ADAM Is Here…Almost

Its been more than a year since I first blogged about Adam. Many like have been waiting for so long, that one wondered whether will it actually come to a store near us. Well good news is..Adam is not a just a concept product (or mythological!) .Its as real as any other tablet and it is here…well almost.

click for more pics in notion ink blog

Rohan of Notion Ink has posted few photos from Honk Kong where the shipping of the first batch has started.

The first batch got sold out in just about 2 weeks (only thru pre-order!!) and this happened without any official launch,a CES keynote,any sort of official advertisement..mere social buzz. Of course there were controversies and technical glitches in the payment gateway, but still this is phenomenal. The prices range start from a modest 18k for an LCD Wi-Fi to 27k for an PixelQi Wi-Fi+3G model, which means its still cheaper than Samsung Galaxy tab!

Btw iPad may be launching this week (Jan 28).No official word nor any info on the telecom partner.Some predict the Wi-Fi only model could be priced between 24-27k which I think is very low. My guess is, it will priced a little more than galaxy atleast and the iphone 3GS (no idea when India will get iPhone 4! )

If you are in plans to get a tablet..wait for 3 months..

Will Microsoft bring in Slate-Z ?

NO .Its not announced yet. But as a MS fan,I do want a tablet which has a webcam and SD slots.

I do agree Apple’s iPad is truly an innovative product. I don't know if its going to change the publishing industry , but nevertheless it is a revolutionary device, because it will make computing so simple. Kids and oldies will find iPad a much more easier,enjoyable experience than any other Laptop /Smartphone.

Just picture this,

You are in bed along with your toddler and read him/her Winnie the pooh..only the yellow bear is animated and smiles in bright iPad screen.

The grandpa who is about to kick the bucket, can see his grandson’s latest bday pics lying on the hospital bed,just by touching icons.He might not have held a mouse in his entire life and probably never will.  

But now its  a Apple Device, that means its a luxury product which comes with a premium(and in  iPad’s case without a webcam). So obviously users like me look for a device,which offers value for money . As usual we look up to Microsoft.

IPL – Innovative Performers League

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,

One of the factors to achieve greatness , is to stand the test of time , and that’s why Shakespeare is considered the greatest playwright ever.

Even today the above mentioned quote from “As You Like It” is put to good use to generate billions of revenue , providing employment to thousands of people and most of all entertaining billions of people just using a bat & a ball.

Ruchi, asked me a few days before “what do you think of IPL?”.I had no answer then.I haven't had thought about it much .But the more I thought about it, I saw more drama than the sport itself. After watching Harsha Bhogle’s TED talk on IPL , my bro and I couldn’t decide whether he was favoring IPL or mocking it. But it did strengthened my opinion that IPL is more about business than cricket

IPL1 was good , IPL 2 was better, and I am sure IPL 3 would be even better ,not because of cricket but because of the controversies .

ADAM without Apple

C’mon seriously…if I had told you that this is the Apple IPAD  which is going to be launched soon,you would have believed,wouldn’t you?

But fortunately or unfortunately, this ADAM is not from Apple ,but Notion Ink (I seriously suspect they named it Adam thinking over Apple :P) Anyways ADAM is the touch tablet or smart pad (as they call it) created by Notion ink – an Indian (jai ho!!) startup  based out of Hyderabad. (checkout their blog)

ADAM has  a writable 10.1-inch TFT  touch screen  weighs around 770grams. Packed with technologies like Blue tooth, a 3MP camera, video recording, USB charging,  32GB data storage, Wi Fi, Lithium Ion batteries ( 48 hours!! backup).

Before you brush Adam aside as a wannabe please note that it has got an nVidia Tegra chip ,Pixel Qi panel that has a low-power transflective display, which allows ambient light to illuminate the screen, and an epaper mode.Get this….this dude runs on An..wait for it.. droid ..  Android.(Sweeeet!! )

Whats more?? no actually less ..yes it costs less than Rs.18000…yep …buying a netbook might not make any sense  anymore….

And last but not  least ADAM will show up in CES 2010..watch out this cool dude with all the hot stuff.

Heathrow throws the driver out

Heathrow Airport in London is one of the busiest airports in the world with over 67 million passengers stopping by annually. The Terminal 5 complex in Heathrow which was opened in 2008 by Her Royal Highness is the largest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom which took 19 years to complete @ the cost of £4 billion.It can handle 35 million passengers annually and it is used exclusively by British Airways.

However, the most unique attraction of Terminal 5 or Heathrow for that matter, is going to be the Personal Rapid Transit or PRT’s.

PRT’s are driverless cabs which look like space pods , will be used for carrying passengers within the Airport

Xbox-Natal- Future of Gaming ?

