Nokia X Android phone

Nokia X'sold out' within four minutes at Chinese retailer

Nokia's first Android smartphone, the Nokia X became sold out immediately in China, according to some reports citing an online retailer.

Windows Phone Central in a report has cited a Chinese e-commerce website named JD.com and claimed that the Nokia X was sold out four minutes after online reservations opened. Pre-orders for the Nokia X launched at 10:00AM on Monday (24 March 2014) in China.

Lumia UPDATEZ

Lumia Black update finally arrives on Nokia Lumia 620 in India

After a long wait, Lumia 620 users in India have a reason to rejoice. The Lumia Black update, which has been available for other Windows Phone 8 devices running Lumia smartphones in the country for a while, has now finally arrived on Lumia 620 as well.

For a refresher, the Lumia Black update brings several enticing new features to Windows Phone running on Nokia devices. App Folder, Bluetooth LE, Nokia Beamer, Nokia Refocus, Glance screen, locking screen rotation are some of them. But depending on the hardware capability, some of these features might not work on Lumia 620.

You can snag the update by going to Settings > Phone Update and hitting the “check for updates” button. With Lumia 620, all the Windows Phone 8 Lumia smartphones have now gotten the Lumia Black update. Meanwhile, many places in Asia, including Taiwan, China, Cambodia, and Hong Kong are yet to receive the Black update on their Lumia 620 smartphones.

5 best Holi offers on Nokia smartphones

Nokia delivers great value for money with its range of Windows smartphones; KYMI picks the 5 best deals on Nokia phones this Holi

Holi is just around the corner and smartphones make a great gift for your loved ones. Nokia has been a trustworthy brand name in India for a long time and it is difficult to go wrong by picking a Nokia phone. We select the best deals that Nokia has to offer this festive season:

1. Nokia Lumia 525

The successor to the hugely popular Lumia 520, the Lumia 525 is probably the best buy in its price range. Equipped with a 1 GHz dual core processor paired with 1 GB of RAM, the smartphone runs the latest Windows 8 OS. The 4-inch is display is quite crisp with a vibrant color range

Price: Rs. 9,155 on ShopClues with 2% cashback in form of store credits

2. Nokia Lumia 1520

If you are in the market for a phablet, the Nokia Lumia 1520 is a terrific option. The 6 inch screen sports a Full HD resolution. The smartphone is one of the best built phablets in the market and the whole package is powered by the powerful Snapdragon 800 processor clocked at 2.2 GHz.

Price: Rs. 38,991 on Snapdeal with 10% cashback for American Express card holders

3. Nokia X

Nokia’s current hottest smartphone belongs to the low-range category. The Nokia X marks the company’s foray into Android and caters to people looking for a phone on a budget. The Nokia X comes with a 4-inch screen and runs on a Snapdragon dual-core processor. The dual-SIM smartphone comes with a 3-megapixel camera on the back. While the phone does run AOSP Android, it is stripped of Google services. The wide app catalogue of the Play Store can be enjoyed on the Nokia X which remains the chief shortcoming of Windows Phone platform.

Price: Rs 8,199 on Infibeam with free shipping

4. Nokia Lumia 1320

If you prefer a phablet that would not burn a hole in your pocket, the Lumia 1320 is the way to go. Featuring a 6-inch screen, the smartphone is powered by a 1.7 GHz dual-core processor along with 1 GB of RAM. With a reasonable price tag and Nokia’s solid build quality, the Lumia 1320 makes a strong case to get your money.

Price: Rs. 20,195 on Flipkart with 10% cashback for Axis bank credit and debit card holders

5. Nokia Lumia 1020

If you are looking for a phone that can seriously perform as a camera, the search stops here. The Nokia Lumia 1020 is Nokia’s flagship camera phone featuring a mammoth 41 megapixel camera with the acclaimed PureView technology. It comes with a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor coupled with 2 GB of RAM. Featuring a great camera app and a host of features that let you play with your images after clicking them, the Lumia 1020 has one of the best phone cameras.

