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Over four days in January, those who shape the future gather in Las Vegas. Here, brands, markets and economies are built in what’s far more than a tradeshow. And in 2014, there’s more opportunity than ever to get in front of those who matter. The only question is why wouldn’t you be here?
ReseRve youR futuRe now
Las Vegas Convention and World Trade Center | Las Vegas Hotel & Casino | The Venetian January 7-10, 2014 | Las Vegas, Nevada | Cesweb.org 2 I EXHIBIT I JUNE 2013
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115 Stunning Women In Tech Some women make heads turn wherever they go. Especially in the world of tech. But how many such women do you know? We’ve got the most stunning of them all in a special feature that is tailor-made for those of you who complain that there are no good-looking women in tech!
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HYBRID GADGETS
Gadgets are evolving into multi-function devices that can be merged it one another and molded into 1 mutant of a gadget! If you don’t believe us, or think that we’re talking about some X-files episode, then turn over to this article and up your tech quotient!
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Tech Seduction
A gadget can be a man’s best friend. More than a woman can ever understand. Wanna know how? This is the perfect article for you, as we’re sure we have already intrigued you with this teaser. So, don’t wait around - turn on over and start reading it now!
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Shutterbug: Abstract Photography
Our regular feature on photography this month takes a look at some of the most abstract ways in which you can look at your subject and click away at images using the subject and lighting as inspiration. This is of course a stepping stone, as once you learn the art - you become the master yourself!
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Gaming Buying Guide
Gamer’s rejoice! After our successful reception of previous Buying Guides, we’ve now got an excellent Buying Guide for all you gamer’s who don’t know what to look for and what really matters when making those crucial decisions. Learn about not just consoles, but the various components that can help your PC turn into a Gaming PC too.
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Sports Icon Sachin Tendulkar
By the time we finished the issue, Mumbai Indians had been crowned champions of IPL 2013. It’s just another feather in his amazing cap, that has already seen the 50-over World Cup and many many personal feats along the 20+ years he’s been playing. Most of our young readers were probably not even born when he made his debut in 1989. Enough said.
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Success Diary: Hermes
Hermes might not ring a bell to you, if you haven’t been to the uber-chic stores which have only the best and most expensive products on offer. The brand that started out in Paris, is now spawned into a multi-billion dollar industry with legions of fans and admirers the world over. If you ever wanted to know how they got to the place where they are today, then here is the chance you’ve always waited for!
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Superbikes On Our Roads
Continuing on our series of luxury and high-end automobiles on Indian roads, we’ve got some amazing bikes that you can look and drool over. Not just the mean hulky one’s but also the lean and super-fast, we’ve got something for everything. Maybe you will find the one you love and own, right here.
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Expose - Bitcoin
The Bitcoin phenomenon is gathering momentum worldwide, but do you really know what it is all about? Just calling it an alternative to the monetary system dominated by our central banking system is not enough - take a deep dive and really understand how it works and if it really is the way forward to managing our money.
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Watches for Outdoor Travel
The adventurer in most people doesn’t look at the weather to plan his travel - and watches for such spirited individuals should be as rugged, yet classy, as they are. We’ve searched high and low and come with a great compilation of watches to suit every kind of taste, so if you pick one while going through this article - make sure you give us a shotout later!
Corrigendum: Vishal Dhupar’s interview in our May issue incorrectly stated him quoting Intel as being responsible for NASA’s role in the MARS Mission. It should have been Nvidia. The incovenience is regretted.
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W
hat you see on the right hand side page is our extended digital avataar, describing our core DNA in two little words –The Techy. And with that all the limitations of our printed glossy magazine are answered in one breath. It has taken us months to shape it up and a lot of deep thinking, black coffees and full house brain storming, right from the domain name to the end product. With May being our 8th Anniversary, we wanted to bring to you and give the readers something which you can consume and connect 24x7 in real time and with the 1st issue of our 9th year, we have thetechy.com ready to join us in the party.
Yes we are right in the middle of the year and we have had 6 months gone and 6 months ahead. Some exciting new developments are on the fore. Google’s I/O conference wasn’t as exciting as we had hoped it to be, nor did they come out with any big announcements for the Google Glass project. Microsoft was next in news, with a sneak preview of their next Xbox console - simply called ‘One’ (wonder where they got this naming standard from). With a rather awkward looking build, the Xbox One might not go done well from a design point of view - but we’ll wait and see if the fight for gaming console dominance is won by the Redmond giants or the Japanese - when they finally launch their PS4. As always, it’s quite fascinating to see how technology has kept changing - and how manufacturers are not only keeping the needs of various users in mind - but also adding some innovative ideas of their own which have truly enriched the overall user experience. With weather-proof, shock-proof and all kinds of proofing baked into our gadgets, it’s really hard to break them these days. After the Top 100 Tech Indians Globally, we decided to go hunting and pick the 10 most stunning women from the world of Tech, hear it from them and decide it for yourself whether you like her more for being techy or just for being herself - stunning. For the gaming freaks we usually do bring a lot in every issue but we decided to start from the basics and play up from there - Gaming Guide, an elaboration of the essentials while buying games. After all, you earn your victory and we are going to tell you how! So many new things to conquer, very less time but just one life. So have to fit it all in just this one. As I always say, what will define your success is not your altitude but your attitude. Keep the right attitude, wear your nicest smile and keep walking. Johnnie Walker, you got me there! Until next time, stay energetic, run like three cops are chasing you and pause when you see the sunrise and an internet connection and log on to thetechy.com . Stay blessed. CIAO.
Ramesh Somani
Chief Editor & Publisher
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Publisher & Chief Editor RAMESH SOMANI EDITORIAL Deputy Editor Chaitanya Tapase (editdesk@exhibit.co.in) Content Team Garvita Sharma (edit-team@exhibit.co.in) Karishma Mody (editorial@exhibit.co.in) Contributing Editors Christophe Brisset, Ipsit Roy, Ronnie Ganguly, Om Malik, Sanjoy Alexander, Tom Clark, Akash Das, Tushar Kanwar, Nimish Dubey Consulting Editor N.K. Goyal (Govt. of India - Chairman, Emeritus TEMA)
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PECT
LAUNCHES OF Sony Xperia Tablet Z
BenQ XL2411T
Micromax Canvas Music A88
Following on the heels of the Sony Xperia Z smartphone, the Japanese company is all set to launch the Tablet version by the same name. While Sony Xperia Z was available almost immediately after the launch, there was no sign of the Sony Xperia Tablet Z, till now that is. Though Sony is yet to confirm the official availability, the tablet is up for pre-orders on most e-commerce sites. The device is expected to ship by the time you will be reading this magazine. There will be 2 basic versions of the website depending on the internal memory and 3G. The 16 GB variant is expected to be 3G compatible while the 32 GB internal memory tablet will most probably be a Wi-Fi only version. Strangely, both the tablets come with the same price tag of `44,990. Though both price seems a bit steep, the tablet does come with some amazing features and specifications to justify the price.
BenQ are trying hard to capture the monitor market with one great launch after another. The latest in the line-up is the XL2411T. The 24 inch gaming monitor features 1920x1080 resolution, true 120Hz support for NVIDIA’s 3D Vision 2 technology, 1ms GtG response time, 1000:1 native contrast ratio, 170/160 viewing angle capability, D-sub / DVI-DL / HDMI x 1 / headphone jack connectors with Black eQualizer colour technology to help improve picture detail in dark image. The XL Series models are co-developed by various R&D partnerships with the core product developers and masterminds of gaming industry worldwide. The FPS Mode featured in XL2411T let players tap into the fundamental insights of pro gamers and view the game how a gaming legend would see it. This feature automatically adjusts monitor calibrations to provide users with optimal brightness, contrast, sharpness and colour tint. The new XL 2411T is available at a MRP of `22,500 across India.
Riding on the success of their Canvas A116 HD smartphone, the company has launched a music-centric smartphone that comes bundled with a pair of JBL tempo headset. The entire package promises superior sound entertainment on the go. Packed with an 1800 mAh battery, the phone ensures a strong battery life supporting a talk time of 5 hours. With a 4.5� full touch screen display; the phone sports a 5.0 MP rear camera with Flash and a 0.3MP front camera with an expandable storage capacity of up to 32GB. Based on the latest Android version, Jelly Bean (v4.1) the A88 has a 1GHz dual-core processor coupled with 512MB of RAM. There is 4GB of internal memory (only 1.93GB is available to the user, though) and a memory card slot that can support up to 32GB of extra storage space. With a MOP of `8499/-, the Canvas Music A88 is now available across all major retailers across India.
`8,499
`22,500 `44,990
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THE MONTH Sennheiser Gaming Headsets Audio major Sennheiser wants gamers to beat the summer heat by enjoying an immersive gaming experience on their new line of products. They have launched not 1, not 2 - but 4 different gaming headsets across a range of prices. The Sennheiser PC 350 Special Edition and the PC 363D Surround Sound Gaming Headsets. Sennheiser also launches their first multi-platform headset- the U 320, that is set to conquer all gaming platforms across India. The new Sennheiser PC 350 Special Edition and the PC 363D Surround Sound Gaming Headsets are made to cater to the most demanding needs of the quality-conscious gamers, who seek nothing but the best experience, gaming sound. Aimed at entry-level gamers, the PC 310 comes with great Sennheiser sound, a noise cancelling microphone and very soft, open-acoustic ear cups – all made in a timeless design and with a retail price that’s hard to beat. PC 350 is priced at `19,990 PC 363D is priced at `23,990 U320 is priced at `11,990 PC 310 is priced at `4490
iBall Q703
Asus P1801
Indian manufacturer iBall has added a new tablet to its portfolio with the launch of the Slide Q9703 for `15,999. Despite the relatively low price tag, the tablet boasts specs like a 1.2GHz quad-core processor alongside an octa-core GPU and 2GB of RAM. All that processing power means even the most intensive apps and games should run smoothly. Games and multimedia content should look fantastic on the 9.7-inch display. That’s because the HD IPS display sports a stunning resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels, putting it in the “Retina” class of displays. It also means you get a super-dense display thanks to a pixel density of 264 ppi.
Asus’s exciting dual-booting Transformer AiO P1801 touchscreen all-in-one (AIO) has been officially launched in India. The PC-tablet combo will start shipping for Rs 86,999 for the model with the Core i3 processor, while the Core i5 processor-toting model will set you back by `92,999. Despite it being a tablet-PC combo, the P1801 is meant to be used as a home device and is certainly not as portable as other slates. The first Transformer system of its kind, it’s an 18.4-inch full HD 1920 x 1080-pixel multi-touch display docked onto a stand. When docked, the AiO is a Windows 8 PC, complete with dual-core (or quad-core) Intel Ivy Bridge CPUs. But remove it from the dock and it turns into an Android tablet!
`15,999 `92,999
`23,990
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Your HEART is the new battery for your pacemaker. Read to believe…
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acemakers are nothing new. They have been saving hearts from decades back. The world’s first artificial pacemaker was put on a man named Gerardo Flórez back in 1958. Flórez then 70 years old, went on to live for another 18 years with the help of the pacemaker.
Pacemakers basically use electrical impulses to regulate the beating of a heart. However doctors would really love to get rid of the batteries that are there in the pacemakers. Even the best modern pacemakers eventually run out after 7-10 years and the patient then has to get another operation done to get a replacement installed. The entire process can be quite expensive and might also lead to infections on the patient. Researchers have come up with one innovative new approach which delivers the energy to the pacemaker wirelessly. Some of these designs uses an external pacemaker which wirelessly stimulates an electrode instilled in the heart. There is another possibility which has come up, that uses natural processes happening inside the patient’s body to scavenge the necessary energy. Experts have been working on this for a while and now with the help of a new approach a pacemaker has been developed which uses energy to power itself from the very heart it is working along. This approach basically relies on piezoelectric materials which produce a current when they are in contact with mechanical stress. In this approach the ‘mechanical stress’ is the vibrations occurring due to the beating of the heart. The heart rate too in the new approach is good enough, being around 20 to 600 beats per minute. This happens primarily because of a piezoelectric material and a magnet which is arranged in such a way that the magnetic field expands the piezoelectric material’s reply to the vibrations. This new approach developed by a doctor and his colleagues from the University of Michigan, produces 20 times the power required to keep the pacemaker ticking a normal heart rate. The other advantage it has that is smaller than even a battery pack. There have been tests on small animals like pigs that have responded well to this new invention. The next step would of course would be to use it on human heart. If all goes well it would definitely be a boon for troubled souls who have to undergo operations every few years to get new pacemakers installed. Words By Ipsit Roy
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Nokia Lumia 925
The Luminary In Making
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Specifications 4.5” AMOLED Capacitive touchscreen PureMotion HD+ ClearBlack display Windows Phone 8 Dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait Processor 16 GB internal storage, no microSD card support 1 GB RAM 8MP primary cam with dual-LED flash, 1080p @ 30fps 1.3MP secondary cam, 720p @ 30fps Adreno 225 GPU NFC and LTE support too
QuickFirstLook
With the good amount of success of the Nokia Lumia 920, the Finnish are gonna step up the ante and release a few new models with some amazing specs and performance. One of them is the Lumia 925, which was recently announced at a stellar London event. It’s similar to the Lumia 920 and also the newly announched Lumia 928 in that it packs an 8.7MP sensor with Optical Image Stabilization and f/2.0 aperture. The flash is a regular LED flash, no xenon here. So what extras does it have that really distinguishes it from the these two Lumias? Read on and find out.
UnderneathItAll
On the outside, there are some mixed reactions with the new Lumia baby. Rather than opt for an all-metal design though, the 925 has a polycarbonate back plate. It’s a shame not to see a single-piece metal construction. We’ve already seen this on the HTC One and iPhone 5, both of which are unquestionably stunning phones. Some of Nokia’s previous Lumias -- particularly the Lumia 920 -- boast single-piece bodies, albeit made from plastic, which do have a certain luxurious feel to them. If Nokia could have mimicked the slick, rounded body of the 920 in metal rather than plastic, I’d be extremely happy. The screen is 4.5” in diagonal and has WXGA resolution – that’s 768 x 1280. More importantly it’s an AMOLED with ClearBlack and Gorilla Glass 2, instead of an LCD. Unsurprisingly, the Qualcomm chipset of the Lumia 925 packs a dual-core Krait processor at 1.5GHz with 1GB of RAM, which is the best that WP8 currently supports. Not that it slouches or lags behind the quad-core competition of the Androids, in fact it can keep up just as well. As part of Nokia’s Lumia range of phones, the 925 will be running on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 software. Manufacturers can’t skin the operating system like they can with Android, so if you’ve used Window Phone before, you’ll find the same large, live tiles on the home screen with apps in a long list to the right. Nokia does throw in quite a few of its own apps including its Here Maps service -- that provides a wealth of local business information -- the turn-by-turn GPS satellite navigation service Here Drive, and various other bits and pieces too. Some of them are genuinely handy additions, but you can find the whole suite on even the budget Lumia 620, so if you just want to use Nokia’s services, you really don’t need to splash your cash on the 925. One thing you will need to bear in mind though is that the Windows Phone 8 app store is still very understocked. You can find the odd jewel -- Netflix, Spotify, and Skype are all available -- but many big titles are missing, and WP8 devices are generally at the end of the queue for receiving new apps. The 925 is powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core processor which -- surprise, surprise -- is the same engine that’s inside the 920 and 928. It’s easy to argue that Nokia needs to ramp up its processor if it wants to properly compete with the quad-core phones, but given that there’s very little you can find in the Windows Phone store to tax a phone, it probably doesn’t need to.
CameraReduxed
Nokia preloaded the Lumia 925 with the Smart Camera app - it features several modes including burst mode (10 shots at 5MP), Best Shot (picks the best of the burst), Action Shot (Sequence shot on the HTC One, Drama shot on the Galaxy S4) and Motion focus (adds motion blur to static objects, as if you’re tracking the moving object with the camera). You can also remove moving objects and pick the best face for each person.
EarlyJudgement
It might not look like much has been upgraded from the previous Lumia, but the changes in real world use will be quite different from what we read. In any case, the improved camera app might just take a step in the right direction - and I am certainly keen to see how video recording will perform in the improved stereo sound record feature.
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Appsfor
Women Ladies, do you want to get smarter and safer with a Smartphone? Enlisted are some apps that will make life hassle-free, safer and more fun. And in some cases, well, a little less awkward, too.
bad date rescue (for iPhone)
You thought he’ll get you a bouquet, speak to you about your hobbies, and intrigue you enough to well decide your next date. But the reverse happened. Instead, he came empty handed, speaking about his dog’s adventures and the next football match, and so, you just want to get rid of him. So what next, you wonder? Well, Bad Date Rescue App, comes to your rescue when you’re on a date you simply want to get rid of. Before you go out on a date, all you have to do is pre-set the app and with a quick rescue that can be triggered on the spot, the app will ring your cell within a few seconds or minutes. Users can pick up a number from their contacts and as set by the user, there is an automatic call. There are scripts available giving the reason for the call. Thus, without making the situation awkward, users can graciously leave the place.
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Circle of 6
(iPhone and Android)
In a sticky or dangerous situation? Circle of 6 comes to your aid! With this app, you can connect with your circle of 6 and stay safe to prevent any looming mishaps. Your circle includes your near and dear ones and they come to know in case you need any help. The app, in two touches, lets your circle know where you are and how they can help you. Icons in the app stand for actions and thus it’s not easy to figure out what you’re up to. Whenever you need help, it pings all six an alert message and gives them your GPS location.
Scream Alarm (Android)
Damini (Android)
Grocery Gadget
(iPhone, Android, Nokia) `165
iPregnancy (iPhone) - `164
This App derives its name from the brave heart, who lost her life after the unfortunate Delhi incident. A safety app, it helps users create a list of emergency contacts and sends an SOS SMS, whereby location information is sent at periodic intervals. Once opened, the app automatically starts recording and clips are emailed to everyone from the emergency contacts. These clips are also saved on Cloud service and an SMS with the link to these videos is sent out. Thus, even if the phone is lost, broken or destroyed in this while, the information can be retrieved easily.
Writing your grocery lists and striking them off must be a norm for many of us. Forgetting the same while off for shopping would be an even more common phenomenon. With Grocery Gadget, you can easily get rid of all these lists forever! The app helps you save time by preparing and managing reusable lists. The items in the list can be arranged in the same way they’re kept at home thereby easily marking them for purchase.
Some of CAN’T shout out loud even when it is required. Thus, for the latter, the scream alarm does the needful. So now, while you’re travelling alone and think that someone’s following you and may pose as a threat, all you have to do is Push the button for making the phone scream loudly and a woaman’s voice will alert those around. Needless to say, this can be used for fun, too.
Keeping a track of your pregnancy was never this cool and easy! For the eager and inquisitive parents, iPregnancy helps them keep a track of the current gestational age, current trimester, time remaining until due date and so on. With features like 3-D ultrasound, photo of the baby at each week, the average length and weight of the baby can be known. The app also has a baby name picker! Makes us go awww!
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Lady Biz
(iPhone) - `219
Textalyzer
(iPhone and Android)
SMOOTHIE OPERATOR (iPhone and Android)
The forever multitasking women, trying to juggle too many things often miss out on the most vital things in their life. Lady Biz, the go-to app for women helps them keep a track of periods, cramps, exercise regime, vitamin intakes, fertile days, ovulation, OB/GYN appointments and records all health related information on your iOS device by giving you a journal to make notes. This app is truly great way to keep health excuses at bay!
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If you’re too lazy to have fruits then this might not be your thing, as this app requires you to put in a little more effort; but once on, this makes the mundane fruits a lot more exciting, healthy and fun. The Smoothie selector app helps you select fruits and makes for an eclectic offering. Smoothies help you lose weight, build muscles, replace meals, are health boosters and can also serve as desserts. The app includes complete nutritional information for every recipe it provides, including the protein, calorie, fat, carbohydrates and fiber content.
Pose
(iPhone and Android)
Ever come across situations where gulping down of too many drinks made you send a text you never intended to? And then again, have you cursed yourself for doing the same? Well, then here’s an app that will keep a check on you. To avoid any kind of embarrassment and regrets, Textalyzer helps you create a “Don’t Text” list that prevents you from texting anyone mentioned in the list unless you’ve completed a series of puzzle and mind tests. On failing to do the same, your text is saved for 12 hours before you can hit send. It’s just that no you always needed.
This one’s a dream app for every girl! A combo of Pinterest, Instagram and Fashion, this photo sharing app poses you with a series of question, decides on ‘your’ style and then suggests other fashion-forward users for you to follow. You can see what the trendsetters have in store for you join others and know what to wear and how to wear. You can ‘heart’ your favorite poses, share your favorite outfits, shop for the posted items that are tagged with the brand’s information. Words By Garvita Sharma
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3 books that talks future and technology and throws in great hope for future tech dreams The technology industry today is aided with its two most potent mix of youth and optimism which keeps it thriving. Three recently released books, the authors of two of those are consummate insiders; discuss how another new and stronger force which they are calling as power has been added to the technology industry.
1 2 3
The first book is To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism By Evgeny Morozov. Now Morozov is someone who through his earlier works has implied that technology is the perfect tool for repressive states to control the citizenry. His new book takes the point further. In ‘To Save Everything, Click Here’ Morozov technologists today are obsessed with data and hence ignore the qualitative and analytic thought. He believes that geeks cannot be allowed to rule the world as that is giving power to someone who does not know how to use it.
The second book Who Owns the Future? by Jaron Lanier who besides working for Microsoft has also got a side career as a musician. In his book Lanier argues that the tech industry instead of bringing in prosperity to the world is actually making the world poorer. He believes that due to advancement in communication and copying jobs in the field of music and writing have disappeared. Mr. Lanier also blames the architecture of the web for this problem. According to him the web users today exchange data for free services such as emails, social networks and search engines which favours big companies but ultimately it hurts the average folks who are not paid. A possible solution according to him is by having creators of data being paid handsomely and the users of information at the same time should be asked to pay for their usage.
The third book The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen tries to shift the debate from technology and takes it to the much wider issue of how technology interacts with power. The authors in this considered work show that if power is used diligently then it can of great use to mankind.
Our world has been kept in order by the impulses of the state and religion. These three books actually signal the arrival of a third force: power. Words By Ipsit Roy
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How Yahoo + Tumblr could be Brilliant
W
hen you read the headlines of a $1.1 billion merger with little revenue, you immediately start to have doubts. But, the real opportunity with this merger could be brilliant for both Companies, if they execute their vision correctly.
This not only makes Yahoo more relevant, it solves their growth (usage) issues, and creates a huge opportunity for real-time marketing to happen with data being their biggest currency. Yahoo needs to have a seat at the table in order to compete in a world that has become social. Facebook has it’s own network and Instagram, Twitter has its own network and Vine, and Google has Google+ and YouTube. This becomes Yahoo’s solution. Tumblr has an earned media model for Brands. Brands want more followers and more people to see their content. Similar to Facebook Ads (driving Likes and Sponsored Posts), if Yahoo were to inject Tumblr native ads onto its owned assets (Homepage, Mail, etc.) they essentially can allow brands to pay more money for distribution across its owned assets. On Yahoo’s Q1 earnings announcement, Yahoo reported: The Number of Ads Sold (excluding Korea) decreased approximately 7% compared to the first quarter of 2012. Price-per-Ad (excluding Korea) decreased approximately 2% compared to the first quarter of 2012.
Words By Gurbaksh Chahal Chairman & CEO of RadiumOne @gchahal
Tumblr Chief Executive David Karp and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer appear together at a news conference to announce Yahoo’s acquisition of the online blogging forum.
This helps solve the above problem, Marisa pointed out the combination of Tumblr [and] Yahoo! could grow Yahoo!’s audience by 50% to more than a billion monthly visitors, and could grow traffic by approximately 20%.” This purchase also allows Yahoo to sell to different types of advertisers. As Ad Exchanger notes, “Whereas Yahoo is known for its strength in finance, news, and sports, Tumblr is a hotbed of fashion, design, architecture, and art, she said. So the profile data Yahoo uses to reach Tumblr users across websites and devices may be linked to related advertising categories.” Also, Tumblr is just as much of a mobile property as it is a display property. Tumblr’s ability to help Yahoo ramp up its mobile story could generate enormous growth for shareholders in a world that is becoming mobile. Include the first party data it can transport onto mobile, and you have a great story to sell to brands. We are living in a programmatic world. The world is headed toward a fully automated environment where you don’t just sell inventory, such as Yahoo Sports; you sell audiences. The opportunity here is not to sell ads on Tumblr; the opportunity is to marry and own the data that allows real-time marketing to happen. A user talks about a brand, and others chime in. Now, Yahoo has a great way to discover these conversations and retarget on these same users across its properties. Think about the idea of how social conversations can become signals for a brand to reach its customers throughout Yahoo and across the web (through Right Media). Is all of this worth $1.1 billion? Yes. In my view, through this acquisition, Yahoo is cementing its position as the place for advertisers to discover not just premium content but premium audiences. This deal makes Yahoo a must-buy. The challenge now will be for Yahoo to evolve its ad tech to take advantage of this opportunity.
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Razer Tiamat 7.1 Gaming Headset
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he name of the game has been taken from a Middle Eastern dragon which represents the essence of chaos and power. The game ideally lives up to the name. The Razer Tiamat 7.1 Gaming Headset is a gaming headset of magnanimous proportions. The box in which it comes in is absolutely majestic and the gear looks enormous at first glance. The looks are undoubtedly unconventionally good and hence perhaps some might not mind paying a rather expensive Rs. 16,399 for it. So then why is it so expensive one might ask? What special qualities does it offer? For one The Razer Tiamat comes with ten distinct drivers with it which also includes a pair of subwoofers that works together to produce perfect 7.1 channel audio.
