My Technophilic Musings

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iPhone 3G, the “supposedly” latest and greatest handhled, just continues to amaze me, with its ridiculousness of course. I mean first they dare to call a machine a smartphone that can’t run more than one app a time, need you to send the unit back even for a battery change, fix the glaring mistakes of its predecessor and call them “features” and make you believe that you are getting it all for cheap while covertly telling you that you need a minimum of 2 year 70$ contract to get it and need to pay through every hole for even software updates. And then they don’t stop this, just out is the information that you can’t tether the “data transfer powerhouse” to your laptops/PCs/Macs.

HSDPA/HSUPA my a**. I mean what good is a “3G” device that doesn’t even let you use the potential of the hyper-speeds by connecting to your bigger machines or even doing video calls. Oh right, I forgot, now you can check your e-mail at 50 messages per minute, WOOHOO!!, I’m so l33t.

So far the only good things I’ve noticed about the new release are:The MobileMe aka “sync-with-anything-anywhere” service, which although paid (obviously, its Apple we are talking about here), is still interesting. And the new SDK 2.0 that promises the 3rd party devs the same access to the phone as Apple’s devs, seems to be a step in the right direction though it remains to be seen how much of this is actually followed up on by Apple.

So, what do you feel is THE revolutionary thing about this new Cupertino offering? And of course, chime in with your gripes as well.

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Quote of the day: Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. - Kierkegaard

written by Shantanu Goel \\ tags: Apple, cupertino, HSDPA, HSUPA, iPhone, iPhone 3G, MobileME, SDK 2.0, tethering

My Sites: My Blog | My Tech Blog | Follow me on Twitter
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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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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