Introduction to App Development with APIs for Nokia Maps and Location Services for Series 40 Phones

Source http://www.developer.nokia.com   Consumers around the world are actively looking for location-based apps to make their Series 40 phones smarter, easier to use, and more relevant to their lives while on the move. The good news is that you can develop great location-based mobile applications using the Maps API for Java ME. With this API you can easily integrate Nokia Maps and location-based services into your apps aimed at a range of Series 40 phones. This webinar will introduce you to the basic skills of displaying and interacting with a map, including zooming and panning. The session also will show you how to add your own content, icons, and markers to take advantage of the API’s versatile event-handling system, enabling users to interact with the displayed content. You’ll also be introduced to the use of related geographic services, such as searching, routing, and sharing locations. The features of the Maps API for Java ME include: Multiple map types optimised for mobile displays – street map, satellite,  transit and terrain views. Reduced latency and less network traffic though built-in intelligent map caching and tiling. Touch support for map panning and zooming. Customisable markers for settingcolour, labels, and images.  Polygons and polylines – set colours and transparency levels. Map components are open to extension to customise and override standard functionality. Standard “out-of-the box” support for KML parsing and for adding custom overlays. Register now for the session most convenient to you: 9 May 8 a.m. London; 10 a.m. Helsinki; 12:30 p.m. Bangalore 10 May 11 a.m. New York; 4 p.m. London; 6 p.m. Helsinki

Build a Series 40 Web App in One Hour Series 40 web apps are easy to build, and they make great information and entertainment apps that use frequently-updated content from the Internet. Using web development skills and tools, templates and information available from Nokia Developer, you can create an app in as little as one hour, start to finish. In this webinar, Michael from Futurice will show you how. Michael suggests that you download and install Nokia Web Tools 1.5 before the webinar to get the most out of the session. That's the toolset he will be using in the presentation. You don't need to have it installed to learn a lot, but you'll learn more if you have it handy. * Some attendees will become eligible for a free Nokia Asha 303 by publishing a Series 40 web app. We'll provide all the details during the session. Register now for the session most convenient to you: 3 May 8 a.m. Helsinki; 10:30 a.m. Bangalore, India; 1 p.m. Singapore 8 May 7 p.m. Helsinki; 9:30 p.m. Bangalore, India; midnight Singapore

Samsung Unveils Galaxy S III Smartphone

Samsung Galaxy S lll Smartphone

Source

http://www.pcmag.com

As expected, Samsung today unveiled the next device in its Galaxy lineup, the Galaxy S III.

The smartphone will make its debut in Europe on May 29 and a 4G LTE-optimized version will hit the U.S. market during the summer.

The Galaxy S III boasts a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED 1,280-by-720 display, and runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. It features an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and 1.9-megapixel front-facing one.

Samsung said you can take up to 20 shots on a burst mode, while a new feature known as Best Photo will automatically select the best photo out of a burst of eight.

Samsung acknowledged that 4.8 inches is a large screen, but the company said it significantly narrowed the bezel, so even though the S III is 22 percent larger than the S II, the unit itself did not get much bigger, Samsung said.

Samsung GALAXY S III Smartphone

The smartphone will come in 16GB and 32GB flavors, with a 64GB version expected soon. A microSD slot can expand the Galaxy S III up to 64GB.

The Galaxy S III comes in at 5.3 by 2.7 by 0.3 inches and weighs about 0.3 pounds.

Press materials do not mention the processor, but some reports said the Galaxy S III will run Samsung's new Exynos chip. As explained last month, the ARM Cortex A9-based, 1.4-GHz processor provides double the processing power of its predecessor, the 45nm process-based Exynos 4 Dual, while consuming 20 percent less power.

"Smart" Software Features
During a launch event in London, Loesje De Vriese, head of marketing for Samsung Belgium, talked up some of the Galaxy S III's software features, including "Smart stay," which prevents the device from going to sleep.

"We want to linger on a page without touching it when reading an ebook or long email," De Vriese said. It's "annoying" to have to keep touching the screen or re-enter a password when the screen goes dark.

