Best Dual SIM Phones for 2012

Dual SIM phones are not restricted to low end phone category now, many Android smartphones also has dual SIM feature now a days. If you are going to make a wise purchase decisions which aims at more connectivity and affordability have a look at these dual SIM phones which comes with the best features and is worth buying.

1. Samsung Hero Music:

This phone supports dual SIM cards and allows user to switch between them according to their preferences. This device is the best solution for any budget concerned music lover who wants everything in one short. Samsung Hero Music comes with microSD card slot supporting up to 4 GB of memory, Bluetooth 2.0, onboard loudspeaker, a 1000 mAh battery giving 11 hours of music and talk time and weights only 73 grams. This phone available for just 1,600.

2. Samsung Champ Delux Duos:

Samsung Champ Duos supports dual SIM GSM networks and features dual SIM standby which allows user to switch between SIM by just a push button. This trendy looking phones sports 2.8 inch full touchscreen display, stereo FM and MP3 player, TouchWiz lite 2.0 user interface, 2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, USB 2.0 connectivity and also has social networking features like ChatOn, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo Messenger and Gtalk. You will not think twice if you just have to pay 4,000 for this high performing device.

3. Nokia C2-03:

This dual SIM device is coupled with both touchscreen and type input which make this phone one of its kind. It features easy access to SIM slots due to which users can change the SIM without switching off the phone. It sports a 2.6 inch display, 2 megapixel camera, multi format audio player, FM radio and runs on S40 operating system. This phone has an MRP of 4,800.

4. Micromax Superfone Lite A75:

Micromax is the one who realized the need of market and came up with dual SIM phones which made them garb a big pie from the market leader Nokia. Micromax Superfone Lite A75 is the second one in its Superfone series and features 3.7 inch capacitive touchscreen, dual camera (3 megapixel rear camera and 0.3 megapixel front camera), 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, 32 GB expandable memory via microSD and works on Google Android 2.3 Gingerbread with its 650 MHz processor which makes it the cheapest dual SIM smartphone costing only 8,990.

5. LG Optimus Net Dual:

This dual SIM phones runs on Android v2.3 Gingerbread OS and has a speedy 800 MHz processor along with a 3.2 inch TFT LCD screen with 480 x 320 pixels resolution, 512 MB of RAM, internal memory expandable up to 32 GB via microSD and 3 megapixel camera. It also sports Bluetooth, WiFi, 3G, USB and is powered by a 1500 mAh Li-ion battery. This phone comes with a price tag of 11,000.

It feels uncomfortable to type on the touchscreen device after using the comfy physical keyboard. All Android devices are pre-installed with best typing user interface but here are the five best typing apps which make typing painless on touchscreen devices.

1. Swype

The Swype app is a faster and easier way to input text method for touchscreen Android devices. The app allows users to enter words just by sliding one continuous finger or stylus from letter to letter on the screen keyboard.

The app has an error-correcting algorithm which features to guess the intended word and avoids incorrect letters. It is designed to work across a variety of devices like smartphone, tablets, game consoles and more. It is available for free in the Android market and Swype’s official website.

2. TouchPal

The TouchPal app is similar to Swype app; it brings a whole new input text method experience to an Android devices. You can blindly type on your touchscreen without worrying about mistyped words. This app is an alternative text input method to the traditional physical keyboards as it combines two letters and a symbol on each key and gives a full QWERTY keyboard layout.

The app is designed and developed by CooTek and is available for free on the official website and in the Android market.

3. ICS keyboard

Google has rolled out its new operating system Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich with lots of interesting features and one among them is its keyboard layout.

The Android marked had a separate app for non Android 4.0 users who can download ‘ICS keyboard’ and enjoy all the features like multi touch, auto correction, built in dictionary and speech to text. This app is available in multi language for free.

4. SwiftKey X

SwiftKey X app has made typing much easier for fat-finger typists on touchscreen devices like smartphone and tablets. The app gives much more accurate corrections and predicts words than any other keyboard and also supports almost all languages. The app is available for 193.10 in the Android market and is one among the best selling app.

5. Go Keyboard

The Go Keyboard app is one of the most popular free apps in Android market. The app features multi-point touch keyboard, slide input like Swype and TouchPal and auto corrects as you type. The interesting feature in this app is that you can personalize the theme for the keyboard layout. The app also supports multi languages and is available for free in the Android market.

