HTC Incredible S Review

This is a global GSM phone. It can be used with T-Mobile USA (2G and 3G) and AT&T (without 3G).

Introduction:

Aiding in bringing Android to the mainstream, Verizon’s HTC Droid Incredible surely did its fair share of work in spreading the good word about the richness of Android – especially when it’s tastefully complemented with its favorable high end specs. And even though it was semi-regarded as being a variant of the also impressive Google Nexus One, it was able to build its own legacy on Big Red’s lineup, which even to this day, proves to be a contender in a crowded space. Now roughly a year later, HTC unveiled a supped up Android smartphone that retains the Incredible branding, while finding some moderate upgraded hardware. This time HTC is taking the Incredible line to Europe as well, since what we have here is the European edition of the new model, dubbed Incredible S, while Verizon's version is yet to be officially introduced, supposedly under the name of Droid Incredible 2. Still, both devices seem to be identical from what we've seen thus far, so we presume what we're looking at here is an accurate prelude to the Droid Incredible 2. The HTC Incredible S is looking to be yet another respectable high-end device from HTC’s camp, but will it shine radiantly amongst the new breed of next-generation Android devices out there?

The package contains:

• HTC Incredible S
• 8GB microSD card
• microUSB cable
• Wall Charger
• Stereo Headset
• Quick Guide

Design:

Fully embodying the same identical minimalistic industrial design that’s found with the HTC Droid Incredible, the Incredible S is distinctive due to its contoured and unmistakable rear patterned design. Since its capacitive touch buttons aren’t printed on, we’re presented with a completely clean looking surface. Constructed out of black plastic, its soft touch feel all around enables it to better repel nasty baddies such as dirt and debris – while providing that adequate firm grip as we hold it. And obviously, it’s longer and wider since it utilizes a larger sized touchscreen, but its 0.46” thickness still enables it to tuck away in our pockets easily. Manageable in size, its overall design footprint is all too typical of what we see out of HTC’s camp, but it’s still nonetheless pleasant looking.

The HTC Incredible S embodies minimalistic industrial design

You can compare the HTC Incredible S with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

Moving up the ladders with a 4” Super LCD capacitive display, its WVGA (480 x 800) resolution is still satisfactory even though we’re seeing more and more handsets employing higher resolutions. Color production might not be as saturated looking when compared to Super AMOLED displays, but thankfully, its Super LCD display produces some rich looking colors that retain their luster since it offers some great viewing angles. Even more, we had zero problems in trying to view it in outdoor conditions with the glaring sun present.

At first, some might be surprised to find a clean looking front surface, but turning on its display, its capacitive touch buttons come to life. Interestingly enough, they don’t appear to be painted on, but rather, they seem to be nothing more than LEDs underneath there. However, they actually rotate when you place the device in landscape – but it only works when you rotate it to the left; not right.

The HTC Incredible S boasts a 4” Super LCD capacitive display

Thanks to the front-facing 1.3-megapixel above its display, we’re given the opportunity of video calling and shooting self-portraits more easily.

Front-facing camera

The narrow looking volume rocker is positioned on the left edge of the phone, but despite its flushed appearance, it actually exhibits a reasonable tactile response. Also, the microUSB port is located on the same side as well for charging and data connection. Meanwhile, the top edge plays host to both the 3.5mm headset jack and dedicated power button – the latter of which is recessed, but still provides a moderate tactile feel when pressed down.

Bottom	Left	Top	Right
The sides of the HTC Incredible S

On the back side, which utilizes the same exact interestingly shaped design of the HTC Droid Incredible, we find the 8-megapixel auto-focus camera with dual-LED flash and speaker grill located towards the top edge of the handset.

Back

Placed squarely in the middle of the bottom edge, there is a small notch that allows you to easily yank off the rear cover – thus giving you access to its SIM card slot, 1450 mAh battery, and microSD card slot.

Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH-108 Review

Introduction:

The Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH-108 offers a clean design and covers all the basic necessities a hands-free headset should cover for a price that can fit most pockets.

The affordable price, however, has led Nokia to compromise a lot of functions, so if you are eager to taste all the latest heights and wonders that can be found on some modern, state-of-the-art, function-rich Bluetooth headsets, the BH-108 is definitely not your best choice. Nevertheless, this headset offers one or two good things, so read on for our full impression.


