Here's probably why India got a dual-core Samsung Galaxy Grand

 

 

Samsung recently launched its mid-level smartphone, the Galaxy Grand, in the Indian market. Now, news has it that the mobile giant has launched the same phone on its home turf, but with a more powerful processor. The Grand will hit Indian stores with a 1.2GHz dual-core processor while Korean users can lay their hands on a 1.4GHz quad-core processor. Moreover, Samsung is marketing the Grand as a budget handset in Korea with a price tag that reads 350,000 KRW, which translates to approximately Rs. 17,524. Eyebrows are being raised over Samsung selling a quad-core phone in Korea for a lower price while it sells the same phone with lesser hardware for a higher price in India.The Galaxy Grand is priced at Rs. 21,500 in the Indian market.

The dual-core Samsung Galaxy Grand unveiled in India

A quad-core processor would have meant a rise in production cost, which would automatically place the device in the high-end league in terms of the price and to a certain extent the specs.

So how is it possible that Samsung is selling a better version of the same device at a lower price in Korea? Well, for one Samsung isn’t importing the phone into Korea. On the contrary, introducing devices in the Indian market involves custom duties and other applicable taxes. Most of the features of the Grand like 5-inch display and others remain same as the Galaxy Grand in India. The only differentiation is the LTE and NFC feature for the Korean version, besides the quad-core chip. In India, we don’t have LTE coverage yet and wouldn’t need this feature anyway. However, Samsung could have included NFC for Indian audiences.

Samsung has played its cards quite well. It launched the Galaxy Grand with dual-SIM capability for the price-sensitive Indian market and the same phone with LTE and quad-core for the uber-connected Korean market. The Broadcom chipset used in the Indian version doesn't support LTE (and also helps lower the cost). Now, we can't whine about LTE as there is no support for LTE in India. On the other hand, it is certainly a must-have for Korea. LTE is a burgeoning market in Korea and is fast turning into a technical standard. Currently, one out of five people use LTE phones and networks. Just by adding a quad-core chip in the Indian version, it wouldn't greatly benefit the Indian experience, but instead would have simply increased the cost of the smartphone.

Poweramp for Android Review

PRICE IN INDIA

129

TECH2 RATING

 

 

When it comes to music players for Android, there’s no shortage of free players and after pretty much trying all the good ones, you will come back to just one and that’s Poweramp. Ever since Gingerbread days till now, Poweramp continues to be the most powerful music player for Android and has a huge fan following. Let’s take a closer look at what makes this paid player outshine any other in the Play store.

Interface and Features
Poweramp is available as a trial app by default from the Play store and you later purchase the unlocker to make it a full version. Once installed, you’re presented with a clean and easy to use interface. The UI is extremely novice-friendly giving you oversized media controls for Play, fast forward, etc. with plenty of space for a big album art above it. Your music can be sorted according to the usual artist, album categories or you can choose folder view, which shows you all your music the way you have copied it on your phone. Tapping on this takes you to the playlist from where you can switch folders. The album art area also houses the shuffle and repeat toggle buttons along with a five star rating system. The placement and transparencies of all these extra options can be customised in the settings.

Simple and easy to use UI

What makes Poweramp one of the most sought after music player is the long list of audio formats supported. The list includes mp3, mp4/m4a (including alac), ogg, wma, flac, wav, ape, wv, tta, mpc, aiff, which covers pretty much every format you can find audio in these days. The ability to customise the sound is also very extensive. We start off with a 10-band graphic equaliser that can be used to fine tune your music depending on what genre of songs you listen to the most. There are plenty of presets as well and you can also use the sound enhancements (like Dolby or HTC FX) that come with some phones in Poweramp. Besides that, you also have the option to adjust the bass and treble separately along with a volume limiter. You can also add extra effects like Stereo eXpansion, mono mixing and adjust the balance. Every change you make is noticeable provided you have a good pair of headphones. Other features include support for crossfading, gapless playback, queuing system, ability to update missing album art and even download lyrics of the song through the musiXmatch plugin.

Plenty of options to tweak the audio

Performance
With the right pair of headphones, the audio quality is really good and beats any other player in the market. The equaliser and or audio effects make a huge impact on the audio quality and you can actually make out the difference between mp3 and flac files. One neat feature is the ability to parse .cue and m3u files. If you download radio shows, especially trance music, you’ll often come across one single file that’s an hour long. Cue and m3u files help breakdown this singular file into individual tracks so you can skip to the one you want without having to split the track physically. Gapless playback support is also present for albums that feature it.

Customizations galore

You also get plenty of widgets for your homescreen to choose from, including a very nice lockscreen widget. You can customise the amount of information to be displayed on the lockscreen widget too, from album art to equaliser controls. Poweramp also gives you the option to change the theme. You get a bunch of them by default and you can even install third party themes from the Play Store. One feature that we feel should be added is a social component. Apps like MixZing allow you to play your music from your library as well as search for trending tracks around the globe. You can even see what your friends are listening to at the moment and rate songs so your friends can find them.

Verdict and Price in India
Poweramp is available for as little as Rs129 for the full version, which makes it extremely good value. The app is compatible with Android v2.1 and upwards and is constantly being updated with bug fixes and support for the latest version of Android. If you want to get the best out of your music then we strongly suggest you ditch the stock player for Poweramp.

To download this app for Android click here.

