Phone Buying Woes

I have been waiting for over an year now, to get the ideal next gen phone, loaded with killer features but easy on pocket.

My current SE K500 is too old fashioned and barely can make calls, thanks to the frequent hammering and battering, by it's carefree and careless owner.

Manufacturers like Nokia are pushing the technology to the edge, with packing almost everything into a nifty package. The N series line up boasts of phones with amazing capabilities.

Here I'll discuss the bare minimum features I am looking for a phone, and a list of impressive candidates to chose from.

Features I am looking for, in Descending order of priority

• Wifi + VoIp support
• Smartphone with atleast Symbian
• 2MP + Cam
• Edge, 3G or similar
• Bluetooth
• Java or Flash Preinstalled games
• And of course decent voice clarity
• Budget : 400 - 700 USD

Places like Singapore and many US states already have free broadband Wifi, and with support for VoIP, one can expect cheap internet and mobile connectivity.

I've been going around in a frantic search of phones that offer all the listed features, but till now the list is not that impressive. As Wifi becomes more prominent and widespread, we can expect to see more carriers and manufacturers shifting to the Wifi and WiMax bandwagon.

• Nokia N75
• Nokia N93i
• Nokia E65
• Nokia N80
• Apple iPhone
• More to be added soon
  

iPhone: Is it Really Worth it ?

iPhone = iPod + phone + internet + Revolutionary technology ;)

Finally, after years of refusing rumours, Jobs unveiled the new iPhone (I hope that's what it will be called, if they win the lawsuit raised against them by CISCO) in the recent highly anticipated and eagerly awaited MacWorld Conference. Jobs and his team concealed and hid the product so well that even insiders in Apple didn't know about the product till it was shown in the conference.

iPhone is releasing only in June/July in US, so its too early to comment on its current specs. But from the keynote and the website we can infer the following -

(+) - Video iPod
(+) - Wifi, bluetooth and other connectivity options
(+) - A rich text Safari browser
(+) - Too Sleek and Sexy for a smartphone
(+) - Intuitive Interface
(+) - Accelerometer (cool)
(+) - Multitasking OS (MacOSX)

(-) - Keyboard
(-) - Dev. platform not open for 3rd party developers
(-) - Bundled apps
(-) - Broadband Wifi still expensive
(-) - Expensive

So how much do you pay for it. 499$ and 599$ for the 4 GB and 8 GB editions with an AT & T (formerly Cingular) carrier

My take: The touch sensitive screen could work both ways as we aren't sure if it's scratch and smudge resistant. It did look pretty responsive but I am still not satisfied by the screen keyboard. SMSs and typing word docs could be hell of a task.

Moreover, Jobs said he does not want to open the platform for 3rd party dev. as a single bad app could bring down the entire service network. Well, I don't suppose Cingular's network is so bad that it can be brought down by one malfunctioning app. It seems likely that Jobs is trying to close the platform for certified MacOS dev. only.

The current apps bundled are all internet intensive apps. Google Maps, widgets etc, which need a reliable wifi service. For people living in other countries, it could be difficult to get one cheaply.
Also, Steve didn't mention a single office app, which means will have to buy it seperately from Apple, adding to the existing cost.

It is too early to comment on the success/failure of the product, but one thing is clear, it sure packs a punch, seamlessly integrating the internet with the mobile platform and is surely going to sell a million units in first few days. If it will be as successful as the iPod, only time will tell if it's really worth it.

2006 : Year of Nintendo

Nintendo has had a dream run this year with the Nintendo DS reaching sales figure of 20 million and Nintendo Wii reaching 3.5 million in such a short run. What's so extraordinary is the fact that both of them had a stiff competition from the SONY camp during launch and were touted as underdogs who overhauled the superior products from SONY and set great examples of how understanding the target audience is so important for success.

Nintendo DS had to take on the technologically superior PSP. PSP was leaps and jumps ahead of any handheld console till date. It had amazing games, wifi, ability to watch movies, Mp3s etc. A truly revolutionary handheld console, but SONY's arrogance and bad marketing saw it lose against the DS.

History repeated itself when the Nintendo Wii was released against the over hyped SONY PS3.
Wii has been unanimously voted the gadget of the year.

We will have to wait and see, if SONY can learn from it's mistakes and come back strongly in 2007.

Year 2006 : My list of top 10 tech events of the year

My list of exciting tech events in 2006 pertaining to Gaming, Linux, technology and Web 2.0 listed in random order.

• Google's takeover of youtube
• Launch of PS3 and Nintendo Wii vs X360
• Gears of War, paving way to exciting hidef games in future
• ie7 vs firefox 2.0
• Intel Macs
• Microsoft and Novell's controversial alliance
• Microsoft Zune Vs ipod nano
• Microsoft Vista finally released
• Year of Linux as many govt. bodies like in Venezuela,Chicago,Munich and kerala ditch MS for Linux
• I started my first blog ;)

Should I change to Vista part 1?

