Review: Sony Xperia Z

If Samsung’s Galaxy range of smartphones are anything to go by, you don’t really need premium hardware or insane features to taste runaway Android smartphone success. All you need is smart pricing and billions of advertising dollars. Sony, much like HTC, tries to buck the trend with the Xperia Z that boasts premium design, top-of-the-line hardware specifications and some water resistance for added measure. A price tag of approximately Rs 39,000 doesn’t feel steep either, especially with its chief competitor – the HTC Butterfly – priced at Rs 46,000. But will it be enough for Sony to make people believe in the Japanese brand once again? It is about time we find out.

DESIGN

At a time when every phone looks alike with some kind of plastic body with rounded corners and curved back, the Xperia Z is a big departure. Like the iPhone 4/4S and the Nexus 4, the Xperia Z features a tempered glass back that looks premium and different. The black version looks better than the white one, but both variants stand out and won’t leave people guessing which phone you are holding. It is very much like the iPhone – it has a distinct persona of its own and screams trademark Sony (not Sony Ericsson) design language of straight lines.
The edges also have a lining of tempered glass and all ports are hidden with flaps that provide the much advertised water resistance. In fact, it took me a while to find out the micro USB charging port, which doesn’t have any marking, unlike other ports. The phone feels extremely solid and as expected it doesn’t creak or rattle when held in a tight grip.
While the combination of straight lines and flat back looks good, holding the phone is a different matter altogether. Despite shaving off the bezel, any phone with a 5-inch display is difficult to maneuver with one hand and in this case the lack of curvature doesn’t help. I found the edges to be a bit too sharp for my comfort, though the corners have been subtly rounded off. Apple can have an iPhone with a flat back solely because of its smaller footprint, which certainly isn’t the case with the Xperia Z. Ironically, it was Sony Ericsson that introduced the “human curvature” with its Xperia smartphones, something that probably got lost in translation somewhere.
Another gripe I have with the design is the placement of the speaker on the lower right edge, which ensures that it is muffled every time you hold the phone in your right hand. You just cannot miss covering the speaker with the fleshy part of the palm.

HARDWARE

 
Android smartphones in the last couple of years have entered a specification arms race with brands trying to strike a fine balance between having the latest and greatest specifications possible while forgetting about the user experience. That reflects in the marketing as well, which is focused on hardware specifications like processor, display size, internal memory and megapixels without really thinking about whether they would really make a difference in the user’s life.
That’s not to blame Sony for putting the best possible specifications on its flagship smartphone but somewhere they seem to have lost the message of why one needs top-notch hardware. Take the 5-inch full HD 1080p display with Bravia engine enhancement, for instance. The Xperia Z has the best display I have encountered on a smartphone when viewed front-on but the viewing angles are terrible – an issue that has plagued Xperia smartphones in the past and I hoped Sony would fix it by investing in better quality displays especially when it attempts a comeback. Despite having the Bravia Engine at work, I find the HTC Butterfly to have a better display. Considering that the display is what you’d end up interacting with all the time, this is bit of a let down.
Display aside, rest of the specs are top-of-the-line, especially the combination of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz combined with 2GB of RAM. It essentially chews and spits everything thrown at it with no lag. Some might find it an overkill but this firepower is required for some processor intensive tasks like HDR video recording among others.
Talking about the camera, the 13.1-megapixel camera churns out good shots provided you have optimum lighting condition. Daytime shots are comparable with any other high-end smartphone but it is the indoor and low-light shots that leave much to be desired. Photos taken outdoors at night and indoors in low-light are average at best, which can’t be compared with even the iPhone 5, forget the Lumia 920. If you were looking for a bigger proof that megapixel count isn’t everything, look no further. Image stabilization mostly worked and I even tried shooting video in HDR mode, which works in certain extreme conditions (shooting under direct sunlight, for instance). I believe this will soon become a common feature in most high-end smartphones.

SOFTWARE

The Xperia Z runs on Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2, which isn’t the latest version but that is par for the course. Sony has promised to update it to 4.2 soon and the company has been pretty prompt with its updates in the past. I like the fact that the UI on top of stock Android is minimal and that Sony has gone with onscreen navigation controls than having three buttons below the display.
There is a bit of bloatware in form of Sony’s own web apps apart from McAfee antivirus. Sony has said that the Xperia Z will come with some music store offering but my review unit didn’t have it.
Sony has also added a “Stamina Mode” as a software feature, which the company claims could potentially quadruple the battery performance of the phone. The feature essentially kills all background updates while the display is turned off and saves battery during standby mode. It is a nice addition for non-power users and it is customizable too to add apps to the whitelist that can access the Internet during that time.

