ocotober issue

1 I EXHIBIT I OCTOBER 2012

100€ 6$ 8

where tech meets l ifestyleMOBILE | AUTO | GADGETS | WATCHES & More...Vo

l.8.Is

sue.

5.O

ctob

er.2

012

REVIEWED :- HTC 8S & 8X | GENIUS HS-M220 | CREATIVE ZII SOUND T6 | RAZER GAMING MOUSE | NOKIA ASHA | SONY

XPERIA ION | CREATIVE WP 300 | BENQ GH600 | LG OPTIMUS 4XHD & more...

Meet the teaMsFrom Force IndIa to FerrarI

Face OFF SamSung galaxy SIII

crOssOver sUvsthe new age rage

2040 WOrld at

vSvS nokIa lumIa 920

IPhone 5

exhibitmag.com

In a year!BilliOnairehOW tO Be a

RENAULT DUSTER

DIR-505 the ultImate mobIle

comPanIon

JOUrney OF dc design and the Man Behind it - dIlIP chhabrIa

liFe in the Fast lanea speedy talk With naraIn karthIkeyan

2 I EXHIBIT I OCTBER 2012

For Customer Support, Bulk Order & Corporate Enquiries Call: 011-4600-9999,+91-99993 33223/4

Find Everything,Go Anywhere!

Convenient CompanionIn-Car & On the Go!

Stay Connected, Entertained & Informed!

Facebook

Phone Mail

Music Movies

ShowNearbyMapsNavigator

App StoreLive TV Movie Booking Travel Booking

Track MyPad

Photos

Messaging Browser

Use driving or otherwise with the Car

Kit, and enjoy the pocketable CarPad at home,

office, in a plane & on the go! The CarPad is your perfect companion for all times!

conveniently in-car while Experience Full 3D GPSnavigation beyond

imagination with live turn-by-turn voice guidance, All India

3D maps and house-leveldetails; and live tracking,

traffic updates & friend finders!

Call, message, mail & socialize,browse the Internet at high

speeds, watch movies & liveTV, listen to music, enjoy

location apps and downloadmore on the go with built-in

3G, Wi-Fi and Android OS!

5

High Speed

InternetAndroid OS& Rich Apps

N

S

E

W

GPS and G-Sensor Wi-FiInternal

Flash MemoryBluetooth

Car KitSamsungProcessor

1GHz

1080p VideoPlayback

Full HD Capacitive

Touch Screen

12.7cm

Your In-Car 3G Tablet, Smart Phone and GPS Navigator - All in One.

All

New!

FIND EVERYTHING. GO ANYWHERE.


2 I EXHIBIT I SEPTEMBER 201211 I EXHIBIT I MAY 2012

Claudia

EDITORS NOTE

CIAO Ramesh Somani Chief Editor&Publisher.

Let me start this note with a sincere thanks to all our stakeholders – associates advertisers, readers and my high-spirited team members. We are stepping into our 7th Glorious year. Why glorious? Since we have

already survived two recessions through our nose and now only best can happen to us and being around for 7 years does mean that we talk sense. In today’s shrinking atten-tion pie to retain the mindset of readers and advertisers that are continuously challenged by over exposure of elec-tronic media is no mean achievement.I remember my very recent visit to Singapore to a Vertu Store and the manager gave me something very interest-ing to prod over. He reminded me when the digital wrist-watches were launched in 1930; everybody thought the doomsday of analogue watches is here and inevitably they will be extinguished like a race of dinosaurs. Cut to 2012 and you don’t see digital watches but the Omegas, Tis-sots, Tags and the likes continue to adorn our wrists and all soaring in sales and net profits, not to forget that we now have a watch in all our mobiles as well… and most recently mobile phones in watches as well!The case in point here is its direct connection with the ongoing predictions over print to be consumed by dig-ital media, which I don’t see happening. We are adding subscribers and readers by the day and very much re-

taining our loyalists. The clock will keep ticking on the magazine industry and with the advent of tablets there is one more distribu-tion model. BTW, Exhibit is available on Android, iPad, iPhone and Windows and with this issue we are mark-ing the 1st Anniversary of Exhibits Digital Editions.Like every year we celebrate our anniversary with our chosen Top 100 Tech Indi-ans who continue to inspire us and take the realm of tech forward. They are al-leither sitting in the driver’s seat of a tech company or started the company, which is driving its own path to

success. Some of them have flown in and made India their home while heading the Indian arm of its parent multinational company. As we say in our lingo – Thy Soul Breathes Tech.The past year itself has seen some incredible advance-ment in the field of technol-ogy with one major setback of losing the iconic Steve Jobs. I wished he had lived at least for another dec-ade or more and had given us more bite of his Apple. Already smartphones are getting smarter and I think with convergence of tech-nology, they are taking the role of your wife. [Generally

wives take care of their men in India]. The Ultrabooks are another revolution that have already taken off here in India and we are excited to showcase some of the best ones which we had pitted against each other.Another domain that ex-cites me – is the unusual and amazing gadgets that keep coming up every now and then. For the An-niversary special, we have chosen some of the most unaffordable gadgets and luxury cars, which are tailor made only for the rich and famous.There are so many other things that I want to ex-

press in this opening note, but I'm afraid I will go over-board and perhaps take up too much space in the process. I wish you all the very best, and if the sum-mer heat is getting to you – then simply browse to our 'Gadgets to beat the Heat' topic and stay cool in this killer season.

Till the next month, stay connected. Stay updated. Stay social. It's the month we celebrate our birthday- and the party has just be-gun!

11 I EXHIBIT I MAY 2012

Claudia

EDITORS NOTE









From The Editors Desk:

EDITOR’SLETTER

Let me start with a personal incident. Earlier I usually used to do my Tech Shoppping from Singapore, Dubai & Hongkong since I never liked the idea of picking up Gadgets from the grey market and hag-gle over pricing and I never used to find all the gadgets & electron-ics under one roof with the right “ Shopping Atmosphere” . Since Croma has opened its doors I have ended up swiping my credit card here to quench my gizmo needs. Frankly the knowledgeable and helpful staff at Croma and the overall ease of physical compari-son along with the Croma pricing has only added “fuel” to my car which apprently stops at the nearest Croma Store.

When you have to bargain with the sales person on the floor, you never go home feeling satisfied. There is always an element of “Was it the best Deal?” or “had I insisted more he would have come down

more?” etc. There are plenty of local electronics markets and some large format stores which do that, but what I find at Croma is the equivalent and sometimes better deals with a high level of satisfaction and most importantly without wasting the most important resource in my life – Time.

Taking a leaf from here, we are extremely delighted to be associated with Croma in bringing you the “Gifting Guide of the season” and the best buys which we have especially earmarked for you at all the Croma stores. So you can just go and take your Pick!With this opportunity of having associated with Croma, Exhibit will not only be sharing all the latest dope on tech , but also helping consumers across India in making the right buying decision across 180 brands & more than 6000 products that’s on offer through all the 65 croma stores. It’s a perfect match – one that will only help you - the user, the buyer and the consumer and “Integrate Tech in Your Lifestyle “.

It’s a big step forward and this “Art of Gifting - Tech Guide” will not only help you understanding gifting ideas for the festive season, but also help you make up your mind about what constitutes a good ‘Tech Gift’, per se. Naturally we all are in similar dilemmas about what those perfect gifts will be – for your parents, your siblings, loved one ,friends & colleagues.

With that thought in mind, I leave you to browse through the guide.

CIAO RAMESH SOMANI Chief Editor & [email protected]

@somaniramesh

Apple has won US$1 billion in its Patent War against Samsung, must have been stale news by the time this piece gets your attention. But the real loss is for tech innovation and the industry, How on earth do you explain Rounded Edges, Larger than 3.5 Inch Screen size, Different form factor, Dif-ferent Platform and the entire UI being poles apart , and still the US judges say that the [Korean] Samsung copied [US of A] Apple. Ok Pinch to zoom – point taken, but isn’t it like all car companies paying royalties to the 1st inventor of four wheels. Imagine we would not have had Nano ever at this price point, and it would have been cheaper to buy an Aeroplane than a Rolls Royce, after all you would be paying royalties to the 1st inventor who would probably have owned a couple of European countries by now. And the Worst, We would not have been able to put this ‘CAR ISSUE’ for you.

It is said that the invention of wheel has made the world smaller! It is true and that is why we give you the best on wheels in this issue! From the rarest to the most expensive, you will see all kinds. The iconic invention of wheel has shortened the distances geographically in the same way as technology has shortened distances socially! The wheels were a need way back but now they have become a want only because they come packed with the latest technologies. What used to be a piece of metal and some other materials all tuned in and put together on 4 wheels to take you from point A to B has grown to be so much more. Much more than a transportation device. It has become an extension of self. A style statement. A power statement, it’s about how much you have arrived in life.

Everything from scratch is designed using technology. Especially since the computer has become omnipresent in all our lives. In all the industries of the world. What better way to pay homage to tech in the auto industry, then to make it our theme for the current issue. Today Cars have all sorts of gadgets – Navigation, Sync, Bluetooth streaming, idrive, Park Assist etc. and what lies below the hood, the soul of the car – engines are programmed us-ing computers. So the bridge between cars and tech are being fast covered with todays speeding cars and integrated technologies.

This explains our Special Cover Shoot with the speed monster Lamborghini along with the hot to handle MALAIKA ARORA KHAN swiping away the latest tech fever – Tablets.

I don’t know what to adore more - Malaika, Lamborghini or the tech piece she is holding.

While I continue to debate about this in my mind, you can go ahead and feed your minds with the rest of the pages. And before I sign out, I will ask you all to remember that ‘want is the new need'!

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

Ever since man has invented the wheel, the need to get to places in the human race has just got bigger. Not satisfied with just

getting from point A to B, we’ve also wanted to get there faster and with more style and space. So, we’ve made cars to the same effect and created faster, bigger and more luxurious cars than ever before. But, men being men-the need to out-do each other with their cars was inevitable. And thus, was born the sport of motor-racing.

F1 is currently at the pinnacle of motorsport racing. It features the fastest cars on the planet meant for competitive racing that can easily reach a speed of up to 350 Km/hr. In the hot seat are talented drivers from all corners of the world who have been hand-picked by these teams to drive some of the most expensively build machines, using similar technology that goes inbuilding most jets! F1 had been the sport for the elite, and for many years the races were held only in rich Europe and America. As things have changed over the decades, Asia has started to prominently feature in the races list and since last year we’ve had an F1 race in India as well.

So, come October and we all start feeling our adrenaline rushing just a little bit more. F1 not only has the fastest cars being driven by the fastest men, it also has the most advanced technology behind it too. Right from the way the car handles, to the

devices used to measuring speed/time, communication channels and so on. It is still an elitist sport, but the common man can certainly enjoy the spoils that are put on show. It should therefore be no surprise that Formula One happens to be our cover story. And what a privilege it was for us to meet our very own speed demon in F1, Narain Karthikeyan himself. He not only adorns our cover page, but graciously met our team in our Mumbai office and told us a few tricks to speed. Definitely one of the nicest men I have come across from the field of sports who actually knows how to ‘fly’ cars but keeps himself firmly grounded. A sport has a lot to teach in short it represents a smaller version of the world we live in. Facing challenges day in and day out and coming out victorious or being defeated is what life is about. It is unpredictable!

In this issue, we will talk about one such personality, Mr Dilip Chhabria,

in our ‘Success Diary’ who stuck to his vision and gave a lot of immediate gains and pleasures to reach where he is today . If holidays torture you then you are really passionate about what you do , Turn to Page 124 and you will know whom we are talking about. Apart from the inspiration from the sport, this issue also offers you anticipation and curiosity by letting you have a sneak peak at 2040!

And I know you all love cars as much as I do, so we have the new generation mix breed, the crossover SUV’s for you. So, without more gyaan been thrown, I’d let the magazine do the talking now.

Flip through the pages and discover what else we’ve covered.

Till the next time, happy reading and stay tuned!

[email protected]

2 I EXHIBIT I SEPTEMBER 201211 I EXHIBIT I MAY 2012

Claudia

EDITORS NOTE









11 I EXHIBIT I MAY 2012

Claudia

EDITORS NOTE









From The Editors Desk:

EDITOR’SLETTER

Let me start with a personal incident. Earlier I usually used to do my Tech Shoppping from Singapore, Dubai & Hongkong since I never liked the idea of picking up Gadgets from the grey market and hag-gle over pricing and I never used to find all the gadgets & electron-ics under one roof with the right “ Shopping Atmosphere” . Since Croma has opened its doors I have ended up swiping my credit card here to quench my gizmo needs. Frankly the knowledgeable and helpful staff at Croma and the overall ease of physical compari-son along with the Croma pricing has only added “fuel” to my car which apprently stops at the nearest Croma Store.

When you have to bargain with the sales person on the floor, you never go home feeling satisfied. There is always an element of “Was it the best Deal?” or “had I insisted more he would have come down

more?” etc. There are plenty of local electronics markets and some large format stores which do that, but what I find at Croma is the equivalent and sometimes better deals with a high level of satisfaction and most importantly without wasting the most important resource in my life – Time.

Taking a leaf from here, we are extremely delighted to be associated with Croma in bringing you the “Gifting Guide of the season” and the best buys which we have especially earmarked for you at all the Croma stores. So you can just go and take your Pick!With this opportunity of having associated with Croma, Exhibit will not only be sharing all the latest dope on tech , but also helping consumers across India in making the right buying decision across 180 brands & more than 6000 products that’s on offer through all the 65 croma stores. It’s a perfect match – one that will only help you - the user, the buyer and the consumer and “Integrate Tech in Your Lifestyle “.

It’s a big step forward and this “Art of Gifting - Tech Guide” will not only help you understanding gifting ideas for the festive season, but also help you make up your mind about what constitutes a good ‘Tech Gift’, per se. Naturally we all are in similar dilemmas about what those perfect gifts will be – for your parents, your siblings, loved one ,friends & colleagues.

With that thought in mind, I leave you to browse through the guide.

CIAO RAMESH SOMANI Chief Editor & [email protected]

@somaniramesh

Apple has won US$1 billion in its Patent War against Samsung, must have been stale news by the time this piece gets your attention. But the real loss is for tech innovation and the industry, How on earth do you explain Rounded Edges, Larger than 3.5 Inch Screen size, Different form factor, Dif-ferent Platform and the entire UI being poles apart , and still the US judges say that the [Korean] Samsung copied [US of A] Apple. Ok Pinch to zoom – point taken, but isn’t it like all car companies paying royalties to the 1st inventor of four wheels. Imagine we would not have had Nano ever at this price point, and it would have been cheaper to buy an Aeroplane than a Rolls Royce, after all you would be paying royalties to the 1st inventor who would probably have owned a couple of European countries by now. And the Worst, We would not have been able to put this ‘CAR ISSUE’ for you.

It is said that the invention of wheel has made the world smaller! It is true and that is why we give you the best on wheels in this issue! From the rarest to the most expensive, you will see all kinds. The iconic invention of wheel has shortened the distances geographically in the same way as technology has shortened distances socially! The wheels were a need way back but now they have become a want only because they come packed with the latest technologies. What used to be a piece of metal and some other materials all tuned in and put together on 4 wheels to take you from point A to B has grown to be so much more. Much more than a transportation device. It has become an extension of self. A style statement. A power statement, it’s about how much you have arrived in life.

Everything from scratch is designed using technology. Especially since the computer has become omnipresent in all our lives. In all the industries of the world. What better way to pay homage to tech in the auto industry, then to make it our theme for the current issue. Today Cars have all sorts of gadgets – Navigation, Sync, Bluetooth streaming, idrive, Park Assist etc. and what lies below the hood, the soul of the car – engines are programmed us-ing computers. So the bridge between cars and tech are being fast covered with todays speeding cars and integrated technologies.

This explains our Special Cover Shoot with the speed monster Lamborghini along with the hot to handle MALAIKA ARORA KHAN swiping away the latest tech fever – Tablets.

I don’t know what to adore more - Malaika, Lamborghini or the tech piece she is holding.

While I continue to debate about this in my mind, you can go ahead and feed your minds with the rest of the pages. And before I sign out, I will ask you all to remember that ‘want is the new need'!

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK


[CONTENTS] OCT 2012

94

48

124

54

16

28

114

MEET THE F1 TeamsHere’s our quick look at the speed demons who will be tearing down the Buddh Circuit at NCR in Oct.

Some of the best Inventions to watch out for

We’ve looked high and we’ve looked low, to find out what are going to be some of the

most talked about inventions in the coming years. Read on and be amazed.

Meet the Shy Speedy Indian in F1A tete-a-tete with India’s own F1 driver - Narain Karthikeyan. Find out what he has to say about life in the fast lane as well as the upcoming F1 race in NCR.

Special Look at the new iPhone 5Steve Jobs may no longer be unveiling the

iPhones, but that doesn’t mean that millions are scurrying over to get a piece of the Apple Pie.

Here’s our exclusive look at the newly launched iPhone 5.

Success Diary - Dilip Chabria’s DC StudiosModified cars in India have been synony-mous with DC - aka Dilip Chabria. The man has been India’s very own transformer even a decade before Hollywood came up with the idea. Here’s our look at his road to success.

Battle of the Flagships - Sam-sung Galaxy S III vs iPhone 5 vs

Nokia Lumia 920These smartphones may be the smart-

est on the planet right now, so it’s no wonder we thought to put them up against each other. Just to see how they matched up to each other and then see the fun things that would

result!

Shutterbug - Out of the Box CamerasSome camera’s are worth admiring, and not just clicking pics with. Here are some of the best, weirdest and cool-est cameras around. They may not be easy to find, but they sure make for an amazing read.

vs vs


OCT 2012


[CONTENTS] OCT 2012

106

Narain Karthikeyan on Motorsport, Formula 1 in India, Social Media and more

Read more on Page


Because the Best Moments Won’t come to you

Keeping up with the traditional excellence of Fujifilm X Series cameras, the New XE-1 capturesimages with exceptional resolution, smooth tonality and minimal noise. It takes you anotherstep closer to capturing the ultimate moment. Because the best moments won’t come to you,you have to go to them.

= 16.3 Megapixels= 2.3M-dot OLED Viewfinder= X-Trans CMOS Sensor

= Built in Flash= X-Mount lens= High speed continuous

shooting(6Frames/Sec)

For More InformationLog on to www.fujifilm-x.com/x-e1

www.fujifilmcameras.in Fujifilm Customer Care: 18002000608 (Toll Free) E-mail: [email protected] Facebook/fujifilmindia

OCT 2012


contributors

Aneesh is a multi award winning lifestyle photographer & writer based in India. He shoots everything from food to people all over the world. Some of the names include BBC Good Food, Vanity Fair, Lonely Planet, Marie Claire, Silver Kris, Times of India & Hindustan Times. Aneesh has been comissioned for various exhibitions. The last two were for the Indo German Urban Mela and Cox & Kings.

A post Graduate in Science, Mr Goyal has total ex-cperience of about 36 years in Telecom/IT. He was the President (Operations) for Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd. (HFCL) for about 13 years. He is also a telecom analyst, consultant and Chairman (Emeritus) of TEMA. He is also Chairman, CTIA (Core Telecom Industries Associations) and Presi-dent of Indian Manufacturing Foundation.

NK Goyal

ANEESH BHASIN HARPREET BACHHER

Shannen D.is a freelance journalist and technology blogger who writes about various topics within the industry. Tech Inspires her and makes her write edgy stuff. Check out her Articles on page No- 44 ,118 .

Shannen D.

As a student of Architecture in 1998, Harpreet began moonlighting as a photo-journalist and later a fea-tures editor for The Times of India. It was then that he picked up photography to shoot images for his ar-ticles. The love for the lens grew and he ventured into full fledged fashion and life-style photography launch-ing STUDIO 27 DEGREES in 2001. This Month he has shot our Cover & feature with Narain Karthikeyan

Thinnest, Lightest iPhone Ever Features All-New Aluminum Design,

Stunning 4-Inch Retina Display, A6 Chip & Ultrafast Wireless...

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

In mid-September Apple an-nounced iPhone 5, the thinnest and lightest iPhone ever, com-pletely redesigned to feature a stunning new 4-inch Retina dis-play; an Apple-designed A6 chip for blazing fast performance; and ultrafast wireless technology—all while delivering even better bat-tery life. iPhone 5 comes with iOS 6, supposedly the world’s most advanced mobile operating sys-tem with over 200 new features including: the all new Maps app with Apple-designed cartogra-phy and turn-by-turn navigation; Facebook integration; Passbook organization; and even more Siri features and languages.

DEEPER LOOK

The Maps app has already been picked on as not being up to the mark, as many users and review-ers have now got their hands on the iPhone 5 in the US. It’s still early stages for Apple to have perfected the Maps, but this is still no excuse for a company that has made billions selling their prod-ucts the world over to millions of customers. The minor glitches include missing areas of land in some places, no public transport options in many areas as well as incorrect directions over voice guided navigation.

iPhone 5 is the thinnest smart-phone in the world, with an all-new 7.6 mm anodized aluminium body that is 18 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter than iPhone

4S. Designed with an unprece-dented level of precision, iPhone 5 combines an anodized aluminium body with diamond cut chamfered edges and glass inlays for a truly incredible fit and finish.All that is very good, but some customers were really shocked to receive new Apple iPhone 5 piec-es, fully packed, but with scratches on them. Plus, within days or even hours of some use – the body is prone to scratches. Not just a few, but a lot of scratches all over the body.

DISPLAY

The new 4-inch Retina display on iPhone 5 delivers even more pix-els than iPhone 4S, making the already incredible Retina display even better. By making the screen taller, not wider, iPhone 5 is just as easy to use with one hand so you can tap, type and scroll the same way you always have, while en-joying even more of your content including amazing apps optimized for the larger Retina display, wide-screen HD video, a full five days of your Calendar and more of every web page.

CONNECTIVITY

iPhone 5 supports ultrafast wire-less standards including LTE and DC-HSDPA, so you can browse, download and stream content even faster. To support the latest LTE technology, Apple has pio-neered a unique single-radio LTE solution that provides blazing fast speeds while fitting perfectly into the new remarkably thin de-sign. iPhone 5 features dual-band

802.11n Wi-Fi support for a wire-less experience up to 150 Mbps.The all-new A6 chip was designed by Apple to maximize perfor-mance and power efficiency to support all the incredible new features in iPhone 5, including the stunning new 4-inch Retina display—all while delivering even better battery life. With up to twice the CPU and graphics per-formance, almost everything you do on iPhone 5 is blazing fast for launching apps, loading web pages and downloading email at-tachments.

CAMERA

The 8 megapixel iSight camera is the most popular camera in the world and with iPhone 5, it’s even better. The new camera is com-pletely redesigned with incredible optical performance, yet amaz-ingly it’s 25 percent smaller than the camera in iPhone 4S. The new iSight camera in iPhone 5 features a sapphire crystal lens cover that is thinner and more durable than standard glass with the ability to provide crystal clear images. The new panorama feature lets you capture jaw-dropping panorama images of up to 28 megapixels by simply moving the camera across a scene in one smooth motion. New video features include im-proved stabilization, video face detection for up to 10 faces and the ability to take still photos as you record. A new FaceTime HD front facing camera makes Face-Time calls incredibly clear and can also be used for self portraits and recording 720p HD video. iPhone 5 also allows you to share pho-tos with friends and family using

iCloud’s Shared Photo Streams.

OUCH. THE CHANGE THAT WILL HURT

The tech world is nothing if not full of change. But many longtime Apple users are irked at the com-pany’s decision to use a smaller connector port, called Lightning, on the iPhone 5 and new iPods. With one fell swoop, that meant both a need for new power cords and that the new products won’t connect with older speaker sys-tems, alarm clocks and other ac-cessories.

The fix? A $29 adapter (which costs $39 if you want a new cable with it). And even then, the adapt-er doesn’t support video or the “iPod out” function for transmit-ting some data from the devices.

HOT BUzz


HOT BUzz


SOME CHANGES ARE FOR GOOD

iPhone 5 introduces new enhanced audio features including a new beam-forming, di-rectional microphone system for higher qual-ity sound, while background noise fades away with new noise canceling technology. iPhone 5 now includes support for cellular wideband audio for crisper word clarity and more natural sounding speech. Wideband audio will be sup-ported by over 20 carriers worldwide at launch. iPhone 5 comes with the new Apple EarPods featuring a breakthrough design for a more natural fit and increased durability, and an in-credible acoustic quality typically reserved for higher-end earphones.

iPhone 5 comes with iOS 6, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system with over 200 new user features including: an all new Maps app with Apple-designed cartography, turn-by-turn navigation and an amazing new Flyover view; Facebook integration for Contacts and Calendar, with the ability to post directly from Notification Center; Passbook, the sim-plest way to get all your passes in one place; new Siri features, including support for more languages, easy access to sports scores, res-taurant recommendations and movie listings Siri and Facebook-enabled apps like Photos, Safari® and Maps; and Shared Photo Streams via iCloud.

Pricing & Availability

iPhone 5 comes in either white & silver or black & slate, and will be available in the US for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) for the 16GB model and $299 (US) for the 32GB model and $399 (US) for the 64GB model. It will be available from the Apple Online Store (www. apple.com), Apple’s retail stores, and through AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and select Ap-ple Authorized Resellers. It has already started selling in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK since September 21. The Best is yet to come , now iPhone 4S will be available for just $99 (US) and iP- hone 4 will be available for free with a two-year contract. iOS 6 software has been available on September 19 as a free software update.In India we will have to wait to get it officially , but our folks at the gray market will quench the thirst with the bite of this Apple and Iphone 5 should be up for grabs by the time this issue hits your hands.



LAUNCHES OF THE MONTH

MapmyIndia iOS app offers richest map coverage, voice navigation and full 3D, offline maps of IndiaiOS users in India, including those who update to the new iOS6, can get the best mapping and navigation experience on their iOS device, by downloading MapmyIndia’s award-winning app ‘Sygic & MapmyIndia: GPS Navigation’ (link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sygic-mapmyindia-gps-navigation/id330645473).MapmyIndia’s navigation app for iOS offers the richest, most detailed, accurate and updated map coverage of all India and packs in powerful turn-by-turn voice guidance as well as full 3D maps (with 3D landmarks, buildings and terrain). Importantly, all the map data is stored on the user’s device, so the user doesn’t need to pay for and is not dependent on internet/data connection to access maps and navigation, unlike how iOS users need to do with the earlier and new built-in maps application of iOS.As a special time-limited offer, MapmyIndia is giving away the app at a discounted price of $29.99 as opposed to the standard price of $49.99.

MapmyIndia’s app has won numerous awards for best mobile app in India, is highly rated by users on iTunes and is the top grossing app in the India App Store – due to its rich map coverage and amazing full 3D voice navigation experience.

Microsoft and Kingston Partner to Create Windows To Go Compatible USB Flash DriveKingston, the independent world leader in memory products, recently announced it is partnering with Microsoft® to create a Windows To Go compatible USB Flash drive. Windows To Go is a new feature of Windows 8 Enterprise Edition, and requires a unique external USB 3.0 device capable of SSD-like performance to meet the Windows To Go requirements. The Kingston® DataTraveler® Workspace USB Flash drive, to be released this October, is designed for enterprise environments who want to run Windows 8 from a USB drive to support a bring your own PC, remote or mobile workforce. Companies that employ contractors and/or consultants, or are faced with disaster recovery scenarios can benefit from a Windows To Go USB drive. The drive is fully bootable and incorporates SSD technology in a small USB form factor so users can access their enterprise system from a portable device.

JUST IN


HCL Infosystems unveils its Ultrasmart ME UltrabookTMHCL Infosystems Ltd., India’s premier hardware, services and ICT Systems Integration and Distribution Company, recently launched its first HCL Ultrasmart ME UltrabookTM – the HCL Ultrasmart ME Series 3074. The HCL ME Ultrabook is one of the first devices launched in India to be powered by 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i3 processors. These lightweight Ultrasmart devices offer a complete new insight to the future of computing technology. Equipped with a superior responsive system- with an auto resume in less than five seconds the all new Ultrabook series comes with a very long battery backup of upto seven hours. This is one of the first 3rd generation Ultrabook devices from HCL and more such next gen devices will be launched soon.

• The HCL ME Series 3074 UltrabookTM- Ultra Sleek, Ultra Fast, Ultra Light• Intel 3rd Generation Core i3 processors, super-responsive auto-resume in less than 5 seconds • 14-inch WXGA HD LED Backlit display resolution 1366*768 • HCL Advantage - 39 months warranty, long battery back-up, HCL Touch• Bundled with first of its kind free 90 days Intel Anti-Theft Service Free • The HCL ME Series 3074 starts at a price point of `51990 MRP

Milagrow introduces India first Sunlight Readable TabTop with EyeProtect circuit! TabTop 10.4 some unique features. Sunlight Readable with 400Cd/M2 brightness. Eye Protect Circuit which changes the picture according to the ambient light conditions. Thinnest TabTop above 9.7” at just 8.6mm. Lightest TabTop above 9.7” at just 580 gms. First to offer Android v4.0.4 software updation. Jelly Bean Ready. Only ‘ready to use’ Tablet PC with 70 preloaded applications in 5 folders. 10 point touch, Full IPS with acute viewing angles from all sides, 1024x768 resolution. 1.2Ghz processor with 1GB DR3 RAM. Can connect with upto 2 Terabytes of external hard disk rive and up to 6 digital

devices simultaneously. Largest battery of 8000mAH to last over 12 hours in normal working and 15 days standby . Comes with Smart Magnetic Case which wakes up or puts the Tablet to sleep at the time of opening or closing. Comes with Tamil and Hindi Keyboard and full office suite pre- installed.