However it not all hunky dory with this headset. A major flaw in it is its sound which is mightily disappointing. Music when in stereo mode lacks details and the bass is very turbid and vague. The positional accuracy of The Razer Tiamat is quite good though it cannot be called as anything impressive. There are better products for this in the market. Hence what makes up for the cool design and outlook completely drowns with its appalling sound. Thus it becomes clear that the makers of The Razer Tiamat were hell bent on good looks, showing of its ten drivers for the price of two and did not do enough work on its sound structure. For the astonishingly high price it is being offered at its performance is horrendously low. Unless you are a real sucker for 7.1 portable audio you would be wise enough to give The Razer Tiamat a miss.
Words By Ipsit Roy
The look of The Razer Tiamat is as funky as it gets and you would actually get to feel it was worth every buck you spent on it when you actually get to hold it in your hands. Yes. It does look damn expensive as well. This is thanks primarily to the layers of faux leather stretched onto the massive ear cups and another layer of padding on the self-adjusting headband.
The overall plastic quality of the headset is very impressive. The plastic adds to the lightweight and hence when combined with the luxurious padding it has, The Razer Tiamat is a pleasure to wear. People who have used it have found it comfortable to wear even after hours at end and that is a remarkable achievement for a gigantic headset with ten drivers.
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Alter ego on wheels…
Sorry did you say Robots???
O By Ipsit Roy
KAY HERE’S THE BRIEF —A new technology is helping to overcome the shortcomings that are inherent in videoconferencing. The technology which is known as “Robotic telepresence” lets people to move virtually through a distant building while controlling a wheeled robot via a remote. The robot would have a camera, microphone, loudspeaker and a screen which would display the face of its pilot. It must be noted that these telepresence robots can never match the audio-visual exactitude of a large-screen video installation. But the thing that makes these robots better and unique is that they cost lesser and are much more flexible. Unlike its predecessor which has to be limited in a room and a specific time, these robots give their pilots the freedom to communicate with anybody located in any part of the world. People who have already used this technology have only positive feedback to give on it. According to them by using this technology you can enhance your contacts and increase your authority and influence. Many new start-up firms are developing new telepresence robots and have found that their sales are growing and the costs are falling. However, telepresence robots are not just limited to office goers and can be used by the common man in their day to day use. People who want to buy homes can tour distant properties virtually, doctors can monitor their patients from afar and it is also a cheap and nominal way of patrolling workplaces at night. Telepresence robots are a real hit among the doctors and some of them have used these robots to visit gunshot and bombing survivors. The main concern in this technology is not just the cost but also its wider acceptability. The other is security; having a robot running over institutions raises questions of corporate security. Another curious problem might be that many might take the telepresence robots’ appearance as fatuous. On another note, engineers are still trying hard to ascertain the screen sizes for these telepresence robots which have to be more conservation friendly. Another issue for them is to figure out the best height and ideal size of the robots. Howsoever beneficial these robots will eventually be, only time will tell. For now the next step in telepresence robots would be to give them limbs so as to make them more expressive. The idea is to make these robots more human and thus make them more acceptable; not as machines but more as friends.
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The Desi Hippies on Tech & Lifestyle!
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f you’ve not heard of the Designer Hippies - brother duo of Romeo and Deepesh Sharma, then this would be a good time to get yourself acquainted! Romeo and Deepesh, known as “Designer Hippies” have been creating magic nationally as well as internationally. Not many people know, that Designer Hippies are the first Indian / International artists to break ground in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia & Seoul, Korea.
On the international platform, they have been welcomed with open arms at parties in Australia, UK, Mauritius, Thailand (Koh-Phangan at the Full Moon festival for 60 thousand people & Half Moon Festival recently in 2011) Portugal (at the Visions Festival, Lisbon 2011). They garnered numerous accolades for their performance at Sunburn Festival, Goa in 2007. They have been regularly performing at the sunburn after parties. Last year they performed at INIDA RESORT FASHION WEEK in Goa along with other International artists like PARIS HILTON, DMITRI VEGAS AND LIKE MIKE, DAVID MORALES, ROBBIE REVIERA, CHICANE and many more. After the success of Designer Hippies and Family Part 1, Designer Hippies is coming up with 2nd Electronic Progressive Part 2 which is releasing in May. Deepesh Sharma is currently working on his side project called “Mr Right” which is Progressive Music and has been gaining popularity amongst the audience. After playing the negative role in Dabangg, Romeo is now shooting for a Punjabi movie “Yaar Mera Rab Warga” in a negative lead. So, we caught up with this HIP duo to find out their views on ... what else.. Tech & Lifestyle! Here’s a quick summary of that interaction -
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As Indian musicians you’ll have played a considerable amount overseas. What have been your most memorable gigs till date?
Every gig is memorable but something that was truly beautiful was Portugal, Lisbon – at the Vision’s Festival, it was a 3 day non stop festival, every one was living out of tents and house on wheels. The gathering made everyone FEEL TRULY ONE. What equipment do you use to create music and how big a role does technology play in producing the kind of music you’ll play?
We use music producing software called LOGIC 9, which is installed on our laptop (MAC BOOK PRO) it is connected with a sound card (motu ultra lite) and synthesizer. Technology is one of the main reason our music is where it is today. What’s the soul behind Designer Hippies and initial idea behind the collaboration of the sibling duo?
Soul behind DH is one love for music; we are brothers & we were blessed to be collaborated by birth. As artists you’ll are entitled to your own opinions. Does that get in the way of your music, with the added qualm of sibling rivalry?
Deepesh: Haha well to be honest.. Years of experience is what makes Romeo a better musician so, when Romeo is sitting in the studio I’m always the one to keep going with his story. Whatever I have learnt till date is because of him. Romeo: Ok then you guys must come down to our studio to see what a big critic he is and when there is a certain loop or baseline, which he does not like. It is slyly changed even before I know it. While creating a Band, the specifics are in the “name”. What’s the story behind “Designer Hippies”?
There were hippies and then there are THE DESIGNER HIPPIES, we took few things from the hippies and collaborated few things from us & came up with the name, but the base motto is the same - one love & peace hence making people happy with our MUSIC. With Deepesh’s independent project and Romeo’s acting commitments, how
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does this duo still manage to keep the music alive?
Deepesh: My independent project is my script which I’m done writing and would be soon directing if all goes well. Apart from that is my solo project “Mr Right” which has a lot of added elements by Romeo. There are times when Romeo is busy shooting which he is at the moment for his Punjabi movie but the love and passion for music always keeps us together and in sync. How does technology help you to stay connected to your fans and expand your reach as musicians?
Thanks to the social media. Friendly portals and cellphones equipped with all the apps has made it very easy to be in sync with your fans. Be it information on our performances, tickets or a live pic/video from the party, I guess anyone who is missing being in the same city or country that we are playing in would definitely enjoy this instant update. What horizons does “Designer Hippies” want to surpass and where is the music going to be 5 years from now?
We plan to take designer hippies to more countries. We want everyone to connect to our music, not just the youth but elders and kids.. We are also getting into different genres of music such as ambient, progressive & minimal tech....soon we are working on forming a band. With the love and support of our music lovers we are sure to achieve all this in less than 5 years. What’s in the immediate future for “Designer Hippies”?
We have our second EP releasing called “ Designer Hippies & Family part 2” , Also heading towards completion Is our ALBUM + we have many single’s Releasing shortly with POINT, MAD MAX, Pixel & also MR RIGHT project + Spankers Project. What are your favorite apps related to music? What’s the one gadget you cannot do without?
Music app: iTunes, Pod works, Traktor Gadget: Laptop & I would be lying if I don’t mention my cell phone haha!
TECH QUOTIENT WITH
Shibani Kashyap
Singer/Actor
(Shibani’s twitter handle is @shibanikashyap)
On a scale of 1 to 10, how tech savvy are you? (1 being the least tech savvy) 8 A gadget which is with you 24*7? My cellphones Samsung and Blackberry and my Galaxy Tab Any technology you would like to invent? Yes a machine which tells you the truth and what’s up on everyone’s mind! Keeping in mind your profession, how helpful is technology and how does it blend into the picture? It’s extremely important… Thanks to new techniques used in our profession, I have been recording songs here for Pakistan and Australia and can easily send my songs without travelling. Your most used Mobile Apps are… BBM , Whatsapp, Viber and Skype. Facebook or Twitter? Both extremely important to me. Are you a Windows, Android or Mac loyalist? Android One gadget you wish you could invent for luxury or convenience? A ready makeup and hair kit, so it will make me ready in no time and make my life easier. The next gadget/auto/technology you are going to invest in is? BMW 7 series Most tech-savvy person you know in your field? I guess most people are very tech savvy but I would want to make a special mention of Mr. Bachchan. Hats off to him! He adapts so well to the new technology at his age. I read his tweet every night and reply back. What’s next on work-front? My movie and my new song with Mika
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Morphing gets new radar
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Software to detect fabricated images
ack in July 2008, there were photos splashed across the media showing four Iranian test missiles blasting skywards. However as it later turned out, the picture was found to have been morphed. One of the missiles had been cloned and had appeared twice in the picture; apparently to hide the fact that the other one had failed to lift off from the ground. Over the years, Governments have been known to doctor photos for varied political reasons. But now thanks to the advancements in digital technology, image manipulation is getting available to the common man as well thus causing a hindrance in the ill-purposed use of photos anywhere. Many doctored or morphed photos are pretty obvious and easy to catch, but some are done very skillfully and might require the hiring of experts to uncover the truth. Some professionals of the media industry nowadays seven hire fulltime analysts to examine the submitted images that come their way. These analysts open the photos in Adobe Photoshop (a graphics editing program) and look minutely for any abnormality in the picture by the use of various display settings in the software. There are now efforts being made to automatically detect any morphing in a said picture which are thankfully coming good. A couple of years back, a start-up firm from Silicon Valley started selling an add-on feature for Photoshop called as FourMatch. The feature helps in the determining whether a particular photograph has been doctored with or has come straight from the camera. Another software made by a company in Prague has come forward in the last year which examines photos and looks for difference in its colour, encoding and compression formats which will ascertain if the photograph has been manipulated with by the use of any retouching software. These softwares are required desperately today if we need to curb down on the use of morphed images for unlawful and other unhealthy purposes. Experts say that it is the health insurance firms that need these more urgently as many clients these days use morphed images to make their injuries look more grievous than they actually are and claim more money. The best solution however as some experts claim is to separate the photographers from the photographs itself. However there is no denying that digital technology surely can curb the usage of photographs to be morphed for nefarious purposes.
Words By Ipsit Roy
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AWESOME FOURSOME OF THE MONTH
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LSTN Headphones The unique, eco-friendly headphones are made of reclaimed wood with acoustic properties that outperform synthetics. In addition to top-quality sound, each pair of LSTN Headphones sold helps restore hearing for a child in a deaf school. Now, there’s a product venture truly worthy of being called awesome for such a noble thought! What’s more, LSTN is also environmentally friendly – the company claims they aren’t out chopping down trees to create their products. The wood they use for their headphones is recycled - they reclaim exotic leftover scrap woods from furniture makers that would have been thrown in a landfill. All of the wood is legally harvested through licenses with local government. Nice! Not to forget the audio quality is delightful, not only because of the woody materials used - but also because of the excellent drivers and synthesisers involved.
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema A pocket-sized camera that uses SD cards and micro-four thirds lenses, the Pocket Cinema Camera produces digital film quality video with its Super 16 sensor, 13 stops of dynamic range and lossless 1080p recording. Wait, did I just say lossless quality in a compact body? Yes, it’s finally possible! The Super 16 sized sensor has an effective resolution of 1920 x 1080 and is capable of capturing 13 stops of dynamic range. The Pocket Cinema Camera records Full HD video in either the lossless CinemaDNG RAW or Apple ProRes 422 (HQ) format. The active Micro Four Thirds lens mount can accommodate a growing range of MFT format lenses as well as a host of excellent legacy lenses via optional adapters. Blackmagic Design has packed all of these impressive features into a remarkably compact (5 x 2.6 x 1.5”) and lightweight (12.5 oz) magnesium alloy chassis. Of course they might cost a bomb initially, but with a few years of mass production behind them, it’ll be worth the dough you spend on it!
100 proof Charging PowerFlask Remember those flasks in the old western movies? Well, a company called DigitalPower has come up with their own digital flask - that lets you, well, not drink from it - but feed your power hungry devices. Confused? Well we’re sure you find it bloody annoying trying to keep track of all the damn power adapters to charge the iPad, MacBook, the wife’s Galaxy Note 2, my iPhone 5, the Canon Powershot. And even if you somehow managed to remember bringing them all, you need a whole other dopp bag for it. So why not have a flask shaped power charger for all of these devices? This 13000 mAh lithium battery gives you a straight shot of power letting you charge three gadgets at the same time all wrapped in textured bicast leather PowerFlask with contrast red stitching and polished chrome that won’t go out of place on a classy yacht weekend either.
Six Shooter Outlaw Shave Brush This isn’t technically a gadget, but it is awesome to the nth degree! Wethinks this makes the whole art of shaving a whole lot manlier than it already is, with such a fine eye to detail - the shaving set comes with a hand crafted anodised aluminium revolver body where you can dismount the soft and luxurious badger hair shave brush head for cleaning or replacement. The .44 mag casings aren’t removable of course but every attention has been paid to authenticity. There’s a PVD black version too for you stealth types. All the cowboys out there (real or otherwise), this is the perfect tool that you’ve been waiting for - and we’re sure you can’t wait to get your hands on one of these! So how much would such an awesome gadget set you back? A cool $149 only! Now that’ll be one heck of an expensive shave, but with a manly tool if there ever was one!
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LSTN Headphones
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema
Six Shooter Outlaw Shave Brush
100 proof Charging PowerFlask
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Cars.. Shine.. GLORY.. SALES.. BOOM!!!NG
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ver the years cars have evolved from being a status symbol to being more of a necessity these days. But the costs that one has to incur in buying them are not helping the overall growth sales of cars around the globe. Even the battery powered cars which were supposed to have been the ideal solution to solve the pollution problem have been a massive flop thus far. So is the motor industry slowly going down? Experts feel otherwise.
Motor sales in Japan have been stagnant for a while and it is highly unlikely that they would rise in Europe. But in America car sales over the years have shown a considerable jump. Even in China and other markets the jump in car sales is likely to continue in the future. Experts have predicted that the global demands for cars would increase manifold by the year 2020. China it seems is more worried about producing champion companions which can take on noted global car makers. However, experts say it would be more prudent if it can take some cue from countries like Britain and Russia. All these countries care about the thriving business and the well-paid work they produce rather than the nationality of the
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car owners. That should be the ideal way to follow for others too. Makers of upmarket high performance vehicles will always benefit as there will be always people in different countries willing to spend a fortune on fancy cars. It is the mass-market car makers who have to be on their toes as a lot of companies are being built regularly which is leading to intense competition and eventually to price-cutting. While the renowned car companies will surge ahead of the pack, the lesser known would probably have to make alliances to survive. Hence the motor industry has to be treated with utmost caution as an investment however its engineering and environmental qualities are surging. It is a win-win situation for the customers because with improved manufacturing the bigger manufacturers would be able to offer a varied and vast range of improved models. The cut-throat completion will keep the prices in check aided with new and improved technology for the cars. The cars would also become cleaner and fuel efficient thus more economical. We can thus hope that in the coming years the future of cars would only be better and the emerging markets would generate enough demand to keep the motor industry booming for decades to come. Words By Ipsit Roy
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Underwood’s Journey to Dropbox
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entry Underwood would have not anticipated that a simple conversation of integrating Dropbox into Mailbox would eventually become a project of acquisition. Let’s get you introduced to the man who sold a month old application to Dropbox for a whopping $100M. Gentry is a designer and entrepreneur who has a passion for creating simple products that help people work together. He co-founded Mailbox, now a part of Dropbox, where he continues to build the mobile inbox that puts email in its place. Before Mailbox, Gentry led IDEO’s Knowledge Sharing domain and the creation of IDEO’s TUBE, an award-winning social intranet. Mailbox was definitely an overnight success, with hundreds of thousands of users signing up to be a part of its waiting
list. But the quick adoption of the application only came after the team behind it spent years developing and iterating on a productivity app called Orchestra. The road to Mailbox, he said, came as the start-up realized that the idea of the to-do list was fundamentally broken. Instead of helping users to organize tasks, they inevitably became a nagging reminder of things people hadn’t yet accomplished. “Everybody fills up to-do lists with things to do, and that’s a great moment because you’re getting your life organized. The more people use them, the more they get full of stuff that never gets done.” – He said. Mailbox gives people simple, easy tools to perform email triage. It lets you quickly swipe to archive, delete or file messages or add them to lists “to read” or “to buy.” You can also “snooze” an email. It disappears from your inbox and comes back later that day, on the weekend or the following week. One of most addictive parts of Mailbox is achieving “inbox zero.” Underwood said 30% of Mailbox users empty their inboxes every week. They
are rewarded with the message: “You’re all done” and a photograph that conveys a Zenlike peace of mind. Mailbox came up with an unusual system to make sure the app didn’t crash under the weight of all the new users. When you download the app, you don’t get it right away, instead you make a reservation. A countdown lets you see how many people are in front of you and how many behind you — but not how long you will have to wait. You get a push notification when your Mailbox is ready. More than mailbox becoming a smash hit itself; it seems destined for acquisition by Google or by Apple to make a big jump in its email usability. More than 100 million people use San Francisco-based Dropbox to store digital photos, documents, or videos in the Internet ‘cloud’ with the ability to access online from any computers, according to Mailbox. The app’s most significant downside was that it only works for people who own an iPhone and use Gmail as their email service. While it’s possible to have non-Gmail accounts forward to single Gmail account, not everyone, for various reasons, will be willing to do that.
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Samsung Galaxy S4: 10 Reasons to stay happy if you can’t afford it!
STOP
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Looks matter With an uninspired look which is oh-so-similar to the Galaxy S3, there is really nothing upgraded in the cosmetics of the S4. When the S4 was about to unveiled, the whole world was speculating widely on what it would look like, what crazy innovations could Samsung introduce in it - but what a disappointment it was when it came out looking like a slightly modified S3! Câ&#x20AC;&#x2122;mon Samsung - we expected better from you!
Not the brightest display Though the device comes with whooping 5 inches display with competitive resolution but despite that, the performance of the display outside in bright day light is certainly not jaw dropping. In fact it looks dimmer compare to other smartphones with same hardware and in this price bracket, or even in lower price range available in the market.
No dedicated camera shutter key S4 does not contain a dedicated key for camera. We at least expected it in a high end phone like S4. Again missing.
Battery could be an issue As we all know that smartphones are not so smart when it comes to their battery performance, here too you could find the device fighting with the old same battery drain trouble. Also the power/lock button is placed as such (on the side panel) that device easily gets light up (while tossed around in pocket or purse) and suck the battery down without letting you aware of it.
Hardware more or less the same Again the hardware of the phone more or less has same to offer to its users. So if you already have an S3 then be happy with it because literally you are not missing much by not buying an S4. In real-world use, the octa-core isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t that much faster than quad-cores of the high-end smartphone market, plus with many of the competing phones offering 2GB of RAM too, it really isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t heavily in favour of the S4.
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Plastic still rules Of late, Samsung has been criticized by tech pundits for delivering a plasticky, finger print sensitive and not so classy body to its smartphones. Those whose taste is not so plasticky (pun intended!) can definitely look for sensuous iphone 5 which comes with dazzling edges and classy feel or HTC ONE certainly. Innovation is seriously missing here.
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Bright day light photos not that impressive Samsung has offered a camera with better resolution in the phone but it failed to deliver the best quality of the shots taken in the bright sun light. Most comparisons with other high end smartphones have yielded a better result for the competition than for the S4.
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No weather sealing If you take your handheld device lightly and have a habit of dropping it every now and then here and there, then either make a distance from S4 or from water and dust while carrying S4 with you. I have a better option here to suggest, go for Xperia Z instead.
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Eye controlling gestures not so smart To control your handheld device just by looking at it and directing it with your peep is an excellent idea and exists in S4 but hang on. Do not build very high hopes from such features as they can work decently but not extraordinarily due to which you are planning to buy this phone. So think again.
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Price is steep, yes it is! Is the price of the S4 exorbitant? Well, it certainly is - but so is the pricing of most of the competition as well. If the price could have been bit lower then the other weaknesses of the device would have been little easier to ignore.
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For music, for posterity, for people, for me, for you, for all...
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t was with a college radio-programme in the 1990s that Lance Ledbetter’s interest in music took real birth. Since most of his listeners were from church he needed gospel songs to fill in the show but these songs were hard to get. It was after he approached some collectors that he finally laid hands on the music that he actually wanted to play. He also realized that what a big dearth there was on such music being easily available for everyone.
Thus took birth Mr. Ledbetter’s obsession of collecting all the rare gospel recordings that were out there. In 2003 he released a six disc collection out of which five were of music and one was of sermons. He named the collection “Goodbye, Babylon” and incidentally it went to garner two Grammy nominations as well. This then led to the foundation for the record label Dust-to-Digital - a specialist record label company run by Mr. Ledbetter and his wife and which has sold dozens of anthologies and other works over the past decade. The primary aim of the company is to dig out material which hasn’t been heard by common folks. They chiefly stick to gospels and folk music and sell it digitally i.e. CDs. The company’s most notable effort has been “Opika Pende” which has a collection of a 100 songs made on 78rpm records across the entire continent of Africa from 1909 to the 1960s. However the label does not just publish old materials but also recent ones as recently it released a set of field recordings from a Florida folklife project coming from the 1970s. There was also an album by an unconventional folk artist who had never ever been inside a recording studio. The company also has a non-profit orgainisation named ‘Music Memory’ the main goal of which is to digitalize the old and rare songs as much as possible. They do this by placing equipments in the homes of record holders who systematically process their own holdings. The company does face copyright protection issues which protects old songs up until the year 2067. However some latest reform efforts might actually succeed in putting the old songs right in the public domain. The Ledbetters though are unperturbed by these legal hassles and they are focused on their primary goal; which is to protect and bring old and forgotten songs of the yore to today’s public via the digital medium thus preserving them for eternity. Words By Ipsit Roy.
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HYBRID GADGETS By Chaitanya Tapase
UNDERSTANDING THEM What does the word ‘Hybrid’ mean? When I asked SIRI or Google Now, they pretty much came back with the same answer - a thing made by the combination of two (or more) elements. We’ve seen a few of these hybrid gadgets come up in the recent months, but they’ve mostly been laptops that can also be used as tablets. But are they all? Can we not except more such hybrid devices to be present? Of course, a computer and a smartphone essentially are hybrids - they’ve taken core functions from various devices and have seemingly integrated it all under one seamless device. So, if we look past the computing and telephony business - we get a few rather interesting and amusing gadgets as well. We can cover these one at a time, so let’s get to work already!
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Windows 8 Hybrids Windows decided to add the touch functionality to their latest OS and that really opened up a whole new spectrum for manufacturers to come up with really interesting products. Microsoft themselves were the first to exploit this, with the announcement and launch of the Surface a product that has seen reasonable success. But let’s look at some of the newer and more impressive contenders which have been launched in the market.
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Asus Taichi 31 Taking the Hybrid Windows 8 game to another level, is the Taiwanese computing manufacturer - Asus. They have always come up with really interesting products and the Taichi 31 is no different. Available in 13.3 inch form factor, the Taichi 31 has an interesting dual-screen feature that lets the person sitting in front of you also see what you are doing! Imagine the back of your laptop, which usually houses nothing but the brand logo - alive with presentations, videos and a whole lot more. The unusual bit, though, is that only the back panel screen is a touchscreen, whereas the primary one facing you at all times (in a standard notebook mode) is not. There is also quite a difference between the 2 screens themselves - with the backpanel display being slightly crisper than the primary. With a 16:9 aspect ratio, 1080p resolution and LED backlighting there is hardly any room for complains, and the test device we had was a i7 powered 256GB SSD Hybrid. There are various ways in which you can potentially use the 2-sided display system, but you really have to wonder why only the secondary screen is a touchscreen. Moreover, the whole device feels quite
FOR heavy (even though it weighs about 1.56kgs) once you fold the screen down into the tablet mode. Windows 8 doesn’t yet feel as intuitive and clean as an Android or iOS experience, hence it’s harder to really fall in love with this Taichi. The build quality is quite splendid though, and we especially loved the backlit keypad and excellent materials used to make the laptop hybrid. Even though the edges felt a bit too sharp, it still is just a minor gripe for the build. The connectivity is a bit hampered with only 2 USB ports, one on each side - but there is a micro-HDMI port and a mini VGA port too. Naturally, it does come with a SD card reader and a 3.5mm audio jack and there is Bang & Olufsen audio integration as well, something we’ve seen on quite a few Asus ultrabooks over the months. There is also a 5MP camera which does 1080p video too, but the quality of that was just about average.
Only one of the screens is touch-enabled. There are probably only a handful of situations where you’d need an outward-facing display. The Asus Taichi 31 offers a clever implementation of a dual-screen design in a slim Core i7 chassis.
