Sony Walkman W series ….Keep walking

Its a mp3 player, its a headphone..its a walkman…Yes Sony is still alive and Walking.With the  W series walkman Sony has once again proves its strength in unique product design without a single trace of Apple.Remember Vaio P??

Unlike many other Mp3 players the  W series has got a fresh design without a trace of Ipod in it,however it as  cool as an Apple Ipod . The headphones and the flash drive is fused to form this hassle free design just like a Bluetooth headset.

It has the patented Jog dial and a new Zapping feature,which plays a small clip from the middle of the song , so u can instantly recognize the song and decide to play or skip to next song.The two parts have magnetic sides which get attached nicely,making easy to carry.Click here for more details 

The W series was featured in CES 2009

With 2 gb memory and 12 hr battery life @ $65-70 ,it is premium priced,as Sony always does.There is also the same Ipod Shuffle problem of no headphone choice as the headphone itself is the player.  But Sony is best known for audio quality so need to worry abt it unless you are an audiophile or something like that.

bing……. from Microsoft

Microsoft’s new search engine which was rumored for quite some time under project name KUMO has indeed become a reality.      MS has officially announced that the new kind of search engine termed the “Decision engine” will be launched very soon. This decision engine is named “bing” which i personally feel that its a lil lousy,but considering “kumo” its far more better.The site is already up but not yet running. 

The letter  page describes the objective and need for for a new search engine and also mentions new features like cashback offers,Price Predictor which are very new to a search engine.

        Click above to have a peek to the “bing “–the decision engine

Although bing is not a Google killer,if it catches on,I think it has great potential to generate more revenue than any other search engine because of it new features like Price Predictor which will attract firms to tie up with bing on revenue sharing basis rather than just advertising.

But of course, when it comes to simple search  Google will still rule and we all know why…coz its really simple..just Google it :)

Speed Mail – the tech courier

I heard a voice saying “Courier” at my doorstep and I found that my brother’s bank statement had come.While I was looking at the envelope,checking the name ,I held by hand out instinctively as I usually do, to get the pen from the courier guy to sign.But he didn’t he give me the pen as this was no ordinary courier service.As I looked up  ,believe it or not I saw him entering details in a small i-mate PDA  with the stylus. 

If it was FedEx or DHL , I wouldn’t be surprised but there was no name in the envelope and by his appearance I assumed it was a normal courier service. Then he asked me to sign in the PDA itself with the stylus.(frankly i was dazed at this). When he was about to leave,i asked him which courier which he replied “Speedmail”.

The name didn’t ring a bell  ,so at once i went in and googled it. They didn’t have any website ,but were listed in the classifieds.Then i searched  for news and Voila i got it.

From Hindu : Xpress Deliveries, a leading corporate courier services company, has launched ‘Speedmail Deliveries’, its retail courier business unit

The fact that it is a new courier service and is not into retail yet(only corporate clients ) might be the reason why “Speedmail” is not popular yet .

It is interesting to know that,by using PDA’s ,around 16hours is saved every day and the personnel are handling around 700 packages per day against the average count of 300-350.

Speedmail would be starting retail services from August and I am pretty sure they will make other couriers like Professional or DTDC run for their money.Its better they gear up and embrace technology before they get wiped out by new age couriers like Speedmail.

A Royal Wii – For Her Royal Highness

Last week, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth received a unusual gift   but truly a royal one,  a gold plated Nintendo Wii gaming console. THQ  which is launching the “BIG” series of games for the Wii delivered this unique one of a kind,gaming console to the delivered to the Buckingham Palace.

People Magazine (UK) had already reported  in January that, Her Royal Highness is having a great time playing ten pin bowling in Prince William’s Wii which was his Christmas gift from girlfriend Kate.

Although there is no official comment from the Queen, it is a well known fact that she owns a good gadget collection which includes a IPod, Blackberry etc and a Royal Wii would be a perfect addition to it.

Even though,it may not be true that the Queen, aged 83 is smashing with the Royal Wii,it has sure caught everyone's attention  which was the main idea in the first place.

Hey There Della !!

DELL has launched a separate web page named Della for its computers targeting the female consumer segment.Sony was the first one to bring in colors to laptops and popularized the idea of  presenting laptops as fashion accessories.Dell has taken this bit further by making a separate webpage for them and how to choose the correct PC they need which will not only help them in their productivity but also compatible with their style of fashion by offering them customized patterns for their notebooks.The website also encourages to join in online discussions in social networking sites like Facebook ,Myspace etc.

