HTC unveils the HTC Radar in India

The HTC Radar will be available in a week's time for Rs. 25,490. The device will come preloaded with Microsoft's latest mobile operating system - Windows Phone 7.5 Mango. It has a 3.5-inch WVGA SLCD display with a resolution of 480x800 pixels. Under the hood, the device runs on a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 512MB of RAM. It comes with 8GB internal storage expandable up to 32GB via MicroSD card. A VGA front facing camera is present for video conferencing and the rear houses a 5MP camera with the ability to do 720p HD recording. A 1520mAh battery powers the device.

Facebook app hits the iPad

Facebook on Monday landed on the iPad, releasing software that lets members of the leading online social network connect on Apple's hot-selling tablet computers.

The release of an iPad application is part of a move by Facebook to stay in synch with modern lifestyles that revolve increasingly around Internet-linked wireless mobile gadgets.

"Many of you have been asking about Facebook for iPad," Facebook mobile engineer Leon Dubinsky said in a blog post. "It's finally here."

Features added to the Facebook iPad software include being able to chat with friends or watch high-resolution streaming video, according to the engineer.

Facebook also upgraded its iPhone application to allow faster online searches, simpler navigation of pages, and access to more games and other socially-oriented mini-programs, Dubinsky said.
Approximately 800 million people belong to the Palo Alto, California-based social network.

iPhone 4S pre-orders top 1 million in 24 hours

Apple says first-day pre-orders of the iPhone 4S topped 1 million, breaking the record set by last year's model.

Apple Inc. and various phone companies started taking orders for the phone last Friday. It hits stores this Friday.

First-day orders for the iPhone 4 were 600,000 when it launched last year. It was then sold in the U.S. only by AT&T Inc. The iPhone 4S is also sold by Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corporation.

The base model of the iPhone 4S costs $200 with a two-year contract. It has a faster processor and an improved camera compared to last year's model.

Apple shares rose $9, or 2.4 percent, to $378.80 in premarket trading Monday.

Samsung: Android phone launch delayed for Jobs'

South Korea's Samsung Electronics said on Monday that it delayed the launch of a smartphone based on Google's latest Android operating system as a gesture of respect for legendary Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

Samsung -- the world's number two mobile phone maker -- and Apple are at loggerheads in a series of patent lawsuits over the technology and design of smartphones and tablet computers.

The Korean company had been due to unveil a Galaxy Nexus smartphone using Google-backed Android software and designed to challenge Apple's market-leading iPhone at an event in San Diego on Tuesday.

"The launch was delayed because we thought it's not the right time to announce it following the passing of Steve Jobs," a spokesman for the company told AFP.

Jobs, 56, died on Wednesday after suffering from cancer.

Last week Apple unveiled its iPhone 4S, which will be available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Britain on October 14 and in another 22 countries including Italy from October 28.

But Samsung said it would seek a ban in France and Italy on sales of the new iPhone, citing what it called two patent infringements regarding mobile technology.

The South Korean firm also said it would file preliminary injunctions in other countries.

Samsung will announce a new date and venue for its smartphone launch later.

BlackBerry services suffer massive outage in India

Scores of BlackBerry subscribers today faced disruption in accessing Internet and using messenger services, even as the smartphone manufacturer, Research In Motion, assured its customers of resolving the glitch soon.
    
India is estimated to have one million users of BlackBerry.
    
"We are working to resolve an issue currently impacting some BlackBerry subscribers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and India. We're investigating, and we apologise to our customers for any inconvenience caused whilst this is resolved," Canada-based RIM said in a statement.
    
Telecom operators in India maintained that there was no problem at their end. Glitches in BlackBerry services were reported from different parts of the world.

 "Millions of BlackBerry smartphone users have been cut off by a major fault at RIM, the Canadian company that makes the devices," UK's Daily Telegraph said in a report.

Vodafone UK said that customers across Britain appeared to be unable to access BlackBerry Messenger, a free-to-use instant messaging program which has helped make the handset popular with young people.
    
"The glitch was affecting online services for consumers all over Europe, the Middle East and Africa. All are served by a RIM data centre in Slough," it added.

Khaled Hegazy, Vodafone Egypt's spokesman, said "there is a problem with the servers in Canada which is affecting service" in the region. He said they expected it would take about another four hours to resolve the issue, which first appeared to crop up at about 1000 GMT.    

The outage occurred as RIM's co-CEO Jim Balsillie and other executives were in Dubai for the annual GITEX electronics show. Balsillie earlier in the day unveiled a new service at the show that will soon let users of some of its latest BlackBerry phones share documents, web links and other information with others by tapping their smartphones together.

Hundreds of users flooded microblogging site Twitter, complaining about disruptions in BlackBerry services.

S. Korea's LG unveils ultra-high-speed smartphone

South Korea's LG Electronics on Monday launched a new smartphone with ultra-high-speed network technology in a bid to catch up with rivals Apple and Samsung.

LG, the world's third-largest handset maker, said its Optimus LTE smartphone based on 4G wireless technology offers photos and videos with "true natural colours" that are easier on the eye than other smartphones.

The 4G wireless service, based on Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology, promises fast data traffic and quicker access to applications such as television programmes, movies and video streaming.

Samsung Electronics, LG's bigger rival and the world's number two handset maker, last month introduced a new version of its popular Galaxy S II smartphone based on the technology.

"Since mobile devices are widely expected to become the main platform for media consumption in the LTE era, high-resolution displays on smartphones will be even more necessary," Park Jong-Seok, chief of LG Electronics' mobile unit, said in a statement.

The firm is battling to turn around its loss-making handset operations, where it lags Samsung Electronics and Apple in offering high-margin smartphones packed with special features.

The company replaced its chief executive last year after its mobile unit posted a record loss in the second quarter of 2010 due to a falling share of the booming global smartphone market.

Analysts cautiously expressed optimism, saying LG, after a year-long struggle, is set for continued profit growth based on increased sale of smartphones and ample patents it owns in the new high-speed technologies.