Nokia, Tata, & LG – the most trusted brands in India

Brand Trust Report 2012 revealed that Nokia, Tata, and LG are amongst the most trusted brands in India. The survey clearly reflected that Nokia is still the leader in India, when it comes to phones. The survey was conducted on 1000 most trusted brands playing in India. Nokia, Tata, and LG were followed by Samsung, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj, LIC, and Airtel in the list of most trusted brands.

The survey was conducted by Trust Research Advisory with 2718 respondents from 15 cities in India. Popular personalities in India including Anna Hazare, Sachin Tendulkar, Amir Khan, and Amitabh Bachchan participated in this survey.

Let me now tell you the trusted brands in specific categories:

 Branded Fashion – Armani

Construction – DLF

Education – NIIT

Energy – ONGC

Entertainment – PVR

Food & Beverage – Pepsi

Healthcare – Dabur

Hospitality – Taj Hotels

Internet – Google

Manufacturing – ACC

Technology – HP

Airline – Air India

Top 5 smartphones – 2012

Smartphones are popular among users not only for their usability, but also because they are interactive entertainer. Smarphones come preloaded with various applications and allow users to download application from the provided application stores. Gaming applications are highly interactive on the phones of this generation.  Smartphones are really smart as they allow users to do what they want from reading books, listening music, watching video, surfing internet, downloading files, and many more to fulfill the aspiration of demanding users. The demanding nature of users is also forcing the mobile manufacturing companies to develop intelligent phones.

Here’s the list of top 5 smartphones. The list will help you identify the best device for your needs.

Apple iPhone 4S

Apple iPhone 4s topped the global chart for being the best device across multiple categories. Obviously, the credit goes to ground breaking technologies used in the phone. It is one of the most popular phones worldwide and is undoubtedly among the best gaming and video calling (FaceTime) phone out there.

Specifications: 3.5 inch Retina display, capacitive touchscreen, dual core 1GHz processor, dedicated PowerVR graphics core, 512 MB of RAM, 16/32/64 GB memory, multi-axis Gyroscope sensor

Moreover, the display has been treated with a special oleophobic (oil resistant) coating, suitable for the Indian environment. Support of highly touch optimised iOS operating system is the main differentiator from the other smartphones in the mobile ecology.  

Price - Rs 45500 (16GB), Rs 50900 (32GB), Rs 57500 (64GB)

Nokia X7-00

Having a device with 4” big screen is really a pride. Play the game or watch the video, you will feel lucky. Download applications from the Ovi store and enjoy!

Specifications: 4 inch Amoled display, 680 MHz processor, Symbian Anna OS (Symbian Belle update available)

Price - Rs 20300

Samsung Galaxy Note

Samsung Galaxy Note – a blend of tablet and a smartphone has the biggest screen (5.3 inch) among smartphones. It doubles as both a tablet and a smartphone meaning you only have to carry a single device. The phone delivers a high end performance in all kinds.

Specifications: Dual core 1.4 GHz processor, 16 GB of internal memory, Android Gingerbread (Android 4.0 ICS update), 8 MP camera (shoot 1080p video), 1GB RAM

Price - Rs 32400

Samsung Galaxy S II

With beautiful 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, Samsung Galaxy S II comes with Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Its 8MP main camera let you capture crisper images and videos and 2MP front camera let you enjoy video chat. Its elegant design and great performance has made it capture the good segment of population. Samsung Galaxy S II is probably the most attractive smartphones launched in 2011 and its charisma is still rocking in the 2012. 

Price - Rs 30700

BlackBerry Bold 9790

The list of smartphones will be incomplete without the BlackBerry device. The Bold series BlackBerry smartphones have been a favorite with those who want a great keypad, build quality and performance and BlackBerry Bold 9790 is blessed with fruits of technology and elegance of serenity.

Specifications: 2.4 inch display, QWERTY keypad, touch navigation, 5MP camera, 8GB internal memory, BlackBerry messenger, BB OS 7.0, BlackBerry Maps

Price - Rs 25400

www.saholic.com

CES 2012 - at a glance

The International Consumer Electronics Show is perhaps the largest techno-trade show in the world held each January in Las Vegas Convention Center. The biggest names in technology talk about their plans for the year head. Let us take a tour to CES 2012

CES 2012 – Tablet show

Acer Iconia Tab A700 with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and a huge quad-core processor created a buzz.

Toshiba announced the new Excite 10 a stylish 10.1-inch Android slab that boasts a 1.2GHz dual-core TI processor.

Lenovo signalled launching of its two new tablet models.

Asus staged IdeaPad S2 running on Ice Cream Sandwich & the quad-core Tegra 3-powered IdeaPad K2.

CES 2012 – Phone show

Though the manufacturer saved their big phones to showcase in Mobile World Congress next month, several new smartphones from many manufacturer have been spotted on the plush CES carped.

Sony unveils its Xperia S – 4.3 inch display, 12MP camera and the promise of an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade in Q2.

Sony is also bringing its new PlayStation certifies phone Sony Xperia Ion with dual-core processor, 16GB internal memory, and 12MP rear camera.

