Turn your Samsung smartphone into a tablet with Phonepad

If you thought it was a shame that the Padfone by Asus isn't compatible with your handset, thePhonepad is here to quell your woes. The Phonepad lets you dock your phone in and use it as a tablet. It has built-in batteries and speakers as well. The tablet has a 10-inch LED HD display. It measures 187 x 270 x 20 mm and weighs in at about 968 g without the smartphone docked into it. It can be used in both landscape and portrait orientations. While it does seem like a useful device for some people, the weight might be a big turn off. A peripheral that weighs almost 1kg isn't exactly the most portable device out there. The Phonepad uses MHL as a connection protocol and is compatible with Samsung smartphones, including the Galaxy S3 and the S2. The pictures on the Phonepad's website show a Galaxy S3 docked into the tablet. As of yet, there is no mention of phones by other companies being compatible with the tablet. The Phonepad has hinges that let you swivel the screen around. It uses the same 3G or Wi-Fi connection that your phone is connected to. It also has the ability to connect to a gaming controller that comes bundled with the device, thus letting you use it as a full-fledged gaming device. The Phonepad will be launching in July for £149.99, which roughly translates to Rs 12,555. The Phonepad is like the Padfone for Samsung's smartphones If you're looking for an all-in-one solution instead of buying accessories made by different companies, you can check out the Asus PadFone 2. It is a 4.7-inch Android smartphone that docks with the PadFone 2 Station to become 10.1-inch tablet. Apps are optimised to support both tablet and phone modes, offering an instant transition between smartphone and tablet screen sizes. Asus claims that its "Design Thinking" philosophy has helped in reducing the PadFone 2 Station’s thickness and weight. The device now weighs 649 grams with the combined weight of both PadFone 2 and PadFone 2 Station making it lighter than most tablets on the market. The dock mechanism has been redesigned to require a one step to use. PadFone 2 has also been designed to increase its screen size to 4.7-inches, while reducing its thickness and weight to just 9mm at its thickest point and weighing 135g respectively. Here is a quick look at the highlighted features of the Asus PadFone 2: 4.7-inch 720p Super IPS+ panel with up to 550nits brightness LTE, 3G, GPRS, NFC, Wi-Fi Bluetooth 4.0 with USB 2.0 Host 13MP f/2.4 BSI sensor with full HD video recording at 30fps, 1.2MP front camera 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions MHL for AV out Asus claims that the PadFone 2’s 2140 mAh battery provides up to 16 hours 3G talk-time and 13 hours Wi-Fi web browsing, while PadFone 2 Station’s 5000 mAh battery gives up to 36 hours of 3G talk-time. PadFone 2 Station’s internal battery also has enough capacity to recharge the docked PadFone 2 three times over. However, this claim cannot be verified until we put it through our stringent battery test.

Android 4.0 Karbonn Smart A12 Launched For Rs 8000

ICS-based dual-SIM 3G smartphone sports a 4.5" qHD screen and 1 GHz CPU.

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As if there aren't enough 4.5" smartphones already, Karbonn has introduced the Smart A12. The large-screen phone runs Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) out of the box and is powered by a 1 GHz CPU backed with 512 MB of RAM. It comes with 4 GB of internal storage with a microSD card slot that supports up to 32 GB of storage. A 5 mp rear camera with LED flash takes care of photography, while a front 0.3 mp camera aids in video calling. The dual-SIM GSM handset supports 2G, 3G, and Wi-Fi data connectivity and although it is not confirmed, it is likely that only one of the SIMs supports 3G. Here are the specifications:

• Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), Google Play Store support.
• Dual-SIM (GSM + GSM); 2G: 900, 1800 MHz; 3G (UMTS): 2100 MHz.
• 4.5" capacitive multi-touch screen with pixel dimensions of 854x480.
• 1 GHz Broadcom CPU, 512 MB RAM.
• 4 GB internal storage; Up to 32 GB microSD card support.
• 5 megapixel rear camera with LED flash, 0.3 megapixel front camera.
• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, micro-USB 2.0, 3.5 mm audio jack, FM radio.
• Sensors: G Sensor, Proximity, Light.
• 1800 mAh battery.
• Package Contents: Handset, Battery, Headset, Charger, USB cable, Warranty card, User manual.

The A12 is available in Black and Gun [sic] colour schemes and is priced at Rs 8000. The phone has competitors in the form of other recently-announced handsets with 4.5" screens and similar pricing such as the Micromax Ninja A91 and Lava Iris 455, but both seem to have an edge over the Karbonn handset with dual-core CPUs. The Lava one also packs in the newer Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) OS.

Sony Xperia Z (C6602) Review

PRICE IN INDIA

38,790

TECHNOLUVERZ RATING 

7.0

AVERAGE USER RATING 

                 

