"Have breakfast ...or.... be breakfast"!

UPDATE: article by Dr. Y. L. R. Moorthi via Sivaram

[Management Views from IIMB is an exclusive column written every two weeks for India.wsj.com by faculty members of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.]
Who sells the largest number of cameras in India?
Your guess is likely to be Sony, Canon or Nikon. Answer is none of the above. The winner is Nokia whose main line of business in India is not cameras but cell phones. Reason being cameras bundled with cellphones are outselling stand alone cameras. Now, what prevents the cellphone from replacing the camera outright? Nothing at all. One can only hope the Sony's and Canons are taking note.

Nokia says DtS @ CES 2010

Successful organizations are often seen as mere  Money Making Entities and are often criticized for not doing the “right things” ,without taking it to account their ability to do things right.

The general public often fail to see or rather acknowledge that Corporations are the movers of this world ,moving us to expand ,grow, develop and Progress.

There are around 40+ companies who manufacture mobile phones.Nokia stands as the leader with 52.21% market share (dec 2009) followed by Sony Ericsson @ 15,64%.Rest of the companies have market share of single digit or less than that.

Now what made Nokia to garner this market share??

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.

Google 's Christmas Gift

I am sure many of you must have got this mail,but If you havent checked out the hyperlink in the mailer, you would have missed Google's Christmas gift.
FYKI, Google has committed $20 million dollars to various charity organizations around the world. These organizations which thrive on donations faced huge problems due to recession. When companies like Yahoo! are closing their offices for a cost cutting christmas, none can expect them to donate to social welfare organizations. Still one must appreciate Google's efforts to spread some holiday cheer.

Go Google
&
Merry Christmas to you too :)

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

Hi ,Waves Google

After many attempts, I got my Google wave invite from Satish (thanks Doc :P). About 5 months before I had blogged about G Wave (??) and its features.Now a preview is out(invitation only) and it shows what would be the interface where the convergence of various communication & media sharing options will take place(that was the original idea).

The interface reminds me of a email client and the waves remind me of threads in online forums.If u are familiar with threads in online forums(my first forum exp was pagalguy.com) and how discussions take place, then G Wave is almost similar to that . But here you can keep the thread private,choose participants by your choice and has multiple media sharing options like videos and pictures etc,send invites and RSVP’s for events ,parties etc.

Google's video on When to Wave??

Some Q’s came to my mind while waving, why don't they add certain features to Gmail than introducing a whole new product?? Does it mean Gwave will exist along with Gmail? The answer is Gwave is based on a different protocol called XMPP,different from Gmail.Moreover XMPP is a open source protocol which will allow developers to build custom wave engines, add-ons,gadgets etc. To Know more on this read wiki of Google wave Federation Protocol

But still, Isn’t it going to make communication lil more complex? I mean now i have one more inbox to check in and some more messages to reply …but to the same contacts??

Zune HD - Up Close & Personal

Don’t ask me Why did I choose Zune instead of an IPod..because the choice wasn’t mine.So i am not going to stack up why Zune is better than IPod touch(there are renowned blogs who have skinned them both and reviewed extensively.) Instead I will tell you what’s good & bad in Zune HD.

In terms of design Zune HD comes closer to the IPod touch than all other existing PMP’s (portable media players).

The brilliant OLED screen with HD resolution is the best of all PMP displays in the market.(like Matrix I cannot explain how good it is..one has to see it)

I have used the Iphone and the touch interface in Zune is almost of the same quality (sometimes its too touchy.. especially while scrolling)

The metallic back finish gives a nice feel while holding it and it not too big it fits in your palm quite nicely. however if ur not using a Smartphone the Zune will be bigger than your mobile.Zune Originals lets users to personalize their Zune not just by engraving their name but also with cool tattoo like designs & patterns.

I wont get into detailed specs, but the following are the things which has changed my attitude towards Zune..(and i didn't get these from any of the tech reviews i read)

Zune Software – This is really cool….iTunes does not even come close…the look, feel, navigation is mind blowing with its awesomeness..Quick play history, Smart DJ mix, exploring music using Music Mix view (i listened to album previews from the net with just a click), fresh hits list ,automatic syncing etc etc

Best of all is the is the Zune pass content, where the software pulls info from the web about the song , singer ,photos and displays in the backdrop as a cool slideshow.This is also transferred to the Zune so it works offline too

notice the text just above the taskbar

I strongly recommend to music explorers like me to give it a try (Zune player is not necessary for using Zune software)

Audio Surf Tilt : Even though Zune has very little apps for it, this game is a killer app which has made even apple fan boys to drool. Basically its a game where a space jet moves along the track and one has to hit the colored beads and stay clear from the speed bumps…but what really cooks the noodle is that , the track is designed based on the song you choose, the bumps,pace of the game etc are based on the song pattern.

PGR-Ferrari Edition : Nothing unique abt the game per se, but the Tegra chip in the Zune brings out the finest details & textures of this Zune version of Project Gotham Racing which is very close to the PSP (in display i mean) which shows the potential of Zune as a great gaming device ( heard rumors abt a spl Zune version of Gears of War..yay!! :D)

Okay, now the bummers ..

• The headphones are good ..that's it… not great
• Zune marketplace does not work in India.. although you can see the content you cannot buy it ..my free Zune pass(14 day trial) has gone to waste
• Charger not inclusive , have to buy it separately (of course.. you can charge using the USB PC cable)
• The web browser isn't as great as i thought it wud be..but yeah it has wi-fi and wireless sync support.
• India has no HD radio so no point in flaunting that Zune supports it (The Radio feature works like breeze though :) no complains there)

ZUNE HD from Microsoft Click 4 CNET review

Funny thing is I had always studied that Apple is for niche and Microsoft aims at mass..in this case its a role reversal…I am sure Zune is a rare thing in Bangalore with a mystic aura while iphones and iPod touch have lost their niche factor…

for that reason alone i am happy it is a Zune HD and not an IPod :)