Since quite some time, Symantec’s Norton set of applications have been known to computer users — particularly the anti virus application. Over the past few years, Symantec has been bundling more and more applications into a single suite for Internet security. Recently I got my hands on a review copy of Norton 360 v6.0 and tested it on my system for a period. Lets’s see how it does.

UI

Norton 360 packs a simplistic UI. The application’s start page is divided into 4 sections; each highlighting the various areas of protection it offers — PC Security ( Virus/Malware  Prevention/Firewall), Identity ( Phishing Protection/Password Management), Backup ( file backup) and PC tuneup( general maintenance). Norton 360 also has a separate section for scheduling tasks and looking at the system performance. The start page also has an activity map of cyber-crime activity across the world.

PC Security

Norton is quite well known for their anti-virus lineup. The PC security section handles tasks related to anti-virus, anti-malware, anti-spyware, intrusion prevention, incoming/outgoing email scanning and firewall.

The PC Security tab allows you to check on previous scan results, run scans on demand & check for updates to definitions. Clicking on “Run Scan” brings up the option to start an anti-virus scan. Like most anti-virus programs, there’s an option of running a quick scan which checks the most essential files, a full scan which performs a through scan and does a backup and a custom scan/task which allows you to customize what to scan and what to backup.

The scan Facebook wall is a nice feature; it goes through your Facebook Wall and checks that the posted links are safe. With additional permissions, you can configure Norton Safe Web to automatically scan links and auto-post them to your if it’s not malicious — a nice way to keep your Facebook account clean.

Identity

The identity section manages the features in ensuring your online identity is not compromised. Features included in this section are

• Norton Safe Web
• Antiphishing
• Identity safe

Norton Safe Web installs an add-on to your browser & uses Norton Safe Web service and looks up the site’s ratings and review, much like Web of Trust. Identify safe is Norton’s solution for a password manager, much like LastPass. In addition to passwords, Identity Safe also allows you to save Notes and Credit Card details — all behind a master password that you’ll need to enter to open the safe.

If you login to a site that you haven’t visited before, Norton will offer to save your credentials, which can be autofilled in when you next visit the site. This is a nice and recommended way of password management since you’ll have to remember only the master password to unlock the safe — the others will be autofilled. You can also configure Identity Safe passwords to be transferred to your Norton account so that you can access it from any computer which has internet access.

For all the nice things about Identity safe, I’m pretty disappointed because of a lack of Generate New Password option. A password manager without the capability to generate passwords is just flawed.

With the recent global economic meltdown, many of us are looking for ways to stretch our dollars as far as possible. One popular method to do that is with coupons. Today coupons can come in many forms. You don’t have to be stuck carrying around a load of little clippings out of a newspaper nowadays. Grocery stores now allow you add digital coupons directly to you shopping cards. You can even get them on your Smartphone and show them to the cashier for a discount. Today I would like to show you another method of coupon and review a website that specializes in them. Coupon codes are quickly becoming a popular way to get discounts at many websites. CouponCodes4U.com is a website designed to make finding them a breeze.

www.couponcodes4u.com Main Page

The first thing I noticed right away is there is a lot of information on this site. For scattered brained folks like me it is almost too much to look at. However, it is fairly simple to navigate. When you break it down it looks like they have designed it to give you multiple avenues to getting to their content. The main page is pictured above. You will notice that they have broken down different categories with tabs across the top of the page. They have a rotating graphic right below that featuring special deals and seasonal promotions. They also feature 3 columns of categories such as “The Top 50“, “The Expiring“, and “Exclusives“.

One of the first things I noticed was that there was a Facebook connect link at the top of the page. I clicked that and got the following dialog box pictured below.

Like their Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/couponcodes4u

They appear to keep their Facebook page pretty well updated with special promotions. I think this is a great idea as I would rather see things like this in my Facebook feed than jam up my inbox. However, there is an option to sign up for their mailing list if you prefer that method.

The next thing I tried was the ”The Top 50” link at the top of their page. I was impressed with the sheer amount of stores and variety. There were many stores I hadn’t heard of. This has to bode well for the creators of CouponCodes4U.com as I am sure many stores would love new ways to get their name out there. Below, you can see a screenshot of their ”The Top 50” section.

Top 50 Page

I also noticed the section labeled  ”Exclusives“. This is where I saw a lot of businesses that I hadn’t heard of. That wasn’t necessarily a negative thing in my book as I am always looking for new ideas. These coupons are pretty much what the category states, exclusive only to CouponCodes4U.com.

They also had a seasonal category with coupons centered around Easter. They had everything from clothing, to jewelry, to chocolate coupons.

