Phone - A Friend....

When I left home & came to the UK for my higher studies there were a lot of things I had to leave behind. Family, friends, home, my country were only a few of them. But instead of feeling sad, I slowly settled into a daily routine of studies and exploring this new place, and began to enjoy and look forward to each new day. 

However, there were moments when I felt lonely and homesick. I missed my friends, my family and I admit there were times when I wanted to pack my bags and go back home. But in times like these I found a friend at one of the most unexpected places.

It has always been said that books are a man’s best friend. You can spend hours reading them, treat them ruthlessly & still they will never complain. But in my case books weren’t sufficient. In fact every time I sat down to read a book, my mind wandered to my family, home & friends. Hence, in a dire situation that I was, a certain something came to my rescue; it was my HTC Smartphone. Yes, you heard me right and before you roll your eyes, just listen to what I’ve got to say. 

We both love to travel and hence it always carries an app called ‘Google Maps’. Many a times we lost our way while exploring Sheffield. All we had to do was use the maps to get back on track. It is not jealous of my other friends and in fact likes it when I chat with them. So it has the ‘WhatsApp’ messenger with which my friends in India are only a buzz away. I’m a person who loves music & like a true friend it stores all my favourite songs in its ‘Music Player’. Our best moments together have been captured in its brilliant ‘5MP Camera’ & so very often we check them out in the gallery and relive those memories. It’s also very multi-dimensional in nature. With a range of apps to download from the Android Market, it adapts quickly to my changing needs. Nevertheless, our friendship is not only because of all its qualities, my HTC has brought some changes in me as well. For a person who was content with checking his emails and Facebook only a couple of times a day on his laptop, now feels the need to check them every half hour. 

From the time I have bought the HTC, it has become a very close friend of mine. Like the books it loves to spend hours with me and immediately forgives me if I happen to drop it by accident. But that’s not all. We have got so much more in common. 

My HTC is indeed a reflection of what I am. Like a true friend is has also seen to it that its personality has rubbed off on me. I’ll never forget the contribution it had in my life when I needed a friend. It does everything for me except help with the dishes, but if I needed someone to help me with those, I would have hired a butler! Long last our friendship my dear HTC.

P.S – I would like to thank my Uncle who pestered me into choosing an HTC. If not for him, I would have ended up with a BlackBerry or something.

P.P.S – This blog is written in response to the contest 'CHANGE IS EASY' hosted by Dell Inspiron Laptop on Indibloggers. Dell has rid us of the monotony of single colours on laptops by introducing changeable covers. So go be a part of the Change!

                                                For people on IndiBlogger...Do vote for me!! :)

Love at First Touch

As I laid my eyes on her from across the room, there was a tingling down my spine & I knew I had to touch her. The room was crowded & there was a group of people surrounding her, but I kept my patience. I waited until they left her & then I made my move. As I held her in my hands, it just felt right. She brought a smile to my face & I knew this was true love. There in the crowded showroom I was in love with Apple’s iPad 2.

I’m a geek at heart & have always wanted to own all the gadgets in the world. Absurd though it may sound, that is how much I like gadgets. I can spend an entire day locked in a room without food if you give me a stack of gadget magazines to drool at. Though I like all the gadgets, I have only ever fallen in love with a couple of gadgets in my life. My first love was the Pentium-1 PC dad bought home and the second was my Playstation 2 gifted by my uncle.  But in that showroom as I held the iPad 2, I knew this time it was different.

The iPad was like a dream girl come to life. Her screen was bright and colourful with each pixel glowing like the radiant sun. Her touch-response was unearthly with even my slightest touch ensuring a response. Every page or App opened almost at the speed of thought. It was as if she could read my mind. Though I was standing in a busy showroom at a Mall, I was transported into a world where it was just the both of us. I could for a second imagine us both running behind trees in slow motion & singing songs like in the old Bollywood films.  

I couldn’t help but think that it was as if Apple had kept me in mind when designing this gadget. Apple has been credited with ushering in this current trend of Tablet PCs in the market following which other companies too have followed. But experts have always considered iPads to be way ahead of others. I had never believed them until that moment.

Though I already own gadgets which fulfil most of my needs, I need to have this one. If not for the high price Apple have put on her, I wouldn’t have left her lying in the crowded showroom. I’ll do whatever needs to be done to get her. If no one takes the cue & gifts me one, I know where my first salary is going..

