Jolla releases Sailfish OS-based 7.85-inch tablet

Finnish smart devices-maker Jolla has launched the Jolla tablet, its first tablet device that runs the Sailfish OS 2.0. It's the company's second device after the Jolla smartphone.

Jolla is raising money through crowdfunding platform Indiegogo for the tablet and has set a goal of $380,000. The first 1,000 users to contribute $189 to the campaign will receive a special discount and will be the first to receive the tablet in May 2015. The expected retail price of the tablet is $249 if it is sold after the end of the crowdfunding campaign. The tablet will be available in European Union, Norway, Switzerland, United States, India, China, Hong Kong, and Russia.

Jolla says it will develop the tablet's software in consultation with users through its community forum 'together.jolla.com.'

Users will be able to suggest new features for Sailfish OS, as well as discuss ideas with the Jolla Sailors (Jolla's development team). The community will vote on whether they'd like to see proposed ideas developed further. Anything that has been voted on by the community will be prioritised by the Jolla Sailors for inclusion in the software.

Jolla tablet has a 7.85-inch IPS display (2048x1536p) and capacitive 5-point multi-touch.

The tablet is powered by a 1.8GHz quad-core 64-bit Intel processor and 2GB RAM and has 32GB internal storage which can be expanded via a microSD card slot. It sports a 5MP rear camera capable of recording 1080p video and a 2MP front camera.

The tablet runs Sailfish OS 2.0 which is based on gesture navigation and also supports Android apps.

In terms of connectivity options, it supports 802.11 a/b/g/n dual-band , Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. It features an accelerometer, light and proximity sensors and has a 4300mAh battery.

The tablet measures 203x137x8.3mm and weighs 384gram. Just like the Jolla phone, it does not sport hardware navigation buttons. 

Lenovo Vibe X2 review

Lenovo's new Vibe X2 smartphone sports a 'multi-layered' design with its edges giving the impression of different coloured layers stacked together. It also ticks almost all the right checkboxes when it comes to hardware specifications and at a price less than Rs 20,000 is worthy of being referred to as a 'value for money' phone. But is the phone a good buy? We try to find out in our review.

Build & design
Phones these days, are mostly rectangular glass slabs with some curves thrown in. Lenovo tries to distinguish the Vibe X2 with the concept of coloured layers in a unibody form factor.



The phone's edges give an impression that several layers have been stacked on each other, to make the design interesting. It surely is a good deviation as the phone looks pretty different with three coloured layers - golden, orange and red stacked below the black display panel layer. As we mentioned, these are not actual layers as the phone's internals are placed inside the phone's body.

The phone's edges are not rounded and even the rounding at the corners is very subtle, giving the phone a very sharp look with the dominant straight lines.

At 120gram, the Vibe X2 feels very light and the dimensions (68.6x7.27x140.2mm) make it ideal for one hand use. Despite the low weight, the phone doesn't feel flimsy or fragile.



The capacitive touch navigation keys are placed below the display and offer good touch sensitivity.

The right edge sports metallic keys for volume control and power. The keys bear the same colour as that of the layer they're placed on, have a brushed metallic finish and offer great tactile feedback.

The left edge holds the sim card tray that has both micro and nano sim card slots.

The top edge features the 3.5mm headphone jack while the micro-USB port is placed at the bottom edge. The back has a gold coloured matte finish which is not very prone to smudges and looks good.



The rear camera lens and LED flash are placed towards the left side and are flush with body of the phone. There's some Lenovo branding and a small speaker grill at the back.

Display
The phone sports a 5-inch full-HD IPS display that looks bright and vivid. The display offers wide viewing angles and decent outdoor legibility. Text and images look sharp and crisp and colours were accurate. Sunlight legibility was also good.

The display panel is protected by Gorilla Glass 3 to guard against minor scratches. Touch response was also good.

Software
The Vibe X2 comes with a heavily customized version of Android 4.4 KitKat. Lenovo deploys its own UI skin to offer enhanced features and customization options.

Just like Xiaomi's MiUI and Huawei Honor 6, the phone's default UI is devoid of an app drawer and app icons and widgets are spread across the home screens. The unified home screen-app launcher style may come across as user-friendly to people who have not used an Android phone before. But it will take some time to get used to if you have already been using an Android smartphone. You can of course download and install an alternate launcher.



The phone also comes with six themes each of which comes with a different set of icons, wallpapers, font style, sounds, and lock screen styles. There's no way to download or install new themes but existing ones can be customized.

The software does not include any stock Android app and everything including the Gallery, Calculator, Calendar and Email apps are built by Lenovo's software team. The apps look beautiful and offer additional value added features.

Lenovo also offers smart gestures including double tap to unlock, automatically answer the call when the phone is raised to the ear and double tap the home button to shoot a picture, among others. You can set audio profiles to activate at a predefined time or when the phone joins a particular Wi-Fi network.

The phone also features a Float button, which, when enabled can float anywhere on the screen. It houses the back button, a button to lock the screen, another one to add shortcuts and shortcuts to launch Calculator, Camera and Music apps in addition to recent apps. Lenovo also allows you to invoke the float menu without the button showing up on the screen. You can simply program the display to detect your thumb impression and launch the menu. This is a nice functionality and helps in navigation.

