Motorola and Verizon schedule an NYC press event on September 5th

Motorola sent out invitations for an event in New York City on September 5th. Scheduled only a few hours after Nokia's own upcoming (and seriously hyped) announcement in the Big Apple, Motorola claims that its showcase will be "the day's main event."

There's no information on the product which will break cover, but given Verizon's participation and the recent string of leaks, we would bet on seeing Motorola DROID RAZR HD getting unveiled. It's been a while since we've seen new Motorola hardware on Verizon, so the timing seems just right for such an event.

All in all, we can tell you that September 5th will definitely be a busy day. We will be covering the events live, so expect the full scoop on everything as it unfolds.

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Hands on with Windows 8 RTM

On August 1, Microsoft released Windows 8 to PC manufacturers. Starting August 15, developers can download this final build of the operating system from TechNet or MSDN and reviewers like me are finally allowed to write about the near-final version of Microsoft's big gamble for the future of Windows. The public release of the operating system and PCs running it won't happen until its General Availability on October 26. I got an early look, and tested the latest version of the OS by upgrading an Intel-based Windows 8 Samsung tablet to RTM. The public can still get a pretty close idea of what Microsoft's re-imagining of Windows is like by downloading the Release Preview and installing it on any Windows 7–capable hardware.

Never has there been a more apt application of the acronym FUD—fear, uncertainty, and doubt—when it came to an approaching operating system. Uncertainty can certainly characterize a lot of people's thoughts about Windows 8, and one of the main uncertainties is that they're not sure whether it's a tablet operating system or a desktop one…because it's both. And that, for some reason, confuses people. Microsoft has often used the phrase "no compromises," meaning you get the best of both worlds, but a lot of desktop users will feel that their Windows 8 interface is compromised in favor of touch tablets.

Anyone following the computer industry knows that Microsoft would have been foolish to carry on producing only a desktop-centric OS that ignores the sea surge moving computing to the tablet format, with Apple's iPad in the vanguard. Microsoft made the bold choice of deciding to build one OS to rule them all, offering more than just a tablet OS as the iPad does. People clearly want tablets, but they also want PCs: Since its launch in 2009, Windows 7 has sold over 630 million licenses, compared with 84 million total iPads sold since its launch in 2010. Why not offer an OS for both platforms in one shot?

The tablet and touch friendly face of the OS, formerly called Metro, and now called simply Windows 8-style (and which I'll call new-style to avoid confusion), can be used to launch the new set of Windows 8-style apps, which run full-screen and are designed for touch with simple and consisent interfaces. But it can also serve as a launcher for the desktop-style apps that Windows users have been accustomed to. In RTM, the Start screen tiles for desktop apps get a slight face-lift, with larger and in some cases redesigned icons.

Before delving into an analysis of Windows 8 RTM, which I've had just a day with at this point, let's take a moment to enumerate what the new OS brings to the party for everyone:

• Much faster startup. Let's be honest, there's no comparison with the time it takes to start using an iPad versus a Windows 7 laptop. Windows 8 makes great strides towards eliminating this difference.
• New Start screen with live tiles that update with app info such as arriving emails, news items, weather, and stock tickers. Default apps are included that provide all this.
• Syncing with all your PCs through Microsoft account sign in. This capability syncs personalization preferences, Internet Explorer favorites, backgrounds, WiFi passwords and more with cloud-connected accounts.
• New App Store. The apps sold here will run on both Windows 8 tablets and full PCs. The apps will have to pass standards, and can be updated and installed on multiple PCs in your account (just as with the Mac App Store). They'll also get the ability to connect with other apps for services like email or social network updating.
• Improved battery life for laptops as well as tablets.
• Faster Wi-Fi reconnect times.
• Faster graphics and text performance, thanks to hardware acceleration.
• A much improved Internet Explorer 10, with far better support for the new HTML5 standards and faster performance.
• New file folder window choices.
• New Task Manager
• Trusted Boot. This prevents malware from loading before the OS, on systems with UEFI boot. In general, security is much tighter in Windows 8 than in Windows 7 (though we've heard that song before).
• Built in Consumer apps—People, for social network contacts; Photos, Mail, Messaging, Calendar, Video,
• ISO mounting. The OS can now make a disc image file appear as a drive.

You'll get all this and more for a mere $39.99 upgrade from Windows XP and later. And don't forget that Windows 8 runs on any hardware that can runs Windows 7. It will also be able to run any programs that run under Windows 7, unless you opt for a Windows RT tablet, which will only run new-style Windows 8 apps.

What's New in Windows 8 RTM vs. Release Preview?
Very little changes from Windows 8 Release Preview to RTM. Microsoft has mostly squashed bugs and made performance improvements. But there are a few visual differences you'll notice right after upgrading to RTM: The default lock screen now shows the Seattle Space Needle, with mountains in the background and a green hill that evokes the original Windows XP default desktop. And in the desktop view, we can finally see the "flattened" look of the new windows borders, which do away with the glassy transparency of Windows 7 interface elements.

