Let's Roku!

It's been a while I have written something (actually useful :P). I have been waiting to come across something that is so useful that it can't be avoided. Yes, Roku definitely fits in that category.

For someone who has never heard the word Roku, it is a internet video streaming set-top box. In short, it let's you watch your favorite internet videos on your TV without having to connect your desktop or laptop and fighting with resolution settings. The whole process is so effortless and worthwhile that you would be shocked why you hadn't got this earlier.

Roku achieves this by a WiFi modem embedded in that tiny box which connects to your WiFi network and is ready to go. The whole interface is flawless and the navigation is so efficient with a remote that can't be simpler to use. Like most devices now, Roku too works around the concept of apps. There is an app for most Internet video streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Cnet, etc. There are apps even for international TV channels with free and subscription services.

For $49, it is a steal. There are other variants of Roku which let you stream 1080p HD channels and also allow you to play games like Angry Birds with a motion-sensitive controller like the Wii. This one costs $99 and is totally worth the buck. Although Apple TV pretty much does the same job, so do many other streaming players, the amount of content available, ease of use and the price point make Roku the winner.

To sum it up, Roku is THE REASON to get a TV if you didn't already. The best part is, it works with absolutely any TV as it comes with the conventional composite AV cable.

iAnalyze iPhone 4S!

After a day filled with speculation, anticipation, suspense, revelation, disappointment and retrospection, here I am with my final thoughts and analysis of the iPhone 4S.

Before I get into iPhone stuff, let's evaluate everything else they presented at the keynote. 

• Cards: Neat concept. Right price point. You may not use it (or claim not to use it) but trust me, most people would love to use a service like this. Make custom greeting cards on your iDevice and send it to your loved ones just by a tap.
• iCloud: This was revealed during the WWDC in the summer. Pretty awesome stuff. Though it is difficult to implement a cloud service with 100% reliability, we have to see what Apple has to offer in this segment.
• iOS 5: Again, this was revealed at WWDC 2011. New notification system, volume button to be used as camera dedicated button, twitter integration, iMessages and 200 other features.
• iPod: Nothing really new here. Very disappointing! No new hardware absolutely. And they still keep the iPod Classic. And there is the white iPod Touch and new price points for the entire product line. That's it, nothing revolutionary here.

Next the iPhone. After months of wait for the iPhone 5, I officially declare disappointment here. Why?? Read on..

• The name sucks: iPhone 4S? Come on iPhone 5 would have sounded way cooler and would be in tune with iOS 5.
• No design revamp: This is the biggest disappointment of all for sure. Apple devices are purchased by some (Okay all! Whom am I kidding?) just for the oomph factor and appeal. No redesign would discourage many people from getting the next iPhone even though 'it's all new in the inside'.
• Absence of a larger screen: Yeah, many people expected Apple to come up with an iPhone to match up the Sensations, Infuses, Evo 3Ds in the screen size category. But nah. Nothing's bigger here. Same old (beautiful) 3.5 inch retina display with the same resolution. Again, as I said no design changes absolutely. This is sticking to Apple's philosophy of the right form factor and they always believed 3.5" was the right screen size for a smart phone and 10" for a tablet.
• Same front-facing camera: FaceTime is an amazing app, no doubt. But a VGA camera never gave justice to the brilliant retina display. An upgrade to the front-facing camera was very much required.
• Larger battery: No change in the size of the device implies that the battery is of the same size. iPhone does have some significant battery life but when it comes to battery life nothing can be sufficient.

Now after a day full of Apple, Tim Cook and iPhone 4S bashing, it's time to analyze and understand why Apple did what they did and I believe it is normal and justified to some extent. Let me explain. 

Apple has always crippled its devices to ensure regular product updates. Read more about this here. Now every iPhone too lagged behind other phones in the industry in some aspect or the other, be it camera, display size or 3G/4G speeds (Apple prefers not to comment on what is 3G or 4G). But still they were successful devices and sold millions given their productivity and because sex sells (Apple devices are darn sexy!!). Apple kept away the disappointment by its amazing design. This time that is missing though and that is the source for all the Apple hatred and reduction in stock prices today.

Otherwise, iPhone 4S is truly the 'Most amazing iPhone yet'. It is definitely one of the best smart-phones out there and a worthy upgrade to the iPhone 4. The following is what makes it worth the buck:-

• Dual core proprietary Apple A5 processor (Yeah, the iPad 2 already has it), they claim 7x faster performance to A4
• New camera system with 5 lenses, back illumination, 1080p HD video recording
• Siri (I hate the name BTW), although a beta software demo, was pretty impressive and promising
• The whole package of iOS 5 and iCloud

Final Verdict: If you already own an iPhone 4 and give a damn about the design of the smart phone you carry and want a change from the iOS ecosystem, go get an Android phone (Samsung Galaxy S II please!) and if you never owned an iPhone or any other scenario, get your iPhone 4S, what are you even thinking!!

P.S. To read what I earlier expected from the next iPhone, please read my earlier blog post on The next iPhone Unicorn. 

