NTT DoCoMo introduces new handsets

G2 L-01F

NTT DoCoMo today revealed its 2013 winter/2014 spring lineup of handsets. There are a total of 10 smartphones, a child-friendly handset and two feature phones. The entire collection will be gradually launched over the next few months starting from October 11 in Japan.

All of the smartphones support DoCoMo's Xi LTE service, with most models capable of maximum speeds of 150mbps and can take advantage of the telco's new "docomo ID" authentication system. This allows users to access services like cloud address book and email. With the exception of the SH-03F, all handsets support the One-Seg mobile TV service, too.

Pictured above is the LG G2 which sports a Qualcomm MSM8974 2.3GHz quad-core processor, 5.2-inch full-HD screen and a 13-megapixel camera BSI sensor. You can read CNET Asia's full review of the LG smartphone

Samsung galaxy Round..

Announced earlier this week, the Samsung Galaxy Round isn't your typical Samsung device. While it clearly resembles the other Galaxy-branded handsets, this Android smartphone is the first to sport a horizontally curved display. According to Samsung, the Round uses a flexible full-HD Super AMOLED display which doesn't actually bend, but is instead locked into a gentle curve that is likely to fit more comfortably in your palm.

Upside

The Round's flexible 5.7-inch screen isn't just an aesthetic feature. Samsung has added a few software tweaks that take advantage of the curved surface. For instance, there is the cool Roll Effect feature which turns the screen on to reveal the date, time, missed calls and battery life when one side of the phone is pressed down while it is lying on the table. Bounce UX is another interesting tweak, which lets you control music playback by similarly pressing down on one side to tilt the phone. Tilting the phone toward the left will play the previous track, while tilting the phone on the right will forward to the next song.

Samsung has also incorporated some of the Note 3 features in the Round, including the One-Hand Operation, where you perform a zig-zag motion to shrink the screen to a smaller size so you can operate it with one hand. Multi-tasking is also supported, just like in the Note 3 where you can open two different apps (or the same app twice) in a top-down layout. This allows for content to be easily shared between supported apps.

Like other high-end Galaxy devices, the Round packs the latest hardware. Powered by a snappy quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, the Round also comes loaded with 3GB of RAM and runs Android 4.3. Unfortunately, the 13-megapixel camera doesn't come with the new OIS module recently announced, so it will likely have the same low-light issues we noticed on the Note 3.

Downside

While having a curved screen is an interesting proposition for a phone, it does come with its own unique problems. For one, it will not sit properly on the table (though Samsung has designed around this by adding features that take advantage of this), and will likely create a slight bulge in your pocket due to the curve.

Depending on how you hold the phone when making calls, the Round's curved screen seems rather awkward-shaped and does not look too comfortable on the face. This is unlike the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus, which featured a vertical curved screen that's angled to fit the contours of the face.

Outlook

Currently available only in South Korea, the Samsung Galaxy Round doesn't seem like a phone that will leave the boundaries of its home country for now. I'm guessing that Samsung is not churning out enough flexible screens to make enough phones, though once the company ramps up production, this could change. My take is Samsung will use the Round to get some market response, before rolling out curved screens to the rest of its upcoming product lineup. In the future, we may even see a phone with display that actually bends, instead of the fixed curved display that the Round has.

How to use external storage to expand unexpandable Android phones

The HTC One? Nice phone, no question. But it's lacking a key feature: a microSD expansion slot.

That's a bummer, as expandability has long been one of the big advantages of an Android phone over an iPhone. (The other is a removable battery, which the One also lacks, but that's a topic for another day.) Does that mean owners of slotless Android phones like this one are stuck with a fixed amount of storage?

Not necessarily. Thanks to a USB specification called USB On-the-Go (OTG for short), you can add more storage just by plugging in a flash drive. Well, OK, there's a little more to it than that. Here's how to expand an "unexpandable" Android phone.

To connect a flash drive to your Android device, you'll need an inexpensive USB OTG cable.
(Credit: LTZmart)

Step one: Because you can't plug a full-size USB flash drive into a microUSB port, you'll need an adapter cable -- specifically a USB OTG cable. You can find these for as little as US$3, sometimes less, on Amazon and eBay. Here's one that, as of press time, was selling for US$1.47 shipped. (Impossibly, it ships from Hong Kong, meaning it could take a couple weeks to arrive. But how does that price even cover shipping costs?!)

Step two: Fill a flash drive with music, videos, photos, documents, and/or other media you'll want to access on your device. The USB OTG solution is particularly great for bringing extra music and movies on a trip, especially if you're already low on on-device storage.

