Tag: Nitish Kumar

Nitish Kumar, Born at Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, India on 23rd September 1982. Serving as Sr. Server Administrator in New Delhi. Hobbies include Writing, Sketching, Photography, Movies, Travelling and still Computers on the top. Interesting in blogging started with Indian Idol 2, which later on matured with time and the blog converted to host kind of different movie reviews and tech comments.

Nokia N97 Mini Review Part 1-Hardware Dissected

This time I really wanted to go for a review with sleeves off, so thought to take my time (though reasons for delay were office related, personal etc as well). But here I am back again. This time, I have decided to take the things one by one rather than summarizing things in one or two posts.

Here is my take on Hardware first. 

Dimension and build:

width x height x depth:    52.5 x 113 x 16.4 millimetres (2.1 x 4.4 x 0.6 inches)
(0.9 mm more in depth from Nokia 5800, not noticeable, more width and height sure appreciable)
Bounding-Volume:    97.3 cubecentimetres
Mass:    138 grams (battery included)
(29 grams higher than Nokia 5800 but considering metal body, its nothing)

Build is kind of perfect except the sliding mechanism as I mentioned in earlier post. Device seems solid from every side and even no components out under the battery. This time, I was not scared from opening the battery cover as just a side uplift for the same (its steel). Keypad layout is the same as was of N900, so I am happy about it, but one complaint was there and so is here about dedicated numeric keys. After all, its a phone first, touch way is nice, but somehow if dedicated numeric keys were there, then it was more of a phone. The 1200 mAh battery is so thin suiting to slim dimensions of cell. Sim slot mechanism is so cool, but I fear about loosing the metal plate (like I have lost hook of my BH-212 bluetooth headset). I really loved the way it has been built coz it didn’t make you feel that it has a full hardware qwerty keypad with it waiting to slide out. 😉

Check the pics given beow.

The looks with keypad open Keypad seems to have nice spacing

 Metal battery cover thats too easy to removeMade in Finland

 Volume/ Zoom Keys, Camera Keys MiniUSB port with a white light and keyguard switch

Power button on top and 3.5 mm jack check the half open SIM plate, MicroSD card slot above it and well built inside back

Processor and Chipset:

CPU+Clock: 434 MHz (N900 has 600 MHz)
CPU: ARM 1136JF-S
Width of Machine Word: 32 bit
CPU Core: ARM11
Level 1 cache: 16KiB data cache / 16 KiB instruction cache (Double of it N900 has)
Instruction Set: ARMv6 (N900 has v7)

Part of RISC family, ARM processors are part of most of embedded electronics now days. ARM architecture was suitable for smart-phones for their higher clocking capabilities and low power consumption. Nokia took ARM architecture ahead and other players followed. Though now, we find Snapdragon processors clocking at 1GHz from same ARM family, but who might have seen power of even 600 MHz ARM Cortex A8 clubbed with PowerVR SGX graphics, would sure like to wait more. Yes!! the widely used 434 MHz one seems a bit outdated now, but still it stands better than the average if not the best ones out there.

Earlier released with 369 MHz, same Nokia 5800 shows 434 MHz now, I wasn’t really sure that both have the same processor or different ones. Little deeper dig told me that Nokia 5800 had different one named Nokia Rapido YII3E (kind of over clocked now) and iARM 1136JF-S sure has better capabilities. Not everything shows on specs. Check ARM official website.

Where N97 Mini lacks with other leading smart-phones of now days is dedicated graphics. it still without something like PowerVR SGX graphics that’s a let down for sure.

Memory:

RAM type: SDRAM
RAM capacity: 128 MiB
ROM type: Flash EEPROM
ROM capacity: 512 MiB, including 280.6MiB user-accessible non-volatile storage
Secondary ROM type: Flash EEPROM
Secondary ROM capacity: 7630 MiB

This is the area of enhancement in N97 Mini over Nokia 5800. Nokia 5800 had only 73 MB out of 128 MB RAM accessible, while it has all. There was 256 MB ROM with only 81 MB available for users and now with N97 Mini it has 512 MB ROM with 280 MB accessible for users. Nokia N97 has a secondary ROM of 8GB in addition for all kind of usages, while still supports microSD, microSDHC, TransFlash, High Capacity (SD 2.0/HC) memory cards with capacity of up to 32GB. Yes!! I know greedy like us still cry loud for 256 MB RAM, but greed never ends.

