'E'xhileration: Nokia E7

This post comes a full two months late, after all the fizz and sparkle has evidently died down. I've been meaning to "preview" it for quite a while now but time wouldn't let me *smirk*

Bhaiya bought the E7 in March(before it even released in India) for about 30k. The primary motivation for the purchase was the form factor, hardware specs, processor and the addition of a slider keyboard.

Nokia, refusing to let go of it's favorite platform tried with all it's might to revive the smartphone euphoria so brutally stolen by the likes of HTC. It's first attempt was the N8 which was a welcome change. The totally new tapered edge design was awesome and the crisp clearblack display looked to take on other establsihed display technologies.

The new E7 is an improvement in the right direction....in design atleast. The software aspect is still a mixed bag.

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The device

The weight is a bit on the higher but feels great anyway. The phone is almost the same thickness as N8 even with the slider which is commendable. The build quality is awesome too. Hardware specs are dime a dozen online but here's a link anyway: link

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The slider is a bit awkward the first few times. I couldn't get it open with my fingers slipping over it. The keys however are very responsive and the rubbery feel adds to usability. Tactile feedback is barely there though.

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The screen is crisp and bright with great colors, text rendered sharp and the blacks dark. I can't do a comparative study here but this is good enough for me.

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Connectivity options are aplenty with support for USB devices, an HDMI output, a 3.5mm socket(standard these days), and a micro USB port for charging and data. Wifi, 3G radio, GPRS and bluetooth come standard.

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The battery is non-replaceable. Though it saves on space and makes the phone slimmer,the 1200maH capacity leaves a lot to be desired. It would'nt have been too difficult bumping it up to 1500maH.

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The camera has a 8mp sensor which might as well been on a basic phone. The pictures are mostly washed out, underexposed and have so much noise... you'd think you used some art effect by mistake. Videos are a saving grace though and the HD
reslution is good enough for casual videos.
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Symbian!

The homescreen is highly customisable and there are 3 screens to arrange our apps in. Navigation is great too with crisp icons that look great on the clearblack screen. However, take a look back at the older symbian phones and there isn't much difference. No froyo or mango like updates for symbian.

Nokia has been facing flak for not doing anything to revamp it's dated OS and there was even a time when biggies like Eldar and Engadget refused to review the N8 because it was still on symbian(retreating after they realised what they'd missed). The OS on this one does not do much either. Although there aren't any usability issues as such... the plain vanilla styling and wait for it... APPS is what makes it difficult to accept. Iphone and android phones have thousands and thousands of apps for every age and genre. The Ovi store on the other hand is still very nascent and with the recent Nokia- Microsoft smartphone talks...it may well end up dead soon.

Goes without saying...it's the OS that brings down this potentially deadly competitor to the big I. Throw in a Windows phone 7 on the same hardware and we'd have a winner on our hands!

The new design is awesome and we want more of these. Not the operating system, however.

Some more pictures:

Note: All photos shot with Sony Alpha 200 with 18-100mm and 50mm 1.7 minolta lens. DIY thermocol box used.

Thrifty QWERTY

GSMArena acknowledges:

"Normally, phones like the X2-01 stay under our review radar as they rarely excite much interest in our readers. However, the Nokia X2-01 is special. Its Daily Interest rating has hit 35% at the time of writing this. That’s an impressive number for a low-end handset – it equals the daily interest rating of the Google Nexus S and the Motorola DEFY combined"

Razzu managed to get himself one of these after years of frustration typing on T9 and going wary of using sub 2k phones. Now since iOS or android was never an option(for now), I pointed him to this cheap marvel.

Please note this phone was released almost an year ago and there are numerous trusted reviews on this device. This post is an attempt to "review", from my point of view, some noteworthy features in as less text as possible using mostly pictures(and a grainy video soon!)


Some features

Woah!
Quad-band GSM/EDGE connectivity
2.4" 256K-color display
Series 40 UI, 6th edition
Stereo FM radio with RDS
Bluetooth 2.1 (with EDR)
Standard microUSB port
microSD card slot
3.5mm audio jack- Good audio quality
PRICE!

Bleh!
No Wifi/3G(just wishing)
Crap camera
No USB charging


From afar, this phone can be easily mistaken for the costlier Nokia business phones. Only when held in hand does it really come down to earth: a fairly light plastic chassis and creaking sounds here and there.

