Happy New Year to all our Readers Friends

It’s that time of year already, and yet another year over, so here’s wishing you all a superb 2011, which I’m sure is going to be an amazing year!

Stay safe if you are out partying this evening, and don’t drink and drive !

 

See you all in the New Year! Welcome in 2011

Apple IPad 2 Sporting a Dual-Core Processor - Analyst

 More rumours about the much anticipated Apple iPad 2, this time that it could contain a dual-core processor to speed up the device performance, especially in playing back of media files. An analyst at Rodman & Renshaw, Ashok Kumar has written a research note suggesting the iPad sequel will be dual-core based.

Kumar wrote that he expects that we'll be seeing the dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex A9 chip by March, with a similar upgrade for the iPhone 5 later in the year.

It is suggested that the move to dual-core processors will be necessary for the device to maintain its performance in light of increasing smartphones and tablets coming onto the market with ever increasing performance leads. The performance boost will also make it easier for Apple to deploy multimedia adverts inside its applications - a key requirement for its own iAds platform to command higher advertising rates.

Sony sues to block LG from shipping phones to U.S.

LG, South Korea's fourth-largest conglomerate, this month said it is trying to expand its major businesses, including smartphones, and on Tuesday said it wants to raise 2011 sales by 11 percent to 156 trillion won ($135 billion).Since October, LG has sold 2 million units of the Optimus One smartphone, its most popular smartphone model to date.Sony reported an operating profit of 68.7 billion yen ($847 million) in the three months ended September 30, reversing a loss the previous year.The ITC case is In re: Certain Mobile Phones and Modems, U.S. International Trade Commission, No. 337-TA. The California case is Sony Corp. v. LG Electronics USA Inc. et al, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, No. 2:10-09967.

Sony Corp has filed a patent infringement complaint seeking to block LG Electronics Inc from shipping smartphones such as its Rumor 2 model to the United States.
In a filing late Wednesday with the U.S. International Trade Commission, Sony said LG violated U.S. trade rules by importing mobile phones and modems that infringed Sony patents.
Sony said LG also infringed patents of some of its licensees, including its Sony Ericsson joint venture, Samsung and Nokia.
The company filed a related complaint with the federal court in Los Angeles, court records show. A copy of that complaint was not immediately available.

LG spokesman John Taylor said in an email that it is company policy not to discuss pending litigation.
Sony said the patent infringement relates to more than 10 phones including the Encore, LG Accolade, Neon, Quantum, Rumor Touch and others.

The patents in the suit involve audio and microphone devices in phones, caller ID technology and transmission power.

LG Launches World’s first and fastest Dual-Core Smartphone

LG Electronics (LG) today unveiled the LG Optimus 2X, the world’s first smartphone with a dual-core processor. Along with more powerful multimedia features, the LG Optimus 2X’s high-performance Tegra 2 processor makes for faster, smoother web browsing and applications and lets users multitask with virtually no screen lag.

“Dual-core technology is the next leap forward in mobile technology so this is no small achievement to be the first to offer a smartphone utilizing this technology,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, CEO and President of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “With unique features such as HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) mirroring and exceptional graphics performance, the LG Optimus 2X is proof of LG’s commitment to high-end smartphones in 2011.”

Developed by graphics processor powerhouse NVIDIA?, the dual-core Tegra 2 system-on-a-chip found in the LG Optimus 2X runs at a clock speed of 1GHz and boasts low power consumption and high performance for playing video and audio. Users will experience faster web browsing and smoother gameplay compared with single-core processors running at the same speed as well as instantaneous touch response and seamless multitasking between applications.

The LG Optimus 2X offers 1080p HD video playback and recording with HDMI mirroring that expands content on external displays to full HD quality. The LG Optimus 2X can connect wirelessly to any DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) compatible digital device such as HD TVs for a console-like gaming experience taking full advantage of the phone’s HDMI mirroring, accelerometer and gyro sensor. The smartphone also includes both rear- and front-facing cameras, microSD memory expandability, Micro-USB port and a hefty 1500mAh battery.

The LG Optimus 2X will be available in Korea next month with countries in Europe and Asia to follow. The phone will initially be released with Android 2.2 (Froyo) and will be upgradeable to Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). The upgrade schedule will be announced in local markets in due course.

Meeting Notes for iPhone Review

Meeting Notes is a small program that makes it possible to record meetings, while taking important notes at specific times.A more or less dispensable app.

