Showing posts with label Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Review. Show all posts

Twitter Music review

Until now, my problem with social music services has been this. Following friends doesn't really turn up much music I actually want to hear. We didn't become friends because we share musical tastes, and too few of them are using the services I'm trying out.

Twitter's new music service solves this problem. It helps that it's free. With it, I'm able to sneak a peek into the musical interests of the artists I like. For example, I discovered that Gotye likes the Divine Fits, a Los Angeles-based band I'd never heard of until now, because he follows them on Twitter.

With a tap on the colorful photo representing the band, I can listen to a 30-second preview of the new song of theirs that is being tweeted about the most. For the Divine Fits, that's "Like Ice Cream." It was catchy enough for me to want to hear more.

After listening to a preview, I can tap a button to buy the track on iTunes or listen to the full song through a $10-a-month subscription from Spotify or Rdio. I can also find other songs from the artists through those outside services.

As a discovery tool, Twitter's #music service provides a convenient, visually pleasing way to filter through the deluge of music that's out there.

Sure, I could have replicated this feature by digging through Gotye's Twitter profile and individually going into the profiles of people he's following to determine if they're artists. Then I could search elsewhere for their songs or music videos. But that's more work than I'm ready to put into this.

The #music service highlights the artists for you and features the song preview right there.

The service also has a tab for emerging artists that it somehow digs out from tweets. I'm not sure how they're selected, but random poking around this page is how I found the broody music of Skylar Grey.

Finding new music can be tough. It's easy to get hit over the head by the chart-toppers, who are everywhere. There's also a "popular" tab in #music for a rundown of which artists are trending on Twitter.

It's way more difficult to find music you like if you never knew a band existed. This provides a way.

For now, #music is available as an iPhone app and on the Web. Twitter says an Android version is coming, but it didn't say when.

Beyond its usefulness for music discovery, the Twitter #music app is fun to play with. It is far more engaging than Twitter's regular app, and swiping around makes the squares representing artists bounce around. Tapping to play a song clip generates a spinning icon with album cover art that harkens back to the heyday of vinyl records.

True, this is a marketing tool and I was skeptical to start. And #music is not perfect for listening. Artists have only one song apiece on their profiles, so if you want to hear more you've got to go elsewhere.

And even if you buy a song from iTunes after discovering it here, tapping the play button on the artist's square again will still play the 30-second preview. I discovered this after buying Skylar Grey's "Final Warning" for 69 cents. To hear the full version, I had to go back to the iPhone's music player.

It also didn't track the #NowPlaying tag very well, despite putting it in all my tweets from the service. There was a considerable lag in showing these tweets from people I follow compared with my normal Twitter feed.

For full song plays within the service, you have to sign up for a premium subscription to Spotify or Rdio, each of which costs $10 a month.

This made using #music much better, although I discovered more artists by listening to just 30 seconds, making a quick decision and moving on - kind of like speed dating for music. The clips will play back-to-back, which can make for a jarring listening experience. But you also can focus your time on quick music discovery and go elsewhere to learn more.

Connecting the service to my Rdio account helped because the songs I played through #music showed up on the Rdio app's history list. That way, I could switch to Rdio to listen to the whole album.

Thanks to #music, I discovered that I like the Divine Fits and Skylar Grey within, say, a half hour of fiddling with the service. That makes it worth downloading, in my view. I'll go back to it when I'm on the hunt again for music I didn't know was there.

Report by : Associated Pres

Catch-22: Sony Xperia Z or Sony Xperia ZL?

On the face of it, it might seem like a no-brainer to go with the Z since the price difference is just Rs 2,000 (based on current market and online prices). However, after spending enough time with both the handsets, we think otherwise.
Buying a high-end smartphone these days is just a as difficult as picking one from the mid or entry level segment. Gone are the days when manufacturers had just a single phone which they called their flagship. Today, companies have multiple offerings in the high-end segment and to make it worse, these handsets have an even shorter shelf life than the ones below them. Our latest Catch-22 situation arises with the Xperia Z and the ZL. These are currently Sony’s flagship offerings – very similar in terms of specifications, yet very different handsets.

On the face of it, it might seem like a no-brainer to go with the Z since the price difference is just Rs 2,000 (based on current market and online prices). However, after spending enough time with both the handsets, we think otherwise. Let’s gloss over some of the key areas that set these two apart.

Design and dimensions

Both the handsets look very similar upfront and even have the same button placement. But that’s where the similarities end. The Z is definitely more striking and will grab your attention more than the ZL. It has more street presence due to the glass back and is a lot slimmer as well. While this may look very glamorous, the design is far from ergonomic. The sharp edges and flattened chassis makes it tough to grip when swiping through the menus or simply making a call. The glossy sides aren’t much help either. The Z is also quite a large phone, so one handed operations are not always possible.

The Xperia ZL's front camera is placed below the screen

The ZL, on the other hand, is a bit chunkier and heavier but has a much nicer grip. The rubberised, textured back sits snugly in your hand and doesn’t slip off that easily. The ZL also has more manageable dimensions while keeping the screen size the same. Sony has shaved down the bezel quite a bit, all around, which makes the phone seem smaller.

Call quality and speaker

The earpiece volume issue on the Xperia Z is the most annoying bit. Due to all that water and dust-proofing efforts, we’ve ended up with a substantially low call volume, which is further weakened by a very narrow opening. Due to this, you have to hold the phone at exactly the right angle to your ear in order to hear clearly, otherwise it just gets muffled. The speaker volume is also pretty low, which makes it tough to hear alerts.

The ZL does not have any of these issues. The earpiece and speaker are amply loud and you can hear calls and alerts easily in noisy areas as well.

IP55/57 certification

This is the biggest differentiating factor between the Z and ZL. The Xperia Z is dust and water resistant, which means you can afford to be careless with it. It can even survive underwater up to 1 metre for 30 minutes, which is very impressive. We don’t see any other flagship bragging about this yet.