Price: Rs. 36, 699 on Snapdeal with 10% cashback for American Express card holders

Ubuntu phones to sell for $200 to $400, is this the right strategy?

Canonical's founder Mark Shuttleworth is one person in the tech world who it seems always has something interesting to say, and today he was at the CeBIT computer expo in Germany, where he definitely had a few good words about the plans for Ubuntu Touch. Shuttleworth talked about the potential price points, and the intended user base, but we have to wonder if the strategy is sound.

Shuttleworth and company have never been shy about aiming high with Ubuntu Touch. The team has always been clear that it wants to see Ubuntu Touch running on high-end hardware, even though it would be usable on lower-end hardware. We all saw the spectacular failure that was the Ubuntu Edge, which could have been any smartphone enthusiast's dream, but unfortunately it couldn't generate the funding needed to make it a reality (though, it should be noted that the fundraising certainly proved the market for such a device, which is likely an argument that Canonical has used when speaking to potential hardware partners.)

At CeBIT today, Shuttleworth also said that Canonical is not aiming to convert iPhone users, who more often have an "emotional attachment to the Apple ecosystem", but rather will be aiming at Android users. Shuttleworth says that non-Apple systems don't tend to have the same "emotional attachment", but there is also a need in that space for a platform that is easy to use, which he says is not something that you would find with Android. In the end, Shuttleworth clarified the target market for Ubuntu, saying that handsets will be selling in the "mid-higher edge, so $200 to $400". The reasoning for this maybe a bit more telling though, as Shuttleworth went on to say:

We're going with the higher end because we want people who are looking for a very sharp, beautiful experience and because our ambition is to be selling the future PC, the future personal computing engine.

This is very interesting, because it points to the marketing strategy for Ubuntu, but it is a somewhat controversial strategy. Consider these two points: 

1. The high-end smartphone market is becoming saturated, meaning the growth potential is in the low-end. 
2. The PC market is shrinking.

We've seen it in plenty of areas and with quite a few manufacturers: aiming at the high-end doesn't really work with smartphones. HTC nearly ran itself out of business by abandoning the mid and low-end markets before deciding this year to re-enter those spaces. Windows Phone has been showing great growth numbers over the past year, but almost all of that movement comes in the low-end market. Even Samsung relies heavily on a myriad of low-end smartphones released around the world in order to maintain the revenue that it has in the mobile sphere. Only Apple has been successful in the smartphone market without a true low-end option (aside from re-releasing three and a half year old hardware for emerging markets, which doesn't really count given its price tag.) 

But, that's the trick with Ubuntu. Canonical isn't really aiming at the smartphone market, it seems. As Shuttleworth said, Canonical wants "to be selling the future PC". This of course brings us to the second point, which is that the PC market isn't really any better than focusing on the high-end smartphone market, and it could be even worse in the end. PC sales are down almost across the board (once again, Apple is the outlier). The general thinking is that mobile devices like smartphones and tablets are eating away at the PC market, but that doesn't mean that mobile devices are necessarily replacing traditional PCs. However, that is exactly what Canonical wants to do with Ubuntu. 

A convergent opportunity? 

While many users have found that tablets are good enough for the majority of computing uses (checking e-mail, browsing the web, consuming content, and some light gaming), there are also some users who still need a traditional PC for a variety of uses (mostly more advanced things like photo/video editing, or more hardcore gaming). The first group greatly outnumbers the second, but the second group is far more outspoken (as you will see in most Internet message boards and comment threads). The question is whether Ubuntu will be able to fill the needs of both groups, because while the more tech advanced may be the minority, they hold a lot of power because they are often giving advice or flat out making the decisions for the more casual computing group. 

Software

This is important for a couple of reasons. First, Ubuntu is a Linux system, which still has the reputation for being less user friendly than options like Windows or Mac/iOS. Android has been by far the most successful Linux-based system, but Android doesn't yet have a presence on traditional PCs (though that is supposedly on the way). Casual users will need fears of switching to be soothed in order for Ubuntu to see more mass adoption. A big part of this will be in software, and by that we don't necessarily mean the OS software, but rather the apps and games available. 

