HTC Sense & HTC Hero

HTC Announces HTC Sense and the new HTC Hero

June 24, 2009 by Tap

So today's highly anticipated launch revealed the HTC Hero Android phone as everyone suspected. That in itself would have been a bit of a let down since we've known and speculated about the Hero for some time. Hardware wise it's not a million miles away from previous HTC Android phones. Yes, it has a 5 megapixel camera and finally a 3.5mm stereo headset jack but that's not much to get excited about.

But the real news was the announcement of HTC Sense, a customisable UI for Android. Now that's something I can get excited about. Rather than try to explain it, I think the official press release does a pretty good job so here goes:

LONDON – June 24, 2009 – HTC Corporation, a global designer of mobile phones, today debuted HTC Sense™, an intuitive and seamless experience that will be introduced across a portfolio of phones beginning with the new HTC Hero™. With its distinct design and powerful capabilities fully integrated with HTC Sense, Hero introduces a unique blend of form and function that takes Android to new heights.

HTC Sense is focused on putting people at the centre, by making your phone work in a more simple and natural way. This experience revolves around three fundamental principles that were designed by quietly observing and listening to how people live and communicate.

'HTC Hero introduces a more natural way for reaching out to people and accessing your important information, not by following the status quo of today's phones, but by following how you communicate and live your life,' said Peter Chou, Chief Executive Officer, HTC Corporation. 'HTC Sense is a distinct experience created to make HTC phones more simple for people to use, leaving them saying, "it just makes sense."'

HTC Hero

HTC Hero continues HTC's leadership in cutting-edge design that focuses on introducing a variety of distinct devices to represent your own individuality. Boasting bevelled edges and an angled bottom, the HTC Hero is contoured to fit comfortably in your hand and against your face while you’re on a call. The HTC Hero is built to last, beginning with an anti-fingerprint screen coating for improved smudge-resistance and a longer-lasting, clearer display. The white HTC Hero includes an industry-first, Teflon coating, resulting in an improved, durable white surface that is soft to the touch.

HTC Sense

Built on a culture of innovation and a passion to enhance people's lives, HTC shapes the mobile experience around the individual. Debuting on the HTC Hero and available on all new HTC devices moving forward, Sense delivers on three basic principles: Make it Mine, Stay Close and Discover the Unexpected.

Make It Mine

Make It Mine is about feeling your HTC phone was created for and by you. To do this, HTC encourages you to dictate and organize how you want to access the people and content in your life in a way that fits best for you. For some, this means adding glance-view widgets that push content like twitter feeds, weather and other content to the surface while others may want quick access to business-focused information like email, calendar and world-times. HTC is also introducing a new profile feature called 'Scenes' that enables you to create different customized content profiles around specific functions or times in your life.

Stay Close

Today, staying in touch with the people in your life means managing a variety of communication channels and applications ranging from phone calls, emails, texts, photos, status updates and more. HTC Sense takes a different approach by integrating these communication channels and applications into one single view, enabling you to stay closer to your important people. With HTC Sense, friends' Facebook status updates and photos, along with their Flickr photos are included alongside their text messages, emails and call history in a single view.

Discover the Unexpected

Many of the most memorable moments in your life are experienced, not explained. HTC Sense is focused on providing a variety of these simple yet innovative experiences on your HTC phone that will sometimes bring you moments of joy and delight. It can be something as basic as turning the phone over to silence a ring or as simple as improving the smart dialler for making calls quicker. HTC Sense also includes 'Perspectives', a new way for viewing your content such as email, photos, Twitter, music and more in different ways.

Availability

The HTC Hero will be available to people across Europe in July and in Asia later in the summer. A distinct North American version will be available later in 2009.

Sources : http://www.topandroidphones.com/

iPad 2 in HouSe

The iPad 2 is both all about -- and not about -- the hardware. From an industrial design standpoint, the iPad 2 just seriously raised the bar on sleek, sexy computer hardware. If you're an owner of the original model, you know it was no slouch in the design department, but its latest iteration takes it to a whole other place. The first thing you'll probably notice about the iPad 2 is that it's thin -- unbelievably thin. At its thickest point, the tablet is just 0.34-inches (compared with the first iPad's half an inch of girth). The device is slightly shorter than the previous model (at 9.5-inches tall), but also slightly less wide (just 7.3-inches versus the iPad's 7.47-inches). It looks and feels amazingly sleek when you hold it. As Steve Jobs pointed out at the launch event, the device is thinner than the astoundingly thin iPhone 4 -- quite a feat considering what's packed inside the slate. Of course, it's still not exactly light, weighing in at 1.33 pounds (or 1.34 / 1.35 for the 3G models), just a hair under the original's one and a half pounds.

