Akshay Shah

Stop reading news: I started this a while ago. It frees you from the need to stay updated all the time. Read the excellent article on mnmlist about it. No IM: I have stopped logging unto any IM. If I want to talk to my friends I call them or ping them over social networks like Facebook or Orkut. Unsubscribe from inactive feeds: Use Google Reader’s trends to unsubscribe from infrequently read feeds. I reduced the number of feeds and thereby the number of posts from a whopping 450 to 50 per day. I have been able to save 2 hours per day/60 hours per month by following these steps. Just imagine all the things you can do with this extra time.

Change in the name is not going to be the only change. WATCH OUT!

Do you own an iPhone? Do you love your iPhone? Have you ever recommended anyone to buy an iPhone? If you have then you would know exactly what I am talking about. I have come across so many situations where I have tried to convince people to buy iPhone over other phones. In this post, I have used my experience in dealing with such people and combine it with my thoughts on iPhone to actually look into why the iPhone actually did not sell in India as well as it did all over the world. It may be a little late in the day for iPhone 3G but it maybe just in time for the launch of iPhone 3GS in India.Technical specificationsThe de facto standard when buying any gadget for most of the people are specifications. It’s all about megapixel for camera, it’s all about the gigahertz for computers and so on. I think the most important factor that is ignored is - What are going to do with the device? What’s the application?“It’s not about the specs, its about the application”If you are an amateur photographer who is going to use the camera for capturing vacations photos then you don’t really need to buy a top-of-the-line DSLR camera. People often ask me should I buy a laptop from XYZ company worth $1000. I ask them what are you going to use it for. More often than not their reply is that they are going to use it for Internet surfing and Word processing. Why not get a Netbook then? Similar is the case for the phone. People want phones with all the features but they are never ever ever going to use most of them.In India, the mobile phone also serves as a status symbol. So when you compare specs with your neighbour, he will have an edge when he tells you that his camera is 3.2 or 5.0 MP. But do you really need a 5.0 MP camera on your phone is another question altogether. The camera on iPhone gets the work done as far as random daylight snaps are concerned and provides you a plethora of options about what you want to do with the image. There are thousands of apps which allow you to edit, enhance and share your images.Also as far as the phone’s usage pattern is concerned, people are more used to transferring ring tones and photos via bluetooth than e-mailing them from their phone.As far as applications go, here is what a day in the life of iPhone user looks like. Do not let the specs get the best out of you.Features out of the boxI recall meeting a businessman who used Nokia Communicator and asking him the reason for using the phone and he said “Nokia has Office suite built-in”. People are comfortable using something if it comes loaded out of the box and ready to use.“One of the biggest reason for Firefox being so wildly popular is because of the add-ons.”iPhone comes installed with all the applications required for performing basic operations. However, it does not come with Office but there are lot of applications which do an excellent job and are available in the App Store (Like Quickoffice. Refer my Top 20 Free iPhone apps for more). But not everybody is comfortable in finding, buying and using stuff from the App Store. According to me, the mark of a great device/system is that it provides the required core functionality and then allows additional functions to be plugged in to the core as and when required.Distribution channelIn India we don’t buy phones from Service provider. We are more used to visiting the nearest/trusted/relatives mobile phone outlet and buy based on the recommendation of the friendly salesman. This is a lot easier as in case of any issues you know that you are covered.Locked phonesThe system for buying cell phones in India is that the user buys a mobile phone and then chooses the service provider. The end-user has complete freedom to change carriers as and when he wishes as there is no contractual agreement. One of the sore points was that the iPhone 3G even after being sold at a premium was locked to a particular carrier (Vodafone or Airtel). This did not go down well with a lot of people as they are not used to this. Although there are ways around it to unlock the phone but it’s not everybody’s cup of tea and it voids the warranty as well.MarketingIf you have been watching TV in India you could not have missed Zoozoo. It conveyed the message effectively and was also fun to watch. More about Zoozoo marketing on Samadswain.com.“The advertisements did not touch upon the 2 biggest features of the iPhone:1) iPhone is the best iPod ever2) Appstore currently has over 65000 apps and is probably one of the biggest reasons responsible for the success of iPhone”In contrast, the iPhone was not advertised at all on TV. Airtel aired Apple’s iPhone ads which were more about using the iPhone then about the features. Also, there was no mention in the marketing campaign of why the iPhone’s were being sold at exorbitant price of $600 in India as compared to the $199 in US. This left the Indian consumers confused.Myth bustersThere are some general misconceptions that people have about the iPhone.PricePrice is not the primary reason for people not buying iPhone in India. I see a lot of people in India readily investing $600 in  business phones/smartphones from Nokia such as E90 but would be hesitant to do the same for iPhone. For the budget conscious consumers, most of the banks in India were offering excellent EMI schemes for buying iPhone.User InterfacePeople in India are so comfortable using Nokia that they are reluctant to even give other phones a try. iPhone’s interface is intuitive and does not require much learning. One of the major reasons why iPod & iPhone are so widely used is that it’s just easy to use even for newbies.“My mom learned to use iPhone faster than Nokia or Sony Ericsson.”One more issue that often comes up is about the absence of a physical keyboard. Lack of tactile feedback is a deal-breaker for most. But as per my experience, I am able to type faster on iPhone with auto-correction ON than I could on a physical keyboard. There is an excellent article about the iPhone’s keyboard on Daring Fireball.In the end it all comes down to this revolutionary device changing too many things too fast for the Indian market. Given time and well-directed marketing there is no stopping the iPhone.Disclaimer: This article does not take into consideration the techno-savvy crowd.

