Tag: Layman’s take

Indian Railways Reservation Website got an awesome makeover

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Nope! I am not talking about some icons here and there or some new colors, its just not about the theme, the official website of biggest Railways network of the world got a really big makeover from today. Its not a regular thing that some of the innovation from Govt. side could have given such a big impression to me and I must say, if someone could have done this, then it was to be http://irctc.co.in

Gone through the new interface and thought to give you all a ride of the awesomeness. First we will see the new interface of home screen and then will enter the most awesome part, the internal interface. I must tell you that they have reached to this home page after trying at least two other themes in last two days.

Home page

irctc home page

It was interesting to se that the new website seems to be adopting the new world coming from touch screen mobiles. The right top rectangular icons for services just fit into the touch language. Advertisements now finding place in the bottom in place of cluttering space here and there.

The likeable thing the space savvy zipped interface based on Jscript extensively, you find the folded menus to navigate to various options once you move the cursor over the menus.

zipped

1. User Guide Menu

user guide

The very first menu is user guide menu that contains links to educate users about the various facilities available through the website itself.

2. Enquiries

enquiries Probably still most of the people access the railways website for one reason PNR enquiry or finding the availability info about various trains. the second menu Enquiries takes care of those all and bring them all at one single place.

3. General Information

General infoThe third section takes care of information available about the various services offered by Railways, frequently asked questions like sections and also the various new announcements will get their places through here only.

4. Agents

Agents This section lists out the Do’s and Dont’s for Booking Agents, list of names\addresses of agents. list of authorized agents etc.

5. Special Offers

Special This section will show up the seasonal offers that Railways makes time to time. I must say that Railway is much competitive and if in a whole we see the government services, then undoubtedly Railways stands as the biggest, efficient and most competitive service of Indian Government.

6. IRCTC Zone

IRCTC Zone IRCTC Zone seems to the advertisement zone kind of thing. Various packages like Shubh Yatra etc get their mentions here.

7. Mobile Zone

mobile zoneMobiles has became really really powerful than ever and each of existing business seems to be trying to take advantage of the same. This section takes care of services that IRCTC might be offering for specially mobile access.

Internal Interfaces after login

internal1Once you login into the site, you get introduced with a brand new interface that is much more convenient and super efficient to use. The most awesome part come, when we go for searching a train and booking a ticket, but we will come over that part at end. Lets see what more it offers.

There are total six big icons for display maintaining five common services any regular user might have used many times in past with old interface, lets see how new they have became now.

Booking history I wont say that they have got a functional overhauling. That doesn’t seem to be a case for most of the services except ticket booking, but one must praise the powerful yet clean and light interfaces as they are now.

Bookign history Print Tickets

Print ticket I have not any current ticket available here, so cant show that option, but I guess its like the earlier kind of. Means you have to select radio button before the PNR number to take print out that button through the button in upper corner.

Cancellation

Cancellation I must say that probably cancellation is the most smooth part of this IRCTC site since it was born otherwise, it was a hassle kind of thing to get refunds of your tickets, which you cancelled in last moments. But the IRCTC website made the process so simple and also guaranteed kind of thing. I always loved it and used it many times.. its great.

Refunds

Refund Like I was talking about cancellations, you can check my recent refunds that I got from IRCTC. I never felt worried about the fact that I wont get my money back or wont get that in time. IRCTC process is totally automated and transparent about it and the cleaner interface now is loveable.

Subh Yatra

As I am not using this service, so I am not sure about the functionalities and it shows me up like some advertisement only. May be people using this feature might get some interfaces behind the link.

File TDR

TDR This is also a thing that I never used, but you will love the fact that they are maintaining the exact same clean and sleek interface through out the site. Commendable and I must say that designer and other people, who made this change possible, should get pay hikes for sure.

There are many other features than just booking tickets like one feature that I noticed only by today is finding the pin codes that appears in last General menu at last position. Good and authentic database to find out pin code of some place.

pin codeYou also find cool new features like track your ticket that integrate the tracking system of the official courier partner Overnite Express Courier Limited of Indian Railways. Its applicable for people, who book i-tickets that get delivered to you by courier (though I really doubt if many make use of this option ever).

TrackThe new interface is also richer about the information part, though the beauty lies in the fact that information  is not scattered like links everywhere, but they are part of the system in natural ways. Remember, where you read the ticket cancellation procedure and rules related to that?

Cancellation procedureAlso where you last read that what are the services that IRCTC website offers and what services they don’t offer or offer to limited audience. All is here now

Not offered 

Rest part of review, I will finish by tomorrow, till then don’t miss to praise the new awesome interface of http://irctc.co.in

Ticket Booking

This is the most awesome part of the new looks, which is not only as much clean as possible, but as much effective as well. Look like not only Nokia, but our Government was also listening when people were saying about Symbian Smartphones that various features require multiple clicks. Most of the essential activities are taking much lesser click than earlier.

This is the first screen you go through, if wanna book a ticket now…

first screne

Even the way, dates are handled is changed like the following…

Date

I must say, whoever got the contract of redesign of IRCTC as they asked tenders for back in March, has done an awesome job, specially keeping the mobiles and touch screens in the mind.

irctcThe above is the most special part that impressed me really a lot. Once, you select a checkbox against the search results like the above, you get complete details like Fare, Name, Train Type, Distance and Availability for a week etc. without clicking additional buttons like it was the case in earlier design.

More of it, for getting the train route, now you have to click over the train name links and you will be straight to Train route page of that specific train. Really saved much of the energy.

