iPad Air, Retina iPad mini launched in India

Apple launched its iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display tablets in the Indian market today, bringing its latest products to the country soon after their global launch. The company held a launch event in New Delhi for the two tablets.

The iPad Air is the new full-sized tablet in Apple's portfolio and will be on sale alongside the two-year-old iPad 2. New features of the latest Apple tablet include the 64-bit A7 chipset, thinner profile and refreshed design.

The second-generation iPad mini comes with major upgrades over its predecessors, mainly the Retina display and the latest 64-bit A7 processor.

The prices for the 9.7 inch iPad Air starts at Rs. 35,900 for the base model 16GB variant without cellular connectivity and goes right up to Rs. 65,900 for the 128GB variant with built in LTE. The iPad Mini with Retina Display on the other hand starts off at Rs. 28,900 for the 16GB version with WiFi and goes up to Rs. 58,900 for the 128Gb WiFi + 4G LTE model.

iPad Air Pricing

• 16GB, WiFi only – Rs. 35,900 | WiFi + 4G – Rs. 44,900
• 32GB, WiFi only – Rs. 42,900 | WiFi + 4G – Rs. 51,900
• 64GB, WiFi only – Rs. 49,900 | WiFi + 4G – Rs. 58,900
• 128GB, WiFi only- Rs.56,900 | WiFi + 4G – Rs. 65,900

iPad Mini with Retina Display

• 16GB, WiFi only – Rs. 28,900 | WiFi + 4G – Rs. 37,900
• 32GB, WiFi only – Rs. 35,900 | WiFi + 4G – Rs. 44,900
• 64GB, WiFi only – Rs. 42,900 | WiFi + 4G – Rs. 51,900
• 128GB, WiFi only-Rs. 49,900 | WiFi + 4G – Rs. 58,900

iPad Air will compete against the likes of Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 edition) and Sony Xperia Tablet Z in the Indian market. Rivals of the Retina iPad mini in India include the second-generation Google Nexus 7 and Samsung Galaxy Note 510.

Apple iPad Air and iPad mini with retina display launch date and price in India

Apple is reportedly set to launch its new iPads – the iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina Display – in India on November 29, NDTV claims. Apple announced the new iPads last month and started selling the iPad Air in the US and other countries on November 1 and the new iPad mini with Retina Display from yesterday. If the launch date is true, Apple would continue the usual four week difference between the US and India iPad launches.

Apple iPad Air price in India

WiFi only models

• 16GB – Rs.35,900
• 32GB – Rs.42,900
• 64GB – Rs.49,900
• 128GB – Rs.56,900

WiFi + Cellular models

• 16GB – Rs. 44,900
• 32GB – Rs.51,900
• 64GB – Rs.58,900
• 128GB – Rs.65,900

Apple iPad mini with Retina display price in India

WiFi only models

• 16GB – Rs.28,900
• 32GB – Rs.35,900
• 64GB – Rs.42,900
• 128GB – Rs.49,900

WiFi + Cellular models

• 16GB – Rs.37,900
• 32GB – Rs.44,900
• 64GB – Rs.51,900
• 128GB – Rs.58,900

The report also suggests that the first-gen iPad mini 16GB Wi-Fi will continue to retail for Rs 21,900 while the 3G version would get a price bump from Rs 29,900 to Rs 30,900. The iPad 2 16GB will continue to sell for Rs 28,900 and Rs 37,900 for the Wi-Fi and Cellular variants respectively.

Kindle Fire HDX tablet

The all-new Kindle Fire HDX tablets are sleeker, lighter and come with upgraded hardware specifications. The Kindle Fire HDX 7 tablet comes with 7-inch display with 1920x1200 pixels resolution and 323ppi pixel density, while the 8.9-inch model features an 8.9-inch display with 2560x1600 pixels resolution and pixel density of 339ppi. The Kindle Fire HDX 7 only sports a front-facing HD camera (unspecified megapixel count), whereas the bigger sibling comes with front-facing HD camera and an 8-megapixel rear camera. Both new tablets are powered by a 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor alongside 2GB of RAM, and run the new Fire OS 3.0 based on Android Jelly Bean.

A 1.3MP camera will full HD video recording capabilities ensures that video chatting on this device is a breeze. Internal storage is decent at 16GB. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and microUSB connectivity.

Credit : Slashgear

Amazon.com modifies Android so much that it no longer resembles Android. The company calls it Fire OS 3.0, or Mojito. Amazon's services are front and center on the Fire, and Google's are nowhere to be found. It's the other way around on the Nexus 7 and other Android devices. For a day or two, I even forgot the Kindle Fire can do much more.

Regular customers of Amazon will appreciate that integration. A row of tabs at the top of the screen offers quick access to various Amazon services, including e-books, music, videos and audiobooks, the latter from the Audible business that Amazon bought in 2008. Another tab gets you Amazon's shopping site, where you can buy television sets, vacuum cleaners and tennis rackets. The Kindle is already tied to your Amazon account, so it's easy - perhaps too easy - to just click and buy.

