AT&T & HTC announce ‘Status’ in United States

HTC has released ChaCha as Status on AT&T in US.  Revealed first time at Mobile World Congress earlier this year, ChaCha aka Status is a Facebook centric Android smartphone with a dedicated FB button.
“HTC Status brings a Facebook experience to people who want to share their experiences with their friends faster and easier than ever before,” said Jason Mackenzie, President, HTC Americas. “With a dedicated Facebook share button combined with the hallmark HTC Sense experience, HTC Status makes it easy for people to stay connected to the things that are important to them.”
HTC Status Features:

• Android™ 2.3 + HTC Sense
• 2.6-inch touch screen with 480 x 320 resolution
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 UMTS/HSDPA 850/1900
• 512 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM
• MSM7227, 800 MHz
• Rechargeable lithium-ion battery, 1250 mAh
• 5 MP main camera with autofocus, VGA  front-facing camera

Availability: Status is coming exclusively to AT&T this summer. Pricing will be revealed closer to launch

Four Nokia Belle Phones With 1 GHz CPUs: Leaked

Nokia is in the news yet again, but it's a leak this time and not an official launch. A website has accessed a photo of a leaked document, which seems like Nokia's roadmap for this year or the next. This document reveals four new Nokia handsets, apparently running on the Symbian Belle platform. Interestingly, the document also reveals that all of these four handsets will feature 1 GHz processors. It seems that Nokia is finally planning to roll out 1 GHz processors with Symbian smartphones. The newly announced Nokia N9 will also have a such a processor.

The four handsets will be called Helen, Zeta, Cindy, and Fate. It seems like the Helen is a flagship handset with 3.5" AMOLED display, Symbian Belle, 8 MP camera, and apparently will be the successor to the Nokia C7. The Zeta will feature a slightly smaller 3.2" AMOLED display, and Symbian Belle as mentioned in the image. This handset is said to be the thinnest smartphone in the world. However, no info is available about the camera of the device since it is not visible from the picture. The Cindy and Fate will be the mid-range handsets here with 3.2" AMOLED displays and 5 MP cameras respectively with 1 GHz processors. The Cindy will be NFC enabled whereas the Fate will not.

We are not sure if these images or the document in it are genuine, but it sure does look enticing. If these handsets are for real, Nokia shouldn't wait for too long because these are going to be the fastest Symbian handsets ever made. However, if these are released too late, then we fear that it will miss the boat. Nevertheless, we hope that the struggling mobile company doesn't miss out on this opportunity, so let's keep our fingers crossed.

Google's New Service WDYL.com Surfaces

The new WDYL.com is actually Google's way of asking "What Do You Love?". Once you enter a query, it offers "relevant" results categorised by Google's services.

To test this service, I entered the word "Rajinikanth" to get the following results.

As you can see, it's not very informative, and mostly tries to promote Google's products and services such as Chrome, Picasa, Earth, and Blogger. It also fails to understand that Rajinikanth IS THE ONE AND ONLY, and offers to find a Rajinikanth nearby. Blasphemous!

Right now, the service is good for having a few laughs. However, it is not ready yet, and Google will certainly improve it before the official launch. Till then, head over to  www.WDYL.com and let us know which term returned the weirdest results.

Xerox-HCL Deal raises issue

A lot of Xerox Corp. equipment is made for the company by Singapore electronics manufacturer Flextronics International.

Fuji Xerox, which is Xerox's partnership with FujiFilm Holdings Corp., also produces equipment as well as technology.
And now HCL Technologies Ltd. of India will handle a sizable piece of research-and-development work previously done by Xerox engineers.

The five-year deal inked a week ago with HCL has Xerox expecting improved R&D and leaves hundreds of affected workers wondering what happens next to their jobs. Under the arrangement, HCL takes over some of Xerox's technology engineering duties, and 600 Xerox engineers in North America and western Europe — including 250 in the Rochester area — are to become employees of HCL.
For Xerox, the deal is all about expanding its engineering capabilities, said Willem Appelo, president of the company's Global Business and Services Group, pointing to HCL's 15,000 engineers.
While Xerox said cost savings weren't a prime motivator, "offshoring and outsourcing is becoming the watchword of the day" as companies cut costs to compete, said Rudy Hirschheim, a professor at Louisiana State University's Ourso College of Business.
HCL has offices in 26 nations, posted sales of $2.7 billion in its most recent fiscal year, and employs about 73,000 people globally doing information technology work, business process outsourcing, and software and systems engineering.
Six thousand of those employees are in the United States, and 2,300 of those 6,000 are Americans, said HCL spokeswoman Avena Suri.

HCL said it's typical for the compensation of employees it absorbs from client companies such as Xerox to remain close to what it had been. Still, experts say the fates of such workers are iffy.
Outsourcing companies, whether overseas like HCL or U.S.-based like Electronic Data Systems, make their money by having cheaper labor costs and greater efficiency than the companies that hire them, said Mary Lacity, University of Missouri professor of information systems.

