In a couple of days, Apple will unviel the 3rd installment in their tablet series. There are many rumours about iPad 3 having no buttons and a increased size. All these rumours are just that, rumours. There are not really big scoops about iPad 3.
But iPad 2 was a extremely successful gadget and the next version will be expected to be very successful too. A couple of things point to the high probability of iPad 3 being a big success. Apple has a high retention rate of its customers. So a majority of iPad 2 users will want to upgrade to iPad3 and not any other tablet. Also a lot of non-iPad users might end up buying the device. Tablets today are more acceptable than say when iPad was first introduced to the world.
Here is a nice infographic by AYTM, that shows who exactly will end up buying iPad 3.
Some things have changed over the past two year about iPad. When the original iPad was released, Apple had not even officially acknowledged that they were releasing a tablet computer, though the web was full of rumors and expectations. This time the 7th March, 2012 event by Apple is pretty much exclusively about iPad 3.
Do drop in your comments and views about what your expect form iPad 3?
I am sure by now you must have read or heard about this online service called Flyte by Flipkart. It is run by Flipkart.com and allows users to purchase MP3 music files at pretty reasonable prices. Until last week for Indian music fans, there was no real online retailer who sold music legally and cheap. In other words Flipkart is trying to do something that iTunes did for the American music industry.
What is good about Flipkart’s Music Downloads?
Flipkart is India’s largest online retailer. So it makes sense that it sells music online. The collection at Flipkart is pretty much exclusively suited for Indian tastes. Though there is an international section available.
Head over to Flyte from Flipkart and browse through the songs your want to purchase. Select an album or song and purchase it.
Payment needs to be done online with netbanking or credit card. Once you are done, simply download the songs from your browser.
All songs can be downloaded and purchased individually and they are priced quite reasonably. The most popular songs I found were available for Rs. 15/- while others were around Rs. 6/-.
Now this is quite exciting if you are living in India as previously MP3 formatted music which was DRM free was not really available, unless it was pirated. So will this end music piracy in India or atleast significantly reduce it?
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Why Flipkart won’t really hurt music piracy at present?
Flipkart might be selling digital music as a platform but I am not sure that the music industry in India will adopt it in a big way. That is because the music industry in India is not the same as in the US or Europe. Musicians in the US and Europe have sold their music online at affordable prices not to make a lot of music but to actually reach the widest possible market.
The major revenue earners for music artists in the US and Europe seem to be concert tours. Unfortunately in India, the most popular songs are always from films. This means they depend on selling their music as CD’s or even caller tunes on mobile phones rather than going on concerts all over for revenues. I doubt that the most popular music in India will become piracy free anytime soon.
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Another factor against legal music downloads is that much of India’s population which downloads music online is very young. A majority of them do not have a credit card or netbanking account to buy music legally. But alternatively they do have a mobile phone and that might be effective way in including them in buying music online.
That said Flipkart’s Flyte is a good platform and also much needed one for music lovers in India.
Do you think Flipkart will end music piracy in India? Do drop in your comments.
Increasingly the fight for who controls smart-phones the world over, has become iOS (Apple) vs. Android (Google). This is because more than specifications of a phone, apps have become more important. Apps make mobiles phones more personal and people tend to not migrate from one platform to another if they are hooked on to apps and features of a particular platform.
This infographic by UTest, shows a great comparison between apps form these two competitors. Remember iOS as a platform only runs on iPhones and is not open-sourced. Android is a lot more open and manufacturers can actually do a lot more with it (good and bad things).
It seems overall Apple’s iOS has better performance of Apps, but that is expected as iOS runs on a predictable sort of hardware. While Android apps seems to be easy on the wallet.
Do you own an iPhone or Android phone? Which one would you prefer? Do drop in your comments.
Logos are probably the most important identity of a brand. That is why even when companies change their logo, they do not opt for a complete break from the past. As you might know the Microsoft is busy building Windows 8, which might show up on tablets, mobile phones and PCs later this year. Microsoft has been developing Window 8 with metro-styled tiled layout. This is astheitcally very pleasing and having uniformity in user-interface across different devices is a good idea.
Microsoft today unveiled the new logo for Windows 8. It is going to raise a few eye brows as it has done away with the 4 coloured flag logo and opted for a single coloured logo.
Windows Logos through time
Here is a quick timelime of all the previous logos for Windows. It is interesting to note that with the Windows 8 logo has a lot of similarity with the logo of Windows 1.0.
I am not certain why they did away with the familiarity of 4 coloured scheme but I guess a simple logo with a single color scheme would make it a lot easier for manufactures to print the brand logos on mobile phones and tablets.
