WHDI Reviews – Wireless HDTV News

According to a report in Sam Mobile, the prospective buyers of Samsung Galaxy S III mini and Galaxy Note II may get them in 3 different colors in the coming year. The new expected colors for the Galaxy S III mini are: Titan Gray, Garnet Red and Onyx Black. These new colors for the Galaxy S III mini will be available either in December or in the beginning of 2013. Galaxy Note II will have the following new colors: Amber Brown, Topaz Blue and Ruby Wine.

These colors in the Samsung products will be available in the year 2013. According to a market prediction the mobile giant may launch the new colors of the devices at CES 2013, which is being this time organized in Las Vegas from 5th to 9th January 2013. The Galaxy Note II which is now currently sold in India has Marble White and Titanium Grey color options, while the S III is still not launched in the nation. Galaxy Note II was first revealed to the public at IFA 2012 by Samsung. Note II is a smartphone-tablet hybrid device. It has a super quality 5.5-inch Super AMOLED HD display and has a 1.6GHz quad-core processor with 2GB of RAM. These superb hardware specifications give it a good speed. It has a 3100 mAh battery for long usage and has a 16 GB internal storage expandable up to 64 GB via microSD card.

The device has 8-megapixel rear camera and a 1.9-megapixel front camera for high definition photos. The Galaxy Note II also comes with the S-Pen stylus for helping the user to take notes on the device.

People across the globe, irrespective of age or sex seem to be playing Xbox which has become an increasingly popular and enjoyable game among the masses. Giving you an almost real-life experience while playing this game, it can prove to be an addictive and time-taking affair. Microsoft’s next gen Xbox will undoubtedly boast of all the advanced augmented reality capabilities along with the four-player finger-tracking Kinect (2.0) and a directional sound. But what was most surprising was that the editor-in-chief of the Xbox World revealed some additional and new details in the magazine’s final issue. The next gen 720 will feature a much-awaited Blu-Ray drive, a TV output and input, an innovative ‘controller’, directional audio with AR glasses at an undisclosed date after its launch as informed by Dan Dawkins.

This device has a hidden USB slots and a sync button too. The final specs weren’t disclosed by him, though he did reveal that the current version of the Xbox 720 Durango developer kit has a 4 hardware cores loaded CPU, each being divided into 4 logical cores which come with 8GB of RAM. It was confirmed that a detailed 3D mock-up of what the publication expected the next gen Xbox to look like was actually constructed using leaks and industry sources by Xbox World. It is built with the same glossy face and patented VapourMG magnesium alloy which Microsoft uses for its Surface tablet. With a flexible Arc Torch mouse, they made the silver band after its new ‘Wedge’ touch keyboard. Reports suggest that this gaming device should be released well ahead of the 2013 holiday season.

Launched in 2005, the Xbox 360 is powered by a 3.2 GHz PowerPC Tri-Core Xenon, 500 MHz ATI Xenos (graphics) and 512 MB of GDDR3RAM working at 700MHz.

December is the most awaited month of the year with all its festivities and celebration that come along with it. People take a break from work and spend quality time with family during this festive season. Christmas being around the corner, this month can also prove to be an expensive and hectic one but apparently Google came up with an application which just avoided this month completely! Google’s Android 4.2 Jelly Bean which was released recently left out the month of December from the Operating System’s People application as reported by users. Users who tried to add birthdays or events from the ‘date picker’ for the month of December got to scroll right from November to January with no December option.

This seems to be a major error on Google’s part as such a mistake is surely not expected from a name as big as Google. The bug which has affected the People app does not seem to exist in Android’s Calender App. Nexus 7 and Galaxy Nexus which are both working on Android 4.2 failed to show November in the People Apps, but showed December correctly. CNET tried to contact Google to receive comments on this issue but has not received any feedback as yet.

They will update this report when they get an answer from the Internet Giant. The good news is that not many people have started using the latest version of the operating system, which was released by Google last week, due to platform fragmentation. Word has it, that Google will release an update to this at the earliest before it faces criticism from its current and potential users. Reports have it that people are labeling this as another indication of the downfall of Google with the number of controversies it has fallen into lately.

The first Windows Phone 8 phones have been launched in the market. The new Nokia’s Lumia 920 has hit the mobile stores and has recorded good sales over the past few days.  The other products like HTC 8X have also managed to attract buyers. The reviews of the new Windows 8 phone have been impressive and these phones will determine the future of Microsoft in the smartphone industry. Previously, the launch of Windows 7 mobiles was not much of a success.