Apple re-launching iPhone 3GS in India for Rs 19,990

Yes, you read that right. According to cellphone dealers, Apple is "re-launching" its two-year-old iPhone at a price of Rs 19,990 in India. The move is likely to counter cheap Android smartphones that have flooded the market recently. This particular version of iPhone will come with 8GB internal storage.

Manish Khatri, a mobile dealer in Mumbai, tweeted on Friday evening that shops had already received stock and the phone will be available from Saturday at the said price with one year official warranty. In Delhi too, several dealers said they had received stock of iPhone 3GS (8GB) on Thursday evening.

iPhone 3GS was originally released in June 2009. It has a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen (320 x 480 pixels) and is powered by a 600Mhz processor. However, as it happens in the case of Apple products, the hardware specifications can be misleading when it comes to performance and usability.

Apple's latest iOS version 4.3 supports iPhone 3GS and that makes the phone a worthy opponent to similarly-priced Android devices that have better hardware. Apple has also said that iOS 5 will work on iPhone 3GS though it is likely that not all features will be supported.

At the price of Rs 19,990, iPhone 3GS will directly compete with Samsung Nexus S , a phone that saw its price fall by over Rs 6,000 to touch Rs 19,999 a few weeks ago. Nexus S, which runs on Android 2.3 aka Gingerbread, has a 4-inch capacitive screen. It is powered by a 1Ghz processor, packs 512MB RAM and comes with 16GB internal storage.

Toshiba Brings Back the Desktop

Toshiba is jumping back into the desktop game after halting desktop sales in 2001. After ten years of focusing exclusively on laptops, Toshiba is launching its new All-in-One Desktop PC, the DX1215. The new all-in-one desktop combines traditional desktop elements with newer technologies like a 21.5-inch touch screen, premium sound, and modern processors—both Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors are available. We got to go one-on-one with the new all-in-one, so read on to learn more.

The new DX1215 desktop is an all-in-one, which eliminates the computer tower and places all of the components, like the hard drive and processor, into the same case as the monitor. The DX1215 is built around a 21.5-inch high-definition display, with 1080p resolution and touch-screen capability. The screen offers brightness as well as sharp detail, with four LED lamps backing the display, and colors that pop.

The desktop also features Onkyo speakers, with Dolby Sound and MaxxAudio tuning. The downward-firing speakers reflect sound off of the desktop surface, providing a wider listening sweet spot than forward-firing speakers. They also provide some great sound, tested with a Radiohead track. Was it on par with a full surround sound set-up? No, but I wouldn't expect it to be, and it was certainly one of the better sets of stereo speakers I've heard on an all-in-one. The Onkyo speakers offer crisp, clear sound, and the MaxxAudio tuning lets you tweak it to find the audio that's perfect for your ears. You can even listen to the speakers with the desktop in sleep mode thanks to Toshiba's Sleep and Music.

Like many other all-in-one competitors, Toshiba's new desktop comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse. They come paired via Bluetooth, and the receiver is built into the computer, requiring no extra adapter. For other peripherals, you'll find plenty of USB ports to plug them into: two USB 3.0 ports on the left side of the unit, and four USB 2.0 ports on the back. Thanks to Toshiba's Sleep and Charge feature, you'll also be able to power phones and other gadgets via USB when the desktop if in sleep mode.

In addition to the keyboard and mouse, the new all-in-one comes with a TV-style remote for media control. Toshiba hopes that its desktop will find a place in your entertainment set-up even after you've moved on to another desktop, and the remote control is just one feature included to that end. Additionally, the all-in-one is equipped with an HDMI input, letting you use the monitor to view HD content from other HDMI-equipped devices, ranging from Blu-ray players to tablets. Also available on the all-in-one is an integrated TV tuner, providing further entertainment options.

Creative Announces Affordable Wireless Speaker

Speakers don't always have to be large, cumbersome, and boring to look at. Creative Technology Ltd seems to have taken note of this as they announced the D80 Bluetooth wireless one-piece portable speaker, which comes in four colours.

This speaker can play from any stereo Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR source compatible with A2DP/AVRCP profile such as theiPhone, BlackBerry, Android phones, tablet computers, and laptops. The Bluetooth Connect button present on the speaker lets you instantly it with the source without any hassle, and you can use the same to toggle between pre-paired sources. Support for AVRCP profile means that you can control speaker volume through compatible source devices. There is also an auxiliary input to connect other audio devices. With no obstructions such as walls, the speaker can be placed at a distance of up to 10 m from the source. It has two 3" full range drivers, which claim to produce full, dynamic audio.  The D80 weighs just 1.06 kg and has dimensions 32.5x10x10 cm.

Ernest Sim, Regional Sales Manager for Indian Subcontinent at Creative said, "Most people today store their music in portable Bluetooth enabled devices like the iPhone, Android phone, Blackberry or tablet computers like the iPad or Creative ZiiO, and the Creative D80 is designed to be the perfect compact Bluetooth speaker to go with these wireless devices. The Creative D80 speaker is so compact that it can easily be carried anywhere throughout the home or almost everywhere in a backpack, and it s priced for everyone".

Available in white with a pink, blue, or green grille or black with a black grille, the Creative D80 will be available across the country by the end of July at an MRP of Rs 2,699.