August 2010 – Page 2

Blackberry Torch Users Noticing Random Freezing And Lags

The Blackberry Torch comes with a 624MHz processor and quite evidently, this is not in the same league as the 1GB and above processor speeds that you find on many other modern day smartphones from HTC and Samsung. However, users are noticing performance levels on the Blackberry Torch is much worse than what you can expect. Several users on the Blackberry Support forums are noticing lags, random hanging and freezing on their handset.

One user writes,

“I’m also experiencing this. I have made sure to close every application that could be closed on the phone, and I have seen that opening things like the options, or trying to hit the end button the exit messages is very slow. Also just trying to open an application like test messages takes forever sometimes. Not all the time, but it’s very sporadic. My BB Bold 9700 was super fast all the time. I’m a little frustrated with this lag all the time. I even did a battery pull to try and fix it, but that didn’t do anything.”

No words of acknowledgement from Blackberry so far, but the issue does not seem to be occuring on all the Torch handsets either. So, we are assuming this to be an isolated glitch, for now.

Are you facing this issue?

CyanogenMod 6.0 – Custom Version Of Android Available For Download

Although the Android OS is open source, there are a lot of features like FLAC audio playback support and mouse-pointer access that are not officially supported as yet. CyanogenMod 6.0 brings these features to the phones of Android users. Using this custom Android ROM on your phone will not only give you access to the features mentioned above, but also brings several web browser enhancements, mobile data toggle in the power widget, customizable trackball notifications and several other tweaks even to those handsets that do not support them officially.

To install CyanogenMod 6.0 on your handset, you will first need to root your Android phone. We have several tutorials on easy one-click solutions to root Android phones. However, do remember that these techniques may brick your handset if you do not do them the right way and so you will have to proceed with caution.

CyanogenMod 6.0 is available for Google Nexus One, Motorola Droid, HTC Dream/Sapphire, HTC Hero, HTC Desire, HTC Incredible, HTC Espresso/Slide, HTC Supersonic/EVO and Samsung Galaxy S/Vibrant.

Soon Play MiniClip Games On iPhone And Android Platforms

MiniClip is without doubt one of the most popular names on the internet when it comes to casual Flash-based games. However, the company had not brought their focus to the mobile platform. Though a few MiniClip games are already available on the iPhone and Android platforms, the company hitherto did not have a dedicated division to focus on these emerging platforms.

That has reportedly changed now as TechCrunch reports that MiniClip has now opened a new business unit that will focus completely on the iOS and Android platforms. The division is being headed by former Skype Product Manager, António Sérgio Varanda and will be building several of the company’s popular games for the iOS and Android platform. Expansion to other platforms and games are expected to happen at a later time.

ExoPC Tablet Pre-Orders Open Soon – Features Reviewed

If you have been following the tablet space, you may have heard a lot about the upcoming ExoPC that runs on Windows 7 OS. The tablet was initially delayed by a few months and now there are reports that the pre-orders and launch may finally happen in September. If you are looking to pre-order an ExoPC, you may do so starting September 3. The first 1200 orders are expected to be shipped latest by September 30. The device is also going on sale in Canada under the name, ‘Ciara Vibe‘.

The technical specifications of the ExoPC Windows tablet include a 11.6″ 1366×768 pixel display, a 2GB DDR2 RAM running on Intel N450 processor and including support for Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1, USB 2.0, mini HDMI port and a SD/SDHC memory card reader. The device is said to house a 1.3 megapixel camera and contain a battery life of 5 hours.

BuzzVoice Android App To Convert Text-To-Speech For Websites Released

BuzzVoice is a pretty cool application that you may have already heard of, if you have used the iPhone in the past. The app calls itself the “Pandora for news” allowing users to playlist their favorite websites so that the app shall ‘read out’ the top stories from these news sources. The Next Web reports that this interesting app has now been released for the Android platform.

The app comes with some nice features – Firstly, you can enable audio streaming in the background so that you may run other Android apps while listening to news stories from BuzzVoice. Additionally, the app also offers an Android widget if you are looking for a remote-control feature to quickly launch the app. Also, if you are an Android fanboy, the app also comes with an Android radio that will break out the latest Android news stories to you.

The app unfortunately is not free. It costs $4.99 at the Android marketplace. Of course, you may choose to uninstall the app if you are not happy.

