It is not the first time we are getting to hear about Google Drive or G-Drive. However, now that the cloud computing is gaining ground, it seems like that Google may finally decide to make this rumor a reality. Also, in the mean time, Google has accumulated a wide array of products such as Android based handsets and tablets, which can make best use of such cloud based drive.

The report suggests that Google may adopt freemium model. It is also likely to pose bigger challenge to its competitors with higher free storage capacity. The drive is also expected to carry ads.  The report states, “Like Dropbox, Google’s storage service, called Drive, is a response to the growth of Internet-connected mobile devices like smartphones and tablets and the rise of cloud computing, or storing files online so that they can be retrieved from multiple devices.”

Google Planning to Launch Cloud Based Drive? is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Samsung has come a long way from its earlier models of Smart TVs. Back in 2009, Samsung TVs were based on its home-grown operating system, which allowed users to download widgets and apps. These TVs were capable of streaming videos from Netflix, Amazon and Hulu without any internet connectivity. However, Samsung’s latest TVs are truly smart with advanced voice recognition feature, which is capable of recognizing about 30 languages.

Talking about its new smart TV, Kim Hyun-Suk, head of Samsung’s television unit, said, “This TV contains all technologies and features we have.” The new TV, ES8000 is likely to hit the store shelves by the end of the month of March. Samsung is also expecting the masses to warm up to the concept of Smart TVs. Samsung’s Kim said, “The sales so far this year have been even better than the same period last year.” Market experts are also expecting the smart TV segment to show growth this year.

Samsung Bets Big on Smart TVs: Targets 25 Million Units Sale in 2012 is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

MWC (Mobile World Congress) is only a couple of weeks away and the world’s top mobile phone manufacturers, apart from Apple, will descend upon Barcelona to show off their latest handsets. Samsung, LG, Nokia, Sony, HTC, Acer and Asus will all be on hand to show what they have planned for 2012 and beyond. Here’s what we think you might be seeing at MWC 2012.

Nvidia

While we’ve already seen the Tegra quad-core processor in the new Asus tablet we’d bet our house that Nvidia & Co will be on hand at MWC to confirmed more Tegra 3 mobile devices. Adding even more fuel the fire they’ve already sent out a press release teasing “quad-core firsts” during Mobile World Congress.

We’ve known about quad-core smartphones since CES, but anything on show was displayed behind glass – so it’s going to be exciting to get some proper face-time with the new handsets. It’s been reported that HTC and LG are both planning to unveil Tegra 3-powered devices, which are expected to feature 4.7-inch displays with 720p resolutions.

Windows 8 & Windows Phone

Microsoft revealed recently that it plans to launch the consumer preview version of Window 8 on February 29 – to coincide with their event at MWC. It’s does seem odd that Microsoft will be discussing Windows 8 at a mobile phone trade show, but it could mean Microsoft to will unveil more details on how Windows 8 will work alongside their Mobile phone operating system.

Not only will Windows Phone 8 share the same Metro style user interface as Windows 8 for tablets and PCs, but developers can reuse the same code for both operating systems. It’s not clear if Microsoft plans to discuss its Windows Phone 8 plans, but a Windows 8 Consumer Preview launch at Mobile World Congress makes it look that way.

Samsung

Its been confirmed by Samsung that the follow-up to their Galaxy S2 wouldn’t be making an appearance at this year’s MWC, but even more bizarre is the news that Samsung won’t be making a major press announcements at the 2012 show. Samsung should still have a new product or two to launch at MWC, as promised, however the usual big set-piece event is now off the table.

Their US PR team said: ”Samsung confirmed that they are not hosting a press conference at Mobile World Congress, but Samsung is looking forward to introducing and demonstrating exciting new mobile products at Mobile World Congress 2012.

“The successor to the Galaxy S II smartphone will be unveiled at a separate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of the year, closer to commercial availability of the product.

“Samsung stays committed to providing the best possible mobile experiences for customers around the world.”

Sony

The leaked shot above show the entire family of Xperia phones, but there’s also a couple of family members we haven’t seen before. According the Xperia Blog the new handsets include the rumoured Xperia Nypon and the phone in the middle of the bottom row, is thought to be the recently-announced Xperia S. We’ve had several emails about Sony’s plans at MWC, so we’re betting they’ll be bringing a host of new phones to MWC under the Xperia brand.

Blackberry

Ailing smartphone maker, Blackberry, should be at MWC with their new operating system. Once called BBX, its now been dubbed Blackberry 10 and has yet to released on any smartphone.

According to a RIM rep the company will be at MWC to show off the new operating system as well its current Blackberry 7 – which comes with new NFC and BBM capabilities. Unfortunately, it appears there still won’t be a device running BlackBerry 10 until later this year.