The app is well suited to record meetings of different kinds, and provides ample opportunity to categorize these meetings, as well as add important notes at specific times in the recording. It seems that way to you first start recording, then you have the opportunity to: Pause the recording, adding a quick note could later be edited to add a note to be edited immediately, take a picture with the camera for use as a note . You also have the opportunity to make a covert meeting recording, making the screen black (not off) and you can then add a quick note by clicking once on the screen.

Functionality

It is by no means an ambitious app we’re doing. It is obvious that it is functional, but as regards the overall impression you will not be impressed. The interface is relatively functioning, however, some text labels may be preferable, so you knew what buttons were for.Looks are directly ugliness that is in no way made something out of the presentation. It is perhaps not the most important, but we know that the iPhone is capable of more.

In practice

It works. One can easily hear what people say as long as they’re relatively close. If you’re talking about a larger meeting of 10 or more at a long table or the like, it will be a problem to hear all equally clear. For small group meetings or private conversations is quite good.

Why?

Most apps will serve a purpose of one kind or another, and caters therefore also to a specific audience. I find it hard to imagine a city council where everyone sits and uses their iPhone to record, taking notes and snapping pictures of each other to mark who said what. It works simply impractical, it’s a good idea to take notes, but it can easily be done on a piece of paper or the iPhone’s built-in note application. Also you can record a meeting with the program Memos which lies on all iPhones.

Recommended

There is no doubt that anyone could find the program extremely useful, especially because the program’s ability to combine important notes with audio recording. Basically, the program can not be recommended for the general iPhone user, it is by no means indispensable, given that iPhone has built-in features for both notes and recording. The price of 12 dollars is reasonable if you have a direct need for a program of this type.

HOW TO: Back Up Your Social Media Presence Before the Ball Drops - The word of awahid

Remember how we were all freaking out on New Year’s Eve, 1999, convinced that the world as we know it would end — at the hands of machines, of course? Well, we weathered that storm and then some. Still, as we shamble forward into the next decade, it might be prudent to take pause and take stock of the years behind us. Translation: Back up your stuff.
Think of it as stockpiling food and building a fallout shelter for the 21st century. We have a ton of information, photos and memories scattered around the web that we would be loathe to lose, and while it’s unlikely that the entire Internet is going to come crashing down in the next week or so, it still might be wise to put some of that stuff in an iron box for safe keeping.
Read on, and Christina Warren and I will show you how to…

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… Back Up Your Tweets

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Yes, the Library of Congress is now hoarding tweets, but that doesn’t do much for the casual user looking to keep a log of his own mundane musings, now does it?
Thankfully, you’re got some options. There’s TweetStream, which lets you back up your data as well as mine it for information and statistics. (Be warned, this service takes a looooong time to gather your info).
And if TweetStream doesn’t strike your fancy, TweetScan, a site we covered back in 2009, will track your data back to 2007, and, using OAuth, will even grab your timeline, tweets from friends and direct messages.
Pinboard, a paid, Delicious-like (RIP) tool, also lets you store your tweets — you can also back up or archive tweets from other usernames or from hashtags, as well as add favorites from a username and turn links embedded in tweets into bookmarks.

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… Back Up Your Blog

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After Tumblr’s epic outage the other week, we showed you all how to back up your blogs. Well, we’re just going to reiterate that right now, along with some solutions for WordPress as well. Remember how you felt when your mom threw away all your old journals, crammed to the margins with angsty poetry? Well, that’s not a feeling one would like to replicate later in life (unless it was relief — in which case, disregard).

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Tumblr

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Last year, Tumblr launched a backup app that allows users to save their blogs so that they can be viewed on any computer, burned to a CD or hosted as an archive of static HTML files. The app is super easy to use: Simply download, enter your Tumblr sign-in info and save your blog to your desktop (it looks like the below screenshot). You can launch the app and backup more info every time you post as well.
Note, this app is only for Mac OS X (10.5 or higher), but there are other options for those who use different operating systems.

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WordPress

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If your blog or website uses WordPress, grabbing a backup file of all your posts, pages and comments is easy. In the WordPress dashboard, just go to Tools, Export and choose what types of posts you want to export.
If you want a backup of your entire WordPress database, the excellent WP-DB-Backup plugin can make scheduled database backups for your WordPress site at intervals you choose and even e-mail you the backup file.

