Nokia X7 video unboxing

Posted on July 25, 2011 by prasanth

Unboxing of Nokia X7 which has a Capacitive AMOLED touch screen, its based on Symbian, It also has dual flash 8 Mega pixel camera with 720p HD recording. Priced at 22800 Rs

Youtube – Nokia X7 Unboxing

Posted in Video Reviews | 1 Comment

Tatasky Universal remote is the way to go

Posted on July 23, 2011 by prasanth

Just a few days back tatasky updated their iPhone app which allows remote recording. Now with this update they have changed the whole app.

Now you can use the app with a 350 Rs accessary into a universal remote that controls all your devices. Tv, Dvd and Tata sky set top box etc.

This is a cool way to do it because they can keep updating the software when ever they want to change the features add devices etc.

They have also integrated Twitter and Facebook so that you can update your status with which program you are watching. You can talk to other users who are watching that same program via Twitter or Facebook through the app.

I have ordered the accessary, will review the device once i get it.

To get the device

Just SMS ‘APPLE’ to 56633 from your Registered Mobile No. (RMN), and the MP3 Mobile accessory will be couriered to your registered address. The amount will be deducted from your Tata Sky account.

More details about Tatasky Universal remote accessory can be found here 

This accessory works on all iOS devices except 1 generation iPhone. It will even work with iPad’s. They say android version of the app is coming.

I got a call from tatasky and they said it could take up to 30 days to deliver the device.

Its free for some customers i am guessing it is free for customers who have Tatasky HD+ and mega annual plan.

I will do a video review of the device once i get it. Check back

Posted in Mobiles, Television & Movies | 2 Comments

How to Clean install Lion os

Posted on July 23, 2011 by prasanth

In order to clean install Lion there are few steps you need to take. If you already installed Lion and want to go back and install Lion as a clean install that too can be done.

Follow these steps

Make a bootable dvd or usb drive. 

You can only do this after downloading the Lion operating system from app store and before installing it. Once you install Apple deletes the file.

So do this after downloading and before installing.

Making a bootable Lion disk will come in handy in future when you want to reinstall Lion without downloading it again.

The only way to clean install Lion is by using snow leopard.

So find the free snow leopard dvd or usb recovery disk you received and install snow leopard again. This time when at the installation screen make sure you erase the hard disk by using disk utility. Which can be found in the menu bar during installation.

Once you install do a software update. You should get mac os updates which will be around 1 GB (the size of the update will depend on which version of snow leopard you have). Once you download and install that pop in your newly created Lion usb or dvd and install Lion on this clean version of snow leopard.

If you are doing this only on one machine you don’t even need to make the bootable disk. Just clean install snow leopard and do the updates and download and install Lion from app store.

Why would you want to make a clean install ? Thats a good question

I have had my mac for the last three years and only upgraded to the new os so far. I install every new program that comes around so. So there is lot of junk on the machine now, so i wanted a clean start

Posted in Computers & Internet | Leave a comment

BSNL data card with Aircel sim

Posted on July 16, 2011 by prasanth

Since my post about using BSNL data card with other sim. Many have complained that it doesn’t work etc. So i am making this video to show that it indeed works.

Youtube – BSNL Data card with Aircel sim

Posted in Video Reviews | 30 Comments

Moneysights.com best way to track your investments

Posted on July 13, 2011 by prasanth

Just found out this new site called moneysights.com which allow you to track your investments like stock and mutual funds.

The first thing you notice about this site is the clean interface. It just takes 30 seconds to sign up for the service. just give email & password and you account is created.

And investments is as easy as typing the details.

It has such clean interface. And comes with some cool extras that will help you invest better. It will show you in a graph you daily profit and loss etc.

If you want to dig deep it will give you more details in a much cleaner interface.

Loving the site so far, hope they keep the interface as clean as this. I am even willing to pay for this if they can keep it this clean.

I have used moneycontrol.com to track my investments before but their site is filled with so many ad’s that its hard to even use it.

So go sign up for moneysights.com and help they build a good financial site.

Posted in Computers & Internet | 3 Comments

How to make windows mobile no 1 mobile OS

Posted on June 17, 2011 by prasanth

Microsoft has put in all the necessary features in windows mobile 7. But its still not the no.1 mobile operating system out there. So how can they make it into one.

Windows mobile has all the talking points of other systems good hardware, apps, notification, over the air updates. Even a program similar to iTunes to sync with PC.

So what’s stopping them from taking the No.1 spot

Apps

Not all the major apps are still on WM. No dropbox, evernote etc. Even big media companies has no apps on WM. No CNN, Nytimes, BBC etc. All these have official apps for other operating systems.

Solution

Microsoft recently paid Nokia 1 Billion dollars. So it’s not short on cash, with this money. It could encourage the big apps on other platforms to come to WM. If they are still not interested lend your developers and make apps for them. Make sure all the features of WM are supported on the apps like live tiles, notifications, upcoming multitasking etc.

You don’t have to do 10000 Application just 50 or 100 top applications that are being used heavily on other platforms.

This will make sure people who want to try WM don’t have any excuse.

Updates

Lack of updates and the 1 update that has been released so far was filled with problems and roll out issues.

Solution

Since windows has already set a basic benchmark for the hardware it can’t be that hard updating it. Rather than wait for 1 big update, push smaller updates until you catch up with others. Put 1 update a month with whatever features are finished.

This will keep it in the news, which in turn will encourage more customers to try it out.

 

iTunes

On windows they have Zune software and on mac there is a windows phone connector 7. The mac version of the software is basic.

Solution

You have enough programmers to push a full iTunes like software for WM. So try to get that out as soon as possible on both PC & mac. It should have support for applications & media syncing.

