Monday 20 October 2014
isl opening match
Cristiano Ronaldo leaves it late to give Portugal win over Denmark
A headed goal in injury time by Cristiano Ronaldo gave Portugal a much-needed 1-0 win over Denmark in their Group I Euro 2016 qualifier.
Ronaldo rose to meet Ricardo Quaresma’s cross and bury his header past Kasper Schmeichel to secure all three points after the referee, Felix Brych, played five minutes of stoppage time at the end of the game.
Denmark’s best chance came when Pierre Hojbjerg muscled his way through and fed Christian Eriksen, who teed up Michael Krohn-Dehli to fire in a shot that came back off the far post.
Ronaldo’s goal lifts Portugal off the bottom of the table and into third place in the five-team group on three points. Denmark remain second, level on four points with the leaders, Albania.
Euro 2016 qualifying: Germany held; Ronaldo rescues Portugal
Copenhagen: World champions Germany stumbled again in their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign on Tuesday, drawing 1-1 with the Republic of Ireland on a night where Cristiano Ronaldo and a flying drone made headlines elsewhere.
Ronaldo`s late header gave Portugal a 1-0 win in Denmark to kickstart their qualifying campaign, but the meeting between Serbia and Albania in the same Group I was abandoned after crowd trouble in Belgrade.
Germany had suffered their first qualifying defeat since 2007 at the weekend, losing 2-0 in Poland in Group D, but the World Cup winners were greeted by a huge fan mosaic at one end of the stadium in Gelsenkirchen which read simply `Thank You`, proving that such a defeat could not overshadow their heroics of July.Borussia Dortmund`s Erik Durm, who went to the World Cup but did not play, smashed a shot off the bar in the first half before a precise Toni Kroos strike in the 71st minute gave Joachim Loew`s men the lead.
But Ireland stunned their hosts by equalising in the fourth minute of added time with their first effort on target from veteran defender John O`Shea.
The result means Poland are top of Group D from Ireland on goal difference, with Scotland and Germany three points further back, while Georgia beat Gibraltar 3-0 to record their first points.
"We`re all disappointed. I think that was Ireland`s only chance of the game and they scored from it," said Loew. "In the last few minutes, we were simply naive."
Ireland`s hero O`Shea added: "We have a fantastic spirit, we didn`t want to come off having lost with people thinking we just did ok."
In Warsaw, Poland took the lead against Gordon Strachan`s side through Krzysztof Maczynski, but Shaun Maloney and Steven Naismith found the net for Scotland, leaving the hosts requiring a magnificent Arkadiusz Milik goal to earn a 2-2 draw in a thrilling match.
"We were brave enough to come here and play with a lot of forwards and a draw was probably the right result," admitted Strachan.
In Copenhagen, Cristiano Ronaldo headed in Ricardo Quaresma`s cross in the fifth minute of injury time to score his 51st international goal and give Portugal victory against their Danish hosts in their first competitive game under new coach Fernando Santos.
Ronaldo said: "I want to congratulate the team for always believing. We knew it was going to be a difficult game but we showed confidence right to the end."Meanwhile, Albania, who won away in Portugal in Group I last month to precipitate the departure of Portuguese coach Paulo Bento, saw their match with Serbia in Belgrade abandoned after trouble started just before half-time with the score goalless.
A drone sporting the Albanian flag was flown over the stadium, sparking fury among Serbian fans and players and leading to clashes between the two teams on the pitch.
Serbian fans hurled smoke bombs and other missiles onto the pitch in protest in a game from which Albanian fans had been barred because of the sensitive relations between the two countries.
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland made it three wins from three in Group F with a remarkable 2-0 victory away to Greece in Piraeus, Jamie Ward and Kyle Lafferty finding the net either side of half-time for Michael O`Neill`s side.
The result leaves Claudio Ranieri`s Greece side, European champions in 2004, lagging behind with just one point so far, while a brace from Bogdan Stancu gave Romania a 2-0 win in Finland and Adam Szalai`s solitary effort handed Hungary a 1-0 triumph in the Faroe Islands.
In England`s Group E, Switzerland recorded their first points with a 4-0 victory away to hapless San Marino, with Haris Seferovic scoring twice and Blerim Dzemaili and Xherdan Shaqiri also on target.
The next round of qualifiers will be played over the weekend of November 14 to 16.
