Are you part of this car buying statistic?

PR guy, Joe Akkawi, sent me an awesome info graphic on how the online automotive space has been doing... I am just uploading it here for you to see as I could not be bothered about tweeting so many interesting facts... it does make for an interesting read though. Do look up #SellAnyCar on www.sellanycar.com and have a look at why they are in the position to post this info graphic just 3 months+

Thanks for this info, Joe :)

Review: Huawei Ascend P6

Last week I returned a 3 week review unit I was using - the Huawei Ascend P6. Stated to be the slimmest phone, when I took the handset out of the box, I was inclined to believe it. The device was slim, sleek and very nice to behold. And why should I not use that word? The phone exudes elegance. Class. Something that is truly unisex in nature but essentially a sexy piece of technology you would like to carry around. The handset I had was white and quite resembled a White iPhone 5S, and my son kept confusing it for the phone my wife just acquired. I don't blame him. The resemblance was uncanny. With that said, let me get down to brass tacks.

Form

The phone is petite. It is heavy but then if you had to pack a kilo of sardines into a tin made for 450 gms, it would feel heavier. Not that the P6 is a sardine can, but you get my point (I hope). All that tech into such a tiny form factor is bound to show somewhere, and while the Huawei P6 does not weigh a lot, 120 gms as compared to my S4, which is 130 gms - it does feel a lot tighter in a package than my S4. Again, the comparison the S4 is rude, because really the P6 is slotted in the S3 zone. If pitted against the S3, this phone really obliterates the competition. 

In terms of pure form and design, the hardware feels firm, reliable, and exudes a charm that is clearly pitting the device against the iPhone 5s in terms of style.

Display

The display on this phone is truly remarkable. IPS really does bring out the best on any phone and the uses every single pixel of that IPS+LCD screen. What is also does is reduce the pressure on the battery. While 16M colours on that 4.7" screen does shine brightly, it is not the sharpest screen at with a 720x1280 resolution and ~312 ppi. I used the phone to play some of my favourite movies, sitcoms and games  and the screen performed well. No lag, no dither, and in collaboration with the Quad-Core heart of this device, had no problem keeping up with 1080p video, high-spec games like FIFA 14 and Real Racing 3. 

Colour depth and saturation were beautiful and even something as simple as the UI - with it's icons - were nice and sharp with vivid yet clear imagery.

Interface

The Ascend P6 uses an all new Huawei Emotion UI to manage the interaction between human and device. The launcher has a few default themes in tow and quite frankly, almost every normal user would be more than pleased with them. The lack of the app drawer or "the menu button" is very refreshing.The access to all the apps in this format is clearly inspired from the iPhone, but is convenient and functional. The icons are clean and inspired from stock android with a nice rounded box to encase them.

What I like about the P1 which is the first Huawei I used, i still have 2 at home ;), is the fact that it stays true to the stock Android form. With the Emotion UI, the P6 has taken that to the next level with some customisations that really do the phone a lot of good. It is not slow nor is there any lag from using the launcher and is a treat for new phone users too.

Camera

Whether you like it or not, the camera on a smartphone is something that EVERYONE will use. Huawei take great pride in their image capture prowess and rightly so. While their phones are not exactly equipped with SLR level technology - as point-and-shoot cameras go, they probably have a camera that is fairly well stocked to take good photographs that you could be proud of. It has the standard slew of options including panorama, burst, HDR and so on and they all funtion just as you would imagine. Fine tuning is possible to some extent using advanced settings.

Video capture is in 1080p quality and it is pretty damn slick to see on a wide screen tv - crystal clear and sound is not bad either.

Performance

The P6 is powered by a 1.5 GHz Quad Core processor that does duty rather efficiently on this device. Since there are no floating frappy apps that Huawei loads on for no apparent reason, the device is always on peak performance and does what it is told, when it is told. Application boot up is snappy, camera is not laggy, video rendering is super smooth, sound delivery is clear and all of this can happen simultaneously for all we could know and it would probably do the duty happily. In fact I was multi-tasking a few games and a 1080p video at one time and it happily did them all with equal gusto.

Verdict

This phone is recommended if you are in the market for a good value for money phone. Don't let the brand fool you. Yes, this is from China, but I'll tell you that you should not let that detract from what it is - a sturdy, classy looking phone with the reliability of a big brand and excellent features to boot.

Using the NVIDIA Shield

I had been to the "launch" of the NVIDIA Shield here in Dubai along with other media, bloggers and gamers. Since then, I had hoped to get a chance to play with it for some time, if not acquire one for myself. So, when the opportunity presented itself, I grabbed it with both hands and did so with great joy.

