In August, Google has released an updated for the Google+ Android app, adding bug fixes and an improved notification system.

The version 1.0.5 app released on 2^nd August,2011, includes 12 different updates that improves the app’s usability.

• Improved notifications reliability
• “___ added you to Google+” notifications shown in bulk
• Share stream posts to individual people (search people & contacts)
• Clicking a +mention takes you to the person’s profile
• Stream no longer resets to top when screen is rotated
• Nearby accuracy & refresh improvements
• Start a one-on-one huddle from a person’s profile or a group huddle from a circle profile
• Hide one-on-one huddles
• Clickable links in huddles
• Confirmation text when leaving a huddle (“Are you sure you want to leave?”)
• Improved autocomplete (people/contacts) when adding a person to a huddle
• Reshared posts show correct profile photo

The biggest change to the app is an improvement to the reliability to notifications.

You can check out the release notes for more details.

Download the latest version of Google+ for android.

In June this year, Skype came up with one-on-one video chat for Android, but the feature support was only for a handful of smartphones. In the latest version – Skype 2.1 for Android – the support for the video chat has been extended to 17 new Android Smartphones and tablets.

The complete list that supports video chat includes:

1)      Acer A5

2)      HTC Desire (2.2)

3)      HTC Desire HD

4)      HTC Evo 3D

5)      HTC Evo 4G

6)      HTC Flyer

7)      HTC Incredible S

8)      HTC Sensation

9)      HTC Thunderbolt – Verizon (2.2) (U.S. only)

10)  LG Revolution – Verizon (2.2) (U.S. only)

11)  Samsung Droid Charge – Verizon (2.2) (U.S. only)

12)  Samsung Galaxy S

13)  Samsung Galaxy S II

14)  Samsung Galaxy Tab

15)  Sony Ericsson Xperia mini pro

16)  Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY

17)  Sony Ericsson Xperia ray

If you one of the above listed Android device then enjoy video chat, but for other if you are running Android 2.2 and above you can also enjoy this feature – enable video calling in Skype Settings with the new option “enable video calling”. If it is not working even then – it means that your device does not meet minimum requirements for this feature.

For a complete list of functions in the new version of Skype For Android: http://blogs.skype.com/garage/android/

]]> http://amit.sahrawat.in/2011/08/video-calling-on-17-more-android-devices-from-skype/feed/ 0 http://amit.sahrawat.in/2011/07/nokia-e6-mobile-review/ http://amit.sahrawat.in/2011/07/nokia-e6-mobile-review/#comments Fri, 29 Jul 2011 15:24:30 +0000 Amit Sahrawat http://amit.sahrawat.in/?p=2403

I have been using Nokia E71 for more than a year and am very happy to be going around with that phone even now. It is the phones like Nokia E71 and Nokia E72 which have been big landmarks for Nokia and helped in cementing the company’s stand in the business phone segment and gave rivals like BlackBerry a tough competition.

Nokia E6 promises to further continue Nokia’s strong hold in that segment. The E6 is Nokia’s foray into the touch screen market, consisting of a touch screen and a full QWERTY Keyboard and has Symbian’s latest operating system codenamed Anna. While a number of phones are being launched keeping in mind ‘Android’, Nokia continues to leave its marks with Symbian.

Nokia deserves full marks on its design and build quality. The E6 looks, sophisticated looks, combination of high quality plastic, stainless steel blends well. The 640 X 480 resolution display at 2.46 inches features a Gorilla glass screen capable of replicating 16 million colors.

The keyboard is similar to the previous models with some slight alterations like larger space bar. The feedback of the keys is good and easily distinguishable. All connectors are concealed behind plastic flaps. There’s an additional light beside USB port for easy identification that phone is connected to PC.

The E6 comes loaded with Symbian Anna, which is an improvement to Nokia’s existing Symbian 3 platform. The first difference is the snappier response and a new set of icons.

The E6 packs in good multimedia features as well. The music player offers a CoverFlow like view for albums. The default video player handles all major video codes like DivX, VC-1 and H.264 except for MOV and FLV. The player easily handles 720p files.

The E6 complies with the current standards and supports 3G in addition to Bluetooth 3.0 and Wi-Fi 402.11n. The USB 2.0 port supports USB on-the-go just like the N8.

The camera is of the 8MP.

Battery: The E6 will last for ‘2’ full days under heavy usage. This includes phone calls, music playback, social networking and email app running.

Few Drawbacks:

• No notification light for missed calls, unread messages or if charging through the adapter(even though there’s USB notification led is there)
• No way to control the player without unlocking the device.
• Audio quality through the headset is average and there are no music controls on it.
• Dual LED Flash with the Camera ruins the picture if the object is too close.

Verdict:

For a price of around Rs 17 – 18,000 – Nokia E6 offers a value that is an excellent buy for a trendy touch screen phone. But, they should not have interfered with their Camera. The screen could have been a little larger if the keypad was adjusted properly.

