Why You Should Sell Your iPad 2 Now [CHART]

Apple hasn’t yet confirmed the existence of the iPad 3, but first and second-generation iPad ownersare already rushing to sell their devices based on reports that the iPad 3 will debut in March.

Why the rush? Consumers who sold their original iPads before the iPad 2 was announced were able to fetch higher prices from eBay, and resellers such as Gazelle and NextWorth, than those who waited to list theirs until after the iPad 2 arrived in stores.

[More from Mashable: Google Caught Tracking Safari Users: What You Need to Know]

For example: in March 2011, immediately after the announcement unveiling the iPad 2, my colleagueChristina Warren and I were able to sell our 32GB iPads on Gazelle for around $550 each. But just hours later, the asking price had dropped to the $300 range.

Here's a chart, courtesy of NextWorth, that shows the drop in secondhand iPad prices around the time of the iPad 2 launch on eBay:

[More from Mashable: iOS 5.1 Will Add Japanese Siri Support, New Lock Screen [REPORT]]

Thus, if you're certain you want to upgrade to the iPad 3, you might want to sell your used iPad now.

And if you're not that impressed with the iPad 3? You could still pick up another secondhand version for a lot less money on eBay in a few weeks.

Quad-core Huawei Ascend D1 Q press shots surface

It's no secret Huawei has big plans for its Sunday press conference. The event, which should kickstart the MWC will feature at least one quad-core smartphone device and we get to see its press shots in advance.

The Huawei Ascend D1 Q will obviously have a pretty face to go along with all the muscle under the hood. Judging by those press shots, the Tegra 3-packing Ascend D1 Q won't have the impressively slim waistline of the Ascend P1 S, but it will still be one sleek smartphone.

   Usability and attention to detail are also advertised as the Huawei Ascend D1 Q strengths, though the wording of the Huawei PR team is rather strange. At any rate, the D1 Q has every chance of becoming the first quad-core global smartphone to be announced as the Huawei press conference is a few hours before the HTC one this Sunday.

Now enjoy those smooth lines for a while more and don't forget to watch this spot on Sunday for the updates from the press event.

BLU Studio 5.3 in white makes a point out of not being your typical budget smartphone

Let’s face it: the BLU Studio 5.3, which is on our hands today, looks like anything but a budget minded Android smartphone. It is very big and very white. And yes: it also packs two SIM card slots and two (!) homescreen buttons.

Without a closer look at its hardware and specs, the BLU Studio 5.3 can easily pass for a direct competitor to the mighty Samsung Galaxy Note. But it is not. It costs less than half the Korean royalty, and doesn’t have the ambition to go head to head with it

Instead, the white dressed giant is gunning for the hordes of budget Android devices, sporting displays in the 3″ range, and falling short from the presence it packs.

ZTE announces new Tegra 2 based Mimosa X smartphone

Along with the two new ICS handsets announced yesterday, ZTE had another ICS-based smartphone to announce before MWC. This one is called the Mimosa X and will be running on the Nvidia Tegra 2 processor. While that itself is nothing special, it will also be the first device to have the Nvidia Icera 450 HSPA+ modem.

If you're wondering what so special about that, so far the phones made with the Tegra 2 processor had to rely on modems from other companies, such as Qualcomm. Last year, Nvidia acquired Icera who also make modems for smartphones. This allows them to use their own modems in phones powered by their processors and the ZTE Mimosa X is the first phone to do so.

Other than that the Mimosa X is a typical upper mid-range smartphone, with a qHD display, 5 megapixel rear camera, VGA front camera, 4GB memory, GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. For any further information, we will have to wait for MWC next week. The phone will be launched in Q2, 2012.

Samsung announces Galaxy Ace 2 and Galaxy Mini 2

Samsung has announced two new Android smartphones just a before the Mobile World Congress begins next week.

The first one is the Galaxy Ace 2, which will have a 3.8-inch, 800 x 480 resolution display, 800MHz dual-core processor, 768MB RAM, 4GB internal memory, 5 megapixel rear camera with 720p video recording, VGA front camera, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, GPS/GLONASS and a 1,500mAh battery.

Next up is the Galaxy Mini 2. It has a 3.27-inch, 480 x 320 resolution display, 800MHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB internal memory, 3 megapixel fixed-focus rear camera with VGA video recording, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with DLNA, A-GPS and a 1,300mAh battery.

