Phone, Tablet and Gizmo Thread #0x02

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 25 Jan 2014 09:04

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

When choosing between Latex and Word, what do you think is easier when exchanging documents between multiple parties for correction, modification and review with tracking?

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.

Consumer side build up will take time for Mickey since traditionally it was not a consumer focused company in terms of where most of its revenue came from - its past shenanigans don't help it either. But Mickey's business earnings provide it a rock solid base to build up its consumer segment, which is what its doing. Unfortunately the reverse is not as easy since the consumer segment is fickle and flavours change rapidly hence, today's king will become tomorrow pauper and vice versa.

El cheapo *nix versions have existed for ages now yet their influence has been less than a sparrow's fart. Why?? What it needs is someone like Chacha to leverage it. But unfortunately what invariably what ends up happening is that the very same AAP parties who come to prominence promising freedommm from tyranny and oppression end up imposing their own brand of tyranny and the cycle continues while old-timers like Mortullah whine about the naa-insaafi of it all.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 25 Jan 2014 09:30

mahadevbhu wrote: how is google drive/docs screwed? docs morphed into drive no?

When was it unscrewed? Yes Docs is now part of Drive.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 25 Jan 2014 19:05

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

That is why in the late 1980s to early 90s, those companies/organizations who were serious about technical documentation, used Mentor Graphics on Unix workstations.

vina · Post by **vina** » 26 Jan 2014 06:17

Raja Bose wrote:El cheapo *nix versions have existed for ages now yet their influence has been less than a sparrow's fart. Why?? What it needs is someone like Chacha to leverage it. .

Well, Phroot leverages *nix the beshtesht! No one does it better, makes the plain ol' Jane into a super model (like in OS X ) and takes it to the absolute upper end of the positioning. So, it is obviously worth a lot more than a "sparrows fart".

So yeah,*nix, is both phata abdul L'eau de Cologne and Chanel V! True, *nix is never my favourite, I would take MVS and VMS over it any day, but given what is available on the desktop, I would rank OS-X (which takes away all the pain and torture and wild west nature of Linux) and gives you the most stable and secure (ok, leaving out NSA) *nix. Compared to that, this Win Doze from Mickey Saaft is just pretentious garbage.

In fact, in reaction to the NSA shenanigans if organisations want full control of their systems and want to build it themselves, I would think a customised Linux compile from source ,using safe compiler, linker and runtime would be it I suppose.

vina · Post by **vina** » 26 Jan 2014 06:25

Mort Walker wrote:That is why in the late 1980s to early 90s, those companies/organizations who were serious about technical documentation, used Mentor Graphics on Unix workstations.

Mort Mamu, trouble with that assertion is, that Unix workstations started dying out from mid 95s onwards (think SillyCon Graphics, Apollo, Sun ityadi) when even ultra critical work like engineering and design etc moved on to Win Doze workstations. So really the el cheapo prices from Mickey for hardware and software, together with the robustness that came from having centralised network based backup and recovery led to Mickey and it's BSOD becoming acceptable, as the reliability of individual workstations was not as critical as earlier.

The only remaining true *nix workstations and stuff still remaining is OS-X

. Think of all the Moojahids doing high end graphics, design, video and audio processing, all on mostly Phroot machines in creative design shops where Mickey Saaft is simply verboten and a mere mention of the word Mickey will see everyone else regard you as something that the cat brought in!

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 26 Jan 2014 07:40

Phroot *nix clone (OS X) is cheapo *nix solution according to you?

Joo are truly a TFTA aphrodisiac adorned YumBeeAye from Ivy Liga

The Mahdi and the Mac

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 26 Jan 2014 23:21

http://michaelbluejay.com/consumer/phone.html
comparions of vonage, ooma, skype and magick!

