Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet vs. Galaxy Note 2

Samsung hasn’t yet officially confirmed the Galaxy Note 8.0, but the plethora of leaks online have pretty much blown the surprise. The latest leaked photos from the French site Frandroid finally give us a way to measure the Note 8.0′s relative size by placing it alongside to the 5.5-inch Galaxy Note 2 smartphone.Galaxy Note 8.0′s design doesn’t hold many surprises — it simply looks like a blown-up version of the Note 2. That’s a good thing, since Samsung is avoiding the gaudier design of the larger Galaxy Note 10.1, a tablet that failed on many levels. The Note 8.0 is poised to be Samsung’s iPad Mini competitor, which is somewhat ironic since Samsung has been making small tablets for years.Just like the rest of the Note family, the Note 8.0 will come with Samsung’s S-Pen stylus. I’ve been eager to see a tablet that truly takes advantage of the S-Pen’s capabilities, and after the Note 10.1 was such a disappointment (mostly due to running a slower processor than the Note 2), Samsung has a lot to prove with this entry.

The Galaxy Note 8.0 is rumored to sport a quad-core processor, Android Jelly Bean, 2GB RAM, and a 1,280-by-800 pixel display (a far higher resolution than the iPad Mini’s screen). Samsung is likely gearing up to officially reveal the tablet next month at Mobile World Congress.

STEC Announces 2TB SAS and PCIe SSDs and Updated EnhanceIO Caching Software

STEC has announced forthcoming 2TB s840 SSDs with an SAS interface as well as new 2TB s1120 PCIe accelerator SSDs, each offered in versions specified for unlimited writes. STEC has also released a significant update to its drive-agnostic EnhanceIO SSD Cache Software that optimizes virtualization applications in Windows and Linux environments.


STEC’s announcement emphasized the company’s ongoing commitment to developing new SAS- and PCIe SSD technology. Both drives represent increased capacity for their respective product families and incorporate proprietary STEC features to improve performance and enhanced data protection. Both solutions feture STEC-developed ASIC designs that improve longevitiy and reduce power consumption.

STEC s840 SAS SSD

The s840 appears as a standard 2TB SAS drive that can be managed by existing storage management tools. A proprietary controller allows the product to provide 12 to 25 percent greater capacity than other SAS SSD on the market, and STEC’s PowerSafe technology protects against unscheduled power outages.

Fun games for your Smartphone

Gaming apps

The best way to grab user attention towards a device is by launching Games. The most recent gaming app is Lili available for $5. The 3D graphics of this game is as amazing as a gaming console. This game is a role-play where of course Lili is the one you control. She is a young girl who is exploring an island that is magical. On her adventures, she would need to solve puzzles and tasks that will reveal more secrets about the island. The game is easy to play and character Lili can be controlled by just a tap and drag across the screen. The best part of this game is that kids and adults can equally enjoy playing it.

Another gaming app by the name of Superbrothers is available. This is a game that includes sword fights and sorcery. The graphics may disappoint you a bit as it seems to be a little outdated. You will have to indulge in sword fight combats and use magic to move ahead in the game. You will surely identify with Harry Potter here, so anyone who is a fan of the character will enjoy playing this game. Enjoy playing this game with a set of earphones to enhance the gaming experience as the soundtrack is awesome and it will keep you engaged for hours at a stretch.

We all love gazing at the starlit sky. Here is a game that will help you do that. Star Walk ($3) is designed to help you know the constellations. This way you can actually find out which constellation you are looking at. Just start mapping the sky through your iPhone camera and enjoy. The apps graphics will enable you to find out the names of the constellations that are in the sky at the moment. The added advantage is the bigger screen that helps you take a clear shot of the sky at one go.

What kind of tablet should I get?

The crucial decision has already been made - yes, you are getting a tablet this year. It might seem a little late since so many of your friends already own and are using one, but you believe that you were right in taking the time to make your decision. You have never been one to jump on any kind of fad or bandwagon anyway, so you think that the timing is just right for you. Now that you have already decided about it and you're already sure, you need to take the next step - it is time for you to decide what kind of tablet you should get.

You probably already know that there are plenty of choices out there, as far as tablets are concerned. There are the known brands and there are the not so known ones. If you are going to decide solely by name and popularity of the tablet, then it would probably be easy for you to make your decision. But since you are not the type to do that, there is a need to do a little research about the exact kind of tablet that you need and should buy.

Phones and Tablets, CES preview 2013

CES isn't the world's biggest show for mobile products, but there will still be plenty of phone, cellular network, and tablet news.