LG announces L7, L5 and L3 - will be shown at MWC 2012

Following yesterday's "L" teaser LG has officially announced three new droids - the L7, L5 and L3. All three devices will be shown at the MWC next week.

The Optimus L3, L5 and L7

The three Optimus L smartphones will feature square, thin metallic design with a textured leather-like panel on the back. They will also offer what LG calls "floating mass display" - a display closer to the surface, which should appear as if it is floating on it.

Panasonic uncovers Eluga specs, live hands-on photos pop up

As promised yesterday, Panasonic unveiled the specifications of their Android smartphone dubbed the Eluga, expected to debut on the European market this March.

The poorly named Eluga is powered by a dual-core 1GHz TI OMAP 4430 processor and 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal memory, which we have come to expect from high-end droids these days. At the front we find a 4.3-inch OLED display with qHD 960 x 540 pixels resolution.

It's also water- and dust-proof with NFC on-board. Remarkably, this hasn't made the device as thick as one might expect. The Eluga is just 7.8mm thick and weighs only 103grams, which, to bring it in a perspective, beats the Galaxy S II hands-down.

The reason for the phone's little hump at the back is the 8MP auto-focus snapper with image stabilization. Speaking of the back, underneath the back cover resides 1,150 mAh battery good for 300h of standby and 240 minutes of talk time.

The Eluga will run Android Gingerbread 2.3.5 when initially sold with Ice Cream Sandwich coming in the Spring of this year, or at least that's what Panasonic promises.

Qualcomm S4 chipset benchmarks promise amazing performance

A fresh batch of benchmarks of Qualcomm's S4 platform show just how powerful the new Krait cores are. The tests were run on a reference platform, but since we don't care about the rest of the hardware (screen, camera, etc.), just the chipset performance, these result are a good indication of what to expect.

Qualcomm S4 uses Krait cores, two running at 1.5GHz in the case of the MSM8960 that was used in the reference platform. Krait is better in almost every respect than the old Scorpion cores and as a result performance has skyrocketed in both single and multi threaded tests.

Linpack reports a whopping 106.8 MFLOPS in single-threaded mode and 218.2 MFLOPS in multithreaded mode. For comparison, a Tegra 3 chipset with four Cortex-A9 cores at 1.3GHz score 135.9 MFLOPS in the multi-threaded benchmark.

   
Linpack benchmark results for Qualcomm S4 MSM8960 and Tegra 3 (single and multithreaded)

SunSpider and BrowserMark results top even the highly optimized Samsung Galaxy Nexus, though not by as much as we would have expected.

The GPU inside the Qualcomm MSM8960 is an Adreno 225, even though S4 chipsets are supposed to use Adreno 3xx GPUs. Still, on paper the 225 matches the PowerVR SGX543MP2, a.k.a. the GPU found inside the iPhone 4S.

How The Pirate Bay was reduced to just 90MB of data

Famed for its vast array of torrents and infamous within the film, television and music industries, The Pirate Bay has become one of the most well known and infamous torrent sites on the web.

Following its recent switch to the using magnet links however, its also become far more space efficient. So much so, one user decided to take the entire library of Pirate Bay torrent links and condense them onto a single USB flash drive.

With over 1.6 million torrents, it’s easy to see the appeal for those who are fans of file sharing and depending on the files in question, easy to understand why such a site would be likely to come under fire from big content creators.

Carbon app for Twitter now available on Windows Marketplace

Twitter users using Windows Phone 7 devices have been waiting for this one for quite some time now and it has finally released. The Carbon app is now available on the Windows Marketplace and can be purchased for $1.99.

Although it is a bit unusual for a Twitter client to charge money for you to use it, this one promises to be well worth the price. Carbon makes great use of the Metro UI to create a visually brilliant interface. But it’s not just a pretty app and comes with all the important features built-in, such as multi-account support, Read Later, image upload, custom URL shortening, threaded direct messages and image & video previews.

Nokia Public Transport drops its beta moniker, wants to show you the way on your Belle device

First introduced as a beta several months ago, Nokia Public Transport has made its way into a commercial release. As its name suggests, the Nokia Belle app is ready to help you navigate your way around the transportation systems of about 80 cities and urban areas.

The application lets you search for any address in the supported locations. It also gives you the opportunity to find different points of interest such as hotels or restaurants. You can save your favorite locations on the application’s home screen for easy access.

In case you are a Nokia Lumia user and feel a bit jealous about the app being available only for Belle users, don’t despair. A Windows Phone version of Nokia Public Transport is already in the works.

