A load of Nokia N9 camera and video samples surface, show potential
Camera and video samples taken with the Nokia N9 MeeGo smartphone are still scarce so understandably we got pretty excited when we stumbled upon a whole bunch of them today.
The first product of the N9 camera surfaced last week, a pretty nice-looking 720p video so we are getting optimistic that Nokia can produce another great cameraphone in the N9.
The bad news is that the new shots are hardly answering many of the questions we had. They are all taken in pretty poor lighting conditions so the handset wasn’t able to show its real potential. Also it’s quite hard to compare low-light performance across different phones, when you don’t know how dark exactly it was.
Still we got the following two shots, which compare the N9 performance to the N8 Nokia cameraphone flagship and we are glad to see that the MeeGo champion does pretty well. The N9 lacks the the large sensor of its sibling, but it seems that the ultra-fast f/2.2 lens is making up for it at least partially.
Nokia N9 ? Nokia N8
The Nokia N9 is not doing too bad compared to its Symbian competitor in terms of video recording as you can see from the following two samples.
Nokia N9 720 camera sample
Nokia N8 720 camera sample
And here go the rest of the Nokia N9 still samples from the Allnokia.ru preview for you to feast your eyes on.
Apple stops Galaxy Tab 10.1 Australian launch due to alleged patent infringement
After a court hearing in Sydney, Australia, Apple has won an agreement with Samsung that the latter won’t advertise or sell its Galaxy Tab 10.1 slate on the count of it infringing on 10 Apple patents. Those include the look and feel, and the touchscreen technology of the iPad. Samsung won’t be able to release the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia until it gets court approval or it resolves the conflict with the Cupertino-based company.
Apple sought an Australian injunction and is looking to get the same result in other countries too (unnamed for now). It comes as a great success for Apple but should it eventually lose its patent infringement lawsuit with Samsung, Apple will have to pay Samsung some heavy damages as compensation.
Another court hearing is scheduled for 29 August to see the status of the patent case and appoint a trial date if that will be necessary.
It’s been a long and tedious court war between Apple and Samsung which first started when Apple filed a suit in the US blaming Samsung of “slavishly copying” the iPhone and iPad designs and later on escalated when Samsung filed a counter suit against Apple.
Apple will make less money per unit on the new iPad, will still rake it in though
Based on some educated estimations made by analysts at UBM TechInsights, a 16GB 4G LTE variant of Apple’s newest iPad should work out to about $310 in components.
This makes it the most expensive iPad Apple have had to manufacture to date, with the equivalent iPad 2 costing $276.27 and the original iPad costing $270.86 in parts.
Of all the components going into the new iPad, the much talked about new Retina Display seems to rack up the largest part of the bill with that 9.7-inches of IPS goodness estimated to cost around $70 a pop.
The new bumper sized battery too is on the pricey side at $30 and the touchscreen is thought to cost in the vicinity of $25. The internals are estimated to cost as follows: $28 for the A5X chip, $16 for the NAND flash storage, $12.50 for the camera unit, $8.50 for the SDRAM and $7 for the WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS radios.
One thing that many noted is that despite the battery (and by proxy the physical size of the new iPad) growing from 6580mAh to an impressive 11,180mAh, the new components such as the 1GB of RAM, the new display and of course the new LTE radio mean that battery life couldn’t be improved over its predecessor.
Jeff Brown, UBS TechInsights’ Senior Analyst had this to say, “The bottom line is the new iPad’s margin should take a little hit because of some of the expensive adders like LTE, the high-res display and camera, a bigger battery and faster processor.“
So with the estimated costs of the new iPad providing Apple with 51% margin and the price-dropped iPad 2 with 53%, per-unit the company in Cupertino isn’t going to make the same money it was able to previously. That being said, this is Apple we’re talking about, they will no doubt continue to sell an unprecedented amount of iPad’s and once every new user opens the App Store, things are only going to get better for Apple.
Alleged redesigned Apple earphones spotted in Vietnam
It seems Apple is in the process of upgrading their iconic white earphones. I use ‘iconic’ only to describe the design, because when it comes to sound quality they sound about as good as a doctor’s stethoscope.
