Research in Motion offered investors a ray of hope on 25 September, announcing an unexpected increase in subscriber numbers that sent its shares up 5 per cent as the company worked hard to drum up enthusiasm for its crucial Blackberry due 2013. Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM, a pioneer in the smartphone arena, has in past years lost market share in North America to Apple Inc and Samsung, whose more versatile and user-friendly devices took off. RIM is trying to reinvent itself through a line of jazzed-up smartphones that will run on the BlackBerry 10 or BB10 operating system on which the company has staked its future. In an attempt to create a buzz around the new devices, Chief Executive Thorsten Heins gave a preview of the smartphone and its features to its developers at a gathering on 25 September in San Jose, California. Dressed in an outfit few Silicon Valley executives sport — a grey pinstriped suit — Heins said the company was fighting for its future. "There is new energy and a new fighting spirit in this company," he said as he listed new features from Internet browsing to multitasking between applications. Heins said BlackBerry's subscriber base had risen to 80 million in the quarter ended September 1 from the 78 million it reported earlier this year. The addition of subscribers surprised many on Wall Street and sparked a bounce in the company's share price. Most analysts had expected RIM to begin losing subscribers in the recently ended quarter, for the first time in its history. In a presentation that lacked the customary pizzazz of major Silicon Valley events, executives showed off some of the key features of the new phone like the browser, and 'flow' and 'peek' features that let users access important features without leaving an open application. RIM has completely focused on the launch of its new line of revamped devices in recent months, while its aging line-up of smartphones in the market have struggled to compete against the recently launched iPhone 5 and a slew of new Android devices. It badly needs a hit. The launch of BB10 has been delayed to next year from the final quarter of this year, a decision that had not gone down well with RIM shareholders. "BlackBerry 10 is our most important launch ever," he said. Wallowing At Its LowsRIM's stock is hovering around 9-year lows on both the Nasdaq and Toronto Stock Exchange. At its peak in 2008, RIM stock changed hands at around $140 a share. On Tuesday, the company's Nasdaq-listed shares closed 5 per cent higher at $6.60. Its Toronto-listed shares rose 5.2 per cent to C$6.50. Even as it ceded ground in the crucial North American market, RIM has been able to attract buyers with its lower-end devices in emerging markets, where consumers are much more price conscious and where the much-admired BlackBerry messaging platform gives it an edge. Growth from last quarter's base of roughly 78 million users, however, may come at a price, with gains skewed toward lower-end devices. This could hurt the closely watched average selling price for BlackBerry devices. RIM is due to announce results for its fiscal second-quarter on 27 September. Heins said the company was also getting positive feedback on its new BlackBerry 10 devices from the telecoms c arriers that have had a peek at the new smartphones. "We are making believers out of our partners. We are making believers out of those who had previously written BlackBerry off," Heins said. The BB10 devices, due to be launched in early 2013, will run on a new operating system that RIM has said will offer a faster and smoother user interface, and a better platform for apps that are critical to a smartphone's success. Paras Wadehra, an independent mobile apps developer, said the BB10 was a definite improvement. "They have brought the older BlackBerry into the modern world," he said, but he added that the delay of the launch has been frustrating. "They are taking a step in the right direction, but they are walking slowly." Wadehra, who has played with a model of the device for the past couple of months, liked the usability of the browser and the multitasking. The company, which is doing all it can to attract developers onto its platform, showed off apps during the presentation from Facebook to FourSquare. The company said the BB10 would have all the popular social networking apps on it. And it played a music video with RIM's head of developer relations, Alec Saunders, crooning a parody of REO Speedwagon's "Keep on Loving You." The conference attracted app makers from emerging markets in Asia, a region where BlackBerry phones are popular and growing. Many carried multiple phones from iPhones to BlackBerries to an assortment of Android devices. Vietnam-based developer Louis Tang decided to develop for BlackBerry as it was free to do so and easy. "BlackBerry is a very hungry platform," he said. "There is more competition on Android, and you earn less money." Another developer from Malaysia, Shukri Saad, said his free prayer app on BlackBerry generates $1,500 a month on average through ads. He said that would not have been possible on other platforms. Bellevue, Washington-based developer Neeraj Chawla said he was impressed with some of the user interface concepts such as "flow" and "peek," and the easy movement between apps in the new BB10. CCS Insight mobile analyst John Jackson, who was also at the event, said he thinks RIM's new BB10 operating system is gaining traction with developers, and he believes it will offer users a unique experience. "The question now is whether the devices will be sufficiently competitive and that is in no small way a function of RIM's ability to spend massive marketing dollars to cut through the competitive noise," said Jackson. (Reuters)