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The size is just right for use with one or two hands. The buttons give good tactile feedback and I especially like that huge recessed center button on the D-pad. BB users will probably laugh now.

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The back is smooth and bare save for the camera(duh!). With a 0.3mp pixel count this camera is as good as none.

Nokia could've skipped it altogether(In any case it was a smart decision, it's selling like hot cakes)

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The battery is a standard BL-5C, it's so popular chinese vendors are supplying stuff with the same or similar batteries.

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The conveniently located 3.5mm socket is a blessing. The music player complements third party earphones quite well with it's decent music playback, but the supplied ones aren't that bad either.

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The device may be too "light" for some. If you feel the weight of a phone should be substantial for a good "feel", this is not for you.

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The QWERTY keyboard takes a little time getting used to.

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The operating system is a tweaked Series 40. Quite intuitive and fairly easy to navigate. The now standard Opera mini does a good job of rendering pages and the sweet horizontal orientation of the screen makes for a good browsing experience(as long as the GPRS is kind- WiFi is long shot for a phone at this price )

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Conclusion

A very good phone for the price. A no brainer for easy texting or browsing - on a budget.

Samsung Galaxy Tab: Video Overview

Bhaiya got himself a new toy last month. Samsung's foray into the hot-and-happening tablet market, Galaxy Tab is a refreshing new device from the giant . Samsung's forte has always been heavy marketing and they left no stone unturned in India(rotten Apple snubbed us, remember?). There are network packages too with Aircel doing well. I've been meaning to play with it for a while but with the CEED exam coming, I thought better of it.

This is not a review per se. Just some observations by a rookie. There are too many reviews out there by too many biggies. This is kindof a like a "local" review but better than "kya tablet hai baap!!!"

The device. First thing that strikes is the solid build. The weight is just perfect and the plastic top notch. the four touch sensitive buttons on the botton are responsive but the glass on the front bezel is a fingerprint magnet. Steve Jobs called 7 inch tablets "Dead on Arrival"...to hell with him! I think 7 inch is just the right size to pack it away in a jacket, backpack or even a purse. Try doing that with an iPad. The back is a glossy white with some text on the bottom. I'd have preferred black anyday.

To review a device, it's applications are taken into consideration. Tablets are a problem. There are no applications for tablets that make them indispendible. Not that I know of anyway. So I made this list of things tablets do better and tried them on the Tab:

- Videos: One word. Awesome. Though the format suppport needs improvement(one FW update away) there isn't really much to complain here. Youtube on my 2mbps wifi had trouble with HD but the videos played fine. The 1024 x600 screen is a a tad on the lower side but for a 7 inch screen it's good enough.

- Sketching: Still looking for a tab optimised App from the appstore so watch this space.

- Browsing: Browsing is a mixed bag. The inbuilt browser does a pretty neat job but flash heavy content is laggy. I was thinking it was my connection that was at fault but other biggie reviewers who said the same thing can't be wrong.

- Gaming: Android has some very good games for android phones but it narrows down condesiderably when it comes to optimised apps for tab's 7 inch screen. Angry birds was wicked fun on the Tab. Need For Speed plays awesome too. The control looked a little too rigid but overall it is a fun experience(watch the gameplay on my overview video)


I only got about a day to play with this baby so I'll keep it short. Bhaiya himself told me a few issues he's faced with the device which I'm listing down under pros and cons.

Pros:
- Compact with great build.
- Responsive, bright touch screen.
- Latest Android OS.
- GSM SIM slot.

Cons:
- Needs Samsung kies to enable USB mass tranfer mode.
- PDMI Connector for charging and Data(not very easy to find).
- Some apps don't scale.
- Battery nonreplacable.

I've also made a simple little overview video with text overlays for my observations. For the narration track I used Paradise Lost my M6 :-)

Dynamite...nuff said

Movie reviews are dime a dozen these days. Some good, some bad.... and some paid. But let's face it, everytime a new movie's released we hit up our favorite review site to get a heads up. Afterall we should get our money's worth, right? I have my own method: for older movies I check the imdb score, rotten tomatoes rating and a few established reviewers(I hate masand types btw).