The pair you see above were spotted in Vietnam, the country famous for leaking Apple products well before launch (among other things). Gone is the flat, symmetrical design of the previous earphones that fired the sound straight into the side of your ears instead of into the ear canal. These have a more ear friendly design that should also fit more snugly and have a port for directing sound straight into your ear canal. There is also a port on the side possibly for bass reflex.
This will be the fourth redesign of these earphones since they were first introduced with the original iPod back in 2001. Hopefully, these bring with them improved drivers and better audio quality, assuming they are real. You will find more images in the source link below.
If you are much into sharing documents with your co-workers and buddies using the Google Docs I have some good news for you. The dev team standing behind the project has just unveiled the new and improved Google Docs that will serve you better than ever before.
In addition to adding many new features like margin ruler, formula editing bar, cell auto-complete and drag-and-drop columns the new version of Google Docs also improves performance and responsiveness.
The process of uploading files from a desktop computer has also been improved and the collaboration support has also been updated to support up to 50 people simultaneously.
Check out this video demo of the new generation of Google Docs.
In case you’re wondering where all that sweet features are hidden, you can check out the Google Operating System’s step-by-step guide for enabling them in Settings.
Android 2.2 Froyo blazes past iOS4 on the JavaScript track
I just stumbled upon an interesting comparison between the iOS4 and Android 2.2 and thought you it might interest you. With both running on 1GHz CPUs (the Snapdragon Scorpion core vs the iPhone Cortex-A8) the results come up somewhat surprising (for me at least).
Instead of the expected similar scores we got a clear domination of the Froyo-running Nexus One over the iPhone 4. Of course this is probably partially down to JavaScript engines of the two browsers, but the JIT compiler brought by Froyo also helps here (obviously quite a lot). And even though JavaScript performance plays a pretty minor part in the overall user experience, it’s another sweet victory for Android nonetheless.
Atari has just unleashed its Greatest Hits app, which offers 18 arcade classics and 82 Atari 2600 titles. The app is available for a free download and comes with one free game – Pong, of course.
The available games come in packs of four and each package costs a dollar. In case you want them all you’ll have to pay the bulk price of $15.
According to some users, some of the games have problems with the touch screen controls, but we guess Atari will fix all of them soon. You can get the app from the Apple’s AppStore. It’s compatible with all iPhones, iPads and iPods Touch.
There is one more interesting thing worth mentioning. The iPad’s arcade cabinet – the iCade – you are seeing above was initially designed as an April’s fool joke, but, due to the huge interest, it actually made it through production. It will become available in June and the Atari’s Greatest Hits will be the first app to support it. Nice!
Today Canon released their next-generation mid-range DSLR, the EOS 60D. Positioned right in the middle between the Canon 550D and the high-flying Canon 7D, the 60D packs the same 18MP APS-C CMOS sensor as the two previously announced Canon DSLRs.
The EOS 60D borrows the 9-point AF system of its predecessor, the 50D, and slaps the ultra high-res 1040k dot 3″ LCD display of the 550D on top, only this time the screen is articulated. The video capabilities on the other hand are identical to the ones of 7D, which is probably the best-equipped DSLR camera in terms of video recording on the market. The memory card standard chosen by Canon this time is SD as opposed to CF in 50D and 7D.
The Canon EOS 60D Digital SLR camera is scheduled for availability in the US toward the end of September, and the body only will cost about 1100 US dollars. The kit version with Canon’s EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM will set you back additional 300 bucks.
You can check out a short preview of the 60D with some samples from the camera over at dpreview.com.
Along with the EOS 60D, Canon announced four L-series lenses. Those include the telezoom EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS USM (available in the end of October for an approximate 1500 US dollars), the fisheye EF 8-15mm f/4L USM (January 2011, 1400 US dollars) and the second versions of their EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM (December, 7000 US dollars) and EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM (December, 11000 US dollars) tele lenses.
Finally, Canon updated its 1.4x and 2x teconverters. The Canon Extender EF 1.4x III & Canon Extender EF 2x III are expected to be available in December for about 500 bucks each.