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Apple Inc sold over 5 million iPhone 5 smartphones in the three days since it hit stores, but shares sagged as the company struggled to meet demand. While sales were solid, the company said on Monday it had run out of its initial supply and many pre-orders were scheduled to go out in October. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said the company is "working hard to build enough iPhone 5s for everyone."Expectations for new Apple products were so high — some analysts forecast Apple selling as many as 10 million phone over the weekend — that Wall Street was not wowed by the latest numbers. The stock was down 1.7 per cent at $688.64 in afternoon trade.Given the demand, Apple, the world's most valuable company, is being closely watched for any supplier problems that may slow down the smartphone production. "We believe that sales could have potentially been much higher if not for supply constraints," William Power, an analyst with Baird Equity Research, wrote in a note.Supply limitations are likely to weigh on Apple as the iPhone 5 is launched in another 22 countries on Friday. To complicate matters, Apple's largest contract manufacturer Foxconn Technology closed a factory in the northern Chinese city of Taiyuan after a riot broke out among 2,000 employees.Foxconn did not confirm which plants supply Apple, but an employee told Reuters the Taiyuan plant is among those that assemble and make parts for Apple's iPhone 5. Apple referred questions on the factory to Foxconn. The California company also assembles its devices at factories run by Pegatron Corp.On the parts side, Apple's key supplier for screens, Sharp Corp, has been struggling with high costs and scrambling to raise funds to pay debt. Sources had told Reuters the company's output of new iPhone displays had fallen behind schedule.Strong DemandThe early total for the iPhone 5 topped sales of the iPhone 4S, which sold more than 4 million units in its first weekend after Apple introduced it in October 2011. The numbers do not include units that have yet to be shipped or delivered to customers as Apple books sales only when online customers sign for the purchase."We are not overly concerned with this 'disappointing' number as we believe this is a classic case of near-term expectations getting out of touch with reality," Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu said. He added that he expects Apple to sell a total of 27 million iPhones in the September quarter and 46.5 million units in the December quarter.The iPhone 5 has been one of Apple's most aggressive international rollouts to date. The phone will be available 31 countries on September 28 and in more than 100 countries by the end of the year. "Expectations for Apple are always white hot," said Colin Gillis, a research analyst with BGC. "It's not just enough for them to break records but to smash them."The iPhone is Apple's highest-margin product and accounts for half of its annual revenues.Apple is facing stiff competition from smartphones that run on Google's Android software, which has become the most-used mobile operating system in the world. Apple's key supplier as well as rival, Samsung Electronics, has taken the lead in smartphone sales.Apple signaled last week that pre-orders outstripped initial supply and that many phones would not be available until October.(Reuters)
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“Come and find your land of dreams” blared in the background as we congregated at Le Meridien on a sunny afternoon. Brand USA, the two-year-old tourism marketing entity, was promoting US as a tourism destination for travel enthusiasts . A delegation of 50 participants were visiting New Delhi on 14 September’ 2012 representing 35 destinations in USA. Tour operators, travel agents, airlines, hotel chains etc were all part of this sixth travel trade mission. Deals were to be signed to fetch basic funds and that was to be matched by contributions from the US government. “India is an important market for the US. With President Obama recognising tourism as an important sector, in the coming months we plan to open our offices in several locations,” said Jay Gray, VP, partnership development, Brand USA. He also added that “the requirement of an entity to promote US tourism originated due to the fact that the market share of the US was stagnant, even when international tourism was growing internationally". The Indian market is growing 12 per cent each year compared to other international markets which are expanding 1-2 per cent annually. This makes the Indian market very important for the US. Brand US also plans to increase investment, ranging from $1.5 million to $3 million, per market (depending on the nature of market). “We are here to educate Indian travellers about the main highlights of the USA as a whole and then promote Madame Tussauds, New York as a self destination.” Says Yaniv Didi, trade sales manager, Madame Tussauds New York. Brand USA invested approximately $12.3 million and was initiated across Canada, Japan and UK for three months. It was established by the Travel Promotion Act in 2010 to communicate US entry/exit policies and procedures. Formed as the Corporation for Travel Promotion, the public-private entity began operations in May 2011. Through its call-to-action—DiscoverAmerica.com—Brand USA plans to implement more campaigns in China and Brazil, apart from India. Brand USA is aiming to attract approx. 13 lakh travellers from India by 2016 and further extend it to 1.5-2 crore by the end of 2020.
