mobility may 2013

www.mobilityindia.com 31Mobility May 2013

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32 Mobility May 2013 www.mobilityindia.com

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Content

Samsung launches two Galaxy Mega phones

Kaspersky Presents New Mobile Security Solution

Matrix Launches SATATYA NVR400 Surveillance Solution

PNY Intros Power Bank C51

Sophos Mobile Security blocks text messages with...

Canon redefines ‘Capturing and Sharing’ with Wi9Fi

Tata Comm Launches Voice Network

LG Bets Big on Futuristic Products

Gionee announces stylish “GPad-G2”

Sandisk Launches Cruzer Force USB Flash Drive

BlackBerry rolls out EMI scheme

BlackBerry Appoints Sunil Lalvani as MD for India Region

Spice Mobility Launches Android handset

KONKA Launches Smartphone ‘TUXEDO990’

Tata DOCOMO Partners with SAAVN

Zoho Launches Card Scanner App for iPhone

Lenovo Appoints Sudhin Mathur as Director-Smartphone

Samsung Launches Galaxy Grand Quattro

Zebroncs Enters Tablets Segment with Zebpad Series

Jabra Organises India Partner Conference 2013 in Goa

Micromax Launches Canvas 2 Plus

Mahindra Racing Lauches Mobile Application

Salora International ties up with Alcatel

Beam’s Mobile Services Reaches Uttrakhand Post...

Google bets big on SME and Cloud

Mobility News 20

Cover Story 4

Mobility Analysis 8

Mobility Tracking 3

Intel Not Inside Smartphones!

Is Intel Loosing the Smartphone Battle?

Samsung Trailing Apple’s Supplier Ecosystem

Smartphones are helping in Tracking people on real time basis

Mobility Enterprise 3It’s Advantage WiFi for India

Mobility Special The Concept of BYOD is Expanding Boundaries 10SmartShooting with Smartphone 12BlackBerry Goes High on Design 14The Story of Mobile Cloning 15

Smart Enterprise 16Smart Education Driving tablets Smart Devices Ahead

Mobility Focus 1810 super Apps to make you go Hmm!!

Mobility Review 27-28


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Smartphone is surely one of the fastest growing space today. It is thriving on a basic need for mobility and convergence at the end user level. The smartphones

sales in India grew over 100% (year-on-year) in 2012 to reach 20 to 22 million units. For the first time, monthly sales crossed 2 million units in Q4 and smartphones breached the USD 75 price in the same quarter. Currently in India, almost all the mobile devices available over USD 150 are smartphones.

Interestingly, both Nokia and Blackberry lost significant market share (faster than expected), Samsung continued its momentum from late 2011 into all of 2012 to lead the market (both in terms of volume and value). Indian handset OEMs such as Micromax or Karbonn started showing early signs of replicating their feature phones success (between 2009-11) in the smartphone space beginning Q3 & Q4 2012.

Among operating systems, Android dominated the Indian smartphone market in 2012, primarily led by Samsung and the growth of Indian players in the latter half of the year. While Symbian’s (S60) deceleration was relatively slow in the first two quarters, it lost significant share in the second half of the year primarily due to the lack of competitive device models and Nokia’s increased focus on ‘Asha’ series (primarily based on Symbian Series 40 OS).

To the most part of the year, Windows Phone based devices were only available in the high end, and although more affordable Nokia Lumia 610 & 510 were launched in the second half, they failed to garner significant share for the OS. Today, Apple has increased its focus on Indian market in the last quarter of 2012, with increased distribution, marketing spends, team augmentation and this has reflected in increased sales of iPhones.

Swapan Roy

India Going Bullish on Smartphones

Mobility Voice

NFC Keyboard by Elecom – The Wonder Product

Elecom has presented its Near Field Comunications driven keyboard. Near Field Communication (NFC) is a wireless connectivity technology that enables convenient short-range communication between electronic devices. NFC offers the ultimate in convenience for connecting all types of consumer devices and enables rapid and easy communications.

Features of the KeyboardEasy to Use: No Cables, No Pairing

Just place your Smar tphone on the Keyboard and start using.

Made of Silicon material: Comfortable tireless feeling

Light and Foldable : Easy to carryWorld’s first NFC KeyboardSupported OS : Android2.3.4-2.3.7

Android 4.0 or later [Caution] : This keyboard can not support Android3.x as the Tablet device cannot be placed on the keyboard.

Applied gauge : MIFARE(ISO/IEC 14443 Type A)

Key type : Silicon typeBattery Life : 1.5 Year( in-built)

ELECOM EXPERIENCE WORLDTel.: +011-41006595Email: [email protected]

EditorChoiCE

Editor : Swapan RoyChief Editor : Manoj JhaAsst. Editor : E.J. Jawahardatham

Design DeskArt Director : Anit Kumar

Acct. & FinanceFinance : Sandip Sarkar

Marketing & SalesMarketing Manager : Tridip DeyMarketing Executives : Pratap Biswas Tenzin Kunkey S. Dutt Raj KumarCirculation Manager : P. BiswasProduction : Ashish Ghosh Ashok PaulSystem Manager : Ajay Biswas

H.O.: Delhi / Editorial OfficeRoy Mediative S-39, 1st Floor, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-II, New Delhi-110020 (INDIA) Mob: 09810380882, 09811346846Ph: 91-11-41602841, 65683896, 40536384-87

Editorial Front

Redg.Off.: 38-B / 56 Block, C. R. Park, New Delhi-110019 (India).

Branch Office:Mumbai: E-mail: roy@ mobilityindia.comKolkata: 105/12B, Dum Dum Road, Sil Colony, Kolkata-74Contact: 09330922965; 09903392620E-mail : roy@ mobilityindia.comOrissa: Krushna Nagar, 5th Lane, Lalji Palli, Berhampur-760008 (Orissa) (India)Contact : Raj Kumar-09338410809 Email : [email protected] [email protected]

Mobility monthly News Paper, Printed, Published & Owned by Swapan Roy at

38-B / 56 Block, C. R. Park, New Delhi-110019 (India).

Printed at Pushpak Printer, C-96, Okhla Industrial Area-I, New Delhi-20. Retail selling

price of News Paper Rs. 20/-. Annual subscription Rs. 240.

Editor : [email protected] roy@ mobilityindia.com Marketing : [email protected] [email protected] Info : [email protected] : subscription@ mobilityindia.com

Web : www.mobilityindia.com


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Smartphones are helping in Tracking people on real time basis

Wh e n i t c o m e s t o smartphones, there are very few things that they

canot do. Well almost everything is now being pushed with the help of a smart device and this also includes tracking of people on real time basis. Phone applications, such as SpyBubble, Mobile Spy, FlexiSpy, StealthGenie and others work invisibly in the background and handle several types of espionage, including real-time location tracking. After the software is installed on an

Mobility Tracking

SmarTTraCkINg IS Here Now

already do. Privacy Check

Listening through phone microphones is not quit easy. There are people who use other people’s phones as remote microphones for listening in on conversations -- not just while they’re on calls, but even when they’re not using their phones.

That form of eavesdropping, like phone cloning, used to be a lot easier. Nowadays, it is no viable generally available software tools that make it possible to listen through a phone’s microphone when it’s not being used for a call. That said, all of the standard mobile phone spy tools listed above claim that they offer the ability to listen in on calls as they’re taking place on real time.

Reading text messages remotelyA p p l i c a t i o n s s u c h a s

SpyBubble, Mobi le Spy and other tools also letusers grab text messages, both incoming and outgoing. The messages can also be made available to law enforcement agencies by carriers -- and, presumably, they’d also be available to any hacker who can access the carriers’ databases.

Downloading dataApps l ike SpyBubble and

Mobile Spy also deliver a large number of data types from victims’ smartphones, including complete call and SMS logs, all contacts, all email, all URLs visited on a browser (including search queries, which are displayed in URLs), all photos and videos taken with phones, and more. If cheesy apps like those can do it, you can be sure that sophisticated hackers, spy agencies, organized crime groups and others can do it, too.

individual’s phone, you can watch on a map as the person roams around in town on real time basis.

But it is important to note that these apps need to be physically installed on a phone. They can’t be installed remotely, though it’s possible that the user could be tricked into installing software with similar functions. This could be done by spoofing a legitimate app.

However, a spy organization or government agency wouldn’t need to install an app on your phone to track your location. They only need to gain access to the location tracking that your wireless carriers


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Cover Story

Intel is addressing broader markets, however it is smartphone chips that are still not moving the profitability needle


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Cover Storyto make a splash in the market be enough to drive it to success?

The launch of the Orange San Diego, the first handset using an Intel Atom processor, marks a big milestone for the chipmaker: it’s finally in the smartphone market. But does the market need Intel at all?

As ARM-designed and Qualcomm-manufactured chips have carved out a big lead in mobile, Intel has a fight on its hands to make its presence felt — much like Microsoft on the operating system side. Intel has its size and resources on its side, and the market isn’t yet that old, so people shouldn’t be too quick to write it off. Even so, the chipmaker will be looking to make up for lost time.

Intel’s scale and the reach of its other divisions gives Bell’s smartphone unit a boost; for example, it can reuse code optimisations for Atom done by the desktop team. Even so, the smartphone team has got a tough job on its hands — but it’s one Intel has to tackle.

This is certainly an attack strategy for Intel. The smartphone market is so large now that they need a piece of the pie. But will consumers care whether their handset runs on an Intel chip? Bell conceded that aside from the tech-savvy, most people probably don’t know which chip is inside their phone. It’s likely, given the lack of advertising on this, that most probably don’t care — making Intel’s job even harder.

