Consumer products maker Dabur India Ltd said on Tuesday it plans to invest $15 million in Sri Lanka to set up a new export-oriented manufacturing facility for producing fruit-based beverages.
The company has signed an agreement with the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka for this venture, the company said in a statement. Source
Friday, October 21, 2011
Tata Coffee, Starbucks Near Deal for Stores
Indians could soon be sipping cups of coffee and chatting at Starbucks outlets, as the U.S. chain sets out to perk up global sales by making a long-awaited entry into one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.
Starbucks Corp. could over the next three weeks announce an alliance with Tata Coffee Ltd. to open stores in India, a person familiar with the matter said Monday
Starbucks Corp. could over the next three weeks announce an alliance with Tata Coffee Ltd. to open stores in India, a person familiar with the matter said Monday
McDonald’s goes hi-tech to attract young customers
With an aim of wooing young customers in India, fast food chain McDonald’s is getting into the digital domain by launching applications for mobile phones and computers which will enable visitors at its outlets witness illusion of menu on offer.
“We are launching this revolutionary concept of ‘augmented reality’ at all [of] our 110 McDonald’s outlets in North and East India,” McDonald’s India (North and East) GM Marketing Rajdeep Chatterjee said.
“We are launching this revolutionary concept of ‘augmented reality’ at all [of] our 110 McDonald’s outlets in North and East India,” McDonald’s India (North and East) GM Marketing Rajdeep Chatterjee said.
Telecom service providers should boost efforts in APAC
Global telecoms service providers are only scratching the surface of the huge business opportunity in Asia-Pacific, and need to redouble their efforts to increase their impact, according to Ovum. In a new report titled Global Services Deals Analysis: Second Half 2010, the independent telecoms analyst states that although global telecoms companies have begun to target Asia-Pacific in earnest, they have yet to win a significant amount of business.
David Molony, Ovum principal analyst and author of the report, commented: “The big five US and European-owned global service providers have woken up to the new business opportunity the Asia-Pacific region offers them. However, while they have won their first notable contracts there, they are only scratching the surface of the market and need to raise their capabilities and support to the levels they offer in their own regions to turn that around.”
According to the report, the total value of deals announced by global telecoms providers in the second half of 2010 was $16,860 million. However, only three per cent of this figure originated from Asia-Pacific.
Even market leader BT Global Services, which took 25 per cent of the total contract value of the deals announced in the second half of 2010, had only two per cent of its contracts volume in the region.
David Molony, Ovum principal analyst and author of the report, commented: “The big five US and European-owned global service providers have woken up to the new business opportunity the Asia-Pacific region offers them. However, while they have won their first notable contracts there, they are only scratching the surface of the market and need to raise their capabilities and support to the levels they offer in their own regions to turn that around.”
According to the report, the total value of deals announced by global telecoms providers in the second half of 2010 was $16,860 million. However, only three per cent of this figure originated from Asia-Pacific.
Even market leader BT Global Services, which took 25 per cent of the total contract value of the deals announced in the second half of 2010, had only two per cent of its contracts volume in the region.
India in Top Three Countries Worldwide for Global Broadband Growth
India’s phenomenal growth in broadband in 2010 –second only to China and the United States – is leading towards the country soon becoming one of the top ten users of broadband in the world. India added more than 2.5 million new lines of broadband last year and now stands at No13 in the world – having been barely in the top 50 of broadband countries just six years ago.
“There has been tremendous and consistent growth in broadband across India in recent years, yet this is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Broadband Forum Chief Executive Officer Robin Mersh. “Both fixed and wireless broadband options abound, and the Broadband Forum is doing all it can to help India’s providers engineer smarter and faster networks.”
