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The Future Of Transportation Electric Autos

MERCEDES ML 350 CDISamsung Galaxy NexusLenovo ThinkPad TabletCyborg R.A.T 9 MouseDell XPS 14zSamsung Wave 3NiNikon Coolpix S1200pjNokia Lumia 710Sennheiser HD 220 OriginalsPanasonic Sound Bar SC-HTB 520Asus Eee Pad SliderLytro Camera

From the technical to the best buys.

ULTRABOOKSEVOLUTION

Tech Companies that will feel the heat in 2012 The Roaring Superbikes breathing heavily to kiss the roads in 2012

CES 2012 The Future, NowCandid photography

Previews & Reviews

The Best of DSLR's Take your pick!Battlecam Million Dollars to get naked - Read Inside

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2 I I FEBRUARY 2012

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F I N D I N G I S F U N .A long-lost childhood buddy’s house, a client’s office or any address under the sun,MapmyIndia GPS leads you straight to your precise destination.

3 I I FEBRUARY 2012

CONTENT

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Flash & Dash – The Best of the Delhi Auto Expo 2012

Most Interesting Apps to watch out in 2012

CES 2012 A Glimpse into the near future

Will desktops become obsolete in 2012?Really? Speculations are rife!.......................................................26Tech Cos. which will feel the heat in 2012 Which all companies get thumbs down?................................70Jump from 2011 to 2012 - changes expected?A year of “what” ahead?................................................................107Tech in Real EstateWhen technology shapes up architecture too!....................120Tech behind JewelleryArt meets Science!...........................................................................74Get addicted to these…games! And you thought “Angry Birds” is the only one?.................76

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

UNDER THE SCANNER

TabletLenovo ThinkPad Tablet.................58Cyborg R.A.T 9 Mouse...........59LaptopDell XPS 14z........................................60SmartphoneSamsung Wave III............................61CameraNikon Coolpix S1200pj...................62SmartphoneNokia Lumia 710...............................64HeadphoneSennheiser HD 220 Originals.......65Soundbar SystemPanasonic SoundbarSC-HTB 520 ........................................66TabletAsus Eee Pad Slider...........................67CameraLytro Camera......................................68CarMerc ML 350 CDI..............................42GameSkyrim V...............................................40WebsiteBattlecam............................................21PreviewSamsung Galaxy Nexus..................56

UNCOVERING THE TALE OF TURNTABLE.FM

CONTENT

EVOLUTION 2012The Ultrabook Emerges

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Best DSLR CameraWhich one would you pick?

Alki DavidBattlecam founder.

2012 - A year of SUPERBIkES

Are Electric Autos The Future Mode Of Transportation?.................................................10VLC SystemHarald Vaas.............................................................................16Stereographic Street View + WD App............28File-sharingThe new religion of Sweden.............................................45Commodore C64 30 years .....................................46Crawl inside ur TV setsit’s real now!............................................................................54Cloak to make things disappear!.....................79The 1st iPhone dates back to 1983 ...............90

OTHER FEATURES

Amazing tech.....................................30AWESOME 3someSony SmartWatch, The Yamaha THR10 and Optoma PK301 Pico Projector...........14CES POWER TALk..........................52Success DiarySony PlayStation.....................................82ShutterbugCandid Photography............................101AwaitingMovies and Events................................127

REGULARS

FEBRUARY 2012

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK Trend! That’s exactly what keeps us going. Be it fashion, be it lifestyle or be it technology, it is the trend that you get addicted to. Speaking of tech, laptops and then netbooks had their own shares as the “in” things for some time and if it was smartphones and tablets as the most recent trends, the thing to look ahead this season is Ultra books!

Ultra books – We have put some thoughts on it in this issue. How did this Ultrabook thing evolve? If Tablets evolved from smartphones – speaking in the simplest of ways, Ultrabooks did evolve from Tablets. When compact is the term for every other thing in tech, an Ultrabook does full justice to every sense of the word. And right there it strikes us all, will desktops become obsolete in 2012?

Technically defining, Intel claims a trademark in the name Ultrabook which is more or less synonymous with a higher-end type of subnotebook. And the first requirement of a Ultrabook to justify itself is its ultra-thin look. Intel explains it as less than 0.8” and that comes striking close to some members of the Mac family which remains unexplained.

CES just concluded in Vegas, and like every year it keeps getting bigger and better. So much is there to experience from the show floors and a peek into what is coming ahead of us as launches from major players makes CES an una-voidable tech destination. The sin city of Vegas just adds more reasons to the serious people from the tech world to be here. You know what I am talking.

There are many more “in” things expected in 2012. The year 2011 was all about digital revolution and the trend does continue in 2012 too, with a greater impact. Cloud computing, multi-core mobile computing, mobile com-merce and augmented reality are few to name among those. Today Technology invades everywhere including real estate and jewellery making, we have something in the pages on both of these.

Now the Insane, what if I tell you that recently there was a million dollar booty to anyone who was able to streak completely in front of US President Barrack Obama. You will not believe it but Alki David does love his millions and has a shrewd marketing mind behind this act of generosity. Turn to P 21 and read something which will knock you off. Music lovers will also be impressed with what Billy Chasen has done with Turntable.fm – especially with the fight over SOPA on-going.

This and much more along with the regulars…all you do is to flip the pages. Enjoy…

@somaniramesh

CIAORamesh SomaniChief Editor & [email protected]

T

Are Electric Autos The Future Mode Of Transportation?

The 2011 auto shows around the world featured elec-tric vehicles from every major auto maker, signaling that the electric car is becoming recognized as the future personal transportation technology. Many of these concept cars are being designed as city com-

muter cars. These are small single or two passenger vehicles with entry level features. Electric motorcycles are finding increased accept-ance in the emerging economies. Public transport buses, city taxis and municipal delivery vans are being converted to electric. Some optimists predict that by the year 2050, over 60 percent of new transport vehicle sales could be electric. Governments the world over are pushing for shift to electric vehicles to serve multiple purposes. These reduce dependence on oil, which is a depleting resource, and also help reduce carbon emissions. Gasoline engine emissions also cause poor air quality and related health issues in the increasingly crowded cities round the world. The electric power needed can be generated out-side the cities and new technologies are emerging to capture and sequester carbon emissions from power plants. While conversion of fleet vehicles such as taxis and buses is relatively easier, the major challenge is to convert the individual car buyer into going electric. Several new ideas have emerged which appear likely to accelerate this shift.

GUEST COLUMN

10 I I FEBRUARY 2012

TD

The high initial costOne major barrier to widespread acceptance of electric cars has been the high initial cost. An entry level electric car could cost close to $24,000, whereas a gasoline engine car of similar size would cost around $15,000. In the US, federal tax credits of up to $7,500 help bridge this price differential. In an electric car, the body, the chassis and the interior are no different from the gasoline engine car.

The electric motor and related drive train is cheaper to build than a gasoline engine. The major cost differential is due to the on-board battery to store the energy. A Lithium Ion battery pack of 16 kWh capacities, typical of entry level electric cars, can cost around $8,000.An innovative approach has been to lease the storage battery to the electric car owner instead of bundling it into the car price. This idea is reported to be under examination by Nissan for its Leaf electric cars, by Better Place the electric vehicle infrastructure company and by GE Capital. With a projected 10 year battery life, the lease rentals would be an affordable $1000 to $1200 per year. Knocking off the battery cost from the price tag would make the electric car cheaper than the gasoline engine car and could dramatically increase electric car acceptance. Battery leas-ing would also release pressure on using low cost batteries in electric vehicles and permit the use of higher cost, advanced technology batteries with increased capacity and longer life.

Drive range and battery recharge stationsThe electric car has a range of 100 to 150 miles on a fully charged bat-tery pack. Thereafter, the battery needs a 3 to 8 hour recharge period before the car can be used. The gasoline engine car has a range of 300 to 500 miles on a full tank and the fuel can be refilled in a few minutes at gas filling stations located on every major road. Battery recharge

points are still very few and the time needed for recharge is too long.Most car journeys are commuter trips of less than 20 miles and at the end of each such trip, the car remains parked for several hours either at home or at the work-place, where the battery can be plugged into a power outlet for recharging. For the longer highway drives, many US cities and cities in Europe, Japan and China have started a major program to install battery charge stations at all roadside gasoline stations. These are being designed as quick-charge stations that could top-up bat-tery capacity from around 35 percent charge to 85 percent charge in 10 minutes.Another innovative approach is to swap a fully charged battery for a spent electric car battery. Better Place, the Palo Alto company cited above, has built battery swap stations in several cities to promote electric vehicle usage by city fleet operators like taxis, postal services and municipal delivery vans.The extension of the battery swap idea to individual electric car owners will need the car makers to agree on locating the car battery at an accessible place under the vehicle body so that the battery swap process can be mechanized for quick turna-round. The idea of leased electric car batteries coupled with this swap process could be the answer to range related concerns.In conclusion, recent trends do suggest that electric autos could become the future mode of transportation not just in personal cars but also motor cycles, city buses and delivery vans.

…Bethany Winston (Blogger & Writer)


An Osteopath’s Idea The Freedman Chair

With the invention of the computer has come the need to sit in front of it. We spend more hours sitting on a chair at work (or at home, in some cases) staring at the screen of a computer,

struggling to keep pace with the assignments and deadlines. This has given rise to a number of health re-lated issues, which has been a delight for every type of physical therapist out there. An Osteopath has come up with a radical design for a chair, which should cer-tainly help a lot of troubled beings out there.

It’s called the Freedman Chair. Simon Freed-man is an Osteopath and inventor, who for the past 15 years has been on a quest to create a chair that allows people to sit correctly and comfortably, whilst having a positive impact on their wellbeing.

In essence his theory was very simple. He wanted to create a seat that allowed the spine to achieve the same posture in sitting as it has when standing. The process of achieving this desire proved anything but simple.

Having been an osteopath for over twenty years, Simon became increasingly convinced that many of the problems his clients were experiencing were created by the lack of a suitable chair.

In trying long and hard to find a chair he could recommend to his patients, he realised that no chair actually harnessed the strength of body’s inher-ent anatomical structure and that refining existing chair designs just wouldn’t provide the necessary so-lution.

What was required, in fact, was the reinven-tion of the chair.

Its seat “pan” is angled at 27 degrees, which encourages the spine to curve naturally, without need-ing a lumbar support. The nobbly backrest applies therapeutic pressure to tense back muscles. It will re-tail for £ 1,500.

A few existing chairs can be adjusted far enough to slope forwards but little thought has been given on how to stop the sitter from sliding forward, which stresses muscles in the back and thighs, and soon leads to fatigue.

The FreedMan Chair solves this problem through its meticulously engineered, contoured seat pads which effectively hold each ischial tuberosity, or sitting bone, as a gentle hand would do. The pads have a series of holes drilled into them to increase grip. www.freedmanchair.com

TECH DESIGN


Sony SmartWatch Is it a wrist watch? Is it a Smartphone? Is it a PMP? Well, it’s all 3! The guys at Sony have got really creative and come up with a SmartWatch that not only does the job of a wristwatch, but also lets you use it as a smartphone. Like the original Sony LiveView, the new SmartWatch connects to your Android phone via Bluetooth and displays a variety of noti-fications from social networks, emails and even access and control of applications on your phone. The Sony SmartWatch is an improvement over last year’s model with a full color display, accelerometer and a variety of color rubber wrist bands to choose from. For those who want a more traditional look, Sony also has a wrist band adapter that will allow users to connect a standard watch wrist-band.

Yamaha THR10 The Yamaha THR10 Desktop Guitar Combo Amplifier packs in eve-rything you need from an off-stage amp. Real tube amp tone and dynam-ics, great sound at low volume, genuine hi-fi quality stereo playback and full re-cording capabilities. Prepare to spend a lot more time playing guitar!

Delivering unsurpassed realism, qual-ity, and the ultimate tone, the THR10 guitar combo

amplifier produces the sound that you want and the feeling that you need. The THR10 incorporates several quality features, such

as Yamaha’s extended stereo technology, VCM effects processor, THR Editor and Cubase AI, Steinberg’s professional music application. By moulding these features into the

TRH10’s unique design, Yamaha has made it possible to capture subtleties that go beyond simple simulation to deliver a true musical performance.

TheAWESOME THREESOMEof the month

TECH THAT


The main difference between the Sony SmartWatch and the other Android watches we’ve seen at CES is that Sony’s watch is simply an accessory rather than a standalone device. The good news is that the Sony SmartWatch can now keep the time even if it is not paired with your Android phone. By design, the SmartWatch is limited in functionality, but that allows it to retain its charge for much longer than the i’m Watch and the Motorola ACTV. Sony’s SmartWatch is compatible with all phones run-ning Android 2.1 or higher. The Sony rep we spoke with men-tioned that the final hardware will be tweaked slightly before launch, but we should see the Sony SmartWatch show up on Sony’s website and retail stores before the end of Q1 for $149.

Optoma Pk301 Pico ProjectorThis terrifically bright Pico Projector has vir-tually no chance of ever releasing in India. But, we’d so love to have one – even if we’d have to ask our distant relative in North Carolina to steal one for us! Whereas other projectors might aim for about 15-20 Lu-mens of brightness, this one goes right till

50 Lumens. For a $400 product, that’s not bad at all.

Brightness

isn’t the projector’s only strong point. It’s also packed with features. Like many pico projectors, it’s built around a DLP chip joined with a red-green-blue LED light source. But unlike most it offers a native widescreen for-mat, at 854 by 640 pixels, one of the varia-tions on wide VGA.It also offers more connection options than most and can read files from internal memo-ry, MicroSD card, or USB key, so you can show presentations, photos, or video without hav-ing to carry a computer or video source with

you. All of these are good reasons, even without the high brightness, to

put the PK301 on your short list.


What If Light Could Transmit Data?Meet the Man behind this Technology

Harald Haas is the pioneerbehind a new type of light bulb that can communicate as well as illuminate access the Internet using light instead of radio waves.


Harald Haas didn’t even know about TED. Till he was asked to come up and deliver a pres-entation on his work

on VLC (Visible Light Communica-tion) systems. To the uninformed, TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) is a global set of conferences owned by the pri-vate non-profit Sapling Founda-tion. Naturally, these conferences are centred around Technology, Entertainment and Design – and a lot of critical thinkers of today have made an appearance at this prestigious event. This includes In-dia’s very own Pranav Mistry and his now famous ‘Sixth Sense’ in-

terface. Almost everyone working on some kind of a break-through research has heard of TED, so it comes as quite a surprise when a highly intelligent person like Harald Haas says he had never heard about it!

VLC research is not something new. Not in the least. It’s been an on-going process since the invention of the telephone, by Graham Bell. On his part, Haas is a professor of the University of Edinburgh and holds the Chair of Mobile Communications in the In-stitute of Digital Communications (IDCOM). He headed the VLC re-search that landed his team TIME magazine’s 50 best inventions of

the year 2011 nomination. The VLC technology is all about using LED light bulbs meant for illumi-nation to also send data simulta-neously. This is achieved by subtly encoding the data on the intensity of the light in a manner that does not produce flickering. When the data in question is internet traffic, we have LiFi - a term coined by Prof. H. Haas himself when pre-senting his work on VLC during the TED Global Conference in the summer. The future light bulb not only acts just like the traditional wireless internet access point, but it also doubles as the illumination source. With LiFi, the world’s over 14 billion light bulbs, implanted with an electronic chip, could all

potentially be turned into internet access points. The technology is safe from all sorts of electromag-netic radiation and very secure as light has a very well defined footprint and does not penetrate through walls.

Prof. Haas’s research on VLC was funded by the Scot-tish Enterprise as a proof-of- con-cept project. The project has been called ‘D-Light’, an acronym for Data-Light. The D-Light team re-cently achieved a data rate of 130 Mbps, more than twice as fast as a typical WiFi access point. D-Light has now transformed into a spin-out company, VLC Ltd, where Prof. Haas is currently the CTO.

HOWzzAT


DEEP DIVE INTO THE MOTOACTVOn a jog with Motorola’s MOTOACTV, our Deputy Editor Chaitanya Tapase, tries his luck to figure out what the device is all about. A PMP/health monitor? Or something more

1st minuteI strap on this beautiful gizmo from Motorola, won-dering what it really does. I’m a bit unsure as it looks like a wrist watch, straps on like on, but is apparently meant to give me a good workout. Good thing, es-pecially since I am not being able to stick to my New Year’s Resolution of keeping fit! There are basic indi-cators on the top right which will let you know what connectivity settings are active on the right, plus your basic time teller on the left. The main central area is reserved for whatever menu you are actively using.

Next 10 minutesOk, so I’ve strapped it on and started my jog. The first thing I want to explore is the music. Naturally. Noth-ing keeps you motivated on a tiring jog like music. So, it came as a bit of a surprise that the 3.5 mm audio jack is on the bottom part of the watch/health tracker. It’s quite hard to define what this product really is, btw. It does keep monitor your health (in a way) while also keeping track of your ‘pow-er songs’ to optimize your workout. It’s sweatproof, scratch resistant, and in-forms you of your pace and distance as you jog. Nice!

Another 10 minutes laterOk, so putting a wire anywhere on a wristwatch kind of a gizmo is weird. You can’t really jog with the wire dangling around your wrists. But on the plus side – there’ s great feedback on whatever activities I have performed, and the screen tells me that I have jogged for a kilometre already! The music quality isn’t the best I’ve experienced on a PMP, but it’s still not that bad. The data is automatically uploaded to Motoactv.com via Wi-Fi. Oh well, will have to wait till I reach home before I can get to that.

Home stretchHome sweet home! Con-necting to Wi-Fi was pretty easy, but since the screen is as small as the iPod Nano’s, it is a bit difficult to navigate. Especially if you have big fingers like me. But, once you’ve got over it, it’s pretty easy to transfer the captured data to the motoactv.com web-site. On close examination of the device – the ‘sweat-proof’ tag really lived up. I am well impressed with the build quality and the light weight feel of it. But with a price tag of $249 for the 8GB model and $299 for the 16GB, why would I not go for the cheaper iPod Nano? Well, because the iPod Nano doesn’t tell me how hard I’ve been working and doesn’t track the miles I run. Simple.

TECH N HEALTH


BATTLECAM: IF YOU HAVEN’T HEARD OF IT YET, YOU HAVE MISSED OUT!

With so many TV shows re vo l v i n g a r o u n d p e o p l e making a

fool out of themselves, it was only time till we had a website where people did pretty much the same thing. So, we have a billionaire of Greek-Cypriot origin, based in the UK – who has come up with a website (www.battlecam.com) that lets people be crazy. At times he also pays people to do something so crazy, that it might get them ar-rested! The founder is a serial en-trepreneur – Alki David. But, more on him later. So, what is the website all about? It’s about giving the people a chance to explore their wild side. Via videos. With almost every urban house connected to the internet via broadband and cam, it’s a great opportunity for folks to reach out to the world.

And show off their crazy sides. A whole lotta people from around the world are willing to do that, mind you. You can head over to the website and find out your-selves. The layout that greets you is nice and simplistic. It does seem a bit confusing, but you do get the idea that the content here is completely user driven. Users from all over the world (mostly UK) have posted various videos of themselves doing crazy, stupid, weird and funny shit. You’ll get a bit of a culture shock if you haven’t seen any such websites before, it feels like a porn site – but with-out as much nudity, and more of craziness. If you start feeling lost right from the word go, there is a helpful ‘Video Tour’ that basi-cally gives you an idea of what has been placed where on the website and what purpose it serves. After a medley of about a minute and half, the actual tutorial starts and takes you through the various aspects

of the website. It plays along for about 14 minutes and feels a bit stretched and shoddily made. The main tab of interest seems to be the ‘Channel’ tab at the top of the page. Once you click on it, you will see about 4 channels (2 in HD) which are continuously streaming data. Once more users get hooked in and signed on, the number of these channels increas-es. Each channel you click on will let you see what the broadcaster wishes to show. It could be any-thing from people taking a poop in their toilets, to stapling their testicles on the desk, to just being crazy and hitting their friends for a show. None of the content is mon-itored – so you can expect some really shocking and bizarre stuff here. Oh, did we mention that be-fore you start any channel the site allows you participate in the ‘bat-tle’ for eyeballs? Oh yes, you get a flash notification that asks for your permission to share your cam or

not. The default is already set to ‘No’ – so you can rest easy while making your way there. And even prior to that, you get the “Powered by FilmOn.com” message. But, it is interesting to see how many peo-ple are actively willing to take part in this battle from the privacy of their homes. They are willing to even show the world how peace-fully they sleep, by keeping their cams on throughout the night. Oh, did we mention that the billionaire founder – David Alkili was one such person? If you wish to express yourself without showing your-self on cam, you can do so on the wall right alongside the running videos. Each video has a wall next to it, with running commentary from people all over the world. Of course, this content is not moni-tored either – so you will get to read a lot of interesting cuss words as well appreciation of the female body in many creative ways.

Pros : Works well even on ‘Indian broadband’, user driven, excellent variety of funCons : Does feel a bit much, at times

BEST TIME TO SURFAny time when there is something weird, funny, sexy, crazy or downright unbelievable going on!

REVIEW - WEBSITE


De-constructing the man behind

BATTLECAM.COM Alki David

Alkiviades “Alki” David doesn’t mind being called ‘eccentric’ – in fact he loves that sobriquet. It’s one of the

names that he is doing his best to live up to. He has realized in the short span of time that Web 2.0 has been around, that being a ‘celebrity’ on the internet helps. It helps to raise popularity of the website that you are running, and it helps in generating more reve-nue by publicity. And at times, Alki has taken some extreme measures to ensure to promote his website – battlecam.com Of Greek and Cypriot origin, Alki is a digital media entre-preneur and a shipping magnate. The man listed as the 45th richest man in the United Kingdom by Time magazine, enjoys the good things in life. Art, Entertainment, Golf, Yachts, Supermodels, Holi-days on exotic private islands- you name it. On Friday July 29th of

last year - Alki David streamed the legally assisted suicide of Nikolai Ivanisovich (62), who was termi-nally sick with brain cancer from a clinic in Switzerland with the use of lethal injection administered by a physician. In June 2011, the BBC documentary chronicling the as-sisted suicide of 71-year-old Pe-ter Smedley which was aired in the UK. “The BattleCam broadcast which will stream the end of life in real-time, live and as as it hap-pens. This is a breakthrough in consciousness on what we watch and how we watch it” said Claude Haraser VP of BattleCam Opera-tions. The terminally ill man Mr. Nikolai Ivanisovich said in an interview with Russia Today that, “I am grateful to Mr. David and his team for making this possible. My family will be able to live in pros-perity after I pass. May God bless Mr. David for his kindness and generosity.” “We are creating a new form of interactive special inter-

est with Battlecam’s unique vot-ing system,” said Alki David. “The online audience will actually vote whether they want to see the sui-cide or not.” “Projecting the moral questions that will arise from this event, I would like to add that I find nothing wrong with this at all. Death is a fact of life and physi-cian assisted suicide in the United States is legal in the States of Or-egon, Montana and Washington. Many governments throughout the Western World including Switzerland, Belgium and Luxem-bourg recognize the importance the right to each individual’s right to end their life, free of terminal pain.” Mr. David had said from his home on the Greek island of Spet-ses. Living a comfortable existence in the showbiz capital of the world, Los Angeles, Alki has settled down promoting his latest venture with complete gusto. So much so, that he was ready to pay a million dollar bounty to anyone who was able to streak in front of

U.S. President – Barack Obama. There were some rules though- you had to write out the website name across your chest, shout it loudly enough for the President to hear it – and ensure he sees you. How many people went for this? Well- quite a few! But, since the rules were quite hard to stick to – it didn’t materialize as hoped. It is the President of the most powerful country in the world we are talking about, so getting too close to him can prove dangerous. But, after a few failed attempts, one Juan Rod-riguez finally did succeed to get through. Though the US President did not seem him (he was about 40-50 feet away), his security guys certainly did. The man was ap-prehended immediately, but Alki not only bailed him out – he also rewarded him with a $150,000 re-ward for his efforts. Ask him if it was worth it, then you will most likely get a reply stating “It was worth it. Maybe not now, but I can use the stunt for publicity – it can be milked forever! How many people can say that they asked

TECH PEOPLE


people to streak in front of the US President for publicity of their own product?” The man has a point. You wonder if the business acu-men has anything to do with the origins of this self confessed ‘se-rial entrepreneur’. David was born in Nigeria and educated in Swit-zerland – at Le Rosey. His father, Andrew A. David (1934-2000), was a managing director of Hel-lenic Bottling Company S.A, which merged in 2000 with Coca-Cola Beverages into Coca-Cola Hel-lenic. After serving in the British Army, he studied film at the Royal College of Art in London, England, and then moved to Los Angeles, California, where he lived for eight years and was part-owner of a film post-production company. In 1998 he returned to London and co-founded Independent Models, an agency whose models included Helena Christensen. He was married and di-vorced twice, having two sons with his first wife. He met second wife Emma McAllister in 2004, marry-ing her in 2009, and separating in 2009. As of 2011 he is married to Jennifer Stano, a swimsuit design-er and former model who founded Have Faith Swimwear with David in Beverly Hills, California, in 2010. Ask David about his gorgeous wife and he is quick to respond “People were not always kind to us, they called Jennifer a gold digger – and it was not easy to deal with.” But, the man who has spear-headed so many companies and is now work-ing his way up the Digital Media ranks sure knows how to deal with criticism. It is something that he must have learned over the years that he has spent in the various businesses that he has been in-volved in. But, running businesses are not his only passion. In fact, his primary love remains the en-

tertainment industry. He has produced and acted in a few episodes of short series that we may have never heard of. The most famous of the movies that can be quoted is The Bank Job – where he played a small role assisting Jason Statham as a bank-vault expert. He may not be the best businessman-ac-tor out there, but he sure does love the entertain-ment industry. Which is why he had also founded FilmOn – a video on demand website and mobile service which is an extension of his 111Px distribution venture. Of course, he did run into problems with major Networks like CBS, Fox and NBC – over infringement of distribution of copyrighted material. But, Alki was unfazed and fought out the legal battle in the court of law. The case with Fox was resolved and this meant that Alki was able to continue doing what he knows best – let-ting users choose what they want, when they want. Even if it pissed off some of the big boys in the industry. Alki himself had taken legal ac-tion against some of the biggies of the corporate world. In July, FilmOn dropped a lawsuit it had filed against CBS’s tech site CNET, after finding only six exam-ples of the content that it claimed CNET infringed by distributing Limewire file-sharing software. FilmOn founder Alki David says he is preparing a further action against CBS, with which it has been sparring over unlicensed con-tent since last year. There is no stopping this eccentric entrepreneur – as he con-tinues to put his money where his heart is (a quality that is appreci-ated by many of his friends and well-wishers). He has big plans for his website and is planning to use apps to promote FilmOn. The path may be dangerous, but is certainly not boring. And that’s exactly what David wants!


TECH WRISTBAND TO FUEL YOUR WORKOUT

Every year we see a bevy of gadgets that release, which keep us won-dering what they are all about. Not that we don’t love the thought

process gone behind it, but it does raises question on the actual us-ability of some of these gadgets. O well, we’ll reserve our judgments for this particular gadget and let you guys decide what you make of it. Ask anyone about the activities they perform each a day and they’ll rattle off a litany of actions. Running for the train. Walking up three flights. Shooting hoops after work, then navigating supermarket aisles grabbing stuff for dinner. Ask them how many calories they burned doing all of that, however, and they’ll have no clue. Nike’s got a new gadget that tracks all that exertion and motivates you to get more active by turning your workout, and eve-ryday activities, into a game with a reward called NikeFuel. FuelBand is a wristband that records data collected by an accelerometer. It tracks calories expended, steps taken and the time of day as well as your Nike-Fuel score and presents it on an LED display. Your score is based on an algorithm that assigns points

to various movements. The more active you are, the more NikeFuel you earn. You can earn it doing just about anything, track your progress with your iPhone or iPad and eventually share it with others via social media platforms.

“[FuelBand] is a com-mon measurement across a wide spectrum of activity,” says Trevor Edwards, a Nike VP.

FuelBand is the latest addition to the Nike+ line of data-trackers launched in 2006, and it joins gadgets like the Jawbone Up and Fitbit in the growing number of wearable fitness trackers avail-able to everyday athletes. It is re-markably compact and elegant, a simple flexible circuit board with two integrated curved batteries in a polymer casing. Its lone button toggles through the four metrics displayed with 100 white LEDs. Twenty other LEDs, which transi-tion from red to yellow to green, indicate the progress you’ve made toward your daily NikeFuel goal. The band resets at midnight each day. The band is water re-sistant, so you’re all set if you want to see how many calories you burn in the shower, but Nike recom-mends taking it off before getting in the pool, sauna or hot tub. Blue-

tooth lets you sync it to your Ap-ple iDevice through a free Nike+ FuelBand app. A built-in USB con-nects you to computers running Mac OS version 10.4 or later and Windows 7, Vista or XP. Squeezing all that tech into something not much larger than a rubber band was not easy. “We had to make the circuit board flexible in order to get all the components on it to move inside the shape of the band,” says Stefan Olander, Nike’s VP of digital sport. Although the device it-self appears to work by monitor-ing the movement of your arm, Olander says NikeFuel is based on oxygen kinetics. “The intensity of the ac-tivity can be measured by quanti-fying the change in oxygen uptake between rest and being active,” he says. Activities are meas-ured the same way for everyone, regardless of how many calories are burned, says Glen Gaesser, an exercise and wellness profes-sor at Arizona State University who worked with Nike to develop FuelBand. He says 30 college-aged men and women performed various everyday movements in his lab. Each activity took eight minutes, followed by a brief rest, during a 90-minute workout. Par-

ticipants wore a FuelBand along with a portable metabolic meas-urement system that tracked their oxygen uptake breath-by-breath. Nike engineers used the data to develop the proprietary algo-rithms that track accelerometer data accompanying each uptake of oxygen. That forged a relation-ship between physical movements and oxygen data in which each activity has a recognized acceler-ometry pattern. Unlike calories, which vary depending upon gender and weight, NikeFuel holds a common score for each type of activity. Al-gorithms for some movements aren’t always 100 percent accu-rate, but Gaesser says it shouldn’t affect the FuelBand’s overall effec-tiveness. “If you look at this from the standpoint of a 24-hour day, some of the underestimation will be balanced by some of the over-estimation,” Gaesser says. Everything about Fuel-Band was designed to be dead simple to use. LEDs are faster and easier to read than numbers, Olander says, and a single but-ton — which also lets you sync with your iGadget — requires no thought. Just push it and go.

So, what do you think? Want to go out and get one?

TECH N HEALTH


WILL DESkTOPS BECOME OBSOLETE IN 2012?

How the world has changed! The formi-dable desktop, which was able to do a mil-lion things for you,

might just become obsolete this year. It’s not a prediction based on numbers, or gut – but you can pretty much see the writing on the wall. Ever since the days of the original Apple computers, people have had a fascination with ma-chines that can not only help them achieve their regular tasks in a more efficient manner, but also so much more. Then came the inter-net – and people were connected with each other with just a click of a button. Son studying overseas? Husband on regular on-site pro-jects? Well, you could still keep in touch via the trusty old desktop PC using an internet connection and a web-cam.

But, true to Moore’s Law – technological platforms kept shrinking. The laptop was born around the same the internet boom took off – and the desktop was no longer king. Mind you, since it was still early days – a lot of manufacturers had no other op-tion to offset production costs, but by increasing the cost of the lap-tops themselves. Such expensive communication and multi-media devices were not affordable for all – so the desktop prevailed. But, it wasn’t just the cost factor that was in the good ol’ PC’s favour. It was also a lot more powerful, had more space for your data and could do operations at faster speeds than laptops of that era. The portabil-ity factor that laptops had intro-duced did, however, create a dent in the sales of PC’s all over the world. People realized that they

no longer needed to be hooked to one place while they were working on something, on their desktops. All they needed to do – was switch over to a laptop, and carry it any-where they pleased (once it was adequately charged). Yes, it may not have been as fast and didn’t have as much space, but if you were okay with this compromise – then the laptops were really amaz-ing at everything else. Especially for people who only needed the internet to do most of their activi-ties, with precious little utilization of memory and processor. Soon, major technol-ogy manufacturers caught wind of this trend. The actual produc-tion of desktop computers began dwindling, and laptop numbers kept going up. Not just produc-tion numbers, but sales of lap-tops also began to catch up with

desktops. By 2009, even in a coun-try like India where we were still struggling for proper broadband infrastructure, notebooks eventu-ally started out-selling desktops. Dell was possibly the front-runner in manufacturing more notebooks than laptops, but this was well be-fore 2009. In-fact, it was when the century ticked over to 2000 – the year which was supposed to be a great one for the Indian I.T. sec-tor. The global changes had been blowing for a while, but every PC maker was cautious with their strategies. Rightly so, as it would have possibly meant a backlash from the consumers, all over the world. But, Dell’s move paid off – as people gradually were sold on the idea of using laptops over desktops. The only people who still stood firm behind their desk-tops – were the total geeks, for

HOWzzAT


whom performance meant every-thing. Till 2004, there was no real movement in the laptops getting major graphic cards from 3rd par-ty manufacturers like Nvidia or ATI. But, all that changed as Intel and AMD both found ways to make their processors smaller – but be just as fast. This breakthrough also meant that graphic cards could be incorporated in laptops – which made them perform just as fast as the desktops. And, that really started a downward trend for the desktops, from which it has never recovered. Even though desktops were fighting a losing battle, the cost factor still remained. The laptops were essentially getting smaller and powerful, but perhaps could not hold as much data as the desktops. If the laptops could hold about 256GB – the desktops had hard-drives made for them which could hold about 1 TB of data! So, those users who were looking to store more data (mostly multime-dia) on their systems – still pre-ferred desktops over laptops. The corporate world is another place where desktops will outnumber laptops. In big office spaces where everything runs on a pre-defined LAN, it makes more sense to have affordable desktops than laptops.

In such a scenario, the cost is not only saved on actual purchase of inventory, but also on upgrading/servicing existing desktops. It is a known fact that desktops are a whole lot easier to customise/up-grade than a laptop- which also makes them favourable with most nerds who love to fiddle around with their gadgets. The solution for this is still not here, because custom-izing/upgrading laptops is still difficult. But, the other thing that has caught the fancy of many us-ers the world over – has been the emergence of external hard drives. So, even if a laptop has about 500GB of HDD space, you can very well get an external hard-drive of 1TB and start using that for your back-ups and non-essential me-dia. It was a great solution for us-ers who really wanted portability as well as large amounts of disk space. In the past 2 years, many companies have done very good business in only selling their ex-ternal hard drives to users. What this has also meant, is that we now have notebooks with similar specs to the desktops – but in a much smaller form factor. The only trade-off would be the absence of notebooks with a screen big-ger than 17”, who would want to

carry such big portable devices anyway?! It would beat the whole point of carrying a laptop around. Even the smallest of laptops have now been juiced with plenty of fire-power, excellent HD display, plenty of room for media and even great build quality. A great exam-ple for this is the Dell Alienware M11x. Of course, the MacBook Air is right there with it, but the lack of dedicated graphics card goes against it. There is, however, a great difference between the aforesaid examples. You see, even in laptops there have now been an emer-gence of various categories. Most of it is based on function, build and features. So, we now have net-books, notebooks and ultrabooks. We have seen and read a lot about the first two categories – net-books are essentially small-sized notebooks with medium-powered processor, without an optical drive (so as to optimize overall size and form-factor). A notebook has an optical drive and the best of pro-cessors and memory. And an Ul-trabook? Well, it’s just like a high-end notebook, but slim. Real slim. MacBook Air slim! At CES this year, we had the privilege of witnessing a real boom of Ultrabooks. Every major

computing manufacturer, from Samsung to Acer to Asus- came up with their own Ultrabooks to wow the audience gathered at the Las Vegas event. Oh, did we not mention tablets as well? They might not be alternatives to note-books, or desktops – but the way users are spending time on the internet, it might well be the way forward. Apps based on the inter-net, storage in the Cloud – seems to be the new action area. People are no longer worried about ‘Low Disk Space’ or installing a tonne of softwares on their machines to do all kinds of fun and important stuff. They can simply choose to download, install and use ‘Apps’ which are available on all major OS platforms of Tablets – and use them at will. The space consumed is minimal, and users can access them all the time – over 3G net-works and Wi-Fi. With 4G lined up for introduction the world over, it might see a real paradigm shift from desktops to Ultrabooks and Tablets. It seems that the desktop has out-lived its utility. It is com-mendable that it did exist for so long. But, now – it has become an obsolete ‘dinosaur’ in the world of sleek n sexy gizmos.


StereographicStreetview

No man is an island, but what if your home was a planet? Not an independent planet within a solar system, but rather your street, your house, backyard

and front yard were all part of its own self-contained globe. What would that look like? Here’s Stereographic Streetview for the answer… Streetview Stereographic is a web-based application that takes Google Maps images and converts them into ex-treme fisheye panoramas. Using Street View Stereographic you can view any Street View image in a stereographic projection. The app comes with a handy search bar so it is easy to find your favourite locations and view them sterographically. Stereographic Street View trans-forms any location into its own three di-mensional panoramic floating island. Sin-ewy skyscrapers distend into the distance, jutting from the globule street nodes. Oversized trees and buildings appear to be defying gravity hanging onto a world much smaller than normal perspective. Different types of environments and landscapes offer a variety of results generating unique islands for each loca-tion. It’s like a tailor-made planet for every type of habitation. Users can also invert the globe, making the outer frame of the planet its center and vice versa. The globe can also be moved around to change the perspective from which it’s viewed. It’s like walking around on a small planet that twists and distorts as you walk around on it, your world transforming with every move of the mouse.

WD Adds New Remote App And Services For WD TV Customers

Western Digital has added a new WD® TV Remote app improving the navigation experience for the WD TV Live and WD TV Live Hub

users by turning their iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or Android compatible mobile devices into an advanced feature remote control for their WD TV. The WD TV Remote advanced features allow users to more easily navigate the wide variety of digital media WD TV users enjoy on their tel-

evision, from leading entertainment services to personal video, photos or music. The new WD TV Remote app im-proves the navigation experience for WD TV Live and WD TV Live Hub users, providing all the features of the standard WD TV remote control along with several advanced features, including a gesture pad to help navigate menu screens and services with intuitive touch ges-tures, as well as QWERTY keyboard support for

text entry and search functionality. A ‘favour-ites’ screen provides quick access to entertain-ment services on the WD TV. WD TV Remote connects over the home wireless network and can work with multiple WD TV media players in the home. Additionally, WD TV Remote is available in multiple languages, including Eng-lish, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Japanese, Korean, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Russian, and Portuguese.

WHAT’S NEW!

HOWzzAT


Living Materials? Sci-Fi or reality?

