iOS 5.1 coming in March with quicker camera access

Among the many rumours and reports of the next iPad, comes a report on Apple's next update to its mobile OS. Boy Genius Report have managed to get their hands on a copy of iOS 5.1, which is reported to be out on the 9th of March. Apparently, iOS 5.1 will provide Japanese support for Siri and also change up the lock screen to make it easier to access the camera. iPhone 4S has been available in Japan, since October and adding Japanese support to Siri will make it the fourth language that Siri supports. Currently, you can speak to Siri in English (in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia), French (in France) and German (in Germany). Apple says that they're planning to add support for more languages to Siri, Japanese being one of them. The others will include, Italian, Spanish, Chinese and Korean. Which, of course, means we can look forward to more YouTube flooding of adventures with Siri videos in various languages. 

iOS 5.1 incoming

The other change that iOS 5.1 will bring is better camera access from the lock screen itself. iOS 5 brought with it the ability to access the camera from the lock screen. Users had to double click the home screen button and press the camera icon, next to the slider. This did allow for quicker access to the camera, especially when users wanted to take pictures of moments that were virtually fleeting. Placing the icon in the lock screen also made sense, because many competing devices have dedicated camera buttons enabling quicker launch of the camera. In iOS 5, to access the camera quicker, users will have to access their homescreen and then swipe a finger upwards to launch the camera. This process may or may not be quicker depending on if the user has a password set up for their phone. 

Of course, these are only reports and Apple, as usual, is not making an official comment on any of these statements. We'll have to wait and see what they dish out in March, which is also around when we might get a glimpse at the next iPad, we've been hearing so much about.

CoolerMaster launches Silent Pro Hybrid PSU in India

Cooler Master, an industry leading chassis, thermal solution, peripheral, and accessory manufacturer, has launched their new power supply series, the Silent Pro Hybrid (SPH). The new series offers a string of new features, namely “Fan-less” operation for complete silence and a discrete control module for on-the-fly changing of fan speed. It comes bundled with a 7V fan power port and the 5.25-inch drive bay fan controller module, allowing Silent Pro Hybrid PSUs to directly power the fans taking the load off the motherboard. This direct connection provides the user with immediate and on-the-fly control over the 135mm Super Silent Hydraulic Bearings power supply fan. The controller can also regulate three more system fans if required. The PSU and system fan speeds can be adjusted independently via two dials. The new SPH series will be available in different power capacities starting with the 1050W (SPH-1050W) which retails for Rs.18,000 and a 1300W (SPH-1300W) which retails for Rs. 20,000. 

Bringing some peace and quite to desktop computing

The Silent Pro Hybrid Series seeks to curb fan noise to the minimum. The power supply fan can be completely turned off to essentially operate in dead silence. This mode persists until loads become greater than 200W. Once this load barrier is breached, a safe mode will activate the fan and cool according to the level of the load. It also offers a fully modular cable system thus different system needs can be accommodated. Users can select the cables to be installed for clean and efficient cable routing. This reduces clutter and also improves system ventilation. If the need for high wattage arises, users can simple swap the main unit by detaching the cables and in no time the system is up and running again.

The series is 80Plus Gold certified and has enough juice to support 4-way SLI/CrossFire and dual CPU. Use of quality components, such as Japanese capacitors, 135mm hydraulic bearing fan, multiple protection circuits brings higher reliability and all models carry a five year warranty.

Student Hacks Facebook, Gets Eight Months In Prison

I hope that British Student Glenn Mangham thinks that it was all worth it. He has a long lonely road ahead of him and it won’t include surfing social network sites. He was sentenced to eight months in jail for hacking into Facebook’s servers.

Glenn Mangham, 26, admitted to infiltrating the website between April and May of last year. Apparently no user details were taken, as he went straight for “invaluable” intellectual property instead. Facebook alerted the authorities last May after they discovered the breach. The FBI took care of the rest, tracing it all back to the UK address. He found his way in by hacking into the account of a Facebook employee.
He had previously shown the search engine Yahoo how it could improve its security and he said that he wanted to do the same for Facebook. The judge did not buy it.

Supposed iPad 3 Images Point To 8MP Camera

The latest alleged sighting of the iPad 3 shows the back casing and lends some support to rumors that the new tablet might have an eight-megapixel camera. Taiwan’s Apple Daily has some comparisons between old versions and the new, showing a larger rear lens, speculating that it would have an eight-megapixel camera.

