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Apple iPad – Hit or a miss ?

Apple’s  “Most awaited!”  Tablet device is out, unlike a full Tablet PC this is  more of an iPhone with a 10 inch screen. It runs the same iPhone OS and almost has identical features of the popular iPhone.Apple Lovers will crave for the device and critics still have a lot to complain.

But Apple has Maintained its consitant tactic of Beauty over features. With a thickness of 1.3 cm and weighing less than 0.75 kg this must be one of the thinnest and lightest computing devices around, also it sure will be a style statement, if you carry one around. But lets get down to business in terms of features.

It is available in two versions one with 3G and other without the 3G support. Below is the price for both versions available in 16GB,32GB and 64GB
                         16GB          32GB             64GB
Wi-Fi              $499             $599             $699
Wi-Fi + 3G    $629            $729            $829

Features –

– 9.7 inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display
(same multi touch as iphone)
– 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)
– Fingerprint-resistant coating
– Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n)
– Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology
– UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz) (Data only)
– GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) (Data only)
– Email and Document support
– Browser without Flash support
– Accelerometer
– Ambient light sensor
– 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack
– Built-in speakers (Mono)
– Microphone

Main Disadvantages
– Not a Full fledged computer OS (iPhone OS)
– No Multitasking support (it can run a maximum of two apple apps)
– No USB
– No Webcam
– Mono Speaker
– You can install apps only from Apple Appstore
– Need to use itunes on PC
– No Flash support in browser
– Limited to AT&T 3G network
– Too pricey for its limited feature set
– 16/32/64 GB Flash drive is too limited for a device like this

Overall Apple has created a device between a Phone and an Tablet PC, but for this form factor and price the functionality provided is very disappointing. Many who own Macs still install Winodws XP on them and use it for many applications which are not supported in the Apple OS.

Possibly a more feature packed version of the Ipad with a full featured Leopard OS will be much more appreciated than the shortcut taken by Apple here.

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Nokia E63 vs Nokia E72 – Price vs Performance review

Well I understand your look, you might be wondering how can I compare Nokia E63 and Nokia E72 when they are in totally two different pricing segments.But considering that both these phones cater to those looking for QWERTY based smartphone, it definitely makes sense to write this one. I have briefly owned E72 and E63, so here are my observations.

Nokia E72 though appears to be an evolved version of Nokia E71, actually is a refinement of E63 + extra features, the keypad is very different from E71 and Same as that of E63. So in more ways E72 is similar in design to E63. So lets look at the major differences

Nokia E63 Black edition
Nokia E72 Black

* 5MP Camera in E72 vs 2MP Camera in E63 (video FPS is same in both models)
* E72 has a A-GPS with free navigation license (As of Jan 2010).
* E72 has 600 MHZ processor compared to 369 MHZ of E63.
* 256 MB of internal memory in E72 vs 128 MB in E63 (This is not the RAM, RAM is same in both these phones)
* S60 3rd Edition FP2 in E72 vs S60 3rd Edition FP1 in E63.
* HSPDA support of upto 3.6 Mbps in E72 vs 384 Kbps max in E63. (both support 3G)
* 8GB memory card free (E72) vs 1GB memory card (E63)
* Metallic finish of E72 vs E63.

+ Office 2007 format support is available in both E72 and E63 (You will get a free upgrade when installing updates in E63)

Apart from Camera and GPS all other differences are minor.Though the processor upgrade appears to be grand one, without an increased RAM, you maynot see a huge difference in performance between these two devices. Afterall E63 itself is a pretty slick phone. Based on my experience with GPS enabled phones (N95 8GB and N97), I dont see them as a huge plus anyway. If you need to use a GPS for navigating then phone GPS is not powerful / fast enough to get a location, it will be better if you get a real GPS. Camera is a big improvement but again, for a business device camera is not a big factor.

Now both the models are available in Black and if you put the leather pouch over it both looks exactly the same except for the name.

But the biggest deciding factor is the price as of today Nokia E72 costs Rs 20,500/- after taxes in Chennai, whereas the Nokia E63 + A free Nokia Bluetooth Headset BH 103 (bundle) costs Rs 10,800/- almost half the price of the premium model.

So its up to you to decide on your device now..

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Goolge chrome introduces extensions and Bookmark sync

Long awaited extensions and bookmark sync features of Google Chrome came out of beta yesterday. All the Chrome users will get the update through their current browser. If you are looking to update your Google chrome to support extensions, go to About Google Chrome under settings, and click update to new version.

The bookmark sync is a simplified version of Google’s browser sync (earlier released for Firefox). It works on your Gmail account, and you can set time interval of the bookmark updates.Google also has published a video explaining the new bookmark sync feature here.

Google Chrome extensions

But the major upgrade is the support for extensions lack of which was one of main reason for many still sticking with Firefox.With the introduction of extensions the growth in share of Google Chrome is expected to skyrocket. As Google was working with developers on extensions even before the official stable release support , most of the popular extensions of Firefox are now available for Google chrome here.

You can read the Google’s official release on Google Blog.