Last time I posted a review here was bollywood movie "Striker". First up, my blog hits don't run into the millions, so expecting visitors flocking to my page for a review is foolish. My intention is to kindof soft persuade my friends into watching it by posting a review here. One of my best friends thinks I'm weird because he ends up sleeping everytime he sees a movie I suggested. He's yet to understand that he's not over the cliched romance or actions flicks yet. Anything arty or offbeat and zzzz, he's bored.

So with a view on "suggesting" a good movie for my handful of readers.... here's my review on the 2004 movie Napoleon Dynamite.

The plot revolves around a high school nerd who for some unknown reason, is named Napoleon Dynamite. Set in a remote American town in Idaho, the movie is about the life of this nerdy outcast clad in tucked in undersized T shirt and an elastic pyjama. A pair of spectacles completes the look. He befriends a mexican exchange student, Pedro and the rest of the story is
better seen than discussed. There's nothing much to it, it's a simple plot. But how it builds up to a nostalgically sweet finale is what makes this movie stand out. I wasn't aware of the cult status this movie enjoys- Hell, Idaho celebrated a national festival in it's honor for a few years. Don't want to spoil the fun for my friends who're going to watch it(I can give you my copy any time, gimme a call), but one song to the end of the movie made me sick with nostalgia... almost to the point of breaking into tears. This endeth my 9 line review.

Watch it

And oh... my aforementioned friend here need not watch. The movie's pace is too slow for you buddy.

Image source: http://images1.fanpop.com

My first Review!

My review of the Canon S90 point and shoot camera was published by www.shutterskills.com
Shutterskills is an Indian website dedicated to photography.

Here's the review.

Looking forward to writing more :-)

HD on wthD : 2012 in Telugu

Dad and I went to Bandarugudem(Damn, I'm not sure about the spelling!) to apply for a new broadband
connection. As expected the old, dusty relic that was the BSNL office was deserted save for a cleaner who told us the staff was 'out', while the office was open. Wow, we'd come 15kms for this.

On the bike I was contemplating asking him to stop at Venu for a quick meal when he pulled into the parking lot of... Venkateshwara theatre! I looked up at the poster and woah...2012, in telugu!
We bought a couple of balcony tickets, the movie was already on and we hurried into the um.. auditorium.

To fully aprreciate a movie one needs three most important elements: Picture, Sound and Ambience. For picture we had a yellow(seriously) screen with ugly streaks. For sound we had blaring subwoofers that were customized for bass heavy telugu numbers. The guy to my left was texting on his chinese smartphone, while a couple behind me talked. Cigerette smoke from somewhere summed up the ambience part. My seat had a beverage holder stuffed with empty popcorn packs, cigerette stubs and whatnot. I tried to focus on the screen...
Now the movie. 2012 is all about visuals. Tsunamis, volcanoes, winds, earthquakes and all kinds of CG mayhem I was so eagerly looking forward to. Who'd have thought I'd end up watching it here! One word to sum up the visual experience is "f..d", the awful screen completely ruined it for me. There's more.
All dialogue was in telugu, not that I donno how to speak the language. The speed was too much for me.
Though occasionally lines like this came up : "Door close kaataledu! Hydraulics jam ayipoiyayi." meaning "The door's not closing! The hydraulics are jammed" So door,jam, hydraulics and jam were the keywords that did the translation for me. There were other pure telugu words I couldn't discern. And knowing Roland Emmerich was never good at portraying emotions, the telugu dialogues sort of killed all that he tried to show. Don't "Say anything" John cusack, you look better that way!

I didn't sit long enough to see the little girl Lily say, "inka Pull-ups vaddu Daddy!!!"
I'd had it.

Inglourious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino. This guy is queer. Of course he's up there among the greatest Directors but man, why the extreme violence?
Ok I am not into his movies. Saw Kill Bill and Pulp Fiction and that's about it but Inglourious Basterds, his latest is the most sickening movie I've seen to date barring a few other psychotic ones like Irreversible, City of God by other even sinister Directors.

Review

The story is set around 1941 in Nazi occupied france. The first scene is pure torture. I sat on the edge of the seat the whole time. The tension is palpable. Definitely Tarantino. Then the movie moves on to ...well... the real QT material.

