iLuv this option - Review iLuv i1255

The iPod Touch and the iPhone have found their way into the homes of most gadget lovers over the past year. For those who missed out on the iPhone invasion, the latest 3G S will be available in India this August. Though I am no big fan of converged devices, I must agree the iPhone is a wonderful package, a great music player, a good phone and a brilliant gaming device, all rolled into one.

However, I have missed being able to watch movies stored on my iPhone on the TV or play back songs from the Touch on an audio system. My wife was not so keen on another device entering our room after the Tata Sky +, DVD player, Bose Wave Radio, so I started looking for something which could help converge all these.

I found my solution in an up-market South Delhi store. It was called the iLuv i1255 and cost all of Rs 13,000—it costs just around $150 in the US. This player is smartly built and lets you watch your iPod videos through TV, while charging your device at the same time. The remote controls the DVD player as well as the Apple device in the dock.

The good part is that with this dock you can watch downloaded YouTube videos or synced podcasts on a large screen. For me the capability of being able to stream YouTube videos to my iPod Touch over Wi-Fi and then playing it on TV was a brilliant option to have. However, you will have to take the iPhone out of the dock to answer a call.

The DVD player is a smart accessory. But it still can’t play DivX movies and so doesn’t have USB ports built-in. Moreover, the fact that it has been imported by a dealer and not by a company is a bit of a downer as far as service is concerned. All this means I can’t give the DVD player more than two on a scale of five.

Though the unit is smartly designed and has a nice on-screen display and interface, I would recommend this only to those who are dealing with a cable mess at home and looking for a DVD player-cum-iPod dock to solve the problem.

However, it must be agreed that iLuv has a brilliant line-up of devices now available in India, all well designed. Though priced a little bit on the higher side, this is a good option if you are looking for something which you won’t find in every home and still doesn’t cost a bomb.

For More Details, visit the iLuv website

--
The Above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday June 28, 2009

HTC MAGIC - First Android Phone Finally Available in India Next Week

The Wait finally seems to be over, with a Press Release, Airtel is Bringing the First Android Phone in India.

The HTC Magic, also known as the T-Mobile myTouch will be available across Stores in India, in the first week of July.

Though HTC has signed up with Airtel to launch the Handset, it should soon be available across every network.

I am expecting a Test Unit from Rediffusion DYR, their PR Agency in India, and will run a full review on it, so look out for it.


Just a Brief Look at the features

3G / 3.2" HVGA screen / 3.2 mega pixels Camera / Airtel customers get free 100 mb data download per month / Rs. 29,990 for the Handset

G

Net TV - The Better Way (Review Airtel IPTV)

We have all seen the evolution from Doordarshan to cable TV, and finally the cable guy making way for DTH and CAS. Though picture, sound and content, too, improved over the years, there were still a few things missing, like the control over what you watch and when, to being able to record programmes, or watch something you missed.

All this changed with Tata Sky+, which allowed users to pause, rewind and even record live TV. Around the same time Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), also entered India. Though it gives the impression that you would have to sit and wait for TV to stream in, Internet TV just means TV signals will come in through the broadband wires.

IPTV has some advantages over DTH. Since the TV comes to your house over cables, rain can't affect the transmission. The service is more interactive and you can use the TV to order a pizza or do a video conference. Since the service is unicast—the signals streaming into your house will differ from what your neighbour gets ”every time you pay to watch a movie you have the option of watching from the beginning and not where the movie is playing at that point of time, like in DTH.

IPTV is not exactly new to India. MTNL has been providing the service for sometime, but I wanted to stay as far away from iControl after hearing about its slipshod manner customer service. The market has, meanwhile, been evolving with more players coming in. The latest entrant is Airtel, which has finally exorcised its fears, and started its service in New Delhi and nearby areas. Airtel, being a major player in the telecom space, also gives you the Triple Play option of having phone, broadband and television from one service provider with a single bill.

Airtel has some great features. It offers seven-day playback on 30 popular channels, including CNBC TV 18, HBO and Colors. Other features include a set-top-box with two USB ports, so that you can use it to connect a webcam for video conferencing, or maybe store programmes on an external hard disk. You can buy a movie for Rs 25 and watch it within 24 hours. I found the picture and sound quality wonderful and, at times, felt the reception was better than DTH.

