Nokia launches Asha 305 and Asha 311 feature phones, with 40 free EA games

Nokia has added to its existing lineup of Asha phones with two new models, the Asha 305 and the Asha 311 in India. The Asha 305 is priced at Rs. 5,029 whereas the Asha 311 is priced at Rs. 7,139.

The Nokia Asha 305 and 311 were first announced in June along with the Asha 306 that was expected to be announced today but didn't make the cut.

Nokia Asha 311

The Nokia Asha 311 boasts of a 3-inch scratch resistant capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 400x240 pixels. The device has 256MB internal storage of which 100MB is available to the user. The storage is expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card. The device is quite lightweight, weighing a mere 95 grams. Under the hood, the Asha 311 is powered by a 1GHz processor and runs on an 1110mAh battery. The rear of the device houses a 3.2MP camera and the device doesn't have a front facing camera.

Nokia Asha 305

The Nokia Asha 305 on the other hand is a dual-SIM phone. The SIM cards are hot swappable meaning that you don't need to switch off the device or remove the back cover to insert the SIM cards. The phone also boasts of a 3-inch touch screen but it is resistive in nature. The Asha 305 has internal storage of just 10MB but it is expandable via a microSD card up to 32 GB. The device has a 2MP rear snapper and weighs a mere 98.3 grams. 

Both the devices boast of a new Nokia swipe user interface, a browser that boasts of cloud acceleration and 40 free EA games including the likes of Tetris, Bejeweled, Need for Speed: The Run, Fifa 12 and more.

Announcing the latest Asha Touch range, Mr. Viral Oza, Director Marketing, Nokia India, said, “The Nokia Asha family has received tremendous consumer response. With a variety of form factors across price points and innovations such as Nokia Browser, Nokia Maps and DRM free Nokia Music, Nokia Asha family has triggered data consumption habits in first time data users. With the launch of Nokia Asha Touch range, we are strengthening our range of ‘mobile internet’ devices that offer these exciting experiences to the consumers.”

The latest Nokia Asha devices were launched by India’s ace racer, Karun Chandhok. “I spend most of my time on the road and this is a great device for me to stay connected with my friends and loved ones. Being a gaming enthusiast, I am impressed by the EA Games package on these devices. With these devices, Nokia again has launched a winner true to its legacy,” said Karun Chandhok.

Mr. Viral Oza, Director Marketing, Nokia India and F1 racer Mr. Karun Chandhok at the press conference, launching Nokia Asha 311 and 305 mobile phones.

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Amazon joins social gaming segment with Living Classics

mazon has forayed into the social gaming segment with the launch of a new Facebook game  – Living Classics. The company has also announced a new division - Amazon Game Studios, which will be releasing more social games in the future. 

Amazon's first title on the social network on Tuesday and is available for free to all Facebook users. Living Classics is basically a simple literature-themed puzzle game. Users are shown illustrations of scenes based on classic books. To bag points, which are known as cash and coins in the game, users need to spot and click moving objects on the screen. 

The game introduces a number of storybook characters, including some from Alice in Wonderland. Amazon, however, hints Classics could  refer to more than just books, one of the official Living Classics Facebook fan page shows two X-Files characters.

Living Classics for Facebook features a number of opportunities to play and share the game with friends on the social networking website. Users can also pay for collecting cash, a dollar is supposed to give five points of cash currency, while $100 gives you 660.

"We know that many Amazon customers enjoy playing games - including free-to-play social games - and thanks to Amazon's know-how, we believe we can deliver a great, accessible gaming experience that gamers and our customers can play any time," the company said in a statement.

To  know more about the game, check out Living Classics' Facebook fan page. Also have a first look at Living Classics, watch Amazon's game trailer below.

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MapmyIndia launches CarPad 5, a 5-inch Android-based 3G navigator tablet

MapmyIndia today announced the launch of CarPad 5, part of the next generation of MapmyIndia’s connected car products. The company calls the CarPad 5 an all-in-one GPS navigator, smartphone and 3G tablet.

The Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread CarPad 5 runs on a 1GHz Cortex A8 Samsung processor, and features built-in 3G, Bluetooth, GPS / aGPS, and Wi-Fi connectivity. It has a 5-inch capacitive touchscreen, with a resolution of 800x480 pixels, and everything is powered by a 2,000 mAh battery.

Like other recent MapmyIndia navigation devices, the CarPad 5 will featuring Aura, MapmyIndia’s full 3D GPS navigation interface. Aura also provides real-time traffic updates, house level search, security (track and trace), discount offers in the vicinity, etc.

Rakesh Verma, Managing Director, MapmyIndia, spoke on the launch of the product: “After the success of MapmyIndia CarPad, which endorses our view that that there is a strong demand for in-car productivity gadgets, we present the next-generation CarPad 5 to Indian consumers. MapmyIndia has always strived towards making car travel convenient, comfortable and productive. The CarPad 5 is one of the many in-car productivity gadgets we plan to launch in the near future.”

The MapmyIndia CarPad 5 has been priced at Rs 19,990, which includes the CarPad 5 device 4GB SD card memory CarPad windshield mount and Car charger. MapmyIndia CarPad 5 is available for sale, online at http://www.mapmyindia.com/store.

 

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ICE X Electronics launches ICS-based ICE Xtreme 7 tablet, at Rs. 6,999

ICE X Electronics is the new company which launched its maiden offering - a 7-inch Android 4.0 based tablet called the ICE Xtreme 7.

