HTC Windows Phone 8X Review

The new Windows phone is in market. Made by HTC, Windows Phone 8X provides a tough competition to its predecessor, Nokia Windows’ phone in terms of design and call quality. The square-cornered design, faster processor and LTE speeds, makes this HTC Windows Phone 8X a good pick in the Windows OS segment. It has a built-in integrated Microsoft Office 2013, NFC sharing and possesses Windows OS’s edgy interface.

Display and Design

This phone looks good with its tailored mechanism. Available in four colors-black, red, yellow and blue, this HTC phone fits in hands and pockets of various sizes. It is sleek and slim in design, the texture at the back and the side is fluffy.  8X is 5.2 inches in length and 2.6 inches in width. With 4.6 ounce weight and 0.4 inch thickness, it is on the heavier side when compared to other smartphones of Android, iOS or Blackberry categories.

A uni-body body surface on the back and the sides makes the battery immobile. The 4.3 inch Super LCD Display 2 has full HD resolution of 1280 X 720-pixels i.e. 341ppi.  Below the screen are three buttons which navigate through Back, Home and Bing search.

Camera

Possessing a camera of 8 megapixels in the rear and 2 megapixels in the front, this Windows phone misses the mark in capturing great photos. The rear camera captures good pictures in broad day-light. It is illuminated with a LED flash and clicks sharp and accurate photos. There are settings to set exposure, saturation, contrast and sharpness.  The HD video capturing is good at 30 fps. With an internal storage of 16 GB and 7GB of free Microsoft Skydrive storage, there is no external storage memory available.

OS

8X carries many new features owing to the powerful OS it is built on. Though Microsoft OS’s doesn’t have much room for changes, but HTC has managed to add a store on its name. Photo editor, wallet, NFC, camera app, gaming, kids’ corner, maps, voice-to-text, voice commands, Microsoft’s new music store and Internet Explorer 10 are some of the apps in 8X.

Overall, HTC Windows Phone 8X is a good combination owing to its design and features.

This review is penned by experts at Reliance Digital.

Jelly Bean update for Galaxy Note in India goes live

Jelly Bean update for the first Galaxy Note is now available to download via Samsung KIES, did not check the exact download size of the firmware, the entire download process took close to an hour and no back up was required during this upgrade process. All call logs, SMS and other essential data was intact after the upgrade completed.

Observed initial lag while using the phone right after the firmware was installed, normalised in some time. Galaxy Note gets Jelly Bean version 4.1.2 with Nature UX and it does feel smooth to operate, Icons look slightly up sized and crisp. Camera seems to have improved on center focus capture mode which gives a tilt shift effect while capturing pictures. Animated collapse view visible while accessing apps grouped into folder, S Memo is now merged into S Note app.

Notable features that make an appearance are:

• Google Now
• Multi view and side panel 
• Page buddy
• Customizing notification panel 
• Smart rotation 
• Samsung cloud sync service
• Features like Direct Call, Smart Stay and Pop-up Play
• Updated Music Player with Sound Alive

This upgrade has limited features from the premium suite available on GS3 and Note II. You do not get features like video and other content preview with S-Pen hovering over, pop up note for S-Pen, Burst mode for camera etc.

Interesting part is that Group Play and AllShare play also arrive on Galaxy Note which were announced during Galaxy S4 launch, Galaxy Grand is also due to get both of these soon in India. More screenshots from the upgrade below, share your feedback on any performance improvements, battery life as you upgrade your Galaxy Note via KIES as OTA upgrade currently does not seem to be available.

By the way, Galaxy Note along with some older crop of Galaxy series phones like S2 are due to get their last upgrade up to Jelly Bean version 4.2.2, so hopes for a Key Lime Pie update (Android 5.0) look very bleak as per a recent news published on sam mobile website, Nevertheless finally Jellybean made it to the original note after almost like 9 months Google released this OS code for Android manufacturers.

Raise your voice against domestic violence

Innovative ad by Makani Creatives from Mumbai for Maitrii India

Most instances of violence in marriages go unnoticed and Woman abuse is a growing menace among married couples in India.

With a fear of social backlash only a fraction of such instances are reported, this campaign brings out the silent suffering a woman goes through via a mehendi hand, which is the symbolic representation of marriage in India.

Arm chair Activists bringing social change?

