AH_link

test link

iPad mini - Why? Just Why?

I need to get this out of my system. Ever since Apple launched the iPad mini, it has been irking me and I almost assumed that all reviews would bring this up, but to my surprise no one did. Instead what we get are fawning pieces like this, this and this. No one asked the most important question: Why? What is the raison d'être for this device?

Before I get any further, let me put out a few confessions about myself. I am an avowed Apple critic, turned loyalist. I've a couple of Macbooks and an iPhone. And not just that, I literally put my money where my mouth was. I bought and still hold Apple stock. And I absolutely made a killing with it. But somehow I never bought into an iPad even though I came pretty close on a few occasions. I never could justify it in my daily lifestyle since I already had a kindle for my reading. But I could totally see it as an able laptop replacement and a great all-in-one home/travel device for browsing, reading & entertainment. For years, Steve Jobs had resolutely refused to create a 7" version of the iPad saying that it would be a compromise and made no sense. In fact here's a famous speech of his he essentially called 7" devices-dead-on-arrival! Of course, the iPad mini is 7.9" and therefore some diehard defenders might say it isn't a compromise. Well, I don't buy that bull crap, not one bit. If a 7" tablet doesn't make sense, then a 7.9" one is even worse, considering the fact that the iPad has a 9.7"screen.

Honestly, here's whats probably happened. Post-Jobs, the Apple board is now stronger and probably demanded from the management why they weren't tapping the 7" market after the success of the Kindle Fire and, to an lesser extent, that of the Google Nexus 7. The management, of course, capitulated and came out with the iPad mini. The only reason they made it 7.9" is because they wanted to maintain the 16:9 resolution of the iPad, so apps can run without any modification. They put an inferior screen (the only current generation Apple product without a retina display), tacked an older processor, with lesser RAM and called it the next best thing! In all fairness, there is no doubt in mind that the new iPad mini is still a great product, beautifully built, with great battery life and will be a overall great experience. And no one will notice the lack of retina anyways. They could have at least had the guts to go out and price it at $250 or even better $200 and completely wiped out the Kindle fires and Nexuses. It would have been game, set & match for Apple. But they played it safe with a device that will sell millions but probably won't dominate the segment like the iPhone & iPad did before. It most likely will also end up cannibalizing a lot of the iPad sales.

I love my Apple products but they all have a specific purpose. This one doesn't.

Nexus 4 vs Iphone 5

Google launched their Nexus 4 in a quiet fashion, after their event in NY was cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy. However that doesn't mean, the device is a quiet or an insignificant one. This is the 4th iteration in the Nexus phone family and along with the Nexus 10 that was launched too, Google now has a full range of devices. But the big question is how does it stand up against Apple's iPhone 5 which was launched just a few weeks ago. Lets find out:

Round 1: Looks

Admit it, you want a new device for the swag. I know a lot of Apple loyalists shed tears when the iPhone 4S came in the same body of the iPhone 4.

The round is a almost a wash. The Nexus 4 has a grazed pattern covered with a glass surface which gives it a fairly unique look, but the brushed aluminum back of the iPhone 5 takes the honors. I'm not going to waste any time comparing the front which is basically a slab of capacitative touchscreen.

Round 2: Specs

Seriously don't bother. All you need to know is they are both great devices with top of the line hardware and software. These badasses are faster than anything your brain can process. If you want raw numbers, here you go

Of the things that matter the big difference is LTE. For some mind boggling reason, Google decided to leave out LTE in the Nexus 4. So it would be available only on T-mobile's shitty HSPA+ service. Nothing they say can absolve them of this omission. But on the flip side that allows them to sell the device unlocked for only $299! That is a amazing price for a top of the line smartphone if you don't need LTE or live in a region with limited or no coverage.

