I have been using the Infibeam Phi Tablet for a couple of weeks now and here is my take on it. Infibeam is India’s answer to Amazon. It even has an eBook reader – Pi. Now with Phi Tablet Infibeam enters the tablet market and is by far India’s first tablet.

7' Phi Over a 15' Dell Laptop

Let’s first start with raw data to put things into perspective–

1). Price – Rs. 14999 only (around $250)

2). OS- Android 1.5 (Windows CE version also available)

3). Screen – 7’ (same as Samsung Galaxy Tab)

4). Memory – 8 GB (expandable upto 32 GB with mini SD)

5). Battery Life – Around 5 hours (normal usage)

6). Touch Screen – Resistive

My first reaction on seeing the device was a sense of excitement as this was the 1st time I was about to use any thing with this form factor – 7’ just makes it small enough to hold it your palm and just big enough to browse and do some computing on it. Believe me 7’ form factor is just perfect for a tablet. The device also comes with a really sexy cushioned black cover (right image) and whole thing can fit into a large pocket of a six pocket jeans! Figuring out how the device works didn’t take much time and things were quite intuitive.

Let’s go through the pros and cons of Phi now.

Software – Phi comes with both Android and Windows (CE) variants. Considering Android is not fully baked for tablets yet (let alone Android 1.5) the software platform was as good as an android 1.5 can get on a tablet. The experience would be way better when Phi comes on higher versions of Android and as Android becomes more compatible with tablet form factory, Android tablets will be much better to use. Phi supports a fully function Android Market, so you have a choice of installing an ever growing number of Android apps. From the software perspective I would say everything was at its place and this area will only improve with time.

Hardware – From specifications point of view you will be comfortable will almost all the hardware specs but one – screen. The resistive touch screen plays a spoil sport here. At times it becomes difficult to navigate around because of this. Surprisingly though, I found the on-screen keyboard relatively intuitive. Although, we need to keep in mind that Phi only costs Rs. 15000, so it is bound to have some draw backs. Secondly the tragedy with all tablets is that they inevitably compared with iPad, irrespective of their price. Apart from screen Phi wins in all other areas. It is light in weight and you can hold it in your hand for very long period of time making it an excellent book reader and for browsing internet. The battery life is pretty good and the overall design of the device is quite sleek. All the buttons and plug-in slots are at perfect places making the experience more intuitive and natural. For example the Home button is just at the top right corner of the device when you hold it horizontally. This is exactly the place where your hand will fall whenever you are holding a device of this size and shape. Such small design goes a long way in making the device more natural. Phi comes with a 256MB RAM which looked more than enough considering the speed it was working. Even memory intensive processes were working quite smoothly. Internal memory of 8GB is good enough for starters.

Final verdict –

The price at which Infibeam is selling Phi, it is just as good as that. There are two key places where it needs improvement. Upgrade to a better version of Android, which is not a question of if but when, so this seems to be solved for the upcoming versions of Phi. Second is the screen. Phi would become a great device if it comes with a capacitive touch, but even a relatively more intuitive resistive touch would make this a lot better. The tablet is still a luxury not a necessary. Will people pay for a luxury item that is not as good as the best? I am sure a market as price sensitive as India, they will. My only request to InfiBeam is please improve that screen and you could very well be one of India’s true product companies .

This is a guest post by James Adams. James is  a technology writer who works at a specialist ink cartridge store, contributed this blog post. He spends his time writing reviews of newly released hardware like the HP 901XL and, when he has time, posts about design and tech on their blog.

Now that you have your new iPad, you need to start thinking about accessories. There are cases, styluses, camera connections and even keyboards which will make your experience more entertaining and enjoyable. Here are ten of the best toys that you can get for your iPad.

1. Quirky’s Cloak [$54.99]

Slide your iPad into this case and you have full protection. The Cloak keeps your iPad free from scratches and other dangers. You can prop your iPad up either horizontally or vertically without having to remove it from its cover.

