Samsung Galaxy Skin: Flexible Android Smartphone For Masses

This Smartphone can be folded. It can be beaten to pulp with a hammer but it will survive the hardest blows. No we are not talking about a phone from the latest James Bond. In fact we are talking about Samsung's new smartphone called 'Skin'.

Certain reports in the online world state that Samsung's futuristic foldable Android smartphone will be available in the consumer market in the first quarter of 2012. The first news of the Samsung Skin as a concept was reported by International Business Times.

This phone has a 1.2 GHz processor, high-resolution AMOLED screen, 8MP camera, 1GB of RAM and will run the latest Android. The technology relies on atom-thick layers of 'graphene' sandwiched together, protecting a layer of liquid crystal 'screen'.

"AMOLED is already the mobile screen technology to beat, so if it's as good as promised, flexible AMOLED could put an end to smashed smartphone displays and tablets, which are even more fragile," Will Findlater, editor of Stuff magazine, told the Daily Mail which first reported the story about the phone being available in spring 2012.
This is indeed interesting technology and we are intrigued about how the retail device will perform. Keep reading this space for more updates.

Apple iPhone 5 Details to Emerge on October 4

Apple has sent out invitations to an event on October 4 when the iPhone 5 announcement is expected. The event will be held at Apple’s Cupertino campus at 10am PT, and invite simply says “Let’s talk iPhone”, along with four iOS icons depicting the date, time and location of the venue.

The October 4 date was first tipped last week by All Things D's John Paczkowski, who reported that fresh Apple CEO Tim Cook would be hosting the iPhone 5 announcement after he took over the top job following Steve Jobs' resignation in August.
The iPhone 5 has been the subject of much speculation in recent months, after Apple didn’t stick to its traditional iPhone release schedule in the summer. There is very little known about the upcoming device, besides sure-fire speculation that it would feature the dual-core processor found on the iPad 2 and a higher resolution camera.
Pundits don't seem to agree on whether Apple will launch two iPhone models this autumn. Some reports claim the new iPhone will be very similar to the iphone 4, but with bumped specs, while other expect a wholly refreshed iPhone with a larger screen and an even thinner profile.
Apple's next version of iOS – iOS5, which powers iPhones, iPads and iPod touches, has been in limited beta since this summer, and a final version of the software should also be unveiled at the October 4 event.

What You Need to Know About Windows Phone "Mango"

I was fortunate to sit down this morning with Microsoft's Paul Bryan, Windows Phone senior director of product management and enterprise experiences, to discuss the new software at the company's offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts. And I learned quite a few facts that anyone interested in WP7.5 should know.

1) The brand new software is no longer called "Mango". That term was an internal codename used during development, and the official name of Microsoft's latest mobile OS is Windows Phone 7.5 (WP7.5)
2) Windows Phone 7.5 is expected to become available on all current Windows Phone devices. There are no new hardware requirements to run the latest OS, though newer devices will be able to take advantage of new software enhancements that will be unavailable on some existing WP7 devices. And all current Windows Phone 7 apps are compatible with WP7.5
3) Microsoft has posted a website that lets you check to see when the Windows Phone 7 software update will be available for your device and/or wireless carrier. The WP7.5 update will be distributed via the Microsoft Zune service and you'll need to tether your device to a PC to download it; the update will not be available wirelessly.
4) The software update includes more than 500 new features and enhancements, many of which are designed to consolidate and integrate various messaging services and provide users with a more unified messaging, social networking and Web experience, according to Bryan.
5) You can now tie contacts' Twitter and LinkedIn accounts to their address book listings, so all communications with those contacts via the two popular social networking services are available in one central location, along with text and e-mail messages.
6) All Windows Phone 7.5 devices will run Microsoft's latest mobile browser, Internet Explorer (IE9), which supports HTML 5 for advanced Web apps and HD video streaming.
7) A new "Bing Vision" app lets you scan QR codes and Microsoft "Tags" to instantly access online information, and the app also has a cool new feature that lets you scan the covers of books to quickly access information on the book, such as author, price, reviews and more. This ability to scan random book covers opens up a new set of possibilities for image scanning in the future via Bing Vision.
8) A new "App Connect" feature for Windows Phone 7.5 developers lets them create complex applications that can be tied to various additional phone functions, including search results, so if a user queries a specific term that's related to an app, he could see that application, or a part of that app, recommended as a result.
App Connect also let developers serve up "richer" content via "live tiles," which users can pin to their home screens to customize their UI experiences. For example, a user who's interested in the new Brad Pitt film, "Moneyball," could not only pin a tile for the Flixster movie application, they could pin a "Moneyball"-specific tile to their home screen for movie information, including reviews, etc., via the Flixster app. (Learn more on the Windows Phone Developer blog)
9) Windows Phone 7 supports both visual voicemail and mobile hotspot, though it will be up to the wireless carriers that sell the device to decided whether or not to enable the features, and/or to charge additional fees for them.
10) Three new hardware manufactures have signed on to build Windows Phone 7.5 devices, including ZTE, Acer and Fujitsu -- HTC, Samsung, Dell and Nokia are also Windows Phone partners.