Standing tall

IR port and barometer

Compensating for the lack of IP55/57 certification, the ZL is fitted with an IR port and a barometer. The latter helps your phone sense local changes in atmospheric pressure and can assist your GPS for navigation by calculating the altitude. And since this is a passive sensor, it won’t eat up much of you battery either. The IR port can be used for the most obvious scenario, i.e. controlling your TV. Sony has a built-in app with pre-programmed remote functions for all major TV brands.

Battery

The Xperia ZL has a marginally higher capacity battery compared to the Z, so in the end, the battery life is more or less the same. Both phones will last you one entire day, provided you enable STAMINA and power saving modes, which restrict data usage to only the most necessary apps. Thankfully, the ZL does not overheat like the Xperia Z, which makes it more comfortable to live with.

The bottom line

Apart from the above mentioned differences, both the handsets are nearly identical in terms of processing power, camera, display and multimedia capabilities. We can see how the Xperia Z can be a tempting buy for just Rs 2,000 more, but that waterproofing comes at a cost. We recommend you put your money on the Xperia ZL and spend the difference on a 32GB microSD card instead.

Report by : Roydon Cerejo

Sony Xperia ZL Review

The Xperia ZL is the non-amphibious cousin of the Xperia Z and is currently sitting comfortably without much worry from the competition. We say that because the only other phones close to it are the Lumia 920 and the Galaxy Note II. The Lumia 920 is not much of a competition, unless all you’re looking for is a good low-light capable camera, and the Note II’s size isn’t for everyone. This leaves the ZL sitting pretty at around Rs 36,000. One may argue that it’s best to put a little more and get the Z, which is more feature rich and comes with the tempting IP55/57 certification. But is it really worth it? How much has Sony really compromised with the ZL in order to make it more affordable? Let’s find out.

Design and build

Upfront, the ZL looks quite a bit like the Z, except for the wider ear piece grille and a front camera that finds a new home at the bottom of the handset – a first we’ve come across. The handset also features the same scratch-resistant and shatterproof glass along with the screen guard that comes pre-installed. The phone is heavier than the Z, at 151 g, and that’s because it’s a bit thicker as well, with a depth of 9.8 mm as compared to 7.9 mm of the Z.

Looks good and is built well too

The sides have mirror-finish plastic strips along with a similar button placement. The overall size of the ZL is much smaller than the Z, but Sony has kept the screen size the same. This gives the illusion of a larger screen since the bezel is shaved down quite a bit from all sides. The ZL also enjoys the addition of a cool-looking notification light at the bottom, which pulsates in different colours based on the type of notification.

The rubberised texture at the back offers very good grip

The rear panel has a very nice, grippy finish, which feels and looks a lot better than the Z. The textured back leaves your phone free from scratches and requires less upkeep. The camera, LED flash and speaker grille are placed in a similar fashion as the Z. The microSIM and microSD card slots are now placed at the bottom of the phone under a flap. Overall, we were impressed with the design and finish of the ZL and feel it’s a lot better than the Xperia Z in terms of ease of use and ergonomics.

Features

The display is exactly the same as the one on the Xperia Z, only a little brighter and with more vivid colours. The viewing angles are still pretty average and sunlight legibility is not the best. Sony still gives you the full HD resolution on the 5-inch panel, bringing the overall pixel count to 441 ppi.

The same slick user interface as before

The handset also uses the same Qualcomm APQ8064 quad-core SoC along with a generous 2GB of RAM. The chipset consists of four Krait CPUs running at 1.5GHz each along with Adreno 320 for graphics. Sony gives you 16GB of onboard storage, out of which 11.7GB is usable. You also have the option to expand it via the hot-swap card slot. As far as sensors go, the Xperia ZL packs in a gyroscope, compass and barometer along with the other usual suspects.

Extremely powerful hardware under the hood

The interface is slick and fluid just like the Z. Along with the usual selection of Xperia apps, you even get Sony Music, which lets you stream or download thousands of songs across genres, both international and national. The biggest problem with this app is the lack of search function; you have to manually sort through albums or artistes, which is a real pain. The other app is Sony LIV, which streams local TV serials. The ZL also features an IR port that lets you use it as a remote through the bundled app.

Media

Audio quality is good thanks to the MH-EX300AP stock in-ear headphones. The headphones have a snug fit and produce deep bass while providing good noise isolation. Sound enhancements are present in the form of ClearAudio+, which automatically amplifies the sound, or you could fine tune the settings through a 5-band graphic equaliser along with features such as Clear Stereo, Clear phase, xLOUD and Dynamic normaliser – all of which are designed to boost frequencies and make your audio experience more pleasurable.

Media playback is good

The video player won’t read WMV, FLV and some AVI files, but everything else, including MKV files, work just fine. Video playback does not cause the phone to heat up as much as the Z did; it gets a little warm, but that’s about it. The speaker is quite a bit louder, although we noticed a bit of tearing even for alerts at high volumes.

Connectivity

The Xperia ZL is a quad-band GSM and 3G handset but with no LTE support for India. Along with this, you also get dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v4.0, NFC, GLONASS - the works. We didn’t face any overheating issues with the Xperia ZL when using GPS or even gaming. This shows that the ZL handles the heat from the chipset a lot better than the Z did. The stock browser has been ditched for Chrome, which is lightning quick in rendering webpages. We also really liked Sony’s new keyboard, which now comes with its own version of Swype. New words are automatically saved once manually chosen in the preview list.

Good level of social integration

Unlike the ear piece issue we had with the Xperia Z, we didn’t face that with the ZL. We could easily hear the caller at the other end without having to shuffle the phone around to find a "sweet-spot".

The keyboard and some of the other apps

Other custom apps from Sony include Sony Select, which is essentially a mini app store with the recommended apps. The new Socialife app is neatly done and lets you view all your social feeds in one place. This is also accompanied by an equally useful widget. Smart Connect lets you automate tasks at certain time intervals, so you can make your Z switch to silent mode, turn off Wi-Fi or data from 12 AM to 8 AM while you sleep and so on. Other noteworthy apps include Update Center, McAfee security, Xperia Link, Sony Car, Backup and Restore, NeoReader, Wisepilot, OfficeSuite and TrackID.

