Blue Bugle: Mobile, Desktop & Web Technologies

Since both of the top spots in mobile operating system world have been occupied by Apple iOS and Android, there is only a chance for a third position for one of these operating systems—BlackBerry 10, released very recently, and Windows Phone 8. In terms of the number of apps and their actual worth, new operating systems do not compare well with iOS and Android. Let’s analyze the apps and their usability in these new platforms. The Number of Apps Android has 650,384 apps according to Appbrain, at the time I am writing this article. Apple iOS leads and as of Jan 7, Apple has reported 775,000 apps out of which 300,000 are native iPad apps. Let’s see where Microsoft’s Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10 stand in terms of app statistics. Microsoft has three operating systems—Windows 8 for regular PCs and laptops, Windows RT specifically for tablets, and Windows Phone 8 for smartphones. Although there have always been talks about bridging the gap between RT and Windows Phone 8, we wil...

Sony has been making and marketing tablets since April, 2011 . The Japanese tech giant made an entry into the Android tablet world with Sony Tablet S with the folded-newspaper design and Tablet P having two 5.5 inch displays. The entry however has not been quite profitable for Sony. Here is IDC’s global market share of tablets up until the fourth quarter of 2012, and in the statistic, Sony doesn’t even have its name. Apple and Samsung are the only OEMs turning any real profit out of tablet business. In these extreme conditions, Sony is coming up with a new tablet, Xperia Tablet Z. Xperia Tablet Z has been unveiled officially in the Mobile World Congress, Barcelona yesterday. Just as Sony’s upcoming flagship, Xperia Z smartphone , Tablet Z is also waterproof. Let’s check out the new tablet from Sony and see whether it can be a really good buy or not, based on the available data. Technical Specifications First of all, let’s check out the technical specifications of Xper...

Right when you were confused as to which small tablet to buy, here is Samsung with Note 8.0, the mid-range S-pen-included version of the popular Note series. You probably know about Note II  and Note 10.1, the other two in the Galaxy Note family. While Note II has carved a special niche for itself in the form of a phablet, Note 10.1 hasn’t quite been a favorite. The specialty of Notes is the added S-pen for note-taking. Note 8.0 is no different. Also, with an 8 inch slim screen, it takes Apple iPad Mini head on; we were not fond of iPad Mini  from the beginning anyway. Galaxy Note 8.0 was launched in the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Here is a look at the device, thanks to Engadget: In this article, let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of Galaxy Note 8.0 and see whether it is a good buy or not. Technical Specifications Here are the announced tech specs of the device. When it actually comes out, the specifications could change. Here I have, a compari...

Whoa! Look at that! That is a complete 360° panoramic image of the city of London. It just doesn’t end there. To get the amazing experience of looking at the city as a whole, just visit BTLondon . There you go! The people behind this amazing 320-gigapixel photograph of London are from British Telecom and a largely less known company that takes panoramic images of major world cities, 360Cities . That company does have a number of images and virtual tours that you can check out. This panorama was created to celebrate the financial performance of BT. 320 Gigapixel is not simple or small. It is huge. Do you know the actual size of the images that you capture with your smartphone camera (8 MP or 13 MP)? Those images could easily be larger than the display of your desktop computer. A 320 Gigapixel image, by our calculations, could be print on a sheet of 1885.62 inches in length and width, assuming a perfect square. That is a 157 feet long image. The panorama of London shows everything...

You have probably read about Ubuntu for smartphones in our earlier article about it. This is a groundbreaking new operating system that comes to smartphones from Canonical (the maker of Ubuntu). Ubuntu is one of the most popular of Linux distributions out there, among desktop computers. Now the platform is coming to smartphone world with the release of Ubuntu smartphones. Yesterday, as expected, the developer preview of the OS was made available, with the source code and details of installing it on your phone. The version currently available is known as Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview. And this is important—Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview is only for developers and Ubuntu enthusiasts who want to try it out in real. It is not for an average smartphone user who doesn’t have good working knowledge of mobile operating systems. Supported Phones & Tablets Currently, Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview is supported only on Google’s Nexus line of devices, specifically Galaxy Nexus (Samsung...

Here we are back with the whether-or-not-to-buy series. Today’s topic is Google’s new Chromebook Pixel. This is the first ever touch-enabled Chromebook. We have already looked at Samsung’s Google Chromebooks . Google’s Chromebook Pixel is the latest addition to the Chromebook line. We will check out the details of it here. Tech Specs Google Chromebook Pixel has some awesome technical features. We have a comparison here with another Chromebook, Samsung Chromebook 550. Feature Google Chromebook Pixel Samsung Chromebook 550 Notes Display 12.85 inch 2560x1700 px at 239 ppi (multi-touch) protected with Gorilla Glass 12.1 inch (1280x800) Chromebook has better than Retina display  (Apple MacBook Pro with Retina is 227 ppi) Processor Intel Core i5 3427U dual-core 1.8 GHz Dual-core Intel Celeron 1.3 GHz Graphics Intel HD 4000 Intel HD 4000 RAM 4 GB DDR3 4 GB DDR3 ...

On Twitter, the #IfIHadGlass hashtag is going strong with about a tweet every two seconds. If you don’t know about it, it is the hashtag used to inform Google about your desire to get your hands on Google Glass, wearable computing solution from Google. In this article, let’s take a deep look at Google Glass and know how the experience will be. To start with, here, take a look at some of the tweets… Tweets about "#ifihadglass" Please enable JavaScript A Brief History of Wearables It all started with an abacus ring pioneered by the Chinese Quing dynasty in the 1600’s. In the 80’s and 90’s we got to see quite a number of wearable innovations. A few of them are here. In the early 80’s, Dr. Steve Mann, one of the pioneers of wearable computing, invented this largely unappealing apparatus. Rig could be worn, but as you can imagine it is quite easy to go around without it. But again, it was in the 80’s. In the 90’s Steve Mann came up with other inventions, which were a bi...

It was touted to be HTC M7 everywhere. I did a tiny research as to where the name came from. On Nov 29 last year, Taiwanese news channel, Focus Taiwan published a story  in which was mentioned about a flagship HTC phone to be released in the first quarter of 2013, before the launch of Samsung Galaxy S IV. They called the device M7. Later on, we identified M7 could just be a codename for the smartphone within HTC circles. During the time when the launch date was confirmed (Feb 19), there were news about the actual name of the phone to be HTC One. No, not One X, just One! HTC One was released yesterday in an event by HTC in Taiwan. We will check out the details of HTC One and see how great a buy it is. Technical Specifications Here are the basic tech specs of HTC One. Feature HTC One Display 4.7 inch SLCD 3 FHD (1080p); 468 ppi Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core 1.7 GHz Operating System Android Jelly Bean 4...