At cost and performance side, then having an internal storage in GBs is sure the best for performance but ask for cost as well. So, the same justifies the cost of N97 Mini in a way.

Display:

Display Type: color transflective resistive touch screen TFT display
Display Color Depth: 24 bit/pixel (16777216 scales)
Display Diagonal: 3.2 " (81 millimetres)
Display Resolution: 360 x 640 (230400 pixels)
Viewable Display Size: 1.56 " x 2.78 " (39.71 x 70.6 millimetres)
Dot Pitch: 230.3 pixel/inch (0.11031 millimetre/pixel)
Video out: NTSC/PAL resolution, Proprietary connector

I am really not sure that whether both the display unit is the same as was used in Nokia 5800. Considering the price, they should have increased the resolution at least. It seems a bit more responsive than Nokia 5800, but that should be due to better OS and processor I guess. Moreover, I noticed that N97 Mini has something wider about display. Don’t know what it is, but its there for sure. May be some OS enhancements made that way or something else.

As far as discussion about Capacitive Vs Resistive goes, then sure capacitive ones have the wow!! factor, but still considering the price and convenience of stylus with resistive screen, I don’t mind being with a resistive one. I might be Nokia Fan-Boy, but checked capacitive one on iPod 3G Touch and didn’t found it so ground breaking that one can’t bear being with resistive one

Camera Performance:

Main Camera : –

Sensor Type: CMOS sensor
Resolution: 2592 x1944 pixels (5.04MP)
Lens: Carl Zeiss optics
Autofocus (AF): Supported
Optical Zoom: 1 x
Macro Mode: Supported
Built-in Flash: mobile light (Dual LED) 400, Video light 
Camcorder: 640×480 pixels , 30frame/sec
Recordable Image Formats: JPG
Recordable Video Formats: 3GP, MPEG4
Geotagging: Supported

Secondary Camera : –

Sensor Type: CMOS sensor
Resolution: 320 x240 pixels (0.08MP)
Camcorder: 176x144pixels , 15frame/sec
Recordable Image Formats: JPG
Recordable Video Formats: 3GP

I always been in love with my Nokia N82 5 MP Camera with Xeon flash and even after using N900 for a while, my faith didn’t broken that Xeon flash was something out of world. I was kind of totally disappointed with Nokia 5800 and sure Nokia N97 Mini seems brighter on this time. I am really surprised that even with Led Flash, it manages really good snaps otherwise I was so much in love with Xeon that never thought anything else could give something like this.

19032010004 With this camera performance, it really justifies its price as Nokia N82 must be around 17.5k now days, I guess.

Carl Zeiss optics been a blessing for Nokia because of its performance. As about the base technology, then I know that CCD one that is used in the main stream digital cameras will never make it to smart phones as they consumes a lot of power, though produce high quality of pictures, while CMOS ones will be susceptible to Noise even at the best. But practically, you can see that its totally acceptable for a non-professional to completely live and love his smart phone CMOS Censor based camera. 🙂

GPS Unit:

Built-in-GPS module: Supported
GPS Protocol: NMEA 0183
GPS Antenna: Internal antenna
Complementary GPS Services: Assisted GPS
Built-in Compass: Available

Though I am not sure which chipset it usages but I assume that it must be SIRF III like most of the devices. GPS really been a blessing and addition of Voice guidance by Nokia makes it something like part of life. I am still disappointed that why not free navigation made the way to my beloved Nokia N82 yet or will it ever? I know prices are slashed for navigation, but still …. Addition of Compass makes it so cool and accurate; something on another level. Sure faster than Nokia 5800 and Nokia N82 when it comes to locking and I still feel better than Nokia N900 due to so naive Ovi Map software there. Moreover, better performing Ovi Maps due to improved memory and prosessor I guess otherwise N82 has started troubling with new version of Ovi Maps. Adding a video from boybandreject00 for overview

Limitations of GPS technologies aside, its like integrating all your travelling needs like Camera, Music, Internet and GPS at the same place. Limitations are like .. I think it doesn’t sense that we are over some flyover or below that or obviously doesn’t get updated about if route are changed or temporarily blocked by authority for weeks. May be in other countries situation might be some different, but in India, it is fact.