Design:

The Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH-108 offers the cleanest of designs, and, in fact, it has only one button, which is on the front side. On the top side is the indicator light, while the charger port is located on the right. On the bottom side we have the microphone and on the back is the earpiece from which the plastic earloop originates.

The Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH-108 offers the cleanest of designs

The whole body of this headset is made of plastic. It's available in two colors - white and black - and the model we reviewed was all white, except for the middle section of the earpiece, which is blue. One of the good things about its plastic construction is that the device is very lightweight (only 0.31oz) and has compact dimensions (2.11 x 0.63 x 0.32).

The Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH-108 is very lightweight and has compact dimensions

All in all, there is not one notable thing about its design, but that's to say it's a simple rather than unpleasant one. What's worse is that Nokia didn't bother to offer earbuds in various sizes (in fact, all you have out of the box is the headset, its charger and two manuals), and the whole experience may be a rather uncomfortable one, but at least the transparent earloop ensures there is not much of a chance that the headset will fall from your ear.

Nokia hit by component shortage

Nokia N8 smartphone

HELSINKI: It still says Nokia on the box, but investors might find the similarities end there.

The Finnish firm's recent decision to dump its own market-leading software platform in favour of Microsoft's unproven Windows

Phone has already wiped 29 per cent off its share price.

Shareholders preparing to grit their teeth through the pain of this realignment process should be warned - it could get worse before it gets better.

In the coming weeks and months Nokia is likely to face problems of component supply as Japan, a manufacturing hub for many key parts, tries to recover output following the recent devastating earthquake and tsunami.

On top of that, many analysts believe Nokia has set unrealistic targets for the switch to its new model, and in the interim, the stock may fall even below the valuation of its new hardware peers.

"When margins crash, investors tend to panic," said Tero Kuittinen, analyst at MKM Partners.

But even the drastic drop in the share price fails to reflect the potential fallout from Nokia's new strategy. The old Nokia was a phone company that provided software and services, more like Apple, and that combination earned its shares a premium.

But the new Nokia will be focused on delivering the best possible hardware on which to run Microsoft's software platform, just like computer makers Dell and Hewlett-Packard.

Applying the same earnings multiple as Dell's shares carry, Nokia stock would be 4.1 euros, not the 5.8 euros they fetched on Friday.

Nokia shares are still trading near 12 times forecast annual earnings, in line with its valuation over the last two years, while the PC makers it now resembles are valued at well below 10 times expected earnings.

Analyst Pierre Ferragu from Sanford Bernstein said Nokia stock should not be valued above 10-11 expected earnings, given doubts about the success of its move out of software.

Nokia itself admits picking Windows Phone was a risky bet as the success of Apple and Google has raised the bar for competitors.

"The Windows Phone platform is a very recent, largely unproven addition to the market focused solely on high-end smartphones, with currently very low adoption and consumer awareness relative to the Android and Apple platforms," Nokia said in its annual report last week.

Work on the first Nokia smartphones based on Microsoft software has already begun, before the final deal between the two firms has been signed, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop told Reuters.

Selling Symbian product is a difficult task
Nokia faces the difficult task of trying to sell its dying Symbian product line to consumers and operators in 2011 and 2012 ahead of the switch to Windows Phone.

The company said last month it aimed to sell 150 million more Symbian phones before it changes software platform, but analysts say it is unlikely to meet this figure and warn that sales of its other products may also be affected.

"Nokia seems to believe that problems with Symbian will not impact sales of basic phones too badly. However, history gives us tough examples of the 'halo effect' - when demand for Motorola's Razr dived in 2007, it dragged down also sales of cheaper

Motorola models," Kuittinen said.

Most of the value in Nokia stock comes from its position as the world's biggest phone maker by sales volume. But during the two-year transition to its new identity, competitors will agressively eat into its market share.

Its closest rival Samsung Electronics told Reuters last month it was not aiming to make a profit on $25 phones - the market segment Nokia dominates.

Bernstein analyst Ferragu said he expected Nokia stock to be volatile in the near future as its price oscillates between hopes of a turnaround and fears of a terminal decline.

