Aditya Agarwal

My life's adventures with Macs, iPhones, iPads and other gizmos. I am a Mac freak and geek… Windows users, keep out.

[adityaagarwal-blog]

OS X Yosemite (10.10) comprehensive feature list (Updated)

Hello fellows,

If you have been following OS X releases closely since the last few years, the major gripe which users had was that Apple for not doing enough for OS X. We all felt that OS X had taken a back seat and iOS was all that mattered.

On 2nd June 2014 at the WWDC, Apple proved us wrong. And for good.

Apple introduced OS X Yosemite at the WWDC, with the largest ever feature list I have seen in recent years.

Since there are tons of new features I will keep updating this post regularly with my new findings. Here is the current List as of 5th June 2014. 

* The new UI in Yosemite

New UI: OSX Yosemite gets a complete UI makeover. The new UI is colourful and fresh with similarities to iOS 7/8. The system gets a new font which is crisp and modern. The system gets flatter icons. The new look is both beautiful and more functional. 

* The new font in Yosemite 

2. Continuity - This packs the major feature upgrades in Yosemite. 

Phone Calls: Receive phone calls on your mac, without bothering to reach out for you iPhone. You can even reply to callers with SMS/iMessage

SMS's on your Mac: People who have bought "other" phones by mistake and do not possess an iPhone, send you regular SMS's instead of an iMessage. This is bothersome as they do not appear on your mac. But now you can receive and reply to this SMS's right from the Mac. When you delete a SMS on the Mac, it gets deleted on the iphone as well. 

Handoff: Imagine this. You are writing an email on your iPhone and you walk up to your computer and continue typing that same email on your mac, exactly where you left off on the iPhone. Without the need for going into mail's saved drafts. And you can do the same thing with any Handoff aware app. This is convenience at best.

3. New Safari: Apple revamped safari with a new design, faster Javascript and better use of resources. The new safari is sleek and a delight to use. 

* The new Safari

* The new tab view in Safari

* Safari now suggests frequently visited sites on the toolbar

4. New Mail: The Mail app gets the new UI makeover. It also gets some slick features like "Attachment Markup" and "Mail drop" are a boon to users.

Mail drop allows users to seamlessly send attachments to other users upto 5GB in size. Mail bypasses the SMTP server for sending the attachment and instead sends the attachments through Apple's servers. 

Attachment Markup, lets you annotate images right in the message window. 

5. New Messages app: The new messages lets you carry on conversations with both iMessages and regular SMS's.

6. Notification Center: Notification centre gets an upgrade with support for widgets, today view and the ability to interact with notifications. For e.g.: you can reply to an message in the NC itself. Or probably mark a task as finished.

7. New Spotlight search: Love the new spotlight. It pops up right in the middle of the screen, searches for both local and web content. Does currency conversions, and unit conversions. Does math too.

8. iCloud Drive: Getting a file sync service like Dropbox from Apple was something we all wanted. Its here now. And with a great pricing. Unlike before now you can store all your documents on iCloud Drive and sync across Macs, iPhones and iPads. 

9. Instant Hotspot: Macs can now seamlessly connect to your iphone for data in case there is no WIFI/Cellular Data available. Users do not have to turn on personal hotspot manually. The Mac will automatically detect your iphone is nearby and connect to it. 

10. Airdrop: You can now airdrop files between Mac and iOS. Like it was supposed to be. 

11. New useful reminders app: Now you can add specific times to reminders, like "every last Saturday" and "First day of the week". Much more useful. 

Below are the list of other features discovered (List updated as discovered):

Group conversations, add user and mute.

New Finder Icon (Adorable)

New Boot Screen

New login screen background

Photo Booth is no longer there

Bing replaces Google as Spotlight Search Engine

Ability to write a PDF Signature

24 new dictation languages

The dock 'fills up' when minimizing a window

Dark mode for "Professional Users"

You can plug in an iOS 8 device and record audio and video. (Updated 6th May 2014)

Mail now suggests contact information of the sender. The data is pulled from the mail server it seems. (Updated 6th May 2014)

* Last updated: 6th May 2014.

