I found this excellent review of the Kindle, Amazon's new Wireless reading device. No point going in talking about it as it is one of the best reviews I have seen in the recent past.
A small snippet here. Check out the full review at "Well".
There's a little styling going on here.
While the overall shape seems to be well proportioned and balanced (considering the plain volume alone), I don't get the reason of being of these angled cuts. Does it add comfort when holding the device or interacting with it ? Does it help to frame the text better ? Does it relate to some cultural meaning ? As from today, I'd like to get a clue. To me this is just a subjective decision, style for the sake of it, and it hangs in there as a hair on the soup. Same feeling about the progressively slanted keys of the keyboard. Style is good, but it needs to be backed up with purpose.
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Usability Review of Kindle
Buying Digital Camera Guide for Dummies
One more guide telling you all about what a digital camera is, what mega pixels are how the digital camera is different from the film camera so on and so forth. No, I am not going to talk of all this. If you have landed up at this post (out of millions and millions), you are pretty much sure that you need a digital camera. If you are looking out for a one line answer that this camera is the best, go and buy it, you are mistaken. You may very well go to numerous other sites which offer the comparisons. Over time I have seen many friends and colleagues ask me on which camera to buy, which is good (they compare two different segments) and so on. This guide tries to bring out the practical aspects to be considered while buying a camera. Mind you this article is written with an average Indian context, it may not apply for others.Before, I proceed further if you want some good tutorial on Digital Cameras have a look at photo.net. There is another article at the same site on What camera to buy? You can check out a some tips here. A configurable comparison of the camera, prices based on their features is available here. Now is the time for you to make a choice, if you are a serious photographer, this post is not for you, if you need a camera just to capture those golden moments carry on.
Before proceeding ahead, please decide you need a camera and not a hand-cam. I am no expert in hand-cams and you would do better to ask someone else. I will take on one feature at a time, what I feel are important in the order of importance.
1) What kind of a human are you?
You lead a very peaceful life, and you need to capture those languid moments of life.
You are a party freak, and want all those nice girls in your album.
You are a back packer who hitch hikes at the word go.
You are an eternal romanticist with family and kids.
What the hell does this to do with buying a camera?
The answer to the above is very important. For example if you are the second type, you might need a ultra thin, large display, huge life camera. In the third case you might need a rugged, compact, dependable, huge storage and store pics in multiple formats, conserve power etc. The other two categories, you need to decide for your self. And I will help you deal with it as we go ahead. This guide is for any body who has no plans of turning pro.!!
2) What is your budget?You are son of Ambani. (The world is yours, if your dad agrees)
You are like me, who has to slog for his daily bread. (hmm.. <20k)
You are a parasite who nourishes on someone else's blood.(<10k)
First decide how much you are willing to shell out, with a stretch limit. There is no limit that you can shell out on these gadgets, so know your limits. Also mind you, the budget should include not just the cost of the camera but also of all the accessories needed. (These days cameras need more accessories than mallika sherawat.)
3)How will you use the photos?
You will frame the photos in your hall.
You will blowup the photos for a present.
You will share it on Orkut.
Which photos??
Depending on what use you will put the photos to decide the mega pixels you need. In my opinion most of you just want to share them with friends and family. In that case a 5MP is good enough. It is sufficient for a 6x4 print.
If you have come this far, you have made the major decisions. Now there are a few things that everyone irrespective of where they fall need to take care. I will go about just as above, but its not according to the importance, all are equally important.
1) The battery is the most important part of a digital camera. Don't for one in which you can put aa cells, even if rechargeable. They just will not do. Go for lithium ion based or ni-cd based. They are compact easy to handle and generally last longer and mostly come with the charger or have an in circuit charging capability. Check the weight of the camera with and without the battery.2) An extension to the above, see to it that the manufacture specifications specify the no, of shots/length of time the battery will last. The higher the better.
3) How many photos do you need? These days the camera comes with a laughable 16Mb internal memory. My cell phone is better in this regard. Make sure you it supports at least one of the formats, CF or SD. Ensure that you can add how much ever more memory you want.
4) Adding on to the third point. What all formats does your camera support, jpg, bmp, raw etc. This helps you to have some simple trade offs in quantity without a large trade off in quality.
Ok Ok purists out there don't scorn at me, remember this is a practical guide for dummies.5) What is the optical zoom? Every sales man talks about zoom (very cleverly hides the word digital). So make sure you know what the optical zoom, and don't carried away to be talked into that optical and digital zoom are same. 3x is bare minimum, and 5x will be great for our purpose. Though no harm in going for more, except a hole in the pocket.
6) How do you download the photos to your PC? It should have a USB connection. Many cameras have firewire (not as pre-levant as USB). Make sure you have the USB or at least an USB adaptor.
7) The screen is an important part of the camera, ensure it has good contrast, configurable time after which it switches off.
Screen all the cameras in the market based on the above criteria, I am sure you will left with hardly 0ne or two. This the time when you will be in a dilemma like I was some time back. At this point it's unto you, I have done my job of helping you find the Camera for you.