When apple can simultaneously push windows and mac iTunes software why can’t a big company like Microsoft.

 

Online Application Store

There is none at the moment and all the other mobile operating systems have one.

Solution

It can’t be that hard for Microsoft to implement this. Make it something similar to Android one. Where when users install app from the website they are pushed to the device.

All the things i mentioned can be easily done by a company as big as Microsoft. When Android & Apple are updating their operating system so quickly and so fast. Microsoft can’t take the 1 update a year route.

Posted in Mobiles, Opinions | Leave a comment

You seriously think Lokpal Bill will end corruption!

Posted on June 5, 2011 by prasanth

You seriously think Lokpal Bill will end corruption

If you think Lokpal Bill will put an end to corruption i really feel sorry for you. You are seriously underestimating the will and trickery of our corrupt Indians.

Before you think Lokpal Bill will help fight corruption know this. The problem is not that we don’t know where corruption is happening. The real problem is that, we can’t prosecute the people who have been caught taking bribes.

Bill like Lokpal could not have done anything to stop 2G scam. We know the scam happened, we know who did it. But let see how long it will take for them to prosecute those who have been arrested.

Let take a look at China, there corruption is dealt with very seriously. People are executed if found guilty, but can you say corruption doesn’t exist in China.

Similarly even if we bring the best laws and regulatory bodies. People will always find a way around it.

Don’t forget this is the same country. Where a man started 250 companies to hide his corruption. I am talking about Satyam.

So is there no hope, there is hope rather than put up another committee that can get corrupt. Why not take practical steps to make it hard for corruption to happen.

One suggestion i have heard is that banning 1000 Rs & 500 Rs notes will help it. That’s a very good idea, also turn all the future government schemes and tenders into a public auctions.

These are some of the things that I can think of, many smart people out there with even more brilliant ideas.

Lets implement them, why is money going out of India. What can we do to stop it, like give them incentives to keep them money here. If we have to reduce tax liability etc let do it.

Last thing we need is another committee that every other party or person will claim is corrupt when the are found guilty.

Posted in News & politics | 3 Comments

Why so many pre announcements by Apple

Posted on June 3, 2011 by prasanth

Apple’s WWDC will start on June 6th. Its just a few days away. Then why is Apple making so many announcements and releases.

They never talk about the topics to be discussed during the keynote in advance. So why did they announce it early, from all the rumors sites its seem like. They just wanted to keep expectation in check. And the stock from falling when there will be no iPhone announcement.

Are they double bluffing and will they surprise everyone by announcing iPhone 5. I don’t think so, i don’t think they will even mention the future iPhone’s at this event because they don’t want to cannibalize their current iPhone 4 sales.

Then about the iWork why did they release it, just a few days ahead of the WWDC. I just downloaded the universal app for Numbers and its a 100 MB download, if you have all the other iWork apps it around 300 MB download.

Even Garageband & iMovie updated on June 1st. That’s nearly 400 Mb download in total. Which they wanted people to get before WWDC. So you can imagine that they have some big downloads coming at WWDC, IOS 5 will it be available on 6th?. Some rumors are even saying that Lion update for macos will be available as a download after the keynote.

No matter what this will be an interesting WWDC to watch.

Posted in Computers & Internet | Leave a comment

Microsoft makes windows relevant again

Posted on June 2, 2011 by prasanth

With this Windows 8 demo Microsoft has made windows relevant again. This is how you make a OS that works for tablet and still have the features of PC.

Posted in Computers & Internet | Leave a comment

Windows Mobile 7 will be a the mobile OS to beat

Posted on May 31, 2011 by prasanth

Microsoft recently announced the mango update for their Windows mobile 7 phone. They are adding some 500 new features to the OS. Unlike other OS, Windows mobile has all the basic features to make it a good mobile OS already built in. But with mango update they taking it one step further.

Here are the things Windows Mobile 7 will have with mango update that others don’t & will not for the foreseeable future.

Watch the blog post to understand the blog post better.

Widgets

Widgets that are easily to access and don’t need to be installed separately (unlike android). Once you install an app, when you pin the app to the start page. If it has widget it will show up automatically.

With the update they are giving more power to this widget system. Now each individual page can have a widget or item can have a widget. See the video below to understand it fully.

Contextual menus

They are implementing this into the api. What does this mean. Once you install twitter, facebook, yahoo mail, messengers etc. When ever you want to share something just look at the menu. And if the app has implemented this api you can use that app to share the link. This doesn’t stop with links only, it could be photos & videos etc. So you can share a link to twitter, facebook, you blog, messenger etc from any app.

For example you can take the picture from the default app and share it with twitter. You don’t have to go to that app specifically to do this. Shoot video and share it with any app you like vimeo or youtube etc.

Bing Search

You might say google has done a good implementation of search on android. But when you compare it with Bing on Mango update its not even close. They are adding Bing Vision which is similar to Google gooogles. But its built into the search app, its not a separate app like on android.

You point your camera at a book and you will be given the search results. When you want to buy you just click and you will be taken to amazon book store. Even google can’t do that level of integration. When you search for a movie. If you have IMDB app installed. You can directly jump to the app for the results. IMDB app will have the movie page opened with all the details. Its kind of Universal search that any application can take advantage of with api.

Another example is you could search for an mp3 and directly jump to Amazon mp3 store to purchase it. Right from bing, all other app have to do is implement this api and their stores could also be used by the customer.

These three features are not implemented yet by any of the other mobile OS makers like Apple, HP Or Google.

I didn’t write about IE9 because other carriers can update their browsers. But the above mentioned stuff is built into the OS. It will be hard for others to implement them without rewriting their OS.

Posted in Mobiles, Opinions | 2 Comments