Tech Bangalore

What I liked in Nokia N900/Maemo

Prashanth — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 06:16:00 +0000

It’s been more than a week since I started using Nokia N900 smart phone. At the same time an android phone visited me (Samsung Galaxy S) which failed to impress! I continued using N900 & handed that device over to Santosh to write a guest review on Tech Bangalore. Since it’s too late to write a detailed review of N900, I’m just pointing out what all features I liked on this phone.

Build:

Many said it’s bulky/heavy, but I personally like the way it is built. It perfectly sits in my hands & makes it totally comfortable to use QWERTY keyboard. You will feel it’s bulkiness when you keep it in pocket, you cannot keep anything other than the N900 in your pocket!

Browser:

Almost all N900 reviews talk more about browser! Though I had an option of using Firefox (AFAIK only smart phone which runs Firefox), I liked using the default browser. Default browser is powered by mozilla technology & gives desktop browsing experience. I was really impressed by capabilities of this browser. For ex: Few days ago I wrote a simple location aware foursquare app using Geo APIs supported by Firefox. Out of curiosity I tried accessing this app from N900 & voila, N900 gave my application GPS location & my app worked perfectly fine. I had actually written the code without any intentions of accessing GPS location, all done by the browser.

Angry Birds!

Killing time in power cuts is not that easy. Angry Birds make me feel like Power, don’t come for another hour please!. Angry Birds is a simple yet very addictive game which first came on Maemo & then launched for iPhone too. It’s one of the most selling games on iPhone app store. Game is simple, just throw birds at pigs and kill them!

Vagalume:

I hugely rely on last.fm (I don’t know how many times I said that!) for music. I wouldn’t buy a phone if it can’t play last.fm radio, it is so important for me. Vagalume is a last.fm client for Maemo platform which can play last.fm radios. Unlike other last.fm clients I have seen, vagalume automatically downloads free tracks on last.fm while playing a radio. That means, it plays that track locally instead of streaming it again. One more unique feature I liked on Vagalume is that, you can enter a last.fm url & play that radio. It can be friend’s library, friend’s loved track, similar artists page…anything.

Joikuspot:

The application which enables you to carry wifi hotspot wherever you go, Joikuspot is my favorite right from the day they launched it for Symbian. Thanks to MyNokiaWorld which gave away a premium license of Joikuspot to me. If you aren’t already aware of, Joikuspot uses your GPRS/EDGE/3G connection & converts your phone into a wifi hotspot. Other devices like laptops, iPod touch, tablets can connect to this hotspot & access internet.

Android 2.2 (Froyo) has this feature inbuilt, you don’t have to install/buy any application to do it.

Tunewiki Widget:

Tunewiki widget automatically fetches lyrics of the song you are currently playing on N900′s music player. Tunewiki syncs the lyrics with the playback which enables you to sing with your favorite track. This can be ultimate karaoke machine!!

I wrote about only these many features to just to maintain uniqueness of my writeup. There are lot other things which I like on N900 like unified conversations, unified contacts, camera, email client, customizable multiple desktops, community support….and lot others.

As a special offer to Tech Bangalore readers, you will get a stereo bluetooth headset free with the purchase of N900 worth Rs.4000. Store price of the handset is around Rs.24k. Leave a comment below to know how to avail this exclusive offer.

Norton 360 Version 4: Complete PC Security Solution

Prashanth — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 05:18:23 +0000

Norton 360 is a complete security solution for PCs, not just an anti-virus software. It includes lot of tools which makes your PC totally safe. Let’s go through each one of them in brief:

PC Security:

Norton 360 comes with all in one set it & forget it automated virus & spyware protection. This system effectively blocks viruses, spyware, Trojan horses, worms, bots, and rootkits. Norton Bootable Recovery Tool repairs, restores and boots severely infected, which is very useful when your PC is not booting because of an infection. Norton has Real-time SONAR technology which detects emerging spyware and viruses before traditional definitions are available making sure you are protected from upcoming threats. Norton firewall quietly defends against hackers from hacking your PC.