The 3 Android Charms in Last Two Months

Before the happening of MWC (Mobile World Congress) 2012 at Barcelona in February, we have already came across some favorite releases in the Android market in past two months (December and January). Have a look at these devices which were unveiled recently and are all set to hit and define what to look forward in the smartphone market this year.

1. Samsung Galaxy Nexus:

This new hire of Galaxy family which was launched in December 2011 is the first smartphone to come up with Google’s latest version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It has a 4.65-inch 1280×720 Super AMOLED display, 5MP rear camera (1080 video capture), 1.3MP front-facing camera (720p video capture), 1.2GHz dual-core processor. Some drawbacks in this devices are; the size is a bit odd-can’t handle with one hand, there is no preloaded Google wallet. Galaxy Nexus will reach Indian market only by March and will be available for around 35,000.
2. LG Spectrum:

LG raised its curtain from LG Spectrum in the middle of January 2011. This new smartphone runs on Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread and sports 4.5-inch True HD 1280×720 Display, 8MP rear camera (1080p video capture), 1.3MP front-facing camera, 4GB of built-in storage space which can be expanded up to 32GB via a microSD card slot and a 1.5GHz dual-core processor. This phone is quite affordable, will cost you only around 10,000.

3. Motorola Droid Razr Maxx:

Droid Razr Maxx is in all news for its incredible battery life of 20 hours continues talk time. The phone was launched few days back with two major features; a 3300 mAH battery and 32GB storage. It also has a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED advanced 960×540 display, 8MP rear camera (1080p video capture), 1.3MP front-facing camera (720p video capture), a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and works on Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread. Its price and availability in India is not confirmed yet, but it is expected to cost around 30,000.

A Robot which Moves on a Ball

Crafted by a team of Swiss engineers and designers, the ballbot follows people around and can carry heavy loads with a grace of an ice-skater.

Ballbots are robots designed to move on a single sphere instead of wheels. This allows for omnidirectional, organic motion, exceptional agility and manoeuverability unlike other robots which usually have a linear motion.

Members of the team and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich (ETH, Zurich) students, Thomas Kammermann and Jerome Kaser, talked to reporters about Rezero at the Swiss embassy here.

"While designing Rezero, the main focus was on refining the technology. Developing the applications comes later," Kammermann told IANS.

"Rezero moves on a hollow, specially coated aluminium ball and 3 omni-wheels powered by space-grade motors for powering the locomotion. The bot uses microprocessor-based systems to communicate with the operator and a laser-based radar system to lock onto someone (or something) to follow," said Kammerman.

Rezero's very small footprint and dynamic stability made it particularly suited for applications in narrow, crowded and dynamic environments.

"This design is very suitable for applications such as carrying medical equipment or surveillance in crowded areas and since this is a dynamically stable system, its stability gets better as the centre of gravity gets higher. This means, the Rezero gets more stable as more load is piled on it," Kammerman said.

According to Kaser, the focus of design was agility and stability.

"Currently, Rezero can move at a top speed of 3.5 metres per second and has been tested to bear loads up to 20 kilos so far," said Kaser.

Ballbot is not a new concept but Rezero has been making news in robotics circles for its next generation performance. The next stop for the 13-member team is Kanpur where they will exhibit Rezero in Techkriti, the tech-fest of IIT Kanpur.

Aakash Users Face Trouble

With growing grievance of Aakash users including unresponsive screen, OS hanging, cacophonous sounds and poor customer care, the most popular yet cheap tablets released in partnership with Ministry of Human Resource and Development is now facing a death knell.

The ministry may refuse to extend the letter of credit (LC) to DataWind, which lapses this month end, according to the report from India Today

Aakash tablet was designed for students with the aim of filling the 'digital gap' between the rich and the poor. But with the negative feedback, government now plans to dump these problematic tabs to rural villages. Worse still is the fact that the entire project launched by HRD in October last year could be shelved.

The idea initiated by Union Minister Kapil Sibal for an affordable tablet has been hijacked by corporate giant, Mukesh-Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd, which plans to launch its fourthgeneration (4G) services later this year and sell tablets at cheap price of around 3,500. According to industry analysts, Mukesh's RIL could probably team up with DataWind or with any other to launch 4G services. RIL is the only company to have pan-India spectrum to offer wireless broadband services on the 4G platform.

The Ministry had initially placed an order for one lakh units of Aakash. It received 30,000 tabs in the first consignment. But it proved a disaster after poor feedback received from users. The tablets had a seven-inch touchscreen, Android 2.2 OS, 366 MHz processor, USB ports, and 180 minutes of battery power. Datawind is also launching an improved version with a 766 MHz processor instead of the 366 MHz processor, and a better battery life.