The IR Remote app has built-in profiles for almost all TV brands. We tried configuring the app to work with an AOC TV, but the preset profile didn't seem to work. We then manually set it up to learn the functions from the remote. Even though the app said it had learnt the functions, it still refused to work.

The IR app didn't seem to work with our AOC TV, unfortunately

Camera

The ZL borrows the same camera units from the Z – a 13MP shooter at the back and a 2MP front camera, both capable of 1080p video. The quality of the front camera is pretty good for self-portraits as well as video calling. The main camera is not overly impressive, especially for low-light photography. The f/2.4 aperture is also pretty standard these days. Daytime pictures look good on the phone’s display, but when zoomed in on the PC, you’ll notice a loss of detail and over-sharpening of edges of objects.

Indoors with flash

The new interface is a refreshing change from the old Xperia UI. The different camera modes can be selected with the tap of the first icon, and there’s a new Superior Auto, which automatically picks the right scene mode depending on where you point the camera. The flash provides good illumination if the subject is less than 2 feet away, but anything more than that and the picture gets quite grainy.

Battery life

The ZL packs in a slightly larger battery as compared to the Z. The 2370 mAh battery managed to last through 2 hours of calls, 2 hours of video, 2 hours of audio playback and 2 hours of YouTube streaming over Wi-Fi, giving us a grand total of 8 hours with 7 percent battery to spare.

Verdict and Price in India

The Sony Xperia ZL is priced at Rs 36,990, but you can find it online for Rs 35,990, which makes it a good deal for a high-end smartphone. It's feature rich and has the performance to back it up. Moreover, it isn’t plagued by the little niggling issues we found with the Xperia Z (earpiece problem, poor loud speaker, overheating, non-ergonomic design). It’s also a lot more comfortable to hold due to its relatively smaller size. We recommend the Xperia ZL over the Z despite the lack of the water and dust-proofing capabilities.

Report by : Roydon Cerejo

Google Glass specifications revealed

The launch of Google's augmented reality headset, dubbed Glass, may be getting closer. The company has revealed a bunch of things related to the headset, including the technical specifications of the device, as well as a companion app.

The company states that the display on Glass is comparable to watching a 25-inch HD screen from eight feet away. It sports a 5 megapixel camera that is capable of recording videos at 720p. On the connectivity front, it has WiFi and Bluetooth. Not much information on the battery is given, though Google has mentioned that the battery will last for a full day of typical usage. It is worth noting however that Hangouts and recording videos will drain the battery faster.

It will be compatible with any Bluetooth-capable smartphone, as well as with those running the MyGlass companion app which is available on Google Play.

The app itself needs a device to run on at least Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich. The interface of the app is reminiscent of Google Now with its card-based interface. At the moment, the app can't be downloaded outside of the US, since Glass hasn't been officially launched yet.

The app's functionality can be seen through the screenshots. You can set up your Google+ account for Glass, as well as Gmail. You can even add contacts to the app for quick access.

Glass has an impressive screen, and its app uses the card UI

You can also set up Glass on a website by connecting it to your Google account. The website's interface is a lot like the app, since it uses the same card-based interface that Google loves.

Google has also released a developer preview for the Mirror API. You can get the API from here and start developing apps for the Glass ecosystem.

Last week, Google had revealed that the company will be shipping Glass to developers within the coming month, but the search giant hasn't given any concrete date for the device.

Somehow, the timeline fits well, considering May is also when Google will hold its annual developer conference, Google I/O, in Moscone Center, San Francisco.

Earlier this year, Google released a video of Glass that demonstrated the many ways in which users can make it a part of their daily lives. The demo showed scenes and sights through the eyes of the wearer. The video showed how you can instruct Glass to click a picture of the scene in front of you or record a video. The wearer has to say, “take a picture” to tell Glass to click one.

Google Glass can also provide route instructions to the wearer. You can even participate in a Google Hangout and let others see the sights and scenery you're enjoying.

There was also a more detailed video of Google developer advocate Timothy Jordan's presentation at last month's SXSW (South by Southwest Interactive conference). The roughly hour-long video shows Jordan taking the assembled crowd through a demo of Glass. "To experience Glass, you really need to put it on," he said.

Report by : Shunal Doke

Jabra Solemate Review

I'm not a big fan of wireless speakers, which is what the cool kids call battery-powered boomboxes these days. Nevertheless, there's a market for these Bluetooth-friendly gadgets that can play music streamed from your smartphone and hold an impromptu party anywhere without having to worry about wires or electrical outlets. The Jawbone JAMBOX pretty much showed that it's possible to squeeze out room-filling sound from a tiny Bluetooth-enabled, battery-powered speaker, with sound quality that's good enough to serve as a jukebox on a pinch. Larger brands such as Logitech and Bose have followed suit with their own UE Boombox and SoundLink wireless speakers, respectively.

Like an eldritch cross between a duster and a shoe

I wasn’t too chuffed when I realised that Jabra expects consumers to cough up nearly Rs 11,000 for a wireless speaker that fits on a palm. However, that was until a colleague fiddled around with it and accidentally set off what could be best described as stripper music being played even as a suave male voice beckoned me to connect a Bluetooth device. That’s exactly what I did because my survival instinct doesn’t allow me to disobey stripper pimps. The ensuing sound was uncharacteristically loud and with surprisingly decent fidelity. It was clear then that this wireless speaker deserved closer inspection.

The fact that this new age Bluetooth boombox is shaped like a shoe (replete with a sole of sorts) and is named Solemate, makes one wonder what came first—the product, or the godforsaken excuse of a pun that goes for its name. It’s a good thing then that the Solemate is built like a tank. Everything, from the rubberised body to the thick metal mesh speaker grilles feels strudy—a fact that can be verified by striking the Solemate on the desk, because all you’ll hear is a satisfying dead thud. However, if there’s anything that surpasses the toughness of this product, that would be its inherent ugliness. If HP Lovecraft were to envision the unholy union of an eldritch shoe and duster, the ensuing abomination would essentially be the Jabra Solemate.

