Phone, Tablet and Gizmo Thread #0x02

krishnan · Post by **krishnan** » 31 Oct 2013 09:39

sad days for BB , what a fall, they are now talking to FB for potential buyout

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 31 Oct 2013 09:56

....some telugu guy called prem watsa already bought them

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 31 Oct 2013 10:00

just bought myself a 6000 rs router--- netgear wndr3700 v3 from flipkart.

some issues though. pages sometimes lag . sometimes do not load at all.

wtf?

UPDATE:

10 year old linksys router....does not drop pages and forces reloads of pages .

Bought yesterday Netgear N600 does. Its readyshare in inaccessible, plus it has problems staying up and constantly drops connections in the 2.4GHz band.

WTF!

I wonder what my options are now. Ask for money back is what I want. Failing which , a replace router from Netgear.

Update:

two 40 minute calls to netgear support today.

they went around the usual troubleshooting the obvious stuff.

but. still, signal is being dropped frequently and this is confirmed.

this has started happening when i "upgraded" to the latest firmware that netgear recommended to me.

1. DD wrt is only unofficially supported on this thing.

2. i want to return this to flipkart/netgear and get my money back. not a replacement. money back.

ArmenT · Post by **ArmenT** » 31 Oct 2013 11:15

From BBC:
Dell users: Latitude 6430u laptops 'smell of cat urine'
The model in question is on the higher-end of their laptop offerings and is designed for business users.

A number of Dell users have complained that their Latitude 6430u Ultrabooks "smell of cat urine"
...
The problem lay in the manufacturing process, which has now been changed, the company said.
..
Another customer, Hoteca, said: "I thought for sure one of my cats sprayed it, but there was something faulty with it so I had it replaced. The next one had the same exact issue. It's embarrassing taking it to clients because it smells so bad."
...
...
After an investigation, Dell concluded that the odour was not hazardous to health.

Dell has said that the cause of the smell is not a biological contaminant
"The smell is not related to cat urine or any other type of biological contaminant, nor is it a health hazard," Dell support technician SteveB said.

The problem was related to the manufacturing process, and had now been resolved, he said.

"If you order an E6430u now, it will not have the issue."

Dell recommended that users should send affected laptops away for a replacement palm rest.

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 31 Oct 2013 12:52

BhairavP wrote:
Karan M wrote:All these fancy specs are paki, until they increase battery performance correspondingly. Stupid wifi and 3G kill my android's battery in a few hours...
Which one saar? I'm using the S4 with a custom ROM and kernel, and getting a good day's worth of battery life, with the screen on for ~11 hours or so.

Galaxy Note 2. Putting on the wifi & or the mobile data drains the battery faster than anything.

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 31 Oct 2013 13:48

^^^ next phone should be a lenovo o780 (battery) or a google nexus 4 (smoothness)

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 31 Oct 2013 15:33

lumia 800 survives a 100 day spell in swedish lake
http://www.wpcentral.com/nokia-lumia-80 ... -dive-lake

vina · Post by **vina** » 31 Oct 2013 16:01

mahadevbhu wrote: In this digital publishing side, what people do is, that they will create the basic framework / wireframe on a office document.

and then....ditch all of office for windows and mac , this and that, and go for.......

adobe creative suite, and most probably Illustrator to make that fancy ppt/pdf on either windows or mac.

Ah. But adobe stuff is top class on Mac onree. In fact, Adobe was hand reared by Fruit onree. They dumped the only later for mobile.

And all of mucknesee and asssenter will give those add ins for quick ppts usually in windows version of office onlee.

MuckNSee and AssEnter will come do the photocopying and even clean your toilet and man those stations with Ivy League YumBeeYeas if you pay them enough. They will give whatever you want in any form you
want.

Well, Linux has it's own problems. This afternoon, on running some driver upgrade, my Ubuntu crashed and wouldn't load the X Windows /GUI and I had undo the Nvidia update, revert back to the older one all that stuff and patch the kernel and all that kind of rubbish for an hour this afternoon. That is why a Mac OS-X kind of tightly controlled thing would be fine. Peace (of the grave), 100% guaranteed. For eg, you wouldn't go and put a non OEM approved stuff like graphics cards and other stuff and processor upgrades.

vina · Post by **vina** » 31 Oct 2013 16:04

Singha wrote:the latest bmws have a projection on the windshield featuring speed limit, current speed and some navigation info. user can control what is displayed and contrast,brightness etc.
seems to work quite well in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiUUTcrmhII

Oh, some of the older Japanese cars back from the mid 80s had those kind of HUDs as well (Nissan I am sure), it went with the age when the cars had motorized seat belts. You slip in to the seat and close the door, the seat belt slides on a beading on the door and presto you have a shoulder seat belt on! Kind of cool.. You still had to manually put on the lap belt. I had one of those kind of cars. So HUD is not an issue I suppose or may was not an issue back then.

vina · Post by **vina** » 31 Oct 2013 16:10

Raja Bose wrote:Based on how the display of the current version of Glass works, ask him not to. Our eyes are not designed to switch focus between near and far so quickly and that can cause accidents especially in congested roads regardless of speed. This problem is very well studied for HUD design in cars which is why HUDs only project the most rudimentary information and that too a certain distance beyond the windscreen.