Connectivity:

Cellular Networks: GSM850, GSM900, GSM1800, GSM1900, UMTS900, UMTS1900, UMTS2100
Cellular Data Links: CSD, HSCSD, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA,GPRS Class B Multi-slot Class 32,, EDGE Class B Multi-slot Class 32, HSDPA 3.6 (Cat. 6)
USB: USB 2.0 client, Hi-Speed (480Mbit/s), USB Series Micro-B (Micro-USB) connector
Bluetooth (802.15): Bluetooth 2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate, Internal antenna
Wireless LAN/Wi-Fi-(802.11):    IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, 54 Mbit/s

I come to read somewhere that when it comes to specifications, then Nokia likes to tick all of them, so is the case with Nokia N97. It drops Infrared and HSUPA support, but still have plenty of super fast connectivity options for utilizing its connected widgets.

I really feel that connectivity on the go is an era where Smart Phones beats Laptops, Netbooks and computers. Though N900 is a revolution of its kind, but still many coulod manage their works with a Full qwerty keypad and nice screen with all time connected fast web. Only issue was with switching so many available options, then Nokia is improving in this area with each device. While I find Nokia N900 the smoothest, N97 Mini also seems to have avoided most of the connectivity glitches.

Music Unit:

Audio Channel(s): 3D stereo sound
Analog/Digital Converter (Recording): 16 bit nominal quantization, 48000 Hz sampling frequency
Digital/Analog Converter (Playing): 16 bit resolution, 48000 Hz holding frequency
Microphone(s): mono sound
Loudspeaker(s): stereo sound
Audio Output: 3.5mm plug
Analog Radio: FM radio (87.5-108MHz) with RDS radio reciever, Proprietary headset as antenna

When it comes to Multimedia, then Nokia always been a champion of all and my expectation are much high after having N900.  Still my demands will be the same. Find some way to play all kind of media files. Not a rocket science and could be done via any firmware update. I guess what needs to be done is negotiation with various format providers. Next annoyance is to use Wired Headphone for FM Radio. Why? What about Bluetooth Headset? Please drop this requirement …

I wish if FM Transmitter was part of the deal.. I was having no issue in buying this right now.

Power Management:

Battery: BL-4D 1200 mAh Li-Ion battery
Talk-time (maximum): GSM 430 mins, WCDMA 240 mins
Standby time (maximum): GSM up to 320 h, WCDMA up to 310 h
Video playback time: (nHD, 30 fps, maximum): 210 mins
Video recording time: (VGA, 30fps, maximum): 170 mins
Video call time (maximum): 120 mins
Music playback time (offline mode, maximum): Up to 28 h

It fares well for whole day operations, but I really see no point in removing the earlier 1320 mAh, which was there in Nokia 5800 except the fact about size. But when Apple and other could make slimmer batteries, then why not Nokia? I really see no point in reducing the battery at least, as powerful battery might be, it would be more appreciated. May be some price concerns, but don’t make compromise on battery at least plz!!!.

So, here I am finishing my first round of review for Nokia N97 Mini. Will be back soon about other things. Join the conversation and suggest me more.

photo of Nitish KumarNitish Kumar

 

Nokia N97 Mini- Unboxing and first impressions

The starving without a capable smart phone for a while, memories of my dates with N900 and my escalated expectations from a smart phone. Really, I find myself way too demanding than ever because of level of comfort I had with Nokia N900.

N97Mini-main

In absence of N900, the next gem of Nokia catalogue was Nokia N97 Mini (N97 being overpriced and less policed), so I was trying to settle my mind on the same. Where I got stuck, was the question that how much more its offering than Nokia 5800 as both share same processor, same screen size and similar dimensions. My mind was saying, so what if N97 Mini has few improvements, but price difference is too high. I really wanted to have a look myself for the worthy differences on additional price.

Finally, WomWorld came to be my saviour again by sending me the trial device straight at the same day, they received N900 back to them. And here I am …

I will try to add captions in un-boxing video attached later on, but mentioning a few things I noticed.

  1. The Box: Though I am not sure that its slimmest packaging in whole smart phone world, but its the most slim package I ever seen. Clever design. Though I didn’t found the same black box as Nokia started to produce from recycled materials, but I think this must be with the trial device only. I think I have seen N97 Mini in similar package made of recycled materials on Nokia Shop. Not sure though!!!!

