Have you felt the need to connect to the Internet when you are on the road, or travelling. Maybe for that important email that needs a review, or to send out a quote to a customer. I have a lot of this need. I try to answer your questions on alternatives on how to do this in my latest article in Indian Express Money.
Online, and in Print on the 26th of September 2005 with Indian Express.
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When i saw people carrying the O2, i thought now that is a sleaze machine to own, then came around the O2 mini. My problem with them, the lack of a keyboard, keep pressing the screen.. now that is not the most frendiliest way to work with things for me. I am more of a keyboard guy. Anyway... when I saw the reviews for the O2 Xda Exec, I got interested (Add to wishlist :) ), anyway the problem, it is currently only available with a contract from O2, now they are not here in India, so my choices are limited. Well are you interested in a phone like this, look at the i-mate JASJAR ( Approx: 50K INR), the phone is a great buy (Well so I can say, till my lay my hands on one and actually test it out), anyway.. Just to tell you the features
Windows Mobile 5.0
Wireless LAN 802.11b (11 mbps.. good.. but not the best)
Tri-Band 900/ 1800/ 1900 MHz, + WCDMA(UMTS) (2100MHz)* - Hmm.. Interesting
v1.2 Bluetooth
MMC / SDIO Memory Slot
Push Email Service - Similar to Blackbery's
Two Cameras
Built-In 62 Key QWERTY keyboard
Integrated Video and Music Players
Stereo Loudspeaker
Now that is a sleaze machine.. i am already drooling
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With the television and news paper shouting out blu ray (actually the way they have been writing it, it is blue ray), but hey what's in a name :), blu-ray seems to be the next kid attraction. How hot is it, and what is the techonlogy, let me answer some questions for you.
What is blu-ray ?
Blu-ray, also known as Blu-ray Disc (BD) is the name of a next-generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA),PC companies (like Apple, Dell, LG, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and others..). The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. A single-layer Blu-ray Disc can hold 25GB, which can be used to record over 2 hours of HDTV or more than 13 hours of standard-definition TV. There are also dual-layer versions of the discs that can hold 50GB.
How does it make a difference to you ?
Hmm.. remember there used to be records, and then came cassettes, and then CD's and now DVD's, well Blu-ray is the next thing for you. Imagine able to store multiple movies (say all of Alfred Hitchcock movies - about 67 of them all on one disc), all with subtitles, high definition quality and multiple angles. Now that seems interesting, atleast for couch potatoes.
When will it come out ?
Well some of the companies have their players and recorders out in the market, some of them are working on stability issues, and a price point product. So wait and see what happens.
Want more information, well see http://www.blu-ray.com/info/
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Well Samsung is not going to tire out soon from the race of "bada hai to accha hai", but one thing is for sure, this TV does look amazing.. now where is the mooolaah for it :)
Anyway.. just some small lowdown on this (make sure you click on the images to see the larger files)
Samsung has just announced the arrival of the world's biggest LCD TV, the 57" LN57F51BD. The model is FULL HDMI (2 ports). A very interesting aspect is the presence of a touch screen at the bottom that allows you to navigate through the menus with your little finger. The contrast ratio is set at 5000:1, the refresh speed is 8ms and you get a viewing angle of 178 degrees. The RSP of the 57" is 13000 EUR.
Samsung Press Release (In Korean)
In English, thanks to Google
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Well with World space spending lakhs on advertising trying to push a product that has been here for a long time, and unsuccessful, maybe they got you lopped into the marketing hoolaah.. are you interested in hearing what your options are, is Worldspace really worth it. Alas we don't have sirius in India, else I would have looked at the Satellite radio in a different manner.. but hey.. why not give it a read, my article this week in the Express money.
As I say, radio ga ga.
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Are you a road warrior like me? My family jokes around saying I would have made more money as a chauffer with the amount of driving I do across India. Well my work takes me places, and one thing that i need is to connect to the internet, google and email is my soul food.
Getting connected across India till a few years back was unthinkable. All holidays (if any) meant that you had to goto a town and search for the cybercafe there, and fix a full day price in place of a per hour price, once done that, you had to pursuade those guys to let you hook up your laptop so that you could work peacefully. I have paid 100's of Rupees for all this stupid connectivity issue. Then came in GPRS.. from Airtel, a great product, priced at Rs. 499 a month flat for unlimited usage. Last year, Airtel went ahead and announced EDGE on it's network, also an India wide roll out of their network, now they were in every city, and you could roam on the Airtel network use your Edge / GPRS and do what you wanted over the internet. Yes it worked, all for Rs. 499 a month plus taxes.
I recently had major troubles with GPRS services, and changed my handset from a Nokia 6600 to a Nokia 6021, and eversince had no issues. I have on my trips experienced speeds of upto 200 kilo bits per second (I am not joking), but usually get a good sustained rate of 30 to 50 kilo bits per second, which is great.. for my kind of work on the road.
When Airtel announced their quad band edge / gprs card, I jumped on, got interested and called them up, a few of my friends bought it, but I went into a think, should I buy it or not. Today after another long discussion with airtel, I came up with the following, and I think you will find this interesting.
