The new Sony sports Walkman is made by keeping sports and adventure in mind as the major selling-point of the W Series Sports Walkman, as it’s completely waterproof up to the depth of 6.6 feet (2 metres) which makes it ideal to use while swimming, jogging or cycling in the rain.

It also comes with a quick charge functionality thus enabling you to listen music for a long time even if you have charged the MP3 player for just a few minutes (for eg. if you charge its completely drained battery for 3 minutes, you can listen to music on it for 60 minutes). And on a full charge it gives about 8 hours of music playback.

It supports a max storage size of 4GB and will be available from March 2013 at a retail price of about $99.99, in colours like Black, Pink, White and Blue.

Hyundai Motor Corporation has announced that they will be integrating the Google Maps API to their in-car navigation systems. With the deployment of this API, users will now be able to send maps, routes, POIs and predefined directions on Maps from their phone to the car, using the Send2Car feature. Hyundai is sharing the same feature with KIA, and will be a part of the UVO telematics system that comes on KIA cars. Hyundai says that they will show-off this feature at CES 2013 in Las Vegas. Initially, cars sold in the United States of America will get this feature, with possible subsequent rollout in certain countries globally.

"Google is a leader and innovator in search, content and technology, offering incredible tools," said Barry Ratzlaff, director of Customer Connect at Hyundai Motor America. "Blue Link makes it easy for our owners to find and navigate to their destinations. The integration of Google Maps APIs makes Blue Link even more effective. We look forward to continuing work with Google to bring innovative solutions to Hyundai owners."

Hyundai Blue Link essentially offers a variety of features and applications with a bunch of connectivity, convenience and safety solutions. New features supported by the integration of Google Maps APIs include Send to Car, Point of Interest Search and Local Search by Voice. These services will help drivers easily find points of interest and get to destinations more accurately and reliably using Google's continuously updated Places database. Hyundai still hasn’t confirmed which particular vehicles will get the new Blue Link system, but KIA will introduce this with the Sorento (2014 edition), which will be available for purchase within the next one month, and followed up with the Forte sedan.

HCL's latest Android tablet, Me Tab V1, is now available in the country via online shopping site Tradus for Rs. 7,699. The device is also available on Infibeam but priced at Rs. 7,789.

Features of HCL Me Tab V1 

- Runs on Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich and comes with voice-calling support.

-  11mm thick and features a 7-inch display with resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. 

- 1GHz processor with 1GB of DDR3 RAM. 

-  2MP rear camera, 0.3MP front camera

- 4GB built-in storage and expandable storage up to 32GB via microSD card.

- For connectivity, the device supports Wi-Fi, EDGE, GPRS, Bluetooth 3.0, and 3G via USB. 

- 3200mAh battery. 

For apps, users of the Me Tab V1 will have to rely on HCL's app store, as the device does not have Google Play store.

Your wait might finally be coming to an end as we’ve got word that Nokia is holding a press even in the capital on January 10. We’re hoping that the event is geared towards the launch of the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820. When we spoke to a few of these retailers, they claimed that if we reserved a Lumia with them, they’d have the device delivered by the 14th or the 15th of the month.

Nokia has three different figures with respect to the final price tag the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 would carry, but suffice to say, the bigger phone will be anywhere between Rs. 35,000 to Rs. 45,000 while the smaller sibling will sport a price tag between the range of Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 35,000. Of course Rs. 10,000 is a huge variance, so we’d rather wait for the official announcement on the price. 

If this event on the 10th is indeed aimed at the launch of the Lumia 920, then the word of the dealers would make sense, but it is just as possible that Nokia’s got something else planned for the 10th.

We’re told that the press event doesn’t say anything in specific, so it could just as well be a media briefing regarding the plans Nokia might have for the Indian market in 2013. It could also be the announcement for the Lumia phones. Could it be that Nokia is going to announce a Windows RT Tablet? Well, we can only hope and speculate till the actual date rolls around.

Apple has continued to witness a sharp growth of its App Store, which has now marked 40 billion downloads by its users since the store was launched in July 2008. About 20 billion downloads of the total came in 2012 alone. The figures were announced by Apple on January 7. The company also notes a record growth in the month of December 2012, when App Store registered more than 2 billion downloads in a single month.

"It has been an incredible year for the iOS developer community," says Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet software and services, in a statement. "Developers have made over 7 billion dollars on the App Store, and we continue to invest in providing them with the best ecosystem so they can create the most innovative apps in the world."