Unfortunately, this has traditionally been a weak point for Linux distributions. While Linux has always offered a substantial selection of quality apps, it doesn't have the brands that people are used to seeing. There is no Microsoft Office, no Photoshop, and no iTunes. Instead, you'll find OpenOffice, GIMP, and Rythmbox or Banshee. This shouldn't necessarily be that big a deal, but it usually is. It was the same issue that Android faced in its early days, and the issue that Windows Phone is currently facing - the apps are there and they are good quality, but they are off-brand. 

The other issue is in games, which has always been seen as the weakest point of the Linux platform. But, Canonical has been working extremely hard to fix that by working with Valve to bring Steam to Debian distros of Linux, like Ubuntu. So far, over 2000 games on Steam have been ported to Linux, and the number continues to grow. Plus, Valve's own Steam Box console initiative is based on Linux, so there is a pretty big name in PC gaming trying to push forward the platform.

However, these are games designed for desktop play with either a controller or mouse and keyboard, not mobile-optimized games for use on a touchscreen. Theoretically, once the games have been ported, optimizing for touch is relatively easy, but that doesn't mean that we'll be seeing Angry Birds, QuizUp, or Candy Crush on Ubuntu any time soon. It is very likely that Ubuntu could get caught in that same vicious cycle as so many other platforms where it can't attract users because there aren't enough games and apps, but it can't attract app and game developers because there aren't enough users. 

Shuttleworth repeated a promise today to have the best apps available for Ubuntu, but that's one of those promises that rings hollow until it is seen fulfilled. 

Samsung's 'failure' made Google feel comfortable selling Motorola

Ever since Samsung became the dominant Android phone company, people have predicted that eventually Samsung would "fork" Android. "It's not a matter of if, just when," one source in the industry told us two years ago. 

Forking Android would be like what Amazon has done with Android. Samsung would rip out all of Google's core apps and replace it with its own set of applications. It would add its own user interface layer making Android look unique to Samsung. 

It wasn't just mobile industry sources who were worried about Samsung forking Android. 

Executives at Google talked openly about Samsung gaining too much power over Android, Amir Efrati at The Information reports. He says this was part of the reason Google bought Motorola in a deal valued at $12.5 billion. It wanted leverage over Samsung. 

Two years ago, the fear of Samsung forking Android made perfect sense. Samsung was the dominant Android phone company, but it looked like its future was uncertain. Samsung's success wasn't well understood, and people thought it could be dethroned by another Android phone company. 

By creating its own version of Android, Samsung could stand out from the crowded field of Android phone makers. It would totally control its users just like Apple totally controls its iOS users. 

For Google, this would have been a disaster. It would effectively lose control of its platform. 

Samsung never did fork Android. It looks increasingly unlikely that it ever will fork Android. 

Samsung may be very talented at quickly manufacturing hardware products, but it is no good at making software and applications (Walt Mossberg called the S4 "weak" and "gimmicky"). Therefore, it would be taking a huge risk by ditching the well-liked, and highly successful, Android platform for a platform of its own. 

This is part of the reason Google felt comfortable selling Motorola. It didn't need leverage against Samsung since Samsung failed to put any pressure on Google.

3D printing in color with Photoshop CC

3D printing is one of the most powerful new tools in the arsenal of many creatives, so it was only a matter of time before Adobe added support for it to Photoshop. You can get a sense of the capability from our coverage of the initial announcement, but since then I’ve been able to go hands-on and create and print — a small, in-color 3D statue using Photoshop CC and the Shapeways printing service. The process was a little trickier than I anticipated, but the statue came out quite nicely.

Creating your model

The process begins with a 3D model of the object you want to print. Photoshop has support for importing 3D objects, and creating textures on those objects, but it is not really a true 3D modeling tool. So you’re likely to start your project by getting a model from an online site, although you could use one or more of the simple object samples provided with Photoshop. You could also use a tool like the free Sketchup app from Google or the open-source Blender to create your model. Professionals may be willing to pay up for a high-end tool like Solidworks. In my case, I decided to use the same Thingiverse model of a Buddha that our sister site PC Magazine has used to test 3D printers. The model is monochrome, so this being a Photoshop project, the first thing I had to do was give it some color by painting it.

