@mjoe /anto

The site has been down for more than a year and I thought this year I should bring it back up and start posting something in a regular interval (that could mean once every day or a month or a year – as long as it is regular).

My wishes for a happy and a prosperous new year. When I look back at the last year, it has been one of the great years and if I look back at the decade, the past decade has been one of the best for the human kind (when it comes to technology and its advancements)

• I would have never thought I would have those GPS units that they use on flights and military vehicles in my car and the past decade has made it more than easy to do so.
• Searching or learning about anything in the universe  for stuff has been made so easy that you just need to google it and you’ll find answers to almost all of the questions (and I mean anything under the sun, well in this case anything at all – even above and around the sun)
• You can pretty much get online wherever you are in —  be it 35,000 feet above the earth or in remote location or in a coffee shop.
• Oh and not to mention those tiny devices that you carry your 1000s of songs, those fancy little screens that lets you make calls, touch, watch movies, those that let you record your favorite shows and watch them at any time, those small boxes that let you capture your moments digitally at an affordable price and put them on the cloud, those flat thin picture frame like devices that now let you watch your favorite shows and movies, the list would be endless…
• I graduated in 2000 and now 10 years later, I got a job, moved to the united states, got married to my love, have a son who is 4 years and ready for the daughter any time now (and I mean any minute now…)
• BTW — this domain will be completing its 10th year anniversary in Feb 2010.

Thanks to one and all of my friends and family who have made the past decade a grand and memorable one, and looking forward for another one.

Happy New Year.

Yes — I’m a part of the Cult! Even though the first generation of Apple products are not to be bought, I went for it. To talk about something in detail you have to know in and out (you always can read about it), but then when it comes to an experience you have to experience it to talk about it. This product might be one of the most hyped launches of this decade (atleast in the USA) So it is worth the hype? Is it a really a great product? Will it revolutionize the mobile industry? You decide… but here is my take on it.

People have waited in line for weeks, days, even traded $800 for the first in line without knowing much details and wanting spend $100,000 in iPhones. Even a Mayor and not to mention some celebrities like Whoopi Golberg waiting in line. I was lucky, walked straight in to the Apple store at Palo alto around 10:30PM on Friday and out in 10 minutes with an iPhone

I’m sure you must have read about it a lot, The internet is filled literally overflowing with details and review of the iPhone. This for the most part are things that are not clearly mentioned or clarified.

First for the good stuff. The product as such is just as expected from any Apple product. Great built quality, sleek and simple. The best part of the device is the User Experience. There has been mobile phones for decades now, but Apple has thought through the usage of a typical phone and a lot of User Experience is built around it making it one of the best for mobile phone. Though there are so many things that are great about the interface, there are few things that really sucks (atleast for me)

• It takes more taps than most of the phones to dial a number, or even call someone in you address book. This being a Phone, should have been a lot easier and straight.
• When you receive a call, you have to wonder what you should be doing to attend the call (if the phone is in locked mode) — yes you have to slide to unlock to attend the call. This sounds OK but surely not when you are driving (!). Now if you were using the device and you recieve a call then its easy with just a tap. (Confused of what I’m talking about — take a look)

Other than these two(making and recieving a call) issues which are really the most important features of the device, there are great things about it. Most of you would like the interface as a gadget.

15 Things you SHOULD know about the iPhone.

1. This is an ATT/cingular only, though it is a Quad band phone (not sure if it wrok worldwide)
2. The iPhone has to be activated otherwise its next to useless(even if you are an existing customer)
3. Activation requires a 2 years service agreement for NEW and EXISTING customers.
4. You need the latest version of iTunes to activate(Linux fanboys look for a Mac or a Windows PC)
5. You HAVE TO have choose a data plan to activate the iPhone (special cheaper data plans for iPhones only from ATT/Cingular & might work out to be cheaper if you already have a data plan)
6. The device has EDGE and no 3G Connectivity, it turns out to be OK since it has the built-in WiFi
7. Battery life is great — no complaints there!
8. The Bluetooth — forget it, this is only for the bluetooth headsets and thats it. Nothing else can be done with that
9. Though the device has a great browser and WiFi built in you can not buy songs from iTunes directly from the device!(atleast not now)
10. The iPhone headset jack is not the same as you think. This does NOT work with you existing headsets or any third part headsets (unless you go for a connector)
11. There is no Accidental or Theft Insurance on this device from ATT/cingular and comes standard with apple’s one year warranty.
12. There is no expansion slot of any kind, you can NOT expand the memory with any card other than what is has(4 or 8GB).
13. Not all iPod accessories will work with the iPhone.
14. iPhone is NOT supported on the 64bit Windows be it XP or Vista — details here
15. Beware its an iPhone, Use with caution and in secrecy, you might get mugged!

