12 new cars worth waiting for

Go back a few years and every new car shouted about mpg and economizing. This year, fuel efficiency is still important, but style is back for the new cars sporting 2013 and 2014 model years. Sportiness is taking center stage once more, and a fierce competition is about to happen between $20,000 and $30,000—so if you can't afford the next $100,000 Viper, fear not. Here are 12 cars we're waiting for over the next year or so.

2013 Hyundai Veloster Turbo
When: Late summer 2012
How Much: TBD
Our Guess: $23,000 

Right now, the Veloster lacks the performance cred to back up its killer looks. But that will change once this 201-hp version hits the streets. The 45 percent boost in horsepower has most folks taking a second look at the Veloster, and hoping this Turbo is a signal that Hyundai is getting as serious about performance as it has been about quality and design over the last few years. 

So far, though, signs remain cloudy—the stonking 1.6-liter motor with dual exhaust notwithstanding. Word is the Veloster Turbo gets the same suspension, which is disappointing. The stock Veloster is fun but stiff-kneed and less refined when compared to better-bred sporty cars like VW's GTI—or the Subaru BRZ, which is only somewhat costlier than what we're expecting to see from the Veloster Turbo. Also, ask Mini engineers about controlling torque steer in a 200-hp car with a short wheelbase. That, too, has probably made Hyundai sweat. 

Even if the Veloster Turbo isn't perfection out of the gate, we hope it's a sign of better-performing Hyundais (and Kias) to come.

See, where Apple, Samsung phones still can‘t beat BlackBerry

Along with firearms, radio and other standard-issue gear, Constable Ken Koke's police cruiser comes equipped with portable technology made by Research In Motion Ltd that he says has become an important tool in policing rural Canada. 

Koke, with the Chatham-Kent police force in southwestern Ontario, uses RIM's PlayBook to run checks on vehicles and suspects. Unlike his old laptop, the tablet is portable enough to take out of the car to record evidence at crime scenes. 

But for law enforcement officers like Koke, the big draw is RIM's acclaimed network security, a feature that Apple and RIM's other competitors can barely match, and cannot beat - at least not yet. 

Police, along with insurers, the military and thousands of government agencies, remain important customers for the struggling BlackBerry maker as a data breach could invite litigation, compromise reputations or even endanger national security. 

Samsung to bring more RAM to every mobile

 Samsung is about to help the whole of the mobile market, as it readies a new memory chip for handsets.

Not only is Samsung responsible for the likes of the Galaxy S2, Galaxy Note and most recently the Galaxy S3, it also produces a wide array of components which are used by all mobile manufacturers.

More speed, less power, smaller sizeIts latest development is 4 gigabit 20 nanometer low power DDR2 memory. For those of you lost in the gobbledygook, it means Samsung is producing a 2GB RAM chip for mobile phones.

Google to launch Android 5.0 Jelly Bean with multiple lead devices?

Google is reportedly working on a new strategy for its forthcoming mobile operating system, Android 5.0 Jelly Bean. According to a Wall Street Journal report, the Internet giant is going to give mobile device manufacturers an early access to the new mobile operating system in an attempt to come up with a more robust ecosystem and to take on arch-rival Apple.

The WSJ report, citing unnamed sources, says the new strategy could be launching the new operating system with multiple devices, doing away with current practice of working with single manufacturer on a "lead device" based on a new Android release. The report says Google may collaborate with up to five device-makers to produce "Nexus” lead devices, which could be either smartphones, tablets or both.

Samsung & Apple take half of global smartphone market, Android & iOS hit 80 percent

Research firm Gartner released its numbers today for “Worldwide Mobile Device Sales” during Q1 2012. There are not many surprises in the report when it comes to Apple, but Gartner estimated Samsung sold 38 smartphones during the quarter, which is less than the 42.2 million estimated by IDC earlier this month and more than the 32 million by IHS iSuppli. With Apple confirming 35.1 million iPhones sold during the quarter, Gartner’s numbers put Samsung as the both the No. 1 smartphone and overall mobile device vendor. The report also noted Samsung and Apple together accounted for 49.3-percent of the global smartphone sales, which is up from just 29.3 percent in Q1 of last year:

“The continued roll-out of third generation (3G)-based smartphones by local and regional manufacturers such as Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, Yulong and TCL Communication should help spur demand in China. In addition, the arrival of new products in mature markets based on new versions of the Android and Windows Phone operating systems (OSs), and the launch of the Apple iPhone 5 will help drive a stronger second half in Western Europe and North America. However, as we are starting to update our market forecast we feel a downward adjustment to our 2012 figures, in the range of 20 million units, is unavoidable.”

Siri says Nokia Lumia 900 the best smartphone ever

Apple's Siri virtual personal assistant certainly has said some rather interesting things in the past. But to diss its overlord seems a bit much, don't you think?

