Author
Mala Bhargava has been writing on technology well before the advent of internet in Indians and before CDs made their way into computers. Mala writes on technology, social media, startups and fitness. A trained psychologist, she claims that her understanding of psychology helps her understand the human side of technology.
Mala BhargavaPeople have come up with innovative keyboard designs in the past. Sadly, none have really gone mainstream, except perhaps a few meant specifically for gaming or split keyboards made by Microsoft. TrendHunter, a site that ferrets out futuristic and interesting tech, rounded up a big bunch of clever and mostly amusing keyboards. There’s a full sized glass keyless keyboard, which is just like typing on the virtual keyboard of a tablet, only probably more difficult and rather pointless though it has a motion sensing technology that follows the user’s hand movements. There’s a laser keyboard that projects an image of a keyboard over any surface and even makes clicking noises for the virtual keys – again rather difficult to use for those who can type without looking. There’s a weird keyboard that you can type with on the rear as well as front – an odd new approach to typing. An even stranger idea is a keyboard (and speakers) built right into a pair of pants for those who are really on the go and connect to devices whenever and wherever. And then there are flexible keyboards, keyboards that light up in lovely colours, spill-proof keyboards, a mouse built right into a keyboard, shape-shifting keyboards that adjust to your typing style and so on. But what about some practical keyboards for use with the iPad and other tablets and for smartphones that are getting larger by the way? Well, there are foldable keyboards readily available even now on such places as Amazon. These fold in half, typically, though there are a few that fold in odd splits. All in all, these keyboards have been around since 2008 and still haven’t made it into the wild possibly because they aren’t really practical when it comes down to real life usage. But now LG has just a wireless keyboard meant exactly to meet the needs of mobile device users. What’s different about this keyboard, called the Rolly because it is indeed rollable, is the material it’s made of. It’s impact resistant polycarbonate and ABS plastic and much more durable and solid than other attempts. Going from the top, you can just start rolling it in until it becomes a nice stick that can fit into handbags or a big pocket. Obviously, it works with Bluetooth to connect to mobile devices and even has a stand built into it – presumably it’s solid enough to take the weight – and a tablet can readily be stood up in it making it a hybrid. It’s a bit of a pity that the Rolly is being showcased at a time when tablet sales are really going down, but if enough Rolly’s were to be around and if they’re as good as they look, it could put a dent in the hybrid market which isn’t doing badly.
Read More
While Flipkart flip flops over going app-only and abandoning its website, food ordering startup Faasos has decided to take advantage of the buzz around app-onlyness and just do it, so to speak. Flipkart is apparently still trying to figure out whether this works for them, considering high value orders seem to be placed more frequently from the website and going app-only also leaves out new customers who haven’t yet begun to use many apps. But Faasos claims 97 per cent of its orders come from mobiles, so it loses little by pulling the shutters down on its website. The app service claims it has 800,000 downloads expects to hit a million downloads in a couple of weeks. It works across the top 10 cities in India -- Mumbai, Gurgaon, Delhi, Pune, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Indore. But Revant Bhate, head of marketing for Faasos says it isn’t just these cities: “Surprisingly, even tier 2 cities have shown tremendous traction for ordering via the app which led to 97% of our delivery sales coming from the mobile app.” Unlike for Flipkart, food ordering will be more of an impulse and spur-of-the-moment purchase and it would be natural enough to order from a mobile. It’s an attractive enough app and certainly a better experience than a website. “It is not just a representation of the website offering, but the entire proposition only works best on the app” says Revant. “Imagine the consumer seeing a different menu, during breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner at every location that (s)he is present in along with a dynamic estimated delivery time based on the product you order and how far one is from the delivery location. Faasos has built this propriety technology in-house and is the world’s first Food business to provide these features real time. All this is not possible when someone orders via a phone call or through a website.” The business has recently expanded its offerings and is one of the few breakfast delivering services across India. The company has recently started delivering tea with snacks in Mumbai, a service that will soon be rolled out in Pune and Bangalore as well. In terms of expansion in Tier 2 cities, Faasos has started in Indore and Baroda. Faasos is essentially a hyper-local food-on-demand service started in 2011. It received Series A from Sequoia Capital in FY2012 and Series B by Lightbox Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Innoven Capital in FY2015.
