Polaroid launches 16 megapixel HD smart camera powered with Android

Polaroid announces world’s first Android HD smart camera – the Polaroid SC1630 at the CES last week. The compact camera would be running an Android smartphone within it and has no calling features even though press images show a signal strength bar. Having the Polaroid SC1630 smart camera powered with Android you will no longer need to pick between your smartphone and camera because it offers the best of both worlds.

The Polaroid SC1630 delivers everything expected from a digital camera but powered by android astounding packs all the features needed to handily capture, connect and instantaneously share stunning HD digital photos and videos into one device. The five ounces camera is an ultra-portable, 2-in-1 instant sharing powerhouse which leaves behind even the most powerful camera phones by mixing together an advanced imaging feature with an android powered mobile platform. 

                                  

Now what’s cool with the SC1630 is that it has sharing features. The camera has a built in Wi-Fi, so that captured images can be sent off to the cloud or transferred to a PC without the need of the cable. Many of the image editing apps can be downloaded since the SC1630 has access to the Android market which gives the photographer editing possibilities in the field.

Scott W. Hardy, president of Polaroid said, “Polaroid has helped the world bring stories to life through photographs for the past 75 years, the newest member of the Polaroid family, the Polaroid SC1630 Smart Camera unites the beauty of high-end digital images with powerful Android connectivity features. The result is an instant experience of click, capture and share that enables social networks to see and experience the moment as if they were there."

Highlights of Polaroid SC1630 -

• 16 megapixel camera
• 3x optical zoom
• 36mm - 108mm lens
• 3.2-inch display screen
• Wi-Fi
• Face and smile detection
• Geo-tagging
• Red-eye removal
• Resizing
• Colour correction
• microSD card slot. Up to 32 GB
• HD video capture
• Focal length: 3.1 - 5.6

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Apple co-founder "Woz" says Android better than iOS in some ways

In the year 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak jointly founded Apple, furthermore the very first Apple I computer was launched later the same year. The electrical engineer, Steve Wozniak (Woz) left the company after twelve years. He still holds Apple shares but are not full-time employee any more. His latest chat with Dan Lyons of The Daily Beast made headlines.

Woz said in a recent interview that there are some things which could be done much better with an Android smartphone compared to the iPhone 4S. Even though, Steve highlighted that iPhone 4S still his first preference phone and he believe the iPhone 4S is the most excellent overall smartphone. "My primary phone is the iPhone. I love the beauty of it. But I wish it did all the things my Android does."

The co-founder is not very much impressed with the iOs app Siri any more (Siri is an intelligent software assistant and knowledge navigator functioning as a personal aide application for iOS. The application make use of a natural language user interface to answer questions, make references, and perform procedures by hand overing requests to a web services). He says the voice commands on Android work better than on his iPhone. According to Woz:

“I used to ask Siri, ‘What are the five biggest lakes in California?’ and it would come back with the answer. Now it just misses. It gives me real estate listings. I used to ask, ‘What are the prime numbers greater than 87?’ and it would answer. Now instead of getting prime numbers, I get listings for prime rib, or prime real estate.”

                                                              iPhone's Siri App

Another feature where Wozniak thinks Android is better is the built-in navigation system.

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Motorola Droid Xyboard review: CES 2012

The minute you get your hands on the Droid Xyboard, it is clear that this is a higher-caliber Android tablet while comparing with almost everything else available today. The tablet is sleek, properly balanced and felt comfortable in our hands. A completely new look, significantly enhanced performance and some productivity-oriented enhancements make it feel and look like a first-class business tablet.

The 10.1-inch tablet is powered with Android OS v3.2 (Honeycomb) which is upgradable to v4.0. Motorola Droid Xyboard is just 8.8 mm thin (0.35-inch) which gives the sleek and slim look. But it’s not thin as the Toshiba’s Excite X10 which is just 7.7 mm thin which is the thinnest tablet yet.  It has a 5MP rear camera and a 1.3MP camera on the front. The camera also has a autofocus fuction provided with LED flash which can produce 2592 x 1944 pixels.

The soft rubberized grips on the horizontal sides of the tablet gives a comfortable feel and slip-resistant, but also delicately strengthen the notion that this tablet should be held in landscape mode. The tablet uses an IPS (In-plane switching) panel which results in a bright, vibrant screen that aids readable quality in all lightning conditions.