    I think Nokia and others are bound to take such moves due to Apple’s strategy to put “Environmental Status Report” in promotions of iPhone, but if something calling for Good, then its always welcome. Make all devices from recycled materials and think new ways.

  2. Micro USB Charger again: It didn’t surprised me as I was aware of the news from Jan 2009 that Micro USB Charger would be a standard soon. This will not only accomplish the target of forming universal charger for all kind of devices, but also works in the same direction of minimalistic design (as the same port will serve the data transfer and connectivity purpose as well). But for my surprise, there was no connector available in the box for making use of older version chargers.

    No complaints!!! thanks .. it make me handling only one cable inserted into it, when I am sharing my 3G connection with my PC through it. 🙂

  3. Keypad: More space means more convenience and I already loved keypad of N900, which is sure taken inspiration from this one. Removal of D pad is sure good enough. I love typing from cell.

  4. Surprisingly slim:  It looks slimmer than Nokia 5800 in thickness and rest of the dimension already same. So, that’s impressive that they retained the size, even reduced and then dare to incorporate the sliding qwerty keypad into it as well. If not curious, then many might keep on using the device without knowing existence of qwerty keypad into it that’s a compliment for its slim design.

  5. Tough build like a rock: Out of the other features, it’s Nokia N97 Mini’s looks and build that gonna to attract specially class customer like business persons with heavy use of cells. A real solid body made of metal most of the places, specially battery cover and rest places where plastic is, I find even that of high quality repellent of finger prints and most kind of scratches. That’s for sure is something that gonna stay long. I wish to have more devices build like this from Nokia.

    But there are few horrible thing about the build as well (may be only I am scared). I am scared of sliding mechanism, don’t know why, but  I feel its sliding is not safe for rough usage. Opening the keypad requires a particular pattern and if some unknown usages some force then …. moreover, don’t know this was with only my device, but I noticed some loose part in screen just above the logo, hope its not with all devices.

    Even then its somewhat best build so far and I know they already had invented better sliding mechanisms (like N900) that will follow later on (process of learning from feedbacks you say). I hope that keep on making such solid bodies (it feels solid than N900 too).

  6. Internal layout: Most of the time, we concentrate over exteriors only, but Nokia took great care about internal side as well. While the layout is minimalistic and solid enough, I found the way of inserting SIM cool!! Though I struggled to find the same in first place, but I find it safer for SIM even if we might be used to changing SIM again and again. SIM protected with little mettle plate.. good idea.. note that.. don’t loose the metal plate otherwise … 😉 I am stuck after loosing the hook of my Nokia BH-212 😥

    Good move, I feel the same will be standard soon.

The live un-boxing is in video given above, though it was a trial device, so was already opened, but even then you could get a view of what’s inside and how to start with.

Sure, a big review is coming about the features and differences with other devices like Nokia 5800 in similar league.

photo of Nitish KumarNitish Kumar

 
 

Chetan Bhagat Vs Amir, VVC and Hirani – FPS Vs 3 Idiots

amir-khan

Amir Khan; The man known as perfectionist, famous for his policy of signing only one film per year only claiming that it helps concentrating on quality, the one man, who really given us hope to achieve Oscar Awards for India, the man, who directorial debut “Tare Zameen Par” still known to be biggest contribution to Indian Cinema in its kind, the man, whose name in credits is kind-of-guarantee for the success. His Lagaan almost made it to Oscars and Ghajini became highest grossing Indian Film of all time. He has worked in only 40 movies (as I know) in span of 36 years (1973-2009), but still known as one of the biggest Indian male actors in front of many actors, who might have done hundreds.

chetan-bhagat

Chetan Bhagat; the man, who really made many of Indians read English novel, who earlier thought that what fun in reading something, if you need to keep a dictionary in side to understand. The Delhi born Ex-IITian, Ex-IIM is known for his unique writing style, which tends to be simple, with linear narratives and vivid storytelling. He has written only four ‘English’ novels (Five Point Someone, One Night @ Call Center, Three Mistakes of my life, Two States), but his each of novel sells like hot cake in this non-English country, which one could compare only with the phenomenon that how Devki Nandan Khatri made millions of people learn Hindi only for reading Chandrakanta and its successor stories.

