All about Camera Phone !!!

Convergence has become rule of today’s world. No long, a phone is just a phone. It is a camera, a MP3 player, a gaming device, a notepad, a mini computer, and so on. Camera has become one of the very popular handy gadgets these days. One need to capture images at any point of time and at this point a phone camera is very useful. A person cannot carry a CAMERA all the time and phone being a part of life always remains with people. So, everybody wants to have a good “Camera Phone” to capture beautiful moments.

But built-in camera in a phone does not make it a “Camera Phone”. A phone that actually clicks very clear images is “Camera Phone”. The quality of a camera phone depends on camera sensor, megapixels, lens size, lens quality and other camera components. 

 A megapixel (MP) is not only the parameter to decide the camera quality. Mobile phone manufacturers are using MP as marketing trick for the camera phone, but actually they are misleading consumers. Image sensors and lens quality also affects the optics and images captured. Autofocus is also big player when we talk of camera quality. Without autofocus, image can easily get blurred if the targeted image is close or far away as the object is not focused. 

One major defect in phone camera is long shutter speed. The shutter of the camera remains open for longer time and then sense the image and captures it. The object actually can move or the photographer can move the camera which results into distorted image. It is actually the time taken by camera sensor to sense the scene you are attempting to capture. So, longer the shutter speed, distorted is the image captured. Small aperture in camera phone also keeps users away from good photography. Aperture determines the amount of light passing through the camera film when the shutter is open. The larger the amount of light, the better is the image captured. 

So, a good “Camera Phone” must have short shutter speed along with adequate megapixels. The phone camera quality also depends on aperture, lens size, lens quality, autofocus sensor, advance mode (shot modes, scene modes, white balance mode, etc), image format, and image size.  So, research well before you select a Camera Phone.

Android, the KING of Mobile OS!!!

Android, a software stack for mobile devices that includes OS, middleware & key applications, brings a host of features and applications. The Android has large community of developers to write applications and develop features. Presently, there are more than 2 lacs and 50 thousand applications for Android which are available to users through Android Market. Android Market is an online app store which can be accessed only through Android smartphones. Android was founded in 2003 and was further acquired by Google in 2005. 

Android has seen many updates and the reasons of updates are both bugs fixing and addition of new features. It is interesting to note that the versions of Android are associated with names of deserts in ascending alphabetical order. Android started its journey from v1.0 and is now at the platform No. v3.1 (Honeycomb) and is destined to reach v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). It is expected that the evolving Android will not stop its journey at v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and will look for an unseen destination with development and addition of new feature. 

Here are versions of Android: 

Android v1.0 Angel Cake

Android v1.1 Battenberg

Android v1.5 Cupcake

Android v1.6 Donut

Android v2.0/v2.1 Éclair

Android v2.2 Froyo

Android v2.3 Gingerbread

Android v3.0/v3.1/v3.2 Honeycomb (SDK for v3.1 was released on 10 May 2011 and v3.2 released on 15 July 2011)

Android v4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (upcoming version of Android)

Click Android to know more

Tablets on the Rise

We’re at the point now where Internet has become a part of our life. In fact, I find no exaggeration when one compares the Internet with the blood and device connecting Internet such as computer, tablets, and mobile phones with the vein. In this Scenario, one cannot think of a world without Internet. People need Internet in all strata of life. They love to stay connected all the time – in office, at home and even while traveling. People can manage to have Internet connection at home and office using their laptops or desktop computers, but it is difficult to carry bulky laptops all the time on travel. Therefore, small and compact tablets are being launched at ever- accelerating pace. 

Most of the mobile manufacturing companies have entered the race of launching tablets. At present, Samsung, Motorola, Dell, HTC, Apple, and BlackBerry have launched tablets. Let’s see when the monster of mobile market, Nokia is going to launch “Nokia Tablet”. The consumers are also expecting the launch of tabled from the home of LG, Spice, Micromax, etc.

One thing that people need to know that tablet is not a phone. Some tablets are coming with calling feature (Samsung Galaxy Tab, Dell Streak) and some are without calling feature (Motorola Xoom, BlackBerry PlayBook).  So, one must keep this fact into account when buying a tablet that he/she wants a tablet cum phone like Samsung Galaxy Tab and Dell Streak or just tablet – BlackBerry PlayBook and Motorola Xoom. 

The developers are putting effort in developing dedicated Operating Systems for tablets. Android developers have developed “Honeycomb” especially for tablets. However, some tablets are there with Android Froyo as well. The tablets are incorporated with fast speed processor for multitasking and fast web browsing experience. 

Tablets available in Indian Market:

Samsung Galaxy Tab

HTC Flyer

BlackBerry PlayBook

Apple’ iPad

Motorola Xoom 

Dell Streak  

Mobile Phone Form Factor - Look Matters!!!

Look Matters! Phone factor decides the look and style of the phone. It is an important aspect of mobile phone and a common parameter based on which people pick mobile phones. Phone factor is divided into two broad categories. 

Rigid form factor

Bar (Candy bar): This is widely used form factor. Bar phones are in cuboid shape. These phones have screen and keyboard (T9 keyboard or QWERTY keyboard) on one face. 