If your device supports USB OTG right out of the box, it should be a plug-and-play exercise.
(Credit: Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET)

Step three: Plug the flash drive into the USB OTG cable, then plug the cable into your phone's Micro-USB port. With luck, the phone will immediately jump into USB host mode, which is exactly what happens with my Verizon HTC One. From there I was able to fire up Gallery, Music, and other apps that support external storage, and use them to play videos, listen to songs, open files, and so on. If, however, nothing happens, read on.

Freeware utility Kingo Root can handle the chore if your device needs rooting for USB OTG.
(Credit: Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET)

Step four (if necessary): Not all Android devices come with the necessary USB OTG drivers. Does that mean you're out of luck? Not if you're willing to root your phone or tablet. CNET's Scott Webster gives you the full story in "Hack your Android like a pro: Rooting and ROMs explained." Or, if you want to just dive right in, Kingo Android Root is a free app that can make short work of the rooting process on most devices.

Step five (if necessary): Now install an Android app that allows external drives to be "mounted" (i.e. visible to the operating system). One popular choice: USB OTG Helper. Run the app, then plug in your USB OTG cable with the already-connected flash drive. Now you should be able to access the drive in the same ways described above.

Unfortunately, there's no guarantee any of this will work on your device; your best bet is trial and error, though you could also do some googling to see if others have had USB OTG success with a particular model. For what it's worth, I wasn't able to get a rooted Virgin Mobile Supreme to recognize my flash drive -- though it wasn't really necessary given that that phone has a Micro-USB slot.

On the flipside, if you do get everything working, or have a model like the HTC One, you can also connect a variety of other USB devices, including keyboards and even game controllers. CNET's Sharon Vaknin explains it all in this video overview of USB OTG.

10 reasons why university students should wear uniforms

Uniform is a symbol of being a student. It differentiates them teachers and other people.

Should university students wear uniforms?

This is a contentious and much debated topic amongst the academia and other social circles. Be it in Pakistan, or around the world, this idea has been discussed multiple times and on different forums. However, I feel that university students should definitely wear uniforms, and here are a few reasons why:

Saving money

An average student spends around Rs50,000 a year on clothes for university. Having a couple of uniforms instead of fashion statement clothes for the university will not amount to more than Rs10,000 per year. This means that an average of Rs40,000 can be saved per student. Multiply this by a 1,000 students and we are saving a huge bundle by simply enforcing uniforms. The students can pool in the savings and set up other state-of-the-art facilities, like food courts or better labs.

Less time consuming

A boy who studies at a university spends about 20 minutes to get ready in the morning, and most of this time is spent in selecting an outfit. The same goes for the girls who end up wasting at least 30 minutes in getting dressed. Having a uniform would mean that each university student would save, on average, at least 15 minutes per day, which now they can consume doing something constructive instead, like spending some quality time with their parents before leaving or having a proper breakfast instead of rushing out the door.

Physical fitness

Considering how unflattering most uniforms are and what a poor job they do in camouflaging curves and flab, students will have to work much harder to look good in their uniforms. This means students will be spending more hours in the gym now, causing the rates of Diabetes Mellitus, Hypertension, Cardiac diseases and other obesity-related problems to decrease.

No room for excuses

In cases where teachers and students indulge in illicit affairs, the usual answer brought forth by teachers, after being questioned, is,

‘Oh, I didn’t know he/she was a student. I thought he/she was a colleague.’

When the student is in a uniform, this excuse will no longer remain valid.

Research polls

Though no survey on this topic has been done in Pakistan, in Thailand a Suan Dusit poll conducted just last week (September 14-17, 2013) showed that 94.4% of 1,293 university students in greater Bangkok think uniforms are “necessary” to maintain order and their identity. 70.96% think they should wear the uniform everyday while they attend classes. So if they are okay with it, what issues do we have?

A symbol of being a student

Often when I am standing behind someone in a line, I have heard the teller ask for a student ID card and more often than not, the person has left it at home. When he/she is wearing the uniform, getting student discounts on coffees, fast food, and even travel will be a piece of cake. If someone asks for a student ID, simply do a twirl and show them your clothes as identity of being a student.

Difference between students and teachers

When I was teaching, it was often hard to differentiate between the throngs of students roaming through the college and the dozens of Teacher Assistants (TA) who had barely graduated a month ago. Sometimes I would invite a girl to grab coffee with me and only later on realise that she is a student and not a TA. Had the students been in uniform, this problem wouldn’t have taken place at all.

Appropriate dressing

As someone who has taught at two co-educational institutes, I have seen it all from plunging necklines to pants which disappear at the thigh to the I-am-not-sure-you-want-to-know. Though I don’t mind all the scenery, I think boys spend about 60 minutes every day just ogling their colleagues. That’s again a lot of time spent doing nothing. If this time was to be used on learning Maths, our country would be rich in engineers and mathematicians. Uniforms can maintain an equal standard of dressing for all students.

Benefits to the uniform industry

With the demand for uniforms increasing, to meet the supply requirements the industry would have to hire more employees. Thus, not only would this benefit the students but even the nation as a whole.