iPhone 3.0 allows you to search for applications, contacts, mail and a lot more with Spotlight on iPhone. It can be accessed by pressing the Home button when you are on the Home/First screen. It will start searching as soon as you start to type. Apart from keeping the most frequently accessed applications on the Home screen, one other way to quickly access your favorite apps is by using Spotlight search.If you have a set of apps which are starting with common characters like “Ph” then you can just type “Ph” in search. As long as you do not press cancel, this list is available to you. This is persistent even if you lock the screen, do something else and then again go to search. This will help you to access your apps quickly and efficiently provided they have some characters in common.iPhone 3.0 update is available today.Update: Since there seemed to be some confusion regarding this, I would like to clarify. I am talking about putting the last search in Spotlight to use for accessing most frequently used apps. Say, you have N number of frequently accessed apps. There are two ways to access them frequently:1. You can move the icons of the apps to Home screen or closer to Home screen (on second or third screen).2. You can search them individually with Spotlight.Now, since all of them cannot fit into the Home page what you can do is - you can find the common characters in those 20 apps. For example, lets say that my most frequently used apps apart from those on the Home screen have “Ph” as the common character. So, what I would do is rather than having to flick and find them or find the app individually by typing “Phone Aid” - I would type “Ph” in the Spotlight search and keep it that way. I would not press the cancel button. This way you have access to your frequently used app (with particular characters) by pressing Home + Home button.Over a period of time, your frequently used apps change. Currently, there is no way to organize apps by most frequently used in iTunes or iPhone. So, rather than bringing all the apps closer to Home screen, you can just find the common characters within them (if they have any) and not press cancel on Spotlight so as to keep it persistent. Lets say now my most frequently accessed apps begin with “F”, I can type F and not press cancel.BTW, Spotlight also stores the scroll state for the search. So say you type “F” but the first 2 apps showing on the result are not important to you, you can adjust the scroll view so that the first two apps are out of the view. You can make your phone calls, go to home screen to access your apps and then if you again come back to the Spotlight screen, the scroll state would still show the results with “F” minus the first 2 apps that are out of the view. This way you always have access to your frequently used apps by pressing Home + Home. Hope that this helps.