I think it’s good idea,because women are very attentive to details and often need to be attended in a personalized way. Generally gadgets are often seen as a guy’s thing,but its a fact that  today even women are into gadgets ranging from mobile phones,PMP’s or laptops. So I think they will love a personalized website for them which will take note of the other style& soft features apart from the technical aspects when buying a laptop.

Who Cried Wolf ? - Try WolframAlpha.

Imagine what will happen if we mix Google is merged with Wikipedia? May be it will tell u the answer to any question by searching the answer over the net and presenting in a concise format.Sounds cool? well its coming soon..

Its not called WIKIGLE or Googipedia but Wolfram|Alpha.

Usually we search using keywords.But sometimes keywords don't help.We might want to ask questions like in Yahoo Answers,but the results are not great. Wolfram Alpha aims to fix this.

Stephen Wolfram who is the man behind WA,is a highly acclaimed scientist and is noted for  his previous projects like Mathematica and New Kind of Science. Although the these were very technical in nature,WA is to the mainstream.

Wolfram mentions in his blog  "All one needs to be able to do is to take questions people ask in natural language, and represent them in a precise form that fits into the computations one can do"

That means instead of just searching India + Economy..I can ask what is Indian economic situation in 2008-09 and instead of links I will get my info like a Wikipage. 

Though it looks promising, I don't think it will affect traffic of Google or Wikipedia.But I am sure it will be a hit  if it works.

Windows 7 is the Good Side of Vista

One of the good things to have techies in the family, is that you get cool techstuff much before others ,atleast I get it before most of my friends:) [when it comes to software even my engg friends ask for tips!!!].

So it is not much of surprise, when some of my friends are getting convinced to move to Vista I have 'moved on' to windows 7 [build 7.000-new version coming in sometime but I couldn't wait :)]. And before anything else , I would say this if you are using XP hold it, don't move to Vista. wait for some more time because Win7 will be releasing soon commercially!!.(latest by 4th quarter 2009).

Well I am not going to review Win7 for you ,there are others who are better qualified than me for that.But as a normal user and a non tech guy I would say these.... its faster than XP (believe it or not :p), has all the good stuff of vista aero theme,safety etc etc,a uncluttered Taskbar which shows mainly the icons of application,revamped start menu,free to move gadgets,improved preview,libraries through which you can access similar files from single location (for example, in the photos library all photos in the system can be accessed despite of their original location).Click here for detailed preview

Now ...Tiger,who had installed WIN 7 before me had some issues so uninstalled it.Well the requirements are similar to Vista,minimum is 1 gb ram and atleast 2ogb hard drive space..If vista works fine in your system then Win7 should work splendidly.There was a critical update after its initial release, so guys who had used without the update may not have enjoyed it.I had uninstalled Vista then loaded Win7 so its working like a charm.

Bottom line: Win 7 is Vista reloaded but this time MS has got it right :)

Two Sides of the New Ipod Shuffle

If you are a regular to my blog you would have realised it by now.Nevertheless I will say it up front,"I am Microsoft Biased"

However, I wont argue over the fact that Apple is the Greatest when it comes to product design and one of the most innovative companies in this planet. Apple's new Ipod Shuffle sure stole my eyes. For starters, its half the size , 4 times the memory(4Gb). At $79 its not too pricey either, considering other Ipods.Apart from the new multiple playlist support, the coolest feature is that this player talks!!

The VoiceOver feature announces the name of song or playlist, notifies about the battery life in 14 languages!!.

Surely Apple knows how to be Invincible.I felt "Wow" really belongs to Apple and not to MS... remember Vista wow :(

But again my Microsoft biased mind was desperate to find something wrong about Apple. I was having thoughts that Why Apple does not always give out their best at first?? May be Apple had this design before itself, but planned to release only when the sales slowed down.May be it wants to skim the market as much possible, before release a better version(like the case of Iphone 3g). But then came my saviour.....

Dan Leahul points out in Brand republic's Digital Blogger

"...the volume and tracking controls have been moved to the iPod earphones.The earphones, proprietary earphones... why Apple, why?

Seems like a kick in the shins to devoted iPod users, just what happens if (when) you (eventually) lose the earphones, besides obviously shelling out £40 for another set?

An explanation? Are we granted an apology? A hand written letter from Steve Jobs with a dab of his Apple musk sealed in the envelope?

Since when is the World's Nicest Company^TM so mean? "

Aha ...looks like Apple is not so innocent after all and Microsoft is not just the one which is blamed all the time.

I am Microsoft biased and I can sleep peacefully tonight....

Darwin Day & Google's Evolution

Did you notice the the recent logo of Google? If you haven't ,don't search it , just look below.

If you go "WOW" then you probably know what it is about..If you go "what in the world is that?" then let me tell you what it is.