They also speculate that the A6 upgrade would be a quad-core chip, although we have heard murmurs of a faster dual-core chip in its place. The image of the case back shows a more streamlined edge as well, though it is unclear whether this is to minimize a slightly thicker body or due to other factors. Most everything else is nearly identical.
This is by no means confirmation of an 8 megapixel camera and it could be a hoax, so take it with a grain of salt, but this could also be the real deal. We won’t know for sure until we have confirmation.

ITC rules in Apple's favor in lawsuit against HTC

The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) has in its latest ruling, with respect to the ongoing lawsuit between Apple Inc. and HTC Corp. has stated that the Cupertino-based company does not infringe on the patents, which HTC alleges. In 2010, HTC had filed a complaint against Apple, accusing the iPad maker of infringing on five of its patents, pertaining to technologies for power management and phone dialing. To this effect, HTC Corp. asked the ITC to "bar some versions of Apple's iPods, iPhones and iPads from being imported into the United States." 

Patent woes!

This isn't HTC's first loss to Apple in their ongoing lawsuit. Back in October, last year, HTC Corp. lost a preliminary injunction against Apple at the U.S. International Trade Commission, when the judge stated Apple was not found violating any patents, pertaining to the same above mentioned technologies. That time, however, it was just a preliminary injunction that had slipped out of HTC's hands. On losing the preliminary injunction, HTC had stated that they were confident on victory in the long run. Back then, HTC general counsel, Grace Lei had stated, "This is only one step of many in these legal proceedings. We are confident we have a strong case for the ITC appeals process and are fully prepared to protect our intellectual property."

This month, as stated in our previous report, the entire commission would announce their decision, whether to "uphold or reject the ITC judge's decision." Now, clearly with HTC even losing out on the latest ruling, things surely don't look good for the Taiwanese company.

Download 25 billionth App Store app, win $10,000

These days, we download apps with our eyes virtually closed, but it's always fun to make a little money off the activity. Now, Apple is rewarding whoever downloads the 25 billionth application from the App Store with a $10,000 (approx Rs.4,92,700) gift card to the App Store. The download count currently stands at 24.328 billion apps. The contest began on the 13th of February and will end whenever the 25th billion app is downloaded from the App Store or the receipt of the non-purchase entry after the download of the 24,999,999,999th app, whichever comes first. You enter the contest by either downloading an app or filling out an entry online. If you enter online, you need to fill in your name, mailing address, telephone number and birthday. Each individual is allowed to make up to 25 entries per day, which means you can either make 25 app purchases in a day, or fill out the online form 25 times.

Will you download the 25 billionth app?

Good luck to those of you trying to participate in the App Store downloads contest. For those who would like to win a Nokia Lumia 800 and a Nokia Lumia 710, the Tech2 contest is still going strong. All you need to do is take a whacky picture with an old Nokia handset and post it to the Tech2 forums page for the contest. Remember, you have to have clicked the picture yourself. You still have about a week to enter, so what are you waiting for? Get on it!

Genius SP-i600 docking speaker system announced

In the last two months, several devices labeled under Genius entered the Indian tech terrain. The newest to come from Genius’ kitty, is the SP-i600 speaker, especially crafted for iPads and iPhones. These famous idevices have an array of accessories crafted especially for them, and this new addition from Genius serves as a stand and a charging station, simultaneously. The speaker is capable of 4W output and offers good, deep bass. Earlier this month, the company had released new SP-i175 mini portable speakers featuring 40mm speaker driver for middle frequency sound balance and good base. And now, it adds in the speaker plus docking station.

Speaker system plus docking station

The docking base can be rotated in vertical or horizontal position depending upon the user’s needs. This would make watching videos or movies comfortable. Moreover, the dock charges the device at the same time. Controlling the device from the comfort of the couch is further enabled with the remote control. The dual purpose device would come pretty handy while watching videos with simultaneously charging the device so that it doesn’t abruptly halt the viewing experience.

Take a quick look at the essential features of the Genius SP – i600 speaker for the iPad:

• Charges Integrated into iPad docking system
• Dual 2-inch Full range drivers
• Use in Portrait or landscape
• Button controls for power ON/OFF and Vol+/-
• Aux – in jack for NB, MP3 and other 3.5mm audio output devices
• Convenient remote control

Just two days back, we saw the Genius spill resistant keyboard combo. Genius had also launched its slightly unconventional battery-less mouse dubbed DX-ECO. The mouse comes equipped with a capacitor, which replaces a battery. The company claims that the mouse can stay charged for a day’s use after which its capacitor does with some charging, which takes no more than 3 minutes.

The Genius SP i600 is backed by a one year warranty and carries a price tag of Rs.4,653.