Phone, Tablet and Gizmo Thread #0x02

manish · Post by **manish** » 23 Jan 2013 20:53

Longish post ahead, sorry!

News is surfacing about a wide-ranging no-hire pact that was/is in place amongst the Silly-con valley biggies. I think a class action suit is in the works by employees who claim to have been affected. In a starring role of course is (err..was) of course The Mahdi (just see the venom in his tone when he threatens the Palm CEO):

And an excellent one from the 'Do No Evil' company, exemplary display of (non) evil behaviour!

More fun n games here.

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 23 Jan 2013 21:01

Singha wrote:they will soon fall prey to imperial overreach one expects just like NOK and just like APPLE in the past.

they need to line up the next set of killer products after the steam runs of out of the galaxy line, which it naturally will in some 2 yrs.
I dont think their android tablets are selling much.
nobody wants bada or even touchwiz atop pure android.
there are better makers of white goods appliances like panasonic & braun but without the congressi type reach into every lane of Samsung/LG
TV - they are pretty good one has to say

among the global majors through a mix of innovation and luck they are well placed to dominate atleast in the next 5 yrs. beyond that none can predict.

Well Sony reached into a lot more areas..including consumer entertainment business and they are still on top(?).

Wonder what's happening with Sony these days..amazing company

BhairavP · Post by **BhairavP** » 23 Jan 2013 22:44

Sony is in a big mess, bleeding money left right and centre.

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 23 Jan 2013 22:46

BhairavP wrote:Sony is in a big mess, bleeding money left right and centre.

They can afford to bleed LOT MORE, they have ~170 Billion USD of cash reserves.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 23 Jan 2013 22:52

Shona Brown seems like a typical corporate brown noser. Every company has anti-solicitation rules in their code of conduct but if the approached employee says they themselves 1st showed interest in the rival company, then these rules don't apply since California doesn't have no-compete. Moreover, it is unlikely they had a rule in chacha's code of conduct back then that they can't solicit others and I doubt they have a do not call policy coz they sure don't have one now

This is a dance which gets played 100s of times each day in the valley and I am sure this was not the first or last time it happened in Chacha. So what Chacha's HR did is illegal if they can prove the above. And it doesn't give a good impression of what their HR thinks of their own employees going by the comment of making a public example and termination within the hour.....as if the employees are errant cattle to be herded and halal'ed as per the whim of upper management. All it looks like is CEO sahab ordering something decreed by the Mahdi and lower execs jumping up to prove their undying loyalty to the sarkar bahadur by conducting purges, much like Stalin's deputies.

Added later: Just checked...Shona Brown is an ex-McKinsey consultant. Why am I not surprised?

This breed of individuals will go down in history as one of the most useless groups of parasites ever to infest the ITvity industry. Year by year their presence increases in Chacha and they have already infiltrated and kinda ruined FB. For some reason, Mickey and ChipZ have been curiously not targeted in a big way. GB already has succumbed to their invasion. Dunno about NetZ. No offense to any McKinsey consultants here.

James B · Post by **James B** » 24 Jan 2013 08:30

Apple misses revenue forecast, shares fall 10%

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 24 Jan 2013 09:35

They made 13b$ in profit, third highest profit of any company in any quarter in the history of the world and their stock tanks. Sometimes I wonder what this analyeasts are smoking when they write their forecasts.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 24 Jan 2013 11:16

Anujan wrote:They made 13b$ in profit, third highest profit of any company in any quarter in the history of the world and their stock tanks. Sometimes I wonder what this analyeasts are smoking when they write their forecasts.

Don't blame the anal-cysts, blame it on pure human greed. That is the price Apple (or any other wildly successful company) pays for doing well. You do well, investors expect better. You do better, they expect even better. There is no limit to investor expectation becoz there is no limit to human greed. And human stupidity.

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 24 Jan 2013 12:29

Raja Bose wrote: Added later: Just checked...Shona Brown is an ex-McKinsey consultant. Why am I not surprised? This breed of individuals will go down in history as one of the most useless groups of parasites ever to infest the ITvity industry.

wHY are some of the highest paid individuals, paragons of the degree of the MBA considered to be some of the worst parasites in the world?

Why is MBA giri not something useful?

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 24 Jan 2013 12:37

^^Becoz they claim to have upper hand in everything.

hanumadu · Post by **hanumadu** » 24 Jan 2013 12:40

anmol wrote:
BhairavP wrote:Sony is in a big mess, bleeding money left right and centre.
They can afford to bleed LOT MORE, they have ~170 Billion USD of cash reserves.

I am not an expert at reading a balance sheet, but if you take away the debt and accounts payable it comes down to 20 billion or so.

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 24 Jan 2013 14:51

The problem with some MBAs is that they end up becoming middle men without adding efficiency to the system. They are like house brokers. Can be replaced by a nice website or a spreadsheet.

And what's up with all the news of apple is dying? Reminds me of India is dying article in paki forums after every minor news of somebody falling sick somewhere.

Anyone remember that article in Al guardian (2007) where they said iPod and new imacs are all okay, but is apple losing its mojo?

