HTC ChaCha small review

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The HTC ChaCha lets you share music, photos, your location and status updates in just one touch via a dedicated Facebook® share button. With integrated Facebook chat, catch-up with your friends whenever you like. With a dedicated QWERTY keyboard featuring well balanced raised keys the HTC ChaCha lets send out your messages superfast. HTC ChaCha has a Facebook share button that lets you share just about anything with just one touch. Take a photo - straight to Facebook. Make a video - straight to Facebook. Show whatever, whenever, at the touch of a button. Chat with all your friends on the world's biggest social networking site. HTC ChaCha's Facebook chat widget means you can group all your friends together, and see when anyone is online. Start a live instant chat, and juggle between as many private conversations as you want. The conversation never ends with HTC ChaCha. Heaps of friends, heaps of things you want to say. HTC ChaCha comes with a QWERTY keyboard, so you can knock out your messages fast. Whether it's an email, a new Facebook posting, or instant message chat, you can now knock 'em out like a champ.

HTC rejects Apple's fresh patent claim

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TAIWAN'S leading smartphone maker HTC on Tuesday dismissed fresh patent infringement claims by US giant Apple as the legal battle between the rivals escalated.

Apple on Monday filed a complaint against HTC with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) -which is already reviewing three other disputes between the two -over five cases linked to technology used in the iPad and iPhone. It has also lodged a suit in a US District Court in Delaware.

“HTC is disappointed at Apple's constant attempts at litigations instead of competing fairly in the market,“ said HTC general counsel Grace Lei. “HTC strongly denies all infringement claims raised by Apple in the past and present,“ she said.

HTC touts its own brand of smartphones and also makes handsets for US companies, including the Nexus One unveiled by Apple rival Google. Apple in March 2010 called on the ITC to investigate it over iPhone patents.

Apple-Samsung battle may spur supplier rejig

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An intensifying war between Samsung and Apple is triggering expectations that some of the pairs' $5 billion-plus relationship may be up for grabs.

With the electronics titans squaring off in an acrimonious battle over smartphones and tablets patents, any worsening in their supply relationship could mean more business for Toshiba, Micron, Hynix Semiconductor, Intel and TSMC.

Apple's move to protect its smartphone and tablet business comes as Samsung is set to become the world's top smartphone vendor, ending Nokia's decade-plus reign. Samsung makes parts central to Apple's mobile devices, but Apple in April accused the South Korean company of “slavishly“ copying the iPad and iPhone in its own Galaxy devices.

While it would be a challenge for Apple to sever or water down its long-standing relationship with the Korean company, Apple CEO Steve Jobs is known for abruptly spurning erstwhile partners.
Its relationship with Google cooled rapidly after the Internet giant got into smartphones, for instance.

Longer-term, finding alternative sources for components and reducing its reliance on Samsung for everything from flash memory to processors and displays would make sense for Apple as the two compete head-to-head in an exploding market for mobile devices, analysts say. “They have become more competitors and less partners and so Apple will definitely not be looking to Samsung as its go to partner-of-choice for NAND flash,“ said Brian Marshall, an analyst with Gleacher & Co. He expects Apple to source its future mobile processors from firms other than Samsung.

Supplying major parts for Apple's iPads and iPhones, the industry's gold standards, would be a coup for any company. Making the silicon brains for those gadgets would mean a boost in revenue for TSMC, the world's largest contract chip maker.
And it would be a major victory for PC chipmaker Intel, which is scrambling to find traction in the fast-moving mobile market and has repeatedly expressed a desire for Apple business. “There is a lot of competition, especially for high-profile wins like Apple,“ said Real World Technologies analyst David Kanter. “When you toss Intel into the mix, then it becomes even more interesting.“

Stay online, all the time, from any phone

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A large number of people today use their phones to be online on various chat messengers to stay connected. This not only drains the phone’s battery, but also leads to lots of data usage. With Nimbuzz’s new Ping service, you can save on both these issues. Simply install Nimbuzz — an IM integrator software available across mobile platforms from w w w . n i m b u z z . c o m. You’re required to do a quick sign-up and then configure your various messengers. Once done, activate the Ping service by going to settings and enabling it. The app will then register your phone number for sending out notifications. Once done, simply exit the application and you will still be visible to your friends online. When someone initiates a chat with you, you will get a service message notification with the person’s name with a ‘yes/no’ option to launch Nimbuzz and continue the chat. This way, neither is the application running in the background draining your battery nor is it connected to the Internet consuming data.

