Videocon launches budget phones starting Rs. 1,850

Videocon has extended its portfolio with the addition of four new feature phones. These are the V1531+, V1542, V1548, and the V1580. Of these, the V1542 supports dual-SIM dual standby at least on paper. The V1548 and V1580 are touchscreen phones, likely to be resistive and the remaining two sport a bar form factor with a T9 keypad.Moving on to the specifications, the V1531+ is the cheapest among the four priced at Rs. 1,850. The device sports a 2.4-inch screen with a 240x320 pixel resolution. It has a 3MP camera and supports video recording.

The phone comes with a 1500 mAh battery claiming up to 10 hours of talktime and also has FM Radio with FM recording. External memory is expandable up to 8GB. Connectivity options include GPRS and Bluetooth.

The phone comes preloaded with social media apps like Facebook and Twitter and supports multiple audio and video formats. It also has unlimited auto call recording support.
Key features of V1531+
2.4-inch 240x320, 262K Color QVGA TFT color Display
1.3 MP Camera with video recording
1,500 mAh Battery
Pre-loaded Facebook & Twitter
A2DP Bluetooth 2.0
Bright Torch
Movie Juke Box application (SMV Format)
Expandable Memory upto 8GB
MP3, MP4/3GP/SMV
GPRS / Internet Browser
FM Radio with FM Recording
Unlimited auto call recording

The V1542 priced at Rs. 2,099, features a 2.6-inch WQVGA display, a 1.3MP camera and an 1800 mAh battery. Memory expansion support is up to 16GB. It also has Wireless FM, a dual flashlight and a movie juke box application.
Apart from social apps like Facebook and Twitter, the phone also comes pre-installed news apps like TOI and ET. This is a dual-SIM, dual standby phone.
Key Features of V1542
Dual SIM, Dual Standby
2.6-inch WQVGA Bright Display
1.3MP Camera
1800mAh Battery
Expandable memory upto 16GB
Wireless FM
Preloaded Apps: Facebook, Twitter, TOI, ET, Weather
Movie Juke Box Application



The V1548 is a touch phone with a 2.6-inch QVGA display supporting a 240x320 pixel resolution. It has a 1.3MP camera, Bluetooth, 1200mAh battery and pre-installed social and news apps as well. Memory expansion is possible upto 8GB.

Other notable features include auto call recording and other utilities like e-book reader, mobile tracker and SMS/ call blacklist. The company is also bundling a 4GB microSD card that comes preloaded with 20 files each of Bollywood movies, song clips, music tracks and wallpapers.
The handset is priced at Rs. 2, 399.
Key features of the V1548
2.6-inch QVGA 240x320 pixel touch screen
1200 mAh Battery
Bluetooth
1.3 MP camera
Movie Juke Box Application
Unlimited Auto Call Recording
LED Torch
k class Amplifier
Telescopic FM Antenna for Wirefree FM experience
Powerful Social hub with Pre-Loaded Twitter, Facebook, TOI, Economic Times, Latest News & Weather
Expandable Memory upto 8 GB
Video Wallpaper Support


Lastly, the V1580 another touch phone has a 3.2-inch screen with WQVGA touch display. It has a 2MP camera, 1200mAh battery and comes pre-loaded with Opera Mini.
It also supports Java, which means other third party apps can be installed. The phone is priced at Rs. 2,999.
Key features of the V1580
3.2-inch WQVGA Touch Display
Preloaded Facebook, Twitter & Opera Mini
Movie Juke Box Application
Dynamic 2 MP camera
1200 mAh Battery
Edge.,JAVA
A2DP Bluetooth
Dual Flash Torch
Expandable Memory upto 16 GB

Lava hopes to file 100 mobile app patents in three years

Indian mobile devices company Lava International hopes to file 100 patents for mobile applications in the field of education, entertainment and productivity over next 2 to 3 years.

