TechGazing

Now that it is official that the Apple iPad will be hitting stores in the US on 3 April (no news of an Indian release yet, alas), interest in the device is reaching new dimensions. Every person with the slightest interest in technology is full of questions about Apple’s latest gizmo. If you too have a query or two about the iPad, we suggest you pay a visit to CNet’s All About the iPad (FAQ) in the Circuit Breaker section, written by Erica Ogg and Donald Bell. It pretty much answers most queries, barring that one about an Indian launch (and price). But then, ah, no one is perfect. Definitely worth a look for everyone interested in the iPad.

The folks at Olive Telecommunications have come out with a phone called Olive FrvrOn. In terms of features, it is pretty much low-end with a 1.5 inch display, FM radio, polyphonic ringtones and stereo headset. The price is very much low-end too - Rs 1,699. However, what grabbed our attention was the fact that the phone can run on any -yes, any-AAA battery. “A user upon running out of electricity charge in the supplied LiOn battery can simply slot in any AAA battery available into the phone, and stay connected,” says the press release. Now, that’s interesting. The catch is that battery life on lower end phones is pretty good as a rule, although such a device would definitely be right at home in rural areas where power availability is spotty at best.

All said and done, this is definitely a move in the right direction at a time when battery lives of phones are dipping across all segments. Now, if only we could find some similar way of keeping the battery of power-guzzling phones like the iPhone and Nokia N97 going.

We love the facility that portable hard drives offer, allowing us to lug stacks of data - literally everything on our computers, in some cases- from place to place. But one major complaint we have had about them is that we have to plug them into a machine to find out what’s on them or even how much space they have left. Well, Western Digital have now come out with the My Passport Studio portable drive which comes with a customizable e-label that’s always visible, even when the drive is unplugged.

Called the Smart Display, it reminds users of what is stored on the drive and provides available capacity and security status at a glance even when the drive is not connected to a computer. It can be changed as often as desired using the included WD SmartWare software. Now, that’s really useful! There are a number of other goodies in there too, including FireWire connectivity and encryption facilities, but it is the label that has got us really intrigued.

The drives come in capacities of 500 GB and 640 GB and are priced at Rs. 9,600 and Rs. 10,750, respectively. We do not have a review unit yet, but it sure seems very good value for money.

Users are getting spoilt for Internet browsers these days. Apart from Internet Explorer (IE) that comes preinstalled with Windows, there is Google’s Chrome, Firefox, Apple’s Safari and Opera, and a few others like Flock. With so many players vying to be the app with which you browse the Internet, the battle is well and truly on to earn user brownie points be it in features or speed. And it is on speed that the latest version of Opera, Opera 10.50, focuses. The release we have received says that it is the “fastest Web browser thus-far produced for Windows computers.” Now, that is quite a claim, considering that the likes of Chrome and Firefox operate at a decent clip, but from what we have seen of the browser, it sure flies. Continue reading »

We have been moping about the absence of 3G in India for a good time now. Yes, we can get decent bandwidth using some of the high-speed modems from the likes of Tata and Reliance, but browsing on cellphones remained a rather slow affair. Fortunately that seems to be changing. A few weeks ago,the Samung Corby Speed was released, which allowed users to surf the Net on it at speeds up to 3.1 Mbps. However, we were a tad disappointed to see that all this speed was being given to a device that was more a multimedia phone than a smartphone.

Well, according to a recent ad, even that shortcoming seems to have been tackled. Reliance Mobile is now offering the BlackBerry Tour 9630 device with 3.1 Mbps Internet access speed. Now, that makes it India’s first smartphone to have speeds in the 3G class. It also gives it a formidable advantage over other not just other smartphones, but just about every mobile computing device in the country. After all, it has a super QWERTY keypad, a terrific screen, a decent 3.2 MP camera, GPS, great battery life, lots of apps in the App World, has world roaming across 240 countries, supports GSM and CDMA networks, has decent multimedia and most connectivity options, Wi-Fi excluded. But with connectivity speeds like that, we are not even sure too many would miss Wi-Fi.

Yes, it is not the cheapest device in town, but the high-speed connectivity edge is likely to make it one of the best investments for those who love to work on the move. Until the next smartphone on high-speed Internet comes across!

Dual Sim? Check. Three-inch touchscreen? Check. Social networking apps? Check. Decent browser? Check. 2.0 megapixel camera? Check. Motion sensor games? Check. All for Rs. 5,500? Check!