However, IPTV has some inherent problems. The box that sits beside your TV is actually a modem, relaying your remote commands back to the server for action. This whole process takes a few seconds, and makes everything appear slow.

There are some Airtel-specific problems too. There is an Electronic Programme Guide, but you can't use it to jump to a channel and have to surf from one channel to another. There is no way to put an on-screen reminder so that you can watch a specific programme. The unit does not have RF output, so if your AV ports are full and you want to hook this box using RF, you can't. The box also does not support HDMI. The interface, all black and red with white text, is ugly and a little hard to read. The prompts are nice, but the user interface requires improvement. Services like radio, interactive television and movies on demand are still not active.

So, I suggest it is better to wait a while and see how the market evolves before taking the IPTV plunge.

--
The Above Article appeared in the Indian Express on Sunday, June 21, 2009

Aiming high with a Javelin - Review Blackberry Curve 8900

I have been a BlackBerry user for about six years now and I still use my first model, the old and mighty 7290. My BlackBerry use is limited to emails and so the handset still looks new. It cost me a fortune then, but I still think you should look at a BlackBerry only if you are serious about emails.

My needs are very simple, I prefer a side scroller like the old BlackBerrys—that is no longer an option—a full QWERTY keyboard, a good camera and the latest Operating System which would allow me to use both Flickr and Facebook. I don’t really require fancy ringtones, but a music/video player is more than welcome.

But I have been looking at the new BlackBerrys. You might remember that I was not very gung-ho about the BlackBerry Storm, as I am used to a full QWERTY keyboard, and the Bold seemed a bit beyond my budget. So I requested BlackBerry to send across their latest 8900 Javelin for a review.

It felt like the lightest BlackBerry till date at just 109.9 grams and looked cool with a VGA resolution screen (480x360 pixels) and Transmissive LCD. The QWERTY keyboard is smaller than previous versions, and takes some time to get used to, but the trackball has been raised a little and is no longer in a recess.

Most new phones have a light sensor that changes screen brightness as per the ambient light, but the Javelin undoubtedly has the most soothing display indoors, backed up with sharp and bright display outdoors—you can even work on it with the sun shining right on top.

The Javelin also has the best phone camera I have seen till date. The camera even recognised that I was taking pictures of a document with text in it and automatically used the macro mode to zoom into the text and render it perfectly.

Another great feature is the built-in GPS with which I was able to Geotag pictures. Though photos get the coordinates required for Geotag enabled photo management softwares (like Picasa and iPhoto), getting the GPS to work requires a subscription from your provider and can cost up to Rs 199 a month.

However, since the BlackBerry is always connected to the Internet, you can also use Google Maps, though it is not as accurate as GPS.

The Javelin’s inbuilt wireless works real well. Though your emails keep switching to the services of your service provider, you can still browse, download and update Facebook and use Google Maps through wireless.

Though I have always been a fan of the BlackBerry’s email handling capacities and data networking, I have never liked the phone much. But the enhanced background noise cancellation and speakerphone—loud and clear with no distortions—on this version changed my perception to a certain extent.

However, I did not like the fact that I had to take out the battery every time to change the Micro SD Card. Moreover, such cards, if swapped from another phone, have to be formatted to be used on the Javelin. So there is no way you can move some MP3 from another phone to the Javelin using you card.

I really liked the Javelin, but would still to stick to my old 7290, primarily because it does not have a camera and I often have to go to offices where camera phones are banned.

But if you are looking for a BlackBerry with a wonderful GPS, a brilliant camera, lovely music and video playback, the Javelin is worth every penny of the Rs 27,990 you’d have to pay for it.

Some of the Photo's I took using the Blackberry 8900






For more information, visit the Blackberry Websiteor click here for Photos, and 360 Degree View.

--
The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 14th June 2009

And I thought I had a Stationery Fetish

Bang Yao Liu is a paitient man, with a stationery fetish, ahem, I stand corrected, with a Brilliant skill of making Stop Motion Videos.

The First one shows you how he did it, the second, what he did.. Do watch

Smart Power Outlets - Now Why did no one else think of it

Electrical Fire, a very common thing that happens across the globe, what was meant to be a single outlet to connect a TV or a Bed Side Lamp, has become an extension cord, and has Cell phone chargers, Mosquitto Repellers, Laptops, and yes, the Bed Side lamps plugged into it, and chances are, that your outlet may soon burn down, or spark, and worst comes to worst, cause an electric fire.