On your phone Airtel offers, two kinds of packs, pay as much as you use, or a flat Rs. 499 a month pack which i have, which I find ideal, who is going to keep tab of how much spam I downloaded.
On the Card, they have three plans, Rs. 399 for 100 megs of download and Rs. 5 Per Meg after that, Rs. 599 for 1 GB of download and Rs. 3 Per MB After that, Rs. 799 for 1.5 GB of Download and Rs. 3 Per MB after that.
My questions to Airtel,
It's wednesday, and the rumour has become a reality, the phone is here, yes the iPod Phone called Motorola ROKR is here and it's been launched. All you MP3 fans isnt' this the phone you were really waiting for. Well if you are like me, in India, you will have to wait a while. Also new out is the iPod Nano, that replaces the shuffle. So.. which one do you buy.
Well first, iPod Phone (hmmm i keep calling it that), the Motorola ROKR is not available in India and will not be, if you think you can download your mp3's to the phone, you are in for a surprise, you need to buy the mp3 files for a $ a piece, yes, you have to pay for it, and the service currently available through cingular in the US and another provider in the UK is the only option. Smuggling it in, or asking your aunt to carry it back from her next trip videsh is not really going to help you with this one.
Still want a cool gadget, my take, take the iPod Nano, just out, and sweet and smart.
It's thin, sleek, silver and white (yes.. apple.. remember) or black (Thank you apple), about 50 grams in weight, works will all the standard iPod accessories, comes in 2GB and 4GB Capacities.
Well which one which one.. which one.. :)
More details when I get to see the model in India.. and the prices too
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I can remember the days as a child, all I was enamoured by at that time was LED's. Yes those tiny little thingy's that glow when you pass current through them. I spent endless amount of money working with home brew electronic projects, that could make the lights go on.. and you could see a smile on my face. A lot did not happen to the LED's, yes, the blue colored and the white colored LED's came out, and they started consuming lesser current, in the gold old day's what we had was yellow, red, green and orange....well the choices were limited.
Then a few days back products made with OLED came out, and I can not wait till I get my hand on one of these.
You think I am dreaming, wake up, smell the coffee. The picture above is true. The picture is of a Pillow Made by Philips (Yes those great innovative guys) have managed to integrate flexible arrays of multicolored LEDs into fabrics without compromising the softness of the cloth.
The Electronic and Photonic Textiles prototypes include what Philips calls the "SMS pillow" (send a text message to it and words scroll across it) and a backpack that has the same LED substrate stitched onto the back.
The messages can be customised, even graphics can be output to them. So what are you thinking, what's the next Wake up Message :)
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Did you find my article about Mr. Bagree interesting. Well he did buy the moon and he hit the news papers with it. Did you ? Want to know what will happen next, now that America will land on the moon, will they use your land, will you get any money for it. Well as the word goes around the internet, people are worried about it.
If you have one of the certificates above, and you still believe you own a piece of the moon, wake up.. Make sure you get paid for it when someone parks there :)
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I loved it.. and you will too... go here...www.badmash.org
Simple.. sweet.. make sure you see the Amitabh's - Want some Dishum
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Off a blog i stumbled on
"I saw "Mangal Pandey" yesterday in the evening. I came to realize that there is nothing stronger than religious feeling. Not even patriotism or the "India" feeling. I think if the cartridge wasn't greased with animal fat, he wouldn't question his superiors. He would have kept serving the British Empire if this issue hadn't come up. He questioned the British when his religious feelings were hurt, not because his fellow countrymen became slaves of the empire."
Well I think to a certain level what this gentleman says is right, but to a certain level no. The movie showed what happened, every individual has their feelings. Mangal, the guy in the movie has a clear goal on what the "Company" is all about. He questions his friend, he questions people, but yes, Religion played a larger role. I believe what was important was the collective thought, the opperesion was there, religion triggered it.
Battles fought over religion are never won, they are always lost. Oppression, now that is what one needs to fight about. I believe, today we are again going to the old times fighting over religion, we are not oppressed people, but jealous people, it's have's and have nots. I think one needs to clearly define..
My dear friend from an unknown blog I stumbled on. I like your thought, but I feel that it was quite contrary.
After we finished the movie (Well during the movie only) I heard a lot of people say, why glorify Mangal Pandey, after all who was he. I think Ketan Mehta has done a great job in showing that a collective group, can pull off anything. Whether that is a fight against oppression, or to stand up against it. They did it, he did it.. whether it was true or fiction.. the portrayal and the lesson learnt is larger.
A great movie. If you have not seen it, you are missing something large. Go down.. and enjoy.
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Aren't digital cameras a mainstream toy now, no more a geek toy. I remember when I bought my first Mavica from Sony, It costed me a bomb and could do only 640x480 pixels, the term Megapixels was not even coined as yet. But now, choosing the right camera is becoming more of a task rather than a breeze, because of the number of options available. My take on the right camera to buy and what to look for in the Express Money, on 22nd August 2005, with the Indian Express Countrywide.
For those of you who don't get the paper, see this for the online edition.