5 reasons why WebOS doesn't make the cut (Published on Rediff.com)

Read on Rediff.com

WebOS is one of the  innovative mobile OS platforms out there with a very unique interface. In fact it's card UI concepts have been adapted ( copied ) by other companies ( cough.. RIM) too. Palm's proprietary OS which is now HP's hasn't been very revenue generating though.

After what Apple did in 2007 with the iPhone, yeah they snatched market share from every other smart-phone manufacturer, all the mobile phone companies went crazy. Palm was one of them. Palm has seen some tremendous success in its time with Palm OS and devices like the Treo and Centro. However, the introduction of new devices to compete with the iPhone in 2009, viz. Palm Pre and then Palm Pixi later could hardly make a statement, irrespective of their aggressive yet unappealing marketing. HP saw use in WebOS and wanted to revive its mobile phone business and went on to acquire Palm to lead to one of the major acquisitions in the tech industry. HP now plans to embed WebOS into printers and PCs too.

Sure, there is tremendous potential in WebOS. In fact, its SDK is rated as one of the best platforms to develop for, on par with iOS SDK. Yet, most WebOS devices are still sitting in stores waiting for consumers to grab them. Following are the reasons why WebOS could not make it:-

1.  Attracting developers / Mediocre App Content

As earlier mentioned, WebOS does have a developer-friendly SDK. But it has certainly failed to attract many developers. The success of any mobile OS platform is directly proportional, to say the least, to the quality and quantity of the apps on it. The success of iOS and Android has always been directly linked to its App Store and App Market, respectively. On the other hand, WebOS has a mediocre ( Mediocre?? You kidding me? I was just being polite!) app store. It's in the news that HP is now gearing up by attracting developers to develop apps equivalent of the other platforms.

2.  Operator Collaboration

Mobile phones in the US and most European countries are sold with the concept of subsidy. There is a contract involved thus discounting on the price of the device which the operator charges indirectly over a period of say two years. This might look irrelevant to the readers from India and other countries but trust me it is not. Only the success of a device in it's primary and initial target markets will compel the manufacturers to foray into other markets or countries if you will. The reason Palm Pres and Pixis have not seen the light of day ( or even the darkness of night) in India is because it was a disaster in the North American market. Palm stuck to Sprint for a very long time, which itself was a sinking ship ( nah, it was a paper boat and still is). Apple on the other hand first approached Verizon and then Cingular (now AT&T) and was exclusive to AT&T for almost 4 years. That was a wise choice and the rest is history. Though WebOS devices are now offered on almost all operators in the US now, it will take a while to recover from the Sprint exclusivity debacle.

3.  Appeal / Form Factor of devices

Sure they are cute. But that is the problem. Palm's devices have always been uni-sexual in their appeal. I am not saying the Palm Pre is entirely feminine, but honestly the device appealed more to the fairer sex. Also, the size and unnecessary inclusion (many would think otherwise) of a physical qwerty keyboard could have reduced the overall appeal of WebOS devices.

4.  Touch feedback

WebOS devices have a very unique haptic feedback. Let me explain. When you click on an app or just any empty space on the screen, the screen responds by making few concentric circles at the point of contact. Feedback is very essential in devices especially the ones with touch-screens because we humans have seen some horrible touch-screens in our times ( also read as resistive touch-screens), but this feedback is unsatisfying and inconsistent.

5.  Marketing

Remember that Palm Pre commercial with that cute lady. Yeah I know, how can you forget that, and that too for all the bad reasons. The ads were irrelevant and did not portray what the device can actually do. Also, the mention of Sprint itself is a deal breaker,now that is going back to point 2. Well, Palm, that is not the way you introduce a revolutionary product ( at least they thought so ). HP has to learn a lesson or two from Apple in terms of marketing (and millions of lessons in other categories). Apple's commercials are subtle and to the point and there are no beautiful ladies to distract your attention. The device is the only form of beauty and elegance on the screen.

I know there are many Palm / HP fans out their waiting for the right WebOS device to be launched and released in their respective countries. Let's hope the next iteration of WebOS devices strikes gold. I don't see any success for HP with the TouchPad or the Pre 3 or the Veer.

P.S. : Please bear with my parenthesized sarcastic humor.

Must-have Android smartphone apps ( Published on Rediff.com)

Read on Rediff.com

Android is now a Mobile OS platform which cannot be neglected however skeptic you are about the whole openness of Android. It certainly has benefits over other OSs and it's business model is helping to gain and grab market share from it's competitors.

Android is the second biggest App store, second to Apple's. Though I would claim it has an app equivalent to most apps on other platforms, getting the right app can be a little cumbersome since Android does not have a very unified / organised App market. Also, it's openness has been criticized ( appreciated too by many) to attract independent developers which might lead to security loop holes. 

Okay, so let me cut the crap and get to some awesome apps you should have on your Android device. I am covering only smartphone apps for now ( the Android tablet app market is still very naive to comment on), and only the ones which are not on the build already, like Maps, Gmail, etc. Also, I am refraining from mentioning about games. The apps are not in the order of quality, rather in the order of frequency of use.

