TechTree Weekly News Roundup (Jan 28 - Feb 02, 2013) | TechTree.com

TechTree Weekly News Roundup (Jan 28 - Feb 02, 2013)

BlackBerry held an event hoping for a reversal of its sliding fortunes, Microsoft launched its Office 2013 suite, Apple announced a high-capacity edition of its iPad, and more.

 

Here's a roundup of notable technology news and product launches that happened over the course of the week of Jan 28 - Feb 02, 2013.

Announcements

Aircel: Free National Roaming With "One Nation, One Rate" - For a small fee, the plan ensures uniform tariff even on roaming by making incoming calls free when subscribers are in roaming mode.

Microsoft Office 2013 Launch Event on Jan 29 - The physical copy will come in different editions and have more cloud integration. Office 365 subscribers get the update at the same annual pricing. New Office version for consumers includes desktop staple applications - Outlook email, Excel, Word and PowerPoint, and is aimed at home users rather than businesses.

Apple iPad 4 128 GB Announced - At a starting price of Rs 50,000 this could be a move to counter the imminent threat from upcoming Microsoft's Surface Pro tablet. It will run the new iOS 6.1.

Apple iOS 6.1 Comes Out - This minor update to iOS offers bugfixes and new features, although Apple Maps is still not "there" yet.

First iOS 6.x Jailbreak Announced - Hacker group evasi0n has announced the first jailbreak for Apple devices running iOS 6.x and plans to release it next week. This comes just days after Apple announced iOS 6.1 on Monday.

Windows Phone 7.8 Update Starts Rolling Out For Nokia Lumia Devices - Upgrades the first generation Lumia phones to a newer OS, but is still inferior to Windows Phone 8.

H.265 Video Format Is Now Official - High-quality video streaming will be available on low bandwidth and at half the bit rate. Movies using the format would be visible in greater detail at smaller file sizes.

Twitter Hacked, Affected Accounts To Be Active After Resetting Passwords - A blog post by Twitter said that about 250,000 accounts may be compromised, affected users are intimated via email to reset passwords.

Sony Ignites Talk of PS4 Unveil With Playstation Meeting - It has been more than six years now. The gap was shorter between launch of the PS3 home console and its predecessor the PS2.

Facebook Mobile Ad Revenue Doubles In Q4 - "Two quarters ago we really had no mobile revenue" Ebersman said in an interview.

Photo Sharing And Document Previewing Now Possible With Dropbox - Users can now share photos on Facebook and Twitter, preview PDF and DOC/DOCX files.

Google Pledges Fight Over Government Access To Users' Email - Chief Legal Officer cited data showing that government requests for Google's user data increased more than 70 percent since 2009.

Minister Kapil Sibal Says Wrist-Watch Styled Tracking Device With GPS Will Help Curb Sexual Crimes Against Women - Prototype of the device which can send text message, track location, and record 30-minute clips expected to be ready by mid-2013.

 

BlackBerry Event Coverage

Editor-Speak: Why The BlackBerry Launch Is No Big Deal
The Blackberry BB10 Launch Summary
RIM To Rename Itself BlackBerry, Hoping For Fresh Start
BlackBerry Announces Z10 And Q10 With BB10 OS
RIM Faces Its Day Of Reckoning With BlackBerry 10 Launch
RIM Names Multiple Music And Video Partners For BlackBerry 10 Storefront
Timeline - From RIM To BlackBerry, A Company In Transition
RIM Sets Stage For Clients To Run BlackBerry 10 Devices
BlackBerry Renames The App World Web Store To BlackBerry World, Packs In More Features

 

Product Launches

HTC Butterfly Lands In India - HTC's top of the line Android handset features a 5-inch Full HD 1080p display, quad-core CPU and 2 GB RAM, but we think it asks for a bit much at a price of Rs 46,000.

HTC Mini: Remote Control For A Phone? - Paired with HTC Butterfly, the HTC Mini can be used to make phone calls, view and send text messages, check calendar entries and call logs.

Why Launch The HTC M7 Before MWC 2013? - An HTC event is being held on February 19th, where the M7 is expected to be unveiled. The M7 with its 13 MP camera and quad-core processor, could be the next HTC flagship smartphone.

Karbonn S1 Titanium Quad Core Smartphone - Pre-booking of the Karbonn S1 Titanium has begun. Expected to compete with the Micromax A116 Canvas HD, this quad-core smartphone is a sub-15k device.

Spice Mi-530 Phablet Launched – This smartphone has a 5.3" display, runs on the Android Ice Cream Sandwich platform and has twin cameras. It is priced at approximately Rs 14,000 in India.

Android Smartphones Expected From Lenovo, RCom Partnership - These devices are expected to be low-cost and compete with other brands in that segment.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 P3110 Will Reach India In February - The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 3110 is a Wi-Fi-only variant of the Tab 2, and can be pre-booked now in India for Rs 13,900. How it competes against the Google Nexus 7 by Asus would make for an interesting tablet war.

Portronics "Pebble" Portable Bluetooth Music System Launched - Bluetooth audio playback in a compact size at Rs 3500. The Pebble offers a micro-SD card slot and mic as well.


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