As quoted by India Today, DataWind had refused to upgrade the second shipment of 70,000 Aakash tablets with improved specifications. However, it will supply the second tranche of improved tablets at the original price of 2,250. But IIT-Rajasthan, which is a tendering authority for the Aakash project has not come out with the new testing standards. Authorities said this is a clear indication that DataWind's LC will not be extended,. It will now be supplied by other agency and not DataWind.

But DataWind has successfully managed to get over 20 lakh bookings for new versions. of Aakash tablet costs at Rs 2,999. According to company officials, the LC would be extended beyond January 30.

Lenovo K800: First Intel Inside Smartphone

Lenovo launched its new Smartphone - K800, the first of its kind to run on Intel's 1.6GHz Medfield processor at CES 2012 in Las Vegas. With this new venture Intel is all set to make its entry into the Smartphone chip market.

Lenovo K800 smartphone come with a 4.5-inch a TFT display with 720p, Intel's 32-nanometer mobile chip dubbed Medfield, which is part of Intel's Atom line and runs on Android 4.0 OS. The phone also has an 8 megapixel shooter with dual-LED flash and a front-facing camera for video calling, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS connectivity and Wi-Di (Wireless Display), near-field communication (NFC) for mobile payments and a HDMI port. K800 is also able to stream video to TV sets equipped with Intel's Wireless Display technology. This phone will be available in the market by the second quarter of this year; its price is not disclosed yet.

Motorola has also made deals with Intel to come up with smartphones and other devices having Intel processors. Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc CEO Sanjay Jha at the CES said that the company will have Intel-powered phones in testing this summer and ready for consumer hands a few months later.

Intel has also announced its plans with Google to make a worldwide architecture for Smartphone chips for Google’s Android based systems. Presently this market is ruled by ARM Holdings, producing chips with amazing performance. Intel’s entry into this field and its success will become quite visible in this year.

I'm Watch: An Android Smart Watch

Wearing your Smartphone at your wrist sounds interesting, isn't it? “I’m Watch” from Italy has launched a smart looking Smartwatch at CES 2012 which runs on Android - 1.6, has music player, Twitter, Facebook and weather apps. It also has access to an app store for additional functions and is compactable with your Smartphones through Bluetooth.

I’m Watch comes in a variety of models, ranging from aluminum to gold to carbon and has 1.54-inch display with the resolution of 240×240, 64 MB RAM and 4 GB ROM and a non-removable 600mAh battery providing a 2 hours back-up and 48 hours back-up in stand-by mode. The device connects your iPhone or Android phone via Bluetooth 2.1., so you can see who’s calling you in your watch screen. It's has also got a nice touch-screen interface due to which it is easy to move between apps.

To owe this tech luxury item you have to shed $299 for the basic model, for other fancy or gold version you have to pay a lot more. The product will be available in the U.S. market by this quarter. Its reach and price for Indian market is not declared yet.

India's First Robotic Training Centre for Doctors

Promising a new dimension to the future of robotic surgery in the country, India will soon be getting its first training centre for the technique, a robotic surgery firm said here Saturday.

"India has immense scope for robotic surgery. What we need is skilled manpower for doctors who can conduct the surgery. Vattikuti Foundation will open the first such training centre in Chennai by the end of this year for doctors from all over India," said Mahendra Bhandari, CEO of the Vattikuti Foundation, at the ongoing global robotics conference here.

"It will be our first step to help overcome the shortage of high-quality training on robotic surgery in India. The centre will provide services of skilled surgeons at affordable costs. By 2016, we expect 30,000 surgeries to be done annually with the new technology," Bhandari added.

The foundation has collaborated with hospitals in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and other cities to provide robot-assisted surgeries. Among the government hospitals, All India Insitute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) conducted the first such surgery in 2008.

While the surgery is conducted by a four-armed robot, the movements of the robot are controlled by a trained doctor. An arm of the robot controls the camera and the other three hands manipulate the surgical instruments. The entire surgical process is observed via a high-definition 3D vision system known as the Da Vinci surgical robotic system.

According to experts, the surgery is expected to find more takers when the cost comes down in the times to come.

"Till now, the robot is manufactured by California-based Intuitive Surgical. One particular company maintains monopoly in the market, competetion could help us bring down the cost," said Gagan Gautam, senior consultant and head of uro-oncology and robotic surgery at the Medanta Kidney and Urology Institute.