Below each Coupon is a green arrow with instructions to “Click to get this code” written on them. When you click them it opens the website that the coupon corresponds with. I found this part to be slightly confusing. For example, I clicked a Macy’s coupon code. The Macy’s website opened up in front of the CouponCodes4U.com window. It wasn’t until I clicked back on the CouponCodes4U.com window that I noticed the coupon code was revealed. See the image below.

Notice that once I navigated back to the CouponCodes4U.com website, the code “RELAX” was revealed. The way this works is when you select a product at Macy’s website, you will have the opportunity at checkout to enter a coupon code to receive a discount. So in this instance, the code “RELAX” should get me a 15% discount. You also have the chance at this point to give feedback regarding the coupon. Notice in the picture above that there is  a checkmark and an “X” in the lower left corner asking if the coupon worked. This helps the site keep things up to date as retailers can cancel coupons from time to time. You also have the ability to share these discount codes with friends.

In a nutshell CouponCodes4U.com appears to be a pretty thorough collection of online coupon codes. The design needs a little work in my opinion. For instance, there were a few broken images scattered throughout the site, but from what I can tell the coupon codes do work. I believe for those of us who use coupon codes that this site will make finding them a lot easier. It also doesn’t seem to be full of some of the annoyances that many other coupon sites have like loud pop up ads. I believe if you are a bargain shopper that this might be a great place to start.

Disclaimer: This post is a sponsored review, the views in this post are of the author and have not been endorsed by the sponsor.

At one point, I used to use screen protectors on all of my iOS devices, but then a few months after I discovered microfiber cloths and haven’t used a screen protector since then. Recently, I have been using the MOBiLe Cloth, which does a fantastic job at keeping your screen clean.

These cleaning cloths retail from www.MobileCloth.com in a variety of packages ranging from $6.99 to $95.99. Since these are cleaning cloths, using them is easy. Take one out of the package, unfold it (or leave it folded), and then wipe down your touch screen device with it.

The cloths are phenomenal. Even though these are just microfiber cloths, they have got to be the best ones I have used to date. The moment you take them out of the packaging, they are ready to use and collect no extra dust! After cleaning my screen with it, the screen felt incredible and really smooth. I’m not really sure about the technology behind this cloth, but it works like magic.

According to the company, the cloth removes up to 98% of germs with no chemicals. The MOBiLE CLOTH of course is not restricted to iOS devices only. Anything, touch or non-touch screen, can be cleaned with these cloths.

MOBiLE CLOTH has reasonable prices, and is worth the purchase without a doubt. You can find them on MC’s website here.

Currently, I’m using an Apple Wireless Keyboard to type on a daily basis, but recently the folks at Das Keyboard sent me their brand new “Model S Professional for Mac”. So, I used that one for a few weeks instead. Here’s my review:

Setup:

Within seconds after unboxing the keyboard, it was ready to use! There was no installation required. My MacBook Air, running OS X Lion, detected everything instantly. The keyboard has two USB cables, one enables the keyboard component and the other for the USB hub. Das Keyboard has two USB ports on the side, which is neat. The two ports on the right side are easy to access and great for connecting your USB devices.

Design and Look:

This particular model has a minimalistic look. In addition, it doesn’t have any extra text, icons, or stickers other than the company’s name. I really like this because it provides the user with a distraction free typing experience. Unlike my Apple Bluetooth Wireless keyboard, this keyboard weighs a lot so it won’t move around on your desk at all. Also, the keys have a glossy look to it, which makes the keyboard look extremely nice. Das Keyboard claims that each key can handle about 50 million strokes before it wears out. Another thing I really like about the keyboard is the noise it makes while typing, but it should be mentioned that it is extremely loud.

I found the keyboard easy to type on, but it did take awhile to get used to it. Also, it should be noted that they keyboard is extremely loud.

Media keys:

A particular addition that I really like in the keyboard are the media keys. They are easily accessible by pressing the “Fn” key in combination with the corresponding Function key.  On the keyboard, there are keys for lowering the volume, increasing the volume, mute, play/pause, stop, previous track, and next track. They worked great with iTunes and Rdio (a music streaming service). It should also be mentioned that no additional software was required to use these buttons, which was great.

Bottom Line:

If you can justify $130 for a keyboard, then I’d highly suggest checking this keyboard out.  You can purchase one here.