Mozilla Firefox 7 Released, with Good Reasons To Upgrade

Six weeks to the day after the official release of Firefox 6, Mozilla on Tuesday rolled out Firefox 7, the next version of its popular Web browser for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android users. The new release comes as part of the rapid release schedule Mozilla implemented for Firefox earlier this year, by which users are offered upgrades every six weeks.

Business users who want less-frequent updates will soon have a slower alternative schedule. The first such enterprise-focused Extended Support Release (ESR) version of desktop Firefox is expected to be based on Firefox 8 or 9 later this year.
In the meantime, there are plenty of reasons to make the switch to this newest version, which is now available as a free download. Many of them, in fact, boil down to one key thing: faster speed.

1. Memory ManagementEver since Firefox 7 entered the Aurora channel back in July, its primary focus has been speedier performance and better use of memory, and that emphasis is apparent in the software released today.
Firefox 7 manages memory more efficiently than its predecessors did, Mozilla says, for a speedier Web browsing experience. "Users will notice Firefox is faster at opening new tabs, clicking on menu items and buttons on websites," the organization says. "Heavy Internet users will enjoy enhanced performance when lots of tabs are open and during long Web browsing sessions that last hours or even days."
A new Mozilla Hacks blog entry posted today offers several key metrics demonstrating Firefox's new nimbleness.

2. More SpeedNew tools included in Firefox 7, meanwhile, are designed to make it easier for developers to build speedy Web experiences for users. A new version of hardware-accelerated Canvas, for instance, speeds up HTML5 animations and games in the browser, allowing developers to build more compelling and interactive Web experiences.
Firefox now also supports the W3C navigation timing spec API so developers can measure page load time and website navigation against bandwidth speed, website traffic and other factors. This API allows developers to test user experiences remotely and easily so they can quickly optimize websites and Web apps for different types of users.
3. A New Performance ToolFocusing on future speeds, Firefox 7's new Telemetry tool collects performance feedback so as to help Mozilla make future Firefox releases even faster.
"Firefox 7 marks a turning point in how we measure Firefox performance," reads a Mozilla Hacks blog post from this morning on the topic. "Traditionally we measured Firefox performance on individual developer machines and our build & release infrastructure. However it turns out synthetic benchmarks do not correspond to real-world Firefox usage: it is difficult to model a 'typical' computer in a lab environment."
Exceptionally slow consumer hardware, changes in usage patterns and preinstalled "bloatware" can all affect Firefox performance in unexpected ways, the post notes.
The browser's new Telemetry tool will prompt users to opt into reporting performance data to Mozilla. "This data will supplement our existing benchmarking infrastructure to help us optimize future Firefox releases," the post explains. Telemetry performance metrics are very lightweight, however, and will not negatively impact Firefox performance, Mozilla says.

