Samsung’s new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S III is packed with new features. Most of them are software, not hardware; Samsung has worked long and hard to enhance Google’s Android OS and give phone shoppers a reason to buy its products over HTC’s and Apple’s. Here are 10 features Samsung announced yesterday which could make a difference.
Gimmicky but cool, Pop-Up Play shows what you can do with a quad-core processor on a phone. If you’re watching a video and want to do something else, you can turn the video into a little thumbnail that will float – still playing! – over the Web browser. This is a step towards truly being able to run two apps at once, something for which the big 4.8-inch screen is practically begging.
9. Smart Stay
Don’t you hate it when you’re reading something on your phone, and then the screen backlight times out and it goes black? That happens to me all the time when I’m trying to figure out games of Quell. You can change the timeout length, but this is a smarter solution: it uses a sensor to check if your head is in front of the phone, and keeps the lights on if you’re looking at the device.
8. Social Tagging / Buddy Share
I’m not 100 percent sure how this works, but Samsung says it uses face recognition to match people in your photos up with your contacts. Then you can click through the photos to their social-networking status, or tap on their faces to email them the photos. That’s pretty amazing.
7. AllShare Play
Relatively few people hook their phones up to their TVs because the two choices are HDMI/MHL adapters (complicated and short) and DLNA networking (incomprehensible.) Samsung’s AllShare Play dongle, like HTC’s Media Link HD, hooks up to your TV and lets your phone beam video over wirelessly without a confusing user interface.
6. Best Photo
It looks like the Galaxy S III takes all photos in burst mode. When you take a photo, you’re really taking eight, and you can then pick the best one of the bunch. That should do away with people blinking.
5. S Beam
By combining NFC and Wi-Fi Direct, you can transfer files – even large ones – between two Galaxy S IIIs by tapping them together. Now, wouldn’t it be great if this was an open standard and any phone with both technologies could do it?
4. Sharp Bluetooth Stereo
The Apt-X codec in the Galaxy S III finally takes the blurry muddiness out of Bluetooth stereo, promising much sharper wireless sound. Now that the S III, HTC One phones, and Motorola Droid Razr all support Apt-X, it’s time to see some great Apt-X wireless headphones hit the market.
3. S Voice
Samsung’s answer to Apple’s Siri can do Web searches and run the phone’s own functions. Samsung hasn’t shown how deep it goes or how smart it gets, but what little we’ve seen is encouraging.
2. Better Call Quality
Smartphones are still phones, right? The Audience es305 voice-processing chip in the Galaxy S III makes you sound sharper on the other end of a call, canceling noise so humans can hear you and refining your voice so systems like S Voice can better understand what you say.
1. Ice Cream Sandwich
It’s time for Android users to be able to move up to this superior version of the OS. Ice Cream Sandwich delivered far better Web browsing speeds than Gingerbread, and new APIs let developers take better advantage of larger screens ilke the 4.8-inch panel on the Galaxy S III.
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Monday received the prestigious 1.1 million pound Templeton Prize here and announced that most of the prize money will go to ‘Save the Children’ fund in India.
Speaking at the St Paul’s Cathedral where he received the prize, 76-year-old Dalai Lama said that most of the prize money will go to the ‘Save the Children’ fund in India, with smaller bequests to a science and religion group which is studying the effects of Buddhist practice and to a project to train Buddhist monks as scientists.
About 900,000 pounds will go to ‘Save the Children’, an Indian NGO that works for child rights, with 125,000 pounds set aside for ‘The Minds and Life Institute’, a US based non-profit organisation. Money will also go towards a fund to educate Tibetan monks about science.
Dalai Lama, who leads a Tibetan government in exile in India, is being awarded the prize for encouraging “serious scientific investigative reviews of the power of compassion”, and its potential to address world problems.
The John Templeton Foundation said he was chosen for exploring these issues, which are key themes of his teachings, with people beyond his own religious traditions.
