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Sunday, March 4, 2012

nokia Pureview 808 : 41 megapixel phone


Introduction

The Nokia 808 PureView certainly made a splash at this year's Mobile World Congress, pinning the company back on the cameraphone map in an extremely advantageous position.
If you've been living in a cave these past few days, you might have missed some of the juicy details about the Nokia 808 and what makes it so special. So we'll make a quick recap.
The Nokia 808 PureView has a 4-inch AMOLED display with the rather lowly resolution of 360 x 640 pixels. Spiritually succeeding the Nokia N8, it runs Nokia Belle (previously known as Symbian) and it's centered around a 1.3 GHz processor. While this smartphone might technically revolve around that processor, what's got the publics imagination is actually the never-before-seen 41MP multi-aspect camera sensor.
Nokia 808 PureView
Capable of shooting full-resolution shots of up to 38 megapixels and utilizing the industry's first pixel oversampling technology for delivering vastly superior lower-resolution photos (5MP and 8MP), the Nokia 808 camera is a “quantum leap forward in cameraphone performance,” as Nokia themselves put it. Another industry's first is the lossless digital zooming in less-than-maximum resolution shots and video.
The garnishes on this excellent dish are the Carl Zeiss lens, the xenon flash, a relatively large F2.4 aperture, the mechanical shutter coupled with a neutral density filter, and there's also, of course, FullHD video recording.
Damian Dinning We had Damian Dinning, Head of Imaging Experience - Nokia Smart Devices, to tell us more about his team's baby and how it came to be.
Damian has played a key role in the development of iconic devices such as the Nokia N95, Nokia N82, Nokia N86 8MP, and N8, among others, and he's also head of the team that delivered the Nokia 808.
We did delve into the inner workings of the Nokia 808 PureView 41MP camera sensor yesterday, however we are more than eager to hear the story behind the product from the man himself.
We rarely do interviews but the Nokia 808 is a real whopper. The sheer hype it generated yesterday almost took our site down for a moment. The camera enthusiast inside of us can't get enough of it either and Damian Dinning is the man to see to learn everything about this exciting new smartphone (and about cameraphones in general).


The story behind the Nokia 808 PureView

Damian Dinning
GSMArena: The Nokia 808 PureView is currently the hottest topic on our website. We are interested in every detail. Please tell us how the project came about.
D. Dinning: It all started about five years ago. We wanted to do optical zoom—at this time we thought it necessary. When we were thinking about the future development of the N93 and N93i, we could see that the expectation of the performance of such a device would be high. We didn't feel that we could achieve the right balance of a product that was small enough with the performance that we thought would be required in the future, after the N93. You could have good image quality, but the device would be really big, you could make it smaller but the image quality was lousy.
Whichever way you looked at it...we actually had a number of concepts which were taken quite far in the development stage. We looked at folded optics for example, we looked at straight optics; various different configurations, and we couldn't make any of those work well enough. It was clear to us that we were going to have to do something quite different.
One of our guys was reading an article on satellite imaging, and he found it kind of inspiring how satellite imaging was done, where you have a very high resolution image, and you only use pieces of it. He wondered: could we use an idea along those lines, and actually zoom? And they actually created one idea, which wasn't taken forward at that particular time.
Later on, when we were thinking about this problem again, we connected to the original idea, in a way that the original idea then became improved upon. We did some very crude sketching, and we realized that there were the possibilities to actually do zooming with a very high resolution image. Originally, we wanted to do a 38 megapixel sensor with a 4:3 aspect ratio. Then, when we were developing it in the early days, we had this idea to do this extended 16:9, like we've done on the N9, the Lumia 800 and now the 900. And that meant we had to increase it from 38 to 41 megapixels, to give it that extended capability. That's how we came to the idea, and it was fundamentally driven by what things we were able to do. Now along the way, we realized that there would be other benefits of using this very high resolution sensor, other than just zoom. One of those is the oversampling capability.
This is where, when you are using the default 5 MP setting, we take up to 7 pixels, take the information that you want from those pixels, and process that using some Nokia algorithms. We are then able to throw away most of the visual noise that you don't want, and what that leaves you with are pixels that are extremely precise, so you see far more detail with a 5 MP image than you could capture with any other device, when you're using no zoom. That's when you get the best quality—when you're not using zoom, because you get all the benefits from the oversampling. So in good lighting conditions, typically you won't see any noise at all. They look like SLR images.
As you zoom, the oversampling reduces, so when you reach the maximum zoom, it will no longer apply any oversampling. We have a very good sensor, and we want to preserve as much of the information as possible. The noise will probably be no worse than N8's was in daylight. In low-light, it's significantly better than N8. Even in full zoom, we have better per pixel quality than on the N8.
GSMArena: But you have more pixels than on the N8 and the pixels in the Nokia 808 are smaller. How are you able to achieve better per pixel quality?
D. Dinning: Partially because of the larger F2.4 aperture. That gives us 50% more light. It's also a later generation sensor, and we also have some additional processing that goes on some of the data that comes straight from that sensor, and that gives us a cleaner output.
GSMArena: But why has no one else done this? Why has no one else produced a 41MP sensor? Is it that expensive?
D. Dinning: It's not cheap, but when you compare it to optical zoom, you would have to put more cost into the optics. You'd have moving components. You'd also have a device that becomes potentially more fragile, and bigger. There are a number of other advantages as well, for example with typical optical zoom, as you zoom, you end up with 5.6 aperture for example, so that means we have 5.4 times more light reaching our sensor with our maximum zoom versus an optical zoom.
GSMArena: Is there something which ties this product with this particular operating system?
D. Dinning: In theory, no. When we started this project some time ago, it was initially a technology development, then it became a product development as well, and switching operating systems would have delayed deployment. Our thinking was that there's a lot of people out there with N8's, for example, who want a follow-up device, and we couldn't see any rational argument for not doing that. I think it's a really great smartphone.
GSMArena: At one stage or another, most companies stopped actively pushing the boundaries of what was possible with mobile imaging. Currently Nokia seems to be the only company pushing in this direction. Are you concerned about not having any competition?
D.Dinning: I obviously can't guess or speculate what our competitors are going to be able to do. Our intent is to lead in the area of imaging, and this is one way that we can do that. I think we demonstrated today quite firmly that we can differentiate in this area. How long it would take for anybody to redeploy that technology, I honestly don't know. There are not many people that can manufacture optics at that level of precision, and you need optics, otherwise you just can't make it work. This is by far and away the highest precision optics we've ever introduced.
 