Microsoft is actively promoting Vista. They proudly claim that they have a package catered to every users need, be it a corporate client or a home user.
But is it really a necessary upgrades ? Let's find out.

1. Security issues: Vista is all about security. Anti phishing enabled in Outlook, ie7 etc., built in spyware filter,UAC etc.



User Account Control (UAC) is all about a great concept gone wrong. UAC prompts you for necessary action whenever the state of the system is about to change, things like switching off firewall, add/remove new user etc. Its a nice idea but repetitive prompts for passwords can be really frustrating.

How secure Vista really is, only time will tell.


2. Packaging and pricing : In order to cater to the needs of everyone, Microsoft has numerous licenses and packages. You got Home, Home Premium, Ultimate, Full, upgrade..... and so on. A normal user will have to go through all the feature lists to find which one suits his work. As the price difference is a lot, package selection is crucial and cumbersome.

3. Interface : Microsoft has finally taken a leaf off Mac Os in terms of interface and usability. The Aero looks stunning and makes it fun to play around and explore the Os. The new sidebar and live thumbnails with previews look amazing.

Vista is definitely not for older PCs. Aero is resource hungry and a dedicated gfx card (128 Mb) is highly recommended. Check the vista site for the minimum requirements. If your PC is couple of years old, an upgrade is a must.

4. Improved Networking support and UI
Vista Network setup interface looks more polished and effecient. The wireless network interface no longer connects to networks automatically. You can set up rules, add your networks, configure which network to be autoconfigured and connected etc.
The new network-sharing wizard lets you connect PC's on the fly.



To be continued....

Booting Windows from grub prompt

This is a common problem that many users face, when they remove their linux partitions.
Grub loses grub.conf and has no way to find out where to access the bootloader (NTLDR) for Windows.
So everytime you restart your comp, you'll see

grub>

Just type these commands, and you can get into windows. Then can do fdisk /mbr using a recovery disk or Win XP cd > recovery option

grub> unhide (hd0,0)
grub> hide (hd0,1)
grub> rootnoverify (hd0,0)
grub> chainloader +1
grub> makeactive
grub> boot

Software of the Day - Photoshop CS3 Beta

Adobe recently released its new Photoshop CS3 beta, and I'll give you a sneak preview of some of the improvements.

This is the first product photoshop edition, released after Adobe-Macromedia merge up and we are yet to see if Fireworks will be released.

Lets start off.

1. UI makeover

Changing a well established interface for a flagship product could be a risky move but adobe had pulled it off well. The new interface looks simpler, slicker and more effecient. There are n no. of ways of arranging your workspace to suit your needs.
For a change, they have a single column toolbar, which can be changed back to the old one. The nicest improvement is the new palette scheme. Your can now dock palettes together and drag and dock palettes to the edge of other palettes. Overall, everything fits and resizes properly and makes your workspace look more organised.

2. Smart Filters

I like playing around with filters in order to decide which works well. This new feature lets you to apply filters and selective remove certain filters, in order to get the best effect rather than doing and redoing everytime, you aren't satisfied.



3. The new and improved Bridge

New ways to filter images, add tags, compare multiple images , a better looking interface etc.
Bridge works and feels better, with tonnes of useful updates

Another cool thing is the inclusion of getting photos from camera directly. You can add labels, define the folder, chose to save a copy of each image, save as DNG etc. Lots n lots of updates.

4. Quick Select

Every new version of photoshop brings a newer and easier way to select things. The quick select is the best so far. Earlier, we had to use the laso tool to select an image as below, but quick select can do the selection smarly. Give it a try or see Terry white's video to see.


5. Automatic layer alignment and blending

This feature easily combines the best parts of multiple images of the same scene into one "best" image. All we do is place multiple, related images on separate layers in one document, and Photoshop will analyze the contents, moving and rotating the layers so they overlap as precisely as possible. Then using the masking tools to reveal the areas you need from different layers to finalize the elements of the composite image. Automatic layer blending seamlessly blends the color and shading into the final image.

6.Vanishing Point with multiple, adjustable angle perspective planes

This feature which was introduced in Photoshop CS2 is now even more flexible. Vanishing Point adjusts brush strokes, healing and cloning as you paint over its perspective planes. In CS3, we are no longer restricted to adding planes at 90-degree angles. We can now quickly and easily create multiple planes in any image, connected at any angle.










In addition, artwork (for example, a product label pasted from the clipboard) can be wrapped around multiple planes simultaneously.


Conclusion : Overall a nice upgrade to the already powerful CS2. Adobe has listened to their fans and users and added features which will satisfy everyone.



Other links :

A cool video preview by Terry white : ( a must watch)

Download the beta from : Adobe Site

Blogger beta template mods

I personally liked the older template system, as it was easier to edit and use. The current XML
template system, seems a little complicated, but after playing around, I have an idea of what each tag wrapper means.

I've come to realise, it's easier to edit styles. All we have to do is add the CSS property to the correct wrapper. I'll play around for a while and then try to write a small tutorial to help you all do the same.