My two cents!

This blog has moved...

2006-06-07T17:54:00.000+05:30

My Two Cents!This was one change that I have been contemplating for a while. Finally, took the plunge today. My two cents is now on Wordpress. While Blogger is a great tool for newbies, Wordpress offers more powerful features and tools for the experienced blogger. It is also relatively easy to use. All of the blog postings and comments from here are migrated to my Wordpress host.So see you at My

Google Spreadsheet on the anvil

2006-06-06T18:37:00.000+05:30

Coming soon: Google Spreadsheet. @SUM(trouble) for Microsoft's bottom line?For Google fans, some exciting news is always on the cards. This time it is their web based spreadsheet application. (You may recall that Google acquired Writely, a web based word processor sometime back). While not claiming to be a full-fledged spreadsheet application like the MS Excel, this simple application can help

Posting to Blogs from Microsoft Word 2007

2006-06-03T23:15:00.000+05:30

Most people who tried Office 2007 are surprised by the new features and changes to the suite. It is now a common opinion on the internet that while Vista is a heavily bloated OS, Office 2007 brings in a refreshing and welcome change (I am yet to test Vista Beta 2, so my opinion may be different. I am waiting for that one mail from Microsoft). One of the new features in Word 2007 is posting to the

iPod killer gang formed

2006-06-02T17:25:00.000+05:30

Bloomberg.com: JapanHere comes the battalion of good samaritans to take on the evil Apple and its iPod empire..So funny to read such news. Anyway, good luck guys.

Geek.com PDA/cellphone Review: Motorola Q

2006-05-31T16:58:00.000+05:30

Geek.com PDA/cellphone Review: Motorola QNice and cool review of the Motorola Q. While the author is happy with most of the features of the phone, he sorely misses the Wi-Fi. We knew that, didn't we?

Will iPhone bite the dust?

2006-05-31T09:55:00.000+05:30

MobileCrunch: Why the I-Phone Will Be Apple's Huge BlunderAtleast that's what this article claims. While the author provides a very different perspective of the upcoming (?) iPhone, I beg to differ with him on many of his opinions. The success of iPod (as well as Mac OS and the associated hardware) is because of the simplicity of the UI design and the elegance of the aesthetically pleasing

Are you a computer geek?

2006-05-29T11:33:00.000+05:30

NerdTests.com Fun Tests - Computer Geek / Nerd QuizOh well, I love quizzes, especially like the one above. I scored 89 percentile and got a "Computer Geek" title. Try your geekiness too!

RSS Feed Reading with Microsoft Outlook 2007

2006-05-28T12:16:00.000+05:30

For people like me, who spend 70% of their time in the Outlook inbox and calendar, here is some good news. With 2007, Outlook is now a full featured RSS reader (Another catchup game from Microsoft in the recent times). RSS readers with an outlook-like interface are a great way to fool your boss - while he may think you are busy reading emails and acting upon them, you are in fact browsing through

Wii will cost only $220

2006-05-25T19:26:00.000+05:30

Bloomberg.com: Top WorldwideWeeee..!!!!! Probably, the best news of the week. Only slightly priced higher than the PSP, the Wii is all set to fit everybody's pocket. (Money, that is!). So all the people, fasten your seat belts and get ready for the Wii.

How to run IE within Firefox

2006-05-25T15:30:00.000+05:30

IE Tab :: Mozilla Add-ons :: Add Features to Mozilla SoftwareOccassionally, you might want to run the IE browser too. Many banking and financial websites allow you to enter their secure website only if you use IE (They think it is the safest browser, HA HA HA). Switching between both of them will be a pain. Why not run IE within Firefox? If that sounds interesting, this plugin is for you. It

5 Reasons why the HTC Wizard is better than the Motorola Q

2006-05-23T19:59:00.000+05:30

As the much-hyped Motorola Q's release has now become imminent, it is time to do a little bit of analysis to see if it is really worth all of the hype generated. In my opinion, the HTC Wizard, which is branded as Cingular 8125, Qtek 9100, O2 mini S etc., is a much better option. Here are my 5 reasons why you should select the Wizard over the Q.1. The Q runs the Smartphone version of Windows

What the font?!

