Laymans take on new Twitter – The big Review

[tweetmeme source=”nkumar_” only_single=”false”]

Twitter; A 24x7x365 running social party where everyone is invited and approachable in most warm way as wasn’t even imaginable in any of the social services before. If even now, some thought that its just another social site or something too messy to deal with or think what just 140 characters do, then new twitter has arrived to spice up the party even more.

A simple idea in the start, twitter sooner became the biggest phenomenon of the planet where people even started missing twitter most, when in space. More than the simplest look of the Twitter, it was the services that kept joining in and made twitter such an engaging place. There been apps like Gravity and Tweetie running around Twitter services that made tweeting much more fun and given another mean to it.

While Gravity and Tweetie like twitter clients were writing another language of navigation, there was becoming a bigger gap between what various twitter client offering and what was available with the origin itself, the web interface of Twitter. Finally the big announcement came at night of September 14, 2010, when twitter decided to fill up this gap and announced an all new interface for twitter integrating many services revolving around twitter.

GigaOM mentioned an interesting comment on it..

The code name for the new launch was Phoenix (Kind of funny when you think of the metaphorical bird rising from the ashes. As long as in this metaphor the ashes are the fail whale.

Rolling out of the services was started since the same night, but considering the gigantic volume of users, the process was to go through phases only and it was only yesterday, when it reached to me and after spending sometime with it, here I am bringing some of its bit for you.

I will not bring the technical details like how JavaScript was used to implement most of the part and how many services get unified to bring this experience look like what it seems right now. Just bring you what a Layman see.

Twitter pointed down the changes under four categories…

1. New Design First it came the blue ribbon on the top to indicate that a new experience is just a click away

Just a click and something richer and very pleasant appears

You zoom in and the first message appear that your twitter web experience gonna be having previews of pictures and videos as well means no reasons to go behind those links of twitpic, youtube etc.

While the left side contains the basics related to you and also the trending topic at a much better place. It was also a pleasure to see followers and following list at equal levels.

On the other side, when we take a look at timeline, then even if it managed to retain the old and cleaner look that has made twitter this much success so far, there are many significant changes to improvise the user experience drastically.

We have the search bar at top like we seen it in Facebook and tweet & location buttons appear only when we type something in the update box.

Interesting was to see how things are adopting touch screens now, few days back I seen the new IRCTC website looks and now this… you click at any place of a tweet or click at the details button at the left top of the tweet, we see the left half of the screen getting converted into conversation mode.

I was wondering for sometime that what that message type of icon for, till I came to see that it changes the shape according to the content. Check in above screenshot that how it changes shape for Geotag and pictures. Cool!!

Not only this, but the idea of Mini Profile at the left side of the page was equally cool as most of the things getting constrained at one single page only rather than going though various pages.

Not only this, but the basic operations like reply or retweet took transparent Pop-Up format. Before thinking that an annoyance, think once that now you wont be needed to go through all over to the top text box and then coming back to find that where you were… when you are providing the infinite scroll, then it was impossible to manage without that.

And by the way, there is always a small icon on the top to bring the update screen anytime you want to update something, without disturbing where you are in the timeline. That’s called something streamlined and tight.

View Photos, Videos and other media content Started with the information sharing, twitter has became the biggest tool for sharing pictures and videos than any other service of the world. It always seems tasteless to see only links around when someone shares a video or pics, but on the other hand, it was bound to be messy, if they would have gone for putting inline richer contents.

The magical left panel came out to be solution of all ..

Though available for partner services like DailyBooth, DeviantART, Etsy, Flickr, Justin.TV, Kickstarter, Kiva, Photozou, Plixi, Twitgoo, TwitPic, TwitVid, USTREAM, Vimeo, yfrog, and YouTube only, but these names are also the biggest names.

Also it was interesting to notice that if you are not following the person, then you get something like the following

Nothing was more delightful to watch youtube videos with all features without leaving the twitter homepage ..

Sure such a streamlined interface gonna make twitter users stay more on twitter rather than spending half of the time in navigating links going outside to twitter and so will facilitate twitter to bring more focus on ads in. Hope the luring side of ads will not take down otherwise superb clean interface as of now.

I think I still can manage to find one suggestion for twitter team that they still not dealing well with the links. May be the works is under progress in background, but it sure makes sense if Twitter also could bring the snipset of links as LinkedIn started doing through link share by this year.

Mini Profiles As I mentioned earlier, idea of Mini profile was cool and sure focused again on the same goal to keep the user on the same page for as much possible, so that whole experience may not go out side the site itself.

You just click over name of someone and in place of opening a new page or refreshing the page to remove your timeline to bring his/ her profile page, you get just a mini profile with sufficient information on the magical left panel.

Cool!!! Isn’t it?

Discover related content We have already seen in earlier screenshots that the conversation mode is much richer in the details. It not only brings the replies in the same chain, but also bring other tweets of the same user, which makes much more sense in giving you a proper view of entire conversation.

And you don’t need to click anything to get location of someone’s geotag info or to know who he is

Definitely, great innovation so far.

What seems to be missing now

Even after trying hard, till now I have not been able to find links to show that a tweet came from which twitter client. Is Twitter all out to kill others? Openly?

Not only this, but uploading pictures or videos still has not made its way to twitter, when its becoming like essential part of all kind of desktop clients. May be for sake of simplicity only, but that’s something, which has to be here today or tomorrow.

At first look, I felt the mobile edition of the site got some changes also, but I guess I am wrong as things are just same as earlier with m.twitter.com

So, this was my little bit, which I got know after using the platform for day one, what you got till now, tell me back for sure….

Nitish Kumar

http://nitishkumar.net

http://scifireviews.wordpress.com

New frontiers – Which one of Nokia N8 and E7 is yours choice?

[tweetmeme source=”mrnitishkumar” only_single=”false”]

When Nokia N8 was announced then it was the time, when Nokia N900 reached India. The announcement really jeopardized many possible purchases of Nokia N900 here and today as many like me were fearing, a glimpse of Nokia E7 and we are confused again that should we wait for that 4” beauty or rush in for Nokia N8 as we are already decided?

I hope that when Nokia World 2010 was marked to show off four devices together on stage, then many might have got an answer that why release of Nokia N8 was this much late.

Four devices together on biggest stage of Nokia with many never been before in Nokia features;

1. A Brand new OS Symbian^3
2. Polished Capacitive Multi-touch AMOLED Screens
3. Third generation of Bluetooth 3.0
4. USB OTG for the first time on Nokia

One may comfortably assume that if Eldar wasn’t in middle with shocking revelation of Nokia N8 and intentionally worse choice of words like disappointment of year, then Nokia was all set to put this Symbian^3 bunch once for all in Nokia World only, not before than that. The similarities in profiles, features and design language all indicate for the same fact only. But that didn’t happened …

Many will argue and curse Nokia that why they were this much slow?