Launcher Pro

Android is open, fine! But most device manufacturers misuse this. We have the Touch Sense UIs, the Motoblurs, the Touch Wiz interfaces and so on sitting on top of the default Android UI and they suck big time. Launcher pro gives you  a ton of options for UI customization.

Facebook

Okay, the Facebook app for Android is far from perfect but is definitely the most used ( not useful, FB itself is such a waste of your precious productive time) app. The iOS counterpart is better in many ways but as there is not a very good alternative to this, Android users spend most of their smartphone time on this app. Certain features like sharing Facebook albums' photographs, etc are present on other platforms yet though. The Google + app is pretty cool too.

Advanced Task Killer Free

Android's true multi-tasking can be a little tricky sometimes. This gives rise to the need of manually managing the memory resources just like in our good old Windows. Of all the task managers out there, including the in-stock one, the Advanced Task Killer Free is the cheapest ( $0, can't get cheaper than that) and easiest to use.

Rock Player

This is probably the best video player out there for Android which supports most formats. The lite version has ads which do not interrupt the video substantially. The video is smooth and clear and satisfactory on a mobile phone.

Chrome to Phone

Register your phone and Chrome browser with this app and you are granted the power of sending any web link from your browser to phone instantly. It's more like Read-It-Later functionality, but on your phone.

Dropbox

This is the best productivity app out there. The option to view, download and share documents or any file for that matter makes it very appealing and a must-have. Documents are viewed using QuickOffice and the built-in pdf reader by default, which can be changed if alternate document viewers are installed.

Brightest Flashlight Free

Most Android phones have a camera and an LED flash too. The OS does not allow the flash to be continuously on and hence this app. I found this app easy to use and very simplistic. It makes a funny noise when launched though.

Google Music

Google Music Beta is an online music storing service where you can save your purchased ( or stolen for piracy sites) music in the cloud and play it from any device. There is an app for this on Android which plays your saved music both from your device and the cloud. The UI is impressive but a little laggy / buggy I must say.

Netflix

Netflix is finally out on most Android devices after having several hardware acceleration issues especially with NVIDIA processors. This is a must have for Netflix on-the-go users who watch Instant-Play videos on Netflix.

Browsers

The built-in browser is pretty slick and quick but lacks features like tabbed browsing, private browsing, etc. There are several browser replacements on the Android platform, viz. Skyfire, Firefox, Opera, Dolphin, etc, etc. Dolphin browser's interface is neat and includes tabbed browsing. InBrowser can be used for private browsing.

Pulse

Pulse is a content aggregator with a beautiful interface. Several websites, blogs, RSS feeds can be added to this app for a one-stop access. You can also log into this app using Facebook connect to see the links and videos posted in your network.

QR Droid / Red Laser

These two apps are content directors. Use your phone's camera to point to a barcode or QR code and the app will direct you to a web page, app, give you contact details, product page with pricing and reviews, etc

Team Viewer

After a long wait i got Team Viewer installed on my Atrix without having to root the device. Team Viewer is the best fre VNC client. You can control your computer, share your desktop, etc using this VNC client. Another option is LogMe In Ignition, which is not free.

HeyWire

Heywire is a text/tweet/chat client. As it's tagline says " Text, tweet and chat like crazy", it certainly allows you to do that. The latest updates made this app fast and responsive. Facebook chat and twitter are integrated right into this app. This can be used to send free SMSs. The app issues you with an alternate phone number with which you can send SMSs. Pretty useful in the US where incoming and outgoing messages are charged $0.20.

Tango

Tango allows users to make cross-platform ( Andoid to iOS and vice versaFaceTime. Other services like Fring and Skype can also be used.

Sound Hound

Sound Hound works on an algorithm which identifies a song based on a recording a part of the song and checking it across it's own database. The app is almost accurate when you play the song. Might not work as expected when you sing into the app. Shazam is an alternative.

Zedge

Zedge is a one-stop shop for ringtones and wallpapers, all for free. The app is easy to use and has ton of options to personalize your phone.

Queue Tube

This app lets you play Youtube video's audio. Let me rephrase. You can queue youtube videos into this app so that only the audio from the video is played. This facilitates multi-tasking when trying to listen to a song on Youtube. 

Ustream

Ustream is for the amateur journalist out there who would like to stream live videos from their phone over 3G. The video quality is mediocre, yet will suffice.

Miscellaneous

Following is the list of apps I found useful and whose name is self-explanatory, hence no description is required.

Battery Status ( On Notification bar)

Auto Rotate Switch

CNN

Engadget

Cnet TV

Google Goggles

The list can go on and on. The more you use your device, the more interesting apps you ought to discover. 

FaceTime on iPhone 3GS

Okay, I know this has been already done, blah, blah, blah, but trust me the idea came to me before I actually did a Google search for 'Facetime on iPhone 3GS'. Basically, the concept here is to utilize the rear camera of an iPhone 3GS to perform video calls. Apple has excluded the iPhone 3GS from having FaceTime functionality simply because it has no front-facing camera. Although, this is very sensible, the option to have it wouldn't hurt.