Being in Bengaluru and doing YumBeeYea giri, I am far away from all the Silly Con Valley gee whiz developments. But do ejjumadecate me here. Don't know much about Google Glass, but why should it in theory be different from HUD ? In HUD, what happens, the images are projected up and collimated to infinity, so your eye doesn't have to constantly shift between near and far vision. It is like watching the display come up at infinity, with eyes relaxed innit ?

vina · Post by **vina** » 31 Oct 2013 16:13

Anyone with any experience with this (sounds like direct fiber to home) provider ActTV (www.acttv.in) ? He dropped pamphlets in my apt complex offering pretty decent deals (far cheaper than airtel), 15MBPS and 25MBPS at around Rs 900 per month (taxes included). Am tempted to bite. Anyone using them here ?

chandrasekaran · Post by **chandrasekaran** » 31 Oct 2013 17:07

I am also considering one. Per my friend that uses ACT customer support number is always busy, need to time it early in the morning to catch them

During rainy seasons (falling trees/branches) their fibers get cut as they are not underground, but run across houses like the neighborhood cablewalla's cables. Other than this, speeds are consistent and good. CPE provides RJ45 termination and they usually throw in a small wireless router along with it.

negi · Post by **negi** » 31 Oct 2013 19:57

vina wrote:Anyone with any experience with this (sounds like direct fiber to home) provider ActTV (http://www.acttv.in) ? He dropped pamphlets in my apt complex offering pretty decent deals (far cheaper than airtel), 15MBPS and 25MBPS at around Rs 900 per month (taxes included). Am tempted to bite. Anyone using them here ?

I live in Indiranagar my friend nearby took connection from them last year but he switched back to Airtel. Looks like those speeds are not consistent but peak bit rates which you will hit like once in a while. 16mbps from Airtel is good if the fiber in your area supports it. The issue with ACT is after sales service they are no way near Airtel. Airtel itself is not great but they are like one eyed amongst the blind in Bangalore.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 31 Oct 2013 20:07

not sure if its the same outfit but in my friends apt complex in whitefield they offered to lay fiber across the road and wire up the whole building. and so they did.

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 31 Oct 2013 20:44

Airtel is awesome service at least from what I have heard. Pretty much everyone whom I have talked to, note that after complaint, within the day they arrive and fix things.

BSNL on the other hand....

archan · Post by **archan** » 31 Oct 2013 21:07

Folks, looking for suggestions. I am looking to get a travel work laptop. Requirements :

1. As portable as possible
2. More than 1600x900 resolution
3. Matte screen preferred
4. Touchscreen
5. Quality quality quality

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 31 Oct 2013 21:09

vina wrote:
Raja Bose wrote:Based on how the display of the current version of Glass works, ask him not to. Our eyes are not designed to switch focus between near and far so quickly and that can cause accidents especially in congested roads regardless of speed. This problem is very well studied for HUD design in cars which is why HUDs only project the most rudimentary information and that too a certain distance beyond the windscreen.
Being in Bengaluru and doing YumBeeYea giri, I am far away from all the Silly Con Valley gee whiz developments. But do ejjumadecate me here. Don't know much about Google Glass, but why should it in theory be different from HUD ? In HUD, what happens, the images are projected up and collimated to infinity, so your eye doesn't have to constantly shift between near and far vision. It is like watching the display come up at infinity, with eyes relaxed innit ?

Well its different in practice, not theory.

Off the top of my head, a coupla differences....HUDs nowadays use Laser projection and actually project up to infinity. Glass provides an illusion of projecting to a plane less than 10 feet away, which is considered near distance as opposed to far in a driving situation (when you drive you focus much further away). The HUD equivalent to Glass would be something using DLP projection as opposed to Laser projection and those are bad. This makes it much more susceptible to background clutter and noise unlike a Laser projector since you are projecting on a transparent surface, which in turn causes higher cognitive load on the driver => driver distraction. The input modalities used by Glass - especially touch interaction thru the head mounted frame can potentially cause distraction and driver disorientation (eg. altering of head position while driving where driver is also looking at the display) & voice UI of course comes with its own set of issues which are broader than just wearable devices. On top of that the UI of Glass is not as simplistic as that of a HUD which in turn results in extra cognitive load. Also HUDs are mounted and fixed and are calibrated to ensure the projection distance and height is maintained and correct and are damped against NVH to ensure that the users' eyes don't have to keep correcting for oscillation along one or more axes and other pakiness which potholed California highways introduce.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 31 Oct 2013 22:12

Looking at the above explanation by RB, I would hold off on glass and probably on all those autos that have HUD as well unless I can be truly in the matrix a la the "differrently abled" trucker of Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. May be it is so far off that by then all my muscles would atrophy and I would not have an alternative.

