Shrinivas Patil's Blog
So.. This is where I write.. Somethings.. Whatever I feel.. whatever comes to my mind.. Just from the heart :-)
Sunday 5 February 2012
Sunday 29 January 2012
Lessons learnt over 10 years from Nokia N81 + Nokia N900 + Samsung Wave II + HTC Incredible S
I always loved to discover and get along with latest
technologies. In particular with the computing devices such as Laptops, Tablets
and Mobiles.
The love for mobiles stared to grow way back when I was
in college. I was seeing many Symbian Smart-phones around and always wanted to
have one. But as the financial front was not that strong, I held myself. After
final year, I started to look for a job and got one in Mumbai. Finally I stared
to earn on my own. By this time Nokia’s N series was at its top.
And just because of this reason, I dared to go for a Nokia
N-81. It was really nice decision as I always wanted a smart-phone with
good music playback capabilities. It was worth a shot. That phone lasted for
about 2 years and I felt like utilizing it worth for every penny.
Then I started my hunt for another smart-phone. Nokia N
series was obvious choice. I almost decided to for Nokia N97. It was speculated
as most powerful Symbian phone at that time. But thank god and thanks to
Internet. I came to know about Nokia N900. It was based on altogether a
new OS. MeeGo 5.
I googled a lot and learnt more about this os. It looked
very promising and I decided to go for it. News was like, “Nokia is going to
invest into this OS big-time and all the following smart phones from the Finnish
phone maker will be based this OS.” I was really excited and asked my
friend to get it for me from US.
I still remember 1st Jan 2010. He arrived from
US and I went to receive him at Airport. Then returned to my flat carrying that
mighty beast. What a day it was. Indeed a Happy New Year had started for me. I
was fully into that phone for almost 2-3 months. It was very pleasant experience.
I was really enjoying cool features as TV out, TV remote via internet, FM
transmitter and many more. Sometime later, I learnt that Nokia has not yet
planned to release this phone in India. I was amazed, but then thought they
will do it soon. Then as 4-5 months passed I started to feel that the apps for
this phone are very less. No one was talking about this phone around. Again, I
turned back to internet and discovered the MeeGo Community page. Gosh, I was relieved
to found some cool stuff out there. People in that community always looked
promising and helpful.
Then the news came that “Nokia and Intel are going to
tie up for a NEW OS. Maemo. It was going to be mix of Nokia’s MeeGo os and
Intel’s other OS ( Cant recollect the name now J )” . It was fascinating
news for me as I learnt for the first time that day I can switch onto that OS
also. WOW !! That was cool.
Months passed and I kept every track of News about this
OS. The project finally started and the first device rumored was going to be
Nokia N9. “Ok”.. I said. What about Nokia N900 ?? It seemed that, Nokia N900
could also be capable of running that OS but was not officially. Hmmm.. that
was quite a setback. I kept looking for a build which I could install on my
phone. Finally one day I got a Beta build which could be installed on N900.
Well, I took a day off on that day and downloaded that
build. And managed to install that build according to given instructions. Bingo
….And ..then restarted the phone. I got a screen with dual boot options. Wow.. J I felt on could 9.
I booted to Maemo and was L ..
Yep.. It was beta build and I knew that. But still I had my hopes and they were
not fulfilled L After spending 4-5
hours in Maemo I returned back to MeeGo.
Now was the time when people started talking about a new
OS. Android. A new OS platform which also based on Linux and now acquired by
Google.
Hmmm… I went to YouTube and searched for the videos of
devices running that OS. Well, to be frank, I didn’t quite liked that OS UI. So
left quite lucky in the world of N900. It was the time when I got a GPRS
connection and stared browsing on phone.
Then came the shocker. Adobe Flash plug-in.. I
learnt that the new version of flash was not supported by native browser of
N900. God..now what ?
If you remember advertise of Nokia N900, it was projected
as the smartphone with computer capabilities. And now.. without Flash player,
the online world started to look so dull and dark. I was not able to see
YouTube videos on this phone L Was
not able to browse the web with fun as like on desktop. This was time when I
switched OFF N900 and switched ON older N81.As it had Flash lite support.
But,
still I had hopes. I always felt, sometime later the people from Nokia will
come up with some promising solution. But no.. they didn’t.
N900 was left to die by Nokia. News then came that “Nokia
is not interested in pursuing the Maemo project. Intel was now alone.” It
was bad L Even though the community
had some hacks about getting flash player installed on N900, it didn’t looked
that easy and worth trying.
Again, after some months, I revisited YouTube as Android
was making news. It seemed as a promising OS with lots of customizations and
tweaks. Then I googled if there is any way of installing Android on N900. To my
surprise, yes there was a way and a nice attempt made by NTDroid team.
I once again applied for a sick leave at office and took
a day off. Then, followed steps to port Android on N900. J It looked quite promising but yet, after
installation of android the PHONE capabilities (like placing and receiving
calls, sending and receiving SMS) were under development. Hence, it was not the
choice for a day to day use.