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 24 Jan 2013 17:13

hanumadu wrote:I am not an expert at reading a balance sheet, but if you take away the debt and accounts payable it comes down to 20 billion or so.

Nor am I, but is that short term or long term debt ? I believe much of that should be long term, else why would Sony be spending billions buying out Ericsson's stake in SE and EMI and Gaikai ? But whatever, like I said earlier... sony can afford to bleed lot more, even 100+ Billion and still will have many billions left.

----

sum · Post by **sum** » 24 Jan 2013 19:46

^^ Gurus, any idea where we can get cheapest external USB HDDs in Desh, preferably online? Looking for a 500GB one and hoping its within 2-3K.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 24 Jan 2013 19:52

you can buy it in person from computer warehouse in barton center, MG road.
their stock and price is online
http://www.computerwarehousepricelist.com

I would imagine you do not HDDs with moving parts be shipped to you lest they be damaged by shock, leaving you holding the bag.
for SSD drives its probably ok.

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 24 Jan 2013 22:58

Exactly. MBAs are middlemen doing nothing.

So when shit happens and new management takes over. First thing they do is fire all the old hands.

Management is sort of superfluous.

But I wonder why they are paid like hell ?

In India, you cannot make a decent living if you are not an MBA...at least in my field...that of materials science.

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 25 Jan 2013 00:57

Wow, apple's stock tripped circuit breaker.

Some trader posted this:

On January 24, 2013 the iPain by Apple was announced to their investors.

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 26 Jan 2013 06:27

Any junta has experience with making mobile payments like squareup.com ?

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 26 Jan 2013 06:56

Here is a phone for your phone, because your phone is too big. Does it come with a bluetooth headset?

http://www.technobuffalo.com/2013/01/25 ... fly-china/

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 26 Jan 2013 11:11

I like it. Car with a bike why didn't I think of that

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 26 Jan 2013 13:01

well this mothership and UUV concept is better done with a full tablet (having a SIM that has voice calls enabled also). that would avoid having to buy a smartphone just for voice calls and SMS while the tablet is much better for surfing , docs reading and email. tablet makers should throw in one for free but since the main tablet makers also make a lot of cash from expensive phones, they are unlikely to. the chipanda cos like huawei, lenovo and zte might be able to do it though as they dont make a lot of cash from phones.

Zynda · Post by **Zynda** » 26 Jan 2013 13:08

Apparently, Intel is going to exit from Motherboard business after Haswell release. Haswell mobos will be their last product. News articles mentions no lay offs but employees will be absorbed in to different divisions. Death of desktops is truly on its way.

More & more games are being written for gaming consoles. Only a few hardcore games like Flight Sim which requires 3 dozen key commands for different systems

will continue to be written for PC. PC components will surely be very expensive 3-4 yrs down the line.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 26 Jan 2013 13:16

PCs the way we have known them is changing - that is what the likes of Mickey have bet on.

pgbhat · Post by **pgbhat** » 26 Jan 2013 15:01

Belkin to buy Cisco's home networking business, including 'Linksys' brand

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 26 Jan 2013 15:47

ha ha ha...a crowdsource poll at the time of acquisition could have told them that. but no, they had to believe the 'experts'

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 27 Jan 2013 04:40

hmm....KickStarter darlings Pebble SmartWatch are trying to be Mahdi-like in their marketing by claiming their display is an e-paper one even though it is not bi-stable and consumes power even when content does not change.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 27 Jan 2013 05:16

What tech are they using? They claim that the face of the watch can be read without any trouble even in bright sun light. Is it PixelQi? and talking of PixelQi, what happened to Adam? Uptake of PixelQi seems to be lack lustre as well. The tech seems to be not used in any popular gadgets. Who are their customers and how are they still in business?

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 27 Jan 2013 05:31

Pebble is using a Sharp memory-in-pixel LCD which is reflective so it is easier to read in sunlight but not as good as ones with special polarization filters like those used in some smartphones. But Pebble is also only displaying black and white so the high contrast helps a lot. Pixel Qi displays are not good in terms of colour saturation, viewing angles, thickness and weight. Haven't heard from 'em in a long time so no idea if they are still in business or ready to cop a plea.

NotionInk looks like they are undergoing a reorg/firesale.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 27 Jan 2013 05:47

I remember (AFAIK around the same time Adam was announced) that there was some talk that Nicholas Negroponte (the OLPC guy) was planning on putting Pixel Qi on OLPC. Not really following any of these developments.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 27 Jan 2013 06:19

Actually the PixelQi technology originated as part of the OLPC project. Mary-Lou Jepsen who was heading the OLPC display hardware decided to jump ship with the technology and make a buck.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 27 Jan 2013 11:43

Lumia has good hw but the lumia 820 mrp of 28000 i see listed in nokia india website is not at all going to fly here in indian market. For 20k u get better or equivalent hw from brandnames and for 15k from mmx,karbonn soon.
Nobody is going to buy the lumia here if they price models that way. So far no word on lumia 620 price.

They need to price the 620 around 13k and the 820 around 18k to really stand any chance of making a comeback here. Already the youth market which will buy more phones and big phones have declared nok dead and moved on to iphone samsung lg mmx....the only nok users i see nowadays are old uncles in the market..kind of like buick and towncar in usa.

