India's Shame- Sochi Winter Olympics 2014

    It’s been more than a year since the International Olympic committee (IOC) suspended the Indian Olympic Association for violating its charter, and doing things like electing leaders with pending criminal charges, well we keep doing that all the time in India don’t we. But the thing is the IOC gave these bumbling buffoons a deadline to fix the entire mess and guess what, they didn’t and it doesn’t look as if it’s going to be fixed anytime before the 7^th of February which is the date of the opening ceremony of the Sochi Olympics.  

So what does it mean?

    There are three Olympic contenders representing India in this winter Olympics, but they won’t be able to fly the Indian Flag in the opening ceremony of the Olympics, and will be walking under the Olympic banner and neither will they be able to wear the Indian insignia anywhere on their person. So basically they will be like independent athletes representing no country. The Indian national anthem will not be played if the win medals. Basically there won’t be any India in the Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia. 

This basically reduces the status of India from a functioning (so called functioning) democracy to a banana republic. We are now officially in the same league as South Africa was once put in when it had Apartheid practiced and other nations in the world facing civil war and with no effective recognized government. The more frustrating of funny thing, I don’t know what expression to give it, maybe just plainly stupid thing is that the IOC had given our moronic ministers or administrators until the 7^th of February to hold the elections and what do they do they schedule the election on February 9^th , two days after the opening ceremony. Now, if that’s not moronic what is?

The curious case of North Korea

    However, having said that and yes I don’t mean to justify the position taken by the moronic morons of the Indian Olympic Association in any way. I just want to ask something out of general curiosity to the IOC. How, in the world do you verify the credibility of the North Korean Olympic Association ? Do you take a personally signed letter from the leader of the country to say that the North Korean Olympic Commitee or Olympic Committee of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as it is called has followed or follows all the rules framed by the IOC to elect their committee leader? 

Shame Shame

    Okay North Korea was just a mention, I don’t want to dwell on it that’s for the IOC to think or consider. What’s appalling here is the behaviour of the officials of the IOA. They seem least bothered of the fact , whether the Indian Tricolour flies high or not in the winter Olympics. They simply don’t care.  One of the factors contributing to this official apathy maybe that we have just 3 athletes in the winter Olympics, maybe if we had as many athletes in the winter Olympics as we have in the summer version, then there would have been more noise in the country with a of of political parties jumping into the fray for free publicity. That would in turn have led to the IOA officials being forced to react.

But, that’s not the case here, and we will have to see our athletes representing us in their hearts and minds and with no national insignia. For one of the world’s largest democracy that is a shameful fact. These athletes sweat their heart out to try and reach that stage and once they reach the Olympic stage, they try their best to bring glory to their nation. Shouldn’t we as Indians be ashamed of the fact that our sportsmen are being treated in such a manner or should we just ignore it as it has nothing to do with cricket? We go for a lot of demonstrations and candle marches for a lot of pressing issues, don’t you think their case requires our support.  As, an Indian I feel ashamed about the way the country’s’ athletes are treated from time to time, when will we as Indians try and raise our voice against this official apathy and babudom.

Smartphones are taking over the world

Mobile Phones, in the last ten years they have become synonymous with our life. I mean most of us can’t imagine a life without them. The keep us so connected to everyone. First came the Phone calls and SMS’s , then came the messaging services , then came social networking sites on phones. In the past few years there has been a revolution in the mobile phone industry , all thanks to Apple and its iPhone. From being devices to talk and message , the humble mobile phone changed completely and became capable of doing a variety of things, like money transfer , painting , gaming, video editing, photography, eBook reader, and a lot more. The iPhone started the revolution which made the mobile phone a Smart Phone.

Everything on my Phone

Now, this is not about which phone you have, it might be Android or IOS or Windows, but if you own a smart phone there are a variety of things you can do with them, which undoubtedly makes life a lot easier to live. These smart phones give us a lot of conveniences, like what I mentioned earlier; let’s say you suddenly remember that it’s the last day to pay your power bill and you are out enjoying a holiday, guess what you have your phone in your pocket , you can take it out and use it to pay your bills. Putting a reminder on your Smartphone would have ensured that you don’t miss paying your bill or for that matter it can even ensure that you don’t miss your anniversary or your wife’s birthday. For, these things you won’t even need a reminder, if these things are mentioned on facebook or any other online forum which is synced with your phone then the phone will remind you automatically.  That apart you can do all sorts of other things like

·         Check the latest stock prices or Gold prices.