Rediff Launches News App for Android OSEasy-to-use interface enables mobile and tablet users to follow India news and events as they happen

Rediff.com India Limited, India’s leading online provider of news, information, communication, entertainment and shopping services, today announced the launch of its Rediff News application for Android hand-held devices.Rediff.com’s Android news app can be downloaded from Google Play by visiting rediff.com/newsapp on mobile phones and tablets using the Android OS. The app offers readers quick and easy access to a rich collection of the latest stories across Rediff’s News, Business, Movies, Sports, and Get Ahead sections, in a tiled interface and comes with an option to enable or disable images, and an offline mode to read all the content.In addition, the news app provides a

shortened version of reports, with a link back to Rediff.com’s mobile site where the full report can be read.

Readers can also share and comment on their favorite, newsworthy items via Facebook and Twitter, and via Whatsapp, sms and email.

WD ENTERS WIRELESS HOME NETWORKING MARKET, USHERS IN NEW ERA OF BLAZING FAST HD ENTERTAINMENT STREAMINGMy Net™ Family of Dual-Band Routers with Exclusive FasTrack™ Technology Accelerate Video and Games using Intelligent, Real-time Entertainment Prioritization

WD® the world’s leader in external storage solutions and maker of the popular WD TV® media player family, recently unveiled its first line of wireless home networking products in India, designed specifically to accelerate movies, video and gaming, delivering a premium high-definition entertainment experience. With the My Net family of powerful and easy-to-use home networking products, WD debuts its exclusive FasTrack technology that instantly detects entertainment traffic on the network and fast-forwards it to gaming consoles, media players, smart TVs, tablets, smartphones, computers and other Wi-Fi connected devices.

Pricing & AvailabilityThe My Net Family of Dual-Band Routers will be available at all leading electronics retailers and stores from the third week of September 2012.

Model My Net N600

My Net N750

My Net N900

My Net N900

My Net N900

Central (1TB)

Central (2TB)

MSRP `5,699 `7,199 `11,999 `20,999 `25,999

JUST IN


Micromax Introduces HookUp with “FREE” messaging services HookUp, a mobile messaging application, allows users to exchange pictures, music, videos, send and receive messages and take the advantage of a completely free messaging service. A single application, HookUp combines the best of IM chat and text messaging service.Micromax’s latest Android phone A25 Smarty will announce the launch of free messaging through which a HookUp user can send messages to even a non-HookUp user free of cost. Now, A25 Smarty users can send up to 330 free messages per month for a year giving full return on the amount paid for the device.

The new G-Form iPad Extreme Sleeve 2The soft, flexible, lightweight, water-resistant Extreme Sleeve™ 2, utilizing RPT™ – Reactive Protection Technology, a composite blend of PORON® XRD™ material and proprietary G-Form materials and technology, has all the qualities of the original iPad Extreme Sleeve, but with additional RPT™ edge and zipper protection. It also has a slightly larger interior to accommodate the iPad2 with Smart Cover. Also available for 11” & 13” sleeves to protect your laptop. The G-Form Extreme Sleeve™ offers consistent, repeated impact absorption for dependable performance throughout the life of the product. Available in both yellow and black, it is easily cleanable, durable, abrasion-resistant and covered by a limited 1 year warranty.Extreme Sleeve2 10” for iPad– Black and Yellow Colour- MRP 3999-http://g-form.com/products/extreme-sleeve-2-for-iPad/. Not only Tablet, we offer protection for laptop also, Extreme Sleeve for Laptop 11” MRP 5399, 13” MRP 6499 also available. Extreme Edge for 7” & 10” Tablet – 7” MRP 2599 and 10” MRP 3499.

KEY FEATURESSingle Entry Point: SMS and IM-ChatEasy contact list management• Easy invite new contact• SPAM/Block list

Rich sharing feature• Image/Photo, Video, Audio, Doodle, Contact, Location

Best-in-class Performance• Less Memory Consumption• Less Battery / Data Usage Consumption• Faster Push Speed• Less Bandwidth


A new member of the buzz town where every cookie crumbles with the wire, mobile money has grabbed

the attention in a way that no other mobile services have. What’s rewarding in this case is its diversification into fields like savings and insurance. The phenomenon has turned out to be a rage and it’s catching up first for one and all. Kenya-based M-PESA continues to be the global leader and the benefits from increased market efficiency, consumer risk-sharing and third party utilizations are significant. However, mobile money can no longer be considered an isolated phenomenon, and with time it will mature to new challenges and benefits that will influence its developmental potential.

The tech trends Keeping aside the big fuss, one thing that needs to be underlined

Mobile Money-What lies next

here is that mobile money services is banking upon a simple technology. What’s alarming here is the accelerated growth which has encouraged some emerging trends. It’s not surprising that many countries have smart phones to buy as low as $100 and when you consider the second hand markets some consumers will still have options like using the SMS and USSD channels.There are two additional technologies as well namely; near field communication (NFC) and biometrics. Now, they are undoubtedly questionable. Speaking on the same line we have , NFC which has already depicted a phone to communicate with, say, a cash register through merely waving them together, has long been promised as a revolution in mobile money; however, the need to install new infrastructure to interact with NFC-enabled phones means this may be slower to grow. On a similar note, biometric identification technologies are fast growing along with their

expense and reliability (which is, let’s face it, extremely limited).

Bigger promises The success of M-PESA speaks of innovation and investment in a private sector. This brings us close to the area of emerging discussion that is counter linked to competition and incompatibility. The World Bank does not have a position on competition in Kenya’s mobile money market, but the report does note that regulators around the globe are exploring what type of regulation is appropriate to ensure competition. In case of Nigeria, interoperability has been mandated to avoid a single provider dominating; in others – including Kenya – regulators are justifiably hesitant to stymie the market’s development through premature rules. As the report says, “The appropriate form of regulation is still emerging and will depend on context.” Supporting competitive market can take many forms – including

through price regulation – but ultimately the goal is about ensuring that the benefits of mobile money reach as many people as possible in a sustainable manner.Scope for innovationMobile money services are focused on moving money over distance (that is, peer-to-peer transfers), but customers would also want a drift from the ability to affordably and reliably move money over time (that is, savings, insurance and credit). Understanding the essence of consumer needs might do the here and give all a scope of innovation.

TECH THAT


Corporate Office : 704, Ring Road Mall, Sector-3, Rohini, Delhi. Tel. : 011-47074444, Fax : +91-11-47074499 Email : [email protected]

Branch Offices : Mumbai : 09892088651 Kolkatta : 09830517744 Jaipur : 09799211188 Ahmedabad : 09374232944 Hyderabad : 09390377744

IMS Mercantiles Pvt. Ltd.

Web : www.imsmercantiles.in

Small size, saves work space and feel extraordinary.

Simple imitation metal bright. Can be used wth

& Can also connect with

Desktop Pc’s with Bluetooth Dongle. Operating

Distance upto 10 mtrs.

iPhone, iPad, Tablet PC & other gadgets having

Bluetooth functionality

Bluetooth Wireless KeyboardAllows you to use DC input voltage from your Car.

in built USB Port

MP3/MP4, Mobile Phones, & other Digital Device.

10 DC Connector

90W 15-20 Volt

Over Current/ Voltage/ Short circuit Protection

You can charge

most of the leading Laptop brand & also

to charge your

Select your matched fits to your laptop.

Maximum Power Out put : Output Voltage :

Universal Notebook DC AdaptorThis 2-in-1 Travel Charger Kit to quick charge your

anywhere at

Home or in a car. Compatible with most USB Devices

The kit

with 2 in built USB port for charging device

Blackberry Mobiles, iPad, iPod, Smart Phones,

other Mobiles, MP3/MP4 & digital Devices

includes a Home Power Adapter & Car Power

Adapter

USB Mini Travel Charger (2-in-1) USB Travel Charger (10-in-1) KitMulti functional lightweight USB rectractable

10-in1 Cable including a Home Adapter & a Car

Adapter with inbuilt USB Port to quick charge

your

etc. anytime anywhere.

Blackberry, iPhone, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson,

Motorola, LG & other mobile phones or Digital Devices

like MP3/MP4, GPS, Digital Camera

* : Batteries with capacity up to 1000mAh can be charged approximately twice. # : Batteries with capacity up to 1000mAh can be charged in approximately 1 Hr.

Charging Solutions for your

etc. on the go..Smart Phones, Mobiles, MP3/MP4

Quick Charge your

in approxSmart Phones, Mobiles,

MP3/MP4 1 Hr.

Fully your

approx twice*

charge Smart Phones, MMP3/MP4

obiles,

High Capacity

2200mAh

1000mA

USB Output

5V

Safety Protection System

Inbuilt Safety Protection System Ensure your

Device Safety

Can Charge in Carwith Digitek USB

Car Adapter

Can Charge from your Computer,

Laptop/Notebook USB

Can Charge in Home with Digitek USB Home Adapter

iPhone/iPod LG Micro USB Mini USB NDSL Nokia PSP Samsung Samsung Sony Ericsson

Available Connectors to charge your Device

Different Colours

on all Digitek Products


iPhone 5vs

vs

FACE OFF

Nokia Lumia 920

SamsungGalaxy S III


It wasn’t surprising to see Samsung take a dig at the recently announced iPhone 5, but what was unexpected – was that even Nokia would follow suit and do something similar. Both these smartphone makers have highlighted what their flagship models have better

in comparison to Apple’s new iPhone. The best-selling Galaxy S III is the leader of the droid gang, while the newly introduced Nokia Lumia 920 is seemingly the best that the WP8 camp will be able to offer. Apple certainly managed to squeeze quite a lot of cool hardware under the hood of

the super slim iPhone 5, but its competitors haven’t stood idle either. So is the iPhone 5 good enough to face those two behemoths in a fierce specs battle and come out victorious?Well, it’s still quite hard to say just yet. Till the new iPhone 5 reaches here in India officially, we can only assume it will work just as well as it is in the US. Additionally the Nokia Lumia 920 is only expected in Q4 of this year, so we can only look at the impressive spec sheet and assume how that flagship model running the all new WP 8 is going to be. Size-wise the iPhone 5 is the smallest at 4 inches and might not have a dedicated GPU

like the other 2. But, the keynote presentation surely showed that the iPhone 5 will be able to handle gaming and HD videos without even the slightest of problems. So, in the end – it might just come down to which OS you prefer or which phone appeals to you the most. The camera on the iPhone 5 is touted to be the best, but the Lumia 920 might just pack in a surprise or two. We’ll wait till all 3 phones can be compared side-to-side once they are all available in India. Till then, we bring you their spec sheet so that you can make an informed decision yourselves.

APPLE IPHONE 5 SAMSUNG GALAXY S III NOKIA LUMIA 920OS Apple iOS 6 Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich Windows Phone 8

(upgradable to 4.1 Jelly Bean)

DISPLAY 4-inch 4.8-inch 4.5-inch

PureMotion HD+HD Super AMOLEDw/ Corning Gorilla GlassLED-backlit IPS TFT w/ Corning Gorilla Glass 2

PIXEL DENSITY

~326 ppi pixel density ~306 ppi pixel density ~332 ppi pixel density

RESOLUTION 1136 x 640 HD (1280 x 720) HD (1280 x 768)

HEIGHT 123.8 mm 136.6mm 130.3 mm

WIDTH 58.5 mm 70.6mm 70.8 mm

THICKNESS 7.6 mm 8.6mm 10.7 mm

WEIGHT 112 grams 133 grams 185 grams

PROCESSOR Apple A6 1.4GHz quad-core 1.5GHz dual-core

Cortex A9 processor Krait processor

GPU Mali-400MP Adreno 225

RAM TBA 1GB 1GB

STORAGE 16GB / 32GB / 64GB 16GB / 32GB / 64GB 32GB

MICROSD CARD SLOT

No Yes, up to 64GB No

PRIMARY CAMERA

8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, 8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels, 8 MP, 3264×2448 pixels

PRIMARY CAMERA EXTRAS

Touch focus, geo-tagging, face detection, panorama, HDR, Simultaneous HD video and image recording

Simultaneous HD video and image recording, geo-tagging, touch focus, face and smile detection, image stabilization

Carl zeiss optics, optical image stabilization, autofocus, dual-LED flash, Geo-tagging

FRONT CAMERA

720p 1.9MP 1.3MP

BATTERY -- Li-Ion 2100 mAh Li-Ion 2000 mAh

WI-FI Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, Wi-Fi+Cellular mode, Wi-Fi hotspot

Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot

802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot

NETWORK 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100CDMA 800 / 1900 – for Verizon

3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100

4G Network LTE (regional) 4G Network LTE 800 / 1800 / 2600 / 900 / 2100

USB Yes, proprietary 9-pin connector Yes, microUSB v2.0 (MHL), USB On-the-go Yes, microUSB (MHL) v2.0

Bluetooth Yes, v4.0 with A2DP, EDR Yes, v4.0 with A2DP, EDR Yes, v3.1 with A2DP, EDR


NHL fans are staring down the barrel of another lost season. Team owners and the players association stand at each other’s throats for the second time in under a decade, and neither side seems willing to bend. For those of us obsessed with our respective hockey teams (go Isles!) and deeply saddened by the prospect of being forced to watch the NBA, NHL 13 may be the only place we can go for respite. And that’s the first dose of good news loyal NHL fans have received in a while, because real hockey or not, NHL 13 is a fun, engaging and deep iteration of

the world’s best sport.Right off the bat, you’ll notice some old fallbacks that you can jump right into. Play a scrimmage against the AI or a friend, start a season as any team you choose, or jump into the role of general manager and control your organization’s destiny from the front office (and cozy sky box). The latter is a mode I spent a considerable amount of time with this year, bringing my beloved New York Islanders through a season and into an unexpected playoff berth. But in playing actual games on the ice as opposed to managing from the tranquility of a quiet, digital

office, I came to enjoy the more overt tweaks and fixes EA made this year to make NHL 13 a more realistic experience.This new dose of realism is derived from what EA calls "True Performance Skating." Developer buzzterm aside, True Performance Skating marks a paradigm shift in the series by making the very act of skating less arcadey and more realistic. That means no more turning on a dime when barreling full speed towards the boards or shadowing a rushing player without sacrificing some modicum of control. What it does mean – easily understandable to anyone who grew up playing

hockey – is that speed sacrifices control, and staying in control, in turn, sacrifices speed.Such a system changes the way you’ll play NHL 13, but you’ll quickly adapt to this more realistic take. Hockey is a positional game – far more than casual fans understand it to be – and NHL 13 forces your hand by making you play it as such or reaping the consequences of failing to do so. Instead of playing the body while skating backwards into your own zone, you may opt to play it angularly, sacrificing an easy-to-save shot you know your goalie can handle instead of going in for the check, and likely missing in

NHL 13 Seemingly the only hockey this season...NHL 13 Seemingly the only hockey this season...

GAME REVIEW


the process. Likewise, dumping-and-chasing won’t be so much about a straight skate for the puck, but instead knowing when you’re beat and subsequently letting off the gas a bit. If you don’t, you’ll be left in the dust during the ensuing rush.Still, for this seeming lack of logic, EA has gone out of its way to change its NHL series in pretty dynamic ways considering the developer has under a year to iterate on last year’s product. For instance, the AI has adjusted with new attention paid to realistic skating physics. The claim is that EA spent more time on AI this year than in the three years prior

combined. Players can now skate backwards more easily, cradle and protect the puck with greater emphasis, and choose from a growing number of neutral zone tendencies and overall play styles. Goaltenders are smarter and less inclined to let up easy goals, like one-timers and wrap-arounds. They’re also more acrobatic than they’ve ever been – mirroring the real game we know and love – and can even move individual limbs while sprawling and diving, bringing a Hasek-esque like look and feel to NHL 13’s armorednetminders.This emphasis on presentation oozes into every facet of NHL

13 and isn’t only evident when actually playing. Slow load times and some menu stuttering aside, the game looks beautiful. Games are presented as they would be on NBC Sports, replete with the familiar commentary of Gary Thorne and Bill Clemente. Ambient sounds of the arena, the crowd and the on-ice product are all expertly executed as well, supplementing the game’s high visual fidelity. Animations are occasionally awkward (as they appear to be in all EA Sports products), but that has more to do with the constant number-crunching behind the scenes than anything else. NHL 13 is a sight

to behold, as several editors who have watched me play the game in the IGN offices brought it upon themselves to let me know. It plays virtually identically online and off, sacrificing none of the bells of whistles regardless of who you want to play with and where.

But as great as this idea is in premise – and as fun as it is to partake in – there are some puzzling choices that take away from its realism. This is especially true when considering some old moments, such as Gretzky’s big game against the Flyers in 1981 or Doug Gilmour’s overtime heroics against the Blues in the 1993 playoffs. In those games, players are cast in the role as Gretzky or Gilmour but are surrounded by the current roster of the Oilers and Maple Leafs, respectively, while playing against the current rosters of their opponents. It simply doesn’t make any sense and was disappointing when I was expecting to see some familiar faces accompanying these great players, not guys who were, at best, in diapers when some of these events took place.The other new, notable mode is called GM Connected. EA claims that GM Mode in its NHL series is the most popular offline mode, and I can understand why. It’s totally engrossing if you’re a hockey nerd. EA decided to leverage this popularity by bringing it online and accommodating up to 750 players in a single league. That’s no typo: each league can consist of up to 750 real people from around the world, acting as commissioner, general managers and even players.

Combining GM Connected and NHL Moments Live with the aforementioned offline season, GM and scrimmage modes, as well as the ability to play in one-off playoffs, tournaments, practices and more, NHL 13 gives you incredible bang for your buck. And yes, you can even create your own pro once again this year (or even play as some well-known veterans from the NHL’s past) and grind through the junior and minor leagues as you ascend towards NHL glory.In other words, there’s so much to do in NHL 13. And in a year looking less and less likely to provide the real thing, NHL 13 proves a mighty promising distraction.

NHL 13 Seemingly the only hockey this season...NHL 13 Seemingly the only hockey this season...


At 1:31 a.m. ET Aug 6th, the Curiosity rover's "seven minutes of terror" evaporated

in a swirl of fine-grained soil as six aluminum wheels touched the red planet for the first time. NASA had nailed the riskiest Mars landing ever. If [the rover's essential systems] are working, then comes a gradual unfolding, deploying, and revving up of the ten science instruments and cameras that are Curiosity's reason for being.It's a process that will take days, and in some cases weeks or months. But the [Curiosity] team will know soon whether the key power and communication systems have sustained any damage during the 352-million-mile [567-million-kilometer] journey or during the high-wire landing.Communication is largely accomplished through relays to three satellites orbiting Mars or through the Deep Space Network, a system of giant interconnected antenna dishes in Madrid, Spain; Canberra, Australia; and the Mojave Desert.Assuming that communications are established, the first order

of business will be to verify the health of the small nuclear battery that will provide power for the rover. Curiosity carries ten pounds of plutonium-238 dioxide as a heat source, which is then used to produce the onboard electricity needed to move the rover, operate the instruments, and keep the frigid nighttime cold at bay.

Curiosity Unpacks for a Two-Year VisitIf all is well, what follows will be a highly choreographed unpacking of the rover.First the mast goes up, with its suite of cameras. Weather and radiation monitoring instruments are turned on, as well as the laser-camera combination that can zap rocks up to 23 feet [7 meters] away and take readings of the "excited" gases released in the process.By "sol 10" ("day 10"—each Martian solar day, known as a sol, is 24.66 hours long), all ten instruments should have been started up to see if they're working, and Curiosity is scheduled to take its first tentative steps—kind of like

shaking one's legs to get rid of the pins and needles after a long journey.Only around sol 30 will the seven-foot [two-meter] robotic arm be tested, grabbing Martian soil for the first time to crush and deliver to the two rover mini-laboratories—Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) and Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin). (Get the basics on the Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory rover.)All the while, scientists will be determining exactly where Curiosity is in relation to both the walls of the 80-mile-diameter [130-kilometer-diameter] Gale Crater and the three-mile-high [five-kilometer-high] Mount Sharp in the middle of its huge depression.

Mars TimeGradually, the science team will take more control of the mission and address the first big questions: Where should Curiosity be headed? And then, which rocks should be sampled? Where does the soil look especially interesting and worthy of a full and time-consuming examination?"We'll have about two hundred

to three hundred scientists on site at JPL, and I can assure you it will be both fascinating and grueling," says Joy Crisp, deputy project scientist for the MSL [Mars Science Laboratory, another name for Curiosity] project."We'll be working 16-hour days for those first months, and we'll be entirely on Mars time." That means the data and instructions coming and going to Curiosity are pushed 40 minutes later each day to compensate for the extra length of the Mars sol. Eventually, the JPL team will be having science meetings and making decisions about the next day's instructions and activities at 3:00 in the morning.But seldom in human history has science had an opportunity this grand. Curiosity will be looking for the carbon-based building blocks of life, using instruments that have a good chance of finding them if they're present; it will be searching for habitats that could have once supported life; and just possibly it will find some biosignatures that show, or at least strongly suggest, that Mars was indeed once home to living things.

The roverhas landed.What’s next

CELESTIAL


Apple Introduces New iPod touch & iPod nano World’s Most Popular Music Players Reinvented With Ultra-Thin Designs & Amazing New Features

iPod touch

On the same day Apple introduced iPhone 5, they also revealed the new lineup of

the world’s most popular music players including the incred-ible all-new iPod touch and reinvented iPod nano. The new iPod touch is the thinnest iPod touch ever and features a bril-liant 4-inch Retina display; a 5 megapixel iSight camera with 1080p HD video recording; Ap-ple’s A5 chip; Siri, the intelligent assistant; and iOS 6, the world’s most advanced mobile operat-ing system. The new iPod touch comes in a gorgeous new ultra-thin and light anodized alu-minum design, and for the first time ever, iPod touch comes in five vibrant colours. The new

iPod nano is the thinnest iPod ever featuring a 2.5-inch Multi-Touch display; convenient navi-gation buttons; built-in Bluetooth for wireless listening; and the new iPod nano comes in seven gor-geous new colours.

“With over 350 million sold, iPod is the world’s most popular and beloved music player,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice presi-dent of Worldwide Marketing. “Music lovers may have a difficult time deciding between the rein-vented iPod nano, the thinnest iPod ever, and the all-new iPod touch with its stunning 4-inch Retina display, 5 megapixel iSight camera and ultra-thin design—both in beautiful new colours.”

The new iPod touch has been re-designed with a brilliant 4-inch Retina display in an ultra-thin and light anodized aluminum body—the thinnest iPod touch ever at just 6 mm thin and weighing just 88 grams. With Apple’s dual-core A5 chip inside, iPod touch delivers up to twice the processing pow-er and up to seven times faster graphics than the fourth genera-tion iPod touch, all while maintain-ing incredible battery life of up to 40 hours of music playback and up to eight hours of video playback.* And, for the first time ever, iPod touch is available in five vibrant colours.

The new iPod touch includes a 5 megapixel iSight camera with au-

tofocus, support for 1080p video recording with video image sta-bilization, face detection and an LED flash, and the new panorama feature that lets you capture gor-geous panoramic photos by sim-ply moving the camera across a scene. Every new iPod touch comes with a colour-matched iPod touch loop, a clever and conveni-ent wrist strap you can use while taking photos, recording video and playing games.

The new iPod touch comes with iOS 6, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system with over 200 features, and for the first time, features Siri, the intelligent as-sistant that helps you get things done just by asking. Siri arrives on the new iPod touch with support

EYES ON


iPod nano

for more languages, easy access to sports scores, restaurant rec-ommendations and movie listings. The new iPod touch also includes: built-in Facebook integration with ability to post directly from Siri; Shared Photo Streams via iCloud; and other key iOS features like iM-essage, FaceTime, Mail and Game Center. Now you can wirelessly display your iPod touch screen right on your HDTV with AirPlay Mirroring, allowing you to stream photos, videos, music, apps and play games on your big screen TV.

The reinvented iPod nano is the thinnest iPod ever, at just 5 mm, and features the largest display ever built into an iPod nano, allow-ing you to enjoy more of your mu-sic, photos and widescreen videos. The new iPod nano features a 2.5-inch Multi-Touch display to make navigating your music even easier; a home button to quickly get back to your home screen; and con-venient buttons to easily control volume and quickly play, pause or change songs without looking. The new iPod nano gives music lov-ers built-in Bluetooth for wireless listening with Bluetooth-enabled headphones, speakers and cars. At 30 hours, the new iPod nano offers the longest music playback of any iPod nano so you can enjoy your

playlists and FM radio even longer. With built-in fitness features in-cluding a pedometer and support for Nike+, iPod nano users will be ready to take their music walking, running or anywhere they like. The new iPod nano comes in seven gorgeous new colours with fun colour-matched wallpapers.

With the App Store on iPod touch, users have access to the world’s largest and best collection of over 700,000 apps, including over 175,000 game and entertainment titles. Customers also have the iTunes Store at their fingertips, giving them instant access to the world’s largest catalogue of over 26 million songs, 190,000 TV epi-sodes, 45,000 movies and 1.5 mil-lion books to purchase and down-load directly to their iPod touch.

Both iPod touch and iPod nano come with the new Lightning connector that is smaller, smarter and more durable than the pre-vious connector. The all-digital Lightning connector features an adaptive interface that uses only the signals that each accessory requires, and it’s reversible so you can instantly connect to your ac-cessories. The Lightning-to-30-pin Adapter is also available to con-nect iPod touch and iPod nano

to legacy 30-pin accessories. iPod touch and iPod nano also come with the new Apple EarPods fea-turing a breakthrough design for a more natural fit, increased du-rability and an incredible acoustic quality typically reserved for high-er-end earphones.

PRICING & AVAILABILITY

The new iPod touch will be avail-able in October through Apple Authorized Resellers. The fourth generation iPod touch is available in black and white for INR15,900 (INR 14,009 ex VAT) in a 16GB model and INR 23,900 inc VAT (INR 21,057 ex VAT) in a 32GB model through Apple Authorized Resell-ers. iPod touch requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 port, Mac OS X v10.6.8 or later and iTunes 10.7 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows 7, Win-dows Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 3) or later and iTunes 10.7 or later. An Apple ID is required for some iPod touch features. iOS 6 will also be available as a free software update for iPod touch (fourth generation) customers allowing them to expe-rience the amazing new features including Facebook-enabled apps like Photos; Shared Photo Streams

via iCloud; and Passbook, the simplest way to get all your pass-es in one place.

iPod nano will be available in October in pink, yellow, blue, green, purple, silver and slate for a suggested price of INR12,500 inc VAT (INR 11,013 ex VAT) in a 16GB model through Apple Au-thorized Resellers. iPod shuffle is available today in pink, yel-low, blue, green, purple, silver and slate for a suggested price of INR 3,700 inc VAT (INR 3,260 ex VAT) in a 2GB model through Apple Authorized Resellers. iPod shuffle requires a Mac with a USB 2.0, Mac OS X v10.6.8 or later and iTunes® 10.7 or later; or a Win-dows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows 7, Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 3) or later and iTunes 10.7 or later. iPod nano requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 port, Mac OS X v10.6.8 or later and iTunes 10.7 or later; or a Win-dows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows 7, Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 3) or later and iTunes 10.7 or later.


Aneesh is a multi award winning lifestyle photographer & writer based in India. He shoots everything from food to people all over the world. Some of the names include BBC Good Food,

Vanity Fair, Lonely Planet, Marie Claire, Silver Kris, Times of India & Hindustan Times. Aneesh has been comissioned for various exhibitions. The last two were for the Indo German Urban Mela and Cox & Kings.

Camera and lens used and the best feature about it:I use Nikon, Hasselblad and Canon cameras. Nikon D3s, Canon 5D Mark II, Hasselblad H4D, various lenses (all f2.8) from 14mm to 200mm. My goto kit for most work is the Nikon D3s with the 14-24, 24-70, 70-200 lenses. The ISO range of D3s is just phenomenal. I have exhibited images printed 5 feet wide which have been shot at ISO 9000.

Photographer & His Gear

Aneesh Bhasin

JUST IN


“A picture is worth 1,000 words” – Your commentsIt is true, especially in an age where we are even more impatient, a lot of times a photoessay might work rather than a text heavy article.

A word of advice for young budding photography enthusiastGet into photography as a career only if you think you cannot do anything better. Else it’s not worth taking the plunge as a career. As a hobby, try and focus more on composition and learning about lenses.

A point and shoot camera you would recommendiPhone 4s/5

A SLR you would recommendEntry level - Nikon D3200, Prosumer - Nikon D700, Pro - Nikon D800

Favorite shooting destinationGermany

What do you enjoy most photographing?Landscapes

On photography in India:We have a long way to go in India when it comes to photography. We have some of the best talent in the world, which is fantastic. Issue is with most new comers. The number of people I come across who don't have enough technical skills is simply disturbing.

A photographer you look up to & Why?Prabhuda Dasgupta. He is easily the best Indian photographer in my opinion. His work was simple, elegant and inspiring. His passing away has been a big loss to the photography community.

Website: www.aneeshbhasin.com

Follow Aneesh on Twitter: @aneeshb


In coming years, the tourism market will have something grand to offer; something beyond the regular holiday

destinationpackages. The trip to earth’s celestial neighbour is certainly nojoke and we have enough reasons to believe the halcyon days are back again.It all starts with competition and when two great worldpowers are up against each other, you can’t afford to expect something ordinary.Hence, the moon ride. Both America and the Soviet Union has shown great endeavour to give shape to their ideologies of extra-terrestrial exploration. The over-hyped lunar trip might turn out to be the most extravagant sightseeing tour that you will ever come across in this life.

Who are the players?Excalibur Almaz, which happens to be a space company based on the Isle of Man, a British dependency in the Irish Sea, became the second company after Space Adventures, an

Tour de moon-Bring back the halcyon days

American space-tourism firm to offer tickets for a commercial lunar trip. The rates for the celestial ride are fixed at $150m a seat, a price that includes months of ground-based training. However, if you are still thinking, the moon ride is a mere flyby. So, your chances of becoming Armstrong are bleak.

