Phone, Tablet and Gizmo Thread #0x02

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 03 Dec 2013 07:29

No, Nike Fuelband is purely accelerometer based onlee, no skin contact or pulse ox.

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Just finished jury rigging one of Chacha's Chashmas to use a fatter battery which will hopefully make it last thru 1 - 1.5 hours of video recording (HM distance). Now the question is:

(a) Do I want to wear a jury rigged potentially explosive device next to my head while running next week's 10K on fairly tough terrain?

(b) Will irate trail runners who are typically not the most social group (or prone to suffer fools) slap the expensive thing off my head into some ravine and berate me for being a D-bag.

Maybe I need to find a guinea pig who is willing to suffer the punishment - Chacha fanboys pliss to raise your hand....Mickey/FruitCo fanboys need not apply

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 03 Dec 2013 13:48

RBullah, the polite term for chacha chashmists is Glasshole

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 03 Dec 2013 22:07

^^Not all but the ones who insist of sticking it to their faces during all times are certainly that.

Chacha's Chashma due to limitations of technology is not a wear 24/7 type of device right now - like someone said, its the wearable equivalent of Mickey's Tablet PCs back in 2002 in terms of maturity and design.

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 04 Dec 2013 22:21

Marten wrote:Nexus 5 from the US or Aus makes the most sense. But I like Lumias so would suggest you give Ebay US a shot for the Lumia 925/928. Since you like replaceable batteries, just decide that the local Service centers can do it, and just go ahead and buy any phone that works for you. Battery replacement happens once in a few years.

The other phone I was thinking of trying out was the Lenovo P780. It has a 4000 mAh battery. Rest is normal . Battery is important to me....I hate switching between 3G and 2G manually, and having to recharge battery all the time.

My sis and dad have iphone 5 and both have bought extra battery containing protective cases to make up for it. Forget about sammy and other 'normal' androids.

Anyone here has experience with Lenovo's phones?

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 04 Dec 2013 22:44

Anyhow enough OT. I will move our stock related posts to Nukkad.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 04 Dec 2013 22:54

back to the times again questioning on 3g/4g lte services in SI regions - bangalore, kerala, and perhaps chennai. last visit, i had some poor experiences with airtel. also need advice on wired boradband connection - is this only bsnl affair?

phone: dual sim quad band - any inputs for desh use?

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 05 Dec 2013 02:07

interesting concept..

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19736_7-57 ... phone-q-a/
With a full-fledged Android display on one side and power-saving e-ink screen on the other...

gpati · Post by **gpati** » 05 Dec 2013 02:52

An Indian inventor, Shailendra Suman, launched a Kickstarter campaign for a LED electric bulb with built in rechargeable batteries. The bulb can be still controlled with a regular switch during power outages. How is it possible?

SmartCharge™ - Never be in the dark again!

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 05 Dec 2013 03:04

Gus wrote:interesting concept..

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19736_7-57 ... phone-q-a/
With a full-fledged Android display on one side and power-saving e-ink screen on the other...

I think someone (Motor Oil?) brought out a phone which uses this UI paradigm. The E-Ink display essentially acts like a printer where you push stuff for later viewing/glance and is driven by some lower power MCU so that your phone's CPU doesn't need to spool up every time. Motor Oil's ATAP after Regina Dugan joined hired a bunch of GB researchers who pioneered this way back though iirc all have now left to do a startup...maybe Johnny Lee is still doing something along those lines at Motor Oil.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 05 Dec 2013 04:28

Here's a look at the Jolla phone. In a nutshell - it needs a lot more work and UX is pretty bad. Android apps are integrated into the main menu/launcher so user is not able to tell the difference between which app is native (Qt5) and which is Android, which is great. Except when you run an Android app, Sailfish OS first launches the Alien Dalvik VM as a separate app which has its own task switcher. So any running Android apps show up on the Alien Dalvik's task switcher but not on the Sailfish OS task switcher. So basically the half asses integration makes things 2x as difficult as not having any integration at all.