Enter the Inglorious Basterds, a feared group of american jewish soldiers whose only goal is to KILL NAZIs. Their style- Ambush Nazi soldiers, chop of the victims'
scalps, send one survivor home.

The most disturbing part however was the baseball bat scene. Eric Roth playing Donny "the bear jew" beats the brains(literally) out of a Nazi Soldier. I read on some forums that this scene was met with laughter and applause in some countries. Where I saw the movie(INOX Hyderabad), there were only gasps of shock. I must tell you I've seen a fair amount of violence in Indian films but this scene is so utterly realistic it made me cringe. There is one scene where Brad Pitt brutally tortures a lady by poking his finger in a fresh bullet wound in her leg. A couple of girls walked out after this scene.

The screenplay was a little too long for my taste. Sure the story had to develop that way but considering the not-very-impressive climax, I found it hardly engaging.
And what's with Brad's accent? Sounded worse than his pikey accent in 'Snatch'. Great performance by Christopher Waltz as the enigmatic but dangerous Nazi colonel
Lande. His expressions had me in splits sometimes. Shosanne played by Melanie Laurent is great. Watching her getting killed(Sorry for the spoiler) by a Nazi felt really bad.

The climax is spontaneous and is over before you know it. Susanne gets her revenge. Eric Roth and his friend have fun fragging Ze germans and wrap it up with
dynamite charges and blow everything including themselves to smithereens. Thats a bingo!

The only scenes that will stay with you for a while are the opening sequence(brilliant), the baseball bat scene(horrible) and the one where Shosanne gets killed(sad).

Despite the aforementioned quirks, the movie sort of grows on you. The violence seems justified considering the atrocites Nazis commited. The picture is great and an oscar nomination is imminent. Movies seldom make me think. Saw it yesterday I still can't take it off my mind.

Go watch it

A great movie at last!

Movies on Extra Terrestrials are always fun. Alien(1979) was outright freaky and scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. The eery atmosphere and the scary Aliens(By god they were ugly!) made for a movie that is still considered a classic in the horror genre. Predator(1987) was yet another great movie which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as a military mercenary fighting a sophisticated Alien being. Alien vs Predator combined these two aliens to try cashing in money(which it didn't). We've had quite a few movies on Aliens, some flops and some successful.

District 9 created quite a ruckus even before release. Creative billboards were put up at various places that elicited positive responses. I saw the trailer and noticed two things: First, the movie was shot in documentary style. Second, the plot seemed to have have been based on the Roswell incident. I was not very excited as movies with dumb plots and massive overdoses of special effects are dime a dozen these days. I expected this movie to be no different. I was wrong.

This movie meets all expectations and goes further.
The premise: An alien spaceship reaches earth,loses its navigation systems and hovers lifelessly above Johannesberg. The aliens are provided shelter which is actually a shabby refugee camp. The ETs slowly start to get out of hand,the public is miffed. When they start to get on everyone's nerves, a private military organisation, MNU is called in to relocate the aliens. The rest of the story is one hell of a ride. The right twists and turns keep you on the edge of your seat. The performances are very believable and the camera work commendable. The aliens could have been designed better. They look more like humans stripped of skin with some added organs to give them that OOTW look.

some critics are blasting it for "racial insensitivity" and stuff. wtf? To hell with them.

****
Highly Recommended

Hurt Locker hurts

I never paid much attention to the Iraq war. US was doing what it did best(mess up things). some directors thought they'd make movies out of it. There they go again, I thought. The Battered hero waving the striped flag and all. I saw 'The hurt Locker' and realised how grossly mistaken I was. Iraqi citizens and American soldiers are at the recieving end of the whole mess that is Iraq War. No day goes without a bomb blast in Iraq. Car bomb,truck bomb,human bomb...

The story follows the life of an elite bomb disposal squad in Iraq. The movie uses documentary style camera work that lends a frighteningly real look to the movie. Even the bomb explosions are real! Jeremy Rimmer replaces Guy Pearce who gets killed in a failed EOD mission.His tactics don't go down too well with his team member, Anthony Mackie who even contemplates killing him citing a 'detonator misfire'. The young Brian Geraghty is shown as a rookie with not much combat experience. All actors play their parts flawlessly, especially Jeremy rimmer who plays his part with precision(he worked with a real EOD team for the movie).The iraqis are played by actual War refugees. The whole movie was shot in Jordan very close to the Iraqi border Had it not been for Ralph Fiennes and guy Pearce in guest roles I'd have actually believed the whole thing as true!