4. Add-On CompatibilityWhen Firefox 6 launched, 97 percent of add-ons compatible with Firefox 5 were still compatible with version 6, according to Mozilla add-ons product manager Justin Scott, who wrote a blog post yesterday on the topic.
Not only that, but "we're on track to launch Firefox 7 tomorrow with 99 percent compatibility from 6," Scott added. With Firefox 8, which will reach beta later this week, compatibility issues should improve even more, he wrote.
Add-on users can also install Firefox's Add-On Compatibility Reporter to flag any problems with the software they use.
5. A Cross-Platform ApproachBy supporting tools like WebSockets across desktop and mobile platforms, Firefox lets developers create faster, seamless Web applications for use on mobile phones, tablets and computers. Firefox also now supports the W3C navigation timing spec API across desktop and mobile platforms, so developers can optimize websites and Web apps for different types of devices, platforms and networks.
A number of features in Firefox for Android, meanwhile, are designed to make it faster to browse the mobile Web, such as the ability to copy any website text and paste it into emails, website forms and SMS messages.

6. Free, as in BeerFirefox is free in more ways than one. First and foremost is that it costs you nothing to install, use or upgrade--a winning feature by most accounts, though certainly not Firefox's only one.

7. Free, as in FreedomPerhaps even more important, though, is that Firefox is open source software and so it doesn't restrict your use of the browser in any way. There's no vendor lock-in, and it's eminently flexible and customizable to your needs. Also significant is that Mozilla is what it calls a public benefit organization, existing not to make money but to make the Web better for everyone.

Amazon Unveils Kindle Fire Tablet

Amazon.com has launched its long awaited Kindle Fire tablet at event held in Manhattan, New York. The device features a 7-inch multi-touch LCD  display (based on Gorilla Glass technology for extra protection), 8GB of storage, built in Wi-Fi connectivity, a 1GHz dual-core Texas Instruments' OMAP (Open Multimedia Application Processor), and weighs in at around 413 grams. The Amazon Kindle Fire tablet will also feature the Amazon Silk - a "cloud-accelerated" web browser that will reportedly make browsing faster.

The tablet, which runs on Google's Android OS, will cost $199 (~Rs. 9734), almost $300 cheaper than Apple's cheapest iPad, which starts at $499 (~Rs. 24,408) - However the Amazon Fire tablet doesn't feature 3G connectivity, and an in-built microphone and camera are also absent. The Kindle Fire tablet will ship from November15 onwards and is currently available for pre-order from their site (US only).
While it has been claimed that the Kindle Fire will pose a competitive threat to Apple's iPad, it might be more likely that it will compete with other Android devices such as those from Samsung, Motorola, RIM, and other tablet manufacturers. The Kindle Fire will have a distinct advantage over the other Android tablets , given that Amazon - the world's largest online retailer - unlike most other Android tablet makers, is a content and e-commerce enabler. In other words, with Amazon's ability to provide integrated access to content on it's site such as it's collection of 100,000 movies and TV shows, 17 million songs, apps, millions of books and full-color magazines, other manufacturers will find it very hard to compete with Amazon on services, entertainment and cloud offerings.
In addition to the Kindle Fire, Amazon also launched three new Kindle models - the Kindle Touch, Kindle Touch 3G and Kindle e-reader that retail for $99 (~Rs. 4843), $149 (~Rs. 7289) and $79 (~Rs. 3864) respectively.

Four iPhone 5 Predictions

Apple will put an end to the rumors and introduce its next iPhone on October 4--it's already sent out invitations to an iPhone-specific event that will be held at Apple's Cupertino campus. New Apple CEO Tim Cook is expected to take the stage and make the big announcement.