B-R on the native browser (Qt5 front-end with Mozilla Gecko backend):

Skype Android app running inside Alien Dalvik:

NFC back cover:

Satya_anveshi · Post by **Satya_anveshi** » 05 Dec 2013 04:45

seems this has been posted already so -del-

vina · Post by **vina** » 05 Dec 2013 06:03

ArmenT wrote: Since the DLink has a built in 5-port switch of its own,

I see only a total of 5 devices you have jee (other than the wireless ones) that you need to connect using cables. Why not plug them directly into the DLink Dabba and get rid of the gateway switch ji ? And get full speed connectivity in all devices without any middleman ji ?

vina · Post by **vina** » 05 Dec 2013 06:29

Hmm. Phroot had a upto $150 coupon available only on Black Friday . Hope you Moojahids who were looking for deals snapped up stuff.

As for moi, I managed to get a sizeable discount via a pal who works at Phroot and bought up a bunch of stuff! But Californicashun, became a dus percenti and grabbed 10%

!(I know the workaround would have to get it shipped to Nevada/Oregon etc, but then I don't know anyone living there now who could receive it for me). Is there some way you can get Californicashun to cough up the "ransom" it grabbed, since I dont live there anymore. Any GST refund there, like in many parts of Oierope and Singapore and others that refund the sales and vat and other taxes if you are taking it out of the country for good?

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 05 Dec 2013 07:00

US has no GST refund system. This is not analogous to Singapore or any EU entity - VAT is a central tax, not one imposed by a local authority. For US, those are state sales taxes that *may* be refundable for an item intended for export, depending on specific per-state rules, not federal ones. But good luck with trying to convince CA FTB that your MacBook Pro sales tax should be refunded. As far as Sacramento is concerned the gizmos were made in a Chinese sweatshop and delivered to a California residence, so buyer pays approx. dus percenti (8.25% I think, for bay area). They'd probably say that the example is no different from someone in Oregon asking someone in Calif to do the same thing for them, and then demanding a refund of sales taxes paid because the ultimate user was in state tax free Oregon. That's not going to happen...

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 05 Dec 2013 07:24

We got two iPad minis - black and white. I am planning to keep the black and somebody wants the white. We got them for $199 each (regular price of $299 with a $100 Walmart gift card). Not sure whether we should keep both. I already have two e-ink kindles - 6" and the 9.5" and a Astek EZReader for which I paid $200

and do not read much on that though it is nice in that it can take memory card but no WiFi and have two IPods all for myself. I would ask SHQ to go with one of the IPadminis. Not sure whether I should keep the other or give it to somebody.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 05 Dec 2013 08:14

that yotaphone with front and back screen - why do they need two cameras then? one could use the 12mpix wala onlee and can use the other side as the viewer or the same side to take self portrayals .

vina · Post by **vina** » 05 Dec 2013 09:07

Suraj wrote: They'd probably say that the example is no different from someone in Oregon asking someone in Calif to do the same thing for them, and then demanding a refund of sales taxes paid because the ultimate user was in state tax free Oregon. That's not going to happen...

Ah, but Nevada and Oregon guys ordering online from Phroot pay zero Californicashun taxes! That state tax is calculated on the state to which it is being delivered to ! I know it will be tedious and near impossible and frankly futile to try and convince the CA tax authorities, but really, the ultimate destination is not Silicon Valley USA, but rather Silicon Plateau, India , with CA just a stop on the way, like when an item gets delivered from TX to OR , it probably goes through a couple of warehouse hubs on the way!

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 05 Dec 2013 09:57

^^^why is a tfta yum bee aye jaagirdar worrying about dus percent beak wetting hain ji? Your friend being a phroot picker gets a much higher discount than that unless he fobbed you off with the run of the mill unwashed phraand and phamilee discount.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 05 Dec 2013 10:04

matrimc, one of the ipadminis could be used as a gps navigator on your car if google map navigation is available.

vina · Post by **vina** » 05 Dec 2013 10:28

Raja Bose wrote:^^^why is a tfta yum bee aye jaagirdar worrying about dus percent beak wetting hain ji? Your friend being a phroot picker gets a much higher discount than that unless he fobbed you off with the run of the mill unwashed phraand and phamilee discount.

No. He was a true phraand and got me the higher one (which I guess you know how much). But all the same, being Pakiied off dus percent by a Paki Californication does sting..