PERFORMANCE

During my testing that lasted for a week I could barely pass through 15 hours with my heavy usage with two email ids, a Twitter account, about two hours of calls and about four hours of Internet usage. I had both 3G and Wi-Fi turned on and had switched off the Stamina Mode. With similar usage, the HTC Butterfly lasted me for slightly almost 22 hours. Having said that, switching on the stamina mode improves the performance drastically. The Xperia Z should easily see through a day of medium usage.
I did not experience any lag whatsoever and the phone essentially would take on any app or game currently available on Android Play Store with no difficulties. I did not face any problem with the call quality and neither did I face any call drops. It performs its job as a phone.

VERDICT

The Xperia Z is really a mixed bag kind of device. The design is pretty but has its own set of flaws. The camera has the highest resolution sensor available in the market on an Android smartphone today but its performance is average. The battery performs above par if you are willing to sacrifice being online at all times. The display has the highest pixel density on a smartphone (for now) but suffers from poor viewing angles.
The only thing that really works for the Xperia Z is its pricing but that is more about HTC failing to price the Butterfly sensibly. It is water resistant too but it remains to be seen whether that is a killer feature for which buyers would choose the Xperia Z.
And let’s not forget the elephant in the room – the Samsung Galaxy S IV, which will be unveiled on March 14 and should be available in India sometime in April, if the Galaxy S III roll-out from last year is taken as a precedence. Add to it the HTC One that is also getting launched in India in April and the Xperia Z starts looking a generation old already.


Photographs: Rohit Sharma 
First published in BGR.in
Written by Rajat Agrawal

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Samsung Galaxy S II Plus now available online for Rs 22,900, features a 4.3-inch screen, 8-megapixel camera and runs on Android Jelly Bean

 
Back in January Samsung had announced the Galaxy S II Plus, but the South Korean company didn’t reveal when it would launch the device in India or at what price it would retail. Heck we also saw the device back at Samsung Forum which was held in Hyderabad, but at the time the company did not say it was launching the device in India. However, the device is now available with online retailers for Rs 22,900.
The Samsung Galaxy S II Plus sports a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus WVGA (800×480 pixels) display and is powered by a 1.2GHz Dual-core Broadcom BCM28155 processor and 1GB of RAM. Other features included in the phone are an 8-megapixel rear camera, 2-megapixel front camera, 8GB of internal storage which can be expanded using a microSD card, connectivity options like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0 and a 1,650mAH battery. On the software side of things, the Galaxy S II Plus runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
Essentially, the Galaxy S II Plus is  just a refurbished version of the erstwhile Samsung Galaxy S II, which was Samsung’s flagship smartphone for 2011. While specs wise it remains more or less the same however, Samsung has replaced the mesh like back plastic cover with a more glossy hyper-glaze back finish that we have already seen in newer Samsung products.

-Sambit Satpathy

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Samsung to launch the Galaxy S IV later today

 
Samsung will launch the Galaxy S IV later today at an event in New York city. Samsung will hope that the new device will build on the success of the Galaxy S III, which by far was the best selling Android smartphone in the world for 2012. The success of Galaxy S III was only eclipsed by the iPhone 5 that arrived in Q4 of 2012, but even after its arrival it has given Apple’s signature product a tough fight. The arrival of the Galaxy S IV could make things difficult for the iPhone 5 as the next iPhone is expected to be launched at a much later date.
Over the last few weeks we have seen Samsung post teaser videos for the device and today it even invaded Times Square in New York with a group of mob dancers.
The Galaxy S IV is expected to have a 4.99-inch 1080p display, a 8-core Exynos Octa 5 processor, which is based on ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture, 2GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel camera, a larger battery, wireless charging, Android 4.2, some eye tracking capabilities and a new version of the TouchWiz user interface.
People hope that with the Galaxy S IV, Samsung abandones its brash favouritism for a plastic industrial design, but recent comments by Samsung executives and leaks suggest that to be unlikely.
While there are already many smartphones like the Sony Xperia Z, the HTC Butterfly and the soon to be launched HTC One that offer features comparable to what one expects of the Galaxy S IV, undoubtedly the Samsung flagship is the most highly awaited of the lot. Pricing wise it should be competing with the iPhone and one can expect Samsung to pull all the stops in terms of marketing the device.
Photographs: Rohit Sharma

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Reuters: Cheaper iPhone story withdrawn after 'substantial changes' to China report

Rumors of a more affordable iPhone for emerging markets took an interesting turn Friday, as the major news organization Reuters opted to rescind a story originally filed, based on comments allegedly made by Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller.
Reuters issued an update Friday morning informing readers that it had withdrawn the story, which featured the headline "Apple exec dismisses cheaper iPhone as a market share grab — report." It was based on a report from the Shanghai Evening News, but that original story was later updated with "substantial changes to its content," which prompted the significant retraction.

AppleInsider also cited the same story on Thursday, noting that Schiller allegedly told the newspaper that Apple is not interested in making a "cheap," low-profit iPhone. The Next Web had reported that it confirmed with Apple that Schiller's comments came from an "official interview," as did the report from Reuters, which is now rescinded.