With my trend of being late into things, here I am back again over issues between Chetan Bhagat and Team 3 Iditots. I was really surprised and even mentioned in my review over the movie that Story writer’s name list should include Chetan Bhagat’s name and “Dont know why not mentioned”, but that time I was not aware that this has already made a big bang across the country and sure it should have been. Legal obligations aside, but for me, on the moral grounds, its insane to write off that Three Idiots only loosely resembles 3-5% with the novel Five Point Someone and so the name of Chetan could not be included and shown in writer’s list.

3idiot

Complexity of legal contracts aside, whom many of us might not even read completely (for example students living outside may check their room rent agreements and all of us could check our employment letters), most of us still feel assured in light of best practices & moral obligations on the other side only and come to learn the things in hard ways only, so is Chetan. Here is the copy of legal contract in pdf.

The controversy started with the release of movie to theaters, which was 25th December 2009 and after the same, messages of congratulations were not only heading to Amir, VVC and Hirani team, but in kind of more numbers to Chetan Bhagat itself. Thousands of emails of stunned fans writing that why not they are able to see the name of Chetan in credits (Its there for a snap of time, but not in stories sections), were bound to made the novel writer to comment upon.

Chetan, who is also a columnist with Dainik Bhaskar & The Times Of India, and writes on political issues, chosen not to comment over the same through these papers or media and as claimed in his blog post, first attempted to contact Team Three Idiots via mail, SMS and Phone, but probably found them more busy in celebrating the success. Obviously helpless Chetan (might have gone through his contract papers and got to know that technically they can up to an extent), who was not having enough to file a case against them, thought to answer their readers himself and dragging Team Three Idiots into court of morality though his blog posts and tweets and the controversy begin.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani aside, many of the fans might have not expected Amir to comment in this way against legally almost helpless Chetan  Bhagat. But there were many comments from the actors himself, which sure deepen the pain felt by the Author.

Amir Khan’s words

“ He is trying to take away the credit from the film’s writer Abhijat Joshi, which I am very upset about. It is an attempt on his part to try and take the credit away from the person who has actually worked on the script. It’s very unfortunate. There should not be any confusion to anyone that Abhijat is our film’s writer. "

" But in my opinion the credit should be given to Abhijat. For three years, this man has worked on the script. Nobody knows him, but Chetan is a big star. "

" Abhijat has written the script and Raju Hirani worked on it. Raju and Abhijat took the idea from Chetan’s book. The starting point is Five Point Someone, but after that the script has changed entirely. "

Chetan’s replies

“ The only reason it has surfaced after the movie’s release is because Five Point Someone has a few million readers, and when you copy a popular story claiming it as ‘original’ and ‘completely different’, people are going to find out. People did, and so did a lot of media journalists. ”

“ The case is as simple as the makers claiming the story as their own, and clearly it is not. Pre-release, the makers made press statements like the movie is only ‘very loosely’, ‘2%-5% inspired by the book’. After release, those who have read the book and seen the movie (and frankly, I think those are the only people who have the right to comment) find the film to be an adaptation of Five Point Someone. The setting, characters, plotline, dramatic twists and turns, one-liners, theme, message – almost all aspects that make up the story are from FPS. Yes, there are some changes, any adaptation requires that – but it is no way an original story. Leading movie critics have privately admitted to me that the film is 70% the book. Still, don’t take my word for it – go read the book, watch the film. ”

Although Amir Khan and Chetan Bhagat both stopped themselves on writing/ speaking anymore over the controversy, but this controversy still shows the true face of Indian Cinema and reflects that why we are still struggles to get a mere Oscar for any category in years. There are numerous examples of lifted stories from all over the world, which made into top box office hits (likes of Ghajini, Murder etc) and sure one should not get surprised, if VVC shouts over Journalist on calling movie 70% based on Five point someone, after all they paid 11 lacs to Chetan for the story (even if they don’t understand that right to adopt is another thing and right to story is another) at least as Indian Directors really think in this way.

Now, coming to points for which I thought to write my blog post- FPS Vs 3 Idiots

 

Five Point Someone Three Idiots

Its a story about three students Hari, Ryan and Alok in IIT (Top College of Engineering), who try to cope up/ survive against the monotonic education system.

Its a story about three students Farhan, Rancho and Raju in IEC (Number one college of Engineering), who led by Rancho try to fight up/ survive against the monotonic education system.

The narrator of the movie is Hari, whose status lies between the rest two individuals; revolutionist Ryan and fearful Alok and who finds himself admirer of Ryan from the day one.

