Phone, Tablet and Gizmo Thread #0x02

BhairavP · Post by **BhairavP** » 12 Feb 2013 12:05

My dad is buying one for his jewellery designing - he was convinced after using SHQ's Wacom Intuos tablet at work.
5 hours battery life is enough, and as everyone has pointed out, the thing damn well flies with the Core i5 + SSD.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 12 Feb 2013 12:31

^^^Your SHQ is a designer? BTW be warned that Photoshop still doesn't have pull pen support (as in pressure levels and erasers) since they are using proprietary Mickey inking technology but Mickey announced that they are working with Adobe right now to fix that.

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 12 Feb 2013 12:38

Can some one tell me if iPad A1396 ( 64 GB ) works with Reliance Data Card , Netconnect + or 3g Model ?

What OS does A1396 uses ?

BhairavP · Post by **BhairavP** » 12 Feb 2013 14:03

Raja Bose wrote:^^^Your SHQ is a designer? BTW be warned that Photoshop still doesn't have pull pen support (as in pressure levels and erasers) since they are using proprietary Mickey inking technology but Mickey announced that they are working with Adobe right now to fix that.

Yep, I know.. ergo SHQ uses an rMBP and a Wacom Intuos, not the Surface Pro.. dad wants the tablet for generally exhibiting his work, OneNote and the ilk.. his old laptop is ~6 years old, time for a change.

Austin - nope, only a SIM card directly will work. It is an iPad 2 model, can be upgraded to iOS 6.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 12 Feb 2013 14:26

I have a Bamboo @home and Intuos @work. Even the cheapo Bamboo turns out fair work despite a smaller drawing surface.

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 12 Feb 2013 15:07

Raja Bose wrote:
Mort Walker wrote: What they fail to tell you is its too expensive to be a toy and too diminutive to be a production machine. I can't think of anything serious that I'd want to do on a 10" M$ tablet. If it's something quick like browsing/email or BRF, then a cheap tablet would be better. If it something serious like photo/video or programming then I want a bigger screen.
Every device is a compromise. After iPhunwa launched, Mahdi told people who needs tactile feedback - make a compromise and use the touchscreen instead. And guess what happened to keyboard based phones even though typing on a touchscreen is a PITA compared to a hardware keyboard

I think the Surface Pro will appeal to people who want to carry one device instead of two while traveling and something which is more portable and lighter - that is why I personally use the Surface while traveling instead of a MBA (its a laptop style computer which can be used as a tablet if required). If one thinks about it the price of the Surface Pro is similar to the price of owning a tablet+ultrabook. What Mickey needs is a sales pitch like the Mahdi. If anybody else had launched the iPad as a consumer device, people would have torn them down for lack of keyboard, why it is not widescreen for watching movies, cannot get productive work done on it, why do I need it when I have a laptop/ultrabook/iPhunwa etc etc. Instead all the Mahdi did was tell people, its perfect for curling up in the couch (even Takla didn't think of that when he launched Kindle!) and compromises be damned! Now you have people claiming they will not buy XYZ device becoz they can't curl up in the couch with it (suddenly there seems to have been an explosion in the number of people who have started curling up in their couches with devices in their hand ).

And till the Mahdi told them about the Retina display with 326ppi, nobody cared or even knew about ppi. After that we have people squinting at their displays trying to figure out whether its Retina resolution or not. And the funny thing is in most cases, they can't tell a thing as blind studies have shown. And going too high-res on a mobile display can lead to compromises in other places which are more noticeable (vs resolution) such as colour saturation, for example as seen in the Nexus 10.

The Mahdi was truly one of his kind - they need to preserve his sales pitches for future generations.

>Every device is a compromise.

+100000000

Too many people don't get it, because they fall in love with what they use. Tey won't see the compromises while others would. This is very much like Arraigned Marriages vs Love Marriages. In arraigned marriages "specifications" are matched and compromises are made whereas in love marriages heart does the thinking and even jyotish advises to ignore if kundali is incompatible.