For the mobile world, CES is an appetizer rather than the main course, but don't worry: There will still be many tasty hors d'oeuvres in Las Vegas next week. We're going to see advances in networks and components that might not be as exciting as the phones themselves, but will make a big difference in the type of phones we see in 2013. And sure, we'll see some cool gadgets, too. Here's what we expect to see at the show.
Phones
Phablets (phones with huge screens) are in right now, so we're going to see some monster phones at CES. The 6.1-inch Huawei Ascend Mate may be the biggest phone of the show, in more ways than one. It's already been shown off in China, and it has a quad-core processor and a very, very large screen.
As for phones you can actually fit in your hand, Huawei will be showing off two at CES: the Windows Phone 8-powered Ascend W1 and the Android-powered Ascend D2, which will have a 5-inch, 1080p screen (perhaps the same Sharp display we've seen before on the HTC Droid DNA, which we gave a nod for technical excellence in 2012.)

Tablet Roundup

PANASONIC 4K Tablet

There's no denying it: from a pure technology perspective, Panasonic's 4K tablet prototype leads the CES pack. Once you've seen that many pixels in a much denser area than a 4K TV, it's hard to look at any other screen, let alone other tablets, the same way. That Panasonic even treats it as a tablet is equally audacious, as the 20-inch LCD and Core i5 processor are closer to what we'd expect from a desktop. The company doesn't have a definite release date or a price, but we'll honestly be happy if the 4K tablet ships at all -- it's a classic example of pushing technology to the limit.

iPhone 5S rumours hint to confirmed 2013 release

iPhone 5S rumours hint to a confirmed 2013 release date for the iPhone 5 follow up handset.

Dedicated Apple news portal, iLounge has said said their sources confirmed the iPhone 5S “is indeed coming this year”, although doesn’t say whether the news comes from Apple directly.

iLounge also added that the iPhone 5S will look “very much” like its predecessor but with an improved rear camera flash.

Whether there will be major spec improvements to the iPhone 5S wasn’t mentioned, but the iPhone 5 upgrade is sure to have 4G capabilities as well as software and hardware upgrades to make it a worthwhile purchase against its predecessor.

Other expected changes include the move to a power-saving IGZO screen, which uses dynamic screen refreshing to lower power consumption. The display is only refreshed for moving images, not static ones.

Also rumoured by iLounge is the value for money plastic-bodied iPhone currently in development. Supposedly set for release sometime this year, the handset is being produced with China Mobile in mind, whose customers find the iPhone 5 prices too high. The iPhone 5 sets back Chinese customers around £540, which is very expensive in a country where the average annual salary is under £2000.

Nokia To Stop Selling Mobiles From 2013

With its diminishing market share and pressure from the popularity of Android operating system, Nokia may shut shop this year. 


Friday, January 04, 2013:  Yes, you read it correct! Nokia may stop selling mobile phones from this year. With its diminishing market share and pressure from the popularity of Android operating system, Nokia may shut shop this year, predicted Forbes.

The magazine said that the Finnish handset maker may exit mobile phone business as Windows 8, its last hope, has failed to revive its falling sale. A report in Forbes reads, “The biggest shocker (and what I suspect will be my most controversial prediction), though, will be the departure of Nokia from the phone business as the company sells its mobile operation and infrastructure divisions to Huawei in order to focus on software and services.”

The article continued, "With the company's bet on Windows 8 having failed in the marketplace, it will see Microsoft and Huawei competing for the mobile device division and will eventually sell its smartphone group to Microsoft and the rest of its telecom interests to Huawei."

With Nokia's increased promptness to launch 'Lumia' and 'Asha' devices, one cannot be sure about the prediction. But, the fact that Nokia is losing its market share cannot be ignored. According to a Gartner report released in September last year, Nokia has only 19.2 per cent of market share in the smartphone segment compared to 23.9 per cent last year. The company slipped to number 7 position in the smartphone market. However, Nokia retains its position with the Indian market, especially due to the newly introduced Asha series.

BlackBerry Apps

Alec Saunders has accomplished the seemingly impossible and gotten developers interested in RIM's new mobile operating system, which is set to be unveiled this week.

LAS VEGAS--Alec Saunders needed a little bait.
Soon after Saunders took over the developer relations team, he asked Research In Motion's then co-CEO Mike Lazaridis in October 2011 for 25,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets. When Lazaridis asked why, Saunders said he intended to give them away. "He stood there flabbergasted."
Lazaridis ultimately agreed, and Saunders began giving PlayBooks out to developers. He followed that up by giving away more than 8,000 units of RIM's Dev Alpha devices, which ran an early version of BlackBerry 10.
Saunders knew he needed to get the long-ignored BlackBerry developer base excited again. In 48 out of the last 52 weeks, he has been on a plane circling the globe in an effort to drum up interest in every corner. Combine the mileage he and his team of nearly 100 evangelists have logged for RIM, and there would be enough to travel to the moon and back five times over, or 2.5 million miles.
"I took December off and took the time to get to know my wife," he quipped.
Saunders has embraced a concept that RIM had long ignored: that developers and a healthy app "ecosystem" can make or break an operating system. He's tried to make it more accommodating and responsive to developers. It's the touchy feely stuff RIM execs never thought was important.