The narrator of the movie is Farhan, whose status lies between rest two indiduals; charismatic Rancho and fearful Raju and who finds himself open admirer of Rancho from the day one.

Ryan stands against the hostel ranging from the day one, which marks his introduction into IIT.

Rancho stands against the hostel ranging from the day one, which marks his introduction into IEC.

All three finds themselves standing against the strict HoD, whose son has committed suicide under pressure of making into entrance (the fact, which the HoD come to know only by his own daughter in last part of the story)

All three finds themselves standing against the strict Director, whose son has committed suicide under pressure of making into entrance (the fact, which the Director come to know only by his own daughter in last part of the story)

Alok’s house with invalid father and poor mother with a sister of marriageable age and Maruti car as dowry.

Raju’s house with invalid father and poor mother with a sister of marriageable age and Maruti car as dowry.

“Define Machine” was the question Ryan answered in his ways and was thrown out of class.

“Define Machine” was the question Rancho answered in his ways and was thrown out of class.

Hari get smitten by Neha; the daughter of HoD.

Rancho got smitten by Piya; the daughter of HoD.

Alok jumps out of the institute roof because they are caught stealing papers and get lots of bones broken but still survives the life. The stealing was influenced and helped  by Neha; daughter of HoD and three were caught cause Hari calls Neha from Office Phone.

 

Raju jumps out of the roof because Professor Virus tells him that he will be expelled from college, if he does not admit that Rancho and Farhan are responsible for his housebreak get lots of bones broken, but still survives the life. But paper stealing scene is also there in the same way here the stealing was influenced and helped  by Piya; daughter of director and three were caught cause Rancho calls Piya from Office Phone.

Character of Venkat;the studios guy for whom Alok leaves his friends so that he could get good grades although suffers badly with him in funny ways. Alok comes back to his friends leaving Chatur when Ryan helps his invalid dad.

Character of Chatur Ramalingam; the studios guy for whom Raju leaves his friends so that he could get good grades although suffers badly with him in funny ways. Raju comes back to his friends leaving Chatur when Rancho helps his invalid dad.

The water tank of the college, where all three used to go out and drink rum & bear there.

The water tank of the college, where all three used to go out and drink rum & bear there.

In his job interview, just came from hospital Alok speaks out from heart in polite and simple ways that why he tried to commit suicide and why his marks gone so bad in fear and Kamal; the selector there still dramatically selects him for the job on his honesty.

In his job interview, just came from hospital Raju speaks out from heart in polite and simple ways that why he tried to commit suicide and why his marks gone so bad in fear and the selectors there still selects him for the job on his honesty.

Few dialouges …
The examiner looked at me as if I had asked for his kidneys

I am not drawing the line, I am making it for a change

Define machine

Few dialouges …
The examiner looked at me as if I had asked for his kidneys

I am not drawing the line, I am making it for a change

Define machine
This is not the end of list for similarities and sure there are many many differences (as one I pointed out that Chetan titled his novel as what not to do in IIT, while Hirani made it to say that how to), but still its not that hard to decide whether the similarity is 3-5% or 70% and who should be given the credits for storyline.
I really recommends you all to buy and read the book (it should be only Rs. 75/- or little more than that), so that could really come to know how life in IIT is and how original work FPS was, why Chetan and his readers feel hurted …. rather than thinking that this controversy is another means of getting publicity for already well known Author or the novel Five Point Someone.
photo of Nitish KumarNitish Kumar

 

LinkedIn now with Faceted Search

Look like Recession really has plugged in some great innovations back on track. Scared from apparent downfall of Facebook and MySpace, almost all the social media sites are on revamping of their interface and features. Here is the another update from LinkedIn: The Giant Business Networking Site.

linkedin

“ Dec 14, 2009, Esteban Kozak from LinkedIn announced the release of another huge improvement to LinkedIn’s people search experience, “Faceted Search”. “Faceted Search” offers dynamic filters that are automatically generated based on your actual query results. These filters let you quickly and easily hone your query over 50 million LinkedIn profiles based on 8 facets: current company, past company, location, relationship, location, industry, school, and profile languages. ”

The concept is based on the fact over what all the network sites were once based upon. “Finding the people, what you exactly wanted to find”, thus improving the technique of searching people faster and efficiently.