Lenovo bundles a large number of apps with the Vibe X2 including a Security app, its SyncIt, CloneIt and ShareIt apps, Guvera music streaming app, Route 66 navigation, WPS Office, UC Browser, Txtr eBooks app and a number of Gameloft games. Thankfully, these can be uninstalled to free up storage space.

Overall, we feel the software tries to maintain the balance between customization and functionality and has been optimized for the phone's hardware. However, stock Android fans may find it a little intimidating.

Camera
Lenovo Vibe X2 sports a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front facing camera.

The phone features Lenovo's own camera app that offers settings for all optical attributes, HDR, Panorama and Timer modes, among others.



Images captured by the camera in daylight turned out well but missed out on detail. Colour reproduction and contrast levels were decent. We also experienced problems in focusing while taking macro shots.

Images shot in low-light and indoors were grainy and also lacked detail.



The front camera shoots good quality selfies and the phone offers all the tools to make you look as good looking as possible.

The phone is capable of recording 1080p videos and we found the videos shot with the phone to be decent, especially for casual use. Don't expect high-quality videos as the phone lacks optical image stabilization resulting in shake being apparent.

Overall, the camera is one of the weak points of the phone.

Hardware & performance
Lenovo Vibe X2 is powered by a 2GHz MediaTek MT6595M octa-core processor and 2GB RAM, and comes with 32GB internal storage. There's no storage card slot but we feel 32GB space is sufficient for most users.

According to MediaTek, the MT6595 employs ARM's big.LITTLE architecture with MediaTek's CorePilot technology to deliver a Heterogeneous Multi-Processing (HMP) platform to unlock the full power of all eight cores of the processor. What this really means in simple terms is that the processor can deliver enhanced multi-tasking performance and save power at the same time.

Thanks to all the power under the hood, the phone is extremely responsive and snappy even though the software can get heavy on animations and transition effects.

We did not experience any lag whatsoever while navigating through the home screen and menus, launching apps and switching between them. Scrolling was smooth and the phone was able to play full HD video files without any problems.

In synthetic benchmarks, the phone scored in 47,616 in Antutu and in 59.1 Nenamark 2 benchmark tests. We were not able to run the Quadrant Standard test. We do not recommend a phone based solely on benchmarks as real world performance is different at times.

Of the 32GB internal storage, about 26GB is available to the user.

The phone offers Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS connectivity options and even offers support for Band 40 4G LTE which has been deployed in India.

Lenovo Vibe X2 offers good call quality and signal reception and we did not encounter issues while making calls even in areas where cell signal is relatively weaker. The phone was able to lock to GPS without any hiccups.

It also offers FM radio. We were able to play most popular video and audio file formats.



The external speaker outlet on the phone, located at the back, offers loud sound output but is not stereo. Also, sound gets muffled when the phone is placed on a soft surface.

Lenovo also offers Xtensions or rear covers that fit tightly with the phone and enhance functionality. We've seen a battery Xtension that charges the phone and a music Xtension that adds an external JBL speaker. The concept looks interesting, however, the Xtensions do add some extra bulk.

The phone is backed by a 2,300mAh battery (non-removable) and will last you a full working day (10-11 hours) if you put the screen brightness at the highest level and use 3G data all the time. You'll be able to make about 1-2 hours of phone calls, play some casual games and browse the web in this time period. Your mileage may vary with different usage pattern.

Gaming
We were able to play games like Subway Surfers, Temple Run 2, Asphalt 8 and Dead Trigger without encountering frame drops or freezes. The phone heated up a little after playing games for longer duration.

Verdict
At Rs 20,000, the Lenovo Vibe X2 makes for a good buy if you can do with a mediocre camera.The phone looks good, has a good quality display and performs decently. It's possible that Lenovo may fix the camera with a future software update.

At the same price, you could also look at the Huawei Honor 6, another value for money smartphone that sports a conservative design but offers similar performance. You could also wait for the OnePlus One and Xiaomi Mi 4, which are expected to arrive at the end of the year.

Assassin's Creed Unity game review

The Assassin's Creed franchise has remained a constant in the video gaming industry. A saga that spans time melding elements of action, weaving history on a rigid and compelling science fiction framework, charting the never-ending silent battle between the Assassins and the Knights Templar. Assassin's Creed Unity is an important move for Ubisoft. Marking the shift in not only graphics but marking new territory in gameplay and visuals. But is that enough to beat the vast open seas of Assassins Creed: Black Flag or the charm of Assassins Creed III? We find out in our review...

Note: This review reflects just the single player core of Assassins Creed Unity. If you already own the game, there's a Day One update ready and waiting. So, it is imperative you update your game as soon as possible, otherwise the framerate is terrible.

Story



Assassin's Creed Unity's story is as much a coming of age story as it is a sweeping romance set in a backdrop of Paris's slow descent into madness. Young Arno Dorian watched his father die and met the love of his life, Elise, on the same day. Adopted by Elise's family, Arno is a likeable, roguish stable boy who is on the path into the Brotherhood of Assassins courtesy the tides of love and revolution . All of this is perfectly voice-acted, even though many of the characters have sharp English accents.

Arno himself is very much like Ezio from Assassins Creed III and Edward from Assassins Creed IV. In fact, Arno's later introduction is very reminiscent of Ezio's as he's accused of stealing and is pursued by thugs.