8.0

CONTACT

Sony India

  sonyindia.care@ap.sony.com

  1800 103 7799

  www.sony.co.in

• SPECIFICATIONS

Display
Form Factor	Bar
Screen Type	TFT Capacitive Touchscreen
Screen Size	5.0 inches
Screen Resolution	1080 x 1920
Number of Colours	16M
Processor
Speed	1.5 GHz
Memory
Internal Memory	Up to 16GB, 2GB RAM
Extendable Memory	microSD, up to 32GB
Camera Features
Sensor Resolution	13MP, 4128 x 3096 pixels
Features	Geo-tagging, Touch Focus, Face Detection, Image Stabilization, HDR, Sweep Panorama
Digital Zoom	16x
Video resolution / frame rate	1080 / 30fps
Video Recording	Yes
Front facing camera	2.2 MP
General Features
OS	Android
Version	4.1.2 (Jelly bean)
FM Radio	Yes
Bluetooth Features	Yes, v4.0 with A2DP
Messaging	SMS (threaded view), MMS, Email, IM, Push Email
GPS	Yes, with A-GPS support
USB Connector	Yes
NFC	Yes
Available Colours	Black, White, Purple
Carrier Networks
2G	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G	HSDPA 850 / 900 / 2100
4G	LTE 800 / 850 / 900 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600
Data
GPRS	Yes
EGPRS or EDGE	EDGE
WiFi	802.11 a/b/g/n
Body
Dimensions	139 x 71 x 7.9 mm
Weight(grams)	146
Sound
Media Player	Music formats: MP3, eAAC+, WMA, WAV, Flac - Video formats: MP4, H.263, H.264, WMV
Alert Tone	Vibration, MP3
Speakerphone	Yes
Audio connector	3.5 mm
Battery
Type	Li-Ion
Capacity(mAh)	2330
Talk Time with Standard Battery (Minutes)	Up to 11 hrs (2G) / Up to 14 hrs (3G)
Standby Time with Standard Battery (Hours)	Up to 550 (2G) / Up to 530 (3G)
Miscellaneous Features
Built in Applications	Google Chrome - Google Play - Google search - Google Voice Search - Google Maps for Mobile with Street view and Latitude - Web browser (WebKit) - Google Talk application
Other Features	Airplane mode, Alarm clock, Calculator, Calendar, Contacts, Document Readers, eCompass, Infinite Button, Notes, Setup Guide, Stopwatch, Tasks, Timer
After Sales Service
Warranty Period	1 Year

TuneUp Utilities 2013 Review

PRICE IN INDIA

2,715

TECHNOLUVERZ RATING 

7.0

AVERAGE USER RATING 

1

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• REVIEW

If your PC or laptop has been working in an erratic manner, or has slowed down after you last reinstalled Windows, here’s what you can do: Install TuneUp Utilities and solve your problems with just a few clicks. It may sound gimmicky to you, but it will make absolute sense if you look at what it actually does. The reason for slowing down could be many, such as bloated registry due to hundreds of redundant entries, invalid shortcuts, fragmented partitions and unwanted start up programs and services that take forever to load. Also, web browser cache and temporary files created by applications hog hundreds of megabytes of storage space. Such issues pile up over a period of time and should be resolved from time to time to maintain optimal functioning of the operating system. The quickest solution is using a system tuning utility that fixes everything in one go.  The latest version of TuneUp Utilities adds support for Windows 8, browser cleaner and Live Optimization among many other improvements. Here’s what it has in store for you. Features TuneUp Utilities 2013 is a 27MB download (get it from here) and needs around 75MB of disk space for installation. Immediately after the installation, it prompts you to run “1-click Maintenance”—it scans for redundant registry entries, invalid shortcuts and references in the start menu and desktop, junk files, browser cache, fragmented drives, and so on. It takes around a minute to complete the scan, after which it displays the number of issues found and the overall condition of the system. You can click on the number of problems found to view them and uncheck the actions you don’t want the software to perform. 1-Click Maintenance solves all issues in one go A good thing here is that even if you’re not well-versed with certain functions or terminologies, moving the mouse pointer over them or selecting them displays a brief explanation in simple English. Clicking the “Run maintenance” button fixes all the issues in one go. This can take anything between a few seconds to an hour depending on the number of issues and whether your drive(s) need to be defragmented. You’re taken to the main UI after the “1-Click Maintenance” run is complete. You can choose what to run with 1-Click Maintenance The main UI comprises five tabs in the decreasing order of priority—Status and recommendations, Optimize computer, Clean up computer, Fix problems and Customize Windows. The lower one-third portion of the UI stays static. The left side of this panel has buttons to choose the PC Optimization mode (Economy, Standard and Turbo). The Economy mode helps prolong battery life of mobile devices by turning off the display and wireless radios when idle, disabling visual effects and turning off background services that are rarely used such as support for virtual machines, error reporting, Quick Windows search etc. These parameters can be defined as per your preference. With Economy mode enabled, your laptop’s battery life should extend by around half an hour or so. The Economy mode helps improve battery life of mobile devices The Turbo mode is meant to give your PC an instant speed boost—in addition to postponing scheduled maintenance tasks, disabling visual effects and rarely used services, it ensures optimal performance regardless of power consumption. Over to the right side, the optimisation status bar displays the optimisation tasks you have run and the “Unused potential”, which lists the recommended tasks. Moving on to the five tabs in the main UI, here’s what they offer: Status and recommendations Everything green means your system is running optimally This section displays status and suggests recommendations related to system maintenance, performance and fixing problems. These are presented as separate blocks along with individual statuses. “Maintain System” does exactly what “1-Click Maintenance” does, but when the PC is idle or as per user-defined schedule. “Increase Performance” recommends optimisations based on the type of Internet connection and visual effects you specify. You can run the recommended optimisations (related to Internet connection, browser settings, display and animation effects) after analysis. “Fix Problems” suggests resolving issues that negatively impact system health, for example, checking for drive errors. You know your system is running optimally if all the statuses are green with a checkmark. “System protection” is like System Restore in Windows. It allows undoing changes made by the various modules in the software. You can specify the number of backups to keep and the timeframe to store backups until they are automatically deleted. Optimize computer Reduce system load by disabling startup programs and optimising registry This section presents tools to reduce system load and optimise registry. So, you have Program Deactivator, StartUp Manager and Uninstall Manager to manage startup items and installed software—each of these is a separate module. Prioritise programs and disable startup programs To help you decide whether you should enable or disable items, the software uses a rating system that evaluates priority. There’s also an independent registry cleaner, disk defragmenter and startup optimiser, each with an easy-to-use interface.