Category: reviews

Blackberry Curve 8520 smartphone detailed in depth software and hardware video review

As promised, I am here again with an extensive, exclusive half hour Blackberry Curve 8520 smartphone video review. This phone has been recently launched through Airtel in India at a price tag of 15,990. So does this phone deliver on what it promises, are the features worth buying the phone for ? Most of your questions must be answered by this review, which will help you decide whether you would own this smartphone.

The battery life of this phone is about 2 days, which is similar to other smartphones. Extensive Wifi and screen usage, will bring that down to about 1.5 days, but for any normal scenario (you know what I mean, its a 2-day phone!)

So here it is, the full detailed review. Its about 25+ minutes, so don’t tell me I did not warn you 🙂

Untitled from Srik Eswa on Vimeo.

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the 8520 is finally mine!

I finally own a blackberry 8520 Curve. Its a nice mix of technology and looks. And there is no reason why BB will not make inroads into the low cost high feature mobile market sooner than later.

There is already lot of information on the internet on this new phone and I will cover more details about this in a seperate video review later on. However what is important is the fact that there is finally an affordable blackberry at our reach.

Before I end this small post I will leave you with some pros and cons of this device so that you can make your decisions!

The good points of bb 8520 :

– great screen with very good resolution
– new menu system which is very slick and quick
– all expected business features are nicely packaged in the phone
– sweet pricing this will attract lots of hitherto missed out customers
– very nice trackpad does what it says on the tin
– nicely packaged keys all around the phone
– very loud audio, clear and nice

And now the cons:

– typing not the best experience
– slightly hard keypad nowhere near N97 from nokia
– some options are hidden and only professional users can locate such features.
– wifi and bluetooth connectivity configuration not so straightforward
– camera is nothing to talk much and while its not pathetic its not great either

I hope you liked this small review on the blackberry 8520. If you did, watch out for the more detailed review on video soon.

From Orange to Black in one year!

Buy a house, get a mercedes free, Buy a flat stay along with a cricketer all your life (wondering doing what? batting and bowling along with him leaving my daily duties?), Buy a house, get gold jewelry in kilograms absolutely free. Wow. The way they were marketing their properties itself made a person feel Orange properties were upto nothing. Adding fuel to the fire they even started off a furniture mela, and an electronics exchange mela. Again things which were unbelieveable.

Well within a year, the colour has worn off. They are Black (listed) properties with criminal proceedings initiated against them now. Why? Since they did not deliver anything of what they promised but only ran away with investors money! Unbelieveable? well not really so. It was masterminded to absolute predictability. Yet we people never learn to listen to our intuition. Check it out yourself.

 

 

An evening at the Food Street, Sajjan Rao Circle

Its been a long while that I blogged, and it feels really strange to me that I have actually not blogged so far. So let me get ahead with today’s experience – dinner at Food Street. After a rather long day slogging on a weekend, and many missed chances of being at Food Street, I finally decided to check it out today.

 

Me and my friend reached Sajjan Rao Circle and expected something like a long street full of nice restaurants selling all varieties of food. Also knowing Karnataka I expected all these to be Darshini’s, or the fast food type of eateries. It was similar, but with one obvious difference – we had to eat the food ON the street! Nowhere to sit. In fact the food itself was being cooked ON the street. Now you get the point in the name dont you? – FOOD STREET.

The eateries are very small rooms or sometimes excuses for a room in terms of shape where things are prepared. Mostly the food is prepared right on the street and only raw materials occupy these so called odd shaped rooms. Business starts at about 6pm after sunset and gets brisk around 7:30. The atmosphere is charged up with youngsters and elders alike pouring onto food street. Steam fills the air from freshly prepared mouth watering Rice Rotis, Butter dosas and other items. Chats, juices, are everywhere. The vendors are more than courteous and show off their marketing skills extensively. Even the most disinterested person will finally succumb to the marketing skills exhibited by these vendors!

There are also stalls that sell north indian fare, such as Vada pavs, chats, and Gobi manchurians. Tucked away down the street is also the arya vaisya restaurant (correct me if i may be wrong!) where people buy snacks at all times of the evening.

Each shop feels like it belongs to a more bigger theme – food street! No shops lags behind another in what they sell with respect to time or quality or price. They work in unison to achieve the charged up atmosphere where crowds return each night for savouring some good food.