While going through TED, I came across this brilliant talk / presentation by John La Grou, an Inventor, Designer, and Entrepreneur.

Now I Wonder, why the **** did no one else think of this ?

John La Grou unveils an ingenious new technology that will smarten up the electrical outlets in our homes, using microprocessors and RFID tags. The invention, Safeplug, promises to prevent deadly accidents like house fires -- and to conserve energy.

iPhone 3G[s] - It's finally Here

Well rumour mill or not, the iPhone 3G[s] is finally here, it is faster, more powerful and starts at US$ 99. A Wall Street Journal report, mentions that apple has lowered the price so as to increase sales.

Though now the iPhone 3G (which was earlier available as 16 and 32 GB) is 8GB to start off at US$ 99, the iPhone 3G[s] starts at US$ 199. Details of India Launch, and India Pricing is still not available with me, but I will be in touch with Apple India to get you more Juicy details.

Just a few features, that were supposedly Rumors, which are now incorporated in the new iPhone 3G[s]:

*2x Improved Performance
*Built in Video Camera with Editing
*Compass
*Voice Control

What is interesting is that the Voice Control not only let's you make / answer phone calls, but also let's you play music. The Voice control works in several languages, click here for details, though I would have loved, if I could make a Calendar Entry using Voice, then I would really have a handsfree driving experience.

I think this version will finally make iPhone my chosen Gadget, can't wait to get one from Apple to test... Anyone at Apple reading this :)

To see the Trailers of Ad's from Apple iPhone 3G[s] release click here.

G

How to Grow Air - Mr. Kamal Meattle

I have always looked up to Mr. Kamal Meattle and the object of making green homes / green offices is very close to me. He has done some wonderful work with the Nehru Place Greens, and his continued research has helped me with my work of turning things Green in a lot of manner.

I had a chance to meet him in person, and pick his brains, sometime back, and he was courteous enough to not only help me with my ideas, but also spend a full hour explaning things, where I was going wrong.

I just got to know about his talk on TED, and I thought I must paste it. Though this is not one of the finest ways of projecting data, but he is good with his work, and if you think you want to grow air, he will teach you how to, in the next 4 minutes.

The office workhorse - Review HP Officejet Pro 8500

For the past couple of years my mother has been using a multi-function printer. But the tangle of the USB cable, running from her laptop to the printer, is a hassle in a wireless home. This problem can be answered by a network printer with a wireless option, though the cost of such a machine has always been a put-off for buyers. But even if you were willing to pay the price, most such printers wouldn’t be ideal for scanning from multiple PCs or support Web Scan.



But the recently launched HP Officejet Pro 8500 is different. HP claims its cost per print is half that of normal colour printers and has a lower energy footprint than laser printers. I did not really check the energy efficiency, but I know it was getting power from a small UPS and did not complain. It also churned out about 60 colour photos at an amazing speed—the printer took about 10 minutes to do the job at 10 pages per minute.

I was not very happy with the photo print quality, especially since I was using Mondi High Weight Inkjet Paper; but this is not supposed to be a photo printer. However, its black&white printing left me impressed for its speed and sharp text. Though I have used it to take about 50 prints every day over the past three weeks, the printer has consumed just a third of the ink cartridges, making me agree with HP’s lower cost per print claim.

Finally, here was a printer which could install on Linux, Mac and Windows without a problem. There are some added features like a tray which can hold 250 sheets, and the duplex function which means you can print on both sides of the paper automatically. The printer uses a four-cartridge system and the console shows the level on each cartridge separately. However, the cartridges used in this HP series are best left to be changed by the dealer, self installation could be tricky. The printer supports a 1200x1200 dpi black quality as standard, and 4800x1200 dpi enhanced colour, but only on HP Photo Paper.

A great feature is the Web Scan, which allows you to scan documents off the printer’s webpage, without loading drivers on to the PC. It also has a scan-to-memory device that lets you scan documents as PDF, JPEG, or text directly on to memory cards or a pen drive. These features alone makes the MFP worth its price for me.

