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Apple iPad: iDud or iWoW
It has been covered so extensively by the world press that one wonders if it makes any sense to write a post on it. After sleepless nights and long deliberations on whether to post or not to, I have finally decided to give in and rant about the worst kept secret of 2009.
Some things override technology. For instance, despite all the blockbuster performances since he became the $1 CEO, Steve Jobs still relies on the aura of a turtle neck polo shirt and blue jeans for product launch successes. Yes, to his credit Steve proved on Jan 27th (yet again) that he is still the hardest selling guy on planet. Mr Jobs “who makes a living out of selling refrigerators to Eskimos by convincing them that it made the best ice cubes” was greeted with a standing ovation as he got onstage to showcase the “magical” to “beautiful” creation called the iPad.
After the high profile launch, the blogosphere was filled with a feeling that the latest “i” gadget failed in many departments starting from its name. The Apple fan boy was disappointed. He might put a brave face; he might go the extent of defending the Pad. But the fact is, unlike the iPod and the iPhone the Wow is missing this time. One might ask, did it take 3 years of research to come out with a Giant iPod Touch?
The fact remains, Apple did spend a lot time in sensing the market, getting the pricing right and creating a platform that further pushes the iTunes services into more hands. From Apple’s point of view this is consolidation time and yes there is a target audience.
- iPad has the potential of becoming the first computing experience for lot of folks who found the world of PCs/Windows/Updates/Viruses to be complicated. Average Joe, Uncle Steve has made a computer for you.
- The other use cases involves educational institutions and professional services where the tablet form-factor is now a common place.
- The third is the e-book community whose desires are more than the e-ink (for pictures, videos etc.).
- Frequent flyers will love it considering the reduced size, larger screen and always ON mode with a complimentary battery life.
- The inclusion of productivity tools like iWorks and access to the Apple cloud would mean a use-case for the enterprise.
The price and packaging may be another compelling reason, $499 for the base model/6 variants/ comes unlocked/partnership with well known publishers means there is enough steam to sell this in the 10s of millions if not the 100s.
Any talk of iPad will not be complete without listing the exclusions.
- The prominent one is Flash. Apple reportedly is pushing for HTML5 (along with Google).They are dreaming of a world where rich media can be accessed on the browsers without Flash. But on the near term it’s sad to say “we have a full blown browser” without Flash.
- The second is multitasking. To build a computing device today without multitasking is going back in time to the “terminate and stay resident” days of MS-DoS, but Steve believes any innovation is not worth it if it doesn’t translate into money. So, sorry minority geeks we just extended the iPhone OS this time.
- The next notable omission is the camera, for the people who expected the iSight kind of a web camera interface for the iPad. Please wait for iPhone 4 to release with the “One more thing” called a front facing webcam.
Final thoughts: If you wanted a computer with the tablet form factor that was thin, weighed fewer than 500 gms, ran a dual core and could do anything the regular Mac OS X could, including multitasking and full HD. My mind says JUST WAIT ….for Apple might pull up a surprise(in the distant future) with the iSlate. Start saving as this one is only for the fat walleters.
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Nokia N97: On-The-Go Apps
Apps are what makes the Smartphone “Smart“. Until sometime back getting access to applications on smartphones was a task best left to the geeky first level users and the early adopters. With the coming of the Ovi-Store services, the scenario has changed dramatically.
So presenting a set of FREE utility applications for the N97 that you can download from the Ovi-Store.
SMS preview
If you are not willing to waste any time going into your inbox for seeing messages then there is a handy and functional tool that will enable you to view messages in front page of your handsets. You will no more miss any messages that come into your mobile using this App. There are several functionalities such as reply, reply all, forward, delete which can be done in the preview screen itself. You also have the option of allowing only messages from friends’ contacts to be previewed on screen.Download it from here.
Handywi
Handiwi offers a combination of connectivity access and mini applications termed as landmarks. Using this feature you will be able to discover public and secure wifi access points that are nearest to your location. You can gain access to WLAN 802.11 a, b, c or g and other WISPr connections from networks like AT&T, cloud. The WLAN will be automatically identified and connected and there will also be a sound alert when WLAN access is nearby. The highlight feature is that there will be automatic fallback to 3G connection when Wifi connection fails. When the connectivity is achieved there will be space which will list out various applications which can be used.’
Converter Touch
Converter touch consists of several units of measurements such as time, distance, volume, speed, and many more which can be converted into other units rapidly. These units of measurements will be present in scrollable tray of icons and desired unit can be selected and converted into other units. This software is greatly user friendly and is perfectly compatible with the features of touch phone. You can just tap the units with great response that will be provided. The operating system requires is symbian and compatible with many devices such as nokia 5230, N97 and many more. This software also makes sure that fingers are least strained and provides instant calculation.
