The Big Geek - My Ramblings

EXCLUSIVE: UNBOXING PICTURES AND VIDEOS OF THE MACBOOK AIR

2010-11-02T01:59:00.003+05:30

My First Reactions

1. I want This

My Second Reaction

2. I Want this now

My First level review

It's amazing how tiny and thin this machine is and it does not loose power, getting instant on has been a craze for me for a very long time, ever since I got my iPad earlier this year, i Wanted to work with machines that boot up the moment you press a button. The Macbook Air works like that.

I also would have loved to have an Ethernet port, especially when you are working on a Gigabit network, but then this is too little to ask for, the portability on this machine does not make you miss the Ethernet port. Here I opened and used a 13" Model, but would personally like to own an 11" model only, mine are on it's way and another few days we can do the unboxing and pictures of the 11" plus a dedicated review.

I did not like the fact that the keyboard does not have a backlight, I some how have fallen in love with the Backlight on the MacBooks and the Macbook pro's, so am a little disappointed.

The speakers work fine on this machine and we also tried playing some stuff off garageband as you will see in the Video, the machine works cool and looks cool, now in a few days, will give you comments on the Battery time and if I feel the machine is too slow or the missing hard drive is giving me trouble, for now, this is one Amazing Machine.

Steve Jobs, Shine the Light on me. Thank you @maninderpals for sharing the machine with me the moment it Landed in India.

So here is my flickr pool of unboxing

www.flickr.com

gagandeepsapra's MacBook Air 2010 photoset

Unboxing and First Preview of Olympus PEN EPL1 Micro 4/3rds Camera

2010-10-01T23:04:00.009+05:30

Finally after waiting an year I got my EPL1 Micro 4/3rds from Olympus, and here is the first set of Unboxing Pictures and Videos, and a Couple of shots. I am now going to play with this over the next few days while on Holiday in Himachal, and will comment what my thoughts are in a few days. I bought the 2 Lens Kit, which ships with a Micro 4/3rds 14-42 mm f: 3.5 to 5.6 ED Lens (The Lens has A Diameter of 40.5 mm and it was very difficult to find a UV Lens for it, but I managed to get an Indian Companies lens from Sonia). The Other Lens is a Standard DSLR Lens Which is a 40-150 mm f 4 to 5.6 ED Lens again, but uses a Four Thirds Adapter MMF-2 to fit onto the camera.

The Color Options available in the EPL 1 are a Black Body, a White and Beige Body and a Light Gold Body. The 14-42 mm lens is either a Silver or a Black Lens, while the 40-150 lens is a Black colored Lens.

Olympus has also given away the XD Card slot for an SD and SDHC Card Slot in the Camera. The camera features a 4/3 type MOS sensor that has a total of 13.1 million pixels, but you get a 12.3 million effective pixels in use. making this a 12MP camera for people who want to know the ratings. It also has a Video Mode using Motion JPEG and can support upto 30 frames per second in either 1280x720 or 640x380 pixel mode. Though I will not be using the PEN to shoot videos as I have the Zi8 for that, but in case you want to look at a one stop solution this camera does offer it.

The Other Alternative for me was the Canon G11 which I was seriouslly interested in, especially since it had an optical view finder, a Tilting LCD Screen, and Dedicated Dials for EV and ISO Settings, but when I compared the Photo Quality and also the option of getting it with a 14 mm to 150 mm lens range (albeit on two lenses), compared to a 24-140 in a single lens and then waiting for Canon to get you lenses, I opted for the PEN.

The PEN though is very similar to the original PEN that olympus has had for years, and a few people thought I was buying / shooting with a Film camera when testing this out in the office.

Anyway, for the EVF you can buy an option Electronic View Finder, and also you can buy an additional Flash. The Flash in the EPL1 can be used for distances upto 10 feet (compared to 7 feet in the G11), and I love the feature that for you to be able to use the flash, you have to manually release it (Thank God, I hate auto flash features). A Major missing feature which can be annoying at times is the Orientation Detector, this camera works very similar to a Film camera, where there is no orientation detector, so purists may love it, but that's a feature every one seems to be using these days.

I was also interested in checking out the Sony NEX Cameras, but as per the PR for Sony these would launch only towards the End of November. The Alpha Series has not had serious buyers in India for Sony, so was unsure if they will really ever get the NEX Series here. The Next Alternative was the GF1 from Panasonic, but there was no place possible to try it out or to actually feel what they felt in hand.

Though compared to the Price that you pay for an Olympus (Rs. 30,000 for Single Lens Kit, and Rs. 39,990 for Dual Lens Kit), and a G11 (Rs. 30,000), you pay a much lower Price for some of the feature rich DSLR's, but the portability and the format on the 4/3rds is appealing to people in case you want to move up from a point and shoot and don't want to carry bulk around with you or if you already have a DSLR and want a similar quality on a smaller camera.

In case you want to know more on what a Micro 4/3rds System is all about, check out this wikipedia article.

Anyway, enough said on the specs, in case you want to check out more of this camera look at the Olympus Website. Now the Few Shots that I have taken for trying it out and some videos of un-boxing it. Remember the photos of the Un-boxing were taken using my Zi8.

The screen on the Camera is unable to handle very bright sunlight environments, and you tend to get blinded out. Though I am still playing around with options, but this means soon I will need to pick up an Electronic View Finder for this Camera.

Click on the pictures to get high resolution files.

The Collection of Solar Plants I have in my Office Window

A close up of one of the Solar Plants

A very old Thermometer and Hygrometer from Russia that I have lying in my Window

At Q'BA nu.delhi, a place I have always loved

The Bar at Q'BA nu.delhi

The Chandelier at Q'BA nu.delhi

UNBOXING AND FIRST REVIEW OF CEDAR FROM SONY ERICSSON

2010-09-30T23:27:00.003+05:30

In My Meeting with The Sony Ericsson Team, I had requested for them to send over their Green Portfolio Phones, and in the 4 Phones they sent me, they also included the Cedar which has just been launched earlier this week. At A Price point of Rs. 6200 the Cedar is an attractive phone, with 3G Data Capabilities, a Good Quality Speaker and Screen.

The Cedar's Camera is a 2MB, with capabilities to shoot a 30fps Video in VGA Mode. The Included Web Browser is a Access Netfront™ 3.5and Sony has Built in Apps for You Tube Streaming, Some Games, An FM Radio, also something called a Widget Manager 2.0 – an application which allows users access social networking via the stand-by screen. Widget Manager can login to Facebook, Twitter and MySpace accounts. There is also a Web Based Backup of the phone book (Thumbs Up) and an EAS Push mail capability. The Screen is a 2.2" 262K colors TFT. The Phone weighs a cool 84 Grams, and feels light and nice in your hand. The claimed talk time is 12Hours 30 minutes, with a Standby time of upto 420 minutes.

I loved the keyboard, especially the ridged edges, though the missing bumps on the 5 Key, and the key layout is something that you have to get used to, the keys work well lighted in a dark room (See video at the end of the post).

The CEDAR in it's Box. If you notice the box is pretty Small. In my conversation with Anurag Kontu last week, he mentioned that Indian Consumers are not too happy with a Small box Packing, they feel that they should get a bigger box, but the smaller box is a part of the Green Heart process at Sony, to reduce packaging material. Let's go ahead and open this box up now.

The box has minimal stuff in it, and notice there is no plastic bags, a big part of going green, to reduce any waste material. Sony has also included a micro USB charger that switches to zero power usage when the phone is not plugged in, or the phone is fully charged. Also included is a small pouch that has your phone, with a Green Heart Logo, you can use this to carry the phone around, as the material quality is pretty decent. There are two small booklets with the SAR and Important Information in it. The Phone user guide is on the phone itself and is not included as a Printed Copy.

Let's Go ahead and now look at the phone.

That's the phone. The phone box contained a Black and Red combo, also available is a silver and Black Combo but I loved the red on this phone. More Pictures to follow.

Let's Power on this Baby

The 3.5 mm jack is on the top of the phone and the Micro USB is on the bottom of the phone.

Here are the Demo Videos, both in a Bright room and a dark room

I am going to now use this phone over the next 2 weeks and will report about the performance. In the first preview I love the screen and sound Quality, keeping in mind that this phone is just Rs. 6200 and has 3G HSDPA capabilities. Though the camera is only 2Megapixel (but a Quick time support means I will be able to shoot some videos and port them to my Apple Mac Easily)... Let's see how the usage comes along on this one.

I also got the Hazel, Aspen, and Elm from Sony to test out, which are all a part of their Green Portfolio. I will post pictures of these soon. The Aspen is a windows Mobile phone, while the Hazel and Elm use the same OS Cedar Uses (Sony's Proprietary OS)

Un-boxing Pictures of My Kindle 3

2010-09-28T19:11:00.005+05:30

Apologies for the Delay, My Kindle 3 Arrived on the 30th of August, and had not got a chance to upload the un-boxing Pictures.

Following are the Pictures, of the Box, and it's accessories, as well as Side By Side Pictures with my Ipad to show you what the new kindle size is. Nimish Dubey also got his Kindle 3 yesterday and has uploaded a Video of the un-boxing, as well as a Side by Side picture of how the Kindle 3 Looks against Kindle 2.

The box with it's tear to open packaging. Amazon has made the packing much better over the years

Yes I tore of the Address Label, I don't want you to know my Address :)

And the Kindle 3. Remember the Display that you see on the Kindle is in the power off state, much like a screen saver, and not a sticker. Though there is a Shiny Plastic on top of it, that I just could not wait to get rid of.

The Kindle Manual, it is a small recycled paper printed manual on how to go ahead and start using the Kindle. The Great part is that the Kindle is already programmed for your account, so if you have books in your account you can download them the minute you get online using Wifi or 3G

Amazon also includes a small USB Charger (No you can't charge any other device with it, as it supplies very minimal current), and a long USB Cable

The Kindle3 with the iPad

The Kindle 3 with the iPad with Screen on

The Kindle3 is much faster than the Kindle2. Though I chose the wifi only model (so as to avoid buying books on the fly all the time) and I think that makes a much nicer deal. The Unit landed me at about Rs. 10,200 in India after paying all the Duties and Taxes and took about 3 Days after Amazon informed me that it is shipped from their Side.

The support for PDF's is much better and you can now easily look at the PDF's. The Browser is a bit faster and nicer, but I will really never want to use the browser on the Kindle to look at the Internet.

I setup my account@kindle.com and also setup a Feedreader / Read it Later Account, that sends the web pages to my Kindle. Though I am primarily using it to read PDF manuals for our devices and other stuff that I need, I have also downloaded and bought a couple of books.

Though by sending a PDF with the Word Convert in the Subject line to your Kindle address converts the text in the PDF for you to be able to read on the Kindle, it does destroy most of the nuances of Text Layouts, hence I will not prefer to use it for PDF's also.

I will still prefer the Kindle more of a Book and Text file reader where there is piles of documents to be read. Since I have the iPad and the Kindle on the same account, I can read part of the documents on the iPad and some of them on the kindle.

I must say the new refresh rate of the e-ink screen is much better, and the screen is more and more like paper now, though you can still tell this is e-ink, but my 4 year old nephew, handed My kindle back to me (a person who does not stay away from gadgets), saying I had given him a Dummy, and not the original device.

So What's Happening with Sony Ericsson

2010-09-28T18:51:00.006+05:30

Interesting Meeting over a Nice Lunch on 24/September with the Sony Ericsson Team. Anurag Kontu (Head of Marketing) and Tammy Teo (APAC PR) travelled down to Delhi to meet a few bloggers, yes and your's truly was invited. Though the purpose of the lunch was to see how Sony Ericsson and Bloggers could work together, it was nice fun meeting Clinton Jeff, Abhishek Bhatnagar, and Javed Anwar

Though all of us came out of the meeting learning more on Sony Plans to ensure that devices are available on all Operating Systems, and there is a universal approach, though as of Today there has been a statement issued by Sony Ericssons' Chief Technology Officer Jan Uddenfeldt that there will be no new Symbian Phones, this was not shared with us at the Lunch.

Anurag and I had an brilliant conversation about the Green Heart by Sony Ericsson, and over the next few days I am going to try to get Anurag to speak to me over a Chat and share his thoughts about going green, and how Sony Ericsson is making a Difference.

What was surprising to learn was that the Green Heart Phone, Hazel, is actually capturing 30% of the Market between the 6K to 12K Priced Handsets, though it is not selling because it's a Green Heart Phone, interesting conversation that is, but because of features and prices.

Anurag also shared that Sony has now standardized on the Mini USB Port as the charger port, so no more of those different charges amongst their lines. Another interesting fact shared by Anurag was that Sony Ericsson has now spent a lot of time and money on the new line of chargers, that actually power off (Zero energy consumption) after your phone has finished charging, or is not connected with the Charger, thus contributing more to their Go Green Efforts.

Though No one committed to the Sony Ericsson / Sony Tablet, but we did have a good conversation around it. Also the conversation turned around to why Phone Manufacturers charge a premium and or are priced higher than the competition and what defines phone pricing.

We came out of the meeting, make a few new friends, but without a scoop what is happening. Though we have a commitment from Sony Ericsson that they will spend more time sharing Phone Instruments for reviews, so soon you should be seeing' some stuff here.

I was pretty busy catching up with Anurag, that I did not click any pictures, but here is one that Clinton Jeff, took while I was speaking to Anurag.

From Left to Right (Anurag Kontu, Tammy Teo, Vasundhra Mudgil)

We did get to play with Anurag's own phone the Xperia X10 running Android 2.1 (Well he has an advantage working for Sony, though confirmed dates of when the Phones will come preloaded with 2.1 was still not available), Also available were X10 Mini, and the X8, which was looking pretty nice with it's gradient blue back.

A 5 Year Old Journey comes to an End

2010-09-13T07:18:00.003+05:30

Back in 2005, I was working on starting a Magazine, Was wondering, whether to call it Dr. Gadget, G-Spot, or Just something, and met a Wonderful person call Gautam Chikermane, who gave me a column with the then, Indian Express Estates. I did not know I had the writers spirit in me, over the last 5 years, I have worked with great people in the Indian Express Team, and some of them have moved on to setup larger ventures, and have actually got into serious technology writing. Though I still debate, do you need to be a tech, a geek like me to write about technology or just a gadget / technology fan.

Over the Past Years, my column was shifted from the Express Estates (Saturday), to the Express Money (Monday), and then to the Main News Paper on Sunday, and eventually in a pull out called Eye, which came as a supplement to the Indian Express, the wonderful part was that readers, who gave their love and adulation, and made sure I was writing for the masses, stuck along, your 1000+ mails for each of my articles that came out each week, love and affection for me, and my family has made me connect with so many people across the country.

Yesterday, on the 12th of September 2010, was an end to a Journey, Indian express is revamping, the EYE pull out into an A4 Sized Magazine, similar to other news papers, and hence now has a space crunch, I have now been asked to stop contributing to the Indian express. While I will still write for the Open Magazine, I am still unsure if I will get a News Paper Assignment.

I hope, that I will find the time and direction to stay connected with all of you, with a tear in my eye, I bid adieu to my team at the Indian Express, and my Fans, who will not get to know this, as their only source of information was the news paper.

G

What if you don’t have Ping

2010-09-13T07:12:00.003+05:30

Apple made some great announcements on September 1, among them the iTunes 10. Though everyone was quick to download the new version, it suddenly dawned while the user interface improvements and a new tricks were there, the new social network for music, called Ping, was missing from the iTunes in India, as it needs access to the iTunes stores. Those of us who got access to iTunes stores had access to Ping, but with mixed feelings for those who didn’t.

For those of you wondering if you need to upgrade and download the latest edition, you don’t have to rush. Right now the only two features available in India are the simpler Sync, again more of a user interface improvement than anything else, and a feature called AirPlay which allows you to play any media in your library to enabled devices, which are yet to hit Indian markets.

If you want your friends to know what music you are listening to, who your favourite artiste is and what you think of their latest album, there are simpler ways of doing this, even if you do not have Ping.

To do this, you can go to www.last.fm and open a free account. The application does what it likes to call scrobbling and listen into what you are listening to and what kind of listening preferences you have. Depending on this it will do one of the following:

* Show you more information on the track that you are listening to, and the album, and let you buy the album from Amazon.com or other online portals the CDs is available on.

* Show you similar artistes.

* Show the top listeners on last.fm who have a similar taste as yours, and help you make friends.

* Let you listen in to tracks from similar artistes in your social neighbourhood.

* Mark your songs as loved or banned, so that they don’t get played again.

Sometimes artistes and companies work with last.fm to offer you free downloads of music, and if you hit their portal, you will also get an option to download a few mp3s.

I tried artistes varying from Frank Sinatra, A R Rahman, Shreya Ghoshal to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Alam Lohar and it was not only able to pull out the right information, but even suggest that since I loved Alam Lohar's music, I would like Kartar Ramla and Sukhwant Kaur, adding another dimension to my music.

So if you are worried about not getting Ping, get yourself a free account with last.fm, download the scrobbler, and enjoy music, like never before.

--
The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 12th September 2010

Games on the television

2010-09-11T16:37:00.002+05:30

A FEW days back, while browsing through the channels on my TV, I saw my Tata Sky DTH was offering Active Games. I was tempted to try out Ninja Mahajong, especially since the games were free till August 31. Soon, I was browsing through the rules of Ninja Mahajong, which looked similar to any other Mahajong game, except for the tiles which had Ninja warriors on them.

A few minutes later, the game started making sense. But there were issues. To start with, the Ninja warriors were not very clear and I had to really concentrate to make out the difference between the tiles. I checked it out on a couple of other TVs and found that the tiles were not great when it came to design, and the whole charade of Ninja’s fighting with each other every time you selected the right combination was a bit of an overkill.I tried the cricket game next. But I don’t understand much of the game and am not really interested in it. There was this guy throwing balls at me, and I was not able to hit even one of them. But my nephew managed pretty well.

The next game we tried out was the Kombat Fighter. It took me a couple of minutes to get the hang of it and get going. The only reason I could play this game was because I can type without looking at the keyboard, and most of us can use the TV remote without looking at it. But this game was not as much fun, you need to focus on the numbers that scroll on top of the screen, and press them. It must be fun for someone younger, but the game, from my point of view, was very average.

So, why am I writing this review. For one, this is a great way of getting some games on your TV, though only time will tell how much Tata Sky will charge for them. However, I would have loved more basic games, such as Pacman or maybe even car racing, rather than having games that slow me down. If I really want fast games, I will buy a dedicated gaming machine.

Overall, I found the whole experience slow, because of two reasons – the games have to download and take about five minutes to start up; the TV remote control is not really a controller for a game.

But things could get interesting as Tata Sky has plans to launch new games each week. Still, all this depends on whether the services are free. Once Tata Sky decides to charge, we will really need to see if it’s all the worth it.
--
The Above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday September 05, 2010

Why I still love the kindle

2010-09-11T16:34:00.003+05:30

ELECTRONIC notepads and tablet PCs have been here for ages now. But then Kindle came along and changed everything. It let you carry your books wherever you went, without adding to your luggage. It also let you order new books online, without having to go to a store. But then Kindle was not perfect. Many people hated its black and white screen though it was the gadget's best feature, making it easy on the eyes and using up very little of the battery.

Then came the Apple iPad which has a colour screen and lets you do a lot more with the books, especially with those for kids. But, in India, you still have to depend on a friend abroad to get you one, and then the battery does not go on and on like the Kindle.

The market became interesting when Kindle took the fight to Apple by releasing an app for the iPad, which meant you could buy books from the Kindle store and read them on the iPad. And the books were trademark Kindle, all in black and white. There are other apps that let you read magazines and books in colour.

But I still love the Kindle as it seldom runs out of juice and you can read books even under the sun, thanks to the high-contrast screen. The enormous collection of books, newspapers and magazines and the fact that they can be download just about anywhere still make it the best e-reader.

No doubt the iPad can do more thanks to its high-resolution, 9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS display which also lets you play games and read books. The other great thing about iPad is that it also lets me create documents, which you cannot do on Kindle. However, it is not good for reading lengthy books due to the strain the screen can put on your eyes. You can get over this problem by buying a matt-finish screenguard, but reading is still not as fun as the Kindle. Yeah, iPad is cool, but I think I will still stick to the Kindle for now.

--
The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday August 29, 2010

2010-09-11T16:31:00.003+05:30

We are all big consumers of electronics, from multiple cellphones to our big-screen television sets to the little computer that runs our car. But all of them have a life, at the end of which it becomes garbage, waste that goes into landfills, and then pollutes the earth.

Rapid changes in technology which makes things obsolete faster, coupled with falling prices of new appliances and gadgets have increased the problem of electronic waste. These days, over a 20-year adult life cycle, we go through approximately five phones, two television sets, a couple of DVD players, MP3 players, stereo systems, computers, laptops and so on, thus adding to the electronic waste around us.

A good thing about India is that here nothing much is wasted. When your computer actually becomes slow for you, it moves down the ladder. Some people just trade it with an organisation that does a buy-back, or sell it to a scrap dealer who will either resell it or break it down to see what can be reused gainfully.

Still, there is a lot of electronic waste being generated in our large cities, with some reports indicating that this is set to grow by 500 per cent in the next 10 years. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) estimates that we produced about 1.47 lakh metric tonne of e-waste in 2005, a figure that will grow to 8.0 lakh metric tonne by 2012.

While the government is setting up standards for large companies and producers to handle e-waste, we as individuals also need to do something about it. This is where a new breed of entrepreneurs called e-waste recyclers has entered the scene. E-waste recycling, or e-cycling, is not new and has been done by a lot of companies themselves or outsourced to recyclers who would take the plastic parts out of electronic goods and recycle it. Some even refurbish the entire device and sell it cheaply to an under privileged person.

So, the next time you find an old unwanted electronic item in your house give recyclers like simsrecycling.com, e-waste.in, ecoreco.com and attero.in a call. They will delete the data on your hard drives before they recycle, and will ask for your explicit permission to do so. If not, make sure you do a double format of all your hard disks before you dispose of your electronic waste. A delete and simple format can’t protect someone from recovering data and misusing it.

Like the scrap dealer, some of them might also pay your some money, but remember it’s not the monetary gain but the environmental gain that matter more.
--
The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday August 08, 2010

Switch off, fly safe

2010-09-11T16:28:00.003+05:30

Every time I fly, I see people put their phones under their thighs, look in the other direction and try to act deaf, all because the cabin crew has announced that all electronic devices, including their precious cellphones, have to be switched off for the duration of the flight. Recently, a man sitting next to me refused to do so. The flight was delayed and he was still on the phone.

Reprimanded a couple of times by the airhostess, the man decided to put the phone on airplane mode. The crew explained that he would have to switch it off completely. But the man countered that his calls were important, especially as the flight was late. As the debate turned into a heated argument, I tried to explain why it is important to switch off the phone in an airplane. But our friend was not convinced.

That episode made me decide that it was time I explained how a small mobile phone can cause havoc in an airplane. Though electronic equipment on airplanes is designed to ignore interference, there have been several instances when their navigational equipment showed errors. This was linked to a cell phone being used on board, though scientifically there are difficulties in proving that the gadget alone was the cause of the errors. But, I guess, it is better to be safe than sorry.

