Gadgets
Smartphones! are they relevant? PDF Print E-mail
Written by Amit Patil   
Friday, 14 August 2009 17:19

Samsung Jét S8000Recently Samsung launched Jét S8000 with tagline as “Smarter than a Smartphone”. I have been reading reviews of Samsung Jét for quite some time. It indeed has a mean hardware under its hood. Its 800MHz application processor is more powerful than 600MHz ARM Cortex A8 processor used in iPhone 3GS or Plam Prē.

In the mobile world these two phones, especially the former is considered as pinnacle of mobile technology. Their Operating Systems -- OS X and WebOS respectively are nothing but a stripped down versions of a full fledged computer OS. On other hand Samsung Jét runs a proprietary OS called Samsung Handset Platform (SHP) that does not support 3rd party software. So why does Jét requires such a colossal processing power? Why Samsung calls it “Smarter than Smartphone”? To find answers to these questions I dug deep into what “Smartphone” means and found some interesting facts.
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Meizu M8 - iPhone for masses! (?) PDF Print E-mail
Written by Amit Patil   
Thursday, 25 December 2008 22:22

Meizu M8Those who are actively following iPhone copycats would probably know Meizu M8. For those who haven’t heard about it yet, it’s another iPhone clone. But don’t just discard this thinking another cheap Chinese clone! In a price sensitive market like India where China phones are second biggest sellers, this device may be a big time hit.

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Nokia Joins Touchscreen Bandwagon! PDF Print E-mail
Written by Amit Patil   
Friday, 03 October 2008 23:57

Nokia 5800 XpressMusicOn 2nd October 2007 Nokia announced their much anticipated phone – Nokia 5800 XpressMusic (codenamed Tube) in London and Singapore. What makes this phone unique is that it is the first phone based on Nokia’s Series 60 Touch UI OS. Nokia is generally not known to be a copycat. Rather, they have introduced some of the boldest models which nobody would have dared to even think of. But at the end customer is the king. It’s amazing to see how the touchscreen UI revolutionized by Apple had made the lion eat grass. Can Nokia challenge iPhone or iPhone-clones with this new device?
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iPhone Pricing in India PDF Print E-mail
Written by Amit Patil   

iPhoneAirtel and Vodafone finally launched iPhone 3G in India on August 22nd. All these months, its pricing in India was a hotly debated topic. Both the service providers had already clarified that iPhone will not be available at the subsidized prices like in US.

In US, iPhone 8Gb is available for $199 (approx Rs.9,200) and 16Gb for $299 (approx Rs.13,800). This is obviously a subsidizeMiLeapd price and service contract of a specific period is obligatory. Since call charges are already low in India, the speculation was, what would be the offer price in absence of service contract.

Finally the phone was launched at Rs.31,000 for 8Gb and Rs.36,100 for 16Gb model. When I heard the prices for the first time, I was awe-struck. C’mon, HCL’s ultraportable touch-screen laptop MiLeap costs less than this! Agreed that Apple gadgets carry ultra cool status – but at what price? Finally it’s a gadget meant for masses, not like limited edition Vertu. I could not help myself but to find facts behind such a colossal pricing.

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