I sort of like the new logo but not sure how it will look on the OS. What are your views? Are you happy with the new Windows logo?
Did you know India has the second most number of mobile phone owners in the world? Also that in Russia there are 1.54 mobiles phones connections per person. Which means quite a few people in Russia who have more than one phone.
This infographic by SoMobile is full of such interesting stats. It also shows how mobiles phone ownership across the world vary from country to country.
Another surprising stat is that 53% of Indian users have lost their phones at some point of time or the other. That is a huge number of lost phones. 😀
When the whole world was waiting for the iPhone 5, Apple announced the iPhone 4S and it was probably a disappointment for many of us. Yes, the iPhone 4S is rather good, it has an updated processor, a better camera, iOS and Siri, but still it seems to be just a small update from the original iPhone 4.
There are some features I wish the iPhone 4S had. One can not lose hope and maybe Apple will place all the following features in the iPhone 5.
#1. 4G compatibility
4G HSPA+ is the fastest network at the moment, but the new iPhone 4S does not support it – its maximum is 14.4 Mbps/downlink. There are many Android phones that are now 4G compatible and I believe Apple should also work in this direction.
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#2. New design
The new iPhone 4S looks like the old iPhone 4 and that is something some users might not be happy with. iPhone phone models stand out and it would be better to see a slimmer and more lighter phone when compared to iPhone 4S. I would be pushing the boundaries but that is what Apple is famous for.
#3. More powerful battery
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The original iPhone 4 has a Li-Po 1420mAh battery and the battery on iPhone 4S is only 1432 mAh, which obviously is not a big change for battery time. Also initially there was an issue with iOS5, that drained the battery too fast. The issue was fixed in the 5.0.1 update.
#4. A bigger display
The iPhone 4S has the same little 3.5-inch screen as the original iPhone 4. The display has a very good quality and high resolution (960 x 450), but people now prefer bigger screens on phones. I doubt they will upgrade their screens size significantly, as that might have some effect on potential iPad customers but it could really help people using their iPhone for accessing the internet and reading on it.
#5. NFC
NFC is one of the best technologies of future – it gives you the opportunity to pay in stores via your mobile phone. Many other manufacturers are trying to implement this feature on their phones and a majority of them run on Android. If iPhone 5 has NFC enabled on it, it probably would end up stealing a lot of Galaxy Nexus customers.
What else would you want with a new iPhone 5? Do drop in your comments.
Editor’s Note: This post was written by Guest Author Amelia. If you would like to write Guest Posts on Devils’ Workshop, join us here.
SOPA is not exactly an issue of the US Government trying to control free speech. Well at least officially it is not about free speech. It is mainly supposed to deal with piracy issues and shutdown websites which are sharing copyright content illegally. Criticism of SOPA is high, especially after Wikipedia shut itself down for a day as a protest.
One criticism of SOPA is that it is actually unfair to internet companies and gives media companies extra-ordinary power. This nice poster from Nasc, a website that specializes in pixel art, shows how the internet would become exclusive to media companies while other’s like Wikipedia, Google and would be treated as suspicious.
The picture above might be funny, but it does show what exactly is the problem. Most media companies, including some of the press have always believed that they have some sort of exclusivity with distribution of content. The internet has levelled the uneven world a lot.
Possibly such laws are trying to hang on to the old way of doing things, which was full of controls and exclusive access. In an open web today, exclusivity has hardly any place.
Do you think SOPA is about censorship or about hanging on to older ideas on distribution of media content? What are your views? Do drop in your comments.
Galaxy Note is a new Phone (or a Tablet may be) by Samsung which is gaining lot of popularity in the gadget world and the main reason behind it is the design of this phone cum tablet. With 5.3″ display screen you can even do your tablet PC or netbook work on this huge phone. But the question is whether you should buy Samsung Galaxy Note or not? Well we have the answer for you.
If you want to read the detailed specification of this phone please click here.
Why you should buy Galaxy Note?
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Buy it if you can’t afford a Smartphone and a Tablet separately.
If you like to buy a handy Tablet which you can carry in your pocket as well.
If you always have to stay connected to internet for your work or business (I’m not talking about Facebook and Twitter 😛 )
If you like bulky and flashy gadgets and if you like showing off your gadgets. No one is going to notice an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy S-II in your hand and one can’t ignore such a huge phone like this one.
If you are a teenager.
If you love android and it’s applications.
If you don’t care about the market after buying a gadget. Samsung will definitely cut its prices and will launch a new phone in this segment soon just like Samsung Galaxy S series. They launched S and S-II and now S-III on its way.
