Mobile Phones News Blog

Research In Motion (RIM) has extended the free PlayBook offer for developers to March 2. Under the offer, which was announced few days back, RIM is offering its PlayBook tablet for free to developers who can successfully port Android based applications to the BlackBerry platform.

RIM also has a similar program for Indian application developers. As a part of the program, Indian developers will also be getting free BlackBerry PlayBooks as their international counterparts. This program is being run by RIM in order to provide the proper platform to the Indian developers for successfully porting application from the Android platform to the BB platform.

“RIM will be providing free BlackBerry PlayBooks to developers in India which will help them in porting and testing of the applications on the BB Platform and in return help us add more Android based applications to the list,” Annie Mathew, head of alliances and developer relation at RIM in India, had told The Mobile Indian earlier.

Now with the international program getting extended by few weeks, it is highly possible that RIM will also extend the deadline for India as well. Notably, the deadline for Indian developers to submit their applications ended yesterday (February 13).

Through this program, BlackBerry has benefitted a lot and over 1500 Android applications have been submitted which RIM will now review to get them ported to its BB platform. Looking at the bigger picture here, developers alone are not being benefitted as the end users of the BB platform will be harvesting the fruits as they will now surely get bigger and more elaborate application catalogs.

The ported application may be added to the BB platform with the release of the new BlackBerry 2.0 operating system which is set to be released in just about a couple of days.

ViewSonic, a consumer electronics maker, has launched a new Android 2.3 based tablet in India for just Rs 13,000.

Named as Viewpad 7e, the 7 inch tablet comes in a pearl white finish. The tablet has a 4:3 aspect ratio, which according to company claims is better suited for eBooks and applications. It also boasts a rubberised grip and shatter proof screen.

The tablet comes with dual cameras, with rear camera at 3 megapixel resolutions and a front VGA camera. ViewPad 7e also supports HDMI output so you can connect with your TV set as well. The tablet will be available starting 9th of this month at all leading stores in India including Reliance Digital stores for a price of Rs 13,000.

Viewpad 7e has a 1 GHz processor and will fully support videos of HD 1080p resolution. The tab has 4 GB internal storage capacity that can be expanded up to 32 GB with a micro SD card.

Announcing the launch of the tablet, Ajay Sharma, country manager, ViewSonic India said, “ViewPad 7e delivers a powerful entertainment experience at an affordable price. It’s the newest addition to our ViewPad tablet series, which are equipped with the latest high-performance technologies.”

ViewSonic’s ViewPads have garnered positive reviews worldwide, and have even been recognised by the European media as some of the best tablets on the market.

According to the company statement: “The Viewpad 7e comes with a book-like cover, and is the ideal multimedia tablet for students or businesspeople who enjoy reading books, watching videos and playing games on the go. Built-in Bluetooth and WiFi capability allow users to download their favourite YouTube videos, games and music”. =

Nivio, a cloud service provider, has launched a new service that will allow users to access their Windows based PCs through tablets and smartphones. The new service, named nDesktop, will be available for Android phones and tablets running OS version 2.3 and above, iPhone 4 and above, and iPads. It can also be accessed through HTML-5 compatible browsers.

“The nDesktop allows users to switch on and access a full Windows desktop from all their devices in less than 30 seconds,” Nivio said in a press release.

Besides, Nivio has announced two new services. With the new Nivio nDrive, users can create a document using their laptop, save it, then edit it with their iPad at home or work offline and synch the files later. nDrive lets you share files, pictures and other docs with friends and coworkers.

Users also benefit from the new nApp Store. The app store has some free apps like Adobe Acrobat, while others are paid. Users will need to log in through simple User name and password to access all that they have on their desktops.

Currently Nivio is offering beta users a special launch promotion of nDesktop for up to 10 hours at $5 (Rs 250 approximately) per month with an additionally discounted price for students at $2 (Rs 100 approximately). This promotion also includes 10 GB of free storage and nDrive to ensure users can effortlessly synchronise their data across all their devices.

The services will be available from 14th of next month.

India specific pricing of the services has not been announced, though the services can be used anywhere in the world. India specific pricing would certainly be better at attracting users to the service.

Nivio has many India connections including a co-founder of Indian origin and many Indian developers working from New Delhi.

World’s largest handset maker, Apple may come out with the fifth generation iPhone 5 this summer (April), according to a report published on a website.

Quoting sources at Foxconn, which manufacturers iPhone for Apple, the website (9to5mac.com) said, “We received word from a reliable source at Foxconn in China that the iPhone 5, as it is currently being called, is now gearing for production. The source said various sample devices are also floating around (they vary slightly from one another), so it is impossible to tell which one will be the final.”

As per the report, the Apple iPhone 5 may have a 4 inch display and would have a different form factor (design) than its older cousins (iPhone 4S and 3G S etc). The upcoming device would be longer and wider, the report added.

Despite the rise of Android, Apple has managed to keep growing. Infact, according to a research, Apple has managed to grow its market share last year significantly to become the world’s largest handset maker. The release of iPhone 5 is expected to give its sales a further boost.

Apple’s iPhone 4S was launched in India in November 2011, a month after it was released in the USA. So, if the company releases iPhone 5 in April, we can expect it to come to India probably by June.

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