Popular Apple photo editing app Snapseed now on Android

Popular Apple photo editing app Snapseed has finally arrived in Android-operated smartphones. Snapseed, the creation of 17-year-old Nik software, launched on iOS a little over a year ago, and within a year, the app has seen a whopping 9.5 million downloads as the company was acquired by Google.

 “Before we released Snapseed we were primarily focused on [software for] professionals or advanced amateur photographers – the folks that are buying digital SLRs. The application has been really successful for us,” Josh Haftel, product manager at Google, and previously Nik Software, told Mashable. According to the report, along with the launch of the Android application, Google is knocking the price of the iOS version down from 4.99 dollars to free.

Not your average mobile photo editor, Snapseed has a number of different built-in enhancement options that let you do everything from crop and straighten an image to adjust the focus, many offering choices you might expect to find in a professional photo editor, the report said. “It’s very simple and straightforward, and also very powerful,” says Haftel. Each enhancement you select can be fine-tuned to the photo you’re working with. So, for instance, if you’re editing a photo of a friend who has a shadow on his face from wearing a baseball cap, you can brighten just his face in the photo rather than the entire image, the report added.

When you’re done editing a photo you can save it to the camera roll on your phone, or share it via Google+, Email, Facebook, or Twitter. -ANI

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Nokia unveils Lumia 620 Windows Phone 8 smartphone in Paris

Nokia recently unveiled its new Windows Phone 8 based smartphone at the Le Wen conference in Paris. This new device is called the Lumia 620 and seems to be a Windows Phone 8 based device in the affordable range.

The Nokia Lumia 920 will be available in seven different colors and it will support exchangeable shells with gloss or matte finish based on the color of your choice. This device has officially being priced at $250 which converts to Rs. 13,533 approximately.

This Windows Phone 8 based entry-level smartphone sports a 3.8-inch WVGA resolution ClearBlack display, 512MB of RAM, 8GB built-in storage and expandable memory up to 64GB via microSD card. It is powered by a 1GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor and includes a 5 megapixel rear camera with autofocus and LED flash along with a secondary front facing VGA quality camera.

Connectivity features include NFC capability, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, 3G capability, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS/aGPS and GLONASS. The battery on the Lumia 620 is rated for up to 9.9 hours of talk time and 330 hours of standby.

Available will start in January, the device will arrive first in the Asia Pacific and African markets.

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Android based Xperia E and Xperia E Dual announced by Sony

Continuing to add new devices to its portfolio, Sony Mobile has recently announced the Xperia E and Xperia E dual, Android based smartphones. The Xperia E is a single SIM device while the Xperia E features dual-SIM capability.

Both have similar specifications, they feature a 3.5-inch display with a 320x480 pixels resolution and are powered by an 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM7227A processor. Apart from this both include a 3.2 megapixel rear camera which supports VGA video recording. Along with other specifications like 512MB of RAM, 4GB built-in storage and up to 32GB of expandable memory via a microSD card. Both smartphones are powered by a 1,500 mAh battery.

Apart from the dual-SIM capability another major difference between the two is that the Xperia E runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean while the Xperia E Dual runs Android 4.0 ICS and it will later be upgradable to Jelly Bean.

These smartphones also feature HD Voice and noise cancellation for improved call quality and are equipped with xLoud for improved sound output. The Xperia E will come in white, black and pink colors and the Xperia E Dual will come in black and gold colors. These smartphones are expected to be available in Q1 2013.

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Facebook 'using Instagram as weapon' in war against Twitter

Social networking-giant Facebook is apparently using it’s recently aquired free-photo sharing service Instagram as a new weapon in its war with rival Twitter. It comes after Instagram, disabled its integration with Twitter's cards feature, changing the way its pictures are displayed on Twitter.

Instagram images are now awkwardly cropped, rather than sitting nicely in the timeline, meaning that you have to visit Instagram itself to see the picture properly, The Telegraph reports. “We’ve launched several improvements to our Web site that allow users to directly engage with Instagram content through likes, comments, hashtags and now we believe the best experience is for us to link back to where the content lives,” Kevin Systrom, Instagram's chief executive said.