HTC revealed upgraded the Titan model - HTC Titan 2 - .7-inch display. It will be a Windows Phone for AT&T. The phone will have 16MP camera, wide angle lens, dual LED flash and LTE support.

Nokia announced adding of one more model to its Lumia edition, Lumia 900. It will have 4.3 inch display and a better front camera.

LG coined its LG Spectrum with a 4.5-inch IPS LCD that rivals the Retina display on the iPhone 4.

CES 2012 – Laptop show

Ultrabook steal the laptop show at CES this year. Every brand is planning to introduce its ultrabook laptop model. Ultrabook designed is influenced from the Apple’s skinny Macbook Air. It is the new form factor for laptop and is loved by the segment. Let’s have a brief look:

Acer revealed Aspire S5, a 13.3 inch laptop at the press conference in CES 2012. It promises to introduce Windows 8 powered Ultrabook in the second quarter of the year.

Lenovo introduces a good looking laptop model IdeaPad U Series ultrabooks. It has 13 inch display. The ultrabook is very sleek with only 18mm thickness.

HP unwrapped its effort – Envy 14 Spectre laptop. It has 14 inch display and is 21mm thick. It ensures great performance with Intel Core i5 or Core i7 processor, and a 128GB hard drive

Samsung also joined the Ultrabook design with its Series 5 devices. Series 5 devices will be available with 13 inch display and 2^nd generation Intel Core i5 and HD graphics.

Samsung also signaled about its soon to be launched 2^nd generation of its Series 9 laptops. The devices will have 'aerodynamic design'.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 620 or Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus – available in India

The new generation Samsung Galaxy Tab is now available in India. The new tablet is named as Samsung Galaxy Tab 620 or Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus in India. It runs on Android 3.2 Honeycomb and is packed with packed with loads of hardware. The software improvement in the device has made in ace in the world of tablet. The Samsung has priced it for Rs. 26, 499.

Initially, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus has come with 16GB storage but it is expected that 32GB model will come soon.

Features

7” PLS LCD touchscreen display, 600 x 1024 pixels, 16M colors

1.2 GHz Dual Core processor

Samsung TouchWiz UX user interface

Up to 64GB memory expansion

Connectivity - Wi-Fi (hotspot functionality), Bluetooth 3.0, 3G

3MP AF camera with LED flash, 2MP front camera

The device will be soon available on www.saholic.com

New Challenge to Your Health – the mobile phone factor

Do you know that holding mobile phone next to skin anywhere on your body poses a health risk?

Researchers have signaled that mobile phones have call upon new challenges in breast cancer. The cases of breast cancer have been found more in the women who put mobile phones in bras. The electromagnetic field (EMF) radiation is very direct when mobile phones are put on such places.

On the other hand, it is said that the sperm quality would be affected in men, if they place their cell phones on a hip pocket or belt holster.

There's always that constant fear of developing brain cancer or other diseases due to prolonged use or exposure to cell phones.

Bookmyshow.com has launched app for Windows Phone

Are you irritated of standing in long queues to book movie tickets? No worry, if you are a Windows Phone user. Bookmyshow.com has launched its app for online ticketing for WindowsPhone 7 users. Just launch the app on your WP7 handset and book the show of your choice and enjoy!

Besides just booking ticket, one can also view cinema listings, synopsis and reviews of various movies with the app. The app will allow booking of movie tickets for a wide range of theaters across India. This app is free and can be downloaded from the Windows Market Place. The download size of the app is 1MB and is compatible with any handset running Windows Phone 7.5 or higher.

The app supports multiple secure payment options such as credit card, debit card, netbanking, cash card, and BookMyShow gift vouchers. After making the payment, the user will receive an SMS confirming the booking details.

Further, the app will be upgraded to book tickets for plays, concerts and also future sporting events.

Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus - 1GHz CPU, glossy look

Samsung has announced the successor of its highly popular Samsung Galaxy Ace, dubbed as Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus with improvement in several key aspects of its hardware. It will come with 1GHz CPU, 3GB internal memory and 512 RAM memory against 800MHz processor, 158MB internal memory, and 278MB RAM in previous model – Samsung Galaxy Ace. The new Ace will have larger screen. The exterior of the phone will also be redesigned – the new ace will be glossy instead of matte plastic in the predecessor. The camera and flash position will be changed from back left to back centre. Galaxy Ace Plus will have Bluetooth v3.0. The upraded version of Ace will be running on Android Gingerbread

Samsung Galaxy Ace	Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus
Display size – 3.5 inch	Display size – 3.65 inch
Internal memory – 158MB	Internal memory – 3GB
Processor speed – 800MHz	Processor speed – 1GHz
RAM – 278Mb	RAM – 512MB
Look – matte plastic	Look – Glossy
Bluetooth – v2.0	Bluetooth – v3.0
Camera is in left of the back side of the phone	Camera will be in centre of the back side of the phone
Android Froyo v2.2	Android Gingerbread v2.3

Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus will be available at www.saholic.com after launch.