Panasonic Lumix P-05C

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If you love camera phones and are always looking for the best results, this Panasonic phone is for you. It’s called the Lumix P-05C (even borrowing its name from Panasonic’s digital camera range) and is styled to resemble a compact camera, complete with wide LCD, camera-style controls, dedicated shutter button and protruding lens. It is the world’s first phone with built in optical image stabilisation. The 27mm wide-angle lens, 13.2MP sensor, xenon flash and 1080p video recording are proof of the phone’s camera-focused intentions. Panasonic’s iAuto mode for automatic scene recognition (also borrowed from Lumix) is present and comes with 11 preset modes. A burst mode clicks 8 successive frames and then lets you select the best one. The phone has a slider form factor with a 3.3-inch display and will be launched in Japan later this month.

Bangalore Start-Up To Take on iPad, Launches Tablet

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EAFT Technologies, a start-up based in Bangalore, has launched a tablet device-—Magic Tile Marathon.
Weighing in at less than a kilogram, the device which runs on Google’s Android operating system is priced at Rs 29,990 and will compete in a market dominated by Apple’s iPad.
A tablet is a computing device, which though smaller than a laptop, offers most of the features of a computer. The Marathon which is 3G enabled has coming with features such as USB and HDMI ports, 3G, 16 GB storage and high definition (HD) video playback
The tablet wars in India are heating up with a slew of international companies such as Apple, HTC, Research in Motion, Dell, Acer and Lenovo launching devices here. Last year Olive Telecom launched its Olive Pad, which also runs on Android and has 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and is priced at a little over Rs 25,000.
Indian mobile handset makers too are set to enter the fray including Lava, Micromax and Zen who expect to capture market share by launching lower priced products.
International Data Corporation (IDC) stated in a report that it expects Apple’s iPad to maintain 70-80% worldwide market share this year. The product engineering company, EAFT, was founded in 2008 by Jitendhar G S and Giri Prathivadi, who were colleagues at Celstream and Hewlett-Packard. The Marathon has been launched with an initial production run of 10,000 tablets. While the product is available in Bangalore, the company is planning to expand distribution to Delhi and Mumbai soon. EAFT is also planning to launch three variants of the Marathon in the next few months.
Nitin Khanapurkar, Executive Director (Advisory Services), KPMG, says price will be the key differentiator. “Samsung’s Galaxy Tab is at a comparable price range to EAFT’s Marathon,” he adds. Industry watchers say big brands will benefit from bigger marketing budgets compared with start-up manufacturers.
Even the lower-end version of the iPad is available at a little over . 29,000. “The tablet is still a lifestyle product. A person willing to pay this price will shell out more for a brand like iPad,” says Khanapurkar.

Taproot Bags Airtel Campaign For 25 Crore

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Mumbai-based Taproot India has bagged work on a campaign for brand Airtel, underscoring the growing trend of smaller independent creative outfits winning big ticket brands traditionally aligned with larger network agencies. 
The size of spend is estimated to be around . 25 crore. 
WPP-owned JWT India is Airtel's agency of record, which means it is authorised to buy advertising space or time for the brand. 
“While JWT will continue to work on Airtel, Taproot has been asked to work on a campaign that enables the brand to create a more in-depth and robust brand communication in India,” a person close to the development said. 
When contacted by ET, Airtel denied such move. “There has been no change in our agency alignment. JWT continues to be our advertising agency responsible for brand in India and South Asia,” Airtel's spokesperson said in reponse to an email query. 
Taproot co-founder Agnello Dias refused to comment. Sources close to the development, however, said the decision to award Taproot, the agency of record for PepsiCo India, a project to work on a campaign with specific focus on creating a long-term brand identity has been more or less finalised. 
The decision to look at another agency for Airtel comes as the Airtel senior management is keen on a long-term sustainable campaign. 
A Bharti Airtel official who did want to be named said, “The management has been unhappy with JWT and there could be more changes in the offing. It is looking at reducing dependence on one ad agency.” 
This would not only put pressure on the existing agency but also generate fresh ideas, he said. 
The move, the official said, is linked to the large-scale restructuring the telecom giant. Airtel, grappling with falling profits and slowing growth, last week said it was streamlining its operations in India and South Asia under two customer business units — one serving corporate clients (business to business or B2B) and the other handling its retail offerings(business to customer or B2C) — effective August 1. 
Another Bharti official, based in Delhi, said rivals Vodafone and Tata DoCoMo have stolen the thunder in the advertising sweepstakes. “Vodafone's Zoo-Zoo, created by O&M, has been a clear differentiator over the years. From mobile number portability to music downloads to 3G, Vodafone has stuck to the one big idea. Even Tata Teleservices' DoCoMo has managed to cut through the clutter riding on taglines like 'Keep it simple' or 'Do the new'.” 
Bharti, on the other hand, has had a series of celebrity endorsers like musician AR Rahman and actors Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor, but the one big consistent idea is lacking, the management feels. This despite the recent re-branding initiatives by Airtel where JWT created the last big campaign titled 'endless goodbye'. 
Airtel is Taproot's second big account. Taproot became the third AoR for brand Pepsi, riding on the work the agency did for Pepsi's 'change the game' world cup campaign. 
Since 2010, a clutch of smaller independent agencies have managed to bag big ticket clients from larger network agencies. This trend in India mirrors a practice internationally, where clients are increasingly looking to hedge their bets by creating a bouquet of agencies working on a brand. 
In India, Hero Honda recently awarded Law & Kenneth the mandate to work on its corporate branding. In March, beverage maker Coca-Cola mandated Leo Burnett as the creative agency for Coke Studio, its global music property in India. 
The development came months after rival PepsiCo decided to assign its biggest commercial of the year - its word cup campaign - to creative hot shop Taproot and not to JWT which has been its creative agency for two decades. Nestle India has also appointed Mumbai based Scarecrow Communications as the agency to launch a new brand even as the company has agencies like Publicis India, McCann Erickson and JWT on its roster.

