Dunya TV: Copying is Bad, No, its Worst

Jagjit Singh died earlier today, a sad news. Everyone rushed for their share of airing/publishing the news.
- Read this coverage by Times of India
- Now read this coverage by Dunya TV’s
Do you feel any difference? No?
Just to mention, there’s no reference, linkback, credit, or anything mentioned on Dunya TV’s website.

source:http://propakistani.pk/2011/10/10/dunya-tv-copying-is-bad-no-its-worst/

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Posted in Dunya TV , Dunya TV’s website , Jagjit Singh died , share of airing , Times of India

Court Confines Worldoftrade.com Operations in Pakistan

A Karachi civil court has ordered Worldoftrade.com to hold it’s business operations in Pakistan due to unethical business practices adopted by the company.
In it’s interim judgment, the court said that that business carried away by worldoftrade.com, a business to business buy/sell portal, is in violation of a contract between worldoftrade.com’s CEO and TradeKey.com.
TradeKey, a business to business portal, had prayed before the court to restrict worldoftrade.com business operations in Pakistan as Mr. Faisal Qayum Siddiqui company’s CEO has violated an employment agreement and a non-disclosure agreement signed with Tradekey.
Both the companies are direct competitors to each other, and are known for offering online platform for business to business buyers and sellers. Tradekey claims to be ranked 5th in fastest growing companies of Pakistan.
Expect more developments on this story, as case is still in court and may proceed in coming days.

source:http://propakistani.pk/2011/10/10/court-confines-worldoftrade-com-operations-in-pakistan/

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Posted in a business to business portal , business operations in Pakistan , Court Confines , Operations in Pakistan , TradeKey , Worldoftrade.com

Call Saudi Arabia to Get Free Minutes: Ufone

During this blessed time of Hajj, Ufone is incentivizing it’s customers to make calls to their loved ones in Saudi Arabia to win free Ufone to Ufone minutes.
You can call any number in Saudi Arabia for Rupees 4.75 per 30 second (mobile) to receive instant 5 free Ufone to Ufone minutes.
How to Subscribe:
To subscribe to this offer simply dial *786#
Terms & Conditions:

• On time subscription charges of Rs. 5 plus tax will be charged to avail this offer
• This offer is only available for prepaid customers
• Calls made to mobile numbers in Saudi Arab will be charged Rs. 4.75+ tax per 30 second
• Calls made to landline numbers in Saudi Arab will be charged Rs. 8.99+ tax per minute
• This is a limited time offer
• Free minutes are valid for Ufone to Ufone calls
• Validity of free minutes will be 12 midnight for the same day
• This offer is for both landline and mobile numbers in Saudi Arab
• 19.5% FED on usage and 10% withholding tax at recharge or bill applies.

source:http://propakistani.pk/2011/10/10/call-saudi-arabia-to-get-free-minutes-ufone/

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Posted in Call Saudi Arabia , Get Free Minutes , Ufone

UsualWords: Taking a Shot at Social Networking Market

First a bit about the product and the company: UsualWords is a venture by a Pakistani company Mindcusp.
It recently had a soft-launch and now the website is in open beta.
The tagline UsualWords uses is "Preserve, and share your life – past, present, and future life experiences with UsualWords".
So it should be clear that its not your regular social networking site. Its not aiming to challenge Facebook, rather carves its own niche among users.
UsualWords is primarily a web-based service which allows you to preserve, and share your life with your family, friends, and people from all over the world. It’s an online network where people can share their life experiences, goals, ambitions, dreams – browse through life experiences of interest, follow friends/like-minded people, and share opinion on life experiences they like.
These days there are so many new ventures that people would just rather stick to the familiars like Facebook and Twitter. So unless a venture is providing something new or revolutionary, its going to be a bust. Which brings us to the question, what does UsualWords have going for it that would make you bookmark it?
Firstly, I think that its idea is somewhat unique. We share our lives through personal websites or blogs. But its not an efficient way of keeping up with someone. Even if the website is designed and categorized well, you usually don’t have a central hub where you can track all the people you want to keep up with. Here’s where UsualWords comes in.
What UsualWords focuses is on on sharing your life experiences. You can share memories, events, goals, dreams, thoughts or something from the other categories. Their visibility can be public, to friends only or only to you.
So it could become a personal journal of sorts which has all significant events in your life, thus providing you with a timeline of your life. It maps these experiences to the dates that they happened to provide an accurate life map. You can link keywords to your updates so people know what its about and can search for it.

UsualWords calculates and presents some statistics and trends based on the life experiences people are sharing which gives a broad insight of user’s life, and over-all community.
It tells you what part of the life user/people are sharing, and to which areas of life most of their experiences relate to. Based on these trends, application suggests you other people who are sharing part of their life you are interested in which you can follow or make friends. All of these things give a very clear picture of the person’s whole life on a single page.
Have a look at following profile (which is public in nature). At top there are profile details, with time line below it. Above timeline there are mentions of dreams, events, goals, ideas, memories, quotes, thoughts etc..