Answer was their ultimate failure Nokia N97, something they came to recover. With lesser RAM and power, it was a misplaced shot that came back to hurt them only in place of making them strong in touch phones genre. Like me, they never expected that market suddenly will be ruled by touch devices only provided the advantages of Non-touch ones and their huge heritage of years with their beautifully made devices and there it went wrong …

Anyway, it was a grand show, if all of these Symbian^3 devices with new interfaces, hardware, services and just another level of design language were set to appear at once, but in the world leaks, Nokia World 2010 was a little faded like Apple iPhone 4 launch went.

Though not designed to be, but it was Nokia E7, which stole the show and kept people confused that should they really go for buying Nokia N8 that blindly as they were kind of decided to? And why shouldn’t they, when it seems to be perfecting the build with addition of only missing thing in Nokia N8, the keypad and also adds 0.5” more bigger screen in the beauty …

In last many weeks, a major portion of hits toward this blog came though one post: the comparison post between Nokia N8 and Nokia N900 and so one could understand that how much such a comparison would be required this time, when it really much more confusing as now they are all seems to be on similar ground. Lets take some sneak peaks into finer details. I am also including Nokia C7 and Nokia N900 together for the reference.

The display, the design language and build

Here is the comparison between the four devices …

Three new devices not only set AMOLED as new minimum standard but they do the same for Pentaband too.

The Display resolution

It was shocking to many, when they seen a 4” device having only 360×480 resolution, when rivals roaring to 900x now and may be more in near future. It was more awkward as after 800×480 resolution of Nokia N900, no one was expecting Nokia to go below than that.

Nokia’s argument is “same resolution makes the job of developer easier, when they know where have to put their pixels on through out the range of devices.”

For sake of argument on Nokia side, the basic question was what the purpose of going behind the number of pixels, when you got to deal with same 3-4” of screen and can’t be pushed to be more smaller icon? Even AMOLED gorilla glasses were not that cheaper side, then even pixels, who actually not gonna make a productive effect on experience rather than marketing gimmicks, if you would have gone beyond retina.

But on the other side …

its true that resolution matters a lot and even the Nokia fans, who would have taken a ride over Nokia N900 will argue on that. Bigger resolution means larger, comfortable space for browsing and better viewing angles for other medias.

True that while making design decisions and pricing, one has to go through compromises, but it was only Nokia, who made consumers hating the word compromise.

So, conclusion on resolution issue is …

Nokia E7-00 gets no direct advantages over Nokia N8 in terms of resolution though it gets numbers on CBD technology, which makes the display look impressive than even Nokia N8. Still we can pass out that. Nokia has to care about the fonts and icon details on a comparatively bigger screen, so that people may not feel something cheap or may miss Nokia N900 likes.

The design language and build

The statement that actually won many battles for Apple was being the slimmest. The design statement was always loud and clear from their whole range of products. Sometimes such loud that people miss the fact that at what cost these products come and what compromises they bring in their lives.

It would be certainly interesting to see if iPhone’s sales figures were really that higher when they were selling it unlocked or people weren’t buying it to Jailbreak first. Provided the major sales of Nokia comes from the countries, where they sell their phones unlocked only, they were never on the same grounds.

The rule of war is “Beat the enemy on their grounds, on what they felt them best, without leaving the skills at which you are best”. A victory in that way leaves the opponent out of courage to fight again, no matter how big they might be.

The all new design language as reflected from the three leading phones on stage (N8, E7 and C7) shows the same commitment to beat the opponent on their turf. Though they get limited by inferior camera (moving parts not allowed in slimmer builds, so heavily compromised) and were forced to restrict the removal of battery for sake of unified build, but it was sane as they maintained all the features and at least one of their device was branded to be the best uncompromised camera in the world.

Literally uncompromised camera of Nokia N8 is something which doesn’t let Nokia E7 stands a chance in that era even if Nokia E7 seems to bring the same looks and solidness in same slim profile, but with huge benefit of QWERTY for less than 1mm difference (13.6mm and 12.9mm). People really may confuse a Nokia E7 from Nokia N8 if at some distance and that’s make it tempting to go for E7, but let me show you something …

Not a best macro shot of my Nokia N82, but such shots at workplace help you a lot and I kind of can’t think living without such macros, but the slimmer design comes with a compromise in Nokia E7 that its can’t focus on objects closer than 50 cm.

We buy higher priced phones for more features not just for more power or numbers and Nokia has made us to think Camera as integral part of Smartphones. Even if 8 MP, the Non-Carl Zeiss Camera brings Nokia E7 at somewhat the same level as of Apple iPhone 4 or Samsung Galaxy. Hope Nokia could prove me wrong, but that’s a deal breaker for me otherwise, I would have bought Nokia N95 in place of Nokia N82 years back.

Even if now, I am assured with the solidness of slider hinge of Nokia E7, Nokia N8 scores point due to literally uncompromised camera.

The processor/ RAM

People reading too much from numbers might get a surprise here …

If you check ARM 11 Vs Cortex A8, then ARM 11 been the processor that were used by iPhone 3G once. I am not an exactly right person to talk on this, but no one would argue that superb performance of Nokia N900 was for a reason; Cortex 8 that was also used in iPhone 3GS and known as next generation to ARM 11 and even Snapdragons. So, we come back to another ‘compromise’ here that Nokia made for keeping the costs down.

But at the same time, one should also consider the fact …

Symbian been known for bringing top notch performances from minimum processor/ RAM usages and even if we are here with an older processor, it just cut it better than other OS platforms been doing till now. An ARM Cortex 9 might be the future, when they come to MeeGo, but with Symbian^3, Nokia decided to be with ARM 11 680 Mhz.

It doesn’t make a difference about Nokia E7 and Nokia N8 as both of them share the same processor, but it thrills to see that Nokia N900 still has a place with a superior generation processor.

Greatest part is the inclusion of Graphics 2D/3D processor in all the coming phones, which was a thing that Nokia was forgotten since Nokia N95/ Nokia N82 time.

So, here no one score points neither Nokia N8 nor Nokia E7 as both are on the same level.

Connectivity

This has been a core part of discussion I posted about Noia N8 Vs Nokia N900 and after a year, now we have seen that a mobile could have HDMI and Dolby as well and could be operated by Bluetooth Mouse and Keyboard. Technology is really travelling faster.

Connectivity features are exactly identical when it comes to Nokia N8 and Nokia E7, but its also sure that Nokia gonna come up with some exclusive features for Nokia E7 as they mentioned in Q & A rounds that it will be Software part that will come to distinguish the Nokia E7 and so will justify the price.

Are we going to see thing like remote control in Nokia’s as well? Certainly look like so.