New reports from BGR blog are suggesting that Blackberry has cancelled the BlackBerry Colt, as well the Milan. Meaning RIM only has the BlackBerry 10 smartphone. First unveiled in London, the handset comes with dual-core 1.5Ghz, 1GB of Ram, 16GB of onboard storage and front and rear facing cameras. RIM focusing on a single device could be a good thing, but we’ve heard it won’t be ready until the third quarter of this year, which might just be too late – let’s hope they have something more concrete at MWC.

HTC

HTC has already confirmed their plans with a press conference set to take place the day before the show officially kicks off. They’re expected to show of the HTC Edge , which could also be the world’s first quad-core phone. There’s also talk of the Quattro tablet, also quad-core thanks to Nvidia’s Tegra 3 processor, as well as the Ville, another Android Ice Cream Sandwich superphone, and the Primo, a more mid-range device.

We also wonder if we’ll hear of the European version of the Titan II Windows Phone we saw at CES, with its ginormous 16-megapixel camera. Let’s hope so.

MWC takes place from February 27 to March 3.

Mobile World Congress: Gaj-it’s Top Mobile Phone Predictions is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Ars Technica reports that it started monitoring Facebook process some three years back. However, even after this long period, Facebook still had to admit that it, “did not always delete images from content delivery networks in a reasonable period of time even though they were immediately removed from the site.” According to Ars Technica, even after you delete your pictures off your Facebook page, those pictures can still be access via direct link. So, you might want to think ten times before you post your pictures on Facebook.

Facebook, on its part, said that it is working on a process to ensure that the photos are deleted off its servers within 45 days of request. However, the social networking site did not provide any concrete date as to when the new system is likely to get operational. It may be up and running in a couple of months or as the previous experience suggests, it may drag on for a couple of years. In the meantime, we will advise you to refrain from posting incriminating pictures on Facebook.

Facebook Still Working on Deleting ‘Deleted Photos’ is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

At 7mm thickness, the tablet is about 1mm slimmer than iPad 2. It weighs 558 grams and has vital stats of 256 x 176 x 7.7 mm. On papers, the tablet is able to work 8 hours non-stop on a single recharge. It has dual camera for facilitating video conferencing. AT200 also has generous connectivity options with a microSD card reader and micro USB port. If you want to connect your tablet to your TV for streaming videos then you can do it by using its Micro HDMI port.

Toshiba AT200 is already available in Japan and US, although under different monikers. While in Japan, it is known as Toshiba Regza AT700, it is being sold as Toshiba Excite X10 in the US. The tablet is up for sale at Carphone Warehouse from Feb 15^th and you can order it online. 16GB tablet will set you back by £399 while 32GB is at £459.

Toshiba Brings AT200 Tablet to UK is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

The study was conducted on 205 subjects in Germany. These people were asked to report about their ‘desire’ to visit Facebook and Twitter and whether they were able to resist the urge. They were also asked to quantify their ‘desire’ on a scale ranging from mild to ‘irresistible’. During the span of seven days, total 10,558 responses were collected and out of these, 7,827 responses belonged to ‘desire episodes’.  If you are worried over the results, then you can take solace in study group leader’s statement. Wilhelm Hofmann stated that people succumb to these desire episodes because there is no apparent downside. However, he also warned that ultimately such urges may lead to huge waste of time.

Hofmann stated, “Desires for media may be comparatively harder to resist because of their high availability and also because it feels like it does not ‘cost much’ to engage in these activities, even though one wants to resist.”

Are You Addicted to Twitter and Facebook? is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

However, it is not the first time Ofcom has intervened in this matter. BT owns a major portion of landlines in the country. Ofcom has intervened twice earlier to keep the rental charges low. But BT is now planning to fight back. A company spokesperson said, “Whilst the prices are within the range outlined by Ofcom in November, we disagree with some of the underlying assumptions that they have used to determine these charge controls. Our primary concern throughout this process is to ensure that we are able to achieve a fair rate of return in order to continue our investment in the future of the UK’s communications infrastructure.”

Ofcom proposal needs to be approved by the European Commission and may force BT to drop its telephone and broadband charges fall by 4.5 percent. The decision is likely to be made by early March.

Ofcom Looking to Reduce Your Broadband Bill is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Apparently Apple has already decided that their current iPhone is the de facto size for a mobile. They never really consulted us, but for them 3.5-inches is more than enough for a mobile. Well, their closest smartphone competitor Samsung has other ideas, in fact, they think you should be able to choose whatever screen size you want. Anything from 3-inches to 5.6-inches. Sammy has launched a new smartphone with a gigantic 5.6-inch screen. Called the Galaxy Note it’s a smartphone that looks to combine the best of a tablet (screen size) with the portability of a mobile to create something genuinely different. Samsung is clearly hoping that the Note is a convergence device; marrying two devices into one. Has it worked? Almost.