It’s a bit of a surprise that Intel is keeping to a strictly Android line for its smartphone strategy. Why not throw its weight behind Microsoft and its Windows Phone strategy? Microsoft would get another backer for its mobile OS, and Intel already has a strong relationship with the software giant on PCs.

But before the arrival of the next Windows versions, Intel still has to make an impact in the smartphone market, regardless of platform. According to a Gartner report in February, worldwide smartphone sales — not shipments — reached 472 million units in 2011, and this is only set to continue increasing throughout 2012. Intel will also be acutely aware that smartphone shipments, along with PC shipments, are seeing huge growth in countries such as China.

Emerging marketsWhile it may be difficult to form crucial

relat ionships with key manufacturers overnight, one area that Intel may have more success in is emerging markets.

Intel is late to the party, but the timing is actually pretty good, if you think of the opportunity in the emerging-market replacement cycle. Users in emerging markets will be looking to replace their first

smartphones from next year, and when doing so, will be looking for higher specifications and performance.

Atom-based smartphones could appeal to the low-to-mid range in Europe and the US too, but need to overcome the way consumers typically choose a handset.

Buyers have been educated to yearn for the newest handset or the one with the highest number of cores, and right now, that’s quad-core. Regardless of performance, to the man in the street, phones powered by Intel’s single-core chip are going to be less desirable, and therefore lower in the food chain.

The blame for this may lie with marketing rather than performance — at least, if you believe Bell’s claims that Intel’s benchmark figures for its single-core Atom chip bear favourable comparison with dual-core and quad-core processors. By getting the chip into the right handsets, though, it could overcome this.

So what’s next? Well, Motorola and Lenovo have got Intel- powered Android smartphones on the way, thought not much is being said about that right now. One thing is for sure though, Intel isn’t about to shut up shop if it doesn’t crack the market immediately. It has a pretty healthy balance sheet (PDF) and the determination to play the long game in a still-maturing market.

There’s plenty of cash on the table: and after all, Intel needs the smartphone market more than the smartphone market needs it.

Rapid GainsIntel is rapidly expanding its presence

in the media tablet market, according to analysts who believe Intel’s potential to

generate sizable profit in the tablet space is underestimated by investors.

According to senior industry insiders, Intel has a market share of more than 90 percent of Windows-based tablets. Windows-based tablets accounted for a surprising 7.5 percent of the tablet market in the first quarter, according to data released last week by market research firm Strategy Analytics Inc.

Moreover, Intel expects its tablet SoC shipments to double in the second quarter compared with the f i rst quar ter as i t continues to ramp the Clover Trail version of its Atom SoC for Windows 8 and Lexington for Android.

Second quarter tablet shipments are expected to remain essentially flat with first quarter shipments, according to Seymore. Shipments of Apple’s iPads—still the leader in market share—are expected to decline sharply, Seymore said, which impl ies significant market share gains for Intel.

Windows tablets featuring Intel’s Clover Trail Atom SoC are now available at price points as low as $449, Seymore said. These tablets largely negate any bill of materials savings offered by ARM SoCs while offering similar performance and power efficiency.

Most importantly, Android on Intel isn’t exactly the same as Android on ARM, it should be noted. Depending on how it is written, some Android apps need to converted, or “ported”, over to the Intel platform, and as a consequence there are fewer apps in the Android app store when you have an Intel device compared to when you have an ARM device.

Moving forward, one thing is certain that Intel will have to find its own space with regards to moving with the flow of tablets and converged devices segment in a big way.


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Mobility Analysis

Samsung Trailing apple’s Supplier ecosystem

Korean electronics major, Samsung’s huge in-house supply chain - providing parts from displays, processors to

memory chips and batteries - has been a huge and core strength in its war for global smartphone supremacy.

It is interesting to note that overtaking Apple as the world’s leading maker of smartphones has stretched Samsung Electronics’s in-house supply lines, and the South Korean firm is now looking at some of its rival’s main parts suppliers in China, Taiwan and even globally.

Close on the heels of costly courtroom battles over technology patents, the two

gadget giants are now going head-to-head over securing the best supply of parts as they jostle to rule the $253 billion smartphone market.

Trampling on Apple’s supply patch could make life tough for the US firm as it prepares for its next product line-up including a cheaper iPhone for emerging markets such as China. Having Samsung muscle in on its suppliers could drive up costs and lead to component bottlenecks, disrupting product launches.

Samsung’s huge in-house supply chain - providing parts from displays and powerful processors to memory chips and batteries - has been a core strength in its war for

smartphone supremacy. As it now looks to widen its lead with products spanning both the high and cheap-and-cheerful ends of the market, Samsung’s supplies have become stretched, prompting it to hunt elsewhere to ensure it isn’t caught short.

Samsung has made overtures to traditional Apple par tners such as Japanese display maker Sharp Corp and South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix. Samsung, which buys most of its mobile screens from its Samsung Display unit, last year placed orders with Sharp for high-resolution LCD screens for its popular Galaxy range of products, though it later canceled the order, said two people familiar


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Mobility Analysis

with the matter, asking not to be named as the negotiations were confidential.

Sharp, in which Samsung bought a 3 per cent stake earlier this year for $110 million, said this week it was seeking to boost sales to the Korean firm, potentially souring the Japanese company’s ties with Cupertino, California-based Apple. Samsung is also using more chips made by Qualcomm, another major Apple supplier, in its flagship Galaxy S, which went on sale late last month.

Additionally, some other suppliers who provide parts to both Apple and Samsung include Toshiba Corp in NAND memory chips, Sony Corp, in image sensors, and Corning Inc for its Gorilla Glass used in iPhones, iPads and Galaxy products, industry data show.

STMicroelectronics and Bosch, the only mass producers of pressure sensors used in navigation features, supply those parts for the Galaxy range, and could be tapped by Apple for future products.

As even a tiny overlap can be damaging as smartphones are constantly upgraded to more powerful computing and media devices - allowing users to take pictures, shoot video, play music, game online, watch TV and navigate - raising the need for more and smarter components.

For example, Taiwan’s HTC, which has slipped out of the top-10 smartphone makers, reported a record-low quarterly profit last month after delaying the full launch of its flagship model due to a shortage of cameras.

Samsung Display doesn’t produce LCDs for smartphones so as it boosts sales at the lower end of market it needs to outsource LCDs. The Korean firm uses the more expensive OLED display only on its high-end models.

Outsourcing more components could mean Samsung will lose some of its hardware differentiation - a big selling point for the Galaxy range - and be seen as just selling generic phones, say some analysts.

Losing some of its hardware appeal and taking longer than expected to come up with innovative products such as flexible or wearable devices are additional challenges for Samsung, which is getting only mixed reviews for its efforts to improve software capability to integrate better with hardware.

Despite the lukewarm reviews, consumers keep snapping up the S4, according to carriers. For the first time in at least three years, Samsung last year spent more on marketing than on research and development, seeking to pick up market share in the absence of new, competing models from Apple. And Samsung’s operating profit is seen topping Apple’s this quarter for the first time in years.

But importantly for the industry, rivals are also moving fast. LG Electronics Inc, the third-biggest smartphone maker in January-March on strong sales of its high-end Optimus G model, moving forward it is surely going to be tough road ahead that leads to the top


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When we talk about enterprise mobility, there is consumerization of enterprise mobil ity as a

growing percentage of workers are using their personal devices to access corporate resources and this is creating difficult situation for the CIOs as they find it hard to track and align their IT assets.

When these devices are not secured by Mobile Device Management (MDM), this introduces a wide range of security threats. Research suggests that this trend is only continuing to increase.

Rather than trying to mitigate this trend by further locking down corporate resources, enterprise segment is fast moving in the direction of taking advantage of this by empowering and securing the personal device for business use through Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) programs for the enterprise.

Instead of insisting that employees maintain a separate, work-dedicated device, many organizations are implementing BYOD models that enable employees to use their own device for both personal and business

purposes. Before asking employees to “Bring Your Own Device” and enabling those devices with corporate content, though, businesses need to understand a few things:

• What is BYOD and why should we enable it?

• How do we enable a successful BYOD program and what questions should we be asking?

While BYOD may not be the right solution for every corporation, it is a feasible solution for many businesses.

BYOD as a Growing Business StrategyIt is very important to note that an

increasing number of corporations are implementing BYOD programs, and more and more employees are asking their employers to consider BYOD models. Any organization interested in hiring the best talent and in staying on top of the latest and most efficient enterprise trends cannot dismiss the idea of BYOD without careful consideration.

One of the reasons that BYOD has become such a popular trend is the fact that each corporation can develop a model tailored to their unique business and employee needs. In general, BYOD programs may include the following components:

• BYOD Deployment Options: Enterprise using a BYOD model may ask all employees to bring their own devices, or they may employ a hybrid mobile deployment where the devices are a combination of employee-owned and corporate-dedicated devices.

• MDM Provider: The Mobile Device Management or MDM provider is a critical component of any BYOD program. A regular MDM enables corporations to achieve the right balance between providing enterprise security while maintaining employee convenience and privacy.

• R e i m b u r s e m e n t S t r a t e g y : Reimbursement models vary, but a popular model is for employers to simply issue a monthly stipend to employees who bring their own device.

Mobility Special

BYoD aT THe HeLm of eNTerprISe

The concept of BYOD is Expanding Boundaries for Enterprise Mobility


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Advantages of BYODBy asking employees to bring their own

device and enabling those devices with corporate content, companies can gain the following valuable resources:

• Management flexibility: BYOD eases the management burden by eliminating the need to select and manage a provider and plan.