What are they? Well, for instance, they could be en-gineered to capture carbon dioxide and used in “smart paints” that could turn carbon emissions into solid carbonate form, like limestone, so the outside of your home becomes “carbon nega-tive architecture”. That’s not just made up, it’s an actual use case that Dr. Armstrong is exploring as a

potential application for these manmade, self-organizing cells. Another is to stop Venice from sinking using self-repairing reefs that could “re-grow” a building’s foundations. This is far from your run-of-the-mill blueprints and particle board! The concept can extend to more than just architecture, however. Another potential use is as a replacement for the standard shoe

sole, rendering your lame rubber, leather, wood, whatever sole obsolete. No more wearing away of the heel and sending your favorite pair of boots to the cobbler’s all the time, that’ll be but a quaint relic of a much simpler, uncivi-lized time. This protosole (currently in its “earli-est stages of product development”) will

consist of a fluid, bubble-like res-

ervoir nested in the heel of the

shoe and contain-

i n g

all the ingredients to create, on demand, new protocells. These new cells will then be pumped to the areas that need repairing, patching up holes with solid substances that are activated by carbon dioxide in the air. As long as you keep the heel topped up with the necessary chemi-cals, potentially available from supermarkets, (which “come in a number of varieties that offer a choice of sole substances that can be mixed and matched to consumer tastes: non-slip, extra-durable, heat-producing, gas-releasing for added comfort, scented, brightly colored, or even glow-in-the-dark for those who wish to leave a trail of luminescent footprints behind them”), your sole will continue to self-repair. So…what could be the other proto-cell products lined up? The protocell ‘vascular systems’ could be materials in themselves. Protocell clothing vasculature could also be hyper visible and woven on to the surface of conventional cloths or disappear deep into the weave and padding of jackets. Protocell solutions in cloth-ing could carry much of the functionality of the protosole technology, such as the capacity to generate heat in cool conditions, fluoresce, or change color, perhaps through a display of spectacular self-organizing patterns. All said and done, because the pro-tocell technology is simply a hardware, the spectrum of its potential applications are really only limited by our imagination…atleast as of now!

This seems like a reading something pulled right from the pages of sci-ence fiction. Credit goes to scientist Rachel Armstrong who has created “living materials” – materials that can

grow, repair themselves and even respond to changes in their immediate environment. While the materials aren’t actually alive, they mimic the properties of living organisms.

Armstrong has been researching this concept with a number of collaborators. She helped develop the systems used in Phil-ip Beesley’s semi-living installation Hylozoic Ground, which is made from cybernetic ma-chines with primitive sensors and effectors. But the main part of her research into these living materials explores an emerging technology called protocells, which are synthetic versions of cells engineered by scientists to display cer-tain chosen behaviors.

AMAzING TECH


Heard about sculptures that spring to life? Watched the movie where the museum in-habitants come to life

every night? Now sample this…we are talking about a new type of ro-bot which makes it own body parts using spray-on foam! Kudos to Shai Revzen and colleagues at the University of Penn-sylvania Foambot who created this robot! Such a design could one day

be useful in situations in which the exact type of robot needed is not known before-

hand, such as space exploration or reconnaissance. The robot consists of a wheeled

“mothership” platform along with several simple joint mod-ules capable of powered bending and flexing. The platform

has an on-board supply of chemical reagents and a spray nozzle; when mixed, the reagents expand into hard urethane foam. First the

remote-controlled platform arranges the modules on the floor and then it sprays the foam to connect them into the required form.

Software then analyses the orientation of the powered joints and devises a coordination scheme to animate the resulting bot.

Revzen says the system would be useful for situations in which robots need to navigate unforeseen obstacles. A snake-like body might be better for crawling

around rocks, for example, while a quadruped might be better at traversing open ground. Since Foambots can return to the mothership to be modified, they could be

used to deal with an array of tasks.

Time to rephrase the saying…”your shadow nev-er leaves you”. It seems your shadow is gon-na act different way and it’s gonna be alive! Sounds creepy, isn’t it? The idea of a person’s shadow existing sepa-

rately from its owner is something that has always tan-talized the minds of writers and artists. Like Hans Chris-tian Andersen and his tale about a man who loses his shadow, only to find that it ran away because it wants to become his master, marry a princess and have him executed! Not at all cool, man!!! Anyway, the idea of a “living shadow” contin-ues to inspire people’s imaginations, and in this artistic lineage Austrian artist Andreas Haider gives us the hy-peractive installation Skia. Skia - in this interactive installation, a person’s shadow comes uncannily to life so “visitors’ images are manipulated and projected as artificial shadows”. An infrared camera detects the person, then some ancient witchcraft, combined with openFrameworks software, processes and manipulates the image and projects it as the person’s shadow, mimicking their every motion. But when the person stops, the abomination comes eerily to life… which is fine, as long as it stays put there in the installation and doesn’t run off to plot your demise.

Funny? Creepy? Or just plain science?

When your shadow become alive!

Robot uses spray-on foam to build its body!


THOU SHALL NOT BE FREE!

EVEN ON THE INTERNET.

There is growing resent-ment amongst Indians. They’re not liking the constant interference by the Indian Government

on their freedom on the internet. This comes at roughly the same time when SOPA (Stop Online Pi-racy Act) is being pushed by the U.S. Government. Kapil Sibal has “ordered” various online organi-zations (including biggies like Google and Facebook) to monitor the content that is hosted on their portals. A seemingly impossible task, especially considering the number of users that use these two sites on a daily basis. Either way, let’s look at things in a broader perspective. There has always been material on the internet which can be labelled ‘objectionable’ by one body or another. But, lately, with the wide-spread use of the internet to start uprisings against tyrannical pow-ers has got these people worried. Very worried. They want to have as much control on the internet, as they can muster. It seems that the Freedom of Speech is being taken away. We’re not saying in any way that people can go about and post whatever they feel like, even if it’s untrue or completely biased. But, we certainly would appreciate people voicing their opinions and comments on the internet, with complete freedom. Reports say India is pressing major Internet firms to filter out what the government considers unacceptable material, including religiously sensitive im-ages and altered images of politi-cians. 21 social networking sites, including the ones mentioned above have been “issued sum-

mons” by the court, on grounds of carrying objectionable content. They have now been charged with section 292 (sale of obscene books etc), 293 (sale of obscene objects to young person etc) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC. In the fresh case, the court said, “it appears from a bare perusal of the documents that prima facie the accused in con-nivance with each other and oth-er unknown persons are selling, publicly exhibiting and have put into circulation obscene, lascivi-ous content which also appears to the prurient interests and tends to deprave and corrupt the persons who are likely to read, see or hear the same.” “It is also evident that such contents are continuously openly and freely available to eve-ryone who is using the said net-work irrespective of their age and even the persons under the age of 18 years have full and uncensored access to such obscene contents,” the court said. Some Indian cities like Mumbai have already set up spe-cial units to monitor Internet sites like Facebook and Orkut, the so-cial networking site operated by Google, for content considered disparaging or obscene. India has made nearly 70 requests to Goog-le to remove content between FEBRUARY and June of this year, one of the highest request rates of any country though less than the United States’s 92 and Brazil’s 224. All of this might sound like unwanted censorship at a time when the Middle Eastern states have seen revolts by young peo-ple gathering by using the inter-

net as a tool to spread the word for revolution. Entire ruling class of these states are now living in fear of what can be achieved when the internet is used in the correct manner. Which does appear to the primary reason to enforce this kind of policing on the internet, by saying that only ‘objectionable’ material has been requested to be pulled off. What makes anything ‘objectionable’ anyway and who’s going to be the judge of this? M F Hussain painted many master-pieces which quickly got labelled as objectionable, simply because he was trying to highlight the female body in the nude. There seems to be a self appointed mor-al police which can certainly drive our government into taking action that is not required. But, this time – the government has decided to take things into its own hands and start censoring down sites. Of course, it makes sense of big companies to protect their investments and blocking P2P websites – but what the In-dian Government is trying to do, is so much beyond that. They want control. They want to feel that they are the one who are in power – rather than the people. It’s quite interesting to see how the inter-net has really levelled the playing field for the people against the government. If the government can suppress a million voices one at a time, the internet became the playground for these thousand voices to express their opinions together. Unity has always been a force for the people, and the cor-rupt governments of the world have always been wary of this. Since they don’t have direct con-trol of the material being put up

by people, the next best thing that they can do is – ask for control. It’s not that hard – all they need is an agenda and a possible target. Us-ing the target to propagate their agenda, they try and at least mon-itor what they can. If they feel any content will lead to eventual upris-ings of any kind, they can snap it at its bud. A clever plan indeed!Let’s suppose that is not the real reason of the censorship and the government is genuinely con-cerned about the well being of the sensitivities of the people. You’d then have to ask – why now? Why object to the material that is already been there for so many years? Porn industry seems to be the most morally offensive, but we don’t see the government taking stern action to curb that on the internet. Strange, don’t you think? Anything ‘Anti-Indian’ is quickly picked up and labelled as offensive, and even the website hosting this content falls prey. No matter who uploaded the content in question and from where. It (ap-parently) is the website’s respon-sibility to keep tabs on ALL their data. Till the time the tug-of-war continues, users will have to put up with the ‘interruptions’ of their normal services. The internet is a massive space to monitor for anyone, even with a 1,000 peo-ple employed ONLY for policing, it is impractical to think that eve-rything can be effectively moni-tored. We’ll see how this one plays out.

ENDGAME.

TECH THAT


allowed to pass, we’ll be spending another $47 million dollars every year to help corporations fill out and enforce Internet blacklists.

Sites that would be legal under the DMCA and its safe harbor provi-sions would now risk losing every-thing for allowing user generated content. It also has added in the streaming felony bill that would make it so ordinary Internet us-ers are at risk of going to jail for 5 years for post any copyrighted work that would cost $2,500 to license. And because copyright is so broad, that means videos with copyrighted music in the back-ground, kids in a school play, peo-ple singing karaoke could all be a risk.

Because the law affects almost every Internet user and the sites they use every day and have come to love, and because granting sweeping blacklisting powers is just sickening to almost everyone, all of us should make an effort to STOP THIS ACT NOW!

Results for #StopSOPA»Ethlenn Ethlenn Oh wow, I guess internet as we know it and enjoy it is slowly dy-ing. #stopSOPA, #stopACTA,

Furchuck Furchuck Everyone should bring back their #StopSOPA twitter pics so I don’t look as lazy.

zahraabdulla Zara abdulla #stopsopa we are won-dering, why !!! pic.twitter.com/1ACCF9qu

angkikun Angki Kurniawan I’am without megaupload =

STOP SOPA NOW!

Of all the acts/laws/rules that are be-ing implemented, there is none more which is be-ing debated more

than the SOPA/PIPA act. There are tonnes of tweets and posts about it on social networking sites, as well as new topics posted by all major publications of the world. Google knows it. Viacom knows it. The Chamber of Commerce knows it. Internet democracy groups know it. Everyone knows it. But, the Internet hasn’t been told yet -- we’re going to get blown away by the end of the year. The worst bill in Internet history is about to become law. Law is very real here in the United States and legal language is often different than stated intentions -- this law would give government and corporations the power to block sites like Bo-ingBoing over infringing links on at least one webpage posted by their users. Believe the EFF, Public Knowledge, Google when they say this bill is about much more than copyright, it’s about the Internet and free speech everywhere.

The MPAA, RIAA, Hollywood knows that they have been flying in CEOs of as many companies as possible, recruiting people to get petition signups at malls in Cali-fornia, and here’s the big point-- they know they have gotten their message through to Congress -- the worst bill in Internet history, the one where government and their corporations get unbeliev-able power to take down sites, threaten payment processors into stopping payment to sites on a blacklist, and throw people in jail for posting ordinary content is about to pass before the end of this year. The only thing that is go-ing to stop Hollywood from own-ing the Internet and everything we do, is if there is a big surprise In-ternet backlash starting right now.

PROTECT IP (S. 968)/SOPA (HR. 3261) creates the first system for Internet censorship - this bill has sweeping provisions that give the government and corporations leeway and legal cover for taking down sites “by accident,” mistak-enly, or for NOT doing “enough” to protect the interests of Hollywood. These bills that are moving very quickly through Congress and can pass before Christmas aim to give

the US government and corpora-tions the ability to block sites over infringing links posted by their users and give ISPs the release to take any means to block peoples’ sites, including slowing down your connection. That’s right, some say this bill is a workaround to net neutrality and is bigger than net neutrality.

This is the worst piece of Internet legislation in history - the lawmak-ers who have been sponsoring (Leahy, Lamar Smith, Conyers) this bill need to be shamed by the In-ternet community for wasting tax-payer dollars on a bill that would break the very fabric of the Inter-net, create an Internet blacklist, kill jobs and great startup companies, huge blogs, and social networks.

Tech companies, blogs, news sites are already in a death-do-die bat-tle cry -- listen to them -- it’s a few days before the hearing on this bill. But, we need more tech com-panies, blogs, new sites before the hearing on this bill. Help get them.

We’ve been trying to think about whether or not the world is go-ing to end if this bill passes like it’s supposed to -- and the answer is, “kind of yes”. When small sites, and it’s the small sites that get turned off in the night and no one for the most part notices, say my friend’s political blog or news site gets blocked by the US govern-ment and she has no way to get it back up even though everything she did was legal according to cur-rent law, and no one can help her except she can choose to file suit to defend herself, I feel like I die inside a little. Living in a country where you are being shut out and left powerless to really defend yourself is like living in another country, the ones you hear about. Life starts to feel shot when that happens, especially to our friends or our favorites sites.

Every site which has user-gener-ated content, posts links or videos to anything copyrighted in it could face new legal threats.

If a copyrights holder disliked links you have on your site, they could simply file a complaint with a pay-ment processor (Visa, PayPal), who would then have 5 days to re-spond to their request or risk legal ramifications. If bills like this are

nothing #StopSopa

briandevans Brian D. Evans RT @aplusk: Please don’t ignore what’s happening here. IM-PORTANT MOMENT IN HISTORY! #StopSOPA en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

InformUSCitizen Inform US Citi-zens “@ChrisWarcraft: My wife just made a great point. Under SOPA, you can’t be Rickrolled. That’s not the world I want to live in! #StopSOPA”

ProudG33K Evan Pinales So we #STOPSOPA but now we get #ACTA for the world. Thanks politicians of the world.

jorgefabrega Jorge Fabrega Check the first global strike in a graph nodoschile.org/visual/stopsop… #stopSOPA cc @fightfortheftr @Youranonnews @milenio @ugglytruth

IrunMunk Allen Rosero UFC Chairman on Anonymous: “Internet terrorists” may have revived SOPA tnw.to/1CxmT by @jonrussell #stopSopa Anony-mous gotta chill

anonopshispano Anonymous Hispano portalmaestro.net HACKED! by @KalimndorTeam #ACTA #StopSOPA

_cypherpunks_ Michael Sometimes US is like a sorcerer’s apprentice: Arab Spring was good - but it didn’t stop over there. #OWS started, #Stop-SOPA began....Fear?

maggiehendricks Maggie Hen-dricks My worry ab Dana White chal-lenging hackers to hit UFC.com is hackers will go after sites who cover MMA. Please don’t! #StopSOPA

CabinCr3w CabinCr3w We got #StopSOPA to trend

TECH NEWS


now it’s time to trend #Twitter-Censored to protest. Use tinyurl.com/6tc8plf to tweet with the hash easy.

YourAnonNews Anonymous We got #StopSOPA to trend now it’s time to trend #Twitter-Censored to protest. Use tinyurl.com/6tc8plf to tweet with the hash easy.

HuzaifaSial Huzaifa Sial LOL BRAVO! Internet... :P The best explanation of SOPA yet! verydemotivational.files.word-press.com/2012/01/demoti… #stopsopa #fb

devseo Alex Hall bit.ly/yTHjFV - No We Aren’t Shutting Down, Just Supporting #STOPSOPA

iopsychguy Jason Flaugh Art Against #SOPA #StopSOPA mylikes.com/l/1t8fp - spon

SarahOWS Sarah Clark Twitter refines technology to have ability to censor tweets in individual countries bit.ly/zpMC1t @themundusnovus #stopsopa #retwitt

nate_ Nathan Runyan Not sure this made it in time for the deadline, but looks cool anyways. #StopSOPA fav.me/d4nqhuv

AnonNewsDE Anonymous Ger-many Der neue Song von Rihanna - “ADMIN Y U RE SLEEPING SO LONG?” - bit.ly/b1ZPFB #Stop-SOPA #Anonymous

winchestwhore Naboo the Enigma So, Ireland’s SOPA may be passed by Friday and it’s not going to the Oireachtas so it can’t be voted on. Isn’t that just great. #STOPSOPA

artbrodsky Art Brodsky Great radio discussion on #stopsopa, Web media, on KFAI in Minneapolis. @PKfalcon part of show. bit.ly/xiXOWv

CalEvans Cal Evans To protest the MPAA’s draconi-an support of SOPA, I am boy-cotting the Academy Awards this year. #stopSOPA

hunterwalk Hunter Walk Ok, right about now a #Stop-SOPA badge on your avatar is equivalent to a blinking 12:00 on your VCR

BuddyRoemer Gov. Buddy Ro-emer Here’s a clip where I discuss why I’m against #SOPA w/ Bill Maher itsh.bo/xJkaXp #stop-sopa

Hum0rdeNoche hum0rdeno-che ¡No a la censura! #StopSOPA twitpic.com/8b0bwh

SabrinaDent Sabrina Dent The petition at stopSOPAire-land.com has gathered 895 signatures in 90 minutes! 1,000 by midnight? #stopSOPA #sopaIRELAND

teck Jonathan L Stop Ireland’s Gov messing with the internet! stopSOPAire-land.com has 253 signatures in 52 minutes! :D #stopSOPA #sopaIRELAND

DjDLO DJ D-LO If SOPA happens to go into ef-fect, you’ll get more jail time for uploading a Michael Jack-son track than the doctor who killed him! #STOPSOPA

SabrinaDent Sabrina Dent Come add your voice (and feedback!) to stopSOPAire-land.com bit.ly/SOPAire #stop-SOPA #sopaIRELAND

MeIhorDoMundo Melhor Do Mundo #StopSopa =D Quem tbm concorda, compartilha! fb.me/19pcVRLdk

aravindajith Aravind Ajith The awkward moment when you break the law you pro-posed #StopSOPA twitpic.com/88ueqz via @TwitPic

marikatogo Marika Shaub VICTORY! Both #SOPA and #PIPA postponed indefinitely: j.mp/ArHypE #stopsopa #stop-pipa

Bairesman Bairesman “Imagine all the people, Shar-ing all the world You may say

that I’m a dreamer, But I’m not the only one” #JohnLennon #StopSOPA

skipbang Mom Always Finds Out Don’t be censored - Take a stand and #stopSOPA, it af-fects us all. twrt.me/g8q0su via @HaveSippy

HeavenLeeOps Dee Faced #FACT Obama appointed 5 RIAA lawyers to the Justice De-partment wired.com/threatlev-el/20… #StopSOPA #StopPIPA #StopACTA

Axi_oh_Axi Kseniya Vasilieva Indeed, I like @EleventyKeeyy’s userpic. #STOPSopa

AnonNewsOPS Anonymous Incoming reports | cbs.com is down / hacked (Via Twitter) #OpMegaupload #Megaup-load #StopSOPA #StopPIPA

DNA_GTFOH D.N.A Goodnight twitter let’s contin-ue to #stopsopa n #stoppipa n on that note

DarrellIssa Darrell Issa Hope you’re having a good weekend. Internet: we did #stopsopa & #pipa but more work to be done to get #ip pro-tection to jive w/ the ‘net

DNA_GTFOH D.N.A Watch This - My #stopsopa n

#stoppipa video - youtu.be/I6PdU8xSi7I spread da word n be educated !!!!!!!!!!! RT RT RT RT

iPiratesGroup iPirates Group TANGO DOWN! visa.com.br BY: @AntiSecBrTeam and @iPiratesGroup FIRE IN THE ROLE! #StopSOPA

anonopsbrazil AnonOpsBR TANGO DOWN! visa.com.br #StopSOPA #Anonymous

insanityanon insanity @anonymouSabu @YourAnon-News #RT @AntiSecBrTeam @iPiratesGroup TANGO DOWN! visa.com.br #StopSOPA

AntiSecBrTeam AntiSecBrTeam TANGO DOWN! visa.com.br #StopSOPA

CalEvans Cal Evans If you support SOPA/PIPA, you are supporting this: bit.ly/ya94fq Stop pretending this is not a “bought and paid for” law. #stopSOPA

st0rmz Andrew Storms MPAA Directly & Publicly Threat-ens Politicians Who Aren’t Cor-rupt Enough To Stay Bought techdirt.com/articles/20120… #StopSOPA CarlosLatuff Carlos Latuff Cartoon: WARNING! SOPA is NOT dead yet! – #StopSOPA shar.es/fn3hu

TECH NEWS


Some Apps really fail to deliver when they had promised so much, but there are others which impress you by their sheer awesomeness. Here is a quick look at some of the

most interesting Apps to watch out for in the year ahead.

For

Bla

ckB

erry

The BlackBerry Boys can finally rejoice, as there is now a potent Photo Edi-tor that lets you make any kind of changes that you wish to make. This App is ideal for all BB users who wish to make a few ‘touches’ to the images they take via the BB cam’s on-board, or import images from other sources. It has a whole lot of options which are found on mostly desktop ver-sions of image editors. BB users will espe-cially be excited with the fact that beyond the usual clip, rotate, resize etc, you also have over 20 filters and 35 effects that can be applied to the whole image, or just a selection. You can draw directly on the im-

age itself; add text (using fonts from their online font database) or another image. You can combine two images horizontally, vertically, diagonally, intertwine them, or even create a photo booth effect. Integration with the BlackBerry file viewer makes opening images easy. When done with your masterpiece, you can save a copy, set it as your wallpaper, email it, or upload it to your choice of TwitPic, Im-gur, Tumblr, Glowfoto, ImageShack, or even your own server with POST (the app will copy the URL to the clipboard).Price: U.S. $ 1.99

BLAq FOR PLAyBOOk Twitter seems to be the place to hang-out these days, especially if you want to stay updated with the latest on-goings of the world. Right from the killing of Osama Bin Laden at a compound in a remote part of Pakistan, to the scandals emerging from our very own IPL (via Lalit Modi) – a lot has been happening on Twitter. So why not have a killer app that lets you do anything you wish, over a seamless UI which is optimized for the Playbook’s full touch capabilities. Your timeline, mentions and DMs sit on the left side of the screen, with your text entry, avatar, last tweet, and ‘add photo’ button sitting on the right panel. On the very right side of the screen are buttons to change your view to @mentions, DMs, lists, and search (in-cluding trends). The interface is beautiful, with a black, green and blue palate. Tweets are fluid to scroll through, and update in real time.Price: U.S. $1.99

MyMusicCloud lets users sync their iTunes and other media players across smartphones, tablets and desktop com-puters. The app works across BlackBerry, iPhone, and Android and lets you sync over the air and automatically, without the need for a USB cable or ‘sync’ button. The latest update to the app is that the service is now fully integrated with Dropbox. One of the better features of MyMusicCloud is that it offers both online streaming and offline playback. The idea is that MyMusicCloud provides one seam-less, cross-platform solution so users can

listen to their music anywhere. MyMusic-Cloud also allows users to buy music from the store, view songs’ lyrics, crop ringtones and share their music taste with Facebook friends. The MyMusicCloud service of-fers online storage of up to 2 GB of songs for free and the ability to purchase addi-tional storage starting at $10 annually for 5 GB of storage. Users in the US, Canada and the UK can purchase and download music from the MyMusicCloud store. The store offers over 11 million songs for pric-es starting at $0.19.

With winter coming down in full force in most of North India, this seems like a perfect app for all BB users. Satski, the GPS ski app of choice for Blackberry in-cluding the Torch, locates you on a resort trail map and gives you live stats like speed, vertical and distance. Gut Satski is more than just a trail map on your phone. Find out where to get your skis tuned, make a

dinner reservation, keep your friends up to date on the thigh burning vertical you’re logging with Facebook and Twitter, and then bring home a Google Earth 3D replay of that epic powder day. Oh yes, in the unfortunate circumstance you get injured, call ski patrol with direct dial and give them your coordinates for a quicker response.Price: U.S. $9.99

Most InterestingApps to watch

out in 2012PhOTO EdITOR ULTIMATE

SATSkI

TRIPLAy’S MyMusicCloud


For iOS

Now here’s a great app that lets you easily share pictures taken from your phone, or already exist-ing ones, with your friends, family and social network. With more than 10 million registered users in the first 12 months, it has the potential to be-come the facebook of images – and the latest version of the app is going to ensure it only gets better! Simplicity makes Instagram a must-have for any-

one who likes to snap a quick photo and share it instantly with friends, family and online networks. Develop-ers definitely had the user in mind when they created this photo sharing app. After a simple and quick registra-tion that smoothly finds and connects to follow friends from a contacts list or from Facebook or Twitter, you are ready to share photos.Price: Free

This is the ONLY remote desktop app that streams smooth, high-res video and audio from your PC or Mac, allowing you to interact with your PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Outlook, Quicken, and other applications. Access your PC or MAC programs, games, multimedia content, and files over Wi-Fi and 3G/4G networks. Go everywhere with just your iPhone without having to carry your computer! With a one-click access to your

desktop PC, it really has a minimalistic set-up. The application automatically finds your local computers — sign in to your Gmail account on the app and Streamer to find your com-puters across the Internet. This app not only works on the latest iOS’ but also the old ones – so all of you who are still stuck on iOS 3.2 can breathe a sigh of relief, if you were feeling left out by all the recent upgrades! Price: U.S. $ 0.99

An app that has been called as “Sexy, smart, ingenious” by no less than The Wall Street Journal certainly deserves a mention here! This is a customized for user guide that will locate new res-taurants for you, based on your preferences. It learns from your unique tastes to make appropriate rec-ommendations for you. The SNS integration within the app also lets you know where your friends have been, via Facebook and Foursquare, so that you can

know what restaurants are worth a visit – and which ones can be skipped. Ness considers information from many different sources, then recommends a list of restaurants and predicts how much you’ll like each one. Now, all those of you who are the proud owners of the iPhone 4S can simply ask Siri to add notes to various restaurants that you visit, via Ness, and you make your life so much easier.Price: Free

Another winner of an app, this time being billed as the ‘Best iPhone and iPad Utility in App Store’ by Apple. Living Earth HD is the absolute best and most beautiful World Clock, Weather and Alarm available for your iPhone and iPad! Users can enjoy a stunning live 3D simulation of our planet at our current moment in time with global weather, forecasts and world clock for cit-ies around the world. You can also view live global cloud patterns along with the most realistic 3D rendering of our planet available.

A humbling view of our home in your hands or a strikingly beautiful nightstand or desktop clock. The most amazing part is the cloud rendering with near real-time satellite cloud data (every 3 hours). View global cloud patterns and tropical storms as they are happening. Plus, the world clock and weather will update the details of millions of cities across the globe, with hourly weather details including humidity, chance of precipitation and wind speed. Price: U.S. $ 0.99

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APP WORLD


For all the Android users who can’t wait for the latest OS, Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) to be officially available – here’s a great alternative! The ICS Android 4.0 Launcher will emulate the latest offering from Android on any OS upward of v2.1. This android app will require approx 6.1Mbs of free space on your device for installation. It is rated 3.8 with 2,222 reviews in Google’s Android Market at the time of writing this. With features like

In-Launcher Status bar with ICS 4.0 Theme, Drag and Drop crosshairs (Garden Crosshairs), Easy-Gestures and features, ICS styled folders, Official ICS 4.0 Widget Resizing, Official ICS 4.0 Screen indicator, Official ICS 4.0 Wallpa-pers + Custom, Official ICS 4.0 Search Bar, Of-ficial ICS 4.0 Analogue Clock, Hide Labels on desktop and drawer – this is a MUST HAVE for all you Android users!Price: Free

Want to get the fastest growing social network for entertainment? GetGlue! GetGlue is a social network for movies, TV shows, music, and books. Users check-in and share what they are watching, listening to and reading with friends; get fresh recommendations. Check-in and rate things to discover new favourites, see what your friends are into, get stickers, and win free stuff. On Get-Glue.com users can quickly build up their taste pro-

file, get fresh suggestions every week, browse top lists and find taste neighbours. It is ideal for all you fans of various shows, especially shows broadcast in the West, to keep tabs and share info on your fa-vourite shows. There is also a good chance that you will find some amazing new listings related to en-tertainment through this App, which you wouldn’t normally get. Price: Free

You don’t need to own Amazon’s Kindle device to enjoy e-books, with the Kindle Android App – you can have a simi-larly enjoyable experience right on your smartphone! It has steadily become one of the most popular and favourite e-book app across all Android Smartphones, with Tab-let users also catching up in the race to get this app installed. Even though there are a bunch of books and publications that come free with the App, you will have to pay for

majority of the rest. The other thing, of course, is the lack of any new books being launched in India – due to the lack of any laws protecting digital media. Till such laws are in place, Indians will have to make-do with what we get. The convenience, how-ever cannot be ignored. You can purchase a fairly large number of digital copies of clas-sic books right from your mobile device – and enjoy reading it at your own pace.Price: Free

This one should find a favourable nod of acceptance from all those users, who wanna know who is calling them without even look-ing at their phone. Customizing ringtones has been used for a long time now, but we’ve been seeing a lot of these softwares that lets users cut an MP3 file – so that a section of the song can be saved as a ringtone. MP3 Cutter Android App will let you cut the MP3 song and use it

as your ringtone on your android phone. This android Apps would not work with the YouTube downloader that download mp4 file and rename the extension as mp3 (it will show error code 2). The latest updates will let you - Add ID3v1 tag (title, album, etc), fix the media scanner library and Installation priority to external memory. Price: Free

For

And

roid

ICS AndROId 4.0 LAUnChER APP

gET gLUE

kIndLE AndROId APP

MP3 CUTTER AndROId APP


Tired of browsing apps in the same old boring way? Then here is an App that lets you browse all the apps in the marketplace with a twist! It’s almost like ‘cover-flow’ for the app world. Browse a dozen unique app lists, such as Indie Games, Rising Stars, Forgotten Legends, Hidden Gems and many more. Discover apps for social networking like Facebook, Skype, kik, ICQ, messenger, games like angry birds, fruit ninja, need for speed, music like Pandora,

Spotify, radio, flash; Search tools like Google, Bing, Yahoo; Navigation tools with GPS, maps; Themed apps like Halloween games, Mango apps, Live Tile apps, back to school, developer apps and lots of more such as weather apps and books. Resuming after scrolling is a bit slow, but it works fine nonetheless. This app will work on v7.0 and upward, so feel free to try it today.Price: Free

Wanna try converting your Win-dows Mobile phone into a Siri-enabled iP-hone? Then why don’t you Ask ziggy? Almost similar to the ‘Personal Assistant’ that Apple have so successfully integrated in their lat-est offing, the ‘Ask Ziggy’ app frees you from almost the same amount of work, you would otherwise have to do manually. You can Call, Text, Email your contacts, Update Windows Live, Facebook, and Twitter, Get Weather,

Stock Values, Flight Statuses, Get ziggy to do Math, or ask any question you want (i.e. Who is the tallest person?) all by speaking to your phone. You can even change the voice from male to Female. There are a few hiccups no-ticed here & there, but we’re sure the guys at Microsoft are working to iron these out with upgrades to this version of an app with amaz-ing potential. Price: Free

Why wait for a desktop version of the YouTube downloader to watch your fav YouTube videos on your mobile device? Now, with this app you can pretty much download any video directly from YouTube to your mobile device. There is also an option to download them in HD, which is again, dependent on availability. With the streaming op-tion on-board as well, you can simply stream HD videos from your Windows Mobile Phone to an ex-

ternal HD player. The latest version of this cool app also supports horizontal oriental, finds more vid-eos and even low quality videos (240p resolution) are now downloadable. We only wished that the phone did not auto-lock while watching lengthy videos on the app – something that can only be changed by disabling auto-lock itself.Price: U.S. $0.99

Now this one is exclusively for the guys, ladies please be excused! And it’s not a “one time” App!! New photos are released daily so you will never get bored! The App notifies you if there are new photos available on the HD Apps Cloud and you have the choice of how many to download to your phone. Each photo is either 480x800 (Portrait) or 800x480 (Landscape), which is the exact size of your phones screen. This results in all photos look-ing as “HD” as possible. With features like – ‘Free

daily photo updates from the HD Apps cloud’, ‘Por-trait and Landscape HD photos’, ‘Slideshow mode with timer (3, 5, 15, 30, 60 Seconds)’,’Scrollable view of Favourites photos’, ’App Bar that can be disabled for true “Full Screen” show’& ‘Favourites button so you can create your perfect slideshow’ – this is perfect for taking some time off and giving much needed care to your eyes.Price: U.S. $0.99

For Window

s

APP FLOW

ASk ZIggy

yOUTUBE dOWnLOAd

hd BABES PREMIUM

APP WORLD


The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Your world, your rules Skyrim, developed by Bethesda Game Studios for Win-dows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, you are set loose on a vast fantasy continent populated by thousands of software-controlled monsters and characters. There are teeming towns filled with merchants, beg-gars, guards, thieves, craftsmen and kings. There are tundra and forests, plains and swamps. There are steep peaks and river gorges, hidden shrines and bandit keeps. There are assassination plots to uncover (or perpetrate) and deep, dank crypts hiding ancient treas-ure. There are giants and ogres and goblins and demons and spirits and, not least, plenty of dragons. Skyrim is modern fantasy role-playing of the highest order. It is akin to the “Game of Thrones” of video games: sweeping, almost daunting in scope, richly realized and fully able to absorb fans for

months or even years. Like great fantasy literature, this game has a deep lore and back story (devel-oped over the past 17 years since the series made its debut in 1994 with The Elder Scrolls: Arena) pro-pelling current events. Things hap-pen for a reason. But unlike a nov-el, a great role-playing game like Skyrim lets you shape those events and become a player on the world stage. The key to Skyrim, indeed to the entire Elder Scrolls series, is that the game is set up like one huge fantasy playground. You are completely in charge. You can go where you want, when you want, how you want and do what you want once you get there. There is a strong central plotline, but you are free to blow it off completely from the outset. It is possible to spend dozens of hours exploring Skyrim and making your character more powerful before you even touch the main story line. You can

join the Mage Guild, infiltrate the Thieves Guild, take sides in a civil war or just roam the wilderness, delving into dungeons and slaying worms. Even most fantasy role-playing games lock each character into a defined class, like wizard, warrior or priest. By contrast, a hallmark of the Elder Scrolls series is that you can mix and match vari-ous skills and races, like cat peo-ple and lizardfolk. Want to play a sneaky scoundrel who also casts huge lightning storms and wields two-handed axes? No problem. Want to summon fire and ice ele-mentals to engage your foes while you snipe away with a longbow? Sounds good. Want to become a master thief with a silver tongue and a vast black-market network of fences? Go right ahead.

Last Words Skyrim isn’t perfect. The interface, especially on Windows,

is a clunky, frustrating mess, and the game’s subpar technical per-formance on the PlayStation 3 should be an embarrassment for Bethesda. Yet over Thanksgiving I heard from a family friend who attends college in New Jersey that Skyrim is the absolute rage among gamers on her campus. That doesn’t surprise me because there are very few games that deliver Skyrim’s level of immersion and empowerment. And that may not be something that newer genera-tions of gamers are familiar with. Of course the catch is that in a sin-gle-player game like Skyrim, you are, at the end of the day, alone. You are not interacting with other real people in the game. These are the trade-offs: You can play by yourself and be all-powerful in a game world or play with other people and realize you are simply one among many.

W hen it comes to offline single-player games, no recent title will draw players in for hundreds of hours as readily as Skyrim. Plenty of games promise to let you unleash your inner all-conquering hero (or antihero), endowed with the power to shape both your own epic destiny and the fate of the world. Almost none deliver on that promise as thoroughly as Skyrim.

GAME ON


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LOngER, LOWER, BETTERThe Mercedes ML 350 CdI First Impressions India can’t get enough of SUV’s it seems, and the auto majors are realizing this in a big big way. In fact, it’s not just cars – but bikes too. Bigger is always better, seems to be the idea of the season. With a lot of Indians exploring their ad-venturous side, it is easy to see the reason behind the booming SUV market. And to tap it, most Euro-pean, Asian and American auto makers have already launched their best SUV’s. Not, Merc has taken another step by introduc-ing their newest M Series SUV. It’s

longer yet lower, more expensive and more powerful.

The drive On paper, the specifications of this car seemed really impressive. But, considering the price tag – we should be expecting noth-ing short of spectacular. With the drive, as well as every other as-pect of this Luxury SUV. It’s cer-tainly got the right looks to take on the competition, with dramatic ideas thrown in by the designers to almost every body part. There is detail in the exteriors as well as

interiors of this SUV, which really sets the tone for the drive ahead. Power-on the 3.0-litre common-rail diesel engine, and the growl from the 258bhp engine invites you to take it on an adventure trip. The new diesel ML 350 CDI is just so smooth and sweet sound-ing even from the outside, that anyone could easily mistake it for a petrol-powered car. There’s no hint of diesel motor rattle, there’s very little vibration and even when you rev it, it is as smooth as honey mixed with syrup. With 63.2kgm of torque — some 10kgm more

than the old car — the oil-burner makes light work of the substan-tial 2175kg kerb weight. Its best work is achieved on part-throttle loads; the new Mercedes off-roader cruises in a relaxed, serene manner. Thanks to the linear pow-er delivery of the engine the big M-class feels easy to drive in traf-fic too. The gearshifts, though, are on the slow side and the smooth and slow shifts clearly indicate that Mercedes has put refinement and comfort before performance.


The Interiors

You can always expect really classy materials used on the inside of every Merc and this is no exception. A truly high-quality interior, superb-look-ing instruments, nicely damped controls, a commanding view of the road from the driver’s seat, a spacious cabin, copious luggage space, state-of-the-art entertainment and communication systems and outstanding quality to name a few – which certainly adds to the overall appeal. It is unmistakably a Mercedes in terms of its cabin design and the smooth shapes, improved materials and flashes of alloy-effect trim create a qual-ity atmosphere. The M-class sticks with five seats and there are no great surprises in either its packaging or internal features. Legroom is adequate for passengers in the rear and the headroom is particularly impressive.

The Engine

The ML 350 BlueTec 4Matic has 34bhp more than the old ML 350 CDI. It comes mated to the latest version of Mercedes-Benz’s silky seven-speed 7G-Tronic automatic gearbox, complete with an automatic stop/start and brake energy recuperation functions, and a permanent four-wheel-drive system as standard. The Diesel Engine can deliver 255bhp @ 3,600 rpm. It’s a front installation type, with longitudinal set-up with AWD. It is capa-ble of producing 63.2kgm of Torque at 1600-2400 of rpm. The 6 cylinders that make up the engine are turbo-powered in the preferred ‘vee’ design.

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ON THE DRIVER’S SEAT


Yang departs : The choices before Yahoo! Now

The time has come for me to pursue other interests outside of Yahoo!- Jerry Yang

yahoo! has not delved into details regarding Jerry yang’s exit.. It didn’t really have to.

