Samsung Galaxy S4 Arrives in India!

The most awaited smartphone of the year is out.And as we gear up for its launch in India on Saturday, 27th April. Here’s a sneak-peak into what you can expect of the Samsung Galaxy S4.

Screen
With a full HD 1,920 X 1,080 resolution, Super AMOLED display, 441 ppi high pixel density, everything looks sharp and more pleasing to the eyes. The screen can be operated by moving the finger even lightly on the surface. The S4 allows a user to operate some functions on the phone without even touching it. Gorilla Glass 3 is used to make the screen glass.

Design
This device is roughly as wide as S3 having dimensions at 136.6X69.8X7.9mm which makes it 5 mm longer and 1 mm thinner than its predecessor. The thin screen bezel imparts a wonderful look to the phone. It feels like the screen is pouring off the edge. With a thin air gap between the screen and the tough digitizer, the user feels that they are actually touching the screen instead of the glass on the top.

Performance
The phone is powered by an Exynos octo-core processor. With this processor, everything works extremely fast, opening and closing down of apps, browsing web pages, and games work in the blink of an eye. The battery is bigger than most smartphones available today as it has 2,600 mAh. It is efficient to provide power which suffices for all day long.

The 13 megapixel camera works well in low light with Backside Illumination (BSI) sensor along with a flash. The front 2 megapixel camera helps one to do video calling easily and S4 also provides the feature where the images from the front and rear camera can be superimposed.

The flagship smartphone from the kitty of South-Korean conglomerate, Samsung will be released in India on 27th April, 2013. This exclusive launch event organized by Reliance Digital, will be held in Shangrila Hotel in Mumbai. Bollywood heart-throb Ranveer Singh of Band Baajaa Baraat and Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl fame will unveil the device..Apart from being an actor;Ranveer Singh himself is a techno-geek who loves to use the latest devices and is updated about most technology advancements.

Information Source- Reliance Digital Stores

Windows 8: Embracing a whole new experience

Microsoft India held a launch event for Windows 8 yesterday marking the arrival of it's new OS that promises to bring a significant change to the overall computing experience which would be fast, fun and fluid, also enabling consumers to use Windows 8 beyond the PC.

Reliance Digital, one of the largest electronics stores in India also unveils New Windows 8 on 26th October, 2012, after the last version being announced a year and a half ago.Along with multi touch capability infused, and support for up to five touches, It will strike a chord with the present trend and act as a trigger to its sales. Besides, this integration will pave way for network of touch sensitive LCD monitors. It will also surprise its users with the new features, an in- built system applications that will serve as a quick access bar for most sought after features and apps. Be it sharing, accessing hard drives or your settings, charm is at your service. It also supports device integration enabling you to stream video from your computer to your Xbox and enjoy a great viewing experience on your HDTV.

(Information Source – Reliance Digital Stores)

What went on while preparing for Windows 8 launch?

Microsoft has being seriously overhauling a gamut of services it has launched over the past few years like Xbox gaming service that was being morphed into an all around entertainment source for the entire family, scrapping erstwhile music service called Zune and paving way for Xbox Music which has close to 30 million tracks in it's library (not available in India yet). Windows 8 OS for mobile phones is also scheduled to launch on October 29, Microsoft also organised an AppFest earlier this year in Bangalore hosting a coding marathon which saw 2,567 developers coding non-stop for 18 hours creating a Guinness record. 

Efforts to attract developers for making apps on WP8 (Windows Phone 8) mobile platform is yielding results for Microsoft, surely it has a lot of catching up to do in comparison to Google and Apple when it comes to making inroads into building a credible app library, as per a company statement it has close to 1,00,000 apps and games as of now and it is surely to grow further with a committed support Microsoft has being getting from mobile manufacturers like HTC, Samsung and Nokia.

Surface tablet also aims to bridge the gap between a PC and Smartphone user already on the windows platform where a slew of android tablets already occupy the mid and lower segment of the tablet market and iPad still ruling the roost. 