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 27 Jan 2014 00:44

Interesting discussion on slashdot:

Microsoft Reports Record Revenue

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Another thing - looks like XBox open gold membership is only 15.99 if you buy the entire year which is not that bad. I would pay that much if it gets cloud enabled. In that case this is not a bad device at all. May be should connect to my projector system in the basement and let my kid play there. Since he is a little afraid of going into the basement by himself his playtime would be a self-limiting

only downside being that if his desire to play overcomes his fearfulness I may have to buy $300 bulbs at more regular intervals - not a good prospect.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 27 Jan 2014 03:39

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 27 Jan 2014 10:03

matrimc wrote:Interesting discussion on slashdot:

Microsoft Reports Record Revenue

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Another thing - looks like XBox open gold membership is only 15.99 if you buy the entire year which is not that bad. I would pay that much if it gets cloud enabled. In that case this is not a bad device at all. May be should connect to my projector system in the basement and let my kid play there. Since he is a little afraid of going into the basement by himself his playtime would be a self-limiting only downside being that if his desire to play overcomes his fearfulness I may have to buy $300 bulbs at more regular intervals - not a good prospect.

"Our Commercial segment continues to outpace the overall market, and our Devices and Consumer segment had a great holiday quarter," said outgoing chief executive Steve Ballmer.
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"We delivered record revenue as demand for our business offerings remains high and we made strong progress in our Devices and Consumer segment," Microsoft chief financial officer Amy Hood said in the earnings release.
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Sales of Surface tablets more than doubled from the previous quarter to hit $893 million, and Microsoft sold 7.4 million Xbox videogame consoles, with 3.9 million of those being new-generation Xbox One.

1. Large entities are migrating from XP to Windows 7, and it will continue for some time. What isn't being said is that these same entities have no intention of migrating to Windows 8.1 to 9.
2. Surface sales are eating in to the conventional Windows laptop sales, so MSFT is benefiting at the cost of its OEM.
3. XBoX is doing well and it is a good product. Everybody likes Halo.

As long as MSFT profits from the commercial side, don't expect too much for them (from the UX PoV

) on the consumer side.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 27 Jan 2014 11:05

Mort Walker wrote: 1. Large entities are migrating from XP to Windows 7, and it will continue for some time. What isn't being said is that these same entities have no intention of migrating to Windows 8.1 to 9.

They had no intention of migrating to Windows 7 either but now they will as XP is EOL'ed. Same will happen with Win 9 or 10 or whatever.

2. Surface sales are eating in to the conventional Windows laptop sales, so MSFT is benefiting at the cost of its OEM.

I thought it was a Nexus type product, hain ji?

What most people don't get is, in-house CE product capability (design, development, manufacturing, QA, support) does not get built in a day....unless that's what you founded your company to do. It takes years of effort and tons of money to even get to a decent level and start seeing returns. So it is a long-term investment and best done when cash flow is great. There is a reason why VCs run away from HW or CE product startups as a general rule - risk-to-reward ratio is way too high. Only recently have a few such as FitBit or Leap Motion been significantly funded. Leap Motion better get acquired by some big boy otherwise they look to be heading into the grave....their technology does not work well outside a narrow band.

vina · Post by **vina** » 27 Jan 2014 16:53

Raja Bose wrote:They had no intention of migrating to Windows 7 either but now they will as XP is EOL'ed. Same will happen with Win 9 or 10 or whatever.

Ah.. Driving by looking at the rear view mirror aren't we ? If the upgrade cycle in the desktop and laptop has been broken for good, how are you so sure that similar cycle cant happen on the business side ? If "BYOD" kind of thing takes root and the corp provides all as wireless services via an internal cloud, then Mickey seriously toast. It cannot sell zillions of dabbas and will end up competing across multiple service lines with industry biggies offering similar services and solutions and no need to by Windoze!

2. Surface sales are eating in to the conventional Windows laptop sales, so MSFT is benefiting at the cost of its OEM.

Ah.. Sourface, prilly ant idea of selling dabbas as opposed to selling vaporware for $75 a pop. Trouble is, while revenues grew at 14%, profits grew only 3% . There goes your valuation down the Pakistan. Have a nice day. IED Mubarak!