All electronic equipment, especially our phones, laptop computers and BlackBerrys, have a communication engine that not only listens for radio frequency signals, but also transmits them. Similarly, our iPods have Wi-Fi, while many other gadgets have Bluetooth. The airplane mode switches off the radio, but there are still chances that the device may send out signals, and that’s why we have to be cautious.

The aircraft uses sensitive navigational equipment, similar to a GPS in the car. The equipment depends on communication from the airfield below as well as satellites above to know where it is going. As all this communication is on radio frequencies, disruption or disturbance can make the plane deviate from its track. This can have disastrous effects, especially during poor visibility when the pilots are almost completely dependent on electronic navigation. Things can become even more complicated if the interference happens during take-off or landing.

The Government of India’s Civil Aviation Department circular dated September 12, 2003, categorically says that passengers can only use mobile phones as long as the aircraft is on the ground with its doors open. But, the phone cannot be used when the aircraft is refueling, when pre-flight functions are on, or when aircraft communication is happening. In no condition should the phones be used after the doors are closed, and this is a legal requirement, not a request.

But, why switch off an old Walkman or CD player which have no transmitters? These devices emit electro-magnetic radiation, which at times can exceed the prescribed limits and interfere with the onboard equipment like the auto-pilot.

The latest planes have a shield to protect their navigation equipment and some carriers have started allowing passengers to use cell phones mid-air. But till those planes come to India, it better to just switch off your phone and relax, maybe even chat up your fellow passengers and make some friends.
--
The Above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday August 01, 2010

Coping with Information overdose

2010-09-11T16:22:00.003+05:30

I read and browse a lot, especially when I am travelling. This means I have access to a lot of information, from newspapers to online articles to paper cuttings. I would love to capture all this information at one place, so that I can access it when and where I want, just like I do with my Internet bookmarks.

There are many tools that let you do this, but I think Spring Pad does it better than the others. Spring Pad is a free tool for iPhones and Android phones, and it also works on an iPad. Sadly, Symbian and Java Phones will have to wait to use the app, while others can use limited features through the mobile web browser. There is an alternate tool called Evernote, which you can use across all platforms, but it is still a bit behind Spring Pad.

So how do you use Spring Pad? Let’s say, you are walking on the road and come across an advertisement that has a number, an email address and some other information you would like to capture. The more conventional way would be to grab a piece of paper and pen to write down the relevant information, or maybe just photograph the ad. But with Spring Pad, you can photograph it, tag it and save it on your phone. When you come back home, log on to the website, and you can retrieve that information, even synchronise it with other phones.

If you are looking for a recipe, search for it online and press the Spring Pad button on your browser. The app then stores the recipe, the cooking time, and the ingredients you will need, so that when you are out shopping, you can check Spring Pad on the phone and see what all you have to buy.

That's not all. The Spring Pad can also integrate with your Gmail, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter accounts and create contacts from these accounts, get calendar events from your mail and send alerts to you on your Twitter account.

Just in case you hit upon an idea and can’t access the app for some reason, you can just email it to Spring Pad and it becomes a note, which you can mark or tag later. Spring Pad also allows you to share your information with friends. You can choose what to share, and they can also share information with you. You can also create notebooks from the apps section or add more notebooks such as your household budget calculator or manage your wine collection.
The possibilities are endless, and remember, Spring Pad is still in Beta.

Sure, there is nothing like a small diary and a pen. But then, this is so much better. So what are you waiting for, get yourself a free account at springpadit.com.

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The Above article appeared in the Indian Express on Sunday 25th July 2010

The all-rounder

2010-09-11T16:17:00.003+05:30

The new Core i3, i5 and i7 processors from Intel are the rage now. About a fortnight back, the guys at Intel got in touch with me to review a laptop running on the Core i5 processor at 2.27 GHz and see how fast it works and what it could do. They arranged to send me an Acer Aspire 5740 Machine for the review. So here is my take on the powerful new i5 processor from Intel and the Acer Aspire 5740 which runs on it.

The Aspire 5740 has been available with an i3 Processor for sometime now. Acer has recently announced machines with i5 and i7 processors, out of which the former is already available with dealers. While the look, feel and the weight of laptops generally stays the same, you have the option of choosing an entry-level or a high-speed processor depending on your needs.

The i5 processor is designed to perform and work with you for a long time. Supporting technologies such as Turbo Boost, that allows you to speed up the processor when there is a need, and balance power and speed, helps laptops compromise battery time for performance. Similarly, it also helps the laptop work on low power when you are just browsing or checking email. The built-in Hyper Threading technology allows you to multi-task seamlessly. If you are into high-end gaming or have to run complicated calculations, the Hyper Threading engine will make all the difference. An average user might not need this, but will still see benefits of the processor, like while watching a HD movie.

The first thing you notice about this 15.6” laptop is its size. It is, in fact, a desktop replacement and not really a machine you would wanted to lug around all day.

The keyboard is well-designed and the keys laid out in a very user-friendly way. A dedicated number pad on the right, and a 103 keyboard with the multi-gesture touchpad that supports circular motion scrolling, pinch action zoom and page flip was great to work on. In fact, I am tempted to say this is the first laptop keyboard I’ve liked after my favourite MacBook.

The blue power button reminded me of the USS Star Ship Enterprise from Star Trek and I loved the glow it gives when you are working in the dark. Dedicated buttons to turn off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, backup keys and volume keys add to the use of the machine. The machine has Dolby certified speakers which can be a great experience if you are playing a game or just enjoying a movie. The machine came preloaded with 3 GB of RAM and a 320 GB Hard Disk, and playing games on it was a breeze, except for maybe the graphics performance.

Sadly, the test unit sent to me did not have an OS installed. However, I installed Ubuntu Linux as well as Windows 7, and both worked perfectly well.

Though the machine is large and runs a fast processor, I was surprised to get a battery time of 2.5 hours plus on all my tests. The large screen also entailed a better signal pick on my Wi-Fi, which was nice as I end up using 10” machines most of the time. The screen supports a maximum of 1366x768 pixel resolution and has a high brightness rating. With an aspect ratio of 16:9 and 8ms response time with a 60% colour gamut reproduction, the screen can give most LCD TVs a run for their money.
The HDMI Port worked out of the box. The built-in microphone was great too while the webcam is optimised for low-light conditions. But trust me, you do not want to do a Skype video call with the lights off, it just does not work.

Like its peers, the Aspire 5740 has a multi-card reader and four USB 2.0 ports. I would have preferred an USB 3.0 or an eSata port, instead of the archaic modem port. There is the usual RJ45 port for wired Ethernet while the wireless does not support 802.11a.

Overall the most attractive part of the machine was its huge size, a brilliant keyboard, great screen and good sound reproduction. The machine comes with a one-year warranty, and is a great option if you are looking for an all- rounder that has the size, agility and great looks. Price Rs 44,000.

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The Above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 18th July 2010

Is It time to Switch to HD?

2010-09-10T21:03:00.008+05:30

Suddenly everyone is going HD. Sun TV was the first to take the plunge, though with limited availability and just a handful of channels, but now all satellite TV providers seem to have joined the bandwagon. Some weeks back, when asked why that hadn’t launched HD services, guys at Airtel had told me that by the time of the World Cup finals everyone would have switched over. And this is coming true with Dish TV, TataSky and Airtel all announcing the availability of their HD DTH boxes.

What is HD video?
I know this is a basic question and most of you will have your own set of answers. Well, technically High Definition video is any video system of higher resolution than standard definition. HD video is any image between 1280x720 pixels (also called 720p, or HD Ready) and 1920x1080 pixels (1080p, HD). Remember, the higher the pixels, the better the definition. So it is essential that your TV supports 1080 pixels for it to show real HD quality.

So what do the various HD services offer?

TataSky: The service offers 1080i, 16:9 aspect ratio and 5.1 Surround Sound. The box costs Rs 2,599 and has an installation fee of Rs 1,000 which is waived off for now, plus there are additional charges of Rs 30 per month to get the channels in HD. If you are an existing TataSky customer, you will get the High Definition Channels — ESPN, Star Sports, Discovery HD World, National Geographic — free for the first 12 months.

Airtel Digital TV HD: The service has 1080i and 16:9 aspect ratio. But going one up on TataSky, the Airtel box offers 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus Surround Sound, if you have a home theater capable of reproducing the signal. The box is priced at Rs 2,940, but only offers ESPN and Star Sports in High Definition. Other channels are expected to be added soon. You must also remember that though the channels are in HD, not all broadcasts are hi-definition – as of now the Wimbeldon and the FIFA World Cup are in hi-definition.

DishTruHD: Rs 2,990 plus installation charges of Rs 200 + taxes. Customers are required to buy a Platinum pack with the HD Box which will put you back by Rs 325 per month, whether you like it or not. You will also have to pay for an HD Pack of Rs 100 per month, taking your monthly bill to Rs 425 + taxes, making it the costliest service in the market. The service is 1080i with 16:9 Aspect Ratio, but there is no clarity on the sound output of the box. Though Zee has two of its own channels — Zee Cinema HD and Zee TV HD — in addition to what the others are offering, not all content on these channels are in HD.

Big TV HD: Big TV is the only one offering an HD DVR box right now at Rs 7,490. The box offers 1080i, 16:9 aspect ratio, and 200 hours of standard definition storage on its 160 GB built-in hard disk. Only National Geographic HD is available on the HD Box for now.

Sun Direct HD: The first one off the block has announced a new package where you get the box with two-month subscription for Rs 2,940. They have SunTV and Colours in HD along with what others are offering. The Box offers 1080i, 16:9 aspect pictures, and 5.1 Stereo Sound.

The scenario is confusing with all the players jumping in to cash in on the football craze with not much additional content. The market is just evolving and it would be better to wait a few weeks to see how the players mature. Also wait for the HD recorders from the other players before upgrading. Things should look up as more channels start making and beaming content in HD. Till then, hold your guns.

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The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 10th July 2010

Lost? Just dial a friend

2010-09-10T20:59:00.002+05:30

I am writing this article from Mysore and am pretty much lost. I don’t know the language, and since I did not bring my car here, I don’t have my GPS handy. Though my Blackberry has an inbuilt GPS, it is useless because Airtel’s GPS software does not work that well. I wanted to fire up my laptop to check the Web for directions, but the battery was nearly drained out. I wish I had a friend who I could call up and ask for directions.

And then I remembered, I do have a friend, Map My India’s new Dial 62 feature. All you have to do is dial 011-62626262 and a patient concierge at the Map My India office will help you with the directions. They will ask for landmarks in the vicinity to pinpoint your location and then send you directions via SMS. They can also email you the information you are looking for, be it something trivial like an ATM or petrol pump.

The service is still in the beta stage and shaping up. Rohan Verma of Map My India, however, commits that the full launch in about four weeks will include a 24x7 call centre and local numbers for more cities. As of now, the service is limited to between 8 am and 7 pm on all days, and with just the Delhi number.

Dial 62 also has local city information. But this service is now available only in Delhi. So the next time a friend calls you for directions, you can just ask him to Dial 62 instead of taking him on conducted tour to the restaurant he is looking for.
I wish operators tie up with the service and offer a short code that one can dial into, irrespective of the city one is in, to seek directions.

Though Dial 62 in a way is one of the first to offer you directions on the phone, and bridges the digital divide in a brilliant manner, another service worth mentioning is Routeguru. This service is also available through SMS and the Internet, though limited to Delhi as of now. The service from both companies is free. But you have to pay for the call charges in case of Dial 62 and the SMS charges in case of Routeguru.

The biggest problem on Indian roads, especially unfamiliar ones, is the frequent changes in names of roads, lack of proper signages and political parties pasting their posters on road signs. That’s why things can’t can’t get simpler than this. I know I can always roll down the window and ask, but then, I am an Indian man and it is beyond me to roll down the window and ask for anything. This is why it always helps to have a friend, just a phone call away.

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The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday July 04, 2010

Getting back the Pulse

2010-09-10T20:57:00.002+05:30

Not one to be left behind, Yahoo does a Buzz with Pulse

The Internet started out as a place that was disconnected, with information scattered everywhere. To get to where you wanted, emerged a world of portals followed by the search engines. Companies such as Yahoo and AOL excelled at it, but over the years many of the giants faded into oblivion or changed their business models. While Google stuck to search and started building a whole lot of other things, Yahoo was still busy playing a hybrid between a portal and a search engine.

But that was before people started sharing information on their own using Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and every other social media platform available. This took the Internet user to different websites and too many pages, meaning there were too little eyeballs on the portals. This was a problem that needed a solution. Google came up with Buzz, but it got caught in privacy issues. Now, Yahoo is trying its bit with Pulse.

Before the dawn of Google and Facebook, there was a time when Yahoo Messenger meant the world to everyone. But when social networking took away it winds, Yahoo was left with no option but to transform itself. Some time back, Yahoo profiles reincarnated itself as Yahoo Pulse with some very attractive changes. Though still at a preliminary stage, Pulse seems like it has the ability to define the next wave of online computing and information sharing. To some users, Pulse — http://pulse.yahoo.com — will seem like a bit of Twitter, Facebook, Orkut and Yahoo Messenger rolled into one; a bit intimidating at first. But this is where I think it gets its edge.

As digital cameras have become cheaper, people want to share their pictures online. Some are very personal, and you will only want to share them with a few select friends. Others are of cats, dogs and mountains that you would love to show the world. This is where the integrated Flickr album in Pulse comes to your help.

Then there is the integrated blog engine which does not limit your expressions to 160 characters like Twitter or a few lines like Facebook. On Pulse, you can write a long blog post and then, if needed, automatically share it among your connections.

Like Facebook, Pulse too gives you applications and games. You just have to click the application tab on the left and add games or applications, and there is already a good range to choose from.

As of now, Pulse only integrates with Facebook and Flickr. I would have loved to see a Twitter plug-in as well as the ability to login and fetch my mail from Gmail and Hotmail, but then these things take time. For those of you who are looking for a Facebook replacement, Pulse is not what you want. But for those of you looking for an extension to sharing information with your online friends, Pulse presents an attractive and user-friendly option.

And thankfully, Yahoo has handled the privacy issue very clearly. Your information can be slotted under three definitions — No one, Friends and Everyone. Select ‘no one’ and then absolutely no one will be able to see your thoughts and ideas, ‘friends’ mean only those in your contact list can read your posts and the ‘everyone’ option means it’s for anyone to see.
So if you were looking for a one-stop networking solution, retaining Yahoo as your home page, look no further.

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The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 27th June 2010

A link for your TV - Review of the Iomega’s ScreenPlay TV Link, Director Edition

2010-09-10T20:43:00.003+05:30

Finally, something that lets you watch YouTube on your television

It has been a painful, and expensive, journey to get YouTube to work on my television. I have toyed with many a product before discovering the Iomega’s ScreenPlay TV Link, Director Edition. Though not perfect, I seem to have found what I was looking for.
I bought my DVD player a couple of years back and it does not have USB ports. Now, with YouTube, my great collection of online radio stations and brilliant programmes on the TV, my DVD Player has just been collecting dirt. However, I still get DivX files, especially from some independent filmmaker friends, in pen drives. And this is why USB ports have become important.

Thankfully, the TV Link has lots of them – two in front and one at the back. Even if you plug in the Iomega wireless adapter on one, there are two left for pen drives and external hard drives. With the hard disk plugged in, you can share it across your home network through wireless. Though you will not be able to define which folders to share, it will still give you access to your media drive. The best part is that you can straightaway programme torrent files to download to this hard disk using the TV Link, without a PC coming in the way. In case you have a file share server or a home network drive, you can access the media from that drive directly.

The TV Link also has HDMI and RCA connectors, and you have the option of changing the latter from RGP to YUV input, thus enabling versatility. Also at the back of the unit is an SPDIF connector that lets you hook up high quality 5.1 audio to your home theater equipment.
The codecs supported by the TV Link generally plays every movie file that you throw at it. Though clips I shot with my old mobile phone in the 3gp format did not play; avi, divx and other movies formats worked out of the box. The unit supports Dolby Digital Encoding, WAV, WMA, MPEG1/2/4 (AVI/xVID), DivX and JPEG as formats. The output is a full 1080 p, so for old TV sets you will have to programme it to use a 720 p, 4:3 output.
The slim form factor means that you can carry it around while on holiday and hook it up to the television in your hotel room and watch the movies, listen to music, or see pictures that you have stored on your external hard disk.

Problems: I would have loved to see built-in wireless connectivity. Though you can buy a dongle from iomega to make the unit wireless, most of the dealers were not aware of the cost or availability of a replacement device. I would also have loved to have support for a wireless keyboard so that I could easily type what I wanted to search for in YouTube, though the remote that shipped with the unit works perfectly fine. You can login to your YouTube account directly from the unit, but for someone like me who uses a complex password, this can be a tedious task.

The TV Link heats up quite a bit and should be used in a well-ventilated place. The unit is very sleek and slim and one may tend to shove it into a crevice just about the size of the unit. But make sure the ventilation is good, especially when you want it to download torrents when you are not around.

Over all, at Rs 7,300, I think this is a box that is priced right. I would have loved to have a memory card reader slot built into it, but then you can’t get everything. The box includes the unit, a remote control, a power adapter, an HDMI 1.3 cable, a video cable and a quick start guide.

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The Above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 20th June 2010

Make Your Own Robot

2010-06-20T13:27:00.004+05:30

Making your own robot might be expensive, but not that tough

Ever since man made the first machine, he has dreamt of making a robot that will relieve him of his daily chores. Industrial robots have been around for a while, so have robotic vacuum cleaners, grass cutters and toys that know how to negotiate obstacles. But a robot that will really be at par with humans seems to be still some years away. This week, I will tell you the basics about robots and maybe inspire you to build one of your own.

The heart: Microprocessor and the project board

The project board is a printed circuit board (PCB) that comes with many cavities for the different processors. It is just like any other video game, but since this is hardcore electronics, a mistake means that you will land up with a burnt unit that the radio repair mechanic down the road will not be able to fix. After this your will need to choose a processor and get some chips and cables to hook all this up.

The mechanics: Servo motors

A servo is what makes the robot move. Like other motors, this too has some wires coming out and a gear on one end to connect the other mechanical parts with it. The difference here is that the servo understands movement in angles and if you want to turn the leg or the hand of your robot forward by 10 degrees you can send it a command through your programme to the microprocessor to change the angle. The more powerful the servo, the harder the work your robot will be able to do. If you plan to build a robot that can climb stairs, not only will you need the servo to lift the weight of the whole mechanics, but also to move in half a degree steps.

The senses: Sensors

Like a human can touch, feel, see, hear and smell, a robot too will need some kind of feedback of the environment around it. In case you want it to climb stairs, you will need to provide sensors in the foot that let it know that you are now touching the surface. In case you want it to turn its head the moment it hears a sound or sees a light, you will need to put in sound or light sensors. You can even put in ultrasonic sensors so that the robot can detect if it is going to bump into something and react accordingly. But all this will make the whole system more complex and you may end up needing more than one processor – maybe one each to handle the senses and mechanics.

Control: Wireless or wired

The cool toy robots started with a wired remote control that could make it jump or walk and then switched on to wireless. With the technology available now, you can choose to integrate a Wi-fi chip to command the robot over the home wireless, or a GSM chip so that you can just send it an SMS to get things done.

Bells and whistles

Remember R2D2 from Wall-E? Well, they all had their own bells and whistles, quite literally. An LED glowing on top of the head showing it is receiving programme to a horn that blows every time it has an obstacle in front, the possibilities are endless.

Programming
This is the difficult part. After the mechanics and the electronics are all in place, you need to be able to write a programme and then teach your robot to follow it. In fact, some robot kit manufacturers give you a simulator where you can actually test out the programme on your computer before you try it out on your expensive robot.
All this might seem a bit overwhelming, but if you have a knack for electronics or mechanics and love building things you will get over the fear. For those who don’t want to build from scratch, there are kits such as Robonova (hitecrobotics.com) or the Johnny 5 (lynxmotion.com), both with dealers in India. The kits will set you back a big amount of money, but then who said robots came cheap.

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The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 13th June 2010

Our private Facebook lives

2010-06-08T02:04:00.006+05:30

At times the Internet can be a bit dangerous. A search of your name can reveal a lot of information, including your Permanent Account Number, your election ID number and even your full address... a jackpot for identity thieves. This is all someone needs to access your banking information and leave you broke.
They can take a loan, buy a car, or even file fraudulent tax returns in your name. If arrested, they could even give your name and address to the police and fail to show up for a court hearing. In such a case the warrant for arrest will be issued in your name, all because you did not bother about privacy on websites such as Facebook.

A few days back, Verisign caught someone selling personal information of people from Facebook. Accounts that had 10 or less friends were priced at $25 per 1,000 accounts and those with more than 10 friends at $45 for a 1,000. The seller claimed to have access to 1.5 million Facebook accounts.

Facebook has given us some wonderful moments, connecting us with long lost friends and relatives. But it also puts up a lot of personal information about you on the Net. Though for you and me privacy may not be a priority, it is something that you should always keep a tab on.

A great way to start is search your name on Google. If you were to run a search for my name “Gagandeep S. Sapra” — the quotes are important to restrict the search to these words only — you get about 19,000 results out of which some may disclose my email ID and even my office telephone numbers. But my personal details, like my Facebook page, do not turn up in a simple search, thanks to my privacy settings.

So what are these privacy settings? Facebook defines privacy settings into three broad categories — Friends, Friends of Friends and Everyone. What you have to be careful about is the last one, as this is the default for a lot of the settings and can expose your thoughts, your personal information and your relationships to the whole world.
In the last few days Facebook has been receiving a lot of flak from people across the globe, prompting them to simplify their privacy settings. Since it is still not all that simple, here is what you must do to stay safe online.

FRIEND LISTS: Since my parents are also on Facebook, I really don’t want them to see every post I make. We all have a different style of talking to our friends and our family, and this is why friend lists are important. If you have not classified your friends as yet, it is time you did. It could be a simple distribution into friends and family, or a complicated one like school friends, college friends, work friends and family. The good thing here is that you can add the same person to more than one list, and at the time of posting choose which group of friends can see this post. So if you are posting a video you want the world to see, you can select everyone, but if there is something you will like to restrict to your closest buddies just click of the friend list of your choice. To configure your friend lists, click Friends from your left hand menu and select Create a List. The next step is to ensure who can comment or write a status on your wall, as long as you set this up to your friend lists, it is okay, but if it is set to anyone, anyone can search for you, reach your wall and write anything on it.

KEEP YOUR FRIEND LISTS PRIVATE: We all want to show off that we are friends with so many people. The other day, I met someone who mentioned he knew ‘Barrack O Bama’ on Facebook. Well, it’s great to know that you are friends with the ‘American President’, but it is also your responsibility to secure your friends. Hence, it is a good policy to turn off your friends’ visibility to others. Though this may not seem too much right away, you don’t want your friends to get unsolicited marketing email/spam just because they are your friends.

MAKE CONTACT INFORMATION PRIVATE: We all want to put our phone numbers and email addresses online so that our friends can contact us easily. But making this information public is also taking a big risk. The settings has now been simplified into three broad categories — Email & IM, Birthday and Phone Numbers and Address. Since I don’t really want everyone to run a search on me and find out where I live, or when my Birthday is, or what my phone number is, it is best to select the option Friends. If you choose to select the Everyone option, anyone who searches for you will be able to see this information.