The Screen of all screens

When you unbox the Note the first thing you’ll probably do is compare it against an iPhone and when you do you’ll come to the conclusion that it’ll never fit in anyone’s pockets (unless you own some hammer pants) – it’s massive. The extra size is obvious; a large 5.3-inch screen.

The Note uses Samsung AMOLED technology which is found the current S2. All of their current screens which use this tech are famed for incredible brightness, deep, bold colours and the Note is no exception. The 1280×800 resolution is a quite an achievement, but would have been a real man on the moon moment if they had managed to get this resolution onto a phone that wasn’t quite so big.

Power and Battery Life

With such a big screen and plenty more pixels to push around you’d think Samsung might want to add a new CPU. But, the have decided to run a clocked version of the same chip found in its smaller cousin the S2. With the increased power demands of the screen Samsung has decided to up the battery – to a 2500 Mah, meaning you can rely on the Note to last a full day without having to do a pit stop.

Software and Internal Storage

Google’s attempt to cure the fragmenting of the Android OS has seen the search giant release Ice Cream Sandwich, unfortunately if you pick a Note you’ll be waiting until March before Samsung can update the current Gingerbread OS to Ice Cream Sandwich.

From the face of it you’d probably struggle to tell the two OS’s apart, but it would have been nice to see the latest OS on the latest Android handsets. It would seem that in a cruel twist of fate Ice Cream may well fragment Android even further. The Note comes in two storage flavours – 16 and 32GB.

The Stylus is back

One of the main party pieces of the Note is the return of an old friend: the Stylus pen. Samsung hopes that the Note and S Pen will eventually replace the humble pen and paper. We’re not sure they’re quite there yet. While the stylus on the HTC Flyer was a disaster, the Note’s is actually rather good on the face of it. It comes free with the handset and has a holster on the bottom of the device. Using the S Pen, you can doodle images, write notes and interact with all elements of the Android operating system. But, upon closer inspection it begins to unravel: handwriting recognition software is onboard, but hasn’t really moved on from the early 90’s – it’s still terrible at recognising handwriting – therefore you’ll probably only use it for games and the odd doodle.

Gaming Credentials

Where the stylus does succeed is gaming. Playing any number of games with the stylus makes the Note more like a fancy Nintendo DS than a boring business phone. Games like Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds are a joy to play with the pen. If you’re playing games which require you to use your fingers you’ll find them much more engrossing than on a normal sized phone. The extra screen real-estate really comes into play when playing games like GTA 3. The Note’s large display goes some way to curing the traditional headache of touch-screen virtual controls, enriching the experience more than you might naturally assume.

Camera and Video Capture

Samsung’s Galaxy S2 has been a by-word for an amazing digital camera, and we’re glad to report that the Note also comes with the same 8-megapixel camera and the same set of slick image-capture tools. If you liked the camera on the S2 – then you’ll love the Note’s.

Samsung Galaxy Note Review: The World’s First Tablet/Phone Hybrid ? is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Sony, in its announcement, stated, “On Sony Computer Entertainment’s PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita systems, this rebranding will occur in connection with software updates for these devices.” However, it is not applying these changes to PlayStation Portable accounts for the time being.

Sony PlayStation is facing stiff competition from rivals including Microsoft’s Xbox. It seems like Sony is following Xbox’s lead towards unifying its offerings as an entertainment system. However, Sony needs to do much more than mere rebranding if it is looking to compete with Nintendo and Microsoft. 2011 proved to be a tough year for Sony, as its PlayStation Network was repeatedly hacked and remained inoperational for a considerably long period of time.

RIP PlayStation Network: Long Live Sony Entertainment Network is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

terrorism. Recently, VeriSign Authentication Services revealed that it was repeatedly attacked by cyber hackers in 2010. Attack on VeriSign is ironical since the company is involved in the business of ensuring safety of net surfers. VeriSign authentication guarantees that the net surfers have reached the sites they were looking for and not some dummy site. It also provides safeguards for making online payments. The company said that the attacks were not able to breach their services.

It is not just the commercial organization, but even government agencies are falling prey to cyber crime. Various government departments have faced cyber attacks on their systems. The most recent casualty was the Commerce Department in the US. Due to a virus attack, it had to block its employees from accessing the internet for 9 days.

US government said that cyber crimes can be committed by anyone, from terrorist groups to your neighbors, and thus are more difficult to control. Robert Mueller, an FBI director said, “do believe that the cyber threat will equal or surpass the threat from counterterrorism in the foreseeable future.”

Cyber Crimes Set to Become Bigger Security Threat than Terrorism is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com