This means we've got just one more week for some good, old-fashioned speculation. Here's what I think we'll see at Apple's upcoming iPhone event:
Prediction #1: The New iPhone Will Look Different
Depending on which story you're reading, the next iPhone will either have a completely new design or be exactly the same, aesthetically, as the iPhone 4.
In other words, Apple has managed to keep the tech press guessing. But considering that Apple has gone 16 months without announcing a new iPhone, I would be surprised if the iPhone 5's design offers nothing new.
Prediction #2: Hardware Will be New, but Predictable
The iPhone 4 had a new design, but it didn't surprise us with its specs--it received the same A4 chip as the iPad. Following the same lines, I think the next iPhone will have the same dual-core A5 chip that debuted in the iPad 2.
I think we can probably look forward to a new camera--not only do rumors suggest that the next iPhone will have an 8MP camera, but Apple has a history of improving the iPhone's camera with each generation. To go with the new chip and camera, the next iPhone will also probably have 1GB of RAM--but Apple probably won't say much about this. After all, Apple doesn't usually spend a lot of time discussing specs.
Prediction #3: Hardware Isn't Everything
Rumor has it that the next iPhone will have software improvements, including expanded voice commands. The new voice commands--part of a feature reportedly called Assistant--are based on Siri, the virtual assistant software maker that Apple acquired last year.
This system-wide voice navigation system could be a standout feature that's exclusive to the iPhone 5, and a big focus at next Tuesday's event. Apple did make voice commands exclusive to the iPhone 3GS in 2009, so requiring an iPhone 5 for expanded voice commands isn't without precedent.
Bonus prediction: The event invitation includes a photo of the iPhone's maps application icon, which has me wondering if Apple will finally add turn-by-turn directions.

Prediction #4: A Cheaper iPhone
The use of the singular in the invitation ("Let's talk iPhone") has led pundits such as John Gruber to speculate that Apple will only launch one new iPhone, despite rumors to the contrary.
While Apple may not launch an iPhone 4S, it will still drop the price on its old iPhones as it has in the past. Low-cost, older-generation iPhones have proven to be very successful, and are one of the reasons AT&T far outpaced Verizon in sales in the second quarter, despite Verizon having the iPhone 4. I doubt Apple will give up that market.

Facebook to Enrich Mobile With HTML5

Facebook has an internal tool for developing mobile applications primarily using HTML5, which eventually should allow it to bring every feature of its Web platform onto mobile devices.

Facebook used the tool, internally called Faceweb, to introduce continuous News Feed updates to mobile devices last week, said Erick Tseng, head of mobile products at Facebook. The company hopes to have conjoined launches of feature updates on both mobile applications and the Web, he said at the Mobilize conference in San Francisco.
"The reason we're so excited about Faceweb is because by using HTML5 instead of all native development ... it allows us to actually keep pace with desktop features," Tseng said. HTML5 is a standard Web development language that can bring many capabilities of native apps, including offline operation, to the Web.
Facebook considers itself not a social network but a platform that can be pervasive throughout a user's mobile experience, Tseng said. Device makers including HTC and Sony Ericsson have already used Facebook APIs (application programming interfaces) to integrate Facebook functions deep in Android phones. This lets users plug into the "social graph" of the platform without even consciously going into a Facebook app or logging in. "That's a platform," Tseng said.
One new feature headed to mobile devices is Ticker, the real-time stream of friends' posts that appears in the corner of the Web browser. Ticker is especially well-suited to mobile because users can quickly check up on what's happening when they briefly have time, such as at a bus stop, Tseng said.
However, Tseng said he couldn't comment on whether Facebook will be integrated into Apple iOS 5, the new operating system coming in the iPhone 5, which is expected to debut next week. Apple disclosed earlier this year that the OS will include Twitter integration.
"I think it would be a great combination. Hope to see it soon," Tseng said. Tseng also declined to comment on when an expected Facebook app for the iPad will come out.