Adult-Rated Games In The Windows 8 Store

At first, it seemed like due to the differences in the rating systems in the US and Europe, some titles, which have been given the green light in the US, have been denied in the EU. BUT, with this new change in Microsoft's Windows App guidelines, programs with ratings over PEGI16 and ESRB MATURE will, in fact, be allowed to corrupt the otherwise happy and cheerful atmosphere of the marketplace. This won't happen until December, though. Until then, those titles will still be nonexistent in the store.

Some of the games that fall into this category that Windows 8 tablet users will be able to play include Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed and Skyrim - titles which every normal game store wants to have in its catalog.

Nokia No Longer In Top Five

Nokia

 The worldwide mobile phone market grew 2.4% year over year in the third quarter of 2015 (3Q12), driven by heavyweights Samsung and Apple as Nokia dropped off the Top 5 list of smartphone vendors. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped a total of 444.5 million mobile phones in 3Q12 compared to 434.1 million units in the third quarter of 2011.

Samsung Vs Apple

                  Samsung sold 56.3 million smartphones in the third quarter of 2015, more than any other company and twice as many as its nearest competitor Apple, according to latest research by IDC. The two companies combined sold nearly a half of the total 179.7 million smartphones in the quarter.

As Samsung grew sales, though, the smartphone top 5 changed a lot and for the first time in years Nokia is not in it. The Finnish manufacturer, known for basically creating the smartphone, sold only 6.3 million smartphones.That is less than RIM, less than ZTE and less than HTC.

The dynamics of the smartphone industry change the top 5 manufacturers very rapidly, and we could well see RIM become the next company to drop out of the top 5 next quarter.

Shutter Speed On Nokia 808 Pureview

The Nokia 808 PureView,with its monstrous 41 MP camera  is considered to be the best camera available on a smartphone at present. Since the release of the device, the closest that we have seen to 41MP on multiple models is the 13MP shooter seen on some devices like the Sprint variant of the LG Optimus G and some newer Sony models like the Bondsian Sony Xperia T. Of course, a large MP size doesn't necessarily guarantee outstanding pictures as so much more goes into the making of a great picture.

41 MP camera 'bump'

  One important part of a good camera is a fast shutter. Just how fast is the shutter on the Nokia 808 PureView? A gentleman that goes by the name of Rehmanhere on Flickr decided to find out. Even though he had enough light to snap the picture during daytime, he decided to turn on the powerful Xenon flash. He increased the ISO to 800 which in the old days when people actually used something called "film", meant that faster action could be captured. ISO 800 requires 1/8th the amount of light to capture the same image as an ISO 100 setting would demand. He also took the exposure down to -4.0. The result ?Well,it produced a shutter that took the picture in 1/2747 of a second.

The Nokia 808 PureView with its 41MP shooter

What about the longest shutter time? That would appear to be the 2.7 seconds achieved by a Mr. Sheridan. The later says that the ND filters that come with the phone are not sufficient to do the job. So he uses various Hoya filters, a tripod and two elastic bands for his long exposure pictures. It might sound kinky, but if you check out the sourcelink, you can see how it is all done. He also suggests using flowing water as a subject.

So there you have it, the long and short shutter times for the Nokia 808 PureView. No, 41MP won't automatically make you an artist, but the technology offered with PureView will help you take pictures that you will cherish forever.

This picture was taken with a shutter speed of 1/2747 of a second.

Shutter was open for 2.7 seconds

The kit required to take long exposure shots with the nokia 808 PureView.

HTC One X To Get Android 4.1.2 In Asia Today

The General manager of HTC North Asia, Jack Tong announced at a press event that the Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update will start rolling out for the One X today. He even mentioned that the One S too will not be left behind and will receive a firmware update,but didn't specify the time.
                  The new firmware update will not only bring the One X to the latest Android release (not counting Monday's Google announcement, of course), as well as the latest Sense UI version.
Jack Tong also mentioned the One X+ and One S SE updated edition, which will hit shelves in Asia on October 30. No other markets were mentioned, but we recon they shouldn't be too far behind the schedule.

HTC Releases Its Q3 Reports

HTC was once on its way to the top of the smartphone world, but it's in a bit of a slump lately. The results from the preliminary report were confirmed in the new report and the outlook for the final quarter of this year isn't looking too good either.
The company saw a revenue of $2.4 billion in Q3 of this year, down from $4.54 billion in the same quarter last year. Net profits (predictably) are down too - $133 million, down from $625 million. The gross margin was 25% and operating margin was 7%.

HTC continued to do well in China and introduced the HTC J Butterfly in Japan, an Android smartphone with a 5" 1080p screen. HTC is also waiting on the launch of its Windows Phone 8 handsets (the OS launches next Monday).
Even so, the company is expecting revenues in Q4 to fall to $2 billion with both gross profit margin and operating margin falling, to 23% and 1% respectively. And that's the holiday quarter.

Ipad Mini Pre-Orders Have Stared

Apple has put up the iPad mini on its online store. You can choose between the Wi-Fi or the Wi-Fi + 3G models. Each comes in 16, 32 and 64GB capacities. You also have a choice of two colors, black & slate and white & silver.




The Wi-Fi-only version prices are $329, $429 and $529 respectively for each of the storage capacities and it ships next week on November 2. The 3G models are priced at $449, $549 ad $649 respectively and will ship in mid-November. You can choose from three carriers in the US: AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.

Meanwhile, the fourth generation iPad, now officially referred to as the iPad with Retina display, continues to sell at the previous price points. The Wi-Fi model will ship next week on November 2 and the Wi-Fi + 3G model will ship in mid-November.

The iPad 2, which is still on sale for some reason, sells for $399 for the Wi-Fi model and $529 for the Wi-Fi + 3G model, only in 16GB capacity. The iPad 2 will be delivered in 1-2 days.

Apple Q3 Report

Apple has just posted its report for the third quarter of the year and things are looking healthy for the Cupertino-based company. The revenue was $36 billion and the net profit stood at $8.2 billion, both of those comparing very favorably to the numbers from the same period of last year ($28.3 billion and $6.6 billion).
However, Apple didn’t manage to better its achievement from the second quarter of this year, when the company made $8.8 billion in profit from just $35 billion revenue, despite the launch of the iPhone 5. The supply shortages are probably a part of the explanation as Apple is still struggling to cope with the demand for its new smartphone.
The iPhone sales were somewhat disappointing at 26.9 million units, compared to 35.1 million in Q2. The iPad shipments stood at 14 million units, compared to 17 million in the previous quarter, while Mac sales grew from 4 million to 4.9 million. Despite the refresh of the lineup, the iPod sales slid to 5.3 million units from 6.8 million in Q2.



The financial markets didn’t respond very well to the posted results and the Apple Inc. shares slid to 1.43% in after hours trading (they were 1% up before the results were posted) and are close to falling below $600 after reaching . Still, the drop is pretty minor and a strong holiday quarter, fuelled by the launch of the iPad mini, the 4th generation iPad and the extended availability of the iPhone 5 will probably bring the company back to the right track.