Looking at the global picture, international IPTV subscription had a record 34.6% growth in 2010 according to the figures prepared by Point Topicand announced by the Broadband Forum. 2010 was also a landmark year for broadband subscriptions – following the milestone half billion lines achieved in July 2010, subscriber figures continued to climb steadily and ended the year at 523,066,022 – a net addition of over 55 million lines during the year. With more and more devices coming online and broadband growing at such a steady rate, the timing could not be better for the release of BroadbandSuite 4.0, the IPv6 Toolkit of the Broadband Forum.
The final quarter of 2010 followed a similar pattern to the rest of the year in terms of percentage growth in broadband subscribers, reflecting a steady and sustained increase which was broadly in line with the previous two years. Asia is set to overtake Europe during 2011 with China still dominating the rankings both for total subscribers and net additions, as well as in percentage growth terms.
Meanwhile by the end of 2010 the total number of IPTV subscribers had reached almost 45.4 million, representing over 11.5 million new subscribers over the year and an annual increase of 34.6%. The fourth quarter was the strongest quarter for IPTV growth, adding more than 3.4 million new subscribers and accounting for 8% of the total growth.
With great broadband commercial success comes real world logistical problems – the surge of new devices coming online will soon exhaust the IPv4 address pool. To address this looming problem, the Broadband Forum has been focusing its resources to ensure specifications are in place for a smooth integration of the new Internet protocol, IPv6 into network and device management around the world.
“There has been tremendous and consistent growth in broadband across India in recent years, yet this is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Broadband Forum Chief Executive Officer Robin Mersh. “Both fixed and wireless broadband options abound, and the Broadband Forum is doing all it can to help India’s providers engineer smarter and faster networks.”
Looking at the global picture, international IPTV subscription had a record 34.6% growth in 2010 according to the figures prepared by Point Topicand announced by the Broadband Forum. 2010 was also a landmark year for broadband subscriptions – following the milestone half billion lines achieved in July 2010, subscriber figures continued to climb steadily and ended the year at 523,066,022 – a net addition of over 55 million lines during the year. With more and more devices coming online and broadband growing at such a steady rate, the timing could not be better for the release of BroadbandSuite 4.0, the IPv6 Toolkit of the Broadband Forum.
The final quarter of 2010 followed a similar pattern to the rest of the year in terms of percentage growth in broadband subscribers, reflecting a steady and sustained increase which was broadly in line with the previous two years. Asia is set to overtake Europe during 2011 with China still dominating the rankings both for total subscribers and net additions, as well as in percentage growth terms.
Meanwhile by the end of 2010 the total number of IPTV subscribers had reached almost 45.4 million, representing over 11.5 million new subscribers over the year and an annual increase of 34.6%. The fourth quarter was the strongest quarter for IPTV growth, adding more than 3.4 million new subscribers and accounting for 8% of the total growth.
With great broadband commercial success comes real world logistical problems – the surge of new devices coming online will soon exhaust the IPv4 address pool. To address this looming problem, the Broadband Forum has been focusing its resources to ensure specifications are in place for a smooth integration of the new Internet protocol, IPv6 into network and device management around the world.
Idea rings in the ‘Power of 3G’
IDEA Cellular, India’s third largest mobile operator today announced the launch of its ‘Gold Standard’ 3G services that will catapult mobile communication services and transform user experience. The third generation of mobile communication systems, 3G, lets customers use an extensive range of high-end data services on a wide variety of handsets and other devices.
Idea announced the launch of 3G services on its network in MP & Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh today. To anchor the occasion, Idea unveiled a new 3G logo
Idea announced the launch of 3G services on its network in MP & Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh today. To anchor the occasion, Idea unveiled a new 3G logo
Now, roaming service to become free in India?
India’s new telecoms policy is a mixed bag for operators. The scandal-ridden sector is crying out for consolidation. Delhi’s new policy will allow spectrum trading and, theoretically, free up M&A too. But costs will rise and takeovers are unlikely until the corruption investigations are complete. Almost everyone agrees that the sector has too many players, and that margins have been driven too low to be sustainable. There are 15 firms in India. Reliance Communication’s average revenue per user fell to $2.26 per month in the first quarter of 2011 from $7.63 in 2008
BSNL To Erect 19,000 Mobile Towers In Villages
BSNL, our government's telecom Jack-of-all-trades, will now be connecting India like never before. Over two phases, the company will set up 19,000 mobile towers to connect the country's villages. There will be wireless broadband to be had too, with about 5,000 blocks of 10 km each covered by BSNL's infrastructure.
