Apple to offer full refund for iPhone 4 users

 Apple's much awaited "Antennagate" press conference was held yesterday.

Basically Steve Jobs was trying to explain how this iPhone 4 reception problem was just a media hype and that this problem is not exclusive to the iPhone.

• Here are some bullet points that Jobs emphasized upon during the course of the conference.
• Only 0.55 of all iPhone users have contacted Apple with a reception issue.
• The iPhone 4 drops less than one more call per 100 calls when compared to the iPhone 3GS.
• The iPhone 4 has a return rate of just 1.4% compared to the 3GS' 6.0%
• All smartphones have weak spots. (Including the iPhone)
• The iOS4 4.0.1 update released on July 15 fixes the antenna bar and the Exchange bug
• The reception issues have been blown out of proportion. 

Steve Jobs also took this opportunity to claim that even their competitors' phones including the likes of the BlackBerry Bold 9700, HTC Droid Eris, and Samsung Omnia II can be affected by this left handed grip issue.

That said, Apple will also give away free bumper cases to users who would want one. This is because the case apparently solves the reception issue. For those of you who already spent your money on the case, there is a refund coming your way. For the still unhappy customers, Apple has announced a full refund to customers who return their phone within 30 days of purchase.This offer is valid only for phones purchased before September 30th this year.

Brammo Empulse : The electric superbike.

When you think electric bike, you must be thinking those small slow things, which are just a little better than a man powered bicycle. Well thats what used to come to my mind too.

Now its time to think again. Brammo Inc is a leading electric vehicle technology company headquartered in North America. They had previously developed an award winning electric bike, Enertia, which you wouldn't obviously call a sports bike. It had a 13.7 Horsepower rating, with a top speed of 50 mph and a range of 45 miles. Hasn't got much looks too. Hers what it looks like.

But now, Brammo has come up with a new bike. The EMPULSE. It is much better looking, much powerful, much faster, and has got a longer range. The Empulse is capable of doing over a 100 mph with a distance range of about 100 miles. Its got a horse power rating of 55, nearly comparable to the 600cc bikes available in the market. And it looks like a sports bike too.

There will be three models offered: the 6.0, 8.0, and 10.0. These indicate the distance range capacity of the bikes, with the lowest managing 60 miles of "average range" and the top of the line 100 miles, each of which can be extended by taking it easy on the bike (not compulsory to get to the top speed just because there is one) . The 6.0 will naturally be the cheapest, starting at $9,995, the 8.0 for $11,995, and the 10.0 will go for $13,995.

Here's the Brammo Empulse advertisement video:

Asus ARES Officially Launched in India : The ultimate graphics card comes with metal case and gaming mousepad

Asus has officially introduced its all dual ATI Radeon HD 5870 loaded graphics monster card dubbed ARES in India. Named after the Olympian God of War, this is the ultimate option for the hardcore gamer. ARES is a limited edition graphics card that has two Cypress HD 5870 GPUs and measures 11-inches long. This limited edition graphics card will be sold in India for Rs. 1,00,000 approximately with unique metal case and Republic of Gaming mouse bundle.

Asus ARES graphics card incorporates two 40nm fabrication process made Cypress GPU based ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics on a single printed circuit board. The GPU runs at 850MHz clock speed and the memory is clocked at 1200MHz. So far, ATI's Radeon HD 5970 graphics card is crowned as top of the line performance card. Both these GPUs have access to 2GB GDDR5 video memory thus making total 4GB GDDR5 video memory that has 256-bits (for 2GB each) memory interface.

The new ARES is equipped with three PCI express power connector points - two 8-pin port and one 6-pin port. For cooling, Asus has incorporated huge Fansink that promises 600 percent air flow. For best heat dissipation, 8mm oxygen-free copper heatpipes have been used. One would require 750Watts power supply unit to run this monster graphics card.

Of course, this graphics card is CrossFireX configuration ready. This graphics card is constructed from aluminum material and has one HDMI along with twin dual-link DVI-I ports for sourcing out HD video.

Since this is a limited edition graphics card with metal case and ROG gaming mouse, it's better that you either grab it now or forget about it.

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 released; Windows XP SP2 officially 'dead'.

