Phone, Tablet and Gizmo Thread #0x02

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 22 Jan 2014 07:46

There is a AMD Kabini too!
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6974/amd-kabini-review
The AMD Kabini Review: A4-5000 APU Tested

I heard the name came from their consultancy from Snecma

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 22 Jan 2014 07:50

iphone being small and sealed is good for mobile use. same for the lumia720...drench it in sweat and nothing happens as the case is sealed.
taking a 6" phone on a run or cycling trip is a bit excessive.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 22 Jan 2014 09:21

Raja Bose wrote:You mean you are abandoning your favorite beloved Sammy? The sun surely has risen in the west.

Not at all. If you notice, there is a GPE of the S4 on the Play Store. My phone addiction is still pretty bad. Just got a Nexus 5 and am planning to sell off my unlocked HTC One. I'm eagerly awaiting the Samsung Galaxy S5, which is rumored to be announced Feb. 23rd in Barcelona, Spain at the 2014 MWC, and will be available world wide by early April 2014.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 22 Jan 2014 09:32

Singha wrote:iphone being small and sealed is good for mobile use. same for the lumia720...drench it in sweat and nothing happens as the case is sealed.
taking a 6" phone on a run or cycling trip is a bit excessive.

I dunno. The Sony Experia Z series which has models 4.6-5" in very slim form factor that are water resistant to 5 feet depth. Those would be my choice for sports. With pretty good camera too.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 22 Jan 2014 09:40

'm not willing to spend a naya paisa on these gadgets.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 22 Jan 2014 09:41

I have the dumbest smart phone contract is going to be up in June. Looks like there are no more simple phones coming out and I would be forced to pay the $30 per phone data plan - so most prolly not going to get another phone and keep the old plan going till this current phone conks. SHQ has exactly the same phone too. So we are saving $720 per year.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 22 Jan 2014 09:46

i get 40 bucks per month, all unlimited data, 500 min talk, and free in network, plus night and weekends.
catch a sprint employee

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 22 Jan 2014 09:49

SaiK wrote:'m not willing to spend a naya paisa on these gadgets.

You pay with subsidies or you buy them outright. Or just stick with cheapo feature phone. I use Google contacts and calendar, it works well for me.
If you're happy with Sprint's network, then fine.

T-Mobile is $80/mo unlimited talk & text and 500MB for 2 lines.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 22 Jan 2014 10:13

just heard t-mobile and sprint merger possibilities..

the only problem for me on t-mobile is the coverage map shows it is just okay, where as on sprint map it is very good.

pradeepe · Post by **pradeepe** » 22 Jan 2014 10:50

Skanda wrote:AMD's new processor is called Kaveri. Is there an Indian connection or anyone knows the origin of the name for this processor

http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/17/amd- ... -round-up/

Yes, to some extent. Its little sister is Kabini the mobile client APU, which is delivered almost end-to-end out of India.

BhairavP · Post by **BhairavP** » 22 Jan 2014 11:27

Just powered on my Venue 8 Pro. Pleasantly surprised with it - runs Photoshop semi-decently even, and there are a decent amount of "Metro" apps for my use case - eBook reader, Office comes built in. Really, for 199$, this thing is a steal.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 22 Jan 2014 21:20

SaiK wrote:just heard t-mobile and sprint merger possibilities..

the only problem for me on t-mobile is the coverage map shows it is just okay, where as on sprint map it is very good.

The map on TMO's web site is often outdated, just like others, so better to check Root Metrics.

The regulators may stop this. Both are on different technologies and the cost is way too high to transition Sprint to GSM.
The best coverage in order for voice is VZW, ATT, TMO, Sprint. For data it is VZW or ATT, TMO, Sprint.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 23 Jan 2014 09:39

Which one of you is working on this - may be the latest bredator?

New iOS in the Car screenshots leaked

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 23 Jan 2014 13:11

Waiting for Appil Fanbois and media geeks to go ZOMG!!!!! Apple Innovashunnnn!!!! Never been done before!!!!!

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 23 Jan 2014 22:26

Mort's big-Os can be timed accurately at least for the next 5 billion years

World's most precise atomic clock will still be spot-on in 5 billion years

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 24 Jan 2014 02:29

^^^Not in 5 billion years, but today. How? Well, this clock, given the way its designed, will have very low jitter (phase noise). That means you (and I, but not together) will be able to distinguish a big-O and a little-O when they happen in close proximity.

vina · Post by **vina** » 24 Jan 2014 05:52

Well, Sammy's sales and profits slips, while iPhunwa chomps on the higher end sales . Take that you haters!