Something I consider extremely important for new Windows 8 users debuts in RTM the first time you log in: You're now treated to a mini-tutorial on using Windows 8 during initial setup: Simple text and diagrams show you how to swipe in from the sides of the screen (if you're on a tablet) or to move the mouse pointer to the corners of the screen if you're using mouse and keyboard. Once users digest these two simple gesture types, they've got a lot of what's needed to operate Windows 8 under their belts.

In another instance of new eye candy, 14 new personalization "tattoos" have been added for the Start screen. To choose one of these, head to PC Settings > Personalize > Start screen. These tattoos are variants on the background swirls behind the tiles of the Windows 8 Start screen. The new ones range from discreet brush strokes to some that are more colorful and elaborate than any we've seen up to now. Each tattoo is customized to match the basic color scheme you chose from the 25 options.

A new app-switching option has also been introduced in Windows 8 RTM: Instead of always having your last app pop in to take over the screen when you swipe in from the left, you can now set this action to just bring up the list of recently used apps in a left panel. These tiles formerly only appeared when you swiped in and out—a gesture that took me some time to discover. Changing the setting makes the full app list display whenever you swipe in from the left. 

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Lenovo hints Windows RT tablet pricing would start at $300

So far, Microsoft has not revealed even the tentative pricing of its two upcoming tablets, Surface for Windows 8 Pro and Windows RT, or those of its OEM partners’ offerings.

Now however, Lenovo’s David Schmook, in an interview with news agency Bloomberg, let slip the expecting price range of the two versions of Windows 8 tablets, with the x86-based Pro editions expected to be between $600 and $700, and the ARM-based RT editions expected to be $200 to $300 less, putting them between $300 and $500.

However, previous reports speculated that Windows RT tablets would be introduced at roughly $200. While that price might actually be a little too good to be true, we can expect that Microsoft and its OEM partners would be pricing them very aggressively, trying to capture the market from the bottom up, taking on budget Android tablets (including the $249 Nexus 7) and older generation iPad tablets at the same time.

In the same interview, Schmook also expressed a lack of confidence in Intel’s ultrabook market saturation estimates, which aimed to capture 40% of the laptop market by 2012, even with Windows 8, saying:

"It’s going to require a very strong first couple of weeks of launch of Win 8. They'll be a lot bigger than they are now, but I don't know if it will get all the way up to 40 percent."

Lenovo showed off its first x86, Windows 8 Pro-based tablet earlier this month, with the Lenovo ThinkPad 2 Tablet, and later, sparked off rumours about a Windows RT version of the IdeaPad Yoga convertible laptop-tablet.
 

Source: Bloomberg

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MRP: 1499

Rating: Average

2.5/5

Features:

Performance:

Value:

Design:

PROS

• Installation needs minimum wiring
• Promised speeds, for the most part
• Plans are less expensive when compared to Airtel Broadband
• There seems to be no FUP limits either
• Unique looking router

CONS

• Cannot connect a PC via the wired route with wireless router
• Limited PCs can be used at one time
• Connectivity drops out at times
• Speeds dip considerably at times
• Logging in and out every time is a pain

Summary

Tikona attempts to reduce the roadblocks usually faced by a wireline home broadband network, and mostly does well if you are within the service area. We got good speeds and ping rates most of the time. But even on what is essentially a 4G (OFGM and MIMO) network, we did face the same issue of speed drops and connectivity loss at times, just like on a 3G network. Unfortunately, service reliability is not as solid as we had hoped for, and it can be very frustrating.

Before we start off with the review, let me just get a fact out of the way. I have used Sify Broadband, Tata Indicom Broadband (came rather close to using BSNL broadband as well) and Airtel Broadband over the last half a dozen years, and the experience with Airtel has been the most peaceful. The service is reliable, speeds are delivered as promised and the response time in case of a fault is quite quick. For consumers, Airtel Broadband is a sort of benchmark that they can compare any rival services to.

When Tikona responded to our call for a review connection to test the service, we were in the driver’s seat to experience what the new wireless-broadband hype has been all about.

Installation & Hardware
Let us just run you through how the installation process works. First, the installation team will identify the position of your home in relation to the tower that services the area. From what the engineer explained, the service is offered only up to a maximum of 300-400 meters from an individual tower. Critically, you need a line of sight with the tower as well, because there is a greater chance of service failure / non-connectivity later, if that isn’t the case – reflected signals aren’t something you can install your connection based on. In my case, we had the tower and the outdoor equipment looking directly at each other, with the outdoor unit on the 8th floor and the tower on the next building on the 14th floor, with nothing in-between.

