Techno rants

Nokia Lumia 800 Recently I had said that I bought the Motorola Razr, because it was a incredibly powerful phone in a tiny but rugged body. But a couple of weeks ago, while using the phone to navigate. It slipped out of my hands and fell on the hard paved ground. Initially it looked like it survived its ordeal by landing on its Kevlar lined back. Some scuffs were on the phone but were mainly negligible, but the real damage showed itself the the next day when I went to charge it. The phones internals were badly damaged, it would no longer take a charge. Seeing that I had a ruined phone, and one which probably would not be covered by warranty, I went looking for a cheap replacement smartphone. What I came across was the best mobile phone which I had ever used. That is the Nokia lumia 800, it truly is amazing device, with its design coming from the gorgeous N9 and the operating system from Microsoft (aka windows phone 7.5 mango), it has the best of both worlds ...

--> New Apple Maps Logo Old Google Maps logo Google maps was brutally axed from the iOS platform during the latest iteration of the operating system, as usual there is huge resistance from iOS users, since google maps was a better option to what is currently being provided by Apple maps. While Apple maps are generally fine, with mapping data provided by tomtom and open street map, they lack street view, public transport locations and accurate POI data. To compensate for this short fall Apple has provided turn-by-turn navigation and unique 3d feature called flyover. while the turn-by-turn navigation is a critical feature which was missing from Apple's mobile platform, I'd much rather have street view than the terrible flyover feature which makes roads and bridges looks like roller-coasters and buildings look like sausages emerging from the earth. Another massive error on Apple's part is the launch of incorrect maps where entire cities are either...

Sennheiser HD201 The Sennheiser HD201 are an entry level headphones aimed at users who want to upgrade from the cheapo on-ear headsets without spending a ton of cash. These headphones are far from high-end, but they do provide decent sound quality for an average online list price of $30.  foam and leather on the headband and the ear-cups The HD201 are an over the ear design, with minimum noise leakage and maximum noise isolation. Their foam padded ear-cups and headband make them very comfortable to wear, though do become uncomfortable after extended periods of use because of the leather becoming hot. The light weight construction is surprisingly tough, mainly due to its hard plastic exterior, these headphones can take quite a beating and have survived quite a few drops. One of the main weak-points of these headphones is the cable, it is a traditional dual sided non detachable 3m long cable, due to its thinness and length it is prone to tangling and not ideal for use while...

Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo co, Ltd. Today Nintendo reported its first operating loss in 30 years, a loss of $530 million. Nintendo sold 13.51 million 3DS units, 9.84 million Wii's and 5.1 million DS family units (nintendo DS, DSI & DSI XL). Nintendo predicts that the next financial year, they will be back in the black with a net profit of $245 million, this is due the 3DS will no longer be sold below cost and the upcoming launch of the Wii U. We see from these earnings, the impact of smartphones and tablets. The economy is also a compunding factor where gamers, especially casual gamers (Nintendo's target market) don't want to spend $30-$50 on games. When games on their smartphone or tablet provides a similar of in some cases a better experience than the hand held gaming system at a fraction of the price ($0.99 for angry birds, $14.99 for infinity blade, etc). Though Nintendo is predicting and profit of $245 million, next financial year. I am less enthu...

The battle for the "cloud" just heated up again with today google launching or rather renaming their google docs to google drive. Out of the gate google offers unparalleled search and file type support, does this makes the google drive a force to be reckoned with? NO a free account offers 5 GB of storage and then there are tiers which people can buy for example 25 GB costs $2.50/month Microsoft's ubiquitous Skydrive (personally I find this name to be the coolest names for all the cloud storage options) currently offers 25 GB of storage for those who lock it in now or in the future will be 7 GB of storage. The tiered plans for Skydrive are also very competitive. Box offers or recently offered 50 GB of free storage to all android users. Thus the list goes on, and the google drive is not the revolution which was gmail with gigabytes worth of storage. Insted google is comming late to the game and offering minimal storage when compared to its competitors. does t...

Ditching the expected nomenclature, Apple has launched its new tablet device today, "The new iPad". What was the point in bringing out iPad 2 then going back to the old days of how iPods are named, the blasted generation title. So whats on everybody's mind is, should I upgrade or not? For me its a no, but that's me. Apple has bumped up the hardware in the "new iPad", while keeping the design the same. Frankly that is a pretty good idea as the iPad 2 still has a fresh design. So what's changed, first and foremost is the screen. It has been given the retina title, with a resolution of 2048 * 1536, that is a mind blowing number of pixels, when a full 1080p HD screen is olny 1920 * 1080 pixles. Everything is much more crisp on "the new iPad", you no longer see a grid but a seem less image. Next is the backward facing camera, which apple renamed the isight camera. Its now 5MP and takes decent images. I found myself scratching my head at thi...

Getting out if the clasps of apple, i have moved to google's android platform in particular the motorola DROID RAZR. Hardware wise the phone is great, it has awesome battery life, great screen quality, its light but feels sturdy and with its kevlar, steel and gorilla glass build it is definitely a premium device. So whats wrong, well its android itself. Though i absolutely hate apples business practices, such you can't offer anything cheaper at another outlet if your in apple's development ecosystem. Which frankly i think is anti-competitive, due to the giant market share apple possesses, it pretty much shift market prices towards apples favor. The best example of this is the ebook market. Prior to ibooks l, ebooks were at low prices such as $3-5, ibooks launched, apple and publishers wanted higher prices and due to these broad market altering agreements prices of ebooks are now at $12. Getting back on track, i want apple to have an ecosystem competitor, so they c...