My heart's locked inside her as an app

Tablet Wars…

Gone are the days when a person was stuck in his house, office or a shady cyber-café to be able to access the internet. In the age where being connected to the internet means being connected to the world, technology has to ascertain that a person no matter where should stay connected. Laptops and smartphones have had a big role in making this a reality, but a recent trend in the market is all set to try and make them obsolete.

Apple ipad the trend setter

Apple’s iPad, much like many of Apple’s other products, set a new trend in the market for Tablet Pcs. A tablet personal computer (tablet PC) is a portable personal computer equipped with a touch screen as a primary input device and designed to be operated and owned by an individual. The term was made popular as a concept presented by Microsoft in 2001.

A person can use a tablet as a miniature version of laptop or a larger version of a smartphone. You can surf the internet, listen to music, watch videos, use the office tools or just play games on it. Being connected to either the Android store or the Apple store, gives you options to customise your tablet according to your need. Tablets use 3G or Wi-Fi to stay connected and boast of decent battery power and thus are the ideal device to carry with you when travelling.

Though not the perfect piece of hardware by any standards, iPad still was a huge success selling 3 million in just 80 days. It has since then sold more than 14 million devices and this is largely because of the absence of any kind of competition. Though in 2010 other tablets were introduced, iPad still managed to garner 75 percent of the market share in the tablet market.

The competition though has just got tougher with the introduction of two heavyweights; iPad’s successor the Apple iPad2 and Motorola Xoom.  Both incredibly powerful and boasting configurations which are way ahead of the rest of the pack, they are two of the most-awaited gadgets. With other options becoming available like Samsung’s Galaxy Tab series, HTC’s Flyer, BlackBerry’s PlayBook, Viewsonic’s ViewPad 7 and Olivetti’s Olipad among others, this is surely a very exciting time.

There is certainly a buzz going on in the market and companies are eager to cash in on this changing trend in computing. But only time will tell if tablets prove to be a technological revolution or merely a ripple-effect in the ever-changing world of computing technology.

3D Films - Worth the hype?

This Ain't Avatar XXX poster

Hustler, an adult film maker has announced his new feature film ‘This Ain’t Avatar XXX’. This movie will be the first 3D porn movie. Much exciting as it might sound, it only adds to the growing number of movies being released in 3D. I find it really difficult to understand this sudden fixation with making movies in 3D

Experts believe that the technology of viewing 3D is not set to improve for another 8-10 years. It means that we have to bear with the glasses till then. What is the fun in wearing a pair of polarized spectacles all throughout a movie? Some might get away with the Ray Charles look, but if you have the misfortune of having a small face like mine, they keep slipping off. I had a bad experience when watching Clash of the Titans in 3D. For one, it was not exactly a movie worth spending 300 bucks for. Secondly it was a movie converted into 3D during post-production which made it even worse. This is not the same at all when it comes to the actual 3D experience. The difference is not only in the visuals but in the total 3D experience. A movie which is shot in 3D will give a more immersive experience. Whilst a movie converted in post-production will not have the same effect, robbing the audience of the real experience. Thus in many of the scenes in Clash of the Titans, the characters on screen looked like pieces of cardboard and the background looked blurred.

Experts though are optimistic about auto-stereoscopic technology, i.e. watching 3D without glasses. They say it is the future of how we will view all kinds of media. 3D TV have entered the market with Sony and LG launching their products in the US and European markets. These products though are at a nascent stage and still a far dream for us Indians. In such a case my question is why not wait till the technology becomes more common? Why not till then concentrate more on the substance of the movie like the story and the background score, instead of just concentrating on the visuals. It seems that releasing a movie in 3D has become a way for the film studios to earn extra profits by charging the theatre going audiences a premium.

The movie that set the current trend

This becomes evident when you see the sheer number of movies being released in 3D. According to Imdb.com, Avatar's success brought in a lot of 3D titles, an estimate of 60 in all between 2009 and the present day. In fact the trade group International 3D Society say that since Avatar was released, 33 percent of box office earnings are from 3D movies. There are about 43 films being released in 3D between now and the end of 2011. Of this most of them have been converted to 3D in post-production.

Though it is good to see some really good movies about to be released, it brings us to the question. Are 3D films really worth the hype the film-makers are creating? And lastly do we really need to pay over 300 bucks to go see a movie wearing spectacles?