KARACHI – Nokia has unveiled two new mobile phone models as it continues to accelerate its strategy to connect the next billion consumers to information and the internet. The Nokia 110 and Nokia 112 have been designed for young, urban consumers who want to experience a fast, affordable online experience, says a Press release.

Both devices are perfect for communicating across Facebook, Twitter and social media networks. The internet experience is also smooth thanks to the Nokia Browser. This innovative technology allows users to consume less data by up to 90%, by compressing websites in the cloud. Both devices offer direct access to Facebook and Twitter from their home screens. The Nokia 112 also features preloaded eBuddy instant messaging service right out of the box.

In common with other Nokia mobile phones, consumers can choose from thousands of apps to download on the Nokia Store. With the upgraded camera, they can now customize their contacts with pictures and share them with friends via social networks and Bluetooth.

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Nokia has introduced two new dual-SIM mobile phones in India. According to the Finnish handset manufacturer, both the Nokia 110 and Nokia 112 offer faster mobile web browsing experience and better connectivity to social networks.

Both Nokia 112 and Nokia 112 feature 1.8-inch LCD display and have candy bar form factor. Offering the multi-tap keypad, both the devices will feature Easy Swap technology. That means one can easily switch between the two SIMs without turning off the phone or taking out the battery.

In both the devices, Nokia has added Symbian Series 40 operating system and has used the new Nokia browser that promises faster mobile web browsing. Nokia claims of using a compression technology that basically squeezes down the web page size and pushes mobile friendly version. In a way, the Nokia Browser brings down the data consumption cost by 90 per cent.

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New Delhi: Of late, numerous reports, pointing to the price mentioned in the "source code" of Nokia's 808 PureView page, are doing the rounds, which speculate that the soon to be launched 41-megapixel Nokia 808 PureView smartphone will be priced at Rs 29,999 in India. But, the company rebuffs such reports, and claims it to be a dummy price, and not the actual price.

"We outsource certain chores, and for that we have to give price related information. So, in such cases, we furnish a dummy price, and not the actual (true) price. In this case also (the one mentioned in the source code), Rs 29,999 is a dummy price and the 808 Pureview will not be available for this price," said the spokesperson. However, Nokia refused to give any further information about its pricing. But, Nokia has firmly stated that the phone will not be priced at Rs 29,999.

The phone is expected to be priced at above Rs 30K and the possibility of it being priced below the 'leaked' price seems low. The company further says that the actual price of the phone in India will be revealed during its launch. With this statement from Nokia, it could either mean that the company is smartly trying to dispel current rumours about the phone’s pricing floating in the market or it could mean that Nokia does not want its buyers to get misled, and hence is furnishing true information. But, we hope to hear soon from Nokia about the launch date of the Nokia 808 PureView and its actual price.

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Lahore—Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, a global leader in digital media and digital convergence technologies, has introduced its latest sleek smartphone – the GALAXY SIII. Designed for humans and inspired by nature, it recognizes your face, voice, motion and even intentions.The intelligent device runs on a robust Quad Core processor and offers a 4.8 inch HD Super AMOLED display, an 8 Mega Pixel camera and an intelligent 1.9 MP front camera that can recognize the user’s face. GALAXY SIII is powered by Android™ 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich and packed with intuitive technology.

The ‘S Voice’ is a natural language user interface that listens and responds to your words, besides allowing information search and powerful control functions. While writing a message to someone, if you suddenly decide to call them instead, simply lift your phone to your ear, the Galaxy SIII will automatically dial the number. With the ‘Smart alert, feature your phone will vibrate to notify missed statuses when picked up after being idle for a while. The new ‘S Beam feature allows a 1GB movie file to be shared within three minutes and a music file within a few seconds, by simply touching another GALAXY SIII phone, even without a Wi-Fi or cellular signal.

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A long with their flagship, Xperia S, Sony announced a whole new range of phones in their new NXT series and along with the Xperia S India announcement; they also announced the Xperia U. This mainstream Android was touted to launch at a price tag well under Rs.20,000 and our wish may have been granted after all. Letsbuy and Flipkart are both listing the Xperia U for Rs.17,399 and Rs.16,499 respectively. However, Letsbuy is the only one allowing you to pre-order the phone right now.