With Smart stay, the Galaxy S III's front-facing camera "sees us," he said, "and knows whether we are looking or not. It keeps the screen awake for us when we are awake and it sleeps when we sleep."

The smartphone also includes voice-control features, dubbed S Voice. Tell your alarm clock to "snooze," for example, respond to a text message, or launch the camera.

Smart alert, meanwhile, will keep you abreast of who's trying to contact you. If you missed calls or texts while your phone was idle, it will vibrate the next time you touch it.

The device also includes a facial-recognition component that will recognize friends' faces. If you take a photo, for example, and the Galaxy S III recognizes the person in the pic, it will ask you if you want to send a copy of the photo to that friend.

Building on Android Beam, an ICS feature that allows for file-sharing, S Beam will allow for the sharing of a 1GB movie file within three minutes and a 10MB music file within 2 seconds, Samsung said, by touching another Galaxy S III - even without a Wi-Fi or cellular connection.

Sebastian Anthony with PCMag's sister sites Geek.com and ExtremeTech was on hand at today's event in London to snap some photos (above) and get hands-on time with the new smartphone. For more, check out the live blog.

Samsung first tipped its next Galaxy device last month, when it sent out invites for today's event that offered attendees the chance to "come and meet the next Galaxy." Several days later, it released a teaser video for the device that took a shot at its top rival, Apple.

Back in February, Samsung decided not to unveil the Galaxy S III at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, opting to instead show off the Galaxy Beam smartphone plus projector, the Galaxy Note 10.1, and the Galaxy S WiFi 4.2. The company also raised eyebrows by admitting to "not doing very well" in the tablet space.

Samsung first announced the Galaxy S II at MWC 2011, where PCMag got some hands-on time. It didn't hit the U.S. until September for Sprint and October for AT&T and T-Mobile. Verizon did not sign on for the Galaxy S II, opting instead of the Galaxy Nexus, the first smartphone with the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

By February, Samsung announced that it had sold 20 million Galaxy S II devices. Overall, the Galaxy lineup helped Samsung best Apple as the No. 1 smartphone maker in 2011, even with the launch of the iPhone 4S. It continued that trend this quarter, it seems, with several analysts saying that Samsung beat Apple in the smartphone race during the first few months of 2012.

Samsung Galaxy Note Won't Get Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich Until Q2

Source

http://www.pcmag.com

Another round of devices will be upgraded to Android 4.0 soon. Samsung on Thursday announced that the Galaxy Note will get Ice Cream Sandwich in the second quarter of the year.

Though Samsung previously said ICS would come to the device in the first quarter, it has pushed back the update to an unspecified time in Q2. In the meantime, Samsung is offering a Premium Suite upgrade for Galaxy Note users, which includes a handful of apps compatible with the Note's S Pen.

One of these apps is S Note, a writing app that offers various templates to format notes, scribbles, and digital content into neat packages.

Another pen-optimized app included is Shape Match, which automatically corrects shape. There's also Formula Match, which solves hand-drawn numeric formulas. Additionally, Samsung is dropping My Story, an app that lets users create personalized digital cards using their videos, photos, text, and hand-drawn notes.

Sony has also announced that the Sony Tablet S and the Sony Tablet P will be upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich in April. However, at this point, it only applies to Japan, and it's unclear if and when other countries will get the ICS update.

Samsung started rolling out ICS to its Galaxy S II smartphone in several European countries last week. IT said the update will reach other markets "gradually."

HTC also confirmed ICS updates for 16 of its phones last week, though it did not offer specific dates. However, the first of these, for the HTC Vivid, occurred Thursday. The update also includes Beats by Dr. Dre Audio, an optimized audio experience; an updated HTC Sense Experience; and Face Unlock. Users can visit AT&T's Web site to enable the update. It will be followed by these additional phones over the coming months, AT&T said:

• LG Nitro 

• Motorola ATRIX 2 

• Motorola ATRIX 4G 

• Pantech Burst 

• Pantech Element 

• Samsung Captivate Glide 

• Samsung Galaxy Note 

• Samsung Galaxy S II 

• Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket 

• Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9

Pink Samsung Galaxy Note on the way, will miss Valentine's day

Source
http://www.gsmarena.com

We have always thought of the Samsung Galaxy Note as a male-oriented device, but it turns out we have underestimated it. The phoneblet obviously generates enough interest with the ladies to warrant its own feminine version, colored in Berry Pink.