Identity protection:

Norton Identity protection securely stores your login, credit card details & makes it easy to shop at online stores. It guards against key-loggers by auto filling the forms with your credentials. Blocks phishing websites automatically to make sure your personal information doesn’t land in wrong hands.

Back up & Restore:

Norton backup allows you to back up important data securely on their servers. Backup can be setup in three simple steps:

What? – What all data you want to backup. Select all the directories which you want to backup.

Whare? – Where you want to store the backup. You will get to choose between local drive & online storage which Norton provides. Norton provides upto 25 GB of online storage based on the package you are buying.

When? – When you want to run backups. Here you can choose between Automatic, weekly, monthly or manual.

PC Tuneup:

PC tuneup comes with set of tools which helps keep your PC clean. Disk optimization optimizes the hard drive and free ups more disk space. PC Tuneup automatically finds and fixes the problems which are making your PC slow. It also has clean up utilities to take care of unwanted temporary files & cookies which improves the start-up speed of the computer.

Overall Norton 360 is a total solution with set it & forget it protection. You have to go through the setup only once & concentrate on work which you want to do rather thinking about security risks.

Bangalore auto woes!!? Email ID & Phone numbers to register complaint are here!

Prashanth — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 16:46:23 +0000

David SR on Barcamp Bangalore mailing list sent out this very useful information which was collected by Srikanth. Thanks to his efforts on finding this valuable information. So next time if you face one of the following situations, just note down the vehicle number!

Refusal to come to destination (Any destination!!!).
Demanding excess fare.
Using rough language.
Cheat the public, for e.g. taking longer routes.
Faulty Meter.

Once you have the vehicle number noted, you can either register a complaint by sending an email or by calling appropriate RTO (numbers given later in this post)

Note the vehicle number (KA-XX-YY-ZZZZ) and email the details to
transcom@kar.nic.in , Based on the prefix XX (for example KA-01), complaint
will be sent to one of the ten RTO offices in Bangalore and adjacent taluk
areas.

Based on the vehicle number, you can also call appropriate RTO & register complaint, Following are the phone numbers:

* KA-01 Koramangala 080-25533525
* KA-02 Rajajinagar 080-23324104
* KA-03 Indiranagar 080-25254310
* KA-04 Yeshwantpur 080-23376039
* KA-05 Jayanagar 080-26630989
* KA-41 Gyanabharthi 080-28602833
* KA-50 Yelahanka 080-28561366
* KA-51 Electronic City 080-25735522
* KA-52 NeelaMangala 08234-285598
* KA-53 KR Puram 080-25617951

Once the complaint is received at the corresponding office, a notice is
issued to the address of the vehicle’s registered owner, requiring him/her
to turn up at the RTO office within 7 working days. Every RTO has about 10
IMV’s (Inspector of Motor Vehicles) who seize the vehicles which don’t
report to the RTO.

The penalty levied from the auto-waalas is Rs.100 under section 200.

There is also a helpline number – 080-22353785 available Monday – Saturday from 10:00 am – 5:30 pm on which one can call to lodge complaints.

As Srikanth found out, the Koramangala RTO office received only 5 complaints a month!! I guess that’s purely because lack of awareness about this system. Let’s spread the word!

Carry all your books with you, with Infibeam Pi

Prashanth — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:13:04 +0000

If you are fan of Tech Bangalore Facebook page, you already know this write up is coming. I shared some pictures of Infibeam Pi over there few days back. Now it’s time to talk what I liked & disliked about it.

First impressions were really great, I liked it right away after un-boxing. It’s very light & feels perfect to keep it in hand & read. E Ink based black & white display gives exactly the same feeling of reading on paper. Wasting no time, I loaded few PDF files I had which I was planning to read onto Pi. Slowly, I got totally used to it. Hats off to it’s form factor, I could carry around it anywhere in the house and read.