The Xperia U may be positioned as a mainstream phone, but there’s nothing mainstream about the specifications and features it has to offer. The phone sports a very manageable 3.5-inch screen with a good resolution and to top it off, you also get Sony’s Mobile BRAVIA Engine treatment to it. Powering the phone is a 1GHZ dual-core processor so needless to say, it’s going to be quick. The phone will launch with Ginger bread but Sony will be pushing an ICS update for all their NXT phones soon. The 5MP shooter can record up to 720p video and packs in nifty features like 3D Sweep Panorama, Smile detection, etc. At just 110g, it’s fairly light as well and the 1320mAh battery should give it a good enough boost to go beyond a day without charging. Considering it launches at 16.5K, this will be the phone to beat as it’s the only dual-core phone in this price range from a Tier 1 brand.

Here are some of the specifications once more:
Android 2.3 (Upgradable to 4.0)
1GHz dual-core processor
3.5-inch display with a resolution of 845 x 480
5MP camera with AF, LED flash and 720p HD video recording
0.3MP front camera
8GB Internal memory
512MB RAM
Wi-Fi, DLNA, micro-USB 2.0
1320mAh battery

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New Delhi: When it comes to accessing Internet through smartphones, the number of Indians outweigh the number of Americans in the activity, says a survey conducted by Google in partnership with research firm Ipsos.

The survey indicated that 56 percent of the smartphone holders in India access internet on their phones multiple times in a day in comparison to 53 per cent in US. It also said the number of smartphone users in India are less than 50 per cent of the 245 million smartphone user population in the US. The survey indicated that 56 per cent of the smartphone holders in India access internet on their phones.

More smartphone users in India access Net than in America. Over 75 per cent of the Indians visit social networking sites on their smartphones as compared to 54 per cent in US, while, up to 81 per cent of Indians access e-mail on the phones as against 73 per cent doing the same in US, the survey said.

"Culturally, even beyond the well-educated, mainstream Indians are technology curious and device savvy. We believe that the internet like telephony did, is making the leap from wired internet to mobile, and hundreds of millions of Indians will go online on their mobile devices," Google Country Head (Products)Lalitesh Katragadda said.

Of the 56 per cent usage of internet through smartphones in India, 59 per cent are males and 48 per cent females, the survey said. The survey emphasised that mobile phones are no longer just means to make calls and send messages but are also used to follow news, watch TV, listen to music, check e-mail and access internet.

A majority, 77 per cent, of the smartphone users in India use the device to listen to music, 35 per cent of them read newspapers, book and magazines or watch TV while 33 per cent use it to play video games, the survey showed.

"Smartphones, being powerful devices can act as a pocket supercomputer as well and can do a lot more than to just navigate through social networking pages," it added.

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HELSINKI/LONDON: Nokia's outgoing Chairman Jorma Ollila promised a range of new products ahead of a meeting on Thursday with shareholders who are increasingly losing patience with the company's recovery efforts.

In an interview published on Thursday, Ollila told the Financial Times the Finnish company would launch a range of tablets and "hybrid" smart mobile devices, but did not say when.

Ollila, who will step down at the meeting after 27 years with the company, told the Financial Times that Nokia had been too slow at the start of the smartphone revolution, but said the combination of new products and Nokia services would help.

Nokia is widely expected to unveil its first tablet computer later this year when Microsoft's new Windows 8 operating system becomes available. "Nokia's fate in tablets is directly linked to Microsoft, which also has to succeed in this space," said Pohjola analyst Hannu Rauhala.

Nokia has lost out to Apple Inc and Google Inc in the smartphone business and is now pinning hopes of a turnaround on Lumia, a new range of smartphones which use Microsoft software.

Once hailed as a national hero in Finland for transforming Nokia from a toilet paper-to-rubber boots conglomerate to the world's No 1 cellphone maker in 1998, Ollila has since come under criticism for neglecting the emergence of smartphones.