Now, how would you use a phone without a front-facing camera to make video calls. The answer is you would be just able to view the person on the other end, or show he what your rear camera is capturing and here comes the best one; use a mirror. Yes, you heard me! Use a mirror. You could very well stand in front of a mirror for the rear camera to stream what the mirror has, i.e. YOU. This way the iPhone 3GS can be used to make video calls without multiple cameras. I know the idea is a bit lame, but trust me it's still useful.

FaceTime can be installed only on Jailbroken iPhone 3GSs. An app called FaceIt-3GS is available on the Cydia store which can be installed by adding the source http://apps.iphoneislam.com. 

There is another interesting iPhone accessory called iSeeU that helps you make video calls on an obsolete iOS device.

P.S. : Please bear with the image, had to use own picture to avoid copyright issues. ;)

Google adds +

From its name, Google + might seem like an advanced search service. However, Google has probably come up with this name of it's new Social Networking service based on the fact of ADDing (+ing) contacts on a social media website. The way they thought is cool, not sure of the catchiness of the name though.

First lets discuss the greatest, though not very unique features of Google + (cough.. Facebook.. cough).

Profile: This is very similar to any other profile on the internet. Google + profile has the potential of being both an informal and a professional profile.

Stream: Stream is the news feed we see on Facebook. It is the aggregator of all the posts on your network.

Circles: Now, this is Google's take on groups. Circles is a cool way of organizing your contacts into groups or circles as they call it. It has certain dissimilarities from the conventional groups on Facebook. For example, when you update your status or post a link, you can choose to which circles or groups you want it to be visible to. The UI for adding contacts into circles is elegant. You have to drag your contacts into one of the circle shaped groups.

Hangout: This is one of the coolest features of +. A hangout is a service that let's you literally ( yet only virtually) hang out with your friends. Yes, you heard me. You can see and talk to them. This is achieved with voice and video conference Google services. It is brilliantly integrated into +.

Photos: Picasa web albums is integrated right into your Google + account. Unlike Facebook, I am not sure if Google + users get unlimited storage for their photos. But Picasa integration is definitely useful. Also, you can choose which albums to be public, private and available to specific circles.

Huddle: This is a group testing service available to only the Android app users, which does not seem to work on my Atrix as I type this. Sounds cool, will update this paragraph when it works. ;) On the other hand, the app is pretty slick and intuitive. The notifications are quick.         

Sparks: Various interests categories can be pinned under sparks for quick access. It is like a mini-news feed in that specific category.   

+1: This is a very interesting concept. People might compare it with Facebook's 'Like' , but it is different and stupid in it's own ways. Google has integrated +1 into it's search service too. Once you perform a search on Google, there is a +1 button beside every search result if you are logged in. You can like (or +1 as Google wants to put it) any search result. This way the whole web can be categorized based on people's interests. Now that's what Google has always been striving for. The only issue I had with this is that how can a search result be +1'd before actually viewing the page?. Also, all the links you +1'd on the web will appear on the +1s on your Google + page. And like FB, any post or comment can be +1'd. (Man! It's so difficult to type +1'd! I am actually copy-pasting it throughout this post. Like is at least better that way :P)

Google + is the first non-beta Google product. It does seem like a complete and polished product release, has a few bugs though. To name a few, the suggestions seem to re-appear even after inviting or adding them to one of your circles. Also, I have received feedback from my friends complaining about the privacy settings. User info seems to be available by default. Google does need to work a lot on privacy issues for +. The pioneer, Facebook itself keeps struggling in this domain.

+1 on Google + : +1 is very neatly integrated into the Google + service, however there is a little confusion. Say for example, I put up a status message saying The Jets teams Rocks!!. Say 100 people +1'd this status message. Now I change the status message to The Jets teams Sucks!! ( No offense intended, I actually have no clue of American Football). The 100 people would have still +1'd it! The work around to this can be notifying the people who +1'd any status message or comment if it is altered. Let's see how Google addresses this.

Google did a very good job with + so far. Can be better though as social media has tremendous scope. They can very well integrate their Ad services too. It did flick some features from Facebook including the UI ( sorry for my rudeness, I meant adapted from Facebook), but does have a lot of potential to compete with the monopoly.

To sum it up, this is a great attempt at social media by Google and so far the integration of + into all it's services has been brilliant. Let's hope that Google get's it right this time.

P.S. Please +1 this post. :P

The next iPhone Unicorn

The next-gen iPhone has always been this mysterious / mythical creature that everybody craves for. The only difference is that it does become a reality within a definite period of time unlike unicorns or mermaids, though annoyingly delayed often.

The iPhone 4 has been a tremendous success for Apple Inc. and is officially it's best selling device till date. They now ship it to several other countries and thank Steve Jobs ( read as God ) it is on multiple carriers. Though it was plagued by antenna-gate and other reception issues, the iPhone 4 has come out strong as the most wanted gadget. Apple has to be complimented for it's customer service and gesture of giving free bumpers to many customers to resolve the above issues.