With just about a hundred bucks, my stomach was full. It was ages since I tasted such good food. It was an evening well spent chatting away with my friend and generally enjoying a cool evening with steamy food preparations! And for those of you who want to go shopping around don’t forget to visit VB Bakery at the end of Food Street. VB has been the dominant bakers since two decades in this area. The sheer stuff they have makes them a superlative bakery in Bangalore. And don’t forget to buy the delicacy they stand for even today – Dumroot – a pumpkin based sweet preparation that is sure to melt in your mouth!

If this article has triggered your taste buds to get more, sprint to Food Street after 6pm every evening. It will be an evening of a different kind and something that stays in your memory for a long while for the uniqueness of the concept.

25000 km review of Swift Diesel Vdi

I clocked a new record, in my ownership of cars. A coveted 25000 kilometres of driving within Bengaluru city. Its been a dream of owning a good vehicle and its exactly two years ago when I took different test drives, and zeroed in on the Swift Vdi. You can read more about it here.

While I wont go into details of the earlier ownership, as you can find it on the link specified, I would speak rather about the car as it stands now or as it drives now compared to two years ago, so that readers can get an idea how good the Swift would be after two years and 25k of run! 🙂

So without beating around the bush here are the salient points:

First the good ones!

  • Good power and torque, and if used in the right RPM ranges, gives that ultra cool kick which shoots this car out of the traffic in a jiffy. But a word of caution is to use this feature with full knowledge of what you are doing – it may have disastrous consequences if used the wrong way!
  • Easy driving in city – this car stands for this good point. Its very maneuverable, always all the time. With its ultra short turning radius, you can take this car everywhere anytime!
  • The ability to cross places you deem it not doable – This car has not had a single scratch even on rough terrain for quite sometime now. You know when you think this car cant make it, through a ditch or rugged road, it surprises you with its no-nonsense driveability
  • The engine – this is the real gem in this car, and I believe I have completed only about 10% of its real usability. This engine can go on and on for another 2-3 lac kilometers without the slightest sign of weariness! Next to Honda and Toyota, I love FIAT for their engines. Though maruti called it the DDIS, full credit goes to Fiat for its engine technology. They are truly pioneers in this field!
  • Roominess of the front cabin – The cabin is grey/black with orange lighting theme which makes it soothing at any time of the day. The front cabin is also roomy and for a two people kind of usage this car fits the bill perfectly with respect to front cabin space
  • Suspension thrills – I have taken this car through some really glidable humps at 80kmph and taken turns at 65kmph on flyovers and highways and the suspension just keeps up all the time. Kudos to that aspect.
  • Stability – none need to question the stability of this vehicle. In its category its stable even at 150kmph provided one has atleast 195 tread tyres, the more the merrier.
  • Fuel efficiency and cost of services – To put it point blank, I have never got below 16kmph at any time, and the service costs have never been above about Rs.1200 bucks at any time. So that speaks a lot about the car.

And now the bad points: (Surely every car will have its cons too otherwise we are in an ideal world!)

  • Rattles – A product costing a bit over six lakh rupees, cannot have consistent window pane rattles from day one of the purhcase.  I mean its absurd. If you pay about the same amount of money and buy a FIAT Linea or a Honda Jazz, you wont expect window panes to rattle your brains out would you? Even after writing to Maruti on these issues, I have not got any call from them on this either for rectification or for some in depth study of the problem. Shame on a big automotive giant for once again showing their high handedness w.r.t to such customer issues. I am bored/tired of the rattles this car generates and this could be one reason for me to sell this car a bit later, since I cannot live with rattles for 2 lac kms of mileage! Sorry maruti, but you will lose a customer soon.
  • Visibility – time and again I have commented on this aspect and yes this is one of the downsides of this car. Without side view mirrors, you cant but help scraping the car during its lifetime once or twice even if you are an expert driver. You can hardly notice what is standing next to you and this in my opinion is a recipe for some really silly accidents or dents. Well since the car is designed that way, nothing much can be done about it.
  • No safety/luxury options – no airbags, mine doesnt even have ABS, no climate control (only ac), no stereo controls on steering, no tiltable steering, nothing. This is surely a shame in modern times when every other car at this price range comes with all these as default stuff or atleast an option if I am willing to pay more money for it. Negative points to maruti on this count unless they respect safety. Full marks to Honda for thinking in this direction. Even if the Jazz is costiler.

