November 23rd, 2008 § 0 comments § permalink
… for a wallet busting, recession defying price of 45,000 Indian Rupees! This means an unlocked X1 may cost upto $900 in the United States and other countries.
So welcome Sony Ericsson to the Windows Mobile World.
With this pricing, I may never encounter a human being using the Xperia X1 in my country, just like I have’nt seen a soul using the iPhone 3G here.
October 14th, 2008 § 2 comments § permalink
While every other touchscreen mobile phone that comes to market today is tagged with the ‘iPhone Killer’ moniker, there is only one phone which I believe can truly live up to the higher expectations set by Apple’s iconic smartphone. That comes from the world’s largest smartphone maker Nokia, in the form of the 5800 XpressMusic phone. While the introduction of this phone did not set the internet on fire, the sales figures of 5800 after 6 months is going to surprise everyone.
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
Why is it so? First of all, the pricing of this phone. The phone is all set to launch in India and a handful of other countries in a couple of weeks from now. At a price tag of only Rs 20000 (About 400 US dollars), the XpressMusic 5800 is a steal. This pricing is a sweet spot considering that other popular phones like Sony Ericsson’s K series and Nokia’s own entry level N series handsets start at this range. For most people who were disappointed with the high pricing of the iPhone in India, the 5800 is a relief, and is a better alternative in every sense. A friend in the mobile phone retail business reveals that there are already huge number of enquiries for this phone everyday. This phone will also be much more practical because of the availability of many local services, unlike the Apple iPhone. For example, Nokia Maps 2.0 will provide turn by turn directions with a highly detailed map for many cities in India, instead of the Google Maps on the iPhone whose use is pretty limited.
If pricing is clever, the positioning of this handset is an even a smarter move by Nokia. Even though feature by feature it matches everything on the iPhone and bettering it in many cases, Nokia still calls it a ‘mid range’ phone. This implies that there will be N series phone running the S60 touch, which will have much more features and functionalities, a better camera for example. Such handsets will pose real challenge to other mobile phone manufacturers. 2009 will be as interesting and exciting as 2008 in the mobile handset arena.
October 14th, 2008 § 3 comments § permalink
As of today, installing any Linux distribution on a netbook is a chore. You need to tweak, tweak and tweak till you get every hardware working. Even after all the tweaking you will still find that you are not able to put the little computer to sleep or get the Wi-Fi drivers working properly. Just look at the long list of tweaks you have to do to get Ubuntu Hardy Heron running optimally on the Acer Aspire One.
You will be happy to know that those days are now behind. Mandriva Linux 2009 claims to be highly tweaked to run efficiently on all variants of the ASUS Eee PC, Acer Aspire One and the MSI Wind.
Mandriva 2009
After installing the Mandriva 2009 KDE version through a convoluted USB installation method, I was surprised to see that almost all hardware was detected and configured out of the box. The system boots in about 45 seconds, which is a far cry from the 15 seconds it takes for the Acer provided Linpus Lite, but still betters Ubuntu Hardy by more than 20 seconds. Apart from KDE4, I could also install the extremely light weight desktop environment called LXDE which takes only 5 seconds to load after the X sever is launched. The LXDE that ships with Mandriva 2009 is much more polished than the one available in the Ubuntu repositories.
I was also pretty much impressed by KDE4. It feels much more responsive than Gnome.
I am in the process of putting together a detailed review of Mandriva 2009 on Acer Aspire One including a how to on installation, tweaking and a quick start guide to urpmi, the aptitude equivalent on Mandrake. You can expect it before the weekend.
October 6th, 2008 § 4 comments § permalink
For almost 6 months, I am using a desktop PC as the primary computer. While I love the large LCD monitor and the ergonomics of a desktop system, I sorely miss my laptop when I am traveling or when I want to write something sitting in a place like a park or a coffeeshop. With the advent of netbooks, laptops suddenly look ugly, big and unportable. All I need is a small computer which is highly portable on which I can browse the internet and type some documents. A laptop is an overkill for such errands.
So netbook it is. After some research, I shortlisted the following netbooks because of their easy availability in my country.
ASUS Eee PC 901
Acer Aspire One
MSI Wind
I went to some computer retailers to checkout these netbooks. While I couldn’t easily find a MSI Wind, the other two are easily available. Especially the Acer Aspire One which is in stock with every Acer Mall in Bangalore.
ASUS Eee PC 901
While 8.9” inch models like the 904 and 10” inch models like the Eee PC 1000H are available, I decided to look at the 901 because of the following reasons:
Acer Aspire One
As of now, only one model of Aspire One is sold in India. It is the hard disk based model featuring a 120 GB hard drive and 1 GB of RAM. It comes with Windows XP. After a little bit of probing, the Acer Mall guys revealed the availability of a non-Windows XP model also, which comes with Linpus Lite Linux. These are the following things I observed with Acer Aspire One:
Overall, I liked the Aspire One better than the Eee PC. It was also lighter and looked attractive. So I finalized and bought the AAO. Been using it for 3 weeks now and I am more than happy with it. I wiped the Linpus Lite it came with and installed Ubuntu 8.04.1 with Netbook Remix on it. Expect a lot more tips and tricks of using the AAO on the coming days.
Related Post, Don’t miss: Netbook Buying Tips
September 24th, 2008 § 0 comments § permalink
It is a bit unfortunate that everytime I write something about Windows Mobile in this blog, it is mostly about some bad news. The latest one comes in the form of the delay in the launch of the upcoming Windows Mobile 7 iteration. This is especially bad considering the flurry of new platforms and handsets that are coming from competitors.
The delay of WinMo 7 reminds us of the bad phase that Palm is going through. After hiving off the software division, Palm hasn’t been able to release a new operating system in almost 5 years now. To stay current, Palm started shipping Windows Mobile handsets. This strategy is not going to help any longer as the Windows Mobile operating system is also not seeing any upgrades in the near future, even evolutionary. With an antique browser and its poor internet capabilities, the current version of Windows Mobile can no way match the feature set, not to mention the fit, finesse and polish the competitors like the Android or the Mobile Mac OS X are offering.
» Read the rest of this entry «
September 15th, 2008 § 3 comments § permalink
Sony Ericsson XPeria X1
HTC always had the upperhand when it came to releasing high end Windows Mobile handsets in the market. That may change with the entry of Sony Ericsson, who will soon be releasing a fantastic new handset based on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Edition. The closest Windows Mobile handset that can compete with the SE XPeria is the HTC Touch Pro. Here is a detailed comparison of the specifications. » Read the rest of this entry «
September 9th, 2008 § 0 comments § permalink
The Apple iPhone has set an unprecedented sales record seen in no other country where the phone has been launched till now. According to one report, the jesus phone has been bought by more than 1500 people in this country since it was launched 17 days ago. This is one amazing record which Apple could never replicate in any other country.
What does this mean for Apple? Well, Apple is 1500 closer to the 10 million mark that it is planning to achieve by this year end. Also, less purchasers means less people to piss off when they announce an inevitable price cut. Go Apple, Go!
August 28th, 2008 § 0 comments § permalink
First it was the developers. The highly successful application delivery model deviced by Apple has lured away serveral Windows Mobile deveopers. Developers who were once struggling to sell their Windows Mobile applications are now finding it easy to sell the iPhone equivalents without much struggle. The AppStore pricing model and the evergrowing consumer base has become a gold mine for developers to reap.
Surprisingly, advertisers are also leaving the Windows Mobile bandwagon. This has resulted in the popular Smartphone and PocketPC magazine to down its shutters. The Smartphone and PocketPC magazine awards were considered prestigious and developers used to compete fiercely for it. You can see the awards being proudly displayed in many Windows Mobile developer websites. This is indeed a sad day from many Windows Mobile developers and enthusiasts. The magazine promoters have announced that they will be publishing an iPhone quarterly instead.
Last Issue of Smartphone and Pocket PC magazine
If we analyze this situation, it will become apparent that Windows Mobile advertising has a much larger potential than the single vendor produced iPhone. With large phone companies like Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung, HTC and Palm making windows mobile devices -in addition to the plethora of accessory manufacturers for these devices- one can’t help but keep wondering why there isn’t much interest to advertise these products, especially considering that Microsoft sold close to 20 million devices last year. This is an indication that the ecosystem is slowly falling apart. It is high time that MS wakes up and brings confidence back to the developers, manufacturers and the consumers. Just claiming that a Windows Mobile can do much more than an iPhone will not cut it anymore. With the scheduled release of WM 7 almost a year away, MS will need to do a lot to sustain the interest.
August 26th, 2008 § 1 comment § permalink
Nokia has updated its ever expanding portfolio of N-series handhelds with two new phones – the N79 and the N85. The N79 is touted to be a compliment to the N78 while the N85 is said to be a replacement for the aging Nokia N95. Interestingly, we have been calling the soon to be available N96 as the replacement for the N95 series all the while.
So what does the N85 bring to the table? To start with, the Nokia N85 is the first mobile from the Finnish giant to feature an AMOLED display. According to Wikipedia, AMOLEDs displays do not require a back light as in case of LCD displays. Each pixel in the AMOLED display can emit light on its own, which helps to reduce the power consumption. The display also tends to be more thinner, though it may not make much of a difference in a mobile phone device. The screen size is only 2.6″ though. The N85 also features the 5MP auto-focus camera which we first saw on the N95 and later on the N82. Though there is no xenon, the N85 features a dual LED flash. It also supports Triband HSDPA and comes with a bundled 8GB MicroSD card in a dual slider form factor. To sum it up, the N85 is a thinner and a slightly improved version of the original Nokia N95. » Read the rest of this entry «
August 25th, 2008 § 0 comments § permalink
After causing a major heartbreak for consumers who were eagerly awaiting for the iPhone, Apple India and its carrier allies are now out to screw the 47 customers who already bought the iPhone 3G. (Yah, don’t believe the “we sold a few thousands of them” crap thrown by one of the Airtel spokesman. A friend in mobile phone retail business has confirmed that there is very little interest to buy the iPhone, though many people want to see a demo).
Airtel and Vodafone are mulling a Rupees 2000 price drop, which brings the 8GB iPhone below the psychological 30,000 barrier. This price drop may come anytime in the next few days, which will surely disappoint the people who bought it after standing in a non-existing queue for less than 5 minutes. If this price drop is materialized, please do not expect a letter from Steve Jobs and a discount voucher for Rupees 1000 which you can use only in the AppStore. My dear Indian Apple fan, you will continue to be screwed in this country.