Talaash (2012) Hindi Movie ScamRip 350MB

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Asus VivoBook U38N laptop is AMD's latest attempt to combat Intel-based Ultrabooks

AMD may be going through what seems like continuous turmoil, but that hasn't kept it from trying to compete with Intel wherever it can. That includes in the world of ultra-thin laptops, where the Ultrabook platform has struggled to catch on with large portions of the notebook market.

AMD's latest salvo against its rival's Ultrabooks is the Asus VivoBook U38N, which has cleared the FCC and should hit these shores officially soon. It features all of the hallmarks of an Ultrabook -- lightweight (3.42 pounds) and super-slim (0.73 inches thick) with a hybrid storage solution (128GB solid state drive and 500GB hard drive) -- but includes an AMD A8-4555M quad-core processor instead of having Intel inside.

The 13.3-inch IPS screen packs 1,980x1,080 full HD resolution with touchscreen capabilities to take advantage of Windows 8's multitouch features. It will also ship with 4GB of RAM and Bang & Olufsen ICEpower audio technology built in. 

One other thing the U38N may have in common with its Ultrabook competition is a high price. It is listed on Amazon's German site with a price tag over 800 euros, which comes to a little more than $1,000. Presumably you're paying a full premium for having a quad-core processor in such a lightweight package, but it won't do much for mainstream buyers used to paying closer to $500 for a new laptop.

Mini-laptops versus netbooks, and other queries

Sarah wants a netbook or mini-laptop for her 16-year-old to take to school, Bob wants to run Windows 8 on a 1280 x 1024 pixel screen, and another reader wonders if there's anything wrong with keeping passwords on a USB memory stick…

'I keep sensitive passwords, account numbers, pin numbers etc on a small USB drive. Is there a big flaw in my system?' Photograph: Matthew Baker/PA

My 16-year-old wants a netbook/mini-laptop for his sixth form schoolwork, and it needs to be fast enough to handle Word documents in Microsoft Office. He already has a laptop, but it's too bulky and too heavy to take to school. The price is a concern but I really want him to be happy with it.

Sarah

I thought this would be easy because I'd seen the Samsung 305U mini-laptop being sold off for around £300. It has now been discontinued, but you could try to pick one up by searching for Samsung 305U or even NP305U1A-A01UK.

Netbooks are limited by their screen resolution (1024 x 600 pixels), which is below the specification needed for Microsoft Windows 8. Other drawbacks include having only 1GB of memory, and running Windows 7 Starter. The Samsung 305U is about the same size as a netbook, having an 11.6in screen and weighing 1.21kg. However, it has better graphics, better screen resolution (1366 x 768 pixels), much more memory (4GB), and a much better operating system (64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium).

The drawback with the Samsung 305U and similar cheap mini-laptops is that they usually have an AMD Fusion E-450 processor. This is much slower than a low-end laptop chip such as the Intel Pentium B830, though still a bit faster than the sort of Intel Atom you would get in a netbook. Still, the E-450 can certainly run Microsoft Word.

The Lenovo IdeaPad S205 is an excellent alternative to the Samsung 305U and has an almost identical specification for £309 from Laptops Direct.

In some mini-laptops, such as the Lenovo IdeaPad S206, the E-450 has been replaced by AMD's E2-1800. This looks like the same chip with the clock speed bumped up from 1.65GHz to 1.70GHz, which makes no practical difference.

The next step up would be something like an Asus X401A, which is also available for around £300. This gets you a much faster processor such as the Intel Pentium B980 (avoid the Pentium B830 version, which is much slower), and the choice of Windows 7 or Windows 8. However, the X401A has a 14in screen and weighs 1.85kg, so it's bigger, heavier and much less portable than mini-laptops like the Samsung 305U and IdeaPad S205.

Note: After shopping around, Sarah bought her son an 11.6in HP Pavilion dm1-4341sa mini-laptop with an E2-1800 processor and Windows 7 for £279. HP's current price is £329 with Windows 8 installed.

3 Idiots (2009) Hindi Movie BRRip

Direct or single resumeable  link here:-

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Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012) Hindi Movie PDVD

Direct or single resumeable  link here:-

new link here

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Director: Yash Chopra
Genre: Drama | Romance
Release Date: 13 November 2012
Stars: Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma

Storyline: A young immigrant falls in love with a NRI who wanted to marry any British person, not a typical brown Indian. But she falls in love with that young musician, but this love story ends with a breakup. Then that man, fed up with life with vast emotion joins Indian army bomb squad, where he flirts with death everyday. A young discovery channel journalist approaches his team to cover bomb squad story but falls in love with him.

