Symbian Anna :An Overview

Nokia has recently released the Symbian Anna update for its symbian^3 devices such as the C6-01, C7, N8 and the E7. The update can be downloaded OTA by using the software update app in the phone or by using the OVI suite. Anna update is a very essential one as it significantly transforms the UI from the old boring s60 interface to a refreshed one. The icons are now transformed and look fresh and lively. Fonts have been enhanced greatly and most importantly, the default browser has been given the much required facelift and a portrait QWERTY keyboard has been added to make touch typing easier.

According to Nokia, the browser is much faster compared to previous versions but I could find a little improvement in the page rendering. The controls of the browser have been neatly placed which makes web browsing enjoyable. Flash content is available in the browser. Next big improvement is the portrait mode QWERTY which enhances messaging speeds by a great extent. Symbian Anna provides better business class security and easy integration with company VPN and Intranet networks. Another business class feature is the inclusion of Microsoft Communicator mobile. Navigation was very good in Symbian^3 and is now even better with the launch of Anna. GPS lock is very fast and is comparable to a standalone GPS receiver. During adverse weather conditions amidst rains, it took my C7 around 6 seconds to get the GPS lock which is pretty fast compared to other devices of this range.

A new concept NFC(Near Field Communications) has been introduced by Nokia recently. This allows users with an NFC enabled device to connect to other capable devices just by touching both the devices. Symbian Anna update activates the NFC chip present in the next generation devices. Currently Nokia C7 is the only device to support an NFC chip available in India. Nokia isvery keen on developing this technology and says that all next generation of smartphones will be enabled with this technology.At the end, I find Symbain Anna to be very interesting and would say that its a good attempt made by Nokia to take the old boring Symbian OS to the next level and compete with other young players such as Android, Windows Phone and the iOS.

Office 365 first look !

Office 365 is a new cloud based office software released by Microsoft. It enables users to access their files and the office software from virtually any device that is connected to the cloud. This version of office is mainly targeted on business class users as they can access all their files on the go. ALong with the office software hosted on the net, it also provides other services such as Exchange server and SharePoint server to the subscribers. There are three plans available for subscribers at this time which are Education plan, Professional plan for small scale businesses and Enterprise plans for large and medium size businesses.
Since the solutions are cloud-based, users can access their mails and files through a variety of devices like desktops, laptops and mobile phones and work on the move. Office 365 is a part of Microsoft's strategy to gradually move to cloud computing. This will increase business productivity and will be very instrumental in reducing response time and costs for enterprise level companies. It is expected that Office 365 will be a great hit because of its flexibility of services and plans and also because of its mobility based services. For more information on Office 365 and to download the trial, visit Office 365 official page !

Honeycomb : Android's latest Tablet OS !

After a huge success in the field of mobile phones, now android is all set to launch in tablets and other handheld devices. A new version of Android V3.0 named as "Honeycomb" has specially been designed for use with larger screens such as tablets. So what makes the Honeycomb different from other versions of Android such as Gingerbread(V2.3), Froyo(V2.2) and Eclair(V2.1). Lets take a look.

Honeycomb is optimized for use with larger display screens and supports a larger resolution display. It also supports dual core processors and most importantly, hardware accelerated graphics. Coming to the UI, a new Action bar has been implemented on the homescreen which replaces the hardware buttons for menu, home, back and search as were present in the earlier versions.This is a very nice addition as it improves the looks of the tablet device. Also, the contents in the Action bar change according to the app being used.Now thats a clever feature which makes handling of apps easier. The App switcher is improved and now shows the preview of the apps running in the background making it a truly multitasking OS.


The browser is also excellent and page rendering is very smooth. It makes the browsing experience enjoyable. Switching between windows is easy and fun.Only drawback is that out of the box flash support is not yet available but Adobe has confirmed that work is in progress and it will be available soon so that is not going to be a major problem. Private or Incognito browsing is also supported which doesn't save your browsing history or cookies ;). Another useful feature is Quick Control which can be activated by swiping from left to right of the screen on the browser which displays an array of important shortcuts instantaneously.

On the multimedia side, the Honeycomb doesn't live up to its expectations as in the previous versions of android. The camera interface is not as cool as in other OS such as the iOS and is dated.The Multimedia experience is better than previous versions and the UI has been completely revamped.A 3D view of the albums and songs is displayed which looks pretty cool.As far as video playback is concerned, popular codecs like H.263, H.264 and MPEG-4 are supported.Third party codecs can be also downloaded from the app store.The Maps works pretty well and the GPS locks in very fast displaying near accurate positions.The apps run in honeycomb in native resolution unlike that of the iPad which runs a lot of apps optimised for the smaller screen iPod touch in strech and fit format.

At the end, we can conclude that it is not just a smartphone OS that has been tweaked to be fit in a tablet but it is a dedicated OS built and optimised for the tablets and I hope that in the coming days,the minor flaws and bugs in the OS will fixed.An article about upcoming Honeycomb tablets will be updated soon. Keep reading !

