5 large screen budget phablets under Rs. 15,000

Phablets are the latest trend in the smartphone industry - thanks to Samsung which started the once-upon-a-time 'niche' category. After the success of the original Galaxy Note, many Indian manufacturers followed suit offering decent specs with larger screen sizes.

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T-Mobile USA adds customers but sheds sales in latest quarter

-Mobile USA managed to grab more customers last quarter, but that achievement didn't translate into higher revenue.
For the fourth quarter, the company saw a net gain of 61,000 customers, compared with a net loss of 526,000 customers a year earlier. The overall news, however, was mixed.
The number of prepaid customers grew for the sixth quarter in a row, with 166,000 additions last quarter. But the number of contract customers dropped by 515,000, compared with a drop of 492,000 in the fourth quarter of 2011.

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Kickass Torrent, H33T and Fenopy to Be Blocked in the UK

No one was expecting the UK to stop at blocking The Pirate Bay and some relatively minor UseNet site. Once the floodgates are open, they stay open. Three more BitTorrent sites are now banned in the UK, ISPs must prevent their subscribers from accessing them.

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MWC 2013: Alcatel One Touch Evo 7 Hands-On

Alcatel’s Android portfolio does not include only smartphones, although the company brought plenty of those to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, but also features some tablet PCs, with the One Touch Evo 7 being one of them.

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SAP Shifts 5,000 Direct Accounts To Channel Partners

SAP is transferring more than 5,000 customer accounts to its channel partners and is reorienting its inside sales force to focus on working with partners instead of selling to enterprise customers.

The moves are the latest steps in SAP's ongoing expansion of its channel operations, and the company may exceed its goal of logging 40 percent of its sales through the channel by 2015, said Kevin Gilroy, Senior Vice President, Global Indirect Channels, SAP in an interview.

SAP identified 5,000 customers around the world, which until now the company serviced directly, that would be better served by solution provider partners, Gilroy said. "And we are moving them quickly to the channel."

Those accounts are being matched up with partners based on geographical location, product expertise and vertical industry experience, Gilroy said. He said he expects the transfers to be completed by midyear.

SAP categorizes customers as enterprise—which it sells to directly—and general business, the latter small and midsize customers SAP relies on partners to service. SAP has been moving up the threshold between the two, growing the number of customer prospects channel partners can sell to. That's also the main driver behind the shift of the 5,000 customer accounts to channel partners.

SAP, which once focused on selling direct to large companies and had a minimal presence in the channel, has been steadily ramping up its sales through the channel in recent years. Gilroy said channel sales accounted for 34 percent of sales last year and is growing at twice the rate of the software vendor's direct sales.

SAP's top executives have set a goal of moving 40 percent of the company's sales through the channel by 2015, but Gilroy said he thinks the company will exceed that. SAP has doubled its channel sales in the past two years "and we will double that again in the next two years," he said.

Prior to last year, SAP's inside sales organization focused on driving transactional sales to enterprises. But the company has reoriented the organization to work 100 percent on assisting channel partners. That includes generating sales leads for the channel and helping partners cross-sell and upsell to existing customers, said Ann-Mari Doody, Senior Vice President, Global Inside Sales, in an interview.

"The majority of the focus will be on net-new business," she said.

Inside sales will particularly focus on generating channel sales for SAP's channel-friendly software products, such as its Business Objects business analytics products and Business All-in-One application suite, according to Doody. The inside sales organization also will work with partners to develop online solution demonstrations and workshops.

"Inside global sales is now a channel support machine," Gilroy said.

Doody declined to disclose the size of SAP's inside sales organization, other than to say the number of employees is in "the hundreds." The company is adding to those ranks, including creating a number of inside partner account managers to work with channel partners and SAP's field partner account managers.

SAP also plans to recruit 500 additional channel partners globally this year, Gilroy said. The company currently has more than 12,300 partners, including systems integrators and resellers, the latter accounting for about 3,000 of the total.

Gilroy said SAP's recent channel gains are "proof points" that the company's channel initiatives are paying off. "We are really trying to drive the channel DNA into the company."