Monday 29 September 2014
Atletico de Kolkata
Kolkata: Showcasing his football skills, Sourav Ganguly struck three goals from the spot as he urged fans to turn up in huge numbers and support the city's newest team Atletico de Kolkata when the ISL kicks off here on October 12.Kolkata: Showcasing his football skills, Sourav Ganguly struck three goals from the spot as he urged fans to turn up in huge numbers and support the city's newest team Atletico de Kolkata when the ISL kicks off here on October 12.
The former India cricket captain might have left football to make cricket his career, but the left-hander showed he was a powerful footballer as well, after beating 'goalkeeper' Alvito d Cunha thrice from five attempts under the bar at the Vivekananda Yuva Bharati Krirangan in Saltlake.
"You have turned up in huge numbers for East Bengal and Mohun Bagan matches. Now I urge you to come and support Atletico in the same way and watch some quality football," the ATK co-owner said during the half time of the title deciding East Bengal-Tollygunge Agragami local league clash.
While the former India captain hoped that the franchisee football league would be successful like that of the hugely popular Indian Premier League.
"Every team is quite competitive. There will be legends like Zico (Goa coach) and we will have Luis Garcia. The standard will be very high and we will have the opportunity to see high quality football of speed and agility. Football in India will get a huge boost."
He further hoped that the franchisee football league would be successful like that of the hugely popular Indian Premier League.
"When IPL was launched, nobody knew it would be so successful. ISL has potential and we are keeping our fingers crossed," he said.
Ganguly said all are welcome including kids as he promised wholesome entertainment for the family during ATK's home outings.
"We will make arrangements so that kids can enjoy the whole day. Ticket prices will also be kept reasonable," he said adding there would be about 30,000 bucket seats and arrangements to watch the game from near the sidelines.
The city team will return on September 26 after their month-long training in Spain and will play friendly matches against Tollygunge Agragami and either East Bengal or Mohun Bagan before the ISL.
The former India cricket captain might have left football to make cricket his career, but the left-hander showed he was a powerful footballer as well, after beating 'goalkeeper' Alvito d Cunha thrice from five attempts under the bar at the Vivekananda Yuva Bharati Krirangan in Saltlake.
"You have turned up in huge numbers for East Bengal and Mohun Bagan matches. Now I urge you to come and support Atletico in the same way and watch some quality football," the ATK co-owner said during the half time of the title deciding East Bengal-Tollygunge Agragami local league clash.
While the former India captain hoped that the franchisee football league would be successful like that of the hugely popular Indian Premier League.
"Every team is quite competitive. There will be legends like Zico (Goa coach) and we will have Luis Garcia. The standard will be very high and we will have the opportunity to see high quality football of speed and agility. Football in India will get a huge boost."
He further hoped that the franchisee football league would be successful like that of the hugely popular Indian Premier League.
"When IPL was launched, nobody knew it would be so successful. ISL has potential and we are keeping our fingers crossed," he said.
Ganguly said all are welcome including kids as he promised wholesome entertainment for the family during ATK's home outings.
"We will make arrangements so that kids can enjoy the whole day. Ticket prices will also be kept reasonable," he said adding there would be about 30,000 bucket seats and arrangements to watch the game from near the sidelines.
The city team will return on September 26 after their month-long training in Spain and will play friendly matches against Tollygunge Agragami and either East Bengal or Mohun Bagan before the ISL.
Former Arsenal player Andre Santos joins FC Goa of the Indian Super League
Panaji, Sep 29 (IANS) Indian Super League (ISL) franchise FC Goa Monday signed on itssecond former Arsenal player and Brazilian international Andre Santos, according to an official statement issued here.
Santos will be joining the club's training sessions shortly and will be the second Arsenal player after midfielder Robert Pires to be roped in by the Goa-based team.
FC Goa, is one of the eight teams which is part of the much trumpeted ISL that kicks off next month and is jointly owned by three club owners, namely Anirudh Dhoot, a director with Videocon, Srinivas Dempo chairman and managing director of the Dempo Group of Companies and Dattaraj Salogaocar, Managing director of V M Salgaocar and co. The latter two businessmen hail from Goa.A youth product of Figueirense in Brazil, Santos, who favours the left-back position was in the Brazilian team which won the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup.
He joined EPL team Arsenal from Fenerbache in 2011 and eventually moved to Brazil to play with Gremio followed by Flamengo. Andre, who is currently in Brazlil, will be moving to Goa soon. The club had also roped in two of Dempo Sports Club's foreign imports - Australian Tolgay Ozbey and Haroon Amiri of Afghanistan - for the inaugural edition of the Indian Super League (ISL). FC Goa will face Chennaiyin FC in their opening game slated for Oct 15.