If you like using a Stylus. This thing hardly matters as you can still use your fingers on Galaxy Note.
Why you shouldn’t buy Galaxy Note?
Don’t buy it if you want a stable device that you can use for next 2-3 years.
If you don’t like bulky phones, this device looks weird in a pocket of a trouser.
If you’re already using a tablet or you’re planning to buy one.
If you are buying a phone just to get cool application. In that case go for an Apple device.
If you are expecting a high resale value of your phone.
If you hate Andriod and just impressed by the looks of this phone.
If you are not good in handling delicate stuff. The only delicate part of this phone is the screen. Google is full of queries like “Galaxy Note cracked screen”.
Last but not the least, if you’re an Apple iPhone lover then don’t buy it. In that case either wait for iPhone 5 (expected in June 2012) or buy an iPhone 4S or even iPhone 4; that will give you more happiness. 🙂
Verdict:
Well I can just give you suggestion, the final decision is still yours. Galaxy Note is technically a very good phone. The good feature of this phone is its display and its a bad feature too.
According to me if you are planning to buy a smartphone then go for something else like Samsung S-II or Apple iPhone. And if you’re looking for a Tablet PC then go with Apple iPad. Don’t mix up a phone and a tablet as both are different things with different usage.
Let me start with the fact that I am not really a fan of Facebook’s new Timeline layout. It definitely looks pretty but making it necessary for me to look up my share setting for all my posts over the past 3 years is very tedious. I am also not a big fan of the ticker in the sidebar either. The sidebar can be hidden but then I cannot see my friends who are online and available to chat.
Facebook today has announced a host of Apps that can be added to your Timeline. Apps from Goodreads, Rockmelt, Flixster, Yahoo News and several others have been accepted by Facebook to post on your Timeline. So next time if you read something on the Yahoo News App, it will be shared on your timeline.
See this video demo about App on your Facebook Timeline
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Will Apps posting on Timeline lead to Sharing overload?
I think Facebook cannot be blamed as users will have to allow apps to post on their timelines. But it might be something users might find a little tricky to manage.
Apps are reducing the step of us listening to a song and sharing it with our friends on Facebook. They are making the process automatic. This might suit some people but not everyone. If I read 10 stories via Yahoo News App, I might want to share only one or two of those stories with my friends on Facebook.
If you want to approve Apps for your Facebook Timeline look up this link.
What are your views on Apps posting on your Timeline? Will it lead to an overload of sharing? Do drop in your comments.
Most discussions about smart-phones seem to be focused on hardware features like processor speed, camera capability etc and OS features. There is no denying that all the above are important.
But many of us seem to be ignoring some really awesome innovations achieved in the design of the phones themselves. (with the exception of discussions about Apple products).
I strongly believe that Design innovation isn’t dead and in fact it has taken a new direction in the post-iPhone era. In this post we shall take a look at some of the outstanding designs that are available in the market in the smart-phones category.
Nokia has done what has never been done before in the smart-phone segment. It used a unique injection molded polycarbonate plastic mono-body design which exudes simplicity and yet gives a sense of sophistication.
The plastic body gives an added advantage for being more suitable to the antennae. The body is made with such fine precision giving it a seamless blend in with its beautiful glass display. It gives the image of the phone being monolithic.
Nokia’s persistence with plastic body comes from not just its years of experience with the material but also the fact that plastic adds greater color to the body of the smart-phone. In the monochromatic world of smart-phones, Nokia intends to stand out with vivid and alluring colors.
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Here is the designer’s story about it.
#2.Samsung Galaxy Note (Fabulous Phablet)
Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. –Steve Jobs
The Samsung Galaxy Note finds a place in this post about designs because of the famous Steve Jobs quote above. Introducing the Phablet to the world, Samsung redefined not just category perceptions of the industry but created a few design innovations along the way.
It got the perfect balance between a screen small enough to avoid the ergonomic issues associated with large screens while maintaining a size that will allow it to be effectively used as a tablet. Samsung with one fell-swoop has provided an awesome option to people who were struggling with a smart-phone and a tablet wherever they went.
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The issues with the phone being too big or the tablet being too small are minor when considering the functionality of the interface and the features of the hardware itself. Samsung Galaxy Note boasts of a giant 2500mAh battery which beats most smart-phones for its long-term use. The stylus has made a grand and meaningful comeback in the form of the S-pen in the Galaxy note.