We are talking of the recently-launched Fly LINKZ E145 phone, which has just gone and redefined value for money when it comes to touchscreens. At least on paper.Yes, we don’t know how exactly the phone will perform but the fact is that with a price tag like that, one does not go in with the greatest expectations - quite the opposite of what happens when you bust close to Rs 25,000 on a device. And that already gives phones like the LINKZ an advantage.

Of late, we have been seeing a number of new brands in the Indian cellphone market, the likes of Fly, Zen, Micromax and the like, to name a few. While we have not really handled too many of their products to comment on their quality, what we definitely love about these newcomers is the fact that they are offering so much for so little. We recently talked about QWERTY phones that we were available for less than Rs 5,000 and now we have a three-inch touchscreen device that costs a fraction over that figure. Good times for Indian customers, we reckon!

From being an exotic gizmo a few years ago, flash drives (or “thumb drives” as people love to call them) have now very much become a part of our daily lives, and are at hand for most of our storage needs. But buying them is not the simple task it once was with a number of brands with different features in the market. So when we needed to find out the five factors a consumer should keep in mind while opting for a Flash memory card, we decided to ask SanDisk, the global leader in the Flash memory card business. Yes, they did plug their own products from time to time, but their answers are still more than worth a read for everyone in the market for a USB flash drive. Continue reading »

Whatever you associate with netbooks, it is certainly not style. These are supposed to be the ‘umble cousins of the real thing, after all, scaled down in terms of specs and more often than not, in looks as well. There have been exceptions to the rule, such as the Sony Vaio P series last year, but these have been on the pricier side. Well, that might be about to change with Asus unveiling the Eee PC Seashell Karim Rashid (1008P) at Mumbai yesterday, a netbook conceived with the help of Karim Rashid, one of the world’s leading designers. We have not got our hands on a unit yet, but we must confess to being VERY impressed by what’s on offer. Continue reading »

With storage requirements going up every day, many of us are investing in portable hard drives to back up our digital information, be it documents, pictures, videos or literally anything and everything that is on our computer’s hard drive. But while going for purchasing a portable hard device, the only factor that most people seem to keep in mind is the hard drive’s capacity. Many of us in fact do not even bother using the software that comes with these devices, preferring to drag and drop files from our computer to the had drive - a tedious and repetitive process. Continue reading »

It is Valentine’s Day tomorrow and people are looking around for stuff to give their loved ones. Speaking for ourselves, we do not think one needs a special day to give the ones we love a present, but ah, that’s a debate for another day and perhaps another blog. Right now, if we were asked for our shortlist of the best things we could give to tech-friendly loved one tomorrow without straining our wallets beyond the Rs. 10,000 barrier, we would recommend these… Continue reading »

Touchscreens are the rage these days. Be it the iPhone or HTC HD2 or the forthcoming iPad, every manufacturer worth their salt is trying to come out with a device that is driven by touch rather than hardware buttons. But for all their trendiness and glamour, touchscreens are not really perfect. So before you opt for buying a device - be it a camera, personal navigational device, cellphone or just about anything - that has a touchscreen interface, we would advise that you keep these points in mind. Continue reading »

We have got news that flash memory card wizards SanDisk have started shipping one of their smallest ever USB flash drives. Called the SanDisk Cruzer Blade, the drive is really small, with proportions of 41.5 x 17.6 x 7.4 mm and is literally featherweight at 2.5 gms. But its size belies its storage capacity, which can vary from the bare bones (these days) 2 GB to a very handy 16 GB (hey, the iPad has that much, right? It looks darned neat -check the picture if you do not believe us - and in best USB drive tradition, it supports plug-and-play and is compatible with commonly used computers.

Seems pretty perfect for most travellers. Mind you, the only thing we would be terrified of is mislaying it. It is so darned small that it would be difficult to find and of course, it is so light that we guess we would not even be able to sense that it has slipped out of our pockets. That apart, the SanDisk Cruzer Blade seems an excellent option for those wishing to lug around digital data without burdening themselves too much.