Meet my friend Fiction, Fact N Fiction. For simplicity’s sake, lets call him Agent F.Agent F works for a software company. He starts his day by checking his e-mails. He has configured iPhone to fetch his mails from the company’s Exchange server as well as his personal Gmail account. This enables him to immediately reply and take care of important mails right away.To Uncle U’s rescue Agent F travels to office by public transport. He leaves home and on reaching the station, Agent F spots uncle U. Uncle U is old and is standing in a long queue to get the railway tickets for travel to another state. Agent F tells Uncle U that he need not worry. With a few taps, pinches and clicks he books the ticket for Uncle U online. Uncle U thanks him and goes home happy.iPhone on the goAgent F boards the train and since he is a bit late today, he is traveling alone. So, he plugs in Apple’s trademark white headphones, opens his iPod and selects his “Traveling to Office” playlist. While traveling he notices some amusing posters in the train and captures them using Camera in iPhone.Agent F @ the OfficeAfter reaching office, he settles down in his cubicle and turns ON his workstation. As the workstation is booting up, he is automatically logged into his company’s Wi-Fi network on his iPhone and checks high priority tasks on RTM. Even before the workstation starts, he has his work schedule chalked out. Agent F works hard and completes his high priority tasks and updates the status of the tasks to “completed”.In the meantime, Agent F just remembers that he forgot to shutdown his home file server. He opens the RDP application on his iPhone, logs unto his Home machine and issues a shutdown command. “Pretty neat” - he thinks to himself.It’s 12:30 PM and the company’s employees break for lunch. BEEP BEEP - the Calendar on iPhone reminds Agent F that it is his friends birthday today. He lives in US. Agent F makes a call to his friend in the US using Skype on iPhone over Wi-Fi. Agent F also informs all his other friends about Mr. US friend’s birthday over Facebook app on iPhone.Agent F @ the Office (Post-Lunch)After lunch, he starts to feel a bit sleepy. He takes a short break from work and plays Rolando for a while. It’s time for weekly team meeting, Agent F records the minutes of meeting and the action items in Evernote. He also is a keen follower of stock market and keeps his Stocks application running to get the latest updates. He works till 6:00 PM and then calls it a day.On his way back to home, he just remembers something very stupid his boss had said. He opens Twitterrific (Twitterrific 2.0’s reviews on TUAW and Macworld) and tweets about it. Now, he is no longer in a mood to listen to songs and as he has found a place to seat on the train, he decides to continue reading the E-book on Stanza (more on the app on Lifehacker) which he had started reading yesterday. He had bookmarked the position and so he starts reading from exactly the same place where he had stopped reading.Time to Hit the GymAgent F reaches home at 7:00 PM. It is time for him to hit the gym. Agent F goes to the gym and checks his weight. He enters the new weight in the Weightbot application which helps him keep track of his weight (How to track weights using beautiful interface and graphs). Agent F works out rigorously and returns home tired.He comes home and takes a shower.Party timeHe had invited friends over for a party to celebrate his recently announced promotion. Agent F had configured a Party playlist in iTunes and made the iTunes library accessible over his home Wi-Fi. It can be accessed using Remote on iPhone. Since all his friends also use iPhones, they can queue their personal favourite songs using Remote and iTunes DJ (Hands on with iTunes DJ and Remote).Agent F orders food and his friends party until late night. He is also clicking pictures of the party with iPhone which can be synced with iPhoto on Mac or shared over Flickr. Agent F bids farewell to all his friends and then goes to sleep but not before setting the alarm in the Clocks application on his beloved iPhone.This is a day in the life of Agent F. Let me and Agent F know how you use your iPhone?

A recent visit by a salesman to my home reminded me of my school days. He was selling Encyclopedia. Some lightyears ago, it was so cool to have an Encarta CD. You could use it as a reference for project or homework or just for learning fun facts. Internet and Wikipedia have completely changed the game.  Almost any information that you will ever require is freely available online. Microsoft has realised that (a bit late though) and have discontinued Encarta. If nothing the entire episode just made me nostalgic about my glorious school days.

Yesterday, I finished reading this book A Whole New Mind. And I loved it. I wanted to thank the author Daniel Pink for sharing all the wonderful experiences and references. I looked on twitter and voilà he’s there. I appreciated his book in 140 characters and he was humble enough to reply back. It’s amazing the way twitter has empowered us. I can only imagine what will happen with Google Wave.

A while ago, I had bumped into the reviews of two books - 2666 (featured in NYT Top 10 books for 2008) and A Whole New Mind and decided to buy them. These books were not available in local bookstores and so the search began to find them online (nothing beats Amazon but it costs a bomb for shipping the books to India :( ). After some Googling, I got good deals on 2666 and A Whole New Mind on Landmark and Flipkart respectively.Here is how they fared:Comparison ChartFlipkartLandmarkReasonPackagingExcellentGoodF: Books plastic wrapped and enclosed in cardboard boxL: Only cardboard box was used which led to the book’s cover being damagedShipping ratesFreePaid-Customer SupportGoodExcellentL: Immediately replaced the damaged book (scratched book cover), got the old book collected and super follow-up over phone & emailF: The book was out of stock. No initial email regarding this was sent. Although, on further inquiry they were quick to send a follow-up emailHope this helps all the Indian bibliophiles out there.Disclaimer: The above comparison chart is based on my personal experience and your experience may differ.