Kindle Fire HDX 7 tablet key specifications

• 7-inch display with 1920x1200 pixels resolution
• 323ppi pixel density
• HD front-facing camera
• 2.2 GHz Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor
• 2GB of RAM
• Fire OS 3.0 based on Android Jelly Bean
• 16GB/32GB/64GB storage variants

Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 tablet key specifications

• 8.9-inch display with 2560x1600 pixels resolution
• Pixel density of 339ppi
• HD front-facing camera
• 8-megapixel rear camera
• 2.2 GHz Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor
• 2GB of RAM
• Fire OS 3.0 based on Android Jelly Bean

As successor to the Kindle Fire, the Fire HDX lives up to expectations thanks to exceptional specs like the stunning display, awesome processor, good front camera and sufficient connectivity options. The colour options are limited, but that aside, this device is good enough for anyone seeking a powerful tablet that is capable of providing an excellent visual experience.

The best part of the new Kindle is its price. Amazon.com Inc. begins shipping it on Thursday,Nov 14 starting at $379. That's cheaper than the new $399 iPad Mini, which has a display that measures 7.9 inches diagonally. The full-size Kindle Fire HDX has an 8.9-inch screen, just short of the iPad Air's 9.7 inches. Even cheaper is the 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX, which costs $229.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 edition

Last year’s Galaxy Note 10.1 promised to finally bring all the stylus power of Samsung’s Note smartphones to a big-screen tablet, but its upsides were utterly defeated by the device’s crippling performance issues. Samsung is back with a new and improved 10.1 that aims to win with its screen and new S Pen features.

Samsung has greatly improved upon many of the original's shortcomings; it even added more storage space! Unfortunately, though, Samsung also boosted the base price by $50 as a result. Sporting a 10.1-inch display, measured diagonally, the Note tablet goes on sale in the U.S. on Thursday at a starting price of $550.

Samsung also added a touch of elegance to the back of the device by swapping out the standard glossy plastic back,here, we have a soft, textured "leather-like" material that's meant to resemble a leather book cover.

The Note 10.1 sports a beautiful WQXGA (2,560 x 1,600) TFT LCD panel, which is precisely the resolution bump we wanted to see in last year's unit, and under the hood there is an octa-core Samsung chip clocked at 1.9GHz, and an impressive 3GB of RAM. The Note 10.1 2014 features an 8-megapixel main and a 2-megapixel front cameras. It will arrive in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models.

The first of the multitasking features, called Multi-Window, has been available in Samsung devices for about a year, but it works with many more apps now. You can run two apps side by side, such as Facebook on one side and YouTube video on the other.You can change how much of the screen each one takes, a capability coming with Windows 8.1, but you can't choose to have a window take up just the top left corner, the way you can on PCs. In addition, Multi-Window isn't a universal feature. You currently have about 18 apps to choose from, including Facebook and a variety of Google and Samsung apps.

Credit : The Verge

At the center of the S Pen experience, on both the 10.1 and the Note 3, is a new widget called Air Command that gathers together a bunch of tools designed specifically for the stylus. The Air Command widget automatically appears when you remove the pen from its holster, or it can be invoked at any time by holding the pen near the screen and clicking its one button. The semi-circular popup provides quick access to five S Pen tools: Action Memo, Scrap Booker, Screen Writer, S Finder, and Pen Window.

Removing the stylus from its slot will start the Air Command feature, which allows users to quickly access features such as Action Memo, Scrapbook and S Finder.

For a pen-enabled tablet, it's not geared toward pen users, with its high price and sluggish performance, the $549.99 Note 10.1 feels old and clunky; it’s certainly not worth the price when the iPad costs $499 and the Nexus 10 $399.

Apple's new iPad Air: thin, light & ultra-powerful tablet

Credit : The Verge

Apple announced the iPad Air, its fifth-generation iPad, October 22 in San Francisco at the company's annual unveiling event. Thinner, lighter, and with a more powerful processor, The 9.7-inch, one-pound, 7.5mm-thick device feels much better in one hand than it used to, though it's certainly not as portable as the iPad mini — which now has a 2048 x 1536 screen to match the Air's as well. Along with the new A7 processor and a handful of under-the-hood improvements, this is just about the upgrade we expected, It's really beautiful, with cleaner bezels, a much thinner profile, and sharper, boxier edges. That's probably a good thing.

Credit : Cnet

A new A7 chip inside makes the Air eight times faster than the iPad 4, according to Apple. For reference, this is the same 64-bit chip populating the iPhone 5S. Like Apple's latest smartphone, the Air's A7 also comes with the M7 motion coprocessor, which promises graphics that render at twice the rate of the previous iPad.

Credit : The Verge

In terms of graphics, that means that this iPad Air is 72 times faster than the original iPad in GPU performance, but who's counting? All that really matters is how it stacks up against today's top tablet performers.

Credit : The Verge

In terms of Wi-Fi, there's MIMO wireless technology onboard, but the Air is using the 802.11n standard, not the the more current "ac" Wi-Fi designation.

Credit : The Verge

The iPad Air has a 5-megapixel iSight camera on the rear that Apple says takes improved low-light shots. On the front, video-chatters will find the refreshed FaceTime HD camera, which gives you larger pixels to make images look clearer, according to the claim. Dual microphones will help capture even sound. It has  a 32.4-watt-hour rechargeable lithium battery, and promises to keep up its 10-hour battery life rate on the Air.