Siri in Google

Google is expected to announce its own voice-controlled assistant for Android on June 27th. With Google's vast language resources this new rival has huge potential.

Google, the company behind Android, is expected to release its own voice assistance capability for Android at this week's I/O conference.
While Android already has, though slightly limited, a voice assistant in the form of Android Voice Actions system, this new product which has been code-named Majel is expected to be a significant one.

HTC on Saturday hinted at a possible Siri rival through its Twitter and Facebook page, Samsung already has something called S-Voice recently released on the Samsung Galaxy SIII, even LG week revealed Quick Voice, a personal voice-control assistant which features natural-language processing technology, to let its smartphone users search, write emails and so on-with built-in support for interactivity with 11 apps at its start, though right now it's confined to Korea. Even our home grown Micromax has rolled out something called AISHA.
While Siri on iPhone is by far most praised voice assistance service, if Google manages to use its resources well, this new product will have fabulous capabilities. Google has capabilities in almost all the spoken language in the world and a deep understanding of them thanks to its Translation engines and ample research that has already gone behind this capability.
But then knowing a language and using that knowledge to devise a new application are two entirely different things. But given Google's track record in creating technologies, we are very hopeful of a well made and useful application that can potentially be a game changer especially given the fact that it will bring voice activation tech to the masses as Android phones are much cheaper than that of iPhone.

Micromax Funbook

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MRP: 6499

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Digit Rating: Average

3/5

Features:

Performance:

Value:

Design:

PROS

• 1.2GHz processor
• 1080p MP4 playback
• Android 4.0 ICS
• Very slim design

CONS

• Touchscreen performance is underwhelming
• Screen is easily susceptible to glare

Summary

The Micromax Funbook is the cheapest ICS budget tablet to hit the streets at Rs. 6,499. Its biggest compromise when compared to the competition is the build and the battery. The screen too is a bit disappointing. Having said that, this is the slimmest budget ICS tablet available today. The 1080p MP4 playback was smooth and games like Angry Birds Space and Pool Master ran well. If you are in the market to pick up a budget tablet and are on a really tight budget, you can consider the Micromax Funbook.

Bye-bye Windows: Dell launches laptops with Ubuntu OS in India

On the same day as Microsoft announced its own foray into the hardware turf via its tablet computer called Surface, Dell has decided to launch personal computers in India loaded with Ubuntu.
Ubuntu, is a widely used Linux-based open source software and Dell India, along with Canonical Ltd., the UK-based owner, has decided to sell personal computers based on it.
In a statement, Canonical Ltd., which is the sponsor of Ubuntu software project, said that it has “entered into agreement with Dell to sell PCs loaded with Ubuntu”. The Ubuntu OS will be loaded on Dell laptops and netbooks only.
“The machines — including the new Inspiron 14R and 15R — will be available with Ubuntu pre-installed from June 21 and more models are slated for release later in the year,” Canonical CEO Jane Silber told reporters.

Screengrab

Dell, at present, sells PCs loaded with proprietary Microsoft Windows operating system, which is a paid software.
“The Ubuntu loaded PCs will be sold in 850 retail outlets in India,” Silber said. She added that the deal is part of company’s strategy to increase penetration in India market.
“Our focus is to build private cloud computing system for business houses in India. There is huge opportunity for companies to reduce their cost by deploying Ubuntu by replacing their proprietary OS,” Silber said.
So what exactly are the advantages with Ubuntu? Well more than being a free operating system, it is also relatively stable, much faster, virus-free and very similiar to Apple’s Unix based OS. Ubuntu is based on the Debian Linux distribution.
The cool thing about Ubuntu is that most updates and bugs are fixed by a community of coders and developers, who’ve been contributing to the project. Users have the option of installing Ubuntu simultaneously along with their Windows OS and choosing which one to run while booting up.
It’s interesting that Dell has gone for Ubuntu on the same day as Microsoft launched a tablet PC, Surface. The free-operating software revolution which is has been restricted to geeks and tech junkies will finally be going mainstream with Dell releasing Ubuntu loaded computers.
But will average users like the new OS? Will unfamiliarity doom the ‘commercial success’ of Ubuntu? Hopefully not because Ubuntu does have some serious edge over a regular Windows OS in terms of how convenient it can be. It’s very hard to lose data with Ubuntu, a problem that plagues many Windows users.  With Ubuntu-developers creating various apps to run Windows applications on Ubuntu, the switch shouldn’t be so difficult.

ISC Result 2012

ISC Result

The board would declare the results of the ISC (Class XII) Examinations on around May 19, 2012 at 3 PM IST.

Indian School Certificate (Class XII) Examination, 2012

How to Check Results?