But this time, the new Windows 8 powered smartphones have changed the game. The new devices have already been compared to Galaxy Note 2 and other market leading devices. These comparisons will prove to be beneficial for Microsoft as it will direct the market attention of the prospective buyers to the new products. The biggest disadvantage that Windows 8 Phones have right now is the lack of number of apps in the store when compared with apps in iOS and Android store. However, the new product has managed to win some admirers in the market due to its own unique style.

Many analysts have given the new product thumbs up and have said that the new product is bound to rise in the coming future. According to Forbes, Microsoft for the first time is in such a position to seriously overthrow Apple and Android from their current positions as best OS for smartphones. Microsoft has also on the other hand developed this software with the idea of developing a tablet with Windows 8 OS in the near future. The views of some analysts are however a little contrasting and they say that it will take time for the new OS to make its place in the market. The field is open for Microsoft to develop the existing software and if it continues to do so, there is nothing but success waiting for it. (Click here to know more)

Apple has silently acquired more than a 1000 patents from its own Consortium as it may be getting ready to gear up on the patent offensive yet again. Last year in July, a consortium of Apple, Research in Motion, Microsoft, Sony, Ericsson and EMC, Rockstar Bidco, bought around 6000 patents of defunct Nortel for $4.5 billion which ended up in Google landing on the losing side, after a heated bidding war. Google complained that due to its success in the mobile market a hostile and well-plotted campaign was done against Android by Oracle, Apple and others using false patents.

Yonhap News, a Korean News Agency has reported recently that Apple has a consortium in which it owns 58% of the stakes and is seriously getting some of Nortel’s patents from it. This report further confirms that Apple has acquired some 1024 patents as of now, out of which 695 have been transferred to Apple while the rest are yet to be registered. The question arising here is why would a company like Apple buy patents from a consortium in which it is already a stakeholder?

Owen Thomas of Business Insider’s commented that by getting the absolute rights to the patents, Apple will be able to use it in its current lawsuits powerfully. Just having a license to a patent and not owning it will not give Apple the authority to sue someone for having used it. Apple will be able to use the patents offensively if they have the outright ownership of it. Surprisingly, Mike Dunleavy who is Rockstar’s general counsel, has denied all reports of Apple or any other company for that matter, having a ‘controlling’ stake in Rockstar Bidco. When questioned on the Yonhap News report, Microsoft and Apple refused to give in any comments.

Google is always trying to surpass itself, by improving and rebuilding its features continuously. The search giant, Google has added some new features in its cloud-based email service, Gmail which is one of the most widely used and popular email sites in today’s time. Google’s software engineer, Christian Kurmann has announced in a post on the official Gmail blog that the new features will help users to search mails through file sizes and exact dates which will make the search simpler and faster. He went on to say that Gmail is always trying to help their users in various new ways. Users could now distinguish mails based on size, exact match, flexible date options and much more.

This blog also gave an example by stating that if a user wishes to find all the emails in his account which are larger than 5MB, he may search for size:5m or larger:5m. Similarly, mails that have been received or sent a year ago can be found by searching older_than:1y. It was also mentioned that these new features will work in sync with other Gmail features launched by Google recently, including an auto complete in search and a totally new compose box.

Initially, the company had started off with field trials which enabled the user to access their Gmail accounts and search for mails and other files from Google Search itself. However, this is being tested only on desktop searches as of now and these trials require the user to sign up by themselves to use this new, innovative feature. It is being speculated that the on-going competition between Google, Microsoft and similar sites will prove to be beneficial for users as they are continuously trying to outdo each other in order to provide their users with nothing but the best.

In the very beginning, Microsoft dominated the tech industry and was the richest corporation in the world. But with the entry of Apple and Google, Microsoft fell flat on its face in every aspect it entered be it e-music, social networking or e-books to name a few. The fight between Microsoft, Google and Apple is not new as these companies leave no opportunity to blame or point fingers at each other whenever possible, being at loggerheads for quite some time. Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer has blasted off Windows Phone competitor, Google’s Android and Apple, as suggested by recent reports. Android’s ecosystem was labeled as ‘uncontrolled’ and Apple’s ecosystem as ‘highly priced and tightly controlled’ by the CEO himself.