Memory support

Memory part been the biggest reason behind the failure of Nokia N97, as even if Symbian is known to perform best even with 128 MB RAM, Nokia missed that time to take concern of escalated needs for a touch based platform. Nokia N97 Mini was correction to the mistake and after feeling well settled with 256 MB RAM of Nokia N900, even if tempting number of others on 512 MB RAM, it was no where a wrong decision on Nokia part to keep RAM settled on 256 MB for all the three devices.

Note: The mentioned 135 mb in the above pics is wrong, which I realized after having N8 in my hands.

After the standardization of Processor/ RAM, it was time to address the second part, the internal memory, the C;\ drive of phone. Interesting is to note the difference of maximum user storage part between Nokia N8 and Nokia E7. Nokia N8 has only 260 MB while C7 and E7 come with 350 MB.

After living with Nokia N82’s 100 MB maximum user storage since long and also surviving the other side with Nokia E52, not only me, but other users know very well now that what important maximum user storage or C:\ of phones has. Happy to see that Nokia seems to address the same as well.

Numbers might look like otherwise, but experience says that 260 MB is more than enough for most of the users need when there is already 16 GB space available for saving all kind of media.

But still presence of 350 MB maximum user storage and 1 GB NAND memory in both of the devices E7 and C7 indicates that Nokia seems to be setting up with something big coming for these devices in near future and the those software features will keep on revealing itself in steps over time like has been in case of Nokia N8 in last months.

There is an unrest about exclusion MicroSD support from Nokia E7, but provided the USB OTG support, it seems that with already huge internal memory soon gonna make requirement of MicroSD support irrelevant. Think if there was MicroSD support, then people were asking for hot swap support as well, but now after USB OTG, hot swap is available for everything.

Camera

When it comes to Camera then obviously Nokia N8 is something that is made for that only.

Even if no Macro Mode support disappoints big time like I mentioned in first part, definitely having a sleek camera that could record your moments in HD quality video is something been a dream for Business Phones. After all, not only marriage and birthdays like family-n-friends moments are precious, but things like visit of some big shots or some special achievements at work place also might be something that one wanna cherish for ever.. and what could have been better than HD quality video?

So, if Nokia E7 looses scores in Macro, then scores big time as a business device setting standards for the market. Remember, we have the best ever keypad here, which no business device in market could beat at the moment. 8 MP Camera still stands at it best possible.

Secondary camera bring no surprises here, but again like I always been saying… its time for Nokia to set another standard by putting some 2-3 MP camera in front place. Ok OK.. I understand not at this dimension but may be future models.

Was just thinking in Sci Fi mode that it will be possible to make superb camera lenses without moving parts, if someone could find such a material, which could change density and so focal lengths on controlled electrical probes. Isn’t it?

When it comes to camera then Nokia N8 is sure second to none because of being almost uncompromised, but still Nokia E7 is not loosing the battle as we have won a 8MP camera with HD video recording on a Business device. Remember, it was just few years back, when just 2 MP was being taken as a Business phone standard.

Nokia N8 wins in this department hands down, but Nokia E7 still has worth.

OS and Extra Features

There been a lots of argument and discussions around that Symbian is dead and Nokia should move on to Android at least. Why Nokia resisting the urge to do so?

There is a strong reason for that.

Symbian is not only the biggest mobile platform on the planet, but also has backing a a big loyal community that even after difficult times has kept on serving the people at their best. Going towards any other platform will be meant to loose them.

Another OS come up with different file structures and implementation of things that will be an area of concern over expectations from Nokia. It seems very reasonable that Nokia is trying to keep things on their own turf here. They know Symbian been big till year and has much more caliber to make a comeback very soon. Symbian been known for their effectiveness in least resources and had no reasons to be abandoned coz others getting ground.

Maemo on Nokia N900 was great but was an example of the same thing that bringing a platform is easy, but bringing interest of developers is not. “Developers, Developers, Developers” that exactly was the words of new CEO of the company and with free signing and many welcome changes Symbian seems to be set for bringing a new world yet again.

As about features, then again many services are yet to come when Nokia E7 will be actually available or sale and some are even being targeted and design to Nokia E7. So, its better to keep mum till something really arrive.

Power Management

This was the other area of concern, when Nokia went for such slimmer design language. Not only finding the perfectly slimmer battery was a thing, but so was to decide inclusion of non-self-replaceable battery.

As of now, without finally software, its useless to comment over the mention figures about battery performance, which only time will tell. Its sure that Nokia E7 not gonna be like typical E72 like battery life being a 4” multi-touch screen neither do the stats says that it might be better than Nokia N8.

We all are keeping our fingers crosses that new OS and new battery is going to perform as well as written in stats. 12 Hours talk time would really be deal breaker for anyone, if Nokia N8 gonna just do that.

As per specs and power hungry bigger screen, Nokia N8 scores point here, which seems strange due to the fact that Business devices always been on the top in this field at least. Is it gonna change?

So, these are a few things about upcoming phones and soon to be available Nokia N8. I really think that these never like before devices gonna bring some fresh breath for Nokia and Symbian. What you think?

Nitish Kumar

http://nitishkumar.net

http://scifireviews.wordpress.com

Nokia World 2010 – Nokia C3-01, few bluetooth headsets and a unique charger

[tweetmeme source=”nkumar_” service=”wp.me” only_single=”false”]

After two full days of Nokia World, I am really thinking that its much easier to be an Apple Blogger. At least if it was an Apple event, then there were not these many devices, these many news and this much excitement, but same time, this much wait.

As a non-professional, office job holder blogger, it gets too hard to cope up when such flood of events arrive and you ultimately give up as when you are giving 13 hours of day to office only, then not much part of the day remains to cover up all. And you better think to provide links for other’s awesome posts rather than repeating yours. For a detailed one-by-one coverage, check out CJ’s blog.

Continuing my series of posts over Nokia World from where I left it last time …

Meanwhile our fellow bloggers have bring some more news about Nokia C7 and Nokia E7, with Dual LEDs, the handy torch feature is right there without trying out that Video Light option.. just press some specific and use your phone as a powerful torch.

But provided the price point, mind says that that we will sure find something more about Nokia E7-00 in next coming days … something more special than what we have seen till now.. what that will be?

Other devices announced on day 1

Its true that those 3 big names were enough to steal the show, but there was more, when it comes to devices ..

Day 1 seen a number of new Nokia accessories as well …

I could have written in details about them, but our CJ has already done a tremendous job, so just thought to link him here. Read there for sure, they are not just ordinary headsets, but many things under the hood to know about them. Though I am still trying to know about their prices and availability. Just hoping that this time, BH-905i arrive at a much lower price to really afford that.

Don’t you think that these side heros also need some attention?

An interesting accessory was awesome Nokia Charging Plate DT-600

Something that could charge five of yours devices at once. Hoping that pricing would be right and many would be thinking to have one in their drawing rooms.

The second and last day of Nokia World also seen a hell of exciting Nokia C3-01 with 3G, while it looses the QWERTY, brings another milestone of Touch-n-Type series. Look like S40 soon will get repo of Touch-n-Type OS.