How’s it coming out?The Americans were the first in the space race but with the Russians in the picture it’s definitely a time for rematch and they are undoubtedly the favourites. Both Excalibur Almaz and Space Adventures are employing Russian-made rockets and spacecraft. Space Adventures plans to re-engineer the veteran Soyuz craft that it has used to shuttle seven space tourists up to the International Space Station (ISS). On the other hand, we have Excalibur Almaz intending to redesign two Almaz space stations originally made from Soviet armed forces.However, in spite of all that fitting and reshuffling, Excalibur Almaz's space stations still demand a lot more concentration before it gets converted to a full-fledged

lunar aircraft to carry passengers commercially. Ion thrusters, a high-tech propulsion system in which propellant is ejected using an electric field is being used to attach the engines which will be powered from the station solar panels. The assumed time period for the entire process to get over will be six months. Now, this is where space tourism business receives a hitch at the other end from Space Adventures' chemical-powered craft in just six days!

What are the risks?Unpredictable deadly solar flares, giant masses of stellar energy having thecapacity to bombard the aircraft with radiation and practically put the passengers into frying pans! Plus there are temperature depressions which might add up to the trauma on this pleasure ride.

How is tech helping?Safety is the main concern here. In order to protect its passengers, the company has plans to build an internal “storm shelter” that uses the spacecraft's water supplies to absorb radiation. However, the word is neither

Excalibur Almaz nor Space adventures can make it to the final destination before at least three years from now.

Last words…No matter what, this is a grand moment for tourism business at large. It’s the digging up of a new avenue with both he companies spending millions on their marketing monikers to grab the attention of rich entrepreneurs and thrill-seekers, some of them who have already been to ISS.Space Adventures claims to have sold one ticket, already. On the other hand, Almaz has a bigger deal for its first paying customers in the shape of company equity. However, the pleasures of this joyride are less than the odds. Firstly, the asking price is seven times the $20m cost of a ride to the ISS. Secondly, the lunar ride will cost you several months of physical and psychological training before you can make your way into the capsule but what remains a debate is whether billionaires would trust tech completely to survive the joyride of moon willing to spend months in a beefy metal tube with foods in the fridge and a lot to pray for.

Tour de moonBring back the halcyon days

CELESTIAL


ONLINE REPUTATIONBetter safe than worry

The web is a wood of scandal mongers and rumour bears. There is very little chance for you to keep your backyard clean. Here’s a close look at some favourite case studies and ways to deal scandal mongering.You Facebook and you Twitter and you Google at the same time. The web is a market where rumours are bought and sold at same levels. In between, your stuff is all snitched up and

pray if you don’t take heath, only the Lord can save you from digging your own grave, unless otherwise.Before we get down to the basics, here’s a case study from Forbes to prove how boring, irritating and annoying an online rumour or a scandal is. Erik Kopelman, a business development professional for a New York City Internet company, was haunted by an accusation that appeared on the Web in 1997, when he was on the board of the student association at the State University of New York at Binghamton. “It was an accusation printed in the student paper about the misuse of funds,” he says. “I knew I could explain it away if it ever came up, and nothing ever came of it, but for the first two years I was job-hunting, I was worried. Twelve years later, the post doesn’t rise above the second page of search results when Kopelman is Googled.”

Kopel man didn’t do anything on an active note to get away with it, but a little precaution in this case could have saved him a lot faster

than what he had to do. By all arguments, the best possible measure to manage and protect you online reputation is to generate positive search results that rankshigh on search and “edge out anything negative

on the list of search results.” Take Kopelman’s case for instance. Recent measures include multiple hits in his

LinkedIn profile and all other items that were connected to his involvement with charities including the American Cancer Society and American Liver Foundation.

Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter all rank highly in Google searches. Especially LinkedIn,which sends a positive message to all its potential employers. No wonder it’s the most widely viewed professional network for job seekers and employers alike. The fact is 78% of recruiters use search engines in their research when they screen new candidates. Your professional resume is generally the first thing that people come across. However, if you do have an active Facebook accountthe cold search can turn into a warm one. Hence, a few precautionary measures are welcome.

You need to know the basics-What needs to be done

1. Set up a news feed for your name so you can monitor when and if you pop up on blogs or in news stories.2.Register your name as a domain name, and sign up for every social network that you can think of. It shall guarantee and certify your online presence.3. Make sure whatever you post on web is on a serious note and avoidany pics or postings that could land you in trouble. Take caution for your friends and group networks as well so that they don’t do the same thing on your behalf or involving you.It was found in a survey for online reputation that’s killing people how 35% of recruiters say they have eliminated a candidate because of something they found on the Web. 4. Once you’ve established yourself online, use buzzwords that appear in job postings to describe what you do.

5. Check the boxes on LinkedIn that say you are open for opportunities. Note that 80 percent of bloggers post a corrigendum to correct any facts that they have written wrongly. However, chances of the offending material to surface are always there.6. Google has launched a tool that lets you create profiles and direct what appears first when someone conducts a search.

Having said that, the precautionary measure doesn’t take out the fun from your life. In other words, there’s no harm in you posting a pic where you are snapped as sipping on a beer at a wedding. A man is active in his social life too –that’s the message the world will get from this snap of yours. And everyone is pretty cool with it because at the end of the line, you are your own brand and you owe it to yourself.

TECH PUNCH


He sued him for A, B and Z! We hear that statement and in our mind runs a short film where a court scene, allegations and a lot of money flash past. Suing is an infamous verb, to be ‘sued’ an infamous happening and to ‘sue’, a notorious activity known to be used by people who crave to get noticed and want some money out of someone else.

Now. Not always the case is as mentioned above. This is just a stereotype created by people. Oh! Is it? Well, lets not get into the subjective dynamics of people’s psyche and opinions.

Kodak, a name that was once a pioneer in cameras, can be said to have almost started the trend of cameras world-over. Where does it stand today? It has reduced to just making camera parts. And why is that? Because of obvious evolution in technology over the years! Is that a bad thing? It is not for us, but for Kodak it simply means ‘bankruptcy’.

For these reasons Kodak went on a suing spree! It filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) against the apple and RIM and alleged that iPhones and camera-enabled BlackBerry devices violate its patent for colour image previewing. According to Kodak, other licensees of its digital-imaging technology include LG, Motorola, Nokia and Sony Ericsson.

Whoa! That is a long list. Well, it is like saying that ‘Mate, I crossed the pacific ocean before you did, so whenever you cross it, you gotta shout from rooftops that it was me who did it first and that you learnt the skill of swimming from me!’ Well even if you did not go the same way he did, you would be forced to say it! We think that is a wee bit unfair. Isn’t it?

Kodak wants compensation, recognition, the works.. But you know, to rise high, you have to be above others and not try to push others below you. This whole Kodak thing just reminds me of a kid with a candy in hand who is jealous of other cooler kids with brighter and bigger candies than hisown. So to be better, get that better candy in your hand for yourself love and stop catapulting their candies down.

Hilarious as it may sound, from creating a click, they went out and about to sue! And now all they do is stand in a court dates queue!

WhOz sUiNg wHoM?????

CONTROVERSY


OPENING SALVO

There is always something going on between the giant mobile companies like Apple, Google, HTC, Nokia, Samsung and others as well. We saw a lot of patent cases and legal battles among these companies, but nowadays the situation is the worst and as a result of ongoing tension Apple registered the mega patent case against the Samsung that they won in the last month. In reply Samsung is also planning to sue iPhone 5 because of the LTE connectivity.Recently Apple released the new version of their mobile operating system – iOS 6 with 200 new features, but more importantly Apple

comes out with its new mapping app -Apple maps and removed the Google Maps along with a built-in YouTube app from the iOS 6 that is really not a pleasant situation for the Google.Along with the Google Maps and new Apple Maps, Nokia Maps are also very famous on the mobile devices. So in this post I’m going to compare Google Maps vs. Apple Maps vs. Nokia Maps.

Google Maps Vs Apple Maps Vs Nokia Maps

Google MapsThe Google Maps is probably the best available mapping service. Actually it is an interactive mapping online application with 3D facility that allows seeing the maps view, satellite view, traffic view, and street view to find the direction or some place that you are looking for.Google also provides the desktop application of the Google Maps with the name of Google Earth that allows you to watch maps of all the countries using the internet connection of your PC. Google Maps is also available in Chinese language known as Google Ditu.Some top features of the Google Maps in comparison with Apple Maps and Nokia Maps are:No Offline Availability: You need to connect to the internet every time in order to use the Google Maps, so there is no offline availability. (Exception: Despite offline maps being available, it’s not actually available for all devices and all versions of Android.)Turn By Turn Navigation: At the time turn by turn navigation feature of the Google Maps is available in only 39 countries.

Public TransportYou can see public transport of more than 500 cities in the Google Maps.

Traffic Traffic details and visuals of 47 countries are available in the Google Maps.

Venue MapsYou can see venue maps of only 4 countries in the Google Maps.

FACE OFF


Apple MapsApple comes out with the new the mapping app in the iOS 6 known as Apple Maps powered partly by data from TomTom. The Apple Maps replaced the Google Maps that are available in the previous versions of the iOS, and now it looks like that iPhone and iPad owners are unable to use the Google Maps on the iOS 6 unless and until Google released some Google Maps app for the iOS.Apple Maps have 3D support with free visual and voice-assisted turn-by-turn directions feature. Apple Maps also allow the users to view the maps in both landscape and portrait mode that is quite user-friendly. Another prominent feature of the Apple Maps is the Yelp integration for local searches to see rating and reviews of the shops, restaurants, bars, and more.Compared features of the Apple Maps are:

No Offline AvailabilityJust like Google Maps you also need an internet connection while using the Apple Maps.Turn By Turn Navigation: At the time turn by turn navigation feature of the Apple Maps is available in only 56 countries.

Public TransportThe public transport feature is not available in the Apple Maps.Traffic: Traffic details and visuals of 23 countries are available in the Apple Maps.Venue Maps: The venue map feature is also not available in the Apple Maps.

Nokia MapsThe Nokia Maps that is also known as OVI Maps is a native Nokia mapping app that allows you to see maps of all the countries to find, explore, save, and share any place with your friends with 3D facility.

Compared features of the Nokia Maps areOffline Availability: Some features of the Nokia Maps can be used offline and without any internet access.

Turn By Turn Navigation:At the time turn by turn navigation feature of the Nokia Maps is available in more than 110 countries.

Public TransportYou can see public transport of more than 500 cities in the Nokia Maps.

TrafficTraffic details and visuals of 26 countries are available in the Nokia Maps.

Venue Maps You can see venue maps of only 38 countries in the Nokia Maps.

FINAL THOUGHTSBased on the compared facts Nokia Maps provide more features, but as Android and iOS are mostly used mobile operating systems therefore it reduced the use of Nokia Maps on most of the smartphones despite of the fact that Nokia Maps app is also available on the Android and iOS.On the other side Google Maps is the favorite app of the many users all around the world because of the available customizations and its ability to link with other Google apps. The Apple Maps are absolutely new and users’ reviews are also not promising because there are plenty of errors in it.


service operators and CE makers an encouragement to use the platform. You can even create shortcuts of your favorite channels on the home screens. Spanish channels are available on Dish Latino.

2. Intermediary app storesA third-party may launch its apps store to promote their apps by installing them on Google TV. This may radically alter the overall experience. However, a cable operator will provide those apps to its customers that work well with their own services. On the other hand, a CE maker may make use of its existing relations with the developers to switch to a separate marketplace from building its own app platform.

3. Cable BoxesCable set-top boxes may be the key to the success of Google TV. Earlier this year, the company had acquired Motorola’s set-top box business. This means that Motorola will eventually ship boxes powered with Google TV which will conveniently bring the platform to millions of TV sets worldwide.

4. CE MarketThough most TV manufacturers have their own smart TV platforms, nowadays more and more manufacturers seem to be inclined towards the Google TV platform. Samsung, Vizio and LG will be launching their Google TV sets by next year and even Sony has joined the Google TV camp. In a recent announcement, Google has hinted at more partner additions in the near future. This means by next year, five or six manufacturers are likely to join the Google TV camp. Google TV, though slightly expensive models, may become a de facto standard like android has become in the mobile phones market.

5. MultitaskingOne of the features of Google TV is that it can run multiple apps at the same time. Several social TV app-makers have all been trying to make out what you are watching at any particular time through different apps. From a technical viewpoint, this is burdensome and awkward. The next step was to develop a code to recognize your viewing pattern onto the TV and deliver corresponding data to the second screen or check you into social TV services.

However, this was only possible with live TV. Google TV, on the other hand, easily delivers similar and much more advanced services with internet content and VOD. Furthermore, it will also enable app developers to access data on which show is running.Without a doubt, Google TV is the innovative future in technology. It was generally considered to be a healthy competition for Apple TV, but it has truly gone off in its own direction. Though it is a TV, it has the full abilities of a PC, excluding the Microsoft Office and word processing ability of course. So, with Google TV everything is just a click away!There is a limitless future for Google TV technology due to the capabilities of the software. Though it seems that the 3D technology may survive due to its impressive advertisement campaign, Google TV and its ultimate competition will survive truly because it is the future.

Why GOOGLE TV stills seems to be the company’s

best play for the television

Google was initially formed as a search engine. Later, it expanded into various segments, and now Google steps into the world of television with Google TV. Google is currently working with various TV manufacturers, like Sony and LG, to integrate Google TV into their televisions and BluRay players. These players will solely be available through Best Buy. The good news is that you’ll just have to pay for the hardware and the Google TV service will be provided to you free of cost. Google TV also plans to integrate with video game equipments in future.Even though Google TV will be integrated to your television sets, you will have access to all the channels your cable operator provides. For example, even with the use of Google TV, Spanish channels are available on Dish Latino.There are five reasons why Google TV still seems to be the company’s best play for the television:

1. CustomizationGoogle TV home screens can be customized easily. People can either use simple applications to personalize their home screens or think out of the box by using the options provided by the Google TV. This feature should give the Words by Shannen

CONTRIBUTERS


Trendmicro India Pvt. Ltd. 501 & 502, 5th Floor, DLF Place, Saket, New Delhi – 110017 Phone: +91-11-4269 9000.Mumbai: 801, 8th Floor, Housefin Bhavan, Bandra Kurla Complex, Bandra (E), Mumbai – 400 051 Phone: +91-22-2657 3023.Bangalore: 511 - 512, 5th Floor, Prestige Meridian - I , 29 MG Road, Bengaluru – 560001 Phone: +91-080-4096 5068.

For more details contact: Technical Support No Ms. Avneet Kaur :- 91 88601 55562 mail to: [email protected] : 1800 425 2667

Smart Protection Network TechnologyNow With Cloud Based

*Onl

y fo

r Max

imum

Sec

urity

HURRY Festival Bonanza offerExciting opportunity to win fabulous gifts on every purchase and registration of Titanium product.So, rush now and get your Titanium Product and activate to get an assured gift.

Available for PC/ Laptop, Tablets and Smart Phones

� Real-Time Protection

� Light on Resources

� Parental Controls

� Secure Erase

� Data Theft Prevention

� Antivirus

� Antispam

� Smart Phone Protection*

� Socialize Safely*

G TRE IS ER

NOW!GI E

RE ST R

NOW!www.trendmicro.co.in

Bumper BonanzaWeekly Bonanza Monthly Bonanza

Technical Support No: 1800 425 2667 Offer valid from Septmber 1st to November 30, 2012


If every person onEarth aimed a laser pointerat the Moon at the same time, would it change colour?

Not if we use regular laser pointers.The first thing to consider is that not everyone can see the Moon at once. We could gather everyone in one spot, but we learned our lesson about that a few weeks ago. Instead, let’s just pick a time when the Moon is visible to as many people as possible. Since about 75% of the world’s population lives between 0°E and 120°E, we should try this while the Moon is somewhere over the Arabian Sea.We can try to illuminate either a new moon or a full moon. The new moon is darker, making it easier to see our lasers. But the new moon is a trickier target, because it’s mostly visible during the day—washing out the effect.Brightness aside, an ideal time would probably be 2:00 PM EST on December 27th, 2012, when a full moon will be high in the sky above Mumbai and Islamabad. At that point, the Moon will be visible to approximately five billion people—most of Asia, Europe, and Africa—about as

many as can ever see it at one time.But let’s pick a quarter moon instead, so we can see the effect on the dark side. We’ll avoid the December 21st quarter moon to avoid encouraging any Mayan nonsense, and pick the one on January 4th, 2013, half an hour after midnight (GMT). It’ll be day in East Asia but night in Africa and Europe.

THE TARGET: OUR MOON!The typical red laser pointer is about 5 milliwatts, and a good one has a tight enough beam to actually hit the Moon—though it’d be spread out over a large fraction of the surface when it got there. The atmosphere would distort the beam a bit, and absorb some of it, but most of the light would make it. Let’s assume everyone has steady enough aim to hit the Moon, but no more than that, and the light is spread evenly across the surface.At half an hour after midnight (GMT), everyone aims and presses

the button.What would happen? Nothing. Well, that’s disappointing.It makes sense, though. Sunlight bathes the Moon in a bit over a kilowatt of energy per square meter. Since the Moon’s cross-sectional area is around 10^13 square meters, it’s bathed in about 10^16 watts of sunlight—ten petawatts, or two megawatts per person—far outshining their five milliwatt laser pointer. There are varying efficiencies in each part of this system, but none of it changes that basic equation.

WHAT IF WE TRIED MORE POWER?5 milliwatts is wimpy. We can do better.A 1-watt laser is an extremely dangerous thing. It’s not just powerful enough to blind you—it’s capable of burning skin and setting things on fire. Obviously, they’re not legal for consumer purchase in the US.

Just kidding! You can pick one up for $300.So suppose we spend the $2 trillion to buy one-watt green lasers for everyone. (Memo to presidential candidates: this policy would win my vote.) In addition to being more powerful, green laser light is nearer to the middle of the visible spectrum, so the eye is more sensitive to it and it seems brighter.

The effect? Still nothing. DANG!The laser pointers we’re using put out about 150 lumens of light (more than most flashlights) in a beam 5 arc-minutes wide. This lights up the surface of the Moon with about half a lux of illumination—compared to about 130,000 lux from the sun. (Even if we aimed them all perfectly, it would only manage half a dozen lux over about 10% of the Moon’s face.)By comparison, the full moon lights up the Earth’s surface with about one lux of illumination—which means that not only would our lasers be too weak to see from Earth, but if you were standing on the Moon, the laser light on the landscape would be fainter than Moonlight is to us on Earth.

WHAT IF


Ok, let's step even more firmly outside the realm of plausibility.The clear distinction here is that this is a device for content consumption and not content creation. You will answer emails on it but not really type out the big ones. You may read a document on it but not torture type a 5-pager on it. You will use it for a presentation but after uploading it from the laptop you created it on. For quick updates, gaming, app and entertainment, massive consumption of content and fast browsing – the Tablet is king.

Which one?Well, the perfect tablet hasn’t been created yet but don’t let that stop you. Better screen resolution,

slightly thinner, 2 cameras, a massive and user friendly app store, an OS that really is intuitive in every way, battery life that goes on and on, all the ports that you need and most importantly a lower price point. So let me make this simpler. If you’re looking at multimedia, pretty games and massive apps choice then the iPad is the way to go. If you want more hardware wiz bang, USB and ports that don’t lock you in, more wireless freedom, more raw power, apps that are better geared to productivity – then an Android tablet is the right choice.

The In and Out of itHere’s the easy part that most people aren’t getting. A tablet is basically a dumb device. 90 percent of the fun and utility that you will get out of it will be from the applications and the add ons that you will download. So, don’t get too fixated with the hardware, the specs and what’s under the

hood. A few important things – Be very sure what screen size you are comfortable with. This is critical. Too big and it becomes unwieldy (which is why anything over 25cm is a huge mistake) and too small and you’ll feel it’s just like your mobile phone (after all the best Smart-phones now come with 10cm plus screen). A tablet must be portable enough to carry without a second thought and yet big enough for a family to do things together on it. If you really want things like video conferencing then look for a front facing camera but make sure the device comes with the software to do it right out of the box. Even more important, the tablet should be able to play most movie formats as there is nothing more frustrating than to have a huge movie collection and then having to re-encode them all. Other things that matter – not too many fiddly buttons on the front, multi-tasking is a must, a screen that is responsive, good built in speaker output and future readiness with 3G and Wi-fi.

OthersSo while it’s a two horse race right now between Apple iOS tablets and Android slates – it may well be a huge multi-front battle in the long run. We’ll see soon enough what Windows 8 has to offer. While some of the future tablets will be absolute clunkers, some will be better and atleast one will be an absolute killer. Even the new iPad and Android 4.0 will make great strides towards tablet perfection in the future. But don’t let what ‘may come’ become a deterrent to your current tablet dream. Anything you own, anything you buy – will eventually become redundant one day. Constantly waiting for the next version will mean that you buy nothing, EVER! Remember – it’s the utility you get today that matters – not the empty dreams of buying something tomorrow. The time to Tablet is – Now!


With F1 finally coming to India, the country will undoubtedly be swept by the motor racing frenzy that usually surrounds the sport. We bring to you not just the various Tracks and Races - but also the people behind F1. This season has been highly unpredictable and it might just go down to the last race to see who wins it all. With Fernando Alonso leading a chasing pack that is unwilling to give up, things are surely looking hotter than ever!!

1

. Austr

alia ▶

Melb

ourne ▶

18 M

arch

•

Laps 5

8 Lap

leng

th 3.3

0 mile

s | 20

11 W

inner:

S Ve

ttel |

2012

Winn

er: J B

utton

•

grandprix

.com.au

2

. Mala

ysia

▶ Se

pang ▶

25 M

arch

•

Laps 5

6 Lap

leng

th 3.4

4 mile

s | 20

11 W

inner

: S Ve

ttel |

2012

Winn

er : F

ernan

do Alon

so

• m

alaysi

angp.co

m.my

3. C

hina ▶ Sh

anghai

▶ 15

April

• La

ps 56 L

ap le

ngth

3.39 m

iles |

2011

Winn

er : L

Ham

ilton |

2012

Winn

er : N

ico Ro

sberg

• f1

.f1ch

ina.co

m.cn

4. B

ahra

in ▶ Sa

khir

▶ 22

April

•

Laps 5

7 Lap

leng

th 3.3

6 mile

s| 20

10 W

inner:

F Alon

so| 2

012 W

inner:

S Ve

ttel

• ba

hrain

gp.com

5. S

pain ▶

Barce

lona ▶ 13

May

•

Laps 6

6 Lap

leng

th 2.8

7 mile

s | 20

11 W

inner

: S Ve

ttel |

2012

Winn

er : P

asto

r Mald

onad

o

• ci

rcuitc

at.co

m

6. M

onaco ▶

Monte

Carlo ▶

27 M

ay

•

Laps 6

6 Lap

leng

th 2.8

7 mile

s | 20

11 W

inner

: S Ve

ttel |

2012

Winn

er : P

asto

r Mald

onad

o

• ci

rcuitc

at.co

m

TRACKS

TRACKS , RACES & PEOPLE BEHIND F1

F1 WORLD


6. M

onaco ▶

Monte

Carlo ▶

27 M

ay

•

Laps 6

6 Lap

leng

th 2.8

7 mile

s | 20

11 W

inner

: S Ve

ttel |

2012

Winn

er : P

asto

r Mald

onad

o

• ci

rcuitc

at.co

m

7. C

anad

a ▶ M

ontreal

▶ 10

June

•

Laps 7

0 Lap

leng

th 2.7

1 mile

s | 20

11 W

inner:

J Butt

on | 2

012 W

inner:

Lewis

Hamilto

n

• ci

rcuitg

illesvi

llene

uve.c

a

8. E

urope ▶

Valencia

▶ 24

June

•

57 La

p leng

th 3.3

7 mile

s | 20

11 W

inner

S Vett

el | 2

012 W

inner:

F Alon

so

• va

lencia

stree

tcircu

it.com

9. B

ritain

▶ Si

lverst

one ▶ 8

July

• La

ps 52 L

ap le

ngth

3.66 m

iles |

2011

Winn

er: F

Alonso

| 201

2 Winn

er: M

Web

ber

• si

lverst

one.c

o.uk

10.

German

y ▶ H

ocken

heim ▶

22 Ju

ly

•La

ps 67 L

ap le

ngth

2.84 m

iles |

2010

Winn

er: F

Alonso

| 201

2 Winn

er: F

Alonso

• ho

cken

heim

ring.ne

t 1

1. Hungar

y ▶ Budap

est ▶

29 Ju

ly

•La

ps 70 L

ap le

ngth

2.72 m

iles |

2011

Winn

er: J B

utton

| 201

2 Winn

er: L

Hamilto

n

• ho

cken

heim

ring.ne

t


17.

India

▶ D

elhi ▶

28 O

ctober

• La

ps 60 L

ap le

ngth

3.19 m

iles |

2011

Winn

er: S

Vette

l

• ja

ypee

spor

ts.co

m

16.

Korea ▶

Yeongam

▶ 14

Octo

ber

• La

ps 55 L

ap le

ngth

3.49 m

iles |

2011

Winn

er: S

Vette

l

• ko

reang

p.kr

15.

Japan

▶ Su

zuka

▶ 7

October

• La

ps 53 L

ap le

ngth

3.61 m

iles |

2011

Winn

er: J B

utton

• m

obilit

yland

.co.jp

/eng

lish/su

zuka

14.

Singap

ore ▶

Mar

ina Bay

▶ 23

Sep

• La

ps 61 L

ap le

ngth

3.15 m

iles |

2011

Winn

er : S

Vette

l

• ho

cken

heim

ring.ne

t

13.

Italy

▶ M

onza ▶

9 Se

ptember

• La

ps 53 L

ap le

ngth

3.60 m

iles|

2011

Winn

er: S

Vette

l | 20

12 W

inner:

L Ham

ilton

• m

onza

net.it

12.

Belg

ium ▶ Sp

a ▶ 2

Septe

mber

• L

aps 4

4 Lap

leng

th 4.3

5 mile

s | 20

11 W

inner:

S Ve

ttel |

2012

Winn

er: J B

utton

•sp

a-fran

corch

amps.b

e

TRACKS

F1 WORLD


17.

India

▶ D

elhi ▶

28 O

ctober

• La

ps 60 L

ap le

ngth

3.19 m

iles |

2011

Winn

er: S

Vette

l

• ja

ypee

spor

ts.co

m

18.

Abu Dhab

i ▶ Ya

s Mar

ina ▶ 4

Nov

• La

ps 55 L

ap le

ngth

3.45 m

iles|

2011

winn

er: L

Hamilto

n

• ya

smari

nacir

cuit.a

e 1

9. USA

▶ A

ustin ▶

18 N

ovember

• La

ps 55 L

ap le

ngth

3.45 m

iles|

2011

winn

er: L

Hamilto

n

• ya

smari

nacir

cuit.a

e

20.

Brazil

▶ In

terla

gos ▶ 25

Nove

mber

• La

ps 71 L

ap le

ngth

2.68 m

iles |

2011

: Winn

er M W

ebber

• gpbras

il.com

.br

MEN AND WOMEN BEHIND F1Most people, when they think of Formula 1 racing, think of the great drivers, the winners of races. But behind the drivers are many other great men and women who have made the sport what it is in its more than half a century of history. Here are the men and women - from team owners to car designers to promoters - who have left a mark at the pinnacle of motor racing.

Bernie EcclestoneBernie Ecclestone is the Formula One commercial promoter. He runs the business for the majority shareholder of the company, CVC Capital. He has been building up the business for more than 30 years, and working in it in one capacity or another since the first race, at Silverstone, in 1950.

Rainer Schlegelmilch & His Long F1 Media CareerRainer Schlegelmilch, 70 in 2011, is the doyen of Formula 1 photographers, having attended more than 570 Grands Prix. He attended his first race as a photographer in 1962 and celebrated his 50th visit to the Italian Grand Prix in 2011. A German, his photos appear in magazines and newspapers around the world, and he has published several photos worldwise.

CEO of Williams F1 TeamAlex Burns is the chief executive of the Williams Formula 1 team. He joined in 2002 as general manager, running the production side of the factory and car production. He has a degree in mechanical engineering and an M.B.A. He started his career in the aerospace industry, making helicopters and working on fluid systems for aircraft and spacecrafts.

Vijay Mallya: Colorful Owner of Force India F1 TeamHe is often called the Richard Branson of Bangalore, he wears bracelets, earrings, sunglasses and dyes his hair and beard. He also has a genuine and longstanding love of motor racing, and that is why India's most colorful billionaire investor, executive and entrepreneur bought a Formula 1 team and called it Force India.


HOW TO BE AN F1 DRIVER WITHOUT THE PAINS

HOW TO

F1, as it is popularly known, exudes thrill, antici-pation, speed, adventure and risk! It is a sport for the courageous and recreation for the bold. Over the years, it has grown to be one of the most popular sports in the world. It appeals to the masses to the level that many of us dream to be in that seat and race away to victory!

We give you some tips that can help you become that driver who enjoys thrill and fame!

1. To start karting at a young age is very important if you wish to be racing around those tracks when you grow up. Find a list of tracks in your region and go-karting!

2. Attend a racing school whether in your country or elsewhere. If you really aspire to be an F1 racer, you need training and you need to learn the basics of handling a more powerful open wheel car.

3. Move to Europe as early in life as possible. Though you can train yourself in other nations as well, There is a much greater chance of success if you get into racing in Europe.

4. Become a test driver for a Formula 1 team! It is important to learn the nuances of each track on the circuit. Then you can go on to become an F1 driver once you are confident.

5. Find funding to support your campaign. Smaller teams consider taking a driver who brings sponsor-ship to the team.

Follow these simple steps with determination and we shall see you next season at the F1 racing around those tracks and maybe signing autographs!


10 BEST INVENTIONSTO LOOK FORWARD TOThe next ten years will bring disruptive technological changes, most of which we can't possibly foresee. But here are 10 truly exciting prospects that we know are coming in the 2010s.

