I am a gadget afficinado, so like everyone else i too was watching the apple ipad event at 12:00 am eagerly. Trying to get all the details about it etc.
After reading few hundred blog posts about it. Here are my view about the device and if i will buy one or not?
First the price, its really hard to justify its pricing in India. It will cost as much as normal laptops in India.
iPad wifi only version will cost
16 GB will be 32135 Rs,
32 GB will be 38575 Rs,
64 GB will be 45015 Rs.
Apple add 40% extra on things they sell india. 499$*46Rs+40%
iPad wifi & 3G version will cost
16 GB will be 40507 Rs,
32 GB will be 46947 Rs,
64 GB will be 53387 Rs.
Apple add 40% extra on things they sell india.
This would have been fine if it had multi tasking. On my macbook i always multi task, like downloading something while reading a web site.
All we do on our computers is multitask. So going back to older times is hard for me.
Not all indian sites work on safari and these sites have no plans to change the situation soon.
This was the main reason for me to switch from iphone to HTC hero. There are some sites that don’t load well on safari. i need other browsers, for example stock trading sites don’t load in safari. But they load in chrome and firefox. On a laptop i can switch to those browsers, but on iPad i have no such option. Apple will never allow other browsers on iPad. Even with banking sites this is an issue.
You could say this is a computer for other members in your family. That’s a good point but not at this price. I could buy them a good laptop at this price. Even a good netbook would be cheaper than this.
The iPad is a half inch thick device, with multi-touch, forever connected to the internet, simplified, focussed, affordable, and most importantly, can be superbly productive.
This above point is the only reason i might think of buying one. But it will largely depend on the price i will have to pay for it. If i can pay 20000 Rs for the device and 1000 Rs per month for unlimited 3G. i might get it, but that will never happen. Current unlimited 3G prices on BSNL are 3000 Rs per month.
So lets see how it will be priced and that is what will decide if i buy it or not.
I bought one in the early days of these device, it had a small 6 inch screen. I just bought it because it was something new and i thought i would use it. But once i bought it, i realized how useless and they were.
First of all mine resets itself once the power goes off. So i had to manullay set the date and time every time, which it was capable to display. They could have put a small battery in it, that could have helped remember these details even when power went out or they could have saved it to the system. Even then its a useless device, why would you want a device keep churning photos when no one is looking at it. Just not eco friendly and waste of power.
Photo frame would only make sense if they could be used for other things. Like a tablet, when i don’t use it and dock it or while charging. It could become a photo frame or weather or news reader. Ipad is a good example of my concept.
That is the only way i think some thing like a digital photo frame could be justified.
If some one can come up with an epaper that could show a photo without any power. And generate enough power from light everyday to show one photos everyday, then i would buy one. All the technologies are available at the moment, some one needs to put it all together.
If you still was to buy one, this digital photo frame is now available in black and white colours for Rs. 8,000 with a one-year panel warranty and two-year product warranty.
Transcend Launches 8-inch Digital Photo Frame
A nice place to find and read all the rumors of apple tablet. You can see what features are being predicted.
Its an interesting look at the rumors, if apple releases just a bigger iphone there will be a lot of disappointment. From all the rumors and patents they have applied for in the recent months. It looks like Apple’s tablet will be something special.
As always it be way costly and i will try to get one after a year or so. Which is when it will probably land in India.
By the way iPhone 3GS has not yet launched in India.
Rumour Roundup the Apple Tablet
I am writing this after using Tatasky+ for six months.
I upgraded to Tatasky+ so i only paid 5000 Rs which was reasonable. They took my old tatasky settop box away.
The installation came as a surprise because i thought, and was told by the customer service that there is no installation. I thought i could just swap the settop box, but that’s not the case.
A red led glows when a recoding is happening.
This is the remote for Tatasky +
Only these buttons are the extra from the regular tatasky +. Just hit the R button to record anything.
The installation guy comes and installs new hardware near the dish and also put a second cable to the dish. He was only just able to put the second cable because of the tight space inside the wall.
So be aware that there is an installtion for this box and it can only be done by a qualified professional. He also calls in to activate the service one the installtion is finished. So don’t think you can do the installtion.
Now the good part, once you paid for the box and the annual package. You can start using the service.
Before i begin once you use the service you will never go back to normal tv ever again.
Here are the feature of the device
Record Tv (You can record two channels at the same time)
Pause Tv (You can pause any channel you are watching and rewind back upto 45 minutes or the moment your started watching the channel which ever is higher)
Record Tv
You can record up to 30 hours of programing. Which is more than a 10 full lenght movies. Once you set the hard disk management to automatic, it will automatically delete the old show and keep recording the new once you choose.
Only settings you can change for tatasky + plus are these shown above.
You can schedule recording up to two days in advance.
You can record two channels at the same time. And watch another recording while this is going on.
When you are playing a recording a blue led light circles around the round dial on the set-top box
You can even set series link which automatically records a show every week or every day. But this feature is not supported on all channels. Only few of them have this feature, but really useful when it works.
The info bar show the time remaining in the recording while playing back, when you press info button.
You can even fast forward the recorded shows to skip ad’s or the boring parts.
Pause Tv
You can pause any channel you are watching it automatially buffere up to 45 minutes or whenever you started watching the show. You can change this in the settings menu.
This indicates how far behind you are from the live Tv.
Once you get to know all the features and start using them, you will really love your tatasky+. Now i can’t imagine watching tv without a Tatasky+.
Here is a Trick to do a slow motion on tatasky+. Pause the recording and then click forward button to do slow motion, this is not in the manual.
Its priced around 9000 Rs if you are not a Tatasky subscriber. But well worth the price.
I really recommend you get one, it will change your life style enormously.
Posted on 2 August '09 by Prasanth, under Gadgets, Mobiles. No Comments.
Aircel recently came to our city Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh. They have some unbelievable offers.
Here are some of the reasons i shifted to Aircel from Airtel.
1. No roaming charges in south India for states like Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu
2. Triple the recharge amount. For example if i recharge for 300 Rs i will get 900 Rs, talk time of 300 Rs for std calls and 600 Rs for local calls. The calling charges are as per other carriers 1 rupee per minutes. This could be an introductory offer but still nice.
This is the big one for me
3. 98 Rs for unlimited internet for 30 days or one month.
This is the cheapest rate any carrier is offering for unlimited for one month. Airtel were offering for some time but they have stopped unlimited offerings all together.
So i have changed my Sim to Aircel and its working perfectly with my iphone.
Here are some the things you should know about using it on iphone.
Gprs Settings for Aircel on Iphone
You have to put in the gprs settings for the internet to work. To do that on iphone go to settings-general-network-cellular data network and there type APN as “aircelgprs”. Leave the user name and passwords as blank.
And it will start working, if it doesn’t restart your phone and try again.
Other numbers of Aircel
To check balance type *125#
To get more detailed call report dial 123
To get to the call center dial 121
So far loving the service, the gprs speeds are on par with other providers. I was going to get Bsnl 3G Sim but they are charging nearly 3000 Rs for unlimited usage. So for now i will stick with Aircel.
Posted on 28 July '09 by Prasanth, under Gadgets, Mobiles. No Comments.
Posted on 27 July '09 by Prasanth, under Gadgets, Mobiles. No Comments.
News is not what i am talking about, that’s another blog post altogether.
What i am talking about is your Tech shows like Gadget Guru, Cell Guru and Tech Toys etc.
I really want to find out about the price of gadgets and what is happening in tech industry in India.
Your shows suck at showing that information. All you have is guys who talk about anything but gadgets. Finally when they show the gadgets its like a commercial its over before you see it. They have four host to show a 20 minutes program, in that two girls.
Thank god for tata sky plus now i fast forward most of the show, like their introduction jokes etc. Out of a 21 minutes show i watch around 5 minutes of content.
Then there are show that are like infomercials. On cell guru there is a Nokia n96 widget section that i don’t understand the point of. And for the host of Cell guru you are on Tv man fix yourself up.
Even i can do better than this, if Tv guys are reading this give me a call.
Until then watching web for my gadget news.
I have seen one after the other take the iphone challenger label and fall by the way side. Its really sad to see how bad they are.
I have used most of them and i will explain how each one falls by the way side.
Nokia came up with Nokia music express which looked cool and everything but it has the same windows mobile problem. The interface was not designed for touch input. The have put a pretty layer on top of symbian and it doesn’t work that well.
The scrolling is not smooth and the rotation doesn’t work well. Even the new interface looks like it was made for stylus use and not a finger use. Its so bad that it comes with a stylus to use.
The next one is Samsung 3G
Less i say is better about this phone.
Some time a feature can be the problem of the phone. The sidebar which gets activated by just a click anywhere on the screen its a bad idea. The touch interface is either too sensitive at times and some times not sensitive enough.
There is no way to disable the sidebar so every time you move from one scree to another you end up put more widgets on to the desktop. You will end up more time cleaning the screen of widgets than actually using them.
Most of the widgets are pretty use less they are shortcuts for web sites.
Now the phones interface, scrolling some times works and some times doesn’t. The have a photo zoom feature similar to iphone. But it takes 10 times more time to get the photo to zoom on the samsung star 3G. They also have a wonky way to zoom. You have to keep a finger pressed on the screen and move it upwards to zoom. Which is really ugly to use and it takes ages to recognize the finger and start zooming.
These are the two i used, there are plenty more that are giving touch interface a bad name. So why are all these companies still imitating iphone.
Stop trying to imitate and start doing something new.
Things have to reinvented from bottom up and not the other way around.
Palm tried something similar but they never were known for their media capabilities. So don’t expect a music and video phone like the iphone from them no matter how good they get.
Same goes for Android, its a phone for geeks not casual users.
So what is the future of iphone challengers, only good one i can think of is Microsoft windows mobile. Their next version of the windows mobile will be really different and mainly touch oriented.
After looking at windows 7 i am really hoping it will give iphone something to fight against.
So the best thing for other phone companies to realize is forget touch apple, has that in their pockets already.
Aim for the next big thing and start innovating.
A nice implementation of 3d interface for a mobile device by tracking you eye. This could be a very good use of the front camera, which you can find on most mobile these days. When you are not using it to video conference it could be doing eye tracking to make the interface look like its 3d.
Something similar is being done on the iphone by a free game called labyrinth. They are using the accelerometer to know when you are tilting the phone and adjust the image in the game to look like its 3d. Looks really good hope many more such implementations are developed.
You have to try the game to really see the 3d table effect. Hope the above pictures give you an idea.
Posted on 2 March '09 by Prasanth, under Gadgets, Mobiles. No Comments.
I am an iphone user and i am loving it.
