Strike never gets old.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein (PC PS2 Xbox)

Pesky Nazis have begun experimenting with the occult and only one man can stand in their way. That man is U.S. Army Ranger William "B.J." Blazkowicz who with his l33t skillz lays to waste legions of Nazis, undead soldiers, Uber Soldiers and more. The game also boasted of an excellent multiplayer campaign that paved the way for a stand-alone multiplayer expansion called game Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory.

Samsung S8000 Jet Mobile Phone

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Touchscreen is quite responsive UI is smooth and finger friendly Plenty of relevant and funky features Music player volume is low No GPS software included Most motion based functions didn't seem to work

I was quite fascinated with the Jet when I first laid eyes on it last month in Singapore. Although a little generic in design it did have that certain je ne c'est quoi quality about it. What really intrigued me was the name of course. Speed of multitasking was the selling point and this I had to see for myself. And after a few days poking around the handset's features and functions here’s my take on the Jet.

Form Factor
The Jet is a neat looking handset and quite well designed. I was particularly happy with the superb 3.1-inch touchscreen AMOLED display that has a 480 x 800 pixel resolution sporting 16 million colors. The visual experience was brilliant. The display is not completely scratch resistant as the test piece I received had evidence to prove that. Above the display is a very responsive proximity sensor and secondary video-call camera. The center button at the bottom which is designed (subtly) to look like a cube can be used to access the menu and if pressed and held, will activate the End Task display. A 3.5mm earphone socket that doubles up for AV out is on the top right beside the micro USB/Charging port.

Volume/zoom keys are located on one side and on the other side you’ll find a screen lock button on top. On the same side at the bottom is a dedicated camera key that’s also somewhat attached to the button for activating the Jet’s Media gate 3D multimedia menu selector. The rear panel gives the handset its sex appeal. It has a dark maroon-ish glossy finish with a 3D effect. The 5MP camera with its dual LED flash is also present at the back. A hot-swap microSD card slot is underneath the rear panel.

It’s not heavy but the little weight it has at 110 grams, makes it quite well balanced and gives it a real feel-good factor.

Features and Performance
Interface
I was never particularly fond of Samsung's proprietary TouchWiz UI, but version 2.0 has a lot that has changed my mind quite a bit. Following what seems to be a trend these days, Samsung has also gone with multiple desktops. I’ll never understand this concept if three desktops, especially if you have a plethora of handy widgets to choose from anytime you need to customize it, even those that can give you live updates via net feeds etc. Nevertheless they’re present. Even the menus have now been expanded to include three separate pages of applications, most of which you’d usually find under the ‘Applications’ tab or another relevant heading in other handsets.

The use of 3D menus is a little too much at times. It’s completely unnecessary in the music player and seems like a rather cheap rip off of an iPhone’s. The dedicated multimedia section in 3D is awesome though. This menu offers easy access to almost all of the Jet’s multimedia functions with a super smooth flowing Media gate 3D UI. It makes accessing movies, music and even images so much better. A 3D UI option can also be found in the End Task menu.

The TouchWiz 2.0 UI itself is just about adequate in my opinion. It’s not extremely responsive but its easy once you get the hang of it. I wish the accelerometer functioned for the entire system though and not just specific functions, however the rotation is quick and quite seamless. A few upgrades to the new UI include the press slide and zoom feature for the browser and any other data that allows for the same and the also very responsive gesture unlock control for assigning alphabet gestures to a function, app or even speed dial – when the display is locked press the unlock key and type the assigned alphabet on the screen with your finger, the screen unlocks and runs the function immediately.

The motion sensor has its good points and bad let me add. On the plus side features like the Etiquette Pause which allows you to simply turn the handset over to silence an incoming call and Speaker call for which you dial a number and just place the handset flat on its back to activate the speaker phone (which is decently loud) are just fine. The Motion Tutorial which shows you other motion functions works well enough, although I have to say some of the movements are little weird, but the problem is that I couldn’t get any of the actual functions to work at all no matter how much I shook or tapped the phone in anyway. Damn near almost flung it.

