Ah, the third dimension! It’s been conquered in cinema theaters and on television screens, and encroached the smartphone arena a while ago. And while the technology has its naysayers, it’s here to stay, at least on the big screen. On phones however, it’s a different set of rules that come into play in deciding how well it’s received (not to mention totally different technologies and different measures of success). As far as the user is concerned, the idea is all about making the media and gaming experience more immersive of course, apart from its perceived coolness and the flaunt value. From the manufacturer’s point of view, it’s a fairly big differentiating factor and helps add something new and unique to the product portfolio. The Micromax Canvas 3D A115 is certainly not the first 3D smartphone – with the likes of HTC and LG making forays into the segment earlier – but it’s Micromax’s first jump into the third dimension and we’ll be taking a look at how well it plays out.

Design and hardware

With a design that’s quite similar to Micromax’s Canvas 2 and Canvas HD models, the Canvas 3D is all black, and is encased in plastic. The front is dominated by the 5-inch screen, which is surrounded by a black border and features three capacitive touch keys at the bottom, with the earpiece, sensors and front camera on the top. There’s a bezel finished in gunmetal, barely visible when viewed directly from the front.

The fascia is devoid of any other embellishments otherwise, and there’s no branding as well in the front. The volume rocker is placed on the left spine, while the power / sleep key is on the right. The top is where you’ll find the microUSB port and the 3.5mm headset socket, both placed on a flat central portion that protrudes from the curves. The rear of the phone has more action in comparison – the main camera lens juts out closer to the top, with a chrome ring encircling it and the dual LED flash placed right below.

A Micromax logo in embossed chrome is in the center and more branding below, towards the bottom. Finally, there’s the phone speaker. The soft touch matte finish toted by the battery cover helps get rid of the plasticky feel to a large extent, and keeps it reasonably free of smudges and fingerprints. You can pry the cover open to reveal the battery, the two SIM slots and the microSD slot. Looks-wise though, it’s a plain Jane device that’s not going to win you second glances.

Rating: 7/10

Display

Unlike its more accomplished sibling that boasts a 720p display, the Canvas 3D rocks a 480 x 800, 5-inch screen, with an unimpressive pixel density of 187 ppi. As such, while the viewing angles are good and the touch responsive, text doesn’t appear as sharp, and the graphics not so crisp as compared to the Canvas HD. Also bear in mind that the screen has a parallax barrier layer to enable glasses-free 3D. Overall, it’s underwhelming, with the aforementioned glasses-free 3D feature being its only claim to fame.

Rating: 6.5/10

Camera

The Canvas 3D has a 5-megapixel main snapper, while a VGA unit in front handles video calling. The camera UI offers a slew of tweaks and settings, including control over ISO, white balance, exposure, sharpness, hue, saturation, brightness and contrast. Numerous scene presets and color effects are on offer as well, along with modes such as burst, HDR and panorama.

The viewfinder even has a 3D toggle upfront, letting you capture stills in 3D. However, since the device only has a single camera at the rear (as opposed to those that feature dual cameras to capture stereoscopic images), the Canvas 3D captures two shots and then ties them together to form a 3D image in the .MPO format. The feature requires you to press the virtual shutter key twice to work, with each tap capturing a different image. The process is slightly confusing, and is only detailed in the 3D Guide. The latter, while explaining how to capture 3D images, doesn’t specify that the first tap in fact, captures an image, and wrongly mentions that the action enters the camera into 3D preview mode.

The snapper can’t take videos in 3D, but since the device can display any content in the third dimension using its parallax barrier display, it can do the same with videos you’ve captured as well. The camera quality remains a mixed bag, with usable results in daylight, but noisy ones in low light – this is valid for both stills and video.

Rating: 6.5/10

Photo Samples

Video Samples

Software

Mimicking the Canvas HD’s software package, the Canvas 3D also runs a lightly-skinned iteration of Android 4.1.2, offering very similar features. As before, there’s the custom notification bar with connectivity toggles and sound profile shortcuts, along with a settings menu that’s decked up with colored icons. The same SIM management, sound profiles, and scheduled power on / off settings we saw earlier are present too, along with preloaded apps like M! Live, M! Zone+ and the HookUp messaging app.

Again like its HD sibling, text input is handled by the stock Android keyboard. What’s different is a modified lock screen, along with a new set of animation effects that allow you to jazz up the home screen and app drawer transitions. The biggest difference is, of course, the suite of 3D apps and content to complement the smartphone’s 3D prowess. The window into the third dimension is called 3D Space, accessible directly via the lock screen and its own dedicated icon. 3D Space launches a 3D (bah) landscape carousel that provides access to the camera, video player, gallery, and games – all in 3D of course.

3D Games provides links to games on the Play Store that support 3D. There’s also a link to the 3D channel on YouTube, along with a guide that teaches you how to make best use of the phone’s 3D capabilities with respect to creating, viewing, and sharing 3D content. The guide is also accessible via its own icon, and despite the typos and use of bad grammar, seems helpful for newbies.