Meanwhile, I switched my job and located to Chennai. Here
in my new company
I spotted few Android devices. I was really impressed by handling
those devices and the feel was awesome.
But still, I had a feeling that there will be another
powerful OS somewhere. Once again, I went back and with the help of internet,
landed onto a NEW platform. “Bada”.
Yes, the OS platform from Samsung. Then again was the
time I went to YouTube. The look and feel seemed quite better than Android. The
only question was, will this OS live or same thing like MeeGo will happen? Will
it ever have as many applications as Android has ??.
I was confused and in that confusion, made my mind to go
for Samsung Wave II. The specs of this phone seemed too good. I took chance and got that
device.
Again, for few days, I was quite lost into world of Bada.
Those days were fun.
Now was a time for one more setback. 3G was launched in
India and it was a faster internet service. Obviously I decided to switch onto
it. But the shocker was.. Samsung Wave II .. It supported only speeds upto
3.2MBps. L
God.. How I missed this ? I was asking myself. This was
the day when I again took my N900 and got
3G working. J But.. still no flash
player solution was available. What to do ?..
Android .. Is it really worth a shot ?.. A real study and
introspection was needed . Finally… I made my mind.. “Yes.. Go for it… J”
The hunt for a nice Android device now got started. The
primary contenders were HTC Incredible S, Samsung Galaxy S, Motorola Milestone and much hyped Samsung
Galaxy SII (It was yet to be released. Rumored date was after 2 months L)
So, what to do now ?.. Galaxy S or Incredible S or Moto Milestone?..
After reading user reviews and many more expert reviews I decided to place my
money on HTC Incredible S.
All I can say is…. till this time this device hasn’t let
me down. I rooted the phone just after a month and the openness of Android is amazing.
With lots of custom ROMS around, I am enjoying my ride with Google’s latest Android
version 4.0 (Ice-cream Sandwich) enabled Incredible S. J
Labels:
Android,
HTC,
HTC Incredible S,
Maemo,
Meego,
Nokia,
Nokia N81,
Nokia N900,
Samsung,
Samsung Wave 2,
shrinivas,
Shrinivas Patil,
Smartphones,
Symbian
Wednesday 24 August 2011
Incredible India !! Really ???
We certainly are miserable. Aren’t we ??
Test match cricket was of 6 days, we brought to 5.
Then came One days as the we do not wanted to waste time and still
get Results soon.
Then arrived 20-20 so we could get results more FASTER.
And whole of that for our sheer entertainment.
On the other hand.....
Since last 10 days, a 74 year old is on FAST against a cause
which is hindering all of us.
Government tries to put blame on them in every way they possibly
can.
Almost every political party out there is opposing the bill (in
all party meet) and pretend supporting it (in public).
Even every common man is protesting the bill in every way
possible.
People from all over the world are reading the draft of the bill
and supporting it AFTER understanding it.
And this is all going for OUR BETTER FUTURE.
....... Still..........
We cannot do anything about it.
Isn't this a real DIRECTORSHIP??..
Because, certainly it does not sound like a DEMOCRATIC nation.
What a diversity :(
Sure, that's why we call it as "Incredible India" :(
Thursday 18 August 2011
Aanna Hazare + Economic Debt Crises in US > Google+ ???
In this relative world you cannot predict how things will go and how you will get the results out of it.
On 16th Aug when Aanna Hazare was about to
start his fast and the arrest followed. It has shaken the government and many
other people round the globe.
Many Indians literally came on
the road by skipping their schedules to protest his arrest and to support the
Jan Lok Pal bill.
Google might not have anticipated
this thing will swing the focus from their in focus “Google+ is the future
topic”. No offense, Google+ is still in beta stage, but the
main part of crowd which was joining their network was from India and US.
Few weeks ago, the speculations
about recession have disturbed everyone when few financial analysts proposed
the financial crises before the world. US people then started to analyze the
situations very seriously and Google+ was sidelined from their news.
Meanwhile from 16th Aug, those Indians for whom it was not
possible to be on road came on line to show their protest through social media.
Well established players like
Facebook and Twitter were off course the obvious choices for them.
Many things were handy and easy
like tagging and commenting on the links from sharing to posting even for the
novice users in Facebook.
This time the followers of Aanna
Hazare all over the INTERNET (majority of them are Indians of course) started
to get involved into cause rather than exploring wonderful Google+.
I personally kind of observed the
traffic of posts in my Google+ stream and Facebook wall since last week and it
again proved that Facebook has gained the advantage.
These kind of situations are
really the moments when ball can swing in either direction.
For this time Facebook caught the
ball by launching various apps and promoting & highlighting the badges all
over in their network. It was really observed that the frequency of people
joining Google+ has found a down curve this week.
Is Aanna effect causing this ??
Don't know ?? But to me, it seems so.
Obviously Google is listening and watching all these things (They
kind of watch everything these days and start guessing even before typing our
query in their search engine.)