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… Back Up Your Photos

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If you’re like millions of Internet users, you probably upload most of your photos to a photo-sharing site like Flickr or Facebook. While you’re backing up your blog entries, tweets and Facebook messages, it might be a good idea to go ahead and archive all of your photos, too. If nothing else, this is a great way to destroy the evidence from that sorority beer bong tournament in college.
Flickr is a great service and in terms of reliability, it’s consistently solid. What’s less consistent is the whims of its parent company, Yahoo. If the Delicious debacle has taught us anything, it’s that Yahoo isn’t afraid to sell off or shut down a service with millions of daily users.
Lots of apps and tools let you back up your Flickr photo stream, but a quick, fuss-free way to unload years of photo uploads is the Adobe Air app Flump. The app works on Mac, Windows and Linux and downloads a copy of each photo in your stream to a folder of your choice.
Be aware that while this will grab each and every photo, tags, titles and photo sets are not preserved. There a few other alternatives if you’re willing to invest more time in the process, but Flump gets the job done.

Nokia Siemens Networks now targets acquisition of Motorola's public carrier wireless network infrastructure assets in first quarter of 2011

Pending regulatory approval from the authority in China
Antitrust clearance received from US, European Union, Brazil, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan and Turkey

 

Nokia Siemens Networks today announced that it now expects to complete its acquisition of the majority of Motorola's public carrier wireless network infrastructure assets in the first quarter of 2011. The company had expected, at the time the transaction was originally announced on July 19, 2010, to complete closing activities by the end of 2010 but the transaction has not yet received regulatory approval from the Anti-Monopoly Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce of China, which is continuing its review process. All other necessary regulatory clearances have been obtained.

 "This delay is disappointing, but we're looking forward to completing the acquisition early in the new year," said Rajeev Suri, chief executive officer of Nokia Siemens Networks. "We are continuing to work closely with the authority in China to finalize the clearance process in that country. We recognize its efforts in addressing this case as a matter of importance."

 Approximately 7,500 employees are expected to transfer to Nokia Siemens Networks from Motorola's public carrier wireless network infrastructure business when the transaction closes, including large research and development sites in the United States, China and India.

New Version of Sn0wbreeze is Coming Soon to Preserve the Baseband of the iPhone

A few hours ago, via his Twitter account, iH8sn0w announced that a new version of Sn0wbreeze is  coming that will allow users to preserve the baseband wile upgrading to firmware 4.2.1.

Those who do not know about Snowbreeze, Snowbreeze is a tool to create custom firmware without upgrading the firmware. But the new “Baseband Preservation Mode” is different from the old version as it allows you to restore your iDevice firmware to iOS 4.2.1 without upgrading its baseband, it will not jailbreak or unlock the device.

In this way, even users of the iPhone 3G and iPhone 4 aliens can update the firmware 4.2.1 and enjoy untethered jailbreak. There is no release date announced yet, we will inform as soon we know more, stay tuned with us !

Nokia C1-01 mobile phone Review

New Nokia C1-01 Mobile Phone

A stylish, reliable phone with a host of multimedia and messaging features.

Fast access to email, IM and internet

Stay in touch with friends, family and the world around you with fast access to your email, instant messaging services, the internet and Nokia's Ovi Life Tools.

Built-in camera

Take great pictures and share your favourites through MMS, Bluetooth or a microUSB connector cable.

FM radio and music player

Listen to your favourite music and radio shows on the go – and build your collection with up to 32 GB of expandable memory.

Nokia C1-01 Specifications

Display and user interface

Screen size: 1.8"

Resolution: 128 x 160 pixels

Up to 65,000 colours

Dimensions

Size: 108 x 45 x 14 mm

Weight (with battery BL-5C): 79.05g

Volume: 62 cc

Keys and input methods

Menu key, Send/End keys

5-way Navi Key

Colours

Available colours:

Red

Warm Grey

Personalisation

Customisable profiles

Ring tones: MP3

Themes

wallpapers

ring tones

pre-installed themes

Data network

GPRS rel-4 class B, GPRS multi-slot class 10

Connectivity

Bluetooth

Full-Speed USB 2.0

3.5 mm AV connector

Memory

MicroSD memory card slot, hot swappable, up to 32 GB

Internal memory: 64 MB

Operating frequency

Dual band EGSM 900/1800

Power Management

BL-5C 1020 mAh battery

Software platform & user interface

S40

FOTA (Firmware update Over The Air)

Applications

Nokia Messaging Service, Email (SMTP, IMAP4, POP3), MMS, SMS

Data: Calendar, Contacts, To-do, Notes, E-mail

Personal Information Management (PIM)