Ok.. I will go into details of specs otherwise as my readers wont excuse me about that at least.

Exteriors The slim dimensions 111 x 47.5 x 11 mm and shape will sure remind you of Nokia C5, Nokia 6300 or Nokia 6700 and at the same time, make you feel it solid in hands by 100% steal body. Are we talking about some knife? If I am right, then there is a physical unlock button as well or may be a mean to stop touch functionality. With a volume of 51.43 cc and weight 100 g only, it would be hard to hold, when you see it in front of your eyes. Old good days of insanely solid devices continued.

The people, who were praising X3-02, but didn’t thought to bought right then, will now find them hot on heels.

Display Being on cheaper side, this will hold a glossy transmissive display of 2.4” with expected resolution 240 x 320. With better icon placements now, it seems that S40 learning hard about this kind of genre and sure we will see more of such devices soon, but this one looks really solid even if wont perform best under sunlight, given the build and looks, its something legendary.

Interesting was to read 18 bit colors in specs sheet. 18 bits? really?

Resistive touch meant to work for tapping buttons and navigation. As much I understood till now, resistive single touch screens of Nokia X3-02 and Nokia C3-01 not meant for on screen keyboard.

Camera A 5 MP with full focus and flash too. This device serious urges you to buy it. An aperture of f/2.4 and focus range from 50 cm to infinity might not be on best side, but still stands better than any other non carl Zeiss 5MP in Nokia’s bag. Even if video capability is just 640 x 480 @15 fps, there are reasons to believe that its a satisfactory device about occasional snapping.

Remember, there is no front camera.

Connectivity As we find USB OTG 1.3 here again, it clears the strategy of Nokia concentrating big over Touch-n-Type devices. No wonder, if they are planning to push back their XpressMusic series to keep only Touch-n-Type devices in the lower segment.

You also say WOW! when come to know that this ‘flagship’ of S40 series comes with 3G, WiFi, HSDPA Cat9 10.2 Mbps and HSUPA Cat5 2.0 Mbps.

If you are familiar with Nokia’s devices in terms of being used as 3G modem for your Laptop or PC, Nokia sure all set to provide superb options to people considering lower segment devices only. Specially India, where we are yet to see 3G from most of the operators, once that will be set, there will be only one candidate to buy at this segment, Nokia C3-01.

Memory 30 MB of user storage can’t be consider as enough, provided the fact that X3-02 had it 50 mb. I am really confused over this point least that why its lesser?

Disappointing here otherwise with 128 mb SDRAM and 64 mb NAND, it follows the footsteps of Nokia X3-02 only. Same 32 GB hot-swap microSD support is here, but I was a happy man, if Nokia would have given at least 60 mb to this.

But still it doesn’t mean that this device will perform any lesser due to the fact that S40 apps never been known for their memory hunger.

Other features New socially aware S40 series, sure all set to provide too many options in favor of a touch-n-type like. Stereo Radio is obviously here though I was looking for FM recorder as well. Rest everything is like one could expect from a Nokia otherwise I would have needed to tell that it has Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR with A2DP.

Power management Again, this is not such a specs that I will feel very happy about. A BL-5CT 3.7V 1050mAh is sure better than the one, I have with my Nokia N820.0

GSM Talk Time up to 5.6 hours

CDMA Talk Time up to 3.4 hours

GSM Standby Time up to 17 days

WCDMA Standby Time up to 18 days

Music Playback Time up to 38.0 hours

Sure the specs are not as impressive as one could have expected to be from a new device. A disappointment for otherwise would have been a great news.

Price A price point of 189 USD or 8, 750 INR definitely trying to woo mid range customers and would be a point of attraction for S40 Series market.

Let’s see official video for the same ..

Are you also finding it hard to control your eagerness for having hands on these devices? Same with me.

Nitish Kumar

http://nitishkumar.net

http://scifireviews.wordpress.com

Nokia fights back with E7, C7, C6-01 and Much more – Part 2

Continuing from my post covering impressions of Nokia World 2010 …

Nokia’s best ever and the first touch screen E-Series Flagship E7-00 The design of this handset been out since a long while making rounds of rumors that it could be Nokia N9, I always said it can’t be and I had many reasons of my own. Reasons for confusion were the touch screen itself.

Nokia E-Series were always meant to be business people and business people were tend to have focus on crystal clear connectivity, pocketability, durability and ultra-long battery life. But it was becoming more and more impossible for even business people to be completely away from touch screens in the way, many business oriented features were becoming touch-only or more productive on touch.

After iPad started taking some of the sales in Business streets even after its bigger size against pocketibility, it was like a stone on heart that was to break down some day and should say probably BlackBerry was first to take the call by announcing Torch. Nokia came to say that why not the big daddy of family should have the biggest of the game rather than buying expensive phones for kids only?

Just take a look over the pics above and you find it beyond a beauty that could be easily described, specially when you know its a Nokia means you are assured that it got no compromises under the hood and will be as powerful as are its looks. And if after Antennagate, people started tending to think that compact design means compromise with signal and Antenna then Nokia has just one three word answer “Its an E”

Let me try to go into details of Nokia E7-00 (RM-626) though it seems hard for me as the urge to get one is so troubling as I know I have not even received words about Nokia C6, Nokia N8 or Nokia C7 from @WomworldNokia neither E7 gonna release by this year 😦

Exteriors, pocketibility and durability Like I was talking in my post two days back, if Nokia really thinking that they are on a downward slope and wanna get a real come back in big way, then they don’t have to just make out some figures here and there or just to offer some mouth watering prices, they have to bang some real hard, need to accomplish something that no one else would have come closer or even could dare to come in next few months.

The design and build of Nokia E7 shown really such a commitment and aggression. Just think that Nokia N8 is just 0.7mm slimmer than this one, when there is no physical keypad. With closed slide, Nokia E7-00 just look like a bigger screen version of Nokia N8 without showing any un-necessary sign that it hides a best ever keypad of planet inside it. Once you open it, you find people bow down in respect.

Definitely, if a touch phone would have slipped in pockets of CEOs and CTOs, then it couldn’t have been something more slimmer, compact and super effective like Nokia E7-00. Would you mind, if a gorgeous 4” super responsive multi-touch screen serves as your all-in-one smartphone-cum-tablet-cum-tourguide-cum-handycam in this much compact form?

We have dimensions of 123.7 x 62.4 x 13.6 mm with 104.9cc and 176g weight (considerably higher than Nokia N8, 41g). My Nokia N82 has a weight of 114g with 17.3mm and Nokia N900 had 181g with 18mm, so even if we got a slimmer device here, don’t expect it to be lighter in any sense. You gonna have a solid piece of metal in your hand that will effectively working for hitting someone hard, if you find any trouble. LOL

If wanna more praises for the build then one should not only see the tilted screen like Nokia N97 mini, but also the redesigned and pronounced as super perfect keypad of Nokia E7-00.

