Sunday, January 24, 2010



Iphone 3GS in India atlast !!!


But is it time to celebrate ??? The iphone 3GS has been launched in since more than 200 days ago and now its coming to India .. Any idea why ???

Lets see apple launched the Iphone 3G in India just before they launched the iphone 3GS in US. Now they are launching the iphone 3GS in India when they are expected to launch a new iphone in the US... Rings a bell some where ?

So is apple looking at india as a dumping ground for its unsold old version of Iphones at a high price tag ?

Do you need to buy a iphone 3GS now ??? With competitors offering a 5 Mega Pixel Camera more CPU and RAM with capacitive touch do you need a iphone which is a already a year old in terms of technology !!!

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

GPRS on vodafone India on Iphone 3.1.2

I have been trying a lot to get the GPRS working on my iphone 2G running 3.1.2 on vodafone india network but have been mostly unsuccessful !!!

I was about to get the iphone data plan enabled and then i found this "http://blog.javachap.com/?p=41&cpage=1" !!!

This blog describes how to edit the preferences.plist file.

I have wifi at home and at office so my only use for GPRS is when I am on the go. So I felt that paying Rs. 200 for 100 MB would be a waste as most of the time I am in a wifi zone :)


Kudos to the author for saving me Rs.200 per month.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Media Players !!!

No I am not taking about software that plays your multi-media files ...
I am refering to the hardware media players in the market.

If you are wondering what there media players are then here we go...

A media player is a device which connects to your TV and provides multi-media content that can be played on the TV ( in most cases High Def video with a HDMI cable is provided for LCD / PLASMA TVs). The multi-media content like movies , songs , pics can be present in your hard-disk , USB PEN Drives , NAS Storage Devices or on your laptops or desktops.

It typically has a couple of USB ports and LAN port for input and HDMI or RCA Cable for output to your TV.

So you may say whats so great my DVD player has USB ports !!!

The new media players connect to the internet using the LAN cable or in case of the Western Digital HD live using Wifi USB doggle ( so this is wireless ) and can pull content from Youtube or flickr direct to your TV ...

So to watch youtube videos , check out pics on flickr or listen to internet radio you dont need your PC / laptop you can directly do it on your TV !!!


Another contender for this category is the Dlink Media Player which pretty much does the same but is a whole lot bigger.




There are other cheaper media players which just have a couple of USB ports and Slots for SD and other Memory cards and play the content to your TV and play content from your harddisks or pendrives. The USP of these devices are they are very small about the size of 2 large match boxes and can be carried around while travelling.

Seagate just unveiled a media player which docks the Seagate harddisk and plays content from that onto the TV. Also allows content from youtube like the WD HD live.



So do you go ahead and buy one yet !!! Well I am still waiting reason would like to see a bit more from these devices why not add a browser and allow users to browse social networking sites and basic email ?? This would help me avoid buying another netbook for my wife who just does basic browsing and uses facebook and orkut and wikipedia.

Did I hear you shout convergence !!!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Deciding on a new SMART PHONE !!! Read below before you make a choice ...
















I currently hold a iphone 2G and was in the process of changing my phone so i decided to take a look at the new smart phones available in the market.

Everytime I choose a new phone I usually look at these specs ( not in order of priority) :

1. Build Quality
2. Brand ( Yes I prefer only a certain brands)
3. Screen Size and resolution
4. Camera
5. Multimedia playing abilites.
6. PIM features.
7. Wifi
8. RAM
9. 3G ( Hoping to get 3G in India soon )

Let me pick RAM and 3G :

All the new smart phones have 3G and a good amount of RAM anything above 256 MB should be fine I guess. But for mutli-tasking better get a phone with a bigger RAM.

With pretty much every phone out there fixing the basic requirements above, the next set of requirements had to be found to differentiate the phones. This time around there are my new set of requirements :

1. OS
2. Apps
3. Easy of use for touch screen

Yes I am certainly interested about the OS the phone will be running.
WHY OS you may ask ?

