HTC Desire: A Beautiful Deal

Whatta beauty! That pretty much explains the recently announced, (in India), Android flagship device – the HTC Desire. We were never so convinced with most HTC devices; they are good but we have better in the market. But this one is an amazing device at Rs. 28,900.

We were completely spellbound after having the first look of this pretty device. The metal construction of the HTC Nexus One is gone but this is a beautiful device – slim and sleek with contours enough to prove itself kissable. A trim bezel of metal that wraps around the slight corners of the display with the pearl grey bottom part that contains all the keys, is, so sexy that you wont take your eyes off it. The keys have a appealing matte chrome finish, chucking the very-in garish hot chrome buttons. The earpiece is very cute with twin slits and with a gorgeous chrome rim. The shape of keys are designed to sooth our aesthetic senses. But, to get to the battery, SIM card slot and the spring-loaded microSD slot, you need to rip open the back cover using the top slit, which reveals the flimsy plastic. Also, the microSD card isn’t hot swappable, as battery removal is required before you can access it.

Moving away from the sleek looks, we shook the techno stick to get deeper into Desire.

Key Specifications:

-OS: Android OS, v2.1 (Eclair), upgradable to Android 2.2 (Froyo)

-CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 1 GHz processor

-Browser: HTML

-Colors: Black, Brown, Silver

-GPS: with A-GPS support

-Java: Via third party application

- Digital compass

- Dedicated search key

- Google Search, Maps, Gmail

- YouTube, Google Talk, Picasa integration

- MP3/AAC+/WAV/WMA9 player

- MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV9 player

- Facebook, Flickr, Twitter applications

- Voice memo

-MEMORY: Phonebook is practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall

Internal: 576 MB RAM; 512 MB ROM

Card slot: microSD, up to 32GB, 4GB included

-DISPLAY: Type: AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors

Size: 480 x 800 pixels, 3.7 inches

- Multi-touch input method

- Accelerometer sensor for UI auto-rotate

- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off

- Optical trackpad

- HTC Sense UI

-CAMERA: 5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, Geo-tagging

-GPRS: Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps

-EDGE: Class 10, 236.8 kbps

-3G: HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 2 Mbps

-WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g

The most appealing thing about Desire is the Sense UI, the circular base (with menu and phone functions) is back again, this time packing in a key to give you a range of personalisation options. The Desire can be introduced as the cousin of Nexus One, at times it feels like we've seen it all before. Specification-wise these two Android 2.1 phones have the same processor, 1,400mAh battery, 3.7-inch 800 x 480 AMOLED screen, 5-megapixel autofocus camera and 512MB of ROM, while externally they have very similar Colour, material and finish. Though there are some striking differences, the Desire packs 64MB more RAM than the Nexus One (512MB), lacks a second mic on the back for noise cancellation, and dons physical buttons plus a click-able optical trackpad below the screen. We certainly prefer these real buttons since the Nexus One's touch-sensitive keys do sometimes miss our inputs; on the other hand the Nexus One may offer a better single-hand operation with its keys closer to the screen.

The 5 mega pixel autofocus cam will please you. The 5:3 wide still images and the day light videos are full of pleasant crisp surprises. The screen however, isn't quite what we expected to be honest, as despite having a pin-sharp WVGA resolution, the colours on the Desire LCD don't pop, there is certainly a lack of wow factor. The battery is quite mediocre and so is the network performance. We would have loved it, if they had included hardware QWERTY. But then, it is a beauty. Absolutely marvelous display, great looks and dimensions, blazing performance, premium under-the-hood hardware, capacitive display is very sensitive and accurate, making interface a joy, intuitive buttons and the trackpad is flawless.

The Desire is yet another fine piece of work from HTC – build quality is gorgeous as usual, and there is little to complain about the software except for the Flash performance.

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Nikon Coolpix P7000: This one is for you.

Only recently, I got this hang of photography which made me dig deep into digital cameras. There are a wide range of cameras available in the market from normal click-o-cam to DSLR. So? Actually, I am neither interested in any click-o-cam nor any DSLR. This post is intended for those photography enthusiasts who consider themselves on the border line between being consumers and professional users. Oh yes! I am talking about you. I am talking about 'Prosumers'; the cameras or other gears which are targeted for sale to people who love photography but they're not professional photographers. So, Nikon Coolpix P7000 which happens to be the latest model in their coolpix series caught my eye. It is about to hit the market in the last months of this year. Exposed online already!

So, allow me to introduce to you, this promising new delight for Prosumers.

First, the specifications.

• 10MP CCD sensor
• 720p HD video recording with mic jack for external microphone
• ISO 100-3200
• RAW capture option (.NRW format) and NRW+JPEG (Yes!)
• 7x zoom (28-200mm equivalent) f/2.8-5.6 with 2 ED elements and built-in ND filter
• 720p (1280x720) movie mode with AF and lens zoom during recording
• 3.0 inch 921k dot LCD screen
• 4 Picture Control preset modes + custom mode
• EXPEED C2 processor
• Active D-Lighting
• Electronic virtual horizon
• HDMI output
• Zoom memory function
• i-TTL compatibility with Speedlight SB-400/600/800/900 flashguns
• Dual IR receivers (front and rear) for wireless remote control ML-L3.

The Nikon P series has long claimed to have dedicated itself for the very purpose of professional level photography in consumer arena, but there were qualities like resolution, image clarity etc. which were not up to the mark, in its previous models. With P7000, Nikon is all set to break through many traditional glitches of the P range of digital cameras.

The Nikon P7000 will have 3 image mode dials and a optical viewfinder with the 3-inch LCD screen. The camera will support RAW capturing of still images and it will shoot 720p HD videos too. It is also very prominent that this model is very different in form factor from its predecessors, and is slightly like the Canon PowerShot G series cameras. Not only looks wise, but even the sensors of image are almost identical to the Canon PowerShot Gseries. It will also have HDMI output and two infra-red receivers for remote controlling. The pricing is done very wisely and I call it the best of all features being priced at 500 USD, as revealed by Dpreview.

Coming to the looks. I am not very happy with the plasticky feel its front body has. But towards the LCD screen, it gives you a slick feeling making your heart melt. Handling, as they claim, is gonna be a good experience.

To sum up, I am expecting something very promising this time from Nikon. All this time, I will be researching over other similar models of digital cameras, just in case you are curious to see how the P7000 really ranks up.

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Why Peepli [Live] was not just another Bollywood Movie

No, this is not a review of Peepli [Live]. I would not even try to rate the movie to encourage or discourage movie enthusiasts.
People who were looking forward to watch it have already done so, and people who are not interested in such genres of movies have forgotten its existence all together. What this post aims at is somewhat different.

Peepli Live is not a normal masala movie of Bollywood. It ain’t an art film either. There are some movies which can not be stereotyped into any categorization. It’s one of those.
Dark satire. May be this term reaches the closest. The story raises itself from a very grave issue. The issue of farmers committing suicides in the poverty-ridden parts of India. And people in such parts are understood to have zero face value. That’s why an Omkar Das Manikpuri replaces an Aamir Khan as the main protagonist.
But Aamir is seen in every frame. Anusha Rizvi’s directorial debut is impressive none the less, but the flawless treatment of the frames hint heavy presence of Aamir’s perfectionist influences. All for the good.
Satire and comedy are two vastly different things. Comedy makes us laugh, while satire makes us silent when we ought to have laughed otherwise. There are many instances in the movie which seem comical, but don’t bring smile on our faces. We feel pinched somewhere. That’s satire for you.
The glib politician presents Natha a color TV, and the government official awards him a stand alone ‘Lal Bahadur’ ( A handpump). No one bothers whether he has electricity in his house or not, or how is he gonna get water out of that handpump without getting it installed.
And media. We see all colors of news parrots flying around Natha. It’s not about the disgust that a farmer is going to commit suicide due to poverty; its about getting maximum TRP. Cameramen follow Natha everywhere. Even when he is going to attend his nature’s calls. News media’s hunger for being heard and seen is painted red when one reporter analyses the color of Natha’s shit while the cameraman shamelessly zooms into it. Dehumanizing people: shameless media?
Village level politics. The MLAs and not so MLAs mock Natha and Budhiya’s poverty and advise him to commit suicide. Their confidence on the government and compassion to their own village men doesn’t need any more evidence. The henchman’s mobile rings, “Pappu can’t dance Sala.”
Can the chief minister of ‘Mukhya Pradesh’ rule Sala? Why does the grass root politics have to be this cold?

Natha does not die. Budhiya does not get any money. The media gets what it wanted, ie the TRP. The local politicians overcome the momentary ripples well. The agriculture minister has nothing to fear about anyways.
Meanwhile, two things quietly happen. One, the local journalist dies unsung who had just realized what real journalism was all about; and two, Natha loses his identity among the thousands of laborers and construction workers of India, working day and night cluelessly, making India alien all the more to themselves.
Peepli [Live]. I thought that the art of satire in Bollywood had succumbed to the romantic dialogues of a Shahrukh Khan and the busty body of a Rakhi Sawant.
I was wrong. We need these kind of realistic movies all the more now.
Alok K.

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