Saturday, March 3, 2012

BSNL Tablet : Review

BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) on collaboration with Noida-based company Pantel Technologies, has launched three tablets which  includes one 7-inch screen tablet with resistive screen and it runs on Android 2.3 operating system, while the second comes with 7-inch screen and the third tablet comes with an 8-inch screen, both of which are capacitive but with a higher price.
These tablets are designed keeping in mind the students need, the tablet come with a promotional offer of 3 month free data download. BSNL is also giving 2G SIM along with all the tablets.
BSNL Penta Tablet
Developed by the Noida based company – Pantel technologies. The tablet will be sold at data plans from BSNL at reduced cost. The cost of these tablet will be Rs 3250, Rs 10,999 and Rs 13,500.
Three tablets are:
  • Penta TPAD IS701R
  • Penta TPAD WS704C
  • Penta TPAD WS804C
The cheapest of all three  is Penta T-pad IS 701R  which will cost  Rs 3250, giving a tough competition to Aakash which is priced at just Rs 2500. However, T-pad has better specifications of the tablet, than the DataWind low cost tablet Aakash. We think that this BSNL tablet will appeal a lot students as the technical specification out-weight both the Aakash tablets.
Penta T-Pad IS 701R is a tablet with Wi-Fi only (no SIM card slot, but you can attach 2G/3G USB modem via the USB port) and Android 2.3 (Ginger Bread) operating system. It has a 1 GHz processor (ARM11 IMAP210) combined with 256 MB of DDR2 RAM. This entry level tablet from Pantel is 3-times as fast than the first Aakash and 300MHz faster than Aakash2 (Ubislate7), theoretically.
The tablet also offers HDMI port through which it can be connected to an HDTV. Its 7-inch resistive touchscreen comes with a 800×600 resolution (which looks great on 7-inch screens) and 16:9 ratio wide-screen display.
The tablet also comes with gravity sensor (G-sensor) which can orient the display in portrait and landscape when turned and also aids in motion gaming, something that was missing in Aakash.
Penta T-pad IS 701R has a battery rating of 3000mAh, which is expected to last for about 5-5:30 hours of video watching, which is certainly not bad considering laptops too give that much of battery life.
The internal memory is 2GB, but it can be extended via microSD cards upto 32GB.
It also has a front-facing 0.3MP camera for video chat and one standard USB port to accommodate pen-drives or other USB devices along with support for USB modems/net dongle, so that you can surf the internet, talk on Skype, watch YouTube videos, read e-books and open PDF files too.

Monday, January 16, 2012

How to disable\remove timeline from facebook

Hi everybody.. A friend of mine didnt like this facebook's new timeline feature even though its a awesome and best design ever done by facebook. Anyways different people have different taste. So here is a post about how to disable the time line feature. And this post I have not tried it personally . So I am not sure whether its gonna work o not. According to ma source it should work. So please do comment your reviews by posting comments



How to disable Facebook Timeline on Google Chrome:


Step 1: Go to Start, windows start button, do a search for Chrome and from the results right-click Google Chrome and select Properties.
Step 2: In the Target field, append the following at the end of the path that is already there (add a space between chrome.exe and the following line)

--user-agent="--user-agent="Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0)"

After you append the above line the Target field should look something like this:

C:\Users\your-username\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe

--user-agent="Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0)"

Step 3: When you finish, click Apply and then click OK.

