My Technophilic Musings

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HTC announce their shiny new Touch Diamond recently. Everyone ooh’ed and aah’ed while ogling at it until they realized that HTC has taken a step back (or forward towards matching Apple’s iPhone crap) by removing the expansion card slot from the phone. Yes, it has 4 GB of internal storage but I’d rather have an SDHC card slot with the ever falling prices of solid state memory (an 8 GB Class 6 SDHC card is worth not more than around 60$ these days). With a history of ultimate-gift-to-mankind phones like HTC Tytn, HTC Tytn II (Kaiser), iPhone, etc that excite so much on the first look and then start becoming dimmer and unwanted as the euphoria settles, we are left to wonder when will we see the real “Super Phone”. The do-it-all-be-all-end-all phone.

Well, my prediction is (Nostradamus style) : NEVER. No sir, you are not going to see your dream phone any time soon, or any time at all, for that matter.

Why do I say that. The reasons are pretty obvious, once we take off our wishful thinking hats and don the smart thinking ones.

1. A new dream every day: Around 8-10 years ago, I wished I had a cell phone. Around 6 years ago, I wish I had one with a camera. Around 4 years ago, I wish I had a phone with Mp3 player and expandable memory. 3 years ago I wished for a smart phone. Now, I wish for…. You get it. By the time something comes out, our dreams have already moved on. After all they  aren’t called “dreams” just like that

2. Where is the money: You might be ready to give a fortune (and your first born son) for that ultimate phone, but the evil-phone-conglomerate wants much more than that. They want you to be slaves. They don’t want the world to spend a huge amount in one go and then stop. They need to mint more money and too much more frequently than you’d like to spend. This is why the strategy works. Give out a phone that has slim form factor, nice UI, wi-fi, but then make the processor crappy (Touch), then lure them with a better processor but take out the wi-fi (Touch Dual), Add the wi-fi back and slap in a keyboard too, but keep’em wanting for better graphics (Kaiser), give ‘em a shiny new toy, but then lock it down in every possible (iCrap). So, you’d be stuck in the vicious circle of “upgrades” and keep the phone factory churning.

So, my dear fellow phone lovers, stop wasting your time waiting for that ultimate phone, and go “upgrade” at once, because “that” phone with just “that” one more feature…ISN’T COMING…

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Quote of the day: “Stan, what did I tell you about watching the Osbournes? It’s going to make you retarded!” — Stan’s Mom

written by Shantanu Goel \\ tags: Apple, HTC, HTC Diamond, iPhone, kaiser, PDA, phone, smartphone, super phone, Touch, Touch Dual, TYTN

My Sites: My Blog | My Tech Blog | Follow me on Twitter
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This is a post about irresponsible/careless journalism/bloggism. For Gizmodo, getting that post about HTC’s latest press release out the door took precedence over actually reading the release properly and then commenting over it. The gizmodo poster’s comment is:

……but HTC’s finally released a statement saying that a fix is coming. They say that the video acceleration will be supported in the future, and will be included in software upgrades for current devices…….

I’m still puzzled, after reading and rereading HTC’s (pretty short) statement 10 times over and I can’t find where it is mentioned that they will provide video acceleration for the current devices. My point is that if you don’t read it yourself, then better not release it to your readers, (or atleast refrain from commenting on it improperly, if you must be ahead in the “race”).

Read the statement below (and for actual post on Gizmodo, click here)

Continue reading »

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Quote of the day: “Stan, what did I tell you about watching the Osbournes? It’s going to make you retarded!” — Stan’s Mom

written by Shantanu Goel \\ tags: ATi, Blogging, careless blogging, careless journalism, driver, gizmodo, hardware acceleration, HTC, HTC Kaiser video drivers, irresponsible blogging, irresponsible journalism, journalism, MSM, performance, press release, software optimization, software upgrades, TYTN, video acceleration, video drivers, Windows Mobile, WM, WM6

My Sites: My Blog | My Tech Blog | Follow me on Twitter
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As everyone knows, I’m an out-and-out Windows Mobile worshipper. It’s like a girlfriend, who is very difficult to manage and understand at first, but is a great source of joy if you know how to manage her. I don’t like any other phones now; the extensibility given by WM will do that to you.

I also “admire” Nokia because of the quality and reliability they provide with their phones. Having worked for them in a project (Nokia Networks/Nokia Seimens Networks actually), I know how much testing they put in before releasing something. That coupled with the recent crap-doings by even the largest of the WM Phone companies like HTC, have made me try to look elsewhere.

Now, if this news comes true, then we are in for a treat, as the two giants might just come together to give us a sweet little toy for our “smart” cravings . Read the news and let us know how you feel about it.

PS: Don’t even mention iPhone/iPod/iTouch or any other iCrap.

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Quote of the day: “Human beings may not be perfect, but a computer program with language synthesis is hardly the answer to the world’s problems.” - JC Denton

written by Shantanu Goel \\ tags: HTC, iCrap, iPhone, iPod, Microsoft, nokia, nokia mobile, Windows Mobile, WM

My Sites: My Blog | My Tech Blog | Follow me on Twitter
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A user going by the remarkably simple handle “email123” announced on the xda-developers forum, that WM6.1 is here, alive and kicking. But he doesn’t stop there, he says that its available “now”, that too for an HTC wizard, a 3 year old phone (which I own as well). Thats not all, he goes on to provide the proof by linking in his cooked ROM for all to download. But, here is the clincher, he claims that finally “Big Storage” is available for wizard, a feat noone has been able to achieve in the last 3 years. It means that an extra 10 MB is available to you as Device Memory. It seems to get better and better for our dear old wizard. After all, old is gold.

Click here to go to the thread, the link is in the first post. And do not forget to let us know if you did try out that ROM.

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Quote of the day: “There’s a time and a place for everything, and it’s called college.” — Chef

written by Shantanu Goel \\ tags: HTC, HTC Wizard, ROM, Windows Mobile, wizard, WM6.1, xda-developers

My Sites: My Blog | My Tech Blog | Follow me on Twitter
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For the very post of this blog, I chose a subject that’s close to my heart. Yes, its Windows Mobile. My trusted 900/1800 MHZ companion for the past couple of years is an HTC Wizard. If you have ever looked into the WinMob world, its pretty much common knowledge that HTC owns the 95% of market share of this niche little space. They are a huge organization and with huge profits and they do make jolly good phones. BUT it is not the quality of phones that helped them reach this height. Its their business plan. “Always keep the customers craving more” seems to be the motto of this taiwanese giant.

Each phone seems to give one extra “feature” (read UI enhancement) over the latter. With Kaiser, it seemed too good to be true, getting a one in all phone. And it indeed was. As I pointed out here , it finally turned into a reality against all hopes of fellow WinMo owners, and HTC declared that nothing is coming for the current crop. So, am writing this post just to put in my two bits to the cause of these drivers, if you can do anything about it, take a look here (and yeah, a 5000$ bounty awaits you as well)

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Quote of the day: Homer: Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.

written by Shantanu Goel \\ tags: Business, business plan, drivers, HTC, kaiser, market share, money, phone, video, Windows Mobile, wizard