[adityaagarwal-blog]

The newly launched Blackberry is the last cry for survival from Blackberry Inc (Formally RIM). I have with me the White UK factory unlocked version and today I put it through the paces. This is the most exhaustive Blackberry Z10 Review till now.

Its both a surprise and a bit of disappointment. Mostly a surprise. BB seems to have done an excellent job to resurrect one of the best phones of its times. Though it is still playing the catching up game, there were a few pleasant surprises from which other mobile manufacturers could learn. 

The video will take you through my findings.

I will keep updating this post with further findings.

[adityaagarwal-blog]

Around SFO with my NEX-5N

[adityaagarwal-blog]

The New Macbook Pro with Retina Display reviewed. The world is so "Yesterday"!

Finding words to describe the first look at Apple's new Macbook Pro with Retina display, I came up with just one. Astonishing.

Over the past many years, Apple has set the standard for notebook design. This time they upped it many folds.

It just so happened that while I was attending the WWDC 2012 keynote in SFO, Phil Schiller announced the new Retina MBP. (Yeah! I do get bragging rights for being at WWDC. Its the coolest event on Earth). As he was revealing how amazing the new machine was, I could not help notice that I suddenly just wanted to get out of the keynote, rush to the nearest Apple store and check one out. But I didn't, cause a lot of other cool things were about to follow.

But I stood in a line at 6AM the next morning at the local Apple Store and managed to get me one. It was a crazy feeling of achievement. An achievement where I blew a lot of money. ;-)

So how does the new MBP compare and to its predecessors? What does this mean to Mac users? Lets take a dig.

DESIGN:

The ever so popular MBP has shed weight. And a good amount. Now it weighs just 2 Kgs, has lost the Superdrive, lost "legacy" ports and looks fitter than ever. Measuring just 0.71 inches thick, the new MBP feels a lot lighter to lug around. The enclosure is the same perfected unibody design which I believe Apple will hang on to until they can commercially use the liquid metal tech they are woking on.

DISPLAY:

Seriously. ITS GOOD. ITS BRILLIANT! Its even better than the iPhone/iPad retina displays. I am not kidding. You MUST see it to believe it. The display carries a whopping 2880x1800 pixels in 15.4 inches of sheer perfection.

Though Apple advertises the enhanced resolution, what is does not, is the HiDPI technology it uses. What HiDPI does is that it doubles the resolution of text and graphics but the desktop space is the same as before. Only super crisp. So effectively the 2880x1800 resolution is displayed as a crisp 1400x900. You also have an option to scale the display to higher effective resolution to get more desktop space whilst making things look smaller.

The retina display on the MBP outclasses every other display available on this planet and takes Apple ahead at least 2 years in this segment. Other things like colour accuracy, black levels have also improved considerably.

Though a picture wont do justice, still.... you can make out the "ZERO PIXELATION"

The retina display itself would command an upgrade to this machine, if you can spare this much mullah.

UPGRADABILITY:

Generally, I would not have discussed this. But in this case it kinda matters. The new MBP Retina is completely "non upgradable". The RAM is soldiered on to the motherboard. Though Apple was generous to give 8GB across the line. The flash storage is a proprietary design and will not work with 3rd party off market upgrades.

This might be a deal breaker to some. And some might not be bothered with this.

But whatever it is, either get the highest possible config now, or forever hold your peace.

PERFORMANCE:

The MBP uses the new Intel Ivy bridge Quad Core processors and are incredibly fast compared to the earlier machines. In fact in the Geekbench tests, it trumps the Mac Pro. This is some serious computing power.

EXPANSION PORTS: 

When Apple announced that the new MBP's have got USB 3.0 now, a lot of Windows fanboys flamed them for bringing it too late. But what Apple did better was to have a common port for USB 2.0 and 3.0. Unlike the PC/Windows Laptops which have a "BLUE" Port for USB 3.0. Seriously???? "BLUE"???.

