Intel Accelerates Mobile Computing Push

Intel has announced a range of new products, ecosystem and enabling efforts that will further accelerate the company’s presence in mobile and help usher in a range of new devices and richer experiences with Intel Inside®.

The announcements include a new dual-core Atom™ SoC ("Clover Trail+") platform for smartphones and Android tablets, and the company’s first global, multimode-multiband LTE solution. Other disclosures included “Bay Trail” momentum, a new multi-platform enabling program, and continued smartphone momentum in emerging markets with the Intel® Atom™ Z2420 processor-based platform.

“Today’s announcements build on Intel’s growing device portfolio across a range of mobile market segments,” said Naveed Siraj, Country Manager for Intel Pakistan. “In less than a year’s time we have worked closely with customers to bring 10 Intel-based smartphones to market in more than 20 countries, and have also delivered an industry-leading low-power tablet solution running Windows 8.”

Atom™ SoC Platform

Intel’s new Atom™ processor platform and smartphone reference design delivers industry-leading performance with low-power and long battery life that rivals today’s most popular Android phones. The product brings Intel’s classic product strengths, including high performance that lets you enjoy smooth Web browsing,  vibrant, glitch-free, full HD movies, and an Android applications experience that launches fast and runs great.The imaging system also enables panorama capture, a 15 frame-per-second burst mode for 8 megapixel photos, real-time facial detection and recognition, and mobile HDR image capture with de-ghosting for clearer pictures in flight.

Long-Term Evolution (4G LTE)

Intel’s strategy is to deliver a leading low-power, global modem solution that works across multiple bands, modes, regions and devices. The Intel XMM 7160 is one of the world’s smallest and lowest-power multimode-multiband LTE solutions supporting multiple devices including smartphones, tablets and Ultrabooks™.  The 7160 global modem supports 15 LTE bands simultaneously, more than any other in-market solution. The 7160 is a well-timed competitive solution for new emerging LTE networks.

Intel® Atom™ Platform Z2420

As Intel expands its geographic presence, the company sees tremendous opportunity in delivering rich Intel-based mobile experiences to consumers across emerging markets. As part of its strategy to take advantage of the growing market for value smartphones in emerging markets, Intel highlighted continuing momentum with the Intel Atom Processor Z2420 platform.

Tablets with Intel Inside®

Building on the device momentum and industry-leading power-efficiency of the award-winning Atom processor Z2760, Intel’s first quad-core Atom SoC ("Bay Trail"), will be the most powerful Atom processor to-date — doubling the computing performance of Intel’s current- generation tablet offering and providing the ecosystem with a strong technology foundation and feature set from which to innovate.

Enabling the Mobile Devices with Intel Inside®

Intel today announced an expansion of its ecosystem enabling efforts to deliver new device and market innovation across a range of Windows and Android-based mobile devices. The new program will focus on accelerating time to market for leading-edge mobile devices based on Intel® architecture with top OEMs and ODMs.

Apple Declared the Most Admired Company for 6th Year Running

Apple, the tech-giant, has been named the most admired company in the world for the 6th consecutive year by the American magazine Forbes.

The company achieved an overall score of 8.24. It seems like the big drop in stock prices and the stubbornness of the company hasn’t hurt its reputation much, or at least as some people would’ve thought.

The top 10 list was itself dominated by technology companies. Second and third positions were secured by Google, Apple’s rival, and Amazon, world’s biggest online store. IBM came 6th.

Adam Lashinsky, the author of the popular ‘Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired — and Secretive — Company Really Works" wrote:

For those expecting a fall from grace, Apple undoubtedly is a victim of its own success. [Steve] Jobs, a legend in his own time and the face of Apple, actively hid his managers from public view, preferring that they focus on work, not self-aggrandizement.

What’s more, for a company that without hyperbole can be described as having released four revolutionary products in a decade — iTunes, iPod, iPhone, and iPad — expectations become exceedingly high.

He also noted that Apple has become such a huge phenomenon that even the slightest of schedule misses can collide universes and such is the bond between the Apple and the people that a miracle is expected out of it every time a product launch starts looming. That’s certainly not wrong as most people still think of Apple as the "most innovative company".

