Apple unveils the 7.9-inch iPad Mini to take on Kindle, Nexus 7; prices start at $329

Apple has finally unveiled its much-awaited iPad mini tablet. With a screen measuring 7.9 inches on the diagonal, the iPad Mini is about half the size of the regular iPad. It's slightly larger than the 7-inch tablets from Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc. The regular iPad is 9.7 inches. 

The new iPad mini is 23 per cent thinner and 53 per cent lighter than the third generation iPad. The new iPad mini features FaceTime HD and iSight cameras. It is claimed to offer up to 10 hours of battery life.

The iPad mini comes in 7.2 mm thin and weighs 0.68 pounds. The dual-core A5 chip is said to deliver responsive graphics and a fast, fluid Multi-Touch experience. The iPad mini features a front-facing FaceTime HD camera and a 5 megapixel iSight camera on the back with advanced optics for taking still pictures and recording full 1080p HD video. 

The new iPad mini with Wi-Fi models will be available in black and slate or white and silver on Friday, November 2, for $329 for the 16GB model, $429 for the 32GB model and $529 for the 64GB model. 

The iPad mini with Wi-Fi + Cellular will start shipping a couple of weeks after the Wi-Fi models, beginning in the US on AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. iPad mini with Wi-Fi + Cellular will be available for $459 for the 16GB model, $559 for the 32GB model and $659 for the 64GB model. The Apple iPad Mini will be initially released in 34 countries globally. 

The company has also updated its full-sized one. Besides, the company launched new Mac computers, including a 13-inch version of a MacBook Pro with sharper, Retina display and new iMacs.

Apple's iPad Mini could be branded as iPad Air

AThe announcement of Apple's iPad Mini is right around the corner. Speculations are rife about the device, especially regarding its hardware and price-range.ccording to iMore, the Cupertino-based company may go the way of the MacBook Air, and introduce an 'iPad Air' that is smaller, more portable, lighter, and features a screen that doesn't have retina display. 

John Gruber from Daring Fireball said, "You know what other Apple product’s primary attributes are thinness, weight, and price? The MacBook Air. And, no coincidence, the latest revisions to the Air lineup debuted on stage at WWDC without retina displays. We’re a couple of years away from Apple going retina across the board."

Earlier, it was revealed that Apple may discontinue the iPad 2 to make way for the new iPad Mini, or 'Air' as we earlier speculated. According to AppleInsider, Rob Cihra with Evercore Partners has said in a note to investors that Apple may phase out the iPad 2. The reason stated mentions Apple's visions of "clearer product tiers." This could point to Apple's aims of lowering the entry-bar of iPad products. 

So if one wants to purchase an iPad 2, now would be a good time as the product may be not available when the next line-up of Apple devices hit the shelves. 

Apple may launch the iPad mini as soon as November 2, 2012, which is roughly 10 days after its announcement taking place on October 23. Apple has sent out media invites for an event slated for October 23 with the caption, ‘We’ve got a little more to show you.’

The invite could mean that Apple has more gadgets in the offing for the year 2012. This invite also confirms a recent report, which stated that Apple would be hosting an event on October 23.

As far as the rumours of the iPad mini go, it appears that the Cupertino-based company is not holding back any punches with this smaller iPad, and launching it in various storage capacities such as 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, and the top-of-the-line model at 64GB of internal storage. The top of the line iPad mini is expected to be sold at approximately €649 for the 64GB Wi-Fi plus cellular version. The cheapest model, an 8GB Wi-Fi only version is believed to retail for approximately €249.

Rumours claim that Apple will introduce a redesigned version of the iPad which was launched earlier this year and the new model is expected to come with the Lightning connector as well as making it lighter.
It is also believed that the Apple event will also play host to a number of other announcements, which include the updated line up of Macs and on the software front, iBooks.

Apple drops Java from Mac OS X after experts warn users on its security

Apple is removing old versions of Oracle's Java software from Internet browsers on the computers of its customers when they install the latest update to its Mac operating system. 

Apple, which has previously included Java with installations of Mac OS X, announced the move on its support site. It said that customers need to obtain Java directly from Oracle if they want to access web content written the widely used programming language. (support.apple.com/kb/DL1572)

Apple did not provide a reason for the change and both companies declined to comment. 

