The recipe for success was simple enough. Set forth a cookie cutter Android army of slates to do battle with the iPad and regain tablet supremacy. Yet, after two years of watching OEMs make precious little headway, I can imagine Google tired of watching and decided to take matters into their own hands. And from this was born the Nexus 7 tablet, the first tablet to wear Google’s Nexus brand. Will this be lucky number seven for Google? Let’s find out! Straight off, a seven-inch tablet? Isnt that the size that Steve Jobs once famously declared as ‘dead on arrival’? Have we not seen enough budget tablets sporting this size and form factor? Yet, where the competition faltered by packing in budget hardware and by trying to make a smaller tablet do all that an iPad could, the Nexus 7 makes a few correct decisions that distance itself from the rest of the Android pack. The 1280x800 pixel touchscreen on this device is downright gorgeous. It’s the best I’ve seen on a seven incher, and while it doesn’t pack in as many pixels as the iPad, it’s not that far off (216 ppi vs the iPad’s 264). Colours are balanced and not over-saturated, a common problem one gets to see on Android tablets these days. While the Nexus 7 is made mostly of plastic and glass, build quality is good and it certainly doesn't feel cheap. The black rubberised finish around the back looks classy and really works when you’re holding the device in one hand. What’s interesting to note is that unlike a lot of Android tablets, portrait mode is the way Google is encouraging you to use the device, and that shows in the home screen being fixed in this orientation. Sure, your display will rotate for landscape use with applications, but its almost like Google’s telling you how to best hold this device. And they’re right – unlike the much heavier iPad, the Nexus 7 sits very nicely in one hand, and the smaller form factor and the excellent screen makes it a joy to read books, magazines and stuff on the web. I found myself reaching out for the Nexus 7 far more often than the iPad just for this reason alone. And yet, this baby is no slouch. On paper, the specs for the Asus-manufactured Google-branded Nexus 7 are quite impressive. It’s powered by a quad-core Tegra 3 processor with 1GB RAM and starts with 8GB of onboard storage, and this tablet runs circles around the competing Android tablets. Connectivity wise, Of course, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are present, and the Google Nexus 7 goes one step beyond by including a near-field communication (NFC) chip, supporting both Android Beam for pushing files between compatible devices, as well as Google Wallet for contactless payment, should that become commonplace in the near future. And you get Android 4.1 Jelly Bean – yes, this tablet gets the latest version of Android out of the box while other manufacturers mull their timelines to move to Jelly Bean. This is a big advantage for the Nexus 7 – being a pure Google device, the software updates are prompt and unlike the Samsungs and the Sonys of the tablet space, you will not be stuck on older versions of Android. Using Jelly Bean is a breeze on the Nexus 7, and in the two weeks I’ve been using this device, I’ve got to say this is one seriously impressive piece of kit. Jelly Bean has matured to become a capable tablet operating system, and the under-the-hood improvements such as "Project Butter"- Google’s initiative to tackle the lag and responsiveness issues that have plagued Android in the past – pay big dividends in the everyday usage of this tablet. Gone are the software performance issues, stutters, slow animations and overall sluggishness that plague a lot of much more expensive tabs. Another neat trick I could totally get used to is the ability for the Nexus 7 to pop up a zoomed in window of a section of the screen – it’s an elegant solution to a problem many of us face when links are too close to each other and our fat fingers cant choose the right one. And if Siri was the star of the iPhone 4S, Google Now, the voice-enabled information service absolutely hits one out of the park – it works much faster than Siri and while it may lack Siri’s personality, it’s far more useful and more accurate than Siri in day to day use. Now, consider this – the Nexus 7 retails for $199 for the 8GB version, or $249 for the 16GB version, if you’re lucky enough to pick this up from the US. While it isn’t yet available in India, it should be here by the year end and if the US price is any indicator, the Nexus 7 is quite frankly a steal when you compare it to what else is out there at the same price. There are flaws, for sure. The Nexus 7 is limited to Wi-Fi connectivity, although there are rumors that a 3G version may hit the US as soon as October. There’s no rear camera – a bummer for some who like to use their tablet for travel photography. While battery life isn’t an issue with the built-in 4325mAh battery, Asus had to seal the back shut, which leads to another problem. With the relatively meager storage built in, the makers have chosen to leave out the microSD card slot that’s seen in many tablets today. This leaves you with only Wi-Fi-enabled hard drives or cloud storage to augment the storage of your unit. That said, the 8GB unit I picked up didn’t feel cramped until I started loading the device up with movies, so if you’re just buying this for books, games and general use, you can make do with the 8GB version. And Android still has a problem around tablet-optimised applications, in that many applications are still written only for Android phones and adapt to the tablet screen rather than being expressly written for it. Yet, make no mistake about it – this is how you make (and price!) a 7-inch tablet if you want it to succeed! Note: the US-purchased Nexus 7 ships with $25 Google Play credit, but I’m not sure that benefit will exist in the Indian retail version. Rating: 9/10 Price: $199 (approx. 16,000 to 18,000 on Ebay.in) URL: http://bit.ly/NtuOpG Sticking To The Script The storyline is usually the first casualty in most third-person shooting games, but not so with Spec Ops: The Line. This game places you in the boots of Captain Martin Walker, leader of the Delta Force squad who’re placed in the unenviable position of fighting erstwhile brothers - rogue US soldiers – against a rapidly degenerating Dubai landscape. Unlike the raw machismo games of the hugely popular Call of Duty series, there is a looming sense of despair in the missions once the team lands in Dubai. As the team unravels the atrocities that the previous team has committed while trying desperately to stay together and alive, the violence takes a toll on the team, with each firefight leading not to chest bumps but a sense of regret. Unfortunately, the gameplay isn’t as well accomplished as the storytelling, and the mechanics are somewhat unreliable. Couple that with superb enemy AI, and you could end up being killed just battling with the game controls! Sure, it adds to the challenge and uncertainty of a war setting, but the game often ends up being downright unfair. Pity these niggles prevent me from wholeheartedly recommending this game. Rating: 8/10 Price: Rs 2,499 URL: http://bit.ly/PhI5Aq technocool at kanwar dot net twitter@2shar
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Ah, those belly dancers with their shimmies and undulations and their impossible looking moves! Can you imagine the work that goes into acquiring some of those jaw-dropping skills? That’s if you want to dance professionally, of course. There’s also a school of thought that believes in using belly dance basics for a good whole-body workout. Other than being great exercise, belly dancing has the advantage of being a lot of fun, building in its own motivation — something we all need to keep our daily dose of exercise going. While belly dancing is more a woman’s domain, there are well-known male dancers who do an exceptionally good job with it because they have the muscle strength to drive some of the more difficult movements. As far as exercise goes, something else will undoubtedly work better for men. For women, it’s considered a natural fit and there are some who believe that belly dancing in Middle Eastern culture was also a way of increasing a woman’s ability to bear children without a hitch. That may well be part of the reason why any woman who really gets into this form of dancing begins to feel more powerfully feminine. They soon also discover that it’s as much about mind and soul as it is about body. Women feel more confident and happy with themselves, more centred and able to view themselves positively. What you get out of belly dancing• Flexibility• Toning and sculpting• Muscle strength• Stamina• Posture and graceWeight loss? Only if the choreography involves considerable footwork and some larger arm movements If you can’t get yourself to a class, you do have an alternative: learn by video. Entirely possible, as long as you have a few essentials:But it would be correct to say that there’s nothing simple about belly dancing. One needs to learn moves the correct and safe way and practice a great deal to get it to look good. The challenge, and its bit-by-bit mastery, also adds to how great one feels as each milestone of achievement passes. If you can find a belly dancing class nearby and learn under the watchful eye of an instructor, you are in luck. One of the more fun things to do in a group, it draws you into another world, where oriental charm and atmosphere takes over. A well-selected collection of videosA small dance area where you have some freedom to move aboutA mirror to check on your proper form A yoga mat for preparatory exercises and warm-upsAnything you can wear to approximate a belly dance costume — use a scarf for a hip beltChoosing A VideoA gentle workout, low impact but sustained over 45 minutes and very graceful, is Neon’s ‘Luscious’. This video reviews the basics as well, so you can opt to just use this one, and then strings things together into workouts and even choreography. If you want to move to a more active workout as you learn, consider Jillina’s ‘Shape Up and Hip Out’. In this video, the workout involves moves that are introduced in instalments. The same moves get faster and faster over three workouts. You need two types of videos to belly dance for fitness: videos that teach the basic moves and those that take you through a workout. There are a number of videos for beginners that are easy to follow as the instructor breaks down each movement carefully and takes the learner through several rounds of practice. There are constant safety reminders and posture checks. One excellent basics video is a two-disc set, ‘Instant Belly Dancer’ by Neon of World Dance New York. This set of DVDs, translated into many languages, is a great way to learn the fundamentals because Neon not only explains every move carefully but has a graphic overlay to show the exact trajectory of the move. This technique makes it easy to visualise the move in your mind and you internalise it and will stay safe from the start. You can do all three for a full workout that starts slow, acting as a warm up, and then moves into high gear. You can get videos easily on Amazon, eBay and other stores, or even directly from the dancer if you know what you want. Some of the videos from World Dance New York are available as downloads on iOS. And daturaonline.com offers online classes starting from as low as $2 to rent a short lesson online for a month or $35 for access to a huge bunch of videos, instantly, for 30 days. (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 17-09-2012)
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Amazon.com unveiled larger Kindle Fire tablets on 6 September' 2012, challenging Apple Inc's dominant iPad with lower prices and a trove of digital content that Amazon hopes will win it a bigger share of the booming tablet market. The world's largest internet retailer lifted the lid on devices with price tags ranging from $159 to $599. The new tablets come with ads known as "special offers" that appear when screens are locked and in the corner of the home screen, helping Amazon keep prices low. Last year, Amazon debuted a 7-inch tablet at roughly half the price of the $499 iPad. In just 10 months, it became the No. 2 tablet in the US, after the iPad. Amazon's expanding lineup also intensifies a battle with Google and Microsoft, who this year entered their own competitors in the booming tablet arena.The latest aggressive pricing move, and Amazon's variety of gadgets, furthers its goal of getting Kindle tablets into the hands of as many buyers of its online content -- from games and books to video -- as possible. Apple, by contrast, makes much of its profit from hardware sales. It sells a single-sized iPad often touted as best-in-breed, at costs ranging from $399 to $829, depending on storage capacity, screen resolution and wireless connectivity. Amazon, which began as an internet bookstore, will begin shipping on 20 November an 8.9-inch version with a high-definition screen, that works off either Wi-Fi or fourth-generation wireless broadband, known as 4G. The costliest version, at $599 for 64 gigabytes of storage, undercuts the top-of-the-line $829 iPad. "Their first Kindle Fire tablet was a device that said 'See, we can tie all this together," but it wasn't a strong enough device," said Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey."Now they've really come ready to show that their device line-up is going to be as good as their service line-up. They're tying those two things together, and at a price that is very, very hard to compete with. It's going to push everybody's else's price buttons -- including Apple's." The premium Kindle Fire HD has a 1920-by-1200 resolution screen, lagging Apple's so-called "retina" display. At 8.9 inches, it is also slightly smaller than the iPad's screen. At the other end of the spectrum, the cheapest 7-inch WiFi-only Fire goes for $159. Apple's lowest iPad price tag is $499. "Amazon is able to sell these products at or close to cost, while Apple has 40 to 50 per cent gross profit margins and has always been very cautious with their product margins," said Scott Tilghman, an analyst at Caris & Company. "As Amazon is able to upgrade their products and have competitive hardware it may become more worrisome for Apple," he added. Shares in Amazon closed on Nasdaq up 2.1 per cent at $251.38, after hitting an all-time high of $252.70 during the session. Global Combat Amazon competes with Apple, Google and other technology companies in the booming market for mobile devices, fast becoming the preferred tools for consumers to access media over the internet. Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 5 next week, and Microsoft and Nokia launched their powerful Windows phone on Wednesday. Some analysts also expect Apple to launch a smaller iPad Mini tablet this year to compete with the 7-inch Kindle Fire. Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos, taking the stage in Santa Monica, California, said the company wants to make money when people use its devices, not when they initially buy them. While Bezos did not mention Apple by name during his presentation, the company compared its new tablets to the iPad several times in it press release describing the devices. Amazon also showed a comparison of the Kindle Fire HD 32GB 4G tablet versus the iPad 3 wireless device on a big screen at the Santa Monica event. The purchase price, plus the data plan, came to a one-year cost of $549 for the Amazon tablet and $959 for the iPad.Bezos also described the Kindle as a service, with hardware critical to its digital content business. Amazon touted a $50 annual fee on 250 megabytes of data via AT&T Inc as the world's most-affordable tablet-wireless plan. While that would suffice for very light usage -- a user would not be able to download an entire movie -- heavier consumers would have to pay for more data. Amazon said users will be able to upgrade to more expensive 3- and 5-gigabyte data plans directly from AT&T via the devices. The new Kindle Fire HD tablets come with a front-facing camera, paired with a customised, pre-installed application from Skype that allows users to video chat for free, Amazon said.The company also unveiled several new services to support the tablets, such as X-Ray for movies and Kindle FreeTime. X-Ray allows users to look up information on actors in scenes without leaving the flick. FreeTime is a new parental control system that lets parents set limits on how their kids use the tablets. For instance, a 30-minute limit can be put on games, while read time is unlimited. New E-ReadersAmazon also showed off its new family of "paperwhite" e-readers, with sharper screens and longer battery life. Like the Kindle Fire, they too will hit store shelves in time for the crucial holiday season. The 3G wireless version that made digital readers mainstream will sell for $179 starting in October, in time for the crucial holiday season. A Wi-Fi-only version will go for $119, and the cheapest will carry a $69 price tag -- undercutting the cheapest Barnes and Noble Nook.
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Look at your cellphone. Use it much, do you? There's a firm likelihood you're not going to be seeing too much of that cellphone, if the telecom regulator — and the ensuing call rate rise — has its way. You can, however, take some very real steps to slash your bills and make the money you pay for your cellphone bill go further. Here is my 5-step plan to slash your cellphone bill! Find the Right Plan: Your bill plan may be most at fault, making you pay way too much for what you consume. You could take matters into your own hand by taking a close look at your bill, and compare it with the plans on offer. Or you could take the easy way out and use YourBillBuddy.com, which fetches your bill from your operator and gives you a complete analysis of your bill — how much STD you use, roaming vs in-circle etc - and even recommends plans that best suit your usage (and how much you'll save in the process!) Also check out Komparify.com. Also take a long hard look at the value added services you've subscribed to - that lethal combo of international roaming, call forwarding and voice mail all adds up. Data Diet: Do you constantly have to control your data usage so that it doesn't tip over the monthly limit? Instead, check out Onavo's free iPhone and Android app, called Onavo Extend, which claims to make your data usage upto five times more efficient. It runs in the background on your phone, routing your data through Onavo's servers and stripping out all the extras and compressing it as you go along. Also check out the Opera mini browser. And while this may be obvious, turn off cellular data when you're in a Wi-Fi zone (say your home or office) - the battery savings are worth it! Smart Apps: Got a smartphone and text a lot? Free texting apps — which include Nimbuzz, WhatsApp, ChatOn, iMessage, among many others - let you text and IM for free using your phone's data plan rather than via SMS. My vote goes to WhatsApp just for the sheer number of platforms on which it's available. With each of these, you may have to get your friends or family to sign on, but convincing them of the app's merits is likely to be worth your while. Use the Internet for calls: And if you're around a wireless network most of the day, dump your voice calls and use a voice-over-IP app, such as Viber, Fring or Skype, to make calls (more so, if you make a lot of international calls). Viber, for instance, works well even on 2G data networks. Voice quality may not be perfect at all times, then again, when was the last time your cell phone network offered perfect voice quality? Slash the Extras: Ringtones? Competition SMSes? Caller tunes? While it's really a personal choice whether you indulge in these or not, remember that each of these are usually premium services and attract higher charges than your usual SMS or phone call. Superheroes On Your Screen It's superhero season, and close on the heels of the recent Spiderman and Dark Knight movies come official games from Gameloft that let you take the cinema hall action home to your own iOS or Android device. With The Amazing Spider-Man, Gameloft has given fans a huge, open-world version of Manhattan as it exists in the movie, which lets you not only have regular missions, but deal with the odd crime that keeps popping up on every other street. Don't attend to the crimes fast enough and much like real life Spidey, you get blamed for not doing enough to help the police! But while the web slinging and the fight controls are good, the rest of graphics are just about average, which let the game down.Not so the case with The Dark Knight Rises, fortunately. Gotham is as dark and gritty as the movie, and the game sequences loosely follow the movie plot. Goes without saying — don't play the game if you're yet to watch the movie!Gameplay in the TDKR game comes in two forms. In the first, you get an open world setting much like the Spiderman game, a large-scale version of Gotham complete with the iconic Gotham landmarks such as Wayne Tower and Gotham Stadium. The second is the person-to-person combat, where Batman takes on a variety of enemies in what is a rather simplistic fighting system, but one that works very well on the console.Without giving away too much of the plot, I can say this much - the game delivers on many fronts - great graphics, neat menu design and a superb soundtrack to boot!However, with the sometimes-errant camera angles that follow Batman and the virtual controls, one often got the impressive this was a game better suited to a console than the mobile device Gameloft has designed it for. The combat does get repetitive after a while as well.That said, TDKR is certainly a mobile game that does justice to the epic source material, and is immensely playable for any Batman fan. Far better than most video game tie-ins I've played. Price: US $ 6.99 for eachURL: http://bit.ly/jmqxcT technocool at kanwar dot nettwitter@2shar
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Ultrabooks are now the ‘in’ thing having caught the consumers' imagination globally. Taiwanese electronics major, Asus, recently collaborated with Intel and Microsoft to launch the mainstream Ultrabooks S series and F series based on Intel’s 3rd generation core processor.Asus’ S Series offers a range of ultrabooks positioned for mainstream computing, which are enabled with in-built optical drive and offer ultra-portability. Asus S56CA-XX030R is priced at Rs 46,999 and S56CA-XX056R at Rs 52,999. Equipped with Intel’s latest ultra low voltage Ivy Bridge processor and weighing only 2.4 kg, the S series is a perfect fit for superior mobile computing and longer battery life. The operating system is Windows 7 home basic.“The revenue of a product depends on its market size. Our products’ market size in India, is around 5 billion pieces annually: that makes us the number 2 notebook brand in China and fetches us the 6th position and a 7 per cent share in the Indian IT market. We are probably one of the leading producers of the S and F series and are the first ones to introduce ultrabooks (F series) with such features,” says Alex Huang, MD, system business group, Asus India.Asus F501A-XX187R — part of the F series — is a thin and light portable notebook that is priced at Rs 35,999. It comes with Intel Core i3 processor 2350m, 2.3G, 3m. It is a 15.6" HD glare notebook, supports an instant on in 2 seconds and has up to 14-day standby. It further encompasses genuine Windows 7 home basic and an HDD capacity for better computing experiences with 500GB 5400RPM and VGA - Intel HD 4000, HDMI, and 0.3 megapixel webcam. Its ice cool technology keeps palm rests cool, controlling the heat-producing components from 28 to 33 degree Celsius. It also comprises sonic masterlite. It embraces a seamless keyboard and an intuitive touchpad create user-focused experiences. The ultrabook is equipped with USB 3.0 - 10X faster than USB 2.0.According to Sandeep Aurora, director of marketing, Intel South Asia, “These devices will bring an uncompromised computing experience with top of the line aesthetics to the mainstream.” “At Microsoft, we’re working closely with our original equipment manufacturer(OEM) partners to bring the best of Windows experience to users. Pre-installed Windows on the new range of Asus S and F series ultrabooks will offer great value to consumers in India,” says Sumeet Gugnani, director- multinational accounts, Microsoft India.In India, Asus is headquartered in Mumbai. The company offers different ranges of laptops, notebooks and tablets all over India across cities such as New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and also in smaller cities such as Calicut, Goa, Jaipur, Thane, Raipur, Bhillai, among others. In Delhi, Asus recently launched its two flagship stores in Nehru Place and other stores in NCR. They have more than 50 stand-alone stores all over India and have already partnered with online portals such as Yebhi, Flipkart, eBay and other major online portals in India.Asus entered the Indian market in 1999 and has been a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, optical drives, displays, desktops, Eee Box (mini desktop useful for gaming), notebooks, netbooks, tablet devices, servers, multimedia and wireless solutions, networking devices, and mobile phones. With a global staff of more than 11,000 and an R&D team of 3,100 engineers, the company's revenue for 2010 was about $10.1 billion.Asus unveiled their new ultraportable laptop Zenbook U500VZ, Taichi ultrabook and Zenbook Prime UX21A at the IFA 2012 held at Berlin.
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You may not like felines, but if you use a Mac, you'd be very familiar with a number of big cats that have shared their names with Mac OS releases over the years. After Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard and Lion in the past few years, I got my paws on the brand new cat in town — Mountain Lion. Is this worth the very reasonable upgrade price, or does it still need work before you make the move? Here's my take. The Good… If you're upgrading from Lion, there's a good chance you'll be initially underwhelmed by Mountain Lion, since there is very little difference to visually tell them apart — which also means an almost flat learning curve for upgraders. But it's fast! Once you get past the roughly 4GB download — remember that like Lion, Mountain Lion is available only as a download on the Mac App Store — the entire OS feels faster to use — faster to boot, faster to load apps. With the Gatekeeper feature, Apple's showing that it is taking security more seriously by not allowing the installation of apps outside the Mac App Store (by default). Fortunately, it isn't as locked down as the iOS App Store on the iPhones and iPads — if your favorite app doesn't exist on the App Store, you needn't worry — there's a single switch to allow you to install apps from just about any source, but that also means you as a user assume you know what you're doing and are willingly taking the risk to install 3rd party software that isn't vetted by the App Store process. And did I mention the absolute bargain of a price? As long as you've made the move to Snow Leopard or Lion in the past couple of years, Mountain Lion is yours for $19.99 (approximately Rs. 1150) - what a steal! And with this single one-time payment, you can upgrade all your existing Macs from Snow Leopard or Lion to Mountain Lion. …The BetterFor a company that's leading the charge with its mobile devices, the iOS-ificiation of the Mac was a long time coming, and with Mountain Lion, the two hitherto disparate platforms are now literally joined at the hip. Like the Reminders to-do app on the iPhone? Sync it with your iCloud account and with the new Reminders app on the Mac, you could dictate a whole to-do list while driving and have it ready on your Mac when you arrive. Yes, I said dictate the list — while there's no Siri, you do get a pretty decent dictation engine that lets you speak-write your notes, reminders etc. The Notes app is similar, letting you synch your notes on your iOS device and vice-versa. Plus you get the new Notifications functionality that, much like the phone notifications, provides instant updates on Calendar events, FaceTime, Mail, Messages, Safari, among others. And this is clearly Apple first social desktop OS — twitter integration is built in, and the in-app sharing to twitter just works beautifully. I just wish more apps could leverage the integration though. A feature that benefits only those who're buying the latest hardware — such as the MacBook Pro with Retina display or the new Airs - to run Mountain Lion is its ability to continue working even when the computer goes into sleep mode, downloading software updates, messages, mail etc, so the system's up to date the moment you wake it up. …And The Could-do-better!Now while iCloud, Apple's cloud-based synchronisation and storage system, had been seen in Lion, Mountain Lion is the first version of OS X that is built around it. If you've used iCloud earlier on Lion, Mountain Lion can set up a new Mac — with your mail settings, bookmarks, iTunes backups (the works!) — with just your Apple ID and password. While iCloud is a great idea in theory, and it enables a lot of the behind the scenes synching between your iOS devices and the Mac, it's a little too behind-the-scenes for me, with no way to see all my cloud-based documents all at once. And while Twitter functionality is baked into the new OS, the Notification Center doesn't alert you if someone replies to you on Twitter — a little inconsistent. The Messages app needs work as well. That said, Mountain Lion is a very competent consumer OS, and I can't wait for upcoming updates that will add Facebook integration and further refine the few rough edges. It's interesting to see the differences in approach between Microsoft and Apple in the latest versions of their desktop operating systems. On the one hand, Microsoft's merged the desktop and tablet/phone OS in such a manner that it might have old-time desktop users balking at the changes, while Apple's taken the most familiar bits from iOS and matched them into Mountain Lion, without serious usability disruptions. Rating: 8/10Price: $19.99URL: http://bit.ly/P8I3Me Eye On The FutureThe new MacBook Pro with Retina Display (quite a mouthful, isn't it?) will polarise opinions like few others. It's the homecoming party of a number of key industry trends, from unibody aluminum construction to solid-state storage to the much-vaunted Retina Display. Yes, the crowning feature of this laptop - its 2880x1800 pixel display - is as good as the hype machinery claims, and is better than any notebook display that has existed, bar none. It's incredibly thin, and performance is blazing fast, though you pay a handsome price for this performance level. Bear in mind as well that few apps are ready for the Retina display, so once you're done gaping at the display, every day apps won't look that much better. No optical drive either. Do I recommend it? Only for few who have a 'lot' of cash lying around. Retina displays should go mainstream in the next 12 months - I'd recommend waiting. Rating: 7/10Price: Starting from Rs 1,52,900URL: http://bit.ly/P8I4Q2 Your New Outlook Click to View Enlarged ImageIf you've been on the Internet a while, there's a good chance you have at least one Hotmail address. Well, say goodbye to the Hotmail brand and say hello to the Outlook.com experience. It's fresh looking, borrowing visual cues from the Windows 8 look-and-feel. It bakes in social network integration, giving you access to your contacts from Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, YouTube and the like and getting updates from each network right within your Outlook.com account. You can now open, edit and share MS Office files right from within your browser itself. And it's free! So what exactly are you waiting for? Go claim your name, now! Rating: 8/10Price: freeURL: http://bit.ly/QKVXU8technocool at kanwar dot nettwitter@2shar
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An operating system on a device is like the inside of your house. Everything sits in its place, helping things happen, predictably and consistently. But if someone were to sneak into your house and decide to surprise you with a full new décor, rearranging things in clever and modern styles, you would be disoriented and feel like you were in someone else’s house. In fact, if someone were to even move your toothbrush, you’d be vociferously annoyed.In a sense, Microsoft has moved the toothbrush with its entirely new take on Windows, which will reach the consumers across the world on October 26. Not many will have downloaded the Windows 8 preview, but there has been enough clamour and criticism to put them off, much of it too early and quite undeserved. In the past, Microsoft-bashing has been fashionable, but it’s no bigger and ‘badder’ than the other tech giants and it’s only trying to do what they are — get into where the action is, albeit late in the day. Some of the criticism derides Windows 8 as being two operating systems, one bolted on the other; a touch-screen system trying to work on a desktop, and even a “kind of catastrophe” if you were to listen to Valve CEO and ex-Microsoft employee Gabe Newell, who doesn’t quite explain why.The new Windows is like totally redoing your house, using some brand new furniture, and some that is old and familiar. It’s more than an upgrade from Windows 7: it’s a whole re-imagining, engineered to meet new needs emerging from the users of technology today in what Apple is fond of calling the “post-PC” era. Not to say that computers will disappear, but that they are no longer work-alone devices, but instead talk to other computers, smartphones and tablets. In such an everything-everywhere world, Microsoft cannot afford to stay the way it is, on the fringes of the mobile world. By now, it should undoubtedly have been a full-fledged player on the mobile landscape. Coming from a background of being on 92 per cent of the planet’s computers, Microsoft has been more PC-centric, although its activities have spanned a large number of areas, in some of which it has done amazing work (in research, gaming, its Office applications) and in some it has not (mobile, tablets, music). Now, it’s time for a step-change and it’s trying to do just that with Windows 8, Metro apps and working in the cloud.As I sit here with Windows 8 running on a laptop, a tablet and a phone, I know that it takes no expert to see that Microsoft is trying to unify an experience across devices. Much like Apple is trying to do, Microsoft is looking for a way to let users take up where they left off on one gadget without having to think about it. Both Apple and Microsoft (and Google for that matter) are integrating their OS’s into the cloud to make every kind of data available wherever users want it. It’s going to cost us, but that’s the price for using technology seamlessly and on the go.In getting to that goal, Apple has, at the moment, fewer challenges, thanks to its foresight and products that reshape industries. It defined the mobility space with its iconic iPad and iPhone. With its recent release of OS 10.8 or Mountain Lion for Macbooks, Apple is going at it from a different direction: from its other operating system for mobile devices, iOS 6, to the computer, which it is trying to make more touch-friendly.Microsoft is trying to go “Touch-First” on everything with Windows 8. In the process, it looks so different and is such a departure from any previous version that from the home interface, you wouldn’t even know it’s Windows. It’s like coming home to find your front door isn’t where it used to be. The familiar Start bar, which I distinctly remember got its share of ridicule long ago, including jibes about how you had to press Start to shut down, has gone, and in its place is a colourful screen full of live tiles. It takes a while to figure out what’s where and how to do the things one has been accustomed to for years. Even on a tablet, which is so fluid and futuristic with Windows 8, there are moments of frustration. On the desktop and laptops, there is no Touch-First because we have no touch screens. Well, barely any. Our mindsets are not touch oriented when we work on a computer while the OS asks you to explore and navigate in a way that suits a tablet.There’s more than enough time to become familiar with Windows 8, and the coming of the Surface tablet later this year will probably ease this process. Meanwhile, Windows 7 is to be supported for the next seven years or so and many users, both individual and corporate, haven’t even moved from XP yet. With Windows 8, it’s a matter of getting over the shock of a new look and getting used to a fresh take on a familiar OS.mala(at)pobox(dot)com, (at)malabhargava on Twitter(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 06-08-2012)
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Taking it on the chinThe humble one in HTC’s One lineup, this Android mid-ranger is distinctive about the way it looks. It has a “chin” that sticks out and people are either neutral about it or find it ridiculous. This is an extra upward tilting extension of the phone’s unibody. And it does nothing in particular, except mark the phone as different looking and perhaps help with the grip. The screen, which is really nice, is a bit raised, giving this otherwise neat phone no rounded edges and even a slight roughness when holding. The HTC One V is a 3.7-inch phone, dwarfed by its 4.8 inch brother, the HTC One X. But it does have more than one thing in common with it: the very latest version of Ice Cream Sandwich, you can’t get at their batteries, and they both have Bluetooth 4. The chin, when you turn it over, hides the easily openable flap for a SIM (not micro) and SD Card. You’ll need that SD card because there’s barely any storage on this phone: just 4GB, very little of which you can use. It also has a 1 GHz processor which isn’t thought to be adequate to run the software on it and, indeed, there is a bit of a struggle now and then, but it should work fine as long as you don’t push it to the limit. The battery is a 1500 mAh and lasts, though with these phones it all depends on how you use them. There’s nothing humble about the price, which stands at Rs 19,399, though you can get it for a couple of thousand lower if you look. It has a 5 megapixel camera, surprisingly capable for its size and full of settings. There’s also 720p HD video — but no secondary camera. The One V is pitted against the Xperia U which is similarly priced. It’s neck-to-neck between these phones.All in the familyThe Xperia P comes from the NXT clan of Sony smartphones that includes the Xperia S and the Xperia U. They all share a distinctive design, with some nuances. All three have the same straight lines, set off by a transparent band running around the bottom of the handset. They’re unibody phones and you can’t get to the battery or add much-needed storage. Of course, not many people carry a second battery. But storage is another matter. While you can send data off to the cloud, there are apps that need to be on the device. Be that as it may, all three phones are very nice-looking. The Xperia P has an aluminum back, nice to the touch and adding to a premium feel. However, it also makes one feel that the screen would shatter if the device were to be dropped as there’s nothing to take the shock. The Xperia P is the middle sibling of these three phones, priced at Rs 25,799. Another common factor is that they aren’t shipped with Ice Cream Sandwich. All are to get updates though, and these will change the way the phone works. The Xperia P is closest to the S with a 4.0-inch screen (the S has 4.3). Its screen resolution and density is lower than the S’s and so is its camera, which is an 8 megapixel. It does have a secondary camera. And its processor, a dual core, is closer to its younger brother’s. One thing that’s new on the P is a display technology Sony calls WhiteMagic. This is supposed to increase the brightness of the screen. However, what it also seems to do is make the black less black so that it looks grey, lowering vividity and contrast, which is sad because text elements tend to be quite small on this device.(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 13-08-2012)
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