It's built as tough as it's designed to be ugly

The shoe-like sole of the Solemate comprises of thick rubber material that grips any surface like a limpet. The duster-esque top half houses a tiny woofer flanked by what appears to be two full-range drivers on one side, while the other side houses a large woofer that spans the entire length of the product. These drivers are shrouded by a pair of thick metal meshes that wrap around each side. One edge bears the strap, whereas the other one hosts the microUSB charging port, AUX (3.5mm TRS jack), Bluetooth and battery status lights, and a power switch that also doubles up for Bluetooth pairing. The top of the device houses the volume adjustment and battery status/call answer buttons.

In addition to its primary function of a boombox, the Solemate also serves as a speakerphone when paired with your smartphone. Enabling this function is simple. Just hold the power switch in the Bluetooth pairing mode for three seconds and you have the stripper pimp ordering you to connect your phone while stripper music plays in the background. Once paired, your phone’s mic and speaker are bypassed in favour of the Solemate’s extra loud multi-driver speakers and omnidirectional mic. The top three buttons let you to adjust the volume, while also allowing essential features such as call answering/rejecting and muting. The call quality was great on both ends, with the only grouse being the propensity of the omnidirectional mic to catch a lot of unwanted ambient noise. At any rate, that’s a problem faced by the dude on the other line, so we’re good.

It interfaces with your phone or PMP through Bluetooth or a 3.5mm TRS jack

The device is touted to play well with absolutely any device in the world. While this claim is clearly exaggerated, the Solemate still can pair with anything that bears a 3.5 mm TRS jack (aux) or Bluetooth connectivity. That’s virtually everything that plays music anyway. The Bluetooth pairing feature works like a charm, but the lack of a pin/password can get annoying. In my case at least, my colleagues had taken the liberty to pair their devices and would interrupt my listening sessions with impunity, as the gadget simply plays music from the last device to issue a command when it’s paired to multiple phones. Fortunately, hooking it up with a 3.5 mm stereo jack disables Bluetooth connectivity and defaults to the wired connection instead.

The audio fidelity is surprisingly good. The two low frequency drivers do a good job of reproducing bass. Don’t expect to hear the really low frequencies, but I was pleasantly surprised when I could hear the punch and slam in bass-heavy tracks such as Prodigy’s Smack My Bitch Up and ES Posthumus’ Nara, in addition to my usual repertoire of hip hop tracks. While there was a lack of sparkly treble due to the highs being rolled off, the overall tonal balance was quite pleasing nonetheless. I generally don’t expect anything good from such speaker solutions, but the Solemate puts a good enough show to satisfy basic listening needs. That is as long as you don’t raise the volume to the max, which is when the output gets overly bright and sometimes even distorts depending on how busy the transients are within the source.

Yes, this can be used as a handsfree Bluetooth speakerphone as well

The battery life is nowhere near the claimed eight-hour mark. I managed to squeeze out anywhere between 5-6 hours depending on the ratio of wired and wireless music playback. However, I must admit that I had been playing the speakers at full blast for the entire duration of the battery test.

The Solemate may look hideous, but it’s a well-built and cleverly-designed product. The high-quality braided 3.5 mm aux cable, which can be neatly tucked away within the...erm...sole of the Solemate, is the best example. The supplied sand and splash-resistant bag makes it an ideal accompaniment for the beach too. It may not be loud enough to replace the traditional boombox at, say, a party on the patio, but the audio quality is good enough for it to serve as a personal portable speaker inside a hotel room. Unfortunately, all this may be good enough for any average wireless speaker, but it doesn’t make sense at the Solemate’s asking price of Rs 10,990.

Report by : Nachiket Mhatre

Facebook Home Review: Slick, Fun and, for Now, Superficial

HTC CEO Peter Chou holds an HTC First phone showing the new Facebook Home app for Android
If you attended Facebook’s “our new Home on Android” event last Thursday — or watched the live stream — you could be forgiven if you came away confused about just how significant Facebook thought its news was.

On one hand, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg kept stressing that, despite long-standing rumors, the company wasn’t announcing a “Facebook phone” after all. Nor had it created a Facebook phone operating system. Its new product, Facebook Home, was just a replacement for Android’s standard home screen; one that was shipping on just one new phone — HTC’s First — and which could be installed on a few different existing phone models from Samsung and HTC.

But Zuckerberg also said Facebook Home was a paradigm shift: a piece of software that makes the phones running it people-centric rather than app-centric. And he called it the best version of Facebook yet — not just for phones, but for any sort of device.

So which is it? Is Facebook Home a simple and straightforward piece of software, or a landmark?

Well, conceptually, it’s indeed a big deal: allowing one social network to insert itself, front and center, into your smartphone experience could change everything about how you interact with your phone.

But the thing is, there just isn’t that much Facebook Home to interact with. There are pretty pictures from your news feed, updates from your friends and an exceptionally clever messaging feature called Chat Heads — and not a whole lot else. To riff on what Gertrude Stein said about her hometown of Oakland, Calif., there’s not much there there.

Not yet, anyhow. But Zuckerberg said Facebook plans to release monthly updates to Home, which means that it could get much meatier in a hurry. And even though the software isn’t fancy, it represents Facebook’s first full-blown attempt to reimagine itself for a more mobile world. (The standard Facebook smartphone apps are pretty much just conventional Facebook, crammed onto a smaller display.) As such, it’s the company’s first rough draft of its own future.

I tried Facebook Home on HTC’s First, which will go on sale on April 12, the same day that the Home download becomes available to other phones. The LTE phone will be an AT&T exclusive, for $99.99 with a two-year contract. As the relatively low price indicates, it’s a basic smartphone, not a Galaxy S4 killer: the 4.3-in. (10.9 cm) screen is small by Android standards, the camera has only 5 megapixels of resolution and the Qualcomm processor isn’t among the most potent.

I found it to be a pleasing piece of hardware anyhow — a handset with a pocketable, one-hand feel similar to the iPhone 5 and a sleek, minimalist industrial design. It’s in line with the Facebook Home idea, which emphasizes simplicity over kitchen-sink complexity.

