Thursday, December 30, 2010

Gadget Review IV

Best smartphone in the range Rs 25-30K

This was by far the most difficult category..there are quite a few amazing gadgets in this range, and when u have  an Iphone in the class, all that the other students can do is simply gape in awe. This would have been true, but for the following phones:

1. HTC Desire HD - Massive 4.3 inch display..runs on Android 2.2, and is loaded with advanced HTC Sense UI which has won many a heart.

HTC Desire HD..big Daddy

2. HTC Desire - The younger brother of Desire HD..by far the most popular member of the HTC family..with a 3.7 inch AMOLED display, HTC Sense UI, 5MP camera with a flash, Android 2.2, amazingly customizable and user-friendly widgets, HD recording, and many other high-tech features, this phone has given HTC top place in the Android market. The battery life though remains a concern, just like in any other smart-phone

HTC Desire..the most popular Android device from HTC

3. Samsung Galaxy S - Well, this is clearly the greatest Iphone competitor, and the statistics corroborate the same. it has sold 9.3 mn units in 6 months till date whereas the Iphone has sold some 14mn. With a whopping 4 inch Super AMOLED display, the resolution of which is matched only by the Iphone 4, this phone has made its way to the top in a very short time. With a very decent 5MP camera (without a flash sadly), HD recording, decent battery life, great display, Touchwiz 3 interface (not as good as HTC sense though, but still very upmarket), the phone packs all the right features to give Apple a run for the top position. It has infact been voted the best Android phone of 2010 by a lot of websites.

Samsung Galaxy S


You must be wondering why the Apple Iphone 4 is not there on the list...well it does not require to be there...it is an Apple and does not require any review or recommendation. Also, its price is much above Rs 30K, so it is better we talk abt d other fones which are doing good and are also affordable (compared to the iphone).

So go for it buddy...no matter which one u pick, u wont be a loser...they are all winners in their own rights..

Other noteworthy names - Sony Xperia X10

But my heart is slightly biased toward the Desire :)

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Gadget Review III

continued from Gadget Review II

Range Rs 20-25K
ok..so in this range, there are quite a few offerings from the likes of Nokias and Blackberrys..but the following 2 really cut it for me:

1. HTC Legend
This is the elder brother of HTC Wildfire, and rightly so...the phone has the looks to wow you and comes packed in an aluminium body which makes it macho and hardy. It runs on Android 2.2 now and on top it there is the advanced HTC Sense UI.

The camera is 5MP with LED flash. The phone offers 7 home-screens and the HTC Sense UI enables u to take a helicopter view of all the screens..i.e. if u pinch one homescreen, u can see all the 7 screens around each other. The phone has an amazingly capacitive and responsive 3.2 inch with a great Android interface. The widgets on the Legend are also extremely useful and overall using this phone would be an absolute delight. It is available at a price of Rs 23-24K.

2. Motorola Flipout

Well..this phone has been officially voted by NDTV as the smartphone of the year 2010, and  not without reason So all those who got scared away by the first name of the phone better take notice. This phone changed the failing fortunes of Motorola with its heavy baggage of applications and great features at a very competetive price. It has a huge 3.7 inch capacitive screen with pinch to zoom, and it also packs a physical qwerty keyboard below, so it can woo even those who are hesitant about swiping their fingers on the screen. Also, even with the physical keyboard, phone is pretty..it is infact the slimmest slider phone today. Just like the other phones it also comes with a 5MP camera with dual LED Flash..it is currently working on Android 2.1, and would get upgraded to Android 2.2 next year. All at a price of Rs 20-21K
Motorola Milestone

Other noteworthy mentions - Nokia N8 (but sadly, it is Symbian), Nokia N900 (not Symbian, but not Android either..it runs on Maemo 5, but this phone has been one of the most well received smartphones in 2010)

To be continued..Range 25-30K..(the real tough one)

Monday, December 20, 2010

Gadget Review II

contd from.. Gadget Review I

The world today is divided into two kinds of phones..smartphones, and not so smart phones (read Mohenjodaro-Harappan phones)..Smartphones can again be android (one of the most advanced softwares for mobile phones today) and non-android..but till a few months ago, smartphones, and on top of that android  smartphones meant high-end, and high money...but then came the HTC Wildfire and LG Optimus and things changed...I am not going to take up this space to review old symbian smartphones like Nokia E71 and Blackberry  Curve because we all know abt them...we have grown up with these devices and they are just so yesterday...
the phones that are ruling the world today run either on Android, or Bada OS (Samsung), or the IOS (Apple)..Blackberry ofcourse runs on its own Blackberry OS. After my extensive review on around 8-10 top phones, I came to the conclusion that lot of cool gadget cum phones are available today in the market if you are ready to shell out anything from 15K-30K...

