Bengaluru Gets 6 Free Public Wi-Fi Hotspots

On Friday, Karnataka government launched free Wi-Fi connectivity in six commercial hotspots in Bengaluru. This is said to be the 1st free public Wi-Fi service of its kind in India which includes airports and confined retail spaces. This service will gonna be extended to 10-15 more locations over the next few months.

Free public Wi-Fi will enable you to access the internet on your mobile devices even when you are on the road. You no need to have a 2G or 3G connection.

Plenty of  applications can be built using free public Wi-Fi. Bengaluru is looking at using it for high-definition traffic surveillance, and parking management. Cameras have already been installed at Wi-Fi hotspots, and so that people can view the traffic conditions on those roads and will also help people to where parking is available.

At these 6 hotspots, one can access Internet at a speed of up to 512kbps and the usage will be limited to three hours per day or up to 50MB data.

Around the globe, many governments and cities are beginning to provide free Wi-Fi connectivity. In United States of America, at least 57 cities now have free Wi-Fi. Many European and Asian cities too provide free public Wi-Fi.

Mumbai Mayor Sunil Prabhu said the project proposal is still at a nascent stage and the civic body was working on the security aspects. "We have appointed consultants who are studying how all security concerns can be addressed before kickstarting the project," Prabhu said.

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Apple Launching Its iPad In India On January 28th

Apple finally decided to launch its iPad in India. According to The Telegraph, the iPad will be launching in India on January 28th, which is just three days away from today. The iPad will be available in India only through Apple's premium retailers.

According to The Telegraph, the Wi-Fi version of the iPad will be priced somewhere between Rs. 26,000 to Rs. 33,000. The 3G+Wi-Fi version will be priced somewhere between Rs.33,000 to Rs. 44,000. Each version will be coming in three capacities, 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.

The iPad itself requires no introduction. By now almost everyone has heard of or used the iPad in India. We are just disappointed that Apple took this long to launch the iPad here. With the second generation iPad launch just three months away from now, does it mean that we won't be getting it on time as well? Something tells us the answer is "Yes" .

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Apple iPad 2 Coming With WiFi, UMTS & CDMA

 According to industry sources at chip component makers, Apple is going to work on 3 versions of iPad 2 that will consist of Wi-Fi, UMTS and CDMA models as reported by Taiwanese news daily DigiTimes. The mass production of these iPads is expected to start in late January. Once again the "industry sources" offers some secretive update but there's no way to confirm them to be true.

Apple iPad truly has been the most discussed and searched gadget of this year. Despite of that, several short comings exist in the tablet that are anticipated to be covered up in the next-generation iPad 2. Apple follows an annual product cycle under which a new product with design and/or hardware refresh comes out every year mostly. The iPad's annual product cycle period is January and hence eyes are glued to Apple for announcing the new iPad 2 sometime at or after the Consumer Electronics Show 2011 in Las Vegas.

The industry sources placed at Taiwanese component makers pointed out that about 60 to 65 per cent of current iPad shipments consist of UMTS 3G model. Hence Apple is expected to work closely with telecom operators and roll out second-generation iPad in conjunction with different wireless majors. Apple plans to ship about 500,000-530,000 iPad units in January at a ratio of 3:4:3 for Wi-Fi, UMTS and CDMA models respectively. For these new iPad 2 models, Apple is also said to be working on better oleophobic coating and anti-reflective screen. 

These sources also stated that Apple will gradually cease the production of iPad after January and whatever iPad inventory is left would be used to suffice the demand of the same model through the year 2011. The sources estimate that the iPad 2 shipments in 2011 will reach 40 million units. Too many figures and too many "industry" sources have been cited so far. Let's see a grainy or clear photo of iPad 2 before launch or wait for Apple to give out the official word on the same

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Dell Streak 7 (Android) is Wi-Fi Certified

Google Android 2.1 running Streak tablet had been introdused by Dell in India for Rs. 34,990 two months ago. And now we hear ramblings about the Dell Streak 7 tablet in works. Apparently, a Dell M02M mobile internet device got the Wi-Fi certification from the Wi-Fi Alliance recently. Also, accessories maker Vaja listed Dell's 7-inch tablet for its leather cases. Back in September, Dell Greater China President, Mr. Amit Midha, promised a 7-inch tablet to arrive in weeks and 10-inch tablet in next 6-12 months. 