"Robotic surgery cannot replace conventional surgery. But it has many advantages over traditional surgery since it is minimally invasive, reduces hospital stay of the patient by initiating a quick recovery, reduces blood loss and helps with greater precision and visualisation," Gautam said, adding that "there are lesser complication".

Robotic surgery is available for a range of conditions such as thoracic (throat), cardio-vascular (heart), urology, gynaecological surgery, and cancer surgeries among others.

e-tutor, India's First Cloud-based Tablet Solution Launched

Sam Pitroda, advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Wednesday launched the country's first cloud-based tablet solution for school students called 'e-tutor tablet'.

This can be used by students from Class 1 to 12.

Priced at 7,500, inclusive of content, the product would be available in the market from April onwards.

The e-tutor tablet is a joint effort of Technopark-based e-tutor and Oztern Technology.

Ranjith Balan, founder and managing director of e-tutor, said that this will be the first complete solution for education to be made available on Tablet PCs.

"The teacher can easily explain concepts using the digital whiteboard that is set up in the Tablet PC. Using e-tutor learning tablet the students can access what was taught in the classroom and can also access the collaborative learning platform for discussions on relevant topics taught in the classroom," said Balan.

The product is also aimed at making internet a safer place for children. E-tutor tablet safeguards the connectivity from the personalized Tablets PCs provided as a part of the solution, and restrict it to connect to internet only through the synchronization module in the product.

Detailing on the technology, Saiju V. Stella, CEO of Oztern Technology, said cloud computing technology can bring about a major leap in the way technology is being used in the educational sector.

"Most of the technology products available in the market today for education act as teaching aids rather than learning aids. Cloud computing also fulfills another major social commitment by reducing the carbon emissions, from dedicated servers and data centres that consume huge amounts of energy, thus making computing more energy efficient and green," said Stella.

Lessons will be made available to the learner through personalised Tablet PCs, and regular content updates will be made available through a unique cloud - tablet synch mechanism, thus making sure that the device connects only to the relevant locations to access content.

Rajinish Menon, director, Business Strategy and Operations, Microsoft, who was present at the occasion, expressed his happiness to see partners like Oztern coming up with innovative solutions in the education sector using Microsoft Windows Azure which is Microsoft's cloud computing infrastructure.

Cloud computing is a technology that uses internet and central remote servers to maintain data and applications. Cloud computing allows consumers and businesses to use applications without installation and access their personal files at any computer with internet access. This technology allows for much more efficient computing by centralising storage, memory, processing and bandwidth.

Watch Out, Headphone May Cost Your Life

Researchers have found a dramatic rise in injuries to people using headphones while walking on the streets and have warned of serious accidents involving pedestrians using electronic devices, such as iPods and mobile phones.

There is rising concern about the near trance-like state people can apparently enter while using mobile phones, MP3 players or electronic personal organisers, the Daily Mail reported.

Psychologists view it as "divided attention" or "inattentional blindness".

The research, published in the Injury Prevention journal, analysed US data taken from US National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Google news archives and a university research database between 2004 to last year on injuries to pedestrians using headphones.

Cases involving mobile phones, including hands-free, or cyclists were excluded.

There were a total of 116 reports of death or injury, jumping from 16 in 2004-05 to 47 in 2010-11 during the study period. In a total of 81 of the 116 collisions, 70 percent led to person's death. In a quarter of the cases a warning such as a horn or siren was sounded before the crash.

Two out of three victims were men and under the age of 30, with around one in ten of all cases under the age of 18. Nine out of ten cases occurred in urban areas and more than half of the victims were struck by trains.

Google Search Kills Human Memory

With technology penetrating every part of our lives, we have learned to search for information on the internet. But could this practice be altering the way we store and process information? A new study has revealed findings that could just go to show that Google could be destroying our memories.

Psychology professors from the Columbia University, the University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Harvard University came together and published the study that said people “remember less by knowing information than by knowing where the information can be found”, essentially meaning that we tend to forget information searched for, and rather remember where on the internet it can be found. “The Internet, with its search engines such as Google and databases such as IMDB and the information stored there, has become an external memory source that we can access at any time,” said the study. “It has become so commonplace to look up the answer to any question the moment it occurs, it can feel like going through withdrawal when we can’t find out something immediately.”

