Category Archives: Opinions

Slumdog Millonaire should we be proud of it

Posted on February 25, 2009 by prasanth

Unless you were out where there were no tv’s, papers, mobiles you might not have missed the news that this movie has won 8 oscars for 10 nominations it received. In those it includes the coveted best picture and best director trophies too. I am happy and all that but should we be proud of that.

First of all it was a movie mostly made by british technicians and directors. There were some indians involved too but look at the prizes other than the music and sound editing all the awards went to technicians outside India. Even though the story was written by and Indian it doesn’t make it an indian movie. Should we be proud that, none of the film industries in India found this story interesting to make a movie it took people from outside India to make such a movie? What does that tell us about our own movie industry? I don’t have anything against any British technicians or the indian technicians who worked on this movie. All I am saying is this movie was not made for indian audience and doesn’t come from the indian film industry.

The content of the movie also should not make us proud. It showcases the poor and poverty and intolerance of India. Which I don’t claim doesn’t exist, but I would have been more happy if it showed the communal harmony that most of the indians live in? And the tolerance of people against multiple faiths, cultures, etc.

I am happy that this movie won awards but I am not proud of it. When a movie that was meant for indian audience done by the indian film industry with leading indian actors then I will be proud of it. Even if it won in foreign language category. Something like Lagan or Chak De, would have made me proud.

But i am happy for all involved in Slumdog millionaire.

Posted in Opinions, Television & Movies | Leave a comment

My blog doesn’t need to make me rich

Posted on February 8, 2009 by prasanth

I agree with him that most blogs don’t make enough money. But there are people who do it for the love of it. My blog does’t make enough money for me to make a living out of it. But it makes enough money and pays for itself. That way I don’t have to put money from my pocket which I think what most people are looking for anyway.

I have only about 100 visitors, which isn’t helped by two URL changes. But still that makes enough money around 100$ which is what I am paying godaddy for my web hosting and domain.

I would love if I could make a living out of my blogging, but I am happy if it pays for itself.

Read Dan Lyons post here

Posted in Computers & Internet, Opinions | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Is Steve Jobs that improtant to Apple?

Posted on January 16, 2009 by prasanth

Unless you were under a rock, you would have heard everything about Steve’s health issues and his 6 month medical leave etc.

But the real question is…

Is Steve Jobs that important to Apple.

For all the reports i have seen of the few days about his replacement it looks like Tim cook is the one who’s really making all of it work and Steve was a just a good show man.

Most of the design is done by Jonathan Ive, video of him talking about the aluminum mac book was anything to go by he looks like the only guy who could design such stuff with out any input from others.

Then the question is what is Steve’s roll in all this. Is he there to make sure no buttons are put on it or to make sure you don’t get cut and paste, Or make it a carrier locked phone etc. And i could go on and on.

Because if you think of it all these things don’t make any business sense. If it was up to Tim Cook he would have gone with iphone as a open device and not locked to one carrier. It makes a lot of business sense to do that. They could have sold twice as many as now.  Can you imagine an ipod that could play only one music labels songs.

So could Steve Jobs leaving apple improve it from where it is right now?

I think so, Music industry will be more than willing to make deals with Apple without Steve Jobs, same goes for movie industry or any other partners for that matter.

I am not saying Steve Jobs doesn’t bring anything to the table, but for what he does bring there is  far more baggage attached with it.

Posted in Computers & Internet, Gadgets, Mobiles, Opinions | Tagged | Leave a comment

IPhone success due to its first party app’s

Posted on December 15, 2008 by prasanth

iPhone’s killer features are it’s first party app’s and not the third party app’s.

calendar_on_iphone  sms_on_iphone maps_on_iphone

Most competitors forget that iPhone comes with some very special app’s out of the box. App’s like Calendar, iPod, Browser, SMS, Stock, Weather, Maps, Youtube etc. Most would agree that they don’t have all the features. But you really would be hard pressed to find any app’s that do these things better. I know apple doesn’t allow some of the app’s that compete with their first party app’s. But it really would be hard to better those app’s. If you do a survey of the people using iPhone you would definitely find the first party app’s leading the way.

stock_on_iphone weather_on_iphone podcast_on_iphone

These first party app’s are so powerful that, you could do most of things all the app’s in the app store would do. Other than the gaming part everything else can be done on iPhone without any app’s.

ipod_on_iphone

So the real success of the iPhone is it’s app’s out of the box. It’s really surprising why they have not added any new app’s. Video recording (cycoder jail broken app has proven that it can be done as beautifully as the camera app) Todo list, Photoshop like program etc, would be good additions. But what they provide is spectacular when you compare it with it’s competitors.

For example G1 (Google phone) doesn’t even come with a music player and you expect that to compete with iPhone.

The same thing can be said of other competitors like Nokia, Microsoft, Htc etc.

If apple keeps adding to the first party app’s on feature updates, it will be impossible for the competition to even compete.