Java is a computer language that enables programmers to write one set of code to run on virtually any type of machine. It is widely used on the Internet so that Web developers can make their sites accessible from multiple browsers running on Macs or Microsoft Windows PCs. 

Two years ago both companies said they had agreed that Apple would one day stop providing Java software to Mac customers and that would Oracle to take on that responsibility. They did not provide a date for that transition. 

Apple is implementing that change in the wake of a Java security scare that prompted some security experts to caution computer users to only use Java on an as-needed basis.

Security experts in Europe discovered Java bugs in late August that hackers had exploited to launch attacks. It took Oracle several days to release an update to Java to correct those flaws.

Adam Gowdiak, a researcher with Polish security firm Security Explorations, said on Friday that he has since found two new security bugs in Java that continue to make computers vulnerable to attack.

Gowdiak said that removing Java from Mac browsers reduces the risks of an attack.

Yahoo to exit South Korea in first Asian pullout

Yahoo Inc's South Korean operation said on Friday it will quit the country, underscoring its struggle against Google Inc and local competitors expanding aggressively into mobile advertising and online services. South Korea is the first Asian country Yahoo is leaving, the firm said. An industry pioneer and household Internet brand, it has been overshadowed by global rivals including Facebook Inc and Google in recent years. 

"Yahoo has faced several challenges in the past couple of years and decided to pull out of the (Korean) business to put more resources on global business and become more powerful and successful," Yahoo said in a statement. Yahoo Korea, which started business in 1997 and is wholly owned by the US search company, has around 200-250 employees in South Korea. It will terminate Korean online portal services in December, the company said. In the South Korean market, it has failed to beat local rivals such as NHN Corp, Daum Communications Corp and SK Communications Co.

Yahoo appointed Google veteran Marissa Mayer as its chief executive in July, its third CEO in less than a year. Former CEO Scott Thompson resigned after less than 6 months in the job over a controversy over his academic credentials. Before that, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang had stepped down as CEO, and an internal reorganisation cut thousands of jobs. Yahoo remains one of the world's most powerful websites, with more than 700 million monthly visitors who use products like its email service and read its news pages.

Russian search engine Yandex targets Google

Russia's leading internet search engine, Yandex, will take the fight to Google in emerging markets like Turkey in a bid to offset the inroads made by the US giant in its home market.

Yandex founder and chief executive Arkady Volozh told Reuters on Friday the firm was likely to use its own experts to expand into new countries, but would not rule out acquisitions or partnership deals.

"We are focusing on the markets with Google dominance in search ... where they have 90-plus per cent market share," Volozh said in an interview in Dublin, adding Yandex would stress to consumers the dangers of one firm dominating the internet. 

Yandex is currently focusing on Turkey, where it has eked out a 1 per cent market share since it entered the market last year. It describes this as a base for a significant expansion and says it will look to other large markets where it sees no real competition to Google, though Volozh refused to name them.

Yandex, which raised $1.4 billion in an initial public offering (IPO) in New York last year, has seen its share of the Russian search market fall to 60 per cent in the second quarter from 64 per cent a year earlier, according to LiveInternet.

That is partly due to inroads made by Google.

"We'll be growing 30 per cent or something next year, but it's not doubling every year as we used to have four or five years ago. We need to find some new markets, new opportunities ... it could improve our revenues dramatically," Volozh said.

Yandex posted revenues of 20 billion roubles ($648 million)last year and has a market capitalization of $7.2 billion.

Google is also under pressure from slowing revenue, shocking analysts on Thursday by reporting quarterly revenue growth of 17 percent year-over-year, the first time its growth has fallen below 20 per cent since 2009.


Defending its lead

Despite the drive to expand abroad, Yandex will defend its market share at home against rivals like Google and Microsoft, which use proprietary browser and operating systems to encourage users onto their search products, Volozh said.

Last month Yandex launched a browser to compete with Google's Chrome. Norwegian mobile internet browser maker Opera has signed a licensing deal with Yandex to share its browser technology.
The Russian search engine has no plans to follow Google into the hardware market, where it builds mobile phones and tablets, but it would consider it if necessary.

"We will see where we will need to go. Whatever we need to preserve our market share we will do," Volozh said.

While Yandex is building a platform of applications to work on its browser, it expects most revenue to continue to come from search rather than display ads or paid-for services.

Apple has blazed a trail selling applications, music and video through its iTunes store. But that market is only a fraction of the size of the tens of billions earned every year in search, Volozh said.