The QWERTY keypad in landscape is well laid out and easy to use. Handwriting recognition is also supported in full screen and two other options. It’s easy and very hard to make a mistake.

With its Qualcomm MSM6246, 800Mhz applications processor, I presumed the ‘Jet’ to be fast and in most cases it was. However I was able to activate just 3 multimedia functions simultaneously as opening a fourth gave me an error indicating that resources were not enough, so I had to close at least one other app. But with a couple of media apps and other functions I had at least nine open before the error message showed up and I had to shut some down. The only thing that got jerky were a few transitions but everything else was still smooth. The only time the handset's UI was sluggish was when deleting messages. To delete just 20 messages it took over 15 seconds. Every single time I tried. Has me boggled!

On the whole I love the new TouchWiz 2.0 UI. It’s fast and funky with plenty of very very relevant and fun features added in.

Street Fighter 4: Review

Pocket money. I used to get about 20 bucks from my father every week. It doesn’t sound a lot at all now, but back then, it was good enough to fit 3 needs -- arcade gaming, WWF cards and food. Gaming parlours as they were called, was our hangout. The need for some serious button mashing was satisfied here and this is where boys became “street” boys. Of course, there was the usual “Pacman”, but no other game was better than drum roll Street Fighter!

The game was simple, the characters were great and the fights were awesome! I as a kid started playing Street Fighter 2 more than 15 years ago; but the memories are as fresh as ever. As every game does, Street Fighter came to the PS3, and I was seriously impressed! My fingers have never felt this sore in a very long time. Here’s why:

Does the game look awesome?
Hell yeah! It looks brilliant. From the second I popped in the disc, it was vibrant colours all the way! Right from the opening AV to the gaming environments, it all looks good. The characters have gotten quite a good makeover with extra large biceps, big teeth, super long feet and electric green skin!

Unlike other games in the same genre like “Tekken”, the characters are 3D, they don’t exactly look that. It looks like a 2D-moving picture character, the best way I can put it. The downer would be that the cut scenes are quite average with no flair at all. But then again, you are just going to skip through the cut scenes right?

Everybody likes Kung-fu fighting! Let’s fight!
Round 1. Fight! Familiar words aren’t they? The fights in Street Fighter 4 are simple yet so entertaining! The kicks and punches are skilfully revamped with a whole host of new special moves like the focus effect and better countering. As with all button mashers, the moves in Street Fighter 4 are easy to do, but difficult to master! Newbie luck plays a serious role here.

The sad part is that there is no depth in gameplay, it doesn’t go beyond the jabs and the awesome moves. Character list is pretty much the same with the addition of 4 new characters Abel, Crimson Viper, Rufus and El Fuerte. The fights will keep you entertained for a while, but soon enough you are going to pop in another disc and forget all about this one. Is Streetfighter 4 worth my time? Considering all the fond memories that it brought back for me, I would say thumbs up. The gameplay is good, the environment is beautiful and I like winning at this game. But if you are not a fan of the franchise, then it’s totally ok to skip this and go for something with a little more meat. Street Fighter 4 is rated at 3.5 stars.

Microsoft intros hands-free gaming

LOS ANGELES: Microsoft revealed this week that it has secretly been developing technology that lets people play videogames using natural body movements instead of handheld controllers. he US software giant behind Xbox 360 videogame consoles revealed a prototype of a project codenamed ‘Natal’, a system that combines cameras and voice and face recognition software to recognise people and their actions.

"The gamer in me went out of my mind when I got to be interactive with this," famed film director Steven Spielberg during a Microsoft press conference on the eve of a major videogame industry show, Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), in Los Angeles. "I got a feeling I was in a historic moment. What Microsoft is doing isn't re-inventing the wheel; this is about no wheel at all."

Natal lets people play driving games by simply moving hands as if turning a car steering wheel. In-game characters in boxing, skateboard, soccer and other sports titles mimic the body movements of real-world players. The system scans faces and voices to determine who is playing, a demonstration showed. Xbox 360 consoles equipped with Natal will be able to respond to spoken commands for actions such as playing movies or connecting online with friends for video chats.