Samsung Ativ S could be delayed until 2013

It seems that the Samsung Ativ S is experiencing more issues, as reports suggest it has been further delayed.

The latest reports come via Sam Mobile, which suggests that in Europe at least we may have to hold out until early next year to get our hands on the Ativ S.

We were supposed to see Samsung's first Windows Phone 8 device land in stores sometime during mid-November, but that has come and gone, with the Ativ S release date now completely up in the air.

Still no sign

We reported last month that the Samsung Ativ S had been delayed, and rumours suggested it would arrive during the first week of December.

Samsung even told us "the launch of Samsung Ativ S in the UK is scheduled in December" – but we're not holding out a huge amount of hope.

UK online retailer Expansys recently told us that it now expects the Ativ S to arrive on December 13, but it has previously been told earlier dates by suppliers which have not come to fruition, so we'll keep an eye on the situation.

From our hands on Samsung Ativ S review, the handset looks to be one of the best phones to run the new Windows Phone 8 software, but the delay in getting it out to customers will surely only hinder the Korean's firm presence on this OS.

We're waiting to hear something official from Samsung regarding these latest reports, and we'll update this article if it gets back to us.

LG AirPlay enabled Docking Speaker ND8520 Launched in India at Rs 20,990

In an attempt to add one more offering in its home entertainment portfolio range, LG has announced the launch of new innovative speaker in India — the AirPlay enabled DockingSpeaker ND8520. Price at Rs 20,990, the newly launched docking speaker features a 2.1 channel audio experience with 80 watts of power and also comes with a woofer module for improved low-end depth all in an attractive cube like design.

This device was first showcased by LG in IFA 2012 held a couple of months ago. While launching it in India, S.H. Park, Director-home entertainment, LG India said, “Smart devices have become a part of daily life. It’s now easier than ever for people to enjoy the content they’re interested in, whether it’s movies, online lectures, games, or anything else, whenever and wherever they are.”

“They integrate a range of advanced technologies into sophisticated, unique designs, and they make those technologies work seamlessly with smart devices”, he further added.

For connectivity, ND8520 features an old iPhone/iPod/iPad dock as well as a standard audio jack, Bluetooth and USB along with built-in subwoofer, touch-screen EQ, radio, alarm clock and LG Bluetooth Remote app, which means you can use you iOS or Android smartphone as a remote. The icing on the cake is the addition of AirPlay technology for wireless playback of your iTunes library from computers and mobile devices.

Key Features of LG ND8520 Dock Speaker:

• Sound: 80 W, 2.1 channels
• Built-in Subwoofer
• PBA (Precise Balancing Algorithm)
• AirPlay
• Bluetooth Remote App
• iPod, iPhone, iPad Direct Docking
• Smart Square
• USB Playback
• Alarm Clock Radio

India starts issuing of IPv6 addresses

"This is to test compatibility of hardware and software that has to be in place. In next couple of months we will launch industrial grade of IPv6,” said Govind, CEO of National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), in a report Monday by Hindu Business Line.
IRINN is issuing the addresses starting at INR 21,999 (US$396) compared to the prevalent rate of around INR 66,000 (US$1,188)  in Asia Pacific region, noted the news daily.
IRINN was set up by state-run NIXI, and is recognized by APNIC, one of the five authorized bodies for issuing Internet addresses, to do so in India.
The Internet addresses under the present version IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4), are limited and service providers often assign single IP address to many users, making it difficult to identify the end user, noted the report.
"The number of IPv6 addresses available is enormous. ISPs (Internet Service Providers) can allocate an IP address to their users. People can be easily identified if they are using IPv6," said Sanjaya, director for services and operations at APNIC.

Samsung Galaxy Note II passes 5m global sales

Samsung’s Galaxy Note II has passes the 5,000,000 sales mark, the company has announced, racking up two million of those sales in under a month. The new milestone comes just a few weeks after Samsung said it had shifted 3m Note II handsets, eagerly crowing about the 5.5-inch smartphone/tablet hybrid after some critics said a device of its size simply wouldn’t sell.