Although there are quite a few tense moments in the movie, the one where Jeremy finds a whole web of IEDs shook me. The damage that can be done with that kind of ammo...

The last war movie I really liked was 'Saving Private Ryan' with the most spot on depiction of Normandy Invasion. This movie makes it(but does not displace SPR) to my favorites list.

Great Watch.

Review:Love Aaj Kal

I'd promised myself I won't watch a movie unless it's declared a hit by word of mouth. The reviews can be decieving. The media generated hype got the better of me and off I ran to see 'Love aaj kal'.
Saif and Deepika, both are not very high in my list of favorites but Saif's dialogue delivery is something I always look forward to. The story starts with Saif and Deepika meeting in an elevator, falling in love and breaking up...in the first 10 minutes. Wierd,na? Whatever.
Then they separate and promise to keep in touch. Then those cravings and all we're so familiar with creep in,apna gloomy Saif happens to meet Rishi Kapoor who narrates his 1960s romance. Frankly I found nothing retro about that flashback thing. But credit to the director for giving us the really beautiful Harleen who happens to be a brazilian model,Gisele Monteiro! No wonder she didn't feature in the credits.
The story is simple,straight forward but not really path breaking. Masand got it right this time,it's nowhere near memorable. And what's bothering Saif? Why the stiff acting?
I have to admit that it's better than the previous bollywood debacles like Singh is king and others. Atleast the story makes a little sense.

I am not a bollywood fan and so not very experienced but I know a good movie when I see one. This one manages to make the grade.

(Picture source: www.upperstall.com)

It's been a week since I got my Panasonic LZ8 Digital Camera. I have used it extensively indoors and to be frank I am a little dissapointed with the performance. The photos are too noisy for my liking. I'd expected much more.
The outdoor performance may make up(I'm counting on it).

Review:
My first observation when I first held the camera was that it is chunky. Way too chunky actually, considering the uber slim cameras companies are rolling out these days. It weighs almost 120gms with the batteries.
The boxy look howewer has it's advanteages as in case of the handgrip which is nicely designed. The camera is strictly ok in the looks department.

A quick look at the specs:

-8.1 effective Megapixels
-32 mm lens with 5x optical zoom
-2.5-inch LCD with 230,000 dots resolution
-Optical Image Stabilizer
-ISO sensitivity up to 6400
-9-Point Autofocus with Face Detection
-11 shooting modes including Intelligent Auto Mode
-Program, Shutter-Priority, Aperture-Priority and Manual Exposure Modes
-20MB Internal Memory ,SDHC card Support

The 32 mm equivalent lens gives a wider view compared to cameras in the same category. The telephoto end extends upto 160mm. The optical image stabiisation works flawlessly though it has it's limitations like when using full zoom. The LCD is 2.5 inch with good viewing angles and the easy to use menu system complements it nicely. The most noteworthy feature of this camera is that it provides PASM mode which is hard to find in the segment. It provides full freedom to the user on Aperture and shutter control. There are various focussing modes and even a provision for custom setting of white balance which is commendable. The continuous burst mode is fun to use. I shot twenty shots straight in 2MP mode and the camera didn't slow down. High speed photography is wicked fun with this cam. check out my older posts for samples. Starry sky mode is one more noteworthy scene mode seldom seen elsewhere.

Now the brickbats.Noise is simply too high in indoor shots,even at ISO 100! I don't know if it's a production fault but it's very annoying. I took some shots from my balcony of nearby buildings and tress and they came out fine. I'll do some further study on the noise issue later. Next, the camera uses only two compression modes(others use three). I'd have loved to see a RAW shooting on this one(I know it's asking too much). The flash performance is questionable too.

All in all,a great point and shoot camera with incredible manual control. Noise is my only problem with this camera so using ISO higher than 400 is out of the question.
Hope someone writes a CHDK like program for panasonic cameras. If that happens, I bet all other cameras are doomed.

Love Actually

img source:www.bayimg.com

Film:Love Actually


I'm into romance movies now and got hold of a few good ones recently. Love Actually is a 2003 romance/comedy about the lives of a wide variety of individuals at christmas time.