All the best shopping and yo! happy clicking.
Make Your WebPage Cool with Google Gadgets
Wanted to have a poll, a stock market ticker, a music box, on your website? But were set back by the technical details. Now you have Google Gadgets, so calm down and learn how you can add all those cool features to your web page(blog/wiki page/web page). I am starting this new feature Tutorials on this blog, where I will introduce you to various technologies to improve your website, design insights etc. Read on for more...
Google Gadgets are nothing but widgets.
The "most popular posts in the side bar of this blog is an example of a widget. The Minekey box that you see at the end of the blog is also a widget. However, most of the widgets are limited to the blogging platforms or some custom platforms. Google Gadgets for example could be added only to iGoogle page, or on the Google Pages.
However, in an announcement last year Google made their gadgets available to be published in any web page. I will take you through a step by step process of how to achieve this in your web page.
Go to the Google Gadgets home page and search for the kind of widget you want. In this tutorial I am searching for a gadget which will help me create a poll in my website. 
The search result takes me to a page which has about 5 results.
You can see a list of Gadgets and the description of what they do. I choose the first one. Clicking on the link takes me to the details page. Now click on "Add to your Webpage" button. You will taken to a page where you can customize the behavior of the gadget.
Once 
You are done with the customization, You can click "Get the Code" to generate the code. All you have to do now is paste this piece of code in your web page, or blog. Check out the Bangalore Bloggers Meet page for an example.
What are you waiting for, now spice up your web page with all those things that you wanted to have.
What do you think of this Tutorial? If you have any issue with technology, let me know. I will try to help you with a step by step process if I know, else will point your to people who can help you.
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iPhone for Geeks and Not so Geeks
I don't want to post on iPhone. It is ubiquitous on internet long before Steve Jobs said, that it was coming.Check out iPhone trends on Google Trends. By now, You must have got pretty much lot of versions on what is good and what is bad about iPhone. So what is new that will come here. Nothing!!
Don't you leave, I would not post this, if that were the case.
Check out the "iPhone in Depth: Ars Review". If you are wondering what Ars is, it is one of the few sites that I read daily. They have some great technical content and most of the posts rate very high on content quality. In this review they present a detailed review of iPhone and it's features. A must for all those who want to know this 2007 wonder. It is also a nice lesson in the thoroughness of a product review. If you ask me it is time worth spent to read the 11 page review. Some good quality videos also accompany the review.
The topics covered are as follows:
"
- Introduction
Unboxing
Size Comparison- Activation
- Syncing
- General usage
Restoring
Settings
Screen Sensor
Accelerometer- The Keyboard
EDGE
Safari on the iPhone
E-mail
SMS
Google Maps
YouTube
Other widgets
iPhone as a phone Making calls
Call quality
Visual Voicemail
Volume concerns- iPod use
Miscellaneous Camera
Photos
Bluetooth
Calendar
Notes
Software- State of the Hacks
iPhone without AT&T
iPhone files system
No Apple TV here- Stress Testing Autopsy Conclusion
Update: Check out what Scooble's wife has to say about her iPhone.!!
[cRedits]
SileverSpider
Ars
Apple I 2 iPhone - The apple journey
iPhone is the buzz word these days. With a reported sales of about 700000 over 3 day weekend. It is lame to call it a run away success. You can find a lot about iPhone (Just Google it). The photo below speaks for itself. (Apple Form Factor Evolution).(Click on the picture for a larger image)
Source: Core 77 Design Blog
Mobile Webcam
Ok Folks, Hold on, I know I haven't been posting for almost a week. No excuses, I take all the blame.(Caught up with some personal work). Coming to some cool stuff, I came across this interesting stuff and am sure you will find it great.
[tHe sTory]
All of us have a mobile phone and most of us have a camera in it. It's a wonderful tool, take photos anytime anywhere and save it on to your system, upload to net and share it with friends and family. Now you have this nice idea of using camera in your mobile phone and do a video chat with your friend in the US of A.
You move to new house in Bangalore and want to show it to your parents.
That little kid of yours is never stable to pose before a webcam. So what is the answer for all this.
How do you do it? Read on...
[tHe pRoduct]
Let me present you wwigo (Webcam Where ever I Go), it's a new product from Motvik. The product idea is very cool. It makes your mobile phone with a camera into a webcam, using which you can video chat on some of your favorite clients (Skype, YM!, MSN etc). Currently it is available for most of the nokia series handsets. Hope they extend the support to other models too.
[tHe Buzz]
I just got to see this product today, haven't yet got to try it. (I don't use a Nokia!!). Any way I see a lot fo potential and usage and hacks too using this. Will post more details once I get to test it. If you have have had the chance to use it drop by a few words on your experience.
