Hyderabad boys develop Ave, an Android tablet PC at 12,999

A new tablet PC enters into the fray, iPhone 4S becomes the costliest smartphone in India and Motorola RAZR makes its debut in India. All this and more news from the world of gadgets and gaming.

Teenagers Sareddy Chiman Prakash and Nikhil of Hyderabad have developed a tablet PC called 'Ave'. Ave tablet PC will be launched in the market at a price tag of Rs 12,999.

The tablet was unveiled by Andhra Pradesh Information Technology and Communications Minister, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, in Hyderabad last week. It will be manufactured by a UK-based company, Sareddy Technologies, which is owned by Prakash's father.

The Ave tablet runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread and features a 7-inch display. The tablet has an internal storage of 8 GB, which can be expanded up to 32 GB. On connectivity front, the Ave tablet supports 3G and Wi-Fi facilities.

The launch of the Ave comes days after the Indian government launched its ultra low-cost tablet called 'Aakash'. The Aakash tablet, commercially available for Rs 2,999, was aimed to help bridge the ongoing technology boom with the rural India. Of late, we've seen a series of low-cost tablet launches.

Beetel Teletech recently launched Beetel Magiq II for Rs 9,799, while Reliance launched its 3G Tab for Rs 12,999.

We had recently reported that DataWind and Reliance Industries Limited are prepping an ultra low-cost 4G tablet, which will be priced between Rs 4,000-5,000.

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Research in Motion (RIM) is going to soon launch a free aptitude test app for students. RIM has partnered with the content providers Ipomo and telecom operator Vodafone to provide the app on its BlackBerry phones.

"We are looking at the way a student can utilise his time for productive work on mobile phones. Hence, we have decided to give students Aptitude Competition for Excellence (ACE) applications free so that he can utilise his time to prepare for competitive exams," Hitesh Shah, Director -- Commercial Relationship India, RIM is quoted as saying.

Shah further reveals that the application and its content have been specially designed by Ipomo for the BlackBerry users. The test will be initially for specific examinations and grades, however, will be expanded over the time.

RIM in coordination with Vodafone and Ipomo is conducting an Aptitude Competition for Excellence (ACE 2011) programme in Karnataka and is slated to start in Pune early next year.

"We are going to organise another series of ACE in Pune from second week of January. After completing ACE test in Pune, we will provide access to application on pan-India level. We will not charge anything for the application and content," Shah adds.

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Motorola has officially introduced its much-anticipated smartphone, RAZR, in India. Dubbed as the world's slimmest smartphone, the RAZR aka RAZR XT910 was recently spotted on the online retail stores. The Motorola RAZR is now available in India at select stores in select cities at a best buy price of Rs 33,990.

The Motorola RAZR features a 4.3-inch AMOLED display, front-facing camera and an 8 MP rear-facing camera with 1080p HD video capture capabilities. The device runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system and is powered by a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor.

It has a 16 GB of internal storage, extendable up to 32 GB via microSD card. For connectivity, the device supports Wi-Fi, GPRS, 3G and Bluetooth. The Razr comes with a 1,780 mAh Li-On battery.

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Leaked images of the LG Optimus EX aka LG-SU880 have hit the Internet and now we have some more information on the upcoming LG smartphone. However, there's still no official word on the release date and pricing of the device.

Pocket-Droid has published two images, which it claims to be actual photos of the new LG Optimus EX. The Optimus EX is supposed to feature a 4-inch TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen with a 480x800 pixel resolution.

The device is powered by a 1.2 Ghz dual-core Tegra 2 processor. Other reported features include 1 GB of RAM, 5 MP of rear camera with 1080p recording, 8 GB of storage and a 1,500 mAh battery.

The device is expected to run a Gingerbread operating system.

The LG Optimus EX will be available in two colours: black+silver and white+champagne gold. According to report, the device will first hit South Korean market soon followed by an international release.

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for pre-booking in India. The pricing of the new iPhone 4S has certainly taken the Apple fans in India by surprise.

The 16 GB variant, which is the lowest model of the iPhone 4S, has been priced at whopping Rs 44,500, while the 32 GB model is available for Rs 50,900. Currently, the 64 GB model has been listed as the 'sold out' at the Aircel website.

With price hovering around Rs 45k, the iPhone 4S could be the priciest iPhone launched ever in India. Considering the pricing of the iPhone 4S in other nations, it could be the costliest iPhone 4S in the world right now.

The official carriers of the iPhone 4S in India, Airtel and Aircel, have also not given any respite to the iPhone enthusiasts. None of them has yet announced any bundled offers with the new iPhone 4S.

It's notable that the iPhone 4S was launched at the same price as the iPhone 4 in the US. And this time Apple had been the quickest to bring its device to the Indian market, which is approximately a month.

With India already bearing the brunt of price rise, it's unlikely that people will shell out more than Rs 40k for this device.

It's learnt that the iPhone 4S is available at much lower price tags in other countries and even you can get a factory unlocked iPhone 4S for Rs 43,100.

Meanwhile, check out a comparison between iPhone 4S' India price and global price:

except India, the prices for other regions are of factory unlocked iPhone 4S
prices are exclusive of taxes

It's quite surprising to see Apple keeping the price of the iPhone 4S highest in India. The iPhone 4S is certainly a top-end smartphone with various new and improved features. But are you willing to pay Rs 45k to Airtel or Aircel for the iPhone 4S, especially when you have other options to get it at lower price?

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Samsung has confirmed that its Galaxy S II smartphone will receive the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update very soon. However, Samsung has not yet revealed exactly when it will start rolling out the update.

"Hi, good news -- the Galaxy S II will be receiving ICS, but there are no dates confirmed as yet. We will keep you posted," the company said via its @SamsungUK Twitter feed.

The announcement comes days after Samsung and Google jointly unveiled the Galaxy Nexus and Ice Cream Sandwich.

Since the launch of the new Android operating system, a number of manufacturers are trying to introduce the update to their handsets. The ICS update to Samsung Galaxy S II is only confirmed for the UK market, but it is expected that other nations which sell the Galaxy S II will also get the update. According to reports, the ICS update for the S II users may come as early as Christmas.

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