Fly Mobile, one of the pioneers in dual SIM phones in Europe and a brand owned by the Meridian Group, headquartered in UK announced the launch and availability of its all new QWERTY key pad dual-SIM phone, the Fly Circle (model no.B430DS) in India. Fly Circle enables you to connect to multiple instant messaging and social networks as well as use other utilities and applications. It is available for Rs. 3849 /- only.

According to Mr. Prem Kumar, Chief Executive Officer, Fly Mobile (India Operations), “Fly Circle has an unbeatable combination of dual-SIM, QWERTY key pad, Nimbuzz and Snaptu applications bundled in one phone. This sleek and stylish ‘flaunt-it’ phone with multimedia features and all-in-one messenger and all-in-one social networking is sure to become the cynosure amidst all urban and tech-savvy youth in the 18-30 years of age bracket (college and office going), and all who are young at heart, who’d like to use its applications on the go. We want to position it as the final word when it comes to one-stop instant messaging and social networking. It will be launched in the metros and mini-metro cities initially along with all SEC A and B class towns.”

“The corner stone of the brand DNA at Fly Mobile is consumer research. Mobile phone buyers in general were facing the challenge that QWERTY key pad with many instant messaging and social networking features were a tad expensive. This is when Fly as an iconoclast stepped in said WHY NOT? Owing to the feedback that we seek from the market incessantly, we read the pulse well ahead and pressed our global design and development facilities into action to develop a phone as versatile as Fly Circle, one that has it all but still does not burn a hole in your pocket,” adds Kumar.

Fly Circle is powered with Nimbuzz, a new-generation mobile service designed for the online age, making you more mobile. Social networks & communities supported by the multiple award winning Nimbuzz application include Skype, Windows Live Messenger (MSN), GTalk, Yahoo! TM, AIM, MySpace, ICQ, and others.

At the heart of Nimbuzz is the live contact list – an always-on, hyper-connected, dynamic address book, enhanced with “real-time-presence” showing at a glance who’s online, offline, busy or away, their status messages, and social community activity. You can launch IM chat sessions; conduct offline and voice messaging; send photos, videos, music etc., besides various other communication & interactive features. As a Nimbuzz user on Fly Circle you enjoy the freedom of communicating with friends between any internet enabled device, from mobile to mobile, mobile to PC / Mac and vice versa, harnessing the power of the Internet (Wi-Fi, 3G, 2G, GPRS).

Another revolutionary set of applications that’s bound to make Fly Circle a huge hit with the youth is Snaptu. Using Snaptu on Fly Circle, you can plug into Twitter, Facebook, Picasa, Flickr and Google Calendar from anywhere, anytime. Besides this, you can fill those idle moments with a game of Sudoku. And if you can’t get sleep for some reason, a really good way to kill time is the Trivia, an absorbing quick fire quiz. If you happen to be a sports aficionado, Snaptu keeps you updated on cricket and football from anywhere across the world. And if you have the nose for news you can get latest updates from Reuters, BBC, New York Times, Yahoo and hundreds of other credible sources. Not to forget the weather updates from any city in the world!

Interesting features that Fly Circle has which allow it score over the competing brands include wireless FM, scheduled FM record & play, audio player with equalizer, 3.5 mm universal audio jack, internal memory of 10 MB, expandable memory up to 8 GB, 9 hours of talk time, 2.2″ QVGA TFT screen with 262K colours, 1000 contact phonebook, Opera Mini browser for accessing web, display of videos or pictures for certain selected numbers as and when you get a call from them, web camera, privacy protection, and mobile tracker with remote control.

Some of the other features that make this dual-band phone an excellent buy are 1.3 mega pixel camera, video recording and play, 1100 mAH battery, sound recording, call and/or SMS blacklisting for selected numbers, USB charging and Mass storage (can double up as a flash drive as and when required), Bluetooth, Java, phone as a modem, GPRS/WAP/MMS support etc.

Courtesy: Fly Mobile India

We all love the feeling that comes with touching a screen to make it work. That is on of the reasons that touch devices have come so far. But don’ we all hate the smudges and fingerprints that we leave on the device? HP seems to have heard your woes, for it has launched HP “Wall-Of-Touch.”

We were a bit surprised to hear of this technology after CES 2010. HP skipped that reputed platform and recently unveiled their Wall-Of-touch to the Wall Street Journal. Though this technology is aimed at only big businesses and organizations, it has gained a lot of popularity. The Wall of Touch runs on HP’s Z800 workstation. The Wall of Touch is a gigantic wall of multiple touch screens. It has 9 touch screens, each 43 inches across have 1080p resolution. What differentiates it from other touch devices is that it is not much of a ‘touch’ device. It can detect the users’ gesture even when the user brings his hand close to the wall. It has built in cameras and a magnetic strip to detect the users’ intent before his touching the screen. This means that this is one wall which will never get dirty! You can forget the issue of smudges on this touch screen device thanks to HP’s unique concept.

For now this technology is only restricted to big businesses courtesy its $100,000 price tag. NBA, Edelman PR and Continental Airlines are the first companies which have bought the Wall of Touch. Continental Airlines has already installed the Wall of Touch at its terminal at the Houston Airport.  This device has a number of applications for everyone. It can be used for HD Video Conferencing, already making it a favorite for board rooms. Though its price tag is very steep, HP hinted at making it a mainstream product in the next couple of years. It plans to market it in different models, ranging from just small screens to the large Wall of Touch we have just seen. It will cater to the needs of all users and will have a price tag ranging from $2000-$100,000. Probably, we will have to wait for quite some time for it to become a main stream product in India.

Micro Star International (MSI) has come out with the a range of laptops for 2010. It consists of 14 new models across various categories with prices starting at Rs 19,000 to over a lac. MSI is the first brand to announce the launch of Core-family based notebooks in India. Their gaming series – MSI GT640 & GT740, starting at Rs. 88,000/- are equipped with Core i7 processors and discrete graphics from NVIDIA – the Geforce GTS 250 M along with other bells & whistles that come at this price point. This range is clearly aimed at the enthusiast market and should finally give users some options other than Alienware.

The EX series which they peg to be in the Enertaintment category is powered by Intel Core Duo processor and ATI Radeon HD4330 graphics solution. This feels somewhat of a dissapointment as a Core i3 processor was in order here especially when they are priced at Rs. 40,000/- and up which is very close to the Classic series powered by the Core i5 processors. The EX series have LED backlit displays resulting in improved power management. Both the EX and Classic series are light wieght making carrying them around less of a task.

The most popular category of netbooks and ultra light weight notebooks has been well covered by MSI. The X–slim series of ultra-slim line noteooks are based on the CULV platform which is basically a power sipping platform lowering power consumption & increasing battery life significantly. A point worth noting here is the X-slim is less than 1-inch at its thickest point, putting it in the company of likes of Mac Book Air. The MSI Wind U210 and U230 plug in the netbook category powered by dual-core Athlon X2 processor. They have 12-inch screens, HDMI output & support for HD media playback which finally makes netbooks viable for visual entertaintment.

MSI has tied up with consumer electronic chains such as Croma, Reliance Digital & E Zone which should make MSI products easily available which should be hitting the shelves by mid-February.

The Mobile World Congress is fast approaching and all the mobile phone giants are gearing up to display their products in this popular event. All companies, be it hardware or software ones, are working hard to have a successful event.

This event is, maybe, much more important to Microsoft. If rumors are to be believed, Microsoft is coming up with its own phone- The Zune Phone. This phone has been making the rounds of many popular tech websites and blogs by the name of ‘Pink’  phone. This phone, if released at this event, will be the most interesting part to watch out for. What increases the importance of this phone is the fact that it is rumored to be running on the Windows 7 Mobile platform. Windows 7 Mobile is Microsoft’s last hope to survive the Mobile OS market which is fast being dominated by Android, iPhone, Symbian and WebOS. This launch will ensure that Microsoft will be the most nervous company in MWC’s lineup and certainly the most watched out for. The rumor of Windows Mobile 7 has perplexed people who were expecting the launch of Windows Mobile 6.6 at this Mobile World Congress. If the rumors are true, Microsoft may skip on Windows Mobile 6.6 completely or release it for the lower-end phones.

The Zune will have an integrated score feature “Music subscription/purchasing service”. It is also rumored to pack a 5 MP camera with 720p HD video recording. According to some reports, there are two versions of Windows Mobile 7- The Business Edition and the Media Edition. If the same report is to be believed, the Zune Phone will have the Windows Mobile 7 Media Edition.

As the anticipation increases, we must remember that these are, above all, rumors. For all we know, this might turn out to be another cell phone rumor and a great disappointment to Microsoft fans.

Serious Sam: The First Encounter was originally released in 2001 by the now defunct publishers Gathering of Developers. The game was a runaway success due in part to its wicked sense of humor and partly due to developer’s fresh take on what had become a tired genre. This game was released in a time when a game’s engine seemed to matter more than the game itself. Serious Sam was intended to be a tech demo of Croteam’s Serious Engine technology and it was released at a relatively low price. When the game was finally out, it exceeded everyone’s expectations and its critical and commercial success led to release of a sequel the following year. 
After a brief hiatus, Croteam seem poised to make a serious comeback and at the helm of their ship is Serious Sam. As a build up to Serious Sam 3 and to give us a look at the new Serious Engine 3, Croteam are releasing up-scaled versions of the first two Serious Sam games. First one to see the light of day is the HD version of The First Encounter on the PC, through Steams distribution platform.

Croteam has a trademark style of level design with Serious Sam games. At its finest, a level map is generally a huge open space and the enemies attack in waves of ridiculous numbers. For someone who has not played Serious Sam or have started playing FPS only in the last couple of years will find this as quite a novelty. And since Serious Sam is unlike most contemporary shooters that have at least a basic form of cover system, often battling enemies in maps with virtually no cover will test your shooter skills in new ways. It is quite common in Serious Sam to the find yourself engaging a few dozen enemies at the same time and the only form of defense is dodging. Ensuring that you are firing back at a steady pace, most weapons in Serious Sam do not require reloading and there are plenty of health, armor and ammo pick-ups throughout the game’s levels. 
The enemies in the game are minions of an alien overlord called Mental and the battlefield is set in Egypt. Among the pyramids and obelisks you will be battling hordes of undead bovines, headless kamikaze drones, golems, towering level bosses and more. Weapons are a mix of traditional and the queer— among others, there is dual-wield revolvers, shotguns, machine guns, rocket launcher, laser gun, chain-gun and a portable cannon that fires exploding radioactive balls. 

As expected, there are some very obvious graphical improvements and additions in this HD version of the game. Croteam has used the new engine’s capabilities to add greater level of ‘realism’ to building and enemies by using contemporary lighting techniques and higher quality textures and models. Under the hood, the game is identical to the original, which in this case is a good thing. It’s about a single man murdering at genocidal scale and supplementing the bloodshed with wiseass one-liners only seen in Duke Nukem games before this.
You to take Serious Sam a notch higher by joining or hosting online co-operative sessions; however, this is one area where this game disappoints. There was a greater lag than usual during multiplayer sessions and I experienced a recurring glitch where the engine would not render the weapon’s model after switching. Croteam said that they are working on multiple patches for this game and one of these will add support for dedicated servers and deathmatches. Let’s hope that these patches will improve the game’s multiplayer features, because as of now it feels lacking. 

This game should satisfy anyone looking to indulge in some mindless FPS action. However, a word of caution— Serious Sam is an oddity and quite different from what we see in FPS these days. Comparatively, this game’s mechanics are pretty bare bone and it prefers scale over complexity. The HD version is perfect for those who want to revisit an old love and recommended for FPS fans looking for something out of the ordinary.

Rating: 7.5/10

Details
Genre: First Person Shooter
Studio: Croteam
Publishers: Devolver Digital
Platforms: PC (MS Windows, Steam)
Price: USD 19.99 (PC)

System Requirements
OS: Windows XP w/SP1 or newer 
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 3+ Ghz or AMD Athlon64 3500+ 
Memory: 1 GB 
Graphics: nVidia GeForce 7600, ATI Radeon X1600 (Shader Model 3.0 Highly Recommended) 
DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c August 2009 Edition or newer