There's nothing new about the tale of Assassins Creed Unity. Even as Arno makes his way up through the ranks of assassins, you feel you have read or heard this story many times over. Though the romance between Elise and Arno does have its sweeping highs, the story just tapers into background noise after a point. This is good in a way as Arno serves as a device to lead you into the bigger picture.

What the story does right is get you riled up, watching the overflowing opulence of the upper caste Parisians and the growing anger of the peasant class. All this leads up to the horrific guillotine executions that still resound throughout history. Ubisoft has rendered Paris in such amazing detail, you feel completely transported in time, right into the heart of the revolution.

Gameplay



At its core, Assassin's Creed Unity feels like every other Assassins Creed game out there, which is disappointing. That's not to say there are not a lot of new things, but a lot of them are focused more on making the game feel more realistic that updating the gameplay.

The Parkour, freerunning element has gotten the best and biggest update of the lot. Barring a few glitches, Arno just seems to flow over the environment as he vaults over edges, runs across rooftops and does slight wall runs to grab adjacent hand holds. It's just incredible. You can also freerun down with another button, allowing Arno to do a controlled descent. This more than makes up for a lot of the flaws of the game.

One annoying feature of most Assassin's Creed games was the stealth mechanics, where you could only crouch and hide in certain areas. Taking a page out of Watch Dogs and Splinter Cell, Assassin's Creed Unity now has a new cover system as well as the ability to crouch and walk anytime. However, the controls can get a bit sticky at times.

The combat system is changed a bit to include more of a fencing style; however, it's rickety at best. There were times we could not tell when we are supposed to parry and there were times where it feels like hits were just not connecting. Add to that glitches like enemies clipping into your character and you've got a mess.



There were times I parried, but the animation of the sword was pointing in the wrong direction, which is shameful because an Assassin's Creed clone Shadow of Mordor did combat so well; in the latter, you can feel the power of your character's sword-strokes as you can cut through swathes of enemies with precise control. At best Assassin's Creed Unity's combat feels clunky. We sincerely do hope Ubisoft will fix this in upcoming patches.

Assassin's Creed Unity does not break away from the usual bunch of mission types. You still follow targets, eavesdrop, chase and perform the occasional assassination, but now you get to solve murders too. With a game overhaul, it would have been nice of Ubisoft to mix things up a little more. However, to be fair the, game does give you a lot more freedom on how you can go about your mission. Earlier there were just external buildings you can traverse, but in Unity you can enter certain interiors through open windows.

Assassination is a lot better this time around as well, with you feeling a lot more like an assassin. You will actually need to case the scene, prepare you kill and see the multiple routes to go in, kill and get out in one piece, preferably with the head still attached to said piece. You can either sneak in unnoticed or create distractions or go in sword swinging, taking down guards and target alike.

One annoying factor is the crowds. Sure, it fills you with awe watching the angry mobs from a rooftop. However, on any mission, be it a chase or a sneak, there are milling crowds of people getting in your way. It just gets annoying watching bumbling peasants wearing ridiculous pink and white dress shirts get in your way as your target happily traipses around the crowds to get away from you.

Graphics



Assassin's Creed Unity is one of the best looking games out there to date. Every turn, every corner is so detailed that you have to blink twice and remind yourself that it's not real. The detail in the textures is staggering, stones on a building are varied in style and not just a repeated tile. The ground is mucky in places and dusty near market areas. The crowds look great, as the game distinguishes each member with an astonishing amount of details. Later in the game the crowds are just plain malevolent entities, walls of angry peasants.



All of the famous Paris architecture are rendered in exquisite detail. You can not only visit but also climb to the top of monuments like Notre Dame and Eiffel Tower. Everything just looks amazing. Picture perfect. Interiors of buildings are equally detailed, with gold trimmings along the walls, paintings on the ceilings and old French furniture in the room. Assasin's Creed Unity is just a feast for the eyes.

The animations are very realistic too, marked by Arno's fluid and real movements. Little details in the parkour animation add to the realism, for example, when running over rooftops, Arno seems to accelerate and decelerate on the slopes of the roof; when running he goes into a controlled slide before vaulting easily and hanging off the edge.

Everything about Assassin's Creed Unity will make your jaw drop. Everything. Though such beauty comes at a price. A steep one. Even at 900p on the PS4, the game's framerate drops regularly, especially in places where there's a lot of crowds. Managing so many animations is taxing on even next-gen consoles.

Unity has quite a lot of glitches. While we just experienced weird hair movements, odd character floats with a healthy serving of clipping and we fell under the map several times. However, there's the now-famous kissing glitch, where users took screenshots of a passionate kiss between Arno and Elise, except that Arno just had hair, eyeballs and teeth, nothing else.



The PC version undoubtedly looks the best, but to run it at 1080p with all effects on you will need a juggernaut of a card. At least a Nvidia Geforce GTX 680 and above, an i7 and above processor and a lot of RAM. Those who have beefy PCs will get the best of Assassin's Creed Unity.

Conclusion
Assassin's Creed Unity feels a lot more like a glorified tech demo than an actual full fledged game. A decent game that needs a lot of patching up from Ubisoft. That said, what it gets right turns out to be great. There's good Parkour and stealth with the revolution bursting through the seams. Of course, this is the best looking game out there and has raised the bar graphically extremely high for games.