Essentially, there are three pieces of hardware that are installed, also known as Customer Premises Equipment (CPE). One is the outdoor unit, which connects wirelessly to the service tower. That is connected to a powered intermediary device, from which the connectivity is sent to the router, which sits indoors. In comparison to something like an Airtel Broadband, this one doesn’t need wiring to be run up to your home, right from the junction box outside the apartments. Does save time, resources and a lot of headache!

Once installed, the calls are then made to the “back-end team” to activate the service, on the installed hardware. It is a matter of luck with regards to how quickly the service will be activated – depends probably on the requests pending with the team already or probably their mood on the given day!

Speaking of the hardware, the outdoor unit needs to be mounted and secured. If it moves around, chances are the link with the tower will get disturbed. The indoor unit – the router, along with the tiny intermediary box, need power. The router does have a very unique shape. And it is named as Ruckus, which is a rather different name too! Multiple notification lights on the front, but no power on/off key on the device. Compared to the Beetel 450 Wi-Fi router that Airtel Broadband offers, this one does seem rather inferior. The Beetel, in addition to the Wi-Fi, also has the option of connecting 4 devices to the router, via the wired network. Tikona’s Ruckus doesn’t have any ports to connect more devices via the wired route. That is rather unfortunate.

Features & Plan Details
For our review connection, we were offered the ADULM4096 plan, which is the fully loaded monthly tariff package offering. As a part of this plan, they offer 4Mbps broadband speeds, and it clearly looks like it has no Fair Usage Policy limits on it. Nothing is mentioned on the website regarding any limits, and neither did the installation engineer have any details on that. We have used it for quite a while now, and do not see any FUP limits seemingly kick in either. Be sure to confirm the FUP limits on the plan that you select before selecting the plan.

For the plans that do have a FUP, Tikona uses a slightly different implementation of it. Unlike other operators who will straightaway chop your speeds down to 256kbps (Airtel, for example) or 512kbps (BSNL, for example), Tikona changes the contention ratio. For example, the default ratio is 1:4, but that will go up to 1:16 or something like that, once you cross the data usage limit.

One thing that is slightly inconvenient is the fact that you have to sign in and sign out from the account every single time you connect to the Internet, with your User ID and password. And this is true for every individual device that you may wish to use this service on. And is particularly inconvenient on a smartphone or a tablet. Plus, clean the browser cache, and chances are that you would have cleaned up the auto-saved ID and password as well, and send you scurrying to retrieve it from some sheet of paper saved somewhere. In comparison to this, Airtel Broadband is far more convenient – switch on the Wi-Fi router, and the connectivity arrives in all devices where that network is saved. No need to sign in or sign out.

Unfortunately, there is a limitation with the entire package. You cannot sign in to more than 3 devices at a time. This is because you need to sign in individually from each device before you can start using the Internet. Some users have found a workaround for this – by connecting the Ruckus unit to a Wi-Fi router. Sign-in from any machine, and then you can browse on any other device without having to sign in again and again. We have not tried that, and wouldn’t recommend it either, for the sake of service consistency and reliability.

Performance
Since this was a 4Mbps plan, we were hoping for a much quicker broadband experience than what my 2Mbps Airtel connection offers. And for the most part, the speeds were fine. We even recorded a test that showed that we getting a full Mbps more than the promised speed!

We got 4Mbps at most times, but the speed delivery scenario isn’t as stable and consistent as what Airtel offers over the wire-line broadband.

The screenshots will prove that speeds do tend to drop, but there is no fixed time of the day when that happens. Transfer rates, as expected, hovered between 380 KB/s and 410 KB/s when the speed was as promised. When the speed is close to normal, ping times were always slightly lower than the ones Airtel offers, something that may be critical for the gamers.

A couple of issues with the service, though, and we begin first with the CPE devices. The wall plugs for the two devices are huge – width, length and thickness, and they will not fit in two side by side points even on the back of a big UPS. We have seen enough smaller sized plugs to know that such a thing exists in the real world! It is a surprise how this got through the Tikona team who must have finalized the hardware. Also, am not sure how many people will have two wall sockets lying free in a room, for these two indoor devices to hog. Maybe Tikona should be ready to offer a three-way plug or something.

Secondly, the connection dropped out at least once a day – from the Ruckus router to the connected laptop. So much so that even the Tikona login page refused to open. Weirdly, Airport notification icon on the Mac or the wireless connectivity notification on Windows did not show any exclamation marks indicating loss of connectivity. Since there is no power on/off key on the router, you have to turn it off from the wall socket itself, and restart it. We did the reset thing – unplug the device from power for 20 seconds and plugged it again. It has been 3 days since, and the same issue has not crept up.

Third is the issue when there is a complete loss of connectivity of service – from the service tower to the CPE. A latest screenshot of this shows that error message. This has happened with us quite a few times for us to be comfortable about the reliability of service anymore.