I used a windows 6.1 based touch screen O2 phone for a couple of months and believe me it was a night mare... every operation needs a stylus and getting the right key in the first shot is a great achievement.

Then there are the apps and widgets with app-store and cydia the exploration never ends. Usually with a new phone all the new features and apps loose there charm in a few days but with iphone the apps and updates keep comming and with a large community based support and help the fun goes on .....

Also the phone OS updates with iphone I am happy that they release a 3.1.2 for a iphone 2G as well.

Now so which OS do I choose from ????

The list was not that big given that I am not a Samsung person so it ended up with only 4 available options :

1. Iphone OS X
2. Android from Google
3. Windows 6.5
4. Symbion

Symbion was a no starter .. with no multi-touch it wasnt a pick for me.
The other reason being there isnt a good capacitative touch phone running Symbion . And ofcourse the OVI STORE isnt anywhere close to the apps-store or the Andriod Market.

Next up was Windows 6.5 , with muti-touch it sounded that MS was going to be a good contender. But if you start looking around you will see that even with Windows 6.5 there is a lot of old baggage left hanging .. Lot of windows still open up with options too small to select by a finger and you will end up needing a stylus. Although its supposed to finger friendly it does not work that well so WINDOWS goes down the DRAIN ....


Left with only 2 and was a tough decidsion between the Android and the OS X or Iphone OS.

Here is how they compare :

Brand : Apple
Apps : Apps Store
Multi-Touch : Yes
Exchange and Mail : Yes

Brand : Google
Apps : Android Market
Multi-Touch : Yes
Exchange and Mail : Yes


So both were equally good. So do we call it a tie ... just hang on a second.
Google took 2 years to match up to the Iphone and have just relased their
new phone Nexus which is a equally good in comparision to the iphone.

It is really what you want a new phone which is comparable to a iphone which is already 200 days old now ?????

But what I liked about android that the new phones built around android was people centric ...

You have a contact and you do every thing around the contact in one shot, example when you click on a contact you get their facebook updates , tweets , emails and ofcourse their good ol' phone number :)

So just for that I leave the OS as a tie.

So what did I decide on ???
As of now my decision is to wait and watch for the next iphone which should be out in a couple of months and then take a call..

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Of life and dreams
Do you dream ? Yup ??? Dream about what ? Flying in the sky ?
Sitting on top of a mountain ? Gazing into the night sky ? Driving into the sun ?
Holding a hand ? Enjoying a cup of coffee on the high way with friends at 1 AM :)
These are the simple dreams which could be easily achieve but ... we dont have the time ...
We dont have the time to live our simple dreams ... We are far too busy thinking about the big things in life or the future we havent seen or the past which is actually gone .. why waste time thinking about these things .. lets enjoy the simple joys of life ... We forget to see the small simple adorable moments that life presents us .. We ignore the beauty of life..
Lets begin to notice the joys that life throws at us every day .....
Listen to the birds that chirp .. see the morning sun ... feel the breeze ... Smell the flowers...
Lets stop thinking about could have been better .. or what we can do tomorrow ..lets enjoy today ...
Live every moment to its fullest who knows there may not be a tomorrow :)

Friday, March 16, 2007

Well they say a picture speaks a 1000 words...
So herez 13000 words bout me .

Check out my visual DNA below :)

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

well well well after about 1 year 6 months people have made me realise that I need to lose weight :)
I have reduced eating sweets , ice-creams and chocolates. And I have been successful to a large extent.

But the best part is that I have started walking. Being close Lalbagh in Bangalore now i realise what I had been missing for the past 23 years. The amazing refreshment that lalbagh offers every morning to all its walkers. Kudos to the guys who created it.. and ofcource to god for the beautiful nature he created.


Have a look at where I walk and you'll realise what I experience every morning.
The fresh clean refreshing air ( You wont find it anywhere else in Bangalore ) , the serene greenery , the soothing sounds of birds chirping and the every so calm lake believe me its too good to be described.

If you every get a chance to visit lalbagh please do so especially in the wee hours of morning. I bet its a experience of a life time .