"Tablets are an important one, so that is being looked into, and there will be different hybrids, different form factors [handset designs] in the future," he said. Sales of Nokia's new smartphone range have so far been slow and are yet to compensate for diving sales of previous products. Nokia also lost its position as the largest volume cellphone maker to Samsung Electronics last quarter.

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Motorola’s RAZR MAXX is one hell of a device. I liked the RAZR as well, but the lacking battery when coupled with 4G did make the device somewhat unattractive. Nevertheless, Motorola was quick to act and the RAZR MAXX brings that juicy 3,300mAh battery with it. However, the MAXX has only been available in US, at Verizon, and in China even though 4 months have already passed since its launch. This looks like it’s about to change as the RAZR MAXX UK and international release date is closing in.

Motorola recently announced that it plans on bringing the bigger RAZR to Europe as well as the Middle East. After the successful launch on Verizon and in China, the fat RAZR is moving over to the old continent.

And even though we anticipated that the Motorola RAZR MAXX UK release date is scheduled for sometime during May, now it’s as official as it gets: the manufacturer has announced that the RAZR MAXX will hit UK shelves in mid-May. Now what will you get for your money?

The Motorola RAZR MAXX comes in with a 4.3-inch qHD display. This might seem lacking when facing the 720p beasts out there, but the 540 x 960 pixels should be more than enough. The Samsung Galaxy S2 is still rocking 480 x 800 pixels and that does not make it a lesser device.

A 1.5GHz dual-core processor along with 1 GB of RAM powers this bulky package along. This is more than enough to tackle browsing, streaming and viewing HD content. The best deal of it all is the 3,300mAh battery. The Motorola RAZR MAXX is running Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread, but signs are showing that Android 4.0 ICS is closing in!

We saw that this huge improvement had a tremendous effect on the battery life on Verizon’s 4G network. Now think of the improvements you can expect when the handset will not have to struggle with 4G LTE. Just running on GSM/HSPA+ should already give it a few extra hours easily.

The release date is quickly closing in, so make sure to start saving up and drop us a line if you are interested in picking up the pluckier brother of the RAZR. Stay tuned for more!

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MKarbonn Mobiles, an Indian mobile brand, will launch a full touch screen feature phone with Dolby sound technology next week. Karbonn, which has announced its collaboration with Dolby Laboratories, will incorporate Dolby sound technology on its forthcoming mobile phones as well.

The KT81 will be the first in a series from Karbonn Mobiles which incorporates cinematic Dolby sound which is designed to deliver powerful sound on feature phones. Dolby sound makes mobile music louder and clearer. Karbonn KT81 will come with 3.2 inch capacitive screen with Haptic Touch interface. It will also have a 3.2 megapixel camera, and ability to install apps which will be available through Karbonn's own app store called 'K-store'.

The phone has FM Radio with recording capability. Most importantly, you can download Java applications from Karbonn's K-Zone besides the preinstalled applications like YouTube, Nexgtv for live TV Viewing on KT81. KT81 will support 2000 contacts phonebook, and will support GPRS and EDGE for internet connectivity. A 1000 mAH battery and an expandable memory up to 16 GB is also there. There is no indication on pricing but we expect it to be priced lower than Rs 5,000.

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Research firm Strategy Analytics revealed that in the first quarter of 2012 Samsung shipped 93 million mobile handsets phones compared to almost 83 million by Nokia. The firm said its IT and mobile communications division, which manufactures the smartphones, made an operating profit of 4.27 trillion won during the period, as revenues in the division surged 86 percent from a year earlier, The BBC reports.

Meanwhile, Samsung is facing stiff competition from rivals such as Apple and Taiwan''-based HTC. Apple, which said earlier this week that it sold 35 million of its iPhones in the first quarter, is expected to launch a new version of its handset later this year.

According to the report, another area of concern for Samsung is likely to be its chip manufacturing unit, which is facing slow global demand for personal computers. Samsung''s memory-chip division saw its profits slide by 54 percent during the first quarter when compared with the same period a year earlier.

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