·         Listen to the latest Music or the Golden Oldies.

·         Play some Amazing Games.

·         Connect with almost everyone on the planet via social networking platforms.

·         Educational apps help you study.

·         Stay updated of the latest News and happenings.

·         Learn a new recipe.

·         Search for the nearest restaurant or places of interest, this can be done sometimes by just pointing the camera of the phone in a particular direction. 

Well, this list could be endless, that’s why the phone is called a Smartphone.

                So, how smart is the Smartphone, well if you ask me, really Smart, from what I am seeing its able to control not just everything happening in our lives, but our lives as well. What in the world am I talking about, well read on 

Everyone on their Phones

Whenever, you travel, by travel I mean just stepping out of the house, just try to observe the people around you, you’ll find that most of them are glued to their phones, Board a bus or a train, people are sitting there inside the bus or train with you but are someplace else. Some are listening to music, but most of them you’ll find are just looking into their phones. I mean we all travel to work or for personal purposes daily and we let the world pass by. We, never pay any attention to what’s happening around us anymore, we just look into our phones and are happy in our own world.  Some time ago I was standing at a railway platform with a friend or mine, when he told me, “Hey look I just read on twitter someone was hit by a train right here on this station, and guess what we realized that we were standing about 10 meters away from the point where the incident had happened. There was a crowd of people surrounding the injured man. Thankfully, he was just slightly hit by the train and looked woozy, no major damage dome. The point is we were standing right there but we never realized that something had happened and we actually needed a Smartphone to tell us that.  But, that’s the reality now a day’s more than news papers Twitter has become the fastest news channel in the world. Even when the American special forces went to capture Osama Bin Laden it was a Tweet that diverted the world’s attention towards it. The point which I am trying to stress here is that we are a lot into our phones, people are always doing something or the other , even when travelling , we are just looking into the screen, playing games , scrolling twitter feeds, making  a comment on facebook, sending a message on whatsapp and lots of other things. 

Social Disconnect

When was the last time you sat with your family or friends and had a healthy discussion or friendly banter for 15 minutes without looking into or looking for your phone? Yesterday or ever other day, congratulations you are in control of your life, if not your phone is controlling you. What the growth of Social media has done is made us forget about the people who are close to us, who live with us. Yes but that’s the harsh truth when it comes to the smart phones. Even when we are home , we tend to have the phone in our hand. We are either playing games, or on social networking platforms, chatting with someone far far away while ignoring those who are sitting with us.

                Things are simple as watching T.V. together have become a rarity, even when the whole family is sitting together watching television we might end up staring into the screen of our Smartphone. That’s how we are getting disconnected with those who are close to us. Social networking platforms, help us connect with a lot of people, they have their advantages, but they are leading to a social disconnect in the real worlds. Nowadays, the son doesn’t know his mom or for that matter the mom doesn’t know her son is, she might have to look at his facebook account to see where he has checked in. The simple pleasures of a simple phone call have become a rarity. We use our phone to call people mostly when we have some work or when we need something. The concept of a call to ask how are you is gone, we just Whatsapp that. 

The world is passing by

                The world is passing by while you are glued to your phone and zoned out. When was the last time you looked out of the window of the bus or train you are travelling in? Have you observed the vibrant colors or shades surrounding you. Have you seen the beauty that surrounds you or for that matter the person sitting next to you on the bus or train. As, we spend more and more time just playing around with our phones and living in the virtual world disconnected from the real world we fail to realize that we are missing out on lots of things around us. If you really try to analyze and you find that you do spend more time in a day on your phone than talking to real people then you really need to start drawing the line. The line where you will self consciously tell yourself to drop that phone and get talking to real people on a face to face basis and get connected to the real world.  

There is beauty all around you

The fact of the matter is that Smartphone are good, any technology or advancement in technology is good for us as it gives us a lot of conveniences and makes our lives a lot easier to live. But, there is point till where that is true, when you start to realize that your fascination with the technology is becoming an addiction that is when you need to step back a little. Next time you travel try keeping your phone inside your bag and try to see what is going on around you, I am sure you’ll find a lot of people looking into their phones, ignore that, look at other things, observe people, surroundings. Try to find beauty in this world. Try interacting with real people, spend some time with your family, and understand that being there with people should mean really being there and not just being present and being mentally someplace else. Try it and you’ll know what you have been missing.

