Behold the Samsung SIV
As we know Samsung doing extremely well on Smart phones with the help of Android. Some even say that Samsung brand started to shadow the Android brand. Recently the Samsung SIII has been announced as the best smart phone after beating Apple iPhone family.
Now the hot news in industry is that, Samsung is preparing for a new device in their flagship S series. Yes, Samsung will release SIV on coming March 14.
SIV – Samsung invite
You can see more pics of the invite sent to popular media groups and press.
Google’s Galaxy Nexus a Failed Product?
So far Google has launched 3 mobile phones powered by Android. All phones came with “Nexus” tag. First one was Google Nexus One which is manufactured by HTC. One of the most hyped phone in terms of sales, it didn’t do well. Later Google launched another phone named Google Nexus One manufactured by the leader Samsung itself. Again it is a commercial failure for Google though the Android ecosystem is picking on Apple’s iPhone market.
Later with the introduction of ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich), Google launched another mobile phone named Google Samsung Galaxy Nexus. The phone is powered by Google pure Android OS and was having an awesome design. Once again it was hyped that this phone will pick up on sales and might over take some of the Samsung’s phones.
Galaxy Nexus
The sales figures remained gray till now. Now the Samsung reveals the sales figures due to the case filled in Court against the Galaxy Nexus.
Samsung says
Samsung reported specifically that $250 million worth of Galaxy Nexus devices were sold in its first two quarters on the market. Quinn relayed, “This is a product that, at most, captured 0.5 percent of the market.
So once again Google phone is not a commercial success though it has had more sales compare to old models. 0.5 percent of market share again is a big number but very small if you compare it with Samsung’s flagship phones such as SII, SIII.
I’m sure Google achieved what they want to do with the Nexus devices. It was just to show the potential of the Android OS.
Windows Phone Developers are Accepted from Sri Lanka
All these days Windows Phone Developers from Sri Lanka had no way of submitting apps directly to the Windows Appstore. We have to go through third party app companies such as Yalla Apps to resolve this issue.
But from today Microsoft is accepting developers directly from Sri Lanka to submit apps. Good news for Windows Phone developers in Sri Lanka.
Annual fee of $99 will be deducted from your account so make sure you make hell of an application to recover the money u put in 
. You can join the program here. I hope Google will follow the paths of Microsoft and will allow developers to sell applications from Sri Lanka.
Good Luck Windows Phone Devs in Lanka.
No More YouTube for iOS
As you know IOS 6 developer preview is being released incrementally for developers only. IOS6 is getting closer to the release date. If you are a developer then you can easily update the device OS by going Settings > General > Software Update.
If you are a Jail broke iPhone user then you got to wait for a while as there won’t be any updates for Jail broken phones until the public release is made available.
Most of the developers noticing something with the latest iOS6 beta 4 update. Yep, YouTube app is no longer available in the home screen of the iPhone. It is removed from the default app section. As we know already Google Maps is removed and being replaced by Apple’s own tailor made maps application.
Apple says NO to YouTube
Still users will be able to download the YouTube app from iTunes. But that’s kind of hurts rite?? If you are still disappointed then you can make a shortcut on the desktop http://m.youtube.com
As the battle with the Android gets nastier, Apple intends to cut off the relations and dependencies on Google. I hope next is Google search. Will they ever remove Google search and replace it with Bing or Yahoo?? Only time will answer the question.
Review : MOTOROLA RAZR-XT910
I was given Motorola Razr by Etisalat Sri Lanka for about a week for the purpose of reviewing it. As usual the video review is short and I didn’t get to speak much really what I felt it about. Here I’m sharing my personal views on the device. Be warned, this is not a professional review. Please google for more professional reviews. This is just going to be an amateur review anyway.
Video Review
You may see me after 3:00
Power House
Believe me or not, this device is a powerhouse. I’ve played many games (both paid and free) on this device downloaded from Play Store and they all worked without any issues. It was a smooth and sleek experience. Even applications such as Instragram was such a pleasant experience.