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: It is funny to see a status update saying Friend X is now married to Friend Z when they have been married for over a decade and just updated their profile. It is good to share this information with your friends and business contacts, but there will be a flurry of congratulatory messages every time you update the status. So it is better to get rid of the settings for this and make sure this is displayed only to you and your loved ones, not the whole world.

BASIC DIRECTORY INFORMATION: So, who should be able to search for you on Facebook? Go to your directory information settings and make sure you set up options that control what amount of information comes up in a search, who can really search for you or send you a message, or see your interests, your work and educational backgrounds.

A recent report by eweek shows the leak of accounts and there availability on the black market, in case you are interested in the report, you can read it online at the eweek website (Please note this report is not authored by me)

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The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 6th June 2010

One car, many screens - Review Dish TV Mobile TV

2010-06-08T01:52:00.003+05:30

With traffic jams getting longer by the day, we are slowly getting to a point where commuters in the metros spend up to three hours every day getting to office and back. As you tend to leave home early and return late, most of us end up missing news and other television programmes.

A DVR can record your favorite soap operas so that you can catch up when you finally reach home, but then you can also have a television in the car. While this is not an advisable option if you are planning to watch TV and drive, it makes more sense if you have an SUV or MUV with a chauffeur driving you about.
And now with Dish TV launching its Personal TV, everyone in the vehicle has the option of watching the channel of their choice.

However, priced at Rs 2,45,000 for the startup edition, this is not exactly cheap. The latest version uses a new antenna from Ray Sat and has four screens with individual DTH boxes that help you stream different channels on each screen.
To give you privacy, all TV sets are coupled with wired headphones which can be upgraded to a wireless model at an additional cost. The basic screens come from NECVOX and you can choose a better screen or larger screen if you want.

A single wire downlinks from the RaySat dish antenna to a dish controller in the back of your car which is powered by the car battery — but be careful, for if you run this system with the engine shut, the battery will drain in about an hour. The trunk will also hold the four receivers and Dish TV claims the wiring is done professionally by their trained dealers — but the wiring in the demo car didn’t seem all that professional. Each TV also comes with its individual remote control, just make sure you point it at the right screen.

Sadly, Dish TV hasn’t been able to do a really professional job. They use the same Zenega DTH set top box they use for home which means you will need to change the card after a few months and that won’t be all that easy. They are also not clear how the service will be outside the big cities. As of now, everything looks like a ‘jugaad’, especially the additional infra-red receivers that jut out from under the screens.

The single TV version costs you roughly Rs 1,90,000, while the four-screen variants start at Rs 2,45,000. The annual subscription of about Rs 10,000 is included in the first payment. Since television channels are broadcast on a DTH system using horizontal and vertical polarisation, not all channels are available at one go. You can get up to 162 channels if you put a single TV system in your car, but for multiple TVs, you will get only 81 “popular channels”.
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The above review appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday May 30, 2010

Dawn of smart mail - The New Hotmail, Coming to A screen Near You

2010-06-07T13:12:00.003+05:30

A couple of days back I got an invite from Microsoft to come see what they were doing with Hotmail. Though some of you might get the new feature immediately, the fully upgraded mail will be up in a few weeks. But the fact is that the changes have made Hotmail smarter

The first thing that seemed appealing was Active Views. You can now save time by managing your social networking accounts -- from MySpace, LinkedIn and Facebook -- watching videos embedded in your email without going to another website, viewing Flickr photo albums or even tracking and updating a package status in case you are using UPS or Fedex.

What is also nice is that now you can send up to 10 GB -- yes, I said 10 GB -- in a single email, given the receiver is also on Hotmail; other service providers are unlikely to accept such huge files. Actually the files are uploaded to SkyDrive, a free online storage service from Microsoft, so the recipient will get thumbnails of the photos with options to launch a slideshow or download all the images as a single zipped file.

Now, Hotmail also allows users to edit PowerPoint, Excel and Word documents in the Inbox, even if you don't have Microsoft Office installed on your PC.

A problem for me is that I get a lot of unsolicited emails despite strict spam filtering. I use something called a Smart Filter on my Mac laptop to keep them out of my inbox, but now a similar feature called Sweep is integrated in Hotmail. Pressing Sweep will move/hide or delete emails from selected senders, thus helping you to manage your mailbox. For instance, if you have returned from a holiday, you can use Sweep to show just mail that is most important. You can also program Hotmail to do these sweeps automatically, thus saving time and helping you keep a clean inbox.

The new Windows Live Messenger built into Hotmail has a tabbed conversation window which allows you to easily chat with your friends and has smart features such as video conferencing and even supports High Definition video chat. The new Messenger also pulls in updates from all your social networking websites and video sites and integrates them for you in a single view.

What I loved most was that the new Hotmail and the Live Messenger now integrate pretty well on Windows Phones, iPhones and BlackBerrys. So everything from talking to your friends on the PC or your phone to emailing a document saved in your SkyDrive becomes easy.

Plus, you can also integrate Gmail, Yahoo some other mail ids to Hotmail, though you will need to buy premium services for some of them, and this means even your company mail.
This is truly the dawn of smart mail.

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The Above review appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday May 23, 2010

Encounter of the 3D Kind | Open Magazine Volume 02 Issue 06

2010-05-18T02:15:00.003+05:30

What is all this noise about 3D TV? Will it happen? Should you buy one? It’s everywhere, even in this magazine, and you must have thought, ‘Wow man, all geeks and newspapers are talking about it, and it is about time I changed my old TV’. Well, sit down, take a sip of that green tea, and read this. Trust us, it’s not that obvious.

Okay, this noise is loud. After all, the biggest announcement was in December 2009 when Fifa declared that the 2010 World Cup will be broadcast in 3D. Yes, 3D so you could see your best players actually shooting the ball into your homes, and the experience will be like never before. But wait, are we that close to 3D content? Is 3D the next big thing after the LCD, plasma, the LED television? Here is my lowdown on why you need to wait before you jump in to buy yourself a 3D television in India.

3D movies, including India’s first, Chhota Chetan (1984), have been around for quite a while, but far too few and far apart to make an impact. The recent Avatar in 3D has now got people wowed by this extra-dimensional presentation. In addition, the increasing adoption of CGI (computer generated imagery) and animation means more 3D content on its way, and with the World Cup kickoff round the corner, suddenly there is a splurge of 3D TVs. The excitement is similar to what we experienced when we saw our first 3D animated foot rulers, or pictures of our favourite cartoon characters. But there is a hitch.

Though there are multiple technologies to create 3D images, starting from the anaglyphic (using a passive red-cyan glasses, this is what was used in early-day comics), to polarisation (with passive polarised glasses), alternate-frame sequencing (needs active shutter glasses, and this is what one of the companies has chosen) and autostereoscopic displays (no headgear/glasses required), the problem is that the world of 3D is split into two major halves—one wants to build TVs that will not require viewers to wear special glasses (after all, just to watch TV you can’t wear a pair of spectacles), and the other set wants to make TVs that require you to wear spectacles.

Now, when we talk about glasses for viewing, these spectacles are not like your ordinary green and red filter ones that were handed to you when you watched Chhota Chetan, or picked up that odd comic book in 3D where the characters leapt out of the pages. These are active glasses, running on batteries (that means charging them), and a pair would cost you around Rs 5,000.

The other camp—3D TV manufacturers who don’t want to have you wear glasses—propose to use a technology which is very similar to what we saw on those 3D foot rulers. There will be tiny lenses slapped onto the screen and you will see the images in 3D without wearing glasses.

There are big players backing each technology. LG, Samsung, Sony and Panasonic have TVs that require glasses; Philips, TCL and Alioscopy have TVs that can show 3D content without having you to wear any kind of glasses. Who will win and which will become the standard technology is something we can only guess. For me, even thinking about having to wear something to watch TV is a bit uncomfortable. And I am not sure if I will be able to wear it for the duration of a film.

Anyway, assuming you are one of the early adopters of technology, and you must buy it, here is what all you will need after buying a 3D set: irrespective of the technology you choose, you will need to upgrade your DVD player to a 3D Blu-ray player (not yet easily available), buy a huge new library of 3D films (even though you may have the original film), and wait for a broadcast company to start providing 3D content.

Since 3D requires nearly double the refresh rate, even your DTH box and/or CAS box may need to be changed. But I could not get a comment from any of India’s DTH vendors if their boxes are ready for 3D content. So, that could mean buying everything all over again.Also, the wow factor of 3D is short-lived. When you go to a store to check out the TV or see it at a press launch, as I did, the immediate impulse is to get one home. But then, after a few minutes of watching, you suddenly realise that there is very limited content there, and you will not want to pay a premium just because 3D is one of the new buzzwords out there. For me, the experience of watching a 3D movie, such as Avatar in 3D, or getting to catch Shrek the Final Chapter in 3D, is best enjoyed in a cinema hall.

If you don’t mind wearing glasses while watching television, and are okay with a mild headache while you watch TV for extended time, also know that you may have to just change your television in another two years, depending on which technology becomes the standard, go ahead and buy it. For others, I would like to say, just as soon as we’ve bought the last technology, a new one is here, so you need to buy it all again, all over.

I like the technology, and I love the potential, but I will wait to decide on which technology succeeds, and also wait for more content to be made easily available. Right now we are at a stage where the future is unclear; I sense that in another two years, we will have a lot more 3D content. After all, with animation and CGI, this really is not far off.

The biggest benefit of the technology, I see, is that it will enable doctors to work interactively with radiology reports—if it’s a Cat scan, an x-ray or an MRI, or even a Doppler scan, they will be able to turn things around in a 3D world and be able to offer better diagnosis. But for you and me, I will suggest we wait.

The Samsung LED backlit 3D TV is already available in India against orders, and LG and Panasonic should be here around this month. Philips 3D TV is expected to be here around mid June, and TCL is available in China. Once most of these brands come in, we will see prices drop. Currently, Samsung’s 3D LEDs, with a screen size of 40–65 inch, cost Rs 130,000–435,000. Its 3D LCDs (46–55 inch screen size) cost Rs 129,000–186,900, and the 63 inch 3D plasma costs around Rs 300,000. Eventually, as more content becomes available and 3D technology becomes mainstream, we will see prices crash, as happened with LCD televisions.
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the above article appeared in the Open Magazine, Issue Dated 14th May 2010.

Small Wonder - Review Kodak Zi8

2010-05-18T02:11:00.003+05:30

You can always shoot videos with your still camera or get yourself a good video camera, but the form factors of the latter seem too outdated at times and videos from my still camera are shoddy at best. So getting good video quality, if possible HD, in a form factor that works for me, is important and the Kodak Zi8, with its fit-in-short-pocket size and easy to use features, fits the bill perfectly.
The Zi8 is small and measures just 2.4 by 4.5 inches; it is about an inch thick and weighs 138 grams. Bt it still offers five shooting modes — 1080p (1920 by 1080), 720p (1280 by 720) at 60 frame per second, 720p at 30 fps, WVGA (848 by 480) and still photos (5.3 megapixels at a 16:9 aspect ratio). Video is captured in H.264 format and audio is recorded at 48kHz. Plus, it comes with both telephoto and macro mode.

Also included are an external microphone port in case you want to hook up a mic to the person you are interviewing. You can also run the camera on external power for long durations, though on battery and shooting high definition videos gave me 2.5 hours shoot time. In case of a long shoot, it is better to plug the camera into the electrical socket.

Apart from the form factor, the Zi8's image quality is brilliant and image stabilisation one of the best in the industry. For many this might not mean much, but when you shoot a movie with a camera in your hand, the slight jerks can cause a lot of disturbance, and the Zi8 negates these easily. But I would leave the still camera of the Zi8 for a time when you have no better options available.

The 2.5-inch LCD is bright and sharp, and you can adjust its brightness in three steps. But the shiny black plastic in which the body is finished is a fingerprint magnet and very scratch prone, so I suggest you carry it in a cover at all times. The dealer gave me a 4GB SD card with the camera, but I think you should go for an 8GB SDHC card which will give you approximately 120 minutes of HD video recording.

The built-in USB plug is a wonderful feature and you don't need to carry a memory card reader at all times. You can connect the Zi8 to either a Mac or a Windows machine and it is detected as an external disk. If you are a Windows user, the ArcSoft Media Impression Software can be installed from the camera, but Mac users will need to use something like iMovie to edit videos.

In case you are trying to make videos for YouTube, I suggest you stick to the compact 720p/30 fps or WVGA formats as your best results. For home movies, it is better to use 1080p/30fps. The HDMI and AV cables come bundled with the camera. In playback mode, you can go from slow motion to about 16x speed, skipping to part you want to watch.

But the Zi8 is not a super fast camera and I did have some issues shooting indoors. The indoor shots have come out well, but the videos shot in daylight look as if they were taken with a professional camera. The built-in microphone is not all that great and you might have to plug in a better mic for good audio quality. A feature which I absolutely hate is the red light next to the lens, which tells the person you are shooting. Though I understand that this will prevent privacy invasion, it becomes annoying for the person you are shooting.

Moreover, you can't change settings while recording a movie. If you try to do this, the camera stops recording and you have to start a new file. The icon that shows the battery level some how goes off the screen when recording begins, though, thankfully, they reappear when it has just 20 minutes of juice to spare. However, the built-in four-way toggle and the buttons were easy to use.

Creative's Vado and the Cisco Flip are good competitors, but Zi8 delivers similar features at a great price point of Rs 10,999, making it one of the best pocket camcorders I have reviewed till date. The greatest quality of the Zi8 is that you can concentrate on the shooting, while the camera handles everything else.

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The above review appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 16th May 2010

A DTH War for the Record

2010-05-18T02:05:00.002+05:30

Last month, Airtel launched their Personal Video Recorder (PVR) box with mobile-based recording and some other unique features. Soon, their competitor Tata Sky followed suit with both Internet and mobile recording signaling a new phase in DTH services. So if you are planning to reap the benefits, read on:

Hardware
The TataSky Digicom, with its circular layout for the record, forward, play, rewind and pause buttons, reminded me of an DVD Player. On the back, the box has standard connectors for your TV as well as Ethernet and USB ports. The Tata Sky+ box gives you 90 hours of recording, but I could not check out their new 130 hours claim. The curvy remote makes it easy to record programmes.

The Airtel digital recorder's plain black box is brilliant to look at with its glowing red light. The buttons are on the top making the front panel plain, but it still has all manual setting. But there are no indicators on the box to show if you are actually recording. But the box has a 576p HDMI out, two USB ports for future uses and an Ethernet port. This box is not HD ready, so if Airtel comes up with HD transmissions, the box will have to be swapped for a new box. It gives 100 hours of recording on the box. The remote has a standard brick interface with old VCR-like buttons, all very functional though.

Interface
The TataSky interface used to be fast and functional, but it has become slower with the new version. Still, TataSky's blue and red colours are far more soothing on the eye than the red and black of Airtel. However, Airtel allows you to list 20 favourite channels in five different sections and search for recorded programmes by time and genre. Since both use NDS as their software provider, it won't be long before they catch up with each other. A channel switch is faster on the Tata Sky+ box compared to Airtel where you can feel a lag. However, the Tata Sky+ ad for ring tones or content on the screen can be annoying.

Features
Along with Internet recording, the new TataSky+ offers TVoD where popular programmes are pre-recorded for you to watch at your convenience, but without eating up your hard disk space. Currently, the feature is free.

Problems
If you have more than one Tata Sky+ box, you can't choose which box should record the programme. If you enable the programme from your mobile phone, the primary box in your account starts recording, while through Internet all boxes will start recording. The mobile applications of both companies are very similar and let you programme the channel you want. Both the customer care centres seemed a bit clueless about Internet and mobile recording.

MPEG4 vs MPEG2
Airtel claims to have MPEG4 on their transmission and on their boxes. Tata Sky+ hardware, on the other hand, supports MPEG4, but the transmission is in MPEG2. But thankfully, an average person cannot make out the difference between the two technologies.

Both Tata Sky+ and Airtel have rushed to the market to add features, but are still very basic in their approach as far as interface, usability and features go. For now, I will choose Tata Sky+ over Airtel, just because I can record programmes from anywhere through the Internet.

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The above review appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday May 09, 2010

Save it to the Dropbox

2010-05-04T03:14:00.003+05:30

Everyone is faced with the problem of sharing/accessing large files without having to depending on thumb drives, writing DVDs or using a remote login to download the file from your computer. I have found a solution to this problem in something called the Dropbox, and it is free.

You can download the application on to your Windows, Mac or Linux PC, or even on your iPhone or iPod Touch from dropbox.com and start using the application. Once installed, a menu will pop up for you to sign in. You can choose the 2GB free account or go for the 50GB or 100 GB paid version at a monthly payment of $9.99 and $19.99, respectively.

After you fill in your contact information, key in a strong password as your files will be stored on a remote server. The next step is to name the PC that you are installing the programme on — use a descriptive name such as My iPod or My Home PC.

All you have to do now is to save files you want to share into the Dropbox folder created on your PC. The programme works behind the scenes and sends a copy of all the files to the Dropbox server. So the next time you boot up your other PC where the application is installed under the same account, your files are downloaded there too.

But if you make a habit of saving files directly to your Dropbox folder, you will soon run out of space on the cloud and might have to explore the costlier paid options. This might be expensive, but makes sense if you are using the application for business.

Dropbox has worked very hard to ensure full compatibility to Windows and Linux Platforms and it also works seamlessly on the Mac. I am glad they have an iPod, iPhone and an iPad app, and would love to see an app for the Android and Brew platforms which are gaining ground. Till that time you can access Dropbox from any browser.
I also don’t like the fact that Dropbox currently does not allow to share a file, you have to share an entire folder with files in it. But the sharing still works wonderfully well.

Its best feature, however, is a paid one. It allows you to do unlimited undo on a file for 30 days from the last save. If you use the iPod, iPhone or iPad application, you can look at your pictures as an interactive photo gallery and even download files for offline viewing on your handheld. If you have the latest iPhone 3GS that shoots video, you can directly upload these to the account.

So if you too are faced with file sharing problems, check out Dropbox at dropbox.com

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The Above review appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday, May 2nd 2010

Open Magazine Volume 02 Issue 05

2010-05-04T03:05:00.002+05:30

This week in my Open Magazine article

* the HTC Legend
* Senheiser HD201 Headphones
* Rovio Wi-Fi Cam
* and the Microsoft Arc Keyboard

To view my article click here for the PDF or visit The Open Magazine website for a High Resolution copy

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The Above Article Appeared in Open Magazine, Volume 02, Issue 05, Dated 7th May 2010

Why you should buy the iPad

2010-04-25T07:09:00.004+05:30

A great browser, fantastic ebook reader and video playback. What else do you need?

Light, beautiful and super fast… yes, the iPad has everything to grab your attention. But then you hear comments like, “it is too early to say if it will really work”, “it is nothing but a glorified iPod”, “I think I will wait for the next generation”, that leave you confused whether to buy one or not. Here are my thoughts on why and who should really look at grabbing an iPad.

So, what’s it got? A great web browser with zooming and email, fantastic video playback, Google Maps complete with Streetview, calendar, notes, YouTube and the standard iPod features.

The LED backlit LCD is sharp and has vivid colours, which makes watching videos an amazing experience. Plus, the images and movies can be viewed from any angle. Like the iPod or the iPhone, the screen is very responsive and supports multi-touch. A display resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels means that you will see the Web the way it was meant to; remember most netbooks stick to awkward resolutions and some sites don’t appear normal.

The iPad weighs about 700 gram, which makes it one of the lightest computer devices that you can carry around. At about 1.27 cm thick, it looks more or less like an A4 pad. However, take good care of the screen while carrying it around.

The battery is real good and lasts about 10 hours. This means you can charge it through the day and use it to check your email, update your social networking sites, look at a few videos and hear music when you return from office. After all this it will still have juice for you to catch up on the news at the breakfast table in the morning before it goes back to the charge dock.

A question commonly asked is will the iBook app on the iPad kill the Kindle? Well, there are two issues here. Not every book is available on iBook and most of the books are cheaper on Amazon. And since iPad has a reflective colour screen, long length reading can actually get heavy on the eyes. The same screen also makes the pages colour and the animation much better than the e-ink readers. The Apple app also makes readers feel like they are flipping through the pages of an actual book. Then, a double tap on a word lets you look up the dictionary for the meaning of the word. You can bookmark the word on that specific line and page, or search for it across the book.

What I hated about the iPod Touch was the feature I loved the most, the Accelerometer. I loved that by turning it sideways I could go from portrait to landscape mode. But at times this feature was annoying, especially when you are lying down and trying to use the device. The iPad, however, comes with a rotation lock that lets you turn off the Accelerometer when you want.

The onscreen keyboard is pretty large, but the missing numbers on the top row can cause some confusion. You will, however, get used to it with some practice. For me, the iPad keyboard dock accessory is a better option if you intend to type a bit on the iPad.

The missing Flash plug-in on the browser can be irritating since most websites use Flash these days. On the iPad, the Flash content appears as empty boxes for now. At the same time, YouTube videos work perfectly as it uses a different method to stream videos. Companies are already adopting content for the iPad, after all, within the first week of its launch, five per cent of web traffic emanated from it.

I like what I can do with the iPad — it works as a brilliant tool in a conference room for taking notes, updating a spreadsheet or making a presentation. Using applications such as Sales Force, Roambi and Evernote make me stay on top of my work, while Tweet Deck, FaceBook and YouTube keep me occupied.

Many other tablets are on the anvil, each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. But, if you ask me, if iPad can’t multi-task, it means it will not crash easily and will perform better. Then the iPad comes from Apple and it a very attractive device despite the small annoyances like the missing front camera and Apple’s insistence on deciding who will put software on its devices.

If you feel it is too early for you to buy one, or that the price is not right — the iPad will carry an import duty of about Rs 9,000 in India — wait for the market to heat up with the new Android-based tablets. But if you want to own a shiny new thing that makes you happy and does what you really want, got buy an iPad.

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The above article was printed in the Indian Express on Sunday, 25th April 2010

Open Magazine Volume 02 Issue 04

2010-04-24T19:01:00.004+05:30

This week in my Open Magazine article

* Olive Zip Book, the First Ever Netbook to contain a 3G Modem in India
* Logitech G27 Steering for all your Gaming Needs
* The Garmin Nüvifone M10
* and the Strontium SSD, the first available in Indian Shops

To view my article click here for the PDF or visit The Open Magazine website for a High Resolution copy

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The Above Article Appeared in Open Magazine, Volume 02, Issue 04, Dated 30rd April 2010

Audio Box - My Music, Anywhere, Anytime

2010-04-18T00:48:00.003+05:30

Audio Box lets you upload music to the cloud and hear it anywhere

My music collection means a lot to me, but I often end up working in different PCs at multiple locations and don’t always have access to what I like to hear. I know there are options like going to YouTube or other such sites and looking up your favourite artistes, but very offer the option of uploading your own songs and playlists.

Last week, I chanced upon a new website called Audio Box (www.audiobox.fm), one of the few that really deliver what they say. A few minutes later, I had opened my free account and started uploading mp3 files from my collection. The upload speeds were good and I was getting a full 512 kbps on my home broadband of the same bandwidth. Though the files uploaded pretty fast, I could only upload a particular batch at one time — once a batch is selected, new files can only be added after the batch is fully uploaded.