It's unclear exactly what the "substantial changes" made to the story are. As of Friday morning, the original story remains hosted at jfdaily.com, claiming that Schiller said Apple will not develop "cheap smartphones."

The original Chinese report gained considerable attention due to recent rumors claiming Apple plans to build a more affordable iPhone this year. The Wall Street Journal said that the device would be geared toward emerging markets such as China, where cheaper smartphones that can be bought without a service contract dominate the market.

Currently, Apple's cheapest iPhone model is the iPhone 4, which can be had for free with a new two-year service contract. But when bought contract-free, the iPhone 4 costs $450 in the U.S., and taxes increase that price to $490 in Chin and $750 in Brazil.

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Toshiba announces new Windows 8 laptops at CES

With Windows 8 out of the closet, we were expecting a Windows 8 heavy CES announcement cycle and expectedly Toshiba has kicked off CES 2013 with two new Windows 8 laptops, the Satellite U845t and the Qosmio X875.

The Satellite U845t is a budget UltraBook, which has a 14-inch capacitive touch panel with a resolution of 1366×768 pixels. Under the hood it comes in Intel i3 and i5 flavors and users can configure with up to 6GB of RAM and 500GB hard drive, tied in with a 32GB SSD for fast boot time. The laptop is also very light and is 0.8-inches thin and weighs 1.8 kg. The announced price is $800 (Rs 43,472), but this is the US price and the device is yet be announced in India so, we can expect the price to be slightly different.
The Qosmio X875 is Toshiba’s desktop replacement laptop and it’s one real behemoth. The new model includes a 1TB hard drive running at 7,200 RPM that works in tandem with a 8GB flash chip for fast boot time. Toshiba claims this 3.6 times faster than the 2012 model. Additionally, it can be configured with up to 32GB of RAM and will have an Nvidia GTX 670M GPU with 3GB of memory. Toshiba will offer an optional 3D display powered by Nvidia 3D Vision 2. No details regarding processor and display have been revealed but it’s safe to expect an Intel Ivy Bridge chipset. The Qosmio X875 has a starting price of $1,480 (Rs 80,423), but again it also has not been announced for India, so the pricing and configuration can vary when it is launched here.

Image Credit: Engadget

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Silent Skype calls can hide secret messages

Got a secret message to send? Say it with silence. A new technique can embed secret data during a phone call on Skype. "There are concerns that Skype calls can be intercepted and analysed," says Wojciech Mazurczyk at the Institute of Telecommunications in Warsaw, Poland. So his team's SkypeHide system lets users hide extra, non-chat messages during a call.

Mazurczyk and his colleagues Maciej Karaś and Krysztof Szczypiorski analysed Skype data traffic during calls and discovered an opportunity in the way Skype "transmits" silence. Rather than send no data between spoken words, Skype sends 70-bit-long data packets instead of the 130-bit ones that carry speech.

The team hijacks these silence packets, injecting encrypted message data into some of them. The Skype receiver simply ignores the secret-message data, but it can nevertheless be decoded at the other end, the team has found. "The secret data is indistinguishable from silence-period traffic, so detection of SkypeHide is very difficult," says Mazurczyk. They found they could transmit secret text, audio or video during Skype calls at a rate of almost 1 kilobit per second alongside phone calls.

The team aims to present SkypeHide at a steganography conference in Montpellier, France, in June.

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Acer Iconia B, the $99 Android Jelly Bean tablet, appears on Acer India website

 
Barely two days after news came of Acer planning to launch the Iconia B Android tablet in India, it has appeared on the company’s India website. At the time of filing this post, the tablet page was still going up on the company’s US site. The Iconia B is rumored to be priced at $99 and aimed at emerging markets. It is expected to be launched in India for Rs 7,999 later this month.
The site does not list many details but reveals that the Android Jelly Bean running tablet will have a 7-inch display and will be powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz processor. It weighs at 320 grams and will have a front-facing camera and a microSD card slot.
We expect Acer to make an official announcement at CES, which begins on Monday, January 8.

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Apple Acquires Waze? The Timeline [Exclusive]

Though Apollo Report has exclusively scooped that Waze actually acquired Apple, several publications have reported the opposite. Here's Apollo Report's exclusive timeline of events regarding these acquisition reports. 

January 2nd: Israeli blog NewsGeek claims that Apple is [pointlessly] offering $500 million to acquire Waze, a service that Apple has already fully integrated (via a licensing deal) into its amazing Maps app. 

January 2nd (later that day): TechCrunch claims, pretending that nobody noticed the earlier report in Israel, that Apple is moving to buy Waze. The site used the catchy title Is Apple Plotting A Route To A Waze Acquisition? Rumours On The Road Point To Yes. This title of course is similar in style to the site's other recent reports: What’s Up With WhatsApp? Facebook Might Want To Buy It, That’s What and It’s Rumor Sunday! Apple Has Been Cozying Up To DIY Guide App Snapguide.