While Yahoo! remains one of the big-gest draws on the web with

about 600 million people visitors a month, but like AOL, that other dinosaur of the first era of the in-ternet, Yahoo! has been left flat-footed as Google and Facebook emerged as the next generation of online leaders. Sales have fallen at Yahoo! since 2008 and Google and Facebook are taking an increasing share of its display ad business. The firm has cut costs and found ways to boost its profit margins and keep earnings up. But the pressure for change is on – and it shows. In 2008, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer launched a $44.6bn (£28.8bn) takeover bid for Yahoo! but it was resisted, especially by Yang, and eventually the deal col-lapsed. Yang was the man who fought hardest to reject Ballmer’s offer. Yahoo! is currently worth about $19bn but now that Yang

has gone, it may require a more radical fix. Yahoo! is still huge, but what is sort of company is it? They are not going to beat Google in search, or Facebook for the social network. They will continue to get ads because of their size, but if they are not seen as relevant – and they are not – the quality of those ads and the price paid will fall. In today’s environment, companies that are not seen as relevant are dead. Yahoo! is on its downward spiral. Yahoo! lost its way long ago. It’s big in news, sport, finance, email and it owns Flickr, the pho-to-sharing site. But somehow one of these sites add up to a whole. It will take a Steve Jobs to turn Yahoo! around. Someone needs strips it down to the core before building it back up again. Yahoo! recently appointed a new chief ex-ecutive, Scott Thompson, former boss of eBay’s online payment company PayPal. He replaces Car-ol Bartz, acrimoniously ousted by a board she dismissed as doofus-

es. Given the firm’s shoddy record with bosses, she might have had a point. But so did they. Bartz’s strategy – trim costs, sack people, sell stuff – did little for Ya-hoo!. According to comScore data, the number of minutes that US website visitors spent on Yahoo! sites during her two-and-a-half years as chief executive fell 33% while the stock price stayed flat. The big question for Scott Thomson is what is he going to do that’s different. Thompson is likely to sell off Yahoo!’s Asian assets, a move many believe Yang was holding back.Yahoo! bought a 40% stake in China’s Alibaba in 2005 for $1bn. It was a great buy. Analysts calculate that the Alibaba holding, along with the compa-ny’s stake in Yahoo! Japan, is now worth $17bn. But what happens af-ter that? Yahoo! is undergoing a “strategic review” and competitors smell blood in the water. Microsoft is reportedly looking at Yahoo! again, albeit at a far lower price,

and private equity firms have been sizing it up. Jack Ma, Alibaba’s founder, has also expressed an interest and is tipped as a likely buyer for Yahoo! Japan and maybe more. If Yahoo! were to be ac-quired by Alibaba that would be the biggest Chinese takeover of a US company in history. Scott has the choice of turning Yahoo! around. However, that’s not really his skill set. The rumour in Silicon Valley is that he was far from the company’s first choice. Like Bartz, who came from a design software firm, Thompson does not have a media or advertis-ing background. But if that doesn’t work, at least he’s a finance guy. He’ll know how to package this company for sale. With Yang gone, a sale of all or part of the business looks more likely. It’s what comes after this that worries. Yahoo! is one of the top sites in the world. That’s a lot of opportunity. But if it can’t re-define itself, it could be scattered to the winds.

TECH NEWS


No Church neededFile-sharing is now an official religion in Sweden

No, it’s not an April Fool’s hoax, or some-thing taken out of The Onion. But, it is very much a confirmed

piece of news that Sweden is go-ing to recognize File-sharing as an official religion. There is, of course, the Piracy Party of Sweden – which is as real as any other party of that country. In-fact, in recently held elections in Sweden – it managed to garner about 7% of the total votes. Which is not bad at all.

The religion is called the Church of Kopimism and its fol-lowers believe that “Information holds a value, in itself and in what it contains, and the value multi-

plies through copying. Therefore, copying is central for the organi-zation and its members,” accord-ing to a statement from the group. Let us point out that the group “holds CTRL+C and CTRL+V (the keyboard shortcuts for copy and paste) as sacred symbols.” Now, at a time when the Indian Government has itself taken the decision to ask ISP’s to filter out data that is deemed as ‘insensitive’ to Indian sensibilities, the European nation is moving in a completely different direction with its amazing stand-point on the In-ternet and everything connected to it. File-sharing has always been in a midst of various controver-sies with leading companies of

the world vying to defend their copyrighted material which gets distributed free of cost via file-sharing. The SOPA (Stop Online Pi-racy Act) was introduced precisely with the intent of defending the material online, but with File-shar-ing being recognised as an official religion – things could get really interesting! But, before you race ahead of yourself – let’s be clear on some basic things. Firstly – the law is the law. And religion is, well – a personal choice to express and believe one’s faith. But that does not mean that the religious prac-tices have always followed the Law of the Land, as it were. In the US itself, some of the Native American Churches are cut so much slack –

that they can literally get away with things that would otherwise be a criminally punishable act in every other nation of the world. So, the question remains – will Sweden see a plethora of activi-ties via file-sharing websites, at a time when ISP’s in India are being asked to ban them? Will this not put a ‘Religious body’ against the Laws of the World? The debate might have just begun, but its im-plications might be far reaching. It might even provoke some other clans across Europe, and eventu-ally all over the world, to start their own such Religions – if they can get away with the laws that forbid them to do something that they really want to .

A Stylish in-car charger for your Apple Products

Just Mobile Ltd., the lead-ing brand of mobile acces-sories, today, announced the global launch of Good Design awarded Just Mo-bile highway, a chic in-

car charger for you to drive with style… Just Mobile highway is the high-design, high-perfor-mance in-car charger for iPhone, iPad and other USB-powered de-vices.

highway plugs into your car’s cigarette lighter socket, revealing its diamond-tread alu-minum head with subtle power light. highway’s USB port deliv-ers a 2.1A output to rapidly charge your gadgets - with a built-in fuse to protect them from power surg-es. Supplied with an Apple-certified coiled charging cable, the Just Mobile highway is the chic charger your dashboard deserves.

Features• 2.1A output• Fused for surge protection• Green micro-LED• Apple certified - Works with iPod, iPhone & iPad• Good Design Award 2011

TECH NEWS

WHATS NEW


Commodore C64 30 years of Desktop Computing!

30 years ago, in 1981, on the first week of Jan – Commodore took the wraps off the Commo-dore 64 at CES. It would

be quite a long wait for consum-ers, however, to receive the ma-chine – which went into produc-tion only in August that year. But, it was a wait well worth it – as the C64 received huge interest from the general public and there was a huge waiting period for it. It was placed right alongside that other leading desktop computer of the time, the Apple II – and as the ad-verts went, the C64 was apparently ‘half the price’ of the Apple. Don’t hold your breath for know-ing about the specs, they were well shy of some of the cheapest handsets that we use today! The C64 came with a 6510 processor – which many folks from the techni-cal background will realise is even older than the 8085/8086 proces-sor on which they have learned the basics of computing. Naturally, this meant that the C64 was only going to be good enough to run only ONE programme on it (which was resource heavy, that is). And it did. As was advertised in those days – 38KB of the memory was allocated to BASIC itself. It did only have 64KB of memory any-way, which is minuscule compared to today’s computing devices. Oh, did we mention that the BASIC program itself was stored on a 20KB ROM Chip and copied into the main memory when the C64 was booted. The remainder of the memory map was used by the sys-tem.

The graphics in those days were not quite the same, as you’d expect. On the C64, they were handled by a Vic-II chip capable of reproducing 16 fore-

ground and 8 background colours. More importantly for an ever-more game-crazy potential audi-ence, the chip could maintain up to eight 24 x 21-pixel sprites - 12 x 21 in graphics modes sporting more than two colours - mov-ing them smoothly around the screen and automatically ensur-ing they were drawn correctly over the background. The Vic (Video Interface Chip) core would sup-port separate 40 columns by 25 rows text and bitmapped graphics modes, the latter running at 300 x 200 or 160 x 200. It also contained circuitry for bit-level scrolling.

Sound reproduction wasn’t too bad either – consider-ing the technology available in those days. It consisted of a SID (Sound Interface Device) which was developed by Bob Yannes, who later went on to become the co-founder of the synthesizer company Ensoniq. Yannes criti-

cized other contemporary com-puter sound chips as “primitive, obviously... designed by people who knew nothing about music.” There were a few vari-ants and clones of the C64 as well, but nothing that really matched the success of the original. In Ja-pan, they released a version called ‘Commodore MAX’ which was es-sentially targeted at the gaming community. Then there was the Educator 64, which was built to take on Apple’s II stranglehold of the US Education System. If the 64 came to an end in 1989, its name did not. The following year, Commodore un-veiled the Commodore 64 Games System, a C4C-derived console designed to take the computer’s plug-in games cartridges - es-sentially what the Max/Vic-10 had been planned to be all those years before. By 1990, though, Nin-tendo and Sega had shown there

was now a market for consoles - the Nintendo Entertainment Sys-tem launched in 1983, the year after the Max and the 64 - and Commodore decided to have an-other go. It also decided in 1990 that there was room for a new 64-style machine in the space between the Games System and the Amiga, and a prototype Com-modore 65 - aka the C64DX - was built but rejected by Commo-dore’s management. Jack Tramiel had long since quit Commodore in FEBRUARY 1984, and the company was now being run by Irving Gold, who felt that some kind of bridge between the 64 world and the new Amiga era, the role the 65 was in-tended to fulfill, was unnecessary after all.

The 65 project was spiked. Commodore itself would not survive much longer. It de-clared bankruptcy in April 1994.

Targus Laser Presentation Remote launched in India

US-based Targus® Inc., maker of the world’s top-selling laptop computer cases and accessories,

recently introduced Targus La-ser Presentation Remote (AM-P13AP), a wireless multimedia laser presenter with a unique, pat-ent-pending keyLock technology that prevents accidental pressing of buttons during a presentation. Targus Laser Presentation Remote (AMP13AP) is an addition to Tar-gus Multimedia Presentation Re-

mote (AMP09AP) which is already available in India. In addition to all the normal features that one has come to expect from a presentation re-mote, this device sports a button that helps flash a blank screen at any stage of the presentation; very helpful to bring the attention of the audience to the speaker or to facilitate a meaningful discussion. The same button can be used to restore the presentation to the same slide as well.

Targus Laser Presenta-tion Remote is available in Staples stores and at other outlets across India at an MRP of Rs. 1999/- only.

TECH NEWS

WHATS NEW


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CES 2012A Glimpse into the near future

Steve Ballmer took the stage with entertainer Ryan Seacrest, whereas Intel President Paul Otel-lini shared the spotlight

with Gary Shapiro, CEO of CES. A lot happened between this, with Ultrabooks making a HUGE splash – with a slew of major computing manufacturers showcasing their slim notebooks to an awed audi-ence. What started out as a splut-ter at IFA, really blossomed into a full-fledged extravaganza- with a lot of variety in the Ultrabooks space for consumers to choose from. A lot of technological advancements have taken place since the Berlin event, most no-tably slimmer motherboards and chipsets – along-with the integra-tion of Solid State Drives (SSDs) and Flash Drives into notebooks. Even Paul Otellini spoke about In-tel’s own involvement in this pro-cess, but surprisingly did not focus as much on Ultrabooks – as he did on the smartphone platform. The reason could have been the fact, that he was going to share the stage with Lenovo Senior Vice President and President of Mobile Internet and Digital Home Group, Liu Jun. Mr. Jun wasted no time in pulling out the Lenovo K800,

the world’s first Intel architecture smartphone to instant applause within the crowd. The phone is based on the 1.6-GHz Intel Med-field processor, has a 4.5-inch 720p display, and runs Android 2.3. The Lenovo K800 also sports an 8 MP camera with support upto ISO 3200. It will be launched in China in Q2 2012 and shortly after the rest of the world. Let’s not forget that Intel also introduced their pro-totype smartphone running An-droid 2.3.7 on the company’s

Atom Z2460 Medfield processor. Clocked at 1.6Ghz, the 32nm X86-architecture chip supports hyper-threading, Intel’s graphics media accelerator for video and up to a 24 megapixel image sensor. The device has a 4.03-inch 1024x600 display, records 1080P video on its 8 megapixel camera on the rear, and has a 1.3 megapixel shooter up front. It’s running on AT&T’s HSPA+ network and has 16GB of built-in flash memory. The Keynote also in-cluded a teaser about a new tablet running Intel’s 32nm Clover Trail processor and Windows 8! Intel is keeping this tablet under glass but

we managed to get a good look at the ports, which consist of a single USB port, HDMI-out, an SD card slot, a 10-pin-style connector on the bottom, and lastly a SIM-card slot — the last of which obviously implies that there’s a cellular radio inside. There was also a proto-type laptop showed off, which is named ‘Nikiski’. The laptop has a transparent touchpad that spans the length of the palmrest. It’s a clear piece of glass that does double duty as a touchpad for the Windows 7 laptop, but also transformers into a exterior touch-screen when the laptop is closed.

INTEL & MICROSOFT

TECH EVENT


Ok, enough with the Intel and Microsoft stories, let’s also talk about Ultrabooks – the slim n sexy

notebooks that were showed off by manufacturers like models on a ramp. Samsung showcased their 13.3” and 14” Ultrabooks which they also said will be avail-able in the U.S. from 30th of Jan. The Series 5 Ultra’s will weigh in about 1.5kg – 1.8kg, and will be about .82 inches thick. But all of this comes at a cost – these will set you back by about $899. Another manufacturer that will retail an Ul-tra in excess of $800, will be Leno-vo. The Chinese major announced the ThinkPad T430U – which is es-sentially a business-oriented ultra-

book. The 14” ultra will feature the next-gen Intel CPUs and optional NVIDIA graphics, which will cost about $849. Acer made their pres-ence felt as well, with the Aspire Timeline Ultra series winning a lot of eyeballs at their stall. The primary reason for this was the announcement of the Aspire S5 Ultrabook, billed as the thinnest Ultrabook to date. It is only 15mm at its thickest point and will weigh only about 1.34kgs, plus will fea-ture a Thunderbolt port as well. Then there was a tablet launch, which really wowed the audience – the world’s first ever quad-core Tegra 3 Acer Iconia Tab A700. The beautifully crafted Tab will have a native resolution of 1920x1200 on its 10” screen estate, with Android

4.0 pre-installed on it. It is expect-ed to start shipping in Q2. The 2nd largest PC maker, Lenovo, was not to be

outdone. It launched an impres-sive ultrabook called the IdeaPad YOGA. It is the union of a stylish, powerful ultrabook and a portable 13.3 inch multi-touch tablet. YO-GA’s patented dual-hinge design is engineered to enable content consumption and creation span-ning four intuitive usage positions -- notebook, tablet, stand, and tent -- in one computer, while of-fering higher durability and stabil-ity than conventional convertible form factors, Lenovo claimed. HP came from nowhere to launch an impressive Ultrabook, themself. The Envy Spectre Ultra-book has a 14-inch display (1600 x 900 pixels) in the chassis of a 13.3-inch laptop. It stands out from the crowd by offering glass panels, built in NFC and a wireless audio feature (streaming music to up to four nearby devices).

Tablets remained an at-traction for the major-ity of the crowd, as Asus showed off their new Eee Pad Transformer Prime

TF700. It’s pretty similar to the existing Eee Pad Transformer, but comes with ICS and a gorgeous high-res 1080p display. Then there was Viewsonic’s E70 which will also have ICS, but will retail for $169. That’s quite cheap com-pared to the Asus’ $249 Prime, but in the midst of these expen-sive tabs, we were quite surprised with a sub- $99 tablet. It was the Ainovo 7 Basic. Based on the MIPS architecture, it is quite unlike the droid tablets and works fairly well.

ULTRABOOkS EMERGE

TABLETS


But, what really made the most headlines around the world in CES? It wasn’t a smartphone, nor a tablet, nor an Ultra-

book. It was neither a digi-cam, an entertainment system or any kind of communication device. In fact, it was a TV!

LG unveiled the 55” OLED TV and as soon as the sheets were removed, we just couldn’t take our eyes off it. It was just brilliant! LG had been very tight-lipped about the exact specs, by telling us only that the TV weighs about 7.5kg measures 4mm thick at its thinnest point. The front bez-el isn’t all that much bigger, but besides knowing it can handle 3D (and is compatible with current LG 3D glasses), we’ve got little else to go on. Resolution can be reasona-bly presumed to be 1080p, though again, the colours, contrast, and viewing angles were too awesome for us to try and count pixels. The release date and price will be the critical aspects that determine the

The biggest curios-ity seemed to be around the Nokia Lumia 900. Unveiled by Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop on stage,

Nokia’s latest and greatest hand-set includes a 1.4GHz CPU, 512MB RAM, an 8-megapixel Carl zeiss f2.2/28mm rear camera, and a 4.3-inch AMOLED display — an improvement over the Lumia 800 screen. Nokia has also added a 1-megapixel front-facing camera with an f2.4 lens, to enable video conferencing. Nokia has also confirmed that the display of this beauty will be RGB instead of Pen-Tile Matrix. Sony finally came out with their newly branded phones without the ‘Ericsson’ name, by launching the Sony Xperia Ion and Sony Xperia S. The Ion will be a 4.6” HD reality display, Android Gingerbread running smartphone with an incredible 12MP Exmor R lens with a single LED flash. The dual-core powered device will weigh in at 144gms and is fairly slim at 10.8mm. The Xperia S will also feature the HD reality display on its slightly smaller 4.3” screen. Also similar are the dual-core pro-cessor, Android’s Gingerbread OS, the 12MP Exmor R camera sensor and the ports. Sony has promised an upgrade to ICS for both devices once they are launched in Q2.

WHAT ABOUT SMARTPHONES?

EYE-CATCHERS

Samsung made their presence felt here as well, with the showcase of an upgraded Galaxy Note – with LTE and an eco-friend-ly smartphone called the Samsung Exhilirate. There were also Galaxy Tab 7” released with LTE, making the latest connectivity option a

top priority for future Samsung products. LG also made heads turn with their own LTE powered droid phone, which has a display denser than iPhone’s Retina Dis-play – and is packaged in a slim-mer body. Called the LG Spectrum

for Verizon, for its US launch, the smartphone weighs in at only 141 gms. The stunning high-deg IPS display has a resolution of 1280x720, which is really taking these smartphones into a whole new territory!

TECH EVENT


There was plenty of activity in the audio industry as well, with dozens of exhibitors displaying a range

of awesome products. Klipsch showed off their stunning new designs for home audio—the Klipsch Stadium and the Klisch Console. The Stadium was a mock-up that was not opera-tional, but it looks like a very powerful, attractive home audio design. The Console, however, definitely stole the show. It is massive, and it’s a throwback to the 50s, 60s and 70s, when consoles for the living room, which had radios, turntables, and speakers built-in, were the norm. Klipsch’s modern take on the console includes thunderous 2.1 audio and Apple’s AirPlay. Always pushing the boundaries in the wireless home theater headphones depart-ment, Sennehiser came up with something special. The Sen-

nheiser RS 220, officially unveiled at the show, sounds amazing. It uses DSSS, which is an improve-ment on Kleer wireless audio transmission—an already very solid technology. There were some great digi-cams on show too, but the one that really caught our attention was the Fujifilm X-Pro1. Even though the Nikon D4 is the most technically impressive—and most expensive—camera to de-but here at CES, it’s not the best. For my money, that is the Fujifilm X-Pro1, a mirrorless interchange-able lens camera that, from the front, looks like a 1970s-era rangefinder. The 16-megapixel shooter uses a new sensor de-sign that eliminates the low-pass filter, promising to deliver more natural images that don’t skimp on sharpness—and don’t exhibit moiré patterns. The FAVI A3-WiFi Pico Projector with its native SVGA resolution (800-by-600 pixels),

8GB of built-in memory, and a SD/SDHC/MMC card reader, also caught our attention. So did the Netgear Media Storage Router with Integrated 2TB Hard Drive (WNDR4700), one of only two dual-band wireless routers avail-able that are also full SATA disk drive NAS solutions. The other? Apple’s Time Capsule. And, if we hadn’t seen anything that looked truly futur-istic, then we were blown away with the EXOdesk. Created by ViewSonic, the HTML5 inter-face, which runs on top of Win-dows, Mac OS, or Android, turns a 32- to 40-inch touch screen into your desktop surface, sup-plementing both your keyboard and mouse and your main moni-tor with a customizable playing field for toys (solitaire games, mouse pads), productivity gadg-ets (calendars, app launchers)— you name it. It’s Minority Report meets Fisher-Price.

fate of this television. Its desirabil-ity is beyond question. Not to be out-done, Samsung unveiled their own range of OLED TV’s too. The ES8000 range of edge-lit LED Smart TV’s were launched from 46 to 65-inch-es, whereas a 55” Super OLED TV, which apparently incorporates “the ultimate in vividness, speed and thinness, with true-to-life pic-ture quality, enhanced colour ac-

curacy and motion picture quality even in the fastest scenes, was also launched. The 7mm thin Smart TV also includes Smart Interaction, Samsung Apps, and multitasking, as well as 3D functionality. Panasonic showcased a range of 3D LCD & plasma TVs with Wi-Fi & 4K (ultra HD, 4096 x 2160 pixels) TVs but the highlight was the 4K, 20.4-inch LCD IPS-Pro panel monitor that packs a huge

8 million pixels into a 3.5mm thin frame. But it wasn’t just these TV’s that stole the limelight. It was also Google TV making its comeback. Instead of a tepid three products from two companies, four manufacturers came out with entire lines of Google TV prod-ucts here at the show. Vizio and LG’s high-end smart TVs will use Google TV, along with Vizio and

Sony’s new set-top boxes and Blu-ray players. Samsung will get into Google TV, though it hasn’t an-nounced specific products yet. The smart TV landscape has been fractured, with every major company using its own app ecosystem. With actual support from multiple HDTV manufactur-ers, Google TV could become the unifying system for connected HDTVs.

THE OTHERS


CES has come a long way since it began all the way back in 1967. How long is your association with the event and how did you become a part of it?

JOhn: I’ve been with CES/CEA a relatively short time as I began my career at CEA in 2008 so the 2012 show was my fourth. Prior to working at CEA, I was employed by another trade assoc ia t ion that owned a large tradeshow. When I saw the job posting at CEA, I knew it was an opportu-nity I could not pass up.

Las Vegas may have been an odd choice for a Tech-based show like CES. It is, after all, referred to as the City of Sin. But it’s been a great host for the event, hasn’t it?

JOhn: CEA has hosted the In-ternational CES in Las Vegas since 1978. Las Vegas is great city to host a convention our size as they have close to 150,000 ho-tel rooms, millions of square feet of exhibition space and an airport that can accommodate our inter-national visitors. Las Vegas also offers a diverse array of activities for our attendees after the show floor closes; whether it be world-class restaurants, shopping, shows or concerts, there is something for everybody in Las Vegas.

There have been dozens of products that have made their de-but in CES, with the VCR in 1970 to Radio Data System in 1993 and OLED TV’s this year. Which of these have been your personal fa-vourites and why?

JOhn: It is hard for me to iden-tify one product that is considered my favourite as there have been so many game changing technol-ogies launched at CES. More than 20,000 new products are launched at CES every year and oftentimes we won’t know how big of an im-pact they will have until several years after they launch.

How has the Management of CES ensured such high levels of participation for the event, even after all these years?

JOhn: CEA has been very suc-cessful at identifying trends to ex-pand the definition of consumer electronics beyond the traditional definition. For instance, six of the ten largest auto manufacturers in the world had a presence on the show floor this year and more are expected to participate next year. We’ve also launched several pro-grams to target new audiences like our Entertainment Matters pro-gram which is for the Hollywood content community. These are

just two examples of how we con-tinue to grow the show to bring in new audiences and keep the show exciting every year.

Managing an event of this scale must be a daunting task. What’s the secret behind the smooth running of CES, year after year?

JOhn: Honestly, it is staffing. CEA is consistently ranked as a top employer in our community so we do a pretty good job of retaining staff. In fact, many of our key staff in departments that work directly on the show have been with us for several years so they are very versed in how the show is supposed to be run. To this point, most of our em-ployees work on various internal cross departmental teams so there is a great sense of team-work between different employ-ees and departments.

Which year did you enjoy the most at CES, and perhaps the worst? If any.

JOhn: Personally, I enjoy CES every year. There is a great sense of accomplishment at the close of each show, especially when I hear how much the attendees and ex-

hibitors enjoyed the event.

Coming around to this years CES, can you sum up the highs and lows, plus some of your personal favourite products launched this year?

JOhn: As you might have seen from various news sources, there was some scepticism coming into this year’s show about what the future holds for CES. However, those fears were put to rest as we had the most successful show in history. We had more exhibitors (3,100), more attendees (153,000), more press (5,000) than ever be-fore…and the show was the larg-est in history at over 1.86 million net square feet! Given that I over-see our international marketing efforts, perhaps I am personally most proud of the fact that more than 34,000 international visitors attended CES this year, a 10% in-crease over last year. Keep in mind that we do audit our attendance and final numbers will be released later this spring.

Ultrabooks and OLED TV’s made more headlines in tech blogs this year than any other product. Is that going to be the trend for the coming year?

John Kelley

is the Senior Manager of Interna-tional Marketing for CES. Since he joined in 2008, he has been part of 3 CES’ and this year we had the great privilege of catching up with him in Las Vegas, during CES. For someone who person-ally oversees the international visitors participation in the event, he is a remarkably calm personal-ity. Here, we ask him about some of the key areas of CES and what makes it the mega-event that it is.

POWER TALK

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JOhn: By all indicators, yes we view both products as finding suc-cess in the marketplace this year. However, like any market research projection, sometimes there is a product or technology that did not receive much hype at launch that consumers will gravitate to-wards.

If you had to pick a product or a brand that most people didn’t notice much, but you will be keep-ing an eye on – which one would it be?

JOhn: We had a new Tech-zone, Eureka Park, at the 2012 CES that focused on smaller start-up companies. We partnered with various groups including the Na-tional Science Foundation and Start Up America to grow this area and had more than 100 compa-nies participate. I would guess that more than a few of these compa-nies will find huge success in the marketplace whether it be with their current product or technol-ogy or future iterations.

There were plenty of Key-notes this year. Which one do you think was most interesting and why?

JOhn: All of them were very insightful this year. This year we had a very diverse keynote line-up that included executives from automakers, software and gaming companies, chip and component manufacturers, retailers, mobile companies, social media platforms and hardware manufacturers. With such a diverse line-up, each com-pany has a different vision, prod-uct and story to tell which makes the keynotes exciting every year.

So many industry lead-ers and experts converge and rub shoulders together at CES. It must be a perfect chance for you to ask them about future launches/prod-ucts/technologies?

JOhn: Approximately 40% of our show attendees are consid-ered senior level executives so there is not a better place to try to meet with some of these peo-ple. With this many senior ex-ecutives in one place, there is a good chance their competition

is there as well. Thus, companies are oftentimes somewhat guarded about discussing future products and plans outside of what is on display on the show floor.

CES also sees a host of ce-lebrities walk in and enjoy them-selves. Who has been your all time fav celeb at CES?

JOhn: CES has attracted many top-name celebrities over the years, including Justin Timber-lake, Will Smith, Lady Gaga and more. Many of our exhibitors have arrangements with celeb-rities whereby they spend time in a booth to promote a certain product. Oftentimes celebrities will want to visit the show longer than originally planned as they get caught up in the excitement of CES. For me, those are my favour-ite.

If you had to choose any other city than Las Vegas to host CES, which one would you pick? And why?

JOhn: Las Vegas is the top city in the United States, and perhaps the world, to host a large scale tradeshow such as the Interna-tional CES. Las Vegas offers more than 150,000 hotel rooms, top of the line dining and state of the art convention facilities. In fact, more than 20,000 conferences, trade-shows and meetings large and small are held in Las Vegas every year.

Lastly, which companies do you think have showcased the best products this year? And who will come out on top in 2012?

JOhn: More than 15 product categories are represented at CES and more than 20,000 products aunched at the 2012 show, so there is a wide diversity of prod-ucts to choose. Every year, I am constantly amazed when I look around the show floor and see the passion for the innovation that is on display at CES. Companies that continue to innovate will be in the best position to thrive, given the current global economic situation. As the old saying goes, many will be forced to “innovate or die”.

All of them were very insightful this year. This year we had a very diverse keynote line-up that included executives from automakers, software and gam-ing companies, chip and component manufacturers, re-tailers, mobile com-panies, social media platforms and hard-ware manufacturers. With such a diverse line-up, each com-pany has a different vision, product and story to tell which makes the keynotes exciting every year.

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Crawl inside your TV sets - it’s real now!

As kids, we often dreamed about crawling into our television sets so we too could be on the TVs…err…something like that Wonka Vision scene from Willy

Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, though less traumatic. Sadly, we were crushed to discover that’s not exactly how television works! But the good news, that may soon be changing. A new, experimental prototype from Jayne Vidheecharoen, a grad student in Media Design at the Art Center College of Design, looks remarkably like our child-hood fantasies come to life. Her Portals project allows you to stick your hand in the TV set and manipulate what’s on the screen. What’s more, when the Portal box is connected to the internet, multiple users located all over the world can affect ob-jects and hang out together in the same virtual scene displayed on the screen. Wil-ly Wonka, eat your heart out! Unsatisfied with touch screens and gesture-controlled interfaces, Vidheecharoen searched for a differ-ent kind of interaction, a way to get behind the “glass wall” of the screen. She yearned to reach behind, under or inside the screen, to complete the loop from the real world to the virtual world and back to the real world again.

The current version of Portals is little more than an elaborate DIY magic trick made up of foam core, duct tape, fabric scrap, a desk lamp, an end table, a borrowed monitor, and the cheapest webcam possible. Using a green screen and the ubiquitous virtual-real world of Google Streetview as her backdrop, Vidheecharoen is able to place and

control physical objects on the vir-tual streets.

The result is both magical and impressive, grounded in both tangi-ble reality and wondrous disbelief. Moreover, it seems to open a worm-hole of new possibilities for user in-terface design and how we envision augmented reality.

Vidheecharoen prototype re-cently received funding for further development via Kickstarter and is part of her ongoing thesis project dedicated to the research and devel-opment of these augmented inter-faces for public interaction with the virtual public spaces we now find ourselves inhabiting.

kodak Polaroid SC1630 Android HD Smart Camera M

eet the Kodak Polaroid SC1630 Android HD Smart Camera. Styled like an old school camera, the Polar-oid SC1630’s crowning feature is a 16MP camera unit, with 3x optical zoom, F3.1-F5.6 aperture, ISO up to 3200 and shutter speeds of up to 1/1400. There’s a

Xenon flash to go with it too. The SC1630 can shoot 720p videos.On the phone side of things, there’s quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G connectivity, microSIM card, a 3.2” WVGA screen, Android OS and a 2.5mm audio jack. The phone is rather thick at 18.5mm, but if you look at it as a point-and-shoot camera it’s actually quite compact. The battery is reportedly just 1020mAh, which is insuf-ficient for all the mechanical zoom and xenon flash goodies, so we hope it will be replaced by the time the Kodak Polaroid SC1630 hits the shelves. Kodak’s contribution to the project comes in the form of their proprietary compression technology, which allows the user to tweak the size of photos. The Polaroid Android HD will reportedly cost $299 when it hits the shelves in April.

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Heavy Gadgets

The Connection between Art & Technology The Samsung galaxy nexus

The first of its kind. That’s how the Sam-sung Galaxy Nexus will achieve its piece of immortality. It is the very first Smartphone

that will get the Ice-Cream Sand-wich (ICS) OS pre-installed on it. There might be a plethora of devices that will get the ICS pre-installed when CES finally comes around, but the Galaxy Nexus will always be the ‘Premier’ ICS device. It is only a shade bigger than the Samsung Galaxy S II, but still has a bigger display – since there are no hardware buttons. And that is a really neat improvement from Google’s latest Android OS.

First ImpressionsAs far as the build quality is concerned, the designers have learned from the mistakes made on the Galaxy S II and ensured that the Nexus is near about per-fect. The grip at the back-panel is perfect with the overall quality made to ensure there are no ac-cidental slips. When you are done with holding the device, the first thing that will captivate you – is surely going to be the amazing display. Samsung has managed to cram in a Full HD resolution of (720x1280 pixels) on the 4.65” Super AMOLED capacitive touch-screen. Keeping in mind that this is a dual-core smartphone with a

fairly good 5MP camera with an LED flash – it’s amazing to see the slimness of the Nexus. Measuring at only 8.9mm, it has to be one of the slimmest smartphones out there.

A Closer lookAt 316 ppi (pixels per inch) on a Super AMOLED screen, the dis-play of the Nexus is just amazing. The brightness, colour contrasts and viewing angles will never be an issue with any Samsung prod-uct – so we are expecting this to be a killer display. Possibly even better than that of the Galaxy S II and the iPhone 4S – and that’s saying a lot! No doubt the much

touted ICS OS will deserve a much closer inspection, once it lands in India – but we’ve already seen what the OS is capable of and are much impressed. Spec-to-spec, it will match and even out-do the iPhone 4S – but the iPhone does have a killer camera and Siri is making waves all over the world. If you can live without these, then we are certain the ICS powered Nexus will make your wish list, without a doubt. Keep in mind as well, that you will need to depend on iTunes for transferring ALL your multimedia from your computer to the iPhone. No such hassle with the Android powered device, which not only lets you choose the

displaySuper AMOLED meets HD and fireworks greet the occa-sion! That is how you can (perhaps) poetically describe the beautiful display on the Nexus. On paper, it might seem a bit weaker to that of the Galaxy Note, but from what we hear – the difference is not even noticeable. The lack of any hardware buttons on the front means that the display stretches from the top to bottom, giv-ing you the first fully-touch operated Android device. The contrast ratio will surely be infinite, plus with Super AMOLED being built in almost all high-end Samsung products, you can expect a truly superb multi-media experience on this stunning display. The 316ppi pixel density makes for an amazing image sharpness and completely hides the PenTile nature of the matrix.

CameraIf the 5MP camera is anything like the one seen on Samsung Galaxy S II, then users are in for a real treat! What we will like to point out, however, is that the S II 8MP camera has a slightly different sensor to that of the one on the Nexus. That does not necessarily mean it will be truly brilliant or slightly bad, if Samsung haven’t hit the nail on the head. It simply means that reproduction of the images will be handled slightly differently. We will have to wait for the review piece to see how it actually performs. Expect the UI to be slightly different and the video player to be really awe-some. Even with a 5MP cam, users will be able to re-cord videos @ 1080p resolution. Video recording on almost all Samsung cams has been a strong point, so expect nothing but brilliance here.


Specifications

1.2GHz Dual-core Cortex A-9 processor PowerVR SGX540 GPU 1GB RAM Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen Android OS v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) 5MP camera with LED flash, 1080p @ 30 fps 1.3MP front-cam, 720p @ 30fps No memory card slot 16 & 32GB internal storage variants Wi-Fi (with Hotspot), Bluetooth 3.0, NFC, LTE microUSB, TV-out, MHL A/V Link

The Connection between Art & Technology The Samsung galaxy nexus

Mass Storage mode for file trans-fer, but plays most video and au-dio formats without breaking into a sweat. Yes, you do get killer Apps and Games on the iOS – but An-droid can match that. Yes, you do get iCloud and iMessage services on the iOS – but the Android had these long before Apple came up with them. We can go on and on, but you get the drift, right?

Final WordsThe ‘Premier’ ICS Smartphone seems to have it all and it will surely be a worthy flag-bearer for the Nexus flagship of phones. Google have managed to get its game just right with their latest

OS, so things will only get a whole lot better from here on end. There is no doubt that the Samsung Gal-axy Nexus has almost everything it takes to be an awesome prod-uct. It will, however, be interesting to see how the pricing of this Su-per Smartphone is positioned, to take on the competition. There is no competition to this device, as yet, if you consider the fact that it has the ICS OS. Of course, more and more devices are set to be upgraded to the ICS OS – when it does become available. But, Sam-sung have done a great job with the hardware of the Nexus – en-suring it will not really feel the heat from any of the competitors.

Web kingThe ICS OS will make things a whole lot better for the internet user, on mobile devices. It not only has great connectivity options (including LTE) – but also, the browser itself has been revamped to make opti-mum use of these connectivity options. There is the inclusion of the Incognito mode as well as instant search results – while you type. It does seem like Google has tried their bit to include some of the great Chrome desktop browser options to the mo-bile device. You can also make use of swipe gestures to close tabs, which is another right step towards Android being a full-touch OS. Flash will also be in-corporated, so expect YouTube and related sites to function without any issues.

Multimedia delightICS will get a completely re-designed gallery with plenty of options thrown in to ensure a completely immersive experience. There is also an image and video editor included, which has got some awe-some features for folks looking to make full use of their creative sides. Viewing the gallery now includes ‘Locations’, ‘Times’, ‘People’ and ‘Tags’. A handy option is the Make available offline feature - it lets you easily select multiple online albums and download them for offline viewing. The Gallery app supports online albums like Picasa (but not Face-book) and you can set it to sync photos only over Wi-Fi. The video player has not got a whole lot of upgrading, but the Android Market will come in handy to ensure all formats of videos will work on the Nexus. Even the music player has got the latest update, thanks to ICS, with all-touch functionality.

PREVIEW - SMARTPHONE

Words by - Chaitanya Tapase


More Business than FunThe Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet

First LookMore and more tablet manufac-turers seem to be upgrading their specs to lure Gen Y – except Le-novo. The Chinese major seems to be targeting the audience it always excelled in satisfying – the business group. Even with their latest tablets, the ThinkPad series has only aim in mind – to meet the expectations of the business com-munity. The spec sheet also re-flects this, so does the overall build and finish. The 10.1” tablet actually reminds you of Lenovo’s Thinkpad laptops, but whether they will ac-tually manage to do what they set out to, really remains to be seen. The fact that the bundle also in-cludes a digitizer pen, may seem a bit contrary to the tablet’s real aim – but we’ll see how it does for actual work-related tasks.

ReviewMake no mistake, the Lenovo ThinkPad is aimed for business

users – with an eye on the huge market for people who love high performing gadgets. It might not feel like the most comfortable tab-let to use, but it does have a slew of ports and accessories to make up for it. The Android Honeycomb is running on the back of a 1Ghz dual-core processor along with 1GB of RAM and graphics which are powered by Nvidia Tegra 2. Yes, adding the graphics bit has certainly opened up the playing field for this tablet – plus, with the attachable keyboard, it is in direct competition with the Asus Eee Pad Transformer. But, the tablet is positioned for the business user (primarily), so it does not have the looks to match Asus’ radical tablet. What it does have are bet-ter battery life, deeper MS Office integration, great connectivity op-tions and plenty of custom apps pre-loaded on it. Of all the pre-loaded apps, we found the Notes Mobile, PrinterShare and Movie

Stdio to be most useful. The over-all usability with the UI is very ex-pected, with nice integration of all the Google stuff. The digitizer pen worked wonders with most docs, excels and other Office-related apps, plus is handy with the Notes Mobile app as well.

verdictPlayback of 720p videos which support multiple formats on a tablet that looks tailor made for business? Well, it’s such a world we live in, where the lines are get-ting blurred between two ways of thinking. It’s in such times that Lenovo are trying to score well with their offering, with plenty of accessories and connectivity op-tions – along with an attachable keyboard. For a similar price, you could go for some other tablets in the market – but you will have to compromise on the business end. A worthy tablet, but will it really

find a calling with the real target audience? We doubt.