Rating: 7/10

Performance and battery life

With a dual-core MediaTek MT6577 clocked at 1GHz doing the honors, this smartphone isn’t going to break any speed records. And while goings aren’t super fast, the Canvas 3D does perform reasonably well. There are hardly any speed bumps with routine tasks and popular games are handled with ease. There’s 4GB of storage that can be expanded via microSD.

As a media player, it can handle 3D video playback, and supports a variety of formats. Full HD video was handled reasonably well too, though we found the speaker volume a tad on the lower side. The mediocre specs mean that the 2,000 mAh battery isn’t taxed much, and is able to fuel the handset for a full day comfortably, stretching it into the second day if your usage doesn’t involve a lot of media or gaming.

Rating: 7/10

Conclusion

As far as 3D on smartphones is concerned, it’s still plagued with the two biggest issues we’ve had historically – lack of enough content and the fact that it needs the device to be placed at the sweet spot for best results. While the situation as far as the former is concerned has improved to an extent, the fact is that viewing 3D over long durations of time can be a headache, literally. 3D remains a neat party trick and a trophy feature that may lose its novelty eventually. And if you strip the Canvas 3D of its suffix (and its hero feature), you’re left with a smartphone that’s still reasonably capable and priced at Rs 9,999 (~ $180), quite affordable, even though then it’s sure to face heat from competition. As a package however, it’s the most affordable 3D phone yet, and that should count for something, especially if you want to impress some friends.

Overall Rating: 7/10

© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2013. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |

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A digital media organizer is a far better way to keep track of your media files. They catalog all the files according to a set criteria and you will be able to find them easily next time you need a picture, or other files from your computer. Today, we’ll be taking a look at how to organize your media collection both with specialized programs and with the integrated tools from your operating system.

Organize your files with ratings and different names

If you want to organize your media file without the need of a dedicated organizer, then you can use the integrated tools from your operating system. First of all, create your own sorting system, which will help you categorize all your files. This is the first step in making your media collection tidy.

For example, you can sort music first by genre, then by artist and then by album or year. This way, you have a tidy folder tree and recovering a certain track will be easy. If you have lots of downloaded pictures or photos that you’ve taken, then you can create a similar tree, with the type of picture (photo or downloaded), then you can group them by what they contain, so if you want to have your vacation photos easily accessible, then you can simply navigate to their folder and find the one you are looking for.

Many photographers also use the rating system, that every OS has, and it allows you to rate pictures (or other media files for that matter). The rating system is a great way to find certain photos in a folder. You can rate the best photos with the maximum number of stars and this will allow you to later sort them by rating and find the one you are looking for. In the case of photos, you can even sort them according to the camera they were taken with.

Renaming media files is a sure way to quickly find them after a while. Every operating system offers a search function, and if you know the general area where the file is, and what is its name, then you can find it easily. If you don’t want to spend countless hours on renaming 1000 photos, you can just bulk-rename them and when you search for them, you will just have to search amongst a few.

Keep in mind that for the best results, it’s best if you use all these techniques. It will be far easier for you to have a folder tree, and inside the folders, your media files which would be rated and renamed. For example, if you want a certain picture and you know that it is somewhere in the “Vacation” folder, all you need is to open the folder and search for it, either by name or by rating.

So, if you are willing to spend the time necessary to organize your media collection manually (and remember that if you have lots of files, it might take a while), then remember these tips, which will definitely help you. Here’s a quick recap of what you can do with your media files:

1. Create a folder tree / sorting system
2. Use the default rating system to rate your files
3. Rename the files and give them relevant names

Use a media organizer to keep your files in check

If you don’t want to bother with manually organizing your media collection, then you can use a dedicated service that allows you to quickly find your files. Keep in mind that these programs won’t do wonders, and if you have only one folder with all your images or music in it, you will still have a hard time finding your files. We recommend that you create a folder tree and categorize your files, so it will be easier to find with the dedicated program.

There are many media organizers available for users, and most of them only manage one or two types of media, so if you want to keep all your files organized, then you might need more than one media organizer to get the job done. Now, we’ll give you a list of such programs, and you can make your choice depending on what type you need and, of course, how much it costs.

Image  Organizers

Most likely, you will have much more photos than any other type of media on your computer, and therefore, keeping your photos organized can be a pretty hard task. The following media organizers will definitely give you some help when you want to find certain files from your computer. Also, in the recent updates, developers also added video support for most of them, making them perfect for organizing both photos and videos.

One other advantage of using a dedicated picture organizing tool is that some also offer editing features, or they are integrated with other image editors. They roughly offer the same features, and the main differences between them are the price and the platform they work on. We will provide you with a list of such programs that includes both free and paid media organizers.

