Nokia to upgrade N8 and E7 to Anna in July

Indian users will have to update their smartphones using the Nokia Ovi suite as Indian telecom service providers still do not provide support for over the air updates.

Nokia N8 and E7 smartphones will be upgraded to the Symbian Anna operating system in the month of July this year, the Finnish handset maker has said in an official Facebook post.

The update will be available over the air internationally but Indian users will have to update their smartphones using the Nokia Ovi suite as Indian telecom service providers still do not provide support for over the air updates.

It is expected that Nokia India will also make the update available for Indian users at the same time but looking at the past updates it is expected that the update might get a slight delay.

Either with or after the Anna update, Nokia will also upgrade the camera of its flagship smartphone, the N8. With this update, the Nokia N8 will get newer video recording capabilities, with continuous auto focus, while recording HD 720P video. Besides, N8 users can record videos in 30 frames /second as opposed to present 24 frames/second.

As reported by 'The Mobile Indian', the Upgrade to Symbian Ann will be a voluntary upgrade and user who wish to upgrade their smartphones to this operating system can upgrade, rest of the user will be given continuous support for the present Symbian S60 ^3 as usual.

Lava to launch Android phone in the next two months

Lava says that it is coming late to the party as it wanted to bring a high quality, high specification product to market. The phone is likely to be slightly more expensive than similar devices from Micromax and Spice.

Lava Mobile, an Indian handset maker, is set to launch its first Android phone in the country within the next two months.

The phone is likely to feature the latest version of Android. It is to have a capacitive touchscreen and good music capability. Sunil Raina, director of marketing, Lava Mobile, told 'The Mobile Indian', "We are late as we wanted to bring a high quality specification-rich Android phone to the market. We are more or less ready with the product and we will soon launch it."

Although he refused to divulge the details, he said music will be one of the strong points of this phone. Lava Mobile has tied up with SRS Labs, which is an industry leader in surround sound, audio and voice technologies. Lava mobile phones will likely feature SRS WOW HD technology.

The phone will also have a better processor compared to other Android phones from Indian brands. Most low-end Android phones have a 600 MHz processor.

On the pricing front, Sunil informed us that the phone will be slightly more expensive than the current crop of Indian Android phones owing to better quality and features, but the price difference won't be significant.

We expect this phone to have at least a 3.2 inch capacitive touchscreen, 800 MHz processor, and probably the latest version of Android, 2.3.

Lava also plans to launch Android tablets in the second half of this financial year.

However, no details of the devices are available yet.

HTC Sensation now in India for Rs 32,700

The Android 2.3 based phone is HTC's first ever phone to feature a 1.2 Ghz processor supplied by Qualcomm and HTC Sense 3.0 user interface.

HTC today unveiled its latest smartphone, the Sensation, in India and has priced it Rs 32,700. The HTC Sensation was unveiled on April 12 in London.

The Android 2.3 based Sensation is HTC's first ever phone to feature a 1.2 Ghz processor supplied by Qualcomm and a whole new interface with the latest HTC Sense 3.0.

The HTC Sensation has a 4.3-inch 960 x 540 capacitive touchscreen with Gorilla Glass, an 8 megapixel autofocus rear camera with dual-LED flash and 1080p HD video recording, a VGA front-facing camera,Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3G, GPS, 1 GB of internal storage, 768 MB of RAM, microSD card support, and a 1520 mAh battery.

New Samsung app streams images to smartphones from TV

Android based App turns smartphone into remote, game controller and also settings hub for the new Smart TV models.

Samsung has introduced a new application for Galaxy S II smartphone that can stream images directly to the smartphone from a Smart TV.

Dubbed as Smart View, the application supports Samsung LED Smart TV models, Series 7 and Series 8, both of which are available in India.

The Smart View App requires Android 2.3 Gingerbread or higher updated running on the device and currently supports Galaxy S II.

New Smart View app acts as a full remote control for the Smart TV and Blu-ray Disc products when connected to the same via wireless router. The app even offers an onscreen keyboard wherever text entry is required.

Besides that, the app also acts as the optical game controller for the games on your TV. The gyroscopic sensor of the smartphone adds more fun while playing games on TV using your smartphone as game controller.

Noteworthy feature of Smart View is that it allows pushing content from smartphone to TV and TV to smartphone when both app and Smart TV are connected over Wi-Fi. Not only that, you can sit on the couch and fine-tune the controls for the TV and Blu-ray Disc players using the Smart View app.

One crucial part is that you'll need to have a Wi-Fi network setup at home or connect Samsung Wireless LAN adapter to the TV USB port.

The app lets you do what one can do with Apple TV and iPhone/iPod touch using WiFi, i.e. two-way streaming of multimedia content between TV and a smartphone.

Currently the App supports only Galaxy S II and Samsung plans support for Galaxy S (GT-I9000), Galaxy Tab and Galaxy Player (YP-G870) in coming months.

Get extra ipad storage with Kingston Wi-Drive

Access your files over Wi-Fi on the pocket-friendly Wi-Drive that allows streaming multimedia, PDFs and more files.

Kingston has come up with a new device that can be used by the Apple iPad, iPhone and iPod touch owners as an additional portable storage space, and has been dubbed as Wi-Drive.

The new Kingston Wi-Drive is available in 16GB and 32GB storage options and will allow users to access data wirelessly using iPhone (3G and higher), iPod touch (3rd Gen and higher) and iPad.

