Next Gen Nokia : Windows Phone 8
Nokia Lumia 920
@evleaks recently leaked two of the upcoming flagship products from Nokia packing Windows latest offering Windows Phone 8 . One is a 4.5 inch screen Nokia Lumia 920 with Pureview camera and another a 4.3 inch variant named Nokia Lumia 820 .
The devices are not yet officially announced but the images were posted on twitter by @eveleaks . Well we will have to wait and watch till 5th of this month when Nokia would be launching the latest models .
Nokia Lumia 920 will come packed with the most hyped pureview camera technology . Though the pictures do not actually indicate the presence of the huge pureview sensors .
These devices will be very important in determining the future of Nokia . Though the previous devices did raise some eyebrows in the market , they didn’t do exceptionally well . Nokia had to slash the rates by a huge margin to sell their previous products .
The other problem is that the present devices will not receive the Windows Phone 8 update. Hopefully these future devices will be able to do so .
The leaked pictures suggest colorful variants thus it would be more appealing to the general market . Hopefully these devices will be reasonably priced to compete with the other bigwigs in the market .
Nokia Lumia 820
Via : TheVerge
Source : evleaks
8 Reasons To Use Friendcaster For Facebook And Ditch The Official App (Android)
Facebook has been getting a lot of flak for its Facebook App for Android from a long time now . Not only is it buggy and slow , every update that has been released creates more problems .
On the wake of Facebook’s IPO, Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg informed that they will be concentrating more on mobile devices . But with the continuing under-performance of the official app , one must start looking at alternatives if not already .
Though there have been improvements in the User Interface recently , the whole experience is woefully buggy .
After using both the apps (Friendcaster and Official FB app) and testing it thoroughly I have listed 10 reasons for ditching the Official App for Friendcaster .
- Initial Start-up Time : It took a painfully long 9 secs to get anything on the screen after tapping on the icon whereas Friendcaster took less than 3 secs to start-up.
- Notification : This took around 10 secs to load while it took less than a second to load in FriendCaster .
- Messages : Messages took around 8 secs to load and 2 secs compared to FriendCaster
- Profile Pages : This was the longest wait ever . My profile page took over 14 secs ! to load whereas it took only 3 secs to open in Friendcaster.
- Facebook Pages : Facebook pages are better organised in the official app but takes around 11 secs to open compared to 4 secs in Friendcaster .
- Photos : Opening a photograph took around 12 secs in the Official app and it took less than half of that using Friendcaster .
- Push Notifications : This is where Friendcaster is clearly a winner . The user interface and speed of the notification is amazingly brillliant . I have used the Official app for a long time now , and I have noticed that push notification is pathetic , and most often redundant .
- User Experience : The official Facebook App has a very iPhone feel to it . Like most of the other apps it just is another iPhone clone . Friendcaster makes use of the Andoid User design guidelines ,making the app much faster and easier to flip through .
What’s really intriguing me is the fact that Facebook has access to every inch of their servers and internal API’s but still a third party developer is making faster and better application .
Note : These results are based on the tests made under the following parameters.
- Device : Lg Optimus One
- OS : Android 2.2.2 (Froyo)
- Connection : 2G at (15-25kbps)
Instagram | Android | Awesomeness
Instagram profile on Statigram
Some things come around and completely change the way you see things . Google gave you the power to search webpages on your finger tips . Facebook made it easier to meet your friends and family any time you want . Instagram serves you a similar feeling . It lets you capture the world with your lens and makes it beautiful . Well there are plenty of apps that can do just the same . So what does Instagram do better ?
For starters Instagram is one of the most simplest apps i have ever used on my Android device . It works seamlessly and is smooth to operate . What i like the most is it does not behave like an iphone clone . Not that i hate iPhone but usually some apps look like they where created for iPhone and then ripped off to make an Android version . This app makes use of the android icons and feels great to operate .
