Two big names in the world of tech are trying their hand on digitally connected TVs. So will Microsoft and Apple be able to succeed in a terrority that is dominated by Yahoo and Google? Tom Gibbons from Microsoft who is the member of team of Windows Phone since the year 2009 and also the head of Microsoft Hardware business (who have made some very successful mice and keyboards) has now been repurposed. He is now the ‘corporate vice president of television and service business with in Interactive Entertainment Business of Microsoft’. His responsibilities now include driving the usage of subscriptions and also global partnerships for the business unit. He has been given this post because he has experience in software, hardware and consumer product development. In simple terms, Gibbons is hardware guy. While at Windows Phone team, he has led a group which came up with designs of hardware reference for Windows Phone 7 gadgets and a  [...]

Apple has removed the app of ‘gay cure’ after more than 146,000 people signed petitions against it. The goal of the app, according to the creator Exodus International, was to give support to the individuals who wish to recover from homosexuality. This app was quite similar to the Exodus International mobile version and was available previously at the App Store. Two organizations – Change.org and Truth Wins Out launched a petition against it and praised Apple when they removed that app from App Store. Truth Wins Out director, Wayne Besen said that Apple has made a good decision by removing the app as it is offensive for the lesbian and gay people. He also said that the app demonized them. This is not the first time Apple has seen such a thing. Last year,  [...]

Mozilla Firefox 4 is finally out now and unlike the latest browser from Microsoft, it is compatible with Windows XP too. This will easily attract attention of people who haven’t upgraded yet to Windows 7 and want a browser that is more capable than the clunky and sluggish Microsoft Internet Explorer 8. Also, don’t mistake this for the earlier version of Mozilla Firefox 4 which was an open source Web browser. The user interface on Mozilla Firefox 4 has been dramatically redesigned and this is a far cry from the design of the previous iterations. Also, it is a lot similar to Google Chrome. Tabs are now located above address bar and combined with the absence of menu bar, you get extra real estate to view the Web content. The menu in Mozilla Firefox 4 is styled on the lines of Windows Start menu and you will see most common menu commands with Bookmarks menu that are accessible from Bookmarks toolbar. You can also go back to a more traditional appearance  [...]

Nokia N97 is a high end cellphone and the biggest attraction here is the five megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus. However, the quality isn’t as good as what I expected from a 5 MP camera. This camera can record videos too and you get two options for resolution. The video quality too is nowhere close to what you get on the iPhone. Another highlight of the Nokia N97 is the media playback capabilities. N series phones from Nokia are known for their music capabilities and this phone doesn’t disappoint either. The audio quality is really good and there is a 3.5 mm headphones jack which means you can use any standard headphones with the phone. If you are bored with the onboard music, there is FM radio onboard. For wireless music playback, the phone has Bluetooth 2.0 A2DP and in my  tests, this feature worked  [...]

Japan has been badly hit by earthquake and Apple iPad 2 is likely to be affected due to this. About five components in the Apple iPad 2 are supplied from Japan and Apple will find it hard to find an alternative source for these products. DRAM comes from Elpida Memory Inc., NAND flash comes from Toshiba Corp., overlay touch screen glass for the screen comes from Asahi Glass Co. The battery of the tablet is supplied by Apple Japan Inc, and the electronic compass is made by AKM semiconductor which is also made by Japanese suppliers. They are specilizaed in their own fields and it will be hard to find replacements for these parts. There might be some more parts outsourced to Japanese companies but they are not that important and can be redirected to other firms. Some of the Japanese suppliers said that their  [...]

LG KM710 is an attractive looking phone and it has a slider design. The phone has an iPod like circular navigation wheel for moving through the music lists. On the back, there is leather finish which feels really good in the hand. The surface of the phone is glossy but doesn’t attract a lot of fingerprints and remains clean all the time. Build quality too is pretty good. but the slider of my review model was wobbly. But the slider action was smooth and there wasn’t a lot of effort needed to instigate the slide. The display of LG KM710 is two inches big and has a resolution of 240x320 pixels. The TFT LCD screen supports 262k colors. The size of the display is a bit disappointing but it has good quality with accurate colors, good contrast and brightness. It is very bright too. That said, you won’t be able to see anything on the display in bright sunlight as it is too overwhelming. I also saw some leak of backlight on  [...]

Samsung PL200 is a standard point and shoot digital camera and if you are expecting anything out of the box, you will be bitterly disappointed. The video quality here is of DVD quality and this is disappointing as the manufacturer claims that the device can shoot 720p HD videos. There will be plenty of judder if you pan this camera too quickly or if you shoot moving subjects. AV output here is composite only and you need proprietary cable for it that is not included in the box. Samsung PL200 comes with a few extra shooting options beyond the basic point and shoot use and it is made primarily for people who do not usually stray from the auto modes. Smart Auto mode will automatically choose the right camera setting based on the 16 types of scene and you get everything from Landscape and Portrait to Action and Macro Text. There are also 13 settings for the scene shooting and I’d recommend it if you want to take some  [...]

Samsung SyncMaster P2770FH is a very attractive looking computer monitor and the connection options include DVI and HDMI port. There is one port for digital audio and normal audio. These ports are located on the display’s back and are backward facing. Accessing them is quite easy. You can set the OSD or onscreen display of the Samsung SyncMaster P2770FH to be on the screen for 200, 20, 10, or 5 seconds. Array consists of Menu button, Down and Up button, Enter button, and Auto button. The up/down buttons also double up as the brightness and the preset shortcut keys respectively. The options for picture include sharpness, contrast, and brightness. The color tone can be set to Custom, Warm, Normal and Cool. They let you change the attributes of blue, green and red manually. There are 7 presets in all – Text, Custom, Game, Internet, Sport, Dynamic Contrast, and Movie. These presets just change the brightness, color temperature or both according to the  [...]

Those who thought that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is dead check this out. Microsoft released the latest version of their Internet browser and in the first twenty four hours, it was downloaded about 2.35 million times. Beta version was downloaded just one million times in the first day after it was released. For IE9 final version, there were 27 downloads every second or 98,000 downloads every hour. Internet Explorer senior director, Ryan Gavin, thanked everyone around the world for such enthusiastic reception on IE blog. The numbers of IE9 aren’t really as impressive as compared to the other browsers. For instance, Mozilla Firefox 3.5 version was downloaded a million times within a few hours when it was released in 2009. Also, the earlier version, Mozilla Firefox 3.0 was downloaded eight million times within the first 24 hours of its release. The new and updated version of Internet  [...]

Djay, which is a groundbreaking app for Mac is now available on the iOS platform. It is from Algoriddim and there is also an update for the iPad version of the app. The cellular version is available on iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 and it turns your handset into a pair of mixing decks. Just load songs from the iTunes music library and you will be able to scratch, transition and sync between the songs like professional DJs. The content can also be recorded and you can then export it in AIFF high quality file. Both the iPad and iPhone versions of this software are quite similar to the desktop version which costs $49.99. The mobile versions are available $9.99 which is significantly less expensive than the desktop one which is used by both amateur and professional DJs. This software has got rave reviews from a lot of sources. An important feature that you won’t find on the iOS version is the ability to lock in song key. Match the song BPMs at different tempos and the track  [...]