Unlike it’s competitor Amazon Kindle, Pi has keys on side panel, which I found a little uncomfortable. Right panel has two keys to increase & decrease font size. Left panel has four keys which performs multiple operations based on what screen you are on. Screen size is same as Amazon Kindle, I compared them side by side. Though the screen gives ‘reading on paper’ feeling, flickering while navigating between pages is a little disturbing.

Device comes with internal memory of 512MB & an SD card slot expandable up to 4GB. That’s more than enough to fit in all your books. Other than ebooks, Pi also allows you to put in some music & pictures. Having pictures on Pi seems pointless to me since it has B/W display. But, music makes a lot of sense, since you can listen to your favorite tune as you read books. Reader menu which appears when you are reading a book helps in navigating through the book & also bookmark pages.

Overall, it’s an amazing gadget to have in your bag, especially if you travel often. It’s long lasting battery helps you kill time all through your journey. Infibeam Pi is priced at Rs.9999 & can be bought at ?http://www.infibeam.com/Pi.

If you have missed out on pictures of Infibeam Pi posted on Facebook page, here is the link.

Facebook working on an ‘Answers’ portal?

Prashanth — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:37:17 +0000

Today I found a link on Facebook inviting users to apply for beta testing program of their new product, which looks like below:

Wondering what Facebook is upto I clicked on that link & apparently it looks like Facebook is working on a ‘Answers’ portal similar to Yahoo Answers. To get the beta tester access to this application, Facebook requires user to pick three questions & write answers for them. This is clearly about Questions & Answers, let’s see whether Facebook can really stand against well established competitor like Yahoo! Answers.

[Finally] Nokia N900 coming to India!

Prashanth — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 13:38:41 +0000

The most waited device by techies, Linux based Nokia N900 is finally coming to India. Device will be available at Nokia stores starting 9th June. Though the device came out around 8-9 months ago, it wasn’t available in India due to some regulations & few other reasons. Nokia N900 sports ARM Cortex-A8 600MHz processor, 1gb of RAM (256MB + 750 MB Virtual), 3G, Wifi, 5 MP Camera with Carl Zeus lens, 3.5” resistive touch screen, 32gb of internal memory & external memory expandable upto 16gb with micro SD card.

That’s all about hardware, N900 runs on Maemo 5, a Linux based OS. Maemo is open source & has a great community support & hence there are tons of applications built for N900. N900 bundles full fledged mozilla based web browser with flash 9.4 & AJAX support. So, you no longer have to visit mobile version of websites, N900 is capable of loading the full web site. User can also install Firefox on the device which enables tabbed browsing. I can say N900 is a true internet device with tight integration of social network contacts with your phonebook. I liked the concept of having unified contacts & conversations.

This device wins my heart by all it’s offerings, but priced at Rs.30639. A little disappointing point for me since there are Android based smart phones at around same price tag. But, it’s MRP, store price will be definitely less than that.

Facebook blatantly copies an idea from Indian startup Lifeblob

Prashanth — Mon, 31 May 2010 19:41:16 +0000

As mashable reported few days back, Facebook is testing an upgrade to “Photos” application by adding “Related Photos”. Based on the photo user is looking at Facebook populates other similar photo next to it. If you are a Lifeblob user, this isn’t new to you. Lifeblob had this feature from a quite a long time by now.

With this supposed innovation, facebook will now start showing other photos of people who are face-tagged in a photo next to it. The application feature addition is designed to drive users to explore additional photos that may be of interest based on the photo they’re currently viewing, thereby further personalizing the experience (and increasing page views).

Just to set the record straight, we have had this feature ( and a lot more ) at http://www.lifeblob.com for over a year now and facebook has blatantly copied it. Every time you upload a photo on lifeblob, a recommendation engine not only looks at the face tags, but also the other information associated with your photo to show you photos that are closely related around it.So when you upload your graduation day photos, we discover other photos of your graduation day and show it next to your photo. What facebook has done is picked up this idea and launched a simple version of it that only uses face tags. Bravo!!