You better start saving now if you want to be among the first to give some of those babies a try.
Xbox Live’s head Larry Hyrb otherwise known as Major Nelson, posted a countdown on its blog to E3 2013. It counts the days until June 11 this year when the expo kicks off and the text says: And it’s on…
Since the Xbox 360 is nearing the end of its cycle it just make sense we see the next generation announced this year.
Nintendo already announced and launched its next-gen console – the Wii U. Sony has also spilled the beans on PlayStation 4, although we can only expect it to launch next year.
Unlike previous years, Microsoft seems to push the PR for E3 quite early and I bet we’ll be seeing even more within the next few months. There is one more thing – unlike most past shows, this upcoming one isn’t expected to bring some hot sequels or smashing new IPs to Xbox 360. Halo 4 is out, Gears of War and Mass Effect Trilogies are over, and there are just few announced games that seems to deserve the gamers’ attention. Oh, and none of them is an Xbox 360 exclusive. A new Xbox should definitely be on the cards then.
The rumors from last year also suggested the next Xbox will arrive in time for the holiday season in 2013, which adds more credibility to the current one.
I just have one wish – Microsoft, please don’t name this one Xbox 720, because I don’t want to wait another 8 years just to see how you’ll call the one to follow.
Trick your Nokia N9 into landscape mode with a simple modification [VIDEO]
In case you were a Nokia N900 owner who upgraded to N9, we have some good news for you. A simple software tweak will enable your Nokia N9‘s homescreens to go into landscape mode, thus bringing you some good ol’ Maemo memories.
The modification is unofficial and takes no time to setup. It enables you to view all three homescreens in landscape mode, as well well as switch them with a swiping gesture. Check it out on in action below.
Would you go ahead and enable the function on your Nokia N9? Tell us in the comments’ section below.
Nokia 808 PureView videos emerge, give details about its 41MP camera
Nokia properly made us go WOW with their announcement of the 808 PureView and its 41MP camera sensor.
So, naturally, it’s time for Nokia to promote and to stop people from scratching their heads in wonder. Here are the 808 PureView promo videos.
And now here’s Nokia’s Juha Alakarhu, Head of Imaging Technologies, who gives more information about how the idea for a image sensor the size of Jupiter operates and what’s the story behind it.
Stay put for our hands-on of the Nokia 808 PureView and its jaw-dropping camera.
Huawei announces the 7" MediaPad - the first slate to feature Android 3.2 Honeycomb
Another Android tablet was just thrown our way by Huawei. The Chinese company unveiled the 7″ MediaPad, which will be the first slate to run on the Android 3.2 Honeycomb, which is supposed to be the edition of the Google OS best suited to smaller-screen slates.
On the hardware side of the things the Huawei MediaPad 7″ sounds pretty attractive too with its 7″ IPS LCD capacitive display and 10.5mm slim waistline. The 390 grams of weight actually make the MediaPad a pretty portable device, while the Snapdragon chipset featuring a couple of Scorpion cores running at 1.2GHz should give you all the processing power you need.
The Huawei MediaPad also offers 14.4Mbps HSPA and Wi-Fi b/g/n connectivity, plus a couple of cameras (5MP on the back and 1.3MP on the front) and 720p video recording. Given the oomph under the hood the 1080p video playback will hardly surprise anyone, while the HDMI port will let you easily stream the high-res videos to your HDTV.
The MediaPad will be available in select markets in Europe from Q3 2011, but unfortunately there’s no saying on how much it will cost. Here��s hoping they get the pricing right as this thing really seems to have good market potential.
Abra-Ca-Bacon update to Angry Birds Seasons arrives along with one of Simon Pierro iPad magic videos
Today, many of us woke up to see a new update available to Angry Birds Seasons. This one is called Abra-Ca-Bacon and we already told you it was coming a week ago.
We hope you’ve watched the update’s teaser last week. If not, well, you can already have a go at the real game yourself. Today’s topic however, is the appointment of the YouTube star, iPad magician Simon Pierro as an Official Angry Birds Magician.