I had already got my hands dirty with iPhone development (thanks to Evan/Alan, more about them in my earlier post) but I thought it was time to really dig in. So, I bought an iPhone development license.  Unfortunately, Apple store is not available in India yet but they had this mechanism in place where in I could fax them the details (surprisingly, no e-mail).Yes, the good old fax - it must have been at least 10 years since I last used the fax for any purpose whatsoever. It took four days for them to process it and then I got a confirmation with the invoice. The moment I got the mail, I jumped onto the site and downloaded the iPhone 3.0 Beta 5 firmware. I am still exploring the 3.0 and will post more details soon. If you need to register, check out the Apple iPhone developer program here.

For those of you who do not already know, Stanford has made available videos of lectures of their iPhone Application Programming course CS193P on iTunes U. It is an excellent resource if you are thinking of starting with iPhone development. The problem was that I was not able to download the podcasts as it did not have a resume feature. My ISP is not very reliable and has intermittent disconnections. So, every time there is a disconnection the download would start again from the beginning.I contacted Stanford and Brent from Stanford suggested that I use some other podcast aggregator (apart from iTunes). I used Juice to download podcasts and it worked like charm. Thanks Brent for your valuable input. As for the podcasts, Alan and Evan are doing a terrific job. Keep up the good work!!!

The Macbook’s 13" glossy screen is awesome but there are times when one wishes that the screen was bigger especially when watching movies. So, I decided to do a little bit of poking around to find out about connecting the Macbook to my 32" Sony Bravia HDTV. Here’s how I did it:Step 1: Knowing the essentials Find out the display adapter that you will need for your Macbook. Check if your HDTV supports HDMI connectivity. Refer user manual or physically examine the back of your TV and look for  HDMI input.Step 2: Getting the stuff I would recommend buying the Macbook Mini-DVI to DVI display adapter from Apple Store ($19). Get a DVI (Male) to HDMI (Male) cable for hooking up the output of Macbook to your TV ($7). Buy a Stereo to 2 RCA cable (as HDMI cable produces only video output). In case you don’t buy the RCA cable, you will hear audio from your Macbook instead of your HDTV ($1.6) I got the stuff from Lamington road but its also available on eBay. Check out the links above for product listing.Step 3: Putting it all together Connect your Mini-DVI to DVI adapter to your Mini-DVI port on Macbook. Insert the DVI end of the DVI to HDMI cable into the DVI output of the display adapter. Connect the HDMI end of the cable into the HDMI input of your HDTV. Hook up the Stereo input of the cable in the headphone jack of Macbook and the 2 RCA outputs to the audio inputs present under HDMI video input (on Sony Bravia). Set your Display preferences under Settings to Mirror displays. You can also configure your HDTV’s resolution under the same preference pane.Note: I am using an early 2008 White Macbook and it has a Mini-DVI port. The tutorial considers this case. If you are using the Late 2008 Macbook models, it has the newer Mini-Display port. For more information check out the KB articles HT1562 & HT3388.Bigger is better! Definitely!

Apparently Microsoft has one more feather up its cap, it now can proudly claim that it not only sucks at Vista (as mentioned previously) but also at marketing. The new Get a Mac ad’s completely knock out the silly Laptop Hunters ad’s by Microsoft. If you don’t believe me, see for yourself.Check out the Mac & MS ad’s on Youtube:  Biohazard, Legal Copy, Stacks & Time Traveler (Get a Mac) and  Ad 1 & Ad 2 (MS Laptop Hunters).

I had recently attended a live concert (a mind blowing one at that) and started to tag the songs using the super music application Shazam. Unfortunately, I used my iPhone 3G so extensively that it ran out of battery. I decided to look for a backup battery which would help in such emergency situations and picked up ‘Mobile Power Station’. It is also available in India on eBay (although I did not buy it from eBay).[caption id=“attachment_215” align=“aligncenter” width=“150” caption=“MPS Package”][/caption]Here are the Technical Specifications of MPS (for folks interested in them): Battery type: Lithium-ion Dimension: 625212 Weight: 40 g Capacity: 1000 mAh Input: 5V 800mA Output: 5V 500mBackup battery helps you in 2 situations:1. Extended usage: You want to use your iPhone for a extended period (instead of the 5.5 hours).2. Emergency usage: You just forgot to charge your iPhone and have to go out, no electricity at home or battery is just about to die kind of situations.Note for iPhone Gamers: Playing games (in landscape mode) when charging would become difficult as the on-screen game controls would be out of reach of your fingers due to increase in height of the device after inserting the MPS in the connector slot.I bought a black MPS to match my iPhone 3G’s colour. It looks nice and is bound to attract fingerprints as it has a glossy finish. You can carry it around in your pocket as it’s light and portable. I charged the MPS completely (blue illuminated indicators show the progress) in about 2 hours time. MPS does not ship with an iPhone connector cable and you will have to use your own to charge the MPS.[caption id=“attachment_214” align=“aligncenter” width=“150” caption=“MPS in action”][/caption]iPhone uses a 1150 mAh battery and MPS has a capacity of 1000mAh, so it provides around 87% additional juice or around 4-4.5 hours of extra juice depending upon your usage. I also tried testing it by completely draining my iPhone battery (till the connect to power supply icon appears) and charged it from MPS. MPS was able to charge the iPhone to around 80-85% of the battery bar.MPS is currently retailing for INR 1250 on eBay and is definitely good value for money. Since iPhone can do innumerable things, it’s battery is bound to drain out quickly. Having additional battery is always advisable so that you do not stay away from using your favourite gadget.

“As I am writing these lines I am using a Macintosh, by Apple, after years of using Microsoft-based products. The Apple technology is vastly better, yet the inferior software won the day. How? Luck [emphasis mine]”- NNT.A year ago, I was impressed by Leopard and decided to go for a Macbook. And after a year of utopia living with the Mac, all Vistas of Windows are closed.

Here are some of the reasons so as to why the Mac platform rocks:

Design - Pardon me for mentioning it for the umpteenth time but the Macbook just looks so beautiful. If it was so easy then why are the other companies not able to replicate the design prowess of Apple? How much would the best Industrial designer in the world cost? Why are there so many ugly products on the market? Watch the documentary Welcome to Macintosh for more. Ease of use - Doing simple things is just as they should be - simple. For example Connecting to Wireless networks, Sharing data, setting up your own website and backing up using Time Machine is a snap. Immune to

Viruses (almost) - No annoying viruses and other malware lurking around in your system. If proper caution is observed, there is even no need of installing an anti-virus. Check out the relevant articles at PCMech and Wired. Quicksilver - It’s the mother of all application launchers and much more.

Difference in User Interface - Megan Fox (Mac) & Jodie Foster (Windows, no offense to her).

Stability - Mac is rock solid at the core. It crashed on me only five times in an entire year.

iLife - The complete multimedia package ships free with Mac.

Windows support (if required) - Ability to run Windows XP natively as well as virtually (a bit more secure). If I had to, I would personally prefer running Windows on VMware Fusion.

iPhone - If you are developing applications for the best mobile platform on the planet then you need a Mac.

Spotlight - Find what you seek. Immaculate. The Mac community - The Mac community in spite of being minuscule in comparison to its counterpart is extremely active and supportive. You will find every bit of information you require in Mac forums.

Vista SUCKS - Sorry but there are no two ways about it. It’s the biggest mistake of the biggest software company in the world. There is an article about it on ZDnet and results of the poll conducted by them are as below (funny):So, which do you think is the true reality? Vista really does suck (68%) It’s a perception that Vista really does suck (32%)Total Votes: 4,812I have just touched upon a few prominent features. There is an extensively researched and informative article with about 50 reasons about switching to Mac here.

Reasons under which you might consider not switching to Mac:

Avid Gamer: Unfortunately not many game titles are available for Mac platform.

Corporate environment: MS is dominant in this area and Apple as of now has not been able to penetrate into corporate markets as much as they would have liked to but this might change very soon.As for others, toss your Windows machine in the garbage and start over with a shining new Macbook (as in Californication).