"In a bear scenario, which remains a very possible one, with the company hitting the red in the first quarter of next year, we don't see any valuation floor before 3 euros," Ferragu said.

Apple's game changer Mac OS X turns 10

Billed as a new start by Steve Jobs, Mac OS X powers all Mac computers, with parts of it used to run the iPhone and iPad

CALIFORNIA: March 24, 2001 remains a special day in the annals of Apple history. That was the day Apple chief Steve Jobs and his team finished a year-long odyssey for a new operating system for the Macintosh computer, resulting in Mac OS X.

It might seem like a footnote, but this new system was key to the rejuvenation of Apple. Billed as a new start by Jobs, who had returned to the company after a lengthy absence, it powers all Mac computers, with parts of it used to run the iPhone and iPad.

It was a game changer for the company. Toward the end of the 1990s, Apple was up against the wall, from a business perspective. Its OS 9 system could not compete with Microsoft Windows.

"Separately from the financial problems Apple was experiencing then, it was clear to the geeks that Apple was on the way to technological ruin," writes US columnist John Siracusa of Ars Technica as OS X celebrates its 10th anniversary.

Just as Apple was facing bankruptcy in 1997, then company chief Gil Amelio pulled the emergency brake and called Jobs -- who had been booted out of the company 12 years previously -- in as a consultant.

As an added measure, Apple bought Jobs' company NeXT for 400 million dollars. NeXT had developed a very technically advanced operating system (NeXTStep) that became the basis of the new Macintosh system.

Thus, Apple took a radical step when it released Mac OS X 10.0 on September 24, 2001. "The new system brought a modern object-oriented architecture, storage protection -- important for stability and security -- and pre-emptive multi-tasking, by which the operating system core managed work on individual processes of the Mac," says Stephan Ehrmann, chief editor of the industry magazine Mac & i.

Jochen Viehoff, curator at the Heinz Nixdorf Museum Forum in Paderborn, Germany, also believes that Apple settled on the right path with this move. "It was tactically a very clever move, situating oneself on the core of a Unix system." That gave Apple the leg up for an eventual switch to Intel chips, since the operating system easily worked with the new hardware platform.

The Aqua interface was also completely reworked. The sharp contrasts, still evident in Mac OS 9, were replaced in Mac OS X with a milky-white screen, light gray columns and a more colourful palette.

The new system also introduced a new area at the bottom of the screen where the icons for programmes, folders, data and websites could be stored. Microsoft eventually copied the Dock with its taskbar in Windows 7.

The iMac Kiva, released in July 2001, was the first Macintosh with the new system. But that computer still contained a comparatively slow G3 PowerPC processor from Motorola. It was only with the release of the iMac G4 generation that Apple got through its teething problems.

Since its March 2001 release, Apple has updated Mac OS X almost every two years, always naming the system after a big cat. The current system, 10.6, is dubbed Snow Leopard and was released in August 2009. The next system -- 10.7 or Lion -- is expected this summer, with elements from the iPad tablet computer expected to migrate to the Macintosh.

But this is no one-way street. "Unlike Windows, Mac OS X early on managed the connection to mobile hardware. Parts of that function as iOS on the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Apple TV," says Ehrmann.

Telcos to pay Rs700cr fine: Government

 

The government has imposed fines worth Rs 700 crore on various telecom operators for carrying out illegal and clandestine activities in their services.

NEW DELHI: Acting tough, the government has imposed fines worth Rs 700 crore on various telecom operators for carrying out illegal and clandestine activities in their services, particularly for non-compliance of the subscriber verification process.

The penalty was imposed by Telecom Enforcement , Resource and Monitoring (TERM) Cells till January 2011 on various telecom service providers operating in different licence service areas for non-compliance of subscriber verification guidelines, a Home Ministry report said.

The fine was imposed on defaulting entities which did not comply with government orders despite repeated warnings that 100 per cent verification of each and every subscriber was absolutely necessary for interests of the country's security.

There have been several instances in the past where terrorists used mobile phone connections, which were issued without verification, to carry out terror acts in India.