Calendar

Clock

Advanced calculator

Expense manager

World clock

Converter

Organiser

Call management

Contacts: up to 1000 entries

Speed dialling

Logs of dialled, received and missed calls

Conference calling

Integrated handsfree speakers

Email and messaging

Supported for MMS, SMS

Nokia Messaging Service

Browsing and internet

Web Browsing with Opera Mini

Supported markup languages: HTML, XHTML, WML, CSS

Supported protocols: HTTP v1.1, WAP

TCP/IP support

History, HTML and JavaScript suppprt

Camera

Still Image support: GIF, BMP, JPG

Other

64 MB internal memory, expandable to up to 32 GB with microSD card

Full-Speed USB 2.0 connectivity

Video cameras

VGA Camera

Video file format: .3gp

Video codecs & formats

Video file format: .3gp

Music features

Music codecs: .MP3

Stereo FM radio (87.5-108 MHz/76-90 MHz), RDS

Audio Codecs: MP3 ringtone, AAC, AMR, MIDI, WAV

Radio recording feature*

*Radio recording feature is only available in selected regions

Radio

Stereo FM radio (87.5-108 MHz/76-90 MHz), RDS

Radio recording feature

Price

Price in Rs: 4,600 Price in USD: $55

BlackBerry Top 5 Paid Apps

 1. Bejeweled for BlackBerry

Get it here

It seems as though most apps are on sale – at a very low price these holidays. Grab this particular game that is famous not only on mobile devices but on Facebook – with millions of players. It is a treasure hunt game in which a person has to look for Gems so as to gain a number of points. You can play alone, against others or against the clock – whichever suits you best!

2. Photo Editor

Get it here

it so happens that this here BlackBerry app is available at a low price – for sale – on the Blackberry store. As such, we’d recommend grabbing it as soon as you read through our brief description of it. Its name is more or less straightforward – and its function is much the same. It is a photo editor application with two main functions – Paint and Framers. It has won the BlackBerry® Super App Challenge Regional Selection award. Some of its features are as follows:

• Crop Photos
• Rotate Photos
• Adjust Brightness
• Adjust Contrast
• Re-size to reduce the image size
• Change color to sepia, black’n white or invert image colors
• Save and send edited photo as an email

3. Chat for FaceBook

Get it here

Facebook has an inbuilt chat feature – at the bottom. It is a good choice for chatting for many people. It is simple and easy to use. This particular app for the Blackberry allows a person to easily chat via Facebook with a UI that is clean, simple and user friendly. Thus, if you are looking for an app that replicates the Facebook chat experience on your Blackberry, look no further.

4. Scrabble

Get it here

Scrabble – one of the most well known games on this planet and also one of the oldest board games. It is a word game in which you have to arrange words in much the same manner as in a crossword puzzle. It has a good number of rules and you can also play against the computer or against another player. It is made by EA.

5. The Sims 3

Get it here

When it comes to simulation games and the simulation of our real human lives, the Sims series of games is one of the most well known with a huge number of players. This particular app brings the Sims experience to the Blackberry – so that you can grab a play even in your office. It has excellent graphics and excellent gameplay – much like the desktop version.

Mouse for Men with flexible touchscreen

The concept: Developed for LG Cube Competition 2010, the “Mouse for Men” by Indian designer Nitin Mane is a mouse concept with a flexible touchscreen and pressure sensitive technology to enhance the experience of modern geeks. Inspired by the original mouse, the new mouse includes a separable tail for the ease of use. Based on the design and position of the human hand to enhance the comfort, the futuristic mouse seems to place buttons in opposite directions, though they work like contemporary mice.

 The shift

In the recent past we have marked a great shift in the form and function of electronic gadgets, thanks to latest design techniques and innovations in technology. The wireless optical mouse is the latest PC accessory that eliminating internal moving parts of the mechanical mouse uses a light-emitting diode and photodiodes to detect movement relative to the underlying surface. However, nobody thought about the mixing of the touchscreen with a mouse that presenting touch controls will make the mouse more ergonomic and user friendly. Check out the slideshow to go through some highly efficient mice of the future.

Forces behind the shift

With the changing needs of modern workspaces we need some highly efficient and functional gadgets to enhance the work efficiency and keep up the pace with rest of the world. Since touchscreen technology is improving day by day and becoming an integral part of modern lifestyle, it can play an important part in enhancing the usability of contemporary gadgets. Moreover, users are looking for more decent devices to keep updated with modern technology.