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Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11 The Yoga 11 from Lenovo’s IdeaPad series is another hybrid that we’ve quite liked, and for all practical purposes - this is the quintessential hybrid that might define the category. The true beauty of the Yoga is when you bend the screen beyond its typical inclined position. The double hinge mechanism automatically disables the keyboard and trackpad once you fold the lid beyond 180 degrees. This second hinge then kicks in, allowing you to fold the laptop all the way around the back so that it becomes a tablet. Lenovo has pulled this off in spades and the hinges feel really strong and durable with absolutely no wobble. The Lenovo Yoga may look like a notebook from the outside, but it has all the makings of a tablet on the inside. Powering it is an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core SoC with a generous amount of 2GB RAM. Since this is ARM-based, Lenovo has had no choice but to go with Windows RT. Along with this, we have a 64GB SSD for storage, an 11.6-inch HD (1366 x 768) display, Wi-Fi ‘n’, Bluetooth and a 1MP front facing camera. Lenovo claims up to 13-hour battery life and we did manage to achieve something pretty close to it. Our test involved playing back an SD video clip with the brightness set to medium and Wi-Fi on. Here, we managed close to 11-hours, which is really good.
`61,000
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UPCOMING WIN 8 / ANDROID HYBRIDS
HP Slate X2
Asus Transformer AiO PC with dual OS Just when we were about to get done with our feature with hybrids, Asus surprised us all with the announcement of a new AiO PC. They launched Transformer All-in-One P1801 PC which features dual OS namely Windows 8 and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and comes with a detachable display that doubles up as a standalone tablet, in India.
$479*
The desktop station runs on Windows 8 platform, comes with a 3rd generation or 5th generation Intel Core desktop processor, an NVIDIA GeForce GT 730M graphics processor, a multi-touch display, and a dual-band Wi-Fi amongst other features.
*Indian price unavailable as yet
HP announced their latest Android tablet, one of the first devices to be powered by NVIDIA‘s Tegra 4 quad-core, and today we were able to get our hands all over it. It’s the new HP Slatebook x2 Transformer-like tablet running on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and coming to market in August.
The tablet comes with an 18.4-inch LED-backlit IPS full HD display offering 1080p resolution, an NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor and an Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. It also offers up to five hours of battery life and features a carrying handle and a folding stand for comfortable tabletop use away from the PC Station. The impressive part is that both the desktop and tablet mode running different OSes can be used individually at the same time. And one can easily switch between the OSes using a dedicated button for that. Apart from this, the Transformer AiO also features dual Wi-Fi mode and Asus’s SonicMaster audio technology.
Like many recent Android tablets, this doubles as a netbook as HP has a dedicated keyboard dock to transform this into a full laptop-like experience. Add in the NVIDIA Tegra 4 power, and you’ve got quite the device on your lap. With a 10.1-inch HD display, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, and the quad-core Tegra 4 processor under the hood the device should be pretty darn fast, stable, and powerful. Add in 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and the keyboard dock and you’ll have most the essentials for an Android slate. You’ll also get a micro-SD slot, HDMI-out, and much more. In addition to having a 1920 x 1200 full HD display, the dedicated keyboard dock gives you additional juice with a separate battery for longer usage. As well as another SD slot, this time full SD, for even more storage options.
`86,999
(Core i3 Model)
`92,999
(Core i5 Model)
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DIFF KINDS OF HYBRIDS
Excellent Performance, Built-in 1 TB NAS, Wireless backup, Instant Personal cloud creation with free apps for mobiles and tablets.
HDD can’t be replaced.
FOR
against
WD My Net N900 GPS navigators The promise: A user-friendly way to keep yourself on track, on or off road. (Source: Me) What it sits between: A map and a smart phone (in hindsight).
`11,685
Western Digital (WD) has come up with a rather unique offering with the My Net N900 Central, a device that is, most likely, the first of its kind. It’s a NAS device with a dual-band Wi-Fi router built in, which essentially allows users to stream their media from a 1TB storage device wirelessly to all their Wi-Fi-enabled devices. As a router, it is obviously more complex to set up as compared to other shortlisted products in this category (e.g. keyboard), but it’s fairly easy to start. The N900 comes with an optional CD installer, which is mostly for adding the WD SmartWare configuration and backup software. Once you set it up, you can appreciate the performance of the My Net N900. The web interface of this WD device is neat and simple to access. The router works well in two frequencies, 2.4GHz & 5.0GHz, which lets you utilize the bandwidth available to the most. The sheer range of features is also impressive, whether you’re talking about mobile access or configuring its various Wi-Fi settings. If you want to access the router storage remotely, you can do that with the help of cloud. For that, you need to install the “WD2GO” app, which is freely available in the Google and Apple store. The WD N900 also lets you set up a hotspot for guests where they can surf the Web and not have access to your files; you can easily filter out any inappropriate content. A feature called FastTrack divides up the bandwidth for multiple connections and prioritizes audio and video streams to ensure they run smoothly. Streaming of all the media works pretty well; even streaming HD media wirelessly runs smoothly.
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Why it fails: They’re behind the times. Technical limitations and the availability of similar experiences on other platforms make dedicated GPS navigators a device of the past for most users. In the age of smart phones, GPS navigators are more notable for their shortcomings than their functionality.
Other offenders Thank you, Samsung, for designing a product so ridiculous that I had to go be a jerk about it on the Internet. The Galaxy Note is only the most recent example of disappointing mid-point tech. While obsessing over its shortcomings, I noted other bad products that sit between two good technologies. iPad keyboard cases The promise: “The Kensington KeyFolio Expert is the perfect productivity on-the-go companion for new iPad to create content anywhere.” (Source: Kensington.com) What it sits between: A laptop and a tablet. Why it fails: Shoddiness and expense. Third-party accessory developers rarely produce hardware with the high level of fit and finish to match Apple’s own hardware. Many iPad keyboards or keyboard-case combos add a lot of ugly clutter to what is an otherwise elegant, even sexy, device. The best option may be to purchase a case that will integrate an Apple Wireless Keyboard, but then you’re adding a $150+ surcharge to a device that already costs $500 to $830. At that point, why not purchase a Macbook Air (starting at just $999 and cheaper refurbished) or other Ultrabook?
Publishing ECommerce OutdoorMedia Events SocialMedia CorporateVideo DigitalMedia InFilms
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By Chaitanya Tapase
I
magine the money that you keep in your wallet being obsolete? What if I told you that there is a way that technology can make that money redundant in the years to come? Don’t be so shocked. It can just happen over the years. But why do we need to have an alternate currency anyway? Let’s understand a few concepts about our existing money system to get a better idea.
Money Is Debt Where does money come from? You would think that question should be so simple that any 10-year-old child could answer it, but that is not the case. You see, the truth is that the vast majority of American adults cannot even answer that question. Yet we all use money every day. Without money our lives would fall apart fairly quickly. But most of us never stop to think about how it comes into existence. Let’s look at the large and complex example of one country to really stress this point -the United States. The truth is that bankers are the source of all money in the United States. Either the Federal Reserve bankers create it, or individual bankers create it through the mechanism of fractional reserve banking. In both cases, it is bankers that are creating the money. In our financial
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system, the U.S. government cannot print money and no individual citizens are allowed to create money. Rather, it is the bankers who have a complete and total monopoly on the creation of money in the United States. Most of the time, any money that is created comes into existence as debt. Either the U.S. government goes into more debt when it gets more dollars from the Federal Reserve or individual Americans go into more debt when they take out loans from individual banks. First, let’s examine what happens when the U.S. government gets more money from the Federal Reserve. Under our current system (which is fundamentally flawed), the U.S. government cannot just fire up the printing presses and print a bunch of dollars if it decides that more money needs to be produced. Rather, if the U.S. government needs more money it asks the Federal Reserve for it. So who is the Federal Reserve? Well, they are actually not part of the U.S. government. In fact, the Federal Reserve is about as “federal” as Federal Express is. The Federal Reserve is actually a privately-owned central bank that has been given
authority by the U.S. Congress to issues our currency, set our interest rates and essentially run our economy.
All U.S. government debt is created through the Federal Reserve system. When the government wants more money, the U.S. government swaps U.S. Treasury bonds for “Federal Reserve notes”, thus creating more government debt. Usually the money isn’t even printed up - most of the time it is just electronically credited to the government. The Federal Reserve creates these “Federal Reserve notes” out of thin air. These Federal Reserve notes are backed by nothing and have no intrinsic value of their own. The Federal Reserve then sells these U.S. Treasury bonds to investors, other nations (such as China) or sometimes they “sell” them back to themselves. In fact, the Federal Reserve has been gobbling up a whole lot of U.S. Treasuries lately. Some refer to this as “monetizing the debt”, but that is not quite an accurate statement. When the Federal Reserve creates money this way, it does not also create the money to pay the interest on the debt that has been created. Eventually this puts pressure on the U.S. government to borrow even more money to keep the game going. So what this creates is a spiral where the U.S. government must keep borrowing increasingly larger amounts of money, where the money supply is endlessly expanding and where the value of the U.S. dollar is destined to continue going down forever. This is not because of some big mistake. This is what the Federal Reserve system was designed to do. It was designed to trap the U.S. federal government (and by extension all American Citizens) in perpetual debt.
the $9 trillion figure. But still, the amount of money that the Federal Reserve just whipped up out of thin air and lent out to its friends at extremely low interest rates is absolutely mind blowing.
Enter: Alternative Currency The American example we explained above essentially is replicated the same way throughout the world in all the countries with any kind of a central bank, including ours. Before we turned to technology, there were dozens of economists who proposed all kinds of alternative currencies for the world. Gold was the most common solution, till Bitcoin came around.
Bitcoin Begins The project was started by programmer Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. But it has picked up steam during the past several months, in part because of some publicity around the project. Bitcoin also benefited a bit from the controversy over PayPal cutting off the ability to send money to WikiLeaks, which for some raised red flags about one company’s ability to impede the transfer of money. One of Bitcoin’s features is that it is completely decentralized, and so is theoretically immune to censorship or restraint. It doesn’t require the use of a bank or payment-handling system like PayPal (which is blocking Bitcoin payments, coincidentally enough). Bitcoin isn’t the only venture that is going after the e-currency pie: we’ve written before about Flattr, the micropayment startup founded by The Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde, which is trying to create a “tip jar”-style payment system for content (the company recently launched a way to integrate payments with Twitter).
But Bitcoin is somewhat more ambitious than Flattr, or many of the other micropayment and e-currency experiments that have gone before it. Rather than simply create a kind of virtual points system in which the points can eventually be converted into “real” money — or used to buy goods, the way that frequent-flier points and other quasi-currencies can — the founders of Bitcoin want to create a completely separate and virtual monetary system. In other words, one that could theoretically replace the existing system if enough people decided to use it. That’s the difficult part, of course. Why would anyone use a virtual currency that has no “real” value, and is based on a system run by a group of shadowy hackers? Some programmers have started to accept payment in Bitcoins, but that’s not really a great indicator of a robust monetary platform — in a sense, it’s just like people exchanging goods or services in a barter system, something that is a big part of what economists call the “underground” or shadow economy. Supporters (including the Electronic Frontier Foundation) promote the idea that Bitcoins are free from government interference and can’t be frozen or devalued by anyone. So, who really controls and regulates the whole Bitcoin eco-system? Well, the users themselves! And that’s the whole point of this e-currency. Bitcoin has no central issuer; instead, the peer-to-peer network regulates Bitcoins, transactions and issuance according to consensus in network software. Bitcoins are issued to various nodes that verify transactions through computing power; it is established that there will be a limited and scheduled release of no more than 21 million BTC (There are a maximum of 2,100,000,000,000,000 Bitcoin elements <called satoshis>, currently most commonly measured in units of 100,000,000 known as BTC) worth of coins, which will be fully issued by the year 2140. Bitcoins are issued according to rules agreed to by the majority of the computing power within
If the U.S. government really wanted to get out of debt it would take back control of our currency from the bankers and would start issuing debt-free money. But don’t expect that to happen any time soon. In fact, the Federal Reserve is just getting more powerful and becoming more out of control. According to data released on Wednesday, over $9 trillion in overnight loans were made by the Federal Reserve to major banks and large financial institutions during the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. Now, the truth is that this number is inflated because each time one of these loans was “rolled over” it was counted as a new loan by the Fed. So don’t get too excited about
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the Bitcoin network. The core rules describing the predictable issuance of Bitcoins to its verifying servers, a voluntary and competitive transaction fee system and the hard limit of no more than 21 million BTC issued in total.
Bitcoin Mining Most of the heavy lifting for Bitcoin is done by “miners”. Miners collect the transactions on the network (like “Alice pays Karim 10 bitcoins” and “Liam pays Sofia 8.3 bitcoins”) into large bundles called blocks. These blocks are strung together into one continuous, authoritative record called the block chain, which doesn’t permit any conflicting transactions. This is necessary because without it people would be able to sign the same bitcoins over totwo different recipients, like writing cheques for more money than you have in your account. The block chain lets you know for sure exactly which transactions count and can be trusted (so no bad cheques!). The way Bitcoin makes sure there is only one block chain is by making blocks really hard to produce. So instead of just being able to make blocks at will, miners have to compute a cryptographic hash of the block that meets certain criteria. Bitcoiners refer to this process as “hashing”. The only way to find a cryptographic hash that’s “good enough to count” is to try computing a whole bunch of them until you get lucky and find one that works. This is the “lottery” that David Schwartz refers to, because miners who successfully create a block are rewarded some bitcoins according to a preset schedule. The difficulty of the criteria for the hash is continually adjusted based on how frequently blocks are appearing, so more competition equals more work needed to find a block. A modern GPU can try hundreds of millions of hashes per second, so to be competitive in this race to find hashes miners need specialised hardware, otherwise they will tend to spend more on electricity than they make in the “lottery”. In addition to the hash criteria, a block needs to contain only valid, non-conflicting transactions. So the other main task for miners is to carefully validate all the transactions that go into their blocks, otherwise they won’t get any reward for their work! Because of all this work, when a Bitcoin client signs on to the network it can trust the block chain that was most difficult to produce (since this is evidently the one that was being worked on by the most miners). If there was a “fake” blockchain competing with the real ones (say, where someone pretends that they didn’t actually give Sofia those 8.4 bitcoins
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and they still have them), the fraudster would have to do as much work as the whole rest of the network to make their block chain look as trustworthy. So essentially, the intense work that goes into finding blocks through hashing secures the network against fraud. There is also, of course, some nifty code that figures out how to choose between conflicting transactions; and what to do if two people find valid blocks at the same time. One last thing: why is it called mining? In the original analogy, people who performed this essential work were compared to gold miners digging the gold out of the ground so that everyone could use it. But in reality, Bitcoin “miners” are just running computer programs on very specialised hardware that automates the process of securing the network. To sum up, this software: • • • • • •
Collects transactions from the network Validates them, and doesn’t allow conflicting ones Puts them into large bundles called blocks Computes cryptographic hashes over and over until if finds one “good enough to count” Then submits the block to the network, adding it to the block chain and earning a reward in return. That’s mining in a nutshell!
The Issues As an investment
Bitcoin describes itself as an experimental digital currency. Reuben Grinberg has noted that Bitcoin’s supporters have argued that Bitcoin is neither a security or an investment because it fails to meet the criteria for either category. Although it is a virtual currency, some people see it as an investment or accuse it of being a form of investment fraud known as a Ponzi scheme. A report by the European Central Bank, using the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s definition of a Ponzi scheme, found that the use of bitcoins shares some characteristics with Ponzi schemes, but also has characteristics of its own which contradict several common aspects of Ponzi schemes.
Privacy
Because transactions are broadcast to the entire network, they are inherently public. Unlike regular banking, which preserves customer privacy by keeping transaction records private, loose transactional privacy is accomplished in Bitcoin by using many unique addresses for every wallet, while at the same time publishing all transactions. As an example, if Alice sends 123.45 BTC to Bob, the network creates
a public record that allows anyone to see that 123.45 has been sent from one address to another. However, unless Alice or Bob make their ownership of these addresses known, it is difficult for anyone else to connect the transaction with them. However, if someone connects an address to a user at any point they could follow back a series of transactions as each participant likely knows who paid them and may disclose that information on request or under duress. It can be difficult to associate Bitcoin identities with real-life identities. This property makes Bitcoin transactions attractive to sellers of illegal products.
The Future?
At the moment, the use and active circulation of Bitcoins is rather limited. We have seen that it can be a great alternate for the ‘Fiat Currency’ that currently exists - and with no regulatory body it is the people who will be in control at all times. The people will generate the money and regulate the supply too. The concerns that we currently have for this e-currency system are purely based on lack of a vision for such a currency in the future, but with a changed outlook on life moving ahead - we can definitely think of having this currency as the primary means for transaction. This ain’t Sci-Fi folks - you’ve been educated enough about it already, so don’t just dismiss it as another short-term blip over the horizon. Bitcoin is here to stay!
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What is China talking about? By Ipsit Roy
P
opularly known as three-dimensional (3D) printers, additive manufacturing machines can run unattended for seven days a week and are taking China by storm. Invented by a firm in Beijing these machines are helping firms get their work done without having the factories overloaded with labours.
These machines can be left on their own apart from an occasional visit by a supervisor who was to look it in. These supervisors top these machines with powdered materials which they use as their inks or to remove an item which has been completed, and for the rest of the time the machine can be left unattended. This technology though has not been put in use for mass production because of the lack of regular testing by large firms. But 3D printing it does seem excellent for making prototypes, doing short production runs and customized jobs because there would be any requirement of retooling every time the specification changes. One just needs to alter the software that controls the print heads and the job is done. Even American President Barrack Obama has praised the advent 3D printing and he feels it can be an ideal way to revive Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s manufacturing industries.
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The Beijing company which has invented this unique technology primarily has customers which are from aerospace firms and vehicle-makers that require their experimental designs to be turned into metal briskly. 3D printing thus helps in that in a massive way. A convential machine shop would take months to get this job done, but this is where 3D printing is making its mark by doing the job quickly without any labour. 3D printing in China is not just centered on making planes or cars, it is also used in a number of other varied fields as well. Some of them are like expelling filaments of molten plastic to build objects such as toys, car-fittings and mobile, phone cases. There are also firms in China which have come up with even smaller printers which cost less the 6000 yuan and can be bought be the average man in China. These â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;personalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; printers are helping in creating smaller manufacturing businesses. Though it will be a long time before 3D printing can actually replace mass manufacturing but there is no denying that in the countries in which the technology has been used so far i.e. China, America and parts of Europe, it has really changed the way products are made-up.
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TECH START-UP OF THE MONTH
HapPay
In the world of smartphones being able to run your everyday life, doing almost everything for you - why should payments via banks hold you back? Thus, after looking around for a suitable ‘Tech Startup of the Month’ - we zeroed in on one.
How It Came About VA Tech Ventures Pvt Ltd, a tech startup incubated at TLabs which is run by Times Internet Ltd, has unveiled its operator-agnostic mobile wallet app called HapPay. The Android app was in beta for the last two weeks, but is now available to download and use from the Play Store. The founders have billed this app as the ‘PayPal for mobile users’ and with its ease of use and slick UI, it’s already getting great reviews on Google’s Play Store. The cool thing about the app is that you can also send money via your phone to a friend and also ask for it, if need be. Although it is a free app, one must register to use it. However, registration does not require bank account integration. After registration/sign-up, one can transfer the money to another mobile phone using net banking, debit/credit card or HapPay recharge coupons (which are not available as of now). Simply put, HapPay links the app to a phone’s SIM, enabling P2P transactions, which means a user can easily send money to friends/other people. One can also send money to any bank account (cash out), pay split bills to meet shared expenses with friends, recharge mobile/DTH and buy deals and gifts from app partners. The startup has partnered with RBI-certified ZipCash for the wallet.
Target Audience The startup currently targets college students and young professionals, and its monetisation model is also in place. It charges users when they cash out the money to their bank accounts and merchants are also charged transaction fees. In a bid to popularise the app, the company is planning marketing campaigns and events at Delhi University.
Founders The startup is part of TLab’s third accelerator programme, which started in March this year. It is co-founded by Rathi and Anshul Rai. Both were batchmates (2010) at IIT Kharagpur. Anshul Rai: When not coding, he can be found reading about entrepreneurs, listening to music, explaining his new found discovery to others. He loves traveling and visiting new places with different cultures. Varun Rathi: He is passionate about technology and loves to use it to make lives easier. His obsession for creating an awesome user experience makes sure nothing is compromised on that front. He brings with himself the ages of Marwari Business skills instilled in him and is applying the same to make HapPay – the most preferred mode of payment between people.
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WEBSITE REVIEW - DAILYMOTION By Chaitanya Tapase
History In March 2005, Benjamin Bejbaum and Olivier Poitrey founded the Dailymotion website from the living room of Poitrey’s apartment in Paris. Six individuals pooled together €6,000 ($9,271 USD) to start the business. In September 2006, Dailymotion raised funds in collaboration with Atlas Ventures and Partech International. They raised 7 million Euros which was considered to be the most funds raised in 2006 from the French Web 2.0. In October 2009, The French government invested into Dailymotion through the use of the Strategic Investment Fund. On January 25, 2011, France Telecom’s Orange acquired a 49% stake in Dailymotion for €62 million (hence valuing the company at €120 million). According to LesEchos.fr, Orange is considering acquiring the remaining 51% of the company to fully own Dailymotion. This potential buyout cannot exceed €72 million, and the transaction date would occur during the first quarter of 2013.
Motionmaker and Official User Motionmaker is a group for the original content creators. Official User is a group for the official content producers, such as record labels, film studios, news media, television channels, sports associations and political parties. A motionmaker or an Official User can: • • • • •
Customize his or her profile Upload videos of unlimited length Upload Full HD quality videos (1920*1080p), whereas regular users are limited to Half HD (1280*720p) Benefit from an increased visibility Have an OfficialContent/CreativeContent overlay affixed to his or her video thumbnails
UI and ease of use Most users who love browsing the internet for interesting and new videos will be right at home with the UI of Dailymotion website. Infact, it’s quite similar to YouTube in many ways - but at the same time, has a 59 I EXHIBIT I JUNE 2013
uniqueness all of its own. Though it’s not as fast (especially here in India) as YouTube - it does offer some unique features that YouTube does not. Like the segregation of channels based on the content - something that is sorely missed on YouTube for many years now. You can browse channels based completely on your interest - like Music, Sport, Gaming, Arts, Tech & more. All of this is presented in a neat tile layout, which basically gives you a whole larger list of videos than any other similar site has to offer. In all these channels, you will only find relevant videos that are uploaded and constantly monitored by the Dailymotion community. Dailymotion Cloud In October 2010 Dailymotion Cloud was launched as a white label video hosting service to use excess bandwidth and existing resources. As of November 2011, Dailymotion Cloud had 2,500 customers but had not achieved its turnover targets. As a multi-format broadcasting solution, Dailymotion Cloud allows videos to be encoded in formats suitable for devices like computers, tablets, connected TVs or smartphones. Dailymotion Publisher Network Launched in 2011, Dailymotion Publisher Network (“DPN”) is a solution in which Dailymotion offers its partners the ability to share advertising revenue. DPN is a solution for publishers to simultaneously earn advertising revenue, enrich online content and boost audience’s engagement. Open VoD Open VoD is the Video on Demand program of Dailymotion. With Open VoD, content creators can sell their programs, and choose the price, format, player, and promo-
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tion, as well as access their stats. They can broadcast on the Dailymotion website as well as on apps (through tablets, smartphones, and connected devices) and anywhere on the web. Copyright protection With the help of Audible Magic, Dailymotion implemented an acoustic fingerprinting system that can detect copyrighted videos and prevent their publication. Dailymotion is also the first video sharing website to implement a video fingerprinting solution supplied by INA. BANNED - Dailymotion was banned in India in May 2012. On June 22, 2012, India unblocked access to video & file sharing sites including Dailymotion. The Madras High Court changed its earlier censorship order explaining that only specific URLs carrying pirated content should be blocked, not entire websites. APP & THE WAY FORWARD Like any major web-based service or content sharing provider, Dailymotion has an app too - the Android app that we looked at was really simple to use and we had no issues with making playlists and/or managing channels that we wanted to keep a track of. They also have made apps for the Xbox 360 and Smart TV platforms as well, which means the company is certainly looking forward in the right direction and ensuring it engages users in sharing and uploading videos with the ease that tech can afford us in this day and age.
Blapunkt Comfort Page No. 65
Wacom Inkling Page No. 64
LG Nexus 4 Page No. 70
Fujifilm SL1000 BYOND PHABLET PIII BenQ RL2240H Monitor GIONEE G-PAD G2 ZYNC QUAD 10.1 URBANEARS PLATTAN HEADPHONE
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Zoom In As Far As You Want The Fujifilm SL1000 `29,999/Reviewed By: Chaitanya Tapase
Specifications
16 MP 1/2.3-inch BSI-CMOS sensor 50x optical FUJINON zoom lens(24mm-1200mm) 3.0 inch tilting LCD RAW shooting (RAW, JPEG, RAW+JPEG) Advance filter function enables to choose up to 8 artistic effects such as Pop colour, Toy Camera, Miniature 5, Partial Colour, High Key, Cross screen, Soft focus, raw shooting mode and motion panorama mode 1080i Full HD movie 60fps with stereo sound recording
Verdict
For about 30K, there are much better models out there which give you better performance and value for money. The Fujifilm SL1000 had almost everything good on paper, but faltered rather hastily once I started shooting with it. Take my word, skip this one for better options in the market.
First Impressions
The SL in SL1000 stands for ‘Super Long’ - a quality that is found in most modern day bridge cameras. The 50x zoom isn’t a novelty feature, but the 24mm-1200mm lens is supposed to give a clear image quality throughout the zoom range, even at higher ISOs. As soon as I got the camera body out of the hand, it felt quite good in my (large) hands, but I was a bit sceptical about the build quality. That soon disappeared after using it for some test shots in the first 5 minutes, but some other glaring things came to the fore. But did they turn out to be deal breakers or just minor bumps? Read on.
