IBOOK 2: Apple’s new offering!

First I thought talking about SOPA but it seems to be so stale with every site and newspaper talking about it, so I found why not talk about something creative and inventive; Why not talk about IBOOK 2.

Don’t get confused guys; it is not an Apple notebook but a very wonderful offering by Apple’s software market. IBOOK2 is a software program which can be accessed by the course makers to upload their courses into it in a very rich format. All these courses and various books will be accessible to the IPAD users who want to do much more with their tablets; who want to make their tablet a book! The authors of courses and books can create great multimedia contents which will have full touch response capabilities. The courses prepared in such fashion will definitely be very helpful for the users who want to learn through their pad.

IBOOK 2 has an authoring interface called IBOOKS Author to create the courses.

Wait for more to come in the IBOOK 2 domain. 

Posted on 8:33 AM / 0 comments / Read More

5 Unique IPHONE 4 Cases: Get Amazed PART 2

Unique IPHONE cases; is a continuation to my previous post Top 10 IPHONE 4 cases. Hope this series will continue with many more spellbinding IPHONE cases. Apple keeps on improving its products and the accessory makers keep on aligning themselves with the genius of them. This post is just a summary of some amazing cases I came through in past few days.

ZEROCHROMA TEATRO

This wonderful piece comes at a cheap $39 and is designed with thin and hard plastic with a foldable and rotatable stand. The only reason why I said cheap was the great usability it provides to the IPHONE because of the stand which can be used to dock your phone on a table top or anywhere you want. And Of! Course it fully protects the IPHONE from any physical damage.  It surely ranks one of the best among the unique IPHONE cases list.

Black Retro Cassette Tape Case

This is not something new to the IPHONE case market. The silicon case has been available for the previous models of phone too. The design makes your phone look like a cassette and also protects it against scratches and dust. Buy it for $10 and give your phone stylish attire.

IWOOD 4 Cobra

IWOOD 4 Cobra is designed specially to make your phone look trendy and protect it against any wear and tear. It is made up of two different type of woods which are interfaced together to give this unique iphone case a look above all and a protection beyond any other cases available in market. Though its price is on the higher side ($185), you can buy it once and forget about the safety of your IPHONE.

Waddler Case

It is all about decorating your precious device. This is the feel that we get when we hold an IPHONE wrapped in a waddler case. The beautiful color combination and the flexible body of it, gives it a feminine look but at the end what matters is that at $25, you can make your phone look much more beautiful than others.

Scosche KICKBACK Case

It ranks lowest in my list but don’t forget that it is still in the top 5 unique iphone cases. Made up of rubber, Scosche kick back case also has a stand with it. The stand can help you mount your phone on a table and this can make lots of work easier.

Posted on 8:34 AM / 0 comments / Read More

SIRI Review: IPHONE 4S’s Cruncher

In the IPHONE 4S review I talked about SIRI, the voice recognition system which not only provides an edge to IPHONE over other smart phones but also amazes us with its extremely intelligent protocols. SIRI’s ancestral form was made available for free to all IPHONE users as Dragon Natural Speaking; this is when something got into Apple’s mind, which caused them to buy out this product and now make it available to us as SIRI with all IPHONE 4S and guess what, this venture seems to be the most successful one.

SIRI has been built into iOS5 and leaves all the speech recognition software behind. It has the capability of noise reduction and catching the voice of user even if you are trying to test it in a very noisy surrounding. Just think about the perfection it will achieve if you are trying to use it in a silent environment. By the way, I think it will be insane to try to use your speech activated device in a crowd. Isn’t it?

It is easy to activate SIRI on an IPHONE 4S. Just press and hold the home key and here comes SIRI prompting you to order it what to do next! So, you have your own robot keeper to keep up with everything you want your iOS5 to do. In short it is more like a very loyal lover who takes good care of all your needs. That was a pathetic similarity but I can’t help talking good about this wonderful inclusion in Apple’s apps.

Once proclaimed, everything is stored! This can be the bottom line for SIRI. You don’t need to repeat things again and again. For the first time, probably it will ask you to specify your selections but the next try will be easier. For example, if you wish to call your wife who uses more than 4 numbers (I think you should keep a check on her if she does this!), out of which one has her default availability; you need to say, “Call Wife”. SIRI will display all the 4 numbers. Select the one on which you always make a call.  SIRI will give her a call and store the number as default number whenever you ask it to call your wife. So, the next time SIRI hears the command, it automatically calls the same number. Now, isn’t that intelligent! 

This happens for everything; whether you want to view map of your city or want to find the best place to shop in a city; one prompt and the next time, a smaller prompt.

SIRI does everything which you want your voice controlled app to do. It converts speech to text so you can easily text and email by just dictating everything. It helps you to track places on GPS by saying amidst traffic where you cannot stop your car to type and find the correct route. Of! Course it will make your calls too.

Apple calls SIRI in its beta phase. I suppose it is just because of some funny responses received by SIRI sometimes. When you ask SIRI if it loves you by saying, “Do you love me?” it responds by saying, “I respect you!” This according to me is great fun. A person like me can spend hours with it, asking and getting funny replies. But according to some other geeks, this should be improved. Let us see!

SIRI will rule the hearts of every IPHONE 4S user in coming months for sure!

GG’s Apple App rating: ***** (it is the most wonderful thing to happen).

Posted on 7:34 AM / 0 comments / Read More

IPHONE 4S: The Review

Guys, let us clear it out once and for all, IPHONE 4S is no second name for IPHONE 5. So, stop peeping into Google’s search pages to find one as it is not even near anyone’s approach till Apple decides to become approachable for everyone. IPHONE 4S is a redone daddy for the demanding children of it around. As always Apple impresses dressing up its old phone with new attire.