Read More
Mala BhargavaIt's more than a little frightening that the big tech companies will already have the ability to know what's on your smartphone screen, anytime. The technologies that will make this happen include image recognition, so that not is text understandable, so are photographs and icons. In fact, Microsoft refers to it as Snapshots on Tap. This capability is coming to the next version of Android -- Marshmallow -- and it's called Google Now on Tap. It's the most interfering and most awaited feature of the system upgrade, in fact. But Android M is still a few months away. Meanwhile, Microsoft has jumped to it and come up with a similar feature, available via its Android app, Bing. Or rather, it's beginning to be rolled out. Right now it just presents the Bing search box. It occurs to me that soon one will have to choose between Google Now on Tap and Bing on Android, since you can't really have both fighting to read your screen and give you contextual information at the same time. And wait till Microsoft's Cortana joins the mix. Meanwhile with Bing, once it's installed and you sign in with your Microsoft account, a long press on the Home button will wake it up and the app will have a good look at what you're doing and give you relevant information. So, if you're looking at the title of a movie, it should present snippets of information about it. Or if you're looking at the photo of something well known enough to have a Wikipedia.entry, it'll pull that up. In time, like every other technology, it'll have collected enough information about you to pop up more relevant information. "The more technology adapts to you, the more you can be yourself," is the alluring promise of Bing. Google Now on Tap is to do all that Bing does and perhaps more as it works inside apps, specially Google's own such as Gmail and search and maps, overly used much more than Microsoft's are on Android. This feature was introduced by Sundar Pichai several months ago. "You’re deluged with a lot of information on your phones," said Sundar Pichai. "We have the biggest investment in machine learning over the last few years, and we believe we have the best capabilities in the world." It's going to be an interesting time as these features, both with Google and with Microsoft develop but users should probably never lose sight of the fact that all that fancy machine learning is scooping up every bit of information about them. Although it looks like it's untouched by human hands, ultimately it affects the human -you-in ways you may not necessarily have agreed to.
Read More
The immensely popular Moto G gets a makeover for 2015by Mala BhargavaIt's back. The smartphone that two years ago showed the world it didn’t need to join the specs race or demand a staggering price for good performance and user experience. The Moto G went on to become Motorola’s most popular phone ever, largely thanks to India, where the now Lenovo-owned company just launched the third generation of the device.The smartphone market is now, of course, nothing like it was two years ago. In a space where the dynamics are constantly changing, the top flagship phones are being squeezed by an explosion of budget devices that combine good design, top-notch specs and shockingly low prices. So now the Moto G can’t be sure of ruling the Rs 12,999 segment it first started. But, it stands more than a good chance.If I were to use just one word to describe the new Moto G, that word would be ‘comfortable’. As I was initialising it and setting it up, I had the feeling of meeting an old friend. And that’s no reference to the “BFF” or best friends forever campaign Motorola is running. It fit right into my hand like it belonged and didn’t feel like it was designed to impress, never mind everything else.The design, which still has echoes of the original Moto G and hasn’t veered off into a new and unfamiliar look, is unpretentious right through. The back is a textured synthetic material which is both good to hold and easy to grip. That back comes off to let you get at the two SIM card slots — both micro and both 4G capable (one at a time), and the memory card slot. You can’t pull out the battery. In fact, the rest is all sealed up good because this phone is IPX7 rated or water resistant. That’s rare to non-existent in devices at this price though everyone keeps saying the feature should now be standard for all phones.The water resistance depends on your closing up the back panel securely, making sure all ends are pressed down and snapped into place. Only after that can you be comfortable with making a phone call in the rain or not have a heart attack when your glass of water tips over on the phone. The device will actually live through being submerged in three feet of water for 30 minutes, but it’s not a recommended daily ritual.Motorola has a collection of back panels and flip cases in nice colours and I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up a few to refresh the phone’s look every now and then — because otherwise, it’s not very special in the looks department.Motorola has hit upon a great size of 5 inches so it can look like a big phone but be as comfortable as a smaller one. It’s one from a diminishing breed that let