Personal JetpacksIf you’ve ever seen the classic James Bond flick “Thunderball,” you probably remember that great action scene in which 007 makes his escape from some bad guys by slipping on a rocket-equipped backpack and blasting off into the sky [source: Parker]. Jetpacks didn’t originate in some screenwriter’s overactive imagination, though. They were first dreamed up by German scientists during World War II, and after the war, the Pentagon dreamed of developing its own version.In the 1950s, at Bell Aerosystems in New York, a visionary engineer named Wendell F. Moore created his own version of the concept, a 125-pound (56.7-kilogram) “rocket belt” powered by a canister of liquid nitrogen. And in 1961, President John F. Kennedy was on hand to watch a successful demonstration of the device at Fort Bragg, N.C. [source: Americanrocketman.com]. An Associated Press article from the time reported that “a practical, working rocket belt, torn from the pages of science fiction, has made a reality of mankind’s age-old dream of flying with the birds”. But the U.S. military eventually gave up on jetpacks as a practical mode of battlefield transportation, in part because flyers could only carry enough fuel to stay aloft for less than half a minute.

Driverless carsWe’ve previously written about the future of driverless cars, one of the things I look forward to the most for the coming decade. As it turns out, Google has successfully tested them for months already, driving some 140,000 miles - without a single accident!The system combines information gathered from Google Street View[citation needed] with artificial intelligence software that combines input from video cameras inside the car, a LIDAR sensor on top of the vehicle, radar sensors on the front of the vehicle and a position sensor attached to one of the rear wheels that helps locate the car’s position on the map. As of 2010, Google has tested several vehicles equipped with the system, driving 1,609 kilometres (1,000 mi) without any human intervention, in addition to 225,308 kilometres (140,000 mi) with occasional human intervention. Google expects that the increased accuracy of its automated driving system could help reduce the number of traffic-related injuries and deaths, while using energy and space on roadways more efficiently.While Google had no immediate plans to commercially develop the system, the company hopes to develop a business which would market the system and the data behind it to automobile manufacturers. An attorney for the California Department of Motor Vehicles raised concerns that “The technology is ahead of the law in many areas,” citing state laws that “all presume to have a human being operating the vehicle”. According to the New York Times, policy makers and regulators have argued that new laws will be required if driverless vehicles are to become a reality because “the technology is now advancing so quickly that it is in danger of outstripping existing law, some of which dates back to the era of horse-drawn carriages”

TECH THAT


The Skylifter An Australian aeronautics company is developing a 150 meter wide discus-shaped helium balloon with a payload capacity of 150 tons. Among other things, the Skylifter will have the ability to move multistory buildings to remote locations and serve as a new generation of airborne luxury cruise ships.The Skylifter can move objects of any shape – a house, a boat, a hospital, a statue - to anywhere – rainforests, deserts, islands, mountains – without ever having to land. If you want a house in the middle of the Amazon, you can have it shipped there in its entirety. If a village in an inaccessible part of the Himalayas needs a hospital, the lack of overland connections to it is no longer an obstacle. You can bring a concert stage to the top of Ayer’s Rock, if you please. G20 summits causing too much commotion in the city? Why not set up a secure village in the Gobi desert where you know demonstrators won’t reach you. I could go on, but I think you get the gist of it.

The Skylifters Company also plans to construct flying hotels, as well as personal “aerial mega-yachts” called Palace Pods. Who wouldn’t want to see the world from above? While in your own home, you could cruise over Paris, the pyramids of Giza, and the Great Wall of China at a leisurely pace, stepping out onto your balcony to take in the main attractions. If you find a spot you like, you can land there and stay for a couple of days. If you have a business meeting in New York, your pilot can drop you off at the relevant skyscraper.

Rollable screensSony has been developing screens so thin they can actually be rolled up. Here’s a video about their 14 inch Organic Light Emitting Diode display, OLED for short. This is truly spellbinding. What can’t the Japanese do? You could just roll up your 32 inch TV and bring it with you in your bag. Then roll it back out at a friend’s house, on a plane or in your tent and watch your favorite movies.Technologies involved in building a rollable display include electronic ink, Gyricon, and OLED.Electronic paper displays which can be rolled up have been developed by E Ink. At the CES 2006, Philips showed a rollable display prototype whose screen can retain an image for several months without electricity. As of 2007 Philips Polymer Vision expected to launch a 5 inches (130 mm), 320 x 240-pixel resolution rollable display based on E Ink’s electrophoretic technology.Some flexible organic light-emitting diode displays have been demonstrated. Perhaps the first commercially sold flexible display was an electronic paper wristwatch.


Commercial space tourism

To see the world from the outside, I imagine, must give you a whole new perspective on your place in it. Since the 1990s, only an exceptionally affluent handful of non-astronauts have had the opportunity to see the earth from orbit. Even today, a ticket to space will set you back $20-30 million, the waiting list is 5 years, and only the Russians will take you there. But that’s all changing.Orbital space tourism opportunities have been limited and expensive, with only the Russian Space Agency providing transport to date.The publicized price for flights brokered by Space Adventures to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft have been US$20–35 million, during the period 2001–2009. Some space tourists have signed contracts with third parties to conduct certain research activities while in orbit.Russia halted orbital space tourism in 2010 due to the increase in the International Space Station crew size, using the seats for expedition crews that would be sold to paying spaceflight participants. However, tourist flights are tentatively planned to resume in 2013, when the number of single-use three-person Soyuz launches could rise to five a year.

1000 meter buildingsOn January 4th this year, the tallest structure in the history of the earth opened its doors for the first time. Towering some 828 meters (2,717 feet) above ground, the Burj Khalifa punctures the clouds above Dubai, dwarfing its neighbors, the 50-story buildings. Erected in less than five years, it’s an unfathomable feat of engineering, and a symbol of human capacity. But more importantly, the Burj Khalifa is just the first little snowball of the impending avalanche of super tall skyscraper construction.Sky City 1000 is a visionary (i.e. not proposed/intended to be built) supertall skyscraper in the Tokyo metropolitan area, Japan announced in 1989 during the height of the Japanese asset price bubble.The plan consists of a building 1,000 metres (3,281 ft) tall and 400 m (1,312 ft) wide at the base, and a total floor area of 8 km2 (3.1 sq mi). The design, proposed in 1989 by Takenaka Corporation, would house between 35,000 and 36,000 full-time residents, as well as 100,000 workers. It comprises 14 concave dish-shaped “Space Plateaus” stacked one upon the other. The interior of the plateaus would contain greenspace, and on the edges, on the sides of the building, would be the apartments. Also included in the building would be offices, commercial facilities, schools, theatres, and other modern amenities.

TECH THAT


Invisibility suits Scientists in Japan and the US are realizing one of Man’s ancient fantasies - the ability to vanish. Groundbreaking technology on the micro-level has enabled us to make the first primitive cloaking devices, and in the coming decade they will become more advanced (i.e. less visible) and less expensive. How do these invisibility technologies work, and what are the implications for your life?On October 19, 2006, a cloak was produced that routed microwaves of a particular frequency around a copper cylinder in a way that made them emerge almost as if there were nothing there. The cloak was made from metamaterials. It cast a small shadow, which the designers hope to fix.The device obscures a defined two dimensional region and only at a particular microwave frequency. Work on achieving similar results with visible light is in progress. Other types of invisibility cloak are also possible, including ones that cloak events rather than objects.However, cloaking a human-sized object at visible wavelengths appears to have low probability. Indeed, there appears to be a fundamental problem with these devices as “invisibility cloaks”:

The Underwater City

The ocean presented early humans with a vast mystery. What worlds and fabulous creatures exist in the deep? Today, our understanding has expanded, but the world’s waters still offer us an abundance of mystery and awe. We dream less about mermaid cities and sunken Atlantis and instead imagine underwater metropolises and seafloor colonies.This zeal was especially strong in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when Jacques Cousteau’s Conshelf project and the United States Navy’s Sealab saw the dream of undersea living realized. Through three stages of field tests on the ocean floor, both programs proved that humans can live and work for extended periods of time underwater. The test subjects tended underwater gardens, tackled underwater construction projects and lived the life of an aquanaut.


Ticket to MarsThe date was July 20, 1969, the day Apollo 11 landed the first human beings on the moon. It was the farthest we had ever traveled from the Earth and the first time humans ever stood on another object in our solar system and stared back in wonder at the world they called home. From there, it only seemed a natural progression that humans would venture to Mars as well.As early as 1946, the aforementioned German-American rocket scientist Dr. Wernher von Braun sketched out Marsprojekt, which called for no fewer than 70 astronauts aboard a fleet of 10 Mars-bound spacecraft. As ambitious as this sounds, the project marked the first technically comprehensive design for a manned expedition to the red planet. It was far from the last, however, as both the United States and the Russian space programs continued to cook up manned Mars expedition studies throughout the rest of the 20th century.

Robot MaidsThe most obvious answer to a complaint about the lack of robot maids is of course, “Hey, buddy, go buy a Roomba.” Because while they don’t really resemble George Jetson’s robotic maid Rosie, modern bots do carry out a host of floor vacuuming, tile scrubbing and pool cleaning chores.Of course, the vision of the computerized maid goes beyond mere automated dust busting. What we’ve been waiting for is a true robotic domestic servant capable of safely navigating a human living environment to carry out everything from cleaning the toilet to cooking pancakes. Roboticists continue to prove that few tasks lay outside the reach of a properly engineered machine. Companies flock to Japan’s International Food Machinery and Technology Exhibition each year to demonstrate that if we like to eat it, a robot can probably make it.

TECH THAT


Meet the D-Link DIR-505

THE WHO

The D-Link DIR-505 steps into the networking arena with an assured step and a confident smile. It is a rather unique product, the likes of which we have not seen anywhere in the market. A few years ago Ap-ple put out their Airport Express — basically it was a portable router that plugged directly into an AC outlet for convenience. While not the first to do this, Apple’s model caught consumer attention for ease of use. But due to a lack of marketing attention, it has lan-guished.

Not so with the D-Link DIR-505 All-in-One Mobile Companion. D-Link has taken the router port-ability concept and beefed it up to the point where it’s a valid buy for the home network user as well as the “road warrior.” At its heart, the D-Link DIR-505 All-in-One Mobile Companion is a portable router. But it’s in how easily and sensibly that it performs this task that its value can be found.

THE WHAT

The D-Link DIR-505 All-in-One Mobile Companion can be used in three configurations — all of which affects the wireless network; in the router mode, it’s connected directly to a modem and so func-tions as a wireless network; in Re-peater mode it amplifies and ex-tends an existing wireless network;

in Wi-Fi hotspot mode it becomes the focal point for multiple wire-less devices seeking connection through a private network of your choosing.

The setup is as simple for each mode as expected from D-Link. The D-Link DIR-505 All-in-One Mobile Companion plugs directly into an AC outlet — wait for the front-mounted LED to stop blink-ing and go solid green first.

Set up is simple and I waited to try and use it in a hotel room dur-ing a recent trip. I adjusted the top-mounted tab to “Router” and then plugged it into the AC socket. Then I plugged the included Eth-ernet cable into it and the Ether-net socket in the wall. To set up a wireless network, I just went into the Network settings of the device I wanted to use (could have been a laptop but was an iPad), and en-tered the necessary information and security codes provided ,Once

TECH THAT

done, I had a wireless connection.If I had been at home, or was do-ing this in a larger space than a hotel room, I could have chosen the “Repeater” mode instead — dissimilar steps to set it up but in general pretty much the same, al-though you use a web browser as part of the process. I had no need for a private network, but can see where this could be useful with a group that’s on location. Stepping back a moment, let me note that besides that information card, D-Link includes a flat, rubberized Eth-ernet cable that takes up much less room that a standard model. A nice addition.

SHARING MADE EASY

D-LINK DIR-505 allows you to share videos, music and photos from any thumb drive or external hard drive to your mobile device-The DIR-505 allows easy backup of your iPad and iPhone files.-This device can also be a travel router for instant wireless connec-tion in a hotel or conference room.

THE HOW

Accessing stored information — be that data content or multimedia content (i.e., video, music) can be done locally by attaching a USB device (thumb drive, etc.) to that USB socket directly. This obviates the need for accessing from the “Cloud,” and so provides both a greater security for the contents

-


Meet the D-Link DIR-505

PROS-SharePort Mobile app works with all D-Link DIR-series routersCompact form factorUSB socket can charge devices

CONS-No extension capabilities for AC plug

as well as eliminating transmission issues, since it will be streamed lo-cally. D-Link makes an app avail-able to access the storage. It’s called “SharePort” and is designed specifically to access stored mul-timedia content from a D-Link compatible router such as the D-Link DIR-505 All-in-One Mobile Companion Review. I used it with a variety of content — none of which used exotic file formats — and it all worked fine as a viewing applica-tion. I wouldn’t just count on it for all possible uses with the storage, however, so don’t get lazy.I haven’t gone into discussions of how stable and dependable the

802.11 N wireless transmission from the D-Link DIR-505 All-in-One Mobile Companion is. That should tell you there’s nothing to complain about. In general the sig-nal strength was never too weak to adequately perform in a high-definition environment. Of course there’s little problems space-wise in a hotel room, but in greater spaces I would expect its use would require some accommoda-tion on the part of the user.I should probably note that there’s a WPS button on the side to initiate an auto protected/security between the D-Link DIR-505 All-in-One

Mobile Companion and another device. Those who like such things will find it usable — me, I just go the manual route so I know every-thing is set up like it should be. For more info on this you should go to the D-Link website and download the digital manual. You can also check into any firmware upgrades here as well — you’d download them on a computer connected to the D-Link DIR-505 All-in-One Mo-bile Companion and then transfer them over, much in the same man-ner as you would when using one of D-Link’s other routers.

-


AWESOME 4SOME OF THE MONTH

Rovio: Camera Robot on wheelsThis is quite an amazing product, the likes of which we haven’t seen any-where. It’s the WowWee Rovio camera robot on wheels. If you look at iRobot’s site, they’re working on one too, but we think telepres-ence robots are one of those “gee wiz” things that might appeal to security firms for snooping, but won’t have any other pur-pose. These do have the cool universal wheels. You can easily control Rovio remotely 24/7 from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. Use any web-enabled device: PC or Mac, cell phone, smartphone, PDA or even your video game console. Rovio detects your computer settings and guides you through the setup process. Its head-mounted moveable camera and wide range of vision enable you to see and hear exactly what Rovio sees and hears, on your screen. Set waypoints so that Rovio can navigate itself around your home, without having to control each step yourself! You can even, at the click of a button, send Rovio back to the charging dock using its self-docking capabilities - even when you are not at home! Cool enough for you?!

Beautifully crafted Bluetooth speak-ers from EdifierThe Prisma Bluetooth speaker system is a 2.1 speak-er setup. It’s the first we’ve seen and it looks like more companies will be doing more Bluetooth-en-abled speakers in the future. The Prisma now joins a gang of speakers the likes of edge.sound and the Jawbone Jambox.Similarly, the Prisma features a built-in Bluetooth receiver that can sync with any Bluetooth enabled device to wirelessly stream music up to 30 feet. There are some notable specs on there that might help your purchasing decisions if you happen to look in the market for one.

TECH THAT


AWESOME 4SOME OF THE MONTH

MartinLogan Montis SpeakersFor the last 25 years, legendary electrostatic loudspeaker manufacturer MartinLogan has been refining the hybrid design of its speakers, which typically feature a curved electrostatic panel mated to a cone woofer. The newest evolution of this design, the Montis, manages to achieve flagship-grade audio quality—thanks to technologies borrowed from the company’s famed ESL line, which includes the $24,495-per-pair CLX—in a more compact package that looks as salient in an art gallery as it does in the finest listening room.Fitted with MartinLogan’s largest hybrid electrostatic panel. It also has a 200W amplifier, a 24-bit digital signal processor and an exclusive high-gloss black cherrywood finish.

An ‘NES-like’ gamepad for your mobile deviceOur future will be filled with touch controls, whether they’re nec-essary or not. A capacitive gun trigger? Sounds lovely. A touchscreen light switch? Install it now. A touch-sensitive button to open your umbrella? Why not. That’s why I’m not so surprised with the Master Lock dialSpeed, a combina-tion padlock that substitutes traditional controls with an electronic directional interface.While it ditches the iconic dial available in traditional combination padlocks, the new electronic contraption still uses the classic hinged shackles. As such, it’s more a combination of the old and the new, retaining the same secure closure, while allowing for faster and easier entry of codes.The Master Lock dialSpeed can save multiple person-alized codes (1 primary and 3 guest codes), so you can share a locker with friends while using sequences that are easier for each of you to remember. Just in case you all get am-nesia and forget all your codes, it comes with a backup master code that you can retrieve from the company’s website when-ever you need it. Since it’s electronic, though, it’s purely for indoor use -- get it wet and there’s no telling what can happen (probably not good).


Ford Motor Company has joined the race to develop a hands-off system that would let motorists and drivers relax while cars drive and

park themselves. The automaker's 2013 models event showcased the effective use of the technology and what it holds for the upcoming future. Ford unveiled a new tool called Traffic Jam Assist, which will give drivers the option of handing over control to the car in slow, heavy traffic.

How does it work?The system makes use of radar and cameras to keep track of all surrounding vehicles on a congested highway where cars are crawling at a snail's pace, and responds to what it sees by speeding up, slowing down, or stopping. (Watch a demo video below.) Traffic Jam Assist can also steer, keeping your vehicle in its lane, incorporating the capabilities of existing technology including cruise control, Ford Active Park Assist, and Lane Keeping Aid. "The motorist is then free to take his hands off the steering wheel and feet off the pedals," says Ray Massey at Britain's Daily Mail, "while he enjoys some much-needed relaxation." When traffic speeds

Future tech:Ford’s insight into handless driving

up, the system returns control to the driver.

What’s the big deal?"Drivers spend more than 30 percent of their time in heavy traffic," says Ford research engineer Joseph Urhahne. "Traffic Jam Assist could help make traveling through congestion a more relaxing experience and, by keeping pace with the flow of traffic, potentially help relieve road congestion." Simulation studies suggest that if a quarter of the vehicles on a road are equipped to automatically follow the flow, travel times can be slashed by 37.5 percent and delays by 20 percent. Researchers also hope automation can help curb fatalities by cutting down on driver error.

When can you see it?Ford says some models might sport the auto-pilot technology within five years. The breakthrough is part of a race among several companies, including General Motors and Google, to build a fully self-driving car. Ford CEO Bill Ford, great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford, says that futuristic dream could be a reality by 2025.

TECH THAT


ShilpiSharma

On a scale of 1 to 10, how tech savvy are you?8 out of 10

A gadget you can't live without?My phone obviously.

A gadget you purchased and immediately regretted?My cross-trainer

The car you drive and the maximum speed you have driven at? Have you a thrill for speed?120kms. I have an accord. Ya I do have a thrill but only when I am on an express highway.

Any technology you would like to invent?Where you can read a person's mind. How cool will that be.

The most used Mobile Apps?Games, whatsapp, youtube

The mobile app that keeps you busy:Games

Are you a, Windows, Android or Mac loyalist?Mac all the way.

Your favorite tech personalitySteve Jobs.

Anything you would like to ask Mark Zuckerberg:Your age & so much money. What kind of a high is it?

If you were able to teleport to a place right now where would that be and why?Singapore because I wanna go shopping as haven't shopped since ages.

The next gadget/auto/technology you are going to invest in is the?My DJ equipment

TECH QUOITENT


First ImpressionsBuilt on the Logan platform, the Duster from French car maker Renault is quite a sight to hold. It’s a bit shorter than it appears in television ad’s, but that is not a bad thing in any sense. It looks just as powerful and purposeful, as you’d expect an SUV to be, and it certainly will win over many admirers here in India. The Duster is the first compact SUV being developed by Dacia, the Romanian automaker which is a fully owned subsidiary of Renault since 1999. Duster SUV made its official appearance in the year 2009 and the SUV became available in the European market in March 2010. Duster is sold under Dacia badging in Europe, Algeria, Turkey, Morocco, Ukraine, Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon. It’s finally here in India and we took it around the streets of Mumbai to get a feel of the car.

When Power Meets Purpose

The Renault DusterThe LookBuilt on Logan platform, Duster will have an overall length of 4.31 meters, just shorter than its big brother Renault Koleos, and a width of 1.82 meters. Considering its size and high ground clearance of 205 mm, Renault Duster is fit for city as well as the off-roading and has the nature of a true 4x4 SUV, though India doesn’t have the 4x4 versions. Renault Duster’s front has a rugged and sturdy appearance. The front grille is clad in chrome. The side view in turn also enhances the SUV appearance of Renault Duster besides high ground clearance. Renault Dacia Duster is the one of the cheapest SUV. Dacia, a Romanian car maker happens to be a completely owned subsidiary of Renault. The only gripe we had with the look on the outside was lack of metal on the side of the car. It would have really added more substance to it

TEST DRIVE


Final WordsThe Duster is compact, yet offers the right road presence, its kerb weight is just about 1,300 kgs, has a turning radius of just 5.2 metres and is said to be capable of a rated mileage of about 20 kmpl (85PS diesel variant). All of these are almost small car like and just the attributes that value conscious buyers will look for. Between the three engine versions there are a total of 8 variants and they are priced in the range of Rs 7.2 lakh to Rs 11.3 lakh (ex-showroom). That positions it squarely next to the existing SUVs like the Scorpio, XUV 500, Tata Safari and even sedans like the Hyundai Verna and the Honda City. It does everything you expect it to do, without being flashy. It handles really well and doesn’t make a big noise while doing what you want. It’s great, without being flashy. Just right for those who mean business and want the same reflected in their choice of cars.

The DriveThe Duster is offered with two engines, one each of petrol and diesel. Knowing well that the diesel is likely to be the overwhelming choice, Renault India is offering the engine in two states of tune. Of course, the engine here is the now familiar 1.5L K9K dCi engine, which is shared by quite a few cars from the brand. The variant with the higher state of tune features this 1,461cc diesel engine with a variable geometry turbocharger and an intercooler, which together bump up the peak power to 110PS, which is available from about 3,900 rpm. Peak torque of 248Nm is delivered at a bit delayed 2,250 rpm. Just like the numbers indicate, the engine starts delivering decent levels of pulling power to the front wheels only after the needle crosses the 1,500 rpm level.

The EngineThe petrol engine on offer is the Renault 1.6 K4M engine. The 1,598cc engine produces 104PS of peak power at 5,850 rpm and 145Nm of peak torque at 3,750 rpm. The petrol engine version and the 85PS diesel version are both paired with a 5-speed gearbox. The diesel powered Renault Duster is powered by a 1461cc common rail direct injection dCi SOHC engine that is able to deliver 83.8bhp and 108.5bhp power. The 1.5-litre diesel machine has been taken from Nissan Micra.

InteriorsThe 2-tone colour of the dashboard was quite nice and pleasant to be in, but the actual materials (especially the plastic) was something that didn’t get our approval. The carpet on the bottom and the wooden feel on the side got our thumbs up, but the leg room at the back was disappointing. The vents of the A.C.

EXHIBIT RATING

PRICE `7.19 lakh – `11.3 lakh (approx, ex-showroom, Mumbai)


TECH NEWS

We know what an SUV is. Don’t we? We also somewhat know about MUVs, minivans as the are popularly called. But rarely do we hear the word ‘crossover SUV’.

If you have your thinking caps on and are thinking it to be a cross between and SUV and MUV, then the answer is a NO!

A crossover SUV is a cross between a sedan and an SUV! That should make you imagine it already. To explain further, it uses the unibody construction of passenger vehi-cles and combines SUV design features such as tall interiors, high seating, high ground-clearance with design features from an automobile like a passenger vehicle's platform, independent rear suspension, car-like handling and fuel economy. That makes it a WOW vehi-cle embracing the best of both worlds!

Lets talk about the best SUV crossovers in India. We know how car crazy are we and we have this urge to always look for something new, exciting and of course that, which has-it-all. So, for all these obvious reasons, India is the apt market for crossover SUVs and this concept has been quite a hit in India.

CROSSOVER SUVsTHE NEW-AGE RAGE!CROSSOVER SUVsTHE NEW-AGE RAGE!


DRIVE DEPRIVEBentley EXP 9F Crossover SUV

From the house of Bentley, we have this gentle giant which will make you go weak in the knees yet strong in your run! The chiseled look, the granite-ish styling, all calls for a word of appreciation and awe.

This magnificent crossover is a third model line in Bentley’s portfolio which sits next to the Continental and Mulsann. This is not only an-other feather but a wing in Bentley’s cap which is a sales strategy to reach out to more people and spread itself far and wide. Now would we complain about such a strategy folks? We can only say-bring it on!

THE NEWBIELook at that seal on wheels. Stylish, uber-cool and road friendly! Packed with everything so that you don’t go around eves dropping at another SUV! The 2012 Volvo XC60 has a three cylinder turbo diesel engine, generates 163 Bhp power and 400 Nm torque. That is not bad at all considering you have its looks as an icing on the cake.

It is not all beauty but brains and brawns as well! It features all-wheel drive, a 6-liter W-12 gasoline engine, an 8-speed automatic transmission and 23-inch alloy wheels with racing-type central wheel nuts!

But my dear car fans, are you going to get to own this? The price in India is a gigantic `2,00,00,000! So, it is a DRIVE DEPRIVE from us, unless you strike gold or something. If you have an inheritance well, we know where there is a will, there are many relatives! But if you re-ally want this monster, you have to make that money. Beg, borrow or steal, we say!

The Swedish brand has done well and is ready to compete with the AUDI and BMW SUVs with this new baby added to the cradle. It is sure to turn heads and save that piggy bank some money in it. Control that jaw from drop-ping and that tongue from drooling when we tell you the price. It starts at just `35,37,942.

Now that’s what we call grandeur with a not-so-bad price tag! We like!

2012 Volvo XC60


FITS MY POCKETTATA ARIA

Proudly, the first Indian crossover SUV beating all those cars where a loaded pocket is a mandate. It does not only give you a fabulous driving experience but also has on it some extensive safety features. It was launched in 2010.

It came as a breath of fresh air to the Indian market and by the Indian market, as we men-tioned it is the first Indian crossover SUV. The Aria has an advanced 2.2 litre Direct Injection Common Rail (DICOR) engine, with variable turbine technology and 32-bit ECU that deliv-ers 140 PS power and 320 Nm torque.

The Tata Aria 4x2 has been launched in three trim levels, the Aria Prestige at the top end, the Aria Pleasure and the base level Aria Pure variant. The Tata Aria Pride has been reserved only for the 4x4 segments.

TECH NEWS

The price is absolutely pocket friendly`13.25 lakhs for the base model of the 4X4 model, to 11.61 lakhs for the base 4X2 model. At a price like this if you get this beautiful monster, would you ask for more?

‘Who says you do not get everything in life?’


Quick Heal 2013 has just been unveiled ,featuring a browser sandbox which is also Windows 8 compatible. The 2013 Series claims to be performance driven as well as light on the system. Considering 2012 has been characterized by a rise in cybercrime, mass generation of viruses and malware and cybercriminals diversifying their targets to include new platforms. Quick Heal has loaded more ammunition in its firepower and 2013 promises to be the solution that combines ease and simplicity, and will fire at point blank range to targeted vulnerabilities.

Quick Heal 2013 now launched with

7 New Features

TECH NEWS

• All new Web Browser Sandbox: Any browser-exploiting threats are unable to affect ones system. this protects ones system against 0-day malware attacks and tricky key loggers.

• Enhanced Scan engine with new Machine Learning Abilities: this feature helps the scan engine to detect threats automatically which leads to higher detection rates and a smaller engine size.

• Windows 8 Ready - the product has been tested on the latest RtM build released by Microsoft and will work seamlessly with this new version.

• USB Drive Authentication Support

• Reduced Virus Database Size - the optimi-zation of signature files used in the 2013 scan engine reduces the Virus Database size by about 100 MB i.e. by 25%

• Web Security and parental control now supports HttpS Site Blocking – Allows sub domains to be blocked or given access to. For example, users can now block access to https://mail.google.com but allow access to a sub-domain like http://news.google.com.

• Support enhancements – A Support center and Live chat facility has been provided to help users interact directly with support executives.

“The 2013 series takes up the daunting task of keeping up with the latest technologies and threats, while being easy and smooth to work with. These are new and robust changes that the user might not see but will certainly experience.” - Sanjay Katkar,CEO, quick Heal technologies

“There is a growing discrepancy between increasing security demands and the avail-able solutions. Our latest version effectively addresses these issues and continues to be an extension of our responsibility to provide our users with ultra-safe online experiences.” Quoted Kailash Katkar.

The 7 All New features included in Quick Heal 2013 are:


UPCOMING CARS

SOON TO BE SEEN ON INDIAN ROADS

HONDA BRIO AUTOMATIC Hatchback, Small, Automatic There has been a lot of speculation about the diesel Brio coming this year, well in all probability it will be the automatic Brio that will be launched at the end of this year. There is a growing market for automatic cars and consumers are willing to pay more for the huge amount of convinience that it of-fers and the increase in price and the small drop in efficiency does not matter.

Expected Launch: 24thOct 2012Expected Price: ` 5-6 lakhs

The electrically powered five door hatchback car Nissan Leaf was un-veiled at Auto Expo. The Nissan Leaf is one of the most fuel efficient cars in Japan. The car is larger than the usual hatchbacks with sharp V-shaped design with bigger, upward slanting LEDs headlights in the front along with vertical and high mounted tail lamps at the rear. The newer version of the vehicle is available worldwide in many countries, while the launch in India seems to go a long way.

NISSAN LEAF

CHEVEROLET ENJOY

General Motors has commenced the trial runs of its promising Multi Purpose Vehicle (MPV) Chevrolet Enjoy, as seen near its production plant in Halol. According to the internal sources, there are chances that Enjoy might see a festive occasion launch in order to compete with Nissan Evalia MPV, which launches amid this month. It seems that renowned carmaker wants to make-out the best with piled up bookings of Maruti Ertiga and long waiting periods. The Enjoy MPV will sit below Chevrolet Tavera in terms of pricing, as it is expected to be labeled at `6 Lakh approx.Available in petrol and diesel versions, the high points will apart from attractive interiors and exteriors will be its promise to deliver higher mileage numbers compared to rivals.

