Biggest Tech Gadgets ……..

The year 2008 was a hot year on product launches front. The year saw some of the coolest technology debuts across categories: mobiles, cameras, software, LCDs ….

These launches pushed the benchmarks higher in their respective categories. Some got applause for their looks, others for features and some for their attractive pricing.

Here’s bringing to you some of the biggest product launches of the year 2008.

Google Chrome

Internet search giant Google made its surprise entry in the browser space with Chrome. The Google browser aims to take on Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox. Google termed the launch as “a fresh take on the browser.”

Among the key features, Chrome puts the tab buttons on the upper side of the window, not below the address bar like those seen in Firefox and Internet Explorer. Web programmes can be launched in their own dedicated windows.

As a default homepage, the browser offers a “speed dial” feature, similar to the one in Opera browser. This gives users a view of their most visited Web pages in nine screenshot thumbnails. Similarly, users can also view some of their recent searches, recently bookmarked pages and recently closed tabs.

Like IE8, Chrome also comes with privacy mode or porn mode feature. This mode lets users create an “incognito” window where “nothing that occurs in that window is ever logged onto your computer.” This is a read-only feature with access to one’s bookmarks or favorite sites.

The browser has an address bar ‘omnibox’ with auto-completion features. It offers search suggestions, top pages that a user visited and pages he didn’t visit but are popular. The omnibox also gives suggests searches. For safe browsing experience, Chrome will regularly keep on downloading a list of harmful sites. This is the Internet search giant’s attempt to fight malware and phishing attacks.

The browser also supports multi-tasking. Just like in a typical operating system each application is given its own memory and its own copy of global data structures. Applications will launch in their own windows so that if one should hang or crash it won’t affect the others.

Apple 3G iPhone

July 2008 saw the launch of second-generation Apple iPhone. Called 3G iPhone, the gadget earned rave reviews for its unique design, touchscreen interface and other features, though many lamented lack of common features like higher megapixel camera, flash support, message forwarding and MMS capability.

In looks, the phone’s black plastic skin back has been replaced by silver-aluminum back. While the 8GB model comes in black only, the 16GB version is available in both black and white. Weighing 4.8 ounces, the 3G iPhone measures 0.48 inches.

The 3G technology gives iPhone fast access to the Internet and email over cellular networks around the world. The new version also makes it possible to surf the Web, download email, get directions, and watch video — even while users are on a call. The touchscreen phone promises 5 hours of 3G talktime, 10 hours of 2G talktime, 5 hours of 3G Internet time, 6 hours of Wi-Fi Internet time, 7 hours of video playback, 24 hours of audio playback, and 12.5 days standby time.

In India, the phone is offered by Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, who sell the 8GB model for Rs 31,000 and 16GB for Rs 36,100.

Firefox 3.0


The latest version of Mozilla Foundation’s popular browser Firefox 3.0 went live in June this year. The new version adds several new features that enhances the users browsing experience as well as makes it more secure. In fact, Mozilla claims that Firefox 3.0 runs twice as fast as the previous version while using less memory.

An important addition in the version is One-click site info where the users can click the site favicon in the location bar to see who owns the site and to check if their connection is protected from eavesdropping. Also, the Identity verification is prominently displayed in the new version. When a site uses Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificates, the site favicon button will turn green and show the name of the company users are connected to.

The new version has enhanced malware protection which warns users when they enter a site which can install viruses, spyware, trojans or other malware. Version 3 also lets users to access Web Forgery Protection page that displays the content suspected of web forgeries. Also, the new version of Firefox automatically checks new add-ons and plugins and will disable older, insecure versions.

Another interesting feature is ‘Smart Bookmarking’ which lets users add bookmarks from the location bar with a single click. A dropdown box will let him name it, choose a folder to put it in as well as add a tag to categorise it.

Sony Reader PRS-505

Another big launch of the year was Sony e-book reader PRS-505. The reader uses an electronic paper display developed by E Ink Corporation, that has 170 dpi (dot per inch) resolution and eight-level grayscale.

The Reader is viewable in direct sunlight, requires no power to maintain the image, and offers portrait or landscape orientation.

Measuring 175 x 122 x 8 mm, the Reader weighs 250 grams. It has a 6-inch SVGA display, and comes with the memory capacity of 256MB with memory slot. The Reader can hold around 160 eBooks. It offers minimum font size of 6 pt. Sony Reader comes bundled with Sony’s software called Connect. It also supports Windows XP, but does not work on Windows Vista. The reader supports Sony’s BBeB (BroadBand eBook, LRX or LRF), TXT, RTF and PDF file formats.

