Remember when we were younger, we'd cut up magazines and newspapers to pull together scrapbooks and posters of things we liked? These scrapbooks and posters were all about who we were, whom we identified with and who we aspired to be. Cut to 2012… who'd have thought scrapbooking would suddenly be the hottest buzzword on the web? Only this time, it's called Pinterest —a virtual pinboard where you can share and organise and images online that you find interesting. You can ‘pin' these images on customised themed Boards, and boards can be on just about any topic imaginable — anything from custom Harleys to wedding themes. If you browse through some pins, you'll realise that they are largely made up of interests people pursue in everyday life, right from food, artwork, animals, fashion — you name it, it's there. Pins often end up being the virtual embodiment of a person's lifestyle! But that's once you're on Pinterest, that is. It is invite-only for now, so you can sign up for invites on the site (be prepared to wait!) or if you already know a Pinner, they can easily invite you onto the site. Once you sign in, do install the handy browser extension – that way, when you come across an image you like, you can just click the button, select the picture, assign it to a board and you're done! Want to add some text to remember this image later, or maybe add a price? Pinterest lets you do that as well, and Pinners with iPhones can take pictures on the go and add it to their boards with a mobile app. But surely there's more to Pinterest than pinning pictures of cute cats (or whatever tickles your fancy, really!). It's handy to organize your thoughts visually as well. For example, if you want to redecorate a room in your house, you can create a board of pictures of all the stuff you want to do for that room. You could store inspirational images to get you going each morning. Or you could keep pictures of things to buy – a visual shopping list. Boards can have multiple people collaborating, so Pinterest can just as well be used by students to quickly assemble project materials on a wide variety of topics. Any which way, Pinterest delivers on its mission statement to connect everyone in the world through the things they find interesting. In a world (wide web) of words, Pinterest is a welcome visual break. While it borrows from existing social networks – it's open like twitter in that you can follow anyone, you can comment on a pin, Like it or Repin it – it appeals to mothers, amateur cooks, home decorators and others who are not usually known to obsess with startup trends, aka the rest of us! Top Reasons for Businesses to Consider Pinterest: Users, Users, Users: Pinterest is where a lot of folks are. A LOT. Millions already and the numbers just keep going up. Getting your business on Pinterest early will give you a head start in a social network that is showing significant growth potential. Exposure: Imagine the exposure – your brand gets seen by a staggering number of eyeballs, and you can direct traffic via the pins to your own catalog. Pinterest gives companies a free service to advertise their brand and products to millions. It's easy: Pinterest has learned from Twitter and Facebook by incorporating an easy way for businesses to drive images and traffic to its site. A very simple to install "Pin it" button makes it easy for someone browsing your website to quickly add something to their Pinterest page. For example, a wedding gifts or confectionary site can add "Pin It" buttons to quickly let brides. From there, everyone else can see it, and the chances of it getting shared increase. People can also click on it and be directed back to your site URL: http://bit.ly/wV4fhdAlso see: The Marketer's Guide to Pinterest: http://mashable.com/2012/02/28/the-marketers-guide-to-pinterest-infographic/ Intelligent Enhancements Near field communication (NFC) products are finally getting past the cutesy movie posters and moving onto practical everyday applications, and the first couple of NFC products I got to play with were the Nokia Luna headset and the Play 360 Bluetooth speaker. The Luna looks nothing like any headset I'd seen so far, but the interesting bit was the fact that it packed in NFC hardware. When it is used with an NFC-equipped phone, the Luna can tell the phone to switch on its Bluetooth connection and pair with the headset, turning it all down again once you hangup and return the headset to its futuristic looking dock. All this is as easy as simply tapping the devices together. And if you thought this was impressive, check out the Play 360, a Bluetooth speaker that streams music from your phone, laptop or MP3 player. Use it with an NFC phone, and it takes just a tap to get the tunes flowing. Music quality is pretty good for a portable, wireless speaker, and what's neater is that the Play 360 senses if there is another Play 360 in the vicinity and switches the sound from mono to stereo! Rating: 7/10Price: Luna (Rs. 4530), Play 360 (Rs. 9,350)URL: http://nokia.ly/wReAnK The Lure Of The Dark Side Don't pick up The Darkness II if you're looking for a light casual game. In this game, mafia don Jackie Estacado is possessed by an ancient force known as the Darkness(and has an aversion to light, hence the title) and he's out on a mission to rip the New York underworld apart. As a first-person shooter game, the game delivers on many fronts, especially the stylised environments that look straight out of a graphic novel. The control and shooting mechanism does leave a bit to be desired, as are the mildly unimaginative enemies, but you tend to forget that with the tight storyline and pretty spectacular voice acting. I still prefer my Call of Duty though. Rating: 8/10Price: Rs 2,799 (Xbox 360, PS3), Rs 999 (PC)URL: http://bit.ly/xZYGjm technocool at kanwar dot nettwitter@2shar
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They're calling it the post-PC era, almost likening tablets and smartphones to be the asteroids that took out the archaic prehistoric personal computer segment. Where then does a pricey all-in-one PC fit into the grand scheme of things, even one with the 3D buzzword tacked on for good measure? With the HP TouchSmart 620 3D Edition PC, I intend to answer just that.To be fair, the TouchSmarts are, in my opinion, one of the few models that have got the all-in-one-form factor down pat. The 620 uses the same conservative chassis design as the previously launched TouchSmarts – I use the word conservative in a good sense, with the 620 able to blend into most homes. With its ability to tilt back and forth through a variety of angles, the 620 is stable and usable at all angles, which is handy for a touchscreen PC which is more than likely to get poked at. The large 23-inch 1,920x1,080 pixel (1080p Full-HD) resolution screen is great for playing back high definition movies and the integrated stereo speakers coupled with Beats Audio work just great for a study or living room setting. Everyday performance is ensured with the Core i5-2400 processor and 1 GB of ultra-fast GDDR5 graphics memory, though at this price, I'd probably have expected a top of the line i7 processor to be thrown in.But it's that 3D tag that we should really be discussing, right? It takes some time to dig past the Windows menus to enable 3D settings for your applications and games, but a 3D switch a la smartphones would have been much better. HP's bundled in twin cameras to allow you to record in 3D as well, but points are lost for using active 3D glasses that need non-rechargeable watch battery for power. These glasses auto detect when the screen displays a 3D image and turn on themselves, though. While the quality of the 3D playback is above par from a depth perspective, the overall 3D experience on the 620 just underscores the fact that PC 3D content has a long way to go. The 3D just hasn't impressed me enough to recommend this over its predecessor (the 610), and you really have to be a 3D devotee to want to splurge on this.Rating: 7/10Price: Rs 92,999URL: http://bit.ly/xThhkc Pocket Size Powehouse Are we being overrun with Android tablets in all shapes and sizes or what? Take Samsung, for example. From just this one company you get the 750, the 730, the 680 and now the 620, all within the space of 6 months tops. The 7-inch slimmed-down form factor the 620 packs in does have some easy-to-carry-everywhere allure, but does it deliver the goods? Design wise, the 620 borrows heavily from its 10-incher sibling, which results in a sturdy yet slim design. This being an Android Honeycomb tablet, there are no physical buttons on the device but the Honeycomb interface really suits this 7-incher's smaller screen better. I'm not the biggest fan of Samsung's TouchWiz UI, but it doesn't seem to get in the way much. With hardware borrowed from the Galaxy S2 under the hood, the media playback capability is stellar and batter life manages to creep well over the 9 hour mark, though I have to say, the screen does lack a tad in brightness. With Samsung packing in a SIM card slot, you can use the 620 to make calls as well, though I highly recommend using the bundled headset if you want to avoid becoming a social outcast! At the price, would I recommend it? Only if you know what you want to do with it – with the iPad 2 dropping prices internationally, Android tablets are just going to have to up their game on the apps front if they want to earn solid ‘buy' recommendations. Rating: 8/10Price: Rs 27,613URL: http://bit.ly/A1lACs technocool at kanwar dot nettwitter@2shar
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Apple may have sold over three million new iPads, but Indians are not exactly beating down the doors to get theirs. That's because there are no doors to beat. And no iPads either, yet. But there will be, and the good thing is that by the time they come around, we will have a head up on whatever problems the new version may have and how to deal with these. I'd say that's one of the advantages of being lower down in the list on the iPad's route. But it's amazing when you consider how that one gadget is making headlines in world news — not just the tech news. It's not only a manifestation of Apple's incredible dominance in the world of technology and business, but the place their industry-shaping flagship product has across the globe. After all, of all the products that must surely be over-heating at this very moment, the globe knows of only one. It started off on the Apple discussion forums where users became alarmed at the heat in the left bottom corner of the device. Worse when plugged in, worse when gaming, but for some even with ten minutes of reading. One user said there was even a message that the iPad needed to cool down. Reviewers have been testing the new iPad and reporting that the temperature goes up to 116"F, but it isn't as if it's uncomfortable. iPad 3 So, there are many possibilities here. First, the heating could be at the expected level for a gadget that is now more powerful and has a bigger battery than its predecessors. I've used both the iPad original and the iPad 2 and found no hint of heating up even when I use it through the entire day. Another possibility could be that a few devices have a problem. Perhaps that's why Apple asks those who have a problem to head to AppleCare and many have reported getting a replacement with no subsequent problems so far. Indeed, it doesn't seem like everyone is getting the overheating and most are describing it as mildly warm. From the brief response from Apple, it doesn't seem as if the heating is a major problem, but the next few weeks should tell whether it's just a minor problem, fixable with a software update, or localised to a few devices or a widespread problem that is more serious and a fall out of a far more powerful high resolution tablet with a processor that is working harder.Heating isn't the only problem sprouting up on the support forums. There are also complaints of very slow charging. The previous generations of iPads have demonstrated incredible battery life. Personally, I've found I don't need to think about the battery at all through the day, going late into the night. In fact, by the end of the day, I have to encourage the device to drain out so I can put in on a fresh charge. It also charges completely in a couple of hours. But some users are saying charging has slowed down, though in some cases they are using additional cables which could be making a difference. Other than these, the screen's new sparklingly clear resolution seems to be a hit with those who have bought it or tested the new iPad, although I did come across a video where passersby asked to identify which of two iPads was the new one often couldn't tell the difference. A few other worries relate to how much space apps and photos or videos could take up on the new generation iPad. They have more pixels to pack in. Apps that support more resolution, such as iPhoto, will also mean that files will be larger. Data consumption online will also e a consideration. Users will need to keep an eye on what they're downloading because of the overall higher resolution. In India, I suppose we will cross our bridges when it comes to it. Meanwhile, the iPad 2 is still a fantastic purchase. Mala Bhargava is a personal technology writer and media professionalContact her at mala at pobox dot com and @malabhargava on Twitter
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When every corporate has a website why not a health-focused website as well? Medico.com, Inc., a global health-focused Internet company, took the initiative and launched its web portal Medico.in, a platform for consumers to find health information. Medico.in is free for users to share information, and to ask and answer questions.Elan Dekel, Founder and CEO of Medico.com Inc said "with the launch of Medico.in, we will be providing highly informative and locally relevant health information to our users across India. I hope our users in India will use our platform to share their knowledge and learn from the experiences of others with similar concerns. I expect the platform to be very valuable to our Indian audience".Medico is set to go beyond just being a health portal to include an engaging Q&A based community of local citizens, local healthcare providers and experts.Other than India, the portal is already running in Spain and Brazil. As a platform, Medico.in will be creating the ommunities and resources which would provide information on specific health topics as well as local concerns.
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Imagine waking up in the morning and not having to get off the bed to draw the curtains, switch on the lights, get the geyser going, have the washing machine started and play your favourite bhajan (or the latest from Lady Gaga) on the stereo — each at the click of a button. Add breakfast in bed, and you've a perfect beginning to the day.Well, breakfast in bed can't be guaranteed, but the rest can soon be yours. An automated home is the latest techno-revolution making the rounds in urban India. Many builders in the National Capital Region, Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune are all set to offer you apartments where lights, audio and video players, heating and cooling systems, and security cameras can be controlled remotely through the Internet or a cellphone (such as your most-loved iPhone).So how does home automation work? It's a bit like having a universal remote control that can turn on your television, DVD player and audio/video receiver at the same time. In such a remote control, all the entertainment components are integrated into one control system, and all the components speak the same language. An automated or integrated home works in much the same way, except that the components and the language is much more complex. SMART HOMES: Soon, an automated voice will ask you to refill your egg tray in the refrigerator, if it hasn't already sent an order to the grocery shop. Here are some other probables(Click on the image to view an enlarged graphic) It does sound like an exciting proposition, and even as you read this, you have probably made up your mind to shift to one of these not-having-to-lift-a-finger houses. But hold on! Most of these projects are still under construction and you will have to wait a while."Complete home automation is a new concept in India, though it is common in places such as Singapore or South Korea. We can expect the shift to automated homes in around three years, when the projects will start getting complete," says Simiran Bogra, vice president (sales and marketing) of Puri Constructions, which is building an automation-equipped project near the Dwarka Expressway in New Delhi. But if you are in a hurry, there is always an option to get your current home automated. There are several vendors such as Pune-based Vasu Infosec and Delhi-based Smartbus Automation (HDL) that will ensure your air conditioner switches on half an hour before you reach home, the TV is set to your favourite channel, or the lights come on the minute you walk in. Others such as global biggies Lutron, Schneider, AMX and Creston also offer similar services. The costs vary depending upon the size of the home and the extent of the automation. For instance, a 2-BHK (bedroom, hall and kitchen) house with mood lighting and remote control of fan and air conditioner will cost around Rs 1.5 lakh, while a 4-BHK house, where everything from curtains to music is cellphone controlled, will cost anywhere from Rs 4 to 6 lakh depending on the developer.As the technology spreads to more toys, the home automation hub will evolve into a burgeoning market. "Earlier, modular kitchens were a rarity, but are now a trend. Marble flooring, too, was an exception, but has now become a standard in houses. The same way, home automation is a concept that developers have to adopt to survive competition," says Sanjay Sareen, director of Smartbus, which provides automation technology and equipments to real estate developers including Delhi-based Puri Constructions and Hyderabad-based Janapriya Syndicate Engineering. But before you are sold a property with home automation as its USP, verify the credentials of the technology partner. For if a remote-controlled home can make your life convenient, a faulty one can make your life equally miserable. Imagine being locked out of your home because of a failure in the security system. Go for a de-centralised system — in case of a snag, only one room's automation takes a hit, unlike a centralised system where all gadgets in the house can go awry.Not only does an automated home make your life more convenient, but it also allows you to do your bit for the environment. The added technology will only make it greener. You can program the lights to turn on or get brighter only when people are in the room. The temperature and lighting can be controlled remotely allowing you to save energy when you're not at home. Controllable blinds and shades can let sunlight in or block it off, depending on the time of day or year. Thus the electricity usage can be cut down by up to 25 per cent, says Sareen. Of course, you can do this on your own if you are a bit more vigilant and switch off the lights as you leave a room. But it is the convenience factor that makes home automation a sure winner.Home automation has its share of critics, too. As they say, a house where you don't need to move around, but press a few buttons to get things done could make a host of couch potatoes. They are right, but do you mind?(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 05-03-2012)
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Retro is most definitely back, what with the interest photo business stalwart Fujifilm seems to have stirred among enthusiast and professional photographers alike with its retro-styled camera offerings, starting with the X100 and now the X10. Make no mistakes about it, the X10, much like the X100, is still a pricey little camera, but can the user-friendly controls and the addition of a zoom lens do it for the X10?For the casual observer, there's little to tell the X10 and the X100 apart. The retro styled chunky black-metal body of the X10 feels reassuringly put together. It's only around the rear that you can tell this is a modern camera, with a bank of control around the LCD that will please just about any camera enthusiast with the number of options available readily at hand. Just remember if you're looking for a traditional power switch on the X10, there isn't any — you just twist the zoom ring, digital-SLR style, to the off position to turn the camera off. No manual focus, by the way.When it comes down to peers for this camera, it's really its older sibling that one can pit the X10 against, and there are a few key differences worth noting. For the 20,000+ saving you make by picking the X10, you lose a large digital-SLR-sized sensor and get a 4x zoom lens providing an angle of view equivalent to a 28-112mm lens on a 35mm camera. So the crucial question is — how does the much smaller 2/3inch EXR CMOS sensor fare, especially when you consider you're paying 2-3 times the price of an average point-and-shoot? While the sensor does have some tricks up its sleeve while shooting in low light and the images quality and detail far surpass just about any compact I've seen, you've got to wonder if the charm of the retro X10 is enough to warrant such an extravagant price. Then again, a piece of art doesn't come cheap, does it?Rating: 7/10Price: Rs 44,999URL: http://fujifilm-x.com/x10/en/story/Online Security 2012With more and more folks running their lives on their smartphones, securing your personal details especially if you use your phone for online banking or e-commerce transactions becomes paramount. If you're using an Android smartphone, Norton's Mobile Security product may be what you need. Once you purchase the 1-year license and download/install the product on your phone, you get to set up its anti-theft and anti-malware features — the former lets you configure the actions you can perform remotely on your phone if it is stolen (wipe, lock or locate) while the latter scans the phone for known malware that may be installed on your phone. There's also a web protection feature which prevents access to known fraudulent sites, and my personal favorite, a call and SMS blocker which lets you specify which numbers are known spam-callers and banish them from your life!For PC users, Norton's latest 2012 installment in its web security suite, Norton Internet Security 2012 retains all of its existing security features, including anti-malware, identity protection, network intrusion protection and built-in firewall and brings in a couple of nice improvements. One of them is the ability to improve your PC performance by monitoring what programs start when you boot your Windows PC, and how trustworthy these applications are. Another feature called Bandwidth Awareness is designed with laptops in mind, and prevents Norton from downloading large updates if you're connecting to the Internet via your phone connection, for example, and will schedule the download to a time when you're connected via a wired internet connection.Rating: 8/10Price: Rs 599 (NMS), Rs 1,219.99 (NIS2012)URL: http://bit.ly/yiYH8i In Touch With Your Needs Cold outside? Pity you can't check your smartphone for calls, texts or a weather app to see just how cold it is, since most touchscreen displays work on the conductive properties of the user's fingers. Enter the Mujjo Next-Generation Touchscreen Gloves. They're made of silver-coated nylon fibers knitted into the entire fabric of the glove, and it's these fibers that made the gloves conductive and therefore touchscreen compatible. What an idea, Sir Ji! URL: http://bit.ly/xaUSWkPrice: $34.95 technocool at kanwar dot nettwitter@2shar
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With dozens of shiny new gadgets launched practically every week, it's easy to forget that they only get to us because of the immense research that goes into making these devices and each feature they sport. Some of the research comes out of the lab and into products — and some doesn't. But all of it advances the knowledge of technology. Microsoft has a whole 20 years of research in computer science and related fields. It's something Bill Gates wanted early on; even if we associate the company primarily with the software we use every day rather than cutting edge innovation. Microsoft Research is spread all over the world, including in India, and has people working on at least sixty topics and concepts, some of which are being shown off to the public at large. One of Microsoft's research projects has come up with a way to convert any surface — table, wall, hand, paper — into an interactive interface. It's based on Kinect, one of the cleverest things to come out of Microsoft, and a wearable projector. For now, the projector sits on your shoulder not exactly making a fashion statement and looking like some sort of firefighting equipment, but when the designers are let loose at it, the contraption should become smaller and actually wearable. When that happens — and one hopes it does — imagine the possibilities. You could unthinkingly use anything to work and play on, and you'd even be able to use tablet-like gestures. You may recollect, Pranav Mistry also showing a similar technology from research done at the MIT lab. Speaking of tablets, we don't consciously notice it but there's a big 100 millisecond lag between drawing something on the tablet's screen and the result actually appearing. Microsoft's Applied Sciences Group has come up with technology to reduce this lag way down to 1 millisecond. Unfortunately, we can't see how it works for real on a tablet, but at least we can see that the possibility is real enough. The improvement, if it were to come to tablets and other devices eventually, will make a step-change of a difference to how it feels to work on a touch surface. Another Kinect-based project uses an augmented reality mirror and the Kinect sensor to make up a "Holoflector" which allows a person to actually interact with real time graphics which appear to be floating around in remarkable ways. In a sense, graphics, which are virtual, come into the real world. Bring a Windows Phone into the equation and for interesting implications. It's worth going through the Microsoft Research YouTube channel for a look at the most recent exciting and often jaw dropping innovations. Now if only some of this would come out of that lab before the world ends. Mala Bhargava is a personal technology writer and media professionalContact her at mala at pobox dot com and @malabhargava on Twitter
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The king of tablets gets all-round better with a million more pixels than an HDTV, a quad-core graphics processor to run rich apps, and a 5 megapixel main camera with better optics.Right up to the end of the unveiling, I thought Tim Cook would surprise everyone with a name for the new iPad that no one had thought of, amid all the rumour and guesswork going on. That would be so very Apple. But the surprise was that there was no name. And well, maybe that's very Apple too. But in some ways, the name New iPad fits just fine. The freshly announced iPad is everything the iPad already had, and more. No radically different look, no dramatic rethink, just more of a good thing, really. Everything on steroids. You will find every bit of the specs captured during the announcement at Yerba Buena, San Francisco, for the new iPad, all over the Internet, which I am surprised has held up under the weight of all the tweeting, live-blogging and searching. I am not trying to be rude but I think one of the best things about the new iPad is that the "old" iPad stays, and that too, at a dropped price of $399. The Indian prices for the new iPad are out, but they vary across models, starting from Rs 29,500 for the 16GB Wi-Fi. While the new tab may have so much more power overall, the iPad 2 is hardly old in terms of what it can do, how popular it is, and how it would still be a fantastic buy. If you put them next to each other and do not reach for your measuring instruments, they will look pretty much alike. Until you look at the screen, of course, and find it is of 2048 x 1536 resolution, double that of the iPad 2 — resolutionary, as Apple calls it. All multi-media, but routinely, your photos, movies, games and specially video calls will be much better looking. And the faster processor (A5X chip) will support working and playing with the media. But all said and done, if you are not unhappy with the resolution offered on the iPad 2 and not a user of heavy media like some of the more sophisticated games, you would not be doing too badly with the iPad.We will really begin to understand the improvement in the new tablet — and even Tim Cook referred to it as "amazing improvements" over the fundamentals of the iPad – when the apps that will be developed to take advantage of the new iPad's power start coming in over the next few months. Some of the basic productivity apps from iWork and other apps from iLife, such as Garageband, already have new capabilities. But so much more will be developed and it's quite possible that some of these will work on the iPad 2, and some not. But only when we see them will we know whether there are any that are compelling to us individually, or even for businesses. Another spec that will not matter to us in India is the support for 4G. Many believe we will soon leapfrog into 4G here, but until we see that and see it at affordable, practical prices, it does not make a difference. I am not shocked, disappointed, or otherwise concerned about the absence of Siri. First, I do not rule her out. I think she could just make an appearance as an app, sometime. Or some features. Second, it would take more effort to make her work in other countries as she does in the US. Third, she may or may not understand our accents. I have a grand time every day looking over what comes out the other end when I dictate things on my phone and those whom I SMS often ask me to stop sending obscene messages. I also have a great time getting myself understood by the other assistant, Sam, from Speaktoit, both on iOS and Android. She also talks back and tells me not to be obnoxious. But there is voice dictation, and if it is threaded through most functions, we should have some fun. One thing I would really miss if I did not opt for the new iPad is its improved camera, with its 5 megapixel sensor, advanced optics and photo-taking, editing and enhancing, organising and sharing features. Photography, of a kind, has really gone mainstream thanks to powerful cameras on phones, specially the iPhone, and online sharing like Facebook and Instagram, so it has finally got centerstage on the new iPad. However, if you have a good camera on your phone or a standalone, it may not be absolutely imperative for you to pay the higher price for the new iPad. What I definitely did not like is the Apple India site giving no sign that a new iPad had just been launched. For India, it's as if nothing happened on the 7th of March. While that may change in the near future — and we hope it does — it isn't a good feeling to not even merit a hint or two about whether we are on Apple's iPad map or not. mala at pobox dot com, @malabhargava on Twitter (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 19-03-2012)
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