When iPhone 4S owners ask Siri which smartphone is the best ever made, the obviously disgruntled virtual personal assistant responds saying it's the Nokia Lumia 900 4G running on AT&T's network. It goes further, stating that the Cyan-colored Lumia 900 stands above all others.

Although it may seem a bit odd that Apple's own service would recommend another phone, it actually makes sense. Siri looked for the answer on Wolfram Alpha, which points to the Lumia 900 when users type in "what's the best smartphone ever?" The high rating is delivered based on "customer review average" across the Web.

The Lumia 900 is certainly no slouch. On the basis of reviews of the device I will give it four stars out of five and deemed it "excellent." 

Evidently, it may be Siri's too.

Review: HTC One V

The next in the One series, the HTC One V sports the familiar bent chin design with an all-aluminium body. The smartphone runs on Android 4.0 and comes integrated with Beats audio. It has a 3.7-inch display, houses a 5MP camera and is layered with HTC Sense 4.0.

Microsoft redesigns Bing, plays up Facebook link

Microsoft Corp unveiled a new design on Thursday for its second-ranked Bing search engine, introducing elements from Facebook and other social networks, as it tries to claw market share from leader Google Inc.

Slow off the mark in Internet search, Microsoft has racked up losses of more than $6 billion in its online unit since launching Bing three years ago, but has yet to make a mark on Google's dominance of the lucrative ad search market.

In its latest push to increase usage of Bing, Microsoft is introducing a new, three-column screen design. Alongside the familiar search results displayed in blue to the left of the screen, Bing is rolling out an instant snapshot column, which displays extra information and links most likely to be useful such as maps, reviews and reservation tools.

To the right, it features a column of users' Facebook friends, giving them the option of asking their advice on a search. Users can also access their contacts on LinkedIn (LNKD.N), Twitter and other networks.

Bye, Bye Waterfall: 5 Steps to Implement Responsive Web Design

Congratulations, you’ve finally convinced the powers that be that your next Web-design project needs to be responsive. It was tough work convincing them, but you can’t rest on your laurels now. The most critical decision of the project remains: how is your team going to build it?

Responsive Roundup

You're probably familiar with the typical "waterfall"process: start with strategy, then onto design, followed by front- and back-end development and finally analytics implementation. The main attribute of the waterfall process is its linear nature: once a stage ends, the next one begins with a near-perfect dovetail. The progression through the stages only goes in a single direction, and unfortunately as problems accumulate, they inevitably flow downhill and changes are not handled very gracefully.

Google puts a price tag on Cloud SQL services

Trying to convince naysayers that it’s serious about Google App Engine as abona fide business, Google on Thursday put a price plan around its MySQL-basedCloud SQL services.

There will be two options. One is what Google calls a true per user price model to help get people started and in which they incur query charges  only when they are actively using the service although the storage meter keeps running throughout.

This model targets users with lightweight applications and/or those with unknown spiky workloads who don’t want to have to predict their usage in advance, said Joe Faith, product manager for Google Cloud SQL.

5 Facebook games worth friending

Most gamers cringe at the thought of playing games on Facebook, and who can blame them? After years spent scrubbing their walls of incessant requests for bales of hay -- or doing the farm-spamming themselves -- they've grown wary of signing up for yet another Facebook clickfest.

The good news is that a handful of newer Facebook games deliver plenty of fun without requiring that you ruin your relationships. Better yet, some actually offer gameplay deep enough to warrant an hour or two of your time each day. If you're looking for new Facebook game pal, start with these five.

Marvel Avengers Alliance

The only thing more shocking than the lack of a blockbuster console game based on 'The Avengers' is the fact that this Facebook take on the superhero squad is so good. (UPDATE: Ubisoft is now making an Avengers game, but it's only for Kinect and Wii U. That's kind of shocking, too.)

Built by Playdom, Marvel Avengers Alliance lets you create a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and recruit a team of heroes to battle a variety of threats from the Marvel universe. Boasting nearly 30 Marvel characters -- including The Avengers team members, Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four and a host of lesser known characters (Iron Fist, baby!) -- it's dripping with authenticity. While having friends certainly helps, the game's smart, turn-based strategy gameplay makes it plenty of fun to play alone. Some heroes work better that way, anyway.

3G-capable BlackBerry Curve 9320, to arrive in June

RIM has announced a new BlackBerry phone – the Curve 9320, an entry-level device with 3G capabilities and BlackBerry OS 7.1, which according to the latest reports, is expected to arrive in India sometime in June. Pricing is as of yet unknown, but it is expected to be anywhere between Rs. 12,000 and Rs. 14,000, looking at where it would fit in the BlackBerry lineup.

Android tips and tricks

You don't need a degree in software engineering to get more out of your Android smartphone.

Regardless of the kind of Android phone you're packing — be it from Samsung, HTC, LG,Motorola or Sony, to name a few makers — we've got a handful of helpful ways to unlock the capabilities of your favorite handset.