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Google Anxiety, Samsung’s Long Shadow And The Motorola Hedge

Android got a late start compared to Apple’s iOS in the worldwide smartphone battle, but it eventually grew to attain a larger worldwide market share, and it did so largely on the back of a single champion: Samsung. Samsung’s Galaxy line has become to Android what the iPhone is to iOS, despite hardware and software coming from completely distinct companies. But Google very specifically didn’t sign up to be a one horse kind of cowboy, and as such it makes sense for the search giant to be somewhat fearful of Samsung’s growing influence, as the WSJ reports.

Google’s hardware direction could change completely when Motorola’s current pipeline runs down.

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With The Open, ZTE Aims To Get The Young And Adventurous Fired Up For Firefox OS

ZTE’s press conference yesterday didn’t really reveal anything we didn’t already know, but it at least gave us the opportunity to play with the Chinese OEM’s first Firefox OS-powered smartphone. The cost-conscious Open is apparently meant for “young people who are adventurers and want to try something new” (according to He Shiyou, head of ZTE’s Mobile Devices Division anyway), but how is it?

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HP launches Slate 7 Android tablet with Beats Audio for $169

The HP Slate 7 is beyond fashionably late to the Android tablet party, but it tries to make up for its tardiness with a very low price. When the device arrives in April, HP’s first Google-powered tablet just announced at this year’s Mobile World Congress will cost just $169. That’s $30 less than the the Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire HD. So how does this value-priced device stand out? HP is playing up the Slate 7′s Beats Audio sound and wireless printing capabilities.

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“6-Strikes” Copyrights Alert System Goes Live

Graduated response system for addressing online copyright infringement begins.

Today marks the fateful implementation of the Copyright Alert System (CAS), a voluntary collaboration between the MPAA, RIAA, and ISPs to address online copyright infringement.
By working to “educate and notify Internet subscribers when their Internet service accounts possibly are being misused for online content theft,” copyright holders hope that infringers can be persuaded to use legal sources like Amazon or iTunes instead.

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MWC 2013: Huawei Ascend W1 Hands-On

Ascend W1 was the first Windows Phone 8 smartphone that Chinese mobile phone maker Huawei made official this year, though it might be followed by other similar devices in the not too distant future, rumor has it.

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Mozilla to launch mobile phones with Firefox

Barcelona, Spain (CNN) -- Mozilla announced Sunday it will launch handsets running its new Firefox mobile operating system, pitting itself directly against Apple and Google.

The nonprofit company made the announcement at a news conference on the eve of the world's largest mobile technology show, Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, under the new marketing slogan "Unleash the fox."

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Intel takes big step in chip foundry business

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Intel Corp has agreed to make chips on behalf of Altera, a significant step toward opening its prized manufacturing technology to customers on a larger scale, potentially including Apple.

Sharing its manufacturing plants, or fabs, to strategic customers could help the world's top chipmaker offset the growing costs of developing new technology and help keep the plants running near capacity as Intel's traditional PC business loses steam.

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Asus FonePad is a cheap 7-inch Jelly Bean tablet that makes calls

BARCELONA, Spain--Asus isn't exactly the first company that springs to mind when you think of tablets, but having constructed Google's brilliant Nexus 7 device, it's proved that it can crank out a terrific slate.

Now the company is applying many of the same tricks to a new tablet. Dubbed the FonePad (yeesh), this new device follows in the footsteps of Asus' docking PadFone mobile, and borrows much from the Nexus 7. It has the ability to make calls, though, and is powered by an Intel Atom processor.

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LG working on eight-core 'Odin' chip for Optimus GII smartphone: Report

Post all the MWC hoopla surrounding LG, here's some interesting news outside of Barcelona. According to a report by the Korea Times, LG is planning to use its own in-house processor codenamed Odin that is likely to power the company's next Optimus GII  flagship smartphone.