Fring
The best part of Fring is the newly added Video chat feature over Skype that uses the N97’s secondary camera. Besides video chatting you can also make regular Skype calls and be in touch socially while mobile. Google Talk, MSN Messenger, Yahoo!, Twitter, Facebook, Last fm & SIP are all supported. The application is free to download from the Ovi Store.
Tweets60
Tweets60 lite is free twitter client . This application is sufficient to take care of your basic tweeting needs. You can compose, send and receive tweets and check the status of the world you are following. You can also mark tweets as favorites.Ideal if you are done with the twitter mobile site.
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Say Cheese, I have an N97
Phew, “camera phones” have come of age…
Check out the snaps I took on Republic Day twenty ten at the Lalbagh Gardens with the N97.
Thoughts:
- Daylight snaps are better (Quality and Brightness) than the 5800 XpressMusic thanks to bigger aperture.
- Mega-pixels, 5 in this case, more than sufficient for regular users
- A fixed focus and no optical zoom (unlike Digital Cameras) means there is a limit on how far you can capture.
- Massive on-board (~32 Gb) storage on the N97 means you can click as long as your fingers don’t gives up. Noticed that the processing slows a bit after you have taken many snaps
- Night mode is not great, but miles ahead when you compare it with the 5800. Uses a Dual-LED flash which just about meets expectations (some say, Xenon flash was turned down because it would significantly alter the price range)
- Particularly liked the “Close-up” Scene mode.
- User interface is the same as Nokia 5800, LED touch screen means certain difficulty is viewing your images in daylight.
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Best web browser for Nokia 5800: Feature and Speed
There are three browsers that supports S60 5TH edition mobile and comparison of these browsers with respect to features such as video access and time are provided.
Webkit
The dafault browser from Nokia is an implementation of Webkit. This allows landscape mode and supports Flash Lite. Flash lite is an optimized version of flash that will enable youtube to be watched on mobile. This browser also supports full screen mode but there are other drawbacks in this system since there is no support for tabbed browsing and also does not have AJAX. The time which is required to open webpage using this browser is much greater than two other two browsers thus speed is a great setback
Opera mobile
Opera mobile has almost all the features of webkit and also in addition to it supports tabbed browsing. The important difference in Nokia Webkit and Opera mobile is that in later browser there is AJAX built in it and can support Gtalk. The serious setback of Opera mobile is there is no provision for flashlight and hence Youtube cannot be supported in this edition. The time taken to open particular webpage is much better than webkit and hence greater speed.
Skyfire
Skyfire is rich in features and supports various applications which are lacked by webkit and Opera mobile. This browser supports landscape and portrait mode. It is built with both Flash and Silverlight which makes sure various videos can be watched with great ease. The only demerit of this browser is that tabbed browsing is not possible. The speed of browser is on the higher side and is surely the best browser when it comes to speed.
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Nokia Speakerphone HF-510 Review
Fortunately or unfortunately I have never used a Nokia Hands-free device until the time I stumbled upon the Nokia Speakerphone HF-510. My current Hands-free device is a Plantronics Bluetooth headset whose scientific name goes as “Explorer 220”. I must confess that the device has earned my appreciation and takes care of most of my talking needs (while driving).
The first noticeable advantage the Nokia Speakerphone had over my Plantronics counterpart was the charging station. My current car charger is a Nokia DC-4 (since I have a Nokia mobile); this is not compatible with a Plantronics device. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Speakerphone HF-510 came with the same DC-4 car charger. To sum it up, this meant “freedom from planned headset charging” for me.
The second was a “Change one habit, change your life” kind of a scenario. When one uses a Bluetooth headset, you are so much hooked by it that people may find you in a “Cyborgial avatar” with a gadget looped around the ear even in non-driving times. I was glad that this habit was to change now. But as they say every bit of happiness comes at a price, the cost for me was I could no longer keep one end of my conversation private.
Whats in the box:
Nokia has thoughtfully designed the speakerphone box, Apart from the main console (which I will cover in detail) and the DC-4 car charger the box contains multiple mounting enablers.
There are at least six places in your car where the speakerphone can be installed. I found the windscreen and dashboard mounting option particularly useful. The other intuitive option was to strap the device onto your car’s sun-visor.
The Main Console:
The main console is cup shaped and weighs about 81 g. This single device houses the speaker, the display and the controls.
The display:
This device has a well designed LCD screen that provides high clarity viewing such that the numbers can be easily seen while looking from a considerable distance (even in daylight). There is support for caller line identification, contacts, volume information and battery status through the display.