2006-05-15T09:19:00.000+05:30

Ever wanted to find a font just like the one used by certain websites or publications? Well now you can, using the WhatTheFont font recognition system. Upload a scanned image of the font and instantly, what the font will find the closest matches in its database.read more | digg story

Windows Media Player 11 screenshots

2006-05-14T09:11:00.000+05:30

Digg had a link to the download for a leaked version of the Windows Media Player 11. My innate urge to try anything new prompted me to download this beta (with a high risk of messing up my Windows XP install! But these days I am a great fan of System Restore - the only feature in Windows XP that is worth an upgrade from Windows 2000). While I am largely disappointed with the lack of anything new

Widgets, Widgets and More Widgets

2006-05-11T12:12:00.000+05:30

Inside Google Desktop: Say hello to Google GadgetsHa, its a widget war out there! First it was Konfabulator. Then came the Mac dashboard. Then Vista widgets. And then Opera. The Gnome desktop will also have widget support. And Add Google to this list now (They call it gadgets by the way).I am really not getting the point here. Within a years time (That is, when Vista gets released) all mainstream

India: The fastest growing cellular market

2006-05-10T16:02:00.000+05:30

IBNLive : India to surpass US in mobile businessWe knew this is going to happen sometime. But the most interesting fact is that the country still has tremendous growth potential in this area. With only 100 million connections till date in a country which has a 1 billion+ population, it is just a matter of time before it has the largest number of subscribers in the world. No wonder Nokia set up a

Windows Vista Source Code Leaked!

2006-05-06T18:04:00.000+05:30

A friend of a friend of a friend of mine works for Microsoft. Last week I met him at a party. After a couple of rounds of Vodka, our M$ friend showed me the latest source code of Windows Vista beta. I managed to get it on a thumb drive without his knowledge. Please do not share this with anyone as this is highly confidential. M$ may ask me to remove this any time, so copy the source to your hard

Motorola Q on Ebay

2006-04-23T21:24:00.002+05:30

While casually browsing ebay for some gadgets, I came across something that I was least expecting: GSM Motorola Q. While the official release date of the GSM Q is unknown, the CDMA version is said to be released sometime this month.The seller does not mention how he got this unit. (He in fact claims to have two of them!) Obviously an engineering sample, I always wonder how these items sneak out

Windows desktop search without MSN

2006-04-22T16:36:00.000+05:30

Desktop search is now becoming a standard on all OSs. Apple already has it through spotlight. Linux has it through Beagle and the upcoming Vista also has a built-in hard drive search functionality. For Windows XP, there are a whole lot of desktop search engines available- like Google, Yahoo, Copernic and MSN, though I prefer MSN. I like the ease of moving the search bar around,

New Look!

2006-04-19T22:49:00.000+05:30

With a flurry of new traffic coming from tech enthusiasts, I thought it is high time that I redesigned the website. Thanks to Eris' template generator, this blog now sports a fresh new look. Thanks also to all the encouraging emails- I am now planning to regularly update this blog with tips and articles. (Of course, try at your own risk :-))

Convert your dumb phone into a smartphone

2006-04-16T10:59:00.000+05:30

If you are carrying one of those sexy phones like the RAZR V3/V3i and want to do a lot more than just making calls, here are a few tips that can help in converting it into a smartphone. (Well, almost!). A mobile phone with Java MIDP 2.0 support and a data plan with your cellphone operator are required to run these applications. Some of these apps will cost you money, but these applications do a

How to Run IE 7 without installing it

2006-04-09T15:25:00.000+05:30

If you want to test IE7 without the risk of installing a beta software, here is a simple way to do it. This method does not install IE 7 the usual way- instead you just run it from the installer package and hence your system does not get littered with beta dlls all over the place.Download IE7 beta from the MS website at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie7/default.mspx . Save the file at a

Mot, better watchout!

2006-04-07T14:35:00.000+05:30

If you ever kept the count, I am sure the Motorola Q and the Windows Vista are the ones which could well qualify for the Guinness Records for the most number of 'delayed again' news. Competitors sense the opportunity, and pump out products that have more features and can really live up to the hype generated by their originals. Apple is gearing upto take on Vista with its leopard. With plenty of

Airtel's Rip off GPRS plans

2006-04-02T19:30:00.000+05:30

Airtel India has gone from bad to worst in terms of GPRS pricing. At a time when the data service usages are increasing by leaps and bounds in other countries, Airtel has committed a biggest blunder by introducing some new plans which turn out to be very expensive. The erstwhile Mobile Office plan gives way to three new plans which are priced at INR 399, 599 and 799. The first plan offers 100 MB

Bob's Diner

2006-04-01T17:19:00.000+05:30

It is quite funny how the Call-center culture is propagating in Bangalore. You can feel this pulse in almost every nook and corner of the City these days. The ubiquitous Dharshini or Sagar - the small coffee joints where you can sip a cup of coffee with a Vada soaked in hot steaming sambar are now getting completely westernized. A relaunched Dharshini in Jayanagar 4th T Block now has a new name:

And now iPhone?

2006-03-22T10:17:00.000+05:30

Morgan Stanley says iPhone is for real, made in TaiwanThis is something that I always wanted and wrote in this blog several times. A phone running a UNIX based OS with a OS X UI is something irresssssistible.The only problem I see is that these phones may be tied to the much-hyped "Mobile Me" MVNO service from Apple. As long as it is on GSM, no problems - it will just be a matter of time before

Hats off to Microsoft

2006-03-22T09:53:00.000+05:30

Microsoft to offer cheap Xbox 360 game development kit? | News.blog | CNET News.comThese days, I can't help appreciating MS - First they opened up the MS Office document formats, now they seem to have come up with a game SDK for $100. This is a message straight on the face to Sony saying that 'We are here to rule the gaming world". Sony has closed doors for all sort of development work on PSP (

A PDA Saga

2006-03-15T21:25:00.000+05:30

I was thinking about the PDA devices I owned till date. Before I lose count, I thought I will create a journal entry so that I do not forget what are the devices I used during my stay at planet earth. Ok, here we go.1) My first PDA was a Casio PVS 250. Though it had the lowest configuration of all the devices I ever used, it was way ahead of the competition in certain specifications. Back in 2000

Intel Mac Mini to cost an arm and a few legs

2006-03-15T14:06:00.000+05:30

The Apple Store (India) - Mac miniAfter being down for several months, the Apple Store India is back online with most of the 'fun new products'. The iPod Hi-Fi is conspicous by its absence. The Dual Core Mac mini (the one I was planning to buy) is priced at a hefty 45k -Incluse of all taxes. The model with a solo processor is cheaper by about 10k and it sports only a DVD combo drive, which is one

THE GENEALOGY OF THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE

2006-03-07T18:04:00.000+05:30

THE GENEALOGY OF THE JAPANESE LANGUAGEIf you thought the only relationship between Tamil and Japanese is RajiniKanth, think again. Linguists are studying the relationship between these two great languages and to an extent successful in establishing the relationship between the two. In this article, Susumo ONHO compares the two languages in terms of phonetics, grammer correpondence, similar words

The Ideal Smartphone?

2006-02-24T18:32:00.000+05:30

Fujitsu Siemens Pocket LOOX T830 - infoSync WorldThe LOOX kill. The feature set is just amazing - 3G with video calling, antenna-less GPS, 2 Mega Pixel camera, Bluetooth Stereo, SDIO, Wi-Fi.... I am already panting. Add WM 5 to this and you have a phone any business user will lust for. If marketed properly, this phone is bound to become a big hit.Wait and watch till Q2 2006.

No Mercy

2006-02-23T11:43:00.000+05:30

Two interesting Graffitis which I happened to see while commuting to Office in the morning today.Written on the rear windshield of a call taxi: "Hypothecated to God". (He is so close to God that he can easily send you to Him).On the back of a Call center vehicle: "No Mercy". Take that! You can't have a better one.

Maxxuss has a new home

2006-02-22T18:49:00.000+05:30

maxxuss Well, there are so many ways to work around the DMCA. Maxxuss has an interactive blog now. He has linked to his mirror sites where the patches or rather the link to the patches are hosted. Long live the hacker-extraordinaire.