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BlackBerry Z10 launched in India for Rs. 43,490

 BlackBerry has launched its new flagship smartphone Z10 in India for Rs. 43,490. BlackBerry Z10 is a full-touch device that comes with a 4.2-inch LCD screen with a 1280x768 resolution.
It runs on the new BlackBerry 10 operating system (Review), which the company has built from the scratch. The device is powered by a dual-core processor that clocks at 1.5GHz along with 2GB of RAM. The internal storage available on the smartphone is 16GB. It has an 8-megapixel rear camera that can capture 1080p videos and 2-megapixel camera in the front. Z10 comes with 1,850 mAh battery, which as per the company claims gives 10 hours of talktime and 312 hours of stand by time.

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Samsung stuffs a phone in new Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet

It runs Android 4.1, has a 1.6 GHz quad-core CPU, 2 gigabytes of RAM, and an 8-inch, 1280 x 800 display that you can control with Samsung's S-Pen stylus. But on the international version of the device, there's something quite strange lurking near the top.

Yes, it's an earpiece. Yes, it's meant for you to make calls. Yes, Samsung expects you to hold an 8-inch tablet up to your face. 

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5 promising games for the PS4

Despite all the clatter about what's inside the new PlayStation 4 console, games were in the forefront of everyone's mind during Wednesday's Sony launch event.

What titles can I play? What will they look like? And when can I play them?

Only a handful of games were actually showcased during the event in New York. But Sony said nearly 150 developers are committed to making games for the PS4, so the lineup will continue to grow throughout the year.

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Nokia To Release Cheaper Handsets

Bangalore: Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia is all set to sell cheaper phones in an attempt to avoid growing competition against Chinese rivals in the low end Smartphone market.

The new models which are to be unveiled at the World Mobile Congress 2013 in Barcelona show that  the company is expanding its focus on cheaper handsets after concentrating on catching up with Apple and Samsung in the past two years. According to sources, Nokia will introduce low end Smartphones in order to compete with the likes of ZTE and Huawei as well as lower price Lumia Smartphones running on Windows 8 OS.

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Google I/O 2013 Predictions - Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie, Nexus 7.8, Nexus 5, Moto X, Google Glass

Google has announced that registrations for this year's Google I/O conference will open on March 13. The event itself is scheduled for May 15 through 17. The event is still a few months away, but we have an idea of what we're sure to see and we're likely to see.

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Internet Explorer 11 Spotted Online, to Be Part of Windows Blue

Even though it may sound a bit weird given the fact that Microsoft has recently introduced Internet Explorer 10, the 11th version of the company’s in-house browser is very likely to see the daylight anytime soon.

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Downloadable PS3 Games Could Be Played on PlayStation 4 via Cloud, Sony Says

 After revealing the PlayStation 4 yesterday, Sony has now begun answering specific questions about the new home console and even revealed that downloadable PS3 titles that were bought by users from the PlayStation Network could be transferred to their PlayStation 4 accounts and played on the new console.

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Need Bitcoins? This ATM takes dollars and funds your account

NASHUA, N.H. -- Zach Harvey has an ambitious plan to accelerate adoption of the Internet's favorite alternative currency: installing in thousands of bars, restaurants, and grocery stores ATMs that will let you buy Bitcoins anonymously.
It's the opposite of a traditional automated teller that dispenses currency. Instead, these Bitcoin ATMs will accept dollar bills -- using the same validation mechanism as vending machines -- and instantly convert the amount to Bitcoins and deposit the result in your account.

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Joboshare iPhone Rip 3.4.6 Build 0222 – 30% OFF

Joboshare iPhone Rip is an amazing handy iPhone rip, manager, transfer tool that can fast rip, copy and transfer your music, movie, photo, ePub, pdf, audiobook, Voice Memo, Camera Roll (iOS 4 above), ringtone, Podcast, TV Show, SMS, Contact, Call List from iPhone to computer with ease. For the purchased files on iPhone, it also allows you to transfer them into computer or sync to iTunes library. You can open your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad with Explorer like an external hard drive. Also you can delete, create or edit a playlist in your iPhone via Joboshare iPhone Rip with simple operations.