Mooncharge Solar-Powered Case For iPhone 4 Released

Solar powered charging mechanisms for the iPhone are not exactly new. Apple is learned to be developing a technology that will incorporate a solar panel on the iPhone’s back casing. More recently, we had written about a USB solar power charger for the iPhone that can offer some nice battery backup for your iDevice. Now, […]

Now, here is another solar solution that is more convenient to use. A design company called FrostFire has released a new iPhone 4 case called Mooncharge that will also double up as a solar charger. The back side of the casing has a large solar panel that will generate power off direct sunlight and this is stored on a rechargeable lithium-ion battery at the base of the panel. The manufacturers say that twenty minutes of charging can provide 5 minutes of talking-time or 50 minutes of standby – nothing huge, but is still significant considering you will be saving significant power over a long-term. Of course, the device can also be charged via a USB cable off your wall-charger.

The Mooncharge iPhone 4 casing costs $70.

YouTube Rental Movie Streaming Service Coming Soon

Google has been working on several avenues to get a foothold on the entertainment business. While we are still to hear the latest on the company’s venture in the Google TV business, we hear Mountain View is already in talks with major media companies to launch a pay-per-view rental movie streaming service on YouTube. YouTube is already the world’s largest video sharing network and a launch could easily make Google the leader in this segment – ahead of players like Netflix and Hulu.

But Netflix and Hulu are not the biggest losers here. As TechCrunch points out, the loser in the long term could be the traditional cable TV companies that have failed to adapt (or rather stopped from innovating) in order to maintain their ridiculously high profit margins. With the entry of newer internet based movie and TV show streaming services, content producers have started seeing value in licensing their content to these companies and this could turn the tide in the favor of these new-age media companies. TechCrunch notes,

“Cable is vulnerable because for far too long they’ve screwed us all with ridiculous prices for a crapload of content that we simply don’t want. Despite the ever-present promise of a-la-carte pricing, it has never come to fruition. And so our cable bills remain close to (or over) $100 a month. We’re paying for so much stuff we simply don’t want. But we have no choice.”

Do you see value in these arguments?

Best iPhone App For Movie Streaming – Hulu Plus Vs. Netflix

As you know, Netflix recently released their movie and television show streaming application for the iPhone. With this, iPhone users have two really good alternatives to choose when it comes to watching movies on their iDevice – Hulu Plus and Netflix. So which of the two options works better? Zatznotfunny looks into three elementary parameters […]

Zatznotfunny looks into three elementary parameters – app launching speed, battery consumption and 3G experience and notes that Hulu Plus is marginally better than Netflix when it comes to the overall experience. The primary point of concern has been the launch speed of the Netflix app. According to the website’s review, Netflix takes as long as 18 seconds to launch from cold start while on a 3G network. Hulu on the other hand loads in less than 10 seconds. In terms of battery consumption, the website points out that Hulu Plus was marginally less taxing on the battery though the difference in performance were not very noticeable. Zatznotfunny also points out that Hulu Plus did a better job at keeping the video running over a 3G network.

Overall, it now looks like Hulu Plus is the winner. Have you used both the apps? Write down your experiences.

Google Chrome Not Saving Permanent Cookies?

I’ve been a loyal Google Chrome user for quite sometime now and though I am largely satisfied, there has been one issue of late that had kept me annoyed – Websites that I wanted to remember my info and automatically log me in no longer seemed to be working. Now this is just a minor problem. But since I was able to solve it, I thought it fit to offer my solution here.

1. Firstly, from the Google Chrome browser page, click on the ‘Tools‘ button and select ‘Options‘

Google Chrome Cookies

2. From the ‘Google Chrome Options‘ windows, click ‘Under the Hood‘ and ‘Content Settings‘

Google Chrome Cookies

3. From the ‘Content Settings‘ window, check the option that reads, “Clear cookies and other site data when I close my browser”

Google Chrome Cookies

4. Click ‘Close‘ and restart the browser

5. From the Tools option, once again navigate to ‘Options’ -> ‘Under the Hood’ -> ‘Content Settings’ and uncheck the “Clear cookies..” option. If the “Allow local data to be set” option is not selected, select the option and close the window.

This should solve the issue.

Toshiba Folio 100 Tablet Features Revealed

We have known about Toshiba’s plans to launch tablet computers for a long time. There were reports about the company’s work on a SmartPad tablet PC last month. The device was expected to feature a multitouch display along with comprehensive multimedia features.

There is now word about a new Android 2.2 tablet named Toshiba Folio 100. The device is learned to have a 10.1-inches multitouch display with 1024×600 pixel resolution, an NVIDIA Tegra 2 chip, 16GB storage space with SDHC card support for 32GB, support for Adobe Flash, 3G, Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth. The device is expected to be equipped with a battery that will offer close to 7 hours of power backup.

The features sound interesting though there are no details available on the price and availability. However, it does sound similar to the Smartpad that was announced last month and it will be interesting to hear more from the company about the new device.