THE iSUBSTITUTE

How you can make believe that the iPod Touch 2.0 player is the iPhone
The new iPhone 3G released last weekend, but we in India are still far from getting one in our hands. I have a solution. And it’s not a clone or another so-called iPhone beater. It’s the new iPod Touch 2.0.

I know it’s not a phone, but it does everything that the iPhone does—other than call, of course. The iPod Touch 2.0 has in-built Wi-Fi, an email client, Safari web browser, capability of using mobile ME, applications, a cool version of Google Earth, Contact Search, Multiple Calendar Support, Push Email with MS Exchange Capability, Web clips, and improved attachment viewing. Now that’s a lot in a music player.

The Wi-fi makes this a better buy than other MP3 players because you can not only view YouTube videos directly online—without having to first download them to your PC and then sync them to your iPod—but you can also buy/download music directly to your iPod.

The Email client means that if you are sick and tired of lugging around that laptop at home, you have a smart substitute that lets you send/receive emails, maybe check the stock index, all while catching the show on television.

The screen is large, and is sensitive to gravity (turn it around for landscape in landscape mode, portrait in the straight up mode, etc).

You can use Google Earth to locate your house or to browse the streets of your city now that everything is mapped, and you can use the search on it for some directions (though this is admittedly not always precise) as long as you have Wi-fi connectivity.

The Notes application is interesting—I could pen down my MITs (Most Important Things) without any headache. Its capability to render PDF Files, and open Word and Excel files was something that was totally gratifying.

Safari works well, is fast and precise, though with e-banking sites requiring Internet Explorer, this device may not be the best to access your account details.

The music handling is great, and the switch from album art to lyrics was something that a lot of the people I showed the new iPod Touch to found interesting. Video rendition is brilliant, though YouTube was still jerky, thanks to slow broadband speeds in India. On a long road trip, I was listening to music for more than 10 hours, so when Apple claims 22 hours of battery time, I believe them.

The tie in with Mobile ME meant I could synchronise my address book from my Mac laptop with my Windows desktop and the iPod easily.

There were some interesting applications at the newly opened Web Apps store, but I did not test many of these. What I found engrossing was the one that turns your iPod Touch, or your iPhone, into a piano. Nice. With more applications now being developed both for the iPhone and the Ipod Touch, this goes from being a mere musical device to a more intriguing machine capable of lots of things.

The price ranges from Rs 15,000 for an 8 GB version to Rs 25,000 for a 32 GB version.
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The above article appeared in the The Indian Express, on Sunday July 20th, 2008

LONG-TERM BARGAIN

The funny looking, eco-friendly car can be a good low-cost second vehicle

The other day, when the Reva was launched—re-launched rather—in Delhi with the state Government offering sops, I thought I’d check out the tiny eco-friendly car. One look and you know the electric-powered Reva cannot be anyone’s primary car, just one that can be used for chores and errands.
Build: The shape of the vehicle is peculiar but it grows on you. The body is built of ABS plastic, which the company claims is dent proof. The steering wheel is a tad small, the instrument panel of bad quality, the hand brake difficult to use and the brakes hard. The curved windscreen is nice, but the hatch is a little troublesome. And if you want to fold up the rear seats to make space, you’ve got rubber straps to hook them to!
Drive: Start the car and it comes on without an engine hum. The Reva does not have a clutch either but the handling was good. I drove the car at about 50 kmph, and loved the feel of its spunky engine.
Seating: Enough for two adults if you are not too tall. Two small children can be accommodated in the rear.
Air conditioner: Brilliant, the test drive unit cooled up pretty fast.

Beyond just the smiles you get when you drive along, there are a few things to remember about the Reva:
Changing the battery: The 8-battery set has a warranty of one year only. The company says you will not need to change them for at least 3 years. But given that a battery life is 18-24 months, you have to prepared to pay Rs 60,000 every two years for a replacement set.
Maintenance cost: The company claims a maintenance cost of Rs 600 every three months for service done at your door step. But it’s more likely that you will also have to spend an extra Rs 200 for basic maintenance like replenishing the battery water, etc.
So, does it make sense to buy this car? Well, a company buying the car makes a lot of sense since it can claim 80 per cent depreciation in the first year. To an individual buyer in Delhi, the sops (no registration tax, no VAT, no excise) makes the Reva an interesting option. Elsewhere, it could interest the quirky and those committed to the environment. But, having said that, it could become the mode of transport for a young couple in metros if they drive at odd hours to work 15-20 km apart. A businessman offering small services (computer repairs, A/C servicing, etc) can also think of the car for himself and/or a team member. The car is cheap to run and can be charged at the customer’s end.
One more question: Is there a future for the car? The biggest cost component from my view is the ABS body. Reva could have used fibreglass and brought down the cost. Besides, the Reva is not a hybrid, which uses both electricity and fuel. As it is, it cannot switch to a biofuel for a drive longer than the 80 km it can run on one 8-hour charge. Also, besides the charging points at home, none are available in the public places. You cannot charge it at your usual parking lots, but with shopping malls now installing 15 amp power sockets that a Reva requires for charging, maybe a mall parking could be a pitstop.
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The Above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday July 13, 2008.