Technical Specifications:

Apple has published some details about this but not the CORE details. Here are the information that you might not be aware of. Source: engadget

• ARM1176JZF chip with TrustZone (enables trusted computing environment for media, apps, network, OS, etc. — very bad for hackers)
• Can vary in clock speed up to 700MHz or more, depending on implementation
• ARM Intelligent Energy Manager (claimed to reduce power consumption 25-50% in portables)
• 16K / 16K cache
• Features vector floating point coprocessor (”for embedded 3D-graphics”)
• ARM Jazelle enabled for embedded Java execution
• SIMD, high perf integer CPU (8-stage pipeline, 675 Dhrystone, 2.1 MIPS)
• 0.45 mW/MHz power draw (with cache)

What to expect and when?

Its been hardly days since its launch and the iPhone Restore image is now available on the internet [via engadget], it will not take long for those curious boys to hack it out.

• iChat on iPhone (anytime soon — might be just a Software update)
• 3G and Europe & Other country availability (sooner than we thought)
• More Capacity (12, 16 and may be 32Gigs — who knows)
• Support for 3rd part tools
• Skype for iPhone (never pay to call)

and even more. Oh by the way for people all over the world (it’s funny most of the US people think they are the world — that’s OK) it pays off, I’m sure you can use the iPhone with any carrier in no less than 3 months from now. Let the hacking begin

Well folks here is some of the disclaimer stuff… I love apple products and I love Windows and some features on Mac, but I don’t want to say i hate apple or Love Microsoft (there is a lot of difference between liking a product or the company) hope you know what I mean. Today at WWDC Stevy seems to be boasting and bragging about a lot of stuff as usual. The biggest issue to me was the copycat thing. Lets see who’s coping who

• Microsoft had the My Documents, My Pictures, My Music and the whole “My” thing for years now. Mac COPIED it, all they had before was HOME.
• The whole Dashboard thing… No even before Apple launched it there was this company named “Konfabulator” which is now a part of Yahoo! which did just that for both Windows & Mac So be it dashboard or Windows Widgets/ Gadgets it’s someone else idea and innovation – not APPLE.
• Let’s talk todays annoncement “Time Machine” – Jeez Windows XP has this feature for years leave alone those retriving files by version (which is added detail by apple – nice touch though) Windows System restore. BTW File Versioning is coming in Vista. Having a new name does not mean a new innovative feature dude!
• Oh boy ever since I started using outlook I’ve seen the todo and calendar and the notes all in One place and Today apple announces it as a NEW innovative feature, and not to mention the Stationary in Mail! (come one please)
• Lets say Microsoft Word / Office – So how long have you been using it? You also know that Apple launched “iWork” like a year back right.
• Forget all that “Safari” Can you imagine a company that has had an operating system for about 20 years without a browser of its own. Yes they were using Internet explorer. Today they are complaining that IE is copying Safari, to me IE might be copying but not Safari, but the open source world and the meeting the market demands.
• Fast user switching – Windows XP has it and Mac copied later with an animation.
• Oh Yeah, this whole “spaces” thing, Linux has had for years and years ever since its initial release, So is Apple not copying?
• Talking abou the whole Mouse, GUI and the Personal computing thing who had it first. Yes it was XEROX and Apple copied and Microsoft did the same but added the right click button to the mouse that Apple inturn copied it from microsoft decade later. Read about Xerox Alto
• Let’s talk about the much hyped iTunes who made it first – Read this (I pity this guy, he choose a wrong forum to post his question, you’ll see tones of mac addicts who’ll be visiting this site)
• Or say “iPod” the one and only product that makes Apple profitable, It was a company called “Rio” that lauched the first HDD based Music Player, then Creative, but apple did not invent this whole thing, they just managed to design a nice case small enough to get the market (well they had the innovation to do it, they might have invented an iPod but not the HDD music players)

The list could be endless, Apple complaing that Microsoft is just copying them is not TRUE, Well they might have good designers that copy the idea from something else and make it appear something all new. In anycase Microsoft might have taken some inspirations from other softwares and operating systems and as well copied it but they dont cimplain like Steve does.

Well may be but take a look at this guys work on the streets, it’s amazing.

This is one of his pavement drawing… no no no, its not photoshopped!

Wow, what should we say – For some reason i thought the indian politics is corrupt, and someone might start selling the states, hey but wait: A Gentleman from Australia managed to list NewZealand for Sale and people have started bidding for it. The bidding has reached around $3000 from 23 people, Until a few days back when ebay found it and took the auction down and terminated his account.

Read the Related News here

• http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/
• http://abcnews.go.com/
• http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/

Hold on a minute, though the account has been terminated his profile and the feedback is still live. You SHOULD read this look at what else he has sold