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 31 Oct 2013 23:55

archan wrote:Folks, looking for suggestions. I am looking to get a travel work laptop. Requirements :

1. As portable as possible
2. More than 1600x900 resolution
3. Matte screen preferred
4. Touchscreen
5. Quality quality quality

matte and touchscreen do not go in the same baragrabh ....

buy a thinkad T43o S . Not U. Not blain 43o. T43o S onlee.

buy from usa

choose greater resolution.

try outlet.lenovo.com

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 01 Nov 2013 02:30

I'd love to try glass while in the car...effin' GPS + phone together in traffic is impossible..in desi traffic.

BhairavP · Post by **BhairavP** » 01 Nov 2013 07:45

archan wrote:Folks, looking for suggestions. I am looking to get a travel work laptop. Requirements :

1. As portable as possible
2. More than 1600x900 resolution
3. Matte screen preferred
4. Touchscreen
5. Quality quality quality

1) Sony Vaio Pro 13
2) Thinkpad T430/U/S

johneeG · Post by **johneeG** » 01 Nov 2013 08:15

archan wrote:Folks, looking for suggestions. I am looking to get a travel work laptop. Requirements :

1. As portable as possible
2. More than 1600x900 resolution
3. Matte screen preferred
4. Touchscreen
5. Quality quality quality

Saar ji,
if you don't mind venturing into tablets, then check out Samsung note 10.1 [2014 edition]. I have used the Samsung note 10.1 earlier edition and it is very portable. There are also detachable keyboards available that can be bought for this series.

The 2014 edition has 2560x1600p resolution. They say it will be released in India around this Deepavali. But, I don't know whether it has matte screen. Most probably, it does not.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 01 Nov 2013 08:49

Nexus5 with android 4.4 goes on sale today for $349 in the usa.
lap it up boys....its a steal at the price and the huge bonus of no carrier or vendor specific extras to kill the performance.
http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/31/goog ... s-nexus-5/

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 01 Nov 2013 11:06

^^ smoothest android experience too

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 01 Nov 2013 11:16

Singha wrote:Nexus5 with android 4.4 goes on sale today for $349 in the usa.
lap it up boys....its a steal at the price and the huge bonus of no carrier or vendor specific extras to kill the performance.

...and prompt updates as soon as Chacha releases them. Updates which remove bugs and make the experience better, not introduce new ones. This time they are going to release it in India too in November I think.

I want to see Anandtech's full review when it comes out. Specifically the camera. They have kept it to 8MP (a good thing) and added true HDR and Optical Image Stabilization. Expecting it to be better than the S4 and HTC One.

BhairavP · Post by **BhairavP** » 01 Nov 2013 12:13

Oh, pricing is out here as well, and we're getting shafted - 28k for the 16GB and 33k for the 32GB.
Meh.

BhairavP · Post by **BhairavP** » 01 Nov 2013 12:40

^Saar, kashaala tenshun ghyaaycha? That 4-5k extra I can spend on the off-chance anything happens to the phone.. enough good repairers here. But yes, Oz and we have the same price.. just once I would like to see par pricing in India

vina · Post by **vina** » 01 Nov 2013 14:57

Hmm. Muddy Waters savages some Chini Mobile Security NetIQ Mobile or something, run by a Paki who ran "Strategy" for Samsung and claimed to build the brand and it's phone's marketing and managed the Google alliance , and the Paki-Chini stock cracks some 50% in two trading sessions.

Muddy Waters calls it a massive fraud , whose real value is zero. True to Chi-Pak form, the Chinese firm has issued denials.

archan · Post by **archan** » 01 Nov 2013 16:33

mahadevbhu wrote: matte and touchscreen do not go in the same baragrabh ....

This is probably a demand issue. I've had a matte touchscreen on Lenovo X220 convertible tablet / laptop for two years plus. It's problem is 1366x768 resolution and fatness. I've used it's pen with Onenote and liked it.

mahadevbhu wrote: buy from usa

Yes that's the idea. Planning a visit in a couple of weeks or so.
Sony appears to be the only choice. T43O seems it's over 4 lb.

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 01 Nov 2013 16:41

archan wrote: Sony appears to be the only choice. T43O seems it's over 4 lb.

Sony's keyboards are not comparable to the Lenovo Keyboards. I much prefere Lenovo, since I like to type.

Lenovo Keyboards have a rounded lower half , and a concave shape , to allow for a good finger*keyboard interaction.