You can see that the new keypad design of Nokia E7-00 makes very decent use of additional space provided due to a 4” screen, more evenly spaced big keys and a much bigger space bar. Can you still make a complaint?

The only thing that worries me is the thing that many even praise, the titled slide mechanism. I was worried about it with my Nokia N97 Mini trial as well and feel same here. What if someone drops his E7-00 badly with Slide open? I think horizontal slide of Nokia N900 was more robust with such use cases.

Update: As Brendan posted, look like I was worrying for no reasons. Nokia is always known for being solid. I remember when my old Nokia 3310 was hanging and hitting from a bicycle for half an hour and still I just got only battery cover, keypad out. It seems that even tilted slide is also same strong.

But on the other side, tilted sliding screen means easy to read while typing without bending your head over the device, if you put that on table and start typing. So, people have reasons to find more charm in tilted screens.

Display from here the confusions started, people think that why Nokia didn’t went with doing hand-to-hand with Apple offering a higher resolution or at least Nokia N900’s resolution, when they have such a big screen? Even if they convince themselves somehow then Nokia itself bring new question that why not at least CBD like they already given to rest of two devices announced on the same day?

Yes! there is no limit of what one will be wishing from a device and there is sure a compromise, whatever Nokia designer may give excuse for. I had seen Nokia N900 in 800×480 and I know that everything look smooth over it. Is it something related to Symbian itself that we never getting anything more than 640×360?

Nokia E7-00 sports 24 bit colors, 640×360 resolution, AMOED display and obviously big 4” size, which is entitled to do wonder with GPU available with 2D/3D Graphics HW Accelerator with OpenVG1.1 and OpenGL ES 2.0 support.

Processor, memory etc Though people are pushing higher for snapdragon, but Nokia still continues with 680 MHz. One should think that Symbian provides full multi-tasking at its best even on 600 MHz devices, which other ‘leading’ and ‘advanced’ OS not able to do even after having 1GHz processors. Not only MHz matters.

When we move over memory specifications, then it becomes more clear that Nokia E7-00 was never geared to take on Nokia N8, but came in just to cater needs of other genre.

We find same 350 mb max user storage, 16Gb internal memory, 256 MB RAM and 1 GB NAND. Have I missed something? No!! its not me, its Nokia, who missed inclusion of MicroSD card. Blame the same design decisions that took the liberty of battery changing away for keeping the dimensions insanely slim. So, no MicroSD card Support in Nokia E7-00.

I will say that USB On the GO might become the big reason of loosing MicroSD cards support in many devices soon and sure a place, where a manufacturer could think of compromising now. But sure, many will feel annoy as it makes you to have three things in pocket; A cable, A pen drive and Nokia E7. There are reasons to be annoyed.

Connectivity While the other two devices were the budget editions in their ways, being the flagship of E-Series, Nokia E7-00 had no reasons to keep a break over connectivity options. So, from pentaband to Bluetooth 3.0, from USB OTG (Nokia Adapter Cable for USB OTG CA-157Connector) to HDMI (Nokia Adapter Cable for HDMI CA-156), you find everything here so that you may not feel any missing connectivity option with it. Same richness, when we talk about security features and protocols supported, Nokia E7-00 is always one step ahead of whatever you might have seen in a Nokia E (Except battery life, will discuss later).

Other advanced features Ovi Maps, free navigation, USB OTG kind of things becoming kind of granted now, when we talk about high end Nokia, same about software’s like Quick Office Premium and Adobe PDF.

What’s not here is 2mm charging and FM-transmitter. Rest everything, you would have seen in other two devices, find a place here in Nokia E7.

Lovely is HTML Emails part, which Nokia E72 been craving since like decades. Such a big screen is sure powerhouse and complete solution for all kind of business needs. People will really come to think if they need to buy Netbooks.

This is also expected to have much important features like remote lock and wipe and may be many more will come out in news as the day progresses. Marketing works that way.

Multimedia, Camera It was Nokia that started that even Business Phones should have best of cameras and others are just trying to catch up now. But still we found only E72 as the best attempt on camera from Nokia side.

Many found themselves frustrated to hear about a camera of 8 MP without auto-focus. If just that was included then without any doubt sales of Nokia E7 might have beating Nokia N8 and business oriented people weren’t having any doubt in mind.

While Nokia E72 was able to focus in range 10cm to infinity, we are stuck with 50 cm to infinity for Nokia E7-00. I don’t mind not having Dual LED in place of Xenon here, but Business phones should be able to take close scan like images of documents. That’s a huge use case. We really feel like 8 MP wasted here even if its not that disappointing in comparison to others (Samsung SGS don’t even have Flash leave focus/ auto-focus aside).

Still like rest of two devices, it can record 1280 x 720 videos @25fps with video digital zoom of 3x. Aperture here is f/2.8. Why no one thought about variable aperture again after Nokia N86?

Power management Here comes the critical part, when one wishes to make a Touch Screen Business Smartphone. Nokia E-Series phones were meant to have insane battery lives with 1500 mAh batteries and E72 had 13 hours of talktime, but sure when you have a 4” screen, then compromises will be on the way.

GSM Talk Time up to 9.0 hours

WCDMA Talk Time up to 5.0 hours

GSM Standby Time up to 18 days

WCDMA Standby Time up to 20 days

Honestly, if we think about others, then even the above stats look awesome, but as per Nokia E-Series standards, sure its not exactly on the mark and real test will begin when the device would be out.

Not to mention, it was impossible to provide a replaceable battery in this dimension. Face it, you can’t have it all. A super slim device and that too with moving part, can’t work.

Price The price point is real huge at 495 EUR means 631 USD or 30, 000 INR and will not attract buyers that easily as Nokia N8, C7 and C6-01 would be making, but sure this is a device that many geeks will look for. I just wish, if Nokia wouldn’t have compromised on Camera, though I know making this much slimmer device was real hard.

Wanna see how Nokia E7 will look like?

Or even Hands on …

So, this was all about Nokia E7-00 first impressions, many thing will come out in more clear in next days and may be new Nokia PUSH will make its debut presentation on one. So many things have to be seen yet.

It has gone bigger than expected, but my post is not finished yet. Still things to talk about are services and those 3D glasses, but I guess, now I will be back by next day night only. So, till then ..

Nitish Kumar

http://nitishkumar.net

http://scifireviews.wordpress.com

Nokia fights back with E7, C7, C6-01 and much more – Part 1

So, finally the big day came for which we were waiting since many months. Many expectations, many rumors, a few set backs and much excitement around, it was great to see #NokiaWorld trending worldwide finally. The big day really shown Nokia in a fighting shape-n-senses and we loved the way that they said they are no Apple or Samsung, they are Nokia and a Nokia will remain Nokia.

