Guess the Photography Trick...

Guess the Photography Trick... 

It looks like three glasses of wine served at the Leaning Pisa Tower.

Live: Will Samsung’s pricey phablet, Galaxy Note II take India by storm?

3.11 pm: Samsung Galaxy smart camera also launched

The Galaxy Smart Camera has also been brought out to show consumers as part of a ‘surprise segment’ in the launch. Warzi reveals that it will be made available in India during the course of the month, before diwali.

Warzi is calling the camera “a charged up Android 4.0 device”, and is talking up the features of the device. The camera is 21 MP, comes with Android Ice Cream Sandwich, is wi-fi enabled and has SIM capability.

3.02pm: Galaxy Note II will cost Rs 39,900

It’s official. Warsi says that the Note II will cost Rs 39,990. There is an interest free EMI option spread out over nine months, but there are no to ways about this. The price is very very steep – it will be interesting to see how it fares, given the competitive nature of the smartphone market in India.

Even more interesting now, will be to see at what price point Apple will position the iPhone 5. This is a great opportunity for them to outgun Samsung ahead of the Diwali shopping season. Will they take it?

2.51pm: S Pen sounding cooler and cooler

Asim Warsi is demonstrating some of the key features of the Galaxy Note 2, showcasing the intuitiveness of the device. After praising the S pen as the most advanced mobile gadget yet, Warsi dwells on length on ‘photo note’ which allows users to edit pictures, tag and make little notes on the photographs taken. An in-built scrapbook option if you will.

And now we’re back to the S Pen. Warsi talks about its capability to sense pressure. “The S Pen is tuned to sense 1024 different levels of pressure sensing. This can draw lines of depth, width, intensity”, he says.

Warsi promises that this means that using the S Pen is exactly the same as using a normal pen and paper. If it does everything it says, this could be a huge boost for Samsung, especially since it will appeal to users who are not too comfortable with touch screens.

2.45 pm BGR says Note will cost Rs 39,000

BGR is reporting that the Note II will cost Rs 39,900. We will confirm the price once we get more updates.

Warsi is now talking about the Air View feature of the S pen aka the Stylus of the Samsung Galaxy Note II.

AirView is pretty a cool feature. What it does is that users can just hover the S Pen approximately 10mm over the surface of the device and then just preview emails, S Planner, image gallery, or video to preview without having to open it.

For those find touch-screens tough to handle, the AirView feature should be pretty helpful.

2.40 pm: ‘Not just bigger but thinner’

Samsung Vice-President India, Asim Warsi talking about how the smartphone is not just bigger but thinner. He’s talking about how the screen is much better thanks to AMOLED tech and that this is one of the best smartphones around.

Best is yet to be seen but it does have a really big screen.

2.30 pm Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is officially here

Director Imtiaz Ali is at the launch and the phone has been officially unveiled.

Ok currently Samsung has gone for some theatrics at the launch. While the song and dance sequence looks nice, what we’re really waiting for is the price of the Galaxy Note II in India. Will it be priced more than Rs 40,000 or less?

2.27 pm: 

India is one of the first few markets where the Note II is being launched. Yay for that. B D Park, the President and CEO of Samsung South West Asia Operations and Managing Director, Samsung India Electronics Ltd is present at the launch.

Right now he’s talking about the S pen, the bigger screen and why Samsung went for it.

Samsung’s official event for the India launch of the Galaxy Note II will begin today at 2.30 pm in Hyderabad. The South-Korean firm had first revealed the oversized smartphone/phablet at the consumer electronics show IFA in Berlin in August.

We’ll be giving you live updates of the launch. It is being telecast live on the web. To check out the live webcast click here.

Image: From Samsung Mobile India’s Twitter page.

The smartphone is available for pre-order on Samsung’s Indie e-store. You can click here to order. The cost for pre-ordering the device is Rs 5000. Note, that a pre-order is once placed, it cannot be cancelled.

While the actual price of the smartphone has not been revealed, according to reports it is expected to cost a maximum of Rs 38,000.

Samsung Galaxy Note II in India for Rs 39,900: Worth it?

Samsung Galaxy Note II in India for Rs 39,900: Worth it?

Samsung has just released its new Galaxy Note II ‘phablet’ in India for a whopping Rs 39,900.

And now that it’s finally here, we do a quick round up of what we felt were the most pressing points around the launch of the new phone. Is it priced too high? Will it also have to compete with low cost tablets? And what are we most excited about?