HP TouchSmart tx2

The year 2008 was surely the year of Touch. Touch computing came to laptops with Hewlett Packard’s first laptop computer with multi-touch technology, promising users the same fingertip navigation built into previous HP desktops and popularised by Apple’s iPhone.

Called the TouchSmart tx2, the model has three modes: PC, display and tablet, with a digital pen to sketch or take notes directly on the screen.

TouchSmart tx2 features a 12.1-inch diagonal BrightView LED display and convertible design that allows it to be used as a PC, display or tablet. Users can navigate the screen with more than one finger simultaneously, using what HP describes as ‘capacitive multi-touch technology’.

Since the laptop recognises input from more than one finger at a time, users can use multiple gestures, such as flicking, pinching and rotating. In addition, the screen, which has a resolution of 1,200 by 800 pixels, swivels and can be laid flat. The TouchSmart tx2 comes preloaded with Windows Vista Home Premium, and HP is giving customers the choice of AMD’s Turion X2 Ultra Dual-Core mobile processor or AMD Turion X2 Dual-Core mobile processor.

The system also has ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics processor, up to 8GB of memory and a 500GB hard drive. Other features include Bluetooth and WiFi wireless technology, an integrated camera and a DVD burner. HP TouchSmart tx2 is priced starting at $1,149. The company has placed its touchscreen laptop in the same bracket as Apple’s low-end MacBooks in terms of pricing.

Google G1

Internet search giant Google finally pulled off curtains over its mobile phone entry with the launch of G1. The phone which has Google’s operating system Android was launched by HTC on TMobile network. The device combines a touchscreen and a keyboard.

G1 is the first phone boasting Android software created by a Google-led consortium. In India G1 is expected to hit stores in early 2009. G1 has a large 3.2-inch colour touchscreen display with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels. Weighing 158 grams, the phone is similar in size to 3G iPhone, just slightly heavier, and narrower at sides. G1 comes in three colours, black, white and brown.

The phone’s large colour touchscreen slides out to expose a full keyboard. Google’s G1 offers a host of multimedia features similar to that of Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s BlackBerry. The phone has a trackball for navigation, high-speed Internet browsing, WiFi, email, instant messaging and SMS texting.

The phone functions on 3G network and is specially designed to offer high-speed Internet surfing. It also has a GPS, a 3 megapixel camera with photo-sharing capability and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, a feature lacking on the iPhone. Like iPhone, in G1 users cannot shoot video. There’s also a feature by which Gmail users will get instant notification whenever they receive a new message in their inbox.

Google has made Android software available for free to carriers and handset makers who want to use it to power their own devices. The search giant hopes that the open source software will eventually become the dominant operating system for mobile phones.

Apple iPods

Another big launch from Apple this year: The company refreshed its popular iPod line-up by adding a host of new features in iPod nano and Touch.

While the company termed the new nano, “thinnest-ever,” the new iPod Touch is called “the funnest iPod ever.” The fourth-generation nano is oval shaped at the edges, giving it a sleeker and slimmer look, unlike the previous compact design.

The player has a 2-inch (diagonal) LCD display with blue-white LED backlight and 320 x 240 pixel resolution. Users can now view content in both portrait and landscape modes. iPod Touch too has gone sleeker in design. It now sports a rounded chromed-steel back that wraps around the sides just like the 3G iPhone. The player has a 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen multi-touch display with 480 x 320-pixel resolution at 163 pixels per inch.

There were strong speculations that Apple will increase the memory capacity of iPod Touch to 64GB. But, both the models disappointed with no memory upgrade. Among key features, the new nano comes with a “shake to shuffle” feature that changes songs as the user shakes the player.

Another addition is the built-in accelerometer which flips the screen orientation, a feature already available in iPhone. Users can now view photos and video in both horizontal and landscape mode. The second-generation iPod Touch too introduced many new features: support for on-device Genius playlist creation, Microsoft Exchange Push email, multi-language keyboard, dictionary support, MobileMe, multiple calendar management, contacts search and a scientific calculator.

Popularly termed iPhone cousin, iPod Touch now has a volume rocker switch on the sides for making quick volume adjustments without touching the screen. There’s also a built-in speaker added. Apple claims the new iPod Touch will support up to 36 hours of music and 6 hours of video.

Samsung X360

Korean electronic maker Samsung unveiled Apple Air rival, sub-3 pound laptop X360 at IFA 2008. The laptop weighs a mere 2.8 pounds (1.27 kg, making it 90 grams lighter than Apple Air.