An expected completion date for Natal was not disclosed, but Microsoft released a software kit for videogame makers interested in designing titles to take advantage of Natal's capabilities.

"What developers do with Natal will change the way we play videogames," said British videogame icon Peter Molyneux, chief of Lionhead Studios. "This is a landmark in computer entertainment. This is true technology that science fiction has not even written about and this works today." Natal will work on all Xbox 360 consoles, said the head of Xbox and games business at MS.

How deleted email can come back

WASHINGTON: Beware, emails or Facebook posts or pictures can resurface months after they are deleted -- in the wrong hands or at the wrong time,
according to researchers.
"If you care about privacy, the internet today is a very scary place," said University of Washington (UW) computer scientist Tadayoshi Kohno. "If people understood the implications of where and how their email is stored, they might be more careful or not use it as often."

For instance, a lost cell phone can expose personal photos or text messages. A legal investigation can subpoena the entire contents of a home or work computer, uncovering incriminating, inconvenient or just embarrassing details from the past.

The team of UW computer scientists developed a prototype system called Vanish that can place a time limit on text uploaded to any web service through a web browser. After a set time text written using Vanish will, in essence, self-destruct.

Study co-authors include Roxana Geambasu, Tadayoshi Kohno, Hank Levy and Amit Levy, all with UW's department of computer science and engineering.

"When you send out a sensitive email to a few friends you have no idea where that email is going to end up," Geambasu said.

"For instance, your friend could lose her laptop or cell phone, her data could be exposed by a hacker, or a subpoena could require your email service to reveal your messages. If you want to ensure that your message never gets out, how do you do.

Many people believe that pressing the "delete" button will make their data go away. "The reality is that many web services archive data indefinitely, well after you've pressed delete," Geambasu said. Simply encrypting the data can be risky in the long term, the researchers say. The data can be exposed years later, for example, by legal actions that force an individual or company to reveal the encryption key.

"In today's world, private information is scattered all over the internet, and we can't control the lifetime of that data," said Levy.

"And transition to a future based on cloud computing, where enormous, anonymous data centres run the vast majority of our applications and store nearly all of our data, we will lose even more control."

Researchers compare using Vanish to writing a message in the sand at low tide, where it can be read for only a few hours before the tide comes in and permanently washes it away. Erasing the data doesn't require any special action by the sender, the recipient or any third party service.

Sony unveils new PSP

LOS ANGELES: Sony Corp unveiled a smaller, lighter PlayStation handled game device called the PSP Go, in a race to catch rival Nintendo in an intensely competitive mobile games arena.

Nintendo said it sold more than 15 million units of its blockbuster "Wii Fit" fitness game, and plans an update -- the Wii Fit Plus -- later this year.

Sales of the Wii have dwarfed those of more technically souped-up and pricier rival consoles from Microsoft Corp and Sony Corp, by broadening its audience beyond hard-core video gamers.

On the second day of E3, the largest US video games conference, Sony and Nintendo vied for the spotlight, a day after rival console-maker Microsoft charmed audiences with its "Natal": groundbreaking technology utilizing full-body motion-capture for gamers.

It was the first full day of the show, which is expected to draw some 40,000 game enthusiasts. Many cheered and whooped at the press event at mere glimpses of new versions of popular games like "God of War" and "Super Mario Bros.," or at the mention of secretive ones like "Agent," which is being developed for the PS3 by the creators of "Grand Theft Auto."

Sony's PSP Go goes on sale October 1 in North America and Europe for about $249, before hitting stores in Japan November 1. It will be half the size of Sony's current PSP 3000 and 40 per cent lighter, executives said.

The Japanese electronics company aims to sell 15 million units of the PSP or PlayStation Portable -- which competes with Nintendo's DS -- in the financial year to March, up from 14.1 million units a year earlier.

About the size of a smartphone, it features a large screen that slides up to reveal two clusters of controller buttons. It comes with Wi-Fi range wireless capability, and 16GB of memory for storing pictures, music and games.