Expected Launch: Oct 2012Expected Price: ` 6 lakhs

Expected Launch: Nov 2012Expected Price: ` 7 lakhs


SOON TO BE SEEN ON INDIAN ROADS

NISSAN LEAF

GAME REVIEW

Class is the last word

It’s always been all good things for Pro Evolution Soccer 2013. However, they haven’t any better than the Pro Evo franchise, which is still trying to claw back the ground lost to FIFA, but as far as this year’s iteration is concerned, it’s been a journey worth taking. The reason for this is that, thanks to the progress made over the last couple of entries in the series, Konami’s latest football video game has something its most recent predecessors didn’t have: a clear sense of direction.Over the last two years, it felt like PES was experimenting while trying to find its own identity all over again. PES 2011 brought in more realistic presentation and physics that were tinged with slightly old school arcade intensity. PES 2012 built on these

Pro Evolution

Soccer 2013

foundations, but placed more of an emphasis on the player’s attacking game while ramping up the pace in matches.

The game’s AI on both defense and attack has seen some marked improvement – although the top tier teams are able to catch defenders on the break perhaps a little too easy and a little too often. If they get back in time, however, players will see their teammates moving to cut out passes for through balls, while their opponents do their best to create space in and around the box.

It all results in an on-pitch experience that feels both immediate and challenging. Even on Normal difficulty setting, players can’t simply blaze through defenses by sprinting into space and then seeking out teammates in their vicinity. Success in PES 2013 revolves around beating

the player in front of you, while simultaneously moving your teammates into space – even if by doing so, you use them as a decoy. The whole on-pitch game feels fluid and organic; every set piece that comes off feels like a triumph and every goal feels earned.

It makes sense for PES to focus on its on-pitch action because like any premiership club staring into Manchester City’s bottomless bank account, it has had to make peace with the fact it can’t compete on EA’s terms. The game’s presentation, while hardly lackluster, is slightly clunky in places. Superstars like Messi and Ronaldo may look and move like their real-world counterparts, but in celebratory animations they look dead-eyed and their mouths flap like goldfish, while the crowd cheering them on look like cardboard cut-outs. The game’s soundtracks feel generic, and

while the commentary from Jon Champion and Jim Beglin isn’t as bad as it was two or three years ago, it’s hardly engaging.

Similarly, the depth offered in PES 2013 outside the immediate gameplay isn’t exactly earth shattering. The Football Life mode returns from last year with an online component bundled in and the online mode is still just as fiddly as ever. There’s also a Champions League Tournament and Copa Libertadores club competition, which one can sink hours into. However, the usual licensing issues remain, and given how EA has incorporated the different leagues into FIFA’s Career Mode and EA Sports Football Club in the last couple of years, PES 2013 can’t help but seem hamstrung by comparison in this regard.


WOW! Do we know enough about the year we are in? Are we ready yet to talk about the times almost three decades ahead of us? Well, not that we always know what the next thing life could be, but we still do talk about the future, don’t we? Homo sapiens are the most curious beings, owing to their utmost intelligence among all other creatures of the world. And we shall use this intelligence to fabricate, if not predict, what the future of the world is!Let us begin by visualizing what it would be like to stare out of a 557th floor window. I can see sky roads and flying cars, sky scrapers, huge solar panels (assuming that non-renewable resources have obviously run out!) and I can also see small private jets hovering over and fighting for parking space outside the sky borne theatres. Whew! Too much imagination but interesting. Looks beautiful but we shall talk about how it will ‘feel’ too. Later on of course.

So what do we talk of when we think ‘future’. We talk AUGMENTED REALITY, CYBERSPACE, ROBOTICS, NANOBOTS, TECHNOLOGICAL CIVILIZATIONS, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, VIRTUAL REALITY The list is endless.There is excitement and there is fear. There is anticipation and curiosity. We can only wonder. But we can only cross the bridge when we come to it. But discussion breeds excitement; hence we all like to talk about ‘what next’.

What next? We are already experiencing augmented reality in gaming. We are already with robots. More than half of the time we spend in the virtual world of the internet. Now imagine this ‘more-than-half-the-time’ turning into fulltime. Will we be ruled by the virtual world in 2040? Or will each one use it to transcend into their own virtual and imaginary spaces to escape the real world? It sounds as scary

as it sounds interesting.I can see new life on new planets and galaxies, the reason for which will be human intelligence, which, to find a way out of the tech-overflow in the real world, will seek new worlds to escape to.Or maybe some lethargic ones from the human race, leading a sedentary life will just sit back and switch to their own virtual fields to experience an imaginary world as they like it to be. Into their own virtual space created by the nanobots in their brain cells. Since we mention nanobots, let us also talk of being able to upload our feelings, moods, experiences and thoughts into the virtual world via artificial intelligence and monitor them! Say we are in a bad mood and do not want to express it. Will we be then able to upload this mood and change it to a good mood and download it back in us? Will others be able to access our inner world via networking?All sounds exciting and way too advanced but will it let humans be humans after all? Will we then be called real? Well this sounds ambiguous. Because it is unclear

here, whether we are controlling artificial intelligence or it is controlling us!

2040 will see technological civilizations if all this comes true. Colonies of robots and people living in a virtual world 24x7, controlling or altering their thoughts and feelings. Will we then need no food as we will be able to control our hunger too? Who knows!

It will be a cold world with no feelings. Love will then cease to exist or will be fake. Our beliefs will become hazy. We will become confused beings outsmarted by our own intelligence!If we see the other prerogative of the same scenario, we can say that change is inevitable and good and maybe this kind of future will be good for the monotonous beings that we have been till now. Not that we have not evolved but this will be a giant leap into a different lifestyle altogether. A new experience, a new world and a new beginning… or maybe the END?

WORLD AT 2040TECH PUNCH


Not all will be so serious. There will be some really humorous things happening around too where it comes to nations and brand wars. Let me, through the time machine, beat the speed of light and land in 2040!

Smart phones in 2040! We have ‘sky high’ boxing rings where every week there is a boxing match, the banner of which reads ‘since apple and blackberry are no longer just the fruits we used to eat, let us decide which one is better in technology, errrr..if not in health’.

And next week it will read ‘watch ice-cream sandwich lock horns with thai pot rice’ (laugh out loud)Aaaah.. too much sarcasm. Okay let us get real. How about the supreme court scenario. There is a case on ‘Apple’ by the serpent who gave the apple to adam and eve. Why? The serpent wants the credit for getting the world hooked onto apple originally and sues Apple for taking the credit! My my! Religion versus technology. What could be worse! Tsk tsk!

It is getting complicated. Let us move to China. Now I can picture the world war 4 (assuming the third one happened between Samsung and apple)!

Now why China? The doctors of the world are obviously miffed

with China for interpreting the ‘cloning’ concept all wrongly! It was meant for 'genes 'and not ‘jeans’! Maybe the language barrier lopsided the concept for the Chinese! Not only has it angered the doctors that China got the cloning bit wrong but also is increasing the world population, not only by producing more human beings but also increasing the brand imitation population!

So we can see the world war 4 happening with the doctors bombarding China with ‘birth control’ missiles and English dictionaries and guess what China retaliates with? Bombards more ‘guccis’ and ‘versaces’!

The doorbell rings and my robot symaina answers. It is a home delivery of a tablet that came flying to me via heli-courier services. Confusion again. I had asked for an aspirin to cure my headache and not for the new uber cool touch-type-torch-twist screen tablet by twisted technologies.

I get cranky and just then, a hoarding zooms past me, that says ‘buy oxygen at lowest prices in sky-buy stores!’ How I wish we had not run out of trees. I am getting bored of the war sight and the boxing ring, I shall relax in my chair. Wait. Chair? What

to see 2040 like this. Am afraid I will see it like this. But then what good is development if it is not ‘sustainable’ development. We can just show you where our present will lead us to in the next three decades. If it is not what we want, it is not what we should walk towards. If only we had been cloning trees and not brands, neither would we need to buy oxygen nor would the last rose be auctioned. Think about it as you stare out of your window tonight!

chair? I shall hover above my air bag and read a magazine, a digital one I mean and guess the news. It reads ‘the last red rose on the planet to be auctioned in doomsville on the 13th. Put in your fingerprint to participate’.

I blindfold myself and return to 2012, running faster in the time machine this time!

Alas! What a pity. It looked nice from my window but it does not ‘feel’ nice. Does it? I do not want


The Worlds Most Powerful Electric CarThe Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Electric Drive

Mercedes Benz rolled out its fancy and all new SLS AMG Electric Drive at the Paris Motor Show this September. This makes the SLS AMG the most powerful and

environment friendly production electric car of all time. This beast is powered by 4 electric motors; one responsible for each wheel which gives the car a permanent 4 wheel drive. Each of these permanent-magnet synchronous electric motors is around 45 kgs and achieves a maximum individual speed of 13,000 rpm.

By the looks of the SLS AMG, it shows similarities to the standard SLS model however the mechanism is completely different. The car can go from naught to 100kph in a sprint time of 3.9 seconds, has a top speed of 250kph which is again electronically limited and can be charged in 3 hours flat with the help of a special charging box and in 20 hours via a regular household charging point. It has a maximum battery range of 250kph. So yeah, you can enjoy your drive at full speed for an hour until it’s time to recharge the battery again.

Despite burning no fuel and the absence of all the carbon emissions, this SLS AMG Electric Drive is more powerful than the V8 German powered muscle car and is surprisingly fractionally slower.

And if you think you are missing out on the screaming of a Mercedes V8, all you need to do is press the power button and there you go! The sound of a Mercedes AMG engine blasts out of the cars 11 interior specially built speakers which match the sounds with whatever you’re doing with the throttle. Now how does that sound to you? Yes only you! You won’t be disturbing the others outside of your car while doing all of this. Fancy isn’t it?

This beast will be launched and will be seen on the European roads in June 2013 at approximately 3 crores INR. However if we will get to see this one on the Indian roads still stands a question due to lack in infrastructure for electric vehiclesprimarily for charging the batteries used!

HOT BUzz


The WP8 Powered HTC SmartphonesThe 8S & 8X

First impressionsAfter Samsung launching WP8 devices, HTC has also followed suite by announcing the 8S and 8X. Both these smartphones will be high end products with excellent spec sheets to support the WP8 software. The HTC Windows Phone 8S is based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chipset and runs on a 1GHz dual-core Krait processor and Adreno 225 GPU. It has 512MB of RAM and 4 GB internal storage expandable via a microSD card slot. The screen is 4-inch capacitive Super LCD of WVGA resolution, which has Gorilla Glass protection. But, the HTC Windows Phone 8X is rather compact with its 4.3" 720p screen, unlike the Titan. It measures 132.4 x 66.2 x 10.1mm and weighs 130g. The HTC Windows Phone 8X uses a polycarbonate unibody, similar to that of the One X.

Closer lookThe Windows Phone 8S as well as the 8X will surely run the WP8 OS right out of the box. For the 8S, the rest of the specs include a 5MP camera (F2.8, 35mm lens) with LED flash, 720p video recording and dedicated camera key. The 8S comes with the usual connectivity package – Wi-Fi, GPS (with GLONASS), and Bluetooth (no LTE) and packs a 1700 mAh battery. It will also get the Beats Audio Enhancements like the Sensation did. The phone will be available in the beginning of November in over 50 countries and on 150 carriers. The color options are Domino, Fiesta Red, Atlantic Blue and High-Rise Gray.For the 8X, going back to the screen, it's a Super LCD 2 unit with Gorilla Glass 2 protection and it's laminated to reduce glare. The HTC Windows Phone 8X is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chipset with two Krait cores clocked at 1.5GHz, Adreno 225 GPU and 1GB of RAM. It runs Microsoft's latest phone OS, Windows Phone 8 (as the name quite clearly indicates). The camera on the back should be familiar to HTC users - 8MP BSI sensor, f/2.0 aperture and 28mm field of view (in 35mm terms). It contains a dedicated HTC ImageChip and can shoot 1080p video with stereo sound. There's a 2.1MP front-facing camera too, which

PREVIEW


can also record1080p videos and makes use of the ImageChip. Having mentioned sound, HTC has included its trademark Beats Audio sound enhancement, but no Beats headset as is the norm with some of its Android phones. The HTC Windows Phone 8X comes with 16GB of built-in storage, but there's no microSD card slot to expand it. The Windows Phone 8X will become available in the beginning of November, covering 150 major carriers in 50+ countries, but HTC's press release was mum on price. There will be four color versions - California Blue, Graphite Black, Flame Red and Limelight Yellow.

ConneCtivityFor connectivity, the HTC's WP8 flagship relies on dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, NFC, Bluetooth 2.1, microUSB and 3.5mm audio jack.

priCingEven though HTC mentioned nothing on the pricing of its two latest smartphones at their announcement event, we only had to wait a day to find out. The HTC Windows Phone 8X and 8S just got their price tags in the UK and those seem pretty reasonable.The two new WP8-smartphones already have their own pages on the Unlocked Mobiles website. The HTC Windows Phone 8 flagship, the 8X costs£398.98 ($646 / €487), while the 8S, is cheaper at £224.98 ($364 / €280).

Final thoughtsBoth these products look amazing on paper and we can’t wait to get our hands on it. It should be interesting to see how HTC adapt the WP8 OS on their smartphones, when they have been running so many Androids so successfully for so long. In either case, the iPhone 5 will certainly meet up with a lot of competition in the coming months and the folks at HTC will be surely in that bracket.


EXHIBIT RATING

First LookTaiwan based Genius has launched another earphone claiming wide compatibility with a range of smartphones and other devices that have a standard 3.5mm audio jack. With build quality and noise cancellation being the most important points that will determine the verdict of such products, we were sure hoping that the HS M220 delivered on both these fronts. It does look to have all the makings of a winner, but we’ve seen far often products that promise a lot, but deliver too little. So, let’s see how this ‘Genius’ stacks up.

ReviewWe were quite pleased to read that the Genius HS M220 is compatible with a variety of smartphones, so we were naturally quite eager to put it through its paces. First up were some Android phones- a medium range phone with a single core processor, and a high end one on quad-core and known for its multimedia prowess. On the medium range phone, the output was quite mediocre with noise cancellation being the only high point. The bass was not as punchy and the treble not quite high. It was also difficult to distinguish the highs from the lows, but it was quite a different story with the high-end phone. The bass was quite good (though not as per our expectations) and the treble was quite nice too. The effect overall was pleasant and the

Not Quite BoomingGenius HS M220 earphones

noise levels with noise cancellations were good. The only issue was with the cable, which is not intangible – so it does tend to get into loops and gives the user a headache with un-tangling. Design wise, the actual earpiece is nice and small and fits in nicely to provide good noise cancellation. Playing all kinds of music is good, call quality is nice – but the mic did suffer some intermittent issues every now and then.

VerdictWith calling features being quite good, but actual audio clarity not the best –the Genius HS M220 turned out to be a mixed bag. The noise isolation was good, but the bass was a let down. The hearing quality in calls was good, but the mic isn’t the best we’ve seen. Overall, a hard product to recommend- but if you are looking for a decent earphone with dedicated keys for call control and acceptable audio clarity, then you can get yourself a pair of these.

NOISE ISOLATIONThe earbuds are ergonomically designed to fit right inside your ear, which means they are quite effective with noise cancellation. Even in loud areas, the music quality was good without much interference from the outside world.

SpecificationsIntegrated mic and call buttons

3.5mm gold-plated plug F0 ~ 20 KHz Frequency Response1200mm ± 50 mm Cable length

12 gms – Net Weight

`1,990/- (approx)

REVIEW- EAR PHONES

BUILD AND DESIGNWith a little more focus on the design, these earphones could’ve been real winners. But, with tangible wires and not the best quality of materials used, the good points seem to have lost out. The actual ear piece is nice n small and fits comfortably in your ear, but we would’ve preferred nice ear buds for more comfort. The additional one’s provided in the package were also just about average.


`34,999/-(approx)/-

Booming but not mind-blowingThe Creative ZiiSound T6

First LookAnother audio product from the Singapore audio giant Creative, though this one seems more promising than most of their recent releases. It is touted as a 2.1 speaker system though the 2 satellites are twin movable drivers. The subwoofer looks mighty powerful and the whole unit has the required number of cables that should be easy enough to set-up. But the whole idea of a speaker system is the surround effect, sound clarity and nice pleasing loudness. Will the ziiSound T6 be able to do all of this? Let’s take a look.

ReviewSetting up the entire speaker system was quite easy, with the cables and components provided in the box. The only thing that seemed tedious was trying to move the whole set to another power socket (if needed), with the wires tangling into each other. Overall, though, it was easy and we were ready with the central controller is quite handy to switch on the power, change the input source and increase/decrease volume. There is also a 3.5mm audio jack for an earphone/headphone that is also quite a nice addition. Using the USB cable to connect any laptop/desktop to the 3 driver subwoofer is simple, and then you are all set to

enjoy the boom and surround. However, the end result was a bit of a mixed bag- with nice levels of clarity and surround effect, but the bass wasn’t as deep and the treble wasn’t that effective to convince us entirely. The audio files played fairly well, but video with surround effects was not that great. Some of the bass was good, but lacked clarity and at times was not as crisp as we would’ve liked. On a HD TV, the experience was fairly similar, but the saving grace was the remote control which woks quite well. There is a bass controller on the back of the subwoofer which is quite inconvenient.

VerdictFor an asking price of` `34,999/- this product does not really deliver as expected. It’s certainly got its high points and most of the performance is really good, too. But – where it fails to impress is the crisp clarity and loud bass that we were expecting from it. The highs and lows were distinct, but only to a point. The more louder the input gets- the more distorted the output becomes. Surround and bass were fairly good throughout, but we were left wanting a little more in the end.

EXHIBIT RATING

Specifications2.1 Speaker SystemBluetooth 2.1 + EDR

(L x W x H)mm : 320 x 240 x 220 Sub Woofer(L x W x H)mm : 100 x 100 x 230 Satellite

4.86 kgs – Subwoofer0.821 kg – Satellite

BLUETOOTH PERFORMANCE The Nikon CF Sprint has a stylish and futuristic design. The binoculars have smooth curved finger grips on top. The comfortable grip and ergonomic construction of the binoculars enable you to hold onto them for hours without straining your hands. The binoculars have a center focus that is located between the 2 viewing barrels, while the diopter adjustment is individually available for each eyepiece.

1

REVIEW-SPEAKERS


First LookDespite the fact that Razer have a large product catalogue the reality is that regularly they take one model and tweak it for a specific audience, or take an ageing one and bring it up to date. There isn’t anything necessarily wrong with this, after all if you have something classic like the DeathAdder design, why not make a similar mouse, but wireless...or bring it up to date with new internals. Similarly with the Naga, there will be those that want varied lighting, surface, colour, buttons... even branding. Everyone is different and that is something Razer have clearly grasped in recent years. That said when a new product comes to market they still know how to impress, the Blackwidow Ultimate keyboard as one example still sits at the high end of the gaming peripheral market as one of the finest products out there.

ReviewThe Taipan makes an interesting move away from what we would consider to be a classic Razer shape to a more sports car style design. This is most evident in the front grills which sit, slanted beneath the mouse buttons but equally the angled lines to the sides of the mouse buttons also lean towards a sporty design. The top surface of the mouse uses the same coating found on the new Naga 2012, matt plastic and fingerprint resistant with a Razer logo sitting in the palm area (illuminated). Two buttons sit behind the scroll wheel and are assigned to sensitivity up/down

Highly VenomousRazer Taipan Gaming Mouse

as standard and the wheel lights green in use, dimming slightly if we lift off the desk, outside the range of the sensor. With this being an ambidextrous mouse the left and right sides are identical in design, each with thumb buttons for back/forward and all are active by default. Surrounding them is a rubber area with textured surface for added grip. Looking next at performance we have a mouse which offers speed and precision with no noticeable issues. We can switch from maximum to minimum DPI with ease and the mouse tracks well on every surface we tried. The Synapse 2.0 software still impresses and the addition of pad calibration brings the mouse in line with competitor products...we also liked the nice touch of the wheel dimming as lift-off distance is hit. It would however be good to see Razer adding audible queues when DPI is changed.

VerdictThe jury is still out on the hard vs soft touch coating debate but the Razer Taipan offers an excellent mix of speed and accuracy in a body which is slim and light. Easy on the arm over long gaming sessions it best suits claw and fingertip grips.the X74 3D and the X74S is quite good, overall. There’s really nothing that is quite wrong with either of these tablets, so if you are looking for affordable 3D and non 3D tablets, with good processors and ICS pre-loaded, then you may look no further. These are certainly the best of the lot out there, right now.

Specifications Ambidextrous form factor

8200 dpi 4G Dual Sensor System Razer Synapse 2.0 enabled

Nine (9) programmable Hyperesponse buttons 1000 Hz Ultrapolling/1 ms response time

Up to 200 in. per sec./50 g acceleration2.1 m/7 ft. braided fiber cable

Approximate Size : 124 mm/4.88 in. (length) x 63 mm/2.48 in. (width) x 36 mm/1.42 in. (height)

Approximate Weight: 95 g/0.21 lb

USD $79.99

REVIEW-MOUSE

USER EXPERIENCEOne of the first things which struck us about the Taipan was that it looks a little different to many of Razers existing mice which was somewhat of a surprise. In fact in design ethic it actually looks closer to something like the Kone+. Upon placing our hand on the mouse it immediately felt familiar, having used the Naga 2012 with its similar coating, however those used to the Razer soft touch coating will no doubt find the initial feel of the mouse a little different to the norm.

EXHIBIT RATING


`4,500/-

Smallest 1080p Media PlayerThe Mobo Play, Pocket Media Player

First LookA media player capable of playing 1080p videos but still measuring smaller than a credit card? Well, we kid you not- because the Mobo Play Pocket Media Player, is just that. The question that first popped in our minds, though, was why would anyone carry a media player in their pockets? Do you have so much video content that you want to see everywhere you go, or want to show off the videos you took on your last vacation? Whatever the reason may be, the company wants you to carry this device around and stream your stuff in HD. How good is it really? Let’s get cracking!

ReviewThe actual player from Moboplay is really quite small in size, but the accessories provided should’ve been enough to enjoy the full functionalities of the tiny player. Unfortunately, the only really useful accessory you get are the AV cable, no USB nor HDMI cables. Anyway, the setup didn’t require much effort and was pretty easily achieved. In a matter of minutes, we were able to stream the content of our external Hard Disk Drive to our HD TV and watch it with splendid clarity. The output was as true as we were expecting and even the file support lived up to its billing. The only problem we faced was with the SD card reader, but that could have been down

to a slightly faulty card as well, so we give the benefit of the doubt to the player. Coming over to the awesome part of the product, the wireless media stick (not part of a standard package), it plugs into any USB port of any device and is able to stream files from PC, Mac, NAS, or your Android smartphone and tablet, essentially turning them into media servers. This is just fantastic and the provided remote control lets you control your media when you have connected such a device to the Moboplay.

VerdictIt’s quite difficult to judge a product like this without knowing fully well how the company has done with the reliability of its other products in the market. We hadn’t even heard of the parent company till the product came along to our office to review, but just judging the product in itself we can say that it did what was expected. Nothing amazing, nothing worth putting it down. It did what was expected and did it fairly well. The only issue was lack of accessories provided in the box, but at `4,500/- we can’t really expect the moon. aesthetics, premium look, feel and design, impressive performance and an unmatched 3-year warranty cover, the Dell XPS 13 is probably a much better deal than any other ultrabook out there.

EXHIBIT RATING

REVIEW-MEDIA PLAYER

MEDIA SOURCESMoboplay supports a wide variety of the most popular files including Blu-ray, M4V, MOV, HDMOV, RM, MKV, MP4, XVID, AVI, WMV, MPEG, M2TS, WMV, FLV, DAT and many more video formats.

Specifications60mm x 64mm dimensions

USB InputSD/SDHC card reader

HDMI outRemote Control

AV Cable


First LookWhereas the Lumia series is all set to become the flagship of the Nokia brand, it is the Asha series that will creep in the rural markets and is expected to be a leader in the cheaper phone market segment. In the meantime, the company has been enjoying a pretty easy run in the featurephone market, which is now virtually free or real competition. Fending off entry-level smartphones and securing the future of the dumbphone kind may seem a futile effort, but the likes of the Asha 311 beg to differ.

ReviewSeries 40 has long been the main platform for Nokia - the Finns have sold literally billions of the S40 feature phones. The latest iteration, called Asha Touch, is the best S40 we’ve seen by quite some distance. It also does a much better job at transitioning from a D-pad operated to a touchscreen-only interface than Symbian did. The Asha Touch software takes a lot of design cues from its Symbian (or “Nokia OS” if you will) and MeeGo brothers, and as such the user interface structure is based on the MeeGo one. All interactions are touch-based, except for the red receiver key which is a handy way to bring out the homescreen or close an app. Notifications are displayed on the lockscreen too. A convenient shortcut is swiping a notification, which will take you to the relevant app. The phone does have an excellent file browser and a good, functional gallery as well as a nice photo editor too. The music player has a rather basic interface

The Little Hope PhoneNokia’s Asha 311

with lots of hidden features. The Now Playing screen displays a large album art picture, alongside the track name, a scrubber and music controls. Audio quality is fairly good overall, but does have its own issues as well. The video player has good codec support and nice features as well. There are plenty of apps and games in the Nokia Store, a lot of them free. They are still behind the big players in the app store game, but for a feature phone having an app store at all is a major bonus. The Nokia Asha 311 doesn’t have a GPS receiver but Nokia Maps can use Cell-ID to get your approximate location. The app doesn’t feature voice-guided navigation anyway and you can only plan pedestrian routes with it.

VerdictThe Asha 311 is not exactly the same old story of being stuck with a bottom-of-the-barrel feature phone, with a handful of extras and archaic software. As we with the Asha 305, the new S40 Touch interface has brought the Asha line closer to their smartphone brethren than ever before. And while Asha Touch is not, and never will be, up to par with what smartphones can do, it’s not as big of a sacrifice - or step away, depending on where you’re coming from.

Specifications 3” WQVGA TFT Capacitive touchscreen

S40-based Asha Touch UI1GHz CPU, 1 GB RAM

3.15MP cam VGA recording140MB internal, microSD card up to 32GBPenta-band 3G with 14.4Mbps HSDPA and

5.76 Mbps support

`7,139

REVIEW-MOUSE

CAMERAThe Nokia Asha 311 has a 3MP fixed-focus camera that produces photos at maximum resolution of 2048 x 1536. The camera interface has been updated but still offers just a few settings. The camera’s main UI has four shortcuts in each corner of the viewfinder and surprise - they’re orientation aware. This is a bit of joke really - one of them being a Back button, which has to always fall in the bottom right corner of the screen, they realign rather messily.

EXHIBIT RATING

CONNECTIVITYThe Nokia Asha 311 is a quad band device (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) and offers GPRS and EDGE support as well. There’s also pentaband 3G (HSDPA 14.4, HSUPA 5.76), Wi-Fi b/g/n, and Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP support. It uses a microUSB port for both data connections and charging, but we had some serious problems getting it to charge with anything other than the A/C adapter via its dedicated charging port. The Asha 311 also has a memory card slot (and a complimentary 2GB microSD card). Coupled with a card reader it can usually give you the fastest data transfer rates.

1

2

1

2


`36,999/-

Standing Tall Shining BrightThe Sony Xperia Ion

First LookSony has joined the dual-core ICS party a bit late, it would appear. Nevertheless, the Japanese giant has always made high quality products that have been appreciated across the board. This time, though, the competition seems to be that bit harder, though. And it seems like the Xperia brand might be losing out to the likes of Samsung Galaxy. So what can the Ion provide to lure the users back to Sony? It’ll be an uphill task, so let’s find out if it is up for it!

ReviewA dual-core ICS smartphone for almost Rs. 37k? Well, it’s quite strange that this premium handset is going to retail for about the same amount as quad-core phones, even though it has a bigger 12MP camera. However, it is the overall quality and ease of functionality that lures an end-user, along with excellent multimedia and SNS integration. Overall, the Sony seems to have it in place, the standard Xperia skin over the ICS OS, the Walkman brand for music, an excellent display for viewing your images, videos and enjoying games. Now, the build of the 4.55” smartphone disappointed us a bit. Not the quality, but just the sheer way it’s designed- with a curved bulge at the back. It’s quite a heavy phone, though it does fit easily in your pocket. But, it feels bulky in your hand and is not easy to use with just one hand. The 4 capacitive touch buttons at the bottom were not the most responsive, though the overall touch in the Android ICS OS was quick and responsive. Battery life seemed to drain out quite quickly over Wi-Fi and 3G, but overall was quite acceptable for a dual-core smartphone. The

phone does have a standard microUSB port but also has a HDMI port as well, which are hidden away in a side panel on the left, which is not quite conveniently built. SNS integration works quite well, as expected, with all your Google stuff up and running once you set it up. There’s also ‘Timescape’ from Sony, providing a bit of eye-candy. Performance-wise, the phone is no slacker, with a showing of easily managing multi-tasking, HD videos (including 1080p), high-end gaming and browsing the internet.

VerdictA good performing smartphone running on dual-cores with 1GB of RAM, the Ion manages to impress once you start putting it through its paces. The problem seems to be, the slight issues with the build quality and the way it feels in your hand. Not something we expected from a premium phone which costs almost Rs 37k. A 12MP camera appeals on paper, but is slightly disappointing in performance. The display is crisp and bright, but doesn’t really match up to the newer boys around the same price range. If you can spend that much on a smartphone, wouldn’t you want a quad-core instead?