There is no need to monitor employee telecom usage data for overages or other extras.

• Cost savings: In addition to the reduced overhead costs in managing a corporate phone plan, corporations also save money due to the lower costs associated with individually-managed call, data, and SMS plans.

• Maximized employee performance: Employees are more likely to be productive while traveling or working away from the of f ice if they are comfortable with the device.

• Greater employee contentment: Employees are often partial to a certain device platform or service provider, and

are much more content do not appreciate being forced to use a device with which they are not comfortable.

• Simplified IT Infrastructure: BYOD models eliminate or reduce the requirement for an IT administrator to administrate a mobile plan. Furthermore, BYOD reduces the strain on IT help desks since end-users wil l be primarily responsible for reaching out to their mobile provider if they need support.

Beyond these advantages to the corporation, BYOD programs have become increasingly popular among employees due to the higher level of convenience they provide:

• Employees want the freedom of choosing the type of device they use.

• Workers that already have their own device and want the convenience of only having one device.

• BYOD is an appealing recruitment incentive because the best employees

want to be able to bring their own device into the workplace.

Whether it is a small enterprise or a big Enterprise, their employees are eager to reap the benefits of BYOD programs, but despite their desire to embrace the BYOD model, both groups have lingering concerns about BYOD. While businesses are mainly concerned with maintaining security, employees are worried about preserving the convenience they need in order to work from their mobile device, and the privacy they expect regarding the personal information on the device.

Mobility Special


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SmartShooting with Smartphone

Mobility Special

In today’s scenario of radical change, photography has undergone phenomenal changes with the advent of smartphone cameras.

Now, these smart phone enabled cameras are capable of shooting fantastic images and at much of ease for the end user community.

Mobility Tips for ‘Samrtphotography’ We must understand that to be a good

photographer, first thing you need to have is the basic ability and the willingness to observe things, to step outside your comfort zone and view what the outside

world in its many shades. Especially, the way you look at

sunrises, sunsets, nature, and things around you, and then how you use your cam to shoot them determine the kind of images that you will get. For example, critically observing how light acts on profiles and faces at different hours of the day and using that observation to highlight someone’s facial features can provide some magical images. By trial and error, over time, you learn how to play with your cam. Through your smartphone manual, Internet and through peers who use these cams, you gradually learn

many more basics of photography with smartphones.

It is interesting to note that, if you do not learn basics of photography, apps will be of little use. Apps like Instagram and its filters of help only when your phone’s cam cannot handle too much variation in light and contrasts.

Here are a few basic things you need to keep in mind about taking shots with a smartphone cam:

When shooting people, get close to them, but also please respect their private space and do not cross limits without seeking their consent. Shoot


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Mobility Special

against light, but keep horizons untilted so that the distortions are kept to a minimum. Also, play with apps like Retro Camera (Android) and Hipstamatic (iOS). The Retro Camera’s (Android) Xolaroid option, for example, has a funky ‘scratched polaroid print’ feel. And do not forget to ask the posers to say cheers!

Self-portrait is usually the most complex of the images to take. Try and maneuver yourself in such a way that image comes clean. Make sure you have enough light, and if possible, set it on timer mode. Self-portraits that are processed using a sketch or mosaic app can provide to better pictures.

Taking night shots with smartphone is a tough task, since sensors are often unable to handle low light. Use flash, if taking night shot is must or when the scene cannot be missed, use your flash.

Shooting in streets is often exacting. You can just blend with a crowd, pretend checking email, and can capture unguarded moments of the people. The square frames of phone apps add a wonderful dimension to the images.

While shooting outdoors, a thing like a landscape is often best captured with the

phone’s natural cam, with no filters and no apps to alter the nature’s beauty.

Best camera focused phones Around `10,000:

Unfortunately, you cannot get a good camera-phone in this range. Within among the available in this range is Micromax A110 Canvas 2 (`10,000). Its images are adequately detailed and allow for good colors in bright environments, but low light output tends to be grainy and unclear.

Around `15,000: The Intel-powered Lava Xolo X900 (`14,499)

shoots good quality images, although the colors are a bit muted. On the plus side, it can record videos in 1080p FullHD resolution.

Around `20,000: The Sony Xperia P (`21,000) provides you

detailed pictures with clear colors. The Sony Xperia P is excellent especially in well-lit and outdoor conditions and easily matches the performance of phone cams that cost a lot more.

Around `25,000: The Nokia Pureview 808 (`25,000) with

its 40MP sensor has an excellent cam, rivaling point-and-shoots in good light conditions. But the Symbian operating system is Nokia Pureview 808’s flipside, especially without social apps like Instagram that can make sharing images fun.

Around `30,000: The Samsung Galaxy S III (`28,000)

captures detailed clear images with bright colors. With low-light mode, you can even take good images even in highly dull conditions.

Above `30,000: Given the price of the Samsung Galaxy S

III, we do not suggest any other smartphone priced higher than that. But two handsets deserve special mention. The Nokia Lumia 920 (`38,199) excels in low-light photography with its stunning camera, but again, the Windows Phone 8 operating system is limiting. And then there is the iPhone 5 (`45,000), whose cam is one of the best in the business. But its cost makes it a pricey preposition.

Apps that clickInstagram is a well-known app, but there

are some other cool smartphone photography apps that a smart shooter should know.

Camera Zoom FX: This gives that extra zing in pictures, whether it is granular control over settings like ISO and exposure or a filter effect like sepia. Additionally, the Camera Zoom FX also lets the users to bind the hardware buttons in the phone for cam functions. So it allows you

you to set the volume buttons to zoom in and out even if the default app in your cam does not support such feature.

Android | 150 Camera+: Although the iPhone has a great

cam, the app itself is quite basic and does not offer much variety. This is where Camera+ plays its role as it gives users control over several aspects, such as exposure while clicking photos, as well as allows them to use various filters and scene modes, including burst. (OS: iOS; costs `55)

Cymera: This app’s speciality is it lets you smartly touch up your portraits. Cymera’s algorithms recognize facial features and allow you to enhance eyes, widen smiles, get rid of skin blemishes, slim down features and even add a blush to cheeks - while at the same time making all look completely natural. You also have the options to choose from an array of frames and lenses, apply myriad filters and even edit your photos for brightness, contrast and saturation. You can rotate, crop and straighten; you can apply Instagram-like filters; and decorate your pictures with cliparts. (OS: Android and iOS; it is free).

Photo Studio: Instagram is not available for Blackberry, but Photo Studio is just as impressive. This free app gives access to 30 ready-to-apply photo effects, as well as basic picture-editing options such as contrast, color adjustment, hue, red eye removal, resize, etc. And then there is a set of digital frames that one can apply to his photos. An upgrade to the Pro version obviously opens up more effects and features. And you might also want to check out the app’s supported add-ons. (OS: BB OS5 and higher; it is free. Pro costs 148)

FhotoRoom: This is in fat the best editing app for Windows Phone since it is feature-rich and easy-to-use. While shooting an image, this app gives users access to grid view, exposure and flash control. As for editing, apart from basic functions like resizing and cropping, the app has several filters and options to change contrast, brightness, gamma, etc. (OS: Windows Phone; it is free).

Pixlr Express: Pixlr Express one of the most comprehensive photo app, which handles basic functions like croping and resizing as well as advanced features like defocus and ‘de-noise’ . If you want only one photo-editing app on your phone, this is what you should download. (OS: Android and iOS; it is free).

Snapseed: Snapspeed, designed specifically for the touchscreen, is an excellent photo-editing app to process images. Having been beautifully designed, it is very intuitive to use. You can change saturation, contrast, brightness and other settings by simply swiping up or down on the screen. It also features other options, such as applying borders and filters. (Android and iOS; It is free).


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Mobility Special

BlackBerry goes High on Design

Targeting the luxury segment, BlackBerry has positioned its Porsche handset for this uber cool category. According to

Ashish Gupta, Director-Marketing, BlackBerry India. “We have BlackBerry Porsche Design P’9981 which is our costliest smartphone priced at INR 1,39,000,” he added.

“The unique aspect of this magnificent device is the fact that we have integrated the distinctive design elements of Porsche with the suave design of BlackBerry. The Porsche Design P’9981smartphone from BlackBerry® which has an exclusive premium PIN, is engineered luxury at its finest and is instantly identifiable through features such as a premium forged stainless steel frame, rich, genuine leather backing, wide iconic BlackBerry® QWERTY keyboard and large, luxurious full-touch screen. The chic form factor with a fluid full-touch screen, a highly responsive touch experience, smooth rendering, fluid animations and a stunning graphical display owing to Liquid Graphics™ technology provides a unique user experience,” he explained.

The Porsche Design Smartphone is a culmination of style and functionality with exceptional look and feel which makes it a must-have partner for design-minded people, whether at work or play. Features like intuitive keyboard operations, high-speed Internet, recording HD Video, customized Wikitude World Browser makes it a device that transcends all trends and communicates a sophisticated personal attitude.