In phase one, 8,000 new mobile towers will be erected--this should be up and running by the end of this year. In phase two, the remaining 11,000 towers will come up, though there's no word on when that's supposed to begin. BSNL will also obtain 93 million new GSM lines for the villages connected by these towers.
Clearly, connecting the country seems to be one of the government's priorities, but there's a catch--all this begins only after new wireless spectra are allocated to service providers. Going by the past record of all telecom legislation, this could take a while. Still, this move is what one would call "a step in the right directon." All that's left is for someone to give the country's villagers relief from drought, famine and suicide. After all, we can't let them miss out on all the mobility now, can we?
In phase one, 8,000 new mobile towers will be erected--this should be up and running by the end of this year. In phase two, the remaining 11,000 towers will come up, though there's no word on when that's supposed to begin. BSNL will also obtain 93 million new GSM lines for the villages connected by these towers.
Clearly, connecting the country seems to be one of the government's priorities, but there's a catch--all this begins only after new wireless spectra are allocated to service providers. Going by the past record of all telecom legislation, this could take a while. Still, this move is what one would call "a step in the right directon." All that's left is for someone to give the country's villagers relief from drought, famine and suicide. After all, we can't let them miss out on all the mobility now, can we?
iPhone Is 2x Profitable As Other Mobile Players
For a long time Nokia had been the leading cellphone manufacturer volume wise - that is, until Apple spoiled its party last quarter. It wasn't much of a party to be honest, considering the losses the Finnish mobile giant has been piling up. However, if you look at the statistics, Apple has more than just captured the largest share of the cellphone market pie.
Love it or hate it, but Jobs' Reality Distortion Field has achieved the seemingly impossible. It has managed to push super-luxury gadgets with mass-market volumes, despite a virtually non-existent product range.
This feat is even more impressive when you consider profits. Apple has made twice the amount of profit in the mobile phone segment than all the other industry players combined. If that sounds hard to believe, here's a bar graph to help you come to terms with the numbers:
Love it or hate it, but Jobs' Reality Distortion Field has achieved the seemingly impossible. It has managed to push super-luxury gadgets with mass-market volumes, despite a virtually non-existent product range.
This feat is even more impressive when you consider profits. Apple has made twice the amount of profit in the mobile phone segment than all the other industry players combined. If that sounds hard to believe, here's a bar graph to help you come to terms with the numbers:
Review: HTC Evo 3D
HTC Evo 3D
MRP: Rs 36,000
Street Price: Rs 33,150 (Saholic.com); Rs 34,150 (Letsbuy.com); Rs 35,000 (Flipkart.com)
Thanks to Avatar, the 3D craze is back. Practical or not, it has made it to TV sets and laptops. It was about time this gimmick hit handhelds, and what could be a better platform for it than Android? However, HTC's Evo 3D is not just about stereoscopic tricks, but is actually a powerful device armed to the teeth to fight off the competition. Moreover, its Sense UI always helps HTC's products earn extra brownie points.
Design And Build Quality
The phone's retail package comes with earphones, an 8 GB memory card, and a detachable USB charger. The device sports a 4.3" 3D screen encased in Gorilla Glass. The gadget measures 5" (l) x 2.6" (w) x 0.5" (d), and is the thickest dual-core out there in the market. The four capacitive touch keys, namely Home, Options, Back, and Search are well spaced.
The back panel is made of matte plastic with a dotted texture pattern that provides superior grip. Two 5 MP cameras on the rear give it a futuristic look. Another thing worth mentioning here is the addition of a camera shutter key. Weighing 170 grammes, this device is rather heavy, but then its competitor Optimus 3D (168 grammes) is not light either. Overall, the build quality is as good as you can expect from HTC.