UsualWords is a product that would appeal to everyone. Whether you’re an individual, or a company, track your achievements, memories, and goals using this application. If you’re a celebrity, share with your fans the lessons you’ve learnt in this life in becoming one. If you’re a parent, mark your children’s birthday, graduation day or share anything that matters to you in life.
Recommendation of life experiences to your friends, sharing of opinions, bookmarking, centralized search, real-time notifications are some other major features which UsualWords presents.
All in all, its based on a good idea. But whether it will survive or starve and die because of a lack of users, only time will tell. The internet is a brutal place for start ups these days so lets keep our fingers crossed.


source: http://propakistani.pk/2011/10/10/usualwords-taking-a-shot-at-social-networking-market/

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Posted in Facebook , Social Networking Market , UsualWords

Jazz Jazba Offers You to Chat Live with Ali Zafar

Jazz Jazba is sure trying new things by providing you an opportunity of catching Ali Zafar live in a chat session on Jazz Jazba’s Facebook fan page, later today.
It is unclear so far on mechanism or medium of chat session, but it is anticipated that Ali Zafar will take live questions on Jazba’s fan page.
Mobilink announced in a status update on Facebook that Ali will stay live for one hour, so it’s apparent that he won’t be able to answer all the questions. But never mind – you can throw your question to see if you are lucky enough to get a response.
Ali Zafar, the brand ambassador of Jazz, is

• Where: Jazz Jazba’s Facebook Fan page: http://www.facebook.com/jazbaofficial
• When: Monday, 10 October 2011, 8 pm t0 9 pm, PST (+5 GMT)

source:http://propakistani.pk/2011/10/10/jazz-jazba-offers-you-to-chat-live-with-ali-zafar/

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Posted in Chat Live with Ali Zafar , Jazz , Jazz Jazba Offers

Alien Dalvik 2.0 brings Android apps to iOS devices

Since Android is an open source operating system, it isn't impossible to make other operating systems compatible with applications developed for it, and Myriad has done just that. In fact even on Android phones, applications run on a virtual machine called Dalvik that interprets Android applications that have been compiled to bytecode.
Myriad's Alien Dalvik technology allows Android applications to run on platforms they weren't created for by creating a compatibility layer that makes the devices resources available to the Android application as it expects them.
Now their 2.0 release promises to have Android applications running on "tablets, TVs automobiles and more", and most impressively on the iPad. This can effectively bridge the gap between different mobile platforms by making one alternative that is capable of working across devices. Another alternative is of course HTML5 /CSS3/JavaScript; open web technologies have been playing catch up with native technologies and for many applications they might be a better choice considering that such applications can bypass the limitations of the app stores.
For those wondering when they can get this technology on their non-Android phone and access the numerous Android applications out there, we're sorry to say it does not work that way. Alien Dalvik is a technology that device manufacturers can choose to integrate with their device in order for it to take advantage of the Android ecosystem; it does not work in running individual applications on individual phones.
Simon Wilkinson, the CEO of Myriad Group had this to say, "We have seen incredible momentum in Android adoption, but we are just scratching the surface. Digital screens such as Internet- enabled TVs and in-vehicle displays, along with other consumer devices like tablets and e-books are proliferating at an astounding rate. Consumers are driving multimedia evolution and are demanding more converged multi-screen services. With Alien Dalvik 2.0, we are creating a more flexible, consistent user experience by mobilizing content such as live sports, recorded TV shows and on-demand movies, so users can enjoy content seamlessly from one device to the next."
While Myriad is yet to showcase Alien Dalvik 2.0, which they will during this year's CTIA Enterprise & Applications (October 11th-13th), you can check out the following video of the previous version in action:
source:http://devworks.thinkdigit.com/Mobiles-PDAs/Alien-Dalvik-20-brings-Android-apps-to_7704.html

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Posted in alien dalvik , android , ios

Could MicroHoo go through?

More importantly, what are Microsoft's motives in acquiring Yahoo!?

 

To be honest, I can't figure out what Microsoft is up to with its online strategies. It seems to be losing plenty of money on Bing and is worried sick that Google will somehow steal all its business.

 

Which brings me to Yahoo! According to reports, Microsoft is going to take another run at buying out Yahoo! And I ask, why?

I never figured out what it wanted Yahoo! for in the first place, when the company was at $35 a share. Now, hovering at around $16 per share, it must look like a bargain by comparison. So it could be that.

 

But looking at the current iteration of Yahoo! makes me wonder why Microsoft is still interested. It already did a deal to share search engine traffic. What else is there?

Yahoo! has a good e-mail system and a lot of content, as well as excellent groups which all meet up inside the Yahoo! environment. The content is valuable for a lot of reasons.

But Microsoft has long since experimented with content and given up on the idea.

 

It all started with Microsoft Press, which became a huge player in publishing and then faded. Then in the late 1990s, until the dot-com crash, Microsoft put muscle behind online magazines. There were the usual special interest publications and a computer magazine, all well-produced and presented as state-of-the-art online magazines. The company simply lost interest.

 

It even pioneered the online "city" magazine with Microsoft Sidewalk, eventually sold off to another party. The company also developed and dumped Expedia.com. It was one experiment after another.

 

Yahoo!'s content actually pales in comparison with what Microsoft already attempted and failed.

 

I can assure you that if Microsoft ever got hold of Yahoo! it would end poorly for Yahoo! users employees alike. Microsoft is not mentally equipped to be a player in any sort of content game; it does not have the right view of the world to manage the concept.

 

Now, Microsoft might just be buying the numbers. The daily usage of Yahoo! is stupendous and the numbers look good on the spreadsheet. Also, Microsoft would acquire the Yahoo! sales folks, who could leverage the ads in Microsoft's favor.

 

After an initial boost, though, I cannot imagine what good would come of such a merger. Is Microsoft hoping to enhance social networking? Yahoo! has no clue. Microsoft already has an investment in Facebook. Why not ask them?