O.K., on to Home itself. It replaces Android’s standard lock screen and home screen with Cover Feed, a feature that reminds me a bit of browsing Facebook in Flipboard. It displays status updates and photos from your friends, one full-screen item at a time. You can swipe your way through them, letting you catch up on what your pals are doing within milliseconds of turning on your phone.

(You can also choose to use Home as your home screen but disable it in the lock screen. You might want to do that if you’d prefer to have one photo you choose greet you when you switch on your phone, rather than a fresh, ever-changing selection of items from Facebook.)

Cover Feed is constantly downloading updates and photos in the background — though it’s careful about doing so in a way that won’t kill your battery or decimate your data plan — so that they’re just there when you’re ready to look at them. You never have to pause while additional items load, as you do with Facebook’s standard app.

There’s a basic problem with blowing up Facebook photos to fill a phone’s whole screen, though: phone screens are designed to be used primarily in portrait orientation. (In fact, that’s the only orientation that Home supports.) Photos, by contrast, are most often landscape-shaped. Home deals with this by panning majestically across photos, Ken Burns style — which sometimes works quite well and sometimes renders them illegible. You can also press and hold a photo to see it in a smaller-but-complete view.

Cover Feed, like Facebook’s News Feed, is a never-ending river of stuff from all your friends. If a friend uses Facebook to aim something directly at you, by posting on your wall or sending you a message, it’ll show up as a banner notification on the lock screen, roughly comparable to the ones in Apple’s iOS. These notifications also alert you to new e-mail, calendar appointments and other items, and are cleaner and easier to read than the ones in standard Android. Nicely done.

The single best thing in this first version of Facebook Home, however, is Chat Heads. (I even admire the wonderfully silly name.) When you get an incoming Facebook message or a text message, a marblelike circle — a Chat Head — pops up on top of whatever else you’re doing on your phone. You can swipe the Chat Head to nudge it to any location on the screen, or tap it to begin chatting in a pop-up window. And you talk with multiple Chat Heads at one time. Much more efficient than hopping back and forth between two apps.

(The one thing that sometimes flummoxed me: each Chat Head is a tiny version of the person’s profile picture, cropped to fit inside a circle. I couldn’t always tell whom a Chat Head represented from this visual clue alone. Oh, and for reasons I don’t understand, Chat Heads are only initiated by an incoming message from a friend — if you start the conversation, you do so in the standard Facebook Messenger app.)

Despite Zuckerberg’s stance at the Facebook Home launch event that the software is organized around people, not apps, you’re going to spend plenty of time on a Facebook Home phone using apps — Facebook’s standard app and Facebook Messenger; all of Google’s built-in Android apps, such as Gmail and Chrome; and third-party apps you’ve installed. You get to them using Home’s launcher, which is comparable in overarching principle to the standard Android launcher and other third-party alternatives. As usual, there’s a section for your favorite apps and one that lists all your apps. (You press and hold an app to add it to the favorites.)

The launcher also lets you post status updates, upload photos and check in, putting three of Facebook’s most important features at your, um, fingertip.

Report by : Harry McCracken

US ITC to review Apple patent complaint against Samsung

A U.S. trade panel that specializes in patent disputes will review a potentially key decision in the patent fight between Samsung Electronics and Apple Inc over smartphones and tablets.

The panel, the International Trade Commission, also sent part of the dispute back to judge, who ruled in October that Samsung, the world's top maker of smartphones, infringed four Apple patents but did not violate two others.

The full commission said on Wednesday it would review the judge's decision, and asked the agency judge to take a second look at portions of two patents where he had found that Samsung infringed.

Apple and Samsung are still going at it (image credit: GettyImages)

One of the patents in question allows the use of a headset with the smartphone while the other allows the device to show an image on a screen with a second, translucent image over it.

Apple had filed a complaint in mid-2011, accusing Samsung of infringing its patents in making its Captivate, Transform and Fascinate smartphones, as well as the Galaxy Tablet.

Apple is waging war on several fronts against Google, whose Android software powers many of Samsung's devices. The battles between Apple and Samsung have taken place in some 10 countries as they vie for market share in the booming mobile industry.

The case at the International Trade Commission is No. 337-796.

Report by : Reuters

FIFA 13 Review

I'm not a big fan of annual franchises. The FIFAs, Need for Speeds, and Call of Dutys of the world exist to satiate the mainstream gaming demographics' unquenchable thirst for newer content from their favourite franchise. Delivering more of the same formula, however, severely curtails their creative licence. Whenever a well-regarded developer works on one of these franchises, I can't help but think what a massive waste of talent that is. To use an extreme metaphor, that's akin to relegating a gifted fashion designer to making underwear—an endeavour that neither calls for any creativity, nor does it allow the designer to exercise his imagination.

On the other hand, games such as Shadow of the Colossus, Fallout, and Deus Ex can be equated to the Sistine Chapel, Eiffel Tower, and Pyramids of Giza. Each of these video game masterpieces shows as much creativity, effort, and excellence as is evident in these monuments of human excellence. To be fair, the NFS franchise at least has toyed around with diverse approaches to racing with mixed results. Sports games, however, enjoy no such liberty. It's a bit like making a thumbtack—you really don't have much scope for going crazy with new ideas here.

Seamless animations combine with excellent player and ball physics for a believable experience

However, that isn't entirely as bad as it looks. There, surprisingly, is an upside to this formulaic approach to video game development. While, the quality of most franchises crescendos from instalment to instalment, football games tend to be consistently good. This is a fact that's clearly evident when a newbie fires up FIFA 13 for the first time. The sheer number of game modes, seamless integration of online play, and a brilliant incorporation of real-world football league action within the game itself is mind boggling.

The quantity, quality, and complexity of features and gameplay mechanics evident in FIFA 13 can rarely be replicated in any other game—at least, not without severely compromising refinement of these numerous parameters. Each individual element of this football title is painstakingly created and works surprisingly well. It's not difficult to understand why this franchise is so brutally efficient. While other games have a couple of years to get things right, the FIFA series has been evolving over almost a decade. Although each subsequent instalment may not have improved drastically over the last one, this sort of incremental refinement amounts to a lot over 13 iterations.