The movie starts with a Hugh Grant voiceover about how love is everywhere(I don't agree with him).

In all their are 9 stories in the movie which I've categoried under good and bad.

-------Good-------

Billy Mack and zoe -- This story about an aging rocknroll legend Billy Mack and his 'stout' manager Zoe is very likeable

Juliet,Peter and Mark -- Juliet and Peter are married. Peter's best friend Mark is a silent guy who secretly loves Juliet.

Harry,Karen and Mia -- Wait I've seen this before. Salaam-E-ishq I think.Bollywood will never learn.Strictly ok.

Sarah and Carl -- Sarah loves karl. Karl loves Sarah. Sarah's got an ill brother so they can't ...u knw

------Bad--------


Jamie and Aurelia -- oh,cmon in India we have a different Genre altogether for this kinda crap.

David and Natalie -- Hugh Grant looks great as the prime minister but his story does not.

Daniel and Sam -- Liam Neeson longs for Claudia Schiffer while his 12 year old son is in 'love' with his american classmate.gimme a break.

Colin and the girls -- Colin(god of $%#) goes to the US in search of a girlfriend and gets four! Elisha cuthbert included! Yes of course it's America,but four?

John and judey -- Better not talk about it. Sad I saw the uncut version.



To sum up,the movie is actually watchable.

Run and u'll never escape...

Like I said before I need distractions during examinations and what better way to spend(waste) time than movies.
I opened IMDB and scanned the top 250 list.
Bored that I was I decided to go for Cidade de Deus(City of God),a Brazilian movie by Fernando Meirelles on gang warfare and drugs.

First things first. I didn't like it. Car chases,gun fights, stunts are all fine, but this movie has violence that can make your stomach churn. We have a gangster who's just caught two little kids about eight years in age,stealing his dope. He shoots one in the heart and the other in the leg so that he can tell the others. Outright disgusting. Drugs,booze and violence(truckloads of it) make this movie. Of course there is this story of the buddng photgrapher who's seen it all. The streets of brazil, he sweaty,unkempt gangs,muggings,killings,deals -hell,
can this be happening for real? apparently it is - and a lot worse at that. The movie does not show a burning tire excution. Thank God.

City of God is actually a city that god forgot about and the devil took over.
Ok, enough ranting. Actually the movie is beautifully shot with excellent camerawork. the story is OK too.It won some 45 awards and is featured in some very prominent lists including top 100 movies of all time by TIME. It's just that I am not into 'reality' movies. I'd rather watch Matrix. After all movies are for entertainment, let's leave the real stuff to Nat Geo.

Sony Ericsson K770i : a very late review

I am a gadget freak, but I don't have many gadgets to boast of. I have a small collection of daily essentials that keep me going. There are some people who change gadgets on a weekly basis. I can't afford such luxury and I don't like it either.

So here's my Sony Ericsson k770i. My uncle brought this or me from Saudi Arabia for 770 riyals, roughly Rs 11,000. I haven't seen this model anywhere else in India yet. I guess it wasn't launched here.

Here's a quick look at the specs:

- 3.2 mp camera
- 3G compatible, i donno the version
- 1.8 inch 262k color screen
- Music player(walkman ver.1)
- Truffle brown color
- Blutooth with A2DP
.
.
.



I've used it for a full 4months now and I find the phone exceptional.
It looks very sleek and sobre,the brown colors lends it an expensive feel.
The 3.2 mp camera takes exceptional shots but the white LED is wasted.
Night shots turn out noisy almost everytime but the overall image quality is way better than the competitors,thats for sure.
K770i also comes equipped with secondary call camera which is u as of now useless as there is no (affordable) 3G service in India. it serves well as a mirror though.

the call quality is great but the backplate heats up during long calls and charging.
Text messaging is very easy and the keypad very responsive.

The proprietary connector has already started giving me problems. hope they do away with it. Bluetooth is a good alternative for data transfer.

All in all a very capable camera phone. There are some quirks but not a big problem.

