Vinod Live! » Device

iPad unboxing and Demo

Vinod Ponmanadiyil — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 08:34:52 +0000

Yep.. The world traveler has arrived!.
Thanks to Madhu (@madhutmenon)

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Amazing Video on “Future Computing” from year 1979

Vinod Ponmanadiyil — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:50:20 +0000

Here is an amazing Video from year 1979 where two visionaries talk about how they see computing will take shape in the future. They talk about LED, Plasma, eBooks, eBook Readers, Tablets and What not!!.. It looks as if they had a peek in to the year 2010!. The video is on Tom Snyder interviewing Durk Pearson (Scientist)and Jerry Pournelle(Science Fiction writer). MUST Watch!

Amazing image enhancing technique

My Obligatory Apple Tablet / iSlate predictions

Vinod Ponmanadiyil — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:28:51 +0000

[Update after the release]

Welcome iPad!. For now it sounds strange and not as good as iSlate or even iTablet. But that is what it is. So let us see how did I fare on my predictions! :-

1) I got it right. Apple calls themselves a ‘mobile company’ and iPad is a device between the iPhone and MacBook officially. +1

2) Obviously correct. +1

3) Correct. +1

4) eBooks and Magazine are both in! – 0

5) Keyboard is not 3D. and the Interface is same as iPhone too. – 0

6) Got it right. +1

7) MobileMe Cloud sync is not happening yet. -1

8) iPhone app compatibility is assured. +1

9) Still have to sync using USB :( -1

10) HTML5 widgets are supported over Safari and homescreen shortcuts.+1

11) All the games I saw during the event looks promising. We have to see the future success of it. – 0

———-

Ok. Here are my ‘obligatory’ Apple Tablet / iSlate predictions :-

iSlate would be a companion device to MacBook/iMac. Kind of a second screen – which is more mobile.
Users stream Music, Video, Photos, PodCasts, Magazines from iTunes to iSlate
Users carry iSlate around the home as a portable media player and use it as a photo frame
Steve Jobs will teach us a lesson or two on ‘Candela’ and make us believe that an LED backlit glossy iSlate is better for reading than e-Ink – before announcing NYT & WSJ partnership on e-newspaper delivery ;). Books will have to wait.
iSlate will sport a 3D Soft keyboard/hand writing input method. I dont think Apple will make a ‘game-ish’ 3D home screen with interactive objects.
The device would come with and without support for a 3G modem and priced/subsidized accordingly
iSlate 3G will have support for multi-party iChat video conferencing
The iSlate will seamlessly sync all of your iPhone applications and their respective data over the air through MobileMe.
iSlate will introduce wireless syncing with the iTunes for the first time.
Developer support will include native HTML5 widgets apps to begin with.
iSlate will be the perfect portable gaming device ever created.

I will definitely revisit this list after the announcement on January 27th, 2010. :)

How to unlock the Kindle Global Wireless Browsing

Vinod Ponmanadiyil — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 07:26:49 +0000

Well, It’s not really a software hack!. I have a simple trick to completely ‘unlock’ the Kindle 2 Global Wireless options even while using in India / other restricted countries.

Unlocked Kindle 2 Features:-

Complete browsing experience

Ability to buy any books available on Kindle Store

Here is how you ‘unlock’ the Kindle:-

Keep Two Amazon accounts
Using one purchase a $20/$50 Amazon Gift Card.
Then top-up one of second Amazon account using the Gift Card
Register you kindle to use this Amazon Account.
Try to buy a Free Kindle E-book.
During this process, Change the “1 Click Buy Settings”, put a random USA address with correct PIN Code in the shipping details. This does not matter, as nothing physical will ever be shipped!
Thereon you will have a complete unlimited / unlocked Kindle experience!

What it does:-
The new Amazon account will be interpreted by Amazon as that of a Kindle Owner based out of USA, but on a long trip to India!. Hence the web browsing and unlimited Kindle store buying experience are available for this person (Free of Cost).

Will it be problematic?
If ever Amazon complaints that, you are trying to download/browse from a different country than USA, get any of your friends in USA to Fax them his identity information. OR alternatively you can change the address to your Indian address. Your purchased book should remain and that should solve the problem. I sincerely hope Amazon does not block this alternative option – as it helps genuine Amazon Kindle users and book Buyers. I personally use this method not to browse, but to buy Kindle Books not available for India.