3D Painting

Photoshop’s 3D painting tools may be unfamiliar to many Photoshop users who have only used the program for images. They are much more sophisticated than Photoshop’s traditional image painting tools. Its 3D painting model not only incorporates the texture of the underlying material in how colors are applied, but also lets you set the way paint is applied. Typically you’ll be painting on what Photoshop calls the Diffuse surface, but you can also paint Specular highlights or change the Roughness of the image, for example. The paintbrush tools also have settings for how the paint falls off as the surface curves away from where you are painting. In essence, you can model many of the physical properties of a paintbrush on a 3D surface to create highly realistic objects.

Discovering lighting the hard way

Since almost all 3D printing is done in single color materials, there typically hasn’t been any need to worry about either color or tonal values. As a result, 3D models tend to be lit in a way that makes them pleasing to view online — with the lighting completely ignored when the object is printed. However, since my goal was to print in color, the print driver had to decide how to handle the lighting in the model. I received a nasty surprise when my print preview image was almost black — the driver had literally turned off the lights. Even with Adobe’s help, there didn’t seem to be a way to change that behavior, so I needed to lower the intensity of the lights in Photoshop and completely repaint the image. I would have thought that a simple Curves layer would have accomplished the same thing, but it doesn’t work that way when you’re doing 3D printing

New Device To Charge Your Smartphone As You Walk

Power cords and batteries are the bane of every gadget: You either carry around the necessary cords and cables, or you hope the battery lasts. But now, researchers want to change that, by building a charger powered by the motion of your body as you walk.
The device — built by Georgia Tech researchers, led by Zhong Lin Wang — consists of four discs layered on top of one another. The first disc is made of copper, and rotates. The next is a polymer and remains stationary, and the third is a gold layer that is divided into sectors, with alternating sections cut out, to make something that looks like a bicycle wheel. The last layer is made of acrylic.
When the copper disc rotates, positive charges in the copper move past the negative charges in the polymer. That causes an imbalance of charges in the gold layer, with each "spoke" of gold having either more positive or more negative charges. This imbalance means that when a wire is connected between sectors, a current flows.

Wang said the device can generate power as long as something causes the copper disc to rotate. For example, he demonstrated that flowing water could work, in the lab.
He has also experimented with wearable versions. "This is even more general," he told Live Science. "You could attach it to your leg, or in the folds of a jacket."
The device works on the same principle as static electricity. For example, when you walk on a rug in wool socks, electrons build up in the socks (and in you), and when you touch a metal doorknob, they jump from your finger, making a spark. There's a lot of voltage in the spark — enough to make the jump through the air — but not much current, which is why the shock doesn't kill you.
"The phenomenon has been known for 1,000 years," Wang said. "But it's rarely been utilized for power."
Wang said that his device is more efficient than a traditional generator, at least for its size. A generator works by moving either a wire through a magnetic field or a magnetic field over a stationary wire. Either one requires a certain number of turns of wire to make a certain voltage, plus a strong magnet. Those components take up space, which is why generators tend to be rather bulky — even a small one that could power a phone would be the size of a brick, and it would need a power source to boot.
But the device the researchers created can be made thin and flat; the one Wang demonstrated is about 4 inches (10 centimeters) across, and swinging it in the hand generated enough electricity to power a small array of lights, or about 5 volts, which is enough to charge an iPhone.
Wang said the device is 50 times more efficient than a traditional generator of the same size.

