Hot new features that make your Smart Phone even Smarter

The completion for the Numero Uno slot in Smart Phones has ner been so hot. Cutting edge technology backed by engineering muscles of the giants is ensuring that your smart phone gets even more smarter. Here is the top-10 list of new trends and features that we have seen in new smart phones


1. Killer Cameras

Just when we thought Camera in a cellphone was more of a commodity, the Samsungs, Nokia and Apples of the world bumped it up with killer specs – hardware as well as software. Samsung’s latest kid on the block – Galaxy S4 – boasts of a giant 13 Megapixel camera. Nokia went further with its PureView technology and introduced Nokia PureView 808 that has a 41 Mega Pixel Sensor.
The war of cameras goes beyond Megapixels. Check out LG Optimus 3D with abilities to shoot and play 3D photos and videos. See here. And yes, did I tell you that you don’t need those annoying 3D glasses for watching 3D content. Super cool.
Then there are all these frills around cool features like video shooting with both cameras at the same time in S4, Sweep Panorama, Low Light Shooting Sensors of Sony’s Experia Z, Filters, Face Detection. This list can go on.

2.    Stunning Displays

iPhone 4 revolutionized the display of Cell Phones with its “Retina Display Technology” in 2010 with 330 ppi (Pixel Per Inch) density. Steve Jobs claimed that it is beyond the abilities of a human eye to recognize the difference beyond this resolution of 330 ppi. While Apple is till sticking with a ppi around the same number, the completion has moved on with 400+ppi territory. S4 has 441 ppi. With 1080P full HD support, the displays of today’s smart phones is stunning with clear and crisp texts and sharp images. Wonder what effect has on battery consumption though.

3. Wireless Charging

The new Wireless Charging Technology found in Nokia Lumia phones allows for charging your cellphone without wires. You still need to “put” the phone on a compatible Wireless Charging device, typically a Charging Pad. Imagine just dumping your phone on a Charging Pad while you are driving a car or when you sleep at night and the phone gets charged. The new Qi wireless standard is being adopted by the industry with lead from Nokia. Check out Nokia Lumia 920.This means that a Nokia Wireless charger can potentially charge compatible Samsung Galaxy phone.

4. NFC (Near Field Communication)

Near Field Communication is the latest buzz in phone-to-phone and phone-to-accessories communication. Bring two NFC Compliant devices next to each other and share the content seamlessly. Simply touch your Nokia Lumia 920 with the compliant Headset accessory and bingo! Bluetooth is such a passé.

5. Processing Prowess

The CPUs of smart phones have become increasingly powerful. Galaxy S4 has an Eight Core processors with 2 GB RAM.  These Specs beat the laptop that I had few years back hands down. The rich graphics, heavy games and ever increasing need for a snappy and fluid touch screen demands heavy muscles bundled in a thin package of a smart phone.

6.    Smart Touch or Not

All smart phones have Capacitive Touch Screens these days. However, the capacitive touch requires you to touch the screen with your fingers. Try using it while walking in a chilly and windy weather of Chicago and I bet you will wish you had that old school phone with buttons. Capacitive Touch does not work with gloves on. Not anymore though. Nokia Lumia 920 allows you to operate your phone with gloves on.
Galaxy S4 goes further. It has this cool feature of “Finger Hover”.  Want to peek into the email before you open it? Just hover your finger over the email (without actually touching it) and the Email App shows you two line summary of the email. There are many other Apps that support the “Finger Hover”. This is similar to a “Mouse Hover” in the good old PCs.

7. Eye to Eye

The front cameras of the phones are no longer only for Video Chats etc. Check out Galaxy S4s cool new features. The Front Camera of Samsung has the ability to watch your eye movements and make the phone behave accordingly. For example, the phone switches off the display if it senses no one is looking at it, saving some battery. It can also stop and start videos depending on whether someone is looking at the screen. The video will automatically pause if you glance away from screen and it will restart when the eyes refocus on the screen. Pretty cool.

8. Size Matters

The size of the smart phones is trending to increase. It all started with 3.5inch Apple iPhone. Samsung raised the bar with 4.3 Inch S2. S3 was bigger 4.8 inch. S4 is even bigger – 5 inch. The Note II is even bigger with 5.5 inch screen. LG, HTC, Sony have similar size phones. And that seems to be the trend. Apple is falling in line, slowly.

9. Water Resistance

I wish we had this few years back. I would have saved one phone at least. Sony’s Xperia Z boasts off to be water resistant. Pour water on it. Dip it completely into water. The company guarantees your machine will be safe. Wow ! Great boon during the Mumbai rains.