But I guess it is okay, whatever floats ones boat.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 12 Feb 2013 22:15

This is very much like Arraigned Marriages vs Love Marriages. In arraigned marriages "specifications" are matched and compromises are made whereas in love marriages heart does the thinking and even jyotish advises to ignore if kundali is incompatible.

Now see here. This topic is the domain of the L&M dhaaga to which I am a regular contributor. I say arranged marriage works best because Mrs. Mort and Mr. Mort is a match made in the heavens and for some gizmos we don't compromise.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 13 Feb 2013 01:16

Did u return your libbie pillow to takla?

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 13 Feb 2013 02:21

^^^Yup. It was never used and in fact takla gave me an instant refund on my CC.

SHQ never knew the real purpose of that gizmo and thought it was a good idea for reading or cuddling up with her iPad. Good thing I hid the packaging and didn't get the one with built-in restraint system.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 13 Feb 2013 07:17

the adult furniture&toy industry seems to operate like the mobile phone industry. someone invents a feature or shape and everyone copies it. but atleast they dont waste time and money in patent wars. they seem pretty agile in picking up the best materials, ideas and research on what works for people...and the quality of electronics and motors seems on par with the best in consumer sector like the hitachi magic wand...maybe some x-pollination occurred with the division that makes loco traction motors for our WAG-7 and WAP-4 ...these things can run for days

spider sense tells me just like "50 shades" made it ok to flaunt kinky ***** in the front shelves of bookstores and in drawing rooms of the well off, this furniture/toy business would also mainstream on indic shores soon, wrapped in the same "safe hex, holistic wellness, caring" etc skin it did in mongolia.

well off india tends to follow mongolian trends mostly with a slight time lag.

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 13 Feb 2013 07:34

Magic wand can be used in place of a sumeet mixie to make chutney for idlis.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 14 Feb 2013 06:23

Valve fires Jerri Ellsworth

That motu Gabe Newell is turning out to be a first class paki d-bag.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 14 Feb 2013 09:03

so it looks like a handful of micromax canvas hd went on sale at their own site at midnight last night and sold out in 20 mins.
the rest of the faithfuls who couldnt get any are riding around the compound firing rifles in the air.

and its just a phone that will be obsolete in 6 months specwise given the pace of changes.

they are matching samsung $$ in advertising on TV .... and sponsoring cricket matches, fashion shows, metal concert tours....

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 14 Feb 2013 10:21

The 'cost' of doing business: Google Could Pay Apple $1 Billion Next Year To Remain Default Search Engine On iOS, Report Says

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 14 Feb 2013 10:46

Raja Bose wrote:The 'cost' of doing business: Google Could Pay Apple $1 Billion Next Year To Remain Default Search Engine On iOS, Report Says

+ USD 3 Billion to Mozilla while it develops Android's competitor.

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 14 Feb 2013 10:48

Raja Bose wrote:Valve fires Jerri Ellsworth

That motu Gabe Newell is turning out to be a first class paki d-bag.

Why is that ? Do you know why she was fired ?

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 14 Feb 2013 10:49

Firefox OS is no competitor to Android (for one the base OS in it is....Android). It can be if someone like Sammy partners with them but Mozilla by itself it too steeped in open source traditions to make any dent. Its like Linux trying to do their desktop thing back in the 90s and 2000s and they are still claiming that the current year is gonna be the year of Linux.

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Jerri ain't tellin'.

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 14 Feb 2013 11:06

Raja Bose wrote:Firefox OS is no competitor to Android (for one the base OS in it is....Android). It can be if someone like Sammy partners with them but Mozilla by itself it too steeped in open source traditions to make any dent. Its like Linux trying to do their desktop thing back in the 90s and 2000s and they are still claiming that the current year is gonna be the year of Linux.

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Jerri ain't tellin'.

That is the case right now, but I can think of few things that can happen that can make it replace Android.

1) Oracle's lawsuit
2) "Community" decides to work on Firefox OS just like they dumped KDE due to Qt license changes, the way people dumped IE and downloaded phoenix
3) Gecko
4) Gecko
5) Google's

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http://my.opera.com/ODIN/blog/300-milli ... -to-webkit

As a Opera "fanboi", though there is little sadness.. but it makes perfect sense and I am actually excited about this. All the goodness of Chrome + features of Opera - Eye of Sauron == awesome.