The windward side

The Mouse for Men comes with OLED touchscreen interface and status display, allowing users to customize buttons and menus according to their work needs or individual preference. Featuring a customizable thumb launcher to quickly access the need of the user, the touch sensitive mouse also allows emergency charging at end of normal battery life. Designed for easy handling, the concept mouse integrates a heat sensor to know the current heat generated by your hand on the screen, so you could take care of the screen and your working hours as well. While on/off launchers with customizable menu on both sides avoid undesired contact with the thumb launch menu.

The leeward side

Touchscreen devices usually have no additional keys and this means when an app crashes, without crashing the OS, you can’t get to the main menu, as the whole screen becomes unresponsive. In addition, touch sensitive devices usually have low precision, with virtual QWERTY keyboards being one of the most annoying things. Moreover, touchscreen devices require massive computing power which leads to slow devices and low battery life.

Source: geeky gadget

10 Mobile Apps for Movie Addicts

The Movie and Tech Series is supported by DVDVideoSoft. Discover Free Studio, a full collection of free software to process video, images and audio at DVDVideoSoft.com. Clean, free and user-friendly.
One of the greatest things about the burgeoning smartphone app market is all the apps, tools and games for movie lovers. Beyond just finding movie times and getting actor or director information, these apps can actually enhance the moviegoing experience itself by making it easier to manage your personal collections, rent movies online and even find out when it’s safe to skip out for a restroom break.
With several hundred thousand apps in the App StoreApp Store and Android MarketAndroid Market, it’s pretty tough to cover every app out there for movie fans. That’s why we’ve taken the time to try out and recommend 10 apps for movie addicts who want to get the most out of the movie watching experience.
We tried to stay as platform neutral as possible, picking apps (or alternatives) for iPhoneiPhone, AndroidAndroid and BlackBerryBlackBerry Rocks! users. Feel free to add your own recommendations in the comments below.

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1. Movies/Movies HD – iPhone and iPad, Movie Collection for Android

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How big is your personal DVD/BluBlu-ray/downloaded movie collection? If you’re anything like me, it’s pretty massive. My problem is, I often forget which movies or TV shows I actually own. This leads to me rebuying stuff I already have. I know, I know, First World Problem. Fortunately, with smartphones, there is a First World Solution, too. A number of apps help you manage and keep track of your personal library and access those libraries on the go.
Movies for iPhone [iTunes link] is $3.99 and it is as a great way to view your movie collection, plus it can use the iPhone camera to scan the UPC code from your DVD or Blu-ray discs. This will remind many Mac users of the fantastic Delicious Library app. You can even import your existing databases from movie collecting apps like Delicious Library, Collectorz or DVD Profiler.
At $4.99, Movies HD [iTunes link] is the iPad version of the app, which brings the feature set to a bigger device (sans UPC scanning, of course, due to the iPad’s lack of a camera) and makes it easy to add details or search your collection.
For Android owners, the $1.99 Movie Collection doesn’t have all the bells and whistles or database support types, but it’s a good start for movie collectors on the go.

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2. Movies by Flixster – Android, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry

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The FlixsterFlixster movie community has apps for iPhone, Android, Palm Pre, BlackBerry and mobile web enabled phones.
If you’re not familiar with Flixster, it’s a great community for rating movies, getting showtimes, watching trailers, seeing what your friends think of movies, seeing the Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes score and, on the iPhone and Android apps, managing your Netflix queue.

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3. IMDb – Android, iPhone, iPad

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The best movie database on the planet recently turned 20 years old, and it’s still just as young and spritely as ever before.
Last December, IMDbimdb finally managed to release an official mobile app for iPhone, making the mobile browsing experience of finding “who was the guy in this episode of CSI: Miami” a little less painful.
When the iPad was released, IMDb made its iOS app universal [iTunes link], taking advantage of the new screen real estate on the iPad. This summer, IMDb for Android was released, completing the trifecta, so to speak.
The mobile apps offer a superior browsing experience while on a mobile device and also make it easy to get information about showtimes for movies or TV shows.

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4. Turner Classic Movies – Android, iPhone, BlackBerry App World

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When Turner Classic Movies released its iPhone app at the beginning of the year, we were really impressed by the $2.99 app.
In the ensuing months, TCM has managed to release the app for Android Market and BlackBerry App World as well. The app is $2.99 on each platform but offers the same solid experience of schedules, photos, trivia, movie history, photos and more. If you love classic movies, definitely add this one to your collection.

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5. Get Glue – iPhone, iPad, Android

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We’re big fans of GetGlue, the social sharing and recommendation service. Its mobile apps for iPhone, Android and iPad add to the overall experience by letting you check in to various types of media, including movies.
For movie fans, the great thing about the GetGlue apps is that you can get recommendations from the service based on your likes, see what your friends like and also earn points and stickers toward upcoming movies.
It’s a great way to augment the movie-watching experience.