Bottom Line
If you are considering a buying a broadband connection, or shifting to another service provider, we would recommend that you first check if there are the traditional wireline ADSL operators like Airtel, BSNL or MTNL in your area. If yes, consider them. Unless that isn’t an option, we would only recommend a wireless service then. For all the benefits it may offer in terms of ease of installation and possibly better speeds than what an Airtel may offer in your area, a wireless service does have inherent problems – connectivity drops, signal loss, speed fluctuations and at times even tower overloads that lead to slow speed and pings.

Overall, we appreciate the effort of the Tikona team, and the service does have some solid foundations to begin with. First, the speeds on offer (up to 4Mbps) are more than what Airtel offers in my area for example (only up to 2Mbps). Second, the tariff plans are also less expensive than the likes of Airtel, BSNL and MTNL. Third, the removal of any FUP on most plans is something that we praise and welcome wholeheartedly, hoping this will knock some sense into the operators who still believe in the ridiculous concept of FUP.

But, there are still some tweaks to be made before Tikona can be a recommended service. First off, the manual login and logout system needs to be done away with. If security is the concern, you need to probably lock the router with the user ID and password, but at least make it simpler for users to connect to the Internet. Secondly, the service reliability needs to be more robust, because we aren’t sure how many subscribers will be geeky enough to understand why the Internet isn’t working, or will have enough patience to call the customer care every other day.

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Download Windows 8 Enterprise 90-day trial edition now

Microsoft has released a 90-day trial edition for its final version of Windows 8 operating system, which is slated to go on sale on October 26 this year. The trial, however, is available only for the Enterprise edition of Windows 8 and is aimed at developers who intend to build apps, and IT administrators who want to try out the new OS before making their decision to migrate, all ahead of its official debut. Microsoft recently released final version of Windows 8 to MSDN and Technet subscribers.

The Windows 8 Enterprise trial edition is available in 32 and 64 bits versions. To download the operating system, users need to have a subscription to Windows Live. Also, users need to have a 1GHz processor with 1GB of RAM and 20GB of hard disk space as minimum setup requirement. A number of trial ISO images are also provided for a variety of languages in x86 (32-bit) and x64 (64-bit)versions.

The Enterprise edition comes with all the features of Windows 8 Pro and is more business-focused. It has options such as Windows To Go (which allows Windows 8 installation from a USB key).

If you are planning to download the trial pack, below are some pointers before you start:

• The evaluation edition will expire and cannot be upgraded.
• To upgrade, the evaluation must be uninstalled and a non-evaluation version of Windows must be re-installed from your original installation media.
• Consider running the evaluation edition in a virtual environment or installing on a separate hard drive or partition. The will allow you to upgrade your original Windows installation to Windows 8.
• During registration (required) you must login with a Microsoft account and provide your name, e-mail address and country.
• You are required to activate the product online within 10 days after installing.
• Once the evaluation is installed, you cannot upgrade. To revert to a previous version of Windows, you must do a clean install from your original installation media.

To know more about Windows 8 Enterprise 90-day trial edition activation and usage guidelines, click here.

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Black Samsung Galaxy S III 64GB coming to the UK in October

Not only did the rumors that Samsung cancelled the 64GB version of the Samsung Galaxy S III turn out to be false, but now we actually have a rough launch target. Clove UK blogged that the upcoming black version of the phone will be packing 64GB of storage.

They don't have pricing info yet, but the phone should be available in early October. The black Galaxy S III will also be available with 16GB of storage - MobileFun already has it on preorder (£500) and so does Expansys (same price). There's no availability date info on their sites though.

In case you want the 64GB of built-in storage but prefer the standard Pebble White and Marble Blue colors - Expansys is expecting those too.

Those are all UK retailers, but the black Samsung Galaxy S III will be available across the pond too, as it showed up on T-Mobile USA's web site. It wasn’t clear how much storage that one will have.

There's one more color version of the S III - Garnet Red, which is currently exclusive to AT&T. We don't know if and when we might see this one go international and there's still no clear info which regions will get the 64GB version of the Samsung flagship.

Source

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Sony Xperia P Ice Cream Sandwich update rolling out now

The long awaited ICS update for the Xperia P has finally arrived. Besides the improved functionality brought by the latest Android build, Sony has added several of its own optimizations, including new media apps for your music and movies.

Some other highlights include:

• Extended standby mode, increasing standby time by up to four times (depending on user-profile and data consumption)
• Lock screen with improved functionality
• Resizable widgets for improved personalization
• Improved control of your mobile data consumption
• Recent Apps button for a clear overview of your applications

Xperia P users should be seeing notifications updates, although this may vary in certain regions, as the rollout is yet in progress. To get in on the ICS action you need to either go to 'check for updates' entry in your phones 'About' menu, or connecting it to the PC Companion software.

Thanks, sudiv!

Source

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Motorola RAZR MAXX comes by our office with its friend, Android ICS

The new Motorola RAZR family has a long distance runner in its family – the RAZR MAXX. The phone isn’t new and we’ve already reviewed the CDMA version for Verizon and the GSM version of the regular RAZR, but Motorola pushed out the ICS update about a month ago, so we thought we should put it through our review routine.