Its still not exactly close to the design available for agent, whose screenshots I am not been able to provide till now as they get results irrespective of trains as well means you need a ticket and they will tell you in one query that which train got empty seat on that route and in which category without any more query. But still … great job done guys.

Now, as a technical person, I understand that this new look will accelerate the number of queries per seconds to deal with. According to my info, each of their database servers were already entertaining lacs of queries per second and this new design will push for more. I could only expect that they have restructured the database as well that seems unlikely due to such a volume of data and SLA of no downtime allowed. Though I have heard a few words over the migration part itself, but will come up with that details later on.

Though still its possible to optimize the things to bring the results like its giving now days in smooth manner, but there will be fear that if we keep on getting errors like this in peak hours.

Error All the best Indian Railways and whoever designed this new looks. Great job done guys, probably the best of this year.

photo of Nitish KumarNitish Kumar

 
 

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A full detailed Interactive Nokia N8 Unboxing-All Videos

Do you know what we Nokia fans do on twitter now days? Most of the timeline of mine goes on talking about Nokia N8 and why not.. where else we have something like a 12 megapixel mobile camera with Xenon, where else we have a gorgeous 3.5” screen with capacitive multi-touch, such a superb anodized aluminum body and where else many more things like this come at a price of under 25k INR? If you could hold yourself not talking about such a thing, then you must be brave for sure.

I guess one day back, I said that I wont be writing anything over Nokia N8 till I wont get the same in my hands as was really feeling jealous with my mate bloggers of the gang, who had their hands on this shiny new toy of town. Moreover, the whole blogger world is buzzing this much about Nokia N8 that it leaves really little for you to talk about Nokia N8, when you might have not seen it in real yet.

That was what I decided one day back, but here comes Nokia, here comes Womworld and 1000Heads, here comes the bonding they make with us in way like no one else does. You might have seen stories of many trial devices from Nokia to bloggers in past and some very exciting competitions .. but hold your breath, something most amazing happened today…

While I was already watching the interactive videos being uploaded by Nokia since Mondays and controlling my excitement about Nokia N8 somehow (I must say, no other smart phone from the past might have excited we Indians this much) , but it was till 1954 hrs of today …

After a stressing day at office, when I was really tired after reaching back to home crossing the terrible, rainy traffic and checked my mail box on my Nokia N82’s Nokia Messaging account, there was a mail from our very own Lydia and the WOMWorld/Nokia team …

Hey Nitish!
Hope all is well over on your side?

Thought we’d drop you a quick mail to let you know the guys over at Nokia put a little surprise together for you 🙂

Not only are you the first person to see this, but you’ve also got a personal introduction to it all!

Let us know what you think, and feel free to share.

The intro:
http://www.luxusonlinesg.com/unboxing/FinalVideo/blogging_100831/Brenda_nitish_mp4.mov.zip

The unboxing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VPxntuYwVA

Lydia and the WOMWorld/Nokia team

 

This all got me suddenly much excited and excitement crossed the boundaries once, I downloaded the video from the link given in mail. Promise you guys @1000Heads, if ever, I owned a company, then you will be my marketing team, only you .. no one else.. you are beyond magic… just awesome.

Wanna know, why I am this much excited about the video? Check out the video yourself ..

 

Whoaa!! She took my name… how come Nokia came to know that out of those three people, I liked her most. I am still like dreaming… should say.. awesome was just a word before today.. now its a real feeling. Thanks Guys thanks.. you got me.. you totally got me.

People talk about Apple’s marketing and say that Nokia should learn a thing or two from them, but today I really think that if Nokia really need such marketing?

You need marketing to sell something ridiculously higher priced device that come to change your habits and leaving you constrained about features without pouring extra bucks at each step. You can’t make a complain as people will ask that why you bought something in double price and you become fanboy.

Nokia never been into such marketing and that’s the reason, you even find many negative words over bad products from even we like bloggers, whom people many times call Nokia fanboys, but still we are family, yes!! family… a word that is too easy to be spoken and used, but making people part of your family is something that is beyond marketing. Nokia is part of lives of ours… isn’t it?

Let me introduce you all something that really don’t need any kind of marketing to sell it … Nokia N8 unboxing in most awesome way, you might have ever imagined.

The blue boxes, as I seen with Nokia Booklet 3G, but so many of them… it feel really itchy and we feel like even begging from Womworld for our share from it.

We got three amazingly hot unboxers here presenting three streams …

1. Brenda the elegance: Brenda, whom I liked most among the three even before receiving the mail, is here to unbox the Blue Nokia N8. A color, which I would like chose if someone says that Black is dangerous to my life (otherwise Black is my color). I wonder that how come Womworld guys there knew that I liked her most?

 

Brenda represents the sober and elegant class, who weighs any product just not by exteriors, but by its features, its elegance … in short in most sensible way of judging. Truly speaking, she is so sober that it was hard to decide that what to look.. her face or Nokia N8.. LOL

In first part, she talks about things inside the box, which we will see in next videos as well. She shows each and every component of the Nokia N8 box and the first thing that relieves us is … yes!! we do have a proper length USB cable here (Thanks God! Nokia got the point finally). She shows the special stylus for the capacitive screen with the note that its available in select regions only and we really pray that it will arrive in India too.

Let’s see other part of the unboxing videos by Brenda that could be navigated to from end of the last video.

Five Vibrant colors of Nokia N8

 

After the unboxing get over, she demonstrates the five different colors of Nokia N8 here. While at one side, people are still waiting after months for white colored version of something… here Nokia coming with five brilliant colors from the day one. Yup!! for many, it’s hard to decide, which one to go for.