Yandex would not rule out deals to help its expansion abroad, he added.

"It may be one of the models to buy somebody or partner with someone or just to build something from scratch," he said.

The key was to persuade consumers of the importance of maintaining choice and competition.
"We have ended up with these platforms where you are gardened in ... you can't step out of it. This is completely contrary to the initial idea of the internet," Volozh said.

Mobile revolution, economy trip up tech giants

Mobile may be the future for technology, but even with the worldwide proliferation of high-powered devices like smartphones and tablets, some companies are struggling to maintain consistent revenue streams.

Earnings disappointments this week from Intel Corp, Microsoft Corp, Google Inc and AMD underscore how Silicon Valley, both the old guard and new, is struggling to profit from consumers' waning love affair with the stalwart PC and infatuation with mobile - the most significant tectonic shift in the industry since the advent of the Internet.

That bodes ill for companies reporting next week that are highly leveraged to mobile advertising and services - most famously Facebook Inc, which raised a tumult by warning about over-inflated expectations of its mobile business just before its seminal IPO. 


Amazon and Apple Inc are expected to fare better, analysts say. Apple, which reports Thursday, is struggling with capacity constraints and supply hiccups - but analysts contend that's a good problem to have because it's spurred by raging mobile hardware demand.

Amazon and eBay Inc, meanwhile, are succeeding in reaching consumers through mobile devices, particularly Amazon with its cut-rate Kindle Fire tablets. About 800,000 shoppers made their first-ever eBay purchase through a mobile device.
But others are struggling.

"Companies are realizing that it is not easy to find a formula that works with mobile," Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi said. "Mobile is not proving to be as straightforward as people thought."

Signs that some of the most innovative of today's Silicon Valley titans are struggling with how to make money off mobile users come at a bad time for an industry already struggling with a worsening macroeconomic environment.

The biggest stunner was perhaps Google, which shed more than $20 billion of market value after it reported that its core advertising business had slowed. Critics said it was no anomaly.

"Click prices declined for the fourth consecutive quarter after rising for eight consecutive quarters before then. That's a negative. This is the mobile problem," said BGC analyst Colin Gillis.

Then there is Zynga, the poster child for mobile transition woes. In 2011 the casual games maker was a consumer Internet darling. In 2012, it has cut its outlook twice and lost three-quarters of its market value amid a lack of mobile hits, leading analysts to warn of massive layoffs.
Google CEO Larry Page, however, argued the shift represented a long-term opportunity.

"We're really starting to live in a new reality," he told analysts on a conference call. "It will create a huge new universe of opportunities for advertisers, where they ... will be dynamically adapting across a whole bunch of different devices, to reach the right audiences at the right time."

Internet companies in China, the world's largest Internet market by number of users, are also struggling to make money from those who access the Internet from mobile devices. Top China search engine Baidu Inc saw its shares tumble last week after Credit Suisse downgraded it to "underperform" on concerns about its money-making plans.

At the end of June, the number of Chinese users accessing the Internet from mobile phones surpassed those accessing the Internet via personal computer. Because of this trend, many Chinese Internet companies such as social-networking and online games firm Tencent Holdings have upped their mobile Internet offerings in order to capture growth.

"If you look at the evolution of mobile Internet, social networking is usually the first to spread around the world, followed by games and then advertising," said Elinor Leung of CLSA. "You have stages to mobile Internet development, but eventually everyone will be there".


From bad to worse
Perhaps hardest-hit are Intel and others closely tied to the PC chain. Intel's weak outlook for the fourth quarter ended any hopes the PC market would pick up at year's end. While Intel dominated that space in its prime, in smartphones its market share is less than 1 percent.

Intel's one-time rival AMD is in even worse shape, saying this week it will cut 15 percent of its staff -- more than 1,600 people -- as part of yet another restructuring to cut costs while it tries to figure out its future.
On Thursday, Microsoft revealed a 22 percent dive in quarterly profit as sales of computers running its Windows operating system dipped.

Marvell, yet another chipmaker being battered by the lagging PC market, on Thursday cut its revenue outlook by as much as 10 percent as its customers in the storage business suffered.


Winners win
Those doing best are the one with an established foothold in mobile, having figured it out years earlier.
Verizon Communications posted a record quarterly profit on the strength of the wireless business it co-owns, which came largely from demand for the iPhone.