BlackBerry Porsche DesignP’9981 Porsche Design and BlackBerry launched the elite new

Porsche Design P’9981 smartphone in India in 2012.Instantly identifiable as a Porsche Design product, the exclusive material choices for this unique smartphone include a forged stainless steel frame, hand-wrapped leather back cover,

sculpted QWERTY keyboard, and crystal clear touch display. The customized Porsche Design P’9981 comes with an exclusive Porsche Design UI and a bespoke Wikitude World Browser augmented reality app experience. The smartphone also includes a premium, exclusive PIN that easily identifies the user as holder of a Porsche Design P’9981 smar tphone from BlackBerr y. The device was launched at Rs. 1,39,990/-

The Porsche Design P’9981 is built on a performance driven platform that features a 1.2 GHz processor and Liquid Graphics™ technology, which enables a highly responsive touch experience with incredibly fast and smooth graphics. It also features HD video recording, 24-bit high resolution graphics, advanced sensors enabling new augmented reality applications, and built-in support for NFC (Near Field

Communications). It comes with 8 GB of on-board memory, expandable to up to 40 GB with a microSD card.

The new Porsche Design P’9981 also comes with the latest BlackBerry 7.1 OSthat delivers a highly refined and integrated suite of phone, email, messaging and social apps. It includes a next generation BlackBerry® browser, which provides a fast, fluid web browsing experience that is among the best in the industry, and comes with a number of pre-loaded applications that keep users connected and productive throughout the day.

The Porsche Des ign P ’9981 s m a r t p h o n e from BlackBerry is avai lable at select BlackBerry P r e m i u m a n d B l a c k B e r r y Exclusive stores in India.

“Targeting the luxury segment, BlackBerry has positioned its Porsche handset for this uber cool category. We have BlackBerry Porsche Design P’9981 which is our costliest smartphone priced at INR 1,39,000.”

Ashish Gupta, Director-Marketing,

BlackBerry India


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Mobility Special

The Story of mobile Cloning

Mobile Cloning is one topic which is still of great interest. In recent years, a number of carriers in both the domestic and overseas markets have

reported one after another that certain subscribers are delinquent due to oversending of short messages. Analysis shows that the SIMs of these delinquent subscribers have been maliciously cloned and used to send a great amount of spam messages.

In such a case, even if carriers suspend the delinquent subscribers’ mobile phones and block them from using the SMS services, the malicious subscribers using the cloned SIMs can still send short messages.

Some people illegally use the cloned SIMs to send a great amount of advertising and forbidden messages, to make outgoing calls, or to surf on the Internet. Their illegal behavior cannot be stopped even when carriers suspend the mobile phones of subscribers.

What is Cloning?Cloning enables a phone to

make and receive calls that appear to be coming from another phone. Cloning used to be a lot easier. And in some countries, such as India, it’s still a widespread problem. In the old days, you needed only to get a couple of unique identifying numbers from the target phone and then enter them on a secret menu on the clone phone.

These days, it’s very difficult. If you want to get the requisite secret identifying numbers, your best bet is to hack a cellular carrier’s database or use expensive, specialized

equipment to snatch the numbers from the airwaves (a technique that also requires physical access to the SIM card).

For the petty crooks who used to clone phones in order to sell phones that could make free calls (billed to the victim), cloning is an industry in decline.

Besides, the “benefits” of cloning are largely available through other means, such as free VoIP calls, and some of the techniques I detail below.

Service ImplementationSome people clone SIMs

illegally and use the cloned SIMs to send group messages. Generally, they have short message group-sending terminals enabled in the service areas of two or more MSCs/VLRs, which is most likely to result in cloned SIMs initiating location updates with multiple VLRs simultaneously.

As the cloned SIMs perform location updates or cancel location updates with different MSCs/VLRs alternatively, a VLR may have stored the data of certain cloned SIMs, but the VLR address is not recorded in the HLR. In this case, these cloned SIMs are out of control.

The illegal subscribers with the out-of-control cloned SIMs can send group messages or make calls without restriction, even if mobile phones of subscribers whose data is stored in the HLR.

The cloned SIM control solution to monitor the out-of-control cloned SIMs. In the CS domain, if the HLR receives multiple location update requests from one SIM at the same time, it processes only the first subscriber’s request and denies all the subsequent requests. In this way, the subscriber data is stored in only one VLR at a moment.

In the PS domain, if the HLR receives multiple GPRS location update requests from one SIM at the same time, it processes only the first subscriber’s request and denies all the subsequent requests. In this way, the subscriber data is stored in only one SGSN at a moment.


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SmarT eDuCaTIoN, SmarT DevICeS

Smart education Driving tablets, Smart Devices ahead

As technology is set to enable better applications, schools, colleges and universities are

increasingly spending more money on convergence friendly devices such as tablets, smartphones and other mobile PCs in order to drive better education for their set of students.

Experts feel that within the education landscape the overall spending on IT is on the rise. Total universe spend in the global education technology market in 2012 increased 23% to $11.6 Billion, from 2011. This is a strong result compared to other markets and considering the pressure on education budgets across the world.

According to research agencies, the worldwide value of the global education technology market will eventually spiral to $21 billion by 2017, a compound annual growth rate of 12% from 2012.

So, where is this significant increase coming from? Well , mobile is the straightforward answer. Experts say that the mobile PC market now accounts for

$6.8 billion (or 59%) of education’s total spend on new hardware, which is a small but significant increase from 51% last year.

That jump may be down in part to the proliferation of iPads and other tablets in the education space, with the researcher noting that a number of schools and colleges have moved to introduce “one to one learning programs” with iPads and iPad minis over the last 12 months, especially in the U.S. districts where iPad sales have taken a major budget share.

That’s not to say that other regions are also not also key to this growth, however. The report reveals that there are “significant” tablet projects underway in Thailand, Turkey, Brazil, Korea and India, with one researcher adamant that these emerging markets will likely to help tablet sales to double in K-12 schools this year.

Tablet sales into K-12 exceeded 3.5 million units in 2012, a growth of 340% on 2011. Sales are expected to double again in 2013, to reach close to 7 million.

Major nationwide tablet projects in

South Korea, Thailand , Turkey and Brazil will contribute to this growth, as well as continuing strong demand from schools and school districts in the US and UK.

Education will be a critical determinant of success for communities in the 21st century, just as land was key to agrarian societies and capital investment was critical to industrial economies. Schools, colleges and universities define a society’s long term health and prosperity, educating the workers and leaders of tomorrow. Academic researchers are developing the knowledge and science of the future. However, the challenges facing education systems are daunting - changes in technology, commerce, politics and demographics demand new approaches to teaching and learning. Education for a Smarter Planet investigates some of the major trends impacting education and the transformative strategies that can help position institutions for the future.

The “educational continuum” is a more interconnected, instrumented and intelligent system for education that

Smart Enterprise


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provides a continuum of learning for citizens throughout their lifetimes and positions them to contribute to their communities and economies.

On the one hand, deep integration of new learning technologies into classrooms requires substantially rethinking pedagogy, curriculum, assessment, and teacher practice.

For technology to make a real difference in student learning, it can’t just be an add-on. On the other hand, teachers need to start somewhere, and one of the easiest ways for teachers to get experience with emerging tools is to play and experiment in lightweight ways: to use technology as an add-on.

Teachers need to imagine a new future—to build towards the benefit of their students—and teachers also need new activities and strategies to try out innovatively. Both pathways are important to teacher growth and meaningful, sustained changes in teaching and learning.

Consumption

One of the signature challenges of the surge of interest in mobility devices such as iPads or tablets is helping educators imagine the device as more than a library of books or a rolodex of apps, but as a flexible, mobile device for creating multimedia performances of understanding.

Educators using iPads should start by thinking about how the device can foster critical reading of text, images, audio, and film, but consumption should be the point of departure on a journey towards more active student engagement.

To oversimplify, there are two kinds of reading that students are asked to do in school settings: focused and connected. In the focused reading mode, we hope young people will engage deeply with a text.

Focused and connected modes of reading are both vital, but they require different habits, disciplines, and settings, and they serve different ends.

In the connected reading mode, we ask students to treat texts as nodes in a network of information. We ask them to quickly synthesize multiple readings and websites in research projects. To follow contemporary media narratives, like the recent violence in Boston, they trace stories across Twitter hashtags, livestreams of police scanners, blog posts, and newspaper articles.

We ask them to read in communal settings, leveraging social technologies to allow users to share notes, highlighted passages, questions, and ideas.

In an extreme form of this connected reading, Diana Kimball, a Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, has formed a “24-hour book club” where groups sign up to read the same book in a 24-hour period, using Twitter to share reactions, favorite passages, questions, hunches, and insights.

Focused and connected modes of reading are both vital, but they require different habits, disciplines, and settings, and they serve different ends.

Most emerging technologies for the iPad support connected reading experiences rather than focused reading experiences. SubText allows teachers to place students in to reading groups, where they can share notes, highlight passages, ask questions, engage in discussions, and respond to teacher prompts.

Reading becomes a shared, communal act, not just in classroom discussion but during the experience of reading. For collaborative research, Zotero’s web interface works great on tablets, and the tool helps groups and individual students organize diverse sources for research projects and manage bibliographic information.

A great summer project for literature or history teachers would be to explore some of these new tools and imagine how differentiated reading experiences in classes could be more social, how literature circles or book groups could collaborate in reading at home and then discuss their insights together in class.

Tablets already have tools to help reimagine connected reading, but

features or apps that scaffold focused reading experiences seem further off. E-reading apps may eventually collect data about students as readers, providing some insights around pace, focus, and attention.

For instance, eye-tracking and usage-tracking tools could provide measures of student reading engagement, allowing teachers to help students set goals around sustained reading. For Monday, however, it will be practices rather than apps that help students develop the capacity to read deeply.

To help students learn sustained concentration—there isn’t an app for that, yet. In the meanwhile, students need to learn both habits of mind for disciplined reading and how to control their technology environment to minimize distraction.