Review
Usually handling the menu systems of bridge cameras is rather easy - you can put it on
manual and simply adjust the aperture and shutter speed the way you want to. Manually. Using dials. But, unfortunately, the SL1000 doesn’t believe in making your life easier - or well, not in the old fashioned way. Even in full manual mode, the aperture and shutter priority seemed to auto-adjust, and what’s more the entire menu system was rather slow! You see, the Aperture Priority and Manual modes that let you adjust the aperture only allow selecting from the largest, a step smaller and the smallest aperture at the set focal length. For example, at 1200 mm you can choose from f/6.5, 7.8 and 19, but you cannot progress 1/3-step at a time from the largest to smallest aperture. If we look over these little things, then it’s quite a likeable camera with a nice rubberised lens grip, which also lends the weight to the
camera. There is a zoom rocker on the left side as well as the regular ‘T’ and ‘W’ modes right on the shutter button. The grip on the right side is spot-on and the camera feels really nice in hand while shooting stills or videos for a long time. There is also a 3” articulated LCD on the back which lets you shoot from difficult angles and also has fairly good sunlight legibility, though it’s not the best. Image quality at the macro end was pleasantly good, but at the telephoto end was so disappointing! At ISO’s of even 3200 and higher, there was visible noise and some aberration, which really doesn’t add any value to this camera. Trying the video mode was an average experience as well, with passable footage and decent audio captured by the built-in microphone on top of the camera body.
in the same league Canon PowerShot G1 X 12.1 Megapixels Optical Zoom: 50x CMOS Image Sensor `29,995
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Nikon Coolpix P520 18.1 Megapixels Optical Zoom: 42x CMOS sensor `23,950
Not As Fab As It Could Get
The Byond Phablet PII `14,999/-
Reviewed By: Chaitanya Tapase
Camera
The 8MP shooter is good in sunlit conditions, but in low lighting and indoor conditions it really struggles. Especially with blurring of subjects even when the phablet was held perfectly still. HD videos are fairly good, but not as stable as I would’ve liked. The 3MP front cam is also just about okay for video calling and casual self-videos.
Specifications
5.72” HD IPS Display 1 GHz dual-core processor Android OS v4.1.1 (Jelly Bean) 8 MP cam with LED flash 1 GB RAM 4GB internal memory, microSD card support up to 32GB
Verdict
I really thought that phone makers would make phablets any bigger than the Note 2 which at 5.5” was large enough to fit into this new category and yet was pocketable. Anything larger than that was going to be hard to carry around, but when the device lags, has mediocre performance throughout the tests - then there isn’t much to write home about.
First Impressions
Nothing succeeds likes success. But, the problems arise when others try to mimic your success with their own variants. The Samsung Galaxy S3 inspired Byond Phablet PII is one such example, with looks and UI taken straight off the Galaxy series and nothing innovative or likeable added. Unless you count a dual-SIM dual-core phone as being innovative. The rather big screen of 5.72” is the first thing that hits you, till you start feeling the weight and the way the phone feels so clunky in your hand. Did it have some surprises in store to redeem itself?
Review
A nice HD (1280x720) display on a large screen phone is always a good sign, but the thing about most budget smartphones are the
average quality of displays used. Even though the Byond Phablet PII has an IPS display, the viewing angles are not great and sunlight legibility is rather poor. The 5.72” form factor does feel very bulky though, even when the phone was in my pocket. It does come with a leather cover, which is pretty standard for most phablets these days. It’s also rather heavy and to make things worse, it lags! The UI is almost a carbon copy of the TouchWiz UI from Samsung, including the noises it makes but the lag from a dual-core phone was quite shocking. Benchmark scores revealed that the device was in similar category as most budget smartphones with similar specs, but there’s a lot to be desired with speed of operation. The multimedia experience was a bit of a mixed bag, but relying on a speaker that is on the
Intex Aqua Style Dual SIM (GSM + GSM) 1.3 MP Secondary Camera 8 MP Primary Camera Android v4.0.4 OS `29,995
in the same league
back panel bottom corner really makes it a bummer. Especially in landscape mode, I kept putting my fingers around the speaker and upon realizing - had to fish for a spot which wouldn’t interfere. With 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Dual-SIM and GPS covering your connectivity needs- there isn’t much room to complain here. The saving grace overall is the way the buttons are laid out around the panels, keeping the large form factor in mind - everything feels that it belongs where the fingers can reach out to easily. With an average battery life and a below par gaming experience (with some heating noticeable within 30 mins of gaming) - there really wasn’t much to cheer about in this device.
Karbonn Smart A111 Android v4.0 OS 5 MP Primary Camera Secondary Camera Support Dual SIM (GSM + GSM) `9,170
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Worth the Wait
The Wacom Inkling `14,999/-
Reviewed By: Dimpy Gandhi
Specifications
Pen & Wireless Receiver 1024 level of sensitivity Standard USB file transfer mode Direct transfer to Photoshop, Illustrator and Autodesk Sketchbook Pro
Verdict
All in all, this innovation is close to perfect for designers all over. Since most of us start on paper, it always feels good when close to home. Portable, small, easy to use and relatively inexpensive. The biggest drawback of this is that your mistakes will only be visible on the digital surface once you are done. But even that doesn’t overshadow the supremacy of the object. In any case, this product is meant purely for concept sketches, rough drafts etc. Besides, you can change nibs often, since they are just your regular ball point nibs available at most stores. Two thumbs up.
First Impressions
I heard a lot of rave reviews about the Inkling – years ago. So you can imagine my excitement when I found out about its official launch in India. And before you know it, it was finally here. Sitting on the table in front of me, looking smart, waiting to be graded. It looked like the box we used as kids, filled with our pens, pencils, erasers etc. A drawing tablet – without the tablet. Am I making any sense? Was it really all fancy as it was cut out to be? Read on folks.
Review
So the Inkling lets you draw/write on any paper (upto A4) and then it will digitize your sketches to be used on your PC/Mac. You may think it’s the same as scanning, but it’s really not. I will get to that later. Basically the Wacom manufactured traditional drawing tablets (Intuos, Bamboo etc.) and the over-priced Cintiq. The former allowed you to draw on the tablet, but you’d have to keep your eyes on the
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monitor at all times and let’s be honest – not everyone has a great hand to eye co-ordination. The latter allowed you to draw/write directly on the surface of the software, but then again, it’s way too expensive. So that’s what Wacom is all about – creating some exceptional tools that can be used for digital artists all around the globe. The Inkling is designed to be portable and self-sufficient, which means while you draw, there is no requirement for a PC/Mac. Just the paper will do.There was a receiver, 4 ball point nibs, the pen and the USB cord in that tiny box. I clipped the receiver to the paper and switched it on.The receiver’s clip covers a microswitch that creates a new document every time you attach it to anything. As soon as the pen hit the paper – tada! There was a green LED in the receiver and the pen, which meant that we were good to go! Drawing with a ball-point pen isn’t as feasible, but then the innovation is remarkable as it is. You can even create layers for PSD while drawing
on paper by tapping the second button on the receiver. Now there are two things you can’t do when using the Inkling. Firstly, don’t try and re-adjust the receiver until you have completed the entire drawing. The receiver loses the alignment and you will only see that disaster once you transfer the sketches to your device. Secondly, do not block the receiver with your hand or any other object, as parts of your drawing won’t get recorded, resulting in several blank patches in your digital copy. The Inkling’s receiver can hold up to 2GB of data. That data can be viewed in the dedicated Wacom Sketch Manager software and you can export it to a JPEG, SVG, AI, PSD etc. format. When we transferred the sketches, we were surprised at its clarity. Even the lightest of lines were present, with the same depth as on paper. There were a few blind spots but I am hoping they won’t be there in the future versions of the Inkling (assuming there will be other versions).
Nearly An Excellent Headphone The Blaupunkt Comfort `9,990/-
Reviewed By: Chaitanya Tapase
Specifications
On-Ear Noise Cancelling Headphones 21Hz - 21KHz Frequency Response 40 mm driver speaker Noise Cancellation > 16 dB @ 15-250Hz 101 dB Sound Pressure 32 ohms impedance
Verdict
For a 10K price range, the Comfort deliver good noise cancelling performance but don’t expect too much bass and the performance in certain song genres are not so great. But overall they are a really comfortable pair - that you can easily listen music on for hours on end without feeling overwhelmed. If that’s what you want from your headphones, then go for them. There’s not too many alternatives for this with this level of performance and build quality, so there is no real reason to hesistate! The Comfort is really quite good, quite loveable - but not quite perfect.
First Impressions
Blaupunkt have made serious inroads in the audio industry in India, but only now have they made it big in personal audio products like headphones and earphones. The Comfort promises to deliver an excellent noise cancelling performance and great audio output throughout the range. But can it really impress against some stiff competition already present in the 10K price range?
Review
The Comfort headphones have a standard 3.5mm pin connectors which you can slot into any audio jack of the size and enjoy a great
audio experience. It’s quite lightweight and has a nice build quality to it. There is a nice foam protector on the top side where the headphones rest on your head, and the foam covering the actual headphones cup are excellent in quality too. They feel comfortable while wearing for long periods of time and there is no issues of feeling cramped, even if you have a large head! Once you put these on, there is excellent feedback in the form of treble and mids, but the bass seems to disappoint a bit. Especially in this price range, we expected a little more thump from the low notes - but weren’t too impressed with what we got. The noise cancellation performance is the star
of the show here, with excellent cancellation of noise at even rather noisy environments. Listening to different genres of music simply confirmed that these headphones are not really meant for bass, the 40mm driver provides good levels of audio for highs and mids, but the lows are only warm, at best. Watching movies was a similar experience, but the accuracy in Dolby enabled movies was superband the same can be said while using these for gaming. Although, there are some better alternatives for gaming headphones in this range, it must be said.
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White As Snow
The BenQ RL2240H Monitor `10,000/Reviewed By: Chaitanya Tapase
Specifications
21.5” Full HD Monitor 16:9 Aspect Ratio TN Panel Type D-sub/DVI/HDMI/Headphone Jack Inputs 4.7 Kg (Gross weight) | 3.2 Kg (Net weight) Senseye 3 Technology
Verdict
A monitor made for RTS games is an odd idea, and one that got us thinking. Our time with the BenQ RL2240H hasn’t resulted in any satisfying conclusion about quite how this is better for gaming than most other budget panels. Colours appear washed-out and the RTS mode is a pretty simple picture preset. When we doubt whether the all-white design will seem at-one with many people’s gaming rigs, we’re not flattered - but in the same price range, this is the more or less expected result.
First Impressions
The 21.5in BenQ RL2240H has been designed in co-ordination with a professional South Korean Starcraft 2 team known as Startale. We’ve heard of specialist FPS monitors that focus on getting the fastest response time possible, but how can you predict what’s coming in the next 12 months in the world of gaming. Anyhow let’s get testing with a few games thrown at this monitor, which should hopefully impress us a lot.
Review
The first thing that struck us about the BenQ R L2240H is how little it looks like a “pro gaming” monitor. It’s smooth and glossy white, an unusual choice where we would have expected something black, and either
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simple or over-the-top gaudy, in Alienware style. The monitor is also very light, with no extra stabilising weight in the base, should you get a bit excited during a skirmish and give it a knock. Connectivity is decent for an entry-level model. It has DVI, HDMI and VGA inputs, where some models still lack HDMI or DVI at this price - only a few, mind. There is no built-in speaker, although as performance offered by speakers of LCD monitors is so poor, it’s not something we mourn. More of an issue is that you can’t configure the RL2240H’s orientation much. There’s about 25 degrees of up-down tilt available, but no height adjustment and no horizontal swivel room severely limit the flexibility of the monitor. Even after several bouts of fiddling, we couldn’t get the
colours to stop looking washed-out. This sort of slightly lifeless image quality is common in TN panel monitors, but you can get this sort of performance in a 21.5in monitor for less than 12K. The LED backlight is very bright, but the stated 1000:1 contrast ratio is perhaps a bit optimistic. Contrast is unremarkable, and the monitor doesn’t provide a hugely vivid image. However, part of the monitor’s mission statement is actually to reduce contrast. The Black eQualizer tries to expose detail in shadow areas without blowing out whites, which will always tend to reduce the black level. Contrast throughout is unremarkable, and blacks aren’t hugely deep.
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Voice-calling & 3G Goodness
Of The Asus Fonepad `15,999/Reviewed By: Chaitanya Tapase
Specifications
7” WXGA IPS LED display 1.2 GHz Intel Atom Processor Android OS v4.1 Jelly Bean 3MP rear camera with 720p video & 1.2MP video call camera 1GB RAM 8GB internal storage, expandable up to 32GB via a micro SD card 4270 mAh battery
Verdict
At 7-inches, the Asus Fonepad really is too big to be useful as a primary phone. It won’t slip easily into your jeans and you’ll look pretty silly holding it up to your face to make a call. It’s best seen as a tablet instead. So only buy it if you wish to invest in a device that integrates the 2 worlds and still makes you look ridiculous while making calls. Else it’s best to look for better options.
First Impressions
A 7” smartphone-tablet?! As crazy as it may sound, Asus want you to believe that it’s the ideal combination - have a large screen tablet for your multimedia, work or gaming - and then if you feel like making some calls, then you can do so with the same gadget. Packed with Intel’s Atom processor, 8 GB of internal memory 1GB RAM. Once you take it out and in your hand, comparisons with the Nexus 7 are inevitable, but there are some major differences.
Review
The Fonepad is 196mm long, 120mm wide and 10mm thick. For a tablet, that’s a good portable size -- you can just about fit it into a wide pocket. For a phone you’ll be carrying around all day every day though, that size will quickly become a nuisance. There’s no question either that you
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will look utterly ridiculous making a call on it. There’s a speaker on the front of the Fonepad to make it function as a phone, but other than that there’s not much going on. Around the back is where you’ll find the most changes from the Nexus 7. Gone is the dotted, rubberised back plate, replaced instead with a matte aluminium panel. I was quite fond of the black rubber of the Nexus 7, but the metal does add a touch of luxury. The 7-inch screen has a resolution of 1,280x800-pixels, which is the same that you’ll get on the Nexus 7. The display is crisp and clear, with no fuzziness around app icons. Small text is easily readable too -- good news if you want to use it as an ebook reader. There is a difference in brightness and colour tone though. The Fonepad’s display is comparatively quite dim and is worlds apart from the retina-searing power of the Asus Transformer
Infinity. Its colours aren’t great either, with quite muted tones being visible on most videos. Four touch-sensitive keys on the bottom perform navigation duties, letting you go back, to the homescreens, bring up the multi-tasking bar to see open apps and a fourth to bring up a list of ‘floating apps’. These are small apps that hover over the Android interface, staying put while you carry on with other tasks. There’s a lot of them to choose from -- a Web browser, audio settings, to do lists, video player, calculator, stopwatch and so on. The Fonepad is powered by a single-core Intel Atom Z2420 processor, clocked at 1.2GHz, paired with 1GB of RAM. That’s something of a step down from the quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 chip found inside the Nexus 7 and it really shows in its performance.
HOW IT COMPARES WITH THE NEXUS 7 Nexus 7
DISPLAY We had a special test unit for the Nexus 7 just for a comparison test, and as far as the display was concerned, the Nexus 7 certainly shone through. There seemed to be a blue tinge on most videos that we played on the Asus Fonepad. The Nexus 7 on the other had truer colours, with great viewing angles and excellent contrast ratios. Clear win for the Nexus 7 here.
BUILD QUALITY The back panel of the Nexus 7 has a nice grip with its dotted rubberised feel, but the metal feel of the Fonepad is what makes it stand out from a crowd. The metal, however, does it make it slippery to hold though - something that has never been an issue with the Nexus 7. A tie here - both gadgets can split equal points.
CONNECTIVITY
PERFORMANCE It returned a score of 589 on the Geekbench benchmark test, which falls far short of the 1,536 achieved by the Nexus 7. Even while playing various games and pushing the two tablets by creating more and more background processes, we found the Nexus 7 to outperform the Fonepad in every department of processing and utilizing RAM. Another clear win for the Nexus 7.
ASUS FONEPAD
This is the only place where the Fonepad has the clear advantage, thanks to the SIM slot - which can work for 3G data as well as voice-calling. The Fonepad has a microSD card slot which is missing in the Nexus 7, Wi-Fi connectivity and Bluetooth are common for both - leaving the Fonepad the winner here.
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The Newest Android King LG’s Nexus 4 Is Here! `24,990/- (approx) Reviewed By: Chaitanya Tapase
Specifications
4.7” True HD IPS+ Display Snapdragon S4 Pro 1.5 GHz Quad Core Processor Android OS v4.2 (Jelly Bean) 16 GB Internal Memory, no microSD card slot 8MP photosphere camera with LED flash 1.3MP secondary cam 2GB RAM 2100 mAh Sio+ Battery Wireless Charging (Use any Qi-compatible Charger)
Verdict
With a stock Android performance with buttery smooth response and updates from Google themselves directly coming to Nexus devices - it’s hard not to recommend the Nexus 4. It’s got almost every great and awesome feature that one looks forward to in a high-end smartphone, coming at a price that will not burn a hole in your pocket! We’d say if you do decide to go for the Nexus 4 - you won’t be disappointed at all. Not in the least!
First Impressions
After long last, the newest Android smartphone by Google themselves is here - the Nexus 4, from LG. It was long awaited, with a launch that took place late last year in the US, it was a while till it reached our desi shores. It comes in minimal packaging, as most Nexus products we’ve come to see - but has a great build quality feel once you hold it in your hand for the first time. The shimmery back panel is the real stand out point - and if you look closely, you notice how each shimmering light can be just amazing if you hold it under light at just the right angle.
Review
Coming to looks, this handset features the standard design of Nexus smartphone, char-
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Camera
An 8MP camera with LED flash is strapped to the back of Nexus 4. This snapper is not the best in its league and loses to Samsung Galaxy S III’s shooter on all counts. While colour reproduction is good, the images are a little grainy for our taste, but not so much that you will not want to upload them on social sites. The awesome bit in the camera UI is the full 360 degree panorama (called photosphere) - that lets you shoot your surroundings from any crazy angle and you can keep clicking as many pictures as you want - with the software stitching up everything in the end and giving you the finished product.
acterized by curved edges and no hardware keys in the front. Like LG Optimus G, the Nexus 4 glass back panel has a 3D pattern that shimmers when seen under light. The display is lined with a thin chrome strip, similar to one seen in many other phones. On the right of the phone is the Power/Lock key, whereas the volume rocker is on the left. The earphone jack and USB port are placed at the top and bottom, respectively. The 2,100mAh battery of the phone is non-removable and the back panel is secured at the bottom. As the phone does not support storage expansion, there is no microSD slot, while the SIM-card slot is positioned on the left and opens when the small button on its side is pressed; a small key has been provided in the box for this purpose, just
like in the case of Optimus G. Google Nexus 4 runs on the stock Android 4.2, giving you software devoid of any apps that clutter the OS (Samsung Galaxy S4’s gimmicky apps come to mind). You can see the changes starting from the lock screen itself. In lock screen mode, when you swipe to the left (do not drag the lock icon, but swipe from any point on the display), you can open the camera app. Similarly, a swipe to the right will allow you to see mails, calendar, clock, Google+ posts, text messages etc. You can set as many of these as you want on the lock screen and access the respective app from the lock screen mode.
Phablet Or Tablet Or Fonetab?
The Gionee GPad-G2 `13,990/-
Reviewed By: Chaitanya Tapase
Specifications
5.3” qHD True Colour Display 1.2 GHz quad-core processor Android OS v4.1 (Jelly Bean) 8 MP primary camera with LED flash
Verdict
Just when you feel that you can fall in love with a new brand that other folks have not even heard of, something comes along to disappoint you and force a reality check. The Gionee brand is still trying to establish itself here in India and the Dream D1 was a great product to start off with, but the problem with the budget phablets are the same throughout - no matter what brand you look at. Although the GPad-G2 feels a lot more stable and reliable than most, it might really find it difficult to make a name for itself in a rather competitive segment - with most brands wanting to dominate this space.
First Impressions
The Dream D1 from Gionee really surprised me with its performance, build quality and excellent speaker output – so I’m expecting the bigger phablet GPad-G2 to be somewhat similar. No, it doesn’t have Gorilla Glass nor AMOLED display like the Dream D1, but you never know! Well, as soon as I unboxed and held it – it felt a bit awkward. The 5.3” form factor is still smaller than the Note 2, but the thickness is more and so is the weight. But let’s get to the actual testing and see how it does.
Review
The GPad-G2 has the same UI that I saw on the Dream D1, and I must say it’s not my favourite. The easiest way to get rid of it was (naturally) to use a launcher - and that’s what I did, which made things a whole lot smoother
and easier for me. On the performance side, the quad-core processor felt really good for multi-tasking although there was slight lags that were noticeable every now and then. Multimedia experience was a bit of a mixed bag - the large screen estate certainly makes it great to view videos - but the colour contrasts and viewing angles are just not that great. What’s more disappointing was the speaker phone quality, which was so good in the D1. Another disappointment is the low resolution of 540x960 - a shocking decision to have such a low res display for a 5.3” form factor. That’s a disappointing dpi of only 240 - something that really shows in most HQ YouTube videos, which we just couldn’t enjoy on the GPad-G2. The camera was pretty similar in the overall performance and sharpness of images, and
the UI and ease of use is pretty stock Android. Putting the phablet through some benchmarks confirmed the overall feeling, that it can’t really keep up with the best quad-cores around with a score of around 12.8K in AnTuTu benchmark testing. The phablet does come with a cover, but the strange part is - you don’t need to remove the back panel to add it - it just slips on to the phablet, adding to the dimensions and weight of the gadget. The quality is good, pretty similar to what we’ve seen for budget smartphones in this range and the stability feels quite good too.
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Not As Good As It Could Be The Zync Quad 10.1 `14,990/Reviewed By: Chaitanya Tapase
Specifications
10.1” Full HD Capacitive touchscreen 1.5 GHz quad-core processor Octa-core Mali-400 GPU Android OS v4.1 Jelly Bean 5MP rear cam, 2MP front cam 2 GB DDR3 RAM 16 GB internal memory microSD card support up to 32GB
Verdict
The tablet promised so much, especially with its specs, but delivered a disappointing result at the end of the day. It takes me back to the same old feeling of, why do I need a tablet - if a smartphone with a sleek laptop satisfy all my computing needs?! In any case, the Zync Quad 10.1 looks good only on paper - in real world performance, it’s not quite up to the mark.
First Impressions
A quad-core tab with an 8-core GPU for less than 15k. That’s the shocking part about this Zync tab, and if they play their cards right, the tablet will be a runaway hit with everyone looking for a tab this size. It’s got the latest Android version and a whopping 16GB of internal memory too, which can be extended to another 32GB using a microSD card. As soon as I removed the tab from the box, however, I felt that this is perhaps not the best in terms of build quality. It’s not poor, but the screen was a finger-print magnet and the material used seemed a bit sub-par.
Review
Coming to looks, this handset features the Once I started putting the quad 10.1 through its paces, it was apparent that the tablet was well put together - but there were some
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glaring oversights in the way its build. For e.g. - the games that you have to play in portrait mode, you will be forced to search the volume rocker at the bottom panel! If that wasn’t bad enough, the speaker appears at the top back panel - and it’s certainly not loud enough for you to actually enjoy any casual or serious games that you can throw at it. The Android experience itself has been slightly modified, with the back-home-multi-window soft keys all appearing on the left corner - rather than the traditional central area of the bottom of the screen. There is a quick button that lets you capture a screenshot, saving you the awkward hold of pressing the lock and volume down key together. The display seemed really good, with a rich black tone that I’ve only seen on high-end products, but the colour contrasts and viewing angles weren’t so great. Running
the benchmarks for the tab revealed that even though it’s got great specs, it hasn’t been fine tuned to get the best out of it! Scrolling, multi-tasking and watching multimedia slowed down the tab over continued use - and the overall UI experience wasn’t as buttery smooth as we wanted it to be. The cameras were another great disappointment, not that most people really use cameras from their tabs, but if you have provided them - you should ensure the UI makes perfect sense (what’s the point of adding the flash icon, if there no physical flash) and it’s at least able to capture some amount of light when in use! Connectivity was the redeeming factor for the tab, with the presence of an HDMI port, microUSB port (with OTG support) and of course a slot for microSD card as well.
Colourfully Cool Audio Gear
The Urbanears Plattan Headphone `5,750/-
Reviewed By: Chaitanya Tapase
Specifications
40 mm handmade drivers Frequency Response 20Hz-20kHz Impedance 60Ω Sensitivity 115dB Max Input Power 40mW
Verdict
If you mainly listen to hip-hop and are concerned with bass, volume, style and price, the Urbanears Plattan headphones could be a suitable option. Otherwise, the Plattan headphones aren’t for you. For fashion-conscious folks, these might just be what you were looking for - but keep in mind the fact that these are almost entirely made of fabric - not ideal for our monsoon season!
First Impressions
They come in all shapes, sizes and colours these days - gadgets are now targetted at all age groups, and people with varied backgrounds. The Urbanears Plattan series of headphones is one such example - with a wide variety of colour options to choose from, these are ideal for yuppies and oldies who love a little colour on their gear. They felt quite light in my hands as soon as took them out and the overall feel is so different from other headphones, because the Plattan is fabric-made!