The controls:
You can do just about anything including things like Answer/end calls; voice dial or getting to the last dialled number using a ‘one touch’ key which stands prominently on the device. The other control is a volume wheel whose functionality ranges from controlling the volume to scrolling through the contacts list.
The speaker:
The device supports echo cancelling and noise reduction using digital signal processing (DSP). That in layman’s terms would mean Nokia has taken enough care to keep the conversion clear at both the ends.
Battery life
At first the instrument needs to be charged for two hours and fully charged battery can serve for 30 hours talk time and 180 hours of standby time. The necessity to conserve the battery charge during the non-functional period is well emphasized in this device since there is an option of switching over to battery saver mode. The battery saver mode will switch off the device for certain period of time
Lastly I was able to unbox, install, sync (synchronises with the mobile device via Bluetooth and picks up the contacts) and make my first call in less than 5 mins .
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Nexus One: The Google phone makes a splash
Yes, from the time Apple launched the iPhone (that’s 2007), Industry watchers and Silicon Valley bloggers are behind the rumour that Google, The only company they felt can match the collective intellect at Cupertino will launch a Google Phone.
Adding small flames to this bushfire, Google brought Android and formed the Open Handset Alliance. Things were going fine until they launched the first handset running Android. The launch was caught with barely a whimper by the 50 analyst’s world-wide who mattered when it came to” creation of hype”.
All this changed yesterday when Google officially confirmed the existence of “Google Mobile lab”.
Here is the latest (Still in the realm of speculation)
- The phone will be called Nexus One according to the WSJ.
- HTC will be the device manufacturer. Much the same way as Microsoft Zune is manufactured by Toshiba
- It will be an unlocked GSM. That means its carrier free in the US, Which calls for a lot courage on Google’s part and even mighty Apple approached AT&T.
- It’s not a budget phone; expect this device to cost anything from $500 to $600.
- The official announcement is expected to come in Jan 2010.
- Look and feel boasts of the device having a 1Ghz Snapdragon processor, running Android 2.1 , a super sharp display, full touch capacitive keypad with trackball, bundled with Google Navigation, Voice inputs to name a few.
- The phone is expected to be thinner than the iPhone.
Considering the hype, expect more news to flow.
Makes sense why Eric Schmidt left the Apple board, doesn’t it?
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Nokia, Square and the future of Money
Mobile phones today are computing , connectivity & mobility packaged into one device. Its a widely known fact that in the next decade mobile phones will become the primary internet and computing device.
This opens a new door of possibilities for our immediate future. One of the beneficiaries of this technological sea change is going to be money.
Yes, money that we carry in our wallets, deposit in our banks, rely on… in need.
The last decade saw the movement of money from “real cash in hand” to “plastic cards” and “transact as you go” ATMs. By the end of the next decade money will become more virtual, transactions mostly combined with mobile devices.
Considering that engines of growth in the next decade are the emerging economies where banking is still considered privileged, there is a huge potential to make personal banking as personal as it can be.
The option of paying variety of bills through mobile interface and accepting payments through mobile connectivity has brought a new dimension in money management. Nokia money which was rolled into service from august this year has been doing a great job in providing an exceptional service to the people. Using this service, people will be able to pay their mobile bills, buy movie tickets, order and pay food with great level of ease. The device which is used to read the information from the credit cards is very handy and offer very easy platform for interfacing. Nokia’s vision is to provide financial services to millions who are outside the current banking system.
At the present stage, Nokia money offers greater ease in managing the everyday money management activity since the service is as easy as making a call or sending a sms. This also provides greater benefits in paying the telephone bills in a much simplified manner. You will also be able to pay micro-loans using this service and can be interfaced very easily.
Square is started by Jack Dorsey, better known as the creator of Twitter. This is another service that offers similar scopes. The difference being this time emphasis is on accepting of payments. Yes there are a variety of ways by which you can pay, But a fewer ways normal people can receive money .
This is the idea that this startup eyeing for.Using this service it is possible to view the electronic bill within very short time in the website and it also consists of the signature that is made by the person using the service.
Which is better?
Square has just started, that too the focus right now is on the developed world. Nokia money is targeting specifically to the emerging economies. But both these services have the potential to make a difference in the years beyond 2010.
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Nokia E72: Available for booking in India
Want to be the among the privileged few who get to buy Nokia’s Best Ever business phone before the world!!
Then follow this link to pre-order your phone. For the detailed review check out our previous post.
The phone is currently priced at an MRP of INR 22,989/-
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Weekend retreat: Will the Androids take over the world?
