State of Creativity

Creative people complaining they are not getting enough inspiration and time to be more creative at work? It is well known that fountain of creativity does not flow continuously like any other job skill we acquire and the best people with creative minds experience burn out over a period of time and our brains need constant recharge to get back in the groove.

Well in my opinion being connected to digital world these days our mind gets surrounded by stuff all around so much that it sometimes becomes difficult to steer through this noise and regain creativity zen, also creative teams at workplace have being working with more teams than before which indirectly brings higher external control in what that team is supposed to do and how, which sometimes limits the very basic freedom of team members involved in creative process to bring ideas to table.

Here's an infographic which explains this state of creativity.

(Source: www.graphicdesignblog.org)

Stunning special effects set design

It's amazing to see a small piece of set designed to create an illusion of larger than life scene that transforms the landscape of a scene in movies, photography etc. Creating such surreal takes so much effort in detailing stuff that leaves a lasting impression on our minds.

Check out work of one such artist Matthew Albanese, a series of pictures which showcase 15 such set designs made by him resembling superior art work, link here

(Courtesy: www.sharedesign.com)

Stealth fun: Splinter Cell Blacklist review

FPS Action games are my favorite genre to play on Xbox 360, however after I had played Splinter Cell Conviction in 2010. I was waiting for the next title to arrive in this series. Stealth based action games come as a good break from Call of Duty and Battlefield series.

Not delving into the plot much, Sam Fisher is on a mission to stop a group of rebels called “Engineers” waiting to unleash a series of terror attacks on America, unless US government calls back all American troops deployed abroad. He is accompanied by Anna Grímsdóttir (Grim), Charlie and Isaac Briggs in a quest to stop them and uncover the mastermind behind these attacks.

Visually game looks good, in some missions its top notch in terms of environment detailing and it is complimented by apt background score to suit the mood of a stealth game. I had recently completed playing Ghost Recon Future Soldier, so a lot of visual representation in SC: Blacklist felt similar to GR: Future Soldier. However visuals do look buggy in some missions where a (Non Playable Character) NPC would partially appear to pass through a wall while searching for Sam Fisher or NPC movement freezes at times in certain frames. In one closing scene of a co-op mission Isaac Briggs just stuck on screen in a close up pose as he hooks to a plane while escaping.

Transition from cut scenes to game play is smooth, not heavy on load time between missions.  Game play style includes three modes Ghost, Panther and Assault. It is difficult to avoid stalking enemies and take them down silently so I am really bad at leaving them undisturbed. Exploring secret paths during missions would also reward you extra points. You are eligible for Suit, Weapon, Gadget upgrades as you go along completing missions, you can also upgrade “Paladin” which is your flying headquarter from cash accumulated.

I really loved the Co-Op side missions which are fun to play with your friends or anyone online. Some Co-Op missions can be played solo while some are online Co-Op compulsory, two of such co-op missions are based in India. On a lighter note you should hear out Hindi street talk dialogues used in Bangalore missile plant co-op mission, an attempt to make cursing sound cool as they do with English scripts but it is really hilarious.

You can customize Sam Fisher’s gear before the start of every mission in the game and after some upgrades you can do it while playing the mission in certain areas where one can restock ammo and also change weapons and gadgets on the fly. Game play is great for stealth mode however you have to be very quick if you choose to go aggressive and on assault mode chances of falling to enemy gunfire in a short span is very high, you also cannot hide at one place after you have being spotted as NPC’s would spread out in all locations looking for you. This is when you can start dropping on to ledges, hiding outside windows, climbing walls etc. to avoid being detected further.

Firing from non silenced weapons would also reveal your last known position to enemy, keeping you constantly on the move. I have replayed some missions just to go undetected completely and gather maximum points on silent take down which is really addictive. You feel like bettering your own score. Checkpoint save options are a little pain in this game, in certain missions they are okay but if you manage to pass an area within a mission undetected by enemy soldiers and fall in the next zone, you may have to start that section all over again.

I have tried playing Spies Vs Merc multiplayer mode, feel like a complete noob here because I have never tried such genre before which requires you to hack a terminal and let the hack get completed without you getting killed, also defend team members initiating hack on various terminals OR be the predator hunting down Spies waiting to hack through, still on a learning curve and spawning too regularly.