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 27 Jan 2014 20:44

adminji wrote:They had no intention of migrating to Windows 7 either but now they will as XP is EOL'ed. Same will happen with Win 9 or 10 or whatever.

If so, then IT expenditures will go up for large entities such as govts./academics when their budgets are being trimmed. If Win7 is EOL'ed too fast, it will spell trouble for MSFT. I don't expect Win7 to be EOL'ed until 2020. On another note, when you have companies delaying getting signed drivers for Win8, it is not a good sign.

adminji wrote:I thought it was a Nexus type product, hain ji?

It is. The OEMs will have the last laugh and soon we will see very nice $300 touch screen Windows tablets. The only difference is marketing which is a mistake GOOG is making and made.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 27 Jan 2014 22:01

Mort Walker wrote: It is. The OEMs will have the last laugh and soon we will see very nice $300 touch screen Windows tablets. The only difference is marketing which is a mistake GOOG is making and made.

er....in that case OEMs make 10% margin if lucky and Mickey still makes 65-70% margin without moving a finger. So who has the last laugh again?

Mickey is a true bania company - they should start a consultancy firm called Bania & Co....all newly minted aphrodisiac wearing Ivy Liga YumBeeAye will rush to join and peddle snake oil there.

vina wrote:If "BYOD" kind of thing takes root and the corp provides all as wireless services via an internal cloud, then Mickey seriously toast.

Which Mc-In-chee YumBeeAye strat-e-jee giri ppt vaporware did you pilfer that from?? Come on, out with it!

BTW remember those 2 "small areas" which provided record profits for Mickey's server and tools division play exactly in that very segment and till date are doing pretty peachy hain ji. Why Chacha is not moving more decisively in that area is a mystery since they are supposed to be the #1 Internets/Cloud/Service company yet are not even in top 3 as far as sales goes.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 28 Jan 2014 01:12

MSFT is not toast, nor will they be in anytime in the future 15-20 years. They are deeply embedded in to institutions and large entities. No way out of the evil empire, but at the same time MSFT remains uninspiring for personal use and to capture the imagination of the young. MSFT is trying hard though to change the perception of that. Last night, one of the Grammy's many official sponsors was MSFT, but did anyone care? Maybe if they planted a Windows sticker with "Intel Inside" on Beyonce's b00ty perhaps?

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 28 Jan 2014 01:21

Mickey is a true bania company - they should start a consultancy firm called Bania & Co....all newly minted aphrodisiac wearing Ivy Liga YumBeeAye will rush to join and peddle snake oil there.

See, in 1980 I remember getting to use an Apple II+ and was absolutely thrilled writing programs in basic. At the same time I was using punch cards to write Fortran 77 code on an IBM360 which was more useful, but not thrilling at all. IBM was the bania as they soon released the IBM PC the following year, but it never captured the imagination like Apple Computers. You could call the Apple II+ snake oil and all, as all real computing was still done on mainframes at the time. So in a sense MSFT is what IBM was some 34 years ago. A useful tool, but inspiring.

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 28 Jan 2014 02:15

msft will survive. every sector in tech is not a place where shiny sexy things can overrun market in few years and upend entrenched products.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 28 Jan 2014 04:04

The reality of the ITvity industry is that the unsexy companies with sound solid business strat-e-jee, which plod along like hogs are the ones which survive to fight another day. The dainty sexy showgirls get blown up sky high after a few years in the limelight before the media forgets them and moves to the next batch of even sexier showgirls. Its just like the houristan description given by that pindaliyon-ka-gooda preacher in one of his speeches.