[tHe cOmpany]
Motvik is founded by Rajan about who is also the confounder of Momo Bangalore. I have talked about Momo Bangalore in an earlier post of mine here. I have interacted with Rajan over mail, he sounds like a pretty nice guy. More about Motvik and Rajan in the coming days.
ion: Made in India. Available only in India
[tHe pRoduct]
http://www.ion.co.in, As mentioned earlier "ion" is the name of the product(possibly also the company). The product a USB based iPod charger, which can also me used to charge any of the numerous other devices (which can be charged via USB). The advantages, no need to have a PC around to charge your device, you can use it in any remote place in India, can happily listen to your music which charging the device. Last but not the least it comes at just Rs. 399 (For those of you who count in $$, its under $10), isn't it great.[tHe sIte]
The homepage is simple and tells you just what ion is all about without any need to move around. They don't talk lot of things about themselves or try to obscure you with puzzles about the product. Bang on target they tell you what ion is all about and what its primary purpose is. No need to traverse multiple links to know the price of their product, It's right there on the first page.
To buy one you need to click on buy now which will take you through simple steps to fill in the mailing details. No registration required. You can pay via paypal or use your credit card as payment options. That is it. The people behind say that you will get the shipment in 2-3 days time.
The site has a Web1.0 look and feel about it. However, as I mentioned earlier they have laid out all the necessary information in a easy to find manner. The FAQ is detailed enough to answer most of the queries.
[aBout tHem]
This is one of the most interesting part, the founders are three young people in their early to mid tweens. Vikram, Niara, and Swaroop, all the three based out of Bangalore, India. Check out their about page for more information. Have a go at this blog post by Swaroop for some snippets about ion.
[iN mY eYes]
Definitely a small step towards something big. Though I haven't used the product, the confidence of these youngsters gives me a confidence that they are not here to take people for a ride, and hence belief that the product is good. (It's a dangerous thing in product review, so I will update this post once I check it myself).
At this point I am sure their hands are full with marketing the charger and meeting the sales and manufacturing requirements. What we have to look for is how they are going to handle the future. There are many challenges these folks face for the leap ahead
i) Challenge from other low cost manufacturers. I guess there is no innovative technology behind the charger, so any bigee who sees an opportunity may jump in.
ii) How long can they survive with the one product strategy, they have to move over to other products. Now what will those be, will these products have the same appeal as "ion", will they be as easy and economic to produce? Does the ion team have enough resources to get things out at a decent pace?
iii) I don't have an idea of their market at this point, but if they start growing they will need lot of moolah.
The second one is a serious concern in my opinion. If they get it right, it should not be difficult to get the other two in place. We will have to wait and see how the "ion" team take it into the future.
[tHe eNd]
As I keep mentioning , it takes courage to do something different and these folks have demonstrated that they do have the courage. What they have done which not many I know have done is trying to solve a simple but pervasive problem. This approach is what gives me confidence that says watch them. For those of you who are just interested in a charger I recommend you to order one right away.
Buy a Handmade Robot with Wii Mobile
Etsy.com, its so cute. Just check out their concept very simple, its a place for people like you and me who fiddle with things and make some other things out of them, to see those things. Pretty common, this is what e-bay does? Isn't it, Did you visit the site before you make a comment.
Etsy rates very high on the coolness, usability factors, and the way they have used technology to create some sexy ways of navigation. Check color, geolocator, treasury, connections , I am at loss to answer if creativity enhances technology or technology enhances creativity. Before I leave, check out the blog, the folks out there are simply amazing.Talk about creativity and the first thing that comes to my mind is what I am going to post here. These amazing photos are probably a big coincidence, but don't they tickle your grey cells for a few moments at the timing and remind you how some people are at the right place at the right time.
Now we will move on to some more mundane stuff. These days all the sites seem to follow one mantra, KISS (Keep It Short and Simple). Check out this site TELLME, a very clean concise, to the point information without all clutter, I usually associate with companies pre Web2.0. Not only that tellme, has come up with a cool applet for you mobiles to locate business, essentially doing what one used to do with 411.(Folks in US throw some light on 411, I am ignorant of what exactly it does).
For sometime we have been hearing a lot about Wii. It has created and continues to create ripples across the gamin world.
But, what sets Wii apart from other consoles is that it has broken into new areas which were traditionally inaccessible to gaming companies. Looks like it has awaken the dormant gamer in every one. One of the main reasons might be the ease of use, where even a small child could use it. The number of hacks making it into a laptop. People have come up with regimens to lose weight. Check out what Brendon Chase has to write about wiimote or the wii remote control.
On a closing note check this small little fellow called PLEN(any Japanese to help me translate the site). According to crunchgear its a humanoid robot that can roller skate around a hard surface. This little fellow also comes equipped with blue tooth and a not so remote possibility of being controlled by your blue tooth mobile phone.Its time of cool, sexy stuff. Small is definitely the in thing!
And now can you make out what the title means?
iPhone, My God!
I just wrote a while ago on Techno Whiz a blog titled "iPhone and New World Order". No Sooner I did that, I got to see this video on YouTube. Watch the video.
Need I say more.
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