Apple's ubiquitous handset even figured in the blockbuster $20 billion purchase of a majority in Sprint Nextel Corp by Softbank Corp. Softbank, the first to offer the phone in Japan, was said to admire Sprint's efforts to bring the device to its own network.

The memory maker SanDisk also easily beat expectations for the third quarter, as demand for chips to be used in smartphones and tablets drove up pricing.

If technology companies only had to deal with a platform transition, that would be one thing. The problem is they are struggling with that transition in the face of a weak economy, when technology upgrades are often the first budget line item to be cut and consumer spending crumbles.

"It seems like the macro conditions certainly deteriorated in the third month, and no tech company will be immune to it," said Trip Chowdhry, analyst at Global Equities Research.

Microsoft prices Wi-Fi Surface tablet below new Apple iPad

The world's largest software company, which announced its surprise foray into computer manufacturing in June, said it would sell a 32-gigabyte (GB), Wi-Fi only version of its tablet at $499, versus $599 for a comparable version of Apple's new iPad.

Microsoft's tablet, which is taller and slightly heavier than an iPad, will go on sale on October 26 as the company launches the new touch-friendly Windows 8 operating system. A limited number will be available for pre-order from a Microsoft website from Tuesday morning.

The company is hoping the Surface - along with Windows tablets from other hardware makers - will challenge the dominance of Apple's iPad, which has 70 percent of the tablet market after essentially inventing the category in 2010.

The iPad's popularity demolished the market for mini-laptops called netbooks, and crimped the sales of full-scale PCs, eating away at Microsoft's Windows market.
Based on a Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) chip designed by ARM Holdings (ARM.L), the Surface will run a simplified version of Windows 8 that is not compatible with old Microsoft applications.

However, the tablet will feature new app-style versions of Office mainstays such as Word, PowerPoint and Excel, and will include Xbox games, video and music apps.
The Surface, with two cameras and a USB port, will be Wi-Fi only. Microsoft has made no mention of a wireless-enabled version.

On top of the basic model, Microsoft will also offer a 32GB model bundled with a black 'Touch Cover' - that doubles as a keyboard - for $599, and a 64GB version with a black Touch Cover for $699.

That compares to $699 for a 64GB Wi-Fi only version of the new iPad.
Since announcing the Surface in June, Microsoft had been silent on the price range, saying only that it would be "competitive" with similar products.

Some market watchers had speculated that Microsoft might price its first tablet even lower to compete with Apple's less-powerful iPad 2, which costs $399, or smaller rivals such as Amazon.com's (AMZN.O) Kindle Fire HD and Google Inc's (GOOG.O) Nexus 7, which start at $199.

Alongside Microsoft's physical stores in the United States and Canada, the Surface will be generally available online from October 26 for consumers in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Britain and the United States.

Samsung unveils Galaxy S III mini

Samsung has unveiled a new smartphone - the Galaxy S III mini, which is a compact version of the company's flagship smartphone Galaxy S III. The Galaxy S III mini shares the Galaxy S III's design.
The phone features a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, and runs Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) OS. The phone is powered by a dual-core 1GHz processor. It has a 5 megapixel auto focus camera with LED Flash. and a front VGA camera.

The phone has 8 and 16GB internal storage options, and it supports microSD card up to 32GB. Its connectivity options include WiFi, NFC, and Bluetooth 4.0. Weighing 111.5 g, the Galaxy S III comes packed with a 1,500 mAh battery. 

According to Samsung, content sharing is easy and fast on the GALAXY S III mini: Its S Beam feature is claimed to let usersshare a 10MB music file in two seconds by simply tapping on another S Beam-enabled device including GALAXY S III or GALAXY Note II, even without a Wi-Fi or cellular signal.

 The Samsung Galaxy S III mini also comes packed with S Voice, Samsung's advanced natural language recognition software, which lets users use their voice to unlock the phone with simple customised commands, or to play their favourite songs, turn the volume up or down, organise schedule, and a lot more.

The Galaxy S III mini also understands your gestures. With Smart Stay, the phone's camera tracks your eyes and keeps the screen lit as long as you are looking at it. When reading a text message from a friend, Direct Call enables you to automatically dial a call simply by lifting the phone to your ear, and Smart Alert alerts you to missed calls or messages as soon as you pick up your phone.

