Wednesday, 2 November 2011

Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420 Review

The ThinkPad line of laptops from Lenovo has been setting the pace for rugged notebooks right since their inception, and recently, the company has widened the series into a number of sub categories with the T, Edge, X, SL, L, W notebooks and the X series tablets. The new Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420 is more moderately priced than the other ones in the series. Let’s have a look to see if it’s worth your money.
Brilliant design
Brilliant design


Design and Build Quality
The Edge E420 comes in an all-black casing with a silver rim along the sides of the 14-inch screen. The customary ThinkPad logo is etched diagonally on the lid. It has a matte design and hence doesn’t attract dust or fingerprints. The insides are completely black as well and the only hint of colour you’ll find on the notebook is the red trackpoint. The design is quite sophisticated, with a strikingly clean look.

 
On Video: Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420



However, the build quality was definitely a notch lower than what we expected. The build of the screen is quite poor and a slight press from the outside will show you the fragility of the chassis. The area above the DVD writer isn’t reinforced too well either. The hinges are quite sturdy, though, and there’s absolutely no vibration or wobbling. Still, it feels like the Edge E420 live up to the high quality standards that ThinkPads have always set. 

Power off USB charging port on the right
Power off USB charging port on the right


Connectivity options include a VGA port, three USB ports, an eSATA cum USB port, an HDMI port and a headphone jack. There’s also the SD card reader, Express Card slot, Ethernet port and DVD writer. The USB port on the right supports charging of external peripherals even if the laptop is switched off. The notebook weighs 2 kg and it does feel quite light whilst carrying.
Keyboard has been modified
Keyboard has been modified


The spill-proof keyboard has been heavily modified and only the most essential keys have been included. The windows key to the right side of the space bar has been eliminated and is replaced with the print screen key. The function and control keys have been interchanged as well. The F1-F12 keys can be executed only whilst pressing the Fn key and more important keys like the volume, camera, microphone, play/pause, Wi-Fi, and brightness have replaced them by default. The keyboard is arranged in an extremely neat manner and it gets full marks for functionality.

The design is classic, but as far as build is concerned; the E420 doesn’t live up to the standards that the ThinkPad series has been setting for a long time.

The Edge E420
The 14-incher E420


Features
The Edge E420 comes with Intel’s Core i3 processor, which runs at a clock speed of 2.10 GHz, and has 2 GB of RAM along with a 320 GB HDD. The graphics card is an integrated one - Intel’s HD Graphics 3000, which isn’t surprising as ThinkPads have been more performance-focussed than graphics-oriented.  


source:  http://tech2.in.com/reviews/notebooks/lenovo-thinkpad-edge-e420-review/253922


Dell Streak 5 gets DISA certification

Many may have envied the Android-based, Nexus S, when it began its space shuttle journey in July and now there’s yet another feather in Android’s cap. Precisely, we are talking about the Dell Streak 5, which gets a nod from the U.S. defense military. The Android enabled Dell Streak 5 (out of commercial sale) has now earned the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) certification, revealed a post on the official Dell Community blog.

Gets military approval
Gets military approval


This could possibly allow Dell Android devices to seamlessly find a place in military environments. Using the Android ecosystem, military members can command and control information from their desktops/PCs. On the other hand, it will enable military officials to reap benefits of a mobile and improved operating environment. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is also looking at augmenting the use of mobile devices for greater flexibility.

Dell teams up with Good Technologies to allow secure access to documents, emails and so on. The blog said, “Through the Dell Android platform and the mobile device management offered by Good Technologies’ Good for Government system, information can be passed and managed through Microsoft Exchange servers as well as network operations centers wirelessly.”

source:  http://tech2.in.com/news/general/dell-streak-5-gets-disa-certification/253932


Angry Birds hits the 500 mln download mark

Mobile gaming firm Rovio said on Wednesday its hit game Angry Birds had reached a record 500 million downloads in less than two years since its launch. "It's more than any game ever before," Rovio's marketing chief Peter Vesterbacka told a conference in Helsinki. Unlike most mobile-game crazes, Angry Birds -- in which players use a slingshot to attack pigs who steal the birds' eggs -- has stayed at the top of the charts since it was launched for Apple's iPhone on Dec 11, 2009. Vesterbacka said the company's next aim was to reach one billion fans globally, on devices including mobile phones and computers.
Whatcha looking at??
500 million downloads and counting