At the on-going Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference at Washington DC, Microsoft has announced public availability of the first beta of Windows 7 Service Pack 1. Brandon LeBlanc, Windows Communication Manager for Microsoft, noted on the Windows blog, that the Windows 7 SP 1 is simply a combination of updates already available through Windows Updates and bunch of other hot fixes.




Microsoft made Windows 7 available worldwide on October 22 last year and within nine months, has rolled out first beta of Service Pack 1. However, we shouldn't get our hopes high since it isn't bringing any path breaking feature for your desktops and laptops. Just a bunch of cumulative updates which are already available comes in Service Pack 1. So, who'd like to update when no new features are included? Well, there are several hot fixes that would bundle along to form a cumulative update pack.

From today, Microsoft's sale and support for Windows XP Service Pack 2 will die. No PC maker would be able to pre-install Windows XP SP 2 in new desktops or notebooks. However, there are many individuals and enterprises who haven't updated their systems from Windows XP Service Pack 2.

So, if you don't update to Windows XP Service Pack 3, Microsoft won't be able offering any support to you. The ideal choice here would be buying Windows 7 and then, if you wish, installing this Windows 7 Service Pack 1 beta.

Microsoft is planning to release final version of Service Pack 1 in the first half of next year. Download Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Beta from here. All you need is a Windows Live ID to login to download the beta.

India's PSLV C -15 Successfully Launched

India's space aspirations received a major boost yesterday morning when India's indigenously built PSLV rocket successfully placed 5 satellites into orbit. The rocket took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 9:22 am IST on July 12, as scheduled.

The PSLV C15 carried five satellites, which also included a remote sensing satellite, the Cartosat 2B and one pico satellite called the STUDSAT made by engineering college students of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The other satellites were Alsat from Algeria, two nano satellites from Canada and Switzerland. This launch comes barely three months after the failure of the GSLV D3, which failed to complete its mission and crashed into the Bay of Bengal.

The Cartosat 2B happens to be the latest remote sensing satellite to be launched by India. It joins its siblings the Cartosat-2 and 2A, both of which are currently in service. Alsat from Algeria, too is a remote sensing satellite and tips the scales at 116 kg. The other nano satellites are quite lightweight weighing just six kilos. The satellite designed by the engineering students is even smaller and weighs just a kilo.

Since its first launch in 1994, the PSLV has so far placed 17 Indian and 22 foreign satellites into orbit - making it one of the most successful launch vehicles ever - worldwide.

3G enabled, low cost Nokia C5 Launched in India : Priced 7,999

A few months after the launch of the lower end  C3, Nokia has launched its latest C Series device, in India - the C5.

The C5 is a mid-range handset targeted at users looking for a decent entry-level smartphone. The phone features a 2.2-inch, QVGA LCD TFT display and runs Symbian OS 9.3. It has a 3.15 megapixel camera complete with an LED Flash and video recording support. Videos can be recorded at VGA resolution at 15 fps. The phone would be a good choice if you want a low-cost 3G capable device as it has a front facing video camera for video calling as well.

Other features include support for EGPRS, an FM Radio receiver, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and a 3.5mm jack, which are becoming standard features these days. The phone is powered by a relatively powerful ARM 11 processor that runs at 600Mhz and with 128MB of RAM, you can expect this one to be quite fast - especially for a Symbian phone of this price tag.

The C5 has 50MB of internal memory and supports memory expansion with microSD cards. A 2GB card is included with the phone and should you need more memory, you can add in a 16GB card as well. The C5 has a relatively powerful 1050Mah battery that should last quite a while when used normally.

The C5 will cost Rs. 7,999 is India, which a pretty decent price for a phone with all these features.

More specifications of the phone here.

Images:

Canon Wonder Camera : No more changing lenses, and says no more photography.

  

You must have seen all those digital cameras with those large lenses in front. These high quality SLR and DSLR cameras make use of large lenses for ultra long range photos or super close up photos, aving the need to use different lenses for different types of photography.

Well, Canon has laid out a  multiple lens free future for photography, thanks to the Wonder Camera Concept.

According to Canon, about 20 years in the future, they are confident they can bring out a single lens camera to do the trick. According to them, this non-interchangeable single lens could be used for super close up macro photos or for long range photos.

The concept camera that Canon showed off in the Shanghai Expo 2010, boasts an extremely high resolution sensor, very high zoom range, and advanced image stabilization mechanism, making shooting at high zoom levels possible. It also has a knob less, full touch screen back interface. All this is apparently small enough to be comfortable in our hands.

