Sony is prepping to launch the latest addition to the Xperia series in India. The Xperia P will be launched next week in India. The sources familiar about the topic say that the smartphone will be launched in the last week of May. It will be available for a price in India of Rs 26,000.

The smartphone was announced at the Mobile World Congress held in late February. Xperia U was also announced at the same time. Recently, we saw that the Xperia U and Sola are available for pre-order on online retailer sites like Flipkart. However, Sony has not announced the Sola handset officially.

The Xperia P is powered by Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system. It has a 4 inch display that is scratch resistant with a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels. The handset has an 8 MP camera with LED flash and auto focus. The phone is equipped with a 1GHz processor and has an internal storage of 16 GB.

The Xperia P has the floating touch display technology that lets the users to scroll through the web pages without touching the display. Users can hover their fingers close to the display and it will recognize the gestures and perform the required action.

The brand has started scheduling the Android ICS updates for the Xperia series smartphones. The first one in the series, the Xperia S will get the operating system update by the end of May or in early June. Previously, Sony has listed the schedule of the ICS update roll out for all its devices.

Plum is relatively a new player in mobile handset market. They made their appearance in the recent CTIA event. Now they have come out with a new dual SIM smartphone Plum Axe. This handset will be out in the market in black and white colours.

RANK	#1
TITLE	Plum Axe
DESIGN
Device Type	Smartphone
Size	4.0 inches
Form factor	Candy bar
Resolution	320 x 480 pixels
Colors	Black and White
Dimensions	124 x 63 x 10.8 mm
Weight	98 g
Touchscreen	capacitive touchscreen
PLATFORM
Operating system	Android Gingerbread OS
PROCESSOR
CPU	1 GHz processor
GPU	No Information Available
Chipset	No Information Available
CAMERA
Rear Camera	5 MP with 2592x1944 pixels
Front Camera	Supported with VGA
Video	Supported
Geo Tagging
STORAGE
Phonebook	Unlimited
Call records	Supported
Messaging	SMS, MMS, Email
Internal Storage	4 GB storage and 512 MB RAM
External storage	Up to 32 GB
Card Slot	microSD
CONNECTIVITY
GPRS	Class 12
EDGE
WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth	v2.0
Infrared Port	No Information Available
USB	Available with miniUSB
GPS facility	Available with A-GPS support
Browser	HTML browser
NETWORK SUPPORTS
2G
3G
4G
MULTIMEDIA
Audio Player	multiple formats supported
Video Player	multiple formats supported
Games	Supported
FM Radio
Speakers	Loudspeaker
Audio Jack	3.5mm jack
POWER MANAGEMENT
Battery type	Standard 800 mAh Li-Ion battery
Stand by	Up to 130 h
Talk time	Up to 3 h
ANNOUNCED
DATE	May’ 2012
PRICE	To be announced

Plum Axe offers 3G features and has a rear and VGA front camera. If you look at the entertainment features, it has good audio and video player capable of playing all popular formats. FM radio is available with this Plum smartphone along with loudspeaker facility. It supports GPRS and EDGE facilities as well. Bluetooth connectivity and USB port options of this handset features the data transfer facility. Connectivity is also a big plus for this dual SIM phone. 

Relatively high standby time and talk time is also offered by this dual SIM phone from Plum. As of now, Plum Axe will be powered by Ginger bread version of Android. Plum consumers can look forward to an upgrade to the advanced ICS operating system soon. The phone features other interesting options like organizer, image editor and also document viewer. It also comes up with sensors including compass, accelerometer, and also proximity sensors. The handset has a capacitive touch screen with multi touch options also. 

This Android dual SIM phone from Plum has already reached the handset market. The price tag of this Plum smartphone is not known as of now. But going by the features, the model certainly looks impressive. 

In April 2011, a top executive of Samsung, J.K.Shin said that the Galaxy S2 will make a sales of 10 million units in that year alone. If you feel that it is a huge amount, the Galaxy S3 that is launched recently has already made 9 million pre-orders. An unnamed official of Samsung revealed this number to Korea Economic Daily.