Windows Phone 7 : The latest smartphone OS by Microsoft !

Windows phone 7 is the latest mobile smartphone operating system to come from Microsoft. Windows Phone 7 is the successor to the very popular Windows mobile 6.x version. WP7 has already been launched by Microsoft and companies like HTC, Dell, Samsung, LG have started selling phones running with this OS. Nokia recently announced its collaboration with Microsoft and their phones loaded with WP7 are expected to hit the shelves in the first quarter of 2012.

Now, how far is WP7 better than its successor? Well, I would say its far better than the previous OS and has the potential to be very successful in the long run.The primary reason is that all the phones running in this platform have to meet the minimum required specification to run it. The minimum specifications to run the OS are :

- 1 Ghz or better processor
- Capacitive WVGA screen with a resolution of 480 X 800
- DirectX 9 capable graphics unit
- Accelerometer with compass, A-GPS
- 5 Megapixel camera with flash
- Standard 7 dedicated buttons for various functions

On the hardware side, the minimum requirements look pretty impressive which also assures that the OS runs smoothly in any hardware on which it is loaded. So, the performance would be greatly imporoved rather than devices running on Symbian ana Android whose minimum requirements for running the OS is much lower. This also proves that WP7 is targeted to the enterprise audience who doesn't want to compromise on quality.



Coming to the UI, I feel that it is very clean and impressive. Microsoft calls this UI as "Metro UI". The home screen or the start screen consists of various tiles which link to the respective applications. The most important thing about the UI is that it is clutter-free and displays only the information required to the user. Text input is by a virtual keyboard on the screen. The web browser provided is obviously a mobile version of the IE. Gaming is impressive with the integration of xbox live and syncing to a Windows PC is done by Zune. For the office needs, a full fledged mobile version of the MS Office is present. Windows Marketplace is the online store for purchasing and downloading apps. Microsoft is trying to attract more and more developers to WP7 by introducing simple IDE for development[Visual Studio] and API's to create a huge library of apps.
There are also a few drawbacks of the new OS. Video calling facility has not been provided. Connecting to hidden wifi networks, static IP addresses and tethering to the PC are not yet available in this new platform. To add to this, flash player is also absent. But we can hope an update from Microsoft in the coming days to fix these problems as copy paste feature was recently enabled in the last update by Microsoft.
Finally, I think the WP7 is really a great effort by Microsoft to regain its share in the smartphone market. Although this platform has a few shortcomings, I strongly feel Windows Phone 7 will prove to be the trump card of the Redmond based company in the long run. Any thoughts guys??

Photosynth and 3-D photography....

                   Photosynth is a software application from Microsoft Live Labs and the University of Washington that analyzes digital photographs and generates a three-dimensional model of the photos and a point cloud of a photographed object.The Photosynth technology works in two steps. The first step involves the analysis of multiple photographs taken of the same area.The second step involves the display of and navigation through the 3D point cloud of features identified in the first step. This is done with the publicly downloadable Photosynth viewer
        Photosynth is an exciting futuristic application which helps you click a number of photos of an object or a place and then stitch them into a 3D structure which creates a panoramic 3 dimensional view of the photos clicked by you. It is a very futuristic technology and its fun to try. .Different than static photos and video, Photosynth helps the user to explore details of places, objects, and events unlike any other media. Also,using photosynth the photos in a photo gallery can be browsed and immediately the spatial relation between the photos can be seen. In order to enjoy the exciting features of photosynth, move your browser to http://photosynth.net/default.aspx . So why wait,start uploading your own photos and create your own synths and check out the magic of 3D photography!!!

Visual Studio 2010 :First Look !!!

     [VS logo is a copyright of Microsoft]

Here is some good news for all those programmers and developers aka coding experts.. Microsoft is going to formally launch the full fledged versions of Visual Studio 2010 on April 12th,2010.

               Microsoft Visual Studio is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) from Microsoft. It can be used to develop console and GUI applications along with Windows forms applications,web apps and web services for all platforms supported by Microsoft Windows, Windows Mobile, .Net framework, .Net compact Framework and Microsoft Silverlight.Visual Studio includes a code editor supporting Intellisense as well as code refactoring. The integrated debugger works both as a source-level debugger and a machine-level debugger.

            Visual Studio 2010 comprises lots of new and intelligent features which will benefit the programmers by saving them a lot of time. VS 2010 is much more efficient and powerful than the previous versions and comes with various new features such as - Auto Implemented properties, collection Initializers, Implicit line continuation, Multiline lambda subroutines, type equivalence support and dynamic support.