The guys at Huawei recently sent us the Huawei Sonic smartphone. Basically, the Huawei Sonic is a budget smartphone, targeted at the consumers who cannot afford to buy a high-end phone, but still want to experience the spectacular Android OS. This handset was launched a few months ago in India along with the Huawei Ideos X3 smartphone and the Huawei MediaPad tablet. Huawei Sonic is the first smartphone with the amazing Huawei’s Clould+ service.

The Huawei Sonic comes with a 3.5 inch touchscreen display, 600 Mhz processor, 3.2 megapixel camera and so on. This handset ships with the Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) OS. However, you should not expect this handset to get the latest Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) OS ever.

Huawei Sonic Specifications:

• 3.5 inch capacitive touchscreen display
• 320 x 480 pixels
• 600 MHz processor
• Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) OS
• 3.2 megapixel camera
• VGA video recording
• 3.5mm headset jack
• FM Radio
• 512 MB ROM
• 256 MB RAM
• 160 MB internal memory
• 32 GB expandable memory
• microSD card slot
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
• Portable hotspot support
• A-GPS support
• 7.2 Mbps HSDPA
• Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
• microUSB 2.0
• SNS integration
• Dual Mic noise reduction
• Proximity/light sensor
• Diversity Rx support
• Up to 400 hours stand-by time
• Up to 8 hours 20 mins talk-time
• 1400mAh Li-Ion battery

What’s in the box?

• Huawei Sonic
• Huawei Battery
• Travel charger
• Data Cable
• Wired Headset
• User Manual

Design:

The Huawei Sonic is a budget phone, however it does not mean that the handset looks pathetic like its other Android competitors. This handset is absolutely stunning. At a first look, no one can guess the price of this device. It looks far better than other mid-range Android smartphones currently available in the market.

This handset looks amazing, thanks to the capacitive buttons on the front, instead of the ugly hardware buttons. The capacitive buttons are visible even when the phone is in the stand-by mode. However the buttons lit up, only when the phone is in use.

Hardware:

On the front of this device, you will find a 3.5 inch capacitive touchscreen display, sporting a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels. Below the display, you will find 4 capacitive buttons – Home, Menu, Back and Search. These buttons lit up while you are using the handset. Unlike other phones, these capacitive buttons are visible even when the phone is not in use.

This handset comes with a unique earpiece compartment on the front, which has a status LED placed inside the earpiece. The LED light is lit up when you are charging the phone as well as when you receive a text or a missed call. However, the LED light is not visible properly during the daytime.

On the back of the device, you will find a 3.2 megapixel camera. Sadly, this device does not come with a LED flash. The speaker grill is placed at the bottom, along with the Huawei logo. The volume rocker is on the left side, while there are no buttons placed on the right side. The company should have utilized the blank space for placing a camera button.

On the top of this device, you can connect your favorite pair of headphones or the bundled Huawei headphones, thanks to the universal 3.5 mm headset jack. There is also a lock/unlock button, which also acts as a power button. When you click the button, it will lock/unlock the device. On the other hand, when you hold the button for a couple of seconds, the silent mode, airplane mode, power off and restart options will be displayed on the screen.

The bottom of this handset sports a microUSB port as well as a dual microphone for noise reduction. The back cover is completely made up of plastic. When you hold the device, you would get a feeling that the device might just slips out of your hand. This handset comes with the 3G connectivity option. However, the much-needed front-facing camera is missing from this device. The speakers on the back are quite loud.

Internals:

When you open the back cover, you will find the battery slot. The SIM-card slot is placed below it, while the microSD card slot is placed above it. You will need to remove the battery for changing SIM cards. However, the microSD card can be replaced without removing the battery.

This handset comes with a 600 MHz processor, which slow down the overall performance at times. At a normal usage, this handset works flawlessly. It comes with different connectivity options such as Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, portable hotspot support, 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and microUSB 2.0. It also comes with a 512 MB ROM, 256 MB RAM, 160 MB internal memory and 32 GB expandable memory.

Software:

The Huawei Sonic runs on the Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) Operating System. Like I said earlier, you should not expect the Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) update on this device. The Huawei UI offers 3D homepage animation which makes the complete look of the homescreen simply outstanding. It also allows you to change the homescreen animation as well as the themes from the Home settings.

The Huawei Sonic allows you to add up to 7 home screens. You can select the default home screen from the settings. The launcher has only 3 shortcut rows, out of which only 2 can be customized. The messaging app is quite average, however you can download other messaging apps such as Go SMS Pro from the Android Market. The stream app allows you to get the updates from various social networking services. This handset features the Fast Boot technology, which helps the device to boot-up within 9 seconds.