The Evo 3D is powered by a dual-core 1.2 GHz CPU with an Adreno 220 GPU. It features a gigabyte of RAM, which is an upgrade over its younger sibling, the Sensation. Other specs include an 8 MP rear and 1.3 MP front camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, a 3.5 mm jack, microSD card support up to 32 GB, and an MHL-enabled micro-USB port.
Display
Here's the most interesting part of the Evo 3: its 4.3" glasses-free, 3D-capable LCD. The 3D effect is achieved using the parallax barrier technology, previously seen in the Nintendo 3DS. The display has pixel dimensions of 540x960 and produces rich colours and high levels of brightness. It's reflective by nature, but is still readable under sunlight. The 3D works only in landscape mode, and its viewing angles are very narrow. Despite these negatives, the 3D effect is an exciting feature, at least for the first few days of use.
UI And Applications
The phone is based on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) with HTC's Sense 3.0 UI running on top of it. It features a unique lock screen, notification bar, and task manager, all of which are explained in more detail here. As expected, swiping through its seven homescreens is very smooth. The transition effects and various widgets provide for plenty of eye candy. An overview mode can be activated using the pinch-to-zoom-out gesture or by tapping the Home key.
The onboard browser sports a simple yet elegant interface that allows for maximum screen usage by webpages. Thanks to the RAM upgrade and probably some software optimisation, it played 720p as well as 1080p YouTube videos without any problems. A definite improvement over the Sensation.
The GPS receiver's performance was poor, as is the case with most droids. During testing, it didn't lock onto any satellites for about half an hour, but the situation changed as soon as the A-GPS (Assisted GPS) was turned on.
Overall, the phone handles multitasking with ease, and it better do that considering the price you pay for it. Sense UI still hasn't lost its "wow" factor, and I continue to be impressed with the interface.
3D Gaming
The device comes pre-installed with Spiderman 3D and NFS Shift, both of them offering a 3D experience. The glassless 3D works well, and is good enough to please geeks as well as non-geeks. However, as mentioned earlier, the viewing angles for 3D are limited. Additionally, some people may find it stressful on the eyes after a while. After enjoying it for 2-3 days, I too preferred disabling the 3D mode while playing games.
With dual cores and a gigabyte of RAM, gaming wasn't expected to be a problem with this device. Needless to say, it handled all the latest games from the Android Market. However, it's not quite as powerful as the Galaxy S II (GS2).
Multimedia
The music player has a useful interface that's full of eye candy. It supports a swipe gesture that can take you to the previous or next track.
The sound quality via its bundled earphones is good, but it could have been louder. In this case, even the SRS enhancement doesn't help much. However, using your favourite earphones may improve the sound. An equaliser is present, as is FM radio.
Similar to the Sensation, clips can only be played through the gallery due to the lack of a dedicated video player. Like its predecessors, the phone doesn't support subtitles. It can handle short 720p clips, but movie-length videos are a no-go. 1080p videos are out of the question, as are MKV files.
You can stream content to compatible DLNA-certified TVs and music systems. Moreover, the onboard MHL port can be used to hook up HDTVs using an appropriate adapter.
Camera
The Evo 3D sports two 5 MP lenses with a dual-LED flash between them. Its interface features a zoom slider on the left side, with virtual shutter, flash toggle, and other options placed on the right. However, you'll hardly use the virtual shutter, thanks to a good old shutter button that can autofocus with a half-press. A physical toggle switch lets you select between 2D or 3D mode.
The device can capture 3D photos only up to 2 MP. In 2D mode however, you can take 5 MP shots. The image quality is as good as you would expect from a 5 MP snapper. Similar to most HTC devices, this one also suffers from a weird pink tint, as well as a heavy noise reduction filter that leads to a loss of details. Shooting images in 3D is fun, and it works pretty well too. However, trying to shoot moving objects in 3D turns out to be a big mess.