 I am watching people around me flaunting their IPHONE 4 version and I am happy to break into laughter in front of them saying, “Brothers and sisters, this is something old now!” IPHONE 4S does that with its improved camera quality, memory storage and a better processor! So, if you are proud to own an IPHONE 4, get yourself a view of IPHONE 4S.

HARDWARE AND NETWORK RECEPTION UPGRADE

Apple’s new bar adds a few more ounces to its weight but provides us with obvious good results. The network reception, if tested with respect to the version 4 can be found superior without any doubt. The processor has been upgraded to Apple’s 1GHz A5 model and the media storage has been increased to double of what IPHONE4 has; IPHONE 4S has an internal storage of 64 GB. Has this left your mouths open? Wait for more to come!

SOFTWARE UPGRADE

IPHONE 4S is built upon the latest iOS5 which itself is a far superior smart phone platform than the previous versions. GG is yet to review iOS5 but be assured, it will be done soon!

Siri is a wonderful inclusion in iOS5 and is exclusive to IPHONE 4S. Siri is a virtual machine which helps you in doing lots of work by just asking it to do. Everything is just a voice away from you. Command and let Siri explore anything around you in maps, call anyone you want to talk to or text anything you feel like. This software is too intelligent to be described in a few words. It needs a complete review for itself. It talks, it remembers, it just does every single thing just by hearing you say. This is a winner in all the ways.

CAMERA UPGRADE

IPHONE 4S carries the same 8 MP camera but with better quality and enhanced functionalities. The camera is capable of recording at 1080 pixels and the auto focus works like it had never worked before for any other smart phone.

A few mishaps which can be ignored are: the battery life (I have been always saying that don’t buy a phone which is smart for its battery backup) and lack of 4G connectivity.

Other than these, IPHONE 4S is the most pleasing of all its previous versions and probably the best smartphone available in market.

With hope to see IPHONE 5 soon, GG rates 4S: ****1/2  

Posted on 8:01 AM / 0 comments / Read More

IPAD 3, IPAD 4 & IPAD 5 Release Dates: Rumored

According to the previously followed trends, market analysts are of the view that Apple will release their IPAD 3 in March 2012 and IPAD 4 & 5 in October.

IPAD 3 Rumored Features

Apple never displays its products in tech fares and more than that, no press releases pre-follow the IPADs or IPHONEs. We are always left to experience them when they hit the market. But they are unable to stop the rumors from hitting the users and some of them suggest that IPAD 3 will have a very high screen resolution (somewhere around 2100 by 1600 pixels) , extended battery backup and will support LTE networks. One other news source suggests that the processor of IPAD 3 will be a quad core one.

Let us wait to see what else gets to us from the ISTORE.   

Posted on 3:18 AM / 0 comments / Read More

Tablets that will receive Android 4.0 update

Ice Cream Sandwich is yet to hit the market in its full form but the news of tablets and smartphones which are going to get this delicious update have been making to the headlines since long.

Here GG will list the android tablet computers which have started receiving the android 4.0 update or will receive it in near future.

Motorola XOOM

First among the list is the same machine which was one among the few to use android 3.0 in its early stages. Motorola has even started updating android 4.0 to few of the selected XOOMs. It is basically for the testing purpose to see how stable is ice cream sandwich, on the XOOM tabs. The WiFi as well as the 4G models are entitled to this update by android.

Asus Transformer Prime

Asus has also started providing android 4.0 update for their recently launched Transformer Prime. This news is a little old now considering the fact that the update option in the settings of Prime has already been activated.

Asus Transformer TF101

TF101 is not far behind with the ice cream sandwich update getting optimized for this tablet pc by Asus by end of January. The update can be delayed by little but then it shouldn’t bother TF101 owners as 4.0 itself is yet to be matured tablet OS. Keep your patience and remember the fruits which have been left to ripen, taste the best.

Archos G9 Tablet

First week of February will bring good news for all the proud owners of G9 as the 4.0 update will be made available ton their Archos G9 tabs.

Sony’s Tablet S & P

GG has revealed this in the review of Tablet S and Tablet P that both the Sony tablets are entitled for the android 4.0 update.

Bad news for the 7” tablet owners is that all the 7 inched tabs like Samsung’s galaxy tab are not going to receive the android update. Talks are still in progress and maybe we will have some hope for Amazon, Nook and Samsung tabs owner.

Posted on 7:37 AM / 0 comments / Read More

Acer Iconia Tab A200 Specs: Yet to hit the market!

Finally Acer does what it was expected to with its new tablet pc Acer Iconia Tab A200. With A200, Acer has tried to overcome all the negativities that were created for its tablets due to the previous A100 and A500.

Iconia Tab A200 is not only a light tablet but also has improved on the display and battery backup areas where Acer lacked previously. The 10.1” screen is a full HD with 1280 by 900 pixels resolution and the processor is a dual core one by NVIDIA TEGRA 2 which also accompanied the previous versions. 

It will come in two forms: 8GB and 16GB with a mere price difference of $20. There is no primary camera at the back of the tablet in order to reduce the price. But it has a 2MP front facing camera for video calls. This is not a bad decision at all as we don’t need a camera in a tablet to click pictures as such.

Look at the specs:

• 10.1” HD display
• Android Honeycomb OS
• Micro USB and a Full sized USB port
• 3G, WiFI and Bluetooth connectivity
• Upgradable to Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich

Let us wait to have a hands on experience of Acer Iconia Tab A200 whose first look seems to be very appealing.  

Posted on 8:28 AM / 0 comments / Read More