The scanner is both flatbed and Automatic Document Feeder (ADF)—the ADF can automatically scan 50 pages into single or multiple files. The scanner supports a maximum resolution of 4800 dpi with a 48-bit depth, but I was happy with the PDFs created as the images, at 200 x 200 dpi, were both small, readable and reprintable.

The printer comes with an Ethernet (wired) port, plus the option of buying a wireless port. I would suggest an Ethernet wired port, in case you have an Ethernet switch or a port available on your broadband router. The printer supports print-from and scan-to on different memory types—compact Flash 1 and 2, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Secure Digital (SD) cards, High Capacity Secure Digital (SDHC), Multimedia Card (MMC), XD Picture Card and USB pen drive. Micro SD, Mini SD and RS-MMC are supported through an adapter which you will need to buy separately.

I did check out the fax and found that it works like any other with lost of features thrown in.

However, for the price tag it carries, the printer misses a colour LCD screen which would have been helpful in previewing documents on memory cards or USBs. Moreover, weighing around 13 kg, this not so ideal for home use. It comes with a one-year warranty which you can extend up to three years for an additional cost.

The wired network printer has a price tag of Rs 20,681 while the wireless version can be yours for Rs 22,899. The price is indeed a bottleneck, but if you have a very high print load, this is one cost you can pay for the features the HP Officejet Pro 8500 offers you.

For More Information on HP's website, click here.
--
The above article / review appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 7th June 2009

Two New Microsoft Announcements - The Wow Factor

Last evening I was in an argument about how motion gaming is changing the outlook of games and it's developers. With the iPhone and it's wonderful set of games, and now most of the cell phone manufacturers coming out with their own concept of motion gaming, Wii taking the world over, how could Microsoft be left behind.

At E3, Microsoft Today announced a more interactive version of the controller, looks like indoor games (on the video game console) are soon going to replace us having to gout. Check out the Video from BBC News



The second video shows, what Science fiction has not yet spoken about, if you want virtual children, this will help you solve it.. WOW

Don’t burn your fingers - Review LG Arena KM 900

I love LG as a company, but have never had the opportunity to use an LG phone. So when I got a mail from their PR team to evaluate the new LG Arena KM 900, I jumped at the opportunity.

To start with, the Arena is good to look at, has a nice attractive finish, and is a bit smaller than the iPhone, but at 3” it is still big enough for most tasks. The accelerometer lets you play some motion games, but with LG using it on a proprietary engine, I don’t think a lot of games may be available — so don’t buy it as a game phone.

The Scube interface is wonderful and racy. However, the most annoying feature is getting to type on the keypad. Like other new generation phones, it does simultaneous directory look-ups for any number that you enter, but the way it interacts to the touch needs to be worked on. Sending an SMS or using the phone keypad to make a call can be a pain as the keypad is not very effective—LG needs to make it larger. Some features like the speaker phone menu and hold call are nice, but the call history/SMS history option will put off most serious users.

LG, however, scores with its music player and speakers, especially with the smooth movement between tracks and cover flow-like presentation. The Dolby certification and noise reduction are great add-ons. Thankfully, it uses a 3.5mm headphone jack like the iPhone.

The 5mp camera has a good macro mode, but the colours aren’t that good, and at times the camera is just too slow. The phone supposedly has an Assisted GPS and Geotagging features that allow users to tag photos according to their location, thus making them easier to manage. However, this feature did not work for me.

The phone has an in-built memory of 8GB plus the option to add a mini SD Card. Sadly, the phone still uses a proprietary cable for data transfer and charging.

The Arena undoubtedly has the best touchscreen after iPhone, with a zoom in and out that actually works. However, this option is limited to pictures and not useful for browsing or texting, making the phone primitive.

The phone supports email from any POP/IMAP provider as well as MS Exchange, but does not work over a wireless link rendering the phone almost useless in a Wi-Fi zone. Moreover, the email options are anything but user friendly and I had a tough time removing my account configured on the phone.

Go for the Arena if you want a phone which is a looker and not a great call/SMS machine. But remember the touchscreen market is slowly getting crowded and more players expected to come in the near future with better products. At Rs 24,990, buy this if you want a touch-phone which is not the iPhone.

Some Pictures Taken with the Phone





For More Information click arena.lgmobile.com

--
The Above article / review appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 31 May 2009.