Try Windows phone 7 OS on Android or iphone

Ya, the post title is a little overstatement. You cannot literally install windows phone 7 OS on your android or iphone device. But you can try the basic features of it on your android or iphone/ipad device. You do not need to install the OS. You do not need to even install an app. Microsoft came up with a browser based simulator of their new OS. Just click this link in your phone to get a feel of it.

I liked the idea a lot. Its amazing. What else is a better way to give a taste of new OS to users using a different OS. I think this idea will bring down the resistence level of users to try a new OS. Traditonally approach will need the user have to buy a device to try out the OS. Or alteast try it in a store without actually buying. A different approach with much less resitance level could be to give an app which would simulate the OS. But this browser-based approach has almost no resistence from the user to try the new OS. I agree that the exposure to the functionality will be limited but atleast it gives a taste of it with just a click.

Kindle Fire's browser performance

One of the touted features of the new kindle fire is its 'silk' browser. It claims that it boosts the performance of the browser by routing the traffic through the amazon cloud where some of the pre-processing is done. Also webpage caching on the amazon cloud would improve the response times of websites. All of it looks good in theory. What about the reality ?

Anandtech.com did a indepth benchmark on the performance of the browser. The results say that browser does not live up to its claims. Talking about the good things first, the bandwidth requirements will reduce. Instead of making request to different sites and processing the raw data, the browser will make reqeust only to the amazon cloud. It will get back pre-processed data which is lean and mean. This is definitely an advantage for the mobile world as it will keep the data plan bills in check.

But what about the performance ? It does not improve a lot. In some cases, it will perform even worse. The browser has an option to turn on/off the feature of routing the web traffic via amazon cloud (accelerated page loading). On an average, it turns out that the page loads slower when the feature is on. Funny!. Hopefully amazon will improve this down the line.

Now let us put an evil hat. Do you smell some conspiracy ?. Why would amazon go through such a task of routing you web traffic via its cloud ? Just because amazon loves you so much and cares so much about your browsing speed ? May be it does. But will it do this for free ? May be not. So, what is their incentive ? If you did not guess it yet, its all your browsing data. Now, amazon knows what sites you browse and your likes/dislikes. It knows you!.

Limitations of kindle fire

Today Amazon released 3 new versions for its kindle device. A new kindle without keypad which is similar to the old one, a kindle with touch capability, and a kindle with color display and browser etc.  The kindle with the color display is called "kindle fire". These 3 devices are very competitively priced. $109, $139, $199 respectively.

Out of the kindles, 'kindle fire' is the one of particular importance. People are comparing the kindle fire to an ipad and other tables. While it is true to some extent, I would not place it parallel to the ipad or other tablets because it is little short of a tablets. I do not think that it is an ipad killer. I would say it is large and more functional ipod. You cannot make any calls, not even skype calls over internet from it as it does not have a mic. I think that this is a serious disadvantage. It does not support 3G for conent delivery but this could be expected in the near future. It is mainly a device where amazon content could be delivered (like the normal kindle).

To go a little more technical...The OS is android based. But, it is forked from the main android development tree and customized to look different from the regular android. So, we may not get all the new developments of android's new features. And coming to the worst part, you cannot download content from the android app store. You have to download from the amazon app store only. Saving grace is that amazon app store has a lot of popular apps which are in android market. You may miss some of your favorite apps.

So, one should know what they are getting for the price that they are paying. The following are the limitations of the kindle fire.

• Cannot make phone calls
• No camera
• No microphone
• No 3G
• No GPS
• Cannot download apps from android store.
• Only 8G memory without expansion slot
• Not so bad, but only 7-inch display

Which memory card to use for digital cameras

These days digital camera is a household gadget and more like a basic necessity. So, everyone ought to have a digital camera. When we are buying we invest so much time in researching which camera suits our requirement the best. Some go for DSLR, some go for big point-and-shoot, some prefer a compact one. I am sure that the decision is not easy as we are spoiled with choice. This article adds more to your camera buying woes.

Most people do not care which memory card they buy for the camera. If you become stingy and buy the cheapest one for a given capacity(say 4GB), don't blame anyone else other than you if your camera is very slow at taking pictures. Basically, I want to make the point that the memory card plays a role in how fast you can click pictures in your camera. Also don't get the impression that memory card is the only factor. You camera could also be the reason.