You can download the application on your Nokia Belle device here. Feel free to drop us a line with your impressions in the comments section below.

Source

Here's a 1080p sample video from the LG Prada 3.0

UK online retailer Clove has uploaded a 1080p sample video from the LG Prada 3.0 on its blog. The video gives us a look at what the 8 megapixel camera on the Prada 3.0 is capable of.

As you can see from the video above, the quality seems quite decent. We did notice some blurring around edges, though, as the camera was panned around. Also, the dynamic range of the camera isn't particularly great, which resulted in the sky being consistently washed out in the video. The details, however, seemed quite good.

Unfortunately, we couldn't see how the camera copes with moving images, or what the audio quality is like or how it performs under low light. For that, we will just have to wait till we get our hands on the phone ourselves.

Source

Instagram update brings new photo-enhancing effect, new filter and updated UI

The highly popular Instagram app was recently updated and brought a handful of new features and changes. First of all is the new Lux effect, which brings out more detail in your images. It works a bit similar to the HDR function built-into the iPhone’s camera and brings out the details in the dark as well as light areas of the picture. This effect can then also be accompanied by a filter.

Other changes include the addition of a new filter called ‘Sierra’ and a redesigned interface that uses an updated header and menu buttons for a simpler and more refined look. Instagram has also added tappable notifications, where tapping on a notification will take you to the relevant image, comment or profile page in the app.

Finally, a less advertised addition is one where the app now asks you before it uploads your contacts to its servers to find your friends who may also be using the service. This was probably done after the recent controversy with the Path app, where it would upload your entire contact list to its servers without your permission.

Sony looking into porting Vita OS to smartphones and tablets, smartphones apps to Vita platform

If you thought the OS on the PlayStation Vita would be limited to that device, think again. It seems Sony is looking into porting the Vita OS onto smartphones and tablets. This OS has apparently been designed by Sony to be expandable and can be used for powering smartphones and tablets. They may not be in a hurry to port it over on to other platforms right now but it is certainly something they could do down the line.

Another thing of note is that Sony is also going to port smartphone apps over to the PSVita. Sony’s deputy president Kunimasa Suzuki said that they will be putting in energy in building up the PlayStation Suite for this very purpose. Unfortunately, no word on whether PSVita games will appear on other platforms, although that does seem highly unlikely.

Reliance : Reliance Prepaid Plans Tariff, Recharge Plans,Reliance Top Up Cards - Reliance Rate Cutters

Reliance Prepaid Plans : List of Reliance prepaid tariff , Reliance prepaid mobile recharge plan and Reliance Top Up, Reliance Rate Cutter, Booster Cards and Bouns Cards.

Reliance Top Up Cards

MRP(Rs)	Talkvalue(Rs)	Processing Fee(Rs)
20.00	16.13	03.87
30.00	25.20	04.80
50.00	43.33	06.67
100.00	100.00	-
200.00	200.00	-
300.00	300.00	-
333.00	333.00	-
400.00	400.00	-
500.00	500.00	-
666.00	666.00	-

Reliance Rate Cutters

MRP(Rs)	Processing Fee(Rs)	Validity	Description
11.00	11.00	30 Days	E-Recharge with Rs 11 or SMS ACT SMS1P to 53739 or GSM subscriber – press *777*4*1# to activate.
14.00	14.00	1 Days	E-Recharge with Rs 14 or SMS ACT SMSDD to 53739 or GSM subscriber – press *777*4*2# to activate.
24.00	24.00	15 Days	100 Minutes for calls to any local Reliance Mobile* *Calls to both Reliance CDMA and Reliance GSM
25.00	25.00	30 Days	E-Recharge with Rs 25 or SMS ACT SMSPACK to 53739 or GSM subscriber – press *777*4*3# to activate
29.00	29.00	30 Days	Lite-Night Pack 29 Unlimited FREE calls to any local Reliance Mobile between 11pm-6am.
33.00	33.00	2 Days	Weekend Masti Pack 33 Unlimited FREE calls to any local Reliance Mobile during Weekend (Saturday & Sunday only).
40.00	40.00	30 Days	200 Minutes for calls to any local Reliance Mobile* Calls to both Reliance CDMA and Reliance GSM
44.00	44.00	15 Days	100 Minutes for all local calls.
59.00	59.00	30 Days	Bright-Night Pack 59 Unlimited FREE calls to any local Reliance Mobile & 50% off on all other calls between 11pm-6am
80.00	80.00	30 Days	200 Minutes for all local calls

Apple launches $999 13-inch MacBook Air for educational institutions

A few days ago, Apple officially said goodbye to the 13-inch white MacBook, which was so far available exclusively for educational institutions since it was discontinued for the general public last July. Now, they have announced a new cut-price version of the 13-inch MacBook Air, which will be sold for $999.