Unless otherwise specified, it also shouldn't matter what version of Android you're running on your smartphone, with the most popular today being Android 2.3 ("Gingerbread") or the latest release, Android 4.0 ("Ice Cream Sandwich"). To figure out what version you're running, go to the About section of your device, under Settings.

Many of these tips and tricks will work on Android-based tablets (including those powered by Android 3.x, a.k.a. "Honeycomb") as well as phone-tablet hybrids like the Samsung Galaxy Note and its built-in stylus pen.

Oh, and if you have any tips of your own, feel free to share them with others below in the Comments section.

Samsung Galaxy S III review

So, the Samsung Galaxy S III (with roman numerals) is finally here, and Pocket-lint is one of the first in the world to actually get its hands on one of the Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich-touting devices.

And, although we haven't had time to review it fully - including a more in-depth play with TouchWiz and the user interface other than specific new features - it's looking good. Very good indeed.

The handset itself is massive, measuring 136.6mm tall, 70.6mm wide and boasting a waistline of 8.6mm - which is basically as thin as its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S II, but much bigger.

It's heavier, at 133g, although that's really because of the extra glass needed to front the gorgeous 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED touchscreen, which is eye-searingly vibrant. And that extra weight doesn't matter much in the hand, you'd barely notice (too busy looking at the tasty display).

New Galaxy S III phone is bigger and smarter

At a press event in London on Thursday that it described as an "unpacking," Samsung indeed rolled out an impressive array of hardware and software enhancements that the company hopes will help it retain its ranking as the top cellphone-maker in the world.

The biggest feature (literally) most consumers will notice is a stunning 4.8-inch Super AMOLED screen. That's about a half-inch larger than Samsung's Galaxy S II, and significantly bigger than the 3.5-inch high-resolution display on the Apple iPhone 4S. Despite the large screen, the S III actually is a bit thinner than the iPhone 4S (8.6mm vs. 9.33mm) and is slightly lighter as well (133 grams vs. 140 grams).

This Website Knows - Who Googled You

After a date, a pitch or a job interview, there’s a good chance you’re going to get Googled. Online reputation manager BrandYourself now helps you figure out who is searching for your name. 

The startup, which helps individuals control Google results for names through SEO, launched a new feature on Tuesday that shows users where visitors to their BrandYourself profiles work and where they’re located.

BrandYourself built a database of organizations’ publicly-available IP addresses in order to create the feature. They use it to match IP addressees of profile visitors with the companies that own those addressses.

Top 5 gaming smartphones

Smartphones have become portable gaming powerhouses with ever increasing graphics muscle. Every year, high-end smartphones are being launched by various companies with even better graphics playing capability than their predecessors. Also, the qualities of mobile games have been raised to match up the core hardware power. Here is a list of such powerful gaming smartphones worth possessing.

In last couple of months, two new devices - HTC One X and Sony Xperia S have been introduced in India. We would have included the Galaxy Nexus but unfortunately it still has not been launched in India.

Apple iPhone 4S

The latest Apple iPhone 4S smartphone packs a new dual-core 1 GHz A5 mobile processor. Apart from that, its graphics chip - PowerVR SGX543MP2, which comes with two cores is considered as the best. This dual-core graphics chip offers seven times more performance than its predecessor chip while playing games and also loads apps faster, though the RAM configuration remains unchanged. The faster performance is further aided by the inclusion of the OpenGL ES 2.0 engine support in the iOS operating system.

Google launches Google Drive & upgrades Gmail to 10 GB for all users

Google has launched Google Drive, a cloud storage service where users can upload and access all of their files, including videos, photos, Google Docs, PDFs and beyond. The service is offering new users 5GB of storage for free with upgrades starting at 25GB for $2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month or even 1TB for $49.99/month. Google also increased the free storage in Gmail from the existing 7.5 GB to 10 GB to all users.

Lamborghini’s not-so-secret SUV leaks early as the Urus

The least-kept secret of the Beijing Motor Show spilled out today with the leak of these renderings showing Lamborghini's proposed new sport utility vehicle. Dubbed the Urus, the concept SUV would be Lamborghini's bid to cash in on the booming global market for high-end luxury SUVs -- if customers can accept the strange blend of supercar angles and racing tires on a high-riding hatchback.

BlackBerry Curve 9220 @ Rs 10,999

Research in Motion launched in India what it called its most affordable BlackBerry smartphone, part of an aggressive push in one of its few growing markets. The new Blackberry Curve 9220 is priced in India at Rs 10,990, higher than the price of Curve 8520, which is RIM's best-selling phone in India, and comes with an introductory offer to download free applications worth Rs 2,500.

The phone has a raft of features, including a dedicated Black Berry messenger key, and is loaded with the company's latest operating system (OS) 7.1 OS. The smart phone also has a built in FM radio.