 

And which members of the Yahoo! advertising team cannot be bought out by Microsoft? Put a listing on Craigslist, offer more incentive, and it can have anyone it wants. They can tell you all you need to know about the Yahoo! business and how to sell ads for it.

 

When this deal first appeared, I thought Microsoft was buying a competitor to better rival Google. But with the search engine sharing scheme, it would be buying a partner already in its pocket, rather than a competitor. It's pointless.

 

Now, all the pundits could be wrong and Yahoo! may have no plans to sell anytime soon. The rumor could be a hoax. Then again, Microsoft might be considering the possibility that Yahoo! could be scooped up by Google or AOL. And if this new landscape would not benefit Microsoft, then maybe that's a good reason for it to buy Yahoo! Self-preservation.

 source:http://www.thinkdigit.com/General/Could-MicroHoo-go-through_7705.html

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Posted in acquisition , buyout , microhoo , microsoft , microsoft-yahoo , yahoo , yahoo inc

Kindle Fire vs. iPad 2 vs. Nook Color: Specs and features

Amazon’s long-awaited tablet is finally here, in the form of the Kindle Fire. The $199 tablet runs a heavily modified version of Android, hooks neatly into Amazon’s gigantic book store, and is designed for multimedia consumption and, more than anything, reading.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because the Barnes & Noble Nook, released months ago, is designed for essentially the same thing. The Nook Color is the clearest competitor to the Kindle Fire, but given the hype surrounding the new tablet, it seems more likely that the holiday season’s biggest question will be “should I get a Kindle Fire or an iPad?”

The answer to that question boils down to what you want to do with a tablet. The Kindle Fire and Apple iPad compete primarily along content lines: The iPad has iTunes, with its millions of songs, TV shows, movies and books; and the Kindle Fire has Amazon, with, well, basically the same thing. The Kindle Fire can’t compete with the iPad’s A5 processor, its 500,000 apps, or its 64GB of internal storage, but at $199 it doesn’t have to. The iPad is certainly a more impressive machine, but that may not matter to every user.

The differences between the Kindle Fire and the Nook Color boil down similarly to a company vs. company debate. The specs of the two devices are nearly the same: 7-inch tablets running heavily customized versions of Android, 8GB of internal storage (though the Nook Color has a micro SD slot), 8-hour battery life, Wi-Fi, and even similar dimensions and weight. Barnes & Noble boasts a giant bookstore with tons of periodicals, newspapers, and even children’s books; Amazon does the same. If you’re already in the Barnes  & Noble ecosystem, it’s difficult to leave it for Amazon, but Amazon’s offering of music, movies, and TV shows in addition to its book library is awfully compelling.

Of course, the rumor mill is churning with talk that a new Nook Color is in store, so Barnes & Noble could be poised to leapfrog the Kindle Fire as it did to the Kindle with its Nook Touch Reader.

Below, we’ve rounded up and compared some of the key specs and features of the Kindle Fire, the iPad 2, and the Nook Color. It’s already a very competitive tablet market, and it will be very interesting to see what people choose for themselves and their loved ones.

source:http://www.thinkdigit.com/Tablets/Kindle-Fire-vs-iPad-2-vs-Nook_7706.html

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Posted in amazon kindle fire , apple ipad 2 , barnes nobles nook , barnes noble nook color , ipad 2 , kindle fire , nook colour

Indian tablets compared: Aakash vs. Beetel Magiq vs. Reliance 3G Tab

Media is abuzz with the latest Aakash tablet. Dubbed as the “world's cheapest tablet”, the Aakash is being pitted against other low-cost tablets such as Beetel Magiq and Reliance 3G Tab. After having given you a brief guide to the Aakash tablet, we bring to you a competitive analysis between the Aakash, Beetel Magiq and Reliance 3G Tab:

Aakash Tablet

With the Aakash tablet, the Indian government aims to bridge gap between the rural India and the ongoing technology boom. The government will provide the tablet at a subsidised price of Rs. 1,730 to the students. The retail version, UbiSlate, will be available at Rs. 2,999. The ultra low cost of the device has been grabbing the eyeballs worldwide. Let’s have a look at the specs offered by the Aakash tablet.

The Aakash is a seven-inch tablet, running Android 2.2 Froyo operating system. It has a seven-inch 800x400 resistive touchscreen and is powered by 366 MHz + HD video co-processor. The tablet comes with a 2GB of storage memory, which can be extended up to 32GB via microSD. It has a 256 MB RAM. The device supports document formats: DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS, XLSX, ODT, ODP and can run PDF viewer, Text editor. It has a 2,100 mAh battery which is promised to give 3 hours of backup depending upon usage. For connectivity, the device supports Wi-Fi and can connect a datacard for 3G and GPRS. You can check out more details on specs here.

Beetel Magiq

In August, Beetel Teletech launched its low-cost Android 2.2 tablet called “Magiq”. Priced at Rs. 9,999, the Beetel Magiq is an upgraded version of Huawei IDEOS S7. The tablet runs on Android 2.2 Froyo operating system and is powered by 1GHz processor. It has a 512MB memory and supports an 8GB of internal memory, which can be extended up to 16GB via microSD card.

Moreover, the Beetel Magiq has a seven-inch resistive touchscreen with a resolution of 800x400 pixels. The device comes with a 2MP frontal and rear cameras. It also features a 2200 mAh battery, Wi-Fi, 3G and Bluetooth connectivity. In addition, it has a SIM card slot, which means you can make and receive calls as well. Check out the full-fledged review of the Beetel Magiq here.

