Thursday, December 24, 2009

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How it feels
The Nexus One is slightly thinner than the iPhone 3GS, and slightly lighter. No hard specs were thrown around, unfortunately, since Google didn't even let people who they gave the phone to know that. The back is definitely not cheap and plasticky, like the iPhone's backing, and feels like some sort of rubbery material. So, not smooth like the iPhone, but not as rubbery as the Droid. It's halfway in-between.
You can call the design the antithesis of the Droid: smooth, curved, and light, instead of hard, square and pointy. It feels long and silky and natural in your hand—even more so than the iPhone 3GS. There are also three gold contacts on the bottom designed for future docking (possibly charging?) use, but there aren't any accessories available for the phone now. It plugs in via microUSB at the moment.
That screen is damn good
Even though the screen is the same size and same resolution as the Droid, it's noticeably better. The colors are much more vibrant and the blacks are blacker, as evidenced by putting both side by side and hitting up various websites and loading various games. The pinks on Perez Hilton and the blues on Gizmodo just popped a lot more on the N1, and made the Droid (which was actually considered to have a great screen) seem washed out. The same feeling carries over when you compare the Nexus with the iPhone 3GS. And it's pretty damn bright, compared to the other two phones.
This is probably the best screen we've seen on a smartphone so far. Probably.
Why is it so fast?
Google just gave Motorola (and Verizon) a swift shot to the TSTS, because the Nexus One is astonishingly faster than the Droid. The speed dominance was most evident when we compared the loading of webpages, but even when you're just scrolling around, launching apps and moving about the OS, you could tell that there's a beefier brain inside the N1. I don't know the specs for sure, but there's talk of a 1GHz processor being inside, which would push it quite a ways above the 550MHz Arm A8 in Motorola's newest toy.
When comparing the three phones in loading a webpage over Wi-Fi, the Nexus One loaded first, the iPhone 3GS came in a few seconds later, and the Droid came in a little while after that. This was constant throughout many webpage loads, so it's indicative of something going on inside with the hardware.
I ran all three through a Javascript benchmark engine for some quantifiable numbers, and while the results were similar between the Nexus One and the iPhone 3GS, the Droid still came up at about 60% of the other two. Surprisingly enough, Mobile Safari on the iPhone scored better on the Javscript benches than the Nexus did, even though the Nexus was able to pull down and render actual web pages faster. Note that I didn't list actual numbers here, for privacy reasons.
That crazy video background
You've no doubt heard about the animated video backgrounds, but they're actually more than just animations: you can interact with them.
The default background is the square/8-bit like one shown above, where lines of colored squares come in from different sides of the screen. What's neat (even if it is superfluous and battery draining) is that you can tap anywhere on the desktop in a blank space and trigger dots to spread out from your tap. Basically, press anywhere to cause blocks to fly outwards. The same thing happens in the "water" background, except instead of blocks, you cause ripples in the water.
What's also neat are the two virtual sound meters, which act as a visualizer for whatever music you're currently playing on your phone. There's one analog one that looks like one of the old ones with a red needle, and a "digital" one that looks similar to ones you see elsewhere. Sorta neat in itself, but it shows that the interactive backgrounds can actually interact with apps, as long as one knows the other's APIs.
Other bits
The 5-megapixel camera is nice, and the flash works well enough for a flash on a phone, but it's not spectacular, as seen by early photos taken and uploaded online by Googlers. There is autofocus, and you activate it with the trackball on the face of the phone. There is no tap-to-focus as see on the iPhone 3GS.
There's no multitouch in the browser or in the map, but I think at this point that's more of a legal consideration than a technical one, since many phones that run Android have the capability of supporting multitouch on a hardware level.
Playing back music over the speakers sounded decent, but not great. It's definitely in need of a dock—like all smartphones—if you want to listen to music for a sustained period.
I didn't get a chance to call on it, because I wanted to keep this as anonymous as possible, and didn't want any sort of way to trace when I used the phone. From what other people say in their time with it, it functions fine as a phone, and should work as normally as other Android phones in the SMS/MMS department.
So what's this all mean?
If Google's planning on releasing this phone as their official Google phone, it'll certify them as the premium Android phone brand out there right now. Even though it doesn't have a hardware keyboard, it basically beats the hell out of the Droid in every single task that we threw at it. And face it, some people didn't like the Droid's keyboard because it was too flush and the keys were too unseparated with each other. N1's onscreen keyboard felt fine, and the speedy processor made sure that each key was interpreted well.
But in the end, it's still an Android phone. If you want Android phones, this is the one to get, provided Google goes ahead with the rumored plans of either selling it themselves or partnering with T-Mobile in a more traditional role. Droid, shmoid; Nexus is the one you're looking for.

Olive Telecommunication has launched a new brand 'Olive Convergence' under which it has announced 3G embedded netbooks, Zipbooks.
Olive Telecommunication has tied up with Tata Teleservices for its EVDO based netbooks and the same will be available to consumers from select Tata Indicom Stores and through the Tata Photon channel. On the other hand for its HSPA version based netbooks Olive is in an agreement with BSNL, according to which the netbooks will be available at all BSNL 3G circles.
On the sidelines of the launch of Olive Convergence, the company also launched 7 models of mobile phones starting at Rs. 999. These include 2 touch screen phones - Olivepwrr and Olivetouch; Olivemsgr - the QWERTY keypad phone; 2 candy bar phones - Olivecompacta and Oliveglide and 2 dual sim/dual standby phones - V-G400 (clamshell) and V-G500 (slider).
The company also shared information about its convergence devices including a modem equipped with a hi capacity memory chip, the ability to tune into FM, a Dictaphone and the second role of an MP3 player.
Specifications of the phones and netbooks are not know yet.