Instead, global sales have flourished, and while the Note II is still well behind sales of Samsung’s more mainstream flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S III, a recent debut in North America has broadened the market for the stylus-enabled device. The handset was first put on the market five months ago.

As always with these sales numbers, it’s usually the case that Samsung is talking about its own sales to distributors, carriers, and retailers, not necessarily to end-users. However, although that means there aren’t necessarily 5m Note II units out there in users’ hands, it’s a good indication of how much demand for the sizable smartphone those vendors expect to see.

Samsung “will do our best to continue to introduce continuous product innovation” one spokesperson said of the Note II sales. The company is tipped to be revealing a new flagship, anecdotally known as the Galaxy S 4, in February next year, complete with an updated quadcore processor and 13-megapixel camera.

Review: Windows Phone 8 operating system

Microsoft announced Windows Phone 8 (WP8), the latest version of its mobile operating system in June. The phones powered by it are now appearing in the Indian market. HTC 8X and HTC 8S are already available, though finding them is not too easy. Nokia andSamsung are gearing up to launch their WP8 devices. 

But how does the OS compare to Android and iOS, which powers iPhone? Are WP8 smartphones better than Android devices and iPhone? 

Let's take a look at WP8 features that are likely to matter to consumers and see what has changed compared to the earlier version of the OS. 

User interface: In terms of user interface, WP8 doesn't change anything. Just like the earlier versions of the software, WP8 looks beautiful with layered users interface, clean lines, and lots of square boxes - Microsoft calls them tiles - that replace program icons. These tiles, unlike icons, are bigger and can display nuggets of information. For example, the Mail tile can show the number of unread mails. The layers in the OS give the user interface a 2D effect. It is a very unique and modern design and works well. We tested WP8 with HTC 8X and found no lag or low frame rates in the user interface. 

New lockscreen: The original Windows Phone had no notification system. It relied on live tiles to show new information to users. But WP8 has a lockscreen where six apps can show their notifications. However, compared to what competitors have in their mobile software, it is still basic. Apps can also use lockscreen as a canvas where they can show information or change content. For example, Bing app can refresh the lockscreen wallpaper to match it with whatever it is showing on its website. 

Customizable homescreen: Previous versions of WP had an empty bar on right side of the homescreen. This, we believe, was added for design reasons as it gave the screen some depth and highlighted its 2D effect. But in WP8 it is gone. Now the live tiles can stretch across the screen and show more content. The tiles can also be resized as tiny small or big. This makes the homescreen on WP8 immensely customizable. 

Rooms: This is a new feature that allows users to club their contacts together. Once a Room has been created with a few contacts, the users part of it can share calendar, chat room, videos and photos etc with ease. 

Support for better hardware: With Windows Phone, Microsoft decides what sort of hardware its partners can put in the devices. Compared to the previous WP versions, WP8 supports better hardware, including dual-core processors, 720P resolution screen, better cameras and 1GB RAM. It also supports storage expansion through microSD cards, something that was not available to WP users earlier. 

Kid's Corner: This is one of the signature features of WP8. It allows users to create a separate list of apps that restrict any kid using the phone to that list. This means, when your kid is playing Angry Birds on the phone, he can't go to your Twitter app, even accidentally. For people who don't share their phones with kids, this feature may not matter much. But those who do will appreciate the usefulness of it. 

Integration with Twitter and Facebook: This is something that WP has since very beginning and nothing changes in the latest version of the OS. WP8 can not only show your social buddies as part of your contacts but can also fetch updates from their Facebook or Twitter feeds into the People app. Meanwhile, your mention on these websites appears in Me app. Some people find it pretty useful. However, in our use we found that Me or People apps are not full-fledged social networking apps. Third-part apps are still necessary. But using them leads to the scenario where several apps show same content. 

Useful maps: For WP map and location services Microsoft earlier relied on Bing maps. But with WP8, it is using data provided by Nokia. This makes the maps and location services in WP8 lot more useful, especially to users in India. 

Better multitasking: Windows Phone 7 allowed users to switch between apps but as soon as an app went into the background, the app was paused. It was resumed again when a user switched to it. In WP8, Microsoft has fine-tuned the resuming to make it fast, as well as has added support for apps that require active data connection when they are in the background. But the multitasking still feels jarring. Freezing video player or word processor works fine but for apps like Rowi, which is supposed to run all the time to pull tweets whenever they are posted, it doesn't work. Though at the moment, it is also likely that older apps like Rowi are yet to be updated for WP8. 