"We have realised that just by selling handsets it is not possible to maintain growth momentum. Innovation in product is key to survival. Our wishlist is to make a century of patents in the next 2 to 3 years," Lava International Co-founder and Director SN Rai told PTI.
The company has plans to grow its revenue from around Rs. 1,000 crore at present to Rs. 1,400 crore in the next financial year, he added.
Elaborating on company's plan for patents, Rai said, Lava has earmarked around Rs. 50 crore investments during the ongoing financial year and it will focus on patenting algorithms and application concepts.
Algorithm is a step-by-step procedure for calculations used for data processing and automated reasoning among others.
"We have already filed two patents for algorithms but have not been granted yet. Lava recently launched music fusion application which can play music and video in any format. We want to have an IPR (Intellectual Property Right) for the algorithm of this application," Rai said. Rai said, the company is doubling up capacity at its research and development centres in India and China.
Without disclosing actual numbers, he said, "This will be both in terms of headcount, facility and application development."
Lava has also formed a consortium with publisher Tata McGraw Hill and tablet PC based digital learning firm iProf for developing educational content.
"This consortium will invest around Rs. 25 crore in the next 2 to 3 years for digitalisation of Indian content like fairy tales, mythological stories etc," he said.
The company also has plans to enter into enterprise segment by integrating softwares that are used for businesses and talks are at an initial stage, Rai added.
"In our solution, we will start mainly by focusing on secure communication like e-mail security. Simultaneously, we will start working on productivity software like ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and others," Rai said.
The company recently expanded its devices portfolio from mobile phones to tablets and claims selling around 25 thousand tablets per month.
"This is just to test the market. We are working on massive plans to revamp our tablet portfolio. At present, we are in the planning stage," he said.

Lava hopes to file 100 mobile app patents in three years

Indian mobile devices company Lava International hopes to file 100 patents for mobile applications in the field of education, entertainment and productivity over next 2 to 3 years.
"We have realised that just by selling handsets it is not possible to maintain growth momentum. Innovation in product is key to survival. Our wishlist is to make a century of patents in the next 2 to 3 years," Lava International Co-founder and Director SN Rai told PTI.
The company has plans to grow its revenue from around Rs. 1,000 crore at present to Rs. 1,400 crore in the next financial year, he added.
Elaborating on company's plan for patents, Rai said, Lava has earmarked around Rs. 50 crore investments during the ongoing financial year and it will focus on patenting algorithms and application concepts.
Algorithm is a step-by-step procedure for calculations used for data processing and automated reasoning among others.
"We have already filed two patents for algorithms but have not been granted yet. Lava recently launched music fusion application which can play music and video in any format. We want to have an IPR (Intellectual Property Right) for the algorithm of this application," Rai said. Rai said, the company is doubling up capacity at its research and development centres in India and China.
Without disclosing actual numbers, he said, "This will be both in terms of headcount, facility and application development."
Lava has also formed a consortium with publisher Tata McGraw Hill and tablet PC based digital learning firm iProf for developing educational content.
"This consortium will invest around Rs. 25 crore in the next 2 to 3 years for digitalisation of Indian content like fairy tales, mythological stories etc," he said.
The company also has plans to enter into enterprise segment by integrating softwares that are used for businesses and talks are at an initial stage, Rai added.
"In our solution, we will start mainly by focusing on secure communication like e-mail security. Simultaneously, we will start working on productivity software like ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and others," Rai said.
The company recently expanded its devices portfolio from mobile phones to tablets and claims selling around 25 thousand tablets per month.
"This is just to test the market. We are working on massive plans to revamp our tablet portfolio. At present, we are in the planning stage," he said.

Lava hopes to file 100 mobile app patents in three years

Indian mobile devices company Lava International hopes to file 100 patents for mobile applications in the field of education, entertainment and productivity over next 2 to 3 years.
"We have realised that just by selling handsets it is not possible to maintain growth momentum. Innovation in product is key to survival. Our wishlist is to make a century of patents in the next 2 to 3 years," Lava International Co-founder and Director SN Rai told PTI.
The company has plans to grow its revenue from around Rs. 1,000 crore at present to Rs. 1,400 crore in the next financial year, he added.
Elaborating on company's plan for patents, Rai said, Lava has earmarked around Rs. 50 crore investments during the ongoing financial year and it will focus on patenting algorithms and application concepts.
Algorithm is a step-by-step procedure for calculations used for data processing and automated reasoning among others.
"We have already filed two patents for algorithms but have not been granted yet. Lava recently launched music fusion application which can play music and video in any format. We want to have an IPR (Intellectual Property Right) for the algorithm of this application," Rai said. Rai said, the company is doubling up capacity at its research and development centres in India and China.
Without disclosing actual numbers, he said, "This will be both in terms of headcount, facility and application development."
Lava has also formed a consortium with publisher Tata McGraw Hill and tablet PC based digital learning firm iProf for developing educational content.
"This consortium will invest around Rs. 25 crore in the next 2 to 3 years for digitalisation of Indian content like fairy tales, mythological stories etc," he said.
The company also has plans to enter into enterprise segment by integrating softwares that are used for businesses and talks are at an initial stage, Rai added.
"In our solution, we will start mainly by focusing on secure communication like e-mail security. Simultaneously, we will start working on productivity software like ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and others," Rai said.
The company recently expanded its devices portfolio from mobile phones to tablets and claims selling around 25 thousand tablets per month.
"This is just to test the market. We are working on massive plans to revamp our tablet portfolio. At present, we are in the planning stage," he said.

