RailRadar : Track your train on real time

Railways plays a vital role in every economy and if you are talking about Indian Railways you are talking about the backbone of the nation's public transport. Indian Railways runs more than 14,000 trains everyday carrying more than 11 million passengers & 1 million tonnes of freight daily.  Travelling by rail is the first preference of the every Indian. The nations biggest employer has just made it a little easier for rail travelers with a new web app called RailRadar, which uses Google Maps to track trains on a real-time basis. This is certainly welcome on one of the largest rail networks in the world that spans over 62,000 kms though the service is only available on 6,500 trains for now. To find out where your train is, simply go to the National Train Enquiry System's RailRadar portal and search for its name or number and RailRadar will spot it for you. You can also find trains by entering the name of the station. Blue highlights indicate trains that are on time while red means it's behind schedule. If you click on a train, it'll show its entire route from start to finish.

Nokia Transport 2.3 Beta available from Nokia Beta Labs

Nokia seems to be on the right track, thanks to the reliability of Nokia Maps. Nokia now wants to be your personal guide you all your destinations. Just think of a destination and Nokia will provide you with all the ways to get there. Nokia Lumia Labs now offers Transport 2.3 beta app to make your travel easier than ever in over 550 cities.


Transport combines all of your public transportation options, bus, train, subway, tram,  in one convenient app, giving you one-tap access to routes, schedules and timetables. To make it even better the Transport integrate walking in to your route. You can compare routes to find the one that suits you.
Transport 2.3 offers a colorful intuitive display, ease of access to previous destinations and new transport modes with improved station search and expanded global coverage make it easier to find where you want to go. Nokia Transport 2.3 is a Windows Phone special and supports automatic over-the-air updates.

Try the amazing app and get to the destination with just few touches to your Lumia screen.

Foxconn Trouble : Second labor dispute

If China Labor Watch, an advocacy group, is to be believed Foxconn Technology Group, the worlds largest contract manufacturer, had to stop production for the second time in last couple of weeks after factory-line workers at one of its plants protested against increased pressure.

China Labor Watch said that 3,000 to 4,000 workers went on strike due to extraordinarily high quality control requirements and demands from Apple that forced them to work even on the Chinese National Day holiday. 

Apple, the world’s most valuable company, sold 5 million iPhone 5 models in its first three days on sale last month and the pressure to deliver is being felt by the Foxconn workers. 

Foxconn employs more than 1 million workers in China and has suffered in the past three years from suicides, riots and strikes. The company recruits almost anyone above the age of 16 with good health and some secondary school education, but the long 12 hour shifts, pressure and low wages lead to frustration among workers. Though Foxconn has also improved the working conditions for its employees after at least 10 suicides in 2010, strikes are still very common.

Despite the report of the strike, the company states that disputes were “immediately addressed” and that production was running on schedule. Foxconn also noted that anyone who worked on National Day volunteered and were paid triple-time as required by the law.

Apple has been keeping a close watch on the issue as any hindrance to the iPhone 5 sales would be highly unwelcome.

Samsung rises with overwhelming Q3 results

Samsung has been a favorite brand for trade analysts in recent couple of years and everyone was expecting yet another great performance from the consumer electronics giant. But Samsung, looking very serious and well prepared to fight Apple, has outperformed all expectation with a $7.3 billion Q3 operating profit.

Despite loosing the patent war to Apple and the iPhone 5 launch,  the world's largest maker of TV and mobile phones,  has surpassed all estimates, widening the sales lead over Apple. Although TV market registered a slight dip for the company, the large scale Galaxy S III and  Note launch has helped Samsung grow rapidly. The South Korea based company revealed in a statement that the mobile phone business has surged over 93 % in the quarter leading to a 91% jump in operating profit in Q3. 

In an attempt to turn the party even bigger Samsung has filed with the U.S. District Court requesting that the $1.05 billion verdict against it and in favor of Apple be thrown out, claiming that the jury foreman, Velvin Hogan, was biased. If things turn in favor of Samsung, you can expect an aggressive performance from the company in future. 

Samsung people are already smiling as analysts see further growth in the company and believe it may go even higher. 

Nokia 920 an AT&T exclusive in USA

America's second largest carrier AT&T made an official announcement that it will start selling Nokia Lumia 820 and 920 in November, becoming the first carrier to mark the entry of the amazing phones to the U.S.. We have heard (in August) that Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. carrier,  plans to start selling a Nokia WP8 phone later this year.

However the AT&T press release claims the Lumia 920 to be another AT&T exclusive smart phone.

“Exclusive to our customers and featuring unique innovations in imaging technology, wireless charging and a bright, sensitive display…the Lumia 920 will be one of the hottest phones for the holidays.” 

These words force us, to conclude (even though we don't want to) that Nokia has again made a bad choice by choosing AT&T exclusivity over going for all the carriers. Nokia Lumia 900 was also an AT&T exclusive and the sales figures have been disappointing. 

Now the question is. Will Verizon offer only Nokia Lumia 820 or will it go for HTC 8X ? Either way it seems to be a loss for Nokia. And if AT&T and Nokia are able to out perform, they are welcome to have the last laugh.

This exclusive offering will surely bring a large number of Lumia 920 love-struck customers for AT&T.  Those who eagerly want to bet their money on the 'wonderful' Lumia but are not in the mood to switch carriers will have to wait for their chance to grab the beloved Lumia 920.