Samsung has not yet said anything on price and availability.

Review: Samsung Galaxy Beam GT I8530

Samsung Galaxy Beam is not the first projector phone in India. Many Indian brands like Intex and Spice have tried it with their feature phones. However, Samsung Galaxy Beam is the first projector smartphone with Android operating system.

The phone takes the whole game several notches higher by not just offering a DLP Pico projector with decent 15 Lumens LED lamp, it also offers a powerful smartphone at a price that many might argue to be on the higher side.

The phone is actually a combination of Galaxy S Advance and a pico projector. While the Galaxy S Advance costs Rs 19,500 in India, the Galaxy Beam is available for Rs 27,500 which means that the projector costs Rs 8,000. Is that cost justified? Let's find out. 

Design
Samsung has done a great job in keeping the weight of Galaxy Beam down to a level where most won't complain. The phone weighs 145 grams which is only 25 gram more than Galaxy S Advance and is 12.5mm thick as against 9.7mm thickness of S Advance.

A yellow band all across the side of the device gives it a vibrant look and a back with lightly textured surface gives is good grip and feel. The projector is on top of the device, while the micro USB slot is on the bottom end. The front gets one physical button at the centre which works as home, shortcut to the task manager, and voice command button. Alongside are two capacitive buttons for options and back which only appear momentarily when you touch them.

There is nothing underneath the back cover except for its large 2000mAH battery, SIM slot lies on left side below the volume rocker and 3.5 mm jack and the micro SD card is on the right side below the power/lock and beam (projector button).

The camera is at the top centre on back with LED flash on its side. All in all, the Samsung Galaxy Beam has a very neat and useful design.

Projector
The highlight of this phone is its projector and so we will talk about it before we talk about anything else. The projector is a DLP (Digital light processing) unit and comes with an LED bulb that is claimed to have a life of 20,000 hours while normal projectors have lamp life of maximum of 5000 hours. The projector is capable of 15 Lumens output which is very low compared to a normal projector and is lower than even the Pico LED projectors which project at up to 30 Lumens normally and some even produce 50 Lumens.

This phone can project an image up to 50 inch size with nHD (640x360-pixel) resolution. However, compared to a Pico projector which costs anything above of Rs 25,000 in India, this one will technically cost you only Rs 8,000.

And the only drawback of this projector is that it doesn't support external source of images, however you can always access web based content, like YouTube, through it

The projector produces good images when used inside a dark room on a white background and like any other projector, it will not work when used in well-lit situations or on not so clear wall. However, it doesn't require complete darkness to project decent images.


Samsung has given several useful option with this projector like ability to write and mark on the screen with a quick pad application. You can also project an image that your phones camera is seeing, a good option to make this phone work as an overhead projector to show any document to a large audience, and here the LED flash comes in handy as you will need a dark room to project and the camera will need light to shoot.

You can also convert this projector into a torch and has an Ambiance mode in which it plays a set of music and image for certain duration before you start your presentation using DLP app. However, there are issues like you cannot pull out this DLP application during the presentation for that you will have to go back to the home screen to pull it out.

The Beam button on the side helps in switching on the projector directly and the projector opens with an all screen that you can use to adjust settings and also enables quick note and rotation.

There are many use of this projector and you don't have to carry anything for that to happen except your phone. And the good part is that the speakers of the phone are quite loud so you won't need external speakers, especially indoors but you may need speakers in outdoors.

Camera
The phone comes with a 5 megapixel camera at the back and a 1.3 megapixel in the front. The rear camera is good and takes very decent pictures especially in the daylight situation. In low light conditions, like indoors, LED flash makes it click decent pictures. The colour and saturation levels are good and pictures look vibrant. Front camera is very good for video calling and that's the use it is intended for.

Operating system and UI
The phone has Android 2.3 version. However, Samsung has already said that it will release the Android 4.0 and even Android 4.1 for this phone. The operating system is overlaid by Samsung Touchwiz user interface which has 7 customisable home screens.


Display
The phone has a 4.0 inch display with 480x800 pixel resolution. The display is quite bright and has good colour reproduction, sharpness and contrast. Besides, the screen has also good viewing angles. The touch sensitivity of the screen is also of top notch.