10. And all those Frills

a. Virtual Personal Assistant – Hello Siri.
The voice assisted virtual assistant on your phone is new frill, lead by Appl’s Siri. I have doubts how useful it is though. Samsung has SVoice
b. Infrared Booster – Double up as TV Remote
This may be quite useful. Double up your Phone as a Universal Remote with its Infrared capabilities. Check out Galaxy S4 and HTC OneX
c. Tilt to Scroll
No need to touch. Tilt the phone up and down to scroll.
d. Fitness Tracker
More of an app. But quite useful. Galaxy S4

Still to Come

Then there is buzz around what’s in Store.

  • Unbreakable Glass
  • Flexible Phones – Prototype has been on display during last CES Event in the US
  • Good Battery Life. This is my fantasy though. Its not going to be a reality soon
Posted by Amol Mategaonkar
5th April 2013
Originally posted at http://digitalden.tumblr.com/
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Google Nexus 7 Tablet Arrives in India


Few months after its roller coaster ride in the US and other parts of the world, Google's Tablet poster boy - Nexus 7 - arrives in India. The starting price of Rs. 15,999 is a killer deal.Give this guy a serious look if you are planning to buy a 7" tablet.Google Nexus 7 has some serious specs and design elements.
  • Quad Core Processor
  • 1280 x 800 HD Resolution. This is awesome for 7" size
  • Android Jelly Bean
  • Thin and light - 344 gms and 0.4 inches
  • Although it can't beat the form factor of iPad mini, it is still very convenient to hold and carry around
It has some limitations though
  • No expandable memory
  • No front camera

This is a Google branded Android tablet. This does not mean it is manufactured by Google. It is in fact manufactured by Asus. The Google Nexus branding implies that Google played an active role in its design and is expected to have perfected it.
The Nexus 7 is now available on Google Play market for Rs. 15,999. I think its a great value proposition for a table with these specs, given that other 7" tabs like Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 sell at around Rs. 19,000. You can order the Nexus 7 on Google Play store here.Posted By: Amol Mategaonkar29th March 2013Originally posted at http://digitalden.tumblr.com/
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Privacy amidst Pirates of the Internet Sea


“There will come a time when it isn’t ‘They’re spying on me through my phone’ anymore. Eventually, it will be ‘My phone is spying on me.”
Philip K. Dick
Phillip Dick was so right when he said these words.

Recently I read a story about a man named Matt in the East Coast of United States who claimed that Facebook somehow figured out his very deep personal secrets even before he shared those with anybody else including his family.  Read the story here. Tracking your personal data and popping up related ads is nothing new. The little cookies left on your computer by websites were used for this purpose. However, what scares me is that this has gone to a completely new level now. It’s no more as simple as deleting the cookies and getting rid of the hack.

What is backing this silent upsurge hunger towards your personal attributes and behavior is a massive technology referred to as “Big Data”. Large corporations with heavy computing muscles - Facebook, Google, Amazon and numerous other faceless ones as well - have built the capabilities of tracking every little aspect of what you do – not only in the virtual world, but also in physical world – and then run complex intelligent algorithms to figure out your deep rooted secrets.

In Matt’s example, he commented twice on an article regarding “Equality in Marriage” on a website that was powered by Facebook Open Graph APIs. The website provided the facility to comment on its articles using Facebook’s infrastructure. As a result Facebook algorithms picked up those comments and presented Matt with those recommendations concluding that Matt was a gay. There are examples where the large retail stores in the US – like Target, Wal-Mart, etc – track your “check outs” and derive a pattern about your preferences, likings and developments in personal life.

There are three very important observations that are very relevant from this example
  • Matt’s behaviour was tracked from a normal website and not directly from Facebook. The website used Facebook APIs and that’s how the comments reached Mr. Zuckerberg
  • The algorithms are now so sophisticated that they can identify very indirect relationships between two not so related things – something a human bran may also miss
  • The data and its analysis is out there with the big giants. Its no more on your own computer like the good old cookies which you could clean up and get rid of them. Matt will never ever be able to erase the impression Facebook has made about him.
Scary? Yeap.

Big Data is here to stay. Pirates of the Internet Sea are equipped with huge engineering muscles. Whether you like it or not, they know enough about you. Is there a way to hide? Well, the only option is to exercise little caution while in the virtual world. Think twice before liking a page, putting a comment and clicking on “plus 1”. Ask yourself whether it is really required? Are you ok if this is made available to everyone in the world? Most importantly to the most genius algorithm written by the best minds in the technology world?  If the answer is “Yes”, you are safe.