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6. LOVEFiLM UK for iPhone, droids LOVEFiLM for Android

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In the United States, we have Netflix. In the UK, LOVEFiLMLOVEFiLM is the movie rental service of movie rental services.
If you’re looking for a way to manage your LOVEFiLM queue on an iPhone or Android phone, you’re in luck.
The iPhone has an official LOVEFiLM app [iTunes link] that lets you manage your queue, rate titles and watch trailers. The unofficial droids LOVEFiLM isn’t as pretty and it doesn’t let you manage your rentals unless you buy the paid version, but it still does the job.

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7. iPhlix for iPhone, iPhlix HD for iPad, NetQ or PhoneFlicks for Android

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Netflix’s Watch Instantly service is on practically every consumer electronics device on the market today — including Blu-ray players, TV sets, Apple TV, Roku, Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 3. However, the queue management experience is not universally awesome. If you have a Roku, Apple TV or PS3, it’s pretty solid. The other systems make managing your queue and searching and adding movies less easy to do via the TV interface.
Fortunately, there are tons of Netflix queue management mobile apps on the market. I’ve tried most of them for iPhone and my favorite continues to be iPhlix [iTunes link]. At $2.99, this is just the most consistent app, in my experience, and it makes it easy to manage your discs or Instant Queue, while also letting you rate movies, see new releases and more.
The iPad version is $4.99 and really takes advantage of the larger screen size by making it easier to rate movies, view rating and add various films to your queue.
On the Android side, again, there are lots of options. PhoneFlicks (free) is pretty similar to its iOS counterpart and isn’t a bad app for basic management. NetQ is $0.99 for the ad-free version and it also lets you search YouTubeYouTube for a movie trailer, which is a nice touch.

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8. Redbox for iPhone, RedBoxer for Android

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Closing out the DVD management apps is Redbox. Redbox is the uber-cheap kiosk rental service that has turned Hollywood on its head.
The official iPhone app [iTunes link] is free and actually quite awesome. You can see which movies are available in your area and where, and you can reserve a movie and access maps to nearby Redbox locations near you.
RedBoxer for Android is $1.99 but it lets you bookmark movies, locate kiosks on Google MapsGoogle Maps and reserve movies from the app.

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9. Scene it? Series for iPhone and iPad

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The Scene it? series [iTunes link] of apps for iPhone and iPad are really fantastic. The apps feature tons of high-quality movie clips, are available in a variety of different categories and — at $1.99 for iPhone and $4.99 for iPad — are pretty inexpensive.
If you are familiar with the Scene it? board game, you’ll know how this game works. Get a question based on a movie clip and race to give the right answer. On the iPad especially, this is a great party game.

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10. RunPee for iPhone and Android

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RunPee is an interesting idea for an app. It alerts you when it is “safe” to run the bathroom during a movie. This is convenient for those times you down too much movie theater soda during the 40 minutes of commercials and previews and find yourself needing to use the facilities or play the waiting game.
I’m usually not a fan of leaving the movie theater during a movie, but sometimes the alternative can be equally unpleasant. You could wind up having to use the men’s room after seeing SexSEX and the City: The Movie (the first one, not the sequel) because the line for the ladies was around the corner. True story.
RunPee is frequently updated and is a free app for both iPhone [iTunes link] and Android. You can get alerts when it’s safe to run and when you need to be back, but be aware, the break descriptions can sometimes spoil elements of the movie, so try not to read too much in advance. Additionally, be a good movie goer and keep the iPhone or Droid time to a minimum so that your seatmates don’t get distracted.

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Your Picks

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What are some of your favorite apps to enhance the movie watching experience? Let us know in the comments!

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Series Supported by DVDVideoSoft

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The Movies and Tech Series is supported by DVDVideoSoft, which offers a collection of safe and reliable video, audio and image freeware programs. DVDVideoSoft Free Studio is a collection of more than thirty different utilities designed to go beyond the limitations of the standard WindowsWindows operating system and provide you with new ways to enjoy music and videos the way you choose. Learn more here.

Nokia C3 Review in Detail

Nokia's C3 is a companion to the recently launched, and well-received, C5 and a lookalike for the perennial favourite E72. But don't, for a single moment, labour under the illusion that it is a direct competitor for, or update of, the E72.

With an asking price of £119 direct from Nokia and as little as £80 elsewhere SIM free it's obviously a budget buy.