you use it one-handed without resorting to software tricks.The screen isn’t a Quad-HD like expensive ones today. But again, there’s that word — comfortable. It’s easy on the eyes and uncompromised without being in that very crisp category. The more important thing is the way the screen responds to your touch and that’s smooth. The Moto G is more or less stock Android and still every bit a Google phone.Lenovo has kept its hands off the Moto phones, sensibly earning trust points with customers and allowing the experience on these devices to grow incrementally from their popular base. Naturally, the Android version is the newest Lollipop 5.1.1 and the phone should be among the first to upgrade to the next version of the operating system.For running power, the Moto G certainly doesn’t have anything equivalent to even other budget phones, let alone the over-Rs 30,000 ones, but the performance is just fine for average use. Though it won’t do brilliantly on benchmarks, the Moto G does things like play video for hours without heating up.One thing that’s a distinct improvement over the previous Moto G is the camera set which is 13MP primary and 5MP front. You get perfectly adequate images for casual use and find yourself using a simple Google app. The camera can also be activated super quick with a double twist of the wrist, as can the torch with a karate chop action. For those who have a 2nd gen Moto G in good working condition, there isn’t a compelling reason to upgrade except for the camera and the fact that there may be interesting exchange offers. For someone buying afresh, the Moto G is a great deal.mala@businessworld.in(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 07-09-2015)
Read More
A quick week after a global launch, Samsung has brought the Galaxy S6 Edge Plus to India. It’s to cost Rs 57,900 and will be available from the 28th of August. A wireless charger (recommended) and a case will cost extra. The S6 Edge Plus is one of two devices recently launched in New York by Samsung, the other being the Galaxy Note 5. Of the launch of the Note 5, there is no date being given. “Very soon” is what Samsung India execs promise. As the name suggests, the Galaxy S6 Edge Plus is a larger version of the S6 Edge, but it does have additional features. The Edge devices are the result of Samsung’s research on bendable or flexible screens, showcased about two years ago in what is a world first. The “Edge” refers on Samsung’s smartphones refers to the way the screen wraps around the edges. This not only gives a bezel-less look with more screen space, but actually allows the side to be used for additional information, once apps that are meant specially for this purpose are downloaded. To see the Galaxy S6 Edge Plus is a different experience from viewing it in videos or pictures online. The device, specially in its titanium version, is stunning. The 5.7-inch screen is the best available at 2560x1440 at 518ppi density. Although it is said often enough that the human eye cannot tell the difference beyond a point, a comparison with the Note 4 shows this to be untrue. The camera on this device is currently the most capable around and takes crystal clear video and photos – and live streams straight to YouTube. This is a clever new feature that gives Periscope and Meerkat, live streaming apps, a run for their money and can easily be pushed downwards to the previous devices, but Asim Warsi, Vice President of Marketing, IT and Mobile at Samsung India said there was no current guidance on any such thing and the feature would be, for now, exclusive to the new devices. The Galaxy S6 Edge Plus comes to India in a 32GB version and any higher internal storage will not be possible as there isn’t an expansion slot in this unibody design – nor a way for a user to swap the battery inside. “We have brought in the 32GB version keeping in mind the user demand and have no guidance to give on other variants at the moment,” said Warsi. The lack of storage expandability and access to the battery are two major complaints regarding this otherwise top notch device. However, the wireless fast charger with the Galaxy S6 Edge Plus gives a charge quick enough (90 minutes) to counter the need for a user to swap batteries. Samsung has been facing considerable pressure from newer players such as OnePlus, Xiaomi and others in the smartphone space, as they offer considerable hardware specifications for one-fourth the price of a Samsung flagship. Looking at the Galaxy S6 Edge Plus, one can see immediately that they don’t match up, but for those who can’t afford these devices, the options offered are certainly getting better and better. Warsi expresses confidence about the potential of the new devices “The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge have done better in the Indian market than any many other devices before. Prebookings for those phones were unprecedented in India,” he says. “After the launch as well, these phones have done very well.” And consumer interest in India in large format devices is very strong. So we are quite excited by the potential of the S6 Edge Plus. In fact, the combination of the large screen and its dual curved screen is going to be greater interest to the consumer.” Apple, Samsung’s biggest rival, is expected to soon launch its successors to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