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Sumatra PDF 2.3.0.7415 Pre-Release / Sumatra PDF 2.2.1 Stable

Sumatra PDF is a slim, free PDF, XPS, DjVu, CBZ and CBR reader for Windows with a minimalistic design. Simplicity has a higher priority than a lot of features. This reader is small and starts up very fast. Options are a little thin on the ground but Sumatra PDF provides a very comfortable environment for reading PDFs and you can print documents without much hassle. You can take this over Acrobat any day for looking at eBooks. Also Sumatra PDF is designed for portable use: it’s just one file with no external dependencies so you can easily run it from external USB drive. This classifies it as a portable application.

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Nikon D7100 dSLR Camera With 24 MP CMOS Sensor Launched

Nikon has launched its D7100 digital SLR camera for professional photographers, capable of taking 24.1 MP shots. This camera continues its predecessor's line, the Nikon D7000 that was released in 2010.

Nikon says, "It is loaded with features that enable excellent subject acquisition and rendering performance capable of reproducing the finest details."

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Review: Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-HX200V

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX200V
MRP: Rs 25,000

Cameras with big 'zooms' almost always manage to grab the consumer. Quite a few manufacturers have tried to cash-in on this feature by introducing cameras that approach prosumers as far as looks and features are concerned, while not going all out in terms of image quality for the sake of making it more affordable. Sony's 18.2 MP Cyber-shot DSC-HX200V is one such camera that packs in 30x optical zoom and BIONZ image processor. It is an upgrade over the HX100V, which had a 16.2 MP image sensor and could shoot up to ISO 3200, as against the HX200V's ISO 12800 with the Exmor R CMOS sensor. Let's find out how well this camera performs.

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8 Smartphones With Best Battery Life

Bangalore: Whatever specifications a device comes with, a good battery life is what an average consumer expects at the end. Smartphones especially need this as one takes the juice out of it, while conversing,   browsing or playing videos. However, majority of the phones currently in the market are equipped with a lot of features but a good battery life.

 Here is a list of 8 Smartphones which offer you day long entertainment without the fear of draining battery.

#8 Micromax Canvas HD A116

Battery: 2000mAh
Talk Time: Up to 6 hours
Powered by MediaTek’s MT6589 1.2 GHz quad core processor, the phone runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The phone features a 5-inch HD IPS touch screen with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels and equipped with 8 megapixel rear camera with LED flash and multiple camera settings like night mode, 4X zoom, 3G enabled A116, which enhances faster browsing speed and also plays HD quality videos. It also possesses an internal storage of 4 GB, which is expandable to up to 32 GB with a micro SD card along with 1GB of RAM.

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Here’s Another Internet Explorer 11 Concept

Microsoft has recently introduced Internet Explorer 10 with the launch of Windows 8, but some users are already looking forward to the next version for even more features and a better performance.

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PlayStation 4 Pre-Orders Available at GAME and ShopTo

The PlayStation 4 might have just been announced last night, but it seems that some stores are already giving players the chance to pre-order the new consoles from Sony, despite the fact that it lacks a clear launch date or a price.

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Modded Nexus 7 shows why some phone and tablet loudspeakers are better than others (video)

We never used to take the speakers in phones or tablets very seriously. Frankly, we're not sure manufacturers did either. But the old assumption that tiny = tinny is starting to seem a bit unfair. Last year, Dutch chip-maker NXP released a new type of mobile audio component -- the TFA9887 -- that allowed a mobile device to monitor its speaker system in real-time in order to max out volume without risking damage to the driver. Although NXP is way too modest to confirm it, we happen to know that this chip made its way into a number of HTC devices, including the new One, One X+ and 8X, where it's been described as "feedback" speaker technology.

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Distro Issue 79 examines the rise of the ever-expanding smartphone screen

Once upon a time, the future belonged to an increasingly smaller form factor when it came to mobile phones. Now it seems the tide has changed, and larger screens continue to expand their requisite real estate on new handsets. In this week's issue of our weekly, Jon Fingas takes a good, long look at the rise of those big screens, starting with 2002's BlackBerry 5810. Weekly Stat charts a day with an asteroid, Eyes-On has a peek at LaCie's collaboration with Philippe Starck and Brad Molen recounts week two with the BlackBerry Z10. We've just scratched the surface of the latest installment of this e-publication, so navigate to your favorite download link to procure a copy.