January 3rd (early morning): TechCrunch updates its original scoop to re-confirm its initial information and add a specific price point: "Another source confirms that negotiations are advanced, but Waze wants $750M and Apple is willing to do $400M plus $100m in incentives. Waze had less than $1M in revenues last year (primarily from ads). Negotiations may take awhile."

January 3rd (later that morning): TechCrunch hears from "multiple sources" (read: Apple's PR department) in a developing… story that its earlier article was complete bullshit. Apparently the issue with the deal was reality, it was never true.

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Cool New Bluetooth Stickers for Finding Lost Things….

Are you the kind of person who always loses the remote control ?
Maybe you get off the couch, head to the fridge to grab a beer and some pickled cabbage pretzels and leave your remote control in the vegetable drawer – then over the next 3 days, you tear the house apart searching incessantly for it ?
In my case, it’s the car keys. I’ve lost my keys so many times, I tried to install a clapper on the keyring – but the awkward size proved to be a bit uncomfortable in my pants pocket.

Well, essentially the same thing kept happening to a Florida based electronics designer…. And he finally  decided to do something about it.
Known as Stick-N-Find, the black, adhesive backed button-like devices send out Bluetooth low-energy signals that can be tracked like radar blips on a smart phone screen. Simple right ? Well, it is in theory at least.
You simply take the bluetooth sticker button, adhere it to your car keys, remote control, ipod, wallet, prom shoes, cat’s collar or anything you typically misplace. And when it’s lost, you fire up your smartphone and start the interactive game of Marco Polo.
The closer you get the the sticker, the stronger the signal shows. It’s like a maxwell smart interface, a blipping radar screen on your iphone – and it’s range is about 100 feet.

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First alleged Samsung Galaxy S IV render leaks

 
It is that time of the year again when we start hearing rumors and seeing alleged renders of Apple’s next iPhone and Samsung’s next Galaxy S flagship smartphone. We have already been hearing loads about the two phones but today we have the first alleged render of the Galaxy S IV courtesy Sammobile.
The fake-looking render essentially shows a device with an even thinner bezel than the Galaxy S III that also lets go of the physical home button. In our books this photo screams fake as we have found the ease with which these renders are been faked these days. This is just the beginning of the render faking season.
Forgery notwithstanding, word on the street is the Galaxy S IV could sport S-Pen input just like the Galaxy Note II and is expected to have a 5-inch 1080p HD display. It could also feature a 13-megapixel camera and would run on an Exynos processor on ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture that would have a A7 processor for basic tasks coupled with an A15 processor for processor intensive tasks.
 
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Japan’s Electronics Behemoths Speak of Dire Times Ahead

In the most dire warning, Sharp forecast on Thursday a 450 billion yen ($5.6 billion) full-year loss and warned that it had “material doubts” about its ability to survive.

On the same day, Panasonic’s shares lost a fifth of their value in Tokyo after the company forecast a 765 billion yen ($9.6 billion) annual net loss from write-downs in its solar-power, battery and mobile handset businesses.

And Sony, perhaps the best positioned of the companies, posted a net loss of 15.5 billion yen ($194 million) for the quarter on Thursday and warned of falling sales in almost every product it sells.

“We have a lot of great technology which we want to tap to revive and generate profit, but the company does not have that vitality,” Takashi Okuda, Sharp’s chief executive, told reporters after the company posted a net loss of 249 billion yen ($3.1 billion) for the three months to September. The loss was far larger than expected.

In a statement, the company said it had a “serious negative operating cash flow” which raised “serious doubts” about its ability to continue as a going concern, and said it was taking steps, including pay cuts, voluntary redundancies and asset sales, to generate cash flow.

While Sharp is in the most serious trouble, the three companies’ woes are similar at the core.

All three make good quality, even cutting-edge products — but so do their overseas competitors, usually at lower prices. None of the three have managed to generate the brand pizazz of Apple, or the marketing muscle of Samsung Electronics. In addition, a stubbornly strong yen continues to sap their competitiveness, while Japan’s territorial dispute with China has hurt sales there.

The scale of the losses is the result of specific missteps, from huge investments in the wrong technologies to a reluctance to exit loss-making businesses. A manufacturing bubble here in the mid-2000s — fed partly by an unusually weak currency and Americans flush with cash from rising home prices — masked continued weaknesses in their business models and spurred the companies to take big bets that backfired.

When the global financial crisis brought that boom to an end in 2008, the three were saddled with excess capacity, bloated work forces and investments that they could hardly hope to recoup. And their refusal to make a big enough departure from the ways of their glory years is now making a comeback difficult.