The price: Ok, this is probably the first aspect that most users look for before they consider buying the smartphone. The Galaxy Note II will cost Rs 39,990 and while this might sound steep right now, remember that while the S III launched at Rs 42,000, it was available on retail for Rs 38,000. So prices are likely to be significantly lower within a few days of it retailing. As of now, Flipkart is offering it for the same price, but we’d be very surprised if this continues to be the trend.

Samsung has assured users of an interest free EMI option spread out over nine months which means that the smartphone will cost around Rs 4500 per month should you go for this. This is a great deal to offer, especially if you don’t want to burn a Rs 40,000 hole in your pocket.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2

The screen size: This is the aspect that makes the Note II what it is: a phablet . It’s not just a smartphone to make calls with, but a 5.5 inch screen with1280 x 720 pixel density, which can drastically alter the video watching experience on a hand-held device. For those who like to watch movies, read magazines, the big screen should definitely be a big plus point.  But remember that you can’t just put this device in your jeans pocket.

What this also means, is that the Note is also competing with tablets. And some of these are priced a lot lot cheaper. Could this hurt the Note? Maybe.

The Stylus: As far as innovation goes, this is definitely a plus point, especially given that Samsung is trying to sell this device as the perfect companion for ‘creative’ people.  And we all fancy ourselves a little bit creative don’t we? Nice positioning Samsung!

The S Pen or the stylus is one feature that Samsung has definitely tried to improve in this device and it comes with advanced capabilities, like giving users the option of of adding Quick Commands to their stylus. This means that users can also simply press the S Pen button,to clip or edit selected content on the screen.

The Note II also has Air View capability, which means that even when users keep the S Pen approximately 10mm over the surface of the device it will still detect the presence of the stylus and allow you to preview emails, images, or videos without having to open them.

And perhaps most importantly it allows you to use it like a pen. According to Samsung Vice-President India, Asim Warsi, “The S Pen is tuned to sense 1024 different levels of pressure sensing. This can draw lines of depth, width, intensity”.

Warsi promises that this means that using the S Pen is exactly the same as using a normal pen and paper and can be used to write notes, sms and even emails. If it does everything Warzi says, this could be a huge boost for Samsung, especially since it will appeal to users who are not too comfortable with touch screens. Could this be the next big innovation for corporate users since the BlackBerry and QWERTY keypad?

The OS: Galaxy Note II ships with the latest Android OS Jelly Bean or Android 4.1. With features like Project Butter for faster functioning of the device, Google Now  ( a Siri like voice commands app but with the power of Google) , a smarter keyboard functionality and sharper notifications. For all Android fans, Jelly Bean should be reason enough to give this one a try

Samsung Galaxy Note II launches in India today

Samsung’s Galaxy Note II will officially be launched in Hyderabad today. The South-Korean firm had first revealed the oversized smartphone/phablet at the consumer electronics show IFA in Berlin in August.

The smartphone is available for pre-order on Samsung’s Indie e-store. You can click here to order. The cost for pre-ordering the device is Rs 5000. Note, that a pre-order is once placed, it cannot be cancelled. While the actual price of the smartphone has not been revealed, according to reports it is expected to cost a maximum of Rs 38,000.

Here’s a quick look at the key features of Samsung’s phablet.

• A 5.5-inch (14-centimeter) screen with AMOLED touchscreen and 1280 x 720 pixel density. The new device is narrower but longer than the first version of the Note.

• A 1.6 GHz quad-core processor with 2GB RAM which means the smartphone should be pretty fast.

Samsung’s Galaxy Note II will be officially launched in Hyderabad today. Getty Images

• It also has an 8 megapixel AF/ Touchfocus camera with full HD video recording and playback and front camera with 1.9 megapixel.

• The smartphone will come with Android 4.1 aka Jelly Bean, so for users who’ve been waiting to test out Android’s latest OS, this device is the one to get.

• The phablet, will come in three versions, namely 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. Both the 16 and 32 GB versions can be expanded to 64GB and the device has 4G capabilites but it seems that the India version will not have 4G capabilities.

• The smartphone also has a stylus, which is designed to making writing, drawing etc much easier for those aren’t too fond of touch-screens. The S Pen also comes with advanced capabilities. Users have the option of adding Quick Commands to their stylus and can also simply press the S Pen button,to clip or edit selected content on the screen.

• The Note II comes with Air View, which allows users to hover the S Pen approximately 10mm over the surface of the device and then lets your preview emails, S Planner, image gallery, or video to preview without having to open it.