Are you one of those who go weee over the Nintendo Wii,,wait till you see this. Microsoft recently unveiled Project Natal of its gaming console Xbox 360 in  E3 09 (Electronic Entertainment Expo).

Project Natal is touted as the future of gaming,which takes gaming to a whole new level.When Wii came with its motion controller ,it brought in a whole new way of gaming.As a result game studios are designing exclusive games for the Wii to leverage its uniqueness. Now Xbox Natal aims even further …no controller at all. U are the controller.MS calls it Life Experience.Its better understood when seen than to explain so watch the video to see how motion sensors,facial & voice recognition works when incorporated in games. 

If you have seen the video,you might be wondering if this will actually work.Well I wonder the same. At first it is really awesome to look ,but I am skeptical about its practicality.Hardcore gaming like Halo or Counterstrike etc etc will definitely wont be working nice with these settings.Imagine the physical stress that will be caused if you play games like Gears of War or MADDEN NFL or WWE using Natal.Lets say I am playing a fighting game like Tekken, it is physically impossible to do complex maneuvers usually called combos like a back flip kick etc . However  the touchless interface will definitely be a awesome feature ,provided it works smoothly.

Apart from this Xbox is trying to be more than just a gaming console.It has already incorporated media center to  stream digital content to the television.The Xbox live store is also getting better with more content coming in apart from games,like movies TV shows etc.

Also web application integration is also one area Xbox, as a edge over PS3 or Wii .Xbox 360 will soon have Facebook & Twitter,so gamers can easily interact and socialize with fellow gamers.    

Looks like Xbox is really a doing a 360 covering all sorts of digital entertainment…..

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.

GOOGLE WavE-Mail

While Microsoft was revamping its Live Search Engine into Bing-the Decision Engine,Google was busy re-inventing the good old email.

What would Email look like if it were to be invented today?          This was the question Google asked its Googlers and BING!! (pun intended) they got the answer(atleast they say so)…Google Wave is the new email.

What is a wave? Google says:

A wave is equal parts conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

A wave is shared. Any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback lets anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when.

A wave is live. With live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

Its like hybrid email which has Gmail enriched with cool features of many Google products like Docs,Gtalk, iGoogle, Orkut, You tube, Search etc etc.

What surprised me was, Google which is known for making things simple,has actually made email a little complex by adding so many features in one application.Of course,there could be another view that instead of using 4 0r 5 different applications,users can “simply  Wave it”.

Its still early to comment on the success of Wave,however I am pretty sure,good ol’ Email wont be washed away by the Wave,at least for now .

India Innovation Initiative

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) along with CII and Agilent Technologies Inc has launched I3 –India Innovation Initiative a unique competition where one can submit their innovative ideas and if selected they would be charted into viable business models, converting the idea into an enterprise.

"The DST receives plenty of ideas to develop through its national innovation fund (NIF). A select few can be worked out and developed into commercially viable innovations that can address pertinent problems like climate change, water scarcity or other such concerns," Anuj Sinha, the head of science communication division at DST, said. (Hindu)

So if you have some innovative ideas and believe it will make a difference ,here is your chance to prove it.

May 30/09 is the last date to send in your proposals. For more details log on t0 http://www.innovationgrid.org/i3/#

Sixth Sense-the Future of Mobile Technology

Just when I thought touch devices like iphones,Tablet pc's etc are going to rule the near future, comes a far more cutting edge technology which looks like as if pulled out from a Sci-Fi movie. Pattie Mae , founder of Fluid Interfaces Group recently unveiled Sixth Sense, a wearable device comprising a projector which projects the virtual world onto any surface an can be accessed with hand gestures…something like in the movie Minority Report.Watch the video to get a peek into the future.

SIXTH SENSE DEMO

Pranav Mistry, a PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT's Media Lab is the wizard behind this project, which aims to blend in the virtual world with physical world by making data accessible, anywhere, anytime.

If this becomes viable ad practical, we will be “wearing” our mobile devices either as cap, sunglasses or as “bling bling” chains.Hope the day come sooner………

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....

Build Your World- As You Like It

Remember the "Construct " in The Matrix? where Morpheus says "It our 'loading program' We can load anything from clothing to equipment, weapons, training simulation, anything we need".

Imagine what if there is actually a program in which you can load anything, build whatever you want.It will be a place where only your mind is the limit.

The video below is a short film which shows a virtual program called World builder similar to the Construct. Please watch this "TechnoRomantic" brilliant piece of creativity.

World Builder - Sci-Fi Romance

Absolutely Scintillating ....

SCINTILLATION from Xavier Chassaing on Vimeo.

From Vimeo.com -This is an experimental film made up of over 35,000 photographs. It combines an innovative mix of stop motion and live projection mapping techniques.

Directed by - chassaing.xavier@gmail.com
Music by - myspace.com/fedaden

Welcome to Villa Aqua....