Performance
The Galaxy Bean comes with a 1 Ghz dual core processor coupled with a healthy 768 MB RAM and Mali 400 GPU, which lends this device a very snappy performance. Though its performance is of no match to the Galaxy SII which is priced at the same level but it is definitely in the league of phones priced in the range of Rs 24,000 and below. The apps open quickly and games play without any framing.

The Galaxy Bean comes with a 1 Ghz dual core processor coupled with a healthy 768 MB RAM and Mali 400 GPU, which lends this device a very snappy performance. Though its performance is of no match to the Galaxy SII which is priced at the same level but it is definitely in the league of phones priced in the range of Rs 24,000 and below. The apps open quickly and games play without any framing.

Other features
The phone comes with an 8 GB of internal memory which is expandable by another 32 GB through a micro SD card. You also get the normal set of smartphone features like GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc.

Verdict
If you are looking for a portable projector then this is a perfect phone. Even though it won't take content from your laptop directly, you can always copy your content onto the phones' ample memory to project it on a larger screen.

The phone is well built and performs well too. However only those should go for it who see value in the projector of the phone. Else they can look at many more offerings which are cheaper and offer better smartphone experience for the same money.

Review: Apple Maps app vs Google Maps app

Apple's new maps app came out the day I started a 2,243-mile road trip through four states. As complaints about it trickled in and Apple's CEO apologised, I was left wondering whether people were using the same app I was.

Although it's not flawless or as good as Google's maps app on Android phones, Apple's new offering on the iPhone got me where I needed to go - for the most part. I know many people will disagree with me, but I even find it an improvement over the old app on iPhones because I now get voice navigation and automatic re-routing.

I've used Google's Android app since it was released three years ago. I don't own a car, but I travel a lot. The app has proven crucial in getting me to unfamiliar territories in New England and various Southern states from Arizona to South Carolina. 

Google brought to the phone the spoken-aloud, turn-by-turn directions once limited to GPS navigational devices from Garmin, TomTom and others. Make a wrong turn, and the app automatically updates with new directions. Best of all, it's always been free.
Until last month, Google was also behind the free, main maps app on iPhones.

But that one didn't have voice navigation or automatic re-routing. Driving with it meant swiping through pages of on-screen directions. A friend missed a train in May as we overlooked a step and went the wrong way on a highway, ending up back where we came from. A drive from Ann Arbor to Lansing, Michigan, took 17 steps, each with its own page. After Step 9, I had to pull into a rest stop to memorize subsequent steps and avoid an accident.

Apple wanted voice directions, too, and figured the only way to get it was to build its own maps app and bump Google from its perch as the default offering. It partnered with TomTom and shipped the iPhone 5 with the new app. A software update out September 19 made it available on the iPhone 4S and the cellular versions of the latest two iPad models.

I updated an iPhone 4S in a hotel room in Grand Rapids, Michigan, that night and was immediately impressed. It was a nice touch to have turn-by-turn directions narrated by Siri, the familiar female voice from Apple's virtual-assistant feature.
Then I started hearing the complaints.

I agree with many of them. The Apple app didn't show as many businesses and landmarks as Google's. Some appeared in the wrong location or were mislabelled. The Apple app didn't offer public transit directions, something crucial for New Yorkers like me. A friend I was visiting toward the end of the two-week trip immediately complained that the app looked different as she pulled it out for the first time.

Head to head, the Google app for Android, which I used on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus and a Galaxy S III, outperformed Apple's version in many respects:

- Google's app typically told me about turns a second or two quicker. Sometimes, I didn't hear from Siri until I got to the intersection, two lanes away from where I needed to be to make a right turn.

- I got better navigation on private roads with Google. At a shopping mall, Google guided me along the right driveways to get to JC Penney, while Apple got me to the general vicinity. Google also got me to the front door of my hotel in Ann Arbor, while Apple got me to the entrance of a complex that included other hotels, a gas station and retail stores.

- In Akron, Ohio, Siri had me turn left to get on a highway, while Google's app properly instructed me to take a ramp on the left. In Indianapolis, Google knew about a service road alongside Michigan Road, while Siri assumed I was on the main road and would have had me crash into a Chinese restaurant. In Charleston, West Virginia, Siri told me to head northeast, as if I had a compass, while Google just told me to turn left.

- Besides public transit directions, Google offered options for avoiding tolls or highways while driving. It allowed me to choose continuous satellite images instead of animated maps, while Apple's app offered them only for route overviews, not for live navigation.