For that price you will get the hardware from the entry-level 11-inch model (which also costs $999), that is a 1.6GHz Intel Core i5 processor, 2GB of RAM and 64GB of internal memory (SSD). You will, however, get the same 13.3-inch, 1,440 x 900 resolution display from the standard 13-inch model.

Like the white MacBook it replaces, the new $999 MacBook Air will be exclusively available for educational institutions and will have to be purchased in bulk quantities. Apple is offering a pack of five of these MacBook Airs for $4,995. Too bad this machine won’t be sold separately to regular buyers.

Which is the Best Camera for Photography?

People frequently asked these questions:

• “What is the best camera for photography?”
• “Which camera should I buy?”     OR
• “What’s the best camera in my price range?”etc…

Answer: The best digital camera is one that helps you take photos that you love.

Comparing best camera is a lot like comparing apples to apples at the time of purchasing. Faced with a large pile of apples, how do you pick the best one for you? You can pick from a variety of apples because you know exactly what you like (i.e. crunchy, tart, green, and no spots). Finding the best camera is not very different. But you need to think on some points which will help to choose the best. It should help you pick out the best digital camera for you:

• Discover your Inner Photographer
• Let’s start with a Self-Assessment.

The question you have to ask yourself is: What do I love to photograph?

Think of this exercise as finding your photographic sign. Once you know your sign, it will be easier for you to find a camera you’re companionable with. Now we are going to next section, a list of a variety of photographic styles. See if one of them appeals to you more than the others.

HTC to announce the quad-core Endeavour at MWC?

We received word of HTC's quad-core monster back in November and not much has changed, except for two key points.

Firstly the name, the device we've been calling the HTC Edge now looks to be adopting the name Endeavour and more importantly, the HTC Endeavour will make its first official appearance at MWC in the coming weeks.

Aside from the new name, the purported specs of the Endeavour remain unchanged with that all important quad-core Tegra 3 chip clocked at 1.5GHz powering a 4.7" 720p HD display, an 8MP camera complete with an f/2.2 lens and 1080p video capture capability.

There's also a gig of RAM and 32GB of inbuilt user-storage, presumably with a microSD slot offering expansion of another 32GB, but at this stage, that's an estimated guess. Radio wise, we'll see quad-band support, 21Mbps HSDPA speeds but there's a strong chance we'll receive LTE functionality too.

Nokia Lumia 800 sports two new colors in a commercial

It looks like more colors are on the way for Nokia Lumia 800, following closely the white version, which we got to spend time with. The Windows Phone device showed up in red and green in a commercial for the Nokia BH-220 Bluetooth headset.

The colors are yet to be confirmed by Nokia, as the video cannot be found in the company's official YouTube channel. Check it out below.

In case the music in the video sounds familiar, you are right. It is the Nokia Tune Dubstep Edition, whichwe told you about back in October.

LG Optimus Vu does a photo shoot alongside its biggest competitor

In case LG Optimus Vu's teaser from a couple of days ago got you curious how a 4:3 aspect display might look like, we have some good news for you. A photo of the device has emerged, where you can see LG's upcoming phone/tablet pose next to its biggest competitor (or inspiration?) - the Samsung Galaxy Note.

As you can see from the photo above, the screen of the newcomer is wider than the unit of the Galaxy Note, despite its smaller diagonal - all thanks to its 4:3 aspect ratio.

Nokia Lumia 710 vs. Samsung I8350 Omnia W: Battle of the affordable Windows Phones

This sure looks like a non-starter. Comparing Windows Phone handsets is about as constructive as deciding which is right and which is left in a pair of socks. HTC and, to a lesser extent, Samsung have been making sure though there's no shortage of phones to choose from. And now with Nokia pulling their socks up to stay in the smartphone game, the choice is even greater.

Today our focus is on the Samsung I8350 Omnia W and the Nokia Lumia 710. For a change, they step out of the shadow of their bigger, more capable siblings. In fact, the entire Windows Phone range finds itself struggling to catch up with the general trend towards higher screen resolution and multiple-core processing. The first WP7generation was thrown in the deep end while the fresh Mango-running crowd has a seemingly easier task of staying afloat in the midrange.