And up the screen to 5" which is a mandatory checkpoint now to be a player at the big table. Even apple iphone5s might cave in and go that route. 4" is value engineering trailing edge stuff.

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 27 Jan 2013 11:50

Apparently (take this with 2 buckets of salt -- will later tell you why I think this might not be true) FruitCo is working on a larger iPhunwa.

Fruitco has this sheen of "I dont care what users want or other competitors do, we blaze our own path". From which they secretly down-hill ski from time to time.

The 7inch tablet is an example. If you treat a tablet as a consumption device (which most users do, not all but most). Then 7inches are the best form factor. They fit into a purse for women, into a jacket pocket for men, can be used one handed and is big enough to do your email, facekitab, and book reading. They are smaller, lighter and cheaper. FruitCo declared that they will never make a 7inch tablet till everyone else had a product in this space, started eating ipad's lunch (Nexus 7 passed iPad as the most popular tablet in Japan) and FruitCo suddenly produces a 7incher. Declares it to be better than other 7inchers there.

If they come up with a bigger iPhone, it will be the same story all over again. Will be interesting to see.

I think if iPhunwa goes bigger, it will be to compete with the note, not with things like Nexus 4. Android, by devoting a few pixels in the bottom to soft keys and a few pixels in the top to status bar, actually has only about as much usable area as a smaller iPhunwa. Further, a smaller iphunwa is narrower facilitating one hand operation. So iPhunwa doesnt really need to compete with 4.7-5 inchers. It is the bigger ones like the F-ugly note that they need to compete with.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 27 Jan 2013 12:00

I read in some gadget blog yday samsung is working on a even bigger note fo fill the current gap between note and whatever galaxy tab is above it. Its called note 8.0
http://www.gottabemobile.com/2013/01/24 ... xy-note-2/

Dunno if it is realistic as a phone but then i had to stop myself laughing rudely when i saw people using the note as a phone holding it up...i dont laugh no more. Xl is the new m so to say...restaurant portion sized phones are in size zero is out.

We are likely headed to 6.3-6.5" sizes by christmas this year on the flapship phones of every non apple vendor. Apple will push out a 5" and claim they are wiser and superior ofcourse. Also like 4gb of ram and gaming rig quality gameplay is on map somewhere...new power sipping gpu, octal cores probably....

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 27 Jan 2013 12:04

I for one, still cant believe why the F-ugly note sells so much! I mean, it is great that users get what they want. But I refuse to hold that monstrosity to my ear*

*Maybe I will downhill ski too some day.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 27 Jan 2013 12:08

That you will sir...that you will. People on the go who do a lot of email like marketing and sales types, doctors, financial types seem to love it. I was in a lift with 3 docs one of whom whipped out a new sharp looking htc model to take a call...his buddies asked him about it..he said it was good but was going to upg to a note soon and palm the htc off to his wife...they went haw haw haw wink wink at that. Boys will be boys..this gent was 60 yrs old.
Men are always looking to give their wives older kit for their own upg.

Prasad · Post by **Prasad** » 27 Jan 2013 12:12

Even though you'd like a total tool with one of those up next to your head, a lot of people these days aren't using their phones for phone-calls most of the time. So a bigger screen helps. Short of using a tablet which is unweildy compared to a 'fone', it makes sense. Especially when you check out how small spreadsheets and the like are tiny when used even on my 4.x" S3.

negi · Post by **negi** » 27 Jan 2013 15:22

Anujan not sure if you observed but back in early to mid 2000s people used to be typing endlessly on their 1" by 1" Nokia 3310s or if they could afford the bill talk to their GHQs for hours as if there was no tomorrow. I see that a lot of folks these days actually chat on gmail/facebook's chat window . Note's size is not a big issue specially when people are using handsfree or bluetooth . In fact the way I see things a lot of the folks are using their smartphones as portable multi media devices (watch movies, play games and usual email/linkedin/facebook or even BRF giri). Apple Iphone5 might be awesome but it will not appeal to a large section of desi crowd who want a big screen for watching videos and other jagmug.

One of my friends has a nice holder cum stand on this windshield to hold the Note , he uses it has a GPS when driving and it's size helps when viewing the screen from that distance.

pgbhat · Post by **pgbhat** » 27 Jan 2013 16:41

Singha wrote:That you will sir...that you will. People on the go who do a lot of email like marketing and sales types, doctors, financial types seem to love it. I was in a lift with 3 docs one of whom whipped out a new sharp looking htc model to take a call...his buddies asked him about it..he said it was good but was going to upg to a note soon and palm the htc off to his wife...they went haw haw haw wink wink at that. Boys will be boys..this gent was 60 yrs old.
Men are always looking to give their wives older kit for their own upg.

Actually support guy in our BLR office worked with a customer in Bulgaria on a GTM app on Note 2 while his wife was getting an ultrasound.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 27 Jan 2013 16:54

There you go...making the impossible possible is the phablet....case exists for a 7" screen inshallah.

anishns · Post by **anishns** » 27 Jan 2013 20:09

Whatever happened to the much hyped on this forum, the Adam tablet?