Audio & Video:

The Huawei Sonic comes with a Huawei Music app for playing your favorite tracks. It allows you to view songs using the album, songs, playlists, folders, artists, composers and Genres categories. The bundled headphones feels cheap and the audio quality is just not up to the mark. You can anytime connect your favorite pair of wired headphones, thanks to the 3.5 mm headset jack.

This handset allows you to watch all of your recorded videos as well as your favorite music videos. You can find all your videos under the gallery app. There is no separate video app pre-installed in this phone. You can also download the Youtube app and watch all latest, favorite and bookmarked videos on the go.

Connectivity:

This handset comes with various connectivity options such as GPRS, EDGE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, 7.2 Mbps HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and microUSB 2.0. You can connect to your favorite site or social networking services within a few seconds, thanks to the super-fast 3G service. It also comes with the portable hotspot support which allows you to use your device as a Wi-Fi Hotspot for other devices

Camera:

The Huawei Sonic sports a 3.2 megapixel camera with geo-tagging and VGA video recording capabilities. The maximum resolution for an image is 2048 x 1536 pixels. Sadly, there is no auto focus or LED flash. The quality of the images taken are just average. Some of the images appear to be blurry, while some of them had more noise than expected.

The images taken during the day were average, but the images taken during the night were below our expectations. This handset is also capable of recording VGA videos @ 30fps. The video quality is quite satisfactory. The camera settings allows you to change the picture size, picture quality, color effects, white balance, etc. This handset is also capable of adding location to the images, thanks to the geo-tagging feature. The video camera settings comes with 4 video quality options – High, Low, MMS and YouTube.

Battery Life:

The Huawei Sonic comes with a 1400 mAh Li-Ion battery. While testing, I used the device for web browsing and watching YouTube videos for couple of hours, few calls and texts and few hours of games and SNS services. On a full recharge, I was able to use the device for about 1 day 19 hours and the battery icon still displayed around 20% battery remaining. The battery life on this handset is quite impressive.

Conclusion:

Huawei Sonic is one of the best entry-level Android smartphone currently available in the market. This handset comes with a price-tag of Rs.9210. The design of this handset is outstanding, on the other hand, it has an amazing build quality. Even though the browser and camera are not up to the mark, but other amazing features such as the slick design, smooth feel, Android Gingerbread OS, different connectivity options and a great battery life completely overshadows the negative factors.

Some of this handsets in this price range comes with a 5 megapixel camera. However, they lack a great display and better processor. The default browser is not up to the mark, but you can download other browsers such as Firefox for Android, Opera or Dolphin Browser HD from the Android Market. If you have no issues regarding the camera quality or the default browser, then you should definitely go for this handset.

Techie Buzz Rating: 6/10 (Above Average)

Positive Features:

• Great Design
• Huawei 3D UI
• Excellent connectivity options
• Good battery life
• Dual Mic for noise reduction

Negative Features:

• Poor Camera
• Display not clearly visible under sun-light
• No Front-Facing Camera
• Poor audio quality

Huawei Bloggers Meet and the Huawei Cloud Service:

We were recently invited to the Huawei Bloggers Meet in Mumbai. At the bloggers meet, the company showcased its latest devices, including the Huawei Sonic, Huawei Ideos X3 and the Huawei Mediapad tablet. We also got a chance to play with these smartphones and tablet for an hour and we were completely amazed with the features, quality and pricing of these devices.

The Huawei Ideos X3 comes with a 3.2 inch capacitive touchscreen display, sporting a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels, 600 MHz processor, Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) Operating System, 3.2 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, 3G Connectivity, FM Radio, 3.5 mm headset jack, 32 GB expandable memory, 512 MB ROM, 256 MB RAM and a 1200 mAh battery. The Huawei Ideos X3 is priced slightly higher than the Huawei Sonic. This handset comes with a price tag of Rs.10,229.

The Huawei Mediapad features a 7 inch IPS LCD display, sporting a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) Operating System, 5 megapixel rear-facing camera, HD (720p) video recording capabilities, 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera for video chat, 1 GB RAM, 8 GB ROM, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, 3G Connectivity, A-GPS and a 4100 mAh battery. The Huawei Mediapad comes with a price-tag of Rs.28,359.

Huawei Cloud Service:

At the Huawei Bloggers Meet, the company also showcased their Cloud service and explained why their cloud phones stands out from their competitors. The Huawei Sonic and the Huawei Ideos X3 are the company’s first ever cloud smartphones. Both of these devices comes with 16 GB of free cloud storage. The Huawei Cloud service is something that really impressed us. Let me explain you the complete features in details below.

The Huawei Cloud offers 16 GB of cloud storage as well as other amazing services such as Cloud Drive, Message+, Phone Finder, Contact Suite, Hi Space, Social Stream, Gallery, etc.