Actually shutting down all apps before reading can be a kind of ritual of concentration, like clearing way books and papers from a desk before sitting down to read.

If the purpose is focused reading, then students need to learn to recognize every move away from the text and into another online space as a distraction from sustained engagement. If the purpose is connected reading, students need to recognize how to strike the right balance between exploring a networked of hyperlinked texts while not wandering away from the core purpose of one’s reading.

The first step in helping students developing these skills is naming “attention” as a skill: having students reflect metacognitively on their attention strategies and weaknesses and think about how best to exercise their own attention muscles.

Students can also learn to create a digital environment conducive to concentration. For iPads, iOS 6 has a Guided Access feature designed to help people get stuck inside a particular app. Somewhat hidden under the “Accessibility” menu in the General Settings, Guided Access allows users to “lock in” to a particular app, disable all notifications, and require a password to log out.

It cannot disable distraction, but it can set it a few more clicks away. (If you have a toddler, this is also a helpful way of keeping them from accidentally logging out with the Home button or swiping to a new app). Actually shutting down all apps before reading can be a kind of ritual of concentration, like clearing way books and papers from a desk before sitting down to read. It is also more slightly more difficult to jump into a game that needs to load or a web browser preloaded with interesting pages. Such are the 21st century methods of creating a clear desk for reading.

Tablets drive Student Management System

The Solution• A more efficient classroom environment by connecting the E-Board

and mobility devices• Greater student engagement by remotely controlling the students’

devices• Multiple functionalities such as sharing study resources via

learning management system

Challenges• Interesting learning environment for mobile-savvy students• Continued learning outside the classroom through access to

multiple resources• Seamless integration of multiple number of devices, content and

solution for a smart learning environment

Advantages• Efficient learning with improved concentration of students• Active communication through Q&A with the help of mobility

devices• Resource-sharing, Q&A, quizzes, surveys, assignment submission,

student assessment supported with the help of mobile devices

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10 super apps to make you go Hmm!!

Mobility Focus

At a time when people look at increasing their productive from smart devices, we are presenting selected applications that are sure to score well above the average app.

#1 SeamlessThis Smartphone a p p s i m p l y introduces itself saying, “We exist to make hungry people happy.” It is called Seamless and he lps you t a ke away t h e pain to order your desired meal from a restaurant.

Once upon a time, ordering food from outside would have given you a second thought. You had to look up

online for menus or call up to a nearby restaurant and speak to someone who would be the busiest to take as many orders for the day.

But now Seamless keeps away with all the jumbling as this Smartphone app will only need your thumb to order dinner, from any of the restaurants, taking only two minutes of your time. 30 minutes later, it all shows up at your doorstep. Isn’t it magic!

#2 Evernote

If life makes you busy every time, it is a major concern to remember every important situation. Evernote makes it easy in

your case. This Smartphone app helps you remember everything, right from the food you like, to the gifts you should buy and the weekend invite you have.

Evernote provides clearly labeled notebooks, to help you search all of this.

Users can even capture images of a hand-written note and the words on the note are searchable later.

The app is also aware of your calendar wherein if you have a meeting, it will automatically label notes you need during that meeting. Now you have a smart memory!

#3 ClearClear is here to make your m e s s y l i f e breathtakingly s i m p l e . Yo u r c o m p l i c a t e d tasks of the day will go on with relief as Clear will take a note of what you need to do every day. You can list out the foods you prefer to eat this weekend and the friends you need to call and wish

and you are easily reminded of all of them.

#4 UberIf you are struck in a lonely place and your house is at a distance,


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Arvind Bali, Director and CEO, Videocon Mobile Services

Mobility Focusyou would better need a drop or some assistance to lead you back home safely. Smartphone apps understand that too!

Uber helps you summon a taxi with a touch of your thumb and you can reach your desired location as the cab driver shows up to drop you.

#5 FantasticalAt times we have the horrible habit of forgetting that we need to go somewhere. But this would no longer happen if we download Fantastical - a calendar app.

Fantastical has a nice User Interface, making it easy to schedule something with it.

You can simply type in a reminder and the app will know what it exactly means and creates a standard alert based on the way you have set it in your preferences.

#6 Block Fortress

You may have great messenger apps and games to keep your time flying.

But before it’s too late, you may get bored of it. Though you may have innumerable games in your list, Block Fortress

is something you need to try out. This ‘turn-based tower defense game’ turns into a first-person shooter. With every turn, you set up your defense for an attack of enemies. Finally with a press of a button you drop down into the fortress you just built and start fighting again.

#7 CardMunch

In an age of Google and LinkedIn, Business cards may seem kind of outdated. But this app can help you carry them based on some technology. When someone hands over a business card, all you need to do is capture an image of it with your app and it gets uploaded to the cloud. Then someone somewhere will add inputs on to the card. So the next time you open CardMunch, you have that person’s contact in a digital address book and together both are connected on LinkedIn.

#8 PayPalWhen you want to split a check or put some money into a fantasy sports

pot, PayPal is the easiest app to help you out. You have to just open it up, type in the email address for the person and send the money to be paid.

#9 Merrill LynchMerrill Lynch is an on l ine app for iPhone, iPad and BlackBerry. Once of a time depositing checks online was a pain as you had to mail them in. But this app makes it simple for you. You need to capture an image of your check and it gets deposited. The app also helps you check balances and perform transactions anytime.

#10 PodcastsApple’s default podcast app is lovely after all. The app features podcast playback and management component as well as a ‘store’. You can also click on a podcast episode to stream it on to your phone or download it to your device. You can subscribe it as well.


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Samsung launches two Galaxy Mega phones

Samsung has launched its Galaxy Mega smartphone in India. One

has a 5.8-inch screen and another has a 6.3-inch screen (diagonally).

The 5.8-inch screen version costs ̀ 25,100, while the 6.3-inch screen version will cost `31,490.

K e y t e c h n i c a l spec i f i ca t i ons o f t he Galaxy Mega 6.3 are as follows: It runs Android 4.2 version of Jelly Bean. The smartphone has an 8 megapixel rear camera and a 1.9 megapixel front camera. The device supports NFC, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and 3G networks. It has 8GB Internal Memory, with a

PNY Intros Power Bank C51

PN Y Te c h n o l o g i e s ( P N Y ) considered one of the worldwide

leader in consumer electronics market and Flash products, launched the latest portable backup battery series for smart devices - PNY Macaroon Power Bank C51.

There is hardly a mobile phone

Kaspersky Presents New Mobile Security Solution

Matrix Launches SATATYA NVR400 Surveillance Solution

Matrix Comsec, a manufacturer of enterprise security solutions, introduces an IP-based Surveillance Solution - SATATYA NVR400. This

strengthens its portfolio of Video Surveillance products which already have DVRs and cameras. Matrix is intending to promote the product in domestic and international market simultaneously, considering the growth that security market offers. With the launch of SATATYA NVR, the video surveillance portfolio of Matrix has become more stronger.

Sophos Mobile Security blocks text messages with malicious URLsAndroid is the world’s most popular smartphone operating system (OS),

and according to comScore, it claims more than 50 percent of the market. With that kind of user base, it’s no wonder that Android is an increasingly popular target for malware and SMiShing (SMS phishing).

To help combat this growing threat, Sophos has introduced the latest version of its free Android security app, Sophos Mobile Security. Sophos Mobile Security now includes SPAM filter capabilities for text messages and calls. The filter rules can block specific phone numbers and calls with a hidden caller ID, as well as text messages with potential malicious URLs. Every incoming call or text message is scanned by the app’s Spam Protection feature and the active filter rules are applied successively. Blocked calls and text messages are

logged in the Quarantine folder, where they can be restored as needed.

“People trust their persona l dev ices , but security requires vigilance,” said Chris Hazelton, research d i r e c t o r , M o b i l e & Wireless for 451 Research. “Gone are the days when hackers merely distributed m a l w a r e v i a a p p stores; these days, consumers are seeing growth in text spam and malicious URLs sent directly to their phones.”

micro SD slot which has 64GB as maximum limit.

The Mega 5.8 has pretty much the same specifications except that it has a 1.4Ghz dual-core processor and yes, a 5.8-inch screen. The 5.8 inch device is a DUAL-SIM smartphone.

The 6 .3- inch version smartphone camera comes loaded with features which are similar to the ones in Galaxy S4. These include Sound and Shot, Dual-Photos, Story Album, etc.

these days that can go on for more than a day before its battery goes flat. Worry not, because charging your mobile phone with PNY Power-C51 is convenient and it refills the battery power of most mobile phones by up to three times more without having to charge from its own charger.

Mobility News

Chris Hazelton, research director, M o b i l e & Wi r e l e s s f o r 4 5 1 Research

Kaspersky Lab announces the release of the new version of Kaspersky Mobile

Security, a dedicated security solution for Android-based smartphones. The product comes with a brand new tool for checking suspicious links in text messages and a new Alarm feature that helps find lost smartphones.

Users can now get a free, fully-featured product from a leading security vendor, without compromising on features or speed. The paid-for version of Kaspersky Mobile Security includes several features that automate and enhance the anti-malware and privacy functions, and users can upgrade from the free version directly from their smartphones.


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Canon redefines ‘Capturing and Sharing’ with WiFi

Canon India Pvt. Ltd., India’s No. 1 Complete Digital Imaging Company, announced the launch of its new range of Wi-Fi-enabled cameras ensuring

a strong foothold in social networking in presence of famous Bollywood actress and brand ambassador, Anushka Sharma in New Delhi.