The Verizon version has been our battery test champ for quite a while now and no phone seems like it can dethrone it. We will, of course, do a battery test on this one too, just to check if there are any differences, but that will come later.

Since the hardware is familiar, let’s take a quick look at the brand new software. The lockscreen is custom Moto job and has a ringer toggle, plus three shortcuts (Phone, Messages and Camera) for quickly launching apps.

The launcher looks pretty much the same, though the app drawer now follows the ICS convention of placing shortcuts and widgets in one place. There’s a tweak here, courtesy of Motorola. The app shortcuts can be organized into groups, which really helps deal with clutter. You have Downloaded and Frequent groups by default, but you can create custom ones and assign them a custom shortcut.

Check out the video to see what’s in the box along with the Motorola RAZR MAXX plus a quick look at some of the software that comes preloaded on the phone.

The MAXX also packs a good deal of social networking out of the box. Facebook, Google Plus and Twitter apps, along with Social location, an app that shows interesting check-ins from various sources.

We better go back to work, because draining that 3,300mAh battery on the Motorola RAZR MAXX will take a long time. We’ll post the review and the battery test as soon as they are ready.

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Samsung Galaxy R receives Android 4.0 update

Back in May, Samsung India had confirmed on its Facebook page that the Galaxy R will be getting the Android 4.0 update "very soon".

Well, it's been three months since but it seems now that the update is finally ready to roll out. One lucky user in Sweden managed to get his phone updated to the (not-so-latest) version of Android after he received it from the service station.

The fact that the service station people are installing the update on devices means that it is in the final stage and will hopefully will start rolling to other handsets shortly.

As before, this is the TouchWizzed version of Ice Cream Sandwich, which means unless told you won't even know the difference from the current Gingerbread ROM based on the UI alone. Still, it does bring with it significant performance update, which should be apparent to anyone who is used to Gingerbread.

If you feel like trying the leaked ROM yourself, you should follow this link for the necessary download files and instructions over at this thread.

Source (Thanks Clament for the tip)

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Google enables Smart App Updates on the Play Store

Back at the Google I/O keynote where Google announced Android 4.1, Jelly Bean, one of the new features for the Play Store that Google talked about was Smart App Updates. This is basically delta updates for your apps, which means whenever there is a new update available for your installed apps, the Play Store will only download whatever is new within the APK instead of downloading the entire app all over again.

According to Google, Smart App Updates are only a third in size, which means you save a lot of time and data in updating apps. This feature has now been activated on the Google Play Store and some apps are already making use of it.

Smart App Updates is part of the Play Store application and is available to users of Gingerbread and above. You can check out a video of it in action below.

Source

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Google Voice Search learns 13 new languages from across Europe

Google Voice search is great, but if your language isn’t supported you have to make do with English and hope it recognizes your accent. Well, with the latest update, Voice search should work for 100 million new users across Europe in their mother tongue.

Google supported 29 languages up until, but now 13 new ones are joining the list for a total of 42 languages and 46 accents. Here go the new additions:

• Basque
• Bulgarian
• Catalan
• European Portuguese
• Finnish
• Galician
• Hungarian
• Icelandic
• Norwegian
• Romanian
• Serbian
• Slovak
• Swedish

Romanian was reportedly easy for Voice search to learn, while Swedish took extra effort. No matter, if you have an Android 2.2+ device, the update should get to you soon (it’s rolling out in stages).

If you don’t have Voice search on your phone, you can grab it from the Play Store.

Note that Voice actions work only in US English, this update only allows you to search in those languages, not control your phone (e.g. ask for a song to be played, to get directions to some address and so on).

Source

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Samsung Galaxy S Blaze Q will go official as Relay 4G

We just got a leaked T-Mobile internal doc, confirming the existence and nearing launch of the Samsung Galaxy S Blaze Q. The good news is that the smartphone gets rid of that awkward naming scheme, but the bad news is it's going to be called the equally hard to remember Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G.

The QWERTY-touting sibling of the Samsung Galaxy S III is expected to feature a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU of the Krait variety, 1 gig of RAM, a 4" display and 16GB of internal storage that will probably be expandable. The Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G is said to run on Android 4.0 ICS, but chances are it will get a Jelly Bean update sometime after its launch.

According to the leaked document, the Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G will also feature the SAFE certification, which means that the company considers it to be good enough for enterprise users. It will also offer the 50GB (technically 48GB) of free Dropbox storage for two years promo as its Galaxy S III sibling.

Pricing and target availability are yet to be confirmed, but seeing as how leaks have intensified, an official announcement should be just around the corner.

Source

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Huawei Ascend D Quad and D Quad XL to launch in late August

After suffering numerous delays, Huawei's mightiest droids, the Ascend D Quad and D Quad XL are finally going to get their official launch later this month.