Multiple Home screens to choose and customize in one Nokia N8

 

Multiple home screens provide one a much better and larger space to put their priorities in their own unique ways. I loved the fact that Nokia kept the implement up to three screens only as it didn’t make sense to have like some dozens screen. Think you could have hundreds of icons on your desktop, but is that a good idea?

720p HD Recording

I still remember the days, when we were hiring professionals to shoot our videos in functions and not many were able to afford Digicams to record their precious moments. Then came the era of mobile camera and life really changed. I really think that youtube wouldn’t been such a big site, if there were no mobile cameras around. May be exaggerated my statement look like, but man.. look at the resolution.. where are we…  its not the resolution, but its the revolution. 

Social Networking

It really surprises you that how social networking has became an integral part of our lives. Its not long that when internet was meant to be Yahoo messenger and mails only. But today twitter and facebook like sites became bigger than anything. Facebook and twitter has as many users as not even many country might be having citizens in total. Sure the credit is to smart phones and when someone like Nokia N8 comes with Integrated Social Networking then..

Seamless Multi-tasking

There is a big world of apps out there when we talk about other operating systems and it looks like they have apps for everything.. even making a call also an app for them, I guess and may be even Antenna … what’s profit of having apps for little things which we never thought that should be separate thing from OS itself? What’s part of installing hundreds of small apps in your memory and keep on moaning that we have millions of apps out there for bucks, when you can’t run and navigate through even 12 together. That’s where you say..

Nokia is Nokia and Symbian still rules when it comes to Multi-Tasking.

2. Ryan the Geek: Geek.. someone on twitter said that when it comes to Nokia, then every Tom and Harry become Geeky and expert on mobile technology. I guess that should be taken as a compliment that how natural and simplified the technical innovations of Nokia are. Ryan here presents a Geek’s perspective about Nokia N8.

He goes with same unboxing as Brenda gone through or might be with some geeky little details and then let’s zoom in, what more details, he wanted to share about Nokia N8…

Bright AMOLED Screen and tough body

Definitely that gonna be some divine experience, when such a live and talking AMOLED screen with play with our fingers and we thought that big screens are meant to better view only. The scratch resistant body really assures us that its same robust Nokia we lived with since decades.

Ultra-Sharp 12 mp Camera

When I talk about Camera of Nokia N86 some days back, then I mentioned that its not only about Megapixels, when someone make a camera and it really make us proud that no one knows it better than Nokia itself. Definitely Nokia N8 is beyond that whatever you might have expected from a successor of Nokia N82 and Nokia N86 likes. Your phone is much much more bigger and important thing now and you are very much ready for handling anything instantly.

Flash Support

 

“Flash website are just way cooler to look at” – it really made me smile that Nokia chosen to make an entire heading over it. We all know that whom are they referring to and we are all with them. Flash is here to stay and no one could keep on deciding that what way we choose to live with.

Flexible Keyboard

 

Definitely this is the most important part, I am looking for. I already said once that its gonna be hard for me to live with some only touch phone, so it become so much of important that how touch keyboard of Nokia N8 gonna feel in my hands. Though still not demonstrated anywhere, I would really like to see that how swype will perform over it and also a request from Nokia for coming with idea of transparent keyboard as well. Still proper support for Landscape and Portrait modes delights.

High Speed Symbian OS

 

May have faced much criticism with touch devices, Symbian been a real Gladiator when it comes to mobile phones and Symbian^3 really really have a lots of expectations from it. We really expecting that Nokia has removed all the annoyances, people might be complaining till now. Each video seems solid and smooth… itching to feel myself.

3. Suzy the sizzling hot: She alls herself sizzling hot and even we don’t deny the fact as while playing all the videos, our eyes kept slipping from Nokia N8 sometimes. When she talks about Nokia N8, then she really talk about entertainment, looks and compactness of things.

After her own way of un-boxing, she talks about going under skin of Nokia N8

12 Mega Pixel Camera

 

It might have a different meaning for a Geek like Ryan, while for fashion conscious people like Suzy, it opens up another vibrant world of colors.

 

HDMI Output

I really wonder, if Nokia N8 will push up the sales of HDMI monitors, which are really down in prices here in India up to an affordable level (I have seen 48” in 44k). My Nokia N82 been a personal digicam for me since years and I always challenged even professionals, really wonder that how the world will fall in front of me, once Nokia N8 arrives.

Two ways of charging up

Definitely its cool to have feature of USB charging if all of sudden your phone is low on battery and you have no 2mm chargers around (Though unlikely keeping Nokia’s popularity in mind).

Faster Micro USB Output

Nothing was frustrating you more, when your smart phone was taking too much time, when you wanted to get ready for some trip and wished to fill up your phone with Gbs of songs and movies at the last moment. Not only USB OTG has arrived to forget such worries forever, but the enhanced speed of Micro USB sure gonna blow your mind, when you will experience it.

Crisp Call Quality

When we talk about Call Quality and signal reception, then there were never other names and its always been the most pleasant part that while making design decisions like keeping the battery locked down, Nokia never even dreamed of making compromises like Antennagate.

Though still we will be wishing for a better front camera always. May be that will arrive when our network will be capable of providing better speeds (even 3G is not everywhere in India).

So, these were the details about the huge flood of videos from Nokia side in last two days and at the end, again I would like to thank Womworld Team to make me feel close to them, when I was wishing much lonely without any trial device like C6, E5 or without any plans of going to Nokia World.

Whatever I do.. I am with you guys.. always. People please join with my voice, if wanna say something.