Reliance 3G Tab

Reliance Communications forayed into the tablet market with its Reliance 3G Tab. Priced at Rs. 12,999, the tablet comes with a number of high-end features along with Reliance's data plans.

The Reliance 3G Tab runs on Android 2.3.4 operating system and is powered by an ARM11 800MHz processor. It has a 512 MB RAM and comes with a microSD card slot up to 32GB. The Reliance 3G Tab has a seven-inch TFT display with 800x480 pixel resolution. Moreover, it has a 2MP rear and VGA front-facing camera. Check out the detailed review of the Reliance 3G Tab here.

The Indian tablet market, especially the budget-tablet segment, is currently witnessing an intense competition. However, increasing number of low cost tablets is certainly adding to the confusion for the customers. It will be really interesting to see which of the budget tablet stands tests of time and creates a lasting impact. And in the meantime, we have our iPads and Galaxy tabs. Our eyes are also set on these big brands, how they cope with the raining low cost tablets in the Indian market.

source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Mobiles-PDAs/Indian-tablets-compared-Aakash-vsBeetel-Magiq-vs_7707.html

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Posted in 3g connectivity , aakash , aakash tablet , aakash tablet details , Beetel Magiq , budget tablets , cheap tablets , indian tablets , low cost tablets , magiq , rcom , reliance , reliance 3g tab , reliance tablet

Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3-iSSD Review

Today, we have rather special Z68 motherboard from Gigabyte. While most of the feature list remains the same, Gigabyte has added some enhancements of their own, which sets this apart from all the other Z68 boards in the market. Designed for enthusiasts in mind, let’s see if this is worth your time.

Design and Layout
Gigabyte has stuck with their traditional blue PCB design for this motherboard. The CPU area is quite roomy and the stock Sandy Bridge cooler fitted easily with room to spare. There’s a heatsink covering the VRM area, as well. The four memory slots are colour coded making it easy to install memory modules in dual-channel mode. There’s support for up to 32GB of DDR3 memory. The 20GB Intel SSD is placed smack in the middle of the board, so it doesn’t get in the way of other components. Although the SSD appears to be using a mini PCIE connector, it’s actually wired to use the fifth SATA port.

All layout is good with everything spaced out well

There rear I/O ports include a PS2 combo port and 10 USB ports, out of which two are USB 3.0. Furthermore, we also have two USB 3.0 headers, a special header for Gigabyte’s front panel USB 3.0 drive bay and finally a USB 2.0 header with support for On/Off charge. There’s even a Firewire, HDMI and a Gigabit LAN jack. Audio is taken care of by SPIDF optical audio out and a 7.1 channel analog audio powered by Realtek ALC889 chipset. There are a total of 8 SATA ports, four of which are SATA III. Oddly, there’s no DVI or VGA for the onboard graphics and there isn’t any adapter that comes bundled.

Supports both CrossFire and SLI

We have a good selection of expansion slots, as well. There are two PCIE slots for graphics cards, the first one runs at x16 mode, while the other runs at x8 mode. There are three PCIE x1 slots, but if you use a dual-slot graphics card, you’ll end up losing one of them. Lastly, we also have two PCI slots for backwards compatibility. Overall, the layout of the connectors are good and we didn’t have any problems setting up the rig. There’s ample space between the graphics card and the RAM slots making it easy to add or remove them. The SATA ports are placed facing outwards, so even a long card like the HD 6970 is no problem. The bundle includes four SATA cables, I/O shield plate, case badge, manual, driver disk and a SLI bridge.     

Features
You may have got a hint about one of the unique features of this board from the name itself. This particular Z68 motherboard comes with a 20GB Intel SSD attached to the motherboard, itself. The solid state drive is from Intel’s 311 series and is connected to the motherboard via mSATA. The idea behind this is to take advantage of Intel’s Smart Response Technology, which is built into the Z68 chipset. This allows the system to use the SSD to store frequently accessed files, so Windows can launch and execute programs faster even when installed on a standard hard drive. You basically get SSD-like speed and responsiveness, but with the ample storage of a regular hard drive.

CPU area is uncluttered allowing you to install larger heatsinks

Gigabyte also includes Hybrid EFI Touch BIOS, but it’s not exactly as it sounds. Hitting the ‘Del’ key upon startup still takes you to an Award BIOS screen, unlike Asus boards that allow you to use the mouse. The Hybrid BIOS feature is actually an application you install, which then lets you access some of BIOS features through the OS itself. LucidLogix VIrtu GPU virtulization is also present, which lets you use the onboard GPU, as well as the discrete graphics card, simultaneously. Other features include VRD12 compliant CPU power design, dual BIOS, support for hard drives greater than 3TB out-of-the-box, UD3 features like 2oz copper and ferrite core chokes, SATA III and USB 3.0 and turbo XHD.
source:http://tech2.in.com/reviews/motherboards/gigabyte-z68xpud3issd-review/246972

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Posted in gigabyte Z68xp-ud3-issd 20gb , Gigabyte Z68xp-ud3-issd Motherboard Review , Gigabyte Z68xp-ud3-issd Price , Gigabyte Z68xp-ud3-issd Price in India , Gigabyte Z68xp-ud3-issd Review

JBL On Air Wireless review

Portable audio docks have been around and docks designed specially for Apple’s iPod, iPhone and iPads have been in plenty. JBL has a ton of these docks and we’ve reviewed quite a few of them. Apart from a few features here and there, they are almost identical. There are a few things that make the On Air Wireless a little different.

