New Nokia Handsets to watch out

Nokia has woken up to the fact that it cannot keep it's share growing in the Indian Handset market unless it seriously works on offering value for money mobile phones in the 5K - 10K segment, this segment is being currently lead by Samsung, followed by LG and a slew of other Indian Mobile Phone manufacturers who have being aggressively advertising their phones, and the recently ended IPL tournament has given enough visibility to brands like Micromax, Maxx, Lava and others.

Out of the recent announcements made by Nokia on mobile phones in the offing, Nokia X2 (expected to be available by June 2010) and Nokia N8 (To be released in the last quarter of 2010) would be the phones to watch out. Nokia X2 is expected to be priced around 5K range and Nokia N8 in the range of 22K - 26K, lets take a look on why these phones could be important to both consumers and Nokia in the Indian market.


Nokia X2 has a major USP of having a 5 Megapixel camera, and if it does stay close to the 5K range, Nokia will surely have a winner on hand, since the other features of the handset are not revolutionary to be spoken about, current specs as available from the Nokia website are:

• 2.2 inch QVGA display
• Dedicated music keys
• Dual speakers, FM Radio
• Bluetooth 2.1
• 3.5mm headset jack
• Nokia Messaging
• Facebook integration and MicroSD card support
• S40 Operating System

Nokia has a bad reputation with camera quality on phones under 10K range, even the Nokia 5800 Express Music has pathetic 3.2 megapixel camera quality even with Carl Zeiss lens.



The Other phone we are looking at is N8, which can be a potential breakthrough product for Nokia if they get the pricing right for India, lot to write about the phone,

• Nokia ^3 OS, a positive move away from current Symbian OS series, which is getting buggier by the day, further messed up with frequent firmware upgrades that Nokia Symbian phones have to go through.
• 12 Megapixel Camera, with Xenon flash, could be a big plus if delivers
• Dolby Digital Plus, audiophiles like me would be eager to experience the quality of sound it can deliver
• Just 12.9 mm thin with a spaced out 3.5 inch AMOLED display.
• Multiple, personalized home screens.
• Additional graphic processor in the handset would make gaming more fun, takes away the load from handset processor.
• HD video recording.

I did take a look at the handset image quality released by Nokia on their website and i was very impressed with it, this phone is surely on my wish list for future upgrade, both the handsets Nokia X2 and N8 are tuned to deliver a decent social networking experience to the consumers through widgets and apps made available in these phones.

Feature - Monitoring of children's online activity by Parents in Asia

An article from Asia Media Forum has brought out an interesting study on how parents in Asia monitor online activity of their children in the cyber world, a UN report has proved that globally children across the world are spending more time living a sedentary life where they are also spending a good amount of time online on the internet, Internet is fast evolving medium of communication and for parents at times it becomes difficult to catch up the technological advancement in order to monitor the online activity of their children.

The report states that parents in general monitor the online activity of children mostly in the age group of 6-9 years and as they grow up they gradually move away from tracking it frequently just because the Generation ME does not like to get policed by their own parents and also as the parents age, technology becomes more tricky thing to handle for them.

In India 2/3rd of the population that accesses internet does it from outside normally from cybercafes or at workplace, teenagers and kids in India are equally exposed to the vices of the web as kids across the globe are, and Indian parents apart from the younger lot, most of the times find it difficult to identify what's wrong and what''s right for the kid to do on the internet, also these kids are increasingly becoming of their own identity on the web, Avatar's, socializing with peers much early than where our generation began.

You can read more on this here (courtesy: ipsnews.net)

Philips planning to move away from consumer electronics?

Videocon Group in India has being rumored to be in pursuit to take over consumer electronics business from Philips India, while Philips group is intending to expand it's business operations under healthcare and electric equipments line where it sees a healthy growing market share, it just came to my mind that we do not get to see any Philips consumer electronic products advertisements on television from last 4-5 months as far as i could re-collect not even in paper media from last 2-3 months.

I did see few retailers advertising philips products like Home Theatres and LCD's during Gudi Padwa, but no direct advertisements from the company, also currently Sony, LG, Samsung and Panasonic are agressviely launching new consumer electronic products in India and are spending heavily on their promotion, also i did not hear any new annoucements coming from Philips on the development of 3D technology equipped televisions for Indian consumers.

