Category: Miscellaneous

Ebook service by Blloon is now live in UK and we now its pricing details in hand. The credit is in form of 1000 pages and you can get additional pages by either promoting Blloon or you can sign up for monthly subscription of £3.99 for 500 pages.

While that may sound enough for many, I personally think the Kindle Unlimited is a better service that gives you unlimited reading for mere £7.99 per month. This might be because they are targeting people who do not read a lot – you know the young people that read around 10-12 books in a year.

It will be interesting to see how the market reacts to their pricing. Blloon service is currently available only for the iPad and iPhone but we have been told that there is an Android application in the making.

We asked Blloon if they were working on a windows phone and the answer is no. They are currently only focused on iOS. Here is the screenshot of the email.

Blloon’s publisher list includes Allen & Unwin, Diversion Books, Faber Factory, Guardian Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Lonely Planet, Open Road Media, Profile, RosettaBooks and Workman Publishing and publisher titles from Ingram Content Group’s CoreSource Plus solution offered through Lightning Source Inc. The company is also said to be working with Gardners to bring titles from even more publishers.

Asus republic of gamers has churned out PG278Q, an ROG gaming monitor boasting 27-inch WQHD display with a 144Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time. This makes it perfect match for the fast action paced games out there.

Here are the highlights of the Asus PG278Q:

* World’s first WQHD G-SYNC monitor with 144Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time.
* Exclusive Turbo key button lets you switch between 60Hz,120Hz and 144Hz, on the fly.
* GamePlus hotkey with crosshair overlay and timer functions.
* 5-way navigation joystick to access OSD settings.
* Features tilt, pivot and height adjustments.

ASUS ROG Swift PG278Q specifications are given below

Display	27-inch (68.5cm) widescreen with 16:9 aspect ratio
Resolution	2D mode: 2560 x 1440 (up to 144 Hz) 3D mode: 2560 x 1440 (up to 120 Hz) 2D/3D surround: 7680 x 1440 (2D up to 144 Hz / 3D up to 120 Hz)
Pixel pitch	0.233mm / 109 PPI
Colors (max)	16.7M
Viewing angles	170-degree (H) / 160-degree (V)
Contrast Ratio	100,000,000:1 ASUS Smart Contrast Ratio
Brightness (max)	350cd/m²
Response time	1ms (GTG)
ASUS-exclusive technologies	ASUS GamePlus Technology (Crosshair / Timer) ASUS Refresh Rate Turbo Key (60 Hz /120 Hz/ 144Hz Overclocking) ASUS 5-way OSD Navigation Joystick
NVIDIA® technologies	NVIDIA® G-SYNC™ Technology NVIDIA® 3D Vision™ Ready NVIDIA® Ultra Low Motion Blur Technology
Input/output	1 x DisplayPort 1.2 2 x USB 3.0 (Upstream x 1, Downstream x 2)
Stand	Tilt: +20°~-5°, Swivel: ±60°, Pivot: 90° clockwise Height adjustment: 0~120mm VESA wall mount: 100 x 100mm
Size	619.7 x 362.96 x 65.98mm
Weight (est.)	7.0g

We saw the Rikomagic MK903V back in June and that time it was not given a casing. Now it has been given a final shape and the company has unveiled its official specs as well.

We now know that the Rikomagic MK903V specifications include an adjustable Wi-Fi antenna, 2x micro USB ports, OTG port, micro SD card reader, full size USB 2.0 port and a very lovely housing.

There is 2 gigabytes of RAM inside and 8GB of flash storage which is expandable via micro SD card slot. As mentioned in the title, the Rikomagic MK903V comes with Rockchip RK3288 processor with a clock rate of 1.8 GHz.

The CPU is backed by ARM Mali T764 GPU that supports 4K video as well. The machine runs Android 4.4 kitkat operating system.

It is already on sale on AliExpress for about 122 dollars which rounds about to 92 euro.

• Via cnx-software.com

Here is a review of the InkCase Plus sample that arrived around couple of weeks after the Kickstarter campaign started. The first thing you will notice is how much the overall design has been improved over the previous testing models shown last year.

The InkCase Plus features a 3.5 inch screen with E-Ink technology that is custom built to fit smartphone models. Processing power comes form SpreadTrum SC6531 chip which is more than enough powerful to run its 360×600 resolution display.

• You can see the official page of SpreadTrum SC6531 processor here.

On the front there are three buttons on the front and inside you will find a battery, USB and Bluetooth port. 

The overall design of the device is great – it is fast and light. Page turning is similar to what you get on a Kindle eReader – swift and fluid.

The software is excellent – you get Android 4.2 OS, Comparison app to control music and send notifications from your phone, sports app and ebook app.

The sports application lets you track the calories burnt and distances covered.