Vibs had recently blogged about sky villas which are "by invitation only".Interestingly, looks like its not just the sky, but also the sea where villas will come up in the near future making sci-fi become sci-tru :).

Trilobis 65 is one such submerged dwelling environment or simply a floating home.

Italian naval architect Giancarlo Zema  who designed the part yacht and part submarine says " "The main aim of the project is to allow anyone to live in a unique environment through a self-sufficient, nonpolluting dwelling that exists in unison with their ocean surrounding"

Read more about  the Trilobis 65 here.

Bye Bye Cellphones... Hello MID

Technology is moving at a greater speed than we think,atleast it is faster than I thought.

Earlier I had  pointed out the narrowing difference (Toshiba Ikiller) between mobile phones & computing devices  and the possible strategic inflection point (Call rates RIP) the telecom industry might come across.

So what? take a look at the news from CNET.com

Intel announced here Monday at the GSMA Mobile World Congress that LG Electronics will use its latest generation technology to build a new class of device called mobile Internet devices, or MIDs.Now the companies are working on a new class of product that are mini-computers that can also be used to make phone calls using a wireless Internet connection. Intel sees the category of product as something that is somewhere between a smartphone, like the Apple iPhone, and a Netbook, a scaled-down version of a notebook computer.

IF you see the image below you will get the idea of that "something somewhere" product Intel is talking about. ARM is one of the early firms to have a vision about MID's or Mobile Internet Devices

The article further states the implication of MID's in the telecom industry which will eventually make Call rates R.I.P

I thought it will take another decade for this to happen, but looks like  we will bid farewell to cellphones & embrace MIDs,very soon.

World's Tweeting... Are you?

Institutional Venture Partners and Benchmark Capital have pumped $35 million into Twitter - the microblogging site .

Todd Chaffee, the partner at IVP gives four reasons about why it was a good idea to invest in Twitter in these recessionary period.

• Open. That makes it easy for others to build on top of Twitter and it also makes it searchable.
• Real time. It is a huge database of what is happening right now.
• Ubiquitous. You can get to it from just about any device.
• Scalable. (Don't laugh)
• Persistent. It allows for an archive of what is happening and what has happened, which is searchable (see No. 1). 

Even I am using Twitter ,but not many of peers are.But amazingly I am able to interact with people whom I don't know at a intellectual level. If  a see a interesting tweet , I just retweet  and usually get a positive response.

The  most fascinating thing for me is that Twitter has become the fastest growing phenomenon with just  29  employees!!!.

Chaffee says" Twitter is bigger than a lot of people realize and growing faster than a lot of people realize, but it has not hit the mainstream yet. It is just starting."

May be that's why they were bold enough to turn down a $ 500 million acquisition deal from Facebook.

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......

Google's Internet Bus

From LiveMint - Chennai: As part of its initiatives to spread awareness about Internet, Google India on Tuesday announced the launch of mobile internet bus to provide the experience of worldwide web to people across Tamil Nadu.

The bus project is based on four themes — information,  communication, entertainment and education, and it would have useful and informative content in English and Tamil, said Google India (Research and Development) Centre Head Prasad Ram.“We want to educate people about the benefit of Internet and this bus would make them to understand the usage of Internet in a much effective way,” he said.The bus would be covering 15 towns across the state over a period of one-and-a-half months, he said.Google India Product Manager Prem Ramaswami said this was like a pilot project for them and based on the response they get from this project, they would continue it in other states as well.

“It is like a pilot study (for us). More than 19% of Tamilians prefer Google Tamil for accessing the Internet and that is also one of the reasons to launch the bus project from Tamil Nadu,” he said.

read more here.......

Call Rates R.I.P.

As Rakesh wanted to buy a new mobile of the smartphone breed ,Dhiru and I were discussing about different mobiles and the new age mobile applications with him.Just then occurred to me that in the near future there will be no more call rates as such.

Let me explain .Almost every smartphone is equipped with 3g, Wi-Fi & other such wireless connectivity solutions. Wi Max and 3g networks have already been launched in some areas of India.Suppose I have a Smartphone ,so does my friend and we both have a WiMax connection, then I don't have to call or text through the GSM or CDMA connection but I will be using the Gtalk to IM or Skype to call.I will be charged for the data usage only which will be much lesser than call rates.

That means with Internet access everywhere, mobile users can stay connected through the internet itself and not necessarily through traditional networks like GSM .So there will be no more Mobile operators but only Internet service providers.

Yes it will be long time for the entire change but it will surely disrupt the telecom business model and entirely change the rules of the industry.This type of scenario is referred as a strategic inflection point,only the companies which will accept this and adapt future technologies will sustain in the future.

With telecom operators rolling out more networks and smartphones becoming more cheaper, its just a matter of time and it will happen...eventually .

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....