Prasanth's Blog

India mourns Steve Jobs

Posted on October 7, 2011 by prasanth

All the major English newspapers lead with this story. And it was featured on the front page. For a company that has no official store this is remarkable.

Save these newspapers you will not be seeing anything similar for any CEO in a long time to come.

Apple still is a luxury brand only the wealthy in India can afford, but every middle class family dreams of day when they can afford a apple device like the iPhone or the iPad etc.

Even though the mp3 players are quite popular in India, there are very few takers for the pricey computers and laptops.

This post and the story in newspapers only goes to show how big of an impact Steve Jobs has had all over the world.

For me personally he was a design and marketing genius i admired very much. I have followed all the live apple events, through live blogs all through the night since 2003.

And again saw the full press event video in the morning, hoping i would one day afford one of these devices.

Now i am an apple fan boy with iPad, Macbook air, iPod Touch, iPod Nano and iMac that i am still currently using. Didn’t buy the iPhone 4 because of the jail breaking issues.

Twice every year it was like christmas for me when apple announced their press event. Even though i was not going to buy all the products. I loved waiting for that date and staying up late to watch Steve deliver his pitch perfect presentations and his magical products.

For me personally my Santa Claus has died so there won’t be any Christmas any more.

RIP Steve we & I personally miss u and your presentations and products. It will not be same with your…

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

Micromax X40 Review

Posted on October 6, 2011 by prasanth

This is a dual sim projector phone from Micromax. It costs around 4800 Rs – 5500 Rs online, depending where you buy it. The phone features are what you expect from a basic phone with one big feature, which is projector.

This phone only has Bluetooth, no WIFI. You can connect it to your computer with the provided USB cable. It also supports Micro SD but only up to 4 GB, it also comes with 80 MB internal memory.

It has a basic 2 mega pixel camera that can take pictures and also record video.

You can use dual Sim’s with this phone on a 2G network. It has all the basic phone facilities, you can only store 100 contacts in the address book which is a downer.

Its interface is quite simple but don’t expect to install apps. It comes with some java apps like, Opera, Facebook, Mundu radio etc. But using them with the 2G speeds can be quite painful.

So why would you buy this phone then, Its a projector phone at 4800 Rs didn’t you read the top of the blog post. At that price you will accept any problems it has.

Taking photos with the 2 mega pixel camera and projecting them and showing it off, how cool is that. Even iPhone can’t do that. You can also project the video taken by the phone. You can also project simple word and excel documents with this phone but don’t expect to open big presentations.

Videos in 3gp format work well with the projector. Images under 1 Mb work well with the projector.

It can project a screen as big as 55 inches TV at 5 feet distance.

So don’t buy this phone thinking you can watch movies with it, you can’t. Even though you can put some videos into the micro sd card and project it. Finding the small size videos which play perfectly well on the phone could be a problem. They should have provided a software or online solution for this problem.

You can show off your photos and videos taken by the phone. If you shoot them at the right condition videos and photos look quite okay.

The battery lasts two days with the just the phone usage and around 1 1/2 hour with the projector turned on.

Using this phone almost feels like you are in future wonderland, just for that if you can afford get this phone.

Click here to see my video review of Micromax X40 projector phone

You can buy Micromax X40 for 4800 Rs at Letsbuy.com

Posted in Mobiles | 3 Comments

Micromax X40 Projector Phone Unboxing

Posted on September 30, 2011 by prasanth

This is a projector phone from Micromax available for 4800 Rs on Letsbuy.com. Watch the unboxing video, review will follow shortly.

Vimeo – Micromax X40 Projector Phone Unboxing

Posted in Mobiles, Product Testing, Video Reviews | 1 Comment

Cheap android tablet video review

Posted on September 16, 2011 by prasanth

You can find these cheap tablets online and on ebay, they are from no name brands like Like Vizio, Binatone , Fuje and Black. They are priced around 5000 – 9000 Rs

Take a look at some of these android tablets at Letsbuy.com

Vimeo – Cheap android tablet video review

Posted in Video Reviews | Leave a comment

Tatasky mobile accessory review

Posted on September 9, 2011 by prasanth

Tatasky mp3 infrared accessory unboxing. Its available for 300 Rs from tatasky

Vimeo – TataSky Mp3 accessory Unboxing

How to setup up the universal remote with the mp3 accessory & tatasky mobile app

Vimeo – How to use TataSky Mobile remote

Comparison between Tatasky settop box remote v/s Mobile app universal remote

Vimeo – TataSky Remote Speed Test

Tatasky mobile universal remote is the best option if you want to control multiple devices like tv, dvd and amplifiers etc. If you just have a tv and set top box its not worth the hassle.