Read More
There’s a little bit of Amazon creeping into many workplaces todayBy Mala BhargavaBy now everyone will have read The New York Times’ article “Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace,” in which it was said that even death was no excuse to do less than your best at Amazon.The long article painted a grim picture of a workplace where the pursuit of excellence and innovation rode roughshod over the human side of people who worked there. Employees who had to cut back on working late, for example, due to cancer or a dying parent or a miscarriage were given low performance ratings and edged out. People were ripped apart in public when presenting ideas, shamed to the point of tears, and left to either rise above their discomfort or leave.The article painted Amazon to be workplace from hell with a truly brutal number-driven culture — and it shocked readers deeply.Jeff Bezos, who is said to be the fifth richest man in the world, reacted to the piece the next day and said he didn’t recognise the Amazon described there as the Amazon he knew and sent off a memo to employees to report any abusive behaviour they encountered.On social media, it was passed around with some degree of horror. Look what happens at Amazon. While it may or may not be exaggerated, I think it shouldn’t altogether surprise us. There’s a little bit of Amazon creeping into many modern workplaces today. As work becomes more digitised and measurable, many companies have begun a relentless demand for “numbers” from their “resources,” gradually creating workers who bring their bodies to work and leave their hearts behind.If they can’t take it, a fresh crop of the educated unemployed is waiting in the wings.Ironically, the same day the article came out, I had a friend almost in tears as she prepared to toil late into the night, leaving a sick daughter at home, only to find a pair of security guards appear at her desk demanding to know why she was eating a snack at her desk. The office had cameras trained on every desk and grabbing a bite quickly brought on the Gestapo.The New York Times article described how Amazon didn’t really care if employees quit after a stint at the company. The idea was not to win their loyalty and keep them on for years. The idea was to sift them out and replace them with fresh blood.This too is a familiar scenario in corporate offices today, where life is made increasingly difficult for an employee until there’s little option but to take one’s misery out of the organisation.It’s interesting that Jeff Bezos thinks of the article as being made up of half truths. Even at half strength, the description is chilling. (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 07-09-2015)
Read More
Every day a new fitness tracker joins the hundreds beginning to flood the market, but it’s more rare to see one that goes beyond counting steps and measuring heart rate and buzzing on the wrist to tell you this or that. Austin-based Chaotic Moon Studios has come up with a wearable with a difference, first reported on by TechChrunch. It’s focused on solving a real problem, in practical terms. Mala Bhargava“The purpose of technology is to improve people’s lives,” says the company’s Twitter account, “Say hello to the world’s first wheelchair fitness tracker.” Chaotic Moon describes itself as a creative technology studio that develops user-centred experiences for leading brands. It’s now been acquired by Accenture to enhance its digital design and innovation capabilities. On its own steam, Chaotic Moon has clients like Dell, AMD, Whole Foods, Yum and more in its portfolio. One of the things it does is to user research. The idea for a fitness tracker for someone who uses a wheelchair came from Tyler Hively, a person who works with Chaotic Moon and uses a wheelchair himself. He was speaking with his occupational therapist sister when the idea came up. The wheelchair fitness tracker, Freewheel, has a number of sensors such as a GPS, gyroscoptic sensor, and can track and measure speed, incline, movement, and other parameters. This may sound unexciting, but the idea comes into its own when you put the data to practical use. First of all, Bluetooth transmits all the data to a device. Now when users fitted with Freewheel on their chairs go about, information pours in to help map the routes taken by the users. Once this happens, you can map routes for various reasons such as which paths are safe for users, which should be designed differently etc This sort of mapping can be put to use for those not using a wheelchair as well but specifically for someone in a wheelchair, information about the route can help send audio alerts to the user, who doesn’t have hands free because they’re busy operating the chair. Warnings and navigation are an obvious use. FreeWheel has some similarity to the LeChal shoes that have been developed by Hyderabad-based Duceres Technologies and both these products are a wonderful example of how wearables will soon, in the not to distant future, address real-world problems instead of just being a good looking gimmick worn on your wrist.