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 24 Jan 2014 06:05

vina wrote:Well, Sammy's sales and profits slips, while iPhunwa chomps on the higher end sales . Take that you haters!

Mean-e-while, Mickey posts double digit growth YoY (still going strong after 30+ years unlike the flash in the pan Silicon Valley media darlings), sells a ton of XBox One, XBox 360 and....yup, Surface I guess Mortullah like kashtmars are not in the majority

vina · Post by **vina** » 24 Jan 2014 07:05

Raja Bose wrote:Mean-e-while, Mickey posts double digit growth YoY (still going strong after 30+ years unlike the flash in the pan Silicon Valley media darlings), sells a ton of XBox One, XBox 360 and....yup, Surface I guess Mortullah like kashtmars are not in the majority

Ah , but the WinTel franchise is sinking faster than PNS Ghazi! Intel is in the TOILET and Windows desktop and laptop franchise is getting savaged.

All this Yucks Box

and SourFace

ding dongs cant make up for that fat margin and sales loss (after all, you write software once and sell it for $75 a pop for a gazzillion devices and rake in a lot of cash by actually doing no further work, you dont even have to print the software into disks these days!) ..

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 24 Jan 2014 07:12

Intel has announced a 5% reduction in workforce worldwide. they are looking to cut costs in india by consolidating all their scattered offices in blr into a single location.
IBM is in talks to sell of its low/mid end server business to lenovo though with the HW gone I dont know how they can get a captive market for their sw and services.

MS is like Sauron, ageless, patient, indestructible, kill him in one world, he will reappear in the next......why....because he feeds on the -ve energy that is in all living beings...only exalted beings like Tirthankars have eliminated this -ve energy and crossed the river permanently.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 24 Jan 2014 07:50

vina wrote:
Raja Bose wrote:Mean-e-while, Mickey posts double digit growth YoY (still going strong after 30+ years unlike the flash in the pan Silicon Valley media darlings), sells a ton of XBox One, XBox 360 and....yup, Surface I guess Mortullah like kashtmars are not in the majority
Ah , but the WinTel franchise is sinking faster than PNS Ghazi! Intel is in the TOILET and Windows desktop and laptop franchise is getting savaged.

All this Yucks Box and SourFace ding dongs cant make up for that fat margin and sales loss (after all, you write software once and sell it for $75 a pop for a gazzillion devices and rake in a lot of cash by actually doing no further work, you dont even have to print the software into disks these days!) ..

Heh heh I guess you missed the part about their services/Azure biziness growing 100% YoY - no need to disk or download

Mickey is getting out of its WinTel dependency faster than Mushy downhill skiied from Siachen.

vina · Post by **vina** » 24 Jan 2014 10:26

BoseMullah wrote:Heh heh I guess you missed the part about their services/Azure biziness growing 100% YoY - no need to disk or download Mickey is getting out of its WinTel dependency faster than Mushy downhill skiied from Siachen

Ah, both very small bases. Cash cows, the Windoze OS and the MS Office franchise. Now, you can dowhill ski faster than Musharraf, but where are you going ? Away from a nice fat franchise with impenetrable entry barriers because of network effects, scale and switching costs, basically heaven with milk and honey and houris in abundance to a highly competitive commodity space where you are going to duke it out with Takla, Chacha, Instant Banana, and a lot of others without any barriers to your business ? In short, you are skiing down from heaven into Waziristan where the other Pakis are setting off bums against each other and doing soosai and every other thing, and you are asking lil Mickey Mouse to forage for grains there ?

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 24 Jan 2014 10:36

if cloud is the future - what is the alternative to cloud based MS office?
and pls dont say google docs

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 24 Jan 2014 10:43

vina al-YumBeeAye bin-aphrodiasici wrote: Ah, both very small bases. Cash cows, the Windoze OS and the MS Office franchise. Now, you can dowhill ski faster than Musharraf, but where are you going ? Away from a nice fat franchise with impenetrable entry barriers because of network effects, scale and switching costs, basically heaven with milk and honey and houris in abundance to a highly competitive commodity space where you are going to duke it out with Takla, Chacha, Instant Banana, and a lot of others without any barriers to your business ? In short, you are skiing down from heaven into Waziristan where the other Pakis are setting off bums against each other and doing soosai and every other thing, and you are asking lil Mickey Mouse to forage for grains there ?