However, the estimate of Shin was on the light side as the Galaxy S2 has made a sales of over 20 million units as of February 2012. The Galaxy S3 has made 9 million in less than a month. So, it will definitely surpass the sales of its predecessor. Seems like the manufacturer has a huge winner.

You may wonder what is great about this number of the Android ICS based phone. Interestingly, the pre-order does not include the US market as the handset will not launch there until next month. Once, US is also added, the number will be very impressive. The pre-orders are reported to have come from over 290 mobile operators from over 145 countries across the world. However, Samsung has not commented on this.

It is to be noted that the handset was listed by Amazon Germany some days before its unveiling at the Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2012 Event. The device will enter sales from May 29^th in Europe and will reach India in the first week of June.

Have you pre-ordered the Galaxy S3? Or are you waiting for it to hit the stores? Please do share your opinions through the comments section below.

There are some rumours in air around the expected launch of five camcorder models from Samsung. The camcorders in news were QF20, W300, F80, Q20 and W350. But as of now the availability of two camcorder models are only confirmed. The availability of Samsung QF20 and W300 are finally confirmed and they will hit the US stores soon. 

Key features of Samsung QF20 include the following. 

• Optical zoom of 20x
• Digital zoom of 40x
• CMOS Sensor
• Image sensor size of 0.25 inches
• Auto focus capability
• Still image support
• Effective resolution of 5.3 megapixels
• HDMI out capability
• USB 2.0
• Focal length of 2.6 – 52 mm
• Capacitive touchscreen
• Screen size of 2.7 inches
• SD card support
• Optical Image Stabilization
• OIS Duo

Samsung QF20 will help users to share their picture through famous social networking sites like Facebook, Picasa or else to YouTube even without the help of a computer. Creative Shooting along with easy and comfortable usage is guaranteed by Samsung QF20. Problems like motion blur are reduced with the feature of OIS Duo. High quality CMOS Sensor with this camera helps to output pictures with good clarity and colour. 

Advanced wireless features can be utilized by users while using Samsung QF20. With the help of Samsung TV Link feature which is integrated, users can connect the camcorder to a TV or else to various players. It also features Samsung’s AllShare technology that makes content sharing with other devices easy. They can also back up their data by connecting to a computer. 

Key features of a Samsung W300 include the following. 

• Dust proof
• 15-foot waterproofing
• 6-foot shock proofing
• CMOS sensor
• Effective resolution of 5 megapixels
• Screen size of 2.7 inches
• Focal length of 29.6 mm
• SD card support
• Video out capability
• USB support

Samsung W300 will be available in a pocket friendly format for use convenience. This multi-proof camcorder supports several shooting conditions. Creative editing features without the need of computer are made possible with the help of this new Samsung camcorder. They can also make use of the popular features like Smart Background Music 2.0 and My Clip. 

Samsung W300 will be available in Black, Yellow and also Red colours. Samsung QF20 will be available in black colour. This new Samsung camcorder can be purchased at a price of around Rs.18,000/-. 

Samsung W300 can be purchased at a price of slightly more than Rs.8,000/-. No details concerning the launch of other three models are out yet. Samsung consumers can expect for a quick launch of the other three camcorders too. 

Slide.ly is a new app that helps in creating slideshows by uploading and pulling photos from Flickr, Instagram as well as Facebook. This app also allows users to share the slideshows with others as well as add music to spice up the slideshow. The app is still in its initial stages. A fully loaded version of this app will be released soon.

Working

The working of the app is very simple and user-friendly.

• Once you sign up for Slide.ly, you will be provided with almost 100 exclusive invites
• By means of using this app, you will be able to connect all your accounts where you have uploaded photos
• You can see other’s slideshows too
• The visual experience is quite impressive for anyone who takes a first look at this app
• Once you have connected to your accounts, you will then have to click on the photos that you would like to add in to your slide show

There are certain limits of the photos that you can select for the creation of slideshows. You will only be able to choose a maximum of three photos from the popular Instagram followed by almost a whopping ten photos from Flickr. And of course, five photos from Facebook. You will be also able to upload a few from your own desktop also. This is for 1 slideshow.

It does not matter from which source the photos has been taken from, it will all be grouped in to one as a single video based slideshow.

• You can select the photos and can drag them in the order you wish to place them

One of the interesting features that the site provides is the presence of music that can be added to the slideshow to provide all users who are watching the slideshow with much more fun and entertainment. A birthday song playing at the background of photos taken at your kid’s birthday would make the slideshow much lively. The music can be added by means of using the YouTube videos as well as SoundCloud Music. Both these features are available within the Slide.ly site.

Once the music has been added, you can also add more effects to make the slideshow more interesting and funny.

Conclusion

Users can embed the slideshow on their own site or they can also share it on Twitter, Google+ as well as Facebook with just the tapping of a button. Thus the Slide.ly app provides a nice package for the users who wish to create their own slideshow and sharing it with others.

A new version of the Firefox browser for the Android devices is launched. This gets the Adobe Flash support. The Firefox 14 browser is currently in the beta stage and it has undergone many performance and compatibility tweaks for the mobile devices.

The older versions of the browser does not have the Flash support. Flash is a famous protocol for video streaming and web based applications. The new version also has a brand new design that offers a better user experience. The enhanced user interface enables faster access to the features.

The start page is completely redesigned and the plugins are available only on demand. Say if you want a java plugin on a page, it will not load automatically. You will have to tap on it to enable the plugin. The update for the Firefox adds great optimizations for the HTML 5 content. This way, the application developers can make use of the new optimization to improve the app integration with the web browser.

With the version 14 of the browser, you can test the latest performance, security enhancements, customization and more before downloading it as it is in the beta stage. This will help Mozilla to come to a conclusion about the features and functionality of the browser. This way, Mozilla can refine and polish the new features added to the mobile browser.

The latest version of the Firefox mobile browser supports all the devices that are powered by the Android 2.2 Froyo and above. The Firefox Beta app can be downloaded from the Google Play Store.

 Acer comes up with a new notebook Travelmate P243 that is powered by Ivy Bridge processors. This light weight laptop with 14 inch display screen is ideal for travel purposes as the name suggests.

Intel Turbo Boost Technology is the highlight of this new Acer laptop, Travelmate P243. It can adapt to user needs delivering faster performance along with boosting productivity. Apart from having all these features, this notebook is energy efficient as well. Enhanced multimedia creation is guaranteed with the assistance of built-in capabilities. Users have the option to go for Nvidia GeForce graphics unit too. 

Good visual performance is also assured by this notebook which delivers richer colour, sharper images and also life-like images along with HD audio and video play back options. Robust security solutions are also offered by this Travelmate to protect the user documents. It ensures security with the help of Acer ProShield Security along with integrated manageability tools. 

Acer Travelmate P243 is made an ideal system for professionals with Acer Office Manager (AOM) feature which enables options like deploy security policies, schedule maintenance tasks and also monitor IT assets. Longer battery life is yet another good feature with this Acer notebook. 

Acer Travelmate P243 can be purchased at an affordable price of around Rs. 30,000/-. The exact release time of this new Acer travel mate is not out as of now. It will be first hitting the UK market and there is no news concerning its availability outside UK as of now. This Acer laptop will be a good choice with its fast processing, reliability and also efficiency. An optimal user experience is assured whether users are at home or on travels. This is a good addition to their popular Travelmate series.

Whenever Apple announces a new product, the company will obtain a domain name resembling the name of the product. Previously, Apple was proactive in getting the domains like iPhone.com. However, the brand faced a tough time in getting the iPhone4S.com domain name as it was related to a pornographic site.