Now, what about the next iPhone? What's it going to be called? Bloggers have come up with suggestions like iPhone 5, 4S or 4GS. Honestly, iPhone 5 seems more relevant because it is going to run the awesome (partially adapted from Android though) iOS 5 and is also most probably be incorporating Apple's proprietary A5 processor Now if Apple decides with the name iPhone 4S or 4GS, like it did with 3GS, I am sure they will have their reasons.

The following is a wish-list for the next iPhone unicorn:-

• Better camera, preferably 8MP, as most high-end smart-phones do have them already
• 4G / LTE compatibility
• Better quality front-facing camera too
• Bigger display, may be around 4 inches
• A5 processor for sure
• Facetime over 3G/4G
• Better Google maps, must contain turn-by-turn directions as in Android
• Better battery life, replaceable battery would be great
• 64 GB iPhone
• Expandable memory
• HDMI out to external displays ( at least 720p would do)

I have excluded the dedicated hardware camera button because they elegantly solved that issue with the volume rocker key.

Now for the people whose contracts are up and are planning to upgrade to an iPhone, it's quite a challenge to decide whether to wait or not. June 6th keynote's 'One last thing' was certainly disappointing but let's hope for the unveiling to take place in September. My advice would be to wait till September because it is very much likely that for the same price the next-gen iPhone can be purchased. If you get the iPhone 4 now, the launch of iPhone 5 would make your device ancient and that's not what you would want! There's money for the status symbol quotient in there too.

Rumors have been floating around about the next iPhone, but no pictures or nothing very substantial yet like what Gizmodo did with iPhone 4. 

Apple recently started selling unlocked iPhone 4s in the US. Looks like Apple is trying to empty its inventory of iPhone 4s before the launch of the iPhone 5, which is kinda suspicious. Actually not suspicious, I am pretty sure of it. Fingers crossed!!

Wonder in Alice Land

I know, the title of this post and the figure above are very misleading. Any school going kid or in fact anyone would think: "What's wrong with this guy? How the hell can someone forget the title of Alice in Wonderland?" Well, I am here not to discuss the famous novel by Lewis Carroll nor it's multi-million dollar grossing film adaptation. Following the tradition of GeekyVerses this is still a tech post. 

Okay, let me give you some background to this post. I happened to see a video recently, The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams by Randy Pausch. Oh boy, this was the best last lecture or I must say the best lecture ever! Randy Pausch, a Computer Science professor who was suffering from terminal pancreatic cancer discusses his philosophies in life and also some amazing projects he worked on.

Alice is one of them. "It is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience." That is the introduction given on the Alice's website. To sum it up, it is a pretty cool tool for a beginner interested in programming and animation. It is basically for school kids but I would recommend it to any beginner. 

The interface is very intuitive and easy to use. It has drag and drop tools to make programming both a fun and educative experience. It is a little buggy which is acceptable, considering it's open source nature. It is a Java based tool following an Object-Oriented approach. 

Alice has already made it's way into many schools. It can be used to make simple computer animations simultaneously learning various programming methodologies. Let's spread the word and encourage such OSS.

The MOTO Zombie

Motorola has been the pioneer of it's industry. It holds the credit for manufacturing the first ever walkie-talkie. It has seen immense success with devices like the MOTO RAZR which sold millions world wide. After a few management mishaps Motorola seems to be back on track. Well, most of this rejuvenation is a result of the fact that Motorola is now on the Android band wagon and the leadership of Mr. Sanjay Jha.

The very fact that Motorola is in direct competition to Apple Inc. in mobile phones and tablets shows how it's back in the game. It's done a great job with devices like the Atrix and XOOM this year. The Atrix is a very impressive device which works on Froyo though has MOTO-Blur atop. In terms of hardware it is a geeks dream. With a 4-inch display, dual-core processor,  finger-print reader, two cameras and 1 GB memory, the Atrix is now an industry benchmark. The Android OS has a very unique experience on the Atrix and hence it is the best Android device out there.

Motorola XOOM is certainly a great device with a lot of potential but kinda falls short or I must honestly say lags far behind the experience on an iPad.

This is the part where I explain why I called Motorola a zombie. This analogy is to emphasize on the fact that Motorola does come up with some very functional devices but does not have the utopian ease of use in them. That's primarily because they do not make their own software, so unlike Apple. Just like a Zombie moves around but has no soul. Nokia is a similar company that ditched it's famous (read infamous) symbian platform and has tied up with Microsoft. Let's just hope it's not a zombie and makes effective use of the features of Windows Phone 7, especially hardware acceleration. Samsung certainly does a better job than Motorola in developing custom UI, or custom OS if I may. However, they suck at supply-chain management and bringing their products into stores at the right time. Nevertheless, Samsung has to be commended for undergoing complete redesign of it's Galaxy Tab 10.1 after the launch of the iPad 2. It is now the slimmest and lightest tablet on the planet. Can't wait to see how Honecomb fairs on this beauty! RIM deserves praise for sticking to it's platform and of course adapting QNX for the playbook. The best part is that the playbook is gonna 'play' Android apps. How cool is that?