Samsung Galaxy Alpha review

At the time of its launch, Samsung Galaxy S5 was just as powerful as rivals like HTC One (M8) and Sony Xperia Z2. However, it was just not there when it came to the looks. Even though it was thin and light, it did not exude the premium feel that you would want from a top-end smartphone.

To bridge this gap between form and function, Samsung has gone for a design revamp with Galaxy Alpha, which keeps most of the features of Galaxy S5 but adds a metallic flavour to it at Rs 40,000. Does the metallic twist work? Does it make Samsung Galaxy Alpha a more premium smartphone than its older sibling Galaxy S5? We find out in our review...

Design



Let's dive straight into the design part. Samsung hasn't gone all out with metal in its first outing. Instead, the body is predominantly made of plastic and only the frame around the body is made of aluminium. We have seen this design approach several times earlier, from last year's Micromax Canvas 4 to this year's second-generation Moto X and Microsoft's Lumia 930 and 830.

How does it work out, you ask? Just one word — beautifully. Samsung has got the part about machining the metal frame right. The chamfered edges simply evoke a feeling of premium from the first look itself. You can notice a slight sloping at the top and bottom of the frame on both sides, which gives an edgy yet elegant character to the design. Even the volume keys have a similar sloping look to them.

Though an all-metal body looks great, the plastic-metal combination works pretty well in the case of Samsung Galaxy Alpha. The plastic is relegated to only the rear casing of the smartphone, so you don't get to see much of it but you can feel its slightly rubbery texture everytime you hold the device. And it doesn't feel cheap.



Samsung has used the same soft plastic material im Galaxy Alpha that it used in Galaxy S5. It has a matte finish, so smudges and marks are hard to come by. Plus the dotted pattern on the back renders pretty good grip so that the sleek smartphone does not slip out of the hand easily.

Our review unit is white in colour, which of course goes very well with the silver-coloured aluminium frame. However, we have also used a blue-coloured unit of Galaxy Alpha and the blue hue of the back panel doesn't clash with the silver of the frame. The two actually make up a contrast that works, but this is something of a personal choice and others' views may differ.



Galaxy Alpha drew comparisons to two smartphones — iPhone 5S and Samsung Galaxy S2 (yeah, the 2011 flagship model). A few people we showed Alpha to likened it to a stretched iPhone 5S. But we feel that the comparison to Galaxy S2 is closer home, as the overall design language of Alpha (and S5 too for that matter) seems very similar to that of the ageing 2011 smartphone's. The straight line and curved corners are just too reminiscent of Galaxy S2 to dismiss. Of course that's not a bad thing, as the design works out splendidly in the end.

The most remarkable thing about Samsung Galaxy Alpha, however, is not the design. Its most distinguishing feature is its weight. At 115gram, it is easily among the lightest smartphones out there today, but not the lightest. However, the weight distribution across the body is such that it won't weigh you down even after hours and hours of usage.

And the body is so compact that you can easily use it with one hand without missing a single operation. The body is in fact only a little bigger than iPhone 5S, and that's despite the sizeable difference in screen sizes 4.7- vs 4-inch.

Galaxy Alpha can be best summed up as one of the best ways Samsung could have shut up critics who have long said that it can't get the design part right.

Display



As is the case with any top-end Samsung smartphone, Galaxy Alpha uses a Super AMOLED screen. The 4.7-inch panel has HD resolution. Yes, you read it right — 720p HD, not 1080p Full HD. This combination of screen size, resolution and panel type results in a display that is not the best around, though the untrained eye would find it hard to spot the problems.

Well, there are only a few problems with the screen. The first is the greenish hue that is characteristic of any Super AMOLED screen, something we point out in all reviews of Samsung phone as well as in that of Moto X (2nd generation). The greenish tinge is more apparent in Galaxy Alpha than in other top-end Samsung phones of 2014, including Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Note 4. Fortunately, Samsung lets users control the display temperature in the settings, so you can bring the greenish tone down a little.

Then there is the issue of slight pixilation. When animations transition from light colours to darker ones, we were able to notice some pixilation on Galaxy Alpha's screen. Though it does not affect the experience when you are watching movies or playing games, it is still present and you would end up noticing it a few times within a week of usage.

Apart from these two, we found no flaws worth mentioning in Samsung Galaxy Alpha's display. Being Super AMOLED, the screen has excellent viewing angles and is easily readable under direct sunlight.

What are the other differences between Galaxy Alpha and S5?
Well, to keep the price under check, Samsung has cut some corners with Galaxy Alpha. So gone are the water- and dust-resistance, microSD card support and the infrared. Camera resolution has been downgraded from 16MP to 12MP, while battery capacity has gone down from 2,800mAh to 1,830mAh. Samsung has also downgraded Alpha to microUSB 2.0 after using microUSB 3.0 in S5.

Battery
Let's talk about the downgrade that concerned us the most — battery capacity. As you would expect, the battery life does take a hit from the decrease in capacity, but thankfully we could eke out almost a day of juice on one charge consistently for two weeks.

Of course, a HD display requires less power than a Full HD panel (this is effectively negated due to the smaller battery size), but we also used optimal settings and resorted to a battery saver app to maximize the juice on the phone. With this combination, the smartphone could easily work for nearly a day without needing to be charged again with moderate usage. You can even go more than a month of usage with the ultra power saving mode.