In the 15K-20K region, the following phones are great:

1. HTC Wildfire

HTC Wildfire
The phone is Android.2.1 (the latest high end phones work on 2.2, so a 2.1 is not at all bad)..sports a great look, has a 3.2 capacitive screen (which means u do not need to use a stylus like in other HTC Windows phones that u might have seen),and it is loaded with HTC's famous Sense UI interface...the Sense UI is an an outcome of HTC's well made research on making the phone's applications, widgets and touch-feel most user friendly..the result is that u get all ur facebook, twitter and gmail contacts at one place, the phone responds to ur touch like a buddy, and enhances a user's overall experience..it basically "senses" what u really need. The Wildfire also comes with a 5MP camera and a Flash alongwith it, and from what i have heard lately, it has got upgraded to Android 2.2, which makes the device absoltely in sync with times. What makes the HTC Wildfire more special is its price. At a mere Rs 14-15K, u are getting a good, solidly built high tech Android device with HTC Sense UI...it's a great bet for me

2. Samsung Wave (S8500)


One of Samsung's most loved offerings, the Samsung Wave caught my attention when my room mate got this phone..I held d fone in my hand and just got blown away by its display...the Samsung Wave has a great metallic exterior and with that, it packs a Super-Amoled screen...well it simply means that the sharpness and brighness of its display is absolutely unmatched (only the Iphone 4's retina display comes close)..although the Samsung Wave runs on Bada OS, that does not mean it misses a thing...it is close to Android. The phone comes with a 1 Gigahertz Samsung Hummingbird processor which makes it super fast at multitasking, loads a good many applications, is capable of High Definition video recording, has a good 5MP camera with a flash, and with the 3.3 inch super Amoled screen, d fone has enough wow factor to simply make u twitch your face with jealousy even if d guy using the fone is ur best friend..and all this for a price of just Rs 17K. But sadly this phone has gone out of stock and Samsung has launched Wave II. Although Wave II has almost the same features as Wave S8500, Samsung has replaced the Super Amoled display of Wave (which is now available on Samsung Galaxy S) with Clear LCD display in Wave II, which is a major put-off for Wave fans..

There are other good phones in this range too, like the LG Optimus One, Blackberry Curve 3G etc, but Samsung Wave and HTC Wildfire are my top 2 picks..i would probably give the 3rd place to Blackberry Curve 3G...why????coz i have used the Blackberry curve and it is great phone...3G is an upgrade..and the QWERTY experience on a blackberry is absolutely delightful...

To be continued...Phones in the Range of Rs 20-25K..
Read Gadget Review III

Friday, December 17, 2010

Gadget Review I

Well I happened to wake up one fine morning with a feverish thought that my phone just does not belong today and I desperately want a new high-tech device to brandish...and so began my quest to choose the most desirable phone on the planet dat wud make others go green inside...I first decided to buy the quintessential high-end gadget, the Iphone.(either 3GS or 4). But in a while i realised that to buy an Iphone from India would mean shelling out a cool 32-35K which was a good furlong ahead of my budget...but my hopes were rekindled when a friend of mine landed a job in Japan and gave me the idea dat he could fetch me a fone from der....but as luck would have its way, it so turned out that most developed countries sell their phones to the service provider and u have to buy phones from the carrier with a typically 2year contract....so if u want to get a phone from the US, u would have to buy it der with a contract, bring it to India (illegally, coz u r breaching the contract) and have it jail-broken here (which may or may not work), and after all this drama and hassle if anything goes wrong, u r screwed and so is ur bank balance.

The Iphone 4
and thus I decided to mange this quest on my own so I wud be able to get a high-tech gadget from my own motherland without having to go through the twists and turns of importing one...and in this process i spent nearly 20 days in reviewing some of the best phones available in the world (and in India) today...and at the end of these 20 days, I got enlightenment..just as Buddha and Guruji got Enlightened after their respective periods of deep Samadhi..

Finally I did get to make up my mind on which fone to buy, but more importantly, i realised how rapidly the world has advanced since i last did some research before buying a phone (which was 1.5 years ago)..i realised how technologically ignorant and dumb i have been all this while..and so i decided that i could not let all this treasure of knowledge that i had garnered over 20 days remain buried inside me when there were so many out der like me who could not tell between an ipad and an ipod...

and so out of my profound concern for the people of my community, i would share my opinion and technical review on some of the smartphones that i have reviewed lately, so that u, u and u can get a hang of whats going out der outside ur world...

this post has already become quite long so i wud spill it over to the next post..

be sure i will :)

c ya
Krishna

Read Gadget Review II

A brief explanation..

I have not been busy..i have not been caught up with anything...i have just been too lazy a bum to work out on my blog...but I am back, even if not with the proverbial bang!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

From the Scotland of Karnataka...Coorgh

The road to Coorgh..


 Our cottage..Alath-Cad


The reception-Alath-Cad

Getting ready for river rafting for the very first time

Off we go..
The beautiful Buddhist monastery at Kushalnagar..
The majestic statues of Buddha and His disciples..
The Abbey falls..
Feeling the freedom..

Talakaveri...the origin of Kaveri..one of the most beautiful places i would ever visit..