Thursday 25 September 2014
Indian Super League: Pedro Miguel Pauleta believes ISL growth of Football in India
Pedro Miguel Pauleta.
New Delhi, Sep 24: Portuguese Footballer Pedro Miguel Pauleta feels tournaments like Indian Super League (ISL), which involves international players, will benefit the current crop of Indian Football players and will also boost the younger generations to take up the sport. Football as a sport is at the threshold of a huge face-lift in India with the launch of ISL and the country hosting the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2017.
“With the advent of Indian Super League, it will inspire the younger generations to take up the sport and the players will undoubtedly benefit from the international players because of the amount of experience they brings in to play,” Pauleta said at the inauguration of the Paris Saint-Germain Academy.
When asked about the prospects of India as a football playing nation he said: “Even countries like the United States were not doing well at the sport but they have certainly revived themselves over a period of time and they have been performing well. If the players in India will be provided with good facilities and platform to showcase their talent then it won’t be too long to see the country playing in the World Cups.”
India has seen some exciting talents coming in from places like north-east and other remote areas and the organisation is looking forward to start more academies in such places.
“We will be very excited to start our venture in the two-tier cities but it will take some time to reach out to those places. As of now, Delhi and Bangalore will be our focus of concern and later on we will look for more expansions,” said Rajesh Mehrotra, Director of the Sport Roots, which has formed a partnership with Paris Saint-Germain to open academies in India.
Lending his support to the academy the French ambassador Francois Richier said: “We will be haapy to help India emerge in the game. We would like to produce more strikers for the country where U-17 World Cup is about to take place.” Asked if he ever thinks of coming out of retirement, Pauleta said he certainly has no plans to return back to the sport and has so far received no offers from any of the teams from Indian Super League.
Wednesday 24 September 2014
Xolo 8X-1000
We have reviewed a number of Xolo smartphones in the recent past and have been quite impressed. The company is clearly trying to break away from the general perception that Indian brands only sell cheap, low-quality products that can be dumped into the market with zero actual effort. Of course Xolo phones are manufactured in China just like all others are, but you can generally expect better looks, build quality and hardware than you'd get from other brands.
Xolo has taken the next step in its journey of differentiation by developing its ownAndroid software overlay. All the major Android players, from global giants Samsung,Sony and LG to Chinese upstarts Lenovo, Gionee, Oppo and Xiaomi have their own custom Android skins, and now Xolo has decided it's time to join the club.
In a sea of affordable Android phones with nearly identical specifications (and quite a few recycled design ideas), software is the only way to stand apart and do something unique. If Xolo can manage to come up with something really good, it might help attract and retain customers. On the other hand, companies do tend to go overboard with the razzle-dazzle, making us wish they had just stuck to stock Android. We're looking forward to seeing whether Xolo has managed to balance features, improvements and bloat.
Software aside, the Xolo 8X-1000 is also a pretty interesting device, and we're going to give it the full review treatment.
Look and feel
At first glance, the 8X-1000 looks like a solid black slab with almost no markings of any kind. You won't see anything on the front face, but you'll just about be able to make out where the front camera, sensors and earpiece are. It would be very easy to pick this phone up and try to use it upside down. There's a shiny silver Xolo logo on the rear and silver accents around the camera lens, flash, headset socket and Micro-USB port - that's it for design flourishes.
At first glance, the 8X-1000 looks like a solid black slab with almost no markings of any kind. You won't see anything on the front face, but you'll just about be able to make out where the front camera, sensors and earpiece are. It would be very easy to pick this phone up and try to use it upside down. There's a shiny silver Xolo logo on the rear and silver accents around the camera lens, flash, headset socket and Micro-USB port - that's it for design flourishes.
The front and rear are shiny, reflective and immensely easy to smudge up with fingerprints. Xolo says the device is protected by Asahi Dragontrail glass over the screen as well as Gorilla Glass 3, presumably on the rear. There top, bottom and sides are a simple matte black, with a slight bevel wrapping around the rear. The 8X-1000 doesn't open out, which means the battery is not accessible.
There's one tray on the right edge for a microSD card, and another on the left for the two Micro-SIM cards. The power and volume buttons are also on the right edge, but they're all too low to be reached comfortably with a thumb.
The 8X-1000 is meant to look stealthy and minimalistic, but it almost feels as a bit too cold and severe. It's very well built and feels quite solid; it's just not the kind of design that everyone will automatically love.