How it compares to Android
Primarily, WP8 devices are going to compete against Android phones. While earlier versions of WP were no match for Android, with WP8 things look more balanced. Android phones have better flexibility in how you use them, better multimedia performance, access to more (and better quality) apps, a much better notification system, more useful multitasking and most likely better hardware at a given price point. However, WP8 devices have a better user interface with fast performance and are likely to have better physical design. They are also simpler to use compared to Android devices. 

How it compares to iOS
While iPhone 5 is a very good device, iOS is getting a little long in the tooth. WP8 has a better user interface, better-integrated maps, better file management. In terms of performance, both iOS and WP8 are on equal footing. iOS is slightly better as far as multitasking and notification system are concerned. But the area where iOS wins big, nullifying most WP8's advantages, is the ecosystem. iPhones have access to significantly better and more useful apps compared to what WP8 phonescan get at the moment. 

Bottomline
Windows Phone has improved a lot. In its current iterations it is now a valid choice for people who are fed up of how slow or laggy Android feels or don't like the fact that most Android phones don't get timely updates. 

Similarly, a WP8 device is a reasonable option if you want a well-designed phone that is simple to use but don't like iPhone, either because it has a smaller screen or due to its high cost. 

But there are compromises involved. Like multitasking quirks. Or lack of proper notification system. Or a not-so-well-stocked app store. It's all about figuring out what is important to you. In nutshell, all we can say is that: If you want a phone that 'just works', get an iPhone. If you want the best value for money, best features and the most flexible phone, get an Android device. And if you want something that has a fresh interface, fast performance, looks great and is easy to use, get a Windows Phone 8 device.

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First Voice Calling tablet of India launched by Pantel at Rs 8299

Pantel Technologies has launched India's first voice calling tabletPenta T-Pad priced at Rs 8299. This tablet has an inbuilt SIM slot that gives it 2G SIM connectivity and operates on Android operating system.

Penta T-Pad tablet has an 8-inch multi-touch capacitive screen. Penta T-Pad operates on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. It generates its power from 1.2GHz Cortex A8 processor and comes with 400 Mali GPU and 1GB DDR3 RAM.

This tablet comes with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology. It also has 3GUSB Dongle support.

It has an 8 GB of internal storage, which can be expanded up to 32GB using a micro SD card slot.

Output port includes an USB port, micro SD Card slot, 3.5mm audio Jack and a HDMI port.

It comes with an optional keyboard with an inbuilt stereophonic speaker system. It is priced at Rs 1,499.

Penta T-Pad runs on a 5,000-mAh battery that gives the tablet browsing time of approximately 5-6 hours.

Penta T-Pad sports a 0.3 Mega Pixel Front camera.

6 simple tips to fix damaged smartphone

 A modern day tech user - and who is not one these days - has taken to buying handheld mobile devices like never before. For most of us, carrying a smartphone or a tablet is no different than carrying our wallet. But like most electronic devices, something or the other can go wrong with the best of them. 

The worst part of owning these devices comes if one has to take them to a service centre. Many problems are either not covered in the warranty, or a heavy bill and inconvenience awaits the user. In fact, the experience of going to a service centre can be a nightmarish experience in itself with the best of brands. 

But more often than not, the condition of your favourite gadget may actually not be as bad as it seems and you can fix the problem yourself by following some simple steps. Here are some tips. 

'Druken' smartphone
If your phone gets wet, never ever try to switch it on as it may cause short-circuiting in the phone and may lead to a bigger loss. Immediately remove your phone's battery and then use a towel to dry the physical parts of the smartphone and once you are through it, bury your phone and the battery in a bowl full of rice. This will cause the rice to absorb all the water and moisture from the device. 

One of the best things you can do is to place the wet smartphone on the back of your PC monitor or TV screen over the heat vents. The conventional heat waves coming out of these devices are just perfect to dry and fix your phone. Else, you can place the smartphone in front of the air conditioner as well. Since the cold air coming from the AC is dry, it will dry up your phone quicker than you may expect. 

You can simply detach all the removable parts of your smartphone including the battery and keep it in the oven for over night. But be very sure to set oven only to warm lest some serious damages may occur. 