Camera



Samsung Galaxy S5's camera was among the best when the model launched, but Galaxy Alpha's camera doesn't show the same flair. It is not as fast in capturing shots and has lower sensor resolution (12MP for Alpha vs 16MP for S5). This doesn't mean that Galaxy Alpha has a bad camera, it just means that Alpha's camera isn't as great.

Nevertheless, the camera of Galaxy Alpha can still be ranked among the good ones out there. The photos taken by the phone show excellent details both indoors and outdoors, with little to no noise due to a little overprocessing. The colour contrast is pleasing though not as natural as you would like it be. Same can be said about the colour accuracy, as the hues appear a little oversaturated. Night-time shots are also good, with relatively less noise compared to many other smartphones today.

Everyday usage



Samsung Galaxy Alpha's octa-core processor (four 1.8GHz Cortex A15 cores and four 1.3GHz A7 cores) is certainly not the fastest in the market, but it is still pretty fast. The smartphone packs 2GB RAM, thus making it a potent combination that can easily perform any task thrown its way. Samsung Galaxy Alpha went through any task or game we played like hot knife like butter. If you are upgrading from a 2013 model, you would really notice the difference, but compared to Galaxy S5 the difference is not too much.

You get the fingerprint scanner and heart rate sensor, which is part of the S Health app, on Galaxy Alpha. The fingerprint scanner works as advertised, but we could not test the PayPal integration on it. The S Health app is a deep fitness hub that not only tracks your heart rate but also how much you walk during a given period. Not only that, it also your sleep as well as stress level and also keeps information about your food intake and weight.

There's more on the software side, but it feels a little more cluttered compared to what we would like. Samsung's TouchWiz UI, though a lot leaner than last year, is still not the best proprietary skin we have used on a smartphone. It is filled with many apps that we ignore because Google Play has better apps, but we can easily hide them from the menu so that they don't clutter the app drawer. Typing on the Samsung keyboard is a little problematic as the small dimensions leave very little gaps between the on-screen keys.

Though Samsung Galaxy Alpha does not have a microSD card slot, it does have 32GB internal storage, which is likely to be enough for most users.

Apart from these, there's not much of a difference we observed in using Samsung Galaxy S5 and Alpha.

Conclusion
There's a lot to like in Samsung Galaxy Alpha, and that's enough to overlook its (few) shortcomings. The smartphone has a beautiful design, fast processor, good camera, decent display and frills like fingerprint scanner and heart rate monitor. It also has its flaws, like the below-par battery life. Of course, you will lose out on a few thousand rupees, waterproof body, higher-resolution camera and display if you were thinking of buying Galaxy S5, but the design itself more than makes up for it.

Nevertheless, we would suggest that if you want a smartphone for Rs 40,000, then Samsung Galaxy Alpha is easily among the best choices you can make at the price point.

Samsung Galaxy Alpha SM-G850Y (Dazzling White)Amazon.in : INR 38,200.00

Amazon launches Echo speaker

Do you want to talk to your speaker? Amazon.com has launched "Amazon Echo", a speaker you leave on all day and give it voice directions, like Siri on an Apple Inc iPhone.

As well as taking commands such as "play music by Bruno Mars" or "add gelato to my shopping list", Amazon said the device accesses the internet to answer questions such as "when is Thanksgiving?" and "what is the weather forecast?"

Amazon said the speaker, which runs on Amazon Web Services, continually learns a user's speech patterns and preferences.

Users start the speaker up saying the wake up word, "Alexa".

They can then feed Amazon Echo commands or questions or, if they want, wirelessly stream music web services such as Spotify, iTunes and Pandora via their mobiles.

Amazon Echo is priced at $199, or $99 for members for the online retail giant's Amazon Prime loyalty scheme. It is available on an invitation-only basis in coming weeks.

Alien: Isolation game review

The first Alien movie, which came out in 1979, filled audiences with wonder and terror, mostly terror. With it's tagline "In space no one can hear you scream," it set the stage for director Ridley Scott's fantastic set pieces and characters that sent ripples through time, even today. While there have been really good Alien games, the last one — Colonial Marines — left a very bad taste in the mouth. Now, the franchise has gone back to basics and back to its roots for Alien: Isolation.

Story


Remember Ellen Ripley played by Sigourney Weaver in the original Alien movie? Well, now you play Isolation as her daughter Amanda. It's been roughly 15 years after the events aboard the ill-fated Nostromo, Amanda is approached by a Weyland-Yutani synthetic with information about the Nostromo's data recorder, and possibly info about her mother. So she embarks on a quest to find out what happened.

Naturally, something goes wrong and Amanda finds herself alone on a massive orbiting space station — with an alien on board.

The game plays out very much like System Shock or the most recent BioShock series of games, though System Shock will be the closer relative, considering both are in space. As you move around the desolate space station, you'll see the messages scrawled in blood, the little stories in certain places telling the brutal fates of the people who lived there.

Alien: Isolation tells a very straightforward story that may seem a bit too long at times just to stretch out your nerves a bit more; however, it does not disappoint and does eventually get to the point.