Plastic quality and build quality on the Lenovo's are also to my preference.

Displaywise ,nothing beats a Sony, though Lenovo is close.

Try a T430 U or a T430 S -thinkpad. from Outlet.lenovo.com. Use a US credit card.

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 01 Nov 2013 16:44

http://outlet.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/co ... DW-2352CTO

New ^^

I am comfortable with refurbished maal from lenovo since it comes with the same warranty as new.

you can try that too.

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 01 Nov 2013 16:48

BhairavP wrote:^Saar, kashaala tenshun ghyaaycha? That 4-5k extra I can spend on the off-chance anything happens to the phone.. enough good repairers here. But yes, Oz and we have the same price.. just once I would like to see par pricing in India

......will pay for the bad roads and infrastructure...poor availability in outlets and imorts from overseas

and a govt. that thinks that this is a luxury and must be taxed heavily?

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 01 Nov 2013 19:18

Chacha is saying that KitKat aims to fix Android's fragmentation problem because it uses less memory than Jelly Bean and will run on devices with 512MB RAM. At the same time they did not announce the Galaxy Nexus as one of the devices which will be getting the KitKat update.

Anyway the main fragmentation problem (most people still using Gingerbread) is 50% due to manufacturer skins and 50% due to the carriers. KitKat cannot fix that.

Meanwhile, acc. to CNet, N5 will be available on contract for $150. If true it will surely sell more than its predecessors. It doesn't work with Verizon though.

archan · Post by **archan** » 01 Nov 2013 20:26

mahadevbhu wrote:http://outlet.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/co ... DW-2352CTO

New ^^

I am comfortable with refurbished maal from lenovo since it comes with the same warranty as new.

you can try that too.

Thanks. Keeping options open. There is no doubt about Thinkpads in terms of quality. Another interesting one I saw is the Toshiba Kirabook.
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-KIRAbook- ... B00BM1PX08

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 01 Nov 2013 20:35

^^Archanullah, couple of my friends bought 13" Sony Ultrabooks within the past year. Very light, thin, shiny and chi-chi looking. One of them had to replace it in a few months because of repeated problems with the webcam. The other one had reformatted his a dozen times because it would crash after receiving Windows or driver updates. So be careful. If you are coming to the US, consider getting a Macbook if thin and light are requirements. Or a good old Thinkpad if they are not. ASUS is another good option for the thin-light category. Widely available in India as well.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 01 Nov 2013 23:16

archan wrote:
mahadevbhu wrote: matte and touchscreen do not go in the same baragrabh ....

This is probably a demand issue. I've had a matte touchscreen on Lenovo X220 convertible tablet / laptop for two years plus.

Is it a resistive touchscreen?

Just poke it with a random plastic object like the back of a pen and see if touch registers.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 01 Nov 2013 23:18

nachiket wrote:Chacha is saying that KitKat aims to fix Android's fragmentation problem because it uses less memory than Jelly Bean and will run on devices with 512MB RAM. At the same time they did not announce the Galaxy Nexus as one of the devices which will be getting the KitKat update.

Galaxy Nexus is getting long in the tooth so I don't blame Chacha for not supporting it. You are right Android fragmentation is not something KitKat can solve despite claims to the contrary. The ability to run on lower end devices with good UX is essentially a response to the success of Windows Phone in the low-end especially in emerging markets. Whether they can pull it off is something to be seen considering the crappy UX Android has in the low-end till now, I would imagine it will require a major architectural overhaul.

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 01 Nov 2013 23:27

Raja Bose wrote:The ability to run on lower end devices with good UX is essentially a response to the success of Windows Phone in the low-end especially in emerging markets. Whether they can pull it off is something to be seen considering the crappy UX Android has in the low-end till now, I would imagine it will require a major architectural overhaul.

Ah, but Mickey controls or regulates everything that goes into the low end Windows Phones. Sammy will put TouchWiz on KitKat, introduce 100 useless new features (along with 10000 bugs), increase memory consumption by 400% and cram it into their next-gen el-cheapo devices.

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 01 Nov 2013 23:58

archan wrote:
mahadevbhu wrote:http://outlet.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/co ... DW-2352CTO

New ^^

I am comfortable with refurbished maal from lenovo since it comes with the same warranty as new.

you can try that too.
Thanks. Keeping options open. There is no doubt about Thinkpads in terms of quality. Another interesting one I saw is the Toshiba Kirabook.
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-KIRAbook- ... B00BM1PX08

also, keep tracking www.slickdeals.net 's computer section.

asus keyboards are usually very shallow imo...not too much depth of depression to the keys.

toshiba makes good laptops with a cheap feeling plastic.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 02 Nov 2013 00:08

Mortullah for you

Note this: Samsung tablets rank highest in J.D. Power's owner satisfaction study

Fruit is 2nd, Takla is 3rd.