“Many investors are longing for reforms that will let all of the pus out,” Yuji Fujimori, technology analyst at Barclays Capital in Tokyo, said in a recent note to clients.

Sharp’s stumble, in many ways, has been the most humbling. It was the biggest beneficiary of the manufacturing bubble: from 2000 to 2007, its profits jumped 150 percent. Sharp’s high-end Aquos liquid-crystal display televisions — which it manufactured at state-of-the-art factories in Kameyama, in western Japan — were a runaway hit in the nascent flat-panel market. The spinoff Aquos cellphone topped Japanese sales rankings. Sharp’s solar batteries also sold briskly, helped by a bubble in green technologies.

The company’s success during this period seemed to validate Japan’s penchant for manufacturing their most important products in-house. In advertisements, Sharp showed off its cutting-edge factories.

But even before the financial crisis, analysts were warning of an impending crash in prices of flat-panel televisions, which were fast becoming commodities that cheap upstarts could emulate. In 2008, the iPhone made its debut in Japan, the end of an era for Japanese-style cellphones. Chinese upstarts were starting to flood global markets with cheap solar panels and batteries. In consumer electronics, outsourced manufacturing became the norm.

Still, Sharp did not change course. It built a new factory in Sakai, Japan, which could make 6 million large LCD panels a year — more than the size of the global market at the time. Sharp missed the smartphone wave, and its cellphone sales in Japan halved from 2007 to 2012. And in late 2011, the solar bubble burst, driving many solar power companies into bankruptcy and Sharp’s solar batteries business into the red. The unit has not turned a profit since.

Now, the Kameyama factories no longer make televisions but panels for Apple’s iPhones and iPads.

Panasonic, for its part, also bet heavily on plasma televisions in 2003, pouring some 600 billion yen into a series of factories in Amagasaki, not far from Sharp’s own plant. It also bet on solar panels and rechargeable batteries, buying Sanyo in 2009.

But with plasma now a fading technology and solar power struggling, Panasonic is saddled with major losses. Last year, it announced that a factory in Amagasaki was closing, less than two years after it opened.

Kazuhiro Tsuga, who took the helm at Panasonic this year, was blunt in describing his company’s predicament. “We are among the losers in consumer electronics," he told a news conference on Wednesday. He now promises to shift the company away from money-losing televisions and gadgets. 

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Karbonn A21 and A9+ launched in India for Rs 11,990 and Rs 9,990

 

Karbonn has launched the A21 and A9+ Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich smartphones in India for Rs 11,990 and Rs 9,990. Notably both devices use dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processors and have Dual-SIM capabilities.
The A21 features a 4.5-inch display with a qHD resolution of 960×540 pixels, while the A9+ on the other hand has a smaller 4-inch display with a WVGA resolution of 800×480 pixels.
Besides this, both the devices tout a wide array of features like 5-megapixel rear cameras, 1.3-megapixel front facing cameras, 3G support, 512 MB of RAM, and microSD card support. The A21 has a 1,800-mAh battery, and the A9+ has a 1,420-mAh battery.

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Microsoft sells 4 million Windows 8 upgrades in 3 days

 
Yesterday at Build, Microsoft’s annual developer conference, the company announced that it had already sold four million Windows 8 upgrade licenses in just three days. While the number may sound quite extreme, it should also be noted that Apple was not far behind with its OS X Mountain Lion upgrades, which totaled to three million in four days.
When one takes into account the gargantuan difference in user base between Windows and OS X, then frankly the numbers look meek. Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer has made a bold claim saying that it will sell 400 million new Windows 8 licenses in a year, but this claim does not seem far-fetched considering the new reduced price of a Windows 8 upgrade.
Additionally, the company claimed that it has already sold tens of millions of OEM licenses for Windows 8. While this is all an attempt to woo the developers at Build to pump the app ecosystem for Win RT apps on Windows 8 and Windows RT, the fact remains every PC that will ship will be running Windows 8 and it’s hard to fathom Microsoft not reaching that 400 million target, especially at the pace it has begun.

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Infibeam starts taking pre-orders for the Apple iPhone 5 16GB model

Online retailer Infibeam has started taking pre-orders for the Apple iPhone 5. BGR India previously has exclusively reported that Apple plans to announce the iPhone 5 in India on October 26 with a release in the first week of November.
Infibeam is charging Rs 5,000 for pre-booking the 16GB model and says that it will ship within two to three days from the release date. As of now only the 16GB model is available that too only in Black. We doubt if this is an official pre-order from Apple India and is likely to be a preemptive move by Infibeam.
It’s worth noting that the black model is prone to scratching and chipping, while the white model is less susceptible to this problem. That said Apple has tightened quality control in the light of these teething problems, which should indicate that these problems might be behind the iPhone 5 when it eventually hits India.