It’s going to be a busy winter season this year with GTA V out now, Watch Dogs, Batman Arkham Origins yet to arrive and the regular blockbusters like Call of Duty Ghosts and Battlefield 4 also lined up. Splinter Cell Blacklist is just the perfect game to end your summer delight.I rate this game 8/10, only cons I could relate to is with some evident bugs encountered during game play and linear approach followed in imposing specific game play style for some missions curbing your choice to some extent.

Panasonic P51 Review

Introduction:

Panasonic is well-known as a home appliance company but its mobile phones are not really well-known in India. What’s surprising that Panasonic has not really marketed itself in the mobile phone segment in India, until now.  

Design:

The Panasonic P 51 feels quite substantial in the hand. The 5-inch display has a generous bezel all round and the sides and the back have a smooth rubberized coating. The back is completely sealed off and the volume rocker and power button are placed on top. The 8MP camera lens protrudes out a bit due to the slim chassis, so you’re going to have to be careful when placing it down.

The phone also comes with a capacitive stylus. However, there’s no place to keep the stylus with the phone. Hence, we’re not sure how people would use it.

The phone has dual SIM-card slots and both of these slots are micro-SIM slots.

Display:

The 5 inch HD IPS display looks really great, partly due to a high pixel density of 294 ppi. The panel is evenly backlit and produces bright, vivid colours and sharp text. The display is also protected by Dragon Trail Glass and features an oleo phobic coating as well. 

Interface:

The Panasonic P51 is powered by a MediaTek MT6589 quad core processor clocking at 1.2GHz and is paired with 1GB of RAM. Internal memory is 4GB and this can be expanded with a micro SD card.

Panasonic is running Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean on this phone and hasn't tampered much with its interface. 

Camera:

The 8MP autofocus camera gave good results in well-lit conditions, and in low light they were of average quality. Close-ups and portraits came out really well. Videos record in 1080p full HD mode and come out well in daylight. However, as with the images, they suffer in low light mode and aren't really all that great.

Battery:

The Panasonic P51 features a huge 2500 mAh battery. This provided the phone with enough power to comfortably last an entire day with heavy usage. 

Performance:

The phone runs smoothly owing to its fantastic hardware and multitasking is a breeze. All the applications we tested ran smoothly. Boot up time is fairly quick, and apps load quickly. Games play without any issues.

The P51 also comes pre-installed with a bunch of applications. There’s a file manager, Chrome, Evernote, Google+, Skitch, Media Share for DLNA, ToDo and WeChat.

Both the SIM-card slots run smoothly. However, we found it a bit strange the only one of the SIM cards can run 3G while the other runs 2G.

Conclusion:

The Panasonic P51 is a phone packed with some great features. The display is one of the major attractions and the relatively untouched android interface makes it a close to pure android experience as possible. The dual-SIM feature is also a great feature.

The review is written by experts at Reliance Digital.

Sony Xperia J Review

Sony has somewhat mastered the art of producing phones with a very striking design, a great set of features at a very competitive price-point. The Sony Xperia J is another one of Sony’s exciting Xperia series of phones.

Design

The Xperia J’s design is one of its striking features. The curved body fits the hand nicely and ensures that you’ll have a solid grip on the phone. The back is matt black and the front is a glossy black screen. There are the usual volume buttons, and the on/off switch on the side of the phone. Like almost all Sony devices, the Xperia J does not have any physical buttons on the front. This gives it a very clean, polished look.  

Display

Considering, it’s a mid-range smartphone, the Sony Xperia J’s display gives you great value for money. The 4 inch LCD screen looks quite good. However, with a resolution of 480x854p, it really doesn't offer the sharpness that some of the higher end devices offer. But at this price-point, we feel this is one of the better screens on the market. 

Interface

The Sony Xperia J comes with Android 4.0. The update to Jelly Bean should be coming anytime now. The interface has the typical Sony look to it and comes with additional themes, widgets and a lot of social networking integration built it. 

Camera:

Sony has gained a lot of attention for the superb cameras on their smartphones. The Xperia J comes with a 5MP autofocus camera. We felt that the image clarity and the levels of white balance weren’t really up to Sony’s standards. The camera struggled with focusing and the images often ended up being blurred. The video on this camera wasn’t too great either. A video resolution of 640x480 isn’t the greatest, but it gets the job done. The continuous auto-focus on the camera is something we found to be excellent.