The Cloud+ Drive service allows you to not only store your favorite photos, music and videos, but it also allows you to save documents and other types of files to the cloud. The files saved in the Huawei’s Cloud+ Drive can be accessed from any Huawei smartphone, Huawei Mediapad or directly via computer. You can save up to 3500 songs or 7000 photos in the available space.

The Cloud+ Contacts lets you to synchronize contacts from your phone to the Cloud+ server. Any changes in the contact information will be automatically synchronized to the Cloud+ server. The All Backup service allows you to backup all of your important information and data to the Cloud+ server. So, if you lose your data due to some reason, then you can easily restore your files on your Huawei smartphone or Mediapad tablet.

The Message+ is another great service which takes the regular messaging to the next level. The Message+ is an instant messaging service which is exclusively available for the Huawei smartphone users. It allows you to chat with your other friends, who are currently using the Huawei smartphone. You can also share images, videos and voice note with your friends. The group chat lets you chat with your all the users in your friends list or family list. The Cloud+ Gallery is another unique feature where you can view all the images saved in the Cloud+ server, directly on your phone screen.

Find my phone is the best feature offered by the Huawei’s Cloud service. It helps you to find your lost or stolen phone with few minutes. You’ll just need to visit www.hicloud.com and use the phone finder option to locate your device. It will find the device and display the current location on Google Maps. You can also perform other tasks such as playing a sound, sending an alert message, lock your phone, backup all your data or erase all the data from the device. The Cloud+ service offered by Huawei lets you experience the future of smartphones.

Over the past couple of years, Android has been quite a revolution in the smartphone market. Android’s increasing popularity has meant that manufacturers have been churning out Android-based mobile phones at all possible price ranges.

Lava Mobiles, well known for their low-cost handsets, introduced their first Android based smartphone, the Lava S12 recently. Over the past 2 weeks, I’ve been using the Lava S12 as my primary phone and this gave me a chance to evaluate the phone. Let’s see how the phone fares.

Specifications

Being targeted at the low-end segment, the Lava S12 is powered by a 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 processor running on Android 2.2. The screen is a 262k color, 3.2HVGA LCD screen with 320×480 resolution and unlike most low-end phones, comes with a capacitive touchscreen.

The phone features a 5megapixel camera and comes with the regular connectivity options including WiFi(802.1 a/b/g) and Bluetooth on the wireless side and a microUSB port on the wired side. The internal phone memory is a paltry 120MB , but can be expanded with the help of a microSD card.

Bundle

The Lava S12 comes with a pretty impressive bundle & packaging.

Besides the phone, the bundled box comes with a microUSB cable, a stereo earphone headset, charging plug-point, a User’s guide, a leaflet highlighting the phone’s features, a leather pouch and a 2GB microSD card. The leather pouch is a pretty nice addition & feels good to hold.

Build Quality & Hardware

The Lava S12 has a pretty nice feel to it. The phone has a curved front and back shape and feels very good to hold. Though the phone still has a plasticky-feel to it, it doesn’t look bad. The back cover has a pseudo-leather look and this helps in improving the look   feel of the phone. The sides of the phone have a very nice brushed-aluminum finish. Unfortunately the microSD & microUSB slots are covered with a rather flimsy plastic cover and gives the sensation that it might break anytime.

As mentioned above, the phone features a 3.2HVGA capacitive touchscreen. The top-left corner features the lock/power off button and volume control buttons. The right side of the phone features the headphone jack, the microSD &   microUSB slots. Rounding off the side was a dedicated button for activating the camera.

The capacitive touchscreen was fairly responsive, however, at times the phone failed to register my input. Though the phone has a dedicated camera button, more often than not, pressing the button would result in no action and I had to open the camera by launching the Camera app, rather than holding the button.

The phone features four dedicated buttons at the bottom of the screen the back button, the app launcher button, the home button and the search button. The home button is programmed to bring up the 3D UI, while the rest work as expected.

Software & Performance

The S12 runs on Android 2.2 Froyowith a custom spinning 3D UI that Lava touts heavily as it’s distinguishing feature. Hitting the home button brings up the 3D UI. The 3D UI feels like quite a novelty at first. However, with increased usage, the novelty factor wears off and the 3D UI feels gimmicky and isn’t really usable. To make things worse, the 3D UI is quite slow & navigating though the UI becomes a chore.