According to the paper, Facebook has made regular changes to its settings and policies in a bid to encourage users to share just a little bit more information, making themselves more valuable to advertisers in the process, the paper said. Its latest proposal would now allow more data to be shared with Facebok from advertising partners and affiliates, including Instagram, it added -ANI

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Apple to start manufacturing Macs in US

Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook has said that tech giant is to begin manufacturing one of its Mac lines exclusively in the US. In an interview with NBC, Cook said the company had been working on ‘doing more and more’ in the US. Apple's products are mostly assembled in China, where the company has faced criticisms over working conditions. During the interview, Cook noted that key components in Apple products such as the iPhone were already manufactured in the US, but were then shipped out to be assembled, the BBC reports.

“The engine in [the iPhone] is made in America... but engines are made in America and are exported. The glass on this phone is made in Kentucky. We've been working for years on doing more and more in the United States,” the report quoted him, as saying. According to the report, in a separate interview with Bloomberg Business Week, Cook said the company would be investing ‘over 100 million dollars’ in making more in the US.

Cook also discussed the furore around Apple Maps, created to replace Google Maps software on its devices. “We screwed up and we are putting the weight of the company behind correcting it,” the report quoted him, as saying. “On Maps, a few years ago, we decided that we wanted to provide customers features that we didn't have in the current edition of Maps. It didn't meet our customers' expectation, and our expectations of ourselves are even higher than our customers,” he added. -ANI

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Smartphones can work as medical labs too

Smartphones doubling up as diagnostic labs may soon become a reality, thanks to the initiative of a University of Sydney researcher. "This method makes heart rate research more inexpensive, portable and straightforward," said James Heathers, the doctoral student from University's School of Psychology behind the project.

"The sensor, placed on a finger instead of using electrodes on the chest, is so small we can mail it to study participants," added Heathers, according to a Sydney statement. Data on tiny fluctuations in our heart rate provides critical information on the state of our nervous system, and is essential for a range of psychological research including on anger, anxiety, stress and self-control.

At the moment, heart rate variability (HRV) research is done in a university lab with a group of study participants. Electrodes are attached to their chests to measure HRV and the data is recorded, one person at a time, using a lab computer. "The idea struck me because I'm by nature impatient and my area is psychophysiology -- which is all about the relationship between physiological and psychological states," said Heather.

"By providing people with a sensor and then using their smartphone to process the data, we are no longer tied down to booking appointments in a university laboratory, and can record dozens of separate data streams at the same time. "Heathers collaborated with Simon Wegerif, a biomedical engineer. Wegerif's company, HRV Fit Ltd, already had an HRV phone app - iThlete - widely used by professional sports teams and athletes, for whom heart rate variability is an important measurement of their performance and recovery.

The challenge was to adapt a similar app into a tool that can collect and provide HRV data in a way useful to researchers. "We have run tests of our sensor linked to a smartphone and the software is working very well. I expect it to be up and running - and available for free - in the next few months," said Heathers.

Heathers plans to use the HRV data to expand theories on the day-to-day fluctuations of the nervous system, and to collect data from groups that are traditionally hard to access. These results were presented at the Australasian Society for Psychophysiology conference 2012. -IANS

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Apple faces biggest share drop in four years, $35 billion wiped off tech firm

Apple has suffered its worst one-day share price fall in almost four years after the US-based tech giant lost 34.9 billion dollars in market cap, says a report. The iPhone maker saw its shares fall 6.4 percent to 538.79 dollars, the biggest one-day drop since December 17, 2008. According to the Telegraph, America’s biggest company lost almost 35 billion dollars off its market value, and is now worth just under 507 billion dollars. Traders were also spooked by a report from research firm IDC forecasting that Apple’s share of the tablet market will slip to 53.8 percent this year from 56.3 percent in 2011, while Google’s share will increase to 42.7 percent from 39.8 percent, the paper said.

It added that Apple’s tablet share would slip below 50pc by 2016, as total global tablet sales more than double to nearly 283million units in four years as consumers increasingly opt for them rather than personal computers, the paper added. According to the papper, analysts expressed concerns that Apple risked losing ground to Nokia smartphones in China, while failing to keep pace with Google in the tablets market. -ANI

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Apple faces biggest share drop in four years, $35 billion wiped off tech firm

Apple has suffered its worst one-day share price fall in almost four years after the US-based tech giant lost 34.9 billion dollars in market cap, says a report. The iPhone maker saw its shares fall 6.4 percent to 538.79 dollars, the biggest one-day drop since December 17, 2008. According to the Telegraph, America’s biggest company lost almost 35 billion dollars off its market value, and is now worth just under 507 billion dollars. Traders were also spooked by a report from research firm IDC forecasting that Apple’s share of the tablet market will slip to 53.8 percent this year from 56.3 percent in 2011, while Google’s share will increase to 42.7 percent from 39.8 percent, the paper said.