Indians will have to wait till June end to buy this additional storage for their iOS devices. At present, Wi-Drive is available outside India for $130 (Rs 5850 approximately) and $175 (Rs 7875 approximately).

Several users are either not aware of the cloud storage services offered or believe in carrying their own data with them. Apple iOS device's shortcoming of non-expandable storage can be dealt with this Kingston Wi-Drive that is Wi-Fi enabled.

The Wi-Drive device comes with its own battery backup and supports streaming of music, photos, videos, PDFs and more. Apple devices need to connect with the device using the Wi-Drive App (which will be available soon) over Wi-Fi to access their files.

The Wi-Drive supports different audio file formats such as AAC, MP3, WAV. Besides, it also supports different video files (m4v, mp4, mov, Motion JPEG, AVI), image (jpg, bmp, tiff) and document formats (pdf, doc, docx, ppt, pptx, txt, rtf, and xls).

The Wi-Drive also works as a portable storage which one can simply hook to Windows, Mac or Linux platform based computer to quickly transfer data.

Being pocket friendly, you can carry this portable storage anywhere with you and simply enjoy streaming of content provided you have Wi-Fi setup or you can create a personal mobile Wi-Fi hotspot using the iPhone 4 (requires running iOS 4.3 update or higher).

Tata Docomo introduces 3G WiFi hub

The device offers uninterrupted connectivity for specific WiFi devices like laptops, tablets, gaming consoles and WiFi-enabled televisions.

Tata Docomo, theGSM brand of Tata Teleservices, today launched its 3GWiFi hub that enables multiple users and devices to share wireless Internet access and stay connected on the go.

The device offers uninterrupted connectivity for specific WiFi devices like laptops, tablets, gaming consoles and WiFi-enabled televisions.

The device offers dual-mode internet connectivity to users via Tata Docomo's 3G GSM network and Tata Photon Plus on theCDMA platform - one technology at a time - offering speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps.

It allows users to access the Internet at 3G speeds in all the nine Tata Docomo circles where the company has the license, while allowing them to seamlessly switch to the high-speed Tata Photon Plus platform in other locations.

"This portable device signals a breakthrough in the WiFi space and is yet another first-of-its-kind product, offering dual Internet access technology. The sleek new product will be especially relevant in the context of today's fast-evolving and changing products, most of which are WiFi enabled laptops, desktops, i-Pads, mobile phones, even digital cameras. Best of all, given its WiFi capabilities, it allows multiple users to stay connected simultaneously," said Deepak Gulati, executive president, mobility business, Tata Teleservices Limited.

The device offers speed up to 7.2 Mbps in the 3G mode, and up to 3.1Mbps in the High-Speed Internet Access (HSIA) mode. Apart from a portable powered battery, seamless connectivity, simple browser-based configuration, the device is also password-protected for greater security.

"The device comes with innovative post-paid plans-these offer a customer-friendly package and will ensure that we offer a complete solution in terms of an efficient device and tariff combo. The high point is the fact that the device works on both the 3G and Photon (CDMA) platforms, depending on the SIM inserted," said Sunil Tandon, head, devices and mobility support services, Tata Teleservices.

The Tata Docomo 3G WiFi Hub is available with post-pay plans, to begin with. Customers opting for the sleek device will be provided with a starter pack containing both Tata Docomo 3G GSM and Tata Photon Plus start-up kits.

Customers can choose from a number of plans on both the Tata Docomo 3G GSM and Tata Photon Plus SUKs. To access data on the Tata Docomo 3G GSM and Tata Photon Plus platforms, customers will have to activate both SUKs separately with necessary documentation.

3G Wi-Fi Hub Plans

There are two plans available: The WiFi Rs 750 and WiFi Rs 1,000 plans. The WiFi Rs 750 Plan comes with a monthly rental of Rs 750, wherein customers can enjoy data usage of 2GB. Post the 2GB being consumed, customers will have to pay a nominal cost of 50 paise per MB for additional data usage.

Similarly, the WiFi Unlimited Rs 1,000 plan comes with a monthly rental of Rs 1,000, wherein customers will get 5GB of data usage. Post exhausting this 5GB, customers can enjoy unlimited data usage under the 'throttle option', wherein surfing speeds will be determined by user location, number of people accessing the network and device configuration.

The device is priced at Rs 5,999 and is available across Tata Docomo and Tata Photon stores. Tata Docomo customers can call up 1800-2660000 for details.

Samsung rolls out Gingerbread update for Indian Galaxy S users

Next in line is Android Gingerbread update for Galaxy Tab & other family smartphones - Gio, Fit, mini & Galaxy S LCD.

Samsung had begun rolling out Android 2.3 Gingerbread update for its Galaxy S GT-I9000 smartphone earlier this month in several regions. However, due to some bug with the update, Google stopped this roll out process. Most Gingerbread updates rolled out for the Galaxy S via forums and other sites have problems related to battery life and WiFiconnectivity etc.

From today onward Galaxy S users in India are getting the Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread update through Samsung Kies desktop software. Nitish Kumar, IT infrastructure professional and Galaxy S owner, shared via Twitter the image of Kies, showing the new Gingerbread build for Galaxy S GT-I9000 devices.

The new Gingerbread update brings a user interface improvement and several other bug fixes for Galaxy S devices. Those unhappy with GPS performance or battery life can expect better results with the new Indian Gingerbread firmware I9000DDJP6 update.

Before you get ready to download the new Gingerbread update, we suggest you back up the contacts, media and all other content stored on your Galaxy S. After that you can get the update by connecting your phone to the Samsung Kies software.