2. LuxA2 H4 iPad Holder [$59.99]

This iPad stand has a futuristic shape and design, making it a cool space-age gadget to go with your iPad. You can read books in bed, prop your music up while you are reading a score, or display movies for your friends. The prongs on the LuxA2 H4 hold your iPad firmly in place.

3. Freedom Pro Bluetooth Keyboard [$149.99, currently on sale for $89.95]

The iPad is a great tool for writers. It allows them to go anywhere and use less space than the traditional laptops. There is now a Bluetooth keyboard which allows iPad owners to type to their heart’s content. The Freedom Pro Bluetooth Keyboard is a folding keyboard which gives your iPad more functionality.

4. Pogo iPad stylus [$14.99]

The Pogo iPad Stylus is sturdy enough to withstand any pressure and comfortable enough to hold in your hand for hours. It is pressure sensitive to give your paintings more flair. This stylus is meant for prolonged use. This is a great accessory for artists, musicians and gamers.

5. Zagg invisibleSHIELD [$39.99]

With the Zagg invisibleSHIELD, you can protect your iPad from smudges and smears. You can also defend your valuable investment against scratches. The invisible cover allows you to see the screen and use your favorite applications.

6. iPad Camera Connection Kit [$29.00]

The Camera Connection Kit gives you the added power of a USB adapter and a SD card reader for your iPad. Take pictures and transmit them around the world using your iPad. After you have moved your photos to your iPad, you can arrange and organize them into albums.

7. Orbino Padova Case for the iPad [$209.00]

This case is for those who want a little bit of luxury with their iPad. The case itself is form fitting to the equipment, made of premium leather. The cover is hand stitched. This case is both a case and a viewing stand. You can display your iPad either horizontally or vertically.

8. Kensington Reversible iPad sleeve [$9.99]

For those who do not wish to spend a mint on their iPad case, here’s a sleeve that you can use to protect your iPad in your backpack or purse. It is multi-functional, fitting netbooks as well as your iPad. The material is a soft neoprene, giving your iPad some cushion.

9. TrendyDigital WaterGuard Plus Waterproof Case for iPad [$23.99]

This is a popular accessory for those who like to be around water. The WaterGuard Plus protects your iPad from the accidents. You can drop your iPad into a puddle or get it splashed on at the beach and you’re protected. You still have full access to the touch streen.

10. Gelaskins Skins for iPad [$29.95]

There are as many ways to customize your iPad’s face as there are personalities. With the Gelaskins Skins for iPad, you can put attractive artwork onto the back of your iPad. Personalize your iPad with some great drawings.

There are some great accessories for the iPad which range from the simple to the extravagant. You need to protect your iPad from harm, decorate it and make it yours. Customization allows you to make an impression on your friends and family.

Well this was almost a pleasant surprise for me. India’s HRD Minister Kapil Sibal appeared today at Gadget Guru of NDTV and showed off his $35 baby and guess what? Unlike the previous claims of $10 laptop by Gov. of India this thing is real and it works! [video embedded below] The Gadget Guru team gave a thumbs up to the device after reviewing it. Here are the features

1). Android OS (not Linux as rumoured earlier)

2). Camera (front facing)

3). Wi-Fi

4). Resistive touch screen (can not be capacitative of course and part of the reason of its low-cost)

5). SMS Slot

6). USB Port

So looking at the features, this can be more or less dubbed as an Android Tablet. Mr. Sibal pointed out a few important things to clear the air on $35 price point. Each tablet will cost $35 to the HRD Ministry (if they order for a million units, which looks likely). $35 is not the retail cost of the device and whether or not this device will ever be sold directly is still unclear. As of now the HRD Ministry plans to directly deliver these devices to higher education institutions for their students. The device might come pre loaded with the necessary educational softwares and materials for students.

Here goes of Video of Today’s Gadget Guru.

At the first look, I am impressed. Will have to wait and see when the device actually rolls out (hopefully) early next year.