Posted in Mobiles, Opinions | Leave a comment

The netbook hype read this before you buy one in India

Posted on December 7, 2008 by prasanth

Every where there seems to be net book hype. It’s topping all the shopping Lists and gift guides. But be aware of the short falls of net books before you buy one.

acer_aspire_one dell_umpc

1. Screen is not big enough, In this age of bigger screen TV’s. It’s strange to see a small screen computing device selling this well. The best net book you can buy now has around 10 inch screen which is really small. I advice you to go and use one for yourself before buying it. Even though the resolution is higher now, using net books for browsing can be frustrating. Unlike iPhone content doesn’t zoom to fit to the screen . So it will be very small to read, you will either go a smaller resolution and scroll a lot or keep zooming a lot. So use it in person first, try and look at websites you visit everyday and see how usable it is.

eee_pc_1000 hp_mini

2. Storage most of the new net books have good storage like 80 GB etc. But once you get these net books you will realize its not enough. You want all your content every where so you will want more storage space which you can’t get with these net books. i thought i couldn’t fill an 8 GB iPhone now i feel like i want 32 GB on a phone. So 80 GB of storage is nothing.

lenovo_ideapad_s10

3. Security these net books are very small so what is the first thing you will do, take it every where you go. That increases the chance of losing it. So imagine how bad it would be if you lose a computer with all your content and accounts on it. Not only that because you will be using it everywhere like wifi hot spots etc that too increases the chance of your computer being at risk.

4. Price, its not that cheap as the companies advertise. You can get a top end assembled computer for that price. You will not get the portability but it will more than make up for it in power. So why spend upwards of 20000 Rs for something that is not that fast.

So in conclusion if you want something that is powerful and will let you browse Internet away from your computer get an iPhone. Why get another gadget that you would hard press to find an real use for and regret buying after a few days.

Posted in Computers & Internet, Gadgets, Opinions | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

What to do about computing

Posted on November 22, 2008 by prasanth

I am looking for a computer, I want one that will be reliable and work for more than a year without any issues.

Should I go for a desktop or a laptop.

My laptop is showing problems, how convenient just after its out of warranty it starts showing issues. I don’t trust it anymore because I don’t know when it will break down again. Its definitely a hardware issue. I don’t want to get stuck with all my data on it. I save most of my stuff on the pen drive, but still I don’t want to setup all my work process again.

Is laptop or a computer a good buy, both of them have negatives. I will lay them out here for you, hope they will help you in making a decision, when it comes time for you to buy a computing device.

eeepc_buy I even have a eeepc but I seriously can’t think of it while working. If I just had to do blogging or browsing some stuff  or watch you tube etc. I might have considered it but for serious computing needs eeepc is not good enough. Even though you can get a bigger screen resolution and a bigger hard drive its still not good enough for serious computing needs. They are even claiming 8 hours battery life. But still I can’t bring myself to buy one as my laptop replacement.

So what about desktops. They are cheap and for 15000 Rs you can get a decent computer assembled. But the freedom of not being able to take it where I want is a real issue for me. If I didn’t have to move, this could have been the best choice. I would be seriously considering this option if money was an issue. Even getting two computers would be cheaper than buying another laptop. So I should seriously consider this as an option. I can always take my data with me on a 16 gig pen drives, that are available now for around 1200 Rs. If money is not an issue you can get cool desktops like imac and hp touch smart PC which cost more but they are all in one desktops.

 hptouchsmart_buy

 imac_buy

But my big problem is I am becoming an apple junkie, I want a macbook. But they are so highly priced in India that, it costs around 75000 Rs to get the new macbook’s where as in USA you can get them for around 50000 Rs. You can get a 56000 Rs macbook but that is not the new one. Should I pay the higher price to get a quality product. You wouldn’t believe the time I spend in scanning for virus on my windows computer. Even with a firewall and an anti virus program, virus still gets into my computer. So mac OS is really an interesting alternative for me. But the prices are so high. I can get three decent desktops or two very good laptops for that price.

So if you have anyone overseas then ask them to get one for you if you want an apple laptop. Buying them in India is really stupid. Why can’t apple subsidize for Indian market, if they lower their prices they could have a big market share in India.

 macbook_buy

I could get a new laptop, you can get nice ones for a lot cheaper now. but I don’t want to spend another 30000 Rs or so again. This time I want my Laptop to last at least two to three years.

So I am not sure what to do…

The new Macbook is really tempting. If I buy it I will put a review on the site.

Posted in Computers & Internet, Opinions | Tagged | Leave a comment

Steve Jobs and Apple pay price for having fan boys

Posted on October 4, 2008 by prasanth

There were reports that Steve Jobs suffered an heart attack recently according to an ireporter. I don’t think this is the kind of news the stock market wants to hear generally and especially at this point of time. Even the apple stock is struggling to keep up with all the rumors and news.

Recently Steve jobs health was reported about in a big way after a lot of rumors, and also after his appearance at recent events.