Battery:

The Xperia J is equipped with a 1,750 mAh battery. This should provide sufficient battery life to last at least a day. Sony rates the standby time for 2 weeks and 7.5 hours of 3G talk time.

Performance:

 The Sony Xperia J comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM7227A chip coupled with Adreno 200 graphics. This offers a very decent level of performance. The 512MB of RAM is enough to run certain applications but heavy applications will most certainly not offer a good level of performance. 

HTC One X Mobile Review

The new HTC One X is complete with Android 4.0.4 and Sense 4.1 UI.  This latest device from the Taiwanese firm has been formed on the design of HTC Desire.  One X has a great screen, stunning design, powerful quad core processor and an 8 megapixel camera.

Design:
HTC One X has a unibody design.  It has a large screen of 4.7-inch with a 720p HD display packed into a chassis that’s only 8.9mm thick. The phone uses Super IPS LCD 2 technology in the screen, but it lacks the vivid color reproduction which is available in the market today.

The phone weighs around 130 gm. The volume rocker rests on the right-hand side, a power button on the top and a microUSB slot on the left-hand side. The microUSB slot also doubles as a Mobile High-Definition Link to connect to a TV. Overall, the phone looks sleek and stylish which will appeal to all kinds of users.

Performance:
HTC One X has a Tegra 3 quad core, 1.5 GHz processor and 1 GB of RAM. As the phone is based on Android 4.0.4, the interface is improved and the appearance looks cleaner. The user can seamlessly jump to multiple apps without any hindrance.

Camera:
The phone is equipped with an 8 megapixel camera on the rear while a 1.3 megapixel camera on the front. The rear camera has a single LED flash and enhanced optics to help increase the depth of an image. There are separate slider bars to control various options like exposure, color saturation and sharpness.

Battery:
HTC One X has an 1800mAh battery that has been sealed within the chassis of the phone leaving no room for the user to swap it.

Conclusion:
HTC One X has a mix combination of features. It has a super thin chassis, HD screen and this phone is due to receive Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2 firmware upgrade very soon. The features of the phone are relevant with the current market demand. Its quad core processor gives a good power to the entire performance of the phone. Though the phone uses a LCD screen, any user won’t miss the color reproduction effect of an OLED screen. It also has an integrated DropBox storage, Beats Audio enhancements and an upgraded music player. An improved lock screen, speedier internet browser and an autofocus integrated camera will help the users. The battery packed into a unibody design may create problems for the users.  It  lacks a microSD card slot.

Overall, the HTC One X is stylishly designed, light in weight and has a good screen. It has all the latest features running on HTC Sense 4.1 with Android 4.0.4.  The gadget has a menu key back, that will be a blessing for most users.

The review is penned by experts at Reliance Digital.

Horn not OK Please

Sound pollution in cities across the world has become an unbearable menace, in India it has become a way of life for motorists like us who rarely give a thought while transferring their emotions on to the horn in their vehicle.

Over a period of time this habit becomes compulsive and irritates other drivers on road and sometimes results in unnecessary brawls during peak traffic conditions, to counter this situation a startup firm in India has come up with an innovative solution.

A device with a light which beeps and flashes every time you honk making you turn it off and reminding you of your honking habits, slowly making you conscious on how frequently you have being using your vehicle horn.

In the video that follows below this start up team has claimed to reduce superfluous honking by 61% in a test conducted with 30 drivers. Creators of this device, Anand Damani and Mayur Tekchandaney are looking out for support in order to get this concept accepted by car manufacturers and hopefully this should see light of the day in the coming years, even if companies may turn a blind eye towards this concept it may well become a necessity on car dashboards in future.

Blackberry Q5 mobile review

 

Blackberry has launched its most important smartphone for the year-Blackberry Q5.  The company has specifically maintained its much appreciated QWERTY keyboard intact in this new model. For Blackberry, this keypad is the only one thing that its rivals don’t possess.  Q5 has a portrait QWERTY handset with a 3.1 inch colorful display, available in a variety of color options.

Build:

Q5 bears little resemblance to its predecessor Q10. If one looks at the layout and button placement in this new handset, it doesn’t look primarily like a Blackberry at all.  This upgraded mid-range Curve model feels hefty compared to other Curve models. The company has done away with the removable battery and glass-weave backing. It has been made with a matte plastic chassis.     On the left side, one can access micro-SIM and microSD flap along with a microUSB port. A 3.5mm headphone jack lies next to the display/power button on the top.  A volume rocker, which works as a voice control and camera shutter switch, is placed on the right side. The phone has 120 X 66 X 10.8 mm dimensions and weighs around 120 grams.