Lets make some games baby

2006-02-22T15:11:00.000+05:30

These days when I am not playing with my Intel Mac (Okay.. Okay the Compaq V2000), I 'play' on another device - my new Sony PSP. The only game titles that I have right now are Wipeout Pure and Ridge Racer. I just fell in love with the graphics of Ridge Racer - and in the last one month made some great progress (by my standards) from Basic to EX tours. I find the 2 cars race in Pro and EX tours to

OSx86 Project returns!

2006-02-19T07:21:00.000+05:30

Finally, the OS x86 Project website has returned to life. (http://www.osx86project.org) Thanks to the efforts of great hackers like Maxxuxx and forum members like JaS, many geeks and newbies are running highly useable versions of Mac OS X on their laptops and PCs. In the past, I have observed that whenever apple serves a website or a company with a DMCA violation notice, that sounded the death

Pocket PC Phone discoveries - 1

2005-12-28T13:41:00.000+05:30

Ok, the Internet Explorer on Pocket PC 2003 Second Edition is not so dumb anyway. I happened to receive a call while I was downloading a file through Pocket IE. The GPRS connection got broken and I attended the call. After the call was over, I reopened Internet Explorer. To my surprise, it popped up a dialog box asking me if I want to resume the previous download! Impressive. (This feature, I

Bill Gates is in India

2005-12-08T11:47:00.000+05:30

Bill Gates is on 4 day visit to India. A cartoon in The Hindu dated 08 Dec 2005.

The XDA Atom is out!

2005-11-25T16:20:00.000+05:30

The much anticipated XDA Atom (which I often referred to in these pages), is finally out. O2 Malaysia released it yesterday amidst much fanfare. It has great multimedia capabilities.The original HTC Magician had a remarkable sound quality. (If you own an iPod, you will be surprised to know that the sound quality of MP3s are much better on a Magician.) The XDA Atom, which O2 has released as an

Computer Warehouse Online

2005-11-24T17:35:00.000+05:30

Computer Warehouse Online - Buy Computers, Computer Parts, Computer Accessories, Laptops and ElectronicsApart from Ebay.in, there are very places where you can buy computers/accessories online in India. This makes it very difficult to do a price comparision with a dealer/reseller.Came across this website (A bangalore based dealer whose shop is in MG Road.) and is quite comprehensive. The

The Stinking Guy's best friend

2005-11-18T17:03:00.000+05:30

Perfume phone - spread fragrance in the air as you talk - Phoneyworld.comAre you a stinking rotten guy? If so, Hyundai can come to your rescue. Hyundai introduces the World's first perfume-enabled mobile phone (After hearing a lot about WAP-enabled, Wi-Fi enabled and EDGE enabled phones, a perfume-enabled phone is a rather refreshing change. Isn't it?). If you run out of the perfume in the phone

The RAZR fake emerges

2005-11-14T14:22:00.000+05:30

Keepin’ it real fake: Part III - The Non-RAZR - Engadget - www.engadget.com When we were kids, there used to be a class of fountain pens called "Hero" (Oh! How I miss those fountain pens!). Hero pens were made in Japan and it was considered a privilege to use a Hero pen. Kids who had their parents working abroad brought Hero pens of different colors to School and boasted the whole day about how

Wired News: History's Worst Software Bugs

2005-11-11T11:06:00.000+05:30

Wired News: History's Worst Software Bugs Got this forwarded by a friend. Really an intersting read on the worst bugs in computer history. Surprisingly, the author has not included the mother-of-all-bugs, the Y2K! (Which was also a stepping stone for many Indian IT companies into the Software Business).

Pull time job!

2005-11-11T09:29:00.000+05:30

Saw this small job ad in a BMTC bus in Bangalore. Can't resist posting it here. I liked the 'Unemployers', 'Pull time' and the 'serious' parts of it. Shot with a camera phone from a very difficult angle. So click on the image to enlarge it.