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 05 Dec 2013 10:49

vina: I was giving you an analogous example to yours onlee, not trying to actually make sense to the end user of the product. Of course, in real life they would be stupid not to ship directly to OR or TX if they have an address there!

CA tax authorities have NO reason to help you. You're basically evading Indian duty structure - the premium of buying locally - at the cost of CA sales tax. That your friend is from CA is your problem. CA FTB will tell you you should have professed deeper-than-deepest-ocean-taller-than-tallest-mountain franship with someone from OR or TX, and asked them to be the iGear luggageman

From CA FTB perspective they're doing you a favor by letting you pay 8.x% onlee, instead of higher Indian duties.

iGadgets are non-essential goods. CA has no reason to reimburse anyone for ultimate use elsewhere. Such export credits are only made to foster essential nascent industries with facilities in state. Allowing credit of sales tax in such cases will just generate a cottage industry of tax evasion. For example, CA DMV actively encourages people to rat out those who live in CA but maintain AZ plates and paying lower taxes claiming residence there.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 05 Dec 2013 10:54

SaiK wrote:matrimc, one of the ipadminis could be used as a gps navigator on your car if google map navigation is available.

How if no data on the cellphone? I have "the dumbest smart phone"

- Verizon saleswoman words - on which I have the option of not having the 30 usd PM data plan - SHQ has the same phone so we collectively saved 720 usd during the contract period.

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 05 Dec 2013 11:13

There is no escape from taxes in the Democratic People's Republic of California. Pliss to make friends with someone from another state with no taxes.

vina · Post by **vina** » 05 Dec 2013 11:24

Suraj wrote:CA tax authorities have NO reason to help you. You're basically evading Indian duty structure - the premium of buying locally - at the cost of CA sales tax. That your friend is from CA is your problem. CA FTB will tell you you should have professed deeper-than-deepest-ocean-taller-than-tallest-mountain franship with someone from OR or TX, and asked them to be the iGear luggageman From CA FTB perspective they're doing you a favor by letting you pay 8.x% onlee, instead of higher Indian duties.

Well trouble is , taxes in India for IT/Vity is zero (import duty).And the VAT is for IT/VIty in Bangalore Kerala is 4% . So really Californication is Pakiing me off some 4.5% !

What I am arbitraging is the robber barron prices Phroot charges for it's products in India and the hefty markups the retailers charge here for much lower spec product. Yes, it is a pity that I couldnt find anyone in TX/OR who is flying out to India in the near future to be my luggageman .

For example, CA DMV actively encourages people to rat out those who live in CA but maintain AZ plates and paying lower taxes claiming residence there.

Ah! Are you telling me that folks in CA have stopped buying cars in OR, NV AZ etc and bringing them over after one year and registering them in CA ? I thought it WAS a cottage industry!

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 05 Dec 2013 11:29

^^^All this

aside trying to pretend to be a phata abdul, did you make a net saving or not?

vina · Post by **vina** » 05 Dec 2013 12:08

Raja Bose wrote:^^^All this aside trying to pretend to be a phata abdul, did you make a net saving or not?

Obviously, yes I did , a significant one (thanks to the discount) over buying the even lower spec here in a Phroot shop here . The equivalent spec is not available here, I could customize it online . The thing is memory ,SSD and processor sizes have to be decided beforehand for Phroot machines. Those things are soldered onto the board by Phroot (have to preserve the thinnest , lightest niftiest echandee no?) and cannot be swapped later.

Even without the discount, anyone buying it online at Phroot shop at list prices and bringing it over will save a packet (even if Californication takes a dus percenti, you save more if you can get it shipped to Oregon for eg).

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 05 Dec 2013 19:08

So are there official Phroot stalls in India now? Do they mainly have chi chi clientele buying or mostly free AC hawa khanay wale phata abduls like moi, there to observe real chi chi peoples?

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 05 Dec 2013 21:30

Looks like Satya Nadella is the next Microsoft CEO(Ford Director Edsel Ford II, tells Bloomberg Mulally isn't leaving Ford until the end of next year):-

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 05 Dec 2013 23:57

^^^Or Elop?