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 14 Feb 2013 11:19

Raja Bose wrote:Valve fires Jerri Ellsworth

That motu Gabe Newell is turning out to be a first class paki d-bag.

What is the inside story?

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 14 Feb 2013 11:20

anmol wrote:
Raja Bose wrote:The 'cost' of doing business: Google Could Pay Apple $1 Billion Next Year To Remain Default Search Engine On iOS, Report Says
+ USD 3 Billion to Mozilla while it develops Android's competitor.

It is 330 million over 3 years =~ 1 Billion

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 14 Feb 2013 12:28

No, its an anal-e-cyst projection that annual fee from Chacha to Fruit Co will reach ~1 Billion. And now the techcrunch page seems to be down - I wonder who threatened them, Chacha or Fruit Co.?

Interestingly one of the blog posts I had linked to here about an Android exploit which can change any app's behavior ~2 weeks ago also got taken down in a jiffy - I finally found out that the reason was due to Chacha's lawyers contacting the guy's current employer (who are a Chacha vendor) and squeezing their tattey.
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Inside story not clear - currently its at the "extremist-on-both-sides" level. She is pretty talented in HW though does have an attitude. Gabe Newell is just a d-bag period.
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Firefox OS might replace Android with Ubuntu as base layer OS but that's it and even then there needs to be some popularity for it at ODM level otherwise getting drivers will be a PITA of paki proportions. I have compiled and run B2G (when it was B2G and not FirefoxOS) on pretty much everything from phones, tablets, IVIs to set-top boxes since the Android base OS makes it easy to get off-the-shelf HW with all basic drivers included, from small chipanda shenzhen ODMs. In fact last year I asked a friend of mine to go to his onsite interview with the Chrome team@Chacha, with a tablet running B2G and asking them innocently when will they get off their mush and launch a ChromeOS tablet? I promised to donate $200.- to Mozilla if he did

He pulled that stunt eventually, got an offer from Chacha, used it to bump up another offer and I had to pay $200.- to Mozilla as 'charity'.

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 14 Feb 2013 12:54

300 Million, I meant the mozilla payment from chacha. It is 1 Billion over 3 years and not 3 billion.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 14 Feb 2013 12:59

Given the small size of Mozilla's full-time group of employees and the massive volunteer force, that's a nice chunk of change. No wonder they have been throwing around ~175K offers to injineers lately. Mozilla's attitude however strikes me as the Nehruvian non-aligned attitude (while taking aid from Soviet Union). Mozilla see themselves as non-aligned defenders of open standards protecting them against other industry heavy weights who do/did browser stuff (Chacha, Fruit, Mickey, GB) yet their operating expenses are largely sourced from Chacha's largesse.

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 14 Feb 2013 13:04

Anujan wrote:It is 330 million over 3 years =~ 1 Billion

Yes you are right, its not 3 Billion.

Raja Bose wrote:Given the small size of Mozilla's full-time group of employees and the massive volunteer force, that's a nice chunk of change. No wonder they have been throwing around ~175K offers to injineers lately. Mozilla's attitude however strikes me as the Nehruvian non-aligned attitude (while taking aid from Soviet Union). Mozilla see themselves as non-aligned defenders of open standards yet their operating costs are largely sourced from Chacha's largesse.

Exactly, that is just what I was thinking. Especially for an non-profit and an organization wich have so much goodwill.

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WebOS - Maemo/Moblin/Meego/Jolla - Ubuntu Phone OS - Firefox OS - Tizen - Trolltech people's mobile platform etc etc they should just read Opera's press release. So much duplicated effort by very talented people towards almost exact same thing.