- While Siri's voice sounds much more human than the one Google used in its early mapping apps, Google now has a voice that makes Siri sound robotic by comparison. Google also was more sparing with words, which was good as long as I didn't get lost for lack of detail.

That said, Apple's map offers 3D views. That may sound like a gimmick, but it presents the map in a way that mirrors what you're seeing through the windshield. On Apple's map, the direction you're going is on top in the regular view or toward the back in 3D. Outside of big cities, Google often has north on top, which can be confusing when driving east or south.

Apple's maps are also more pleasant to view. Instructions such as "turn right onto Pearl St." are in white against a green background, similar to the signs you see on highways. Street names at intersections are in a green rectangle, similar to actual street signs at corners. Unlike Google's, Apple's app showed me the distance and time remaining and an estimated time of arrival all at once, though I would have appreciated larger text.
Apple's app was mostly dead-on in getting me to my destination. The one big miss was when it had a winery I was looking for about a half-mile east of its actual location. I went to another instead.

But Google has made mistakes, too. It told me to turn left to get to a lighthouse along the Straits of Mackinac connecting two Great Lakes, even as the road sign in front of me pointed to the right. Then again, Apple's app didn't even find that lighthouse in a search.
Both apps gave me other questionable directions, even though they got me there, which was what mattered most. At one point, Google had me on a curvy one-lane residential street with little visibility, even though a faster, safer road ran parallel to it. Apple's directions to a roadside tourist trap had me take an exit four miles to the south, only to return four miles north on smaller roads.

Bottom line is no app is perfect. After all the complaints about Apple's app, I downloaded a 99-cent iPhone app called MotionX GPS Drive. It got good reviews and offered more features than either Apple or Google. But it tried to lead me off the wrong exit in Ohio. Plus, all the extra features diverted my eyes to the settings menu when I should've been paying attention to trucks and, ahem, police cars around me.

Apple's app is far better than the one Google had when it first came out in late 2009. In apologising for an app he says "fell short" of Apple's own expectations, CEO Tim Cook says the company will keep working to improve it.

It's true Apple's app falls short of what Google now offers for Android, but if all you have is an iPhone or an iPad, Apple's new app will get you there just fine.
Clinging to the old, voiceless app is like hanging on to your cassette tapes while the world has moved on to CDs and digital downloads. I can't imagine driving without hearing voices.

Micromax A90 review: Price and performance, made for each other

Micromax, which has made a name for itself in the low-cost handset market in India, seems to have made the best of its experience in the A90 by striking a right balance between performance and price. The Micromax A90 Pixel Android smartphone was recently launched at Rs 12,990.

The Micromax A90 is a neatly tailored dual SIM phone. The design of the phone is reminiscent of Samsung's highly successful Galaxy SII. The phone is slim and light in weight. Aping the Galaxy SII's form means that it brings some of the design advantages of the Samsung bestseller. The A90 is comfortable to hold.

Micromax has opted for the full touch design with on-screen home and back buttons to take advantage of the Android Ice Cream Sandwich UI. The phone neither has any hardware button on the front nor any capacitive controls generally found below the display. The back has a textured panel, which protects the rear of the phone from abrasions and also prevents it from slipping out of the palm. The phone looks tidy and the overall build quality is satisfactory. 

The Micromax A90 Pixel has a volume rocker and a power key on the sides. The phone lacks a dedicated camera key. Another thing that I found missing on the phone was an LED notification light. Beyond this the design and the hardware leaves very little to grumble for.

The USP of the phone is its 4.3-inch AMOLED screen that offers a resolution of 800x480 pixels. It is a display technology, which is generally found on higher-end phones. The inclusion of the AMOLED display on this budget phone is the surprise. The display produces good colours. The screen is also readable under the direct sunlight. The touch is quite responsive and the navigation on the phone in smooth. While the company does not claim the screen to be scratch-resistant, but compared to other phones that we have tested, this phone barely got any scratches during the review period that lasted for around a week.
The phone runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. One thing that I found a bummer was the absence of the Google Talk app on this phone, which generally comes pre-installed on Android phones. And the catch here is that the Google Talk app is not even available on Google Play. So, it means you can not even download it. However, you can use the Google Plus messenger app on your phone as an alternative.