The Player Impact Engine forces you to be aware of your surroundings

For starters, the physics engine was vastly improved in the last FIFA outing, with excellent collision detection and a sense of genuine weight to the players. However, the physics issues such as bizarre limb contortions and unnatural player interactions evident during tackling have been ironed out. What you now have are clean, life-like animations that make the experience a lot more believable. FIFA Street players will recognise the free-form dribbling, which allows a tighter control over the ball. The most visible difference this system heralds is the ability to dribble the ball in a direction other than that the player's facing. This adds depth to ball control and skilful players are rewarded with the ability to manoeuvre the ball through opposing team's defences quite dramatically, much like in real life.

FIFA 13's nod to realism doesn't end there. Unlike every single football game out there, players in this game don't seem to possess their own gravitational fields of sort that lets them trap speeding balls with certainty. An improved ball physics and handling system dubbed as First-Touch Control raises the stakes by factoring in variables such as player and ball speed, spin and the skill level of the virtual footballer to determine whether the ball will stick or not. This brand of unpredictability is more interesting than frustrating because now you have to pay attention to the ball and the player, as opposed to making wild passes and gutsy tackles without consequences. Sprint into an incoming ball and you're sure to lose it, but slowing down and tackling it with more finesse greatly increase your chances of capturing it.

Additional organic physics implementations such as the Player Impact Engine force you to think beyond fine tuning control inputs to maintain accuracy. In effect, you have to ramp up your spatial awareness, factor in ball and player speed, exercise greater control over dribbling, and otherwise really work hard to maintain dominance over the field. In FIFA 13, you can no longer beat the game just by placing your player in the right spot. No, the deeper control system and complicated ball as well as player physics call for a greater degree of control and finesse to succeed. Although this makes winning a lot more painstaking as an endeavour, more importantly, it becomes a rewarding experience as well. In short, this is simulation done right.

Fortunately, AI has been ramped up to keep up with the complicated controls and gameplay. Not only will the opposing team breathe down your neck and capitalise on your mistakes, but your own squad will also tear and jostle through your opponent's defences to intuitively take the aggressive and tactically sound positions. More often than not, it felt as though I was playing with my buddies who could anticipate my moves and capitalise windows of opportunities as and when they opened up. There were times, especially during defence, when my AI teammates would make life harder by fumbling passes and tackles a tad too often.

The aggressive AI and complex controls are more rewarding than frustrating

The graphics and sound may not show a marked improvement over FIFA 12, the player animations seem to be a lot more detailed. The collisions look realistic, the shoving and jostling animations loop in seamlessly, whereas all sorts of jumping, heading, and sliding is rendered with lifelike detail. When combined with a revised control scheme and an impressive physics engine, FIFA 13 makes for a very organic and believable football experience. The PS Move integration, however, is clearly perfunctory and quite awkward with all the gaudy, blinking icons that detract from the experience. It didn't take me long to decide that it's best to retire this gimmick and go back to using the Dual-Shock 3 controller.

The last year's major changes and the fine tweaks and refinements to those established mechanics in this game are best assimilated through a new tutorial system of sorts dubbed as Skill Games. This serves as a fun way to acclimatise to the newly-introduced complexities through a series of challenges that let you master the craft. The mini-games contained within this mode are fun on their own accord, which lets it transcend the banality of a plain vanilla tutorial affair.

The Match Day mode is a great addition for die-hard football fans

Once you have mastered various licensed world tournaments and familiar offline game modes such as Be A Pro and Ultimate Team, you can purchase an "Online Pass" for roughly Rs 350 and try your luck, well, online. There's nothing like playing a five-game tournament against a fellow gamer located halfway across the planet. FIFA 13 brings a slice of real life with its Match Day mode. This optional feature lets you maintain player stats in sync with their actual performance in the real world leagues. This is quite ingenious because injuries, transfers, and player form in the game is kept up to date with regards to what's happening outside in the real world—all by harnessing the power of the internet to affect gameplay.

The rival PES series has been considered as a fun arcade foil to the serious simulation-esque leanings of the FIFA games. It may not bring radical changes after the success of the last game, but it does distil gameplay even further by refining controls, adding complexity through improved ball and player physics, in addition to infusing a greater degree of depth with the First-Touch Control mechanic. It has widened the gameplay scope without sacrificing on fun and making the affair more frustrating. What you have here is a more rewarding experience that compels you to ramp up your game. The clever Match Day mode is a compelling addition to those who follow major international football leagues religiously, which is almost everyone who plays such games. The verdict is clear, if you liked FIFA 2012, this iteration plays like a refined version that doesn't stray too further from the winning formula.

Report by: Reuters

Review: Sennheiser HD 700

The Sennheiser HD 800 are an absolutely fantastic pair of headphones. Having had the opportunity to listen to them a couple of years ago, I was floored with the level of detail and clarity that was pouring out of the two ring radiator drivers.

But as impressive as the HD 800 are, they are not for everyone. Audio precision is a double-edged sword. While everybody yearns for it, there can be such a thing as too much of it. Of course, this does not apply to people who work in studios and who need to hear the sound as accurately as possible. But for people who listen to music simply to enjoy it and not analyze it, the analytical nature of the HD 800’s sound can be too cold and unforgiving.

This also caused another issue, where the HD 800 was simply not suited for several genres of music. Not all of us listen to classical music all the time. When dealing with bass-heavy genres such as trance or dubstep, the HD 800 would fall flat on its metal and plastic face. The bass response on the HD 800 is just too lean and precise to make these genres enjoyable.

Sennheiser’s significantly cheaper HD 650 did a much better job in this regard. Although they were nowhere near the neurosurgeon level of precision that the HD 800 are capable of, they had a far more laidback audio signature with a smooth and delicious bass response that was a lot more genre independent.

Sennheiser HD 700

But what if someone wanted the clarity and the airiness of the HD 800’s sound along with a warmer and mellower sound signature? This is where the HD 700 comes in. The HD 700 is the bridge between the two extremes that are the HD 650 and the HD 800 and designed to strike a happy balance.

The first thing I noticed when put on the HD 700 and played some music was how much warmer the audio signature of the HD 700 is compared to the HD 800. The bass is a lot punchier, carries more weight and does a good job of balancing the overall sound without making it feel like all the action is happening up top.

