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.