Remember Charles Darwin and his theory that Man evolved from monkey? (BTW Mentos had nothing to do with it). Well the great scientist's 200th birthday is today (Feb 12th)  and 150th anniversary (Nov 24 ) of the launch of his paper "Origin of Species" So you see Google, like always is sporting this special logo towards this special occasion.

Google's evolution is remarkable ,starting as humble search engine, it then launched an array of  web applications and now has a strong presence in software arena (Google earth,Picasa , Chrome, Android,latest is Power Meter ).I won't be surprised if it launches a new hardware device in the future.

Started along with many other search engines, Google definitely has carved a position for itself by constantly evolving with continuous innovation.Most importantly it has done that in a very profitable manner.

Talk about Survival of Fittest......

Ikiller from Toshiba

When rumours about Dell's Smartphone were spreading,Toshiba a significant player in laptop category has launched a smartphone err..pocket PC..Iphone killer..(the differences are narrowing)

When Sony entered the mobile market ,mobile was seen as extension in consumer electronics.Soon LG & Samsung followed suit.

Then came Apple with its Iphone and changed the rules of the game.Since the difference between smartphones & ultra compact PC's is getting smaller day by day,many laptop firms are entering mobile space. Its not more like a product category extension but more like product line extension.Now this phenomenon has seriously affected core mobile manufactures like Nokia , Motorola etc.

Btw TGO1 is the first mobile to run on Qualcomm Snapdragon platform using a Windows Mobile 6.1 OS.It has a 1ghz mobile CPU with a 3d UI.Looks pretty impressive.See demo below...

Lets see whether it kills competition or killed by competition....

Baylis Revolution- Greenest MP3 player

Yes it looks like a brick & No its does not fit into your pocket. Yes it  includes music, video, and photo playback, , but no it does not support DRM protected music or video.Priced at $179 (4GB) it is costlier than an ipod (8GB-$149).So why in the world would anyone buy this??

Did I mention that it has a hand crank and can generate its own energy?  Aptly named the Revolution, this wind-up mp3 player from Baylis  is the greenest gadget of recent times. The crank is used to windup to charge the internal  battery or can be used to charge other devices also.One minute of cranking will give you 45 minutes of music playback.At full charge it gives a astounding 48 hours of playback. Not just that it is also packed with features like music & video playback, a photo viewer, an FM radio, a voice recorder, a line input recorder, a text reader, expandable memory, and get this...a flashlight. (CNET full review)

When the market is full of me too mp3's,here is a player which cuts above the rest with a specific focus on adventure travellers.The Baylis Revolution is not for everyone,its for those who live on the road,globetrotters who explore the world in all its rawness. Talk about product differentiation for a niche segment....

N97 ,The Real Iphone Killer

After the several attempts to kill the Iphone by major rivals,Iphone still topped the lists as the most favoured smartphone. But when everyone thought the dust has settled,here comes the new N97 

Samsung Omnia,HTC Diamond,Sony Xperia..etc , although they were considered good,they weren't good enough. Nokia N96 and Google G1 emerged as promising threats to the Iphone (In India,it was almost suicide.see why) .They were iphone replicas or equivalents in terms of features and designs,but there was not much of a radical difference..except the G1's  Android.

But the N97 is packed with new features  taking mobile computing to the next level leveraging the web applications.One of the most unique features of N97 is Social Location.

  Sensing your 'So-Lo' -The Nokia N97 introduces the concept of 'social location'. With integrated A-GPS sensors and an electronic compass, the Nokia N97 mobile computer intuitively understands where it is. The Nokia N97 makes it easy to update social networks automatically with real-time information, giving approved friends the ability to update their 'status' and share their 'social location' as well as related pictures or videos.

In a press release ,Jonas Geust, Vice President, heading Nokia Nseries,said "From the desktop to the laptop and now to your pocket, the Nokia N97 is the most powerful, multi-sensory mobile computer in existence.Together with the Ovi services announced today, the Nokia N97 mobile computer adjusts to the world around us, helping stay connected to the people and things that matter most. With the Nokia N97, Nseries leads the charge in helping to transform the Internet into your Internet"

N97-DEMO

Sad news is,not all markets will see the N97 now.Initially it will be launched only in European markets,  it will be a long time before US consumers get their hands on this new mobile computer. In India? ..It will come ...well eventually.

Nokia on a New Song

Its Mobile & Music frenzy everywhere.Yet another  blow for  Iphone  from India's beloved Mobile Brand Nokia.