If these rumors are supposed to be true then probably Videocon would gain even better share in the consumer electronics market in India, if they have to compete with big players in India mainly Samsung and LG becuase it has being a late entrant to the LCD television and Mobile market.

A Mobile phone that Brews Coffee and more

Check out this video below of some phone called the Pomegranate Phone, which could really give mobile biggies like Nokia, SE and Motorola a run for their money, it works as a projector, a coffee brewer and a shaver too? i could not  believe it too, thought this could just be some prototype phone design, however this phone is for real, check the company website here

A Printer that Re-Prints and without Ink

Printer companies are known for sucking good amount of money from consumers for the printer ink, to the fact that printer ink is costlier than Human Blood, you may want to thank this company: Sanwa Newtec which has come out with a Printer that not only functions without the printer Ink but also re-prints paper, that's a real cool invention and i doubt this company would really be able to launch this product successfully, since the corporate sharks would already be working out their tactics to pull down such product from the market before it gains a stronghold amogst corporate and household users.

Check the video below and you can read more about this company and their product here

 

Love at first sight: Really Powerful

A nice video for those who believe that Love in First sight can be very strong enough, this video has good CG rendering of the glass effects, ends with a really nice feeling, one of a kind video i would have seen in a long time.

Nuit Blanche from Spy Films on Vimeo.

Now you can eat your rice without cooking

Indian Scientists from Assam Agricultural University have developed a Rice Breed that does not require cooking, it can be eaten simply after being soaked in water and would definitely help save fuel and an important breakthrough for the poor in India, it's called Aghoni Bora and after you soak it in water it's ready to eat in 45 minutes, i can imagine how useful it can be for disaster relief purpose like in Haiti, where people would be in dire need of food right now. 

One more reason for Beer Lovers to Cheers!

Two researchers from University of California claim that Beer is good for body, and that Barley beer is better than wheat beer, read more on this here

Amazing LG Viewty AD

Check out this cool ad of LG Viewty a good flip book animation Advertisement

A Brief History of Pretty Much Everything

Check this video which is a stop-motion flip book animation made by an art student Jamie Bell, it took him 3 weeks to make it out of 2000 pages of notebook paper and ink pens, i like the effort put in by this artist, wonder why we never thought of such things when we made animated flip books back in our childhood.

Control a computer by flexing a muscle

Microsoft is filing patent rights to a technology of what could be a really cool invention, called "Muscle Computer Interface" which works on electromyography (EMG) it measures electrical potentials generated by the activity of muscle cells. The intention here is to acquire human input that may not necessarily require direct manipulation of a physical implement.

The video above includes a demonstration of how to use muscle movement to play Guitar Hero, air-guitar style, so Microsoft would very well use this technology to Xbox 360 games and moving beyond games this invention could prove handy in situations where you could control devices with your muscle interaction using pressure points on your fingers, like snapping your fingers to change the track on your portable mp3 player, changing channels, volume etc. on your television by a touch to your fingers, hands-free input mechanisms that can helpful in areas sensitive to contamination, for example surgery rooms.

You can read more about this here, a white paper on Microsoft research website, an Indian member is also on board to this team Ravin Balakrishnan

Average Net User now Spending 13 Hours Online a week

The time an Average US Internet user would spend way back in 1999-2002 was around 7 hours in a week which has now increased up to 13 hrs a week, The age group that spent the most time online per week: 30- to 39-year-old, at 18 hours. This rise in consumption of internet services has happened due to multiple devices now available to access internet, and increase in activities like shopping online and watching television online, read more on this here

Netbook Sales Rise in Year 2009

Portable computing trend has shifted heavily in favor of Netbooks in the year 2009, Netbook sales saw 72% growth from year 2008 and in comparison Notebook revenue was down by 7% as compared to 2008 sales revenue, Netbooks have found a place of their own in the portable computing market and would not be causing a permanent dent in the Notebook segment, as by next year their sales would also start to normalize, Notebook manufactureres have being actively slashing prices across year 2009 and would continue to pack in more features with improved versions of hardware configs in the year 2010, read more on this here

Avatar Movie Review

I went to watch Avatar Movie with great excitement and some curiosity, and the movie surpassed my expectations by and far, James Cameron has again worked a wonder out of this movie, he truly belongs to the league of Movie Makers who would probably not churn a movie title year after year but when they do make a movie, it would change the rules of the game and raise the bar for the others.