Like many other mates, I wasn’t lucky to be at home and sitting closely to internet watching all excitement minute by minute, but thanks to my lovely Nokia N82, MTNL 3G, Gravity and my awesome timeline, I was never out of the game and things happening right there at Nokia World 2010. Even took sneak peaks of videos as well over my really Smart phone and sure I was the first one to nod my head when they said its Nokia, who really made phones smart and invented smart phones. I was the example holding just my phone, dead busy in office routine and still connected with something happening in another time zone (different by four and half an hour).

Let’s bore you with my words on what happened there at Nokia World 2010 and what’s my Layman’s take on the new devices announced there on day one.

The keynotes Not only me, but many others were shaken by departure of two big names and removal of one of them from speaker’s list for Nokia World 2010. Many eyes were set that how Anssi will hold the stage, when he is here for six more months only, but when he took the stage, he took it with the same fire, the Nokia promised to fight back sometimes back.

It was probably the first time, when any Nokia World would have heard competitor’s name this much frequently. They went behind Apple for stealing their slogan of “Connecting People” in their event, mentioned that Nokia devices always performed best in every condition unlike others and most importantly they reminded the world that they are not going to follow any Apple or Samsung, they are Nokia and will be Nokia.

I really liked the way Anssi took the stage and taken people all over with his big voice that everyone forgot about the worries that what after him. What a great man!! we all will miss you Anssi and will hope to have you back till the last day.

For proving the point that Nokia is Nokia and will be a Nokia, nothing could have been better than showing off three new Symbian^3 devices, when most of the people expected some MeeGo there. That put an end over rumors that Nokia N8 is the last Symbian device and next Flagships will go MeeGo only.

Like many of us felt somewhere inside, Anssi made the point that people at Nokia and Symbian feel bad, when by just looking at the screenshots, people start saying that Oh!! its the old Symbian without even checking it out in their hands. Its just not the widgets and fonts that make some OS, its what it can do and what you can do with it. Symbian is still the biggest mobile OS of the planet and has every reason to continue the legacy being the only one with Multi-Tasking (I don’t count other’s shit as multi-tasking without any argument).

Lets meet the super stars of the show that are told to see the real sunlight by Q4 of the same year..

Nokia’s Slimmest C7-00 Yes!! like the tradition has became, none of the events coming with completely surprising devices due to leaks all around. We already have seen some views of this device sometimes back, but then there were many things, which were not noticed in details, let’s check out that what special about Nokia C7-00 (RM-675) …

Sometimes back, I talked that what’s going wrong about Nokia and what could have been done to bring them back and with Nokia C7, the slimmest of Nokia till date, they seem to be addressing many of the things.

Either people admit it or not, the very first thing to attract people was the slimmest design that they maintained even till now. The challenges behind that kind of design were the compromises that it takes… Like fixed battery, hard to integrate superior cameras and designing an Antenna that works flawlessly like the name of Nokia.

It was bound to take its time and when even Nokia N8 finally took the compromise of keeping battery and same was followed by Nokia E7 as well, it was Nokia C7 that emerged as pioneer to maintain 10.5mm width (11.8 mm around the camera area though) but removable batteries.

Lets know more about Nokia C7-00 …

Exteriors Many said that it reminds something of Samsung, but its just the curvy looks, otherwise when dimensions of 117.3 x 56.8 x 10.5 mm with 64 cc volume and 130 g weight come to hold the biggest of features like it has, then we call it phenomenon than just some look a like. Moreover, the stainless steel looks make you feel some premium thing for real.

Display 24 bit colors, 3.5” AMOLED screen, ~~the latest Clear Black Display technology~~ ~~to beat retina~~ ~~display~~ ~~and~~ I am still trying to figure out that which kind of glasses it has, Gorilla? When you know that it got graphics processor having 2D/3D Graphics HW Accelerator with OpenVG1.1 and OpenGL ES 2.0 support, then sure there remains no reason not to be eager about its arrival. The resolution might be 360 x 640, ~~but still the people out there posted very positive comments about comparison of this with Retinna display.~~

Update: got confirmed that Nokia C7-00 doesn’t has CBD in it

Processor, memory etc Same 680 MHz Single CPU ARM, 256 MB RAM, huge 1GB NAND, 350 MB maximum user storage and 8GB internal storage though greedy will still crave for 512 MB RAM, but provided that this thing gonna arrive in probably less than 20k INR, many would run madly behind it. Don’t forget apart from huge 8GB storage, you always have option of adding up to 32 GB microSD (not sure if hot swappable, but likely its not).

Connectivity USB OTG seems to be becoming core part of upcoming Symbian devices and I feel pity about Apple fan-boys as they are already unanswered about Bluetooth file transfer till now, when even $30 Nokia has it. OSB OTG would never come even in their wild dreams.

Pentaband frequency support, EDGE Class B, EGPRS, HSDPA Cat9 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA Cat5 2.0 Mbps, WCDMA, WLAN IEEE 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, A-GPS and TV-Out, you only miss HDMI here, otherwise what else you could have bargained for?

Other advanced features New socially aware Ovi Maps 3.06 backed by improved A-GPS unit on it, MicroUSB works for charging as well along with standard 2mm charger, special connectivity cable CA-179, 2 Microphones, Accelerometer Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Compass (Magnetometer Sensor), proximity sensor, you really run out of thoughts that what more to ask for a trimmed (?) down Nokia N8.

Like same video editor, Nokia Messaging and even better Social Integration as on Nokia N8, I am expecting them to keep Doc\ PDF viewer in the package that there seems no denial for the same.

Multimedia, Camera Must say, people feel disappointed here. It gets 8MP, it gets full focus, it gets 3264 x 2448 pixels, its gets 28mm focal length, it gets f/2.4 aperture, but what’s exciting, if you can’t get close to 100 cm? I am really confused about the post from @aas, where its marked as having Auto Focus, as it seems untrue to me. Will try to get it confirmed soon.

But yes! you are reading right. 100 cm. I checked many times on their forum page. The focus range of Nokia C7-00 is 100 cm to infinity that seems to be an epic failure and makes its camera ordinary like any of iPhone or those Samsung Galaxy S. What about those Macro shots that I used to take with my Nokia N82 or took with Nokia N86?

But Nokia C7-00 is still strong when it comes to video. It doesn’t got Xenon and works with Dual LED means you could expect video light for sure and also it goes 30 fps with 640×480 recording and 25 fps with 1280 x 720, if anyone could beat it, then it would be Nokia N8 only.

Good thing is, we don’t miss any of Nokia N8 goodies like our Video Call, Video Editor, Video Sharing, Video Stabilization, Video Streaming or FM-Transmitter.

Special thing to be seen will be support for media like xVid, Divx and mkv etc, which will sure follow footprints of Nokia N8.