Sporting an Allwinner A10 SoC which has a 1GHz processor, the ICE Xtreme 7 will have 1 GB of DDR3 RAM with a capacitive touchscreen with 5-touch input capability alongwith a whopping 4700 mAh Li-ion battery. It comes with a variety of ports such as a dedicated USB port (for adding a 3G dongle), a mini USB port, an HDMI port (no HDMI cable is bundled) and a microSD card slot. It lacks a rear camera, but has a front facing 2 MP camera. The ICE Xtreme 7 will be joining the club of budget ICS tablets, available for Rs. 6999. It provides a nice leather cover to go with the tablet.

The company also announced plans to launch the world's first wireless charging tablet (which will incorporate the Qi wireless charging pad) called the ICE Xtreme-II and a pico PC to transform any household TV to an Android 4.0 OS sporting smart computing device. These products are expected to hit the market in the coming months.

Commenting on the occasion, Mr. Ravi Jakhar, Founder and Managing Director, ICE X Electronics said, “ICE X Electronics has entered the Indian market while it is still maturing. Though there are a large number of players in this field, in a country of a billion people, the market also has a potential to easily grow at over 2 million pieces per annum.”

First Impressions

We got a little hands-on time with the ICE Xtreme 7 and on first glance it looks like the many budget tablets that are out there in the market. Maybe it's the screen resolution and quality which causes us to think that way. The touch response was quite good though and we did not notice any lag while swiping through pages. The leather casing which it comes in does hold the tablet steady and you can also set it up at an angle if you want to view movies, thanks to a flap on the rear side.

Due to the tablet holding clip on top right hand corner, some of the buttons on the top edge get covered and we ended up pressing the screen-lock key accidentally while taking the tablet out of the casing. It comes pre-bundled with over 20 apps and there are around 100 apps stored on its memory which a user may or may not install on the tablet. We will do a detailed review of the tablet soon.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 Ice Cream Sandwich update starts rolling out

Samsung has started rolling out the Android 4.0 ICS update to the Galaxy Tab 7.7. The downside to the update is that users cannot download it Over The Air (OTA). Users of the device will have to download Samsung’s Kies PC software for Windows, connect the device and look for the Android 4.0 install package.  

There is however another downside. Only users in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain, and the UK who have the device with model numbered GT-P6800 will be able to grab the software update. The Galaxy Tab 7.7 GT-P6810 is listed on Samsung’s official updating list and should get the ICS update soon. 

Out of the box, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 ran on Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb, has a 1.4GHz dual-core processor, has a 3MP rear facing camera and a 2MP front facing camera and weighs about 340gms. The device also boasts of the ability to make calls. The Galaxy Tab 7.7 comes in three storage variants – 16GB / 32GB / 64GB.  

Samsung’s recently launched tablet, the Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 2, is a 7-inch tablet that run on ICS straight out of the box. If you are interested in picking up the device, 

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Nokia may announce Windows Phone 8 devices in September

Nokia may unveil its smartphones running Windows Phone 8 at Nokia World 2012, which will be held in September.  

The information comes from a Bloomberg report which says, “Nokia plans to announce Windows Phone 8-based handsets as early as next month at its Nokia World event -- ahead of an expected Sept. 12 unveiling of the next version of the iPhone -- and have them for sale before the year-end holiday shopping season, said a person with knowledge of the matter, asking not to be identified because the plan isn’t public. Officials at Nokia declined to comment on the timing of its next Windows Phone handsets.” 

The expected devices may be called the Lumia 910 and Lumia 920. 

September seems to be a hot month for the smartphone market. Samsung is expected to unveil its second-generation smartphone-tablet hybrid, the Galaxy Note 2 towards the end of August followed by the launch of the 64GB Galaxy S III which will happen in September.  

But the device which may just steal the thunder of the above mentioned devices is the sixth generation iPhone, called the iPhone 5, which is expected to be unveiled on September 12. 

Rumours on the Internet suggest that even though the first devices running Windows Phone 8will be unveiled as early as next month, the devices are expected to hit store shelves in November 2012, before the holiday season in the US.  

Which device are you most excited about? The iPhone 5, Windows Phone 8 powered smartphones or the Galaxy Note 2? Let us know in the comments section below. 

Source: Bloomberg

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Spice launches dual-SIM Stellar Craze at Rs. 6,599

Spice has launched the Stellar Craze, a budget Android smartphone in the Indian market for Rs. 6,599.

Called the Spice Stellar Craze Mi-355, the device was announced back in June, and runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread upgradable to Android 4.0 ICS. It bears a 3.5-inch display with a resolution of 480x320 pixels and runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 processor clocked at 800MHz, coupled with 512MB of RAM. The device comes with 140MB built-in storage, expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card. The device also has a rear-facing 5MP camera and a front-facing 0.3MP camera. A 1420 mAh battery powers the device.

Not only does the device qualify as a budget smartphone, but it also boasts of dual-SIMcapabilities. The device was unveiled in June along with two other devices – the Spice Stellar and the Spice Stellar Horizon.

Spice Stellar Craze Mi-355

The Spice Stellar, also known as the Spice Stellar MI 425, is powered by Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS, which is upgradable to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS). It runs on a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. The Stellar has a 4.0-inch touchscreen. The smartphone also boasts of a 2,000 mAh battery. The smartphone also shows off dual-SIM capabilities, has a 5MP rear camera and a VGA front facing camera. The Spice Stellar is priced at Rs. 9,999. 

The Spice Stellar Horizon, which has a 5-inch touch screen and runs on Google Android 4.0 ICS. It has a 1GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and a dedicated 300MHz GPU. It possesses a 5MP autofocus camera with a 0.3MP front camera. The device also boasts of dual-SIM capability, GPS/A-GPS, Wi-Fi tethering and a 2,150 mAh battery. The Spice Stellar Horizon will be priced at Rs. 11,999.

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