The only drawback is, the Xyboard lacks the full-sized USB port and SD card reader that other tablets have. But, it does have an IR transmitter that support in tablet’s en suite Dijit app which helps to contol your home theater.

Highlights -

• Size: 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 pixels
• Weight: 599 grams
• Android OS, v3.2 (Honeycomb), upgradable to 4.0
• 1.2 GHz dual core TI OMAP 4 processor
• Camera: 5MP primary, autofocus, LED flash; 1.3 MP secondary
• 1 GB RAM
• 16 - 64 GB internal memory
• 3.5 mm audio jack
• Bluetooth
• Wi-Fi
• Battery: 7000 mAh; Talktime: 10 hours

Price -

Droid Xyboard is available for $479 for 16 GB version with two-years 4G contract. $579 for 32 GB; $679 for 64 GB; $699 for 16 GB Wi-Fi version.

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LG Z330 Ultrabook: CES 2012

In the past few months we saw so many ultrabooks budding up in the electronic market. The Apple’s trendy MacBook Air gave the PC makers a cause to be anxious, since it is obvious that these thin-and-light laptops seems to be in a tough competiton with them.

In general, Ultrabooks are the small, light, powerful and with impressive battery life gadget. Here, LG’s professed ‘Super Ultrabook’ Z330 is no unusual. The Z330 embraces a 13.3-inch display, if it is not sufficient for you then there’s also a model Z430 comprising of 14-inch screen.

Design

The Z330 is a attractive machine. The looks of this model  is far better than most ultrabooks seen so far. The new entry in manufacturing laptops, LG had made classy effort and also fashioned wedge-shaped taper on the show with clean lines.

The trackpad is truly big which shows a positive sign. The keyboard seems to be well-spaced, which would aid in typing smoothly and even when you are in a hasten. The orange ligt-up power button also gives an pleasant look and charisma to the machine. The only problem is the vent which is at the Z330’s left flank.

The Z330 is just 14.7mm thick, so it’ll clutch into a bag with no complaints. In regards to weight, the ultrabooks is just 1.21kg to scale i.e. light enough to heave around all the day.

You might won’t have any complaints with the design of the Z330. Even though, the newly announced Aspire S5 ultrabook perhaps gives a prominent design and looks while comparing through other thin-and-light books.

Connectivity

The connectivity ports of the Z330 isn’t very striking and impressive. There’s a USB port on the left side (one would think this to be USB 3.0 but it still the USB 2.0) and also a network port, which will aid to plug an adaptor into if you wish to use the Z330 with a Ethernet cable.

You’ll find a headphone socket over the right, a HDMI port and second USB port. The Z330 seems to look same as the Z430 with lack of an Ethernet slot from the left.

The sad part is the Z330 provides a microSD card slot and not a SD card slot. It doesn’t gives you a larger option means if you’re carrying a SD card then this would be a trouble for you. Hence for transferring photos from a compact camera that has a SD card won’t be able to work. As comparing, even the super-minimalist MacBook Air has an SD card slot, so it’s unaccepted reason that why this part is omitted.

Design and Hardware

The Z330 comes with a 13.3-inch screen on the diagonal. The display is looked convincingly bright and colourful to us. On the other side the ultrabook encounters the Intel’s range of Core iSeries processors, which leave the Z330 competent to handle things like web browsing and HD video playback. Storage involve the SSD drives, which are comparatively faster than traditional hard drives and also break proof while dropped. From battery point of view, it gives a minimum battery life.

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Sony announces its first mobile phone in 10 years: Sony Xperia Ion

Sony announces its very first mobile phone ‘Sony Xperia Ion’ in 10 years after it is being seperated from Ericsson at the CES 2012. Now the new products and devices is back with its brand logo of Sony instead of Sony Ericsson. AT&T is the first operator to have a Sony phone in the assortment.  Sony has selected AT&T as the first collaborator for the rejuvenated brand.

The first Android-based smartphone of Sony is the Sony Xperia Ion. It chose AT&T as its partner just like the corporation did while the announcement of Xperia Play in US.  The 4.6-inch model has a 12 megapixel camera with running Android Gingerbread. It has a dual core CPU provided with Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 MSM8260 processor.