If you don’t mind the minimal learning curve, make the switch. Once you switch, you will also (like me) shut the doors on Windows.

I love my Macbook. It’s been almost a year and it was time to extend my 1 year’s warranty provided with the purchase. The cheapest deal for Apple Protection Plan for Macbook is available on Amazon for USD 199. You can buy the warranty from Amazon and register online at Apple’s website. Macbook works like a charm and I have no plans of selling or discontinuing its usage. So, I  extended the warranty just in case there is some hardware issue/malfunction. Here are some of the reasons so as to why you should consider buying an extended warranty: Since you will be travelling around with your Macbook, there would be chances of it getting damaged during transit. Peace of mind for an additional 2 years as Apple’s support is ranked as the best among notebooks by Consumer reports. Apple provides Global warranty/support for all its products. Better resale price in case you want to sell your Macbook. In case of recurring repairs or damage of expensive hardware (like display), the cost of repairing may far exceed the price that you pay for the warranty.It’s always better to protect your investments rather than pay for repairing a broken product. I had 2 dead gadgets after my recent travel- camera and hard drive. Thankfully both were covered under warranty :).

Apple does it! It fixes all the overdue minor annoyances and delivers some new outstanding features in iPhone 3.0. I was following this live on Gizmodo and Engadget. Thanks guys, you were awesome. iPhone 3.0 releases this summer and it’s a free update for all iPhone users. Here are some of the features which stand out among the 100-odd announced by Apple: Cut, Copy & Paste: It got the loudest cheers and is number one on my list. Spotlight search: Search across applications. MMS A2DP Bluetooth: Feel free to use your Bluetooth Headsets. Push Notification: Apple can push badge, text or audio updates without running any processes in background. Peer-to-Peer: Connectivity among iPhones and iPod Touch for playing games, sharing contacts and so on. Turn by Turn: Enables you to get turn by turn direction on your phone. Landscape Keyboard: Bigger keyboard with more space between keys now available for use across applications. Voice Memos Third-Party Accessory Apps: Manufacturers can built an interface to link a any device to iPhone using the connector. For example, you can connect a sphygmomanometer to the iPhone connector which communicates with the app built to keep track of your blood pressure. In-App purchasing: Allows developer the freedom to charge for an additional level in a game or an additional city guide in a Travel application. More: Forward SMS Delete individual SMS Mail multiple photos Auto-fill WiFi autologin Anti-phising Enhanced Calendar Tethering: Consists of 2 parts - Client side has been implemented in 3.0. Talks on for Carrier side implementation.Update: iPhone 3.0 preview event video posted online by Apple - snipurl.com/e23r2

I started reading the book The Black Swan yesterday (thanks to a friend who got bored of the book and lent it to me) and I came across this beautiful, beautiful concept - about idea and labour jobs. The two can be classified by citing an example which involves J.K. Rowling and a baker. Surprised? So was I. As we all know, J.K. Rowling had come up with this magical fantasy adventure series of books - Harry Potter (personally, a fan). Coming back to the point, if the book sells one copy or a million copies, the effort required from the author is the same. She had to generate the idea. The idea can be replicated with the help of printing press for mass distribution of books. So, it requires a one-time effort from the author. This type of job is classified as an Idea-generating one.In contrast, the baker who prepares the cake has to work hard on each and every  cake that he is going to prepare. His effort is required on each and every cake sold by the bakery. This kind of job is a Labour job.Similarly, USA mostly exports IT labour jobs to India. The important point here is that the idea jobs are scalable - once you have an idea it can be mass distributed or replicated using technology but labour jobs are not scalable. A person would be physically required to do the job. So, this is what gives USA the creative edge as they work on the scalable and thinking parts of the project.My previous project resembled an IT labour job-project. I never felt that way for my other projects but I did not like my previous project. I always knew the reason for it but I could never explain it as impeccably to people. I could not put words to it. But now I CAN and so, here it is.  THANK YOU Taleb!

My old theme took a lot of time to come through as I had designed it from scratch but it was hampering the readability of the site. So, I was thinking of designing a new theme based on Apple’s site. Fortunately, I just bumped into this theme by Pagelines and there was no way I could resist using it. So, here it is- the new theme. Feel free to comment ;).