What strikes me is the simplicity with which this app works . Publishing a photo is only 4 clicks away . And to do justice to this review i did download a dozen photo sharing and editing apps . Most of them work pretty well and do everything they claim to . But none of them combine the flow and simplicity of Instagram .
Instagram brings the photographer out of everyone . Initially I was hesitant in using this app , but when i saw what it did to my photograph , i was amazed . This app takes social networking seriously and not only does it have its own huge network , but there is also an option to share to various social networking sites .
Instagram’s network might come out to be a little flat , because it uses a completely different method to discover new people and their photography . There is a button for popular photos , where most popular photos are displayed , and then you could search for hashtags as well as photos favorited by the people you follow .
What i really appreciate is the support team . It took them only a day to fix most of the crucial bugs that cropped up initially . Since the release there have been a lot of updates . The recent one with the tilt-shift feature . This feature is one of the best in its class . Some other apps like Cymera do have this feature but do not do justice to the blurring .
My only fear is Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram . And to add to this fear is the recent release of the Facebook Camera App . I only hope facebook does not kill Instagram , like the way it killed Snaptu and other services it bought .
Windows 8 Consumer Preview
Microsoft recently released the Windows 8 consumer preview (a beta version) for public download . They have maintained that there are thousands of changes to the previously released developer preview . This release comes with a lot changes and I have been playing with them since morning .
Look And Feel :
Well definitely it looks much better and sleek . The whole feel has been changed and is a leap from the previous UI . The User Interface feels smooth , sleek and minimal . They have retained the desktop and have blended it well with Metro UI . All the apps on the Metro UI run smooth and are live. User Interface would go well with a touch screen but manages just great with a mouse . The tiles keep updating and that is one feature to look out for . The most important thing is there is no START button ! Only thing that pops up on clicking the keyboard start button is the new Metro style tiles . This is a complete shift in windows design . Wonder how some users will feel about it .
Appstore :
One of the greatest additions to the Windows platform is the Appstore . Appstore opens up a great opportunity to both consumers and developers as well . At the moment there are very few apps but more are sure to come . It is a very engaging platform and I sure had fun playing games . Most of the apps are written on javascript , HTML5 , XAML, and are very lite . Found a few apps from India too .
Installation :
I installed it on Oracle VirtualBox . If you are looking for tutorial to install do check out this link .
I assigned 1.4 GB RAM and 20 GB of Hard disk space . You could download both installer file as well as an iso file from this link .
My Take :
This OS looks strong and Microsoft is completely headed in the right direction . It is different from all the OS’s around and stands out when it comes to the User Experience . At a time when mobile and tablet computing are seeing exponential rise , Microsoft has brought an OS that fits right in . Well it’s an update i would most surely go for . Waiting to put my hands on the final release .
TEDxNMAMIT
For those who are wondering what TEDxNMAMIT stands for , let me break it down for you . TED stands for Technology Entertainment and Design .
TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences — the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer — TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.
The TEDx program gives communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level. TEDx events are planned and coordinated independently.
Well the above excerpts is from their own website . TEDx is a very exciting platform to listen , interact and communicate with like minded and great individuals . I personally have watched tons of TEDx videos online and they are great . You can check them out on their websites .
Its really exciting that such a large scale event is happening in NMAMIT , Nitte . I got in touch with the organizer regarding the speakers and i was informed that the final list will be made public later . But i was promised that some great speakers from fields like Entertainment, Education, Social Work , Entrepreneurship, Social Entrepreneurship , Literature , Journalism and of course TECHNOLOGY would be present .
Why should you attend?
Well the reason being that people from different principles will be giving short talks on various topics and secondly we get to hear about the latest development on their respective fields . There will be great people giving tips and tricks , sharing their success stories or inspiring people .
So if you are in and around Mangalore , Udupi or even in Karnataka on March 4th this is one event not to miss .
Do check one of the videos at TED .
For registration check out this link Register