Well, what did you think? The bad points list would continue for ever and ever? You know the best part of this car is its minimal negative points. A hot hatch and a super performer on the roads, with all but praises for its durability and stability will go a long way in winning Maruti another laurel for a close to outstanding product.

For now I leave you with other images of this cool car!

 

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Bengaluru south – the big fight

Today is the great election day, atleast for Bengaluru south constituency. Four prominent candidates are participating this time, for the MP seats. But wait a minute, aren’t there only three prominent parties? The Congress, JDS and BJP? So who and why is there a fourth prominent candidate? Well Captain Gopinath of our very own yours truly cheap airline Air Deccan airline is contesting as an independent this time.

Lets have a look at the candidates in short and see what they really have in them to make it beneficial for us voters.

Krishna Byregowda – Congress

Krishna has crafted for himself a niche as a man responsible for development. As an erstwhile MLA who successfully won from Byatarayanapura, he has proved his might for working for his constituency. With a good educational background and enough exposure to life outside the country as well, Krishna is sure to lead politics in the right fashion. With his many supporters and his charm for canvassing, the young man is sure to be noticed among many circles in Bengaluru as a capable person strong enough to propel Congress and usher developmental programmes as well as more participation of youth.

 

Ananthkumar – BJP

While Ananth is not less popular, and has won more than once from Bangalore south in recent past, his agenda seems to be a bit unclear. He has varied interests portrayed as part of his manifesto, and his recent spat with Yeddy shows some cracks in the the party and some nonalignment with other people in his own party. Also his age compared to other party candidates and consistency issues in his agenda might work against him this time.

 

Prof. Radhakrishna – JDS

 

After drawing flak from the entire citizen crowd of Karnataka for the kind of performance JDS put up both in the coalition with Congress and with BJP, the JDS has sprung up in a new avatar with an educationalist as its candidate. Not much is known by me about Radhakrishna other than the fact that he is noted for educational skills, and also interests in art and culture. But the question is whether he can be of any significant influence for the constituency works, or for garnering the money required for the same in case a different party is in power in the centre. With Krishna Byregowda and Ananth in the fray, chances are pretty slim for JDS, considering the past brickbats earned by the party as well.

 

Capt. Gopinath – Independent

 

If someone in Bengaluru says they have not heard of Air Deccan, they must be fools. From a mere avionics man, to running a low cost airline business successfully, Gopi has proved that he has what it takes to get into a political high flyer status – his Kite Symbol. With perhaps the least amount of assets, and the least money spent on canvassing, he has done more of smart appearances rather than hard work to make his presence felt amongst the people. Considering his simplicity, corporate involvement, and will power to try out politics, one can be sure he would divide the vote share that would otherwise go to Congress and BJP atleast from the urban voters. Well ultimately he will have to align with one of these parties even if he wins. But the very fact that he won could be quite a nightmare for other parties who have had Bengaluru South as their stronghold for years. The winning chances are pretty slim though for Gopi, but his entrepreneurial spirit must not be discounted.

So the who will it be from Bengaluru south – if you ask my take it would definitely be Krishna Byregowda or Ananthkumar, while the other two fresh faces have a long way to go. So did I then vote for any of these two guys? Wait and find out!

The most criminal thing you can do is to NOT vote today. So get out go the election booth, and give your VOTE to anyone you think is idealistic for your liking. Its a keen contest and is well worth it.

Got comments, click on the comments section and talk to me!

Chinese items in Bengaluru, the untold story

There was a furore sometime back on using imported toys from China. These were meant to be unsafe for kids. NDTV had this report about these toys and how they have taken over the Indian market. What stumped me was the fact that even a 3 month baby teether had toxic levels of lead!

I am an avid buyer of Mee Mee products since I liked their products and the brand in particular. In one such instance in the Star Bazaar run by Tata group, I managed to bump into this water bottle.

I thought its not a toy as such, so it may not be harmful. Just turned it the other way and to my surprise found this statement!

