Google TV coming to US soon: LG executive

THE GOOGLE TV 

SEOUL: LG Electronics Inc, the world's No.2 TV maker, plans to launch internet-enabled TVbased on Google's platform in the United States in the week of May 21, as the South Korean firm seeks to gain a larger share of the emerging internet TV market, a senior LG executive said on Monday. 

The move reflects an aggressive push by the duo to defend against a potential threat from AppleInc, which reshaped the handset market with its iPhone smartphone and is widely expected to unveil a full-fledged TV product later this year or early next year. 

"Production of Google TVs will start from May 17 from our factory in Mexico and US consumers will be able to buy the product from the week of May 21," Ro Seogho, executive vice president of LG's TV business unit, told a small group of reporters. 

Google TV allows viewers to access Google services such as searches and YouTube videos on their television screens. 

Ro said LG will decide whether to expand the offering to Europe and Asia after reviewing sales performance in the US market. 

THE GOOGLE TV

LG gave no shipment target or details of prices or screen sizes. 

Research firm IHS iSuppli estimates the global Internet-enabled TV market will grow nearly 60 percent this year to 95 million sets, far outpacing the TV market overall, which is expected to expand by just 2 percent. 

The second version of Internet TV by Google, which hopes to replicate the success of its Android mobile software in the TV market, comes after its previous model, unveiled in 2010, failed to catch on with consumers. 

Google's attempt to capture the living room audience has seen limited success so far due to a lack of web content or support from hardware manufacturers. 

TV manufacturers from LG to its bigger rival Samsung Electronics Co have their own Internet-enabling TV platforms and are aggressively pushing their own technologies, along with Google TV, to gain the initiative and prop up margins with high-end products amid growing competition from low-cost producers. 

LG plans to fit around 60 per cent of its TVs with its own NetCast platform installed, to allow viewers access to the internet, social networking and online games as well as LG's own TV applications. 

LG saw its TV division's profit margin rising sharply to above 4 per cent in the first quarter, helped by strong sales of high-end models such as 3D TVs and internet-enabled sets, just when Sony, Panasonic and Sharp expect to have lost a combined $21 billion in the business year that ended on March 31. 

LG doubled its share of the 3D TV market to 15.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2011 from earlier in the year, helped by cheaper and lighter 3D glasses that do not require the batteries and switches used in conventional 3D sets made by Samsung, Sony and others. 

Sony's share of the 3D TV market tumbled to 13 per cent in the October-December quarter from 34.6 percent in January-March quarter of last year, according to DisplaySearch. 

LG hopes to further steal a march on its rivals by bringing forward the launch of a 55-inch flat-screen TV using next-generation technology, raising the stakes in a cutthroat battle for the living room between Asia's top tech powerhouses. 

Google ambitions
Google has long held ambitions in the television arena, hoping to extend its online advertising business to the big screens that still command the lion's share of global advertising budgets, and to make the best use of its ownership of YouTube, the world's most popular online video site. 

But Logitech International, one of Google's initial partners that developed a set-top box offering the service, said late last year it had lost tens of millions of dollars building set-top boxes for Google devices due to weak sales. 

An LG official said retailers' responses to the latest Google TV were positive.


Courtesy: The Times Of India

Sony Mobile India rolls out Android 4.0 update

Sony Mobile India has started rolling out Android 4.0 update for select devices in the country. These devices include arc S, neo V and Ray from company's Xperia series. Consumers will have to use the PC Companion or Sony Bridge for MAC software on their computers to upgrade the device.

Sony is the second manufacturer to start the Ice Cream Sandwich update process for its smartphones in India; earlier Samsung released Android 4.0 for the Nexus S phone. Majority of Android consumers in the country are still waiting for the updates, including the owners for popular smartphones like Samsung Galaxy S II, Galaxy Note and Motorola RAZR.

The Ice Cream Sandwich update for Xperia phones brings new lock-screen, smart dialer, resizable widget, face unlock, new task switcher, and performance improvements.

Other smartphones in the Xperia series - Xperia arc, Xperia Play, Xperia neo, Xperia mini, Xperia mini pro, Xperia pro, Xperia active and Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman are scheduled to get the update at the end of May or early June.

Courtesy: NDTV GADGETS

Samsung Galaxy Y Pro Duos Review

Samsung Galaxy Y Pro Duos is the latest budget Android smartphone offering from Samsung's basket. It is very similar to the Galaxy Y Duos except that now there's room for a front camera as well. With dual-SIM Android phones buzzing around already, can this one hold its ground? We take a look.

Design & Build
The Galaxy Y Pro Duos in its candy bar form factor feels incredibly light at 112 grams. The phone fits comfortably in your palm. We received a metallic black unit which was well designed with curved edges on the top and bottom. The back panel is plastic-made and comes off easily. It is a touch-cum-QWERTY phone so it makes life easier. The screen dimensions seemed to have been reduced as a result. But this being a QWERTY smartphone, you can't really expect a big display.

The smartphone houses a 3.2MP rear camera and a front facing VGA camera for video calling as well. The power button is placed on the right while the volume rocker finds room on the left. The bottom houses the charging/USB port, while the 3.5mm audio jack is located on the top.

Once the back panel comes off, you see the battery, below which are the dual-SIM slots. The microSD slot is located on the top-right.

The QWERTY keypad is neatly laid out and feels very comfortable to use for typing. The standard Menu, Home, Back and Search buttons are distributed on either side of an Optical trackpad that also make navigation easier.

The Galaxy Y Pro Duos came with a charger, a USB cable, a pair of headphones, 3 pairs of earplugs, a warranty card and a quick start guide in the box.