Posted by Amol Mategaonkar
Mumbai
23rd March 2013
Originally posted on http://digitalden.tumblr.com
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Woman's Day Special - Salute to the real heroes


International Woman's Day. Its everywhere. Its all over on Twitter, Facebook walls, News Papers, TV Channels, WhatsApp, the good old SMSs, emails and so on. Recognizing outstanding achievements of extraordinary women is in the air. I wonder why we need a special day to do this. However amidst this trending topic of the day, I have been thinking about two ladies, who I feel deserve a mention. Both of them represent real heroes and a true spirit of what a woman stands for in our society. 

These two women are the domestic help that we have in our home. Nanda - a maid who does daily chores of cleaning, washing, dusting etc. And Kalpana- who cooks food for us. They deserve a mention not only because - they are excellent in their work, they are committed, trust worthy, take care of our kids like their own and have become part of our families since last 6 yrs - but because of their concealed mission. A mission to make their children educated, even though they themselves are hardly.

Both of them have seen extreme situations in life. Stayed in environments that we have only imagined and seen in Slum Dog Millionaires of the world. Have worked an average of 15 hrs a day, 7 days a week, from the age of 14 and still continue to do so after 3 or 4 decades. Their stories give goose bump to me even now. In such extreme situations, more often than not, it is so easy to take a short cut; get children earn some quick money by making them work. There are enough local shops, garages, restaurants, etc. ready to employ child labor in a city like Mumbai. Still, these two ladies, determined to educate their next generation, continued going through the grind that the life had put them though and came out with flying colors.

Children of both of these terrific women have either completed their graduation or are in the process of doing so. The life time efforts of these ladies have started to pay off. The graduate children have got decently paying permanent jobs in reputed companies. More importantly, the ladies did not differentiate between their sons and daughters and educated their daughters as well, passing on the mantle to them.

I can see tremendous sense of achievement each time they share the exam results of their children. Many times, they don’t even recollect and pronounce correctly the subjects their kid just cleared. But the sense of satisfaction abounds their faces. My guess is that the reason for their satisfaction is not only that their children achieved something they couldn't in life, or that their lifetime effort has paid off, but simply the fact that their next gen will not go through the same drudgery they had to go through in their life.

It is so true. Nanda and Kalpana are the examples of how a woman can make a difference to her family, if she is determined. The tremendous zeal within a woman can make her achieve impossible missions in spite of all the odds.

These two women are real heroes in their own life. I hope our society has many more Kalpanas and Nandas like these. My salute to these wonderful women.
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My Experiment with Reverse Transition

I was watching the movie "Do Dooni Chaar" the other day. It is about the struggle of a family to transition from a two wheeler to four wheeler. I guess during the last decade the entire middle class in India has undergone this transition. Gone are the good old days of Bajaj Chetak. Every family has at least one car - a distant dream of a middle class family - not many years back. I for a change, experimented with a reverse transition. I moved back from a car to a motor bike. The results are quite positive.
It all started with an intention to reduce the carbon foot print as a family. Ever increasing Petrol price in India was also a factor. The final push came when my office moved to a farther location and my commute time doubled. I awaited for the rainy season to get over and decided to move to a Motor Bike for office commute. It has been more than a month and I am very happy with my decision.

Here is some data

Carbon Footprint has been computed from here.

The ROI on my new investment will impress any CFO. However, I am right now content with the time that I am saving and a feeling of doing my bit to reduce Carbon foot print. I am also happy that I find myself below the peak hr per-capita road space consumption in Mumbai. All this matters to me.

I realized some non-tangible benefits as well. The exception management is simply beautiful with my new machine. Unexpected traffic? No issues. I can easily maneuver my way through the roads of Mumbai without getting stuck for Hrs, waiting for the traffic to clear out. Parking is a cake walk. I am giving away my dedicated car parking in office. This should make at least one colleague of mine happy.

The bike does come with some challenges as well. I don't think I will use it so regularly during the Mumbai rains. I have factored in 8 months usage per yr in the above calculation. I am not sure about Summer as well. Secondly, unless you are careful, bike driving can be risky as well. However, I am pretty old school when it comes to driving.