Yes, If you think the above title makes very little sense, very soon it may prove to be true. Did you ever wish that all your online rants on garbage, potholes, pollution of all kinds on popular social media platforms could reach the concerned authorities with a hope to see some positive action being taken against it?

Now is your chance to do something useful as an arm chair activist by being a part of SocialCops initiative, in which you can be a part of Citizen group along with NGO, Council and Corporate groups. This service is slated for a pilot launch in May starting with New Delhi. It is quiet commendable for a team of 3 NTU final year students from Singapore as a start-up aiming to launch such service, while they are currently busy developing the council side platform before going live they already have plans of taking this concept global.

If you are thinking how commercially viable this service could be? well that's being thought out as well to permit local small businesses to advertise on this platform and also offer perks and rewards, for citizens contributing to this initiative they could be rewarded in the form of discounts or promotions. The second option is garnering sponsorship from large brands and retailers who would be willing to participate as part of corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs.

This team already has a Facebook page up and running to test actual working of this model and most probably they would be using SMS service as a backbone for their venture to maximize participation from citizens in reporting civic issues around them, all this has being made possible after this start-up won Global ICT Prize and a $10,000 check from Microsoft at Global Social Entrepreneurship competition.

Let's hope this collaborative effort works at ground level for everyone and if such platform helps all of us to make even a small but significant change around us it would be a great success. Share your comments and feedback if you feel such public-private and government effort can help solve most of our civic issues.

Check the videos below to understand this concept in detail.

Fuji Finepix SL280 Review

Fuji Finepix SL280 is the latest modern ultra-zoom camera. It offers extensive imaging quality as it is has Fujinon 28X optical and wide range 24mm zoom lens with a 14 megapixel sensor.  Fuji is highly acclaimed by professionals across the globe for its Fujinon Lenses.  The new SL-series launched by Fuji, is placed above the S-series but below the high speed HS-series. The SL-series specializes in providing new ultra-zoom lenses with an electronic zoom controller.

Display

Finepix SL280 has a 3” LCD screen with 460K pixels image density. It provides a wide-angle view of 160 degrees. Capturing motion is as easy as it is to capture still images.  It is simple to compose, capture and share images of high precision with accuracy.

Viewfinder

The clear electronic viewfinder of this ultra-zoom camera provides flexibility to frame the shots. Even while shooting in 28X zoom mode, the images appear steady.

Lenses

Fujinon lenses are known for its high precision value and 24mm wide angle 30X optical zoom. Here the Finepix SL280 lenses’ are treated with Super EBC (Electron Beam Coating). This coating reduces the ghost-effect and lens flare. The outcome is clear and high quality images. 

Zoom and Close-up

There is a 45 step zoom control in this miniature DSLR which increases the precision accuracy of the 28X optical zoom features. The Instant Zoom and Drive-Mode buttons in the rear of the camera have 4 and 7 drive modes respectively, devoid of any self-timers, which provide preset digital enlargements.

Image

With 14 megapixels CCD, the images from this camera are backed up by extensive noise-reduction. This noise reduction features gives out high and clear images. These images are good for moderately large-sized prints. The color accuracy is appreciable.

Dual Image Stabilization

This camera has a high sensitivity for faster shutter speed and CCD-shift image stabilization. The sensor works in a stabilizing mode even at the maximum zoom range, which means there will be no blurred images, even while capturing images while in motion.

Battery

The Li-ion battery used in this camera can stand till 300 images are captured on a single charge.

Overall, this camera is a best-buy in the price offered.

This product review is penned by experts at Reliance Digital.

Happy Mahashivratri 2013

Wishing all Shiva devotees across the world a peaceful and prosperous Mahashivratri

Happy Mahashivratri goo.gl/ZH7Ko (Lord Shiva #images) twitter.com/KreativeGeek/s…
— Kreative Geek (@KreativeGeek) March 10, 2013

ATM of Happiness

Coca-Cola has launched a marketing campaign called "ATM of Happiness" which provides free 100 Euros from a money vending machine with a condition to help out other's in need, and they also made a video feature of this campaign where people who withdrew money from this ATM carried out tasks they were assigned to complete while collecting cash, watch this interesting video below, read more about this here

Future of Education: Moving beyond traditional schooling

TED 2013 winner Sugata Mitra has a very strong point in driving the debate of moving away from the traditional schooling we have all being nurtured until now which was designed during the empire regime, it was limited to developing specific skills and sadly it has not evolved much since then to match the pace of skill requirement we see today in a fast advancing world driven by technology.

