Abhiroop Basu

Abhiroop Basu is an opinionated tech and digital media blogger. As a doe-eyed twenty-something he started his first blog TechComet to comment on anything tech-related that caught his omniscient eye. Since then he has blogged for Android Police, Make Tech Easier, and This Green Machine. In the real world, Abhiroop Basu is a resident of Singapore and the Editor of The Digit, a subsidiary of The Potato Productions Group.

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Oct

Ice Cream Sandwich Feature Closer Look - Create Ad-Hoc Wireless Networks With Wi-Fi Direct

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Applications, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Although it wasn't announced alongside the plethora of other features during the Ice Cream Sandwich event, Wi-Fi Direct may prove to be one of the more important and revolutionary features of the new OS. In the old days Bluetooth was the standard method of device to device data transfer, but now with Ice Cream Sandwich we are given Wi-Fi Direct and Android Beam. The latter uses NFC to transfer links, media, and other data, while the former is an interesting implementation of the wireless standard which creates ad-hoc networks between compatible devices.

Wi-Fi Direct works by letting users connect directly to nearby devices over Wi-Fi, without any tethering or data connectivity required.

Oct

Get The New ICS Font Roboto On Your Android Device Right Now

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Applications, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, Tutorials

Today's Ice Cream Sandwich announcement yielded a number of exciting enhancements, but not quite as distinctive as the new font Roboto. Indeed during the keynote, the presenter spent an inordinate amount of time expounding the virtues of this font. Roboto is a sans-serif font with characters that have a pleasing roundness, and are spaced evenly, making e-mails, clocks, and menus easy on the eyes, and, in the words of one presenter, "a pleasure to read".

Unfortunately, as the font comes with the new OS, the majority of Android users will not be able to experience Roboto until their devices are upgraded to Android 4.0.

Oct

Ice Cream Sandwich Coming To Nexus S And Possibly All Gingerbread Devices

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, Nexus S (Crespo/Soju)

Engadget managed to get some face time with Google's Gabe Cohen and he has confirmed that Ice Cream Sandwich will definitely be coming to the Nexus S. According to Engadget, both he and Matias Duarte are of the opinion that most Gingerbread devices (e.g. the Samsung Galaxy SII) will receive the upgrade.

They said that Google is "currently in the process for releasing Ice Cream Sandwich for Nexus S" and that in theory it "should work for any 2.3 device."

Unfortunately, there is no word yet on when ICS would be coming to the Android 2.3 devices and there is also no clear plan on whether ICS will ever come to older devices such as the Nexus One.

Oct

ICS Has Completely Revamped Your Contacts Into The "People" app

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Applications, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

In an age where a "contact" is more than a mere phone number and email address, contact management has become a tedious process. So, I was pleased to see Google taking a step in the right direction with ICS and updating the contact manager into the new and improved "People" app. During the ICS live blog Hugo Barra, Product Management Director for Android at Google, demoed the new People app by showing off how it seamlessly integrated all the contact's basic information together with the person's different social profiles.

The user interface has also been completely revamped and viewing contacts has now become a much more visual experience.

Oct

Galaxy Nexus Confirmed For November By Japan's NTT DoCoMo

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Galaxy Nexus / Nexus Prime, News

Although the official launch of Google and Samsung's first Ice Cream Sandwich phone is still a few hours away, Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo has prematurely confirmed the existence of the Galaxy Nexus. In a tweet sent out a few hours ago, @docomo stated that it would be "among the fastest" to launch the handset, when it becomes available in November.

Rumours have already surfaced indicating that Google's latest flagship phone will come to Verizon on November 10th and will cost $299.99. However that is more likely to be the earliest possible launch date and there has been no confirmation of these rumours.

Oct

Calling All Baseball Fans, Follow Your Favorite Team With The MLB At Bat 2011 Tablet App

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Applications, News

Baseball fans rejoice, MLB has released an Android App that provides an easy and fun way of keeping track of your favorite team as it progresses through the 2011 Postseason. The MLB.com At Bat 11 for tablets is chock-full of enough stats, information, schedules and live ball-by-ball coverage to keep even the most rabid fans satiated during the Postseason.

This app features a number of interesting and innovative features, including:

Information from every Postseason game, including series scoreboards, previews, recaps and schedules
Home and away radio broadcasts
Gameday pitch-by-pitch tracking features, including realistic ballpark renderings from all 30 MLB parks in partnership with MLB 11: The Show
U.S.

Oct

Blizzard And NVIDIA Release Official BlizzCon 2011 Android App

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Android OS, Applications

BlizzCon is an annual convention held to celebrate the three major franchises (Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo) of Blizzard Entertainment. The next convention has been announced for October 21 to 22 and to help conference goers stay on top of all the events BlizzCon, in collabaration with NVIDIA, have launched the official BlizzCon 2011 Android App.

The app features:

A built-in calendar and planner that allows you to view the details of all the events taking place and add them to your personal calendar. The items in your itinerary can then be sorted by day, time, game series, and more.

Oct

LG Officially Announces The DoublePlay - Because Two Screens Are Always Better Than One

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in LG, News, T-Mobile

Confirming the leak from last week, LG and T-Mobile USA have announced the whacky LG DoublePlay Android 2.3 smartphone. In portrait mode the phone is a fairly standard, albeit smallish, Android device, but slide it open and suddenly you have an extra screen in between a full QWERTY keyboard.

When we first posted images of the DoublePlay its specs and features were uncertain, we can now confirm the following:

3.5-inch main display, 2.0-inch sub display
1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor
Slide-out QWERTY keyboard
5MP camera with 720p video recording
"Group Text" - create group chats on-the-go for faster content sharing
"Cloud Text" - send and receive texts between a PC or a tablet

The press release boasts a lot about the DoublePlay's dual capacitive touch screens, which supposedly makes the device the "ultimate multitasking handset".

Oct

Major Financial Powerhouse U.S. Bank Releases Android App

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Applications, News

U.S. Bank has decided to jump on the bandwagon and release their own Android banking app, which promises a fresh look, better navigation and improved security.

The app supports all the standard features one would expect from banking apps, including the ability to:

Deposit checks with DepositPoint Mobile - simply take a photo of the front and back of your check and input the dollar amount.
Pay bills
Check balances
Transfer money between accounts
View transactions
Locate ATMs

Current U.S. Bank customers who use internet banking can login to the mobile app by using their current personal ID and password.

Oct

[Updated] [Deal Alert] Motorola Atrix 2 Now On Sale For $99.99 At AT&T, Only $49.99 At Amazon Wireless And Best Buy

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Amazon, AT&T, Atrix 2, Deals, News

AT&T's fall line-up of smartphones got a boost today with the Motorola Atrix 2 going on sale for $99.99 with a 2-year contract.

However, if you are a new customer signing up for a 2-year contract, we would strongly recommend heading to AmazonWireless and picking up the device for only $49.99.

Unfortunately, the deal isn't so great for current customers as they will have to pay $199.99 for the handset.

Those who already have an AT&T contract may be feeling left out by Amazon's lack of a discount, but fear not as Best Buy is offering the Atrix 2 for $49.99 to ALL its customers, regardless of whether they are upgrading or signing up for a new line.