Our review sample came from Vodafone, where it costs £80 on PAYG. The E72 still costs over £250 SIM free by comparison.

The E series is definitely aimed primarily at the business community, though E handsets have found favour elsewhere. The C series is aimed at people who want a budget handset and also want good communications features, hence the mini QWERTY keyboard that adorns the front and built-in Ovi Maps and Ovi Chat.

Facebook and Twitter feeds can be delivered live to the main screen, and Wi-Fi helps you keep a handle on data usage. You'll need that, actually, because this handset lacks 3G. You'll be relying on GPRS and EDGE for all your network based data comms.

The Nokia C3 comes in three colours. Our review sample was the slate grey option, which is really more blue than grey and a nice enough shade. There are also hot pink (eek!) and golden white versions.

The outer shell is shiny and we found it rather attractive to greasy fingermarks. The back has a matt finish, which is easier to grip and less prone to smears.

The dominant feature of the Nokia C3 is its QWERTY keyboard, which occupies the bottom section of the front fascia. There is a good array of nicely-spaced buttons sitting above this.

The D-pad is large and easy to use and there are two raised silver buttons. On our Vodafone-provided Nokia C3, the right-hand one can be customised immediately – you are walked through the process the first time you hit it.

The left-hand one takes you to Communities – a collective noun for Facebook and Twitter. More on that shortly.

Sitting inside these buttons on the flat fascia of the handset are two icons. You'll need to be precise, but pressing the one marked with the Messages icon took us to MyWeb (Vodafone's 360 service), while the other dropped us into Contacts.

There are also soft menu buttons and the Call and End buttons in this area, the latter doubling up as the on/off switch.

As is often the case, Nokia has made a very good job of the key quality and layout. We really find it difficult to fault.

The sides are fairly minimal in terms of buttons and connectors, though the elements present are where you'd expect to find them. The 3.5mm headset connector sits happily on the top edge alongside the main power connector.

On the left side are mains power and PC connectors (micro-USB) and microSD card slot, both of which are protected by hinged covers. Towards the bottom of this edge is a quick release catch for the backplate.

The right side is black apart from a second quick-release catch, and the bottom edge, which is rather more curved than the top edge, is also blank.

All is not sweetness and light, though. This isn't a small handset, yet the screen is compromised. The Nokia C3 measures 115.5 x 58.1 x 13.6mm and it weighs 114g.

With those dimensions you might expect more than a 2.4-inch screen – we think technically Nokia could have run to larger but the budget probably held things back. Delivering 320 x 240 pixels it is far from ideal for media-rich activities like web browsing. 

Nokia C3: Interface

The Nokia C3 is a Symbian handset, which won't come as a big surprise to anybody. However, it runs Symbian S40, which, rather like the unfortunate younger brother in a Jane Austen novel who has to go into the church to make a living, is a far, far lesser thing than its S60 sibling.

And we're afraid S40 doesn't have the saving grace of being morally sound, lovely to be around and generally a good egg.

No, Symbian S40 feels cut down, hampered and, well, quite simply less than its big brother.

If you've never experienced S60 then you probably won't mind this, but to us the whole thing feels out of step.

Still, the Home screen offers a range of information and application shortcuts so that it looks quite busy and is very useful.

The first row of information is a set of shortcuts to contacts. Five are visible at any one time, with little thumbnail pictures of them. Beneath these is the Communities area.

Before you sign in to Facebook and Twitter there's a blank space here. Sign in to one or both of these and you can see updates, but only for whichever you select as the main account.

You use the D-pad to see older updates. Click the centre of the D-pad to go to a proper app for each service. Multiple accounts for both Facebook and Twitter are supported and it's easy to flick between them to choose different ones as the main account.

It is also easy to go to the Facebook and Twitter apps themselves. It's all very slick and on its own makes the C3 a great handset for social networking.

Beneath this is the Shortcut bar which shows shortcuts to five different apps. You can personalise these so that they show the apps you access most frequently.

And, in fact, you can personalise all three areas, so that they show other things instead of the presets. Options include calendar data, Ovi Chat, notifications and WLAN status.

On the main screen the two softkeys are mapped to the Web and a quick Go To selection of more shortcuts, while the centre of the D-pad takes you to the main apps menu. The whole thing is, as you'd expect from Nokia, extremely slick.

Nokia C3: Calls and messaging 

Making voice calls is a breeze. If the person you want to call is not on your favorites list you can tap the aforementioned front fascia shortcut to get to your full contacts listing.

Alternatively, simply start tapping out a number on the keyboard. The handset assumes you want to enter letters and not numbers, and off you go.