The S12 apparently comes with quite a few bundled applications including SlideIT keyboard(a keyboard replacement quite like Swype), a Lava service center app which will bring up a list of all Lava service centers that you can filter based on the city you’re in. The service centre app however doesn’t make use of the GPS to retrieve your location. Addition of this would have been a nice touch.

The bundled booklet mentions that phone also comes with Advanced Task Killer, Saavn, Facebook, Twitter, Times of India, Adobe PDF Reader, Hungama MyPlay, ngPay, Nimbuzz, Zenga TV and more. These apps were absent in my review unit and I couldn’t evaluate these. The Lava S12 also comes with Android Market app. However, my attempts to install some of my favorite apps such as twicca, facebook, GoSMS(amongst others) wasn’t  fruitful the market app refused to show these apps and trying to install the via the Market web UI resulted in a cryptic This item is not compatible with your deviceerror.

Performance-wise, I found the device to be quite average. Some of the basic functionality like going through the contacts(I have over 800 contacts in my address book), sending an SMS was alright, the device’s response in the Camera app was horrendous. The S12 took about 5 seconds to capture the image after pressing the button.

To test out something a little more stressful, I installed & played Fruit Ninja(oddly, I didn’t face the item not compatibleerror). Fruit Ninja hummed along just fine, with some occasional stuttering. Overall, the S12 works fine barring the occasional stutter.

Camera & Multimedia playback

The S12 comes with 5megapixel fixed focus camera with up to 2x digital zoom. The camera performance was rather average, nothing outstanding. At proper light levels, camera captures are fine, although they seem to have a little bit of a green tint. At low-light conditions however, the performance is rather poor & the pictures are quite noisy. The absence of a flash means that low-light photography is a no-no.

The S12 features stock Android media players and has a FM radio app as well.The bundled earphones are supposedly Dolby SRS compliant. However, SRS logo doesn’t do any justice to the earphones the sound quality on the earphones was rather bad. It was almost like the sounds were being drowned underwater.

The bass & highs were nonexistent, the mids were muddy and had a strange echo-feeling the same feeling that you get when you try to put some decent earphones across some really bad software filters. At high volume levels, the earphones jarred excessively. I tried the earphones on my iPhone & my HP Envy laptop and on both, the audio quality was really, really abysmal. I’d strongly urge to dump the bundled earphones for a different set.

Lava Android Manager

Buried within Lava’s website is a download link to the sync software for the Lava S12, dubbed the Android Manager. The Android Manager is nifty little utility which handles the S12′s sync capabilities. The Android Manager looks very much like an iTunes clone and works as bad as iTunes.

The biggest problem with the sync tool is that it supports only WiFi sync, not wired sync. Why is it that Lava chose to implement only WiFi sync I’ll never know. WiFi-only sync would have been nice, if the sync software could manage to retain the connection long enough for you to choose the files to sync. However, trying to sync anything other than contacts was an absolute disaster. Half the time  the software would lose contact with the phone. Trying to select any music or videos would cause the sync tool to break the connection. To make things worse, this was often followed by a spike in CPU utilization and memory leaks. With these issues, it’s now clear why Lava has the Android Sync Manager hidden.

Battery Life & Conclusion

The Lava S12 comes with a 1300mAh Li-Ion battery with a rated standby time of 590 Hours(GSM)/650 Hours(UMTS) and talk time of 650 minutes(GSM)/485 minutes(UMTS). Practically, with my usage of couple of phone calls, some light web browsing, Mail, Calendar sync enabled and with Plume running and with 3G on, the phone lasted about 14 hours before needing a recharge, which isn’t too bad. The charging however took a long time well in excess of 6 hours to recharge it back to 100%. With the SIM removed and only WiFi enabled, the phone lasted about a day and half.

Lava’s first foray into the smartphone segment isn’t too shabby. The phone feels good, looks good and has rather okay-ish performance. The phone however has some glaring drawbacks from the pathetic Sync Tool to the laggy camera response time. If these could have been looked into,   the S12 could have been a lot better. Officially, the S12 retails at about Rs. 9,999. At this price rate it’s hard to recommend this phone since there are other better phones at this price range.

However, as of now, the phone is available for about Rs 8450 on Flipkart which isn’t too bad of a deal, especially if you’re looking for a low-budget smartphone.

The most downloaded  apps are inevitably the games. As soon as I was in  possession  of my new and sleek iPad2, my kid brother (the gaming pro) immediately took over and started downloading games. As I always  appreciate  his input for online games, I have used his  expert  comments in this post as well. Many thanks Fran.