And the today’s release of the Abra-Ca-Bacon update more than anything warrants the release of one of the special iPad Magic videos he’s known about.
So did you enjoy the video? And what about the game? The new update should be available simultaneously on Angry Birds Seasons for iOS, Android, PC and OS X.
Freemium is the future of mobile gaming, says Nick Earl
The freemium payment model, which is often seen in mobile games from several known developers and publishers, is criticized for the in-game item buy-ins. However, Nick Earl, the senior vice president and general manager of EA All Play reveals that freemium is the future of mobile gaming. It is also one of the major features mobile gamers want.
Electronic Arts, one of the popular gaming brands, who offer a wide range of titles for iOS and Android devices have adopted the much criticized freemium structure and have been very successful.
The freemium format, which offers in-game buy-ins after the title is downloaded for free enables gamers to access further content, levels, collectibles, and power-ups. Such in-game upgrades let you progress a lot quicker, and cost you money for obvious reasons. Of course, one can complete the game eventually without having to spend anything, but that would require more effort and time.
The entire interview of Nick Earl can be found in the source link below.
The Galaxy S Plus i9001 revisits our office in full battle gear [VIDEO]
We already had the pleasure of getting the Galaxy S Plus around our office a while back. It even guest-starred in an epic fight with the Optimus 2X and Galaxy S II and survived to head its own preview. All the while it was powered by a pre-release 1.2GHz processor instead of the final 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255T one. Now it’s here with all the toppings in all of its retail glory and you can bet it’s ready for its own review.
As we’re working on it we thought we’d at least bring you an unboxing video with a short UI demonstration.
There’s actually nothing new or shocking about this phone, but it does bring along a nice power bump to a living legend – the SuperAMOLED-wearing original Galaxy S. Apart from the great display (even by today’s standards) you get a premium connectivity set – 14.4 Mbps HSDPA, 5 MP autofocus camera, 720p video recording and 720p Flash playback in the browser among others.
As I said the review is in the works. We’ll keep you posted.
Google Goggles for Android updated to 1.4, now offers notes and smart contact recognition
Those with an Android device will most likely know Google Goggles well. The smart-camera app that can identify a myriad of logos, books, DVD’s, landmarks, artwork, businesses, products, barcodes, and text and search online for information, a website or whatever you want on them.
It can even translate written text from one language to another and cheat solve Sudoku puzzles. Well Google’s Mobile Blog have just announced it’s receiving an update on Android.
Google Goggles 1.4, along with its already impressive repertoire of tricks can now recognise business cards as contact information and allows you to directly input those details into your phonebook. There’s enhanced search history functionality too so you can add a note on each of your scans to later remind yourself about them.
A big addition is search correction. If Google Goggles doesn’t identify your scans quite as it should, you can now add or clarify what it is you’ve just scanned, the idea being the collective corrections of all the app’s users can be used to improves the app’s accuracy over time.
If you haven’t got the app yet you can simply download it from the Android Market here or scan the QR code on the source link. Google Goggles 1.4 works with Android devices supporting 1.6 and up so with that in mind, happy goggling!
LG G2 goes up in the stratosphere to film the Earth
While other companies are prepping to unveil flagships at IFA, teasing upcoming monster droids, or even keeping everything under wraps until September, LG has already announced its G2 top dog and is doing some great PR stuff.
The latest stunt LG has prepared includes the G2 taking a trip to the Earth’s stratosphere. The 1080p camcorder with OIS is put to the task to film Earth.
So the balloon did manage to take the G2 to the stratosphere and the phone did survive the freezing conditions. Even better, the G2 did some excellent aerial photos and amazing video of our home planet.
The G2 launches worldwide this month and we just can’t wait to see what it is capable of.
Even though China-made TransPhone was there first, it still seems like a Padphone knock-off
It seems that CMIT has beaten Asus to the phone in a tablet dock punch because on 28 May, two days before the Asus Padphone went official (and only five days after the initial teaser).