Review
The Plattan headphones come in hues to suit every taste, including a charming green ‘salad’ tinge, two shades of grey, and three shades of blue. The colour extends from the padded, fabric-coated headband down to the circular
earcups and even the stiff padding. This could definitely stand to be cushier, as the headphones tend to put uncomfortable pressure on the ear after about an hour of wear. But the Plattan headphones definitely look good, with their matte finish and metal adjustment loops. Although Urbanears doesn’t include a carrying case of any kind -- not really a surprise at this price -- the Plattan headphones are quite portable. The earcups measure just 64mm in diameter and fold in for easier transport. A single cloth cable measuring 114cm long descends from the left earpiece and terminates in a nickel-plated straight plug. The cord is impressively thick, isn’t very tangle-prone, and is reinforced at both ends, so it should be durable. The Plattan headphones are unimpressive on the audio-quality front, which isn’t
a terribly surprising discovery given the price point. Clarity is the real loser. Music in general sounds as if it’s coming through water or a wall -- it’s quite muffled. If you’re looking for a crisp, detailed high-end, look elsewhere. Similarly, the mid-range tends to get lost in the muddiness. On the plus side, there’s plenty of bass, although it’s fairly mushy for most tracks -- Scissor Sisters’ songs sounded horrible during testing. Also, the headphones run loud. Our test music player had no problem driving them at our desired volume with the levels at less than half.
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Asteroid Great Promises, Mining Great Future.
S By Ipsit Roy
ome start-up American firms have suddenly taken to asteroid mining like fish to water. Some of them are planning to launch their first asteroid-hunting spacecraft by next year. The reasons for such interest are obvious. A sole 500-metre rich asteroid is known to contain minerals which can be equated to all the platinum – group metals which have been mined till date. Future missions to mars can be provided by icy bodies which can be processed into rocket fuel.
One of these new firms is splurging their money to build and develop a spacecraft called ‘Firefly’. This spacecraft is being made to conduct fly-bys of small asteroids. The primary idea by this firm is to spend as less money as possible in building Firefly so as to be cost effective. And the owners hope that they can attract sponsorships for their start-up missions into space. The company also hopes for some support from NAASA, America’s space agency to aid it in its endeavours. If the Firefly missions bear fruit then the company also plans to follow it up by a spacecraft named ‘Dragonfly’ which is supposed to be more
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sophisticated than its predecessor. The aim of this robotic vessel, which the company intends to send into space by 2016, would be to intercept small pieces of asteroids and return with a weighty 25-65 kg sample to Earth within a span of three to four years. All this might sound quite far-fetched as NASA’s ‘Stardust’ and Japan’s ‘Hayabusa’ took nearly ten years to bring back some specks of dust with it. This new company however is planning to use robotic 3D printers for its operations which would supposedly save a lot of time and energy. It is also supposed to receive crushed nickel- rich space rocks at its one end while furnishing complete spacecraft parts at the other end. However none of the company’s technology has ever been demonstrated. More than all this the more important issue at hand is the economic concerns for asteroid mining which are anything but clear. The doubling of supply from space might possibly shoot the pressure of platinum on Earth and thus the whole venture can be in jeopardy because of the effect it could cause to its business prospect. Thus for now, it seems that asteroid mining is quite likely to remain in the sphere of science-fiction only.
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on Indian Terrain 75 I EXHIBIT I JUNE 2013
BMW K1600 `21,75,297 (ex-showroom)
What Makes It Go Vroooooom Engine1,649cc straight - six Torque175.00 Nm (17.8 kgf-m or 129.1 ft.lbs) @ 5250 RPM Tank Capacity24 Litres Acceleration 0-100 km/hr in3.2 seconds Max. Speed200 Km/hr
Unveiled at the Intermot motorcycle show in Cologne in October 2010, these 2 wheelers arrived in India only post its global launch in March 2011. This luxury bike from BMW combines performance and stunning looks to create the perfect blend of class for its owner. This is the ideal machine to go touring with. The bike features a 1,649 cc (100.6 cu in) straight-six engine which is mounted transversely across the chassis. BMW claims that the engine, which at 560 mm (22 in) wide is just 67 mm (2.6 in) wider than the K1300 engine, is the narrowest six-cylinder engine ever produced. Cylinder bore is 72.0 mm (2.83 in) and the distance between cylinders centres 77 mm (3.0 in). The camshaft is hollow, with cam lobes pressed on, which saves around 2 lb (0.91 kg). The engine has electronic throttle control and multiple drive modes which can be set according to road conditions.
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Harley Davidson Road King Just like the name suggests the Harley Davidson Road King is fit to be a ride for a King. Not merely by its size and weight but also due to what it has to offer. The model comes with an exclusive range of accessories and features which enhance its unique character. Offering Luxury to those who truly love cruiser bikes, Harley Davidson Road King offers a super power engine with jaw dropping - stunning looks.
`22,81,000 (ex-showroom)
What Makes It Go Vroooooom Engine1584cc, Twin Cam 96B Maximum Torque125 Nm @ 3500 rpm Tank Capacity22 Litres Gearbox6 speed Weight368 Kgs
The Harley Road King is propelled by a capable air-cooled Twin Cam 103 Harley engine which is paired with a 6 speed cruise drive transmission. The engine cranks out 136 Nm of torque at 3,500 rpm and delivers a combined fuel consumption of 5.6 litres/100 km. Another cruiser in this category, any list of luxury wheels would be incomplete without a Harley Davidson.
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Ducati Diavel `25,52,000 (ex-showroom)
What Makes It Go Vroooooom Engine1198 cc, liquid cooled Maximum Torque127 Nm @ 8000 RPM Fuel Tank17 Litres Gearbox6 speed Acceleration 0 - 100 km/hr2.6 seconds
Ducati Diavel is a masculine bike which carries a sporty look and feel. The bike has a semi integrated cowl and visor for its twin circular headlight. The clear lens indicators are integrated in its front cowl. The handlebar just above the headlight looks naked with chrome finished rear view mirrors mounted on it. The front fender is short and aggressively designed with side extensions along its beefy black coloured front forks. From the front, you can also notice huge radiators and engine cowl of this bike. Diavel has a semi black coloured engine fairing which merges nicely into its fatty fuel tank. This tank sports dynamic lines on it while structural design of pipes just below this tank adds sporty character to this bike. A luxury for those who are fascinated with sports bikes or who have been Moto GP fans since ages. Ducati has used high level of carbon fibre in this bike which contributes to its light weight and attractive looks. The bike has unique set of multi spoke alloy wheels which makes this bike charming. The twin titanium pipes of this bike come out of its engine and get aligned on each other in the form of two fatty silencers. The rear styling of this bike truly differentiates this bike from others. The step up rear seat ends way before its rear macho tyre which gives it a naked look. Diavel has twin strips for its LED tail light and integrated side indicators under its rear seat. There is no rear fender in this bike and instead Ducati has opted for unique way of placing its number plate. It gets mounts on the rear hub while itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also electrically attached to the tail light and stays illuminated.
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Suzuki Hayabusa Having won the acclaim as the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fastest production motorcycle, the bikeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s name surprises many. The choice of name was made because the peregrine falcon preys on blackbirds, which reflected the intent of the original Hayabusa to unseat one of its fierce opponents. What made one of the highest selling products from Suzuki famous was the boom of the western culture and depiction of high-speed bikes in popular Indian cinema.
`13,75,000 (ex-showroom)
What Makes It Go Vroooooom Engine1340 cc, liquid cooled Maximum Torque155 Nm @ 7200 rpm Fuel Tank21 Litres Gearbox6 speed Acceleration - 0 - 100 km/hr2.5 seconds Top Speed332 Km/hr
Speed is not the only aspect that make the Suzuki Hayabusa one of the best two wheelers in the luxury segment. Besides its speed, the Hayabusa has been lauded by many reviewers for its all-around performance, in that it does not drastically compromise other qualities like handling, comfort, reliability, noise, fuel economy or price in pursuit of a single function. The bike can also be customized in several ways as per the likes and wants of the owner. What makes this possible? One reason may be the unique, instantly recognizable bodywork. The easy tunability of the engine, the wide selection of aftermarket parts, possibly more than any other Japanese motorcycle, and the interchangeability between models of Suzuki parts have also played a role.
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Yamaha VMAX `24,02,000 (ex showroom)
What Makes It Go Vroooooom Engine1679cc, DOHC,V-Type Maximum Torque170 Nm @ 6500 rpm Fuel Tank15 Litres Acceleration - 0 - 100 km/hr3 seconds Top Speed384 Km/hr
One of Yamaha’s only bikes in India, the VMAX is a 2 wheeler that speaks volumes about the aspects for which Yamaha as a brand stands for - Quality, innovation and Power. The bike is 2,300 mm (91 in) long, 795 mm (31.3 in) wide, and 1,160 mm (46 in) high. The engine is a tuned version of the double overhead camshaft, four valve per cylinder, liquid-cooled V-4 from the Yamaha Venture. It has also bagged the title of the “Bike of the Year” once. The bike arrived to Indian shores in September, 2009 and since then has been one of the most bought luxury bikes. The features of the VMAX include an all aluminium frame with its 1,679 cc (102 cu in) liquid cooled V4 DOHC engine used as a stressed member of the chassis, an electroluminescent instrument readout, Yamaha Chip Controlled Intake (YCC-I), fully adjustable suspension, anti-lock brakes, slipper clutch, a fuel tank beneath the seat, and a distinctive key. This is Yamaha’s most prestigious and most expensive bike ever launched in India.
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The Smooth Operator Revamped BMW X1 By Chaitanya Tapase
Under the Hood
1955cc 4 cylinder, 16 valve engine 181bhp @ 4000 rpm 61 litres fuel capacity (Diesel) 218 kmph - top speed 0-100 kmph in 7.9 seconds
`28.5 lacs (approx, ex-showroom)
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FirstImpressions
BMW introduced the X1 in India with an eye on the compact SUV market, but the competition has not let the Germans rest on their laurels. Thus, we have the revamped (or 2013 model) X1 - with more oomph and edgier looks to appeal to a wider audience. The cosmetic changes include a new tripartite air intake, which is a feature that is shared by all the X models, a new fog lamp layout to add a bit of width to the look and the most prominent of all the exterior changes are the new design xenon headlights with chrome garnish and twin circular rings with LED accents for that classic BMW look. There is also a sleeker ORVM, with some changes on the inside too. But is it worth the money?
Review
DriveQuality
For our test, we had the X1 slugging over some rough terrain as well as the open roads - and it really felt smooth and powerful throughout. The infotainment instrumentation is the very familiar BMW touch, which simply adds to the overall quality of the car. The excellent use of technology throughout the components is really what makes the vehicle stand out against most of the competition - but also does not chip away at the wonderful ride and handling qualities.
The familiarity of the Audi design but the performance of a roadster, with the luxury of a 5-star hotel. That is how I could summarize our drive with the Audi A8L, a timeless elegant beauty on wheels. If you can afford it, there’s possibly no other competitor out there. Audi has even engineered the engine to maximize fuel efficiency, but it still maxes out at about 11 kmpl in ideal conditions. But if you can afford to spend a crore on a car, are you really worried about the pennies you might end up spending on fuel?
verdict
Once you step inside the face-lifted X1, you realize how the changes continue on the inside as well. It’s hard to miss them at first, as these changes are minimal, but there are new colour tones as well as an addition of chrome, which we liked in particular. There were also additions to the trim options, but the feel is very much the same. The 2.0 diesel engine purrs to a quiet start but we are quite familiar with it - it’s the same one used in the 320d, X3 20d and the 520d. It is a versatile engine that offers both great performance and good fuel economy as well. The four cylinder, 1995cc diesel engine generates 184 hp at 4000rpm and 380Nm of torque between 1750-2750rpm. It can go from 0-100 km/h in 7.9 seconds and while achieving all this, it also manages to return an ARAI certified average fuel economy of 17 kms to the litre! Fitted with an 8 speed automatic transmission with paddle shifts, the X1 is a blast to drive, especially with the improved package. The only gripe that you could pick is the pick-up initially is a tad slow, but it really zooms out after the initial few seconds. There is a marked improvement with the steering of the X1 as well, which feels light
and handled perfectly well in all types of terrain. Even the old X1 felt at home on the highway, city roads as well as off-roading - but the revamped version just does it so much better. The earlier X1 also had some issues with a jarring ride quality, especially on city roads, but the newer avatar tempts you to step on the pedal and really let yourself loose!
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UpcomingCars Hyundai i40 The South Koreans are all set to launch the latest “i” powered car in India, with the i40 set to launch in the coming months. Expected to be pricier than even the Hyundai Elantra, the i40 will be launched around the 16 lacs figure (ex-showroom). It’s also unlike the i20 and i30 as a segment - separating itself from compact cars and moving into the station wagon space. The bold and beautiful Hyundai i40 Tourer has been appreciated for its incredible engineering, marvellous design and optimum safety along with exceptional fuel, overall it can be rated 9 on the scale of 10. As per the experts, an Estate car needs to be practical from every aspect and the new sizzling Hyundai i40 Tourer meets all the global requirements. It will be available in both 2.0L petrol & 1.7L diesel variants that are mated to a choice of 6-speed automatic and 6-speed manual gearbox.
Expected Launch June 2013 | Expected Price `16 lacs (ex-showroom)
Audi A3 German auto major Audi that lifted the covers of the A3 Sedan Internationally, is now planning to launch the vehicle in India by the end of this year. Measuring 4.46 metres in Length, the A3 sedan is a little shorter than that of the A4, which is about 4.7 metres. The A3 Sedan is basically based on the A3 Sportback, but is 11mm wider and 9mm shorter than the Sportback. In India, the Audi A3 will be competing against the upcoming BMW 1-Series and Mercedes-Benz A-Class. In fact, A3 would be among the cheapest offerings in Audi’s product portfolio and is expected to do fairly well in the Indian market.
Expected Launch June 2013 | Expected Price `22lacs (ex-showroom)
Volkswagen Tiguan Auto major Volkswagen plans to launch its compact and also luxurious SUV Volkswagen Tiguan in India. Volkswagen Tiguan is based on Audi A5 platform and much luxurious in its segment. Volkswagen Tiguan is the new entry into the ever growing small SUV segment for Volkswagen. Volkswagen Tiguan was first showcased at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show, and was debuted as a 2008 model for Europe. Volkswagen India plans to launch Volkswagen Tiguan in by the mid of this year and to compete with other SUVs of this segment like of Honda CR-V, Ford Endeavour & the most awaiting Hyundai Santa Fe. The Volkswagen Tiguan price is not yet disclosed by the company but it is expected it will be priced around 20lacs. Expected Launch June 2013 | Expected Price `20lacs (ex-showroom)
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T Mmmmm..
ech, the word is far from anything we can relate to hot, sultry, sexy and the likes. Really? Well… We are the nay saying police to that offensive statement! We have umpteen reasons to drool over what tech has to offer. The latest technologies give more than a ‘come hither’ look to us and there we go salivating at just the thought of having that tech all to ourselves.
So who do you think is sexier? Your girlfriend or that piece of tech lying around your house somewhere? How many times have you told your girlfriend ‘Oh sugar, I feel so ill today. Let us go out tomorrow’, when in actuality all you were doing is aiming a win on the GTA 5 staring at your screen not blinking more than once in 3 minutes?! And how many times have you been caught red handed by her for giving ‘no attention’ to her sexy new LBD because you were too busy figuring out your new home theatre system, checking the sound quality, et al. Aren’t these reasons enough to put the first statement to rest? Ladies! Apologies for bringing the reality of your love lives out in the open! But we ought to do what we yacht to do. Oops, here we go blurting out a sexy piece of tech yet again! We present to you the top 3 tech seductions which have become a lifestyle, the ones that can totally get you weak in the knees and yes too much addiction can break those knees too (keep a check if your ladies are keeping a check on you or get them addicted too!)
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TECH ALERT #1
HONEY, DO I LOOK FAT?
“You mean fatter than the Asus Zenbook?” (gets stomped in the foot by her as she leaves in a fit of fury. Ouch!)
Now why have we started with ultrabooks is because a woman’s biggest enemy can be none other than someone (rather something) who is thinner than her. Ah! Here goes the ultrabook seducing your man without even adorning the latest lingerie in the designer stores. Sad. All the ultrabook needs is the slimness , the features and your man is all set to stare at it the whole night or maybe 24x7.
THEZENBOOK
THEGIRLFRIEND
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Listens to you without answering back.
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Slim forever. Long lasting battery. Can remain in standby for upto 2 weeks.
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The sound is beautiful to the ears always and yes you can adjust the volume.
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*Why are you late*, *I said so*, *why don’t you listen to me*, *why did you have to do that*, *you never told me that*, *you are hiding something*, *you didn’t even ask me*, *blah blah blah blah blah….* I just had a packet of chips. *burp* I got a headache tonight *Zzzzzz* Standby? Oh the song stand by me you mean? *duh* Honey, we were supposed to go for a movie today. WHAT? WE ARE NOT GOING? WHY? YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO CANCEL IT AT THE LAST MINUTE. DON’T TALK TO ME EVER AGAIN. DO YOU GET THAT? (If you know what we mean)
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TECH ALERT #2
DAHLING, CAN YOU SPOT SOMETHING NEW IN ME TODAY?? *look at my hairdo* “Oh wow! When did you get the new LG OPTIMUS G PRO?” (The sound of a nose bone being cracked is heard aloud in the room. Ouch!)
The second nightmare for a woman is when she spends hours on revamping herself up for her man and he notices something else instead. *sob* Our sympathies are with you ladies but we would like to find out the score on how sexy your new get up really is in front of the ‘other thing’ your man noticed.
THELGOPTIMUSGPRO
THEGIRLFRIEND
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13mega pixel camera focuses well on what I want and gives me the image of what I want to see.
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An internal storage of 2GB expandable upto 32GB. Stores a lot of my important stuff, PS- the stuff relevant to me.
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GPS. *aha!*
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IR remote control for home appliances
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‘I’ want to go for the movies tomorrow and day after we will go to my friend’s birthday. The day after that I have guests at home so I can’t meet you for the big game. Go watch it on your own. On Saturday I have booked tickets to the Bahamas for a ten day trip. Am sure this is the exact picture of how you wanted the next 2 weeks to be honey? (*duh* is she asking me or telling me?) YOU DON’T REMEMBER WHAT I WORE ON OUR FIRST MOVIE DATE? WHAT????? HOW CAN YOU FORGET THE BIRTHDAY OF MY MOTHER’S SECOND COUSIN’S DAUGHTER’S FIANCE? YOU FORGOT THE SECOND SONG YOU SANG FOR ME ON OUR 3RD ANNIVERSARY? DON’T TALK TO ME! *duh* How to get to John’s house? Oh well, ummmm, we take a right and then the first right from here, then another right.. ummm.. yes I got it, then another right after the crossroads! *duh* we will be right back where we are right now! Oh then maybe a left and then a right.. *duh* Dahling, please go change the channel, also lower the temperature of the ac. Oh yes and don’t forget that cake in the microwave. *duh* (Yes we do everything for the one we love but….)
TECH ALERT #3
WHY DO YOU PLAY THESE GAMES WITH ME EVERYTIME WE HAVE TO GO OUT? “One sec sugar, just on the verge of winning again” (a loud noise of a banging door deafens him)
THEPLAYSTATION3
THEGIRLFRIEND
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Unlimited gaming experience! Fun fun and only fun!
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Controls: Left trigger; Right trigger; Dual analog sticks; Select button; Square key; Triangle key; Start button; Circle key; Cross key; Directional buttons
•
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Yes I can lose but I win too a lot many times!
•
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Move gives me motion controlled games!
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*you never understand me* , *why don’t you ever understand me*, *when are you ever going to understand*, *are you not supposed to understand* *DUH* One game on repeat mode. Emotional politics is the name. *sob* Controls?? *duh*
HOW DARE YOU NOT AGREE WITH ME ON THIS? HOW CAN YOU EVEN THINK OTHERWISE? YOU DON’T HAVE A HEART DO YOU? I BET YOU WERE A BULLY GROWING UP…. *duh* (okay baby am sorry, I exist) *blah blah blah blah blah * and you know what else happened? *blah blah blah blah blah* and I couldn’t control my laughter and then *blah blah blah* *DUH* (where is the motion control for the yapping mouth)
Oh my gosh! Now women, it is time to take a deep breath, find an agony aunt and confide in them your tech woes. A better option though will be to explore the techie side of you and indulge in these seductions yourself. The benefit? You get the attention you want, because a techie girlfriend is oh-so-sexy. So after a game on the PS3 or maybe scrolling through the apps on the Optimus, he will not be able to resist you. A way to a geek’s heart is through his tech. Yes it is. And who does not like a Lara Croft from tomb Raider for a girlfriend? The final hours is what you will get! Think about it. By Aneesha Kochar 89 I EXHIBIT I JUNE 2013
The Man With A Century Of Brands Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar The man stands only 5 feet 5 inches tall, but ask any one.. right from a kid in a playground to an old person in a park who is Sachin Tendulkar? There might be very few people in that crowd who might not know who he is, as far as the rest are concerned, in one voice, with a smile they would recollect this demigod of one of the most popular sports in the country-Cricket. Over the last two decades, the man has been the face of more than 100 brands. But there is a lot more behind those bandaged fingers and curly hair. He is not just a genius on field but also a marketing maestro off field. One has to only wonder how could one manage endorsing several big brands like Adidas, Visa, Pepsi, and lots more. The world of cricket has not only given him fame and more than a dozen of Guinness World Records but also a fortune on which he leads a lavish life with ease.
The Opening Overs
If you try going back in time to trace how or when did this man’s career took off, there was never one such moment. Sachin has been a brand that gradually built up over time. Not only that, the man personifies being “Larger Than Life” and being a face that could almost sell anything. Right from health drinks to banking products, brands have attached his face to almost everything. Sachin made his international cricket debut in the year 1989 against Pakistan and had to undergo great struggle to cement his place in the Indian cricket team. Back then, advertising was a medium restricted to actors and so the Little Master did not immediately become a sensation.
Boost was the first one to realize the potential in this teenager and signed him on as the face of their health drink. Pepsi soon followed suit when within two to three years of his debut he became a regular in the first team.
The Powerplay
It was during the period of 1994 - 2011 where his career picked up. After being appointed as the captain in 1997, the team started performing poorly. The Mumbai lad faced a lot of criticism including from those within the team. Azarhuddin, his captain at one point too had stated that “Nahin jeetega! Chote ki naseeb main jeet nahin hai!” But that soon turned around as the wheel of fortune started moving. Most brands around the globe were now dying for his signature and put his “once childlike now the best batsman in the world’s” face on their product packs and hoardings. The year was 1995, when Sachin started playing on front foot in the marketing world. WorldTel signed a Rs. 30 crore (US$5.46 million) sports management deal that would span over five years. His next contract with WorldTel in 2001 was valued at Rs. 80 crore (US$14.56 million) again for a period of five years. In 2006, he signed a contract with Saatchi and Saatchi’s ICONIX valued at Rs. 180 crore (US$32.76 million) for over three years. We are still scratching the surface, what lies underneath is a plethora of brands he has represented.
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The Slog Overs Having won the World Cup with team India, the Champion’s League with Mumbai Indians and having achieved all that he could in the world of Cricket, he decided to hang his boots from the world of One Day International Cricket in 2012. So, the question remained, how would his brands react. While some chose to back out, others with which he has been associated from the very start have hung on. From here where does this man, the largest brand in India goes only time will tell. As for the accolades, the respect, the money this man has managed to gallop is nothing short of amazing.
Honours and Achievements Of The Little Master •
• •
5 National Honours including Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, the highest honour given for achievement in sports. 10 Guinness World Records 7 Authors have written Biographies on him
What The World Thinks About The Messiah Of Indian Cricket
“He is someone sent from up there to play cricket and go back.” - Ravi Shastri
“I watch cricket, not because I understand it, but just to see who is the guy who …when he plays… the productivity of my country drops 50%” - Barack Obama
“Sachin is a genius. I am a mere mortal.” - Brian Lara
“We did not lose to a team called India... we lost to a man called Sachin.” - Mark Taylor
“I have seen GOD, he bats at no. 4 for India in Tests.” - Matthew Hayden “Beneath the helmet, under that unruly curly hair, inside the cranium, there is something we don’t know, something beyond scientific measure. Something that allows him to soar, to roam a territory of sport that, forget us, even those who are gifted enough to play alongside him cannot even fathom. When he goes out to bat, people switch on their TV sets and switch off their lives.”
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Played by Chaitanya Tapase
T
he virtual gaming world has undergone a huge transformation. From cartridge based games to the CD based high definition gaming and the currently evolving motion sensor games, the gaming industry seems to bring the virtual world to life. The gaming consoles are keeping pace with the new age story line of the games that they support. The bold story lines now require consoles that do complete justice to their brilliant graphics and amazing game play.
A few years ago, the average age of the videogame target audience was 13. Today, that age has gone way up. Everyone from teenagers to adults likes to indulge in the games of their choice. There was a time when we had only the 8-bit and 16-bit videogame consoles to choose from â&#x20AC;&#x201C; both running a limited amount of game. Today, we have three frontrunners on the console market, each playing a plethora of games, each unique from the other. This buying guide will take you through the whole process of what and how you should buy a Gaming Console. It will not only tell you about the different parts and features but also expound on the latest Gaming Consoles available in the market. Whether you are a novice gamer or an advanced enthusiast, this buying guide will surely help you choose the right gaming console.