THEM CLONES

Statutory warning: This article is not to be taken to mean the column is encouraging piracy.

That said, let me add that there are times when you do need to back up those DVDs of your favourite movies in case your careless niece leaves it to the mercy of the dog.

Happily for us, DVD writers don’t cost much these days and with writable DVDs available for as little as Rs 7 per disc, making a duplicate copy of a movie can be an easy home project.

But did you know you can’t really copy a DVD directly as they are protected? That is a problem of sorts. However, there are ways to bend the system, so to say.

The first step is the arm ourselves with a software called DVD Shrink. It’s available for free on the Internet, so all one has to do is to go to http://tinyurl.com/dvdshrink and download it. We need some utilities. So, go to http://tinyurl.com/vobtool and http://tinyurl.com/dvddecrypt. While downloading and installing them, remember to instal DVD Shrink the last. Once installed, set a few preferences. For this, you will need to press Edit and Preferences.
Set target DVD size to DVD 5 (4.7GB).
Check Hide Audio and Subpicture Streams of Insignificant Size.
Check Automatically Open VIDEO_TS subfolders.

Now move on to the Preview Tab, and make sure you select Stereo Stream, not 5.1. Next go to the Output Files tab and put a check mark in Remove Macrovision Protection. Leave the rest of the options as Default and press OK

Once this is done, you can start work on backing up the DVD. Click on Open Disk and you will get a list of available DVD drives on your PC. Select the one that has the movie. Press OK, click on the Open Files button. This will open the Video_TS directory. Select the file that you see. The software will then run some quick analysis. Just let it do its work, which is not a long process.

Once the analysis is complete, we can go ahead and select the movie subtitles that we want to save as well as the sound tracks. DVDs can store data in more than one language on its sound track, but when you want a back up it is possible that you don’t want the French or the Chinese versions. Since all you may want is the version in English, why clog up the disc unnecessarily? The screen is split into five parts. On the left, you can see the disc structure, Menu/Movie/Extras. If you don’t want to the Menu and Extras in the back-up, you can deselect them on the right by unchecking the boxes on the file details. Similarly in the main movie, you can uncheck languages that you feel you don’t require.

On the lower left you will see the preview of the movie, and on the bottom a bar that shows you the disk capacity. If the bar is red, it means you have more content than the blank DVD can hold. You could try deselecting some unneeded options to bring down the size of the file. It it’s green, it’s time to go to the next step

Click on the Backup Button at the top and it will start to make a copy of the DVD’s content. And soon enough, you have the clone of the original disc.

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The Article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday, July 6, 2008

No Popcorn Pleasure

Renting movies from Big Flix has its good and bad moments

THERE was a time when DVD players were expensive and not all of us had them in our homes. But the mass production factories in South Korea have brought down the prices. My first DVD Player in 2000 cost me Rs 23,000, and now I can buy a branded player for under Rs 3,000. So the problem isn’t the player now, the DVDs are. The movies you want to watch are still cost Rs 299+ and this makes the movie rental business interesting. Seventymm took the lead, then came in guys like Moviemart, and now big brother Reliance has entered the business with Big Flix.

Big Flix is spending millions on advertising, and it appeared a bargain to be able to rent movies unlimited for unlimited time at just Rs 299 a month. A month ago, I took the bait. It took me less than two minutes to sign up on www.bigflix.com. I was surprised to see that contrary to their ads, they had a limited number of regional language films, but for those whose basic choices will be English and Hindi films, they have enough. They offer the option of renting out 1, 2 or 3 discs at a time.

In the FAQ section, I learnt I needed a wishlist of at least 25 titles to ensure timely delivery. I opted for some 30-odd titles and waited for my movies to arrive. I had registered on a Saturday and presumed I wouldn’t hear from anybody till Monday. But Sunday brought a surprise visitor who came armed with two titles from my selection. However, he demanded that I hand over two movies I had borrowed. I informed him I was a new member and that I did not have any Big Flix items in my possesion, but he would have none of it. A ring to their call center on Monday (no responses on Sunday) ironed things out, and I was told this would not recur.

But things went wrong after that with confusion over titles delivered, about the number of discs I was entitled to borrow at a time and other hassles that left me aghast at the ineptness of the whole operation. Even after sending an email to customer care (an automatic ticket number was allocated and I was assured my complaint would be looked into), two weeks down the line, the discs don’t arrive on time, no one from customer care answers and movies automatically go into a pick up request.

I kept a movie for more than five days to see if I could hang on to it for as long as I wanted. I got a courteous SMS reminder reminding me of my misdemeanour and asking me to arrange a pick up.

Here is the score sheet

Customer Service: Worst possible
Movie listing: Good. Claims 15,000 titles.
Staff: Courteous generally, but most of them are ex-courier boys so some can be off-putting.
Presentation: The movies come packed in their original boxes. Some discs never played on my players due to a lot of scratches.
Delivery: No guarantees, erratic.
Pros: Big Flix has stores across the country, so you can always go there and pick up movies or return them easily. Online site could have been better, but it is improving.
Cons: If you want to watch a specific movie on a specific day, you are good either buying it or watching it on Video on Demand on DTH or renting it from the local DVD fellow.
Cost: Attractive

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The above article appeared in Indian Express on Sunday, June 29, 2008

Same data, different devices

Synchronising may become easier with Apple’s Mobile Me service

The iPhone is coming to India. I know this is not hot news. The real excitement is the reason why you should buy the iPhone when it’s here in India. And no, the reason is not the cool touch features of the phone or its pictures, videos, audio. The truth is, the iPhone will be a smart business phone.

The bane of technology is that we are saddled with multiple devices. I have a home computer, a laptop, a Blackberry and a few other devices I use to access the Internet and or do my work (some shared computers, some hand-held consoles). Upwardly mobile people have at least a cell phone, a home computer/laptop and an official laptop/PC, and keeping information, documents, contacts, email all synchronised among these devices is a bit of a bother. I wrote in this column recently on how to access your PC remotely, but if the problem for you is synchronising your files, Apple has just announced a new service called Mobile Me (www.me.com).

The service rides on the inability of an individual user to access Microsoft Exchange for email. Also your office might not provide you with a Microsoft Exchange account. These would make ensuring the same contact information in your phone and your multiple PCs a difficult thing. With Mobile Me, possibly powered by Google, you will be able to manage this mess. Apple will provide you with a 20GB file storage online, a synchronised email, calendar and address book, and a capability to share your files, data, and music across PCs. How this works relies on an acronym called Push.

Say you update a contact on your iPhone (right now, the service is available only on the Apple phone), and you add a picture and the birth date of a contact. Immediately, this update is ‘pushed’ to Apple’s server, from where your PC (Windows) or Apple Mac pulls the information when it is put on. Similarly, if you access your email on your Apple or PC at home and move it to a different folder, or add an entry in the calendar for an appointment with your customer. When you reach office, you will see the same entry and your emails filed properly on your office machine.

You can, of course, say you can do this with other online services too. But what makes Mobile Me interesting is that this will work with Apple Mail Client, Outlook and some other clients, so there will be no need to open a web page and looking through folders, files, calendars to find where you stored the information.

To know more, head to www.me.com, and see the video. Ladies and gentleman, Apple has done it again.

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The Above article was printed in the Indian Express, on Sunday June 22, 2008

Eating Out in Delhi: The Legends of India

I am always very wary of food and restaurant reviews in the magazines and News papers, when I say this, people look down at me, and say, hey you are one of those guys who run reviews, so why not trust another one, it's just that I think food is very personal. A long time back I had come across a blog Eating Out in Delhi, I loved the concept, and wanted to be a part of it, I don't know where they are, and what they are upto, but a few places I ate at from the Blog, were well, nothing to write home about.

A few weeks back I read a review of a New Place called "The Legends of India", and I wanted to check it out, after all it had the man Jiggs Kalra, the man, or should I say, the Sardar behind the reason I started to cook myself, I remember his Telly shows when I was just a child, and his love for Saffron, and the spice, that he could add to your food.. Anyway, so, i thought hey, it's a Jigg's venture, it can't be bad.

I went to The legends of India, on Saturday with missus in tow, after a lovely play at the IHC, and was a little taken aback, we had made reservations for 2, on a Saturday Night, 9:30, and the restaurant, was empty... I was a little taken aback, a trip to the washroom, and the non working flush, put me into thinking, am I at the right place, but by the time I was out of the Washroom the place was starting to fill up, but we still thought, let's give it a shot, after all, it's Jiggs.

The place has a lovely decor, and a shiny staff, all smiling and courteouslly waiting to drop in on you, even if you wave a hand (which by the way is a problem for me, cos I move my hands a lot when I talk), or you look at them, but the service was brilliant. We ordered a Raan, a Mirchi ka Salan, a Bakharkhani Roti, and a Gobi ka Kulcha. The food was preceded by a man bringing us a bowl filled with rose petals, and warm (not hot, not cold) warm water to rinse our hands, a very pleasant feeling. The apetisers (on the house, no they did not know who I am, it's just their way of starting the dinner), were papdi, made in the most awsome manner. The food was brilliant, the Bakharkhani a bit dry, but well the food was wonderful (just a small suggestion, stay away from non bottled water).

The food down, and an hour spent, we ordered deserts, chose to have the Labbab e Mashooq (A Falooda kulfi, not that nice, but brilliantly done). I finally figured out the reason they were not choc-a-bloc on a saturday night, well they dont' have the liquor licence, they should get it in 2 weeks (sad), but the place is wonderful

So if you think, the Indian food is limited to either the walled city, or the likes of Bhukhara and Dumpukht, you need to try out the Legends of India

Where: Connaught Place, New Delhi
Location: Outer Circle, just before the Jeevan Bharti Building
Decor: Brillinatly Done
Staff: Lovely, and appreciative
Price: Dinner for 2, Roughly 2000
Experience: Brilliant
Food: Indian

a few words before I part, the story in the start of the menu, is that about a Khumchewala, a word, you can't really find on the Internet, but try asking your grandparents about it, and you will know, why, food here makes sense.

G

PS: I am a foodie, and not a food critic, I love my food, and I love the rush that great food can create. I have eaten at the best of Places in Delhi, and the worst of run down shacks across, so I thought, why not give it a shot to write a review.