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Hi,
Its that time of the year again, when the whole country goes on to celebrate the great relation between a Brother and his Sister. What better way than to turn your sis a geek, and gift her some gadgets. For some of my cool ideas, read my Article "No Strings Attached", In Express Money, with the Indian Express on Monday 15th August, 2005. Or click here.
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PS: Happy Independance Day
Pictures can speak a thousand words... look at these
animicausa - seating system
animicausa - seating system
animicausa - seating system
animicausa - seating system
Interested, see Animi Causa, a great line of products. My Wishlist expanded :)
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My latest article in the indian Express, explains the mathematics on what you need in a PC and what the sub 10k Pc really costs you at the end of the day.
Online Edition: Express Money, August 7th 2005
Print Edition: Mondays with the Indian Express in the Express Money supplement.
If you are like me, and have worked in a dark room at night, at times to fumble for a key, well, the Think Light on my IBM has helped, and the add on light I had for my Dell, though a drain on the battery was good, to help. But what better than the oled (Organic LED) keyboard from artlebedev.
The OLED format is new, and gives a lot of flexibilities, and I love the product. This keyboard can be customised as per your application and or your language, and has pixel based display on each key, to change the keyboard, and for those who have salivated for the DAS Keyboard from think geek, well this is your next dream.
More photos' and details at www.artlebedev.com (I dont know.. how much they are selling this for), though this is currently on the top of my wishlist
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I have always depended on it. Yes it's true, It's fast and It's helpful. That is only if you know how to use it. Now I believe a lot of you will know, that how I know everything. Well I don't, I google :)
A Great Article on CNET tells you about how 30 Minutes on Google, can help you find out Information on anyone. Yes.. Anyone who has been online, or has been a little public with some information. Though Google is not talking to CNET anymore because of this article, and I believe if they review my blog, they may want to shut me down, but JIC, see this.. I believe it showcases the real power of Google. It is a search engine, and if you know how to use it.. you can really get a lot more information that from the library down the road.
Link to the Article at CNET.COM
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Last month when the HP 6500 pictures came out, and the geeks started to praise microsoft again (well why?) everyone including large tech blogs called the HP 6500 the Blackberry killer. Are the days of the Blackberry counted.
Look at this
This is the Motorola Moto Q, reminds you of someone.. Well it does look good. But I would not buy a Motorola phone. All you guys who know me.. know why.. I am a big Nokia (Yes I know, they are not the cutting edge guys), phone freak, but not motorola.
This sure looks impressive to me, the Q, though it will not come out till the second quarter of 2006, has a Razor like look, It's one of the first devices in the market that is running Windows Mobile 5 (So if your office like every other big microsoft customer) have upgraded to exchange 2003, then this is good for you. Also a 1.3 mp camera, and some other cool features.
I loved the look and feel of the Razor, sadly the big M on top of it.. kept me away from it.
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Cantenna.. The most commonly used, home brewed Wireless access Antenna. Well that is how I would define it. Anyone serious about Wireless usage and willing to experiment a bit has built one. If you dont' know what I am talking about.. well you are not a geek is all I can say. In my experience anyone who has tried a bit of wardriving, or even detection of remote networks would have used a cantenna, but hear this
"Last month in Elk Grove, a high-school student faced eight felony computer-theft charges for allegedly hacking into his school's computer system and changing his grades.
When police searched his home, they found aluminum-lined, cylindrical potato-chip containers that some hackers use as crude antennas to help them intercept wireless signals."
This happened in the Sacramento Bay area in the US. Well what do we learn from this.. not that the can can (ah that sounds funny) can can create a problem, but secure your wireless networks.
All wireless routers that you pick at the store, are capable of sending a signal to some distance outside of your home or office, and by default, these devices (which they call plug and play) don't come with any security enabled. You need to enable security.
So.. go wireless.. but be secure.. G
A few days back.. i managed to screw up and loose out on my Lattitude V740 from Dell. Merely 2 years old, my Display died on me, I was told. i had lived it's 20,000 hours of activity.. well in less than 2 years or so. yes. i have a bad habbit.. i never switch off my machines..
The dell was my second laptop.. after the sad demise of my Compaq Presario Laptop, 1200 series.. it came with a 12.1" display.. well that was the largest i could afford at that time.. and now.. i hear 12.1" are premium.. anyway.. and now. .am at an R51 IBM Thinkpad..
Anyway, the Big Blue has become a Red Blob. The day I opened the package from IBM, on the 4th of July, yes, the right hand ALT key of my keyboard came out. Well I am a far heavier user than Lenovo thought it designed the machines for... it's impossible.. too tough.. work harder.. to work without the alt key.. especially if you are not a touch typist..
It's firday evening. when i got back into Delhi, after another of my long trips and dont' know what to do with this. I have had other friends hwo have reported similar incidents of loosing keys on their newly made Lenovo / IBM thinkpads.. I have been told that I wont' get a replacement keyboard (god knows how much i will need to pay for it.. but anyway).. unltill when I have time to visit IBM.. and i will need to stand in the queue at the ibm office.. sad service levels.. when you compare it to dell at your home service.. but then.. hey.. i had to give the big blue a chance.. after all my big bro.. the cisco chaps.. carry ibms.. why not me..
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