It read “Carefully made in China for …. “ and I couldn’t hide the chuckle at the tactics adopted by plastic makers to still sell chinese stuff in our country. This was some sort of a practical joke which most often goes unnoticed! Well even if it doesn’t one cant do much about it due to an already existing disclaimer! Indians surely find ways of escaping even the toughest constraints don’t they?

 

The great Indian gadget purchase : Part II; Kodak 1093 Easyshare – found my match

In part one of this article, I had written about how I got the need to purchase yet another digital camera for specific purpose of video recording. In this post, I ll explain a few things about the purchase and the elements of the camera in much more detail for you to read and enjoy.

I reached Croma, knowing well that I need a digicam for as-less-as-possible value with good video recording. I had heard about High Definition video or HD video to a great extent in the last one year and in the same time, I had also worked extensively with applications using HD video content in my job. But what I least expected that some camera manufacturer would plonk in that capability into a digicam, about the size of ten credit cards packed as a bunch! And add to that least of all – the guy in question to be Kodak.

The sales representative was friendly enough to explain to me the various digicams present there in the mall, the same old (or new) Nikon Coolpixes, Sony, Canon powershots, or Olympus or Casios and needless to say the Kodaks. Now most of these cameras either were sleek, with 3x optical zoom lenses, but would not take good video or had 12x optical bulky lenses and still would not take good video. Remember that my definition of good now had translated to High Definition. Also remember that though you do have high definition capable LCD televisions today, NO ONE gives you a HD channel as a broadcast. That will have to wait atleast 3+ years in India by which time buying a HD Tv would be a formidable proposition. This however is not the case in countries like USA where channels like National Geographic are available in ultra sharp quality HD mode which makes viewing TV a different experience.

Having said this, I was not really impressed with any camera he showed me just because they were no different from the Sony handycam I had written about in terms of video recording abilities. Until he showed me THIS:

The Kodak 1093 IS is an ultra sleek camera . It works on SD memory based storage with a Hershey shaped lithium ion battery that packs some punch. AND IT DOES HD VIDEO RECORDING!!! Plus its a 10MP sensor which can give some real good prints!

The very form factor of this camera really delighted me and its great to know one of the first few photography companies like Kodak who were recently hurt badly due to competition heating up, followed on their philosophy of making EasyShare based cameras, have finally woken up to be the first. The first company to pack a HD video recording ability into a camera as small as this. Coming back to the form factor, a little bit of pictorial explanation of things in this camera:

The camera came with a 1GB card and a pouch, but I denied the pouch and settled instead for a 2GB card. Knowing very well that HD videos would take lot of space, I decided this deal is better.

Having said that the top portion of the camera has four buttons, all embedded neatly into the form factor, without any projection for Power (a blue blinking button), flash setting button, a mode button which would easily help you adjust modes for this camera, and finally the shutter click button (which hardly is recognizable unless you look closely)

The bottom portion has a battery and SD card compartment, a tripod mount, and a HDTV or easyshare dock adapter, all again neatly built in.On one side is the USB charging port (for both data and power!!) and the power adapter socket in case you use a separate 5V dc adapter from Kodak. The other side has no other ports and is clean!

And finally the big huge LCD on the backside with four buttons around a joystick control, one for playback of photos and videos, one for menu options, one for deleting a video or image and one for sharing the image using EasyShare. Also are buttons for using the 3x zoom for either wide or telephoto modes. The joystick is very usable, and so are the menu options. The mode menu gives you 22 different photography situations and also offers full manual control if you want to be in expert mode. All menu fonts are readable and very usable easily which makes this camera a breeze to handle!

The only drawback if at all I felt with this camera relates to two things, one – very less optical zoom, something I can live with, and two – the image quality is a bit soft in all Kodaks that I have seen – something also that I can live with! The best positives of this camera are great video recording in FULL HD (the next time you watch those Sony Bravia ads, ask the dealer whether its 1080 interlaced (I) or progressive (P), obviously that P being the real Full HD), extremely usable form factor and easy portability with SD compatibility.

Before I end this post, I will leave you with a video review of this camera. Hope you like it! The moral of the story is prioritize your needs and go for a camera satisfying those needs. And always remember, try avoiding using the same camera for both video and photo. Both modes are different and needs different types of cameras! But for Rs.9999/-, this Kodak is a steal considering that the Sony DCR-DVD 610E still does not do full HD video!