Blue Bugle: Mobile, Desktop & Web Technologies

Have you wondered recently how Apple is progressing in terms of technical advancements? When Steve Jobs released the first version of iPhone and iPad, and other legendary products like iPod, I have never had any doubt about the technical supremacy of Apple. It’s capability to compete with other products in the niche has been tremendous. However, now I believe Apple is riding on that respect and repute created during Jobs’ reign, because all that they are doing is creating not-so-appealing products or doing absurd innovation. Why else would they release a lesser iPad with a big price tag? Apple iPad Mini was released with average features at an absurdly big price tag of 329 dollars (starting). The Tech Specs Here are the technical specifications of this new iPad. Display 7.9 inch LED IPS, 1024x768 (163ppi) Processor 1 GHz ARM-Cortex A9, Apple A5 chip Camera 5MP Memory 512 MB RAM Storage 16/32/64 GB Battery 16.3 Wh, up to 10 hours of use Dimensions 7.87x5.3x0.28 inc...

Apple is hours away from releasing its iPad’s more affordable, more portable version today—iPad Mini. This is a seven-inch Apple tablet that has iOS 6 and other features which we will know soon. Here we will look at an assortment of mini tablets out there that will compete with iPad Mini. Amazon Kindle Fire HD Arguably the most atrocious competitor to Apple iPad Mini, Amazon Kindle Fire HD had been released recently . This is a significant upgrade to Amazon’s popular tablet. Here are the technical specs. Display 7 inch 1280 X 800 HD TFT IPS Processor 1.2 GHz dual-core Storage 16/32 GB Battery 11 hours per charge Wi-Fi Dual-band unlike iPad and Google Nexus Input 10-point multi-touch Dimensions 193x137x10.3 mm 395 gm Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 The most important tablet project by Samsung, Galaxy Tab is now in second generation with this 7 inch tablet. Besides this, Samsung ha...

In two versions, Microsoft is releasing its premier operating system—Windows 8. These versions are Windows 8 and Windows RT . MS has entirely revamped the OS making it look different from all the previous versions of Windows. Windows 8’s stability and performance in 64-bit computers, Microsoft says, has been improved from Windows 7. Windows 8 supports both tablet computers that work on ARM architecture as well as x86 and x64 systems that have regular Intel and AMD microprocessors. Windows RT will power such ARM tablets like Microsoft Surface and smartphones. In this article, let me introduce you to some of the new features available in Windows 8. 1. The All-New Home Screen If you are familiar with Windows Phone 7, then you are familiar with the Metro user interface. The interface of Windows 8 and Windows RT come with the Metro style interface that include ‘live’ tiles that update based on information available. The tiles can be weather updates, social media updates (Twitte...

Google Chromebook is a lightweight notebook from Google that uses the Google Chrome operating system. Yesterday, in an event conducted in San Francisco, Google unveiled the latest Chromebook, manufactured by Samsung that retails for just 249 dollars . Here is a video from Google: The notebook is entirely based on the cloud computing platform of Google known as Drive, operated through Chrome OS. In this article, let us look at the details of Chromebooks and Chromeboxes. Samsung Chromebook Look at the images of the current Samsung Chromebook  from various angles. Along with Chromebooks, Samsung has released Chromeboxes that compete directly with Apple Mac Mini. Ports on your Chromebook Special keys on the keyboard Samsung Chromebox Google Chrome Operating System Chromebook runs entirely on Google Chrome OS. The notebook is not only thin and light, but it contains absolutely no bloatware. All you get with it is the operating system based entirely on Google Chr...

Today, most of the smartphones out there use rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries. They are found not only on cell phones, but on digital cameras, portable music players, and a lot of other electronic gadgets. The major advantages of this type of phone battery are that they have high energy density, high power output, and long lifespan. These advantages make Lithium-ion batteries perfect for portable electronic gadgets. If you ever had confusion as to what these batteries are and what their specifications meant (stuff like mAh, charging time, etc), then let me clarify these details here. The Basic Chemistry Look at the image that illustrates the compounds within a typical Lithium-ion battery. I have tried to speak as low-tech chemistry as possible here. At the base of all these batteries is the basic metal, Lithium (Li). This is a soft, light metal of the alkali metal group, which means this metal is very reactive and difficult to preserve. The optimum reactivity of Lithium ...

Windows Phone 8 operating system will be released by the end of this month. Microsoft has the event scheduled on 29th of this month. In the coming days, a number of phones will be released all containing Windows Phone 8. With the operating system being highly successful after Microsoft’s hot design strategy and awesome interoperability, device manufacturers are highly ambitious about their devices. HTC, Samsung, and Nokia are all set to reveal their Windows 8 smartphones. Let’s look at some of the hot contenders in this category and see which seems to be the good choice for customers. The Devices Here are the Windows Phone 8 phones expected to be launched in the coming days. Nokia: Lumia 920, Lumia 820 HTC: Windows Phone 8X, 8S Samsung: ATIV S Hardware Specifications Being Microsoft’s preferred choice of device manufacturers, Nokia came up with the first breakthrough device after the failure of Symbian, with the Lumia series. Now, they have two phones coming, ...

The next generation of Microsoft Windows comes in two flavors—Windows 8 and Windows RT—unlike all of the previous versions. There are significant differences between them. Windows 8 is the regular upgrade to the desktop operating system, while RT is a new version that incorporates the features of Windows 8. Although RT is just a name, some say it stands for ‘Runtime’. Let’s look at the differences between these operating systems. Hardware Support Do you know about the ARM architecture? It is the most widely used 32-bit computer architecture. It is the same architecture that any Android device uses. The same architecture is used on Apple iPhone, iPad, iPod, etc. They form the basis of other operating systems like Symbian, Solaris, MeeGo, HP WebOS, Solaris, and most of the Linux operating systems. Microsoft has had only limited support for ARM architecture through Windows CE, Windows Mobile, etc. The new Windows RT is the most important release of Windows that works on ARM devi...

Have you ever had trouble sending an email to a distant relative who speaks a different language altogether? It has never been easy on email applications to send messages in other languages. Google’s popular email service, Gmail has come up with transliteration tools and other language input tools to make the service much better. You can type using Gmail interface in any language that you want. First of all, you need to select the languages that you want to use in composer. For this, go to Gmail settings and you will see the ‘Language’ option under General. Here, go to advanced language options and put a check mark to ‘Enable input tools’. Here, you can transliterate (type in English the words in other languages to have them appear in correct script), use a virtual keyboard, or edit your input method with the help of a regular keyboard to convert words into other alphabet. Transliteration feature was available although limited in Gmail. Select the input tools from the list by d...