These days the digital cameras can shoot at higher and higher megapixel densities. Did you ever wonder what this megapixel rating means ? A higher megapixel camera means that the camera stores lot more information than its poorer cousin which has lesser megapixel rating. This extra information will be useful if we want to have large prints. I do not want to digress but I want to advice you not to run behind higher and higher megapixels. An 8MP camera can store enough information to print the image on an A4 sheet. How often do we even print ?

Anyway, coming to our main topic...In a higher megapixel camera, large image files are created for the pictures. After clicking a picture, its corresponding image file should be written to the memory card before the next picture can be taken. So, your memory card also should be fast so that time taken to write the image file is less. The memory cards are rated as class-1, class-6, class-10 depending on the speed. for e.g. class-10 means that it can write at a guaranteed speed of 10MB per sec. Look for which class memory card you are buying and if it suits your needs and your pocket can bear it.

Not every photographer needs a fast memory card. It depends on the type of photography he wants to do. For something like bird/wildlife photography the speed at which you can click is very important as you may miss the best moment in a split second. And these kind of photographers tend you use the camera in burst mode where the camera may shoot between 3-8 frames per second. In these kind of scenarios the role played by the memory cards takes a very prominent role.

I bought a DSLR camera and did good enough research on the memory cards also. This link is a nice benchmark of different memory cards. Finally, I bought a Transcend class-6 memory card.

Convertor vs Transformer: Save yourself from burning your valuble equipment

Most of you might be aware that there are generally two voltage levels followed by different countries. For e.g. 220v standard is followed by countries like India, UK etc. while 110v standard is followed by countries like US. The following article is relevant to you if you have bought electronic/electrical stuff from a country which follows one standard, but want to use it in a country with other standard. And more likely you will be reading this article if you had already bought an item and burnt it by not knowing that you should use a converter or transformer to make it work properly. It may also be the case that you used a converter or transformer but still burnt your device. Don't be ashamed, we both belong to the same community and there are many others.

Before telling if you should use a transformer or a converter, let me tell you that your device may work without any converter. Recent gadgets which are typically carried across the globe by the travellers are compatible with full range of voltage from 100v to 240v. They include mobiles, cameras, laptops, electric razors etc. But check the input voltage rating nonetheless. It should be printed something like "Input: 100-240v". The output voltage rating does not matter.

Now coming to the main point...You should be careful in choosing a converter or a transformer so that your device does not get fried. Most of you might be knowing from your electrical class that you will need a step-up transformer to increase the voltage and a step-down transformer to decrease the voltage. The output voltage of such a transformer should be compatible with the input voltage of your device. Having said that, you should know that there is a different type of devices called "converters" which also does the job of increasing/decreasing the voltage. "converter" is a loose word. They are more accurately called solid-state converters. They are also called SMPS converters. As opposed to the coil mechanism in transformers, converters use electronic circuits to change the voltage levels. The difference in the operation of transformers/converters may be suitable or not suitable for the device that you are using. A quick way to distinguish is that transformers are generally bulky and heavy, whereas solid-state converts are small and lightweight.

If I can to go into a little bit of technical details here, a transformer-based converter converts the voltage by elongating the sine wave of the AC current but still preserving the sine wave formation. On the other hand a solid-state based converts just chops off the sine wave to reduce the voltage, and hence the output current do not follow a sine wave formation. This kind of current is not compatible with all types of devices. But the pure sine wave form of current is compatible with most of the devices.

To summarize: The general rule of thumb is most of the electronic equipment (gaming consoles, DVD players, speakers, mobiles, etc) needs a transformer based converter. Whereas, electrical appliances like motor-based appliances, irons etc can work with solid-state converters. Transformer-based converters can be used for long operating hours whereas solid-state based converts are for short-term use (typically 1-2hrs). When in doubt, it is safer to use transformer-based converters. Also make sure that the wattage(W) rating is compatible. It is safer if the wattage of converter is atleast 25% more than wattage requirement of your device.



Pointers: link1, link2, link3