Just to give you guys a quick run down about what the Shield is - imagine, if you will, an android phone - say an HTC One - and add a PS3-type controller to it. Supersize the processor and RAM and remove bloatware - et voila - you have yourself a Shield. 

(image source: nvidia.com - its a nice wallpaper if you fancy 1920x1080)

More information on the product, here. I will add this link at the bottom of the post, so please read through :). 

Still here, THANKS! :)

So, that was then. Recently, I got my hands on it for a bit over 2 weeks for all I could play madness on the go. I played a LOT and NVIDIA have a dedicated gaming-store-portal-section thingy on the Play Store. I saw games of all genres, but racing and Shoot em ups really excite me on the go. Its easier to start a short game, finish it and restart any other time. Games with story lines and stuff need concentration and so I avoid them. That said, GTA was loaded on the Shield and that really got my interest. It has a unique way of presenting the games to you, see below

(image source: forbes.com)

Graphics are phenomenal. You will not believe that you are playing on a small mobile phone screen, the depth and saturation are quite good. The sound really supports the experience, whether you play in-ear or use the on board speakers that pack quite a punch for a personal gaming device. Now because the Graphics are inherently NVIDIA - thanks TEGRA - you feel no lag, and it really blazes through some of the heavier games that tend to lag on a conventional smart phone. Games like FIFA, Madden, NFS (all available on the Play Store) are really cool to try on the Shield. What really interested me but could not try is Screen Casting - you can mirror your gaming experience onto a big screen. See this:

 (image source: gamefront.com)

How this is done, is through MiraCast. You can also play PC games using the Sheild to power and control the game while you use MiraCast to project the display on a large format screen. Curious? Read here on the NVIDIA website for more information. There are a whole range of games you can do that with including Batman, Borderlands 2, Elder Scrolls V and so on.

The controller is something you get used to if you come from a history of playing only on the XBox. But for you Playstation fans, the controller is something you should feel right at home with. The grip is Xbox-esque - meaty and rubberised for better comfort, while the button layout is much nicer (I did like PS for that).

 (image source: shield.nvidia.com - again a nice 1920 x 1080 wallpaper)

Are you a true gamer? Then this device is for you. There are plenty of ways to get your hands on one of these bad boys, so pick your poison and log right into the true mobile gaming experience!

As promised, more information on the product, here.

Why I am using HTC's One Mini and BlackBerry's Z10 at the same time

I have, for the past few weeks, been using the BlackBerry Z10 and the HTC One Mini as my devices for primary usage. They are both fantastic devices and complement each other beautifully. I have been using them at tandem and here is why I will recommend the combination of these two handsets to you.

OS:

(photo credit: engadget.com)

The BlackBerry features the QNX based OS 10 that their new range of handsets have - the Z10, the Q10 and the Q5. There is also another in the process - the Z30 which will be a Phablet and a much awaited device. This device in conjunction with my BlackBerry PlayBook makes a mean pair by themselves! The Android OS does provide for some applications that do not exist on the BlackBerry. Both are extremely stable OS', and I am happy to use them. Both are frugal in their use of the battery while providing for smooth user experience on the handset.

(photo credit: pcadvisor.co.uk)

Applications:

The BlackBerry has access to some standard yet very useful applications that are well integrated into the OS like Skype, Whatsapp, LinkedIn and FourSquare as well the one key piece that is hard coded into their system - The Hub. These are the primary applications I use in addition to using it as my primary phone for text and calls. 

The HTC does duty for all the other data heavy applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Path. I also use all my Google services from there. I have games on the phone as well thanks to the wide range available on the play store. I use the tethering option on that handset a lot since I am on the move a lot and HTC provide LTE on that handset. 

User Experience:

The "slide to use" method is not new to me. I have used it on the Windows Phone, and I have used it on my PlayBook as well. Which is why, using the BlackBerry Z10 is something I am familiar with and I fit right in with nary a niggle. I love the keyboard on this. I will go on to say that this is probably one of the better predictive touch keyboards I have used. Even better than Swype or so on. Camera duties on the blackberry are limited but I don't have a complaint since it is way better than the previous camera's BB have used in the past and is definitely a good camera phone. It is not a professional camera and does not pose as one with superfluous customisations that I may or may not use. I have taken a few good photographs from the BlackBerry. I was facing some issues with the screen - it would pocket dial, go to settings and do stuff rather accidentally - but some setting changes later, and this was resolved. 