Taking a direct hit at MacBook Air, the tagline for Samsung X360 says “Lighter than Air.” The notebook also challenges Lenovo’s ThinkPad X300 which weighs 2.93 pounds.

With 13.3-inch WXGA (1280×800) LCD screen, Samsung X360 is powered by Intel Centrino 2 ultra-low voltage processor. Equipped with DDR3 1066MHz 1GB memory, expandable up to 4GB, the laptop packs an external DVD super multi-dual layer writer. It has three USB ports, a built-in HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) connection, 34mm express card slot and VGA output.

It is also equipped with a 7-in-1 memory card reader, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate), 802.11n wireless technology and 10/100/1000 Ethernet LAN connection. With 1.3 megapixel digital motion camera, it supports videoconferencing and live messaging features. It has a removable six-cell battery that ensures up to 10 hours of continuous use. To ensure data protection, the laptop has biometric fingerprint and platform module authentication system.

Hasselblad H3DII-50

A Swedish company Hasselblad’s announcement of the launch of Hasselblad H3DII-50, featuring a new Kodak 50-megapixel sensor, has pushed the available resolution in digital cameras to a new high.

Such high resolution goes beyond the needs of most consumers but professional photographers would appreciate the unprecedented level of detail provided by it.

The camera proves useful for applications such as aerial photography as the availability of higher resolution allows the plane to fly higher and the number of pictures necessary for covering a given area is also reduced. The new Kodak image sensor, which produces an array of 8,176-by-6,132 pixels, would be implemented in the same size housing as Hasselblad’s existing 39 megapixel H3DII-39 camera.

Kodak has also added a set of new features on the sensor, such as new dyes, that would result in richer colours. It also includes quick flush technology that enables faster image capture and lower power consumption, resulting in longer battery life.

Apple MacBooks

Apple Macbooks saw two big launches this year. In January at MacWorld, Apple launched what it claimed was world’s lightest and thinnest laptop, Macbook Air. Measuring 0.16-0.76 inches, it weighs about 3 pounds (1.36 kg).

Sporting a silvery finish, it featured 13.3-inch LED backlit widescreen with a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution and a full-size keyboard. Air came powered with 1.6GHz or 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, with 4MB on-chip shared L2 cache running at full processor speed and uses an 800MHz front side bus. The Core 2 Duo chip is custom-built by Intel to fit within the compact dimensions of MacBook Air.

The notebook comes with 2GB RAM and 80 GB hard drive. The hard drive is a Parallel ATA (PATA) model that operates at 4200 RPM. However, MacBook Air’s thinness leaves no room for an Ethernet jack, a removable battery and a built-in DVD drive.

In September, the company launched new MacBook and MacBook Pro models. Its thinnest and lightest laptop, Air, too went for a slight revamp. Apple attracted eyeballs with its manufacturing process that will help it machine out laptops from a single block of aluminium. Apple’s new line-up boasts of a sleeker and slimmer look, thanks to the new manufacturing process.

Measuring 12.78 by 8.94 by 0.95 inches, the new MacBook weighs 4.5 pounds (2.04 kg), half a pound lighter than previous version. It has a thickness of 0.95 inches, similar to the MacBook Pro. The new MacBook boasts of a 13.3-inch LED-backlit glossy display screen (diagonal) with support for millions of colours. The revamped MacBook has a corner-to-corner glass LED screen.

The MacBook Pro has also gone thinner. Measuring 14.35 by 9.82 by 0.95 inches, the new model weighs 5.5 pounds (2.49 kg). Pro will come with 15.4-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy display with support for millions of colours. Both models come with multi-touch glass trackpad. Apple has done away with the click button, which means now the trackpad is the button.

The MacBook Pro’s speaker holes on both sides of its keyboard have gone smaller. The MacBook’s stereo speakers continue to remain embedded right next to the display hinge.

BlackBerry Storm

RIM’s long-awaited touchscreen iPhone rival, Blackberry Storm, finally made its entry. BlackBerry Storm 9530′ most striking feature is its nifty SurePress touchscreen, which combines the flexibility of software-based input with the tactile response of physical buttons.

Measuring 4.43 X 2.45 X 0.55 inches, the new BlackBerry weighs 1.55 kgs. The phone’s look is quite similar in size to larger BlackBerry models but trades a standard QWERTY keyboard for a high-resolution 3.25-inch touchscreen. The phone’s display supports 480×360 pixel resolution and 65,000 colours.