Power management With Nokia’s recent love with BL-5K 3.7V 1200mAh batteries, people really wonder that how big these devices gonna make in real life. Nokia C7-00 specs sure shows big promises.

GSM Talk Time up to 9.6 hours

WCDMA Talk Time up to 5.3 hours

GSM Standby Time up to 23 days

WCDMA Standby Time up to 27 days

Video Playback Time up to 6.4 hours

Video Recording Time up to 3.8 hours

Video Call Time up to 2.6 hours

Music Playback Time up to 2 days

Navigation Time up to 6.0 hours

Have you noticed the huge 2 days music playback? Definitely Nokia seems to have tweaked their OS big time under the hood, which making me very eager to hold one of those.

Price A price point of 427 USD or 20, 200 INR sure gonna boost some big sales figure for Nokia, when it brings almost all the promises made by Nokia N8 in a lower price.

They calling it a social device, let’s see some of it.

Nokia’s redesigned C6-01 This really triggered a big time confusion, when everyone on stage kept on naming it Nokia C6 and people were confused as Nokia C6 with qwerty already taking rounds of globe. Definitely this naming system gonna bring much confusion in the market and one of my friend rightly said, people will start calling it as C600 or C601 rather than calling C6 only. While none of people were sure that what are they talking about, things started getting clear, when they shown that its nowhere a variant of Nokia C6 and has much more features, brand new Symbian^3 and no qwerty with it.

Lets know some more about Nokia C6-01 (RM-624 or RM-718 not sure)

Exteriors Having a dimension of 103.8 x 52.5 x 13.9 mm with 65cc volume and 131 g weight, this 3.2” multi-touch device sure ahead of all budget touch smart phones presented by Nokia at this size. You might say that Nokia E7 is slimmer than it, but remember Nokia X6 or Nokia 5800 or Nokia C6… it will rule its segment with these looks for sure.

Display 24 bit colors, 3.2” AMOLED screen, the latest Clear Black Display technology like Nokia C7 and same time, it also got graphics processor having 2D/3D Graphics HW Accelerator with OpenVG1.1 and OpenGL ES 2.0 support. Nokia really seems to have understood the worth of having GPU inside. Resolution is same 360×480, but remember again, its CBD display.

Processor, memory etc Surprisingly same 680 MHz Single CPU ARM, 256 MB RAM, huge 1GB NAND, 340 MB maximum user storage and no internal storage. It has the same up to 32GB support for microSD card, but this time, its sure hot swappable.

Connectivity USB OTG is again part of the magic bag and so it Bluetooth 3.0.

List goes exactly same with Pentaband frequency support, EDGE Class B, EGPRS, HSDPA Cat9 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA Cat5 2.0 Mbps, WCDMA, WLAN IEEE 802.11 b/g/n, A-GPS and TV-Out, again no HDMI for this mid-range device as expected.

Other advanced features Again the list goes the same with just a smaller screen experience here. New socially aware Ovi Maps 3.06 backed by improved A-GPS unit on it, MicroUSB again works for charging as well along with standard 2mm charger, same special connectivity cable CA-179, single Microphone this time, Accelerometer Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Compass (Magnetometer Sensor) and proximity sensor, Nokia really has raised the bar, when it comes to connectivity.

As Nokia seems to include its video editor for free in all of its coming capable devices like this one, it will sure mount big time pressure for iMovie to go free very soon and Google running for putting some real app for video editing.

Multimedia, Camera I must say, I am really feeling confused here in mid of terms like Auto Focus, EDOF and Full Focus etc as this one is just EDOF that stands below than but still it gets a better focus range of 50cm to infinity. It gets 8MP, it gets EDOF, it gets 3264 x 2448 pixels, its gets 28mm focal length, it gets f/2.8 (C7 had f/2.4) aperture, but again you are not going close enough than 50 cm.

Is it end of era for Macro shots on mid range devices? Is this will remain a premium feature for Nokia N82, N86, Nokia N97 Mini, Nokia N900 and Nokia N8 likes?

For videos, it again goes 25 fps with 1280 x 720, is anyone else thinking about a flood of videos coming soon on youtube? Google, if you listening it, then start working on upgrade of your Youtube servers.

No one was expecting FM-transmitter in this price and sure it doesn’t has that, but still video editor is included as I mentioned in last para.

Power management Surprisingly this device doesn’t has Nokia’s recent love BL-5K 3.7V 1200mAh batteries, but it finds BL-5CT 3.7V 1050mAh this time and as are the official promise, then you really feel hugely impressed.

GSM Talk Time up to 11.5 hours

WCDMA Talk Time up to 4.5 hours

GSM Standby Time up to 18 days

WCDMA Standby Time up to 16 days

Video Playback Time up to 6.0 hours

Video Recording Time up to 4.0 hours

Music Playback Time up to 2 days

Nokia started with 1 day music playback standards, when they announced XpressMusic series and now they are all set to make the standard of 2 days. Any Samsung or Apple fanboys daring to compete?

Price The price point this time is 260 EUR means 331 USD or 15, 400 INR at which Nokia C6-00 is expected to be sold. I am sure that till launch this price will go a little higher, but eventually when it will be selling in 15k INR, its gonna be another hot cake like Nokia 5800 been once.
Are the teenagers going to get another toy and wont bug their parents for iPhones anymore?

It was really going long, so I thought to make it in two parts. The next part will cover the best of these three, Nokia E7 itself, few words over new Ovi Maps, new Developer’s App signing process, new Ovi Store and finally what those 3D glasses were for.

Keep tuned in …

Nitish Kumar

http://nitishkumar.net

http://scifireviews.wordpress.com

Indian Railways Reservation Website got an awesome makeover

[tweetmeme source=”mrnitishkumar” only_single=”false”]

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

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.

1. User Guide Menu

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

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

The 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

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

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

7. Mobile Zone

Mobiles 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

Once 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.

Print Tickets

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

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

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

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.

You 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).

The 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?

Also 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

~~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…

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

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.

The 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.

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

Nitish Kumar

https://nitishkumar.wordpress.com

http://scifireviews.wordpress.com

http://nitishkumarsays.blogspot.com

Is this gonna be biggest surprise of this year? Nokia N9?

[tweetmeme source=”mrnitishkumar” only_single=”false”]

I was reading my earlier post over possibly Nokia N9 and then another post from people at Nokia Conversations, when this came into my mind and I thought why not? Why can’t be its possible? What else could be a Nokia N9? Read further … probably I am gonna throw my guesses over the device that is very very likely to be presented in Nokia World 2010 and could be materialized to bring into market very sooner than you could have expected.

Till now, in the name of Nokia N9, we have seen this or something like that.

The specs were good, but really not much exciting that one could call that a worthy successor of Nokia N8, not some exciting camera, which we might be going Ga Ga about, then how come it be a successor of the best mobile camera in the world? Obvious way was to call it a Nokia E7 keeping the qwerty in mind. It was as simple as people were guessing about it. But one thing is sure that this can’t be a Nokia N9. Then what it could be?