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WhyDoYouNeedA GamingConsole? Gaming Consoles simply spell out convenience which was absent in PC based gaming. We use our computer for work, general web browsing, social networking and a lot more. It is not completely dedicated for games and is just an alternative platform. Gaming consoles on the other hand are loaded with features that have been exclusively dedicated to add life to your gaming experience. You just need to plug the console and enter the virtual story line.
WhatIsAGaming Console? Gaming Consoles are machines that are exclusively dedicated to play games. Unlike personal computers which have a host of other functions, the gaming consoles feature built-in games or support compact disks with games. Gaming consoles have matured from the cartridge and joystick model to high definition CD/DVD gaming and the latest being the motion sensor based gaming consoles. Now-a-days consoles feature internal storage capacity and offer high definition graphic display to offer life-like gaming experience.
DoSpecsReally MatterInA GamingConsole? Okay, this might sound wrong - but let’s take a deep hard look at the history of gaming consoles: past, present and future. The 8th Generation of Video game consoles is upon us, ladies and gentlemen, and gamers these days seem more concerned with having dick-waving contests over which of their favored console has the superior specs and ergo, is superior overall (The same attitude persists constantly with PC gamers, but that’s another subject entirely). If only they could ask themselves this: “When was the last time superior console specs guaranteed it being the more successful console overall? “
Let’s go back a couple generations. The Wii came out and was basically a GameCube with a motion controller, and it sold better than both its clearly beefier rivals. The PS2 was the weakest of the three competing consoles of the 6th generation, and it dominated that entire generation. I could say the same for the PS1, as it sold better despite the presence of stronger tech. This applies doubly so for every portable console Nintendo has gone up against. The Game Boy beat the Game Gear because it was more reliable and had longer battery life. The Nintendo DS outsold the PSP by a fairly large margin, and don’t get me started on the 3DS vs the Vita.
Why do get so wrapped up over the tech when it is ultimately, the games and total use you’ll get out of that console overall that truly matters? We’ve witnessed the launch of the Xbox One recently, and sure on paper it looks formidable. But, if the game play of the titles isn’t exciting and bold enough - would those specs really matter in the end? The same is true with Sony’s PS4, but we’ll have to wait till at least another year to see some initial results. Then wait another year for more concrete results to fall back upon, but if history is anything to go by - the one with the higher specs doesn’t automatically mean it will have more sales to its name.
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HandHeld Gaming Consoles
Motion Sensor Gaming
Hand held gaming consoles originated in the early 1980’s and since then have undergone commendable transformation. Initially available with preloaded games these light weight and compact consoles have been able to accommodate most of the functionalities available in wired gaming consoles. They offer portability and many of the recent models allow you to store games of your choice.
Motion sensitive gaming is the latest and the most innovative form of virtual gaming. The console makes use of accelerometer along with motion sensor to read the gesture and movements of your body, allowing you to interact and control the movements of the characters on screen. The best known among these are the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Kinect for Xbox360 and the PlayStation Move for Play Station 3.
Advantages
Advantages
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• • •
• •
The lightweight and portable design allows you to play games even while travelling It is wire free and you need not connect them to any other device to get started They are relatively inexpensive than other gaming consoles
Freedom of movement while playing games Less complex and easy to play games Gives you complete physical workout
Wired Gaming Consoles
Personal ComputersAnd Laptops
The most popular and widely used consoles, they have defined the generation of video gaming. The inclusion of features like internal storage space, online connectivity, Bluetooth compatibility and ergonomic controls, have revived the cartridge and in-built game consoles. Many major brands like Sony, Microsoft Nintendo and many others have been continuously developing their offerings with a host of add-ons for a well-balanced gaming experience.
The Personal computer and laptops have been doubling up as gaming consoles since we can remember. PC based versions of games are still being created for a large section of gamers who refuse to move onto the modern day consoles. There have been exclusive computers designed for the avid gamers with improved graphic card, RAM, an exclusive gaming keyboard and an effective mouse.
Advantages
Advantages
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It does not require any installation It does not have any system requirement It is easy to rent console games
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Can be used to play games , browse the web, work and for entertainment Do not have to buy an exclusive console only for gaming You can modify the game, edit the maps and much more
Difference between Handheld, Wired and Motion Sensor Gaming Consoles Handheld Gaming Consoles
Wired Gaming Consoles
Motion Sensor Gaming Consoles
Portability
These are lightweight portable devices
They are not easily portable and need a television or monitor access
They are not easily portable and need a television or monitor access
Screen
They have built-in screen
You need to connect it to a Television or monitor
You need to connect it to a television
Gameplay
Play using the gaming controls on the device
Play using the joystick connected to the console
You may either use the hand held motion controller or your body movements to play
Convenience
Perfect for enjoying your games while on the go
Restricts movement as they are connected to the console
Offers free movement within a defined radius
Target Audience
Those who wish to enjoy virtual gaming where ever they go
Those who are not comfortable with motion sensor gaming
Designed for those who want to enjoy a unique gaming experience
Parameters
ACCESSORIES AND PARTS FOR GAMING COMPUTERS Graphics Card
Undoubtedly the single most important factor for a good gaming PC is the graphics card. Without one, you would mostly not be able to even play some games - let alone enjoying them to the most extent. Now, when talking about gaming computers, however - letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ignore the above comment on console specs. Computing specs always matter - and it couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be truer than in the case of gaming PCs. The key feature of any graphics card is the graphics processor, more commonly referred to as the GPU. There are two names you need to know in graphics processors: ATI and NVIDIA. Much like the Intel and AMD duopoly in PC processors, these two manufacturers produce the chips around which others build graphics cards. Generally speaking, the more powerful the GPU the better - gamers may have to switch off some detail settings with a cheaper card, for instance.
Audio Output
Once the visual elements are taken care of by the graphics card, we need to ensure the audio quality is just as good. Naturally, you can boost these by using some audio cards - or invest in a pair of headphones - or both. Sound Cards: If you look at it, a sound card is nothing but a DAC. However, it can be defined in various ways but it is the only parallel that we can draw on to make sense to an audiophile. The only difference here is that, unlike regular audiophile DACs, a sound card offers more utility and operational advantages. Essentially used in conjunction with a computer, the sound card can perform enterprising functions than simply converting digital audio off the computer into streams of analogue audio. Types of Sound Cards While we were searching for a sound card that is capable of delivering the perfect sound that we were looking for, we came across other sound cards that you can make use of as per your audio preference. Plug n Play USB Card These sound cards almost fall in the shoe of DAC sound, and are connected to the computer using a USB cable. They are easy to use with their plug-n-play application, with not much of technical hassle involved. For instance, Asus Xonar Essence One sound card.
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PCI card As the name suggests, PCI or Peripheral Component Interconnect sound cards work as a medium to connect external devices (speakers) to the computer. It is housed in the computer (CPU) and placed in such a way that the entire body of the sound card stays inside the computer with only the I/O ports exposed outside for your perusal. It is advised to have adequate knowledge about the interiors of a CPU to understand its operations better. USB Audio Interface These sound cards are essentially for recording purposes, especially mobile or home recording studios. The exciting part about these soundcards is obviously the added functionality of audio recording backed by the high-quality components. Headphones Headphones for gamers is quite a tricky road to tread. Most gamers want accuracy most of the time, and even a missed bullet sound in the midst of a thunderstorm is unforgivable - hence just being loud and clear is certainly not the only parameter while choosing a headphone. We’ve tested many gaming headphones in the past, but we’ve usually had one or the other gripe with it. Hence we were quite surprised with the results we got from the Creative’s Sound Blaster Tactic3D wireless gaming headset. The headset features SBX Pro Studio audio technologies, which allow you to fully customize every aspect of your headset’s audio settings. SBX Surround positions audio in a 360-degree sound stage, which they claim is more realistic than the standard 7.1 solutions - but that might be stretching it a bit. In any case, they were really accurate at reproducing highs and lows in all kinds of games we threw at it. The only gripe we had with them, was the need to fully charge them for about 7 hours before you can use them for a day of gaming, wirelessly. There is a wired version for the same headset, but that’s not as much fun - especially for gamers who love to jump and move around a bit while playing (You know the types!). The earcups are a bit too large for our liking, but for the sound they produce - this can be overlooked. Of course, the reason for them being so large is the 50mm Neodymium magnet driver running the show. It’s a bit too close to the ear once you wear it, maybe they need to push it back a little so the ear has a bit of breathing space. But the performance in almost every department of this unit was impressive - be it noise cancellation, accurate sound reproduction, true bass and clarity.
Mice
Gaming mice can essentially be the control panel of the entire gaming experience, hence it’s best to think twice before blindly buying a mice that you ‘heard was good’ on some forum, or a friend suggested it to you. Most of us have different playing habits and different ways to hold and operate mice, so it’s best to perhaps try on some of these before actually buying one. Thankfully there are a lot of choices out there from quite a few brands - like Logitech, Razer, Cyborg and Corsair to name a few. While a lot of gaming mice can really improve the responsiveness of your games, many of them fall into the trap of being feature-packed, while forgetting to be comfortable to use. This is especially true when you’re using the mice for tasks other than gaming. The Logitech Optical Gaming Mouse G400 doesn’t have this problem. Two buttons either side of the scroll wheel increase and decrease the DPI sensitivity of the mouse on the fly - a great feature that enables us to tweak the sensitivity of the mouse without having to exit, or even pause, the game we were playing. The four default DPI setting you can scroll through (3600, 1800, 800 and 400 dpi) are varied enough that you’ll notice a difference as you go through them.
Hard Drives
It’s quite easy to assume no matter what Hard Drive you have, the gaming experience might not be that different. It couldn’t have been more wrong. In fact, most games work extremely fluidly on SSD’s than they do on traditional SATA drives. But even in SATA drives - there are so many choices (thankfully!) that you can make, if SSD’s are out of your budget. One example is the WD Velociraptor 1TB drive. Like the previous two generations of VelociRaptor, the WD1000DHTZ is a 2.5-inch drive spinning at 10,000rpm, mounted on an “IcePak” cooler/3.5-inch drive adapter. The latest version has 64MB of cache (up from 32MB) and up to 1TB of storage (up from a maximum of 600GB). Despite its 2.5-inch form factor, it won’t fit in a laptop— the drive is far too thick and power hungry. Khwaja Saifuddin, Senior Sales Director, Middle East, Africa and South Asia, summed it up pretty well for us when he said “Today’s PC games offer intricate plots, ultra-realistic graphics and surround sound, and for the ultimate experience it must be played on a desktop PC comprising top-class components. The 1TB WD VelociRaptor drive offers the performance and capacity that today’s triple A titles demand in a reliable package that’s silent and runs cool, even after hours of intensive use. It’s the ultimate hard drive for demanding gamers.”
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18-Year-Old Indian American Girls Invents A 30-Second PhoneCharging Device
C
ommunication has evolved massively in the recent past. From landline phones to e-mails, and text messaging, the world of telecommunication has now become an absolute essential part of our lives. Today, a switched off phone is the cause of frustration and often makes people feel handicapped.
An average cell phone can take at least 6 to 7 hours to fully get charged. But now, a breakthrough by an 18-year-old science student might enable mobile phones and other batteries to be charged within seconds. Eesha Khare is an 18-year-old student at Lynbrook High School in California, who made a technological discovery that has the potential to change the future of how you use your cell phone. Saratoga-resident Eesha Khare made the breakthrough by creating a small super capacitor that can fit inside a cell phone battery and enable ultra-fast electricity transfer and storage, delivering a full charge in 20-30 seconds instead of several hours. The fast-charging device is a so-called super capacitor, a gizmo that can pack a lot of energy into a tiny space, charges quickly and holds its charge for a long time. “The best part of my project was seeing its practical application. After charging my super capacitor for 20 seconds, I was able to light a LED device and that’s an amazing accomplishment,” said Khare at an engineering fair. It can last for 10,000 charge-recharge cycles, compared to only 1,000 cycles for conventional rechargeable batteries. Her interest in nano-chemistry eventually led to this brilliant discovery. Khare’s invention won her the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award with $50,000 prize money at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, conducted this week in Phoenix, Ariz.
Over 1,600 finalists from around the world competed in the science fair for a $75,000 scholarship grand prize awarded by Intel. Runners-up received $50,000 scholarships. Khare was the runner-up to 19-year-old Romanian student, who created a low-cost artificial intelligence that can drive vehicles. She tied with Louisiana 17-year-old Henry Wanjune, who figured out new ways to measure dark matter and energy in space. Technical specifications: In her project summary, Khare has clearly mentioned her objectives, methods and results. Her goal was to design and synthesise a super capacitor with increased energy density while maintaining power density and long cycle life. She designed, synthesised and characterised a novel core-shell nanorod electrode with hydrogenated TiO2 (H-TiO2) core and polyaniline shell. H-TiO2 acts as the double layer electrostatic core. Good conductivity of H-TiO2 combined with the high pseudo capacitance of polyaniline results in significantly higher overall capacitance and energy density while retaining good power density and cycle life. This new electrode was fabricated into a flexible solid-state device to light an LED to test it in a practical application. Khare then evaluated the structural and electrochemical properties of the new electrode. It demonstrated high capacitance of 203.3 mF/cm2 (238.5 F/g) compared to the next best alternative super capacitor in previous research of 80 F/g, due to the design of the core-shell structure. This resulted in excellent energy density of 20.1 Wh/kg, comparable to batteries, while maintaining a high power density of 20540 W/kg. It also demonstrated a much higher cycle life compared to batteries, with a low 32.5% capacitance loss over 10,000 cycles at a high scan rate of 200 mV/s. Therefore, she successfully managed to introduce this new energy device to replace conventional batteries in flexible electronic devices. Reports suggest that Google has shown interest in her invention.
“With this money I will be able to pay for my college and also work on making scientific advancements,” says Khare after receiving the prize money. Eesha’s invention also has potential applications for car batteries. The nano-tech device Khare created can supposedly withstand up to 100,000 charges, a 100-fold increase over current technology, and it’s flexible enough to be used in clothing or displays on any non-flat surface. When NBC News asked her why she chose to research technology around energy-storage, she simply explained, “My cell phone battery always dies.” Both her parents were jubilant at her win. “We couldn’t believe it. So unreal,” said Reena Khare, Eesha’s mother. “Super exciting,” Manoj Khare, Eesha’s father said. “I will be setting the world on fire,” she told CBS San Francisco.
Eesha Khare with her new invention
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FACEBOOK Home Review By Ipsit Roy
Popularly known as the fast food of the internet, Facebook is fast easy and requires minimal effort and thus has caught the fancy of the youth the world over. For people who live and breathe by the social networking site there is some good news. A new Facebook Home smartphone interface has been launched which makes some minor alterations to a phone’s lock screen and home screen and delivers a lot many more Facebook features. Let us have a look at all the features in brief.
Home Screen
Chat Heads
Cover Feed
It is cool and easy to use. You just need to tap on your profile photo at the bottom of the lock screen and then swipe it left; Facebook messenger will open and you can communicate with your friends through social network. On the downside there is no place to take a photo and post a status update. This is quite surprising because camera shortcuts are quite common these days in smartphones. Hope they improve this one soon.
This clever feature shows Facebook messages from your friends with any app that you use. The unique thing about this feature is that you do not need to go to another app to respond to those messages and you can reply them right there with any app you are using. It is a huge time saver when one can just chat while doing other things at the same time.
The cover feed is easily the most salient feature of Face book home. In a fun innovation, the phone’s lock screen displays the photos and updates of friends that would constantly glide by when the phone is awake. The other advantage is that you can like or comment on a picture or status directly from the screen. Additionally, you can just tap on the small profile picture of your friend to get directly transferred to their profile page.
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Additionally, you don’t even need Facebook Home to get this feature as the company has also rolled out an update for its Messenger Android Apps which adds Chat heads hence allowing you to multitask.
For those people who are glued to Facebook day in and day out, this cover feed actually combines both times saving and time wasting. For now there are no ads in the cover feed but you can be rest assured that they would come up soon enough.
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A Gaming Industry Insight With Maxime Beland
Maxime Beland was a creative director at Ubisoft Montreal and is current creative director at Ubisoft Toronto. He previously worked on Tom Clancyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Rainbow Six: Vegas and Splinter Cell: Conviction, and now is the creative director for Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Here he is, in conversation with us on things related to gaming which are close to his heart.
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Splinter Cell has been one of the most successful action - adventure games over the past few years. How does it feel to be associated with them? MB: It’s always an honour and a privilege to work on a big franchise like Splinter Cell. It also comes with a big responsibility since there are such high expectations from the fans and from our own team. But we are really excited about Splinter Cell Blacklist and what we’ve achieved so far. We are truly innovating from the roots of the franchise with this Splinter Cell,but we’re also expanding the game, adding huge breadth and scope for players. How has your journey with Ubisoft been so far? MB: I’ve been with Ubisoft for 15 years and it’s been a journey of passion and emotion. Making games is like a rollercoaster ride full of highs and lows. It can become tiring of course, but at the end of the day, it’s always hugely rewarding to work on big projects and see the reactions of fans. When creating a game as grand as Splinter Cell, how do you go on to pick the right people to recruit? Be it a designer or a game tester, what is the process? MB: The two most important things that I look for when picking talent to work on my team are intelligence and passion. To me, they are both essential and equally important. Splinter Cell Blacklist has created immense buzz in the gaming arena, what is so different this time around? MB: With Splinter Cell Blacklist, we’ve put a lot of effort into letting the players choose their own way to play. Every map in the game supports our three different playstyle choices – Ghost, Panther, or Assault. Games are about being in control, so we’ve made sure that this is fully incorporated throughout Splinter Cell Blacklist. This time around, we have also included a full customization system linked to our universal economy system so players can customizeSam Fisher’s op suit, the goggles,Sam’s weapons and gadgets, and even the Paladin, to support the way they want to play. How big is the team that works on one game and what is the amount of time invested behind creating something as grand as this? MB: We are over 400 people strong working on Splinter Cell Blacklist worldwide. We lead the brand here at Ubisoft Toronto and also
work very closely with Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Shanghai. In addition, we also have teams in Ubisoft Bucharest and Ubisoft Pune testing and tweaking the game. I joined the Splinter Cell Blacklist team at the same timeas I joinedUbisoft Toronto, in April 2010. So it’s been just over three years of development, and we are very excited to get the game into the hands of our fans. What is “Killing in Motion” all about in Splinter Cell Blacklist? MB: In Splinter Cell Blacklist, Killing in Motion is not a feature, but a gameplay philosophy. The introduction of Killing in Motion completely rebuilds how Sam Fisher, moves through the world, and how he takes down his enemies. We’ve added three elements to support Killing in Motion – active sprint, Mark and Execute in motion, and takedowns in motion. Once players master Killing in Motion, they will be able to play seamlessly through the environment, taking out enemies quickly and efficiently. We took great care in Splinter Cell Blacklist to allow the player to really feel like they are Sam Fisher and it’s a powerful feeling when they gain access to all of Sam’s abilities in the game. How important is character creation in a game? This time around we have Anna ‘Grim’ Grímsdóttir. How critical is it that people can relate to them? MB: Good stories depend on interesting, relatable characters. In Splinter Cell Blacklist, Sam Fisher moves from lone wolf to pack leader of Fourth Echelon. The dynamics between the 4th Echelon team are important to our story in Blacklist, not only to showcase Sam as leader,but to also really go deep into the dynamic tensions that build and evolve over the course of the game. We were really excited when we foundEric Johnson to act as Sam Fisher - we knew we had found someone strong and powerful enough for the role. Right away, we knew that we had to find an actress who could play Grim in a way that could hold her own with Sam. This requires a smart and powerful woman, which we definitely found with Kate Drummond. She has a presence and the power to look Sam Fisher right in the eyes and tell him when he is wrong or when he is right. I’m really proud of the actors. They’ve allowed us to tell what I think is our most emotional and relevant story in the series to date. In general, what is your opinion on the gaming industry? MB: I think what’s exciting about the gaming industry is that the level of quality in games
has really increased over the past couple of years, while the range of games has also expanded like crazy. In one single day, I will play a mature action-adventure game and then turn around and play two iPhone games or a Facebook game. There’s so much good content on so many different platforms. We are constantly finding ways of being entertained and have a lot of different options of games tailored to certain moods. As a gaming territory, how crucial is India for gaming giants like Ubisoft? MB: We live in a connected world. No matter where you are sitting, where you live, you are important to us. You are a voice and a player who can get excited about games – and that gets our team pumped up. According to you where is the gaming industry headed? With the growing piracy concerns, how can gaming companies tackle it? MB: Piracy is not only a problem for the gaming industry, but for the whole entertainment industry. I hope that we’re looking at a future that will allow the fans amazing access to our products while also compensating game developers for the long hours and hard work we put into creating them. I see a world where everybody is paying for great content that is convenient and always accessible. This will allow us as game creators to continue to provide bigger and better content, and exciting new ways, for our fans to play games.
“
We live in a connected world. No matter where you are sitting, where you live, you are important to us.
”
GamingFUN DesigningPLEASURE Indian Gaming IndustryUBISOFT PUNE Gaming Industry AbroadEXCITING UbisoftCONTROLLED CREATIVE CHAOS Splinter CellSAM FISHER 103 I EXHIBIT I JUNE 2013
ABSTRACT PHOTOGRAPHY
By Chaitanya Tapase
When you have a camera with a good lens in your hand, you can be an artist with the whole world as your canvas. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t let limitations of your camera, or the surroundings, or lighting conditions dampen your spirits. As long as you have a creative imagination, all these things might just be a hindrance you are creating for yourself. Look beyond them and there might be a world just waiting to be captured, creatively. To be showcased in ways that people never imagined before. Welcome to the world of Abstract Photography.
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What Is Abstract Photography? Handily, there isn’t really a defined meaning or explanation of what abstract photography entails, and in the same regard to abstract art, the content of the work is essentially unimportant and often entirely ambiguous. What does take precedence is the form, colour, line and texture within the composition, to create a piece that is visually stimulating. With regard to abstract photography, you don’t need any sort of special equipment, just a camera, any camera you like, and your imagination. Sure, you can add some equipment to make your vision more creative, but even if you don’t have any - don’t let that stop you. That’s the whole point we will try and make during our description of this wonderful and amusing art of photography.
It’s all in the approach So how does one go about taking abstract photographs? The first thing to remember is to keep your eyes open for interesting and engaging subject matter. Whenever I shoot abstract shots, I’m always attracted to the subject matter instinctively; something about it will catch my eye and draw me in. React emotionally to the subject, consider why you were attracted to it and how it makes you feel and this will inform how you photograph it. Spend time with the subject, think outside the box and approach it in a means that you would not really approach it, from different angles and regardless of its usual purpose. There aren’t any given camera settings to recommend as each subject and circumstance will vary greatly, but don’t be afraid to stick your camera on manual and try out different shutter speeds and f-stops in order to reveal the true potential of your subject. Remember - YOU are the one making the drawing, so don’t use creative filters! This is a strict NO-NO for Abstract Photography, where you are simply taking the image in a manner that one would normally not even think about - and then cropping and perhaps adding slight post-editing effects to accentuate certain parts that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.
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break the rules! It’s important to consider what elements of your subject that you want to engage with in order to enhance your shot. Use your imagination, stop thinking about the subject in its literal form, forget all the photographic preconceptions and get creative. It can be quite a challenge to do away with established photographic concepts, the rules regarding composition and exposure, but instead use the subject as an artistic means, almost as if you had a blank canvas in which to express yourself artistically. It’s now time to think about how you can maximise the features and detail within the subject, the line, texture, colour and form. It might take you several tries to get the exact framing and lighting right for the image you’ve been trying to capture, but the point is to not get disheartened. Remember the golden saying ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ and keep focussing on getting that perfect shot in a day. Even the most experienced of photographers struggle sometimes to perfect a shot they’ve been thinking about, but with a few adjustments and a few tries later - they get there. Expressing your thoughts through the lens is the most important thing here, so also remember - not to copy an image that you saw somewhere and really liked. You are the artist when you hold that camera, so make the most of it.
pattern AND LINE The first key element to look at is the pattern and lines within your subject. Look carefully at your subject and consider whether there are any reoccurring shapes or themes with the object and use these to your advantage. I always like to try shooting an object very straight and symmetrical; to get a clinical structured feel that I feel would enhance the affect of a pattern, but you can also try shooting at angles that counter the pattern. Also look at the lines and edges of the subject, are they straight or curvy, do they lead into the shot, through the shot or away from the shot. Line can be used very effectively in photography as the eye will tend to follow a line through a shot from its origin to its end, so consider how you might want to engage the viewer and where you’d like to lead them. The only thing to be a little careful of, especially while shooting horizontal lines, is the moiré effect. Basically it is the undesired aliasing effect whereby false patterns can be observed in an image. There are quite a few anti-aliasing filters available for DSLR camera lenses, but you might need to do a bit of research to fully understand what kind will work with your camera the best.
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form The form or shape of a subject will play a crucial role in how you approach your subject. Assess the form carefully and think about which aspects of the subject you want to exploit, for example, is it very straight and formulaic, does it lots of curves and imply movement or is it a natural object whose form will change over time? Decide whether you want the form of the subject as a whole to be within the image or whether you want to focus in on one particular area of interest. Also think about whether there are any recognisable shapes that you can work with, be it circles, triangles or hexagons, use them to your advantage!
Colour Colour is probably the strongest visual element to an abstract shot, it draws the viewer in and the colour of a subject will immediately inform the viewer as to what they are looking at and form assumptions and a mood setting in their mind. Try and use colour as an expression, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the best and easiest means to make your shots attractive to the eye and just as in a painting, think carefully about how you use colour to bring certain aspects of the piece to the fore.
Working with architecture Architecture makes for extremely interesting abstract subject matter, especially commercial buildings and modern structures designed for public use, as they often have distinctive shape, form and lines which are very easy to exploit. Older buildings tend to appear far more structured and are often symmetrical in nature, but this can be used to your advantage as you try to pick out patterns to use in your shot. Newer buildings are likely to be far more diverse, with odd angles, curves, large planes of solid colour and far more glass. Ensure you spend time with a building, explore it inside and out (you may have to ask permission to shoot inside) and take advantage of the architects design work!
Abstract AND Macro Another technique that works very well when trying to achieve abstract shots is working in macro. Many abstract shots are of subject matter that would be totally recognisable if it were shot from a distance, but the photographer has chosen to close in on a specific area of interest, maybe because of its texture or colour. In this case, ensure that you fill your viewfinder with the subject matter; you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want any blank spaces in your shot. Again, think about the angle at which you approach the subject, for example, the most common way to shoot a flower is from above, to see the detail in the centre, but maybe you could try shooting from below up towards the light and see what results you get.
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yOU’RE AN ARTIST! As I mentioned previously, abstract photograph is quite different to most other types of photography in that it’s centred on the artistic expression of the photographer, which is worth bearing in mind, especially with regard to the fact that it’s not always going to be obvious what your shot is of. Don’t expect people to see your abstract shots in the same way as you do. I love it when people have to ask me what the content of an image is or think it’s of something totally different to what it is actually of, because they’re seeing it in a totally different way to me, it’s an intriguing insight into them and their approach to the work. I find my abstract work to be very personal, I’ve picked out that subject, the approach, the angle, the exposure and the beauty of it is that few people would approach it in the same way, it’s a very personal expression.
Get out a give it a go! So now it’s time to get out there and give it a try for yourself. Plan a couple of photo trips out to places you’ve not been to before and keep your eyes open for subjects that catch your attention. In a new place you will be surrounded by new photographic opportunities, so take your time and really engage with the subjects you choose. I always like to use my 50mm prime lens for outings such as these, purely because it’s quick and has a nice wide aperture that really helps when trying to achieve artistic results. Failing all this, just make sure you have a camera with you at all times so you’re ready to snap away at anything of interest that you may find on your travels!
CAMERA RECOMMENDATIONS Nokia D5200 24.1 Megapixels CMOS APS-C Sensor with 3 inch LCD Screen MRP: `41,450/- (Body only)
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Canon EOS 600D 18 Megapixel Camera CMOS APS-C Sensor 3 inch TFT Colour LCD Screen MRP: `30,995/- (Body only)
HEAVY Gadgets
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How TO:
Secure Your Blackberry With Blackberry Protect We have come across several independent apps for devices running on Android and iOS operating systems. Protecting your Blackberry is important, especially if you are have invested somewhere close to 40K (Z10) in buying it. All Blackberry’s posses the Blackberry Protect app, which is a free service offered by Blackberry and allows you to locate a lost or stole Blackberry device.
So, how to make What Can It Do? optimum use of it? Go to settings and select Blackberry Protect. The service is turned off by default. You’ll need to be signed into your BlackBerry ID on the device. If you need a BlackBerry ID, you can sign up for one here.
So, whenever you do misplace your Blackberry, or have it stolen all you need to do is visit protect. blackberry.com and attempt at locating the device. •
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You can trace the GPS location of your Blackberry device thus helping you to figure in which part of the country or the world is your prized possession situated. What could be more annoying than having a loud alarm. Simply trigger the alarm and you can attempt at locating your device by tracing the sound. If not that then at least the one who flicked your phone is in some serious trouble as the sound would attract several suspicious looks, Sending out a warning via displaying a custom message would not be a bad idea too. For all you know, your phone could be sold off to someone and the person would want to return it or help in catching the one who sped away with your Blackberry. You could lock it with a new password. This would render the device to turn into nothing more than a bar of soap unless the password is figured out. Tough for someone who dashes with a Blackberry isn’t it? At times, data could be more precious than the phone itself. The Blackberry Protect allows you to erase all data from the website too.
How TO:
ROOT YOUR SAMSUNG GALAXY S4 The root entails many risks and if you don’t perform the procedure correctly, you could find yourself with an unusable phone. That being said, this method won’t have the consequence of loss of data, but caution is advised! Save all of your files beforehand. Neither Exhibit nor I will be held responsible for any damages incurred on your phone. It should also be signalled that Samsung’s warranty might be null and void after doing this. If something were to go wrong during the procedure (you unplug the chord accidentally, for example), there aren’t any custom ROMs at the moment, though they should start appearing in the next few days. In conclusion, be very careful and follow all of the instructions. The rooting method presented here doesn’t work with the software version of the Galaxy S4 ending with the letters MDM. This version will be installed along with the update of about 80 MB. Download the files necessary for the root here: http://goo.gl/gHxTx
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Decompress the motochopper.zip file that you’ve just downloaded.
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Activate the developer options on your Galaxy S4 by pressing on the Build Number several times (7x ) found under ‘’About Device’’.
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Under the ‘’More’’ tab, you’ll find the ‘’Developer options’’, in which you’ll check the box for USB debugging. After that, simply confirm.
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Connect your Galaxy S4 to your PC and wait until Windows has correctly installed all of the drivers (this can take a few minutes).
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Once the S4 is properly recognized, go to the motochopper file and launch the run.bat file.
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Once the command prompt screen pops up, click on any key to continue.
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A message will appear on your Galaxy S4, to which you click OK. After a short while of waiting, you’ll be asked again to click on any key. Your S4 will restart.
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Congratulations! Your Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-i905 has been rooted!
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How TO:
Keep Your Kids Safe On Their Android Devices! Android has in the last few years become the fastest adopted operating software. It is on your phone, your tablet and also in your kid’s hand. For your kids especially it is equivalent to having a toy. How many times during the day does your young one ask for your mobile so that he can play Temple Run on it? And how can you possibly and completely ensure that it is only Temple Run that he will use? The Android platform is as vast as the World Wide Web and equally capable of permanently harming your kid if not responsibly used. But kids are kids, and they are still to learn to tell the right from wrong, or what is beneficial and what is harmful? But there is no need to worry. The same technology which seems like a bane for your kids also has its solutions. So how are you going to protect your child from the Android monsters lurking at the click of an app? Here are some application which will help keep that monster at bay and put your mind at ease. Choose your app according to your own specific need. After all the question is of your child’s safety and your peace of mind.
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Mobile Spy
This app offers a call interception feature and all you need is to set up a pin no. on your android phone. Whenever you want to hear in all you need to message your pin and the no. you want to call.
Kids Mode and Kids Place
These two apps help locking your device and preventing your child from accessing all that she should not. Like your mails, call logs, random sites etc. And they also customize the front page of your device according to your child’s age and ability.
Norton Safety Minder
Helps parents track and as well block websites viewed by their children. Search history and attempts to access various sites can be viewed.
Life360
This app helps track down family members using Android phone to ensure their safety.
SMS Backup+
You can easily setup an account in the app on your kid’s device, then all the data will be synced with mail address you used to set it up. You will be able to access log details of your kid.
App Notifier
This app sends you mail whenever a new App is downloaded and will also block applications from being downloaded. Install it on your and your kid’s device that prevent her from downloading what she shouldn’t.
You can also use some other apps like Phone Control, Norton Family Online, MamaBear, NetAddictFree, Cell Police, MMGaurdian and many others which almost have the same functions as above.
How TO:
enable the new Hangouts in Gmail The 6th annual Google I/O developer conference on May 15th, 2013 came up with many surprises. There were many announcements made by Larry Page and some mind blowing improvements by Google overall. Google came up with an extended version of “Google Talk” called Hangouts. This application lets users connect and communicate with our friends and colleagues in multi-user video rooms. Users might use Hangouts to hold a business meeting, discuss a particular topic, or just have a fun filled multi-user video chat. Hangouts let you share your computer screen so other people in the hangout can see what’s on your screen. You can choose to share any open window on your computer. You can also share Google Drive files and collaborate to write meeting notes or draw on a shared whiteboard. In addition, Google+ Hangouts are integrated with Google Calendar. Users can add hangouts to their calendar events and join hangouts directly from the calendar event or event reminder. When creating a hangout, you can choose which group of contacts, or circles, you want to invite to your video chat. A post will then appear on all relevant streams letting people know that a hangout is happening and it will list all the people currently participating. It’s worth keeping in mind that hangouts are created by one user, but everyone that’s invited can invite others to your video chat. Also, it’s impossible to kick people out of a hangout. One of the main benefits of Google Hangouts is that as long as you (and those you’re talking to) are on Google+, you can start a video chat in just a few clicks, and in a matter of seconds.
Pros Browser-based, so nearly anyone on any system or web browser can use Google Hangouts. It is incredibly intuitive so anyone can easily start using this video chatting service. Voice and video quality are also great. The YouTube integration makes Google Hangouts fun to use.
Cons The need for an invitation to Google+ to get started. If there’s a user being inappropriate during a hangout, they can be reported but not kicked out of the video chatting session. Also, on first use, you may need to update your plug-ins and restart your browser.
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How TO:
Transfer a Movie From an iPad to an iPhone Both the iPad and iPhone allow you to record HD video, but videos recorded on one device are not automatically shared to the other. If you have recorded a movie on your iPad and would like to have access to that video on your iPhone, the fastest method for sharing it from one device to another is taking advantage of Apple’s iMessage service. This allows you to send the video via Wi-Fi, without the need to connect or sync the devices.
Via iMessage
Via iTunes
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Tap the “Messages” app on your iPad. Enter your Apple ID when prompted and then touch “Sign In.”
Touch the new message button, which looks like a piece of paper with a pencil over it.
Enter the phone number for your iPhone in the “To” field. Touch the camera icon to the left of the message box to open the attach menu.
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Select “Choose Existing” followed by “Camera Roll” to see a list of all movies on your iPad.
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Touch the video you wish to transfer and tap “Choose.” Touch “Send” to share the video. As soon as the video uploads, it appears as a new message on your iPhone.
Connect the iPad to your computer with an Apple USB sync cable.
Click “Choose what happens with this device” if you’re using Windows or open iMovie if you’re using OS X.
Tap “Import Photos and Videos” to transfer videos from iPad to Windows 8. OS X users should click the movies they wish to import in iMovie and click “Import Selected.” Save the movies from your phone to a convenient location, like the desktop or your usual movies folder.
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Disconnect the iPad and connect your iPhone via the USB sync cable. Open iTunes.
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Select your iPhone from the device drop-down in the upper right side of iTunes.
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Select the “Photos” tab and click the check box next to “Sync Photos From.” Click the drop-down and select the folder that contains your imported videos.
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Click the check box next to “Include Videos.” Click “Apply” to begin the sync
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They’ve gone against the cliché notion that it is the men who rule the tech world. These are women, and stunning ones at that, who have proven people wrong by ruling the tech world. These ‘Stunning Ladies’ from the tech world range right from founders, co-founders, Producers, Host, Writers, Bloggers and so on and have, with their idiosyncratic innovations stunned the tech world, too. In this feature, Exhibit brings to you a list of Ten Stunning Women from the Tech World and gives you details you never knew! (Caution: Please don’t ‘tech’ them for granted!) Words By Garvita Sharma
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s kids, many of us have been attracted to our teachers, and the Russian Philologist, Marina Orlova comes in as a hot addition to the list. By conducting online Philology lessons, she makes words and phrases worth learning.
When in 2006 she sent cat and dog videos to her parents in Russia through Youtube, she started researching as to why Google purchased it for $ 1.65 billion. At the same time, she saw many people getting famous through Youtube, with newspapers writing about them. While they didn’t make money, it was the fan following that intrigued her, serendipity, which introduced her to the tech world and the magic of Youtube that pushed her. A self-confessed “terrible singer”, she didn’t even see dancing as an option to start her journey on Youtube. Thus, by explaining words and phrases she started posting videos every week and building her audience every day. “For a year I didn’t make any money. Then YouTube called me and told me to switch the category from “education” to “entertainment” and my life changed! It turned out that advertisers didn’t want to spend money on “educational” content, and BAM! I went from earning $200 dollars a month to $15,000! Fast-forward to 5 years later and half a billion people have watched my online lessons. I remember I got so excited when the first 120,000 people watched my videos. That’s actually the amount of people that live in my town in Russia!” While she finds staring and typing on the phone throughout quite annoying, Marina confesses that she’s constantly on the phone even while having a bath. She says, “I don’t read the actual newspaper anymore as I have my twitter feed delivered to me as my own digital newspaper called “The Marina Orlova Daily”! I hate watching the ever so negative news. People need to create their own positive news. What THEY are interested in hearing; not what the media wants them to know.” Ask her what women bring to the table that men don’t and she laughs it off, saying, “I think it’s funny how men believe technology belongs to them, that they have this “Let’s fix the problem” sense and think women are supposed to be in the kitchen and bedroom only. A man’s brains tend to perform tasks predominantly with the left side of the brain, which is the logical side. Women, on the other hand, use both sides of their brains because a woman’s brain has a larger corpus callosum, which means we can transfer data between the right and left hemispheres faster than men!” CAA, one of Hollywood’s top talent agencies and Vin Di Bona, one of the biggest Hollywood Television producers are pitching a TV show inspired by HotForWords to all the television Networks right now! And Marina, quite kicked about the idea, has been busy painting and recording the same.
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Marina Orlova Claim to fame: Internet Celebrity (Host), HotForWords Favorite holiday destinationDuring summers, it is French Riviera while in Winters it could be an uninhabited island in the middle of nowhere How do you unwind after a long day?Massage and hot Lavender bath The most anticipated/awaited gadgeApple TV The most expensive thing ever purchased onlinePay my rent. Does that count?
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t takes a girl’s mind to know a girl’s confusion. And when Marissa Evans started up ‘Go Try It On’ in the year 2010, she knew exactly what she was talking about. Putting an end to the age old questions “What do I wear?”, “Does this look good on me?”, the 29 year old young CEO always wanted to start up her own company to see what it would be like to make a product and see it work. The app allows users to seek and give advice to other users, browse for trends and add up to their wish list. Elegant, dynamic and organized this girl surely has a mind of her own. Before starting up with her own venture, she was already a part of a digital agency where she was consulting with big names from the tech industry. While there, she always had her eyes, ears and mind open to take in the new developments that were taking place in the mobile space and gradually knew of the possibilities she could explore. This striking girl with a vision and mission wishes for a day when she can just carry her phone and make all her purchases through apps. Ask her about a women’s role in the tech world and she promptly replies, “I consider what I bring to the tech world an accumulation of my own experiences and biases. The fact that I’m a woman is just another lens through which I look at the world. I’m from the East Coast, come from a small family and thus my perspective on what consumer’s needs and wants are come from my own observations and the way I’ve seen the world. I think each person brings a unique set of reflections to their work and being a woman can be helpful especially when you are building products for other females.” According to her, her biggest accomplishment has been launching Go Try It On, building out a team and growing the company since the past three years. “It’s a hyper-competitive space where barriers to entry are very low. I’m proud we’ve come as far as we have.” The young entrepreneur wants to continue learning and working with smart, passionate and innovative people.
MARISSA EVANS
Claim to fame: CEO, Go Try It On
Reading blogs and tech articles, meeting people from the industry over a cup of coffee is how she keeps herself updated. “It doesn’t exactly feel like work…That’s how I know I’m in the right industry”, she signs off!
A gadget you cannot function withoutMacbook Air A gadget that you bought and immediately regrettedApple TV…I just wasn’t ready for it. The most expensive thing you have ever purchased online?Probably a pair of shoes
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self-proclaimed geek’s geek, the socially active and young Amanda Mackay studied Broadcast Journalism form the British Columbia Institute of Technology. Having hosted a variety of Tech shows, Amanda’s inclination towards tech along with her captivating personality has helped her gain recognition as an expert in Video Game Journalism. She took her first steps in tech while working in the Vancouver Film Industry and starting off her career in the newsroom of Global TV in the city. The efforts that she put in the research while there introduced the idea of hard news. When she started interning with MTV Canada holding cue cards for Brian Adler, Amanda would have hardly imagined being his co-host in the near future. Shortly, she co-hosted MTV Select and hosted MTV International’s World Chart Express along with producing content, writing and editing segments on a wide variety of topics. It was post this that she landed a job as the cohost of G4’s weekly news show “Pulse” and her contact with the videogame industry increased. While working on “Hardcore Candy”, a show that highlighted the best in women’s action sports, the Producers at Fuel TV offered her to co-host the live red carpet pre-show for “Arby’s Action Sports Awards” and another charity event. The firebrand woman that she is, she moved to Gametrailers.com, a videogame website that was still trying to set its foot firm in the industry, without any inhibitions. She hosted and produced many projects for the website and helped in creating original videos for the same. Here, she hosted “GT Weekly” and “GameONE” along with her regular role of reporting. An expert in video game journalism, she became a part of the MTV family once again when Gametrailers was acquired by Viacom. She began contributing to Spike TV’s flagship videogame show “GameHead”, which along with GameOne merged to become GameTrailers TV (GTTV). Not just limited to video games, she also hosts segments on Spike TV, covering Sundance Film Festival and occasionally also switches on in front of the camera as an actress.
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Amanda Mackay Claim to fame: Journalist, Model, TV Host
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oung, vivacious, pretty along with being a visionary as well, New Media Journalist, Reality TV Personality and an Entrepreneur, Hermione Way started Newspepper.com, an Internet Video Production Company and social media management in 2007, while she was still studying journalism at London Metropolitan University.
Her disappointment towards Journalism students not being taught skills required to become a successful reporter coincided with the frustration of lack of paid work experiences. She also figured out that there was a commercial need of video by people and there were many who could provide the same cost-effectively made her come up with this idea. Thus she clubbed all of this together and came up with a solution in the form of a viable business model, whereby she thought of providing paid work experience and training to journalists with experience. She figured out quite early that online reporting was the way ahead for effective journalism. Being at her successful best, success for her is as she says, “Knowing that Newspepper has helped many others achieve their goals… I started Newspepper during the recession and still managed to get big name clients such as the BBC, Channel 4 and Facebook on board.” For someone who thinks that there are not enough women to look up to in business, she advices women to just go for it. “Starting is the hardest thing and there’s no right or wrong way to do it; anyway what have you got to lose?” She believes that with the advent of the Internet, which has been the biggest revolution in communications, there are a lot of opportunities in the world to explore. A dedicated user of Twitter, Facebook and Youtube on a daily basis, she also makes the most of Instagram and utility apps like Uber Cab, Zipcar and Banking.
Hermione Way
Claim to fame: Founder, Newspepper.com and Techfluff.tv
A firm believer in the power of social media, she thinks, “the line between Personal and Business life is blurring with the advent of social media because we are always connected all of the time. Women have always been more social than men… The biggest demographic on Facebook is women and I think social media is another way for women to connect with each other and stay social - a trait that comes naturally to females.” Along with this, she also started up Techfluff TV that showcases the livelier and more vibrant side of Europe’s tech scene, tech interviews, reviews and features on latest startups and entrepreneurs. Hermione is the anchor, presenter and uses a team of local correspondents to report on technology and social media developments. In the year 2012, she launched a global start-up competition called StartUpWorld. Given that she has accomplished so much, it should hardly be a surprise that tech is in her genes. Hermione’s brother Ben is an eminent entrepreneur who is involved with her work at Newspepper. The two have together developed Golgnite, a health and lifestyle Smartphone app and Smartphone hardware while they were on a TV reality show.
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his charming lady talks money and about money like a pro. That there’s a difference between controlling the “money spent” and “handling one’s finances” is something that she understood quite early in life (while studying, that is).
Thus, after her graduation at Harvard College, Alexa took up a job with Morgan Stanley and later leveled up and moved to Drop.io as a Business Head. While she enrolled at the Harvard Business School, her idea of starting up with LearnVest made her drop out of there, and in the year 2009, she started up with this venture. A Certified Financial Planner, LearnVest helps people in controlling their money. The 29 year old’s plans never included having content centered around women; it was just a starting point. In fact her idea was to create the first-ever affordable financial planning company. But how it eventually turned out both in her as well as her project’s favor is something worth noting. Within a span of three years, Von Tobel’s startup had 90 employees, $25 million in Venture Capital Funding and tried decoding the mystery by advising not just women but everyone – right from millionaires to those in debt – on how to plan budgets and the psyche that goes behind spending and saving. Thus, the young Tobel became a media star overnight and became synonymous with Learnvest. That the young lot is restless is just a myth now and the focused Alexa, with her dazzling looks is just raring to go! After all, being featured under the list of ‘Women Changing the World’, ‘America’s Coolest Young Entrepreneurs’ is no mean feat! Speaking of the people her business attracts, Alexa says that passionate people, who want to help people with their finances and realize that their services can truly change people’s lives. The best part about her job, as she says, is knowing that people now have to worry less about their finances and can concentrate more on their personal life. For someone who loves her business, she confesses that though she works throughout the week, including the weekends, she is still not a workaholic, as it doesn’t feels like work.
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Alexa Von Tobel Claim To Fame: Founder, CEO, LearnVest.com
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ot everyone can keep you entertained and entertained for long. But coming from a family of entertainers has its own share of advantages. Granddaughter of Singer Pat Boone and niece of Singer and theater actress Debby Boone, Jessica Corbin is every bit the entertainer that her genes ask of her. The other half of the FEMPIRE founding team, her experience helped her launch the TV, Production and Publication part of the same. An athlete in high school, the lovely Jessica Corbin graduated as a Bachelor of Science in Sociology. When a position at Tech TV opened up, Jessica, having interned at several places, joined the network and produced ‘The Screen Savers’ along with hosting the same at times. However when Tech TV was sold to another cable outlet her show was cancelled and she took some time off to travel and figure out what’s next. A fitness enthusiast, she wanted to flex her entrepreneurial muscles. She says, “While covering CES in 2010, I saw that fitness technologies were on the rise. I decided to not wait any longer and launched my own Smartphone App called Vitness Rx that assesses your vitality level via bio-marker called Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and gives you corresponding fitness prescriptions ideal for your body on a daily basis.” Also been a part of the movie circuit with her series ‘Movie Fanatix’, she has interviewed top most celebs like Ben Affleck, Will Smith, Cameron Diaz, Halle Berry and Arnold Schwartzennegar. She has also acted in the movie ‘One More Round’ that released in 2005. Having hosted and co-hosted Tech series like Revision3, Tekzilla, The Digg Reel she made many guest appearances several Tech shows. Jessica’s business strategy is to pay attention to innovators and Tech Reporters who bring a seasoned eye to the changing landscape. “A podcast connoisseur, I rely on something like TWiT (TWiT.tv) to keep me up to date.”
Jessica Corbin
Claim To Fame: Founder, Vitness Rx
A gadget that you bought and immediately regrettedA talking alarm clock Your method to unwind and relax after a long day’s workYoga or a cocktail The most anticipated/awaited gadgetGoogle Glasses The most expensive thing you have ever purchased online?HD Panasonic video camera for 5k
Speaking of women’s role in an organization, she says, “Some people feel threatened by woman who’s both beautiful and powerful. Women should continue to bring their power, intelligence, grace and compassion to the table. Instead of the gender clashes, I think it’s more of masculine v/s feminine. There are women who have masculine essence and men who have feminine essence and essence is what matters the most! Masculine leadership is generally directional and aimed at acquiring things, while the feminine, in contrast, is excellent at fostering community and connection. Both are essential for a business to be successful. The realm of feelings and emotions is very accessible and a necessary skill when trying to create campaigns, products, experiences that move people.” Creating products and services that spread good health and wellness keeps her happy. As she rightly says, “Vitality is not in a pill, it’s a practice.”
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hen your m o t h e r has been a Vice-President at Coleco, (the c o m p a ny behind home console game systems in the ‘80s), and your dad has been an Engineer, it should hardly be a surprise that you’ll take the same route. And thus we have Veronica Belmont, a well-known gaming-centric video host. A geek by heart and gamer by choice, she’s proud about the fact that she built a career that is surrounded by ideas and topics that makes it a lot more fun. A passionate gamer and social-networking fan (with almost 16 lakh plus followers), the elegant and smart Veronica Belmont has also worked as an emcee at various events. Besides this, she has also been an advisor at WeGame, Goodreads, Soundtracking, About.me and many others. She kick started her career as an intern producing audio content for CNET Networks and was hired as a full-timer after six months to produce their series titled “First Look from the Labs” and “Buzz Out Loud”. Veronica, who had studied Audio Production and New Media Studies at Emerson College, Boston, originally worked as a sound engineer and Producer of the show and from thereon, her role on the podcast grew substantially. After leaving CNET, she joined Mahalo and hosted and produced her own podcast, ‘Mahalo Daily’. Soon, she resigned from there too, started working with the Revision3 staff as a co-host of Tekzilla and within a month’s time, became the host for Tekzilla Daily Tip. Last year, she began hosting ‘Fact or Fictional’, a short format show on Revision3’s Youtube channel techfeed that examines technology from popular fictional media and determines if the technology is/could be real. She considers Smartphone as the most innovative invention and feels that it has made staying in touch a lot easier. A firm believer in Social Media, she feels it’s a great way to stay in touch and get an immediate feedback on the work that’s on. For someone who loves her job and games so much, she found an ideal match in Ryan Block. Ryan stays behind the camera lens and reports about the latest and greatest gadgets for social network and tech-centric web app. The two who met at a Press Event feel that it is their job that helps them get closer and they can discuss on a wide range of common topics. Veronica’s least favorite tech trend is the Bluetooth headset as she feels that people wearing it look like a tool. Apps that she frequently uses include FlightTrackPro, Foursquare, Uber, TripIt.
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Veronica Ann Belmont Claim to fame: Host, Blogger, Gamer
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Star from the start, Morgan Webb appeared in ads for Gerber baby food, Kenner Toys, and most famously, she is remembered for her McDonald’s ad, where she recited the ingredients of the Big Mac to a game of Pat-a-cake.
It should seem ironical then that her parents always wanted Morgan to stay away from TV and would thus ask her to spend more time outdoors. But Morgan would instead spend hours playing video games and that’s how the video game bug still stayed with her. She would often attempt beating her elder brother at role playing games. An American former co-host and senior segment Producer, Morgan previously hosted the podcast ‘WebbAlert’ and was a monthly columnist for the US edition of FHM, where she would contribute a monthly video game column titled “Tips from the Gaming Goddess”. Readers would email their video-game related enquiries and she would act as their agony aunt. While attending UC Berkeley, Webb developed her computer skills in her free time. After completing her graduation (rhetoric with a minor in Italian), she worked for ‘adot-com Company’ as a website administrator. Later, her friend, Catherine Schwartz got her hired at TechTV in 2001 and she was employed as the Associate Producer and Web Researcher for ‘The Screen Savers’. She was also a co-host for TechTV’s ‘Call for Help’ for two years and left ‘The Screen Savers’ in 2003 to co-host X-Play with Adam Sessler. Between 2007 and 2009, Webb had a daily video blogging initiative called WebbAlert where videos ranging from five to six minutes in length consisted of a recap of popular technology news of the day. Webb delivered an episode on a particular topic of interest, but had to withdraw it as she couldn’t continue it on a regular basis due to clash in timings with her other shows.
Morgan Webb Claim To Fame: Producer, and Host
Post this G4 announced that she will be hosting their new show ‘G4 Underground’, a weekly series that profiles a wide range of people and topics that are of interest to the internet generation. Famous with the media, she has appeared in some video albums and is a regular on talk shows and radio channels, too. When she’s not busy dealing with the tech life, Morgan likes to go out with friends, eat good food and doughnuts. The perfectionist that she is, Morgan is highly inclined towards music, which forms a major part of any games. For her game music is “not just random bleeps and bloops”, but in fact a major part of the emotional experience of playing. While she was growing up, she listened a lot to Dance Hall Crashers and No Doubt as they were fast paced, fun and they could dance all night on the same.
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n ardent gamer and an on-camera host, Jessica Chobot is best known for hosting IGN shows ‘IGN Strategize’ and ‘Weekly Wood’.
As a teen, Jessica was interested in gaming and specifically at role-playing ones. A graduate in Fine Arts, she tried getting over her gaming obsession and started working as an Administrative Assistant at a real estate agency. But as fate would have it, it was post this that she landed a job at EB Games and started modeling, too. It was during this time that her Sony PSP picture, where she was seen licking the PSP, became famous and the very next year in 2006, she was hired as a full-timer to host for the network’s IGN Weekly show that is still on air. Her segments included stand-up introductions as well as ‘woman-on-the-street’ pieces. For almost two years, she also hosted a daily show titled “IGN Daily Fix”. By changing the stereotypical view that only boys and men can make the most of technology, Jessica turned the tide in her favor. With a charming smile and cute face, Jessica, who occasionally writes as a columnist and runs a blog on IGN has also contributed some articles to FHM, UK, Mania.com and has made special multiple appearances on G4’s ‘Attack of the Show’, ‘Filter’ and co-hosts Lifeskool TV’s ‘Gamer’s Dojo’ and Fuel TV’s ‘The Daily Habit’. In 2006-7, along with Writer, Creator and Director Steven Lisberger, she co-wrote the script for a sci-fi movie ‘Soul Code’. Her hugely famous dating blog for Maxim called “Ask Jess, Dammit” clears the air on relationships. Two years back, she was engaged to G4TV’s Blair Herter and they got married last year in February. Within a year, Jessica delivered a baby boy in March this year and her tumblr account is full of his snaps with quirky captions! A Wonder Woman fan, Herter got her a ring inspired by Wonder Woman that he specially designed for her.
Jessica Chobot
Claim To Fame: Gamer, Host, Writer
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orn and brought up in Manhattan, Amanda was the first anchor of the online daily news show Rocketboom for two years. While there, she hosted, wrote and produced the show. Owning almost 49% share of Rocketboom, her dispute with Andrew Baron, shareholder of the remaining 51% made her quit Rocketboom. Given her parents worked on Broadway themselves, the 32 year old always wanted to be an actress. Amanda, who had started her career with Saatchi & Saatchi, New York saw an ad on the Internet by Andrew Baron, who was to start a newsy Webcast, and that caught her attention. A newbie in tech at the time, this how she was introduced to the world of Technology, Blogging and Video Blogging. Her presence in Rocketboom actually boomed the show’s viewers from the initial 700 to 70,000 in the first ten months itself and it was labeled as the most popular site of its kind on the Net. Amanda has been described as animated, quirky and full of expressions. And we couldn’t agree more. The vivacious Congdon sometimes went on the road, dancing at various locations and performing her frenetic signature dance. ‘AC on ABC’ made her the first video blogger for ABC News and it covered a wide range of topics – from politics to tech to internet memes and eco concerns. In the blog, ‘AmandaAcrossAmerica’, her travels all across America in a hybrid vehicle were featured. Amanda would go to New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, Missouri, Wisconsin, California focusing on interviews with activists and bloggers. Sponsored by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Ford Escape Hybrid, the show was an environmentally focused video project.
Amanda Congdon Claim To Fame: Video Blogger, Co-founder of Vegan Mario’s
In 2009, she produced her own Mobile TV Series ‘Sometimesdaily’, which focused on similar topics along with profiling innovative entrepreneurs. The show was officially selected at the Independent Television Festival in 2010. Later in the same year, Amanda faced some health problems and after much research, she and her husband Mario Librandi modified their diets. After being completely cured of the illness she discovered a new opportunity even here - a wellness oriented healthy food venture based on Mario’s unique Italian influenced vegan creations! This business has ever since been the hub of healthiness. Even though she has interviewed famous celebs like Ludacris, Diddy, Will Smith, Amanda is a people’s person and loves interviewing people she meets on the streets. A huge hula-hoop fan, she claims she can do a 1,000 in a row. For Amanda, her fans are her best friends and the lady doesn’t get carried away by the attention that she gets as she feels that she has a lot more to offer than her looks. With an intention to bridge the gap between the old and the new media, she believes that there will be a zillion things coming from the blogosphere.
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WHAT’S HOT JBL MX150 iPod Dock
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PECT
The Best Lifestyle Lil Wayne Launches New Footwear Brand, SPECTRE By SUPRA American hip-hop sensation Lil Wayne launched Spectre by SUPRA, a new footwear collection that gains inspiration from the style of hip hop cultures. With unique, padded, clamshell heel panel, a collar panel that flows from the heel around the toe box and back again, the shoes rests upon a basketball-inspired outsole with a different distinctive, lightweight, SUPRAFOAM midsole.
Kobe by Nike
G-Shock Bluetooth Watch
Luxury Sock line by Plaxico Burress
Named after the professional basketball player, Kobe Bryant, the Nike Kobe is a stadium Grey colorway and a stunning mix of grey with red, yellow, blue and green. Great for people always on the run.
The new range of G-Shock is equipped with Bluetooth v4.0, and can interface with an iPhone 4S (iOS 5.1.1 and iOS 6.1) and iPhone 5. The watch is shock, water, vibration, current, low temperature and gravitational force resistant.
NFL star Plaxico Burress launched a new luxury sock line as a part of The Plaxico Burress Collection. A fan of comfy and striking socks, Plaxico spent two years in designing the collection. With a size 12 shoe, he found it hard to get a pair and instead decided on designing one for himself!
`9995
`6930
`7760
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`1330 to `1662
Launches of the Month Moet Hennesy launches winery in Yunnan French luxury group LVMH’s wine and spirits division, Moet Hennessy launched a new winery in Yunnan province and intends to boost its presence in China.
Fastrack Explorer Bags With its new range of bags, Fastrack widened its range in fashion accessories by launching its Explorer collection which is casual, easy to carry and not-so-cumbersome! This range comes in faux leather and tough canvas.
Hylnds Fragrance
Chanel No5
Inspired by the dramatic past of the ancient medieval cultures like Norse, Celtic, sights and smells of Northern England and the poetry of W.B. Yeats, the island of Corsica, the makers of this set of perfume have put together all the elements that capture the mysterious, romantic time in History. A collection of three fragrances including Bitter Rose, Broken Spear and Isle Ryder, this one is for those who want to smell different!
Chanel’s latest offering is a rare, collectible form of the parfun in an exquisitely crafted case. World’s most expensive perfume, the baudruchage protects the bottle and adds to the Chanel-ness of it. given that it is so expensive, the parfum happens to be a limited edition bottle.
`9995
`10,000
`1695 to `2695
`2.3lacs
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For the adventurous lot...
130 I EXHIBIT I JUNE 2013 Celebrating 8th Anniversary
By Garvita Sharma
I
magine going on a trek during the rains with your favorite watch. Or worse being without one. For the watch-geeks, the latter is not an option anyway and the former could be risky, too. So what do you do? The answer is simple. You get a travel watch, perfectly suited for outdoors. Meant for those who like the rugged life and are always on the go, these watches come with a resistance and durability that is asked of them. So if you are planning a trek this monsoon or just generally wanted to spend on another watch, hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a list of watches that matches every need and every pocket!
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Timex –
Expedition Trail Mate An attractive looking, rugged and comfortable watch, this one has a built-in accelerometer, that provides user with distance, speed and pace. This makes it all the more of a perfect match for any walker or hiker, by providing real-time distance and speed in addition to alerts that help keep track in progress. It also has a 24Price:`3,500 (Approx) hour chronograph and split times.
Swatch Chrono Plastic
Launched last year, the chrono plastic collection by Swatch is for all the adventurers out there. Unisex, durable, catchy and available in ten colors, it has a is a combo of plastic silicone and is water-resistant up till 30 m. With printed digits, the watch matches your mood. A screw-down crown and chronograph push buttons match the color of the numerals on the dial.
Price:`6500 (Approx)
Casio
G-Shock No watch-lover can deny knowing the Casio G-Shock Watches, which have been in market for 30 years now. Known for its resistance to shocks and vibrations, they’re mainly designed for those who love outdoor adventure, sports and people from Military. With a stopwatch feature, light and water resistance, countdown timer, this series has come up with many innovations, the latest one being Price:Starting from `5000 – `12,000 the Bluetooth Technology Watch. (Prices vary according to range)
Antonio Bernini
- Sonic The Italian Watch Brand, Antonio Bernini’s SONIC, the F-53 Lighting II inspired Fighter Series is up with its rough and tough look. The SONIC pieces embody aeronautical design excellence, technology and power. With multirole capabilities and versatility, it is an agile and versatile watch with finned airframe and bi-rotational disc. Its crown comes with a safety crown cover to measure speed and the elapsed time. With a leather belt that compliments the dial, it is perfect for outdoors. Brutally male, it is unrestrained in nature.
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Price: Between `19,995 & `22,995
Bulova
Style No.: 96B182 From the Precisionist Wilton Collection, this one has a continuously sweeping second hand and the world’s most advanced chronograph offering 1/1,000 second precision over a twelve-hour time frame with global accuracy to within ten seconds a year. With a stainless steel domed crystal, multiple-level, silver-white dial, chronograph measurement of hours, minutes, seconds, 1/10 seconds, 1/100 seconds and 1/1000 seconds, a continuously sweeping second hand made of rose-gold, tachymeter, calendar, black leather strap and water resistance to 50 meters, we wonder what Price:`32,885(Approx) more could one ask for! Black color (Style No.: 97B122)`35,685 (Approx.)
Edox – 36 Calibre
For those of you who love going for rally racing, this one’s just the perfect choice for you. The Edox – 36 Calibre helps rally drivers time their performances. The new range of watches dedicated to the World Rally Championship is a true revolution in the world of watch-making and cars. In addition to the regular features, the watch has stage timing with an accumulated stage time, recount/replay mode, countdown mode and Chronograph. All these functions are accessible by means of pushpieces and the crown, which with its outsize design, permits easy access for the gloved hands of a rally driver. The watch also boasts original car-theme details, with its raised case back representing a wheel rim and its rubber wristband reproducing the contours of car tyres. It has a polished and buffed red anodized aluminum pushpiece, black carbon crystal dial that’s anti-reflective and scratch resistant and genuine black rubber strap with stainless steel clasp
Price:`1,72,872(Approx)
Edox – Iceman II
Display of hours, minutes, seconds, day and date, chronograph, black PVD coating, Bezel black ceramic, red numerals and markings, water-resistance up to 1000 meters, dial in deep sea black with red markings, crystal scratch-proof and glareproof sapphire crystal, black rubber strap, stainless steel buckle engraved with EDOX Logo. Phew! This one’s on a roll… Price on Request
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Edox – Grand Ocean GMT
Black dial, nickel index and dauphines hands, cardinal points and military time, date display are some of the features of this watch. It also flaunts a stainless steel 316 L with black PVD, notched bezel, genuine rubber strap and the EDOX logo. Stainless steel folding buckle, antireflective scratch resistant sapphire crystal, second time zone and water resistant up to 100m.
Price:`164,800
International Watch Company BIG PILOT’S WATCH TOP GUN (Reference 5019)
Combining state-of-the-art technology with the classic functionality of the Traditional Pilot’s Watch, this one has a 48mm case made of scratch-resistant zirconium oxide and a hallmark titanium crown. With an uncluttered dial design and striking black-and-white contrasts, it has the largest self-winding movement from IWC and continues running for 7 days when fully wound. A soft strap in black color and 42 jewels, date display, it is IWC’s largest automatic movement and assembled from no fewer than 311 individual parts. A sapphire glass, convex, antireflective coating on both sides, glass secured against displacement by drop in air pressure and water resistant.
Price:`11,000,000
Zenith –Elite Captain Power Reserve
This range by Zenith comes in stainless steel case and bezel, automatic movement elite 685, Sapphire Crystal, Alligator Leather bracelet, silver Guilloche dial and Price: `367,400 is water resistant up to 50 meters.
Louis Erard
Now this has a mechanical hand-winding movement ETA Peseux 7001, black PVD coated stainless steel case, antireflective sapphire crystal with exhibition window, black dial with sub-second, genuine black leather strap in crocodile pattern and water-resistant up to 50 m. Price: Between `154,800
Celebrating 8th Anniversary
They’ve continued their legacy for years, and we continue with our feature, too. Adding up to the list of Successfully Yours, this time it’s Hermès that we’re talking about. With its twists and turns, interesting anecdotes, and the transformation of the 176 year old brand from a necessity to luxury, this Success diary is nothing but Ah-mazing!
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Hermès History: Born in Krefeld, Germany, Thierry Hermès (1801-1878) pioneered the art of serving! For the European noblemen, he started off by establishing Hermès, the famous name in the world of fashion and luxury, as a harness workshop on the Grands Boulevards quarter of Paris in the year 1837. Developing some of the finest wrought harnesses and bridles for the carriage trade, he gained recognition and even won the first prize in its class in 1855 and the first class medal in 1867 at the Expositions Universelles, Paris.
Journey: Thierry Hermès
176 years old now, many well-known designers like Lola Prusac, Martin Margiela, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Mariot Chane have been associated with the brand. In the year 1859, Thierry’s son, Charles Emile Hermès got his hands on the management and moved the shop in 1880 to 24 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris, France, where the flagship store still exists. He also introduced the saddlery and began its retail sales. With the help of Charles’ sons Adolphe and Emile Hermès , the company directed its
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products towards catering to the élite class of Europe, Russia, Asia, America and North America. In 1900, they started offering the Haut à Courroies bag that was especially designed for riders in order that they may carry their saddles with them and renamed it later to Hermès Frères. Emile Maurice began serving the Czar of Russia with saddles and by 1914, up to 80 saddle craftsmen were employed. As if this honor, disguised as a fruitful opportunity, wasn’t enough, he was also granted the exclusive rights to use the zipper for leather goods and clothing and thereby became the first to introduce the device in France. Thus, in 1918, the first leather golf jacket with a zipper was introduced by him and was followed by the introduction of the first leather garment, a zippered golfing jacket made for the Prince of Wales. This mechanism, due to its exclusivity, was called the fermeture Hermès (the Hermès fastener). Due to the rise of the Automobile Industry, the demand for horse saddles went down drastically and in 1919, Adolphe left the company. Emile bought his shares and began developing products that were compatible with the changing-automobile-times.Throughout the 1920s, he added accessories to the collection. Simultaneously, he was also grooming his three sons-in-law as business partners.
A to-die-for husband, the story behind his introduction of leather bags is very interesting. In 1922, when his wife complained of not finding even a single bag suitable to her liking, he thought of making a bag to match her needs, and that’s how it all started. In the year 1924, Hermès made its presence felt in US and opened two shops in France and in 1929, the first women’s couture appeal collection was previewed in Paris. During the 1930s, Hermès produced some of its most celebrated original goods. The Sac à dépêches, which became famous as the “Kelly Bag”, named after Grace Kelly, was introduced in the year 1935 and on the completion of the brand’s 100 years, in 1937, the scarves were introduced. In no time, the accessory became an integral part of the French culture and fashion. As the company’s designers by then had started drawing inspiration from Paintings, books and objets d’art, the Chaîne d’ancre bracelet and the riding jacket and outfit joined the classic collection in 1938. It was at this very time that the brand entered the market of USA and offered its products in a Neiman Marcus department store in New York, but withdrew later. In the mid-1930s, Universal Genève was roped in as the brand’s first exclusive designer for
timepieces. It produced a line of men’s wrist chronographs and women’s art deco cuff watches in 18 k Gold, Stainless Steel and even in Platinum for women. This association lasted until the 1950s.
collaboration, added unusual entries which included the python motorcycle jackets and ostrich-skin jeans, which were dubbed as “a snazzier version of what Hermès has been all along.”
In 1949, the brand launched both the silk tie and its first perfume Eau d’Hermès. After Emile’s death in 1951, it was taken over by his son-in-law Robert Dumas-Hermès, the last name taken over to continue the family name, and collaborated with his brother-in-law JeanRene Guerrand. It was under his management that the company introduced original handbags, jewelry, accessories and silk scarves.
All through the 1980s, Dumas went on strengthening the company’s hold on its suppliers which led to an increase in the stakes in prominent French glassware, silverware and ever since, tableware became a strong segment of Hermès . By 1990, it expanded widely and started using porcelain and crystal as raw materials, too. In the following years, Dumas began decreasing the franchises and concentrated on expanding company-owned stores.
Though it looked like all was well, it really wasn’t. In 1970s, when compared to its competitors, Hermès witnessed a fall in its sales. This fall was attributed to its adamancy on using only natural products, which was in opposition to the other companies’ principle on using man-made materials, too. After Robert Dumas-Hermès , his son Jean-Louis Dumas became the chairman in 1978 and focused more on silk, leather and ready-to-wear goods, adding more products to those made with traditional techniques. His intervention in the business was instrumental in turning the fate of the company. Dumas brought in designers Eric Bergére and Bernard Sanz to revamp the apparel collection and, in
•
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Highlights
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• •
In 2003, Margiela left Hermès and Jean-Paul Gaultier debuted with his ready-to-wear collection for fall/winter 2005-06. In January 2006, the charismatic Jean-Louis retired and died after 4 years due to a prolonged illness in 2010. Patrick Thomas who worked with Jean-Louis since 1989 and was the Co-CEO along with him from 2005 replaced him that month. Today, Hermès has varied product divisions including scarves, ties, leather, men’s wear, women’s fashion, perfume, watches, stationery, footwear, gloves, decorative arts, jewelry, tableware and so on. The company still rejects mass production, assembly lines and mechanization.
The special silk scarves by Hermès have been worn by Queen Elizabeth II for a 1956 British postage stamp, Princess Grace Kelly in a photo on the cover of a 1956 issue of ‘Life’ Magazine and stylishly used by Princess Grace as a bandage for her broken arm. Hermès has partnered with Tuareg tribesmen on silver jewelry for years and has publicized Saharan nomads’ traditional motifs in various Hermès products, including scarves. Hermès is known for not using assembly lines; just one craftsman is employed by the company for years to make a single bag at a time, hand-stitching individual pieces with linen thread using an awl. A single bag requires 18-24 hours to produce and one of the house signature bags might even take anywhere between six months and one year to be produced and delivered. The famous Hermès handbag, Birkin, was named after French actress Jane Birkin. After a chance encounter with Jean-Louis Dumas on a flight, Jane complained that she couldn’t use the “Kelly” bag for everyday use. Consequently, he invited her to France where they co-designed the bag. But soon, she stopped carrying this bag too as she developed tendinitis. Nevertheless, the bag remains popular with others. If one had to decode the Hermès ’philosophy in Emile’s words, it could be summed up as “Leather, sport, and a tradition of refined elegance.”
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Maryam Zakaria
of the Month June 2013
S
he started of with various music videos and television advs. Made her debut in 2009 in the movie "Paying Guests" and has been on a roll ever since. Yes she is the same girl who stole the show in Agent Vinod where she performed "Dil Mera Muft Ka" alongside Kareena Kapoor , and then again in Rowdy Rathore with her catchy song "Aa Re Pritam".Meet Maryam Zakaria , The Gorgeous Iranian-Swedish actress who now also has another title to her name - Exhibit Tech Stunner of the month , and the month of june has just got hotter. We got her talking in an exclusive shoot about her madness for technology, Apps, and much more. Check out the shoot and hear it from her at www.thetechy.com/videos
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Tech is for geeks. Being a girl, how do you prove the statement false? Well honestly, I don’t believe in that. I’m really interested and kind of fascinated with technology. Like everyone else, I too have a mobile phone, a laptop and my iPad. I really do love to edit and do a lot of things using the laptop. Whatever new programs are out, I like to stay updated. Tech isn’t just for geeks. It’s for everyone who simply love it! Your must have gadgets… Oh Yes, of course. I do have a Mobile phone, my laptop, iPad and my camera too. Are you brand loyal when it comes to gadgets? I am very much an Apple fan. But I also like Sony as well when it comes to laptops. I think they are really good. But the rest is definitely the iPhone and the iPad. Again, I love Apple. If you were deserted on an island, which three gadgets would accompany you there? Just my iPhone. It’s got everything in it. Apps that you frequently use? An application which I’m on all day long is Whatsapp. It’s the most convenient app ever. My second favorite is Voxer. It’s quite cool actually. It’s like a walkie-talkie. Instead of texting each other, you can simply talk to each other. It just records your voice and it goes immediately to the person and the person can talk back. Any gadget you’d want to invent for convenience or luxury? Umm, I wish there was something where instead of having to sit for hours doing makeup and hair, we could just see a picture and click on it and hope to look that way, and magic, it’s done! How dependent are you on technology? I’m very much addicted to my phone but I have tried many times to be without it and I have somehow made it through the day. Not with great ease I must add. I use to have a Blackberry before and I use to be constantly on BBM but I gave it up, so now I feel quite great as I have more time. But yes, I can manage to be without my phone. In fact sometimes I feel it takes too much of my time and I don’t do anything. Yet, I love my phone. Which camera, Smartphone and Laptop do you use? At the moment I use a laptop by Sony, I use my iPad a lot. The camera I use is by Canon and smart phone is the iPhone. How active are you on Social Networking Sites? I am mostly active on Instagram and Twitter. Instagram would definitely be a little bit more. Clicking the picture and upload it that moment is the best part of my day! It really is fun. I’m bored of Facebook. Though I enjoy twitter. I like to write what I’m doing and like to keep in touch with my fans. Do you remember any day when technology saved your day? I think the internet is the best thing definitely. I mean, we can Google anything we need. Whether we are lost and need some information, it’s always there to help us out. What are your future projects like? Any dream role or dream director you wish to work as or with? My upcoming movie is Grand Masti where I’ll be one of the leading actresses. It has Aftab Shivdasani, Riteish Deshmukh and Vivek Oberoi and that will be releasing soon. I would like to do more Bollywood movies like romance or action. What are your hobbies like? How do you like to unwind yourself? I love to travel a lot actually, discovering new countries or cities. Apart from that, editing music or pictures is my second favorite. I like to go the gym whenever I can. Dance is definitely my passion. I try to dance whenever I’m free. Do you do a lot of online shopping? I’m actually from Europe so I used to do a lot of online shopping from there, but I have not really tried it out in India.
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Photographer: Kaustubh Kamble Make up: Arshiya Syed; Hair: Lata Khanchandani.
The JBL速 FLIP portable speaker with a built-in Slipstream bass port delivers legendary JBL sound with exceptional bass. Bluetooth速 connectivity for wireless streaming to any Bluetooth-equipped device, and a built-in microphone for calling home - all this in a rechageable stereo speaker that travels easily with you.
From the hotel pool to the backyard barbecue.
息 2013 Harman International Industries, Incorporated. All rights reserved. JBL is a trademark of HARMAN International Industries, Incorporated, registered in the United States and/or other countries. The Bluetooth速 word mark and logo are registered trademarks and are owned by the Bluetooth SIG, Inc.
143 I EXHIBIT I JUNE 2013 Sahil International is the exclusive importer & distributor for Harman International Consumer Division products in India. Trade Enquiries: 022-30080830/40, sahil.sani@sahilinternational.com
deepak ganwani 04/13
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