Now, how this “Faceted Search” works: As you search for something or someone, this technique automatically generates search filters, based on your query results, which lets you quickly refine your search. Check out the snapshot attached below, find the all new “Refine By” module there. This is what we are talking about.

linked

Currently these filters are based on 8 facets: Current Company, Past Company, Location, Relationship, Industry, School, Groups and profile languages.

“ In practice, it really makes your search queries more efficient like you need to search for an engineer in NCR (Location), has great interest in .Net technologies (Groups), who speaks english and hindi (Profile Language), have working/ worked for TCS (Current/ Past Company) and either in my friend list or in friend’s friend list (relationship). As the LinkedIn implementation is, the search results adapt the filter quickly and thus makes the entire process quick and effortless. ”

As their blog says:

Faceted Search offers the following benefits to your search experience on LinkedIn:

  • Enables True Guided Navigation: A list of filters are generated dynamically for every search in order to guide you through the optimal path to find the most relevant people
  • Provides Intuitive Interface: Refining your search is easier than ever with an intuitive user interface that allows you to slice and dice search results by 8 facets
  • Improves Precision: As LinkedIn continues to grow by the millions, increasing search space requires increased precision to help you find exactly the right people
  • Increases Efficiency: Find talent, business partners, customers or a former colleague faster than ever before.
  • Reduces Need for Complex Queries: It significantly reduces the need for complex Boolean queries. This was a particular need we heard from many of our power users.

Here is the official video of the same feature :—>

While this is going to make work smoother for people, who were taking help of LinkedIn Connections for their businesses, here I am just wondering on the basis of Google’s Launch of Goggles that when this limited feature to Android only, will be released to other platforms as well and we will have capability of searching someone by his/ her face only in Google Search or Orkut search (already picasa started name tags). Its pretty possible technology and its very about time, when Google must have launched the same. Waiting for that. 🙂

Till then you enjoy video about Google’s Goggles.

photo of Nitish KumarNitish Kumar

 

Now its 4G – Not in India but in Sweden :(

Sometimes, we really think that if we could have born in some other developed country… just for joke.. don’t mind.

Here is the news from techcrunch that caught my attention by this morning:

“ Dec 14, 2009, Teliasonera became the first company in the world to launch its 4G services (Currently limited to Stockholms and Oslo). Afterwards, the company is planning to extend the services to other areas (currently the license covers Sweden, Norway and also recently Finland) ”

4 G

So, here poor we, still waiting for affordable and workable smooth enough 3G services (MTNL is sure not that cheap and competent enough) and some other part of world is going to get speed around 100 megabits per seconds.

Although interesting to note that despite the launch of the network, no handsets can yet use 4G. Initially customers will connect via a dongle and a laptop.

“ Fourth-generation, 4G, networks are based around the Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology and downlink data speeds can hit 100 megabits per second – about ten times quicker than the fastest 3G networks. The technology has been designed to overlay existing 3G networks and most operators have committed to upgrading to the faster system. ”

As per BBC News, the company has released no information about the cost of connecting to the high-speed network. The dongles for connecting to the LTE network are made by Samsung, while Phone equipment maker Ericsson has put together the network in Stockholm, Sweden and Chinese firm Huawei is behind the one in Oslo, Norway. Both networks cover the central regions of both cities.

At the end, Handsets that can use LTE are expected in mid-late 2010. 🙂

photo of Nitish KumarNitish Kumar

 

Faster and more effective photo updates in orkut

Last many news from Google side only and I was thinking to make the next post on something else, but here Google again got my attention, this time by Orkut.

After the complete makeover of Orkut and revamped interface from the scratch, a few of good things that came out was expected addition of slideshow etc into photo album of orkut and top of all, it was much faster than ever in facebook way. Although there were a few annoyance like recent photos going at the last of the photo album, but over all, it was faster than anything earlier.

“ Here comes the another addition in features, In-line Photo Browsing: means now if you click on photo update thumbnail from a friend then you will be treated with full photo at the same place with options of navigating to other updated snaps in the same sliding way as it is album (kind-of-brining his album to your profile without your opening a new page), not only that but you can comment or tag over the photos as well from the same place. Not only that but now you could see a slideshow of the same photos as well from the same place. ”

In-Line Photo Browsing

Name tagging from In-Line

The slideshow

The new interface is in-a-way keeping users on the same home page most of the time as they can perform many things from there only, either it be commenting, tagging or most of the daily stuffs, they were used to do by visiting others profiles.

