Nivio Companion - Review

Nivio Companion
Finally something that can be put to use anywhere you need a spare PC, without the price of licences for software and the effort to guard against viruses and crashes

Computing by default is not known to be stress free. What gets blamed as a Microsoft Windows problem, is ac­tually a problem of badly tuned hardware, and useless downloads and malware instal­lations from the Internet. Malware increases hardware failure, and in extreme cases your computer may stop working completely. Nivio has finally launching the Companion PC that could do away with many of these problems. The Nivio Companion is actu­ally a dumb box, it has no hard disk, no major processing power and not much RAM. Everything you need is stored on the Internet. This can work because we spend most of our computer time online anyway, whether it is using a browser, chat messenger, office applications or email. And the Internet today is always on. So, you can ac­cess your data, just like on a regular PC, using the Nivio Companion.

Since the desktop is online, you pay a monthly rental of Rs 249 plus your broadband charges. Nivio currently gives you 10 GB of online disk space, and you will need to rent out applications (example: MS Office will cost you an additional Rs 149 a month), that you want to use. You only pay for the application you use. And in the process get rid of piracy guilt. It con­sumes only 5 watts of energy; additional en­ergy of about 60 watts goes into feeding your LCD monitor (your PC eats 200 watts just for the CPU). The other advantage is, since you don’t need to install every application that is there (and there is a centrally installed antivi­rus), chances of your computer getting infect­ed are nearly zero. And, because all your files would be stored in a centrally managed data­base, you don’t need to keep a backup either. The Companion can also be purchased along with a 15 inch LCD monitor for a combo price of Rs 7,999. To run it, you require a minimum of 256 kbps broadband, but 512 kbps will be preferred. Finally, here’s something that can be put to use anywhere you need­ed a spare PC but were too scared: of the price to be paid for licences of the software and the effort to protect it against viruses and crashes. No wonder the Nivio won the Technology Pioneer Award at the Global Economic Forum in Davos this year.

More Details: http://bit.ly/open-nivio

--
The above review appeared in the Open Magazine, Issue Dated 31 July 2009

Solving a Problem, Online

If a man fell off a plane from an altitude of 10,000 ft, how long will it take for him to hit earth? Well, this is no joke. It is actually a mathematical problem which will take some old fashioned brain slogging to solve.

I have always been in awe of mathematical equations and how using the relevant formula you can explain and solve any problem. However, I am not good at remembering anything but for basic equations from school.

So, the other day, while discussing the rate of evaporation of water for an Olympic size pool with an architect, both of us realised that we had no clue which formula to use, after all this wasn’t one of those problems we were faced with everyday.

Carrying a scientific calculator all the time is not really a practical option. I still do carry one, but not everyone can, and the old scientific ruler is not really available anymore. So how do you get to remember equations, and what happens when you are stuck with a problem.

My immediate thought was to Google the problem, or maybe checkout Wolfram Alpha, the search engine making all the waves. Then I decided to check if Casio—I love their scientific calculators—has put something online, may be a formula search.

And it had. Since June 1, the company has made available its Keisan portal—Keisan means calculation in Japanese—and it was online at www.keisan.casio.com.

The architect and me, both science students, were enamoured by the number of mathematical equations on the site. From the trivial ‘When is Easter for a particular year’ to the serious Bessel functions and probability calculations, they were all there.

The website is accurate up to 50 digit calculations, and users can select how many digits they want in the result. Another great feature is that you can paste both the calculation results and the chart into Excel and incorporate it in your report. So if you are a science student, or just enamoured by mathematical calculations, it is about time you checked out Keisan, 1,50,000 others do so every day.

That’s not all. In July alone, seven new calculations were added to the site, quite an achievement considering serious mathematics is no child’s play. With such interest being generated, Keisan should grow fast and become a useful tool for students and aspiring mathematicians.

By the way, it takes about the 70 seconds for the man to reach earth, Keisan says so.

--
The above review appeared in the Indian Express, Dated 26th July 2009.

Xtreme backup for Windows - Review Seagate Xtreme Edition

After I reviewed the Apple Time Capsule some time back, a lot of readers wrote in asking if I had something specific for Windows. Well, I do, and it is called the Seagate FreeAgent Xtreme Edition.

When I got the Seagate Xtreme Edition Desktop Hard Disk, called the FreeAgent Xtreme, I was surprised to see the port options—it had two Firewire ports, an eSata Port and a USB 2.0 Port. It also had a Kensington lock port, in case you wanted to lock this to your desk. I loved the feel and form factor of the drive as well as its all-black appearance. However, I thought the USB and Firewire cables as well as the power adapter should have been in black too.

The drive was very quiet when I tested it with a lot of read and write. It also managed to stay cool despite Delhi’s heat, unlike other external hard disks which often tend to heat up. I was unable to use it with my Mac as the drive was formatted for Windows, but it performed efficiently on my Windows PC.