By the way, whose unboxing you liked most? My heart goes on for Brenda… what about yours?

 

photo of Nitish KumarNitish Kumar

 
 
 

Nokia C1-00 and Nokia C2 in India-the twin story begins

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Try to remember that which local brand has released a non-dual SIM phone recently? Leave it, we don’t even know that when they ‘launch’ their phones as everyday there seems to be a new copy of E71, 5800 or Blackberry look-a-like on the roads in just 3-4k with big list of features and prominently one thing that they claim that you wont find in your long trusted brand, the dual SIM feature. We all know that what quality they offer in their other features and as about dual SIM, yes!! now we have an answer …. Nokia C1 and Nokia C2 have arrived in India by yesterday itself.

After continuous rants from the bloggers, the pressure finally seems to be mounted on Nokia about their India operations. Though Indian Launch of two cheapest phones by Nokia’s Executive Vice President Mary McDowell should not be exactly taken as some big sign about change in preferences as the visit might be more related with ongoing issue of push emails as well. But still we should be happy that some Nokia device is finally launched here in India within three months of announcement.

I was aware of arrival of her, when one of my tweeps told me in morning that she has arrived on Chennai Airport and it was clear from recent device orders arriving to India that its gonna be C1 and C2 for sure. but the announcement was made in New Delhi.

McDowell’s official world were ….

As per our deep consumer insights, entry level consumers need dual SIMs for various reasons including economizing time and costs, improving efficiency and for increased convenience. To address these consumer requirements, Nokia has launched these two devices that offer multiple SIM capabilities with a balanced feature set and ‘relevant innovations’ at affordable price points.

Let’s know more about Nokia C1-00 and Nokia C2 ….

Nokia C1-00: With the very first line, let me be clear, its not a dual SIM phone as many might be confused about. But its sure marks the first ever ‘Double SIM’ phone from Nokia.

Now what a dual SIM and what a double meant to be?

A dual SIM or dual standby as per wiki comes with many kind of adapter and first of entry category was the kind of adapter that allows only one SIM active at a time means even if your phone has two SIMs inside, you can’t receive calls on both of them. One would be main SIM and other will remain as standby (not active unless you make that active manually). So, in actual, if you are looking for receiving calls on both of your SIM, then skip it, its not your choice.

Next spoiler is, its C1-00 that is launched in India, not C1-01 or C1-02, both of which as series 40 devices with better capabilities (C1-02 even has basic camera).

Its a very basic model with a price tag of Rs. 1, 999/- and a color screen, probably its more of targeting the users, who loved Nokia 2600 or Nokia 1400. Some other regions has it in price around 1k-1.2k as well, so you could expect the prices to go down here as well very son.

Now, for people making complaints about the price tag, lets see what are the offering with a brand value, reliability and best of the service from biggest mobile brand of planet.

 

It might be looking like old phones, got no GPRS\ EDGE means no MMS, just GSM 900 / 1800, No Bluetooth, No Infrared, S30 Interface and no memory card support, but other than Double SIM, it got many more things.

Design, T9 and Flashlight With dimensions of 107.1 x 45 x 15 mm, 63 cc and weight as 72.9g, its not a bad design at all. No one would be expecting metal here, but T9 keypad is as good as it can be and left bottom key works as shortcut for SIM change as well. The power down key is not at top as many might be used to and located under the cancel key. The five way scroll can be used as shortcut for Flash light as well. Scroll up twice,  Flash light on and scroll once, Flash light off.

It would be available in blue, red, light grey and green colors.

Dual SIM Yes! it has no capability to keep both the SIMs active at the same moment, but it has the capability to divert the calls means you can configure it in way that you wont be missing any call on the other number as well.

Display Interesting display of size 128 x 160 pixels, 1.8 inches this beast has. It got 16 bit colors means total of 65k colors like high end Nokia E5 is supposed to have.

FM Radio The cheap phone not only got a FM radio under the hood, but also got it with a 3.5mm jack means you could hook your phone’s FM with your PC’s speakers as well. Unfortunately there is no shortcut key for this radio though and you have to navigate through menu to find it.

Phone Book If I remember right, then older phones from Nokia at this price point never had more than 200 phonebook entries, but this one got 500 along with usual multiple fields\ numbers and image entries. Though call records are still 20 dialed, 20 received and 20 missed calls means very basic.

SMS I am not expecting S40 like smiley’s and icons here, but in place of usual 20 SMS space as we remember about our old phones, we have space for 250 SMS here, if you were discarding it at the first place.

Battery It seriously urges you that you buy this inexpensive one just for its battery. It uses the same Li-Ion 1020 mAh BL-5C batteries as were in its many leading models like Nokia 1100, but call it evolvement of technology, you received ever best battery life out of it.

Talk time for 13h straight and a standby like of Up to 1152h or around 7 weeks feels like some kind of dream. Think you will find your phone on after some summer trip, if you forgot that back home.

So, if you thought this is just a useless another double SIM phone, then think again.

Nokia C2-00: In a price tag of Rs. 2, 500/-, C2-00 actually stands as first ever real Dual SIM Nokia, not just that unique to Nokia, the second SIM is ‘hot-swappable’ means it could be changed/ removed while keeping the phone on. Note that its with only one SIM as the other one will be situated under the battery. So, obviously you got very good reason to spend some more than buying Nokia C1-00.

Let’s know what more it offers ..

Design and T9 Keypad Its plastic, but definitely much impressive looks wise than Nokia C1-00. Dimensions are a little slimmer with 108 x 45 x 14.65 mm and 67.9 cc, while the weight is slightly higher at 74 g. As you can see that keys are divided in four row with no separation in individual keys in a row. Must be a class experience to type on this grid key design.