Read More
Mala Bhargava has a short but powerful laundry list of disappointments with the recently launched version Every year I give in to the temptation and “upgrade” my Samsung Galaxy Note device. But that innocuous word, upgrade, doesn’t mean you can do anything to your existing Note. It means you need to put a huge wad of cash to buy a fresh Note. I never pre-order because you never know what problems could come up: an overheating processor (happily unlikely in the case of the Note 5), a battery that doesn’t behave, and so on. So while I’m eager to get my hands on the Galaxy Note 5, I have a short but powerful laundry list of disappointments with the recently launched version. No Galaxy Note 5 Edge?You have a Galaxy Note 5, a Galaxy S6, a Galaxy S6 Edge, a Galaxy S6Edge+, but no Galaxy Note 5 Edge. If you use the Note as much as I do – basically all day – you may well decide to put your money on a device that’s proven its worth over the years and pay for that extra feature that looks good as well as has a slick roll-out of apps and information on the wrap-around screen. But that is not to be. The one really innovative feature on Samsung flagships (well, apart from the stylus) has been left out of the Note 5 series. No Change In CameraThis one is outright unreasonable because the Note usually has the same camera as the Galaxy S-something that precedes it but given Samsung’s decline, this would have been a good time to do something additional to the camera on the Note 5. While it’s probably the best in class, it would have been great to have a step-up. The one addition is a Live Broadcast button that allows you to send a video live or scheduled, straight to YouTube. But for a photography buff, pure image quality and optics is always a strong draw. No Storage ExpansionWith everything now using apps, an increased number on a device is a given. While you can use online storage, a lot of which is being freely offered from so many sources, it would have been nice to have external storage to stash away data, leaving internal storage free for apps. As things stand, one will have to get into the strong habit of putting photos ad data up in the cloud. While there is a rumoured 128GB version, it’s bound to be prohibitively expensive. Not Enough BatteryThe Note 4 has a 3,220mAh battery which is removable – one can swap or replace altogether, a move I am considering because of the heavy use I put it to. But the Note 5 comes with a 3,000mAh battery and is non-removable. Both have Samsung’s quick charging feature, but it would have been nicer to have an upgraded battery for a device that has a higher res screen and is larger and has a more capable camera.
Read More
Samsung Galaxy Note fans wait eagerly for September to arrive each year, for that’s around the time the Korean giant launches a new version of this large feature-packed smartphone. Earlier than usual this year, the Galaxy Note 5 has just launched today at the Unpacked event in New York. With it, there’s also a king-sized variant of Samsung’s flagship phone for 2015, called the Galaxy S6 Edge+ -- but let’s be clear that this isn’t part of the Galaxy Note series as it doesn’t come with a Stylus. But if you’ve got the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, a powerful feature-filled smartphone, why would you consider moving so quickly to the Galaxy Note 5? Here’s why… Fantastic DesignDesign was once what annoyed users most about a Samsung phone. Not since it’s shed the plastic and taken on a bit of metal. On the new Galaxy Note 5, there’s a metal frame and glass on both sides. It doesn’t have the leather back of previous Notes. It’s taken a lot from the design of the Galaxy S6 flagship. There are colour variants including Platinum and Gold. As the media gets its first look at the Note 5, it’s being variously described as sleek, premium, elegant, and the most gorgeous from Samsung yet. The build quality too is being praised by the few who have handled the phone so far. Even Better StylusIt’s the stylus or S-Pen that makes the Note series what it is and while people laughed at it when it first launched five years ago, calling it a gimmick and obsolete, the stylus has really held its own, proving useful for those who just whip it out to take a note. This time, the stylus first of all has a clicking mechanism on the back that has those who try it out quite delighted. It’s like the depressor you’d find on an ordinary ball-point pen and is meant to pop out the stylus more easily without having to use a fingernail, but at the same time, the clicking seems to be a tad addictive and people are saying you might just want to click it for no reason at all. The S-Pen is lighter and refined physically, but functionally too it is intended to be much smoother. The best feature is that you can snap the S-Pen out and immediately start writing on the screen of the sleeping phone – the note will be immediately saved in the S-Note application. Much More ComfortableThere are probably those who’ve wanted the Galaxy Note but have always felt it’s too big. With the Note 5, Samsung has spent a great deal of attention on the