Gameplay



Sure, in space no one can hear you scream, but in your living room, you will be screaming a lot. Alien: Isolation is extremely edge-of-the-seat scary. Not to mention, the scariest part is how close the movie is to Ridley Scott's original. Just looking at the simple retro futuristic interiors of the spaceship brings back memories and sweat. The game is, at heart, a survival horror. It's just you, against one of the meanest predators in the movie galaxy (apart from Predator itself). There are weapons you can use, but mostly against the synthetic Working Joes.

Alien: Isolation does something devilishly clever with its horror. Rather than just pre-programme set cut-scenes that give you the usual scares, the alien is programmed to hunt you down in real time. So all that the game has to do is send you on your various quests to fetch this, or put on this generator. The horror can strike at any time, you die, and there no guarantees the alien is going to be there again on your next play-through. Using sight, sound and smell, the alien tracks you, and you have to keep all your wits about in order to avoid it, as it's quicker than you, deadlier than you and before you know it, you will be looking down as the spike on it's tail appears through your chest.


To top it all, the Svestapol space station is massive, desolate and very eerie. Just a few minutes into the space station and you feel every shadow is itching to jump out and kill you. The atmosphere of Alien: Isolation is true to its name and gives you a sense of being truly alone in the most sinister of ways.

The absence of guns blazing, or perhaps Resident Evil like action may put off some. Even the survival horror is at its extreme and is a fitting test of nerves. However, after a few kills you do get used to the alien jumping you, and apart from the occasional starts, it's more of a tense experience, though an experience that not meant for everyone.

Graphics and sound



Alien: Isolation is a treat for those who are fans of the movie, especially the ship Torrens that looks a lot like Ellen Ripley's Nostromo, where you see the hibernation pods and the familiar fluorescent lighting in the more-than-familiar crew mess/rec room. The tape players strewn around as well as the presentation that lapses to the good old days of VHS with tracking bring back the memories of the movie. Even the menus and UI is simple, with minimal ASCII art.

Playing through Alien: Isolation is taking in a deep breath of nostalgia. It's shortlived though, as the terror creeps up constantly, with amazing sound engineering that's everything in a horror game.

Conclusion
Finally, the Alien franchise gets a game that it deserves, though it's not a game for everybody. However, if you love a solid jaunt into horror, straight out of one of the scariest movies till date, then look no further than Alien: Isolation.

Price:-

Alien: Isolation (Xbox One)Amazon.in : INR 3,409.00

Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 review: SuperResolution

Nvidia has always been right up there on the graphics card foodchain. With solutions not only for gamers but also for creative professionals who work with intensive graphics, 3D or video editing. Now, Nvidia has just launched the GeForce GTX 980, a mighty graphics card with a whole host of new features.

Design and build
The GeForce GTX 980's looks can only be summed up as industrial. The PCI express card is completely clad in a black and silver metal jacket, with a fiberglass finish along sections, protecting the powerful internals. On the jacket is a high speed fan as well as heatsink ribs on the side and a triangular cut duct on the IO panel to dissipate heat. All of these details are designed to follow the same industrial theme set.

Specifications


At the core of GeForce GTX 980 hums a second-generation Maxwell GM204 GPU consisting of 16 streaming multiprocessors and 64 render output units capable of upto 5 Teraflops and 144.1 GigaTexels/sec at a power consumption of 165 Watts with a transistor count of 5.2 billion in a 28nm die size with a 2MB L2 Cache.

The base clock speed of GeForce GTX 980 is 1126MHz and can go up to a boost clock of 1216MHz when games or applications demand it. GeForce GTX 980 has 2048 CUDA cores and it also comes with 4GB of GDDR5 VRAM with a 256-bit pipeline capable of 7GB per second — useful for loading up games fast, as well as making sure you have very high-resolution textures.

As GeForce GTX 970 too has 4GB of GDDR5 VRAM, the 980 could have done with a gigabyte or two of extra VRAM, especially when you consider the Titan Z has 12GB of VRAM.

Installation and setup
Installation was quite easy, though a fair warning: this card is massive at 10.5-inch in length, so you will need a large cabinet. As compared to GeForce units of past, the new Maxwell technology is extremely power efficient, and GeForce GTX 980 is the most powerful in the new architecture's fleet, requiring a 500 Watt power supply.

To power up the card you will need two 6-pin power connectors. Just plug it in and the GeForce GTX 980 logo lights up in green, too handsome to lock away under the hood of your cabinet.

Features
The GeForce GTX 980 is choc full of new graphical features, one of them being an Anti Aliasing algorithm called MFAA, which switches between various AA modes to do away with jagged edges on graphics smoothing pixels, and is 30% faster than 4x MSAA, currently one of the best modes for reducing aliasing out there today.

Also introduced was a dynamic lighting engine only used by the 980 called VXGI, Voxel Global Illumination, as shown in a nifty moon landing demo, with real time light sources being switched between.
The 980 is also ready for the Virtual Reality headset wave like the Oculus Rift, with VR Direct which makes sure the left eye and the right eye displays are both in perfect sync, thereby cutting down on nausea cause by motion sickness.

For gamers who love streaming on the popular gamestream network Twitch, which has been gaining popularity, Nvidia's ShadowPlay now lets you record and save QHD videos, not to mention you can also record and stream at the same time, while using your microphone to give real time commentary as you play.