There is a sneaky extra here too. If you want a countdown timer, you can just type in the countdown time you want in the format hhmmss and then choose this from the Options menu on the left softkey. If you want a three minute timer, for example, just enter 0300 for 03 minutes, 00 seconds. Leave a note if you want, then start the timer running.

You can send SMS messages to hand-entered numbers too, of course, though it's more likely that you'll want to do that for people in your contact book via the messaging app or direct from their contact data.

Entering contacts by hand is a multi-step process. First you enter a number, first name and last name on consecutive screens. Then you can add a photo and what the handset calls 'detail'.

One level of detail is additional phone numbers – mobile, home, work and in a rather old fashioned way, fax (we can't remember when we last sent a fax), as well as a 'general' number category.

Another level of detail is internet contact info which amounts to URL and email address. No Twitter handle, Facebook name or any other online moniker is catered for.

Next you can assign calling tones images and videos to a contact, and finally you can add what the Nokia C3 calls personal info (like the rest of the info isn't personal!).

That amounts to postal address, birthday, any note you may want to make, formal name, nickname, company, and job title.

It takes ages to enter a new contact using this multi-layered system, and it's a real pain. Nokia really should have just given one long screen on which we could choose to enter the data we want.

SMS creation is straightforward and if you sign up for them Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat are included in the package of what's available under messaging.

With Ovi Chat you can access Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and Nokia's own Ovi Chat.

The best news of all with regard to messaging is that that the keyboard is superb. Nokia really does know how to make mini QWERTY keyboards. The keys are well designed, individually domed, and have a good return so they feel great under the fingers.

It is easily as good as the keyboard we remember from the Nokia E72, and with separate @ and . keys entering email and web addresses is a breeze. 

Nokia C3: Internet

With 3G missing from the specs line-up Internet access has to rely on Wi-Fi or the GPRS/EDGE connection. We'd really advocate the former wherever possible. In fact, if you want to download any kind of data, such as for Ovi Maps, direct to the handset, using Wi-Fi is a must.

The real problem with the Nokia C3 as far as internet access is concerned isn't the lack of 3G, though – it's the small screen. As already noted, it measures 2.4-inches across diagonal corners and delivers 320 x 240 pixels.

Quite simply, that isn't enough. There's barely enough space to get the TechRadar home page header on screen let alone view any content without scrolling. Cutting the zoom level down to 50 percent enables you to you see more, but text is too small to read.

It takes rather a long time for larger pages like the TechRadar home page to be zoomed into and out of, too, leaving you with a tedious wait. And no, there's no way to get the screen into tall format. No accelerometer and no manual page swivel either.

Other sites fare little better unless you go for the mobile versions and even then the lack of height on screen means you can't see an awful lot at once.

Nokia C3:Camera

The Nokia C3's camera shoots at a mere 2MP, and is another area where the relatively low cost of this handset is immediately apparent.

There are almost no settings to play with. You can fiddle with effects choosing between greyscale, sepia, negative and normal, and choose between four white balance settings: automatic, daylight, incandescent, fluorescent.

It has quite a slow shutter speed, so you'll have to hold the camera steady to get non-shaky shots of your subject. The time lag between clicking the centre of the D-pad to shoot and your photo being taken is mercifully short but you'll still need a steady hand, and if you want to photograph moving subjects you could be in trouble.

It is very, very much basic stuff, and the video camera is no better, shooting to just two resolutions of 320 x 240 and 176 x 144, either with or without sound.

The default setting for video length, incidentally, is for MMS messages, so your first capture may cut off disappointingly early – as ours did!

It is easy to change the setting to the maximum length your memory medium can support, though.

CRUSHED WHITES: The sun was bright on the day we took this photo, and the camera really struggled to balance its colours. It decided the trees were most important, and so the building right of shot is a photographic disaster.

DETAIL: There is a lack of definition in this fairly close-up photo of flowers, but the colour is pretty close to what it should be and the focus is reasonable unless you look at the top-left edge of the picture, which for some reason is all squiffy.

MID-RANGE: With mid-distance shots, the camera copes reasonably well, and the quality of the detail here is more impressive than we'd anticipated.

LACK OF VIBRANCY: The camera has done the right thing here by focussing on the playground apparatus rather than the fence in the front of the photo, but the image itself is not particularly vibrant. Another victim of a sunny day!

For its low-resolution, video shooting was surprisingly good. The camera compensates for changes in light pretty well – and except when it was pointing directly at the sun it did a passable job.