Such idea's are powerful enough to shake the very foundation of formal education which requires change across the entire educational set up and the idea of remote/home schooling is something parents could be very apprehensive of picking up when we all know that a basic graduation degree is the minimum qualification required to get a job. 

Watch his 2013 presentation at TED conference which awarded him the winning prize this year and links to some site which have featured details on his initiative for further reading. Don't miss the kind of standing ovation the entire audience present at the conference gives at the end of this video.

TED page | Hole in the Wall Project | Wired Article | New York Times Interview

HTC J Butterfly: Creating quiet a flutter

From Smartphone’s two tablets and then phablets, there has been no dearth of innovation in the mobile device sphere. Every brand rolls out a new model that is different from others and its own preceding version. HTC ups the ante by rolling out the first Smartphone in the world with a full HD display- HTC J Butterfly. Launched in Japan last year in the month of December, HTC tweaks the hardware to introduce this international version.

Display:

As its name suggests, the Butterfly is slim and beautiful. The Smartphone turns the tide by featuring a 5-inch display with a spectacular resolution of 1920x1080. Drawing parallels with Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy note that sports a pixel density of 326 ppi and 267 ppi, this device offers an extraordinary resolution of 440ppi. The screen quality is definitely among the finest, at present.

Build quality and design:

Sporting a unibody design and bearing resemblance to HTC One X, the phone is thinner at the edges and has flat sides making it easy to hold. Irrespective of the body being made of plastic veering away from its typical aluminum body, the handset has a decent built quality. Adding to the sophistication is the metal like gloss white finish on the back, thin edges and it’s lightweight.

Camera:

With an 8MP rear camera and the 2MP camera in the back, the Butterfly does not disappoint the photo lovers. Apart from the quality of the camera, a multitude of features makes your clicking convenient and easy. This includes the inclusion of imagechip that makes your picture taking process quicker (less than seconds) and HDR mode that churns out the finest vibrant solution especially, when you click contrasting objects. In addition, it is possible to click 99 continuous images by turning on the explosive shot mode allowing you to capture anything and everything. With a host of editing options, there is no bad shot.

Interface and Functionality:

Running on 4.1 Jellybean out of the box, the device offers a number of customizable options. The user – interface is amazing, considering the1080p screen. With the device soon to receive an update to 4.2 Jelly Bean, you are ensured about not being left behind. Sense UI 4+, Jellybean and the full HD screen in tandem, paves the way for a smooth experience.

Internet and Connectivity:

The connectivity options include GSM 850/900/1800/1900; HSDPA 850/210, LTE , Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n ,Wi-Fi direct and DLNA,  microUSB 2.0 and Bluetooth 4.0 and NFC. Browsing is easy on the Sense browser where you can easily scroll in, scroll out, and zoom in and out.

Memory and Processor:

Powered by 1.5GHz double core Snapdragon S4 with Adreno 225 graphics, the performance is impressive.  The phone offers 16 GB of memory where 11 GB is available for use along with the option to expand it up to 32 GB.

Music and Sound Quality:

Apart from supporting basic formats like MP3, eAAC+, WMA and WAVs, there are four basic options that you will be greeted with including music transferred to your phone, Soundhound, 7 Digital and Tuneln Radio. The fact that the device enables Beats Audio speaks for itself.

Battery:

The 2020 mAh Lithium power battery gives the Smartphone enough juice to run for more than 14.5 hours, despite the applications running on the backdrop. However, many may be disappointed to know that the battery is a non- removable one.

Final Verdict:

The HTC Butterfly J scores on all aspects be it its looks, performance, features, camera, application, software, or user- interface. However, the huge price tag of the phone may make many feel wary. In a nutshell, the device is definitely one of the finest and best- performing phones, we have ever seen.

This review is penned by experts @ Reliance Digital.

Google Play Books now available in India

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Google Play Books service is now available for India, you can download this app from Play Store to start using this service, Play Books app has interface similar to that of Play Store with option to view downloaded books in carousel mode or list mode.

You can download books from Play Store through various categories and scroll through popular titles, top free books etc. They have also included a link to section of books priced below Rs 100 visible on the Play Books main screen. This app does not have any option to import any books that you may already have on your android device, so you can use it only for reading books downloaded from play store.

You can keep the sync option on in case you want to read same book across multiple android devices, also use this app for offline reading allowing option to save book locally on your phone/tablet. This app has got 3D page turn effect, voice reading to choose from app settings. Pricing of books seems to be in line with Flipkart and Amazon kindle store.