Coming back to the MOTO (Motto) of this post. Motorola is assumably in the race but has to buckle up. It does a good job with operator collaborations implying wise choice of AT&T. Though has a long way to go to enable a seamless experience on it's devices, it does seem to be on right path.

XOOM vs iPad 2

Okay, I know this is a very clichéd topic but having used both the devices extensively, I couldn't resist myself from writing about them. I purchased the Motorola XOOM 3G version in the first week it was launched. Luckily, there was no restocking-fee and i could return it with a full-refund. Please read on to know why I returned.

Interface / User-Experience

The revamped UI of honeycomb (XOOM) is pretty impressive and sometimes very useful too. But the overall user-experience is incomparable to that of the iOS counterpart. The widgets are very helpful and the choice of customization of the interface is something which the iPad lacks. The lack of physical buttons might look beneficial at first but it actually reduces the real-estate of the display. Honeycomb has three touch-screen buttons 

on the display instead of physical buttons.

Hardware

The Motorola XOOM is a 4G enabled devices. However, after purchase the XOOM has to be returned to Motorola to incorporate the 4G hardware, when it becomes available, without any charge. It has a dual-core processor and 1GB memory. Also, it has 32GB on-board and is expandable. It also has a display larger than the iPad at 10 inches. The display on the iPad is definitely sharper and has better color balance. The XOOM beats the iPad 2 comprehensively in the hardware sector. The common features include two cameras, Wi-Fi, etc. I never understood why a tablet needs a back camera. Imagine how awkward it would look if you held a 10" tablet trying to take a video, even if it's HD. The XOOM has an 8MP rear camera which was absolutely unnecessary and increases the production cost. Instead, they should have increased the quality of the front-facing camera.


iPad 2 Tech Specs
XOOM Tech Specs

Apps

There has never been a debate over which of the applications platform is better. The App store has 300,000 apps whereas the Android Market has 100,000 apps. Well, that is not a criterion for a comparison here as all these are not designed for a tablet. The iOS app store has 65,000 apps specifically designed for the iPad but there are fewer than 100 apps. Still it is not just the numbers that matter, the quality and usability of apps is hands-down better on the iPad. From productivity apps to games every app looks and feels much better on the iPad. More tablet-friendly apps have to be developed for the Android Market for Android tablets to compete with the iPad.

Flash

Adobe Flash has always been a deal-breaker (probably the only deal-breaker) for iOS devices. Personally, I do not even consider it so. Almost every major website has an alternative iOS version or an app. It is only the pirated websites that have flash as a streaming standard that cannot be accessed on an iPad. Well, Apple is doing a good job by boycotting Adobe and trying to make HTML 5 as a standard. It is also indirectly partially curbing  piracy as a result. 

Now coming to performance of Flash on the XOOM. After the recent update, flash certainly works on honeycomb. Do not ask me if it crashes or if it's any buggy because you are not going to get an answer you wished for. It currently supports up to 720p video.

Conclusion

The Motorola XOOM is undoubtedly the best competition the iPad has but honestly Android has a long way to go to beat the intuitiveness and functionality of the iPad. The restrictions and closed approach of Apple Inc. is actually beneficial to an average user than the openness of the Android platform. The iOS is a more finished and polished operating system. So anybody looking for a tablet, my advice is to get an iPad 2. Trust me ;)

Dear Soumyadip Choudhury, why do you hate Apple?

This is a very obvious response to this blog post from an avid admirer of Apple Inc. and its products. I personally have been very disgusted by this post and the hatred it has caused towards Apple Inc. over the internet. I am trying to be as polite as possible :) ( The smiley is intended to re-emphasize politeness)

Dear Soumyadip

I totally agree with your frustration over the delay of the launch of the latest Apple products in India. But this has very valid reasons. Firstly, India is not the only country in the list. Secondly, It is NOT UNETHICAL for a company to launch products in markets which have good selling potential. Just because Apple doesn't find India's market lucrative enough, it is not immoral on Apple's part and Apple or SJ are certainly not against India. Do you think a company like Apple would miss a market like India's if it thought it was profitable to launch products there? The reason you give for not owning even a single Apple product is respect? It is not true that Apple does not sell any of its latest products in India. Apple did partner with companies like HCL to sell iPods in India, which was not very successful, which is why it chose to delay the launch of certain products.

Coming to the prices of iPhone in India. Companies like Apple and many more sell mobile phones with the concept of 'subsidy'. A contract-free iPhone costs around $599, the reason it is being sold for $199 in the US is because it is subsidized by telecom operators like AT&T and Verizon. The same applies to the Indian market. The service providers ( Airtel and Vodafone ) have to be blamed for the sky-high, unaffordable prices.

Mac is a PC, true. But for a common man, PC is a device which runs Windows OS and that is the point and basis for the Mac VS PC commercials. PC is a generic word now, more generic to the Windows domain. Like how Googling is synonymous to searching on the internet, PC is to a windows machine.

No one can deny the fact that several devices have adapted the design and UI concepts from many Apple devices, be it tablets or mobile phones. Samsung did come up with its second iteration of the Galaxy Tab. But Why? Because it realized that 10.1 inches is a better form-factor than 7 inches and that is because of the tremendous success of the iPad. Just because Samsung launched its second tablet first does not make it a pioneer. Let's not forget, Apple started selling thousands of iPad 2s even before a single Galaxy Tab 10.1 was shipped.