Nokia Still a Hot Brand Among Indians

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Survey NEW DELHI Even as the Finnish handset maker Nokia is facing tough competition, it is still the most trusted and popular brand among Indian customers as it topped 'The Handset Hotlist' for July 2011, according to a survey. As many as 12 handsets of Nokia made it to the list of 25 most exciting mobile phones, that were searched and viewed the most by consumers online, the survey by 'The Mobile Indian' website said. Samsung was second with six of its models, including one CDMA phone, making it to the list. While Micromax and Sony Ericsson stood at the third position with two of their models figuring in the list, a model each from Dell, HTC and iPhone completed the list of 25 most exciting handsets, the survey added. "The Handset Hotlist' will give marketers a monthly insight into changing consumer preferences," The Mobile Indian Director Sreekant Khandekar said. Nokia C5-03, priced at Rs 8,600, was the most searched for and viewed handset, followed by Nokia C6 (Rs 12,200) at the second spot, the survey revealed.

Worm in Apple: iPads, iPhones

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San Francisco: A new security hole has opened up in Apple Inc.’s iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices, raising alarms about the susceptibility of some of the world’s hottest tech gadgets to hacker attacks.
    Flaws in the software running those devices came to light after a German security agency warned that criminals could use them to steal confidential data off the devices. Apple said it is working on a fix that will be distributed in an upcoming software upgrade. With the security hole, an attacker can get malicious software onto a device by tricking its owner into clicking an infected PDF file. Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security called the flaws “critical weaknesses” in Apple’s iOS operating system.
    Internet-connected mobile devices are still subject to fewer attacks than personal computers, but they could eventually prove a juicy target for hackers because they are warehouses of confidential banking, e-mail, calendar, contact and other data. 

    Software vulnerabilities are discovered all the time. What makes the latest discovery alarming is that the weaknesses are already being actively exploited – albeit in a consensual way.
    The latest concerns were prompted by the emergence of a new version of a program to allow Apple devices to run any software and circumvent the restrictions that Apple notoriously retains over software distributed through its online store. There are security risks of doing so, but many people find it liberating to install their own software.
    Although this program is something people would seek out, the weaknesses that its authors discovered could easily be used for malice, security experts say.
    There is an irony in the controversy: The site distributing the program offers a fix for the problem, but to get the fix, a user has to first install the program in question. So a user must defy Apple’s restrictions to get the protection until Apple comes up with a fix of its own.
    Charlie Miller, a hacker of Apple products, said it likely took months to develop the program to break Apple’s restrictions, but a criminal might need only a day or two to modify it for nefarious purposes. One reason for gadget owners to take heart: Attacks on smartphones and other internet gadgets are still relatively rare. One reason is PCbased attacks are still highly lucrative. Still, vulnerabilities such as the ones Apple is confronting show that consumers should take care of securing their mobile devices as they would their home computer.

source from times of india.

How about a beer with your iPhone?

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YOU can do a lot with an iPhone these days — text, take pictures, surf the net, and even make a phone call. And soon, thanks to two Australian entrepreneurs, you will be able use it to open a bottle of beer by way of the ‘Opena,’ a hard plastic case that fits over the iPhone and is equipped with a slide-out bottle opener.