I think its time we give a thought to our consumption patterns and optimize it keeping all factors in mind - including the mother earth. I am not suggesting to get rid of the car. But do give a consideration of reducing its usage. If two wheeler is not an option for you, look at alternatives. Car pooling, public transport or simply working from home. A friend of mine, who heads a big factory, is thinking about making company bus mandatory at least once a week for everyone. How about no car day at least twice a month?

For now, I am happy to see my car parked for most of the week-days and love to drive it with the family during the week-ends. This initiative has encouraged a few of my friends to seriously think on these lines. I hope some of them turn around. How about you?
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HSC Results for a Maid

The Maharashtra State Board declared the results of the HSC (12th Standard) exams yesterday. Today's Newspapers are full of stories of those topped the exams, passed in flying colors in spite of several challenges like dissabilities, living conditions, health issues, financial conditions etc. Many of those are tall examples of what one could achieve in spite of extreme challenges in life. I vitnessed one such example this morning - when our "Bai" (maid ) walked in with a little smile on her face. Her daughter passed the HSC exam.

She is our maid who comes everyday - all days a week - works for around 2 hrs every day in our house. Does similar work for many more homes. Stays in a 1 room house given to her family by Slum Rehabilitation Authority. She possibly works for more than 12 hrs a day cleaning other's houses, washing utensils, dusting thier expensive furnitures, sweeping floors all along the day.
She speaks very little. I realized today that behind her quite dedication and extreme hard work, is a much larger goal - to educate her three children so that they don't have to undergo the same ordeal which she did through out her life. Her youngest daughter passed HSC exam yesterday. The elder is in the final year of graduation and the eldest son is already employeed.

The lady who could not even pronunce names of the subjects her kid just passed with decent marks, had a sense of achievement for her daughter. I think more than her daughter, it is her own achievement. She never went to school herself, but has learnt the importance of education through hard lessons of life.

I asked her, "so what next?". She replied without any doubt, "Pudhcha Shikshan" (Further studies) and moved into the kitchen to complete her work.

My salute to the spirit of the this woman. The respect for her in my mind has just gone up.
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The two extremes in Aruna’s Story

Yesterday the Indian Supreme Court passed a historic judgment in relation to Petition for Euthanasia for Aruna Shanbaug, who lies in a vegetative state since last 38 yrs after she was brutally assaulted by a ward boy. The SC has made Passive Euthanasia legal, while still ruling against mercy death for Aruna. Story of her life (really?) has inspired many documentaries, TV programs, News stories and even a book – “Aruna’s Story” by Pinky Virani. This is possibly the first case  of Euthanasia in India that has received this significant coverage in the media and has been debated and discussed at length through various channels. Along with this, Aruna’s painful story has also reached common people and has been a topic of discussions everywhere. I feel the story has two absolute extremes of human behavior.
Aruna Shanbaug, a nurse in KEM Hospital in Parel, Mumbai was sexually assaulted by a ward boy Sohanlal Walmiki in 1973. In an horrific demonstration of brutality, he throttled Aruna with a dog chain. The sever strangulation disrupted blood supply to Aruna’s brain. Physical and mental trauma was so severe that Aruna entered into a vegetative state and till date remains in the same. Sohanlal was an extreme example of brutal, cruel and inhuman behavior. I would wonder what conditions would trigger a human being to treat another with such ruthless deeds. It is fearsome for me even to think and imagine. I would think one would cross such limits only if he is insane or lost his senses under the influence of alcohol/drugs.
On the other hand, Aruna’s story has a demonstration of other side of human behavior -  Care, Love, humanity and dedication. It was a couple of yrs after the assault on Aruna that the BMC wanted to move Aruna out of the KEM hospital so that the bed is available for other patients. She had no family support, no friends, no relatives. It was the staff of KEM hospital who came down to streets against this decision and made sure that she has a bed permanently allotted to her. It has been 38 yrs since then that the staff at KEM has been taking care of Aruna who does not even know what’s happening around her. The lady who was in her late 20s has now turned 65 lying on the bed without any senses, emotions, reactions and movements. The nurse staff does everything for her, day in and day out, every day, for last 38 yrs. Aruna is a family member for them. For last 38 yrs, they have ensured she did not have a single bedsore . This, even after knowing that she is possibly not going to wake up one day and offer a vote of thanks. Here is an example of extreme dedication, altruistic care and love driven by a pure noble intention of serving a life.
While Walmiki shows us the dark, cruel, fearsome and inhumane dimension of Aruna’s story, the KEM staff shows us the light of love, care, selfless service and most important - hope.
Salute to the spirit of the KEM ladies. You are a great inspiration.
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