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Apple Event Preview: iPad Minis And Retina MacBook Pros & Much More

Apple has an event planned for Tuesday, set for 10 AM Pacific in San Jose. It’s got something to do with the iPad mini, to be sure, but there’s tons of other stuff also rumored to be making an appearance. In fact, it’s beginning to look almost like an Apple fan’s hardware wish fulfillment fantasy, so let’s take stock of what’s supposedly coming and how likely we are to see it.

iPad mini

Here’s the skinny on the new, potentially skinnier iPad. The one consistent detail we’ve seen is that it’ll have a 7.85-inch screen, which, given its specificity, seems very likely to be true. There have also been plenty of images of supposed prototypes, mock-ups and dummy devices used by case manufacturers and others. Given all this info, we’re probably not going to be too surprised by the looks of what gets unveiled on stage next week – though what different color combinations (black or white, as with the iPhone and full-sized iPads) look like in production version could add some spice to the mix.
As for specs, the info is a little hazier. We’re probably going to get a tablet with a non-Retina diaplay, according to many sources, including a best-guess evaluation from frequently correct Apple blogger John Gruber. That won’t be necessarily all that disappointing; a 1024×768 display in a 7.85-inch screen adds up to a pixel density of 163ppi, better than the iPad 2′s 132ppi, though still a far cry from the new iPad’s 264ppi. But as Gruber notes, lightness and thinness should be Apple’s key selling points with an iPad mini, and Retina screen resolution is something that could run counter to both those goals.
We’ll likely see the A5 processor in the iPad mini, instead of the A6, according to early reports, with 512MB of RAM, though 1GB is also possible. There should be at least both Wi-Fi and cellular variants, though there’s some reason to believe we could also see a both a 3G and an LTE version sold separately. Internal storage capacities will likely start at 16GB and range up to 64GB, but there’s at least some suggestion we may even see 8GB versions at the low end, too.
Is the iPad mini real? At this point, it’s very nearly guaranteed. But variables like what capabilities it’ll have in terms of hardware specifics remain somewhat up in the air, which means Apple could still pull out some big surprises tomorrow around device specifics like pricing. It also might be called the iPad Air or something similar rather than the iPad mini, which would be a nice way of frustrating bloggers who’ve been putting “mini” in headlines for months now.

Refreshed iPad

Over the weekend a photo leaked that appears to show an iPad with a Lightning port instead of the 30-pin dock connector. That’s in line with what we’ve been hearing about a minor iPad refresh that essentially just brings the current iPad in line with Lightning, though it also could experience some other minor upgrades to its internal components, including processor and battery. There are good reasons to believe this is true, and strong reasons against it, too.
First, Apple updating mobile hardware mid-cycle is almost unheard of. The exception is when it added a CDMA version of the iPhone 4, but that was a special case designed to take advantage of the end of an exclusivity agreement with carrier AT&T. Rumors of an iPad HD previously popped up indicating a mid-cycle refresh for the iPad back in July, 2011, too, but that never came to pass – Apple waited a full year to introduce the new iPad with Retina display, sticking to its upgrade cycle. This year, it did introduce new customization options for the Retina MacBook Pro just a few weeks after its introduction, but that only barely qualifies for a mid-cycle spec update.
On the other hand, there’s a very good reason to get a Lightning-equipped iPad out there ahead of time: the full-sized iPad will be the only new device Apple is selling without the new connection standard if it launches the iPad mini with Lightning as expected. Making sure that all new, late model hardware that rolls off the line has Lightning will increase the time it’ll take for that to become the dominant standard, helping Apple wind down its dock connector production more quickly and benefiting supply chain costs in the long run.
One other report says that Apple will revise the iPad with improved support for global LTE, along the lines of the iPhone 5. Apple could reap significant benefits from making those changes to iPad, and since it’s not all that close to the device’s original release date, it also doesn’t run as much of a risk of angering customers, and really, so long as they keep these changes minimal and still push a real iPad update sometime early next year, I don’t think any buyers would be inconsolable at the outcome.

Retina MacBook Pro

Apple debuted the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro at WWDC this year in June, and almost immediately countless friends and acquaintances chimed in saying they’d love the same thing in a 13-inch form factor. Such a device is reportedly on the way, according to a number of sources, including a recent leak of images of the notebook’s internals and casing. Earlier, there were rumors that the 13-inch rMBP and updated iMacs would arrive in September/October, according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, so seeing them now would hardly surprise.
Also, Apple typically introduces refreshed Macs around this time, with the likely intent of adding fuel to the consumer fire that is holiday shopping season. The 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro primed the engine and appealed to pros, but a 13-inch version will be much more palatable to the average shopper, especially after the rave reviews enjoyed by its larger sibling during the past half year.