Phones like the Omnia W and Lumia 710 are likely to be considered even by first-time smartphone users and that's one of the reasons why we think this comparison may be helpful. The two handsets are almost on par pricewise and the same goes for most of the specs too. We have a 3.7" display each and it's tie in imaging too: 5 MP still cameras with 720p video. Both have the same processors and run the most recent version of Windows Phone 7.5 - Mango.

But here's where it gets interesting.

Samsung Galaxy mini 2 S6500 low-end droid leaks

The Samsung Galaxy Mini S5570 has been out for an year now and it looks like it's getting a successor - a tipster sent us a promo image of the Samsung Galaxy mini 2 S6500, codenamed Jena.

The image includes some specs that show a low-end device, sitting between two highly popular droids - the Galaxy Y and the Galaxy Ace.

Some specs have improved since the original - the Samsung Galaxy mini 2 now sports a bigger 3.3" screen with higher resolution (HVGA), a faster processor (800MHz) and 3GB of built-in storage.

The mini 2 S6500 will run Android 2.3 Gingerbread and keeps the 3MP camera and 7.2Mbps HSDPA connectivity from the original. Design-wise, the S6500 has the rounded corners of the first mini, but looks closer to a baby Galaxy S with that home button hump at the lower back.

The promo image labels the Samsung Galaxy mini 2 S6500 for "February 2012", which means it might debut at the MWC.

Unknown HTC LTE droid heading to Verizon, runs on ICS

Pictures of a mysterious HTC droid have popped up today. It looks much like the Incredible 2, runs on the latest Android version - the Ice Cream sandwich and features LTE connectivity. Judging by the boot logo it should be a Verizon-bound smartphone.

The mysterious HTC smartphone

The specs are up to date - there is a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB RAM, an 8 megapixel rear camera and a VGA front one. According to the source, the screen should be an AMOLED one instead of the HTC's traditional S-LCD.

As we said, the device is LTE-capable, it runs on Android 4.0.1 Ice Cream Sandwich and features the latest HTC Sense UI 4.0. Since it shares similar looks with the DROID Incredible 2, it might turn out to be its successor - the Incredible 3.

Pink Samsung Galaxy Note on the way, will miss Valentine's day

We have always thought of the Samsung Galaxy Note as a male-oriented device, but it turns out we have underestimated it. The phoneblet obviously generates enough interest with the ladies to warrant its own feminine version, colored in Berry Pink.

We got a tip from an industry insider, containing a photo of the upcoming pink version of the Samsung Galaxy Note. Both the front and the back of the device will obviously be repainted, but we aren't sure if the S Pen (which is white in the white version) will get a similar treatment.

Unfortunately, the pink Samsung Galaxy Note won't make it in time for Valentine's day. The first samples of the device will arrive in the 8th week of the year, while public availability is scheduled for Week 9. That's exactly three weeks away now, so the wait won't be long.

Motorola Droid 4 hits the shelves at Verizon Wireless

In case you are a hardware QWERTY keyboard junkie, and happen to live in the United States, we have some good news for you. Motorola's latest Droid 4 smartphone, featuring a slide-out hardware keyboard is now available for Verizon Wireless.

The RAZR styled handset packs an the edge-lit, laser-cut QWERTY keyboard, which sound like a perfect addition to its spec sheet. The latter includes a dual-core CPU, LTE radio, 8MP snapper, 4" qHD screen, and Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread. You can find the device's full specs, along with our early hands-on impressions here.

The Motorola Droid 4 will cost you $199.99 with a two year commitment. In case you don't like contracts, prepare to spend $549.99.

And by the way, Amazon Wireless is already offering the device with a hefty discount. The Droid 4 is priced there at the highly acceptable $99.99 with a contract - a seriously sweet deal for the best Android QWERTY available at the moment.

Androids lose resale value faster than iPhones, study shows

An interesting new startup called Priceonomics tackles a question that we all face eventually - how much can I sell my old phone for? According to their research, iPhones have the best resale value, while Android is almost tied with BlackBerrys in this respect.

If you try to sell your 18-month old phone, you'd get 53% of its original price on average if you have an iPhone, 42% if it's a droid and 41% for a BlackBerry. Check out this graph that shows how quickly smartphones deprecate in value.

To make things more specific, if you buy an iPhone, you can sell it for $13.20 less for each month you keep it. BlackBerrys and Androids on the other hand lose more - 40% more in the case of Android.