With evolving market for online purchases in India, I hope Google Music also launches soon as iTunes from Apple also started allowing downloads in INR few months back, which is a good move from two major companies currently driving smartphone market across the globe gradually recognizing the potential of popularity of such services in India and giving consumers out here unified experience on their OS ecosystem which is enjoyed by consumers in most other countries.

ake a look at other screenshots of the app here, link to play store app here

Sony BDV-E490 HTS Review

My previous HTS Philips 3366/98 lasted me close to 5 years before it was hit by a power surge fault that took over 2 months for Philips to repair, later both rear speaker connecting wires snapped even after getting one of them repaired via Philips after sales service.

I was informed that if wire connectivity broke from the same point it would be difficult to get it repaired again, so I had to begin my HTS hunt during which I shortlisted following models:

LG HB806TM – Rs 25000, Onkyo HTS 3500 – Rs 29000 and Sony BDV-E490 – Rs 24500

Requirement:

I was seeking an HTIB with good mid and low sound reproduction capability, for following purpose:

• Gaming on my Xbox 360
• Listening to popular Hindi/ English OST, Pop, Rock and trance music genre.
• Watching movies (Action/Sci-Fi)

I got suggestions to go for Onkyo or Denon speakers with additional DVD/Blu-Ray player purchase.  First on demo list was Onkyo HTS 3400 at a Reliance Digital outlet in Pune, I was ready to stretch my budget over Rs 25,000 in case Onkyo had exceptional sound quality as compared to other HTIB models I had shortlisted.  Personally Onkyo did not suit my preference and I did not want a bulky main unit for the HTS set up.

I also checked out the LG HB806TM at the same store, sound quality did not excite me much on this unit, heard a music CD and audio playback from USB I was carrying on Sony BDV-E490 which caught my attention in terms of sound quality, however I wanted to be double sure on this so I did a audio/video demo again at a Sony Authorized dealer shop when I finally decided to purchase this HTS.

I also ordered a Sony UWA-BR100 Wireless LAN Adapter separately to take advantage of the Wi-Fi support on the Blu-Ray player. A representative from Sony store accompanied me to complete the Initial set up at home which was done in an hour.  Service center guys came 2 days later to wall mount rear speakers.

Connectivity and look wise BDV-E490 Blu-Ray player is very minimalistic, just 1 analog audio and video output and a HDMI out port (please note this one does not have an HDMI IN port, additional adapter connectivity required), RJ45 Ethernet cable slot in case you want to hook it up to your broadband modem or wireless router. There is a USB slot behind which does not find a mention in the manual but listed in the specs on Sony website, tried using it with regular USB did not work (wondering what purpose it serves?)

Subwoofer is not very heavy and easy to move around, I found centre speaker to be tad small in size, possibly it could have being a little wider. Tall boy speaker stands have got a glossy finish which could have being avoided since it gets smudgy with regular use.

Philips 3366/98 had a deep bass with woofer producing a thumping sound which made it difficult to listen to dialogues during an action sequence while watching a movie, same problem in output on MP3 playback, however slightly better on playing CD Audio.

After configuring BDV-E490 based on speaker distance and setting sound levels, I am quite happy with the overall audio reproduction on this HTS, Listening to music is much better on some high bit rate MP3 files I have with multi channel encoding compared to a regular low bit rate MP3 file. You can actually hear the music beats distinctively playing from separate speakers, with just the “sound mode on” it allows you to choose from Auto, Music, Movie, Enhancer, Demo Sound, 2 Ch. Stereo, Sports and Night presets. In these presets only Auto mode and Sports mode spread sound output to all speakers otherwise output is limited to front/center and sub-woofer speakers on other modes.

If you select presets like Auto, Music, Movie or Enhancer mode and switch to Neo Cinema 6 (Movie/Music) from audio setting menu it completely transforms your audio listening experience and the audio quality does not suffer the kind of cracking you hear while increasing a music system volume. I found volume output to be low on Xbox 360 while accessing game menus, no complaints during actual game play observed  while playing Medal of Honor: Warfighter, you can feel the sound of bullets whizzing from left or right speakers , explosion effects etc. very clearly.