The UI on the HTC One Mini is quite nice. I had liked the UI on the One but not the size. The One Mini is a good size for a phone and anything larger would rather be a tablet then a phone. The display is nice, the games work well with touches not being that sensitive but quite responsive. I like the sound on the HTC and I know my son loves it too. He always brings me the HTC when he needs to watch videos on youtube.

Overall value:

I find the overall value of using two phones that complement each other as well as the HTC One Mini and the BlackBerry Z10 very satisfying and I will recommend this to people who are constantly on the move and live off their laptop/tablet combination from coffee shops and other locations with no reliable wifi. 

Review: MSi GX60 - AMD powered Gaming Laptop

It has been a while since I reviewed a laptop so please let me know in case you are looking for information not already covered in this review.

Overview:

I got a chance to use the MSi GX60 thanks to AMD. AMD have put their Trinity Processor, the A10, in this machine, and they wanted me, as a gamer, to put it through the gruesome bashing that I normally delegate to my laptops. Just kidding. They did, however, want me to share my opinion about the machine. So here it is.

Hardware & Appearances

This is a good looking machine. Excellent build quality, great functional layout, good quality of material all come together well to make this machine well rounded in the looks department too. Matt finishing everywhere, reduces glare. A nice brushed finish makes it nice to hold, although you are not going to lug that thing without a mini crane. 

The Matt finishing also complemented the Non-Glare 15.6 Screen on the machine that improved the display quality and overall look of the machine. 

The Keyboard looks nice, and being backlit is a good touch. The fact that a mechanical keyboard is now in a laptop is evident when you use the machine. It was amazing. It, however, does not help the weight of the machine. Neither does the graphic card, nor the battery charging pack. All of this weighs almost two times a regular 15.6 laptop (I lie, it is probably more).

All the bells and whistles for lights, turbo fans for optimum cooling are touch enabled switches that are quite cool to use. The design of the laptop, even though it is a gaming machine, makes it convenient to use for longer hours since there is no heat to the palm rest. 

Software

MSi had bundled some of their bloatware into the machine, which I conveniently ignored, while I took to installing steam and origin so I could get to my gaming instantly. It came pre-loaded with Windows 8, and I was quite happy working with it. Given the hardware capability, running almost any software at optimum efficiency is nto a problem. I was running Steam, Origin and Adobe Suite trial version all simultaneously without any lag or strain on resources. Photoshop would run in the background while I played Left 4 Dead 2 and more recently Battlefield 3. Played and Finished by the way :P

What is it built for

It is built, not for portability - that is for sure, but for performance that can be carried around since, lets face it, carrying around a monster Desktop Setup is not that simple. This one is. Even though it is heavy, it is still all in that laptop form factor making it a useful designers machine that can be carried for on-client-premise work, gaming on the go. IT is built for performance, with its mechanical keyboard, APU/GPU setup, big battery, large matte screen, and good speaker system. The internal hardware is pretty amazing too.

Verdict

This machine can replace your now-obsolete desktop and become the powerhouse HTPC you have always been looking to buy. What is an HTPC? Read this!

This machine is your office Dell on steroids making sure that you can keep doing multiple things simultaneously and give you delusions of grandeur! :)

For more information about the GX60, click this link.

Toys for Rich Boys

I recently had the privilege to try out some cool toys that I would not even consider buying for myself purely from the point that they are way out of my reach financially. That does not take away from the fact that someday, I will own one of them, each, hopefully. It does not belittle the fact that these products are awesome if you take the price tag away from them and they lie very firmly on top of my wishlist.

These toys are the Parrot Zikmu Solo speaker system and the Parrot Zik bluetooth headset. Both products are placed in the Wireless Music range of products offered by Parrot USA and are exemplary samples of how technology, design and application and bring the best out of any device. If you wish, you can skip to reading about these products by clicking one of the links above. You could, however, read on about these products here.

I got the Zikmu Solo 3 weeks ago. In white, this product is all sorts of awesome. Just to behold. Gorgeous design, slender, stylish. One would be hardpressed to believe that this product actually houses a true 2.1 Surround Speaker System including a well placed Woofer that produces excellent low frequency sounds without jarring the sound or the ears! Positioning the Zikmu Solo and configuring it accordingly via the Android App (I did not have the iPhone for long), ensures you get the best quality of sound at all times. What I was most astounded by: The MULTIPLE ways of connecting with this device and the different sources it could pick up! There was Bluetooth, which is fairly straightforward. Then there is NFC for an instant Bluetooth connection. In addition to this, I could play off the home network shared music library from multiple sources - laptop, media centre or network drive! I thought that was quite cool. I could do this only on my media centre until I discovered this device. 