Unlike most of the Android devices, you won’t be able to remove the battery as it is fixed with the phone (More like iPhone). But throughout the one week, it never got stuck so I don’t think there will be a need to remove the battery to hard reset the phone.
It also incorporates an awesome AMOLED display which means bright colourful display even under bright sunlight you would be able to see the screen.
Camera
Camera that comes with the device is really awesome. It has 8MP camera and you can shoot HD video with 1080p resolution. What else you want??
The stock camera application is cool and has so many controls and options but when the photo is taken it fails to show proper preview. bit of a bizzerk was there. It didn’t really convince me. Other than that I like the camera of the device.
As I said earlier photo editing, sharing applications are working so smooth on it and it gives us a pleasant experience.
Micro SIM
When I got the device from Etisalat, I brought it home and was trying to place my SIM into it. It really didn’t fix in the SIM tray. After a simple Google search I realized, it supports Micro SIM. You may have heard of Micro SIM already as it is very popular among Apple devices such as iPhone and iPad. As far as I know this is the first Android device to use it, and I’m not very happy about it.
If you are someone who gonna switch between devices then Micro SIM can be a pain. I know you can use SIM tray and all but still it just makes the experience worse.
Multimedia
This device provides you pleasant multimedia experience. I was listening to some songs and it was just awesome. True, it’s not as good as you listen on iPod but still it’s just awesome.
Built in YouTube application enables you to stream YouTube videos instantly without any hassle. All in all it gives a pleasant experience for music / video fanatics
Local Language Support
This is one of the devices which doesn’t support both Tamil and Sinhala. My mid-range Android phone Samsung Ace, do supports Tamil. So bad they don’t bother much about supporting local languages.
Plans from Etisalat
This sums up my humble review. Those who are willing to buy the device can buy it from Etisalat or from the shop near you.
Tablet Prices in Sri Lanka
As we know electronic gadget prices are crazy in Sri Lanka. Most of the time prices are very much higher than any other countries in the world. These days Tablets are catching up as they are more convenient than Note Book. Tablets are no exception. Prices are too crazy in Sri Lanka. I started to look out for tablets and collected price details. Thought of sharing with rest of the people in Sri Lanka as there are already several people doing the same and it would ease their work.
When it comes to tablets we have 2 main camps
- iPad
- Android Tablets
iPad
iPad devices are state of art expensive over priced items. At least that’s how most of the Apple products are being sold. There 2 version of iPad available in the market (beside iPad1 and iPad2).
1. With wifi
2. With wifi and 3G
iPad devices are usually priced above 110,000. You can check cellular lanka, for more information
Android Tablets
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1
There are mostly two sizes of Androd Tablets are available. 7 inches and 10.1 Inches. To get the real feel of Tablet I’d suggest anyone to go for 10.1 Inches. 7 inches tablet is more like a large screen phone. At least that’s what I feel.
Just like Android phones, there are variety of Android Tablets available in the market. If you are looking for a high end sleek Tablet as better as iPad then I’d suggest you go to for Motorola Xoom or Samsung Tab 10.1. Since Google bought Motorola I hope there will be constant firmware updates available to Xoom.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 7 inches price is around 60,000 LKR and 10.1 inches is around 95,000 LKR
Recently Etisalat featured a Huawei Android Tablet. The cost of the tablet is around 25,000 and with all the commitments you have to make it’ll costs you around 30,000 LKR. But it’ll not be as good as Samsung Galaxy Tab. Obviously you can see the price difference.
Alternatively you can go for a cheap Android Tablet available in Ebay. It’d cost around 15,000 LKR with custom taxes. But the quality would be very cheap. You won’t be able to run high end applications such as Games. Even Angry Birds won’t work properly in these devices. But for reading documents etc you can use this tables.
This article is only a heads up to you. You need to explore more into the type of Tablet you are anticipating to own. Use google and search specific to the tablet you are expecting to buy and decide your buy. Good luck.
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