The phone packs a host of multimedia capabilities including Bluetooth 2.0 with support for stereo Bluetooth headsets, dial-up networking and GPS. The phone comes with Media Player with support for music and video formats including MP3, AAC, WMA, WMV, MPEG4 and H.264.

Storm is equipped with a 3.2 megapixel camera with video recording, auto focus and flash. The phone also comes preloaded with instant messengers like Yahoo, Windows Live, AOL, and ICQ and social networking apps like Facebook, MySpace and Flickr. The phone has BlackBerry Maps for text-based turn-by-turn directions. The company claims Storm supports battery life of up to 15 days (standby time) and up to 5.5 hours (talk time).

Sony Xperia

Out of the box, Sony Xperia is a pure eye candy, with a black or silver metal-and-plastic body, crisp 3-inch touch screen and slightly curved QWERTY keyboard that slides out smoothly with a satisfying click. The X1 has minimal included memory, users will need a sizable microSD card to access lots of songs, videos and photos on it.

There is assortment of 11 buttons on the X1′s face, including a center button that can select items or work as an optical joystick, which scrolls with a finger swipe. The X1 uses Windows Mobile 6.1 as its operating system, but Sony Ericsson developed a variety of customised enhancements that run on top of it.

Most notable is the stylish panel interface, which consists of up to nine small rectangles you can customise and use to view different applications or media on the device in different ways. There’s a built-in 3.2 megapixel camera that can also be used for videos.

Nokia E63

Nokia made another addition to its Eseries range with the addition of E63 smartphone, very similar to the company’s flagship messaging device the E71.

Nokia claims it to be a BlackBerry rival with its “mass market appeal” and smart pricing. Unlike the E71, the E63 has an improved keyboard and comes in two colours. However the E63 lacks GPS support and has 2 megapixel camera as opposed to E71’s 3.2 megapixel.

Specs wise the Symbian S60-based smartphone measures 113 x 59 x 13 mm and comes with a 2 megapixel camera with LED flash, 36-inch QVGA display with 320 x 240 pixel and 16 million colours, a 3.5 mm stereo headset jack and a music and video player, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 and HTML, XHTML support.

Other features include support for Microsoft Exchange, POP/IMAP e-mail accounts, basic personal information management tools and Nokia Ovi support. The E63 also has the ability to switch modes with a single key press. From design perspective, the E63 is similar to the E71, but slightly changed. Instead of a metal body, the E63 has a plastic one in two colours, ruby red or ultramarine blue.

The E63 supports a full QWERTY keyboard and it is much thicker than the E71. The keyboard also features a smaller space bar and two additional keys which are missing in the E71.

Kodak W820 and W1020

Kodak launched two new digital photo frames, W820 with an 8-inch display and W1020 with a 10-inch display. Users can upload pictures from Flickr, FrameChannel and Kodak Gallery because of the Wi-Fi capability.

Kodak has added another new feature called the Quick Touch Border that is touch-sensitive and can control other features. Other features include a media player for music and video. Both frames also use the CF, SD, MMC, XD and MS external memory cards, picture mail feature and 512MB of internal memory with USB connectivity for hooking them up to a PC for file transfer.

The W820 and W1020 DPFs display images in HD format ie 16:9 aspect ratio. They also use Kodak Color Science to help boost the colour and skin tones in the images. The W820 and W1020 digital photo frames are priced at $250 and $280 respectively.

Samsung Omnia

Handset maker Samsung launched its much-touted touchscreen mobile device — Omnia priced over Rs 39,000 in India. The phone rivals Nokia N96 and Apple iPhone which were also launched in India at a similar pricing.

Samsung Omnia comes with a 5 megapixel camera and value-added features, which include face detection, smile detection. Based on the Microsoft Windows Mobile Professional system, it comes with a 3.2 inch LCD screen. OMNIA comes in 8 or 16GB memory configuration and additional storage can be added via extendable slot.

BlackBerry Bold

RIM, the makers of BlackBerry phones, termed the launch of Blackberry Bold as its `boldest’ smartphone launch in India. BlackBerry Bold came to India merely few weeks after its global launch.

Like 3G iPhone, BlackBerry too has joined the 3G bandwagon. Wi-Fi support had been missing in the earlier BlackBerry models, however, Bold supports WiFi (802.11 a/b/g) network with enterprise-grade security, ideal for use on corporate or campus wireless LANs, over Wi-Fi hotspots and on wireless home network.

