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+ ORDER, ORDER: VOICE COMMANDS FOR YOUR FAVOURITE GIZMOS

HYBRID GADGETS: YOUR DEVICE CAN NOW DO THIS AND THAT!

8 BEST NEW GAMES TO WATCH OUT FOR

February 2012 / 50 / www.gadgetsngizmos.in

R E G U L A R SLaunch Pad............................................8GG Choice............................................12Reviews ..............................................37Gaming ..............................................60

contentsGADGETS

AND GIZMOSGG

Volume 3, Number 9, for the month February 2012-March 2012

Editor-in-Chief: Aroon Purie

Editor: Chaitanya Kalbag

Executive Editor: Joel Rai

Associate Editor: Nandagopal Rajan

Assistant Editor: Nidhi Singal

Art Director: Vanita Arora

Senior Visualiser: Santosh Kushwaha

Photographer: Rajwant Rawat

Production: Surinder Hastu (Chief ofProduction), Harish Aggarwal, Vijay Sharma, Naveen Gupta

Chief Executive Officer: Ashish Bagga

Publishing Director: Malcolm D. Mistry

Associate Publisher(IMPACT): Anil Fernandes

IMPACT TEAM

SENIOR GENERAL MANAGERS (IMPACT): SonalPandey (West and South), Preeti Kohli(North), Sunil R. (Bangalore), KaustavChatterjee (East), V. Somasundaram(Chennai), Jitendra Lad (West)

SALES AND OPERATIONSCHIEF GENERAL MANAGER: D.V.S. Rama Rao

SENIOR GENERAL MANAGER (NATIONAL): Vinod Das

GENERAL MANAGER (SOUTH): Deepak Bhatt

GENERAL MANAGER (WEST): Rajesh Menon

REGIONAL MANAGER (EAST): V.A. Chotalia

GENERAL MANAGER (OPERATIONS): Rakesh Sharma

Copyright Living Media India Ltd. All rights reserved throughout the

world. Reproduction in any manner is prohibited. Printed and published by

Malcolm D. Mistry on behalf of Living Media India Ltd. Printed at Thomson

Press India Ltd., 18-35 Milestone, Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad-121007,

(Haryana), Published at K-9, Connaught Circus, New Delhi-110001. India

Today does not take responsibility for returning unsolicited publication ma-

terial.

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www.gadgetsngizmos.in

44 iPushWith the huge popularity of the iPod, iPadand the iPhone, there is an industry outthere churning out gear to boost the useful-ness of these Apple devices.

50Just atap awayNear Field Communications makes interaction betweentwo phones or devices as easy as tappingthem with each other. Soon, monetarytransactions and transfer of data could allbe facilitated by this new technology.

Technologies and products that are likely to be the highlight ofthe new year. Also, a preview from the Consumer ElectronicsShow 2012 at Las Vegas.

Hybrid gadgetsA look at the Bond gadgets, the ones that do more than what they areactually made for. Don’t besurprised if we tell you thereare quite a few around.

Order! Order!While Siri has taken the world by storm, a lot of yourown devices could actually respond to voice commands.

64AppendageA new column on thebest tablet apps across platforms. This monthwe feature the best news aggregators in theapp world.

GLACIATECH SNOWPAD

Price:

A MONTHLY WINDOW TO THE MOST RECENT LAUNCHESLaunchPad

KINESIS ONE

Price on request

8 IT Gadgets & GizmosFebruary, 2011

t might not look allthat slim, but the DellXPS 14Z is not evenan inch thick andlooks stylish, certainly

from some angles. The anodisedaluminium body looks very trendy,but the shiny metallic hinge kills thepunch with its very 1980s bling feel.

What really sets this laptop apart isthe wafer thin top cover which en-cases the 14-inch HD display withedge-to-edge glass. And it’s not justabout the size of the screen, the 720pWLED TrueLife screen really comesup with one of the crispest imagesaround with colours that do justice tothe real thing.

Despite the unit being very com-pact in its 33-cm body, the backlitchiclet keyboard is standard full sizeand spill-resistant. Users will, how-ever, have to make sure that theydon’t spill anything on the uglymetallic speaker grills that flank it—in Indian conditions, the grill is wideenough to play magnet to tonnes ofdust too. That doesn’t mean that thesound is ugly. In fact, it is one of thebest we have heard in laptops,thanks to the Waves MaxxAudiowhich is now standard in new Dell’sStudio laptops.

The XPS 14Z comes with thechoice of Intel’s second generationi5-2450M processor 2.5 GHz or i7-2640M processors and Windows 7

Home Premium or Windows 7Professional. A 4GB 1333MHzDDR3 SDRAM is standard, while an8GB option is also available. All thisexplains the solid power you feelwhile using the laptop. The NVIDIAGeForce GT 520M 1GB graphics isideal for playing games, though thislaptop is not made with hardcoregamers in mind.

The inbuilt Dell Studio applicationpresents itself in the form of a dock,showcasing your music, photos,videos and games along with otherapplications like the Zinio magazinereader. Users can add more apps andshortcuts easily, keeping the desktopclutter-free.

The multi-touchpad, again with ametallic frame, comes with scrollingand gestures and mechanicalleft/right buttons below. There is aSlot load 8x DVD +/- RW drivealong with a 7-in-card reader. Mostof the ports—including the HDMI1.4, Mini DisplayPort and USB 3.0—are all tucked away behind the chas-sis. But we are not sure it is such agood idea to have pen drives protrud-ing behind the laptop.

The 8-cell Prismatic (58WHr,2.0AHr) battery seems good enoughto ensure around six hours of life onfull usage. The laptop weighs around1.98 kg, but the starting price of

66,900 might weigh more heavilyon people looking to buy this one.

February, 2012IT Gadgets & Gizmos12

ITEXT BY NANDAGOPAL RAJAN & PHOTOGRAPH BY RAJWANT RAWAT

SLIM FITTHE BEST OF THE MONTH

GGChoice

A FULL-FLEDGED MACHINE THAT IS LESS THAN AN INCH THICKAND PROVIDES ENOUGH SATISFACTION TO THE USER.

February, 2012IT Gadgets & Gizmos 13

DELL XPS 14Z

DELL XPS 14ZPrice:

Specs: