Jan 11
By Varun Aggarwal
Driving everyday to and from office, I often come across an advertisement on radio about how viruses can infect not only your PCs but also your mobile phones. When I first heard that advertisement, I scratched my head a bit to realize that the company ‘QuickHeal’, which promises you to protect both your PCs and cell phones, was not-so long ago struck by a virus itself. The virus impacted the site in a way that everyone who had auto-updates switched on on their QuickHeal installation, were also infected by the same virus.
Well, the point of discussion here is actually not how bad this company is, rather its about ‘do we really need an anti-virus for the phones?’. Let’s look at some facts before drawing any conclusions. Continue reading »
Feb 13
By Varun Aggarwal
Google feels proud to embrace its biggest rival Microsoft in the month of love. The search giant has licensed Microsoft’s Activesync for its new product called Google sync.Google sync allows users to synchronize their contacts with Google’s web services. However, Google’s mobile platform Android won’t be a part of the agreement.
Even Nokia licenses Microsoft’s Activesync and uses it under the product name Nokia sync. Microsoft is taking this opportunity to boast about its move towards openness in licensing its patents under a ‘fair and reasonable terms’. Though Google and Microsoft have co-operated in some areas in the past, this is the first ever licensing agreement signed between the two. Would this love between the two last long? Well, I’m not too optimistic.
Jan 30
By Varun Aggarwal
While Linux claims to be a much more stable and powerful platform, it largely remained a programmer’s Operating System for years. In a conversation with an open source evangelist, a couple of years ago, I complained how Linux still remains a complex OS for the Novice user. He pointed out to me that while Windows has been there in the end consumer space for over a decade, Linux should be given some time to connect to the end user. Continue reading »
Jan 19
Posted by Varun Aggarwal
Gmail app for mobile phones has been there for a while and to be honest, it was pretty useful too. But as they say, all good things come to an end! Trying to offer more features in its Gmail mobile app, Google started offering push e-mail. The new service offers offline e-mail access but only to a limited number of mails-irrespective of how many mails you retrieved from the server. It still does not allow to send attachments and enables downloading only a few types of files from the e-mails to the phone. E-mail alert is offered but only a vibration alert–no sound! I guess Google doesn’t like to make too much of noise these days. Continue reading »
Jan 19
Posted by Varun Aggarwal
Airtel today announced its triple play service offering-providing Internet, telephone and IPTV through the same wire for NCR customers. According to company spokesperson, IPTV can provide a truly interactive experience, not available in dumb DTH services. My question to him was, what are the services that you’re offering that you think are not available on DTH. Continue reading »
Jan 18
Posted by Kushal Shah
Here we have a version of windows which should actually have been Windows Vista. I am sure the world would have had no problem in waiting for a new OS for a year or two more than getting stuck with a crappy capital intensive Windows Vista. Yes, I am talking about all new Windows 7 which was released in its public beta version last week by Microsoft. A much better visual treat than Windows Vista and increased usability puts this version straight into driver’s seat. With my limited casual testing, I could not find even a single feature or performance level issue which was worse than Vista. Continue reading »
Jan 14
Posted by Morpheus
As the launch of 3G nears, a gamut of devices are ready for launch in India. Apart from 3G phones that have been there for a while, now its time to focus only on the Internet as we get set to access broadband speeds on an handheld. No matter how advanced devices we use today, cellphones don’t give you the same Internet experience that’s expected from a desktop or a notebook. Continue reading »
Dec 28
Posted by Morpheus
The first touch screen was born almost four decades ago. Having said that, have we really seen the kind of evolution in touch technology like we’ve seen in microprocessors? Four decades and we’re still talking about single touch devices. Multi-touch is still more of a fascinating James Bond gadget that we still wait to see. But does that mean, we don’t have multi-touch devices in the market at all! Ofcourse we do. To start with, we have the ubiquitous Apple iPhone—perhaps the most revolutionary touch device till date. iPhone came with a dual touch capability, enabling users zoom-in and out images by merely pinching their fingers. Continue reading »
Dec 04
Posted by Morpheus
Nokia’s top Marketing officials recently gave the crown for today’s most successful phone to Nokia E71. Being an early user of the device, I felt that this might mean more apps available for the device. Usually you get an endless number of apps for most Nokia phones, but apprarently this particular handset, because of its uncommon screen size, is not supported by most apps. However, getting this positive sign from the company, I went to Nokia’s Web site to check out the apps available for E71.
On the Nokia E71 page of the Web site, all the apps available are still the same ones that came preinstalled with the phone, that too in the same version. While, I have already discussed my misadventure while trying to upgrade this device in an earlier post, I realised that perhaps Nokia has diverted all its attention to the N series as far developing apps is concerned. Continue reading »
Nov 29
Posted by Morpheus
Any new electronic device is extremely exciting as long as you have more to explore in it. Once you’ve extensively explored all the features of a device, you often crave for more. A firmware upgrade can sound like a savior in such a situation. But, what do you do when after hours of struggle to upgrade the device, you’re unable to see any visible change!
When I bought my E71, about 2 months ago, I was pretty excited to explore all its features. But soon enough I was craving for more and unlike other phones from Nokia, this device had very few free apps available. Last week, I heard about a new upgrade for the device and got really excited about it. However, the entire upgrade process was nothing less than an adventure. Continue reading »