Here is our list for the Top 5 Free Games for the iPad

1. Metal Storm: Wingman

Metal Storm: Wingman has excellent graphics. You actually get the feeling that you are flying a fighter plane in a dogfight against a rival. The game’s controls are sensitive enough to allow you to move into a specified direction without any fuss. The  sensitivity  of the controls can either be reduced or increased based on your specifications. The “Automatch” feature allows you to play with a randomly-selected player  who is also logged on to the game from any part of the world.

2. DLF IPL

DLF IPL has wonderful  flexibility as it allows  you to fiddle with the player’s field placement and other game controls (that are very responsive).  Also as  ergonomics has been taken into account,  you don’t have to break your fingers to pick the direction that you choose to play or on how you want the player to deliver the ball.  This game is very simple and straight  forward.

3. World Cup Table Tennis

World Cup Table Tennis is probably one of the best games available  on your iPad  for Table Tennis aka ping pong. You play with competitors from different countries (that is actually the iPad processor) based on the level of proficiency that you attain. The controls are easily learnt and allow you to form your winning technique and tricks. It is one of the most downloaded ping pong games.

Things that the creators could do to improve the game:

The game lacks the multi-player option.

4. Angry Birds

i. Angry Birds HD

Angry Birds HD is fun to play and exercises your grey-matter a lot ( as a lot of logic is required to get rid of the concrete, wood, and ice blocks). My brother finds this game interesting. He says, “this game is not a walk in the park like most of the other games I have played. Also, the difference in the features available between the free and paid version is very limited, and hence the free version is a real catch.”

ii. Angry Birds Rio  (BONUS Review)

Angry Birds Rio differs from Angry Bird HD in the fact that it requires you to be the rescuer (primarily) versus the destroyer (as is for Angry Birds HD). You have to save the birds from their mean little cages and destroy some annoying monkeys too. The story line (there actually is one) is a comic-book style. The extensive use of flash, specially visible in all the small touches that are shown, makes this game a crowd-pleaser.

5. Contract Killer

Contract Killer is a treat for all you gaming expert-hitmen. The graphics and story line, while not refreshingly new, are funny and provide the comfort of a familiar sniping game.  In this world of mobsters and hitmen, the more cold blooded your shot, the better are your chances of raking in the moolah. But beware, nothing is as it seems, and as likely as you are to get a hit, equally certain is the  possibility  that you will be the target of a hit as well. You have to check this game out everyday as a bonus awaits for those that do.

Things that the creators could do to improve the game:

This is a very heavy game. It will gooble up space in your memory.

Note: Some  images  are used from the iTunes store.

I’ve mentioned before that blogging can sometimes mean reading a lot of news. However, it’s always possible that you will miss a big story because you weren’t looking in the right place. That’s why I think it’s important to have more than one path to news. While my primary sources are always RSS feeds and direct press releases, I often find interesting topics for posts in other places.

One such place is MixTab, an app that was ported from iOS to the Mac. MixTab reminds me a lot of Flipboard, the extremely popular iPad app that lets you see news feeds, Twitter, and Facebook in a magazine style presentation. However, what makes MixTab pretty special is that it includes user generated tabs of news.

The user experience of MixTab is pretty nice. It has a nice looking interface with a few customization options. It gives you the option to control which tabs you subscribe to, and even create some of your own. It also supports the full screen mode introduced in OS X Lion, which is a nice touch.

The one real downside I see to the current revision of the MixTab interface is the way it handles full screen mode. While it will become an independent desktop like other apps, it doesn’t scale the content up. Instead, it simply makes the background behind the content bigger. That’s kind of upsetting, but not a huge deal.

The content that is presented in MixTab is out of their control. However, I wish they would work on a system to filter languages of posts and sources. I subscribe to several different Technology tabs, and many of them have international sources. However, I only speak English fluently, with some minor understanding of Spanish. I want to be able to control the language of my tabs.

Overall, I like MixTab. I feel like they have brought sometime good from iOS and made is work well on the Mac. If they fixed the two major issues I pointed out above, this would be a must-have app for me. As it stands, it’s only a nice addition to my arsenal. Sometimes, it takes more work than it should to use it effectively. I give it 3.5/5 stars. You can grab it for Free in the Mac App Store.

App: MixTab for Mac
Developer: MixTab Inc.
Price: Free
Score: 3.5/5 Stars

As a recent convert from Windows to Mac, there are some aspects of OS X that seem counter intuitive. Some of them I love, like the simple application installation process. Others I down right hate. Specifically, I hate the native function of the Green Plus button on windows.

For my Windows readers, I will give you an idea of what I mean. In Windows, you have the ability to maximize a window using a simple mouse click. Then, if you decide that you don’t want that window to be so big anymore, you can click again and it shrinks back down. In OS X, the Green Plus button serves a similar function. It will make a window big enough to fit all its contents.

