Cactus Chords » mobile

Dell Streak – July launch – 5 in 1 Android tablet

Mithun Chandra — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 16:31:02 +0000

Dell streak will hit the markets in Europe tomorrow. The unlocked piece of the 5 in 1 tablet cum phone will be priced at $500. This tablet is Android based and has been well awaited to hit the market. Dell being one of my personal favorites will sure make a mark with this piece. Though $500 sounds a little too much for an Android based tablet, the rave it has created will have quite a large number of customers flocking to the Dell stores.

But what is more surprising is that in the UK, the Streak is being given out free coupled with a 2 year mobile-data contract or data-voice contract with O2. Here are some of the hardware specs of the Dell Streak

- A sharp 5-inch capacitive multi-touch WVGA (800×480) display for a great full-screen experience watching video or browsing the web

- Fast 1GHz Snapdragon ARM-based mobile processor from Qualcomm

- 5 MP autofocus camera with dual LED flash that offers easy point & shoot capability and quick uploads to YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and more
- VGA front-facing camera enables video chat functionality down the road
- A user-removable (and replaceable) battery
- A 3.5mm headphone jack means many of you can use the Dell Streak as the music source (and more) in your car
- Integrated 3G + Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + Bluetooth 2.1 (think headsets, external keyboards, stereo headsets, etc.)
- UMTS / GPRS / EDGE class 12 GSM radio with link speeds of HSDPA 7.2 Mbps / HSUPA
- A user-accessible Micro SD slot expandable up to 32GB. That means you can store lots of movies, music, photos or other kinds of files.

On the software side, here’s what you can expect:

- A customized multi-touch version of the Google Android operating system that features Dell user interface enhancements

- Access to over 38,000 apps (and growing) via the Android Marketplace
- Microsoft Exchange connectivity and integration through TouchDown
- Google Voice support
- Integrated Google Maps with voice-activated search, turn-by-turn navigation, street and satellite views
- Quick access to activity streams via integrated social network app widgets like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube

You can read more here

Now speak on mobile without uttering a word?

Mithun Chandra — Wed, 19 May 2010 07:41:57 +0000

First it was the invention of the wireless communication device. Now when that has flooded the planet and pollution of all kinds is scaling heights, a means of reducing noise pollution is in the pipeline. Very soon you can speak on your mobile phone without uttering a word and that too in any language. “Silent sounds”, the new technology was unveiled at the CeBIT fair on Tuesday that transforms lip movements into a computer-generated voice for the listener at the other end of the phone.

Electromyography is the phenomenon used by this device, developed by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), monitoring tiny muscular movements that occur when we speak and converting them into electrical pulses that can then be turned into speech, without a sound uttered.

‘Silent Sound’ technology aims to notice every movements of the lips and transform them into sounds, which could help people who lose voices to speak, and allow people to make silent calls without bothering others. Rather than making any sounds, your handset would decipher the movements your mouth makes by measuring muscle activity, then convert this into speech that the person on the other end of the call can hear. So, basically, it reads your lips.

“We currently use electrodes which are glued to the skin. In the future, such electrodes might for example by incorporated into cellphones,” said Michael Wand, from the KIT.

The technology opens up a host of applications, from helping people who have lost their voice due to illness or accident to telling a trusted friend your PIN number over the phone without anyone eavesdropping — assuming no lip-readers are around.

The technology can also turn you into an instant polyglot. Because the electrical pulses are universal, they can be immediately transformed into the language of the user’s choice.

“Native speakers can silently utter a sentence in their language, and the receivers hear the translated sentence in their language. It appears as if the native speaker produced speech in a foreign language,” said Wand.

The translation technology works for languages like English, French and Gernan, but for languages like Chinese, where different tones can hold many different meanings, poses a problem, he added.

Noisy people in your office? Not any more. “We are also working on technology to be used in an office environment,” the KIT scientist told AFP.

The engineers have got the device working to 99 percent efficiency, so the mechanical voice at the other end of the phone gets one word in 100 wrong, explained Wand.

“But we’re working to overcome the remaining technical difficulties. In five, maybe ten years, this will be useable, everyday technology,” he said.

image reference: http://www.telecomspace.com/files/cebit_silent_sound_device.jpg, http://fotosa.ru/stock_photo/image100/p_2462676.jpg,

And finally got myself the Nokia E-72

Mithun Chandra — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:55:50 +0000

The long awaited Nokia E-72 was unveiled by Nokia and my oh my what a piece of machinery. Ahead of its predecessors by not just a mere software upgrade and a feature or two;

the Nokia E-72 is highly user friendly, sleek, handy, and of course the software upgrade, a mammoth 5 mega pixel camera with flash, fading backlight, dictionary, multiscanner, 3D tones, mere 128 grams, Five-way scroll key, Accelerometer sensor for auto rotate and tap-for-time, Optical trackpad, wifi, bluetooth, usb, Digital compass, turn to silence a call, a video and audio player that can play practically anything, Document editor (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF), Flash Lite v3.0, Printing….

And I have been craving for one of these after surviving with my E-61i for nearly 3 years. Eventually I went and got one and man am I in love with it. You get all the accessories you require along with what I need the most which other phones do not provide, a sheath. Superior, classy and stylish.

If anyones planning to buy a new phone try this and you will not regret it. After all its a Nokia

Cheers!!!

image reference: http://www.gsmarena.com

I bet you didn’t know this!!!

Mithun Chandra — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:02:45 +0000

I do not know how many of you know of these mind blowing facts about your mobile phone. Got this by mail. Thought would share it….. It is worth is and I have tried out the first three. They actually work. I was astonished.

There are a few things that can be done in times of grave emergencies. Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival. Check out the things that you can do with it:

1. Emergency

The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112. If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile; network and there is an emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. Try it out.

Also in Australia , the Australian emergency number 000 can be dialled whilst your mobile phone keyboard is locked. This is another reason why 000 receives so many false emergency calls!

2. Have you locked your keys in the car?

Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a cell phone: If you lock your keys in the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their mobile phone from your cell phone.

Hold your cell phone about a foot from your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other “remote” for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk).

Editors Note: It works fine! We tried it out and it unlocked our car over a mobile phone!”

3. Hidden Battery Power

Imagine your mobile battery is very low. To activate, press the keys *3370# Your mobile will restart with this reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your mobile next time.

4. How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?

To check your Mobile phone’s serial number, key in the following digits on your phone!:

star-hash-zero-six-hash

* # 0 6 #

A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe. When your phone get stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless. You probably won’t get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can’t use/sell it either. If everybody does this, there would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.

Not only the above, but also in Australia your stolen phone is added to a “Stolen Mobile Phone” database, so if your phone is found later on it can be returned to you.

Cheers!!!