At the same time the mids and highs on the HD 700 are also a lot more pronounced on the HD 700 compared to the HD 650. The soundstage is also wider, which coupled with the brighter mids and highs makes the sound a lot airier.

In terms of details, the HD 700 aren’t as spectacular as the HD 800, which could tell you what the playback singer had for breakfast that morning, but they still do a fine job nonetheless and you will definitely be hearing minor nuances in the music a lot more clearly on these than on the HD 650. The soundstage is once again wonderful, not as expansive as the HD 800 but noticeably wider than the HD 650.The HD 700 sound signature thus has the right amount of warmth without the low end feeling as if it would drown out the mids and the highs but at the same time the top end carries enough precision and detail to bring out the best in your music.

Looking at the other aspects of the headphones, the HD 700 look like the younger sibling of the HD 800 that they are. They aren’t as big, which is a good thing because wearing the HD 800 felt like someone strapped a couple of saucers around your ears. The HD 700 are also not as tight and cramped as the smaller earcups of the 650. They feel just the right size with enough room inside the earcups so that the speaker grille does not touch your pinnae.

Speaking of the design, these are undeniably one of the most handsome pair of headphones I’ve seen. Just like the HD 800 the design is very futuristic and stands out among the usual staid black designs you usually see. They don’t look as opulent as the headphones that use wood for their earcups but rather what one would describe as “cool”.

Like the HD 800, the HD 700 are constructed mostly out of high quality plastic with a hint of metal thrown in for good measure for the mesh grille on the earcups. Although it might seem as if the grille is tightly shut, that is not the case. Just hold the earcups against a light and you can see the light pouring in through from them. Despite the plastic body the build quality and the overall fit and finish is very good.

As mentioned before, the earcups are very spacious, especially considering how thin they appear from the outside. Inside you’ll find a cloth grille with the usual Sennheiser logo etched on it. The earcups are lined with soft foam cushion covered in a felt.

The HD 700 use a thick braided cable with a ¼-inch (6.3mm) headphone jack at one end and dual 2.5mm mono plugs on the other end going into each speaker. This is an improvement over the proprietary cables used on the HD 650 and the HD 800 as they can now be easily replaced from someone that is not Sennheiser. And some may want to do that because the cable is not particularly satisfactory. I found it to be too thick for my tastes and moreover it tends to retain the bends that it picked up inside the package. The cable also tends to bend and tangle quite easily.

In the end, there are two ways to look at the HD 700. There is the glass half-empty way, where you can say the HD 700 neither has the rich, luxurious bass response of the HD 650 nor does it have the same level of clarity and detail of the HD 800.

The other way to look at it is the glass half full way, where you can say that the HD 700 manages to bring the best of both together in a neat little package. This is for someone who craved a bit more warmth in the HD 800 sound, even at the cost of some of the detail or for someone who desired more clarity in the HD 650 sound. It’s also an all-round awesome pair of headphones, with one of the most balanced sound I’ve had the pleasure to hear that goes with practically everything. I even tried them with movies and games and even that worked out very well.

In other words, if you just have to have one pair of headphones, the HD 700 should be it. Assuming you can afford to shell out Rs. 54,990 for them.

Report by: Prasad Naik

Review: Nokia Lumia 610

Windows Phone devices have primarily been high-end devices due to the high hardware requirements set by Microsoft. There have hardly been any device below the Rs. 15,000 mark, which for many is still the most they would spend on a smartphone. As such, that market is now completely dominated by

With the launch of the Tango update, Microsoft reduced some of the hardware requirements, allowing devices such as the Nokia Lumia 610 to exist. The best thing about this device is that while the hardware requirements are definitely lower, it does not compromise on the smoothness of the UI that Windows Phone is known for.

We decided to take a look and see if it is a worthy buy for smartphone buyers on a budget.

Nokia Lumia 610

Design The design of the Lumia 610 is very simple yet attractive. Despite its affordable pricing, the Lumia 610 does not come across as a cheap-looking device. In fact, it looks even better than its more expensive sibling, the Lumia 710.
The front of the device is dominated by the 3.7-inch touchscreen, with an attractive chrome ring running around the bezel. Above the display lies the earpiece, the proximity sensor and the ambient light sensor. The Lumia 610 does not have a front facing camera. Below the display are the three Windows Phone keys, including the back button, Home button and Bing search button.
On the right side of the device lie the volume control buttons, the lock key and the camera shutter button. Being used to finding the lock switch usually on the top, the location of the button on the Lumia devices always causes confusion and takes getting used to.

On top of the phone are the headphone jack and the microUSB port.
On the back of the device is the camera lens near the top with an LED flash and the loudspeaker near the bottom. Take off the battery cover and inside you will find just the SIM slot under the battery.
Just like the design the Lumia 610 has a nice upmarket feel thanks to the soft touch back cover and the solid build quality. The weight and size also feel just right. Those who are not fans of gigantic smartphones would love the size of this phone.

Display


The Lumia 610 has a 3.7-inch, 800 x 480 resolution display. The display is one of the problematic areas of the phone. The quality is very mediocre, with pale and washed out colors that just make everything look drab and boring. The viewing angles, black levels and contrast are also not up to the mark.

The only saving grace here is the resolution, which is quite high, especially for this price range. The resolution prevents the display from being a total failure. It also ends up looking better than most of the other smartphones in its price range, despite the quality of the LCD panel.

Hardware and Software


The Lumia 610 runs on the Qualcomm MSM7227A SoC with a single-core 800MHz CPU and an Adreno 200 GPU. This is a downgrade from the 1GHz MSM8255 on all the previous Windows Phone devices. The RAM has also been reduced from 512MB to 256MB. Lastly, the internal memory is 8GB with no expandable option, as usual.

On the software side, it comes with Windows Phone 7.5 built-in. Nokia has added some of its own software on top of the OS but the most important ones are the Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive applications. The former is a simple mapping application whereas the latter offers free turn by turn voice navigation.