Features
The most prominent and important feature of the JBL On Air Wireless is its ability to use Apple’s AirPlay technology. The technology works over any Wi-Fi router and it lets users stream music from iPods, iPhones, iPads and also Macs to the speaker. We setup the On Air Wireless with a Buffalo router without any issues. The installation was straightforward and it took place without any glitches.

Stylish and available in two colours

The menu on the dock is simple to understand. The Settings menu allows you to select the router you wish to connect to. Once that’s done, the same needs to be done on the device you’re playing the music from. Selecting the output device on the Apple device is the last step of the process.

Very little difference from other JBL docks for Apple devices

The display on the dock is used for navigating through the menus of the dock, but also to display album art, once you start streaming music from the docked player or even wirelessly.

The JBL On Air Wireless is rated with a frequency response range between 20 and 20kHz. The dock has a pair of 7W channel speakers. The Wi-Fi module on the dock supports 802.11g, which means theoretically, it has a bandwidth of 54Mbps. Even with obstructions, it should be able to stream music fine.

USB port, meant for the firmware upgrades

There’s FM radio support as well. An external port for connecting the bundled antenna is present at the rear of the dock. The dock also doubles as an alarm that you can place right next to your bed. There’s a large snooze button at the top of the device, so you don’t have to scamper around to find it.

 source: http://tech2.in.com/reviews/docks/jbl-on-air-wireless-review/246982

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Posted in JBL On Air Wireless , JBL On Air Wireless Review , JBL On Air Wireless Speaker System , JBL On Air Wireless Speaker With Apple Airpla , JBL On Air Wireless Speaker With Apple Airplay

Dell Vostro V3350 Notebook Review

Dell as a brand is well known for their laptops and have always launched products that can withstand the competition. Their Vostro line has been around for the last few years in the process replacing the Dimension line. These laptops from Dell are aimed at those looking for a laptop with above average features and looking to get decent performances from uses such as graphics related softwares or even a fair amount of PC gaming. The company recently launched the Dell Vostro V3350 that boasts of features such as Intel's second generation core processors, Intel HD 3000 Graphics 3000 card as well as preinstalled Windows 7 Professional. This notebook is designed especially for small businesses. Read on to see if it lives up to its predecessors.

Quick access keys on the top right of the keyboard

Design and Build Quality
Dell is targeting both genders with the Vostro V3350. The notebook we received in our lab has a Lucerne Red finish on the top and sides; the rest of the laptop has a matte black finish. This laptop is pretty simple looking but because of its colour, it has an air of style about it. The Dell branding is in silver and is located at the centre of the top panel.

Design-wise Dell has not strayed away from the conventional tried and tested laptop look used by pretty much every manufacturer across pretty much every model. The notebook has a chicklet keyboard design with the trackpad located below it. The trackpad is featured slightly to the left below the keyboard but not too far off from the centre. There is a fingerprint scanner as well on the panel surrounding the keyboard. Featured above the keyboard are three quick access keys to the top right and the on/off button is located on the other end.

Indicators at the front

Connectivity options are located on all sides of the Vostro V3350. To the right side we find the VGA port, HDMI, eSATA, 3.5 mm audio jack as well as a mic port. The connections are well spaced but we noticed that when a VGA adaptor was connected it had a tendency to slip out easily. Only when the laptop was kept extremely steady, the adaptor stayed put. On the left of the notebook are the two USB 3.0 ports, Ethernet port and the optical drive. In the front is the SD card slot which can support SD, MMC and MS card types of memory card. The optical drive slides out smoothly and we had no qualms with the build quality of the entire notebook.

The bezel surrounding the display is extremely sturdy and even after putting a fair amount of pressure, there were no backlighting issues noticeable on the display. The top panel features the HD webcam which is located in the dead centre of the upper panel above the screen. Another interesting but not unique feature of this bezel is that it has vertical rubber strips on either end of the keyboard as well as on the panel above the screen. This ensures that while closing, the laptop screen and keyboard are protected. The metal hinges are extremely smooth and do not pose any difficulty while opening or closing. The V3350 feels really solid overall and it looks like it could withstand a couple of accidental drops and come out on top.

Features
The Dell Vostro V3350 is pretty loaded with features and is perfectly suited for business professionals. The main feature is the second generation Intel Core i5 processor running at 2.30GHz. By fitting this processor, the V3350 is expected to be pretty fast in itself. As for the RAM, this notebook comes with 4GB and the internal hard disk drive has a storage capacity of 320 GB. This is pretty decent, but we would have hoped that the storage capacity would have been a minimum of 500 GB.

Two USB 3.0 ports

The graphics card used on this laptop is Intel HD 3000 graphics which is more energy efficient as compared to other GPUs from Intel. Another interesting feature of this notebook is that it comes with two USB 3.0 ports and no USB 2.0 ports, however, these ports are backward compatible. The Vostro V3350 comes with Windows 7 Professional edition, and the set up process is very simple. Apart from this, Dell has loaded some of their in-house softwares on this laptop for data backup and recovery as well as customer support. Overall, this notebook has some pretty good features and with the Intel HD 3000 GPU coupled with the Core i5 processor, the V3350 was pretty fast.

source: http://tech2.in.com/reviews/notebooks/dell-vostro-v3350-notebook-review/247112

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Posted in Dell Vostro V3350 , Dell Vostro V3350 notebook , Dell Vostro V3350 price , Dell Vostro V3350 price in India , Dell Vostro V3350 review , Dell Vostro V3350 specifications , Dell Vostro V3350 specs

First e-mail was sent 40 years ago

E-Mail might be slowly becoming obsolete, as communication mediums continue to evolve over the decades. E-mail was the first reliable way of delivering a message over ARPANET, which was the base of how the internet would be built. Although the first e-mail was sent back in October 1971, it didn’t become popular till the 90s, which was when the internet reached homes. Ray Tomlinson was the person to first send out an e-mail. The use of '@' to denote that a ID belonged to a particular entity or domain was also his brainchild. The first mail was sent using the a modified SNDMSG application and read using another software called READMAIL. As Internet Relay Chat and then instant messengers arrived on the scene, the importance and reliance on e-mail slowly dithered.