Display
The Y Pro Duos sports a 2.6-inch capacitive TFT LCD display with a resolution of 320x240 pixels. The colours look decent enough even in broad daylight, although the text seemed a little blurry.

What's interesting is that the screen orientation is available in both portrait and landscape modes. The latter doesn't make sense at all with the screen size being so small and feels really weird.

Camera Quality
At 3.2MP, you can't expect wonders but even so, the camera is decent enough for a budget smartphone. There is no flash, so pictures taken in the dark won't impress you much, while images taken in day-light are just OK.

Samsung Galaxy Y Pro Duos camera supports video recording upto a resolution of 320x240 pixels and once you shoot a video, you also have the option to trim them. Basic settings include white balance adjustments, resolution selection, self-timer and scene modes.

OS & Interface
The Galaxy Y Pro Duos comes with Android Gingerbread (v2.3.6) which seems outdated nowadays with Ice cream Sandwich Android phones already available in the market. Samsung's traditional TouchWiz interface allows for a satisfactory operability experience. There are 3 customisable homescreens and the menu isn't cluttered with too many pre-loaded apps.

The 832 MHz single core processor performs well enough to allow multi-tasking without too much lag. The device also comes with 384MB of RAM that feels very less and the memory can be expanded upto 32GB via microSD card slot.

Pre-loaded software
As we mentioned earlier, there aren't many pre-installed apps apart from the standard Google ones like Gtalk, YouTube, Maps and Gmail. Even must haves like Facebook and Twitter were missing. We however downloaded them from the Play Store and they worked just fine. Polaris Office is useful for accessing and reading your documents.

You can also access Samsung's stock app store, Samsung Apps to download free or paid apps after you've signed-up.

Performance
The phone is an average performer and there's no wow moment involved. Dual SIM functionality is limited in the sense that while you can keep personal and official numbers separate, you can use only one SIM at a time for calls. You can also choose your SIM preference from the notifications menu.

The standard Li-ion 1350mAh battery lasts for a full day without you having to reach for the charger . Both the 3G and Wi-Fi experience were good and the battery didn't give up on us while surfing the web, watching videos, making calls or running multiple applications.


The audio quality of the phone again, isn't very great on both, the speaker phone and the headphones that came along with it. A disappointing fact with regard to the FM Radio is that you can set only four radio stations at a time and not more.

When playing YouTube videos, they seemed a bit pixelated, though they played fine without lags.

We fired up a game of Angry Birds Space and the multi-touch experience wasn't smooth enough. You can't really see the target and have to guess your aim in most scenarios.

The stock browser supports Adobe flash and the surfing experience was decent without too many hiccups while using both 3G and Wi-Fi.

Verdict
With many budget dual-SIM phones flooding the market, the Galaxy Y Pro Duos doesn't put something extraordinary on the table. It is a decent performer that just about gets the work done. All features are pretty basic that you'd get with any budget Android phone. The introduction of an optical trackpad, though makes navigation easier can be confusing since it takes a while to getting used to with the touch screen in place. We're sure you've heard the phrase, 'out of sight, out of mind'. This one is sure to be in that list.


Pros
Optical trackpad makes navigation easy
Touch and type at an affordable price

Cons
Poor camera
No Multi-touch

Price: Rs. 9,500

Ratings
Performance: 3
Features: 3.5
Ease of setup: 3.5
Ergonomics: 4
Wow factor: 3
Value for money: 3.5
Overall: 3.5


Courtesy: Gadgets @ NDTV

Nokia Pureview 808 coming to India in may

The 41 Megapixel King: The Nokia Pureview 808

Nokia's 41-megapixel smartphone PureView 808 is expected to see its India launch in May. Russia will also be one of the first countries to receive the device. 

The Symbian S60-powered Nokia PureView 808 was one of the major highlights of this year's Mobile World Congress held at Barcelona. 

Nokia 808 PureView features a high-resolution 41 megapixel sensor with high-performanceCarl Zeiss optics and new pixel oversampling technology. At standard resolutions (2/3, 5 and 8 megapixels) this means the ability to zoom without loss of clarity and capture seven pixels of information, condensing into one pixel for the sharpest images imaginable. 

Nokia 808 PureView also includes full HD 1080p video recording and playback with 4X lossless zoom and the world's first use of Nokia Rich Recording. Rich Recording claims audio recording at CD-like levels of quality. PureView also features Dolby Headphone technology. 

According to reports, Nokia so far has no plans of launching the device in the US. The company has also not yet revealed the official pricing.

Sony launches first ultrabooks, VAIO T series

SONY VAIO T SERIES

Sony is finally joining the ultrabooks fray. The company has launched its first ultrabook series dubbed VAIO T. 

VAIO T series will come in two sizes -- 11" and 13.3" -- and is powered by Intel's ultra-low voltage i3 Sandy Bridge processors. The ultrabooks have a 17.8mm thick brushed aluminum body and up to 9 hours of battery life. 

Other features include 4GB of DDR3 memory as standard, and 320GB hard drive with a second 32GB SSD. VAIO T Series sports comes HDMI, VGA and RJ45 network ports, plus an SD/MMC media slot and an 1.3 megapixel "Exmor for PC" HD web camera. xLOUDTM and Clear Phase technologies are for sound. 

The company hasn't revealed the pricing. 

Key specs: 

* Intel Core-i3 2367M processor * Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit * 4GB DDR3 RAM * 320GB HDD * Intel HD Graphics 3000 * Bundles Adobe Acrobat X Standard


Courtesy: Gadgets Special, Times Of India