It was 14th January 2002, When Danger’s hiptop™ device was selected as a “Best of CES” (Consumer Electronics Show) Award winner in the PDA, Handheld and Mobile Wireless category.
Back then, nobody would have thought that a Widescreen display+QWERTY keypad represented a mobile phone. Yet the folks at Danger struck to their plans and delivered one of the first mobile phones to feature a Web Browser. Also they thought of others things besides an IM and mail access as part of this mobile device.
Cut to 2009, The co-founder of Danger hiptop , A former Apple veteran Andy Rubin is Google’s director of mobile platforms. This happened after Android (a company that Andy co-founded) was taken over by Google. Danger Inc went on to be taken over by Microsoft and the hiptop is now rechristened as the T-Mobile SideKick.
Even though Android is just 2 years old in terms of press coverage, it has at least 8 years of mobile computing legacy. Two important business decisions have further helped Android. One was that Google decide to acquire it and the second Google decided against direct revenue out of the Android platform. Hence the Open Handset Alliance was formed.
Even though the alliance is a consortium largely dominated by the folks at Google (at least interims of the software effort), The members include hardware manufacturers, semiconductor companies, Mobile operators besides software and commercialization companies.
A mobile device typically takes 18 months from the idea inception stage until the product launch. Hence the time has come to see how the Android has delivered on its promise.A promise to the system integrators that they will not have to bother about platform creation. A promise to the users that desktop experience is possible on mobile.
Today HTC, Samsung, Motorola and LG have launched their devices with the new OS. A handful of other operators have Android devices in the pipeline.
Among peers Android faces competition from iPhone OS, WinMo, Blackberry and Symbian. The first three are niche OS’s, they either target high-end users or are business phones. So that leaves the battle for world domination largely between Symbian and Android.
What remains to be seen is which of these two players will succeed in getting a major chunk of the estimated 4 billion mobile users by 2010.
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Demystifying the Symbian Vs Maemo puzzle
It is now common knowledge that to be classified as a Smartphone , the device needs to have an operating system.
The Maemo OS has become a buzzword overnight with the success of the N900 in the mobile-geek community and rumors floating around the internet that ,in future Nokia N-Series phones will be based on Maemo and not Symbian OS.
Introducing Maemo:
Maemo is a Linux based operating system that provides computer like operation and features for mobile phones. There are many questions that are being raised about the future of Symbian technology due to emergence of Maemo OS in mobile industry. The power of Maemo was showcased in the recently released Nokia 900 mobile device which offers powerful features. This maemo device enables very easy access with functionality that can be made possible with both touch facility and comfortable QWERTY keyboard. The biggest highlight of maemo is its ability to provide high speed networking access with great ease.Also the level of multitasking is more mature than in current Symbian devices. Having said that Maemo is like a new born baby and Symbian has already made great strides in mobile industry.
Predictions: Symbian and Maemo
Symbian at present is the leading OS for mobile system. One out of every two mobile Smartphones that are being sold is built with Symbian technology. Many of the Nokia smart phones are equipped with Symbian platform but the recent release of Nokia900 based on Maemo platforms triggers great interest about the future of Nokia Smart phone OS. Some of the business experts have pointed out that Symbian will loose it share in market by the end of year 2014. No one can predict for sure what’s going to happen in future since it is very early times now.
Maemo-‘makes innovation possible’
Maemo is based on Linux open source and is much like Google’s Android OS, which varies from the Symbian platform that is more Phone centric. That means Symbian was optimized to take care of limited memory, battery optimizations and other limitations which were critical to the Smartphones of the past.
With the size and cost of hardware components like memory and processors shirking by the day. It is only a realistic prediction to say that Smartphones of tomorrow will be as powerful as the PC’s of today. Hence its desirable that the Smartphones of tomorrow will need an OS that provides the same extensibility & capability as a PC of today.
No wonder Nokia have termed that they will be using Maemo to create extremely innovative mobile smart phones that will be provide great versatility. It seems that Maemo can rule the market in future if the developers can travel one step ahead by making the OS to work in the way they exactly wanted and fine-tuning to the changing needs of people.
- Apple iPad: iDud or iWoW February 6, 2010 Suju
- Nokia N97: On-The-Go Apps January 27, 2010 Suju
- Say Cheese, I have an N97 January 26, 2010 Suju
- Best web browser for Nokia 5800: Feature and Speed January 26, 2010 Suju
- Nokia Speakerphone HF-510 Review January 20, 2010 Suju
Recent Posts
- Apple iPad: iDud or iWoW
- Nokia N97: On-The-Go Apps
- Say Cheese, I have an N97
- Best web browser for Nokia 5800: Feature and Speed
- Nokia Speakerphone HF-510 Review
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