Specifications and software
The Xolo 8X-1000 is powered by an octa-core MediaTek MT6592M processor running at 1.4GHz with integrated Mali-450 MP4 graphics. There's 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage space. The 5-inch screen has a decent resolution of 720x1280. There's an 8-megapixel camera on the rear and a 2-megapixel one in front. Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi b/g/n are supported, along with the usual proximity sensor, ambient light sensor and accelerometer.
The Xolo 8X-1000 is powered by an octa-core MediaTek MT6592M processor running at 1.4GHz with integrated Mali-450 MP4 graphics. There's 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage space. The 5-inch screen has a decent resolution of 720x1280. There's an 8-megapixel camera on the rear and a 2-megapixel one in front. Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi b/g/n are supported, along with the usual proximity sensor, ambient light sensor and accelerometer.
The phone runs Android 4.4, but Xolo's Hive UI is a massive departure from stock Android. Most things are in their usual places, but they look completely new. The style is very modern and fresh, which we have to credit Xolo for. However, not all the changes are positive.
The lockscreen is the perfect example of this. You'll see four bars across the screen and four icons at the bottom. You can drag any of the bars downwards to unlock the phone and jump to a particular feature: the bottom one just takes you to the homescreen, while the others are for the phone, messaging and camera apps respectively. The icons at the bottom show you how many missed calls, unread messages, emails and appointments you have. It looks great, but the bars are a bit too narrow, and you have to pay a little more attention than usual to make you're swiping in the right place.
The homescreens also look great, and everything from the colour scheme to the wallpaper and font is slick and modern. There's a bit of unnecessary animation which adds 2-3 seconds of lag to unlock transition. This is also where we get our first look at Xolo's software efforts - there are four hexagonal icons labelled Edge, Secure, Power and Connect. Icon styles aren't really consistent and you'll notice a mix of hexagons and squared-off circles in various styles everywhere in the Hive UI.
The apps themselves are interesting. Edge is a store for themes, ringtones and wallpapers, but with a social twist. You have to register for a "Hive Key" account, which can be done with one-tap Facebook or Google authentication. Your votes and comments on the store's contents are then displayed in a stream and on content pages for all other users to see. There's quite a diversity of tastes and styles, including some slick modern themes. Everything seems to be free, which might change in the future.
Edge ties in to Conncect, which is another social app designed to let you communicate with the Xolo team regarding support issues and feature suggestions. Conceptually, it reminds us a lot of Dell's ongoing Idea Storm initiative. You can vote on ideas and see which ones have been accepted by the team. The app also includes detailed contact information for Xolo customer support and a list of service centres (with map links). In its current state, the comment stream is full of complaints, spam and unintelligible gibberish. There appears to be little moderation or guidance to help new users, but we do have to commend Xolo for trying this.
Xolo Secure is an anti-theft solution that lets you track a lost or stolen phone, lock or wipe it out remotely, and back up your contacts and messages. Xolo Power lets you enable a power-saving mode or selectively restrict background data transfers, check out how much time you have left to get various things done, and see which apps are consuming the most power.
There's a lot more to be seen. Xolo has totally overhauled the quick settings tab of the notifications shade - you'll see two prominent circular dials for the screen brightness and timeout settings, plus regular icons for the usual Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and more. The app launcher is totally new, but a bit confusing. You can sort icons alphabetically, by usage frequency, or in categories. There's no custom order, which is odd. You can't reorder icons in any of the views so that your favourites are more easily accessible - you'll have to set up homescreens for that. There are a few neat widgets, such as a dashboard for Xolo Power, though styles still tend to clash.
The phone, messaging, contacts and other apps are significantly overhauled. The contacts app deserves special mention for presenting each entry like a social network profile page with a large cover photo and links to messages and a history of interactions. Facebook and Google connections let you sync contacts with those services too.
The camera, gallery and music player apps are brand new and even the Android browser has been reskinned. The custom apps are designed well for the most part, but not all the changes are major improvements over the stock apps. The gallery app is easy to scroll through, and images are sorted neatly into folders. You get basic filter, frame, crop and correction tools but also a few neat features such Photoshop-style RGB curve adjustment. Another neat feature is that you can tweak brightness, saturation and contrast in selective parts of a photo, to adjust over- or underexposed areas.