In our usage, both the applications were quite good, particularly the Nokia Drive application, which provided reliable navigation in India. You just have to download the maps for the region along with the voice data beforehand, which can be anything from 50-150MB. The Nokia Maps application is not as good as Google Maps on Android and at times provided inaccurate results for searches but is still a significant improvement over the built-in Bing Maps application, which doesn't even let you search.

The Lumia 610 also comes with Nokia Music application that lets you download as much music as you want for free for a year. While this sounds great, the actual music doesn't, mostly because it is encoded in pathetic 32kbps MP3. Yes, you read that right. 32kbps. Even ringtones use higher quality these days.

As for Windows Phone itself, it is pretty much the same as it was on other devices. The UI still looks fresh and attractive even though it has been around for two years now and is very easy to use, especially for those who are new to smartphones. The built-in social networking features are also amazing and unmatched by any other platform. You almost don't need to have dedicated Facebook and Twitter apps installed.

It still has its fair share of issues. The multitasking is rather poor and third party apps tend to pause once you put them in background and take a while to resume. The notification system is poorly thought out, the built-in Internet Explorer browser makes pages look weird thanks to the inconsistent font sizes, the search button opens Bing every time instead of searching within the application, you can't take screenshots or transfer any data to and from the device without a desktop client, there's a single volume level for loudspeaker, headphones and ringtones, and many such annoyances.

The biggest problem for most people, though, is the poor choice of third party applications available for download on the Windows Marketplace. Nokia and Microsoft like to boast of big numbers at every event but in reality the actual quality of apps and games is way behind iOS or Android.

What makes the situation worse on the Lumia 610 is that a lot of the applications aren't compatible with the device due to the lower RAM. You can't, for example, install Angry Birds on this phone. This makes the already small library of apps and games even smaller and eventually you are not left with much to download.

In the end, if apps are what you want, you would be fairly disappointed with the Lumia 610 or with Windows Phone in general. Just think of it as a glorified feature phone and you should be fine.

Regarding the software update situation, the Lumia 610 is in the same boat as all current Windows Phone 7.5 devices, where none of them will be getting updated to Windows Phone 8. However, Nokia has announced that it will be bringing some of the newer features such as the new Start screen to current Lumia devices through software updates.

Performance

The Lumia 610 has a slower processor and lower RAM than other Windows Phone, but you'd never figure this out by using the phone alone. The user interface remains ridiculously smooth and fluid within the built-in applications. Third party application performance is not as impressive and the most common issue is that the screen blanks-out when you start scrolling. However, this can be observed on other Windows Phone devices as well, so it's not just an issue with the Lumia 610.

The web browser is where you'd see the effects of the reduced hardware the most. The browser has trouble keeping more than one full size web page in the memory and if you open multiple tabs the phone starts struggling. Switch from one to another and the phone has to load it all over again because the memory is just not enough to keep them all. Stick to just a single page and the phone remains impressively smooth and fast.

The multimedia performance is a mixed bag. The music playback is fine with the only annoyance being the need to use the Zune PC client to transfer music. Even for transferring the photos to your PC you need the Zune application. If you have a Mac you will need the Windows Phone 7 Connector client installed. Same for videos. You can only transfer those videos to the phone that Zune supports and even then it converts them to either a lower resolution or quality while transferring.

The loudspeaker on the phone is pretty loud but sounds tinny. It loses some of its edge and volume when you keep the phone on a flat surface. Nokia does provide a respectable pair of in-ear headset with the phone so you won't have to rush out and buy a new pair.

The call quality and network reception were up to Nokia's usually high standards, as was the Wi-Fi and GPS reception.

Camera

The Lumia 610 has a 5 megapixel camera with auto-focus and flash. The camera is a bit of a mixed bag. At times the images look surprisingly good, with decent color, contrast and sharpness. At times the colors go for a toss, and end up being either too bland or just incorrect. The leaves of plants, for example, often have a noticeable yellow tint even if the actual leaves are bright green. Still, for quickly taking a picture and sharing them on social networking websites, the camera on the Lumia 610 is more than adequate.

The video recording, however, is plain bad. The phone only records VGA resolution videos, unlike the 720p videos on all the other Windows Phone devices out there. The quality of the video is also quite mediocre. If you want to record good quality videos, then you should definitely avoid this phone.

Battery Life

The Lumia 610 surprised me with amazingly good battery life. With regular usage, consisting of a few calls, taking pictures and using the built-in social networking features over 3G, the phone ended up lasting for almost two days on a single charge. Granted, I was not using many (or any) third party apps on the phone as people usually do, but that's because there are not enough quality titles for this phone to spend time in.

For someone looking for a device mostly for social networking, the battery life on the Lumia 610 is excellent.

Conclusion

It's amazing how you can enjoy something when you set your expectations low and that's exactly what happened to me while using the Lumia 610. I knew from the beginning the application selection wasn't going to be great, that there won't be a lot of games to play, the display won't be phenomenal and that the camera won't be outstanding. And I pretty much got what I was expecting. For someone who isn’t expecting a full blown smartphone experience will be as satisfied with the device as I was.

Where the Lumia 610 truly impressed me was with its fluid user interface, which was way smoother than what I expected. Its smoothness puts many expensive smartphones costing several times its price to shame and this is something that Microsoft (and Nokia) needs to be commended on, for managing to retain the smoothness of Windows Phone despite the weaker hardware.

It also helps that the OS looks absolutely stunning and that it has an amazing integration with Facebook and Twitter. For someone looking for a simple phone that can be used to communicate with their friends online or as a second device to someone who already has an accomplished smartphone or a tablet, this can be a very good option.

Unfortunately, Nokia has dropped the ball with the pricing. The Lumia 610 costs around Rs. 12,000 right now. Spend a couple of grand more and you can get the Nokia Lumia 710, which has faster hardware that not only performs better but also gives you access to more applications than is possible on the Lumia 610.

A price of around under Rs. 10,000 would have made the perfect sense. Unfortunately, that is not the case and as much as I liked the Lumia 610 I cannot recommend it at that price.
Report by: Prasad Naik

Sony Xperia tipo review

Report by: R.Shah

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