Same way, the left bottom key serves as selection key for SIMs, while the right bottom one provide the convenience of mute button and shortcut to radio or Music player. The location of power key is again below the cancel key.

It will be available in grey, black, magenta, dark blue or white. I guess, white would be nice in hands.

Dual SIM As I already explained in first para, we got both the SIMs active here for calls, SMS, MMS or GPRS usages and very unique to Nokia, for the first time we got option of hot swappable SIM as well. I am really looking for knowing that how Nokia software will handle two SIMs together on a S40 interface as the Chinese ones and even Samsung ones freak me out sometimes.

Display The same display of size 128 x 160 pixels, 1.8 inches with 16 bit colors is included in the package, though I think a little higher resolution would have make better use of S40 interface, but anyway same 65k colors are here.

FM Radio Yes! it got Stereo FM RDS Radio with 3.5mm jack and nice to hear that it comes with Radio recording feature. You can say Hurray!!!

Multimedia You get a VGA Camera here with 4x digital zoom and ordinary 10fps video recording. Camera Image format would be JPEG, though the software will support viewing BMP, GIF87a, GIF89a, JPEG, OTA, PNG and WBMP. Impressive for the price range.

Video recording resolution will be 128 x 96 and format H.263, while the device will be capable of playing 3GPP formats (H.263), ASF, MPEG-4 and WMV.

Same time, you could think this as complete music package with support for almost all common music formats like AAC, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AWB, M4A, MIDI Tones (poly 24), Mobile XMF, MP3, SP-MIDI, WAV and WMA.

Memory It sure surprises you with the support of MicroSD card up to 32 Gb that too with hot swap feature. Maximum User Storage of 10 MB, SDRAM Memory 16 MB and NOR memory 64 MB must not be very less for such a device.

Connectivity It has not Wi-Fi or 3G, but it got GSM 900 / 1800 with GPRS\ EDGE support for both the SIMs. Bluetooth 2.1 is here for transferring your media files with ease, though I wonder if anyone will also think of connecting Bluetooth headset with it, but it supports.

Though USB charging is not here, but it has a microUSB as well.

Phonebook, SMS, MMS, Email, Chat and other features With the support of memory card, obviously the phonebook will be unlimited and SMS and MMS expected to do well with same ease as other S40 devices do. What real surprise here is inclusion of Nokia messaging Service v1.3  and Nokia Email Client means you can have Ovi Mail, Gmail etc and also chat options via Gtalk, MSN, Yahoo and Ovi Chat.

As a surprise, Ovi Contacts are not here, but this device supports  FOTA Firmware over the Air, Nokia Life Tools, Nokia Money and Themes.

Battery Don’t know what to say, but this part is a real let down for this otherwise amazing device for its price. We got the same BL-5C 3.7V 1020mAh here, but its told to provide only 4 hours of talk time that is not a very bad one, but still considering the performance of C1-00, people must have expected more from it. Standby time is also not a very higher side with 16 days only.

I wont say a disappointment here, but will say that expectations were raised by C1-00, which C2-00 misses.

We have a 2mm charger here as MicroUSB wont charge the phone.

So, this is all about Nokia C1-00 and C2-00 that would be available in India in 2k and 2.5k. Please remind me, if I missed something you might wanna know and also tell, are you buying anyone of these?

photo of Nitish KumarNitish Kumar

 
 
 

VLC Player got updated to 1.1.3

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Code RED!! Code RED!! Charlie reporting… something just happened.

VLCplayer

I just reported earlier about VLC 1.1.1 (not even a month before) and VLC 1.1.2 (just 15 days back) and we find a new update here. We really love open source projects for this, frequent updates and superb fast big fixes.

And its not only just another open source, but its our most favourite open source product

formats

As you can see, its not some major upgrade, but just a bugfix release , but who cares, I am updating my VLC Player. Aren’t you?

VLC2

And for the brave people out there, there is also a pre-release under development VLC player 1.1.4 version available for download. Developer version means it could have some bugs, so check out on your risk.

photo of Nitish KumarNitish Kumar
http://nitishkumar.net
http://scifireviews.wordpress.com
 
 
 

Touch and type Nokia X3-02 brings X-Factor to S40

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When it was announcement of Nokia C3, C6 and E5 from Nokia, then out of other things, what made me more curious was the home screens of Nokia C3 and Nokia E5. The favorite contact bar, which we were introduced with Nokia N97 and Nokia 5800 was always denied the share of the same citing memory limits. I always wondered that how much tempting it would be for people to hold their fingers not touching the big contacts picture icons like they did with Nokia N97, X6 and others?

Then there was a debate started from Nokia Conversations over buttons and touch, where I even replied quite many a comments (should have got some clue right then) and when Blackberry launched its torch, then it was obvious to boil up the conversions that when Nokia coming up something like one handed touch with HW-Keypad?

So, here is the day, August 17, 2010, in contrast of expectations of some E6 with QWERTY and touch in shape of E72, Nokia sure given a new innovation to mobile world with a T9 with touch screen and that too in price of just 7.5k and the name was strangely Nokia X3-02 (probably people will call it by name of X3 touch to avoid confusion).

As Nokia says, it takes something so familiar and makes it new again.

The simple but slim looks like old T9 and S40 phones, but with a 3 row keypad rather than usual 4 rows, we grown up using and a very welcome large 2.4 screen like Nokia E52.

Read till the end, I bet you will know many more things about Nokia X3-02, which you don’t know about it at least till this point.