Still continues to grow

According to a story by The Next Web, some 31 billion e-mails were sent each day in 2001. That number rose to 294 billion in 2010, and it continues to accelerate. A large part of those mails is also likely to be spam. E-mail continues to be used massively in work places. Spam is said to be e-mail’s biggest enemy. An estimated 89.1 percent of all emails sent in 2010 were spam.

source:http://tech2.in.com/news/general/first-email-was-sent-40-years-ago/247252

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Posted in 1971 , 40 years old , ARPANET , E-mail , e-mail age , email , internet , Ray Tomlinson , world wide web , WWW

Beetel on a roll, announce Magiq II tablet

Close on the heels of the launch of the original Magiq tablet, Beetel have announced their new version of the Magiq tablet - the Beetel Magiq II, as reported by Telecom Talk. So what’s in the new version of the Magiq? Firstly, it will have a 768 MHz Snapdragon processor and comes with an 8GB microSD card. The phone will run Android 2.2 and will have no internal memory. As part of the specs, the tablet will also have a dual 2MP camera, comfy stand, trackpad and stereo speakers.

The form factor's the same, the Magiq II just has a downgraded processor

Here’s a lowdown on the specs of the Beetel Magiq II:

• 7-inch Resistive touchscreen with a 480 x 800 pixel resolution
• 768 MHz Snapdragon processor
• 3G, EDGE/GPRS
• Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
• 2 megapixel rear camera, 2 megapixel front camera
• GPS with A-GPS support
• 8GB memory expandable up to 16GB via microSD card
• 3.5 mm handsfree socket

The Magiq II will be priced at Rs. 9,799, while the earlier model was priced at Rs. 9,999. For a couple of hundreds less than the price of the original, it’s hard to figure out the practicality of this new tablet, as the only visible difference is the processor that is downgraded from 1GHz to 768MHz. Do you think the company can work any kind of ‘Magiq’ with this new tablet?
source:http://tech2.in.com/news/tablets/beetel-on-a-roll-announce-magiq-ii-tablet/247222

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Posted in Beetel Magiq , Beetel Magiq Buy , Beetel Magiq Price , Beetel Magiq Price In India , Beetel Magiq Review , Beetel Magiq Specs , Beetel Magiq Tab , Beetel Magiq Tablet , Beetel Magiq Tablet Features

RAGE patch out now

id Software released RAGE last week to rabid gamers and much to their dismay, it was a pretty broken game. The PC version, something most gamers hoped would be the best version out there has been plagued with issues since launch not allowing AMD and ATI users to run the game for more than ten minutes.  id’s released a patch for the game now and if you’ve purchased the game on Steam, the game gets auto-patched but be warned, this patch has now made the game unplayable for many. Either way, here’s the list of fixes it brings to the table:

Firestarter

- Implemented workaround for AMD driver crash right after intro cinematic on Win 7 32-bit systems.
- Disabled UBOs because they are causing animation issues with AMD drivers. Don’t allow swap-tear to be enabled on AMD while the extension is not exposed because it may crash.
- Support for new video settings: “texture cache”, “vsync”, and ”anisotropic filter”
- Automatically adjust vt_maxPPF based on the number of available cores.
- Improved performance for SLI cards when GPU transcode is enabled.
- Fix for GPU Transcoding option being disabled after exiting gameplay.
- Added safe mode to restore video settings to default values.
- Allow g_fov to be changed from the RAGE launch options in Steam.
- Server now forwards text chat from clients to all other clients while in-game.

Thankfully the game's working fine for us now so we can churn out our review ASAP.

source:http://tech2.in.com/news/pc/rage-patch-out-now/247272

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Posted in id Software , RAGE , RAGE buggy , RAGE game patch , RAGE issues , RAGE patch , RAGE Patch for AMD , RAGE Patch for ATI , RAGE patch Steam , RAGE problems

DoT calls complete ban on BBM 'undesirable', if RIM complies

Popular smartphone manufacturer, RIM did have to face rough waters in India over security issues pertaining to its popular messenger service on their BlackBerry smartphones (BlackBerry Messenger) and corporate e-mail service - BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES). The encrypted nature of messages which were sent to and fro across the network did not allow the security agencies to carry out any screening. This did not go down well with the security agencies in the country, as well as the government, since screening messages was crucial to the security of the country. The Indian government in general and the telecom ministry in particular, had then asked the Canada-based, RIM to come clean with the interception keys to enable real-time tracking of the BBM and BlackBerry’s corporate e-mail services or face a complete ban.