                   

The logo on the backside of the phone is of Sony Ericsson which is seems to be a strange factor, since Sony has it own logo. This appears to have been in a rush as they have turned out a Sony logo in the frontside and Sony Ericsson logo on the backside.

Highlights- 

• Size: 132 x 68 x 10.6 mm
• Weight: 144 gram
• 4.6 inch HD Reality display with a 720 x 1280 pixels resolution, 16 million colors
• 1.5 dual-core processor, Qualcomm Snapdragon S3MSM8260
• 12 megapixel  Exmor-R camera, 3D sweep panorama, Fast capture feature
• 1.3 megapixel Exmor-R front camera
• 1 MB RAM, 16 GB storage
• HDMI out
• Wi-Fi
• Bluetooth
• 3.5mm audio jack
• 3D games
• Battery: Standyby - 400 hours; Talktime - 10 hours
• Android 2.3 Gingerbread Operating System. Upgradable to Ice Cream Sandwich in 2nd quarter 2012 

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Sony Xperia S announced

There went a rumour about the announcement of the Sony Xperia S and also we have seen some leaked photos of the model  many time before. The latest leak photos had Sony Ericsson logo wearing on it but this final product image from CES has a Sony logo on the top. 

It is a smaller version of Sony Xperia Ion lacking of the LTE high speed connectivity. While the Xperia Ion has a huge 4.6 inch display, the Xperia S has a smaller 4.3 inch display. Even though it has a smaller display it comes with the same 720 x 1280 HD resoulution.   The white version of the Xperia S is said to be a Phones4U fashionable on the islet.

The camera megapixels count has increased from 8 to 12 in this newer version. There are very few smartphones that tender such a high number of megapixel count. Samsung Pixon 12, Sony Ericsson Satio and the legendary Nokia N8, all of these fabricate excellent image quality and we could expect that the 12 megapixel camera of the Sony Xperia S wil do the same.

Highlights -

•  Size: 128 x 64 x 10.6 mm
•  Weight: 144 gram
• 4.3 inch Reality display
• 720 x 1280 pixel resolution
•  Mobile Bravia Engine
•  Camera: - 12.1 megapixel camera, Sony Exmor-R sensor, Fastest Capture feature to take shots in 1.5 seconds geotagging, Smile shutter, Face recognition 
• 1080p video capture – primary
•  720p video capture   – secondary
•  1.5 GHz dual core processor
• Wi-Fi
• HDMI
•  3.5 mm audio jack
• Playstation Certified
• Available in white and black
• Battery: Standby – 450 hours; Talktime – 7 hrs 30min

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Sony, Ericsson splits after 10 years

In October 2011, Ericsson and Sony announced that they would get separate as Ericsson sells its 50% venture in mobile phone make Sony Ericsson to Sony for $1.46 billion.

Sony Ericsson now became a utterly owned subsidiary of Sony and incorporated into Sony’s platform of network connected consumer electronics products. The step was extensively predictable by the analysts, who concluded that Sony Ericsson could become more competitive beneath the sole ownership of Sony in this tough market.

The joint venture was set up in the year 2001 for 10 years to take on Nokia which was the top mobile manufacturers at that time. The 50-50 partnership has been under scrunity by Japanese company – Sony, after the company adage the demand of smartphones in the market. The deal was estimated to close in January 2012, which was subject to authoritarian approval.

Sony CEO, Sir Howard Stringer said “We can more rapidly and more widely offer consumers smartphones, laptops, tablets and televisions that seamlessly connect with one another and open up new worlds of online entertainment”.  He also added that the deal also includes Sony’s PlayStation Network and its online provider of music, games and video, Sony Entertainment Network. He called the dal as “the last piece of the puzzle” for the Sony’s portfolio and its services.

Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg also added to this deal, “Ten years ago when we formed the joint venture, thereby combining Sony's consumer products knowledge with Ericsson's telecommunication technology expertise, it was a perfect match to drive the development of feature phones. Today we take an equally logical step as Sony acquires our stake in Sony Ericsson and makes it a part of its broad range of consumer devices”.

Ericsson said that it will now spotlight on the global wireless market as a whole and also aims to providing benefits to people, business and society beyond phones through wireless connectivity.

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