"Consultations are regularly held with the service providers to streamline the guidelines. Apart from the fine, wherever the shortcoming is serious in nature and whenever necessary, local police even register cases against the defaulter," a Home Ministry official said.

Because of non-compliance of the government rules, the Centre had in the past suspended operations of pre-paid mobile connections in Jammu and Kashmir.

Cellular services to nearly 38 million pre-paid cell phone subscribers in Jammu and Kashmir, who comprise 60 per cent of total clientele in the state, was restored only after seven telecom operators -- Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Idea Cellular, Aircel, Tata Teleservices, Reliance Communications and state-run BSNL promised full compliance with the verification process.

Wipro, Infosys, TCS recall staff from Bahrain

 

Wipro, Infosys, TCS and other companies have a substantial presence in Bahrain

CHENNAI/BANGALORE: Many Indian IT companies have decided to evacuate their employees from Bahrain, rocked by protests for several weeks.

There are around 3,50,000 Indians in Bahrain. Wipro, Infosys, TCS and other companies have a substantial presence in the country.

Anand Sankaran, senior vice president and business head (India & Middle East), Wipro says, "The company has 1,100 employees in the Middle East, of which 50 are in Bahrain. We've already brought back 25 persons living and working in sensitive areas of that country."

Many Indian companies in Bahrain have been trying to get their employees and families out over the past three days. An Infosys spokesperson said the company had less than 20 employees there and they returned to India a few days ago.

TCS had 20 people in Bahrain, including dependents, and all were brought back to India, said a spokesperson. Minister of state for external affairs E Ahamed said from New Delhi, "There is a law-and-order situation in Bahrain and security forces are sorting it out. Indians are safe, and there is no cause for concern. I'm in touch with the Indian envoy to Bahrain, Mohan Kumar. Indians there have been asked to approach their association and its volunteers for help in an emergency.''

Indian diplomats at the embassy told TOI that two British flights which arrived in the kingdom on Thursday had to return empty as no one was willing to leave.

Some Indian families have left the kingdom though the situation is not as serious in Libya or Yemen. Some Indian schools are closed and students have already left for India on vacation, diplomats said.

The external affairs ministry has advised Indians whose presence is not essential in Bahrain to consider leaving and avoid all non-essential travel within the country. "The situation is tense but calm. Stock up big on rations. Absolutely stay indoors. We will get through this together," Mohan Kumar tweeted.

Google accuses China of blocking Gmail

 

Google said that it was not having any technical problems with Google's main website or Gmail service in China

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SHANGHAI: Google has accused the Chinese government of disrupting Gmail in the country, making it difficult in the last few weeks for users here to gain access to the company's popular email service.

Google said that it was not having any technical problems with Google's main website or Gmail service in China. "There is no issue on our side; we have checked extensively," Google said in a statement. "This is a government blockage, carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail."

Analysts who track Web developments say that the Chinese government may be intentionally disrupting access to Google and other Web services as part of a campaign to tighten Internet controls

 

 

SHANGHAI: Google has accused the Chinese government of disrupting Gmail in the country, making it difficult in the last few weeks for users here to gain access to the company's popular email service.

Google said that it was not having any technical problems with Google's main website or Gmail service in China. "There is no issue on our side; we have checked extensively," Google said in a statement. "This is a government blockage, carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail."

Analysts who track Web developments say that the Chinese government may be intentionally disrupting access to Google and other Web services as part of a campaign to tighten Internet controls and censor material.

Calls to China's Foreign Ministry were not returned. Beijing has long had some of the world's strictest Internet controls. But after pro-democracy demonstrations broke out in the Middle East in January, the Chinese government seems to have intensified effort to censor Web content and disrupt Web searches related to calls for similar protests in China.

The controls come about a year after Google removed its Chinese language Internet search engine from China and relocated it to Hong Kong, where Beijing has few controls.

Google also said its decision had been prompted by a series of major attacks on its website by Chinese hackers. Google suggested at the time that the sophisticated hacking attacks had the backing of the Chinese government.

The hackers stole some Google source code and also gained access to the private Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights advocates. Last March, the government sharply criticized Google's decision to relocate its search engine. In a statement to the official Xinhua News Agency, the government said, "Google has violated its written promise it made when entering the Chinese market by stopping filtering its searching service and blaming in insinuation for alleged hacker attacks."

