The Notion Ink Adam

Love them or hate them, but you cannot ignore Apple's products. The Ipod, Iphone and the Ipad have not just become iconic products of this decade, but have redefined the industry and become synonymous with the product itself. I wouldn't be exaggerating if I say music player = iPod and tablet = iPad. Apple has die hard fanboys, who swear by its products and have an almost blind adoration for the  person largely behind them, Steve Jobs. Few companies or people evoke such strong emotions or reactions as Apple and Steve jobs.

Your Electronic Life as Apple sees it!

After the spectacular success of the Ipad, it is natural that other companies want to have their share of the 'tablet' pie. But competing with the likes of Apple is no mean task, though lots of companies have tried, and failed (Zune, anyone?). Interestingly Google has succeeded quite a bit in arresting the Iphone's free-rise, by developing the android mobile platform, and giving it away, for free! Android is already the dominant smartphone platform in recently sold devices, and 2nd in place behind the symbian considering all existing smartphone devices.

Smartphone market - all devices,  end of 2010. Source: Gartner, via Wikipedia

Google could do it because they have the resources, and the engineers to take Apple head on. But have you heard about the company Notion Ink? It is a Bangalore based company started by a bunch of IITians and some MBAs and have developed the Adam tablet. It has a lot of features which Ipad ignored; like Flash, USB ports, multitasking (runs Android), a Camera (swiveling one at that) and HDMI ports. Its screen is better (Pixel Qi), the battery lasts longer and it arguably has a better processor (the Nvidia Tegra 250). And did I mention its cheaper? Seems too good to be true, doesn't it?

The Notion Ink ADAM - a first of its kind (as claimed by the company)

The company did have its fair share of troubles, as you would expect of a penniless start-up trying to take on the might of the majors. Their investors walked out on them some months ago, and reportedly their new investors are Reliance, one of the biggest conglomerates of India. They had demoed the tablet almost a year back at the CES 2010, but took almost a year to reach production quality. The company was highly secretive about its features, specifications and did not reveal true pictures of the tablet, releasing instead only mock-ups through the blog maintained by the company's CEO, Rohan Shravan (link). This lead to suspicion amongst the tech bloggers and community at large with some going so far as to call it vaporware. 

Rohan retaliated by posting videos of the tablet in action, one video per day, which ended all doubts and speculation about the existence of the product at least. The pre-orders have already sold out. The tablet no doubt looks promising, the only worry I (and most analysts) have is whether the Adam and the company itself can live up to the hype. Meeting huge production deadlines, customer support, logistics, feature development, rolling out updates, all these can take a toll on the company. The CEO seems to be a smart person, but I only hope the company won't be a victim of its own success.

I hope for the sake of the tablet market and the Indian tech industry, the Notion Ink be a stupendous success. Wish them all the best!

In Mumbai

As tradition has it, I am back in Mumbai for this year's Christmas - New year festive season. For the 6th year in a row, I am spending this time of the year in Mumbai. Four years of my college and two years of working, I was never at home during Diwali or Holi, or Ganesh Chaturthi for that matter, but I am always here during Christmas and New Year; simply because I have had holidays every single time.

As I look back over the years, I realize how much I have changed. Christmas time gives me a fixed point, some sort of rigidity to the timeline of my life, where I can look back and recollect over my last year. At the same time last year, I was thinking vastly different things, my priorities were different. As I said in some earlier post and repeat it here, life changes.

For the last three years now, all I was doing this vacation was preparing for the XAT, and I must do the same now this year too. Wish me luck!

Two of my pics from Seoul below:

Me at City Hall Subway Station, Seoul

Me at Namdaemun Market, Seoul

Wish you a very happy new year!

Seoul Curry

 

 Seoul - Infinitely yours

Recently I had been to South Korea, one of the four 'Asian tigers'. Specifically, I had been to the very live and bustling city of Seoul, the place where the Miracle on the Han river took place. This event refers to the phenomenal economic success of the Seoul city in particular, and South Korea in general in the last 3-4 decades.  It is a story of the epic rise of a country from being war-ravaged  in the 1950s to becoming an awe inspiring, sky touching, electronics producing giant. A GDP growth chart is suffice to astonish us with the sheer growth rate and consistency with which South Korea has recorded its economic growth.