Prasad · Post by **Prasad** » 14 Feb 2013 13:16

Didn't they start out as exactly that though? Don't grudge them their 'small' payday RBmullah

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 14 Feb 2013 13:17

As Takla is teaching the world, it is not the OS which counts.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 14 Feb 2013 15:03

based on the new mediatek quad core chipset that is 75% performance and 50% price of the costly vendors, a raft of new offerings are coming...in 6 months we will see 5", quad core, gorilla glass, 13mp camera, 2GB internal mem on a lot models like these and the prices will drop from 14,000 to 10,000 probably.

http://www.gizmochina.com/2013/02/03/ji ... -exposure/
http://www.gizchina.com/2013/02/07/firs ... verything/

samsung has a range of models and mix n match plays to "roll in the gutter" with these sharp new pigs....but what is apple going to do with its 2 models?

the youth, who were once thought to be the future market for apple have just given up on iphone now and moved on....ipad still sells, but only because the android tablets are not be marketed strongly even by samsung.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 14 Feb 2013 20:55

^^Even Sammy is loathe to roll with the pigs becoz that game is a race to the bottom with high risk, low RoI. Another reason why a lot of HW vendors are moving into services and vertical integration - thats where the margins are. HW commoditization is a reality which happens in tranches everywhere, whether mobile or stationary. This is also a risk to platform vendors like Mickey or Chacha becoz that means their big HW partners may divorce them in the future so they need to hedge against that. This is one reason why Mickey is publicly going vertical on devices and Chacha is doing in more coyly. Sammy, Lenovo are not going to sit nicely on the sidelines and watch these Khan heathens sit in AC offices in massa and take the huge hafta from their sweat and toil - it is a mazdoor uprising onlee!

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 14 Feb 2013 21:00

Singha wrote:
samsung has a range of models and mix n match plays to "roll in the gutter" with these sharp new pigs....but what is apple going to do with its 2 models?

These cheaper models have no demand in markets like khanland where handsets are subsidized and everyone can afford the latest and greatest once every 18 months. Apple doesn't bother about the Indian market anyway. Any market where VFM is paramount and brand consciousness is low is a lost cause for Apple.

archan · Post by **archan** » 14 Feb 2013 22:07

Checked out the Sammy Grand duos briefly at a store. The thing is HUGE. GSIII looked like a dwarf in comparison. The movements were a bit laggy when I swiped across homescreens.
I updated my skyrocket GSII to Cyanogenmod 4.0.1 stable and can feel the fluidity. Maybe it is touchwiz combined with a budget processor on the grand.
Next I doubt i will buy a non nexus android phone. Pure android with latest updates for me please.

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 14 Feb 2013 22:31

Was the Nexus 4 ever released in India?

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 15 Feb 2013 12:09

Why has Fruit Co. not announced big game publishers as content partners for AppleTV yet?

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 15 Feb 2013 13:38

Raja Bose wrote:Why has Fruit Co. not announced big game publishers as content partners for AppleTV yet?

Because even the latest Apple TV can't compete with machines which were launched 6-7 years back.
Apple makes money selling from hardware, can they compete with those who sell these consoles at loss ?
Alternative is to charge publishers some money, in that case publishers would stay with platform the charges the least.
Console Gamers don't give a damn about about iShiny, they care about FPS - Resolution - AA - Nice Gamepad - Multiplayer etc.
PC Gamers:

Basically Microsoft and Sony are suicide bombers, no one can compete with them.

Apple can compete with Nintendo, but they cat win against them(IMVHO). Mario - Zelda - Donkeykong etc will defeat iMahdi.

Ultimately, Apple still makes 70% money from iPad and iPhone. If they cant make money selling hardware, they will have to live with tiny profits(or loss).
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I am sure they can make more money selling iWatch, iEaring, iNecklace, iMonocle.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 15 Feb 2013 17:59

Raja Bose wrote:Why has Fruit Co. not announced big game publishers as content partners for AppleTV yet?

Apple TV sells for $100 and is far from a full-fledged stand alone game console with a dedicated graphics card that uses relatively lots of power.
It can compete in the mobile game market and will capture market share in that area. PS and XboX h/w is sold at a loss, but makes up for services bought later.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 15 Feb 2013 21:02

XBox hw is no longer sold at loss - its sold at-cost now after Mickey was successful breaking into the market.

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 15 Feb 2013 21:15

Raja Bose wrote:XBox hw is no longer sold at loss - its sold at-cost now after Mickey was successful breaking into the market.