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Pick a wall, any wall. Office or home, doesn’t matter. Now, how would you like to convert this wall into a massive display, ready to watch movies, presentations or pictures? That's the promise that portable projectors make, more so with the mature second generation of these devices hitting the market. No longer do you have to deal with gimmicky gadgets that compromise on performance, and projectors like the 3M MP 410 offer a slew of features that are sure to impress any multimedia enthusiast. Portability and ease of carrying the device around has been given a lot of thought with the MP 410, with a soft case provided in the retail package to securely hold the projector (and all of its associated adapters and cables) in place. But just look at the sheer number of connectivity options this baby packs in into its diminutive 1.7 by 4.2 by 4.2 inches frame. The 410 checks off the standard options, such as VGA and USB connectivity for laptops, along with HDMI input for iPads and phones as well as your PS3 or DVD players. Also, in what is fast becoming a standard, the 410 allows you to directly reads image, video and audio files from the internal 1GB memory, from flash drives that can connect directly to the built-in USB port and from microSD cards. Strangely enough, no presentation format support. Also, keep in mind you will need to add external speakers – the inbuilt speakers work well for small environments but start to sound weak for any medium sized crowd. What was most interesting for me was that if you picked up the optional wireless dongle, the MP 410 sets up a wireless network so you can transmit your laptop video without the need of any cables whatsoever. There is a downside to this though. Since the projector essentially creates its own wireless network, you cannot be simultaneously connected to another wireless network and access the Internet, for instance. Really should be something 3M should fix with a software update fast! Now, with a 300-lumen rating, the MP 410 isn’t as bright as bigger lamp-based projectors (typically in the range of 2,000-2500 lumens) but the brightness is more than enough to be useful, even with moderate ambient light. In fact, I had no trouble projecting a 75-inch image at 1280 x 800 pixels, and 3M says the images can go up to as much as 100-inches. Color reproduction was above average, but there is a degree of compromise when compared to bigger siblings. That said, colors were fully saturated and vibrant, and there is no doubt it will work very well for presentations and showing video clips during presentations. Looking at the price, I’d recommend this only for those who need portability over performance. The redeeming factor is the bulb life of 20,000 hours, which means you will be saving money on frequent bulb replacements. Rating: 8/10Price: Rs 50,000URL: http://bit.ly/OgN92E Acing Performance It seems all you can hear about these days are ultrabooks, and while how well they’re doing is debatable, there’s still space for slightly thicker laptops that pack in a DVD drive and revved-up internals to boot. The Acer Aspire V3-571G may look like just about any 15.6-inch laptop, but it packs in serious power by way of a capable Core i5 Intel processor (not the latest Ivy Bridge line of processors, mind you) and dedicated nVidia graphics. There’s a lot to like once you start using this laptop – a wide, expansive keyboard with chiclet-style keys and a full number pad, a healthy selection of ports and the dedicated graphics really helps in graphics-intensive games. Add to that the Dolby Home Theater effects, and the V3 looks to be a good option for entertainment enthusiasts. Sadly, a less-than-responsive trackpad and a mediocre 1,366 x 768 pixel display mar the overall experience of this laptop. Rating: 7/10Price: Rs 43,671URL: http://bit.ly/OBUivK The Key AttractionTo anyone who’s still holding his or her breath for an iPhone sporting a hardware keyboard, one quick piece of advice: don’t bother. Just pick up the Envent Bluetooth Slider Keyboard case for the iPhone 4/4S. The case conceals a flip-out physical keyboard that connects to your iPhone via Bluetooth, and features a built-in rechargeable battery that recharges using a USB cable and lasts for a good 30-40 days at a stretch. Its sleek design means it doesn’t add too much bulk to the iPhone, but I wish the keys had slightly more travel in them to make the typing experience just a wee bit more pleasurable. Rating: 7/10Price: Rs 3,999URL: http://bit.ly/NtCEJm Control FreakImagine being able to control household devices from anywhere, right from your smartphone. You could invest in a home automation system that can cost a pretty packet, or you could consider the Belkin’s new WeMo Switch. The Switch module plugs into your mains and can further control (turn on and off) anything from a lamp to TV to a heater from – wait for it – a connected iPhone, iPad or iPod touch! All you need to do is connect it to a Wi-Fi network and follow a simple setup procedure. Or you could choose to set up detailed schedules for each device, all from the comfort of your WiFi-equipped iOS device. There’s an optional Motion device that can detect motion within 10 feet of the sensor and fire off a set of commands – like for example, switch on your lights and your coffee maker when you walk in your main door in the evening! URL: http://bit.ly/PUCke6Price: $49.99 onwards technocool at kanwar dot nettwitter@2shar
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Eat Drink Code. The opening lyrics of a lively anthem that signalled the start of Windows AppFest, an app-making marathon staged by Microsoft in Whitefield, on the outskirts of Bangaluru on September 21st. The idea was to get a large number of developers together at one venue and encourage them to come up with interesting apps for Windows 8, due to launch worldwide on 26th October. They gathered 3,500, housed them in three large hangers, supplied them with food, music and mentors and asked them to gun for a place in the Guinness Book of World Records: the most participants to successfully develop code in a minimum defined time limit -- 18 hours. Working through the day and much of the night, 2,567!of them managed to do complete their code. A set of requirements and rules were laid down to qualify for successful participation in the Record.In the fast-developing market of mobile devices, apps are a critical dimension, determining the real-life experience the user has with the smartphone and in particular with the tablet. Apple, with over 700,000 apps, some 200,000 of them for its popular iPad, is currently the "app leader" and others, specially Windows, need to offer both quantity and quality to become attractive to customers as serious alternatives.Windows 8 has been around in consumer preview form on the PC and a small number of tablets (mostly for testing) and most of Microsoft's apps have really been on their Windows Phone 7 and 7.5 smartphones such as those from Nokia, HTC, and Samsung. In the wait for Windows 8, these devices haven't been as widespread and will only really start to increase post launch of the new OS. Developers need users to make it worthwhile to create apps and users need the assurance of enough apps to buy a device -- that is the chicken and egg situation that Microsoft (and also RIM for the BlackBerry phones) have had to grapple with for a while now. All the same, Windows 8 has been downloaded over 16 million times globally and needs a large spread of apps from which to choose and use. Developers getting ready to get into "app mode" and code for 18 hours non stopMicrosoft means apps to be usable across all Windows devices, scaling without a problem. Demonstrating how apps were to be the same look and feel for users whether they were using a giant touch screen or a small tablet, Harish Vaidyanathan, Director of Evangalism for Microsoft, said that there were minimum basic requirements such as a 1 GHz processor and 1GB RAM and 20 GB of disk space needed, but essentially that it was easy enough, using free available tools such as Visual Basic, to create apps that would run on diverse Windows devices. Developers would need to optimise and finesse the apps for different screen sizes. After a process of testing and verifying the working of the apps, which takes between three to five days, the apps would work on Windows 8 as well as Windows 7 PCs. For the first time, a Windows Store will be available for consumers who, incidentally, will be able to pay in Indian currency, to buy the apps. He demonstrated a number of apps including one from ICICI Direct, OneIndia, MakeMyTrip and some games to show how the behaviour of the applications was identical on a touch-screen PC and on a tablet. Features such as multitasking, snapping a window to one side of the screen etc were exactly the same on different screen sizes.The apps would also run no mater who the OEM was, because support in the operating system allows this. Developers are also being encouraged by being given a 70:30 portion of the revenue from the app in their favour. As they reach a greater number of users, they get 80% of the revenue. The Windows Store will be available to 180 countries in different languages on launch, according to Harish.The participants created apps in 20 categories and these, if they pass muster, could see inclusion in the upcoming Windows Store. Bhaskar Pramanik, chairman, Microsoft India said, “Windows 8 is ‘Good for India’. In India, Microsoft is making significant investments and working with 1.2 million developers, over 1,000 Independent Software Vendors and more than 2,000 System Integrators to empower them with the tools, technologies and training required to develop high end skills and compete in a global marketplace.”
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If you’re paranoid about medicines, you have every right to be. As with anything these days, there are people who will sell you fake stuff to make a quick buck. Young Nathan Sigworth, the CEO of PharmaSecure, a company with offices in New Hampshire and our own Gurgaon, is determined to fight drug counterfeiting, specially in developing countries. He has persuaded several pharma companies to print certain authentication codes on medicine packets. A user can send this back to a central database and find out whether the drug is real or fake. To begin with, users could SMS the serial number to a number given on the packaging to instantly get an OK message to take the medicine. Or, even whether to buy the medicine. But now, Android users also have the option of using a PharmaSecure app which will scan the number and tell you if it’s safe to assume the medication is genuine. PharmaSecure works with nine drug companies in India and has put codes on 50 million drug packages. You We CanCricketer Yuvraj Singh’s battle with cancer is something that every Indian is aware of. But there is very little awareness about cancer as a disease and how many others it affects. Yuvraj decided to do his bit to correct that and also help cancer patients in need. With Microsoft, he launched an app YouWeCan for Windows Phone. You can try this app and buy it for Rs 565 — it’s what one instance of cancer detection costs, and it will be your contribution to fighting cancer most directly. You can also donate money or volunteer time with the Yuvraj Singh Foundation or use the app to buy YouWeCan T-shirts and ribbons to spread awareness. The app has pictures and content about Yuvraj’s life up to the point of surviving cancer, and includes facts about different types of cancer, and benefits of early detection. With the full-paid version, a large portion of the payment goes to the Yuvraj Singh Foundation for their anti-cancer drive. Hop To Get RewardedIt’s nice to see location-based services beginning to take root in India. With the staggering number of mobile connections in the country, it’s only logical to assume that people will benefit from such services. The Gurgaon-based Hoppr team describes their particular hyper-local service in three words: checkin, rewards, coupons. Register with hoppr.com. Then, when you’re out in the town, you check in at places by sending an SMS to 56660 (toll free) with the name of the place. If they are on the list (and there’s a large list of 3,000 places) you’re checked in and get a coupon for a discount. You can also SMS to get offers nearby. You also accumulate points for checking in and these can be used for further benefits. The nice thing is that you can check in from regular feature phones as well. If you take a look at hoppr.com, you can see a continuous stream of users checking into various places. There is no app yet, although there is one planned for Android.(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 01-10-2012)
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Let’s get the objections out of the way. Yes, it’s predictably plastic-ky. In fact, if Samsung doesn’t watch it, it will forever be synonymous with plastic, seeing the use of cheap-feeling material on so many devices, even flagship ones. Of all that I’ve seen so far, the Galaxy Note 800 (also known as the 10.1) is by far the most plastic-ky, with even a little play between the plastic and whatever the rest of the body inside is made of.Which brings me to the second objection. At Rs 40,000 it costs too much. The first-level iPad costs less and while I can understand that Samsung wouldn’t want to position itself as low-end, the fact is that buyers will consider the iPad, too, with its burgeoning ecosystem of apps and a fabulous screen. Which brings me to the third problem. The 10.1-inch screen on the Note 800. It’s bright and even glarey at times; it’s vivid and colourful; but the resolution, at 1280 x 800, is lower than it should be. And it’s in a form that I don’t particularly like — legal-size compared to the A-4 look of the iPad. But take that as a personal preference. BUDGET BOOK The Micromax Funbook Pro costs just around Rs 10,000 And related to this is the particular style of the keyboard which spaces out keys in a way that one is not accustomed to. Writing a short mail resulted in a few errors. I might also have said that the 5-megapixel camera was a disappointment, but I suspect taking pictures with a device of this form is going to be a rarity in any case. The pictures are bright and vivid, but grainy and fuzzy. Better in daylight, of course.But now let’s get down to what’s interesting about the Note 800 and what makes it worth considering. I’d sum it up as: the power and the pen. The tablet runs on a 1.4GHz quad-core Exynos processor and has 2GB of RAM to get it to work without staggering. In fact, you can multitask by running two apps (from a list of six that can do this) simultaneously. You could, for example, watch a video and take notes at the same time. As you swipe through screens and move across the tablet to get to different areas, it feels fast and fluid. The OS used here, incidentally, is Ice Cream Sandwich, not the more recent Jelly Bean. You have 16GB of storage and can add an SD card. The battery is a 7,000mAh. But the most distinctive feature of all on the Note 800 (and the rest of Samsung’s Note series) is, of course, the stylus or pressure sensitive and fine “S-Pen”. It’s super responsive, and you get a delightful surprise when you start to use it because it feels so natural. And it’s been improved since the previous Note. Tucked away neatly into a slot on the side of the tablet, you can pull it out easily and use it for all kinds of creative and fine work. It’s been said many times that Samsung has proved that tablets can be about content creation and not just consumption and I’d say that’s true. Artists, architects and anyone else who needs to work with the precision of pen and paper will enjoy this tablet. It’s an area where Samsung beats Apple hollow — the iPad isn’t optimised for stylus use. One needs many more apps, but there are pre-loaded ones to keep a user busy. These include PhotoShop Touch. There are many exportable features and capabilities on this tablet. Shape Match, for example, will “perfectise” a shape you draw with the pen. Formula Match will solve formulas written with the pen. Then there’s the ability to turn the tablet into a remote. As with the Galaxy S3, there are plenty of such usability touches that make the device interesting and a good alternative to those who, for whatever reason, aren’t interested in Apple’s iPad. The Big Lowcost TabletWe think of lowcost tablets as being on the small side, kitted out with just the merest basics. The Funbook Pro, from Micromax, may cost just Rs 10,990 or even less in certain places, but it’s a big, landscapey 10.1-inch tablet. It’s the successor to the Funbook which stopped at 7 inches. This tab has a bright, 1024 x 600 pixels display on which I had a rather good time watching strange fish swimming from one end to the other. While this was fluid enough, navigating screens and moving across apps did show up a little stutter; sort of a pause. going from one thing to another.Anyone who needs to work with the precision of pen and paper will enjoy the s-pen in samsung galaxy note 800.The Funbook Pro runs on a 1.2GHz Cortex A8 processor and Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich version, which, for all practical purposes, is the latest, as the most recent Jelly Bean hasn’t made it to many devices yet. The ICS truly adds to the tablet as it makes you feel that you’re not getting something severely dated and compromised. There’s 1GB RAM and 8GB of space that you can expand to 32GB with an SD card. These specs are not bad at all, though I wish the tab could work without that frame-by-frame feel that turns up sometimes. This is a really wide tablet when you hold it sideways. And narrow and long otherwise. It’s not the ideal paperback book size, for example. But it’s a nice browsing size. It’s also roomy enough to interest kids who want to get their hands on games — going by the name of the device. It’s a nice size for movies and also for typing, which is specially critical. Overall, while I wouldn’t say it feels premium exactly, I also definitely wouldn’t write it off as being cheap and plastic-ky. It’s a tiny bit heavy, but because it’s landscape you’ll probably be holding it in both hands and it feels safer and more solid-build at whatever weight it is. But it does tend to get a little hot right from the start as you use it. For a tablet with a name like Funbook, it’s unfortunate that there are no design stylisations and it’s the usual Android slab on that front. But it works fine and isn’t slow and sluggish despite the stutter. Battery life could have been better.(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 01-10-2012)