The phone comes with a new “Push Button Setup” for faster connection to protected wireless network that requires a sign on process. Bold also has built-in GPS feature with BlackBerry Maps and support for location-based applications and services.

The phone packs 128MB flash memory, 1GB on-board storage memory and has support for microSD/SDHC memory card slot for memory expansion of up to 16GB.

With 128MB RAM, Bold comes with 624 MHz processor powering applications like email, messaging, organiser and browser. For connectivity, the phone offers support for USB 2.0. The phone supports tri-band HSDPA and quad-band EDGE for roaming.

LG’s Scarlet HDTV

In LCDs, one big launch was that of LG Electronics’ Scarlet TV, also known as the LG60. At just 45 millimeters thick, the TV is LG’s thinnest flat-panel TV yet.

With a striking, slim silhouette, red-coloured back and round aperture surrounded by LED lights, the Scarlet sports a design intended to connect with viewers on an emotional level. A soft touch sensor makes even simple tasks like turning the TV on or off more tactile and appealing.

Intelligent Sensor analyses ambient light and automatically adjusts the screen’s brightness to the optimal level for any room at any time of day. By sensing colour temperature and illumination of the surrounding environment, the Intelligent Sensor identifies the viewing atmosphere and produces the best colour quality to help viewers watch TV comfortably. This has the added benefit of cutting power consumption by as much as 62 per cent.

The TV goes even further to ensure that its picture always looks great with exceptional picture tuning functions: AV Mode and Expert Mode. These controls give viewers the ability to precisely tune their TVs to look perfect in any room and for any image source. The AV Mode optimises the picture into Cinema Mode, Sports Mode and Game Mode accordingly, while the Menu of LG Expert Mode was certificated by the ISF (Imaging Science Foundation) picture quality calibration institution, making it possible for the avid TV enthusiast to finely tune the picture at a professional level.

Nokia N96

Nokia’s N96 was announced just days before iPhone’s launch in India. With a large 2.8-inch screen display, the phone packs 16GB of internal memory, expandable up to 24GB. According to Nokia, the phone can store up to 60 hours of video.

The phone supports talktime of up to 3 hours and 40 minutes. Nokia N96 offers support for Symbian S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 Operating System. Nokia N96 boasts of a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, flash and video light. The video camera captures at 30 frames per second. The images can be stored in both JPEG and EXIF format.

With the integrated A-GPS, users can geotag their pictures with location data. The dual-slider Nokia N96 supports standard video formats including MPEG-4, Windows Media Video and Flash Video. The phone offers support for high-speed USB 2.0 connection, WLAN and HSDPA.

For music lovers, the phone has media keys, 3.5 mm headphone connector and built-in 3D stereo speakers. The phone offers music playback time of 14 hours and video playback time of 5 hours. The phone supports Nokia Maps application which offers maps with urban details and satellite views and has upgrade options such as City Guides, turn-by-turn pedestrian mode and voice-guided car navigation.

Canon EOS 5D

The successor to Canon’s EOS 5D digital single lens reflex (SLR) camera was finally out: Canon EOS 5D Mark II. The 21-megapixel ‘full-frame’ camera, Mark II can record high-definition video as well.

The camera’s video option gives a 1920×1080 resolution at 30 frames per second for up to 12 minutes of continuous recording. Output is MPEG-4 with CD-grade audio and it records sound in stereo. Since the SLR flips up to record video, users aren’t able to lock the focus, but live view has three different focus modes: quick, contrast and detection.

HTC Touch Diamond

Taiwan-based HTC was the first company in India to launch a touchscreen phone. With Touch, HTC officially debuted touchscreen phones in India.

Touch Diamond, launched in May 2008, is the company’s fourth touchscreen launch in India (for GSM), after HTC Touch, HTC Dual and HTC Cruise.

This iPhone wannabe offers the new 3D touch interface called TouchFLO 3D, which provides animated access to messaging, email, photos, music, weather and other features. Measuring 102 x 51 x 11.33mm, Touch Diamond operates on WCDMA/HSPA (900/2100MHz) networks, capable of boosting mobile Internet speed up to 7.3 Mbps using HSDPA and HSUPA.

Key features include, a 2.8 inch VGA touchscreen display, 3.2 megapixel camera with an optical auto-focus lens, video calling capability and auto sensor screen pivoting.

It runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, comes with 4GB of internal storage with 256MB flash and 192MB RAM. Other features include Bluetooth with EDR, minUSB, integrated GPS and Wi-Fi.