On-screen navigation is easy to use via XMB GUI present on most of the Sony entertainment devices, on connectivity front pairing Wi-Fi with Sony wireless adapter was easy, it has Sony Entertainment Network with limited app collection to use; however popular video streaming services like YouTube, Daily motion and Vimeo are accessible from this player which is sufficient. There are lot of audio streaming channels available by music genre which is a big plus, make sure you have 1 MBPS and above internet speed to enjoy lag free streaming experience of audio/video content, have not tried web browser on the Blu-ray player yet.

Streaming audio/video content via DLNA support is also available, worked without any issues when paired on my Samsung Galaxy Note, cannot comment on HD content quality as I have not connected this HTS to any HD source yet. Some pro’s and con’s to note -

Pros: Sturdy tall boy speakers, sleek DVD Player, Good reproduction of mid and low sounds; while the bass output is just right may not please extreme bass freaks, Remote has also got limited option to control TV as well, resumes audio and video content from last played position while moving in and out of on screen options, Sound Modes like Dolby Pro Logic/Neo Cinema work very well while playing movies.

Cons: Frequent changes required to switch between presets for music and movie playback, DVD player switches off and reboots while playing some radio channels (could be a firmware glitch), limited ports for analog connectivity an additional RCA slot would have being useful, no 3.5 mm audio out jack, Rear speakers are not very loud as compared to Philips HTS 3366/98.

To sum up BDV E-490 is a good entry level Blu-Ray HTIB which surprised me with its sound performance and eventually changed my mind to go for this brand; else I am not a big fan of Sony’s electronic products.  I rate this product 3.5/5 overall.

Galaxy Note 8.0 launched at MWC 2013

Samsung has launched it's 8 inch tablet at MWC 2013 in Barcelona, Spain. It mark's entry of it's Galaxy Note range in tablet category moving up from the phablet series. Samsung already has Galaxy Tab in the 7 inch segment which has not garnered the level of popularity Galaxy Note was able to manage as a hybrid tablet/phone device.

In my opinion it could help Samsung gain a significant market share in the tablet category with the introduction of S-Pen with this tablet, as it comes loaded with 4.1.2 Jelly Bean OS on TouchWiz interface, has 5 MP rear camera and a 1.3 MP front camera.

Body design follows Galaxy Note / S3 phone build, weighing at 338 grams and 7.95 mm thin. Would have being worth to launch this device with Exynos 5 processor, however it comes with 1,6GHz Exynos 4 Quad Core Processor, has 2 GHz RAM, 16/32 GB Sotrage along with Micro-SD card slot for expandable memory, 1280 x 800 display at 189 ppi which is higher than that of Apple at 163 ppi, along with 4,600 mAH battery which should provide decent usage for this device.

No Official word on the pricing yet by Samsung, expect it to be available in the range of INR 25,000 - INR 27,000 considering additional calling ability available with the tablet

I was surprised to know that at this screen size level, Samsung has not shyed away from offering calling feature on this tablet which is also present in Galaxy Tab, pretty bold move. Do you think Galaxy Note 8.0 would act as a game changer in the tablet space for Samsung to fight it out with iPad mini and maybe surpass the popularity enjoyed by Kindle Fire and Nexus 7 in the Android arena?

Watch the hands on video below by engadget and leave your views in the comments below this article.

Sony Cybershot DSC –WX50: A Pocket Delight

The Sony Cybershot DSC –WX50 seems to be a right bet for those, eyeing for a slim, stylish, and a budget friendly camera. What makes it different from its kin WX70 is its LCD display that is slightly smaller and lower in resolution. However, to make up for the same, the camera comes with an array of underwater shooting modes, picture effect modes and more significantly, carries a slightly lesser price tag.

Boasting of its high sensitive technology, Exmor R CMOS Image Censor and RGB color filter array, the WX50 has a 16.2 effective megapixel and is backside illuminated. The camera also promises to click noise free as its high sensitivity function aims to lessen image noise by obtaining a perfect balance of the sets of four blue, green, and red pixels together and average results across multiple exposures. However, this will have no bearing on your resolution as Sony’s pattern recognizing super- resolution interpolation technology comes to your rescue. Hence, this camera claims to produce noise that is one sixth to that of the standard photo shot in iAuto mode. Clicking on the handheld Twilight mode will enable you to reduce noise and blur that is common during handshake.