What’s the harm?

Lastly, my question is, why not just wear a uniform? Not wearing them is not making our students any smarter, sharper, or better! Then why not just wear them and make life easier for all?

Hence, with so many positives and useful reasons, I see no point as to why students should not wear uniforms.

REVIEW: ‘Gravity’, Prepare To Be Lost In Space With George Clooney

Imagine being lost in space with George Clooney? Many women would happily trade places with Sandra Bullock for that experience but maybe not after watching Gravity.

Bullock and Clooney are astronauts whose mission turns to disaster when their space station comes in to the line of fire of debris hurtling at mega-speed.

As Alphonso Cuaron’s audacious, imaginative and cinematically breathtaking film, best seen in Imax 3D states: 600km above the Earth’s surface, with rapidly fluctuating temperatures and an absence of oxygen, life is impossible.

In this atmosphere, Cuaron tells the story of a woman’s loneliness, of the challenges of living a quiet and isolated life and the pull of gravity that gives us a comforting and unimaginable sense of rootedness.

This is a film about survival and soul-searching; it’s about forgiveness and realising that while you were the walking dead, when actually given a choice between living and dying (like Bullock’s medical engineer is given), your strength and choices might surprise you.

Cuaron magnificently creates a world of weightlessness where characters and objects float and gasp for breath; where silence and darkness are claustrophobic; where the sunrise is magical and dangers is frightening close. You feel the painful loneliness and quite of space.

Emmanuel Lubezki’s incredible cinematography brings to life Cuaron’s vision.

There is a beautiful shot of a teardrop floating in space, which stayed with me days after I had seen the film. Though you might fault the dialogues for being a tad cheesy, I wonder if that was deliberately done to alleviate the onscreen tension. The background music is dramatic with swells and dips.

Bullock is outstanding as Dr. Ryan Stone, conveying a range of emotions and immediately winning the audience to her side. Clooney is charming, even in a brief role as Matt Kowalski where he is mostly inside a space suit. It’s his character that brings lightness to an intense film.

This is cinema as it should be – pushing the envelope, pushing imagination and technology. So involved do you feel that you are grateful for the ground beneath your feet when you legs feel like jelly at the end. Cuaron, whose filmography is as diverse as Y Tu Mama Tambien, Children of Men and Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban, may have taken a few creative liberties with his plot, but you can overlook those because he has crafted a thrilling cinematic experience that should not be missed.

Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Chennai Express’ Breaks A New Record!

MUMBAI: Not only has ‘Chennai Express’ managed to smash all box office records to smithereens ever since its release, but the SRK- Deepika Padukone starrer is now blasting its way across a TV set near you too.

As we have been consistently reporting, ‘Chennai Express’ has notched up a grand total of over Rs 200 crore at the ticketing windows, and is still unstoppable. Fans of the uproarious family style masala entertainer now have been lapping up the film on the DTH platform as well.

From 25 September onwards, users of Dish TV were given the chance to watch the film ‘Chennai Express’ on TV.

Said Dish TV CEO Salil Kapoor, in a statement: “Shah Rukh Khan’s unique ability to connect with fans across all age groups and in all parts of the country worked as a huge catalyst in redefining the dynamics of movie viewing on movie-on-demand, and in achieving this breakthrough viewership.”

He even added that the sheer number of orders has broken the “largest number of orders for any single title” on the movie-on-demand platform.

“We look forward to building this synergy of entertainment with more such more such big titles from the superstar to delight our subscribers,” Kapoor added.

Did you know?: Ainy Jaffri is engaged and others are set to follow!

Jaffri and Ahmad with family. PHOTO: PUBLICITY

KARACHI: Model-turned-actor Ainy Jaffri exchanged rings with Faris Rahmanin in a low-key affair last month. The private ceremony took place at Jaffri’s residence. “The engagement was a very small, intimate affair amongst close family and friends,” said Jaffri.

The model-actor was dressed in a beautiful ivory angrakha with traditional gold embroidery. Jaffri’s make-up was done by Natasha Khalid of Natasha Salon and her hair was done up in a side-swept romantic braided do, adorned with dull gold floral trinkets.

Rahman, 32, is an equity analyst by profession, who works at Fidelity Investments in London. At the ceremony, he was seen wearing a crisp cream boski kurta with a brown crushed dushala.

And now, it seems like wedding bells are chiming all over – rumours are flying that sizzling TV show host Mathira Mohammad and actors Sanam Baloch and Sarwat Gilani are ready to tie the knot in the coming days.

While Mathira is said to be marrying UK-based bhangra pop singer Flint J, Gilani apparently got engaged earlier this week. We wish all these brides-to-be will make great brides and have wonderful wedded lives!

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Ainy is 24 years old.