What’s more is that even a recent drop in share prices couldn’t resist the biggest profit in the company’s history of $13 billion.

Samsung’s Amazing History Shown in an Infographic

Did you know that the world’s biggest smartphone company first made noodles (similar to Nokia which manufactured tyres)? And do you know what is the meaning of the word Samsung and how did the once small, unknown company became the Samsung which we’ve all come to know?

Are you familiar with the gem-studded phone the company released in 2003? If no, then you need to see this awesome infographic by the dutch site typhone.nl and see for yourself what happens when hardwork and luck combine.

Cheap iPhone 5 for $330 to hit the market soon

Apple had taken quite a stringent stand on the quality of its products, thereby refusing to lower the price of its iPhones is now forced to bend its knees against the overwhelming demands of the populous but underdeveloped country markets. Apple is now launching a cheap iPhone 5 to satisfy the needs of such markets.

Sources inform that the new cheap iPhone 5 will not have the aluminum body which will be replaced by a plastic casing, thereby considerably reducing the manufacturing cost. The shape and making of the cheap iPhone 5 will resemble its expensive counterpart and is also expected to have a retina display and feature Apple’s new Lightning connector for charging and syncing. Macotakara, a Japanese technology website predicts that the new smartphone will be priced around $330 which would bring it in the range of younger middle class generation of China and India.

Apple has not officially launched iPhone in Pakistan up till now (which means no after sales services) whereas the sale and customer services of its iMacs and MacBook is going on under its supervision. With the new cheaper version it is expected that the company may also launch the brand in Pakistan.

Why My Next Phone will be a Windows Phone?

I’ve decided that I’ve seen enough and I am finally ready. Windows Phone camp is my next destination!

You might be thinking why am I moving to an OS with low app count, dwindling market share and which lacks basic features as compared with Android 2.3.6. Its all agreeable but the good thing for me is that I don’t care. Downloading apps is not my hobby anyway.

The single biggest reason why I am migrating is because of the boredom my current OS is giving me. Android Gingerbread is just plain boring and I’m too afraid to upgrade to Jelly Bean as I may end up with an even more laggy device.

Windows Phone is both lively and smooth. Performance in both high-end and low-end phones is smoother than any Android flagship. The top-of-the-class.

2 years back when Nokia announced its intentions to make Windows Phone devices primarily instead of the obvious competitor Android, a lot of us were looking at the Finnish company with disbelief, myself included. 2 years later, its obvious that the decision was by far the best one. Nokia can now make exclusive phones and price them accordingly at will.

This transition will not be without its drawbacks though. Windows Phone still lacks a Notification Centre (although live tiles somewhat make up for it), ununified volume controls and customizations besides the all so important apps. But at least I’ll be able to breathe without crashing my phone.

Crashing might not sound like a big deal to Gingerbread users, our phones crash a lot. Sometimes my phone restarts randomly without warning. At other occasions, it won’t install a 33MB app because of ‘low storage’, even when I’ve got 1.27GBs of internal, and 2.2GBs of external, untouched storage left. What a misery. Performance-wise, there is a wide gulf between mid-range and upper-end phones in Android. At least the much hated phone among Pakistanis, i.e. the iPhone has got way better records to boast. Every time I’ve used it, I am taken aback by how smooth it is. Windows Phone is very similar in this aspect too.

After two years of being costly and quite restricted, Microsoft’s phones have fallen in price too. Lumia 620 and HTC 8S are best performing mid-range phones available right now and the Lumia 520 will sit even one step below.

In the Windows Phone party too, my next phone will undoubtedly be a Lumia. The exclusive Nokia apps and technologies make the Lumia phones the top WP choice. There are other compelling options too but none are quite nearly as compelling (or energetic) as the Lumias.

So there you have it. Everything can be summed up in three words: Performance, Live Tiles and Difference. The deep social integration, cloud services (which are a must for me) and Office Suite are huge pluses too.

I am still among the minorities now. Its now up to Microsoft to convince the top app developers to cross borders. Until then, I don’t think most people will feel like jumping the ship.

Having owned 3 Nokia phones before (which were also the first three phones that I ever owned, like most Pakistanis), I can’t wait to go back to Nokia again.