Dynamic Super Resolution benchmarks

Rather than benchmark a card we already know is the fastest out there, we focus on one of it's biggest features, called Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR) and make that the crux of this review.

Dynamic Super Resolution has been around for a while, a technique otherwise known as Superscaling or Downscaling, which allows you to run higher resolutions on your base resolution display. Therefore, you can run a Quadruple High Definition (QHD) resolution on a regular 1080p (Full HD) display.

Earlier, you had to tweak your system quite a bit based on math calculations of the resolution, so you get the least amount of aliasing. Now, Nvidia has offered 2 QHD resolutions for you to upscale to, so you can run your games, movies, programs at higher resolution. The DSR is, sadly, a Maxwell-only feature.

We tried a host of games as well as normal desktop uses on a HDTV as well as monitor using the upscaled resolutions. GeForce GTX 980 offers you a choice of two resolutions, 3840x2160p and 2715x1527p, both available from Nvidia settings and GeForce Experience panel as well as from within the games themselves. We tested the games on an Intel i5-3580k, 16GB RAM and Asus Sabertooth Z77 motherboard in a closed NZXT Phantom 420.

Desktop mode on a 27-inch monitor in 2715x1527p was quite usable, and though there was a bit of aliasing here and there, it was not too much. However, with Windows Aero enabled on Windows 7, there was a bit of aliasing on the mouseovers. 3840x2160p was a bit extreme as it made icons etc appear very small.

However, both resolutions on HDTV's worked superbly. 2715x1527p on a 40-inch monitor just did the trick, while 3840x2160p made everything too small; However, if you do have a bigger HDTV, about 55-inch plus, this resolution would work perfectly.

In order to push the new Maxwell to the max, we used the highly detailed open world of Chicago. At 1080p with maximum crown, vehicles and rain particles the game ran flawlessly at above 60fps, not even a hint of slowdown. We upscaled it to 1527p and the game was still playable at 30-32fps.

At 2160p (the highest possible currently), the game crawled along at 17fps. However, the image quality got a bit muddled. Since Watchdogs packs very high detail textures into their game already, the upscale and then condensation into a smaller resolution resulted in detail loss. However, the game looked absolutely gorgeous at 1080p and 1527p. All these settings are running in ultra.

Battlefield 4 is now almost a year old, but the Frostbite 3 engine it uses is the most malleable in the gaming world. Its destruction and particle effects is a test for any GPU, and it's old enough to benefit from the upscaling process.

We cranked all settings to ultra and the game was perfectly playable on all three resolutions, yielding in excess of 90+ fps on 1080p, 1527p gave about 53fps and 2160p ran smooth at 32fps. The game looked absolutely gorgeous on the highest resolution, with the textures and graphical fidelity bringing the game on par with what we've seen of games coming out later this year.

Metro: Last Light Redux is a beautiful and dark game, with an almost God-like level of detail in each stage, which will bring most GPUs to a crawl. We got 50fps at 1080p, 34fps on 1527p and just 6fps on 2160p; however, like Watchdogs, this game looks and plays fantastic on 1527p.

On Uniengine's Heaven benchmark, which tests overall performance (including how fast textures load, the Physx engine as well as temperature), we got 62.2fps and a score of 1568 at 1080p, while 1527p yielded an average of 32.7fps. Through all these tests, the card remained cool at about 55-60 degrees.

So what does all that mean?


To summarize the above tests, the Dynamic Super Resolutions increases the quality of your gaming, media, desktop exponentially. However, if you want to use DSR on a daily basis you can use the 1527p setting. The 2160p setting is useful when you have an older title that needs the upscaling without you losing the performance. Not only that, it's especially useful in real-time strategy games like StarCraft II or DOTA 2, which render a larger map space and give a larger area of view.

Those running this card on native QHD monitors will get silky smooth frame-rates, as the GPU is just rendering one frame on the native resolution. So, if you have a 2560x1440p monitor or HDTV, you will see a good performance boost.

Conclusion
Gamers on a budget can go for GeForce GTX 970, which has the same architecture and VRAM but has scaled-down specs. It retails for Rs 28,000, which is almost half of GeForce GTX 980's price.

However, If you are a gamer who has been holding out, saving up for a rainy day, then the 980 is that thundercloud on the horizon. Sure, it may cost a pretty penny at Rs 46,000, which is what most smartphones and consoles cost nowadays. However, you're getting a powerful addition to your PC that not only lets you turn your 1080p monitor or HDTV into a QHD beast, but also has enough pixel pushing power if you're a graphic professional, 3D artist or video editor.

GALAX GeForce GTX980 PCI-E 4GB GDDR5 256Bit w/DP/HDMI/DP/DP/DVI-IAmazon.in : INR 44,500.00

Buyer's guide: 4 hot digital cameras under Rs 10,000

There are quite a few models that suit your needs and budget. For ease-of-use, all point-and-shoots that we have listed below come with preset scene modes (portrait, close-up, landscape, indoors, sunset, food, black and white, etc) and photo effects (toy camera, miniature, diorama, and panorama) that allow you to capture stills and even record videos with the press of a few buttons.

When it comes to output, you can expect picture quality that's better than what you'd get out of almost all phone cameras, allowing you to share your snaps on the web and even take postcard-sized prints for your family album.