The S-pen isn’t just for pointing and scribbling anymore. With its inbuilt button which performs important functions such as taking a snapshot of the screen which then opens in an image editor ready to be edited and sent and for opening up the menu screen or performing the function of the back button. Clearly, Samsung Galaxy Note is a leap forward in design functionality and innovation based on meeting unfulfilled needs.
#3. iPhone 4 (A class apart)
A legend in design, Apple is always expected to better its designs with every new iPhone. The iPhone 4 got rid of its old curved back and its slightly thick dimensions to bring in a slim 9.3mm thick body and a new stainless steel and alumina-silicate glass industrial design. The glass fits in both on the front and the back to give the iPhone a royal sheen.
The edges lined with a special forged steel that is said to be stronger than regular steel. The wow factor of the iPhone 4 is the high-resolution display, that Apple termed “Retina Display” with text so crisp and clear even when in the maximum zoomed in mode.
Retina Display is a take on Apple’s claim that the phone provides such higher resolution comparable to that of the human eye.
#4. Nokia E7( Tilt Slider Qwerty Keypad)
Nokia E7 brought out its clear Backlight Display technology combined with its brilliant looking tilt slider qwerty keypad that made the phone a worthy successor of the now legendary Nokia communicator E90.When flipped open,the screen is placed at an angle that is easy to see the screen while typing, giving it great ergonomic appeal and making the phone ideal for sitting down and typing or holding it in your hands to text.
While thumb typing, the phone is brilliant to type at high speeds , even those with slow typing speeds are able to average 30-40 words per minute. The combination of qwerty and touchscreen is perhaps the best possible form factor solution in mobile phones bringing together the best of both worlds.
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E7 is clearly marketed as an enterprise device but has several appealing factors for average consumers as well. Nokia E7 will remain one of the greatest examples of design engineering changing the way people perceive qwerty keypad phones and Nokia itself.
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You may check the designer’s story in the video below.
#5. Dell Venue Pro (Windows Qwerty Phone)
Dell Venue Pro came out sometime in the end of 2010 and remains one of the best designed Windows 7 phones to date. This may perhaps be one of the only Windows Smart phones with a portrait mode slide out qwerty keypad.
It has a beautiful and sleek design with liberal use of chrome sides mixed with angular cuts and rubberized plastic at top and bottom. The 4.1′ curved Gorilla Glass screen with AMOLED display is a delight to use and is extremely responsive.
The clarity of the images on the screen is unmatched. This phone gives great appeal if you are an avid text user and are looking for a luxurious phone.
#6.Motorola Defy (Water Proof and Dust Proof)
Motorola might have heard the prayers and cries of anguish of a few folks with butter fingers when it came out with the super sleek and super rugged Motorola Defy specially designed and positioned for Rugged use .
The screen is made of Gorilla Glass preventing scuff marks and other unfortunate effects of being careless or just a little too adventurous.
To the untrained eye, the only hint of Motorola Defy being rugged are the Torx head screws that clamp the side sections to the rest of the body and the flap jacks covering the earphone and USB port. These flap jacks and coverings make the phone waterproof.
This is perhaps the greatest ingenuity in the design of a seemingly rugged smart-phone. Motorola Defy caters to a niche yet important segment of users who have so far not had the option of a smart-phone due its inherent fragility or have been turned off by the options that exist in the feature phones segment. Clean, Sleek and Rugged, Motorola Defy is a keeper for all butterfingers in the world.
#7. Sony Ericsson Play (Gamers’ Smart-phone)
Sony Ericsson made the ultimate gamers’ smart-phone early 2011 with the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. The highlight of the phone is the Slide-out game-pad and shoulder buttons that looks similar to the Sony Dual shock controller from its popular Playstation Game Consoles.
This phone is ideal for those who have a need for a PSP and a Playstation Portable. The main design of the phone has stayed true to the other Xperia series of phones with just an addition of a search button which also adds great usability to the Xperia line of phones which earlier had just the 3 buttons for home, return and Menu.
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The game play experience in the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play is undoubtedly more enriching than the typical touchscreen smart-phones and meets the need of both a PSP and a Smart-phone and this would indeed be the phone for any gamer to buy.
Summary
In the pre-iPhone era the innovation and creativity was more towards form-factor with countless interesting shapes and ideas floating around in the market. Today, in the age of the smart-phone it seems form-factor innovation has taken a more meaningful step.
That of not making creative designs or weird shapes but to add more meaning to the functionality of the phone. Phones of tomorrow will challenge the perceptions people have for screen sizes and materials. I hope for an exciting future in smart-phones with even greater innovation and creativity in the hardware as much as in the software.