According to Apple, its App Store features over 775,000 apps for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users worldwide. The App Store is available for users in more than 150 countries across the world, and has over 300,000 native iPad apps available in about 23 categories, including newspapers and magazines , games, business, health and fitness, news, sports, and travel.

A study by ABI Research had ranked Apple's App Store ahead of rival app stores in terms of being easy for consumers to use. Google's Android Play Store stood second, while Microsoft's Windows Phone Store came in third, according to the study.

According to the latest data from technology market researcher CyberMedia Research, Datawind, the company that won the tender from the Indian government and is the manufacturer of the Aakash tablet, has become the third largest tablet seller in India.

During the time period of July to September, Datawind faced some criticism for missing the deadline for its Rs. 2,263 Aakash tablet to the government. During that period, Datawind has a 12 percent market share in India. This market share is excluding the Aakash tablets provided to the Indian government.

The research form has said that the total number of tablets in India in 2012 was close to 3 million. During the three months leading to September 2012, over one million tablets were sold in India. Samsung is the leader in this segment in India with a share of 24% followed by Micromax, which has a market share in India of 15%. The gap is a considerable one between the two market leaders.

A whopping 135 vendors have launched their tablets till Q3 2012 flooding the budget tablet market with a slew of homogenous products.

A little social networking website called Facebook is testing the ability to make VoIP calls and send voice messages. The VoIP calls service as of now is only available in Canada. Canadians can start a call with a friend by hitting the "i" button in the top right corner if the screen and hit "Free Call." To use the call and voice messaging ability, users will have to update the app to the latest version. Android users can download the app here whereas iOS users can do so here. 

The voice call facility is available only in Canada where as the rest of the world is receiving the voice messaging (or voice mail) capabilities.

Sending a recorded message has its own steps. To start, users need to press the “+” button next to the box where you type the message and then hold down the record button. When you are done, release the button and your message is sent. If you wish to cancel the recording, slide your finger off the button. Easier said than done right?

Voxer is one app in which voice messaging plays a big role. In Facebook’s version of this appears to be a smaller part of the larger Facebook social networking ecosystem.

WhatsApp earlier this week tweeted it had processed 7 billion inbound messages, and another 11 billion outbound messages, which on equalling goes past the previous record for 10 billion messages, registered on August 10.

Apple's iMessage service is estimated to process over 1 billion messages per day. With increasing popularity of smartphones across the world, a lot of people have switched to IP-based messaging such as iMessage and BlackBerry Messenger. Services such as ChatOn, Line and WeChat are quite popular in Asia.

WhatsApp's 18 billion messages feat comes days after reports claimed the the company was in acquisition talks with Facebook. According to reports, the acquisition would help the social networking giant boost its mobile presence and push into more markets across the world. WhatsApp, however, rejected the reports, describing them as rumours and factually incorrect, while Facebook, released an updated Facebook Messenger for Android with WhatsApp-like functionality..

Google has updated its Android distribution stats on its Android developer website, revealing the latest version of Android, Jelly Bean is now running on about 10 percent of all Android devices whereas Gingebread has slumped to less than 50 percent.

Android Jelly Bean including v4.1 and 4.2 have grown in the two week period ending January 3, 2013. However, Android 4.1 makes the most of the growth. The growth is quite significant as the OS was running on mere 6.7 percent of all active device as per the previous Android distribution stats. 

Gingerbread, which has so far led the Android versions, has slumped below 50 percent to 47.6. Gingerbread's dominance is likely to last for some more time as new and low-cost devices continue to launch with that Android version.

Surely, there is a bunch of people who’d be excited to see the open source OS make its way into mobile phones. Ubuntu for smartphones isn’t really a wholly new OS, but rather the same old Ubuntu with a “smartphone” interface.

The first wave of the Ubuntu flavour will be coming to Android phones later this year, given that Ubuntu Mobile OS is actually built on the existing Android kernels and drivers. Currently, only the Galaxy Nexus is certified to be able to run Ubuntu for Android.

If you’re hoping for a full vanilla Ubuntu experience, you might have to wait till 2014. Currently, there is no manufacturer or carrier tie up that Canonical has in place, but 2014 is far away and given that an Android compatible version of the OS is going to be available soon, it would give the Linux distro time to gain momentum and hopefully pick up enough traction to attract OEM partners and carrier support.

The team working hard on an ARM version of Ubuntu for servers, aimed specifically at ultra-low-energy setups, or for massive cloud services. AMD is also working on ARM-based server processors, providing the hardware for the abovementioned setups. Currently, the Galaxy Nexus is the official partner device for Ubuntu’s Mobile OS and Canonical hopes that developers would take the time out to develop apps for the platform while the company uses the time to flesh out any issues the OS may have. 