XDA Atom is not the HTC Athena

2005-10-11T16:03:00.000+05:30

I stated in the last post that HTC Athena is branded as the Atom by XDA. But conflicting reports on the net (especially from www.msmobiles.com) suggest that the XDA Atom might be manuactured by Quanta. Quanta is one of the leading OEMs for notebook computers.Till now, the undisputed leader in the Smartphone market has been the Taiwanese manufacturer called HTC (They make the entire HP iPAQ series

The Motorola Q vs. Palm Treo Windows Mobile

2005-10-08T23:10:00.000+05:30

Motorola has advanced the release of the eagerly awaited Q by more than 6 monthes. Slated to be released sometime in the middle of next year, the Q is now going to be available by the end of 2005. Needless to say, the announcement from Palm on the upcoming Windows Mobile 5.0 based Treo is the driver for this early launch.If you are deciding between these two, I would recommend to go for neither.

Apple - iTunes for your Mobile Phone

2005-09-08T15:22:00.000+05:30

Ok, we knew that this was coming. This doesnt interest me in any way, because as I said earlier, there are now plenty of smartphone models with MP3 players. The best introduction though, is the iPod nano. Here is an iPod which I am finally thinking of buying. The thin and tiny form factor coupled with killer looks can make anyone drool for this baby. I think I will probably settle for a black one

MDA Pro Photo Shoot!!

2005-09-03T11:03:00.000+05:30

Here is a photoshoot of the recently released T Mobile MDA Pro (HTC Universal). Enjoy ! http://msmobiles.com/news.php/4218.html

iTunes Phone - will it really 'ROK' the market?

2005-09-01T18:33:00.000+05:30

Though it is still not confirmed, I am sure it is the iTunes phone that Apple/Motorola is going to announce on 7th of this month. (To be frank, I have seen that phone!!) Whether it is going to 'ROK' or not is a big question mark, since there are so many music phones in the market today - including the newly announced Walkman phone from Sony Ericsson. The iTunes phone is supposed to have an iPod

HTC Universal is out, much earlier than expected!

2005-09-01T17:58:00.000+05:30

The first Windows Mobile 5 based phone is out. And what a phone it is! It is almost like a mini laptop. You can also use it like a tablet PC because of its swivelling screen. Important things to note about this phone are the QWERTY keyboard, VGA Screen, Dual camera and above all, 3G/UMTS!! Because of 3G support, your phone will have a guaranteed life of atleast 3 years, since it will take that

The new Alto is here!

2005-08-03T18:24:00.000+05:30

The grille designers are back ! This time they have modified the grille and tail lamps of the Alto and voila- you have a brand new model for 2005! Except for the Baleno, Maruti has now redesigned all their cars in the last two years. The only redesign which impressed me is that of the Wagon R- because it is not just a cosmetic make over- they introduced a variant with EBS & ABD. No prizes for

Trivia: How regional composers get 'inspired'

2005-07-18T18:34:00.000+05:30

This is an interesting compilation of how our music directors are getting inspired and coming up with sensational hits! Will you believe if I claim that Yuan Shankar Raja is one of the biggest copy cats ? Many of his hits seem to be blatantly lifted from 80's pop music. You can listen to the original music as well as the inspired versions on this site.A R Rahman seems to get inspired by western

Office in your pocket

2005-07-10T21:22:00.000+05:30

Well, as I start using new features of Windows Mobile, I am getting even more and more excited with these wonderful devices. I knew that the little outlook on my KROME iQ700 supports syncing with an exchange server, but I did not ever try. First of all, I was surprised to find that my company's IT department supports syncing over the internet (through SSL, of course). When the syncing actually

Magneto on my mobile

2005-06-29T22:49:00.000+05:30

Finally, I got hold of a test edition of the Windows Mobile 5. After a little bit of hacking, I could successfully upgrade my Krome iQ700 to WM 5. Sweet. Though this upgrade does not introduce any dramatic changes, there are some enhancements to the UI, some improvements to IE and WM player which make it a worthy upgrade. The UI looks more sophisticated with an icon driven interface and the font

Tabbed browsing on IE 6 !!