Apple today held a press conference and addressed (kinda of..) the iPhone 4 Antenna issue. For details you can check out the live blog of Engadget and MobileCrunch. The amazing part is that Apple kicked off the conference with a video song  about the iPhone 4 Antenna.

Here we present to you 2 totally diverse opinions on the iPhone 4 Antennage. One a Fanboys takes on it and the other Hitler getting mad about the issue. Both of them are bloody awesome!

Judge for yourself which side do you fall in…

Hitler Getting Pissed off With Jobs

FanBoy – “If you don’t want an iPhone 4, don’t buy it. If you bought one and you don’t like it, bring it back.”

Let us know in comments about your views on the 2 videos and which one you think better echoes the whole iPhone 4 Antenna drama!

Assignment Help

The teaser trailers for the movie on Facebook – The Social Network have been doing rounds around the web for the past one month and now the full version has hit the web. “The Social Network” is based on the book ‘The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal’ by Ben Mezrich. From  the trailer the movie looks awesome and I can wait to see this. The Social Network appears to be full of controversial and the punch line of the movie says it all ” You Don’t Get 500 million Friends With Out Making a Few Enemies”.  The movie is bound hit hard on the image of Mark Zuckerberg in particular in Facebook in general which has already been under a lot of media scrutiny lately. The movie is expected to be released in October 2010.

So, here goes all the trailors released so far, starting with the 1st one.

1). Punk, Genius, Prophet…

2). Facebook News Feed…

3). Full Trailer With Footage

Zynga, the social gaming giant is growing faster than many would have imagined. What Facebook is to social networking Zynga is to social gaming. The recent rivalry and the then patch-up between these two social-brokers (i just coined this word/phrase!) raised a lot of eye brows a while back. But one thing is sure, Zyga wants to grow out of their Facebook era as soon as possible. Possibly Pincus now knows for sure that Zuckerberg will slit or make another attempt to slit his throat.

Now comes a highly strategic news from Arrington who says, Google (and not Google Venture) could have invested as high as 100 to 200 million $s in Zynga. This holds a lot of strategic importance for both Google and Zyanga. For Google, Zynaga will act as a launch pad for the so-called upcoming Google games later this year. This will also mark a symbolic end to open social paradigm which Google launched in 2007.  If the relationship goes smooth then this would mean a bigger win for Zynga. First and foremost they will become quite independent from their now frenemy Facebook. Secondly this means a much much bigger audience for Zaynga. Google could well offer you to play Farm Ville right inside your Gmail.! Interesting are the way things turn out – Facebook acted as the social-broker for the start-up Zynga with Facebook Platform  in 2007 and Zynga (with their huge following) now will act as a social broker for non other than Google. What about Orkut? I have said this before and now it is even more clear- Google no longer sees Orkut as its social player. Orkut is dying because mother Google has abandoned it. The new social hero in Google land is Google Profiles and the much rumoured Google Me.

Second piece of news from Arrington again reflects the growth of Zaynga – Zynga could have made as high as $350 million in 2010 and are projecting $1 billion for 2011. Remember Zynga only started in 2007.

Assignment Help

Bill Gates showed up at Larry King Live recently along with his father Bill Gates Sr. I must say this is one of the best interviews of Gates i have watched in recent times. Why? It is very natural and genuine conversation with the father and son and you will just adore Bill Gates Sr. [father] for being so genuine.

Along with other things Larry asks Bill Gates about Steve Jobs, Apple, iPad, Facebook and Twitter. He also ask both of them about Bill Gates (Jr.) growing up years..

When asked -

“You like the iPad?”

Bill says

“umm.. aa.. I am biased so not the best person to ask. You know, there are things that… it still is’nt the device I would take to meeting because it just has no input”

Do You Like Steve Jobs?

“Steve’s brilliant. Done very good work.”

“We enjoy sparring with each other.”

Talking about Facebook, Bill says

“I certainly look at my kids’ Facebook accounts. They are young enough that is still appropriate.”

Althought the best part was the adroable way Bill Gates Sr. (Father) puts it

“I’m really embarrassed. I’m just not into that.”