We got our hands on Pi, India’s first e-book reading reading device, during a visit to the World Book Fair at Delhi. Its details had been released a few days ago, along with an aggressive pricing strategy. Our initial impressions: well, the hardware does look rather impressive and the price of Rs 9,999. is definitely going to tempt lots of gadget lovers. In fact, we would even go so far as to call it a MUCH better deal than the Kindle in India. Before you start accusing us of insanity, do take a look at our reasons. Mind you, these are based on a very short use of the product. We will have more to say when Infibeam sends us a review unit. Incidentally, the device will start shipping on February 22, although one can place an advance order for one.  Continue reading »

How much difference can the network it runs on, make to a device? Well, a whole lot, as we discovered while using the BlackBerry 9630, also known as the Tour. We have used a number of BlackBerry devices in the past, but this is the first to have performed at such a blazing rate of knots, thanks mainly to the CDMA network on which it runs, which is markedly faster than the EDGE/GPRS networks provided by the likes of Airtel, Vodafone and Idea. In fact, thanks to the network, browsing the Net, which has never been a forte of BlackBerry devices, suddenly seemed a pleasure with pages loading up in a snap. Accessing the App World and downloading apps was also so much easier. Voice clarity was of course, a no-brainer, as CDMA networks are so much better than GSM in that department. Top that off with the fact that the Tour is in fact a magnificent device with the best camera (3.2 megs) that we have seen on BlackBerry and a terrific screen that is so reminiscent of the Bold, and you will understand why we rate it so highly.

Yes, we know that the new Bold, the 9700, has been launched in India today (we will be getting a review across soon). But if you ask us right now which is the best BlackBerry in India, and we would go with the Tour.

It may not be as magical as Steve Jobs made it out to be, but we still think Apple’s iPad packs enough in it to turn the tech world upside down. And no, not because we got five of our seven predictions about it right. In fact, it is the prediction that we got wrong that might make the biggest difference.

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Whether the Apple Tablet makes an appearance later today or not, the rumour market is rife with what it will and will not have.  We have been keeping a cynical eye on all of them and with the divine hour not too far away, here we go with our seven fearless Apple Tablet predictions. They could be right, they could be wrong, but heck, we do have reasons for making them. Continue reading »

All the hype around the Apple Tablet (if it comes) is just the latest chapter in the touchscreen romance that has enthralled the world ever since the launch of the iPhone. Be it cameras, cellphones, e-book readers or computers - just about every gadget manufacturer in town is trying to incorporate an element of touch in their products. But, hype apart, there are several practical reasons for opting for a touchscreen over a conventional physical button interface. Here are just five of them. Continue reading »

E-book readers were the rage at the recent CES in Vegas. Just about every tech player worth their salt is trying to get into the segment, from Amazon to Sony to Asus, is trying to make its presence felt in the e-book reader segment. But call us old-fashioned if you will, we still think that conventional paper books beat the hell out e-book readers. At least at the moment. Before you start accusing us of being paper-freaks who hate everything mechanical, just read through our reasons for thinking so. Continue reading »

It is the latest bit of jargon to have hit photography - geotagging, or the ability to add details about where a picture was taken, using GPS. While the jury is still out on whether it will become a rage, there can be no doubting its utility, especially to travellers and photo journalists. Here’s why:

1. You do not have to bother making notes about where a picture was taken - you will have the exact location, thanks to GPS.

2. You can show where exactly you have taken pictures on a world map, using software like iPhoto. People can therefore not just see the route you have followed on a map, but also what you saw, thanks to your geotagged images.

3. Just as the time and date stamp on a picture is accepted by many people as evidence of when it was taken, geotagging an image is proof of where you took it.

4. A geotagged image can show a person exactly where you clicked the picture. This is particularly handy when you want people to look at a particular section of the landscape.

5. A geotagged image when uploaded to certain sites like Google Maps and Flickr! can provide travellers with valuable information about routes and landmarks. You can actually look at a map and see different perspectives of landscapes and monuments taken by different people, helping you plan out your trip a lot better.

All right, those words might strike some - especially photography purists - as sacrilege of the highest order, but the stark fact is that modern cellphone cameras are offering a whole lot more to the casual photographer than basic digital cameras. If that sounds very difficult to believe, here are seven points on which a cellphone camera has a digital camera licked.

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If you are one of those who rarely hits the road without packing in your gadgets, chances are you have your share of sob stories to share. Right from batteries going on the blink just as Murphy would have ordained, to your shoulders and back caving in under the burden you could well have avoided carrying.

[Versions of this post were published in The Hindustan Times and Rediff.com recently. The content of the combined pieces are reprinted here]

Here’s a lowdown on ways to make travel not only exasperation-free, but also pleasurable in many ways. Read on for some interesting stuff

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

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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