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John Barry is an independent SME consultant from the US who travels to India on a regular basis. He is also a fitness freak and during his busy travel schedule tries to squeeze in a 35-minute power workout anytime during the day. So, his stay at the Oberoi Hotel in Bangalore would not be complete without his ‘tubing workout’ or ‘resistance band’ in his room. “Tubing allows you to stay fit; it works out all muscle parts. It also saves on time taken to walk to the gym in the basement of a hotel or waiting your turn on the treadmill,” says Barry. But what is a tubing workout? The tubing is a highly elastic rubber tube which offers an inexpensive and portable way to get a full-body, strength-training workout. At least 30 different kinds of exercises can be done with it.Yuppie Exercises Core Performance’s corporate wellness programme centres on four fundamentals Mindset: There is a lot to do and see while travelling, but time is often limited. Planning ahead each day can make the difference between chaos and calm Nutrition: Proper fuelling and hydrating helps sustain peak performance levels. Choose recipes with nutrients that work well together to create long-lasting energy Movement: Exercise is not always hitting the gym or going on a run. Begin your day with a warm shower and a quick light stretch. Loosen your muscles and perform all day longRecovery: Slipping in an extra hour of sleep every night leads to a big payoff. An individual’s alertness can increase by as much as 25 per cent. You come back stronger and stay fresh“The tubing is good for beginners to perfect their weight training and breathing techniques. For regulars, tubing of five different levels of intensity — indicated by colour — can be used,” says Srinivas Huliappa, owner of a corporate gym called Chiseled Impressions. He says that nowadays corporate travellers carry along tubing when they are travelling or ask the hotel gym to deliver it to their room. “You can ask the resident gym instructor to come to the room and teach you the workout along with some breathing techniques,” says Huliappa. A survey across Sheraton Hotels in Greater China has shown that fitness is a priority, especially for the upscale traveller and the business person on the move. Two out of three travellers exercise at least four times a month. The report states that nine out of 10 travellers rate staying fit and healthy as a priority. More than half of travellers surveyed expect to relax, refresh and shake off fatigue with workouts while travelling. Nine out of 10 travellers expect a hotel fitness centre with first-class equipment, a relaxing environment and professional trainers. Most of the executives also agree that the availability of fitness options en suite would increase their preference for a hotel. “We have tied up with Core Performance, a global fitness chain, to create and manage our training programmes,” says Martin Wuetrich, general manager of Sheraton Bangalore. He adds that there is a methodology to training and each guest is given the diet and workout suited to his history of exercise. When you check into a room, Sheraton leaves you a Core Performance kit containing exercise guidelines, resistance band, mat, foam roll and a massage stick. Those who need a personal trainer can leave a request at the gym. The programme has created four modules for travellers: for the mindset, nutrition, movement and recovery (see ‘Yuppie Exercises’). “To have that perfect corporate meeting, the hotel helps guests exercise based on these modules,” says Wuetrich. To flex your muscles without getting out of the room, many hotels also get you fitness videos on television. “Many have travelled to the US and executives demand that their workplace or the hotels that they go to need to have high-level fitness training. But it is yet to gain acceptance,” says Huliappa. You can also register online for fitness programmes, and use your smartphone to plan and track exercise routines. A resistance band costs about Rs 1,000, so carry one on your next trip.(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 17-09-2012)
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