Nokia and Samsung today announced to launch their respective flagship devices in white hue. Nokia will start selling the Lumia 800 in white from later this month whereas the first Android 4.0 phone – Galaxy Nexus will be available from February 13 in UK.

Going by both the devices, I think Lumia 800 takes the cake with his one as its completely painted in white as opposed to Galaxy Nexus’ back paint job.

Keeping the OS and hardware features aside, which one would you pick?

The recent clampdown by the US government on sites distributing pirated content has claimed a new victim, albeit a volunteer one. Founded in 2005, BTjunkie has shut down their operations “voluntarily.”

Speaking to Torrent Freak, BTjunkie’s founder said that the recent actions against Megaupload and The Pirate Bay played a major role in their decision.

BTjunkie was one of the top 5 torrent sites in the world.

BTjunkie

Fighting malware has become an everyday phenomenon for mobile OS makers and one of the most targeted mobile OS is Android due to its reach and popularity. Google has now confirmed that to combat the attacks, they’ve implemented a new solution codenamed as Bouncer that scans each and every app in the Android Market for known malware, spyware and trojans.

Google says every process of detection is done on Google’s cloud infrastructure, which means a developer or an end user does not have to do anything. Google also analyzes new developer accounts so that previously offending devs don’t get a chance again.

Google also pointed out that with the implementation of the Bouncer, there has been a 40 percent decrease in the number of malicious apps in the Android Market.

[Google Mobile via The Verge|Img]

Samsung has expanded its dual-SIM lineup with the new Champ Deluxe Duos. It’s an entry-level touchscreen phone that is light on the pocket yet gives functionality comparable to smartphones like surfing the web, quick access to social networks et al.

The phone also comes pre-loaded with Samsung’s own ChatON messaging service which is a cross-platform service like Whatsapp allowing users to have a 1:1 or a group conversation, share images and audio clips without any extra charge.

On the hardware front, Champ Deluxe Duos sports a 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen display, 1.3MP camera, music player and FM Radio, microSD card slot up to 16GB, 3.5mm headphone jack and a 1000mAh battery.

Samsung has priced the device at Rs. 4,790 but retailers like Flipkart are selling the device at a discounted price of Rs. 3,925.

Apple has released a new maintenance update for its Mac OS X Lion OS. The third maintenance update squashes some impending bugs as well as adds new language support.

In addition to that, the v10.7.3 update also brings improved stability, compatibility and security to the operating system.

The 700+MB update is available via Software Update or can be downloaded manually from the link below.

Download Page

[Via Macrumors]

Bad news for users waiting for the first glimpse of Samsung’s power packed Galaxy S III device at MWC. The Korean company has confirmed that they won’t announce the Galaxy S III at Mobile World Congress later this month. Instead, the company is planning to host a dedicated event sometime before the first half of this year.

The move isn’t a surprise since Samsung was basically sitting on the fence regarding Galaxy S III’s launch a few days back. Good thing with the late announcement will be that consumers can expect the device to come to market early.

“Samsung is looking forward to introducing and demonstrating exciting new mobile products at Mobile World Congress 2012. The successor to the Galaxy S2 smartphone will be unveiled at a separate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of the year, closer to commercial availability of the product. Samsung stays committed to providing the best possible mobile experiences for customers around the world.”

[Tech Radar via Sammy Hub]

Sony has confirmed the new President and CEO and it’s none other than Kazuo Hirai. Hirai’s promotion was speculated last month but Sony shot down saying nothing was planned. But with the official announcement Kazuo Hirai will assume the new positions from April 1, 2012 whereas the current CEO and President, Sir Howard Stringer will become the Chairman of the Board of the Directors in June.

Stringer said the succession plans for Sony began in February 2009 and Hirai was in the list of new generation of leaders.

Here’s an official comment from Kazuo Hirai:

“As challenging as times are for Sony now, were it not for the strong leadership of Sir Howard Stringer these past seven years, we would have been in a much more difficult position. I am grateful to Sir Howard and to the Board for their confidence in me, and I look forward to working with everyone at Sony more closely than ever before to build a strong future for our customers, shareholders, partners and employees. The path we must take is clear: to drive the growth of our core electronics businesses – primarily digital imaging, smart mobile and game; to turn around the television business; and to accelerate the innovation that enables us to create new business domains. The foundations are now firmly in place for the new management team and me to fully leverage Sony’s diverse electronics product portfolio, in conjunction with our rich entertainment assets and growing array of networked services, to engage with our customers around the world in new and exciting ways.”

We’ve seen the BlackBerry London before but the avatar which we saw back in November is totally different to the one we’re seeing it right now. The new image acquired by folks over at CrackBerry confirms RIM has shelved the angular edges and will instead adopt a “phonified” version of BlackBerry PlayBook.

It will run BlackBerry 10 OS and will be powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core processor (could be TI OMAP5 or Qualcomm), 8MP camera and more.

The site claims in addition to London, RIM is also preparing two other devices codenamed Laguna and Lisbon for US market to cater to operators like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.

Apple released a major update of Final Cut Pro X yesterday adding some noteworthy features. The most important inclusion in this update is the multicam editing support that automatically syncs up to 64 angles of videos and photos, irrespective of formats, frame sizes and frame rates. Coupled with the Angle Editor, users can edit or play back multiple angles at the same time.

Other update improvements include one-step chroma key with advanced controls and enhanced XML for a better interchange with third-party apps and plugins.

The Final Cut Pro X v10.0.3 is a free update to existing users whereas new customers can buy the software from the Mac App Store for $299.99.

Press Release

Smartphones are getting smarter, however, to keep them running uninterrupted manufacturers are bundling batteries that last for a day or two. One may argue that this is fine, as generally phones can now be charged via USB port of PCs or laptops. However, it can be sometimes annoying if you are in the middle of an important call and the battery dies.

This is where a high capacity battery comes in handy. One such manufacturer of high capacity batteries for smartphones is Mugen Power. A familiar name for aftermarket batteries. This time we are testing the Mugen Power 3900mAh extended battery for Nexus S i9020T.

The standard battery of Nexus S is rated at 1500mAh that lasts for somewhere around 16-20 hours on 2G. But the extended battery by Mugen Power is a whopping 3900mAh, that’s more than twice the stock Nexus S battery.

The extended battery comes in a standard packaging with a battery door with NFC chip integrated. The battery door is pretty average without anything written on it unlike the stock battery door that mentions Google and Samsung on the battery door. As compared to stock battery door, this one looks pretty average. The battery door does not hamper any of the phones functionality like the camera or the buttons. It fits snugly to the phone and is available in white and black colours.

Adding the extended battery to the phone makes the Nexus S bulky, however the phone fits in to the hand pretty nicely. If you are using any protective case for Nexus S, then of course, you will not be able to use it with the extended battery.

On the performance front, Mugen Power requires you to calibrate the battery. Calibration includes charging of battery for 12 hours multiple times in order to achieve the optimum rated capacity. If you plan to use both the stock battery and the extended battery, Mugen provides an Android app to swap the batteries easily.

The battery delivered an uptime of almost 2.5 days with EDGE connectivity on, moderate calls, using phone applications and few minutes of gaming. This is indeed a good performance by this battery that makes you go on with the smartphone without worrying about the charge.

Mugen Power has priced this battery for Rs.5,318. A bit costly, but a great utility for people who use their phone more and want days of connectivity without re-charging.

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