5 out of 12 new models are wifi –enabled expanding the range to 9 wifi models in India. These Wi-Fi compacts are designed to provide a richer visual communication experience & ushering in a new meaning for ‘Capturing-Connecting-Storing-Sharing’. These 9 Wi-Fi-enabled cameras in the enhanced camera portfolio allow for quick sharing and uploading of images and HD videos to social networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. New changes to Canon’s Wi-Fi interface make it extremely easy to connect to wireless networks and mobile devices.

Speaking at the launch, Mr. Kazutada Kobayashi, President and CEO, Canon India stated, “India is a prime market for Canon and it is imperative for us to keep introducing high-end technology to stay ahead in such a competitive market. Success of futuristic technology only adds onto the confidence to experiment and helps a brand to provide its customers with a promising and unusual experience.”

LG Bets Big On Futuristic Products

LG Electronics showcased its diverse range of futuristic products at LG Tech Show- 2013, its first ever technology spectacle in India. LG displayed

advanced line-up of cutting edge technology and innovative products across categories.

Amongst the displayed products was, World’s first 55-inch OLED TV, Pocket Photo Printer, Aramid Home Theatre, X Boom audio system, the largest capacity Laundry washing machine, LG’s PC line-up of Tab-Book-H160 & LG Z360 Ultrabook and Optimus G Pro.

Mr. Soon Kwon- Managing Director–LG Electronics India said, “Technology and innovation are key factors behind LG’s success. We want to further strengthen our business with a target of 20% overall growth in 2013.”

The company also showcased another innovation called the LG PD233 Pocket Photo, a smart mobile printer. This portable printer can be connected to smartphones or tablet- PCs with Bluetooth, NFC or an USB stick. The perfect smartphone companion delivers high quality photo prints and provides excellent wireless connectivity, making it the ideal companion for both Android and iOS smartphones.

Tata Comm Launches Voice Network

Tata Communications launched its international HD voice termination service. The new service enables MNOs to route international HD calls via

end-to-end IP, without transcoding, ensuring that HD customers calling HD-compatible destinations internationally will receive the full HD experience.

The launch will become the platform that enables a broad community of HD destinations as a result of Tata Communications’ network which is connected to 210 mobile network operators via IP voice interconnect. Twenty-six of these operators are HD-ready with 4 operators already in deployment for HD Voice on Tata Communications’ network.

Gionee announces stylish “GPad-G2”Gionee has been on a launching spree ever since it entered the India Market.

The G Pad – G2 is its 10th product introduced to the Indian consumer over the last 75 days. The specialized mobile device design company further consolidated its entry in the Indian smart phone market with the launch of its stylish 5.3’ Inch GPad-G2.

The GPad-G2 at 9.9 mm is powered with a lightning fast 1.2 GHz Quad Core Processor. With a 5.3” Inch QHD True Color display and super smooth multi – touch interface with an Android OS v4.1 Jelly Bean. GPad-G2 has an 8 Mega Pixel Auto Focus with LED flash back camera.

Additional features like face detection enable a superior picture capturing experience. The camera experience is further enhanced with 720p Video recording option and a brilliant 2 Mega Pixel Front facing camera. The 3G capability makes the device the ultimate choice for on move data consumers.

Mobility News


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Mobility NewsBlackBerry Appoints Sunil Lalvani as MD for India Region

BlackBerry announced the appointment of Mr. Sunil Lalvani as Managing

Director for India. With the appointment, Mr. Lalvani will be responsible for overseeing and driving the overall business strategy and growth for BlackBerry in India. Sunil Lalvani is an industry veteran with over 20 years of extensive experience in the telecom sales and networking sector. Sunil had been with BlackBerry since 2009, spearheading Enterprise Sales in India prior to his appointment as Managing Director.

Commenting on his appointment, Mr. Sunil Lalvani said, “BlackBerry is driving

the adoption of its next generation of mobile computing platform with BlackBerry 10, and India is a key market for growth of the powerful platform. As I take up this new role, our focus will be to drive differentiated solutions for consumers and enterprise customers in India, providing a unique mobility experience that harnesses the full range of the BlackBerry offering.”

BlackBerry rolls out EMI scheme

Sandisk Launches Cruzer Force USB Flash Drive

BlackBerry announced the introduction of new EMI Schemes, for‘BlackBerry Z10’ and ‘BlackBerry Curve 9220’ devices in India. Customers can now

buy the BlackBerry Z10 via their credit cards (Axis Bank, Citibank, HDFC bank, HSBC, ICICI Bank, Kotak, SBI Card and Standard Chartered) by paying an EMI of Rs 4799 per month for 9 months. A similar scheme for BlackBerry Curve 9220 is available where customers can use their credit card to buy the device and pay an EMI of `799 per month for 12 months.

Both the schemes have the unique feature of Rs.0 down payment, 0% processing fee a n d 0 % i n t e r e s t and the plan will be rolled out in 3000 BlackBerry outlets across the country by this weekend. On top of it all Idea Cellular customers can avail a full 1-year unlimited data plan at just `999/year in 8* circles. The implementation of this scheme will be faci l i ta ted and overlooked by the financing companies and the carriers will have no role in the process.

The launch of this plan reasserts BlackBerry’s commitment to make smartphone experience more accessible and affordable to the masses, especially the upwardly mobile youth. The whole proposition of availing the premium experience of BlackBerry Z10 or Curve 9220 by paying a nominal EMI per month is definitely very lucrative and will definitely attract potential customers. List of 8 circles: Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh

SanDisk Corporation, a provider of flash memory storage solutions,

has introduced the Cruzer Force USB flash drive, designed with a stylish and durable metal casing. Combining fashion and function, the ultra-thin Cruzer Force USB flash drive lets you carry your important data wherever you go and keep your private files private while leaving the rest of the drive available for sharing.

“Wi th a l a rge portfolio of product l i n e s , w e c a t e r to a wide range of consumers from students to professionals who demand high performance USB flash drives. Our complete USB range helps consumers enjoy a smart digital

lifestyle, anytime, anywhere,” said Manisha Sood, Country Manager and Director, India and SAARC, SanDisk Corporation.

Carry Your Data Wherever You Go: Consumers can store

their data with ease on the Cruzer Force USB flash drive, which comes in a

sleek metal design: 1. Slim and sleek form

factor USB flash drive in an exquisite polished metal

finish, 2. Reliable storage for photos, videos, music and other

files, 3. Store more with capacities up to 32 GB, 4. Protect and secure private files with included SanDisk SecureAccess software, and 5. 5-year warranty

Spice Mobility Launches Android handset

Spice Mobility Ltd has announced the launch of its Spice smart Flo

Pace2 Mi 502 smartphone for a price of Rs 6,999. According to market reports, Spice smart Flo Pace2 Mi 502 with a dual SIM comes with a combo pack of free leather case and screen guard and worth Rs 500, sports a 5-inch WVGA (480×800 pixels) capacitive touchscreen and a 5 megapixel rear camera with dual LED Flash and 1.3 MP front camera.

Smart Flo Pace 2 Mi-502 is merely 9.6 mm in width, runs on Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 and is powered by a 1 GHz Dua l Core Processor a n d

512MB of internal storage that is expandable up to 32GB via microSD card. The device comes preloaded with popular apps such as

Hoopz, Nimbuzz and WhatsApp.Though Spice smart Flo Pace2 Mi

502 is not 3G compatible, it has varied connectivity options including EDGE/GPRS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Micro USB and proximity sensor. The device is backed by a 2100mAh battery which gives a talk-time of more than 5 hours

and a standby t i m e

o f u p

t o 2 8 0 h o u r s .

Spice Smart Flo Pace 2 Mi-

502 key specs: 5” WVGA screen,

Resolution of 480 X 800 pixels, Android 4.0

Ice Cream Sandwich, Dual-SIM, 2G + 2G, 1 GHz dual-core

processor, 512 RAM, 512MB of internal storage, Expandable up to 32GB via microSD card, 5 MP rear camera with dual LED flash,1.3 MP front facing camera, 2100 mAh battery, Wi-Fi, Edge, Bluetooth 4.0, AGPS.


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Mobility News

Tata DOCOMO partners with SAAVN

Tata DOCOMO, the unified telecom brand of Tata Teleservices,

announced a tie-up with SAAVN, one of the mobile music applications. With this tie up, Tata DOCOMO becomes the first mobile operator in India to launch International music via SAAVN along with a one of a kind Music led data plan for its subscribers. With this tie up, Tata DOCOMO 2G and 3G prepay GSM subscribers shall now have exclusive access to International music content from Saavn and a special data plan to stream music like never before on their mobiles.

The offer will be available for GSM Prepay customers as of now and will be

part of the Tata DOCOMO Internet Plus campaign on Android, iOS and feature phones through WAP. Also Subscribers recharging with select 2G packs shall also be provided with 100 MB of Free data to stream Saavn music.

Mr Rishi Mohan Malhotra, Head VAS – Tata DOCOMO said, “This offering is targeted at music lovers who have a distinct appetite for on-the-go music streaming on their mobile devices and the sheer variety offered by Saavn shall cater to almost every mood. With this tie up, we simultaneously offer exclusive international music on Saavn as well as a Internet plan to consume it directly via streaming.”

Zoho Launches Card Scanner App for iPhone

Zoho announced the launch of Card Scanner, an online business

card scanning application for Zoho CRM. Now, users can take a photo of a business card and Card Scanner intelligently converts the image to text that is automatically saved either as a new contact or lead in Zoho CRM or as a new contact in Card Scanner. Card Scanner currently supports the iPhone and will support iPad and Android devices going forward.