Through Internet
List of websites where ISC results will be available:

• http://www.cisce.ndtv.com
• http://www.cisce.timesofindia.com
• http://www.cisce.navbharattimes.com
• http://www.cisce.indiaresults.com

School Principals have been given personalized passwords to view their respective school results.
Through SMS

• In the Message box, enter your index number in the following way:-
• If your index number is B/8531/009 then type: ISC B8531009
• Now send the message to any one of the following numbers to get your result.

51818,  56263,  58888,  5676750, 56677, 56388, 54242, 5782728
The result will be displayed in the following format viz:
SAURABH NANDA ENG-98,HIN-87,EED-97,HCG-95,MAT-98, SCI-90,CTA-100,SUPW-A,PCA
Good Luck!

Adobe photoshop CS6

Adobe India has unveiled the latest version of its Creative Suite of applications, CS6, aimed at artists and creative professionals. The suite includes latest versions of popular apps like Photoshop, InDesign and others.

CS6 applications are available individually or as part of 4 different suites, each aimed at a different kind of professional. The entry level suite is the Design Standard, which includes four of the most popular Adobe apps, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat X Pro as well as two supplementary apps, Bridge and Media Encoder. While Bridge is a manager for digital assets like photographs, Media Encoder automates the process of creating multiple encoded versions of source files.

Design and Web Premium suite features Photoshop extended instead of Photoshop and adds the three popular web authoring tools Adobe acquired from Macromedia, Flash Professional, Dreamweaver and Fireworks. The Production Premium suite is aimed at video-editing professionals and includes Photoshop, Illustrator, in addition to video-focussed tools like Flash Professional, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, SpeedGrade, Prelude, Encore and Story. The Master Collection suite includes all the aforementioned apps.

Pricing for the suites vary from Rs. 77,786 for the Design Standard suite up to 1,55,571 for the Master Collection suite. Competitive upgrade pricing is offered as well for existing CS existing customers (see table below).



For the first time, customers in India can buy CS online, by logging onto the Adobe India online store. Adobe promises to ship CS6 orders staring May 7th.

Coming to the individual applications, Adobe Photoshop CS 6 sports an improved interface that bundles a host of new features that are sure to save creative professionals a lot of time. The content-aware patch and move tools, in particular, will continue to wow users with its effectiveness every time it's used. Read more about all the new features in Photoshop CS6 in our hands-on.

The standout feature in InDesign CS6 is the all-new layout system. InDesign CS6 lets you quickly layout your content for various devices/ screen sizes/ orientations with minimum of effort. For the first time, InDesign comes with support for 10 Indian languages including Hindi, Marathi and Tamil.
Users also have the option to buy the popular apps individually.

Sony launches 34 new Cyber-shot cameras

Sony India has announced the launch of its new Cyber-shot cameras in the country. Part of H, W and S series, these cameras comes with features like Steadyshot, enhanced low-light performance and fast auto-focus.The new Cyber-shot range comprises of total 34 models with at least 8 models offering Super High-Zoom up to 30X. Another eight cameras in the series feature compact High-Zoom with 10X, thus allowing the consumers to capture the smallest of details even from a distance.
"The High-Zoom in our new Cyber-shot line-up helps capture exceptional picture quality and great detail, even when zoomed in considerably, thus being an absolute delight to photography connoisseurs," said Masaru Tamagawa, Managing Director, Sony India.
The new Cyber-shot range will be available from Rs. 5,490 to Rs.27,990 at all major retailers across the country in various colour options.
As part of its marketing strategy, Sony also plans to pump in an investment of Rs. 50 crore towards a multi-media brand campaign in the country.

New Rs 5,399 homegrown tablet to compete with Aakah

New Rs 5,399 homegrown tablet to compete with Aakash

Apr 25, 2012

Another low cost tablet priced at just Rs.5,399 is all set to give the government’s Aakash tablet some stiff competition.
The new Tablet PC, named Attitude Daksha, was launched in Kerala by Telmoco Development Labs Pvt on Tuesday.

The Daksha Attitude is a 7-inch tablet with a 5-inch capacitive touch screen

The 7-inch Daksha features a capacitive 5 point touch screen with a 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor with 512 MB DDR3 RAM. It has a HDMI port, Micro SD slot, 3.5 mm audio out, Micro USB port and OTG connector for 3G Dongle and RJ 45lAN cable.
A statement by the manufacturers said Daksha is capable of 1080p full HD video streaming and has dedicated 400 MHzGPU for advanced flash Apps, Interactive Apps and full HD videos. Daksha is powered by 3,800 mAh li-Pol battery which gives a back up of over 6 hours with WiFi on.
“Even though the Indian media tablets market witnessed high decibel launches by the world’s leading vendors, the Tablet PC market in India is a niche market that is quickly picking up the pace in terms of adoption,” said C.R. Nijesh, chairman and executive director, Telmoco at the launch.
Telmoco Development labs Pvt ltd is a company initiated in electronics research and mobile technologies.
Attitude Daksha is initially set off to launch at schools, professional institutions, and corporate houses and will be available to the public from 15 May.
IANS