UPS
-looks
-camera(It's even got a manual cover)
-keypad

DOWNS
-connector
-heats up a lil bit
-music quality limited(crap earphones)

woh weekends

It's saturday. I used to spend weekends hanging out with my friends,but that was long ago.
A movie at Prasads,Biryani at prince,a delicious lassi and ice cream for dessert. Why aren't going out now? The last time I remember going to a movie was in the last semester. My friends seem to have grown up- into uncles.Two years ago we used to look for excuses to meet. "Abey kal second sat hai,movie chaltay hai,night out kartey hai". As if one movie was not enough we used to watch 3 rented CDs in a row. In manuguru we used to go to the nearby river to chill out.
All that has changed. "I guess everyone's trying to move on" a friend quotes.
Sure as hell they are.

One thing's for sure- everyone's got new friends.Of course everyone make friends in a long course such as engg -but not me. I never thought it necessary. Or maybe I am too much of an a@# to have friends.

change is the only constant and I found it the hard way. The worst part is there's one more year to go.

can't wait to see what's in store.

scary...nothingmore

I was browsing random articles on wikipedia today when I came across "The raven" by Edgar Allan Poe.
I am no poetry fan and the only poems I remember(and like) are "stopping by the woods...","the brook" , "the road not taken" to name a few,which were of course part of our syllabus.
The sheer strength of the poem coupled with it's supernatural theme blew me away. I wonder why I hadn't heard of it before.
This is the poem that introduced to the world a genius that was edgar allan poe.
his mystical and scary stories scare me even today. I read them as a kid and "the fall of the house of usher" and "the black cat" are still fresh in my mind.
Not that I understood them fully, The style of narration was not very easy to comprehend but they were scary nevertheless.

Here's an excerpt from the poem:

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -
Only this, and nothing more.'

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore -
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore -
Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
`'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door -
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; -
This it is, and nothing more,'

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
`Sir,' said I, `or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you' - here I opened wide the door; -
Darkness there, and nothing more.
.
.
. "

Mera Mast Transport System

I went to Sri Chaitanya College,Miyapur today to meet my sister Saba. She's doing her second year of inter,EAMCET stream.

My bro and I went on MMTS upto hafizpet,from lakdikapul. This was my first trip on it and the ride was wonderful. I saw Hyderabad Suburbs today in a completely different perpective.Who said MMTS is a failed venture. There was decent crowd and some compartments were even filled to capacity.

I was very apprehensive about going because my last trip(in car) was not very comfortable. But this trip proved to be rather enjoyable.
Saba and her friends are doing good. Some problems with the faculty but that's normal.

I'll upload the pics in my next post.

Back to the past

Yug badla badla hindustan....

Remember this catchy tune? The theme music of "YUG", a TV show aired on DD during the 1990s.
Back when I was a kid I was oblivious to the actual content of these shows but some things like that lovely Rasna Ad or "miley sur mera..." somehow got into my long term memory.

Thanks to the internet, I found most of those videos on ddnational.blogspot.com
Watching these videos makes me nostalgic.

I also found all the episodes of my favorite Disney show "Talespin" on youtube. How I enjoyed it as a Kid !
Also in my list are Duck Tales and Aladdin.

I am not done yet. My favorite songs as a kid "Mona re..." , "kya surat hai" by Bombay Vikings
and "Noorie" by Bally Sagoo. Check them out on youtube.

Exams are here

It's 3:00 in the morning. UNIX lab internal in the morning today and MWT tomorrow.
Then a small gap of three days before my 2nd internals begin.Main exams from 21st april.
This month's gonna be reeeal long.
As ever my preparation status stands at zero.

Saw RocknRolla today. After a miserable "revolver", Guy Ritchie seems to be winning back his fans again with this one. As for me, I did'nt understand a thing.
Who cares?

Central Problematic Unit

Back from manuguru. very uneventful as always save for a few good moments with Asif n Nitin.
Left my laptop in mngr to cut down on distractions. But as fate wud have it, my PC went down. I do my lab-practice on it.
My PC seems to suffer from the oddest and rarest of problems, this time the thermal paste dried up and the CPU tripped 16 times before i realised ! well, dats sorted now(ctc).
I also bought a couple of extra fans to keep my cabinet cool.

Among other news, my cousin just got a spanking new Viao P. In case you donno, this is the latest offering from SONY and literally fits in a pocket !

The pics should give u an idea of it's size.