Ban imminent, unless RIM agrees

Now, according to a report in the Times of India, RIM has been blessed with a little bit of good fortune. The telecom ministry has stated that a complete ban is ‘undesirable’. However, it adds that the complete ban is ‘undesirable’, only if RIM agrees to provide the security agencies with the encrypted data in a readable format. RIM, too, had provided a solution early on, which was based on having data intercepted in real-time. The report further suggests that the solution has not been put into action right now, DoT is testing it.

source:http://tech2.in.com/news/smartphones/dot-calls-complete-ban-on-bbm-undesirable-if-rim-complies/247262

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Posted in BBM , BlackBerry Enterprise Service , BlackBerry Messenger , BlackBerry smartphones , corporate e-mail services , Department of Telecommunications , DoT , Research in Motion , RIM

Unlock your Nokia phone with your face

Many of us have passwords that either we have to type into our phones when we unlock it or swipe over a number keypad. If you want more security for your Nokia phone, you can try this. Facelock, a facial recognition security app has launched an app, which will let your face be your password for your Nokia phone. How it works is when you set it up initially, the app takes a picture of your face and saves it as code. When you then want to unlock your phone, the phone loads up the camera to look at your face again and if the codes match, you have successfully unlocked your phone.

Your face will now be your password (Image courtesy: Nokia HD Blog)

The app is currently only available for Symbian 3 phones and up, so if you're running Anna or Belle, you should have no problem with the application. The app is available for free (with a beta tag) from the Ovi Store. Does this app make you feel highly futuristic? Using biometrics means we're next going to be able to unlock our phones with our fingerprints or laser eye readers. What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.

source:http://tech2.in.com/news/symbian/unlock-your-nokia-phone-with-your-face/247312

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Posted in Facelock , Facelock Nokia , Facelock Ovi Store , Facelock Symbian , Facelock Symbian 3 , Facelock Symbian Anna , Facelock Symbian Belle , Nokia , Ovi Store , Symbian , Symbian Apps

Fujifilm announces the retro style X10 compact camera

Fujifilm have announced a range of cameras, this year across all varieties of snappers. Building upon their existing line-up of compact cameras, the company has announced the pricing of the Fujifilm X10, a new premium digital camera, which was first announced in early September. The company says, “Building on the tremendous success of the sophisticated Fujifilm X100 digital camera, the new premium compact FUJIFILM X10 is the latest addition to the growing Fujifilm X-series of advanced digital cameras.”

Retro design on the latest compact camera from Fujifilm

Some of the highlighted features of the Fujifilm X10 are:

• Sensor: 12 megapixel with 2/3-inch EXR CMOS sensor
• Lens: Fujinon 4 x optical zoom,
• Aperture: F2.8-F11
• ISO: Up to 12,800
• Video Recording: 1080p
• Optical viewfinder
• Pop-up flash
• Image Stabilizer: Lens shift type

The Fujifilm X10 will sell at a retail price of approximately Rs. 29,365 (US$ 599). No word is yet known on when this compact camera will make its way to India, but we are surely waiting for it. For more information, click the link here.

source:http://tech2.in.com/news/point-and-shoot/fujifilm-announces-the-retro-style-x10-compact-camera/247242

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Posted in Fujifilm X10 , Fujifilm X10 camera , Fujifilm X10 camera price , Fujifilm X10 Price , Fujifilm X10 price in India , Fujifilm X10 specifications , Fujifilm X10 specs

Get Gadgeted this Diwali for under Rs. 10,000

We've put together an assortment of recommended gadgets you could purchase this festive season for under Rs. 10,000.

The festival of lights is almost upon us and it's time to break open those piggy banks, get your cheque books prepped and ready for the big spend. There are gadgets galore out there and plenty of options in all budgets. What we've put together for your perusal are a bunch of best gadgets we could come up with in variuous budget categories. In our first segment of this series of articles, we'd like to start off with a Rs. 10,000 budget. We've crammed the list with devices you can get and will still leave you with a few Rupees left over. So take a look at what gadgets you can get within Rs. 10,000. Nokia X2-01 (Rs. 3,300) For the festival of lights this year we’ve chosen a mobile that’s designed to offer users comfort of use as well as some pretty decent features for the price. With its sport look and curved rear panel, handling and portability are a non-issue. The QWERTY keypad is soft and easy on the fingers enhancing speedy typing. Nokia’s X2-01 also offers quite a wide range of functionality from above average music quality to a well-designed user interface designed for easy access to all you need. It even performs well on the camera and battery front and is, overall, a well-rounded piece of mobile hardware in this price bracket. Loud, clear, bright and colorful Seagate External Portable Hard Drive 500GB (Rs. 2,500) So when you have roughly Rs. 2,500 to spend on yourself or a gift for someone else, one of the last things that might come to mind might be a hard drive, a portable one to be specific. Now, drives with 320 and 500GB capacities can be bought for roughly Rs. 2,500 in the market. Brands such as Seagate and Western Digital have plenty of options in terms of capacity but more feasability and value for money lies in the 500GB capacity. For example, the Seagate External Portable 500GB (available on Flipkart) sells for Rs. 2,559. Now, 500GB is a lot of space to store movies, photos and your favourite music with you. Install a portable operating system on it or even portable apps and you can use your own personalized operating system wherever you go. Plenty of space for your memories and more Logitech MK260 Wireless keyboard and mouse (Rs. 1,250) It’s that time of the year again when you get the official license to spend. So what better way to splurge your cash this Diwali than upgrade your computer to a wireless keyboard and mouse combo. Logitech has launched the MK260 wireless keyboard mouse combo that is stylish and most of all convenient. This combo features durability, eight hot-keys, is compact in size and has an easy to configure plug and play feature. Another neat feature of this pair is that it has 2.4GHz wireless connectivity where you can be as far as 10 meters and still have the ability to perform. The Logitech MK260 sells at a street price in India of Rs. 1,250 and this will be a nice way to add a new look to your desktop PC this Diwali. Go wire-free this Diwali source:http://tech2.in.com/features/general/get-gadgeted-this-diwali-for-under-rs-10000/246732