South Korea's GDP (PPP) Growth from 1911 to 2010 - Source Wikipedia

I was in Seoul for almost one and a half months, working for a Korean customer mainly to initiate them about our product and set up their development environment. I lived in a hotel for the first week and then moved to a service apartment for the remainder of my stay. The service apartment was compact and clean, had a double bed, TV, AC, heating, kitchenette with a fridge, hot plates and microwave. I had a very high speed internet connection, which I (ab)used thoroughly :P. 

Its surprising that living in a different country actually taught me more about my country, as I could contrast the two countries quite nicely. I saw India in a new light, and am glad for this that I went to South Korea. I say this because at one point in time there was a significant chance of me not going.

I am listing some random observations about Seoul below, in no particular order, just as they come to my head now. Its been more than a month since I am back.

1. Seoul is a very clean city by Indian standards. Most notably, no candy wrappers, empty guthka packets, paan spits, or paper and plastic junk. However, cigarette butts abound. 
2. Almost every adult male smokes. Heavily. Not good at all.
3. Almost every adult male drinks. Most are moderate drinkers. South Korea has one of the the highest per capita drinking rates in the world .
4. Surprisingly, I hardly found anyone fat in Korea, leave aside obese.
5. The complete city is very handicap-friendly. All the pavements have inclines, all staircases have elevators. Even foot over bridges.
6. The Seoul subway system is very extensive, covering ALL parts of the city as well as the satellite towns and outskirts.It is the dire need of the hour for all Indian metropolitan cities to have such a system. Only New Delhi to some extent can claim to have such a metro. Mumbai has a fast and efficient 'local' train system but its stretched beyond limits.
7. Bus system in Seoul is also very good. Buses are segregated according to the route length and area and marked with different colours accordingly.
8. Even with a good bus system, its very difficult for a foreigner to use it because of the lack of English signs on the bus and bus stops. I couldn't make head or tail of which bus to take to go where. The subway though has excellent navigational facilities for the English speakers.
9. As obvious from the previous point, proficiency in English is lacking severely throughout the country. Most people can actually read the English alphabet, but struggle to coin together a complete and grammatically correct sentence. Thankfully, everywhere Arabic numbers are used, so its not a problem at the checkout counter of the local supermarket.
10. Hong Kong and Incheon airports are way too cool. India doesn't have a  single airport that can match up to either of the airports.

A long and rambling post comes to an end.  My current favourite song - 'Tu Jaane Na (Unplugged)' from the movie Ajab Prem ki Gazab Kahani. Artist - Kailash Kher.

 

Sau gram Zindagi

While on the bus the other day, I passed a spot where an accident had taken place. Usually most people stand up and crane their neck to get a glimpse of the scene. I am not one of them. I am sensitive in this sense, preferring  to move on rather than have a disturbing image affixed in my brain. Probably some poor guy must be lying in a pool of blood with many parts of the body broken and writhing in pain, or worse, dead. One split second before the accident, all was well and then Bang! His life just changed forever.

This just underscores how fickle life is. We fret and fiddle and plan and arrange, and then just out of the blue  everything changes. All that we think changes. All plans change. Life changes. This does not mean we should not think about our future - that would be plain stupid. I just want to say how, in particular cases, the best laid plan can go awry.

In case you are wondering if I am smoking pot, be assured that I ain't doing no such thing. Its just that I saw the movie Guzaarish some days back. The protagonist in the film is a magician who is afflicted with paraplegia after a complex magic trick goes horribly wrong. He spends the next 14 years on a bed, cared for by his devoted nurse, guided by his able doctor, and hosting a radio show. He becomes the inspiration of thousands through his show, and is considered a survivor and a winner. And then one fine day he requests his lawyer to file an euthanasia plea in court. Initially nobody understands why he does this, as everybody feels that he is not a person to do such a thing. But as the movie progresses, we understand his motivation, and are able to empathize with him. The lower court rejects his plea, but  they appeal to a higher court. I will not give out the ending here - but will say that its poignant and moving.

I particularly like the song 'Sau gram zindagi' from this movie. I take the liberty to copy the lyrics of the first stanza here:

 Thodi si meethi hai
Zara si mirchi hai
Sau gram zindagi yeh
Sambhaal ke kharchi hai

You can listen to it online here