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Mortullah, you are just repeating exactly what I said (without reading it as usual

). Now coming to your point of being inspiring or thrilling....one cannot make a steady living out of thrilling stuff. For that one needs some boring steady revenue generator so that they can spend some on it on doing thrilling stuff - I get to have fun @ work becoz there are others in the trenches doing real boring work but work which brings in the revenue....revenue which funds my thrilling fun and games....that is something I never allow myself to forget. Chacha essentially follows the same approach as Mickey though in a single area of focus for now. Nobody will ever claim that serving and selling ads is thrilling or inspiring but that's what brings home their bacon. Everything else either serves to oil that machine or is a hobby project which might end up oiling that machine in the future. Companies like FruitCo flash brightly for a while and then explode or just die out like a bottle rocket - great for the 'thrill' seeking consumer, not so great from a business perspective or for the employees & shareholders.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 28 Jan 2014 04:24

Mort Walker wrote:See, in 1980 I remember getting to use an Apple II+ and was absolutely thrilled writing programs in basic. At the same time I was using punch cards to write Fortran 77 code on an IBM360 which was more useful, but not thrilling at all.

IITB Robotron

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 28 Jan 2014 05:03

FruitCo reports record iPhone and iPad sales. iPod sales down

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 28 Jan 2014 05:20

so phroot is still going strong even without jobs.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 28 Jan 2014 05:47

At the 5 year mark of the mahdi's death anniversary we can evaluate whether FruitCo,is going strong without him or not....right now its still momentum from product decisions made by the Mahdi.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 28 Jan 2014 06:43

I should have bought some AAPL options today. If the market was going to be this nutty about such a good quarter, I could have made some money off it. I was too busy this morning to keep track of today's earnings.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 28 Jan 2014 10:05

adminji wrote:Now coming to your point of being inspiring or thrilling....one cannot make a steady living out of thrilling stuff.

The technology business is just that way (you can call it hexy if you must). At some point it becomes stale so people and companies move on to the next big thing. If you want steady revenue over a long period in time over history, then you become an IBM, AT&T or Standard Oil. They have employees doing some fascinating R&D, but their bread & butter comes from the necessary dirty work. The trick is for future generations you have to capture the imagination of the young and impressionable. With MSFT, the only real thing exciting for the general public is XBoX and everything else is stale. Where will the next Bill Gates come from? Here was a fellow who was fascinated with the development of the microprocessor and decided to do something with software; he could have easily gone to work for IBM in R&D in the late 1970s and still make a few million.

I see my own kids who, the youngest who are pre-teens, and I see some real promise. Not because I see them as the next Bill Gates, but because they view technology very differently than I do and they see its potential in a different light.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 28 Jan 2014 12:24

Be careful what you wish for....if you wish your kid to be a successful asshole only then wish for them to be like Bill Gates or The Mahdi.

Guess which category of startups historically have the most successful exits? Its the startups targeting enterprise....boring, stodgy work but pays the bills. The whiz bang social media and gizmo startups are much less successful.

rohitvats · Post by **rohitvats** » 28 Jan 2014 17:19

^^^All this gyaan by Bose babu reminds me about investment philosophy of the 'Oracle' - basically target non-sexy companies which do the mundane - but essential - job day in and day out and which to some extent are economic cycle agnostic. Something like the company which makes tissue paper or one which handles the food coupons. basically, strong business fundamental with minimum of fuss...

BhairavP · Post by **BhairavP** » 28 Jan 2014 19:53

Mort Walker wrote: If so, then IT expenditures will go up for large entities such as govts./academics when their budgets are being trimmed. If Win7 is EOL'ed too fast, it will spell trouble for MSFT. I don't expect Win7 to be EOL'ed until 2020. On another note, when you have companies delaying getting signed drivers for Win8, it is not a good sign.

It is. The OEMs will have the last laugh and soon we will see very nice $300 touch screen Windows tablets. The only difference is marketing which is a mistake GOOG is making and made.

