Why you should buy the iPad

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Open Magazine Volume 02 Issue 04

This week in my Open Magazine article

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

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

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

Audio Box - My Music, Anywhere, Anytime

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

--

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

Open Magazine Volume 02 Issue 03

This week in my Open Magazine article

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

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

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

So What Happened - Reliance Downtime New York to London

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The world wide web of ‘original fakes’

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to spot a FAKE

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

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

Open Magazine Volume 02 Issue 02

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

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


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

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

The Right Design - Review Wind U160 from MSI

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Open Magazine Volume 2 Issue 01

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

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

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

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