Five of my favourite things

A lot of readers have written to me asking me about the gadgets and gizmos I use. They probably feel that something that works for a technology columnists will work for them as well. Things cannot be generalised like that, but this week let me tell you about five gadgets that I can’t live without.

Laptop: On the top of my list is my trust white Apple MacBook. Without a laptop on my desk that has 3-4 hours of battery backup, and at least 2 GB of RAM, I would be dead. I dont’ use CD or DVD writers, external hard disks or thumb drives. I depend on email. In case I am in an area where there is no Wifi coverage, I fall back on my old and lovely Blackberry 7290.

Email on the move: Though it has started to look old, I continue to depend on my Blackberry, the 7290, which has a full-sized QWERTY keyboard and a right hand scroll wheel. What sets this piece apart from its newer counterparts is its matt-finish screen. Though it can’t play videos or music, sending and receiving mails on this device is an experience in itself. I get about two days without a recharge, helped I guess by the fact that I dont’ use the 7290 for my voice calls. (And no, this article was not written on the Blackberry, though there have been quite a few I did write on it during train journeys.)

Cineplex in my palm: I travel quite a bit, because of work mostly, and this keeps me away from the cinema halls and a DVD player. My Creative Zen keeps me good company with a small screen on which I can watch funny movies (I always have a copy of The Pink Panther at hand). I remember a time when this old woman in the train kept staring at me as I laughed my head off, watching Inspector Clouseau and his antics. And when I miss my close ones, the photo album is handy.

Photo memories: Travel brings you across interesting moments, interesting people, interesting architecture. Though my first love is film, I had to switch over to a pocket-sized camera for the sheer convenience of it. After a lot of delibration, I picked up an IXUS series Canon camera. My version does not have anti-shake or face recognition, but it lets me express myself in the way I want to. In any case, I don’t want a piece of software to take over my life. The 3 inch screen is great to take those wonderful photos and to share them. Its SD card is a format common to my Creative Zen, which makes my life easier. On those occasional days when I am confined to my room, my Gameboy proves handy.

Mobile games: I like the Sony PlayStation, but I can’t carry them on my trips, leaving me with the sole option of hand-held consoles. The Sony PSP is lovely—attractive graphics, can act as my video player, photo player, MP3 player and a game machine in one. Its biggest disadvantage, however: it neither has SimCity nor Pong, the old original Atari classic. So DS Lite it is for me. Its dual screen makes games like Mario brothers engrossing and games like scrabble and sudoko more interesting.

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The Above article was printed in the Indian Express, on Sunday June 15, 2008.

Printing on the move / Review HP Mobile Printer H470b

With business demands going 24x7, and customers still wanting to confer with you before they place an order, there are times when I am on the road the whole day. Thanks to a chauffeur negotiating the mad traffic on Delhi roads, I have the option of working on the move. But how much can you accomplish from the back seat of your car? Okay, you have the data card, your PC, some books, and maybe papers, but what do you do if you left one meeting and have to run to another, with a sheaf of printouts? I have encountered this problem one too many a times since my work takes me both out of the office as well as out of the city.

I planned to carry a small printer in the car for just such emergencies. But the printers that were available for in-car use were either based on thermal technology or limited in their printing. That was, of course, a few years back.

It’s June 2008 now and Hewlett-Packard has announced their Mobile Printer H470b in India. Oh well, I thought, it must be just another printer—and how much can you write about a printer anyway?

I was taken by surprise when the printer landed in my office. The brilliant use of clear and translucent plastic gives the product a chic look. Its petite size is eyecatching—everyone who spied it on my desk were drawn to it, with a “Boss, what’s that?”

The size of the H470b may deceive you into thinking it will print only on small sheets. But, no problem, the printer takes A4 sheets besides envelopes. The sheet tray can hold about 50 pages (but I would not recommend stowing away 50 pages if you are going to use the printer in a car). The size and the weight (the printer weighs about as much as a laptop) make the H470 easy to lug around. The power cord and the adapter are, however, bulky and inconvenient for mobile printing.

The printer connects to the PC using a USB cable, but you can upgrade the printer to work with Bluetooth and wireless (these options cost more, no price available at this time).These will also help Windows Mobile or Symbian phone to access the printer.

One recommendation: Don’t try and print papers in a moving car. Instead, stop the car and place the printer perhaps on the car boot, as the printer needs a stable surface, and not your car seat. The battery will last long enough to give about 400 pages of prints, but remember to charge it every day.

I tested the printer with Linux, Windows and Mac PC, and the prints were nice. The sharpness was nothing to write home about, but then you can’t expect the world in a package as small as this. The built-in memory card slots allows prints directly from a memory card (HP should have included thumb-drive support), and PictBridge capabilities let you print directly from your camera, using the USB cable. Photo print quality, however, is average.

The best thing about this printer was the speed: the first black page came out in less than 10 seconds, and a colour page took about 15 seconds. I did not try printing a 4x6 photo, but you can use this printer to do that too, using photo paper and photo inks.

This is a wonderful product. It price, admittedly, is high at Rs 13,900, but for most of us looking at mobility requirements, what HP has done with a small printer is to make one more impossible possible.