....and still growing 10%+ YoY and posting record revenues despite declining Windoze sales.....your math doesn't add up, no?

Office franchise is pretty secure if not even more secure than before after launch of Azure and Office365.....blame Chacha and Pichai Maharaj for screwing up a golden opportunity to screw Mickey's golden goose big time.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 24 Jan 2014 10:51

Yes. Cloud will become defacto...but IMHO there are equivalent market demand for keeping all things in local space much within your controls. But for that device cost should come down to dimes and challenge the cluoud storage.

But that would only work for office products. Rest of the federated number crunchers wll still make the cloud 9 space more a reality. kb honchos loves virtualizations

Dilbu · Post by **Dilbu** » 24 Jan 2014 12:06

I wanted a change from android and bought a Lumia 520. Windows 8 + Nokia phone is a winning combination I guess. Pretty good so far got some good reviews from colleagues who are using this as well.

vina · Post by **vina** » 24 Jan 2014 12:54

BoseMullah wrote:....and still growing 10%+ YoY and posting record revenues despite declining Windoze sales.....your math doesn't add up, no? Office franchise is pretty secure if not even more secure than before after launch of Azure and Office365......

Yes. What saved Mickey was that the Windows SERVER and tools and Office held up well and grew . Yes
Yucks Pox 1 did well, but it is still trailing PlayStation 4. Mickey made no money in SourFace (at best break even, in all probability a loss), the bottomless pit called Bing seems to be stabilizing, and some $1b revenue from licensing of IP for phones (Windows + Android , there seems to be some Mickey IP in android) and plus some tax gains.

In short, Mickey got some toffees from the Gobmint, didnt bleed as much as earlier in its online services biz, and it's business division performed well.

But doesnt hide the fact that it's consumer business has been savaged. Phroot sells 20 M iPad per quarter vs Mickey's approx 2m this quarter.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 24 Jan 2014 14:07

Phroot is a one trick pony though. if iphone sales fall they will dead, just ipads and macs wont keep them afloat.

vina · Post by **vina** » 24 Jan 2014 17:13

Singha wrote:Phroot is a one trick pony though. if iphone sales fall they will dead, just ipads and macs wont keep them afloat.

Yes. Phroot has a problem of covering different price points with it's products and being able to address a wider market beyond their "Premium" positioning. That is why China is vital, especially since it is such a status conscious market, unlike India where we look at value beyond anything else and give a toss about brands and rubbish. But still the question remains, how do you address the wider market without killing the premium of your current products and what prevents someone who would have otherwise bought premium to buy the value one.

That said, Phroot has a history of opening out brand new categories (going back to the original Mac which set off the PC revolution and then the iPod,iPhone and iPad after Mahdi came back). Maybe a push into TV, wearable devices etc with an offering that crowbars open a whole wide world and puts the incumbents there to the Jedi sword (think what the iPhone did to Nokia, Motorola and Blackberry) can do the trick. If anyone can do it, my money would be on Phroot to do it.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 24 Jan 2014 23:18

Raja Bose wrote:
Mean-e-while, Mickey posts double digit growth YoY (still going strong after 30+ years unlike the flash in the pan Silicon Valley media darlings), sells a ton of XBox One, XBox 360 and....yup, Surface I guess Mortullah like kashtmars are not in the majority

It would be interesting to see the breakdown of sales from government, academics and institutions. MSFT will always do well not because we like it, but because we have no choice!

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 24 Jan 2014 23:41

MSFT will always do well as long as their FUD techniques to gain the market leadership survive.

however they can create history, if they think little bit long-term.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 25 Jan 2014 00:42

^^^What choice to do we have when our baap is doing ppt giri, excel mental ma$turb**ion, and bs project planning?

No one else has stepped up to the plate. Open Office is a no go, Google Drive is a curiosity, and AAPL drops the ball with Apple Works.
We are regrettably stuck to MSFT. Just like pakhistan as a neighbor. Now even a good company like Nokia has gone down the shitter.