RIghT SIdE PAnELWhen held in landscape mode with the camera located at the top, you have a Mini HDMI port, a docking connector, a 3.5 mm audio jack and a micro USB slot all exposed on the right side. A SIM card slot and an SD card slot are also present, but they’re hidden behind a plastic flap.

dISPLAy The ThinkPad Tablet’s 10.1-inch (1280 x 800) IPS, Gorilla Glass display isn’t the most responsive in the land. We, however, enjoyed comfortable view-ing angles from the sides and also with the tablet placed on a tablet in front of us -- and this was with an overhead light shining above, mind you. Still, even with the brightness pumped to the max, we weren’t able to make out much while squinting at the screen outside on a cloudy day.

CameraWell, this wasn’t going to be the strong point of the tablet, but we are really surprised to see the abysmal quality of the images taken on the 5MP snapper. Especially in low light conditions, it is just plain bad – the front facing 2MP cam is about okay for video-calling.

OSThe software experience on the ThinkPad Tablet is exactly the same as on the IdeaPad K1 -- meaning, it’s Android 3.1 with mild skinning and a not-so-modest collection of widgets. For starters, Lenovo took the back, home and open windows buttons in the lower left corner of the screen and painted them an opaque white. Also, for what it’s worth, Lenovo tweaked that row of icons so that in addition to being able to tap to see what apps you have open, you can hit an “X” mark to close them. If most of the software tweaks you’ll see here are gimmicks, this built-in task killer, at least, is one we think even seasoned Honeycomb users have to appreciate.

Dual-core 1Ghz processor10.1” IPS TFT active matrix dis-playAndroid v3.1 (Honeycomb)5MP rear cam, 2MP front cam16/32GB internal, SD card support

Specifications

Price: 44,871/- (32GB model) 47,481/- (64GB model)

REVIEW - TABLET


The Future has arrivedCyborg R.A.T 9 Mouse

First LookWe’ve all been fascinated with science fiction’s avatar of the half-man half-machine. Cyborgs were a creation of sci-fi, but it seems that they are steadily going to become part of our lives. AI at its very best – right from Siri to who-knows-where. There is also a corporation in the U.S. by the name of Cyborg and they have already released quite a few jaw-dropping gaming mice. The latest one, called R.A.T 9, resembles something that you would possibly see in The Trans-formers movie franchise. But, we kid you not – it works. It works re-ally well. But, does it falter at per-forming where most wireless mice have problems? Let’s find out.

ReviewThis gaming mouse may not be for everyone, but then again,

at a staggering asking price of Rs. 10,000 it will not be in eve-ryone’s wish list either. Getting used to handling the metal base and plastic fitted body might take you some time, but there is absolutely no doubt that it is a stylishly designed gaming prod-uct with excellent feedback in all situations. Those who like to place their palms on the entire mouse might find this sort of shape and design a little odd. If you’re a claw-style gamer, then the ergonomics should work fine, even without the adjustments. The mouse is highly customizable as far as the shape and feel is concerned. To do this, there are a few replaceable bits. The R.A.T.9 performs well. There are no tracking issues, whatsoever and the mouse’ clicks are great. The adjustable surfaces ensure that you’re comfortable while

using the device, especially dur-ing long gaming sessions. When you’re using it for the desktop, you can tweak it further for slightly more comfortable use. The mouse clicks are sturdy and register well. You’re unlikely to face problems in the long run and it looks like these will take a battering and still work. Wireless performance is great, too. You’re not going to be using the mouse as an HTPC mouse, but primarily for gaming. For that it works well.

verdictGaming enthusiasts rarely look at price tags when making pur-chases. Why else would the in-dustry thrive even with the launch of high-priced products during an economic crisis situation. This extremely well crafted product is made for those hard-core gam-

ers who love their input devices to work flawlessly. Without inter-ruptions and without hassles. To that end, the R.A.T 9 is flawless and lets you customize it the way you want. Buy if you can afford the luxuries.

Specifications

2.4Ghz wireless mouse Ambidextrous design Nano receiver USB Connection (optional) Portable (with case to carry parts)

Price: 9,999/-

BACk PAnELThe back panel lets you slide back to different positions for larger and smaller hands. There are also two extra pads with different textures and heights. The thumbrest panel can also be re-leased and adjusted just like the one on the right panel that supports your little finger.

ChARgIng dOCkThe charging dock also dou-bles as the wireless station. Removing the battery is ex-tremely simple. The charging dock has two indicators, one for the wireless activity and the other, which turns green when a battery is charged. The base of the wireless dock is lined with rubber, so it stays stationary. There’s a socket to neatly place the additional weights.

REVIEW - MOUSE


First LookWe had explored the XPS 15z for our August Issue last year and loved the many wonderful fac-ets of it. Continuing its trend of making some really great power-ful, yet stylish computing devices, Dell has opened up a whole new vista for the XPS series of laptops. On paper, the 14z is only an inch smaller than the 15z – but in prac-tical terms, it seems a lot more compact to carry around. It surely has large boots to fill, so we’ll have to dig deep to see if it can deliver on what it promises. It certainly is loaded with the needed fire-power, but will it really deliver, or falter? Let’s take it for a spin and find out.

ReviewWell, it’s not just an inch that the latest XPS laptop has lost. It’s lost the old gen processor and upgrad-

ed itself to the latest Core i7 Sandy Bridge processor, 8GB of RAM and discrete graphics option as well. The build quality is unquestion-able, but with the chiclet styled keyboard and the aluminium and magnesium body – it is just splen-did. The added backlighting really adds to the overall look and feel of the XPS 14z, which also has a wide palm rest. The heavy-duty power laptop can perform for hours with-out a need for a recharge and the system never feels over-heated. The graphics are wonderful and watching HD movies and playing high-end games is a real pleasure on this system. The pre-bundled Windows 7 Home Premium OS is 64-bit, so we had to install and test other 64-bit applications to see how it endured – and it came out with flying colours. Well, with 8GB of RAM – you can expect nothing less! The battery life is

fairly good, with an indicator thrown in – just like the one you can find on a MacBook Pro. The 1GB of graphics card is capable of handling most high-end games out there, but might struggle with the likes of Skyrim V.

verdictWe would’ve liked a few more ad-ditions in the laptop, especially as far as connectivity is concerned, but maybe that’s stretching it a bit. The other, quite strange, part is the lack of customizing this particular laptop on the Dell India website. But, all the testing and feedback from the laptop was generally very good. It is a bit too expensive for our liking, but the build qual-ity is exceptional (not to mention the specs). With a slightly higher resolution display, this would have been a killer of a laptop – but it is almost there, anyway!

A Smaller yet Powerful deviceThe dell XPS 14z

dISPLAyThe HD WLED display is a joy to hold, but feels slightly low-res. We’ve seen the 1366x768 resolu-tion fit into smaller 11” displays as well, so we’re not certain why Dell hasn’t upgraded this to a full HD yet. Strange.

REAR PAnELThere are plenty of connectivity options here, with one USB 3.0 port, one USB 2.0 port, an HDMI slot, a mini Display port and an Ethernet port, all of which are placed on the rear of the laptop.

KEYPADThe Keypad has excellent feedback and comfort, which lets you type and browse at very good speeds. The backlight helps in darker con-ditions for those who cannot type without looking at the keyboard, plus the mouse keys are very well integrated in the system.

SIDE PANELSA slot-loading DVD writer, SDXC card reader and headphone plus microphone jacks can be found on the laptop’s sides. A USB + eSATA hybrid port and an extra USB 2.0 would have been a great addi-tion to the offerings of Dell XPS 14z, but sadly this wasn’t to be. Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth 3.0 take care of wireless con-nectivity on the 14-inch Dell laptop.

14” HD WLED displayIntel Core i7 2.8Ghz proces-sorWindows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)8GB DDR3 SDRAM750GB SATA HDDNvidia GeForce 1GB graph-ics

Specifications

Price: 78,900/-

REVIEW - LAPTOP


The Third Wave from the OceanThe Samsung Wave III

First LookThe third Wave is here and it looks just as gorgeous as the previous two. We’re not just talking about the awesome Super AMOLED dis-play, but the overall look and feel. Of course, the display is the high-light – but the sleek form factor and the quality of the build ensure that all Wave smartphones are a delight to hold. The Bada (Korean for Ocean) OS has got an upgrade to v2.0 and we’re hoping to see the little chinks that existed in the earlier Wave smartphones, get ironed out with this release. Sam-sung has, in the interim, launched some Windows 7.5 as well as An-droid phones too. But Bada re-mains their own creation, so we’re hoping to see some sparks fly!

ReviewA generous 4” has replaced the earlier 3.3” (on the 1st Wave) and the 3.7” (on the 2nd Wave) display, which retains the Super AMOLED finesse and the tough Gorilla Glass protection. It’s as gorgeous to look at as the earlier two Wave phones, but it does have a lower ppi count (The original Wave has the highest with 283 ppi, compared to 233 ppi of the Wave 3). It does not, how-ever, affect the actual performance of the display – which is stunning while rendering pictures in bright, crisp and vivid details – as well as videos with excellent quality. The audio on the Wave 3 is also rather good, but the true winner is the sheer performance of the Bada 2.0 device – which is coated with

a TouchWiz UI, that never seems to lag at all. Though there are por-tions of the UI which look heavily borrowed from Android, Bada 2.0 does have enough pizzazz to set it apart from the droid crowd – and make a mark for itself. It may lack apps to Google’s Android Market, but to be honest, we have rarely come across people who rely on apps completely for their produc-tivity and entertainment. The 1.4 Ghz Scorpion processor does very well to ensure there is smooth multi-tasking and Bada 2.0 has a lot of upgrades over earlier ver-sions that will ensure its longevity.

verdictOTA update is finally possible on Bada 2.0, but that’s not the only

improvement here. We had ear-lier discussed Bada’s capabilities when it was featured as our Tech of the Month, so let’s not delve into it again. As a capable multi-media and productive device, the Wave 3 has it all. It will keep you entertained via a brilliant display and productive via its Office and Memo apps. It has just about the right amount of brilliance, with perhaps the competition given by other OS’ being its only nemesis. If you can ignore that, then this is the perfect phone for you.

dISPLAyThe same 480x800 resolu-tion on a larger 4” Super AMOLED display means a lower pixel per inch (ppi) count of 233, but that does not take away the brilliance of the display. It does mean a slight loss of sharpness on very close observation, but you’d need to have a rather keen eye to spot that.

CAMERAA 5MP camera with LED flash does a rather decent job at capturing sharp, de-tailed and well-contrasted images. It does suffer a bit from blurriness if there is even slight movement while taking an image, but overall leaves nothing to desire. The UI is easy to use and navigate, plus with 720p recording on-board, it will make a great impact. There is also a secondary VGA cam for video-calling.

BOTTOM PAnELThe top is now bottom! With the 3.5mm audio jack and microUSB port both, moving here and the top saying devoid of any ports & jacks.

COnnECTIvITy 3G, HSDPA+HSUPA, Wi-Fi (with hotspot), Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP and microUSB port are all included. But, no HDMI ports, Infrared, NFC – are trivial let-downs.

Specifications

1.4Ghz Scorpio ProcessorBada OS v2.05MP cam with LED flash4GB internal, microSD card support122gms, 1500mAh Li-Ion bat-tery

Price: 18,490/-

ALTERnATIvES

hTC desire Android v2.1 OS3.7-inch Touchscreen5 MP Primary Camera 18,599/-

Lg Optimus Black Android v2.2 OS4-inch Touchscreen5 MP Primary Camera 18,990/-

nokia Lumia 710Windows Phone 7.5 OS5 MP Primary Camera3.7-inch Touchscreen 18,999/-

REVIEW - SMARTPHONE


More Than Mere ProjectionThe nikon Coolpix S1200pj

First LookA digi-cam with a built-in projec-tor? Well, it’s not science fiction – in-fact we’ve seen Nikon launch 2 such digi-cams in the previous 2 years. It’s not so much as a mar-keting gimmick, as it is about try-ing out a new product line. Nikon have had many such successful firsts, but it’s with a bit of appre-hension that we trudge forward to check out the newest cam with a projector in-built. The reason is because of the relative coldness shown by everyone in general to the previous 2 releases by Nikon – the S1000pj and the S1100pj. Will the S1200pj be able to stake claim to lost ground? We can’t wait to push it through its paces.

ReviewAs with all digital cameras, the primary criterion that needs to be satisfied is the image quality. The

colours need to be vivid, bright-ness levels need to be adjusted correctly and there should be no noise levels whatsoever. Of course, the added features do add to the value of the product – but we love nothing more than a product to do its primary function extraordinary well, and then wow us with its flair and extras. The Nikon S1200pj, thankfully, did just that. The im-age quality of all pictures taken at various level of lighting was exceptionally good. Image qual-ity in outdoor shots is good and there was a minimum amount of colour fringing noticed. An issue noticed with this camera is during zoom and when the zoom is set to maximum, colours appear desatu-rated. However, this was not con-sistent and in some occasions the camera’s zoom worked well with a lot of detail being noticed. When we shot images indoors, there

was a minimum amount of grain, which was a good thing. Indoor shots captured really well, overall. The flash of the camera is pretty powerful and it can light up an area of approximately 12-feet. The camera handles 720p HD video re-cording pretty well and we faced no issues whatsoever. Playback of the file was smooth as well, the file size is average as well with it be-ing around 41 MB for a 30 second video. Nikon bundles a 1050mAh battery with this camera and the brand rates it at approximately 220 shots.

verdictWe cannot really pick too many flaws with this wonderful imaging device, though we did try our best to. It’s not the most consistent camera we’ve seen in terms of im-age quality from Nikon, but it’s not a DSLR after all. With an affordable

price tag of Rs. 13K, it will certainly beat the competition that exists for 14MP digi-cams. The projector isn’t perfect, but close to it. The 5x zoom works really well and all the features are tuned-out to near perfection. You can’t really ask for more.

PROJECTORAh yes, the stand-out fea-ture of this camera. It does not come with a HDMI port, so a USB cable can do the trick, via any iOS device. Though the cable needs to be purchased separately, it does the job well by projecting the cap-tured images on a screen up to 60” diagonal size. In a room with low or no lighting, it works brilliant-ly- but brightly lit rooms can be an issue. That’s true with most portable pro-jectors, even though this cam has 40% more lumens than the previous one.

vIdEO The S1200pj can record videos in HD 720p at 30fps. This is a fairly com-mon trait of most camer-as available in the market. The recording format for videos is H.264 and it is playable on many video players such as Windows Media Player, VLC, etc. The memory cards sup-ported with this camera are SD, SDHC and SDXC. These type of cards are easily available in the market and available in a variety of capacities.

Specifications

14.1MP sensor 5x Optical zoom 1280x720 max resolution 3” LCD screen SD, SDHC, SDXC memory card types

Price: 13,300/-

Fujifilm FinePix S2950 Point & Shoot 14.0 MegapixelsOptical zoom: 18xCCD Image Sensor 10,000/-

Sony Cybershot dSC-h70 Point & Shoot 16.1 MegapixelsOptical zoom: 10xSuper HAD CCD Image Sensor 9,800/-

Olympus Tg 810 Point & Shoot 14 MegapixelsOptical zoom: 5xCCD Image Sensor 19,999/-

ALTERnATIvES

Words by: Chaitanya Tapase

REVIEW - CAMERA


69 I EXHIBIT I FEBRUARY 2012

VALENTINE'S DAY GIFTING IDEAS

Love birds are singing again, Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and to make sure everyone can celebrate the gift of love and romance, we bring to you the perfect ideas for gifts for the special someone in your life. With toys, chocolates and flowers being the 'old school' style, we thought why not bring you in touch with some of the finer things in life. Like Azra Jewels & More, who introduce their finest collection of 18 carat gold and Diamond products to assist you in letting you love shine upon your loved ones, making it an occasion worth remembering.

It is believed that Valentine's Day marks the begin-ning of spring that relates this day to fertility and love, and what better way to portray your love with the gift of diamonds and pearls. Offering classic diamonds and designing them with utmost unconventionality, Azra Jewels & more is a store which has cre-ated a category of its own. The special Valentine’s Day collection comprises of belt buckle specially crafted with white and black onyx along with diamonds and gold and custom made diamond stud-ded pearl watch. A perfect gift this Valentine’s Day for that extra spark.

Contact no:022-26425599

Located at: Azra jewels & more, Inspired luxury, Shop no.2 , Ground floor, B wing, Rizvi Ma-hal, 150 Waterfield Road, Near Bhabha Hospital, Bandra West, Mumbai 400 050.

If you want a bit of celeb jazz to the day and make it special, then there are some other options as well. Here are some of the Paris Hilton watches and time-piece, exclusively made for this very special day. Bold straps with glittering crystals with a chaste Paris Hilton touch is for the glamorous diva in you!

Price: `12000 approx.

Available at: Watches of Swit-zerland, BandraShoppers Stop, Juhu

And who can forget the brand that is endorsed by one of the most beautiful woman in India? Longines has a proud tradition of creating some of the classiest and most exquisite watches to own. Highly recom-mended for the lady who values quality and style over show and jazz. This could be yours for around `1,22,500/-

Available at : All leading watch makers stores

Now let's also think about the men for a change. Ladies, if your man is one with power and has too many cheques to sign in a day, then gift him a pen which will be worth the effort required. We present to you the new Intuition writing instruments from Graf von Faber-Castell, which offer the opportunity to experience that in its purest form to experience.

High gloss polished, you immediately notice the warmth of the ivory in the eye, ef-fectively accentuated by the bril-liant platinum-plated trim ring on the cap edge on the subtle "Hand Made in Germany" is engraved. The shaft is fashioned from one piece: no thread breaks the mold, the sovereign guarantees maxi-mum functionality. The slightly curved grip makes intuitive idea of how comfortable are the pen in his hand.

•Fountain pen with handy cartridge Konvert system and 18 carat Bicolorfeder with iridium tip. – `23,250/-

•Rollerball with Magnum Mine with ruby ball writes longer than standard mines – `17,550/-

•Ball pen with refill in the internationally used standard – `13,550/-

•Mechanical pencil refills Á 0.7 mm, with hardness as a reservoir for refills and replaceable white eraser under the removable end cap - `13,550/-

Available at: William Penn Stores

First LookAnother brilliant Windows Phone comes in our possession and an-other instance of Nokia making the right moves. It seems, after struggling for a long time with their own, home brewed OS, Nokia has decided it’s definitely time to move on. Whether or not the mar-riage of Nokia and Microsoft will lead to something bigger, is any-one’s guess – we can certainly see both parties benefitting from this partnership. The Lumia 800 had an excellent uni-body design with classy looks and fabulous materi-als used. But, it came at a price. To appeal to a wider audience, Nokia have also launched the Lumia 710 – which is just a younger and

slightly under-powered version of the Lumia 800.

ReviewOn first looks, the Lumia 710 doesn’t make as big an impression as the 800. It doesn’t feel as classy, as distinct or as powerful. But, it is about Rs. 10K cheaper, so if you observe it from that perspec-tive – it is a worthy purchase. With Mango, Windows OS for a phone has definitely taken a turn in the right direction, but we’re really impressed with the overall quality of the tile interface. It might take a little getting used to, but the 1.4Ghz Scorpion processor, along-with the Adreno 205 GPU ensures that you experience no lag while

you browse through and get ac-climatized with the UI. The perfor-mance of the Mango OS is overall pretty similar to what you can ex-perience on the Lumia 800, but it will lose out on the display. With only 8GB internal storage and no microSD card support, some us-ers will surely take this as a deal-breaker. Multimedia and MS Office are handled fairly well with good SNS integration and capability of the OS to sync seamlessly with any Windows device. So far, we’ve seen only Windows take a com-pletely new approach to make UI’s for touch-enabled devices. The rest are following each others’ footsteps, while heavily borrowing ideas from iOS.

verdictThe Lumia 710 does feel great to hold and operate, but the slightly plastic look might not go down well with everyone. But, it does everything very well a modern day smartphone is supposed to do. The only downside for the MS powered Mango OS are the lack of Xbox services in India, but that should hardly be a deal-breaker. Some settings cannot be updated manually (like the access point for MMS), but if you set-up the device with default settings from your provider – it works just right. It’s very responsive, intuitive, has ex-cellent multi-media and connec-tivity options – plus everything on MS Office.

Shining Bright with WindowsThe nokia Lumia 710

Specifications

1.4Ghz Scorpion Processor 3.7” TFT capacitive touchscreen Windows Phone OS v7.5 (Mango) 5MP cam with LED flash 8GB internal, no microSD card slot

Price: 18,999/-

Samsung Omnia WWindows Phone 7.5 OS5 MP Primary Camera3.7-inch Touchscreen 17,699/-

hTC RadarWindows Phone v7.5 OS5 MP Primary Camera3.8-inch Touchscreen 23,990/-

BlackBerry Curve 9380BlackBerry 7 OS5 MP Primary Camera3.2-inch Touchscreen 20,445/-

ALTERnATIvES

CAMERAThe 5MP snapper on the 710 is not the best 5MP cam we’ve seen on the smartphone, but it’s still quite good. There are plenty of the op-tions on the cam UI, but no face detection. What impressed more was the 720p video recording on the unit, which did great justice to the lens. The only drawback was the continuous auto-focus not be-ing able to keep up.

dISPLAyYou cannot pitch it against the AMOLED standards, but the Clear-Black LCD screen of the Lumia 710 holds its own – with a WVGA reso-lution, giving you a nice 252ppi. It’s as good a display as you’ll see on a Windows Phone.

BOTTOM PAnELWhile we were impressed with the capacitive buttons on the bot-tom of the Lumia 800, the 710 has hardware buttons. The all plastic look give them a tacky feel and we would really appreciate all touch-phones to be FULL touch.

TOP PAnELWith a 3.5mm audio jack, a mi-croUSB port and the power/lock switch – the top panel feels very familiar.

REVIEW - SMARTPHONE


Moving from Better towards BestThe Sennheiser hd 220 Originals

Skullcandy SghEBZ-16 dwight howard hesh dJ headphoneNBA Magic Colours HeadphonesFrequency range – 18-20KHz 4,640/-

Skullcandy S6SkBZ-74 Skullcrushers Snoop dogg headphoneSnoop Dogg designer HeadphonesDJ Articulation 3,925/-

First LookNot happy with just launching their own headphones, a lot of companies with other brands to launch co-branded products. HTC with their Beats headphone from Dr. Dre was one such example. So, we now have Sennheiser following suit, with the launch of their HD 220 which have Adidas co-brand-ing associated with ‘em. We’re not sure how this helps both compa-nies, but it’s the end-product that we are more interested in. With the blue of Adidas thrown in, the overall design on a Sennheiser headphone feels quite different, but how it actually performs is the big question.

ReviewIt’s been a while since we’ve seen

a new Sennheiser product be-ing launched here, so when we heard that the latest was going to be co-branded with Adidas – we were a bit surprised. Thank-fully, the overall design is distinctly reminiscent of Sennheiser’s previ-ous headphones – so it’s great to actually hold and use them. The cushion that goes on your ear is made as comfortable as can be, along with the design of the panel that goes over your head. Even for a big head like mine, the fit and feel of the headphones was comfy – which is saying a lot, as I usually struggle with these on other makers’ headphones. With such comfort, we were only hop-ing to get great clarity and excel-lent treble and bass distinction. Thankfully, that is exactly what we

got – with the bass having enough thump, yet not overly loud. The treble was crisp, yet not screechy. It was able to handle all types of music we threw at it – and movies were an absolute joy to watch with these babies on. Even some action games with HD content were great, as the accuracy of all Sennheiser products cannot be questioned. What is even more impressive is the fact that these headphones work pretty well with almost all devices that have a 3.5mm audio jack. In the past, a lot of high-end headphones really struggled to perform on smartphones, as they could not provide ample power output for these headphones. But, even if the decibel levels were a bit low – the clarity and range of the audio output certainly was not. It’s

an impressive feat that Sennheiser has achieved. Even on most PMP’s (we tested it on the iPod Touch) – it did really well.

verdictIt’s quite easy to fall in love with the Sennheiser HD 220 originals. With or without the co-branding. Sure, the Adidas stripes and the design looks cooler now – but we didn’t mind the previous look ei-ther. Either way, it’s a really pow-erful and impressive set of head-phones that will surely leave you impressed. A recommended buy for all those looking for a great pair of headphones that don’t cost a bomb.

Specifications

Ear coupling- Supra aural Frequency response – 19-21,000 Hz Sound Pressure Level – 108db Cable Length – 1.4m Connector – 3.5mm

Price: 3,490/-

ALTERnATIvES

REVIEW - HEADPHONE


Sounds like hd AudioThe Panasonic SC-hTB520

First LookThere aren’t many sound bars in the market right now that can impress everyone. Especially since there is a great variety to choose from in the Display segment, we have seen few audio output de-vices that have impressed, as much. The only reason we turn to these sound bars are, of course, because of the lack of quality of crystal clear sound output from the Smart and HD TV’s. So, trying to appease us with its sleek looks and awesome performance is the new Panasonic SC-HTB520 sound-bar. It really looks like a shiny, sleek sports car that you wish to keep in your garage and never take out. But, take out you must – and see the different ways in manages to wow you.

ReviewIf looks were the only criteria then the Panasonic sound-bar will win hands down, without any issue. It’s got the perfect set of shine and

sleek to compliment any TV set you want to set it against. Meas-uring 1018 x 75 x 44mm – you will be wise to pair it with a TV upwards of 40 inches. The speak-ers also come with wall brackets, which enable you to use them as wall mounted speakers. This surely helps out in managing space and also lets you enjoy the experi-ence of Hi-Fi audio without mak-ing a mess of your living room. Of course, all the glossiness does at-tract fingerprints, but there are no controls on the front panel – which means that there should be no reason of excessive touching here. Panasonic have placed the drivers on either ends, underneath a grill, which the brand terms as a mirror coated stainless mesh. The drivers featured on the sound-bar, include a two way, two speaker, bass reflex placement. There is no display here, instead, the different com-mands sent to it are denoted by LED indicators, which are located on the upper portion of the front

panel in the centre. The actual performance of the speakers was good, with its ability to handle low and high notes with equal ease. It has enough bass power to create minor ripples in the room, remote is responsive in all situations and the clarity is crystal clear.

verdictIf you do not wish to clutter your living room with more than 2 speakers, then sound-bars are the only alternatives for you. They are as clear and powerful, but perhaps won’t have the range and flex-ibility of a 5.1 system. But, there is the cost factor working in their favour along-with the ease of use. Though they have allotted two HDMI ports, one is just for input. So if a person has multiple devic-es, such as a gaming console and a Blu-ray player, they have to dis-connect one to enable the other option. The brand has not added any analog ports, thus limiting the connectivity options, further.

REAR PAnELThe connectors located at the rear include an HDMI out for the TV, an HDMI input for a Blu-ray or DVD player, an IR blaster terminal, an optical in and a wireless terminal for connecting to the subwoofer.

REMOTE COnTROLThe pint-sized remote control has minimal buttons (only 7) that worked without any issues what-soever.

Specifications

2.1 ch (with Separated Subwoofer) 240W Power Rating 1 Aux Jack 1 Remote Control

Price: 26,900/-

Bose Companion 202.0 speaker system1 Aux System1 fully function remote 14,513/-

yAMAhA yAS-101 SOUnd BAR1.1 speaker system60W Power Output1 standard remote 20,500/-

Sharp hE hTSL501.1 speaker system50W subwoofer + 25W per channelVolume control via TV’s remote 22,930/-

ALTERnATIvES

REVIEW - SOUND BAR


Sliding into newer dimensionsAsus Eee Pad Slider

First LookAsus has undoubtedly made some great products over the past. This year the industry has been abuzz with their Eee Pad series of tablets. The latest is the Eee Pad Slider tablet, which has won quite a few admirers of its own. The only question remains to be answered is – if users will really take up the in-built keyboard with the tablet, to be a really useful addition. If it is, then we won’t be surprised to see it being implemented on other tablets as well. Form-factor, build and overall ease of use should al-ways be key areas to concentrate on for any tablet maker and Asus have usually done a fairly good job with these.

ReviewThis is the most unique tablet we have seen till date. The Asus Eee Pad Transformer also offers

a similar combo - touchscreen with a keypad dock, but admit-tedly, looks like a netbook unless the display is switched on. The Eee pad Slider, on the other hand, looks very different. When closed, the Slider looks like just any other tablet, a bulky tablet, but never-theless just another tablet. All the ports and connectivity options are spread around the side spines of the tablet. However, the real inter-esting stiff is hidden behind the screen! You need to pull the dis-play upwards, from the top, and wait for it to lift up and sit at an angle. And there is the keypad! Common colour combo of black and silver is what you see around the display. The keypad however is chocolate brown in colour. While the colour combo does seem a bit dull, with the brown seeming quite bland. However, those who want understated colours will appreci-ate the wide berth given to glossy

colours. The Slider is powered by a 1GHz dual core processor, and paired with 1GB of RAM. With An-droid 3.1 (Honeycomb) on board, we found the performance to be very good indeed. In fact, this one has some of the best benchmark scores we saw among Android tablets.

verdictThis is one unique tablet - stands out in a crowd like no one else. It has the necessary performance figures to make it one of the quickest Android tablets in the market. The Slider may just be the perfect solution for someone who wants to replace the laptop/netbook with a tablet. The inte-grated keypad helps achieve that. Depends on how comfortable you find it though. But is this the first in a new genre of tablets, aimed at the business user?

BUILd qUALITyWhile we do not see any issues with the solidity of the product, it doesn’t feel very high qual-ity. There is a clunky touch to it, which is a huge disappointment. The mechanism for lifting up the screen and holding it there tends to get scratched easily.

kEyBOARdWhile it does add to the overall weight of the tablet, it does not change the fact that some users will really wel-come an add-on keyboard for all typing purposes. The drawback is, of course, it’s not easy to operate when you are mobile.

CAMERAThe 5MP snapper at the rear does a fairly neat job in most condi-tions, but as with most tablets, cannot handle low-lit conditions too well. It’s still quite decent for taking pics while on the go.

dISPLAyAn excellent IPS LED display has given the Taiwanese com-pany a great advantage over the rest of the field. It’s one of the brightest displays around and has excellent viewing an-gles and contrast ratios.

1 Ghz dual-core ARM Cortex A9 processorAndroid OS v3.1 (Honey-comb)IPS LED 10.1” display5MP camera with 1.2MP cam front cam16GB internal, microSD card support

Specifications

Price: 36,999/-

REVIEW - TABLET


Forget Focusing, Just ClickThe Lytro Light Field Camera

Ever since the world went digital, we have seen a number of innovations come in the imaging in-dustry. But, no matter

how much progress technology had made, it still didn’t add up to much if the photographer did not click the images in good con-ditions and with some common sense. And yes, he had to focus as well. Without focus, all images look blurry and unusable. Until now.

First ImpressionsIt’s hard to say what we can say about a device that sounds so radical, we almost think it won’t work in real life. But, the more we hear about it, the more we see the underlying concepts in the technology. It’s got a box shaped

body with only one button to click images with. The minimalistic ap-proach is also implemented on the viewfinder (it seems), with just a simple screen that lets you adjust the focus of the clicked images. The upcoming release of the Lytro camera will let you focus after you take a picture, and take photos in super low light because it process-es all of the light information from every angle.

Closer LookRegular photos are two-dimen-sional, but Lytro images will be infinitely-dimensional, like having hundreds of cameras plugged in to a supercomputer. Want that flower petal to come forward, or your son’s face to be more in fo-cus? Consider it done. While Lytro’s images have become well-known for their ability to be

refocused, one of the harder-to-explain features is the 3-D-like feature, achievable through some-thing called parallax. The technology hasn’t changed since its June debut. Under the hood, Lytro’s camera uses a new technology called light field pho-tography, which allows for so-called “living pictures” that can be refocused after they are taken, in addition to performing a few other tricks.

Final ThoughtsWith the imminent release of the Lytro cam in the near future, we can certainly look for a revolu-tion in the imaging industry. ‘Liv-ing Pictures’ might seem like just a concept right now, but once peo-ple get hooked on to it – they are never going to feel the need to go back to their good old digi-cams.

hocus-FocusImagine taking a picture and then later deciding which part needs to be focused, and which does not. The in-built software of the Lytro lets you do just that. We can go on and on about it, but why don’t we let you see an example snap to show you ex-actly what we mean. There are 2 subjects in the pic and the taker can decide if he wants the kitty in the foreground to get focussed or the one in the background. Oh, he took the pic without focus-sing on either!

Unique rectangular body measures 1.61x1.61x4.41 inches Light Field Sensor; 11 Meg-araysLight Field Engine 1.0 pro-cessor8x optical zoom lensConstant f/2.0 apertureBlazing fast speed thanks to no Autofocus1.46-inch back-lit LCD screenSimple control layout; only uses Power and Shutter buttons, zoom slide, and touchscreen LCDLi-ion battery with “long life”

Specifications

Price: $399 for 8GB $499 for 16GB

PREVIEW - CAMERA


The BlackBerry Boys have been feeling the heat for quite some time, plus their strategies do not make sense at times. No sooner

had they released their latest OS – the BB OS 7, did they announce a newer OS in the making – the QNX. No sooner had they released the Bold 4, did we hear about the Bold 5 coming up in a few months. How a customer is supposed to react to this, we don’t really understand. Research In Motion’s share of the U.S. smartphone mar-ket fell to just 9% in the previous quarter, from a commanding 60% in 2006 before the popular iPhone from Apple and Android phones were available, says Canalys, a market research company. Research In Motion stands a fighting chance in 2012 if it can re-create its old magic with a new model. Alas, the company just shocked investors by an-nouncing the delay of its BlackBerry 10 for almost a year, to the end of 2012. A new Playbook tablet computer due out in February may not help much. The last

Cavernous Barnes & Noble (BKS) stores seem a lot emptier than they were a few years ago. Where is everyone? They’re shopping

online, and probably at Amazon.com. In the previous quarter, Amazon’s sales grew 44%, compared with sales declines at Barnes & Noble.Amazon has posted annualized sales growth of 32% over the past three years, compared with a mere 7% at Barnes & Noble. And next year, if readers are at home curled up with an e-book in-stead of perusing the aisles at Barnes & Noble, it’s more like-ly that they’ll be reading it on a Kindle Fire from Amazon than on a Nook Tablet from Barnes & Noble. After all, the Kindle Fire is $50 cheaper at $199. (There are cheaper Nooks, but that’s the comparable one.) Amazon also has a much richer collection of digital content, like books and movies, behind its e-reader. This will be another serious problem for the na-

Playbook was a flop, and the new one goes up against tough competition from Apple’s iPad and the Kindle Fire from Amazon.com.

In the company’s most recent conference call, co-CEO Michael La-zaridis said it’s still “early days” for the BlackBerry 7 launched last August, and ongoing marketing should drive sales of this phone in 2012. Co-CEO James Balsil-

lie said RIM continues to be a leading smartphone company, with nearly 75 million BlackBerry sub-scribers in more than 175

countries. RIM also points to strength in BlackBerry sales in emerging markets as a possible saving grace in the com-ing year. But that’s no substitute for the loss of lucrative U.S. corporate custom-ers. In 2012, “all objections in corporate America to the iPhone and the iPad go away, and that’s the end for Research In Motion,” says Michael Shulman, the edi-tor of Short-Side Trader, an investment newsletter. “They’re done.”

tion’s last brick-and-mortar bookselling giant. It’s too early to close the book on Barnes & Noble. The chain is renego-tiating leases to contain costs. It’s selling more toys. And it has a strong college text-book business. Plus, apologists like to ar-gue that Barnes & Noble has more breath-ing room now that Borders is gone.But this isn’t entirely true. Barnes & Noble also faces tough competition in high-vol-

ume best-sellers from Wal-Mart Stores, Target and Costco. As for that college textbook business, the mar-

gins are low, and they’ll get even lower if Amazon moves in. One saving grace is that e-books won’t entirely replace the old-fashioned kind. But e-books will be a major 2012 trend, and the odds don’t favour Barnes & Noble. “Amazon is in the driver’s seat, and it will take majority share,” says Scott Stevens of Strata Capital Management, in Beverly Hills, Calif.

RESEARCH IN MOTION (RIM)

BARNES & NOBLES

2012 might turn out to be a rather tough year for companies. With the economic crises show-ing no respite, some might just be at the wrong end of the stick till the year finishes. A mix of bad strate-gies, coupled with lack-lustre products and/or services might force these companies to have a re-think.

Tech Cos. that will feel the HEAT in 2012


An iconic name in photography for decades, Eastman Kodak is now just a blurry image of its former self. There’s a great irony here. Kodak’s been laid low by the digital camera -- after planting the seeds of its

own destruction by inventing the digital camera in 1975. Competitors like Canon and Nikon did a much bet-ter job of making money off it. The upshot has been years of dwindling sales and nagging losses at Kodak. Its own digital camera efforts, which once looked promising, have flopped. Kodak sales fell once again in 2011’s third quarter -- by 5% to $1.46 billion. And the company reported $222 million in losses, 83 cents per share. Underscoring concerns that Kodak might go into bankruptcy, cash levels were cut nearly in half, to $862 million from $1.62 billion the year before. For the first nine months of 2011, the cash bleed in its core busi-nesses was horrendous, doubling to $1 billion. CEO Antonio Perez, who joined Kodak in 2003 after many years at Hewlett-Packard, has valiantly led the company into new lines of business, mainly inkjet printers, with some success. Printer division sales grew a nice 44% last quarter.

We all loved Netflix when it freed us from the tyranny of Blockbuster’s late fees with a simple DVD-by-mail service. But the love affair is fad-ing. As viewers turn to online streaming video,

the red envelopes and DVDs seem quaint -- or worse.

Netflix, of course, offers a quality online video service. But the paradigm shift to streaming video is going to be rough on this company in 2012, for two reasons.

First, the change exposes Netflix to a lot more com-petitors -- from Amazon.com, Apple and Google, to sites like Hulu and Vudu, says James Angel, a professor of finance at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. Am-azon Prime, for example, offers streaming video (not to men-tion quicker shipping on retail items) for just $79 a year, which is less than Netflix. Netflix customers, still miffed by a surprise price hike made and then rescinded during 2011, are all too

Ok, not to stir up controversy – but, Yahoo does seem like it is pressed against the ropes.

Yahoo! has been making headlines in 2011, but for all the wrong reasons. The biggest news, of course, came when Carol Bartz was unceremoniously fired — sparking a flurry of buyout speculation and prolonged snickers about the once-dominant media company’s fall from grace. Some said in September that Yahoo could turn itself around under new leadership. And while the stock did leap about 50% from its August lows to a peak of almost $17 in October, the company’s earnings and revenue continue their slow backslide. True, Yahoo isn’t like other companies on this list be-

Kodak says it has sold enough printers so that sales of replace-ment ink cartridges, the bane of printer owners worldwide, will finally drive the printer division to profits in the fourth quarter. Sales in a new division selling plates used in packaging printing grew 89%.Kodak maintains that cash will double to $1.4 billion by the end of the year because of strong holiday sales. And the company is hoping to stave off bankruptcy by selling off about 1,100 digital

patents to raise cash. But The Wall Street Journal just reported that patent sales may be hitting a snag as potential buyers worry about purchasing them from a company so close to a bankruptcy, which could have creditors eventually suing to re-claim then. “We have received several financing proposals,” says Kodak spokesman Christopher Veronda, “and we have a very active and robust bidding process for our digital imaging patent portfolios.”