Ballmer complained Android’s ecosystem being quite wild from the perspective of applications compatibility. He claimed that in their worlds, a perspective is not necessarily in the consumer’s best interests. He also mentioned that the ecosystem run by Apple is way too expensive and highly controlled as contrary to that of Androids. This verbal attack began when LinkedIn’s founder Reid Hoffman was interviewing Steve Ballmer at an event in Churchill Club in Santa Clara, California with ‘technology influencers and innovators’ where the CEO openly criticized both of Microsoft’s rivals. He then went on to praise Microsoft stating that the Windows Phone was in a position to place itself between these two. He also questioned as to how one should expect to get the quality without the premium price of the phone or a very controlled ecosystem. He wondered how a user would allow the low pricing, diversity and affordability that Android has to offer. He suggested that one would reply that he is being offered the best of both worlds and that is all that’s available to us.

Samsung and Apple have been allowed to add some spare devices to their supposedly infringing products by an US judge who brings in together the US version of SII, iPhone 5 and Galaxy Note 10.1. However, Apple’s attempt to control the Jelly Bean OS has not been approved by Judge Paul Grewal. Samsung had asked the court to add iPhone 5 to its list when this device was first launched in September. This was because it infringed on the patents of Samsung as the iDevices which are already listed.

In return, Apple made a move to add on the latest of Samsung gears. It has been reported that Apple didn’t deny Samsung’s request regarding iPhone 5. It was stated by the court that the latter had given a lot of notice to the former to investigate Samsung’s theories and oppose them. The situation regarding Note 10.1 was like sailing in the same boat as Samsung adding the iPhone. It was also said that the US version of SIII seemed to be like an add-on claim made by Apple on UK SIII. The judge expressed his dissatisfaction when Apple tried to get a claim against Jelly Bean OS as it was a Google product and not a Samsung one. The court refused to give any permission to make amendments applying to other devices than those which were completely associated with Samsung. Earlier, Apple had received a billion dollars in a settlement which it had won in the US while Samsung has been trying to reverse the decision claiming jury misconduct hoping to get a new trial.

In the next suit, Apple and Samsung both complained about each other infringing about eight patents from the other company. Judge Koh, who was viewing the case had initially banned the sale of Nexus but later on, the ban was upturned in October with the suit being still under the discovery phase.

People are anticipating what is going to happen and what changes are going to be seen after Steven Sinofsky’s absence from Microsoft which is of great interest at the moment. The form that Windows 8 has taken has all been Sinofsky’s idea, with the mass speculating relevant changes coming up. A return to the desktop-based Start Menu is one of the major changes that could take place.

Exposed to a lot of criticism and complaints by users for the choices of designs, the Start Screen and Modern UI have touch screen interfaces which can be used alongside keyboard and mouse proving to be a weak link in the world of marketing. An increase in the training load has been seen for a Windows 8 migration, which proves to be expensive and is a reason for low business adoption. Predictions are made that desktop changes will not occur until next year with the efforts being largely based around Windows 8 tablets. Microsoft must consider adding an alternative Desktop Start Menu to Windows 8 after so much conflict, as this would surely have a good effect on their sale numbers.

The reason being that those potential customers using the keyboard and mouse would be catered to, who have till now been ignored due to the rhetoric. Restoring the Start Menu may make the Windows development for the modern UI slow. In order to remain viable, Windows RT surely needs software. It is useless to create programs which are incompatible with the operating system’s older iterations. To be very honest, there are little chances of reverting back to the original desktop interface, meaning that the big screen with tiles is most likely here to stay and that though the adoption of Windows 8 may be slow, there aren’t many alternatives available. Thus one needs to get more and more exposed to it in order to get used to it.

One of the most attractive features of Windows 8 is their very own Start Screen. With a playfield of option available to do exactly as you please with the options available, you can let your quirky side get the better of you!

While some prefer to keep things the way it has been made, some like to play around with this unique OS! For the latter group of people there is a world full of apps to personalize your Windows 8 Start Screen.

Grouping

Microsoft has done away with the regular start button and has replaced it with its infamous start screen. With drag and drop options available, you can organize just about anything into groups. You can choose between adjusting tile sizes, choosing between static or live tiles, and organizing the tiles into various groups. You can also remove tiles you don’t want at the moment and then put it back on the start screen whenever needed.

Start Screen Background

You are literally spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing a background for the Start Screen. Microsoft has also included a number of “tattoos” as options to pick from. However, you are not entitled to choose your own background image from another source, and while the options offered from Microsoft are many, they are only many more in comparison to the older Windows.

Custom Tiles

This feature of Windows 8 is crying out aloud to be used on a touch-interface. Since a lot of people still use desktops and laptops, the tiles here cannot be made for desktop screens. You really don’t get much more than a tile with a small icon on it. In order to deal with this situation, you do have other third-party software to fix issues that Windows 8 may face on a non-touch computer.