Nikon Coolpix S3600 (Rs 6,000)
Nikon Coolpix S3600 is a good budget option with its 20MP sensor, 8x optical zoom, a 2.7-inch LCD display and 230-shot battery life. You get 18 scene modes, and over ten effects, including a portrait touch-up tool and face-detection.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W830 (Rs 7,000)
Alternatively, you could consider Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W830, which also sports a 20MP sensor, 8x optical zoom, a 2.7-inch LCD display and 210-shot battery life. It comes with eleven preset scene modes, four picture effects and ability to track up to eight faces in a frame.

Nikon Coolpix S6700 (Rs 7,500)
For little more, you can pick Nikon Coolpix S6700, which is another 20MP snapper, but with a larger 3-inch LCD display, 10x optical zoom, 230-shot battery rating, and the same number of scene modes and picture effects as the S3600.

Canon PowerShot SX170 IS (Rs 11,000)
Stretch your budget beyond Rs 10k, and you can opt for Canon PowerShot SX170 IS, which is a 16MP snapper with a 16x zoom lens, a 3-inch LCD display and better battery life of 300 shots. This model is slightly bulkier than the other point-and-shoots listed here, but it offers better grip.

All the cameras mentioned above are capable of recording HD (720p) videos; use image stabilization techniques to offset blur caused by shaky hands, and are powered by a lithium-ion battery. However, you should be aware that most point-and-shoot cameras do not fare very well in low light. Images tend to contain more grain (noise) at higher ISO levels (400+).

Truecaller launches new APP Truedialer

Truecaller has launched a new app, Truedialer, which will offer users details of a person before the outgoing call is connected.

 Phone directory application Truecaller today launched a new app, Truedialer, which will offer users details of a person before the outgoing call is connected.

The app will be available for download on Google Play store.

Truedialer gives instant access to relevant information about contacts that users are trying to dial, it said in a statement.

If users are dialing a number for an individual or business outside of their phonebook, they will be able to see the name and a profile photo of whom they are about to dial before they place the call.

The integration of the Truecaller technology works in conjunction with Truedialer, it said.

However, the company currently has no plans of integrating the apps to offer a unified experience to users.

Truecaller globally has 85 million users. This is a free mobile application which shows name of the person calling to the user even if the number is not saved in the phone.

The Stockholm-based firm has over 200,000 new users joining daily and almost half of this are from India. About 40 million of its userbase is from India.

With Truedialer, users can automatically search for information about a number they are dialing.

"Until now, phone dial pads have not truly improved since the feature phone days. With the same infrastructure that powers Truecaller, our ambition with Truedialer is to replace the phone's phonebook app," Truecaller co-founder and chief strategy officer Nami Zarringhalam said.

Earlier this month, Truecaller had received a funding of $60 million (over Rs 368 crore) from a group of investors, including Atomico and Sequoia Capital.

It had said the firm will use the Series C round of financing to fuel product development, hire new talent and expand the company's global footprint, including in its largest market India.

In February, it had received $18.8 million in funding, led by Sequoia Capital, bringing the total investment in the company to more than $80 million. 

 

Samsung Launches Galaxy A3 And A5

Samsung Electronics unveiled two new mid-tier handsets with a premium design as it prepared to deliver a riposte to its low-priced Chinese rivals and reclaim its title as the top brand in the world's biggest smartphone market.

Galaxy A3 and A5 will be Samsung's first devices to feature fully metal bodies and its thinnest smartphones to date. In size, they are comparable to those of the top-of-the-line Galaxy S5, though of lesser screen resolution quality.

Samsung said on Friday said that it will start selling Galaxy A3 and A5 in China sometime in November. It classified them as mid-tier, and said they will be launched in other "select markets", without disclosing the pricing.

The announcement, combined with hopes for an earnings recovery and bigger dividends, pushed Samsung's shares to a two-month high in Seoul in midday trade on Friday.

The news comes a day after Samsung reported its worst quarterly operating profit in more than three years. Earnings from its handset division slumped 73.9% from a year earlier.

The company said its responses to "rapid shifts in the competitive landscape" were not quick enough. It vowed to revamp its offerings.



"For our mid to low-end smartphones we will enhance product competitiveness by differentiating our displays and materials as well as upgrading camera functionality," Senior Vice President Kim Hyun-joon told analysts on Thursday.

The world's smartphone leader is regrouping as it lost market share in annual terms for the third straight quarter in July-September, according to Strategy Analytics.

It has been beaten by Apple's iPhones in the premium segment and undercut by Chinese rivals like Lenovo Group and Xiaomi at the bottom end.

Samsung will likely accept lower margins going forward to preserve market share and growth volume, analysts said. But most do not expect a firm recovery until mid-2015 at the earliest.

"A lineup change is a costly process, just like re-doing your home interior design," said KTB Investment analyst Jin Sung-hye.

Solve maths problems with this app

PhotoMath, "the world's first camera calculator" is a free mobile app that can read and

If you are terrified by maths, install an app that will help you quickly and accurately get over calculations. Called PhotoMath, "the world's first camera calculator" is a free mobile app that can read and solve maths problems.

Using the smartphone's camera, take a picture of a printed equation and watch the app solve the problem in real time by clicking through problem-solving steps, media reports said.

The app, developed by London-based firm MicroBlink, can be downloaded from Apple's iStore. The app is optimised to be used for iPhone and iPod.