ergonomics, opening up the door for new users who could be won around when they find the device is actually very comfortable to hold. It’s narrow enough to use with one hand and has tapering edges that counter that awkwardness that comes with a large 5.7 inch phone. Samsung has tried to maximize the space on the screen rather than enlarge the size of the phone any further. By Way of PowerSamsung uses its own LSI Exynos 7420 octa-core chip and its 2.1GHz processor works with 4GB of RAM and Mali T760MP8 772MHz graphics processor. The tricky thing is that there’s no slot for an external memory card and the 3,000mAh battery can’t be removed. This is a hugely unpopular decision that may sound like a minor thing but will actually weigh buyers’ decisions. The storage is 32GB and 64GB but Engadget is reporting that a 128GB variant is also a possibility. Camera The camera on Samsung’s flagships have surprised many with their capabilities. The 16MP and 5MP pair on the Note 5 now has a feature that is creating a stir: the software includes a button that when tapped lets you broadcast live to YouTube, in an answer to Meerkat and Periscope. One can also opt to schedule the video stream instead of going live. The display’s 1440 x 2560 resolution with 501 ppi density makes the screen unbeatable. The camera has an f1.9 aperture, changed from f2.2 on the Note 4. There is optical image stabilisation and the the rear camera can record 4K video – as before. The home button will launch the camera when double tapped. For anyone who uses their Note device extensively, using the stylus, multitasking and creating multimedia, the Note 5 is a desirable upgrade though it will of course be every bit as expensive as the Note 4 was. The lack of storage expansion and removable battery is the one gnawing omission.
Read More
Something about the Lenovo K3 Note seems to have caught the fancy of smartphone consumers in India. The little price tag of Rs 9,999 may have something to do with it. Lenovo claims they have 2 million registrations for their online “open” sale on Flipkart on Monday and Tuesday and that they’ve sold 200,000 units since they launched a few weeks ago. Budget phones are where the action is today. Increasingly, they seem to be offering what was standard fare on devices that cost upward of Rs 30,000. The K3 Note is 5.5-inch slab – hence the “Note” reminiscent of the large form factor started by Samsung many years ago. It’s slim and all straight lines except for the slightly rounded corners. The back, which mercifully can be removed, is a pearlescent plastic, not cheap and not premium, and you get it in white, black and a limited edition look-at-me yellow. On the back is a big Lenovo logo. Other than that it’s… well, a slab. The soft buttons with their nice tactile feedback switch the smartphone on to reveal a nice looking IPS display. It’s got to be because it’s a Full HD 1080x1920 with 401 ppi density. And yes it looks it – fine and crisp with rich colour and decent viewing angles, though it is a bit reflective. This is not Gorilla Glass and nor is there any special coating to repel fingerprints. It’s also not especially sunlight friendly. Those are all extras that you pay apremium for. Not long ago, one wouldn’t have imagined a screen with this resolution selling for a fraction of the cost the flagships that initially featured such screen cost. Swipe the home screen and you’ll find all your apps are lined up there, not in a separate app drawer. This is a favourite style of Chinese players who perhaps think it’s very Apple-like. You’ll also find that there are just too many apps preloaded. With 16GB of internal storage available, one would think you’d like to choose what you want o that phone, but some decisions have been taken for you to begin with and you’ll need to go through a few of the apps to see what you don’t want to keep and if it’ll uninstall. Other than that the Lenovo interface, called Vibe, is fine and has its customisation options including setting gestures such as a double-tap to wake, changing colour balance, changing themses, managing screens etc. It’s running on Android 5.0 Lollipop. The K3 Note connects to 4G on one of its two SIMs and has a slot for a memory card of expansion of 32GB. It also supports on-the-go connectivity. The K3 is not short on power with its 64-bit 1.5GHz MediaTek MT6572 CPU and 2GB RAM. The device does very well on benchmark scores and performs well. The 3,000mAh battery is perhaps just about enough, but this is a big screen and heavy use will definitely make short work of the battery. But well, big crisp screens are there to be enjoyed, so users should just keep potable chargers ready and use the device in peace. The cameras on the K3 are optimised for low-light, but that often means softened images. But the 13MP and 5MP shooters are great for online sharing of pictures and Instagramming. The Lenovo K3 Note isn’t the only value-for-money device to have just launched. There’s the Moto G 3rd gen, the Yu Yureka Plus and a whole host of offerings from Asus in their Zenfone 2 range. The customer is nice and spoiled for choice.
Read More