The most important of all is that, this will be a video only camera. The idea is that, with ultra high resolutions available even on video modes, now you dont have to wait for a perfect moment and click a snap. Just shoot a video and from the frames of the video select the best. The high resolution makes capturing images from video frames possible. And there is no need to worry about the images being out of focus, because they claim that the wonder camera can keep everything on the scene in focus, leading to better extracted photos.

Even if twenty years may seem a short time, to some people, for such a radical development, considering the rate of development in the past few years, it must be possible for such an advancement to take place.

Check out the presentation video of the Canon Wonder Camera at the Shanghai Expo 2010 :

Google Maps Adds 45° Aerial Imagery For All Users

Google has granted all Google Maps users the ability to view aerial photos taken at a 45° angle. Just zoom in at one of the supported locations and you’ll get a better view than you could before.

The feature was previously only available to developers and as part of Labs for Google Maps, a set of work-in-progress features that you had to opt in to. Now anyone who uses Google Maps can see the aerial images, but the locations are limited to just a few cities in Europe and South Africa, and on the west coast of the United States.

These pictures are taken from the air, not from orbit, so they’re sharper and their angle allows you to appreciate landmarks and buildings as they appear from the side, not just directly above.

Google Maps 45° aerial imagery is only available for a few locations in North America, Europe and Africa at present, but hopefully it will expand to more locations later. For now, the supported locations include places in Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Nelspruit, Polokwane, Port Elizabeth, Pretoria, and Rustenburg in South Africa; Portland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Jose, Santa Cruz and Santa Clara in the United States; Dortmund in Germany and Venice in Italy.

Check it out here.

A 45° view of I dont know what, in Cape Town.

YouTube : Making way for the future

 You Tube has recently made two major announcements. YouTube has said that it will be sponsoring higher quality content and supporting ultra-high quality digital video.

The YouTube Grants Program

YouTubde has now decided to pay for better quality content, through the new YouTube Grants Program, which will invest five million dollars to select new and emerging YouTube partners. The goal here is to provide small production companies and studios with the funds needed to produce high quality original content. 

Eligible partners will be identified by YouTube and they will be contacted and invited to submit a proposal. Once proposals are approved, the funds are transferred to the partner and they can start using it to buy better equipment, hire new people and expand their marketing efforts.

The money that is given via the YouTube Partner Grants program will be an advance on future YouTube revenue shares.

YouTube to support 4K

 After providing support for 1080p HD videos not long ago, YouTube has now announced that it will now support 4K videos. 4K is a new standard in high-end digital video and it has a horizontal resolution of about 4000 pixels, ie., the resolution of 4096 x 3072. The resulting image being four times the size of a 1080p image.

This may be due to the availability of the RED ONE camera, which can shoot in 4K and is available at a reasonable price.RED has been used to shoot films like The Lovely Bones, Green Zone and The Informant! as well as many commercials and music videos.

Complete list of movies shot with RED ONE are availbale in their official site. Check it here.

Now videos shot with this camera can now be uploaded to YouTube at their original resolution.
 

All said, you wont be able to play this videos smoothly unless you have a fast computer with a decent graphics card and most importantly a high speed internet connection.

YouTube has uploaded a bunch of sample videos in 4K resolution, which is available here.
 
To watch in 4K, in the resolution choice menu, select 'Original'.

New Sony Cybershot cameras with 3D Image capturing feature

 

Sony has announced three new digital point and shoot cameras - WX5, TX9, and T99 with HD video shooting capabilities. The all new Cyber-shot WX5 and TX9 boast the capability of shooting 1080i HD movie. The new T99 digital camera is capable of shooting 720p HD video. These new cameras would be available by mid-September this year.

The T99 is a 14.1 Megapixel camera, while TX9 and WX5 are 12.3 megapixel ones.

For the first time, Sony introduces 3D image capturing capability in point and shoot cameras with 3D Sweep Panorama that lets clicking images in press-and-sweep motion. The Sweep Multi-Angle shoots high-speed burst of fifteen frames to create 3D style image of the subject from different angles. The camera also has built-in sensors to detect side to side movement of camera after the image is shot to show the multi-angle views.