Phone Review Nokia Lumia 525

The Nokia Lumia 525 is here , so what’s new in it. The Lumia 520 is without doubt one of the best selling Smartphone’s of the Lumia range. Other than being the best selling smartphone, the 520 has also been working as a gateway to the windows phone platform because of its affordability. Let’s, try and compare the Lumia 520 and the Lumia 525 

 I mentioned in my earlier talk about the windows operating system that as far as the OS is concerned it tends to run very smoothly even with the some decent processors and does not require too much RAM. About, 512MB RAM is enough to make it run pretty well. Well with 512, the windows operating system runs pretty well, but it’s the graphic intensive games that become a problem as they simply refuse to run on the 512MB RAM, so that’s where Nokia decided to upgrade the hardware , so that graphic intensive games will be able to run smoothly on the 525. 

Build and Design

The Lumia 525 doesn’t differ much when it comes to design from the 520. The only difference is maybe the back panel which is of matte finish in the 520 and of glossy finish in the 525 . The panels are however interchangeable, and  you can attach a glossy panel to your 520 if you wish to. Apart from this, the screen size is same 4 inches, with a 800x480p resolution, which does make the pictures and text appear a little bit pixelated, but if you go and look at the other phones in the similar price range you will find the 525 to be a better choice. The phone weighs the same as the 520 and does feel pretty strong and durable if you hold it. On the right edge of the phone you will find the lock/power, camera and the volume control keys. And like all windows phones you will find the capacitive keys for home, back and search right below the screen.  

Hardware

The Lumia 525 is powered by the same 1GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 which powers the Lumia 520 , but the difference is the RAM which is 1GB , which is almost double that of the 520 which sports 512MB RAM. The internal storage is 8GB and you can extend the storeage upto 64GB using a SD card. Like all windows devices you get Skydrive storage. The connective is same as the Lumia 520 that is 2G, 3G and Wi-Fi and the battery is same as well.  

Software

Software is Windows Phone 8 with the usual custom made look from Nokia with Nokia specific apps like Here Maps, Nokia Misic, Smart Shoot and Cinemagraph. The Windows Phone 8 OS is the updated version with the Black Update already installed. It does come with some of the features of the black update like better multitasking ability and double tap to wake up , but there is no glance screen . Wondering what the Black Update is , here follow this link and let Nokia tell you.

http://www.nokia.com/global/windows-phone-black-update/

Apps like Flipkart and BigFlix come preloaded and Gameloft games are available for free download with your 525 and better still the 525 because of the 1GB RAM is able to run the graphic intensive games. So, now you can play Assassin’s Creed and Asphalt 8 effortlessly. A lot of India specific apps like M-Indicator and various bank apps are now available on the windows phone platform so the selection of apps are pretty decent. The App market of the Windows Phone universe is still growing and will take some more time to be as comprehensive like the Google Store and IOS app market.  

Performance

Windows Phone as an Operating system is something which does not require too many resources to run smoothly and while navigating the menus you find it to be pretty fluid and smooth. As far as games like Temple Run 2  go they run pretty smoothly because of the upgraded RAM and Nokia’s Gamble of keeping the same processor seemed to have paid off.  At the price point at which you will be able to buy this phone, no Android phone will come close when it come to performance.

Camera

 The camera is the same as the 520 and is able to take good or should I say decent images in outdoor and sunlight filled places. It’s in low light conditions that you will get grainy pictures. I seriously feel that an LED flash would have been a pretty good enhancement to the camera. What the 520 lacked in terms of camera was a Flash , which sadly is same for the 525. A Flash would have made it possible to click pictures in low light and in the night. So here once the sun sets the picture quality goes for a toss. No front camera is again a drawback and reduces the usability of Skype. The Nokia Camera app app is part of the standard features of this phone, I just wish the camera would have complimented it.

Verdict

I would say that the entry level Windows phone got better with the 1GB RAM upgrade, which allows you to play more games than before. The latest build of the Windows OS also improves the user experience a bit. The pricing is a little above Rs 10000 which is tad bit more expensive than the 520 which is priced somewhere between Rs 7000 to Rs 8000, but if you miss the gaming experience in the 520 then it’s time to upgrade to the 525. Well if gaming is not your thing then the 520 is also a pretty decent phone with almost all the other apps and functions remaining the same.