In 2012, Apple is bringing the iPhone 5, its sixth generation smartphone. The corresponding domain name, iPhone5.com already exists and it used by the fans of Apple as a forum site. At the beginning of this month, Apple filed a case with WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) as it could be the name of the upcoming iPhone.

Apple has won the case and has secured the iPhone5.com domain name. Following the complaint, WIPO has terminated the website with that domain name. But this not does not give any clue to the name of the flagship smartphone of the company. Apple may not use the domain though it has gained access to it.

The company aimed at gaining the name in order to prevent fans from entering pornographic or malicious websites by typing the name of its products in the browser. It might have secured the domain to prevent the users from logging in to different sites by typing the product name.

As per the rumors, the iPhone 5 or the new iPhone will be launched in September 2012. Apple is hosting the WWDC event in June and may be it will surprise the consumers by announcing the handset at the event.

Sony consumers will be glad as the Android 4.0 ICS update for Sony Xperia S is confirmed. This Sony smartphone was launched in April in India. The ICS update of this phone is expected to be out most probably by this month end or else by June. Sony has confirmed this news officially and added that there won’t be any delay in the ICS release. They also added that the update will be gradual and won’t happen all of sudden for all phones. 

Consumers using Sony Xperia S can expect increased performance and more applications with the ICS update. Sony Xperia S is said to be the first smartphone to come up with an independent Sony logo. It is also the 2^nd officially certified PlayStation gadget to get the logo, the first one being Sony Ericsson Xperia Play. The Xperia S phone will have easy access to Sony PlayStation store including all gaming and also multimedia features. 

The device is currently running the Android Gingerbread operating system. The handset faced many questions as it came up with Android Gingerbread when it was launched. Consumers were eagerly waiting for this ICS update for some time. Company is planning to roll out the new ICS update through PC Companion software and also as OTA. 

There is however no information from official sources on new features coming up in Sony Xperia S due to ICS OS upgrade. 

Key features of Sony Xperia S include the following. 

• Display screen of 4.3 inch
• Display resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels
• 1 GB of RAM
• 1.5 GHz dual core Snapdragon MSM 8206 processor
• 12 megapixel camera
• HD video recording
• Sony’s Exmor sensor technology
• 3G features
• WiFi capability
• Full Bluetooth connectivity
• NFC capability

Sony Xperia S has already won a unique place among handset lovers. With the addition of ICS operating system, this Sony handset is sure to deliver a new level of mobile experience. There were rumours concerning the availability of ICS update in this popular Sony handset for some time. 

But now consumers can be sure about the Android ICS upgrade as it is officially confirmed. Sony Xperia S owners have to wait only for a short period of time to get experience with the most advanced ICS operating system. Its stylish appearance and powerful processing will be enhanced when it incorporates the latest Android 4.0 Ice Cream sandwich operating system.

Spice, the Indian handset manufacturer has announced that it will launch the first Secure Android handset in the country. It is reported to launch three Android smartphones with added security features like anti-theft and antivirus software, said a spokesperson of Spice.

He added that the new smartphones will be powered by the Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system. These will be upgradeable to the Android 4.0 ICS soon after the launch. These phones will come with the useful security software like anti-theft and anitvirus. These phones will make the devices secure and safe from the potential threat faced by the data in smartphones.

The smartphone users are exposed to several threats that can interrupt the operation of the device. The device can transmit and modify the user data. It is stated that there are over six hundred types of smartphone viruses approximately. The number of smartphone users is also increasing steeply across the world. So the implementation of these software is really useful.

The first secure Android phone of Spice will be launched in the next two weeks. The antivirus feature will offer real time protection from the internet threats an users can set schedule regular scans. These phones will also have other features like anti-theft software and vault privacy lock for videos, photos, call logs, secret contacts and messages.

Recently, it was reported that Spice is planning to launch five Android 4.0 ICS powered phones. The brand has also announced the FLO TV M 5600 phone with the Live TV feature. The company is trying making a stir in the smartphone market with constant innovations.