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 06 Dec 2013 02:46

Raja Bose wrote:So are there official Phroot stalls in India now? Do they mainly have chi chi clientele buying or mostly free AC hawa khanay wale phata abduls like moi, there to observe real chi chi peoples?

Reliance Retail to shut 80% of Apple stores in India

Reliance Retail will shut 16 of its 20 exclusive Apple iStores as several of them don't comply with the global store design specified by the maker of iPhones and iPads, which could disrupt the US company's bid to push sales in India, where its share of the smartphone market lags way behind leader Samsung.

On the other hand, the move will allow Reliance to step up focus on its new format, Digital Xpress, with former iStores being converted into such outlets.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 06 Dec 2013 05:30

^^^Strictly anecdotal, but...

I travel 3rd AC in parts of central/western India and I see quite a few people with laptops doing their work. By quite a few, I mean one person per 2-3 compartments, but in the last couple of years, I notice one person in the bogie has an iPad. So, they are selling in small numbers in India, but probably with high margin.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 06 Dec 2013 06:58

did rbull mention this moto x here earlier?

http://www.greenoptimistic.com/2013/11/ ... artphones/

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 06 Dec 2013 08:05

^^^Yes already posted by someone and discussed here a while back. Insider news is a certain VP doesn't give 2 hoots about driving it to completion except the publicity he or she gets from it.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 06 Dec 2013 09:01

documentary on the early part of n-arms race culminating in the tsar bomb drop on novaya zemlya...a 27t 3-stage device off a Tu-95 bear that was strapped semi externally. its chief designer sakharov scaled back the original 100MT yield to 50MT in a nod to reducing fallout.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYUP7zJ0CwU

..the cloud rose 65km into the air. the Tu-95 launch aircraft apparently fell 1km from the shock wave but managed to escape somehow by the Lord's miracle.

Satya_anveshi · Post by **Satya_anveshi** » 06 Dec 2013 09:56

Microsoft has solidified its position to be #3 in mobility and from here on it needs a sustained growth and will take a while before it could challenge GOOG/Samsung or APPL.
But there is a larger opportunity on the Enterprise side and about time there is shift in focus to Ent computing. so, I think Satya Nadella may have better chances than Elop.

Here is Satya Nadella speaking about Ent Computing in Jul 2013. Interesting coverage on integration of Office 365, Yammer, Dynamics, and Win 8.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 06 Dec 2013 10:12

^^^They are already deep in enterprise, consumer is where their growth opportunity is.

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 06 Dec 2013 12:00

There was a hatchet job against Elop -- leaks in Bloomberg suggested that he will sell of Bing and Xbox -- that could have pretty much torpedoed his candidacy. Selling off Xbox probably is good for M$ in the aggregate. They get to focus on tablet/phone/PC ecosystem. Selling off Bing would be a bad move.

Maybe Ballmer will stick around till end of 2014, have Mulally as an advisor/mentor for the new CEO till 2015?

http://bgr.com/2013/11/29/microsoft-ceo ... -analysis/

Also, problem M$ faces is not that of lack of technical chops. It is that they dont have their business model figured out and internal dissension ironed out. If you take FruitCo, they have one OS for their laptop/Desktop offerings and one OS for their Tablet/Phone. M$ could have gone the same way -- except that if tablet sales cannibalize PC sales then their licensing revenue per device will take a hit (presumably Windows RT does not have as much licensing cost as Windows 8 ). FruitCo manages this by having huge margins on their hardware/software combo on the tablet. Infact, I wont be surprised if their tablets have as much margins as their laptops.

For example, consider why they have Why windows RT for tablets in the first place and have windows phone running on phones as well as tablets. It is presumably for different licensing schemes. The same consideration lead to multiple Windows vista/Windows 7 editions -- somewhat like 31 baskin robbins flavors. So the path forward is M$ to roll out its own hardware/software/services combo so they have pricing flexibility. Presumably the margins they make on the tablets + margins on the tablet OS > licensing revenue from PC/Laptop. Thats why the Ballmer "devices and services" mantra.

