Phone, Tablet and Gizmo Thread #0x02

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 22 Nov 2013 16:48

ok..let me try to convince my kid with some other strategy.

Arunkumar · Post by **Arunkumar** » 22 Nov 2013 16:52

^^^+100. agree with vina there. printer at home is absolute useless. From a economic point of view as well as the space occupied and having to buy a4 papers to keep it in use. Use a cyber cafe instead.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 22 Nov 2013 20:50

managed to pacify him off with a packet of chips and one small cadbuys. phew 15K + N back in the bank.

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 23 Nov 2013 00:25

Singha wrote:managed to pacify him off with a packet of chips and one small cadbuys. phew 15K + N back in the bank.

15k? Inkjets are nowhere near that expensive saar. Only problem is that you need to keep using the color cartridge once in a while. Otherwise it dries up. Printing a pic of your kids once every two weeks or so should be fine to make sure the cartridge is usable when you actually need it. The cartridge won't get over quickly unless you use it heavily.

Here's one with good reviews from Canon for Rs. 1945

http://www.flipkart.com/canon-pixma-ip2 ... 4755916b20

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 23 Nov 2013 00:44

More nonsense from MSFT

Why can't MSFT just advertise the strength of their ecosystem and hardware? As it is, MSFT already has the business & corporate customer, but when they do stuff like this- I pause and think before I recommend a Windows product.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 23 Nov 2013 01:26

^^Becoz they got that sleazeball political campaign manager in charge of this crap.

Business & Corporate customer onlee, hain jee? You do realize the world's fastest selling consumer electronics device was made by them (does it still hold the record?)

Mickey's consumer division is small compared to their corporate division but on its own its bigger than many other companies except FruitCo and Sammy. Just one of their games makes over $1 billion consistently.

Yayavar · Post by **Yayavar** » 23 Nov 2013 02:12

It has a positive side if people become aware that 'do no harm' is actually also doing the same as any other or more than any other in invading the privacy. Of course, after that it is the user's choice to continue to use since they still prefer the service (as gmail or others). I see the positive as maybe the opt-out clauses will become more easier to find and promises kept. So let them point out each others flaws esp. wrt privacy of users.

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 23 Nov 2013 07:15

FruitCo apparently is investing in large scale sapphire manufacturing. Read some articles that it is for phunwa glass -- I think it is probably for a watch. FruitCo is very good at manufacturing ramp up and will not bet the iPhone on the ability to ramp sapphire crystal production. OTOH watch/wearable makes more sense.

About M$. This is the problem with bringing in people outside Tech. Fellow correctly figured out that consumer decisions are based on brand loyalty (FruitCo for example has intense brand loyalty) and he should probably go after that. On the other hand, fellow hasnt figured out that there is this accepted social norm around tech -- warm fuzzy positive messages that potential recruits and customers look for. Not political mudslinging which just reinforces the A**hole message about M$. I expect him to depart once they switch CEOs.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 23 Nov 2013 07:40

Given the technology that GT Advanced (FruitCo's partner) acquired, it might be for larger display panels too like TVs. If they are doing the ground work now I guess we can expect iWatch with sapphire watch face in 2015?

----

Looks like XBox One and PS4 are going neck to neck in sales with each selling > 1 million in their 1st 24 hours of retail.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 23 Nov 2013 07:52

why haswell-y tabs not come out?

BhairavP · Post by **BhairavP** » 23 Nov 2013 08:25

Anyone using the newer 8 inch Windows tabs? The dell venue pro 8 looks good, also has stylus support. For around 320 dollars and also a full copy of Office 2013, seems like a damn good deal.

In other news, the new Nexus 7 2013 32gb is 240 dollars in the US, while we get screwed ,as usual, here in India .

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 23 Nov 2013 09:51

be careful with epson printers.. the normal hp wala ink jets has their jet heads replaced along with the ink cartridge.. where as epson head is separate and ink cartridge is separate.. benefit, ink cost is cheap for epson, and disadvantage is this when you do the following, it can make your printer useless, as it is extremely hard to get it cleaned, and sensor status reset.

reason: if the head dries up with ink cartridge, if not used for a while, then printer can be scrapped... gone are the days, where we can get head replaced.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 24 Nov 2013 01:18

Raja Bose wrote:^^Becoz they got that sleazeball political campaign manager in charge of this crap.