The MacBook. Could there be a better design for a laptop? Hell no! There's nothing wrong with flaunting a device like that. I won't deny that it is not affordable to most people but is definitely worth every penny you  pay for it. When it comes to Macs, it is not the specs that matter. It is the hardware/software integration and overall experience that counts and no one does it better than Apple. 

Also, your blog post is not clear whether you are criticizing the tech by Apple ( by praising openness of Android and Linux ) or just have a problem with the delay of sale of awesome Apple products. No doubt about the success of Android. Remember, there are a ton of companies in the Open Handset Alliance and hence so many Android devices. Kudos to Apple as it competes with so many companies with just three devices, viz. iPhone, iPod, iPad.

Again, I share everybody's opinion over Apple not launching its products in India along with other major markets. Let's hope this changes soon.

Wishing SJ good health!

Kartheek Pathuri

(An ardent Apple fan)

Eye on Eye Fi !!

Well this is for all those shutterbugs who are in a relationship with their cameras and pictures and have experienced heart-break when they see the memory full sign at crucial times.

Eye-Fi memory cards. These simple SD memory cards which when pushed into an ordinary camera gives it the power of 'endless' memory. You read that right 'endless' memory as opposed to your slim SDHC cards! This is possible because of the fact that as soon as you click pictures, they are sent over the internet to be stored on your computer or photo sharing sites like picassa, flickr and even facebook! How does it do this? Simple, it has built-in Wi-Fi which uses your home (or any) Wi-Fi network and transfers the pictures and videos over to wherever you want you memories to be stored. There are 32 Wi-Fi networks that can be pre-configured into the card and it will make sure that whenever you enter one of these networks, the card will automatically make space for your new memories and clean the oldest and safely stored data, thereby providing a virtual endless memory.

What's more? It also automatically geo-tags your photos. This means when you see these pictures after a certain period you'll know exactly where they were taken. It uses Wi-Fi triangulation to achieve this. Wi-Fi-Triangulation is a technique that works by sniffing around for wireless networks in range, measuring their strength and comparing the results to a database. It does not connect or use these hotspots but merely sweeps for relevant data for comparision. The databases are maintained by a service provider (like Skyhook Wireless and Navizon) which periodically sweeps the area and catalogs new hotspots. This is a technology which is a competitor of the GPS (aweak one though) and is currently found in mobile devices like iPod Touch, iPhones and Windows Phones.

Surprisingly the price point of these cards is not too high. The price range starts from $49.99 for a 4 GB card and goes on till $149.99 for the 8 GB fully loaded pro version. The features vary over the four available variants and can be compared here.

Like almost all things, Internet is quite changing the face of photography too. A few years back, the camera companies dabbled with the idea of integrating networking in the point and shoots but the idea wasn’t accepted as expected. But Eye-Fi, a SD memory card with Wi-Fi, is coming close to achieving what the previous ideas couldn’t achieve. It’s one of the more innovative ways to make us store and share our memories and in the process bringing us closer and closer to The Net.

Name Game and Fame

It remains unsaid how important branding is for the sale of a product. Though many people might deny this, the marketing of a commodity is very vital for it's appeal and hence sale. It's strange that major manufacturers come up with such weird names that reducing the selling quotient drastically. A very good example is the Television market. Vizio XVT3D650SV. Oh come on, who would remember that? Even certain auto manufacturers like Acura have model names as RL, TL, MDX, RDX ,etc. Except RDX, the rest are boring ( I am sure RDX was a coincidence!). A name should be catchy, easy to remember and describe the product. Take the case of Apple. iPhone, iPod, iPad. They are such obvious names for the gadgets they represent, yet so appealing. Mac OSes are named after animals of the cat family (excluding the cat, Thank God!). This is what Apple does. Simple and elegant, be it their products or their marketing.  Not to forget the name Apple itself is ridiculous for a tech company, but the fame it has acquired all these years subside the stupidity of it's name and now 'Apple' is synonymous to cool and awesome and is the best prefix a gadget name can get. So for a company that cannot talk just with its innovation, adequate and apt branding is very important.

Now, Microsoft comes up with this fancy OS and what do they name it. Windows Phone 7. It's not that bad after all considering the fame of Windows 7 but is not that great a name either. OSes like Android, webOS are real good names. Google does a great job by naming every Android release with bakery items viz. froyo, gingerbread, honeycomb, etc which follow an alphabetical convention. Even Ubuntu / Canonical has some cool names for it's distros like jaunty jackalope, hardy heron, karmic koala, lucid lynx, etc. Motorola too comes up with very catchy names especially the four-letter ones. RAZR, ROKR, SLVR, CLIQ and XOOM are a few examples. On the internet, FaceBook, Twitter are perfect names for the services they provide. 