There﹑s not much info on the so-called TransPhone but it supposedly runs Android on a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm CPU. From the article in broken English, it seems that there will be a custom UI for this Chinese wonder-phone and an SVGA (800 x 600) screen, though I﹑m not sure if that﹑s for the phone or the tablet (or both?).
The TransPhone slides into the back of the tablet dock, but unlike Asus﹑ Padphone, there﹑s a Bluetooth headset that is slotted on the back as well. The tablet dock extends the screen of the phone and adds a USB port and what looks like an HDMI port.
The tablet also packs a large battery to charge the phone �C when plugged in the dock, the TransPhone should last 8 hours and come out with its battery full.
There﹑s no info on pricing or availability for the TransPhone.
These Nokia E6-00 camera samples are keen to convince you fixed-focus cameras are not slacking
Who said fixed-focus cameras aren’t fit for proper shooting? Nokia wants to prove that you won’t be losing anything in terms of picture quality if you go for the Nokia E6-00 and its 8MP fixed-focus snapper.
That’s why they have selected a bunch of photos taken from an internal competition at Nokia during the device’s testing. Nokia feels very proud of the photos and they really should. Despite the not fully finalized hardware and software, those photos look pretty well.
That last one is my favorite. For more camera samples, check out the source link below. You are also welcome to check out our first look of the Nokia E6-00.
We update to Symbian Anna: here's what's changed [REVIEW]
Symbian Anna debuted a while ago with the Nokia X7 and the E6 but the original quartet of new generation Nokia phones that initially launched with Symbian^3 now gets to join in on the fun as well.
We put a Nokia N8 through the update process and fiddled with it – then we decided you might be interested in a quick Symbian^3 vs. Symbian Anna comparison. X7 and E6 owners might not, but if you have a Nokia N8, C7, C6-01 or E7 you should check this out.
We’ll start off with how your phone to update to Anna. And while it’s going through the process, you can read through the rest of this article to see what changes you can expect.
Getting Symbian Anna
Before we start comparing Anna to its ^3 predecessor, we’ll go over how to update to Anna first. If you’ve bought an X7 or an E6, you’re all set, but those who have the Symbian^3 Nokias need to do this.
Now that Anna is officially out, the simplest way to update is straight on the phone. Get to the Device updates screen (either from Settings or by entering *#0000# into the dialer). Hit Options and choose Check for updates. After the phone confirms there is new software available, hit accept and enjoy Anna after the update process finishes.
Yet another way is to use the SW update app, which can be set to check for new update automatically.
Another option is to use Ovi Suite. After connecting your phone, Ovi Suite will check for updates (you can do it manually too) and will show a notification on the top row of buttons. It’s a good idea to do a backup of your phone before you start – you have Ovi Suite connected anyhow, best to be safe.
If you’re on a Mac, you have Nokia Software Updater at your disposal. It works just like Ovi Suite – connect the phone, app will check for updates and apply them if it finds any.
User interface changes – better text input, little else
It may not be immediately apparent to the untrained eye just what exactly Anna does to the homescreen to give it a nudge in the direction of usability. But after using it for a bit, you start to notice things.
We shot a new video of the user interface – check out Anna running on the N8:.
The new style icons might be the first thing that hits you – the simple, rounded icons are a god new look for Symbian – or it could be that scrolling the homescreen is much more tangible. You “push” the homescreen sideways and it moves, instead of the old homescreen that moved only after you’ve finished with your swipe.
The Symbian Anna homescreen is not very different from the Symbian^3 homescreen
Other things haven��t changed however – the hierarchical menu that is a throwback to a past era is still here. You can rearrange your icons, but the flat menu structure that iOS and Android have popularized is hard to achieve.
Same old same old menu
The task manager that only fits three apps at a time hasn��t changed either – landscape mode offers much more space but it still only fits three. If you’re not in the habit of closing your apps, you’ll have to do quite a bit of scrolling to switch between them.
The one UI change that really makes Anna a must-have for Nokia owners is the new text input – lo and behold the split screen keyboard.
In previous versions of Symbian you had two options – go to a new screen to enter your text on a full-screen landscape QWERTY and then go back or use that tiny, movable QWERTY keyboard that was basically a pain in the butt.