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Insert Coin semifinalist: Moedls brings 3D scanning to your phone

3D scanners are kinda old hat at this point. But, while we've seen more than our fair share of Kinect hacks, we haven't come across too many phone-based systems. Moedls actually puts the power to create models like the one above in the palm of your hand... sort of. The heart of the system is either an iOS or Android app (sorry MeeGo fans), but there are actual lasers with a custom enclosure as part of the platform. Clearly, that does somewhat restrict portability, but it should all fit into a 10-inch x 10-inch x 4-inch box for storage or transportation.
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Sony CycleEnergy CP-F1L External USB Battery Charger

While smartphone specs and screens have gotten hungrier for power, battery capacity has not kept pace. No wonder then that 'power packs', or external battery based chargers came about, allowing you to charge your phone's battery using a charged external battery. Until recently, such external chargers, as they are unofficially referred to, were available from no name brands, but some biggies like Cooler Master and Sony have introduced their offerings. [The term 'external charger' is not exactly descriptive of the function of these devices, since all chargers are external to the device they charge. But in absence of a universally accepted name for this device, external (USB) charger appears to be an apt term].

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Google Chromebook Pixel At $1300 - What's Google Thinking?

It has been two years since the first Chromebook was announced, and we're yet to see it getting significant traction in the market. This, however, hasn't stopped Google from unveiling a new iteration called Chromebook Pixel that sports a touchscreen, much like recent Windows 8 ultrabooks.

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Firefox 19 Officially Released, with Built-in PDF and Mobile Themes

It's official, Firefox 19 is here. The latest and greatest version of Mozilla's browser is now available for download on the homepage, it was made available through the FTP servers earlier, and it should start making its way to existing users via the automated update system.

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You Can Be One of the First People in the World to Own a Google Glass

Google is finally revealing more details about Project Glass, its augmented reality glasses/wearable computing device, including showing us what the UI will look like for the first time. There are also plenty of new photos of the device in action.

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Micromax Funbook P600 available online for Rs 9,499

The Micromax Funbook P600 tablet is available online for Rs 9,499. This tablet from Micromax comes with a 7-inch touchscreen and is powered by Qualcomm MSM8225A ARM Cortex A5 1Ghz Dual-core processor. It runs on the Android 4.0.4 operating system.

The Micromax Funbook P600 Tablet has 2MP rear camera and front camera. It is enhanced with 512MB RAM, 4GB ROM. The company claims that the battery has a talk time up to 10hrs and stand by time up to 224hrs. We spoke to a representative who informed us that the tablet is currently available at Snapdeal, Flipkart and a few others.
Here’s a quick look at the specs of the Funbook P600:]

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LG teases several new smartphones for MWC, is brought to you by the letters G, L, V and F

LG isn't done making vague hints at what it's got in store for us in Barcelona next week. While we admittedly missed it on our first viewing, the latest trailer flies past several red initials and vague glimpses of four handsets. There's an L (style?), a G (greatness), one V (view, or Vu) and a new one, F, that apparently stands for freedom. In short, it looks like LG might be bringing quite a few phones to the show. The short video also places plenty of emphasis on tags, which we're guessing will involve some NFC tech -- possibly expanding on those "Tag On" stickers we saw announced at CES last month. We just wish the message was as loud and clear as the music in the teaser. You've been warned.
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Marvell announces PXA1088 quad-core SoC for globetrotting phones and tablets

Marvell made waves last year with its 802.11ac wireless chips, but the company's looking to make a splash in 2013 with a new quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 SoC. Called the PXA1088, the new silicon's calling card -- other than those four CPU cores -- is its ability to beam 3G data to mobile devices anywhere in the world thanks to auto-roaming and compatibility with 21Mbps HSPA+, TD-HSPA+, EDGE, and WCDMA networks. In addition to those cellular radios, it also has an Avastar 88W8777 chip that brings WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 and FM radio, plus it has a GPS and GLONASS location processor on board.
Worldwide connectivity isn't the PXA1088's only trick, either. It's got some serious video chops thanks to a hardware 1080p encoder and decoder, and a GPU from Vivante compliant with OpenGL ES 2.0 and 1.1 as well as OpenVG 1.1. Can't wait to get your grubby mitts on a phone packing Marvell's latest? The company tells us that several well-known OEMs will be rolling out devices with the PXA1088 in the first half of the year. Of course, we're hoping to see a few of them ourselves next week at Mobile World Congress, so stay tuned.