Special features slowly get disclosed in front of your eyes like favorite contacts bar on the home screen (photo calling available) and cool Date and time bar (we will be see in video later). It got dedicated message key, dedicated music key and a rather larger speaker at the bottom and if that’s not enough then it got brushed aluminum body. Not only this, but this only 9.6 mm thick and 78 gm device also got Wi-Fi, 3G, HSDPA Cat9 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA Cat5 2.0 Mbps and a 5 MP Camera and let me mention it again, the price is 7.5k.

When we moved into more details as Nokia’s official forum page says over Nokia X3-02, then its surprising that most of the blog got it wrong or someone correct me, when I say that this might be the first S40 device to support up to 32 GB microSD card.

Till it don’t get right on high end devices, since the announcement C3, C6 and E5, its already clear that Nokia is betting big on cheaper devices now. Sure, the consumers are what on the profit side. First was the very capable, E52 like C5 in around 8k and now another under 8k device feature quad band and 3G.

Let’s go by the features now

Operating System: When we geeks hear about S40 devices, then what pushes us back is lack of multi-tasking like we seen in earlier iPhones. Only bit of multi-tasking here might be music/ radio app running behind.

But with the launch of Nokia X3-02, we also got updated Forum Nokia page about S40 platform, which talk about availability of even gesture related controls now (remember spiral zoom feature on Nokia N900?). Though not big on multi-tasking, but you will get a revamped media player, integration of Facebook and Twitter in contacts and updates on home screen, conversation view within the contacts and also chat featuring MSN, Gtalk, Yahoo and Ovi.

So, even Dumb phones got sexier now.

Design: I read somewhere some Eldar saying that its bullshit that Nokia experimenting with design material and came up with brushed aluminum and I swear nothing could be more bullshit than that line. Brushed aluminum doesn’t only make the build solid but saves it from scratches as well and in the way lengthening the life of the product. NO more scare of breaking it while opening the back cover to remove the batter.

Technically the dimensions are 106.2 x 48.4 x 9.6 mm, 45.2 cc and weight 78 gm, so finally we are getting Nokia making really slim devices and sure you could hope one day they will give something slim like iPhone or Galaxy and that too with all typical Nokia features, not some stripped bluetooth that don’t let you transfer the files between phones over Bluetooth (read Apple).

Like the tradition has began, Nokia started offering their device in many colors (may be on footprint of Dell Studio) and Nokia X3-02 is expected to arrive in Q3 means latest by September 2010 in five colors: White Silver, Petrol Blue, Lilac, Pink and Dark Metal. So, which color would you prefer?

Display: People already not expecting big from a cheap touch and type device that is first of its kind to showcase a 2.4” touch screen. Not on higher side of resolution, it just fare with a 240×320 screen, which has a color depth of 16 bit means 256k colors.

Its a transmissive LCD that would be glossy for sure, but I am not getting mention of its being scratch resistant anywhere, so better be careful about that, they are expecting light touching not gaming kind of.

Camera: Earlier Nokia X3 offered a 3.2 MP camera, but Nokia X3-02, which we call Nokia X3 touch now, is much more generous to offer a 5MP camera. But its not one of the greatest for sure.

As expected, there is no flash, not a single LED. The 5MP has a resolution of 2592 x 1944 and aperture f2.4, but the camera focus range just starts from 50 cm and goes to infinity means nothing like Macro mode. It got 4x digital zoom and Picture format is JPEG only.

But you get video recording that is on 640×480, but got better frame rate of 18 fps, which could record in two formats H.263 and MPEG-4. Not bad for a device in this segment.

Memory: Series 40 device never known much demanding over memory due to non-multi-tasking nature, but still it got adequate specs. Maximum User Storage of 50 MB, NAND Memory of 128 MB and SDRAM Memory on 64 MB. Impressive for a S40.

And while most of the blog seems to mentioning that it supports up to 16 GB microSD card, office specs says it supports up to 32 GB, which makes it first S40 to support 32 GB I guess.

Connectivity: That’s something so so special about this device. People already overwhelmed over its looks and touch, but its bigger underneath. You are getting Quad band support here means GSM 1800, GSM 1900, GSM 850, GSM 900, WCDMA Band I (2100), WCDMA Band II (1900), WCDMA Band V (850), WCDMA Band VIII (900) and much more than average HSDPA Cat9 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA Cat5 2.0 Mbps. Even my Nokia N82 didn’t got such support. Not only this, but you have Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n) available that supports WEP, WPA, WPA2 (AES/TKIP).

Now hold your breaths, although not advertised, but their official page says that it got USB-OTG 1.3. Is it the same, I am thinking? Nokia N8 has the same OTG profile, so??? Should we be prepared for some upcoming video displaying the same feature? Will they ship the cable together?

I am sure even Geeks could find it an affordable alternative to keep with them as a 3G modem and storage device, isn’t it?

Messaging: With support of around 600 kb size of messages, S40 devices been center of attraction for messaging only and this one sure has no reason to disappoint. You are getting Nokia Messaging 3.0 here and with the integration of twitter/ facebook, you also have the leading IMs in pocket. Social media is in reach of everyone now.

It supports IMAP4, POP3, SMTP, but asking for PUSH will be sure a joke on this price point.

Browsing: If some device supporting connections at a speed of 10 mbps, then browsing capabilities becomes a must. Nokia X3-02 comes with WebKit Open Source Browser and Opera Mini that will support Flash Lite 3.0. So even if not much big expectations, you could find it doing all the tasks at a satisfactory level for sure.

