Technology Bay

Gone are the days when mobile phones were used for communicating with each other, either by using the voice feature or SMS. Today’s mobile phones are not less than the computers that were lying on our tables till yesterday. Mobile payments is something that is catching up fast in in today’s world of plastic money, payments using your mobile phones for your day to day activities is catching up fast. Recently, Nokia announced their partnership with YES Bank for its Nokia Money project and Reserve Bank of India also increased the transaction limit of mobile transaction upto INR 50K. Now, India’s most trusted bank, State Bank of India has joined the mobile transfer money race by tying up with AirTel and BSNL. SBI has already tested this SMS based service in Chandigarh and is waiting for approval from the right authorities so that it can launch this service in other cities of India. The entities involved will be using a unique code to identify the transaction.
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The video below shows Google Earth being used on Nexus One, which runs Android 2.1 and Motorola Milestone a.k.a Droid, which runs on Android 2.0.1. You will also notice that, when it comes to launching the Earth App. the Nexus One is way faster than the Droid. Maybe because it has a higher and powerful version of the Android OS but I think it is because it is a Google phone and optimized for running Google products and services. The app also runs a bit more smoothly on the Nexus One however even the Droid does not disappoint. I will shut up now and let the video do the talking!! If you have a latest Android device, maybe you should check out the Google Earth Guide for Android Users.

Be it any spectrum of the price rainbow, Samsung is making sure that it has phones in each and every one of them, especially for a market like India. Since last one and half year Samsung has started doing some serious strategy work around its presence in India, where it has to face the world leader in mobile phones, Nokia. Samsung has launched some cool phones in the last one and a half year and keeping that tradition intact, they have recently come up with the Samsung Jet 2 for India after launching the Samsung Jet aka Samsung S8003. The main purpose of Samsung behind launching Jet 2 was to come up with a phone that was smart with high-end features but had a simple and easy to use interface. At a price point of INR Rs. 19,500, the Jet 2 is not cheap but has impressive specs as well as features. When it comes to specs the phone is powered by a 800 Mhz CPU and boasts of a 3.1 inch WVGA 480×800 AMOLED display. When it comes to AMOLED displays, I think Samsung’s smart phones have one of the best displays. The phone comes equipped with Samsung’s TouchWiz technology. Then there is Dolhin Internet Browser, which I think is a very promising mobile internet browser. Other features include, a 5 meg snapper, GPS, DNSe and SRS sound compatibility, DivX and XVid playback support, Google Push Email support and media sharing with DLNA certified devices. After reading this, it seems that Jet2 is a smart phone that focuses on multimedia.

After getting delayed for god knows how many times, India’s 3G auction now finally has a date. The Government post-poned the auction 3 times and now it will be held on April 9 2010, the last date of applications is March 19. Department of Telecom has also said that 2 days after the 3G auction is over, the auction for Broadband Wireless Access and WiMax will take place. So finally we have a date and within a months time 3G and WiMax would be available in India. As of now 3G services are offerred by BSNL and MTNL but the real game will start when big wigs like AirTel and Vodafone start offering 3G services. AirTel, as you all must have known has already tested some 3rd party apps for its upcoming 3G network. Funny part is after getting delayed thrice, the 3G auction is taking place now and TRAI (Telephone Regulatory Authority of India) has already initiated its plans for 4G..I am speechless!!

Today mobile apps have a come a long way. There are apps, which are so adbanced and hi-tech that, few years back I did not even think that apps like these would even exist in the future. I have come across many augmented reality apps on phones and they sometimes were impressive and sometimes not so impressive. One such amazing app that might make its way to phones is the Photo Translator. This app is as of now available only for the Nokia N900 and its not released yet. You can anyway check out the pre-release video below and see what this app can do for you. As the name suggests, this app lets you translate text in any of the photos and images to the language you want. So if you are traveling and don’t know a language and still want to understand whats written on a signboard. Just click the photo and using the app select the text you wanna translate and the app will do it for you. The pre-release version really looks awesome and if commercialized this app will be very helpful to travelers. Imagine a Nokia N900 loaded with Ovi Maps and this App…who needs a navigation device???

Even if Nokia didn’t show any devices at the recently concluded Mobile World Congress 2010, it showed the upcoming Symbian S^3 mobile OS. This OS is one of the most anticipated mobile OSs of the year 2010. With this OS already making its debut at the MWC 2010, some documented details about the new Nokia handset have been leaked. This new handset, called as a Nokia X10 Moniker will run on Symbian S^3 version. From the name you can make out that it will belong to the X Series range of Nokia handsets. Looks like the X6 but has a slide out QWERTY keyboard and also a capacitive touch screen like the X6. Other features include a 5 meg snapper, 256 MB RAM, options of 16GB and 32 GB memory, ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz Processor and 3.2 inch AMOLED touch screen interface. [Via]

If you have 15$ in your pockets then you can buy a mobile phone. This is not a joke because Vodafone unveiled a $15 mobile phone at the on-going Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona, Spain. Vodafone V150 will also be available in India at the price point of Rs.700, which makes it the cheapest handset on the block. I guess the moment this device hits the market it will penetrate the rural areas rapidly, which has been a strong playing ground for Nokia. Vodafone V150 has basic features like voice and SMS. Interestingly it also has mobile payment feature. Nokia recently launched its pilot for Nokia Money in Pune along with YES Bank.As you can see the V150 is a dual-band basic candybar shaped handset with 5 way keys for navigation and features like SMS, vibration, ring tones, 110 phone book entries, micro USB connector, torch.

Along with the V150, Vodafone also launched the V250, another cheap handset, which will be priced at $20 or INR 900. The features include,FM radio, stereo headset support, voice and SMS; GSM 900/1800; polyphonic ringtones; vibration; alarm clock; calculator; currency converter; 2 embedded games; memory for up to 100 entries in phonebook and SMS storage; torch; mini USB connector. Both these handsets are bound to change the rules of the game once they enter India. However, few days back Nokia said that, it would soon launch a handset for farmers, which will be priced around INR 500, way cheap than these two guys mentioned above. This handset of Nokia will come under its, Nokia Life Tools program.

Samsung Omnia HD recently got a Firmware update and Anphase had made an overview video oof this update telling us what new features have been added. Have been reading his blog and I feel that his observations and tips give us a good insight on Samsung’s Omnia HD, which is a very good high-end smart phone with a robust hardware. Check out the video below.