Archive for December, 2008


What do you do when you see people ignoring your hot dog stall and going to another stall [psst…where you can change the size of your hotdog with just a pinch :)]. You see that everything in that stall just sells! You become friendlier with the other stall and try to sell your stuff from the other stall. This is in a way good for the customers as they get some more variety under the same stall but at the same time..hmmm yeah at the same time they also now know that the neighbouring stall might have someting good and the next time they visit this place, they would check out both the stalls…. Well lot of story telling. Actually, what I was refferring to is that, Microsoft has released its first App for iPhone – Seadragon Mobile. Seadragon basically allows you to zoom into high res pics. Pretty cool tech concept. Though this app is not much of an use, its worthwhile to check how zoom in and out works. Browse large quantities of high-resolution imagery smoothly and quickly with a flick or a pinch. Explore massive galaxies, pore over maps, or flip through collections of photographs, all over the air. You can also add your own photos or browse those already available on Photosynth.com.

You may ask…what is seadragon?? Check this out:

I am prety sure that most of you would have or are using Google’s chrome. Even I installed it the next day of its release but, alas! I had to uninstall it within a week and go back to my favorite Mozilla firefox. Now this new analysis on the PC World testifies to the decision of my uninstalling the chrome. Google being the undisputed choice for millions of internet users, the expectations from chrome were huge and quite sadly Google could’nt keep upto the expectations at all. I wish they come up with much better Chrome in the future releases. At least all that was announced should be visible

Google’s Android is seemingly getting into the main stream now. Developers have already given a thumbs up to Android’s capabilities and now handset makers are also advocating this fact. First the HTC G1 then not so well known Kogan and now Sony Erricsson has announced to make Android handsets. Toshiba and Asus are also in the run

Read the full stroy >>

As you all know, with the advent of apple’s iPhone, the whole industry has shifted its focus to touch UIs. Nokia being one of the biggest players in this space is fairly living up with the competition. First the Nokia 5800 ExpressMusic and then the show-stopping Nokia N97 annoucements, Nokia has certainly attracted the industry eyeballs in the touch UI space.

Now look at this new phone (name not know yet) which showed up in one of the slides from Nokia’s Capital Markets Day. This is truely something which I would like to own without knowing the features. From the UI itself I see that Nokia is planning for an unified widget framework (look at the weather and the livescore widgets) . Unlike the N97 UI this looks way too different from a typical s60 UI.

Download the whole slide deck of the Nokia Capital Market Day

Come this Thursday and India would see the dawn of 3G services. Though it is only with MTNL right now but quite an interesting news as our content-crazy janata can have much more stuff flowing through the pipeline now with a much faster speed. Depends on MTNL’s plans but, I think that basic 3G stuff like mobile broadband [HSDPA] and video streaming should be supported.

Check this: http://www.medianama.com/2008/12/223-3g-in-india-mtnl-to-launch-3g-services-on-december-11th-limitations/

Just imagine yourself working without a mouse. The mouse is an integral piece of hardware in regular computing. It celebrates its 40th anniversary today. There is a nice article on BBC about this and it has the video of  first ever computer mouse demo by Doug Engelbart in 1968. definitely a must watch.

One of the most common and regular warnings that we get on our cellphone is “Low battery!”. If unfortunately, the charger is not with us then we tend to borrow it from somebody or search for a charging point. If we are even more unfortunate then we have to stay paralytic till we get it going as the phone dies.

Think of a way by which you could charge your cellphone by using energy from something you primarily use your cellphone for. You talk!!! Look at this: Talk-powered cell phones? Nanoscale piezoelectrics could make it real http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/35879

Nokia N97 Unveiled

Nokia officially took the curtains off its mystery Smartphone with large (640 x 360 pixels) touch screen today at the Nokia World 2008 Conference in Barcelona, Spain.
Other key features to highlight:

  • QWERTY keyboard.
  • The home screen has been completely revamped to allow you to manage widgets (much like the Nseries Internet Tablets) for social networks, news, and more.
  • The N97 introduces the concept of social location (so-lo). Using the GPS receiver and integrated compass the N97 has the capability to always know where it is located and with social networking integration it can broadcast that position to authorized friends and family.
  • 32GB of built-in memory.
  • The device itself has only one button on the front panel.

Nokia press release: Desktop. Laptop. Pocket

Demo Video:

A team of developers had been working hard at reverse engineering the hardware driver’s for the iPhone and have figured out a way to get it to boot other operating systems. They have chosen the geek-friendly Linux for alternative booting first, but there are said to be plans for a full port of Android in the pipeline.

Check this out:

http://linuxoniphone.blogspot.com/2008/11/linux-on-iphone.html

A demonstration video can be seen here: http://www.vimeo.com/2373142