There is a few seconds delay which can get annoying after a while. They also need to improve the app ui interface. now you have to fumble 3 screens to get all the set top box controls.

There is not much they can do technology wise, so all we can hope is a iPad app and a better remote interface. I do have to give them credit for thinking forward with such an audacious idea.

Click here for for info on tatasky mobile remote

Posted in Product Testing, Television & Movies, Video Reviews | 5 Comments

Listening to music in India

Posted on September 8, 2011 by prasanth

What are the options for listening to music in India at the moment. Here are the sites, apps i found for Indian music.

First source has to be YouTube, just search for any song from any language and you can find it on YouTube.

They also have YouTube app for all the mobile devices. Even if they don’t have apps, their mobile site works well on all the devices.

So YouTube is the first place to look for any song, especially if you are looking for a music video.

Saavn

This should be your ultimate destination for bollywood music. They have the most cleanest website and app for bollywood music.

They have apps for android and iPhone.

You can save and share your playlists. You can also tweet or like the songs so that your twitter and Facebook friends can find new songs.

Their app is the best around. Its simple and quite easy to use. they even have the low bandwidth options. It works flawlessly with 3G or WiFi.

The only bad thing about Saavn is that they don’t have other languages at the moment.

Hopefully they will add them in the near future.

Vimeo – Saavn app for Android

Click here for Saavn Android app & iOS app

Raaga

This service has music from many more languages than Saavn. They have all the songs from Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and many more languages.

Their website is filled with ads but is useable. They could cut down 1 or 2 ads which could improve the service quite a bit.

Their app is quite buggy at the moment, hopefully they will improve it in future. If you want a app with music from most of the Indian languages then you only have Raaga service there are no other options.

Site is filled with ads and app is quite buggy, if they can do anything to improve both these things their service could be a must have for many.

Vimeo – Raaga app video review

Click here for Raaga Android app & iOS app

Music India Online

This is a website only service, again filled with ad’s why can’t these sites just stick to 1 ad and charge a premium for it.

They too have music from most Indian languages and its easy to use.

They don’t have a mobile site or any mobile apps.

Most of these sites rely on flash so even if they want to they can’t implement mobile friendly sites. Which is quite sad situation, hoping they will bring apps soon for all the major mobile os and compete with Raaga.

Which will be only good for consumers.

Google music India

This is a search function but it presents the music results in a very clean format from where you can also listen to music in a pop up.

If you just want to listen to one song and don’t want to worry about sharing and playlists. This should be your first option.

There is no mobile feature which would have made discovering music on mobiles quite easy.

Nice to see so many music service which are legitimate. If only some one could bring iTunes like purchasing for Indian music at Indian prices. No one is going to pay 45 Rs per song but may be 10 Rs like Manoramic tried. Sadly that site is shutdown, hopefully apple or some other media company provides such service soon. Until then enjoy free streaming music from these services.

Posted in Computers & Internet, Mobiles, Television & Movies | 2 Comments

Raaga app video review

Posted on September 6, 2011 by prasanth

Raaga is a Indian music streaming app for Android, Its also available on iOS

Vimeo – Raaga app video review

Posted in Video Reviews | Leave a comment

Saavn app for android

Posted on September 3, 2011 by prasanth

Saavn is a bollywood music streaming app for android. It also available for iOS.

Vimeo – Saavn app for Android

Posted in Video Reviews | Leave a comment

Memory Stick PRO Duo adapter video review

Posted on August 31, 2011 by prasanth

Memory Stick PRO Duo adapter video review. it costs around 150 Rs. If you want to buy it search eBay. You can have a 8GB Memory stick PRO Duo for 600 Rs with this adapter. Where as it would have cost you 1800 for the sony one.