• Windows Photo Gallery – Free
• Ubuntu Shotwell – Free
• Mac OS X Image Capture – Free
• Google Picasa – Free
• Nero Kwik Media – Free
• digiKam – Free
• Zoner Photo Studio – Free
• Apple iPhoto ’11 - $14.99
• CyberLink PhotoDirector 4 – €79.99
• ACDSee Pro – $59.99
• Adobe Bridge CC – Starts from $19.99/month
• Corel AfterShot Pro – $59.99

Video, Movies and DVD Organizers

Along pictures, many of us have lots of videos that we’d like to view over and over again. But many times, these files get mixed up and it’s really hard to keep track of them. Also, for those who like to collect movies and DVDs, the story is the same. Once your collection exceeds a certain number, you won’t remember what titles you own. This is why a movie/video organizer is a good tool to have on your computer.

• Delicious Library – Free Trial / $25.00
• DVD Profiler – Free Trial / $29.95
• Blu-Ray & DVD Database – Free Trial / €24.95 / €39.95
• EMDB – Free
• Griffith – Free
• Videonizer – Free

Music Organizers

Apart from pictures and videos, most of us have lots of music tracks on our computers, and we know that these are pretty hard to find. By using a music manager, you can quickly search and find the file you are looking for.

• MediaMonkey – Free / $24.95
• MusicBee – Free
• Best Music Organizer – Free
• Jaangle – Free
• foobar2000 – Free
• AIMP – Free
• Helium Music Manager – Free / $29 / $49

With these tools at your disposal, you will definitely have a clean media library, where all the files are in the right place and you will be able to find them easily. If you use other digital media organizers and you are pleased with how they work, do let us know.

© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2013. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |

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The question is, how important is for us to be aware of those little known features? How will it impact our daily lives? Not only that it will save us a lot of time and trouble but it may also spare us from buying a separate device for a task that could easily be done with our existing collection of gadgets.

Read memory cards with your printer

If you have bought a printer in the last 2-3 years, chances are it may have some dedicated slot for reading SD cards. It is there to give you a slot to read and print photos coming from your camera. But, it works fine as a regular memory reader as well. Also, if you happen to have a USB dongle, it may also facilitate that feature.

Charge smartphones from your TV

Running out of sockets to charge your smartphone? How about plugging it onto your TV? Most TVs bought these days come with a USB port. With that USB port you can play media files on your TV from any Flash drive or even gigantic external hard drives. It is just like a regular USB port that comes inbuilt in your laptop, so just like you can charge your gadgets from your laptop, same can be done through your TV.

Turning your Webcam into a CCTV system

Want to fortify the security system of your house and office? Have a spare webcam lying around eating dust? How about putting that vetoed piece of gadgetry to some use. Yet another web cam software (Yawcam) is a nice tool that detects your webcam and uses it as a CCTV system.

It does hold good at both capturing images as well as recording videos, additionally there is a timestamp imprinted on every image, and there is an option to get email alerts as soon as something moves in front of the camera.

Control your computer with your smartphone

Ever found yourself drowned in the laziness to move to your computer to change the movie, or just to shut the system down, or maybe to wake it up? Well, we may have good news for you. If you happen to have a smartphone (more specifically, if it is running Android OS or iOS), there are many apps which will let you perform various operations on your computer right from your smartphone.

One that we really liked is Unified Remote. With Unified Remote you can not only access and control your media players, but also browsers, and almost any app. If you purchase the full version, you can also make voice commands, support for NFC will be there and also widgets will become available.

If for some reason you want to jabber around your mobile through your system, for may be transferring files, installing or deleting applications, AirDroid is a great solution.

Transform your old computer into a media server

If you have an old computer lying around your house, which has a VGA out and a 3.5mm audio jack, you would be surprised to see how a great media server it could build out to be. A great utility named Plex will guide you all the required plugins and provide the environment that will make your system run as a media server.

One very common problem with old computers is that they can’t hold up much system resource usage, for that, you should not hesitate to try any Linux based operating system, one of our all time favorites is Ubuntu.

Check your pulse with your smartphone

Yes, you read it right. Are you feeling uneasy? Would you want to check your pulse rate and other things? Well, there is an app for that! The Instant Heart Rate app available for both Android and iOS uses the camera of your device that detects your pulse.

Noteworthy mentions

Using a laptop or tablet as a second monitor: If you have either of these device at home and you are doing nothing much with it, you could always use it as a second monitor. ZoneScreen is a freeware which once installed on both computers, lets you use that spare device as the second screen.

Connecting your tablet and laptop to your TV: Ever wondered what HDMI port is doing on your TV? Every TV these days comes with a HDMI port, through which you can connect your laptop or tablet to watch movies and other things on the big screen.

You don’t need any software for that, just bridge your laptop and TV with the HDMI cable. Depending on your manufacturer, there is an HDMI cable input for your tablet as well, again, you don’t need to run any software in the background, the TV will automatically detect and replicate your tablet ongoing activities.

Creating a Wi-Fi spot from your smartphone: You will be surprised to know the number of people who still don’t know their Android and iPhone and iPad devices can be used to create a Wi-Fi spot so as to make data available for other devices to connect to the internet.