Quality of music was clear. Does not matter what level you were listening at - high or low - the clarity of being able to listen to every instrument on the piece of music you are listening to is ever present. There was no jarring, no over powering bass lines or squeaky tones for treble heavy songs. Every song is in perfect moderation. For your listening pleasure.

At a price point of around AED 3700, this device seems well worth the coin you spend on it, if you can afford it. You will not be let down by the sound, this I believe.

I received the Parrot Zik headset yesterday, and I have been using it since. First of all, for a device that has just one button, pairing it was simple. The controls are simpler still. Basic gestures to Pause/Play, Next, Previous and Volume Control feel like something I could swear, I saw on a Sci-Fi show. 

Sound quality is exactly like the Solo albeit channelized into the two sides of the headset for a balanced aural experience. The noise cancellation works well, and the microphone could pick up even my slightest whisper. I had it paired to my BlackBerry Z10 - it was good enough, although the website suggests it is built for Apple devices. 

Costing around AED 1700, this is way out my reach and although I would LOVE to own one of these, I don't think I could spend that kind of money on a glorified Bluetooth headset. 

Having said that, under different circumstances, I would not be making that complaint! :)

If you are keen to buy these awesome products, do pop by Parrot's UAE online store and pick one up :)

Make your TV the next HE-MAN

Everyone watches TV. In some form or the other. 

There are multiple ways for a person to watch TV today - Internet has become an important source for daily consumption - whether YouTUBE or Netflix or something like that. In these scenarios, getting a smart TV with in built applications is a useful investment in case this is your first TV or if you are changing your TV after a long time. 

What if you just bought a non-Smart TV, like me, and want to watch my daily dose of HIMYM or The Big Bang Theory? You either buy a decoder from du/Etisalat/Carrefour, find the right place to tune into and voila, you are watching TV. But this is still only the "newer" content. What about older episodes? Download them from the internet (everyone does this) and watch them on your laptop/computer. You could, however, get a WD TV Live Media Centre, and it will serve you a lot of good if your interests are limited to only movies, music and tv shows. Read more about that here. 

One more but - But if you are like me, and love gaming, then just a SMART TV and/or a Media Center is not going to be enough. You need some serious power.

I had the good fortune of being able to do JUST that. I collected parts from various places and put together a Home Theater PC - shortened to HTPC. I can now watch my movies / tv shows, listen to music, surf the internet, stream online content, video conference, and PLAY FULL HD games - all on my 32 inch Sony TV :)

All you need is the power to compute what I put into it. The list and the reasons are put below:

1. The case - you need something with space and breathing room. I chose the CoolerMaster SNIPER - AMD Black Edition. It is spacious and has superb expansion capability. It is tough, large, and good looking. Here is the CoolerMaster website gallery for you to drool over. Here is a side profile of the case: 

2. The Motherboard and CPU: You need a motherboard with some sort of oomph, but does not burn a hole through the pocket. The ASUS F2A85-M PRO motherboard was a good pick since it supported the APU Chip from AMD and has on board HD graphics and 2.1 Surround Sound support. I had the AMD A8 chip, and it has enough compute to run some cool games at mid-spec without any GPU. Here is the spec on the motherboard. Read more about the A-Series of APUs from AMD here.

3. The RAM: Now I had the choice to pick up some cheap RAM. But would I? No chance. So I scouted around. And I looked around some more. I spoke to a friend who said that he had bought some RAM for himself by GEiL. I looked it up, and the Veloce type of RAM looked pretty cool. So I requisitioned 8GB for myself and installed this in my machine. I may up the ante someday but so far 8GB is alright. Here is the website to look up the information about the RAM I am using.

4. The Drives: For my HDD - I picked up a standard 500GB Seagate Hard Drive. Someday I will get a Western Digital Black drive, but that is someday. For my Optical Drive, I chose to install a Buffalo Internal Blu-Ray drive. Now my machine can retire my intention to buy a PS3 because I was thinking of buying one for the BluRay only. I managed to get my hands on an 8X Writer which meant that if ever I wanted to, I could back up my entire PC onto BluRay discs. The Buffalo Blu Ray has given me an opportunity to watch Avatar, The Avengers and many other movies in 1080P on my screen without havnig to worry about how would I play it! :) More information on the BluRay Writer, here. It is a PDF so right-click to save it if you please :)

5. The other important appendages; Cooling and Power. I bought CoolerMaster for both since the product was best suited for the case I had with me. Now the Bronze 650W Power Supply I have is enough to power the mother board, up to 4 drives, and a single GPU with no hassle. The Heat Sync for the APU was also CoolerMaster, and I went for one that would keep the temperature low while keeping noise to a minimum as well. The Fan/Sync combo works wonders and I am able to get a lot of work out of that A8 APU.