With the launch of Card Scanner app, Zoho users can now eliminate the process of manually entering data into their CRM module.The Card Scanner extracts names, company in fo rma t ion , phone numbers, email addresses, Twitter

KONKA Launches Smartphone ‘TUXEDO 990’KONKA, the consumer electronic and mobile phone brand with a group turnover of USD 3 billion has announced the launch of its smart phone “Tuxedo 990” in collaboration with MAK Mobility Private Limited for the distribution of the Smartphone series in India. The company introduced this technological

marvel targeting the business class people.

Tuxedo 990 looks and feels premium and pumps out vibrant colours and has great viewing angles. The 12.7cm (5”) super LCD screen with IPS display would never let the user miss a detail. The IPS advantage gives better viewing angles with clear images and stable response time. This gives smooth and rich browsing experience. Faster and better work is also complimented by the fact that IPS panels in Tuxedo do not lighten or show tailing effect when touched. Konka provides smart hands free along with the phone. Smart Stay is one of very useful and unique features on Konka Tuxedo. This features turn the front camera as intelligent camera and the Tuxedo screen keep alive as long as your are looking on the its

screen. Users will find photo burst mode to shoot a series of photos one

after the other. One can also view two pictures or videos simultaneously on Tuxedo Smartphone.

Tuxedo 990, considered among one of the most powerful business tools by Konka is all set to be the new code of business dressing. On the launch of Mr Li Hongtao, Chairman of KONKA Telecom, said “In business, the accessories you carry can make all the difference and with the launch of Tuxedo, we are pitching it right. We see big opportunity in the Smartphone segment in India which contributes 25% by value and 10% by units sold.”

Lenovo Appoints Sudhin Mathur as Director-Smartphones

Lenovo India announced t h e a p p o i n t m e n t o f

Sudhin Mathur as Director- Smartphones for India. Based out of Gurgaon, Sudhin will be responsible for steering the company’s aggressive growth strategies for Smartphones in India. Sudhin has over 20 years of rich experience in Business Management and Consumer Marketing in varied industries, viz. Telecom, Services and Office Products. His core expertise lies in driving P&L results via brand building, retail business management, sales and distribution, people and organization strategies.

Announcing the appointment, Amar Babu- Managing Director, Lenovo Indiasaid, “We welcome Sudhin into Lenovo’s senior management team. While building on our existing competitive strengths in PCs, we are rapidly and aggressively becoming a PC+ company beyond simply driving market share, to fostering greater innovation that sets us apart as a PC+ leader. Sudhin’s track record for growing mobile phone brands and establishing them as leading players will aid our growth in India.”

handles and other card information — regardless of business card size, font and format. Users who do not use Zoho CRM can store card information in the Card Scanner’s native contact manager.

Commenting on the occasion, RajuVegesna, Chief Evangelist, Zoho said, “Entering data manually into any CRM application is a daunting task. Automating this process and making it simple for our users is the primary idea behind the launch of our new mobile app for Zoho CRM-–Card Scanner. The App lets users save business cards on their iPhone while at meetings, events, conferences and trade shows – thus saving time and digitizing the process.”


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Zebronics Enters Tablets Segment with Zebpad SeriesTop Notch Infotronix, India’s leading supplier of products and accessories for Computers, Consumer Electronics and Communication under the brand ‘ZEBRONICS’ has entered into the fast-growing tablets segment with the introduction of its Zebpad series of tablets.

The first of the company’s tablets to become available, the Zebpad 7c and the Zebpad 9c, feature 7-inch model comes with 800x480 pixels resolution supporting a 5-point, capacitative touch-screen. Powered by a 1GHz Cortex A8 processor and a Mali-400MP 3D GPU for smooth video rendering and running on the Android 4.0.4 ICS operating system, jelly bean update coming soon. Both the models are dual-camera tablet sporting a 2-megapixel rear camera and a VGA f ron t shooter.

Wi t h i n - b u i l t Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and the capability to link up 3G network via external USB dongle, they keep you connected anywhere – while the 3200 mAH battery (a feature not found in other similarly priced tablets), ensures true on-the-go functionality without the need for frequent re-charging. Another unique feature is the humongous 8GB built-in memory, letting you carry your favourite multimedia content and multiple apps. The memory can be further expanded up to 32GB through the micro SDHC slot.

“It is the perfect time for Zebronics to deliver a new generation of tablets that should go beyond expectations, high on performance as well as looks, giving users a rich personalized experience,” added Pradeep Doshi. “The new launch in this category reflects Zebronics long expertise in merging intuitive, easy-to-use visual and mobility-focused hardware with exceptionally smart technologies and will deliver on the promise of the category at an unmatchable price.”

Samsung Launches Galaxy Grand QuattroSamsung Electronics, a smartphone provider in India, announced the

launch of the Samsung GALAXY Grand Quattro, a new addition to the Galaxy Grand series launched earlier this year. With an expansive 11.9 cm display, the dual SIM GALAXY Grand Quattro provides the user with a power packed experience which enables them to seamlessly multi task between applications.

Announcing the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Grand Quattro, stated Mr Vineet Taneja, Country Head, Samsung Mobile, “Galaxy Grand Quattro is a revolutionary device that combines powerful performance with smart multi tasking and advanced usability .Following the success of the Galaxy Grand introduced in January this year , we are confident that the Galaxy Grand Quattro will meet the needs of consumers looking for the ‘Grand’ experience in a slightly smaller display.”

Powered by 1.2GHz Quad-Core processor and Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) operating system, the Samsung GALAXY Grand Quattro provides the user with a power packed experience which enables them to seamlessly multi task between applications. The device

comes with a 5MP camera which the users with enhanced photo taking features such as Continuous Shot, Best Photo, Color Effect for enhanced photo-taking capabilities.

With the launch of this device, Samsung now offers a range of 14 Smartphone models priced in the range between Rs. 5990 and Rs. 41,500/-.

Jabra Organises India Partner Conference 2013 in Goa

Jabra, a provider of hands-free communications solutions, successfully concluded its first ever Jabra India Partner Conference. Celebrating the

power of partnership in 2012, Jabra used the conference to enable, equip and recognize its top Indian channel partners. The conference took place at the Goa Hyatt resort and followed another year of outstanding growth for the company.

Jabra and its partners achieved high double digit growth in the Unified Communications (UC) segment of the India market during 2012. This growth for UC optimized audio end point products was driven by the deployment of Microsoft, Cisco and Avaya UC solutions in large multi-national corporations, call centres and various Indian Government linked entities. These customers were looking for best in-class audio solutions for interconnection with many different devices including smartphones, tablets, hard and softphone clients and personal video – allowing an increasingly mobile workforce to work from anywhere.

Mark Leigh, President of Jabra Asia Pacific, commented, “The Conference and awards recognize the solid performance our partners delivered in India in 2012. Experiencing such a successful year clearly demonstrates why Jabra believes so strongly in the power of partnership.”

Micromax Launches Canvas 2 Plus

The Micromax A110Q Canvas 2 Plus runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and has a 5-inch (12.7

cm) IPS screen with 480x854 resolution. This smartphone has an 8.0 megapixel rear camera with dual led flash and a 2 megapixel front camera. The phone can record and play 720p video.

The A110Q Canvas 2 Plus has 1GB RAM and 4 GB ROM, and 1.4GB storage space for apps and 1GB for mass storage and supports 32GB of expandable memory. The phone has a 2000 mAh battery.

Micromax launches A110Q Canvas 2 Plus, a 1.2 GHz quad-core phone at Rs 12,100


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Mobility NewsMahindra Racing Launches Mobile Application

This new mobile application has been developed for Mahindra Racing by Mahindra Satyam, and integrates

the results, entire galleries, and social media streams of the team seamlessly via one single mobile platform.

Key features of the Mahindra Racing Android based application include: Race Results, Image Galleries, Bike

Specifications, Race Calendar and Race Count Down Widget, Social Media Integration – Facebook / Twitter, Newsletter delivered through the application, Information about the Team / Riders, Press Releases, and Calendar notifications for Races, Image sharing on different platforms (Facebook / Twitter / WhatsApp etc).

Google bets big on SME and CloudGoogle India announced new

affordable pricing for Google Apps for Business, with the aim of making it easier for small businesses in India to reap the benefits of working in the cloud. New and existing customers based in India will now pay INR 150 per user per month if they’re on the flexible plan, and INR 1500 per user per year on the annual plan — a 45% reduction on the previous price.

The power of the web to help small businesses goes beyond

hav ing a webs i te o r us ing advertising solutions, it also gives them access to secure and flexible cloud based communication and collaboration tools like Google Apps for Business.

Google Apps of fers easy solutions for web mail, calendars, cloud storage, and video meetings through Google’s consumer products, Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, and Hangouts. These tools work together seamlessly, and all that’s needed to get up and running is an Internet-connected device. Companies can securely access all their data and services from a mobile phone including Android, iOS, or BlackBerry platforms.

Many businesses in India are already experiencing the benefits of working in the cloud with Google Apps. As Karan Doshi, IT commercial head and project manager, Nilkamal explains “The move has resulted in productive work, rather than server maintenance. With Google Apps, we have a feature-rich solution that comes with the added benefits of improved reliability and reduced IT maintenance and costs.”