Analysts say Sony is trying to staunch a loss of market share this year to its gaming arch-foe. Nintendo's Wii has been a sensation since it was unveiled with much pomp.

The company's gaming consoles and hand-held devices have in past months outsold its rivals' products. Its DSi, released in the United States on April 5, sold roughly 800,000 units in the month, far outpacing Sony's PSP handheld. The DS franchise overall sold more than 1 million units.

Nintendo's core "Wii" console was also the top-selling platform in April, even though sales fell by half to 340,000 units alongside a dive in consumer spending, according to research group NPD.

Kaz Harai, Chairman and Group Chief Executive Officer of Sony Computer Entertainment, described the PSP as more than just a gaming device, which could appeal to a broad consumer audience.

"PSP Go represents a new evolution of PSP, specifically designed for the digital lifestyle," he said at Sony's E3 press conference.

Samsung Marine

NEW DELHI: A submersible mobile phone, Samsung Marine provides water protection up to 1 metre of water for 30 minutes.

Encased in anti-shock material, Samsung Marine can withstand bumps, bangs, scrapes, dust and water.

The phone is adaptable for even the toughest environments -- including rain, fog, humidity, sand, and extreme temperatures. The Marine is equipped with outdoor friendly features such as external speakers, noise cancellation and a flash light.

Multimedia features include a built-in camera, camcorder, FM radio, a music player, and expandable memory up to 8GB. The phone is priced at Rs 7,030 and available in two colours.

256GB Flash Drive

NEW DELHI: Kingston has launched what it claims is the "world's biggest" USB flash drive, DataTraveler 300. After 128GB Data Traveler 200 Flash Drive marvel, Kingston DataTraveler 300 can pack a whopping 256GB.

The high-capacity USB flash drive comes with a Password Traveler software that allows creating and access password protected area on the drive called 'Privacy Zone'.

Data-traveler 300 works with Windows, Mac and Linux offering great compatibility. According to the company, it can store 10 Blu-ray discs, 54 DVD discs, or 365 CD discs.

Kingston claims that the USB drive offers read speed of 20MB/sec and write speed of 10MB/sec without any stutter in data access. For Windows Vista and Windows 7 based systems, DT 300 is already ReadyBoost enable and thus will allow Vista users to use this flash drive as memory.

The company recently launched the drive in Europe at price of 657 Euros (Rs 45, 100).

Inside Google's new OS

Google Microsoft rivalry has just got fiercer. Search giant Google is once again ready to take on Microsoft with its new operating system. The company announced Google Chrome OS on its blog this week, saying that the lower-end PCs called Netbooks from unnamed manufacturers will include it in the second half of 2010.

A high-stakes duel between the two technology powerhouses has been steadily escalating in recent years as Google's dominance of the Internet's lucrative search market has given it the means to threaten Microsoft in ways that few other companies can.

Google already has rankled Microsoft by luring away some of its top employees and developing an online suite of computer programmes that provide an alternative to Microsoft's top-selling word processing, spreadsheet and calendar applications. With Chrome OS, Google attempts to wrest away Microsoft Corp's long-running control over people's desktop.

Here's looking further what is Google's OS all about.


Open source

The new Google Chrome Operating System will be an open source, meaning the programme code will be open to developers. The operating system will run in a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel -- computer coding that has been the foundation for the open-source software movement for nearly two decades.

For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using users favourite web technologies. And these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

Announcing Google Chrome OS, Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice president of product management and Linus Upson, Google’s engineering director said it would be “our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.”

No, it's not Android

Mail to friend

It's surely open source, but it's not Android. As Pichai and Upson wrote on Google's official blog, "Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google." Google has already introduced an operating system for mobile devices, called Android that vies against various other systems, including ones made by Microsoft and Apple Inc.

Mail to friend

It's surely open source, but it's not Android. As Pichai and Upson wrote on Google's official blog, "Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google." Google has already introduced an operating system for mobile devices, called Android that vies against various other systems, including ones made by Microsoft and Apple Inc.