Specifications4.55” LED-backlit LCD capacitive touchscreen

Android OS v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)Dual-core 1.5GHz Processor

Adreno 220 GPU12MP camera with LED flash

13.2GB internal, microSD card support up to 32GB1 GB RAM

REVIEW-SMARTPHONE

DISPLAYWith a pixel density of 323 ppi, it’s one of the best HD displays around. But, the colour saturation is a bit much on the 4.55” display. Brightness is great and even visible in pretty strong sunlight, which is powered by the BRAVIA engine.

CAMERAThe 12MP snapper has an LED flash which does a fairly good job, overall- but is not as impressive as we’d hope. Especially in low light conditions, the level of noise is slightly more. It certainly has got impressive features including a 3D sweep panorama, but the quality of images could’ve been better.

CONNECTIVITYGPRS/EDGE/3G/Wifi, Bluetooth, USB and HDMI are the usual suspects- which work quite well. The HDMI especially is a real winner, but the ICS powered smartphone does have NFC as well – which is fun, but not really that popular here in India, yet.

EXHIBIT RATING

1

2

1

2

3


First LookBluetooth headphones are coming up in by the dozens as more users are willing to pay that extra money to ensure a tangle free music listening experience. Creative has launched quite a few such products to entice us with, but we do like to see more improvements in newer launches with lesser cons to complain about. Whether or not the WP-300 will be able to impress us with its aesthetics and sound quality remains to be seen, but the bundle does look promising enough – which is a good start for the WP-300!

ReviewUsing 34mm Neodymium magnet driver units coupled with apt-X technology to enhance audio streaming via Bluetooth (2.1 + EDR, A2DP, AVRCP) the WP-300 is more than efficient in delivering crisp, clear audio output. It was a most enjoyable experience using the WP-300 form music to videos via a PC or mobile device. Since they’re so comfortable to wear and the audio leakage is considerably reduced even at high volume, you’re ensured that the focus of your audio is on you and no one else. The only con with the actual design was that the earpiece itself felt a little small and you don’t feel completely comfortable when you have it on. It feels like it may slip out anytime, even though in most situations (unless you’re running on a treadmill)- the headphone stay put without any issue. Another

Wire-free Audio Experience The Creative WP-300

noticeable issue was with the range of the Bluetooth itself, which tended to drop out even at 4-5 metres. This might also be down to the device which was streaming the music via its Bluetooth – so, we’ll give the benefit of the doubt to the WP-300 on that. Tone quality was superb. A resilient thump in the bass line rounded off the lower frequencies while mid and higher frequencies were well balanced so as to avoid sharp tone quality.

VerdictThe price tag on the WP-300 is ` 7,499. It seems rather expensive considering it’s not designed to support taking calls from your handset and doesn’t come with a Bluetooth Dongle. However, for an audiophile or an avid music lover who’s only interested in dousing his auditory receptors, ears to the rest of us, with great sounding audio, the price won’t matter and the WP-300 comes off as a great option. It’s a classy looking headset that’s well designed and has a great battery life. If only some of the cons didn’t bother us that much, we would’ve really loved the device. But, it’s still a slightly better than average kinda product for us. Nothing more, nothing less.

Specifications On Ear wearing style

18Hz- 22 KHz frequency response102 dB Sound Pressure

3.5 mm Jack107 gms in weight

`7,499/- (approx)

REVIEW-HEADPHONES

NOISE ISOLATIONThe smallish earphones didn’t feel like they would be great for noise isolation, but they managed to do the job quite well. The only issue was with the comfort fit of the product, but even in loud conditions the music quality was quite good.

EXHIBIT RATING

BUILD AND DESIGNThe WP-300 is a well constructed headset with soft leatherette ear cushions that will keep your ears snug without letting your audio leak out and disturb anyone within earshot. We tested them for various periods – for an hour long stretch and then for at least 3 hours watching an entire movie with them on.

1

2

1

2


`10,999/-

Not Really Crystal ClearThe BenQ GH 600

First LookBenQ has been around for a while making impressive display units and some interesting cameras. But the new GH 600 is a superzoom (21x Optical Zoom) cam with a 16MP lens. It sure does promise to deliver the goods with a punch as it seems loaded with a variety of modes to satiate the desire of any photography enthusiast. What’s more impressive is the way that BenQ has set the pricing for this camera, with the competition in an entirely different price bracket for similar features. But does it have what it takes to impress? Let’s find out.

ReviewThe well built BeQ GH600 does have a few likeable qualities, but one look at it – and comparisons with the Nikon superzoom series seems inevitable. Nevertheless, we have to remember that the BenQ is being offered at a very low price point comparatively, and we will judge it on its own merits. Setting up battery and memory card is just like you’d find on any other camera, with the only exception being the use of AA batteries instead of the Li-Ion or Li-Poly ones. This won’t be convenient for most users, but might not be a deal breaker either. Moving over to the actual use and UI – it’s as straight forward as you’d expect. The camera feels quite nice to hold, is lightweight – and the auto-focus was quite accurate.

But what we really wanted to test was the 21x Optical zoom – and in broad daylight we zoomed into a tree (from a distance of about 20-odd meters) to check the individual trees – and the results were quite nice! But, go over to an indoor spot – or low light conditions- and the story is quite different. There was unacceptable levels of noise, the picture seemed blurry – and basically was not impressive at all. The same is true even for images taken without zoom in daylight and low light conditions. Variable conditions did produce some different results, with no real consistency in the overall results. The various modes are quite good and most work fairly well, but again – nothing that manages to really impress. The lack of a Black & White mode, was really surprising.

VerdictOverall, the compact superzoom did a so-so job in capturing images with its 16MP sensor. We would have really wanted some consistency in all the images captured at all the modes in various settings, even though its harder for superzooms to perform with such consistency. We also kept in mind the lower price tag, but somehow were not quite impressed with the overall results of the images themselves. Its a good option in the compact superzoom category, but only if you are on a tight budget.

EXHIBIT RATING

Specifications16MP Sensor with 25mm wide-angle view

21x Optical zoom3” LCD 460K screen

Captures 720p videos at 30fpsSD, SDHC, SDXC Storage Types

DESIGNEven though the similarity with the Nikon superzoom series cannot be ignored, we have to understand that the BenQ GH 600 is well built, designed and lightweight compact superzoom. It feels really nice to hold and operate, and at no point in time were we left complaining about anything in the design or build quality of it.

REVIEW-CAMERA


First LookAll major smartphone makers are jumping onto the quad core bandwagon and LG has decided to step in the arena with their Optimus line. Enter the Optimus 4 X HD- which is aimed directly at the Samsung Galaxy S III and the HTC One X. On the spec sheet, it can certainly match these two smartphones bite for bite, but does it also really manage to impress in real use as well? Well, that’s the million dollar question and one that we have explored fully in our review.

ReviewAndroid users will feel quite comfortable once they start using the 4X HD, but the customized UI that LG has put on top of the ICS, takes a bit getting used to. It’s the Optimus UI v3.0 from LG, which gives even more customizing options to the user, right from scrolling of the homescreen, swipe effects, the way you unlock, etc. It’s really quite nice to have such control over the way you use this smartphone, without feeling complicated. The 1.5GHz quad-core with the Tegra 3 chip from NVIDIA ensures all the graphics, be it gaming or videos or even browsing, run smoothly on it. Yes, at times there is a slight jitter, but that is where the ‘Project Butter’ powered Jelly Bean upgrade will be a must for this flagship phone from LG. The ‘touch’ of the smartphone is quite nice n smooth and we really enjoyed using the phone for large periods of time. When it comes to multimedia, the speaker is

4 cores and HD displayThe LG Optimus 4X HD

quite mediocre and the earphones provided don’t give out the best audio quality. But it’s quite decent and the ‘Mobile Dolby’ option is good. The Gallery is quite a standard one, but the Video Player, with its ‘quick view’ option- lets you view the content in a mini screen without forwarding. It played 1080p videos without a glitch and supports all major file formats, plus the HD display with 312 ppi makes it a really enjoyable viewing experience. There are some freebies from LG in the apps department as well, including the LG SmartWorld – but the Play Store with its huge number of apps really doesn’t make you want to use any other app repository. With 16 GB of internal storage as well as support for 32GB expansion via the microSD slot, you can download and install as many apps as you want, in addition to your multimedia.

VerdictThere’s really nothing much to criticize except perhaps a slightly subpar build quality for a phone that costs `35K, but that is really nitpicking. The flagship phone from LG has lived up to its expectations and barring a few really minor cons, there is nothing to dislike in the Optimus 4X HD. We’d suggest this in a heartbeat, but not ahead of the Galaxy S III. Yet.

Specifications4.7” True HD-IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen

Android Ice Cream Sandwich (v4.0)1.5 GHz Cortex-A9 quad-core processor

8MP camera with LED flashNvidia Tegra 3 chipset

ULP GeForce GPU16 GB internal memory, 1 GB RAMmicroSD card support up to 32 GB

`34,990/-

EXHIBIT RATING

3

21

REVIEW- SMARTPHONES

DISPLAYThe 4.7” True HD-IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen is backed by 16M colours and the resolution of 720x1280 means the density is around 312ppi. It’s quite a joy viewing anything and everything on this superb crisp display, though the refresh rate of the LCD is a tad slow.

CONNECTIVITY3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, DLNA are all fairly standard connectivity features for high end phones and the Optimus 4X HD is loaded with NFC as well. You can not only use the tags that are provided, but make your own too.

1

2 CAMERA The 8MP snapper is quite decent, though nothing brilliant. The LED flash is really a let down in most low light conditions, but video recording at 1080p resolution is quite nice. The only issue was with constant Auto-Focus, dropping every now and then.

3


`34,999/-(approx)/-

Thrice as good?The Odyssey 3.1 Speaker System

First LookSpeaker systems are cropping up everywhere in the market and we literally are spoilt for choice. Enter Odyssey, a fairly new player in the market which has a portfolio of 12 Product Groups spread across 150+ items including such as Cabinet, Power supply, UPS, Multimedia Speakers, USB Speaker, Headset, Keyboards, Mouse, etc. The company claims that it is “known for its very good quality, at reasonable prices, & after sales service” – so we were expecting quite a high quality product that will certainly live up to our expectations.

ReviewThe only issue we sometimes have with speaker systems is the amount of cables that one has to deal with. But, setting up most systems is fairly easy and we had no issues with the Odyssey 3.1 system as well. The main subwoofer unit has one main speaker driver at the front and the actual sub-woofer on the right side. Volume and bass control knobs are on the front with more basic buttons below these knobs (including Prev, Pause, Next and a card reader as well as USB drive reader slot). The other driver speakers connect to the back of this main subwoofer system and each one of these satellites have a small subwoofer outlet as well. The casing of the speaker systems is wooden and the front facing portion gets plastic treatment. The wooden casing is especially

impressive and once the entire system was hooked up, we tried playing some audio by simply connecting a Pen Drive into the provided slot and test out the performance. Unfortunately, what we heard wasn’t as great as what we were really expecting from the unit. The highs were really not that great in most songs (especially Hip Hop and RnB) and the treble didn’t manage to impress either. But we had to remember that the whole set is worth only Rs. 4,999/- so we can’t expect really high end performance from it. However, overall clarity and sharpness was acceptable and most songs were loud enough for a large room. Plus, with enough tweaking of bass and volume controls – you might even get the right type of listening experience that you were aiming for. The memory card reader slot also worked fine and provided decent quality music, though we were left wondering if the device really needs more input slots than provided.

VerdictEven though the Odyssey 3.1 speaker system is modestly priced, we would still have liked to seen a little more oomph in the delivery. Having said that, the product does give you fairly loud and amicable audio experience for a house of average size and is meant for those who are looking for budget speaker systems.

EXHIBIT RATING

SpecificationsOutput Power 38(16W+8W*2+6W)

Frequency Response 20Hz-250Hz 20Hz-19KHzDriver5.25” Woofer, 3” full range Satellites

Distortion0.1% at 1W S/N Ratio 70DBSeperation 45DB

Power Supply 230V AC Mains- in Control Provide Volume/Bass

FM Frequency Band 87.5-107.9

REMOTE CONTROLFor convenience sake, there is a remote control provided. It has the usual controls that you’d expect and it worked fairly well in the testing.

1

REVIEW-SPEAKERS


It’s a commonly identifiable phenomenon, that when an Olympian uses a certain brand of equipment to emerge victorious, its big bucks for both sides. Think about it, the first man who crossed the line to finish of the race doesn’t have a similar set of gear like all the other participants. If not, then what’s the point? What difference doesit make to become the winner?As Device online points it out, world famous sports brands are spending huge money for innovation and introducing technology to make things look different in Olympics.Here’s a look 10 of the best tech ideas that changed Olympics forever.

Tech gave a cue toOlympics to change forever

Speedo LZR Racer SwimsuitWHAT'S NEW? In the Olympic swimming pool, just a couple thousandths of a second can be the difference between winning and losing, so even the tiniest competitive edge is critical. Back in Athens, we saw plenty of swimmers using the Speedo Fastskin to good advantage, but now Speedo has upped the ante with the LZR Racer. Developed in association with NASA and the Australian Institute of Sport, the LZR Racer uses a woven elastane-nylon and polyurethane material that's said to hold the body in a more hydrodynamic position, while expelling water and allowing for improved oxygen flow to the muscles. It also has ultrasonically welded seams to avoid drag.MOUTH OF SUCCESS? Since the suit was launched in February of this year, dozens of world records have already been broken by swimmers using the LzR Racer. I think that makes the answer an unequivocal yes.

Gill Athletics OTE Composite FX Carbon/Aluminum JavelinWHAT’S NEW? Following 102 years as an Olympic event, you might figure that it would be hard to come up with new technology for a sport as straightforward as the javelin throw. But high-tech has its place in even this ancient sport. Rule changes introduced following the Athens games now allow for javelins made using carbon-fiber composites. And while there are strict minimum weights for Olympic javelins, adding carbon fiber can greatly reduce vibration and wobble, allowing for a straighter flight with less wind resistance.MOUTH OF SUCCESS?Javelin is another sport where inches count, and anything that gives you a straighter, truer flight has got to be beneficial

Nike Aerographic JerseyWHAT’S NEW? Even since the rules were changed to allow a “dream team” of NBA stars, it was assumed they might as well just hand out the gold medals to Team USA. So it was a bit of an embarrassment when they only managed to come home with bronze from Athens. Clearly, Team USA understands that they need to take things a little more seriously, and they are not taking anything for granted in Beijing.A basketball jersey hardly seems like an area for technical innovation, but Nike have delivered something called Aerographic for Team USA. By etching graphic designs into key areas of the garment, they can increase airflow over the skin, while reducing the overall weight by 31 percent. Oh, and the graphics look pretty cool, too.MOUTH OF SUCCESS?By increasing airflow and reducing sweating, the Aerographic stop the athlete from wasting energy trying to keep cool. Reducing the weight should also allow them to jump just that teeny bit higher.

TECH THAT


Nike Ippeas Riding BootsWHAT’S NEW? Equestrian events are about as steeped in tradition as the Olympics gets, and riding technology has practically stood still since the 19th century. Trust Nike to come along and shake things up, introducing a riding boot that addresses several issues at once. First, for comfort, Nike added a long zipper that eases the chore of taking them off. Then they added a special high-abrasion rubber on the medial (horse) side of the boot, to give the rider added control and stability in jumps. Finally in one of those slap yourself on the forehead V8 moments, they replaced those clunky strap-on spurs with a height-adjustable screw in titanium stud. Brilliant!MOUTH OF SUCCESS? While the zipper and screw-in spur are mainly convenience items that make the rider’s life a little more comfortable, the extra-grippy inside surface should make it easier to control the horse, with less chance of falling off or being thrown.

Adidas AdiStar Rowing ShoesWHAT’S NEW? Silly me, I always figured rowing was mostly about upper body and arm

strength. Clearly I am mistaken, and it turns out that leg power is equally, if not more important. To transfer all of that power into moving the scull, your feet need to have

a solid and stable foundation, and Adidas provides one with their latest “made for Beijing” AdiStar rowing shoe. Featuring a lightweight rowing plate with stabilizing outriggers, the AdiStar is designed to provide a more direct transfer of power. It also has a so-called “speed heel” with built-in ventilation that’s designed to keep the feet at the optimum temperature.MOUTH OF SUCCESS?Having a firm foundation for your feet allows all of your stroke power to be transferred into moving the scull. That can only result in a better times.

DOPPLER LIDARWHAT’S NEW? Sailing is all about getting wind into your sails that can push your yacht along, but other than licking your finger and pointing it up towards the sky, where do sailors get wind speed and direction info? For years they’ve been using Doppler radar systems similar to what weather forecasters use on TV, but the problem is these systems are pretty useless when there’s little or no wind, which is precisely when sailors need the information.MOUTH OF SUCCESS? While all teams will have access to any data provided by the Doppler Lidar system, how well each team is able to interpret that data could mean the difference between winning and losing.

Morini CM EI Air PistolWHAT’S NEW? If you figured air pistols and cutting-edge technology didn’t go hand in hand, think again. Modern air pistols use a compressed-

gas capsule to propel the pellet. The catch is that even the tiniest uneven force in the firing action can be the difference between a bull’s-eye and a lower score. The rules dictate that the trigger

must require a minimum force of 500 grams to fire, but smoothness is still critical.The new CM 162 El from Swiss manufacturer Morini takes this thinking a step further by replacing the

traditional mechanical trigger with a switch that operates a battery-powered microchip-controlled firing mechanism. Two AAA batteries provide enough juice for 15,000 shots, with a pulsating red LED to indicate battery condition.MOUTH OF SUCCESS?A smooth trigger action is critical in pistol shooting, and what could be smoother than a simple switch? Look for many of the top shooters in Beijing to be using the CM 162 El.


MEET THE TEAMS


Even though Formula 1 is much more than glam and speeding cars, it cannot be separated from the sport at all. We have seen vari-ous F1 teams evolve from all parts of the world, and know we even have one from India! What's more, we have an Indian F1 race (which is the focal point for this issue) as well as an Indian driver (who braces our cover page), speeding in his own racing demon of a car. F1 fans in India never had it so good, and here we take a quick look at all the competing teams who will line up the Buddh Circuit in NCR.

MEET THE TEAMS


SEBASTIAN VETTEL (GERMANY)

MARK WEBBER (AUSTRALIA)

Ban on exhaust-blown diffusers robs RB8 of predecessor's dominance, but team continue to push technical boundaries, drawing controversy over floor holes, engine maps and more. Webber more than matches Vettel in first half of season, with two wins to the champion's one.

‘‘

‘‘

Red Bull Racing WORLD

Country: Austria/UKFormula 1 Race Driver Line-up (both drivers confirmed)

Sebastian Vettel (Germany)Mark Webber (Australia)

Formula 1 Test Driver: Sebastien Buemi

Base: Milton Keynes, UK

Team Principal: Christian Horner

Technical Chief: Adrian Newey Chassis: RB8

Engine:Renault RS27-2012

Tyres: Pirelli

First Season: 2005

World Championships: 2

Highest Race Finish: 1 (x30)

Pole Positions: 42

Fastest Laps: 25

2012 F1 Car Track Debut / Launch Date: 6 February 2012

Changes for 2012 F1 Season:Engine supplier and driver line-up unchanged

‘‘


‘‘‘‘

Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Rollercoaster form in first half of season, despite winning first round in Australia, with Button in particular struggling to get best from Pirelli tyres. Mid-season updates put MP4-27 back on pace, and Hamilton goes into summer break in clear title contention after Hungarian victory.

Country: UK Formula 1 Race Driver Line-up (both drivers confirmed)

Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Confirmed with team until end of 2012

Jenson Button (Britain)

Formula 1 Test Driver(s): Gary Paffet (Britain) - Oliver Turvey (Britain)

Base:Woking, UK

Team Principal:Martin Whitmarsh

Technical Chief:Paddy Lowe

Chassis:MP4-27

Engine:Mercedes-Benz FO 108z

Tyres:Pirelli

First Season: 1966

World Championships:8

Highest Race Finish:1 (x180)

Pole Positions:152

Fastest Laps: 149


Changes for 2012 F1 Season: Engine supplier and driver line-up unchanged

LEWIS HAMILTON (BRITAIN)

JENSON BUTTON (BRITAIN)

WORLD


Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro

FERNANDO ALONSO (SPAIN)

FELIPE MASSA (BRAZIL)

Initially recalcitrant F2012 well off pace in opening rounds, but improves rapidly in hands of Alonso, who repeatedly beats superior machinery to lead championship by 40 points going into summer break, with an under-pressure Massa languishing in 14th place‘‘ ‘‘

Country: ItalyFormula 1 Race Driver Line-up (both drivers confirmed)

Fernando Alonso (Spain) Felipe Massa (Brazil)

Formula 1 Test Driver: TBA

Base: Maranello, Italy

Team Principal: Stefano Domenicali

Technical Chief: Pat Fry Chassis: F2012

Engine:Ferrari 056

Tyres: Pirelli

First Season: 1950



Pole Positions: 207

Fastest Laps: 227


Changes for 2012 F1 Season:Driver line-up unchanged

WORLD


‘‘ ‘‘

Country: UK/Germany Formula 1 Race Driver Line-up (both drivers confirmed)

Michael Schumacher (Germany) Nico Rosberg (Germany)


Base:Brackley, UK

Team Principal: Ross Brawn

Technical Chief: Bob Bell Chassis: F1 W03

Engine:Mercedes-Benz FO108z

Tyres: Pirelli

First Season: 2010



Pole Positions: 1

Fastest Laps:3

2012 F1 Car Track Debut / Launch Date: 21 Febru-ary 2012

Changes for 2012 F1 Season:Driver line-up un-changed

Mercedes Grand Prix

Rosberg scores team's breakthrough win - Mercedes' first as works squad since 1955 - at round three in China, at wheel of innovative F1 W03, complete with unique 'double DRS' wing system. Elsewhere, podium pace generally elusive in first half of season.

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER (GERMANY) NICO ROSBERG (GERMANY)

WORLD


ROMAIN GROSJEAN (FRANCE)

Team name officially changes from Renault to Lotus. Former champion Kimi Raikkonen lured back to F1 as team leader, as Robert Kubica’s recovery from 2011 rally crash proves slower than hoped. Tester Romain Grosjean promoted to second race seat..

‘‘‘‘

Lotus Renault GP ‘‘

WORLD

Country: France/UK Formula 1 Race Driver Line-up (both drivers confirmed)

Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Romain Grosjean (France)

Formula 1 Test Driver: J D’Ambrosio

Base: Enstone, UK

Team Principal: Eric Boullier

Technical Chief: James Allison

Chassis: E20


Tyres: Pirelli

First Season:1981



Pole Positions: 51

Fastest Laps: 34


Changes for 2012 F1 Season:Vitaly Petrov leaves the team. Bruno Senna signs with Williams

KIMI RAIKKONEN (FINLAND)


‘‘‘‘

Lotus Renault GP Force India F1Di Resta pushed hard by new team mate Hulkenberg, with both men extracting maximum from midfield machinery. Former scores four top-seven results in first half of season. Latter qualifies fourth in Germany, finishes fifth in Valencia

Country: UK/IndiaFormula 1 Race Driver Line-up (both drivers confirmed)

Paul di Resta (Scotland) Nico Hulkenberg (Germany)

Formula 1 Test Driver: Jules Bianchi (France)

Base:Silverstone, UK

Team Principal:Vijay Mallya

Technical Chief:Andrew Green

Chassis:VJM05

Engine:Mercedes-Benz

Tyres:Pirelli

First Season: 2008


Highest Race Finish:2 (x1)

Pole Positions:1

Fastest Laps: 12012 F1 Car Track Debut / Launch Date: 3February 2012

Changes for 2012 F1 Season: Adrian Sutil leaves the team.

PAUL DI RESTA (SCOTLAND)

NICO HULKENBERG (GERMANY)

WORLD


From The Editor’s Desk:

KAMUI KOBAYASHI (JAPAN)

Season starts well, with Perez earning high praise for impressive podiums in Malaysia and Canada. C31 proves a competent, all-round package and team go into summer break with 80 points - 36 more than they scored in their entire 2011 campaign

‘‘

‘‘

Sauber F1‘‘

WORLD

Country: SwitzerlandFormula 1 Race Driver Line-up (both drivers confirmed)

Kamui Kobayashi (Japan) Sergio Perez Mendoza (Mexico)

Formula 1 Test Driver: Esteban Gutierrez (Mexico)

Base: Hinwil, Switzerland

Team Principal: Peter Sauber

Technical Chief: James Allison

Chassis: C31

Engine:Ferrari 056

Tyres: Pirelli

First Season:1993



Pole Positions: 1

Fastest Laps: 4


Changes for 2012 F1 Season:Engine supplier and driver lineup unchanged

SERGIO PEREZ MENDOZA (MEXICO)


‘‘‘‘

Scuderia Toro RossoAll-new driver line-up of Ricciardo and Vergne unable to compensate for STR7’s inadequacies as team score just six points in first half of season, all of them in the opening two races.

Country: Austria/UKFormula 1 Race Driver Line-up (both drivers confirmed)

Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) Jean-Eric Vergne (France)

Formula 1 Test Driver:TBA

Base:Faenza, Italy

Team Principal:Franz Tost

Technical Chief:James Key

Chassis:STR7

Engine:Ferrari 056

Tyres:Pirelli

First Season: 2006


Highest Race Finish: 1(x1)

Pole Positions:1

Fastest Laps: 02012 F1 Car Track Debut / Launch Date: 6February 2012

Changes for 2012 F1 Season: Sebastien Buemi becomes test and reserve driver for Red Bull Rac-ing while Jaime Alguersuari leaves the team.

DANIEL RICCIARDO (AUSTRALIA)

JEAN-ERIC VERGNE (FRANCE)

WORLD

SERGIO PEREZ MENDOZA (MEXICO)


BRUNO SENNA (BRAZIL)

Switch to Renault power dramatically boosts competitiveness, with Pastor Maldonado taking Williams’ first win since 2004 in Spain, but both drivers’ form proves inconsistent and team rank seventh overall going into summer break.

‘‘‘‘

AT&T Williams F1 ‘‘

WORLD

Country: UK Formula 1 Race Driver Line-up (both drivers confirmed)

Pastor Maldonado (Venzuela) Bruno Senna (Brazil)

Formula 1 Test Driver: Valtteri Bottas (Finland)

Base: Grove,UK

Team Principal: Frank Williams

Technical Chief: Mike Coughlan

Chassis: FW34


Tyres: Pirelli

First Season:1975



Pole Positions: 127

Fastest Laps: 131


Changes for 2012 F1 Season:Engine switch from Cosworth to Renault, Rubens Barrichello leaves the team

PASTOR MALDONADO (VENZUELA)


‘‘‘‘

AT&T Williams F1 Caterham F1 TeamTeam name changes from Team Lotus to Caterham, the specialist sportscar maker owned by team principal Tony Fernandes. First change to original driver line-up, with Petrov replacing Trulli just a month before season starts.

Country: UK/MalaysiaFormula 1 Race Driver Line-up (both drivers confirmed)

Vitaly Petrov (Russia) Heikki Kovalainen (Finland)

Formula 1 Test Driver: Giedo van der Garde (The Netherlands)

Base:Leafield, UK

Team Principal:Tony Fernandes

Technical Chief:Mike Gascoyne

Chassis:CT01


Tyres:Pirelli

First Season: 2010



Pole Positions:0

Fastest Laps: 02012 F1 Car Track Debut / Launch Date: 26 January 2012

Changes for 2012 F1 Season: Team name change from Lotus to Caterham ,Jarno Trulli leaves the team and is replaced by Vitaly Petrov.

VITALY PETROV (RUSSIA)

HEIKKI KOVALAINEN (FINLAND)

WORLD


HRT F1 Team

PEDRO DE LA ROSA (SPAIN)

NARAIN KARTHIKEYAN (INDIA)

As in 2011, fail to qualify at round one, but steadily improve as combination of the experi-enced De la Rosa, new team principal (and ex-driver) Luis Perez-Sala and new Madrid base begins to bear fruit, bringing pace closer to that of key rivals, Marussia.‘‘ ‘‘

Country: SpainFormula 1 Race Driver Line-up (both drivers confirmed)

Narain Karthikeyan (India) Pedro de la Rosa (Spain)

Formula 1 Test Driver: Dani Clos (Spain)

Base:Madrid, Spain

Team Principal: Luis Perez-Sala

Technical Chief: Jean-Claude Martens

Chassis: F112

Engine:Cosworth CA2012

Tyres: Pirelli

First Season: 2010



Pole Positions: 0

Fastest Laps: 0

2012 F1 Car Track Debut / Launch Date: TBA

Changes for 2012 F1 Season:Engine supplier unchanged

WORLD


‘‘ ‘‘

Marussia F1 TeamTeam takes on name of major shareholders and Russian sportscar makers Marus-sia. French rookie Charles Pic signed to partner the experienced Timo Glock..

TIMO GLOCK (GERMANY) CHARLES PIC (FRANCE)

WORLD

Country: UKFormula 1 Race Driver Line-up (both drivers confirmed)

Timo Glock (Germany)Charles Pic (France)


Base:Banbury,, UK

Team Principal: John Booth

Technical Chief: Pat Symonds Chassis: MR01

Engine:Cosworth CA2012

Tyres: Pirelli

First Season: 2010



Pole Positions: 0

Fastest Laps:0

2012 F1 Car Track Debut / Launch Date: Early March 2012

Changes for 2012 F1 Season:Engine supplier un-changed, team changes name to Marussia F1 Team (from Marussia Virgin Racing), Jerome d’Ambrosio leaves the team.


FAst & Furiousnarain Karthikeyan

Hair -Ay'sha UddinMake-Up - Rohit SinghStylist- Petal GangurdeClothes & Shoes - Crash Boom Bang, Bandra (West)Watch -IWC Big PilotSunglasses-Oakley, Inmate


EX-With F1 finally in India, will the sport open up to young minds?