I also loved the iTunes-like interface that the player offered, and the fact that I could build my playlists, edit tags and favourite specific or multiple tracks online. Now, I could listen to my songs wherever I was without installing any software.

Though the free plan offers you a storage space of just 1GB on the cloud, you can upgrade it from anywhere between 11 GB to 151 GB by paying a monthly fee of $3.99 and $ 24.99 at either end. The costlier accounts also add API / Third Party integration, which will allow more applications around your music, mobile support and support for formats other than MP3. However, I don’t want to use Audio Box as a permanent backup for my media files or a storage dump.

Paid account holders will soon get iPhone, iPod and iPad integration as well as full integration for Android phones. Last.FM and Twitter integration will let users Twitter directly from the site. But Audio Box is not a social media application and you can’t use it to share media with your friends, unless you want to share your password with them. You also cannot download music tracks you have uploaded to Audio Box, which from my point of view is a neat feature as it will stop people from pirating music. An upcoming feature called ‘Featured in the library’ will showcase artistes and songs so that you can buy their music or listen to it for free.

For audiobox.fm to work without interruption you should have at least a 512 kbps broadband connection. Since you will be uploading and streaming the content, make sure your data plan allows you unlimited and or a high volume of downloads, otherwise you will end up paying a lot of money to your service provider.

I would, however, love to see a feature where Audio Box automatically pulls the cover art for the songs which don’t have them as well as the option to select streaming quality, in case the connection is slow.
For now, I will be closely watching and using Audio Box, waiting to see what new features they come up with

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The above review appeared in the Indian Express, Sunday April 18, 2010

Open Magazine Volume 02 Issue 03

2010-04-18T00:22:00.003+05:30

This week in my Open Magazine article

* Dremel 300 from Bosch, the Tool you have been looking for
* Acer Aspire 5740 G
* The New GShock GA 100 from Casio
* and the Airtel DVR

To view my article click here for the PDF or visit The Open Magazine website for a High Resolution copy

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The Above Article Appeared in Open Magazine, Volume 02, Issue 03, Dated 23rd April 2010

So What Happened - Reliance Downtime New York to London

2010-04-15T01:15:00.005+05:30

A couple of days back I was talking to a good friend and a senior person in the Industry on what would happen if the Alexandria crash of 2008 happened again and how long will it take to recover. I understand that Reliance, has built spare capacities, their new network diagram for the global foot print

You will notice that there are 3 Landing Points in the USA.

Palo Alto called PAO001 / Los Angeles LAX002 and New York NYC005

The Palo Alto to Japan Link was working fine but for some reason the link between London and New York stopped working. Also no data was available from the LA002 to Japan Route so not sure if this pop is operational.

I am also not sure why the network between NYC005 and PAO001 was not routing. Though there is no comment from Reliance about the Downtime, and since the Downtime lasted between 1345 GMT on 14th April 2010 to 1939 GMT on 14th April 2010, it should not be a Cable Cut.

I am still trying to get a word from Reliance Communication on what had happened. This is my 2 cents from the understanding of their network. Though it is quite possible that the problem is on one of the routes from New York to London and the Redundant Route is now working or it could just be a NAP / POP issue.

I will keep updating this threat as and when I recieve information. As of now the Reliance network is routing fully and traffic is moving on the New york London Link.

The Diagnosis was done using multiple points of presence and public Traceroute / Ping Servers across the Globe and also using Looking Glass Toolkit on Flag Telecom's website to ascertain the location of the outage.

The world wide web of ‘original fakes’

2010-04-12T06:33:00.000+05:30

A fake will have a great price, but no value
Some days back a newspaper started running ads for the iPhone, strangely spelt as iFone. The phone had the same specs as the iPhone from Apple, and the real price was slashed to show the discounted price. The images used were also from Apple’s press section. While the Advertising Standards Council of India can take a call on this and other such misleading ads, it is for the consumers to be careful about not falling prey to the “original fakes”.

The fakes are everywhere. Take a walk down inside Palika Bazaar in Delhi and you will see ‘Kingston’ and ‘Transcend’ USB pen drives that claim to store up to 1TB of data. When you plug them into the demo laptops in the shops, they will show the promised storage capacity, but once you bring them home they won’t even work. Considering where you bought it from, you can forget about a replacement. As expected, the business of fakes goes far beyond pen drives, beyond even Nokia or BlackBerry look-alikes.

While there is no arguing that online sales is the commerce of the future, third-party companies outsourced to run operations and discount websites that buy from anyone and everyone will only leave you with more such fake products.

In many cases, parts are harvested from electronic waste sent for recycling. For instance, workers dismantle motherboards, recover components and sand the parts to remove markings. They then imprint forged dates, brand names and product codes.
The parts make their way to electronics marketplaces and other intermediaries before being distributed globally by suppliers. The fake manufacturers are smart enough to remove all original identification and screen print new names, make new boxes and send you a shipment that you will pay for happy at the great price that you got, but not realising that there is no value in your purchase.

So, before you buy a RAM or processor, or even a hard disk, from your neighbourhood computer guy always check his source. It is better to ensure that the equipment is in the original packing and with the bill.

Just remember, everyone from Cisco to HP is affected, and the fakes are only getting better with time. So make sure that your source is genuine and the price what it should be.

How to spot a FAKE

*The price is too good
*Products from online websites where you can’t see the gadget till it is delivered to your home
*Check holograms and also lookup the manufacturer website for identity information
*Make sure the documentation is in English and has the same font across the manual with absolutely no spelling mistakes
*If you can, check the serial number on the validation page of the manufacturer. Quite a lot of manufacturers allow you to do this. While it is possible that the serial number has been re-used by the counterfeiter, this is one more step to avoid falling into the trap

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The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday April 11, 2010

Open Magazine Volume 02 Issue 02

2010-04-10T19:36:00.002+05:30

This week in my Open Magazine Article, I look at the Newly Launched

* Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 Phone, Sony's First Attempt at the Android Phone
* The MSI Wind U160 Laptop: A Sexy Machine with Intel Pine Trail Atom Processor
* iProf: India's first e-Learning Tablet
* Adidas Senheiser Sports Earphones Your Exercise Companion

To view my article click here to download the PDF or visit the Open Magazine website for a high resolution copy of the article

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The above article appeared in the Open Magazine Issue 02, Volume 02, Dated 16th April 2010

The Right Design - Review Wind U160 from MSI

2010-04-03T20:34:00.003+05:30

U160 is an award-winning design, but MSI should have improved on storage
It was love at first sight. Everything about the way the MSI Wind U160 looked, the stylish chiclet keyboard, the shiny brown body with the flash-cut Mac-like MSI logo and the round power button on the side, impressed me. After all, this machine won the iF Product Design Award for 2010.

And it was not all design. The U160 has a dedicated switch for wireless along with the 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth and a LED backlight screen with a refresh rate of 8 ms, one of the best in the netbook segment. Like other netbooks with the new age Pine Trail Atom Processor, the U160 too comes packed with a 1.6GHZ Single Core Atom Processor, with 1 GB RAM, and Windows 7 starter edition. The machine performed pretty well during web browsing as well as office work and stayed cool all along thanks to the special design.

MSI claims the U160 can deliver about 12 hours of battery backup, and I easily managed 8+ hours of work, a great plus point in a portable netbook. However, I would have loved to see a dedicated switch to turn off the display and save some more power. On the other hand, the webcam switch on MSI laptops is a bit of a let down, for every time you are about to chat you realise that the webcam is switched off.

For some reason MSI has chosen to fit the model with just a 160 GB hard disk, among the smallest today. The model is also not high on ergonomics, especially compared to the Asus EEE PC 1005P, the Pine Trail model already in the market. This one was a bit awkward in terms of the hand position, and small keys took some getting used to. But, the chiclet key design works well in dimly lit rooms.

Though the small 2.5” x 1.8” touchpad is nice to touch and bumpy, the single metal button is a bit of an irritant, as you often end up touching it inadvertently. But unlike MSI’s X series which has very stylish white LEDs, this one has irritating red, yellow, green and blue LEds all over the place. Plus, the U160 seems to have a weak Wi-Fi reception and it could sense just 50 per cent network signal strength where my iPod showed 80 per cent.

While like many other netbooks, MSI too has done away with the page up / page down keys, it was nice to see an additional Function key on the right hand side next to the arrow keys which makes it easy to go to the top or bottom of the page and is more ergonomic. But this also means you have a smaller shift key to work with on the right.

The 10” screen runs at a native resolution of 1024 x 600, so some sites don’t open up properly, but then this is a problem with most netbooks. The machine looks slim from the front, but is thicker towards the rear to give the battery air room to cool. The U160 sports three USB ports, headphone and microphone jacks, a VGA port, and an Ethernet port. There is also a Kensington lock port if needed.
The MSI U160 will cost Rs 24,999 when it is launched in India mid-April.

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The above review appeared in the Indian Express on Sunday 4th of April 2010

Open Magazine Volume 2 Issue 01

2010-04-02T13:12:00.002+05:30

The First Anniversary issue from the Open Magazine, a Collectors Issue, do get your hands on it. This week in the Gadgets Page

* Sony Vaio Z 117 Laptop, the OOMPH Machine
* iPhone 3GS, yes it's finally here in India
* The Webcam 500 from Logitech
* Addictaball the New Addiction

To view my column this week, click for the PDF or visit The Open Magazine Website for a High Resolution version.

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The above article appeared in the Open Magazine Issue 01, Volume 02, Dated 9th April 2010

Peek-A-Boo (A Boo Boo)

2010-03-28T10:03:00.004+05:30

India’s first dedicated email device promises a lot, but the service lets it down
It was about four months back that I heard that the Peek, 2008’s gadget of the year, was being launched in India by Aircel. About two weeks back, this dedicated mobile email device was finally launched in India with a relatively low-key announcement. Thanks to the Rs 2,999 price tag, it didn’t take long for the units to fly off the shelf.

I finally managed to find a retailer who had an unsold unit, and decided to get myself a prepaid service as the post-paid account entails a lot of paper work. I was hoping to get my email configured and working as soon as I opened the box, but I was in for a rude shock, as it takes up to 48 hours for the handset to be activated. Though Aircel call centres have different excuses for this, it appears that the company has to go back to the Peek guys in Bangalore and get it manually activated.

I managed to get the unit activated after two days, but not without a number of phone calls. Once online, however, I was able to easily get my Gmail and Yahoo mails working. Though only Rediff Pro mails work on the unit, it can be configured for Windows Live Mail.

The box clearly stated that it had support for Exchange Server and all mail servers that had a Pop or an IMAP port available. This is where I got another shock. To get your office mail configured, your IT team will have to fill up an Excel sheet form and share your username and password with Aircel, which in turn will sent it to Peek to get the account configured. But, I was not going to share my password with anyone and it finally took a brilliant guy at Peek to find a way around it.

The handset design is really catchy, with properly spaced QWERTY keys ideal for typing. However, the keys are a bit hard and the spacebar somewhat smallish, though there are dedicated @ and number keys. The right hand side has a scroll wheel and an escape key, while the power key is placed on top. The 2.5” screen works decently in bright sunlight and has a welcome matt finish to it.

The metal rear has the Aircel and Peek Email logos etched on it. The handset can store up to 5,000 emails before it replaces the oldest with new mails. It also supports up to 1,000 contacts which can be directly downloaded from your Yahoo or Gmail account. However, I had trouble downloading contacts from my corporate server. You can configure up to three email accounts, though they will all appear on a single inbox. But you can choose the account for outgoing mail. Sent mails are also stored on the handset, and there is a search function too. While there is an auto-complete for email addresses, the unit does not come with a spelling checker or auto correct. The battery is great though, as a three-hour charge stays for around three days despite all the email usage.

There are some other issues too. Since the online self management portal is still not online, you will have to depend on Peek support often. Currently my Peek runs about 30 minutes delayed, so it is not exactly a push mail service or even live. But I think this is more of a service provider issue.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

The device is still a good alternative for those who want access to email 24/7 but don’t want to spend on a BlackBerry. Sadly, Aircel charges Rs 300 a month for unlimited access, roughly what you would pay for a much better BlackBerry package. Rs 100 a month seems a better price point for the service on offer.

This is a dedicated email device and there is no way you can use it to make a call, which will appeal to many buyers. But it is unclear whether the units will work outside India. However, if you are that hooked to your mail, I suggest you invest in a BlackBerry.

How To Buy

To buy the Peek, you need to pay the Rs 2,999 handset cost, Rs 897 for the first three months service, Rs 25 for the SIM card. Later, you can buy a Rs 300 coupon every month from Aircel.

Services

You can check you account balance using the item menu, though it will take roughly 10 minutes to retrieve the information. The Ask Peek services let you fetch cricket scores, movie information and other information services by sending an email.

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The Above article / review appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 28th March 2010.

Open Magazine Volume 1 Issue 52

2010-03-26T08:45:00.004+05:30

The Open Magazine is 1 Year Old, Yippee. This week in my Open Magazine Gadgets Page:

* Spring Desig's Alex E Book Reader
* Map My India Road Pilot
* The G-Fone (No, Nothing to do with Google)
* And Philipe' Starcks, Lacie Alumnium Hard Disk

To view this article, click here for the PDF or visit Open Magazine Website to view the high resolution e-mag page.

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The Above article appeared in the Open Magazine , Volume 01, Issue 52, Dated 2 April 2010

Broadband, an Infrastructure Challenge

2010-03-25T01:43:00.002+05:30

Last week, the US government started exploring the possi- bility of a new Broadband Bill, and this prompted me to look at the status of our Internet connectivity is. The US mulls moving to a minimum speed of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) to each home and at least a gigabit per second (Gbps) to each university. I am not aware of any university, college or a corporate that is currently using 100 Megabits per second. India is one of the leading countries that develop and work as the backbone of information technology. But while the Internet penetration has grown and speed leaped forward, the way our Internet access has been growing is something to worry about. This week I try to explore what are the reasons I feel that the growth has been slow, and how we can make the growth speedier .

We all agree that the Internet connectivity to the masses, commonly known as broadband—defined as always-on-Internet—delivered to people has helped us grow the economy, our personal businesses as well as increase the reach and availability of information. Some of us will argue that there is still a digital divide and some will take the stand that though Internet tariffs are attractive, the speeds are not.

Internet was made available to the masses on August 15, 1995, through the Gateway Internet Access Service (GIAS) of VSNL. Back then, you could get a 14.4 Kbps going up to about 28.8 Kbps of Internet bandwidth, starting with a limited level of access shell account to the new age TCP/IP socket accounts. Then, you paid roughly about Rs 15,000 per annum for a 500-hour connection.

Zoom in to 1999 when telecom operators started realising the 56 Kbps that the dial-up Internet could reach was limiting their growth. New private players emerged with the first set of broadband services, at 64 Kbps unlimited, but you had to shell out anywhere between Rs 3,000 and Rs 6,000 a month depending on if you were a corporate or a home user; this is where the trouble started.

The Internet does not distinguish between a corporate or a home user; both use the Net to download content and to send information to other networks. But yes, the corporates were assumed to be heavy users while the home users were thought to be light. I could see why the price arbitrage was required back in those days, as roughly 97% of the servers that had content and email were outside India. Data needed to travel on international private leased circuits which would cost an ISP or telecom provider similar to an international call, making bandwidth expensive.

The sudden explosion in the dotcom space, a lot of development of applications and growth of service providers spun off entities that would host the servers in India. My company was one of them starting back in 1996, but we did not see content move to India until as late as 2004 when suddenly most of the large content providers started looking at servers in India to offer higher speed connectivity and a better experience to their website visitors. Also, in keeping with trends, the broadband kept redefining itself to a minimum of 128 Kbps. In 2005, the government of India mandated that for a service to be called broadband, it had to have at least 256 Kbps of interconnect speed between the customer and the point of presence. Another big mistake here.

The 256 Kbps of speed was defined as the capacity of the line between your house or office to the telecom/Internet service provider and not the Internet bandwidth available to you. The government suddenly realised that there was need to interconnect all Internet service providers and within themselves; they were not talking to each other. So, the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) was set up in 2003 and today, approximately 31 ISPs connect and exchange information at NIXI, which sadly does not go above 8 gigabits per second on any day. While NIXI backbone has been built to support up to 100 gigabits per second of traffic and stays underutilised, more and more bandwidth needs to be pushed to exchange points.

Most of the urban homes have broadband now, those who don’t still think it is too expensive or because they don’t see a need for it. Cheaper broadband will enable more and more people to connect to it, while faster broadband will enable doctors to monitor paitients remotely over the Internet (What we saw in 3 Idiots is just a glimpse of things to come—people are already using video conference to talk to each other, but the cost is still too high) and students take classes online. High speed internet means high quality video.

Companies such as BSNL and Airtel are at the high-speed frontier. Airtel has announced that the minimum speed of its broadband will be 512 Kbps. BSNL has a 24 Mbps plan, though it may not be easily available. But it is interesting to see a state-run operator coming out with the fastest possible broadband plan aimed at home users.

The ISPs need to drop the differentiation between a home user and a business user. The differentiation could be on the sharing ratios of services: business users end up buying Internet bandwidth as leased circuits, and pay as little as Rs 1.8 lakh per annum for a 2 Mbps link, i.e, Rs 15,000 per month for 2 Mbps, while a home user may get a 2 Mbps unlimited plan for as little as Rs 4,000 per month. It is the same bandwidth, but with different content ratios; while the corporate user will be able to peak up to 2 Mbps at all times, a home user may or may not peak depending on the loads.

The price war is taking place, new ISPs such as Tikona are changing the landscape and older players are entering new territories. But the unfair use of the term ‘fair usage policy’ needs to be looked at seriously. So, unlimited connection means there is no limit, but a *on the ‘unlimited’ signifies that there is a rider; people have billing hassles with the largest ISPs and tend to choose smaller plans, or stick to plans of limited speeds. The chicken-and-egg question of the content or the speed first needs to be answered at a time international connect prices are falling, more content providers looking at India and the country generating its own content. The content and the bandwidth seem to be merging and plans need to be drawn up for truly unlimited downloads.

Where do we stand today? The government is very supportive and ISPs have started talking to each other, but the premise that most of the content still lies outside India is not true. The other premise that international bandwidth is expensive also does not hold true any more. The world’s leading connectivity companies such as Teleglobe Network, i2i Networks and Flag are owned partially or fully by leading Indian telcos such as Tata Communications (formerly known as VSNL), Bharti Airtel and Reliance, respectively.

The premise that content is out of India is changing at a high speed. Though telecom operators need to focus on interconnectivity within each other and setting up peering/exchange points, they are still trying to outsell each other in terms of bandwidth. An archaic law such as the one stipulating content providers will not be allowed to peer with NIXI creates its own headaches. Today, a company such as Google has to come in and set up its servers at all three major telecom providers (Bharti Airtel, Tata Communciations and Reliance) while they could easily plug into the NIXI and be available to all Tier-1, Tier-2, and Tier-3 ISPs. We need to review the opportunities in the infrastructure segment and enable the growth of the Internet.

My request to the government would be to expand speeds in multiples of megabits per second, and let private exchange points come into the picture. It is in the interest of Internet service providers to connect with each other. I agree that they are competing but interconnects at independent levels, similar to what happens on the telephone links, would help the market mature and take a different shape. The definition of broadband if expanded to minimum 2 megabits per second will help increase penetration and expand use of the Internet beyond the casual use of checking email, updating Facebook status, watching live interactive videos, being part of global conferences and creating more and more content.

Broadband is an infrastructure challenge. It has been a long time that it was a demand and supply game. From now, the goal should be getting more people online and the price and speed mixture correct. We have come a long way and the growth has been amazing, but going forward, we need to enable leaps in megabits per second, and not kilobits per second. Rural areas lag not because there is a digital divide or there is no need of broadband there. It’s just that players have not reached this market as yet. The government has announced schemes, but there is a need to have content. Your average Web hosting company still wants to put up its servers outside the country as it is cheaper. But this flow of servers outside not only moves our content outside, but also precious dollars other companies earn. The more content is local and the more content is generated, the more impetus will it generate.

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The Above article appeared in the Financial Express, on Thursday 25th March 2010

The Super ZOOMER - Sony HX1 Review

2010-03-20T14:04:00.006+05:30

You realise the power of a zoom lens when you capture that smile or expression which you would have missed had the subject seen the camera focused on them. This is where a camera like the HX1 with a 20x optical zoom lens, which extends from 28 mm at the wide end to 560 mm on the telephoto end, comes into play. That is not all, it can also do HD video at a full 1440x1080 at 30fps recording, has some good stereo microphones and big 3" tilting LCD screen. Features such as face detection, smile shutter, panoramic mode, twilight shooting that are standard across the Sony line are there too.

The SLR-like appearance of the camera might seem a bit intimidating for people moving on from compacts or picking up their first camera, but the design makes it very comfortable to use even for novices. The protruding viewfinder was a welcome break, but since the LCD only tilts 90 degrees, it was a bit messy with my nose coming in between and leaving oily marks on the screen. To make life easy, there is a switch that lets you move from LCD to the viewfinder mode.

Sadly, the flash on the HX1 is set to automatic or off and there is no way of firing or opening the flash manually. The second big problem with the camera is that it takes a memory stick pro card, which is expensive and not easily available.
The zoom controller and the shutter button are great to work with, though the former responds slowly after you lock the frame into focus, and at times becomes irritating.

For those of us who like to shoot in manual, there is a scroll near the handgrip to choose the modes, which are easy to setup and use.

The panoramic sweep mode is not as good as other Sony cameras, but it works if you want to use it. I encountered some shake in this mode, and would suggest you use a tripod considering the size of the camera.
But the point-and-shoot mode was bad, with the pictures turning out too bright and too flat. The results were better in manual and scenic modes.

The in-camera photo editing is good and saves the photo as a separate file without overwriting the original. So you can do some post photography effects without using the computer.
The solid built, good LCD screen, brilliant zoom and good final pictures made this an over-all winner in my books. However, HX1 lacks RAW support, which will put off some buyers and is just 9.1 mega pixels in a world were 12 mp is fast becoming the standard.

But still, there is much in this camera if you are not in the megapixel war and are want to stick to the role of an amateur photographer or hobbyist. HX1 Super Zoomer costs from Rs 24,990.

Some Pictures I took with the Camera

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The Above article appeared in the Indian Express on Sunday 21st March 2010.

Open Magazine Volume 1 Issue 51

2010-03-20T13:45:00.003+05:30

This week in my open magazine Article:
* Asus Eee PC 1005 - All Day Performer
* The Rubik's Alarm Clock
* Blackarmour Network Attached Storage from Seagate
* The MystEco LCD From Samsung

To view this article click here for the PDF or visit Open Magazine Website to view the high resolution page.

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The above article appeared in the Open Magazine, Volume 01, Issue 51, Dated 26th March 2010

Open Magazine - Issue 50

2010-03-15T11:53:00.003+05:30

This week in my open Magazine Article
* Olympus PEN EP-2, Micro 4/3rds Camera from Olympus
* The Bosch Home Tool kit
* Logitech's new Presenter R800
* and the Olive Frvr On Cell phone that runs on a AAA Battery

To view the article click here for the PDF, or visit Open Magazine Website to view the Hi Resolution online Magazine.