Step 4: Restart Google Chrome and log-in to your Facebook account and the old profile should be there.

Warning: There is a chance that your Facebook profile may not display 100% correctly.

How to disable Facebook timeline on Firefox Trick: 



Step 1: While in Firefox add-ons. In the search box on the top-right corner do a search for “User Agent Switcher”, when you see it, click Install and then restart Firefox to complete the installation.

Step 2: If you don’t see the plugin’s icon in the navigation bar, right-click the navigation bar and select Customize.

Step 3: Look for the plugin button and drag & drop to the navigation bar.

Step 4: Now, just click the User Agent Switcher button and navigate through Internet Explorer and select Internet Explorer 7.

Step 5: Finally go to Facebook.com and log-in to your profile and you should be seeing your old profile.

Important: Don’t forget to get back to defaults once you are done using Facebook by click the User Agent Switcher button and choosing Default User Agent to avoid other websites from displaying incorrectly.

Hope this helped you out. Comments are welcomed and please like our facebook fan page.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

How to Auto-Update Your System Utilities or Web Files with a Script





One of the great things about most system utilities is their portability. Many simply are distributed directly as an exe or in a zip file and are ready to use with no install required. Because of the simplicity of use, these types of applications are easily updated, however many lack any form of auto-update capability. Our UpdateFromWeb script solves this problem as it makes installing updates to portable applications, or any file available via the web for that matter, an automated process.
Usage. (if you find this helpful than please like our facebook page or follow us inventiongalaxy)

The UpdateFromWeb script usage is pretty simple and we have provided several examples below. You simply provide the source URL and the directory where the files to be updated on your computer are located and the script does the rest.

Features include:

    Universal – works for any tools or files on any URL
    Directory scanning for updating all applicable files in a local directory (including subdirectories)
    Automatic unzipping and extraction
    Direct URL downloads for single file updates
    Case conversion for websites where URLs are case sensitive
    New file detection for only updating newer versions
    Automatic shutdown and restart of running applications which need to be updated
    Can be run on demand or automated

There are more features included which are documented in the script file. Just open it in Notepad (or any other text editor) to view all the options.

The UpdateFromWeb script makes use of a couple of external tools which will need to be on your system prior to use. The download links for these tools are provided below and need to be placed in a folder in your system’s PATH variable (if in doubt, just put these required files in C:\Windows).
Not Just for Tools or Applications

As mentioned above, the UpdateFromWeb script can be used for any file which has a consistent URL. For example, if a project is updated nightly using the URL mysite.com/project.zip, you can use the UpdateFromWeb script to automatically download and extract the zip file to a local folder on your machine.

On a similar note, you can use the script to keep files and/or tools consistent across multiple machines. Just upload a file to a central location and an automated process running UpdateFromWeb can handle the rest.
Examples

The UpdateFromWeb script can be both used from the command line or hardcoded. Additionally, you can mix and match as needed.

Below are some examples which demonstrate the usage as well as the respective execution settings for both the command line and hardcode.

Update all SysInternals tools located in “C:\My Tools” and restart any running applications which were updated:


Command line:
UpdateFromWeb /U:http://live.sysinternals.com/tools /D /R “/T:C:\My Tools”
Hardcode:
SET URL=http://live.sysinternals.com/tools
SET TargetDir=C:\My Tools
SET UpdateDir=1
SET RestartStopped=1

Update all Nirsoft tools located in “C:\My Tools” and all subdirectories:
Command line:
UpdateFromWeb /U:http://www.nirsoft.net/utils /D /S /Z /L “/T:C:\My Tools”
Hardcode:
SET URL=http://www.nirsoft.net/utils
SET TargetDir=C:\My Tools
SET UpdateDir=1
SET Recurse=1
SET ToLower=1
SET Unzip=1
SET RestartStopped=1

Update the file named “Specs.doc” from mysite.com and copy it to “C:\Files\Latest Specs.pdf”:
Command line:
UpdateFromWeb /U:http://mysite.com/Specs.pdf “/F:Latest Specs.pdf” /T:C:\Files
Hardcode:
SET URL=http://mysite.com/Specs.pdf
SET TargetDir=C:\Files
SET FileToGet=Latest Specs.pdf

Update the files in the “C:\Files” directory with latest files from Specs.zip on mysite.com:
Command line:
UpdateFromWeb /U:http://mysite.com/Specs.zip /D /N /Z /T:C:\Files
Hardcode:
SET URL=http://mysite.com/Specs.zip
SET TargetDir=C:\Files
SET UpdateDir=1
SET CopyNewFiles=1
SET Unzip=1

Update all files in the “C:\Files” to be in sync with the files stored on mysite.com/files:
Command line:
UpdateFromWeb /U:http://mysite.com/files” /D /T:C:\Files
Hardcode:
SET URL=http://mysite.com/files
SET TargetDir=C:\Files
SET UpdateDir=1