The phone can record 720p video at 30 fps. The clips are saved in the MP4 format, which is a big improvement over the Sensation's 3GP. The resulting clips are pretty smooth and contain a reasonable level of detail. Additionally, stereo sound recording is a nice feature. Strangely, despite having a dual-core CPU under the hood, the phone cannot record video in 1080p. As before, recording videos in 3D produces fun results.
Telephony And Messaging
HTC's phonebook, called People, is very social by nature. Like most recent HTC phones, it features multiple tabs for displaying All Contacts, Groups, and Call History.
The signal reception was quite good during the testing. Moreover, voices were loud and clear on both sides while conversing with friends.
The Evo 3D displays messages in threaded fashion. The portrait keypad is not that accurate, and can be annoying sometimes. However, the landscape one makes full use of the 4.3" screen with well-spaced keys.
The generic email client can handle multiple accounts. It differentiates each account with colour coding, which makes sorting emails easy.
Battery
The 1730 mAh battery managed to keep the device up for just 3 hours under heavy use, including 3D gaming with brightness set to Automatic. It didn't come as a surprise as dual cores and a 3D screen were not going to go easy on the battery. If you travel a lot, you're going to be disappointed with this one.
Verdict
The Evo 3D has almost everything that you expect from today's smartphone. Its dual-core CPU and gigabyte of RAM should be enough to sell this product. Moreover, the 3D capability is a good conversation starter, and as always Sense UI is beautiful.
On the other hand, the phone's 3D feature is not worth the premium it commands. The video player is underwhelming, and in terms of raw power it still can't beat the GS2. To sum up, go for this device only if you really love 3D. Otherwise, if all you require is just a powerful droid, then the GS2 and Sensation are the phones to choose from.
Features: 4.5/5
Design And Build Quality: 4/5
Performance: 4/5
Value For Money: 3.5/5
Mojo: 4/5
Overall Rating: 4/5
MRP: Rs 36,000
Street Price: Rs 33,150 (Saholic.com); Rs 34,150 (Letsbuy.com); Rs 35,000 (Flipkart.com)
Thanks to Avatar, the 3D craze is back. Practical or not, it has made it to TV sets and laptops. It was about time this gimmick hit handhelds, and what could be a better platform for it than Android? However, HTC's Evo 3D is not just about stereoscopic tricks, but is actually a powerful device armed to the teeth to fight off the competition. Moreover, its Sense UI always helps HTC's products earn extra brownie points.
Design And Build Quality
The phone's retail package comes with earphones, an 8 GB memory card, and a detachable USB charger. The device sports a 4.3" 3D screen encased in Gorilla Glass. The gadget measures 5" (l) x 2.6" (w) x 0.5" (d), and is the thickest dual-core out there in the market. The four capacitive touch keys, namely Home, Options, Back, and Search are well spaced.
The back panel is made of matte plastic with a dotted texture pattern that provides superior grip. Two 5 MP cameras on the rear give it a futuristic look. Another thing worth mentioning here is the addition of a camera shutter key. Weighing 170 grammes, this device is rather heavy, but then its competitor Optimus 3D (168 grammes) is not light either. Overall, the build quality is as good as you can expect from HTC.
The Evo 3D is powered by a dual-core 1.2 GHz CPU with an Adreno 220 GPU. It features a gigabyte of RAM, which is an upgrade over its younger sibling, the Sensation. Other specs include an 8 MP rear and 1.3 MP front camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, a 3.5 mm jack, microSD card support up to 32 GB, and an MHL-enabled micro-USB port.
Display
Here's the most interesting part of the Evo 3: its 4.3" glasses-free, 3D-capable LCD. The 3D effect is achieved using the parallax barrier technology, previously seen in the Nintendo 3DS. The display has pixel dimensions of 540x960 and produces rich colours and high levels of brightness. It's reflective by nature, but is still readable under sunlight. The 3D works only in landscape mode, and its viewing angles are very narrow. Despite these negatives, the 3D effect is an exciting feature, at least for the first few days of use.