The Seagate FreeAgent utility comes preinstalled on the hard disk, but has to be installed on to your PC. The utility can backup your data at scheduled intervals, and can also help you look for data that you have backed up on multiple hard disks. It has built-in profiles to backup My Documents, Photos, Music, Videos, or all your files at one go. The software also supports encryption, so other users can read the data only if they have the decryption key. The software also puts the hard drive in sleep mode when not in use for more than 15 minutes, thus saving power. But Seagate should have thought of a way to manage the tangle of cables the unit creates.

I already have some machines which have an eSata Port, which will soon become a standard on desktops enabling you to connect at high speeds, higher than firewire. I got great speeds when I tested the eSata using an HP workstation. However, it stopped working after I left the drive idle—not sure if it was a problem with my eStata Port or the drive? If you don’t have a PC with an e-Sata port, you should look at acquiring one. With speeds up to 3GB/second it becomes extremely fast to backup your data or to restore it. The maximum you can achieve on a USB is 480 Mb/second.

Seagate comes with a five-year warranty as standard on all their hard disk products. They have an after-sales warranty that works and with the new on-site warranty they come and change/fix your drive at site in some towns. At Rs 14,500 for a 1.5 TB unit, this is the best-priced External Hard Disk, at less than Rs 10 per GB. The box contains the hard disk, a Firewire cable and a USB cable, but no e-Sata cable. It also contains an attachable stand for the unit, and a power adapter. The hard disk is 6.89” in height, and 1.33” in width and weighs about 1.39 kg.

--
The above review, was printed in the Indian Express, dated Sunday July 19, 2009

Acer Aspire Timeline

With eight hours of battery time, this laptop weighs a cool 2 kg, has an LED screen, big keys and a multi-gesture touchpad. It may sound like a Mac, but it’s not that. It’s the new Acer Aspire Timeline. A brilliant-looking laptop, for under Rs 45,000. And the best part of this series is, the prices of 13.3 inch, 14 inch and 15.6 inch models are roughly the same. The only differences among the models are features such as: size of RAM, hard disk drive or the optical disc drive. The machine looks nice and sophisticated. The keys are big, very similar to the keyboard on a MacBook. The heart of the machine is a Core 2 Solo ultra low voltage 1.4 GHz processor, and it ships pre-loaded with Windows Vista Home Edition. The 13.3 inch model boasts of 2 GB RAM with a 250 GB hard disk. The 15.6 inch model has 3 GB RAM and a 320 GB hard disk. Its screen is HD capable (ie, 1,366 x 768 pixels) and supports 16:9 aspect ratio. The built-in 5-in-1 card reader, Bluetooth and gigabit ethernet port are great connectivity options. The machine (though not available in India) is available with an built-in HSDPA 3G modem and some of the models also support WiMax connectivity. The pinch-action zoom, circular motion scroll and the page flip on the multi-gesture touch pad—all make it feel (not behave) like an iPhone. The screen is great at 200 nit brightness for indoor use, but I am not sure how it will behave in bright sunshine. Dolby sound enhancement on its speakers makes the machine sound professional, especially when using multimedia applications. The built-in microphone and webcam let you video conference with ease.

http://bit.ly/open-acertime

--
The above review was printed in the Open Magazine, Issue dated 18th July 2009

HTC HD

When I picked up this phone and was testing it, everyone thought it was the new iPhone 3GS. After all, it has a big screen, it was simple looking and had a brilliant display. But hey, it’s the HTC HD.

The HD stands for high definition, and the phone has a whopping 3.8 inch VGA of landscape on a touch screen to tackle that feature. It has just one button to lock and unlock the phone, a USB port (though proprietary cable) to charge it and sync it with your PC and a 3.5 mm earphone jack—all in black. The widescreen VGA lets you see videos and web pages in full screen. Since the screen supports 800 pixels of display width, there is no need to tap screens to zoom in and out, or scroll left to right while on a web page.

At Rs 42,990, the price is a bit of a downer, but it has brilliant speed as compared to any other HTC phone that I have tested on the Windows platform. Great interface and the improved Touch Flo 3D user interface provide intuitive access to the phone. If anything comes near an iPhone, this is it.

The 5 megapixel camera and no flash (very iPhone) are bad, and it can take good pictures only outdoors. The camera is very slow, which I did not like.

More: http://bit.ly/open-htchd

--
The above review was printed in the Open Magazine, Issue Dated 11th July 2009

Canon SX 200 IS

I have been a big fan of of SLR cameras, but when I was shifting from my film SLR to a DSLR, I thought why not just buy myself a portable point and shoot, and I did. Over the years I have missed the versatility and size of a large sensor that the DSLR gives, but am very happy with the portability of point and shoot cameras. While looking for a new camera, I had a chance of reviewing the Canon SX200 IS.

With a 12.1 megapixel sensor, 12x optical zoom and 28 mm equivalent wide-angle lens, it is one of the best cameras in its segment. A popup flash that is good for 3.2 metres, a full expandable zoom lens, all the usual controls including a manual mode, shutter priority, aperture priority, a large 3.0 inch LCD screen—all make it the envy of all your friends, who’ll want to hold it and play with it. Canon should have included a viewfinder in it. However, keeping in mind that most point-and-shoot users utilise the screen as a viewfinder, this is something that I will not hold against them.