'League of Legends'

In front of a rapt audience in a Los Angeles film lot, Krepo hooks an enemy with his scythe and harvests virtual souls with a signature move called a "death sentence".The grim scene played out time and again as Krepo and his Evil Geniuses team battled to victory in a "League of Legends" computer game match broadcast to viewers around the world.
After the triumph, Krepo - a 23-year-old Belgian whose real name is Mitch Voorspoels and plays the game as the dreaded character Thresh - was swarmed by fans hungry for autographs and photos.
Welcome to the booming world of "eSports," where seemingly sun-starved players compete with their wits and a few mouse clicks.
"Professional gaming has been trying for years and years to catch on and now it is suddenly spreading like wildfire," said long-time game analyst Scott Steinberg, now general manager of Phoenix Online Publishing.
 'League of Legends' draws a die-hard crowd, constantly hungry to learn more."
League play with characters such as mages, assassins, and marksmen is so visually compelling and action-packed that it is a natural for online viewing, according to Steinberg.
Celebrity status
League of Legends is the king of the hot trend in videogame play as a spectator sport, complete with sold-out stadiums and fans camping all night for tickets to matches.
"Playing League has earned us a bit of celebrity status," Voorspoels said after stepping away from a sea of adorers. "I don't think that is something any pro player dreamed of at the start."
Voorspoels began playing League while at university in Belgium because it is free, and online bouts - in which teams of five players each battle to capture opponents' bases - last about as long as a decent study break.
"Basically, it is a 30- to 40-minute slaughter of people trying to kill each other to get to the other base," Voorspoels said. "On the best level, it becomes a chess match - you want to outsmart your opponents."
The diversion from studying engineering became a priority. Voorspoels quit school to play League for a living.
Big name sponsors
His team's sponsors include Monster Energy drinks and high-performance computer gear maker Razer.
Coca-Cola recently became a backer of the League championship series run by Riot Games, the company behind the eSport sensation.
"Some games are like movies, and some are like amusement parks," Riot Games co-founder and chief Brandon Beck said in a statement.
"League of Legends is like a sport."
Last year, the US State Department began letting League players train and compete here under the same type of work visas provided to athletes in soccer, baseball and other pro sports.
Voorspoels's international team lives in a house on the Los Angeles coast, not far from the headquarters of Riot Games. A live-in coach keeps them battle-ready.
"The first years, it was rough, a risk, but as time has gone by it has exploded," Voorspoels said of going pro.
Million-dollar prize
League seasons culminate with top teams from North America, Europe, and Asia fighting for the crown and a top prize of $1 million. Players and fans depict the South Korean teams as undisputed "gods" of eSports.
The League championship at the roughly 18,000-seat Staples Center in Los Angeles sold out last year in an hour.
Matches play out on stage, with team members sitting game show-style at computers and giant monitors displaying close-ups of their faces and imagery of clashes on the virtual battlefield.
Announcers referred to as "shoutcasters" deliver animated commentary, and analysts assess play between bouts.
Matches are broadcast online using platforms such as YouTube and Twitch TV. The latter also powers video game play sharing features on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One consoles.
Twitch vice president of marketing Matthew DiPietro put eSports on par with traditional sports, saying both take dedication, training, skill and mental agility.
He described the League viewing audience as something television or cable shows might envy.
"You can watch just like you are watching a football game," DiPietro said. "You have celebrities people like to cheer for and pariahs people like to boo at."
Riot provides bird's eye perspectives on play, and focuses on making action pop out for viewers, according to League lead game designer Ryan Scott.
"Big moments happen in team skirmishes that allow for big plays and stars to arise," Scott told AFP. "That is a big reason League has taken off as an eSport."
Shoutcasters
Shoutcasters, all former players, do "an awesome job" of keeping spectators up on what is happening, Scott said.
"It's a romp," said California university student and League lover Mitchell Kernot.
"I know the thrill of an open back door and the pain of a lost baron fight. There is a lot going on for me when I watch League."
More than 67 million people play League every month, with the number taking part simultaneously during peak times topping 7.5 million, according to Riot, in which Chinese Internet titan Tencent has a majority stake.
Privately-held Riot does not disclose earnings figures.
A pro League player's career might typically last three years or so. Shrewd competitors can bankroll their studies or other endeavors, according to Voorspoels, who hopes to become an eSport commentator.
"Pro gaming is pretty cutthroat; there are a lot of people who want to take your job," Voorspoels said. "So there is a lot of pressure, especially if you have a losing streak."