To be on the safer side you can later use a hair dryer to remove the remaining moisture and water from the phone, however, never use a dryer as the first solution. This will worsen the situation by blowing the water droplets into deeper areas of your phone. 

Scratches on the screen
Using your smartphone without a screen guard is not really a brave act because the scratches that will appear on screen after sometime will really pinch you hard. 

Well, toothpaste can help you fix those scratches and make you phone's screen as shiny as your teeth.Just put toothpaste on the screen and gently rub it in circular motion with a soft cloth or cotton and then wipe the whole thing with a soft and slightly damp cloth. 

Note: Make sure it is a toothpaste and not a tooth gel. 

Phone shuts-off randomly
Another common problem that occurs with smartphones is that they randomly shut off. Well, this point towards two things: Either you have dropped your phone a good number of times or the battery is loose. 

Buying a new battery can be an expensive solution especially when you can solve this problem with a tiny bit of paper.All that you have to do is to take a small bit of paper and fold it. Then open the back cover of your phone and insert the folded bit of paper between the edge of the battery and the edge of the phone, on the opposite side where the terminals of the battery are located. This will keep the battery firmly in place and stop your phone from shutting down. 

Ice cold batteries
Bought a new phone battery and it is losing charge within weeks? Then you can try keeping it in the refrigerator. Sounds odd but it is true. Most of the smartphones use lithium ion batteries that get exhausted because of the heat generted during their use. 

Keeping them in cold environment not only extends their life but also increases their power. But make sure that the batteries are wrapped in a poly bag or a zip lock bag while they are inside the refigerator. 

The other simple ways are by turning off screen's auto-rotate function, Bluetooth, reducing the screen brightness and GPS. If you are not really bothered about using the Wi-Fi and have an internet pack activated, you can switch off the Wi-Fi as well. However, if the problem still persists, it is likely a software issue and you must take your phone to a technician. 

Fixing crashed Android apps
Applications are what make a smartphones really smart. An Android app can crash within minutes of downloading and can cause your phone to hang. Reasons can be many but you can fix it by following these steps. Pull the battery slowly from the phone. This step is called soft reset and doesn't affect data in your phone, but can help you resolve issues such as a crashed app. 

Once your phone restarts, you can go to Google Play > My Apps and then click on the app to update it. In case an update is not available then simply uninstall the app and then reinstall it. 

Stuck pixels
Stuck pixels are the dead pixels that appear on the smartphone screen as a stationary black dot or a bright white or red spot. You can try removing them by gently massaging the area around the stuck pixel with a soft cloth. By this method, you are allowing the pixel to reorient itself and regain colour.

Driver Genius Professional 11.0.0.1128

Driver Genius Professional is a professional driver management tool features both driver management and hardware diagnostics. Driver Genius provides such practical functions as driver backup, restoration, update and removal for computer users. If you often reinstall your operating system, you may not forget such painful experiences of searching all around for all kinds of drivers. If unfortunately you have lost your driver CD, the search will be more troublesome and time-consuming. Now with the driver backup function of Driver Genius, you can backup all drivers in your computer before reinstalling, and restore them with the driver restoration function after system reinstallation has been completed. This will dramatically save your time for driver installation during the system installation procedure, and you will no longer worry about where to find a driver. Besides, you can create an automatic installation package for all drivers in your system by Driver Genius. After you have reinstalled your operating system, you can restore all your drivers in just a click by this automatic restoration program. It’s really convenient.

Password: techruin

Download here

Install Application without Certificate Error for Symbian Belle Like C6-01,N8,C7

Here the Steps:-

First Download the complete hack kit below then follow the steps:

1. install NortonSymbianHackLDD.sis
2. Launch.
3. Go Options- Anti-Virus – Quarantine list
4. Go Options – Restore, accept prompt
5. Exit application, delete from App manager (Symantec Symbian Hack). Also delete c:\shared\ folder.
6. Install RomPatcherPlus_3.1_LiteVersion.sisx from hack archive
7. Launch and apply patches:

Open4all for full access to file system

- Installserver for installing any unsigned applications.

and manually paste it to C/patches using signed x-plore or  file browser attached….
Set patches to auto if needed (Options – Add to auto)
Now Your phone Hacked successfuly =)

If its not worked then  here is extra step to complete the hacking****

1.Download the file name Installserve_belle.zip below.
2.Extract it and copy paste it to c/sys/bin using signed X-PLORE
3.Reboot your phone.
4.Done.