Nokia unveiled its latest Hi-Tech Touch Music phone-the5800 XpressMusic(know unofficially as Tube)

Apart from Stunning features like 3.5G wireless,one touch photo&video sharing,Virtual Qwerty keyboard and a Stylus,Surround Sound,etc what makes the phone special is that it "Comes With Music"-the groundbreaking plan from Nokia where users can  enjoy unlimited music downloads from Nokia Online music store at no extra cost.The fee is included in the price of mobile itself(approx 279 EUR)

When Apple itunes was launched @99 cents per song it revolutionized the music business.Now with such a scheme it is believed that Music piracy will be reduced at a considerable rate.I think with more and more music phones coming into the market,the next thing will be video content exclusive for mobiles.So by this time next year there would be video phones everywhere.

I believe the mobile  phone is becoming the greatest gadget of all times. Who would  have imagined that the mobile phone is going to influence the music industry or the software industry to such an extent. Corporates should look out for latest technological developments across industries which may  help them to take their businesses to new level. 

T-Mobile G1 unveiled

The first ever Android powered mobile T-mobile G1 was  unveiled yesterday.The phone has got almost everything what other touch phones have.

But most importantly it has a open source software,so that it allows users to tune develop and add any application at their will. Google search,push Gmail & eye catching  Roadview using Google Maps make the phone even special for Google lovers.It even has a dynamic Compass!!! Like Itunes,Google has teamed up with Amazon.com to allow users  to download songs directly onto their G1's. 

From a marketing view the following caught my attention 

• The phone is priced at $179 which is cheaper than many touch phones in the market.
• The phone is said to hit the stores by Oct 22 which will help T-mobile to have a good holiday shopping season
• T-mobile is not the best service provider in the US as it does not cover the entire US .This might be a dampener
• The backside of the phone says Google while the manufacturer HTC is not seen anywhere on the phone.HTC touch is well recognized brand for its touch phones why  leave it? Seeing Google on a hardware also feels weird-will it be Google everywhere soon ?    

Well it has certainly got the attention,but I would say Apple has still got  time to correct its flaws in the Iphone,before any serious market competition.    

Make Room for Google Chrome

That's right people, Google has did it again what it does best.....simplifying and thereby enhancing the online experience. There are many interesting things around Google Chrome, the new web browser from the search engine giant.

The Timing: Microsoft recently released its improved IE 8.Now users will be curious to compare and contrast between chrome and IE8.Though I think both are quite well differentiated.IE boasts of its security factors but Google stresses on fast, no frill web browsing.

Firefox Getting the Heat: Mozilla which has a profitable business relationship with Google(Google accounts for $56 million of the $66 million that Mozilla Corp. made in 2006) is not very much comfortable with Chrome as it poses a direct competition to . However Mozilla's CEO John Lilly said "Competition leads to innovation.More smart people thinking about ways to make the Web good for normal human beings is good, absolutely". Sergey Brin, Page's fellow co-founder, said Google planned to continue to work closely with Mozilla and hoped to see future version of Chrome and Mozilla's Firefox become more unified over time.

Apple Connection: Chrome has used Apple's Webkit extensively in developing chrome.Sundar Pichai, Google's VP of product management said "We have borrowed good ideas from others,Our goal here was to bring our point of view but do it in a very open way,"

Another interesting thing is the comic book released by Google which explains everything about chrome,why  & how it was developed & its special features. Even non techies will be able to understand why chrome is said to be a good browser. 

What fascinates me is how Google steadily expands its web presence .First just a search engine. then web 2.0 sites (orkut, youtube etc) now with software like Chrome and Android, Google is set to capture the mobile Internet domain....No surprise if they develop a OS in the future.

Netizens believe that if something is from Google it must be Good. Lets see if Chrome captures  their hearts...

Yahoo Set to Smash its Mash

Yahoo has announced that it will be closing it will be closing its social networking site Mash.Even though Yahoo has a wide base through its popular mail service(personally i prefer Yahoo mail over Gmail except for the spam) it has not been able to attract its users to its other services like Google.Flickr is one of the most successful website in the Yahoo mix.

Mash had everything, all the popular features from the popular websites like Facebook,MySpace,Orkut etc. So what went wrong with Mash? Nothing except that nothing was new. Product differentiation-that was the missing element.It was seen us a mash up of other popular sites and was not able to differentiate itself from other networking sites. It did not have any unique features other than 'create profiles for your friends' which was not welcomed by many users. Nor it has a special focus on a specific demographic like Bebo-under 21 or HI5(Latin America).

Mash will be off the web by the end of September,but Yahoo 360 which is a similar service will be continued. Yahoo is trying to give Y! 360 a complete makeover and also has announced a launch of all new networking site.

Lets hope the users will go Yahoo!! looking at the new site......