Back in the late 1800s, when George Eastman first put Kodak cameras in the hands of budding photography buffs, his slogan was, “You press the button, we do the rest.” More than a century later, 2012 may be the year that Kodak lenders push the button and the company goes down the pipes.

happy to convert. Cable companies, meanwhile, are beefing up their video-on-demand offerings. The other big challenge for 2012 is that the shift to streaming video will make content a lot more expensive for

Netflix. With DVDs, Netfix had a great deal. It had to pay only for the discs, then rent them as often as possible without paying any extra revenue to movie studios and TV networks. Now it’s payback time. Streaming means con-tent providers can negotiate higher prices by playing competitors against each other, says Michael Corty of Morningstar. “We see a

greater portion of the economic profits shifting to the content owners,” he says. Netflix says it will see plenty of growth from interna-tional expansion. But it will come at a huge cost in infrastruc-ture, and analysts aren’t convinced it will pay off. Ominously, Netflix recently ambushed investors by announcing an expect-ed loss for all of 2012, instead of just the first half. That could foretell even worse news for Netflix in the coming year.

cause it is profitable and likely could survive another decade on its own. But like fellow online media disaster AOL, just because you’re dying a slow death doesn’t mean you can say you’re surviving. The death of Yahoo isn’t a question of “if” so much as “when.” Yahoo has given up altogether on online search,

plugging in the Bing algorithm from Mi-crosoft to run its search functionality. Its numbers are deteriorating rapidly. It is begging for a buyout — hopefully from a private company, to avoid those pesky

shareholders. It all adds up to YAHOO! stock being snapped up on the cheap and taken private in 2012 — or perhaps broken up and sold for parts. It’s not bankruptcy, but expect Yahoo to disappear next year all the same.

EASTMAN kODAk

NETFLIX

YAHOO!

TECH THAT


EthIcs and FashIon: annE Khan ExplorEs

A model, writer and previous TV host from Canada, Anne Khan proves that you can have both beauty and brains! On top of all her media careers, she is in the process of attaining a Psychology degree and is looking forward to one day working with children. Coming from a diverse background of being half Afghan and half Sri Lankan, her unique looks and bubbly personality continues to pave a very successful path for her in the industry. With her stun-ning features and amazing physique, we couldn’t help but ask Anne what she thinks about the excessive use of PhotoShop in the industry and people’s unrealistic expectation of the perfect model.

TECH N FASHION


Exhibit: Thank you for taking this interview with Exhibit Magazine, Anne. What is it about PhotoShop that people love?

Anne: You’re very welcome; it is a pleasure to be featured in your mag-azine. I feel that there are countless things that people love about Photo Shop and this varies with every indi-vidual. In general, it is just a lot easier to produce an amazing photo with editing tools than without it. This is because you can take a picture against a blank background and edit it so you are on a beach, or you could take a photo in an average area and fix the lighting to automatically look great! Of course these are the sim-pler tools since Photo Shop can do much more like erase blemishes, make one skinnier and so on. Over-all, I feel too many people will not be satisfied until they see themselves as “perfect” as can be and this is what Photo Shop does for many people.

Ex: To what extent, if any, should PhotoShop be allowed in the in-dustry?

Anne: Well although PhotoShop is frowned upon by some people, I think it is somewhat needed in the industry. I think it makes a photog-rapher’s and company’s job easier that they can edit lighting and backgrounds to their needs. I see it as more of an art project than a fake portrayal of how a person looks when it is to do with just simple edit-ing. However, I completely disagree with editing one’s body to look dif-ferent. I have seen companies that edit model’s bodies to look skinnier or curvier and I think this is wrong. If they want a skinny model, they should find one and the same for a curvy model. The reason they don’t is because they want an image with no ‘flaws’ what-so-ever and this is just not realistic. Due to this, I don’t agree with the change of struc-ture in bodies or faces and feel this shouldn’t be allowed in the industry.

Ex: In your opinion, is PhotoShop being overused?

Anne: I would have to say yes, it is being overused. Although I’m not 100% against it as I mentioned I’m not 100% for it either. Sure we can use Photo Shop and make a picture like we’re in a different part of the world and there is nothing wrong with that. But when it comes to trim-ming parts of the body and even adding other parts on, this is just wrong. Why should we model things

that are so unrealistic and then try to portray it as being the “real thing”? I’ve never understood this part of the industry because I think there are so many gorgeous people out there that overuse of editing is not needed. If it is portrayed as art that is fine, but it’s somewhat deceitful when companies try to pass their highly edited models off for the av-erage person.

Ex: In your modeling career, have you used PhotoShop?

Anne: Yes I have used Photo Shop for my pictures and have let companies use it as well. However, this has only been for lighting effects of the area I was in. I haven’t used it to change my shape or even skin colour as I don’t find this necessary. With the make-up artists and hair stylists at hand for photo shoots, I don’t think it is needed to add more effects on top of that. Not only would it not let me be represented in a realistic way, it wouldn’t give much credit to the hair and make-up team either if they edit the picture to the max.

Ex: What type of message do you feel Photo Shop gives our youth?

Anne: Overall, it definitely doesn’t give our youth a good message. I think many young boys and girls might not understand that certain images are unrealistic and then they want to become like the image. This is really unhealthy. People should be happy how they are and be the best they can be, not somebody else. I realize it is easier to say this than to have low self-esteem like some of our youth today and I would think it is hard to make a child fully under-stand what Photo Shop is and how it works. Therefore, if it wasn’t overly exposed to our youth it would be better. It leaves kids and teens want-ing to achieve things which are im-possible as far as having the perfect body and so on.

Ex: In your opinion, could a model be looked at as “beautiful” with-out PhotoShop?

Anne: Yes! I truly believe a model, celebrity and any person can be beautiful without Photo Shop. I know that a lot of modeling work has to do with photo shoot after photo shoot, but there are models needed for runways and to speak at events and Photo Shop won’t come in handy then. There are so many

different people with such unique characteristics about them and they come in all shapes and sizes. A lot of the time Photo Shop is basically destroying that and is trying to give people a cookie cutter image which is not right. Beauty comes with con-fidence, personality and how you carry yourself as a whole and that’s just another thing Photo Shop can’t give you.

Ex: Do you feel there are certain companies or themes where Pho-toShop shouldn’t be used?

Anne: Out of all the companies I think I’m really against cosmetic brands using extreme Photo Shop. This is because majority of people buy make-up for everyday life and if they are given an unrealistic re-sult from a Photo Shopped image, it becomes very deceitful. When I pur-chase cosmetic products, I like to see an example of what I’m buying and I can’t see that with edited images. If certain make-up companies are so ‘amazing’, they would not need to edit their images. I’ve wasted my money so many times on purchas-ing low quality make-up due to false ads and I’m sure many women have. So if any company shouldn’t be al-lowed to use Photo Shop, it should definitely be cosmetics.

Ex: With Photo Shop available, are skilled photographers needed?

Anne: Yes, skilled photographers are always needed. Although many use Photo Shop, photographers almost always have the capability of get-ting very unique and different shots and this requires skill. Of course every photographer has their own specialization in what type of photo shoots they do and we should ap-preciate them for that. I’ve heard some people think that all photog-raphers are the same and this is not true. They require so many products and gadgets from various lenses to different studio lights. I would think Photo Shop could make a photogra-phers work easier, but not at all do it completely for them.

Ex: Do you think it personally has an effect on a model when Photo Shop is used for their pictures?

Anne: I think it depends. I mean, when Photo Shop is used it could definitely give a boost of confidence to a model to see themselves in an extremely edited way. On the other

hand, it could do the opposite know-ing that a company needed to use so much editing to get the picture they wanted. It all depends on how much editing is used and in what kind of way it is being portrayed – realistic or art. It could have an even worse effect and make a model think that they shouldn’t be healthy and ex-ercise and they can just get away with it because of Photo Shop. I’ve always believe people should exer-cise to not only look better but feel better to and live a longer healthy life so Photo Shop won’t do much for someone in the long run! I know that personally if a company wanted to Photo Shop and edit my pictures drastically, I would definitely be of-fended and not allow it. This is just because I feel I am unique and have a healthy, realistic body and don’t see the need for a huge change in the picture. I also wouldn’t want to be part of giving youth an unrealistic image like I mentioned before.

Ex: Lastly, can a model be success-ful without ever using extreme Photo Shop?

Anne: Yes, in my opinion a model could be successful without using Photo Shop. As I mentioned before, there is not one way we should all look like which should be consid-ered as pretty, it’s how unique every-one is that makes models what they are. If they have the confidence and looks, they can definitely be success-ful in the industry. I really believe personality shows in the pictures of models and if you know what you want, you do not need Photo Shop to get there! If you ended up with bad pictures from a photo shoot and make minor tweaks, I don’t see anything wrong with that. But to change oneself completely and try to pass it off as being real, it’s mis-leading and wrong.


The Technology behind Jewellery

Art meets Science!

They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach and for a woman – it’s through gifting jewellery! Okay, maybe I made that one

up – but haven’t we seen ump-teen examples of guys luring the women with exquisite jewellery? We all love to sit and admire these objects of desire – which are in-tricately designed and crafted. Earlier, all of this was a real art – something left to only the best artisans of the time. But, as time progressed and we relied on tech-

nology for everything – we are now seeing a transition from the artisans to techies. Well, not really – but the same artisans who used to take months to design and craft out one piece of jewellery, now take a lot less time to achieve the same end-product. It may be another ex-ample of how technology has helped out another field by reduc-ing labour and saving time, but how many of us really know exact-ly what technology is used to cre-ate the exquisite jewellery items you see on display in the show-

rooms? Not too many, I’m sure. That’s precisely why we decided to touch base with some industry experts who can shed light on this topic and even give us a glimpse of what’s to come. While catching up with the spokesperson of ORO, we learned about the brand and its legacy. He explained to us, “Our legacy dates back to 1885 when the Tikamdas Motiram Group crafted their first gold bangle which would eventually lay the foundation for a ground break-ing craft. The key highlights would

have to start off first with the es-tablishment of the brand “ORO” in the year 2008-09. Mr. Avinash Pahuja, the Director of Operations and Mr. Ravish Pahuja, Director of Design and Manufacturing were majorly instrumental in structur-ing the building blocks for ORO. With an initial retailer network of 500, that number has now grown to a mammoth 1200 plus all across India due to the continued and unwavering efforts of Mr. Avinash and Mr. Ravish. ORO has been able to make its presence felt pan India owing to the superior qual-

TECH DESIGN


ity designs, high productivity and efficient distribution systems. We produce over 2000 bangles eve-ryday and constantly bring about innovation in our product ranges. ORO today is the largest machine made gold bangle manufacturer in India. The ORO Classics collec-tion features traditional designs whereas the ORO Movables has more intricate detailing because our focus has been to keep up with the changing expectations of our customers. We relentlessly challenge our own ranges to pro-duce advanced products. For ex-ample, the ability to customize the enamel colour on our ORO Enam-el product line is one of our key highlights. This allows each de-sign to be unique and our clients have the freedom to be creative with their ORO jewellery. Another significant triumph to be duly highlighted is the introduction of 18kt gold bangles in India. We at ORO are proud to be the pioneers of this trend because of which we have attained a dominant position in the market.” We caught up with Mr. Avinash Pahuja and Mr Ravish Pa-huja, to talk about the role tech-

nology has played in the artistic field of designing jewellery. Mr. Avinash Pahuja explained, “While a lot of the jewellery making de-pends on the detailing in the de-sign and the various motifs that complement the assortment of themes, the integration of ma-chinery has made it easier to ex-ecute the intricate channels and fine karigari. Creativity has taken a whole new dimension with the way our designers have managed to achieve a perfect balance of high end technology and our sig-nature touch which makes every ORO bangle worthy of its stamp.”On probing further about the use of the latest technology that ORO is using in making their jewellery here in India, and worldwide, Mr. Ravish Pahuja replied “At ORO, we use 3D modelling to support the detailing in the finer design ranges. We have special purpose-built machines to assist us with the elaborate cutting of the finer de-tails in our designs. We also have a four step Quality Testing Process which allows us to ensure that every product is up to standard before it leaves the manufacturing unit. We also have a ROM (Raia

Order Management) interface that enables us to better manage our order process through our distri-bution line. Each ORO product is Hallmarked with the 916 mark for purity.” 3D in jewellery too? Well, you better believe it! It has to be done in that way, as the en-tire piece should have a look that is coherent with the overall design. That’s how it is easier to visualize an end-product with the help of a monitor and relevant tools on a PC. Before we left, we inquired if there was a chance for an App for smartphones which will let users see and ‘feel’ the jewellery right in the palm of their hands. Mr. Avinash Pahuja replied, “It is too soon to speak about some of our upcoming projects, but we do al-ready have an order management system (ROM) available online at orders.raia.in which allows our distributors and retailers to access latest designs and manage orders as well. There is an increasing de-mand for interfaces that allows for easier access of information and we are definitely looking into the same.” So, who are these peo-

ple who are making the tools to be used to design jewellery? Well, quite a few companies, as it turns out! And not just the ones who have traditionally excelled at mak-ing designing tools. There are a few other companies as well, and one of them is, surprisingly, IBM. “We’ve made one of almost eve-rything except tongue rings,” says Dan Russell, senior manager of IBM’s Almaden Research Lab, where IBM is developing digital-jewellery technology. The combination of shrinking computer devices and increasing computer power has allowed several companies to be-gin producing fashion jewellery with embedded intelligence. To-day, manufacturers can place mil-lions of transistors on a microchip, which can be used to make small devices that store tons of digital data. Researchers have already created an array of digital-jewel-lery prototypes. We can’t wait to see what the future of this mar-riage between Art & Science will lead to, but we’re sure it will be something extraordinary!

Mr. Ravish PahujaDirector of Design and Manufacturing

---Chaitanya Tapase

Mr. Avinash PahujaThe Director of Operations


Get addicted to these…games!

Loved Angry Birds? Wasted time playing and finishing it (ap-plicable for many of you) for now, at least? At 300 levels and counting, with more features added on each update, you’re probably ready to look at something other than those high-flying, bulldozing, squawking birds.

Fortunately, there is a wide range of games equally as challenging and fulfilling. To boost your game cred, try out a few of these options that will have you gripping and yelling at your screen more than you thought possible. We have few more similarly addictive games to offer…hope these games keep you equally busy and occupied eating up most of your valuable time of the day! Good luck!

It’s raining hamburgers! After you are given a specific or-der for a hamburger, you have the task of creating it flaw-lessly by tilting your device back and forth as ingredients fall from the sky. This game requires a mixture of memo-rization and hand-eye coordination, and with more than 50 different combinations of orders, you’ll earn cash as you work your way up the “Sky Burger” corporate ladder.

Enough with hamburgers falling from the sky - Fruit Ninja offers healthier options. As fruit flies up from the bottom of the screen, it is up to you to slash each piece in half. Missing one leads to a big fat X, and three mistaken swipes ends the game. Beware of bombs that seem to pop out of nowhere and the increasing fruit that appears on screen.

Most similar to Angry Birds, this game features the aim-and-shoot method in order to pass each level. With more than 600 levels, you con-trol the shotgun that guns down a series of bloody zombies. While the bullets have the capability to bounce off the walls countless times, the effect makes it trickier to find dynamic ways to eliminate the enemy.

Sky BURgERAvailable on – iOS, Android

FRUIT nInJAAvailable on – iOS, Android, Windows, Bada, Symbian

STUPId ZOMBIESAvailable on – Android

1

2

3


Race against the clock as you pop, drop and wipe out blocks of blue and red “Aikos,” which are really just fuzzy squares with faces. Using strategic finger tapping, the goal is to use obsta-cles like ropes, wood and sliders to get rid of the red blocks, while keeping the blue blocks intact.

Scrabble!!! Identical to Scrabble, the most addicting part about this game is that you can challenge your friends in real-time. You can play as many games as you are willing to keep up with, and the app even notifies you when it is your move, keeping you coming back for more.

WORdS WITh FRIEndSAvailable on – iOS, Android

AIkO ISLAnd Available on – iOS4

6

Another addictive game. The basic game play is simple: tap where you want the orb to land. Try to match three orbs to make them disappear. Make several matches in row to receive powerups. Just don’t let the orbs fall into the abyss! You’ll also discover over ten different powerful amulets throughout your journey. They change the rules of the game in your favor. For example, the Amulet of Fire-bolt empowers you with powerful fiery bolts - and there are many more! Embark on an extraordinary journey to uncover the secrets of Crowberry Woods. Banish the darkness with your Orb Slinger and reclaim your land!

SPARkLEAvailable on – iOS, Bada, Android5

This game can lead to a lot of frustration. A moving stick figure is on the loose, and it is your job to tap the screen and make him jump from landing strip to landing strip. Get help from hovering airplanes or oncoming cars as your stick travels, but time is limited. Miss a jump and the stick figure succumbs to a painful death.

RUnSTICkRUnAvailable on – iOS, Android7

In order that the bird lands safely atop a platform, the user must strategically tap to get rid of the blocks below. If the bird hits the ground, it’s time to start over. This is something that may need a little getting used to.

BIRdS‘n’BLOCkSAvailable on – iOS, Windows8

FUN TECH


Milky Way’s truecolors caught!

Caught red handed…err…white handed! Yes, it is official now…the Milky Way is white.

Astronomers have determined exactly what colour our home galaxy the Milky Way is, and find it is aptly named. They wanted to find out how our galaxy looked from the outside - a difficult task given the Earth is inside it. A comparison of star types in other galaxies gives perhaps an unsurprising re-sult: white. But not just any white - specifically, like spring snow at an hour after sunrise or before sunset. A group of scientists announced their suc-cess at determining the exact color of earth’s home galaxy at the 219th meeting of the American Astro-nomical Society. Not only is the Milky Way white, but it is described as a “spring snow at an hour after sun-rise or before sunset.” Sounds pretty nice to us! So why is the color of the Milky Way such a big deal? Knowing the color of the galaxy helps astronomers figure out how old its stars are and how recently it formed new stars. Jeffrey Newman of the University of Pittsburgh told that “for astronomers, one of the most important parameters is actually the color of the galaxy.” Figuring out the hue of the Milky Way is an

extremely difficult task since scientists have to look at it from the inside. Not only that, but according to Newman, there is dust blocking scientists’ view. Newman and his student Tim Licquia used data on 1 million galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and compared it with information known about the total mass in the Milky Way and the rate of star for-mation. They then took an average of those galaxies that most closely matched the Milky Way and deter-mined a precise measurement of the galaxy’s color. Prof Newman says, “The best description I can give would be that if you looked at new spring snow, which has a fine grain size, about an hour after dawn or an hour before sunset, you’d see the same spectrum of light that an alien astronomer in anoth-er galaxy would see looking at the Milky Way. This “colour temperature” is somewhere between that of an old-fashioned incandescent lightbulb and noon-time sunlight; both whites, but subtly different. And what does the colour tell us about our Milky Way’s development - is it a cosmic newcomer or past its prime? Based on their findings, it appears the rate of star formation in the Milky Way is declining over time and the galaxy is in transition. The Milky Way is in a very interesting evolutionary state right now, as concluded by Newman.

CELESTIAL


Cloak to make things disappear!This one comes

straight from Harry Potter movie series!

You wear the cloak and whoosh…you vanish!

Yes, scientists have shown off a “cloaking device” that makes objects invisible - to sound waves. Such acoustic cloaking was

proposed theoretically in 2008 but has only this year been put into practice.

Described in Physical Review Letters, the approach bor-rows many ideas from attempts to “cloak” objects from light. It uses simple plastic sheets with arrays of holes, and could be put to use in making ships invisible to sonar or in acoustic design of concert halls. Much research has been undertaken toward creat-ing Harry Potter-style “invisibility cloaks” since the feasibility of the idea was first put forward in 2006. Those approaches are mostly

based on so-called metamaterials, man-made materials with proper-ties that do not occur in nature. The metamaterials are designed such that they force light waves to travel around an object; to an observer, it is as if the object were not there. But researchers quickly found out that the mathematics behind bending these light waves, called transformation optics, could also be applied to sound waves. “Fundamentally, in terms of hiding objects, it’s the same - how anything is sensed is with some kind of wave and you either hear or see the effect of it,” said Steven Cummer of Duke University. “But when it comes to building the materials, things are very different between acoustics and electromagnetics. The thing you need to engineer into the

materials is very different behav-iour in different directions that the wave travels through it.” In 2008, Dr Cummer first described the theory of acoustic cloaking in an article in Physical Review Letters, and earlier this year a group from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign dem-onstrated the first practical use of the theory in an article in the same journal. That work showed acous-tic invisibility in a shallow layer of water, at ultrasound frequencies above those we can hear. Now, Dr Cummer and his colleagues have shown off an acoustic cloaking technique that works in air, for audible frequen-cies between one and four kilo-hertz - corresponding to two oc-taves on the higher half of a piano. It works by using stacked sheets of plastic with regular arrays of holes

through them. The exact size and placement of the holes on each sheet, and the spacing between the sheets, has a predictable effect on incoming sound waves. When placed on a flat surface, the stack redirects the waves such that re-flected waves are exactly as they would be if the stack were not there at all.

That means that an object under the stack - in the team’s experiments, a block of wood about 10cm long - would not “hear” the sound, and any at-tempts to locate the object using sound waves would not find it. How the sound reflects off this re-flecting surface with this compos-ite object on it - which is pretty big and has a cloaking shell on it - re-ally reflects... just like a flat surface does.

hole poking Ortwin Hess, a director of Imperial College London’s Centre for Plasmonics and Metamaterials, called the work “a really remarkable experimental demonstration”. It shows very nicely that although acoustic and electromagnetic waves are very different in na-ture, the powers of transformation optics and trans-formation acoustics are similar. Professor Hess point-ed out that the demonstration was for very directed sound waves, and only in two dimensions, but the most notable aspect of the approach was its simplic-ity. It’s almost like someone could take a pencil and poke holes in a particular way in the plastic. The work shows that an object can be hid-den from sonar, and protected from incoming sound, but the same principles could be applied in the other direction - that is, containing or directing the sound within a space, for instance in soundproofing a stu-dio or fine-tuning the acoustics of a concert hall.

TECH THAT


Log on to http://awards.exhibitmag.com to vote now! Winners will be published in our March issue

Best App of 2011â Flipboardâ Zomatoâ Evernoteâ Cricket IPL App

Best car gadget of 2011â MapMyIndia Vx 140â Alpine IVA –D511Eâ kenwood kFC-XW 1200Fâ Blaupunkt THA 45 Pnp

Best commuter gadget of 2011â Ebco Eagle LSR – 50â Segway i2â MapMyIndia CarPadâ abra Cruiser 2

Best digicam of 2011â CANON EOS 600Dâ LEICA M9 Titaniumâ SAMSUNG MV 800â Nikon CoolPix P500

Best feature phone of 2011â Onida i9â Micromax A70â Airtyme Flauntâ Vodafone 555 Blue Facebook Phone

Best game of 2011â Portal 2â Deus Ex: Human Revolutionâ Batman : Arkham Cityâ Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Best gaming product of 2011â Nintendo 3DSâ Razer Onza Tournament Editionâ Microsoft Xbox kinectâ Sony PlayStation Move

Best-headphone-of-2011â Shure SE535 earphonesâ Sennheiser HD518â klipsch Image X10iâ Philips SHB6110 Stereo Bluetooth Headset

Best Tablet of the year â Apple iPad 2 â Samsung Galaxy Tab 10” â RIM Playbook â Motorola Xoom

Best Tech Blogger of 2011â Rajiv Dinga - WatBlog â Amit Aggarwal - Digital â InspirationHarsh Agarwal - ShoutMeLoudâ Sandeep Dedhia - BlogsDNAâ keith D’souza - Techie Buzz

Best Speakers & Docks of 2011â Bose SoundLink Wireless Mobile Speakerâ Thiel Audio CS2.4â Harmon kardon Go+Play Microâ JBL On Time 5V

Best TV of the yearâ Samsung 8000 series LED TVâ Vu Super TV 55”â LG Cinema 3Dâ Sony BRAVIA kLV-32EX310

Sexiest Women in Tech â Jessica Chobotâ Olivia Munnâ Cali Lewisâ Marina Orlova

Best Laptop of the yearâ Macbook Airâ Samsung 9 seriesâ Alienware M14xâ MSI GE620 gaming notebook

Most Awaited gadget of 2012â Sony PS Vitaâ Apple iPad 3â Xbox 720â iPhone 5

Best Indian Tech Company of the year 2011â QuickHealâ HCLâ Micromax â Vu Technologies

Best Smartphone of 2011â Samsung Galaxy S II â HTC Sensation XEâ Sony Ericsson Xperia ARCâ LG Optimus 3Dâ Blackberry Torch 9810

Best Home entertainment of 2011 â Onkyo HT-S3300 â Sony BDV-E980 3D Blu-ray Home Theatre Systemâ Bose Lifestyle 235â Yamaha YHT 296B

Brand ambassador of 2011â Hritik Roshan - I- Ballâ kalki koechlin - Micromaxxâ Deepika Padukone - Sony Digicamsâ Priyanka Chopra - Nikon

Best of the rest of 2011â Infibeam Pi2â Slingbox Pro HDâ A- DATA â Sony BDP-S370 Blu-ray Player

CATAGORIES & PRODUCTS

The voting continues, make yours count by visiting (http://awards.exhibitmag.com) & get to win surprise gadgets !

The gaming freaks must have stuck to this page by now! PlayStation – as the name suggests,

is certainly one of the most loved ‘stops’ for the gamers since it made its debut at the CES in June 1991. Currently spanning the fifth, sixth and seventh generations of video gaming, Sony PlayStation has made a long way and gained immense popularity. As of today, the brand consists of a total of three home consoles, a media center, an online ser-vice, a line of controllers, two handhelds and a phone, as well as multiple magazines.

how had the jour-ney been so far for PlaySta-tion? Where exactly does it stand today? What about the sales and profits in these 2 decades? We take a plunge in the details…

PlayStation –

Sony Computer Entertainment

SUCCESS DIARY


gAME BEgInS:

The brand PlayStation made its debut in CES 1991 and the first console was introduced on 3rd December 1994 in Japan. The first con-sole in the series, the PlayStation, was the first of the ubiquitous PlayStation series of console and hand-held game devices.

PlayStation –

Sony Computer Entertainment

PlayStation (console): The first console, the PlayStation included successor consoles and upgrades including the Net Yaroze (a special black PlayStation with tools and instructions to program PlayStation games and applications), “PSone” (a smaller ver-sion of the original) and the PocketStation (a handheld which enhances PlayStation games and also acts as a memory card). It was part of the fifth generation of video game consoles competing against the Sega Saturn and the Nintendo 64. As of 30th September 2011, the PlayStation had shipped 73.1 million units, and together with PSone it had become the first video game console to sell 100 million units.

PSone: Released on 7th July 2000, concurrently with its successor the PlayStation 2, the PSone was a considerably smaller, redesigned version of the original PlayStation video game console. The PSone went on to outsell all-other consoles, including its successor, throughout the remainder of the year. It featured two main changes from its predecessor, the first being a cosmetic change to the console and the second be-ing the home menu's Graphical User Interface.

PlayStation 2: This one is often referred to as the best-selling console till date, hav-ing reached about 153.5 million units sold as of 30th September 2011. Released in 2000, 15 months after the Dreamcast and a year before its other competitors, the Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube, the PlayStation 2 is part of the sixth generation of video game consoles, and is backwards-compatible with most original PlayStation games (an original PlayStation (not PlayStation 2) memory card is required to save games). Like its predecessor, it has received a slimmer redesign, and was also released built-in to the PSX DVR and the Sony BRAVIA KDL22PX300 HDTV. It is the most suc-cessful console in the world.

Slimline Model: Released in 2004, four years after the launch of the original Play-Station 2, the PlayStation 2 Slimline was the first major redesign of the PlayStation 2. Compared to its predecessor, the Slimline was smaller, thinner, quieter and also included a built-in Ethernet port (in some markets it also has an integrated modem). In 2007, Sony began shipping a revision of the Slimline which was lighter than the original Slimline together with a lighter AC adapter. In 2008, Sony released yet an-other revision of the Slimline which had an overhauled internal design incorporating the power supply into the console itself like the original PlayStation 2 resulting in a further reduced total weight of the console.

PlayStation 3: Released on 11th November 2006, the PlayStation 3 is the third and current iteration in the series. It competes with the Xbox 360 and the Wii in the seventh generation of video game consoles. It is the first console in the series to introduce the use of motion controls in games through the use of the SIXAXIS Wire-less Controller along with other features, such as Blu-ray Disc (BD) and Full High-definition resolution graphics capability. The PlayStation 3 comes in 20 GB, 40 GB, 60 GB, 80 GB, 160 GB, 120 GB, 250 GB, and 320 GB, with only the 160, and 320 being the current models. Like its predecessors, a slimmer redesigned model of the console has been released. As of 30th September 2011, the PlayStation 3 has sold 55.5 million units worldwide according to Sony Computer Entertainment.

PlayStation 3 Slim: Released in 2009, the redesigned model of the PlayStation 3 is the only model in production. The redesigned model is 33% smaller, 36% lighter, and consumes 34% to 45% less power than previous models. In addition, it features a redesigned cooling system and a smaller Cell processor which was moved to a 45nm manufacturing process. It sold in excess of a million units within its first 3 weeks on sale. The redesign also features support for CEC (more commonly referred to by its manufacturer brandings of BraviaSync, VIERA Link, EasyLink and others) which allows control of the console over HDMI by using the remote control as the controller. The PS3 slim also runs quieter and is cooler than previous models due to its 45 nm Cell. The PS3 Slim no longer has the "main power" switch (similar to PlayStation 2 slim), like the previous PS3 models, which was located at the back of the console.

GAME BEGINS:The brand PlayStation made its debut in CES 1991 and the first console was introduced on 3rd December 1994 in Japan. The first console in the series, the PlayStation, was the first of the ubiquitous PlayStation series of console and hand-held game devices.

GENERATIONS:

ONlINe ServIceS:

PLAySTATIOn nETWOrK: released in 2006, the PlayStation Network is an online service focusing on online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery. The service is provided and run by Sony computer entertainment for use with the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable video game consoles. The service currently has over 50 million users worldwide. The PlayStation Network provides other features for users like PlayStation Home, PlayStation Store, and Trophies.

PLAySTATIOn STOrE: The PlayStation Store is an online virtual market available to users of the Play-Station 3 and PlayStation Portable game consoles via the PlayStation Network. The store uses both physical currency and PlayStation Network cards. The PlayStation Store's gam-ing content is updated every Tuesday and offers a range of downloadable content both for purchase and available free of charge. Available content includes full games, add-on content, playable demos, themes and game and movie trailers. The service is accessible through an icon on the XMB on the PS3 and PSP. The PS3 store can also be accessed on the PSP via a remote Play connection to the PS3. The PSP store is also available via the Pc application, Media Go. As of 24th September 2009, there have been over 600 million downloads from the PlayStation Store worldwide.

LIfE WITh PLAySTATIOn: life with PlayStation is a Folding@home application available for the PS3 which connects to Stanford University’s Folding@home distributed computer network and allows the user to donate their console's spare processing cycles to the project. The Folding@home client was developed by Sony computer entertainment in collaboration with Stanford University. life with PlayStation also consists of a 3D virtual view of the earth and contains current weather and news information of various cities and countries from around the world.

PLAySTATIOn PLuS: PlayStation Plus, a subscription-based service on the PlayStation Network, compliments the standard PSN services. It enables an auto-download feature which al-lows the console to automatically download game patches and system software updates. Subscribers also gain early or exclusive access to some betas, game demos, premium downloadable content (such as full game trials of retail games like Infamous and little-BigPlanet) and other PlayStation Store items, as well as a free subscription to Qore. Other downloadable items include PlayStation Store discounts and free PlayStation Network games, PSone classics, PlayStation Minis, themes and avatars.

PLAySTATIOn BLOg: PlayStation Blog is an online PlayStation focused gaming blog which is part of the PlayStation Network. It was launched on 11th June 2007. It has featured in numer-ous interviews with third-party companies such as Square enix. A sub-site of the blog called PlayStation Blog Share was launched on 17th March 2010 and allowed readers of the blog as well as users of the PlayStation Blog to submit ideas to the PlayStation team about anything PlayStation-related and vote on the ideas of other submissions.

PLAySTATIOn APP: The PlayStation App is an application that was released on 11th FeBrUArY 2011 in several european countries for iOS (version 4 and above) and for Android (version 1.6 and above). It allows users to view their trophies, see which of their PSN friends are online and read up to date information about PlayStation. It does not feature any gaming functionality.

PLAySTATIOn SuITE: PlayStation Suite is an upcoming software framework that will be used to provide downloadable PlayStation content for devices that meet the forthcoming PlayStation certified requirements. currently, this includes devices that both run Android 2.3 and meet specific unannounced hardware requirements, and the Sony PlayStation vita. The framework will be cross-platform and cross-device, which Sony refers to as "hardware-neutral".

SUCCESS DIARY


Exhibit: What is ‘success’ as de-fined by you? how do you relate with your journey in Sony Com-puter Entertainment as Country Manager?

Atindriya: As a marketing person, I define success as continuous re-adjustments matching up to consumer expectations to be the preferred brand of the market. Suc-cess is more of a continuous journey for a brand than about just reaching the top. In the Indian context, PlayStation entered the market at a stage of nascence for gaming as a whole and console gaming in par-ticular. Success in the Indian market meant not just becoming the leader in the category but to expand the category into a high level of consumer relevance. In an attrac-tive, high potential India market, it meant going just beyond the com-munication aspects of marketing but show flexibility in all the aspects of the product configuration and business management. This needed enhance-ment of the complete accessibil-ity of console gaming for Indian consumers: •Priceaccessibilityforboth consoles (initial investment) and game software (running cost ). •Distributionaccessibil-ity by widening availability using the existing Sony trade channel strength. •Contentaccessibilitybydeveloping India specific games for entry level consumers. •Communicationaccessi-bility by incorporating Indian family values in the PlayStation way of life.

Ex: What has been the growth of PS2, PS3 and PSP in terms of sales in India?A: The business growth in India has been impressive and each of the formats (PS2 / PSP / PS3) have played an important role in allow-ing us to be the dominant part of the console gaming market of India. console gaming business is esti-mated at INr 5.8bn in 2010 (FIccI report) and PlayStation controls the major part of the business in terms of both quantum and the growth. From the business inception around 2007 to current calendar year, the overall business has seen almost 20 fold growth.

India now has approximately 1.2 mn owners of PlayStation consoles. The annual sales is dominated by PS2 (45% of total units sold) followed by PSP (30% of units sold) and a fast increasing PS3 (25% of units sold).

Ex: While elsewhere in the world, the PS3 and Xbox 360 compete virtually neck and neck, but interestingly in India PS3 domi-nates. What’s the reason behind the same and what measures are taken to hold the position?

A: The India market dominance of PS3 over confidence can be ascribed to the following aspect:•BrandstrengthamongstIndianconsumers for PlayStation backed by Sony parentage. •QualityappealofthePS3 games amongst the young gamers while its multiple features ( BD playback, 3D capabilities, stor-age media etc ) making it a perfect family ownership. •OverallPlayStationproduct portfolio (backed by PS2 / PSP) that allows a much deeper relation with trade channel.

Ex: Coming to the latest buzz, raOne, a PlayStation game on a Bollywood film and one of those few games to use the PS3 SDK. Do you think this would initiate other Indian game developers to come up with more such things in the days to come?

A: Since business inception, we have been very optimistic about the game development talent in India and the potential of a very strong game development industry. As a platform owner, we have worked closely with the industry leaders and partnered a few game develop-ment studios for India specific contents. The journey has been suc-cessful in the improvement we saw in every iteration. Starting from de-velopment for PS2 platform, Indian developers have transcended PSP and now PS3 platform. There are a number of projects with the Indian developers on the PS3 platform.In parallel, we needed a group like red chillies who has a clear vision on the part gaming can play in the future of Indian entertainment. Partnership with a strong Bol-lywood IP and the help extended by SrK towards game promotion

indeed is the big step towards an wider acceptance of console gaming. There is strong interest amongst the game developers as well movie producers towards similar partnerships and use the in-creasing appeal of gaming amongst Indian youth.

Ex: how is raOne doing, as far as the gameplay is concerned? how has been the response in India?

A: ra.One-The Game has done exceptionally well and beyond our initial expectation in all the forms we have introduced in the market. On the PS2 platform, the game has been the favorite with the kids and in the top 10 in many of the content shops. In terms of numbers, the PS2 version has already done approxi-mately 60 K + in the 3 months and showing every sign of being the big seller in the summer months. PS3 version has also been doing well though it was in-troduced a certain period after the launch of the PS2 version. The game is available both in Bluray version and as digital download . ra.One – The Game (PS3 ) has done upward of 10 K already. What is encouraging is the game being the number 1 download not just in India but in a number of european and Middle east markets.

Ex: There was a sharp cut in the price of PlayStation consoles. What was the reason behind this market strategy?

A: As with many technology products, the price erosion is a fact and console gaming has been no different. We have always kept the priority on Indian market so that all International initiatives (be it a price change or a new product launch) are leveraged in the Indian market also. The other key aspects of our pricing strategy have been the game software pricing and creating India specific price bands as much as possible.

Ex: What special plans does PlayStation have in the next few years?A: On an immediate basis, we are further strengthening the console portfolio. We have currently in-troduced an all new PSP model in the economy range with features having an even better match with emerging economy markets like India. The PS vita will be introduced in the next 2 months to augment the higher end portable gaming market. This is our entry into the touch-screen portable gaming business focused on core gaming consumers looking for extra-ordinary game-play experi-ence on the move. In the longer run, we will now focus on speeding up the process to make India as one of the leading markets in the PlayStation portfolio.

Ex: Are you yourself addicted to any PlayStation games?

A: I find gaming very interesting and there are a number of gaming franchises which are my favorite. But compared to the skill sets and the interest level of a real young Indian gamer, I will perhaps fall far short.

Ex: What are the expansion plans for Sony in India?

A: PlayStation is evaluating and will remain invested in the Indian gam-ing market. The significant areas of expansion from the gaming busi-ness (beyond the normal marketing and sales) remain as :• Strengtheningthepartnership around game develop-ment to get significant benefits on various Sony console formats• Useourlocalreplicationfacility for PS2 game replication and expand the same towards possible Bluray game replications

Mr. Atindriya Bose Country Manager (Sony Computer Entertainment)


NFC callingThe Indian context

A trend setting in the global opera-tor community is focused and driv-ing the standardized deployment of mobile NFC using the SIM as the secure element to provide authen-tication, security, and portability.