Depending on your mobile carrier and its data policy, tethering can be enabled in Android phone by going to the Settings > Wireless& Networks > Tethering & Portable hotspot. iPhone and iPad users are supposed to go to the Settings > Personal hotspot (and slide it on)

Using your phone as an emergency torch: Light’s gone, no backup? Don’t worry, take out your Android phone, and download Tiny Flashlight, it will use the flash light of your phone as the torch. Apple users needs to download this free app called Light – LED Flashlight.

© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2013. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |

The post 10 Little Known Features About Your Gadgets appeared first on Technology Personalized.

The browser is available for free download, and tips the scales at 14.31 MB. Installation is zippy. And you know that this is a new Opera within seconds of launching the browser. The basic interface has been cleaned up and the landing screen is now divided into three sections – Speed Dial (which contains icons representing your favorite sites – a sort of visual bookmark section), History (sites you visited) and most interesting of all – Discover.

Discover is a rather interesting concept – it aggregates content under different heads and displays it in a two columnar format with each news item in a box of its own. So you can actually end up getting your news updates from within the browser without having to open any sites. There are currently thirteen topics in the Discover section and you can pick and choose from them, and also make them nation-specific. Before you ask, no, you cannot get social network updates in this format – this is pretty much news oriented stuff here. No, we cannot see ourselves giving up the likes of Flipboard and Pulse for this, but we definitely see ourselves heading to it straightaway whenever we open the browser. Is it the “best thing to happen to a browser since the back button” as Opera modestly refer to it in their press release? We are not too sure, but it is definitely a very neat touch.

Moving on to the rest of the browser, it is business as usual, which is not a bad thing, given that there was not too much wrong with Opera anyway. The data compression that is the hallmark of Opera Mini is here as well, although it’s called Off-Road mode here – it still works very well in areas with slow connectivity, although image quality tends to get butchered. There is also a download manager, multiple tabbed browsing, and Opera Link, which lets you synchronize your speed dial and bookmarks across different devices as long as you are using Opera. A very significant improvement however is that of text-wrapping – the art of resizing text to fit the screen so that you do not have to scroll sideways while reading. We have seen many browsers do so, but the new Opera elevates it to a new level – we zoomed in to the point when we could just see one or two words per line and yet the text fit the screen perfectly. A very nice touch is the fact that you can move the URL bar (which also doubles up as a Web search box) to the bottom of the screen if you wish – handy in this era of super large displays.

Most significantly, Opera’s decision to move to the WebKit rendering engine results in a decent turn of speed while browsing the Web. No, we won’t say it is the fastest browser we have ever used but that is only because it is rather difficult to say which one is fastest these days as there are so many brisk operators. But it certainly does enough for us to place it alongside Chrome as one of our favorite browsers on Android.

Available from: Google Play
Price: Free

© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2013. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |

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New Interface

The redesigned Xbox One UI borrows several elements from Windows 8. The old dashboard still exists, but a touch of Microsoft’s latest PC platform has been added, in order to coordinate a wide range of connected devices and services. For instance, switching from music to video streaming or browsing is done instantly, without any lag whatsoever.

Moreover, the Snap mode introduced by Microsoft in Windows 7 found his way into the console world and now gamers can split the screen in different ways, to enjoy as much content as possible. For instance, by literally saying “Snap Internet Explorer”, the platform will open the browser in a right-hand-side panel. The same goes for TV shows and other type of media.

Wide Integration

Microsoft accomplished to integrate the new Xbox One with multiple systems and features. Right from the core, the console runs three operating systems at once: a Windows kernel that handles direct applications, a dedicated Xbox OS that is summoned through virtualization to manage games and a third component that acts as the middle-man between the two and for multitasking.

Xbox One is capable of recognizing hand-made gestures performed in front of the Kinect sensor and also voice commands. For instance, by saying “Xbox ON”, the console and the TV will be lit, a fact which shows us that the newest generation is not a simple box on which gamers can play, more of a central entertainment platform designed to work with various other devices and worthy services: music, video streaming, browsing, etc.

Moreover, Skype can now do group video calls on the TV using the Kinect sensor and without disturbing the currently ran service. Integration also reaches the plains of Windows Phone, from where the entire system can be controlled using the Smart Glass application.

Even though the TV will be a huge part of Xbox One, with the cable wire being directly linked to the console for live streaming and other good stuff, Microsoft has taken the decision to enable these juicy TV-based featured only for US residents.

Another downside of the console is the lack of the upcoming Wi-Fi 5G standard integration, also known as 802.11ac. Although this isn’t quite popular at the moment, in the next couple of years, the wireless medium will most likely be dominated by high-transfer speeds and routers capable of carrier aggregation, leaving Microsoft’s console in the dark.

Smarter Kinect, now built-in

The latest Kinect sensor has been magically integrated right inside the body of the Xbox One. Its complete overhaul doesn’t stop here, as the sensor embeds a 1080p high-definition camera which can record color videos at 30 FPS, while detecting various moves and sounds through a high-density microphone array. The advanced camera technology allows a wide-angle view which can detect slight rotations of small body parts, like the wrist or the shoulder. Furthermore, it can even sense the heartbeat when the user is exercising.