Business & Corporate customer onlee, hain jee? You do realize the world's fastest selling consumer electronics device was made by them (does it still hold the record?) Mickey's consumer division is small compared to their corporate division but on its own its bigger than many other companies except FruitCo and Sammy. Just one of their games makes over $1 billion consistently.

I never said "onlee". We all know about XboX w/Kinnect and Halo's success (I have both btw), but there is choice in consumer infotainment between a few players. In the corporate computing applications environment - AAPL is not interested and Linux is fragmented. So we use MSFT, not because we like it, but because we have no choice.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 24 Nov 2013 01:24

viv wrote:It has a positive side if people become aware that 'do no harm' is actually also doing the same as any other or more than any other in invading the privacy. Of course, after that it is the user's choice to continue to use since they still prefer the service (as gmail or others). I see the positive as maybe the opt-out clauses will become more easier to find and promises kept. So let them point out each others flaws esp. wrt privacy of users.

If you think your email is not being mined by large corporate entities or government agencies, well keep on believing. I have colleagues who are concerned about privacy and run their own email servers, so if that's what you do, then more power to you.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 24 Nov 2013 02:25

Arduino Uno Ultimate Starter Kit -- Includes 72 page Instruction Book
This one is at Amazon for $55. Not sure what the difference is between this and the one I bought 2 weeks back for $109 - that was the officlal starter kit where as this is called Ultimate starter kit. This is almost 50% of the official kit.

I was looking at what Shiv ji's post quoting BBC on TSP thread regarding the cubesat. There was a news item about UK sending up a small 1KG cubesat called funsat from which school kids can receive radio signals (can it be used for hamming if somebody has a tranceiver?) and the radio receiver seems to be a a simple USB dongle with an antenna and a small SDR built into the USB (to be downloaded I guess). At amazon there are funcubes available for as low as $19. Also this one seems to get very good reviews as well. I am not sure whether this will work in the freq range of the funsat.

NooElec TV28T v2 USB DVB-T & RTL-SDR Receiver, RTL2832U & R820T Tuner, MCX Input. Low-Cost Software Defined Radio Compatible with Many SDR Software Packages. R820T Tuner & ESD-Safe Antenna Input, Guaranteed

In Amazon reviews, people are saying that they have a lot of fun for $20 and it is as good or even better than $2k-6K equipment.

Also, oodles of information on Funcube project , ground station (the USB dongle with antenna), telemetry, and UK Amateure Satellite Society Amsat who sent up this Funcube staellite below. Looks like a lot of fun. Hope some schools in India are participating as well.

http://funcube.org.uk/

To replace twitter, they have what is called fitter - a 200 char message that can be uploaded and keeps on getting transmitted every 5 minutes till it is replaced. There is place for a total of 9 messages (may be a 2048 byte buffer which can have 9 messages plus the message header info overhead). Looks like a fun inexpensive project overall.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 24 Nov 2013 06:17

~~i can't understand what is this tv everywhere? is it an app or service that connects to all broadcast networks?~~
nevermind.. got it

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 24 Nov 2013 06:23

SaiK

Are you talking about the TV receiver? That works only in Europe. But in US NooElec seems good for scannig all kinds of freqs. and possibly for DXing if the antenna is boosted (and/or increased power may be? with amplifiers and such).
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The New Dell Venue 8 Pro Tablet with keyboard is only $479 for a 64GB tablet. Excellent if it is as responsive as iThingy. Then it is half-price and tapping into MS ecosystem.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 24 Nov 2013 06:39

oops sorry matrimc.. did not see your post.

no.. this tv everywhere or tv anywhere is like this...

give a min... i need to take a call

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 24 Nov 2013 06:44

Mort Walker wrote:
Raja Bose wrote:^^Becoz they got that sleazeball political campaign manager in charge of this crap.

Business & Corporate customer onlee, hain jee? You do realize the world's fastest selling consumer electronics device was made by them (does it still hold the record?) Mickey's consumer division is small compared to their corporate division but on its own its bigger than many other companies except FruitCo and Sammy. Just one of their games makes over $1 billion consistently.
I never said "onlee". We all know about XboX w/Kinnect and Halo's success (I have both btw), but there is choice in consumer infotainment between a few players. In the corporate computing applications environment - AAPL is not interested and Linux is fragmented. So we use MSFT, not because we like it, but because we have no choice.