It is the 40th anniversary of the Templeton Prize, which was established in 1972 as a global award honouring a living person who affirms “life’s spiritual dimension”, whether through insight, discovery, or practical works.
“With an increasing reliance on technological advances to solve the world’s problems, humanity also seeks the reassurance that only a spiritual quest can answer,” Dr John Templeton, president of the foundation and son of the late prize founder said.
“The Dalai Lama offers a universal voice of compassion underpinned by a love and respect for spiritually relevant scientific research that centres on every single human being,” he added.
23 were killed in clashes between Alawite supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Sunni Muslim fighters in the Lebanese city of Tripoli, medical sources said on Monday.
Fierce clashes overnight shook the northern port city and sporadic fighting continued on Monday morning, with fighters firing machineguns and rocket propelled grenades.
Tension between the Alawite and Sunni communities in Tripoli has been fuelled by the unrest in neighbouring Syria, where Assad is seeking to crush a 14-month-old uprising which began with largely peaceful protests but has become increasingly militarised.
Assad is from the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam, while Syria’s revolt has been led by Syria’s majority Sunni Muslims.
A small Alawite minority is concentrated in Tripoli, a conservative Sunni city where many residents have been enraged by the Syrian government’s crackdown on the mainly Sunni revolt Clashes began late on Saturday, and three people were killed over the weekend in the city’s Alawite enclave and surrounding Sunni Muslim neighbourhoods.
The fighting in Tripoli, 70 km (43 miles) from Beirut, highlights how sectarian tensions in Syria can ignite conflict in Lebanon. Buildings in the area are still riddled with bullet holes from similar clashes earlier in the year. Among the deaths at the weekend was a soldier hit by sniper fire.
Sporadic fighting also took place between armed Sunnis and the Lebanese army near a main Sunni district, and many of Tripoli’s main intersections were blocked by burning tyres. Prime Minister Najib Mikati, a Sunni Muslim from Tripoli, met religious leaders in the city on Sunday in an attempt to defuse the situation, and local leaders were due to meet later on Monday for more talks to calm the tension.
Tension in Tripoli had been on the rise since last week when Sunni Islamists held a sit-in to protest the arrest of a man who Lebanese authorities said had been in contact with an unnamed “terrorist organisation”. Islamists say Shadi al-Moulawi was arrested because he was working with Syrian refugees.
A statement by al-Jamaa al-Islamiya, an Islamist group in Tripoli, criticised the arrest as lacking due process. Police said he was arrested after thorough surveillance.
Yahoo saved its big executive shake-up for a Sunday confirming that Scott Thompson was being replaced as CEO, and putting a digital media specialist and ex-Fox exec in temporary helm of the company. Thompson’s departure – after a week and a half of grilling over apparent false claims in his resumé – sees former Yahoo Americas EVP Ross Levinsohn take the top spot, with the company apparently hoping to draw a veil over its former chief.
Thompson’s short shrift was clear from the phrasing of Yahoo’s press release. ”Mr. Levinsohn replaces Scott Thompson, former Chief Executive Officer, who has left the Company” was the only mention of the outgoing CEO, with nary a hint of the usual “the board thanks him for his hard work” we’d generally expect to see in such a release. There’s also no mention of Thompson’s reported health problems, as suggested by the WSJ, which insiders hint have been the main motivation behind him stepping down from his position.
Instead, the focus is on where Levinsohn can take the company, even in his role as interim CEO. The temporary chief was previously President of News Corporation’s Fox Interactive Media – responsible for guiding the MySpace acquisition, no less – and has also held key positions at AltaVista, CBS Sportsline where he led sports content and development, and HBO, where he was tasked with developing new programming and revenue streams.
Coming up with digital media strategies isn’t Levinsohn’s only experience. He also co-founded investment and strategic equity management firm Fuse Capital, focused on unlocking wealth in digital media and communications companies.
Fifteen people including eleven Indian pilgrims were killed when a private plane crashed after hitting a hill top while trying to land at the high-altitude Jomsom airport in Nepal on Monday.
Eleven Indian nationals, two Danish nationals and two Nepalese crew member were killed in the crash. The rescuers have so far recovered nine bodies from the wreckage. Six people on board, including a crew member and five Indians, have been rescued alive from the crash site.
9N AIG Agni Air plane, flying from Pokhara was about to land at Jomsom airport when it crashed with 21 persons, including 3 crew members on board. “The accident happened less than one mile from the airport,” Purusottam Shakya of the air traffic control said.
The high-altitude Jomsom airport, about 200 km northwest of the capital, is the gateway to Muktinath temple, a popular pilgrimage for Nepalis and Indians. The temple, situated more than 2,600 m above sea level, is about six hours walk from Jomsom.
According to the press release issued by the Indian embassy in Nepal, of the 18 passengers, 16 were Indians. Six people were rescued alive from the crash, out of which 3 were Indian nationals. These include Tirumala Kidambi Sreekanth, Tirumala Kidambi Sreevardhini and Tirumala Kidambi Sreepada and are undergoing treatment at Manipal Hospital in Pokhara. The others 13 Indians are feared dead.
The Indian embassy is in close contact with the Nepalese authorities and are helping in the search and relief operation.
Meanwhile, a Nepal Army chopper has left for Jomsom to bring the mortal remains of the deceased to Kathmandu.
Rumors are heating up that Apple is readying a smaller version of the iPad for release later this year.
The iPad mini will be 7 inches and identical in every other way to the current 9.7-inch iPad. It is even expected to sport a 2048-by-1536 resolution display, just like the new iPad.
Cupertino is said to be keeping costs down on the mini tablet by giving it less storage capacity than its larger counterpart. The $200 iPad mini model will provide 8GB of storage, just like the base iPod touch, which also currently sells for $200. The current entry-level iPad model comes with 16GB of storage.
And to get your head spinning even more, a separate report this week indicates that the iPad mini is coming even sooner than October. Taiwan-based news organization Digitimes reported that a 7-inch iPad will be released in August, while a new version of the iPhone will launch in September. According to Digitimes, the 7-inch iPad is being manufactured by Foxconn.
Evidence that Apple is planning to launch a smaller version of the iPad has been mounting for months. The rumors first surfaced back in December, with
reports that Apple had purchased 7.85-inch panels.
In the survey of 2,603 U.S. online shopping consumers, conducted in late April, 52 percent of respondents said they would consider buying a so-called “iPad mini.”
Mexican police said Sunday they had found the dumped and decapitated bodies of 49 people, probably killed in drug violence, whose hands had been cut off to prevent fingerprint identification.
The mutilated corpses were discovered in black plastic bags close to the northern city of Monterrey, 180 kilometers (110 miles) from the US border.
Jorge Domene, a public safety spokesman for the state of Nuevo Leon, said the victims comprised 43 men and six women and the bodies had been split into their four limbs and stacked up at the roadside.
The find came just days after police discovered the dismembered, decapitated bodies of 18 people in two abandoned vehicles in western Mexico, in what appeared to be a revenge killing involving powerful drug gangs.
Just a few days earlier, there were 23 killings in the city of Nuevo Laredo, in Tamaulipas state which borders the United States, comprising nine people found hanging from a bridge and 14 others that had been decapitated.
Adrian de la Garza, a prosecutor in Nuevo Leon state, said some of the bodies in Sunday’s shocking find were naked and the hands had been cut off, though forensic experts were collecting DNA samples.
A note was found at the scene in which the Zetas — a gang set up by ex-commandos that deserted in the 1990s — claimed responsibility.
Initial investigations indicate that the victims were killed up to 48 hours ago in a different location, having likely been transported by truck to where they were found.
Suspected drug gang violence has risen across the country this month, with scores of deaths attributed to massacres and clashes with security forces.
Authorities have blamed much of the deadly violence on battles between the Zetas and groups allied to the Sinaloa Federation of Mexico’s most wanted drug lord, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
The state of Veracruz has become a battleground between the Zetas and Guzman’s Sinaloa grouping, and journalists have also been targeted.
Last week, the dismembered bodies of three photographers and a news company employee were found, wrapped in plastic bags, in a canal in the metropolitan area of Veracruz, a port city on the Gulf of Mexico.
Several days earlier the Veracruz state correspondent of the national weekly news magazine Proceso was found strangled in her home.
More than 50,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon launched an all-out war against the nation’s drug gangs on taking office in December 2006.
The leaders of South Korea, China and Japan agreed to start official negotiations on a trilateral free trade pact within this year during their annual meeting in Beijing on Sunday, stepping up efforts to deepen economic cooperation.
To this end, they agreed to begin the necessary domestic procedures and working-level consultations soon, Seoul officials said.
President Lee Myung-bak, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda discussed their cooperation in business, trade, security and other pending issues during the talks, the fifth of their kind.
“The start of the FTA negotiations within this year is very meaningful for the future of the three countries’ cooperation,” Lee said during a joint press conference.
The Chinese premier said that the decision on the FTA talks is a “crucial and strategic one” while Noda called it a “big outcome” of the summit meeting.
The envisioned pact would create one of the world’s largest economic blocs, comparable to the EU and the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The three countries’ combined population amounts to some 1.5 billion, less than a fifth of the world’s total. Their gross domestic product amounts to $12 trillion, some 20 percent of the world’s total.
Earlier this month, Seoul and Beijing declared their beginning of bilateral FTA negotiations.
During the summit, the three countries also signed an agreement aimed at setting legal, institutional grounds to protect their investors operating in each other’s territories.
The first economic deal between the three Asian powers features a fair treatment of foreign investors, strengthened protection of intellectual property and a ban on toughening investment-related regulations.
The deal goes into effect a month after the three countries notify one another that they have completed their domestic procedures including securing parliamentary approval.
North Korea topped the security agenda at the summit as concerns continue that it could soon carry out its third nuclear test.
Lee said that time has come to devise a “new, effective” measure to deter North Korea’s provocations, stressing that the three nations should work closely together to address security issues involving the reclusive state.
The Chinese premier stressed the importance of preventing tension on the Korean Peninsula.
“We should throw away the Cold War-era way of thinking and address issues through dialogue. The urgent priority is to prevent tension on the Korea Peninsula,” he said.
“We should have patience and good will. It is important to go back to the right track of dialogue and negotiations.”
Speculation has abounded that Pyongyang could conduct another underground nuclear test to make up for last month’s botched rocket launch and increase its bargaining power with the U.S.
The international community including China has remained united to dissuade the North from any action that hampers stability and peace in the region and beyond.
Last week, the five permanent U.N. Security Council members ― the U.S., Britain, China, Russia and France ― issued a joint statement urging Pyongyang to “refrain from further actions that may cause grave security concerns in the region, including any nuclear tests.”
Above all, China’s position is critical in reining in its wayward ally Pyongyang, analysts said. Beijing has recently sent warnings to its impoverished ally against another nuclear test, since uncertainty with the untested, inexperienced leader Kim Jong-un still lingers.
A set of agreements reached during the summit were announced in the “Joint Declaration on the Enhancement of Trilateral Comprehensive Cooperative Partnership” at the close of the trilateral meeting.
The three countries also adopted two annexes to the declaration.
One carries the joint statement on agricultural cooperation that calls for deepened cooperation to deal with such issues as food security, biodiversity, natural disasters and infectious illnesses among plants and animals.
The other is the joint statement on cooperation on sustainable forest management, combating desertification and wildlife conservation. It calls for more active trilateral engagement in tackling regional and global environmental issues.
The trilateral summit has been held annually since 2008 when its inaugural meeting took place in Fukuoka, Japan. The second one was held in Beijing while the third and fourth were held on Jeju Island, South Korea, and in Tokyo, Japan, respectively.
For the annual summit, the countries established a secretariat in Seoul last September.
At the South Korea-Japan-China Business Summit held after the leaders’ annual talks, Lee said that the trilateral FTA will contribute to prosperity in Northeast Asia and the resolution of the economic crisis facing the world.
“To overcome today’s economic crisis, I believe expanding free trade and international cooperation are important,” he said during his keynote speech at the Business Summit.
“Korea signed free trade deals with 45 nations including the U.S. and the EU, and has become a free trade hub that links the world’s market, and accounts for 61 percent of the world’s gross domestic product.”
Later in the day, Lee and the Chinese premier held bilateral talks where they agreed to expand security and military cooperation, and improve collaboration in future growth engines such as energy and green growth.
They also agreed to deepen their friendship through cultural and people-to-people exchanges as the two countries mark the 20th anniversary of their diplomatic ties.
The earlier history of Mother’s Day dates back to the ancient annual spring festival, which the Greeks dedicated to maternal goddesses. They used the occasion to honour Rhea, wife of Cronus and the mother of many deities of Greek mythology.
Ancient Romans, too, celebrated a spring festival called Hilaria dedicated to Cybele, a mother goddess.
The early Christians celebrated Mother’s Day during the festival on the fourth Sunday of Lent in honor of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ. In England, the holiday was expanded to include all mothers. It was then called Mothering Sunday.
The day came into being on May 10, 1908 by an American Anna Jarvis. Mother’s Day can be traced to medieval times when children from poor families often worked as domestic servants and lived in their master’s houses. In the middle of Lent, these children were given a day off to visit the Mother Church and pray to Virgin Mary. This was usually on the fourth Sunday of the month and was named as ‘Mothering Sunday’. After paying tribute to the spiritual mother, children would visit their mothers and present them with flowers. Girls would bake a special ‘mothering cake’. The tradition of baking a ‘simnel cake’ still continues in England.
Markets are flooded with cards and gift items for the Mother’s Day, which will be celebrated on May 13.
From especially designed mama’s cups to flower baskets for mummy, from attractive apparels to fancy footwear, from musical cards to colourful jewellery, the gift item shops are having everything to show your love and emotion to your mother.
Apart from these regular gifts, personalized coffee mugs, T-shirts and pillow covers are gaining popularity.
Owner of a gifts shop in Arya Nagar said: “We have a huge range of gifts and cards for the Mother’s day including written letters, mementos, photo frames, coffee mugs and soft toys. The wooden dolphins are the latest attraction this year which is attaining huge popularity.”
Discounts are also offered on the gifts for Mother’s Day.
The general gifts like musical cards, pop out gadgets, poster cards are also in demand which range between Rs 75 and Rs 295. ‘Mumma and Son teddy bears’ with expressions like ‘love you mom’, ‘mummy you are a star’, are other popular items. These stuff toys can be ranged from Rs 599 to 1999.
“Among the latest trend, the scroll letter made up of cloth with quotations about mother written on it is grabbing a lot of attention. This gift costs from Rs 200 to 500 depending upon the size of the letter,” said a shopkeeper in K-Block area. Mother’s Day gift also includes quotation book, coffee mug and a photo frame, which can be bought from Rs 99 to 299.
Owners of personalised gift items in the city are finding it difficult to meet the demands. Orders have been placed by the youth to paste mother’s photo on stuffs like coffee mugs, pillow covers and on T-shirts. A personalised gift shop owner in Kidwai Nagar area said that the demand of such gifts has increased three times.
“In past three days, I have received 100 orders for coffee mugs, 40 for T shirts and 70 for pillows covers. The price to tag the photo of your mama in these gifts may ranges from Rs 199 to Rs 599,” he said. Some children are coming out with unique ideas for printing on the stuff so that the moms can preserve it.
Many children can be witnessed buying cookery books to prepare special dishes for mom.
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