I loved the lens range of 28 to 336 mm equivalent, and the ISO sensitivity of up to 16,000. The DIGIC 4 processor from Canon lets it easily do face detection and intelligent contrast correction. HDMI connectivity is a great option, and with video shooting mode of 720p, this is a great camera to buy.

Available in black, blue and red colours.

http://tinyurl.com/open-sx200

--
The above review appeared in the Open Magazine, Issue Dated 4th July 2009

Double effect - Review Micromax Gravity GC700

Double effect

Except for a couple of models from Samsung and others, there are not many dual-SIM phones that can take both CDMA and GSM SIM cards. With the manufacturers staying away from the concept, some Chinese companies had made this sector their own last year. That was till a company called Micromax changed everything with its model called Gravity.

When I got my hands on the Micromax GC700 Gravity, I was surprised by its good build quality and game console-like feel. The Gravity is a nicely crafted phone and it is obvious that a lot of thought has gone into making it look expensive. The Gravity looks and feels a lot like a portable gaming device with its 4-way controllers, power buttons, speaker/microphone all on both sides, till you realise that the C and G in the centre of these 4-way D Pads actually stand for CDMA and GSM.

Since the phone has a Gravity sensor (motion sensor), you can use CDMA by holding the set in such a manner that the C becomes the microphone and G speaker. Turn it 180 degrees, with G as your microphone and C the speaker, and the phone starts to work on GSM Mode. The screen, which shows you the network you are on, has quick graphics and switches pretty fast. If you don’t want to keep flipping your phone, you can just click on either C or G on the screen while dialling to choose the network.

Similarly, every time a call comes in the phone shows the incoming network. Another brilliant feature is the C or G labels on SMSes to show which network it was received on.

The interface features slide-to-unlock, a feature becoming common with Chinese phones these days. The dialler looks much like the iPhone, and the keys become end and start key as you want them. You also have the option of using the soft keys on the screen.

However, the 2.8” screen does not really look that big when it comes to typing out messages. It also does not work in landscape mode, making typing on the screen a bit of a hassle.

I loved the speakers and the quality of the speaker phone, which I thought had a very natural tone. Though I will not recommend it to music aficionados, the ringtones sound nice, and the speakers are good enough for listening to a song once in a while.

However, I did not like the touchscreen which wasn’t a joy to use without the bundled stylus. I also hate it when you have to remove the back cover every time you want to take out or put in a memory card. Plus, the Rs 12,999 price tag seems very high, as even Samsung is selling in the same range.

--
The above article / review was printed in the Indian Express, on Sunday 12th July 2009.

As Simple as saving on a Time Capsule - Review Apple Time Capsule

Backup is a word we don’t like, mainly because of the fears and pains attached to it. However, the fact is that there are thousands of options available, from hard disks that can plug into your USB port, to those with e-Sata or firewire port, and even some that come attached to your home network. Still, many of us have asked whether this option could be automated, without the clutter of cables and additional power adapters.

Well, Apple, with its keep-it-simple policy and aptitude for innovative design, has found a solution, and it is called the Time Capsule. It is painfully expensive like other Apple products, but is the only good looking, wireless and backup device in the market.

The design is so simple that all you see is a plain white box with the Apple logo—the three Ethernet ports and USB Port are tucked away at the back—never guessing that it is actually a backup device with wireless capabilities. It is a bit too big for a wireless router, but small, sleek and smart for a network-enabled hard disk. There are no buttons, antennae, or switches, just a small LED lamp that stays green if all is good and starts flashing amber if something goes wrong.

This is as simple as things can be.

To setup the device, you need to run an Airport Utility (available both on Windows and the Mac OSX); the wizard mode takes you through most of the settings. But it seems Apple has done something wrong, for every change needs a reboot of the device. So if you were sharing your Internet connection through it, all your PCs get disconnected during the reboot.

The Time Capsule has a 802.11n wireless that offers higher speed and range compared to the 802.11b/g commonly used in homes.

Though your computer should have an 802.11 n card to utilise this feature, the device is backward complaint and can offer a slower speed if you don’t have the latest.

The good part with the time capsule is, that if you are an Apple user, the data backup to the device is automatic using the built-in Time Machine utility. Plus, Mobile Me subscribers can access the files through a password-protected page on the Internet, as long as the Time Capsule router at home is switched on.

Windows has no equivalent for the brilliant Time Machine software, and users will have to use free tools like Cobian Backup, which are just no match. Moreover, on Windows, I ran into trouble setting up a USB printer I had attached to the Time Capsule. So, I suggest this only for Mac users.

This is an ideal product for Mac users, that is, if you are willing to pay the price. It is smart, quiet and you really don’t feel there is a hard disk in your room. It does heat up a bit, as Apple does not believe in putting fans in their devices.

The Time Capsule costs Rs 17,700 for 500 GB and Rs 28,200 for 1TB.

--
The above article / review appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 5th July 2009