Many handset vendors and mobile payment plat-form makers are tying up to make NFC a reality. Samsung Electronics has announced a NFC chip, Broadcom has unveiled a new family of NFC chips, Nokia has launched NFC enabled handsets in as-sociation with PayMate, HID Global in association with Sony has jointly developed contactless smart card reader platform. Back home, DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation) also has been in talks with NXP to explore how NFC can be deployed for tick-eting through mobile in Delhi Metro. The more the merrier for a quicker adoption. However, the interoperability between players in the eco-system is very critical to the widespread adoption of NFC, enabling users to benefit from NFC services re-gardless of operator network or device type. Thus NFC enabled handset vendors and mobile pay-ment platforms need to collaborate and create NFC platforms more aggressively. NFC is definitely making inroads into the Indian market but slowly and gradually. RBI, re-cently approved daily transaction limit of Rs.50,000 through mobiles to encourage contactless pay-

ments in India. Considering the Indian scenario, where demand and the need stand at the bottom of the pyramid and where m-banking (banking the unbanked with the help of mobile) still needs to attain its full bloom; NFC, which is considered a technology for elites (urban population which is quite low as compared to rural population in In-dia), is many levels up this pyramid. The RFID chips are yet to be deployed by the chipset makers on a mass scale. For technologies like NFC to success-fully gain strong foothold in the Indian market, there are still other blocks to be placed right for this puzzle to get its final shape, there are many unanswered questions for the industry to solve such as• Adoption of NFC by consumers who are already cluttered with a plethora of technological innova-tions• Future of NFC as a sustainable business venture• Deployment and development of the required infrastructure for these devices• The business case for infrastructure required for this technology to be feasibly deployed in India. NFC mobile payments still hold im-mense opportunity for their growth in the Indian market when it comes to contactless payments in the urban India. Although NFC is a relatively new technology, its adoption will sky rocket over the next few years.

-- Ronnie Ganguly

Prices as:4GB = Rs.4258GB = Rs.70016GB = Rs.130032GB = Rs.2500

PNY launches its aesthetic range of Clip Attaché USB flash drive in INDIA

PNY Technologies®, Inc. (“PNY”) is considered a leading designer, manufacturer and a worldwide leader in DRAM Memory and Flash Memory products, has an-nounced the release of their ele-

gant and stunning range of Clip Attaché USB flash drives. The Clip Attaché serves a dual purpose of an efficient storage device as well as a vanity feature to suit the pace and the trend of the metropolis lifestyle.

PNY Clip Attaché is encased in a colorful metallic case illustrated with 4 dif-ferent floral designs (plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum) inspired by traditional Seiko art and is an effortless blend of mod-ern technology and classic culture. Available in four different colors to choose from it pro-vides a personalized selection of storage ac-cessories.

In addition to its good looks, the back plate design hook, makes a versatile USB drive that can be used to attach pieces of paper together. It can even be used as a bookmark and also as a part of your ward-robe that can be clipped on to the collar or the necktie lending a sophisticated look. Slim is definitely in, as its minute size (2.27g), lightweight features and capless design adds a stylish and fresh appeal to the user’s personal taste and is a definite eye catcher. PNY Clip Attaché orchid blue is available in Indian market for now, and in 4GB, 8GB, 16GB and 32GB storage capaci-ties and offers an impressive performance of data transfer rates up to 32MB/sec reads. The drive also supports Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7, Mac Os: 10.3 above and other operating systems and provides up to 5 years of warranty enabling the user unin-terrupted and excellent performance.

Visit http://www.pny.com.tw/ for more information or to learn more about the entire line-up of PNY products.

WHATS NEW

TECH NEWS


Lumia fails to ignite sales for Nokia

Ever since Febru-ary 2011 and the “Burning Platform” memo from Ste-phen Elop, cus-

tomers, tech geeks and consumers have awaited Nokia’s Windows Phone with baited breath. So then, Lumia was the prod-igy even before it went to the drawing boards and there is a lot that rests on Lumia’s success for Nokia which in an year’s time has fallen from No.1 to No.3 in the smartphone race ced-ing its leadership to Ap-ple and Samsung. Nokia’s Symbian smartphone mar-ket share declined from 36% in Q3 2010 to 17% in Q3 2011 in the smart-phone operating system market while Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 market share declined from 2.7% to 1.5% during the same period. However things do not turn around that

easy when you are on a downward trend with competitors galore and the competition is getting fierce every passing day. One has to put in more efforts that is required when there is a uphill task, but Nokia with Lumia did not give that impression. To woo the customers and bring back the loyal followers, a company like Nokia should have brought some uniqueness to the table but both the devices of the Lumia series do not give the customer anything significant, it does not make the cus-tomer feel special. Price of a product and more im-portantly value for money has and will always be the deciding factor to go for a product. But in the case of Lumia, Nokia fails to fulfill any.

Neither in terms of features nor in terms of

price, Nokia Lumia could woo the customers.• Lumia 800 features a 3.7 inch display-leading An-droid models moved to 4 to 4.5 inch display size some time ago• Lumia 800 features pixel density of 250 ppi-about 80 below where new Ap-ple, Samsung and, HTC models are• Lumia 800 is 12 mm thick-about 40-70% thick-er than the new wave of smartphones from Apple, Samsung, and Motorola• Lumia 800 features only a single-core processor vs the dual-core chips from rival high-end smart-phones• Lumia 800 does not fea-ture front-facing cameras or NFC technology, which is now arriving to cutting-edge Android models

No doubt, the Nokia Lumia is a great phone as appeared from

the preliminary use and at par with the smartphones availability in the mar-ket in that price range of around Rs 30,000. Nokia can claim that if one can buy a smartphone at that price from a different ven-dor then why not from us? Well, the credibility of Windows phone comes as a big dampener. Nokia does not have to prove a point, it has been the lead-er so far but Microsoft’s mobile OS have never been a success when com-pared to the acceptance of Apple or Android OS. So, the customers would hesi-tate couple of times before putting $600 for a device that is as new as now, rath-er they would prefer to go for a product that is tested.So, the big question for Nokia is how to drag those prospective customers for a Lumia experience. Nokia has to think out-of-the-box as well as put

some more features in the device that is there in the box to get some new at-tention. Typically, you run twice faster to catch up if you have missed a single step in the race.

BOTTOMLInE: If Nokia were to regain its ear-lier halo in smart-phone space, it would be refuting a trend where a technol-ogy major who dominated the market at one point made a strong comeback after falling out of the market. Such comebacks are rare in Technology and mobility space. SO good luck Nokia!

-- Ronnie Ganguly

Taipei, Taiwan – FEBRUARY 2012 – Taiwan –based Genius is an inter-national leading company in computer peripherals announced the Genius ECO-U200 the universal Power pack. It is a one stop solution for the all the smart phone users, so it will last longer than it does. The Eco-u200 power pack which can charge smart phone even when it is in use, the battery problem is solved by the Genius Eco-u200 as it includes 2600mA capacity which can extend the battery life up to eleven hours. The Sleek black cover is per-fectly suitable with the smart phone.

Genius Eco –u200Universal Power pack

key Features:

● Extends Smart phone Battery Usage● 2600mA Battery capacity● Suitable for most of the smart phone charging through micro USB● LED Indicates battery capacity

The Genius Eco-u200 is available at the price of USD 39.

A warranty of 1years.For More information on Genius Product – please visithttp://www.geniusnet.com/wSite/mp?mp=1

TECH NEWS

WHATS NEW


Hey Scott! Here’s the challenge.

(Yahoo!’s future)

In 5 years, Yahoo! had 4 CEOs leading it starting from Terry Semel, Jerry Yang, Carol Bartz and Scott Thompson (the lat-est recruit). The appointment

raised questions among analysts, since Mr. Thompson, 54, has no experience in online content and advertising, Yahoo’s chief sources of revenue. The timing of Mr. Thompson’s hiring also came as a surprise, given that Yahoo’s board has been considering a sale of all or part of the company since firing Ms Bartz four months ago. Yahoo’s stock hasn’t traded above US$20 in more than three years. Microsoft Corp offered to buy Yahoo in its entirety for US$33 per share, or US$47.5 bil-lion, in May 2008. Yahoo trades at $15.58 now which is less than half of what Microsoft wanted to buy it for. Analysts estimate Yahoo’s rev-enue last year totaled about US$5 billion, down from nearly US$7 billion in 2007. During the same span, Google’s revenue soared from US$17 billion to an estimat-ed US$38 billion. Thanks largely to cost-

cutting measures imposed by Ms Bartz, Yahoo has become more profitable. Last year, it earned an estimated US$1.1 billion, up from US$660 million in 2007. Still, in-vestors are disappointed with the downturn in revenue at a time when advertisers are spend-ing more money on the Internet. Yahoo! is a waning off fast and thick and it now is Mr. Thomp-son’s gamble to bring back some respectability to the beleaguered Internet giant. It will take a miracle to revive Yahoo. For long, Yahoo! has rested on its banner ads and scale based business models to make money and has skipped taking stakes in two generations of Internet based services: Mobil-ity and Social Web. The question that Yahoo! needs to answer itself is “What is their business compe-tency and how do they intend to deliver value to their consumers?”. Even now Yahoo! bets on its scale to do something around a very mediocore com-petency area- online advertising, media and content. There are

many others in the same business and there is nothing really dif-ferentiated that Yahoo! currently seems to be planning to take it to its future.

To my limited under-standing, Scott Thompson has to provide answers/action to the fol-lowing questions fast…1. What is Yahoo!’s future busi-ness? Yahoo! will need to really search deep into the future to fig-ure out which businesses would make sense to it and what com-petencies could be brought to the fore.2. Yahoo! must exit its long tail services as soon as it can- This will increase focus on what it re-ally could do with any difference and possibly provide capital for a larger scope in online business.3. Yahoo! must stop being quin-tessential US and regionalize fast- Yahoo! could look at taking the pole position in emerging economies such as India, Indone-sia, China, South Africa with a re-

gional focus. The next big growth curve is past Europe and America and if Yahoo is able to capitalize its internet lead in these nations, there might still be a story waiting to happen.4. Is there a story in enterprise search or vertical searches on small screen computing devices? There may be a choice out there. Is there a case for search engine for Apps?5. Can Yahoo! create the ability to search through integrated user linked information across Flickr, Yahoo mail accounts, tweets, FB updates.6. Is there a case for Yahoo! be-coming world’s largest content aggregator? It sure has the bits and pieces. Yahoo! will need to think about stitching all the dispa-rate pieces together in quick time. This may not yet be the magic portion, but Yahoo! needs to look at discontinuity in its prod-uct lines, in its DNA and its think-ing to get ahead.

Processor: Supports 2nd Gen Intel® Core™ i7 Processors in an LGA 2011 Socket

Chipset: Intel X79 Express Chipset

Memory: 8 DIMMs support for DDR3-2400(OC) / 2133(OC) / 1866(OC) / 1600 / 1333 / 1066MHz up to 128GB max

video: 3 PCI-E 3.0 x16 Slots 2 PCI-E 2.0 x16 Slots Supports AMD®CrossFireX™& NVIDIA® SLI™ Technology

Audio: 8-Channel(7.1) HD Audio subsystem THX TruStudio Pro

LAn: 10/100/1000 Mb/s LAN subsystem

Peripheral interfaces: 2 x SATA 6Gb/s ports from X79 with RAID support4 x SATA 3Gb/s ports from X79 with RAID support4 x USB 3.0 ports (2 Rear / 2 Front)10 x USB 2.0 ports (6 Rear / 4 Front) x PCI-E x1 slot

MSI Launches the X79A-GD45 (8D) Motherboard

Taiwanese tech products mak-er MSI has recently launched the awaited next-gen i7 pro-cessor supported Mother-

board in India. The highlights for which are :-● Supports the 2nd Gen In-tel® Core™ i7 Processors in an LGA 2011 Socket● Supports DDR3-2400 (OC) Memory, 8 DIMMs● Supports USB 3.0 & SATA 6Gb/s

Specifications

TECH NEWS

WHATS NEW


How Android stormed India! (The dynamics and insights behind the growth of Android)

1. Introduced in 2Q,2009, it has taken Android 10 quarters to come from a zero base to the best sell-ing Mobile OS in India.

2. Android has an installed base of 3 million users in India.

3. The very first Android phone in India was launched in Q2, 2009 by HTC Dopod.

4. Android beat Windows to become the no.3 OS in Q2,2010.

5. Android became the no.2 OS in India in Q4,2010 beating Blackberry.

6. 10 quarters after the launch of Android,in Q3, 2011, Android became the No.1 Smartphone OS in India beating a rapidly declining Symbian.

Prior to Android, Indian Smartphone OS was polarized by Symbian which ran across smart-phones from Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG. Barring Blackberry, other OSs such as Windows, Linux had never been market favourites really. An-droid provided the much needed variety and option for Smartphone OSs in India.

7. Only a meager 2% of total Android activations in India have been CDMA devices. 79% of CDMA Android devices are Samsung devices.

8. Samsung having sold 1.2mn Android devices is the largest Android seeder in the Indian Market. HTC follows with .93 mn 9. Android handsets sold. Sony Ericsson is a distant third with .43mn Android devices sold.

10. Both Samsung and HTC contribute 70% of the total Android sales in India.

11. Samsung, HTC, Sony Ericsson, LG and Moto con-tribute to 90% of the total Android sales in India. While a number of local manufacturers have tried to ride the Android wave, success has so far been limited.

12. Sub-brands such as Galaxy, Wildfire, Xperia, De-sire, Optimus and Milestone have contributed to 75% of the total Android sales.

13. As against the ASP of smartphone devices, An-droid ASP drop has been more aggressive. Android OEMs have been aggressively trying to position to newer categories of users, thereby increasing the audience, appeal and the numbers. Between Q1,2009 and Q3,2011, Android ASPs came down by 43% while the overall smartphone ASPs came down by 19%.

14. In the 7 quarter period, Q1,2010 to Q3,2011, Android multiplied sales by a factor of 41x. Corre-sponding ASP drops was 36%.

15. Mid end Androids have been the most success-ful in Indian markets with 56% of total Android sold belonging to the $100-$299 category.

With Samsung testing the sub-10K price segment for Youth categories for Android, this cat-egory will accelerate in times to come.

16. Interestingly enough a lot of local Indian brands tried riding on the wave of Android in lower seg-ment but as stated earlier Android’s have been more successful when launched and marketed by the larger brands.

TECH NEWS


And you thought it was back in 2007? iPhone may be an icon since 2007 and may have been a huge craze within these five years of its launch. But that’s NOT the first master-piece from the globally popular company. Apple actually made its first “iPhone” in

1983 – well, it’s even before some of us were born!

Surprised? We equally are!

We are talking about a landline telephone with touchscreen interface designed by Apple in 1983. Yes, a landline telephone… since the mainstream adoption of mobiles was more than a decade away back then. That being said, it still sported the hallmark features that set Apple devices apart from the rest of the pack.

The phone we are talking about was designed by Hartmut Esslinger, who would go on to design the Ap-ple IIc, the company's first portable computer and later founded Frogdesign as well. The 1983 iPhone certainly fits in with Esslinger’s other designs for Apple. It also fore-shadows the touchscreens of both the iPhone and iPad. Just like the iDevices, this communication device was set in an all-white body with a stylus-controlled touchscreen. The device still appears futuristic, so we can only surmise how wondrous it would have appeared in 1983, had it been launched.

Images of the 1983 iPhone have been circling the web for a while but there has been renewed inter-est in Apple’s early designs and history thanks to a peek inside Stanford University’s massive trove of Apple docu-ments. The archives are a close-guarded secret but Stan-ford is starting to grant access to select journalists and organizations. The archives were donated in 1997 after Steve Jobs rejoined the company and document much of the design and personnel changes that took place in the 1980s.

The 1983 iPhone is just one of many proto-types buried in Apple’s past. There’s even a device that looks eerily similar to an iPad. Despite the phone’s age, it actually looks like a cool concept that could easily be updated into a modern consumer product by replacing simple stylus screen with an iPad-like interface.

Tracing back to 1983 for the first iPhone

HOWzzAT

WHATS NEW

Samsung brings on 46-inch transparent LCD panel

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. announced recently that it is ex-panding the transparent display market with production of a 46-inch transparent LCD panel, beginning this month. Transparent panels, an exciting application of next-generation display tech-nology, have unlimited potential to change our viewing habits

over the next several years. Samsung’s 46-inch transparent LCD panel features a contrast ratio of 4,500:1 with HD (1,366x768) resolution and 70 percent color gamut. A 2012 CES Innovations Award honoree, Samsung’s trans-parent LCD panel is being produced for a wide variety of retail display applications such as product showcases, commercial freezer doors and platform doors of subway stations in North America, Europe and Asia. Also, it will be used in other applications including e-boards, information windows, medical equipment, e-signage and mobile devices. According to market research firm Display Bank, the transpar-ent display market is expected to grow from US$0.9 billion in 2015 to US$87 billion in 2025.


Flash & Dash – The Best of the Delhi Auto Expo 2012

A cold Delhi morning welcomed exhibitors and visitors at the huge Pragati Maidan. The 11th Auto Expo got underway with 1,500 par-ticipants from over 23 countries. There was a lot to look forward to, as always, and the biggest automobile show in our country did

not disappoint! With a plethora of Bollywood stars making their presence felt in the capital, the gathered audience were in for a treat like no other. There were not only big, flashy automobiles that were getting launched –

but also the latest technological breakthroughs that were being showcased. With a unique ‘Asli Naqli’ stall being posted as well, there was something for everyone. Feast your eyes on superb cars, sexy bikes (and babes), hear about technological breakthroughs and learn a thing or two about genuine and fake auto parts. Whoa! Since it will be quite hard to encapsulate everything in such a short space, let us bring you the best of the Auto Expo.

AUDI THUNDER! Even before the rains decided to make their presence felt, Audi was arranging its own thunder with the showcase of the Q3 compact SUV – which was launched with Katrina Kaif and Lisa Ray in tow. The Audi Q3 is a true premium SUV in a compact form. It is sporty and efficient as well as versatile and trendy. The de-sign of the Q3 is classic Audi: its coupe-like styling is one-of-a-kind among SUVs and symbolizes its sporty identity. The Q3 showcases Audi’s expertise in all aspects of engineering: from its lightweight body through strong and efficient drivetrains and a dynamic chassis to its state-of-the-art assistance systems and multimedia systems. Along-with the Q3, Audi also showcased the Audi A3 e-tron concept, the Audi S6and Audi Q7.The Audi A3 e-tron concept is an attractive technical study. The four-seat notchback sedan inte-grates the full breadth of Audi’s technological expertise – from the enhanced MMI operating system, to the high-end infotainment sys-tem, to the drivetrain. Whereas, the Audi S6

is a sports car for everyday use, offering uncompromising practi-cality. Its new engine, a four-litre, twin-turbo V8, combines ample power with low fuel consumption in keeping with the times. The Q7 V12 TDI quat-tro is the world’s most powerful diesel-engine SUV, its power plant another technical milestone. In everyday use the twelve-cylinder diesel impresses with another

highlight – its astounding efficien-cy.

Volkswagen’s new additions The other big German manufacturer, Volkswagen, did not have any celebrities – but they did showcase their updated Beetle and Touareg models along-with the XL1 diesel hybrid concept. The much awaited Up! did not make any appearance, which did lead to

a few disappointments.

BMW decided to make a splash at the Expo by showcasing the powerful new M5 saloon. The M5 is powered by a twin-turbo, 4.4-li-tre V8 that pumps out 552bhp and 64.9kgm of torque. The four-door supercar has been priced at Rs 95.9 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). Also on display was the Mini range, including the Cooper, Cooper S, Cooper Convertible and Cooper S Countryman. The BMW-owned manufacturer will bring its four-model offering to India as CBUs.

Mercedez Benz, the last of the German big car makers, saved the best for last. Among the produc-tion models on display were the SLS AMG roadster supercar, the new, third-generation M-class and a customised S600 Pullman Guard armoured limousine. The star of the show however was the concept A-class - a hatchback that previews Merc’s forthcoming de-sign direction for its family of MFA transverse-engined front-wheel drive cars. However, the first car off this platform to be launched in India will be the all-new B-class mini-MPV. The Asian Entourage was lead by Hyundai, Nissan, Toy-

DELHI AUTO EXPO ‘12


ota, Tata Motors and Maruti.

Hyundai showcased its MPV concept, the Hexa Space (code-named HND-7), at the Expo. This 4.3-metre car is built on a 2750mm wheelbase and propulsion comes from a 1200cc turbocharged Kappa petrol motor. Hyundai also revealed the latest-gen Sonata executive saloon at the Expo. It is powered by a 198bhp, 2.4-litre petrol engine with six-speed man-ual and automatic transmissions.

Nissan unveiled the seven-seater Evalia MPV at the Auto Expo. Built on Nissan’s B-platform, this is the car we previously knew as the NV200. Powering the Evalia will be the 1.5-litre dCi turbo-diesel engine from the Sunny diesel. Production will start in the second half of 2012. Nissan is also show-casing its pioneering electric car, the Leaf and its powerful supercar the GT-R at the Auto Expo.

Toyota has launched an array of products at this year’s Auto Expo. The list of launches includes the new Innova, new Fortuner and the new Land Cruiser 200. The new Innova gets redesigned interiors to make it more upmarket and a face-lift as well. The new face-lifted Fortuner now comes in 2WD automatic and manual variants alongside the 4x4 manual variant. Toyota also launched its Indian motorsport effort in the form of the one-make series, called ‘Etios Motor Racing’, which will launch only in 2013. It showcased the race-prepared Etios and Liva at the expo. Also on display at the stall were the new Camry, the updated Prius hybrid the rest of the com-pany’s current range.

Tata unveiled its new Safari

Storme at the Expo. The Storme isn’t an all-new Safari, but a thor-oughly revised version of the ex-isting one. It is powered by the 2.2-litre, 16-valve common-rail Di-COR engine on duty in other Tata cars. Tata also displayed the Man-za hybrid concept, a series and parallel hybrid that uses a three-cylinder version of Tata’s 1.4-litre DiCOR engine, known as the 1.05 DiCOR. This three-cylinder engine is also expected to power the Vista at a later stage. A CNG version of the Nano were also on display. Tata also showcased its new range of next-gen commercial vehicles.

Maruti unveiled the XA Alpha compact SUV concept at the Auto Expo. A car that could be built on the new Swift platform, the Al-pha looks every bit the compact SUV and with overall length at 4000mm, it is eligible for the lower rate of excise duty for small cars.

Maruti will be offering the mini-SUV with its range of K-Series petrol engines and the 1.3-litre DDIS diesel engine. The eagerly anticipated Innova challenger, the Ertiga, was also on display. This seven-seater is also the launchpad for Maruti’s latest K-series petrol engine, the 1.4-litre K14.

Bikes & Super-bikesTalking about bikes, Triumph finally made the much awaited move across the seas and finally come to our shores with 7 of their offerings. The range starts with the iconic 865cc Bonneville, which will retail close to Rs. 5.5 lakh. The other bikes in the range include the Street Triple and Daytona 675, powered by 675cc inline three-cylinder motors and the Speed Triple, which gets a bigger 1050cc mill. Also on display are the Day-tona 675, the Tiger 800XC and two cruisers – the 1700cc Thunderbird

Storm and the 2300cc Rocket III. Don’t expect the other models to be cheap, though – the massive 2.3-litre Rocket III power will set you back by about Rs. 22 lakh!

Harley Davidson also made an impact on the Expo with the showcase of their FXDB Street Bob, which will retail at about Rs. 9.95 lakh. This would make it the most reasonable 1600 cc super-bike selling in India currently.

Newly christened Hero MotoCorp unveiled its concept scooter, the Leap, at the Auto Expo. The battery- and petrol-run scooter is still in its early days and Hero MotoCorp still has to final-ise production dates for the Leap. Hero also showcased its 125cc bike, the Ignitor, along with its first 110cc bike, the Passion X Pro and its 110cc automatic scooter, the masculine Maestro.

Yamaha lifted the lid on its first ever Indian scooter which is slated to launch later in 2012. Called the Ray for now, the name is subject to change though by the time the scooter hits showrooms. The scooter displayed at the Auto Expo is currently in its concept stage. Yamaha is also displaying a new limited edition YzF-R15 Ver-sion 2.0 variant in white and fiery red.

SAFETY ON THE ROAD Car safety mechanisms are becoming more synthesized and integrated, as the challenges still persist in making such systems cost-effective and adoption varies across the country. From being stand alone independent systems, next-generation safety and ad-vanced drive assistance systems are now integrated with chassis,


telematics and navigation systems to improve functional efficiency, and also reduce total cost of own-ership. The 2012 Delhi Auto Expo has stalls on driver assistance systems, which help the driver to detect ordinarily-hidden obsta-cles along the way and help him take better, informed decisions through difficult maneuvers. Com-panies like Bosch, Smart Key, Tech-noton Sensors Pvt. Ltd have put up new age car security and driver assistance systems on display at their stalls. Smart Key has come out with a vehicle security con-cept featuring keyless operations based on technology by Siemens PASE (Passive Start and Entry Sys-tem). This enables the driver to gain entry by automatically lock-ing/unlocking the vehicle and subsequently allows him/her to start/stop the vehicle without the use of keys. Bosch has come up with a few driver assist systems such as the Electronic Stability Program which uses intelligent sensors to check whether the drivers steer-ing wheel input corresponds to the vehicle’s direction of travel. If it does, it reduces the engine torque to restores vehicle stability. This approach allows the ESP interface to generate the necessary coun-terforce so the vehicle reacts as the driver intends it to. Bosch has also unveiled the Airbag control unit which has two peripheral acceleration sen-sors for detecting side crashes. This helps the airbag to deploy in-stantly from the sides of the car as well. Other offerings from Bosch include the SMARTRA or

the smart anti-theft system, which provides an interface between the ECU (Engine Control Unit) and the ignition key transponder. This im-mobilizes the vehicle in the case of forced entry. Technoton Sensors, on the other hand, have developed something called the axle load sensors which help in axle load control and cargo weight control in vehicle tracking systems. With this sensor, a vehicle tracking sys-tem can get valuable information about the location and the time of loading and unloading the vehicle.

GREEN AUTO TECHNOLO-GIES In the backdrop of spi-

ralling fuel prices and escalating environmental concerns, vehicles driven on hybrid or green technol-ogy have emerged to be the focal point at the Expo. This edition of Auto Expo clearly gives a preview of how well, the Automobile In-dustry across the world identifies this problem and puts up a solu-tion. The concept of Hybrid cars is creating a new wave at the exposi-tion with manufacturers unleash-ing a bevy of hybrid concepts and technologies. Major attractions at the Auto Expo include the world’s largest-selling electric car Leaf from Nissan, and Volkswagen’s ‘XL1’ concept that comes with a 0.8 litre engine giving 48 PS of power. The potential of hybrid and

electric propulsion technology as an alternative to main stream in-ternal combustion engine(ICE) has been effectively utilized by French automaker Peugot SA, by unveil-ing its hybrid 3008. Volvo is show-casing its hybrid bus and is keen on introducing them on Indian roads for inter-city transport.

Not the ones to be left behind are the Indian manufactur-ers Mahindra and Mahindra with an array of Reva electric cars, Tata’s Manza as also Sweden’s Volvo with its hybrid buses. India’s largest two wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp is also showing its first concept hy-brid scooter, as the hybrid concept successfully forayed into the two wheeler segment.

DELHI AUTO EXPO ‘12


EVOLUTION 2012The Ultrabook Emerges

DESKTOPS LAPTOPS NETBOOKS TABLETS ULTRABOOKS. This seems to be the simplest way to show how

computing devices have evolved. Of course, you can ar-gue that the Tablets really were an evolution from the

smartphone, and yes – we do agree. But they were an important step to show how slim computing devices can

also be just as powerful, which led the way for many top tech brands to explore the evolution of Ultrabooks.

The Ultrabook is a multi-year evolution from In-tel’s perspective. It’s going to begin as a pilot program with some Sandy Bridge systems this year, it’ll ramp heavily next year with Ivy Bridge and be mainstream by the time Haswell arrives in 2013. It’s basically a thin and light notebook that uses solid state storage in some form, has some additional se-curity features and is available at mainstream price points. This isn’t a new platform, there’s no Centrino-like certifica-tion process, but Intel has trademarked the name so you won’t see things that aren’t Ultrabooks being called Ultra-books (unfortunately this also likely means that you won’t see any AMD notebooks being labeled as such either). The first requirement of an Ultrabook is that it’s ultra-thin. In Intel’s eyes this means less than 0.8” (20.32mm) which is thinner than anything Apple offers in the MacBook Pro line (0.95”). The second requirement is that the system needs to be ultra responsive, either through the use of an SSD or SSD caching. Intel was quick to point out that an Ultrabook doesn’t have to use an Intel SSD, it just needs to have SSD-like response time. Here’s where the requirements start getting vague. Intel asserted that Ultrabooks need to be secure. Today that security comes by way of Sandy Bridge, which

offers Intel’s Identity Protection Technology (IPT) - basically a unique hardware token embedded in the SNB CPU. You tell an application that your computer is secure, and going forward it uses the presence of that unique token as a form of authentication. Ivy Bridge will add some additional security fea-tures (on-package digital random number generator, and higher level execution protection bit) and I’m sure Haswell will go even further. Remember Intel’s acquisition of McA-fee? I suspect that’s going to be a part of this security strat-egy. The final requirement is all Ultrabooks must be sold at mainstream price points, which Intel calls sub-$1000. You’ll notice that I haven’t mentioned Atom. That’s on purpose as Atom will not be driving any of these Ultrabooks. Intel has separate plans for Atom, for use in smartphones and fanless designs which I’ll get to in a mo-ment. But Ultrabooks are the future of mainstream note-books as far as Intel is concerned. A Sandy/Ivy/Haswell based notebook that’s less than 0.8-inches thick, has some form of an SSD and is sold for less than $1199 is a-ok by us. Intel estimates that by the end of next year 40% of consumer notebooks will be Ultrabooks. Given the desir-able set of features and reasonable price point, we can see that happening.

WHAT IS AN ULTRABOOk


Intel views the Ultrabook as a new category of mobile devices, however everything I’ve described thus far sounds a lot like a thin and light notebook with an SSD inside it. There’s a software com-ponent to all of this that Intel is promising, starting as early as Sandy Bridge. Intel wants to bring the instant-on capability of tablets to Ultrabooks. Ap-ple already did some of this with the new MacBook Air. Suspend to NAND allows for a reliable method to quickly hibernate and resume. ASUS is already promising a 2 sec-ond resume from sleep time on its new UX Series. Intel also wants to bring the al-ways on, always connected experience to Ultrabooks. 3G tablets and smartphones currently enjoy this but notebooks have lacked it. When you wake your notebook up from sleep you usually have to wait to download all new emails, receive all new twitter updates, etc... Through a software layer Intel isn’t ready to talk about yet, Ul-trabooks will be able to pull this data from the cloud while the machine is otherwise asleep. That’s the functionality with the first generation of Ultrabooks; the second generation will move to a smartphone-like push model where servers push this data to your Ultrabook. Again, details on how this will all work are basically nonexistant at present but the goal is to take some fea-tures from the smartphone/tablet space and add them to a much sleeker, sexier notebook. Hence the name Ultrabook.

Always On, Always Connected

FEATURE STORY


Acer Aspire S5 will be the new Ultrabook to replace the current S3, which is currently the cheapest model on the market. Acer Aspire S5 looks like an evolved version of S3, but most news hide inside. The computer had an unspecified 1.7 GHz processor, which should be based on something Ivy Bridge. The demo sample had 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD. Aspire S5 weighs the exact same as S3 1.35kg, but is only 15mm thick at most. According to those who got a chance to handle it comes with brushed aluminium surfaces and feels overall more robust than S3. Also, the keyboard and touchpad have been improved. The special about Aspire S5 is a function called MagicFlip I/O. With the slim designs we see today the number of ports; USB, HDMI and others, are limited. MagicFlip I/O hides inside the computer and can be used to get access to a full-size HDMI port, two USB 2.0 ports and Intel’s closed Thunderbolt interface. We can also imagine that MagicFlip I/O could be useful for those who want some more height for the keyboard when typing, but also extra ventilation.

Acer has announced a whole new Ultrabook that will become its first with Intel Ivy Bridge and Thunderbolt. The company bestseller TimeLine will also get a refresh, in an even thinner format than before. We have been hearing rumors of Acer’s new company struc-

ture; fewer and better prepared models than the opposite, which has been the scenario so far. The company started off with a press conference at CES where it showed a total of three new notebooks, which looks very clean and stylish for Acer notebooks.

During CES we had a discussion with Samsung’s designers to talk about the look, feel, and pro-cess of the brand new Series 9 ultrabook. The brand new design, which comes in 13-inch and 15-inch models, has a super-slim body (only .5 inches thick), a 128GB SSD hard-drive, an Intel Core i5 2467M processor, 4GB of memory, and a 1600×900 resolution screen, among other things. Packing all of those features into a super slim body that weighs under two pounds is a feat of both engineering and design. Senior Designer Junghwan Hong and Principal Designer Sangwon Yoon were on hand to discuss the challenges and accomplishments of the 12-month design process. The new second generation of the Se-ries 9 ultrabook put the focus for the designers on the slim form factor and the precision of each and every component. The new model made the switch from duralumin to aluminum, which makes the notebook extremely strong despite its slim profile. Designer Junghwan Hong said that the design of the original Series 9 was inspired by paper, which is light, thin, and easy to hold. The clean lines of the new model keep that inspiration in mind. The designers wanted to make it as solid and strong as possible while maintaining the ex-treme thinness. “I went to the factory every week in Korea,” said Hong. “I really wanted to make it as perfect and precise as possible.”

BEST BRANDS, BEST ULTRABOOkS

Samsung Talk Design

ACER reveal their Aces!

Aspire S5 – S3 rebooted!


HP is hoping to grab the fashionable user with its new ultra-book, the Envy 14 Spectre. Not missing out on bevy of ultrabook computers that have tak-en the spotlight at this month’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, HP unveiled the Spectre with officials focusing largely on its sleek good looks. At the annual ShowStoppers event night, HP spokesman Marc Spier, said the company is focused on making high-end machines for us-ers interested in a good looking laptop. “This is a premium ultrabook. This is slim and beautiful,” said Spier. “When we set out to design this, it wasn’t just another unit. We wanted to design this for customers uninterested in compromise.” The Spectre, which is set to be available on Feb. 8 and will ring in at $1,399 for a standard set of features, weighs in at 3.97 pounds and is 20 millimeters thick. To be called an ultrabook, the laptop needs to

have a fast start but Spier said HP is not yet commenting on how fast this machine boots up. With a 14-inch screen, the ultrabook also comes standard with an Intel Core i5 chip but it can be upgraded to a Core i7. It’s also standard with 4 gigs of ram but can be upgraded to 8 gigs. According to Spier, it also has 9 hours of continuous use bat-tery life. The Spectre is HP’s second ultrabook -- the first was the HP Folio 13, which was released last November -- and the company is focusing strongly on its high-end looks and feel. The Spectre is built with a good dose of Corning’s Gorilla Glass, which is noted for being thin, light and damage resistant. The machine has black Gorilla Glass on the outside and silver on the inside. “We made this for a very specific user,” said Spier. “This is for somebody... looking to impress. It’s capable of doing heavy workloads and being a real work horse.”

Acer also announced two other computers at 14” and 15” respectively, both part of the new TimeLine Ultra se-ries. Both will sport an optic DVD reader, and measure as little as 20mm in profile, which is Intel Ultrabook territory. TimeLine Ultra will sport next generation Core i processors, implying Ivy Bridge, but we assume they will be clocked higher than Aspire

S5 and not 17W TDP. The battery time will be up to 8 hours, according to Acer. The computers will be in stores with both hard-drives and SSD as options, and this should make them very attractive alternatives to Ultrabooks. Both should be in stock in Q2, alongside the new Ultrabook Aspire S5.

Acer TimeLine Ultra

HP’s PREMIUM ULTRABOOk

FEATURE STORY


This year at CES Toshiba unveiled its first 14-inch ultrabook to consumers. Toshiba’s ultrabook has a thickness of 0.78 inch, which is far less than conventional laptops. The new 14-inch ultrabook introduced by Toshiba is more of an exception because most ultrabooks that have hit the news sport a 13.3-inch screen - quite similar to what you would find in a Macbook. Nevertheless, a 14-inch screen means that the ultrabook would be larger and slightly thicker than the supposedly conventional razor-thin ultra-books, and will have a standard set of ports including HDMI and Ethernet.Toshiba’s ultrabook has a thickness of 0.78 inch, which is far less than con-ventional laptops. Owing to its size, it sports a standard set of ports including HDMI, Ethernet, 3 USB ports (one happens to be USB 3.0), card slot and mic and headset ports.

Lenovo announced an ultrabook with a touchscreen that can be turned into a tablet just by flipping the display, at the CES. The IdeaPad Yoga has a 13.3-inch screen. The ultrabook was demonstrated running Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 OS during a Le-novo press conference at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. “Simply fold it from PC to tablet, or tablet to PC,” said Yang Yuanqing, chairman and CEO of Lenovo, during the press conference. The ultrabook is thin, which makes it easy to hold in tablet mode. The unit is 0.66 inches (1.6 centimetres) thick and weighs 3.1 pounds (1.4 kilograms). It provides eight hours of battery life on a single charge, according to Lenovo.

The IdeaPad Yoga will go on sale in stores once Windows 8 is released, Yuanqing said. Windows 8 is due to come out later this year, though the official release date has not been announced. Lenovo did not share further details about the IdeaPad Yoga. But Yuanqing cautioned that the PC market isn’t going away anytime soon, and said innovation will continue in PCs just as it has in smartphones and tablets. “Many people think traditional [PC] innovation is coming to an end,” Yuanqing said. “But we believe in the exact opposite.” The IdeaPad Yoga will probably come with Intel’s upcoming Core processors, code-named Ivy Bridge, which will provide faster ap-plication and graphics performance.

An ULTRABOOk HYBRID from Lenovo

Toshiba’s Protege Series


We’re witnessing a shift in the way PC makers are approaching the basic problems of design, power and durability of mobile computing devices. The tablets may not be as potent as notebooks, but they are certainly a lot more portable. With the Ultrabooks, some of these issues may start getting ironed out. At the same time, some of the lines that define the categories will start blurring. The future is exciting in the computing world. We can’t wait to see where it takes us next!

Intel may be the largest chip maker in the world, but they have bet big on Ultrabooks. Not just for this year, but for the foreseeable future. The keynote given by their CEO, Paul Otellini was a mix of the past and future, with little news of the present on-goings. “This company is not just about computers,” said Otellini, 61, only the fifth CEO in Intel’s 44-year history. He said the Santa Clara, Calif.-based giant will make a major push into the smartphone sector. Intel says there are more than 75 ultrabook models in the pipeline for 2012. The second generation of ultrabooks will feature Intel’s forthcoming “Ivy Bridge” processors in the spring. Third generation models planned for next year will be based on a subsequent model of processor, dubbed “Haswell,” which boasts a significantly improved power consumption when idle. Having encouraged manufacturers to make devices

that beg to be stolen, Intel is also raising its bet on security. With the introduction of “Ivy Bridge” models in the second half of 2012, all ultrabooks will come with Intel Anti-Theft technology, to lock down stolen devices, and Intel Identity Protection tech-nology, for hardware-based two-factor authentication. Intel has been working with MasterCard to integrate support for payment systems like MasterCard PayPass (also used by Google Wallet) and future ultrabook users and merchants should be able to handle online transactions more securely and efficiently through NFC technology. Intel’s interest in security is also informed by its 2011 acquisition of security software maker McAfee. Intel has built McAfee’s DeepSAFE technology into its Core i3, i5, and i7 proces-sors, in order to provide insight into memory usage and proces-sor activity.