The four tests that the professors conducted on individuals in short, confirmed that searching for information on the internet could be wiping out our “internal memory”, which stores data. “When people expect to have future access to information, they have lower rates of recall of the information itself and enhanced recall instead for where to access it”, said the study.

So instead of remembering data, say what happened during an event, we tend to remember which sites we saw that information on, or where on Google we found the site.

According to the study “These results suggest that processes of human memory are adapting to the advent of new computing and communication technology. We are becoming symbiotic with our computer tools growing into interconnected systems that remember less by knowing information than by knowing where the information can be found.” “This gives us the advantage of access to a vast range of information—although the disadvantages of being constantly ‘wired’ are still being debated”, concluded the professors in the study.

Now Blood Flow will Secure your Laptop

Fujitsu announced a biometric authentication system based on palm vein pattern recognition technology to secure your laptops. This technology is named “PalmSecure” has been in use in many business application in Japan for past few years and now the company is planning to make its presence left in consumer electronics too.

Plam-scanning technology is already there in mice and physical keyboards, but now Fujitsu is stepping up in this authentication technology to incorporate it in to laptops and other devices to make them more secure. Laptop having PlamSecure is already available in Japan and now devices with this technology will be available in North America too.

This technology can also be used for Physical access control / Time and Attendance, Government / Commercial identity management systems and in OEM terminal devices.

Joel Hagberg, vice president of marketing and business development at Fujitsu says “Fujitsu looked at a range of products and determined that vascular authentication--reading vein patterns and specifically in the Palm is the best. PalmSecure takes a snapshot of blood moving through your vein. They call it Liveness Detection, which means you have a live body with biometric authentication which makes it very hard to fool the device.”

PalmSecure palm vein biometric authentication device is already available in India costing 15,750 per sensor, but Indian market has not yet seen any devices like laptops and tablets which comes with plamSecure.

Cyber Threats and its forms

Cyber Threat is the possibility of a malicious attempt to damage or disrupt a computer network or system. Government agencies and public sector companies have been provided with information and guidance to help improve their cybersecurity efforts with a report issued this week by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

The security incidents in the federal agencies have increased considerably over the past few years and hence a community of help on the security front is needed as per a report by GAO.

Below is a list of some of the common and rare forms of security exploits that federal agencies and private organizations usually face. This list was given by the GAO its report that was issued this week.

Virus: A computer virus is a program or a piece of code that is loaded onto the computer without the users knowledge and wish, which can replicate on its own into a system, spread from one computer to another and also spread through emails, they are capable of destructing data on the computer and even erase everything on a HDD. All computer viruses are man-made.

Worm: A computer worm is a program that can execute and reproduce independently unlike viruses which require human involvement. They are self replicating and use network system to propagate. They travel across network to send copies of itself to other network or computer.

Trojan horse: Trojan horses are programs or applications that hide within programs that seem to have certain harmless function but inadvertently opened they actually perform other, often malicious that invades security mechanism.

Cross-site scripting: Cross site scripting is also known as XSS. This happens when an attacker sends malicious scripts or links through third party web resources to run these scripts on the users web browser. The user/victim who intends to view secure webpages often ends up visting these malicious websites through which the attacker can steal content/data, cookies and other sensitive information retained by the browser.

Denial of Service (DoS): DoS is an attack wherein legitimate users and organizations are deprived of services and prevented from accessing networks and computer resources.

Distributed Denial of Service: It is a variant of DoS wherein large number of compromised systems or multiple systems flood the resources to attack a single target.

Phishing: Phishing is an attempt to acquire information by sending out legitimate looking emails to the users requesting them to give user name, password and other related details.

SQL injection: It is a security exploit and an attack technique in which the Structured Query Language(SQL) code is added to a web form input box to exploit recourses or gain access to sensitive information in a database.

Logic bomb: Logic bomb also known as lag code is a programming code inserted intentionally into a software system which gains entry into a computer to cause malicious function when certain conditions are met.

War driving: War driving is an attempt to map unsecured Wifi Wireless networks while driving through the city or a particular location using personal wireless equipped computer or PDA.

Zero-day exploit: As the name is self explanatory zero day exploit is nothing but exploiting or taking advantage of security vulnerability which becomes generally knows. The main point here is the security vulnerability is exploited on the same day when its discovered.

Passive wiretapping: At times passwords are transmitted in clear text across communication links tapping or monitoring of such data is known as passive wiretapping.