Here is the Complete Hack Kit

Download here

Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana (2012) Hindi Movie

Direct Single resume LINK here for downloading..

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Mitashi launches ICS-based Play BE 100 tablet for Rs. 6,790

Mitashi has forayed into the tablet segment with the launch of the Play BE 100. Priced at Rs. 6,790, the Mitashi Play BE 100 sports Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS and a 1.2GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor. Mitashi says its new device is first of its kind 'Business Entertainment Tablet.'

Other specifications of the Mitashi Play BE 100 include a 7-inch capacitive touchscreen display with 5 point multi-touch support and an 800x480 pixel resolution, Mali 400 GPU, a 2MP rear camera, a 1.3MP front camera for video calling, 4GB of built-in storage and 512MB of DDR3 RAM. There's also has an external micro SD card slot for additional storage.

The Play BE 100 comes with a 3,000 mAh battery, which is rated to deliver up to 4 hours of backup. For connectivity, the tablet supports 3G via USB dongle, Wi-Fi, mini HDMI 1.3, microUSB 2.0 with OTG, and a 3.5mm jack. 11mm-thick, the Play BE 100 tablet weighs in at 360 grams, and boasts of a 3,000 mAh battery, which is rated to deliver up to 4 hours of web browsing.

Mitashi has also bundled a document viewer onboard, and has access to the Google Play store. The Play BE 100 also comes with an optional keyboard cover KB 100, which is priced at Rs. 1,299.

The Indian market is already awash with the budget tablets. Within a price range of Rs. 5000-7,000, there are quite few good options. Zync recently launched Z930 for Rs. 5,499. The tab features ICS (upgradable to Jelly Bean), 1.2 GHz processor, 7-inch display, 4GB built-in storage and 3G via USB. Read more about the Zync Z930 tablet

HTC Desire X Review

HTC Corp. launched a slew of smartphones over the last year, with most of the products aimed at the budget to mid-range category. Only recently did its flagship, HTC One X, see the light of day and even that is soon going to be trumped by the HTC One X+. In the meanwhile, as is the case with every other smartphone manufacturer, HTC is trying to pack in as much as it can in a smartphone while still retaining a mid-range price on its handsets. After all, not everyone is gonna go for the Rs 40,000-plus handset every time it’s upgraded! One of the most recent ‘budget’ launches from the Taiwanese company was the HTC Desire X, an upgrade to the very popular Desire, which was released a couple of years ago. Here’s a look at how worthy an upgrade it is!

DISPLAY

It seems as if in under a year, 4-inch displays adorning smartphones have become the norm. Hence, the screen on the HTC Desire X doesn’t seem massive; it’s just the new ‘normal’. The screen is big enough for you to have your favourite, most-used apps in a 4x4 matrix. Virtual buttons that take you directly to Calls, Emails, Messages and Camera are accessible at the bottom of any homescreen. As is the launch button for all the applications that you have stored or downloaded on to the smartphone. The screen is a Super LCD with a resolution of 480x800 pixels; hence it’s definitely not the most stunning display you would have set eyes on. However, it doesn’t take away from the quintessential smartphone experience at all.

HTC continues its habit of designing distinctive back panels with the Desire X as well. A blue round-edged rim runs around the camera lodged at the back of the smartphone. Against the white soft plastic body, the design is understated yet unique.

Pulling the back panel out was a little more complicated than we’d expect from a seemingly well-designed phone. An awkward wedge-and-pull yanks the panel off to reveal the rather weirdly placed SIM card slot (It is lodged under the camera panel, so you slot it in from one side and push it out of the other to remove it.) You also have a microSD memory card slot next to this, which is thankfully a lot less complicated to manoeuvre.

MESSAGES

The messaging client on the HTC Desire X is pretty intuitive. Well, more than intuitive, it’s a good, quick learner. While at first go, it may not exactly suggest the word you want to type in, once you do, however, it saves your SMS vocabulary and has no trouble predicting it the next time. The keyboard wasn’t cramped either, although personally it’s just so much simpler to type messages in the landscape mode.

