Friday 10 June 2011

Spice Mi-410 review


Mi-410 is the latest addition to Spice’s Android family. The phone runs on 1GHz Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor, which delivers better speed while browsing, reduces buffering time while streaming (provided your network speed is good), and enhances the gaming experience. What actually makes the handset stand out from the other Android sisters from Spice is its increased screen size (4.1 inch) and increased screen resolution (800x480px). Its capacitive touchscreen delivers smooth navigation and better touch response.

The operating system being Android 2.2 Froyo, offers great flexibility to its users. You can have your device personalized to a great extent by downloading most suitable applications from Android Market.  The homescreen customization with widgets makes accessing your favorite apps with just one or two clicks! (Though it’s a universal feature of all Android phones).


The device comes with quadband 2G and 3G connectivity. You can have more economic and convenient browsing on this device using its Wi-Fi connectivity, while like any other good phone; it comes with GPRS, EDGE, Bluetooth 3.0 and USB 2.0 as well.

Spice has done a good job by incorporating a 5MP camera in this device. It comes with an LED flash and has features such as autofocus and CMOS sensor to ensure better quality of pictures.  The 3D view of the gallery is another interesting feature on this device that actually makes pictures look real! A secondary camera (VGA) is given on the front side of the device to enable video calling.

The device has an onboard memory of 2GB, while it can be expanded up to 32GB by inserting microSD card. The device - intended for both business and multimedia use – offers considerable space for storage.

Having GPS with A-GPS and Google Maps, the device is a real helper in your day-to-day life. The eCompass app of the device ensures that the map is auto-oriented towards north, so that you can find directions more easily.


Featuring a good music player, FM radio, social networking apps and push email, it’s a great phone to keep you entertained and connected!


Upgrade your Mi-410 to Gingerbread!!


Below are the steps of updating Spice Mi 410 to latest version of Android 2.3. This phone is sold under various names in different regions as Cherry Mobile Magnum HD A400 (philippines), Spice CSL Mi 410 – Slim (india), WellcoM A99 (thailand) and CSL Blueberry Mi 410. The phone is originally Huawei Ideos X6.
  • Download Android 2.3 file from here
  • Extract the ZIP file.
  • Copy the file FB0-318B-0-5019-A01.nb0 to your SD card. Make sure it is placed in the root folder.
  • To enter bootloader mode, press and hold volume up + down + power buttons until you see the image of the Android logo.
  • Press ‘Home’key to show the update utility. Use the volume buttons to select the option “Download nb0 from SD card”.
  • Press ‘back arrow’ to confirm.
  • Upgrade will start and you can see the update progress.
  • Spice Mi 410 is now running on Android 2.3.4.
Before updating your phone, we would like to request you to make a full backup of your phone contents and charge up your phone battery completely.

Monday 6 June 2011

Sensors – Components that make a phone “intelligent”

Sensors play a big role in smartphones, improving its usability to a great extent. The integrated sensors have made these devices more than just a communication device. With these sensors, mobile phones act as a thermostat, GPS, air flow detector, and many other devices. The revolution of sensor has transformed a mobile phone into a de facto complete gadget.
  
Listed below are some useful sensors used in mobile phones:

·         Proximity sensor
·         Accelerometer sensor
·         Ambient light sensor
·         Magnetometer sensor
·         Image sensor
·         Fingerprint sensor
·         Moisture sensor
·         Tactile sensor
·         Temperature sensor

Proximity sensor: A proximity sensor in a mobile phone detects the presence of users’ body and deactivates the display and touch pad of phone when it is brought near the face during a call. What if a screen is active when the user is in a call? Yes, it will send unwanted input and may even cause calls to hang up at the mere touch of your cheek!  To avoid such incidents, proximity sensors are being incorporated in touchscreen phones. The sensor even helps save energy by switching off the display.

Accelerometer sensor: This sensor is incorporated to measure the acceleration of the device. In a mobile phone, a 3-axis accelerometer senses the orientation of the mobile phone and changes the screen orientation accordingly. It lets users switch between the portrait and landscape mode smoothly and neatly. Watching videos and gaming on mobile devices are now much more interesting – thanks to accelerometer sensors. In some phones, this sensor also plays a life-saving role, sensing the rate of change of acceleration resulted from a severe jerk from an accident. The sensor helps users make an automatic call for assistance to pre-assigned number, when they face severe and fatal jerk. 3D accelerometer helps in step recognition and is used for sport applications in a phone. It is also used for tap gesture recognition in the user interface for controlling music player and sport application. Nokia 5500 has 3D accelerometer feature.

Ambient light sensor: Ambient light sensor detects light in the surrounding and adjusts the display backlighting accordingly. The backlight is dimmed down, when the surrounding is dark, while the backlight is intensified, when the surrounding light is very bright. The sensor helps users to see the monitor comfortably, at the same time, reduces the power consumption by optimizing display brightness.

Magnetometer sensor: Magnetometer sensor measures strength, orientation, and direction of magnetic field.  Phones such as HTC HD2, Nokia N97, Nokia E72, Nokia N8, Samsung Wave S8500, Samsung Galaxy S, HTC Hero, and iPhone 4 come with magnetometer. This sensor orients maps automatically towards North, while navigating and helps find direction in an easy way. This sensor is also known by names such as digital compass or e-compass.

Image sensor: Image sensor converts an optical image into an electric signal. There are two types of image sensors: charge-coupled device (CCD) & metal-oxide-semiconductor active pixel sensor (CMOS APS). CMOS APS is mostly used in a mobile phone camera to sense images. CCD is very good for digital imaging and is mainly used in professional, medical, and scientific applications, where there is need of high quality image. Some of the mobile phones also use CCD sensor for sensing images. Spice Mobiles has launched S-1200 with professional CCD sensor.

Fingerprint sensor: Fingerprint sensor is an advanced feature in mobile phones. It captures digital image of fingerprint pattern. The captured image is digitally processed to create biometric template and is used for matching. Motorola has released some Android phones with fingerprint sensor. This sensor is used for security system on phone.

Moisture sensor: Moisture sensor detects phone’s exposure to moisture. The sensor is embedded in the mobile phone and whenever it comes in contact with moisture, the color of the sensor gets changed. Many phones including iPhones have moisture sensor. You don’t have to be very happy about having a moisture sensor on your handset! The device will stop you from claiming your warranty, when you drop your mobile in water, even if you dry it completely! The warranty of the mobile will be cancelled if the color of the moisture sensor is changed.

Tactile sensor: Tactile sensor is a device that is sensitive to touch, force, and pressure. Capacitive touchscreen phones use touch switch, one of the kinds of tactile sensors. Touch switches detect the presence of finger or hand as well as stylus.

Temperature sensor: iPhone incorporates temperature sensors for device safety. When the temperature sensor indicates that the phone has reached dangerous levels of heat that threatens the internal electronic components of the phone, it shuts down automatically. A warning symbol appears on screen and phone is switched off to get cool down.

Magnetic sensor: Magnetic sensor identifies sensitive element characteristics. In blackberry mobiles, magnetic sensor interacts with the case and deactivates screen and keyboard when the phone is placed in case. It also avoids unwanted input in the device as well as saves the power.

Intelligent sensors have made smartphone a complete device. The business phone and high-end multimedia phones segments are witnessing a trend of incorporation of more and more smart sensors to make the phone more intelligent, increasing its usability to a great extent.  The day is not far when your mobile phone will satisfy all your technical needs.