The new Kinect sensor is the center of all exterior inputs. It can detect the human body and the controller itself, being able to recognize when the user raises or moves the controller. A wide range of these gestures will be implemented as direct actions in games and theoretically, there are no limitations to their use.

New and Improved controller

The Xbox One controller is what we like to call ergonomic design, at its finest. After suffering 40 design changes, the console’s most precious part for gamers comes with dynamic impulse triggers, integrated battery compartment and a precision directional pad. Moreover, the D-pad has been redesigned and a Wi-Fi direct radio stack has been implemented.

Although we haven’t got the chance to play with this controller yet, we do know that Microsoft had the upper advantage in previous generations and we do hope that level to remain the same. The nice design, clean curves and the addition of a sensitive source is something that will surely entice future buyers.

Gaming with style

All the content directed by Xbox One will mainly reside in the cloud. When it comes to games, the core application type of the console, One will use Blu-ray disc only to install new titles. All the information will be retained on the One’s hard drive in order to play each game instantly. Moreover, when entering the personal homescreen when the console starts, users will no longer have to wait for each game to be updated before using the console.

Theoretically, the latest Xbox will not require an internet connection to play a game, but every title will be automatically linked to a Xbox Live account, in order to suppress piracy (otherwise, you could be sharing game disks with friends). So, whenever a new title is installed, a connection must be made and the newly-added game will be linked to your account. If you wish to use that same disk on another console, Microsoft will restrain it, unless you pay an unspecified fee. This brings up an important question, because the concept of a used game or that of renting titles from a specialized store has been consciously put in danger.

A dedicated game DVR has also been added, which allows users to save game recordings with the push of a button and afterwards edit saved moments using Xbox Live. Multiplayer has also been enhanced, permitted gamers to actually play another title while queuing up for a match.

Unfortunately, there is no backwards compatibility with Xbox 360 titles, meaning that all games will be created from scratch. And speaking of them, here’s a short round-up of a few upcoming titles:

• FIFA – the well-known football simulator (aka soccer) from EA which will be launched this year, alongside Madden NFL, NBA Live and UFC. All of these titles are designed using EA’s latest Ignite engine.
• Forza Motorsport 5 – an exclusive car racing franchise which will debut with a new title at the launch of the console.
• Quantum Break – coming from the creators of Max Payne and Alan Wake, this will be an action / shooter.
• Call of Duty: Ghosts – built on a brand new engine, the latest sequel of the well-known shooter series is designed to make players more emotionally attached. This will come with a new multiplayer system, low-latency controls, dynamic maps and new animations.

Besides these, Microsoft Studios announced that more than 15 exclusive titles will be released in the first year and eight of them will be from brand new franchises.

© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2013. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |

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The Xbox One has a lot of innovation on its side. Microsoft has tried to provide all the multimedia needs of the user in one device. They have managed to make the Xbox console an All-in-One Home entertainment device, which can stream live television, as well as attend your gaming needs. And while we can’t get down and dirty, and play some games on these two consoles yet, to compare the gaming experience, we can take a look at their specs and their features.

Can Playstation 4 keep up with the Xbox One?

If you don’t remember what the Sony Playstation 4 has under its hood, then you can take a look at our cover of the Playstation 4 release, or about the main features that the console had. Here’s a quick overview of what Sony’s Playstation 4 console is packing, for a better comparison of the two consoles:

• Custom processor, that has eight x86-64 AMD Jaguar CPU cores
• 1.84 TFLOPS next-gen AMD Radeon based graphics engine
• 8 GB GDDR5 of RAM
• Built-in hard drive
• Blu-Ray/ DVD drive
• USB 3.0
• Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth 2.1
• HDMI, analog AV-out, and optical S/PDIF audio output
• Eye camera, with 2 1280 x 800 cameras

As you can see, the Sony Playstation 4 has a lot of horsepower under its hood, but how good is it when compared to the Xbox One? Let’s take a look at the known technical specs of the Xbox One:

• 8 core AMD SoC
• 8 GB of RAM
• 500 GB HDD
• Blu-Ray Drive
• 5 Billion transistors
• USB 3.0
• Wi-Fi Direct
• Blu-Ray Drive
• 802.11n Wi-Fi
• HDMI in/out
• Kinect with 1080p single camera

Spec-wise, the two gaming consoles are very similar, offering users lots of computing power as well as top notch features. What it boils down to is the user’s preferences. Each of the two consoles have gotten upgraded controllers as well as, a lot of software-related updates. Microsoft has created the Xbox One console so it can be the perfect companion to your living room, as users will have access to their live television as well their Xbox Live gaming zone.

Is Xbox moving away from gaming?