The T99 and TX9 are underwater capable and sports 4X optical zoom capable Carl Zeiss optics, while the WX5, which loses on the underwater capability, has 5X optical zoom and the Sony G lens.

Both WX5 and TX9 are capable of shooting AVCHD 1920x1080 (1080i) full HD video in MP4 format. The TX9 features Background Defocus that simulates the depth of field. T99 is the more budget friendly digital camera which supports 720p HD video recording at 30 frames per second in MP4 format.

Pricing of the new Cyber-shot cameras:

DSC-WX5: $300 (Rs. 14,100 approx.) - available in Black, Silver, Brown, Gold and Violet
DSC-TX9: $400 (Rs. 18,800 approx.) - available in Dark Grey, Gold and Red
DSC-T99: $250 (Rs. 11,700 approx.) - available in Black, Silver, Pink, Green and Gold

Earthquake hits Los Angeles : Twitter Celebs to the rescue.

Today morning, somtime after 5 AM, i was browsing the internet. I had twitter open, and some new tweets showed up. As usual I clicked the '2 new tweets', and there was Alyssa Milano's tweet "Earthquake.".
 
I suddenly checked out google news for any report of such an event, to find out where it had happened. But i could not find any information about such an earthquake. It was only about an hour later, news reports of the 5.9 scaled earthquake at Los Angeles started coming out.

Once again twitter has proved it strength by its quickness and wide reach. People from all over the world had known about the earthquake within minutes of the actual event. Thanks to the celebreties Alyssa Milano, Jordin Sparks, Wil Wheaton, Khloe Kardashian and Larry King and many others who thought of quickly sharing it with the people. With the twitter retweet feature, you couldnt even imagine the speed at which news is being spread.

This is not the first time twitter has come to the rescue in such situations. On 27th February this year, an 8.8 earthquake hit Chile (near Santiago). All means of direct contact, phone lines, power were all cut off. A woman (Sheryl Breuker) , who was trying to locate her sister-in-law, who was living in the quake affected area finally resorted to social media to locate her sister-in-law after all attempts of direct contact failed. Using twitter she sent messages to people in Chile using hashtags, and after a lot of retweeting, she was able to find out that her sister-in-law was safe in just 2 hours.
Read the first person account of Sheryl Breuker in her blog : Twitter – As powerful as an earthquake.
She will be ever grateful to twitter and social media.

A similar story occured on the 15th of April, when a meteor shower hit Wisconson, USA. News channels, took advantage of twitter asking people living in the locality for photos of the meteor shower.

These and many other stories tell us how valuable social media is in todays life. I hope this post will make people who think 'Internet and social media are such a waste of time' to think otherwise.

All hail TWITTER.  All hail Social Media.

Mi-Fone launches cheap dual SIM handsets in India

Mi-Fone, Africa's fastest growing mobile phone manufacturer, which launched their market in India at the start of this year, has now revealed a new cheap dual SIM handset.

The Mi-2010, as the new phone is known, is being launched in conjunction with the FIFA World Cup in South Africa

 

Let s now take a look at what the Mi2010 has inside. To begin with, this is a GSM+GSM dual SIM handset boasting of a 2.5 hour talk time and support for GPRS, WAP and MMS. It has a 1.8-inch, 65K colour, 128 x 160 LCD display and a very basic camera at the rear. Other features include a torch light and support for 64 midi / mp3 ringtones. The phone supports MP3 playback and well as FM radio. Although it is a low-end handset, there is support for memory expansion.

The MI-2010 is now available across India and has been priced at Rs. 1,999. It looks to be quite a value for money device. It should be pretty great for those who are looking for a decent secondary phone.

Mi-Fone has already launched some pretty good phones, some of them having QWERTY keyboards or analog TV and all.

[ALERT] Any USB device can be a potential threat!

Researchers have confirmed that any USB device can be used to steal your data. Even a USB Coffe warmer, or a USB vacuum cleaner.


This is owing to the Plug-and-Play feature of the USB ports. The computer trusts the USB devices highly. Whatever device is plugged in to the port, it is trusted by the computer. Moreover, it cannot detect what device has been plugged in on its own. It needs the device to tell it, and trusts whatever it tells it. If the USB webcam says that it is a keyboard, the computer will trust it.

Due to this trusting nature of USB, once the devices have been plugged in, it can perform any kind of data transfer, without raising an alarm. It can transfer viruses into your computer or it may steal your data.