FruitCo is interested in biziness kashtmars but they also realize that the market penetration of their Macs is nowhere near Mickey's (> 90% for last 2+ decades) and the Mahdi was dead against targeting lower price points. Under Bawarchi that may change...for example, the Mahdi wouldn't have been caught dead selling something like the iPhone 5c. What the PC market needs is a disruption. Do tablets provide that? Perhaps but till now still in a limited way. If that can be leveraged then FruitCo has more than a fighting chance which is why their latest moves on iWork are not surprising at all.

Linux may be fragmented but like i have mentioned on this dhaaga many times before, Chacha had a real window of opportunity with Google Docs (now Drive) to kill Mickey's largest cash cow once for all. Instead they dilly-dallied with a b-grade team, crappy product management and once Mickey got time to get off its fat ar$e and shove Office365 and Office WebApps out of the door, that pretty much ended that opportunity right there. Now in terms of functionality or UX, Mickey's web office suite far surpasses that of Drive and Drive hasn't improved much from its old Google Docs days. In that way I will give the Office/Lync team in Mickey a lot of credit becoz what they did is exactly how an HTML5 app should be designed and implemented in terms of providing a native or near-native UX.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 24 Nov 2013 06:46

okay... so you have three services on the cable - TV, phone and internet. now you want to see tv, you normally go to your channels on TV.. but the online show market is like hulu and netflix, where you can get things at subscription or some charge basis. this market is threatening the cable operators.. as the online guys started direct dealings with content providers - fox, cbs, nbc, etc.. leaving time warner, dish, comcast yadi yada.. now comes the challenge, like a SSO authentication services, tv everywhere, you sign in provide your (say you have a dish account - register at disheverywhere.com, ) and voila you can watch your content at any device, i think it is authentication per device.

still gathering data.. so essentially, this can scare the netflix and hulu guys pants., where the cable networks now coming into content delivery via internet. i still don't know if (actually i have to check out my dish services if it is an additional expense that you have to sign up for or if you have already a TW or comcast or dish, you don't need but just authenticate the device).. will report later on this after more digging.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 24 Nov 2013 08:38

http://broadcastengineering.com/ott/how ... where-work
how does it work - tech stuff

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 24 Nov 2013 23:07

Raja Bose wrote:Chacha had a real window of opportunity with Google Docs (now Drive) to kill Mickey's largest cash cow once for all.

I was looking at Azure vs. EC2 vs. Google Cloud platform. As RB says above, here too MS has exceeded the other two in terms of flexibility, number and coverage of standard images, and usability of front end.

This is exactly the situation with IBM too - they had monopoly on mainframes for a long time with no innovations in the cash cows of IMS and CICS. When network and relational DBMSs came along, and when they were subjected to intense scrutiny by the DoJ, they started innovating and came up with better products (for that time) but they never got traction due to the hits their brand took. They are still a force to be reckoned with but were a wounded entity because of that near death experience during 1980-1988.

Has MS brand taken such a beating that they they would never regain their past position of the No. 1 customer darling, i.e. they can do no wrong? On the other hand, this could be an opportunity for those businesses who are discriminating.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 24 Nov 2013 23:47

first mover advantage! and MS can fail if they do not continue on their FUD and innovation path, however patchy or buggy it is. they have the market, and well known.. they can keep capitalizing on it, provided they are not threatened by visualizations. the reason hyper-v was launched.

make $h!t, and give it free or low cost, then keep it going and working to fix, and make them happy.
once ingrained into brains, how much ever free open office can be or open os can be, people would like to continue to do that they are familiar and easy to do with, and wider acceptance. it has a network effect.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 25 Nov 2013 04:39

ramana garu and other Raspberry enthusiasts, this is crazy(ly good

). As always sage too is available.

The Wolfram Language and Mathematica on Raspberry Pi, for free

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 25 Nov 2013 05:24

nice news matrimc.. that is one area i have not gotten into. very busy in non-coding activities onlee.

Yayavar · Post by **Yayavar** » 25 Nov 2013 05:37

Mort Walker wrote:
viv wrote:It has a positive side if people become aware that 'do no harm' is actually also doing the same as any other or more than any other in invading the privacy. Of course, after that it is the user's choice to continue to use since they still prefer the service (as gmail or others). I see the positive as maybe the opt-out clauses will become more easier to find and promises kept. So let them point out each others flaws esp. wrt privacy of users.

If you think your email is not being mined by large corporate entities or government agencies, well keep on believing. I have colleagues who are concerned about privacy and run their own email servers, so if that's what you do, then more power to you.

If you read you realize that the statement assumes and recognizes that the email (and other) are being minded. The positive a consumer may derive is if the sniping by the tech-giants leads to some tightening of the rules. Not everyone in the general junta has the exertise or wherewithal to run their own servers, nor does everyone work for corporate or govt entities. I only talk for the mango consumer Walker-ji. MS is not my favourite but then nor is Google or Yahoo or any other

.

niran · Post by **niran** » 25 Nov 2013 16:45

now for electrifying NEWS

Man ‘electrocuted’ by iPhone 5

In July 2013, a Chinese woman died while answering her Iphone 5, which was also charging the battery

let the suits begin.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 25 Nov 2013 21:17

^^^was it an iPhone or iPhon?

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 25 Nov 2013 22:17

FruitCo buys PrimeSense, the Israeli company behind the original Kinect

What's puzzling is they paid 10x the amount for older generation technology (structured light vs ToF) and they will still need to additionally pay Mickey for licensing all the fundamental IP.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 25 Nov 2013 22:58

does AC WLAN includes other 802 standards? so if I buy a laptop with it, will it work with 802g/n wifi router?

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 25 Nov 2013 23:55

matrimc wrote:ramana garu and other Raspberry enthusiasts, this is crazy(ly good ). As always sage too is available.

The Wolfram Language and Mathematica on Raspberry Pi, for free

+1 and thanks for posting.

I saw that last week on The Verge and was wondering when our admin mullah was going to post it.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/21/5130 ... guage-free

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 25 Nov 2013 23:56

matrimc wrote: I was looking at Azure vs. EC2 vs. Google Cloud platform. As RB says above, here too MS has exceeded the other two in terms of flexibility, number and coverage of standard images, and usability of front end.

I haven't really looked into Azure that much, but you have to compare Azure with all services under AWS, not just EC2. What does Azure offer, that is not available under AWS? Does it have counterparts to Amazon RDS, S3, ElastiCache, etc. etc..?

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 25 Nov 2013 23:57

http://www.techradar.com/us/news/mobile ... se-1202306

definitively russkie colors on the back.. but why did not they consider an haswell chip?

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 26 Nov 2013 06:42

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 26 Nov 2013 06:45

nachiket wrote:
matrimc wrote: I was looking at Azure vs. EC2 vs. Google Cloud platform. As RB says above, here too MS has exceeded the other two in terms of flexibility, number and coverage of standard images, and usability of front end.
I haven't really looked into Azure that much, but you have to compare Azure with all services under AWS, not just EC2. What does Azure offer, that is not available under AWS? Does it have counterparts to Amazon RDS, S3, ElastiCache, etc. etc..?

Forget the source link but AWS is still #1, Azure is #2 or #3, Chacha's Cloud platform took a hit and went down to #7 or so. Azure is growing fast especially in grabbing new customers but AWS is still far ahead and the entrenched king of the hill.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 26 Nov 2013 07:03

...and the inevitable march towards convergence continues....

Microsoft's device chief sees a future without three versions of Windows

Remember, you read it here first many moons ago.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 26 Nov 2013 07:04

i haven't been to aws site to find price model? does any use it?

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 26 Nov 2013 07:17

what happened to that darling called salesforce.com in terms of cloud service provider? do they have their own layer on top of something like vmware or deploy some 3rd party soln?

pgbhat · Post by **pgbhat** » 26 Nov 2013 07:27

Raja Bose wrote:
nachiket wrote: I haven't really looked into Azure that much, but you have to compare Azure with all services under AWS, not just EC2. What does Azure offer, that is not available under AWS? Does it have counterparts to Amazon RDS, S3, ElastiCache, etc. etc..?
Forget the source link but AWS is still #1, Azure is #2 or #3, Chacha's Cloud platform took a hit and went down to #7 or so. Azure is growing fast especially in grabbing new customers but AWS is still far ahead and the entrenched king of the hill.

AWS is great. Solid docs and support forums, our company uses their services extensively and I am not just talking about ec2 or s3. BTW Rackspace is great too although I believe it is more expensive.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 26 Nov 2013 07:30

Singha wrote:what happened to that darling called salesforce.com in terms of cloud service provider? do they have their own layer on top of something like vmware or deploy some 3rd party soln?

Aren't they #2?