Tuesday, December 22, 2009

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Intel Corporation has announced new Intel Atom processors that feature integrated graphics built directly into the CPU, enabling improved performance and smaller, more energy-efficient designs in a new generation of netbooks and Atom-based entry level desktop PCs.

Major OEMs have committed to having systems on the new Intel Atom processors and a new companion chipset available within the next few weeks.

The newest Intel Atom platform for netbooks consists of a new Intel Atom processor, the N450, and a new low-power Intel NM10 Express Chipset. For entry level desktop PCs, it consists of either the Intel Atom processor D410 or the dual core D510, also paired with the Intel NM10 Express Chipset. The Atom processor was designed from the ground up for small devices and low power, and remains Intel’s smallest chip, built on the company’s 45nm high-k metal gate manufacturing process.

One of the most significant features of the new platform is the integration of memory controller and graphics into the CPU, a first in the industry on x-86 chips. That means two chips (CPU+chipset) instead of the previous three (CPU, chipset, I/O controller hub), a lower TDP, and substantial reductions in cost, overall footprint and power. The netbook platform features a 20 percent improvement in average power and a smaller package size over the previous Atom platform. This translates into smaller and more compact system designs and longer battery life. Because of the integration, the total footprint for the netbook platform has decreased by approximately 60 percent. For entry level desktop PCs, it’s a nearly 70 percent reduction in footprint and about 50 percent lower TDP than the previous generation.



Intel continues to see broad industry support for the Atom platform as netbooks in particular have been hot sellers during a recessionary year due to their affordability, function and small size (7-10.2" screens). Additionally, Intel is expecting to see broad channel adoption for Atom in a variety of small form factor entry-level desktop PCs at low price points, including ultra-small designs (less than 1-litre chassis), fanless designs, and low-cost all-in-one designs.

Since Atom's introduction, Intel has shipped over 40 million Atom chips for netbooks to every major OEM around the world. In the same timeframe, netbooks ramped faster and sold more units than Apple’s iPhone or the Nintendo Wii. According to ABI Research, total Atom shipments for all segments are expected to continue to grow into the 100s of millions by 2011.

Intel has been working closely with mobile operators and modem vendors to advance 3G capabilities in netbooks in established and emerging markets. To-date approximately a dozen service providers offer netbooks in various markets, and the numbers are expected to grow with the newest platform.

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Sony Ericsson has gone out of its usual conformity of using model numbers for mobiles and has just used a name for this handset - Aino (God knows what SE meant by it).

Form Factor
The Aino’s is a brilliantly crafted handset. It’s well balanced and very streamlined and the weight, although a little on the heavy side, gives the handset a definite feel good factor. The pop slider lives up to the term. It’s very smooth and can be opened or closed with a simply flick. Volume/Zoom keys are on the same side as the shutter release for the handset’s 8MP camera (with LED flash). Sony’s proprietary USB slot is located on the other side.

Aino comes with a Bluetooth enabled receptor that can be hooked up to a wired set of earphones. The Aino comes with the new chargers that have a secondary proprietary port built in so one could use a wired headset while charging though one isn’t included with the phone.
The Bluetooth adapter for the handsfree can also be charged when it’s placed in the bundled cradle. The Aino uses microSD cards to increase memory capacity and comes with an 8GB card. The slot is unfortunately located under the rear panel, but thankfully that’s quite easy to pop open.
The 3 inch display’s touch functionality can be accessed only in landscape mode for media. The resolution is 240 x 432 with 16million colors, but for some strange reason, I noticed, the resolution seemed a little askew in the media mode in terms of overall clarity. However I do like the idea of having the touchscreen specific to only one aspect of the handset's overall feature set although that does have a small measure of disadvantage as well. Read on.
Features and Performance
Interface
Sony Ericsson’s UI has, sadly, remained unchanged. It’s always been colorful and very animated, which also leads to a burden on the battery. I found a little bit of lag in the Aino’s UI, even when I selected the least animated theme. Refreshing new data in the media section was also a bit slow. In contrast though, the touchscreen media UI was quite responsive and well laid out thus making it very user friendly. While the handset does have an accelerometer to rotate web pages and the media gallery there’s no virtual keyboard as it does not activate the touch sensitive one so you’ll have to struggle to use the alphanumeric keypad in portrait mode. And there’s your disadvantage right there, since the browser can’t be accessed from the touch sensitive media menu.
Media
I’m quite disappointed with the audio functionality that the Aino brings to the table. While the quality of playback is not in question the decibel level is just too low. Mumbai city is deafening most of the time and without a decently high volume level you’ll never be able to enjoy your audio with the Aino. The Bluetooth tether for the handsfree is also a little large with a rather ‘Disco-like’ indicator system. SE has included quite a few very visually attractive visualizations to the player and of course EQ presets and a customizable option.
Another disappointment is that the handset, although equipped with a GPS module only comes with apps like Wisepilot and Google Maps that are primarily A-GPS enabled so quite pointless if you have no reception. The Tracker application is quite handy for those who enjoy jogging or walking as recreation or sport.