Other than that the MBP has 2 Thunderbolt ports, enough for your data/video/expansion desires. Now that a lot of companies offer thunderbolt accessories, this is a good and welcome upgrade.

The machines also has a dedicated HDMI port. You can directly connect to your TV now and enjoy a big screen experience. Also helps a lot with presentations.

  BATTERY:

It was a challenge for Apple to drive the 5184000 pixels on this machine and still be able to provide a good battery life. The innards of the machine now has a major area dedicated to the battery. The battery still gives a claimed 7 hours backup which is pretty nice.

  ENGINEERING:

There are tons of improvement inside the machine which the average user might never come to know. They will just get used to it over time. The asymmetrical fans, the new heat ventilation system, the new logic board layout and  most importantly the Retina display in the incredibly thin enclosure. All engineering marvels.

FLASH STORAGE:

The new MBP has the same kind of flash storage that was shipping with the Macbook Air since 2010. But it is almost 200% faster. In fact it is one of the fastest available today. In all my tests I got consistent write speeds of above 400MB/s and read speeds of above 440MB/s.

  WHATS GONE:

1. Superdrive

2. Battery indicator on the outer shell

3. Firewire Port. Though there is a Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter coming out soon.

4. Ethernet Port. You need to use a TB to Ethernet adapter.

This machine is a showcase of the future Apple holds for its notebook lines. And surely within a year all notebooks from Apple would be on similar configs.

Again, this is one of the best notebooks available as of today.

[adityaagarwal-blog]

The New iPad. Reviewed.

Apple on Tuesday, announced that they sold a whopping 3 million "New iPads" on first 3 days of launch. Besides the staggering sales figure, it also shows the acceptance and love for the most successful tablet ever. But then, do we really need the new iPad? Or it is just better to save some money and get the iPad 2 with almost identical features? I'd like to share my experience and try to answer this question. As with every Apple product this is not a revolution, but a evolution of the iPad product line. Think iPhone 4S. So here goes. 1. Quad Core A5X graphics but with the same processor speed as in iPad 2 Though the New iPad has the same clock speed, the GPU has been bumped to a Quad Core config, mainly to support the enormous pixel load running the Retina Display. In my 2 days of use, the New iPad showed no speed bumps as compared to iPad 2. The graphics / games though were speedier and of course looked more beautiful.The GPU handled the most graphics intensive games with sheer ease. Dear Sony, Did you say you had a 10 Core processor in PS3? Well, the iPad kicks your PS3's behind here. 2. Retina Display Now. thats. what. I. am. talking. about. This is what sets this baby apart from the competition and probably gives a ton of headache to them. When you first turn on the iPad you can immediately feel the clarity of the screen easing your eyes. Its like Nirvana to the eyes. The display is razor sharp with no noticeable pixelation and apps/games look gorgeous. There are approx 400 apps already available which support Retina Graphics on the iPad. My favorites are Infinity Blade 2, Sky Gamblers, Flipboard and Real Racing 2. The color reproduction is also one of the best in computer / tablet displays. The display is simply astounding. When you read a book or open a web page, the sheer quality of the text amazes you with its clarity and sharpness. This is one feature which justifies getting the New iPad. What is a downside to the Retina Display? A. Apps have grown larger. Some even twice the size to accommodate the larger graphics. B. Apps not customized for iPad Retina Display, look bad. Though I am sure this will change in a few months. 3. 4G LTE Cellular Data support. This is a useless feature for us Indians, as we have not yet even settled with 3G, let alone a 4G LTE network option. For India, the New iPad works flawlessly with all Indian 3G networks. Airtel, Vodafone and Aircel have dedicated data plans for iPhone/iPad. For the rest of the carriers you need to do a custom config. But all of them work. 4. 5 MP rear Camera (The same found in the iPhone 4). The front camera remains unchanged.  The 5MP camera is definitely a huge improvement. But as a iPad user since iPad 1, I have never taken a single picture with the iPad camera. The only time I use the rear/front camera is for doing FaceTime with family and friends. Though I like the better camera quality, I am not sure if I am gonna use it on an everyday basis. For me even the iPad 2 camera was good enough for FaceTime video. Still a worthy upgrade. 5. Dictation. No Siri Yet.  The dictation function uses the same Siri Voice Technology but is limited to Voice to text conversion. It does not have the Voice command functionality as in the iPhone 4S. Probably Siri won't be that useful on the iPad in its current avatar. 6. 1080p video support The New iPad also supports the iTunes 1080p format for full HD video. Since the iTunes store is not available in India yet, purchasing and viewing content off iTunes is not an option for the Indian Market. I am about to try making my own 1080p videos and see how the iPad supports it. The new iPad is very slightly heavier and thicker. Almost unnoticeable, but still is. So the big question. DO I BUY THIS? BUY IT - If you.. 1. Use the iPad for more than 1 hour a day. It really eases the eyes in the long run. 2. love high res stuff and Full HD Videos. 3. play games on your Mac/PC on the max resolution and constantly bug friends and family for watching TV on SD format. 4. If you are still using the iPad 1. DONT BUY - If you 1. Already have an iPad 2 and are good with it. 2. want to save some money buying the cheaper iPad 2 and buy some good accessories instead. 3. are buying for your institution / company. Also keep in mind that some people won't even realize the difference in the Retina Display compared to the iPad 2 display. I showed off my New iPad to my dad and a few other elderly people and they all had the same view. "Looks the same" Is it really the new iPad?. This is the same thing that happened with the iPhone 4. Only after using the Retina Display for a while, once realizes the difference in quality.  So at the end of it all, it is a nice upgrade and where it matters the most. Apple's strength has always been in the unified hardware and software. For the most amazing things an Apple product can do, the credit goes to the Apple OS's and softwares. iOS 5.1 bought in subtle refinements, and iOS 6 should be another great step. As for the "other" tablets. PC Manufacturers still can't copy the iPad 1, let alone the latest one. Their struggle shows in the crappy hardware with unresponsive  screens they churn out. And meanwhile they can only dream of catching up with Apple, the company is busy making the future come alive with each and every product launch. I am not uploading many pictures as they do not do justice to the quality of the display. A few are shown below to show the absence of pixelation.  Namaste!

