Texas Instruments shutters tablet chip business

According to a report by Reuters, Texas Instruments has laid-off 1,700 as part of an ongoing operation to move out of the tablet chip business. The company has declared in September that the competitive mobile and tablet market has forced it to think about making further investments. These numbers account for five percent of Texas Instrument’s global workforce.

Texas Instruments will shift their focus to wooing car and home appliance manufacturers. The company will continue to support OMAP processor for vendors such as Amazon, who are expected to ship Kindle with OMAP 5.

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HTC Desire SV now available for purchase in India

HTC recently unveiled its new dual-SIM capable Desire SV smartphone which it said will soon launch in the Indian market. This device is now up for grabs via online retailer Saholic at Rs. 21,799, it will ship in four business days.

The Desire SV is a dual-SIM capable Android 4.0 ICS based smartphone which is powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor and 768MB of RAM. The device also features a 4.3-inch WVGA SLCD display, has an 8 megapixel rear camera with LED flash, no front facing camera, Beats Audio integration, 4GB built-in storage and a 1,620 mAh battery.

This of course is a much capable and high quality dual-SIM capable Android smartphone in the Indian market. If dual-SIM capability is the prime feature you are looking for then there are a bunch of low-cost dual-SIM capable smartphones from local manufacturers.

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Dell buys software firm Gale Technologies

Computer maker Dell has announced that it has acquired Gale Technologies, a provider of infrastructure automation software. Gale Technologies offers software that can help customers turn discrete compute, network and storage resources into integrated solutions featuring self-service and automation, reported Xinhua.

Without disclosing the financial terms of the deal, Dell said it plans to keep Gale Technologies' employees and will continue to invest in additional engineering and sales capability. Dell also announced that it will use the acquisition to form a new Enterprise Systems and Solutions division to design and deliver integrated enterprise information technology (IT) solutions.

Privately-held Gale Technologies was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Santa Clara in the US state of California. The purchase is the latest indication of the increasing competition among technology giants to create one-stop shop which packages compute, storage, network, software and other components into a single, optimized IT solution for enterprises. Dell's deal came a day after Cisco, the world's largest maker of computer networking equipment, announced Thursday that it intends to pay $125 million to buy Cloupia, an infrastructure automation software provider similar to Gale Technologies. -IANS Photo: Thomas Peter / Reuters

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Galaxy S IV rumored to debut at CES

Asia Economics reports that Samsung will unveil the Galaxy S IV during CES in January. The phone is rumored to have a 5-inch AMOLED display with 441ppi density that gives the display 1920x1080px resolution. Other rumored specs include quad-core Exynos processor, and 4G LTE capabilities. While Samsung has refused to comment on this report, earlier rumors claim Galaxy S IV will release sometime in March.

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LG Nexus 4 to launch in India on November 30

So LG had previously mentioned that the Nexus 4 will be coming to Asia sometime before the end of this year and India of course was one of the countries to receive it. The announcement also suggested that the device will come to India sometime in November and it seems this might be the case.

Online retailer, Saholic has now made the product page for the LG Nexus 4 live on its website and claims that it will be in stock by November 30. The fine print says that it will take 3 days for shipping, so you might get the device in the first week of December.

Now, the LG Nexus 4 might be an affordable Android smartphone in a few countries, but LG has already suggested that it might not have similar pricing in other regions. The reason here is that Google wants to make profits from this device solely on the basis of content and we don’t have much of Google content (apart from apps) in India or many other such countries. So expect the device to be priced as much as a high-end Android smartphone.

The Nexus 4 is available for purchase with an eBay retailer for the price of Rs. 25,990 for 8GB and Rs. 29,990 for 16GB. This will be an USA import which will ship for free and is expected to be delivered between 15th and 25th of December. Hopefully it might have international warranty and one would have to wait for a few extra days.

In terms of the specifications the LG Nexus 4 is powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor which clocked at 1.5GHz and 2GB of RAM. It sports a 4.7-inch IPS HD display, 8 megapixel rear camera, 1.3 megapixel front facing camera and runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean update. Needless to say this will be one of the first devices to receive any future Android updates.

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Rumour: Google Maps for iOS 6 is under development

Good news for those iPhone users who updated to iOS 6 and had to live with the the default navigation tool which Apple had provided. A new report suggests that Google is preparing a new Maps app for the iPhone and it might soon it the iTunes App Store.

Since its launch in 2007 Google Maps had been the default maps and navigation app on the iPhone, however with iOS 6 Apple decided to replace it with its own solution. Many of us know that it didn’t go very well. Now a report on WSJ claims that Google is currently working on its Maps app for iOS 6 and they are working on its final bits before submitting it to the App Store for Apple’s approval. WSJ claims that source of this information is someone who has direct knowledge about the project. However, this person said that it was not clear when Google will actually make their submission to Apple. An Apple spokesperson refused to comment on an app that has not been submitted for approval; whereas a spokesperson for Google gave little in terms of new information.

Even Nokia recently submitted its own maps and navigation solution called ‘Here’ to the App Store, this will be available for free in a few weeks. The report also suggests that the new Google Maps app will features turn-by-turn navigation which was missing in the previous default versions.

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Zebronics launches affordable Bluetooth headset at Rs. 449

Long conversations on a modern smartphone can be fatigue-inducing, especially if you're holding a phablet sized device. Zebronics has announced the availability of an affordable new Bluetooth headset that's retailing at the price of a wired hands-free unit, with a claimed wireless range of 10 metres and a built-in re-chargeable battery.

Weighing just 7 grams, the ZEB-BH500 integrates a rechargeable polymer lithium ion battery which the company claims can provide 2.5 hours of talk time and up to 85 hours of standby time. The unit provides stereo sound, includes a secure ear hook. The unit ships with a USB charging cable, and a 1-year warranty for Rs 449.

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Nokia Lumia 920 will not launch in India in November

Nokia had previously announced that India will be included in the first wave of the Lumia 920 launch globally, however not it seems that this is not the case.

While Nokia had previously sent out a global press release stating that the Lumia 920 will launch in India in November. Apparently (as reported by BGR India), India was not supposed to be listed and it was an error.
Nokia India will announce the availability of the device once they have finalized a launch date and it also seems that the devices are currently being tested by Indian carriers before they hit the market.

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