The ebook app you get with InkCase Plus is EpiReader. While it is an ugly application lacking on the features front, it gets the job done and supports myriad formats that includes PDF, Mobi, DRM and non-DRM Epub.

The font is very crisp and perfectly reader on its 3.5 inch display.

IndusInd Bank has launched an exclusive online store for its customers. A website called themorestore.in has been launched to enable customers to redeem their reward points towards purchase of items from an attractive online catalogue as well as purchase attractive merchandise from the site.

This site is similar to Payback.in which was launched by ICICI to allow its customers to redeem reward points.

The MoreStore has three powerful shopping experiences to offer: Redemption, Shopping and Redemption + Shopping.

1. With Redemption, customers can redeem their reward points (across debit and credit cards) against over 200 products listed in the catalogue.

2. With Shopping, customers can shop across categories like lifestyle, health & beauty, gadgets and many more

3. With Redemption + Shopping, they can buy a product from The MoreStore catalogue using their reward points and pay the remaining amount using their Credit Card.

Mr. Anil Ramachandran, Head Retail Unsecured Assets- Credit Card & Personal Loans, IndusInd Bank said,

The launch of The MoreStore is in line with our on-going commitment   to constantly innovate, and to bring to our customers the best services, products and benefits. We already have one of the strongest and most vibrant Rewards program in the country and The MoreStore goes a step ahead by creating a strong and diversified redemption platform. It is, in fact, a  first-of- its-kind  e-commerce solution exclusively for our customers. They can use this dedicated e-commerce website for redemption of their Credit Card and Debit Card reward points as well as for their online shopping.

• See themorestore.in
• Check out Payback.in

PocketBook has launched a new ereader in the European market called PocketBook Aqua. The highlight of this gadget is its waterproof casing which will interest all the bookworms who are too scared of sipping liquids when reading their favorite books.

Price is 127 euro. PocketBook Aqua Specifications include 4GB flash storage, micro SD card slot, 802.11n Wi-Fi, micro USB port, 1300 mAh battery and IP57 waterproof certification.

The display size is 6 inches and it packs 600×800 pixels. It supports up to 16 levels of gray. The CPU runs at modest 1GHz and there is 256MB RAM. PocketBook Aqua weighs just 170 grams and measures 114.6 х 174.4 х9 mm.

Transcend new SSD ESD400 has claimed benchmark speeds of up to 410MB/s while reading and 380MB/s writing. The highlight is of course its USB 3.0 capability and attractive price tag of $109 for 128GB model and $189 for 256GB model.

Transcend will be offering 512GB and 1TB model as well that will retail for $349 and $699 respectively. Both of them are of course compatible with USB 2.0 ports but their read and write speeds will be severely restricted.

The Transcend ESD400 measures 92 x 62 x 10.5 mm and weighs only 56 grams. The SSD will also come with 3 year warranty.

• See its Official webpage

Usually Fifa can randomly test up to two players from each team for drug testing but for the first time it tested seven players from Costa Rican team.

Argentinean soccer legend Maradona made a comment on Fifa discriminating saying if the authorities tested 7 players from Costa Rica then they should have tested seven from Italy’s team too.

The team of Costa Rica not only beat world champion Italy 1:0 but also Uruguay 3:1.

AOC has released G2770PQU which is a gaming focused 27 inch monitor with an excellent refresh rate of 144 Hz. It packs full HD resolution 1920×1080 and full 3D support. The AOC G2770PQU has response time of 1 ms and 300 cd/m2 brightness levels.

However G2770PQU is plagued by narrow viewing angles and mere FHD resolution because these days FHD is no longer considered top of the line.

There are four input ports that include Display Port, HDMI, D-Sub and DVI. It supports height adjustment and can swivel too.

The price is 419 Euros / $567 and will go on sale by the end of June 2014.

• Via aoc europe

Sharp has extended its range of professional tablets with its latest tablet sporting a 15.6 inch WQHD display packing whopping 3200 x 1800 pixel resolution and backed by latest processor by Intel. It is being called the Sharp Merilis and it comes with Intel Core i5-4200U (Haswell) with a clock frequency of 1.6 GHz to 2.6 GHz.

Graphics are handled by Intel HD 4400 graphics and 8 gigabytes of RAM. Of course the main high light of the tablet is its 15.6-inch Sharp IGZO 16:9 matrix WQHD screen with 3200 × 1800 pixel resolution which translates to 235 pixels per inch. The screen has active digitizer enabling stylus input.

Other Sharp Merilis specifications include dual band WiFi, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, three USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, Mini DisplayPort, and a slot for SD cards. It has weight of 1,250 grams and that includes a 128GB solid state drive, 2 mega pixel front camera, stereo speakers and a rechargeable battery that provides up to nine hours on a single battery charge.

• Via sharp