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The Above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday June 08, 2008

Virtual access: Using Logmein To Access your PC

Access a file on a computer from one that is some place else
I work in a technology services company and the most essential part of my daily routine is to be able to access data from wherever I am. Since most of this is work-related, I end up spending quite a lot of time on the computer. But then I can also remember those days—and I think most people do have those days—when I have a file that I need at work on my home computer. It is that important presentation I have worked on all night and, dang it, I even forgot to copy it to my pen drive.

In such a situation, what do you do? I think there are two options:

Call wife / sister / parents at home, ask them to go to your PC, look for the file and email it to you. This is the most simple solution, but it often does not work. Most of the time, the file cannot be located. And then they find something that they should not be looking at, and the conversation takes a different angle. There is also the possibility that the folks at home are tech savvy at all and operate a computer.

Take a cab/ train back home, go pick up the file in your pen drive and head back to office. In the old days, this was a feasible option, but with distances between work and home increasing, and commute times logging over an hour or so for most of the people, this option could be out of the question

If this is a situation that you often find yourself in because of forgetfulness or because you work on more than one computer, there is a third option to getting the required file—and best of all it’s free. Though there are paid versions of the software that facilitates this, for a home user I think the free version—admittedly with less features—works pretty well.

Head to www.logmein.com. There are a number of softwares available on that site. The one we need is Log Me In Free. To get this click on “Products”, and the select “Log Me in Free”. Note: Download this on the PC that you will want to control remotely, not on the PC from which you will be controlling.

For the downloaded, you need to sign up first. Click on the download link and it will take you to a form. Fill in your email address (this is going to be your user name), then type in a password (make sure this is secure). Select your country, and then fill the other two boxes, and click on create account. Once done, this will bring you to a new screen, which will give you the option of adding a computer. Click on “Add computer” and it will start to download a software on your PC. Download this, double click and install, and you are all set up for a hassle free future.

Whenever you need to access the PC on which you downloaded the software from your office computer, open www.logmein.com using your favourite Internet browser, log in with the email ID and password that you had entered earlier—and you will see your computer. If your home computer is switched off, you will not be able to access it. So ensure it is on—either keep it on or ask someone to switch it on for you. Click on to your computer, select “Remote Desktop”, and voila, you have the home desktop on your office computer.

Go ahead, transfer files, or maybe browse a website, that your corporate LAN does not allow you to do from the office or check on the status of the downloads you had programmed your PC to do.
Happy virtual desking.

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The Above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday, June 1, 2008.

Review: imate Ultimate 8150 Handset

The Ultimate 8150 from i-Mate is more a looker than a doer


I am no big fan of either the Windows Mobile platform or smart phones but i guess there is a world beyond me. I do, however, think that i-mate and HTC make products that look good. Take the Ultimate 8150 from i-mate, for instance

The first thing that I found attractive about this phone was the way it was designed. Its bulk and uncomfortable and longish keys notwithstanding, it’s still a party magnet. There was a small difference though. I am used to a Blackberry scroll wheel on the right side, but the 8150 has it on the left. The touchscreen is accurate and works very well, and the phone features a headphone out, a large screen, one of the fastest processors (Xscale@520 Mhz with 128 MB RAM) in any smart phone, can take a mini SD card and also has a slot for VGA output to a projector. I tested the VGA output and was happy to see that if ever I need to make a PowerPoint presentation on the road and did not want to carry my laptop, this would prove a good substitute.

But beyond its looks, I will hve issues with the Ultimate 8150. Disappointingly, the battery runs out in just about a day. And the phone takes ages to switch on—you have to wait for four minutes before it is in a usable state. The alarm, well, won’t even wake a baby, the speakerphone could have been louder, and connecting to the Internet (agreed that Microsoft Mobile phones have had issues with viruses, so they need to make sure you understand the settings) must be made simpler. I have WiFi at home and office, but still had to spend about 30 minutes to get the browser working. And I am a techie at that!

The 8150 does not support data transfer using Bluetooth, so I was unable to transfer files from my PC or another phone using Bluetooth. The built in Internet Explorer is great, but Opera performed much better—so long as the battery lasted. The battery if it goes dead on you, you have recharge it for at least 15 minutes before you are able to switch on the phone.

I am in the habit of switching off my mobile at night. It switches on at 7 am when the alarm goes off. I think most of the phones do, but the 8150 did did not. When I got out of bed at 7:30 am, I had to manually switch it on, only to find an alert telling me I had missed an alarm. Funny and frustrating.

The phone does have its savoury side too. Setting up the exchange account on this phone for my email was one of the easiest. The sound quality on the headphones is good, and the DivX and MPEG playback are commendable.

The phone has standard options like an IR port, a USB port, SD slot and weighs in at about 152 grams. The screen is big and bright, a big plus point for on-road use. It also supports 3G and HSPDA (sadly not available in India) for high-speed browsing. As with all business phones, this too is a quad band phone. The camera is a 2mp one, but the performance is not worth writing about.