Salora International ties up with Alcatel

Salora International Limited, a manufacturer and distributor in the Indian consumer electronics

industry, entered into a strategic partnership with Alcatel. The tie-up will give Salora distribution and sales rights for its lineup of smart phones. Currently Alcatel has launched 4 smar tphones i .e . Onetouch Idol, Onetouch Idol Ultra, Onetouch Glory, and Onetouch Scribe Easy.

Speaking on the distribution alliance Mr.

Gopal Jiwarajka, Chairman & Managing Director, Salora International Limited said, “Salora International has always allied with brands and companies who have firmly established leadership status in the world for its quality and technology, and today with this tie-up with Alcatel, the company has further strengthened its core competency in distribution. With our strong network of branches, distribution channels and extensive product knowledge we are confident of contributing Alcatel establish a strong presence in the country and carve a significant share in the smartphone sector.”

Beam’s Mobile Services Reaches Uttarakhand Post OfficesBeam, India’s revolutionary mobile wallet and mobile/

ecommerce marketplace, is rolling out its services in 29 major Post Offices across Uttarakhand. Now customers can avail services like mobile, data card, DTH recharges, utility payments, rail, air & bus tickets, cinema tickets and E-commerce payments at a Post Office near them. This all can be done conveniently without using credit/debit cards or net banking.

With its innovative and ultra-convenient payment services, Beam endeavors to enable, empower and enrich its customers with the convenience of offering an ever increasing bouquet of services. Beam operates a mobile based cashless financial transaction system allowing unbanked and banked to transact with anyone, anytime and anywhere including at Post Offices. To reach out to large number of individuals in southern India, Beam services are also made available at 100 Post Offices across Tamil Nadu which provides air ticketing services to the consumers.

Working closely with more than 50,000 partners across India, Beam today is successful in reaching to more than 1.4 crore customers. There is an ever growing bouquet of services from remote payments, telecom and DTH recharge, rail, air and bus bookings, cinema tickets, utility payments and much more. Financial transaction services to enable trade flows as well as other financial products would be provided shortly.

M r. G o p a l J i w a r a j ka , Chairman & Managing D i r e c t o r , S a l o r a International Limited


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Samsung galaxy S4 – Superbly Cool

■ Brilliant HD screen■ Great performance■ Decent battery backup■ Good camera (except low-light shots)

■ Same old design that doesn’t feel premium■ Camera is not good at taking low-light shots■ No FM radio■ Major portion of internal storage taken up by

Samsung apps (read bloat-ware)

Expectations were sky high when Samsung announced the Galaxy S4, since the South Korean giant had to better its very own offering, the Galaxy S III, which not only ruled the

Android world, but also went on to become one of the best selling smartphones of all times.

The company unveiled the Galaxy S4 amidst much fanfare and did not disappoint in terms of upping the game in terms of hardware specifications, which included an octa-core processor and a big bright high-definition screen. It also endowed the phone with some unique ‘smart’ features and added all sorts of sensors and motion detection controls.

The front of the phone still features a physical Home button and two capacitive touch buttons for Menu and Back controls. The different sensors, front camera, notification light and earpiece grill sit above the screen.

The back of the phone features the 13-megapixel-camera lens, with the LED flash right below it. The back still has that pseudo textured finish on the glossy plastic surface that attracts a lot of fingerprints. The Indian version of the Galaxy S4 doesn’t feature the Galaxy S4 branding at the back. There’s a small speaker outlet towards the bottom.

The phone offers up to seven home screens that can be populated with widgets and app shortcuts or folders. The pinch-in gesture lets you add or remove home screens.

The app plus widgets drawer lets you arrange app shortcuts as per your own preference or alphabetically.

The drop down notification tray features a settings shortcut and a clear all notifications button, along with expandable notifications (expanded with the two finger pull gesture). Toggles for 20 settings are also located on the tray - which makes it look rather silly albeit very convenient - and you can choose to scroll through them horizontally or expand to get a grid of all the settings on one screen.

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Samsung also offers some of its pre-loaded apps including S Planner, Voice Recorder, ChatOn messaging app, Samsung Apps app store, Samsung Hub content store, Samsung Link for transferring and syncing content to other devices via cloud services like Dropbox, WatchON - a universal remote control software that also offers program guide functionality, S Translator, Optical Reader, S Memo, S Health, Story Album and Group Play.

Samsung Hub is a content store that offers video, books, games and learning content (in the Indian market). All content stores are integrated in one central Samsung Hubs app as well as available through individual Video Player and Music player apps.

The Group Play feature allows you to transfer and instantly view or play documents, music files, photos, and other content to other Galaxy S4 handsets with just a simple tap. All phones need to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

It’s worth pointing out that Air gestures can track the user’s hand up to 7cm and only native apps support them, for the time being. We might see some developers bringing support for these gestures in the future, though.

CameraThe Galaxy S4 features a 13-megapixel rear camera that takes

great shots in day light and artificial light. We found that pictures clicked with the phone had good amount of detail and looked very close to life with accurate colour reproduction.

The phone is capable of recording 1080p video and performs well. It also offers video stabilisation to let you take steady shots.

The Galaxy S4 offers Chrome in addition to the default browser. The default browser does not offer Adobe flash. It also offers a reader mode for reading text heavy web pages.

The phone lacks FM radio functionality (read here why), which will surely disappoint many, especially in our Indian audience.

The Final WordThe Samsung Galaxy S4 is undeniably the most powerful

Android smartphone available in the market in terms of hardware. It’s got a great camera if you discount the low-light shots, and it runs the latest version of Android. All this along with the gorgeous Super-AMOLED HD screen makes the Galaxy S4 a great package.

At a price of `41,500, Samsung has priced the phone well, keeping in consideration the pricing of some of the recently launched flagships including the HTC One, its direct competitor, which, unfortunately, is still not available in the market at the time of writing this, despite the company having announced it weeks before the Galaxy S4.


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■ Low resolution screen■ No camera flash■ Capacitive keys not backlit

Lg optimus L3 II Dual – True value

As the line between feature phones and smartphones is getting blurred each day as Android phones start making their presence felt in the ̀ 5,000 to ̀ 10,000 phone segment. While

Indian handset brands are already competing with each other by packing in a plethora of features in their phones, international brands have been a little hesitant. It used to be partly because an Android handset with entry-level hardware specifications doesn’t deliver a smooth user experience maybe because the OS is too demanding. However, with Android 4.1 everyone’s hoping that things will change for the good.

LG is offering a dual-SIM Android 4.1 handset in the same segment with the LG Optimus L3 II Dual. The handset is an upgrade to its Optimus L3. The back cover is made of plastic and sports a glossy finish, which is susceptible to smudges. The 3.2-megapixel-camera lens is located towards the upper part of the back. The back cover hides a battery compartment, two SIM card slots sharing the same compartment and a microSD card slot located towards the top edge.

The phone’s appearance is nothing to talk about and is utilitarian at best.

DisplayThe LG Optimus L3 II Dual comes with a 3.2-inch screen that

has a resolution of 240x320 pixels, which is very low compared to other smartphones in the segment. This results in graphics and text appearing less sharp. At times text that has a small font size is even unreadable. Even watching videos or playing games isn’t a very pleasant experience. In fact, we’d say the low-resolution display is one of the major flaws of this handset.You can have up to 5 screens that can be populated with widgets and app shortcuts. LG also allows users to choose the phone’s default font and font size. You can select from 4 different visual themes, each with a different icon set, home screen wallpaper and app drawer background. LG even allows you to choose between various animation effects when you swipe from one home screen to another or when you unlock the phone.

LG has also skinned the notification tray and has included toggles for various settings including for sound, data, NFC, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Hotspot among others. It also features a shortcut for system settings, and a control for changing screen brightness.

Talking of apps, the phone includes additional ones for Backup, Cell Broadcast, File Manager, a Memo app, Polaris Viewer (for office documents), LG’s service related apps, LG’s own app store (SmartWorld), and a Task Manager.

In addition to all of these, the phone brings standard Jelly Bean functionality. Overall, LG has tried to make the phone as different from stock Android, as possible.

However, the screen is not very reflective, and the viewing angles were pretty decent thanks to the IPS panel. The under sun visibility for this smartphone is above

■ Decent performance■ Good battery backup■ Comes with Android Jelly Bean

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Mobility Review

average at full brightness levels.

CameraThe LG Optimus L3 II Dual sports a 3.2-megapixel-rear camera

and doesn’t come with a flash. Just like the Optimus G, it can also take pictures with voice commands like ‘cheese’, ‘kimchi’, ‘LG’, ‘Smile’ and ‘Whisky’. The phone’s camera app offers various scene mode’s including Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Sunset and Night modes, along with settings for ISO, White Balance, Colour effects, and exposure. It also offers a timer.

LG-OptimusL3IIcam2.jpgOverall, the phone’s camera is fit for casual photography but the quality is nothing to be written home about.

LG-OptimusL3II4.jpgHowever, the phone was not able to play 720p HD and 1080p video clips. We were able to run .AVI videos natively. The phone offers FM radio functionality.

The LG Optimus L3 II Dual comes with the native Android browser as well as Chrome and we found that it renders all webpages well. The phone doesn’t come with Adobe Flash pre-installed. The speaker on the phone delivers average quality sound at high volume levels. The speaker is integrated with the phone’s earpiece so sound doesn’t get muffled even when the phone lies on its back.

The final wordAt a price of ̀ 7,899, the LG Optimus L3 II Dual is a decent Android

smartphone in this price-range. However, the low-screen resolution, some games being not compatible with the phone, the lack of HD video playback and the phone’s capacitive keys not being backlit are some of the major concerns that we have with the phone.


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mobility may 2013

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