HP India has launched a new range of multifunction printers aimed at enterprises and SMBs. The company says new printers are cloud-enabled and designed to increase office efficiency. The new range of HP MFDs include HP LaserJet Enterprise Flow 500 MFP M525c and HP LaserJet Enterprise Color Flow MFP M575c. Other new launches include HP LaserJet Enterprise 700 color MFP M775 series and HP LaserJet Pro 500 color MFP M570 series.

These devices come with premium scanning and data entry with single-pass duplex scanning, HP EveryPage technology with ultrasonic double-feed detection, a pull-out keyboard for meta-data tagging and on-board Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to digitize scanned document, says a company release.

The new HP LaserJet Enterprise flow MFP M525c and HP LaserJet Enterprise color flow MFP M575c provide new device options with improved document processing and sharing. These devices are part of a new line of multifunction LaserJets that can transform paper back into digital content and accelerate workflow. The new HP LaserJet Enterprise 700 color MFP M775 series gives users faster A3 printing options and high paper capacity above 4,000 pages whereas the color MFP M775 series comes with the Auto On/Auto Off feature that help reduce energy use.

“With cloud-led business processes, document management is taking centrestage. Our customers need innovative technology tailored to their workflow that is simple, effective and helps them conduct business,” says Nitin Hiranandani, Director-Printing, PPS, HP India.

Xbox Live head Larry Hyrb (Major Nelson) has posted a countdown to E3 2013 on his blog along with the phrase, “And it’s on…” You can take a look at the countdown here. There is no information to certify that this will be the grand unveiling of the next generation Xbox, but the launch of the console is eminent and frankly, overdue. We have seen a console refresh every five years, but with the PS3 and the Xbox 360, we have seen that life extend to almost 7 years.

Recently, we also heard that Microsoft would launch two different versions of the next generation Xbox. The two versions of the ‘Xbox 720’ consoles will be quite different from each other and will be aimed at different audiences. The first is the true next gen console with enhanced hardware and graphical capabilities that will be aimed at the hard-core gamer and will compete directly with the Wii U and the next generation PlayStation.

The other version of the next-gen Xbox console will have Windows 8 OS at its core and won’t be able to run the latest AAA gaming titles but instead will support downloadable games from Xbox Live. It will function more like a set top box providing entertainment along with casual games. The hardware specifications of the new Xbox aren’t known, but The Verge has reported that Microsoft will use a chipset that will enable an “always on” feature that will enable the device to boot quickly “and resumes to provide near-instant access to TV and entertainment services.”

The hackers group, Anonymous, has said it is going to continue its campaign against web censorship in 2013. The group released a statement over the weekend, warning the world to “Expect us 2013”.

The group has also released a video featuring its campaign and strikes carried out in the year 2012. The video includes the group's temporary shutdown of the various US sites in protest of the U.S. government's indictment of the operators of popular file-hosting site MegaUpload.

The video also features the group's campaign against Syrian government sites over alleged shutdown of the Internet. It also shows Anonymous' campaign against the Israeli government to protest the latter's attacks on Gaza.

"The operations which are listed in the video are only examples, there are far more operations," Anonymous wrote in the statement. "Some of them still running, like Operation Syria. We are still here."

The latest update for Skype for Windows Phone 8 brings with it a host of improvements such as a better autocorrect library, improvements to word completion and toast notifications. However, amidst all the goodness, it takes away one essential feature; People Hub Integration.

People Hub Integration of Skype was one of the main features that Microsoft played up prior to the release of the app. The disabling of the integration isn’t an accidental side-effect of the update, but rather something that the update was designed to do, because of stability issues. The only difference it makes is that if you need to make a Skype call, you must open the app and make the call from there. You can’t make a Skype call from your People’s Hub anymore, which is not really that much of an inconvenience. The good thing is that once Skype has been initiated, it will continue to run in the background even if you close the app, so you don’t have to worry about missing calls.

The Skype team says that they are working on bringing back the integrations, but the focus is on delivering a stable build with the People Hub integration as it is a major feature of the app.

"The innovative new service platform now enables Airtel mobile customers across the country to easily access a host of education services including courses for language skills, entrance exam preparation and career counselling from the best of universities and professors in the country with just a few clicks on their mobile phones," it said.

Airtel's new services range from Rs. 1.5 to Rs. 10 per day. The services are available on both voice IVR and SMS format. These courses provide interactive learning in the native language of the customers. Airtel is also offering mock tests for entrance and competitive examinations such as UPSC, MBA for Rs 99 for 12 mock tests.