Nintendo Wii U: Unveiled in June, this next-generation game console features a 6.2-inch touchscreen controller. It can display information or provide different experience on its screen that is not visible on the TV.

Price: Yet To Be Announced

Motorol Xoom: A tablet PC, though smaller in size, has PC-like functionalities. Set to hit the market anytime soon. Xoom, powered by Android platform, has a 10.1-inch HD display, 1GHz dual-core processor, a five megapixel rear facing camera and a two megapixel front facing camera.

Price: Rs 40,000

Apple iPhone 4: Said to be the world’s thinnest smartphone, it was launched in India this May. It has a 3.5 inch retina display and 5 megapixel camera.

Price: Rs 35,000

Samsung Galaxy S2: Launched this June in India. It is one of the most sought-after Android phones. It  has 32GB built-in memory, a 8 megapixel camera, HD video playback and recording.

Price: Rs 30,000

LG Optimus 3D: Promising to be a great bet, it will ship with dual-core 1GHz OMAP 4CPU, video codecs. LG says it will have “four times more video decoders than competing designs”. It is apparently the world’s first 3D smartphone. This mobile phone from LG is rumored to be the 3D version of the LG Optimus 2X, and is expected to be powered by the Nvidia Tegra 2 platform.

Price: Yet To Be Announced

New Mac Book Air: This has been touted as the laptop of the future. Apple’s two new MacBook Air-11.6-inch and 13.3-inch have replaced mechanical hard disks and optical drives with internet services and solid state flash storage. It supports up to seven hours of battery life and up to 30 days of standby time.

Price: Starts at Rs 59,000

Samsung Google Nexus S: This legendary high-end smartphone that arrived in April has a 4-inch contour display and runs on Google 2.3 Gingerbread OS, powered with 1GHz Hummingbird processor with 16GB internal memory.

Price: Rs 30,400

Sony Playstation Vita: This portable entertainment system offers motion and touch-based next generation gaming. It has a 5-inch multi-touch display at the front and a multi-touch pad on the rear. Offering new game play experiences, it features two analog sticks, which enable a wider range of game genres.

Price: Starts at Rs 12,500

Apple iPad 2: Apple left the cat out of the bag in May, and it surpassed competitors with its fine display quality. The new version is thinner, faster and lighter than the previous one.

Price: Starts at Rs 29,500

BlackBerry PlayBook: One of the most sought-after gadgets of the year, it hit Indian market earlier this week. Featuring Wi-Fi support, it is available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models. The 7-inch tablet is flat, black, and minimal in its design. It claims to provide Flash and HTML applications for a smooth browsing experience. It also has multi-touch capacitive display screen and dual camera.

Price: Starts at Rs 27,990

Dismantle it: After taking it out of water, immediately dismantle all the parts. Do not turn the phone on.

Dry in rice: A quick way to dry the phone up is to put it in a bowl of dry, raw rice. The rice will soak up the water from all the parts.

Ditch the hair dryer: Do not try to dry it with the hair dryer. The heat from it will just damage the phone’s body and can also cause of serious in the internal circuits.

Keep the sugar away: In case you have dropped the phone in a solution containing sugar; say in a cup of tea, you should get yourself a bottle of distilled water (used in inverter). Dip the phone parts in the water and the sugar sediments will dissolve in the distilled water and drip out.

Vacuum it up: If moisture still remains, draw it this residual moisture with the help of vacuum cleaner. Just hold nozzle over the affected area for up to 20 minutes. This is fastest method and can completely dry your phone, and get it working in thirty minutes.

If you are planning to purchase a mobile phone, then here are few things you need to look into for making a final decision.

Look Book: Good looks, great style and flamboyant design have become important criterions while buying a handset. So always consider new designs in the market before buying a mobile phone.

Price points: Competitive price has always been a big decisive factor behind mobile phone purchases. A mobile phone serves multiple purposes and combines multiple gadgets into one. This invariably pushes its prices northward. So do not buy a cell phone just because it is expensive; buy the one that suits your needs.

Innovative Features: For mobile users one of the main criteria for purchasing a new handset are the games and content that the phone brings to the table.

Multimedia: Music and GPRS ability should be present in the phone. MP3 player/FM radio gives freedom to pay and download music anytime.

Battery life: Great battery life is one of the most important factors to consider when buying a cell phone. The primary benefit of mobile phones is its portability and a mobile phone is only as portable as its power source.

One of the best mobile phones I have used till date, Even though I got this ’2′ years after its launch but am still happy to be using this. Every feature you can think of now was available in Nokia E71 at the time this was launched (2008). Nokia E71 is among the best-equipped Nokia Smartphone to date. Its quick responsive and carries a remarkable feature load for its compact size. Connectivity is at its highest with the Nokia E71 boasting every single connectivity option (Infrared, USB, Wireless LAN, Bluetooth, Modem), which is currently available. Add to the list GPS receiver and the slim metallic design and you’ve got yourself a Smartphone that walks and talks high-end. Using Keyboard and net access on the go is just too easy on this mobile. It allowed me to install applications as per my usage – I have an application which can keep sync with my Gmail account (raise alert on every new mail, compose mail with attachments, configure more than one account); ‘Snaptu’ allows me to use Cricinfo, Facebook, Twitter, Picasa, Flickr, News from a single interface.