In the presentation, we saw how the new Xbox One can act as more than just your gaming console, incorporating voice and gesture control, and how it can be used to watch TV (with certain limitations) or browse the web. But with all of these features being added to the console, some users might feel that Microsoft has moved past the true purpose of the Xbox console: gaming.

The Xbox is not just a gaming console anymore, but has become a multimedia hub, where you can do much more than play games, and even if its new features offer some great uses to the Xbox One, we would have expected more gaming-related upgrades. The controller received a great facelift and the body of the Xbox One was created to be more stylish, but the real question here is: do gamers really care about all that?

When comparing the Xbox One to the Playstation 4, we can’t help but wonder which of these two companies have put more thought into the needs of their consumers: the gamers. And at this point, it would seem that Sony is in the lead. It’s true that Microsoft did show us some updates for Xbox Live, such as the new generation of achievements, or Smart Match, which creates multiplayer games based on different criteria, such as skills or language and Game DVR which allows users to record in-game footage and edit it.

But the absence of support for core features like 802.11ac WiFi standard truly hurts Xbox One, specially considering that the new console hardware will not be updated for few years from now. Sadly, PS4 too doesn’t support the latest WiFi standard.

Moreover, Microsoft has confirmed that Xbox One won’t be backwards compatible, meaning all those Xbox 360 games you bought won’t work on Xbox One. Similar restrictions were mentioned by Sony, back in February this year when they announced the Playstation 4. Also, Microsoft will be curbing used games, by having a usage fee for reused games.

© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2013. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |

The post Xbox One vs Playstation 4: What we Know so Far? appeared first on Technology Personalized.

Microsoft just unveiled the next generation gaming console, aptly named Xbox One with some impressive specs and features. What comes along, is the newly redesigned Xbox One controller, which looks absolutely stunning as you can see in the picture above.

The Redmond giant claims that the new console gamepad has been refreshed with more than 40 technical and design innovations, including an updated directional pad, thumb stick, integrated battery compartment, and an “ergonomic fit.”

The redesign includes the new dynamic vibrating impulse triggers, designed to provide feedback to players’ fingertips. Also, the new controller is designed to work more closely with Kinect, and automatically pairs with it to create seamless player syncing.

The new Xbox One controller comes with an integrated battery compartment & WiFi Direct radio stack which aids in automatic pairing and player syncing. The ergonomic design should please any hardcore gamer, as the gamepad is obviously the most used part of the gaming console at the end of the day.

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Microsoft has just unveiled the Xbox One, its next-generation console, joining the fight against the already announced Play Station 4 about which we don’t know all the details yet. What we have been showed at Redmond is a completely, redesigned Xbox that looks just like a big rectangular gadget. The controller is somewhat similar to the previous version, but comes with a rather elegant design.

Xbox One has been showed as a horizontal box, so we’re not sure if it will “stand” in a vertical position as the previous version. The Kinect box also seems a little bit bigger. What’s really new about it are the voice commands – you just say “Xbox on” and it miraculously turns on, bringing your personal home screen which is somewhat resembling of Windows 8.

And you don’t use the Xbox One only with your voice as it is also gesture controlled. It responds to your hand and your voice command, so you just wave and say “Xbox, go home” and it will listen to your wish. From the presentation we’ve managed to get a feeling of just how fast and snappy the switching is, becoming almost instant.

There’s Skype for Xbox, of course, which will allow you to do group video calls on your TV, clearly rivaling with Google’s Hangouts feature. Using Smart Glass, you can even control your Xbox One from your Windows Phone device. Now, let’s have a look at the technical specifications of Xbox One.

Xbox One technical specifications

There were a lot of rumors regarding the technical specifications of the Xbox One and for a good reason. After all, you are probably going to use the Xbox One for the next 5 years or so. So, Microsoft had to make sure the innards are powerful enough to keep up as time passes. And they have packed quite a lot inside it!

• 8 GB of RAM
• 8 Core CPU
• 500 GB HDD
• Blu-Ray Drive
• 5 Billion transistors
• USB 3.0
• Wi-Fi Direct
• Blu-ray, 802.11n, HDMI in/out
  
• Kinect at 1080p, camera can be used in Skype

Obviously, the Kinect sensor is a great deal and is one of the reasons why people choose Xbox. It’s really awesome to be able to play Kinect-able games. That’s why there are obviously improvements with it – Microsoft says it can even read your heartbeat when you exercise. We are not sure yet whether was a figure of speech or was meant literally. It can also detect slight rotations in your wrist and shoulders. We don’t know yet if the angles are better or if more players can join the playing area.

The Kinect will definitely play a bigger role than it did before, as it will be able to recognize you and the controller; when you will raise it, it will trigger actions inside games.

The new controller

The new controller has an appealing design which invites you to come and play as much as you want (hopefully you won’t get glued for days). Even if it’s slightly similar to the previous controller, we have been told that here have been 40 design changes, bringing new ergonomics,  ”dynamic impulse triggers” which allow for feedback in the triggers. Read more about the new Xbox One controller in our dedicated post.