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Nokia to Release “Play To” App on Windows Phone 8 in Two Weeks

Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia has promised a while ago the Play To application for its Windows Phone 8 Lumia users, and it seems that it is finally getting ready to make it available for download.

On the support forum of Nokia’s Beta Labs, one Nokia employee responded to a user inquiry on the availability of the DLNA app, stating that things are being put in place for a launch in the next couple of weeks.

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Gameloft giving away iOS version of Asphalt 7: Heat for limited time

Gameloft has announced that the iOS version of its racing game – Asphalt 7: Heat – is available for free for today. Though the company hasn’t revealed the reason for the sale, this is still a great chance for users to get one of the better racing games out there; the game is available on the iTunes App Store. Be careful though, it’s a hefty 1.25GB download.

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DOMO Launches 7" Slate X2G For Rs 7000

 A Mumbai-based company, DOMO has introduced its 7" Slate, X2G. This Android tablet has a SIM card slot which allows you to make and receive calls, and use data connectivity while on the move. The X2G is equipped with a 1.2 GHz Cortex A8 processor, and has 512MB of RAM. Graphics is handled by Mali 400 GPU (which is generations old, but at this price, you shouldn't complain)

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Photoshop 1.0 source code now a museum artifact

The Computer History Museum has made the source code for Photoshop 1.0.1 into an exhibit that lets the public, or at least programmers, appreciate the inner workings of the historic software.
The museum published the software yesterday, following up on its earlier release of the source code underlying Apple's original MacPaint.

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HTC flagship One expected to debut in U.S. on March 22

The HTC One, expected to be the Taiwanese smartphone maker's next flagship handset, is set to launch in the U.S. on March 22, according to a report on fan site HTC Source.
Formerly code-named M7, the HTC One with 32GB of storage will debut on AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint for $199.99 with a two-year contract, unnamed sources tell the blog. A 64GB model will sell for $299.99.

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iOS 6.1.1 causes battery drain, say some iPhone 4S users

Rolled out this week for the iPhone 4S, iOS 6.1.1 may have fixed one problem only to create another, at least according to some users.
Several iPhone 4S owners chiming in on Apple's Support Communities say their battery drains faster after updating to iOS 6.1.1. In a discussion thread labeled "My iPhone 4S battery life is terrible, Even with iOS 6.1.1," many report that their battery life was much better under iOS 6.1.

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BeyondPod Takes the Tedium Out of Podcast Playlist Creation

When you're sacrificing sleep to make sure your podcast app is doing its download job so you won't have to make a radio-signal-barren commute with nothing to listen to, you have a problem. That was my situation when matters got even worse: The free app I depended on, as unreliable as it was, would be going away. I decided to pony up for BeyondPod, and my sleep has been undisturbed -- and my ears filled -- ever since

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Mobile Devices Help Chart the Future of Marine Navigation

ailors have long relied on electronic charts to find their way on the open water. While they shouldn't replace existing systems anytime soon, mobile devices and apps are quickly changing how those charts are delivered and used. The technology allows boaters to plan trips and review past excursions, on or off their vessels.

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Researchers create crash-proof, self-repairing, inspired-by-nature computer

Computer scientists at University College London have created a self-repairing computer that never crashes. This technology could find its way to into mission-critical systems that must  not fail, or it could improve the overall reliability of computers in general — which is a good thing, considering how almost everything we interact with is governed by a digital computer. 

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ET deals: Dell Inspiron 15R SE laptop with Radeon 7730M graphics for $549

When I think of a Core i5 laptop in the $500-600 range, I imagine fairly basic models with integrated graphics and nothing special to offer. Today’s offer plainly blows expectations for a $549 laptop out of the water.
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