Redesigned iMac and Mac mini

The iMac hasn’t been updated in over a year, which is unusual for Apple’s all-in-one. In fact, it’s been almost double the average time between updates since it’s gotten any love. The Mac mini is also looking pretty overdue for a change. Some rumors suggest we could see something as dramatic as a much slimmer case design for the iMac, which could indeed be possible since the iMac hasn’t undergone significant phsyical changes to its external case since 2007. Both machines are likely to get USB 3.0, however, as well as improved processors and generally boosted internal specifications.
We will not see a Retina display on the refreshed iMac, so don’t get your hopes up. It’s just unlikely that costs have gotten to where that’s a feasible thing, and benefits in terms of actual user needs are questionable.

iTunes 11 (or simply “New iTunes”)

Apple’s big redesign for iTunes was previewed on stage at the iPhone 5 event, but it hasn’t yet arrived, despite a promised release window of “October.” Now, it seems like Apple was intentionally waiting for this event to officially release it to the public. Apple’s got a stage, they’ve got some (seemingly feature complete) new software, the whole thing just makes sense. Plus, Apple likes to have at least something “available right now” to announce alongside upcoming products, which is what the iPad mini will presumably be.
That’s what’s likely on tap for tomorrow’s event, but tune back here at TechCrunch to find out how it all shakes out in the end.

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RIM in talks with Indian telcos for carrier billing of paid BlackBerry apps

 
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) is in talks with all major Indian carriers to enable users to pay for apps in their monthly cellphone bill. The news was revealed by Sunil Dutt, Managing Director, RIM India during the inauguration of its premium store in Kolkata. The company hopes to introduce this facility by the end of this year, pending regulatory approvals, the Hindu Business Line reports.
“We are in discussions with telcos and you might see us introduce a carrier billing model for app purchases by the end of this year. There are some regulatory issues on the telecom operators’ part that has to be resolved first,” Dutt told the publication.
Earlier Nokia had tied up for carrier billing with Airtel, Vodafone and RCom for its Ovi Store. RCom had partnered with Google to become the official carrier partner for Android devices. The two-year deal, which was announced this April, ensured that every Google branded Android smartphone would get 1GB of free 3G data for the first month with an RCom connection. The plan was to introduce carrier billing for Android apps but that has not materialized, yet.
The biggest challenge for companies like Apple, Google, Nokia, Microsoft and RIM is the low penetration of credit cards in India, which is one of the biggest cellphone markets. India has 0.02 credit card per person or just two credit cards per 100 people and almost all platforms require a credit card to buy paid apps.
However, it remains to be seen how many people are willing to spend money to buy paid apps. According to many high-profile app developers we have spoken to in the past, Indian users are not that willing to pay for apps. However, they do not mind if the apps pay for themselves using embedded advertisements, which has given rise to freemium ad-supported model for app developers. Even a high profile game like Angry Birds was first launched with ad-support when it came on Android, while it was a paid game on iOS.
Nevertheless, if RIM is able to crack the carrier billing model, it would be a matter of time before other platforms like Android and Windows Phone would come on board, which is always a good thing for users.
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Google launches Samsung Chromebook

 
Google has launched a new Chromebook, which has been made by Samsung for $249. Notably, it is the first Chrombook to run on an ARM chipset rather than an Intel-made chip. The new Chromebook is powered by Samsung’s Exynos 5 Dual processor, which is built on the ARM Cortex A15 architecture. Actually, this is the first device to use this particular chip and Samsung is yet to use this chip in its mobile phones and tablets. Specs wise, the Chromebook features an 11.6-inch display with a resolution of 1366×768 pixels, 16GB of onboard storage, 2GB of RAM, Wi-Fi, two USB ports, a HDMI port, and a SD card slot. Interestingly, Google claims that it can play video at 1080p at 30 FPS.
Design wise, the new Chromebook is extremely light at 1.1kg and is only 0.8-inches thick. 

The Chrome OS experience remains largely unchanged from what have seen to date, but Google does bundle it with 100GB of Google Drive cloud storage. This, of course, is the bet Google is making – a PC that is entirely dependent on the web, where users even use the cloud as the primary destination for storage. There is even a 3G capable variant of the Chromebook that costs $329 that comes with a two-year contract offering 100MB of data per month for free.

As of right now Google does not sell its Chromebooks in India, so one will be hard-pressed to see one out here. The absence of a robust and ubiquitous Internet connectivity infrastructure is to blame here, considering Chromebooks are entirely dependent on the cloud for most functions.