For a price of Rs 37,990, I would need to sit and think hard whether all I need is a looker. But if you are seriously looking for a business phone that works, you should just pass this one by.
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The Above Article was printed, in the Indian Express, on Sunday, May 25th, 2008

HEART OF METAL: Robotic Toys

Robotic toys are not made of flesh but bring a warmth all their own
They are clumsy, speak without feeling and do things mechanically. But robots have a way of endearing themselves to us. Whether it is a stupid robotic toy that makes some sounds or a sophisticated device that pretends it is out to kill the whole human race, they all end up amazing us. While we all yearn to have our own R2D2s, or Weebos (Flubber), we all know that this is still a little far off. What is fascinating is the thought that robots might one day serve us—or rule over us.

In a fast-paced world with little time to spend at home, robots are becoming both companions and toys for adults. Sony took a lead in 1999 by developing AIBO (Artificial Intelligence Robot). People like dogs, even robot dogs, and it was a runaway success. Sony stopped its production in March 2006. So what do you do now if you, like Robin Williams, need your own Weebo or a pet robot that will greet you, play with you, make faces at you, and best, leave you in peace when you switch it off.

A few months ago I went to a toy shop to see the latest in gizmos for kids. There I came across the WowWee robotic reptile. Begging and pleading with my wife for a new toy was useless. Though the little creature appealed to both of us, we did not want a dinasour walking around in the house, not with a two-year-old nephew around who might just get scared.

There wasn’t much I could do then. But on a trip this week, I found copies and lookalikes of the WowWee robot series, and some of the toy shops also had the original ones, now available for a price range between Rs 2,000 and Rs 5,000.

The great models that looked interesting and could become companions—no, I am not generalising this, but then more and more of us are indeed living alone now—are the Robo Sapien, the Robo Panda and the Robo Pet. Though there is a funny series called Chatter Bot also, but this was not on the shop shelves. The interesting features of the Robo Sapien are its life-mimicking movements—dancing the twist, walking, running, even saying “Oops!”. And, of course, its mood swings. Ah, now you have to get used to a machine doing this to you. For Rs 3,000, that is the max you can get out of the 67 possible functions it has. So it won’t fix you a drink or help you clean up the mess in your room.

The Robo Panda, as they call it, a talkative creature. With his “ahem”, engaging personality and bright animated eyes, you are sure to fall in love with the mechanical bear. You know it can tell you a story and sing a song with you. So the manifestation of the inner child in you, or the son you never had, is what Robo Panda can be.

The third and my favourite among them all is Robo Pet, which is similar to Sony’s AIBO. This cute little fusion of technology and personality is a dog that is extremely lovable. It is nowhere like everybody’s favourite pug on TV, but hey, you can’t get everything in life. Like a real dog, Robo Pet perform tricks for you on command: bark, whimper, growl, pant. It barks when it hears a movement, and is equipped with infrared vision that helps it to detect obstacles and avoid bumping into something.

So for about Rs 3,000 bucks, you can actually make your childhood dream of having your own R2D2 or Weebo as a pet. And they come with their plus points—they need no cleaning up, nor do they continue to annoy you when you aren’t in a playful mood. To know more, visit www.wowwee.com, or an upmarket toy store near you.

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The Above Story, was printed in The Indian Express, on Sunday, May 18, 2008

Come, meet Lonely Girl & Kate Modern: Is this the new Vouyer ?

If you’re tired of TV soaps, check out the interactive action on the Net

I would love to call up Smriti Irani and dig out the real story behind Tulsi, but I don’t have her number, and even if I did, Ekta Kapoor wouldn’t let me discuss it. Rewind to a few years ago when tech geeks were still talking of interactive television and looked forward to the DTH so that we would be able to decide the future and shape the serial as we wanted. But with so many plots changing so often and yet with the characters frozen in time, interactive television would not have helped much.

Then came the Internet and companies like YouTube started beaming videos created and uploaded by people that you could stream and watch. The ones that made most sense were the ones that were humourous, like the Mentos and the Coke videos.

Eventually, Orkut, YouTube and others changed the way one communicated, networked and formed communities—and called it Social Network. Of late, a company called EQAL has been successfully producing two online interactive dramas: Lonely Girl and Kate Modern.

Imagine a high school girl with swooping eyebrows, boy problems, a webcam somewhere in the US with a room filled with stuffed toys. I am not talking of the girl next door or the girl on that X rated credit card hungry website. LG (Lonely Girl is about 496 episodes old having begun in June 2006) is based on the life of a young girl called Bree. There was a time she would stream on YouTube and now it revolves around her friends and family. The series is short and has regular updates of video feeds posted by the fictional character.

Kate Modern is in its 260th episode—it started in July 2007—and is the sister series of the Lonely Girl. The show is set in England, bears many similarities to Lonely Girl, and in its second season, is generating an increasing amount of interest.

Such online dramas show that the Internet TV has arrived. The phenomenon would not have worked without the explosion of broadband and the advent of YouTube. The other reason for its success is the hybrid form of story-telling. What makes it important enough for me to write about it is that, as a viewer, you can correspond with the characters and even alter the plot.

The Internet, or as it’s now called, the Web 2.0, is a relatively new medium for everyone. The way people looked at Internet till a few years ago was how they looked at a newspaper or a radio; the same boring content would be everywhere. So if you miss your action of the daily soaps and the K action on TV is too much for you to bear, head for www.lg15.com, and discover a life beyond TV.