For those of you who may be wondering how a USB Coffee warmer could be harmful, even devices that rely on computers only for power supply have got data lines along with power lines in their cables. These data lines are used for power negotiation.When a device is plugged in, it is at first provided with a power of 100mA, which is increased to 500mA after negotiation. If you ever wondered why your music player takes long to charge when the computer is turned off, this is the reason. Some low cost, local devices might eliminate the negotiation process, or even the data lines.

Using these data lines, any device, if programmed appropriately, can be used to steal data from your computer, or to inject harmful programs such as viruses or trojans into your computer. Data stolen from your computer maybe stored in the device itself or may be wirelessly transmitted to a remote attacker.

So the next time you plugin a USB device make sure it comes from a trusted person. You can disable your USB ports when not in use to prevent someone to plug in some USB device without your knowledge. To disable your USB port simply go to Device Manager, select the USB port from the list, right click on it and selsct 'Disable'. To re-enable, follow the same steps, only this time select the 'Enable' option.

Wiki is Down : And back up soon

The American Independence day has not been an as much enjoyable day for the people on the internet.

Hackers all round the world have been active lately. After active attacks on iTunes accounts and later on Youtube, Wikipedia has been down this morning, for a few hours.

Wikipedia is the largest online encyclopedia, with entries on almost anything. This morning Wikipedia users eager to gather knowledge, just got an error message : "Sorry! This site is experiencing technical difficulties."

Wikipedia acknowledged the trouble soon on their twitter account, saying : "Hi, everyone. We're aware that the site isnt working as usual and we're figuring out the problem now. We'll let you know more soon!"

An hour later they gave out another tweet saying that they found out the problem, which was a power failure at their Florida Data Centre.

Was this a simple power failure, or a hacker attack, we may never know for sure.

Anyway the site came back up about half an hour after the tweet.

Checkout the Wiki twitter page here.

Earler this morning, iTunes was hacked, followed by the internet's most viewed video store, Youtube.

In the Youtube hack, some videos failed to play, while some others redirected to other pages.
But most of the attack was concentrated on Justin Beiber, whom some of us are not much pleased of.

InstaLoad : Now insert batteries however you like

If you are the kind of person who finds trouble inserting batteries the wrong way? Then the solution to your troubles have been created by Microsoft.

Microsoft has developed a new battery technology, that will never allow you to insert a battery the wrong way. Simply because it works fine whichever way you insert it. This new technology has been named InstaLoad.

With InstaLoad technology, those batteries will power your devices irrespective of the direction in which you insert it. Now no need to check twice where which end of the batteries go. No searching for the '+' and '-' ends. Just insert the battery and it will work.

Pretty cool. eh?

The technology is in the new contact design. Here each side of the battery has bot positive and negative terminals, rather than a single positive or negative terminal.  If the fat, flat end of the battery is pressing against them, it touches the outside contact. If it is the pointy positive end then it makes contact with a slightly recessed inner contact. This, combined with some simple circuitry, makes sure the current is always running the right way.

This technology can be used with any type of battery, rechargeable or not. There is nothing to change in the battery. Only the contacts in the device need be changed.


 Pretty cool. eh?

Well, personally I cant understand where Microsoft is going with this. They have this far played a major role role in making people lazy. And now they are making us more lazy. Whats the big trouble in finding the ends of a battery?

I assure you, I'll spend time finding the correct ends of the battery rather than pay huge for this technology. What have I to lode anyway? A few seconds? I wouldn't care.

What would you do?

What FIFA cost the world economy.

After reading about the effects this years FIFA tournament has caused on the world economy and productivity, I could not not share it with you.

Productivity really took a deep plunge during the last month. The FIFA championship which started on June 11th and which will continue till July 11th, has cost world nations a lot in productivity. Statistics show that FIFA is the most watched sporting event in the world, followed by the Olympic games. About 80% of the worlds population watches the game, with an average of 95 Million viewers per match.

Since the start of the games, football fans and supporters have been sneaking out of work to get a glimpse of the game. Lunch breaks became longer and the number of sick leaves become larger.

Check out this image for some interesting statistics.

(Click to enlarge)

This would not have caused much in Asia due to its timing. Anyway, it has not reduced my productivity. Not because I don't watch the matches, but because there isn't much productive things I've been doing lately.