The WX50 Point and Shoot camera also sports a 2.8-inch ClearPhoto LCD panel offering a resolution of 460,800 dots and a multi- focus system. The smile detection feature comes with a smile shutter function that prompts the shutter automatically as soon as it spots a smile. Speaking about exposure, there are three main categories including multi- pattern, center- weighted and spot metering that it sports. As a delight to the photo enthusiasts, the camera allows them to click objects in motion wherein it captures 10 frames per second at 16.2 MP resolution.

Rising above the cookie-cutters, the phone allows you to capture images in 3D, be it still or panorama. Apart from that, it also allows you to record right eye and left eye images, separately that makes your images appear vivid and full of life as you gaze at your compatible 3D TV or VAIO computers -3D attuned.

Salient Features:

• Bright and vivid color reproduction.
• Decent performance on video recording with 60i frame rate.
• Image stabilization available for both Digital and Optical modes.
• 3 Modes for Auto Shooting.
• f2.6 25 mm wide-angle lens.

With a slew of features that WX50 Point and Shoot camera presents, it seems to be worth a buy, taking into consideration its price and size. Bundling 16.2 megapixels, this compact camera slows you to click high quality still images and capture the action 5x optical zoom and 10x Clear Image zoom wherein  attention to detail seems to be at its best.

This review is written by experts@ Reliance Digital.

Exploring Kutch: Through the sands of time

Kutch's Rann Utsav has found significant popularity amongst travellers across India and other countries, I have not seen a proper travel documentary until now on this yearly festival which has a lot to offer and allows the tourists to experience life of people in Kutch along with regular sightseeing and other excursions included in the tour.

This documentary by Dhiraj Singh is first amongst the series of travel episodes from Fair's of India, which is centred around the rann utsav in kutch, while it also takes you into the world of artisans who have kept the tradition of local craft alive, a lot of embroidery work done by these local villagers takes months and years to make and their hard work reflects in the quality of final product.

Kutchi people are recognised for their business acumen, however very less was known until recent years about the region in Gujarat where they come from, If you plan to visit Kutch, Winter season is the best time to visit post Diwali festival. Fair's of India is currently airing on Lok Sabha TV, next up is Pushkar Festival of Rajasthan.

Girl Rising: A story worth sharing

If one billion rising campaign caught your attention towards collective protest across the globe for violence against women, this documentary feature should inspire you further to take a look at the lives of 9 girls from different countries who held on to their hopes and overcome obstacles to enable change by breaking barriers which bound them.

All those stories have being penned by writers from the country where these girls belong have also featured in this documentary, this initiative has found support from Intel Corporation and CNN. It has voice over narration from Hollywood A-List actors like Meryl Streep, Liam Neeson, Anne Hathaway, Salma Hayek, Cate Blanchett along with Indian actors like Priyanka Chopra and Freida Pinto.

Watch the video below and head over to 10 x 10 website which gives you more detail about this project and   is also accepting donation for supporting girl education programs via different charity organisations across various countries.

This movie is currently being screened on demand at theatres, hope it makes it screens in India via some film festival at least.

One girl with courage is a revolution

Samsung Galaxy Express: Redefining mid range phone category

Samsung, presently rubbing shoulders with Apple, be it the sales or the lawsuits, is not leaving any stoned unturned to be a frontrunner in the race. The rollout of Samsung Galaxy Express once again throws light on the fact that the brand intends to cater to all kinds of individuals from all strata of the society. What we all expect the Samsung Galaxy Express to be is a scaled down version of the Samsung Galaxy SIII and it does live up to the expectations. What keeps it ahead of the cookie- cutters is the fact that it runs on the Android latest Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 and 4GLTE.

Design:

A glimpse of the Galaxy Express will give out the impression that it is a replica of Galaxy SIII with respect to its appearance especially its rectangular shape and curved corners. Available in black, it comes with a capacitive back and menu button and a 4.5-inch display and weighs 4.8 ounces. While the right hand size fits in buttons like sleep/power button and the Micro-USB port, the left hand size houses volume rocker wherein the headphone jack measures 3.5mm. The built quality is also excellent irrespective of the fact that it is made of plastic.

Display:

Samsung Galaxy Express boasts of its  4.5 inch super AMOLED plus Capacitive Touch screen with a resolution of 480X800 pixel. The colours appear vibrant , icons look sharp and the display is bright  enough to be used across.