·        Slate: A subset of “Bar” form factor. Touchscreen phones without physical keyboard have slate form factor.

Moving form factor

Flip: The phones with two or more sections that are connected a hinge to let the phones fold and become compact. Generally one section of the phone has keyboard and other has display. 

Slider: A phones having two sections one sliding on rail of the other section. Upper section has display and some basic buttons like call key, multimedia key, etc and lower section has full T9 keyboard or QWERTY keyboard.       

          

·         Normal slider

·         Dual slider – phone can slide from both ends.

·         Side slider 

side slider

side slider

Swivel: Phone with two segments, which swivel past east other on a central axis. It is not common form factor.

Mixed form factor: It can be combination of flip and swivel form factor. This is also not common form factor. 

Nokia E6-00 – faster and smarter with touch and QWERTY

Nokia E6-00 is a first phone operating in Symbian Anna OS. It has 2.6 inch capacitive touchscreen display and QWERTY keyboard. The phone gives worldwide coverage with quadband GSM and pentaband 3G frequency. Bluetooth v3.0, GPRS class 33, EDGE class 33, and USB connectivity is ideal of quick file transferring. To enjoy hurdle free Internet, the phone has high 3G speed and Wi-Fi connectivity. One can enjoy full browsing of real web pages and Nokia Mobile Search lets users surf the web conveniently on Symbian Anna platform. To let users stay connected the phone has IM via Ovi Store, access to Facebook & Twitter. 

This is an ultimate entertainment device with music player, WebTV widgets, video streaming features, and games.  The phone 8MP camera with dual – LED flash and is capable of HD video recording 720p @25 fps. Nokia E6-00 has support for Flash videos. The phone also has VGA secondary camera for video calling. The phone is designed for touch interface to play games and has accelerometer sensor to enjoy motion games. 

It has a powerful battery - Li-Ion 1500 mAh BP-4L that gives 75 hours music playback, 8hours video playback, 14 hours 2G talktime, 7 hours 3G talktime, 28 days 2G standby and 31 days 3G standby. One can also record video for 4 hours and 40 minutes. Thus, one need not worry about the battery back-up of the phone. 

NokiaE6-00 is your ideal road guide with its integrated and A-GPS, digital compass, Ovi Maps with free car & pedestrian navigation. 

Nokia E6-00 keeps you perfectly organized with calendar, to-do list, calculator, clock, MS Outlook, Quickoffice document editor, etc. The organizers in your phone will remind you about all events and tasks. It will not let your forget your important days and tasks. 

Some important features in Nokia E6-00 are flight mode, Ovi store - for downloading games, music and app, Ovi Suite – to synchronize data with PC, visibility of social networking profile in the phone contacts, 2D/3D graphics hardware accelerator, 600 MHz ARM 11 processor, Flash Lite 4, security features – device lock, remote lock, secured Internet, memory card security, mail for exchange, push email, support for Microsoft Communicator Mobile, mail attachment support for doc, xls, ppt, pdf, and zip files, 8GB inbuilt memory, 32 expandable memory, on-device video editing software, video calling feature,  etc. The phone has proximity sensor, accelerometer sensor and ambient light sensor. 

The phone can also serve as data modem and Wi-Fi hotspot.

HTC Sensation – Multimedia Superphone

HTC Sensation is a true multimedia superphone with widescreen qHD display, Hi-Fi audio technology and 4.3 inch large display to let users enjoy watching videos and listening music. It is a top entertainer easy-to-use device. The Phone has 8MP camera with dual with auto focus and dual LED flash. The camera is perfect for recording 1080p high definition video. The phone powered with HTC Sense UI making the phone smooth in performance. Active lockscreen is a nice feature in phone that lets you have good stuffs on your phone. You can check your portfolio, friend’s status and many other notifications when the screen is locked. This is a device of great utility for the Internet savvy people. The phone lets users surf the web in multiple windows. One can also jump to Wikipedia and YouTube with a quick look-up tool. Stay connected with friends and family with multiple social networking websites and IMs.

View specification of HTC Sensation

Dimension:  126.1mm x 65.4mm x 11.3mm

Display size: 4.3”

Weight: 148 grams

Android OS v2.3 (Gingerbread)

1.2 GHz, dual core

Android browser

8 MP camera with auto focus and dual LED flash

Secondary Camera – VGA

1080p HD video recording

GPRS: Up to 114 Kbps downloading

EDGE: Up to 560 Kbps downloading

3G - 14.4 Mbps download speed, 5.76 Mbps upload speed

Wi-Fi

DLNA for wirelessly streaming media from the phone to your TV or computer

Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP

USB and Wi-Fi tethering

A-GPS

HTC Sync

Google Sync

1520 mAh Li-Ion battery

240 min 2G talktime and 120 hours 2G standby

3.5mm headset jack

2.2 mm microUSB support

On-device video editor

Connects to a Wi-Fi printer to easily print your photos, documents and web pages 

Sensors- Gyro sensor, G-Sensor, Digital compass, Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor

Social Networking: Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube

Memory: Internal – 1GB, Expandable – 32 GB, 8GB microSD card comes with package

Click here to view detailed specification.