HTC Desire X also comes with a ‘Trace keyboard’ option, which has the potential to offer stiff competition to SWYPE. As the name suggests, this virtual keyboard lets you trace your finger across letters to form words, which the handset itself predicts, and quite accurately at that. You can swipe to your left or right across the entire keyboard to access numbers, symbols or special characters.

CAMERA

As far as pre-shoot settings go, the Camera app on the HTC Desire X offers quite a few. You can tweak the exposure levels, contrast, saturation as well as the sharpness of the image before you click it. Now, these options are accessed through a drop-down menu which takes up a lot of screen space. So, even though HTC offers a live-view of the frame while you adjust the settings, most of my subject was just masked by the in-app menu. Tweaking contrast and saturation levels made the images a little blurry as well as grainy. Without any cosmetic tweaks, the images were better than you’d expect of a regular 5-meg camera.

HTC has thrown in a couple of scene modes that includes an HDR option. The shots taken with the HDF filter on weren’t dramatically different from the ones taken without the filter. The Macro mode seems to work well too except the camera overall results in slightly noisy images.

Whenever I happened to take more than a shot or two of the same subject (with the Continuous Shooting mode on), the camera app automatically prompted me to choose the ‘Best Shot’ after I was done. I could browse through the series of pictures and choose the best one and the smartphone will ask you if it can just delete the rest. I think it’s a smart move, saving a lot of memory space and time which I would have spent later trying to sort through multiples of the same shot.

One feature conspicuous by its absence is a front camera on the HTC Desire X, something that most people have started to take for granted in even lower-end smartphones. The rear camera gives decent results when you capture a video. However, it does not offer high-definition results. Considering most mid-range smartphones now offer 720p recording, I wonder why the HTC Desire X didn’t come with similar capabilities. One good thing about the video recorder is the fact that it starts recording as soon as you click on the video icon (it’s not a camera swap followed by another press to start recording), which saves you from a lot of time fumbling around before you can start shooting. The downside is that you can only adjust one setting during the video shoot; you can choose between having the flash on or off depending on the ambient light. The only other video settings - video quality and record with audio options – have to be chosen before you switch to the video mode.

UI, HTC SENSE AND APPS

HTC Desire X runs on Android 4.0 and features an HTC Sense 4.1 overlay. HTC Sense retains some of the direct-access icons from the lock screen. So you can drag any of these four icons – Phone, Mail, Messages and Camera – on to HTC’s trademark lock ring and it’ll take you directly to the desired application. Also, HTC still leverages its motion sensor to quieten the volume once you pick the phone off your table, or switch on the speakerphone if you keep it upside down while on a call.

You’ll also find the same ol’ Friend Stream, a social media widget as well as Friend Channel which lets you follow the virtual updates of just one person (stalker much?). SoundHound is packed in to make the most of the stereo powered by Beats Audio. Polaris Office, TuneIn Radio, Teeter, Google Chrome and Adobe Reader are pre-loaded to take care of your productivity and entertainment needs. During the setup, the handset prompts you to log in to your Dropbox account as well. The Dropbox integration gives you about 25GB of free online storage for two years.

One problem with a series of HTC smartphones that we’ve used over time is that you are using an app, and then receive a call and eventually want to end it, the screen doesn’t take you to the in-call menu. You’ll have to swipe it down from the notification bar to end the call.

BATTERY AND PERFORMANCE

The HTC Desire X is powered by a dual-core 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, the first one to be featured in HTC phones. Some new launches such as the new Windows phone by HTC are also going to be shipped with the same processor. The handset didn’t give me reason to think it was struggling to execute applications or multitask. I switched between playing ‘Bottle Shoot’ when bored and browsing the latest stories on ‘Pulse’, while streaming music from the 8tracks app and the smartphone handled it all quite well.

On our regular Quadrant Standard benchmarking test, the HTC Desire X scored about 2769 points – not a stellar performance – but managed to shoot above the likes of Motorola Atrix 4G and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

The HTC Desire X comes with a 1,650 mAh battery and although the screen is not much of a burner, the handset did manage to last just for more than a working day. I alternated between Wi-Fi and mobile GPRS connectivity and attended to about 10 voice calls, some occasional browsing, gaming and messaging and the indicator was yet to turn red before the end of the day.

Rs 23,499

Love – Feature-packed smartphone, nice gesture-based tweaks, decent battery life

Hate – Average build quality and camera