PS4 ‘getting ready’ for possible May reveal [rumour]

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By Riazul Haque
01.26.13 |

Sony’s vice president of home entertainment, Hiroshi Sakamoto, hinted at the announcement of the PS4 during an interview with Emol (translated).
Sakamoto spoke about “a new announcement related to the new PlayStation.” He also said that the news is “still a big secret” and that the PlayStation side of Sony, “are getting ready for it.” Hmm, all very cryptic and ambiguous, but with all the rumours that have surfaced over the last couple of months, one can only suspect that he is talking about the next PlayStation, even though he did not outright mention it.
Sakamoto went on to say that the PlayStation team “is focused on E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo)” and that “the announcement could take place at that time, or maybe even before, in May.” When asked if he could be more specific whether it would be just an announcement or something specific, Sakamoto carefully dodged that question with: “Probably the former (an announcement), on that date we hope to deliver big news, but we must wait until May at least.” E3 will take place 11 – 13 June.
This would mean that Sony could get the jump on Microsoft, and announce a new console before its major rival. The verdict is still out whether that’s a good or bad move, but it sure will put all eyes on Sony. Gamers should also curb their enthusiasm, as Sony are renowned for stalling after an announcement of a new product, as was the case with the PS3.

FCC tweaks Broadband Acceleration Initiative to expedite network expansion, temporary cell tower deployment

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Waiting for LTE to roll out to your neighborhood? FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski understands, and he's trying to speed up the process. The commission's head honcho recently announced new actions to the Broadband Acceleration Initiative, clarifying technical provisions within the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 that should make mobile broadband deployment a little easier. The crux of the change focuses on how requests to modify existing base stations and wireless towers are reviewed, and is designed to give providers less pause when investing in building out their infrastructure.
"Just as is the case for our nation's roads and bridges, we must continue to invest in improvements to cell towers and transmission equipment, in order to ensure ubiquitous, high-speed Internet for all Americans," Genachowski said in an official statement. "To keep pace with technological advances, such as the advent of small cells, and to lay the groundwork for new developments, our policies must continue to adapt." Speaking of adaptation, the Chairman's announcement also noted FCC efforts to expedite the installation of temporary cell towers, used to bolster network capacity for events like the Super Bowl or Olympics. You wouldn't want to miss tweeting about the half time show, would you? Read on for the Chairman's official announcement.

DmC: Devil May Cry

Digit Rating: Excellent

4.5/5

 

Features:

 

Performance:

 

Value:

 

Design:

PROS

• Good story
• Great variety of weapons and moves
• Great environments
• Varied enemies
• Good level design
• Good character design

CONS

• PS3 version is sluggish, and bad-looking when compared to the 360 and PC
• Boss fights stick to the tried and tested mechanics

• Boss fights stick to the tried and tested mechanics

MRP: 2999 Rs

Summary

DmC is the perfect reboot and should be set as a benchmark for other action game reboots. The story is simple yet entertaining thanks to the great execution of characters. The combat is fantastic and friendly to newcomers as well as challenging to veterans. At the end of the game you have a satisfying feeling of accomplishment. I haven't had so much fun playing a game since Batman Arkham City! The game will take about 12 hours for the first playthrough and there are unlockables as an incentive to go through the journey once more. Not to mention the varying difficulty levels. A must buy for all the action adventure fans out there. A free Bloody Palace DLC, providing endless more hours of time spent honing one's skills, will also make its way...

Resident Evil Revelations to hit store shelves on May 24

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The next chapter in the Resident Evil franchise will hit store shelves on May 24 on the Xbox 360, PS3, PC and Wii U. The story this time around takes place between Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5.

Capcom has confirmed today that the next game in the Resident Evil franchise will hit store shelves on May 24. Resident Evil Revelations will launch for the all the platforms out there – PS3, Xbox 360, PC and Wii U. There were rumours circulating the Internet about a PS3 and an Xbox 360 version of the game but what comes as a surprise is the fact that the game will also be available on the Wii U and the PC. The game will be available as a digital download for all the platforms and will be priced at $49.99 (Rs. 2,700 approx.).

The story of the game takes place between the timeline of Resident Evil 4 and 5. Revelations was first launched for the 3DS. The story of the game is same on the consoles and the 3DS but the graphics and gameplay elements will be bumped up to HD for the console and PC release. You can take a look at the debut trailer of the game below.

The Resident Evil games defined the survival horror genre when they launched on the PS One. In todays day however, other franchises such as Dead Space have taken that crown. We have seen a number of games launch in the survival horror genre such as Alan Wake, Silent Hill and more and they have all been relatively successful, but Resident Evil is the only franchise that has made its mark on all the gaming hardware launched till date.

Google Slides gets offline editing support

Google's PowerPoint-rival, Slides now gets offline support.

 

 

Google has rolled out an update to its Slides service, making more features of the service accessible to users offline. Slides, similar to PowerPoint, is one of the important services offered by the search engine giant to users via Drive. Slides could be used earlier offline, but several features had to be used with an Internet connection.

With the update, Google Slides users can now create presentations, edit presentations and give presentation as well as leave comments. “You can now create, edit, comment and (perhaps most importantly) present without an internet connection—just like you can with Docs. Any new presentations or changes you make will be automatically updated when you get back online. So you can continue polishing slides on your next flight, and head to your upcoming presentation without worrying about whether there's going to be Wi-Fi,” says Google in a blog post.

Users who have already offline editing for Docs enabled, they do not need to change anything to work with Slides offline. If still disabled, users can turn it on for Slides by instructions posted here. Google points out that users will need Chrome or ChromeOS to work offline.

The fresh update is likely to provide a huge boost to the service which otherwise had seen very limited usages due to need for Internet. The offline editing is likely make the usage of the service more convenient. It's notable Google Docs already has a range offline editing features. Google will be soon rolling out offline editing support to its spreadsheet app.