It's not just about the OS any more

Windows 8 has being designed and developed to change the way we work on our computing devices like doing away with the system tray we have being so accustomed to view all these years on the previous windows platforms, bringing in apps, live tiles to work on and a similar experience I would get using my Xbox service which also has tiled layout, a browser included as well on the console now. 

An app called SmartGlass would be launched this month to enable this integration windows experience for consumers using Windows 8 installed on their PC, WP8 enabled smartphone (also extending support to iOS and Android phones) and the Xbox 360

Windows 8 is built to work on the ARM processing platform (read more about this here) that allows more vendors to manufacture hardware that supports adoption of Windows 8 OS, Microsoft has also strengthened the security on it's new OS with better anti-malware protection and improved windows defender performance.

Microsoft has also followed a very sensible approach in offering a discounted upgrade to genuine Windows OS users in India, who can move on to Windows 8 Pro for INR 1999 (Limited period offer), Looking forward to upgrading my laptop to the new Windows 8 experience today, just ran the windows 8 upgrade assistant, a little clean up to follow before the new install

Returning to my Passion - Comic Con Express Mumbai

My summer vacations at school turned out a challenge for my dad to keep me busy and engaged, for which he found a solution I would be thankful to him for rest of my life. He got me enrolled to a library which opened door's to my creativity through comics, If not just library, i used to visit Wheeler stand at Mulund railway station to grab my favorite comics and every time I used to travel during my vacations I always carried a good collection of comics to pass time during train travel. It was great to relish few days off school embracing stories of Spiderman, Batman, Superman and host of Indian comic characters from the house of Amar Chitra Katha, Diamond Comics and Raj Comics. There came a time I was not ready to let go off my growing comic book collection right from my childhood to the time I was in college, I never missed out on catching up to comics even after I started working and a event like Comic Con was just the right recipe to get my tastebuds tingling for the love of comics.

I enjoyed 2 day Comic Con Express event held at World Trade Center, Mumbai, Cosplay participants got the mood of the event going. 1st day at the event saw decent crowd, there were close to 40 Exhibitors at the event which included popular brands like BSA, Funskool, Amar Chitra Katha, Diamond Comics, Inkfruit.com, WYO, 9XM, Buzzinga, Animagic. I was impressed by the effort made by upcoming publishers like Vimanika Edutainment, Holy Cow Entertainment, Sufi Comics, Level 10 comics who have the potential to get our generation hooked to gadgets and gizmos into reading a comic book once again.




An event which saw launch of close to 15 new titles, VJ Cyrus Broacha, VJ Manish Anand and VJ Juhi, Ankit V from TechGuru were spotted at the event with a stage appearance by Irrfan Khan for the launch of Munkeeman comic title created by Abhishek Sharma (Director: Tere Bin Laden). Some stalls also had live artists, Mario De Miranda's art collection was impressive with lot of curious audience turning up at Sufi Comics stand to take a look at spirtualism in a totally new avatar, Sunday saw more crowds drawing in with lot of kids as well with their parents enjoying the event. there were few independent artists too who had set up their stalls showcasing their talent which is truly a great platform to bring out your creative talents and get "Discovered". Amar Chitra Katha has made a foray into Animation which was showcased with a promising sneak peek feature for Sons of Rama series.

Stall owners / Publishers were keen enough to answer queries and interact freely with audience/ visitor's, SRK's Ra.One also made it's presence felt at the event selling Ra.One merchandise, Vendor's like Bombay Merch and Buzzinga had a great collection of poster's, tee's and comic figurine's to choose from. I got myself good collection of comics after a quite long time, hardly remember if I went shopping for comics.

Upcoming event is again returning to Delhi next year, Destination Delhi next year ??? Comic Con just got me back to my passion for comics. check out some links to pic albums/ promo videos for this event.

Promo Vid 1 | Promo Vid 2   | GadgetCurry at Comic Con

Album Link