TechGazing

Asus could be on the verge of launching one of the most interesting tech products of the year, if rumours are to be believed. The EEE Keyboard PC is in fact an entire computer in a keyboard. You can just plug it into any display to get it working, or can even do some basic tasks on a 5inch capacitive touchscreen that is a part of it. In essence, even as other desktop PC manufacturers are attempting to merge the CPU (the tower-like component)into the display to make computers more compact, Asus has gone the other way and merged the CPU into the keyboard! Of course, the specs of the device are nothing to really rave about - Windows XP Home, an Intel Atom N270 processor, an Intel 945GSE / ICH7-M chipset, 16GB SSD upgradable to 32GB storage, 1GB memory, GbE Ethernet, Wireless LAN, HDMI, and Bluetooth - but the form factor is impressive, and the device looks very sleek indeed in aluminum (shades of the Macbook, eh?)

All of which is expected to cost in the vicinity of Rs 27,000. A bit on the expensive side, but then the first edition of innovative products always do cost a bit. No, we do not know when it is coming to India (or the world, for that matter), but the chances are that we will be seeing it this year.

Want to find out what’s happening in the Indian Premier League (IPL), but do not have a television at hand? Well, just dial 08 123 123 123 on your cell and you will get access to live ball by ball coverage and even access video footage. Making all this happen is July Systems’s MIX platform, which serves up live ball-by-ball updates, action replays, video scorecards, cheerleader videos, and many more exciting features. Best of all, you do not need a smartphone to access this service - just about any cell with Internet connectivity at any location will do (there are more than 6,000 models supported) and you do not even need broadband or 3G, as it works fine over EDGE and GPRS. Best of all the service is totally free - even 08 123 123 123 is a toll-free number. You just end up paying data costs for using the Internet. Incidentally, if you do not feel upto dialing numbers on your handset, just open its browser and head to m.ipl20.com to get a slice of the IPl action.

Think we are sounding over-effusive about this? Well, ’tis because it really works pretty well. Just try the service and then join us in the applause!

The Thinkpad is one of the most respected names in the world of notebooks, especially on the enterprise side. However, of late, there was a feeling in many quarters that the brand had become a bit boring, especially given the snazzy-looking hardware that the competition (Dell, HP) was turning out. Lenovo’s response has been to revamp the Thinkpad and come out with the dazzling Thinkpad Edge. We got our hands on one for a few days and think that it is one of the best ultraportables around. Here are six reasons to support our claim: Continue reading »

By Nimish Dubey

I know I go on and on about brand ambassadors being a bit of a liability in the tech field but well, I just cannot help it if celebrities endorsing tech products keep tripping up.

The latest to join the list is Aftab Shivdasani, who has been named the brand ambassador for the World Gaming Day, a concept backed by the likes of Sony Ericsson, Microsoft Xbox and Zapak.com.

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by Athene

Since the day Apple’s iPhone was released, a lot of touchscreen phones have flooded the mobile market. Be it HTC’s Touch, Samsung’s TouchWiz, Nokia’s Tube, LG’s Viewty or Sony Ericsson’s Xperia, every handset has tried to complete with the revolutionary touch interface that the iPhone offers. But none has been able to challenge the flawless touch interface. The lastest one to join this race is BlackBerry with its first touchscreen phone - the Storm. Continue reading »

By Nimish Dubey

I have just discovered why the grey market in tech products is thriving in India - it is because the “real” market players just do not seem to care enough. I have seen three major product malfunctions - all three devices from very well-known brands - over the past three days and in each case, the user was unable to get timely support from the manufacturer, even though his/her product was still under warranty. Continue reading »

By Nimish Dubey

We have seen our share of celebrities who do not seem to know a thing about the products they are endorsing - remember Kevin Costner poking apprehensively at a Mac? - but Lewis Hamilton seems to have added a new dimension to “endorser naivete” with his performance in the TV commercial for the much-hyped BlackBerry Storm.
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By Nimish Dubey

A few days ago, I saw a notebook that would make a Macbook stop and check its appearance in the mirror (heck,higher praise than that I cannot give).  The Sony Vaio P series notebook is perhaps the sleekest laptop I have ever clapped eyes on.

Would I love it as a gift? You betcher! Would I buy it? Er…

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By Nimish Dubey

Remember the time when AMD and Intel were sparring about having the faster processor? Well, it seems the world of cellphones could be in for a similar spell, courtesy Asus’ highlighting the speed of the processor of its new handsets. The company has promoted its p565 handset with the claim that it has the fastest processor seen in a cellphone - at all of 800 Mhz.  It has also pointed out that its P552w comes with a 624 Mhz processor.

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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 »

 Posted by Nimish Dubey 

Brand ambassadors can be a bit of an embarrassment at times - one remembers Deepika Padukone telling the media that the LG Viewty was a good phone because it could be used by “men as well as women.” Well, Nokia brand ambassador Priyanka Chopra has managed to undermine Nokia’s much-hyped iPhone killer, the 5800 Xpress Music. Minutes after declaring that the phone allowed her to access music on her fingertips, she posed for photographs, brandishing a stylus - something Nokia has sought to downplay, given the demand for finger-only navigation in phones these days! We are sure Nokia’s marketing must have cringed when a picture of her appeared in the Delhi Times supplement of the Times of India holding a stylus in front of a board which (oh dear!) said “Touch will play music.”

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This feature was published in India’s leading daily, The Hindustan Times, and can be accessed online here.

There can be no substitute to enjoying the Olympics in Beijing later this year than being inside the arenas as a live spectator, a possibility only for the lucky or the privileged. But the next best option for the billions of others may no longer be television broadcasts but rich, interactive access on the Internet.

Log on to NBCOlympics.com this August to view the games like never before. You can watch any of the events live on the site, of course, but this is only for starters. You will be able to open up to six windows on your desktop for simultaneous viewing, somewhat like the PIP (Picture-in-Picture) option that some television sets come with. You can listen to live commentary on any of these, and receive alerts for other live events even when these are not showing on your screen. You can replay any missed action. Video-on-demand will allow you access any of the archives of more than 2,200 hours of recordings of the games captured over 17 days. Continue reading »