Camera: Oh come ‘on!! don’t say, you didn’t guess it, when Nokia posted this blog post as the N-Series always been about, can’t be that Nokia N9 may go any lesser than the GOD camera of Nokia N8. Whatever features we might be expected from Nokia N9, if its Nokia N then it has to be camera and it has to be center attraction, but how… how specially after like of Nokia N8? What more could be done?

Can Nokia U be Nokia N9 and could be unveiled in Nokia World 2010?

12 mega-pixels are probably the height of megapixels mobiles could ever have in the form factor, we are expecting them to be in now days. If you have to go beyond the megapixels, then obvious way seems to be bringing optical zoom to mobile cameras, which has been the biggest hurdle till now even if just 8 megapixels, optical zoom gonna change the way, you think about mobile camera entirely again.

Do you hear the sound of Nokia replying someone in their words “Changing the world again” against the stolen lines “Connecting people”? Why not?

Just optical zoom?? Enough to make a Nokia N9? I don’t think so, consumers don’t think so, Nokia community doesn’t think so… how could Nokia think that? What else we are missing? What else could be added to a Nokia N9-A camera successor to Nokia N8?

Xenon? Yes! we need it, what if that makes us loose the capability of shooting the videos in low light with LEDs like Nokia N86. Xenon is what everyone loved and always will be. But … but if Nokia gets generous, then?

What about Xenon and Dual LED Flashes together inside the same mobile camera?

So, now you talking something… that’s what the expectations said.. that’s what the community project decided, that’s what has been submitted to Nokia design team at least 2 months back.

8-megapixel
4X optical zoom
Dual LED and Xenon flash
HD video capture
Instant image capture
Upgradable image sensor

Dimensions: We understand that when you talk about features, then its hard to make it slimmer like nothing and so been all the handset of Nokia till date. And accept it, this was where Apple won many hearts apart from introducing the multi-touch technology. Sometimes, people really say that iPhone is the limit that how slim one phone can be.

So, what you should do, if your stocks going down, your profits going down even if you selling more handsets than ever, what if people keep on saying that you don’t really have a proper high end device in your hands? They say that they will pay even higher prices, but at least come up with one that could reply other big time.

Yes! the dimensions are important, if you gonna dig a graveyard for your competitors like Apple. I know, its technically next to impossible to bring 4x optical zoom inside some mobile and then asking it to keep it never more than 10mm? Insane to even say, but more insane is the urge to reply back hard. If you want to tell everyone once at all that who is big daddy then here is the deal … let’s see what specs of community project say …

Display and user interface
Display: 4-inch capacitive 16:9
Power button, camera, zoom and volume button controls

Size and shape
Shape: Monoblock
Dimensions: 60 x 110 x 6-10mm
Extras: Auto lens cover

Materials
Material: Aluminium
Finish: Soft touch
Colour: Single colour
Durability: Super strength

Do you hear the music, when they write 6-10mm? Can’t just reading these specs as concept thrill you to give all your knowledge and expertise in to make it into reality as you really really wanna win back. A challenge to Nokia engineers that they have taken and they could deliver it coz if they not, then no one else can.

The fact to Notice that final specs for this dream community project doesn’t talk about resolution and just says 16:9 means Nokia knows that the way they build their OS’s bring higher resolution wont work in favour of preciseness, but even then what about 860×480? Not sure, what’s in their mind, when they say 16:9?

Operating system: We have seen Android coming from no where and becoming biggest phenomenon without even being from a mobile manufacturer. Now days, the business model becoming about cloud services more than putting the life behind making an OS that further needs to be grown up everyday to keep ahead of everyone. No one company could cope up the demands that are coming from users now days, open source is just not the cheaper thing to go for, but most energetic and happening thing too.

Creating a worthy and happening operating system is not a matter of just one years and some brilliant programmer taking inputs from real world. Windows wasn’t like today, when it was just created. But what made it grow, were the other microsoft tools like Visual basic etc designed around it and continuous and deeper tie up with all leading manufacturers and even with likes of IBM was what that made Microsoft what, they are today.

People are really getting desperate to see MeeGo, but there are reason to delay the same. You have to make sure that they are enough tools available to easily program Applications for the same, you have to make sure that when it come, it may spread like a wild fire. You find it not only in your mobiles, but everywhere you see.. from cars to watches, from ATMs to big interactive hoardings inside shopping malls. MeeGo is silent, but its slowly making room to make people talking against Nokia silent. When you have something like Intel backing you up, then you could be assured that such tie-ups don’t come in existence to bring just another disappointment.

Their concept says …

Operating system
Open source operating system with unlimited multitasking.
The DbC OS 1 sports temperature and location sensors so your device constantly monitors your whereabouts and the local conditions.
Device-based storage is supported.
The majority of OS functionality responds to touch control.

Sensors interacting with environment, with nearby devices, nearby situations .. you are definitely talk something real coming in next. Intel been pioneer in many things while Nokia been pioneer of making things into demand by bring it to consumer in best value for money. First Mobile camera, then GPS and then environmental awareness. Is it seems that I am hyping anything?

Rest all we already know about Nokia next gen device, like it can’t be anything lesser than Bluetooth 3.0 now, can’t be anything other than Dolby sound and why not we can have USB 3.0 and also HDMI support now?

What you think? Can Nokia prepare such a device within just 2 months? There was a statement from Paul Jacobs, CEO Qualcom about snapdragon 1Ghz Nokia in feb 2011. Why can’t it be taken as a strong reason to believe everything around?

The biggest question is, if something like this could have existed on this planet, even in form of proto-type then was it possible to keep it under wrap till now? But heart hopes, what if … what if this concept device that been already submitted to Nokia design team could have been came into reality after the best efforts from them? Will that change the entire game again and put MeeGo as more of consumer OS rather than just Geek?

Nitish Kumar

http://nitishkumar.net

http://scifireviews.wordpress.com

	Hindvi Hungama on Making Zabbix Monitoring Serve…
	Vinay cab on Finally a group trip to Agra b…
	bphytolab0 on London Dreams: Dreams are life…
	zarnmonserath on MFA temporary exclusion Tool u…
	coffeesweetlyb55eba2… on My Name is Khan and I am not a…

	Hindvi Hungama on Making Zabbix Monitoring Serve…
	Vinay cab on Finally a group trip to Agra b…
	bphytolab0 on London Dreams: Dreams are life…
	zarnmonserath on MFA temporary exclusion Tool u…
	coffeesweetlyb55eba2… on My Name is Khan and I am not a…

via Nitish Kumar's Blog:

via Nitish Kumar's Blog:

via Nitish Kumar's Blog:

via Nitish Kumar's Blog:

via Nitish Kumar's Blog:

via Nitish Kumar's Blog:

via Nitish Kumar's Blog: