I love the touchscreen gadgets that come with fancy new cars. A single console integrates a reverse-view camera and GPS navigator, while also letting me play a CD or DVD. I want it all, and I want it in my old car. Alas, there aren’t many options available. And even if there are, they tend to be prohibitively expensive.

MapmyIndia has a solution. It is not the best stuff going, but it is still a good option at its price, especially if your car has enough space to install a 2 DIN music system.

The first thing that hits you when you see the In-dash Navi-tainment system—as MapmyIndia likes to call it—is that it runs on Android. Yes, the same operating system that runs many of today’s smartphones. The next thing you notice is that it has a USB dongle, with which it can take you onto the internet. So you can not only go to Twitter and Facebook from your car, but also download your must-have apps without hooking up another computer. Also, if you want to use a navigation interface other than the one that comes bundled along with this package, you can download it directly to your navigation and entertainment system.

The bundled navigation interface— the new MapmyIndia Maps version 7—offers a detailed national-level map that can guide you to over 576,000 towns and villages in India. Plus, it also has street-level maps of more than 4,000 cities. Maps of 36 major cities have house-level details, and 20 cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Bangalore even have 3D maps.

The biggest problem I have with this system is that if you insert or eject a CD, the CD interface pops up and that of the GPS navigation moves to the background. That is fine for a music buff, but not for someone who is perhaps lost in the city. But this is still a good option if you are looking to upgrade your car stereo and also buy a GPS navigation console.

Another issue is that many car makers fit their cars with stereos that are customised to specific dashboards. So, installing something like this may be a slight problem.

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The Above review appeared in the Open Magazine, Issue Dated 20th February 2012, Volume 04, Issue 07

 

was a little sceptical about reviewing another handsfree kit, at first. But when I saw the specs of this Jabra, and its price, I wanted to lay my hands on it fast. The device can not only pair with two devices at the same time, it can also do noise cancellation. Also, you don’t have to fiddle with the device to turn it on. When you open the boom, it gets powered on. Close the boom, and it’s off.

I took it along the next morning on a cycle ride through Delhi. If the handsfree kit could survive the bumps and jumps of Delhi roads and stay hooked up with my iPod and phone, it would be worth the price. The ride would also help assess its noise cancellation. Now, I can go about 35 kmph on a bicycle. If it worked on a bike ride, it would work in an office or a moving car.

The promise battery life is 7 hours, which was more than enough for my 3-hour ride. The Jabra’s noise- cancellation capabilities were fully tested as I zipped past India Gate, with Republic Day preparations in full swing. The gizmo lived up to its promise of connecting both with the phone and iPod, as the music went blank every two minutes—to relay to me a GPS readout from my phone, say that I had completed another kilometre on the road, and tell me what direction to take, before resuming my music playback.

The next day, I tested it in a noisier environment, the Delhi Metro. Now, wearing this as a Sardar, under my turban, is a total no-no because this handsfree kit is much bigger than most others. So, with my hair tied and the device making me look like an alien on a train ride, I confirmed that my office colleagues did not detect the noise inside the Metro cabin, and I could hear the other person without any background office noise.

The only problem that I see with it is its extraordinary size. But that is a very small price to pay for good-quality sound.

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The Above review appeared in the Open Magazine, Issue Dated 13 Feb 2012, Volume 04, Issue 6

The Walkman phone is back in a new avatar. This time it is cool white, has a 3.2 inch WVGA screen, its Home button is in the centre, and it runs onAndroid 2.3. Though it is powered by a single core 1 GHz processor, it is still very responsive. The rear camera can do 5 megapixels—and 3D panorama and HD video (720p only) at 30 frames per second. There is also a 0.3 megapixel front-facing camera for video calls.

In this new avatar, the dedicated Walkman key is located on top, where you typically find the lock key on Android phones. As a result, I was hitting this instead of the lock key a lot. The headphones that Sony bundled with the phone earlier were not very good. The phone is now bundled with a Benetton set of headphones. It is slightly better, but to really enjoy this phone you will still need to upgrade the headset.