Lava hopes to file 100 mobile app patents in three years

Indian mobile devices company Lava International hopes to file 100 patents for mobile applications in the field of education, entertainment and productivity over next 2 to 3 years.
"We have realised that just by selling handsets it is not possible to maintain growth momentum. Innovation in product is key to survival. Our wishlist is to make a century of patents in the next 2 to 3 years," Lava International Co-founder and Director SN Rai told PTI.
The company has plans to grow its revenue from around Rs. 1,000 crore at present to Rs. 1,400 crore in the next financial year, he added.
Elaborating on company's plan for patents, Rai said, Lava has earmarked around Rs. 50 crore investments during the ongoing financial year and it will focus on patenting algorithms and application concepts.
Algorithm is a step-by-step procedure for calculations used for data processing and automated reasoning among others.
"We have already filed two patents for algorithms but have not been granted yet. Lava recently launched music fusion application which can play music and video in any format. We want to have an IPR (Intellectual Property Right) for the algorithm of this application," Rai said. Rai said, the company is doubling up capacity at its research and development centres in India and China.
Without disclosing actual numbers, he said, "This will be both in terms of headcount, facility and application development."
Lava has also formed a consortium with publisher Tata McGraw Hill and tablet PC based digital learning firm iProf for developing educational content.
"This consortium will invest around Rs. 25 crore in the next 2 to 3 years for digitalisation of Indian content like fairy tales, mythological stories etc," he said.
The company also has plans to enter into enterprise segment by integrating softwares that are used for businesses and talks are at an initial stage, Rai added.
"In our solution, we will start mainly by focusing on secure communication like e-mail security. Simultaneously, we will start working on productivity software like ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and others," Rai said.
The company recently expanded its devices portfolio from mobile phones to tablets and claims selling around 25 thousand tablets per month.
"This is just to test the market. We are working on massive plans to revamp our tablet portfolio. At present, we are in the planning stage," he said.

Sony C660X Yuga reportedly set to release as Xperia Z

We've known for quite sometime now that Sony has been working on a 5-inch smartphone, the Sony C660X Yuga. Now the Xperia Blog reports that the device will be dubbed as the Sony Xperia Z.  

The blog which cites a source over at XDA and says that the Xperia Z will be both water and dust resistant supporting an Ingress Protection (IP) rating of IP55 and IP57 (similar to the Xperia acro S and Xperia V). It also claims that the final dimensions of the Xperia Z will be 139 x 71 x 7.9mm. The device will be both water and dust resistant and is likely to feature a glass-back as seen in Apple's iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

The blog further mentions that the 5-inch 1080p (443 PPI) panel will come with OptiContrast technology, which is found in Sony televisions. This technology features a resin coating atop the display to reduce on-screen reflections.

Rumours of the device began floating in October when a known benchmarking site revealed that the C660X Yuga features Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean and a CPU clock speed of 1.5GHz.

Just a week ago, Phone Arena reported that the Xperia Z aka Yuga will feature a quad-core processor from Samsung, 3GB RAM and an incredible 128GB of built-in storage. Not to forget, the device is likely to include a 5-inch full-HD display, a 16-megapixel camera and a large 3000mAh battery.

Another website posted a detailed hands-on with the phone boasting impressive specs on the Sony C6603 Yuga, some of which were rumoured earlier. The phone apparently features a 5-inch full-HD display at 440 PPI with Sony's Mobile Bravia Engine. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor with 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage, which is expandable by another 128GB.

Other features include a 12-megapixel rear camera (as opposed to the 16-megapixel mentioned earlier), micro-USB as well as USB host mode, 802.11 a/b/g/n in both 2.4GHz and 5GHz modes, Bluetooth 4.0, LTE and NFC.

With CES 2013 scheduled for January in Las Vegas, it wouldn't be surprising to see the phone make its official debut at the event.