Lumia 920 with wireless charging pillow from fatboy

Lumia 920 comes with exciting features like wireless charging, 8.7 MP camera with Pure View and an amazing HD display. In short Lumia 920 is a magical device that has the 'hopefully best' software packed in the 'almost best' hardware. The Lumia 820 is also nothing less in performance and looks. Success of these two Lumia phones is very important for Nokia's survival. Microsoft is also counting on these Nokia flagship phones to dominate the cellphone market with Windows Phone 8.

Things will soon start rolling fast from October 29th when Microsoft officially launches WP8. The colorful devices running on WP8 will follow soon. Looking at the hype the Lumia 920 has created, it is going to be a high voltage year-end.

By the way, did Mayans know anything about the iPhone 5, Galaxy S III, HTC One X+ and the Lumia 920 ? 2012 has been the Year of smart phone glory and no-way we would want it to be 'the end'. 

Imagine what Nokia, Apple and Samsung will bring in 2013 or 2014?

Microsoft Surface arrives October 26th?

If you have been lately watching every move from Microsoft, you would be very much expecting the same as we are. Yes, an October 26th release for the Microsoft's in-house Surface tablet. The Redmond based company is already sending invitations for the October 25th event celebrating Windows 8 and the recent announcement about the final update for the Windows 8 built-in apps (almost) confirms the availability of the Surface. Expect some power packed show along with a much anticipated discussion on pricing.


Microsoft is going to offer two versions of the stunning Surface tablet. The typical tablet version, Microsoft Surface (RT) is powered by an ARM related NVIDIA Tegra 3+ and is designed to compete with the Android powered tablets and the Apple iPad. The other version, Microsoft Surface (8 Pro) model is expected to be a carry-along form of Windows 8 PC.

Surface looks promising on paper and outstanding in real.

The Surface comes with an integrated Kickstand and a revolutionary, 3 mm thin, pressure sensitive touch cover (available in five vibrant colors) that doubles as a fully functioning keyboard and track-pad. Don't fear to witness your Surface falling when used with the stand as unlike a photo-frame the tablets stand firmly on the kickstand. It comes with a precision crafted VaporMg casing and offer both rear and front facing cameras.

Counting days for the smart guy to 'surface' for general availability ?

Nokia Xpress Internet browser for Lumia

Nokia is not sitting idle (Can it be afforded?), waiting for Redmond to bring some rejuvenating magic for the Finnish firm. Nokia Beta Labs is now offering Xpress Internet (Beta) browser for its Lumia series. The new browser is based on Nokia's cloud-based Xpress platform and optimizes the content for a better experience and lower data usage using some complex data compression algorithms. It compresses data by up to 85% (even up to 90%) and offers several tools for controlling your data usage and saving battery life.

Easy Data usage monitoring  and the option to save pages for offline viewing helps control the usage. What if you just found a must-watch video but care for your already high data usage? The browser offers a wonderful solution to this. It allows you to save videos directly to SkyDrive with just one click so that you can download and view them later when you are connected using WiFi. Another decent feature called Magazine allows you to add sites with feeds to your collection so that you can view all the feeds in a user-friendly magazine layout. You can also add your favorite websites to the QuickLinks screen as tiles for quick access.

Feel like searching more on the Internet about what you are reading on your Xpress Browser?

Just tap that word and it will allow you to swipe through contextual search results from Wikipedia, Bing and YouTube. In case you are not comfortable with the original language of the webpage, just tap on the Translate To option in the app menu and select from one of the 10 currently available languages.

Its yet another attempt from Nokia to keep its Lumia users happy. The efforts and the results so far are appreciable. Lets see how the new browser performs (saves data and money as it claims) when used for over a month. 

The browser is a must have app if you are holding a Lumia phone. Have you tried the new Xpress Internet browser yet?

Nokia Lumia 920, suicide or another life?

The Nokia Lumia 920 was announced a couple of weeks ago as a savior for the Finnish smartphone giant, and it actually seemed to be worth the buzz. Nokia's loyal customer base, which can't stay loyal forever if not provided with what they deserve (something to compete with the iconic iPhone 5 or the popular Galaxy S III), was already 'proudly' waiting for the visually amazing flagship phone and features like extremely responsive screen and wireless charging could pull 'a large number' of customers away from phones running on green bots (the Androids, already with everyone) or the iPhone 5 (always the best but what's new?), but the Espoo people added to their own misery by announcing an unexpected price tag for the 920. Nokia is pricing the 920 at 649 euros (around $840) in Germany which is higher than the successful player Galaxy S III and HTC's similar looking WP8 flagship phones. Same goes in Italy and is expected to follow in other markets as well.

But is it worth for a device which comes from a devalued brand (yes Nokia is in big trouble) and offers a new ecosystem (WP8 is yet to establish itself) ? 

Looking at the options available (iPhone 5, Taiwanese HTC 8X, Galaxy S III) and if rumors about Microsoft working on its own windows phone (Microsoft has already crafted a beauty called Surface to enter the tablet war) are to be believed, it appears to be a bad move (for sure). 

However we can not deny that Lumia 920 seems to be a great phone and 'capable' of pulling off that sort of a price tag. If Lumia 920 sells as many units in the last quarter as Apple sold in just three days of the iPhone 5 launch, it is going to be a Happy New Year in Espoo. 

Would you love to see the once-upon-a-time smartphone leader back in the game?