The Huawei Ascend D Quad and D Quad XL are both powered by the company's very own 1.2GHz quad-core K3V2 chipset. The difference is that the D Quad XL packs a larger 2,600mAh battery and a thicker profile.

At the front of either smartphone you can find a 4.5-inch IPS HD display, which their back panels host 8MP BSI cameras. Internal storage stands at 8GB, but it's backed up by a microSD card slot.

It all sounds great on paper, but the delay might turn out to be disastrous for the two smartphones. As you might remember yesterday Xiaomi announced its quad-core beast of an Android smartphone, powered by the quad-core Krait chip inside.

The Huawei Ascend D Quad and D Quad XL will be debuting in China, with the rest of the world to follow shortly after. Unfortunately, the pricing of the two droids still remains a mystery.

Source | Via

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twheel for iOS

MRP: NA

Rating: Good

4/5

Features:

Performance:

Value:

Design:

PROS

• Innovative interface, which attempts to highlight popular tweets
• Can perform almost all Twitter tasks from the app

CONS

• Can get messy if you are following a lot of frequent tweeters
• Navigation could be smoother, crashes could be fewer

Summary

twheel tries to deliver your Twitter feed on iOS devices in an innovative way. It displays them in the form of a circle with individual tweets occupying segments, complete with indications on how important they are. It succeeds to a remarkable extent. A must-download for all ye who tweet, we think.

There are apps that are outright clones of other apps. Then there are apps that try to do what others are doing but throw in an odd spin or two to look different. And then (all right, this is the last one, we promise) there are those that simply turn the established system upside down with a concept that seems revolutionary. And twheel - yes, the ‘t’ is small - is one of the rare apps that fall in the last category. It is a Twitter client, yes, but it delivers a Twitter experience that is unlike any we have ever seen.

“Twitter - (r)evolved” is one of the lines being used to promote twheel and when you launch the app, you find out why. At 5.8 MB, it is a relatively light (GRPS/EDGE friendly) download, and while signing up, you will have to give it an additional clearance apart from the user Twitter permission. But getting back to the launch of the app - twheel presents your Twitter account as one circle with different sectors containing individual tweets of those you are following. To see a tweet, just tap the sector. The sectors are in orange colour by default but change to grey once you have tapped them - you can also rotate through sectors by dragging your finger across them, which is sort of cool, and works best when done at a slow pace.

twheel presents your Twitter timeline as a circle with individual tweets occupying different sectors. The white colour in the sector shows their popularity.

However, there is more to twheel than a whole new interface. Look closely at the tweet sectors and you will notice some of them being partially white. The whiteness indicates just how popular a tweet has been, by taking into account the number of times it has been retweeted. You can favourite a tweet by just pulling its sector outward. To do more actions, just tap on a tweet’s sector, and you will see options like retweet and message displayed below the tweet - again in the form of a circle. To go back to the previous menu, just tap the centre of the circle.

You can view your profile and access settings details. In wheel format of course.

The main screen also gives you the option to send new tweets and view your own profile information, search for items, and view all your timelines (you can also do this by long pressing the centre of the circle on your home timeline or your homesceen), which is neat. What we love is the fact that no matter where you are, tapping the centre of the circle inevitably fixes things, unless you see an exit option somewhere. Yes, it takes some getting used to and we are not sure that flicking through tweets arranged in circular fashion is more convenient that seeing them in the conventional colum/row format, but we do love the ease with which one can mark favourites or even just pick out which tweets are popular at just one glance at the twitter wheel.

Want to favourite, retweet or reply to a tweet? Just tap its sector and the tweet appears with action options beneath it - in circular form, of course!

Our main reservation about the app is the fact that it is not really as smooth to navigate across as other Twitter apps. One has to keep hitting the centre of the circle of tweets to go back to the main screen, and that sometimes takes a bit of time. What’s more, if you are the types that follows a lot of frequent tweeeters (news sites, media people, etc.) you could find your circle divided into so many tiny segments and getting refreshed so often that selecting a single one might be a problem, especially on a handset. And while the whole “move your finger to go through the tweets” concept is cool, it is a bit laggy in execution. We often found tweets getting highlighted after our fingers had gone over them - even on a 3G connection. Also, the app has a tendency to crash, especially if left running in the background.

You can 'flick through' the entire timeline by running your finger across the wheel. Best done slowly. In you want to favourite a tweet, 'pull' it out!

That said, these are early days. We cannot help but confess a liking for twheel and its innovative interface. It is still too unusual for us to use it as our primary Twitter client, but should it get smoother, it definitely could become that. In fact, even in its currently slightly rough and ready condition, it is very much in contention.

Get it from: iTunes App Store
Price: Free

To view different timelines just long press the centre button. Easy peasy!