We got a tip from an industry insider, containing a photo of the upcoming pink version of the Samsung Galaxy Note. Both the front and the back of the device will obviously be repainted, but we aren't sure if the S Pen (which is white in the white version) will get a similar treatment.

Unfortunately, the pink Samsung Galaxy Note won't make it in time for Valentine's day. The first samples of the device will arrive in the 8th week of the year, while public availability is scheduled for Week 9. That's exactly three weeks away now, so the wait won't be long.

World's first mid-call transfer between Voice over LTE and 3G completed by Qualcomm and Ericsson

Engineers at Qualcomm and Ericsson have managed to achieve the world's first mid-call switch between Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and a WCDMA 3G network. The ability to switch between networks seamlessly during a call is a requirement of standards regulator 3GPP, making this an important milestone on the way to making VoLTE available to consumers. The use of VoLTE could significantly lighten the load on 3G networks, and enable carriers to begin using the system even where their LTE coverage isn't widespread — something we heard that Verizon may already be trialing.

The in-call switching relies on two advances, single radio voice call continuity (SRVCC) and circuit-switched fallback technology (CSFB). CSFB is currently already in use in handsets, and is responsible for switching to the 3G modem when a user needs to make a call. The combination of SRVCC and CSFB mean that one radio is capable of handling both 3G and LTE connections, which could also be a major step in overcoming the battery life issues that currently plague many LTE handsets.

Qualcomm will demo the technology — based on its Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 chipset — at Mobile World Congress later this month.

Toshiba Qosmio G35 Most tricked-out multimedia laptop

Laptops toshiba was founded by merging two very popular companies namely Hakunetsusha and Shibaura Engineering Works. These both companies were established in Japan and Shibaura Engineering Works was the one that handled electronics while Japan was transforming into a hi-tech country.

Further Toshiba became the number one electronics manufacturing company not only in Japan but in the entire world and the reason to that was simple, reliability and durability. These two qualities can make any company the most wanted and trustworthy one just like Toshiba. Toshiba started expanding its product when it saw the great response from its customers and market and started manufacturing laptops as well which obviously made them more popular and showed their products are here to stay.

One of the fine laptops Toshiba has ever manufactured is the Toshiba Qosmio G35which is titled to be the best multimedia laptop. Although surprisingly Qosmio lacks a good configuration having a Centrino M740 1.73 GHz which makes it a Pentium 4 with a RAM of 512 MB only and up to 120 GB Hard Drive. The machine still managed to take the spotlight and won the title for best multimedia notebook available in the market. Due to its lacking processor speed Toshiba Qosmio G35 is cheaper than the other laptops with a Core 2 Duo processor ranging from $1000 only.

If You Need to Stay Updated, Find the Best Apps for You

If you need to receive alerts about certain aspects related to your work or your personal life, then finding the best apps that accomplish this for you is one of the most convenient benefits of having a Smartphone. This way, you're not tied to your computer. Since there can be a multitude of apps available, it's good to make your own top top 10 app list to choose from. This you can do by looking at other such lists that experts have published. Cross-referencing a few of them is a good way to narrow down what apps seem to stand out. Still, since these apps need to suit your purposes, if you don't see something that seems best for you, keep looking. I know I actually wasn't completely convinced about a very popular app, and when I looked a little further, I was so pleased to find something just right for me. Nonetheless, I find that it's always good to start with published lists to get an idea of what's out there, what's the latest, and what stands the test of time. It may take a bit of doing, but in the end, the convenience of having just the right apps on your Smartphone will be worth the research.