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Posted in Diwali , Get Gadgeted , Logitech MK260 , Nokia -X-Series , Nokia X2-01 Mobile , Portable Hard Drive , QWERTY , Seagate External Portable Hard Drive 500GB , Seagate Portable Hard Drive

Googling for 13 years and counting

Thirteen years ago, that is on 27th of September, 1998 Google Inc was registered as a company. As it turns an awkward teen, we look at the growth ...

Thirteen years ago, that is on 27th of September, 1998, Google Inc was registered as a company. As it turns an awkward teen, we look at the growth, transitions, success and pitfalls of the services offered by the brand, and its impact on the Internet at large. While the roots of Google as a search engine can be traced back to January 1996 (when it was first called BackRub), it was only after the company was incorporated that it bloomed to its full potential. Let’s take a look at what they did right and what flopped in Google’s reign so far: Google took its nascent steps into technology with the search engine, which continues to be the backbone of its operations. The success story of Google has a lot to do with its robust search optimization tools, and is rated as the most visited site as per latest Alexa rankings (the top two sites most visited in India are Google.co.in and google.com). In fact, a comScore result in August 2011 shows that Google sites make up for 65% of the search market in the US. However this journey had its share of security run-ins too, especially with the communist nations and the EU. However, everything said and done, Google did manage to strengthen its search engine roots with a variety of other products like Google Analytics and Google Maps. Maps have been a runaway success thanks to the mobile computing segment as an independent product too. It started off with just looking for what you want Google AdWords and AdSense (AdWords: October 23rd, 2000; AdSense: June 18th, 2003) How do you make a living and ensure that you pay enough salaries to not just become the best employers in the world, but also attract the brightest of minds, selling free services? Well you can't. You need resources that earn you your bread and butter and Google is no different. Google AdWords was launched on October 23, 2000 and is the company's primary advertising product that acts as its important source of revenue. The company registered total advertising revenues of over $28 billion in 2010 alone. Helping you understand the web AdSense launched on June 18, 2003 and is a program that enables AdWords advertisers to publish advertisements on website. These advertisements are placed and maintained by Google, which makes it possible to calculate revenue based on the per-click or per-impression basis AdWords model. Form this service, Google reportedly earned US$2.34 billion in 2011 alone. The success of AdWords and AdSense lies in the fact that it presented ads in an obstructive pattern, but an effective way, unlike flashy ad banners that was quite a rage in the 90s. Google Image Search (July, 2001 No confirmed date available) Google's runaway success in the search arena wasn’t merely because they focused primarily on their result base, and not flaunting ads, but also because of how they added more features to make it all pervasive. To further the process, they introduced the image search feature in July, 2001. The multilingual project was tied well with the main interface of the main search window where in users were offered to jump directly to the image search page directly through a search listing. As of 2010, the service is said to have indexed over 10 billion pages (1), with over a billion hits every day (2). And as a birthday gift, they have thrown in some new features: apart from image size, color and type, you can also sort the image results by subject. So for instance if you search for Jaguars, you can narrow it down as animals, cars, locations, etc. Quite an impressive upgrade! Now the next best thing would be image based search, akin to Google Goggles on the Android platform. source:http://tech2.in.com/features/web-services/googling-for-13-years-and-counting/246662

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Posted in Gmail , Google , Google Earth , Google ImagesGoogle Analytics , Google Maps , Google Plus , Google Search , Google Street View , Google Translate , Googlemail , Gtalk , Search Giant Google

'Aakash' tablet to reach Pune after Diwali

India’s very own low-cost tablet, named Aakash, was launched amidst much fanfare, sometime last week in the national capital. This move by the government earned it a lot of admiration from tech enthusiasts and the layman alike, since it looked at making the larger picture bright, i.e. improving the quality of education in the country. Now, while everyone across the country is anxious to own a unit of the low-cost tablet ($35), a report in the Times of India confirms that those in Pune eagerly waiting for the tablet to reach a store near them would have to wait till the end of November to see that happen. Reportedly, the manufacturer's hands are full with the manufacturing of 100,000 units of the Aakash tablet for the government, and only then would they take up newer retail orders.

Proud owners of the Aakash tablet at its launch

The Union government had prior to the launch announced that it would give out several units to the students across the country for free, for the first year. Sure enough, on the day of the launch, the HRD minister, Kapil Sibal, on behalf of the government gave out as many as 500 units of the Aakash tablet to the crowd of eager students who had assembled to catch a glimpse of the new tablet. Mr. Sibal also announced that the manufacturing company, Datawind, was already working to produce as many as 100,000 more units of the tablet, which would also be given out for free across the students in the country.

While November-end seems close, it has surely got the masses anxious.

Source:
http://tech2.in.com/news/tablets/aakash-tablet-to-reach-pune-after-diwali/247282

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Posted in $35 tablet , $60 tablet , 5-inch , 7-inch , 999 , Android OS , HRD Minister , HRD Minister Kapil Sibal , iPad killer , Kapil Sibal , retail version , Rs 1750 tablet , Rs.2 , tablets , Ubislate