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LG Optimus Vu launched in India for Rs 34,500

 
LG has launched its interpretation of a phablet, the Optimus Vu in India, according to the company’s website. The phablet is available for Rs 34,500 and will compete with the Samsung Galaxy Note II, which was recently launched and is available for approximately Rs 39,000. The Optimus Vu was first unveiled at MWC in February and has already sold over 500,000 units in Korea. It features a 5-inch 4:3 aspect ratio display with 1280×768 pixel display as opposed to a 5.5-inch 16:9 aspect ratio display with 1280×720 pixel resolution that is found on the Galaxy Note II. Read on for complete specs.
Other core hardware features include an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz, 1GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage. The Galaxy Note II on the other hand has an Exynos quad-core processor clocked at 1.6GHz, 2GB RAM and 16GB of internal storage. The Optimus Vu also has an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 1.3-megapixel front camera. It runs on Android Ice Cream Sandwich while the Galaxy Note II runs on Android Jelly Bean.
LG has also added some specific stylus-based apps like Samsung, like Quick Memo and Notebook. There is a press event scheduled for Monday in India, where we expect LG to formally launch the Optimus Vu. On paper, the Samsung Galaxy Note II seems like a superior product but we cannot judge a product by its spec sheet. In the meanwhile, you can check out our review of the Galaxy Note II here.
Key Specifications

• Operating System: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
• Display: 5.0-inch 4:3 ratio XGA IPS with 768 x 1024 pixels
• Memory: 32GB
• Cameras: 8.0MP rear / 1.3MP front
• Size: 139.6 x 90.4 x 8.5mm
• Weight: 168g

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Apple sends out invites for a special event on October 23

 

Apple has sent out invites to the press for a special event on October 23 to be held at the California Theater in San Jose. This is actually a change from regular Apple event that are held either at the Yerba Buena Center of Arts and the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Apple is expected to unveil the rumored iPad mini, which is expected to have a smaller 7.85-inch display with a resolution of 1024×768 pixels, a dual-core A5 processor, and a lightning connector.
Apart from this, Apple is also expected to announce a 13-inch version of the MacBook Pro with the Retina Display. Rumors about this event have been rampant and 9to5Mac even suggests that Apple may even launch a revised version of the new iPad with upgraded internals that will include the new ‘Lightning Dock connector’.

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Qualcomm guns for affordable 3G-enabled tablets in India

 
Qualcomm is the exclusive chipset provider for Window Phone 8 smartphones and majority of Windows 8 RT tablets and hybrids. Almost half of the smartphones sold globally are powered by its silicon and so is every LTE enabled device. In other words, no matter what tablet or smartphone you pick up, there is a very high probability of Qualcomm’s tech being inside that runs the show. However, Qualcomm is now gunning for a different segment in India all together – the low-cost tablet market.

There are over 90 tablet brands in India that sell over 500,000 units a quarter. Most of them offer sub-Rs 10,000 Android tablets, which offer Wi-Fi connectivity only and some can get 3G connectivity if users buy a USB 3G dongle that connects with the tablet. According to a recent report, Apple and Samsung account for only 25 percent of the tablet market in India, the rest dominated by local players. At the moment, Qualcomm does not have any significant presence in that market but it won’t be like that for long.

At its annual industry event in Delhi yesterday, Qualcomm and Karbonn Mobile announced their first tablet running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S1 chipset. The S1 chipset offers a 1GHz single-core processor while other tablet vendors are already selling tablets with dual-core processors in the sub-Rs 10,000 range. But it offers a significant benefit – the ability to not only make voice calls but also 3G connectivity without having to buy an additional 3G dongle. Karbonn says it is talking to carriers to offer bundled voice and data plans but at the moment has not revealed whether any carriers have signed up or even the pricing of the tablet, apart from mentioning it will be below Rs 10,000.
Qualcomm has been late to the local tablet scene but it wants to make amends. The S1 chipset is just the beginning. Over the next few quarters, Qualcomm along with its ODM and OEM partners will launch “made for India” tablets running on its Snapdragon S4 chipsets. It will initially start with its dual-core S4 Play chipset followed by the Krait-enabled S4 Plus and S4 Pro with a quad-core processor.

To decrease time to market for its vendors, Qualcomm is now also providing reference designs (Qualcomm Reference Designs), which essentially has provides a complete solution and all that a vendor needs is to decide the final specifications and external design. MediaTek, one of Qualcomm’s biggest rivals, had successfully implemented this strategy a few years ago with its range of affordable feature phones and dual-SIM phones, that not only undercut the Nokias and Samsungs in pricing but also started the dual-SIM phenomenon. Vendors like Micromax, Karbonn and others rose mostly because of MediaTek’s reference design solution.

Even though Qualcomm is late in this low-cost tablet space, it has one thing going for it – most of the current tablets are made in China for the Chinese market. With abundant Wi-Fi hotspots covering all the major areas in the country and carriers pushing devices on their own, the tablets do not have inbuilt 3G connectivity. Majority of the low-cost tablets sold in India are essentially those “made for China” products without built-in 3G or voice connectivity and that is Qualcomm’s opening for getting its foot into this segment.
Having said that, there are a lot of variables at play. The success of these tablets will be dependent on whether carriers jump in to offer special voice and data plans and of course, the quality of the hardware itself. Whether these tablets succeed or not, this segment is set to witness a lot of excitement in the coming months.

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