Tech Roundup – Weekly Dose of Tech News

iPhone5 - India launch postponed

Let us start with the bad news. In a step that is sure to disappoint Apple lovers in India, Apple officials have firmly scotched the rumors of an impending iPhone 5 launch on 26 October. Various rumors had been floating around for some time, with a website even reporting the expected price – Rs 62,990 – for an undisclosed variant. The hopes of Apple fanboys were also raised on back of price cuts for existing models – iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S – a step considered as preparatory for a product launch. The grey market is reaping gold – where unlocked iPhone 5 64 GB variant is commanding a price of Rs 1 lakh and above.

Galaxy S3 Mini with Big Brother

Meanwhile Samsung also announced an anticipated release – of Galaxy S3 Mini – a smaller, more affordable version of its much vaunted offering Galaxy S3. The Mini is almost a true replica of S3 in terms of most of the features – the only difference that the specs are understandable lower. For example, Mini has a 5 MP camera against the 8 MP camera of S3, and the processor is 1 GHz dual core compared to the big brother’s quad core 1.5 GHz processor. Thankfully, the Mini sports the latest Android version – Jelly Bean. The phone is DLNA compliant, ensuring connectivity with your Smart TV.

Close rival LG; however, seems to have stolen the march over Samsung – in that the next Google Nexus offering is almost confirmed as from the stable of LG. A Russian website has leaked some pictures of the LG Nexus device – with some specs details as well.

In the Indian tablet market, however, all multinational giants have been beaten to the post by a home grown challenger – Micromax. In the first quarter figures (April to June) released recently, Micromax has been confirmed as leader in the Indian tablet market in terms of market share – with an 18.3 figure. Samsung is second at the 13.3% mark, while Apple is third at 12.3 %. Micromax ascent can be solely attributed to its popular affordable tablet offering – the Funbook series.

Micromax sprang another surprise this week – this time on the competitive home entertainment market. Micromax announced a slew of products in this category – including a range of LED 3D TVs that seem to have been priced attractively. Micromax also launched a BD player and two home theater models. In true Micromax tradition, the pricing has been kept affordable.

The entertainment market has another piece of good news – at least for the denizens of the four metros. Dish TV, one of the leading DTH service providers in India, has announced that it will offer a lifetime free pack of basic TV channels to users that shift to its services from their existing cable connections. The pack consists of 70 channels, and obviously does not include any HD channel. Of course, there will be a fine print to contend with – and users are advised to read all the conditions before migrating to a new service provider. For those who demand nothing but the best, and will not be content with a pack of mere 70 channels, this is just the right time to make another switch. Get a Smart TV this festive season, and step into a whole new world of infotainment!