I am also noticing one trend from Google side. They first launch the feature itself and then after hours or a day, the same come through some announcement or via blog. Interesting

Here is the official blog post about In-Line Photo Browsing.

photo of Nitish KumarNitish Kumar

Get back to reading with FeedDemon and Google Reader

online-journalism“ Have you ever noticed that most of us haven’t wrote a full page by pen from long, even if might have tons of tweets/ scraps, thousands of blog posts or hundreds of email of their own. In the same way, have you noticed that how your regular reading habits slowly shifted to web more than the traditional books and then shrinking to headlines from twitters or some random blogs from search results only. If you made the notice then its high time to make yourself managed to get time for more awareness and energy like your early best days. ”

This post is for layman’s like me, who really needs to pick upon basic things.

First of all, its all about how you read web.

Blogs? Obviously!!!
Famous ones? yeah Sure!!!
Official ones? Definitely, whenever required for authentic info!!!
How many of them you read? As any info required or have spare time, not a fixed number!!!
How do you manage to remember addresses? Bookmarks!!!

Here I am to introduce a very basic yet most powerful thing about reading web, many of layman’s like me might not have yet started with: web feeds (RSS). Have you ever noticed the very common orange icon Feed-icon.svg, which appear in almost every site you surf to read for. Its the thing called web feed.

A web feed (or news feed) is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it. Making a collection of web feeds accessible in one spot know as aggregation, which is performed by an aggregator (like our Google Reader, newsgator or FeedDemon is).

In Simplest words, web feed brings content to you via an aggregator (generally summaries) and an aggregator brings many feeds means variety of contents to you in their short forms, so that you may take a look over all of them without any need to visit all the sites to just looking for that if anything might have been updated.

feedDemon_logo google-reader-logo

There are many aggregators around like Bloglines, MyYahoo, Windows Live, netvibes, myAOL and Google Reader and sure Google reader like other Google products has taken most of the users attracted towards itself due to its simplicity and intuitiveness. Moreover, with features like reading from Mobile and reading offline, it doesn’t leave much of the space for most of the users to think for any other RSS Reader.

A simple account of how Google Reader works, could be found in video given below:

Lets see what FeedDemon offering more with existing Google Reader Account and subscriptions in it (Courtesy Labnol Article).

    1. Integration with Google reader: Its close integration with Google reader makes its able to follow you anywhere you  go. You might categorize your subscriptions into folders and as the same change will be passed to Google Reader itself, you will get the same structure everywhere, you use FeedDemon or even Google Reader’s online account (means you might have FeedDemon installed at your Office workstation/ Home one, both of the same will have the same folder structure, same subscriptions).

      feedfolders
    2. Real Time watches and Desktop alerts: You could set keywords to be watched for, so that any of news item having the same keyword will undergo that watch item and you may easily choose them to read. Moreover, you could put FeedDemon running in tray icons and it could show whenever a new feed appears in your inbox.

      rss-watch
    3. Deleting unused feeds: It shows you subscriptions/ feeds that are not being updated from last 2-3 months, so that you may unsubscribe from them, if you wish so. It also shows feeds, which are in your subscriptions, get updated, but you rarely read them, same could be deleted as well.
    4. Integration with Windows Live Writer: This is a particularly special feature for blogger. You may directly take any of the feed entry to Windows Live Writer or clipboard from FeedDemon easily.

      windows-live-writer
    5. Offline reading: With FeedDemon, you can choose to download all the unread subscription to be downloaded to your local disk for reading offline later.

    6. Themes per folder/subscriptions: That’s a particular thing, I like most about FeedDemon. Currently there are six cool themes (Blue Vista, Expando, Outland, Photo Strip, Prince, Surfer) to choose from to set over any folder/subscription and all these theme are particularly useful for reading different type of blogs (like Photo Strip suits better than anything else for Photo Blog). I am also putting a few screen shots for each theme to let you feel, what the experience is.

  1. blue vistaphoto strpsurferexpandooutlandoprince So, what are you waiting for, you will come to feel the power of information management, once you start with something like Google Reader and FeedDemon. Just give it a try, I am sure its worth it.

    Download link

    photo of Nitish KumarNitish Kumar