Dell CEO Michael Dell briefly flashed an unnamed 7-inch tablet back in September. Following that, Midha confirmed that the tablet would be introduced within weeks. Apart from that, Dell also plans to introduce a 3-inch, 4-inch and 10-inch tablets in the coming year. Apparently, the Dell Streak 7 would run Google Android, I suppose 2.3 Gingerbread since it has been announced already. Just like the 5-inch Dell Streak tablet, it will have the Stage UI overlaid over Android. 

Dubbed as Dell Steak 7, the tablet will carry 7-inch Gorilla Glass touchscreen display. Of course, it will have Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n) for connectivity but there's no word on whether it will support 3G Networks as well. Inside the tablet, Dell is rumored to use dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 chip for enough computing and graphics power. The tablet would be capable of playing 1080p HD video. 

Engadget claims to have got their hands on the story board of Dell Streak 7's Ad Treatment. In one of the slides, the Streak 7 is shown with front-facing camera, so video calls might be on the cards.

We can expect Dell to show off the Streak 7 at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show 2011 starting January 6 in Las Vegas.

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Nokia X5 Arrives in India; Priced at Rs. 10,499

After Five months its unveiling, the Nokia X5 is finally out now . The X5 slider phone looks like a cross between a Nokia E series smartphone and an XpressMusic handset. Nokia X5 is on sale for Rs. 10,499.

It supports a 5 megapixel camera with LED Flash, 2.36 inch QVGA display and a slide out QWERTY keypad. With an internal memory of 200 MB and bundled 2 GB microSD memory card.

The phone supports dedicated music keys, and comes with a year's worth of unlimited music from Ovi Music. Nokia X5 music oriented features include a built in 'Surprise me!' option that plays random tracks when the phone is spun around. 'Playlist DJ' feature allows playlist creation tools. When music is not playing, you can shake the phone to see the number of new SMSes in the Inbox.

It runs the same Symbian Series 60 OS found on the E-series smartphones, which gives access to slew of social networking services. Connectivity options include Bluetooth 2.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and USB 2.0. Nokia X5's battery is claimed to last 16-days on standby and gives 24 hours of music playback.

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Apple releases iTunes 10.1 with iOS 4.2 support

Apple has released iTunes 10.1 software update for Mac OS X and Windows platforms. This new version of iTunes brings support for iOS 4.2 update and the new wireless streaming feature - AirPlay. Announced at the Sept 1 event, the new AirPlay features allows streaming music, photos and videos to an Apple TV wirelessly. However, there's no update or mention about the highly anticipated iOS 4.2 update for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices.

New iTunes 10.1 for Mac OS X and Windows platforms brings number of important stability and performance fixes. New AirPlay feature will now let you stream videos from iTunes 10.1 to the all-new Apple TV wirelessly. Most importantly this update brings support for iOS 4.2 firmware running iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices. Recently MacStories reported that iOS 4.2 update was delayed due to a Wi-Fi bug.

The iTunes 10.1 update for Mac OS X and Windows can be downloaded from here -http://www.apple.com/itunes/download just in case your Apple software update doesn't occur on its own. 

File sizes for iTunes 10.1:
- Mac OS X 10.5 or higher: 90.63MB
- Windows (32-bit): 78.10MB
- Windows (64-bit): 78.98MB

Now the iOS 4.2 update is anticipated to arrive early next week.

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Zyxel Releases Wireless N Access Point

Taiwan based Zyxel Communications has introduced WAP 3205 wireless N compatible access point. The 802.11n standard offers enhanced speeds of 300 Mbps and enhanced range over the existing B & G standards. This makes it ideal for those seeking to stream high bandwidth HD video content over the network. Besides its primary function as an access point, it can be deployed for multiple roles like universal repeater, WLAN bridge, WDS repeater and as a Wi-Fi client.

Other features include a one touch WPS button for easy wireless security setup, mac address filtering and support for WEP, WPA and the latest WPA2 encryption standards. It also allows flexible network infrastructure setup with multiple SSID support, using which WAP 3205 can allow different groups of users to access different networks at the same time. It is available now for Rs. 6,771. Here's a full list of specifications:

• 802.11n enabled with data transfer rate of up to 300 Mbps
• Backward compatibility with the 802.11b/g standard
• Easy to extend the wireless network coverage with repeater modes
• Multiple SSID for separating access privileges
• WPS button for quick and easy wireless security setup
• Secure wireless communications with wep/wpa/wpa2
• Wi-Fi protected set up increase the flexibility and efficiency of the network infrastructure

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