Recharge your Phone With a Spoon of Water

“PowerTrekk” a new recharge system developed by Signa Chemistry along with Stockholm's myFC produces electricity with a spoon of water which can be used to recharge your phone, GPS devices, iPod/mp3 or camera when you are far away from power outlets. This system doesn’t use sunlight; you just need a tablespoon of water to make it working. Unlike solar chargers PowerTrekk is light weight and generates power more quickly and reliably. More over it doesn’t need clear water, so you can use any type of water whether it is from a stream or a pool, hard water or soft water it really doesn’t matter.

PowerTrekk acts both as a portable battery pack and a fuel cell which makes it a 2-in-1 solution. This 2-in-1 portable charger is the first one to use Mobile-H₂ technology (Mobile-H₂ cartridge called a PowerPukk) in addition to a Li-ion battery pack. These PowerPukk fuel packs are offered in three forms; 5-pack Tube, 10-pack Tube and 24 ct Tray.

When the PowerPukk is placed inside the PowerTrekk and a tablespoon of water is added to the core part of PowerPukk, then the device’s Proton Exchange Membrane starts to convert the hydrogen into electricity. It can generate an output of 5V, 1000 mA and can store the power in its Li-ion battery if not used right away.

Björn Westerholm, CEO of myFC says “PowerTrekk is one renewable solution where millions of phone users lack easy access to a reliable supply of electricity for charging, especially outdoors and with the PowerTrekk if the internal battery/buffer is full it will charge more than 2 smartphones or 15 iPods.”

The company Signa has major plans based on this system and is determined to see this system working in electric bikes and cars. The company also sees an opportunity in rural parts of the world where there is lack of power supply now and this system can be used as an alternative source. Future of this system seems quite bright as the whole world is trying to find alternatives for power sources along with go green motto.

PowerTrekk comes in three colors;green, red and yellow and is expected to reach the stores by May having a price range of $200 to $250 and the replacement tins (PowerPukk) will cost $4. We expect to see PowerTrekk soon in Indian and hopefully at an affordable price as it will be a boon to Indian villages, but for now the there is no information about its availability or cost in Indian market.

Nokia Launches Affordable Dual-Sim Phones in India

Targeting the middle and low level segment in India, Nokia has launched three new affordable mobiles devices in India. Nokia introduced its first Asha series to the Indian market with Asha 200 and Asha 300 along with an addition to X series, X2-02.

Asha 200 is Nokia’s first dual-sim with QWERTY keypad with 2.4 inch display powered by S40 operating system. Other features like 2 MP camera with 4X zoom, dual-sim capability with dual stand by, Bluetooth, enhanced stereo FM radio with recording. Asha 200 is now available in India at 4349.

It also has dedicated keys for sim management and messaging. With sim management key you can manage and personalize up to 5 sim cards with specific ringtones and themes, by this you can simply change the sim card and no need to set up every time. The dedicated messaging key offers one click access to email and chat through Nokia messaging or social networking sites Facebook.

Asha 300 features 2.4 inch QVGA resistive touchscreen display along with keypad and 5 MP camera, powered by 1 GHz processor, 128 MB RAM, 140 MB of internals storage and it can be expandable up to 32 GB. This touch and type is available at the price of 7,409.

The other mobile Nokia X2-02 is launched along with Asha series, it also offers dual-sim with sim management options as in Asha 200. It also features 2 MP camera and FM radio, 32 GB expandable memory and runs on S40 OS. This device is available for 3,599.

Nokia also offers 3 months subscription to Nokia’s Music Store with the purchase of all these handsets. These three mobiles come with DRM (Digital Right Management) music service which gives access to 40 lakh legal digital sound track from Nokia.

Smartphone Can Save Lives in Natural Disasters

A smartphone software could quickly and accurately locate missing people, identify victims of malnutrition and effectively head people towards safe zones.

The smartphone system developed by Gavin Brown and his team Peter Sutton and Lloyd Henning at the University of Manchester is the 'REUNITE' mobile and web platform.

"Our results have demonstrated that mobile intelligent systems can be deployed in low-power, high-risk environments, to the benefit of all involved," said Brown.

In the aftermath of a major disaster, aid workers typically interview people who have been separated from their families, storing these records on paper documents, which can be lost, damaged or be illegible, according to a Manchester statement.

REUNITE records the initial interview using the smartphone, and uploads these onto a central server. These can then be accessed by trusted aid workers via computers in another location, who gather as much information as they can by liaising with other users in a similar manner to a social network, before passing details onto aid workers on the ground.