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The above article appeared in the Open Magazine, Volume 01, Issue 50, Dated 19 March 2010

Smart Devices - How are the Cell Phones Evolving

2010-03-14T19:25:00.003+05:30

I remember a time when the phone was a phone, and all you could do was make calls with it—that is, if it worked. Cellphones changed all that, not only did they work (well at least back then they did) but were bought on a simple pretext—what do you like. If it had a game and having a colour screen was a big thing. And then, suddenly, something happened—the cellphone transformed into an intelligent device, and you could now download software applications to do more with your phone.

I remember when Symbian just came out and all the rage was to get the Opera browser working on the phone and get on the most sluggish GPRS connectivity and be happy that you reached a Web page. Symbian also brought along with it headaches, of phones crashing, not performing well, acting up on you and getting infected by virus, though most technology pundits at that time ruled that we will go back to non-smart phones. But today, the market is crowded with smart phones.

Buying a phone is no longer about the brand or the looks—it’s also about what it can do and does it have applications. Some ask, does it have an app store. Others say let them backup the phone online to their servers so that whenever they change the phone (be it dead or lost), just switch on the new phone, punch in a few buttons and get their data back. It can’t be more complicated than it is now.

It is a confused state of mind, with smartphones from Blackberry that run the Blackberry OS, some phones supporting Windows Mobile (6.1 and 6.5 are currently available and the 7 is coming out), Symbian, Linux, or plain simple Android. Most users today go in for what the phone looks like and try to stick to the same brand and family of phones for fear of retraining themselves and having a comfort. Only the tech guys go in and ask for platforms. In an opinion poll that I did with a few retailers and some people known in the mobile industry, the focus is very basic at the end of the day to get a phone that is easy to use as a phone, both for single-origin calls and conference calls, to be able to do email and messaging well.

Blackberry has started to emerge as the winner. It is one of the most stable phones in the market when it comes to a smart phone, also because of the reason that applications on this platform available to the end user were limited and you really could not infect a Blackberry out of the box. The lovely interface and inter-operability with any personal computer operating system has given it a winning edge.

Though still the most popular platform in India seems to be the Symbian OS Phones, the currently defining market share of one operating system versus others is really not possible. Closed operating system phones such as the iPhone have also picked up market momentum. People still end up choosing phones on preferences such as how good the camera is is the GPS worth it; how much capacity is the data card; does it have a touch screen; a big screen, can one listen to music on it; does it have an FM radio, etc.

The phones are now becoming application centre pieces, with data being the next revenue for telecom operators. After all, with the current and future falling rates of voice calls, the average revenue per unit (ARPU) does not make any business sense to operators.

Microsoft recently announced its Windows 7 Mobile operating system, though most of the phones that had Microsoft Windows 6.1 Mobile Edition never even came out with Windows 6.5 in India. We will have to see if the Windows 7 will really make an impact.

Due to its openness, Android has a lot of people making some great applications. Even the team at Google, and the Open Handset Alliance backing it, are creating a great set of location-specific applications, and also changing how you interact with the phone. From a point where the phone was a 12-key numeric touchpad, and changed to touch screens, hybrids and then multi-touch, the next frontier is to talk to your phone either through voice, or use pictures for it to do your work. Android takes a huge leap in it.

And then there are captive operating systems, owned by companies such as Samsung, Nokia and Motorola which are run only on their devices. These phones perform marvellously in terms of basic telephony and messaging, but stick to very simple applications. A set of people wants to stick to phones that are only phones. To people looking at a phone that can replace their camera, MP3 player and gaming device, look at the smarter phones.

Linux the other open operating system, has been chosen by a lot of players; Motorola brought in a Linux phone that had partial success. Some other players had their own Linux variants, but Nokia funded a software platform called Maemo that is based on Debian Linux. Though the operating system is more targeted towards tablet computing than phones, there have been mixed reactions to its success. At the Mobile World Congress in February this year, Maemo merged with Moblin to form MeeGo. It is expected to generate a lot of interest. A not so well known platform called Brew from Qualcomm is taking shape. With already more than 18,000 applications on the platform and 1,200-plus handset models already out there, this is going to take the feature-rich, low-cost phones mainstream.

It is the best time for developers. Now you can write an application for the platform you like and there is a wonderful SDK that lets you build out some interactive applications. With the iPad here in a few weeks, development on the Apple platform is increasing. What lags it that both the phone and the iPad will be closed devices and can only have application access from Apple-owned stores.

Linux developers were stuck with the kind of applications they could develop on the mobile Linux platform. That is also one reason that phones such as the A910 were not very succesful, but the MeeGo platform offers more opportunities. Symbian and Java have been leaders in their own ways, though limited options were available on what the apps could look and feel like. But the way Symbian OS has been adopted and if it maintains a good speed, it will remain the chosen smartphone OS for many manufacturers. The new look on the Windows 7 Mobile phone is very interesting for the user to develop and a large Microsoft development community should come out with some good looking applications, but how much and when is still a bit unknown.

With cheaper operating systems such as Android, MeeGo and Brew, handset manufacturers will be able to offer application- and feature-rich phones, that have different OS. Some manufacturers like Brew will allow you to change the OS on your phone and use their apps. The market is still evolving, and it is difficult to say who will emerge as the winner, but for now, I would rather stick to a stupid simple phone.

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The Above article appeared in the Financial Express, on Thursday, 4th March 2010

The X Factor - Review MSI X430

2010-03-14T13:40:00.003+05:30

The X430 from MSI is finally here. This netbook uses the latest second generation AMD Athlon Neo MV40 Dual Core Processors with the brand new RS780MN and SB710 chipsets that support HD and DirectX 10 technologies to provide unbeatable visual and usage performance often lacking in this range.
The machine comes in white and black, but the former tends to get dirty under the body in Indian conditions and you need to keep cleaning it. But the plastic on the top shell is shiny and does not attract scratches so easily.

The 14” high definition LCD is standard across their series and is fitted with a great 1.3 mega pixel web camera. The HD display supports a brightness of 220 cd/m2 and is formatted using a 16:9 widescreen ratio and displays images with increased clarity and distinctness. The microphone on the machine picked up my voice for a Skype call, though I did have to speak up a bit.

The machine is 24.5 mm thick at the front, but towards the rear, where the battery is located, the machine is thicker. There is an optional eight-cell battery available, but the standard four-cell will support the machine for about 2.5 hours of usage. Though MSI has a 500 GB hard disk option, only the 320 GB version is available here now.

Weighing a cool 1.5 kg, this machine is easy to carry and use on the road. The units feature a full-size keyboard. However, I did not like the placement of the home / page up / page down keys. But having those keys as standard and not as function is a welcome thing.

MSI has also used white LEDs for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, sleep mode, battery charge, caps lock and other indicators as well as on the power button. These also make the machine stand out in a crowd. When the lid is closed the white lights in the front and the wedge that MSI has created to open the lid gives the design a futuristic feel.
On the flipside, the built-in memory card reader supports only MMC and SD cards. It does not have a multi-touch touchpad, but the large button for left and right click and easy to use keybaoard with the large palm rest make up for this.

The unit comes with two USB ports, earphone and microphone connectors and an HDMI output. There is also a standard VGA output so that you can easily hook it up to an external display or projector. Also featured is a Gigabit Ethernet port in case you are going to be using it in the office, and an 802.11b/g/n wireless LAN for high-speed communications.

The X430 comes in two variants, the only difference being the option of Windows 7 Starter Edition (1 GB RAM) or the Windows 7 Home Premium Edition (2GB RAM). The one with the starter edition is priced at Rs 32,000 and the premium edition ships for Rs 35,000.
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The above review appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 14th March 2010

An app store just for India - Airtel's Application Store Review

2010-03-14T13:32:00.003+05:30

Apple changed the way people looked at the phone with the first captive application store. Peers were quick to launch competition for the iTunes store, and the Ovi Market Place for Nokia phones, the Android Market Place for Android phones, and then a Microsoft Market Place were up and running within months. Now, Airtel has taken the plunge by launching its own app store for Indian customers.

So why did Airtel have to open an app store when all smartphone users have their company stores to download applications? I didn't take long for me to realise that the store make sense for people with phones that can run Java applications but don't have credit cards to charge the apps on.

The Airtel store has about 1,400 applications split into multiple categories. Though the store is useless for iPhone, most of the applications are tested to work with BlackBerrys, Symbians and Windows Mobiles. Some even work on Android phones.
There are some good free apps like Snaptu which allows users to use Facebook, Flickr and Twitter, look at the weather reports and read RSS news feeds. You don't pay anything for downloading the application over GPRS, but data transfers are billed to you. These apps can only be used on GPRS, so even if your phone has Wi-Fi you will still have to log on through the slower Net connection.

But that is the least of your problems as the service is also limited to Airtel customers. Then, you can't transfer the downloaded applications to another phone. Some of the applications are really bad and there is no way you can do a trial before you buy it; there are also no screenshot available on the Internet. You can only use the maps on Airtel GPRS network, so if you are on roaming or the Airtel signal is weak, you can't use the application. Plus, these are early days and no one knows if the Airtel App store is here to stay.

Anyway, I think it is a great step forward, especially with the many cheap Chinese smartphone available in the market. Here's hoping the apps become better.

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The above review appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday March 07, 2010

Handheld diagnosis - GE's Vscan

2010-03-14T13:24:00.003+05:30

This week I touch on a topic that is close to my heart but is not exactly consumer technology.

A set of engineers across the world are making machines smaller, portable, economical and more viable to ensure healthcare reaches everyone. Last week, GE took a huge step towards this goal by launching Vscan, a pocket-friendly machine — it is just 3 inches wide by 5.3 inches long and weighs about 500 grams, almost the size of a mobile phone — which houses powerful, ultra-smart ultrasound technology that provides an immediate, non-invasive method to secure visual information about the body. Vscan is battery operated and can easily be taken to any clinic, hospital or primary healthcare setting.

Vscan is designed to be complementary to the stethoscope, helping physicians go beyond what they can hear and see. It can scan up to 30 patients with its one-hour power backup and doctors can store results on its 4GB memory card, expandable up to 32 GB.
The high image quality, combined with simple, familiar, intuitive interface can be controlled using the thumb. Using a familiar dial key interface, physicians can zoom in and out, pan left and right for analysis and even add voice annotations. The docking station helps the transfer of data to a PC for organising or sharing the results with experts over the Internet.

Products like Vscan, which costs just Rs 6 lakh, can become a boon for countries like India where rural healthcare is in a bad shape. They can help state-of-the-art diagnostic technologies to primary health centres in small village without being reliant on the erratic power supply.

However, with this comes the added responsibility of ensuring that these devices are not misused by quacks for illegal gender determination and half-baked diagnosis

Companies like Siemens and SonoSite too are doing their bit with portable and cost affective medical equipments. What is required now is for the government to get these low-cost products to our primary health centres and make sure the technology reaches those who are in desperate need for it.
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The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday Feb 28, 2010

Review of the Sat Guide Moov Mio GPS - Not one for the road

2010-03-14T13:12:00.004+05:30

SatGuide is one of the pioneers of the GPS market in India, making units available as early as 2005. But I never had an opportunity to evaluate their units until last week, when I took their Moov 200 on a trip to Amritsar and back.
To start with, I loved the build quality of the hardware — the plastic finish was nice, so was the brilliant car charger bundled with it. I also loved the windshield mount, it was not only small and just the right size, but also very well made. It was a pleasant surprise to find an AC to USB charger too.

But when I mounted the unit the time zone set was incorrect, so I had to correct this and other basic settings like the display format (2D v/s 3D and day or night). The display was sharp and bright but it seems their graphic designer doesn’t understand that brown fonts don’t work on blue and yellow backgrounds, they just end up hurting your eyes.

On the trip, I took my favourite GPS along too. While it took my GPS less than a minute to lock on Golden Temple, Amritsar, Moov took about three minutes. I don’t know why it asks the user if you want to use it as a video player, audio player, picture viewer or navigator when the last one is its primary function. But the interface was slightly better than what I have seen on other Windows CE devices, though the hardware felt under-powered while doing a search.

The two units showed a slight difference, about three kilometers, to the destination. It seemed each one had its own way of getting there within the city. With the distance at 481 km, the units showed that our ETA would be around 18:30 hours. But as we moved on, the ETA kept changing on both units. For some reason the moment we left Delhi, the Moov wanted me to take the old highway and not the new one. Even on selection of an alternate route, it pointed me towards the old route. At every turn it kept telling me how I could rejoin the old highway. Strangely, this stopped only about 100 km from my destination.

Once in Amritsar, we started looking for points of interest, like places to eat and landmarks, and the Moov failed miserably. Though SatGuide claims there have about two million points of interest, I was unable to find a single one and had to resort to the other GPS and local knowledge.

On our way back, the Moov wanted me to turn towards Chandigarh and then turn to Delhi, a 200-km detour. Back in Delhi, my home is next to a famous landmark, but sadly the Moov located the landmark about four km from my house.

Despite the problems, at Rs 13,990 the Moov 200 is a good buy if you are looking at city to city navigation. With the bad quality of road markings, half of them covered photographs of politicians and milestones that are not there, a GPS unit makes sense, but if you are looking to explore your city, the Moov might not be what you are looking for.

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The above review appeared in the Indian Express on Sunday 21 Feb, 2010

Apps for the Heart - 5 Great iPhone Apps, to Celebrate Love

2010-03-14T12:59:00.006+05:30

Here are five great apps from the Apple iTunes app store that keep the spirit of Valentine’s Day burning bright.

Iflirt, $0.99
In case you are still single, I suggest you get an iFlirt for your iPod. It cost $ 0.99, but is worth every cent. With an entirely user driven database of pickup lines, flirting and dating tips, you can think beyond those cheesy lines that everyone has heard before. But in case you want something cocky, go ahead and try something like “I am doing a poll and all I need is your name, your number and the directions to your apartment”. The application features separate sections for men and women and even a random idea generator. So if you are still trying get yourself a valentine, give this app a try; just make sure you are not peering into your iPod when you say the lines.

Valentine Radio, Free
If you do manage to pick up a date, then make sure you have the right music to play on special occasions. Love songs can bring out the mushy side of anyone, but sadly radio stations in India think there is no world beyond the latest Bollywood tracks. The free Valentine Radio app brings your favourite love songs from around the world under one button. The application features a line-up of 40 romantic channels and a stylish design that works with all versions of the Apple iPod software. All you need is a good wireless connection to stream the radio and enjoy your evening with your special one.

Absolut Drinkspiration, Free
So, we have a valentine and some great music, now for some drinks. Since none of us are masters behind the bar, just download Drinkspiration and let it come up with suggestions. The app can even tell you what is hot across the globe and suggest a drink by taste. You can also search for drinks that use the ingredients you have at home or something without any alcohol. So toast to a great night.

SpongeBob Jelly Fish Jam, Free
A few drinks down, you can check your agility by catching a few falling hearts. Play this Nickelodeon game right and you can have Sponge Bob dance for you. The sequence starts out easy, but this sure is no child’s play. There are even variants like the Bikini Bottom World to test your music skills. Give it a shot, and see which one of you can get Mr Square Pants to shake a leg.

The Story of Valentine’s Day, Free
Well, we all buy roses on February 14, but how many of us know about St Valentine. This app tells you his story in the most interactive way, backed by great visuals and easy-to-read text. The app tells how the third century saint got couples married off and how his death anniversary started being celebrated as the Day of the St Valentines.

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The above review appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 14 Feb, 2010, Yes the Valentines Day

SIX GOLDEN RULES FOR STRONG PASSWORDS

2010-03-14T12:51:00.003+05:30

Waking up to someone asking you for help because their password has been hacked is an unpleasant experience. But such calls are becoming commonplace, not because hackers are becoming smarter (well they are), but because people are stupid enough to keep their passwords simple.
A recently released report from Imperva (http://tinyurl.com/iepasswords) highlights that the most common password used by people is 123456. Moreover, 30 per cent of people use passwords under or equal to six characters, only 60 per cent of them use alpha-numerics and nearly half use slang words, consecutive digits and so on. That’s why I have decided to share with you the six golden rules of a good password.

Rule 1: No personal information
Don’t use your child’s birth date, or a date from your life to make a password. If you can get a clue easily, so can a person who knows you well. Hackers can gain information to your accounts, computers and even to your Facebook page.

Rule 2: Use mixed case
Now that you know you are not allowed to use your child or spouse’s name or your anniversary as your password, try using mixed case in your password. There are some websites and programs that will require you to have one capital character and a special character, but mAkE it a HabbIt as it will make your passwords a bit difficult to crack at one go.

Rule 3: Replace characters
Replace a character with another one to make a password. A simple way is to use the hacker’s language called L33T — replace an E with a 3, an A with 4. But if everyone does the same, everyone will know how to solve the puzzle. So make your own rules and stick to them.

Rule 4: Use passphrases
Quite a few companies now do not restrict the length of the password. So use a passphrase, such as ‘I love you’. You can make it 1 l0v3 y0u, but then that’s one of the most commonly used phrases. I would really go in for something like, 1 w0uld r34lly g0 1n f0r s0m3th1ng l1k3. See how simple it is.

Rule 5: Use different passwords
Well, I agree that creating a complex password will mean, that you will want to use it across all websites you use. That is a big no. Use different passwords, maybe, use a phrase from a song you love, line one on one site, line two on the other. In case you can’t remember the various passwords, there are great free utilities like KeePass (www.keepass.info) which work on Windows, Linux and Mac.

Rule 6: Change your passwords often
A big problem with people is that they find one complicated password and use it over and over again. Eventually, everyone gets to know it and it becomes easier for an outsider to learn about it. It is not really important to go out and change your passwords every day, week or a month; just do it often and try not to use the same password again.

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The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday Feb 07, 2010

The Big O - Review of Opera 10

2010-03-14T12:33:00.004+05:30

Opera does it again with version 10

Opera has for long been a name feared by the other browsers, thanks to its cutting edge features. Recently, Opera announced its version 10, which is available online for free and is compatible with Linux, Windows and Mac OSX operating platforms. Like its predecessors, this one too has a whole lot of new features worth your time.

The now-popular speed dial was originally invented by Opera. The new version allows users to organise their bookmarks from a 2x2 to a 5x5 grid on the speed dial. Now, you can also add background image to the page. Using a feature called Opera Link, you can synchronise bookmarks, speed dials, notes and other browser data between all your PCs so that all your machines have the same feel. Safari and Firefox have add-ons that do the same thing, but with the function in-built, there is a lesser chance of the Opera browser crashing.

Opera also makes it easier to manage multiple tabs. Just moving your mouse over a tab produces a live thumbnail of what is on the page. On widescreens, this has the potential to become a great utility with users choosing the location of the thumbnail as per their liking.

The search bar is by default set to Google, but users can customise it to any search engine of their choice. You can also stretch the search bar in case your search phrase is too long.

But all this is not really new. Where Opera 10 becomes cutting-edge is with Unite. This function allows you to set up a Unite network with your machine as a server so that your friends and family gets authenticated access to shared files through URLs.
To do this you have to create a free account with Opera. You are given a URL preceded by your computer name. If you call you machine homepc, the URL will be http://homepc.username.operaunite.com . The application can be used to share anything from simple files to a mediaplayer. Plus it has applications like Fridge which act as a pin board where you can leave messages for friends and Document Courier which lets you upload a file to your PC from anywhere. It can even double as a live messenger.

You also have the option of making your shared files public or password protected, but I would have loved it to have multiple usernames and passwords. Since UPNP is enabled by default on most routers, there is no need to change setting to get this feature to work.

I have always liked Opera’s Notes feature, but would have loved the ability to attach the notes to specific websites. Also users have to configure their email in Opera or use a webmail service such as Yandex, Fastmail, OperaMail or Mail.ru to send the notes to a friend. It would have been better if there was direct integration with either Yahoo or Gmail.

I still believe Safari is the fastest on Mac and Chrome the best for Windows, but what Opera can do is still unmatchable and out of the box.
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The above review appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday Jan 17, 2010.

Shoot the message

2010-03-14T12:22:00.002+05:30

From podcast to videocast and now video email, the evolution has been swift. Initially, video email was limited to a select few and was supposed to be the next frontier. But now your four-year-old can send you an email even though he can’t type a word with just a few clicks.
The solution I present to you is not for four-year-olds, but it is easy enough for my eight-year-old niece to send me a video mail every now and then. TokBox.com is not exactly new, but as soon as I discovered this free video messaging service I wanted to go out, jump up in joy and share it with you like a new toy.

How does it work? It uses the webcam and microphone built into your PC/laptop to record a video message and send it as an email to the recipient. Since the recipient could be on a slow connection or his mailbox of a limited size, Tokbox just sends an image grab of the video and a link inviting the recipient to check out the video message. There was no buffering or stopping on the 256 kbps broadband I checked it on and the videos played seamlessly. The interface is clean and simple; in fact, it took my niece just about 15 minutes to master.

The Tokbox site uses the Adobe Flash plug-in, which means you don’t have to install anything on your PC to use the software. To avoid having to go to multiple websites, you can shoot and share the video with your Twitter and Facebook friends directly from the website. You can also login to AOL Messenger, Google Talk, MSN Messenger and Yahoo using the Tokbox instant messenger, giving you a single screen to send and receive video emails. And if you want, you can video blog to Twitter, Facebook or MySpace all from the same page.

TokBox lets you invite your friends to use the site, but this is not necessary for them to watch your message. But they will have to register to send back a video reply. In case your friends are also online on TokBox, you can always do a video call.

TokBox even has some graphic templates in the greetings section that let you overlay your video with graphics to give it a greeting card feel.

On the flip side, the quality of the full-screen video playback is pretty bad. But that is a small price to pay for a brilliant free service like this.

So what are you waiting for, send me a video mail.
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The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday Jan 10, 2010 (Yes, 01/01/10)

Staying invincible - Big Geek Brings You a Double Whammy on the Internet Explorer

2010-01-24T09:09:00.006+05:30

Everybody knows that Internet Explorer is unsafe. But, trust me, though there are many good options, some corporations and governments still stick to Internet Explorer as their preferred browser and many applications do not work properly on any other. Also keeping in mind that IE is fully integrated into the Windows operating system and you just can't uninstall it. So, how do you make sure you are secured and have the latest updates to avoid a cyber attack?

Stop piracy
It is important to stick to genuine software. All of us want to run the prohibitively costly Adobe Photoshop to edit our pictures. But it is better to opt for freeware applications that let you do similar functions. The same is the case with operating systems. If you feel you do not want to spend on Windows, go ahead and give Linux a try. Or else, check out cheaper Starter Editions that offer limited functions but are good for home use. Anyway, make sure your OS is genuine and not pirated.

Antivirus
A good antivirus does not mean that you got it from your friend who bought a CD, it just means you paid for the antivirus or got one free from a great company like avg.com. With companies losing revenue to pirated software vendors, more and more companies are dropping prices. So it makes more sense to buy a paid version. Check with your friends and read some reviews if you can’t decide which antivirus is better. As we spend more time online and with the threats becoming more potent, it is advisable to get an antivirus with an inbuilt firewall to protect your computer from getting hijacked. While products like Bit Defender and Kaspersky are cheaper, high-end products like McAfee and Norton Antivirus will cost more. The choice is yours; just make sure you are buying a legal version.

Updates
Having a legal version of a software itself removes a lot of bugs, but it is also important to update your system regularly. Though most OS come with a built-in auto update utility, I have seen users disable this to save their bandwidth. If you want to disable the automatic update, it is suggested that you manually check for updates every fortnight. Update your OS every 15 days and your antivirus, antispyware and firewall everyday

Storage & file transfer
With the floppy drive era over, thumb drives, memory cards and Bluetooth file transfers have become the latest way to get a virus. In case you use memory cards or pen drives it is always suggested that you scan them immediately on connect. It might seem like a waste of time, but the first five minutes is when the virus enters the system. Try not to share thumb drives and memory cards. If your friend wants a file, email it to him.

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The above article appared in the Indian Express on Sunday 24th of January 2010. The Above video was a part of the news builiten on CNN IBN

Click@2010

2010-01-03T23:28:00.002+05:30

This promises to be an exciting year as far as technology is concerned. A look at what you can expect
3G in India
As the world moves towards 4G, let us hope India finally resolves the battle for 3G spectrum. We are all hassled by speed issues on our mobile phones, with the only good option now being the Tata Photon+ and Reliance NetConnect which manage about 1 megabit in the metros. It is about time we too got high-speed Internet on phones which will enable us to pull attachments as well as use value-added services and essential business apps with location specific data applications. Though 3G is unlikely to penetrate many sections of the Indian market, let us hope we still get the option this year.

Number portability
Most of us are unhappy with our service providers and are waiting for the day number portability will allow us to move on to another company with better services. Number portability will not only give you the liberty of choosing the right plan, but even the service provider that you feel suits your requirements. The move could open a Pandora’s box of problems for service providers — they will have a tough time retaining customers. Expect a price and features war across companies.

Multi-core processors
Users have always been a bit apprehensive about the processing power of netbook — whether the Atom has the speed to handle your daily usage compared to a Core2Duo? However, this cannot be answered without a long technical discussion. For those of us who are looking at power higher than an Atom processor, the new multi-core processors like the Atom dual core from Intel are likely to change that forever. But will we be calling them netbooks anymore?

Chrome OS
Till recently, Linux, Mac OS X and Windows were the only options on which to run your PC. But that was till Google announced its Google Chrome OS. For some people Chrome will be the best available option, but with Jolicloud already available for download, a lot of companies will move to cloud services. On it, your PC will no longer crash, get attacked by a virus or need to be backed up. As you live your life online, both paid and free services will ensure that your computer is actually a computer, and not your master. Chrome will run on both X86 as well as ARM chips and Google is working with multiple manufacturers to bring a number of netbooks to the international markets next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. All web-based applications will automatically work and application developers can develop and write new applications using their favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

Boxee Hardware
The biggest news last month was the partnership between Boxee and D-link to manufacture Boxee hardware. This January, when the hardware becomes available, it is expected to change the way we look at television, enabling the idiot box to become an interactive social media platform. Though a lot of plug-in mediaplayers are available now, the simplistic interface of Boxee, with the integrated social media applications, will transform television into an interactive family entertainment centre.

Personal TV
REMEMBER the hugely popular Casio personal TVs that could catch Doordarshan signals. With newer technologies and full-fledged 3G on the anvil, personal TVs like FLO are sure to make it to the gadget wishlist, making sure your PMP now has live TV along with stored media feeds — so that you could watch what you want, where and when you want it.

Que e-reader
Sadly, the Nook and Kindle, which revolutionised the way we saw books, were designed for retail consumers. The needs of the business market to view presentations, graphics, Word documents and spreadsheets on a touch interface with e-ink capabilities were forgotten. On January 7, Plastic Logic will launch its Que ebook reader, the first for the business e-reader. With a 8.5x11” layout, 1/3” thickness and looks similar to an A4 sheet, the Que will have Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. Plastic Logic has also tied up with Barnes and Nobles to have their library of free and paid books available on the Que, but you can always download and read your own documents.

Dual-screen laptops
Those of us who have learnt that multiple monitors mean higher productivity miss the advantage of having an additional monitor when working on laptops. But various vendors are expected to release laptops with dual screens this year, making more ‘real estate’ available for high-end professional designers, filmmakers, programmers and just about anyone who feels the second screen is a much needed accessory even on the move.

Fujitsu LifeBook UH 900
While Fujitsu have already unveiled their LifeBook U1010UMPC for a fat Rs 85,000, what remains to be seen is when the recently launched LifeBook UH 900 makes its presence felt here. Along with a super sleek design, the UH900 boasts of full-fledged Windows 7 capability, a multi-touch support and a host of eye-popping features. The unit weighs less than 500 g and features a 62 GB solid-state drive storage, a sunlight readable WXGA display, an Intel Atom Z530 processor, ThinkFree Mobile software for easy editing of slides and word documents.

Asus T91MT NetBook
From the guys who gave the world its first small PC comes the Eee PC T91MT, a netbook that features multi-touch gestures and a Windows 7 platform. While the netbook, thanks to its slate form, is a wonderfully easy to use e-book reader, in the normal version it will be handy enough to be used for everyday presentations. The 8.9-inch screen features a highly responsive handwriting recognition touch screen which will also support tap, drag, pinch and flick. The T91MT also has a solid 32 GB hard drive and is compatible with the 500 GB Asus Web Storage programme. The best part is the swivel screen that can accommodate multiple users at the same time and the bundle of touch sensitive software that can be used to the user's satisfaction.

Asus AiGuru SV1T
Skype has given us a lot of liberty, the liberating ability to conference with family and friends across the globe. The Skype phone enables us to run the application anywhere in a Wi-Fi zone. But using Skype on iPod, iPhone or Skype phone means you can talk on it like on a regular phone. The Asus AiGuru SV1T available which is expected to hit Indian shores this month will enable video calls to any Skype-enabled PC or phone. Soon, at the touch of a button, you could have a virtual dinner with your family, wherever they are.

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The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday, Jan 03, 2010. It was co-authored with Rohan Swamy and Shawan Sen

2009: When the PC changed

2009-12-21T09:19:00.003+05:30

The new Mac OSX snow leopard and windows 7, along with the chrome OS, are sure to change the way all of us use computers
Wow, what a year! When you look back at 2009, you will see how technology has moved towards a world that is free from the clutches of old corporations, letting you do things the way you like to. 2009 was a year in which the alternatives became the mainstream.

There are thousands of things that come out each year, but two major releases and a major announcement this year changed the PC world like never before. Apple announced its OSX Snow Leopard while Microsoft moved on to Windows 7, by far the best Windows yet, optimised for speed even on the slowest of Atom machines and full of eye candy. The Mac OSX Snow Leopard took all Apple machines to the world of 64bit. Though there were teething troubles, this was truly a move that allowed use of the latest dual core and quad core processors. Windows, though still available as both 32bit and 64bit, also became a bit cheaper making its 7 the fastest adopted Microsoft OS till date. Though there is always a debate about who stole what from whom, both the operating systems are without doubt friendlier to the user. Meanwhile, Google jumped into the OS war announcing that its Chrome would be available in 2010.

Along with the operating systems, 2009 also changed the way we looked at PCs. People finally came to terms with the fact that a fast processor was not always what they wanted, but something that worked. Atom laptops, popular as netbooks, took over and everyone wanted to own one. While Lenovo and HP came out with stylish but slightly pricey Atom netbooks, Samsung followed with multiple colours and Dell with its own Mini.

Atoms made big sense; you could buy a laptop for as little as Rs 18,000 and get up to six hours of battery life with screens that started off at six inches. But that was before the 10 and 12 inch models started appearing on the scene, bridging the gap between notebooks and netbooks. Sony came up with the icing on the cake, its ViaoX, the thinnest and lightest laptop I have ever come across, though at a fat price of Rs 65,000

Finally, Amazon launched the international edition of their bestseller Kindle. However, Kindle still ships from the US and you still have to buy it using a credit card on the website and not at a store. But the launch definitely made the world flatter, with all serious technology players looking at India as a big market.

I think the most looked forward launch of this year was the Blackberry 8520 which you could buy own for under Rs 15,000 — you no longer had to get a home loan to buy a Blackberry. With service providers also making it cheaper by offering e-mail only plans at Rs 250 a month, more and more people were seen sporting Blackberries.
The other big thing was the aluminium body laptops. The war was started by Apple, before HP, ViewSonic and Dell followed suit with their own aluminium avatars. However, only Dell thought of a lighted keyboard while others are still wondering how they can manage the increased heat of the light under the keyboard.

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The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 20th December 2009
Now, to see what 2010 holds for us.

The one-stop media centre - Review Boxee

2009-12-13T11:00:00.004+05:30

Boxee plays all formats of video, audio and pictures. It can also play DVDs from DVD Rom drive, download info from IMDb on the fly

There are signs that things with your TV will improve. Despite over 200 channels streaming high-quality pictures using a DTH or an IPTV feed, you get to see what the broadcasters want to show. So the prime time slot is hijacked by all the saas-bahus of the world, leaving those who hate soaps with very few options. Broadband did come to the rescue, since they could stream videos from YouTube, download electronic content likes songs and movies and watch the content on demand. The iTunes store from the Apple even streams live television shows. So, if you missed Bart and Homer having fun in The Simpsons, you could always have it streamed on your computer. But this had a problem: the small computer screen. And, all said and done, most computers are not as user friendly as the TV. Though the front row on the Apple computers and the Windows Media Centre on the Windows PC made browsing media slightly better, a company called Boxee is improving things.

So, what is Boxee? As per Wikipedia, it’s a cross platform (it runs on a Windows, Mac and Linux) media centre with a 10-foot user interface— it’s designed to be run on a TV with a TV Remote—but built in social networking features.

Though Boxee is still in beta (it actually went beta on December 7), it is making heads turn, especially for features such as automatic album art download. It will run through your local library and download the album art automatically, so that you can see all what you have— right from the song, the movie it’s in, its singers, lyrics, reviews and the film’s trailer, depending upon their availability on the Internet.

Friend recommends a movie on a social networking site, and the movie is paid for, the Boxee will download and stream its trailer and other people’s review, so that you can figure out if the movie is worth your time. If it is available for free on the Internet, the Boxee will straight away stream the content for you. So, you need to no longer go hunting for that funniest video on YouTube, which your friends were talking about at the party. Just Google it and Boxee will play it for you.

The best part about Boxee is that it plays all formats of video, audio and pictures. It is your one-stop media centre. It can also play DVDs from your DVD Rom drive, download information from IMDb on the fly. It also has a built-in karaoke and many other audio visualisations (which I believe are a fancy only for the first few days). Besides, it can make multiple screensavers with your photo collection or the pictures you like on sites like Flickr, and your favourite music. And if you were always impressed with the Ken Burns (pan-and-scan) effect of photo shows, which only your friends with Macs could do, well Boxee does that also for you!

But there are limitations too. Boxee can’t play DRM (digital rights management) protected content. So, if you have bought music from the iTunes store, or maybe ebooks you bought from Audible.com, the boxee will not be able to handle these for you.
However, since Boxee is based on opensource software, it is only time before these hassles get sorted out.

This week, Boxee signed up with DLINK to make its hardware (expected to be available at $200 in 2010). So, if you are thinking of buying the next media centre for your home, wait and see how the market evolves in the next few months. And maybe you and I will get a chance to change our Idiot Box into something more fun, more useful and more interactive.
Just in case you don’t want to miss out on the action till the hardware is available, and are fine with using a 2-foot user interface (computer), go to www.boxee.tv and download the software and start enjoying media like you never did before.

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The above review appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 13th December 2009

The ebook challenger - Preview of the Nook (B&N Ebook Reader)

2009-12-09T01:57:00.003+05:30

Both Nook and Kindle have 2GB built-in memories, but in the former you can plug in an SD Card with ebooks in it
Kindle changed the way the world looks at books some years back. Since the launch of its international edition earlier this year, I have noticed a lot of Kindle in India, especially at our airports. Though the Sony Reader and iLiad have been around longer, getting ebooks that work on them have been a bit of a pain. Amazon answered the problem by integrating Kindle with their Whispernet network, which is now available in India. But since the charges are yet unclear and 3G still looks like a distant dream, the Barnes & Nobles Nook makes more sense for us.

So, what sets it apart from the Kindle?
Personally, I love anything with a QWERTY keyboard, so the first downer on the Nook was the absence of one. But that was till I looked closely and saw that the Nook actually has two LCDs — a touch sensitive colour LCD at the bottom and a monochrome e-ink display on top. The e-ink makes it easier to read the ebook and reduces strain on the eyes, while the 3.5” touchscreen display at the bottom adds some serious style. You can flip through the book covers in colour and go to the keyboard mode to search for a book or text.

But the second LCD also adds weight to the Nook, making it about 28 gm heavier, at 317 gm, than the same-sized Kindle. It is also a bit thicker due to the SD Card and built-in wireless adapter. Though the Kindle has a 9.7” variant for the American market, the Nook is available only with the 6” display. The built-in Wi-Fi makes it easier for you to download books on the Nook and this makes more sense till we get 3G in India.

Nook has some other unique features. It has Android as its Operating System, which means users will be able to add more applications down the road. Both Nook and Kindle have 2GB built-in memories, but in the former you can plug in an SD Card with ebooks in it.

The Nook is available in four replaceable back colours, unlike the all-white Kindle. My personal experience with white coloured gadgets is that they get dirty very fast, especially in India with our oily hands, the dust and grime. The replaceable covers let you add an identity of your own to the Nook. It also comes with a free software for your iPhone, Blackberry, PC and the Mac OS, thus letting you read the same book from the same page you left it at on any of these devices.

The problem with ebook readers was that you could buy books but could not lend them to a friend. The Nook lets you e-lend the book to a friend who can read it on any device.

Kindle supports Word documents, though not many people used it due to the costs involved, but it is surprising that even with the SD Card Nook has disabled this function. The lack of a text-to-speech (TTS) engine is also surprising, after all, the Android adds great processing capabilities and the TTS would taken the Nook to a larger audience. The company claims the Nook has about 10 days of battery time on it, but that will have to be verified.

The Nook ships with a number of accessories, including a reading light, covers that help you personalise your Nook, a travel adapter kit, device backs and protective frames and a matt film for the screen.
So, if you like reading, it’s time you went and checked out an ebook reader, and trust me it will change the way you looked at books. The Nook costs $299.

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The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 6th December 2009

Let's start with Chrome - Preview Google Chrome OS

2009-11-29T18:26:00.002+05:30

Google, after changing the way we look at the Internet, is now working on revolutionising how we see computers. As cloud computing and ‘computing as a service’ set the tech world abuzz, everyone is thinking of moving everything online. Gone are the days where your PC needed an Operating System with a multitude of applications, as most of what you need is already available for use online.
With Microsoft and Apple, which dominate the world of computing, charging a bomb for their software, Google is on a mission to change this by reworking Linux and making the Web truly free and friendly. It was towards this end that Google announced its Chrome OS on April 19. Though Google developers think their OS is at least a year away from a production launch, they have already given us a preview to show how they want to change computing.

NetPC manufacturers like Nivio already have machines that boot on the cloud, but Chrome is different for it boots on the local hard disk and, unlike Nivio, can work even if you are not connected to the Internet. Google’s Android OS, written for a phone with a touchscreen, is already available. But it is not that easy to use on a laptop. The Chrome, on the other hand, is meant for use on a PC.

Like its already popular browser, the Chrome is also designed with a minimalist approach and as a result boots up in seven seconds flat, compared to 45 seconds on the fastest machines today. But the real advantage of the Chrome OS is that you can stop bothering about managing programs, applications, lost files and settings. Your settings are saved online, files on the cloud and programs are available on demand. So, it won't be that easy to install a program and screw up your OS.
But the question everyone is asking is what happens to security when everything is on the cloud. While I don’t see a lot of corporates move to the cloud for now, on a personal level, I don’t mind if my spreadsheets or Word documents are stored online. However, I do mind that someone will be able to invade my privacy and get a hold of my data. So getting the right passphrase—remember passwords are passe now—is the key to protection.

Like its already popular browser, the Chrome is also designed with a minimalist approach and as a result boots up in seven seconds flat, compared to 45 seconds on the fastest machines today. But the real advantage of the Chrome OS is that you can stop bothering about managing programs, applications, lost files and settings. Your settings are saved online, files on the cloud and programs are available on demand. So, it won't be that easy to install a program and screw up your OS.
But the question everyone is asking is what happens to security when everything is on the cloud. While I don’t see a lot of corporates move to the cloud for now, on a personal level, I don’t mind if my spreadsheets or Word documents are stored online. However, I do mind that someone will be able to invade my privacy and get a hold of my data. So getting the right passphrase—remember passwords are passe now—is the key to protection.

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The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday November 29th, 2009

Lessons Not Learnt from 26/11 - How to Hack a wireless

2009-11-23T13:24:00.000+05:30

Security is the utmost importance for all our companies. Recently CNN IBN Asked me to become their Citizen Journalist and show easy it is to hack into a wireless network. Attached is the URL to the Show that was aired on CNN IBN on Saturday 21/November. Do let me know your comments.

Smart print - Review HP Photosmart / Touchsmart C309G

2009-11-22T09:25:00.003+05:30

If you are printing at home, you can use the photosmart to crop photos on the printer, apply colour effects, adjust the brightness, make a photosheet, or an album
Over the past two weeks I have been playing with a new printer from HP called the C309G Photosmart, launched in India a few days back. When the printer came in from HP for testing I was stuck with a lot of things and had to ask my wife to pitch in and do an end-user review, and this is what I heard: “Can we buy this? This is the best printer I have seen in terms of setup, usage and speed of print.”

Soon, I got to test it and this is what I think. The printer comes with built-in wireless and Bluetooth and it is really simple to set up. The touchscreen on the printer, where you type in your wireless password, is easy to use, but sadly it is an A-Z screen and not QWERTY. The large 3.5” screen is impressive, the touch functionality is great and the overall look, feel and the build quality even better.

The printer set up in about five minutes and the driver installation on the Windows PC was a breeze. I could not set up the printer on my Mac directly, but I know I can do this if I download some drivers.

If you are printing at home, you can crop the photos on the printer, apply colour effects, adjust the brightness, make a photosheet, or an album. It also prints office stationery directly using templates. There is even a free application for iPod Touch and the iPhone, so that you can directly print pictures from these devices. The printer also features smart web printing which realigns the webpages so that they printed properly and on the minimum number of sheets.

The Photosmart has an in-built Snapfish interface so that you can upload pictures directly to the website and get them printed, provided you have a Snapfish account.
The printer uses five cartridges, two blacks, a cyan, magenta and yellow. The first black cartridge is used for your documents, and the second for your photos so that they never end up with a bleached look.

The scanner and copier are fast and you can directly scan to the computer or to a USB memory stick or memory card—a feature becoming common on new HP printers. It can scan up to 4800x4800 dpi and use an enhanced scan resolution of up to 19,200 dpi. It can by default do duplex / two-sided prints and handle about 2,500 pages per month. The input tray takes approximately 125 sheets, and the output tray can hold up to 50 sheets before you have to pick them up. The printer has a Pictbridge / USB interface, and can read memory stick as well as SD and XD cards.

Though some home users might be put off by the Rs 13,350 price tag, I think the price is justified if you look at the built of the product as well as the effortless printing that it ensures.

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The above review was printed in the Indian Express, on Sunday 22nd of November 2009

Twin peaks - Review of the Sony Ericsson Aino and Satio

2009-11-16T15:53:00.003+05:30

Phones these days have large screens with high resolution cameras and can double up as great multimedia devices too. But there seems to be no end in sight to the mad race for improvement. An ideal example is the latest high-end offerings from Sony Ericsson, the Satio and Aino.

The Satio is the more expensive of the two at Rs 35,950. The first thing that strikes you when you hold the phone is the 3.5” screen which is designed for a 16:9 format and is ultra bright. The 640x360 pixels make the display truly amazing. While the touch user interface did not appeal to me much, its response to touch was really good.

It features a 12.1 megapixel camera with a smile shutter, which means it will only take a picture when the subject is smiling — don’t ask me how you will click a frowning man. The camera also has touch focus and Xenon flash. It comes with Geotagging and face detection, and also has red-eye reduction, Sony’s very own Best Pic application and video blogging. The video light makes shooting videos in dimly lit areas error-free. It also supports 16x digital zoom.
The Satio runs on a Symbian OS and you can get a lot of other applications to use along with the built-in video calling, 3D games, FM radio and video streaming applications. Despite all the hardware, the Satio weighs just 126 grams. The phone, however, is available only in black and comes with a 128 MB in-built memory.

Still, the Aino, with its pristine white finish and the bundled Bluetooth stereo headset, appealed to me more. Interestingly, the phone and the headset are charged using a single docking station. Since the Bluetooth device is attached using a 3.5-mm jack, you can just pull it out and plug in your favourite headphones if you like it that way. The stereo sound and the clear bass made the sound quality really impressive.
But what appealed to me more than the Rs 28,950 price tag was the slide-up keyboard. The 3” screen seemed tiny in front of the Satio, but Sony claims it is scratchproof — I could not test this.

The Aino also has built-in Wi-Fi that allows it to synchronise media with Play Station 3 or a PC. The Aino also gives you remote play access to videos, television shows and photos at the press of a button.
And to top it all, it features an 8 megapixel camera with 16x digital zoom. The Aino, too, features face detection, geotagging as well as the send-to-web feature, which you can use over 3G or Wi-Fi.

But the Aino, at 134 gram, weighs more than its costlier cousin. The phone has an in-bulit memory of 55MB and comes with an 8 GB Micro SD Card included with the phone. Thankfully, Sony has finally given up its proprietary memory stick pro to switch over to Micro SD. While the phone has a GSM talktime of roughly 13 hours, the battery can last up to 36 hours if it is used purely to play music. Standard features such as Video calling (3G only), Exchange Active Sync, Instant Messaging, Auto rotate, FM radio with RDS and YouTube make this phone a real show-stopper.

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The above review appeared in the Indian Express on Sunday, 15th November 2009

WINDOWS 7 making the difference

2009-11-03T07:36:00.007+05:30

Microsoft has rectified Vista’s mistakes, but XP still seems to be faster
I adore Linux, I love the Mac, but I live with Windows. And I have to make it clear that we just can’t compare the three, not just because Windows 7 is essentially an overhaul, Microsoft’s attempt to correct the mistakes it made with Windows Vista. How the latest edition will fare over time is for us to see, but for now the expensive, shiny new Windows 7, looks very interesting. So what is it that makes the 7 different?

SPEED
The first thing you notice when you install Windows 7 on the same machine as a Vista is that it is fast. Though I thought it was not as fast as Windows XP, the start up and shut down is still much faster than the other editions of Windows.

SECURITY
Every new Windows release brings with it the threat of virus and bug attacks. But things are looking up with the 7. Though you would still need to separately install an antivirus, 7 won’t bother you with stupid non-critical alerts. It just queues up the alerts at the side of the task bar, so that you can check it out at leisure.

NETWORKING
The biggest challenge for home users earlier was to setup secure networking amongst machines, to share files, digital media and information. Though Microsoft had a wizard to set this up, Windows 7 makes life easier. It even lets Xbox users stream video and songs to the TV using the network at home; just make sure the network is well done, or else you will get shaky images.

MULTIPLE WINDOWS
Most of us like to keep scores of applications open and just blame one thing or the other when the machine fails under the load. But we still need our social networks, our email, our office applications and a few other things open all the time. On 7, by pressing the show desktop button at the right hand bottom corner of the task bar you see outlines of all open windows. Even better, if you hover over the icon of one of the applications on the task bar, it pops up real-time thumbnails of the windows and applications that are open at the time, thus helping you choose the right application and the right window to go to.

AERO SNAP
Screens 17" and above mean more windows, even parallel ones. Aero Snap lets you drag the window to a corner and show how it would look like parallel to the window you want. If you like it, leave the window there and you are done. Convenient if you want to copy things from the Net or another window.

AERO SHAKE
I just cant understand why no one else thought of this before. While using 7, if you think everything behind the application you are working on is clutter, just hold the title bar of the current window and give it a shake, all other windows will be minimised. However, shaking the window with a trackpad on a laptop would be tough.

SEARCH
The Start, or the Windows, button now has a built-in search engine. So the bar where you would type a program name and get the list of programs on the PC will now also find the list of documents and images. However, I would personally like to stick to the Google Desktop search.

COMPATIBILITY
Most of the hardware devices just worked out of the box and I don’t think there are going to be a lot of driver issues. Though I have heard of complaints already going to call centres, Microsoft will settles these issues soon. If it worked with Vista, it will work with Windows 7.

LIVE ESSENTIALS
Microsoft has moved Windows Mail and Windows Movie Maker out of the standard install. If you want Windows Mail, Movie Maker and the Live Photo Gallery, you need to download something called the Windows Live Essentials Pack. It is another thing that if it was essential, they should have put it in the CD in the first place.
Microsoft has worked very hard on 7, especially with a rather long Beta test. They also took user inputs seriously to make the Windows 7 look all shiny and nice.

But, will I move from Mac to Windows 7? No. Will I move from Windows Vista to Windows 7? Yes. Will I move my Windows XP Machine? No. I still feel the old Windows XP is much more reliable if you don’t need eye candy.
So is it the best Windows ever? Well, let’s leave that to time.

HOW TO UPGRADE?
WINDOWS 7 is available in six editions with the entry level Windows 7 Home Basic priced at Rs 5,899. There are also Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate available. However, the cheapest option will be the Windows 7 Starter which has not yet been priced. Surprisingly, you can’t buy Windows 7 online. The company has also not clarified how much existing Vista users, for instance, will have to pay for an upgrade. For those of you wondering, if you should do an upgrade or just do a clean install, I would suggest the latter. Backup all your data and install it fresh, that way the machines work faster.

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The above review appeared in the Indian Express, Issue Dated 1st November, 2009

Quickfix Art

2009-11-03T07:27:00.004+05:30

The Internet is making it easier for all of us to try our hands at the arts, even create some “masterpieces” without spending an additional penny. This week I look at three websites, one that lets you create your own music without you having to learn anything and two others that help you create beautiful art, without having to pick up a brush.

Tone Matrix
Tone matrix (http://bit.ly/ie-music ) uses a simple Sinewave synthesiser triggered by a 16-step sequencer. Each trigger step causes a tone to be generated using a wave map, the tones in sequence sound like music. To generate music, you start off with a blank canvas which has a 16x16 grid. The click of a mouse turns on the component in the grid and another click turns it off. Click any one and you start hearing a single tone, click the second one and you have two tones. If you move up on the Y axis, you have a higher tone, moving down gives you a scaled down tone. The X axis movement does not change the tonal range, so in case you want two beeps of the same range, you switch on two lights on the X axis. Two lights in the same Y column will produce a chord like affect, which is similar to striking multiple notes at the same time. Trust me, making music on Tone Matrix is addictive. I found it interesting to write the characters of my name and generating music from them.
If you want to take it to the next step, or, as the author of the website says, make the music a lot more spicier, try your hand at the Audio Tool (hobnox.com/audiotool) and play around with beat boxes, baselines, splitters, delays, gates and compressors. Tone Matrix uses a pentatonic scale; don’t get into what it means, but what it will ensure that whatever you generate will sound good. I know this will sound like a toy to some of you, but try it on a day you are down and tired, and it will certainly perk up your energy levels.

Artpad & Strip Generator

Artpad (artpad.art.com) is very similar to Microsoft Paint, but has better brushes, a paint throwing bucket, a tex tool and opacity control.
You can also frame your paintings, and best of all you can playback your actions and see the “master painter” at work. If you think your work is worth sharing, the site allows you to directly send an email to a friend to view your masterpiece. You can also hang your painting in the websites public art gallery.

Strip Generator (stripgenerator.com) on the other hand uses comic set characters and bubbles, to let you make your own comic strip. So if you thought you had brilliant ideas on making a comic strip but couldn’t draw even a smiley, try your hand at the Strip Generator. Do play with the character generator—everyone ‘loved’ the Dracula I created— remember a few dialogues from an old Hindi movie and see your story come to life.
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The above article appeared in the Indian Express, issue dated Sunday 25th October, 2009

Unleashing the Snow Leopard

2009-11-03T07:13:00.006+05:30

How do you make something that is good better? Well, you can ask Apple, for they have made this a habit. So it was no surprise when Steve Jobs and his bunch of innovators once again changed the landscape of Operating Systems with their latest Snow Leopard Apple OS X 10.6. Though a minor version upgrade that costs a lot—Rs 1,800 for the single-user pack and Rs 2,900 for the five-PC family pack—compared to Windows it is a small price to pay for great features.

To start with, Apple has managed to shrink the total installed size of the operating system by 6GB, which makes it not only smaller but also more efficient. Not a big deal for regular users, but this has made other software manufacturers think in terms of reducing their footprint.

However, the single biggest add-on is the 64bit compatibility. The earlier version of OSX was not compatible and thus unable to optimally use modern hardware. Native 64 bit compatibility assures that all processor cores can be used simultaneously ensuring better performance. It also allows for bigger RAM, 32GB instead of 4—you will still need to see if your hardware can support it though.

Apple applications like Safari, iChat, iCal and Mail are now 64bit, making everything from shutdown to backups faster. The new Apple Mail client, Calendar and Address Book can now work directly with Microsoft Exchange without installing Outlook. The 64bit has also made the new Safari 4 on Snow Leopard the fastest browser out there.

Apple has also added GCD (Grand Central Dispatch) for better multi-core computing along with new graphic engines and OpenCL technology to accelerate graphic cards faster. These tweaks are making all the difference and letting users like me use Mac in a better way. And, there is more:

QuickTime X: Remember the not-so-fancy QuickTime player? Well, the QuickTime X has more features and an uncluttered look that makes for a great movie-viewing experience. Quick Trimming lets you cut video, frame by frame, in a snap. You can shoot your videocasts and upload directly to YouTube. This is a great step forward, allowing all Mac users to start making online videos with the built-in webcam.

Preview: Selecting text from a PDF document with more than one column was always a challenge. However, the new Preview manages this with ease using artificial intelligence, and letting you select just the column or the page as you want it. The contact sheet mode lets users see all pages laid out as thumbnails, like the slide review mode in presentation software. Moreover, Preview can now directly import from your scanner without launching separate software.

Dock Expose: Multi-tasking and multi-window capabilities have resulted in a lot of clutter on the virtual desktop. There was always ALT+TAB, but it was still difficult to switch windows between applications. Expose, incorporated in the Dock, let you see all open windows and choose the one you want to go to with a single keystroke. It also displays open windows in a grid, letting you arrange them alphabetically or by application. For instance, if you are working on your mail application with the Inbox, a compose window and a couple of web pages and documents open, Expose lets you drag and drop and open the window you want to go to.

Universal Access: Since 2005, Mac has included the Voice Over software that reads out whatever is on the screen. Though a lot of Mac users were not very happy with the Universal Access (access for differently-abled people), the Snow Leopard has added Braille support, voice read out and voice-based web browsing.
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The above article was printed in the Indian Express, Issue dated Sunday, October 18th, 2009

Annother Android - Preview Galaxy i7500 Samsung

2009-10-11T09:24:00.004+05:30

The Google phone is now a reality. Well, it’s not that I am waking up late; I just mean more and more phones are now adopting Google’s Android operating system. After HTC started the trend by ditching the Windows Mobile, it is now Samsung’s turn with its latest Galaxy i7500. Though available in India only on the Tata Docomo network for now, the i7500 gives a glimpse of what smart phones can be and will be.

At 11.9mm thick, featuring a 3.2” HVGA (320 x 480) screen with 16 million colours and an AMOLED based display, the Galaxy i7500 looks “uber cool”. The screen is bright, vivid and has brilliant colours. I actually loved playing with it in a dark room.

A large D pad replaces the track ball seen on the HTC Magic. On the front, there are five buttons other than the OK key and the D pad. The End and Receive buttons have a Home key, a Return key and a left Menu button. In fact, I did not like the layout, especially when comparing it to the HTC Magic.
The phone’s plastic finish is nice, but the fingerprint magnet surface tends to be a bit irritating as you keep cleaning it all day long. But thankfully, this Samsung features a 3.5-mm phone jack built into the top. But I did not understand the logic of placing the USB Port right next to it.

On the side are the camera button and a screen lock button seen on other Samsung touchphones. On the back is the 5 megapixel camera and flash.

The interface is the same as the HTC Magic, but I felt the Samsung was much more responsive to touch than the former. Standard Google services such as Google Maps, Gmail, Street View (not usable in India as yet), and the GPS-based Google Latitude, which let’s you know where you are and your friends are, come in-built.

The phone is Quad Band and has WiFi built-in so you can log into a network at home or office till 3G becomes available.

The 8GB internal memory is a welcome breeze and you will need it with the 5 megapixel camera and all that music that most of us carry around these days. The MicroSD Card slot can take cards up to 32 GB.

Overall, the i7500 is an impressive phone. However, if you were to compare this to the HTC Magic, which was available only on Airtel till a few months back, I would personally wait for prices to fall. If I wanted to spend Rs 30,000 on a phone I would still opt for the iPhone, which to a certain degree is more friendly when it comes to the touch and feel interface.

The Galaxy i7500 is priced at Rs 28,990, but available only through Tata Docomo for now.
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The above preview appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 11th October 2009

Wireless TV - Review Sony Bravia ZX1

2009-10-10T02:20:00.003+05:30

I love the way this TV looks, and would seriously consider it for a wire-free home. If only they could power it wirelessly as well
40 inches | 9.9 mm thick | 15 kg |1920 x 1080 pixel HD display
LCD TV manufacturers have slimmed down the TV. Ten years ago, no one could think that TVs would be this thin. The next most uncomfortable issue with televisions today is the mess of wires and cables that they have to be surrounded with. These are the wires that connect the TV to DVD players, video game consoles and set-top boxes. Sony has now launched the Bravia ZX1 to disentangle just that mess.

This 40 inch TV is just 9.9 mm thick and weighs 15 kg. It needs no wires other than a power cable. It has Edge LED technology, Motionflow 100 Hz and Image Blur reduction. It has full HD display resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, two integrated speakers and a woofer that deliver 20 watt of power. Its Wireless HD feature allows the user to utilise the media library located anywhere in the house, via the bundled HD media receiver. The devices are connected to the HD media receiver through wires and the TV receives input signals from the media receiver. The connectivity of the Bravia ZX1 is distinguished with four independent HDMI inputs, a PC input, composite inputs, component inputs, USB connection and an RBG compatible Scart connector.

For More information see Sony website
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The above review was printed in the Open Magazine, Issue Dated 9th October to 16th October 2009

Review - Kodak Z915

2009-10-10T02:02:00.004+05:30

This is one great camera if you are looking for a compact with a high zoom and usability features. And no, the price is not its biggest draw.

Voice notes | video grab | panorama mode | burst mode | Rs 10,999

I am not sure what made me fall for it, the retro looks, the 10x optical zoom or the price—but when I held the Kodak Easyshare Z915 in my hands, I immediately thought, now this is a camera I want. But there was more to it. The 10x zoom and the retro looks were definitely the first pull. I loved the way the controls were laid out and the fact that the macro mode, flash settings and custom timer buttons were dedicated and on top of the camera with the zoom controls. The manual mode is very nice and usable (though you don’t get manual focus).

The video quality is limited to VGA (640 x 480) but it can shoot videos at 30 fps. It also supports QVGA format (320 x 240) at 30 fps, so that you can record videos in a small file.

I like the fact that Kodak gave a 3V DC adapter input on the side of the camera. This is good when you are using the camera directly to print pictures or using it connected to your PC to download pictures, etcetera.

The camera ships in three colours: red, blue and black; has a 10 megapixel sensor (maximum print size of 30 x 40 inch), takes alkaline AA batteries; and has an additional 5x digital zoom that boosts the camera to 50x zoom (though I won’t use the digital zoom). Optical stabilisation is built into the camera. The 2.5 inch high-resolution screen is brilliantly bright in outdoor light, and the controls are neatly laid out. I love Kodak for the fact that they’ve stuck to SD cards for this camera.

The Z915 supports ISO settings from 100 to 1600 (though higher settings were very grainy, but when you are shooting in dark places these tend to be handy). Weighing in at a cool 220 gram, this is one great camera if you are looking for a compact with a high zoom and usability features.

To know more, see Kodak Website

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The above article was printed in the Open Magazine, Issue dated: 3rd October to 9th October 2009

For a better view of life - Review FARVIEW

2009-10-10T01:50:00.005+05:30

Though we care a lot for the differently-abled in modern society, we often tend to forget about them as far as cutting-edge technology is concerned. This is why a show called Techshare held in UK in the middle of September caught my attention. Though I could not make it there to see things live, products from a company called Optelec did make an impression, especially a device called Far View.

While Far View might look like a regular digital camera, you soon realise that there is more to it than meets the eye. Far View is like any digital camera with a macro mode for viewing things up close and a tele mode for looking at things at a distance, up to 42x magnification. The 300-gram gadget has a battery life of approximately four hours and easily fits into any pocket. But here is why this gadget is special:

Firstly, it acts as a magnifying glass for those with impaired vision. For instance, if someone wanted to read a book with small fonts, the Far View can be used with a desk stand over the document and magnify the words on its 4.3" screen. It even has four LED lights to light up the area if you are in a dark environment. The screen switch to standard colour, high-contrast black and white, (also white on black), high-contrast yellow on blue and blue on yellow depending on the user’s requirements. Though the buttons on all four sides can be annoying at first, they are designed to ensure that the users remember what is where.

There is also a big LED on top of the device to show when it is on. It can also be switched from the macro to tele mode in one move. The tele view allows users to read things that are on display at a distance, like a blackboard in the classroom, or a display board at an airport.
The Far View can also be used to record information, be it a visiting card or an important notice. It is also helpful for those who find it difficult to write down everything on the board during a class.

The camera is positioned in the centre and the snapshot functionality allows users to capture close or distant objects, complete documents and multiple pages of a book or magazine, and then read through them later on the large screen with absolute clarity. Though the internal memory is designed for only 100 images, it can be extended using a memory card. The device also has a USB port for connecting it to a PC or a larger external monitor.

During my research I found that Optelec has a dealer in Mumbai called Barrier Break.
The Far View can be purchased for US$ 1,495 in the US; the special pricing for India is still not available.

For More information, please see Opeltec's Website

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The above review was printed in the Indian Express, Issue dated 4th of October 2009

Brand conscious - Review of the New Sony Vaio NW 13G

2009-09-27T09:19:00.002+05:30

The Sony Vaio is for many an aspirational brand, something they dream of buying someday. But for some time, some people also associated some risk with the brand as they were not sure about the kind of service they would get for the money they were paying. All that is passé, as Sony has not only made their laptops more affordable, but also revamped their service side, making Vaio the brand to buy if you are looking for a machine that carries a luxury tag and gives value for money. And nothing epitomises this effort better than the new Sony Vaio NW 13G.

The new texture, two-tone colour and clear touchpad make the NW 13G a stylish machine. It features a Pentium Mobile Processor, T4200 2GHz with 1 MB Cache, a 15.5” widescreen Clear Bright LCD and 2GB RAM that can be upgraded to 8GB. But the 15.5” felt under-powered on 2GB; I would have made it at least 3GB, anything more would be a waste as the Windows Vista 32Bit Home Edition in the machine won’t be able to use it. The best option would be to fit two 4GB RAMs and run the machine in dual channel mode.
The 15.5” screen only supports a maximum of 1366x768 pixels. It also has a webcam, sadly only .5 megapixel, good for online chats and video conferencing, but not if you want to click a self portrait. The battery time on the machine is touted at 3.5 hours and I was able to squeeze about three hours, a bit low for a machine weighing 2.7 kg. The battery time also depends on how much you use the optical drive and wireless and at what brightness you run the machine.

To cut the price, Sony has put in only a 160GB hard disk, which I think works well for home users. It also features a DVD-RW drive as standard, though the card reader reads just Sony memory. There is a shortcut key on the top of the keyboard to launch the web browser, so that you don’t have to move around to log on to Internet—but I couldn’t see the utility value of the key. There are, however, mute and display off buttons, both of which are very handy. It also has an HDMI output so that you can hook it to a large LCD or Plasma screen without searching for S-Video and audio cables.
However, at Rs 37,990, I will recommend this machine only if you wanted a Vaio real bad, if you fell in love with the looks of the machine or if you wanted something to power your large screen TV.

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The above review appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 27th September 2009

Megapixel War - Review Samsung Pixon 12

2009-09-26T08:52:00.003+05:30

When the first 5mp camera phones came out, we said that was the ultimate. The story repeated with the 8mp. Now, Samsung introduces its 12 megapixel Pixon 12
Quad band | video calling | Geotagging | 16 GB max
For Samsung purists, Pixon 12 is not a new phone, it’s the Pixon M8800 redone. Which means no Optical Zoom (I wonder why they haven’t got this fixed till now), but the good part is that the camera will now allow you to take videos at full 30 fps at a resolution of 720 x 480 pixels. The lens is a 28 mm wide-angle lens.

The screen is a large 3.2” Amoled screen with a 10,000:1 contrast ratio, so it’s good fun using this outdoors in the sun. The 480 x 800 pixel resolution on the screen allows sharp images. The overall feel of the Pixon is a bit chunky, but the 120 gm phone actually feels good to hold in your hand. There is a dedicated camera button. In addition, the Wide and Tele (zoom buttons) now have a ‘W’ and a ‘T’ printed on it, to make it feel more like a camera. The shutter switch allows a half press to do focus adjustment and then you can click a picture just like your digital camera.

The phone has a micro SD card slot on the outside. On the front, there are only two keys for end call and accept call, with a D pad in the centre. Sadly, Samsung has still not put a 3.5 mm jack on the phone and it needs a special adapter before you can plug in your standard jack earphones. The media card can be a maximum of 16 GB that will allow you to shoot a lot of pictures. I was unable to take a print of the image so can’t comment on the picture quality. The Pixon 12 also supports video calling (you will need 3G services for this).

The camera supports Geotagging, using the inbuilt GPS and has a 16x digital zoom, a dual power LED flash and an advanced shake reduction. The phone is a Quad Band phone and has a good speakerphone, with a 5.1 virtual channel surround sound technology. The camera can work without a Sim card (in offline mode). The Talk time rating is 4.5 hours.

I will not want to use this for a business phone—the browser, email client, RSS feed reader are rather unimpressive.

However, if you click a lot of pictures and don’t want to carry two devices, this is a good phone to buy.

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The above review was printed in the Open Magazine Issue dated 26th September to 2nd October 09

In tune with the times - Review of the iTunes 09

2009-09-20T18:06:00.002+05:30

Back in 1970, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak put together a company that was simply called Apple. The two dedicated their efforts in developing products and software which ensured the best technology experience for their customers. Last week, Jobs unveiled iTunes version 9, putting the competition many steps behind and showing them how music is meant to be enjoyed, stored and shared.

I remember the time Winamp was the only decent MP3 player around. But those were the early days. Soon, Widows Media Player started playing MP3 and other music formats; and Apple jumped in with iTunes. However, with the release of the iPod, iTunes not only expanded its reach, but also came to be accepted as the ultimate in music management. The version 9 is set to change this, again.
The new iTunes has a brilliant new feature called iTunes LP, but I will skip this as it is not available in India. Along with the better speed, improved software and syncing capabilities, it has two great new features-Home Sharing and Genius Mixes.

HOME SHARING

With our wired/networked homes housing more than one PC, gone are the days when we had to share files using pen drives or shared folders. There is nothing wrong in sticking to this option, but when you have to entire music libraries from one PC to another, Home Sharing breaks all barriers. iTunes 8 allowed you to play music from a remote PC which has shared its library with you. But with Home Sharing you can setup up to five iTunes libraries on your home network can see only the portion of these libraries that you don't have-common files are not displayed. You can also import content to your library and automatically add content into their library-however, the automatic feature is available only for iTunes store purchases, which, sadly, is not possible in India. The good part is that it also shares videos, audiobooks and even iPhone Apps.

GENIUS
With iTunes 8, Apple introduced Genius. But a lot of people did not understand the feature while the others simply could not use it. Genius creates playlists of your favourite music like a DJ after you select a single file that you like. It does this by using over 27 million music libraries that contain over 54 billion songs analysed by it. The new Genius Mix automatically generates up to 12 endless mixes of songs that go great together. A click on a popular song like Hotel California, and the Genius Mix made a library of 25 songs ranging from Mercedes Benz by Janis Joplin to You Are My Best Friend by Queen, thus saving you the irritation of having skip tracks to reach a song you want to hear.

Those of you who have an iPhone or an iPod Touch and have upgraded to OS3.1 can now organise Apps from iTunes to appear in the layout that you like. Photos are now synced by events and faces, and music is synced by artist and genre thus making it more flexible. But I have a feeling iTunes 9 syncs slower than iTunes 8, maybe because it is doing a lot more now.

Overall, I feel good using the new iTunes9. It will take time before you get used to it, but press the Genius button and you will see the power. Apple has not yet confirmed if they will launch music sales in India, till then we will just have to enjoy the brilliant music manager and music sharing software.

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The above review was printed in the Indian Express on Sunday 20th September 2009

Xtreamer @ Rs. 9990

2009-09-20T18:02:00.002+05:30

The Xtreamer launched recently in India at a cool price of Rs 9,990 is a versatile media streamer. Its features include a 500 GB hard disk, external hard disk port, 2 USB ports and both wired and wireless LAN. It supports HDMI, Optical and Composite outputs to hook it up to your television easily. It supports DTS audio, MPEG 1/2/4, FLV, and DivX. On the picture front, it supports JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF and HD JPEG, OGG, WMA, MP1/2/3, WMA Pro, and FLAC formats.The only downside of this media player and streamer is that it uses an external power adapter and not a direct 220 volt supply.
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The above review was printed in the Open Magazine Issue Dated 19th to 25th September 2009

HTC Hero @ Rs. 39,990

2009-09-20T18:00:00.002+05:30

Sporting a new customised user interface called HTC Sense, Airtel has launched the HTC Hero in India. With its 3.2-inch HVGA display, the HTC Hero is optimised for Web, multimedia and other content. Its broad features include a GPS, gravity-sensor, a 5 mega-pixel autofocus camera, expandable MicroSD memory, and dedicated search button. There are standard widgets for weather, a standard clock (very pretty), a Twitter client and others. The camera lets you geo-tag images, so you know where you took them.