UI And Applications
The phone is based on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) with HTC's Sense 3.0 UI running on top of it. It features a unique lock screen, notification bar, and task manager, all of which are explained in more detail here. As expected, swiping through its seven homescreens is very smooth. The transition effects and various widgets provide for plenty of eye candy. An overview mode can be activated using the pinch-to-zoom-out gesture or by tapping the Home key.
The onboard browser sports a simple yet elegant interface that allows for maximum screen usage by webpages. Thanks to the RAM upgrade and probably some software optimisation, it played 720p as well as 1080p YouTube videos without any problems. A definite improvement over the Sensation.
The GPS receiver's performance was poor, as is the case with most droids. During testing, it didn't lock onto any satellites for about half an hour, but the situation changed as soon as the A-GPS (Assisted GPS) was turned on.
Overall, the phone handles multitasking with ease, and it better do that considering the price you pay for it. Sense UI still hasn't lost its "wow" factor, and I continue to be impressed with the interface.
3D Gaming
The device comes pre-installed with Spiderman 3D and NFS Shift, both of them offering a 3D experience. The glassless 3D works well, and is good enough to please geeks as well as non-geeks. However, as mentioned earlier, the viewing angles for 3D are limited. Additionally, some people may find it stressful on the eyes after a while. After enjoying it for 2-3 days, I too preferred disabling the 3D mode while playing games.
With dual cores and a gigabyte of RAM, gaming wasn't expected to be a problem with this device. Needless to say, it handled all the latest games from the Android Market. However, it's not quite as powerful as the Galaxy S II (GS2).
Multimedia
The music player has a useful interface that's full of eye candy. It supports a swipe gesture that can take you to the previous or next track.
The sound quality via its bundled earphones is good, but it could have been louder. In this case, even the SRS enhancement doesn't help much. However, using your favourite earphones may improve the sound. An equaliser is present, as is FM radio.
Similar to the Sensation, clips can only be played through the gallery due to the lack of a dedicated video player. Like its predecessors, the phone doesn't support subtitles. It can handle short 720p clips, but movie-length videos are a no-go. 1080p videos are out of the question, as are MKV files.
You can stream content to compatible DLNA-certified TVs and music systems. Moreover, the onboard MHL port can be used to hook up HDTVs using an appropriate adapter.
Camera
The Evo 3D sports two 5 MP lenses with a dual-LED flash between them. Its interface features a zoom slider on the left side, with virtual shutter, flash toggle, and other options placed on the right. However, you'll hardly use the virtual shutter, thanks to a good old shutter button that can autofocus with a half-press. A physical toggle switch lets you select between 2D or 3D mode.
The device can capture 3D photos only up to 2 MP. In 2D mode however, you can take 5 MP shots. The image quality is as good as you would expect from a 5 MP snapper. Similar to most HTC devices, this one also suffers from a weird pink tint, as well as a heavy noise reduction filter that leads to a loss of details. Shooting images in 3D is fun, and it works pretty well too. However, trying to shoot moving objects in 3D turns out to be a big mess.
The phone can record 720p video at 30 fps. The clips are saved in the MP4 format, which is a big improvement over the Sensation's 3GP. The resulting clips are pretty smooth and contain a reasonable level of detail. Additionally, stereo sound recording is a nice feature. Strangely, despite having a dual-core CPU under the hood, the phone cannot record video in 1080p. As before, recording videos in 3D produces fun results.
Telephony And Messaging
HTC's phonebook, called People, is very social by nature. Like most recent HTC phones, it features multiple tabs for displaying All Contacts, Groups, and Call History.
The signal reception was quite good during the testing. Moreover, voices were loud and clear on both sides while conversing with friends.
The Evo 3D displays messages in threaded fashion. The portrait keypad is not that accurate, and can be annoying sometimes. However, the landscape one makes full use of the 4.3" screen with well-spaced keys.