I am yet to see if the browser will support spiral zoom like Nokia N900 here with resistive touch.

Ovi Services: Though things could be region specific, but as much their official page says, it will support not only FOTA, but also Nokia Music Store, Ovi Music, Ovi Store, Ovi Sync, PictBridge, Themes and VoIP.

Isn’t that exciting for a sweet little device?

Battery: No one expected a bigger battery in a S40 device, when such device already known for much better power management due to lack of multi-tasking basically. It has a BL-4S 3.7V 860mAh battery that supports 5.3 hours talk time on 2G and 3.5 hours talk time on 3G. It has a music playback of big 28 hours and video playback of 6 hours. Average for music series, I guess, but there is a great news too.

Nokia X3-02 not only supports regular 2.0mm Charger Connector, but also supports charging over USB.

It will initially be offered in China, Ireland & UK, Russia, Australia & New Zealand, Singapore, Germany, Spain & Portugal, France, Mexico and Saudi & Yemen. Other markets will follow later.

This was all about next coming Nokia X3-02. So, if you were thinking that its about only some specific people, which will say “hurray” when their dumb S40 devices sudden get magic of touch, then think again… isn’t USB-OTG and an up to 10 mbps 3G modem could lure the Geek inside you?

So, this was Layman’s take on Nokia X3-02, what you think, let me know.. I am all ears for you.

photo of Nitish KumarNitish Kumar

 
 
 

Nokia N86 Camera insights – All about it

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My last weekend with Nokia N86 and sure this comes the time, when I should write about the specific thing for what I asked for a trial of Nokia N86. The Camera … I am not saying the 8MP camera only as most of the called it … its much more than just the megapixels. We will see in next why …

But before starting I must tell you that all these stuff are purely tech and will be of more concern for people knowing a thing or two about camera technology …

What a Bad Ass Nokia N86 camera is?

The Lens: Everyone talk about Megapixels and says that what if your N82 has 5 MP, mine has higher, what’s the difference? Dude! Its just not about Mega Pixels. But lets start from that ..

Mega Pixels 8 MP means 8 millions of pixels in one particular pics that makes the resolution of 3264×2448 (=79,90,272), but beyond that there is Carl Zeiss; the most renowned name among the lens manufacturers and the Tessar Lens.

Aperture You can notice the changes in my Nokia N82 Tessar and Nokia N86 Tessar … Nokia N82 had Tessar 2.8/5.6 while Nokia N86 got Tessar 2.4-4.8/4.6. Sorry about the condition of my Nokia N82, but its more than 2 and half year old now and has seen lots of things.

What these numbers mean? Its about aperture, the opening that allows the light to pass in. Larger aperture means better performance for low light conditions and lower means better in illuminated environment. It actually says that Nokia N86 has a variable aperture, while Nokia N82 has only one setting F2.8, Nokia N86 boosts on three options F2.4, F3.2 and F4.8 as their specification page says.

Not only me, but many other people trying to find that where are the settings to control the aperture manually, but it seems that they decided to keep it automatically controlled only (after all they were making phones not DSLR).

Wide angle Do you know that Nokia N86 was the first phone ever to offer a 28mm wide angle lens? As the GSMArena link says, it offers your around 20% more larger view angle means you could expect much better landscape and scenery shots now. Wide angle lens get lower focal lengths that reflects in numbers (4.8mm which was 5.6mm in Nokia N82).

Mechanical aspects: 

Shutter speed When you talk about taking instant pics and get irritated of blurs then you must be actually talking about the term shutter speed. Not exactly sure that how much it was in Nokia N82, but Nokia N86 sure has a high shutter speed that could go max up to 1/1000 secs, sure you can’t drop your eyelids faster than this 😉

Camera Cover Nokia N86 got Slide Lens Cover for Protection & Camera Activation and the difference in mechanism could be spotted in the above pics. Sure its way smoother than we seen in Nokia N82. Good news.

Dual LED Flash Technically they call it Third generation of Dual LED Flash and even if many might be pissed off over Nokia for dumping Xenon over LED flash, it had its part of sense. LED is more favorable for phones due to lower power consumptions and size and for the consumer side, the profit is video light. Let me show you two videos: one with Video Light and one without video light.

 

I am sure you could spot the difference.

 

But adding to the conversation of Xenon Vs LED, I would also like to show you the difference of color re-production with a LED Flash and a Xenon Flash.. or may be its feature check out

 

And as AAS pointed out, Xenon also do well about freezing the objects at the moment better than LED. Check out their post for sure, though my results are opposite about illumination where N86 is better and natural.

Though I am still trying to find the way to use LED as a torch without any software, just from some hotkey like it was in Nokia E72. Anyone got anything?

Dedicated Camera Key Yes!! with Nokia N86, we got the camera keys again. After using Nokia E72, I really felt that how important it is to have a dedicated camera key and that should be well built too. After years of using Nokia N82, I really found the metallic camera keys of Nokia N86 a superb and solid upgrade over Nokia N82.

Software aspects:

Well! Living with similar software world for years spoils you this much that in first sight every symbian looks same to you and you think that things not moving. May be even I might have thought so, when first seen the interfaces, looked similar, familiar.. but it was to take a few days, when it started revealing that how much improved things have became with special focus over Camera improvements.. and its about each and everything.

Speedy processor makes processing of photos after shooting them like instant. Panorama mode was never like this much smooth. Everything feels like the way it should be even if symbian interfaces feel older than we might have seen in Maemo or other OS’s, but they work and they work superb.

Unfortunately, I lost the part of post, I was writing over software aspects… writing it again ..

Starting from the settings, there are the usual options available…

Menu –> Tools –> Settings –> Applications –> Camera –> Image

Menu –> Tools –> Settings –> Applications –> Camera –> Video

Even more details about the quality ..

After that we get around ten options, when we customize the toolbar displayed on right of the screen, when we open the camera …

 

Camera view is the old one, but one could notice the details

The left bottom side has the battery icon and then quality icon next to that (showing 8M means 8MP now), in next to that its the count of remaining photos that could be snapped with current remaining free space, I am not exactly sure about the icon next to that, but that’s probably says the same the remaining space.. the last icon is GPS one. If its not showing x then it means that location is locked and you are ready to go with GPS info tagged inside the pics.

As told by one of my friend on twitter, I noticed a probably bug in Nokia N86. After taking an image with GPS info on, even when you close down the camera, you find a GPS icon on the right top of your phone screen, when nothing is using GPS right then. Not sure what it is..

I find myself specially hooked up with panorama mode of Nokia N86. Its nothing that we haven’t seen it earlier, but it never seem to be this much smooth and perfect in any earlier camera. Earlier only right and left key, now have became four ways. The speed of processing makes it instant to move on after it takes one shot and the results..

Though things get changed with moving object and situations a little, but its sure not a fault of Nokia N86.

 

Image editing options are like they were always… very basic.. same contrast, brightness, frames etc..

But what’s the big deal here is the basic video editing options..

So.. what you say… wow!!!

Do you know what impressed me about Nokia N86 most? It was the macro mode performance of wide angle lens. Its just not the pixels, but see the finer details in next few random samples I took in my office…

So, what’s say? Do you still believe that there was nothing in this world better than Nokia N82?

photo of Nitish KumarNitish Kumar

 
 
 

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Nokia N86-New Customization Options

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When I took Nokia N86 in hands then it seems just the same software wise as I have seen with Nokia N82 or any other Symbian OS v9.3, S60, but this time it was rel 3.2. Let’s see what made me excited about it.

When taken the first look, it was like any other non-touch home screen, I would have seen. Same vertical top configurable icons on standby and then a list of services like Chat, Mail, Calendar, Sharing .. just the same, we are so used to see in other Nokia Smartphones series …

In the first look, it was just the flash based screen saver that was new and good thing to me about Nokia N86 (though thanks to my twitter friend, I got the same on my Nokia N82 as well) and really made me realized that I should have explored my Nokia N82 much more.

But the magic begins, when I went more inside, inside the customizations .. ..

Even the themes option was much more richer and cooler than Nokia N82 or Nokia E52. There were plenty of options for standby itself in terms of four standby themes and sure vertical Icon bar became my choice and still the same.

I seriously looked back in Nokia N82 and Nokia E52 that are with me, but these were sure new options that I seen and now I wonder if there was something such in E72 or other devices that I have gone through. Don’t remember that anything such was anywhere. Why I am so happy about it? See yourself the new look of the screen, just after the vertical icon bar standby screen.

I really wonder that if Vertical Standby screen is a much better idea than the traditional horizontal ones.

Not only standby themes were new, but even our Menu view got some new options ..

May be most of the people are happy with grid and list views only, but what about these two new options?

 

Call Image option works in both ways, either you call or receive and there is more of it, you can even set a video as your ringtone for some particular person. Isn’t it cool?

Video Ringtone Call Image

Loads of event options: You can set tones for many things here like when the battery is charging, when battery is empty and like that ..

Not just that but the theme options extends to much more …

Here is what kind of Audio theme you want to choose for whole phone use experience …

This is where you define that what background your phone will carry, while calling someone. ..

This is the place where you choose.. you can check the left pics of N82 that how much more options are here now ..

Sure, the animated Time screen is my favorite, but many might have liked Slideshow more, though I still think that if someone was using the Music player option as ‘power saver’ 😉

Even the kickstand that seems to be a new showoff for probably the biggest non-touch screen, have plenty of options to configure about.

And it found the lovely feature that was not available in the times of my Nokia N82.. the over the air update ..  though mine has already the latest one. I love to get updates myself 😦 don’t you?

I used video calling as well, with my youngest brother on the other side using E52 and same complaint.. why can’t Nokia start using more than just VGA for front cameras? I mean I understand that better pixels will ask for more data, but you can make that vary from settings.. at least people who have better data plans, wont complaint .. yourself check how the pics might look like in low light conditions..

Yeah!! you are fully allowed to use the pics above for scaring your kids .. he he he

Obviously, it inherits Full Quick Office and PDF reader from Nokia N82 .. and Zip too.

What I wish more for.. if Nokia  starts adding popular services like Flicker, Picasa, Facebook etc in their list of Share Online services by default.

    

Lots to say about … but how could I have left the mention of FM transmitter even if it has a very simple interface …

The camera interface wont be covered all in this post itself, but keeping it short.. it adds much expected Panorama mode

I really really think that if Android or iOS has something like this panorama mode… just see what results it could obtain from even a newbie …

Options for customizing the much richer toolbar now…

It also adds geo-tagging, though I was just surprised to see record location option in my Nokia N82 as well. Just for that purpose, I installed Location Tagger from Nokia Beta Labs, is that brings Record Location in or it was the last firmware update? Anybody?

If you think that these were the minor updates then one more feature is here .. Face Detection

For people finding about the most important feature of Nokia N86 camera .. the variable aperture… check out the exposure setting thing..

So, anything I missed that is new in Nokia N86? Sure tell me… I wanna know…

photo of Nitish KumarNitish Kumar