N-I hope so! The inaugural Indian GP last year was a raging success and brought F1 to the forefront in India. During the week leading up to the race, it was everywhere – from primetime television to front page of newspapers. With that kind of exposure, the youth is certainly well-aware of the sport – I meet amazingly knowledgeable young fans on a daily basis. So I think we’re on the right road as far as getting young fans interested in F1 – now we have to sustain that interest and engage with them directly.

EX-How would you rate the Buddh Circuit in comparison to the other international circuit and which is your favorite among all?

N-Being the venue of my home GP I can’t help being a little biased, but I think BIC has loads more character compared to other new-age circuits on the calendar. A lot of work went into designing the artificial elevation changes, the blind crests and so on, and it has paid off well. The surface is incredibly smooth, actually the smoothest of any tracks that I’ve driven on till date.As for my favourites, I like old-school fast, flowing tracks. Spa Francorchamps, Silverstone and Brands Hatch have been happy hunting grounds for me.

EX-Any particular F1 technology you would want to see in production cars?

N-Definitely KERS is something that is feasible on a road car and will take environment-friendly hybrid tech to the next level. In fact, McLaren’s latest supercar has a flywheel-type KERS which supplements the power produced by the engine. Although the aim in this case is giving a horsepower boost (like in Formula 1), the same benefit can be applied to make cars more efficient by using smaller engines and having some sort of a start-stop system.

EX-With the recent tragedy of Maria de Villota, do you think women drivers will be scared to explore F1?

N-Accidents happen, it doesn’t matter who is behind the wheel. In Maria’s case, it was really unfortunate that she suffered such tragic fate. Yes the sport is male- dominated but that doesn’t mean we can generalise across the board. If a woman is as quick as any guy out there, she should be in Formula 1. There is some promising (woman) talent in the junior series presently and hopefully they’d be good enough to break the mould and make it to the pinnacle of the sport.

EX-If not an F1 driver, what would you have been?

N-Ever since I could remember, I was interested in motorsport and everything I consequently did was to achieve my aim of being a Formula 1 driver. So I haven’t really given thought to anything else. A fighter pilot comes close I think!

EX-How do you as an F1 driver prepare for a race? A few insights for our readers.

N-A Formula 1 driver is a top-level sportsperson, so there is nothing like short-term preparation. Conditioning is very important and it takes a lot of work inside the gym and a lot of restrain outside it. Being race fit is a full-time job since it is an extremely physically-demanding sport. If an F1 car is being driven at its limit, a regular person would actually pass out in no time; due to the extreme g-forces the car generates which takes a massive toll on your body. During a race, our heart rate can average well over 170bpm for over 90 minutes – placing incredible demands on the cardiovascular system.And it isn’t just about being fit enough to jump in the car and drive, but drivers also need plenty of spare mental capacity to think about strategies, talk on the radio with the pits and race with other cars, all while doing 300kmph. So a lot of mental drills are a part of the fitness regime as well.So basically, being you don’t stop being a Formula 1 driver once you step out of the cockpit or even when the season is up – it is a lifestyle which you continuously lead and is just one piece of the puzzle to perform at top efficiency.

EX-Even though F1 has its safety measures; it still is a dangerous yet thrilling sport. Your comments.

N-Motorsport is dangerous and always will be, although safety standards have come a long way since the 80s. The last fatality in F1 was in 1994, when the great Ayrton Senna passed away at Imola. But the cars are much safer now and the circuits are being continuously upgraded to incorporate more safety measures, like better impact-absorbing barricades, larger run-off areas and so on.Irrespective though, motorsport will never be risk free – due to reasons outside our control. And to be honest, it wouldn’t be as exciting without the element of danger always being there. So it’s a fine balance, and modern-day F1 is managing it well.

EX-HRT-Cosworth has not been performing as expected, but on whole how has your experiencing with the team been?

N-The team underwent an ownership change last year and has a solid structure in place now with some very capable and experienced people on-board, like the new Team Principal Luis Pérez-Sala and my teammate Pedro de la Rosa. So things have definitely been changing for the better ever since. Saul (Ruiz de Marco, HRT F1 CEO) has a very good approach to what F1 should be, and has applied entrepreneurship experience to the team which has led to better things. The car has improved a lot since last year and we know it is impossible to change things in F1 overnight; we have certainly taken strides in the right direction.

EX-Any upcoming Indian drivers you have spotted from the Indian Circuit for F1?

N-There are lots of talented young drivers but they still need

some time – the problem is the infrastructure which has been lacking all these years, and that’s the reason it took me a long time to get to F1. But now we have a Formula 1 circuit, and some good championships like the MRF F2000 with cutting-edge technology to prepare our drivers for Europe – so hopefully we’ll see some young drivers up there in a couple of years’ time.

EX-Next year will mark your 20th in competitive racing. What’s the secret of your longevity?

N-Even though I started quite late compared to my counterparts in Europe, I never gave up. Considering we had very little by the way of motorsport in our country, it was definitely an unconventional dream to race in Formula 1. Understandably, I failed to realise what an uphill task it was at the time and a more concrete picture emerged only when I started racing in Europe. A lot of hard work and perseverance, coupled with absolute self-belief and the unwavering support of the Tata Group has been instrumental in achieving this.

EX-What are your plans post-retirement?

N-Honestly I haven’t thought so far ahead yet, as long as I am competitive I would like to race. After that, I’d like to contribute something to the sport that has given so much to me, so we’ll see how it goes.

EX-Is Social Media a good way to communicate between teams/drivers and their millions of fans the world over?

N-Certainly! I think it’s a great way to interact with your fans directly, doing away with the traditional communication channels. And the best part is that it is a two-way street – you get to know what they think as well.

EX-Your personal favorite driver/team of all time.

N-Aryton Senna and the old Lotus team from Colin Chapman’s days.

EX-Current favorite this season.

N-Fernando Alonso.

As for my favourites, I like old-school fast, flowing tracks. Spa Francorchamps, Silverstone and Brands Hatch have been happy hunting grounds for me.


@narainracing

Money, fame or passion?

Ideally all three

One gadget which has become your latest addiction.

A new tab I recently bought

Your most expensive purchase.

My Porsche

Your favourite sport apart from racing

Tennis

Your most embarrassing moment.

Too many to remember!

Your passion besides F1.

Wildlife

Define Narain Karthikeyan in one word.

Driven

The most important quality required to be an F1 racer.

Reflexes

Your dream car.

Jaguar XK-RS

Life without F1.

Boring

‘‘‘‘

Narain Karthikeyan


How has your tenure in India been, as National Marketing managerof Fujifilm India, so far?My journey with Fujifilm India has been a wonderful. It has been a roller coaster ride. The brand needed visibility not only in mind of customer but also among channel partners. With our teams combined effort we have been able to make a mark for ourselves.

What are some of the strategies that are being implemented differently in India, compared to the rest of the world?With XE1our second mirror less interchangeable lens technology, which is the latest technology and is growing rapidly. Our strategy is not only to become a leader in the semiprofessional and high quality compact but also in interchangeable lens cameras. We are expanding our base in both bridge and compact cameras.

How has camera industry changed in the recent times? What technological measures is Fujifilm taking to keep pace with the latest trend?Camera industry has seen a sea change, when we talk about technological advancement--from digital cameras to bridge camera and now interchangeable

lens. Secondly, consumer friendly smart phones have an easy option for people today. The point and shoot category has been facing competition from these users friendly and convenient products. And thirdly, photography has drastically changed over the years--What used to be a difficult process earlier is a very pleasant indulgence now.With several options in camera for everyone in the family and technology bringing new possibilities everyday I feel India’s camera market is well poised for the next big leap ahead.

Fujifilm has completed more than 75years in the camera industry globally. How has been the journey so far in India since its advent on 4th February 2008?Fujifilm India (Digital Camera division) had started the digital camera business in year 2008 here after setting the fully owned subsidiary of Fujifilm Corporation and initial 3 years were the formation years for a strong base. Today brand promotion and consumer promotion are equally important, when it comes to product marketing.With strong penetration drive we have created a solid presence across more than 2000 shops and have acquired a fair amount of brand recognition.

Can you also comment on the expansion plan of Fujifilm in Indian Healthcare market.We are on an expansion mode, being one of the key players we focus on building awareness among the customers about the product portfolio.

Any other products that are being launched by Fujifilm, other than cameras?We will be launching several lenses with wide shooting range. We will soon make some new announcements.

After HD camera and 3D camera, what innovative technology are you aiming to launch in Fujifilm cameras? How soon is the same expected?We have already stepped into the professional and semi-professional camera market. Our latest addition X-E1 features the second mirror less interchangeable lens technology after X -Pro1 with a lineup of 5 lenses for the camera. With the help of our R&D team we are trying to bring in new technology not yet experienced by many camera users.

Are you yourself an avid photographer? Which camera do you like to use most?

I love photography, specifically street photography. I keep my X 100 with me all the time, to capture the beautiful moments.

What has been you greatest achievement so far and what did you learn from it?Greatest achievement so far has been of breaking the imagery of FUJIFILM as a film role camera and bringing it to a new level. The transition of the camera, with combined efforts of the company and team has made it possible.

Give us few reasons to prefer Fujifilm cameras to its nearest competitors.Fujifilm is world’s largest imaging solution company, and we have patented technology in lens, sensor and processor.

Future plans in India?Currently we are present at 2000+ retail channel across country and we plan to expand it to more than 3000 shops in FY2012. We are also looking at increasing our service centers drastically.Fujifilm is already world’s largest imaging solution company and we want to become the final name in Digital Cameras also.

POWERTALK

Sriwant WarizNational Marketing Manager

Fujifilm India

POWER TALK


Blackbird Fly Toy Camera

OUT OF THE BOXCAMERASSo you think you have a good idea of most of the cameras that are around today? The compact cameras are approximately the same shape as one another, as are the SLRs and the DSLRs and the retro and toy cameras look a little different again, but essentially you know a camera when you see one. Or do you? The cameras listed below might force you to change your mind about cameras and photography. Some of them are obscure, some of them are impractical, and some of them are genius

It's time to rethink what you thought you knew about cameras and reconsider what is in store for the future of photography.

One of the best “toy” camerasThe Blackbird, Fly is in short a Twin-Reflex 35mm Plastic Camera. It is unique for several reasons.

1) It’s a successor to a classic! It seems the Blackbird, Fly is considered the Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) version of the classic Holga, which is in turn a successor to the Diana, both of which have a real cult following. Some call the Holga a “toy” camera, which is of course a bit of a misnomer. Many have relied on it to take beautiful photographs. Yet the Holga is also known for its unpredictability, as every one is just a little different. Most have light leaks, and those leaks are not going to be the

same between any two Holgas. This unpredictability contributes to much of their charm, and was taken to the extreme by some photographers as it became a popular camera for “shooting from the hip”. Many Holga mods have also become very popular.

2) It’s a TLR! The Blackbird, Fly, is a Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) camera, meaning that there are two objective lenses: One for taking the photograph, and one for the waist-level viewfinder. Behind the viewfinder lens is a mirror at a 45-degree angle (hence the term “reflex”), which reflects upwards through a matter focusing screen surrounded by a hood/enclosure used to block some light and

SHUTTERBUG


Lego Digital CameraWith the Lego digital camera, you come to expect the unexpected in terms of color.Now all the fun of LEGO bricks is engineered into a real digital camera. This is a totally simple functional digital camera built out of LEGO bricks. You can attach your own LEGO bricks to the top and the bottom of the camera. It is a full functioning digital camera featuring 1.5" LCD screen, built-in flash, fixed focus and digital zoom. The camera holds up to 80 photos at a time.The LEGO performs quite well in low light without flash. Because of the way its white balance works, the picture turns really interesting and unexpected color results under different lighting conditions. Let your imagination go wild.

Available inOriginal & Pink

SpecificationsMedium Digital, built inISO Not specifiedFocus Fixed, 30cm to infinityFlash Built-in, auto with on/off optionsResolution 3 Mega pixelsDisplay 1.5” Color LCD ScreenMemory & 128MB Storage Internal MemoryOutput USBZoom 4X Digital zoomDimensions 4" L x 2.5" H x 1.5" WPower Source Internal rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery

reduce reflection on the screen. This creates an image on the screen identical to what will be captured on film through the photographic lens.

3) It uses 35mm film! Most TLR cameras use 120 format film. Although 120 film is very cool, it can be much harder to find and even harder to get developed. With 35mm film you can just drop it off at the nearest 1-hour photo!

4) 3 formats! You can shoot in 3 formats (using provided masks): normal 35mm (24mm x 36mm), square format (24mm x 24mm), and large square format (36mm x 36mm).

5) It’s VERY reasonable! Many TLRs are hundreds of dollars, and although some of them are worth it, the Blackbird, Fly is incredibly affordable! It’s an amazing TLR for hobbyists to creative professionals to everyone in between.

6) Colors, colors, colors! Seriously, how many cameras have multiple color options?

Check out the photos below that were taken with the Blackbird, Fly.Also, make sure to check out our list of hand-picked eBooks about photography and starting your photography business!

SpecificationsApertures f/7 (cloudy) and f/11 (sun)Shutter 1/125 and B (Bulb speeds mode — to let in as much light as you want)Lens Wide-angle 33mm lensFocus Visual distance estimates 0.8, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 10, ∞


Cardboard Twin Reflex CameraMan has from time immemorial taken pleasure in making something entirely different and one such gadget is the cardboard twin reflex camera. One such man is Kiel Johnson, who has made many gadgets with cardboard. His cardboard twin reflex camera especially has stood out as a mark of his genius. Though all of his cardboard cameras are not functional, there are some that run like any normal camera. His works are so perfect that it fools anyone into believing that it is a functional one. The effort he has taken to make so many different cameras and that too with correct precision is a thing to be lauded.

Origin of Kiel Johnson’s twin lens cameraThe twin lens cardboard twin reflex camera of Kiel Johnson was first evolved when he made his first version to be exhibited in the window of a photography show. This camera has even a stand on which it was mounted and kept ready to take photos. Made entirely with cardboard, tape as well as hot glue is also used to make this awesome 16 x 12 x 35 cardboard camera. His fascination

to paper is so infectious which is obvious in the way each and every button as well as lens is constructed. The fully operational cardboard camera has iconic twin lens that works as a pinhole camera.In a twin lens cardboard twin reflex camera there will be two identical lenses of which the top one is used for viewing while the bottom lens is the real lens where the image will be exposed to the film. Both lenses have the same focal length. How creative and faultless one can be is proven with the cardboard camera. Really an amazing creation one but cannot help saying “WOW” to the cardboard camera. Kiel Johnson has painstakingly re-created an unbelievable collection of old school cameras. The different models of cardboard camera shows the real and different types of real cameras and how all of them would look when made of cardboard.The cardboard material is so flexible and relatively easy to work with. The trick lies in getting the details right, and Johnson’s work has reached the paramount of excellence that you feel like just

grabbing it and make use of it. He concentrates and is involved even in minuscule details that his creations like the cardboard camera has a realistic look as well as feel and even the earlier versions look really authentic.The design is so precise that even the lens magnitude is very

near to the actual one. But for the color scheme, a cardboard camera would fool any person as it is so real and true. Who would have thought that ordinary cardboard, tape and hot glue could be used to make something so extraordinary like a cardboard twin reflex camera?

10x25 Binocular Digital CameraVivitars Digicam binoculars not only help focus in on your world, but also allow you to store those precious memories for life. With the combination of Vivitar's amazing high performance binoculars and a high resolution digital camera, you can see the moment with amazing clarity and save it to memory. The Digicam line of products come in a variety of 5 x 30 to our larger 10 x 25, we have these products are ideal for sports fans,sightseers, outdoor enthusiasts, bird watchers or anyone who wants to keep living memory of their experiences for years to come!

Features USB Yes Product Type Digital Camera Binocular Manufacturer Part A5CEB14F Number Manufacturer Website www.sakar.com Address Manufacturer Sakar International, Inc Product Name 10x25 Binocular Digital Camera Brand Name Vivitar Application/Usage Sports

Vivitar 10x25 Binocular Digital Camera

SHUTTERBUG


The Lytro camera is small, light, and stunning. A great conversation piece. Which it should be, because it's not every day you can take pictures that make history.

Form follows function.The Lytro Light Field Camera boasts an 8X optical zoom lens with a constant f/2 aperture, capturing maximum light across the entire zoom range.

Intelligent design.Extruded anodized aluminum structural skin. Center of gravity shutter button. Intuitive multi-touch screen. And less than eight ounces. What does it all mean? A meticulously designed camera that's lightweight yet solid, built for stability, and easy to use.Speed, indeed.Light field technology translates to faster snaps. Without an auto-focus motor, the Lytro's instant shutter means you don't lose time focusing. Plus, with instant power on, you can capture the perfect moment – not the moment after.

Elegant omissions.What's missing? Nothing you'll miss. No auto-focus, no shutter lag, no unnecessary modes, dials, or settings. And no flash, because Lytro can handle many low light settings. So, no obstacles to the perfect shot.

Play with the light.Living pictures want to be let loose and roam free. When you share them from your computer, your friends enjoy the same interactive control as you, on nearly any device, without needing special software.

Lytro Camera ONE REVOLUTIONARY IDEA


There is no end to the ways Information technology has transformed our world, but here I have selected

five comparatively recent developments that have had the most impact

The ARPANETARPANET is said to be the predecessor of modern internet. Developed in 1966 by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in association with some other research institutes, it was meant to network different computers – to decentralize information storage and increase computer strength. It went through various further evolutions and was finally decommissioned in 28th February 1990.Although it was mainly used as a part of defense strategy of the US Government and was not open for public use yet it was the first time that interlinking between different computer networks was successfully accomplished. But for the ARPANET, what we know presently as the Internet might not have existed

Best 5 Developments in Information TechnologyThat Changed the World

Words by Shannen

AutomatedTeller MachineATMIt is a little disputed whom the honor of inventing and developing the ATM actually goes to, but there is no disputing its impact on our lives. It has made banking so much faster and convenient. It has greatly reduced the time people take to complete banking transactions, has done away with location constraints and increased flexibility.

The MicroprocessorWe hardly if ever, give a separate thought to the impact of microprocessors on our lives

although each and every day we are aided by devices that work on it – cell phones, computers, all web-enabled devices, calculators etc. Microchips drive operations of flights, railways and similar mass transportation systems, smart cards, fare cards and all programmable devices in our homes, offices, hospitals and everywhere.

Operating Systems or OSOS are the software part of any computer and a vital component that manage computer hardware and its vast range of operations. They store and interpret data, connect input with output, execute computer programs and applications, create and manage user data and what not. Currently there are many different kinds of device-specific operating systems in the market – Android, Linux, Mac OS, MS Windows, Windows Phone, IBM z/OS.

The World Wide WebTim Berners-Lee invented the internet in 1990 and in a little over two decades life without it has become unimaginable. It has revolutionized the way we connect and interact, work, study, do business, receive news and information and our modes of treatment, entertainment and recreation.

CONCLUSIONDevelopments in Information Technology are taking place by leaps and bounds. Considering the myriad ways in which they influence our lives, it will become tougher as time goes to pick the best among them.

CONTRIBUTORS


Samsung Galaxy S4 to come with 2GB super-fast RAM and 128GB storage?The Samsung Galaxy S4 rumour mill is already churning with word of a March 2013 release already out there. And now Sammy appears to be preparing a new faster version of its 2GB RAM module to go with a huge 128GB storage that could appear in the Galaxy S4.The new RAM is a 2GB LPDDR3 DRAM chip – which means it’s 1600 Mbps fast (as opposed to the 1066 Mbps of its predecessor) with a whopping 12.8 GB/s of bandwidth. And all that speed will be useful when delving into the new massive 128GB storage that’s also being developed. Now we just need a six-core chip and even higher resolution screen and March will be a very expensive month indeed.

overheard in the tech world

Canon EOS 6D Specs?The Canon EOS 6D has leaked ahead of the rumour inducing Photokina event starting on September 18th. We’ve already had two Leica cameras leak and a Panasonic Lumix GH3 appear ahead of the camera event – and now Canon has added its DSLR to the list.We can expect to see a full-frame 20MP sensor in the APS-C sized body. But with Sony’s RX1, which is even smaller, expected to appear with a full-frame sensor – the EOS 6D may not be the first of this class.The EOS 6D is also expect to sport a Digic 5+ image processor that manages ISO 100-25,600 at a maximum 4.5 fps. You can also look forward to an 11-point autofocus system, an f/2.8 cross-type sensor, a weather-sealed body, and a 3in LCD, plus Wi-Fi. It also looks like you’ll be able to use SD cards for storage.

TECH RUMOURS


overheard in the tech world

BlackBerry 10 OSon HTC?BlackBerry was the only producer of phones that will run its new BB 10 Operating System – until now. HTC has shown an interest in running the OS on its handsets too.Sure, Samsung may have shunned BlackBerry 10 OS along with LG – but HTC is remaining open-minded. The company's CEO said HTC will review every new operating system to see if it works for customers.So alongside the BlackBerry London – and potentially a host of other new BB handsets – we may also see an HTC handset packing the BB 10 OS.

2 Leica cameras leakedNo sooner had we finished reading a story about a leaked Panasonic Lumia GH3, than two Leicas dribbled onto our desktops. All thanks to the impending Photokina event, from September 18th, putting pressure on the already bursting camera secrets vault.There are few details on the Leicas but it looks like one is a super-slim compact, and the other is a superzoom with an SLR styled body. Pricing and more details aren’t about but we’d imagine, knowing Leica, they won't be cheap.


They strike every 25 seconds. Sports category is the highest target

and if you are growing humble on car theft, which you would; considering the tech advances in anti car theft devices and alarm systems-there is still some stuff that you need to know. Sometimes parts and not totality is considered. After all, stealing is a great art and this buggers; they fly fast.Now, that you have sealed all routes for the car thief to get inside the vehicle, (thanks to hi-tech keys that won’t even allow a fly to get inside unless you get the right microchip in,) car thieves are targeting components like GPS devices, DVD systems, rims and tires and….. roof racks. Come on! Gimme a break! However, what’s inspiring in this case is old school theft tactics which are back in full wing as cars grow more futuristic.

odometer Fraud Christopher Basso of Carfax opines with much emphasis how odometer rollbacks are back in action. Thanks to full digitization of modern dashboards, Odometer rollbacks

witnessed a tremendous increase between the years 2004-2008 where more than 450,000 cases were reported in a year. Following that, the next four years have tipped past over 60 percent increase

CloningCloning is said to occur when multiple, usually high end cars of the same model are stolen and registered with a VIN number that comes from a legitimate vehicle. It’s recommended to buy your car from a reputable dealership and checking your car's VIN number with your state's licensing agency before you buy. The common warning signs are buying a car where you have received unpaid traffic tickets; the ones haven't sustained. Other signs include high end models being sold for much less than the market price, scratches or evidences that proves tampering has been done or a missing vehicle history report where the car is listed.

Component theft Car stereos are considered to be the most traditional item that gets stolen from

the cars and guess what the thieves are becoming more and more inventive to lay their hands on to your car music system. More than 40,000 airbags are stolen each year along with theft of GPS and DVD systems which is raising the alarm across international markets where thieves score their deals. With high end security systems making car theft difficult, component stealing is becoming more predominant.

Car theft in india –Fact and Fiction

•FACT: Annual crime statistics released by the Mumbai Police have revealed that the number of motor vehicle thefts reported in the city saw an increase of 13 per cent last year. While there were 4,176 cases of vehicle thefts in 2010, the number rose to 4,702 in 2011. The detection rate has also been a dismal 25 per cent. Of the 4,702 cases registered last year, only 1,193 were cracked.

•FACT: Chevrolet Tavera, Mahindra Scorpio, Mahindra Bolero and Toyota Qualis are models

which happen to be the favorite among car thieves who operate on frequent basis.

•FICTION: Car theft is a non-violent, "one-victim" crime. It's estimated that 90% of all stolen cars are involved in a secondary crime like robbery, drug transportation and people smuggling. That works out to about a million secondary crimes associated with car theft every year.

•FICTION: If your car is stolen, your insurance will make you whole. If you have ever sold your car to a used car dealer, you know there is a spread between what he pays you and his selling price. For most cars, it's 15-25%. Guess, which amount you'll get from your insurer? You won't get anything for your inconvenience or mental anguish and don't forget your deductible.

•FICTION: A car alarm or steering wheel lock will stop most car thieves. After years of aggravation, car alarms are now viewed as a major source of noise pollution. They don't do much to stop theft either.

Most of us ignore them if we can. Dedicated professionals and tweaking meth addicts alike can disable alarms in a few minutes. Likewise bypassing a steering wheel lock requires only a hacksaw and a few minutes. Active anti-theft devices like "clubs" and "brake locks" are only effective if you remember to use them.

•FICTION: Didn't you see 'Gone in 60 Seconds?' Car thieves are cool. Would you leave your wallet filled with $25,000 in cash in your driveway? From a risk-reward perspective, car theft ranks near the top. It attracts international criminal gangs, most with ties to terrorism, drug dealing and prostitution. Car theft is also a major source of cash flow for drug addicts who cannot hold down a regular job. In the West, police estimate that over 70% of all car thieves are meth addicts. That is so not cool.

•FACT: Car thieves will always be with us. There will always be car thieves, but we can cut their numbers. In Europe, South Africa, Canada and Australia, governments have stiffened relevant regulations on carmakers and owners. With widespread uptake of electronic immobilizers and vehicle parts marking systems, car theft has dropped as much as 50% in some countries. Thieves are getting smarter but there are fewer of them.

top 5 stolen luXury Cars-theFt rate1.Audi S8 Theft Rate: 8.81 per thousand2.BMW M5 Theft rate: 7.58 per thousand3.Chrysler 300 Theft rate: 4.57 per thousand4.Nissan Infiniti M35/M45 Theft rate: 4.32 per thousand5.General Motors Cadillac STSTheft rate: 4.28 per thousand

CAR THEFT-Latest trendsThings you know and things you might wanna know

TECH PUNCH


When Mount Everest callsvvideo

For all of us who have been in the mountains, it’s an experience of a lifetime. However, in a few days from now, all mountaineers and tourist shall be able to enjoy an add-on to that; video calling from Mt Everest base station.

Oh…Not the Chinese again

What is wrong with these Chinese dudes? It seems like they carry the same fervor from Olympics to in-novation and land up way ahead of all others. The company which has made it possible to have video calls from atop mountain Everest has installed its station at a base

camp that is at a height of 5200 meters. Zhuo Feng, who happens to be the General Manager, told the media that the signal from the station at the base camp can reach as high as 6,500 meters. The tourist can now make calls back to their home and show the pictur-esque landscape of Mt Everest as well.

Looking good … all set

A just-finished week-long trial of the No 2 China Mobile 3G base station at the camp has found to be working well, providing a sta-ble network service. There are no

plans yet to move the base station to a higher altitude, because ofpressure from environmentalists.

The mobile network has been spread across 90 percent of the areas, along the route linking Lha-sa, capital of southwest China’s Ti-bet Autonomous Region, and the base camp. The base camp is often used as a place to rest for climbers preparing for ascent or descent of the 8,848-meter-high Mountain.

A webcam, developed by a Ger-many-based surveillance firm, Mobotix had been set up at Kalapathhar, a base camp close

to Mt Everest, which stands at an altitude of 5,675 meters.

The webcam is powered by solar energy, and operates during the day. The camera began its opera-tions last year, and can withstand temperatures as harsh as minus 30 degrees. The live images sent in by the webcam will be wirelesslytransmitted to Ev-K2-CNR Pyra-mid Laboratory, which will then be studied by scientists from Italy, who are running theentire project.

TECH THAT


DC DESIGN- THE PAST, THE PRESENT & THE FUTURE..

What comes to your mind when you hear words like car modifica-tion and automobile designing? Sounds technical. Doesn’t it? But what if we tell you that it is not the design ordinaire and can make you feel like you are in a Rolls Royce even when you are not? Don’t understand what we mean? We shall introduce to you the al-ready world renowned automo-bile designing brand DC Design!From an ordinary looking car on the exterior to a full fledged lux-ury packed house on the interior, would you even feel the need to get home? Travel is what you will start loving if you have one of the DCD cars warming up your ga-rage!

So if you want to transform that boring and frustrating long travel into a blink-and-you-are-there journey, read on!

DC design, we hear the name and we know it is synonymous with class, luxury and comfort. The company was born in 1993, and after two decades, it still stands as the reigning King in automobile designing. Today the company is known world over for its exquisite designs when it comes to auto-mobiles. Whether it is concept cars or the standard lounges for plain comfort, DCD has done it all to make sure that its end con-

sumer is not only satisfied but also returns for more. . But as we know, the rise of any company has its struggles up the ladder. And one wrong step can make you fall flat on your face and fail your ambi-tions and dreams. For DC this has not been the case. We will not call it luck because a lot of other things go behind making a brand known not only in the country but world over. It is not easy. Nothing is.

THE VISION..

A vision is born when there is a vi-sionary and the man behind DCD is the world renowned automo-bile designer, Mr Dilip Chhabria. The man, as we know, pursued his passion for automobile design-ing from The Art Center College of Design, California post which he worked for General Motors for a year. And as we know, any man who is obsessively passionate about anything, is bound to start creating that thing himself. Hence, DCD was born. It was the birth of a brand out of Mr Chhabria’s pas-sion. In other words, we can say, that Mr Chhabria is the father of automobile designing and modifi-cation in India. A dream which he saw as a child, came true for him all because he had the passion to drive his vision ahead.

He got to India what no-one else

did- LUXURY PACKED COMFORT ON WHEELS! It takes more than just an intelligent mind and a right brained person to be a designer and entrepreneur at the same time. It is not easy and it was not that easy for DCD as well. The zeal and enthusiasm to create some-thing new has always kept DCD going and through the journey it has just gotten bigger and better which is for all to see.

Let us see how the journey for this ‘travel-in-style’ company began.

THE JOURNEY BEGINS..