The generic email client can handle multiple accounts. It differentiates each account with colour coding, which makes sorting emails easy.
Battery
The 1730 mAh battery managed to keep the device up for just 3 hours under heavy use, including 3D gaming with brightness set to Automatic. It didn't come as a surprise as dual cores and a 3D screen were not going to go easy on the battery. If you travel a lot, you're going to be disappointed with this one.
Verdict
The Evo 3D has almost everything that you expect from today's smartphone. Its dual-core CPU and gigabyte of RAM should be enough to sell this product. Moreover, the 3D capability is a good conversation starter, and as always Sense UI is beautiful.
On the other hand, the phone's 3D feature is not worth the premium it commands. The video player is underwhelming, and in terms of raw power it still can't beat the GS2. To sum up, go for this device only if you really love 3D. Otherwise, if all you require is just a powerful droid, then the GS2 and Sensation are the phones to choose from.
Features: 4.5/5
Design And Build Quality: 4/5
Performance: 4/5
Value For Money: 3.5/5
Mojo: 4/5
Overall Rating: 4/5
Kingston Launches Wi-Drive
The price difference between a 16 GB and 64 GB iPad (3G or Wi-Fi) is exactly Rs 10,000. If you believe that's too much to waste on a few gigabytes of flash storage, last week, Seagate India announced its GoFlex Satellite drive. It provides a 500 GB, Wi-Fi capable HDD that can be shared between three tablet \ smartphone devices for Rs 11,500. However, if you fancy a similar solution with considerably lesser storage space and a higher price tag, you are in luck because Kingston has launched its Wi-Drive portable flash drive in the 16 GB (Rs 10,000) and 32 GB (Rs 12,000) variants.
Unlike the Android and iOS friendly GoFlex Satellite, the Wi-Drive is compatible only with the iPhone (3G, 3GS and above), iPod Touch (3rd and 4th generation), and iPad. Kingston's media server employs integrated Wi-Fi capability to allow up to three iOS users to wirelessly share media and overcome the physical storage limitations of their Apple products. This is achieved using the Wi-Drive app, which is a free download on the App Store. The slim drive houses a rechargeable battery that is claimed to last for up to four hours. The Wi-Drive is backed by a one-year warranty.
Prima facie, the Kingston Wi-Drive seems rather pointless when compared to Seagate's GoFlex Satellite. This is especially true since choosing the former entails a colossal 94% reduction in storage space and no Android support for what is essentially a very similar product. Being flash-based, Kingston's offering may turn out to be faster at random read \ write access. However, any increase in transfer speeds, if at all, will be subject to the weakest link - ie, the Wi-Fi interface. To be honest, there's no perceptible difference between flash and magnetic storage implementations for streaming applications. Having said that, it would be unfair to reach a conclusion without a proper review.
Unlike the Android and iOS friendly GoFlex Satellite, the Wi-Drive is compatible only with the iPhone (3G, 3GS and above), iPod Touch (3rd and 4th generation), and iPad. Kingston's media server employs integrated Wi-Fi capability to allow up to three iOS users to wirelessly share media and overcome the physical storage limitations of their Apple products. This is achieved using the Wi-Drive app, which is a free download on the App Store. The slim drive houses a rechargeable battery that is claimed to last for up to four hours. The Wi-Drive is backed by a one-year warranty.
Prima facie, the Kingston Wi-Drive seems rather pointless when compared to Seagate's GoFlex Satellite. This is especially true since choosing the former entails a colossal 94% reduction in storage space and no Android support for what is essentially a very similar product. Being flash-based, Kingston's offering may turn out to be faster at random read \ write access. However, any increase in transfer speeds, if at all, will be subject to the weakest link - ie, the Wi-Fi interface. To be honest, there's no perceptible difference between flash and magnetic storage implementations for streaming applications. Having said that, it would be unfair to reach a conclusion without a proper review.
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