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The Above Article was printed in the Indian Express, on Sunday, May 11, 2008

How to record streaming audios: Reader Query Answered

Now record favourite songs from MP3, radio or podcast sites

I remember the days when two-in-one audio systems allowed you to record your favourite music and listen to it over and over again. It was a time when kids worked hard at their song compilations and people with two-cassette decks were considered fortunate. Then came the CDs, people moved to recorded songs on MP3 players, and today, listening to radio on cell phones has become a fad.

When I recently switched to a Mac, I not only fell in love with it but also with the Internet radio channel while listening to iTunes. I, of course, had iTunes on Windows, and similar programs on Linux, but with over 200 channels beaming my favourite hits from the 1950s through the ’80s, I wanted to grab my two-in-one and record the songs. So this week, I shall tell you how to record streaming audios from MP3 sites, radio sites or podcast sites that don’t let you download—all without spending a dime.

Since most people these days are Windows users, I shall target this piece at them. The first thing you need to do is get your hands on a nifty little software called Freecorder. To do so, go to www.freecorder.com. The download is free, without the risk of viruses and without limitations. Click on the “get it free” button and once you have downloaded it, open the file. Then select the option to install all your browsers (I selected both Internet Explorer and Firefox and suggest you do the same).

Once installed, it will automatically launch your default browser (Firefox or Internet Explorer), and take you to a survey page. If you want to, you can fill it, otherwise click on the link that says “quick start”. Press “continue” at the bottom of the page, go through the page that comes up, and if you want, read the Toolbar FAQ.

Now head to your favourite online radio site. If you don’t know of any, a good place to start is www.live365.com (though some stations require membership, they have a lot of free stations too). Browse through the stations and when you press the play button, you will see options like Record/ Stop/Pause/Play and settings come up on your browser. These buttons will help you record. (As some stations are added by default, you can add your station to the browser toolbar).

A normal user doesn’t need to change the settings. But if you are like me, you will want to do it. In this case, press the settings button and you can play around with the way Freecorder records and saves your files. Once you are ready to record, all you need to do is press the red record button. If all goes well, you will see a VU meter with a wave form. If you don’t, go back to settings and make sure the option “Record from freecorder input audio driver” is selected. If you hadn’t done it, select it and record again.

The file will be saved to the directory in the settings. To know how well you fared with your recording, press the stop button on the station you are listening to, and then press the stop button in the Freecorder toolbar.

Pressing the play button in the freecorder toolbar will take you to the directory where your recording is saved. Double click and listen to the song you just recorded.

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The Above Article was Printed in the Indian Express, on Sunday, May 4, 2008

For Eyes and Ears: Review Samsung YP-S2 MP3 Player

The new Samsung MP3 player has the curves of a temptress

I have a thing for shiny little gadgets. The bling factor makes them interesting and I am not even talking about their interesting shapes. The new forms that gadget companies give their products gives the same old technology an interesting outlook. But trust me, I know, like my wife says, I am a dog when it comes to technology, always salivating. So you shouldn’t be surprised when I say the new Samsung MP3 player is an eye candy. Whatever term you would want to use for it, this device lives up to it.

To be available in India soon, the Samsung YP-S2 is a stylish, multi-hued acquisition. The 1GB version costs about $39 and besides the five different colours it’s available in, it also has some nice features. It charges using the USB port of your PC—and there are no silly connectors on the device to spoil its silhouette. The USB cable plugs directly into the same port that is used for the earphones (which, of course, means you can’t listen to music while your are charge it). And every time you transfer data from the PC, like most other new-tech devices, this gets charged too.

Another great feature about the YP-S2 is the multicoloured LED lights that glow when the device is charging. What is more, it also indicates to you the battery status. Yes, I admit this is more a visual treat than technology, but then as I said, this MP3 player is an eye candy.

Well, I was talking about the shape too. The YP-S2 is designed to look like a pebble, quite reminiscent of the Moto Pebl phone. The aesthetics, therefore, are excellent. To top it all, all the buttons—stop, play, pause, next track, last track—are neatly arranged on the underside, leaving the eye to ogle at the smoothness of it all.

The player supports MP3, OGG and WMA, making it a top buy. However, the 1GB storage limit may leave you a bit miffed (okay, but at an average of 5MB a song, you can fit in about 200 songs—how many do you want to walk about with?).

Most of the alternative music players other than the iPod Shuffle now feature a screen, however tiny, for pictures and videos. That is what is missing in the YP-S2.

If you can live with that, there is just one other downside to this cutesy player—it is not finger-print proof. So with the samosas and the chips that snack on, not to mention India’s myriad fried delights, and the dust around, you could end up with a haggard-looking device in a few days. But I’ll worry about that later. My priority is to get my grubby hands on it first.

So there. If you want to stand out in that college crowd or simply love gadgets, and don’t mind having just another MP3 player, look forward to the launch of the YP-S2 Launch. It’ll be worth it.