Keyboard:   

The single most attractive feature of this phone is its keyboard. The company has differentiated the design of this keyboard from all its other higher-priced models.  However, the membrane beneath the unit is weak. It is certainly an enhanced version of 9320 keyboard but it fails to captivate the user beyond a certain limit.

Display:

Q5 has a 3.1 inch IPS LCD screen with a resolution of 720 X 720 and pixel density of 329 ppi. Thanks to the pixel density, the quality of the screen is superior.  It also has a strong back lighting which makes text and image clearly legible even in broad day sunlight.  There are strong viewing angles and a better color temperature in the phone. Watching movies will be an enjoyable experience on Q5. 

Camera:

Q5 has a 5 megapixel primary camera equipped with features like f/2.4 lens, 1080p video recording and time shift. With Time Shift feature, there is an ease in correcting the errors in any kind of group photography.  The camera app is potent enough when compared to Windows Phone and iOS 6.  Hordes of creative photo filters, styles to add creativity in the images and a decent set of editing tools are also available in Q5. Users will have to be careful while taking HDR images with this camera as slightest of movement while capturing, would result in ghost images. 

Software and Performance:

The handset runs on BB 10.1 version which was used in its predecessor Q10 too. Q5 runs on a dual-core 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 supported by 2GB of RAM. 

Conclusion:

Blackberry Q5 is not a bad handset but doesn’t come with impressive hardware. The phone doesn’t offer any other attractive feature than the keyboard.

This review is written by experts at Reliance Digital.

Lenovo S890 Review

The medium-end, high-end smartphone market is ever-expanding. The market players come up with latest set of hardware specifications and bulkier screen sizes. However, the most popular segment for smartphone buyers is that of 5 inch device category.  The users get more advantage with a bigger display and also offers high portability quotient.
 
Lenovo recently introduced S890 with 5 inch screen, Android Jelly Bean software and latest hardware specifications. Look-wise, Lenovo has designed a commendable product. The device has a glossy white finish and metallic trimmings on the side which gives it a classy and great feel. The makers have introduced a magic flip cover for the phone. Magic flip cover enables the auto display on and off feature for S890.  The advantage of this flip cover is that the user doesn’t need to manually lock the screen by pushing the hardware button, but can simply change the device mode to standby by closing the flip cover.

Lenovo S890 is not equipped with any hardware buttons on the front side. Absence of buttons gives it a cool look.  The phone weighs more than 170 grams; major contribution is made by the bigger 2250 mAh battery.  There is an indicator LED in the earpiece of Lenovo S890. The display of the device is based on IPS technology which gives better contrast and brightness levels.   It also has good color vibrancy.  The device works perfectly when used in bright light conditions.  The color reproduction of the device is excellent. It offers a resolution of 540 X 960 pixels. The phone looks slimmer and smaller than its rivals because of a slim side bezel design on all its four sides.

S890 uses a MediaTek 6577T chipset that includes a 1.2GHz dual core processor along with a PowerVR SGX 544 GPU. This combination renders fluid touch operations and faster execution of commands and application requests. All the games, including HD, run smoothly on the Lenovo S890. The user experience is further enhanced by 1GB RAM and 4GB of internal storage memory.  The Android Jelly bean brings most features and applications to this smartphone.  The camera of the phone is 8 megapixels and is accompanied by a LED Flash. Auto focus feature works nicely and results in best possible sharpness.

Most heavy smartphone users will be happy with the long battery life of this device. With normal gaming, audio-video use and web-browsing, the battery usually lasts for two days between full recharges.
   
Overall, the device impresses on some fronts, but lacks miserably on others. Lenovo S890 looks stylish, has a good build quality, speedy operation and best battery backup seen in recent times. Downer points are that it doesn’t offer any kind of HD recording and is slightly heavy.