[adityaagarwal-blog]

Typical conversations with smartphone users

In the last few days I tried to note, what a typical smartphone user likes to talk about the handset he owns. Here are the most frequented lines. Note: These are real life dialogues I had in the last 30 days. Some model/versions may have faced extreme exaggeration. ;-) Typical iPhone User 1. Do you know about this new app that can do this and that? 2. Have you any news about the new iPhone 1000s? I read they are releasing it in june 2100. Can't wait to getting hands on it. I have taken a special life extension for just being able to buy that thing. 3. WHAT???? The new iPhone is 50k? FUCK you Apple. You there!! I said I want the 64GB White iPhone not the black. Android User 1. How can you NOT install a hacked OS on an iPhone. Apple is so screwed. 2. I hate the iPhone and anyone who uses it. 3. iOS is so closed. It's not OPEN. Apple is like a nanny. What if I want to install a movie wallpaper in 1080p HD on my phone?. What is I want to change the colors of the OS to a purple porn theme? Can an iPhone do that? NO. U suck U apple user. 4. I just installed the latest hacked Android "butterscotch" OS version 20.4.5.6.7.1. Feels so cool. 5. I rooted my Android to save battery life and install 100 million useless stolen apps. Isn't that awesome. Blackberry user 1. Hey! Send me a email2. Hey! This is my BBM pin The most hilarious was the average BB user. Absolutely content with his phone and eyeing the iPhone / android like a devil. Cheers

[adityaagarwal-blog]

iPhone 4S. An Indian goes on a date with Siri

How well does the iPhone 4S assistant work in India? Is it worth upgrading? What's New?We found out. No words.... best done with a video. :-) [vimeo http://vimeo.com/30784353]

[adityaagarwal-blog]

Apple brings Indian Rupee font to Mac OS Lion

Thanks to Apple for bringing the new Rupee symbol to Mac OS Lion. Here is a video on how to use it. (Thanks Mr. Neerav Kothari for the Text-Substitution tip) [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSUoOUxdZ_0] Huzzah!!!

[adityaagarwal-blog]

The complete guide to iOS 5 and how it will make your life easier...

The time is here again. Another iOS update, another frenzy and another blog post. Over the past few years every time Apple brings an iOS update, it brings along a lot of requested features and some great new capabilities to a great hardware device. Some love it, some hate it but nobody can ignore it. So lets cut to the chase. 1. Notification Center: This is a big one and a much needed one. Currently the notification system in iOS was a bit obtrusive. You were enjoying a great game of Angry Birds or writing a serious email and BOOM.... a pop showed up right in the middle of the screen with a message from some stupid marketing guy. You would have to pause whatever you were doing, read or dismiss the alert and then get back to whatever you were doing. This was not only a mood spoiler for me but sometimes distracted me from the important things. The new notification center fixes all this. Now there is a cool non obtrusive notification on the top of the screen and you can carry on doing whatever you were without being held up. There is a dedicated notification center screen which shows all your notifications from any app. This is one place you can see all your unread emails, messages, push notifications and other stuff. Also shows the local weather and stock updates in the current beta. A very welcome addition. (The notification center) 2. iMessage: Move over whatsapp. BBM your days are over. Thats what comes to mind when you first try out iMessage. So what's new here?

Auto Switch between iMessage and SMS. iMessage works on WIFI/EDGE/3G. When none are available it switched to SMS mode automatically.

When you type the number/name of a contact in the message app it will auto query if the the person is using an iOS 5 device. If they are and both parties are on a data connection, then ongoing messages will be through the iMessage system and will be FREE.

There is no need to add someone to an iMessage list as it auto detects the other users. Works seamlessly.

You can send any kind of media through iMessage. Video/Photo/Audio. Just about anything. All for FREE.

(The iMessage app. Notice it detecting the target user in the first pic) 3. Twitter Integration: iOS 5 brings Twitter integration and now you can tweet photos right from the photo app. Also twitter accounts are built into the system with the option of downloading the twitter app.

(You can now tweet pics directly) 4. Camera: The Camera app can now take pictures with the "volume up" hardware button. A much needed feature. Double tapping on the lock screen reveals a Camera icon which takes you directly to the camera app to capture those sudden moments in life.

(Notice the new camera button besides the unlock tab)

5. Photo editing: The built in Photo app now lets you edit your photos on the go.

You can rotate / crop photos

Do an Auto-Enhance

Red-Eye correction algorithm

6. Reminders: This new app brings the most missed feature in iOS. Now you can create new tasks and sync them with iCal. A complete and good looking task manager.

7. WIFI - Sync: Yes you read it right. You no longer need to connect the iPhone/iPad/iPod to sync it with your Mac/PC. Wireless sync brings effortless syncing. So whenever you are in the vicinity of the computer to which the iOS device syncs and provided you are connected to a power source, the iOS devices auto syncs to your computer. 8. iCloud: This is one of the best things to write about. iCloud is what MobileMe wanted to be but never could be and more. Check out some cool features below

Sync your Contacts, Calendars, Mail, bookmarks across all iOS devices and Macs/PC's

Automatic Downloads: When you buy an App/Song in iTunes on your computer it is automatically downloaded wirelessly on all your iOS devices. No need to manually sync them

Photo Stream: Shoot a picture on your iPhone and it will automatically appear in iPhoto on your computer and other iOS devices. Photo stream brings seamless syncing of new pictures through all computers and iOS devices. I tried it and the new photos on my iPhone instantly appeared in iPhoto on all my Macs. Apple provides free storage for this and it is completely free. The synced pictures will be kept for 30 days on Apple servers after which they will be deleted.

5 GB free storage: iCloud provides free 5GB storage which does not include photo stream. You can get more storage but you need to pay for that.

Backups: iCloud will take regular backup of your iOS devices to the cloud servers. Just in case your iPhone gets lost or you buy a new one, just enter your iCloud login on the new device and complete data will be synced back. This includes settings, SMS messages, applications, music, app data and virtually everything you had on your iPhone/iPad. A completely hassle free backup system finally.

Past purchases: Now you can see what you have bought in the past and download it again free of cost. So you can now re-download your apps, music, movies, tv shows and anything else you bought off iTunes without having to worry about losing them.

iTunes Match: Apple has a whopping 18 Million song database. So they thought that they would probably have every song you have in your library. Thus iTunes match was born. What it essentially does is that it will scan your current iTunes library and find those songs in iTunes database. Once it matches all/whatever songs it can, then you are able to download your complete library on the go. So now when you recall a lovely song which you have in iTunes but not your iPhone, you can just download it off iTunes Match. All this for a $24.99 annual fee. On another note, this will legalize your music which you have gotten from "well you know what" sources.

9. Selective Call log Delete: Yessssssssssss...... For those who want to delete "certain" calls from the call log can finally do so.

P.S Will save a lot of questioning from your wife.

10. PC Free: iOS 5 will allow setup of all iPhones/iPads/iPods without the need of a computer. When you first turn on your phone, it will allow to connect to a network and activate. You can then complete the entire setup on the phone itself. All music/apps/videos can be downloaded to the iOS device directly using "past purchases" feature. 11. New Mail: the mail client has been beefed up. Some very welcome features here.

Create new mailboxes: You can now create new mailboxes right on the phone. This was earlier possible only through the computer.

Flag Messages: Messages can be flagged right on the phone. The flags are synced to your account so they can been seen on the computer also.

Formatting: When writing a mail you can now format text in RTF format. Underline, Bold, italics and yahooooooo. :-)

Personally I think I am going to enjoy my iPhone even more. Whats your thought folks? Cheers.

[adityaagarwal-blog]

Mac OS X Lion. Reviewed...

Let me start with a quote. Rupert Murdoch on Steve Jobs, "Here we have the man who invented the personal computer, then the laptop.  He’s now destroying them.  That is an amazing life." Thats exactly what you'll feel like when you first boot into Mac OS X Lion. It destroys the conventional ways of desktop computing. As Apple stated in the last conference they have actually taken a lot of cues from the iOS and built it into Lion. And so far it looks like they have done the job brilliantly. Steve Jobs once said "We create things and stuff for people even before they know that they will need it". They did just that in the iPhone, the iPad and now Lion. So before I begin my review I would like you to know that this is just the beginning of greater things to come. The Lion Developer preview might not have all the features yet that will make it into the final release but its pretty exciting. In fact I don't want to use Snow Leopard anymore..... So here goes. 1. Installation: New findings here. Firstly we got the developer release through the Mac App Store. Which sheds light to the fact that Apple wants everything to be available through the Mac App Store now. Agree or not, but I love the convenience of using the Mac App store. So this is good. Installation was pretty straight forward and completed in flat 10 mins. The overall UI has been fine tuned to look more iOS like and looks pretty. 2. New Features:

LaunchPad: This is a new implementation which shows apps and folders exactly like the iPad/iPhone. It is slick and smooth. Even on a year old white macbook it flowed like butter. Here is a screen shot.

LaunchPad LaunchPad with Folders

Mission Control: This is a mix of Expose and spaces. Combines the two for a better feel and usability. Frankly I could never put spaces to good use ever. This I am going to use a lot, it seems. As before the screen flow and transitions are amazingly well done which you can see in the video at the end of the review. Here's how it looks.

Mission Control: Shows all apps together. Notice that full screen apps are listed at the top.

Mail 5: Apple Mail gets a UI overhaul and looks neat. Its shed its borders and bars and works just like the iPad mail now. Support for Exchange 2010 is now standard. Threaded conversations are shown is a much better view. There are a lot of under the hood improvements but what shows is the UI itself.

Apple Mail 5 Apple Mail: New Mail compose window

Enhanced Printer Setup: The Printer setup is now both faster and sleeker. As soon as you click the + icon it shows all the nearby printers. Click on the printer and the setup takes care of the rest of the stuff. It automatically downloads any drivers if required.

Printer Setup Printer Setup: Automatic driver install

New Finder View: The new view is much more efficient.

New Finder View

Unified Internet Accounts Setup: Now you have a unified windows in System Preferences where you can setup all your accounts. Just like the iPad. A welcome feature.

Internet Setup Screen

New Trackpad Gestures: In the old days it was one finger, then 2, then 3. Now you can use 4. Someday we will get to use all our ten fingers and do all sorts of magic with the Mac. Apple's hooked onto HID improvements it seems.

Trackpad Gestures

Airdrop: Ever wondered why file sharing was such a task? Airdrop takes care of that. You see another computer running Lion+Airdrop and you just throw a file at it. No setup required. Simple.

Airdrop

All New FileVault: The new FileVault lets you encrypt the entire drive instead of just the home folder. Plus it also encrypts external drives. So you are now fully secure. It also includes an option to instantly wipe the drive if you run into some serious trouble with the authorities. The wipe feature is going to appeal to a lot of people who are worried about their data going into the "WRONG HANDS" a.k.a IT Department???? Lol. I could not trace the instant wipe feature yet, but its listed on the Apple site so it will be there. Probably in the following releases.

FileVault

Versions: This nifty feature auto-saves files as you work on them. So you can go back to it a previous edited version anytime. So the next time you goof up on your excel worksheet, you can save yourself from being getting fired by your boss. ;-)

Resume: You can resume an application where you left off. The concept of opening and closing an app is gone. You no longer have the blue dot indicating that the app is running. You just run an app use it and close it.

Auto Save: Saves files automatically. No further explanation required.

Throughout the whole OS you can see interface tweaks here and there. The App Store comes pre-installed and so does FaceTime. There are some small features which are worth a mention

Auto Correct: System wide auto correct which was missing on the Mac all this while. similar to the iphone. It notifies you that the word has been autocorrected by underlining it with a blue color.

New Address Book interface: The Address book interface has been upped to match the iPads.

Spring action movements & scrolling: The whole system flows just like the iOS devices. Spring action is everywhere. Its sheer joy to use.

No Flash preinstalled: you have to download it. Just like on the Macbook Air at present.

Less resource hungry: The overall system boots, runs, and feels faster on a 2.6 C2D/4GB 15.4" MBP than running Snow Leopard on the same machine.

Power to the developers: There are some amazing new features for developers like Sandboxing (Limit access to file systems) etc. Will cover more of this sometime later maybe.

No Scroll bars: There are no visible scroll bars on any app. they only appear when you scroll and auto-hide as soon as you stop. gives more room to work and is a welcome change.

Man! Am I impressed? No. I am "floored" is more like it. Video to drool [vimeo http://vimeo.com/20364170]

[adityaagarwal-blog]

My Samsung Galaxy TAB Review.... Warning!! Its small....

It sucks..... I returned it. THE END Update: as per request here are the reasons for my rejection. 1. The galaxy is too small to be a tablet and too big to be a phone. It fails with the screen size. I fail at carrying a 7" phone. People who justify using it as a phone should probably buy a MacBook air and use it as a phone. ;-) (Sometimes people make me wonder) 2. Half of the apps on the android Market don't work. 3. Overall feel is crappy and touch screen is not as responsive as the iPad. 4. No future android updates coming. ???? 5. My comments are further justified if you see the return rate of the TAB. A whopping 16%. That's the highest for a product so far. So of all the Tabs Samsung sold 16% thought they made a wrong choice.

[adityaagarwal-blog]

Why I failed to publish an iPhone vs. Android review......

I bought myself a Google Nexus S smartphone the other day. Have been trying to bring out a comprehensive review between Nexus S and iPhone. But it seems I gave up, I failed.... :-( Here is why??? 1. Currently Google is shipping devices with 5 major versions... Android 1.5, 2.0, 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3. All of them have features so vastly different and hardware so diverse that it would be "unfaithful" to cover any single version. Most devices even shipping today ship with Android 2.0 and are waiting for a 2.2 (Froyo) or a 2.3 (gingerbread) update. Though 2.3 is unlikely on most devices. Well then Apple also has multiple versions of iOS you might ask... But the fact is that it does not have 5 versions shipping at the same time. There is a standard shipping product with tight integration. So I gave up comparing stuff 2. As I mentioned about the diverse hardware, it felt almost sick to find out that most apps works on 1.6 and not 2.0. Some work on 2.0-2.2 but not 2.3... The sad part is that there is not clear indication if the app is ready for your version of the device you just bought. 3. I had major problems in syncing my calendar with a coms.googleapps.blah.blah.blah service crashing every-time. Wow that was unaccepted as a google search reveals that all versions have this problem. Why has it not been fixed yet? My fault.... Something I am doing wrong according to Samsung..... Well Samsung you were great help, now STFU.... 4. The device is clearly suffering from fragmentation. it shows everywhere. 5. The good points were that it can be fully customizable to a geek level and you can watch flash (barely) on it. Though flash made my battery die out in 20 mins flat and screwed my device so I had to reboot twice. Well most people use flash to watch "people screwing" anyways :-) 6. Most of the apps on the market require permissions to private data on your phone. THIS I COULD NOT UNDERSTAND.... Really. Why does a camera app require permissions to my "Contacts, SMS and personal info????" From my post it will sound like I hate android. NO! I am keeping it. But it will serve more like a review device than my main phone. This is how I really felt in raw plain words..... Android: A base Car that you bought and then you can customize it however you like with your own stereo, LCD, Amplifier, Paint job etc etc and all the fancy neon stuff....... and through various places. iPhone: A polished ready to use loaded BMW with more than a million addons (apps). All in control and integrated by the company itself. If you think I am sounding biased, well I might be.... But I actually gave up trying to find something better than the iPhone here. And "I am a geek as well" And why the hell is "Google evaluating whether to bring 3.0 honeycomb to phones????" Should it not be a MUST? Maybe next year I will have something amazing to talk about android. Till then.... I failed. Cheers..... (Kisses iPhone)

[adityaagarwal-blog]

Some major iOS 4.3 features.... Its nearly here.

A third release in 4 weeks. That means Apple is gearing up to release the iOS 4.3 upgrade sooner than we thought. I expect that in the next 10 days we will have iOS 4.3 released along with the announcement of the new iPad 2. This has been reported at multiple sources. Anyways here's what to expect from the next release. 1. Wi-Fi Hotspot - The new firmware will allow creating a Wi-Fi hotspot using the cellular EDGE/3G connection. A boon for travellers. With the upcoming release of 3G services from all major providers this will provide data on the go to other WIFI devices. Since 3G allows data and voice simultaneously (unlike the Verizon CDMA iPhone release) we can keep using the hotspot while on a call...... Goodbye to "Tata" (What an irony of words) and Reliance (you were never Reliable anyways). Here are screen shot eye candy 2. New Fonts in the notes application: Well I was sick of "Chalkboard". This is a relief. :-) 3. Ability to Cancel "Large Downloads" after purchase on the phone: You can now cancel the download of an app if it is too large and you are not able to download it on the phone itself. Earlier you had not option to cancel it. This is a nice touch. 4: AIRPLAY from other apps: Apple is now allowing other third party apps to stream video/audio via airplay. So now you can stream anything to your Apple TV or an Airplay compatible speaker. A note about the Apple TV 2.0 here. Though it seems a useless device at first but if you have mac, iphones or ipads at home, the sheer convenience of streaming video directly to your TV from your couch is extremely delightful. Also helps you put on a little weight :-)... That increases the market for weight loss products..... That means more business.... that means ..... Damn where am I going?????? Well, this is all I have noticed so far. There are major under the hood tweaks but that can only be experienced over time. Chow!!!!