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The Above Article was Printed in the Indian Express, on Sunday, April 27, 2008

In the Good Books: MacBook

If you want a new laptop, and have the money, go for the Apple Mac Book

When my my three-year-old IBM Thinkpad gave up on me about three weeks ago, I began my search for a new machine. After all, the Pentium 4 had been replaced with the Core 2 Duo, and my 2 GB RAM machine looked ancient. I had two options: buy another Thinkpad, or choose from an HP, the Asus Eee PC or the Apple Mac. For me the transition from PC to Mac wouldn’t have been difficult as I have been on Linux for years, and in many ways Mac works no differently from the Linux box. So I zeroed in on a Mac.

Today, when you can buy several laptops for under Rs 40,000, one doesn’t have to think of taking a home loan. But with the MacBooks starting from Rs 65,000, I needed to think. Since I haven’t been a Mac user, I needed to put down my requirements on paper. I needed a fast machine which would last at least three years. I needed a machine with a small screen, around 13 inches, and which would play DVDs, not necessarily write them. I also wanted a lot of RAM and power.

Among the Intel MacBooks, there were three models. I whittled my choice to a white model, the cheaper one, which came with a DVD reader, not a writer. I didn’t want to spend another Rs 10,000 on a DVD writer and RAM, but I did buy something called an Apple Care pack for Rs 13,000 that helped me extend the one-year warranty to three years.

Back home, I opened the machine, booted it up and 10 minutes later I had a shiny Mac with a wonderful software. All I had to do now was go online and grab freebies like the Firefox browser, Thunderbird for e-mails and Neo office (the open office port for Macs)—I didn’t want to pay Microsoft for the software.

After using the Mac for three weeks now, all I can says is it’s geek zen. One may face problems with the missing right click (yes, Macs have only one mouse button) and being on a PC that does not have Windows (there is boot camp, and there are things like Parallels / Vmware Fusion) may not make this the right choice for all, but if you are willing to learn, you have a perfect machine that looks and works well.

Still, some of the bigger problems with the MacBook are that even at 2 GB plus of RAM, it can be slow at times. The machine heats up a lot at the base, so it may not be a good idea to work for long stretches keeping it in your lap. The wonderful backlit keyboard is not present in the MacBook, only in the Macbook Pro series. The white Mac has killer looks but I would advise you to go for the black one as it doesn’t get soiled quickly. The web camera and sound are great, but it does not work in a low light conditions. Still, it’s a wonderful machine.

So if you are looking for a new laptop and have the money, go try this one.
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The Above Article was Printed In Indian Express, on Sunday, April 20, 2008

GS

Asus Eee PC v/s HP HP 2133 Mini-Note - Tech 2

This week in My Indian Express Article, I reviewed the HP 2133 Mini Note.

To read the review, click here, or buy the Indian Express, on Sunday, April 13, 2008, Across India.

I know some of you would like to know feature to feature comparison, so here it is

Spec	HP Mini Note	Asus Eee PC
Processor	VIA 1.0~1.6GHz	Intel UMA
Scree	8.9"	7"
RAM	512 ~ 2048MB	512 ~ 1024MB
Graphics	WXGA 1280x800	SVGA 800 x 600 - Unknown
Stroage	4GB SSD ~ 120GBHDD	4GB ~ 8GB SSD
Battery	2.5 Hours	3 Hours
Webcam	VGA	VGA
Bluetooth	Select Models	NO
Weight	2.63 lbs	2.02 lbgs

Facebook - Step by Step - How to figure on

AS most of you would know, I am a big believer of networking, and I spend nearly 1 hour a day on LinkedIN, looking at how I can connect with more and more people, yes, I understand the debate of Quality v/s quantity, but LinkedIn to me is pure business. A few weeks back, I saw a lot of my school and college friends coming up on LinkedIn, and then I saw there were groups, groups that led me to facebook. Now I have been a member (sleeping) of Facebook for ages, but I finally got to go use it, and now I have some good old buddies all lined up.

This week in my tech2 Article in Indian Express, I look at how to make your profile on Facebook, and how to get connected. To read more, click here, or buy the copy of Indian Express on Sunday April 06, 2008, India wide.

GS

Hard Target - External Hard Disks

Last week in my Tech2 Article I spoke about the Pinnacle Video Transfer, and it needs a huge hard disk, if you end up recording a lot of programs, but then how big a hard disk can you get, can you get scalable external hard disks, I look at two options, one from Netgear and the other from Bufalo, in my Indian Express, article this Week. To read more, click here or buy the Copy of Indian Express, this Sunday March 30, 2008, across India.

GS

On the Record - Recording your TV Program without a PVR/PC or VCR

I love watching TV, but with my 24x7 schedules, and major traffic jams while going and returning from work, TV or missing TV is a thing I really don't like. I would have loved to have a TIVO or a PVR, but well they dont' really have good options that work in India, so on my hunt for recording TV I came across the Pinnacle Video Transfer, and it works nicely. To read my review of the Pinnacle box, click here to read it online, or buy the copy of Indian Express, on Sunday March 23, 2008, across India.

GS

Alarm Bells - 3 Alarm Clocks you may like to buy

24x7 Schedules are taking it's toll on me, and a simple alarm clock, and the shouting from the mrs, is not sufficient to get me out of my slumber, so i need to look for things, that will actually wake me, these are three alarm clocks that I think work, to read more, click here or buy the Copy of Indian Express, this Sunday, March 16 2008, India wide.

GS