Sony announces new affordable phablet

 It may have arrived late to the phablet party, but now that Sony has turned up, it has done so with something new, exciting and accessible in the form of the Xperia T2 Ultra.

Theoretically, it's simple to make an affordable phablet. Start with an affordable, mid-range phone and add a bigger, medium resolution screen and put it on sale.

In practice, finding the optimum balance between performance and features and the bottom line is very challenging if you want the end product to be in any way desirable. But that's exactly what the Xperia T2 Ultra manages to do.

Its 6-inch screen offers a 1280x720p entry-level HD resolution and its rear-facing camera boasts 13 megapixels. It can shoot full HD video too. But Sony hasn't stopped there, the device is also packed with the company's own imaging know-how and apps so that users really can make the most of the camera. Then there's the processor which is quad core and there's 1GB of RAM at hand too, so it shouldn't be too hard to multitask.

Internal storage capacity is a bit on the low side -- just 8GB -- but that can be expanded via microSD card by a further 32GB. As well as physical, Sony is also offering 50GB of free cloud storage for the device, via Box.

The handset runs version 4.3 of Android and supports 4G/LTE as well as 3G networks so it should be fast at pushing data back and forward; this means that streaming a HD video from the cloud via that LTE connection should be more than feasible and won't result in the frustration that constant buffering of a moving image can cause.

source: www.mysinchew.com

Dell is out to win over the prosumer

FOR a company moving aggressively towards a software and solutions focus, Dell is making a lot of noise with its new hardware.

At the Dell World conference in Austin, Texas, this week, it made yet another product announcement that signalled a reinforcement of its computer offerings.

The group unveiled its first Chromebook, a laptop using Google’s simplified ChromeOS operating system, targeting the US and UK education markets, and claiming a 10-hour battery life.

The device follows the launch in October of two tablets — the Venue 7 and 8 — running Google’s Android operating system and a further two — the Venue Pro 8 and 11 -running on Microsoft Windows 8.1. And that’s just the beginning.

“We’re launching a lot more devices, a lot more form factors,” Dell executive director of end-user computing, Margaret Franco, told Business Times. “How are all these devices making any sense? In this new world, it starts with the use case of the customer.

“By understanding the end user and the application of the device, you can marry the right device to the right customer.”

Combined with Dell’s growing software and services capability, the wide range of devices appears to make for a solution range rather than merely a device range.

Ms Franco concurs: “If you just had a bunch of devices, you couldn’t drive value. You have to have consulting services, build or outsource applications, and provide enterprise networking and storage infrastructure.

source: www.bdlive.co

samsung galaxy S4 android 4.3 update in SA

An update to Android 4.3 “Jelly Bean” appears to be rolling out for the Samsung Galaxy S4 in South Africa, Vodacom, and Telkom Mobile, subscribers have told MyBroadband.

News of the availability of the update locally comes after SamMobile and AndroidPolicereported that Samsung has pulled an update to Android 4.3 in the UK and US.

According to the notification, the update is 693.21MB and includes the following:

1. OS upgrade (Android 4.3)
2. Add new feature [sic] (KNOX for consumer, etc)
3. Compatibility with Galaxy Gear
4. Improved performance (graphics, multimedia, bluetooth, etc)
5. Improved the user interface and stability
6. User interface adjustment (icon change, etc.)
7. Security enhancement

source: www.mybroadband.co