I highly recommend you to go through the entire interview, thought its a bit long but completely worth the time (bookmark it if you don’t have time right now). This is one the interviews you will remember for a long long time (may be for no particular reason thought).

To watch Bill’s reaction on iPad, jump to the 4th part – 6:40.

Please ignore the first few second of the following videos (couldn’t get a cleaner copy!)

Part – 1

Part -2

Part -3

Part -4

Google has rolled out a major update to google.com – Now you can personalise google.com with a custom image as your background. Google says

Today, we’re introducing a new feature that brings a whole new level of personalization to Google by letting you add a favorite photo or image to the background of the Google homepage.

Google says that this is being rolled out in the US first and will soon follow around the world. But here in India, I am able to customise my Google background. The process is quite neat and simple. It is 3 click (minimum) process to add the background. Removing the background is a clean single click thing. Although i couldn’t find a change background image option (should come out soon). So, as of now if you need to change background then you will have to 1st remove the existing one and then add a new one making it minimum 4 click deal. Here how you can how it all works -

1). You will see a “Change background image” at the bottom right corner of google.com

2). Select a background image from the pop up box that appears.

It has 3 options – to upload image from your computer, from your Picasa album from a public gallery.

3). Thats about it. You are done and here is how it looks like

As I said there is no Change background image option here, so at the bottom right you need to 1st “Remove Background Image” and then start over with step 1.

I couldn’t stop wondering if this was meant to be a response to Bing’s attractive homepage. Big deal! Wont really bring about any serious difference. On the other hand this is no match to Bing’s image.. They are just wonderful and out of the world with an auto upgrade to every day! So, today we mark an end to the long long exiting austere Google Search.

Apple has announced that it has now sold more than 2 million iPad in less than 60 days. This comes in less than a month after Apple announced that it has crossed the 1 million mark. So, basically Apple is selling more than a million iPad every month. Apple crossed the 2 million mark just days after the iPad went for sale in 9 other countries (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK) apart from US. The trends of this heavy sale might continue for a couple of more months as the iPad still hasn’t rolled out in many other parts of the world. But this device has beaten the most optimistic expectations of almost every one (Note – iPhone took as much as 74 days to reach the 1 million mark). This is what Steve Jobs had to say

“Customers around the world are experiencing the magic of iPad, and seem to be loving it as much as we do, We appreciate their patience, and are working hard to build enough iPads for everyone.”

Looks like now we have that 3rd category (no they are NOT netbooks it seems!) of device ready for the prime time.

Check out the info-graphics to gain more prospective about the this 3rd category of device. (thanks GigaOm).

Image Credit – GigaOm
CrunchBase Information on Apple

CrunchBase Information on IPad

A Pakistani court has ordered authorities to ban Facebook over a competition encouraging users to post caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed on the social networking site. A Facebook Page – Everybody Draw Mohammed Day! encourages users to draw caricatures of Prophet Mohammed. It is prohibited in Islam to depict the prophet in any form. Lawyer Chaudhry Zulfikar Ali said

“The competition has hurt the sentiments of the Muslims”.

The access to the site will remain blocked till 31st May when the court will begin a detailed hearing into the matter. The page – Everybody Draw Mohammed Day has more than 40k members and apparently the protest page AGAINST “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” has around 60k members and are growing every minute. Many users have also started changing their profile pic to the one beside [this in] order to show protest over the page. Facebook page Everybody Draw Mohammed Day! claims “Hopefully this page will spark serious debates in international forums. This page will continue to exist and the date will remain the same.” The website on the page point to a WordPress blog – everybodydrawmohammedday.wordpress.com which again gives some details about the contest and intention of creation.

Pakistan has around 45 million Facebook users and is it started gaining huge following there (only after Orkut). Facebook has not commented on the issue yet. But one thing looks certain here – Until Facebook removes this page, the ban will remain and could very well spread to other countries in the middle east, But very likely expect Facebook to be  removing this page soon.