Name convention is sensible when it comes to branding. Putting an 'i' before a regular word makes it an Apple product. Alphabetical iterations for product release names like Android or Ubuntu. Omission of vowels to fit the four or five letter naming in case of Motorola products. Such conventions make it easy for the consumer to associate a product to the company and it's previous products.

Coming to captions. Following are some great examples:-

• MacBook Air: "Thinnovation", "World's thinnest notebook" 
• HP webOS: "Now available in S,M and L", in the context of Veer, Pre³ and TouchPad
• HTC ThunderBolt: "This isn't your dream phone. It's the one after that"
• Motorola Mobility: "Life Mpowered", the letter M as in the logo for Motorola Mobility

Other important parameters that add to the name game are company / product logos. Logos of companies like Apple, Motorola, HP, Dell, Samsung, LG, etc are ones that people are very familiar with and find immediate connection. Others like the logo of Nvidia (Click for logo), Snapdragon processor (Click for logo) are interesting.

Let the Tablet wars begin!

Every time I think of writing a post on tablets, there's some news of a new tablet launch. I have now realized that this is not going to end anytime soon and so here I am.

Where should I begin? Tablets have actually been around for a while, people just did not notice them much till the iPad. There were windows slates from companies like HP, Fujitsu, etc and also the infamous Apple Newton. Though the Newton was a disaster, it certainly led to the innovation behind Apple's latest tablet. The iPad is definitely an amazing product, while many would say it's just an over-sized iPod Touch, it's actually more than that. With a screen of that size, user experience is way better than a smartphone or a PMP. It does qualify for The Dark Apple act and has a few drawbacks though :-

• No flash support
• No hardware ports (USB, HDMI, etc)
• No user-replaceable  battery or expandable memory
• Slightly bulky 
• No cameras

Some of the above are expected to be integrated into iPad 2 along with a brilliant display.

The tablet wars have begun but the iPad has been the supreme dominance so far. Contenders like the Samsung Galaxy Tab are in the rat race but the experience is no where near the iPad. The form factor, build quality, hardware is perfect. It's just the UI which is what the Galaxy Tab is lagging in. It is the same Android OS 2.2 (Froyo) that is used for smartphones, just on a larger 7 inch screen.  

There are other Android tablets from companies like Velocity, Archos etc. Honestly, they are affordable or in fact cheap tablets but are such a waste. I am being a bit harsh here but they are still using resistive touch screens against the fluid capacitive touch screen that iPad uses! Which is why they are so cheap in the first place. Also, all these Android tablets have no standard for the Apps Marketplace, i.e. they do not have complete access to the Google Android App Marketplace, instead have a trimmed down app store. This is so unlike the iPad which has access to the iPhone app store too.

The much-awaited Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) seems to be specifically designed for the tablet PC and is impressive from it's first looks. Motorola has done a good job with the Motorola Xoom, which was launched at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2011. It is a similarly sized tablet like the iPad running Android and is pretty functional. Now it is very important for Motorola to get the price-point and operator collaboration right. It is expected to be launched with Verizon.

CES 2011 was flooded by tablets from major manufacturers like Toshiba, Samsung, Archos, etc. It is surprising that HTC has not come up with any tablet yet. There were also a bunch of Tablet-Laptop hybrids, call them Sliding Tablets or Slider PCs, they are some cool concepts. Let's see whether these concepts see the light of day or not.

veriPhone!!!

Well, the three exclamation marks after the title of this blog post DO NOT signify any revolution in the mobile phone industry. It's just a sigh of relief.. Ah the iPhone's finally on Verizon! After four years of the first iPhone's launch.

Now, let us come to the details. So what is the Verizon's iPhone all about? It is exactly the same iPhone 4 but on a CDMA EV-DO network., no 4G, no international roaming.  When re-phrased, that means better call reception, faster data and lesser dropped calls. However, there is a drawback to this. Verizon's CDMA network does not allow simultaneous voice and data, i.e. you cannot browse while you are on a voice call, which is a big deal and AT&T actually allows you to do that ( Surprising, ain't it? ). Of course, there are the trivial design changes, the extra black seams on the metallic edge. Hope that after-all they aren't that trivial, and solve the antenna-gate issues.

Verizon's iPhone is being offered with a Personal Hotspot feature which can connect up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices, pricing of which is not known yet. It also comes with the choice of an unlimited monthly data plan which is now unavailable on AT&T.

Whether a customer should go for an iPhone with Verizon now is highly questionable. Apple launches product updates for the iPhone every year around September, which is around seven months after the launch of the veriPhone. Say you purchase it right now, your mobile phone will become obsolete in less than a year and you know how it is, Apple makes every predecessor look almost ancient.

So the moral of the story is:-

The Better

• America's most reliable network
• Better reception when compared to AT&T's network
• Personal Hotspot option
• Choice of unlimited data plan
• The differences in design might solve reception issues with iPhone 4

The Worse

• Lack of simultaneous voice and data connection
• No international roaming
• Cannot be unlocked and used with alternative operator *Wink*
• Product launch not simultaneous with actual product upgrade

So it is up to you guys to decide whether to upgrade to a veriPhone ( if already a Verizon customer ), or switch operators just to get one. Decide wisely!!