The music app is called FusionX and relies on the same circular control metaphor, but in this case it's just extra-fiddly for no reason. You can create playlists and adjust the EQ, which are nice feature to have. FM radio is part of the app, and there's a section called Charts that lists a few current and old Hindi movie tracks which you can stream with a tap. YouTube and Last.fm are also integrated so you can see related videos and recommendations, which are not always relevant.
One more thing to note is that the 8X-1000 does not use on-screen buttons. The space beneath the screen looks blank but there are three capacitive buttons here, denoted by tiny dots that light up only when you touch that area. This lack of labelling is very problematic - you'll only learn by trial and error that the Back button is on the right, and the button on the left is for the old-style Android menu, not recent apps. The buttons are difficult to find and use, which is an extremely basic thing to get wrong.
Camera
We were very pleased with the performance of the 8-megapixel camera. It uses an Exmor-R sensor with a fixed f/2.0 aperture. Xolo advertises a five-stage lens for better quality. We were surprised by how bright and clear images were in daylight, regardless of cloud cover. Low-light performance was also quite good. Images actually look a lot better on a big screen than they do on the phone itself.
We were very pleased with the performance of the 8-megapixel camera. It uses an Exmor-R sensor with a fixed f/2.0 aperture. Xolo advertises a five-stage lens for better quality. We were surprised by how bright and clear images were in daylight, regardless of cloud cover. Low-light performance was also quite good. Images actually look a lot better on a big screen than they do on the phone itself.
(Click to see full size)
The camera did not always autofocus on the areas we expected, but this can be fixed very easily. Photos came out sharp, detailed and mostly accurate in terms of colours, without too much compression. The front camera isn't half as good, but is acceptable for video chats and a few odd selfies now and then.
The camera app provides loads of options, but most are buried inside a menu. You only get quick access to the flash, modes and effects settings. There's a Pro mode that gives you control over white balance, ISO and exposure level. The rest of the options include voice triggering, face detection, burst, a self timer, electronic stabilisation, and image or video quality.
Performance
Eight CPU cores might sound like a lot, but we already know that MediaTek's popular MT6592 doesn't always match up to quad-core offerings from more established rivals such as Qualcomm. This time, Xolo has gone with the low-power MT6592M, which is a bit slower.
Eight CPU cores might sound like a lot, but we already know that MediaTek's popular MT6592 doesn't always match up to quad-core offerings from more established rivals such as Qualcomm. This time, Xolo has gone with the low-power MT6592M, which is a bit slower.
The 8X-1000 did adequately well in our benchmark tests, but definitely won't be setting any performance records. Scores were notably lower than those of other devices based on the MT6592. We logged 26,278 points in AnTuTu 5 and 11,055 overall in Quadrant. The 13.9fps score in GFXbench is reasonable, and you'll be able to play casual 3D games without much trouble. We did notice significant tearing in our high-bitrate 1080p video test, but other 1080p videos played well. The upper half of the phone's rear got uncomfortably hot when we did anything even a little stressful with it.
There are two grilles on the phone's bottom which look like stereo speakers, but only one is actually a speaker. It's pretty loud and surprisingly clear, though sound is still very thin and high-pitched. It works much better for voices in videos than for complex music.
We were especially disappointed by the battery life - the Xolo 8X-1000 lasted only 4 hours, 9 minutes in our video loop test. We wouldn't expect this phone to last even a full day if you're doing anything more basic than making calls and surfing the Web.
Verdict
It's clear that a lot of effort and even some original thought has gone into the Hive UI. Considering this is the company's first release, it's very polished and no major features are missing. We hope to see regular updates that improve usability and flexibility. A few months from now users might prefer stock Android L to any custom skin, so it will be interesting to see how Xolo evolves the Hive UI from here.
It's clear that a lot of effort and even some original thought has gone into the Hive UI. Considering this is the company's first release, it's very polished and no major features are missing. We hope to see regular updates that improve usability and flexibility. A few months from now users might prefer stock Android L to any custom skin, so it will be interesting to see how Xolo evolves the Hive UI from here.
The 8X-1000 seems to be targeted at style-conscious users who like to stand out and are more concerned with features than performance. There are of course things about it we'd like to change, but again, it's a sign that the company is moving in a good direction. We've said before that Xolo stands out from the crowd of Indian smartphone brands, and now with this new combination of hardware and software, it's almost ready to leave them all behind in the dust.
This is not the phone to buy if you're concerned about battery life or raw performance, but it does come across as a viable alternative to similarly priced models from Gionee, Oppo, Lenovo and other value-oriented brands.
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