Let’s talk games

The Xbox One will also have a dedicated game DVR which, in my understanding, will let you record and watch later your favorite in-game moments. It’s somehow similar to PlayStation 4′s controller button that allows for replay. What’s interesting is that there will be an editor for your recordings, as well.

As you wait to join a multiplayer game, you will now be able to play another one! Present at the event, Electronic Arts has announced that they will develop, as expected, in fact, four games for Xbox One: FIFA, Madden NFL, NBA Live, and UFC. The games will reach Xbox One in the following 12 months and EA assures that they are going to be revolutionary. We’ll be here to test them, have no doubt about it! The games will be powered by EA Sports Ignite, the new game engine from EA.

Forza Motorsport 5 will be one of the first games for the Xbox One. The demo on the scene looked pretty impressive. Also, Quantum Break from Remedy has been demoed. Microsoft Studios will release 15 exclusive games, 8 of them being brand new franchises.  And yes, Call of Duty will be here, as well, with the Ghosts sequel.

As expected, the price wasn’t announced and we were informed that the release will be later this year. Who knows, maybe they’re waiting for Sony to announce first their price, but that’s highly unlikely. Chances are that both companies will provide more details at the upcoming E3 conference.

© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2013. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |

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Please note that the list includes both free and paid apps. It’s also important to note that some of the free apps (specially the games) are in fact freemium apps, in the sense that they include in-app purchases to get the full experience. Nevertheless, you should definitely check out each of the app we have collected for you this week.

Serial+ ($2.99)

Serial+ is a handy Warranty & Serial number manager many of you were looking for. Unlike other competing apps, Serial+ provides a simple and easy-to-use way of managing both hardware and software serials and warranties right from the iPhone. The app costs $2.99, but a great choice if you are looking for an effective serials and warranties manager.

Tunetrace (Free)

How about an app which can convert your sketch into music? Fun, right? Tunetrace does exactly that. This free app translates the photograph of your art piece into a cacophony of beeps and drum-based sounds. Of course you can’t expect melodious tunes as such, but a very interesting and absorbing experiment nevertheless, specially if you have kids around.

Fry (Free)

Visually Stephen Fry is first of the many upcoming apps by Headcast which is a broadcasting and animation platform aimed at connecting celebs with their fans. In their first app, Stephen Fry records and pushes out short voice messages to his fans accompanied by an animated, virtual avatar which lipsyncs with the voice recording and can also mimic hand gestures and facial expressions. A must try app even if you are not a fan of Mr. Stephen Fry.

Karateka Classic ($0.99)

Karateka was a classic game on Atari. Their creators have now re-released the game in its original glory on iOS and Android. Those who had played the original Karateka can now have a trip down the memory lane, and others can have a look at the video below to know what it’s all about.

Haunting Melissa (Free)

Haunting Melissa is a serialized video horror story delivered in the form of an iOS app. Watching the first episode is free, and then you’ll have to wait and pay to keep going with the narrative. Haunting Melissa is produced by Neal Edelstein who also produced the US versions of The Ring and The Ring 2.

A Beautiful Mess ($0.99)

A Beautiful Mess is the easiest way to make pretty photos and to share them with friends. Add new life to your favorite photos with custom filters, fun fonts, and hand-drawn doodles and share them with your friends via rmail, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Limelight ($1.99)

Limelight is a new way to browse and organize your movie library. Become a movie critic and share your library with friends. Organizing your entire movie library is now easy. You can easily keep track of the movies you want to watch and when they’re released to theaters. It uses TheMovieDB for its catalog of movies.

Arpeggionome ($0.99)

A New Musical Instrument for controlling Arpeggios with the touch of a finger. Arpeggionome for iPhone transforms your iPhone into a new and expressive musical instrument. Arpeggionome has been around for a while on the iPad, and is now available for iPhone as well.

Go Home Dinosaurs ($4.99)

Though it looks like a game for kids at first glance, Go Home Dinosaurs expertly combines tower defense with puzzle elements, and should appeal to many casual gamers. It has been garnering rave reviews ever since it was released few days back. Do check the video trailer below.

Mystic* ($0.99)

Mystic* is a new photo editing app with lots of interesting filters, light effects, textures, frames, words or enhancements such as sharpening, contrast and color tone. The filters/effects/overlays are fully adjustable. Give it a try and you’ll love it.

Impossible Road ($1.99)

Impossible Road is a minimalistic and casual game that requires very little thought, but might drive you mad. This app is great for hardcore gamers looking for a casual game to pass the time. The gameplay is pretty difficult and is quite a challenge for many.

Hangouts (Free)

Google I/O was devoid of new product launches this year, but the Mountain View giant announced unification of its messaging apps with Hangouts, offering instant messaging, photo-sharing, emoji and video calls in one package. Connect with friends across computers, phones and tablets.

Beethoven’s 9th Symphony (Free)

Beethoven’s 9th Symphony for iPad presents four of Beethoven’s legendary recordings of this iconic work (9th Symphony), with the amazing ability to switch instantly between each performance at any point in the piece. You get two minutes for free, with an in-app purchase unlocking the rest. And the app download is a whopping 1.53 GB in size.