             Visual Studio 2010 will be available in the following versions - Professional, Premium, Ultimate & Test Professional. To download the beta of the software, please click on the link http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/download.
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Adobe CS4..The best Multimedia Editing suite ever

Adobe offers Creative suite professional software in five flavors. Among them, the Master Collection offers professionals the most jam-packed digital toolbox.The release of Adobe Creative Suite 3 in 2007 was the first to incorporate former Macromedia products, such as Flash. With Creative Suite 4, Adobe has unified the interfaces of all the applications for a more seamless experience. There are applications for concocting and editing digital pixel and vector graphics, print layouts, video, audio, web pages, Web pages, and animation, and then repurposing that content for mobile devices. Those who don't need the whole shebang might consider suites that cost less, such as Web Premium or Standard for Web design, Design Premium or Standard with tools for printed media, or Production Premium for film production.Its a product highly recommended only for professionals.


The packages in which the Adobe CS 4 will be available are:
1)Adobe CS 4 Master Collection
2)Adobe CS 4 Design Premium
3)Adobe CS 4 Design Standard
4)Adobe CS 4 Web Premium
5)Adobe CS 4 Web Standard
6)Adobe CS 4 Production Premium

Minimum Requirements: Users of Windows XP SP2 or Vista must have a processor of at least 2GHz, or 3.4GHz for working with high-definition video. Photoshop now natively supports 64-bit Vista, while Premiere, After Effects, Soundbooth, Encore, and OnLocation are certified for 64-bit Vista.

The various applications offered in Adobe CS 4 are:
a)Adobe Acrobat 9 professional
b)After Effects CS 4
c)Contribute CS 4
d)Dreamweaver CS 4
e)Fireworks CS 4
f)Flash CS 4
g)Illustrator CS 4 professional
h)InDesign CS 4
i)Photoshop CS 4
j)Priemiere Pro CS 4
k)Sound Booth CS 4




Cons :
The costly, heavy-duty applications take long to install, are hard to learn, and hog resources; personal tech support can exceed the price of some applications; some apps, such as Photoshop, offer few compelling reasons for most users to upgrade.

Pros :
The dozen applications in the Adobe CS4 Master Collection sport streamlined interfaces and integration for designing and editing images, Web pages, mobile sites, desktop apps, animation, film, and print layouts, and support the latest digital formats.

Android..Upcoming challenge from Google to Microsoft

So Whats Android??
Android is a mobile operating system running on the Linux Kernel.It is an open source Operating system,so it will be one of the most awaited OS of the year,especially for Developer tools.


Well,Android was supposed to be a mobile and handheld devices' operating system developed by Google..It has been quiet sometime that Google decided to finalize the launch of Android,but now the latest news has confirmed that Google's Android platform would be developed as an OS for Pc's also giving Microsoft the toughest challenge ever.Google most ambitious Android project will impact Microsoft in a very significant way as claimed by experts.As of now,the mobile UI is available but the PC version is under development and the beta version may be available commercially anywhere around first quarter in the next year..


The latest SDK(Software Development Kit) of Android OS was released in Dec'08 and its version is m5-rc14.The new improvements include New User Interface,Layout animations, geo-coding and numerous new media codecs.Given below are a few screenshots of Android mobile:

Windows 7 Release candidate 1

First of all,let me tell that Windows 7 is the latest operating system from Microsoft launched recently..

The minimum requirements for running the OS are :

• 1 GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
• 1 GB of RAM (32-bit); 2 GB of RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB of available disk space (32-bit); 20 GB of available disk space (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Available Editions: Windows 7 will be available in six different editions, but only Home Premium and Professional will be widely available at retail. The other editions are focused at other markets, such as the developing world or enterprise use.Each edition of Windows 7 will include all of the capabilities and features of the edition below it.

Other editions are :

Windows 7 ULTIMATE,STARTER and ENTERPRISE.

All the editions will be available in both 32bit and 64bit versions except the STARTER edition.

Now,there those who have already laid their hands on it might have loved it.Graphics is much more better due to embedded Directx 11 and its much faster than Windows Vista apart from other new features....Aero graphics has been improved and taken to the next level...

Upgrading from other versions: If you're running Windows Vista, you sure can upgrade—it's designed to be easy to go from Vista to Windows 7, actually. It's a little more complicated with other types of Windows. You can upgrade your Windows 7 Beta install if you've got one, but it's not recommended, and takes a bit of skunkwork. You're out of luck with XP and any other older version of Windows..so XP users,be ready for a clean format of your hard disk...

Speculations about XP mode in Windows 7: Yes,this is true man..You can download a fully functional windows xp sp3 and run it alongside with windows 7.That means you can run IE 6 alongwith IE 8(speaking in a layman's sense)..However this feature will be more useful for Enterprise users...You get the reliability of XP with the looks of Windows 7

Aero graphics: Yes,Aero graphics is still here...Like the previous version Vista,Windows 7 has windows flip3D which u can activate using CTRL+WINDOWS KEY+TAB.Transparent windows are present.Colours of windows can be totally customized.A new feature is Invisible windows in which the window you are currently working in is visible and all other windows are transparent...A cool feature really....A new addition is that the desktop wallpaper can actually be a slideshow of images which change automatically...