Google's search engines and Gmail are still accessible in China, but the government has the ability to block them. Many other popular social media sites, including YouTube, which is owned by Google, as well as Twitter and Facebook, are blocked here.

Intel, AMD chips spawning future PCs

 

A range of manufacturers expect to release PCs with AMD and Intel chips by early spring

BERLIN: The race has begun: Early this year the first desktop computers and notebooks based on the latest processor architectures from AMD and Intel hit the shelves.

AMD calls its new chip Fusion; Intel's is named Sandy Bridge.

While the names are different, the underlying principle is the same: both manufacturers placed the processor and graphics chip on a single circuit board. This, say the manufacturers, results in faster and more efficient computers.

Many new devices incorporating this processor technology were presented recently at the CeBIT IT trade show in Hanover, Germany.

MSI, for example, introduced a broad range of notebooks equipped with AMD Fusion processors. Acer, on the other hand, presented the Aspire Timeline X line of notebooks powered by Sandy Bridge processors.

At present, the combo chips are mainly used for mobile devices. And there's a reason for that, says Christian Siemers, professor for processor architecture at the Technical University of Clausthal in Germany.

"There's a clear trend towards highly specialised devices," he says. As these are powered by batteries and must be kept from overheating, energy-efficient chips are the ideal solution. The days of the traditional desktop PC designed to accommodate any application are numbered," he adds.

While Sandy Bridge and Fusion represent a viable alternative for notebooks and tablet computers, the integrated graphics processors do not always live up to the high requirements of desktop PCs and demanding users or gamers.

As opposed to Sandy Bridge graphics processors, the AMD Fusion chips support DirectX 11. This explains why, for instance, the Akoya P7750 desktop PC from Medion showcased at CeBIT houses a Radeon HD6870 graphics card, although the PC is powered by a Sandy Bridge- type Intel Core i7 2600.

A range of manufacturers expect to release PCs with AMD's new chips by early spring. Other manufacturers have communicated similar release dates for devices based on Intel's new line of chips. This delay is owing to the fact that some of the Sandy Bridge chip sets shipped early in the year were faulty and did not provide sufficiently reliable connectors for hard disks or other drives.

The resulting product recall and changed production processes have caused supply bottlenecks. Intel and AMD advertise the new processor generation to be both energy efficient and fast. According to Professor Siemers, "Even modern processors are often quite ineffective and leave a great fraction of their potential untapped." This means there's a lot of room for improving the performance.

An easy way to verify that the new chips consume less energy is to look at the battery life of notebooks. Manufacturers Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard just presented business notebooks with previously unthinkable battery lives.

Lenovo lists its new Thinkpad T420 15 with a standard battery life of 15 hours, which can even be upgraded to work for 30 hours with an optional module. Hewlett Packard's Elitebook 8460p reportedly runs for up to 32 hours but requires an additional plug-in battery to do so.

For the time being, both devices will be introduced in the US market only. So how realistic are these figures? Siemers is rather sceptical, but considers a 10-per cent performance increase to be well within the realm of the possible for the first generation based on this new processor architecture.

"Quantum leaps are not very likely to occur," he says. His colleague Rainer Leupers concurs. "Energy efficiency is also closely tied to the software employed," he says. "But this topic is still not being addressed very seriously."

One factor in this equation is the so-called GPGPU (general purpose computation on graphics processing unit). This technology allows the graphics chip to be used for general tasks when no graphics-related computing chores are pending. However, this technology can only be tapped with the right programming, says Leupers.

Celebrities can't afford to log off Twitter, Facebook

Social networking forums like Twitter and Facebook have managed to burrow into popular culture but users- incuding celebrities- faced with issues of privacy, abuse and even social fatigue, seem to be logging off such online sites or even trading one for the other.

NEW DELHI: Social networking forums like Twitter and Facebook have managed to burrow into popular culture but users- including celebrities- faced with issues of privacy, abuse and even social fatigue, seem to be logging off such online sites or even trading one for the other.

