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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