Round 3: OS

iOS 6 vs Android 4.2 is a tough one to call. Honestly its so subjective. If you like Apple's minimalism, walled garden approach, iTunes (you cannot like it, you're most likely trapped in it) and more or less have bought into the Apple ecosystem then iOS6 is a great evolution. The iCloud integration seems much more natural now and all the features you loved from before are refined and better. Passbook and Maps are two new additions. Now I know Maps has received a lot of hate and Apple even had to apologize publicly for it. But honestly my experience has been great so far and Apple Maps with Voice navigation is DEFINITELY BETTER than Google maps with no voice.

Jellybean on other hand has added a ton of bells and whistles to Icecream sandwich and if you're still using Gingerbread, this device is will be almost unrecognizable to you. It is slick, smooth, buttery and has Google maps with Navigation! It also has something called Google Now which kicks Siri's ass when you compare the AI prowess behind it.

Conclusion

Here's the deal, if you love your Apple devices and are happy with the ecosystem iPhone 5 is your next phone. But if you want to take a jump to the other side, Nexus 4 is the best device to come out of the Android club (sorry GSIII).

IVR, helpdesk, CRM and Customer Service for Dummies

For many small businesses or startups life is all good till it comes to customer service or providing support. When suddenly the volume of calls and emails start going up way more than what a 2-3 person team (usually the business owner or founders) can handle. Suddenly the barrier to increasing scale seems more and more difficult to handle. Thats why a lot of businesses and startups think it is critical have a lot of money upfront or get funding for any idea that is B2C or retail focussed. And till a few years back that was indeed true. All IVR, phone systems and Customer service solutions were targeted towards the big enterprise markets. There were no easy to use yet powerful and scalable solutions for SMBs.

Vegas, Baby!

The guys from Hipmunk not just are focussed on building the most awesome travel site, but also have a little fun here and there. A group of college buddies have been planning to do a Vegas trip for the holidays. I was looking up tickets and when the search came through, instead of mentioning the airport of the location (in this case LAS) Hipmunk had replaced it with 'Vegas, baby!'. Love it when companies have easter eggs in their products. Remember Google Maps' Japan route :)

Why I'm Sticking With Spotify v/s Google Music, iTunes, Rdio and Amazon

Since Spotify launched in the US back in July 2011, I've been a convert and now a devout user of the service. I had managed to get an invite when they launched in private beta and was impressed by the execution of the desktop app. It was slick and simple to use. Of course the most important thing for me was their extensive collection of music. Not only did they have all the popular titles and artists, but they also carried a lot of indie and foreign music. Of special interest to me was their collection of Indian music. Not just Bollywood, but also carnatic, hindustani, pop and regional stuff.

Spotify Desktop App

Fun With Ngrams: Rise and Fall of Keywords

With the Ngram viewer tool from Google, you can create visualizations comparing the usage of words over time. The data comes from the book scanning project by Google. The data is available for anyone to download and analyze. And as they keep scanning more books, they will appending the data. So have fun playing around. Here are a few I did


Rise and Fall of World Powers:

The big 3 Steve Jobs tributes

Google Plus After The Dust has Settled Down: Bullet points: Part 1

By now everyone and their mother has heard about Google+ and has probably looked over their inbox for that invite if they haven't joined already. It is quite an elaborate beta test with over 18 million users. Needless to say this is indeed Google's best foray into the elusive 'Social' club of which the only member is Facebook(I still am not sure about Twitter's domain as social network). So having used Google+ for over a month now, here are my thoughts:

Windows Phone 7 - HTC HD7 - Review And Thoughts

It's been over a month since I got the HTC HD7 with Windows Phone 7 on it. I've been a loyal T-mobile customer for over 3 years now and this was their only WP7 handset. There had been a lot of excitement about Microsoft's reaaallllly delayed entrance into the smartphone space (Windows mobile 6.0 and 6.5 were just pathetic attempts to shoehorn their existing OS against the iPhones and Androids). I for one strongly believed that there was definitely space for a third alternative to Apple and Google. As much as I wished for Palm and webOS to succeed, it wasn't the case to be (HP has since bought Palm and doesn't seem to have had much success with it).

First Impressions