As we mentioned, the company began in 1993. It started off with making accessories for cars and grew to be a full fledged design-ing company as it is today. When it started out, nobody thought it would reach to this stature but it did, surpassing all the challenges on the way and coming out victo-rious, intelligently of course. From car accessories it soon took a tran-sition to car modification which was a very new concept in India. Nobody knew what it was or what was its utility or whether it was even needed at all. It was thought to be only for those who are looking for style. It took time for people to understand that it was more of a need driven innovation

DCD had started out rather than a ‘style’ driven idea. Style, of course goes hand in hand with comfort when it comes to DCD and its unique designs became its USP! Soon it became clear that DCD is not a venture started out by ‘only’ a designer but also an ‘engineer’. The concept was a marriage be-tween creativity and intelligence. At that time DC saw what people will need in the near future and also ten to twenty years from then. This made people believe in DCD and the business started growing. From exterior accessorizing, the focus shifted to interior modifica-tion. People are full of ideas and innovations but an automobile de-signer’s innovation usually is more than just that. It is a need driven innovation. And DCD has been a relief to many people around the globe. It is like a house on wheels and costs you of course barely a fraction that you would pay for a house these days! We all know, if we rank number one in our class, how every jealous contender calls it pure luck. But we know, we worked hard for that A grade at school. So did DCD!

SUCCESS DIARY


DC LOUNGE FORTUNER LIMITED

DC LOUNGE INNOVA FAMILE


THE CHALLENGES

As we know, a successful man does not come to success over-night. A lot goes behind becoming successful and most importantly making it stay. In this aspect, DCD

has taken a relatively shorter time to reach where it is today, where most of the companies take long-er to raise the bar for themselves. But it was not that simple. It is not only the work of an amalgama-

tion of a right brained man with intelligence. It takes a lot of hard work and sacrifice besides pas-sion to maintain success and the brand name. Automobile design-ing is far different from product or

industrial designing. To launch a product in the market, you see the common need of a large number of people. Hence, a product caters to the needs of millions. But an automobile is a very individualistic

SUCCESS DIARY


DC LOUNGE XUV 500

product. It requires understand-ing of the need at an individual level more than a mass level. It can not be standardized at a very large level. So every creation has to be new. You can not just create

one design and sell it to millions. Hence, for this kind of a venture, you need a lot of people with the right talent. Finding this kind of a talent, where this concept itself was new to people, was difficult. Apart from this, in this kind of work, it is difficult to understand the demands of the market. India is not same as the west. The pen-etration of cars is more in the west than here. We are dismally low. Therefore, the growth prospects are huge. Auto manufacturers can sell only on the basis of design. It is not about the looks but also about the design being right. The looks, the comfort and the aero-dynamics, nothing can be over-

looked. Design of a car is the pre-requisite for both production and for those who buy. So for car man-ufacturers it may still be easy just to ride on the need for a person to travel from one place to another and keeping the needs of the ma-jority in mind. But for DCD, it was about modifying and designing an already manufactured automobile. It was about transforming the ve-hicle according to the individual’s need yet not changing the original automobile completely. Now, that is more than challenging. Hence, the main challenge, as we see, was with the manufacturers. It was not easy to make people modify or design an already bought car. So,

to create the need for doing some-thing more with the already bought product was chal-lenging.Building a car hav-ing global rel-evance is a difficult task to do. Not only are Indian and in-ternational tastes different but also the needs are dif-ferent. DCD had to focus on creating designs which had global appeal.Another challenge that every com-pany faces is about how to get the brand known and how to increase the business. Apart from designing skills and intel-ligence you also require the skills of marketing, else no matter how good your product is, it will not sell. There-fore, he used to drive his own cars initially for enquir-ies and to elevate his business. This obviously grabbed a lot of eye balls.For facing and fighting all these challenges, you need courage to

sacrifice a lot on your personal front and also a lot of hard work is required. Apart from that the three P’s of patience, persistence and perseverance are a mandate. DC had all these qualities which made him come out victorious.

It takes courage to do something different. To do the best for sur-vival you have to have your back to the wall. A lot of risk is involved and a lot is at stake. He was the vice-president at General Motors for a year. He left that secure job to follow his passion which a ma-jority of people would not do. It is human tendency to choose secu-rity over passion while he felt


otherwise. He wanted to come to India and start out on his own. And so he did!

If us human beings had not evolved, we would have remained apes forever! It is evolution that brings about success and survival! Let us see how DCD has evolved to perfection.

THE EVOLUTION

From automobile accessories to car modification and then design-ing! We talked about the challeng-es. Now we shall talk about the evolution and transition. This tran-sition is mainly based on the ever changing needs of the market. As and when, DCD gained more and more knowledge about not only what people want but also what they need, they started focusing more on modification and de-signing. From concept cars to the

standard lounges, it has explored every nook and corner of the ma-chine. Whether it is a car or an air-craft, DCD has done it all. Not only this, the first prototype of the As-ton Martin Vanquish that featured in the Bond movie ‘Die Another Day’ is a DC creation! From vanity vans of famous B-town stars to re-furbishment of aircrafts, the inno-vations and the progress of DCD was by leaps and bounds.

Concept cars by him are only one of a kind. There are about 600 con-cept cars designed by him, all be-ing different and unique in design. None of his concept cars are look alikes. His talent is not only limited to designing these but also sculpt-ing and painting! His showrooms across the country are adorned by his designs, not only in regards to automobiles but also to his crea-tions from his own personal space. It is a treat to watch and of course

to buy.The innovation of the standard lounges came up when comfort while travelling, especially long distances became a necessity for people. Hence, started the DC lounge series which is a very big success for DCD today.

It is viable for three cars, the In-nova, the Fortuner and the Travel-ler. Out of these, the most popular today is The DC lounge innova.

It showcases luxurious interiors which are equipped with high-end technology at your beck and call. It is futuristic in design and rendi-tion. It has recliner seats with calf support and individual controls on all seats. There is also a privacy partition between the driver and passenger seats.

Also we can see a 19’’ LCD telly equipped with DVD player and LED lights.

Apart from this, there are options for swivel jump seats, satellite tel-evision, front and rear cameras, leather add-ons plus a body kit.Now if this is not luxury on wheels, what is. And that too without compromising on comfort. Luxury packed with technology and com-fort. What more could you ask for! And if you know the price, you know you are getting the interiors and the treatment of a Rolls Royce at a fraction of its price!

We can see by the formation of this lounge series that DCD has evolved and come a long way. Consumer centric yet not compro-mising on their standards. A man-tra every brand should follow.During the journey was born the DYP-DC school of automobile designing 2 years back. There is more to DCD than just ‘cars’, though cars are the main focal point from where other ventures

SUCCESS DIARY


radiate. Talking of other ventures, Mr Chhabria, being a great de-signer, does not believe in keeping his talent only to himself. Hence, was born The DYPDC school for automobile desigining in Pune, Maharashtra. It is founded by the DY Patil University and Mr Dilip Chhabria, where he serves as a chief mentor. This institute solely focuses on automobile designers and is the only one in the world where practical training of the subject is given! aspirant automo-bile designers, are you listening?

Humans are curious beings and like to have at least a hint of what is ahead of them. So, for all the automobile lovers who are hungry for more, we will tell what DCD has in store!

COMING UP

When we talk about DCD, we talk

concepts, standard lounges, mod-ification, designing and the syno-nyms. What could be next from the house of DCD? They already have created it all. No. a creator never stops creating. Coming up next from the designer is the DC AVANTI, a full fledged car, de-signed and executed into actuality wholly by DCD. It will be the first commercial manufacture for him, The first Indian sports car to rule the roads! It was unveiled by Mr. Amitabh Bachchan in the Delhi Auto Show.

It will be available as a V4 model with a whopping 265bhp power. It will inhabit the four cylinder Ford 2.0 petrol engine. It includes a six-speed dual clutch design.

It will also include safety features like SRS air bags and anti-lock braking design.

The DC Avanti will be in produc-tion coming next year. They have planned an output of 300 mod-els by 2013-2014. if all goes well, they will start the production in four figures. And the price is a jaw dropping ` 25 lakhs! The DC AVANTI can be defined as ‘afford-able luxury’ and who wouldn’t want that.

We wish DCD all the best and hope that like other evolutions, this one also takes it another step forward.

Passion is the essence behind DCD’s huge success over the years, while hard work is the backbone.We are so very sure that DC’s jour-ney has been a fabulous one, even though with twists and turns but that is what makes the journey interesting and worthwhile. What journey is that journey where you don’t even feel that you have been

travelling? And success depends on how well you manage your cri-ses. It also depends on the degree of your passion. If you have it and retain it, you shall have success but if you don’t have it then you will just wile away your life in medioc-rity. A man who is a combination of an artiste and an entrepreneur is deadly. We all know who we are talking about. Don’t we?

DC AVANTI

Turn to Pg 140 and know it from the man the himself why ‘Holidays’ Torture him’.

132 I EXHIBIT I OCTBER 2012132 I EXHIBIT I SEPTEMBER 2012

Any.DoPlatform: iOS (iPad and iPhone)Price: Free

Sometimes you’re midway across town when you realise that there’s something you needed to do. Jot it down with Any.Do and never forget anything again.

Desks Near MePlatform: iOS (iPad and iPhone)Price: Free

Your meeting was cancelled, and now you have 4 hours to spare in a foreign city. You could find a cafe and pay for Wi-Fi, but what if you want a desk? Desks Near Me does exactly that, narrowing down places you can work from based on your requirements.

ThumbPlatform: AndroidPrice: Free

As the name suggest thumb is an instant opinion app for Android and other platforms that lets you share your opinions when others ask. Thumb also allows you to ask a question where others can shed their thoughts. The way this app works is really simple. The top part of the app showcases the questions and the bottom area allows you to thumbs up or down based on your opinion. Once your voting is complete you will be able to see the statistics for that question. You can also add your own comments to questions asked by others. I think you will really like Thumb if you are lost or confused with a decision and you need some friendly advice.

APPS OF THE MONTH

133 I EXHIBIT I OCTOBER 2012133 I EXHIBIT I SEPTEMBER 2012

iCircuitPlatform: AndroidPrice: `160/- (approx)

For the more technical among us who love to build circuits, but either can’t do so on the go or don’t have all the right components, this is probably the app for you. Build a circuit, measure voltages and currents, or view how transient circuits map through the in-built oscilloscope.

QuoraPlatform: AndroidPrice: Free

Quora has received another update to its Android application. Did your boss ask you a question that you’re sure the internet has the answer for? Chances are, you can find it while on the move.

KlipPlatform: AndroidPrice: Free

Klip is a new kind of a video community that looks a lot like Pinterest. In fact when you visit their web version then you can call their site as Pinterest for Video Bloggers. The Android app is a major extension of Klip(website) because the way this site works is by gathering new video feeds from their users. These feeds are often taken by people who are on the go, so the Android App does a great job in simplifying things for them. The basic functionality of the application is to help you shoot an instant clip and upload quickly to your profile so that others can start responding to your videos. A well-spaced interface, it’s very easy to learn the whole process once you start Kilp for the first time. This app is completely free and I highly suggest that you give it a try to break apart from the YouTube monotony

APPS OF THE MONTH


Linguistic commentators are of the opinion that technology is solely

responsible for ruining the language. Every text message that is mangled, every misspelled Facebook status according to them is a throw to the winds for a mess of pottage.It’s no denying that there was and there will be symbiotic ties between technology and linguistics speaking on the same line some of the most sought after events on the same discourse has been done in this year itself.One of the most neurodegenerative disorder; Parkinson’s disease, reportedly has got no such biomarkers. The only indicator of the disease is in the form of voice tremors. This has given the scientists a chance to take a step further in employing computer algorithm that shall help them to detect and identify “abnormalities in speaking patterns” which in turn shall help them to diagnose the disease with ease.Dr Little along with the Parkinson’s Voice Initiative have reached out to 10,000 anonymous voice samples collected over the telephone with an aim to enhance the accuracy. The hypochondriac correspondent called and found the 3-minute process painless enough. In

another instance of testing for techno-linguistic front, three Ukranian students recently won first place at Microsoft’s Imagine Cup 2012 when they successfully developed a Bluetooth-enabled, battery-powered glove set that converts sign language into spoken language. It is said to

be a cheap and accessible tool which shall give light to all the deaf people who are deprived of many services and their access is limited.Lastly, Google has also laid emphasis upon the Endangered Languages Project which is a big an effort to provide technological

tools employed to marginalize languages and share information simultaneously. This shall help creating a major level base for the minority language diversity in the world. The question is, will Google be able to slow the process, if not reverse the loss of language?

Technology and language Loss of innocence

TECH PUNCH


Quick question: Do you use Gmail or Google Docs more frequently?If you answered the former, this handy trick may be of interest. It allows you to add data to a spreadsheet in Google Docs from a form you can quickly access from your Gmail inbox. This form can even be accessed on your phone

Here are the steps needed to set it up:

HOW TOTrack expenses (or anything else) in Google Docs using Gmail

1. Create a spreadsheet in Google Docs.

2. From the Tools menu, select Create a form.

3. Fill out the form by adding items and question titles and choosing the question type. The question titles will show up in the top row of your spreadsheet.

4. After you have your form squared away, hit Save and then the button for Email this form. Be sure to check the box for "Include form in the email" before hitting Send.

5. The form gets e-mailed to your inbox. You can simply open the e-mail and fill out

the form right there. Hit submit and the data you entered gets sent to your spreadsheet. It worked flawlessly for me on both my Mac and my iPhone 4S. On the iPhone, I could fill out the form in the body of the e-mail using the native Mail app. It also worked with the Gmail app but not within the body of the e-mail. I had to first open the form by tapping the link in the e-mail above the form.

6. You could star this e-mail to be able to find it quickly when it becomes buried in your inbox. An even quicker solution is to enable Quick Links, which places a link to the form in Gmail's left-hand column. To enable Quick Links, go to Settings > Labs. Scroll down the

alphabetical list until you find Quick Links. Click the radio dial for Enable and hit the Save Changes button.

7. Now, when you return to your inbox, a Quick Links box will be in the left-hand column. Open the e-mail with your form and click the Add Quick Link link in the left-hand column. Give it a name and click OK. Now, you can access your form with one click when viewing Gmail on a computer. For mobile access, I suggest starring the e-mail.

HOW TO


How to become a Billionaire

in a year!

Let’s get this straight. We all want to be rich and certainly billionaires. However, only a handful of in-dividuals can actually enjoy the bliss (and the pangs) of being a billionaire. Look at the history behind these rich lads. Some were born in the lake of money; some earned it by hard work and some just by sheer luck. Investment, innovation, invention and entrepreneurship are the four primrose paths which have turned mud into gold for many people out there. Here’s a handful of Do’s and Don’ts for the big dream come true.

Fair caution: This is a serious article

TRY OUT


INVENTION

Inarguably, invention is the tough-est road that you take to become a billionaire, considering the fact that there are several stages in-volved to get your invention re-warded. To invent something and to get its patent done and then produce the same in accordance to market needs is quite a mam-moth task which done successfully can throw in great fortune at your feet. No matter how big or small your innovation is, you have to make it work otherwise there’s no gain from your pain. Remember Edison? He never failed to make a carbonized cotton thread di-pole but he found only one way to make it work!

INNOVATION

People often confuse innovation with invention. By definition, In-novation is a better way of look-ing at things, a way that is not or less known to others. Perhaps you can have your own way of looking at the particular thing. Identifying the real urge for a product or a service in the market is one of the primary requirements of being an innovator. If you want to do some-thing different, you will have to have an eye for details and mould it around in your way, in a fashion that none knows or is aware of. If all goes well, you shall be rolling in riches in no time.

The DO’s

The DON’T’S

INVESTMENT

In case you care for my opinion, this would be my personal favorite to get rich. Invest where the mon-ey is, reap on the revenues and get rich before the time comes to chew the fat. Of course, you will meet guys who would ask you to quit on this. However, if you have enough funds to carry on, then you can make it to the top and you really don’t need to listen to these crooks. Look at Warren Buffet and you really don’t need to read this article in here.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Entrepreneurship is considered to be the “time-honored” tradition of “I want to be a billionaire” de-sires. You can start a business but to successfully run it is what makes you different from every start up owners. Strategy and research are very important. For every billion-aire who have made it to the top has done it in two ways; by invent-ing or starting up something spec-tacular and then reaping on the revenues earned for it or by pick-ing up on someone else’s concept and then working up his own way to better the service or business. They key point is to stash as much as dollars possible which comes as your net worth.

THINK YOU KNOW IT ALL

Thirst of knowledge can never be quenched and you shouldn’t try to do so either. The moment you think you know it all, be sure it’s the end of the line for you. You should always strive to know more and more. Our life is a process of learning and one mustn’t stop knowing what we can and when-ever he can. If you are bored with the sermon already, this might be the last train that you gonna miss eventually. Remember, billionaire business isn’t “Easy-Peasy Lemon-Squeezy.”

FLASHY INVESTMENTS

The biggest blunder that people do is to come up with ideas that they aren’t sure of. Jumping from one project to another and car-rying your funds along with it is something that requires careful calculation. Or else it’s the biggest pitfall that one can fall in. Choose your businesses wisely. Remem-ber, it’s not always a wise idea to invest.

NEVER GIVE UPSuccess comes overnight and only in a Nicolas Sparks novel. Back to reality, you are still counting your installments for your house loan. Remember, being a billionaire is as good as the great American dream and if you are living it small then you gotta think again. Initial hiccups and failure are inevitable. Don’t rush it. Hang on. Make your investments right. Reap the rev-enues, save the goods. If time is on your side, you will do it good for sure.

DON’T BLAME GODFor heaven’s sake, leave God out of the blaming business. That dude up there has hell lotta task to do. Don’t keep blaming yourself or God because your business went puff. Rest up, come back and bang them all. That’s the way winners do it. I really don’t wanna quote that salt-pepper haired man who does amazingly good at presenta-tions, but hey he is right. Quitters take the bench; winners take a dif-ferent stance they rest and come back and make a difference.

BOLD OVER BILLIONAIRE FACTS:

- The youngest breed of billionaires came from Russia. India, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and US are successors.

- United States (66) has the largest number of billionaires. The others in the list are Ger-many(22) and Russia(21)

- The software and technology industry has the lowest average age for billionaire— 53 yrs

- Most self-made billionaires come from the age group of “Below 50″ —> 43

How to become a Billionaire


OS X will automatically attempt to mount an attached volume when the system is started, and if successful the volume will appear in the Finder either in the sidebar

or on your desktop if you have these options enabled. However, there may be instances such as in multi-boot environments when you might want a specific volume to remain unmounted.

With multiple boot volumes in a system, when loaded in one operating system it is relatively easy to access and edit important files on the boot disk of other operating systems. Therefore, keeping the unused boot drive unmounted may be a preferred setup. Additionally, if you have numerous storage volumes for each OS and only wish to use one or two for your current boot system, then you

might wish to keep those from mounting as well.To set OS X up so it does not mount a drive at boot, you will simply have to instruct it to do so in the system's hidden fstab file, which is used for customizing drive mount points and other details about how a specific filesystem is handled.

The first thing you will need is the volume's UUID (universal unique identifier) number, which can be found by opening Disk Utility, selecting the volume of interest, and then pressing Command-i or clicking the blue information button in the Disk Utility toolbar. In the window that appears, locate and copy the UUID, which looks like a string of alphanumeric characters separated by dashes.With the UUID, you can now create an fstab entry for the volume that prevents it from mounting

HOW TOPrevent a v

olume from

mounting at boot in OS X

1.Open the Terminal utility (in the / Applications/Utilities/ folder)2.Edit the fstab file by running the following command (supply your password when prompted): sudo pico /etc/fstab3.Create a new line at the end of the file that looks like the following (note: replace "NUMBER" with the full UUID string you copied from Disk Utility): UUID=NUMBER none hfs rw,noauto4.Save the file by pressing Control-O, followed by Control-X to quit the editor.

Perform these steps for each volume you wish to prevent automatically mounting, then restart the system, and they should no longer automatically mount. If you need to mount the volumes, then you can open Disk Utility and select them followed by clicking the Mount button in the toolbar, and they should become available in the Finder.

HOW TO


HOW TO

Pen drives are very popularly use in now a days for interchanging and data in between computers and even Tablet. So increase in use of it simply increase in their error and difficulties.

Why formatting of Any Drive fails?The reasons behind fail in formatting of any drive is may be either some hardware damage inside it or any file/s which are stored in the drive are being used by the same systems which we try to format it. The main reason is second one and it usually happened due to virus problems.

How to Format the virus infected, Unformatable Pen DrivesThere are two methods by which we can format the pen drives forcefully.

1) By Windows formatting and using software Unlocker:This method is quite simple and very easy to do.

Step 1:Download and Install the Unlocker software.Download it from here. : http://cnet.co/Xt4x6

Step2:Right click on the Flash drive icon which you want to format and giving error like this or any other error due to virus.Now click on Unlocker and select Unlock AllIt also will show the files that are under used from the same drive. In your case these files will be viruses.

Step 3:After that use your normal procedure i.e. right click on the same drive and select “Format”. And it’s completed.

2) By CMD formatting method:This method used Command prompt to format the Flash drive.

Step 1:Open Cmd by start—Run—“cmd” or in windows 7 start—type “cmd”

Step 2:Type as: format<space>”your drive letter””:” and press Enter twice.For example suppose my drive is F then I will type “format f:” without quote

Step 3:Now cmd will ask name of the drive. Enter the correct name of drive and press enter.Your Pen drive is now formatted. Now no more virus in the drive.

How toformat virus infected

and unformattable

Pen drives


DCD, we talked about the company. Now it is time to talk to the man behind it. Popularly known as DC, Mr Dilip Chhabria needs no introduction. He is a man of passion and determination. What keeps him going or rather ‘racing’ in the right direction in the right manner is undoubtedly his humility.As I enter his cabin, I find him sitting there embraced in a calm personality that he is. He looks uninhibited and ready for the questions. He talks of technology and how Apple is the pioneer in smart phones. He is knowledgeable, intelligent and up with the times while his cars are futuristic and ahead of times! His demea-nor clearly needs to be described in the noun ‘visionary’.

MILESTONE


EX-You are a man from automo-bile designing background. It is not a traditional kind of career. You pursued something which is evidently passion. Apart from passion what is it that is re-quired to be where you are?DC- Passion, hard work, willing to put long hours, willing to sacrifice your work life balance.

EX-DCD has come a long way. Where other companies take a longtime to see success, DCD has taken a relatively a short time to reach this stature. A lot of hard work and ambition goes behind making a DCD. What is it that you had to sacrifice or face during the journey.DC- As I said you have to sacrifice your family life. No holidays, no movies. If you enjoy your work, it does not seem like work. For me holiday is torture and work is va-cation! One has to sacrifice short term needs for long term gains. One has to sacrifice a lot monetar-ily. To reach where we are, we had to be visionary. It is all about es-chewing short term goals for long term goals. You have to have your back on the wall. If you don’t then you won’t succeed.

EX-What got you interested in designing. Were you a car en-thusiast as a child?DC- Yes. I was always passionate about cars. I did not know that au-tomobile designing could be a ca-reer. Obsessively passionate about cars. A person might generally like cars and phones and other things. It is not obsessive passion. You have to be singularly focused for that particular product. If you are, that means you are obsessive-ly passionate about that particular thing.

I think to myself, rarely does a per-son have obsessive passion about something in particular and when a person has, he becomes a DC! My respect for the man increases as I still see that spark of passion

of cars in his eyes while he is an-swering this question.

EX-Your designs are solely tar-geted towards the elite. You have been into aircraft refur-bishment and vanity vans for a lot of B-town stars as well. You are one person every automo-bile lover would know of. What does it take to handle so much success? What tips will you give to the next generation automo-bile designers who wish to be entrepreneurs like you?DC-If you are willing to sacri-fice everything else and make it your one obsession then you will get success because the market is competitive today. If I would start a DCD today, we would not have reached here because it was unique at the time I started out.If someone starts today, it will take a lot of money and time. Design-ers usually have some arrogance. They are right brained. So how do you get yourself to the other side? You are a designer but you have to be humble. So humility is the key to success. If you work hard, will-ing to take risk and living on the edge, it requires courage. EX-You have an institute by the name of DYP-DC which is part-nered with the DY Patil Univer-sity. Tell us more about it.DC- The institute started 2 years back. There is no other institute in the world which is automobile centric and where the candidate gets a real time training on the job. This is not there in any other part of the world. This is some-thing unique. The industry is fast growing. We need far more peo-ple today for automobile design-ing.

EX-DC lounge is a fabulous idea executed in actuality by you. Do you think in India in near future there can be mobile offices.DC- Yes I think we already have millions of mobile offices in the sense that if you are talking or tex-ting or even emailing while driv-

ing or being driven it is an office. We are giving you more space, comfort of a business class jet, entertainment. Lounge was born for people who are sitting long hours in traffic or travelling long distances and need comfort of a luxury car.

EX-Behind every successful per-son there is always a source of inspiration. What is your source of inspiration?DC-It is very funny, but I do not have any particular source of in-spiration. I don’t look up to any-thing. It is so natural for me to be driven and do something. The drive comes from the fact that you need to grow your business. When you need to grow you become a marketer and find niches that you can explore. That is what drives us. It is not an inspiration from a person. I love my craft. If you love something, you need to grow. You want to grow because you want to survive doing it. The restless-ness is to better yourself against the worldwide peers. That is the driving point. You want to keep growing. If you have the building blocks, you tend to grow more and more. It is a win-win for all!

I continue to the next question, the answer to which might leave you shocked and with some learn-ing as well!

EX-What is coming up next from DCD? We know you are a painter and sculptor too! Will we be seeing your paintings and sculptors becoming a new ven-ture in the near future?DC-I am always doing it on a daily basis. I try to optimize my time. I believe that 480 min are a lot. Peo-ple are amazed how do I cramp so much with 550 people, 6 opera-tions. You know what is the fact, I still have a lot of time. So if you really prioritize your time, with no other distractions, you can do a lot. For me, everything else is achiev-able. You can earn money and all that. But how to get elapsed time?

You are only getting older. So the most precious commodity is time.My showrooms have my paint-ings. So if a customer goes into my shop to buy a car, he ends up buying a painting and an art lover goes in to buy a painting will end up buying a car! So it’s a plus for me. We sell 30 lakh worth paint-ings every month.

EX-The past 2 decades have been excellent for DCD. You have come a very long way. Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?DC- We will be a small volume manufacturer largely. Our offer-ings to individual customers as we cater to them now will be lesser and lesser. Manufacturing will consume a lot of my time. The vi-sion that I have is to leave a legacy of a lasting institution which can keep growing automatically on its own. I would actively take part in the designing activities in the company. That is the best way to grow. When you grow it helps eve-ryone.

I agree with him and it indeed is true. I learn the key ingredients for success are undoubtedly humility, courage, time management, sacri-fice and most importantly passion.This man behind bringing luxury on wheels to India, has given us the most important qualities a person needs, to hit the bulls eye of success or rather, to win in the race of life!

I thank him for his precious time and walk out of his cabin. While coming out I recall his words ”elapsed time does not re-turn”. And even though my time spent with him will never return, I take away with me very strong lessons which will help me bet-ter myself and climb the ladder of success!

Passion, hard work, willing to put long hours, willing to sacrifice your work life balance.‘‘‘‘ ‘‘‘‘For me holiday is torture

and work is vacation!


WHERE TECH MEETS LIFESYLE®

exhibitmag.com

TECH OPINION

Like every month, we threw the floor open to our avid readers to taken an opinion on a hot topic for the month. Here is the topic and the feedback that we got from our readers:-

* Will Windows 8 be able to catapult Microsoft back in the limelight?

Even though Microsoft has the right plan in mind to get a unified OS for all their devices (phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, etc) - the execution has got to be spot on. People might just ignore the OS if this does not deliver on its promises, but will MS make it work?

Dharmesh SinghNo one needs Windows 8 on the desktop.I can't think of a single significant new improvement in Windows 8. The ability to refresh the operating system? Faster booting? A Windows Store? Live boot from a USB drive? Come on! All these features have been around in other operating systems for years, and while sure, they're nice, put them all together and at most they're worth a Windows 7 Service Patch--not a whole new operating system.

Metro: An ugly, useless interface.As everyone knows, Windows 8 has a totally new default interface: Metro. When I look at Metro, however, I see gaudy colors, boxy designs, applications that can either run as a small tile or as full screen with no way to resize or move windows. Where have I seen this before? Wait, I know! Windows 1.0!

Where are the Windows 8 Applications?Seriously? Windows 8 will probably be out by this fall and we still don't know jack about its apps? Not even Microsoft's own flagship office application? Come on! How can you take this operating system seriously?

Vexed Windows developers.

If you're unhappy about the state of Metro applications, think about the poor Windows programmers. You've spent years learning .NET, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), and now they have to learn WinRT and Jupiter/XAML.

Too little, too late for the smartphone/tablet market

Metro's real point, of course, isn't for desktop users. It's Microsoft's last gasp attempt to be a player on tomorrow's computers: smartphones and tablets. If Microsoft was bringing something truly revolutionary to mobile devices, or they were still able to strong-arm original equipment manufacturers (OEM)s into loading Windows on their devices, I think they'd have a shot at the mobile space. Neither is true.Add it up. The majority of Windows users have only just switched over from XP to Windows 7 in, at best, November 2011. Microsoft is now asking for its users to switch to a platform with no significant improvements, a radically different interface, and which is very likely to have few applications. The result? Window 8 will be dead on arrival.

Sachin MehtaThe answer is that is I don’t think that is Microsoft’s intention. It seems clear to me that Windows 8 is a tactical move by Microsoft to stop the bleeding. Having already been hit by one torpedo by Apple, Microsoft are trying to avoid getting hit by another. Its launch of the Surface tablet, plans for the smartphone market and coming Windows 8 are designed to stop the attrition and regain market share. Microsoft have woken up and are on the move….towards the consumer.

ocotober issue

Documents

digital watches

digital wristwatches

convenient companionincar

doomsday of analogue

live turn

glorious year

g tablet

live tracking