I can understand Mickey$ having the deep pockets to sell it at a loss. How was Sony managing it with the PS3?

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 15 Feb 2013 21:37

anmol wrote: Because even the latest Apple TV can't compete with machines which were launched 6-7 years back.
Apple makes money selling from hardware, can they compete with those who sell these consoles at loss ?
Alternative is to charge publishers some money, in that case publishers would stay with platform the charges the least.
Console Gamers don't give a damn about about iShiny, they care about FPS - Resolution - AA - Nice Gamepad - Multiplayer etc.
PC Gamers:
Basically Microsoft and Sony are suicide bombers, no one can compete with them.

Apple can compete with Nintendo, but they cat win against them(IMVHO). Mario - Zelda - Donkeykong etc will defeat iMahdi.

Ultimately, Apple still makes 70% money from iPad and iPhone. If they cant make money selling hardware, they will have to live with tiny profits(or loss).
---

I am sure they can make more money selling iWatch, iEaring, iNecklace, iMonocle.

AppleTV was never meant to compete with the stand alone game machines or PCs. It was for media consumption at home and a path to further increase revenues via iTunes, which has been quite successful, but it is only now that AppleTV's hardware is capable of playing some games since it shares the basic h/w & s/w of iOS devices. For a device that sells for $100 is not bad, but the real problem is that Apple has treated it as a hobby, maybe until now. Apple will allow people to use their iOS device as a controller linked up with AppleTV to play games and leverage the use of the vast iOS device proliferation and you can buy games for a few bucks. As it is both XboX and PS are going to do away with disc drives and you will have to buy games from their respective stores that only work on the registered machine. No more sharing of games or a used market and places like Game Stop. If both of these clowns sell their games for $40+, they will kill their markets and cede them to someone else like Apple in the next few years.

Apple makes profits from its PC sales as well, but those profits are very small compared to those from iToys. The vast market of PC makers are struggling and if you need support there isn't anything equivalent to the Apple Store for service in the developed world. Yes, there are MS Stores, but they aren't as common nor do they provide the same level of service. About 10-12% of the market wants OS X and Apple caters to them, and if you want to run Windows, you can do that too. The key thing to remember is that only Apple sells PCs that can run OS X and not anyone else - so the market is captive, but some of us don't mind since it generally works well. If you go to the on-line MS Store, they sell their own PCs like the Surface, but they compete with themselves and sell PCs by other manufacturers as well, eg. Why should I buy a Surface Pro for $1200 when the same experience can be had with the touchscreen Asus X202E that the MS Store will sell for $500? I give up a bit of portability, but not that much and $700 seems like a reasonable compromise for a device that I will keep for less than 3 years regardless which ever one I buy. (RB doesn't count because his company bahadur is buying his toys for him).

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 15 Feb 2013 21:45

Surprisingly, there is a certain positive perception approaching FruitCo-esque irrationality in a kashtmar's mind when a software platform vendor releases their own HW. That is the reason why people went "ooooh! Chacha is releasing its own phunwa!" and "ooooh! When is Mickey releasing its Surface phunwa?!" Even now Mickey's Surface (that too RT onlee) is being advertised much more heavily in Oirope the other Win8 tablets that have been available there for some months. If it was Mickey's partners that would be understandable but none of these are and yet they are pouring more Euros in advertising Mickey's warez as compared to say Asus. The poor HW companies don't catch any break which is why they are trying to move into SW.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 15 Feb 2013 21:47

Mort Walker wrote:I give up a bit of portability, but not that much and $700 seems like a reasonable compromise for a device that I will keep for less than 3 years regardless which ever one I buy.

Thank Allah we don't have all kashtmars think like that otherwise nobody would buy any iToy.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 15 Feb 2013 21:49

Raja Bose wrote:
Mort Walker wrote:I give up a bit of portability, but not that much and $700 seems like a reasonable compromise for a device that I will keep for less than 3 years regardless which ever one I buy.
Thank Allah we don't have all kashtmars think like that otherwise nobody would buy any iToy.

That is why I don't buy iToys, but love my 6-7 year old Macs.