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 06 Dec 2013 12:18

Anujan wrote:There was a hatchet job against Elop -- leaks in Bloomberg suggested that he will sell of Bing and Xbox -- that could have pretty much torpedoed his candidacy. Maybe Ballmer will stick around till end of 2014, have Mulally as an advisor/mentor for the new CEO till 2015?

Stick around ? I think both Bill Gates and Ballmer have ~3-4% stake in the firm.. so both get a place on the board. Fevicol ka jod hai tootey ga nahin.

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 06 Dec 2013 12:19

I meant stick around as CEO.

Also whats up with this whole convergence nonsense? What does it mean anyway? That tablets phones and laptops all have blinking floating tiles? That tablets phones and laptops all have touchscreens?

I got a windows 8 laptop. While I am not filled with rage like some, I am not sure if the tile interface and random swiping on the trackpad adds anything at all to the usability. And whats up with these new fetish for flat, featureless full screen apps that you can run only 2 at a time, but can have multiple windows open in the old desktop? I can see why we need flat featureless apps that you can run only 2 at a time in tablet/phone. Switching between them without a keyboard is a pain and given the constraints of power/CPU/RAM/Screen real estate you probably dont want umpteen windows opened and tiled but what is the rationale for having them on a laptop? I am sure I will get used to it, but the UI changes all seem to be pointless. I am sure it came out of a powerpoint strat-e-jee session about how users will buy windows tablets because they see the same tiles on their laptops and tablets and get a warm fuzzy feeling of familiarity.

What is so bad if the laptop/PC have a traditional UI and the phone/tablet have the tile UI? Who will notice or care if emails/music/open browser tabs sync seamlessly? FruitCo does it and people seem to be happy with that.

M$ tried this convergence nonsense once with putting the desktop UI on a tablet and a phone (anyone remember the twist fold laptop-tablet and the windows mobie with a start button and stylus?). Now they are trying the reverse -- putting a phone UI on the tablet and desktop.

Also: remember that I said it first here folks. Marissa for M$ CEO

anmol · Post by **anmol** » 06 Dec 2013 12:54

Anujan wrote:I meant stick around as CEO.

Also whats up with this whole convergence nonsense? What does it mean anyway? That tablets phones and laptops all have blinking floating tiles? That tablets phones and laptops all have touchscreens?

I got a windows 8 laptop. While I am not filled with rage like some, I am not sure if the tile interface and random swiping on the trackpad adds anything at all to the usability. And whats up with these new fetish for flat, featureless full screen apps that you can run only 2 at a time, but can have multiple windows open in the old desktop? I can see why we need flat featureless apps that you can run only 2 at a time in tablet/phone. Switching between them without a keyboard is a pain and given the constraints of power/CPU/RAM/Screen real estate you probably dont want umpteen windows opened and tiled but what is the rationale for having them on a laptop? I am sure I will get used to it, but the UI changes all seem to be pointless. I am sure it came out of a powerpoint strat-e-jee session about how users will buy windows tablets because they see the same tiles on their laptops and tablets and get a warm fuzzy feeling of familiarity.

What is so bad if the laptop/PC have a traditional UI and the phone/tablet have the tile UI? Who will notice or care if emails/music/open browser tabs sync seamlessly? FruitCo does it and people seem to be happy with that.

M$ tried this convergence nonsense once with putting the desktop UI on a tablet and a phone (anyone remember the twist fold laptop-tablet and the windows mobie with a start button and stylus?). Now they are trying the reverse -- putting a phone UI on the tablet and desktop.

Did you install 8.1 upgrade?(it allows more than two Modern apps) Also with the Windows Phone guy in charge of all OSes,it looks like that their plan is to bring all versions closer with each release: http://www.zdnet.com/microsofts-windows ... 000023892/

Their argument for doing this is simple: Desktop is DEAD(for them). According to their telemetry data people use windows for two things: Chrome and iTunes, and all the development of news apps is not happening on Windows but on Android/iOS. So continuing to push traditional desktop would be like what Blackberry did.

Lastly, IMVHO this whole "traditional UI and the phone/tablet have the tile UI" can be fixed easily by Microsoft by simply allowing modern apps to run on desktop. This hack is possible through "ModernMix"(you should try it) app.