The interviews would be quickly transcribed into a web-searchable format which could be downloaded by relief workers on the ground, which can then relay the massage to survivors.

As part of the same research, Brown has also created software called 'Where's Safe', which quickly identifies safe areas for people to go to in the event of a natural disaster or terrorist attack.

Brown's third software solution is HeightCatcher - an innovative tool which can quickly calculate infants who are suffering from malnutrition and work out what quantity of fluids they need.

Top 5 Tech Jobs of 2012

The New Year has turned out to be a good year for most of the job seekers, especially who are willing to work in technical fields. Robert Half Technology had conducted a salary research and found that the demand is expected to grow high in 2012, in the fields of mobile application developers, user experience designers and data warehouse analysts. This growth is because many companies are looking to invest in their information technology infrastructure and digital presence, reports the ITBusinessEdge.

John Reed, Executive Director of Robert Half Technology told that a common feature of high-demand jobs is a large degree of specialization and that professionals with the best prospects have finely increasing the amount of information available to them. Here are the top 5 tech jobs which are in demand in 2012:

Java Developers:

According to the survey conducted on around 1,200 technology hiring managers are of the opinion that hiring the Java developers is their top priority. The demand for the tech professionals with the knowledge of Java has grown up from the past two years, as measured by job postings on Dice.com. Alice Hill, the spokesperson of Dice advised that if any company is waiting to hire a talented Java developer for a longer time, its better not to waste the time as seasoned Java developer clearly has options, reports Jennie L Phipps from MLive.com.

Software Developers:

Software developers are in the second spot in the list of potential employees in demand. This is one of the lucrative careers in the world. At present, in this profession there are around 909,600 employees working all around the world, which is almost double that of any of the other computer careers in the world. Around 57 percent of software engineers around the world design computer applications and the remaining 43 percentdesign system software. Software engineers have the knowledge of advanced math skills which help them to write complex algorithms that is required for developing software, reports TopTenREVIEWS.

Mobile application Developers:

As mobile phones have become universal, the demand for qualified and experienced mobile application developers has raised to a large extent around the world. At present, the mobile manufacturing companies are working harder to reach their consumers on Smartphone, tablets and other mobile devices. To successfully serve the consumer requirements, these companies are in need of more number of mobile apps developers, who have the ability to develop apps for the small screen.

Project Managers:

According to a salary survey conducted by theProject Management Institute, it was revealed that project management is one of the hottest jobs for 2012. The survey also mentioned that the salaries of project managers around the world continue to climb, which indicates that the project managers are in strong demand and many companies are recognizing the value of trained project managers to their overall business goals, reports Alison Doyle, Guide in About.com.

Web Developers:

The demand for web developers continues to rise in this New Year. HTML5 has tipped to be the big area in 2012 as the tech biggies like Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft are all looking to expand their business this year. The demand has increased for the web developers In India too. More than ten IT Parks are getting build in Gujarat which will help the Web development service increase in that state. By the next five years, the web development service in Gujarat will be in great demand. Even many large companies across India are looking for a great web development and web designing team for long term basis. The demand for web designers in India is also aiming to create a platform for them in the International Market.

Waiting is always boring, and it becomes even more tedious if it’s for those gadgets you love to have. But this time your wait is going to be worth as 2012 is coming up with a whole new generation of gadgets. The about to happen CES 2012 in January and the upcoming Mobile World Congress 2012 in February will be displaying a range of innovative and high performing devices from all the big players.

A small wait will fetch you numerous Smartphones with Android’s Ice Cream sandwich flavor, cheaper and efficient variants of Intel’s Ultrabooks, several Android tablets with quad-core CPU’s, Amazon’s new Fire into the market, tablets with window 8 and Apple’s big plan for its Macbook Air, iPhone 5 and the anticipated Apple TV.

Presently the gadgets in the market are all the same and were available to you from the beginning of 2011; therefore if you are planning to invest money make sure it’s worthwhile because within few months the gadgets which you will owe now may become outdated due to the fact that the gadget world is at the verge of taking the next big leap during the first quarter of 2012.

There is one product with an exception, the HDTV’s. With the entry of SmartTV the price of HDTV has came down and it’s the best time to buy one because the retailers are trying to get rid of the 2011 models before the SmartTVs actually penetrate the TV market.

All the gadget fans out there, be patient and wait a bit because your patients will be rewarded with something really better for sure

Googles Predicted Moves in 2012

The tech world anticipates to see what 2012 holds for Google as it plans on spread its wings across the “clouds”.