The gaming company is expanding the brand across traditional merchandising, to items such as toys and baby products, and is taking the birds to the big screen with film studios. Earlier this year, Rovio raised $42 million from venture capital firms in an investment co-led by Accel Partners, which previously backed Facebook and Baidu, and Skype founder Niklas Zennstroem's venture capital firm Atomico Ventures. Rovio was founded in 2003 after three students including Niklas Hed -- CEO Mikael Hed's cousin and now Rovio's COO -- won a game-development competition sponsored by Nokia Oyj and Hewlett-Packard CO. It changed its name from Relude in 2005.

source: http://tech2.in.com/news/apps/angry-birds-hits-the-500-mln-download-mark/254082


Apple acknowledges iOS 5 iPhone battery issues, fix coming soonsource:

Many iPhone users have been facing battery issues and have been resorting to forums complaining about the same once they have upgraded to iOS 5. It was believed that this issue was faced only by users who had the iPhone 4S, but it seems this problem is spread across all iPhones running the latest software upgrade. According to a report by AllThingsD, Apple has issued a statement regarding the same.
Battery fix on the way
Battery fix on the way


In the statement to the website, an Apple spokesman has said, “A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices. We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks.” Apple did not state anything else beyond when the fix would be out, but the Cupertino company has done one better and has already released an updated software to developers. This update comes in the form of a beta version of iOS 5.0.1. A report by MacRumours confirms that apart from fixing the bugs that affect the battery performance of the iPhone, there are other improvements as well.

The site notes that multitasking gestures have been added for the original iPad, bugs have been resolved with Documents in the Cloud, improved voice recognition for users in Australia that use dictation and lastly security improvements. The update seeded for developers also fixes the issue with the passcode vulnerability that was faced on an iPad 2 regarding the Smart Cover, a report by 9to5Mac notes.

Apple has addressed these issues rather quickly and now we have to just hope that the update comes out soon. Let us know in the comments below if you have been facing issues with the battery life of your iPhone and what measures you have taken to make it last till the next charging cycle

source:  http://tech2.in.com/news/smartphones/apple-acknowledges-ios-5-iphone-battery-issues-fix-coming-soon/254172


Opera Mini 6.5 and Mobile 11.5 launched

The next major release of the Opera browser for mobile devices is out. The Opera Mini 6.5 and Opera Mobile 11.5 browser were released to the public, yesterday. The browser was launched for the iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, Symbian and Symbian S60 devices. The new browser allows users to keep track of the data consumption and expenses. Opera claims that the new browser will allow users to save up to 90 percent of their data charges. The feature is accessible from under the Help menu, where users can see their temporary data usage and the overall data usage.
More data saving
More data saving


The interface also allows for easy adding of favorite sites to your bookmarks and Speed Dial list. The key difference between the browsers is that the Turbo compression is always turned on in the Opera Mini browser and users have the option to turn it off in Opera Mobile. The browsers are free for download at http://m.opera.com. In the case of iOS and Android devices, you can find the apps in their respective app market sections.


source:  http://tech2.in.com/news/apps/opera-mini-65-and-mobile-115-launched/254182


Yahoo! unveils tablet apps to get back in the game

Yahoo! which was once a prime company for web users, has been criticized for failing to move away from the computer to the mobile phones and tablets that users are now engaging with. According to Reuters, the web company has released a slew of tablet apps to get back into the game. The company is aiming at attracting third-party publishers and advertisers. The apps unveiled include Livestand which is a multimedia newstand for tablets, which was first revealed at a Yahoo! event in February. According to ZDNet, it accumulates content from various publishers including Yahoo! itself and presents the content in a magazine like format. It is a direct competitor of FlipBoard for the iPad and includes titles like ABC News, Forbes, Bike and more.
Yahoo!'s Livestand app on a tablet
Yahoo!'s Livestand app on a tablet


In addition, Yahoo! also released a weather app for Android devices, Yahoo! Weather. The app includes pictures that the web service sources from its picture sharing app, Flickr. The pictures are intended to be a visual for weather conditions in the area searched for, including time of day. So for instance, if you're searching for Mumbai weather at 8 pm, a shot of the lit up Queen's Necklace at night might appear in the background. The app will be available in 35 languages in 63 countries.

Yahoo! also released a newer version of IntoNow, which is a social media application that deals with television on tablets. The app is almost like a Shazam for tablets where it discovers what television program you are watching based on closed captioning and subtitles and will pull up recent and relevant stories about the television show.

source: http://tech2.in.com/news/apps/yahoo-unveils-tablet-apps-to-get-back-in-the-game/254252


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