It added that Apple’s tablet share would slip below 50pc by 2016, as total global tablet sales more than double to nearly 283million units in four years as consumers increasingly opt for them rather than personal computers, the paper added. According to the papper, analysts expressed concerns that Apple risked losing ground to Nokia smartphones in China, while failing to keep pace with Google in the tablets market. -ANI

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Facebook Messenger app for Android gets updated; all it needs is your name and number

Facebook has announced a new update for its Messenger app for Android. This new update will enable users to use the messaging service without having a Facebook account or even an email address.

The new update for the Messenger app will be rolled out in countries like India, Indonesia, Venezuela and South Africa in its first phase, while it will later be rolled out to other countries. All the app will ask for is the users’ name and number to use this service.

Now this sounds very similar to the way WhatsApp functions and it will be the social networks first attempt to open its services to those who do not have a Facebook account. Facebook has also announced that it has partnered with all major carries and device manufacturers in India for the new Facebook Messenger.

Just recently did we hear that Facebook might be looking to buy WhatsApp, however it rather seems that the social network will now be competing with it. If so they have a long way to go as WhatsApp is already available on a bunch of platforms including S40 amongst other popular ones, while all Facebook has at the moment is Android.

WhatsApp today exists on almost all devices and a huge population is already using it as an affordable SMS and voice call replacement. It will be interesting to see how Facebook would compete with this globally popular instant messaging service.

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WishTel launch $50 Linux-based tablet

WishTel has released a 7-inch tablet for the education sector that will come preloaded with Linux, and a library of books and other media on several fields of study. The tablet is called PrithV, and it is built using an unspecified 800MHz processor and 512MB RAM as the standard configuration, with the option to get 1.2GHz processor with 1GB RAM. Additionally, it has 1GB of onboard storage, 2800mAh battery, USB 2.0, microSD card reader, and 0.3MP front-facing camera. For wireless communication, the PrithV has built-in Wi-Fi radio and 3G dongle support.

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Canalys: Top 25 US developers bank half of all app revenue

 Market analysts Canalys has have disclosed a gist of their finding during a 20-day App Interrogator survey of app purchasers in US. Based on data gathered, Canalys estimate that just 25 developers took half of all the revenue generated through iTunes store and Google Play store. These 25 developers earned $60 million from paid-for downloads and in-app purchases.

The distribution of these top 25 developers among various industries is even more lopsided. With the exception of music service provider Pandora, all other are game publishers. These include gaming industry giants such as Electronic Arts, Disney, Gameloft, and even Zynga. Canalys have inferred from the gathered data that these companies are able to dominate the charts and the share of total revenue by having multiple titles generating money. For instance, Zynga had 15 titles daily in the list of top 300 grossing iPhone apps on average, and nine titles on Google Play store. With the holiday season and the inevitable discounts and bundle offers, Canalys expect the divide to only widen.

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Nokia Lumia 510 now official, priced at Rs. 10,499

The Nokia Lumia 510 which is the most affordable Lumia smartphone is now officially available for purchase in the Indian market. The device has previously been up for pre-order however now it has been listed on Nokia India’s website with the price tag of Rs. 10,499.

Even though Nokia does not seem to have sent the press release to the media, this seems to be an official launch the website suggests that it is already up for purchase in the market.

In terms of the specifications the Lumia 510 is a device which runs Windows Phone 7.5 and will be updated to Windows Phone 7.8 when it is available in early 2013. It has a 4-inch display, 5 megapixel rear camera and it is powered by an 800 MHz Cortex A5 processor along with 256MB of RAM.

Apart from this the device has 4GB of built in storage, no expandable memory and it supports all the essential connectivity features like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 3G capabilities. The Lumia 510 includes a 1,300 mAh battery which is rated for up to 8.4 hours of talk time on 3G.

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Apple iTunes now available in India and 55 other countries

After a long a wait Apple has finally expanded the reach of its iTunes music and movies store throughout the globe. The iTunes music store is now available in 56 new countries and the iTunes movies store will be available in India, Russia, Turkey and Indonesia.

This sure is a huge move from Apple and there is now doubt that a huge amount of new content will now be available in the iTunes Store. The only thing missing from the iTunes Store are the Television shows and we are not sure whether it will be included at a later time.

In regards to the pricing, it appears that a single song/track will be priced between Rs. 12-15 while and album will range from Rs. 72-108. Movies will be priced between Rs. 290-490, however one will be able to rent a movie for Rs. 120. We browsed through the movies available on the store and it seems to have most of the new releases.

Additionally one will also be able to purchase ringtones which are priced between Rs. 12-15 just like the songs/tracks. iTunes Match will also be available in India, it is a service which replaces your music library with tracks from iTunes and these are also available in the cloud, this service will be available with an annual subscription fee of Rs. 1,200.

We are really happy to see the Apple iTunes finally making it to other regions and especially India, the tracks are competitively priced too. Do let us know what you will be downloading and playing on your iPod in the comments below.

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Nintendo Wii U struggles to meet 3.5 million units target in US

The new Nintendo Wii U has sold 400,000 units in its first week of sale in the US, adding pressure to the firm’s targets to reach 3.5 million unit sales by the end of the year, according to a report. The 299-pound gaming console launched in the UK on November 30, and features a touchscreen remote control and full-HD graphics.

Nintendo sold over 700,000 consoles during the last week, 400,000 of them Wii U units and the remaining 300,000 sales of the six year-old Wii, The Telegraph reports. According to the paper, the Wii U launched with 24 games to choose from, including Nintendo Land and New Super Mario Bros.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has claimed that "Wii U redefines the structure of home entertainment by fundamentally changing how the TV, the game console and the Internet function and interact together,” the paper said. During an interview with Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, it was reported that total US hardware sales reached more than 1.2 million units, including the Wii U, Wii, and handheld 3DS and DS consoles, the paper added. -ANI Photo: Reuters

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Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 delivers new capabilities and value to customers

Microsoft Monday launched Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 - a single, powerful enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution that is purpose-built for five industries (manufacturing, distribution, retail, public sector and service industries) and includes rich capabilities to support administrative business processes.

"Dynamics AX 2012 is a highly adaptable and scalable product that delivers value by enabling enterprises to take advantage of business opportunities and reduces risk by easily modifying processes to cater to the new requirements of business," a company statement said.

"Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 will help provide faster business value, enable agility, help drive adoption, broaden usage and enable easier maintenance and upgrade through a continued emphasis on simplicity," the statement added.

Samik Roy, Director and Business Head, Microsoft Dynamics (Applications) Business, said: "We are excited to announce the launch of AX 2012 in India. The Microsoft Dynamics AX product community has grown to over 17,000 customers worldwide with an extensive partner ecosystem in more than 40 countries."

"This wave of innovation that we are delivering to the market demonstrates our core commitment to deliver real value to our customers through simple to use and easy to implement business solutions. Simple, Agile and Powerful are the 3 key words I would like to use to describe our new release," Roy added.

Noting that there has been a rapid growth in ERP adoption in India especially in the public sector, retail, distribution, services and manufacturing sectors, Roy said Dynamics AX 2012 "will bring customers a powerful, simple and agile business solution that will improve productivity and reduce TCO."

According to Somick Goswami, Director-Consulting, PwC India, "From a business integration and business consulting perspective there are some key business requirements which a solution should address effectively".

"These include the ease with which it aligns itself to an enterprise's business needs, enables better decision making, improves efficiency and productivity and is receptive to business nuances. The product / platform needs to be agile to meet the changing business requirements. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 responds effectively to all these indices of enterprise growth," Goswami added.

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 "can unlock greater productivity, enable collaboration throughout the supply chain, and provide immediate insight with RoleTailored access to self-service business intelligence, contextual information, and processes", the statement said.

The natural interaction of ERP systems with Microsoft business productivity applications- Microsoft SharePoint, Windows, Azure, and Microsoft Lync and IT infrastructure technology; Dynamics AX 2012 "will help sharpen our competitive edge", the statement added. -IANS

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Yahoo set to permanently axe public-chat rooms feature

Embattled Internet firm Yahoo has said that it has planned to permanently axe the public chat rooms feature of its messaging tool. It said in a blog post it would replace the tool, along with other services being removed, with new features. The chat-rooms tool came under fire in 2005, with advertisers pulling ads after reports of illegal under-age sex-themed rooms, the BBC reports. The firm said the feature was closing because it was not "adding enough value" for users.

Along with public chat rooms, Pingbox and Windows Live Messenger interoperability are all scheduled to be removed on 14 December, and some other features will disappear at the end of January, the report said. According to the report, the firm said it would now focus on modernising its "core Yahoo products experiences". -ANI

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Facebook to buy mobile chat app WhatsApp?

If reports are to be believed, Facebook is looking to buy multi-platform instant messaging application WhatsApp in a bid to improve its mobile services.

Citing sources close to the matter, TechCrunch reports the social networking giant has shown keen interest in acquiring WhatsApp. The site, however, could not provide more information about the possible price range or the talks are in which stage right now. Facebook and WhatsApp are yet to comment on the reports.

Buying WhatsApp would make a lot of sense for Facebook, which has of late looked to tap its mobile services to up revenues. WhatsApp, launched in 2009, announced in October last year that it had more than 100 millioni daily users across the world, sending and receiving 1 billion messages per day. These impressive figures might have prompted Facebook to bring in such features to its social network. It's notable WhatsApp has users base across multiple mobile platforms, including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Phone.

"Just how much is 1 billion messages? That is 41,666,667 messages an hour, 694,444 messages a minute, and 11,574 messages a second," WhatsApp boasted in a blog post.  “Unlike Facebook, Whatsapp is a paid app. And obviously, having a paid, ad-free service is an expansion of Facebook’s business model beyond advertising. We’ve already seen Facebook launch another service that diversifies it — Gifts — and the positive impact that has had with investors,” says the report.

Right now it's not clear exactly what Facebook would do with WhatsApp if it bought. But it is believed that the move would help deeper integration of the IM with the social networking site.

Reports of Facebook-WhatsApp deal come days after the messenger app drew harsh criticism from security and mobile researchers over the alleged security risks based on its authentication process. According to CNET, various bloggers dubbed the process a “security nightmare”, alleging the app leaked data collected off the device when it's being relayed to services.

Recently, WhatsApp suffered a glitch that showed “error:uknown” as contact status. According to reports, the glitch had affected thousands of users worldwide. The bug was followed by a hoax message urging people who use the app to forward a message to all their contacts or face having their accounts deleted. 

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Humble THQ bundle crosses five million downloads

THQ have, for a very short period, release their own version of a Humble Bundle through Valve’s Steam online distribution system. The bundle includes Darksiders, Metro 2033, Red Faction Armageddon, and three games from the Company of Heroes franchise. Keeping in tradition, the THQ Humble Bundle lets buyers decide the price, starting at one dollar, and decides how to split the haul three-way between the publisher, charity, and the Humble Bundle staff. Paying over the average purchasing price, which was $5.64 at the time of post, will unlock Saints Row: The Third for purchase. THQ is running the promotion for about another nine days.

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Kochi gets Gigabit Internet connection

Kochi in Kerala has finished laying down cables for 1Gbps Internet connectivity, apparently making it the only place in India to have Gigabit Internet access. The bandwidth goes to Startup Village, which as the name suggests, is expected to be a haven for the entrepreneurial types. The town received the envious internet access infrastructure under this initiative, similar to the project in Kansas City undertaken by Google.

Meanwhile, good news for the rest of Indians is that this project in Kochi is not meant to be a national novelty. The chairman of the Startup Village initiative said that this was part of a nationwide pilot that will move to other parts of India in the coming months.

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Nokia 114 dual-SIM phone shows up on its Indian website

While Nokia is yet to properly introduce this new mobile phone to the press, their Indian website has already published its details. This is a dual-SIM mobile phone that should be extremely affordable, designed for families that use one device with swappable SIM cards. Unlike other mobiles, this one does not require the phone to be turned off.

This new entry-level mobile phone from the Finnish manufacturer has similar specs and design to the Nokia 109 which is revealed earlier. It has a 65K color display with a resolution of 128 x 160 pixels which is 1.8-inch in size. The key new feature introduced with this device is its dual-SIM functionality and Nokia might have also retained its various SIM profile capabilities which it revealed with its ASHA series feature phones.

The Nokia 114 is equipped with a 1080 mAh battery, which has a 20% less standby time than that of the Nokia 109, but it has two GSM radios inside which demand the extra power. It is also equipped with a VGA camera with QCIF video recording and it has Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity.

There is no information on the website regarding its launch and pricing, but one can expect these details to be announced soon, hopefully by the end of this year.

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