Whenever this is brought up to moderator guru, he just brings up the Y-o-Y sales of MSFT. Surely there must be something more compelling than that; even IBM has done well over the last 50 years!

vina · Post by **vina** » 25 Jan 2014 04:59

Mort Walker wrote:^^^What choice to do we have when our baap is doing ppt giri, excel mental ma$turb**ion, and bs project planning?... Open Office is a no go, Google Drive is a curiosity, and AAPL drops the ball with Apple Works.
We are regrettably stuck to MSFT. Just like pakhistan as a neighbor. Now even a good company like Nokia has gone down the shitter

Exactly. I was so thrilled when I got the new MBP and the Phroot Works suite came free with it . I use the spreadsheet extensively, but have to confess that the Phroot spreadsheet (Numbers) while trying to be pretty belongs in Pakistan. It is sort of like Veena Malik with cakes of paint applied and trying to pass of as pretty, while underlying all that there is a fundamental lack of substance.

But , for me LibreOffice works fine (the closest analog to Excel) and I use that on my Mac and opens and shows the Excel files exactly with all the features and functionality of the original Excel sheets.

The trouble with LibreOffice is that it doesn't run all the macros of Excel correctly, and many customised Excel spreadsheets (think IT dept tax and filing sheets) don't work in LibreOffice

.

I know the easy thing would be to get Excel for Mac , which would mean getting Office for Mac. But I already have the Windoze version of it, and don't want to pony up Rs 10K (being the Phata Abdul of course) and do my bit in perpetuating the Aapish franchise

. What to do ? That might be the vidhi !

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 25 Jan 2014 07:20

Mort Walker wrote:^^^What choice to do we have when our baap is doing ppt giri, excel mental ma$turb**ion, and bs project planning?

No one else has stepped up to the plate. Open Office is a no go, Google Drive is a curiosity, and AAPL drops the ball with Apple Works.
We are regrettably stuck to MSFT. Just like pakhistan as a neighbor. Now even a good company like Nokia has gone down the shitter.

Whenever this is brought up to moderator guru, he just brings up the Y-o-Y sales of MSFT. Surely there must be something more compelling than that; even IBM has done well over the last 50 years!

er...What is more compelling than a company consistently growing YoY for 3 decades and repeatedly creating new profitable businesses? I am curious to know. Surely you don't mean, Innovashunnnnnn!!!!!

Mickey is no spring chicken in 'growth' phase but a big lumbering company which has to pay ~120K employees (not to mention also pay for their free healthcare)

Tangible results and ability to adapt and survive are what matter at the end of the day, not PR fluff and becoming tech media darlings. Instant Banana Mouse went thru a near death experience before re-inventing itself to peddle service snake oil....now they have undertaken the tactically brilliant move of selling their server division to Lenovo. FruitCo nearly died before the Mahdi rode down in a white charger at the last moment and even then now I suspect whether they will be around unless Bawarchi does something radical - Bawarchi is truly ITvity's MMS. Most people in ITvity today have never even heard of DEC, DRI, Tandy, MITS and a host of others.....all Mickey's contemporaries and all dead. There's a lesson in there somewhere.

Mort Walker wrote:^^^What choice to do we have when our baap is doing ppt giri, excel mental ma$turb**ion, and bs project planning?

No one else has stepped up to the plate. Open Office is a no go, Google Drive is a curiosity, and AAPL drops the ball with Apple Works.
We are regrettably stuck to MSFT. Just like pakhistan as a neighbor. Now even a good company like Nokia has gone down the shitter.

Instead of whining and blindly hating some faceless corporation, ask yourself what's stopping some other company from creating a great office suite whose UX beats the pants out of Mickey's Office? The Office document formats are all open source so migrating to a rival platform is not a problem. And clearly there's no lack of brains, cash or market reach in other companies. Are you telling me that Silicon Valley TFTAs like Oracle, Chacha and FruitCo who are so much more innovative than fat ol' Mickey are unable to create a decent office suite?

Its hardly rocket science and the fundamental concepts haven't changed since early 90s.

Otherwise its like whining that Pappu sucks as a PM candidate but its all Modi's fault.

vina · Post by **vina** » 25 Jan 2014 07:33

Raja Bose wrote: Instead of whining and blindly hating some faceless corporation, ask yourself what's stopping some other company from creating a great office suite whose UX beats the pants out of Mickey's Office? The Office document formats are all open source so migrating to a rival platform is not a problem. And clearly there's no lack of brains, cash or market reach in other companies. Are you telling me that Silicon Valley TFTAs like Oracle, Chacha and FruitCo who are so much more innovative than fat ol' Mickey are unable to create a decent office suite? Its hardly rocket science and the fundamental concepts haven't changed since early 90s.