Features:

Powered by a 1.5GHz dual core processor, it ensures high speed streaming and download with the speed of AT & T and 4G LTE network. The Express runs on the latest version of Bluetooth v4.0 and supports Wi-Fi Direct, HSPA+, USB 2.0, MHL and NFC and comes with a number of pre- loaded apps including Gmail, Local maps with navigation, messenger, Magazine, books, TV, search, YouTube and Google Talk. Apart from that , the task manager apps comprise of Code Scanner that reads UPC, QR, Data Matrix bar codes, Family Map, Cloud storage and Data Mapping app and my At& T, etc.

The 5.0 auto- focus  camera with the Flash option,  a 1.3 MG front camera and an LED on the back, is the icing on the cake. The four shooting modes include 14 scene modes, five white balances, a timer, ISO  and metering  options, geo tagging, a timer, compositional lines and any array of other features, enabling you to experiment to the fullest and awaken the photographer in you.Thanks to the 2000mAh battery, the phone  offers 14 hours of talk time and 312 hours as a stand by mode.

Conclusion: 

Samsung Galaxy Express is pretty impressive taking into consideration its cost and the AT& T factor. While all its features and working seem predictive, the Jelly Bean updated device would be a great pick for the value driven users. Also Samsung currently has not released any official communication on launch of this phone for India, even possibility of eagerly anticipated Galaxy S3 mini launch prospects looks bleak. It would definitely help Samsung to release a non 4G version of Galaxy Express phone for India above their recently launched "Rex" feature phone range. 

This review is penned by experts @ Reliance Digital.

Clinics opening up to treat Social Media Addiction

Social Media addiction related cases keep springing up in the news, now many clinics have being coming up in UK to treat this behaviour, symptoms which we do not even think could place us in an addict category. What may thought was a passing phase in the world of technology has found a deep place in our day to day life to an extent even changing the way we grieve 

Read about a self confessed smartphone addict: Martha Roberts

In my observation Twitter has being a platform where some users keep tweeting every 10/15 mins, about every damn thing they are doing today. It gives them a high and they feel like celebs when followers re-tweet or comment on their tweets. Few days back Salman Khan's single word tweet "Hi" gathered so many retweets in few minutes goes to show what level of time are we wasting on stuff that does not require attention.

Leave your comments if you agree that excessive tweeting, Facebook status check and posting is going to cost us dear and probably change the way we interact with people around us socially while we are out.

Short Video feature: Pune Street Food

Check out an interesting short documentary feature made by a Pune student on street food in the city, commendable editing with subtitles to support Marathi translation, a touch of good background music would have improved the overall feel of the video.

Give your android device a windows mobile OS makeover

The new live tiles interface on Windows 8 desktop and mobile looks cool, with some interesting apps on Google play store you can provide your android phone/tablet a windows OS makeover, here's a look at few apps.

Launcher 8: This app provides WP8 style UI to your android home screen allowing enough customization features to workaround with, initially this app was not so stable, however the developer has worked actively on user feedback and keeps improving app functionality on regular basis.(Free download)

Messaging 7: Get WP7 Style Message pop up's with options to customize bubble color's along with emoticon support, this app is also under alpha phase and the developer is active on Google play working on App improvements, worth trying along with Metro Messaging Beta app, both free to download

Noozy: Noozy is a Zune style music player which looks elegant and smooth to operate, unfortunately it has being taken down from Google Play Store now, even without the windows theme factor this player is one of the best I have come across on android. 

You can listen to your music collection on the phone, it also features a video player. This app features a live music section which connects you to streaming audio content across various music categories, allows you to browse top artists, top tracks under charts section, also If you like listening to Podcasts you would not be disappointed.

Customization options based on windows tile theme is available in the app along with the sound enhancement options which you can try along with the equalizer feature. (Free app)

Windows 8 Ex Lumia Theme Pro: This one's a screen lock WP customization app, which requires go locker pre-installed for use. It comes with tile animation along with the clock display on the top, allowing you to set short cut to your favourite apps.(Paid app: INR 50)

Metrostation WP icon pack: There are few custom made WP themes based on UCCW launcher which are available on google play store, most of them are paid, you can download Metrostation WP Icon pack which works with ADW.Launcher or ADWLauncher EX. It has a massive library of close to 442 icons which can be customised for colour works well with contrasting scheme on wp tile. 

Another useful app that may work well with WP customization options listed above is Color Wallpaper, which is a simple wallpaper app that allows you to choose from various colour shades to set as home screen wallpaper which can be used along with Launcher8 app to improve tiles visbility. 

In case you happen to know some more windows customization apps which you have used on your android device, please share it in your comments to this article.