Jacob Jones and the Bigfoot Mystery : Episode 1 ($2.99)

Jacob Jones and the Bigfoot Mystery: Episode 1 is a colorful 3D adventure title in which you take on the role of a young whippersnapper called Jacob. The gameplay involves solving puzzles, and interacting with all manner of creatures and critters, including talking foxes, celebrity-obsessed barmaids, and dim-witted hunters.

Star Trek Rivals (Free)

A highly addictive, strategic, and free collectible card game featuring the characters and ships from Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness. You can play multiple matches at the same time, each side alternating turns similar to games like Words With Friends. Luckily, there are no in-app purchases involved and the game is absolutely free to play.

Frozen Synapse ($6.99)

Despite it’s 70′s sci-fi style choices, Frozen Synapse is actually a fairly advanced strategy game. It’s a port from the desktop, where the game was an award-winning effort, and it definitely doesn’t fall short of that standard on mobile.It’s a classic turn-based strategy style game with some modern twists that will keep you engaged and on the battlefield.

© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2013. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |

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This new strategy confused Nexus and Android lovers from all around the world, mainly because the device offered for purchase was not exactly what they had in mind. Beyond the disruption of the tradition and the lack of the trademark, the price which those interested will have to pay may seem outrageous.

Disadvantages of the Nexus Galaxy S4

As we mentioned earlier, the biggest drawback of the Nexusified variant of Samsung’s flagship is the outrageous price, specially for those who’re used to purchase Nexus phones at subsidized prices. Each and every handset released in partnership with the search-engine giant was sold for an affordable price, which was usually under the market threshold.

The most relevant example is the Nexus 4, a phone sold almost at a loss by LG. At the time of release, this product came with top-notch specifications, such as a quad-core Krait processor clocked at 1.5 GHz, a large 4.7-inch display capable of high pixel densities and HD quality, a more-than-modest 8-megapixel optical sensor, and an Adreno 320 GPU which could rendered most games. On top of all these, Google’s creation came with the latest Android Jelly Bean version, 4.2.

In November last year, when Nexus 4 was released, the phone held technical specification that could match or even outgun the Samsung Galaxy SIII, and with the advantage of a significant smaller price. Even though almost seven months of development separated them, the pricing figure was nearly halved, a fact which appealed a wide range of buyers. With the phone selling from $299 in USA, even emerging markets started to seen this device as an opportunity and importing became a trend.

Unfortunately, the trend might be disrupted, as this replacement of a Nexus, costs as much as a regular unlocked high-end smartphone.

Moreover, we were accustomed that a new Android version would be introduced by a Nexus member, be it a tablet or a smartphone. In this case, the Google-branded Galaxy S4 will come with Android 4.2.2 and will most likely be one of the first to receive future updates.

With Google shifting its strategy, another important detail of the Nexus brand seems to be fading: its name. As a Nexus owner myself, I long bragged to be one of the few that has a device blessed with this name. Every generation of the family held this advantage, even though only the last one displayed the Nexus name in sight, on the back cover. Now, it is yet unsure how people will actually refer to this Galaxy S4 variant, but a lot of journalists have their bet on the “Google Edition”.

Strong points do exist

We cannot conceal the future advantages of owning a modified version of the Galaxy S4 (or should I say a non-modified version). Besides integrating the full range of technical specifications, such as an octa-core processor (or quad-core), a high end graphical processing unit, a 5-inch Super AMOLED display with over 441 PPI pixel density and 2GB of RAM, this version will also be sold without carrier attachment and, with an unlocked bootloader.

An unlocked bootloader will give enthusiasts the advantage of installing almost any kind of Android applications, without having to worry about voiding the warranty or other stuff like that. Furthermore, thanks to the possibility of attaching a microSD card capable of holding up to 64GB of storage, there will be plenty of room for demanding games and high-resolution videos.

Another premium feature of would be the advanced LTE antenna, which is bragged to be compatible with a high range of frequency bands, from all over the world. Pair that with an removable battery and we have a winner.

Last but not least, the Galaxy S4 Google version will not contain any of the applications served by Samsung on a regular dish, nor its special features. Those who favor them can opt for the standard handset or, to wait for an intelligent Android member to unofficially port them.

Premium, at a cost

In a few words, all of these premium features now available to Nexus lovers come at a cost. The Google variant of the Samsung Galaxy S4 is certainly a niche product, meant to satisfy the needs of those who want the top-edge, at a rather special price. Even though it’s not quite affordable, it still beats the offers Verizon and its kind are throwing on the table. I only wish Google would actually release a Nexus 5 in the future but unfortunately, this might not happen, as the Galaxy S4 with pure Android might well be the Nexus 5.

© Raju PP for Technology Personalized, 2013. This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact us, so we can take legal action immediately. If you are on Twitter you can follow me @rajupp! | Permalink |

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