Avatar also could become the turning point in movie making, the way Terminator and Titanic set new standards for Hollywood film making, here's a summary to the movie story, Jake Scully (Sam Wothington) is a disabled Marine who signs up for the Avatar program to replace his scientist brother who is now dead Jake travels to Pandora, the lush moon of Polyphemus which is inhabited by humanoid species called Na'vi, Jake is supposed to join Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) while as a marine he still reports security chief Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) who along with Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) are interested to drive the Native's out of their home for mining Unobtainium.

Jake Scully goes on a science mission with grace and her team, he gets lost in the jungle and from here on he enters the Na'vi world, gets into their group and has a change of heart, where he decides to be with them, he  was supposed to spy for the human's and give them intel on how they could pursue the Natives to leave the place they were staying, however the security cheif and the corporate baron have other plans and they jump into action by blowing up Na'vi home. Jake now decides to defend this race, and the movie roll's on to spectacular fight ahead, shot with great camerawork.

The first half of the movies makes you enjoy the fantasy land James has created in his story you get to explore the Pandora Landscape which is a feast to your eyes, it's not just about the CGI, James is successful to make you beleive that such worlds could exist and the scale of detailing the alien world is amazing second best to the landscape shown by george lucas in his Star Wars flicks. also you are able to connect to the chracters in the story before you roll in to the second half of the story which is fast paced and loaded with action.

There are defining moments in the movie which are equally high on emotions weaved perfectly to thhe story along with the technical brilliance, it's an rare amalgamation of fantasy extraterrestrial landscapes with cutting edge CGI, all bound into the high-testosterone camerawork. The story easily makes you hate the Human Race and feel for the Pandora Inhabitants, Indirectly it touches many points to our current issues like mindless destruction of the nature for corporate gains, waging fake wars and use of military to snatch natural resources, also displaying the human nature of exploiting the resources available on hand which shows that even if we found another planet to live after we have destroyed earth, we would still continue displaying our savage nature in the new home if we get.

This Movie is 3 hour long and you would not mind the length of the movie as you would be engrossed enough to come out of Avatar which is a cinematic brilliance, Music by James Horner is also good, no matter how beautiful a dream is you have to wake up, and for sure you would be content to leave the cinema hall having to worth to your ticket money, don't miss this one.

Chevrolet BEAT

I had posted pics of Chevrolet BEAT here on my blog on Dec 4, re-posting the details as i got to know the name of this Car today which i guessed was probably from the Chevrolet Stable, and yes it is a Chevrolet BEAT which i saw on a test drive at Mumbai Pune Expressway on 28 Nov 09.

Chevrolet Beat is going to be launched mostly Next month while it features in the upcoming Auto Expo this car is going to be placed in a Price Band of Rs 3.5 - 5 Lakhs, and a possibility of 3 variants to this model, the car hood behind gives it a sporty look and the design of this car is mostly similar to it's international version, it's a B Segment Hatchback touted to give competition to Maruti Ritz, Hyundai i10. Chevrolet had a good run in terms of sales with Spark and it's the right time they found a successor to Spark to maintain the presence in Indian market and grow ahead on their offerings to the evolving car market in our country, This car had featured in the Transformers 2 Flick also this year, check the pics at my album here

Take a look at this video review from CNB Show aired on NDTV

Iron Man 2 Trailer is Out Now

Iron Man 2 Trailer finally revealed, this movie seems to pack more action than the first version and Tony stark has a equally menacing baddie to fight this time, Whiplash is at least not lame as Obadiah Stane, looking forward to this flick, though it's too early right now, since the movie would hit the screens in May 2010, check out the trailer.

Twitter Trending Topics 2009

Check out some interesting Twitter trends for the year 2009, Iran Elections featured twice in News Events and Hashtags, District 9 and Paranormal Activity for sure gained a good word of mouth publicity, and Tiger Woods made it to the list of People at number 8, check the pic here

4G Services launch in Sweden and Norway

Thanks to our netas, 3G services are yet to see the light of the day in India, 4G service has now being launched in Norway and Sweden, 4G service boasts of speeds up to 100 Mbps ten times faster that its 3G predecessor, read more here

Don't worry if people call you Baby Face

A new Danish study says that people who look younger to their age were far more likely to survive to a higher age, check out the article here

2012 Parody

Check out this funny video here featuring zombies, alien attack, climate change and much more, good one

also featuring a funny image here which draws a spoof on 2012: The road to hell