Celluon Magic Cube - Evolution for Keyboards

Celluon Magic Cube–Tap on Table and Get a Keyboard

                       
Celluon Magic Cube is a laser projection keyboard device. It also works as a virtual multi-touch mouse. It is one of the most revolutionary products packed in a small device. The device projects a full-size keyboard on any flat or opaque surface. The magic cube requires very less space to operate. The device can be used for tablets, smartphones, laptops and desktops. It is compatible with the latest mobile devices like iPad, iPhone and many other products that support Bluetooth. 

It is small and ultra-portable. Equipped with a long-lasting lithium battery, the magic cube can run for hours without any hindrance. The device also has a standby, power on and off mode. It is easy to turn the device on or off by just tapping on the projected surface.

A user needs some initial practice to type on this keyboard as it works on infra-red projection and not with physical keys. Initially, one can learn by using only one or two fingers and then move on to the next step of using both the hands on the keyboard surface to type. The typing is accompanied by a keystroke sound. It also works as a virtual mouse which can be operated by the tip of the finger. It is compatible with Apple iOS 4 or greater, Apple Mac OS X or above, Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, 7, Microsoft Windows Phone 7 and Google Android.
 

The magic cube is an accurate, full-size laser projection keyboard and it is light in weight and portable. This device will be available at Reliance Digital stores.

Article penned by experts at Reliance Digital

Memories that create stories

We all love to relive and cherish favorite moments from the past, memories also have emotions attached to it which go on to create some unforgettable stories to share for the rest of our lives, I stumbled upon an interesting website last weekend which aims to become a platform for sharing such memories and that too of our Indian subcontinent.

I find this as a really interesting initiative which helps in sharing some less known facts of our own past probably lying unnoticed in some dusty photo album, memoirs of our parents, grandparents etc. In this age of digital overdose finding handwritten letters feels so great, we have grown up reading biopics and references to famous leaders and personalities in our history however individual stories and experiences across culture, religion, caste creed etc. have the power to transport us back in time.

Check this website Indian Memory Project and also a video presentation from their YouTube channel which would surely strike an emotional chord, just in case you have some interesting stuff to share from your Family Archive, photos, letters (Pre 1991 period) you can share your submission on this site to be reviewed and published.

Apple MacBook Air review

When Apple comes out with a new product, customers worldwide expect any one of these three qualities: cutting-edge industrial design, new technology or new standard.  In current times when the world is hogging to “cloud-centric” technology, MacBook Air is a combination of all these three perks.  It is a revised version of the pioneer MacBook Air notebook- the world’s thinnest laptop.  

Designed with famous uni-body engineering technique, this 11.6 inch MacBook Air is the smallest laptop made by Apple.  There are two versions available of this recently launched device, 11.6-inch and 13-inch. The specifications, design and dimension remain the same for both Airs.  The device is light in weight, sturdy and easily portable. The screen can be lifted easily with a finger. 

Fixed with black keys in an aluminum case, MacBook Air does not have a keyboard which is back-lit. As a cost-cutting measure, Apple would have not included back-lit keyboard in the device. A back-lit keyboard usually makes low-light computing easy. The track pad of the laptop works smoothly and inclusion of buttons on it is done in a smart way. The user should not worry about the similar looking Power button, because the device switches to sleep mode rather quickly. 

Many changes have been made in the past to increase the screen quality of Apple laptops, this display screen in MacBook Air is really good as it offers great horizontal viewing angles and average vertical angles.  

 

It has 1366 X 768 pixels of resolution in 11.6 inch screen and 1440 X 900 pixels in 13-inch model. The display of the colors on the screen is averagely glossy. One noticeable thing in this laptop is the absence of glass cover on the screen. Though it is meant to do away with extra weight, the edge-to-edge black bordered display is replaced with an aluminum strip. The sound from the speakers is clear, crisp and commendable while comparing it with the laptop size. It would produce enhanced results when combined with external speakers or a pair of headphones. 

Dealing with connectivity, the users will strongly feel the dearth of USB 3.0 and Ethernet ports. It is fully equipped with 802.11a /b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR. There is a SDSX card reader in the bigger version, but the smaller version doesn’t hold any card reader slot.  Much to the disappointment of its users, this current Air version uses Core 2Duo chip which runs at 1.4GHz.  

Overall,  MacBook Air is small, sleek , light and stylish.  This device has the best-in-class trackpad and a full-sized keyboard. However, absence of Ethernet, USB 3.0, card slot and no backlit keyboard are some points to be taken into consideration before making the purchase decision. 

The review is written by experts at Reliance Digital.