“At times you want to drink but don’t have your keys on you. So we thought, why don’t we attach a bottle opener to an iPhone case? We always have our phones on us,” said Melbourne-based Chris Peters, an industrial designer who developed the product with Rob Ward, a former toolmaker.

Start-up funding via a website has gone well, enabling a quick launch.

India added 13.35 m new mobile users in May: Trai

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TELECOM operators added 13.35 million mobile subscribers in May 2011, taking the total number of telephone users in the country to 874.68 million, sectoral regulator Trai said on Thursday.

According to the data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), mobile subscriber base increased to 840.28 million at the end of May from 826.93 million in the preceding month, registering a growth of 1.61 per cent.

With this, the overall teledensity (telephones per 100 people) in India reached 70.23 per cent.

However, the number of active mobile subscribers, according to the visitor location register (VLR) data, during the month was only 588.13 million. VLR numbers provide details on active customers at any given point of time, excluding switchedoff and out-of-the-coverage area customers.

The growth in the wireless category was led by Reliance Communications which added 2.50 million

users, taking its subscriber base to 141.16 million by the end of May 2011. Bharti Airtel added 2.45 million subscribers, taking its user base to 167.06 million. Vodafone added 2.44 million new customers to take user base to 139.42 million. Idea Cellular and Aircel added 1.80 million and 1.11 million users respectively, during the period. Tata Teleservices added 0.39 million users in May.

State-run telcos BSNL and MTNL added 0.82 million and 27,952 new subscribers in May.

Wireline category continued to lose customers, with the subscriber base declin

ing to 34.40 million at the end of May from 34.55 million in April, Trai said.

Mobile Number Portability (MNP) requests jumped nearly 24 per cent in May to 105.70 lakh subscribers, from 85.41 lakh in the preceding month.

Trai said, in all, 105.70 lakh subscribers had submitted requests until May to different service providers under MNP , a service that allows people to change operators while retaining the same number. Out of these requests around 6.32 lakh pertain to Haryana where MNP was implemented from November 25, 2010.

LG brings new 3D smartphone

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MIYOUNG KIM Reuters SEOUL: LG on Thursday introduced the Optimus 3D smartphone in South Korea and hopes to sell 1.7 million units this year. The phone runs on Android platform and uses Texas Instruments' OMAP mobile processors. It will be available through South Korea's top mobile carrier SK Telecom.

LG is betting the 3D smartphone will help it expand into the portable gaming hardware market, which is dominated by the likes of Japan's Nintendo and Sony.

The Optimus 3D, which has a 4.3-inch display and two cameras, comes with preloaded 3D games made by mobile video game specialist Gameloft SA. In the second half, LG's new product lineup will include LTE (longterm evolution) phones and smartphones with high definition displays, Park Jongseok, head of LG's handset division, said.

LG, the world's No.3 handset maker, cut its 2011 smartphone and handset targets as its present Optimus series has failed to stop the success of iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy S. The firm declined to predict when the loss-making divi sion will make a turnaround from four quarterly losses.

“Our overall performance is gradually improving...but it's difficult to give a precise prediction when our business will turn around due to a fast changing external market environment,“ Park said.

Salora launches SM501 dual SIM handset

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Salora has launched SM501, a stylish bar Dual SIM handset with a touch screen display that makes it fairly effortless to use it with either fingers or stylus. Screen size is amazing and large enough to provide the real taste of touch screen. The handset also comes with a 3.5mm adaptor that fit regular earphones, headphones and portable speakers. SM501 is a step ahead with the integration of touch screen and e-book reader. In addition to English and Hindi, SM501 supports Bengali too.

source:fc

APPLE plans to launch its next-generation iPhone

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APPLE plans to launch its next-generation iPhone during the third quarter of the year, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
The newspaper, citing “people familiar with the situation,” said Apple has placed orders for key components to used in the new version of the iPhone and that it would be thinner and lighter than the iPhone 4. Apple released the iPhone 4 in June 2010. “Apple’s sales estimates of the new iPhone is quite aggressive,” the Journal quoted a source at one of Apple’s suppliers as saying.
“(Apple) told us to prepare to help the company meet its goal of 25 million units by the end of the year,” the source said. “The initial production volume will be a few million units,” the source said, adding the supplier had been told to ship components to Apple’s Taiwan-based assembler Hon Hai in August.
Apple declined to comment on the Journal report.
Analysts have been predicting that Apple would begin production of a new iPhone in August and introduce it in September or October.