A case in point is Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan who miffed with unsavory comments posted on his Twitter account had recently reportedly abandoned the microblogging site and his 8 lakh followers to move on to Facebook.

In the past too several Hollywood names like actor Miley Cyrus, singer-guitarist John Mayers etc were also seen to have shut down their Twitter accounts.

Technology experts, however say, despite random instances, celebrities cannot afford to remain isolated from networking sites which offer them a forum to publicise their works and connect with fans much more than conventional channels.

"With a few exceptions, celebrities continue to be active online and they take great pains to create and manage their image, directly influence media and share tidbits of events in their life with fans and followers," says Gaurav Mishra, director, digital and social media director of a leading strategic communications firm in Asia.

Section 67 of India's Information Technology Act, 2000 specifically prohibits posting of obscene matters and provides imprisonment for a term extended to five years and with fine which may extend to Rs 1 lakh and subsequent offence with a punishment extending to 10 years and fine of Rs 2 lakh.

"The number of followers on Twitter is often seen as a measure of popularity of stars as well as politicians. We have had examples of some celebrity tweeters getting into uncomfortable situations due to their tweets -- the most talked about examples being the one from ex-IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi involving former Minister Shashi Tharoor," says CyberMedia research lead analyst for the communications practice, Naveen Mishra.

Though issues regarding privacy over social networking sites and instances of email and social networking profiles being breached, distorted or additional usually obscene matter being put on the profile are fairly common, celebrities are even more vulnerable to such acts, say legal experts.

"They usually have a wider network and also that people outside the said network also monitor the accounts. In addition, privacy in case of celebrities can also be breached through fake accounts," says Anuradha Salhotra, Managing Partner, Lall Lahiri & Sons.

"As a measure to protect them and probably to clearly identify a celebrity account, Twitter's website provides the facility to users to determine which account with the name of a celebrity is real and which is fake. Action has been taken by many celebrities worldwide in the past for breach of security and breach of their privacy," points out Salhotra.

Internet overseer approves .xxx domain

San Francisco: The internet now has its own official red-light district, where sex sites will be regulated against fraud, viruses and child porn.

ICANN, the organisation that oversees the internet, gave final approval Friday to a proposal to create a new top-level domain name on the web with the suffix .xxx, which will host only sites that feature adult content.

Porn sites will not be required to register their addresses at the new domain but are expected to do so to prevent them being snapped up by competitors. However, in order to register they have to pass an application process that's designed to ensure that their site does not engage in fraud, child pornography and malicious code that could infect users' computers with viruses.

The move gives consumers "reassurance they are more protected from the risk of viruses, identity theft, credit-card fraud and inadvertent exposure to child abuse images", ICANN said in a statement announcing the decision.

"For the first time, there will be a clearly defined web address for adult entertainment, out of the reach of minors and as free as possible from fraud or malicious computer viruses," said Stuart Lawley, chief executive of the Florida company appointed by ICANN to run the new registry.

In a statement, Lawley said that his company had already received 200,000 requests to register names on the new domain.

Cyber criminals target Japan disaster donators

Washington: Cyber criminals have taken over social media websites and e-mails to target consumers donating for Japan’s disaster relief.

E-mails are reportedly arriving in the form of a humanitarian organization looking to set up a foundation and asking for money to help Japan’s victims.

The FBI, the Better Business Bureau and the attorneys general in states including in Pennsylvania, Oregon, Texas and Kentucky have started sending warnings to beware of such scammers.

The Department of Justice, which set up the National Center for Disaster Fraud after Hurricane Katrina, is now looking into reports of fraudulent relief efforts.

It has been informing people that request for donations may pop up as door-to-door collections, flyers, mailings and telephone calls, as well in cyberspace.

According to The Fox News, Internet security company McAfee has put a guide for consumers to stay safe while making donations.

The company also warns as the criminals have even created ways to get your information through media by advertising dramatic videos and images.

In order to view the footage, a person may download malware to computer or one may enter their personal information.

David Marcus, director of security research and communications at McAfee said, the company has found at least half a dozen of such websites, but also said that it’s hard to differentiate between them because often the same ones will simply change the wording and create another one.

McAfee has even found sites that are similar to the sites of legitimate and well-known organizations like Red Cross.