My issues with the Green Plus are pretty simple. First, I want the ability to take some apps full screen. Second, I would really like the be able to undo the size change as I see fit. It serves neither of these purposes. I have a solution however, and its an app called Moom.

Moom is aan  extremely  powerful app that extends the functionality of the Green Plus without taking away is original purpose. Moom solves most of my problems with window sizing in OS X, and gives me another feature I missed from Windows 7: Window Snapping.

If you use Windows 7, then you probably know by now that you can snap a window to an edge of your screen, and it will resize to take up exactly half. As a student, I used that feature all the time when writing papers. OS X contains no such feature, but Moom does.

To access any of Moom’s features, you simply hover your mouse pointer over the Green Plus. As you can see, there are pictures to help you understand what functions are available. To fit the window to the contents (original Green Plus), simply click the button itself.  Moom also gives you a full set of keyboard controls, and even a grid mode. You can select any or all of the features you want through the application preferences.

As far as I am concerned, Moom is the best 5 dollars I have spent on my Mac. It gives me features that I wished OS X had built in, and it does it in a non-obtrusive way. I recommend that you head over to the Mac App Store and buy it right now.

App Name: Moom by Many Tricks
Price: $4.99 in the Mac App Store
Score: 5/5, Techie Buzz Approved

The issue that most people have with creating their own website is that they don’t know how to do it. They can figure out how to get a host, a domain, and even a .com if they want it. Where they run into trouble is the part of the process where you take a design and make it into HTML (the backbone of a lot of websites.) If that is what is holding you back, then fret no more. BlueGriffon, a free Open Source WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML editor based on the Firefox rendering engine, is here to help.

I don’t think that its important for me to take you through the steps of implementing a design using BlueGriffon. What I am going to do for this review is let you know what I think are the biggest strengths and short comings of the software. All screenshots will be from the Mac OS X version of the software, but there are clients available for Windows and Linux as well.

What BlueGriffon Does Right

I think its best to start with what BlueGriffon gets right. In my time playing with it and testing it out, I found myself loving the ability to manipulate my images and text and have code written for me. While I have some experience writing in HTML, I sometimes find parts of it cumbersome, like arranging images. This is one of the best things about BlueGriffon, and any WYSIWYG editor. You can move things around, and the code automatically updates to reflect the changes.

One of the biggest plusses for BlueGriffon is the range of HTML that it can support. Not only does it support the more basic HTML 4 version of the standard language, but it also supports HTML 5. HTML 5 has become very popular among developers, and is considered the gold standard at the moment. One major reason for this being such a big deal is Apple’s iOS, which supports HTML 5, but not Flash, which HTML 5 is sort of designed to replace.

BlueGriffon has also found a great price point (FREE!) for an editor of this caliber. While the stock set of features is a little bare for my professional needs, which we will talk about later, it would be perfect for an amateur just looking to set up a simple webpage. On top of being great for amateurs, its one of the first free cross-platform editors of its kind. That has a special place in my heart because, while I write and work on a Mac, a large part of my development and web design is done on a Windows machine.

What BlueGriffon Gets Wrong

As I said above, BlueGriffon doesn’t come with all the features I look for in a web development toolkit out of the box. These features are available, but they cost money. One of the things I really need is an advanced CSS editor, which BlueGriffon offers as an ‘add-on’ for around $15 USD, or 9.99 Euros. Another add-on that I wish came with the suite is the FTP uploader. While i understand the reasoning behind selling these more advanced features as add-ons, it is sad to see them not be made free like the main program.

Another issue that I have with BlueGriffon is its lack of support for other coding languages. While I championed its offering of HTML 5, I have to shame it by saying that all it really offers is HTML and CSS. Some of the things I need to write or implement are done in JavaScript or even PHP. Neither of these are natively supported by BlueGriffon.

Final Verdict On BlueGriffon

BlueGriffon presents its self as the “next-generation Web Editor.” While I agree that it has some fo the best potential and features of any free web editor I have come across, it doesn’t exactly live up to its name. If you need to do simple HTML work, or if you are looking to write in HTML 5, then I would check out BlueGriffon. However, if you are an advanced user, then you will probably need to buy some add-ons.

It is important to note that, even with all the add-ons, BlueGriffon is one of the most affordable web editing suites around. If you are int he market for a web editor, I recommend you check out BlueGriffon. It is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and the download itself is Free.

Final Rating: 4/5, for a freemium model for HTML  editors.