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Dell Inspiron 14R Special Edition

MRP: 65228

Rating: Excellent

4.5/5

Features:

Performance:

Value:

Design:

PROS

• Excellent performance
• Premium build quality and finish
• Battery life not bad for this much power
• Can game quite a bit

CONS

• Feels quite bulky
• Cannot swap lid covers

Summary

With the Dell Inspiron 14R Special Edition's performance and price, it easily makes the leader in our Laptop Top 10 listing. It has an impressive spec sheet, delivers on the potential, is put together with the 'premium' finish in mind and a price that is actually less than what we had expected! What more can one ask from a winner?

The new Dell Inspiron 14R Special Edition has become a bit of a favorite in the test labs. Not only because of the power package, but also because it feels worth the money a consumer will pay for it. This pretty much goes to the top of our Laptop Top 10, undisputed.

Build & Design
What immediately catches your eye on the Dell Inspiron 14R SE is the anodized aluminum on the lid, and the same runs across for the most part of the notebook. The lid covers look very similar to the classy carbon fibre finish we saw on the Dell XPS 13 ultrabook . For all purposes, the finish throughout is matte, but the lid cover does have a bit of shine to it – in a good way and not overtly. This is the same finish around the touchpad and the keyboard as well. Unlike glossy laptops that will catch dust, scratches and fingerprints in a jiffy, this one will not at all be that maintenance hungry.

The Dell Inspiron 14R Special Edition’s power key is very closely integrated, design wise, with the silver laptop hinge. It seems like silver metal just flowed down and the power key found the perfect place to sit!

Quick access keys seem to be going out of fashion with most laptops doing away with them, and we don’t really know why! But the Inspiron 14R SE has three of them – Settings key for quick accessing the Windows Mobility Centre, a Multimedia key that quickly takes you to your media and a configurable quick launch key that can be configured to either open an app or execute a command.

Unfortunately, a crowd favorite feature of changing the lid covers isn’t available on this machine. Even though the Inspiron 14R Special Edition is more than capable of being supported by this feature, Dell has somehow chucked this feature off the list.

Interestingly, when closed and placed on a desk, you can’t really make out where the front and the back of the Inspiron 14R SE are. The display hinge has been very nicely hidden away, and the dimensions (read thickness and design) remain the same throughout, unlike most laptops that tend to become slimmer towards the front. This isn’t the slimmest laptop around, but then again, the Inspiron 14R SE seems to be aimed at the demographic that want a solidly built laptop, and not just a slim one.

There is no shortage of connectivity options on the Dell Inspiron 14R Special Edition, quite expected considering this is a full-fledged laptop. On the right side is the optical drive along with a couple of USB 3.0 ports, and the Ethernet port. On the left is another USB 3.0 port along with one USB 2.0 port as well. You could connect this to an external display if you so wish, thanks to the HDMI out.

The island style keyboard on the Inspiron 14R Special Edition looks well spaced out. What is missing is a dedicated number pad, but that is quite expected considering this is a 14-inch display and there are space limitations. The display resolution is 1366 x 768 pixels, while the bigger siblings – the 15R and the 17R get the 1920 x 1080 pixel displays. This does seem like discrimination! Turn it on, and we played some videos, and the results were impressive. The display is natively bright, and the colour reproduction seems quite impressive. Unfortunately, the display is a tad reflective. Having said that, it is much lesser than some of the laptops that we have tested off late.

Mercifully, the Inspiron 14R SE’s touchpad isn’t following the trend a lot of rivals are setting, and has separate right and left click keys – with no ridiculous integration business within the touchpad area. On the other hand, that does mean that the real estate for the touchpad does become a tad less, but it is still more than enough for deploying multi-touch gestures comfortably. Sure and consistent response for the most part, but only after we did a driver update from Dell’s support website.

Undoubtedly, the Dell Inspiron 14R Special Edition’s build quality feels premium and in tune with the price tag slapped on it. It is very well put together, with the only real drawback being the

Features & Specifications
Let us run you through the power package of the Inspiron 14R Special Edition. We got the top of the line version for the testing and review purpose It is powered by an Intel Core-i7 - 3612QM processor, clocking in at 2.1GHz. When in Turbo Boost mode, this can be clocked up to 3.1GHz. Needless to mention, but this is the third gen Core series processor, lovingly known as Ivy Bridge series. The 14R SE features 6GB of RAM, along with the dual Nvidia GT640M (2GB) and Intel HD 4000 graphics, news that will surely warm the hearts of the gamers out there.

The goodness on the Inspiron 14R Special Edition doesn’t end there, with a 1TB HDD as well. Dell preloads the machine with Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit), along with a bunch of Dell branded apps as well as some third party trials.