2005-06-10T17:47:00.000+05:30

On this website, I rather shamelessly admitted that I use IE for my everyday browsing (If every website works on IE, why switch to another browser?). The only thing that I most missed on IE is the tabbed browsing. Now, you don't need to wait till IE 7 to get tabbed browsing on your favorite browser. Through msn toolbar, Microsoft now offers tabbed browsing on IE 6. It also offers desktop search

Review of the Krome iQ700 Windows Mobile based Smartphone

2005-06-02T15:49:00.000+05:30

(a.k.a the Orange SPV C500, Qtek 8010, iMate sp3 and Audiovox SMT 5600)OK, here is a review of my current Smartphone, the Krome iQ700. This review is based on a usage experience of around 3 months.Who is this KROME by the way?Their website (http://www.krome.com.au/) proudly proclaims that they are an Australian company, but their sales office is located in India and at this moment, it looks like

The Nokia 770 Internet tablet

2005-06-01T17:17:00.000+05:30

The tablet story is back. This time from Nokia. Sure it is elegant, sleek and stylish, but why on earth would Nokia introduce such a product, especially at this juncture, when PDA phones are becoming the order of the day? The latest phone specs are reading like: 3G with VGA resolution, built-in wi-fi etc., A new Smartphone worth its salt will beat this tablet handsdown within 6 months down the

Car Wars 3: The Revenge of the Swift

2005-05-25T13:35:00.000+05:30

The Suzuki Swift The swift is the most technologically advanced car from the Maruti stable. It is also very safe with features like ABS and EBD. With the entry of swift, it is high time that Maruti gets rid of some of its older models. Incidentally, Maruti is not known for phasing out any of their cars. You can still buy the Gypsy and the face-lifted (?) Esteem from a Maruti showroom near you.

Browser Wars Episode 2: Return of the Rebel

2005-05-25T12:22:00.000+05:30

In an earlier birth, I was an ardent fan of the browser called Opera. I used it on all platforms, including Linux, till the version 6 - after which it became heavily bloated with Mail client, newsreader etc., The primary reason I liked it was because it was the only browser offering an MDI interface at that juncture. Then came the browser called Phoenix (which was later renamed to firebird and

Magneto to be launched this week

2005-05-09T14:15:00.000+05:30

Mobile-review.com Preview of the operating system Windows Mobile 2005 (Magneto) Looks like Microsoft is making the announcement for Magneto this week. That is great news. Microsoft Windows Mobile has already become the no. 1 PDA/smartphone OS. (Surprisingly, Palm is not even second anymore, that place being taken by Nokia, errr...Symbian). The new OS will help them in gaining an even better

Motorola cancels MPx Pocket PC phone

2005-04-14T19:31:00.001+05:30

msmobiles.com - Rumor: Motorola China official admits that Motorola MPx Pocket PC phone is cancelled in Mainland China area !In the past, Motorola came up with some Linux phones with 8 MB of RAM - a big joke. Hope they wont do that big mistake with Windows phones.The best mobile that you can wait for is the Treo Windows edition (if it ever comes).

MNC Cola !

2005-03-31T04:08:00.000+05:30

I think it is high time I changed the “about” column in this blog. I don’t remember when I last had my cup of Pepsi. (Needless to say, these are the after effects of marriage). But in one way, it is good. There are really bad reports about the effects of phosphoric acid in your body. BTW, I switched to frooty. (I especially like the green mango flavor. Close to the tingling effect you get

Interesting review on Nokia's 6630

2005-02-17T14:30:00.000+05:30

Another series 60 smartphone from Nokia. I liked the flight mode and WCDMA. Did not like the bulge at the bottom though :-) http://www.mobique.com/nokia/6630/page1.php

Motorola is back

2005-02-12T14:53:00.000+05:30

… with a vengeance. Not only they regained the no.2 slot, but also have grown significantly in this quarter to make a small dent in the No.1’s market share. It is mainly because of new service contracts they won and the launch of products like RAZR V3 and MPX. Bravo Moto ! (Hello Mr Korean, have you become a little complacent ?).BTW, so much has happened in the last 2 months (…when I almost

Samsung overtakes Motorola

2004-12-02T13:33:00.000+05:30

Top Technology News Sponsored by Audi | Reuters.com And Nokia - beware. Here comes the Koreans.

Apple and Motorola working on a motoPod or PhonePod?

2004-12-02T12:48:00.000+05:30

Apple and Motorola working on a motoPod or PhonePod? - Engadget - www.engadget.com Hmmmmm...... Did'nt I tell you this earlier ?

The Korean In(no)vasion

2004-11-30T12:13:00.000+05:30