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The above review was printed in the Open Magazine Issue Dated 19th to 25th September 2009

Open X the Multipurpose Knife @ Rs. 900

2009-09-20T17:57:00.002+05:30

I think the OpenX knife is one of the best utility knives I have in my office drawer. Whether it is opening a shrink-wrapped hard plastic box, or simply removing the seal of a medical pill container, to opening detergent packets or snack pouches and shrink wrapped drink packs, this single tool does it easily. And the neat way it opens packaging means you can save the packaging to keep things stored the way they were shipped. The retractable blade, and the blade hidden in the mouth make it safe around people, though I would still want to keep it away from children.
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The above review was printed in the Open Magazine Issue Dated 19th to 25th September 2009

iPod Rerun - The Nano 09 Now Shoots Video

2009-09-20T17:53:00.002+05:30

The iPod Nano can do things that no other portable media player (unless you think your cellphone is one) can. It’s time to bite the Apple.

The new iPod Nano brings video to your music with its built-in video camera. Moreover, for that extra kick it comes with a larger screen and polished aluminium finish in nine brilliant colours. If you were looking for a slim video camera that could shoot good quality video, and you thought your slimmest digital camera was still a tad big, then this Nano is a perfect fit. Small enough to fit into your shirt pocket, this Nano shoots video at an instant (though there is no short cut key, and you have to go through the menu). It can record video both in portrait mode and in landscape mode. The video shots are optimised for Facebook, YouTube and Mobile Me (Apple’s platform).

Fifteen fun effects allow you to record your video as if you were a Hollywood director. From Motion Blur, Sepia Tone, Mirror Image, Cyborg to Thermal, they are all there. The polished anodised aluminium finish in nine electrifying colours and a large 2.2” display score high in the envy quotient.

This iPod also supports FM playback, so you can tune into your favourite station. If you need a quick break, you can live pause the FM radio and resume from where you were after the break. The live pause is not the only great thing, this Nano allows you to rewind 15 minutes of listening time, so that you can listen to that song again. You can also tag songs that you are listening on the radio, and back home when you hook it up to your computer, it will bring up all the tagged songs so that you can buy them from the iTunes store (the feature works only in the US for now). The new iPod Nano has a voice recorder too.

To cap it, this iPod is also your personal trainer. Connect it to any Nike + iPod compatible cardio equipment, and it records your workout and charges your iPod while your music and video keep you pumping.

Apple iPod Nano is expected in the Indian market soon.
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The above review was printed in the Open Magazine Issue Dated 19th to 25th September 2009

Three clicks - Digital Cameras Under 6990

2009-09-20T17:41:00.006+05:30

Planning to buy a digital camera this diwali? here are three affordable options you can explore

The war of the megapixels is not going to end soon and there is every chance that you don’t want to be left behind. But at the end of the day, we all buy digital cameras to capture our moments of joy and share them with our friends. With more people gradually increasing their digital footprint and fewer opting to actually print their pictures, the 10 megapixel barrier is proving to be more than sufficient for home users—you can print a 30x40 inch picture with a file from a 10 mp camera. And, trust, me, just because your camera has a whole lot of pixels does not mean your pictures will be good. That will still depend on the person behind the viewfinder.
I have selected three cameras under Rs 7,000 for review this time. All three cameras have some features in common—all support AA pencil cell batteries, so that you don't have to carry a charger everywhere, and are approximately 10 megapixels, with 3X optical zoom. While the Samung has a 2.5” LCD screen, the Olympus and the Kodak both sport a 2.4” screen. All cameras also support face detection and have some kind of blur reduction.

Samsung ES15 (10.1 MP) @ Rs 6,530

Though Samsung is one of the least known brands when it comes to digital cameras, they have a great line-up supported by a large network of service centres. A 10.1 mp camera with a 2.5” LCD, the ES15 is ideal for beginners. The camera can also be used to record just voice (up to 10 hours), a useless feature if you ask me. However, you can add 10 second voice memos to still images, which will be handy if you are taking random pictures. It comes with 11 MB of Internal memory and can support up to 8 GB SDHC cards. The good part is that the camera can accept both SD as well as MMC Plus cards.

WHY I LIKE IT: Great service, good picture quality, very nice finishing.

Kodak C180 (10.2 mp) @ Rs 6,299

The best thing about this one is that it is YouTube compatible-- you just have to connect it to the Kodak Software to upload video directly to YouTube. The 2.4" screen is bright and nice, and the dedicated share button lets you automatically fire up the software on your PC the moment you have connected to trigger automatic upload of images. The camera has simple face detection and can record video of up to 80 minutes, if you have the memory capacity. There are no complex menus and hence the camera is very easy to use. The camera supports high-speed SDHC memory cards.

WHY I LIKE IT: Great brand, YouTube compatibility, simple menus

Olympus FE 25 (10 mp) @ Rs 5,995

This, like the Kodak, can take up to 115 frames on a pair of AA pencil cells. It also features a 19 MB internal memory, which acts like a reserve in case you run out of space on the memory card. The camera has 16 shooting modes and also allows users to create panoramas by stitching frames using the Olympus Master Software. On the flipside, the camera uses an x-D picture card which is not so easily available and is expensive. It, however, comes with a micro-SD Adapter. The camera goes a step further from standard face recognition by detecting up to 16 faces. Exposure Compensation Preview is a great option for those learning how to use the exposure to take better shots.

WHY I LIKE IT: EV preview, 16 face detection and 19MB internal memory.

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The Above review was printed in the Indian Express, on Sunday 13th September 09

Sony Bookshelf Stereo - CMT-EH25

2009-09-20T17:37:00.001+05:30

Expensive homes have made us fit quite a bit into smaller rooms, and the only stereos that I think make sense any more are the bookshelf variety. I came across the Sony CMT-EH25, and was amazed. It comes with a 5+5 watt (total 10 watt RMS) output, a direct playback function for USB thumbdrives (supporting MP3/WMA/AAC tracks), a top-loading CD player, a tape player and radio. The display is a one-line LCD. The remote control is small but tidy and easy to use. It supports CD/CDR/CDRW (no DVD) playback, and lacks Dolby Pro Logic.

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The above review appeared in The Open Magazine, Issue Dated 12th to 18th September 2009

Samsung Marine B2100

2009-09-20T17:34:00.002+05:30

Released globally in April 2009, the Marine is now available in India. Built to MIL-STD-810F US Military standards, it’s been tested shockproof for a 2 metre drop. It is also dust-proof. It features a talk time of 9.5 hours, an embedded flashlight, rugged body, 1.3 megapixel camera and a USB interface. It has a smallish screen (1.77 inch), which may seem bad, but then keeping all the benefits in mind, this is a passable option. Now only if it came with a solar charger, I would have bought this for myself.

Picture Credit: www.gsmarena.com
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The above review appeared in The Open Magazine, Issue Dated 12th to 18th September 2009

Zicom Personal Safety Alarm

2009-09-20T17:27:00.004+05:30

Zicom Personal Safety Alarm @ Rs. 545
You may not have enough time to react if someone tries to snatch your bag. The Personal Safety Alarm is a small gadget that you can tie to your bag and your wrist. If someone tries to pull the bag, the alarm lets out a loud noise. Its string is made of nylon and can easily be cut, hence it may not offer much security from someone pulling your bag. Alternatively, the ailing elderly can wear it around their neck and pull the string in case of an emergency.

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The Above review was printed in the Open Magazine, Issue Dated 12th to 18th September 09

IN CASE YOU DID NOT READ THE HINDUSTAN TIMES TODAY

2009-09-15T22:46:00.004+05:30

Though This statement of mine is not going to be favored well with all the Telecom Providers, but I thought I must share it with my blog readers and other twitter followers etc, who don't have access to either the Hindustan Times or don't read it. Here are the snapshots of the full cover page of the Hindustan Times (National Daily) and the blow up of the article mentioning my comments on the state of the Telecom Providers.

"I’ve shifted to fixed telephones now for all important business calls,” says Gagandeep Sapra. As CEO of System 3 Group, a data centre provider, he cannot risk depending on an unreliable connection.

“Though they don’t offer mobility or have restricted mobility, getting someone to call on your office desk is the best practice and safer for business,” Sapra says."

Timex Expedition WS4

2009-09-11T23:41:00.003+05:30

This watch is also a gadget that can help me record all my achievements on a hiking trip: altitude, temperature range during the hike and the atmospheric pressure
Water resistant | shockproof | dustproof | Rs 9,995

When I saw the Timex Expedition for the first time in the showroom, I fell in love with the packaging and what all the watch had to offer. Though its size was kind of large, because of its wide-screen display and multi-function dashboard, my love for gadgets ensured that I just wanted to get hold of it. Though it is kind of over-sporty for a guy like me, the very thought of having an altimeter, a barometer, a compass and a thermometer all built into one watch, ah! What a pleasure!

I would, on any given day, love to go hiking, or bike riding, or just on a trail with this watch, while keeping track of all such data as what kind of weather is around me (though I get weather reports on my BlackBerry, they are not specific to where I am at that moment). And I also get a compass to show me my bearings—where is north, south, east or west?

It is also a gadget that can help me record all my achievements on a hiking trip. Little things such as how high we climbed, and in what specific climatic conditions. In the activity review mode, you can relive your adventure through the activity statistics gathered on the nature trail: how high you reached, how much time you spent above the target altitude and even the temperature variations during the hike.

Another good feature of the Expedition is that it can give you 4 to 6 hour weather forecasts, indicating climatic phenomenon like approaching rain or storms.

The advanced sensors calculate altitude based on barometric pressure and the current temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit. The wide-screen display, they say, has been inspired by the rear-view mirror of a Land Rover. It is designed to keep all the relevant information accessible to the wearer, so you can read it in one glance. The watch also features a 100-hour chronograph, a 100-hour timer with alarm, and an Indiglo night light with night mode features. The best part, it is water resistant up to 50 metres.

In case you are into feng shui, vastu, or just can’t tell east from south, the built in compass headings and the digital needle will always let you mark and follow your trail. The only thing that’s missing in this watch seems to be a walkie talkie. Beam me up, Scotty.

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The above review appeared in The Open Magazine, Issue Dated 12th to 18th September 2009
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Raising an alarm - Zicom's Personal Protection Devices

2009-09-06T07:42:00.005+05:30

There is no excuse for being careless, but then humans are designed to make mistakes. Just think of the times you have fallen asleep while driving, or forgotten your credit card at a shop or lost your child in a crowd. At times precaution is the only way, as being careless could turn out to be costly. This new set of gadgets from Zicom can save you in these situations.

ANTI-SLEEP ALERT Rs 149
A black device very similar to a Bluetooth handsfree, this gadget gives out a beeping noise every time your head bends down, even if you haven’t dozed off, making sure that you attention stays on the road. At Rs 149 it is the most aggressively priced product from Zicom, but is not all hunky dory. The biggest problem is the design, as the device does not fit properly on the ear. Plus be prepared for a lot of false alarms every time you bend down. And then you have to remember and wear it everytime you drive, especially tough if you are already a bit sleepy.

CREDIT CARD ANTI-LOSS ALARM Rs 495
This is something I really want to buy. This is how the device works: You can put up to five credit cards in the holder. The device will start vibrating if you put it back in your pocket without any of the cards. But, in case the ATM machine swallows your card, you will have to come home with a vibrator in your pocket. For the price, it is a great product, but you can’t put in more that five cards and it is quite bulky to put in the wallet. But it is ideal if you carry and an additional wallet for your credit cards and have a habit of forgetting cards. But it would have been better off with an audible alarm.

KIDS ANTI-LOSS ALARM Rs 795
Get this wonderful device if you have a hyperactive toddler. The device has two units—one to put in the child’s pocket and the other for the parent. The unit with the parent starts beeping the moment the child strays more than 25 metres away. The distance can be adjusted according to your comfort level and is a good thing to have if you take you kids to malls and other crowded places.

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The above reviews appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 6th September 2009

New MacBook Pro

2009-09-04T12:32:00.002+05:30

You can now finally buy a MacBook with an SD card or PC Express slot. For the first time, Apple notebooks can have a maximum of 8GB RAM
Core 2 Duo | 2.54 GHz | 4 GB RAM, 500 GB | HDD | Rs 68,110+
Most of us want a lighter machine. At least the sub-notebooks available in 10-, 15- and 17-inch models at times don’t make a lot of sense to me. I really like the 13-inch size and being an Apple fan, my biggest complaint with Apple was that their Professional series products were not available in 13-inch. Well, that was until June 2009, when they announced it globally and now it’s also available in India. The new series of MacBook Pro now come in 13-, 15- and 17-inch sizes. The new editions feature Unibody line, with a new battery that gives 40 per cent more running time. Also, the display is now LED backlit. The backlit keyboard let’s you work easily in the dark and is a standard feature. Also, you can finally buy a MacBook with an SD card or PC Express slot.
I loved the 13-inch MacBook Pro, which I evaluated and loved, and want to now get rid of my new aluminium MacBook to get Pro, but sadly, the missus will kill me if I do this. Coming back to the product, the 13-inch model comes with either a 2.26 or 2.54 GHz Core 2 Duo, the 15-inch features a 2.66 and a 2.8 GHz, and the 17-inch—which includes an 8-hour battery, 4GB RAM, Express Card slot and a 500 GB hard disk—with a 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo.

For the first time, Apple notebooks can now have a maximum of 8GB RAM, and will soon be coming out with the 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Also as on 28 August, Apple Snow Leopard has become available, which will come to you free of cost. You may have to pay shipping and handling.

For More information, click here

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The above review appeared in the Open Magazine, Issue dated 11th September 2009
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Other Gadgets Covered in the Same Issue, Vu 8" Digital Picture Frame with Printer, and the Nokia 5530 Xpress Phone

Breaking the language barrier - Review Quillpad.com

2009-08-30T10:35:00.004+05:30

Since the time I started learning computers, most teachers have stuck to English to reveal the wonders of the PC. As a result, most of us still think in the Queen’s language while using computers, what to speak of typing in local languages. Though some companies have come up with coloured stickers of local language fonts and even charts that tell you which key stands for specific characters, the mix of consonants and syllables in Indian languages makes using them an uphill task. The job is even tougher if you don’t need to type in a local language every day and hence cannot rely on practice to see you through.

This is where Quill Pad (www.quillpad.com) comes to your rescue. Quill Pad was built by Ram Prakash H and K S Sreeram from IIT Madras in September 2006. Three years on, the website supports 10 Indian languages—Hindi, Bangla, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu.

Since my words can’t do justice to the ingenuity of the two, I suggest that those of you who can read or write any of the 10 languages try out the website. You can use the Quill Pad editor—which they call my-mother-can-easily-type-interface—without registering. Type the text you want and then copy-paste it to a Word document or e-mail. There is even a mobile interface, similar to the T9 Dictionary, which helps users type in the local language without having to bother about learning the alphabet layout.

Some of my employees who write emails to me in Hindi using the Roman script are happy with this new discovery. They type the way they spell the words in English, and within a jiffy the words reappear in Devnagri script, often correcting their spelling errors. Some Facebook friends with whom I tried a few Quill Pad tricks have started updating their status in local languages.

I encountered a small problem, though. I could not mix two languages—so if you want to compose an English document with a bit of Hindi in it, Quill Pad is not for you. But, then, you can’t ask for the world.

Localisation is the key for the expansion of the Internet. It can no longer afford to limit its content to English. And this is where initiatives like Quill Pad are the key. So, go ahead, type out that letter to your grandmother in your mother tongue.

For trying out or using Quill Pad, click www.quillpad.com

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The above review appeared in the Indian Express, Dated 30th August 2009

Sony Wireless Walkman

2009-08-29T00:21:00.004+05:30

The earphones and player are not wirelessly connected, they’re built into the head band. It’s more expensive than other Mp3 players, but hey, it’s a Sony
Zappin Technology enabled | 2GB music capacity | 35 grams
At Rs 4,990, you may want to give it a second thought, despite the way it is displayed at demo stations across the country. But when you plug it in and see what you can do with it, you feel, oh man, why did this not come out when I was in school playing football on the field burdened with that heavy load of a box called a Walkman?

It’s a full Mp3 player built into a head band that you can wear—with the in-ear earphones and a band connecting the two—and it looks amazingly cool. This is one mighty Mp3 player that you may want to get if you are the sporting kind. The charge port and the sync port are the common mini USB standard, and you can connect and drag and drop music on to the player like it’s just another thumbdrive connected to your PC. It also features 13.5 mm large driver units, which support a large frequency range and sound great. The soft silicon earbuds make it a comfortable wear, but they’re slightly uncomfortable for people with small ears. Instead of a screen, it has a jog wheel to choose songs, using a technology called Zappin.

What I loved most about this Walkman is that it charges up to 90 minutes of use in 3 minutes. So you can charge it in the time that it takes to brush your teeth and hair, before you go for that jog in the morning. It takes 1.5 hours to fully charge the unit for a 12-hour music playback, though. It also supports AAC / WMA and DRM protected files. The 2GB music capacity can keep you rolling with approximately 480 tracks. It comes in pink, white, black, green, and violet colours. And all this weighs only 35 gram.

For more information, click http://bit.ly/sony-mp3

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The above review was printed in the Open Magazine Issue Dated 4th September 2009

Binging Google - Which one do you use, Bing or Google ?

2009-08-23T11:23:00.002+05:30

I was never a fan of either the Yahoo or Microsoft Live search options. I loved AltaVista until it was replaced by Google as my homepage, my one-stop-shop for all answers. I must confess I have used other search engines in between, but when I learnt how to use Google to get the results I wanted, I was happy with the G option.

This is when Yahoo and Microsoft tied-up to create Bing, touted as the answer to Google’s monopoly over Internet search. But a couple of months later, it doesn’t appear as if Google has lost an inch. I thought it was time we put Bing to the test to see how the challenger compares with the real thing.

MAPS: I fired up Google Maps and Bing Maps to search for Nehru Place, New Delhi. The map results from Bing were cleaner and sharper. There is a lot of information on Google Maps, but the clean look and the meaningful information on the Bing results were more useful. Zooming in gave more detail on the Google Map, and there were a few photos that popped up with a link saying “Explore this area”. By default, Google uses a hybrid view—satellite plus map—while Bing does not have a satellite view. Bing shows an “explore collections in this map” icon, but it is not clear what that means.

I then decided to ask both engines for directions from New Delhi to Mumbai. Google immediately brought up a map of India and showed two routes, one using NH8 and the other using NH3. Bing was completely lost.

IMAGES: I tried an “India Independence Day celebrations” search on both. Google searched through the recent images first before listing the older ones. Bing’s results were more confusing, though it gave me the option to change the layout from small to large images with details. Google, on the other hand, gave me the option to choose the tint or hue of the image. I think both perform equally well here.

VIDEO: I did a video search with the same terms. Google took me to the YouTube website and threw up a lovely video rendition of our National Anthem, the one we used to hear a lot on DD a few years back. But Bing definitely has a better way of showing video results. I was able to preview videos by just taking the mouse pointer over the icons in the results page—you will need high speed Internet for this—and I could mute each video separately in the preview. I also liked the Bing filter to select if you wanted short videos or longer ones, resolution, screen type and source.

NEWS: For some time Google News has been my first option to read up what is happening around the world without going to multiple websites. Bing did search for news, but it took some work to get it to display top stories and I could not figure out how to see today’s stories. I searched for ‘Chandrayaan launch’ on both engines. Google showed 93 results while Bing had none. I will just stick to Google for my news.

Bing is a good option with a welcome look and feel. I like Google’s clean look, but love the image background in Bing. But since Microsoft and Yahoo are still learning the ropes of search and prefer to call Bing a Beta version, I will stick to Google for most of my work for now.

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The above review appeared in the Indian Express, Dated Sunday, August 23, 2009

Atom-based Vaio - Review Sony Vaio VPCW115XG

2009-08-22T12:55:00.004+05:30

If you always wanted a Vaio, but did not want to take a loan to buy it, and an Atom machine works fine for you, check this out

Processor Atom 1.6 GHz | OS Windows XP | RAM 1GB | Hard Disc 160 GB | Screen 10.1 inch wide | Weight 1.19 kg

Yes, a Sony Vaio at Rs29,990… go wash your eyes. I did too when I read this. Sony finally has an Atom-based machine. Available in three colours (pink, white and brown), these will appeal to both the younger set of users as well as women who were always looking for a pink laptop (yes, I know you girls like the colour).

Like most Atom machines, it also features an easy-to-type isolation type keyboard, where keys are spaced out. I loved the resolution of the machine, and this means you will never feel like working on a smaller machine. It also comes with Vaio Media Plus, that allows you to wirelessly stream music and videos to DLNA-enabled devices, and, if you have it, PlayStation 3. The downside is that it has a battery time of only 2.5 hours, compared to four to five hours in other Atom machines, and it has only a 0.5 megapixel camera, while others have started including either a 1.13 or 2 megapixel camera. The W Series unit is Energy Star 5.0 compliant, EPEAT Gold registered, and has eco-conscious features such as a mercury-free, LED backlit LCD.

The choice of colours lets you choose what you really want to reveal in your personality. Since this machine has just been announced, I could not touch and feel it, and this is only a preview.

So if you always wanted a Vaio, but did not want to go take a loan to buy one, and an Atom machine works fine for you (it does for me when I travel), go ahead check it out. Just in case, the full model number is VPCW115XG/P/T/W. For more details visit the sony website by clicking here

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The Above Article Appeared in the Open Magazine, Issue Dated 28th August 2009

Cool Cam - HDC HS20 Panasonic Review

2009-08-16T11:44:00.003+05:30

The HDC HS20 from Panasonic may seem an expensive option, but if you are looking for a next generation camcorder, this is a safe investment
16x optical zoom | full HD recording | 80 GB hard disk | Rs 49,990

My dad is a Sony fan, but this time around he was open to an option of a camcorder from any other company, and he had a clear brief: the camcorder should be able to shoot full high definition video, should have a hard disk, and he should be able to download the data from the camcorder on a Mac or Windows PC without hassle. A little research led me to the HDC HS20, which Panasonic let me try out for two weeks.

It is a light piece, all shiny and well finished. The black body gives it the luxury feel and the Lecia lens adds the magic. This gizmo features a 16x optical zoom, full HD recording, and an 80 GB hard disk. It also supports 32 GB SD/SDHC card. It supports sound capture at 5.1 channel surround, and I must say that the microphone is one of the most sensitive ones I have come across in recent times. The built-in speaker, if you are doing a preview of the movies, is not that great, but the recording is great quality.

The camcorder features an LED Light for shooting in low light, and the manual focus allows you to focus on those hard areas. It supports both H.264 and AVCHD video formats.

I feel disappointed that this camcorder gives only one to two hours of video recording on a fully charged battery. Sadly, the battery and the AC Adapter can’t be used together, so if you are running it on AC power and supply gets disrupted, your recording will stop in the midst of the action.

The camcorder has a 1.47 megapixel sensor giving an affective 1.17 megapixel digital still camera. Still images and the video can be recorded on the same media—SD card or hard drive. It also features a 40x to 100x digital zoom and has a focal length of 2.95mm to 47.2 mm. The 2.7” wide LCD seemed a bit small to me. I love the part where you can randomly access video segments you had shot, and that you can easily select video quality depending on whether you want full HD or HD mode, you can go from 8 to 33 hours of recording. More here

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The above article appeared in the Open Magazine, Issue #20, Dated 21 August 2009