Much has been made about what is -- and isn't -- inside the new iPad. For starters, Apple has replaced last year's A4 CPU with a new, 1GHz dual core chip it's calling the A5 (surprise surprise). According to Geekbench, there's now 512MB of RAM in the iPad, bringing it up to iPhone 4 standards. That still seems on the low side to us -- a device in this class should probably be sporting 1GB, though we had no memory issues. The screen is identical to the previous model, a 1024 x 768, 9.7-inch IPS display. It still looks good, though we really would have liked to see a bump in resolution -- if not up to the Retina Display's doubled numbers, then something substantial. We don't take issue with the quality of the display as far as color balance or deepness of blacks go, but we would like to see higher pixel density, especially for the book apps.

On the wireless front, you can nab either a WiFi (802.11a/b/g/n) only model, a Verizon 3G version, or an iPad of the AT&T / GSM variety. Bluetooth 2.1+EDR is on board, as is an AGPS chip in the 3G versions. All the models come equipped with an ambient light sensor, an accelerometer, and a new addition: a three-axis gyroscope.

As we said, Apple has relocated the iPad's single speaker to the back of the device. The sound seems clearer if somewhat quieter than the old version, and we can't say that there's a major improvement as far as the placement goes. It does the job, but if you're working in GarageBand (or just listening to music or watching video), you'll want good headphones or decent speakers nearby.

Still, on the specs front the iPad 2 feels very iterative. There's nothing here that is totally mind-blowing, but there's nothing here that makes it feel far off from its nearest competition. We're early enough in the tablet game that a small push in specs like this will last us another season, but Apple needs to deliver bigger guns by the time we see a "3" at the end of the iPad moniker.

Source : http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/09/ipad-2-review/

Android Compatible Cell Phone - LG Optimus 2X

The Optimus 2X, also known as the T-Mobile G2X in the United States, will be the first dual core smartphone to make it to release. The high powered Android handset will mark a big leap forward for LG, a company which has traditionally lagged behind in the smartphone industry. The Optimus 2X comes with a gorgeous 4" capacitive touchscreen that includes multitouch input and a sharp resolution of 480 x 800.

While featuring an accelerometer for auto-rotation of the interface, now a fairly standard feature on most smartphones, the Optimus 2X will also come with a new gyro sensor. This sensor, made popular on the iPhone 4, allows for three axis controls which can be put to good use with many innovative apps and games. These apps and games can be downloaded from Android Market, which is easily accessible from LG's latest handset.

Aside from the dual core processor the LG Optimus 2X is pretty impressive in other areas too. While the 4" screen is ideal for viewing high quality 1080p videos, the phone's 8 megapixel camera also comes with 1080p video recording. You can also record 720p videos at a higher frame rate, and the Optimus 2X comes with an HDMI port and DLNA enabled Wi-Fi, both of which allow you to stream videos through your home TV.

The Optimus 2X also comes with YouTube and Adobe Flash support so that you can enjoy streaming videos online, as well as enjoying videos contained on the phone's 8GB storage. This is expandable with microSD cards and the Optimus 2X can support an impressive 32GB microSD. As well as the excellent 8 megapixel rear camera, the 2X also comes with a 1.3 megapixel front facing camera that can be used for making video calls on services such as Google Talk.

The Optimus 2X does not just come with a great deal of entertainment features but also has a lot of excellent messaging features present. Threaded SMS is supported, as well as various email and instant messaging clients. The 2X also comes with fantastic integration for social networks such as Facebook, so that you can easily update your status or post on someone's wall.

The Optimus 2X is an outstanding phone in all areas that count and, being the first dual core handset on offer, it should prove to be a benchmark for all future dual core smartphone. The Optimus 2X comes with an impressive array of features to keep you entertained, as well as myriad methods for keeping in touch with your most important people.

Source : http://www.topandroidphones.com/

A management information system (MIS)

A management information system (MIS) is a system that provides information needed to manage organizations effectively. Management information systems involve three primary resources: technology, information, and people. It's important to recognize that while all three resources are key components when studying management information systems ... the most important resource is people. Management information systems are regarded to be a subset of the overall internal procedures in a business, which cover the application of people, documents, technologies, and procedures used by management accountant  to solve business problems such as costing a product, service or a business-wide strategy. Management information systems are distinct from regular information systems in that they are used to analyze other information system  Academically, the term is commonly used to refer to the group of information management methods tied to the automation or support of human decision making.