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Twitter Sends Suspicious Password Reset Email

Posted by Rahul Srinivas On February - 2 - 2010ADD COMMENTS
People, including yours truly have received an email from Twitter asking us to change our passwords using a link provided in the email. This, because of “concern that your account may have been compromised in a phishing attack that took place off-Twitter”.
The e-mail also adds that my password was reset.
Having checked the Twitter blog and the forums for more information on this, I came across nothing. The e-mail does look authentic, but it is advised that you do not click the link unless we have a confirmation from Twitter was such an e-mail was sent.
Update: It is authentic. If you have received such an e-mail, you will not be able to re-login to your account unless you have reset the password.
Tech News

Acer Liquid Trickles into India

Posted by Rahul Srinivas On February - 1 - 2010ADD COMMENTS
Just a few weeks ago,  Acer’s A1, the company’s Android powered smartphone arrived in black color in the UK. We had no inkling back then if the A1 (Also known as the Liquid) would ever reach Indian shores.
Well, folks at Acer seemed to be optimistic about Indian and have gone ahead and launched the phone in India finally. The Liquid is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and sports a 3.5 inch screen with WVGA (800 x 480 pixels) resolution display. It also comes with a 5 megapixel camera for imaging and videos. The camera also boasts of geo-tagging, ISO, self-timer options and accelerated auto-focus – features usually found on multimedia heavy devices.
The A1 is also social networks optimized and comes with smart integration of social networking sites in its address book, with real-time notification of status or content updates. The OS is Android 1.6 (Donut)
Acer Liquid specification:
  • Operating System: Android 1.6 (Donut)
  • Processor: Qualcomm 8250 768 MHz
  • Memory: ROM: 512MB / RAM: 256MB
  • Display: 3.5-inch touch-sensitive screen with WVGA resolution
  • Network: Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
  • Bluetooth 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate and A2DP for wireless stereo headsets
  • Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11 b/g
  • 3.5 mm audio jack
  • Internal GPS antenna
  • microSDHC (supports up to 32GB)
  • 5.0 megapixel colour camera with auto focus
  • Talk Time: Up to 300 minutes
  • Standby Time: Up to 400 hours
  • Battery: 1350mAh Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
  • Dimensions: 115 x 62.5 x 12.5 mm
  • Weight: 135 grams with battery
In India, the Acer Liquid has been priced at Rs. 24,900 and comes with a 2GB microSD card as well – out of the box.
Tech News

WTF News of the Week: Microsoft, Nokia are NATURAL “Partners”

Posted by Rahul Srinivas On August - 12 - 2009ADD COMMENTS

Well, well.. so Nokia and Microsoft are Natural partners. And its not some third party who’s saying this! I just happened to read the joint press release by the companies that detailed the future of MS Office on Nokia devices and had a good laugh! It’s not daily that you see two rivals (at least on the Mobile OS scheme of things) showering praises at each other.

Ok, now on to serious stuff.. There has been this talk of Nokia and Microsoft’s impending alliance since early this morning. In fact, I did an article for Techtree detailing this alliance earlier today as well. Now that we have the details of this unholy alliance as TechCrunch puts it, lets take a look at what this means for Joe Average. Ok No, I will just quote the Press release here. Its quite self explanatory, I guess.

“Under the terms of the agreement, the two companies will begin collaborating immediately on the design, development and marketing of productivity solutions for the mobile professional, bringing Microsoft Office Mobile and Microsoft business communications, collaboration and device management software to Nokia’s Symbian devices. These solutions will be available for a broad range of Nokia smartphones starting with the company’s business-optimized range, Nokia Eseries. The two companies will also market these solutions to businesses, carriers and individuals.”

If that was too long a paragraph, what this essentially means is that MS Office stuff will now be officially supported by Nokia smartphones starting with the E-Series. So, you’d soon be seeing mobile versions of Word, Powerpoint, Excel and the likes on your E-Series device. The alliance seems interested in enterprise level customer as of now and will go mass -market soon after. The Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile will arrive on select Nokia phones soon.

Ugh, wondering what this means to those of you who have QuickOffice installed.. the paid one. Hmm..

Tech News

Nimbuzz Comes to Android, Finally

Posted by Rahul Srinivas On August - 11 - 2009ADD COMMENTS

Nimbuzz, the popular IM and VoIP client for smartphones had one glaring omission till a few minutes back. No version existed for the Android platform. That however is now history as Nimbuzz has formally announced the availability of the Android version of the IM client through its blog here.

Major highlights of the Nimbuzz version include:

  • Skype and local social network support,
  • a time-sensitive user interface (!),
  • home-screen notifications,
  • auto-reconnect,
  • and clickable URLs

It also boasts of this smart buddy list layout that displays information in an intelligent way, combining avatar and presence information in one, with community icon and resource information (if your buddy is online on the mobile or PC) in the same line. Then there is the time sensitive UI is which detects how long you press on a buddy’s name and the “strength” of your touch decides what to do with the buddy, chat with him or just view his/her profile. Nimbuzz also gives alerts on the homescreen whilst the application is running in the background. Er, Nimbuzz, can we have this for the Symbian version as well?

URL’s within chats are clickable and the click will trigger a new browser window to open. Then there is the Auto reconnect option which detects loss in connectivity and tries to switch to another access point if one fails. This is useful if you re on a WiFi network and when you accidentally go out of range, it switches to a 3G/GSM network, without user intervention! Neat!

Download Nimbuzz for Android from here

Tech News

Ten Reasons Why The HTC Magic is an Overpriced Brick In India.

Posted by Rahul Srinivas On August - 7 - 20099 COMMENTS

Being a techie and staying in India is a BAD combination (Well, mostly). So, here I am wading through tonnes of sites before I home in on my next phone. I thought, since the (self-proclaimed) techie that I am, things would be easy!

Two weeks and almost running out of my home broadband data cap, I am still uncertain.  Should I go for the iPhone or stick with tried and tested Symbian. Or why not check out the Android? Will any of the Blackberries keep me happy? What about good ol Windows Mobile then? While I have still not figured out what my next phone would be, my “extensive” research helped me figure out another thing.

You know the HTC Magic, right? It’s the first Android handset available in India through official channels. With cupcake and all, its one powerpacked device. Not in India though. Here’s why.

1. Its available through Airtel (Uh, oh)

2. But hey, its unlocked! If that made you happy, hold on to it, its all downhill from here.

3. The HTC Magic in India does not have ANY Google Apps installed.

4. Ok, so what? You can always download whatever you want from the Android Market, right? Wrong! The Indian version doesnt come with Android market either.

5.  It’s got GPS and all, but what to do with it when you can’t install Google Maps! Someone please explain.

6. You can’t install Android Market, until you re-flash the ROM. (Ray of hope!)

7. The Indian version apparently cannot be rooted either. (I do hope they figure out a way soon!)

8. HTC does’nt know when we can expect Android Market and Google Apps support in India

9.  Comes with “amazing” Airtel installed apps that no one uses.

10.  It costs around 28,000 INR

Overpriced brick or not, you decide.

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