Much has been written about the Android which is still to come in many smart phones, and still there are speculations as to how it will fair in comparison with the iPhone. Whether iPhone will have a competitor or not is still not sure but it seems all the top mobile phone makers are gearing up, teaming up and trying to make a device which will at least in theory threaten the iPhone market share. However, these are mere speculations, now we won’t give a verdict in fact we can’t till the time the actual Android based phones are unveiled, used and compared to the iPhone. Now Verizon is planning to release a device made by Motorola, running Android off course and using the all powerful Verizon’s network.

The device which is coming out by the end of October is being dubbed as the “Droid”. Not much details are known but it will use Verizon’s network and has an keyboard besides the touch screen ability. The OS version is 2.0 which they say is an improved and works better. The aim is to put all those things in it which the iPhone doesn’t have for example a  5 MP camera, ability to take pictures in the dark, a keyboard, run multiple apps, open development, interchangeable batteries, take pictures in the dark/less lit up areas etc.

The screen size is a cool 3.7”! and it uses a TI OMAP3430 processor which by far has been performing well in terms of speed and response. More info is available at DroidDoes.

Adobe has released a small iPhone application available at the iTunes store that lets users edit their photos. The application requires simple taps to rotate, crop, apply filters or even apply color controls to the images. This editing can be done on the photos residing in the users library as well as on their photos stored online at Photoshop.com.

The app also allows taking photos and after necessary editing the photos can be uploaded online. Mistakes or wrong taps can be easily undone or effects redone to enhance or improve the image. Although the editing facility is of a very basic nature still it is a good and handy utility considering the fact that it is free and requires a few swipes of the finger to do what is necessary instead of having so many icons litter the screen.

Laptops are nowadays all rage. They come in all sizes, big, small, slim and fat, they are cute, ugly and irresistible. The newer ones are fast, then there are notebooks which promise to make a hole so large in your pocket that you will have  a hard time recovering form this dilemma. Oh and then the inevitable NetBooks which look like toys, or kids stuff. But now we have Rugged Laptops, or hardened Laptops built for tough environments.

Any electronic gadget can basically sustain a certain degree of abuse, which includes extreme temperatures, bumps and jumps, resistance to liquids (quite rare) and even an occasional drop. But these machines, called Rugged Laptops are built to withstand all such abuses. They are generally meant for the military folks, but may as well be used by anyone who has a lot of outdoor work to do for example archeologists, filed workers (civil engineers), environmental engineers, marine biologists and even wildlife researchers.

The degree of protection immunity to these effects that a machine has is governed by its IP (Ingress Protection) level. This rating simply tells us the amount of abuse a certain machine is able to withstand.

A rugged machine may it be a laptop or a PDA has all the accessories of a normal machine like USB, memory, processor, RAM etc. The only difference is that these machines are able to withstand punishment like strong electromagnetic fields, shocks, extreme vibrations, falls etc. So they are waterproofed to some degree, have shock absorbers, rubber padding or even advanced cooling features for hot climates.

The various items being marketed include rugged thumb drives, rugged laptops, Swiss Army Knives, semi-rugged iPhone protection, iPod covers and waterproof cameras.

The kind of furor created and maintained by iPhone will perhaps take a lot of time for other phone manufacturers to catch on. It is not merely the product that matters, people need innovation, they need something new, always. If you can deliver this you are a winner. Nokia and iPhone both have achieved this by not merely making a phone but by making the tools available to the general public at large for development of applications for these phones. Microsoft aka Windows has had to follow suit, simply because it is a” dog eat dog world out there”, and because there was no other option left but to do this. So now the eagerly awaited Windows Mobile 6.5 based phone like HTC Pure was released on 6th October. Microsoft has said there will be over thirty devices sporting this OS, quite impressive I must say. And according to reports HTC, Sony Ericsson, LG, HP, Samsung, Toshiba and some other big names have joined the bandwagon, guess everybody wants a share of the pie. These devices have their own Windows Marketplace which is an applications store, just like iTunes Store for iPhones. The Windows team has promised users  improved browsing, which will soon be confirmed. Also included is the My Phone service which allows users to find their missing mobile phones, ring their bells aloud even they are in silent mode, and remotely lock them or delete all data contained in them. These devices are being dubbed as the Windows phones, which can only be confirmed in case we come across the BSOD. (Blue Screen of Death)

Previously we covered that PwnageTool 3.1 is available by Dev Team but it lacked jail breaking of iPhone 3GS and iPod touch, Well the wait is over and now you can jail break your iPhone 3GS or second genderation iPOD touch. In a posting on DEV Team blog, they announced the updated release of PwnageTool 3.1.3 for OSX which “pwns” or jail breaks iPhone 3GS and 2G iPod as long as the device was “pwned” prior to OS 3.1.

However,  Third generation iPod touch is not supported at the moment and if you have already installed 3.1 upgrade on your device you still have to wait more.