Image Courtesy: Android Schweiz

sam4sammy :: Fake phones getting less popular in China

Cheap mobile phones that closely resemble high-end globally-recognised devices are slowly fading out from markets across China, and are being replaced by brands looking to break into the budget phone market.
In south China's Shenzhen city, known as the "birthplace of counterfeit phones", shops with "for rent" signs can be seen everywhere, the China Daily reported Monday.
Although the city has long been known as one of the country's top sellers of electronic products, government data indicates that more than 3,500 shops, most of which were mobile phone dealers, have closed and retreated from the market.
This year's Canton Fair, the country's largest small commodities expo held in Guangzhou, featured a small number of counterfeit phones, an "unthinkable occurrence in previous years".
Industry experts said manufacturers of counterfeit phone do not have the technological know-how to compete with global brands like Apple and Samsung.
However, domestic brands have made breakthroughs that have allowed them to offer inexpensive smartphones, thus cutting into the counterfeit phone market.
Among the 10 biggest phone manufacturers in China last year, domestic brands ZTE, Huawei and TCL were ranked third, fifth and ninth respectively, in terms of smartphone sales.
Domestic smartphones cost less than 1,000 yuan ($160).
Tang Ruijin, director of the Shenzhen Federation of Mobile Communication, said counterfeit manufacturers have retreated to underdeveloped overseas markets like southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa.
At this year's Mobile World Congress, Huawei unveiled a quad-core mobile phone processor. Huawei is one of few companies that develops its own computer chips, while many foreign brands still use Intel chips.

UK government told to rethink mobile, Internet surveillance plan

British lawmakers are demanding the government water down plans to keep track of phone calls, email and Internet activity a bill critics dub a "snooper's charter."
The Communications Data Bill would force telecoms companies to retain for a year records of all phone and email traffic and website visits, though not the content of calls and messages.
Home Secretary Theresa May has called the proposals "sensible and limited" measures to prevent crime and terrorism.
But an all-party committee scrutinizing the legislation said Tuesday that the draft bill was "overkill and much wider than the specific needs identified by the law enforcement agencies."
The proposals have split Britain's coalition government. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, leader of junior partner the Liberal Democrats, said the law required a "fundamental rethink."

At 20, SMS feels the age as tweets, IM take over

Nearly 20 years after influencing the way a large number of people around the world interact in daily life, the SMS, or short messaging service, appears to be on the decline.
Used by four billion people around the world, this revolutionary form of communication took the world by storm after its birth in December 1992. But after two decades of feverishly pushing tiny keypads with our thumbs, the volume of texts sent as SMS has undergone decline, media watchdog Ofcom reports.

The number of text messages sent in Britain peaked at 39.7 billion at the end of last year, but it is now down to 38.5 billion, following two quarterly declines. This fall has been attributed to new forms of communication which have taken over from the basic SMS system, Daily Mail reported.

Owners of modern smartphones today have a plethora of ways to communicate with each other including Tweeting and instant messaging.

The first ever text sent by engineer Neil Papworth from his personal computer to Vodafone's Richard Jarvis in December 1992 read: "Merry Christmas".

Solar powered bonsai tree to charge your mobile

A French designer has created a unique bonzai tree that will not only look pretty on your coffee table but also charge your cellphone and other gadgets using solar energy.
Created by designer Vivien Muller, 'The Electree+' has 27 miniature silicon solar panels or 'leaves' - that can be arranged in any style the users want to create their own unique tree.

The designer said he was inspired to make the product after observing real trees, noticing that their leaves acted as natural solar panels.

The base of the device conceals a battery that stores the solar energy and at full capacity it can hold enough power to charge an iPad twice and can charge a phone in just four hours, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

The tree conceals a USB connection underneath its wood-topped base unit.

Muller is waiting to receive 400 presale orders for the product before commencing production.

The bonsai tree will cost 283 pounds.

Happy Birthday SMS! 20 years of text messaging

The humble text message, which celebrates its 21st birthday on Sunday, is past its prime for the first time in history, as new figures show a declining trend of SMSing.

After having done everything from sealing multi-national deals to shattering lovelorn hearts during the last two decades, text messaging volumes have declined for the first time since their inception, a new report has found.

From a tiny start with the world's first message - the words "Merry Christmas" sent from a personal computer to a mobile phone - on December 3, 1992, the use of texts exploded after 1998 when the UK's four major mobile-phone companies introduced "pay-as-you-go".

Now four billion people around the globe use SMS - Short Message Service - to communicate with each other. But, for the first time since their inception, text messaging volumes have declined.

New figures from the media regulator Ofcom saw two quarterly declines - by over a billion - in the volume of SMS messages sent in the UK.

The volume of texts sent in Britain reached a peak of 39.7 billion at the end of last year, but have now dropped to 38.5 billion - the first recorded decline.

The pattern is similar in the US where volumes of texts have also dropped, according to a new report.

"For the first time in the history of mobile phones, SMS volumes are showing signs of decline," 'The Independent' quoted James Thickett, Ofcom's director of research, as saying.

"The availability of a wider range of communications tools, like instant messaging and social networking sites, means people might be sending fewer SMS messages, but they are communicating electronically more than ever before," Thickett said.

Technological change is now so rapid and so unpredictable that no one can say how we will be communicating in 20 years' time. However the SMS messages have been defining texts of the past two decades, the reports said.