Apple is going to pay in a big way for their fan boy culture. Even though it helps the company sell products, it also makes a big deal even about the smallest news, problems etc. So it’s a double edged sword for apple they have to find a real way to deal with it or face huge problems.

They have already made apple keynotes dull. What’s next will they make apple dull.

Hope not Steve deal with the fan boys soon or suffer because of them.

It’s not always a good thing to have fan boy.

Posted in Computers & Internet, News & politics, Opinions | Tagged , | Leave a comment

How to improve safari on iphone

Posted on September 28, 2008 by prasanth

Safari browser on iPhone is the best damn browser out there on any mobile. So is there something more to improve.

Not much but here is what I think apple should change to improve safari in iPhone. It’s not like they will allow other browsers, so hope some one at apple takes these into consideration.

The big change I want is full screen but I think apple will not do that because it could confuse people. So the best thing they could do is to make the task bar and the address bars disappear after the page loads or once the user clicks the stop button that way users get more screen space to see the webpage. Similar to how the video play back works. You see the controls only when you want them.

At the moment the address bar disappears once you scroll down the page but the status bar stays on wasting the valuable space.

How apple missed this in the first place is not quite obvious. It’s a small change and will give the user full screen mode without much change.

Apple already offers option to change the search engines. So why not a bookmark sync, why not parter with delicious or even google or yahoo bookmarks and offer a way to sync bookmarks. They also could roll their own free bookmark sync. I know they do it with mobile me. What I am talking about is only bookmark syncing.

The last thing is plugins. You don’t have to let others plugin, I didn’t want to see yahoo or google toolbars what I am taking about is plugins to play mp3, and other file formats. Just support the main one and I would be happy. Like .avi, mp4 etc.

I can already do this with dtunes on jailbroken iPhone. So it can be done and it’s not that hard.

Hope they take some of these suggestions into consideration. Comment away if you like to see any other changes.

Posted in Mobiles, Opinions | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Get unlimited data usage on your iphone in India

Posted on September 27, 2008 by prasanth

If you are willing to pay 1200 Rs per month you can get unlimited data usage on your iphone with Airtel sim.

This is not a hack or a trick. You are paying for their highest data card plan and using it.

Here is what happened, I bought a data card from Airtel with unlimited data plan for which they charge 1200 Rs. I bought this with a USB modem so I am not sure if you can get just the sim, I think you can.

Soon after that I got broadband so I didn’t need this Airtel connection. But rather than canceling the connection I removed the sim from the USB modem and put it in my iphone. So now I can use unlimited data with an Airtel sim.

I know 1200 Rs per month is pricey but you get very good speeds a lot faster than bsnl. I get speeds of 91 Kbps. I have a photo of the speed test too. The best part is I can use you tube and watch videos do chatting listen to radio now matter where I am. I can even use the same sim for calling too, prices are standard with any other mobiles.

I used it on a 1st generation iphone 2g (jail broken iphone), it should work with the new iphone too. Do comment if this also works on iphone 3G.

In fact I wrote this whole blog post from my iphone using word press app. And Airtel sim to upload it to the blog.

The best thing about using this Airtel sim is that you can use it even when roaming. Do unlimited data anywhere in India.

This would work with others phones too. But if you have not done it yet just get a demo of browsing on iphone and you will not go back to other phones.

Posted in Computers & Internet, Mobiles, Opinions | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Google phone launches and its called G1

Posted on September 24, 2008 by prasanth

G1 Android phone

Unless you have been living under a rock you would have known about the G1. Google’s first android phone.

Here is engadget first look, Mossberg’s review and Google’s own press release.

Here is my review even though I don’t have it in my hand from the videos and other review this is what I think about G1.

Hard disk space : 1 Gb onboard and can be expanded with memory card which is bad. Iphone comes with 8 GB at the low end so they should have aimed few Gigs more than that. That is seriously an issue for a device that wants to become a smart phone.

No Video play back or No native video recorder. Hopefully some one will develop apps for that, but they should come with the Android by default.

No head phone jack that’s really a bad miss.

And a 1 GB limit on the data usage on 3G network (and we thought iphone had issues with data usage), you have to be kidding me.

If you can look past those issue you will get a phone that is open source and will have a open market place for apps.

Android is cool but way too many ways to navigate. With keyboard, the joy stick, touch screen. And no standards for buttons or ui. So only geeks will love it and use it unlike the iphone which can be easily used by a novice.

So it’s not just the device the UI also has issue. Now I know why apple didn’t put a keyboard on iphone. There is no way to make it look cool and still keep clean ui and user experience.

In India these phones will take time to come and will cost upwards of 30000 Rs because that’s what most of the high end HTC phones cost in India at the moment.

My advice is wait for a better device, and give android time to make improvements. Google always makes things better with updates like gmail, docs, calendars etc. So hope android will also get better with both devices and the operating system in few months time.

Until then get an iphone and have fun.

World’s first Android-powered phone’s Official site

Posted in Mobiles, Opinions, Reviews | Tagged | Leave a comment