Since it is branded as a Walkman, this phone is specifically designed for music lovers and has features that are not common on most other phones. There is a 10 setting graphic equaliser to customise your music. Its built-in xLoud loudness enhancement engine improves the sound quality. There is also direct integration to help you look for song videos on YouTube, search for artiste information on Wikipedia, look for lyrics on Google, and also pick out karaoke videos of that song on YouTube.

On the hardware front, its GPS is pretty accurate and locks on to the appropiate satellites without much delay. A few of the GPS applications did tend to hang up when there was an incoming call. But this could be an application-specific bug.

The user interface is also clever and lets you access messages, media, your phone and phonebook quickly.

While Sony says the battery runs for 14 hours, I got a little over 10 hours. I was using 3G services and also did a couple of hours of GPS. But 10 hours on this phone is good enough. On the downside, there is no HDMI to connect the phone to your TV. You have 3D panorama, but it’s a painful experience. The 2D panorama works perfectly fine, though.

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The Above review appeared in the Open Magazine, Volume 04, Issue 5, Dated 6th February 2012

     

     

The latest Explorer II, launched at Basel 2011, continues with Rolex’s  Explorer legacy. And yet, this watch is not a ‘tribute’ to the earlier Explorer IIs, first launched in 1971. It is, rather, an updated Explorer II. To begin with, it is 42 mm in diameter. That’s not too different from the 40 mm of earlier versions, but it does make space for larger markers and a bolder 24-hour bezel.  Its dial comes in two options: white and black.

The movement—calibre 3187—is a Rolex manufacture and has not been used in any other watch, says the company. Experts, though, say that this is a modified calibre 3186 that has proved itself in other watches.

New technologies in this watch include a blue Parachrom hairspring. The blue colour is neither painted nor sprayed on. Made of niobium and zirconium, the hairspring acquires this colour when it reacts with oxygen as soon as the alloy rod emerges from the oven. The alloy is completely non-magnetic and helps make the watch all the more accurate. This watch also has a large and variable inertia balance wheel. Its Paraflex shock absorbers protect not just the balance wheel but other parts of the escapement too.

The 24-hour hand can be independently set, and can therefore also be used for a second time zone. The company says that this 24-hour feature can be of great help to polar explorers, who have to deal with six-month long days and nights.

The bracelet has also been redone in this version. It is not vintage Rolex, but it looks good and comes with Easylink, which allows the wearer to adjust the bracelet to fit within a closeness range of 5 mm. The watch has a 48-hour power reserve.

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The Above review appeared in the Open Magazine, Volume 04, Issue 4, Dated 30th January 2012

    

How many times have you clicked pictures at a party, only to find out later that most of them are blurred? And if you post them on Facebook, you get asked how much you had to drink. The fact is, those images would have been blurred regardless. The culprit is your point-and-shoot camera. More often than not, it does not know what to focus on. You could have carried a DSLR, but you don’t want to look geeky at the party. Plus, a DSLR is overkill if all you want is to post pictures on Facebook.

So, the next time, carry a Lytro. It is touted as the world’s first consumer ‘light field camera’. And this is how it gives you sharp pictures.

It stores all the ‘light field data’ of the scene you are trying to capture, instead of the typical image. You then download this data onto a computer and choose the area you want to keep in focus, or blurred—after the party is over. You can also share the picture as it is for your friends to help decide what to bring in focus.

The camera is super fast, because it does not need an auto-focus motor. You still get an 8x optical zoom. It comes in two versions: the blue and graphite has 8 GB storage and can click 350 pictures. The red-coloured camera has 16 GB storage, costs $499 and stores 750 pictures.

The only issue is that it is only a 2 megapixel device. But because I don’t print too many pictures these days, this camera works for me.

What it lacks in megapixels, it makes up with its f/2 aperture. The wide aperture gives you excellent brightness, even in low light. There is also enough onboard computing power to let you manipulate the images on the camera. Another small hitch: it is in pre-order stage and can only be shipped within the US.

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The above review appeared in the Open Magazine, Issue Dated 12-16 Jan, 2012, Volume 04, Issue 02