6. THE GPU: Initially, I had a HIS RAdeon 5670 HD Graphics Card - powered directly by the mother board. It's good enough to play some older games, and even play movies at 2HD (read: 2160x#) resolutions but not for serious gaming post 2012. SO I immediately traded in for an older unit of Radeon built 7990. Now I can kick some alien backside in Crysis 3 at max settings and not break a sweat. Loving the graphic love.

I could connect the PC to a Home Theater for better sound effects, but my son like poking holes int he speakers, so I decided to keep that on hold till I can tell him why he should not do that.

If you like this setup, let me know and I can hook your HTPC up in a week, save you some money and give you the pleasure of having a home built monster for your media and gaming. I also intended to buy a Logitech Wireless TrackPad Keyboard, but I had enough Wired Gaming Keyboard and Mice - so I gave up on that idea.

Check out the public photo album of my HTPC here on Facebook.

Share your feedback with me about what you thought of this build.

Thanks for reading.

If you love TV, then this one is for you

This past week has seen me coming home a new method of getting entertainment on my TV.

In case you did not know, I do not have any cable TV connection. I only live off the internet and a connection to my laptop via HDMI. My laptop was my media centre and a source for me to download my new stuff and watch. The setup was simple: Connect laptop to always-on power and internet, connected to USB Direct Storage of 1TB and connected to Buffalo LinkStation Live 1 TB via the network.

Enter the WD TV Live Media Center. When I got this new little device, it made things simple :)

My Direct Storage was already full and dying and all new data being downloaded went straight to the LinkStation via the network. Connected to the same network as my LinkStation, my laptop performed dual duties of downloading AND playing the media at the same time. This loaded on usage time and reduced performance, slowly and steadily. 

With the WD TV Live   however, life became so much easier. A small device that blends with my TV, but replaced my laptop in media viewing duties, which is most of the time. It supports almost all file types and performs at FULL HD when needed. Audio is transmitted through HDMI and are capable of Surround Sound. It supports analog AV out through a 3.5mm jack as well. There are 2 USB ports that  support AC powered and Self Powered USB Storage devices. This small device also connects to the network wirelessly and you can view youtube videos, use your netflix account or use one of 10 other services for online content. 

Truly this device is exceptional in terms of functions. The user interface is so SIMPLE that it is easy to get used to and quite frankly, when I return it, it will be missed :(

Here is a video for you to get an idea of what the device does..

Samsung Media Forum at Grand Hyatt, Dubai.

Here on day 1 for the Samsung Media Forum.

• spoke about pushing boundaries on all display products and telecomm products

• trebled growth in the region

• lead the industry in introducing smart tvs, smart home appliances with remote management for washers and refrigerators

• claim to understand the market, and provide a better learning environment using better technology

• redefining tvs, home appliances, cameras and smarter phones and location devices

First the visual displays:
• Samsung leading the tv market for 7th year with 30+% market share

• key trends for tvs in Middle East
- larger screen sizes - 46" tv standard
- integral part of the living
- smart tvs growing 130% than normal tvs, since customers need more from tvs
- dual screen devices using tablet and mobile phone as interfaces

• f8000 LED tv
- quarter inch bezel, gorgeous display, brilliant depth of image
- intelligent viewing: beat picture quality
- better video streaming at lower bandwidth
- quad core processor
- applications
- new smart hub
- motion controlled
- voice control
- smart touch control - use touch to write channel number. No more numbers
- social networks, photos from multiple sources and large number of apps

Evolution kit for 2012 model SmartTV
- upgrades to latest features of SmartTV
- fastest processor
- more apps

Large format tv: 85" UHD TV
- one connect port kept aside from the frame reduces clutter
- sound quality of 2.2 channels
- large format does not distort HD content bit converts to UHD
- available from Q2

• Samsung developed Smart Play for seamless connectivity between smart devices and smart tvs for multiple content using one source, or transfer content from smart device to tv easily

Notebooks, Ultrabooks and Touch Monitor all launched as part of the Series 7. Newer cameras that are smarter and better connected with Samsung mobile devices.

More information as I get this from the PR team here.

Posted via email from partha's posterous