Otherwise its like whining that Pappu sucks as a PM candidate but its all Modi's fault.

Oh, you are Konphoosed onree saar. Mickey Saaft Aapish is needed not because it ish beshtesth, but rather because of installed base and those kind of effects and hence the switching costs. Look back at my previous mail in response to Mort Mamu. I said, that while LibreOffice works perfectly fine, I am having to put up with Mickey Saaft Excel because of things like IT Office and the macros it sends. It is the rip and replace part that is difficult and gives Mickey the staying power, not the strength and features of it's products. So for e.g., I might end up spending Rs 5145 or so to get Appish 11 for Mac, despite hating to do it.

So, yes, Mickey is like the Kangress, people stick to it because of switching costs. Pappu is well known pappy. You are used to him, know him , and even though you hate him, you will go to him, just like Mickey.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 25 Jan 2014 07:51

^^^er....all formats ityadi for Mickey Apphice are open after Mickey got its mush smacked for anti-trust. Then how come LibreOffice is not all shiny and buttery smooth with TFTA reliability, hain ji? How come it is not the bestest at getting the job done. That is the question I am asking. Office suite is hardly cutting edge stuff yet companies who excel at cutting edge stuff fail to even make a decent one? Tauba Tauba

Last I used OpenOffice (wasn't LibreOffice same as OpenOffice some moons ago?) it was a total PITA - it screwed up document formatting, it crashed, it lost changes and after that I gave up. When you have work critical stuff, you don't have the luxury of choosing a product based on which company you hate or love....you use the product which gets the work done, period. Hating companies as if they are personal entities and making product choices based on that is best left to Coffee House philosophers and tea sipping jholawallahs types who have all that free time on their hands.

And BTW those "small" insignificant revenue bases you were talking about (Azure etc.)....they are all part of Mickey's Server and Tools division and why that division hit record profits for last couple of quarters. I guess they didn't turn out to be too insignificant

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 25 Jan 2014 08:18

Mortullah, move to SoKo

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 25 Jan 2014 08:24

Raja Bose wrote:
vina al-YumBeeAye bin-aphrodiasici wrote: Ah, both very small bases. Cash cows, the Windoze OS and the MS Office franchise. Now, you can dowhill ski faster than Musharraf, but where are you going ? Away from a nice fat franchise with impenetrable entry barriers because of network effects, scale and switching costs, basically heaven with milk and honey and houris in abundance to a highly competitive commodity space where you are going to duke it out with Takla, Chacha, Instant Banana, and a lot of others without any barriers to your business ? In short, you are skiing down from heaven into Waziristan where the other Pakis are setting off bums against each other and doing soosai and every other thing, and you are asking lil Mickey Mouse to forage for grains there ?
....and still growing 10%+ YoY and posting record revenues despite declining Windoze sales.....your math doesn't add up, no? Office franchise is pretty secure if not even more secure than before after launch of Azure and Office365.....blame Chacha and Pichai Maharaj for screwing up a golden opportunity to screw Mickey's golden goose big time.

how is google drive/docs screwed? docs morphed into drive no?

member_20292 · Post by **member_20292** » 25 Jan 2014 08:27

vina wrote:... (being the Phata Abdul of course)

yeah right.....

vina · Post by **vina** » 25 Jan 2014 08:46

Raja Bose wrote:Last I used OpenOffice (wasn't LibreOffice same as OpenOffice some moons ago?) it was a total PITA

Well, LibreOffice is not fully open source, and hence a fork I think. But that said, the current versions of LibreOffice are perfectly fine, work very well and get the job done. I highly recommend it if you don't have any 3rd party Excel rubbish that you don't use. Use it and save yourself a packet. It is pretty stable , mature and feature rich.

When you have work critical stuff, you don't have the luxury of choosing a product based on which company you hate or love....you use the product which gets the work done, period.

Hain ? How come all you guys did "critical work" on Mickey Saaft Doze, when it was infamous for it's BSOD ?

And BTW those "small" insignificant revenue bases you were talking about (Azure etc.)....they are all part of Mickey's Server and Tools division and why that division hit record profits for last couple of quarters. I guess they didn't turn out to be too insignificant

Yes,yes, I said the business part did well. But it is a wipe out in the consumer side. In the long run, the Windows on server side cannot sustain the stranglehold (in the face of el cheapo *nix versions and alternatives out there) without the volume and scale that comes from the consumer side. Long term trouble, I am afraid.