Makes for pretty sad reading for an OS that is supposed to be at version 4.0. Problems aplenty for both users & app developers.
Filed under: android, apps, market, issues, bugs, Google
Category: Uncategorized
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Online Reading – Microsoft’s Creative Destruction
The article (by Dick Brass, a vice president at Microsoft from 1997 to 2004) is almost 2 years old, but just as relevant after the news of the demise of the Courier tablet. Also makes you wonder whether Microsoft’s strategy of focusing on software is becoming its Achilles heel.
Filed under: nytimes, innovation, microsoft, design, politics
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ifttt / Post diigo bookmarks to wordpress
Link: http://ifttt.com/recipes/7207
Posts your public bookmarks on diigo to wordpress along with your description & tags.
ifttt (If this then that) is a handy internet service that lets you mashup different online services and create tasks for them.Filed under: diigo, bookmarks, wordpress, ifttt
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Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
Might as well post about the movie that I ended up watching 3 times in the absence of better alternatives:
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“Bagwati” actually is credited on screen – it’s the last one in the actor list and credited to Hermes (wikipedia explains how the bags are made & the extensive service network).
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A superb showcase for Spanish tourism, albeit for the ultra rich. TOI seems to have taken a sudden liking to covering the festivals shown in the movie (check out their mobile apps in particular for the coverage)
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Farhan Akhtar continues his track record of having his hand in some of the better movies in the last decade. He also has something about father-son relationships (remember Dil Chahta Hai, Lakshya?).
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It was a nice showcase for Javed Akhtar’s poetry
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Pretty sad usage of a Canon EOS 550D by Abhay Deol throughout the movie. Firstly, he was using it as a Point & Shoot (even had the flash up during some daytime shots!). Secondly, he seemed to be still using the kit lens (EFS 18-55mm IS). Last but not the least, given the way they splurged money throughout the movie, he should have been using a higher end DSLR model (the 7D at the minimum, if not as full frame like the 5D).
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Mere Brother Ki Dulhan
Saw the movie last night. Some thoughts:
- One of the better, or at least entertaining yrf movies in recent times (watching a movie in the night show definitely lets you gauge its entertainment value)
- It has the usual references to previous yrf movies, plus a bunch of old hit songs being used throughout the movie
- It could have done with fewer songs
- The movie turned out to be quite different from the impression made by the trailer, and for the better
- Imran Khan is getting stereotyped, but then again these types of roles seem to be the one that make his movies click
- Regarding the gadgets:
- Apple continues to feature in the movies – this time with an iMac (for video chatting through a matrimony site, no less) & iPhone
- They showed a bunch of different phones being used in the movie – iPhone, Blackberry (used to take a crucial video at that)
- They finally showed a photographer who was serious about his equipment – Imran carries a Canon EOS 1D with an L series lens – which is quite unlike Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, where a zillionaire like Abhay Deol carries around a Canon EOS 550D and uses it like a Point & Shoot
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Switching to a light theme
Switched to the light version of the current theme (Coraline), as the dark version seemed to be a bit difficult to read. Also shuffled some widgets so that the more relevant ones were on top. Hope you like the changes. Feedback welcome.
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I like it when…
…my bank sends me email notifications when it dispatches documents. However, I’d like it even more if they sent the alert before the document arrived at home.
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iPad as a glorified photo viewer
My wife and I went to the Sukho Thai foot spa at High Street Phoenix last week. They hand you an iPad to view their catalogue. Guess what form it was available as?
If you thought an interactive custom app, think again. It was just a photo slideshow. So much for the iPad coolness factor.
The 90 min spa session itself covered foot massage followed by head, neck and back massage, and was quite refreshing though. -
Google+ invites
Just message or mail me (on twitter) your email & I’ll send you one.
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My first Android – the Samsung Galaxy S i9003
It’s been a while since I posted manually to the blog. Hopefully, that’ll change with my new phone with the wordpress app.
I got the phone last week and have been playing around with it ever since. It’s got Froyo on it and I’ve installed a ton of apps on it already. The experience has been quite similar yet different from my iPod touch. The app availability is quite similar, but the always connected nature of the phone opens up a new bunch of use cases.
I’ve been making use of the gps quite a bit with the My Tracks asp in particular to plot the routes I take. There have been some wow moments, particularly with the Google Goggles app. The built in tethering feature is also really handy though a bit of a battery hog. I’ll be posting more on the apps later with help from appbrain.
Battery life has however been on the poor side (most likely due to my heavy use) with almost 2 charges being required per day. Then again, my iPod doesn’t do much better if I use it heavily either. I’m currently using a Vodafone prepaid connection with 3G enabled on it. Speeds are pretty decent and a great leap over the GPRS days for sure. I also appreciate the openness of the Android platform as it allows one to work across apps quite nicely. There’s also the App Inventor to create your own simple apps.
I also had plans to buy a tablet – most likely the ipad – this year. However, the Android platform looks really promising on the tablet too, and in a year or so we should be having a well populated Android market for tablets to go with some very good hardware. That said, the iPad 2 remains the best tablet for the next few months.
And last but not the least, swype rocks. I wouldn’t have dreamt of typing out this post from my phone otherwise.