It is a bit unfortunate that the Inspiron 14R Special Edition’s display doesn’t have the goodness of the 1080p resolution, but is limited to 1366 x 768 pixels on the 14-inch display. The bigger sibling –the Inspiron 17R Special Edition gets a full HD display, and surprisingly, even the Inspiron 15R Special Edition doesn’t! Nevertheless, we really like the overall display quality. Let us get to the good things first - this display is natively bright, which is a solid base to start on. Surprisingly, the black levels are better than what we expected, and is probably better than what most rivals offer. Good colour vividness and is quite even as well, and is also definitely quite some way better than most of the rivals. Crispness is in adequate amounts, and that really helps with text viewing as well as multimedia viewing. The real kicker is the ability to handle fast moving visuals with ease – something that is critical for movie playback as well as for gaming. Unfortunately, the reflective nature of this display does take away some of the good work done elsewhere. Sitting at home, or in office, there will be continuous reflections off the display, of anything and everything in the ambience. More than anything, this causes eyestrain when working on it for long durations.

Despite the Dell Inspiron 14R Special Edition being limited in terms of real estate because of a 14-inch display, the keyboard layout is quite comfortable to get used to. The spacing between the keys is more than expected, also helped by the fact that the keys are slightly smaller than usual. But let us make it plainly clear – it will not make any difference when you are typing a document. No dips in the keyboard, and will not even the most violent of typing on it will make it rattle. The touchpad also has generous amounts of space, despite separate keys for the right and left click.

The Dell Inspiron 14R Special Edition’s ports are spread out on the right and the left of the display, with no dabbling with the idea of placing them at the back. The memory card shifts to the front near side spine, something we notice is becoming a bit of a trend.

Unfortunately, all this does come with a bit of weight, and bulk! At 2.38kg, this isn’t any heavier than Sony Vaio E-series  or the Toshiba Satellite L850, but the fact that it is thicker than any rival laptop means it does have a more imposing look.

Performance
Without a shadow of a doubt, the Ivy Bridge Core i7 performs very well on the benchmark comparison sheet, and not entirely surprisingly so. The 6GB of RAM helps it shuffle along quite quickly. For comparison, we have the 14R SE up against the Toshiba Satellite L850, which is also powered by an Core i7 processor on the Ivy Bridge platform, but has 8GB of RAM to help it along. Also, we have a Sony Vaio E-series laptop in the mix, with an Intel Core i5 on the Sandy Bridge platform – just to give you an idea of the performance difference.

From these scores, you can easily see that the two Ivy Bridge machines are neck and neck. The Toshiba has an advantage in one benchmark, but the Inspiron 14R SE gets its own back in the next one. In a nutshell, the performance is indeed pointing to a very powerful laptop, which will not get bogged down with whatever you may throw at it, in terms of heavy apps or even multitasking on it to the fullest. Critically, once you move beyond the benchmarks, the machine feels rather zippy even in a real life usage scenario. Double click on a software shortcut, and you will see it open and ready before you can finish saying “winning”!

With the dual team of the Intel HD 4000 and the Nvidia GeForce GT640M (1GB), gaming is certainly a comfortable territory for the Inspiron 14R Special Edition. The 3D Mark score of 12635 is by far the highest among all Ivy Bridge laptops that we have tested. Even on the more taxing 3D Mark 11, the scores of 3132 (Entry Mode), 1915 (Performance mode) and 592 (Extreme mode) are still the highest on our score comparison sheet.

Unigene verifies that with an FPS score of 30.1, indicating that you will be able to do quite a bit of gaming on this laptop. In fact, we had mentioned a couple of games when we were talking about the real world performance, and can say it for a certainty.

These machines are pretty capable in terms of handling some games as well. The review unit has a GeForce GT640M (2GB), and handles games without any issues. Am not much of a gamer, but do have a bit of a fascination with racing games. The old favorite, GRID played back without any issues at all, and we didn’t see any drop in frame rates. The critical bit with racing games is the smoothness of the very fast scenes, and they were very smooth. To verify, we also played the slightly newer NFS: Hot Pursuit, and the results were very impressive. For all you gamers out there, this laptop will serve that purpose for the most part. However, do update the graphics drivers in the very beginning itself, because we did see quite a difference in the benchmark scores before and after the new drivers were installed. While you may not really see any difference in real time usage, but updates might bring in some tweaks to make the hardware run better – safer in the longer run, surely!

In our very stressful battery test (Examples of the setup - High Performance mode with display at full brightness all the time), we clocked this laptop doing 110 minutes from full charge to full discharge. That is almost two hours, and in a typical real world usage scenario, this one should be good for a bit more than 3 hours. Quite good, considering the amount of power that is available whenever you want it, and the specs indicate this can be a very competent notebook and a desktop replacement, all at the same time.

Bottom Line
Without a shadow of a doubt, the Dell Inspiron 14R Special Edition is the laptop to buy if you are in the market to buy something powerful, yet not very costly. Considering the fact that the entire range is now updated with the Ivy Bridge processors, it is up to you to take the pick. As far as our recommendation goes, we would suggest you consider this before buying anything else.

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