There are already such tablets out - I have a Dell V8Pro - 199$ at the MS Store, and worth every penny. Running full Windows 8.1 32bit.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 28 Jan 2014 23:50

^^^Didn't know it was that cheap. Just checked and it's $229, but includes Office for Home & Student. A good deal.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 29 Jan 2014 01:06

With the Dell one, Mickey followed a Nexus approach (like what Chacha does with LG and Asus) and injected cash into the OEM to subsidize manufacturing and preserve their margins. Good for seeding the market and getting people over from their iPads and Kindles.

Mort Walker · Post by **Mort Walker** » 29 Jan 2014 10:22

HTC has a nice graphic showing how an Android OS update is done. It applies to other Android makers as well.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 29 Jan 2014 10:25

^^^Minor error: The new version announcement by Google doesn't happen that early.

rohitvats · Post by **rohitvats** » 29 Jan 2014 12:16

Just got my hands on a Nexus 5 courtesy a colleague who bought it over Google Play Store.

Must say, what a fine piece of equipment; the touch is superb (and smooth) as is the display. Very crisp and very lively. Looks and feels beautiful. And the technical specs are very good indeed. No wonder the screen looks so amazing...full HD and all that. Nice 4.95 inch screen size and weighs very less. I guess 5-inch is just about the max screen size (and phone size) which one can handle comfortably with one hand. And because it is so light (compared to my Nokia bricks), handling becomes still more comfortable.

The equipment was shipped from Singapore to her in India.

All in all, a very good device which will serve you long and true.

BhairavP · Post by **BhairavP** » 29 Jan 2014 13:50

Motor Oil has announced the MotoG for sale here - 15.5k for 8GB, 17k for 16GB. Good buy at that price.

vina · Post by **vina** » 29 Jan 2014 16:38

Folks, need some advice. Father in law's laptop went Kaput and is looking to buy a desktop. I told my wife that in this day and age, it is no advisable and that a tablet would serve him better. So, which one would you advise me to get of the stuff available in India. He will use it to browse, check mail and do skype.

I would have jumped to Phroot right away ,but suspect that for him, an Android based tablet will be more useful probably given the wider range of free stuff available on it. It must have wifi , but cellular capability not needed. A good screen is nice, and an accessory keyboard built into the cover like I see many folks carrying would be nice.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 29 Jan 2014 17:44

why not just buy a cheap assembled type basic desktop. should be lot cheaper than equivalent laptop.
the monitor , mouse and keybd also you can revamp if desired, reuse if not.

there are small form factor ones meant to use be used in shops or lounges.

habal · Post by **habal** » 29 Jan 2014 17:53

think again. Sometimes old folks have difficulty reading tablets and <13 inch laptops. So a desktop with a large screen monitor may be more useful for this segment.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 29 Jan 2014 21:22

^^ask mort. He makes the same point.

vina mullah, you cheapo....go spend some of your illgotten capital gains and get your FIL an iPad or at the very least a Surface 2 + type cover instead of throwing some who-flung-dung android tablet at him.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 29 Jan 2014 21:29

habal wrote:think again. Sometimes old folks have difficulty reading tablets and <13 inch laptops. So a desktop with a large screen monitor may be more useful for this segment.

and they tend to type slowly using two fingers max. a big keyboard and screen is good.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 29 Jan 2014 22:49

Nintendo is so toast its not even funny. A lesson to all who think their fav company will last forever based on current performance, hype and pixie dust. Mean-e-while vina mullah's beloved FruitCo is getting Rahul Gandhi treatment in the stock market....hard to believe that just over a year ago FruitCo was being touted as a trillion dollar market cap company.

negi · Post by **negi** » 29 Jan 2014 23:24

vina wrote: I would have jumped to Phroot right away ,but suspect that for him, an Android based tablet will be more useful probably given the wider range of free stuff available on it.

Unless I have been living in a cave or time capsule on any given day number of stable free apps available for iOS is more than Android. Moreover that metric is imho useless for your FIL might not even install more than say ~8-10 commonly used apps.