Intel has BIG IDEAS for Ultrabooks

Final Thoughts

FEATURE STORY


Welcome to connected world. Welcome to EXHIBIT, which was first to connect lifestyle with technology and concept of networked society.Modern times have seen changing lifestyle. The two ma-

jor products that dominate the industry and marketplace right now are smartphones and tablets. Mobile has changed into a networked device, smart phone. Mobile connected devices are now an inextricable part of our contemporary lifestyles. Suddenly we do not see mobile as a tel-ephone but a device for internet, camera, social networking, lifestyle de-vice in hand, multitask connected to home and office. This was evident during CES, where Exhibit has gone with 72 members delegation in as-sociation with CMAI. More than 87 Mn. Smartphones were sold in 2011, up 62 per-cent from 2010. About 29.4 million tablets shipped in 2011, up 185 per-cent from 2010. Consumers now expect to control and use their content wher-ever they happen to be, at home, office, vacations or during commuting. That has given rise to continued innovations and developments by the industry for successful formula of portable plus dynamic. An interesting feature of market is available products for all segments of market. For higher end we have iPads and MacBooks. For others we have Amazon’s Kindle Fire, Android devices. And for the mass markets there are several alternatives of products made in China. Smartphones with larger screen sizes, higher computing pow-ers, and mobile payment are going to be buzz-worthy topics in the com-ing months. Availability of 4G and LTS globally would add fuel to demand. Innovative thinking and awareness of the trends toward mobility will help transform the very concept of what people wanted and would pay for products. Look forward for Innovative devices in future.

EDITORIAL


Global Smartphone marketshares: IHS and Strategy AnalyticsThe battle for smartphone device supremacy is all the way headed in 2012 with Apple and Samsung slogging it out. Nokia which was the mar-ket leader till 3 quarters back has now been pushed back to 3rd spot on the market shares. While Apple managed to sell 37 million iPhones in Q4, 2011, Samsung managed to edge out Apple as the year’s top

smartphone manufacturer. Samsung played to a portfolio strategy and advanced in 2011 because of its strategy of offering a complete line of smartphone products, spanning a variety of price points, features and operating systems.

The relatively small growth of Sony Ericsson and Motorola may indicate that the Android smartphone market is becoming too crowded as the

various licensees compete for limited consumer mindshare and shelf space.

With global smartphone shipments nearing half a billion units in 2011, Samsung is now well positioned alongside Apple in a two-horse race at the forefront of one of the world’s largest and most valuable consumer electronics markets. Nokia’s global smartphone market share halved from 33 percent in 2010 to 16 percent in 2011. A lacklustre touch-screen smartphone portfolio and a limited presence in the huge United States market caused Nokia’s shrinkage last year. Nokia’s partnership with Mi-

crosoft will be very much in focus during 2012, and the industry will be watching closely to see how swiftly the two companies can expand in the high-value 4G LTE market that is rapidly emerging across the United States, Japan and elsewhere. The silver lining for Nokia was that a million Lumia’s have been shipped in 2 months since launch and Nokia has in over a decade has found some traction with US Operators with the Lumia.

Sr Editor MobileTelephony & Policy

N K GoyalDirector NFL National Fertilizers Ltd.Govt. of India Chairman, Emeritus TEMAPresident CMAI Association of India

Candid Photography

Candid Photography is best defined as a tech-nique of photography that focuses on spon-taneity rather than technique, on the immer-sion of a camera within events rather than focusing on setting up a staged situation or on preparing a lengthy camera setup.Candid photography is best described as un-posed and unplanned, immediate and

unobtrusive. This is in contrast to classic photography, which includes aspects such as carefully staged portrait photogra-phy, landscape photography or object photography. Candid photography catches moments of life from immersion in it.

Candid photography’s setup includes a photog-rapher who is there with the “subjects” to be photographed, close, and not hidden. People photographed on candid shots either ignore or accept the close presence of the photogra-pher’s camera without posing. The events documented are often private, they in-volve people in close relation to something they do, or they involve people’s relation to each other. Candids are the kinds of pictures taken at children’s birthday parties and on Christmas morning, opening the presents; the pictures a wedding pho-tographer takes at the reception, of people dancing, eating, and socializing with other.

SHUTTERBUG

Tips for Candid Photography :

1. keep your camera handy: Probably the best way to take spontaneous photographs is to always be ready to do so. Tak-ing your camera with you everywhere also helps people to be more at ease with you taking their photo. That way, when you take out your camera casually, people don’t pose, but it becomes a normal part of your interaction – which means that they are relaxed and the photos are natural.

2. Use a long zoom: Obviously the further you are away from your subject the less likely they will be to know that you’re photographing them and the more natural and relaxed they’ll act. Using a telephoto lens or long zoom enables you to shoot from outside their personal space but keep the feel-ing of intimacy in the shot you’re taking.

3. Kill the flash: Perhaps the most obvious way that you can signal to another person that you’re photographing them is to use a flash. There’s nothing like a blinding flash of light in the eyes to kill a moment. If possible (and it’s not always) attempt to photograph without the flash if you’re aiming for candid shots. When in lower light situations increase your ISO setting, use a faster lens, open up your aperture or if your camera has a ‘natural light mode’, turn it on. Hopefully one or a combination of these approaches will help you blend into the background a little more.

4. Shoot as many spontaneous shots possible: When you shoot multiple images quickly of a person you can sometimes get some surprising and spontaneous shots that you’d have never gotten if you shot just one. Switch your camera to con-tinuous shooting mode and shoot in bursts of images and in doing so you’ll increase your chances of that perfect shot.

5. Position yourself strategically: While Candid Photogra-phy is about capturing the spontaneity of a moment and get-ting that perfect shot at the right split second of time, if you think ahead and anticipate what is about to unfold in front of you that you can greatly increase the chances of getting some great shots.

6. Click people with people or people doing things: Something very interesting happens when you photograph more than one person in an image at a time – it introduces relationship into the shot. Of course ideally in candid shots you’d like some interaction between your subjects as that will add emotion into the shot also as we the viewer observe how the people are acting. Timing is everything in Candid shots so wait until they are distracted from you and fully focussed upon what they are doing or who they are with and you’ll in-ject a feeling into your shots of them being unaware and that the viewer of your image is looking on unseen.

7. Mix up your perspective: Try to take a shot from a dif-ferent level, say 3 feet instead of 5 or 6 feet. This adds to the candid nature of the shots. In fact sometimes it’s the slightly crooked, slightly out of focus or poorly composed shots taken from this type of angle that ends up looking the best because they come across as quite random.

8. Frame images with foreground elements: The trick is to purposely include something in the foreground of the shot to make it look as if you were hiding behind it – say, someone’s shoulder or a tree branch etc.

9. Use a fast lens: A prime lens is ideal as it’s less noticeable and more lightweight to carry.

10. Set to an AutoFocus: AF can track your moving subject and focus accordingly (eg. the Al Servo setting on a Canon). That way your camera can ‘lock’ onto the subject and adjust the focus accordingly, producing a clearer image.

11. Set smaller aperture: A smaller aperture means more chance that your subject will be focused. Set it between f4.8 – 8. Again, the smaller the aperture, the more your subject will be in focus. Remember, smaller aperture = larger f-stop number.

SHUTTERBUG


Best DSLR Camera

One of the most popular cameras, Nikon D3100 is the ultimate choice for the beginners who want to own a digital SLR. The user-friendly interface and the easily accessible price tag made D3100 immensely popular among all. The upgraded version of D3000, this one is an entry-level digital SLR camera with a new CMOS image sensor, image-processing engine

and helpful guide mode that makes captur-ing images easier than ever before. The CMOS image sensor offers an effective pixel count of 14.2-million pixels and enables capture of high-definition images exhibiting superior im-age quality with extremely detailed rendering and rich tones.Price: 32,950 (with kit)

Just like Nikon D3100, Canon 1100D is yet an-other successful item in the world of digital SLR. The EOS 1100D / T3 is a great entry-level DSLR camera that’s well-suited to its beginner target audience. The combination of proven meter-ing, auto-focus and processing systems with a sensible 12 megapixel sensor and simplified

control layout is a winning one. It is an entry level advanced, compact and affordable DSLR camera which offers ISO 100-6400 sensitivity, HD video capture and wide-area 9-point AF system. Price: 29,990

The Sony A33 turns conventional design on its head to provide what is in many ways a bet-ter user experience than traditional DSLRs can achieve, at a price point that Canon and Nikon must be worried about. It uses Translucent Mir-ror Technology to offer high-speed shooting and a smaller body size. The 14.2 megapixel A33 features up to 7fps burst shooting, 1080i

HD Movies with continuous autofocus during shooting, 15-point phase-detection autofocus system, Quick AF Live View, a 3-inch free-angle LCD, a Tru-Finder (Electronic Viewfinder) with 100% coverage, 3D Sweep Panoramas, Auto HDR and Multi-frame Noise Reduction.Price: 32,990

The Nikon D5100 successfully bridges the gap between the beginner-friendly approach of the D3100 and the more complex D7000, with the latter’s fantastic 16 megapixel sensor being the icing on the proverbial cake. It is a 16.2 meg-apixel DSLR camera that can record Full HD movies at 1920x1280 pixels / 25fps with stereo sound. A high-resolution 3” LCD monitor makes

it easier to compose your shots from difficult angles. A 4fps burst shooting mode, 11-point autofocus system with 3D Focus Tracking, High Dynamic Range mode, Active D-Lighting and seven different special effects for stills and movies complete the Nikon D5100’s headline specs.Price: 42,950

The K-r combines the compact body and sim-plified layout of the cheaper K-x model with auto-focus system and the LCD screen features of the prosumer K-7. The 12.4MP Pentax Kr has unique features like the fastest continuous shooting rate of any Pentax DSLR at 6fps, the widest ISO range (100-25600), infrared data transfer. Other highlights of the K-r include an

11-point AF system with the active focus point shown in the viewfinder, 720p HD movies, high-resolution 3-inch LCD monitor, built-in shake reduction and anti-dust mechanism, dynamic-range expansion, in-camera High Dynamic Range, digital filters and a full range of auto-matic and manual shooting modes.Price: 30,000

Budget DSLR Cameras

NIkON D3100

CANON EOS 1100D

SONY A33

NIkON D5100

PENTAX k-R

11

22

33

4 4

55

BEST OF...


Which one would you pick?

Mid-range DSLR Cameras

The Nikon D7000 is a successful crossbreed of the cheaper D90 and the more expensive D300s, borrowing features from each model and adding enough new highlights to surpass them both in many ways. Key highlights of the D7000 include 16.2-megapixel DX-format im-age sensor, full 1080p HD video with full-time autofocus and manual exposure control, a new

2,016-pixel 3D Colour Matrix metering system, new EXPEED 2 image-processing engine, new 39-point Auto-focus system with 3D tracking, 14-bit analogue-to-digital conversion, 6fps continuous shooting, dust- and moisture-sealed magnesium alloy body, 921k dot 3-inch LCD screen, and dual memory card slots.Price: 74,950 (with kit)

A real rival to Canon and Nikon! The Sony A580 is a mid-range DSLR camera that was launched alongside the headline-grabbing A55. Unlike that smaller camera, which uses Translucent Mirror Technology to offer high-speed shoot-ing and a smaller body size, the A580 is a tra-ditional DSLR with an optical viewfinder. The 16.2 megapixel A580 features up to 7fps burst

shooting, 1080i HD movie recording, 15-point phase-detection autofocus system, Quick AF Live View, optical viewfinder with 95% frame coverage, in-body sensor shift image stabi-lisation, a 3-inch free-angle LCD, 3D Sweep Panoramas, Auto HDR and Multi-frame Noise Reduction.Price: 54,500

The Pentax K-5 is a semi-professional DSLR camera. Key features include 16.3 megapixel image sensor, a greatly expanded ISO range of 80-51200, full HD 1080p video at 25fps, 7fps continuous shooting, , improved High Dynamic Range mode, and a bigger range of in-built digital filter effects. The K-5 inherits the K-7’s dustproof, weather-resistant and cold-resistant

construction, top shutter speed of 1/8000th second, 3-inch LCD monitor with 920k dots, built-in dust removal and shake-reduction sys-tems, Live View with Face Recognition AF, and automatic compensation of lens distortion and lateral chromatic aberrations with DA and DFA lenses.Price: 85,000

The Canon EOS 600D / Rebel T3i cleverly oc-cupies a position that’s mid-way between the 550D and the 7D without being subjected to a price increase on launch. The 18 megapixel Canon EOS 600D is a DSLR camera that sits above last year’s 550D / T2i at the top of Can-on’s entry-level EOS line-up. The 600D / T3i offers a 1,040,000-dot vari-angle LCD screen, a 63-zone metering sensor - identical to the one

used in the more expensive EOS 7D - stand-ard ISO settings of 100-6400 (expandable to 12800), and 3.7fps continuous shooting. The 600D’s video mode features 1080p Full HD re-cording at 24/25/30fps and 720p HD capture at either 50 or 60fps, with full manual control over exposure and gain.Price: 67,990

Nearly two years after the introduction of the D300, Nikon announced its successor, the D300s. The new model adds 720p HD video capture with optional autofocus, in-camera video editing, an on-board mono microphone and a stereo microphone input, a dedicated button for Live View access, dual memory card slots, faster continuous shooting, a new Quiet

drive mode, a Virtual Horizon to aid you in keeping the camera level, a redesigned eight-way controller with a centered set button, plus an all-new Info button and on-demand screen tips for new users. Pretty much everything else is unchanged from the D300.Price: 84,950

NIkON D7000

SONY A580

PENTAX k-5

CANON EOS 600D

NIkON D300S

66

77

88

9

9

10

10


High-end DSLR Cameras

The Canon EOS 7D is an 18 megapixel digital SLR camera incorporating a new APS-C CMOS sensor. Featuring a revised photodiode and microlens construction, the 7D’s sensor of-fers 3 inch Clear View II LCD screen, a versatile ISO range of 100-12,800. Other new additions include dual DIGIC 4 processors offering con-tinuous shooting at 8fps, improved 19-point cross-type auto-focus system including zone

and Spot AF, Focus Colour Luminance meter-ing system, and an Intelligent Viewfinder with 100% frame coverage and 1.0x magnification. It is equipped with an integrated Speedlite Transmitter, making it easy to control external Speedlite flashguns with no additional acces-sories required. Price: 131,995

Boasting no less than 24.6 megapixels, the Sony Alpha DSLR-A900 is the highest-resolu-tion digital SLR in the world, and also the first “full-frame” digital camera with an anti-shake function integrated into the body. Other high-lights include a huge and very bright optical TTL viewfinder, user interchangeable focusing screens, maximum shutter speed of 1/8000s,

x-sync speed of 1/250s, continuous shooting speed of 5 frames per second, 9+10 auto-focus points, AF micro adjustment, mirror lock-up, In-telligent Preview, Advanced D-Range Optimiser and a very useful Manual Exposure Shift (ME Shift) function.Price: 151,065

The D700 is Nikon’s second full-frame, FX-series DSLR camera, following on from the more expensive pro D3 model. The Nikon D700 features the same 36x24mm, full frame, 12.1 megapixel CMOS sensor as the D3, housed in a more compact and lighter body. The amazing ISO range of the D3 is retained by the D700 - ISO 100 - 25600 should cover most lighting conditions! It also borrows liberally from the

cheaper D300 model, with the same integrated dust reduction system, almost identical con-tinuous shooting speeds, and similar control layout. All three high-end Nikon DSLRs offer a 51-point auto-focus system, 3 inch LCD screen, Live View mode and a HDMI port for connec-tion to a HDTV.Price: 129,950

The Nikon D3x is the highest resolution digital SLR camera currently available, offering a mas-sive 24.6 megapixels courtesy of its full-frame FX format CMOS sensor. The D3x is largely based on the 12 megapixel D3 camera, retain-ing the same 51-point AF system, EXPEED en-gine with 14-bit A/D conversion and 16-bit im-age processing, 920,000-dot 3-inch LCD screen, and Live View. The main differences between

the two are the reduced 50-6400 ISO range and slower 5fps continuous shooting speed of-fered by the D3x - plus the eye-watering price, over twice as much as its closest rivals, the Sony A900, Canon EOS 5D Mark II and Nikon D3. Does the Nikon D3x offer enough features and sheer quality to justify its asking price? We hope so…Price: 524,950

Announced just over 3 years since its popular predecessor, the long-awaited Canon EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR camera has finally arrived. The twin headline features are the 21.1MP, full-frame CMOS sensor, and the ability to record video at 1080p high-definition. Other new features include an expanded ISO range of 50-25600, a larger 3 inch LCD screen with 920k

dots and Live View, built-in dust prevention system and continuous shooting at 3.9 frames per second. Is the new Canon EOS 5D Mark II a worthy successor to the best-selling original model, and can it compete with its main rivals, the Nikon D700 and Sony A900?Price: 197,995

CANON EOS 7D

SONY A900

NIkON D3X

CANON EOS 5D MARk II

NIkON D700

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Jump from 2011 to 2012 changes expected?

If you are asked to describe the year 2011 in just a word…how will you do it? Well, speaking of technology, ofcourse! May be as the year of Tablets or Android or even Cloud Computing! These actually ruled throughout the year, though every company has their proud product of 2011 as well as a general outlook on the year.So, what expectations for the year ahead? Tablets will be ruling the tech world. But we are yet to know what this year would unfold for the tech realm. Let’s start off with our guesswork…

Blame it on competition, blame it on technolo-gy scaling or simply blame it on poor optimization, quad core technology is going to rule the roost in 2012. Dual core phones were supposed to set a new benchmark in 2011, and they did. But, in 2012, dual core will merely be a standard most manufacturers will have to take for, as a given. 2012 will feature quad core phones and tablets, alike and the Transformer Prime is a living example of that. And that means…a faster experience on your phone at speeds which could be comparable to your current desktop PC. Extra horsepower means games can render more graphics, your phone can support heavy apps (Pho-toshop, anyone?) and more processes will be able to run simultaneously on your smartphone.

While cloud computing was received really well by the industry in 2011, it is expected to grow further next year. Industry experts believe a lot to be happening in this space. Alex Huang, Country Head, Asus said that the cloud computing segment will continue to grow. Shishir Singh, Director – Product Marketing, Dell India also states that Cloud computing is at a tipping point and they view it as a big opportunity for growing businesses to keep up with the growth without having to invest in and man-age their infrastructure. Enterprises are expected to rely on cloud computing on a greater extent, while other sectors are also likely to adopt it at a swifter pace

Last year, there were two big events that affected the way we consumed content and expressed ourselves on the inter-net. One was SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, which is still in debtate in the United States. The other is Kapil Sibal’s request to the social networks to prescreen content before it is put up on the social network. While bigger companies like Facebook and Twitter will not prescreen content, they most likely could set up a stricter method of punishment for offensive content. Currently, in India, a common form of punishment for posting offensive content is lodging an FIR, but if Facebook develops their own punishment system, the Indian judiciary can focus on bigger problems.

Devices will strictly follow the ‘thin is in’ trend, so users can look forward to slim-mer devices. With devices coming in multiple sizes, each could apparently get a fair share of market space. Chakrapani GK, Head, Consumer Channels Group, Microsoft Corporation expects a multitude of device form factors in the market, especially with the upcoming beta of Windows 8. The year will bring in more choices in the device size as well as the way we want to interact with others. Many customers will have 2-5 different ways of connecting to the world including phones, tablets, PCs, gaming consoles and Television. It’s one of the key trends to watch out for as laptops are getting slimmer, and at the same time are packed with performance. We believe that mobility will dictate the form factor of computing devices in the years to follow. We expect to see a proliferation of devices in different screen sizes to meet different needs as accessibility of information-on-the-go, becomes inevitable.

INTERNET CENSORSHIP AND FREE SPEECH

MULTI-CORE MOBILE COMPUTING

CLOUD COMPUTING TO GET A BOOST

THIN IS IN…THOUGH THE SIzE WOULD VARY

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TECH THAT


There are already speculations about Windows operating system to be widely accepted, getting at par with the current leading players in the mobile arena. In terms of consumer shift, yes we will see a shift from Android and BB users to WP7. India is a cash economy. If you have already bought a Rs. 32,000 iPhone this year, you won’t spend another Rs 30,000 in six months. People want easy and seamless ways to interact with their devices, this puts into picture the Natural User Interface (NUI). In 2012, voice and gesture based interactions will proliferate across devices and form factors resulting in technologies becoming more intuitive and inclusive. This will also be driven through the increasing uptake for devices such as Microsoft Kinect and Windows Phone showing innovations in the area of NUI.

This is something to keep our eyes on! NFC made its way to many phones, but it can be argued that it will become mainstream once it hits the iPhone. However, even though the next iPhone can only be expected late next year, we can expect more development in NFC on a global scale. Currently there are apps for banking using NFC where mobile users can transfer money to and from accounts, as well as make certain deposits into their accounts. NFC, at least, on a global level and not just in India is expected to grow and mobile users will be able to carry out more types of transactions like making bill payments as well as transfering information from one phone to another.

Developers have been embracing newer technologies like augmented reality and location-based searches while social networks have been increasingly being used on-the-go. Next year feature phones will get decent browser support and applications like Facebook and Twitter will extend their shelf life. In 2012, a lot of apps using Augment-ed Reality (AR) are expected. It has already started and 2012 will see more of it. There’s a huge scope of using AR in the Retail and Tourism Industry. Augmented Reality and Social apps seem to be adding on to the list of phone makers. Some of the next generation BlackBerry smart-phones powered by BlackBerry 7 OS are loaded with AR applications like Wikitude to help users find location based information instantly.

The mobile gaming has been viewed as a promising area for this year. The gaming as a whole will be explored with newer and next generation tech inno-vations. Gaming industry next year will continue to be dominated by mobile and tablets. Next year the Indian mobile market will witness a turning point in develop-ment of local mobile apps from India and real, scalable application innovation coming from Indian developers. The Windows Phone environment will see some compel-ling and marquee apps. More powerful handheld devices and their deeper penetration in our lives could pave way to people spending more time exploring them. Motion sensor gaming is another technology that is going to grow in the times to come. Gaming already is a lucrative area in the mobile app development domain, and there’s a trend towards building apps that use location-based services and also provide content sharing over social networking.

We seen a boost in the Internet usage in India and the way we’ve been consuming digital technology. There has been an increase in the number of people spend-ing time on Internet, leading to wider access of digital data, be it music, videos, social networks or e-commerce. More new folks in India will have a “taste” of the internet in 2012 than all of the previous years combined. This will obviously be both through the mobile and desktop. Payments 3.0 companies or solutions emerge that solve for easy and reli-able online payments for a mass audience. Mobile wallets and peer to peer payments catch fire globally.

MOBILE COMMERCE

AUGMENTED REALITY AND SOCIAL NETWORKS

WINDOWS PHONE

RISE IN INTERNET USE

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Last year, e saw the Apple iPad 2 garner an overwhelming response with its slim form factor, camera, faster processor, etc. However, when it came to the iPhone, Apple was supposed to launch a device that had a completely different design. Instead, they unveiled the iPhone 4S, which, virtually had the same looks, although the internal hardware was beefed up to quite an extent. We expect the next-gen iPad to retain its slim form factor, but feature a high resolu-tion display akin to the iPhone’s Retina Dis-play. There are rumours floating around that an iPad mini could also be in the work to battle against the popular Kindle Fire.

A lot has been happening on the gaming front with the motion sensing technology adopted by key gam-ing players. Sony further goes on to redefine the handheld gaming experience. Talking about what’s on the plate for next year, the biggest introduction in gaming hardware from Sony PlayStation will be the PS Vita that is scheduled to launch in India in the 1st quarter of calendar year 2012. With a touch screen, rear touchpad, dual joystick control, camera arrangement, the PS Vita will provide the truly immersive gaming experience. The same will be launched with a strong range of high quality games from both Sony and other Third Party publishers to make it a truly great purchase. PSVita will be coming in two varieties – Wifi & 3G and will provide a number of 3G functionalities to create a networked fun and play environment.

Gaming is likely to see a boost in the next year. Microsoft has also geared up on offering Xbox and Kinect Games for gam-ers, children and families. Next year the Kinect portfolio will expand to include core gaming experiences with upcoming titles like Mass Effect 3, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13, Madden 2012, FIFA 2013 and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. Through “Kinect Sesame Street TV,” “Kinect Nat Geo TV” and “Project Columbia” (codename), Kinect for Xbox 360 will intro-duce “playful learning” experiences, creating new ways to learn through full-body, interac-tive fun.

Thin is in, and this wave is going to rise higher than ever in the world of notebooks, next year. With the netbooks fading away into history, Intel has jumpstart-ed a new trend that’s only going to swell in 2012. Ultra-books or ultra compact notebooks is changing the way we look at notebooks, and it’s high time as well. How often do you use your DVD drive? do you really need Ethernet with Wi-Fi now almost commonplace? And how many of you have actually used the Express card slot on your notebooks? Chuck away all these things and you’re left with a slimmer, more portable comput-ing device with all the basic components you need, nothing more, nothing less.

NEXT GEN APPLE PRODUCTSKINECT AND XBOX GAMING

SONY PS VITA

ULTRABOOKS

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HARLEY DAVIDSON – DYNA SUPER GLIDE CUSTOM AND DYNA STREET BOB

Harley Davidson adds 2 new models in the existing Dyna family. The bikes are named Dyna Super Glide Custom and Dyna Street Bob. While the former is priced at `11.5 lakh, the latter is for ` 9.95 lakh. Harley Davidson is able to offer the models at such competitive prices because they will both be assembled in India as CKDs. From wheel to wheel, the Dyna Super Glide Custom is a chromed out feast for the eyes, blazing with high-end finishes. The Super Glide Custom continues the tradition of representing the core product from the Milwaukee company: a cruiser that sticks to classic Harley styling, has a low seat height matched with an

If the year 2011 was mostly about Tablets and smartphones, the year 2012 ahead is mainly gonna be of bikes and two-wheel-ers. The year looks promising for all seg-

ments in terms of price, looks and style. From new scooters to high-end bikes, 2012 could be an unforgettable year in the history of the Indian two-wheeler market. here are few of the offerings…

easy-going ergonomic fit and is powered by a 45-degree, air-cooled, pushrod big-bore V-Twin. The Super Glide Custom, in many ways, is Harley-Davidson! The Street Bob goes straight back to the minimalist roots of the bobber scene. Stripped down to the bare essentials, and as “naked” as the law allows, the key word here is “pure” with no parts that aren’t absolutely necessary. Get the quintessential bobber style without sacrificing the comfort of the ride. It features black laced steel wheels and stainless steel spokes with an aggressive 19' wheel up front to lead your way out of the mundane.

dynA SUPER gLIdE CUSTOM

DYNA STREET BOB

2012 - A year of superbikesFEATURE STORY


DUCATI MONSTER 795

Finally the Italian marquee will no more remain the brand for ones with deep pockets but actually become realisti-cally affordable even in India once the made-for-Asia Ducati Monster 795 makes its way into India anytime soon. With the speculated pricing expected to be somewhere in the region of `5-6 lakh, the Ducati 795 will play a key role in the burgeon-ing middleweight (600cc) market in India. Fighting with existing rivals like the Kawasaki Ninja 650R and the Hyosung GT650 siblings, the Ducati 795 will definitely be a show-stopper like all Ducatis are known to be. Powered by an 803cc Vee twin engine, the 795 packs in more muscle than many can handle albeit in a slightly low-spec packaging, which also means that with the price drop, the run-ning costs will also be lesser. If the pricing really turns out as expected, then expect to a see a lot of them on Indian roads, by this year end. how cool does that sound!

KAWASAKI ER6N

This is a bit tricky one. Even though we have not had a confirmed word on this, there has been a lot of flutter about Bajaj Auto bringing in the non-faired version of the Ninja 650R to India sometime this year. Sparse details are available about this development and hence it is difficult to say with conviction that the Kawasaki ER6N will make it to India this year, but the possibility cannot be denied, especially after the Hyosung GT650 has received a warm welcome in its naked trim! There is certainly no doubt that the hooligan lurking behind the 650R’s fairing will be a different animal to play within its street-fighter form minus the fairing and devoid of the rather chilled out sport-tourer riding position. And ofcourse, as the thumb rule in motorcycling goes, no extra plastics and no fancy fairing means an even lesser price tag (expected `4.3-4.5 lakhs)! keep your fingers crossed!

dynA SUPER gLIdE CUSTOM


HONDA and its Fury vT1300CX, 110cc dream yuga commuter bike and sporty CBR150R

Honda has hit the Indian Auto Expo with a bang, launching their 2012, supersports CBR1000RR and the exotic, V-twin chopper model, the Fury VT1300CX. Honda has also unveiled an important new 110cc com-muter bike, the Dream Yuga. The Dream Yuga will be powered by the time tested CB Twister 110 engine, making 9bhp at 7500rpm. The Dream Yuga will include a long, comfortable seat and sell in a host of variants including a rural avatar, with suitably altered styling. Dream Yuga is likely to reach Honda showrooms priced at approximately `45,000 and shall be from May 2012. Sportsbike aficionados will be thrilled to know the baby Fireblade, CBR150R is India bound, to sell alongside bigger brother, the CBR250R. The stylish, fully faired CBR150R’s four-stroke, fuel-injected engine will output a maximum power figure of 18bhp at 10,500rpm, and is to be priced in the region of `1,20,000. The CBR150R shall slip into showrooms around the country as early as March 2012.

Fury VT1300CX

sporty CBR150R

10cc Dream Yuga commuter



SUZUKI GW250

Suzuki India, currently working with just three localized products and three imports, is now gearing up to launch another product in its portfolio with the GW250 – a 250cc single cylinder motorcycle with its styling based on Suzuki’s 1,300cc naked mon-ster, the B-King. With the 250cc market in the country heating up like never before, Suzuki too wants a piece of the pie and it is suf-ficiently armored to take on the competition with the smart-looking GW250. Pricing will be a key factor in determining how well this Suzuki performs in the Indian space, however considering the fact that there is going to be a lot of players in this category, Suzuki will be forced to price the GW250 competitively. Expect the new Suzuki to be in the dealerships by late 2012 with a price tag of `1.4-1.7 lakh.

HYOSUNG GT250R

Garware Motors is resilient and determined to take its partnership with Hyosung to a newer level. Despite suffering a setback from Kawasaki Ninja 650R’s exceptional pricing, the alliance is firmly holding its ground and has plans to introduce impressive new models. Next in line is the Hyosung GT250R, a racy 250cc version of the bigger GT650R, with identical styling but a small capacity Vee-twin motor and lower spec components with a highly competitive pricing (approx.` 2-2.2lakh) in order to fight in the growing 250cc segment in India. Expected to be launched sometime in mid-2012, the Hyosung GT250R will enter at a very crucial time with the new Pulsar and the KTM 200 already vying for attention in this segment. The Hyosung GT250R will certainly have the benefit of one extra cylinder over its competition baring the Kawa-saki Ninja 250R.


KAWASAKI Z750

Yes, the fabled ‘z’ is on its way too. Already under scrutiny for Indian road worthiness, the Ka-wasaki z750 will also make it to the Bajaj ProBiking showrooms in 2012 alongside its Kawasaki siblings. This naked hooligan too will be brought in as a CKD from Thailand and it will be assembled at Bajaj Auto’s Chakan facility, which means we can expect the pricing to be really aggressive, similar to the Ninja 650r. If no surprise launches take place in the meantime then the Kawasaki Z750 will be the first middle-weight inline 4 cylinder motorcycle to hit the Indian roads with its mighty roar, that can turn even the most ardent peace-loving souls into barbarians quicker than you can say ‘Z’. The estimated price is between `6.5-7lakhs.



TRUIMPH and its 7 aggressively priced bikes British big bike marque, Triumph has arrived in India, kicking of their Bharat innings with an impressive fleet of 7 aggressively priced motorcycles. Their most affordably priced of-fering is to be the popular and retro Bonneville which will come home for ` 5.50 lakh. This will be followed by the Street Triple at `5.75 lakh, the respected supersports Daytona 675 at `7 lakh and Speed Tri-ple for `8 lakh. The tall, apt for India adventure bike, Tiger 800XC will be offered for `11.40 lakh. The cruiser, Storm will come in at `17 lakh and massive Rocket III Roadster…the world’s largest ca-pacity production bike, at 2300cc, outputting a restricted 146bhp at 5750rpm, will sell for approximately ` 22 lakh. Triumph have done their homework well, entering India with the best possible approach, planning to bring in their top quality bikes as CKD, Completely Knocked Down units with an assembly station within India. Triumph will set up three to four dealerships in 2012, expanding the same to 12 over the next three years.

ROYAL ENFIELD THUNDERBIRD 500

Royal Enfield comes up with the much awaited Thunderbird 500, yet another mesmerizing cruiser. The bike gets distinctive ‘black’ styling and it is powered by a 500cc Unit Construction Engine (UCE) that makes 27.2bhp. The Thunderbird’s ‘black’ engine is the first of several new styling elements on the bike. It gets a redesigned seat, new lock mechanism accessible through the side panel and true to its touring-friendly nature, it gets a separately mounted pillion seat that can be removed to accommodate luggage. The handle bar has been changed to improve the bikes ergonomics, the pillion grab rail is also new and the bike also gets bungee points to tie luggage. All the new foot pegs, new design mirrors and the LED tail lamp now have the Royal Enfield logo embossed on them. The 500 also gets two digital trip meters to keep a track of total trip mileage and intermediate mile-age. It comes with a 20-litre fuel tank and it also gets hazard lamps in the switch gear, which is a first for a mo-torcycle manufactured in India. Rear disk brakes mounted on the new oval section swing arm, supplied by Bybre, add to the stopping power of the bike. Available only in three shades of black – Midnight Black, Matte Metallic Black and Arctic Winter Black, the new Thunderbird 500 is expected to go on sale sometime mid-2012 while the pricing for the bike was not disclosed by the company officials.

HYOSUNG GT250N

Similar to its strategy of introduc-ing the GT650 twins of R (with fairing) and N (without fairing), respectively, the same line of thought will also follow on the GT250, with a naked and more affordable version of the GT250R making its entry into the Indian market sometime this year. Identical to the Hyosung GT650, the GT250 too will be considerably cheaper than its racier sibling and hence will fall in a very enticing price bracket ( `1.7-1.9 lakh) where it will have to slug it out with some equally convincing and in fact, already established players like the new Bajaj Pulsar and the Honda CBR250R.


Nokia 101 Dual Sim Music Phone

Nokia has newly launched 101 Dual GSM+GSM Mobile phone With Flash Light With FM Radio With Stand by Battery up to 768 H & talk time up to 8 h 30 min

MRP- 1699/-Offer Price- 1599/-

Nokia C2-03 Touch & Type Phone

• Dual SIM (GSM + GSM)• 2 MP Primary Camera• 2.6-inch Resistive Touchscreen• FM Radio With Recording• Alphanumeric Keypad• GPRS And EDGE Enabled• Expandable Storage Capacity Of 32 GB


Nokia C5-03 GSM Touch Screen Mobile Phone

TFT Resistive Touch screen• 3.2 inches TFT Resistive Touch screen• 5 MP Camera With OviShare Ac-cess• Wi-Fi & 3.5G Connectivity• GPS With Free Lifetime Naviga-tion

MRP- 10159/- Offer Price- 8999/-

Nokia Lumia 800 Windows PhoneWindow 7.5 OS• 1.4 GHz Single Core / Qualcomm• 3.7 Inches clear Amoled Capaci-tive Touch Screen Display• 8MP, Carl Zeiss lens with LED flash, autofocus• 720p , 30FPS HD Video Record-ing• Accelerometer, proximity sensor, Magnetometer, ALS• Facebook, Office Applications

Mrp- 29999/-Offer Price- 28999/-

Samsung Galaxy Y 5360

Android OS,v 2.3 (Gingerbread)• 832 MHz processor• 3.0 inches TFT Capacitive touch-screen Display• 2MP FF Camera with panorama and Smile shot• 180 MB internal, 32 GB Expand-able memory• FM Radio+RDS• 3G/BLUETOOTH/USB/WLAN/GPRS/EDGE


SAMSUNG WAVE Y S5380

Bada v2.0 OS2 MP Primary Camera3.2-inch TFT Capacitive Touch-screen832 MHz ProcessorFM RadioWi-Fi EnabledExpandable Storage Capacity of 32 GB


Samsung Galaxy S2 i9100

• Android OS, v2.3 (Gingerbread)• Dual Core Application Processor• 4.3” SUPER AMOLED Plus• 8MP Camera with LED Flash• PC-like Web Browsing• HSPA+ 21Mbps.• Wi-Fi Direct• Full HD Recording & Playback

MRP- 33490/- Offer Price- 31490/-

SONY ERICSSON XPERIA ARC S

Android OS, v2.3.4 (Gingerbread)• 1.4 GHz Scorpion processor• 4.2 Inches LED-backlit LCD, Ca-pacitive TouchScreen Display• 8 MP Camera Auto Focus, LED Flash• micro SD Upto 32 GB, 8 GB in-cluded• FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE, Twitter, Google Talk, Gmail

MRP- 28345/- Offer Price- 27699/-


SHOPPING

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Belkin F8Z492sa Bluetooth Music receiver

Features Bluetooth® v2.1 with EDR for superior wireless perfor-manceTransmits up to 33 feet awayRemembers up to six paired de-vicesCables included: 3.5mm-to-RCA & 3.5mm-to-3.5mmCompatible with all devices ena-bled with A2DP stereo Bluetooth

Offer Price- 1770/-

Belkin Laptop Cooling Pad Stand F5L055

• Patent-pending Airflow Wing for better cooling and quieter opera-tion• Patented wave design enhances cooling capabilities• Smart Convection design for optimim air circulation allows hot air to flow up and away from heat source


Belkin F5L041 Laptop Cool-ing Lounge • Cushioned for comfort on your lap• Airflow design pulls cool air in and pushes hot air away• Fan directs air right to the heat source• USB-powered


Belkin 4 Port Ultra Mini Travel Hub F5U407

• Turns a single USB port into 4 USB 2.0 ports• Transfers data at speeds of up to 480Mbps• Offers lightweight, compact de-sign-perfect for travel• Installs with Plug-and-Play ease-requires no software• Signals status with lighted indi-cator

MRP- 399/- Offer Price 349/-

Logitech Gamepad F310

• A, B, X, Y buttons• LB, RB buttons• Left and right analog triggers• Start and Back buttons• Two clickable analog mini-joy-sticks• 8-way D-pad• Home button• Sports mode• 10 programmable buttons*• Programmable left and right triggers*• Two programmable analog mi-ni-joysticks*


Logitech Z 506 5.1 Gaming Speaker

• Total RMS power 75 watts RMS• Satellites: 48 watts RMS (2 x 8 W front, 16 W center, 2 x 8 W rear)• Subwoofer: 27 watts RMS• Total peak power: 150 watts• Frequency response: 45 Hz–20 kHz


Logitech cooling pad n 120

A sleek cooling pad with a virtually silent, USB-powered fan that lets you cool off with your notebook.The slotted surface allows the USB-powered fan to distribute air quietly and evenly under your notebookYou get steady, unobstructed air-flow that keeps the heat off you—whether it’s on your lap or desk.Designed for efficiency, this cool-ing pad has a minimal impact on your notebook’s battery.