The Micromax A90 is powered by a 1GHz processor and 512MB RAM and manages multi-tasking with ease. It let me run 4 to 5 apps at a time. I listened to music and browsed the Internet, while downloading apps from the Google Play store at a same time. A few other apps were also running in the background.
The phone supports 720p video playback, but stutters when confronted by 1080p videos. It supports mp4, mkv and avi file formats for video playback. The phone's 512MB RAM can limit heavy users, but then this is a budget device.

The phone offer 4GB of internal storage, out of which around 2.5GB is user-accessible, and of which around 500MB is dedicated for internal app storage. This means that apps which due to security or performance reasons are installable only in the internal storage have around half-a-gigabyte of space. This may prove to be insufficient for power users. Further, its memory is expandable up to 32GB using a microSD card.

The phone features an 8 megapixel rear camera with an LED flash that captures satisfactory snaps in both low-light and bright-light conditions. The camera offers you various options to customise images. Zoom in and zoom out are a little jerky. It also has a 0.3 megapixel front camera, which surprised me with its quality. I was not expecting much form a 0.3 megapixel front camera.

The phone's signal reception is strong and the calling experience on this phone is fair but the phone's speakers while producing crisp sound is not loud enough. The loudness of the speakers is satisfactory in quite places, but in noisy surroundings it failed to impress.

The phone comes with a 1600mAh battery. If you are a heavy user and use scores of apps on your phone, then it can easily last for around 9 hours. But if put to normal use, the phone has enough juice to last for a day.

The Micromax A90 Pixel offers impressive features at an attractive price and finds a place on our recommended list.
Pros
+ Good display
+ Impressive design (though the phone looks like an SII clone)
+ Satisfactory performance
+ Quality camera
+ Attractive price
Cons
- No Google Talk app
- Average speakers
- No dedicated camera key

Google beats Microsoft in market value

  Google soared past Microsoft in terms of market value on Monday to become the second-richest firm in the tech world behind Apple.

Google shares gained 0.96 per cent to end at $761.78, giving the internet giant a market capitalization of $249.1 billion. Microsoft meanwhile fell 0.91 per cent to $29.49, translating into a market worth of $247.2 billion.

Both remained well behind Apple, which shed 1.16 per cent to $659.39, meaning its market cap is just above $618 billion.

Google's stock price has climbed steadily this year as the California-based company bolstered its positions in key Internet growth areas with its dominant search engine, Android mobile operating system and Youtube video venue.

The shares got a boost last week from a Citigroup note advising investors that the Google stock price could "rise significantly in the 12 months ahead."

A note Monday from Trip Chowdhry at Global Equities Research said both Google and Apple have "strong momentum" in the mobile Internet sector while "developer interest in Windows Phone is almost non-existent."

Chowdhry added that Google's "innovation velocity far exceeds any other company."

Enthusiasm for Microsoft has been lukewarm, despite its upcoming launch of the Windows 8 operating system and a push into the tablet and phone markets.

HP unveils ElitePad 900 Windows 8 tablet

HP introduced a new tablet - the HP ElitePad 900 - which runs Microsoft's latest Windows 8 operating system. It features a 10.1-inch diagonal display, weighs 1.5 pounds and measures 9.2 mm thin. The tablet is aimed at enterprise users, but it is expected to entice consumers also.

The HP ElitePad tablet has a 1080p front-facing video camera and an 8 megapixel rear camera with an LED flash. The camera also includes CyberLink YouCam software. The 16-by-10 aspect ratio is said to maximise the display area. The HP ElitePad uses 

CNC-machined aluminum and Corning Gorilla Glass 2. Powered by next-generation Intel mobile processors, it supports touch, pen or voice based input.

The tablet features HP ElitePad Smart Jackets, which add connectivity options and an additional ultra-slim battery for longer runtime, along with specific add-ons that customise the tablet for specialized uses. 

The HP ElitePad Productivity Jacket includes an integrated keyboard, connectivity ports, SD card reader and adjustable viewing angles. The HP ElitePad Expansion Jacket adds USB, HDMI and other connectivity options. The HP ElitePad Docking Station is claimed to deliver an enterprise-class desktop experience with an added keyboard and monitor and also charge the tablet.

The HP executive tablet pen lets customers write messages and notes in their handwriting directly on screen and then save or convert to typed text for use in other applications.
The HP ElitePad 900 is expected to be available in the United States in January 2013. Pricing information will be announced closer to availability.