–Pranav Bhasin, Founder, Lifeblob

You can check the detailed post about this feature by clicking the above link. This is not the first time Facebook copied something, it copied ideas from Friendfeed (later acquired) & Twitter few months back. Do spread the word by sharing this & also by joining this Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Facebook-STOP-copying-from-Indian-Startups/128733897152335 which Pranav has created (Yep! an FB Page!)

24hoursLoot: Funky T-Shirts for discounted price!

Prashanth — Mon, 31 May 2010 16:28:11 +0000

24HoursLoot is an online store which lists a T-Shirt at discounted price everyday & discount applies only for 24 hours. 24HoursLoot is creative enough to come up with some nice design everyday. T-Shirts with catchy captions, music band logos, geeky slogans are the few of the listed designs so far. Though normally T-Shirt designs are standard, sometimes they allow user to customize it. Like, T-shirt with twitter design allows user to add his/her username, a T-shirt with QR code printed on it for the text you provide…etc. Sometimes they also list products other than T-shirts.

New design will be open to public every mid-night 12 & will be be available for next 24 hours. Website provides options to subscribe to new loots via Email & SMS to make sure you won’t miss any loot. Head over to 24hoursloot.com & start looting!

Missed call to vote! An innovation in voting system by ZipDial

Prashanth — Sun, 23 May 2010 05:22:43 +0000

Vote via SMS is the most commonly used voting system these days. From reality shows to surveys & contests everywhere it’s been used. But, I personally don’t vote at all using this system since it uses 5 or 6 digit short code which my service provider will charge around 5 to 6 Re per SMS. Because of this pricing, participation in voting becomes very less.

I remember reading an SMS forward which says “Missed call system is invented by Indians”!! We use this “Missed Call” technique so much in our daily life. My mom & sis never call me from their phone, they always give me a missed call & I call back! Just because they don’t want to burn their currency talking to me. Taking forward this widely used “Missed Call” technique, ZipDial has come up with a “Missed Call to Vote” system!

For Ex:

Q: Should Meg Whitman become Governor of California?

If YES, give a missed call to +91 40 44 55 69 30
If No, give a missed call to +91 40 44 55 69 31

All you are doing here is giving a missed call, so you will not be charged anything to vote! And this system is so simple, you don’t have to remember “Send XX to YYYYY” and bleh bleh to vote! It is just different numbers to dial for different options.

I spoke to people behind ZipDial at AppJam & they said they have plans to open ZipDial for public where anyone can create a poll. They have just started, I wish everyone including TV channels start using this system. Visit ZipDial & start voting for polls & win some gifts.

PercentMobile: Enable mobile phone analytics to your website!

Prashanth — Sun, 23 May 2010 04:27:11 +0000

Every website uses services like Stat Counter, Google Analytics to tracks visitors & get detailed analytics about their visitors. But, these tracking systems are mainly concentrated at visits made from computers. Though it tracks visits from mobile devices, details are very less. With growing smart phone popularity, you can’t just ignore this space. I personally underestimated traffic which comes from mobile devices to Tech Bangalore, which I found 20% of overall traffic after enabling mobile analytics!

PercentMobile:

PercentMobile is a free mobile analytics service which gives granular details about visitors browsing your website from mobile devices. Details which PercentMobile gives you is just awesome, like, how many devices were wifi enabled, how many were touch screen, how many were smart phones, how many had QWERTY keyboard…etc. PecentMobile also lists all the devices which are used to browse your website.

I enabled PercentMobile for Tech Bangalore few days ago & above screenshot shows how much detail you can get from PercentMobile. Screenshot is partial, there’s more to look in analytics, like Network provider, region, most visited URLs, referrer…etc.

So, head over to PercentMobile & enable mobile analytics to your website!