Logitech C110 USB Webcam

With plug-and-play setup, VGA-quality video and a built-in mic, this webcam is the easy way to start video calling and send pho-tos (1.3MP).With simple plug-and-play setup, you’ll be making video calls in no time on most major IMs and Log-itech Vid™ HD.With your webcam’s VGA sensor, the people you care about will see you in natural color.




Nikon Coolpix P500

• A 36x optical zoom NIKKOR lens that covers a broad range of focal lengths from wide-angle 22.5mm through super-telephoto 810mm (equivalent with 35mm [135] for-mat)• Three functions that ensure su-perior image quality in both still images and movies, even at super telephoto zoom positions• Backside illumination CMOS sen-sor • Digital Zoom – 4X , Effective Pix-els – 12.1

MRP- 20950 Offer Price- 20322

Nikon Coolpix P7100

10.1 Megapixel CCD Sensor• 3-inch Vari-Angle LCD Monitor• 7.1x wide angle Zoom-NIKKOR ED glass lens• high-resolution photos or shoot HD movies• EXPEED C2 image processing engine technology


NIkON COOLPIX S8200

• An extremely portable compact body despite its built-in 14x opti-cal zoom lens• Night Portrait Mode• Night landscape mode for beau-tiful photos with hand-held shoot-ing• Shooting, playback and retouch functions that easily enable the creation of artistic works• HD movie recording with stereo sound .


Nikon Coolpix AW 100

• Ruggedly built for reliable and comfortable outdoor operation.• Backside illumination CMOS sen-sor enables capture of images with supressed noise.• A function for recording high-resolution full-HD movies with the press of a button.• Beautiful underwater scenes can be captured with simple setting of Underwater scene mode.• Built-in map displays present location during shooting, and shooting site during playback on the LCD monitor .


Nikon DSLR D90 with 18-105mm VR kit

• 3.0” LCD• CMOS Sensor• Low-Temperature Polysilicon TFT LCD Display that Allows up to 170-Degree Wide Viewing Angle• 12.3 Megapixels Lens That give perfect Image quality• Auto/Manual Focus With Multi, • Center-weighted, Spot MeteringSupports USB 2.0


Sony DSC-W520 Digital Camera

• 26mm Wide angle lens• 5x Optical Zoom• Sweep Panorama ,14.1 Mega Pixels• SteadyShot image stabilization• Double Anti-Blur• 2.7(6.8cm) LCD


Sony NEX 3k SLR Black Dig-ital Camera

Interchangeable Lens Camera• Ultra compact package you can carry anywhere• Featuring HD movie recording• Sweep panorama for effortless panoramic shooting


Sony DCR-SX21E Black Handy cam

• SD Shooting on Memory Stick880k CCD Sensor• 57x Optical Zoom / 67x Ex-tended zoom Lens• Steady Shot - Electronic Image Stabilisation




Map My India VX240

Playback for videos, music and texxt documents• Integrated bluetooth hands free functionality.• Built-in GPS for powerful navi-gation. All India maps loaded on internal 2gb flash memory.• Support for reverse camera input through AV-In.• Support for connection to car audio system through Aux-In ca-ble.• More specification details at www.mistore.in

MPR: 16490/-OFFER PRICE: 16000/-

Map My India Road Pilot GPS Navigator

Slim, pocket friendly navigation device to guide you across Indian roads.• 3.5”navigation device with all In-dia maps on inbuilt 1GB memory• built-in GPS for powerful naviga-tion• Ultra long battery life, and accel-erated hardware performance• Lightweight and stylish GPS navigation device with built-in rechargeable battery for portable use• More specification details at www.mistore.in


Map My India vx140 GPS Navigator

Size does matter! The large 4.3” wide TFT touchscreen adds an oomph factor to navigation.• Hands free navigator in sleek and compact size.• Watch your favorite videos, play your music files and read text doc-uments loaded on your SD card.• User friendly interface and easier to operate while driving.• Unique snooze feature to help save power.• More specification details at www.mistore.in


Map My India zx150 GPS Navigator

For a new dimension in the world of car entertainment, try this 5” TFT screen.• Large 5” anti-glare colour touch screen for easy viewing.• Playback for videos, music and text documents.• Integrated Bluetooth handsfree functionality• Support for connection to car audi system through Aux In cable• Ultra long battery life, and accel-erated hardware performance.• More specification details at www.mistore.in


BELkIN F5L071ak200W AC ANYWHERE

• Power on the go - charge your electronic devices in the car while traveling• High-efficiency power conver-sion, which prolongs the automo-tive batteries service life.• Cooling fan for temperature pro-tection• The USB port allows simultane-ously charging of MP3 players, cell phones and any other electronic devices.


BELkIN ROCkSTAR MULTI HEAD PHONE SPLITTER

• One hard-wired connection for your MP3 player• Mixing and fade-ins controlled by the standard controls of each MP3 player• Also works with all MP3 and portable DVD players• Additional 3.5mm-to-3.5mm ca-ble to connect another Device.• Warranty Lifetime.


Belkin Air Cast Auto Hands Free F4U037qe

• Routes calls and music from a smartphone through car speakers• Seamlessly switches between calls and music• Embedded microphone mounts anywhere on the dashboard for the best voice pick-up• Bluetooth® connects to smart-phone• Aux-In connects to car stereo• Power adapter with USB port for charging• Nighttime illumination for better visibility• 1-Year Limited Warranty


Belkin F8Z689qe Micro Charge With Charge Sync kit

• Micro rapid-charge car charger• 2.1 amp• 3-foot ChargeSync cable for iPad, iPhone and iPod




Tech n Real Estate

Virtual toursOne of the best pieces of technology that has be-come a great tool for many real estate agents or companies that operate a web site is the virtual tour. The virtual tour could be considered a revo-lutionary selling tool for real estate agents. A vir-tual tour is a nifty piece of technology that allows prospective buyers to visit a property being sold in the comfort of their own homes. It’s like taking a guided tour of the property but actually viewing it in the computer screen. Prospective buyers can use the virtual tour first to check out the property initially and just decide to go on a physical inspec-tion when it is something they actually fancy.

Bluetooth technologyBluetooth technology is known to be a good use for cell phone users but it can also be used in making easier the job of real estate agents. It is a wireless device that could be used 30 feet away from the other party you are communicat-ing with and trust us, it is one of the most use-ful tools we are discussing about. Today, it had been used even in laptops. Wherever you take your laptop for business (or real estate business), it makes it convenient for you to conduct deals even without having to meet with your clients face to face. This technology is useful for busy people who have their schedules full. Truly, this is a useful gadget.

Virtual real estateSome people, knowing the game of virtual real estate, have become millionaires through it. Why is it so? This is because using virtual real estate targets all computer-users globally, not only the ones nearby. Almost everyone qualify this catego-ry and so they can easily access through the de-tails within the click of their mouse. Secondly, you can also place in unlimited details that you can just write off in the net instead of saying every-thing in person. It allows you to clearly and com-pletely state terms and legalities without missing anything or having to repeat yourself over and over again.

Technology has shaken hands with almost every sector of living, and real estate is no exception. The changes to the real

estate industry have come fast, with listings and valuations tools widely available for free on the Internet. Home buyers and sellers have already seized much of the power once in the hands of exclu-sively of real estate professionals and passed it to technology, and trust us, it’s only about to get stronger.Listed below are few of the most popular technology trends that are quite “in” things today. Let’s find out which among these we have personally used in our house hunts!


Microsoft “Surface”“Surface” is the latest from Microsoft. This revo-lutionary ‘coffee table computer’ can be a great tool for real estate agent and can have a remark-able effect to real estate technology. This latest breakthrough offers a big change in our old ways of doing computation using the standard com-puter. The Surface is figure touch allowing bet-ter navigation for users. It amazingly zooms in and out of your neighborhoods. With the use of your finger tips, you can show interested buyers the neighborhoods and close parks available in the market. Video home tours are made possible with just a touch and drag of a finger using the Surface. You may also integrate the Surface to a conference room table and set a camera on the screen to give better presentation.

Real Estate Technology Guide – the bookThe world of technology is continually reinventing and always open new horizon to road of success. A book titled Real Estate Technology Guide provides information that will help you im-prove the technology you are taking advantage of. The book will tech you evaluate how you utilize technology in your real estate business. It also helps you ascertain what other tech-nologies that you may need to improve your craft. You will also learn from the book tips on how to make yourself more visible and have your presence on the Internet more attractive. You will also benefit and learn from the experiences of the leading experts on real estate technology.

Real estate websites/portalsBuying, selling, renting or reselling, everything has become so easy today. Thanks to all those organized and informa-tive websites for real estate news, trends, views and much more. There are options for both residential and commer-cial properties. The main aim of these portals is to allow property realtors to convey the message that they’re reli-able and well-established. They want home buyers to feel that they will be purchasing property from a company that’s dependable, steadfast and time-tested. Also home buyers want to see what they’re potentially buying without having to take the time to travel to a property. Real estate websites typically contain a lot of images for this very purpose.

Mobile AppsAnd yes, probably the trendiest and most hap-pening thing that binds tech with real estate…Mobile Apps! Many online portals are coming up with their versions of Mobile Apps. This is quite new a thing in the property market and below is a glimpse of “India Property” that comes with new BlackBerry App for buyers and sellers.

How mobile apps take a role in property market? IndiaProperty Blackberry app combines innovative technol-ogy with deep consumer in-sights to deliver a host of fea-tures with multiple benefits to buyers and sellers of proper-ties alike. Through augmented reality, they can use the phone camera to locate nearby prop-erties and places of interest including educational institu-tions, places of worship, travel destinations and transporta-tion facilities. The advance search function helps users to search by multiple param-eters like locality, built-up area and price range while ‘locality search’ enables them to search for nearby properties based on the GPS coordinates. Users can also view photo galleries, property details like amenities, specs and floor maps as well as post an enquiry through Email/SMS or place a call to the builder.

TECH LIVING


Features available for buyers: 1. Quick search which helps users to search by property type (apart-ment, independent house / villa etc), City, BHK and so on. 2. Advance search which helps users to search based on lot more at-tributes like locality, built up area, property price range etc. 3. Locality search which enables user to search for nearby properties based on the current GPS coordinates. 4. View property details like unit details of each of the listings, ameni-ties, specification, property photo gallery, floor map etc. 5. Post an enquiry on interested properties through Email/SMS or place a call to the builder. 6. Through augmented reality, utilize the device’s camera to find out nearby properties and the places of interest in and around including educational institutions, places of worship, travel destinations, trans-portation facilities etc.

Features available for sellers: 1. The seller can login to his/her account and view the response dashboard. 2. The seller can view list of responses received for each of the listings posted and can access the contact details of the users who are interested in the listings. A new user who wishes to register can leave the contact details and the customer care team would call them back and assist them to list their property on IndiaProperty.

Indian Property - the portal These are high growth times for the fledgling property portal space in India fueled by multiple factors. The rollout of 3G services, increasing penetration of broadband access and explo-sion in devices with internet ac-cess capability embedded among others have driven increasing internet usage and e-commerce as evidenced from the buoyancy in the sector. It is also recently that the Indian internet userbase crossed the 100 million mark, an important milestone and tipping point. Property portals benefit im-mensely from this growth of net-savvy customers who are obvi-ously time-pressed and thus need an aggregator where they can find all the information and services they need. For the developers and the agents, it provides access to a large and growing consumer base and also being able to com-municate and engage them ef-fectively. IndiaProprerty.com, the

market leader in the category and the most-visited Indian real estate website* is truly well positioned to take advantage of and ride this boom. The first ever in its category to be ISO 9001:2000 certified, the portal currently lists over 600,000 properties of which 30000 are fea-tured listings. Launched in July 2006, IndiaProperty.com is a feature rich, one stop property informa-tion portal that provides in–depth information on buying, selling and renting in real estate. It is a b2b and b2c platform that serves builders, developers, real estate agents and individuals. IndiaProp-erty.com’s comprehensive search feature allows customers to locate property by region, area, price, amenities and availability. The multiple properties listing facility, another unique feature enables sellers to feature more than just one property along with property photographs, floor plans, location maps and incase of a company the logo as well. The portal is rich

in its content by giving exclusive projects images, updates, videos and interviews from the Builders. The site also features an exclusive section on allied products and ser-vices in the real estate industry. The new look IndiaProp-erty.com launched towards end of April 2011 will elevate the user experience one level further. Ex-tremely user friendly in design and navigation, the new portal will allow users to search and find properties of their choice quickly and effectively. Its customized in-terface across property categories ensures that each listed prop-erty is unique. There are multiple initiatives currently underway to enhance the experience and also deliver a better product/service to all the stakeholders of the portal. Another factor that distinguishes IndiaProperty.com is the office network across India which is among the widest in the category. IndiaProperty was voted the Best Indian Website of 2007 in the Real estate segment by PC World.

IN A STRIP

TECH LIVING


hOOTSUITE Social media has become a very necessary business tool. Whether drumming up new clients or looking to handle customer concerns, companies need a social media presence.Hootsuite makes this easy. This free app lets you add multiple social media streams, allowing you to then monitor and post to these accounts. You can also schedule out posts in advance. Social media management is easy with this free tool. Please note that only a limited number of social networks are allowed on a free account; social media man-agers with a lot of accounts to run should upgrade to the premium plan for a low monthly fee.

BEnTO This app costs a little bit of money, but it is a great tool that is well worth a few dollars. This is an organizational app that lets you take control of your business or your life through your iPad 2. Flexible and easy to use, it comes loaded with several pre-made templates to let you start getting things in order imme-diately after downloading.

dROPBOX The Dropbox service has taken the business world by storm, and that means that this app is prob-ably one of the first you should add to your new iPad 2. A file synchronization app, it is extremely useful for keeping you and your work connected and up to date. It is easy to use and very vital, but unfortunately, it will lack the full features you get if you were accessing Dropbox via a desktop or laptop computer.

IThOUghTS hd Mind mapping is one of the best ways to organize your thoughts, flesh out new ideas and work out new concepts. It is how some of today’s top minds have come up with the modern era’s best new inven-tions and ideas. iThoughts HD is a mind mapping app for your iPad 2, meaning that you can quickly start embracing this concept. This colorful app lets you import and export between other mind mapping applica-tions, so you and your creativity aren’t tied down. You can also do more than mind map with this great app; it is also excellent for doing things like taking notes during meetings, goal setting and more.

MOnSTER.COM Sure, you have a job now, but who isn’t always looking for something bigger and better. This great free app can help you find the next big thing that could help you and your business talent blossom. This is a very functional, easy to use app to assist you as you find new opportunities.

nOTE TAkER hd This is a very serious note taking application for your iPad 2. Another paid app, this one is not for the casual notetaker. This is a feature rich, flexible yet powerful business application. You can use this app to do any number of things including take traditional notes, create diagrams and even doodle.

qUICkOFFICE PRO This app, or one that is incredibly similar to it, is an essential Microsoft Office tool. This paid iPad 2 app allows you to easily do advanced editing of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel files. Users of Quickof-fice find its interface intuitive and simple to start using. A file management solution comes integrated with this business application, letting you access many of the top cloud storage profiders including Dropbox and Google Docs.

Great iPad 2 tools for Business

The iPad is the world’s top tablet computer for good reason. A powerful, reliable device, the iPad 2 offers almost limitless possibili-ties when one takes the amazingly vast number of apps available into consideration. Many business people have been turning to tablets, particularly the iPad 2. Very versatile and super portable, tablets such as this are great solutions for working on the go or when traveling. As mentioned, there are many apps that can be downloaded. Pres-ently there are hundreds of thousands of apps available for the iPad. These apps make almost anything possible for your iPad, including many business and productivity functions. A lot of excellent business tools in the form of apps exist for the iPad2, and these are just a few of them.

APP WORLD


free stuff for your android Phone!

You have just brought an Android phone for yourself, and are now looking to under-stand what the hype and fuss is about. Many cyber pundits have named the Android operating system by Google to be a huge success and this can be seen from the fact that there are thousands of people who have become a part of the Android family. If you are new to the Android family, you should know that there are a ton of different things that can be done by your phone. If you have the right apps, you could literally use your phone for a variety of different purposes apart from the standard call and messaging fea-tures. For example, did you know that your Android smartphone could double up as a scanner? For those who did not know, all of these features can be accessed by just downloading a simple app on your phone. For instance, if you want to use the camera of your Android phone as a barcode scanner, just download the Barcode Scanner app from the Android Market, and you are good to go! Similarly, there is also an app to scan docu-ments! The Android Market is full of free stuff, and all you have to do when you enter the market is to touch on ‘Top Free’, which will au-tomatically take you to a list of dif-ferent apps that are popular with Android users and can be down-loaded for free. For those people who want unrestricted access to apps that are free in the Android Market, rooting their phones might be a great idea. For people who do not know, rooting an An-droid smartphone is quite similar to jail breaking an iPhone. With the help of a third party installer, you will be able to download a va-riety of different type of apps for your phone. Moreover, did you know that you can customize your An-droid phone according to your own wishes? For example, there are hundreds of different themes that you can download and install on your phone. Regardless of the interface that you are using, such as Sense, TouchWiz or MotoBlur there are always ways by which you can change the menus and internal appearances. There are hundreds of themes that you can get from the internet, while you can also create your own themes.

There are several apps that allow you to create themes on your own, providing you with a bet-ter amount of customization op-tions. People who are interested in installing custom ROMs on their phone will have to root their phones. You can root your phone yourself, while there are several professional hackers and root-ers that you can hire for the job. Installing a ROM on your phone will also significantly boost perfor-mance. Let’s take an example of a ROM. If you have a Samsung smartphone, it is likely that you will have the TouchWiz interface installed on it. However, by rooting the phone, you can install the HTC Sense on your Samsung phone, or even a highly modified ROM that turns your Android phone and makes it look like the iOS! There is no end to the amount of cus-tomization options that are avail-able in Android, and if you have rooted your phone, then almost everything is available on a free. Android smartphones are quickly becoming popular thanks to the vast amount of customization and freedom that is available while op-erating the device. You can also set up keyboard shortcuts to your favorite apps, install Home widg-ets and do a lot more in order to set up your Android smartphone exactly the way you want to.

This article is written by Kevin Moor, who also writes for trojanalert.net, a site emphasizing Trojan reviews.

'MOTOBLUR UI'

'hTC SEnSE UI'

APP WORLD


ghost Rider: Spirit of vengeance - Columbia Pictures

MOVIES


Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu - UTv Motion Pictures & dharma ProductionsRelease date – 10th February 2012director – Shakun BatraStarring – Imran khan, kareena kapoor, Randhir kapoor, Boman Irani, Ram kapoor, Ratna Pathak Shahgenre – Romantic ComedyPlot – Rahul Kapoor (Imran Khan), 26, is on his way to become a carbon copy of his parents when he suddenly loses his job as an architect in Vegas. Afraid that he has let his parents down, Rahul decides to hide the truth and find another job. When by a twist of fate, he meets Riana Braganza, a quick-witted hairstylist, who is eve-rything he isn`t. A series of events lead them to meet on Christmas eve over a few drinks… but like always, it’s never a ‘few’. Following this night of debauchery, they wake up to discover that they’ve got-ten married. Now, Rahul has more than just his job loss to hide from his parents. They both decide to get it annulled as soon as possible and get an appointment from the court in ten days. Over the next ten days they have their share of arguments, moments and laughs that results in an unlikely friendship. Will this friendship turn to love? Will her warmth and fearlessness give Rahul the courage to face a long-simmering confrontation with his parents? Will a marriage that started as a drunken mistake help two people find themselves?

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (3d) - Warn-er Bros. Pictures

Release date – 10th February 2012director – Brad PeytonStarring – dwayne Johnson, Michael Caine, Josh hutcherson, vanessa hudgens, kristin davisgenre – 3d Action-AdventurePlot – In this follow-up to the 2008 worldwide hit “Journey to the Center of the Earth”, the new 3D family adventure “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” begins when young Sean Anderson (Josh Hutch-erson, reprising his role from the first film) receives a coded distress signal from a mysterious island where no island should exist. It`s a place of strange life forms, mountains of gold, deadly volcanoes, and more than one astonishing secret. Unable to stop him from go-ing, Sean’s new stepfather, Hank (Dwayne Johnson), joins the quest. Together with a helicopter pilot (Luis Guzman) and his beautiful, strong-willed daughter (Vanessa Hudgens), they set out to find the island, rescue its lone inhabitant and escape before seismic shock-waves force the island under the sea and bury its treasures forever.

Release date – 17th February 2012director – Mark neveldine and Brian TaylorStarring – nicolas Cage, Fergus Riordan, Ciarán hinds, violante Placido, Idris Elba, Christopher Lambert, Johnny Whitworthgenre – 3d Superhero

Plot – Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is an upcoming 3D superhero film based on the Marvel Comics antihero Ghost Rider. It is a sequel to the 2007 film Ghost Rider and features Nicolas Cage returning to the starring role as Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider. It is also the second film to be released under the Marvel Knights banner after 2008’s Punisher: War zone. The main plot goes like this … As Johnny Blaze hides out in Eastern Europe, he is called upon to stop the devil, who is trying to take human form.

TECH EVENT

MOBILE WORLd COngRESS 2012

Far more than a mere communication device, mobiles now serve as our books, health monitors, payment transfer de-vices, social connectors and tour guides. Mobile technology is embedded in our cars, homes, appliances, governments and utilities. Mobile is enhancing and expanding education and thus, transforming the world. Mobile World Congress 2012 will cel-ebrate the current state of mobile and offer a glimpse into where mobile has the potential to go next.

dATES: 27th Feb – 1st MarchWhERE: Barcelona, Spain.

AUTOMOBILE EVENT

Chicago Auto Show

The Chicago Auto Show is held annually in February at Chicago’s McCormick Place convention complex. It is the largest auto show in North America. The event, first produced in 1901, has been staged more times than any other auto show in North America and continues to be one of the best-attended in the world. Over one million visitors attend each year. 2008 marked the Chicago Auto Show’s 100th iteration. It is the first auto show anywhere in the world to have achieved this distinction. Due to the vast amount of space available, several auto manufacturers have implemented creative uses of their exhibit space in recent years. For example, at the 2006 Chicago Auto Show, Pontiac and Chrysler hosted free concerts at their exhib-its. The BoDeans and OK Go are among those who performed at Pontiac’s stage. Chrysler Group created the world’s largest indoor test track, and allowed attendees to ride along on a test-drive of their SUVs and trucks in extreme simulated conditions in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008; Toyota configured a similar experiential ride course for the 2011 show.

WhEn: Feb 10 – Feb 19

AWAITING


Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace 3d - 20th Century Fox / Lucasfilm

Release date – 10th February 2012director – george LucasStarring – Liam neeson, Ewan Mcgregor, natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ian Mcdiarmid, Anthony daniels, kenny Baker, Pernilla August, Frank Ozgenre – 3d Epic Space Opera

Plot –The evil Trade Federation, led by Nute Gunray is planning to take over the peaceful world of Naboo. Jedi Knights Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi are sent to confront the leaders. But not everything goes to plan. The two Jedi escape, and along with their new Gungan friend, Jar Jar Binks head to Naboo to warn Queen Amidala, but droids have already started to capture Naboo and the Queen is not safe there. Eventually, they land on Tatooine, where they become friends with a young boy known as Anakin Skywalker. Qui-Gon is curious about the boy, and sees a bright future for him. The group must now find a way of getting to Coruscant and to finally solve this trade dispute, but there is someone else hiding in the shadows. Are the Sith really extinct? Is the Queen who she really says she is? And what’s so special about this young boy? This is the re-release of the original film, this time in 3D. The other five films will also be re-released in 3D later on.


Few things you didn’t know about Vaishali Desai..

•She has gone from acting in commercials to taking part in beauty pageants. And is now appearing in Bollywood too! She has enjoyed sashaying the ramps for big designers, representing India at The Miss International pageant, to completing her second film Tukkaa Fitt in Bollywood…….she considers them stepping stones to a bigger and brighter future!!

•A Ponds commercial was her first baby step towards stardom. Representing India on an International Platform was her mo-ment of Pride. Her debut film Kal Kissne Dekha was another feather in her cap. She is looking forward to many more ‘such flowers in her basket of success.’

•Her upcoming film is called Tukkaa Fitt, a comic caper & has many more varied roles and films in the offing.

•She considers herself to be quite tech-savvy and would give herself a score of 3, on the scale from 1 to 5.

•Social Networking to her is a forum for connecting with people,so, she is a twitter girl as she is more of a people’s person & love getting feedbacks for her work. (You can follow her on her twitter id @vaishali_desai)

•Is addicted to her BlackBerry, HP Laptop, iPod and PSP. Does not own a tablet yet, but is going to ‘treat herself to one soon’ !!

•Was too young when her grand-uncle, Mr. Manmohan Desai, was weaving his magic on the silver screen. Says she cannot relate to the changes that have occurred since those days to today’s world of 3D and Hi-Def cinema.

•“Eat healthy, stay focused and exercise regularly” is her motto for staying fresh and looking oh-so-fit.

•She is a very good vocalist.

The Dream flower Girl ShewassettingtheramponfireinBangaloreandwasatopmodel.Herfirstshowwaswhenshewasonly16.ButhermajorbreakandentryintheactingworldwaswithherfirstcommercialforPondsDreamflowerTalc.AndlaterwasseeninadslikeTanishq,CompaqandRaymonds.Nowsheisthe“NextBigThing“inBollywood

Vaishali Desai

PHoTogRAPHER-JEEvANANTHWARDRoBE- coLLEZIoNI MoDAMAKE UP- IMRANHAIR ARTIST- SANgEETA

COVER GIRL


All rounder with 5 star qualities

THE CAR PAD

MapMyIndia has given us some outstanding products and their latest one, the CarPad, is a worthy all rounder to lead the company’s march in the segment of in-car navigation systems. It can not only show the lost traveller the way, but also let you make calls, watch videos on YouTube, send/receive emails and enjoy some smooth jazz to calm those nerves. We take a look at 5 functions that this singular product can achieve without breaking into a sweat.


All rounder with 5 star qualities

THE CAR PAD

IN-CAR GPS SYSTEM The primary and most basic use of the device. The 7” Display will clearly show you where you are, where you should be going, and alternate routes (if they exist). As with most GPS systems, the CarPad will also show you Plac-es of Interest (POI) like cafes, restaurants and multiplexes in your surrounding area. With clearly marked out routes and 3D interface (called Aura) available as well, this device is perfect for showing you the exact route even before you begin your journey!

3G COMMUNICATION DEVICE Wish to place a call to your cousin to let him know you’re stuck in traffic? Or, perhaps, an SMS to your uncle? Well, the CarPad can do that too! With a slot for your 3G enabled SIM card, the device can do what you wish over its 3G network, including video calling and browsing the internet. Impressed yet? You should be! Oh, did we mention the availability of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as well? Oh yes, it’s got it all!

PMP The CarPad also comes with an 8GB microSD card bundled in, so you can load your favourite music and movies too. Whenever you feel bored, the CarPad can be your PMP (Portable Mulitmedia Player). With Android OS v2.2 (Froyo) – there are a multitude of formats of multimedia files that can be played on this product, without any hiccups. There’s also a built-in Radio app, that lets you tune-in and listen to your favourite shows while on the road.

TABLET With Android OS on-board, the 7” CarPad is es-sentially a Tablet with an awesome GPS Navigation system. Or perhaps an incredible GPS system with Tablet-like fea-tures. Google integration allows you to check your Gmail account, chat with your buddies on Gtalk, plus click and up-load pics to Picasa. You can also check your social network-ing profiles and stay updated with your friends while on the move.

3D TRAVEL KIT The proprietary Aura software that lets you view streets and places in real 3D is quite impressive. The beauty is when you can see the height of buildings in 3D view and compare it to the actual ones while travelling, you realize how awesome the representation is. With over 5 million places, national-level maps for 5,79,000 towns and villages, street-level maps for 1200 cities, house-level maps for 18 cities and 3D landmarks and building footprints for major cities – this really a 5 star gadget, by all counts!

Turntable.fm is a little miracle that does something simple and essential: It lets you play your favorite songs for your friends and strangers on the Web, in real time, for free.

We’d say it’s astonishing no one has done it before, but it’s not: The music business has a long tradition of resisting good ideas. So how did the Turntable.fm guys finally get the industry on board?

They haven’t. The start-up doesn’t have deals in place with any labels or publishers.

This doesn’t mean that Turnta-ble.fm is illegal. The company believes it’s obeying the law, and it might be right. But this thing has gotten so buzzy, so fast, that it’s going to be hard for the label lawyers to stay away.

Here’s how Turntable got started, how it works, and why it might be able to stick around. But if you haven’t already, go play with it now, just in case. If you're in the U.S. that is! The site does not cur-rently work in India, as we don't have laws to protect digital media formats.

The backstory

Turntable started as Stickybits, which did something hard to explain involving barcodes and geotagging, and seemed more like an art project than a busi-ness. Last year it raised nearly $2 million.

UnCOvERIng ThE TALE OF TURnTABLE.FM

This spring, CEO Billy Chasen abandoned that idea and used his remaining money to build Turntable. This one is easy to describe.

here goes:

You and up to four other people take turns streaming just about any song you want for anyone who wants to listen, for free, in one of the site’s “rooms.” A deal with MediaNet, a digital content provider, gives Turntable access to millions of songs, and if the song you want to play isn’t there, you can upload your own MP3 to the site and play that. There’s a chat feature so you can compare notes, and you can “follow” your pals.

That’s about it.

There’s a “gamification” element where you can collect points and rewards for playing music people like, but that’s definitely second-ary. The real thrill is sharing music, and discovering music.

The law

So how can any of that be legal without label deals? In short, Chasen believes he’s able to run the service under the protection of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) — the same law that lets Pandora operate without la-bel deals — as a “non-interactive” Web radio service.

That description will seem odd to

most people who’ve used Turnta-ble. Because the service doesn’t seem like radio at all, and it is most definitely interactive.

You pick the songs you want to play, and the order you want to play them. And if you’re really into it, you’ll change that on the fly, based on the song the person before you just played.But if you spend enough time mucking around with Turntable, you’ll start to run into small con-straints here and there. You can’t play music in a room by yourself, for instance. And there’s a limit on the number of times you can play a song by a single artist per hour. And you can’t see the next song another user has cued up.

None of these limits seem like real limits, because they don’t detract from the service’s core appeal. But these are all rules that “DMCA-compliant” Webcasters work under, and they’re evidence that Chasen is trying to do the same thing. If it works, he’ll simply pay music owners a flat fee for each song he streams every month, just like Pandora does.

The precedent

In addition to Pandora, Chasen has another model to work with here: 8tracks, a three-year-old service that also lets you play any music you want, and listen to other people’s music, for free, using a DMCA license. The main difference is that instead of play-ing the songs live, you create

“mixtapes,” which other users play back on their own time.

8tracks never got the same kind of buzz that Turntable is getting, but it has diligently built up a fan base, and now draws more than two million users a month. Just as important, it’s been able to stay out of legal trouble. I think it’s a pretty great story.

There’s a technical difference between 8tracks and Turntable, too: 8tracks relies on songs its users own and upload, while it seems like most people on Turntable are using the tracks Chasen and Medianet provide. That distinction seems like a small one, but some music biz folks I’ve talked to have pointed to that as a red flag.

The problems

The risk for Turntable is the same one every music start-up without label deals faces: Not that a court will find them guilty of something, but that they’ll have to spend a lot of time and money on lawyers.

And while it seems blindingly obvious that Turnta-ble.fm is a great thing for the music business — it lets music fans tell other music fans about music they like, the best possible advertising — We wouldn’t put it past a label or two to gripe about the service. Particularly if it makes the leap from the digerati into the mainstream.

TECH THAT


UnCOvERIng ThE TALE OF TURnTABLE.FM

(It’s important to note here that there are lots of tradi-tional music business folks who are resentful of Pandora’s success, even though the company pays out more than half its revenue to copyright owners.)

If Turntable does sidestep legal challenges, it will have to make money one day, too. This is also an issue, since no one’s actually proved that free, ad-supported Web music can be profitable.

But we’re much less worried about this one. If it gets to that point, the Turntable guys should at least be able to tell advertisers that their ads will be much more effective, since Turn-table users spend a whole lot of time looking at their screens.

does any of this matter?

We're reflexively cau-tious about that kind of behavior, and it’s easy to point to buzzy start-ups that shot up, then cratered (Myspace), or never got above the buzz stage to begin with (Chatroulette). And even if Turntable does stick around, it’s possible that it’s just a feature and not a business.

But this one feel pretty special. We’ve had plenty of music sites, and plenty of social sites, but none that mixed them well together. We hope they make it work.

UndERSTAndIng ThE MAn BEhInd TURnTABLE.FM

Billy Chasen is the man behind the music-discovery, friend-making, procrastination tool all in one. Turntable.fm has certainly been making a lot of heads turn, and the site has taken the internet by storm. The site not only lets users to stream and play music in real time for friends and like-minded people, but also lets you participate in chat discussions while you do that. Before Turntable, Chasen--who has quite an artistic bent--cofounded Betaworks, where he created real-time analytics ser-vice Chartbeat, and firef.ly, a chat service. Turntable recently raised $7 million in a round of funding led by Union Square Ventures, with Fred Wilson coming on as a board member, and launched its iPhone app in September. Turntable currently has about 725,000 users, who stream anywhere from 500,000 to a mil-lion songs a day. Recently, for those of us stuck outside the US, it became an even more authentic experience, as a grey-faced bouncer informed us “we need to currently restrict turntable access to only the United States due to licensing constraints.” Billy Chasen himself has called Turntable.fm’s home, New York City, “the centre of music.” The reason, according to Chasen, is quite simple. “We have some of the most sought after venues to play in and every band tries to pass through here. It's a huge diverse city, so it makes sense that any band can find their crowd here.” Ask the man himself how he would describe the service to someone who has never used and he replies, “Turntable.fm is a way to listen to music online with other people. What you play, everyone else hears at the same time. It looks like a room where people hang out and chat. However, you have the option to become a DJ and play for the crowd.” The next logical thing to quiz him about was the origin of the service. “I was listening to music with my sister in her car. We were taking turns plugging in our mp3 players to play

Billy Chasen

new music. I realized there was no easy way to do this online with other people.” It’s natural to wonder what gave him the idea for different features, like getting your own avatar and having the ability to pull music from all over the internet? “I was trying to emu-late the offline experience of people listening to music together so it was important to translate that to the web. Part of what makes deejaying on Turntable great is you can see the people lis-tening to you and if they like your music.” Now, you sort of get the image formed of the man behind this incredible platform. So, we want to explore further if he really was a nerd, growing up. When asked if he was big into computer games, when younger, he replies “Absolutely! I've played video games ever since I could re-member. I never really thought of programming them until college (where I actually thought I'd be an astronomy major instead).” Surely there must be some indul-gences that he has, and pat comes the reply “I have an addictive nature, so I purposely keep myself away from certain things (like video games nowadays). I do have guilty pleasures though: unnecessary electronics (such as toy helicopters), bad '90s music, and Nutella crepes to name a few.” Before we depart, we want to know what advice he would give to those with big entrepreneurial dreams. And he plainly states “There's a lot of negativity whenever you try to do something outside of the normal pattern of things. There are people that say it's impossible, people that say it's silly, people that try to dissuade you. It's important to under-stand that and not let it impact you when you're creating something new.”Sounds like a very level head rests on those young shoulders, which has certainly impressed many already. We hope in the years to come, more and more countries can enjoy the fruit of this product – which has everyone talking.


Weirdest reasons to quit your job

HOWzzAT


The man who quit his job with a resignation letter written on a cake Neil Berrett gave a two week’s notice of his intent to re-sign. The letter was written in frosting on a full sheet size cake. The cake was delicious and it was well received. “Dear Mr. Bowers, During the past three years, my tenure at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard has been nothing short of pure excitement, joy and whim. However, I have decided to spend more time with my family and attend to health is-sues that have recently arisen. I am proud to have been part of such an outstanding team and I wish this organization only the finest in future endeavors.

Please accept this cake as notification that I am leaving my position with NWT on March 27.

Sincerely,W. Neil Berrett”He later submitted a paper resig-nation letter since it would be hard to file the cake away! The girl who quit her job on dry erase board and emailed it to the entire office

On a Monday morn-ing, a girl named Jenny quit her job with a (flash) bang by email-ing these photos to the entire of-fice. Awesome doesn’t begin to describe this office heroine. In the board she thanks everyone, except her boss. Hilarious!However, there had been reports of this a hoax from the guys at theCHIVE.com. The girl who sup-posedly quit her job actually is a model /actress named Elyse Por-terfield. Nice one!

The Flight Attendant who quit on a plane and left us-ing the emergency slide Steven Slater, a flight at-tendant from JetBlue airliner, got into an argument with a passenger during boarding at a Pittsburgh airport. He finally had enough of his job, quit, and opened the emer-gency slide on the plane in order to leave. He grabbed the intercom and said: “To the passenger who called be a mother ——, —- you. I’ve been in the business 28 years. I’ve had it. That’s it.” Mr Slater then activated the emergency exit and slid down the inflatable slide on to the tarmac. He then boarded a train to the terminal, stripping off his tie and discarding it to the astonishment of bemused onlook-ers. Slater was later arrested and

charged with reckless endanger-ment and criminal mischief.

The programmer who resigned with a Super Mario Resignation game he developed for the occasion If you have ever sweat-ed and worried over writing and handing in a resignation letter, then the latest ‘Super Mario resig-nation game’ created by a games dev over at 2K Games is sure to inspire and entertain in equal measure. The Australia-based games dev didn’t want to do the boring old ‘writing a meaningless letter’ thing to tell his boss and colleagues he was throwing in the towel to try his luck in the world of independent game develop-ment. Instead, Jarrad Woods’ an-nounced his resignation in style, with a slightly reworked version of Super Mario Bros mashed up with his own title Polychromatic Funk Monkey.You can play Wood’s res-ignation game yourself, directing Mario over those familiar blocks to the end of the level where a flash-ing “I QUIT” sign pops up.

The designer who left a note on his computer at the office Apparently this is a real resignation from a designer who

left this note on his desktop. Ac-cording to somebody who alleg-edly knew what was going on, he believed he was in a temp-to-hire position, and after three months of extra hours and butt-kissing, turns out it’s just a temp position. He was a good worker too. “I’d have recommended him. Too bad he burned his bridges”, he said.

The CEO who resigned on Twitter in haikuWhen you’re on your way out of a job, there’s a lot of fun ways to exit. This guy decided to tweet out a haiku. That’s exactly what Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz did tonight. Here’s his tweet: “Today’s my last day at Sun. I’ll miss it. Seems only fitting to end on a #haiku. Financial crisis/Stalled too many customers/CEO no more.” Schwartz had been serving as Sun’s CEO since 2006; prior to that he was the compa-ny’s COO. It has been known that he would resign for several days now following Sun’s sale to Ora-cle, which the EU just approved. Schwartz has always enjoyed this type of public discourse, as he continued to blog in a time when very few CEOs would dare do such a thing. His latest post was on FEB-RUARY 27, describing what he’d be doing next.

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