May 08
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: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jan 28
My Sites: My Blog | My Tech Blog | Follow me on Twitter
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htc kaiser

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: , , , , , , , , , ,