2009: When the PC changed

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.

--
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

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.

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

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

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.

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

Let's start with Chrome - Preview Google Chrome OS

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.

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

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

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

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.

--
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

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.

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

WINDOWS 7 making the difference

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.

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

Quickfix Art

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.
--
The above article appeared in the Indian Express, issue dated Sunday 25th October, 2009

Unleashing the Snow Leopard

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.
--
The above article was printed in the Indian Express, Issue dated Sunday, October 18th, 2009

Annother Android - Preview Galaxy i7500 Samsung

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.
--
The above preview appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 11th October 2009

Wireless TV - Review Sony Bravia ZX1

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
--
The above review was printed in the Open Magazine, Issue Dated 9th October to 16th October 2009

Review - Kodak Z915

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

--
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

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

--
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

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.

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

Megapixel War - Review Samsung Pixon 12

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.

--
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

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.

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

Xtreamer @ Rs. 9990

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

HTC Hero @ Rs. 39,990

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.

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

Open X the Multipurpose Knife @ Rs. 900

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

iPod Rerun - The Nano 09 Now Shoots Video

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

Three clicks - Digital Cameras Under 6990

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.

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