2011 was an eventful year for Google with the return of Larry Page as the new CEO after a decade. Introduction of Google+ and products like Music store & Google Wallet helped Google to change its outlook of being merely a search engine. In the mean time Google acquired a dozen startups, made some environment friendly investments and also was involved in some legal battles.

The year 2012 expects a few decisions from Google which will keep it running in the front line of technology.

1. Relabeling Google+

Google+, which failed to make an impression on the “general” online population require a makeover in 2012. Even though the social network had many positive reviews, it was labeled as a network for the hard core tech or media savvy. Google should take the network to the mainstream by creating individuality to the network with promoting features like multiple person video conferencing facility. Google+ which is planning to reach 400 million customers by the end of 2012 will have to work hard for competing with its rival Facebook which is expected to hit a billion users this year.

2. End to Android Fragmentation

With a number of customized versions of Android platforms emerging, the fragmentation problem is going to be big in the future. Googles acquisition of Motorola can be considered as an important step in dealing fragmentation since the future products under Google-Motorola name will have a clear upgrade path for the android.

Google should also address the security issues associated with the androids in the future. So it is considered good for Google to be proactive in the field by acquiring any mobile security company.

3. Enrich the Tablet contents

Google was always trailing behind the rivals in the area of tablets. For example Kindle Fire, the popular tablet from Amazon doesn’t even use Googles optimized OS for the tablets, rather Amazon built a highly customized OS based on the open source android platform. The future for Google in tablet market is mainly on the quality and reputation of content providing with its services like Google Books, Google TV and the promising Google Tunes.

4. Dominate “clouds” with GDrive

Google plan to launch their cloud based service “GDrive” in the near future. It will serve as a single data store for all the cloud applications like users’ emails, favorite web pages, pictures, and almost every document. This will make Google dominant in the cloud services compared to the rivals.

The New Edu Tablet, Classpad Launched in India

Classteacher Learning Systems, a Delhi based Educational Solutions Provider launched ‘Classpad’, a new tablet for the Educational sector.

Classpad will be a new entrant into a segment which is popularized by ‘Aakash’, the world’s most affordable tablet. Aakash was launched last month at a subsidized rate by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development. According to Rohit Pande, a Delhi IITian who is the CEO of Classteacher Learning Systems, Classpad will provide a unique learning experience to students according to his/her intelligence level.

Using Classpads, the teachers can transfer class work to the students tablet, share their contents instantly and conduct tests easily. The device is equipped with Artificial Intelligence, which will help the teacher to classify students based on their performance as slow, average and fast learners. “Classpad can assist in reducing the monotony of repetitive sessions in the classroom. Teachers can now complete their syllabus within schedule and get considerable time to focus on slow learners”, Pande said.

Classpad features a touch screen with 1.3 GHz processor and a 4GB internal memory which can be expanded up to 8GB. It has a 7 hour battery life. The device is based on Android platform and has over 30000 educational applications covering ICSE, CBSE and a few State Boards Syllabi.

It will be available in three variants with a price ranging from Rs 7500 to 13500. Company provides two business models; the Trolley model where a device can be shared which costs Rs 100 per child and One Tablet Per Child (OTPC) model for individual use. Company is also planning to launch a model for the public.

The survey conducted by company showed that 33 percent of schools are keen on adapting the technology. With the introduction of devices like Aakash and Classpad, the learning standards in Indian schools may witness a drastic change in the future.

NetUP Unveils Android Based IPTV

Russian company, NetUP has introduced a new Android based internet protocol television (IPTV) set. The device just looks like an ordinary TV set but allows users to watch Live TV and access IPTV features like internet surfing, YouTube, Google Maps, social networking, online gaming and thousands of other applications without using any set-top box.

The TV is powered by 1 GHz Samsung S5PV210 processor, 512 MB DDR 2 RAM and runs on Android 2.2 OS. It has a 2 USB ports, card reader slot, HDMI port and Ethernet interfaces. It supports MPEG2, RAW RTP, MP4, AVi, MP3, AAC and MPEG-2 audio and video formats. The TV also supports devices like Wi-Fi USB adapter, and GPS USB module.

This device is ideal for those who are using two separate devices (TV and IP Set top box). The TV is now available for pre-order at the price of $565 for 32 inch model, $725 for 40 inch, $845 for 46 inch model and for 55 inch at $1150. There are no details about the availability of this device in India.