Amazon Kindle 2 in India – A Review

Vinod Ponmanadiyil — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 08:05:34 +0000

An eBook reader has been on my wish list for a long long time – in fact, it even precedes the first generation Amazon kindle!. Back then I wrote a blog post comparing the eBook readers available in the market. The chance to buy a Kindle arrived when Amazon offered free shipping and lowered price for their “International Wireless Edition Kindle 2” during the Christmas. A friend in USA helped buy and bring it to me here in India.

The initial impression

Amazon Kindle 2 is a realistic replacement for Books. It is nice to hold, thin and controls for navigation are well placed. The letters on the screen are sharp and well contrasted. The graphics with 16 shades of grey appear nicer too. Reading on Amazon is a purely individual experience with no social touch to it (Perhaps that’s something Kindle rivals could aim at ;) )

The Good

High contrast, Paper like display with no glare
Good GPRS/EDGE connectivity all over India. I tested this in Kerala and Bangalore.
Very thin and rugged (K2 is a great way to fall asleep ;) Sustained a drop yesterday without a single mark)
The ‘Page turn’ speeds are acceptable.
Easy dictionary lookup
Free online Wikipedia access
Good stereo speakers and MP3 support
Calibre’s support for Instapaper makes Kindle a good offline reader for well formatted web content.

The Bad

There is no Library management of any sort. There is no Book Cover Grid display. No support for Categories, Folders or Tags. This should be fixed in a Kindle Software update.
The in-page jog stick navigation could be better
The free general Internet Browsing does not work in India ‘due to local country restrictions’.
The Magazine/Blog subscriptions strips the “Images” from the content for International wireless users of Kindle
The native PDF rendering is just average with no support for Zooming, Search and Font resizing. The Calibre software comes to the rescue with excellent support for converting many file formats including PDFs to the Kindle supported format (.Mobi).
Kindle books are costly (nearly $12) and many titles are not available to non-USA customers.

For now, I am enjoying the Kindle 2. The reading experience is really good and immersive with no distractions. If you are into technical manuals and PDF eBooks with complex formatting, you may opt for the Kindle DX, International wireless edition – with a bigger screen.

Review of Reliance Broadband+ USB Modem

Vinod Ponmanadiyil — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:28:05 +0000

I bought a Reliance Broadband+ USB Modem a few weeks back. Before purchasing this, I tracked the Twitter for actual brand/product reviews by owners. People were talking pretty positively about this and that was a welcome change after their Wi-Max debacle.

Reliance Broadband+ USB Modem

The product (Huawei EC 168 C / EV-DO Modem) was delivered the next day of booking online – by paying Rs.3500/-. But the activation needed couple of days more for the mandatory ‘address verification’ and such. Overall the Service activation period was very satisfactory. The product literature indicated support for both Mac and Windows. But the one-time ‘Activation Option’ was not available on the Mac support software. I had to do it using the Windows XP through VMWare. After this, the device was readily usable natively on Mac.

Reliance Broadband+ Windows Dashboard

The device is easy to pocket and is very rugged. There is also an extended USB cable in-case you are using it with a USB-Hub. The device has it’s retractable USB connector which is very convenient. There is also a MicroSD-Card slot which makes it a pen drive too. There is a small opening with a latch on one side – of which I have no idea!. The device is plug n play on both Mac and Windows.

Reliance Broadband+ Mac Dashboard

Once the settings have been fed the right numbers, further connections are just one-click. To get connected it normally takes about 10 seconds. The device is capable of working in CDMA 1.x mode in low coverage areas & regular high speed HSD option in good coverage areas. The device is set to ‘Hybrid’ mode by default.

The speed of HSD connection varies between 800kbps to 2Mpbs (average) – sometimes spiking to even 2.3Mbps in good coverage areas with more than 3 signal bars. But DNS lookups fail when it switches from HSD to CDMA 1.x, making me unplug and reconnect again. Thankfully this is not a frequent problem. You can watch YouTube videos / Apple iPhone tutorials etc.. comfortably. Apart from HTTP, other protocols like IRC, SSH, FTP etc.. too worked well. But the upload speeds on all occasions has been dismal. The above picture shows some of the weakest download day scenario.

I opted for an in-city tariff plan, because Airtel EDGE/GPRS on the iPhone is enough to check emails on the move. The Broadband+ USB device’s HSD connections are expected to work in all major cities and CDMA 1.x will be available almost everywhere in India. You can check the bandwidth usage live on their website. Over there you can also opt for a simple e-Bill to save on paper and post. The broadband bill can be paid online using bank gateways / credit cards.

To conclude, I will recommend this Mobile Broadband device to users in Bangalore. But as a word of caution, please do ask the sales agent to come to your home area to do an actual performance & coverage demonstration. This will give you a first hand personal experience before the purchase.