Even though it comes with Nokia maps (but I didn’t like that much); So, I installed Google maps and now my Nokia E71 works as Navigator for me anywhere I go.

Its camera (Flash light available) allows me to click and share photo instantly – directly post to web from the interface.

Key features:

• Quad-band GSM support
• 3G with HSDPA 3.6Mbps support
• Landscape 2.36″ 16M color display of QVGA resolution
• Comfortable full QWERTY keypad
• Convenient business-minded shortcut keys
• Symbian 9.2 OS, S60 UI with FP1 (topped with some FP2 goodies)
• 369 MHz ARM 11 CPU and 128 MB of SDRAM
• Wi-Fi
• Built-in GPS receiver, A-GPS
• 3.15 megapixel auto focus camera with LED flash
• 110 MB of internal memory, microSD expansion, ships with a 2GB card
• Slimmest Smartphone to-date, slimmest Wi-Fi and/or GPS handset to-date
• Stainless steel casing
• Standard 2.5mm audio jack
• Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP support
• microUSB v2.0
• FM radio
• Remote Wipe
• Provider-independent VoIP support
• Infrared port
• Great battery life
• Office document editor
• User-friendly Mode Switch for swapping two homescreen setups
• Rich retail package

Main disadvantages:

• Video recording maxes out at QVGA@15fps
• No dedicated camera key
• Smaller display than its predecessor
• Cheap-looking power key
• No RDS for the FM radio

Even though its sound quality is good but earphone has same old problem. I have never been a fan of Nokia earphones (they just don’t seem to stuck into my ears), always have to keep adjusting also you cannot use them for long duration – not smooth on your ears. For that matter I like the ones with Sony, Motorola even with Samsung.

Technical Specifications

Dimensions

The Google phone has dimensions of 119×59.8×11.5 mm, compared to 115.5×62.1×12.3 for the iPhone

Weight

130 grams to the iPhone’s 135. Memory is 512 Mb internal, up to 32Gb external. iPhone has 16 and 32Gb versions.

Processor

Processor is 1 Gigahertz, faster than the 833Mhz iPhone

Camera

Camera is 5 megapixel. iPhone has 3 megapixel camera

Talk time

Talk time is up to 7 hours on 3G and 10 hours on 2G. For iPhone, it’s 5 hours on 3G and 12 hours on 2G.

Screen Resolution

Screen resolution is 800 x 400 pixels, higher than the iPhone’s400x320 pixels.

Other Features

Nexus has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM radio and active noise cancellation.

Cost & Availability

It costs $529 (Rs24,330), less than the iPhone’s Rs 30,000. The Nexus One is not yet available in India. It is selling in the US, UK, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Before writing this, I must mention that before using this phone I was not very keen on buying Motorola Mobile phones, but this one changed my outlook towards Motorola mobiles. This one is my first Motorola mobile.

If ever I had to recommend anyone a Music Phone this would be right at the top. This is a perfect music phone, especially music lovers would agree at the very first sight of this mobile. I have used various music phones, but each had its drawbacks, but for music I just can’t get away from this one.

If music features are to be considered this would be rated highly on every scale – music quality and sound is excellent both on earphones and on loud speakers. Music organization is good.

Other Features:

• Looks – Stylish, metallic border with rubber type finish at the back.
• The innovative ModeShift technology instantly transforms the keypad on the phone to a robust music player. This feature is excellent
• Bluetooth – management is very good (creates a list of Bluetooth users, if the user is in your list no need to search again), speed is very good
• Screen Size – 2 inch
• Music Player – supported formats (MIDI, MP3, AAC, AAC, Enhanced AAC, WMA, WAV, AMR)
• Video player – is good supports various format videos, but on 2” screen does not look elegant
• Camera – 2MP camera with 8X digital zoom
• Text to Speech Recognition
• Crystal Talk Technology
• Airplane mode for uninterrupted music
• FM Radio with RDS – Channel management is good, you can mute the radio instead of disconnecting,
• Sound Port – universal 3.5mm stereo headset jack
• Memory – Supports up to 8GB microSD card, comes default with 1GB card
• External key – to lock your phone, slider key at the right side
• Browser – is good
• USB – microUSB port, USB 2.0 (data transfer speed is very good)
• Talk Time and Standby – up to 5-6 hours talk time, up to 4-5 days stand by(this can be more)

 Drawbacks:

• Camera quality is not that good and there is no flash (this is one thing which always seems to lag in Motorola mobiles)
• UI interface is a little bit slow, but overall UI is excellent
• Bluetooth initialization time is high, if you need to search new users

 If you are looking for a true music phone go for this one.
I bought this for a price of Rs. 8,800 (December 2008).