Windows 8 – PC & Device Requirements

January 18, 2012 / Kannan / 0 Comments

Following is the text from engadget regarding Windows 8 PC & Device Requirements.

  • ARM-based tablet users won’t be able to deactivate secure booting and (therefore) install another operating system.
  • Ctrl + Alt + Del for tablets without physical keyboards will be supplanted by Windows Key + Power.
  • There’s a mandatory five points of touch — which we already knew thanks to our hands on with Synaptics at CES.
  • If your gear has NFC, physical “touch marks” will be visible on the hardware so people know where to plonk their devices.
  • All tablets must have Power, Rotation Lock, Windows Key, Volume Up and Volume Down buttons.
  • After all operating system updates, there must be 10GB free space.
  • All machines must run UFEI Firmware.
    All hardware must include one USB 2.0 port, a magnetometer, speakers, Bluetooth 4.0, WLAN, gyroscope and accelerometer.
  • Any camera must have a minimum resolution of 720p.
  • The minimum display for any tablet is 1366 x 768.
  • You’ll be able to update your graphics drivers without rebooting.
  • Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/17/microsofts-windows-8-hardware-requirements/#continued

If you want more detailed information take a look at Windows 8 Hardware Certification Requirements

Canon EF 1200mm f/5.6 L USM Lens

January 15, 2012 / Kannan / 0 Comments

Recently I was checking out Canon lens reviews and came across a zoom lens. Call it super or hyper or whatever. But this one is really a long one !.

This is a full autofocus lens first marketed in July 1993 and took nearly 18 months for delivery. It’s a hand made one !.

The actual price might be $89,579 and the current price is $120,000.

By the way it weighs around 16.5 kg.

Pictures of the lens attached to Canon 1Ds Mark III DSLR or rather should we say the camera attached to the lens.

To understand the size better, checkout the below picture. Now is that a lens or rocket launcher ?

The below pictures show the view at various focal lengths.


24mm


50mm


105mm


800mm


1200mm


1680mm


2400mm

That’s one hell lens and a luxury “L” class too. But at $120,000 we don’t need to bother about luxury or not, right ?

Source: The Digital Picture

My Mobile (Part 2)

January 5, 2012 / Kannan / 0 Comments

Continuing from previous post My Mobile (Part 1) I am going to provide information on technical aspects and notable features.

I got my Samsung Galaxy S II (SGS2) after couple of weeks. It took 2 weeks because that was a pre-order.

The pre-order has it’s own offers and I got the following along.

  • The handset itself
  • MoLife case with both front and back cover
  • Scratch Guard
  • HDTV Adaptor
  • Bluetooth Headset (Mono)

Handset

The acutal model number is I9100

Specification

General
2G Network
GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

3G Network
HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100

HSDPA 1700 / 2100 / 1900 – for Telus

Announced
2011, February

Status
Available. Released 2011, April

Body
Dimensions
125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm

Weight
116 g

– Touch-sensitive controls

Display
Type
Super AMOLED Plus capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors

Size
480 x 800 pixels, 4.3 inches (~217 ppi pixel density)

Multitouch
Yes

Protection
Corning Gorilla Glass

– TouchWiz UI v4.0

Sound
Alert types
Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones

Loudspeaker
Yes

3.5mm jack
Yes

Memory
Card slot
microSD, up to 32GB, 8 GB included

Internal
16GB/32GB storage, 1 GB RAM

Data
GPRS
Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 – 48 kbps

EDGE
Class 12

Speed
HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps

WLAN
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot

Bluetooth
Yes, v3.0+HS

NFC
Optional

USB
Yes, v2.0 microUSB (MHL), USB On-the-go

Camera
Primary
8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash

Features
Geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization

Video
Yes, 1080p@30fps

Secondary
Yes, 2 MP

Features
OS
Android OS, v2.3 (Gingerbread), planned upgrade to v4.0

Chipset
Exynos

CPU
Dual-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A9

GPU
Mali-400MP

Sensors
Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass

Messaging
SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM, RSS

Browser
HTML, Adobe Flash

Radio
Stereo FM radio with RDS

GPS
Yes, with A-GPS support

Java
Yes, via Java MIDP emulator

Colors
Black, White, Pink

– Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
– TV-out (via MHL A/V link)
– SNS integration
– MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264/H.263 player
– MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player
– Organizer
– Image/video editor
– Document editor (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF)
– Google Search, Maps, Gmail,
YouTube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picasa integration
– Voice memo/dial/commands
– Predictive text input (Swype)

Battery
Standard battery, Li-Ion 1650 mAh

Stand-by
Up to 710 h (2G) / Up to 610 h (3G)

Talk time
Up to 18 h 20 min (2G) / Up to 8 h 40 min (3G)

Misc
SAR US
0.16 W/kg (head) 0.96 W/kg (body)

SAR EU
0.34 W/kg (head)

Source: GSM Arena

The above specification speaks for itself 🙂

MoLife Case

Its a hard case with both front and back cover which slide from top to bottom with ports for charger, headphone jack, volume control, power button & speaker.

This case has a rubber plastic feel and is easy to clean with dry cloth.

The other important feature of this case is the flip stand which can hold the mobile in landscape mode. Check the picture above to visualize.

Scratch Guard

Scratch guard was a bummer. Even though it could fit the screen fully, the slots for front camera and speaker didn’t match and they were overlapping.
Anyhow who needs a scratch guard when the screen is a gorilla glass.

HDTV Adapter

To tell the truth I haven’t used this and the package is still sitting fresh. But would like to use it someday.

One feature I would like to highlight is, it doesn’t need external power unlike the others in the market.

Bluetooth Headset

I always prefer to use Bluetooth headset instead of holding the mobile. This is for 2 reasons.

  1. Avoid that oily sweat from ears sticking screen
  2. Radiation from the handset

This post has been mostly technical and not much in the experience perspective. The next post in the series will be on the perspective of the experience. So keep checking for an update.