See more details on DEV-Team Blog

Reading news over the web is a pastime and hobby most of us enjoy, primarily because leading news channels/agencies around the world offer free news via their websites. Have a look at BBC, CNN or even Fox ( if you want the contorted view of news), all these and more have dedicated websites offering traditional news in text and photographs, video, RSS and audio off course. CNN has now launched an iPhone application that allows iPhone users to view breaking news, receive live streaming videos and read traditional news using fast Internet, i.e, Wi-Fi or EDGE, for a fee, $2 to be exact. The application uses push technology to deliver on screen messages telling users of breaking news, headlines, and even live newscasts. The application also has built-in support for sharing news via leading social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter. Also included is the ability to read news offline, weather forecasting, photo/video uploading and a search facility. This is quite different from the traditional medium and method. This is something totally new. Is this the beginning of the end of print media which by the way is experiencing decreased readership since the birth of web? I think this is just the start and if other companies, I mean big companies follow suit then off course things are going to change.

There is some serious competition going on in the market nowadays in the music player arena. There is Apple with its huge lineup consisting of iPods, iPod nano and the shuffle, Archos with composite devices, Zune HD from Microsoft to mention a few. Mobile phones with music enabled applications are too many to mention here, in fact there is hardly a mobile phone today irrespective of any manufacturer in the mid-price category that does not have a music player. iPhones…. well that’s a separate category altogether. Sony has just unveiled its new lineup of music devices that are impressive by all standards, looks, functionality and features.  Yes sir, you guessed it right I am talking about the A-Series devices. These are ultra-thin mean looking music players that will have you drooling right from the first look. The thinnest to date I guess a mere 7.2 mm that will put to shame any size zero model on the ramp. And who said music means audio only, well video is included too and so is TV out at 720 x 480 SD quality. The screen is an impressive 2.8” WQVGA OLED. The rapper comes in three models NW-A845, NW-A846 and the NW-A847 with different storage capacities of 16, 32 and 64 GB. Forget about Wi-Fi or a touch screen, no reasons given for this lapse, though. Features include drag and drop music, digital amplifier, FM Radio, digital noise cancelling that promises to deliver clear and crisp sound via the included MDR-EX300SL earphones. The various formats/codecs supported are MP3, WMA, AAC, ATRAC, PCM/wav, ATRAC AL, HE-AAC and MPEG-4 and WMV for movies. The battery life is an impressive 29 hours for audio at 128 kbps and 9 hours for video at 384 kbps. With all these features buyers are sure to have a hard time deciding on which player to buy and which to dump.

HTC Leo aka HTC Touch HD 2 also reckoned as Windows Phone is impressive both with its looks and more importantly with its staggering processing power. This device is 300 percent improvement over the Touch HD on every single 3D graphics benchmark with an astounding 1,822 percent improvement on one test, and raw CPU performance was nearly three times as fast. This is amazing for both mobile gamers who love 3D games and also for demanding business mobile applications on Windows mobile platform.Toshiba TG01 bite dust when it comes to screen size, sleekness and Touch FLO UI 2.6, which makes even the winmo 6.5 cool enough to go with capacitive screen.

The breaking news of today is that the most awaited MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) on iPhone finally goes live on AT&T. MMS allows users to send graphics, audio clips, locations, contacts, and video clips via an SMS-like messaging system on their iPhones.It has been found out that MMS is not very popular on other phone devices but iPhone users tend to make more use of multimedia features as compare to others.

 How to get it?

To prepare for the iPhone MMS update, download iTunes 9.0.1 and make sure your iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS is using iPhone 3.1 firmware. If you have iPhone 2G or 1G, it will not be able to get the MMS update. For more details see below

Stepwise procedure:

(1) Download iTunes 9.0.1 if you don’t already have it on your computer.

(2) Connect your iPhone to your computer then open iTunes

(3) When the MMS update is available, you will see a message asking you if you want to install and update to your carrier settings- click Update Settings

(4) iTunes will then inform you that your settings have been updated. CLick OK in the message

(5) Reboot your iPhone by powering it off and then on again. MMS is now enabled.

When is it actually going live?

AT&T has started the service across U.S today in which text messages will be send, beginning at 10 am Eastern. Let’s see how people respond to this new service. Will the heavy traffic of iPhone owners crash the service? For all this and more, we would have to wait and see..Stay tuned to Biggtech!

iPhone 3GS owners will now be able to make 12 seconds long videos and send them to other iPhone 3GS owners as well as to their contacts on FaceBook and Twitter followers. 12mail a new iPhone application, by 12seconds.tv makes this possible. However, a 12seconds.tv account is not required to make use of this application, instead it allows one to link with Twitter or FaceBook. Owners of iPhone 3G and iPhone (the simple one) will not be able to make use of this service. Those without the 3GS can however, take snaps and record voice only. This is basically a phone and application feature and not related to the network itself. Anyways the idea of a video message is indeed impressive and something new, specially since it is a service based on the push technology.