Inside the temple...yes, there is a temple at the hill top..
Sitting on the last rock on the hill..5 feet away from space..
Striking a pose.. :)
The smile and the weather says it all..

Overall a great weekend at a beautiful place...the govt should promote Coorgh as a tourist location a bit more...but probably it's kind of good they have not.........getting it?

Friday, July 16, 2010

A true Paramhansa...II

Came across this wonderful story abt Ramkrishna which had not figured in my scheme of things earlier...but the story is so beautiful dat I had to put it up here...

Ramkrishna, as many of us know, had developed cancer toward the fag-end of His earthly life...(that is one way way in which the Master takes away the bad karma of His devotees by offering Himself)...He dropped his bodily garment on August 16, 1886...

"'I shall make the whole thing public before I go,' the Master had said some time before..On January 1, 1886, Ramakrishna felt better and came down to His garden for a little stroll.. It was about three o'clock in the afternoon. Some thirty disciples were in the hall or sitting about under the trees.

Sri Ramakrishna said to Girish Chandra Ghosh, one of His disciples, 'Well Girish, what have you seen in me, that you proclaim me before everybody as an Incarnation of God?' Girish was not the man to be taken by surprise. He knelt before the Master and said with folded hands, 'What can an insignificant person like myself say about the One whose glory even sages like Vyasa and Valmiki could not adequately measure?' The Master was profoundly moved. He said: 'What more shall I say? I bless you all. Be illumined!'

He then fell into a spiritual mood. Hearing these words the devotees, one and all, became overwhelmed with emotion. They rushed to him and fell at his feet. He touched them all, and each received an appropriate blessing. Each of them, at the touch of the Master, experienced ineffable bliss. Some laughed, some wept, some sat down to meditate, some began to pray. Some saw light, some had visions of their chosen Ideals, and some felt within their bodies the rush of spiritual power..such was the Grace of this great Master..

when Vivekananda was once asked to say something abt his Master, all he said was..."My Master, with His one glance, can create a 1000 Vivekanadas..."

need He have said anything more...!!!


blessed to have a Master... :-)

Jai Gurudev..

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

A true Paramhansa...

I have always been fascinated by the lives of the great Indian spiritual masters...they were God-realised and could walk on the worldly and the astral plane with equal ease..but what is amazingly touching is there devotion toward their disciples...it was as if They had taken incarnation just to take away the karma of their disciples...no matter how foul the devotee be, the Master would be as loving and caring as a mother who does not see anything wrong in her child. I have read and heard innumerable stories abt the grace and compassion of a Master toward his disciples/devotees, and have also experienced it with Guruji time and again...

Ramkrishna Paramhansa is one such Yogi whom I have always admired...He was a perfect example of simplicity and unquestioning devotion...whenever I would see his picture, it would seem to me as if Ramakrishna would have known nothing else but how to unconditionally love the Divine Mother...as if He knew no other emotion but devotion to Goddess Kali, whom He "adopted" to be His own mother..He would feed her idol (Her) with his own hands, and get angry when She refused to appear before Him in physical form..such child-like love is possible only in the highest state of devotion when the devotee can accept nothing else but the Divine...in that state, the devotee gains such a high pedestal that even God cannot help but get literally ordered around by him..

The almost ubiquitous photo of Ramakrishna 
Ofcourse many found Ramkrishna insane because of his unusual ways, but only the very fortunate like Vivekananda could see the the real Paramhansa, the enlightened and profound Master, behind the guile of a simple unassuming temple priest...

there is a beautiful story abt Ramkrishna that I wish to share...but I think I will do it in the next post...

kp watchin..!!! :)

Jai Gurudev...

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Thought for the day..and many other days..

Written on a blackboard outside a small school building in my locality....

"Thought for the day..
"Education is the only wealth that cannot be stolen.."

Jai Gurudev..!

Friday, July 9, 2010

and so it begins...

Hi...thanks for visiting my blog....now dat u have come, this blog is as much urs too...
wow...i am caught up with the much hyped "Qtr-end" closing stuff...one of the most hectic times in a CA's uneventful life....i at times feel dat a CA lives his life between month-ends and quarter ends...while ordinary mortals age from 23 to 24, a CA ages from Q1 of FY0910 to Q1 of FY1011....
but despite playing the stereotypical CA to the "T", i still stumbled upon the "blogger" option in Google and felt tempted to open an account and scribble some thoughts...and i feel so upto it...i cant promise myself i will be regular...but one thing is for sure...i am already feeling as if a part of me is getting distributed...as if i am flowing out of myself....woww...hats off to all the bloggers dat i have read or not read coz they have inspired me to join this priviledged bandwagon...
i feel this blog would be more abt my knowing myself rather than abt my opinions...and i am feeling gud abt it..wanted to start writing and sharing my stuff since long...never quite felt upto it...so here i am...sharing my space with u all...hope i enjoy...and more importantly, hope You do....(the change in case being intentional)..


Jai Gurudev.! (victory to the Big Mind)

c u soon..:)