Anna however enables the portrait QWERTY, which overlays the bottom half of the screen and lets you stay in the app and type simultaneously. Besides letting you enter text without flipping the phone to its side and without going back and forth in the UI, it enables more subtle changes – like autosuggestion in the web browser that actually works.
The keys on the portrait QWERTY are a bit small, despite the available screen estate. Still, you can activate word prediction, which will fix the word you’re trying to type and show a small popup with the word you actually typed, in case you’re trying to enter something like a user name (which doesn��t have to be a valid word, in fact word prediction in this case gets in the way).
The new portrait QWERTY doing the split-screen ? old keypad-style keyboard
The landscape QWERTY keyboard is also available in split-screen mode and it offers bigger, easier to hit keys, making it the preferred option for entering long text.
Still, it’s not perfect – several apps would popup the old text edit screen, covering the app screen even though we were using the portrait QWERTY. The Ovi store app is an example of where that happens, which was a little disappointing.
The landscape keyboard does split-screen too
So, while Symbian Anna isn’t a huge change in the interface department, it does sand away some of the rough edges of Nokia’s aging OS.
However, some of the native apps also received an update, which improved the general functionality of the phone.
Native Symbian apps were updated too
The most noticeable change is in the web browser – it’s a lot user friendlier now, with its proper URL bar (thanks split-screen QWERTY!), the always visible back button (vital for navigating web pages) and things like manually opening new tabs (before Anna the only way to open a new tab was to set a link open in a new tab).
Those are changes we’ve been expecting for ages and we cheered when Nokia put them in the X7 and E6. And now, Nokia’s first wave of new Symbians can enjoy it too.
The new browser has improved user interface
But Anna is not Froyo – Flash is still pretty much no-go on Symbian, with only Flash Lite 4 supported. So, no watching YouTube videos in-browser or playing Flash games. And the new interface, as much as it improves on the old one, is still miles behind Mobile Safari and the Android browser.
Another native Symbian app that got a major improvement is Nokia Maps, which went up to version 3.06. That’s the version you get with the new OS update, but v3.06 is available for older Symbian versions and older phones too, so you’ll only see a difference if you haven’t updated Maps separately.
Ovi Maps gives you free lifetime voice-guided navigation over the excellent Navteq maps
Still, the new version brings a redesigned menu and improved search functionality. Also, public transport lines are available on the maps with the new version and you can download country maps directly on the phone (you no longer need a computer to do that). Social network check-ins are also part of the new package.
Speaking of SNS skills, Anna adds a few niceties here too – you can check out the latest status updates by your friends in their contact cards in the phonebook, you can upload high-res images and add captions to them too. Retweeting has also been added as an option.
Reading the latest status updates from a contact
Finally, the Store has been updated and can now download bigger apps over Wi-Fi but there are no visual changes.
Conclusion
Symbian hasn��t seen any groundbreaking changes in its recent history and Anna isn’t one either – like the jump from ^1 to ^3, it’s an incremental update that improves things but leaves some rough edges untouched.
Don’t get us wrong – Anna is the best that Symbian has to offer right now (until Belle arrives anyway) and people with an N8, a C7, C6-01 or E7 should update as soon as possible – the browser alone is a good enough reason.
N8 owners have a special incentive too – with Anna installed, they can apply the camera update and enjoy 30fps videos with continuous autofocus (and a slightly better UI). Let’s face it, people bought N8s chiefly for its camera, so Nokia continuing to improve it is commendable. We’ve covered that in another post.
Still, the number of things left that need changing is much longer than the list of things that have changed. On the other hand, after Nokia announced they’ll be focusing on Windows Phone 7, we were worried about Symbian’s future.
It turns out those worries were unfounded – with Anna out now and Belle just around the corner (and there are 1GHz Symbian devices out too), Symbian seems more alive now than it was a year ago.
There’s a long way to go before it catches up to Android, but we’ll be following it (and reviewing it) every step of the way.
What are your impressions – is there still fight left in Symbian or are these updates just a stopgap measure while we’re waiting for the Nokia-made WP7 phones to show up?