This is not written with an
intention to praise Facebook or pointing the downside in Google+. This is
something I observed since last week which in some way amused me.
And this is my personal opinion based on my own
observations (Likely
to be wrong in many cases though ) :)
Just thought of sharing this with
you :))
Wednesday 17 August 2011
Politics: Thought REVISITED. Thanks to Aanna Hazare !!
After
spending 3 days of awesome trip in Kerala, on 16th we all returned to Chennai
on 16th Aug morning at
about 9.00 A.M.
Just
on the way, as soon as we came out of Roaming circle, I switched on 3G to check
latest NEWS.
2
News were shocking when I saw them.
1st
was “Motorola acquisition by Google” and 2nd was “Aanna Hazare's
arrest”.
Motorola
acquisition was nowhere near to heart but the 2nd news was. This is because;
finally after a long period of time, this anti-corruption movement was looking
very promising and very truthful as it was by the people for the people.
Aanna
was arrested at this home way before proposed time of the fast and when he
asked the reason of arrest, Delhi police said, “We have orders.” …… I
mean, are these politicians are now giving ORDERS to arrest the people who are
thinking for welfare of people and trying to get things in correct ORDER??? WTH??
Who
are these politicians and what’s the reason of their existence? Aren’t these people who are elected by us only?? Why they
considered so POWERFUL? And we give unnecessary respect to these people?? Do
they really deserve this??
Politicians
used to be the common people amongst us who we elect so that they could ensure
everything around us is working fine. And now, when these people are using
their powers like blind and looting us like anything, we should make it
CORRECT.
In
ancient times, people were being ruled by some Cruel Emperors and fate of the
people used to be in hand of these emperors only. Then, slowly people started
to think and act for their own welfare and many of these kings faced revolt.
These kinds of things laid the foundation of democracy and things started to
look better.
But,
when some common man elected by us gets power and he uses them for his own
selfish needs by looting the people it is our duty and right to oppose him. We
should not be forced to back off.
The
government is now saying “Drafting
a law and making it possible is not a right of an individual, parliament is
responsible for it and it’s their FINAL decision to make it happen or not.”
This
is not what Aanna Hazare and his supporters are saying that their DRAFT is the
FINAL version and it should be made as law. What they are saying is the draft
presented by current government is very hopeless and has no real room to cure
the real problem of corruption. It is also quite evident that the opposition is
not fully supporting Aanna’s final DRAFT and is ready to accept it as a law.
We as
the citizens of INDIA have every right to oppose what is incorrect and we have
every right to put forward our view on it. We could not be forced to change our
view and forced to listen and follow what government is doing. This is not called as DEMOCRACY,
this is DECTATORSHIP.
We
will support Aanna Hazare and his cause for sure as it is for the people and by
the people which is an important part of Democracy. And they are transparent in what they want and have the
opinion from the people of INDIA about what they are doing.
The
Congress party has always been very biased towards many decisions that they
have taken against any individual. They are really blind having the power in
hand and openly boasting about how they are in power since last 2 terms and how
they will make it happen in 2014 again.
It’s
pathetic when a common man’s issue is neglected and their son’s &
daughter’s weddings are covered LIVE. It’s shameful when our Telecom minister
uses his own interests in making a deal happen, it’s shameful when our
Agricultural minister is biased towards sugar factory owners and do not make
any provisions to help farmers, instead he heads the ICC panel and enjoys
matches abroad when there are serious issues to be dealt with in his own state.
It’s really shameful when our Commonwealth games are arranged with such a
double standard quality and the money made out of it is not transferred to our
National treasure. These all events and recent scams really place us in a
situation where we, the common man are forced to think about our own future.
We
elect these politicians so that they will be responsible for finding the
solutions to our common problems and we can concentrate on solving our private
problems.
Now
the situation is getting so worse that we are feeling to call ourselves as
citizens of world’s largest democratic nation.
As a
common man, we have enough problems in our personal lives to be dealt with. But when these kinds of situations arise we often find
ourselves in dilemma where we are in no situation to go on road in our office
timings. We are not always in a condition to go to a place and participate in
these protests actively.
While
on the other hand, we are aware and we understand completely that these are the
main problems in front of us and for the welfare of our society. We are still
forced by our private reasons and problems to work in office rather than being
actively involved in these protests.
Still,
this time, many people came on road as the Government was looking deaf and dumb
to act on the situation. Are
we really in an Independent country and should be celebrating our independence
day when we ourselves are not FREE in our own country??
These
are really serious questions and we should solve them. We should come and unite our
support for Aanna Hazare’s noble cause.
As
far as myself is considered, I am not on road with an Indian flag to support
Aanna on weekdays. But I will continue to write and support the cause in ways I
could. Hoping all your support
for this cause and Aanna’s campaign.
Any
thoughts and ways to protest in peaceful ways are MOST WELCOME. Please feel free
to comment and let’s make INDIA a better place.
We
can then certainly say “Proud
to be Indian”.
Saturday 6 August 2011
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